Brockton Bay's boat graveyard was exactly what it said on the tin, a monument to the Bay's dead shipping industry. As Newter and I walked along, the rusted husks of beached ships creaked and groaned in the wind from where they were sitting upon the sand. Wind whirled through the cracks in the rusted metal, creating a low whistle that persisted so long as the wind did.
It was quite eerie, especially so given that I could just barely hear the sounds of the homeless people who made the wrecks their homes not too far away.
Still, the cape we were searching for had apparently made her home somewhere in this rusted heap, and it was our job to find her.
"So you got any idea where we should start searching? Faultline's descriptions were pretty vague." I asked Newter as we made our way further into the junkyard.
He hummed, "Not really, I figured we'd just walk around till we find her. Can't be too hard right?"
I turned to stare at him incredulously at his statement, "Dude…" I said slowly, spreading my arm out at the wrecks around us, "This place has so many places to hide. We'll never find her without something to go on." I said.
He shrugged, "Let's keep walking then, we're bound to find some kind of clue as to where she could be."
"I guess so." I muttered as we continued making our way through the graveyard.
There was no sign of Spitfire anywhere. The place was full of nothing but homeless vagrants and drug addicts. I nearly groaned in frustration after the second hour of absolutely no leads.
"So have you heard back from that costume maker?" Newter asked in a blatant attempt to alleviate some boredom.
I shrugged my shoulders at the question, "No not yet. But she said it would take a while to lace the materials like I had requested so I'm pretty sure it will be a week or two at the very least." He nodded and went back to searching as I got lost in thought.
Using the large sum of money I had acquired on my solo job, I had decided to mark off a big spot on my to-do list. Namely, making a costume.
Given that I had as much talent as a seamstress as I did cooking, (and really, how was it my fault that I misread the instructions on the lasagna box and nearly set the oven on fire? They should make the words bigger dammit!) I had decided to outsource the production of my costume to a local rogue in the Bay, Parian.
The woman's prices were extremely high, but that was for good reason. Due to the fact that she was a rogue and therefore not sanctioned by any higher institution, she was basically covering all the costs of both material and labor all on her own. And given where she was based, in an attempt to stay neutral she didn't offer any discounts. Full stop.
Still, the work she did was of extremely high quality and I felt a bit better when she told me that several of New Wave's costumes had been made by her. I had contacted her on Pho and we had met in person to go over the details of my prospective costume.
I didn't have a preference in style except for one thing, I had grown accustomed to my current mask and had asked her to incorporate it into the costume, something she was fine with, seemingly happy that I had left the majority of the design choices up to her.
In terms of practicality, I had requested a stainless steel mesh to be inlay into the costume at various points, specifying that they were to be in contact with my bare skin as a way to easily utilize my power in emergencies like the buckle on my belt. She had agreed to that easily.
I had also decided to get the costume lightly armored in critical places, something that had confused my teammates given my powerset. Upon explanation however, they had agreed with my decision.
Apparently my power really didn't like whatever it was that made tinkertech work. The slash that Alabaster had given me had not healed nearly as fast as it should have and when it finally did, I was left with a massive scar on my abdomen where he had hit me.
Not only that, but when I was toying with the knife I had stolen from him, any attempt to use my power on it was met with my power practically screaming 'bad idea'. Trying to ignore my instincts and meld with the knife anyway did nothing but give me a migraine that put me out of commission for the rest of the day.
So yeah, my power did not like tinkertech. Faultline had theorized that if I were to try to use my power on a Changer like Hookwolf, the exact same thing would happen which made sense all things considered, powers rarely liked mingling with each other like that so why would mine be any different?
All in all, armor and inlays included, my costume rounded out to around thirty thousand dollars, a price I was just barely able to cover thanks to my taking some extra jobs with Newter. Hopefully it would be worth it.
"Hey, Aspect! How about we ask him?" Newter suddenly said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked over to find him pointing at a man sitting on a pile of boxes a few meters away, watching us curiously.
The man practically had homeless vagrant written all over him, with a full scruffy beard and a dark brown fur coat full of holes that still somehow looked warm regardless. His pants were faded and his shoes looked to be on their last legs. I was somewhat doubtful that he had any info to give, but he was our best option at the moment and I really didn't want to spend another hour on a wild goose chase.
"I guess we could try." I said and reluctantly made my way over to him with Newter following close behind, the man watched us warily as we approached.
"Hello friend!" Newter greeted cheerfully, "We are looking for an associate of ours that may have come around here. She wears a big brown coat with a red jacket underneath and a motorcycle helmet. She's real fashionable like that, you see. You wouldn't have happened to see her would you?"
The man hummed, scratching his dirty beard in thought, "I might have. But you see friend, my memory's a bit shot and the medication my doctor prescribed me isn't covered by my insurance. Maybe a kind donation would help loosen my memory a bit. I'd say two hundred dollars should just about cover the costs."
I scoffed, "Yeah, sure it will. Come on Newt, there's no way this guy knows anything, let's just keep looking." I turned to leave but was stopped.
