Little Hunter

Nanku did not understand people.

One week they were trying to capture her or kill her or she didn't really know. They certainly weren't happy with her.

The next, they decided none of that mattered. Nanku was running freely over the city with Dusk and Dawn. Dauntless, Lady Photon, and Laserdream were there and Vista was using her power to warp space and move a pack of a dozen others.

Humans didn't make sense.

No sense at all.

"How much farther?" Dauntless asked.

Nanku leaped a gap between two rooftops and checked the signal with her mask. "Ahead."

"How far ahead?"

"Ahead."

"Why didn't you just explain this before?" Laserdream asked with a sour expression. "Could have avoided some dead people. And maiming."

Nanku was not sorry. "No one wanted to ask what I wanted."

And Tattletale was talking like Nanku had been hunting the eggs the entire time. Which was a lie.

Bitch though.

Nanku wouldn't call the lie out. If it was some kind of play to get the heroes and other villains to leave Nanku be—or at least stop chasing her so much—then Nanku didn't care. But if it benefited Bitch then maybe she'd be able to go back to Brockton Bay despite Nanku making a mess of things for her.

Didn't change that Nanku had no idea any eggs had survived.

How did it even survive?

She'd not even thought to look—surely the ship would have picked up the signal if it was there. The isotope would have triggered a deep space sensor immediately. It must have been shielded somehow. Hidden until someone—an 'evil' Tattletale—found it.

Now it was out and the only hunter on the planet was Nanku as far as she knew. Any others running around wouldn't necessarily jump to help. That wasn't the Yautja way.

Pe'dte would come.

If this was bad, they needed Pe'dte to come.

Nanku could not fight a runaway infestation of R'ka on her own and the longer it existed—in a city the size of Brockton Bay no less—the worse things would get.

Running from roof to roof and along streets, Nanku found herself searching the shore in the southeast of the city. It wasn't an area she'd done much in before. The Pure hadn't been active. It was territory that belonged to the Ambassadors.

Many of the buildings were newer. Lots of glass and concrete, built around a ferry terminal that connected either end of Brockton Bay's bay.

"Are you sure that whatever you have is working?" Laserdream floated as Nanku stopped to look around. "I don't see anything."

That was a good thing.

Or a horrific thing.

Nanku zeroed in on the signal. A four-story building. Apartments. High end. Large suits.

"Where—Hey!"

Laserdream exclaimed as Nanku broke into a sprint. She ran to the edge of the roof and jumped. Dusk flew by with a lowered limb and helped Nanku swing herself over the gap.

She landed on a balcony with her wrist blades and one hand. Her swarm was already spreading across the floors and walls and flying about in search.

"Nanku." Dauntless flew over to her. "Is this it?"

"Yes." Why else would she be climbing it?

Nanku scaled the balcony and brought herself over the railing. The sliding door was not locked. She saw immediately it wasn't closed completely.

"Here?" Laserdream asked. "I don't see anything."

Nanku reached for the door while her mask cycled vision modes. One after the other. A line zipped back and forth before her eyes, changing color, definition, and highlights as it went.

"Empty."

Nanku pushed the door open and entered.

"Empty?" Lady Photon frowned from the air. She'd been mostly quiet. "If it's empty—"

Nanku ignored her and walked into the living room. Her mask continued cycling and stopped only when it found something.

The residue marked the floor. A trail of it leading from the door to one of the rooms. Bedroom. Bed. No sign of struggle. The trail itself led under the bed.

Nanku bent down and looked under where a huge splotch sank into the carpet.

…

Preposterous.

The egg couldn't have fit under the bed, and who would set it there? To say nothing Nanku already knew it wasn't there. The bugs she was searching the entire apartment with would have found it.

The surrounding apartments were even more empty, or peacefully occupied.

Nanku rose and held her tongue.

"Hey." Laserdream floated after her. "You can't just—"

"What do you see?" Dauntless asked. "Talk to us."

"False trail," Nanku said. "The egg wasn't here."

"But you said you were tracking it!"

She was.

Nanku checked her system but there was no error.

If the egg hadn't been here, then there was something else.

Nanku turned and started following the trail.

Dauntless stepped into her path.

"Talk," he insisted.

"Following the trail."

Nanku went around him and past Lady Photon and her worthless frown.

The trail went down the hall toward a garbage chute.

Nanku sighed. She began adjusting her computer and fixed the trail on her mask.

"What now?" Laserdream asked.

"There was nothing back there," Lady Photon added. "No blood. No sign of struggle."

"Skitterers don't crawl away," Nanku replied.

She locked her mask on the trail and looked through the walls and floors. The trail went all the way to the bottom of the building. Evil Tattletale was just being a bitch.

Nanku had to descend the building she'd just ascended. Stairs were the fastest way. She went all the way to the bottom where everything was far less pleasant in appearance. Pipes. Lines of wires bundled together. Flickering lights. Rough concrete walls.

