Weld and Flechette were variables we hadn’t planned for.  It was unfortunate, but Weld in particular was also very well equipped for the task of keeping us from retreating back to the front door.

Oh, he’s very well equipped, is he now, Taylor? 😉

Weld swung at Shadow Stalker, but his club passed through her.  Fearless, she stepped close and punched the metal arrowhead of one of her crossbows into his right eye.

Sheesh, this story and eye attacks… What’s that, the third one, after Taylor setting bugs into Lung’s eye in Gestation and later carving his eyes out? Although I guess the eye is also made of metal, so I’m not sure this is gonna be very effective.

He stepped back a few steps, one hand going to his eye, and she threw herself at him, bringing her knees to her chest and then kicking out.

Oh right, metal arrowhead! It doesn’t pierce anything, but it gets stuck there!

Her feet slammed into his chest, and pushed him further back.  Weld only staggered back a short distance, and it was Shadow Stalker who landed hard on her back.

Sorry, Regent, Isaac Newton bested you this time.

Kicking a five-foot-nine-inch block of metal had to hurt, but Regent doesn’t exactly have to be careful with Shadow Stalker’s body.

Whereas Weld does. That’s one hell of an advantage to Regent.

We burst into action the moment Weld called out his warning.

A̵l͡r̷igh͘t, ̷t̶i҉m̸e͏ ͘for̛ śome aćtion! Í w̷o̡n̕d͞ȩr i̶f̡ t͘h͝e̕y̵ hàd… *a͠hem* …a contingency plan for this sort of outcome.

Bitch drove her shoulder into the PRT uniform that held her back, then backed towards the front desk.  Weld had already changed his hand into what looked like a baseball bat with four sides to it, long enough to reach from his wrist to the ground.

Probably don’t want to get hit with that.

Studs the size of golf balls ran down each of the four faces, with a blunted spike on the end.

…really don’t want to get hit with that.

Weld didn’t move an inch, and my gut told me Regent/Shadow Stalker was off the mark.  My heart sank.

Clockblocker and Kid Win stopped walking and looked our way curiously.

Yeeah, this mission just officially went off the rails.

“Heads up!  Trap!” Weld shouted.

Wards Neo vs the Undersiders, here we go.

So the Undersiders have a mishmash of advantages and disadvantages…

• Advantage: Regent is controlling one of the Wards, giving an advantage in numbers 7-5 as far as bodies go.
• Advantage: Element of surprise.
• Advantage: Coil made this canon. Doesn’t actually help them win, but indicates they probably do.
• Advantage?: Wards don’t know the powers of Imp. We’re likely to find out what those are in the next chapter.
• Disadvantage: Shadow Stalker’s ammunition has been drained of tranquilizer, unless they brought bolts they didn’t drain.
• Disadvantage: Ward home turf.
• Disadvantage: Six out of seven bodies on their side are currently restrained.
• Disadvantage: Rachel doesn’t have her dogs and is therefore practically a mundane in this situation.
• Disadvantage: The 7-5 numerical advantage doesn’t count the mundane PRT soldiers that I think are still around.

Overall, the Undersiders seem to be at a disadvantage here, but who knows what Imp brings to the table. This could get very interesting.

Weld nodded.  I blinked a few times in surprise.  Tattletale hadn’t gone into this, hadn’t anticipated it. Weld had just tried to trip up Regent/Shadow Stalker, and Regent had anticipated it.  A bullet dodged.

Oh, okay. But in that case he’s stuck if Weld asks “Then who was it?”

I saw we were passing by a front desk.  I’d never been in the building, but I had passed by it a few times.  It was surprisingly empty.  There weren’t many PRT uniforms around, either.

Huh. Got business out of the building, perhaps?

“Who was it, then?” Weld asked.  It took me a second to parse what he meant.

Hah! I got the placement of the “then” wrong, but other than that I totally called it.

Shadow Stalker groaned, “Fuck off!  It’s me.”

“Hey,” he turned, putting one hand on her shoulder to stop her mid-stride.  “Who was it?”

He’s smart, and he’s thorough, and he’s probably read Regent’s file and knows what he can do. And the PRT knows that Tattletale has a way with knowing some things she shouldn’t, such as passwords.

She glanced at the group.  Clockblocker, Kid Win, Vista, and the girl from the Endbringer fight who called herself Flechette.

Think fast. Who would Shadow Stalker attack?

Or, let me rephrase that. Out of three mid-late teens and one early teen, who would a humongous asshole target?

“Clockblocker,” she guessed.

Fuck.

“Whatever,” Shadow Stalker replied.

Heh, at least he got a character with an easy out from having to make value-loaded replies.

“No.  This is serious.  You assaulted a team member.  I’m not about to let that slide.”

Regent, internally: “Seriously?”

Skitter, internally: “Of course she did…”

On one level, I wasn’t surprised to hear that.  I knew, cognitively, that she had that kind of personality.   But emotionally?  I hadn’t really believed it.  It caught me off guard to hear she was that big a problem in the Wards, as well.

On a third level, that’s one of the reasons you didn’t join.

I think the issue here might be not that you didn’t expect her to be trouble in the Wards too so much as that you didn’t expect her to be this much trouble to people other than you.

A few seconds passed before she finally asked, “What are you going to do?”

“After these guys are securely in custody, we’re going to have words with the Director.  She wants you on this team, for whatever reason, so I don’t expect your probation will be broken, but there’s going to be consequences.”

Seriously, what does it take to break that probation?

“Fuck,” Shadow Stalker said.

“And you’re going to apologize to Kid Win.  I don’t ever want you assaulting him again.”

To… Kid Win?

Wait, is he not talking about her interrupted attack on Vista? Or is he deliberately getting details wrong to check if “Shadow Stalker” calls him out on it?

Shadow Stalker paused.  “Stop fucking testing me.  I’m too tired for this.  It wasn’t Kid Win.”

Yeah. I guess Tattle filled him in on that too, unless Sophia did so during the torture session.

But Sophia’s smart enough that I’m pretty sure she’d give him wrong but believable information, at least at first.