She stepped over the line, and immediately felt a resistance.  It took her a second to figure out what it was – a thread caught the moonlight.

Whoops.

There was a muffled splashing sound, and a twelve-foot tall gorilla leaped from the nearest rooftop to land directly in front of her.  It swung its arms wildly in front of it, missing her, then slammed both knuckles down in the water, crushing one side of the orange striped barrier.  Flechette raised her arbalest to shoot, then stopped.

Well hello there, miss Traveler.

I guess Noelle wasn’t the name of the pseudo-shapeshifter after all, unless Coil’s reinforced door didn’t work out.

Or unless this is an actual zoo gorilla, but I’m pretty sure those don’t get twelve feet tall.

It wasn’t real.  Damp cloth, stitched together.  And it was blind.  It wasn’t acting as though it could see her.

Ohhh. Looks like you found your target!

She dropped the arbalest, backed over the line, and then waited.

Parian arrived at a run, feet splashing in the water.  She spotted Flechette, and the gorilla moved to place itself between the two of them.

Her creations can only see what she sees.  They’re puppets.

That’s a bit of a weakness, but it makes sense. It’s not like she can just weave functional eyes.

Though maybe that wasn’t really obvious given the rest of what her power can do.

The massive sinkhole Leviathan had made was roughly circular, but it was large enough that she couldn’t say for sure when she had turned and started moving more west than north.

Whoops.

Well, as long as you don’t start moving south, you’re on the right track, I guess.

Fresh graffiti stained buildings, some warning people to stay away, others were the crude pictographs of hobo signs.  One neighborhood had used the debris of fallen buildings to form makeshift barricades in alleys and in front of doorways.  There wasn’t much intact housing here – the sinkhole sat to her left, and two blocks to her right, from what she could make out in the moonlight, the buildings were too damaged to serve as living accommodations.

Still, I’m fairly sure some people are going to try to live there.

At one intersection there were two parallel, vertical lines spray painted in yellow on opposite walls.  Traffic cones, some broken, an orange striped barrier and the remains of one yellow raincoat sat in the water, much of it weighed down by rubble.

Are these yellow lines possibly a gang symbol? Merchants, perhaps?

Together, the organized debris formed a brightly colored line joining the marks that had been spray painted on the wall.

Huh.

“Sure.”

Flechette gauged the direction of the ocean, deemed that east, and then headed northwest as Kid Win had suggested.

Told ya the ocean seemed to be to the east, though I do think this is the most explicit confirmation of that so far.

Oh, wait, no, it was explicitly mentioned as “the ocean bordering us to the east” back in 1.2.

She traveled at ground level, wading through the water, to make faster progress.  Nothing to prove, now that she had stopped patrolling with Shadow Stalker.

Life tends to be better when you have nothing to prove.

It didn’t take long to find the ‘lake’ Leviathan had made in the downtown area.  Given that the streets were flooded with water anyways, the crater itself was distinguishable only by the barrier around it, and a dark shadow beneath the water where there was nothing beneath to reflect light.

I guess that’s one good reason to mark it down on maps as a “crater” rather than a “lake” for now – that it’s barely different from the rest of the city.

Hulks of fallen buildings sat in the center of the water.  The orange light of a fire on the top floor of one of the buildings suggested that someone had swum to one of the buildings and was staying there.  Maybe one of the safer places to be.

Heh, yeah, I suppose. Got one hell of a moat, that’s for sure.

The crater was surrounded by orange striped barriers with flashing lights and portable chain link fences that were chained together.   The fencing formed a solid barrier around the hole.

And a fence around the moat, too.

She walked with the fence to her left, which roughly halved the area she had to keep an eye on, in case of approaching trouble.  Her right index finger was just below the trigger of her arbalest, and her left hand clutched a handful of darts.

Sounds reasonable.

“Nobody’s harmless at a time like this, Flechette,” Kid Win replied.

“Right.”  Flechette thought of the middle-aged woman beating her attacker bloody.

…fair point.

“Listen, easiest way to get to that area, you’ll find the lake to the northwest, walk the perimeter of it to reach the north end.  The area she could be staying at should only be a block or two wide.  If she’s even awake.

I wonder if Kid has bothered to try to guess at Flechette’s motivations here.

I’ve got Clockblocker buzzing in, probably to check in for the night and give me the cliff notes on his nightly patrol, so I’m going silent until you need me, k?”

Sounds good.

If Flechette’s intentions are anywhere near what I imagine they might be, she’ll want a little privacy.

“Oh.”  That was random.  What kind of guy knew that much about dolls?

Hehe.

He went on, “She’s a rogue.  Fashion student with the costume and stuffed animals as a gimmick to help her build for a professional reputation and stand out.  Tentative rating of Master-6, but we haven’t really seen her fight, outside of the Leviathan encounter.”

Nothing here we didn’t already know, except the exact classification.

