“You been getting enough sleep?” Lafayette asked. “Not falling behind in school?”
“Oh my god,” I groaned, falling back into the sofa. “I’m fine, I mean about the intel Lafayette.”
“I’m serious Lia,” she said, crossing her arms. “This is a lot of info, must have taken a while to put together. But this isn’t your job.”
“It is,” I snapped. “And I told you, I’m fine. Midterms don't start for a few days and I feel okay about them for once, so can we focus on the important stuff here?”
“She uh, hasn’t been skipping to hang out with me,” Joy offered from the armchair she occupied. “Doesn’t mean she hasn’t been skipping but…”
“I haven’t been,” I said tersely. I’d been late a couple times, but that was hardly my fault.
“Well…” Lafayette took a deep breath, then sighed. “I’ve seen worse briefings from our guys.” I couldn’t help smiling as she picked up a duotang and started leafing through it. “String of muggings, including the one you stopped. Five robberies, seven burglaries, and...fuck, really?”
“Eleven hate crimes,” I finished the list, grabbing the single sheet of paper with everything I had on the Varangians, handing it to her. “These guys probably aren’t the only ones, but I did find a couple of their tags on our last patrol. Don’t think they really hold ground though, any of them.”
“Surprised they haven’t banded with Werwolf,” Lafayette mused.
“Probably want to try and carve out their own piece,” I said with a shrug. I snapped my fingers as I remembered something. “Hey, you know anything about the Tinker moving into the North Side?”
“The what?” She arched a brow at me. I explained the two PHO posts I’d found on the topic and her look soured. “No, I don’t in fact. I’ll pass it along.”
“Wait isn’t the PRT supposed to be on this shit?” Joy said.
“Still stretched thin,” Lafayette said tensely. “Things are getting tense again in the south, I think that’s pretty public knowledge.” The look on Joy’s face darkened.
“Well, glad we could fill you in,” I said quickly. If she didn’t have any info we could use, it was better to just move on. “And Joy, we’re not going there, not yet.”
“You shouldn’t at all,” Lafayette said.
“Why not?” Joy demanded. “We’re heroes god dammit!”
“Mostly because you aren’t bulletproof,” I retorted. “Werwolf plays for keeps. I don’t think I’ve gotten away from a fight with them without new holes in my costume.” Fortunately Amy was kind enough to help with repairs now that she was in the loop.
“Any one of their capes has more experience than both of you put together,” Lafayette added. “Lia, you’re smart, determined, and damned vicious; but this isn’t something you’re ready for.”
“That’s why I said not yet,” I replied. “But we will because they’re a fucking problem. Once we’ve dug out Stormtiger and broken his gang’s back, we’ll pivot. Should have plenty of experience by then, taking down two capes.”
“It’s not a smart move,” she said.
“Maybe not, but it’s necessary,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “How many of Werwolf’s capes has the Protectorate taken in lately? Because last I heard, they had yet another new cape show up.”
“Thurisaz,” Lafayette muttered, eyes flicking to the ground.
“That one,” I said with a sharp nod. “Softball doesn’t work, Lafayette. Director Tagg might have been an asshole, but he was right.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I can’t stop you,” Lafayette said hoarsely. “But starting next session, we’re doubling our gym time.”
“Um, actually,” Joy said hesitantly, raising her hand. “I uh, have something to ask about that, if it’s cool?” I cocked my head.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Well, uh, remember Zeke?” I gave her a nod and she cleared her throat. “He uh, asked to tag along to the gym and—”
“Nope,” I cut her off.
“Come on Lia, he’s cool,” she complained. “He knows about me and I trust him to keep his mouth shut.”
“Zeke’s your buddy from the shelter?” Lafayette asked, getting a nod. She looked at me. “Could make a program at the gym to cover for you, say you’re just another student.”
“I don’t know…” I said hesitantly.
“I haven’t told him about you,” Joy added quickly. “Haven’t even told him there was anyone else going to the gym with me, just that Laffy’s been teaching me how to fight. Wants to be able to defend himself, just in case you know?”
“How about I do an intro session without you,” Lafayette offered. “Get a feel for the guy, see if he checks out or if he’s a flake. Would give some plausible deniability if you showed up a ‘class’ later too.”
“That’s...not a bad idea I guess,” I said with a sigh. “You really trust him with your face, Joy?”
“I do,” she confirmed.
“I’ll think about it, I guess,” I said, crossing my arms. “You’d better be damn sure about this.”
“Worst case, you come to the gym later,” Lafayette said with a shrug. “Won’t deny someone the skills they need though.”
“No, that’s fair,” I said. “Just let me mull it over, okay?”
“Sure,” Joy said, smiling. “Thanks Lia, seriously.”
“Forget it,” I said, shaking my head. “Let’s figure out where we’re patrolling next before I go home, okay?”
