"I can't believe how much work this has been..." I grumbled, hanging up my phone
"Well... we did ask not to have church oversight on this project." Drizti pointed out "That means we have to take care of everything."
"Still..." I sighed, sitting in one of the cafe chairs "I didn't expect to be running around like this. It's still a week away, and I'm calling advertisers, caterers, all these stupid people Debbie should have to be dealing with."
Drizti patted my leg "Aw, we all have jobs to do to get ready for the party, I have to decorate, that's not easy either! We're all pitching in, it's ok!"
"Alele's idea of pitching in is just 'call an ex and get him to DJ', though..." I said, rolling my eyes
"Psh, did you really expect her to do much though?" Drizti giggled "She's like a princess, she prances around and acts haughty so people assume she's above the work they wanted her to do."
Her smile slipped "Oh, hm, that was kind of mean... I like Alele, I think she's sharp and on top of things, I... don't know why I said that."
I shook my head "It's just a joke, Driz, you're ok. I like her too, but I can still complain about her."
"Complain about who?" a voice from behind us asked.
I turned and saw Alele looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I kept my face neutral and shrugged "Eh, you don't know her."
Alele snorted. "Yeah, ok. We gotta get going, our you-know-whats are done and I'd like to get them back here so we can try them on and get used to them before our first secret patrol tonight."
"May I come along?" Drizti asked "I can't decorate much more until the day of, and like...there's only so many times I can re-check that I have enough balloons."
"I don't think it's that kind of party..." I said "It's supposed to be like, a club, but teen friendly."
"As someone who's been to her fair share of raves, no, yeah. Balloons are always a party enhancer." Alele said "Have as many as you want Drizti."
Driz grinned "Oh, I plan to! I love balloons, they're so fun and happy, bouncing around, floating around, it'll be great! But, um, can I come?"
I frowned "Well, if you and Alele were both there at the shop, it might link us to LA a bit more, so it's a risk... but... ok, whatever."
"Yay! Let's head out!" she said, clapping
"Not yet..." Alele said knowingly
"I gotta get something for the road." I said "I'll be right back."
"There it is." she nodded
I shook my head, it wasn't my fault. I was just doing what I needed to do to keep my power in check. I had a couple cakes upstairs, but I didn't want to go all the way there to get them, so I walked up to the cafe and opened my mouth to order.
"Let me guess, one of everything, and a large mango smoothie with cherry syrup?" the guy behind the counter asked, raising an eyebrow
"Uh, yeah, actually." I said, surprised
"You order the same thing almost every time these days." He said, scooping up the foods into paper bags "You're the only reason the jelly suckers haven't gone bad. No one else but Lucy eats them."
"Hey, that's Angel Sable!" I corrected him, mildly embarrassed
He handed me the sack and turned to the slushie machine "I know, I know, I'll use your LA names when there's customers, but like, we're co-workers, right? It's not a big deal."
I held in a frown, I didn't want to think of him as a co-worker, he was just the guy behind the counter, but... he wasn't wrong. Just because he didn't have powers didn't mean we both didn't answer to Lorgiaia, Oori, and Debbie. I wondered if he was loyal to Lorgiaia, a real worshiper or just a hired guy. For that matter, I wondered if I was even loyal, or just wanted what she could give me. I didn't even know what she wanted from me, what she was like, her goals. It... didn't matter though, I'd do what I wanted, right? If she didn't like it, she could let me know, screw her. I pushed her out of my thoughts and mind to clear my head and re-assessed the young man in front of me.
I looked him up and down. He has his ribbon looped through a gauge in one ear and threaded back around to the other ear behind his head, and he was in the cafe uniform, black pants, a yellow polo with our silhouettes on the left breast, and a ball cap with the LA logo on it. He was some kind of elf-orc mix, with the long elven ears, but a nose that was broad at the base and didn't go out as far as an elven one. His shaggy brown hair hid his eyes, but greenish-tan skin let me know they were most likely green as well. 'Green' was a dominant trait in orcs, even mixed ones. His name tag read "Arnie", and I almost laughed at the contrast of his appearance and his name.
"...Are you good?" he asked, handing me my treats "You're staring at me like I popped out of thin air..."
