*scrolls down, sees “Last Chapter”*

Dammit!

Cherish whirled around, her eyes flitting right and left, searching for Aisha.  “I’ll scream.  He’ll come in here, and a couple swings of his knife, he can cut you down, invisible or no.”

That’s true, he could.

But it seems she’s not quite as calm and collected as she sounded at first.

“It’s not invisibility,” Imp said, uselessly.

“Put your weapon away,” Cherish said, her voice quiet and carefully measured, “We only have a few seconds before Jack gets suspicious.  Listen.  I want to strike a deal.”

Now this is the good stuff. :3

I’m listening.

She held the taser and the knife, adjusting her grip so she was secure.

Jack was the key figure.  Aisha knew she could attack him, knew she maybe should, but would she succeed any more than she did against Bonesaw?  Cherish might be able to lash out with some kind of blind fire, affecting the emotions of everyone nearby.

Hmm, I didn’t think of that. I doubt that’s a thing based on the depiction of her power so far, but it’s definitely something worth considering for Imp.

No.  Cherish was the newest member, wasn’t she?  There were better odds that Cherish didn’t have the protections that Jack and the others did.

Ooh, that’s a really good point.

I don’t think this is going to work. There are some narrative issues with the idea of offing a second Slaughterhouse member before the recruitment is at least 60% over, unless it’s Jack (in which case I still think it would happen later, since we’re only in the first round of nominations) or they decide to take both Hookwolf and Bitch on the team in spite of the game.

Exhaling slowly, Aisha followed behind Cherish as the girl tugged the body into the other room.  She stepped inside and shut the door.

Hm. Might’ve been better to do it in a different room from where Jack is.

“Put the weapon away,” Cherish said, her voice quiet.

Ah. Hiya.

So she’s feigning ignorance, huh. Thinking of doublecrossing Jack, perhaps?

“I think I’ve been exceedingly generous, giving you a second chance.  You can repay me by doing the heavy lifting.”

Honestly, yeah, that’s fair.

“Ever the gentleman.”

“Go on, now.  I’ll wait here.”

Aisha watched as Cherish walked past her, grabbed the heavyset detective and began dragging him inch by inch toward the office.

Imp: *helps Cherish drag the guy*
Cherish: “Hey, Jack, I think I just developed super strength somehow.”

She only remembered one other time when her heart had pounded this hard.  It had been when the fledgling Merchants had attacked her and her father.  It was another chance.

Hm. Are we about to learn her trigger event?

By fledgling, does she mean the mostly harmless pre-Extermination Merchants, or the still small but less harmless ones from sometime between Extermination and Sentinel? The latter would make more sense for her trigger event, since I doubt she went long before telling Grue about her power.

While they were separated, she could go after one.  But which?

Go after Jack or Cherish? I mean, Bonesaw did indicate that they’re both protected the same way she is, so Imp would have to get clever about it.

Jack might be the better one to go for even without the prophecy. Cherish can’t do much if she doesn’t notice her target, while Jack can slice around the entire room. Then again, attacking Jack might cause him to do so on reflex, whereas him processing that Cherish was being attacked would give Imp a little more time.

One of the detectives who’d been standing by the door was dead, his throat slit.  He laid in the center of the lobby.

Oh hi, Jack, what’s up?

Two more blood trails ran to the side of the lobby opposite the stairs.

Manager’s office?

…wait, why would Jack bother to move them? Or did they not die immediately and make it over there before succumbing?

Her weapon drawn, she reached for the doorknob, and collided with Jack as he strode out of the office.

Bomp.

Well, then. I’d imagine he’d notice that.

Unless her power is strong enough to force his brain to ignore the odd resistance from the doorway.

“What’s wrong?” Cherish asked.

Aisha backed away.

Hm. This is a good sign – Cherish doesn’t seem to have noticed Aisha despite Aisha having been within range ever since she came close to the building unless Cherish just arrived. That does seem likely given the detective and other assorted corpses, but still, she doesn’t seem to have noticed Aisha with her power yet.

