Newter drops down from the ceiling and knocks out one of Skidmark's capes with his spit. Why do I keep forgetting about his hallucinogenic fluids? He manages to grab a vial before racing across the stage. Just as he reaches Skidmark, Skidmark raises his stupid cape, layering his power onto it.
Since Newter is already mid-jump when this happens, he can't stop. At least he remembers to spit on Squealer before hitting the cape, knocking him and Skidmark backwards from the impact.
I've managed to climb up onto one of the pillars Labyrinth is erecting, giving me ample line of sight. I'm just in time to see Skidmark and Newter bounce apart, with Skidmark layering his power onto Newter and the ground around him.
Now that simply will not do. So, I focus on Skidmark, my power racing over the crowd to grab hold of his passenger. I can almost see the ghostly hand shake the passenger a bit, as though wringing it's neck.
Immediately, the layers of directional panels disappear, allowing Newter to land, not so gracefully, on his ass. At least he wasn't lobbed in another direction. Naturally, Skidmark is more than a little confused and angered by his power shutting down like that.
He raises his arms again, but no panels appear this time. Even across the room, I can see Newter grin as he gets up and runs for the case. Another of the Merchant's capes kicks it aside as they run to intercept Newter...or help Skidmark. I couldn't be sure.
Either way, they're useless as Newter simply uses them as a baseboard to jump over the small group to the case. A flash of light to my left wrenches my attention away from the stage. I look over to see that the child, now called 'Scrub' is having another power burst.
I only realize my mistake a second too late as I look back at the platform in time to see Skidmark use his power to launch the case of vials and papers into the air. Everything within the case goes flying.
I can see a few of the papers 'float' down to where Skitter is but I let it go for now. Instead, I pull up my bandana and hood, teleporting mid air to grab the vials and papers that I can. Newter and Shamrock, our newest member, manage to grab the ones that I miss.
I glance up at my family's newest addition. Shamrock is a Case 53, like Newter and Gregor, but she looks completely normal and has all of her memories. She filled in a fair number of blanks in that story for us when she joined.
She's a probability manipulator. In layman's terms though...she's super lucky. She's nice and helpful and all...but she's kinda cocky so there's been a bit of tension between she and I. It's getting better though...I think.
But that's not what's important right now. What is important is shutting down 'Scrub' before he really hurts someone. Not that he hasn't already...but the less damage he does the better. So, I call Spitfire on my cell phone.
"Sup?" "You're with Labyrinth right?" I voice my guess since we never leave her alone when using her powers. "Yup." "Good. I need a good line of sight on that kid unleashing the white lights. Can I get a hand?" She chuckles a bit "Comin' right up." I am so glad she didn't use a nickname.
I don't usually mind them but they get on my nerves sometimes. Especially in high adrenaline situations like this one. Just then, the floor beneath me shoots up towards the ceiling, stopping a good 3 stories up.
I put the phone up to my ear "Tell Labyrinth I said thanks." "Sure thing gra-" "Not one more word out of you young lady." I chide, not letting her finish. I can hear the start of a whine, something along the lines of 'you're no fun' but I hang up before she finishes.
I look down to see that Labyrinth has constructed her own maze within the shopping center. It is truly a work of art honestly. Regardless I look for Scrub among the many walls that litter the ground floor.
I finally spot him when his power goes off again. I can't tell if it's intentional or not. Regardless, now that I've found him, I shut him down. Once the kid realizes that his power has stopped working, he backs away from whoever he's fighting.
Now that he's alone, I teleport behind him, withdrawing the taser that Faultline had lent me for this party. With it, I easily knock him out. As much as I'd love to sit him down and help him work through the emotional problems that come with a trigger event, now is not the time or place to do so.
Once we've taken out all of the Merchants, I meet up with the team on the stage. We look through the pages that we collected to find several missing. That's right. Skitter took those. I look at Faultline "I saw where they floated off to, I'll get 'em."
