Omniscience

Vigilante: Part Four

Yep. He didn't buy it.
"W-well, I'm n-not-" I start to stutter out. Time to lie my way out of this mess.
"Save it." The dragon-winged teacher says. "You can't convince me you're not one."
What am I supposed to say to that? What would a non-vigilante say?
Too late. He's gone.
I stand there for a couple of minutes before I realize I still need to find the man I was supposed to be following.
I head down a couple of streets, going straight forward until I find myself right in front of a fancy mall with TWIN PINES SHOPPING MALL emblazoned across the front.
As soon as I walk inside, I'm greeted by two things: a gust of air-conditioning and shouting.
"YOU!" The man I'd been following screamed. "YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING ME!"
A herd of shop assistants descended, crowding around him and trying to corral him away. But he wasn't having any of it.
"I'm telling you! That-" Maybe he had a voice activated power or whatever, but he was really irritating the other shoppers. One of the shop assistants sprayed a sort of gas on him. "WHAT WAS THAT."
"J-just a light sedative, sir." The shop assistant stammered.
"HOW DARE YOU. I WILL SUE YOUR-" Okay, that was enough.
"That's enough." I stepped between him and the poor shop assistant. "If you want to confront me, you can do it elsewhere. Not here, where you're disturbing the other shoppers."
He glared at me. He was a big man, with trunk-like arms and legs. It would be difficult to take him down if he attacked me here and now, since I had to be careful about property destruction and civilian casualties. And of course, I couldn't seem too good or it would be suspicious.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He whipped around, annoying mouth opening already.
"Excuse me." The dragon-winged teacher says frigidly. "It's already annoying enough to have to take my students shopping, of all things, but I will not tolerate so much noise. So shut up."
I stare at him in awe. The man was dumbstruck, mouth gaping.
The dragon-winged teacher steps over to me and grabs my jumpsuited arm. "Come."
Still shocked, I did.

"What were you thinking?" He snaps.
I snort."Sorry, but it's not my fault he had such a big, loud mouth. That's his fault."
He scowls at me. "I've had enough sass for one day. Who do you work for?"
"Huh?" I say, surprised by the sudden pivot in conversation.
"Who. Do. You. Work. For." He punctuates every word with a jab of a claw-like nail.
"How do you know that I work for somebody?" I ask.
He scowls harder. "I'm not stupid. You have a communicator, don't you?"
"Yes." I say.
"So answer my question." He says.
I huff. "I can't just tell you that! How can I trust you? You could just turn me and the others in as soon as I tell you."
"Others." He states. "There's more than two of you. Good grief."
Now I scowl. "Can you just leave me alone?"
"No." He says bluntly. "And you can trust me because I haven't turned you in yet."
"How do I know you're not trying to get all of us?" I shoot back. Ha. Counter that, Mister You Can Trust Me.
Instead, he turned and shouted, "Zane! Get over here!"
A pair of identical heads poked out from behind a wall. The two identical winged girls from before.
"Yes?" The pink one says. She sees me. "Oh, hi!"
"Pixie, you and Trixie find Zane." The teacher commanded.
Zane, however, appeared just then next to them. "You needed me?" He says warily.
The teacher pointed to me. "Make sure miss vigilante here doesn't get into too much trouble."
"Uh-" I started.
Zane cut me off. "What am I supposed to do? I mean, how?"
The teacher sighed. "You take a page out of her book and follow her, of course."
Wait. What?