Vindication
Chapter Seven
Vin hurried after Reen, the rain mixing with the ash and turning into a slick grime beneath her feet. The night still frightened her. The mists still frightened her. Anything could be hiding in them, watching her unseen.
"Don't be stupid," Reen always said. "If you can't see them, they can't see you. Now keep up."
She followed as best she could as they went to meet their contact. They were going to leave Luthadel, and they weren't coming back. Not for a while. Not until the bad men had forgotten them.
Reen stopped and peered into the mists. Vin tried to see what he could see. Shapes. Figures. Not mistwraiths. Those weren't real. Reen had promised her they weren't.
"Wait here," he ordered, and then he vanished. It didn't take long. Just five steps, and she couldn't tell where he was if she didn't know, and if she only thought she knew, she could be tricked.
He'd come back. He always came back. But he always told her that he wouldn't.
She heard voices in the mists, whispers too hushed for her to make out any of the words, but she knew her brother's voice. She always knew it, even when he wasn't talking.
As she waited, as she listened, she felt something watching her. A figure, covered in so much ash that it might have been painted black, a skeleton wearing skin. A beggar.
The beggar stared at her, his eyes catching what little light there was in the night. He didn't hold out his hand, he didn't ask for anything, he just watched.
He looked hungry. No, she looked hungry. The beggar looked like he was dying.
Vin felt a crust of bread in her pocket. Reen told her to save it until she needed it, because they never knew when their next meal would be. But this man looked like he needed it more than she ever would.
His eyes widened when she offered it to him. He looked confused, then frightened, then desperate. With slow, trembling hands he accepted it from her. He held the crust to his chest like it was sacred, like it was life, and he—
"What are you doing?"
Reen fell on the beggar with a fury, punching him, trying to pry bread from hands that had closed like a vice. Vin covered her eyes, but that didn't block out the sounds, the screams, the final, sickening crunch.
Reen turned to her as she peeked through her fingers, and his fist crashed into her like a hammer. She fell to the slick, grimy cobblestones as he stood over her.
"Lord Ruler, Vin, what's wrong with you? Do you think this is a game? I can barely keep you fed, let alone the entire city! If I ever see you do something like that again, I swear I'll sell you to the first brothel I see!"
He took a breath, and shoved something to her chest. The crust of bread, crumbled and stained with ash, but still good.
"Eat it before you lose it again," he said. "We've got a ways to go."
The beggar lay on the street across from her, one eye crushed into the cobbles, but the other still glinting with faint light, still watching her.
She did as she was told.
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Skitter peered through the scope of the laser rifle. "You see the big, shirtless man in the steel mask?" Then she remembered that Wraith didn't have binoculars or anything to—
"I see him," she said, squinting. "Next to the woman in the fancy armor and winged helmet?"
Skitter hesitated, remembering that Wraith's powers included enhanced senses. Vin had described it more as being able to see in the dark, but apparently she had eyes like an eagle as well as an owl. "He's Hookwolf, the leader of this gang. He can grow metal blades out of his skin. Leviathan tore him in half a couple weeks ago, and he's still going. The woman's ... Menja?" Right. Fenja was the one who had died. "She turns into a giant. Don't get into a direct fight with either of them if you can avoid it."
She had considered going after Purity's gang. It hadn't been too long ago that Purity had been knocking down buildings left and right trying to get her daughter back. Just ... two, three weeks? But shooting a laser at someone with laser powers sounded like a bad idea, and she didn't think Wraith could outfly her.
No, the Chosen was the best choice. Strong and organized, but without any Movers fast enough to chase them down. She held Hookwolf in her sights, but turned away. He needed to lead his gang against Coil. Menja? She was a heavy hitter. Best to leave her alone too. Cricket? According to the internet she and Hookwolf were dating, but the internet shipped everyone with everything, so that meant nothing. Still, the three of them had been together a long time, Hookwolf, Cricket, and ...
