I caved. Have one more chapter.

Fandango 1.2

When the sound of a chainsaw choking out a motorcycle came down the hall, it was figurative music to my ears. I got up, and headed down to the basement.

I moved aside a box of knickknacks and other junk, revealing the vent covering the old coal chute, which I used to hide my costume. It was a spider silk full bodysuit, navy blue, with small, rather expensive patches of Kevlar embedded in it to supplement the fabric in important places. A stab test earlier had shown it was fairly knife-resistant; that was more than could be said for most people's first costume.

Lenses made of a pair of blue prescription ballistic goggles, sleek and clear. The mask was blank, featureless, but that somehow accented the feminine angles of my jaw, one of the features I owed my mother. The only real embellishments were two shawls of even thicker spider silk, in black, slung around my shoulders and tied around my hips, there both for extra protection, and to protect my decency, and a utility pouch along the small of my back. The only area not covered was the back of my head, because I just refused to let my one good feature be hidden.

It wasn't exactly easy to make, but I managed, and the effect, once I had it on, was stunning. My long black hair worked well with the shawl, and the navy was just far enough off black to be distinguishable in the dim light, providing contrast and slimming my figure even more. I didn't look terrible, other than the obvious flaws in my body type, and a few adjustments to the extra cloth bits helped cover those.

I grabbed my pepper spray, my MP3 player, some headphones, and a couple quarters in case I needed a call or a bus, and snuck out the back door, my costume creators flying a block or so up and back from me, safely out of sight.

Good evening, Brockton Bay.

Patrolling is hard work. This was the first lesson of the night.

Walking for hours on end was boring; walking for hours on end, at night, in costume, through gang territory? It was intimidating.

Listening to the radio as I walked helped less than I thought. In fact, the peppy, popular music playing just made the whole exercise even more strange.

Was somebody down this alleyway? Katie Fuller kept singing.

Was that a drug dealer? Shaniah Lawrence kept dropping her beat.

I mean, occasionally they'd play something good, but still, why not play some classics?

Maybe it was a little offensive to assume I'd find a criminal to catch. Crime rates couldn't be that bad, right? Winslow had to just be a recruiting ground.

People in this part of town weren't all bad, they just tended to be much more morally grey, simply because that was the only way to succeed here. The system only gave a shit about those who broke the norm; if the norm shifted, it stopped noticing how shitty stuff was becoming.

And these streets were so depressing. Buildings in dire need of far more than a fresh coat of paint, often with crumbling moldings and holes in the walls. I mean, my house wasn't much better, but that wasn't an excuse.

Also, there were way too many couples going at it. Not fun to be able to sense when people are doing the horizontal tango, even if my power wasn't affecting them. For that matter, there were too many pests. I'd felt firsthand what 'lousy' really meant, so I could definitively say these apartments and houses were lousy with bugs and rodents. I collected them with barely a thought, but it was kind of tedious.

Maybe in another life, I could have been a pest removal cape, but the city needed me for more than that. Besides, who would trust an exterminator who could do the same thing to the people living there?

Man, there was just nothing out here. Maybe I should check the warehouse district?

Ugh. More walking.

I was just getting ready to head home, tired of searching deserted alleyways and vacant warehouses, when I heard the distinct cracks and clatters of gunfire over the cheesy love song playing. Finally, something to do. Fuck that song, I needed something good. I hit a few buttons on the MP3 player, pulling up a playlist and hitting shuffle.

As I rounded the corner and the song began to play, I smiled. Perfect.

Now to deal with all these thugs.

I took in the scene as the familiar sounds of the opening of Thriller began to play.

A short alleyway with a dead end, sandwiched between several warehouses.

ABB everywhere, the few with guns firing wildly into a cloud black as night, while those with melee weapons held them ready.

Fire streaming off an oversized man in a metal mask, wrestling a quadrupedal thing almost as large as he, a mass of bloody, torn meat and spurs of bone, with a long, prehensile tail and wicked claws. Oddly appropriate, considering the howls of the intro; there was something almost lycanthropic about it.

I began to work my craft as the music began.

A ripple went through every person in the alleyway, save the creatures and people I couldn't identify in the smoke. It went unnoticed, a shiver.

Buh-dun-dun-dun-Dun, dun, dun…

Some of the ABB began to bob their heads, just a little, in tune with the music.

The first verse began.

It's close to midnight, and something evil's lurking in the dark…

Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart…

Feet tapped. The words were muttered, too low to hear from this distance.

You try to scream, but terror takes the sound before you make it…

Lung shook off the beast, then followed with a burst of fire.

You start to freeze, as horror looks you right between the eyes…

I took note of two thugs, each humming the tune as they waited for something to hit with their bats.

You're paralysed…

The refrain began.

Cause this is thriller, thriller night! And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike…

Another quadrupedal mass of bone and meat burst from the darkness, roaring and flailing as the small arms fire hit it, ramming into Lung. He wrapped an arm around the neck of the thing, grappling with it. The one he'd thrown lashed at a thug with its long tail, knocking him down and sending his pistol skittering across the asphalt.

