Taylor's thoughts ran like molasses—slowly—and there was a noticeable delay between what was happening around her and her processing it. It had only clicked that Ollie may have killed someone after she'd helped him onto the roof of the storage units. She'd been forced to divide her attention between the scene unfolding behind her when Ollie had made his move and the horde of ABB thugs that were rushing them.
Everything moved so fast. Taylor was worried that this would happen eventually—that one of the Undersiders would kill someone, and she wouldn't be able to stop it. Worse, the dead girl was probably innocent—only guilty of being too scared of Bakuda to refuse her. Taylor should've been more upset about an innocent woman's death, but she couldn't waste her energy grieving the loss of someone she didn't know when her own life was in danger right now.
She glanced over her shoulder at the wall of ice that blocked the exit behind them, and Ollie, bringing up the rear, was doing the same. When his attention returned to the Undersiders, his shouting made Taylor flinch.
"Move!"
Taylor didn't hesitate, following the rest of the Undersiders down the alley and around the corner, focusing on the echo of their footfalls on the concrete. A wave of fear rushed through Taylor as a troupe of thugs turned the corner opposite them, and she nearly fell forward when her trembling legs couldn't stop her momentum. Lisa caught her, and Taylor leaned against her as Brian unleashed his smoke. Plumes of black smoke poured from beneath his armor, and he rushed to meet the ABB.
Ollie's hands closed around Taylor's waist from behind, and she couldn't help the shocked yell that escaped her as he threw her up and onto another rooftop, followed closely by the others—who Ollie did not throw like a ragdoll.
"Christ, slow down!" Taylor's annoyance was mounting; yes, they were in a rush, but she didn't appreciate being manhandled like she couldn't have gotten up there herself.
"No time." Ollie shot back as he climbed up and helped Alec do the same.
Taylor climbed to her feet, unsteady on the smooth sheet metal roofing, and turned her attention to the entrance of the maze of storage units—a steel rolling gate flanked by a vacant security guard house. All around them, Taylor could hear shouting in a handful of different languages she couldn't understand and the occasional explosion that shook the whole lot. It seemed like, for the moment, they'd lost the ABB.
Brian and Lisa were tearing at Rachel's duct tape wrapping. Rachel hissed as Brian ripped the gag off her face.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Nothing!" Rachel snapped, pulling an arm free and pulling at the remaining duct tape.
"Rachel!" Brian returned Rachel's sharp tone with one of his own. She rose to her feet, but refused to meet Brian's eyes when she spoke again.
"I got followed, okay? They jumped me; what was I supposed to do?"
In that moment, Taylor empathized with Rachel; her defensive demeanor reminded her of high school—around when the trio had first started their campaign of terror. It brought back memories of trying and failing to keep her cool with school staff that refused to do anything about the relentless—and obvious—bullying.
She nearly jumped out of her costume at the pops of gunfire somewhere nearby, in the maze of storage units. Whooping shouts hailed the end of their moment of respite, and Alec called out to Brian as he leapt into the alley closest to the front gate.
"You can lecture her later! C'mon!"
Taylor wasn't going to be much help fending off the encroaching goons. Her nerves were too frayed; she couldn't focus enough to gather enough bugs to make a difference, let alone control them, with the shouting, occasional gunfire, and explosions echoing throughout the filthy, winding alleys. So, she followed the rest of the Undersiders and kept to the center of the group to put as much manpower between herself and the ABB.
Call her callous, but it worked. Brian and Ollie did an excellent job fending off any thugs that found them; Brian would cover the team's retreat with his smoke, or Ollie would lay down suppressing fire. Bakuda's "recruits" would cower at the first sign of trouble, and the less experienced ABB thugs would hesitate long enough to give the Undersiders an out. Some didn't, though, and Taylor was growing increasingly anxious at how many bodies were hitting the concrete.
She wasn't the one killing them, and they were criminals, but it didn't sit well with Taylor regardless. What was she going to tell Armsmaster? Would he be mad that she let this happen? The thought gave her pause. She liked Armsmaster, but, as far as she knew, he and Dragon were the only people who knew what she was doing. He was in a position to cut her off at any time and throw her to the wolves. Maybe it would be best to keep her involvement here to herself?
