This chapter given a not-so-cursory glanceover by Undead Robot, Abhorsen, and broughtfromxp. Thanks, guys.
Today's songs are Under Pressure by Queen, followed by Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah. Sing along if you'd like!
Tango: Interlude 2
"…and by taking the cosine of x squared, divided by cosine y squared, we find..."
If ever in the history of mankind there came to exist a more boring and dense subject than calculus, Dean didn't want to hear about it. His faith in humanity could only stretch so far.
Mr. Hartmann droned on, oblivious to the tired afternoon classroom's waning interest. To Dean, it was as obvious as the weather outside; a dull cloud of boredom hung low over the classroom, scattered through with the rare bright splash of genuine interest. Dean heard the dull thunk of a head hitting a desk. He made another note, then propped his head on his arm while he waited until the teacher got around to the next valid bit of information.
His phone buzzed quietly in his pocket.
Dean sighed with relief, checked the clock, and slid his notebook into his bag. Getting up, he made his way to the front, made excuses of the bathroom variety, and accepted the homework Hartmann passed him. Then he was free.
He pulled out his phone as he approached his locker. Arcadia High had a faraday cage. Cell signals didn't work inside it, except for those that were intentionally relayed through. In his case, the only messages that got through were work messages.
Code 27, Bay Central Bank. Dallons involved. Meet at back exit in 5.
He added a few books to his bag and double-timed it downstairs. Probably not coming back today if the text was right. Hostage situations tended to take a while.
He made it out the back entrance in three minutes. Carlos was already in the shielded-from-view alleyway, shirt removed and pants coming off. Dean started to follow suit, but as he set his bag down his phone, now free to receive signals, started to explode with notifications. He glanced at it. Vicky had sent a string of texts.
"Van's coming in 5," Carlos said. "Dennis should be here any moment, Vista's gonna meet us there. Bank taken hostage by persons unknown. Glory Girl called it in. From what they told me, she's chomping at the bit to go in, but it's our jurisdiction."
"Gotcha. Let me see if I can talk her down." Ignoring the texts, he called his girlfriend. "Hey Vicky-"
"Finally! Took you long enough!" She sounded angry. "Did you read my texts?"
"No time. We're getting suited up and on our way. What's the situation?"
"I don't know! The bank is leaking this black mist or smoke, no way to see inside. I shouldn't have let her run the errand alone!"
"Wait, who?" he said, confused.
"Amy, you dolt! She's in the bank! Just- read my texts!"
"Look, we're on our way," he said as Dennis arrived in the alleyway.
"Good. Maybe you'll be here in time to take these idiots into custody." Shit.
"Vic, don't do anything yet. Amy's gonna be fine, but you've gotta wait till we get there, understand? You can't take them on and defend the hostages on your own, you'll need help!"
She huffed. "Fine. I'll wait a few minutes. But if Ames gets hurt because you made me wait…" she let the words hang a moment. "I'll be overhead when you get here." She hung up.
He sighed and started stripping down. Vicky was a determined, headstrong person, and nothing he could say would keep her from doing what she thought needed to be done. He loved her for it, but sometimes it was so frustrating to deal with.
He hoped Amy was okay.
He started slipping into his undersuit. "I'm gonna have to put on my armor on the ride there," he remarked. "I bought us a few minutes, but we've got to get there fast. Amy's inside the bank."
"I'm guessing we shouldn't try the 'switch costumes' idea then?" Dennis remarked with a slight grin while he wriggled into his bodysuit.
Aegis was already strapping on armor bits, but chuckled. "No time, Clock," he said sardonically.
Dennis responded with a groan. "I thought we were past the time pun stage of our relationship, man. I'm at least up to clever wordplay by now."
Dean smiled a bit as he fit in his earpiece, glad to know that Dennis was trying to lighten his mood in his own way. It was hard on Dennis, being the comic relief, and Dean respected him for it.
"Comm check," Aegis said over the comms.
"Check," they each replied in turn.
"Check," came the voice of the PRT trooper on duty. "Your van should be pulling up. Good luck." Right on cue, the driver backed into the alleyway behind the school. They piled their bags and gear inside, climbed in, and raced off. Gallant got to affixing tinkertech armor to his suit, and Carlos started talking game plan.
