Long Awaited 12-04 (Heretical Edge 2)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Right, so there was a lot for everyone to talk about. Sariel especially was clearly reeling from the sudden knowledge that not only did she have two more children out there waiting for her, but those two were only alive and well because of Puriel of all people. Puriel, the man who had torn their family apart to begin with, had saved Sariel’s daughter, who had SPS. Even more than that, he’d saved her by allowing the girl to possess him just to get her away from his own wife. Seriously, how was Sariel supposed to process even that by itself, let alone the added fact that they had saved her son too? She had two more children who were alive and well thanks to Puriel. It was a lot to process.

Yeah, their whole family was going to have to talk about that for awhile. But at the moment, all we had time for was a quick update about what we’d found out, for the benefit of Mom and Dare. We let them know that Grandmaria and Grandpartie were actually okay after all. They weren’t being held prisoner, and in fact knew basically everything by now. Well, everything Puriel had known. 

By the time we got the basic story out, Mom was staring between Dad and me, mouth opening and shutting a few times before she managed to speak. “You’re saying that Maria and Arthur are helping Zeus, who is now a good guy because of severe mental trauma, restore the Olympus so they can come home. And the person mostly responsible for this restoration is another of Sariel’s daughters, who is also the same person who designed that prototype instant-jump ship.” 

Pausing to consider that briefly, I then gave a thumbs up. “Yup, that basically sums it up. I mean, there’s probably more, but yeah. Aren’t you glad you’re here for the insanity now?” 

Mom, of course, smiled before pulling me into an embrace. Her grip around me was tight as she murmured a quiet, “Yes, I’m very glad. Even if you do manage to find your way into quite the ridiculous situations.” With that, she teased my hair and turned to face the others while sliding her hand down to rub my back. “So, nothing we can do about all that right now, I take it?” 

Sariel, who had summoned her two older children in that time, shook her head. The woman was standing with one hand on Tabbris’s shoulder and the other on Tristan’s, while Vanessa hovered (not literally) nearby. “Nothing right now, no. As much as I want to… talk to my other children there, I don’t want to push things too hard and end up with several of us transporting all the way over there. It… it wouldn’t be a good idea.” From the way she hesitated at that part, I was pretty sure she had been seriously considering whether it would be possible or prudent for just her to transport over there so she could be with those two kids. But, of course, that would mean leaving the rest of her family here. Not exactly an easy question, either way. 

Dad seemed to sense the same thing, speaking up immediately. “We’ll go back and see them again, soon. Just let everyone rest a bit. Like we told them, we’ll check in and see how they’re doing. Mom and Dad are–I like knowing they’re okay, but I’m not leaving it at that. If they run into any roadblocks with this whole ship rebuilding thing, maybe we can help. Whatever it takes. The point is, I’m going to check in on them as much as possible. I’d uhh, I’d like your help to do that.”  

Once Sariel quietly agreed, Dare spoke up. “It sounds as though this investigation could have ended up going much worse. Lincoln’s parents are safe with this Puriel, who has had a rather severe change of heart. And Sariel has two more children who will be on their way here soon.” 

She had a point. We really could’ve found out much worse news than that. Actually, I was pretty sure nobody here in the room ever in a million years would’ve guessed that our little scouting mission would’ve turned out anywhere near that well. It was almost unbelievable. 

Still, shaking that off, I said, “It is nice to have some good news for once. And…” Trailing off, I looked over to my parents. “Speaking of having good news, I just realized you don’t have a place to live up here. I just–you don’t–what…” Boy, were there a lot of thoughts running through my head right then. With effort, I pushed most of them aside to focus on the important part. “We left to go save Elisabet before Mom really–before you even, umm… what now?” 

Both of my parents chuckled, glancing toward one another. A short, yet intense look passed between them. There was clearly a lot going on there, even as the two linked hands before turning back to me. Mom spoke first. “I’ll want to do a… there’s a lot I’ll want to do, eventually. But right now, I think I’m going to take a few days to be around my family. All of my family.” 

Dad agreed. “There’re a lot of things we need to go through, but right now, we’re just taking it day by day. Give your mother time to readjust to everything.” 

That time, Dare and I were the ones who exchanged brief glances. Yeah, there was a lot I wanted to say. Especially when it came to Mom being around ‘her entire family.’ But I couldn’t. We couldn’t say anything at all about it. Hard as it was, especially right now, we still had to keep Dare’s identity secret. Fuck, how did she do it for so long? How did she give up Mom to begin with? And then go so long, especially while my mother– her own daughter — was running a full-on rebellion? I just couldn’t imagine having to surrender my entire identity like that. And now to have her right here after all that time and have to pretend Mom barely meant anything to her? 

All of that was too much to deal with at the most normal of times. But right now, Mom had just been returned after a decade of being imprisoned by that monster and Dare had to pretend that she barely knew her. How would I feel if I was in her situation? What if my mother’s memory of who I was happened to be erased, and I had to pretend to just be some girl who had heard about her? God, how much would that destroy me? And Dare had to live like that? I had no idea how she went on. Gaia. Gaia was the answer, clearly. And now Gaia wasn’t here, so Dare had to deal with all this with only Koren and me to talk to, and I had been gone for– yeah. Ouch. 

In any case, Sariel eventually said she would be around to help whenever we needed, and that my dad should absolutely never try to mental-recall alone. Then Tabbris headed out with the Moons, my sister calling back that she’d come find us later. Yeah, I didn’t blame her one bit for needing to spend time with her other family. After what they had just found out about having two more siblings out there, no wonder she wanted to be with her mother and the twins for the moment. Besides, I was pretty sure she was equally leaving me time to be alone with my own parents. 

Which, of course, still left Dare with us once the others had stepped out. And I was trying my best not to obsess too much over the fact she was family and absolutely should be here right now. There was nothing we could do about that secret right now, so I had to just push it aside and continue to act as though she was just a teacher whom I greatly respected and trusted. 

Shaking off those thoughts for the moment just as Dare started to excuse herself, I quickly raised a hand. “Um, I need to talk to you. Uhh, later, I guess.” Exchanging a brief glance with my parents, who already knew (or thought they knew) what I wanted to talk to the woman about, I added, “You know, if you’re not busy. It’s about everything that happened at the Meregan world.”

Dare, of course, gave me a curious glance. As far as she knew, the official story about what had happened had already been reported. I felt her gaze staring into me, clearly realizing very quickly that there was a lot more to it before she gave a very short nod. “Take time with your family, Felicity. I will be available whenever you need.” Her voice was quiet, and only the two of us really knew how much more was behind her words. Then, with a very faint smile toward my parents, toward her daughter, she pivoted and headed through the door. I was pretty sure that if she hadn’t left right then, she would have shown more of a reaction than she wanted to. More than was safe. 

And there I was, standing in a room with just my mother and my father. Both of them were standing close, hand-in-hand as they watched me. Their expressions were unreadable, but there was clearly a lot going on there. For a few long seconds, the three of us just stood, silently staring at one another. How long had it been since we’d had a moment like this? How long since it has been just the three of us, not only safe in a room together, but also with no immediately pressing life and death problems? I had been a tiny child the last time. Now, so much had changed. We had all been through so much to eventually bring us to this specific moment.

Finally, I crossed the distance between us, walking those few steps before opening my arms to embrace both of my parents together. I felt them return it immediately, their strong, firm grips pulling me up close to them, hauling me against them. For a few long seconds, the three of us just stood there together, embracing in a tight, unwavering family hug. Unwanted tears were streaming down my face. God, this moment, how long had I been waiting for something like this? How many years did I spend completely dismissing it as even being a possibility, before going to Crossroads and learning the truth about my mother? I just–this whole thing was… it was a lot. It was more than I had ever allowed myself to truly think was possible. And yet, here it was. Here we were. I was with my parents. My mom and dad were both safe, free, and here. 

I wasn’t sure how long the three of us stood there like that, but eventually we separated a bit. Dad said that he wanted to take us somewhere more comfortable and with that, led Mom and me out of the room. I had no idea where he was going, but he clearly did. Over the next few minutes, my father led us through a maze of corridors. He pointed out the way down into the school area that I was more familiar with, but kept going past it. It was obvious that he’d had a pretty thorough tour of this area. And yet, there was clearly more to it. As we continued onward, moving through blank corridor after blank corridor with only a few minor signs here and there, most of which were written in a different language, I finally realized the truth and pivoted to face him. My finger rose to point. “Hey, you’ve been using the Chimera-Seosten bonding for more than possession practice. You’ve been using the Seosten bonding to memorize where to go.” 

Mom, for her part, chuckled while reaching up to squeeze my father’s shoulder. “Oh, that explains it. I knew your memory was good, Lincoln. But not this good.” 

With a chuckle, Dad gave a short nod. “The perfect memory isn’t exactly completely perfect while the blood bond isn’t active. Certain very specific details tend to fade over time when I’m not actively Seosten-Bonded. But it’s still pretty damn good. Most of it sticks. Plenty enough to remember how to go through this maze. Which has been pretty useful lately, that’s for sure.” 

Shortly after that, we reached the area he was leading us to. It turned out to be a series of staff apartments, one of which he had been granted. And this apartment wasn’t some little hole in the wall either. It was a very nice, three bedroom set-up, complete with a full, gorgeous bathroom, a giant kitchen, and an enormous family room. All of it, every room, was already decorated with all the furniture and stuff anyone would need. Clearly, Athena had gone out of her way to give my dad a nice place. 

No, she’d gone out of her way to give my family a nice place, I realized. This was for my parents. And for me. And for anyone else who stayed with them. It was a place for them to live beyond the cabin down at the Atherby camp. 

Once Dad finished showing us around and we had returned to the main family room, he pivoted to face us, arms out. His gaze was on my mother. “Okay, so I know it’s not that hard to go between the camp and this station whenever we might want to, but Athena and I were thinking that this would be a good place to live anyway. I mean, Felicity’s going to school still, and there’s Abigail being the principal, and Wyatt. You’d be close to everyone, but still have our own–” 

In mid-sentence, Dad was interrupted as my mother stepped over and embraced him tightly. Her voice was quiet, shaking a bit from emotion. “You don’t have to convince me, Lincoln. It’s beautiful. It’s amazing. It’s more… it’s more than I let myself think we’d ever have again.”

Dad went on to explain that Abigail’s own apartment was right next door to one side, while Deveron had one directly behind us. All three were linked together through doors like those motels that had joint rooms, and we could always very easily go over and visit. Even Wyatt was close, with a room on the far side of Abigail’s that would be easy to get to any time. 

And, slightly more awkwardly, Dad also added that Mom could always stay with Deveron for as long as she wanted too, given he was her first husband. Yeah, it was clearly still very strange for Dad to say, but he got through it, quietly noting that he knew Deveron had missed her as much as he had. Then he and Mom whispered to each other for a few minutes, while I stepped away and studiously ignored them, because I really didn’t want to hear any of that. They could work out whatever details they needed to without my help, thank you very much. 

Either way, we got through it, and then we did something else that all of us had been waiting a long time for. We had a meal together. I mean, sure, it was just TV dinners heated up in the oven, but it was still a meal together. We sat at the table in the family room and just… ate. Well, ate and talked. We talked a lot. The three of us sat there, enjoying dinner while we talked. Not about any life and death situations. Not about what was going to happen next. No. We talked about the years we had missed, the years Mom had missed. Dad and I told her stories about me being at school, about all the reporter stuff I’d gotten into, about everything amusing that came to mind. Dad, of course, had a much better memory for that, given how young I’d been for some of it. But no matter what the story, no matter how few or how many specific details either of us remembered, Mom was enraptured by all of it. She asked so many questions about everything, enough that Dad and I both remembered more than we would have otherwise. Which led to more stories, which led to even more questions, and so on like that. 

We sat there like that for a long time after our plates were empty. It had to be hours, where the only interruptions came when one of us needed to use the restroom or get a drink. For the most part, we all sat at that table and talked, laughed, cried, and generally just interacted. It was just the three of us, sitting there together to catch up on things. Not that we were anywhere near catching up on everything even after all that time, of course. It was going to take a hell of a lot longer. But the point was, we started. It was our first real chance to sit together as a small family like that and just talk. And honestly, I’d rarely been any happier than in that moment. 

Eventually, however, the discussion ended. I’d seen Dad yawn a couple times, before pushing myself up. “I need to talk to Professor Dare about what happened.” 

“I’ll go with–” Mom started. 

“No,” I quickly blurted, shaking my head as I looked between them. “You guys deserve alone time without me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this right here, this has been like… one of the best nights of my life, ever. But this isn’t about just the three of us. It’s also about the two of you, and you’ve been apart for a long–” Cutting myself off, I rose. “I’ll talk to Dare. It’s okay. Mom, Dad, you just… be here, okay? Don’t run off.” 

The two of them exchanged looks, then turned back to me, Mom smiling faintly. “I think we can manage to get along for a little while without wandering away.” 

“Nope!” Raising both hands, I shook my head. “Don’t need to hear anymore. Don’t need to hear anything. I’ll just–I’ll be back later. Much later.” Pausing briefly, I amended once more, “I’ll knock.” 

Both of them started to tease me again, but I was already moving. Stepping over, I embraced my mother first, as tightly as possible. Then I hugged my father. That done, I headed for the door. 

“Sure you can find your way?” Dad called after me. 

“I’ll figure it out,” I informed him, stopping in the doorway to look back. “I’m glad you’re back, Mom. And Dad, we’ll get your parents. We’ll get Popser and Grandmaria back here. They… they’ll make it.” 

That said, I stepped out, letting the door close behind me to give my parents the privacy they deserved, the privacy that had been such a long time coming. 

“Felicity?” It was Professor Dare herself, approaching from the end of the hall, where I had the feeling she had been waiting for awhile. “Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah,” I quickly answered, glancing over my shoulder to the closed door with a slight smile before turning back to step that way. “Yeah, it’s okay. I mean, nothing immediately life-threatening or whatever. It’s about as good as it gets right now. But I’m glad you’re here. 

“We really need to talk.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Building Connections 16-12 (Summus Proelium)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

I was already spinning on my heel to walk to the nearby door before stopping myself as I realized that I didn’t have any idea where I was going or what to do. Holding my arms tightly against my chest, I spun back that way. “Except I don’t know how to do that. How are we supposed to save Paige right now? How are we supposed to do anything right now? We don’t even have anyone lined up to fix the computer orb thing yet! We don’t–wait.” Realization came to me as I blink at the younger girl. “You went out to get a bunch of stuff. What were you–” 

Wren quickly nodded. “It’s okay, Paintball! I mean it’s not okay. It’s really scary. But I didn’t just call you with problems. I’ve got solutions too! I mean sorta maybe solutions, I mean help for–”  Cutting herself off, she took a deep breath and let it out before starting once more. “We still gotta find someone to fix the little orb-computer thingie, but I think we can help the good Paige stop the bad Paige. You know, send her reinforcements so she doesn’t get taken over or erased or anything. It’s not perfect, but it’ll, you know, buy her some time? If it works. I think it’ll work. I have to adjust some stuff, but it should work. I mean, if the first part works like it’s supposed to, like he said it should, then I can adjust the second part and make it… work?” Clearly realizing she was babbling and repeating herself, Wren trailed off and shrugged helplessly, adding a very quiet, “I think, maybe.” 

Forcing myself to calm down from the rush of panic, I took a step that way. “You mean you have a plan?” I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. Inwardly, I was screaming at myself. Of course Paige’s father would have some kind of fail-safe to overwrite her or whatever. That just made sense, especially since I knew he’d managed to hit her with that virus in the first place. Stupid, stupid. Why did I take so long trying to find someone who could fix her? Telling myself it had only been a few days didn’t help. The guilt kept welling up in me no matter what I thought. 

“What do you mean you have to adjust something? Who is this ‘he’ you’re talking about? Did you really already find someone that could help? Are you sure it’s someone we can trust with this? Who is this guy, where did he come from, what does he do? How did you find him so fast?”  

Wren, for her part, held up both hands for me to slow down too. Waiting for quiet, the kid finally started to explain. “Okay, so, this guy isn’t actually someone I talked to about this. He doesn’t even live anywhere near here. He’s in France. He’s a Tech-Touched in France. Anyway, we started talking about our toys–err, our inventions, and he told me about this machine he made.  They’re going to start selling it over there soon. He’s gonna make a lot of money! It–” Clearly catching herself from going too far off-subject, Wren quickly reeled it in. “Sorry, I mean the point is, when he told me about it, I thought it could help. But only if I make a second part that moves the first part over to where we need it cuz his invention is just a video game thing and that’s really cool and all, but it doesn’t help with Paige. But if we can move it over to where she is, then–” 

It was my turn to hold up both hands. “Hold on, hold on. Okay, one thing at a time. What did he make that’s supposed to help with Paige? You said something about it being a video game?” 

Wren’s head bobbed up and down quickly. “Uh huh! Paintball, he made this really cool virtual reality thing. You put it on and it like, projects your consciousness into the game. I mean, not really. You’re really sitting right there with the machine wired up to you. But your brain thinks you’re in the game. You can see things and interact with things and move them around and it’s all super real to you and to the machine. You can change things in the machine, in the game.” 

She stopped, staring excitedly at me while I processed that. Rocking back on my heels, I managed, “You’re saying he made a virtual reality game that plugs you into the machine.” Thinking about that, I gasped. “And you want to use that to plug me into Paige’s computer core? That’s what you’re trying to adjust. You don’t want to put me into some random virtual reality game, you want to put me into Paige’s computer so I can help her deal with this duplicate.”

Again, Wren’s head bobbed quickly. “Yes! I talked to my friend in France and he said he could help. I mean, I didn’t tell him the whole story, just that it was really, super, incredibly important, life and death important. He trusts me, cuz we’re friends and I promised I wouldn’t make money off his thing. He said he’d send the list of stuff I need and the blueprints to make a prototype version of his thing. It won’t be as good or as stable or anything, but it’ll work for this, we think. I just have to fix it so that instead of going into a game, it moves you over into Paige’s computer.” 

Okay, this was all a lot to take in on short notice. Especially considering I hadn’t even known that she had a friend in France. But I supposed that made sense. Of course Tech-Touched talked to each other and compared notes. The internet made that super-easy to do. 

