Leaf
Chapter Twenty-One
The smell of a good bakery couldn't be described with words. Fresh baked bread smelled warm, which made no sense at all, but fit better than anything that did. Then there were the spices, creams, cheeses, frostings, nuts, and everything else that could go in, around, or over bread, and you got a smell that Lift could only call flooshy, because the word didn't mean anything else.
Lift reached out and grabbed a cinnamon roll almost the size of her head. It was still soft and gooey, and so hot it nearly burned her mouth. She couldn't get lost in the taste, though. She had more to worry about than just the baker finding her.
"Fifteen-hundred? That's nearly twice what the ABB charged!"
"We're nearly twice as good." The second voice was bored to the point of being empty. "If you can't afford it, shut down and sell this place to someone who can."
"Tourist season is coming up," said someone else. "They don't care if you jack your prices up a bit."
"We'll come by to collect monthly once you prove you're dependable. For now, make sure you have three-fifty every Monday night when you close, and we won't have any problems."
Lift shoved the rest of the cinnamon roll in her mouth and scowled under the counter. It wasn't right for crime to get all civilized like this. There was no skill, no challenge, just business. They sounded more like tax collectors than proper thieves. Besides, if the old man lost his shop, she'd have to steal from the next bakery down the street nearly a block away!
"Until then, I hope you don't mind if I take one for the road. Is this a torte or a tart? I can never keep them straight."
Oh, and now they were stealing food. Okay, she was stealing food, but to do it right in front of a man? To rub it in his face that he couldn't do nothing about it?
I can do something about it. I'm awesome.
Oh. Right.
"That's a tart," the baker said. "A torte is a holy mother of—"
Lift jumped onto the counter, lept into the air, grabbed the tart from the man and did a one handed handstand off his shoulder. The tart was in her mouth by the time she hit the ground, covered in red berries with the crust just right.
The two robbers and the baker stared at her with matching expressions of bewilderment. "A kind of cake," she said after she finished swallowing. "A tort's a kind of pie."
The two robbers reached for the guns under their jackets, small, sensible guns that hurt just as much as big guns and were easier to hide. Lift darted out the door before they had time to aim, and before they made it out the door she had managed to slide under a parked car.
"Put that thing away! We're not getting into a shootout in broad daylight!"
Broad daylight was an exaggeration. Even though the sky was lit up, the sun was still working on getting over the bay. Most thieves stayed up late and got up late, but there were some things that she couldn't steal at night. Like breakfast. Still, lots of people got up this early, especially if they had jobs to take care of.
"The hell we're not! I'm not gonna let some bitch-ass brat get away with that!"
"That was a freakin' cape, Jim! You saw the mask!"
"Screw the mask! If she ran, it's 'cause she was afraid of getting shot!"
She wasn't afraid, she just didn't like it much.
"Hell no. You know the rules. We see a cape, we call it in."
After a bit of grumbling, they both climbed into a car—the car she was hiding under. Huh. Well, if the opportunity was just going to fall into her lap ...
She rolled over on her back and touched the grimy underside of the car, making it glow and turn slick. It wobbled a bit as it passed over her, then fell apart entirely, sliding along the asphalt until her power wore off and sparks flew. She heard some very interesting words as she darted into a nearby alley, then she took off her mask and innocently walked home.
WWW
"That close, huh?" Lisa studied a map on her laptop. "They did not wait long to start pushing in."
"Who?" Brian asked, coming out of his room. Well, his and Alec's room. They had installed a bunk bed in there at the same time they had put one in Lift's room, but God he hated it. He missed his old bed. He missed his old room. He missed having space to himself instead of living with the people he worked with twenty-four hours a day.
But he'd manage. This was just a short term arrangement.
"Lift saw one of the gangs expanding up to Adams Street," Lisa said. "From the description, they could be Coil's men, but I'm betting on the Empire."
He froze, but only for a moment. This wasn't personal, this was business, and the Empire at their doorstep wasn't any worse than any of the other gangs that wanted to swallow up a section of the city. Well, not much worse. "Right. How close is everyone else?"
