(Technically, Leviathan should be disqualified anyway because whatever he is, he’s not a human and never was, but it doesn’t seem like anyone but Tattletale actually knows that.)
Tag: 8.5p2
I’ve been kind of distractable and slow tonight (sorry), so there’s still quite a bit left, but it’s getting late. I’ll be back for part 3 tomorrow (Sunday)!
(Chrono link for chapter 8.5, incomplete)
I stopped, when I found the Halberd, picked it up.
Good to have. Bug power is mostly or entirely useless at the moment, but the Halberd might come in handy again.
Found Impel’s armband, bent down and pressed the buttons to open communications, “Leviathan’s at the shelter in CB-10. Need reinforcements fast.”
Yes, good!
Chevalier replied, “Shit. He must have gone through some storm drain or sewer. Our best teleporter’s dead, but we’ll do what we can.”
Good luck.
Which left me only one thing to do. I had to be better than Mr. Gladly.
Yes, but what can you do? The Halberd is pretty much all you have here.
Oh, also, if it’s possible to do so, you really should nab Impel’s armband. Your own is busted and you might still need portable communication without relying on other capes or corpses.
I saw Laserdream lying face down in the water, bent down and turned her over with my good hand and one foot, checked she was breathing.
O hai.
The two capes, who I took to be Impel and Apotheosis, were torn into pieces.
That tends to be bad for your health.
I ran past them. Ran past the civilians who Leviathan had struck down, ripped apart.
Jeez, what an unhealthy fad.
It was a dark mirror to what Mr. Gladly had done to me.
Really dark. He left you at the mercy of the Harpies. You’re leaving him at the mercy of a fucking Endbringer.
What Emma and her friends had done, I couldn’t say for sure that I would have had the mental fortitude to put up with it if I hadn’t gotten my powers – and for all he knew, I hadn’t.
…are you saying you think you might’ve ended up committing suicide?
I couldn’t know whether I could have dealt with everything that had followed the incident in January, if I could have made it this far if I hadn’t had my powers, these distractions. In every way that mattered, Mr. Gladly turning his back on me, back there in the school hallway, a time that felt so long ago, could have killed me.
I still don’t think it’s quite fair to think like this when this happened right after you – as far as I remember – pretty much told him to mind his own business.
I think I’m gonna have to reread that part later, update myself on the exact sequence of events, but I’m fairly sure that’s what happened.
A fitting justice, maybe, leaving him in that shelter with Leviathan.
I suppose, but I’m personally too sympathetic to Mr. Gladly to think he actually deserves it.
Jeez, Taylor can get pretty dark sometimes.
Leviathan took a step forward, putting me behind him and just to his right. He lashed his tail again. Another dozen or two dozen civilians slain.
He’s cutting through them like they’re made of whipped cream.
Mr. Gladly’s girlfriend was screaming, burying her face in his shoulder. Mr. Gladly stared up at Leviathan, wide eyed, his lips pressed together in a line, oddly red faced.
Leviathan: “NO ONE’S GONNA DO IT IF IT’S OPTIONAL”
I didn’t care. I should feel bad my teacher was about to die, but all I could think about was how he’d ignored me when Emma and the others had had me cornered.
Oof, harsh.
I still don’t think Mr. Gladly was necessarily as in the wrong in that situation as Taylor thinks. Taylor had just gotten done telling him how much she didn’t want his help. He may have simply decided to respect that. It wasn’t a really good decision as a teacher, but still, I don’t think it was as malicious or uncaring as Taylor makes it out to have been.
One hand on my shoulder to steady my throbbing broken arm, I slipped behind Leviathan, hugging the wall, slipping around the corner and moving up the vault door with padded feet.
There’s really not much Taylor can do here. Besides the armor, she’s pretty much like the civilians here.
This is all about survival, it seems.
And he was there, climbing through the vaultlike door, so large he barely fit.
…the downside to having a large bandwidth is that big bad things fit through. Well, shit. Running back into the shelter seems to have backfired a bit.
One claw on either side, he pushed his way through. Stood as tall as he could inside the front door, looking over the crowd. Hundreds of people were within, captive, helpless.
Yeeeah, you fucked up, guys.
