Issue #66 – City by the Lake
Part 3
Kali and Facsimile looked up at the prehistoric murder engine named Sue bearing down on them, then back to each other. “This is all your fault!” They said in stereo as the behemoth lumbered toward them.
Sue charged forward, surprisingly fast and nimble for a skeleton animated by shadows, and opened her jaws to clamp down on Kali. The snake-girl wasn’t so slow herself and slithered away just ahead of the snapping, dagger-like teeth.
“Is this another one of your friends overreacting?” She shouted at Facsimile. “Call them off and let us explain!” All the while, she zig-zagged across the floor, trying to put exhibits and anything else that could pose an obstacle between her and Sue.
“Oh no. I’m totally sure what happened now.” Facsimile said, looking around. Why wasn’t anyone else in the hall reacting to the T-Rex? It was like they could only see Herself, Kronos and Kali. Still mulling that over, she made her best guess about the ‘why’ of what was happening. “The Shade isn’t like me and my friends: he only makes special appearances for the absolute worst violent offenders: guys that slice folks up and do things to children. My best guess, given what I know about you chumps: you tried to ‘save’ another descendant and he thinks you were going to do something worse.”
She was feeling quite smug just before a titanic, blue arm encircled her and lifted her off the floor, squeezing just tightly enough to hurt.
“I’m sorry about this, but if you know we don’t deserve this, why can’t we all talk this out like civilized people?”
Facsimile grunted as she tried squirming free to no avail. “Maybe it’s because you guys need a lesson taught to you the hard way. Like how you can’t…” She growled and tried shifting thorns and then quills, only to find that his skin was impervious. “A shapeshifter.” Finally, she turned into an anaconda and slipped his grasp. Taking the time to wrap his legs and trip him, she then shifted into a wolf and bounded clear.
The patrons screamed at this more loudly than anything else and fell over one another to get away from her.
She stopped to boggle at this before remembering that she wasn’t in Mayfield, where all sorts of monsters meant a photo op and an autograph was to be had as long as it was gold colored and didn’t look too busy as far as the citizenry was concerned. While all that was dawning on her, the ground shook and she looked over to find that Sue had abandoned her chase of Kali to come right for her.
“Oh what a day for The Shade to add ‘disturbing the peace’ to his list of infractions.” Facsimile muttered, the wolf snout and teeth garbling the words into a snarl.
And then she noticed something curious: a man running from where she assumed Kali was, ran right past Sue; directly in front of the dinosaur’s feet as she advanced. The huge talons came within inches of his head and he never flinched. Then, when the foot came down, sending another tremor thought the floor, not a single jewel or trinket hanging from the burial mask in a nearby case shivered or trembled even a little.
…As if Sue wasn’t there at all.
If Juniper had suggested it, she would have laughed it off. And yet… Facsimile concentrated; she was in the shape of a wolf, but had none of the corresponding anatomy unless she explicitly made the effort. She focused on the nose.
She and Laurel had spent hours with books and computer simulations, working on familiarizing her with the necessary physiology behind many useful animal traits, olfactory systems included. As her nose became more sensitive, her brain became better at processing the information. No longer was she just experiencing nearby odors, but tracking them back in time based on their strength.
And Sue had no smell.
This time she really did snarl, and charged right under the snapping jaws of the skeleton. The world around her was filled with people that smells fearful and anxious. But there were two who weren’t. They were calm, if determined, and one of them smelled of years of layered on rage and vengeance beneath a much newer feeling of satisfaction.
Facsimile headed for that, thought her eyes said no one was there, all glittering gold teeth and fury. As she gathered herself to leap at the man only her nose could see, all she could think of was how much trouble she was going to get in for this.
His surprise that she even knew he was there registered briefly before she launched herself on him, catching his arm and dragging him down. Impact with the floor broke the spell and she found herself with her jaws clamped around the arm of a dour looking, dark skinned man.
He raised a cane in his free hand, but she shifted before he could make a move, taking humanoid form sans her usual wings and catching the offending cane.
“Okay,” She straddled him to make sure he knew he wasn’t going anywhere, “No mind tricks. No dinosaurs, no making me think my arms are covered in scorpions, or any other weird crap. I’m not in the mood for it, okay? I have a feeling we’re allon the same—“
“Get away from him!”
Facsimile rolled her eyes. “Of course.” She looked to find a refugee from a rave she once attended barging toward her wielding a flute like a billy club. She was about to shift into something that could take them both when a line with a small grapple on the end wrapped the girl’s arm and pulled her forcefully to a stop.
Behind the raver stood Codex, holding the end f her grapnel launcher, and Zero. “Let’s all try and handle this like adults.” The former said, holding the line taut.