"Aw come on Aspect, we've been searching for over two hours by now and have nothing. Let's just pay him, she might not even be here in the first place." He said as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. He picked out a bunch of twenties and counted them before holding them out to the man
"Here you go." He said as he handed the bills over. The man took them in his hands and counted them out quickly, before nodding and turning to face them again.
"Your friend stays in that ship over there. I'd be careful, she's not usually happy receiving unwanted guests." He pointed to a boat that had been turned over on its side literally a few meters away from us, before getting up walking away, hurriedly pocketing the money.
I stared after him in shock for a moment before shaking myself out of it. I gave Newter a look and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Let's just pay him, she might not even be here." I mocked his earlier words as we made our way over.
The boat was turned on its side and the reason was clear given the massive hole in the bottom. Said hole was covered by a thick sheet of metal, creating a makeshift door blocking the interior of the boat from view. The boat was also cleaner than its surroundings suggesting it had been lived in recently.
I looked at my friend in questioning and he just motioned to the makeshift door. I shrugged before raising my arm and bringing it down firmly on the metal sheet.
"Spitfire?" I called out, "Are you there? We'd like to talk to you."
No reply. I looked to Newter and he just shrugged. I brought my hand down on the metal once more, "Spitfire? We're not here to fight I promise, we just want to talk."
Nothing.
"Maybe she's not here?" He offered. I raised my arm to knock once more just in case, but was stopped in my tracks by a slightly quivering voice.
"H-hands in the air! Don't move!" Came from above me and I looked up to find a hunched figure in a heavy brown coat and motorcycle helmet. Said motorcycle helmet was being held slightly upward by a hand, allowing a frowning face to show. The rest of Spitfire's face was hidden from view by the mask as she had only tilted it up enough to allow her lower face to show.
As I slowly raised my hands in the air, she called out again, "T-that's enough! Don't move anymore than that!" As she spoke, I distantly noticed there was a burn scar on her skin, as if something extremely hot had been stuck there for too long. Odd.
"Alright, we're not moving." I placated, trying not to give the other girl any reason to set me ablaze, "Can you come down? We aren't here to hurt you, we just want to talk. I'm Aspect and this is Newter, we're mercenaries."
She hesitated for a moment before apparently deciding we weren't going to do her any harm and jumping down from her perch to land in front of us, though I noticed she kept her mask lifted just in case.
I lowered my hands as Newter came to stand beside me.
"What do you want?" Spitfire asked and I could tell she was trying to keep her voice intimidating.
I looked over toward Newter and jerked my head toward the nervous girl, motioning for him to take the lead on this one. He stepped forward, clearing his throat lightly, "Miss Spitfire, we're with the Palanquin, We've got an offer for you."
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Spitfire's posture immediately stiffened up, "An offer?" She asked warily and not a little angrily, "The last time I got an offer I was attacked by giant dogs! You planning to sic some on me too? Maybe some giant monster cats or something?"
I winced, stepping forward to take the reins and hopefully calm things down before things escalated, "No! No dogs or cats or anything! Just an offer." Newter stepped back, content to let me talk to the nervous cape, "We just wanted to offer you an invitation to join our crew. We're an independent mercenary group who operates in Brockton Bay and the surrounding states. It's an open invite, no coercing or anything. If you want us to leave, we will, no strings attached."
I hesitated, "But… between you and me?" I started quietly, "You don't seem like you're in a very good place right now. I can understand that. My trigger even…wasn't pretty to say the least. In fact, I lost basically everything I held dear in one fell swoop." I licked my suddenly dry lips, noting that I had the other girl's full attention.
"One day I was having dinner at the table with my mother and father, and the next they were gone, and I was powerless to do anything but watch it happen. If Newter hadn't found me when he did, I'm pretty sure I would have done more than one thing I'd come to regret." I looked over toward Newter who was watching us quietly, "He found me and took me to the Palanquin where I met the rest of the crew. Him, Labyrinth, Gregor, Faultine, they grounded me, let me come to terms with what had happened in my own time. And for that, I will forever be grateful to them."
Newter gave me a warm smile, feigning wiping a tear from his eye and I smiled back before turning back towards Spitfire whose mouth had turned down into a frown, "And if you'd like, we can be that for you as well." I finished, feeling an odd heat come to my cheeks at what I had just said. While nothing I had said was untrue, I had never actually spoken it out loud and doing so embarrassed me slightly. I hated sappy stuff like that.
Still, it was important to emphasize to Spitfire just how much joining the crew had helped me. I could tell just by her reaction to that little spiel that she was in a very similar position as I had been, only she had nobody to fall back on. Hopefully we could change that.
Spitfire hung her head, and I could hear the quivers in her voice as she spoke, "I just want to be left alone. I never asked for this. The powers, the hiding, any of it." She said quietly and I barely resisted the urge to wrap the clearly despondent girl in a hug. Still, she had said she wanted to be left alone, and I had promised to respect that, that didn't mean I couldn't still offer my help though.
"Alright, we'll go. But before that…," I said as I reached into my back pocket, retrieving a small laminated card and holding out to her, "Here, this card has the crew's contact information. If you ever reconsider, the offer's open. We'd love to have you in our little dysfunctional family."
