“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.

So she pulled the knife free and stabbed Bonesaw in one eye.  The blade scraped against the bone of Bonesaw’s eye socket.

…isn’t this supposed to go straight into the brain? Or is the knife too big for that?

Flame erupted and pieces of glass came to life around Aisha.

And there we have the others stepping in. Have they noticed her?

She backed away quickly as a wall of flame rolled over Jonathan on the table and divided her from Bonesaw.  There was a rumble and the sound of falling furniture as Crawler stood.

How tall is this room, anyway?

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”  Bonesaw shrieked.  “It hurts!”

I’m sure she’ll fix it up fairly quickly, but that rarely helps with the pain in the moment.

Why isn’t she dead?

I mean, if I’m right, it’s clear enough that I’m ashamed I didn’t think of it earlier. She specializes in tinkering with biology, so why wouldn’t she tinker with her own to make herself better protected?

Jonathan?

Aisha looked down at the body, and realized the heart was beating inside Bonesaw’s hands.  The man’s eyes were moving, and his lips moved as he struggled and failed to make words come up through his windpipe.

Oh, I see. The squeaking may seem to come from the guy attempting to speak, but it’s actually a dove named Archimedes.

The surge of horror and disgust gave Aisha the strength to cast aside her doubts. 

Y’know… when I talked about Bonesaw being impossible to kill, that was a joke, but it honestly does seem believable that she’d install some failsafes in her own body. Though self-modification is more Mannequin’s thing, and biological failsafes was Aegis’.

“Sorry kid,” she said.

She plunged the knife into Bonesaw’s bare throat.

Let’s see how this goes. Good luck, Imp.

Bonesaw screamed, shrill and loud, which caught Aisha off guard.  With a knife in her throat, the girl was screaming?

Hm. Was I right?

Or did Aisha just miss the throat proper?

Reacting more on instinct than wit, Aisha pulled the knife out and then slashed it horizontally across Bonesaw’s throat.

She’d expected a spray of blood or gurgling.  Neither happened.  Bonesaw screamed again.

Yep, looks like she did install some protections.

A squeaking sound distracted her from her thoughts.  It was like air being let out of a balloon, but in shorter spurts.  Bonesaw?

It’s the arrival of the secret ninth member, Helium Guy.

No, the girl wasn’t making any noise.  The mechanical spider?  No.  Not the spider either.

Maybe it’s Crawler snoring.

Hm, okay, serious speculation… Maybe Cherish is in the hallway, trying to sneak out, but the floorboards are creaky. Or maybe it’s Mannequin?

Okay, it’s probably not creaky floorboards, but I’m stumped.

Stepping as close to Bonesaw and the spider as she dared, Aisha investigated the sounds.  Where were they coming from?

Maybe Bonesaw’s sticking mice into this person’s chest cavity.

Bonesaw smiled, “You’re going to have to speak up if you want me to hear you, Jonathan.”

Ahh, the patient!

Slowly, she walked over to Bonesaw, navigating around the drones.  Could she kill the kid?

She’s too adorable to die. I’m not saying I don’t want it to happen, it’s just not physically possible in-universe, regardless of Wildbow’s wishes.

On the one hand, Bonesaw was the one who kept the other members going.  Removing her would take a lot of problems off the board.

Oh yeah, that is true. Jack’s the brains, but Bonesaw is the heart.

She could finish off Bonesaw and run for cover in the kitchen, out of Burnscar and Shatterbird’s line of fire.  From there, it was only steps to the front door and safety.

Line of fire, heh.

Also she seems to be forgetting about, or unaware of, Burnscar’s mobility. I suppose she wouldn’t know about that if she’s basing all this off Coil’s intel.

On the other hand, it was still murder, and it was a kid.  A kid that had a hundred kills under her belt.

Yeeah. And who’ll go on to do much more if you don’t intervene.