Although… if they’d gotten out, would they actually have gotten anywhere?
A lash of his tail struck down a dozen people in front of him. The afterimage struck down a dozen more.
No death notice from the armband for civilians.
Yeah, that’s a thing I’ve been painfully aware of for a while – we know there have been lots of cape deaths, but we have no idea how many civilians have perished during the chapters up to now. This city does seem to largely respect the evacuation orders, but there’s always going to be those who don’t make it to a shelter, and those who decide to be “brave” (read: foolish). Neither of those are facts that this story is the type to ignore.
Add to that the effects of panicked masses and people who can’t handle the stress.
It was surprising how much that chance meeting bugged me.
A shriek startled me out of my contemplations. It was quickly followed by a dozen other screams of mortal terror.
Uh oh. Did Leviathan catch up?
Impel deceased, CB-10. Apotheosis deceased, CB-10.
How many capes were there working on unblocking the door, again, besides Laserdream and Skitter? I think it might’ve been two.
I felt him arrive, a small few bugs still inside him, though most of the rest had been washed away in his swim. There were so few I’d missed his approach.
Leviathan.
In other words, he’s significantly closer than the outer range of the power.
People ran back inside the shelter, screamed and pushed, trampled one another.
Can’t blame them, really. Waist deep in water is arguably better than being open prey for an Endbringer. Although in this case, said Endbringer could easily kill them with that water, too.
I was forced into the corner by the door as they ran into the shelter, tried to make some distance between themselves and the Endbringer.
Laserdream down, CB-10.
Aaand there she goes down too. You’re stranded, Taylor.
Relief was clear on people’s faces as they began wading en masse toward the front doors.
“Oh good, the capes got in, we can stop this futile work.”
My dad was taller than average, and I hoped to be able to make him out, see if he was in the crowd. As the group gravitated toward the doorway, however, I lost the ability to peer over the mass of people. I didn’t see him.
I hung back as people filed out in twos and threes. Mothers and fathers holding their kids, who otherwise wouldn’t be tall enough to stay above water, people still in pajamas or bathrobes, people holding their dogs above water or with cats on their shoulders.
And then there’s Danny, somewhere. All alone. Wondering if Taylor is okay. Wondering where she is, whether she’s made it to a shelter. Whether that shelter has been breached.
Unbeknownst to Danny, Taylor wonders the same about him.
They marched against the flow of water from the stairwell, up the back of the vault door and onto the street.
Mr. Gladly was near the back of the crowd, with a blond woman that was taller than him, holding his hand. It bugged me, in a way I couldn’t explain.
Oh, hi there.
It was like I felt he didn’t deserve a girlfriend or wife. But that wasn’t exactly it. It was like this woman was somone who maybe liked him, heard his side of things, validated his self-perception of being this excellent, ‘cool’ teacher.
Is that what bugs you? The idea of a person who genuinely likes Mr. Gladly?
A part of me wanted to explain to that woman that he wasn’t, that he was the worst sort of teacher, who helped the kids who already had it easy, and dropped the fucking ball when it came to those of us who needed it.
Also he’s terrible at giving homework.
I stepped down to investigate, sent a few bugs in to get the lay of the land. The interior of the shelter was surprisingly like what Coil’s headquarters had been like, concrete walls with metal walkways and multiple levels.
Huh.
There were water coolers and a set of freezers, bathrooms and a sectioned off first aid area.
Seems like a nice enough place.
It was clear that one of the waves or Leviathan’s creation of that massive sinkhole in downtown had done some damage to the shelter.
Water was pouring in from a far wall and from the front door, and twenty or so people were in the first aid bay on cots, injured and bloody.
At least they’re still alive.
…
You know what I just realized? Even if Danny is alive and well, Taylor coming across him as Skitter could make for an interesting, emotional moment.
A team of about fifty or sixty people were moving sandbags to reduce the flow of water into the chamber from the cracked back wall. A second, smaller team was blocking off the room with the cots, piling sandbags in the doorway. In the main area, people stood nearly waist deep in water.
That’s a lot of people, but that’s good.
“Everyone out!” Laserdream called out.
That said, it’s worth knowing when to fold and evacuate the shelter to a different shelter.
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