She scooted over on the couch and Brian sat down next to her. She was still wearing her pajamas, a pair of loose pink bottoms and a white sleeveless top. Even without putting on her makeup, she looked really good ... which was a line of thought he did not want to deal with.
"So we're here," she said, circling a spot on the map. "The Empire has started establishing themselves all along here and, as of this morning, all the way up here. Coil is expanding, but more sporadically. His mercenaries don't identify themselves with tattoos or graffiti gang signs all over his territory so he's harder to track, but I know he has some influence here, here, and here."
Brian nodded. That wasn't that far. Maybe a ten, twenty minute drive. "Anyone else?"
"Actually, yes." She grinned at him. "Remember Skidmark?"
"Oh no, not him again."
"Who's that?" Lift asked, sticking her head between them while leaning over the back of the couch.
"No one important," he said. "Just some drug dealer."
"Actually, that may change," Lisa said. "He's been doing pretty well for himself after the bombings. He doesn't have any heavy hitters, but he's attracted a lot more henchmen."
"A bunch of crackheads and meth addicts." Maybe he wasn't being fair, but Brian had lost more friends and family to drugs than hate crimes. "I'm guessing the heroes are up to no good?"
She smiled. "Pretty much. They're ruled by committee, as usual, so half the time they're harassing the Empire because they're the biggest, most obvious threat, and the other half they're going after Skidmark's gang because they need an easy win for their weekly reports. Coil's been going almost completely unnoticed."
Brian nodded. A hero couldn't really write down "Random mercenary number forty-seven" on their resumé, even though they were apparently more dangerous than a few capes he could think of. "Anyone else I should know about?"
"One more. Have you heard of the Travelers?"
Travelers. Travelers. "Don't think so. Are they new?"
"Just blew into town. They're a gang of hit and run villains like us, but with a lot more hitting than running."
"Are they claiming territory?"
"Not yet, but they're a chaotic element, and worth keeping an eye on."
Alec chose that moment to wander out of his room and look around. "Are we having a team meeting? Already? See, this is why I liked it better when you lived on the other side of the city. You never showed up to bother us until after breakfast."
"We're not having a meeting," Brian said, "we're just keeping an eye on the neighbors."
"They're moving their territory pretty close," Lisa said, "so we may have to deal with them sometime."
"Huh." Alec stumbled over to the second couch and collapsed onto it. "So, how come we don't have any territory? Apparently it's up for grabs."
Lift let out a snort. "What good is territory? You can't eat it, and it just sounds like a whole lotta trouble."
"It is," Brian said. "Like any form of passive income, it takes a lot of work to set up and a long time to pay off. Eventually it can be worth it, but a job you can walk away from is better than a job that demands a lifelong commitment."
"So you'd rather stick with one night stands than settle down." Alec shook his head in disgust. "Brian, you slut."
"I just don't want to get into a fight a week to defend something worth a thousand dollars a month."
"Although," Lisa said, "if we don't control our own territory, we'll end up staying in someone else's territory. That's what happened with Lung, and you know how that worked out."
Brian nodded. "Yes, but that was then. We started out hoping he wouldn't care about us. Now ... is there any chance we can present ourselves as too dangerous to mess with?"
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. No one bothers Faultline's crew, and we're at least as good as they are."
"Well," Alec said, "they've been here longer."
"So? We took down the entire ABB practically by ourselves."
"What would that entail?" Brian asked.
"One of two things. We do nothing and hope for the best, or we set up a meeting and establish some ground rules. 'We won't bother you if you don't bother us' is pretty vague if you think about it. We'll need to clarify what it means to bother each other, what we'll do if we bother each other, et cetera. More importantly, we'll be able to do that cowboy stare off thing."
"Cowboy stare off?"
"You know. Glare at each other menacingly. Pretend you're Dirty Harry asking the other guy if he feels lucky."
