“If you’re sure.”

“She’s not the only person who gets a say,” Grue said.

Yeeah, this is exactly the kind of plan he was calling her out on before.

“Name a better option, then?” I said.

“We all go to the library’s shelter, then we all go to the shelter Leviathan attacked,” he said.  “Safer, smarter.”

Of course he wants to do it the most cautious way. But then we’re back to Lisa’s worries about missing them.

(Incidentally, going to the library first is actually a good choice. If it wasn’t a narrative – i.e. if I were in-universe and had no clue about Wildbow – I would’ve called that as the most likely location from the start, due to the state of the shelter Leviathan attacked.)

“If you’re worried about me being defenseless,” I suggested, “Regent could come with me.”

Sounds like fun!

“There’s a reason we’re keeping that pair close to us,” Grue said.  “If he gets taken down, you’ll have to deal with Shatterbird on top of everything else.  We’re capable of handling her, I think.  I don’t know if you are.”

Fair point.

I frowned.

Tattletale looked back at the others, then back at me.  “Go.”

Yeah, I suppose you just gotta cut the rope here. If you stand around arguing all day they’re even more likely to get away.

I looked at Grue.

Tattletale pointed.  “Go!  Stay in contact!”

I turned and lifted off.

See ya later, when you catch up!

So I guess they are going to be at the library after all then. The point of the option Taylor wouldn’t want to go to was to make her split off from the others and have to deal with Jack, Bonesaw and maybe Siberian on her own until the others could catch up.

“But I have the ability to find him,” I pointed out.  “Before he finds me.  Amy gave me bugs that increase my range.  I’ll be taking on some risk, but it means we’re able to check both locations at the same time and keep an eye out for the Nine.  It’s the best way to strike the balance we need.”

I suppose she’s right.

“The balance,” Grue said.  He was clearly unimpressed.

“Minimal risk to maximum effect.  Your group will be safe because you’re all together and you’ll vastly outnumber them.  I’ll be safe because I’m airborne, and I’ll have the advantage of an early warning.  Offensively, you guys will have the Travelers and Bitch.  I’ll have my bugs.”

I really don’t think the bugs are equivalent to the Travelers and Bitch against Jack, Bonesaw and maybe Siberian.

“Bonesaw countered your bugs last time around,” Tattletale pointed out.

And Jack has similar biological armor.

I nodded.  “I have a few things in mind.”

…my interest is piqued.

“What if-” I started.  “No.”

What were you going to say?

“Keep talking,” Tattletale prodded me.

“What if I scouted the library, while you guys checked out the other site?  I can fly, it’s faster for me to get there.”

…

Alright, fine. I can live with that.

Though in-universe they have no reason to believe they need more people at the other site than at the library.

“And we’d be one mistake away from you being killed,” Grue said.  “If not worse.”

“Trust me, I know what worse is like.”

“Hear me out.  Their only real long-range attacker is Jack, right?  If I’m flying, the others won’t be able to touch me.”

Yes, but you’d be an easy target for Jack unless you flew pretty high up.

“You think.”

“I think.  But if Jack’s at the location, I’d be able to sense him before he got a bead on me.  If that’s the case… I can just attack without exposing myself, and I can alert you guys.”

I suppose she’d be able to use the relay bugs for that last part.

(They said the shelters were close by each other, but I doubt they’re both in normal range for a flying Taylor at the same time. Even if it made sense for shelters to be built that close to each other, that would render all of this moot.)

“Assuming he’s not two steps ahead of us and waiting at some vantage point somewhere nearby,” Grue said.

Good point.

“He functions like a sniper,” Tattletale said.  “Ignore the fact that he slashes and stabs, he’s a long-range combatant with a good sense of what the enemy is doing and how his teammates move on the battlefield.  He stays out of the way and makes surgical strikes, then relocates to another vantage point.  The only thing that keeps him from doing that all the time is how he has to stay involved with his team and keep them under control.

Interesting.

Can’t make it look like you’re in charge if you’re not there.  With less teammates to manage, he’s liable to go on the offensive.”

That makes sense, yeah.

“The two shelters are close to one another,” Tattletale said.  “But I’m still a little worried they’ll leave one location while we’re checking out the other.  I almost want to split up.”

Don’t.

We’ve already had one case this Arc of the Undertravelers splitting up and the group Taylor’s in having to rush to an ongoing fight between the Nine and the other Undertravelers (given the choice, Taylor would go to the library shelter, only to find it empty). We don’t need another right now.

“Is that worth the risk of having half our group caught off guard by the Nine before the other half can arrive?”  I asked.

And that’s the other reason I’ve been telling them not to split up.

“A better question,” Tattletale said, “Is whether we can afford to let them get away.  If we miss this chance to go on the offensive and let them escape, they go into hiding and work out a strategy.”

Fair point.

Though… do they have reason to believe they can’t just stay in the shelter?

“And we’re not exactly in their good books,” I said.  “So we’d be a primary target.”

Was I imagining it, or did Grue’s darkness expand around him by a fraction?

I suppose this is a defensive instinct triggered by the idea of the Nine coming after them, but my first thought was that the darkness muffles sound and would work well as a way to tell the two of them to shut up.

“Good enough.”

We watched as Sundancer cleared away the flames with her flickering sun.  Flames bent toward it as if being influenced by a strong wind, thinned out and disappeared.

Fight fire with fire? No. Here at Undertravelers Incorporated, we fight fire with THE FUCKING SUN.

She cancelled out her power and turned back to us.  “One minute to cool off and we’re probably okay to go!”

Sounds good! And yeah, you don’t wanna touch anything she’s been melting right away.

“We should decide where we’re going and how we’re going to make our approach,” Grue spoke.

Don’t split up.

“If they’re waiting for their teammates, they’ll stay inside the shelter for the time being,” I said. “We’ll be in a better position if we don’t try anything overly complicated, like a pincer attack, if there’s more than one exit.  We can hit them hard enough with Sundancer, Ballistic and my bugs.”

Hm, I do suppose it would make sense for the shelter to have multiple doors, to increase the evacuation speed and allow people to get out the other way if one doorway is blocked from the outside by debris or a broken door.

Grue nodded.  “I don’t disagree.  You two will have an idea if they’re making their way out the other exit.”

Yeah. So could you, right? But you’d have to darken the shelter in order to.

“We’re glad to have you, whatever your reasons,” Tattletale said.

“Thanks,” I told her.

:>

I looked at Grue.  “You okay?”

“I’m getting annoyed that people keep asking that,” he spoke.

But otherwise okay?

“Don’t be a dick,” Tattletale replied.  “She’s asking because she cares.  We’re asking because we care.  And you know that if it was one of us that went through what you did, you’d want to make sure we were in the right headspace to go up against the Nine.” 

Yeah, true. But hey, at least he’s honest about getting annoyed at it.

Grue sighed, but he didn’t respond.

“You’d tell us if you weren’t feeling right, yeah?”  Tattletale asked.

“If I had any idea what I felt, and it wasn’t good, yeah.”

Fair enough. I’m sure you can sort it out with a bit of time and compassion. 🙂