Still, it was a lot to deal with. Seriously, virtual reality stuff? She wanted to plug my brain or whatever into Paige’s computer so I could go in there and help her deal with this crazy duplicate virus before it took over. What the hell kind of psychotic Tron-crazy shit was this? Seriously? I’d done some of that VR stuff before, of course. It came with the territory of having rich parents who liked to spoil you by throwing all the newest special toys your way. I’d been in full-scale simulations, some better than others. But it was still weird to think of something like this being used this way. Full-scale virtual reality outside of just putting a helmet on your head and faking it wasn’t exactly common. Mostly it was limited to a few very specific demonstrations. And I had no idea if this French guy’s version was any good, especially if it was basically being cobbled together to work with however Paige’s system worked. Two systems I didn’t know at all being taped onto one another by one little kid, who wasn’t even the person who originally made either of them. This was a whole new level of crazy desperation, wasn’t it? 

But I had to push all those confused thoughts aside and focus on the main situation, the main problem. Paige. Whatever happened next, we had to help Paige. So, I simply reached out and put my hands on Wren’s shoulders, squeezing a bit. “Do you really think this can work?” I asked quietly, yet intently. There were so many questions I had beyond that. Especially when it came to who this guy in France was, whose name I didn’t even know. But we didn’t have the months (at least) that it would take for me to decide that I trusted him myself. I was going to have to go solely off what Wren thought. I trusted her with this. I had to. 

Clearly realizing just how important my question was, Wren met my gaze with a look of maturity that far outweighed her years. Her voice was quiet, yet firm. “Yes, Paintball. It can work. It won’t be super-stable, and you’ll have to be really quick about it. And it would be better if you had someone with you. Someone else who could fight with you. I don’t want to send you in there by yourself. Maybe you could get Pack, or that new girl you just brought back today? Or both! Both would be better, a lot better.” 

“Alloy?” I blinked at the suggestion, glancing towards the elevator down to where we had left her and the others. “I don’t know if we should involve anyone else in something like this. It’s–” 

“It’s dangerous!” Wren interrupted, blurting the words loudly as she stared at me. “It’s super-dangerous! I mean yeah, if you get hurt or whatever in there, I don’t think it’ll actually hurt you out here. It’s not like that old Matrix movie or whatever. It doesn’t work like that, cuz that’s silly. It would be a really bad game if it did. But if you get knocked out, you won’t be able to go back in very fast. It’ll take awhile to get back to where you were, you know? And in that time, maybe Paige will lose. Maybe she’ll be taken over and erased! That could happen! She sounded really scared in that message, Paintball. So this evil virus duplicate thing is probably really strong. So if you go in by yourself and you lose, then you wouldn’t have actually helped her. I think… I think you need to trust someone else to go in with you. More than one, if you can. You know, because it’s dumb to take risks like that when it comes to actually helping someone you care about, right?” 

Fuck. Yeah, she had a point. As much as I hated the idea of involving other people in this, I was pretty sure I didn’t have much of a choice if I really wanted to save Paige. If I went in there by myself, I’d probably just end up getting my butt kicked. I needed to take others for back-up, and there really wasn’t anyone I could trust with it beyond those two she had already suggested. Pack and Peyton. If they’d even go at all. I couldn’t be sure they’d agree to the plan, after all. 

“Actually, wait,” I suddenly blurted as a thought occurred. “That reminds me. We can’t even use our powers in that place, can we? Which would make all of us pretty helpless if we’re supposed to be saving Paige. I mean, it’s like a virtual reality thing–or wait, do we get like… all the powers because it’s virtual reality? You can just cheat code everything if it comes down to it, right? How does that work, exactly?” 

Wren, however, shook her head. “Not exactly,” the kid hesitantly answered before quickly pushing on. “I mean, we’re not exactly putting you in a place we made up, you know? You’ve gotta go inside the place her computer made, in her like… computer mind or whatever.” She was poking the floor with her foot uncomfortably, clearly upset about not having better news. “I can build my friend’s virtual reality thing, but it’s like… sorta duct taped to Paige’s thing to make it work and I can’t change too much and I definitely can’t mess with what’s going on inside Paige’s mind cuz that’s not really what my thing is and it’s not what this is and I’m really sorry, but–” 

“It’s okay, it’s alright,” I quickly interrupted, holding up both hands. “Thanks, Wren, I know you’re doing your b–hell, you’re doing better than your best. You went totally above and beyond, dude. You got help from some guy in France to figure this out and to give us a chance to save Paige. That’s amazing, you’re seriously–you’re great. I didn’t mean to make it seem like you should be doing more. I was just–yeah. Sorry, dude. Whatever we can do for her, anything at all, really.” 

After managing to get all that out, I waited for a second before adding, “Okay, so we can’t have cheat codes to go in there, because you can’t control what happens inside Paige’s computer. You’re just like–like her thing is the game server and all you can do is hack us a couple player accounts?” I had no idea how accurate that was, but it seemed like the best comparison. 

Thankfully, Wren seemed to get it, already nodding. “Uh huh, uh huh! Like that. The server will only accept you if you go in as yourself. Like, I can change your clothes or whatever, but it accepts the umm… the you in your head. The way you umm… see yourself, pretty much? Which, um, I think should mean you can use your powers in there, cuz they’re a part of you.”

“Well hey, that’s something, at least.” Giving the girl a thumbs up, I looked past her to where Paige was. “Okay, so how long do we have before you can put all this stuff you’ve got together? Cuz I’m pretty sure we don’t have umm… okay, I’m pretty sure Paige doesn’t have a lot of time.” 

Following my gaze, the kid immediately made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like a half-yelp, half-gasp. “Oh! Yeah, I can–I mean it’s still gonna take time to put all this together, and I’ve gotta do a lot of it myself cuz only I can understand the instructions. I mean, I don’t–it’s not like you’re stupid or anything, it’s just got a lot of really specific technical stuff and if we mess up putting it together it could break and if it breaks we have to spend a lot more time fixing it and finding the hard-to-get parts and if that happens we might not have time to save this Paige girl so I really don’t wanna have to do it all over again, not cuz you’re dumb or anything, just cuz–” 

“Got it, I get it.” Once more, I held up my hands for her to stop. “Trust me, it’s okay. Do it right. If there are ways I can help, let me know. But, how long do you think it’ll take you to put it together the right way? You know, making sure it’ll work the way it’s supposed to and all.”  

Wren looked hesitant for a moment, clearly nervous about the job she had taken on. But, in the end, she straightened a bit before firmly replying, “Tomorrow evening. I–I can have it done by tomorrow evening, I promise. I–I’m sorry it can’t be done before then. I wanted t–I know it’s dangerous. I know she’s in trouble, but if I try to go any faster, I might mess up, and if I mess up-” 

“If you mess up, we don’t get another shot at this,” I finished for her gently. “At least not in time to actually save Paige before that virus takes over. I get it, really. It’s okay, Wren. Do it right the first time. Take however long you need. I mean, try to hurry and all, but don’t rush too much, okay?” 

She agreed, and I asked if there was anything I could do to help without getting in the way. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. She said she really just had to focus on it and asked, as politely as she could, for me to go away and come back tomorrow. And for me to bring Peyton back so she could talk to ‘the cool marble girl’ again when she wasn’t so distracted. 

So, I asked one last thing. “Did you send another message to Paige? You know, to let her know that we got her message and we’re working on it?” 

Offering me a very faint smile, Wren nodded. “Uh huh, I sent a message so she’d know she wasn’t talking to nobody. But… I think it’d make her feel better if you sent a message too. Like I said, it’ll take a long time for her to get it, but you can type the message into the thing there and tell her you’re working on it. Like I said, it’ll only send one or two words every fifteen minutes. But you can type whatever you want and just let it go. I won’t… uhh, disturb it, I promise.” 

Oh, right. Slowly, I stepped over to where the Gameboy/Atari thing was and picked up the little handheld part. Looking at the screen, I could see where you moved the cursor around to select letters for the input. Okay then, here went nothing. 

And for a moment, ‘nothing’ was exactly what went. Seriously, what the hell was I supposed to say to let Paige know that I had her message and that I was working on it? What would actually make her feel better or whatever? 

In the end, after thinking about it for a minute, I carefully typed a short message into the device. 

PAINTBALLC

WE’VE

GOT

PLAN

STAY

STRONG

COMING

PROMISE

Yeah, it was a little silly or whatever. I really didn’t know what else to say in a brief message. As it was, it would take a few hours for Paige to get that entire thing. I just had to say my name first so she’d know who was talking, and add a C at the end which she would hopefully understand to mean ‘Cassidy’ so she would be certain it was me. As for the rest… yeah. It was the best I could do without saying too much. The last thing I wanted was for a message I sent to Paige to end up exposing who I really was to anyone else who read it. I just… hoped it was enough to help her keep going long enough for us to get in there. 

And speaking of us getting in there, I took a breath and turned back to the younger girl. “I guess I should ask the others if they’re free to help go into virtual reality land tomorrow.” Oh boy, this was going to be a fun couple conversations. 

“Good luck!” Wren was smiling distractedly, her mind clearly focused on the work she still had to do. “I’ll do my part, I promise.” With that, she saluted, then turned her back to me, put her phone up on the table, and called that French friend of hers for help. The last thing I heard while heading back downstairs was the sound of a teenage male talking in heavily accented English, happily greeting Wren by name and asking if she had everything. 

Right, time to leave the tech people to do their thing, while I did mine. Which… huh, was asking Peyton to help me save Paige in virtual reality more or less crazy than asking her to help me scour the city to find a witness who could potentially take down Pencil? 

She sure picked one hell of a time to decide to jump on Team Paintball. 

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Long Awaited 12-03 (Heretical Edge 2)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Out of everyone involved in our little Choo maneuver to connect my dad to my grandmother, the only one whom I had been completely confident was safe from any kind of emotional explosion during the whole thing was Sariel. After all, she might have issues with Puriel, but she knew how to handle those and she knew just how dangerous he was. She also had the most experience, by a magnitude of like a million, with possessing people and using recall. There was no reason to think she would have any trouble at all keeping things calm. Hell, she was the one who was supposed to remind the rest of us not to lose it. She was the main stabilizing factor. 

Except all of those assumptions were from before. Before those words came out of my grandmother’s mouth. Before she said what was, if not the very last thing I had ever expected to hear (the bar for that was set pretty damn high by now), at least really far up there. 

Her children. The girl with half-black and half-blonde hair, and the brown-haired boy. They were Sariel’s children. More of her children. Two more kids whom she very clearly hadn’t known about at all, and was now being smacked right in the face (and heart) by the existence of.  

If she lost it now, if she pushed to physically be where these brand new, previously unknown children were, what could we do about it? Would Tabbris, Dad, and me be enough to hold us back, even with the added help from the spell that Dare and Mom were doing? That whole thing was never intended to keep the ancient Seosten woman from recalling, it was supposed to help her stop the rest of us from doing so. 

I felt… the burst of emotion from the woman. Considering the situation, it wasn’t as much as most would have shown, of course. Her control was too good for that. But the fact that I could pick up anything from her was pretty telling. And while the reaction was somewhat muted, there were still a lot of different parts to it. I sensed confusion, hope, joy, loss, anger, love, disbelief, and more. Tiny fractions of those emotions, just what bled out. But again, feeling anything was a lot.

Mama. Tabbris was the first to find her voice after that, even as I realized that my grandmother and the kids had continued talking in the background. Mama, are you okay? Are you–

Yes. Despite the rush of emotions, Sariel’s actual voice (or thought-voice) was fairly steady. I was pretty sure that hearing from one of her other children was exactly what she had needed. Tabbris being here, being able to speak to her mother and draw her attention, probably saved us in the end. It’s alright. I just… I don’t… how? There was wonder in her voice, and I could tell she was drinking in every detail she could while Grandmaria was talking to the two kids. 

We can ask, Dad reminded her gently. We’re here to get details. We can ask what happened. 

Just like that, my father had switched from his own issues in needing to know about what was happening to his parents, to helping Sariel with hers. Or rather, accepting hers with his, I supposed. Either way, it was an immediate shift. This was about both of them now. And, I realized, they were both helping to keep the other centered. 

Ask… Sariel echoed that single word, trailing off before seeming to collect herself for a moment. The emotions I was feeling from her didn’t exactly disappear, though they did dampen a bit, replaced by determination. She was going to find out how two of her children were here. And, more importantly, she was going to get them the hell away from Puriel, whatever it took. 

By that point, Grandmaria had called the rest of the assortment of kids over and was showing them how to form the vegetable and meat mixture she had been putting together into some kind of patty, which was apparently going to be cooked like a veggie-beef burger. She made them all wash their hands one at a time before being able to form their own patties they would eat. It was–it was Grandmaria. It was just the way I remembered her, though with different ingredients and in a very different kitchen. But beyond those specifics, I could remember essentially this exact same scene playing out with my grandmother and me. It made me oddly nostalgic in that moment. Almost painfully so. Boy, were those incredibly and far simpler times, before I had any worries about–well no, I wouldn’t trade those days for these because now I had my mother back. Still, I missed my grandmother so much right then, it was an almost physical ache. 

“Oh, I miss you too, sweetie.” The words were spoken aloud by Grandmaria seemingly before she even knew that she had said them. Immediately, I sensed a sudden spike of confusion and a bit of worry. We were keeping ourselves separated from her enough that we weren’t picking up her thoughts directly, in an attempt to avoid being physically transported. But I could still feel an echo of her concern that she had started to lose it, imagining her granddaughter’s voice. Meanwhile, the other kids were looking at her, also confused. One of the group who apparently weren’t Sariel’s spoke up slowly to ask if she was okay. He sounded genuinely worried at the prospect that something could be wrong. Actually, they all looked worried. 

Mom. My father’s voice was urgent, yet clearly as calm as he could make it. He was doing his best not to freak her out. I had the strangest feeling that might be a bit of a lost cause. Listen, it’s Lincoln. Lincoln and Felicity, with… with a couple friends. You’re not hearing things, you’re not imagining it. I know this is probably impossible to understand but–

“Oh, Lincoln!” My grandmother’s voice was both cheerful and decidedly not confused. “There you are. Are you using magic or one of those Seosten possession-mind transfer thingamaroos?” Without missing a beat, she waved one hand to calm the kids down while pointing to her head with the other. “It’s okay, it’s my son and granddaughter in my head. Spark, sweetie, would you be a dear and tell Puriel that–” 

No! That, of course, was Sariel. Her blurted word came quickly and with such force that it made Grandmaria stagger back a step. Immediately, all of the kids came rushing up asking if she was okay, and I felt a pop in the air, even through Grandma’s senses. Teleportation. It was a sudden burst of magic, as an older guy with gray hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and bushy eyebrows appeared right where the pop in the air had been. He was already turning our way. “Maria?” 

Boy, now I really felt it. Sariel was angry.  She had missed out on getting her own justice against Kushiel, had lost that chance to Theia, who was probably the only person we knew who had a better claim for it. That woman, who had tortured her for so long, who had taken so much away from her, was dead already. And good riddance. 

But Puriel was alive. And Puriel was the one who had created the situation that led to Sariel losing her family for over a decade. Puriel was the one whose actions resulted in her being tortured, imprisoned, becoming a lab experiment repeatedly, being forced to be pregnant over and over again, losing gods only knew how many of those in the process and having any who might have survived taken away from her save for the one she had managed to sneak out. It was Puriel who had come to take her away from Haiden and her first two children. 

And yet, it was those very actions that had led to Tabbris even existing. That realization, that thought, was what I could feel Sariel cling to in order to stop herself from doing anything too bad. She held to that, held to the sense of Tabbris right there with her, to stay anchored and not yank us all the way out into Seosten space just to attack the man in front of us the way a large part of her desperately wanted to. She knew it was futile, knew how much stronger than her the man was. But that didn’t matter. She wanted to take a chunk out of him. But, again, she stopped herself, albeit barely. 

“Oh dear,” Grandmaria murmured under her breath while glancing toward Puriel. “This woman with my son and granddaughter, she truly does not like you.” 

I saw the man absorb those words, processing them even as the door slid open and Popser came rushing in. “Maria, is everything–” 

“Sariel.” Puriel interrupted. There was… emotion in his voice. It cracked slightly, his gaze locked on my grandmother. But, of course, he wasn’t really looking at her. He was looking through her, to the woman whose family he had torn apart. “It’s really you, isn’t it?” 

I need…. a minute. Speak to your mother, Lincoln. Sariel’s voice was tight, clearly taking everything she had not to do something we would all regret. 

Mom, it’s us. Dad was clearly shaken and uncertain, but he spoke up. I don’t know how you–tell him if he hurts you–

“My dear boy, he’s not going to hurt us.” There was a mixture of gentle understanding and almost playful reprimand in my grandmother’s voice. She looked to Puriel again, adding, “Yes, she’s there too. But I feel that… it may take her a moment to be ready to talk again.” 

Grandmaria! The word escaped me in a blurted rush. You’re okay! You and Grandpartie, how–where did–how did you–what happened?! 

“There she is. There’s my granddaughter.” Those proud words from Grandmaria sent a tingle through me. And that tingle got even stronger when Grandpartie came forward to stare intently into his wife’s eyes, the same eyes we were seeing through. 

“Lincoln and lil’ Flick’s in there?” he asked with a broad smile. “Well, what took you so long? We were starting to think we wouldn’t hear from you until we trotted our butts right back there to Earth ourselves.” 

I… I don’t… I can’t–what? Dad sounded just as flabbergasted as I felt. This whole thing was not at all how I had expected this to go. Seriously, we had anticipated finding my grandparents locked in a cell or something, where we could quietly communicate with them to let them know we were going to save them. But this? This was something totally different and strange. This was like… like… 

Are you friends?! The blurted question came before I could even think about it. Are you friends with Zeus?! 

Of all the reactions she could possibly have, Grandmaria chuckled softly. “I’ve missed you, Felicity my dear, so very much. You always did know how to get right to the important questions. Now, I think we all need to take a minute to go back and forth and explain a few things, don’t you all agree?” She was addressing not only those of us inside her head, but Puriel and Popser too. And the kids, who had all remained silent through this whole thing. “That’s what I thought. Let’s sit down, take turns, and get all of us on the same page.” 

Okay, well, I could say one thing for sure at least. Okay, two things. First, this was still not going at all the way I had expected.  

And second, even Zeus himself couldn’t stop Grandmaria from taking charge of things. 

*******

So, while Sariel collected herself and pulled it together, Dad and I went back and forth quickly with Grandmaria and Grandpartie, with a few interjections from Puriel when needed. They explained everything that had happened to get them out there, and what had happened next. We heard about the attack by Antaeus, about being teleported all the way to Puriel’s own home island on the Seosten capital world, meeting the man himself along with these kids, finding out just who their long-time friend Al really was, all of it. A lot we had put together already as far as what happened at the cabin went. But it was still good to get it from their point of view. Plus I just loved listening to my grandparents explain things. It was like getting them to tell me a story. 

