I was going to go reassure Charlotte, but Lisa retrieved the papers I’d given her and smoothed them out against her leg, and the widening of her eyes caught my attention.

Time to Learn™!

“It’s a letter or contract from the people who made the stuff, talking to the guy who’d bought this stuff.  Let’s see, we have… page two.  Pages eighteen and nineteen.  Page twenty-seven.  Page sixteen.  Wonder if we can put a narrative together.”

Well, at least you know where to start.

This kinda reminds me of the horror game subgenre where you go around a creepy place and reading notes and pages scattered everywhere, such as Amnesia.

…I suppose bringing up a game series called Amnesia is oddly appropriate given that this is almost certainly connected to Case 53.

“You probably could,” I said.

She glanced over one page, then handed it to me as she moved on to the others.  I read it.

Excellent, I think we’re about to actually see what the pages say. I’m down with this.

But we’d made it.

😀

Far more successfully than I thought you might have to settle for at certain points, too. You’ve got Bryce, for one thing.

We moved at a light jog for a good distance before Brooks called us to a stop.  We lay Bryce down for him to look at, and he decided we needed call for a pickup to get the boy more serious medical attention.

Makes sense. Sounds good for transportation, too.

While we waited for the car to arrive, Lisa, and I sat down on a nearby set of stairs.  The other bodyguards were still on duty, still watching for trouble.

We about to get some private talk between the two of them?

Charlotte stood a distance away, hugging herself.  She looked like she wanted to leave, but lacked the courage to go alone.

I can’t blame her. Hell, maybe going alone is how she got caught up in this mess in the first place, for that matter. Even if it wasn’t, though, this is very understandable.

A handful of others had found escape routes too, I noted.  Merchants were crossing the parking lot at a run, or helping wounded buddies limp away.  We weren’t so conspicuous.

Let’s hope we don’t run into Spitfire out here.

Hell, it’s entirely possible Spitfire is actively looking, if Faultline did indeed spot Taylor catching the papers.

I hurt.  I’d been cut on the arm, and I’d taken my lumps in too many other places to count.  My knuckles and fingertips were scratched raw from climbing the walls of the maze and moving rubble, my cheekbone throbbed where I’d been elbowed, and my fucking contact lenses were still irritating.

Oww.

Never ever something I could get used to, even with other things taking up my attention.

Heh, yeah, sounds about right.

The bodyguards had to go through the doorway in a crouch,

I misread that as “cronch” for a moment.

and Minor dropped Bryce to let the others drag him inside, just so he could fit.

Nice.

As Lisa had suggested, the shop interior was largely unaffected by Labyrinth’s abilities, though it had been trashed by looters and the effects of Leviathan’s attack.

Of course. Many of said looters are probably outside, in the labyrinth, too.

Leviathan hopefully isn’t.

We found the back rooms, and Jaw kicked the door open.  From there, we made our way to the emergency exit, cleared rubble away and escaped into the parking lot.

Yay!

As they got close, I took a firmer hold over them and moved them directly to us.  The papers crumpled as my hands closed around them.  Four or five pages.

I couldn’t be sure two might have been stuck together.

Not too much, but far better than nothing.

“We need an exit,” I said, as I hopped down from the wall.  I handed Lisa the papers.

Yeah, before Faultline comes after you. I highly doubt she wasn’t paying close attention to where the papers were headed.

Lisa nodded, “I’ve been thinking on that.  Look.”

She pointed at one corner of the mall.  It looked like any other section, heavily altered by Labyrinth’s powers.  The shops had been almost entirely consumed by Labyrinth’s powers, and were further shrouded by the floor-to-ceiling statues of human figures that stuck out of the walls.

So did you find a hole in the Matrix?

In the corner Lisa was pointing at, there were male and female figures, expressions solemn, hands reaching, moving so slowly I might have thought it was my imagination.  The shop below was nearly gone, the entrance nearly covered up.

Hm. But not completely… is that the ticket out?

“Not seeing it,” I said.

“Look at how they’re standing.  The male figure is sticking out of the left wall, reaching with his right hand, the female figure is doing the opposite.  

Seems riddle-y… Is it a requirement of Labyrinth’s power that she provides some way out? Or maybe it’s for Faultline and anyone else on Labyrinth’s side who need to get out but are under the power’s effect.

Look past them, at the corner.”

I did.  Between the figures was the point where the two exterior walls of the shopping center joined… nothing jumped out at me.  The walls were bare.

Hm. Maybe that’s the point.

“I don’t see it,” I repeated, as she tugged on my arm and started running forward.  As a group we started moving toward the corner.  “What am I looking for?”

Maybe it’s more what isn’t there, namely wall decorations.

“Nothing!  There’s nothing there because her power isn’t extending to that corner.  She’s too far away, on the roof at the other side of the mall. Which means the interior of that shop isn’t affected by her power!”

Nice! I got the pieces right, just didn’t think to put them together.

So are you gambling on the shop having a back door or emergency exit?

To be fair, Lisa is very good at gambling.

His power streaked from his hand to the ground where the canisters and metal case sat.

Ah shit.

Where’s he sending them? Into the labyrinth?

I could see Faultline’s expression change behind her mask, saw her set her feet and start sprinting for the case before Skidmark’s power even took hold.

If the vials smash, that’s probably bad for Faultline’s Crew.