"No... Oh, uh, I mean yeah, I'm good." I said, looking at the bag of processed sugar and wondering how the hell I was going to eat it all "...I was just wondering, how long have you worked here?"
He frowned "...Since the opening? I gave you your drink, first one I served."
I blinked. It had been him, hadn't it? I felt a little funny inside, I hadn't even registered him at the time, he was just a tool to give me my treat. That's all he was now, too, wasn't it? But now he had a name and a whole persona and- well, no, he'd always had those things, he just didn't matter until now. I took my stuff slowly, studying him. Why did he matter now? What about him made him finally stand out after all the times I'd seen him? Why was my brain finally becoming aware of him?
"You're creeping me out..." he said, looking down at himself "Why are you just staring at me?"
"You're a real person..." I said automatically
"Uh, yeah? We all are? That's how people work?" he said sarcastically
I looked around at the rest of the room and saw the receptionist that I always ignored, a man in a suit walking into Oori and Debbie's offices, a lady with a towel wiping the windows, and I was hit with a wave of... something.
I turned back to Arnie and shook my head "...Sorry, I'm- I'm dealing with something, I just saw everyone differently, all at once. Thank you for the snacks, Arnie, I'll see you later, ok?"
His eyes widened and he nodded as I turned around and made my way over to the girls. I sipped the slushie and hummed in pleasure as the thick, overly sweet syrup mixed with the ice chunks in my mouth. I really liked these... It was a long walk to the store, should I get another one? I took another sip and glanced at the bag of sweets, maybe I needed more snacks, too...
"You ready now?" Alele asked
I glanced back at the counter, at... Arnie, and blinked, losing my train of thought. "Uh, yeah, I'm good, I'm ready to go."
"Alright!" Drizti said, grinning "Let's go, then!"
As we walked out of the headquarters, I lowered my drink and frowned, trying to focus on what I was thinking about before; the people, the real people, aside from them as just individual bodies for me to save or impress. I thought about them in the context of themselves instead of their relationship to Lorgiaia, and I was hit with another wave of that strange feeling.
There were so many people around... They were walking along the sidewalks, in and out of buildings, on the giant screens that were on almost every building, on the posters covering every square inch of wall the city had to offer, all of them were real in one way or another, they all had their own religions, their own families, their own lives, and I'd been ignoring them like they were ants, I hadn't even registered they were there unless I knew them.
I looked up at the closest screen, Lady Cleaver was on it, bragging about her newest line of kitchen knives and trying to get people to come to her church tonight for a free demonstration. Another had Choco Man, shooting his blasts at a man made of french toast, and still another had Chap, floating over a monument with his musket pointed down and held in his hands like a cane, giving a speech about accountability. There was so much noise, the chattering was so loud, there was- there was too many people, too much going on, was it always like this? Why was it all bothering me so much now?
I hugged myself and looked at the people around me, a couple looked at me, and their eyes shone with intelligence, they weren't background noise, they weren't just figures that moved around us as we walked, they were- they- I couldn't- I ran to the nearest alley and threw up, the taste of the cake I'd had for breakfast making me sicker as it came back up. I was shaking, I couldn't think straight, I was surrounded by people, all of them, some staring, some pretending not to see. I felt an arm, and I shook hard and gasped. I spun and Alele's face was inches from mine, worried and pained. I leaned away, we couldn't be this close, I shouldn't- I felt the swelling feeling of my power, but I wasn't touching her, was I? I wasn't touching anything. I pushed it back down and turned away from her, spitting out the last remains of the ick in my mouth. I took a deep breath, and realized she was saying something, buried under the noise from the screens and the other people. I focused on her and tried to listen to her words.
"...opped your snacks, you're acting weird, it's scary, are you ok?"
It took a minute to realize she was asking me, and I nodded and took a breath.
"Everyone is people..." I said, my voice shaking "They're all real actual people, everywhere, all of them..."
She frowned, and looked around at the streets and slowly nodded "...Yeah, that's- yeah, they are. Are you just now realizing that?"