Stormtiger hobbled into view, limping heavily. What had happened to him? Had he gotten hurt from Leviathan, or one of the fights since then? She had heard that Othala could heal people, or at least grant them a regeneration power, but if Stormtiger was still injured, he'd be out of the action for a while. Any assault against Coil would leave him behind, making Stormtiger useless for her plans.
Well, mostly useless.
Her hand was as steady as a stone, and the rifle didn't shake even while aiming at a target two blocks away. There was no recoil, no noise, just a soft hum, a violet laser, and screams she could hear even from the rooftops as Stormtiger's left leg came clean off.
The Chosen reacted immediately, Hookwolf himself pulling the man behind cover. It was good to have friends one could rely on, Skitter mused, even among villains. Especially among villains. She'd had that with the Undersiders, and by some miracle she had that still.
"Alright," she said to Wraith. "Get me out of here."
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After that, they waited. The Chosen would want revenge, and soon they would sell them information about Coil's base. Where it was, what numbers he had, who he had working for him. Convenient. But not too convenient. Not too soon. They needed to get angry enough, desperate enough so they wouldn't ask questions.
A day or two. Good, but not too good to be true. It was all about the timing.
Vin took a deep breath and told herself that she knew what she was doing. She had worked on cons her whole life, but leading one was another story. She felt like she was missing something vital, but that didn't help because she always felt that way.
And right now, she had a truck to catch.
"Steven's and Stevenson's Food Co.?" she asked, dropping down to a truck on the outskirts of the city.
The driver, a large, soft faced man with a receding hairline, jumped a bit. By his posture, he seemed to be gripping something on the other side of his seat that she couldn't see. Probably a weapon, so she Soothed him slightly. "Y-yeah. Yeah, that's me. You're the cape escort?"
Vin nodded. Or Wraith nodded because she was in costume, or ... whatever. "Uh-huh."
He breathed a sigh of relief. "Is it as bad as they say? They got roaming mobs and gangs all over the news."
"There are a few." She realized that she should probably say something reassuring, but she couldn't think of anything, so she just Soothed him harder. "Can you handle this?"
He took a deep breath, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just keep an eye out, okay?"
"Sure thing."
"And just remember, if anything happens to the truck, it will be taken out of your deposit."
Taylor had handled the logistics, but apparently she had needed to offer enough collateral to pay for the truck as well as the supplies in case something went wrong. Vin was surprised she had been able to find someone willing to do business with a couple of known criminals in a warzone of a city, but people were always willing to take risks for a decent payout.
"Got it."
Vin sat on the roof of the truck as it drove deeper into Brockton Bay. A few times the truck had to turn around because the road was too damaged to drive over, and more than once Vin had to call down instructions through the window that certain areas were off limits or too dangerous to go through, but no part of the city was perfectly safe.
She sensed an Allomatic pulse in the distance. Or, at least she hoped it was in the distance. Earth Bet powers had more variation than what she was used to, so it could have been right next to her. She was about to point the driver in a different direction when a new pulse suddenly sounded.
And then she was hit by a tornado.
A gust of swirling wind hit her, knocking her off the truck before she could react and picking up dust and debris. She burned steel, Pushing herself out of the flow, and she saw a group of people emerging from the side alleys. They shouted and ran toward the truck, jumping onto its side.
She landed next to them, and burning pewter, grabbed them one by one and beat them away. Her fist crashed into a man's face, and she grabbed another one and kicked him with far more force than a girl her size should have been able to muster.
Then the tornado came back, filled with more scrap and trash. It did more to drive off the crowd than she did, but she had to clench her eyes shut to keep the dust out. She jumped out of the whirlwind a second time, but before she could target the cape attacking her, the first Allomatic pulse showed up.
He was huge, covered in rusty armor that produced steam like a teapot. He charged the tuck as though intending to knock it over, and for all she knew he could. Could she stop him? There was a definite weight difference there, but ...
She flared pewter, steel, and iron all at once, Pushing on one of his metal encased legs and Pulling on the other. Her body felt crushed and twisted beneath the force, but the man tripped, falling to the ground in a loud crash.
Well, that bought me a second or two. What could she do against a giant metal suit? She couldn't get into an extended Pushing match against someone several times her weight, and he looked like he could tear through her chains like twine.