The group ground to a halt as they closed in on the rolling gate. Alec grabbed the chain link, flinched, and jerked back, cradling his hands.
"Fuck!" He yelled and hissed as his fingers brushed the tender flesh of his palm.
"It's electrified." Lisa deadpanned.
"Why is it electrified?!"
If Taylor had to guess, it was because people kept valuables in these storage units—or did, at least. Alec's question would go unanswered, however, as Brian ignored his outburst and turned his attention to Lisa.
"Can you open it?"
"Yeah." She dove into the dark security guard house; the light came on, and Lisa set about rummaging through the desk clutter and drawers. "I just need to find something."
"You!"
Taylor spun to the source of the shout, low and brimming with malice. Bakuda was almost jogging to meet them, her lip bleeding and drops of deep crimson staining the front of her already dirty wife beater. Two thugs were struggling to keep pace behind her—one of them was bleeding profusely from a head wound Taylor couldn't see and looked like he was on the verge of passing out.
Bakuda, for her part, looked pretty good, all things considered. The Tinker brought her fingers to her busted lips, and a sharp whistle tore through the air. A lean, masculine figure unceremoniously appeared next to her, sporting a clean black tracksuit; his mask was a vibrant red with two short horns jutting out of its brow, a wide grin filled with tusks, and piercing, dead yellow eyes.
Taylor recognized Oni Lee immediately.
"Him!" Bakuda jabbed a finger at Ollie. "Kill him."
Oni Lee followed Bakuda's finger and launched into a brief sprint, quickly closing the distance between them. Ollie fired a shot into Oni Lee, and he erupted into a cloud of white dust that hit Ollie, blinding him. The teleporter was behind Ollie, bringing a sword just a bit longer than Taylor's forearm down on Ollie's shoulder. Ollie spun on his heel, Oni Lee whiffed, and Ollie delivered a sharp jab to Oni Lee's mask. That body erupted into white dust on contact as well.
Their movements quickly got faster, and the scene of their fight was obfuscated by a dense cloud of white dust that settled onto the ground like a thin layer of snow around them.
"Tattletale!" Brian called, not needing to say anything more to get his point across; they needed her to hurry. He didn't wait for a reply before moving for Bakuda, trails of wispy black smoke chasing him. Bakuda's thugs broke off from her as she met Brian; one beelined for Alec, and the other—the man with the head wound—made for Taylor.
He was a burly man, with features that reminded Taylor of a pug—he looked like his face had been molded by a frying pan. Taylor held her breath, anticipating the first swing and dodging when it came. The thug followed it with another swing with his opposite hand, and Taylor blocked it. The punch wasn't nearly as hard as she'd expected. She threw her weight into shoving him back and watched as he struggled to stay on his feet.
Taylor reached into the utility pocket at her back, pulling the telescopic baton she'd asked for in preparation for the robbery of Brockton Bank. The thug hesitated as he watched it extend to its full length, giving Taylor the opportunity she needed. She smacked the side of his thigh, bringing him to his knees with a pained yelp, and drove the baton into his temple. He hit the ground, unconscious—hopefully.
Taylor turned her attention to the others, surveying the fighting. Alec had already won his brawl, the thug that had attacked him lying prone on the concrete; Brian and Bakuda were embroiled in a heated fist fight; and Ollie and Oni Lee were still trapped in a stalemate—or, at least Taylor assumed as much considering she couldn't actually see their fight.
She ran to the security guard house; inside, Rachel was pacing between the walls, her face twisted in a grimace—she looked like she couldn't decide whether she wanted to punch someone or cry. Alec was sitting on the floor, cradling his limp hand at the wrist; two of his fingers were bent in the wrong directions. Finally, Lisa tore through desk drawers like a woman possessed, mumbling to herself just loud enough for Taylor to catch snippets.
"Thirty-two. Male. College dropout. Poor memory. Writes down passwords. Where's the fucking password?"
"Tattletale." Taylor called from the threshold.
"Yes?" Lisa said, her voice straining to maintain an air of civility as she rummaged through another drawer.