Was I? I felt like I'd know it before, like it was common knowledge or something, but it felt like a revelation. I felt my power creeping back into the edges of my mind and shoved it down again, why was it doing that? What was it trying to do? I coughed and stood up. When had I fallen over? I shook my head and the world spun and re-focused. I was ok, I was doing alright, I was Candy Clenson, the Angel Rouge. I could get over my little issues.
"I'm sorry, I just- something weird happened, my power is trying to do something, and I can't stop thinking about how everyone around me is a living person, and-"
Alele's eyes grew wide "Oh, fuck, is your power pushing you to use it?" she asked, horrified "We're in public, you can't- Drizti, bring the bag here!"
Drizti came up, looking scared, holding the bag out to me "I'm sorry, the cupcake rolled out and got stepped on, but the rest is ok..."
I looked at the bag, the sack of sugar and wrinkled my nose
"Why are you giving me this?"
"You need to get sweets into you, feed your power before you use it on someone, please." Alele said pulling the green pastry roll out of the bag and pushing it in my hands
I looked at it. I didn't want it, I wasn't hungry, despite losing my breakfast just minutes before. It didn't look appealing, but if it could help... I took a bite, and I felt a cooling sensation of my power washing over me like a cool blanket on a hot night and the tension and stress melted out of me all at once. I swallowed the bite and took another, suddenly hungry, suddenly desperate for something sweet inside me. The noise faded, the people became more manageable to think about. Easier to let them live their lives and me live mine, no need to think about it. My power must have been trying to get me to see them as people because... it wanted me to see them as viable victims, maybe? Either way, I was feeling much better.
"Are you ok, Candy?" Drizti asked, her voice small
I looked at her for a moment, thinking about her as I ate the pastry based on her, before remembering to respond.
"Mm, yeah, I'm fine, just my power acting up, I'm back to myself again. It was... I think making me see people as targets or something, but I'm ok now."
Alele winced "...We need to make sure you've got a treat in your hands at all times from now on..."
I nodded. It felt better with treats; living, being a hero, breathing, everything was better with a treat. I wasn't going to argue with her about that. I pulled the Galorna-shaped cookie out of the bag and bit off one of her horns. I'd just have to keep my guard up whenever I started seeing anyone as a person, make sure my power wasn't sneaking in...
~~~
I stared at the inside of the helmet and fought off a groan. The amount of tech crammed into it was overwhelming; the overlay that let me change the expression that was showing, the switch to change between my coms with Alele and the external speaker, the voice changer, the slide to open the bottom up so I could eat, it was too much to keep track of... And to top it off, I had to use my eye movements and facial expressions to activate it all... I'd never remember how to do all this...
"You guys look so cool..." Drizti said, leaving on the edge of my couch "I'm so, so jealous..."
"Sorry, short stuff..." Alele said "Your power is super distinct, and we can't have too many people on this mission or they'd realize we're secretly LA. I'd love to have you otherwise, though."
"Yeah, healers are always great to have." I agreed, accidentally making my helmet show a frowning smily face "This is going to be dangerous after all, I wish we could bring you..."
"So... why are you doing this again?" Driz asked "I know it's something about your family, but I was confused at the meeting..."
"The city's most powerful inhuman made vague threats against my family if I didn't go out and fight her competition." I lied. I didn't want anyone knowing I was working my way up to helping her kill herself, I didn't even like thinking about that part myself...
"Well... Is she getting anything from it except the overall crime rates going down?" Drizti asked
"I don't think so..." I said "It's just us going out and fighting crime, really."
"That's not too bad then... Aren't you worried you'll fight the crime she's doing though?" she asked, tilting her head "How do you know what crime to fight?"
"Kill em all and let Samsara sort em out." Alele said "We're not being picky, if she loses some guys, so be it."
"Oh, gosh, don't kill anyone..." Drizti said, alarmed "Please promise you won't kill anyone, please?"
"I'm not planning on it." Alele said "It's just a thing people say, it's fine."
"Well I haven't heard it before, and I think it's a bad thing to say." Drizti said, frowning
"We're just gonna go around and try and find some people to beat up, it's no different than our regular patrols." I pointed out, poking a chocolate covered pretzel through my treat hole to test it
"I- That's a terrible way to describe our regular patrols..." she sighed "Anyway, do you really think you'll find something?"
