“I’m cool.”  Regent shifted the position of his stool a half-foot to his left, so he could lean back against the corner of the refrigerator.  He brought one of his feet up onto the seat of the stool and rested his chin on his knee.

But Sophia isn’t gonna be, in a bit.

“Just as long as you’re sure,” Grue spoke.  “How long?”

Regent glanced at Grue, then looked to Shadow Stalker, “Depends on her.  Could be fifteen minutes, could be three hours.”

So what exactly do they want from her? To renounce the Wards and go to jail?

I doubt it’s information. Tattletale’s power gives her loads on that front. Sure there could be some tidbits they need to know that her power won’t tell her, but kidnapping and torturing a Ward seems a bit much for that.

Shadow Stalker grunted, long and loud.

Grue began ushering us out of the room, and we obeyed, except for Imp, who seemed to need a little bit of an extra nudge – Grue blocked her view of Regent and our captive with his body and put a hand on her shoulder to push her toward the door.

I guess she might want to watch? I suppose a fascination with dark/macabre things such as torture fits with her aesthetic too.

Following, I cast a backward look over my shoulder, saw Shadow Stalker’s arm twitch.  She winced, mumbled a swear word around her gag.

Yeah… it begins.

“We have an idea,” Tattletale interrupted.

“Fuck you!”  Shadow Stalker shouted.

“Guys, do me a favor?” Regent asked, not taking his eyes off Shadow Stalker.  He smacked his scepter into the palm of one hand, “Gag her, then give us some privacy?”

The fact that he feels the need for privacy adds another layer of worrying to this situation. Which might be half the reason he asks for it.

“You sure?” Grue asked, as Tattletale moved over to Sophia’s side, bent down to get some excess cord, and lifted up her mask just enough to wind the cord into her mouth.

An interesting way to gag her, but I suppose that works.

The duct tape made a tearing noise as she freed a length from the roll.  I could still make out the swearing on Shadow Stalker’s part as she tugged at her bonds and rocked her seat.

Heh.

The setup Grue had created by duct taping the other two chairs to her helped ensure she couldn’t throw herself to the ground and maybe break the chair in the process.

The Undersiders have clearly planned this all out thoroughly.

She doesn’t even deny it.  I can’t believe I’ve gone to high school with this lunatic.

And the same murderous lunatic has been getting on your case for ages, and recently attacked your civilian self personally. You’re lucky you’re alive.

I resisted the urge to respond, shrugged instead.  Too easy to get into an argument, too easy to let something slip and reveal who I was.

Okay, so she’s still not intending to do that. Makes sense, but I couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t going to pull a “by the way, I’m Taylor you fucknugget”.

“Well, you fuckers got me,” she cocked her head to one side, “What’s next?”

We all turned to look at Regent.  Regent, in turn, gave Shadow Stalker a serious look.

Regent’s turn? Yeah, I’d very much like to know what’s next too.

He ran his fingers through his dark hair.  Tattletale stood from the chair, and Regent sat, putting himself four feet away from the heroine.  His mask was a plain white, a half-smile perpetually frozen on the smooth, unadorned face.

Hm… I suppose the power to make someone’s body do things it otherwise wouldn’t could be useful for torture. I mean, last chapter he had her arm twist itself in a way that was physically painful, didn’t he?

Her eyes went wide behind the eyeholes of her mask, and she pulled hard against her bonds, “No!  Fuck!  Have you seen his files?  You don’t know-”

Oh right, yeah, Alec’s past lends itself well to torture too. He’s got ability and experience.

The heroine leaned hard to one side, looked down.  “Hm.”

“You’ll be a little groggy,” Tattletale grabbed the last remaining chair from beside the kitchen table to sit down opposite the vigilante ‘heroine’.  “The fight took a lot out of you, and we tased you, and I took the liberty of sticking you with one of your own tranquilizer bolts.”

Ahh, that would explain why she was asleep to begin with.

“You don’t hold back,” Shadow Stalker commented, seemingly unfazed by her circumstances.  She tested the strength of her bonds, experimentally.

“Says the person who tried to slit my teammate’s throat,” Regent spoke.