So she burned zinc and made him angry. "Ha!" she said with a bravado she didn't feel, jumping out of the way of the truck. "Is that the best you can do?"
Lord Ruler, that was pathetic. She was lucky she didn't stutter. Fortunately, the armored man ignored the tremor in her voice, roared in rage, and charged at her, knocking the rest of the bandits aside like flies. Now all she had to do was keep him focused on her, and—
A tornado crashed into her, spinning her around and making her lose sense of where she was. She flared steel and Pushed herself in a random direction, sending her rolling up the side of a building and narrowly missing the armored man swinging a streetlight at her.
Right. Tornado first, juggernaut second. She flared bronze, but the only Allomatic pulse she could sense was right in front of her, and his was barely anything. Were both powers his? Super strength and whirlwinds?
No. There had been two pulses early on, and as she hung from a windowsill, the armored man charged at her, and ...
Ba-dum.
She launched herself to the side, right as the tornado had begun to form. Had the pulse come from beneath her? Yes, putting it right at ...
A thin woman stood in an alleyway below where Vin had been, thin, with long hair and wearing a pair of overalls. No costume, but her hair covered most of her face, and costumes drew too much attention when it was safer to blend into the crowd.
But the crowd was surrounding the truck, and the tornado girl was alone. She threw her chain at her, wrapping her around with it, then Ironpulled herself toward her and clocking her in the jaw. The girl dropped like a sack of grain, and Vin heard the crunching footfalls of the juggernaut charging toward her.
They're teammates, right?
Vin grabbed the tornado girl and flung her at the man, Rioting the compassion and camaraderie she hoped he felt.
He caught her, and in that moment he was exposed. She flared steel and pewter, launching herself toward him like an arrow, and slammed her fist into his exposed jaw. He stumbled backward a few steps, then fell over like a collapsing building.
She turned to the mob swarming the truck and Rioted their fear until they ran.
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People lined up, taking their cases of clean water and dried foods. One man had tried to shove his way to the front, but Taylor had taken care of him before Vin had a chance to intervene. After that, everyone waited for their turn.
"Maybe I should come with you next time," Taylor said. Well, Skitter because of the costume, but ...
Vin shook her head. "Someone needs to stay here when we can afford it. Besides, the city is supposed to calm down, right? In a few weeks, they won't need extra supplies at all."
"In a few weeks, I won't be able to afford any more." She made a dry sound that might have been a laugh. "Unless we pull off a heist."
"I don't have a problem with that." Though Vin had the easier end of their arrangement. Executing a heist was one thing, but choosing it, planning it, hiding the trail, and finding a good fence were several other things. Logistics. Dockson wasn't an Allomancer, but his ability to handle everything boring in the world made him Kelsier's right hand man.
"This territory, the heroes, Coil, and now the Chosen," Taylor mused. The people stayed away from the two of them, but she kept her voice low all the same. "I'd be lost without you."
Vin considered that, then shook her head. "You'd manage. Without you, I'd be stuck with some other group, and one more likely to take advantage of me."
"I'm pretty sure I am taking advantage of you," she admitted. "With everything that's going on, I'm barely treading water, but to help you get home? Interdimensional travel? I don't know if we'll even get close."
Vin watched the line of people come and go. Not to make sure they were staying in order, Taylor was doing that. Vin watched their faces. They didn't have the lifelong despair of the skaa, but there was the same fear, the same distrust in their eyes. None of them approached the two capes to express their gratitude or ask for more. They were too afraid. They were afraid that this free gift was a trap, but too desperate to stay away.
But sometimes when they were leaving, they would realize that the food was really theirs, that there was no trick or hidden cost, and they would look back one last time as if to say thank you.
Vin shrugged in response to Taylor's concerns. "It's okay," she said. "That's enough."
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A/n And that's the end of the chapter. NaNo WriMo has started, so there's a good chance that you'll get another one before Thanksgiving at the rate things are going. It has been edited by HanChenYou and dedicated to my wonderful 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, and Jan. Thanks for everything!