“I agree.” Said the man Facsimile was now sure was The Shade. Darkness crawled over his body and he melted into a spectral blob that pours out from under her and rose up, taking the vague form of a tall man in a heavy cloak and hood. “Especially since this girl here let those bounty hunters escape.”
Facsimile glared at him. “I was doing just fine before you decided to showboat with the walking ‘rex bones.”
Zero looked back across the hall at Sue, still in her place of honor. “It was walking?”
“No.” Facsimile said petulantly. She was starting to really dislike The Shade and didn’t care if she spoiled his secrets or not. “This guy is an illusionist. He only made it look, sound and feel like it was, just like he’s trying to convince me I’m not actually sitting on his chest right now.” She poked the floor beneath er to make a point, ignoring that it really did feel like she was sitting on the cold, hard floor.
“And like how everyone else in the hall is now looking around as if wondering where we disappeared to.” Codex observed. She hit a button on her grapnel launcher to unwound the cord around the flute-carrying woman’s arm.
The shadowy form nodded. “I prefer to let the public think it’s shadow control, or something darker. It loses its impact if people know it’s all done by controlling perceptions.” It floated forward and offered Codex a hand. “Codex of the Descendants, right? The original Descendants?”
Codex shook the shadow’s hand. “Yes. And these are Zero and Facsimile.”
“They call me The Shade around here, but my actual codename is Umbrage; that has more meaning for me.” he replied.
“I don’t really have a name,” the flute girl offered a half wave. “Right now, I guess I’m just Shade’s Apprentice.”
The shadow turned to her and seemed to give her a look despite not having eyes before returning its focus to Codex. I was supposed to meet Chaos last week, but he had to cancel.” said the shadow.
“He… Well I insisted he take some time off. Did you hear about the Storm Cage?”
The shadow approximated a nod. “The terrorist attack, right?”
“Right. People died in that. It’s something we’re not used to, and Chaos and Darkness were in the thick of things. I suggested Chaos skip this one so he could get his thoughts together.”
“That’s the difference between here and Mayfield.” Umbrage said, “We don’t get a lot of the powered set; just your standard slate of criminals most of the time. I usually don’t even get involved unless someone’s died already.”
Facsimile glared down that the floor she was convinced still held the real Umbrage. “Yeah, speaking of which: who died to justify you doing your thing here?”
Umbrage continued speaking through the shadow with no regard for her disposition. “No one. Yet. But the big guy and the naga are part of a group that signed up at city hall as bounty hunters under the Braylocke law the state passed. Self-hating descendants, I guess.
“You read the news, you’ve heard about the allegations in Arizona, Mississippi, Florida—brutality charges, suspects wanted for minor crimes ending up in the hospital. I’m making sure that Chicago knows where their resident hero stands on this kind of thing.”
“We’re well aware of what’s going on in those other states.” said Codex. “Descendants Rights Worldwide is partnering with the ACLU to lead the legal charge against them. In the meantime, I know for a fact that the Interstate Psionic Bounty Agency is dirty, and I’ve got a list of people in out line of work, all waiting for someone in one of their offices to even sneeze illegally.”
“And also, “ Zero spoke up, “They’re not self-hating descendants. More like self loving.” She caught the look Facsimile was giving her. “What?”
“Nothing.” the golden heroine smirked.
But Umbrage had latched on to what Zero had said. “You make it sound like you’ve run into this group before.”
“Oh yeah, they were trying to ‘free’ a protomorph who checked into a program for treatment voluntarily. A lot of guards got bangs up, a general mess of made of everything, etcetera, etcetera.” Facsimile rolled her wrist to illustrate.
“Sounds like some people who need to meet The Shade.” said Shade’s Apprentice.
Facsimile faltered. She’d heard all about The Shade from Warrick. The boy worshiped all prelates, almost as a matter of course, up to and including the poseurs in LA that were biting off their name, but when it came to Shade… even he got uncomfortable.
The Shade wasn’t like other prelates. There were no photographs of him, no video footage; just the eyewitness accounts of the violent criminals whose encounters with him ended with them needing extensive therapy behind bars and sometimes treatment for shock. No one knew what it was, but The Shade did something to them; something well off the beaten path of ‘beat ’em up, toss them in cells’.
“Oh no.” She said, staring down the flutist. “You’re not going to hunt these guys down and traumatize the hell out of them. Look: they’re idiots, not criminals. I know there’s a lot of overlap, but trust me, they’re just plain idiots.”
“You said they hurt guards last time.” Umbrage pointed out.
Facsimile shifted slightly, still not willing to release him. “Only because they thought they were doing the right thing. And not the old ‘me making a ton of money and offing the wife is the right thing’ kind of thing; more like ‘We’ve been told this girl is literally in the clutches of mad science’.”
