Chapter Text
"Park Jihoo, yes? Ever hold a gun before?"
"No."
Telling the truth. Doesn't want to be here.
Wow, thanks, power. I dragged my eyes away from the terrified boy and tried to focus on Bakuda. The storage locker was practically stuffed to the brim with ABB, armed with a motley assortment of firearms and improvised melee weapons. I only half-listened to her argue with poor Park Jihoo, keeping my eyes locked on her loadout. She held herself with absolute confidence.
Megalomaniac. Does not feel threatened. Not afraid of her own bombs. Grenade launcher tied to her biometrics.
See, power? That's what I'm looking for. Not exactly great news, but actionable. Reasonable. Bakuda suddenly stepped back as Park Jihoo started wailing from the ground where she had kicked him. I forced myself not to look at him, and instead took in Bakuda's posture as a bomb detonated and the boy liquified. She had shifted, a very slight adjustment in her stance, one probably invisible to anyone but me.
Control system for remote detonation in her feet. Toe rings. Goggles are a control interface.
There we go! Finally, a vulnerability. All we had to do was steal her grenade launcher, cut off her toes, and not get shot by her dozens of reluctant followers. Or, of course, we could just kill Bakuda by shooting her in the head – I didn't have a gun on me, but most of her followers were untrained and terrified of her, so it wasn't impossible. I would rather not kill anyone, but Bakuda clearly had no such compunctions, and –
Voice smug; confident that you cannot defeat her. Confident she cannot lose even after dying. Dying will trigger all of her remaining explosives.
Oh, come on! I could maybe talk myself into killing Bakuda, but not if that would involve blowing up all of her poor conscripted foot soldiers, and who knows what other bombs she had stashed away around the city.
"That was pretty cool," Regent said. Not bad, Alec. I kept my eyes fixed on her as she gloated with her kindred spirit. Bakuda was certainly getting into it, but in doing so just confirmed an earlier suspicion of mine.
Enjoys praise but cannot stand criticism. Believes herself to be a genius. Has been told she's a genius. Will not tolerate being disrespected. Related to trigger event.
"Chill the fuck out," Regent said in response to Bakuda snapping at him, "I was just asking."
For fuck's sake, Alec. I shot him a dirty look. The one thing he shouldn't have done, and he goes right and does it. Bakuda was steamed, and I knew our grace period had just about run out. Bakuda clapped her hands and pointed into the crowd.
"Alright! So, you… yeah you, the girl in the black dress and shawl. If I told you to, would you pick up the gun and shoot someone?"
Despite my best efforts to keep reading Bakuda, I followed the line of her hand by habit and spotted the girl she was calling out. She must have been only fifteen or sixteen, a Japanese girl with her hair done up in two ponytails. Standing next to her in a white shirt and black tie was another Japanese boy, about her age. Unlike the girl, who was surprisingly beautiful, the boy was totally unremarkable.
"Uhh, I just got here. So, no? Why?" she said. I blinked. Even Bakuda seemed to pause.
Just got here. Not in the ABB. Doesn't understand what's going on.
Holy shit. This random girl and her friend just happened to wander into a storage facility during a cape fight, and stuck around to watch a dude get liquified? What were the odds of that? I couldn't resist digging a little deeper. First, the girl.
Disoriented. Doesn't know where she is. Wants to ask a question.
Okay, weird. Now, the boy.
Bored. Looking around; wants to go home. Could kill everyone here in an instant.
What.
Has killed before. Does not enjoy killing. Does not believe anyone here can hurt him. Likes the girl next to him.
What.
Unnaturally relaxed; absolutely confident in his own safety. Thinking about killing Bakuda.
"What?" Bakuda said, at the same moment I said "Don't!"
Bakuda turned to stare at me, but so did the two new arrivals. Taylor and Brian were both giving me strange looks, but I had to decide fast. Power, if you messed this up – well, I was going to be dead anyway.
"If you kill Bakuda, all of the bombs in everyone's head go off and we all die," I said. This got a startled reaction out of the girl, though the boy maintained his perfect dead-fish poker face.
"You know about Takato's power?" she said, confirming my deductions. This caused Bakuda to snap around to look at her again.
"You're a cape?" she said, hefting her grenade launcher. Likely, she'd realized that there weren't any bombs in this Takato's head, and she'd have to do the deed herself. "One chance, then: join or die."
"No, wait, stop!" the girl shouted. Bakuda swung the barrel of the launcher towards the two of them and the crowd scattered, trying to get out of the imminent blast zone. The boy and girl remained perfectly stationary. There was no talking Bakuda down: she barely felt in control of the ABB as it was, and if she couldn't force these two random passersby, cape or not, to join, then her power would be obviously false. Even faced with an unknown cape, Bakuda knew she had to either recruit him or kill him. Anything else would deal a blow to her leadership that she would never recover from.