For Grandmaria and the others’ part, they wanted to know everything that had happened to all of us in the past year. But that would have taken way too long. So, we just gave them a quick set of highlights and promised to say more later. Apparently they’d gotten some of the details already from Puriel, which helped. 

And yet, it also led to a few very obvious questions. The most pressing of which was finally voiced by Sariel after she and Tabbris had collected themselves through all of that. 

Why, the Seosten woman put in. Her voice was still tight from emotion, but she had control of it.  Why is he doing this? What does he get out of it? What does he want from you? And who are these children? With that final question, her voice finally cracked just a little, as Grandmaria’s eyes moved briefly to where those kids were standing in a huddled group with the two who had been singled out as hers standing at the front as they all stared at her. At us. 

“Puriel,” my grandmother spoke gently to draw the man’s attention. “She’s ready to hear from you.” 

I saw what I swore were a rush of emotions play out across the man’s face. He hesitated before stepping over carefully. Putting himself directly in front of my grandmother, the old Seosten spoke carefully. “Sariel. I have made more mistakes in my long life than I could begin to count. And yet, perhaps one of my largest failings was in how I treated you. You and your family. I was obsessed with the idea that our people were better than all others, that every other species was inferior. An inescapable pitfall of how our people operate in this universe, perhaps. It is hard to be a species that enslaves all others for what they call the greater good if you do not see yourselves as ultimately more important, stronger, better. When I saw you, as I believed at the time, lowering yourself by marrying a human, having children with him, it…” He sighed, clearly taking a moment to put his words together properly. “It made me believe that you were soiling our species. Physical intimacy was one thing, some of our people do that, even if it’s not spoken of very much. But you–you were being romantic with him. You were treating him as your equal. And that… At that time, I did not see it as raising the humans or any other species to our own perceived level. I didn’t see it as meeting in the middle. I didn’t even see it as being equal at all. I saw it as you lowering yourself to wallow in the mud, as you putting yourself even lower than the humans. I saw it as dirty and wrong, not for the physical pleasures, but for the fact that assuming our species deserved to be equal with the humans would mean that we were as low and inferior as I believed they were. That is why I could not accept your relationship, your family, any of it.” 

There was a brief pause then, during which Sariel spoke up. He keeps talking as though this is past tense. What would have changed? Why would he feel differently now? Again, there was a tightness to her voice that made it clear she was barely keeping herself in check, and that it was taking a lot to avoid transporting us there.

Grandmaria passed that along, and I saw Puriel wince. From the expression on his face, it was obvious that he didn’t want to talk about it. But he did. Meeting our gaze, the man carefully explained what had happened to him after being hit by the shattered banishment orb. His mind and memories had been broken, making him incapable of remembering anything about who he was. He had ended up on some other world far away, and had been taken in by some sort of Alter orphanage. An orphanage full of innocent children and their caretakers from all manner of species. There, he’d had a good life for awhile. He got along with everyone, as they helped him try to remember who he was. The children and staff had all become his friends. 

Then the Fomorians had come. Somehow, they had learned about his presence, and about how important he was. They came for him, and the people of the orphanage suffered and died for it. They hid him away and refused to surrender him. 

It was that trauma, hearing the suffering and dying of those he had grown to care about, that finally unlocked Puriel’s memories… for the most part. Remembering who he was at that moment, he had destroyed the Fomorians who were attacking. But it had been too late to save the people of the orphanage. 

Puriel had apparently returned to his own people then. But his mind still wasn’t fixed. The damage the shattered banishment orb had done to it was too thorough. He constantly lost track of where he was, what he was doing, even when he was in his own memories and thoughts. 

I felt something else then, a new rush of emotion from the woman but I didn’t quite understand. Hearing that had made her feel something important. As soon as Puriel mentioned losing himself in his memories, something in her impression of him softened.   

“And then… she came.” Reaching one hand out, Puriel beckoned until the black-and-blonde haired girl moved closer. The smaller boy was right with her. 

“Sariel,” the man continued, “this… this is your daughter. Kushiel–she brought her to my medical room as a–I don’t know. A prize? She is… she is what our people call a Mendacia. Kushiel referred to her as–never mind. It doesn’t matter. But she would have done very terrible things to the girl. It made me remember how I treated you and your family on Earth. So I did the only thing I could in that moment, the only thing that came to mind to protect the one child of yours I still could. I allowed her to possess me, and she has been doing so ever since. What you see here, she is using magic to project an image.” 

I had no idea what Sariel was feeling right then. She had closed off entirely through his explanation of who the girl was. 

Sister? That, of course, was Tabbris, her voice trembling. She’s really a sister? 

“I–what?” Grandmaria was clearly taken by surprise. “A sister?” 

That made Puriel’s gaze snap up. “Your other daughter–wait, which…” 

Stop, Sariel immediately demanded. Just stop. Maria, please, just… look at her. Look at them.

My grandmother did so, holding a hand out for Puriel and the others to be quiet. She got closer, staring directly at the girl and boy. I could feel Sariel drinking in their appearances, seeing herself in them. Mine… they are my children. There was wonder and awe in her voice then. Puriel… saved my… children.  

Once it was clear what was happening, Puriel quietly spoke. “Her name–I have called her Spark. She saved my life, Sariel. She has saved me in more ways than I could ever explain. She is brilliant and perfect. And your son–we only met him recently, but he is so very curious about everything. We call him Omni.” 

For their part, both kids stared right up through Grandmaria’s eyes and into the gaze of their mother. The boy found his voice first, quietly murmuring, “Mater?” He was reaching up as though to touch her face before seeming to catch himself. The boy looked… oddly ashamed before quickly lowering his hand, and I felt a pang of shame from Sariel that she couldn’t pick him up. 

So, Grandmaria did just that. She reached out and picked the boy off the ground. Which was surprising, given I didn’t remember her being strong enough to do something like that before. Sure, he was only a little kid, but still. She plucked him off the floor and held him up easily, before reaching out. Her hand brushed slightly over Spark’s face. Apparently her image had been created out of a solid-light hologram. 

“Mater,” Spark quietly spoke, “he did bad things. He knows that. But he helps now. He saved me. We saved Omni, and… and the others.” She raised her hand to gesture to the other children. “They were experimenting on them, and we saved them. He didn’t have to. But he did. We did.” 

At that moment, I felt a decision come over Sariel. The confusion and uncertainty melted away, along with most of the emotions when it came to Puriel. It was clear that the woman had decided only one thing mattered. She spoke in her own voice, and Grandmaria translated aloud. 

How do we bring you all to Earth?

Puriel’s voice actually almost sounded amused. “Actually, we’re working on that ourselves. Do you recognize this kitchen?” He gestured around them, and Sariel finally seemed to pay attention to the place after being distracted for so long. 

…. The Olympus. This… this is your own personal kitchen on the Olympus. 

After Grandmaria translated that, Puriel gave a short nod. “Exactly. We–ahh, liberated it from storage, thanks to a little advice from Arthur there. It’s not quite ready to go yet, but with some more work, we’ll get underway eventually. And with Spark’s improvements, it won’t take long to get to Earth once we do.” 

Wait, Tabbris immediately put in uncertainly, Spark’s improvements? 

Once that message was passed along, Puriel smiled proudly. “Oh yes. Sariel, I told you, your daughter is brilliant. She is, to put it simply, the best ship and weapon designer I’ve seen since Radueriel himself, and she does it with no extra powers or inherited gifts. Believe me, I checked. As a matter of fact, she designed something I hear you’re acquainted with. A ship capable of instantly jumping from one universe to another, from planet to planet in no time at all.” 

The prototype ship?! Spark–this kid–was the one who designed the prototype ship?!

Just as we were all reeling from that, I felt a tug, followed by a rush of emotion from Sariel. We can’t maintain the connection for long. We’re being pulled back. We’ll come again, we’ll talk again. Please, tell them. 

So Grandmaria did. And for the next few seconds, she embraced Omni before putting him down to do the same with Spark’s solid-light holographic form. She hugged them for Sariel. And for Tabbris, who was clearly overwhelmed by all this but still introduced herself. She introduced herself to her brother and sister, through my grandmother’s words as the older woman acted as a go-between. It was rushed, and it was awkward, but it was also perfect in its own way. Tabbris met her Seosten brother and sister for the first time. 

Then Sariel and Tabbris both focused on doing all she could to hold us there while Dad and I had a moment with my grandparents. A moment where there was so much more all of us wanted to say, yet so little time to do so. Instead, we mostly focused on saying how glad we were that they were okay, and in promising to visit soon to see how they were coming along. With each passing moment, I felt our grip slipping. We were going to be pulled away any second. 

“Sariel.” It was Puriel, speaking up once more even as we started to be pulled away. “I will bring your children to you. I will bring Maria and Arthur to the Chambers. Whatever it takes, I promise you that. I will bring them safely to Earth. You have my life oath on it. Whatever else happens, I will get them to Earth.” 

Those were the last words we were able to hear. Because an instant later, our grip on my grandmother failed entirely, as we were sent rebounding back to our physical bodies on Earth like a rubber band had snapped.  

We literally popped apart once we hit our physical bodies, all of us separating from our combined possession form to fall apart from each other and collapse to the floor. As we lay there on our backs, Mom appeared standing over us. “So? 

“How did it go?”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Building Connections 16-11 (Summus Proelium)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

On the way through the back alleys to the shop, I explained who Trevithick was (as well as what the name meant). It was all stuff I’d meant to tell her as we were making our way through the city, but then our little race thing happened and well, here we were. So, I just filled her in with the brief SparkNotes version. As we approached the back door, I mentioned that the kid was pretty young, and asked if she would have a problem working with someone like that. 

I clearly hadn’t thought that question through entirely, because Peyton looked at me pointedly and asked, “Young like you? Because I’m pretty good with that. I don’t think I get to judge what a kid can do after one saved my life like… twice within the same month, dude.” 

Burying my annoyance at being seen as a kid again beneath the much more useful fact that my disguise was stopping anyone from suspecting who I really was, especially my parents, I nodded once. “Younger than me.” It was the literal truth, after all. Wren really was younger than me.  I just wasn’t specific about how much younger. “She’s a kid. But she’s a genius Tech-Touched.” 

That said, I reached up to hit the buzzer. But before I could, the back door was flung open, and Murphy stood there, looking back and forth between the two of us for a moment before seeming to realize who Peyton was. “Ohhh, it’s marble girl. You changed your armor.” With that, she looked the other girl up and down briefly as though judging it. “I like this one better.” 

Peyton, in turn, stared at her briefly before turning to me. “She’s not younger than you.” 

Exactly how many times was I going to be tempted to blow my cover within a five minute span? Seriously, I was starting to think this was just gonna be a thing going forward. Exhaling, I shook my head and gestured between them. “This is Murphy, she’s… helping. It’s a long story.” 

“He caught me and my friend, Roald, after we broke into a gas station to steal food, and told us we could be his minions and help out around here or whatever instead of going to jail,” Murphy promptly summed up. Then she looked at me and added, “It’s really not that long of a story.”  

Peyton, meanwhile, had turned to look at me with obvious incredulity. “Wait, you have minions?”

Before I could respond to that, Murphy put in (with a voice that was basically the most cheerful I had ever heard her sound), “Just for now. But I think if we do a good job, he might upgrade us to henchpeople.” That, of course, was accompanied by the girl raising both hands to show her crossed fingers. “I’m pretty sure that’s when we get the matching uniforms.” 

Shaking my head, I gestured for the girl to step back so we could come in. Once the door was closed behind us, I asked, “So where’s Trevithick? Upstairs?” 

“Who?” Murphy blinked at me before remembering. “Oh, right. Nah, she had to run out. Took Fred and Roald and made me stay to watch the shop. Something about needing to grab important supplies or whatever.” Her hand gestured my way. “Kid said she was gonna text you an update.” 

“Text me an–” As I echoed those words, my hand was taking the phone from my pocket, and I blanched a little behind the helmet. I had a message from Wren, alright. Sure enough, it was all about how she had to go grab a few super-important things and that she would explain everything about what was going on once they got back. “Oh, well okay then. I guess we’ll wait here for them.” 

As I finished saying that, Murphy had already shrugged and moved back to a corner of the main shop floor where she had apparently been sweeping and mopping. From the look of it, she was actually doing a pretty good job. Okay, a very good job. Better than I could have, considering I’d basically almost never done anything like that except for the times when I was a kid trying to help the maids. Actually, I remembered that being kind of fun. But even now, I knew the reason it felt ‘fun’ to me at the time was because I could stop any time I wanted to. I didn’t depend on doing that to live or put food in my mouth. If I had to do it every day, as much as the people who worked in our house or at my school had to? Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t enjoy it as much. It was a thought that made me shift a little uncomfortably. Yet Murphy seemed pretty fine with what she was doing. It made me wonder how much cleaning she ended up doing at home. Which also made me think about her brother. Part of me wanted to ask how that was going and if he’d stopped being pissed at her about not running those drugs over to his friend. But I was pretty sure that would be pushing a bit even if we were alone, let alone with Peyton here. 

So, I decided that conversation could wait. Meanwhile, Peyton herself had started to walk around the shop floor, picking up and examining various things from the shelves. “Wow,” she murmured quietly while turning an old miner’s helmet over in her hands, “they’re actually selling all this random junk?  

Wincing, I stepped over that way. “Don’t let the kid hear you calling it junk. This was her dad’s store, she’s pretty protective of it. And right now I think a lot of it is just a way of having basically any random thing she needs at any point when she starts building stuff.” 

A noise of regret escaped the other girl, as she turned to me while shaking her head. “I–sorry. I didn’t mean to just–ugh. I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t trying to like–insult her family’s shop or anything. I was just… yeah, sometimes I don’t think before I speak.” She muttered the last words before giving a heavy sigh. 

“It’s okay,” I assured her before reaching out to squeeze the girl’s arm. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. All this stuff is a lot to get used to. Believe me, I know.” And boy was that a severe understatement. A lot to get used to? Wait until she learned the real truth about the city–no, stop it. I couldn’t tell her the full truth about the city. Except she was already helping, and she was going to push that help as far as helping me find the girl who might be able to take Pencil down. Even if the idea was to stay completely away from that piece of shit and never directly involve ourselves with him, there was no definite one hundred percent certainty that we wouldn’t see him. And she was still here, still willingly putting herself in danger. Didn’t I owe her the–fuck. Would this question ever end up getting me anywhere except for more uncertain and confused?

“Dude.” Peyton, who I belatedly realized had been staring at me for the past few seconds while I went through all that in my head yet again, spoke up hesitantly. “Are you okay?” 

“It’s fine,” Murphy called from where she was still working. “He just does that sometimes. I think he likes brooding or something. That or he’s listening to podcasts in that helmet and gets distracted.” 

Flushing a bit behind the aforementioned helmet, I shook my head. “It’s not brooding or podcasts. I just–never mind. I was just thinking.” 

“Hey, speaking of just thinking,” Murphy called out again, “what do you call yourself, anyway? I mean, we can’t just stick with ‘that marble girl’ all the time, right?” 

It was Peyton’s turn to blush, slightly visible through the space that left part of her face around her eyes uncovered. “Uhh, we sort of went over some ideas, but I’m not sure. It’s really hard to come up with a good one that doesn’t sound stupid or overly dramatic or… whatever.”

“Oh, I know all about that too,” I muttered mostly to myself before gesturing. “Well, while we’re waiting, why don’t we go over the list? You wanna help, Murphy?” 

She, in turn, looked at the mop in her hand for a moment before setting it aside to step over where we were. Shoving her hands in her back pockets, the brown-skinned girl rocked back on her heels before asking, “What sorta options are you working with?” 

So, Peyton and I tugged a couple random stools over and slid one over to Murphy before starting to go over all the potential names. The three of us went back and forth for awhile about the ones that sounded good, why they were good, the ones that probably wouldn’t work, and so on. 

We went over all that for a good ten minutes. Finally, Peyton said she had some favorites, especially after talking to the two of us, but she wanted to think about it some more before deciding, and maybe ask the others what they thought. Which was pretty good timing, considering it was only a couple minutes after that before Wren showed up with Fred and Roald. 

“Wow,” Peyton murmured very quietly in my direction as the trio arrived with armfulls of paper grocery bags, “you weren’t kidding about her being young. But she’s really that good?” 

“She’s really that good,” I confirmed before stepping that way to take a bag from Wren. It was heavier than it looked, geez. The bag was completely filled with what looked like half of an average-sized store’s electronics department. Peyton was already doing the same for Fred. “Hey guys, look who I brought back. It’s… uhh, she doesn’t actually have a name yet. So TBD. But TBD, this is Wren or Trevithick, her uncle Fred, and Roald.” 

That was followed by both Fred and Roald shaking the girl’s hand, the latter commenting that her armor looked different this time. Peyton then explained how that worked with her marbles. Both of them seemed a little awkward and uncertain in a way that almost seemed kind of cute. Especially when Murphy inserted herself and all three of them went back and forth about different types of armor and weapons she might be able to make with the various marbles. 

For her part, Wren waited until all the bags were put down and was quietly respectful of letting the other three talk for about ten more seconds before flinging herself that way with an added boost from her flight pack wings (the pack was on under her jacket and it projected the wings through a couple almost-invisible slits in the back) to cross the distance before landing directly in front of her. “Hi! I’m Wren, like he said! You are so cool, I watched the videos of you fighting those bad guys like eighteen times! When you hit Juice with the battering ram and then threw him with the gloves, that was so awesome! You were like, ‘don’t you touch him!’ then wham! Did you really just get your powers? You totally kicked his butt before he even knew what was happening!” 

Peyton, looking more than a little taken aback by the enthusiasm, managed a little giggle. “Uhh, thanks. Just beginner’s luck, really. I think he was more focused on being mad at Paintball, so he wasn’t paying any attention to me.” 

“He was definitely distracted,” I agreed, “but that doesn’t take away from the fact that most people wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of that distraction the way you did. Seriously, she’s right, you were awesome back there. I would’ve been screwed without your help.” Blanching a little, I added, “Still don’t know why they keep calling you my ‘sidekick’ though. I mean, I haven’t even been doing this for two whole months yet.” 

Wow, saying that part out loud made me think about just how much had happened in the past six-ish weeks. The vials, finding out about my family, being taken by Pencil, the whole situation with him and the rest of the Scions at the hospital, the Paige thing… Just how damn busy was I? 

While I was focused on that, Peyton had started to explain her whole naming situation and the various ideas she was working off of. Roald, Wren, and Fred gave their own opinions and went back and forth for awhile, until Peyton finally held up both hands. “Okay, okay. I’ve got it, I think. The name I’m gonna go with is…” She took a breath, letting it out before finishing. “Alloy.” Even after she said it, the girl looked uncertain. “I mean, is that good? I think– never mind. Sorry. I’m terrible at making decisions! I even like boys and girls cuz throwing out half my options is bullshit!” With that cry, she waved both hands vaguely. 