It was damp and warm. The kind of place the R'ka would enjoy.

Nanku started along the trail again and followed it into a boiler room.

The skitterer lay on the ground, legs curled in like a dead spider.

Dauntless stepped to her side and frowned. "Is that it?"

"Already dead."

The thing had no bones. It wasn't meant to be sturdy or survive real harm. The flesh had been stripped off in layers. The color was pale white. Devoid of blood. Small holes punctured parts of it. As if it had been drained and then prodded repeatedly.

That must have been a messy exercise, but it was long ago.

Nanku snarled. She removed a silver canister from her belt and popped the lid.

"What's that?" Lady Photon asked.

"This didn't come from the egg. She's playing with us."

Nanku turned the canister and let the blue liquid spill out in a few drips. The drops landed on the corpse and began eating it into a gray paste.

"That's evidence!" Laserdream snapped.

"Not anymore."

Nanku looked around the rest of the boiler room. There was a side door with a broken lock. There wasn't a trail but Nanku doubted there would be one.

"Fake trail," Nanku said. "This one was already dead."

"What was it?" Dauntless asked. "It didn't look like what you showed us."

"First stage," Nanku explained. "Comes out of the egg and seeks a host to carry eggs."

Was there more than one egg, or merely samples that were already dead? Maybe there was no egg and she'd overreacted. No. Would Krieg be in league with the Evil Tattletale to make that work? He didn't seem to be. Her arrival was legitimately unexpected and if he'd been betrayed why not reveal all he knew?

"This was a ploy," Nanku said. "This building is being watched."

"Waiting for us to come looking," Dauntless said. Her frowned. "Why?"

"Ask Tattletale."

There was no other signal.

Had they put the eggs back into containment?

Nanku only had the one signal. It should work anywhere on the planet. "She's hiding the real egg."

"Messing with us." Dauntless shook his head. "That was something Tattletale would do if she were evil."

"She's a villain," Lady Photon said.

"Eviler."

"Too bad we don't have any evidence," Laserdream grumbled with an accusing eye.

Nanku ignored her.

"There's a camera in my helmet," Dauntless revealed. "We have proof it was here. Disposing of unknown biotinker material is standard procedure anyway."

"You don't have to defend her," Lady Photon said.

"We have more important things to do than bicker."

He turned and began speaking to someone called 'console.'

Outside, vehicles had arrived and the capes with Vista were watched from rooftops. Nanku avoided walking into the group of PRT and heroes. She stayed off to the side where she had a clear escape route. The whole idea of the 'truce' struck her as odd, even if it was familiar.

Clans did the same thing often enough. It usually ended in one clan stabbing the other in the back when the alliance had run its course.

While the heroes and troopers and others talked, Nanku thought.

The whole scheme had to be for a purpose. Leaving the corpse was a taunt, but it couldn't just be a taunt.

Nanku pointedly kept her eyes down on the ground and swept the air with small packs of bugs as far as she could.

How many invisible drones could one bad blood have?

"Now what?" Vista asked as the heroes gathered.

"She says she doesn't have any others on her equipment," Dauntless replied. "This was a taunt."

"She wants us to know what she has," Battery agreed.

"Eviler Tattletale." Assault shook his head. "Are there any Endbringer's available? I know it's more deadly, but it's way less stressful."

"She might be hoping we won't believe anything Tattletale or Huntress said," Vista offered.

"Nah." Tattletale walked up and joined the group. "She's just fucking with us. I like being the smartest person in the room. She has an even more overbearing need to prove it than I do."

Assault pointed. "Or she's the humblest thinker ever and is just messing with you."

"Eh. Horseshoe effect. On the other hand, we're all out and about searching town and she's probably free to move where we're not looking."

"Ah. Sun Tzu."

"You have not read Sun Tzu," Battery claimed.

"Maybe I want to sound smarter?"

"Not a bad plan." Dauntless looked up at Nanku. "Draw us all out search and then drop the egg somewhere."

"Nanku will pick it up the moment it's taken from whatever shielding is hiding it," Tattletale said. "She'll have to grab someone and bring them to the egg."

"Kidnappings and disappearances happen all the time." Dauntless sighed. "We'd have a hard time picking any one out from the rest."

"Exactly."

Nanku kept herself as unassuming as she could manage.

Maybe the thinker just wanted to toy with them. Maybe she had another motive. After all, capes and enforcers were scattered across the city. Potentially vulnerable. Their dens and nests empty.

It was an old hunting trick.

Lure prey from its home so you could lay in wait where it thought itself safest.

Nanku looked over the sheer number of people involved in the search.

Too many.

But the thinker had to be watching.

Nanku set her mask to cycle and swept out with bugs.

