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“She will be cavity searched and x-rayed to identify any hidden weapon or any devices Bonesaw or Mannequin might have implanted in her,” Coil spoke, after the doors were closed and the white noise was blocked out.

Close enough. I did think of the hidden weapon option, but I forgot about the possibility of sticking them inside herself, so I dismissed it because her remaining clothes didn’t give her a lot of places to keep them.

“Regent, we have a protective suit waiting for you.  In the event that she does acquire something she can use her powers on, or if she has concealed anything on her person that is small enough to avoid radiographic detection, the suit will shield you until you’ve finished.”

Good plan.

Regent nodded.

“She was bitten by brown recluses,” I said.  “I’d give her a full physical examination every thirty minutes, to be safe.”

Regent: “You just had to make my new toy start rotting, didn’t you.”

With our weapons trained on Shatterbird, we stood by while one of Coil’s soldiers reached into Genesis’s stomach and hauled her out.  She was chained to the ceiling with her arms stretched out to her sides, then divested of her costume, left only with a silk camisole and slip.

Her costume is made of glass, so it would’ve been a weapon if she managed to get past the radio static.

Coil’s people wheeled in an x-ray machine and a tank of containment foam.

What’s the x-ray machine for? Checking for broken bones after the battle, or perhaps Bonesaw implants that might cause trouble?

Shatterbird glared wordlessly at us until we’d exited the room and the heavy vault door blocked our view of her.

You lost, Shatterbird. Time to be a shogi piece.

Coil was there to greet us with a Tattletale and a contingent of armed soldiers.  We waited patiently as one of the soldiers scanned Shatterbird with a plastic wand.  He looked at Coil and shook his head.

Hmm. Metal detector, to check for mundane weapons?

“This way,” Coil ordered.

How did he set this up so fast?

Hm. Lots of manpower? Or maybe some shenanigans involving his power?

Shatterbird’s cell was large, twenty feet by twenty feet across, and the walls had the same textured black rubber soundproofing as the sound recording booths I’d seen in movies and on TV.

Nice!

I couldn’t see the speakers, but there was a noise similar to radio static filling the room, so loud I wouldn’t be able to hear if someone spoke.

In other words, good luck doing anything with your power, Shatters!

I wonder if doing something similar to Cherish’s cell would work, considering that her power manifests as sound to her? Assuming she’s alive enough to get a cell.

I don’t think it’s actually sound, though, just that sound is how her brain processes it, so I’m guesssing not.

We only slowed when we got to Coil’s underground base.  We parked the dogs and then headed for the series of barred and locked doors.

Wait, aren’t the dogs the main things moving Genesis and the two members of the Nine in her stomach?

Also, I like the idea of them actually parking the dogs in parking lots.

I glanced at Shatterbird and Cherish where they knelt in Genesis’ rotund body.  We weren’t really giving away information here. Crawler had apparently come this way, not so long ago.

I can imagine his tracks would be quite visible.

It was a fifty-fifty chance whether Siberian and the other Nine would come this way.  Cherish wasn’t around to give them information, but she might have provided details at an earlier point that Jack or one of the others could use to connect the dots.

Hm. Certainly possible.

We’d cross that bridge when we got to it.

Or when the Nine get to it.

“Get her!”

Bitch rode just to Cherish’s left, Regent rode just to the right, and Genesis rolled right over the girl.  Cherish caught like glue, suffered an unfortunate few seconds of being dragged over the road’s surface, and was then drawn into Genesis’ bubble of a body.

Shatterbird: “Ugh, I have to be in here with her?”

My bugs gave me a sense of the Nine’s locations, and my decoys gave them pause once or twice.  We could track them more easily than they could do the reverse, and we were soon far enough away that I couldn’t sense them.

Excellent!

■

Well, that was a success!

Drawing my bugs together, I covered us as best as I was able, creating other decoys, vague chariot-shaped lumps here and there, huddles of figures.

Nice. Just covering them up in bugs while still being oddly shaped, without making the decoys oddly-shaped, would make them way too obviously the real one.

It would all be for nothing if they returned to Cherish, revived the girl and tracked us down.

Hmm. Maybe only if they revived her properly, rather than leaving her a husk like Hack Job. Hack Job can use his powers because they’re fairly physical, but Cherish’s power probably requires a functional mind.

“Left!” I ordered.

Bitch steered left.  Regent hadn’t heard, but as the tension on the chains pulled Sirius to one side, he caught on and turned as well.

Time to get out of here!

My bugs served as a navigation system, feeling out the shapes of our surroundings so I could work out a suitable path.

Arthropod Positioning System (APS), for when GPS is too mundane.

We charged onward, with me giving occasional directions, until we found Cherish lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

Hi there!

So are they going to pick her up so she can’t be revived?

“Hurry,” Regent said.  He was winding the chain around the jello-like yellow hand.  Fingerless hands gripped the chain for further traction.

So, uh. How does this help? I mean, restraining Genesis?

Is Genesis going to pull the chains into her body to tie them around Shatterbird?

Shatterbird noticed the spiders.  Her eyes widened as the volume of deadly spiders trapped in the bubble with her increased.  I raked my finger beneath the message I’d drawn with the bugs, as if to underline it.  ‘Stop’.

That ought to drive the point home.

She did.  Glass shards fell into a pool around her feet.

Good girl.

“Go!”  I shouted.

We ran, the two dogs side by side, pulling Genesis behind us like a chariot.

Ahh, I guess she didn’t put much effort into making the form mobile on its own.

Using my bugs, I formed words against the surface of Genesis’s belly.  ‘Stop’.

Not gonna lie, this is not how I pictured “stopping her” going. At least it’s more pleasant for Genesis than the alternative.

Shatterbird only intensified her attempts.

Of course.

I gathered some black widow spiders and pressed them gently against the shiny, translucent skin.  They were absorbed, drifting inside, and were soon crawling around the inside surface.

Oh yeah, I suppose there’s no need to go through the mouth, if Genesis’ form even has one. It would actually be smarter for it not to.

Genesis obliged me by opening her mouth, giving me a direct route for the bugs to travel.

Well, never mind.

Genesis looked like a cartoon caricature of a sumo wrestler, grotesquely obese and yellow skinned with eyes like black buttons.

That’s a bit racist, Genesis.

She was hairless, unclothed and sexless, and her skin was translucent and oily.

She sounds like a mixture of a gorilla and Gregor.

Through the skin, I could make out the vague figure of Shatterbird, pounding on the walls of the stomach, her mouth opening in a scream that didn’t reach us.

Pfft! That’s certainly one way to capture her!

Glass shards were stirring around her, a blender whir cutting at the insides of Genesis’s belly.

They presumably thought of that and made sure she could make a glass-proof stomach.

“She’s going to cut through,” I said.  “Bitch, Regent, get the chains.  I’ll try to stop her.”

Or, maybe not?