Umbrage and Shade’s Apprentice seemed to have a silent conversation and Facsimile easily picked out uncertainty on the latter’s face. “Listen! The people they’re bounty hunting are the same ones that we came here to help. Before were got interrupted by you girl Sue, Kali said I should…” She looked down sheepishly, “um… stop and talk to them about what was going on… oh, crap.” She dithered a second before saying, “If they’re here, it’s because they think they’re helping (no matter how much worse they’re going to make everything).”
“Are you following this?” Umbrage asked Codex.
She nodded. “I never met them, but from what I know of them, the Outliers last showed up in Mayfield on bad intel about a protomorph in trouble. Being all protomorphs, they feel a responsibility for others.”
“Oh god,” Facsimile said as the answer hit her. “Noah. The break-ins. I don’t know what they think they can do about it, but that’s why they’re here, I know it.”
Codex cam over and rested a hand on her shoulder, looking down at the Spot she seemed to think was Umbrage’s real face. “Now we’ve already lost precious minutes locking horns like this. With respect to this being your city, Umbrage, those kids are more important than that. We know them, and we’re going after them.”
“Get your partner off me and you’ll have help.” Said Umbrage. “If these people really are here to help, you need someone who can keep them out of trouble with the Chicago PD. Plus, we know this city; we can help you track them down faster than you can on your own.”
Scowling at the spot in front of her, Facsimile got up. The shadow faded away and reappeared getting up of the floor in front of her, no longer in the form of a cloaked and hooded figure, but in the vague shape of an old noir detective; fedora, trench coat and worn shoes included.
“Are you going to keep stunting us with illusions this whole time?” She asked sourly.
“I don’t use an actual costume.” he explained, “It’s all altered perceptions, either making myself look different, or simply making people not notice me.”
“Useful.”
Codex cleared her throat and took the younger woman by the arm before she could start another argument. “Let’s go. If we’re lucky, the Outliers managed to explain whatever they’re here for to Tillie and haven’t left yet.”
“And if they have?” asked Shade’s Apprentice. “Or if the people they’re after got away?”
Codex started to lead the group away. “Then we need to track both groups down. The Kin never tell me exactly where they’re staying, but I do know where Tillie works. And as for the Outliers…”
“They’re all protomorphs.” said Umbrage, “They won’t be hard to spot. Plus they have that giant and there’s a short list of vehicles that can even carry him.”
“Right.” Codex took out her palmtop. “Do you two have comms? I can patch you into our network.”
Shade’s Apprentice gave her a measured look. “Comm-links, that jet—where do you people get all that money? We just use our palmtops.”
Facsimile speared her with a look of her own. “Hey! That jet was a gift.”
“From ninjas.” Added Zero.
“It’s a long story.” Codex sighed. “Zero, Facsimile, scout from the air; look for panel trucks, cargo vans and the like; anything that could carry Kronos comfortably.”
Umbrage looked to his apprentice. “Better go with them, grasshopper. You know the lay of the land.”
“Grasshopper?” She asked wryly.
“I’m sure as hell not calling you ‘Shade’s Apprentice’.”
***
The gears in the old school bus ground as Geiger pulled out of the parking lot. “We tried to catch her on the way out, but the second she had open space, she was gone.”
The seats in the back of the bus had been ripped out and replaced by a huge beanbag chair in which Kronos was sitting, trying hard to look dignified as the jostling of the bus shifted him around. “What’s the back-up plan then?”
Kali was coiled up in the seat in front of him looking out the window while Anura sat opposite her consulting some maps of the city. Anura looked up from the maps and shrugged. “All our source gave us was that they’d be taking the youngest one to the field museum.”
“They couldn’t have told us they were going there to meet the Descendants?” Kali asked. “And what was that thing with the dinosaur coming to life? I didn’t know they could do that.”
Anura shrugged. “They’ve got new members since we ran into them; the staff chick, the green one—and Zero started flying. Who knows what they can do now.”
“Maybe we should just give up.” said Kali. “They’re on the case now, and with all those crazy powers, they can handle this better than us.”
“Except,” said Kronos, “none of the Descendants really understands what it’s like being like us, or like the man we’re looking for. Even Facsimile can drop her shape when she wants; she doesn’t know what it’s like to have a different set of instincts and senses because of changes in your body. They might well be better equipped to confront him, but not to help him.”
Geiger nodded resolutely. “You’re right, Lee. And I know where we go from here: while we were waiting at the museum, a man got sent to the hospital, babbling about being attacked by a monster. If that’s our guy, and chances are, it is, he’s getting more dangerous, and we need to get to him first. We’ll start where the attack happened.”
About Vaal
Landon Porter is the author of
The Descendants and
Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter
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