"I mean, there's an average of thirty chosen fights a day in the city overall, and there's about three hundred and seventy five chosen or chosen teams who aren't fallen in the city right now, give or take a dozen..." Alele said "That means we can expect to see a fight every two weeks-ish, on average."
"That's not a lot..." Drizti said "But I guess it lines up? We've been doing patrols for... umm, I think almost a month? And we fought Homicide, and you guys fought the guy with the big gun, and then Lucy and Candy explored the tunnels and fought the little baby thing, and then last week we fought the big bugs and that old guy, Doctor something..."
"Wait, even if you go all the way back to Homicide, that's like, one a week, right?" I pointed out "We're seeing way more than usual, twice the normal amount."
"Nope!" Alele said smugly "Fighting Homicide and exploring the tunnels were off the books, officially. We've had two official fights in a month, and that's about right!"
I shook my head "But we've really had more, right?"
Alele shrugged "You really think heroes report every fight? I'd say we're about on the money."
"Hopefully you find crime soon, it'd suck to have to wait weeks just to try out your new costumes..." Drizti said
"We're cheating." I said, my helmet making my voice sound deeper and echo-y. I needed to figure out how I did that... "We're moving around more, trying to patrol more areas than just one section, so we have a higher chance of finding crime."
"I heard we're going to get more sections here soon too!" Alele said "We're getting well known, so we might expand to a three by three grid instead of a single section."
"Oh, hm..." I said, frowning "We're already each going on patrols almost every day, that's going to hurt our schedule..."
"Most heroes don't patrol constantly, Candy." Alele said "Once we're well known in the area, we can just do it at random, and people will never know when it's safe to do crime."
"Like a panopticon!" Drizti said, nodding "That's a good idea!"
"I don't know what that is." I said confidently "But I do like the idea of fewer patrols!"
"Well, we won't be seeing any fewer patrols. We still have to do double the work as Comfit and Trigger Warning." Alele sighed
"...Mmm..." I said, frowning "Anyway, let's head out, I want to get to our first area by nightfall."
"Where are you starting?" Drizti asked
"Section 80." I said, transforming into my magical girl form "It's got high crime rates, it's a run down warehouse district."
"There sure are a lot of run down places around here..." Drizti said "I don't feel like we're in a recession, but there's so many parts of the city that are just, like, crummy... Our section for instance."
"This city was built in the seventeen hundreds." I said. I grabbed a cake pop from a pack on the table for the flight "It was constantly expanding until the population crash after the Great War about a hundred years ago. They tried to re-build and bring refugees in from the folds, but... the population of the planet keeps dropping, so there's just more and more empty buildings. We're kinda spread out these days."
"Oh..." Drizti said sadly "We weren't allowed to learn about the war in my cult. They said it could lead to unfaithfulness, and would make us fall away from the earth."
"Considering the amounts of sheer power and destruction the gods showed off during that time, I don't blame them." Alele said "Seeing pictures of Crest City after Ejerlar got done with it is enough to make anyone want to worship a god, just for protection against other gods."
"Did... Lorgiaia fight in the war?" Drizti asked
"She had a few champions, yeah." I said "I looked them up to see what I could expect to get before I found my power. Most were standard healers, it was back when unique powers weren't as important."
"Lorgiaia didn't personally fight though, I think." Alele agreed "She tries to come across as more as ethereal instead of a warrior."
"I need to actually look up history I guess." Drizti sighed "I don't know anything, I feel. We just learned stories about old times, when fairies and beastmen were still around."
"That's how cults work, babygirl." I muttered "They keep the information from you that'd lead to you questioning them."
She rolled her eyes at me "Yeah, no shit, Candy. I'm just not sure what I don't know, is the problem."
"You should... Watch TV." Alele said "Cozy up here and watch stuff on Candy's TV, so you can open the window for us when we get back. TV will tell you lots of stuff."
I opened the window in question and stepped out, my wings catching me in the air as Alele transformed and followed
"Help yourself to... anything that's not sweet." I said to Drizti "And stay out of the little locked fridge, of course."
She blanched and nodded "Yeah, obviously. Have a good trip!"