“Sure thing boss.”
We turned our attention to the intel, and I was glad to take my mind off my face.
“I’m starting to wonder if we got them all,” Nadir said as we walked along a dark, empty street.
“We didn’t,” I said tersely, trying to avoid grinding my teeth. “If we had, I’d definitely have heard about it.”
“I know you would,” she said quickly. “It’s just like...where are they, you know?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“I wish I knew,” I muttered. “Still looking, but if Stormtiger’s even in the city anymore then he’s staying quiet. And we’re right around where—”
I whirled on my heel as the roar of an engine echoed up the street behind us. Nadir was only a second behind me, fists raised. A single spot of light raced up the road towards us, engine growing louder. With an odd whining sound, the motorcycle came to a halt twenty feet away, the rider getting off and approaching us. The pistol at their hip glowed green and in a flash was in the rider’s hand, with a new suppressor on the barrel.
“Miss Militia,” I greeted her, lowering my fists. “It’s been a while.”
“Amaranth,” Miss Militia replied tersely, pulling off her helmet and showing the American flag mask she wore underneath. “We received calls about suspicious, masked people in this neighbourhood,” she said, looking between us. “I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that?”
“Well it obviously wasn’t Stormtiger,” I said dryly. “We’re on patrol, so if you don’t mind we’ll just be going.”
“You’re not an affiliate,” Miss Militia said, her tone warning.
“No, I’m way more effective,” I countered, then sighed. “Come on ma’am, we’re out here doing real, genuine hero stuff.”
“Fighting people and injuring them severely isn’t—”
“Fighting gangsters and villains,” I corrected her sharply. “These aren’t civilians, and the PRT would be better off if they actually treated them like it.”
“We really are helping people,” Nadir added. “Like, just the other night we saved a friend of mine. We’re taking out Nazis, how’s that a bad thing?”
“It’s more complicated than simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’,” Miss Militia explained. I noticed she was still holding her pistol. “I will freely admit, Amaranth has always been a highly effective hero. Her methods, however effective, are not always the right way to do things.”
“The ‘right way’ is why we still have Nazis in this city after twenty fucking years,” I spat. “They need to be afraid, they deserve it.”
“That’s not how heroes operate,” Miss Militia said coldly.
“Then you need to change,” I snapped, turning around. “Nadir, let’s go, we’re wasting time.”
“Sorry Miss Militia,” Nadir said as she followed me.
“Amaranth, wait,” Miss Militia called, making me pause. “Can we not discuss cooperation?” I pursed my lips.
“We’re looking for what’s left of Wotan’s Wolves,” I said. “Stormtiger especially, being the last man standing. You want to cooperate? We need information, and you guys can provide.”
“We may be able to negotiate an intelligence sharing agreement,” she said slowly. “If you were able to fulfill certain conditions.” I arched a brow.
“Such as?”
“Use of force limitations, perhaps some Protectorate oversight and—”
“I’m not going to be under your thumb again,” I cut her off, teeth clenched.
“You would still set your own hours, your own patrols,” she countered.
“The effect isn’t much different,” I replied. “I left when I couldn’t work with you guys because of your bullshit restrictions. There’s no reason I’d ever agree to them again.” I breathed hard, fists clenched.
“Take it easy boss,” Nadir said gently, putting her hand on my shoulder. I relaxed a little, trying to breathe more steadily.
“I appreciate you want to work with us,” I said when I’d calmed down a bit. “If you want to give us information, I guess I can try and limit injuries. But look close at my costume, Miss Militia. I’ve fixed it up, but you can see the scars. Knives and guns are nothing to these fucks. I can take it, Nadir can’t. You limit what I can do, you put her in danger.”
“I believe you’re more than capable of managing,” Miss Militia said evenly. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath before meeting Miss Militia’s eyes.
“If you give us info...I’ll try,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. “So?”
“I’ll bring it up with the PRT,” she replied. “I cannot make promises, but if you show you’re willing to try I believe they might agree.”
With that, Miss Militia mounted her bike and rode off, leaving us alone on the dark streets of the East End. I sighed and turned back to our patrol route, but my heart wasn’t in it. It was quiet as the grave, apparently so much so Miss Militia was able to come out and confront a couple heroes. Sure, we hadn’t apparently been mentioned as such, but she knew we were working out here. No, I couldn’t start thinking like that. She was just doing her job, like Nadir and I were trying to.
“You okay?” Nadir asked as we meandered on our patrol. “That uh, was kind of intense.”
“It’s fine,” I said tersely. “Just annoyed that we can all be on the same side but apparently can’t work together. She’s lived this shit for like, a decade, but somehow we’re the bigger issue. Feels like they’ve just gone blind, or have gotten so used to turning their heads it’s natural. I mean, god, fuck, the way I found you? How am I supposed to go easy on these rats?”