"That's not called the cowboy stare off."
"I don't care what it's called. You know what I mean."
He did, but now he was going to call it that in his mind and feel ridiculous doing it. "So what are our options? I don't want to live in Skidmark's territory, but he'd probably be the easiest to handle."
Lisa shook her head. "That's why he wouldn't tolerate us. He doesn't want to be handled, and we'd make him look bad in comparison. We could charge in and set up shop there and make him deal with it, but that wouldn't be much different from establishing our own territory."
Brian frowned, but that made sense. Wasn't there a saying about how small dogs barked the loudest? "What about Coil?"
Lisa breathed in sharply. "He's ... complicated. He's some kind of Thinker, but I can't tell you more than that, and I'd rather deal with the devil I know than the devil I don't."
"The only devil left is ..."
"Yeah."
The Empire. The oldest, biggest, most powerful gang in the city. Indisputably now, with Lung gone. Brian had always taken a professional approach to villainy, but having a white supremacist gang breathing down his neck made it difficult.
Still, when he'd been setting up a place to live, he had chosen Empire territory. It was the safest place in the city, not because the Empire made it that way, but because they wouldn't ruin something that worked just because they could. They were assholes, but they were professional assholes, and as long as they left each other alone he could focus on what really mattered: the next job, and the next payout.
"Set up a meeting."
WWW
As much as Tattletale enjoyed being shot at and punched in the face, the more civilized aspects of villainy better suited her. The clandestine meetings, the veiled threats, the double dealings, the ...
"I'm bored," Leaf said.
"We haven't started yet," Tattletale replied.
"Still bored. I'm gonna have a look around."
"No," Grue said. "We stick together."
They were at Somer's Rock, one of the top three establishments for villain meetings. Sure, they could have met in any abandoned building or empty street, but the restaurant's all-deaf staff provided both privacy and witnesses in case one side decided talking things over wasn't worth the trouble.
"It won't be long," Tattletale added. "Five minutes, fifteen tops."
"And don't say anything," Grue added. "We need to make a good impression."
Leaf looked up at the four of them, confused.
"Glare menacingly and look intimidating," Regent said. "That's what I'm doing."
"Oh, that's what you're doin'." She looked over at Bitch. "I think she's better at it than you."
Bitch grunted in response.
"Maybe," Regent admitted. "But I make it look good."
"Well ..."
The door opened up and Kaiser strode in, exactly five minutes after they agreed to meet. Arriving to a party fashionably late was one thing, but to a meeting between villains? Insulting the other side by making them wait and giving them time to set up a trap? It was arrogant, and it did nothing besides foster the illusion of strength that anyone could see through.
At least, anyone like her.
Kaiser was flanked by two women, Fenja and Menja in their valkyrie armor, capes attractive enough to make Kaiser look good by association and dangerous enough to be a threat. Hookwolf and Stormtiger took the rear. Hookwolf was Kaiser's attack dog, the man he went to when he wanted to make a mess and didn't want to be bothered with too many questions, and Stormtiger was his attack dog.
Five Empire capes to meet the five of us. That was a decent move. They had the advantage in numbers, but if they brought more, they'd look like a group of scared villains trying to look intimidating. Heavy hitters, no subtlety. That wasn't a good move. They couldn't make good on any threats until after the meeting was over, and compared to Lung, capes like Fenja and Hookwolf weren't that threatening.
But Kaiser wanted to believe that the Undersiders were a problem that could be bullied into submission, so that's what he chose to believe. She could work with that.
The question, though, was if Grue could. They didn't have an official team leader, but he was the unofficial one for a reason. He could do the cowboy stare off, no matter what he wanted to call it, and while Tattletale could play the evil advisor like nobody's business, she knew her limits.
Grue stood up from the booth and took a seat at the table in the middle of the room. Kaiser did the same, but his team took their places all around the empty, dilapidated restaurant. More physical intimidation. They were in a position to attack the Undersiders from multiple angles, which was dumb because they would be fighting with words alone.