I waved goodbye, and me and Alele took off into the sky.
~~~
"Two lone warriors on a moonlit night... Walking the streets together in search of violence... Or is it violence they seek? Could it be more? Another passion, one more... intimate?" Trigger Warning said, her voice echoing and gloomy with the voice mod she'd picked
"How can we be lone warriors and still be together?" I asked "I think your narration needs work."
"So you don't deny we're looking for something more?" Trigger Warning teased, her gloved hand running across my back
I tensed up, but didn't say anything. There were three layers of fabric between us, we were safe. I could hug her if I wanted to and it'd be safe... I almost wanted to, just because I wanted to feel someone warm pressing into me again. I'd gotten some human contact when I lay next to Sara as she healed, which was nice, but I still craved it. I couldn't tell if that was just my human brain wanting to touch people, or my power wanting to fold people though... I cracked my neck and wiggled out my limbs. We were supposed to be on a patrol, I needed to get into character...
"Oh, I'm not saying thaaaat!~" I said, my modded voice higher and more bubbly than my real one "I'm just saying, you gotta think it through!"
"That's all I do, sweet stuff." Trigger warning said, shaking her head "I'm always thinking, it's what I do."
The area we were wandering wasn't anything special, it was mostly just rusty buildings. We were getting close to the ocean, close enough to taste the salt in the air, but the buildings still blocked it from our sight. We'd had a small pirate problem a few years back, but that was when Anchor Drop was still on earth, and he'd made the trip all the way from the eastern salt plains just to help drive them off. Still, they weren't fully gone, they just operated more as gangs instead of raiders.
Those gangs were who we were here to fight, hopefully.
There weren't many people around tonight, we'd only seen a couple. One was a homeless woman who we'd tried to direct to housing, but she'd refused, and another was a man with long crablike arms; an abomination using the cover of darkness to get shopping done, most likely. We'd left him alone, but watched closely as he drug himself towards the cluster of all night shops in the center of the warehouses. It was a quiet night, and one that I'd have loved to go flying in, the breeze, the moon, the temperature, it was all lovely... But no, I was grounded, on the pavement, like a common unchosen, just because my wings were too beautiful for people not to recognize.
"Hark, fair one, there's a figure against the moonlight!" Trigger Warning pointed
"That's too much, dial it back." I muttered, switching to private coms
"Whatever, I'm still figuring out my character." Alele said, annoyed
The figure approached, it was a man, a strong looking dwarf in his late thirties by the looks of him, holding a large axe with rubber wrapped around the blade. He was wearing fur pants, no shirt, and his skin was covered in blue dwarven runes. His beard was orange, but he'd streaked black through it before braiding it, and his wild mane of hair was dyed the same way. He walked up to us slowly, his big work boots clomping on the ground as he moved.
"U-uh, are... are you guys chosen?" he asked, his voice wavering
"Hiya!" I said through my speaker "We're chosen alright! My name is Comfit, nice to meecha!"
"My name's Trigger Warning, I'm the brains and brawn. Comfit here is the pretty face." Trigger Warning said, her smooth voice sounding almost spooky in the night air "Who are you, my good sir?"
"Sorry, I'm uh, I'm Kurk. Or I guess you're supposed to call me Axhead, but... everyone just calls me Kurk..." He rested the ax on the ground "Um, so are you two..? Um, this is my section, I wasn't- the GGDS didn't tell me I'd be splitting the area with someone, I-I'm sorry, am I stepping on your patrol?"
"Ah, we two souls are adrift in the night, not bound by one section or another, but rather, traveling in search of any who may need our help, wherever they may be." Trigger Warning said smoothly
"O-oh, um... W-well..." Kurk looked nervous and twisted his ax handle in his hands "It's just that- well, I'm supposed to be the one- uh, keeping an eye on things here?... I, uh, wouldn't want to lose my shot at being, uh, you know... recognized..."
"Well why doncha just hang out with us?" I said, popping my hip and tilting my head "I'd looove to get to know ya!~"
"Uh, is- is that allowed?" he asked, looking back and forth between us "I don't know..."