“Student.  So she’ll be near a college?”

“College is gone.  Kaput.  Um, let me see.  Last we heard, she was situated between the spot where the college was and the lake downtown.  If I remember right, there’s going to be a fairly thin strip of places there that are intact enough to live in.  Vista ran into her the other night, but she’s asleep right now and we’re behind on paperwork so…”

Well, at least we know who to ask.

“So you don’t know exactly what happened, and I’d be going in blind.  She’s harmless though?  This Parian?”

Unless you piss her off too much, I suppose. Then you risk being chased by a… lion… huh. Remember my joke about Weld and the Wizard of Oz from the last chapter? We have a lion!

And for another reference, just add Sir Tony and we’re left with needing Parian to make a bear.

She had one other thing she had wanted to do tonight, before she finished her patrol, went back, showered, ate and unpacked.

She squeezed the bud in her ear twice, “Console?”

A brief pause, then a voice in her ear, “Kid Win on the console.  Hi, Flechette.  Deal with those guys okay?”

Heya, Kid.

“Guys are dealt with but… I’m going to do the rest of my night’s patrol alone.”

“Sorry.  I should’ve warned you.  Tends to be easier to work around her.”

Heh, sounds about right.

I remember (mainly because I reread parts of it during last chapter’s liveblog) in Interlude 3, someone (Aegis?) mentioned having deliberately kept Shadow Stalker out of the bank robbery battle.

So she’s always like that.

Yep. Even out of costume.

“This is unfamiliar territory for me. I might need you to brief me if I run into a cape, so I know what I’m potentially running into.”

“Of course, I’m not going anywhere.”

Sounds good.

“And on that subject, I remember meeting someone when I was in town for the attack.  What can you tell me about the cape with the stuffed animals?  Pariah, par-”

“Parian,” Kid Win replied.

Heh, nice. I like the idea of Flechette and Parian getting along, one needle gal to another.

“A parian doll was a kind of doll about a hundred and fifty years ago.  Though Parian’s costume is actually closer to a more classical Victorian style porcelain doll, from the same era.”

Nice. I don’t think a history lesson is what Flechette wanted, but I appreciate it.

Is Kid Win reading this from somewhere, or does he just happen to know stuff about historical dolls?

Maybe Parian explained it to him herself.

“Whatever,” Shadow Stalker replied without looking back, “If you want to be like that.  I’m only on the team because I have to be, so you’re doing me a favor.  Prefer to fly solo.”

Yeeah.

At least if you were with her, Flechette, you could keep an eye on her. I get it if you don’t want to, though.

Three strikes, Flechette thought, as she strode away.  Nearly being shot for saying hello, the way Shadow Stalker had delayed helping the woman, and now this.

Yeah, those strikes went by quickly.

She’d give the other girl the benefit of a doubt.  Maybe Shadow Stalker had some unresolved issues, maybe it had been a rough week.  But for now, she needed to calm down and wait long enough to think more objectively about what had happened.  Then she’d decide whether to deal or to tell her new team leader.

Oh, Weld absolutely needs to know, if he doesn’t already.

But yes, this seems reasonable enough.

Fuck.  She felt profoundly disappointed.  She wanted to like the other heroine, but this was too much.

Taylor: “Tell me about it.”

A thought I forgot to voice in the last post: It’s entirely possible that part of the Harpies’ bullying of Taylor comes from Sophia (maybe) having a disdain for mundanes like she thinks Taylor is. That, and perhaps a desire to put Taylor down in Emma’s eyes. Reinforce to Emma, one of the few exceptions, that Taylor is a loser and she should hang out with Sophia instead of going back to her old mundane friend.

“Thanks for the backup,” Flechette spat the words to Shadow Stalker.

“Told you, I don’t do the backup thing,”

…true.

Shadow Stalker bent over the unconscious man, turning his head to investigate his injuries.  “He’ll live.  Him and his buddies deserve what they got.”

Perhaps.

“That’s not your call to make.”

But yeah, Flechette has a point.

“Sure it is,” Shadow Stalker retrieved another restraint device and quickly strung the man up beneath a metal frame meant for an air conditioning unit.  “Times like this, we’re cop, judge, jury and if it really comes down to it, executioner.  We’re the ones with the power.”

“No.  That’s wrong.”

Imagine if Taylor had heard this. She’d have a thing or two to think about it.

Also, remember those hypothetical parahuman supremacist organizations I’ve said I’m certain exist some places in the Wormverse? With this line, I could see Sophia potentially joining one of those at some point.

“Suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree,” Shadow Stalker turned her back, preparing another restraint device.

Flechette huffed, angry.  She didn’t want to get into a shouting match, wasn’t sure what to say to convince the girl.  “You can finish your patrol alone.”

I think that’s what Sophia wants anyway.

But yeah, sorry, Flechette. This one’s no good. You really are better off befriending Vista.