She reached out and took the card hesitantly, flipping it over to look at the number and address on the back, "I-"
We were interrupted by a loud shout, and I looked behind me in surprise to find a porcelain sink of all things flying towards the three of us. It wasn't going too fast, looking more like it had been underhand tossed rather than thrown, but it would still do some damage to my two squishier companions.
Newter leapt out of the way of the massive chunk of porcelain easily, but as I went to do the same I noticed Spitfire had frozen in shock and possibly fear at the sight of the large projectile that was approaching her quickly. I took a split second to think before I quickly made a decision.
I jumped in front of her, bringing a hand down to the steel buckle of my belt in the same motion and activating my power. I crossed my now metal arms in front of my face as the sink reached me, impacting my crossed arms and shattering around them, sending shards of porcelain flying off to the sides as Spitfire screamed in surprise behind me. I grimaced internally as I felt the shard hit my metal skin. While it didn't hurt at all, given that they even hit my skin in the first place it was likely that I had just ruined another hoodie. Great.
As the rain of shards stopped, I lowered my arms, noting the sleeves had been torn to shreds as I did so, to look back at the fire spitting cape. After examining her and making sure she wasn't injured, I turned my attention back to the more important issue. Searching for the one who threw a fucking sink at us and made me ruin another one of my increasingly limited supply of hoodies.
It didn't take long to locate the thrower, towering as they were standing just a few yards away. It was a massive pile of trash in the vague shape of a human. Trash bags, cardboard boxes, cans, bottles-both plastic and glass, just about every form of trash one could think of was somewhere in that mess. And it smelled awful.
"Oh would you look at that!" The golem spoke, the inhabitant apparently not muffled at all by several hundred pounds of trash, "The fire spitting cunt has help! What, did she suck you off to get you to protect her like that? Can't imagine it was very good thanks to all that hot shit in her mouth!"
The vitriol he just expelled our way cemented my thoughts on his identity even further. The golem was definitely Mush, one of the three powered members of the Archer's Bridge Merchants. And he was flanked by three seemingly unpowered goons.
As I took him in, I wondered exactly how none of us smelled him coming. Seriously, even several yards away I could smell him; he smelled like rotten eggs, spoiled milk, and rancid sewage all bundled into one revolting package. And as I heard Newter gag lightly behind me, I was extremely glad I didn't need to breathe while transformed, it would make fighting him much more palatable.
"What are you even doing here?" I yelled out to him, "The Merchants don't operate this far away from the slums!"
"That shit's old news girl!" Mush shouted, "We got some new members and now the Merchants are making a comeback! Ain't that right boys!?" A chorus of agreements rang out.
"Yeah!"
"Hell yeah boss!"
"Fuck yeah!"
'There's something off about those guys.' I thought to myself as I took in the three seemingly unpowered gang members. They were grinning widely, almost maniacally, jittering in place as if they were full of nervous energy. One of them was clenching and unclenching a fist with enough force that I was sure I would be able to hear if I was any closer to the group. There was some definite fuckery afoot
"That still doesn't explain what you are doing here. There's nothing here that you would even want. Except for scrap metal I guess." I asked Mush.
"That fire spitting bitch burned some of my boys!" The garbage cape yelled angrily, "I'm here to get some payback!"
I turned and tilted my head at said fire spitting cape. She wrung her hands nervously, "They wouldn't leave me alone so I made them. I made sure not to hurt them too bad!"
"You burned Jerry's dick off!" One of them shouted angrily, snarling and showing off rotten teeth.
I snorted and Spitfire grimaced under her helmet, "I told them to leave me alone! It's his own fault he tried to get handsy with me!"
"Yeah well when we're done with you, you're gonna wish you just let them do what they wanted with you!" Another yelled at her.
Spitfire squeaked in fear at the threat and I decided that was enough of that. I stepped forward and exerted my powers on my arms and hands, lengthening and sharpening them into massive silvery claws, perfect for tearing away at the trash golem. I could just barely hear Spitfire gasp in shock at the sudden change.
"I'll handle Mush. Newter, you get the goons. Be careful though, there's something up with them." I said, brandishing my new weapons towards the jittering Merchants. I was a bit excited at having the chance to finally try out this aspect of my powers. I had fought nothing but unpowered grunts and Alabaster so far and while I could have used it on the Empire cape, I did not want to spend hours scrubbing blood from my clothes. Trash though, I was fine with.
"Got it. Don't cut him up too bad." Newter said as he turned to face the other Merchants. Behind him, Spitfire looked at both of us hesitantly for a moment before apparently coming to a decision, squaring her shoulders and lifting the face of her mask up in preparation to join us, something that made me grin slightly.
I nodded and turned to face Mush, the other cape had been slowly but steadily growing in size as he took the stray bits of garbage around us into his form. I couldn't believe I was getting into a second cape fight this early into my career.
Hopefully this one would go as smoothly as the last.
And a huge thanks to my Patrons:
JustAUser, JVR, Ricardo T II, Christian, Kaizer
Next three chapters are available there