"Kaiser," Grue said. His darkness billowed around him making him look bigger, and his voice echoed as he spoke through it. The first came naturally to him, the second took practice. "I hear you've been doing well."
"Quite well," Kaiser said. He paused for a bit too long for his next statement to sound sincere. "I suppose I have you to thank for that."
So. It had become a battle of compliments. Open compliments with veiled insults. He admitted that the Undersiders had removed Lung and the ABB from the equation, but his tone pointed out that they had done little to profit from the change, while the Empire had. Well, if he was going to be blatant with his veiled insults, he might as well express false sympathies for the bank fiasco.
"My sympathies for your recent stay in custody," Kaiser continued. "I have it on good authority that their facilities can be ... cramped."
There we go. Was he even trying?
"I've survived worse," he said, trying to sound casual. Which was hard to do when he wanted to pound someone's face in. He'd break the truce if he struck first, and anything the Empire did then would be self defense. Then all that physical intimidation would actually be good for something. She glanced over at Bitch. She was the easiest to provoke, but Kaiser would need a reason to talk to her, which he didn't have.
"Anyway," Grue said. He had little patience for the game, which was fair enough. This would come down to concrete facts more than verbal points. The fact that he was the one choosing to move on didn't look good for him, but sticking to a game he was bad at would make him look worse. "It looks like we're going to be neighbors soon, and I want to make sure we get off on the right foot. We didn't get along with the last gang in our area, and that didn't work out well for them."
"Lung was arrogant," Kaiser said, "the sort of man who would burn his house down to kill a cockroach. I have real problems to deal with, unless you know of any reason why we shouldn't be able to get along."
Tattletale's eyes widened. He knew something, some minor offense that he could blame them for. He was setting Grue up for a trap ...
And he walked right into it. "None at all. We don't compete for territory, and we won't interfere with your protection rackets, smuggling, or prostitution businesses. As long as you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone."
"I see," Kaiser said smoothly, then he turned his armored head toward Hookwolf. "And what about you? Do you know of any reason why we shouldn't get along?"
From the side of the room, Hookwolf sneered behind his steel mask. "Yeah, I got one." He pointed at their group. "Hellhound. Just a few days ago, you strolled in and wrecked one of my dog fighting rings when I was out of town. You want to pull a stunt like that when we're not at war? You'll start a war."
"The name's Bitch," she said. "Only pansy-ass heroes call me Hellhound, and you're lucky you weren't there or I wouldn't have been so nice."
"My goodness," Kaiser said. "It appears there is a reason why we can't get along."
"That's a pet issue for her." He sounded in control. He was faking it, but it wasn't obvious. "If you mess with dogs, she'll come for you."
"No pun intended, I'm sure."
A pause. "Right."
"But a pet issue you did not seem to be aware of. If you can't control your own people, there's no reason for this meeting at all."
Tattletale winced. When it came to handling dynamic personalities, Grue was the best person for the job, but when it came to making his people march in lockstep, Kaiser had him beat.
"If it happens again, we'll pay for it." That wasn't the best thing he could have said, but if he had said that it wouldn't happen again, Bitch might have contradicted him on the spot.
"And what of this offense?" Kaiser asked. "Will you pay for this one as well?"
He hesitated. "How much?"
Hookwolf leaned forward. "One hundred. Thousand."
Grue turned back to Kaiser. "Do you have a realistic estimate? Or were these dogs made of gold?"
"It's not about the dogs!" Hookwolf snarled. "It's about the rep. People know that no one gets in my way without a mark to show for it! Pay in cash, or pay in blood."
This wasn't working. They needed an edge, and fast. She looked at Hookwolf. Could she provoke him further than Kaiser wanted? And there were three other Empire capes who hadn't spoken at all. Could she use them?
It was her own side that spoke out next. "Hold on," Leaf said. "Are you challenging her to a duel? You people do that here."