"What can I do?"
"Cover me." Lisa pulled the pistol she kept holstered on her belt and pressed it into Taylor's chest, barely giving Taylor enough time to grab it before returning to the desk. "These two are no help."
"Hey!" Rachel snapped, and an argument broke out between the two that devolved into background noise as Taylor focused completely on the gun in her hands. Why was everyone so insistent on giving her a gun? She hadn't brought the pistol that Ollie had forced on her for the bank robbery because she didn't want to shoot anybody; she still kicked herself for pointing it at Glory Girl then, and Taylor's stomach twisted in knots as her fingers closed around the cold polymer grip.
Outside the guard house, wisps of black smoke mingled with white dust as the fighting dragged on. ABB goons had gathered on either end of the alley but weren't joining the fighting. Maybe they were scared? Taylor had powers, and she didn't even want to get between Bakuda and Brian, and especially not between Oni Lee and Ollie.
Taylor watched as Oni Lee stumbled backwards out of the whirlwind of dust that obscured his and Ollie's fight. His eyes met Taylor's, and she felt a chill run down her spine; her muscles went taut as he disappeared into a puff of white dust, and he was on her. His mask was inches from her face, and she didn't even think about her actions before she yelped and pulled the trigger—fear and surprise mingling to create a chilling emotion that she couldn't put a name to.
Oni Lee silently stumbled back, clutching his stomach. Taylor saw the blood gushing from between his fingers as he tried to staunch the bleeding, and the air rushed from her lungs. The gun dropped from her shaking hands and clattered against the concrete, mirroring Oni Lee as he keeled over and hit the ground. His silence was terrifying—or maybe Taylor's hearing had abandoned her like her breath had—and he brought a trembling hand up to his mask, inspecting the deep red color that stained his fingers.
Taylor felt sick; she dry-heaved in her mask and clutched her stomach as she turned away from the dying man she'd just shot. Oh God, what would Dad think? Oh my God...
Ollie rushed to her, planting a hand on her back.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Taylor lied.
"Okay." Ollie patted her back, and Taylor felt like she was going to vomit. She watched him run to join Bakuda and Brian's fistfight, lowering his sights at Bakuda and circling the two.
"Hey!" He barked at her. Bakuda pulled a grenade from the bandolier across her chest and tentatively tugged at the pin. Brian quickly backed off, but he held his offensive stance.
"Back off!"
"Not happening, Bakuda." Ollie stopped and took a half-step closer to Bakuda. The Tinker flinched away and held the grenade over her head. "We can still talk this out."
"Bullshit!" Bakuda snapped. "I've been saving this baby for a long while—an explosive yield of 0.01 kilotons condensed into a handheld explosive. I pull this pin, and we all die."
"Are you looking to die tonight?"
"No. You're going to let me walk, and I'm getting the fuck out of this city. ABB is small time anyway; I could have an operation double this size in no time."
"She's bluffing!" Lisa shouted from the security guard house.
"Shut up!" Bakuda barked, taking a big step back towards the troupe of ABB thugs crowding the other end of the alley. Ollie pressed the advantage, closing more distance between him and Bakuda. The silence that hung over the alley was palpable, and it was only broken by Bakuda indignantly shouting:
"Fuck you!"
And throwing the grenade to the ground. It and the pin clattered to a stop inches in front of Ollie's feet as Bakuda turned tail and ran. He rushed forward and kicked it in a low arc. The ABB and Bakuda had only a few seconds to scramble—mostly stumbling over their own feet and shoving each other—before the end of the alley was engulfed in a small fireball and hail of shrapnel. Taylor watched as limbs and chunks of burned, shredded flesh flew in every direction in spectacular fashion. Bakuda hadn't even gotten the chance to scream.
"Tattletale was right." Ollie breathed a sigh of relief, and an amused scoff escaped him as he turned to face the rest of the Undersiders. The other side of the alley was clear; the ABB on that side must've fled when Bakuda pulled her bomb threat.
The chain link gate whined as it rolled open.
"I found the password!" Lisa cheered, skipping out of the security guard house.