Little Hunter

"Bad idea," Bitch warned.

She was right.

"Yes," Foil said. "It was a bad idea to run off into the obvious trap without—"

Nanku rammed her shoulder into the girl's stomach and dodged the thin blade. Foil tried to find her balance but hesitated to deliver a counter. By the time she made up her mind, Nanku swept her legs with a spear.

She was prepared to turn and give chase to the truck before it left her range but again the muscles in one of her limbs spasmed violently and she fell.

"Seriously," Regent said. "Really not my first choice here, yeah?"

Nanku snarled but Foil had bounced back to her feet quickly. She pointed her sword forward and the girl in the doll costume—Parian—had unfurled a bolt of cloth from her back and was rapidly stitching something with arms and legs.

"Maybe we can all take a breath," Imp proposed, "and not jump to forcibly detaining the cape that's racked up more bodies in a week than some of us have in our whole careers?"

Regent raised a finger. "Maybe we can listen to the pretty lady with the amazing tits."

Imp glowered. "Who are you calling a lady?"

"Maybe someone wants to explain?" Foil countered.

Parian tensed, her giant teddy bear taking full shape. "And tell us—"

Dusk and Dawn landed on Nanku's flanks. They both screeched, wings fluttering and claws stabbing at the ground as they positioned. Bitch's dogs barely reacted. They'd grown accustomed to the Twins coming and going and absent a command—Bitch offered none—they stood and sat relaxed despite their monstrous sizes.

"TLDR," Cassie announced as Sunny sauntered over, "that's Weaver's kid and she's been alive the whole time. Also, she's been killing Nazis because Nazis want to kill her mom."

Foil and Parian stared at her.

Nanku used her chance to take a few steps back. Her cloak was still active, and it was dark. Dusk and Dawn had distracted their eyes. Her swarm was still close and growing but the truck—

Nanku wanted to scream as it drove out of her range.

It was too fast, and she'd not had a chance to place a tracker because someone got in the damned way!

A phone rang and then another. All the Undersiders' phones started digging and Parian answered hers first.

"Why are—Wha—Fine." She turned vaguely in Nanku's direction. "Tattletale says one more step and the sniper team is putting an anti-tank round in your knee."

Nanku stared.

"And she says 'yes, they can see you because you show up just fine in infrared.'"

Nanku was past being infuriated about that. At a point, it was simply banal.

Although…

"Where was Imp?" Nanku asked aloud.

Heads turned to focus on her, and she deactivated her cloak. The truck was gone. She'd never keep up with it on foot and she lacked a vehicle.

No matter. She knew who she was looking for now and she'd find a way to get them. Those girls knew something and whatever it was Nanku wanted it. Later.

First, "Why was Imp not watching me?"

Foil and Parian both stared at her. Rather, the blood staining her armor and skin. None of it hers.

"You were supposed to be hanging out with your mom," Regent lied.

Nonsense. "I left. Plenty of time to send someone. And Imp was watching her too."

Nanku pointed at Bitch.

"What's her point?" Foil asked, tilting her head toward Parian.

Nanku fixed her eyes on the phone and snarled. A sniper team? Either it didn't exist, or they were just outside her range. They got that awfully quick for a moment's notice. Thinking of it, the rest of the Undersiders arrived very quickly. They were already on their way when the fight started. Had to be.

Foil put it together. "God damnit, Tattletale."

"What?" Parian asked. She tilted her head back to the phone, listening.

No wonder Tattletale and her mother were friends.

Parian sighed and held the phone out. "I'm putting you on speaker."

"Do not do that," Tattletale said from wherever she was. "And you just went ahead and did it."

"I'm not your messenger girl. Say it yourself."

Tattletale groaned.

"I'm leaving," Nanku warned.

"Do I need to mention the snipers?"

Nanku offered no response and turned on her heel.

No shot came.

She expected that.

"Jesus Christ, it wasn't you." Tattletale groaned. "It was Bitch. The Pure were baiting her, and I had Imp following her around tonight because sooner or later they were going to do something that would work."

Bitch grunted. She looked to Cassie and nodded and the girl sent Sunny into a loping run down the road back toward the truck.

"Screw me," Tattletale continued, "You weren't supposed to be here! Figured Weaver's whole 'I can fix her' plan would backfire spectacularly because we both know the woman is in denial and dealing with emotional baggage ten miles long, but you just have to stick yourself in the middle of anything that could have a higher body count."

"Oh, is that all?" Regent looked toward the lot. "When you put it like that…"

Fenja and Menja. They were who the snipers were really for, Nanku realized. Maybe. She wasn't sure she believed Tattletale but in the end, it didn't matter.

She'd gotten something she wanted and more. Her cooperation had ceased to be of any benefit to her.

"I'm still looking for what 'QC' is," Tattletale insisted. "We—"

Nanku started off and said nothing.

She didn't like being manipulated, and she'd been baited with something she wanted enough for one night. She couldn't find unexpected gains twice in a row. No one was that lucky.