"Way I see it, this is a great opportunity for a bit of leadership training. We aim to negotiate the hostages free, then bring in the people responsible. I would have liked to have Browbeat come along, get to learn the ropes, but the base thinks we have enough for the situation with us three and Vista.
"Gallant, you're the negotiator. Clock, you and I are enforcers, and Vista will control the environment. If we can get Glory Girl to listen..."
"I'm not sure," Gallant said, affixing a gauntlet. "Amy went to the bank just before the hostages were taken, and there's been no communication since, so she's worried. I'll see if I can get her to work with us, but I can't guarantee she'll listen."
"If we can, then she'll be good for keeping the hostages calm. If not, just see if you can keep her out of the fight unless something goes south?"
"Sure."
"Do we know the villains responsible?"
"Not really. Vicky mentioned a black mist leaking from the entrance, so it could be Grue and his team, but it's not really the Undersiders M.O. They normally do hit-and-run jobs. Could be wrong, though," he said with a shrug.
The van pulled to a stop. "I guess we'll find out," Aegis said.
Dennis threw open the doors. "Aw, come on," he complained as they filed out and moved the block or so towards the bank, "Of course it has to rain. It couldn't have held off for an hour?"
Gallant put a hand on Clockblocker's shoulder and affected a deep, wistful tone. "Ah, yes, if only we had a weather manipulator on our team. Then you'd never have to fight in the rain." He chuckled and fell in behind Aegis.
"At least you're all in bodysuits," Vista's voice came over the comms. "My skirt is getting soaked through. You know how hard it is to run with a wet skirt?"
"If I said yes…"
"Do not put that image in my head, Clockblocker," she said with false anger. "My poor innocent mind might be corrupted."
"Okay guys, cut the chatter," Aegis said as they arrived by Vista across the street from the bank, taking in the area. The three-story edifice stood over a wide intersection, the upper floors utterly devoid of movement, inky black fog seeping from the first floor's doors. The streets had been evacuated in a large radius around the bank, so the only sounds were the pattering of rain and the music playing faintly over the bank's speakers.
"Yep, that's definitely Grue's power, which means we're probably dealing with the Undersiders," Aegis commented. "I think we fan out in a semicircle, get Glory Girl to watch the back exit. Vista, make the escape routes as long as you can? The goal is to make it hard for anything to slip past."
"On it. Anything to stop listening to 'Ice Ice Baby' on repeat," she said, turning to change the streets behind them.
"I'll make the call to Vicky," Gallant said. He dialed her up in his HUD, turning down his comms mic and volume near the minimum. "Vicky, here's the plan. We're gonna surround the front of the building and try to negotiate things peacefully, but we could use someone watching the alleyways around the back in case anyone tries try to slip away. Stay high and try to stay unseen, got it?"
"I can work with that for now, Gallant, but I reserve the right to go in if I think Amy is in danger."
"Of course," he promised. Aegis said his name, and he ignored it. "But that shouldn't happen. I'll make sure she's safe. Just focus on the mission, we'll come through this okay."
"Thanks," she said, her voice muted.
He glanced up, trying to make out her emotions from afar, and failing as usual to make out anything but her sunny aura of awe. On his comms, Aegis said his name again. "I've got to go, I'm under a lot of pressure down here. Talk to you after." He ended the call. "Yeah?"
"Please save me from these two," Aegis said, a sizzling exasperation building around him.
"What? What did I miss?"
Vista spoke first. "Clockblocker's mad because I don't know who Queen is."
"I'm not mad, just frustrated that nobody else on this team respects the classics! They both thought this was 'Ice Ice Baby', for Pete's sake!"
Gallant listened. The bank's speakers were playing… "But that's Under Pressure? Isn't that one of their most famous songs?"
"See, he gets it!"
"Gallant, when I said help, I meant help me get them to focus," Aegis remarked.
"Look, Clock," Vista said, "I didn't say it wasn't catchy or anything, it's just that I've heard the song twice in a row now and it's getting stuck in my head."
"Guys," Gallant said, "focus up. We can talk music after we get these innocent people back on the streets. Fan out, like Aegis said." He took the lead, setting an example for the other two, taking the position directly opposite the bank doors. They walked to their positions confidently, the rain and music the only nearby sounds in the evacuated streets. Gallant stepped up.
