I went in the ambulance with Grue, and watched as they gave him extra blood and tended to his chest.  Between my first time job patching up his chest, the fact that he’d torn it open, and my haphazard attempts to wad it with bandages and stall the blood loss as we retreated from the scene, it was a mess.

Yeah, it’s time to leave it to the professionals.

I cringed, feeling guilty, waiting for one of Coil’s medics to call me on something I’d done wrong.  They worked in silence, which was almost worse.

Medic A: “Psst.”

Medic B: “What?”

Medic A: “Can’t you tell her?”

Medic B:

“Why me?”

Medic A:

“Because I don’t want to!”

Medic B:

“Well I don’t want to either!”

Medic A: “Too bad, I’m calling dibs on not telling her!”

Taylor: “You guys realize you both suck at whispering, right?”

The phone call from Coil’s people came when we’d reached the beach – the closest spot I could think of that would put us out of line of sight in the continued fighting.  I directed the guy on the phone to our position, and in my nervousness, I had to get them to verify, twice, that they’d safely made it through the barricade without any trouble.

Good call, especially considering what happened last time.

All we needed was another ambush at the barricades from more of Hookwolf’s underlings.

Yeah, that.

One of these days I might stop reading up to right before the last sentence in paragraphs… maybe. Certainly not today.

The moment the pair of ambulances arrived, we loaded Grue into the back of one, the three dogs into the other.  Brutus and Judas had shrunk, having shed the layers of added bulk, and were more or less alright underneath it all.

yay!

Angelica, though, had been in Fog’s mist, and wasn’t any better even though she was almost normal size.

noo 😦

She’d inhaled the mist, drawn it into her lungs.  I could only surmise that it had consequently made its way into her bloodstream, and from there, to the rest of her body.  Only time would tell how much damage Fog had done to her from within.

Bad fog man. |:(

I breathed a sigh of relief as Purity’s squad disappeared.  I held my breath again when I saw Grue and, further down the alleyway, Angelica.  Grue’s darkness was reduced to mere wisps around his body, which I took to be a bad sign.  Hurrying toward him, I retrieved my cell phone, went down to the bottom of the contact list.

Are we going to that parahuman doctor from Shell again?

It rang three times before it picked up.  I heard ambient noise, maybe a fan, but the person on the other end didn’t respond.

“Coil,” I spoke, “It’s Skitter.  We need that doctor of yours.  Fast.”

…Coil not responding is not a good sign. Are we sure Coil is the one picking up? No. No, we are not.

“Can you get to the same location as last time?”

Oh, there he is. Never mind!

“I don’t know.  Grue and the dogs are hurt.  We may need a ride.”

“I will arrange it.  Expect a call from the driver shortly.”  He hung up.  Not quite so friendly as the last time we’d talked.

Maybe he’s been dealing with his own repercussions from the e-mail throughout the day.

Maybe he regrets it after seeing the cost in civilian lives, for that matter?

I set to helping Alec steady Angelica while Bitch worked with Judas, who’d been effectively blinded in the fight with Night.

Poor doggo 😦

She guided his head and shoulders under Angelica’s body, so the smaller ‘dog’ was draped over him.

Once Angelica was in position, I hopped up behind Grue and helped him turn him over, to examine his chest.  I applied pressure and used the remainder of the bandage I had in my utility compartment to try to staunch the bleeding.  When I talked to him, asked him to verify that he was okay, his replies were monosyllabic and fairly nonsensical.

“You okay?” “blep”

Yeah, this is very bad.

Between Judas’s canine burden and the damage Brutus had apparently sustained to his side, the two dogs moved slower than I normally walked as they plodded down the alley.

😦

Every moment was nerve wracking.  I kept waiting for someone in the Wards, New Wave or Empire Eighty-Eight to find their way into the alley, spot us and pick a fight.  Worse, I harbored grave concerns that Grue might stop breathing.

Or both.

In that same momentary glare that had carried our teammate and Purity away, Night had moved into the midst of our team.  She had a knife held with the blade pointed out of the bottom of her fist, pressed to Regent’s throat.

Now, now, follow your superior’s orders. Least you could do after she just brought you back from the brink of death.

Or, well, allowed you to bring yourself back from the brink of death. Semantics.

“I get it,” Regent replied, with a disinterested tone, “You could kill us right here.  May we go?”

Hehe.

Night sheathed the knife and walked through the group to Fog, who was gathering himself up in a human shape again, turning away to exit the alley.  Crusader, on the opposite side of us, was rising back up to the sky.

byyye *waves*

see ya later ya nazi scumbags

Purity stared at Tattletale for a long time.  I was acutely aware of the spear at my chest, which Crusader could thrust through my costume and into me with a momentary use of his power.  How easily Purity or Fog could give Night the opportunity she needed to slaughter my teammates.

You really can’t afford to piss anyone off here.

“You’re aware of the consequences if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not stupid,” Tattletale spoke, “You take out your anger on me, I wind up dead or maimed.”

Naturally.

Purity stepped forward and grabbed Tattletale’s wrist.

“The others walk,” Purity spoke to her subordinates, leaving no room for argument or discussion.

Not ride?

She wrapped one arm around Tattletale’s ribs, and they were gone in a flash of light, a trail of firefly-like lights dancing in Purity’s wake.

Ladies and Undersiders, my name is Purity and I’m your chief flight attendant. On behalf of Captain Purity and the entire crew, welcome aboard Aster Airlines flight 4573R, non-stop service from the Battle of Light to Dale and Emerson.