"Where are we?" the boy asked, and Bakuda simply laughed in response.
"Not how this works, shithead! Join, or die?" she said.
"I'm sorry, but I'd rather not," he said. Bakuda tensed, preparing to pull the trigger, and I dove towards the ground, the rest of the team following my lead.
"Die."
Bakuda collapsed like a puppet with cut strings. I braced myself for the dead man's switch, but nothing happened. No explosions, no flashes of light. After a few moments, I lifted my head and looked around. Most of the ABB conscripts had already fled the area, and the rest were making their escape now that they realized Bakuda couldn't just kill them on the spot. No further bombs had gone off. The night was unnaturally silent. The boy and girl were still in the same spot, unphased.
Bakuda is dead. Bakuda's bombs are dead. Takato killed them.
What did that even mean? Obviously, Takato was the culprit, but – well, whatever. First thing's first: get on the good side of the extremely powerful and confused cape.
"Hello!" I said, scrambling to my feet. Ow, ow, ow, I was already banged up from running from Bakuda and dropping to the ground like that hadn't helped.
"My name is Tattletale. Thanks for the save," I said, keeping my distance. The rest of the Undersiders were slowly picking themselves up as well, content to follow my lead.
"A fake name?" the girl said under her breath.
"I'm Takato Yogiri. This is Tomochika Dannoura," the boy said, perfectly at ease. I winced instinctively at their real names.
Unusual accent. Japanese, not Japanese American. Speaks flawless English but did not learn naturally. No recognition of your cape name. Expected your real name. Doesn't know what capes are. Doesn't know about cape identities.
Right. Okay. I could work with this.
"We're at the storage facility near the Trainyard. On the other side of the docks is the Boardwalk," I said, remembering their earlier question.
Did not understand directions.
"And we're in Brockton Bay," I said.
Does not recognize city.
"In the United States. On the East Coast," I said, frowning. Finally, they reacted with recognition.
"The United States!" Tomochika said. "I've always wanted to go there!"
"We're definitely on Earth," he said. "Now we just need to get back to Japan."
"But I've never heard of Brockton Bay," Tomochika said, frowning. I checked on the rest of my team – they seemed fine, but they were regarding Takato with wariness. I signaled Brian, and he limped over.
"They're fine, just lost. Whatever you do, just don't piss off the guy. I'll talk to them and sort it out. Can you and Skitter try to find Bitch?" Brian gave me a long look but nodded. I felt bad for ordering him around, but my power was still screaming at me that Takato was capable of killing us all where we stood, so he could deal with it.
"Where in Japan are you from?" I asked.
"Fukuoka," Dannoura said, and my mind stuttered to a halt.
Telling the truth.
"Uhh," I said, looking around. "How long ago were you last there?" God, I sounded like an idiot.
"Well, we've been gone for a few months at most, I think? I sort of stopped counting," Dannoura said. A few months? Leviathan had sunk Fukuoka and Kyushu over a decade ago. I produced my cell phone from my pocket and checked the time, but mainly watched their faces.
No reactions. Knows about cell phones. Expected you to have one.
Okay, so they likely weren't time travelers from before 1999. What did it say about this situation that time travel was my first thought? Come on, Tattletale, let's put it together: they're totally lost, had never heard of Brockton Bay, came from Fukuoka, and have "been gone" for a few months.
Dimensional travel.
"I don't think we're on your Earth," I said, carefully. Alec was staring at me with what I could only assume was a dumbfounded expression behind his mask. Too bad, Alec, maybe I'll explain when I'm no longer mad about you pissing off Bakuda.
"What? Earth is Earth," Tomochika said with unfounded certainty.
"We call our Earth, Earth Bet. We know about another Earth we call Earth Aleph, and they have a different history from us. They don't have Endbringers, or as many capes," I said.Doesn't know what
Endbringers are. Doesn't know what capes are. Barely following you.
"What the fuck?" Alec asked. I ignored him. Brian and Taylor emerged from a nearby row of storage lockers, hefting Bitch between them.
"Ah!" Dannoura shouted, taking in Bitch's bloody form. Still breathing, though, so this was pretty much salvageable.
"Get the money," I told Alec, and he scampered off. This was going to be a longer explanation than I was expecting, and I wasn't sure the Undersiders were qualified for problems of this magnitude – let alone whatever Coil might think. How bad would it be if I just shipped these two off to the Protectorate? Even with all of us, could we take Takato down if things came to that?
Takato is totally relaxed. Avoiding looking at Bakuda or Park Jihoo. Does not enjoy killing. Kills as first response to threats. Kills in response to people planning to threaten him. Looking at you with suspicion. Knows you are thinking about ways you could stop him from killing you. Knows you are thinking about how to fight him.