She waited. There were conversations. Some doubts were raised but Nanku didn't care. The body—even destroyed—seemed enough to convince the rest of the force to continue cooperating.

The armored men who were watching Nanku closely made no move to assail her.

She was watching. Just like before, but the drones could clearly hang outside of her swarm's range. How did she find them without making it clear she was looking?

Or… Maybe she needed to look like she was looking.

Nanku rose and broke into a sprint. That drew attention from below but she ignored it.

Spreading her swarm wide, Nanku ran as fast as she could and felt out for any—

Dawn swooped up and dove from above to tackle the disrupted air. Her first attempt missed but Nanku had the trail and chased. Dusk flew into what she assumed was the Drone's path and Dawn dove again.

The thin blades broke against her hide harmlessly and she drove the machine into the ground.

Heads turned at the crash.

Dawn jumped up and down, thrashing her claws at the thing and biting at it with her teeth. She mauled the shell fairly well, but Nanku stopped her before she broke through. Dusk circled with snapping jaws and Nanku walked down the street toward the downed drone.

Was there another still watching?

Nanku looked into the lens as she went near.

Was the downed drone still watching, and did it find what it wanted?

"Can we track that?" Lady Photon asked.

"Kid Win could," Laserdream said bitterly.

"Traitor," Nanku replied. Stupid. She hadn't made that up, and it wasn't her concern.

She left them to brood and examined the drone. Eventually, some PRT men came and took it. Nanku wasn't sure what to do with the thing. Maybe she could make the enforcers actually work for her for once.

The sooner she found the thinker, the sooner she found the egg. Better for everyone.

"This is a ploy," Tattletale said. "I know me."

"She knows you," Nanku noted.

"Yeah. A 'I know that you know that I know that you know.' I fucking hate it. But, it is what it is. Stakes are too high to be paralyzed in inaction."

Nanku didn't disagree. "Night and Fog."

"She'll know we'll seek them out."

"Too obvious."

"No wonder you and Bitch— Fucking, Bitch."

Nanku stiffened and turned.

That… That—"Where is the teleporter?"

"Hold on. I'll call her first."

"Now."

"Calm down."

"What's wrong?"

Nanku bristled as her mother approached.

Tattletale kept dialing. "We were considering what Evil Me might do knowing that I know that she knows that I know."

"Don't remind me," Weaver replied. She didn't look at Nanku directly but it was transparent. "Bitch?"

"Yeah. Nanku is here hunting monsters. Bitch is isolated and some of her people and dogs are vulnerable."

"It's clever enough," her mother said. "But we'd know immediately. Someone would get a warning out. We'd react. Witness isn't going after Rachel."

Nanku did not feel better.

"Witness?" Tattletale asked.

"Our name for your clone. For now."

"Clever."

Tattletale raised the phone and waited.

Nanku only heard the line pick up.

"Bitch? It's me... No... We're still hunting but it occurred that you might be a target. Yeah... Weaver said the same thing. Just keep an eye out, okay?… Nanku's fine. Truce is in effect."

Tattletale looked about discretely.

"And between you and me," she said in a lower voice, "I'm spinning this as Nanku was hunting monsters the whole time. Won't put her on anyone's good side, but it'll call off the dogs. Pun intended."

Nanku thought that was what she was doing. "I don't need you to lie for me."

"It's what people do," Weaver said. "For people we love. Even if we… make mistakes."

…

"We should seek out Night and Fog anyway," her mother said to Tattletale. "Even if it's obvious, there's the off chance they'll be targeted because we'll assume they're too obvious."

Tattletale hung up and nodded. "Yeah. Probably. You know they'll want Rain if we want their help."

"The PRT will never authorize releasing Aster," Weaver replied. "But, it's possible we can get her on a Ward team given the circumstances. With medical support for her condition."

"Think they'll accept that?"

"Night promised Kayden she'd look after Aster. She's not remotely fit and she knows it, but I think so long as Aster is safe and has a chance to get by, she and her husband will wait on the sidelines."

"No skin off our back. Wards would keep her from going after you again and that vendetta is about the only crime she's ever tried.

"And the mitigating circumstances are enough."

"I'll see if I can reach them."

"I might have a way. But we need to keep looking for these creatures."

Nanku turned her head.

A man came rushing over. Gratefully.

Weaver turned. "What is it?"

"Night and Fog," Tattletale guessed.

"They're attacking the PRT building."

Her mother was already going. "They're going for Aster."

"Distraction," Tattletale warned.

"She'll know we know."

"Fucking thinkers."

They went on and a flurry of activity began. Nanku slipped back into the dark and turned away. Thinking.

What people do for people they love.

Even if they make mistakes.

…

That was the answer to why her mother would protect them. It couldn't just be anyone. That would be absurd. It had to be someone she'd cared about before hunting them down.

And that was only one person.