Not as bad as some vengeful Merchants getting them, but still bad.

The metal box and canisters launched out over the edge of the platform and into the air above the crowd.  Only a few papers escaped the case at first, but his power had saturated the insides of the box.

Papers? Possibly with information the Crew wanted, I’d imagine.

So he’s saturated the insides of the box? That’s bad for the health of the glass vials.

Just after reaching the apex of its flight, his power seized the contents and the case expelled everything from within.  Papers slid off one another and into the air, forming a small cloud.

R.I.P.

Oh wait, so there’s a box and canisters, and the vials are inside the canisters, not the box. The vials are possibly fine, but the papers – which are probably more important to Faultline’s Crew than the vials – are getting scattered to the winds.

“Taylor!” Lisa shouted.

What is it? Time to go?

I knew what she wanted.  I drew clouds of my bugs from the ceiling, catching the papers that weren’t saturated with Skidmark’s power, collecting my bugs on them.

Oh. Using bugs to catch the papers was actually my first thought, but I was like “nah, why would Lisa care”. But I do suppose she’s interested in the information on those papers too.

(This kind of thing is why I have a policy of writing down just about every thought, but sometimes I fail to. Sorry.)

I could have maybe carried them directly to me with enough bugs, but I found it easier and more discreet to use the bugs and nudge the papers into floating on the air currents, like paper airplanes without the ‘airplane’ aspect of things.

Hm. Looks like the Undersiders, at least Lisa, are going to learn a thing or two. And if the Crew finds out the Undersiders got the papers, that’s setting us up for some interesting future interactions between the two groups.

It had to suck for Skidmark, losing like this.  He’d risen to power based on a streak of good luck and momentum rather than any talent, deed or ability.  Now it was falling apart.  He’d lost, he’d had his ass kicked in front of the bulk of his followers, and he would likely never regain what he’d had.

Of course it sucks for him.

And I’m very glad it does.

Not that I felt bad for him.  There was a kind of justice to it.

Yes. Thank you, Taylor. He deserves every bit of this.

He didn’t even have a power that would let him go down in a blaze of glory.  No, his final act here would be one of petty spite.

Hm? What’s he about to pull?

Well, maybe he can’t go down in a blaze of glory, but at least he could blow the crowd away.

Brooks and I hauled Minor over, and I waited while he climbed down, since I was already fairly secure where I was.

Oh, okay, we’re getting everyone over this time. Fair enough!

Skidmark was losing.  It was obvious from where I sat, and I could see his changing expression as he saw Mush collapse beneath Gregor’s sludge and realized he had no friends left.

Good. I want to see the Merchants lose.

Hey, maybe you could’ve gotten somewhere if you hadn’t had a large portion of your mundane muscle beat and/or kill each other right before this!

Gregor, Labyrinth, Faultline and the red-haired woman were all in action, and Skidmark was pretty much alone at this point.

Excellent.

I hadn’t seen Newter or Spitfire, and I couldn’t be sure if he was okay or not.

Yeah, Spitfire hasn’t showed up at all. Maybe she has a stealthier task? Although I think my working hypothesis last session was that she’s the one staying behind with Labyrinth to make sure she sticks to the plan.

Sure, the Merchants could have hit him with weapons rather than their bare hands, but he was quick, he had his tail, and he only needed to touch someone to drug them out of their minds.

Not to mention his wall and roof crawling ability. Or the fact he can spit at those too far away for touching.

Yeah, Newter’s fairly capable of defending himself.

Spitfire might be the one babysitting Labyrinth somewhere out of the way.

Yeah.

In fact, Spitfire being the one to take care of Labyrinth is probably a standard thing for the Crew. They did share a room.

Hm, I wonder if Palanquin survived Leviathan.

A knotted bandage tied around Bryce’s good arm was thrown up to me, and I used it to draw his arm up while the others managed his lower body.  Once I had his wrist, I gripped it firmly in one hand, my upper body hugging the top of the wall to keep myself from being pulled off.

This seems like a solid way to do it.

Minor gave Brooks a boost and the medic straddled the wall facing me.  We worked together to raise the unconscious boy over the top of the wall and pass him down to where the others waited.

I do wonder how much remote awareness Labyrinth has of what happens inside the area she’s affecting. For instance, would she have seen the arrows Taylor made out of bugs and maybe recognized Skitter’s presence?

I glanced back towards the fight.  Faultline had emerged from beneath the platform and moved around to the side, and using her power to draw hand holds into the side of the platform.

One thing I love about Worm is how creative just about everyone gets with their powers.

The cape who’d been aiming at her with the gun stooped over the hole she’d dropped into and looked down to see if she was still down there.

“Anybody home?”

He was oblivious as she hauled herself over the edge of the platform and attacked him from behind, striking him with one elbow, then reversing the turn of her body to sweep his legs out from under him with one extended leg.

w h o o p

I guess this is why she went into the hole in the first place instead of just destroying the gun.

Then again, this was one of the capes… What’s his power?

The sweep of her foot had apparently coincided with a use of her power, because there was a cloud of stone dust as he collapsed onto broken, uneven ground.

Nice.

From my angle I couldn’t see for sure, but I thought maybe he’d fallen head first into the hole she’d first descended into.

Faultline: *scribbles a “2” onto her golf card*