Our flight time will be of zero hours and as few as possible minutes. We will be flying at an altitude of a fair few feet at a ground speed of lotsa kilometers per hour.

At this time, make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position and that your seat belt is correctly fastened. Also, your portable electronic devices must be set to ‘airplane’ mode until an announcement is made upon arrival. Thank you.

Purity shook her head.

Tattletale added, “It’s up to you.  Who are you going to trust, when Aster is on the line?  Me, or Kaiser?”

That was her argument?

It’s a solid argument if you’re fully aware of the relationship between Purity and Kaiser, which Taylor isn’t. It’s unclear just how much Tattle knows, as usual, but she definitely seems to have some idea.

I started to move to where I could attack Purity if it came down to it.  A spearpoint pressing down against my collarbone stopped me.  I looked up and saw Crusader behind me.

Oh hai.

Purity dropped her hand to her side.  She told Tattletale, “You’re coming with me.”

“Didn’t expect any less.  But you’re letting my team go, and this destruction stops.”

Seems like a fair trade for potentially getting Aster back, doesn’t it?

“And how do I know you’re not just sacrificing yourself for them?”

“Because whatever else you might be, Kayden, you somehow, in some warped perspective, see yourself as an upstanding person.  And if I wasn’t an honest person when it counted, I wouldn’t trust you to hold to that.  Make sense?”

…it kinda does.

It didn’t to me.  It was circular reasoning.  I wouldn’t have listened if it were Tattletale trying to convince me.  The question was whether it would get through to Purity.

Hm… I don’t quite see why you’re calling that circular reasoning. I’m reading the argument as “If I weren’t also an honest person, I wouldn’t trust you to be.

By doing this, I’m implicitly trusting you to be honest. Therefore I am likely trustworthy as well.”

It’s not super solid reasoning, but I don’t think it’s circular.

Basically, fuck you, Max.

A channel had been carved out of the brick wall to Purity’s right.  Motes of light still danced around it.  An intentional miss?  No.  It would have been Regent throwing off her aim.

Ohh, nice work. Scratch “non-vaporizing”, then.

“Purity!  Kayden!  Not looking for a fight!” Tattletale called out.  She raised her hands, her gun dangling from one finger by the trigger guard.

This might work?

Purity just raised her hand, and more light began glowing in her palm.

Though, uh, not immediately.

“Dale and Emerson!”  Tattletale added.

Purity didn’t lower her hand, but she didn’t shoot either.  “What?”

Hm?

“Aster.”  Tattletale stood up, “She’s at Dale and Emerson.  Outskirts of town.

Ahh, that’s what she’s doing. But, uh, make sure she knows you’re not behind the e-mail before Purity vaporizes you during her blast off towards Dale and Emerson.

The PRT has a safehouse there, for when a villain’s after someone, or in case some member of the Protectorate or Wards gets outed, and their family needs a spot to stay.”

Huh, nice.

“How-”

“You worked alongside me when we were dealing with the ABB.  Your subordinates and allies have as well.  You know I have my sources.”

Man, I wish we’d learned more about the other groups’ adventures during Hive.

“Don’t believe you.  You have no reason to tell me this, you told everyone-”

Tattletale interrupted, “We didn’t tell the media that stuff.  I’m even a little pissed about it.  Not just about us getting blamed, but that they didn’t just attack you, but your families?  It’s fucked up.

Sometimes lies are well and good, but this is absolutely a situation where honesty is the key.

Entire reason we came here was to set the record straight and get you your kid back.”

“Kaiser said-”

“Kaiser thought he’d get more out of this debacle if he turned you against us, first, before directing you at the people or person who really sent the email.”

And if there’s anyone who knows how manipulative Kaiser can be, and thus might be inclined to believe this, it’s Kayden.

When I could see again, I tried to grasp what had changed and what had happened.  Dust filled much of the alley, Night stood beside Purity, unhurt, and my teammates were on the ground.  No blood.  Nobody dead or dying.

…the transformation heals her. That’s why that was established at the last minute! Purity just brought Night back from the brink of death by way of a non-vaporizing light blast that blinded everyone long enough for Night to transform and thus heal up!

Niiice.

Of course, that means we now have Night, Fog and Purity to deal with. We’re worse than back to square one in this battle.

Although, to be fair, getting Purity’s attention was a goal. It’s just that it would’ve probably been better if it was fulfilled after dealing with the other two.

At least, nobody that hadn’t been dead or dying when Purity arrived.  I was getting worried about Grue.  He didn’t look nearly as lively as he had two minutes ago.

Damn, dude, you really shouldn’t be here.

I saw her raise one hand toward Tattletale and the others, energy welling up.

Not even gonna say anything before you obliterate them?

The blast of light momentarily blinded me, and it struck me just why Purity had Night and Fog working as part of her personal squad.  There were no happy coincidences there.  She must have calculated how their powers could collectively work together.

Oh, absolutely.

Her light and Fog’s mist could blind their foes, with Night leveraging any opportunities gained.  

Sounds about right.

Alabaster and Crusader?  Probably intended as the front line, to slow the enemy down, take out the problem targets and buy time for the core group to do what they needed.

Hm… we know what Crusader does, but not Alabaster. This is still too vague to really figure it out from, though, but at least we know what kind of role they have in the group.

Or to do what they were doing now, and occupy enemies elsewhere.

Isn’t that basically the same thing, just with less of a strict formation?