As the refrain ended, and the second verse began, the motions of the thugs were starting to get fairly noticeable. Shots were being fired in time with the beats, thugs were tapping toes or humming, a few had even begun to sing quietly. One or two had given each other looks, then gone back to watching the fight between Lung and the monsters.

You close your eyes, and hope that this is just imagination…

He was also showing signs, although they were less prevalent. Muscles twitched, and his foot kept sliding backward. His foes kept his attention, though, as he beat them back.

It took until the second refrain for someone to realize something was wrong. A yell, as larger movements began to enforce themselves among the group. By now, I had a dim awareness of their senses, and I could see them panicking, even as weapons fell from jazz hands and they started resisting the dance. Finally, someone had the wherewithal to yell for Lung.

It was about then I realized that I was still just standing in the entrance of the alleyway. Unfortunately for them, that was also when I remembered my swarms of pests.

Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade…

Lung, now well on this way to nine feet tall, and coated in silvery scales, swung his attention my way within moments of realizing his men weren't having a spontaneous dance party. I summoned the swarms of bugs, forming nets of silk from dancing spiders and acrobatically inclined fliers. A veritable flood of dancing mice and rats hopped and bounced their way into the alley.

Lung threw off the creatures, delivering a sickening blow to one's jaw, and yelled at me in a voice like an avalanche. "YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE, GIRL!"

Wow, just a little bit less ham, please.

The music approached its third verse as Lung approached me at speed.

They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side…

The beast he hadn't injured lunged at him from behind, and his counter-toss was interrupted by the twitches of his arms trying to do the dance movements. The thing latched onto his shoulder, and he roared in pain.

I swept completed nets over the two, trying to hinder and delay. Rats tried to bite his feet as they surged around him, but found no purchase on his hard scales.

He responded by bursting into flames, killing many of my rodents instantly, and making the creature yelp and let go in pain. Still, the nets melted onto him, hampering his movements long enough for the refrain to start.

That this is thriller, thriller night…

By this point, his entire gang had fallen completely under my control. They launched into a coordinated zombie dance, and I could see through their eyes that the fog was dissipating, even as I focused on Lung. The beast was called off by a whistle, returning to a figure near the injured one.

Yet another refrain, and another application of silk nets, less effective now.

The gang leader in question was still heavily resisting my power, but I was making progress. It was just a matter of staying alive a few more minutes. He advanced on me, and I responded with a liberal application of pepper spray, eliciting another roar of pain as his rhythmically twitching hand covered his eyes.

The final refrain came to an end, and I selected a trio of thugs for the final part of the song. Ambiance was important, after all.

Lung recovered, but immediately bent over, his mouth splitting, and spurs beginning to form on his back. His legs, however, began to betray him, making him begin to step to the side, and barely responding to his commands.

The trio began to chant, gesturing and dancing in a more subdued fashion.

"Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand…"

Lung roared, even as his body began to forcibly complete the movements of the dance.

"I KI' 'OU FO' DIS!"

He flung a few fireballs at me, but it was too late for him. The fire was easy to dodge, even at this range, made predictable by the beat of the music. He tried to attack me, but couldn't resist enough to do anything effective, his movements interrupted by jerks and twitches. His growth visibly slowed to a crawl, then stopped.

"And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver:"

I watched him glare at me from his own eyes, felt him form the words with his strange mouth. No longer a roar, now a cold, vengeful anger.

"I wi' make 'ou pay fo' dis, gur'. 'Ou wi' die screaming."

The thugs chanted in the background: "For no mere mortal can resist, the evil of the thriller."

Then Lung threw his head back, giving in to the evil laughter that ended the song.

A pause, then Bohemian Rhapsody began to play. I turned towards the end of the alleyway, striding towards the group which I had just saved the lives of.

There were four capes, unless the beasts were teammates too. A man in motorcycle leathers, with streams of the same darkness flowing off of him like a vantablack dry ice fog; a woman in a heavy fur-lined coat, wearing a cheap-looking dog mask, who was checking the… I guess it had to be a dog… with the jaw injury.

A girl in lavender, who seemed rather injured, cradling one of her arms and not looking up, and a boy in a costume that could charitably be called old-fashioned, and uncharitably referred to as drama club wannabe, who was holding his side. Surrounding them, a few knocked-out thugs, and a third of the dog things, standing guard.

It took them a minute to really get to paying attention to me, but that was fine. In the meantime, I dug out my MP3 player. I'd need a good song for the ABB to sing as I made them dance their way into custody. Something I could bear to listen to on loop for a while; as much as I enjoyed Bohemian Rhapsody, it did not loop well.

Ah, perfect. A classic among body-control music, and catchy enough to hear for the next half hour. I gestured for the group to follow me as Lung and his troupe of thugs began to form a conga line. Lung led the pack, still twitching occasionally, and began to sing in his throaty voice.

"DAY-OH. DA-A-AY-OH."

The thugs joined in. "Daylight come and me want to go home."

I set them to parade off to a main thoroughfare. Hopefully the Protectorate could take them in before my control wore off. Finally, as the other capes approached me, I spoke.

"So, hi. I think introductions are in order."