“Nothing,” Jack said.  “You grab the last body and then find a mop.”

“Me?”

Huh. Aisha’s power really is that powerful.

But seriously, I’m surprised they’re bothering to clean up.

The wall of flame shrunk and faded away.

“Really hope you don’t have another way of sensing me, big guy,” Aisha said to Crawler, ducking between his legs and stepping towards the door.  “I’m gonna make my exit now.”

Hehe. “Okay, I’m outie. See ya.”

None of the Nine reacted as she shut the door behind her.

I like that her power extends to things like this. Someone who was just plain invisible wouldn’t be able to open and close a door non-sneakily, but with Imp, every moment of the door moving is forgotten once it happens, so they’ll only notice it if they realize the door is in a different state than it was earlier.

Lesson learned.  The more ‘vulnerable’ members of the Nine weren’t as vulnerable as they looked.  Sheaths, Bonesaw had said?

Imp may not have gotten as much information as she wanted, but this piece was worth it. As long as she shares it with the others (prompting a confrontation about her going behind their backs, probably), they’ll be able to account for this from the start rather than be unpleasantly surprised.

Stepping into the lobby, she stopped in her tracks.

Hm?

“No.  Cherish has a hard time tracking Mannequin, and he won’t know how to find us,” Shatterbird said.

Oh, huh, that’s an interesting tidbit. Something that might come in handy at a later date, perhaps.

“I’m okay,” Bonesaw piped up.  She held one hand to her eye socket, which had trails of smoke rising from it.  “You don’t need to worry.  I can put my throat back together easy, after I get my kit out to check the sheaths for my vitals to make sure there’s no abrasions, and I’ve got spare eyes.  I could go with green eyes.  Or one green and one blue, or if I alter them, I could have-“

See? I told you it was only a matter of time.

Hm, I think I’ve seen fanart of heterochromic Bonesaw, though I figured it was just a headcanon or something I’d missed. I do like that idea.

“Quiet,” Shatterbird cut in.  “It’s less about you being hurt and more about the fact that someone had the audacity to attack us here.

Man, even when saying something like this within the team, she manages to sound terse and self-important in my head.

Burnscar, put out those fires.  We don’t want attention.”

Good point.

Shatterbird scowled.  “Then who or what was that?  Crawler, do you know?” 

Hmm. Inhuman eyes, and more importantly, possibly an inhuman brain. Might cause trouble.

Aisha backed toward the front door.  She stopped as Crawler appeared in the doorway that led from the kitchen to the front hall, looking through to see his teammates on the far end.  His voice was a mangled mess of sounds that only barely approximated anything like speech.  “I don’t smell anyone.”

I suppose it makes sense to try a different sense when dealing with a seemingly invisible enemy.

Smells can’t find me, then, Aisha thought.  Still, she didn’t have her escape route.

Yeah, makes sense that they wouldn’t, really. It’s one of the important distinctions between this power and invisibility – anyone who smells you, or hears you, still has their memories of that wiped.

“Torch the apartment and make a break for it?” Burnscar asked.  “We can meet up as a group later.”

Better hope they leave space for you to follow them out before they torch it up, Imp.

Aisha yanked the knife out and then gripped her taser.

Hm, maybe the electricity could mess with whatever tech she’s got under there?

“Is it Jack?” Burnscar asked, looking around, then turning to the window, “What the hell?”

Alright, so Burnscar hasn’t noticed Aisha yet. That’s good.

“It’s not Jack,” Bonesaw said.  She snapped her fingers, and the mechanical spider leaped on top of her, beginning to suture the wounds in her neck.  “I gave Jack the same safeguards I gave us, he would have succeeded if he tried it.”

…well, fuck, of course she would.

This just threw a big spanner in the works for any plans to simply kill Jack in a mundane way, and it seems the other physically weak members – Shatterbird, Burnscar and Cherish – have the same protection.

If Taylor had tried to send the trolley the other way in 12.4, she would probably have failed.