“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.

Of course, I couldn’t deny that a big part of her attitude was me and the fact that I was here.

Hm, fair. I guess it’s too much to expect her to forgive Taylor that easily.

I wonder what Brian and Alec think.

Angelica returned to the doorway, looked up at her owner, and then returned to the apartment.

“No problems,” Bitch spoke, translating Angelica’s body language for everyone present.  Grue looked at me, and I nodded confirmation.

Both is good.

I led the way inside, using my flashlight to scan the area.

The apartment had been ransacked, but it wasn’t the kind of ransacking that suggested the looters had gotten to it.  No, it was the very thorough removal of everything valuable that could be carried away by a family of three or four.

Evacuees. Hopefully they’re alright, starting new lives in a different city.

There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen with room for a small table and accompanying chairs.  There was a smaller bed in one room and a king sized bed in the other.

I guess it’s three rather than four, then. Not that it matters all that much.

Dresser drawers, cabinets and bedside tables were all open, clothes strewn around the rooms.  The occupants had left in a hurry, and I was guessing they probably hadn’t expected to come back or find much of their stuff here when they did.

I wonder if they evacuated the moment they got out of the shelter.

Bitch had been short-tempered lately.  The loss of two of the dogs she was closest to?  It played a large part in that.

Oh jeez, she was already pretty short-tempered before, so when Taylor’s saying/implying she’s even more short-tempered than usual? Sounds like she’s on a hairpin trigger.

She’d lost eight dogs in total, and Angelica had only lived because she had been too hurt to be brought along.

Oh. Right, now I remember. I guess it did make sense to keep her out of it.

Problem was, Angelica wasn’t recovering from those injuries, and from what I gathered, she might not ever recover completely.

Ah, shit. Fog, what did you do to her?

Bitch was forced to rely on a single crippled, obedient dog and three dogs that were in the peak of health, but impatient and untrained.

All while grieving the other two obedient dogs and six untrained ones. A pretty unfortunate situation overall.

I stopped, turned the flashlight on an open apartment door.  “Here, maybe?”

Grue grunted, adjusted the position of the unconscious body he had draped over one shoulder, “Scout it.”

Time for the bugdar, I suppose.

Bitch nodded, letting Angelica off the chain, pointing at the door.  Of the four dogs she had with her, only Angelica was still under the influence of her power, standing three times her usual size.

Ah, apparently not. It’s time for the far less subtle dogdar instead!

Despite the invigorating effects of Bitch’s attentions, the dog moved slowly as she loped into the apartment.  It was painful to look at her – she was moving as though she were ten years older than she was.

Ouch. Did she participate in the Leviathan pileup and get injured rather than killed? I don’t remember any of the dogs in the pileup surviving, but it could’ve happened. I suppose it wouldn’t make sense for Rachel to keep Angelica out of it when she included Brutus and Judas.

The other dogs pulled at their chains, wanting to follow.  Bitch made angry clucking noises, then ordered them to sit.  They were slow to obey, but I think something about the look in Bitch’s eyes told them they’d better listen.

Oh, they’d better, alright.

One of them reared back as I sent more bugs into the interior to investigate.

Ah…

Creepy crawlies riddled the building’s interior, and I hadn’t even used my powers to bring them here.

Nice. That establishes quite nicely that we’re back to Taylor’s perspective. 🙂

One thing I suppose I haven’t really commented on before: Whenever we leave Taylor’s perspective, the story goes into third person, whereas Taylor’s narration is in first person. I like that – it makes for a consistency when it comes to who appears to be telling this story, even if it’s questionable that Taylor would end up knowing all the things we learn from other people’s narration, after the story’s end. Take Brutus’ Interlude in particular – he was a dog, and he’s dead, so there’s no mundane way for Taylor to get that story from him.

It seems like we’ve got an omniscient narrator who’s telling us about events and the setting from the POV of various characters, and limiting her narration to how she and the other characters were perceiving things back then.

(Not that I’m saying Taylor will literally become omniscient by the end of the story.)