That wasn't part of the plan. As strong as the kid was, she couldn't inspire fear or respect to save her life. But she had always been a chaotic element, and chaos benefitted anyone quick enough to use it.
"Actually, that could work," Tattletale said. "You love your bloodsports, don't you Hookwolf? This could be the dogfight to end all dog fights. Assuming you're both in on it?"
"Ending all dog fights sounds good," Bitch said. "I'm in."
Regent sniggered without looking up from his phone.
"Wait, what?" Hookwolf said.
"Unless you're scared, of course." Which wasn't likely. Hookwolf was just as headstrong as Bitch, twice as bloodthirsty, and steel had the advantage over flesh and bone. "But it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Cape fights draw in a bigger crowd than dog fights any day. You'll make more than enough money to recoup your losses, if you win you'll restore your rep—"
"And if she dies," Kaiser said, "you'll be free from a dangerous liability."
Bitch growled behind her mask, but said nothing.
"We'll see." If this whole villain thing didn't work, she could always make a living as a used car salesman. "How does Saturday at midnight sound for you? That will give everyone time to find out about it and place their bets."
"Who would bet on the bitch?" Hookwolf asked.
"It's just Bitch," Bitch said, "not The Bitch, idiot."
"Everyone loves an underdog story, you know that. You have more experience running shows like this, so you can handle the live event, but my side gets the streaming and video rights. As for location, the same dog fighting ring she wrecked earlier. You know, poetic justice and all that. Am I missing anything?"
"Yeah," Hookwolf said. "Just so we're clear, this is a fight to the death, not a fight until the other side is beaten and your little healer patches her back up."
Well, damnit. "The thought never crossed my mind."
"Then it's settled," Grue said. He was angry that he had been backed into an agreement he didn't want, but he did a good job of hiding it. "And by settled I mean that win or lose, the matter is dealt with."
"Agreed," Kaiser said. They didn't shake hands. They didn't trust each other to come within reach of each other, but Kaiser stood up and let out a chuckle. "I for one am looking forward to the weekend. If the fight is half as much fun as this was, it will be a night to remember."
WWW
"Okay, what the hell was that?"
They hadn't even made it back to the loft before Grue turned on Bitch. "What was what?" she said. "He wanted to fight me, I wanted to fight him."
"No, not that. That was Tattletale pulling something out of her ass because you let us get blindsided."
Tattletale resented that statement. She improvised. There was a difference.
"I get that you have your issues. Hell, so do I! Do you think I wanted to play nice with freakin' white supremacists? But you let me, all of us, go into that meeting and you never told us anything."
"Maybe she didn't know," Leaf said. "I was there too, and I never saw no sign saying, 'Property of Axehound."
"Hookwolf," Tattletale said.
"And you wouldn't have been able to read it anyway," Regent said.
Grue turned on her. "You were there too? When? And you didn't tell us either?"
She shrugged. "A couple days ago. What did you think she kidnapped me for? And I didn't tell you 'cause it never came up."
"What's the big deal?" Bitch asked. "It's my mess and I'll clean it up. Or I'll die and you won't have to deal with me anymore."
"What the hell do you think that will solve?" he demanded. "Don't you get it? There's no living with those guys after this. Either we start out killing one of their top capes and they hate us, or they kill one of ours and they don't respect us."
"Just to be clear," Regent said, "this wasn't the plan from the start? I wasn't really paying attention, to be honest."
Grue ground his teeth behind his helmet. "No, Regent, this wasn't."
"Okay," Leaf said. "I got an idea."
"Is it to steal their dinner?" Regent asked.
"How'd you know?"
He shrugged. "Lucky guess."
"Oh my God," Grue said. "I don't believe any of this! What the hell is wrong with you people?"
"Hey!" Regent said. "I have done nothing wrong this entire time."
"You haven't done anything this entire time."
"And I have yet to hear you say thank you."
"Guys, listen!" Leaf said. "They think we're gonna show up to have Fluffy duel with Axehound, right?"
"Hookwolf," Tattletale said again.