"I think it sounds like a lovely plan." Trigger Warning crooned "I'd like to get to know you as well! This is our first patrol, you see, and we'd love to have a few more chosen friends to rely on, given our nomadic style."
"Oh... Yeah, I guess so... Uh, b-but if we fight someone, we- we tell the GGDS that you guys helped me, not the other way around, ok?" Kurk said, with a little confidence in his voice
"Perfect, you take the lead!" I said, giving a thumbs up
"Ok, yeah..." he said "So... what are your powers? Mine is... not great. I can just hit stuff with my ax and stuff happens."
"Stuff?" Trigger Warning asked "what kinds of stuff?"
"I don't know, that's the problem..." he said, hanging his head "Sometimes it's a shockwave, sometimes it's a freezing effect, once it made a guy float, it's just useless, I can't plan for anything..."
"That sounds super whacky!" I said, shaking my head "I'm easy, I'm fast, strong, and powered by candy!"
"...Candy?" he asked
I patted my pouch of gummy worms "Yup! One bite of these sweets and I'm as strong as a bull!"
"See, I could use that..." Kurk said "Instead, I got... well..."
"I'm a combat pre-cog." Trigger warning said "I see attacks coming before they hit, and react."
"That's pretty good too, damn." Kurk sighed "W-well, if it comes down to it, and I'm useless, I guess you can take the credit for anything... It sounds like I'm pretty outclassed..."
"Nah, you're just finding your swing, you'll do great!" I said encouragingly. His power was shit though, random effects were always so hard to predict, and usually made it harder for everyone around you to fight too. Still, we weren't supposed to be here, so we'd have to put up with it for now.
"Have you found anything interesting?" Trigger Warning asked "Anything we need to look out for?"
"W-well, Miss Missile has been hanging around a lot recently..." he said "And she blew up a building yesterday, but she hasn't been around here today for some reason."
"Miss Missile?" I asked "I thought the Queens had a dedicated section block, why is she all the way out here?"
"Some kind of raid, I don't know..." he muttered "No one tells me anything... I just- I just want to help, but she told me to leave when I tried to see what she was doing..."
"I see..." I said, thinking "Well, maybe she'll come back and let you know what's going on!"
"I did get a notice from the GGDS this morning to be on the lookout for a doll, I... I don't know why I'm looking for a doll though?" he said "I guess it's evidence or something."
"I'm not really interested in looking for dolls." Trigger Warning said "I mostly just want to fight crime and save the day."
"Yeah..." Kurk sighed "That's what we all want, isn't it?"
"I wanna be famous!" I said, posing dramatically "I'll be as popular as Spacegirl or Chap when I'm done making a name for myself!"
"Well, yeah." Kurk said "Obviously we all want to be famous... I need merchandising money so I can move out of my mom's house."
"You live with your mom?" Trigger warning asked, a slight laugh in her voice
"...Yeah. Whatever, I'll move out soon, I just need to save the day a little..." he grumbled, his face flushing
We walked in silence for a while, weaving in and out of buildings, peeking in windows, listening for suspicious noises, but overall the night was pretty quiet, and the only thing we saw were rats and one raccoon that ran away before I could try and give it candy. It was getting pretty late- or rather, early, when Kurk finally called it a night, slinging his ax over his shoulder and shuffling off into the darkness. I yawned, I was getting tired too, but we still hadn't done anything to get our names out there... I'd checked Kurk's social media page, and while he had one, it was poorly run, and had barely four hundred followers, nothing I wanted to tie myself to so early in my new career. I posted a few selfies with different digital expressions to my and Trigger Warning's account, and leaned up against the closest building to rest as a light rain started.
"Well, tonight has been a bust..." Trigger Warning said, leaning against a light pole across from me "I was at least hoping to get some civilian eyes on us or something."
"Aw, we'll find some crime soon enough!" I said "It's not like we expected to find bad guys to fight on the first day..."