Regent may be content with staying in the background most of the time, but when he does speak up in a serious conversation, it tends to be on point.

Shadow Stalker looked at me, the eyes behind her mask moving to my throat.  “Tough costume.” 

…is that meant as a compliment??

I mean, she doesn’t know that Skitter’s resourcefulness and creativity are the reasons behind that, but still.

Also, Sophia, I don’t think the fact that you failed was the point here.

She seemed to get angrier with every hour spent in my company, and I was worried I’d have to face the brunt of it very soon.

We don’t want a repeat of 2.8 around here, but it seems more likely by the hour… I don’t think Bitch’s anger will manifest in quite the same way if we get to see it, though.

“She’s awake,” Tattletale called out.  I hurried to the kitchen, leaving Bitch where she was.

Sophia time.

Our captive hadn’t budged an inch.

“She’s sitting there, pretending to sleep in the hopes that we’ll say something.  It would be clever, might even work, if I wasn’t here,” Tattletale said, with a bit of a wry tone.

Hah, nice.

Shadow Stalker’s head rose and swiveled as she surveyed the full extent of her bindings.  Then she glanced at us.

“Shit, they totally do know my weakness.”

After a long pause, she spoke, “Electrical cords.”

“Strongly advise you to avoid using your power to pass through them,” Tattletale answered, “And in case you’re thinking of dropping straight down through the floor, don’t.  We’ve got extra lying under the chair.”

Nice.

Grue, for his part, ignored her.

I get the sense that he doesn’t really care for the theatrics.

I think I know who might, though… *glances at Regent*

Once the wires were in place, he used duct tape to secure them, then he got two more chairs, laid them on their sides and taped them to her chair.  He was almost done when Imp finally concluded her charade with the portable generator.

I was too distracted by Imp to comment on the generator, but yeah… when there’s no power where you’re going, you bring something that can make it for you. Of course.

The LEDs at the ends of the extension cords lit up as we plugged each cord in to the generator, glowing a dim orange.  Grue stood, then pushed the refrigerator away from the wall so he could unplug it and plug the appliance into the generator.  I couldn’t be sure if it was to ensure a steady current through the wire or because he wanted a working fridge.

That last thing is at the very least a nice bonus.

I’d finished unpacking the wires, so I picked up the empty box and entered the living room to put one box inside the other to minimize the mess.

Bitch had claimed the sofa for herself, reclining with two dogs up beside her.

This is the woof couch, only woofs allowed.

She was rubbing her forearms, which were probably strained from controlling the more unruly dogs with the chains.  She glared up at me, and there was something ugly in her expression.

Yeeah, she’s not happy about this at all.

I really do wonder how Taylor and Lisa managed to convince Brian to a) trust Taylor and b) join in on whatever this plan of Taylor’s entails.

I couldn’t blame her for being angry.  Her dogs, some of her closest friends in the world, had died because she had been saving me, only for her to find out shortly afterward that I had been a traitor. 

Ouch, yeah.

Maybe saving me hadn’t been her primary motivation, but it seemed she’d used the past week and an unhealthy dose of simmering anger to revise her perception of things so I was to blame for what had happened.  It wasn’t getting better, either.   

Heh… yeah, this is gonna be tricky to fix. Very tricky.

“Copping a feel, Grue?” Imp mocked, as she let herself half-spin and collapse lengthwise on the couch.

Hehe.

Good, she has a sense of humor that fits with her impy aesthetic. 🙂

“Making sure it isn’t tight enough to cut off her circulation.”

“Ah.  You an expert on that stuff?  I didn’t take you for a bondage freak,” she stretched.

Ahaha! I like this girl so far.

…

I mean he does wear a lot of leather… 😉

He sighed, “Just get the generator.”

“I just lay down.”

“So stand up and then get the generator,” he ordered.

THEN FIRE ZE MISSILES!!

She made a show of slowly standing and, with exaggerated motions, dragging herself over to the box Tattletale had brought.

Between the half-spin and this, she seems kinda dramatic. I like it.

She retrieved a black plastic portable generator that wasn’t much bigger than a microwave oven.  She acted like it was ten times heavier than it was as she hauled it over toward the spot where Sophia sat.