Jesus Christ! I shut that line of thought down and tried very hard to not think about ways I could beat Takato in a fight. That was just unfair – not only could he kill with a thought, but he had a Thinker component that let him know when people were thinking about hurting him? I imagined leaving him with a paranoid Armsmaster and half of the Protectorate dropping dead when they started making threat assessments and engagement plans. Right. Time to do this the hard way.
"If you want, you can come with us to our apartment," I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. Brian gave me another look, one that I resolutely decided to ignore. "We'll order some food and figure out where you come from, okay?"
Dannoura looked at Takato, who shrugged.
"Okay!" she said. Alec had returned, carrying the money. Bakuda's jeep was parked nearby, the keys still in the ignition.
"Alec," I said, nodding at the jeep. Brian and Taylor shuffled off to load Bitch into the back, and I made my way over to get a seat, Dannoura and Takato following. As I circled around the jeep to sit down, Brian grabbed my arm.
"Hey," he said, lowly. "What the fuck."
"I know," I hissed. "But Takato over there has the ability to instantly kill anyone he sees, and he can know when someone is planning on hurting him or his friend. We play nice, make sure they don't accidentally murder half the Protectorate, and get them out of our hair."
"We're going to take them back to our base, and then give them to the Protectorate? Are you stupid?" he said, and I scowled.
"Grue, if you don't want to end up dead on the ground, do what I say." Getting into a power play with Brian right then probably wasn't wise, but I was pissed at him. He could be in charge of the Undersiders for everything else, but right then I needed him to listen. "I'm sorry. I'll explain more later. But our number one priority needs to be getting home and making sure these two don't murder us all."
Brian tightened his grip on my arm and stared at me. I wished I could see his face through his motorcycle helmet, but he must have decided to play along because he released my arm and climbed into the passenger seat of the jeep. Alec settled in behind the wheel, and I jumped in the back with Dannoura and Takato.
"And away we go!" Alec said cheerfully, starting the engine. We drove in silence for almost five minutes as Alec navigated us out of the storage facility and onto the roads. I didn't like driving like this, our obvious cape costumes exposed to anyone who was watching, but it was late enough that we hadn't seen anyone else on the road. I checked on our passengers and saw that Dannoura was clearly holding in some sort of urgent question. I made eye contact, and she took that as permission to speak.
"Why are you all dressed for Halloween?" Dannoura asked, and I sighed.
"What?" Taylor said.
"No, wait, it's not October. Don't you think the outfits are a little tacky?" Dannoura continued, heedless of Taylor's confusion.
"They're costumes," I said. "We're supervillains."
"How honest," Takato said.
"Too honest!" Dannoura agreed. "Supervillains! Are you kidnapping us?"
"No!" I yelled, perhaps a little desperately, because Alec laughed from the front seat. "Honest. We're not really supervillains, just – small time crooks with powers. And you saved us back there, so we owe you one."
"Was that lady a supervillain too?" Dannoura asked, and I nodded. "Hey wait a minute, you're just kids!"
"You're one to talk," Brian muttered under his breath.
"Yup. Honest to goodness teenage superpowered thieves, right here. Bakuda was trying to kill us because we stole from her gang." A little bit of misdirection, maybe, but technically true if you followed the chain of events all the way from "stole from Lung" to "accidentally got Lung arrested" and ignored that this money came from a bank, not from the ABB.
"So you're criminals that steal from other criminals," she said. "Like Goemon!"
"Let's not disrespect the memory of Japan's national heroes," Takato said. He was probably joking, but I resolved not to waste my power on checking. Ah, who was I kidding.
Has no opinion of you or the Undersiders. Not planning on killing you. Could kill you. Could kill everyone. Cannot be killed. Death.
Scary! My power was making some pretty big leaps in logic today, but I'd take whatever I could get. Dannoura and Takato both looked like they had been through some kind of fight – or maybe not, considering Takato's power. Both teen's clothes were scuffed and dirty, and Dannoura had some light scrapes on her knees. Overall, though, they looked to be in pretty good shape. Dannoura's beauty was almost unnatural, which made Takato's plainness even more apparent. Dannoura had clearly lifted her dress and shawl from whatever world they had been on, but Takato was still wearing what appeared to be a school uniform.
Comfortable in anonymity. Does not think himself special. Is the end of all things.
I checked on the rest of my team. Bitch was still unconscious but breathing steadily. Taylor was shaking as the adrenaline left her system. Brian was staring at me with what I could only assuming was a burning anger. Alec, blessedly, was focused on the road. All in all, for an encounter with a deranged tinker and an entire gang, tonight could have gone much worse.
All I had to do now was make sure Takato didn't kill us all.
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