"Yeah, I know, I just wanted to- Ah, shit... too late..." Trigger Warning said, her voice and inflection changing mid-sentence
I frowned, too late? Had she tried to rewind time? What had happened? I saw her brace herself, and I felt a cold, stiff wire snap against my neck, pinning me against the building I was leaning against. I gasped and choked for air, stamping my foot, trying to breathe. Trigger Warning reached out, prying at the wire, but other wires slipped out of the rust holes in the building and grabbed her fingers, but the one around my neck loosened enough for me to gasp for air. A soft piece of fabric pressed against my neck from one of the holes, and a a cutesy voice growled at me from behind the metal.
"Answer my questions and I won't choke you to death, got it?"
I nodded and sucked in more air. If I could get to my gummies without this person knowing, I'd be able to rip apart the wall and get to them, but...
"Ok..." They said. She? The voice sounded childish, but feminine "Are you with Miss Missile or Queen Vile?"
I shook my head quickly. "N-no! Neither!"
"We're independent, we work for ourselves..." Trigger Warning said carefully "We don't report to anyone."
"Ok, ok..." the voice said "Do you know where their headquarters is?"
"The Queens?" I asked "Y-yeah, everyone does, it's the tallest tower in the city, right on the main square!"
"How do I get in?" the voice hissed, the wire tightening around my neck again
"I- I don't know!" I croaked "The front door?"
"We've never been over there!" Trigger Warning said "This is our first night out!"
The figure on the other side of the wall sighed and grumbled "Of all the people to grab, they had to be... Ok, one more question. What do you know about magic, and soul jars?"
I frowned "Uh, n-not much?" I mumbled "You use energy in your body to cast spells, you can break your soul to make more energy, and soul jars are bottles with lots of that energy.. I don't know, I missed most of high school, fuck..."
I had dropped the character of Comfit, I was feeling woozy, and I couldn't think straight, why the fuck were they asking me about stupid fucking high school health science bullshit?
"Let us go, we're just going to go back home, ok?" Trigger Warning said "We don't want any trouble, we just want to leave, ok?"
There was no response, but after a moment, the wires slid out from around my neck and Trigger Warning's hands, and there was a scuttling noise like a giant spider walking on a tin roof. I thought of the centipede baby and shuddered, rubbing my throat with one hand.
"What was that?" I asked Alele "You couldn't tell me to step away from the wall or something?"
"I tried!" Trigger Warning protested "The wire took more than three seconds to grab you, and I didn't see it under your helmet..."
I cleared my throat "...Fuck... That was... Fuck..."
"Yeah..." She agreed with me "They didn't even ask anything important, just common knowledge stuff, think they were just messing with us?"
"My throat doesn't feel like they were just messing with us." I griped, the bitterness in my voice hidden by the chipper voice mod
"...I think we need to leave, either way." Trigger Warning said "Let's get out of the area and transform. I don't think I'll be coming back here again..."
"Yeah, ok..." I said, standing upright "That's fine. I just... Fuck, that was so fucking weird..."
We made our way to a small alley on the outskirts of Section 80 and pulled out our wings. As I flew, I looked back at the buildings we were flying away from and felt a chill go down my spine. On the roof of one of them was something- something wrong on it. It looked like a spider crab with legs that were far too thin, except in the center where the crab's body should be. In the center, suspended over the roof, was a small humanoid figure, feminine and still, the strange legs branching out of her body like a nervous system. She seemed to be watching us as we flew, and I hugged myself tightly. I was never going back to this section again, as long as I lived...
~~~
Later that night, as I lay on my sofa, Drizti curled up on the other side, I listened to the rain hitting the window and shivered. I'd had a weird day, I was glad Driz was willing to stay the night. After my.... panic attack? Power attack? And then being attacked by that spider thing, I was feeling fragile and shaky. I really needed to get a grip on myself, maybe after the party next week I'd look into getting help from the people Miss Missile told me about. If they could help me... I might be able to feel normal again, maybe I could eat regular food, even...
I heard a clatter and I looked up to see a shape crawl across the window, pausing for a second, just long enough for me to see a small figure in a dress framed against the window in a flash of lightning, jet black eyes staring at me, a half dozen long thin 'legs' reaching out to the sides, holding it against the building. Was that the thing from Section 80? Had it followed me all the way here? I felt my heart clench, and I got up, rushing to check that the window was locked, and pulled the curtain closed. Whatever it was, I could only hope it would be gone by morning...