She nods and I teleport away. I use a few teleports to get me outside and away from the few individuals who are still fleeing the scene. Once alone, I pull down my bandana and hood, unzipping my jacket to look smaller and less like I'm armed.
Once I am certain that my gun and taser are hidden from sight, I look around for Tattletale and Skitter. I eventually spot them in an alley nearby and I approach. I can see that they have 4 men guarding them. Probably mercenaries.
Good thing I'm not approaching as Anubis. I run over as I call out "Lisa?! Taylor?!" When they turn to face me, I sigh in legit relief when I see that they are not seriously injured. Lisa yells in 'surprise' "Gideon?! What are you doing here?!"
I push past the soldiers to stand in front of not two, but three-no, four teenagers. There's a boy is unconscious and seems to be missing part of his hand. Taylor has a gash in her arm and Lisa looks like she took a really hard hit to the head. The third girl looks to be fine though I can't speak for her emotional state.
I shake off Lisa's question in favor of my own "ME?! I should be asking You that question! This is No place for children!" I see Lisa give some kind of hand signal to the soldiers but I don't know what it means.
Lisa almost rolls her eyes at me but she covers it well. The girl I don't know looks between Taylor, Lisa, and me. "Who is this guy? How do you know him?" Lisa replies calmly "We met him at an animal shelter a few weeks ago."
Lisa looks at me, pointing at the unconscious boy "We came to get him. His sister is a friend but she was too scared to come get him herself so we offered to instead." I'm pretty sure she's lying...though what about is unclear.
Regardless, I have a job to do. I glance down to see the pages Lisa and Taylor are holding. "What's that?" Lisa pauses for a moment before answering "Some of the pages from the case Skidmark had flew out. We caught them."
I look down to see one of the pages mentions Cauldron. Yup. Those are probably the missing pages. I look at Lisa and we stare at each other for a fraction of a second. In that time, I shut off her power and release my hold on it. A silent reminder of how I could be doing this.
She chews her bottom lip before seemingly getting an idea. "Oh right! You work with the PRT! You can get these to the authorities!" She collects the pages from Taylor and hands them to me. "If you guys need any help in research, would you give me a holler? I'm pretty good at it."
I glance at her and give her a slight nod "I'll have to ask my boss so I can't make any promises, but I will put in a good word." She gives a fake sweet smile "Thanks Gideon." I nod and look at the third girl.
"Are you okay?" I can see her look between Taylor and Lisa. Does she know who they are? If so, then she really shouldn't be giving me that 'please get me away from them' look. My situation is not much better than theirs...but Lisa just told her I work for the PRT so I can't blame her.
Taylor speaks up "We're heading to the hospital now. Just waiting on a ride." I nod and turn to leave. The soldiers are giving me stink eyes. I guess they didn't appreciate me pushing past them earlier.
I give them a knowing, cocky smirk as I walk past them "Gentlemen." I keep walking until I'm a few blocks away. Then, I turn down an alley and teleport to the roof. No sooner have I arrived than I hear a voice from behind, scaring the shit out of me.
"Told ya he'd be here." I whirl around, gun in hand and safety off...only to find that it's Shamrock. She grins at me and I know that my gun would've jammed anyway. Because it's Shamrock. I sigh heavily as I put my gun away.
She chuckles "You sure took your time getting here. What's the matter? Getting slow?" I can feel a breeze coming as I glare at her. I grin and shut off her power. Immediately, her grin falls into a cross between a pout and a frown, just in time for the wind to blow her hair into her face.
I hear a muffled "I hate you." just as Faultline appears in my peripheral. Without taking my eyes off Shamrock, I hold out the papers to Faultline. "Tattletale says we can contact her if we need any holes filled."
I don't have to see Faultline's face to know she's disgusted by the idea. Newter chuckles somewhere to my right but I keep my gaze on Shamrock. The breeze had died down and she'd pushed her hair out of her face...just in time for another gust, messing it up even more.
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