It was Fred who spoke up. “Hey, why don’t you uhh, close your eyes for a second.”

Looking a little confused and uncertain, the girl did so with a quiet, “Um, okay.”  

Clearing his throat, Fred spoke up loudly. “Alloy, Paintball needs your help, get out there!” After a pause, he asked, “So, did that sound right? I mean, the name, did it sound like something you’d like to be called?” 

Peyton opened her eyes. I had the feeling she was smiling behind the mask. “Uh huh. That’s it. That’s the right name. Thanks, uhh, Mr. Donovan.” 

“Fred’s fine,” the man insisted, looking self-conscious as he rubbed his head. “I just know sometimes it helps to hear the name from someone else. It’s how…” He paused briefly before continuing in a softer, more subdued tone. “It’s how I helped Wren’s folks choose her name.” 

Well, that was sobering. I still wasn’t sure about the whole story there, other than the fact that her mother and father had died in the hospital after racking up quite the medical bill. Which was the whole thing that led to Fred selling that device to Ashton so he could steal the vials in the first place. Not that Fred had known what his plan was at the time.

Of course, thinking about that reminded me of why we had come here today to begin with. “Um, Wren? You said you had something really important to talk about. What’s wrong? And, uhh, does it have anything to do with the fact that you just went on a huge shopping spree? All this stuff looks pretty intense.” I said that while gingerly reaching into one of the bags and picking up what appeared to be a circuit board with seven different colored wires leading out of it and a large computer power supply attached to one side.  

Immediately, Wren looked guilty about her distraction. “Oh, uhh, yeah. I should probably talk to you upstairs about it.” She winced, shifting back and forth on her feet, clearly anxious. 

I had the feeling Peyton really wanted to ask what was going on. Instead, she gestured to the others. “Hey, you wanna see how I raced Paintball to get over here? I could show you outside, if y–hold on!” Tugging her buzzing phone out, she blurted, “Everybody be quiet, or sound like shoppers!” Then she was answering it, talking to her mother, who was checking in again. After a moment, she muted her phone, grabbed Murphy by the arm, and hissed at her to pretend to be someone named Dana coming up to say they had to check out some sale somewhere.  

Looking to Wren while that was going on, I whispered, “Are you okay?” 

“Wha–oh.” Her head bobbed quickly. “Uh huh. It’s not about me. It’s–it’s about Paige.” 

Of course it was. I’d figured it had to be as soon as whatever the problem was didn’t turn out to have anything to do with bad guys at the shop, her or Fred’s health, and involved her going out to buy a bunch of things on an emergency shopping trip. Much as I might’ve loved to hope this whole thing was just a kid overreacting to some brand new idea she had about an invention that she wanted to show off, I knew Wren better than that. And I knew my luck better than that. 

So, while Peyton (or Alloy now) took the others out back to show off the whole hoverboard thing, I went with Wren upstairs. The two of us took the elevator, the younger girl being oddly quiet and subdued all the way. Finally, once the door opened and we stepped out into the hall, she turned to face me. “Okay, see, I felt really bad that I couldn’t help wake up your friend. So I thought maybe if I could at least find a way to communicate with her, it might help. You know, connect with her umm, mind or whatever?” She was fidgeting nervously or self-consciously. 

“Did… did you manage to communicate with her?” No, that didn’t make sense. Why would her succeeding at something like that make Wren so… like this? It certainly wouldn’t be an emergency. 

Sure enough, the blonde girl shook her head quickly. “No–I mean yes, I mean sort of. Hang on–c’mere.” Pivoting, she grabbed my hand and led me into the lab where Paige was lying comfortably (I hoped) on a padded table. There was a wheeled cart nearby with some electronic equipment stacked up on it. Wren picked up what looked like the drum and tubing part of a stethoscope that led into what I swore was part of an ancient Atari video game system with an original Gameboy attached to it via a series of wires. Yeah, it was a whole confusing thing.

“This,” Wren told me while holding up the end of the stethoscope, “sends electronic messages and receives them at close range. It–okay it gets complicated. The short version is that you’re supposed to be able to put it on Paige close to where her CPU thing is, then it’ll send a message to her. Then she can send a message back. Or, you know, whatever tiny part of her is still conscious. They have to be simple messages, and slow. Like one or two words every fifteen minutes. It’s like talking to her in her dreams.” 

“I’m guessing the big emergency isn’t that it didn’t work?” I asked hesitantly, staring at the thing in her hand, then back to Paige. 

“No,” she confirmed quietly. “It worked. I sent a message asking, ‘Can you hear?’ and she sent back, umm, well it took awhile to get all of it, but…” 

Rather than finish, she simply picked up the Gameboy and turned it so I could see the screen. Written across it were eleven words in succession, one under the next, all in capital letters. 

HELP

DAD

VIRUS

SECOND

ME

COPY

TRYING

ERASE

REPLACE

KILL

HELP

PLEASE

Reading all that through, I took a second to process it before my eyes widened. “Her dad made a virus that’s like a copy and it’s trying to replace her. I–we don’t have any more time to try to come up with the perfect plan or find the perfect people to help. We don’t have time for any of that.

“We have to start saving Paige right now.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Long Awaited 12-02 (Heretical Edge 2)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Yeah, bringing up the Godfather thing for Dare and Aylen could definitely wait. Especially since the only thing I could think about right then was what the hell someone like Puriel was doing with my grandparents. And why he’d taken them to begin with. That just didn’t make sense at all. He had to grab them from clear across the universe right at that moment, and why would he? He didn’t even know my grandparents. I mean, sure, there was that whole connection between Hercules and Zeus, but if it was just that, wouldn’t he have only grabbed Uncle Al? Also, at some point I was going to have to actually process the fact that Uncle Al was goddamn Hercules. Seriously, the fact that that whole revelation was basically a minor footnote said a hell of a lot about my life, didn’t it? 

Anyway, Puriel hadn’t only picked up Al. He took my grandparents too, and why? Why would his spell have taken them? Why would he care? It couldn’t have been to save them. He wouldn’t have cared if they were taken or killed. He couldn’t have cared. Really, everything I’d heard about the man made that impossible. 

Well, except maybe what Sachael had said. According to that man, Puriel had sent his SPS daughter to Manakel not to punish her or whatever, but to save her from Kushiel. Supposedly he’d wanted to give her a chance at a better life and hadn’t realized just how much his old friend had changed over the years. Which, well, I was taking that claim with a grain of salt for now, considering the possibly biased source. Plus, just because he might’ve cared about his own daughter enough to make his wife stop torturing her and send the girl to someone he thought would help her didn’t mean he gave a rat’s ass about what happened to a couple humans he didn’t even know. He was the one who had broken up Vanessa and Tristan’s family, after all. He didn’t care about them. According to Vanessa, he’d called her and Tristan ‘lies’, equating them with SPS Seosten. He’d wanted to drag Sariel back to her own people, forcing her to abandon her husband and children. Which, if you knew anything about Sariel, you would’ve known just how stupid and evil that was. So I definitely didn’t believe that a man who had done that would suddenly care about what happened to my totally-human grandparents. 

In any case, Sean and Aylen eventually stepped out of the room, the latter letting me know she was going to see how Avalon was, while Sean was heading for Roxa. Watching them go, I smiled faintly despite myself. For a moment, I was distracted from focusing so much on what was going on with Puriel. Was it weird that I was glad Aylen cared about Avalon so much? I mean, obviously I had Shiori and Avalon, so it made sense that both of them could have someone else. And it was okay. I liked Aylen. Not like that, really. But I did like her. And I was glad Aylen and Avalon had a thing together. Some part of me, probably the part raised in normal Bystander society for almost seventeen years, thought I should have some kind of issue with this entire situation. Err, the romantic one. But I just… didn’t. I had Avalon and Shiori. Avalon had me and Aylen. Shiori had me and… well if she found someone else she liked being with in that way, that would be fine too.

It sounded weird in my head when I actually thought about it. But in practice, I was fine with it. Which, some part of me briefly wondered if that had anything to do with the whole Heretic thing. Did being connected to the Edge sort of… make us more okay with this kind of relationship, either from a Reaper thing or from the Seosten wanting their Heretics to have lots of children and interconnected relationships like that? I–huh. Well that was a terrifying rabbit hole to peer into. 

Whatever, I’d think about that more later. Or not. Or I’d just ignore the thought entirely and–fuck. Well, right now I was going to focus on this situation. My eyes focused on Mom and Dad even as Tabbris was urgently giving them advice about safely projecting without going that way. She had also insisted that Dad not do anything until her mother made it here to give her own advice and to be present just in case something went wrong. Which, yeah, that was completely fair. 

We didn’t have to wait long for Sariel to show up, either. Apparently when her daughter called for urgent help about a family situation, she didn’t waste any time. Before we even had to start worrying about Dad asking more questions about how our mission had gone, the woman had arrived at the door. She and my mother exchanged brief glances, Mom bowing her head slightly as if in acknowledgment and adding a quiet murmur of thanks. It was met by a very faint smile and nod from the Seosten woman. 

That done, she closed the distance from the entrance and asked what exactly was going on. So, we told her the full situation. Dare filled in most of it, giving Dad time to just sit with Mom while Tabbris perched on his lap. And wow, Sariel had an even bigger reaction than the rest of us had to the reveal about Puriel. She reached down to cover Tabbris’s ears before speaking a few choice words in a mixture of English, Latin, and some other language I didn’t even know. But none of the words were polite. 

Tabbris, of course, squirmed her way free and squinted that way. “Mama, I’ve heard bad words before.” 

“Of course you have, my brave girl,” Sariel agreed, running a hand through her hair. “But there’s bad words and then there’s the words that come to mind when that man is involved. Different levels.” 

With that, the woman straightened. “Okay. You’re right, the easiest way to find out what’s going on would be to project yourself to your mother. But over that distance, with you having so little experience, and everything Puriel might have put in the way to shield himself, I don’t think you should do it alone.” 

Her words made Tabbris gasp. “Dad! You can still be possessed, so they can help you do the projecting thing!” 

Oh, right. Yeah, that hadn’t occurred to any of us. Wow, we really were worn out from everything. Sariel and Tabbris had a point. Dad didn’t have much experience with this stuff beyond a little bit of practice with Mercury, but someone who did, or just had more power, could possess him and help. Hell, that would probably even be a good way of pulling him back if he started to be physically yanked there. Someone else being connected to him could act as a sort of anchor. And even if it didn’t, if worse came to worst and he was pulled that way, at least he wouldn’t be completely alone. 

That, naturally, led to a bit of a discussion about who should do the possessing. And we realized something else. It didn’t have to be just one person. Sariel, Tabbris, and I could all form a Choo-maneuver stack. With three of us it would be even better. Tabbris and I could help anchor Dad because of who we were, because of our connection to him. And Sariel had the power and expertise to help direct the projection in the first place. 

Unfortunately, Mom couldn’t be a part of that. Which I was pretty sure she wasn’t happy about. But she kept it quiet, obviously not wanting to make the situation harder or more complicated. That said, I was pretty sure that if any bad Seosten had presented themselves as a target right then for Mom to take a gamble on getting their possession power, she wouldn’t have hesitated. 

Then Sariel, after a slight pause, turned toward Mom. Her voice was quiet. “Joselyn, if you like, I can help you with a spell that will allow you and Virginia here to serve as… anchors of a sort. Think of the spell that you will maintain as a bright beacon to help guide us back here across the long distance. Your husband’s body will be here the entire time, but our minds will be there, and this spell will help him, and the rest of us, find our way back to this spot.” 

Mom didn’t hesitate. No matter how she might have felt about Sariel herself, the instant the woman made that suggestion, she nodded. “Yes. Whatever we have to do. If you say it’ll help…” Only then did she pause very, very briefly before repeating. “If you say it’ll help, then yes.” 

Dare nodded in agreement. “Of course. Anything to help make certain this goes well.” While Sariel and Mom were focused on each other, she gave me a brief glance. We locked gazes, and I nodded in understanding. This… this would be the first time Dare did a spell with Mom, considering my mother had been a tiny child the last time she knew who Dare really was. It would be the first time that Dare did a spell with her daughter. It was such a big moment… and we couldn’t actually tell Mom what that meant. Damn it, we couldn’t even tell her how important it was, or that it was important at all. Dare had to play this whole thing completely cool, had to not give away how much the situation meant to her or how–

Fuck. This wasn’t fair. Not one single part of my grandmother’s situation was fair. Why couldn’t we find a way to just stabilize the banishment spell so that she didn’t have to live like this all the time? How long was this going to go on? How long was she going to have to pretend her own daughter, my mother, wasn’t basically the most important person in the world to her? It couldn’t be forever, could it? There had to eventually be a way to fix this, a way to make it so Virginia Dare could be known for who she really was. Right? God, I hoped so. I really, truly hoped so. 

In any case, that led to Sariel giving Mom and Dare a bit of a crash course in how to create the spell she’d been talking about. It was complicated, but both of them understood magic well enough for Sariel to feel comfortable with letting them do it with minimal guidance. Though it wasn’t like we had a lot of choice unless we wanted to wait an extra two or three weeks for a full battery of lessons. 

Yeah, that might’ve been smart. But we were working with what we had. We needed to get to the bottom of what Puriel was doing with my grandparents, and that couldn’t wait weeks. We had to find out right now. 

Once that was done, and I managed to tear my attention away from the fact that Mom and Dare  were working together (and everything that meant), I found myself facing Sariel, Tabbris, and my father. “I guess we need blood now.” 

Tabbris, of course, wanted to use her blood, but her mother’s was stronger, especially as far as possession went. She’d had a lot longer for her possession power to grow. So, it made more sense to use her blood. And she already had some prepared in a small curved glass dish, holding it out for Dad to put his finger into. He did so, and a moment later he was, temporarily at least, a Natural Sariel Heretic. Suddenly, I kind of wanted to see how good he was at playing darts. But that would have to wait. This was a lot more important. Seriously though, we needed to check on that at some point. 

With that in mind, I cleared my throat before hesitantly speaking up with,  “We’re ready for this, then?” 

Tabbris grabbed my hand while nodding. “Uh huh! We’ll find out what that jerk’s up to and get your grandparents back! Right, Mama?” 

A very faint, yet clearly worried smile, Sariel looked to her daughter. “Yes. First, I need you all to know, digging through this woman’s mind would be a very bad idea. I know it will be tempting to search her memories to see what exactly is going on. But you have to resist that. The more you try to look into her mind, the more of a chance you will lose your grasp back here and end up physically transporting everyone. Stay out of her mind as much as possible.” 

She waited for everyone to nod and agree before adding, “Also, speaking of transporting, no transporting. Period. No matter what happens, we will come back here. Do you understand?” She was looking to me and then to my dad. “Even if something bad is happening, I promise you that we do not stand a chance against Puriel. Whatever it is, whatever he’s doing with them, we come back here and get the reinforcements we need to do something about it. This is just a reconnaissance check.” Her voice was firm, eyes staring intently at Dad, almost looking through him. “No matter what.” 

My father’s reply was quiet, yet firm. “Yes. I understand the stakes. They’re my parents, but these are our girls. I’m not not risking my daughters just to make a pointless stab at hurting the man who played the king of the gods. But I still have to know. I need to know what’s going on.”

There was a brief pause while Dad, Mom, Dare, and Sariel all exchanged glances and what seemed to be silent communication. Finally, Sariel gave a nod of satisfaction. “Good. Let’s do this then. Remember, if something goes wrong, focus on the anchors here. You’ll feel the spell that Virginia and Joselyn are performing. Let that pull you back to this spot.” 

With that, Tabbris gave me a tight hug before disappearing as she possessed me. Comforted by her familiar presence, I turned toward Sariel, who was holding a hand out to me. I repressed the nerves that left me tingling before taking the offered hand. A second and a bit of focus later, and I disappeared into her. Not that I had any chance of controlling the woman, of course. Tabbris and I were both just along for the ride while Sariel turned to put a hand on our dad’s shoulder.

Like that, we were inside him. I could feel my father’s worry about his parents, and his anxiousness as far as this whole situation went. I also felt his relief that both of us were home and safe, along with a certainty he felt that there was something about what happened while we were gone that we hadn’t told him yet. But it was clouded over and distracted by his focus on his own mother and father. 

Sariel didn’t waste any time. Lincoln, focus on your parents. Think about them, what they look like, what they sound like, what they feel like. Girls, you do the same. You both met them, you know them. All three of you. Focus on everything you know about those two. I’ll direct the recall power, but you have to focus on them to help guide it. 

So, I did just that. My thoughts focused on all the times I’d spoken to Popser and Grandmaria. I thought of sitting in our kitchen when they visited, of helping my grandmother make dinner (those were basically the only times our oven got used correctly), of being in the backyard with my grandfather to watch the stars. I thought of running and squealing before he picked me up. I thought of hugging them both at night. I thought of talking to them on the phone, of every moment I’d interacted with them. I thought of how much I cared about my grandparents. Distantly, I could sense Tabbris doing the same, though her thoughts and memories were all tinted by a sadness that they’d had no idea she was there. As well as a worry about how they would react if they did. 

Before I could focus too much on that, I felt a sort of whooshing sensation. It was working. We were being mentally (our physical bodies stayed firmly planted in the Starstation) projected far, far away. It was all a jumble rush of motion and light that almost made me feel sick. 

Then we were there. We were right there. I felt my grandmother’s presence even as I was staring through her eyes to see… a kitchen? Yeah, it was definitely a kitchen. Not an Earth-based one, of course. This was the same sort of high-tech, sci-fi kitchen I’d seen while out in Seosten space. Full of weird gizmos I still couldn’t even begin to understand the function of. Again, that wasn’t saying much, considering I didn’t understand the function of a lot of Earth-based kitchen gadgets.

Still, we were definitely seeing through my grandmother’s eyes. I could see her hands as she carefully mixed what looked like some vegetables and meat together in a bowl. She didn’t… seem to be a prisoner. She was humming a song to herself as she worked, before turning a bit toward the other side of the kitchen. There, we could all see a collection of Seosten children lining a table as they worked on chopping more vegetables and meats, filling bowls with them, or otherwise clearly helping to prepare whatever meal this was. 

One of those children, a girl with hair that was half-black and half-blonde, was standing next to the table, beside a much-younger boy with brown hair. The two seemed to be talking quietly before the boy got up. Together, they stepped over to where my grandmother was. 