Dusk and Dawn took to the air and flew ahead and Nanku ran toward the nearest alley. She did see the snipers eventually. They entered her range a block over. A pair of men on their bellies atop a van on a parking garage. One with a rifle and one with a scope of some sort.

Fenja and Menja were already ahead.

It made no difference to Nanku to activate her cloak and stalk around. She slipped into the garage, got behind the pair, and did a quiet inspection of their attire.

She didn't like being targeted even if she wasn't the original target.

Subtly, Nanku took out a tracker and let a wasp carry it. The men had a gun case shaped to hold the rifle. A foam filler with a cutout to keep it safe.

Nanku used her wasp to slip the tracker into the case under the foam where it wouldn't be readily seen and then walked the wasp back out.

The men were chatting to themselves as they lay there. Nothing interesting. It seemed Tattletale didn't tell her minions much because neither knew what was going on.

"Lot of dead Nazis," one mumbled.

"Shame."

Nanku would wonder why anyone would choose to be a Nazi when everyone hated them so much, but it didn't seem like Nazis were a rational sort to begin with. No matter.

Her tracker planted, Nanku slipped away. She pinged the device and the position appeared on her biomask with a marker for distance. If nothing else, she'd find where the men stored their weapons and could inspect the location.

For her own interests.

Later.

Fate was on her side.

Moving away from the vehicle, she focused her attention on another. Three men inside, right next to the van with a sniper team on top.

Coincidences like that weren't coincidences.

Altering the vision mode on her mask, Nanku leaned closer and looked through the walls of the vehicles.

She remembered the basement of her mother's apartment. Observers.

Crouching, Nanku quietly drew her knife and reached under the vehicle. With the lightest pressure, she turned her knife over and over again until the tip pierced the flimsy underbelly. Programming her computer, she removed a small device from her belt and pressed it to the opening.

The sensors were technically for tracking movement underground or through rock. Burrowing creatures were difficult to stalk. They needed to be baited and baited prey were some of the most dangerous.

Hearing words, Nanku grinned and was pleased the device worked anyway.

"Yeah," one of the men said. "Yeah, we're tracking them now… Nah. Not gonna happen boss. Tinker-tech stuff. What you pay us for. We can track the krauts out to five miles no problem."

What was it her mother said about Valkyrie? She could change her size 'or something.' Before her mother was a cape.

A cape who could change her size.

Nanku reactivated her cloak and stalked into the shadows. She mused to herself, wondering if some force was conspiring to give her what she wanted. Fenja and Menja recognized something in Nanku that infuriated them, and Valkyrie was suspected to have reason to kill a Dockworker because she was the member of the Empire who ran rackets on transit companies.

Transit.

Transport.

Nanku flexed her finger and set herself to get back to work.

One way or another, she smelled fate in the wind.

And Tattletale might be a presumptuous little gremlin, but at least she was a useful presumptuous little gremlin.

~ ~ ~

Rachel lost track of Nanku as she slipped away.

That cloak wasn't perfect up close. Once Rachel noticed the flicker and learned to spot it was easy, but at a distance, it worked fine. Especially in the dark.

"Welp." Aisha shrugged. "This is why we don't have friends."

"It's why you don't have friends," Lily replied.

"That's really Weaver's daughter?" Sabah asked. "Why didn't anyone bother to tell us about this?"

Lily sighed. "It's that girl who was looking for Emma."

"Her?"

"Yeah. Thought she looked weirdly familiar and when"—she paused, remembering something—"I should have put it together. Emma said she was some nut looking for five minutes of fame when I talked to her. Guess she was the real thing if both Weaver and Tattletale believe her."

Rachel patted Angelica's leathery neck and let the massive hound turn herself about. The other dogs followed, pointing their eyes after the leader and stalking back through the lot.

"Where are you going?" Foil asked.

"Where do you think?" Regent asked back. "Dogbrain dog. Dog dog. Dog."

"Woof woof," Rachel replied dryly.

"Yarp."

Foil shook her head, which was the point of the exchange.

"We should leave," Parian said. "This is… This is a lot of… Did she do this?"

"Didn't figure you'd care," Imp replied.

"I'm a pacifist."

"She could if she wanted to," Lily translated. "She just doesn't."

Rachel left earshot but glanced to the flanks of the lot. The bodies and vehicles littered it. She'd taken little care in controlling her dogs as they ran the Nazis off, but Nanku tore a bloody swathe through them without a care.

Rachel knew that had saved Cassie at the least. She wasn't going to judge. Dead Nazis who'd brutalize dogs for bait were no tragedy for the world.

The casual manner to it all…

Like a hunter, Rachel thought. A hunter who saw no difference between a man or woman and any other animal.

Life was life, Nanku said. And death was death.

What made any one life any more important than another and any death any more tragic?

Rachel wasn't one to ponder such things, but she thought she saw the outline of it. The weird way of thinking behind it all. Not usual for a cape. Lots of capes had weird ways of thinking. Rachel knew that well.