“You’re not,” Nadir said simply. “It’s called ‘lip service’, you know? It’s why I didn’t say anything, cops won’t listen unless it’s something they want to hear. So you tell them you’ll go easy.”
“I...I don’t know,” I sighed. “Like I want to work with them, really; or at least I want some kind of cooperation against the villains. Just not arresting us is...I don’t know, they’re still coming out here and acting like we’re on the same level as the gangs.”
“You know, we have a saying where I come from,” she said with a smile I could hear.
“Yeah? Probably something I can’t fucking understand,” I muttered, sticking my hands in my pockets as a sharp gust of wind rushed over me.
“All cops are bastards.” I couldn’t help my snort of laughter, which Nadir shared. “Starting to see where I’m coming from now?”
“I guess a little,” I mumbled. “Sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Nadir said easily. “You told me before you guys were pretty close.”
“Yeah she…” I swallowed. “She sort of looked out for me, for a while. Taught me how to fight for real, how to shoot a gun, that stuff. She was...yeah.” I frowned as my throat tightened, taking a deep breath and swallowing hard. “Um, let’s call it. Don’t think we’re going to find anyone tonight.”
“Sure,” she said. “Hey if you need to talk—”
“I’m fine,” I cut her off with a shake of my head. “Come on, it’s cold.”
We turned and headed for home as I tried to settle the churning in my stomach.
“Dud, after dud, after dud,” I muttered to myself, scrolling through the pages of today’s Brockton Bugle. “Are you even fucking reporting real crimes?”
The glowing screen of my laptop didn’t answer, and neither did the editor of the paper I was reading. With a sigh, I closed the tab and refreshed the PHO page I had open. ‘Undersiders clash with Werwolf: 3 injured’, not a helpful topic since we weren’t quite going after them yet. Another thread asking about the new Tinker, with no replies so yet again unhelpful. And absolutely nothing about Wotan’s Wolves.
Even searching for them turned up nothing newer than a week old, and that was a thread I’d posted wondering out loud what happened to them after Cricket’s arrest. There were no answers on the shitty website, so I opened another tab and pulled up G-Tube. I wasn’t wasting time of course. Lafayette had tipped me off that a couple gangs had posted videos of themselves. Nothing incriminating, but if I could identify who they were and where it was a step in the right direction.
Of course I wasn’t that lucky. The video was shittier quality than the one I’d found of me getting hit by Leviathan ages ago. A few white guys, heavily inked with what I assumed were Nazi symbols, though I couldn’t actually tell on camera. They seemed to be throwing up some kind of gang sign, their index fingers held straight while their middle fingers made a weird loop off the back of it. Nothing I recognized, and the quality sure wasn’t good enough to read any street signs.
I still watched it a couple times, noting the general look of the homes around them. Pretty run down, maybe they’d actually moved into the Docks? That didn’t mesh with what I knew about who controlled what in the city though. Fine, well, then what I knew had to change. I’d do some more digging and…
And nothing because I had midterms starting in tomorrow. I couldn’t afford to burn any more time looking for gangsters if I wanted to make sure I’d pass. I mean I would but...studying couldn’t hurt. Except for all the people I might miss helping because I’d missed some crucial detail to take out the rest of Wotan’s Wolves. But I just didn’t have what it took to do everything.
Miss Militia hadn’t got back to me, Lafayette had stonewalled me, and New Wave was sticking to their usual patrol routes. There just wasn’t a real way for me to get the info I needed while somehow staying independent. It wasn’t like I could just pluck the fucking answers out of thin air like—
I shook my head violently. No, no no no, bad Lia. Tangling with the Undersiders generally was bad, with Tattletale specifically that much worse. Sure we had been able to work together in the past, and she’d even seemingly helped me by sending my inheritance my way. But she was a villain, the biggest one in the city; though not the worst of the bunch, being fair.
Really I should learn how to do this on my own. I didn’t want to rely on the PRT, much less Tattletale of all bitches. That would take time, time in which I was just wandering the streets ineffectively, time that the Wolves could be using to recuperate and come back worse than before. Was it worth it to ignore a potential source in the mean time, just because I didn’t like her?
I could make good use of whatever I got from Tattletale, I knew. She wanted the Nazis gone less than I did, but not much. It would probably cost a pretty penny, but it wasn’t like I was hurting. Of course funding a gang like the Undersiders wasn’t exactly a moral use of my money, but buying information on where to find the Nazis was better than letting it sit and rot.
I chewed my thumbnail, staring at the screen. Fuck it, I was at my wits end with this fucking city. I opened another tab and navigated to PHO. It was a one time deal, just while I got through tests and learned the ropes of gathering my own intelligence. I navigated to my messages and made what I hoped wasn’t a huge mistake.
Message from: 2-4Flinching
To: LookieLou
Subject: chat
Hey, have something to talk to you about.