“Does our mother cook?” the boy asked, sounding curious. The girl, his sister apparently, was watching silently from just behind him. 

“Oh, sweetie, I’m afraid I don’t know your mother enough to say how much cooking she does,” Grandmaria answered. “But I’ll tell you what, if she doesn’t, you can show her what we learned here, okay? 

“I may not know much about this Sariel, but from what I’ve heard, she’ll adore learning from her children.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Building Connections 16-10 (Summus Proelium)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

A/N – There is an update for voting on Peyton’s name in my first comment at the bottom of this chapter! If you’d like to participate in the final round of determining what her Touched name will be out of the three finalists, jump down there once you finish this chapter!

Deicide didn’t know exactly where this Amanda Sanvers was, of course. That would have been too easy. Instead, she had a list of possible last locations, along with people who had spoken to the girl somewhat recently and might be able to give a better idea of where she was. Apparently Deicide was worried that if she or her people dug any deeper than that, Sanvers herself would hear about it and go even deeper into hiding out of paranoia that they were somehow working for the monster who had traumatized her so much years ago. 

She also told us a bit more about that situation, about how a very early Pencil, before even taking up leadership of the Scions, had taken this girl’s family prisoner. Apparently, on camera, he had forced Amanda’s parents to shoot each other in order to save the lives of both Amanda and her brother. Nick Sanvers had completely disappeared within a year, something about going to an Alaskan oil rig to work. But Amanda had stuck around for one reason or another, mostly going underground, changing her name repeatedly, that sort of thing. From what Deicide knew, it sounded like the girl was staying specifically to testify against Pencil if they ever managed to catch him. So the police and Star-Touched kept her somewhat informed about how their various investigations into the Scions were going. It wasn’t really by-the-book, but they were impressed by how tough she was to not take off for another continent. And honestly, so was I. If she had experienced Pencil firsthand and still wanted to stick around to testify against him given the chance? Yeah, she was pretty brave. 

Brave, but not entirely stupid. Hence the whole changing her name and disappearing thing. A couple of the authorities knew how to contact her, but even they had to jump through certain hoops to do so. She refused to go into normal witness protection. Something about not trusting it and wanting to manage on her own. Which, apparently she was pretty good at if the girl was still alive after all this time. So yeah, kudos to her. 

Which, of course reminded me of a certain other person who had stayed hidden from the Scions for a long time now. Robert–Bobby Parson, my old driver and the man who had apparently saved me back when my own grandfather had sent his men to kill Anthony and his family, and to abduct me. Yeah, Bobby was another one I needed to find. I had the feeling that he would be able to answer even more questions about my family. Especially considering everything I’d already found. Like the toys in his cabin with the code that had led me to find out more about Paige. Why did he have those there? And where was he now? Had he just gone deeper after finding out Pencil had gotten so close to finding him? And why was Pencil really after him? If the psychopath was that obsessed with tracking him down, it had to be something pretty important, right? 

Whatever, the point was, I had a lot to deal with. Right now, I really had to focus on finding a different member of the ‘stay the fuck away from Pencil society.’ I had to focus on finding Amanda Sanvers. 

Okay, that wasn’t exactly the immediate concern. That, at the moment, was looking at me from across the roof both of us were standing on a few minutes after Cavalcade had dropped us off. She was just finishing the sandwich that the mercenary had insisted on picking up for us. I had one too, but wasn’t eating it yet. It was still wrapped up and tucked into one of the pockets of my suit for later. 

Taking a breath, I focused on Peyton. “Look, you really don’t need to be involved in any of this. Trust me, you don’t want to. Like I said, you don’t owe Deicide anything. And you definitely don’t owe me enough to put your neck anywhere near this shit.” 

Peyton just stared at me. “Dude, you’re like… what, a thirteen-year-old kid? You shouldn’t be anywhere near this shit either. But you are, for some reason. Maybe that paper chick’s right about this Sanvers girl talking to you because you’re not a threat. But like, that brings up a good question. If Amanda Sanvers has been like… you know, cooperating with the authorities and trying to bring Pencil down, why does Deicide think she’s got this top secret information about his power or whatever?” 

“I asked her about that when you went out with Cavalcade and I stayed behind for a minute,” I informed her. “Apparently this Amanda girl thinks that the only reason Pencil hasn’t like… totally gone after her is because he believes she doesn’t know anything important about him. According to Deicide, Amanda saying she’d cooperate with the cops and then supposedly not being able to tell them anything useful is her way of letting the Scions know they don’t need to come after her. I mean, think about it. Pencil doesn’t really care about leaving witnesses. They know what he is and what he’s done. It’s not like he’s thinking ahead that much to a trial or whatever. The only thing that would make him come after her hard is if he thought she knew something dangerous about him, something that could bring him down or expose a weakness. So, Amanda makes it clear she’s trying to help the cops but can’t tell them anything helpful. Which reassures Pencil so he has no real reason to expend that much effort looking for her, because if she did know anything, she would’ve told them.” 

Peyton considered that for a moment, running it through in her head before nodding. “I guess that makes sense. But what makes Deicide think this girl actually does know something big?” 

I shrugged at that. “Something about hearing it through a friend of a friend of a friend, or whatever. Amanda said something to someone that made it sound like she might know a secret about Pencil’s power, and it got back to Deicide.” With that, I shook my head. “But seriously, like I said, you don’t need to be involved in this, Peyton. This is way, way too much to ask.” 

She, however, shook her head. “I’m not going after the Scions, dude. No fucking way. I don’t–I’m scared. Yeah, I’m too scared for that. But if this girl–if she really does know something that can stop those assholes from–” She choked a bit on her words, blanching while her arms folded across her stomach. The floating marbles that weren’t part of her armor hovered protectively in front of her. “Everyone knows what Pencil does to people. If this Amanda girl really does know something that can help stop him? I don’t care if it’s Deicide or the Star-Touched, the military, or the freaking Smurfs who pull it off. Getting rid of that bastard is a good thing. And if I can help do that just by helping you track down this girl? Then… then I wanna be a part of that.” 

Squirming on her feet, the girl quietly added, “I was… scared–terrified when that asshole and his friends abducted me, and they didn’t even have any powers. Then yesterday with Juice and those fucking–” Cutting herself off, she gave a quick shake of her head, eyes closing briefly as she pulled it together. “I’ve been really scared, so I know what that’s like. But I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be one of his victims. I can’t–” The girl swallowed hard, clearly afraid even as she pushed on. “Even if all I do is help a little bit, I wanna help stop other people from feeling as terrified as I was before. No, even more terrified, because… because the Scions are worse. All the things they’ve done, everything they like to…” Again, she trailed off, taking a moment to collect herself before forcing the last words out. “ Please. I just want to help.” 

Well, shit, what exactly was I supposed to say to that? No, you’re not allowed to be brave? No, you can’t contribute to helping people, only I’m allowed to do that? Wait a minute, was this how people like That-A-Way had felt about me throwing myself into danger while refusing to join their team (before she understood why I’d done that)? Hell, was this what people felt in general about me doing this sort of stuff? Or worse, since as far as they knew I was like, twelve or thirteen? 

Eesh, how did they deal with it? 

Shaking that off, I finally agreed, “Okay. I mean, I’m not sure how it’ll go, but yeah. If you wanna help out, that could be cool. And we can like… talk about doing some other Star-Touched stuff together, if you still want. You know, to help people and to help you figure out exactly how your power works.” Taking in a breath and letting it out as I struggled not to show my own nervousness about this whole situation, I faced the girl. “If you really want to join me and my friends, and just… help people without being part of a real team, then… then that’s cool.” 

I wasn’t going to tell her the full truth about the Ministry. Not yet. But I could ease her into things, take her to meet Trevithick and the others there. Which would also, hopefully, mean Wren would have another person to come help in case something bad happened at the shop. Yeah, yeah this was a good thing. And if eventually it turned out Peyton really could be trusted with the Ministry information, that had to be good too, right? 

Anyway, it was the best plan I had right now. Yeah, it wasn’t perfect and there were definitely still ways it could go wrong. Not to mention the guilt I would feel if Peyton got hurt specifically because she was hanging around me and all my problems. But it wasn’t up to me to tell her she couldn’t help. And I couldn’t bring myself to send her off to the Minority while knowing what I did about how she would likely be exploited and used. So, this was the best compromise I had. 

While Peyton was about to respond to that, the Touched-business phone in my pocket buzzed. Turning a bit, I took it out and glanced at the screen. There was a text from Wren, saying she really needed to talk to me asap, along with a few ambulance and police emojis. Then there was an added note that there were no cops and that she and the others were fine but it really was super-important bordering on emergency and–yeah, she went on a bit in several texts. Clearly, something big had happened but it wasn’t to the point of active gunfire or anything, and they weren’t in immediate life and death danger. But it was still an emergency. One she apparently didn’t want to get into over the phone for whatever reason. 

So, exhaling, I sent back a message that I would be there soon and that I was bringing our new friend. With that, I looked back to Peyton. “Well, I guess I’m needed back at… okay, there are some things I need to tell you. I’ll do it on the way. That is, if you still want to come?” 

Peyton, in turn, nodded quickly. “I’m in. I mean, I’m as in as you want right now, I guess. I mean–” Cutting herself off, she simply shrugged. “I wanna help. I wanna participate. I um, hold on.” Pivoting, she took her own phone out, which had apparently started buzzing as well. Transforming the helmet to expose her mouth so her voice wouldn’t be muffled at all, she started talking brightly. “Hey, Mom! Nope, like I said, I’m just fine. Uh huh. Oh right, the password is peppermint patty. Uh huh. Yes, I’m positive. Thanks. Yep, I’ll be good. Bye. Bye!” Repeating the last word emphatically, she hit the disconnect button and exhaled. “Sorry, Mom’s been a bit… protective ever since the you-know-what happened. If I don’t give her the password she thinks someone’s holding a gun to my head to make me say everything’s fine.”

“So, definitely not gonna tell her what you’re up to now, huh?” I put in mildly. 

Blanching, the girl shook her head quickly. “Not on your life. She’d never understand. I mean, I love her, she loves me, all that stuff. But she’d never really understand that… that I have to help make sure no one else feels helpless like I did.” Squaring her shoulders, Peyton faced me, the mask returning to cover the bottom of her face once more. “I’m ready to go.” 

With a nod, I turned to the edge of the roof. “Right, let’s get–” I’d taken two steps before stopping with my leg raised. Pivoting back, I blanched a bit. “Uhhh, right. I’m not sure how we get you over there. Think you could run alongside me and I could paint you to places once we–” 

“Dude,” she interrupted. “Check this out.” With that, the girl looked toward the marbles hovering nearby. “Show him, guys.” 

Immediately, the gold and white marbles flew into one another before starting to shift and grow. Soon, what looked like a gold surfboard with white trim literally hovered there in the air beside the girl. Peyton, in turn, floated up off the roof herself. She literally floated up a foot or so in the air. “I can make the armor lift me up,” she announced. “Sorta like flying. The armor floats and I go with it. But I don’t really um, have the hang of it yet. Hard to keep focusing on it while the armor pulls and pushes my–yeah. It’s easier to do this.” 

With a gesture from one hand, she sent the floating surfboard under her feet before landing on it. “See? My armor bonds to it, so…” To demonstrate, she flew up another few feet before the board turned upside down with Peyton still attached. She dangled there, hanging from her feet. Or rather, from the boots of her armor, which were firmly attached to the board. “Can’t fall off!” 

“Hah, dude…” Despite myself, I was grinning. “That’s cool.” It seriously was. I’d wondered if the fact that her marbles and the things they made could hover would mean the armor could actually fly, but it made sense that the armor yanking her around through the air wouldn’t be super comfortable. Maybe she’d get used to that or learn to adjust how she made it move so that she could actually fly normally with it eventually. In the meantime, the hoverboard (or was that flyboard?) was an amazing compromise. 

“Right?!” Clearly grinning behind the helmet, Peyton flipped herself rightside up. “Now I can keep up with you.” 

“Oh, can you?” Feeling myself start to smirk, I glanced toward the edge of the roof. “Let’s find out.” 

First, of course, I texted Izzy to let her know something came up over at Wren’s that I had to check out and that she should definitely go see that second movie. 

That done, I told Peyton what area of town we were going to, using a landmark she was familiar with. Then I gave her a short nod, a thumbs up, and took off running while activating the green wings I had painted onto my shoes. Behind me, Peyton shouted something about cheating, before taking off on her board just as I reached the edge of the roof and used blue paint to spring up and forward through open air in a long flip. Instantly, as soon as my body righted itself, I used red paint to yank myself the rest of the way to a billboard, adding a bit of blue against the sign itself to spring up and forward even further. 

As I landed on the next roof, Peyton on her flying surfboard was just gliding past the sign I had bounced off of. She was crouched a bit on bent knees, urging the board to go faster to catch up with ‘that dork.’ The girl was clearly saying the last part loud enough for me to hear, so I painted a face with its tongue out on my back just before activating another bit of green I had pre-painted to keep my speed boost going as I popped my skates out and practically flew along the edge of that roof. 

That continued over the next few buildings. I built up a lead while running with the green paint active, but I couldn’t keep it going forever. Peyton would close the gap with her steady speed and ability to fly straight over or around any obstacle, while I used red paint to pull myself ahead every time we hit the edge of a roof. Once in awhile, she pulled ahead, then I would use a combination of blue, red, and green paint to regain the lead. 

It was… fun. That’s all there was to it. We laughed, teasing each other and making up ridiculous claims or faux-threats while she flew upside down over my head and swatted the back of my helmet, or when I used red paint against her board to propel myself past her in one spot where there was a large gap between buildings. I could see some people on the street stopping and noticing, but mostly I was just paying attention to trying my level best to stay ahead of Peyton. 

Then she got creative. Just as I was increasing my lead again, something thin, long, and metallic went flying past me. It looked like a whip with a grappling hook attached, which latched onto the corner of the building I had just been about to jump to. Twisting around, I saw Peyton still on her board. She had one hand extended, while the black and bronze marbles had combined to transform into that whip-grapple thing. Even as I watched, flatfooted for a second, the grapple-whip (it was a good fifty feet long, just very thin) retracted, yanking her forward and past me even faster than she could fly. Now she was getting the benefit of the two marbles that made up the board and the two that made up the whip-grapple. 

“Wha–hey!” Just as the girl flew past me with a cackle, I sprang to leap after her. “Totally cheating, you’re not supposed to figure out new tricks to your power before I get to beat you!” 

Her response, of course, was more cackling. 

From there, things were even closer. Peyton had worked out that she could separate the black and bronze marbles into separate but shorter whip-grapples, lashing them forward to either side of her to catch hold of things and then pull herself forward. Or she could combine them for the longer one whenever it was needed to reach something further away. She used them not only for additional speed, but also for fine course corrections. They let her spin around corners much faster. It was pretty damn cool, honestly. What she was doing was kind of a mix between hoverboarding and like… grappling her way from building to building. 

Still, I had been doing this for a bit longer. I knew my way around the city like this, especially when it came to getting over to Wren’s place. So, at the last second, I took an alley shortcut that was practically invisible until you were right on top of it, coming out to land on the roof we’d agreed to meet at just barely ahead of the other girl. There, I jumped up and down with my fists up even as Peyton landed beside me, her board and whips turning back into marbles. 

“Next time!” she declared. “I am so gonna beat you when we go again.” 

Snorting at that, I headed for the edge of the roof. “Yeah, we’ll see. Come on, whatever’s happening, Trevithick made it sound pretty important. 

“So let’s go see what’s on fire this time.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Long Awaited 12-01 (Heretical Edge 2)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

So, we made it back to Earth, after our totally and completely successful mission. Not that we could let everyone know the mission was successful. In fact, we had to pretend that we had failed as far as a big part of it went. And speaking of that big part, as soon as we were back near Earth, several of the adults pooled their power together to create a portal for Elisabet to take alongside Sachael. The latter had said he would get Elisabet set up in a private place so she could stay off the radar for awhile. And reiterated that he would not be informing his own people about what was going on just yet. At least not until he had a better idea of who he could trust, who hadn’t already been compromised by this Maestro or Godfather or whatever.

The point was, we sent them away before heading up to the Fusion school at the Starstation. Of course, we couldn’t exactly go through the sun, but there was a portal waiting for us near Earth. The portal took the ship up to the station itself, and we all got to give the best performances we could of a group that had failed to save Elisabet. The Oscar had to go to Jophiel, who managed to portray someone shocked by grief and outrage that had no outlet. She looked like a woman who wanted to kill everyone around her, yet was barely holding herself in check. It really looked like she was grieving, and I was pretty sure that no one who was watching could have guessed it was all fake. Especially since Sariel and Athena had worked up some kind of spell to mask and alter the emotions any of us were giving off just in case someone we encountered had that kind of power. Yeah, we were pulling out all the stops just to make this believable. 

Having to hide the truth about all this really sucked, especially since it would mean lying to people I cared about. The one exception was my father, since everyone basically agreed that it was too dangerous to try lying to him for very long. He’d sniff out the truth and possibly accidentally cause problems. So an exception was created in the secrecy spell to allow Mom and I to tell him the truth. And I negotiated a second exception for Professor Dare, insisting that she was the closest connection we had to Gaia and that, given everything that had happened, if she was compromised by Godfather we would all have been screwed a long time ago. 

I couldn’t tell them the real reason I needed to be able to tell Dare the truth about the Fomorian-Seosten hybrid monster. I really had to talk to her about that whole situation and find out how it related to her… to the spell. I would’ve liked to get Koren involved since she was the only other person who knew the truth about Dare, but there was no way in hell they’d agree to that. 

But, if I couldn’t talk to Koren about it just yet, at least I had managed to give myself a way of keeping Dare in the loop. I was going to take her aside as soon as possible to have that full discussion. Meanwhile, we all played up the bittersweet victory of having at least brought Dexamene back, while claiming that Elisabet had sacrificed herself to save the girl, being poisoned in her place. 

Mostly the other students and I left the adults to talk to Abigail (feeling bad about lying to her too, of course) and the other people who had stayed behind. The rest of us separated, making excuses about desperately needing to shower or just find our families and friends. 

Shiori and Columbus moved off to call their own parents so they could check in from their ‘totally normal boarding school’, while Avalon stepped away to take Salten back to his favorite nature enclosure on the station itself. Everyone basically split up, leaving me standing there with my mother and Tabbris while Dad stood nearby, watching us with a curious look. Yeah, he looked curious rather than sympathetic or sad about our supposed failure. I had a feeling it was a good thing we’d all agreed to keep him in the loop. Otherwise this thing would’ve unraveled pretty fast. But seriously, what kind of superpower did he have? How could he possibly tell this wasn’t the truth already? I was starting to think he’d somehow permanently Chimera-Bonded himself to a polygraph or something, cuz what the hell? 