As I was saying 😛

“Can you stop them from activating it?”  Grue asked.  “Or maybe we could have Skitter’s bugs or a dog carry that piece somewhere else?”

The latter sounds like a good option if the former doesn’t work. And I’m not sure how they’d go about the former, so it seems like it’d be necessary.

By the way, possible Imp powers that appear to be ruled out: Things that can be used for scouting out an apartment, and things that can be used to move something far away.

Speaking of Imp, she seems to be rather quiet. Then again, Regent and Bitch haven’t said anything either, so maybe it’s too early to say much on that. At least she doesn’t seem overly talkative in this situation.

Tattletale shook her head, “I can turn it off.  Give me a minute.”

Ah, okay. Nice 🙂

Regent and I had already started hauling extension cords out of the box Regent had been carrying, untangling them and feeding them over to Grue.

Hm. I have no idea what they’re trying to accomplish, but apparently it requires electricity. Better have plenty of cord, I suppose, since apparently this apartment doesn’t have power.

He began winding a cord around our captive, starting with loops around her wrists and arms, going up her arms to her chest, then back down to bind her body to the chair.

…oh.

Fair enough.

We handed him the next cord, and he did much the same thing with Shadow Stalker’s legs.  As he worked the bindings up her extremities, he kept his index and middle fingers on her, wrapping the cord over top of them.  When he was done with the loops at one spot, he moved his hand up further, then repeated the process.

Oh, I think I see what they’re doing. It still does require power, unless their bluff game is strong enough. They’re wrapping her in cords instead of ropes to prevent her from phasing through them like she would with ropes.

It seems they’re prepared when it comes to Shadow Stalker’s weakness, which suggests that yes, Taylor did know about it before getting to that fence. Likely thanks to Tattletale.

Regent put down a second, smaller box next to the one Tattletale had brought.  I switched positions with Tattletale – she began searching Shadow Stalker, removing crossbows, cartridges of ammunition and two small knives.

Ah, yeah, good call disarming her.

She found a phone with a touch screen, then reached beneath the unconscious girl’s hood to pluck a wireless earbud from the girl’s ear.  After rubbing it on Shadow Stalker’s cloak to clean it, she put it in her own ear and started fiddling with the smart phone.

Niice. That could come in handy, especially if they want to communicate with the Wards console.

After a few seconds she pronounced, “GPS hasn’t been activated.  They probably won’t turn it on to look for her until she fails to return from patrol.”

Ah, right, of course they’d do something like that… I didn’t even think of it. Just goes to show how ineffective I’d be as a villain. 😛

Tattletale grunted as she dropped one box beside the couch, where it landed on something with a crunch. “City’s trying to restore order one area at a time.  May be doing more harm than good.  This building’s been declared uninhabitable, which isn’t exactly doing anyone any favors, because most places in the city are just as bad or worse, and a lot of people don’t have anywhere else to go.  Anyways, they’re kicking everyone out, trying to clean up as best they can, get rid of that trash, do what they can about the infestation of rats and bugs.

Uninhabitable. Really.

At this point they should be concerned about whether it’s physically possible to live safely somewhere, not whether it’s possible to live there comfortably.

Might still be a few people around, but I doubt anyone’s going to be poking around enough to find us before eleven or so tomorrow morning.”

Yeah, sounds like a decent hideout.

“Then we have time to do what we need to do,” Grue spoke.

Which is?

He used one foot to drag one of the dining room chairs out from beneath the table, placing it in the center of the kitchen.  I hurried to his side to hold the seat in place as he hefted the limp body from over his shoulder and set it down.  Shadow Stalker nearly tipped over, but together we caught her and leaned her back.  Her head lolled.

…hm. What if “Parasite” refers to whatever they’re about to do here? Maybe Imp’s power involves something like possession, and they want her to take over Shadow Stalker’s body like – or using – a parasite? Something along those lines?

Also, it’s entirely possible that Imp is the non-Regent Master Weld was talking about in 9.1, rather than Taylor, but Shadow Stalker didn’t seem to know about Imp from before, so chances are good the PRT in general didn’t either.