Spyware

Gil racked his brain, trying to remember what he could about the Undersiders. Skitter could control bugs, Hellhound could control giant monster dogs, Regent mostly caused muscle spasms but could do far worse to certain people, and Grue could make bubbles of darkness. There was a girl named Tattletale who claimed to be a psychic genius or something. Overall, they weren’t the heaviest hitters in the city, but they were pretty good at choosing their targets tactically. It seemed strangely out of character to openly **** an enemy base on a random day.

“Shit, shit.” Gil said as the insects entered the room and rushed towards any warm body they could sense.

Othala gave an altogether undignified little yelp and grabbed Menja’s wrist. The stacked blonde turned towards the bugs and started flicking her wrist, immolating dozens of flies and roaches per second. That kept them at bay, but perhaps ten seconds later she waved her hand and no fire came out.

“Shit.” Rose growled, and turned to look at Othala, “Give the magic to him. I’ll figure out what’s going on.”

“Figure out where the enemy is.” Gil ordered, “We need to escape without putting Boco in too much danger.”

Rose nodded, understanding his intent. That bird would likely be their best route out, but it was after all mere flesh and blood. It would surely be difficult or expensive to replace a flying mount, if not both. Menja collapsed to the floor in a confused daze as Rose popped out of her and left to scout.

Gil leaned in to Othala when she touched him, and he felt the warmth within his veins. He knew for certain that he could call up a blast of flame with a bit of focus.

“I can make sure you make it out of this, no matter what, if you sell me your soul.” He said, turning to the door and trying to follow Menja’s example, “I’m just here for the blonde, but I’d be happy to have more than one along.”

“What?” Othala spluttered. “I don’t want to be another lucky jackass’s mind ****. It’s happened way too many times already.”

“I’ll have you know I’ve been fairly respectful of my girls this test.” Gil said, “I don’t even have a standard binding. I just get a bomb collar.”

“Oh boy, I get to be an unwilling ****!” She said sarcastically. “Holding **** over my head and acting like that’s some huge improvement is not going to get you anywhere.”

Gil’s blasts of fire were quite a bit less focused than Menja’s had been. Where hers had been nearly white and came out in thin sheets, his were a smoky red that sprayed out haphazardly. He wasn’t sure if that was some extension of Rose’s experience with the arcane, or if the Chosen capes all practiced with the powers Othala was capable of granting.

“Fine, whatever,” Gil said. “If you want to stick with the Nazis, that’s great, but I suspect this team is about to start going downhill. How about a shorter alliance, then? We all flee together.”

A loud crash rang through the building, momentarily drowning out the chatter of gunfire.

“Sure, sure, fine.” She said, “Just get me out of here.”

••••••••••

Rose’s spirit rushed through the walls, following the chatter of gunfire to its source. Long before she arrived, she saw the source of the crashing. A large quadroped, built of heavy slabs of muscle and bone, was bursting through doors, followed by a pair of beautiful young women and several smaller beasts.

One of the two women was stocky, with a broad shouldered build made all the bulkier by a leather jacket and her face covered by a cheap Halloween mask of a bulldog. She barked orders at the largest beast, which she called Bentley. Rose didn’t remember if she’d seen one of Hellhound’s dogs in person before, but she knew that Bentley could get much bigger if his mistress demanded it. Even big enough to carry both of the women on his back.

The other woman was a long legged woman with flowing black hair. Her costume covered every inch of skin except her scalp in dark grey fabric that clung to her curves. Modest ones for a cape, but reasonably large for a civilian. She walked with her face staring straight ahead, seemingly unconcerned with her surroundings.

Rose tracked their progress for only a few moments before she realized their destination. They were headed directly towards Gil, likely using the insects to detect him somehow. With that information in mind, she flickered twice, appearing next to the her quill for just a moment before returning to her skull, held by Gil.

••••••••••

Keilnei and Candress stalked up to the large building’s entrance, their arms festooned with the small, shiny bangles that apparently denoted prestige among these savages. Each of the women had slightly more than Lizard had worn, displayed as badges of honor. That was enough to get past the front door, where they were each handed red armbands to add to their collection. The guard leering at the two of them asked if they wanted company, which they declined. It was not lost on either of them that most of the women they saw were obviously in the protection or possession of men.

The two women felt rather nervous walking around the large building, an indoor marketplace the locals called a mall. Perhaps it had once been pleasant, perhaps it had once been clean; the walls had a simple white color anywhere that human hands couldn’t reach. Now, however, it was an absolute mess. Clashing hues of purple, blue, and red with an M shaped insignia dominated the walls. Children’s toys, discarded clothes, and flags were draped across large vehicles that seemed intended for war, whatever their original purpose may have been.

The main light sources were improvised braziers burning trash that gave off an acrid scent that neither of the women could recognize, along side the all too familiar scent of rotten meat. Over it all was a cacophony of strange and conflicting music, which everyone shouted to be heard over.

A shifting tide of humans filled every corner of the mall, making it impossible to move without forcing a path open or following the flows and currents. The two women were groped so often that they gave up on even trying to identify the perpetrators; it just wasn’t worth the effort when they had just as many amateur pickpockets that needed far more immediate and brutal chastisement.

No one objected to the women defending their property and virtue with jabs to the face and groin, any more than they objected to the initial attempts at theft. It was all just entertainment to the uninvolved. At first Keilnei tried to be proportional with her punishments, but it quickly became clear that these savages respected only brutality. If she left someone able to pursue, they usually would. Among the masses, neither even noticed when Rose briefly flickered into existence at the edge of sight.

Keilnei only rarely withdrew the tablet to check the directions to their targets. Charlotte seemed to be just within one of the many alcoves that used to contain a store. The Powers in a Can seemed to be behind a raised platform, erected atop a pile of rubble. The two outworlders found a small island of relative peace by bribing the proprietor of an improvised weapon shop with a bag of powder they could not identify as anything but “not cocaine.” For clarity, both the shop and the wares were improvised; rusty pipes were among his best sellers. There, Candress and Keilnei stopped to discuss their next steps. Unfortunately, the uneasy plan they’d barely settled upon was already falling apart.

“We need to go there.” Candress yelled, pointing towards the platform. “That’s where anything important is likely to happen. It’s the whole reason we came here.”

“It’s also where the crowds are densest.” Keilnei said. “We might be able to defend ourselves if attacked here, but we won’t have any room to maneuver if we entered into such a large mass of people. Better to be more conservative and look in on Charlotte. She’s on this side of the mall.”

“Very well.” Candress said. “We make our way over there. If we can secure her, we will do so, but if an opportunity presents itself I expect you to have my back.”

“I will.”