Oh, and, of course, we’d left a loophole to tell Grandfather and his family. Including Aylen. Not that we told everyone about the extent of that particular bit, of course. They didn’t need to know about Aylen, Bastet, and Sonoma just yet. Sariel simply weaved them secretly into the spell herself while supposedly only leaving it open for Grandfather, and let me know about it through Tabbris. 

Either way, once we were separated enough from the others, Dad murmured, “I think we all need to talk about a few things, right?” His voice was quiet, and yet there was something else behind it. More than just his suspicion or understanding about this situation. He had something he wanted to talk about, that much was for certain. Though I couldn’t imagine what had happened that would make him react like that. 

On the other hand, knowing everything else that had happened in the past year and a half, I was gonna go ahead and guess that it was dramatic, shocking, and would end up driving all of us into a life-or-death battle with something that wanted to kill us. That seemed about right. 

Mom, Tabbris, and I exchanged brief looks before nodding. Then the four of us headed out of the ship landing area, moving through some winding corridors before reaching some other room. I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be (it was a huge station and I hadn’t been in even ten percent of it), but right now it was just an empty room, aside from a few chairs and a glass table. 

Once the door had automatically slid shut, Dad pivoted to face us. His voice was even. “I need to call a couple people up to talk about something else. But something tells me I better wait until we talk about what just happened in there.” 

Right, yeah, something else was definitely going on. I had no idea what it was, or who Dad wanted to call in to talk about it with us. But for the moment, he was right, we had to focus on our part before getting involved with anything else. 

So, between the three of us, Mom, Tabbris, and I told him the full story. Well, after Mom and Tabbris both put up some privacy spells just in case. We quickly but thoroughly explained everything about what really happened, about Godfather, about where Elisabet was, all of it. And about why we had to keep her survival a secret. It took awhile, but we managed to get the whole story out, including the part about Grandfather and his family. And that was when Tabs and I clarified things for Mom as well. We told her the truth about who Aylen really was, and about her mothers.

When we were done, both Mom and Dad looked a little taken aback for what I assumed were different reasons. First, Mom slowly murmured, “I suppose this Bastet having a golden aura explains a few things Ruthers and his people blamed on me while I was… imprisoned.” Head tilting curiously, she added, “I think I’d like to meet her.” 

“Yeah, pretty sure she’d like to meet you too,” I agreed before glancing the other way. “Uh, Dad?” 

He, in turn, shook his head in what looked like wonder. “Well, conveniently, Aylen is one of the people I need to call up to talk. She, Virginia, and Sean should be here shortly.” 

Well, that was confusing. I blinked. “Sean? What–what does Sean have to do with… “ Frowning, I asked, “What happened while we were gone?” 

Dad, however, insisted on waiting for the others. All he would say was that it had to do with my grandparents, and (once Mom and I both almost freaked out) that they were not dead or anything. He just said the situation was ‘complicated’, whatever that meant. He thought it would be better to get the whole story out together once the other three showed up. Which–yeah, that was confusing. What had my father gotten up to while we were gone? Didn’t he know he wasn’t supposed to go on random crazy adventures while I wasn’t around? There should’ve been some kind of law. 

So, we just talked a bit more about the Godfather situation. Dad was absorbing that whole reveal pretty well, considering. I had a feeling it would take awhile for the full ramifications to really sink in. Especially when it came to just how big of a threat this monster really was. Actually, I was pretty sure that part hadn’t fully sunk in for me yet. Not that we were exactly strangers to horrifically powerful and malevolent people targeting us, but still. This was basically a combination of the Fomorian biotech genius mixed with the Seosten archangel wings. And I had seen how powerful Tabbris’s own just-developing wings were. The idea of this guy, a Fomorian-Seosten hybrid empowered by that same type of doom wings, but ones that had had thousands of years to develop? Yeah, we hadn’t exactly downgraded in enemies after getting rid of Fossor. To say the least. 

By that point, before any of us could really find the right words to say something, Mom abruptly nodded to the door. “They’re here.” And sure enough, as the door slid open, Aylen stepped through with Sovereign perched on one shoulder. They were accompanied by Dare and Sean, with Vulcan bringing up the rear. 

First things first, I produced Jaq and Gus, letting the two mechanical mice head off to a corner of the room with Vulcan and Sovereign so the four cyberforms could confer. Or play, whatever they wanted to do. Either way, they were off on their own, along with some metal food Sean sent along in a bowl for all of them to share. Honestly, my two little friends there deserved a break just as much as I did. I hadn’t been able to do much for them, even get them decent metal to ingest to repair and energize themselves, since… for a long time. I didn’t know if cyberforms got spa days (or even really what a spa day was, given I’d never had one either), but they sure deserved it. 

Obviously, with Sean here, we couldn’t exactly get into the Godfather situation with Aylen and Dare. And I certainly wasn’t about to say, ‘well thanks so much for stopping by, buddy, but would you mind waiting outside for about fifteen minutes while we talk about some secret stuff you’re not allowed to know about?’ Yeah, that seemed like a bad (not to mention incredibly rude) idea. 

Still, that meant we could focus on whatever Dad’s news was. Which–well, straight off the bat he started by telling the three of us we should sit down in those chairs. Mom declined, but I decided to take his word for it and sat with Tabbris perched in my lap and my arms around her stomach. Watching my father briefly, I let my eyes drift over to Sean and Aylen, then to Dare before managing a confused, “Okay, what happened while we were gone? And who said you were allowed to go find more trouble? Don’t you know there’s a special form you have to fill out?” 

Of course, Dad simply shot right back, “And where can I find the filed forms with your signatures from all the dangerous situations you got yourself into?” With a raised eyebrow, he interpreted my look correctly, adding a flat, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” 

Still, despite the teasing words back and forth, I could tell there was something worse behind everything. Dad was trying to play things off, but he was really on edge. Which Mom clearly interpreted too, quietly asking, “Lincoln, what’s going on?” 

So, with a bit of help from the others, he told us all about what had happened when they went to check on his parents, my grandparents. Grandpartie (for Grandpa Artie, like Grand Party) and Grandmaria, as I had often called them. Of course, I also called my grandfather Popser, since he’d told me to call him Pops or sir when I was little. Over time I drifted between calling him Grandpartie or Popser.

The point was, Dad told us about not having contact with his parents for a long time, then checking it out and finding half the cabin blasted away, and then about Calafia showing up there in Alaska.  

As soon as she heard that, Mom was snarling, “If this was Ruthers and those bastards try–” 

“It wasn’t them,” Dad immediately assured us. “Calafia says they–” He amended himself. “They did try something. Litonya sent that new member of theirs–” He looked to Dare. 

“Antaeus,” she provided promptly before adding, “An old enemy of Alcaeus. Who also apparently has a connection to your family.” 

“Yeah, dude.” That was Sean as he looked toward me, folding two muscular arms across his chest. “Your grandparents’ best friend is Hercules, Flick.” 

Well that made me do a double-take. “Uncle Al? Wait, Al–what? What?” Now I was just staring at him, mouth open. I had spent time with Uncle Al. Not really my uncle, obviously, but still. He was just– he was Uncle Al, Grandpartie’s friend. “That doesn’t–why would… why…” Slowly, I slumped back in my seat while Tabbris held onto me. She seemed just as surprised. And a glance toward Mom showed that she was pretty stunned too. All three of us just stared at the rest of them. 

“Yeah,” Dad murmured, “that was pretty much my reaction too. Apparently Dad’s old friend was Hercules. And if you’re wondering why I didn’t lead with that, it’s because that’s just a side-note of this whole situation. The real story…” He paused, breathing and letting it out, clearly taking a moment to get himself under control before he pushed on. “They sent that Antaeus guy, brand new member of their Committee, to take my parents. That was their goal. But apparently something interrupted before he could pack them up.”

Then he told us more of the story. According to Calafia, my grandparents and Al (who was apparently Hercules seriously what the fuck why would he and where did he and whaaaaaat?!) disappeared right in front of Antaeus. A teleportation spell that had somehow been triggered the moment they were all in danger, apparently. Someone outside that group had teleported them out of danger. 

“Now…” Dad took a deep breath. “Now is when it gets… big.” 

“Now? It wasn’t big before?” I stared at him, feeling a deep pit of uncertainty in my stomach. Which, after everything we’d been through, was not a fun experience, in the least. “Dad, where are Grandpartie and Grandmaria? What’s going on?” 

In a voice that made it perfectly clear that he was freaking out on the inside and simply doing his best to hold it in and avoid making it worse, Dad informed us that Calafia and the Committee had apparently done a test on the remnants of the transportation spell to find out if they could track it. While they couldn’t do that (for what would quickly become obvious reasons), they were able to find out how far away the spell took my grandparents and Uncle Al. And the answer was… very, very, very fucking far. Into another galaxy sort of far. Whoever magicked them away from Antaeus (to save them?) had actually sent them clear to the other side of the universe. Which… which…

“Seosten,” Dare said immediately. “That’s the best we can figure out. Why? We have no idea. But it wasn’t the Fomorians, their magic is different.” 

“Could it be Fossor?” I hesitantly put in before amending, “I mean, someone loyal to him. You know, pissed off that we killed his master so he takes my grandparents. Or just something Fossor set up just in case something happened to him. A last minute ‘fuck you, I still win.’”

“We thought about that,” Sean confirmed. “We sort of uhhh, called in an expert of our own.” 

“My mother,” Aylen said, looking hesitantly toward my own mom before clearly looking like she should explain. 

“It’s okay,” I informed her. “We sort of just had that conversation, since you were coming and all.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Aylen,” Mom offered with a small smile. “I’d like to meet your mother sometime as well. And while we’re at it…” With that, she turned to Sean, offering a hand to him. “I don’t believe we had the chance to officially meet with everything that’s been going on in the past day. We haven’t… had a lot of time for anything, really. But thank you for helping my husband. And for being there for my daughter last year.” 

Sean suddenly seemed shy, flushing a little and mumbling something about it being no big deal. Then he quickly pressed on, explaining that they had brought Bastet in to check the teleportation remains and that she said the magic energy matched Seosten spells she had encountered. Specifically, it matched the energy given off by one Seosten in particular. 

“Puriel?!” I blurted out loud when the answer came. “Puriel took my grandparents?! But–but why would–does that mean he violated the truce? But–no he–why would he save–what? The Committee was–what?” 

“That’s the question I’ve been asking myself,” Dad murmured. “And it’s one we can get an answer to. But I wanted to wait for all of you to be back, because–” 

Tabbris was the one who got it first. “You wanna bond to a Seosten and then default recall to your mom?!” 

Quickly, Dad explained that yes, that was the idea. Except not fully recall. He could simply mentally contact my grandmother (the same way Vanessa had mentally contacted her own dad all the way out in Seosten space at first) to find out what was going on. Unfortunately, there was still some risk of ‘slipping’ and being fully pulled out there. So he had apparently been practicing the mental/partial recall with Mercury, of all people. He would bond to Mercury, possess Sean, then practice partially recalling to him. They had done that for a couple hours with only a few slips early on before Dad got the hang of it. 

“But mistakes could still happen,” he reminded us. “So, I wanted to wait. Especially since ahh, apparently it’s easier to anchor yourself when there’s people you love nearby. So…” He reached out, touching Mom’s face with one hand and my shoulder with the other before allowing that hand to slip down my arm to brush Tabbris’s hair. 

Right. We’d tell Dare and Aylen about the Godfather situation later. The last thing I wanted to do put more confusion and high emotions in the air right before Dad did something like this. He needed to focus.

Apparently I hadn’t had enough stress today, because now my dad was about to project his consciousness across the universe to peek in on what Puriel was doing with my grandparents. 

It was a good thing I never bothered to think that our lives would go back to normal anymore. 

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Building Connections 16-09 (Summus Proelium)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

A/N – See my first comment after this chapter for information about voting for Peyton’s Touched name.

Well, this was just great. Absolutely perfect, really. I’d set out to find a way to gently tell Peyton that she shouldn’t be too involved in my situation (or at least figure out how to keep her out of the worst of it), and now look at what was going on. Because of course things couldn’t just be simple for once. That would be too easy. Naturally, Deicide had to call in her favor right then. 

I tried to tell Cavalcade that the other girl wasn’t involved in this. But she insisted that both of us come with her. Apparently the fact that Peyton had been seen helping me last night, combined with the girl being here right now, convinced her that we were just what the news said. Partners, sidekicks, whatever. Either way, she said Deicide wanted me ‘and my new friend.’ Though she did pause a bit and note that Peyton looked different than she had yesterday. But the marbles were right, and she thoughtfully murmured something about shapeshifting materials. Yeah, she wasn’t an idiot. The guys last night would’ve reported about a girl with marbles that could transform into things (like the huge battering ram that hit Juice before turning into boxing gloves that hurled him off into the sky), and there had been video of it. Peyton wearing different armor right now wasn’t going to fool Cavalcade into thinking she was someone else. 

I considered several options, but the truth was that I really did owe Deicide. She’d helped save Blackjack’s daughter, and she could’ve held out for a lot more than a favor. Plus, I was kind of afraid that pissing her off might just give Janus and Juice the excuse they needed to really come after me (or even Peyton if they saw her) with the full force of their whole gang. And that was something I really didn’t want to deal with. I kind of had enough problems as it was. 

So, with a quiet murmur to the other girl that it would all be okay, I gestured to the SUV. “Guess we’re all going for a little ride then, huh? Do we need to worry about grabbing dinner on the way? Please tell me we won’t need sleeping bags. I do not do well at slumber parties.”

Cavalcade chuckled lightly under her breath. “This shouldn’t be a long trip. But, tell you what, if you’re still hungry when it’s done, I’ll grab you both whatever you want to eat on our way back. Think of it as my way of saying sorry for interrupting whatever you had going on here.” Belatedly, she added in my direction, “And you should tell your friend over there that she can stop shaking. It’s all fine. We’re–okay, we’re not friends here. But I’m not taking you to see Juice or Janus. That ain’t the type of thing I’m into. They can do their own dirty work. Besides, Deicide already told them to back off. Which is another reason you might want to keep her happy.” 

Reaching out, I took Peyton’s hand and leaned in close to whisper once more, “It’s okay. Trust me, nothing bad is gonna happen. Better if we just go along with this for now, I promise.”  

She, in turn, gave me a brief, clearly appraising look before nodding. Her hand rose, and the four remaining marbles flew down, disappearing into a hole that had appeared in the arm of her purple and silver armor.

The two of us started to the vehicle while the other girl murmured under her breath, “Do you want to tell me why you owe the leader of the Easy Eights a favor? Cuz, last time I checked, they’re the bad guys. Actually, they’re the bad guys who tried to kill both of us yesterday.”  

“It’s like she said,” I replied quietly, “this isn’t about Juice or Janus. Deicide’s their boss. She outranks them. More to the point, she scares them. And yeah, I owe her a favor. She… uhh…” Climbing in the back of the vehicle as my words trailed off, I reached out to help Peyton up while really hoping I wasn’t making a mistake by going along with this. Once we were in, I gave her a quick version of what had happened, basically telling the girl that in order to save Blackjack’s innocent daughter, we had needed to get all her medicine vials. I told her that Deicide had one of them and had promised to hand it over in exchange for a favor from both the La Casa leader himself and me. 

For a few seconds after I finished telling her that, Peyton just stared at me. She seemed to start to say something once or twice, only to trail off. In the end, the only thing she could manage to say was a slightly weak, “You’re a really busy person, you know that?” 

The words made Cavalcade, who had started the SUV and begun pulling out of the lot by then, chuckle. “She’s got you there, Paintball. You are not exactly one to coast along.” With that, she turned a bit to look over her shoulder at us. “And speaking of ‘she’, what do I call you, girl? Cuz I don’t think something like ‘Paintball’s Sidekick’ is gonna cut it for very long.”

“Um.” Now Peyton managed to look a bit embarrassed despite only her nose and eyes being visible. “Yeah, I thought about that all day. You know, trying to figure out a name that fit me. It’s really hard!” After that outburst, she coughed and slumped a bit in the seat. “Um, I kinda threw out a bunch of ideas for being too dumb or derivative or whatever. Like, I thought about Armsmaster, but that just sounds weird. Plus I’m not a master of anything. I’m like… Armsamateur and that’s silly. And Blacksmith is too close to Silversmith, so it sounds like I’m trying to play off his name, which is just… ehhh. Not really what I’m going for.” 

Boy oh boy did I not want her to do anything that attracted my father’s attention, like having a name that was similar to his. Keeping my voice flat, I agreed, “Yeah, let’s make it your name.” 

“Then I started thinking about other words,” the girl went on. “I thought of like… I keep making armor and weapons, so a knight sort of deal. Something like an assistant sort of knight in training. Like uhh, squire or a page.” 

The last suggestion almost made me audibly choke before I caught myself. I had to take a second to make sure my voice wouldn’t be strained before managing, “I think we can do better than page.” 

“Yeah.” Slumping with a groan, Peyton lamented, “Like I said, it’s hard. Hey, Lady Kidnapper, you’ve been doing this for a long time, do you have any suggestions?” 

“First off, I’m not kidnapping you,” Cavalcade retorted. “You’re just going to have a conversation that your friend there agreed to have. You’ll be fine. Trust me, we’ve been through this before. And this time I’m not even making the kid hire me to get you out of there. And I could’ve, you know. But I’m already being paid enough to bring you here.” 

While Peyton gave me a quick, confused look at that little tidbit, I waved her off while trying not to squirm too uncomfortably. “Never mind that. What about a name like uhh… Artisan?” 

“Nah, that just makes me sound like a sandwich,” she objected. “See? Told you it’s hard.” 

Cavalcade spoke up then, having thought for the past few seconds. “From what I heard, it sounds like you make those little marble things into whatever you want, like your armor and weapons. You make things, so what about something like Artificer? Or Alloy, for the way you mix them together. Or just Marble. I mean, that’s what they look like.” 

Thinking back to the names I had thought through before settling on Paintball, I put in, “There’s Chrome or Chromatic too. Or Facade, cuz you’re making sort of…artificial armor and stuff? Or… wait a second.” Taking one of my phones out, I typed on it briefly. “Hang on, where… okay so turns out no one knows where marbles were first invented. But they were first mass produced by someone named Sam Dyke–I suggest staying away from that name, in Akron, Ohio. Maybe Akron? One sec, let me make sure that’s not a bad word. Uhhh, right, apparently it comes from an old Greek word for a summit or a high point.” 