The bank was a mess of emotions, muddled and faint through the infinitely black fog that seeped from the doors and flooded the windows. The predominant one was fear, like a thick, oppressive fog that blinded and sapped reason. It was broken up by rage, depression, and even joy and novelty, each emotion tinging and changing the fear in different ways. A complex situation, for sure.
He turned up his external speakers. "Attention Undersiders! We have the area surrounded. Release the hostages to us and we can end this peacefully!"
There was a small spike in the fear levels surrounding the bank, then nothing.
"Oh thank god, the song is ending," Vista said over the comms.
"Why are you two so caught up on the music?" Aegis asked. "It's just a song."
The doors flew open, darkness pouring out over the ground like a fog machine. Twenty figures emerged from the doorway in sync, running out in all directions. Hostages, by their emotions. "So the Undersiders are willing to negotiate," he said over the comms, sighing with relief.
Then the new song started up with a peppy piano, and things went very wrong.
The hostages froze in place and spun to face the bank. The darkness that had spilled from the door began to rapidly spread outward, filling the area with a fog that made seeing their footing impossible.
Three almost car-sized creatures emerged from the bank laden with bags, followed by five people. Grue, a tall, dark male; Hellhound, a thuggish girl in a dog mask; Regent, dressed as a white-shirted Shakespearean prince; and in the middle, two unexpected figures. One was a gracile woman with curly dark hair who was clad in navy and black, and the other a diminutive girl that Gallant immediately recognized as Amy Dallon. Their formerly newest member, Tattletale, was nowhere to be seen.
Maybe fifteen seconds had passed since the hostages began acting strangely, and Aegis finally caught his bearings. "Clockblocker, you and I focus the dogs. They're likely to try running. Gallant, see about those-"
The hostages began to sing.
"There's a road I'd like to tell you 'bout," they sang, beginning some kind of frantic, high-pace square dance, "lives in my home town!"
"...help them if you can," he said, shutting off his comms.
"Lake Shore Drive the road is called, and it'll take you up or down!"
Gallant walked forward. Or, well, he tried. Two steps into the darkness, he stepped on something soft and lost his balance, stumbling into yet another soft thing then falling into the fog. Just before he fell, he heard Vista scream: "Rats!"
Then he was in utter silence, thousands of furry bodies carrying him off to who knows where. "I need help!" he yelled, struggling to get above the knee-high realm of shadow and vermin, glad for his armor.
The only sounds that answered him as he slipped again were that of his own breathing, and metal armor skidding on pavement. Wait, no; there was one other sound.
Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town. Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble-bound…
Oh geez, it was in his head. He redoubled his struggles as he realized what had happened to the hostages. He had to get out of this darkness and warn them of the effect.
He threw a blast from each hand to clear an area, and it paid off when his gauntlet solidly planted on asphalt for the first time since he fell. As quickly as he could with his body getting more and more twitchy by the second, he threw more, cleared a space to plant his knee, and clambered to his feet.
Breaking through the darkness was like coming up from the bottom of a pool gasping for air. It was up to his stomach now, and he was completely disoriented for a moment by how far he'd been carried. He was near where Clockblocker had been standing, rotated around the circle about a hundred feet. He found himself humming the tune and stopped himself. With great care not to trip again as his body betrayed him, he turned to face the fight.
Vista was nowhere to be seen, and Clockblocker was pinned in place by frozen rats and bugs, unable to escape until all of them unfroze. Aegis was being tossed from the one-eyed monsters' mouth back into the fog, and it was clear he was suffering similarly to Gallant. The villainess in navy blue was dancing with an enraged Amy Dallon, and the other four villains- one more had appeared while he had been down, wearing a cast and lavender bodysuit- were mounting up.
They needed reinforcements. He used the HUD to call Vicky, lobbing a ball of crushing despair at Grue that went wide, getting a horrible arm cramp for his trouble. She hung up on him. A moment later, a white blur slammed into the pavement next to the dancing duo, radiating awe like the morning sunrise. The dancing hostages stumbled and slowed.
"Get your hands off my sister, you creep," Glory Girl said, cracking her knuckles, "or I'll break them off."
A/N: Settling into a bit of a schedule, which sums up to "Post something on Wednesday." If you missed it, last Wednesday brought the start of a new story, Acta Sanctorum, so go check that out.
Next time on Tarantism, a return to our main character's perspective!