For Nanku though, she barely seemed to think of herself as a cape at all.

A hunter first and foremost. She carried it in her every step. Even her thoughts oriented around it.

Strange.

Rachel dismounted Angelica to reenter the building. There was a pair of women and one man cowering in some room that she waved off. They ran and she shouted a 'hold' to keep her dogs from lashing out as they followed her. Rachel thought all the blood outside was enough.

Let them run.

Maybe the next lot would be smarter and stay away from bloodsport.

She found the kennels—and the dogs—where she'd left them inside. All arrayed into a pair of rows stacked two high. Most of the dogs were mid-sized mutts in bad shape. The bait dogs were smaller and whimpered instead of snarled. A few had collars on them. Like the sick fucks just grabbed pets off the street or out of yards.

Fucking Nazis.

Rachel kept her snarl low and her face passive. It came naturally when she wanted it too.

She checked the kennels one by one and waited for Cassie to bring the truck around. Behind her, Angelica maintained her bulk while the other dogs began to shrink. Peeling so many out of their husks would be a chore but Rachel owed it to them. Their bodies were pot-marked with bloody wounds and scars. That many bullets… Rachel expected something but not that much.

One of the men yelled 'it's off' at the end.

What was off? What had they planned? A lot more than Rachel expected.

Parian came in. She looked at the ring with stiff steps in her legs and a shudder. "Are they okay?"

Rachel was careful with her hands and eyes. The dogs watched her warily. Some snapped their teeth. Others snarled. They bore scars and bruises. Barely healed wounds. Typical of 'fighting' dogs.'

"No," Rachel answered. And humans called themselves 'civilized.'

"You know it wasn't our idea, right?" Parian wrapped her arms around herself. "Another one of Tattletale's brilliant plans she doesn't bother to explain."

"Enemy has a thinker," Rachel answered. "Best not to explain everything."

"Really?"

Rachel huffed.

She didn't have to like it for it to make sense. If anything, she felt a small pride. Lisa had finally done something. Anything. Made a move to try and solve the Pure problem rather than sitting back for some impossible perfect solution to magically appear before her.

It was a step.

"I don't think I'll ever get you," Sabah said. "One second you seem normal. Rough but normal. Ish. Next, you'll kill people to protect some dogs."

Rachel kept herself in check.

As far as people went, she liked Sabah. Sabah was gentle but hard. She'd fight when push came to shove but she didn't like fighting. She liked dresses and fabrics and smiles, and she really liked making out with Lily. Those were things Rachel was ambivalent about but Sabah was good people.

She didn't want to snap at the girl.

"Alan Mikhail."

"Who?"

"He wrote a book about animals. Lots about dogs."

"Somehow, you reading a book about dogs doesn't surprise me."

Rachel made Cassie read the book to her. She'd gotten better at reading herself but something like some college historian's book was too complicated.

She wasn't sure she remembered the part she wanted right. Rachel wasn't stupid but she wasn't college smart. Most people weren't in her experience—especially the ones who went to college—but she could respect those who were.

"Dogs shit, eat, sleep, and are pampered," Rachel said. "All dogs do is wag tails and make cute faces."

"Okay…"

"Maybe they're the ones more evolved."

Sabah stared. "Seriously?"

"No."

Rachel wasn't dumb but she thought she understood why a smart person might say a stupid thing. It wasn't really about the thing. It was about… thinking itself. Seeing. Changing the way one thought or saw, even for a moment.

"People think they're better," Rachel said with barely contained rage. "They're not. They're just smarter."

Dogs don't wage war. They don't sell drugs to puppies. They don't bait each other into pointless fights for someone's entertainment. They survived. They weren't dumb. Maybe they couldn't read or write books about the mysteries of life, but most people couldn't do that either.

"Smarter isn't better," Rachel insisted.

She could tell by the silence Sabah didn't get it.

No one did. Not really. Even Cassie didn't get it, as good a minion as she was and as earnestly as she loved dogs. She was still human and she thought she was better.

Rachel rose as the sound of the Truck's engine carried on the air. It was coming around back toward the loading dock.

Cassie really was a good minion. And good company.

And Rachel thought of Dusk and Dawn. They weren't dogs. They weren't even domesticated, Rachel thought. There was a wildness to their strange eyes. An untamed instinct and hunger that bowed only because Nanku was the one asking.

Nanku near doted on the giant bugs. The way she meticulously cleaned their wings for them with attention paid to what they liked. The respect she paid their instincts and nature. The way she tended to Dawn's injury and went out of her way to keep them safe even in a fight. Only using them to strike from shadows and behind. Never as fodder to take blows for her.

She was hiding that she was a master and controlling the Twins with a power well, but she didn't treat Dusk or Dawn like things she simply controlled.

They were alive, and Nanku respected it the thing itself.

For someone who killed fucking Nazis by the truckload, she had a respect for life.

Rachel shifted uneasily, unsure if she'd ever met anyone she so readily understood before.