“Akron? You think I should name myself after the city in Ohio?” After saying that, Peyton breathed out. “Yeah, maybe. Everything sounds weird right now.” 

Between the three of us, we went back and forth a bunch. Other options we came up with included Smelt, which Peyton mostly nixed based on the jokes people would play with that involving smelled, Chromatic Knight or Chroknight, Galatea for the mythological story about the statue that came to life, Mercurial, Shine, twisting Marble to Marbull, Marbelous, or Marball, Stoneshape, Iris, Palette, Color Wheel, Hexaknight, Orbits, Metallia, the Colored Cavalier, Hexalidin, or even Armory for the fact that she could make so many weapons and such out of her marbles. 

“Or,” the girl finally suggested, “I could go with something closer to like… your thing. You know, something like Pinball. Or Gumball. Those both look sorta like these marble things and they fit the Paintball theme.” 

“I have a theme now?” I managed, flushing a bit behind the mask. The two of us kind of shrugged at each other, both clearly trying to find the right thing to say. 

“Well, you’ll have to set aside some more time to think about it later,” Cavalcade informed us. “Cuz we’re here.” She had pulled the SUV into an old rundown motel, bypassing the front office before pulling backwards into a spot just in front of the room at the furthest end of the building. “For now I suggest you just answer to ‘hey you.’ Head inside. I’ll wait here for you to come out, then take you wherever you wanna go. You know, after we grab food. And hey, good luck.”

Squinting at the woman while opening the door, I muttered, “You get a kick out of saying stuff to make people nervous, don’t you, Miss Oh You’ll Be Fine It’s Just A Conversation?”  

She made an obvious snorting sound at that, waving me off. “You will be fine and it is just a conversation. But hey, I’ve gotta get my fun somewhere, don’t I? Now go on, get in there. I’d like to get this over with at some point so I can get on with my life. I don’t exactly get paid by the hour here.” 

There were a few things I wanted to say to that, but I stopped myself. Actually, it was weird how well I got along with the Sell-Touched woman, given basically every time I saw her, she was escorting me to a conversation I didn’t want to have. Huh, that was kind of a thing by now, wasn’t it? It was a little weird how many times it had happened already.  

Before going into the motel room, I stopped and put a hand against Peyton’s arm. “Listen, you don’t have to get more involved in this. No matter what she says, you don’t owe her a favor. I do. So don’t worry about it, okay? Whatever she wants to happen, if it’s something I can do without… you know, compromising myself, then I’ll pay her back. You don’t need to do anything.” Pausing briefly, I added in an even quieter voice, “And once we’re out of this, if you want to take off and never talk to me again, I’ll understand. Trust me, I more than get it.”  

Peyton, however, shook her head. “I may not know much about what’s going on, but it sounds like you did the right thing. I mean, it’s not that kid’s fault her dad is a villain. Besides, there’s a lot worse villains than him out there.” Then she shrugged. “Plus, if helping with whatever she wants done makes her keep that big electric asshole off me, then it’s kind of a win-win.” 

Much as I hated to say it, she had a point. The Easy Eights were kept together despite lots of bad blood between them, and their individual lieutenants, out of the sheer power of Deicide and the threat of what she would do if she was annoyed at them. If she told them to stay away from us, or at least not to take it too far, they would follow the instructions. Basically, I was pretty sure they were more afraid of their boss than they were pissed at Peyton and me. So far, at least. 

So, after exchanging brief looks, the two of us moved to the motel room door and I opened it before stepping in first. Whatever happened next, I wanted to put myself in front of the other girl.

On the other side was an ordinary, incredibly dinky motel room. There was just a single bed, a long, low cabinet with a television bolted to it, an open closet with a couple metal hangers, and a bathroom. Oh, and a microwave next to the television. Finally, beside a small wooden table next to the bed, Deicide herself stood. She looked as imposing as ever, a tall, clearly feminine-armored figure made of bits of paper and pages torn from novels. A dozen more books hovered around her, half-open. When we came in, she looked our way before the open books began to randomly flip through pages. Words on the pages glowed before being spoken aloud in a booming female voice that came from the books themselves. “Paintball, and your new friend, welcome. Thank you for coming on such short notice.” The sentences were put together from words in different books, but there was no real pause between them. She had fine enough control over her power to speak in full, complete sentences simply by making the books around her flip to the right page and read out a word or two before the next one took over. 

It was impressive, yeah. But why did she do that? Was it just to show off and be impressive? Why didn’t the woman herself ever actually speak? Was there a reason for that? As someone who had to hide and disguise my own voice, maybe I was just projecting onto her. And yet, something was niggling at my brain. It felt like there was something there. 

Still, I pushed the thought back and offered the woman a shrug. “Oh, you know, it’s not like we had anything better to do.” Belatedly, I added, “Now, yesterday, we had some stuff to deal with. You know, like your people terrorizing a bunch of innocent civilians and trying to burn down their shops, destroy their livelihood, and use them as hostages. Just a few little things like that.”  

I wasn’t sure if the way Deicide spoke through the books allowed for intonations subtle enough to portray things like guilt or regret. But if she was capable of that, it didn’t show up here as she simply replied, “The Easy Eights are at best a loose alliance of forces. I hold them together at the top, but if I squeeze too hard, it will fall apart. And then Cuélebre and his gang will run over our fractured groups, gaining themselves even more power than they already have. Juice has been informed that he is not to direct his efforts to come after either of you until such time as I rescind such an order. That said, should you put yourselves in his direct path again, he will react accordingly. He will not expend effort to hunt you down, but nor will he avoid you should you be in his way or interfere again. What the three of you get up to in the middle of a battlefield is up to you. That is the most I can offer right now. And its continuance hinges on you fulfilling your side of our bargain.” 

“Right, that whole favor thing.” Grimacing, I let out a breath and glanced to see how Peyton was doing. She was silent, just staring at the Fell-Touched in front of us, so I turned back to Deicide and asked, “What exactly is it you need me to do? Don’t forget, I already said I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt people. Or lead to people being hurt.”

The paper-armored woman gave a very slight nod. “Of course, that was our agreement. As promised, the thing I wish for you to do does not entail harming or leading to anyone’s harm. Well, perhaps your own should you fail, but that is the sort of risk one takes. In fact, I dare say this is something that would greatly help this city and all the innocent civilians you care about so much, should you pull it off.” 

Okay, now I was curious. Which was clearly the intention, but still. Manipulation or not, it worked. Folding my arms, I slowly asked, “Help the city, huh? So, what exactly do you want?”  

The answer came immediately. “I think you would both agree that the Scions of Typhon are a much greater threat to the safety of this city than anyone in my organization, yes?” 

“Wha–are you fucking crazy?” That was Peyton. “We’re not going after the Scions! I don’t care how much he owes you.” She gestured to me. “That’s suicide and you know it. You can’t call in a favor to ask someone to go after those fucking psychopaths. Go jump off a fucking bridge!” With her outburst, the gold, white, bronze, and black marbles flew into view. The first two transformed into a pair of kite shields and hovered protectively in front of us while the remaining two combined to form a massive sword that was almost too large for the room.

“Stop,” I quickly put in, putting a hand on her arm. “I don’t think that’s what she’s asking. At least, I hope she’s not dumb enough to think that would fly.” 

Sure enough, Deicide (who hadn’t moved or shown any reaction to the transforming marbles) raised one hand with her palm out. “Easy. No, of course not. I happen to have some experience with assigning the right resources to the right problems. And while you may have had some luck in the past, you are not the right resource to point at the Scions. No, this isn’t about sending you after them. But I do want them to be taken off the board, just as I’m sure you do. That’s where this favor comes in. There is a witness, someone who experienced Pencil early on in his career. I believe she may know something important about how his power works, a way to exploit or stop it.” 

“If there’s some special witness, why hasn’t she helped the cops or Stars?” I put in. 

“She has been in hiding for quite awhile, out of fear of what that… man will do to her if given another chance,” came the answer. “But we’ve finally narrowed down her location enough that it should be possible to find her. I want to bring her in to answer questions, but I do not wish to traumatize the girl even more. Hence, sending you. That is my request for this favor. Find and speak with this survivor, ask what she knows about Pencil. She’s more likely to speak to a Star-Touched, particularly one like you.”

“One like–never mind.” Shaking that off, I asked, “So who is this mythical early survivor of Pencil who could maybe help take him down?” 

“Her name,” Deicide informed us, “is Amanda Sanvers.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Interlude 11B – Erin And Nevada (Heretical Edge 2)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

“Yeah, well fuck you assholes too!” A loud clattering sound accompanied that outburst as Erin Redcliffe hurled the phone she had been using against the nearby wall of the empty (aside from desks and chairs) classroom she had stepped into. As it fell to the floor, she added in its direction, “Guess what, I’m gonna get hold of my dad whether you stupid fuckers like it or not!” 

From the doorway, Nevada spoke up. “Still having problems getting through to him, huh?” The young blonde teacher was holding an enormous brown sack in both hands that was completely overflowing with random objects, from a tall lamp, to a stuffed rabbit head, to a golf club, a long set of bells attached to a rope that hung out one side and jingled with each motion, and more.

“What–oh.” Spinning that way in surprise before realizing who it was, Erin visibly flushed, her face turning almost the same color as her recently vividly dyed hair. “Sorry, this is your classroom, isn’t it? Hang on, I’ll get out.” Walking quickly to where she had thrown the phone, the girl bent over to pick it up, mumbling to herself about finding some other place to scream.

“It’s okay,” Nevada assured her while shifting the heavy bag, making the lamp slide out of sight to reveal an umbrella with a shotgun attached as the handle. “Someone should get some use out of it. Not like there’s any classes going on til tomorrow anyway.” Squinting at her, she added, “I heard you and that new girl you brought in tried using Dreamjaunt to get hold of your dad, and even that didn’t work?”

After a brief hesitation, Erin nodded slowly. She held the phone (undamaged thanks to magical reinforcement that was intended to keep it intact through intense fighting) against her chest while murmuring, “And we know the spell worked on our end, because that’s how we contacted Vanessa and the Mason twins back here. Err, Lucas twins? They’re going by Lucas now, right?” 

“Yup, that’s right,” Nevada confirmed. “And if the Dreamjaunt worked for them, then it should have worked for your dad unless they were specifically blocking you.” She made a face at that thought, shaking her head. “In which case, damn. They really don’t want anything getting through to him.” Raising a hand to her chin, the blonde woman murmured quietly, “They must be doing that for everyone who leaves a family member back there when they take off. Or maybe just the ones who have a history of joining the Rebellion before.” Sighing then, Nevada added, “You know, cuz as long as he doesn’t realize you’re free and clear, he’ll keep playing nice with them.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I figured,” Erin agreed, still squeezing the phone tightly. “I thought I’d be able to get through to him once we got here, but everyone’s so busy. Vanessa and the others already left on that uhh, I think it’s a rescue mission? I’m not sure. Everyone else has their own things, even Dylan’s trying to get to know what’s going on around here. I don’t… know who to get help from.” Her last words were murmured softly under her breath as she lowered her gaze. 

“Well, I’m here, and like I said, no classes til tomorrow. So, I’ve got free time.” With an easy smile, Nevada stepped the rest of the way into the room, letting the door close behind her. “And to tell you the truth, I always liked Nolan.” That said, she heaved the enormous bag of apparently random junk over onto one of the desks, wincing as a set of bowls fell out to the floor. 

Ignoring those to be dealt with later, she made two of the nearby chairs slide closer and turn to face one another with a flick of her hand, gesturing for Erin to take one. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to let him know he can give those guys the finger and get his butt over here, huh?” 

Blinking twice before smiling as she moved to sit down, Erin managed a hesitant, “You’ve really got time to help? I mean, you don’t have some other life and death mission to run off on?” From the tone of her voice, it was clear that the girl had already become accustomed to that.

Wincing, Nevada took the other seat. “Trust me, I’ve got time. But yeah, I guess people around here are pretty busy lately. You know it’s nothing personal, right? It’s not that they don’t care about you or your dad. They do. They just–there’s a lot going on. Trying to keep all you students in the right classes and learning while also keeping up on these rescue missions that just seem to be getting more and more dangerous, with the Crossroads and Eden’s Garden people setting up traps to try to get people back under their thumb. Sorry, back where they can teach people right from wrong, as they’d put it.” Her head shook. “It’s a whole thing, believe me.” 

“I know it’s not personal,” Erin agreed, foot kicking against the floor lightly with a soft squeak. “And I know I just got here. But that doesn’t matter. None of that matters. I just have to let my dad know where I am.” 

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” With that announcement, Nevada held her fist out, waiting for the younger girl to bump it. “Don’t worry, Erin. Whatever it takes, we’ll break through that wall they’ve got your dad locked behind and get him out of there. And I swear I’m not just saying that cuz your dad still owes me seventeen homemade desserts after I kicked his butt at Jagdausflug last year.” 

“Man, why does he keep betting on that game?” Erin lamented. “He sucks at it. I beat him so bad back when we played, he’s had to do the dishes for like three years straight.” 

With a broad grin, Nevada offered a shrug. “I dunno. Dude’s always convinced he’s got a new winning strategy. Hey, maybe when we get him back, we can talk him into playing both of us together. Might be a good way of getting you a brand new car or something.” 

Giggling a little despite herself before swallowing it down, Erin quietly asked, “You’re sure we’ll get through to him? I just… they really don’t want to let him go.” 

“Hey, trust me, Erin, we’ll get him out of there,” Nevada confirmed. “And if any of those assholes try to get in our way, well…

“You saw the shotgun umbrella over there, right?” 

******

Back when the Rebellion had first been restarted a few months earlier, the fact that some of the Heretics were actually Hybrids, people with a mix of human and Alter parents, had come to light. Fortunately, this did not end up exposing every graduated Hybrid Heretic. A few had revealed themselves in order to openly join the side that didn’t think they deserved to die for existing, of course. But others remained silently in place, taking advantage of their positions to covertly help now and then. There wasn’t a lot they could do openly, given how many eyes were now watching for traitors. It was easy to be seen as suspicious. But they could help here and there. 

Being who she was, Nevada was in a unique position of knowing who and where basically every single Hybrid Heretic was. She knew them, and they knew her. Not as well as they had known Professor Zedekiah Pericles, but still, enough. They knew she could be trusted, absolutely. 

That trust meant that she was able to contact one hybrid in particular, who quietly reached out with his own contacts to find out certain schedules. Or rather, one schedule. Her contact was able to quietly track down exactly where Nolan Redcliffe was supposed to be that day. 

“They really sent him on a hunting trip?” Erin asked in disbelief as she and Nevada were sitting in a car parked on the roof of a tall parking structure, overlooking a few other buildings. Their eyes were on one warehouse in particular that was toward the end of the street. From their position, the two could barely see the mouth of an alley beside the building. From what their contact had said, that alley was to be the staging point for a raid into the warehouse itself. 

“They’re trying to keep him and others like him busy,” Nevada murmured before glancing toward the girl next to her. “And, you know, show them just how much good they can do. I guarantee the missions they’re sending people like your dad on right now are obvious hero trips. They won’t send them on any questionable missions. The things they’re hunting are gonna be the real worst of the worst, the monsters that kidnap and eat innocent kids, the big beasts that don’t leave any questions about whether they’re bad or not. You know, the ones that won’t challenge their assumptions at all. They’re trying to convince people like your dad that Crossroads really is the good side by showing them alllll the horrible monsters they help put a stop to.” 

Erin made a face, head shaking. “They really think my dad’s that easily manipulated? I mean, of course Crossroads does good things. That’s not really in question, right? You can do good things and bad things at the same time. If you take a gun and mow down a bunch of people in a prison, there’s a good chance you’ll get some that deserved it. But you’ll also hit a hell of a lot who definitely didn’t. I don’t think anyone on the Rebellion is saying that we shouldn’t kill the real monsters, just that not everyone who isn’t human is a monster.”

Reaching out, Nevada ruffled the girl’s hair with a small smile. “Yeah, pretty much. It’s kind of a level of nuance a lot of the people making these decisions about where to send your dad don’t really get. Or they just don’t care and don’t understand why others do. They think just showing how bad some of those Alters out there can be will convince people not to take any risks with them, I guess.” 

Erin was quiet for a moment, her gaze locked on that alley across the street and down several floors from their elevated position. Finally, after several moments of silence, she asked, “Do you really think we can get him out of there by ourselves? I mean, there’ll be others with him.”

“Only a couple, according to my old friend,” Nevada assured her. “Crossroads doesn’t exactly have a lot of extra people to throw around big groups at the best of times, let alone with this whole Rebellion going on. They’ve got to deal with people like us while trying to keep up with all the normal hunts. It’s spread them a bit thin here and there. Emphasis on the here right now.” She glanced to the girl, hesitating before adding, “The thing we really need to worry about is any spells they might’ve put on your dad’s equipment or clothes. You know, things that could yank him back if something goes wrong. They’d probably tell him it’s for his own safety with all the dangerous things out there, but everyone knows the truth. And he’d put up with the lie because-”

“Because he thinks he’s protecting me,” Erin murmured darkly. “Same reason he’s playing along with the rest of this. That’s why he hasn’t already taken off, because he thinks they still have me as a hostage.” She folded her arms tightly and frowned. “How many bad things do you think he’s done just to protect me already? How many people would still be alive if I’d just left with the rest of you guys that first night? Or just… or just gotten out earlier?”

Nevada was silent for a moment before speaking up. “Erin, listen to me. That kind of thinking doesn’t help anything. Believe me, worrying about what could have been won’t get anyone anywhere useful. We may have a lot of powers, but changing the past isn’t something we can do like that. The truth is, I do wish that we had managed to take the time to grab you and everyone like you who would have chosen to come with us. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time. And look at it this way, if you hadn’t stayed behind, you never would’ve met Dylan.” 

“That’s true,” Erin murmured thoughtfully while still staring down at the alley. “And she’s definitely worth meeting. Her and Fiesta and the pups.” That last bit was added with a small smile as she finally glanced toward Nevada. “Did you know–” 

“There,” the blonde woman suddenly announced, raising a hand to point back the way Erin had just been looking before. 

“Oh, of course,” the girl muttered, “the second I look away from–” She cut herself off in mid-sentence, because turning back that way revealed the thing–the person–she had been waiting to see for so long. “… Dad…” she breathed out the single word in a gasp. 

Indeed, Nolan Redcliffe himself, a thin man of average height with brown eyes and matching hair that fell to his shoulders, stood just barely in view at the mouth of that alley. He wore a beige suit, and was accompanied by two other men, as expected. All three of them looked like ordinary, boring office workers on their way to lunch, who had just happened to pause there at the alley to chat for a minute. 