"Whatever. So while they're all over there, we can sneak around back and steal all their stuff."
"We tried that before with Lung, and it didn't work," Grue said. "Well, technically it did, but because we got lucky, not because we were smart. You got your legs cut off and nearly died, Leaf."
Leaf chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I dunno, I think I would remember somethin' like that."
Grue took a deep breath. "Look, we can't make enough of an impact if we stick together, and it's too dangerous for us to split up. We'll have to come up with something else."
Tattletale frowned thoughtfully. Her first villain meeting hadn't exactly gone as planned. Sure, it was a battle of wits, but more than that it had been about chaos. Grue had tried to bring order to the chaos, but he couldn't match Kaiser at that game. Which meant ... they had to change the game. They had to ride the chaos.
And if the're wasn't enough to ride, they could just add more.
"I have an idea," she said. "We want to hit the Empire everywhere at once, but we can't split the party."
"Yeah? And?"
"I'm thinking," she said, "that I have a few calls to make."
WWW
"Hey, Skidmark! This is Tattletale, and I ... no, I won't do that. Look, this is not a booty call! Would you shut up for a moment? I noticed that the Empire has been giving you trouble, and I wanted to let you know that they have a warehouse full of drugs that is going to be almost completely unguarded this Saturday ...
"Hello, Trickster? This is Tattletale from the Undersiders. You might have heard of me. I heard you Travelers were in town, and I thought you might like to know that there is an unguarded safehouse at ... what do you mean, ulterior motives? I just want to make sure we get off on the right foot.
"Hello, Coil. We are speaking now for the first time."
And done. Well, mostly. There was just one more group to notify, and they required a more ... personal touch.
WWW
"Missy, have you seen my keys?"
Missy cast an idle glance around the breakfast table as she ate her cereal. "Did you check your pockets?"
"Yes, dear, I already checked my ... oh, here they are." Missy took another bite and shot a thumbs up in her mother's general direction. "Alright, I'm off." Her mother took one last look back at her from the door. "You'll be okay while I'm gone, right?"
"Mm-hm."
She let out a sigh. "I wish we could spend more time together while you're still on leave, but it's just been one thing after another at work, and ..."
"I know."
"Well, have a good day at school, sweety. See you tonight." She closed the door after her, but it popped back open as soon as she was gone. There was something wrong with its ... alignment? Lip? Latch? Whatever. She shot the door an annoyed look, which it ignored entirely, forcing her to take extreme measures.
She got up and closed it herself. Then she tried again. Then she warped the frame inward a fraction of an inch and held it shut until she heard it click.
There. All in a day's work for your average junior superhero.
Not that she was doing a whole lot of superheroing. She had been on leave for the past week, either because she was a traumatized child who needed a break, or as a punishment for being a loose cannon willing to team up with villains without adult supervision. Which was ridiculous. She was a stable, well secured cannon that—
Someone was at her table, sitting in her chair, eating her breakfast like she owned the place. The girl with tan skin and long, black hair set down the empty bowl, and Missy's eyes widened.
This was her. The girl who had beaten Bakuda. The girl who could stroll into a secure location, help heal hundreds of people, and walk out without anyone batting an eye. The girl who had brought her back to life.
"Hey Vista," Leaf said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "What's up?"
WWW
A/n And that's the end of the chapter, and the end of NaNo WriMo. This is the sixth chapter I've published this month, and the third for this story.
But enough patting myself on the back. Other people deserve a pat on the back too, namely my editors. If HanShenYou and Eschwarz hadn't looked through this, not only would there be typos all over the place, I'd also have spent another month or so picking at it. Finally, as usual, my Patrons, Exiled, Prime 2.0, Sphinxes, Kelsey Bull, Hubris Prime, Janember, Yotam Bonneh, Svistka, Lord of Edges, LordXamon, Victoria Carey, Kurkistan, Bernie McGuire, Christopher Harris, Luminant, Jan, and Jamie Hayes. This story wouldn't be here without you.