“Of course they sent him with Coleman and Bridger,” Nevada murmured under her breath as she recognized the two men Nolan was with. “Those two are a couple of Ruthers’ most loyal–never mind. We’ll get him out of there. Let’s see if they split up at all before going in there. Just sit tight for a second, okay, babe?” 

Erin was clearly anxious, but she agreed. Sitting in the car, she watched while one hand squeezed the door handle so tightly her knuckles almost turned white. It took everything she had not to bolt out of the car and shout out to her dad. Seeing him there, being this close after everything that had happened to keep them separated, it was so hard not to shout to him. But she had to be patient. She had to wait. Because if they messed this up and those assholes took her father away again, they’d be a hell of a lot more careful from then on. Erin might not get another chance like this. Hard as it was, she would wait. She would be patient. 

That patience seemed to pay off about a minute later, as Nolan and the two men he was with did indeed split up. The other pair moved around toward the front of the building, while Nolan himself seemed to be focused on an emergency exit door a few feet further down the alley. 

“This is our chance.” With those blurted words, Erin shoved the door open and was already out of the car before the other women could respond. She moved to the edge of the parking structure, getting ready to hop down. Sure, it was a bit rushed, but as far as Erin was concerned, she had waited long enough. No way was she going to lose this chance to get her dad out of there. He was right there, in plain view, and his escorts had already moved away. 

Nevada, however, was a little more cautious for obvious reasons. And it was a cautiousness that, like their earlier patience, would pay off. Just before Erin would have hopped over the edge of the parking structure to drop to the ground, the other woman reached out quickly to catch her arm. “Wait.” There was a sudden tenseness to her voice, a fear that none of her students had heard the new teacher display before.

“Wait?” Erin echoed in disbelief. “What are we waiting for n–” 

“Look.” With that quiet, shaking voice, Nevada pointed to a figure that had just appeared in the same doorway that Nolan had been paying attention to. The door hadn’t moved at all, yet there was a woman standing there. Either she had been invisible, or had stepped through the closed door. Either way, the woman had short, dark hair and was saying something to Nolan. 

“She’s gotta be one of their targets or something, come on!” Erin blurted, still intent on getting to her father. 

But Nevada kept hold of her arm in an iron grip, holding the girl from leaving. In fact, even as she pulled her back away from the edge with one hand, the woman quickly held up a glowing coin with the other and cast an invisibility spell. It wrapped around the two of them moments before the woman in the alley and Nolan himself both turned slightly to look that way. They seemed to watch that spot briefly, then returned to their conversation. 

“Wha–what’d you do that for?!” Erin demanded in disbelief. She was half-struggling, trying to twist her way out of Nevada’s grip. “You said you’d help me get to my dad, and he’s right there! Those other guys’ll be back any second. Let go!” 

“Erin, stop, trust me.” Nevada kept hold of the girl, pulling her tightly against her own chest to keep Erin within the bounds of her invisibility spell. It did more than just stop people from seeing them, it also masked their sounds and most other ways to sense them. “Stop, it’s not about your dad, it’s about her!”  

“Her?” Erin shook her head. She wanted to struggle even more, wanted to jerk her way free and get to her dad. But she also trusted her teacher, young as the woman might’ve been. “What do you mean? She’s just some woman. Probably another Heretic or something. She doesn’t even–” 

“She’s not another Heretic, Erin,” Nevada interrupted. Her gaze was focused intently on the spot where Nolan and the woman were engaged in deep conversation. “I’m sorry. She already has your dad. We can’t get him away from her right now. Not without a lot more help.” 

“What… what do you mean?” Erin turned, confusion written across her face. “Who the hell is she? Why can’t we get my dad away from her?” 

“Because,” Nevada quietly informed her, “She’s disguised right now, but I know her. I know what she feels like. I can sense her. When I see her, I know her. That woman, she’s not a Heretic. She’s a lot worse than that. Erin, Crossroads doesn’t have control of your dad right now.

“Denuvus does.” 

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Building Connections 16-08 (Summus Proelium)

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Doing a quick double-take at the other girl’s words, I reflexively blurted, “First day as a what?”

Yup, still couldn’t see her face through that helmet. But it was pretty easy to tell she was blushing. It was just the way her body language read, the way she squirmed and hesitated before seeming to set herself as she repeated, “Sidekick. I mean, it seemed a little presumptuous or whatever to say partner, you know? You’ve been doing the whole hero thing for a little while, and I’m not–I mean I never, except yesterday with the whole–and I was just there for–um.” Realizing she was rambling, the girl shrugged uncertainly. “I know it’s probably weird to like, have a sidekick that’s older than you and all, but I’m okay with that from my end. I mean, you saved–like, you’ve saved a lot of people. So, you know, I’m like… I’m okay with being your… student?” 

Oh boy, what was I supposed to say to that? I mean, just outright denying her would be mean and might backfire in several ways. But I couldn’t actually have her as a sidekick, right? Not really. It was way too dangerous for both of us. If she was on the level, I’d be putting her in so much danger and stress. And if she wasn’t, if she wasn’t trustworthy, I’d be exposing myself. What could I say? How could I gently deny her, or give her a different idea of what to do with herself, without screwing things up? What kind of suggestion could I make? 

Finally, I said the only thing that came to mind. “You could join the Minority, you know?” 

To my surprise, the girl snorted at that. “Well, that’s obviously a completely terrible idea.” 

“What?” I blinked, confused. “Why? What’s so terrible about joining the Minority?” 

Her even more confusing answer to that was a shrug. “I dunno. They seem pretty cool to me. Actually they seem awesome. They’ve got cool powers and they help people all the time. Plus, you know, they’re like… training for the big teams. And I hear you get a scholarship and shit for being part of them. Not just a salary, but like… super-good education benefits. And once you’re part of one of the adult teams, they help you get a good cover job or whatever. Seems cool to me.” 

My mouth opened, then shut before I managed a weak, “So why don’t you want to join them? You know, if they’re so cool and everything. I don’t get it. You just said you like them, and they have all these benefits. So what’s wrong?”

“Uh, first, my mom would never let me,” she pointed out with what sounded like a grimace. “They make you report everything to your parents, and my mother would lock me in a tower, Rapunzel-style, before she’d let me go do stuff like that. And I don’t think I can grow my hair that long. I mean, maybe someone could talk her into letting me do the simple stuff or like… something. But it’d be a big problem.” 

Hesitating, I slowly asked, “You said that’s one reason. And one you might be able to work around. What’s the other reason you don’t want to join them?”  

“You.” That was her flat response as she stared at me. Her eyes, visible through that helmet, seemed to look right into me. “You know they’re good guys. I mean, you work with them a lot. You keep showing up to help them, or calling for their help. The point is, you work with them. And you obviously know every good reason to join them that I already said. But you don’t work with them. You know they’re good, but you don’t join them. You’re good and they’re good, but you keep refusing to sign up. Even though you like, fight together sometimes, or join them on something here or there, you don’t join. You’ve needed their help before, you know they have all these benefits, they obviously want you to join. But… but you don’t.” 

When I didn’t say anything to that, my mind too busy reeling, she continued. “Yeah, I dunno what the problem is. They seem cool. They seem great. But you know all that and you still don’t join them. So obviously there’s something wrong with them. It’s not cuz you’re a loner or you hate working with people, cuz you still work with them. Just not officially. I think that probably means the problem isn’t one of them, but the adults you keep avoiding.” 

With a shrug, the girl added, “Or maybe you just don’t want to join them for my first reason. Maybe you’re avoiding letting your parents know you’re Touched and all. I mean, you are like… sorry, no offense, a kid. So first I thought that was it. But I dunno. I sort of… looked up everything I could about stuff you’ve been doing last night. I spent hours with it. Seriously, that was like, the most homework I’ve ever done. And the more I tried to understand, the more it seemed like just having protective parents wasn’t the real answer. Trust me, I deal with a super-protective mom all the time, and your thing just doesn’t feel like that. Not exactly.” 

Finally, she folded her arms, finishing with a quiet, “I dunno why you don’t want to join them. But you already saved me twice, so if you think there’s something wrong with them, I’m gonna take your word for it. Or, you know, not your word. Your… uhh, decision? Whatever.” 

For a moment, I tried to think of how to respond to that. What was I supposed to say? I could claim the first instinct was right, that I was really just trying to avoid letting my parents know about me. Which, technically, was one hundred percent true. But I was pretty sure she’d want more than that. I considered that briefly before blinking. “Wait, hang on.” Running what she’d just said back through my head, I looked back to her. “What do you mean, I saved you twice?” 

There was no response at first. Instead, the girl just stared at me. I had the feeling she was reeling inwardly for those several long, silent seconds before eventually managing a single, “Oh. I… uh.” Deflating a bit, she reached up to tap the side of her white helmet with one finger. Immediately, it popped off her head, transforming back into a small white marble. Now I could see her face. A face which, while not one I had seen much of, was still instantly familiar. 

“Wha–you!” I blurted out loud, pointing that way completely ridiculously. “It’s you! You–” The right name came to me abruptly, though I’d only heard it once. “Peyton?!” 

Squirming there on her feet, the red-haired girl offered a weak, “Hi, Paintball. Funny to see you again, huh? At least I didn’t get kidnapped by a pedo this time?”

While I was still trying to cope with the odds of all this, she quickly pressed on to tell me everything about what actually happened the day before. She told me about how she was shopping when those guys arrived, how she panicked and ran away when they told her to stay put, then got cornered in the bookstore until the orb showed up and gave her powers. 

Orb. Her saying that reminded me of the thought I’d had the day before. I’d been half-sure that I’d caught a glimpse of one of the orbs from the corner of my eye. That was the whole reason I’d turned around and looked just in time to see the Easy Eight people driving past. If I hadn’t thought I saw the orb right then, I would’ve missed them. And if I’d missed them, I wouldn’t have been at the shopping center place in time to help this gi–Peyton. And if I hadn’t been there, she might’ve–what? Would she have died? Would Juice go that far? I wasn’t–maybe. Either way, she would’ve been hurt. Or abducted. Maybe they would’ve turned her, or just injured her, or–it would’ve been bad. That was the point, it definitely would’ve been bad.

Did… did that mean the orb that gave Peyton her powers had then come to find me for help? Was–were they capable of that kind of–no. Of course not. They were just orbs. But maybe whoever was behind them had sent one to get my attention, somehow? No one knew who created the orbs, if it was some alien race or super-advanced secret society of humans or… or what. So maybe whoever sent the orb to her or… or whatever realized she was still in trouble and sent one to get my attention? But… but… that was just–that… huh. 

Well, that just opened up a whole new slew of questions that I didn’t have any chance of getting answers to any time soon. A whole lot of people much smarter than I was had been trying to figure out the truth about the orbs for a long time. I wasn’t about to solve that mystery.

Shaking all that off, I focused on the current situation. Peyton was here, the girl I’d saved from one kidnapping and then helped deal with a hostage situation. And she had figured out that I had a good reason not to join up with the Minority, even if she had no idea what that reason was. Suddenly, an already-complicated situation had become even moreso. Which was just perfect.

“Should I uhh, go grab a sandwich while you figure out what to say?” the girl hesitantly asked, offering me a somewhat lopsided smile. “I guess I could get one for you too, if you want.” 

For like the millionth time, I was grateful that my helmet and mask combination made it impossible to see when I blushed. That was an excellent costume choice on my part, really. But I quickly shook that off, focusing. I had to say something, had to explain–what? How much could I actually tell her? What… what was I going to say to the girl now that she had figured all that out? 

Finally, the solution I settled on was to take a deep breath before starting with, “Yes. I have a reason–reasons not to join the Minority or any of the Star-Touched teams. Good reasons. But… I’m not sure–I don’t think I should talk about them just yet. For my safety and yours. It’s…” Oh boy, how much further could I go with this? “It’s dangerous for anyone who knows about it.” 

Peyton was silent for a moment. She seemed to be considering that, weighing what I’d said in her mind to figure out if I was blowing her off. Eventually, she gave a short nod. “Sure, I get it. I mean, you barely know me. You don’t know me. If it’s important enough to make you not join any of the Star-Touched teams in the city, then–” A grimace crossed her face. “It must be pretty bad. And if it’s that bad, it’d be dumb to go babbling about it to every random girl you save twice.” There was another pause before she added, “You’re pretty mature for a kid, you know?” 

Oh boy did I really not know what to say to that. Or rather, a lot of potential things to say jumped into my head immediately, but none of them would’ve been a good idea. Instead, I coughed before gesturing. “I had to grow up fast. But you–you’re okay with not being told? Yet. You’re okay with not being told yet.” Somehow, I’d figure out if the girl could be trusted with the secret, and if it was a good idea to actually bring her in on it. I just needed time to sort through all of it. 

Her head bobbed a little. “Sure. Like I said, you barely know me. But seriously, if you’re not joining those guys, I’m not joining them. And I’m pretty sure I’d get in way too much trouble all by myself out there, especially since I just pissed off that Juice guy when he was like, ‘raaaawr’ and I was like, ‘yeet!’ Sooo…” Trailing off, she gestured to herself, then to me, then to herself, waggling her eyebrows in a way that made me giggle despite myself before I managed to clamp down on it.

“Okay, okay,” I made myself quickly put in. “Look, I’m really not sure about the whole… yeah. I’m not sure. But at least I can maybe help you get some idea about how your powers work and all that? You know, if you want. Though you seemed pretty good with them yesterday for just starting. Especially with the whole, uh, yeeting bit.” Yeah, that was a memory that made me smile. “I really wish someone got that on camera.” 

“What–they did,” Peyton quickly blurted. As I blinked in surprise, she stepped closer and turned, bringing up her phone to show me someone else’s video, apparently from the point of view of one of the hostages who had fled and was hiding around a corner. In the distance, you could see the three of us on the roof as the bolt of lightning hit me, then the way Peyton’s marbles formed the battering ram to slam into Juice. The person recording blurted some kind of half-curse and half-laugh just as the battering ram before shifted into the boxing gloves to hit Juice again, then scooped him up and flung him off into the distance. The half-laugh turned to a full-on guffaw. 

“Uhh, have a lot of people seen this?” I asked hesitantly as the video looped back to the beginning for additional sound effects when the Easy Eights lieutenant was sent flying. 

“Depends,” Peyton noted, checking the views. “Do you consider three hundred thousand views to be a lot? Wait, you don’t think it makes you look bad or something, do you? Cuz it’s really–” 

“No!” I hurriedly blurted, head shaking rapidly. “No, I think it makes Juice look bad, and he’s gonna be really pissed off at you. At both of us, really. But especially you. I just–uh, be careful, okay? Be really careful. I get the impression he doesn’t take being embarrassed very well.” 

“Yeah, I got that impression,” the other girl muttered under her breath, making a face before shuddering. “Believe me, I’m not about to go knock on his door selling cookies and candy bars.” Shrugging then, she added, “But you said you could help me figure out these guys?” With those words, the girl gestured to the four differently-colored marbles (silver, white, purple, and bronze) hovering in the air to the right, as well as her two-colored armor (black and gold). “Cuz right now they sorta just do what I think about them doing. Sometimes before I even actually think about it. Are your powers like that? Do they uhh, like, do stuff on their own?” 

“Nope,” I replied, stepping closer and taking both of my gloves off before gently reaching out so I could touch the purple marble curiously. It shied away from my hand, then stopped when Peyton looked at it and hovered there as I very gently brushed one finger against it. The thing felt warm, and mostly smooth but with a bit of roughness to it. Sort of like very fine sandpaper, or something like that. It seemed to almost pulse under my touch, making me jump slightly. Which made it jump. Yeah, I swore the thing bounced backward an inch or so in the air. As it did so, the other three quickly flew in as though to defend it. They didn’t snarl or anything, but I was pretty sure they would’ve if it had been possible. 

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Peyton blurted hurriedly, stepping up behind the marbles. “Sorry, they’re just a little nervous and protective.” She hesitated before adding, “I’m not sure how I know that. I mean, I’m not just making it up. I can sort of feel what they feel? That’s pretty weird, huh?” 

Shrugging, I pointed out, “Lots of powers are weird, believe me. Here, let me try it this way.” Reaching out with my palm up, I held it close to the marbles but not quite touching them. Gradually, the purple marble lowered itself, gently touching the end of one finger before it moved to settle in my palm. It was still quivering a little bit, but stayed there while I moved my other hand up and very gently brushed one bare finger along it. After that initial moment, the marble seemed to enjoy the sensation and the others joined it. I gently brushed all of them, before looking toward the other girl. “I think your friends and I are starting to get along.” 

“Yeah,” she confirmed, “these two are jealous. Hang on.” With that, the girl seemed to focus briefly, before the gold and black armor melted off of her and transformed back into two more marbles. As soon as they did, the purple and silver marbles lifted off of my hand and flew that way. They formed into new armor for Peyton that looked slightly different. Instead of being a medieval-type chestplate and bracers and such, the new armor looked like it was from one of those Super Sentai shows, or the old Power Rangers stuff. The base suit was purple, with the silver marble making up the outlines and highlight designs up through it. Also, the silver part stretched itself up to cover her neck and throat in a sort of protective sheath before spreading across the bottom half of her face. From there, the purple armor raised itself in the back to cover the back of her head, then up over the top, stopping just above her eyes. The result left her hair entirely concealed while only her eyes and nose were exposed. 

“Whoa,” I managed just as the gold and black marbles came over to be petted. “Did you do that yourself?” My fingers gently brushed over them while all the remaining marbles crowded up for attention. 

“Uh huh.” With that confirmation, Peyton looked down at herself. “Pretty cool, isn’t it?” 

“Definitely cool,” I agreed. From there, I started to say something else, but the sound of a car engine drew both of our attention over to the nearby alley. Frowning, I checked to make sure her face was still covered before pulling my gloves back on. “Careful,” I murmured. “Might be nothing, but–” 

By that point, a black SUV with heavily tinted windows had pulled up just in view, through the alley. There was a brief moment of silence and I was about to tell the other girl we were leaving, when the driver-side door opened and a familiar figure stepped out. 

“Cavalcade?” I blurted, while Peyton made a noise of surprise behind me. Yeah, it was the Mercenary Sell-Touched woman who made rapid-fire duplicates to simulate super speed. Among other uses. 

“Hey, kid,” the woman greeted. “Ah, kids, I guess. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. But we need to take a little ride.” 

“What?” My head shook. “It’s not time to talk to Glitch yet.” Behind me, I heard Peyton half-whisper that name, clearly baffled by this whole situation. 

“No, you’re right,” Cavalcade confirmed. “This isn’t about Braintrust. It’s about Deicide.

“She’s calling in that favor.”

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter