String - Fabrication 5.2

I wasn’t an obsessive person but my current actions would make you think otherwise.

Friday had gone with Saturday rolling around and Lucy still had yet to respond to me. I found myself distracted, staring at my phone for hours on end flicking through different apps to keep myself occupied, whilst hoping I’d catch one of her messages the moment they arrived. In reality, I knew she wasn’t going to respond and that I’d likely have to confront her at school about it. She was either mad, or something had happened. Probably mad, all things considered. I’d screwed up again and hadn’t even shown up to face the consequences.

“Staring at it isn’t going to make her respond any quicker.”

I looked over my shoulder to Sam who was messing around in the kitchen. I was slouched on her sofa, sitting across from Mia who was doodling in one of Sam’s notebooks, trying to come up with a costume design and identity that she liked. I would’ve been in my workshop but I couldn’t think straight with my mind preoccupied.

“I know,” I replied with an edge to my voice. “I just don’t know what I’m going to say. Need to think…”

“There’s nothing you can say that’s going to make up for it. A ‘sorry’ isn’t going to fix it, only time will. She’ll just need time to cool off,” Sam said in a reassuring tone. “Trust me, it’s just a stupid school assignment. It’s not the end of the world. Just make sure you stay on top of these things. School is so easy.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” I snorted. “I bet you cheat with Gold.”

“Ninety percent of the school curriculum is braindead. I don’t need Gold to do well at school. Besides, even if you do end up flunking school, you can still qualify for university when you're twenty-five,” she waved a spatula in my direction. “By then, we’ll have enough money and power to make Scrooge Mcduck look poor.”

“Or dead,” Mia cut in, drawing our attention. She offered a light-hearted shrug. “Evohuman’s don’t exactly live long. Honestly, I think I’ll be lucky now if I even make it to my thirties.”

“Hey, don’t exaggerate the statistics. Only idiots go out and get themselves killed. We won’t be like that because statistically, independents are the ones with the highest mortality rate. The stupid ones who think they can do everything on their own,” Sam countered, emphasizing her words with an indignant tone. “We’re a group; a team.”

“Team… right,” Mia grumbled, rolling her eyes. “Still not sure how I feel about all this.”

“Not sure, are you?” Sam hummed aloud. “How’d that phone call with your parents go?”

It was hard to miss the scathing glare the older girl gave her. Sam didn’t even flinch under the intense stare, holding her ground. I knew that phone call hadn’t gone over well. It had ended with her in tears and unresponsive for a whole day and a half. It was one of the many reasons I had confined myself to my workshop for the last week. Dealing with that… was not my forte.

It was after a few more seconds of painful silence that she decided it would be better to walk back that antagonizing jab.

“Look, I don’t mean to rub salt in the wound but you need to at least put a little bit of faith in us,” Sam said genuinely. “We did manage to rescue you after all. That’s gotta count for something, right?”

“And I’m grateful for that, but all this… it feels insane,” Mia stressed, putting the notebook down on the coffee table. “You guys want to rebel against the ECU. They’re not just a gang you can tear down if you get lucky. This is a global organization with billions of dollars of backing. Countries, the entire allied nations for goodness sake! You can’t fight that.”

“Well, duh. That would be absurd,” Sam replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m not trying to fight or start a war with them. Personally, I wouldn’t even use the word ‘rebelling’. I prefer the term ‘co-existing’. I know what they’re like, how they operate. There are lines we’d have to cross for them to even entertain the thought of war with us and unless we had resources like the Iron Maiden or firepower like Ajax, that’s never going to happen.”

Mia frowned, a desire for answers igniting in the lights of her eyes.

“Then… what—”

“Let me stop you right there,” Sam held up her hand. “Let me answer your unspoken question, with another question. You want to get rid of the Cains, right?”

Mia’s frown twisted into a scowl.

“Of course! They need to be brought to justice and punished.”

“Okay! We’re all in agreement there. The Cains need to be dealt with. Our issue isn’t with the ECU, it’s with the other gangs. They’re the dangerous ones. The ECU are glorified police, peacekeepers, whatever. They’re not the ones breaking into your home and threatening to slit your throat if you don’t comply,” Sam said. Her face turned grim for a moment. “Well, not normally.”

“What… what does that mean?”

“Every organization has bad actors,” Sam dismissed with a wave. “The point is this; right now, we have freedom. Freedom to act and decide what we want to do. That probably sounds childish and selfish, and maybe it is, but I don’t care. I know what it’s like to be restricted, to always have to watch what you do and what you say around certain people. Come on, you know what I’m saying. Don’t pretend like you’re so virtuous.”

“I never claimed to be. But you can’t fault me for being skeptical about the long term plans of this team thing you’ve got going on here,” Mia countered. “I already said I was going to help you guys. You saved my life and I wasn’t about to go running to the ECU to sell you out. That hasn’t changed, I just want a straight answer on what the plan is, because I’ve seen what gangs do to city’s and I hear how they start,” she paused and looked between us. “This right here? This has all the hallmarks of another rising gang.”

Sam considered her words for a moment before shrugging. “You’ve got a point. I do want to replace the Cains,” she gestured to me. “Told Max as much too. I want to claim their territory as our own.”

“Which is against the law,” Mia pointed out. “Undoubtedly criminal.”

“It’s about intent though,” I spoke up, deciding to add my own two cents to the conversation. “The Cains propagate human trafficking, drug use, and all sorts of other deplorable shit. Everyone knows what Pandora does, but the Queen’s Court? Think about it, because I have.”

As I locked eyes with Mia, I swear I could almost feel Sam’s grin.

“Intent?”

“Sure, criminals ‘hold territory’, but there’s no real law against it. It’s just making your presence known in a certain part of the city. Technically, you could say Groves Den is our territory but nobody actually knows we’re held up here yet.”

“Plus, nobody’s going to fight over a shithole like this,” Sam helpfully pointed out.

“Right, but it’s in the intent that matters. There’s a distinct difference between The Cains, Pandora, and Queens Court, wouldn’t you say?” I asked, giving Mia a pointed stare. “What’re the Queen’s Court generally seen as to the wider public? They’re a gang, sure, but to everyone else?”

My question seemed to click with Mia and I saw the realization sink in. “A Private Military Company.”

“And Pandora isn’t really a gang and more of a religion,” Sam added. “The only real group in this city that even fits the traditional gang are the Cains. There are some people that even label them a cartel but I don’t much care for the specifics. Names are just names at the end of the day, but that’s not the point though.”

Mia’s lips thinned. “No, I don’t suspect it is.”

“We act more like the Queen’s Court. They provide actual services to the city and while they often do butt heads with the ECU, they aren’t nearly as criticized or hated as the other two. Besides, the ECU knows there’s always going to be gangs and we’re the lesser of two evils,” I said, turning to look at Sam. “See, I’m really starting to get this now. Having an inside perspective on this stuff really does change things.”

Sam nodded. “It’s all about public perception. You’ve been watching them all week, why don’t you share what you’ve seen?”

Now it was my turn to look confused. My gaze flickered between Sam and Mia, the former just pointed to the latter. There was a conflicted expression lit up across the older girl’s face as she struggled to find the words to speak. She sent Sam another weary look but the blonde just crossed her arms expectantly as if she already knew the answer. The reality was that she probably did, with the help of Gold.

“Who’ve you been watching?” I asked.

“Everyone, mostly,” Mia flushed a bit at her words. “Fuck, its creepy just saying that. My statues can… well, it’s hard to explain.”

Sam laughed. “No it’s not.”

“It is! Powers don’t make any sense. I shouldn’t be able to but I can perceive things through my statutes. Sight, sounds, smell. All of it. Sam took me out earlier in the week and she had me leave a bunch of my statues around the place to spy on some of the hotspots she’s marked down,” Mia explained, looking visibly torn. “It’s so… invasive. People don’t even notice either.”

“Where did you leave them? Are they concealed? That’s probably why people don’t notice,” I said. “If I were walking on the street and saw an obscure statue just hanging around, I’d imagine someone just left their street art for someone to look at. It could even be a street performer.”

“Some of them are hidden. Others… not so much.”

I frowned. “You guys never mentioned any of this.”

“You’ve been busy,” Sam defended. “You were either working away in your workshop or at home. There wasn’t much to talk about and I got the feeling that distracting you wasn’t the best idea. With the ceasefire in place, the attack on Grim could happen any day now and we all need to be prepared. It’s partly the reason I offered to take Mia out. She gets to play with her new powers and I get information.”

More information sounded nice. I had enough time to invest in all my equipment so far and my upgraded security breaching software was looking quite powerful. If there was one thing we could do more with in the future, it was information on every Super operating in the city. It would be breaking an incredible amount of privacy laws but… at this point, I think I had already crossed that line a long time ago.

Building a private surveillance system to monitor the city would be time-consuming but ultimately worth it in the end. It would ensure we’d never be caught off-guard and after the bullshit I’d dealt with so far, that sounded like a dream come true. I could potentially speed up this process by trying to hack into the city’s surveillance system and create a backdoor there, but there was no way those systems weren’t being watched by the ECU. If I wanted to take that route, I’d have to advance my encryption networking so that I’d be untraceable with absolute certainty.

Doable… but creating our own private surveillance system meant we could monitor very specific parts of the city. That had its merits as well.

Hmm, why not both? I could even proxy the networks to each other if I’m good enough.

“You’re doing it again.”

I looked up at Sam. “What?”

“I can almost see those gears inside your head turning. You’re like an open book to Gold. Thinking of going all ‘big brother is always watching you’ on the city?”

I shrugged. “We’d benefit. Can’t be caught by surprise if you can see it coming from literally miles away.”

“Cyber warfare is difficult. I don’t know much about it but I know the ECU has specialist supers just for that. We could try but we could be overstepping there if we go too far,” Sam said. “They’re not in Bayside though, and getting them here would be a pain in the ass for the ECU, so that’s a bonus for us.”

“It would certainly lighten the load on me,” Mia anxiously rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve got so many statues out there right now, I’m kinda getting overwhelmed.”

“How many do you have out there?” I asked.

“Fifteen,” she replied. “Rush hour is the worst. So much noise.”

“Is that your limit?”

“I don’t know if I actually have one. The more statues I have, the more my senses are split,” Mia said. “Too many and my head would probably pop.”

“You’re more capable than you think you are,” Sam explained. “Right now with fifteen out there, all you experience is a dull headache at peak hours. You could probably double that and still be able to function just fine, albeit with slight discomfort.”

“Slight? The headaches I get now are awful.”

“You can still walk and talk though. If you overuse, I would guess you’d collapse or maybe just have a seizure. You should know when to stop long before you reach that point though. I get it too sometimes, when I switch too much too quickly,” Sam said. “I get a bit delirious.”

“I guess I got lucky,” I said. “My power just stops working if I use it too much.”

“Every super has their limits. Even Liam,” Sam replied, pursing her lips. “Though I’m having trouble actually figuring out what his limit is.”

“By the way, where is he?” Mia asked. “He was here this morning when I woke up and he just disappeared.”

“Went home,” I said. “His uncle called and told him to get his ass back there. The guy didn’t sound too happy that he was out so much.”

His uncle sounded like a real piece of work and Liam had been inside my workshop when he got the call. That little instance had also given me another idea to help with this place’s security. I’d need some kind of signal blocker… or maybe location spoofing so they couldn’t track us back here? The last thing I wanted was to get everyone here busted because the ECU was able to trace back my IP or any other unprotected signals. That would be embarrassing.

An easy fix though, something I could whip up today.

“Oh,” Mia frowned, looking rather disappointed. “I wanted to talk to him.”

“He’ll be back tomorrow,” Sam reassured her. “You can talk to him then, after we all discuss what I’ve been planning.”

I braced myself. For reasons all too obvious, Sam’s plans always ended up with us doing increasingly dangerous activities. I had rather enjoyed this last week of peace and relaxation. I had got a lot of work done and I was looking forward to continuing that trend. No doubt whatever she had up her sleeve was going to throw a wrench into that.

I gave her my best flat look. “Dare I ask?”

“It’s nothing crazy. We’d just be busting into some Cain safehouses and taking their ill gotten gains,” Sam replied easily. “Ya know, the basic stuff.”

“Basic stuff,” Mia repeated slowly. “That’s basic?”

“Would you prefer to go and fight Grim head-on?” Sam asked with a knowing smirk. Mia tried to think of a clever retort but eventually gave up, her shoulders sagging. Sam took this as a victory. “Thought so. Trust me, with the four of us, it’ll be a breeze. Honestly, Liam could probably do it all by himself. I’m just going because Pink is starting to get really antsy for some action and if I neglect her, she starts getting bitchy.”

A bitchy Pink would be miserable to deal with. I had to wonder how Sam blew off steam with all those personalities bouncing around inside her head?

“I suppose you’ll drag me along with you, just because,” I crossed my arms. Sam only replied with a cheeky smile. If Liam really could do it all by himself, then there wasn’t much point in me going along. Mia still needed to get used to things, so it would be a good outing for her. Plus it would let her figure out how to apply her power in the field, so to speak. “Don’t suppose I could just chill and work on stuff in my workshop?”

“Are you trying to tell me you don’t want to test out your improved equipment?” Sam asked, feigning shock. “You’ll miss out on all the fun if you just lock yourself away upstairs all the time. It’s not like you’ve got anything to be afraid of while wearing that suit. It’s more than bulletproof now.”

More than she realized. My suit was at a point now where only Mechatech would be able to do any reasonable damage to it. Even a fifty-caliber bullet wouldn’t do much more than give me a light shove. I would claim that artillery and tank shells wouldn’t do much, but the kinetic force would still be enough to pop every organ and shatter every bone in my body. If I wanted to protect myself against sheer force, I’d need something more advanced than armor.

Energy shields or some kind of super exoskeleton would be the answer to that conundrum. Another path would be altering and reinforcing my biology. Sure, I couldn’t interact with biology or living organisms but that didn’t mean I couldn’t create something that did. The only question was what.

“I could,” I shrugged easily. “I might. There might be something interesting I could find. The last safehouse we busted had them unknowingly smuggling Deadlock’s tech somewhere. Who knows what else they have.”

Sam hummed aloud. “Gold’s still not certain how they managed to get a hold of something like that. Still trying to figure that one out, but it’s not exactly a priority.”

“So… we’re just going to break in and attack some thugs in their own homes?” Mia asked, a look of apprehension and distaste crossing her features. “I know these guys are scum but I’m not sure how I feel about that. It feels needlessly violent.”

“All we’re doing is going in, knocking them out, and taking their stuff,” Sam explained like it was a daily routine. “Don’t forget these guys are the same ones that kidnapped you. If you weren’t being experimented on by some psycho, you likely would’ve been trafficked into sex slavery.”

Mia looked horrified. “What?”

“When Liam first came to us about your kidnapping, that was our first guess,” I explained. “It’s what they do.”

“Was,” Sam corrected. “Now Grim and the rest of them are suckling from Masquerade and the Iron Maiden’s teet. They might be still doing it but there’s no way it’s their primary source of income anymore. That, or drugs.”

Any reservations Mia had about what we were doing almost visibly melted off her face. The change was so quick that I saw it happen in real-time. The doubt was gone, replaced by a desire for action. She wanted to hurt them now – to take the fight straight to them. It was like the last few days had served to distract her from what really happened. If I were to guess, she was likely preoccupied with learning to use her power properly.

“Those freaks probably still have my friends.”

Sam frowned and lightly shrugged. “The ECU quarantined the whole block around the bunker. Gold thinks Grim and Splicer have long since split but we’re torn on the specifics. If they were really desperate to keep things hidden, they would’ve crashed the whole place – burnt it to the ground with everyone inside.”

There was an anger that coursed through me and I forced myself to look away from Sam. She had been the one to remind me that we had only been there to rescue Mia, no one else. I knew I wasn’t hero material but that didn’t stop me from wanting to help out those other people trapped there. You didn’t need to be a hero to just want to help people.

But Sam had been right, as much as I wanted to deny it. We had been on a time crunch and the ECU arriving didn’t do anything to help.

“They’re all dead?” There was a notable shake in Mia’s voice.

“Not necessarily, so don’t go and start panicking,” Sam raised a hand to calm Mia. She clearly picked up on my discontent as well, if the tone of her voice was anything to go by. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the news. Like I said, the ECU have the whole block locked down and their forces are out there in droves. They’re getting something out of the bunker and it’s highly probable it’s the other victims, along with all of the Mechatech.”

Mia’s expression turned hopeful. “So there’s a chance they’ll be alive?”

Sam let out an exhausted sigh and shrugged again. “There’s things to consider, like the fact that a lot of the victims were progressing differently. Some – from my observations – were further along than others; produced more results, like you,” she explained. “There’s the possibility that Grim and Splicer took the ones that showed the most promise and moved them elsewhere, leaving behind the failures. I can get to these conclusions with Gold but until I see some solid evidence, I can’t be certain.”

“I get it,” I said, turning back and giving Sam a pointed look. “That’s why you’re planning on attacking more of their safehouses. You think you’ll be able to find clues that Gold will be able to extrapolate from. It isn’t about stealing and weakening them, but you’d be killing two birds with one stone.”

Sam stared at me and tilted her head.

“Wow,” she said, clearly impressed. “That’s… I’m honestly surprised you even got that.”

I did my best to look smug. “Told you, I’m starting to get this stuff.”

She winked. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”

“So… this plan of yours. You want me to come along?” Mia’s voice broke our little staring match and drew attention back to her. “Because you said ‘the four of us’ unless I’m mishearing things.”

“I do,” Sam said earnestly. “I can see you’re not certain about how your power will be helpful but I’ll be able to give you some pointers – that is if you want to come along at all. Feel free to lounge around here if you want. I just thought you’d want some fresh air.”

“I want more than fresh air,” Mia replied, her expression hardening. There it was again, that look that promised violence. “But you’re right, I’m not sure how I’ll be helpful. My statues can only move when unobserved.”

“And you know what that makes you? Fucking horrifying,” Sam shuddered a little bit. “You and Liam both. The amount of phobias you two are able to play on more than makes up for whatever you're lacking. I guarantee ninety percent of the dumbasses we’ll find will run for the hills the moment they see things start moving out of the corner of their eyes. The other ten percent brave enough to stay behind will be in for a nasty surprise.”

Mia chuckled nervously. “Ha, when you put it like that…”

“Cheer up, you’ll be fine. Can’t be any worse than the dork,” she thumbed me with a grin. “He was a hot mess on his first night out.”

“I seem to recall that dork pulling a bullet out of your shoulder,” I replied blandly. “Or am I misremembering?”

Sam pouted.

Mia just stared at her, shocked. “You’ve been shot?”

“Oh yeah,” Sam waved her off. “Plenty of times.”

The older girl just blinked slowly. “Right… okay.”

It was rather amusing seeing it from the otherside.

“Hey Max, while I am blessed with the rare occasion that you are out here and not in your workshop, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” Sam said, finishing up in the kitchen. She walked out from behind the kitchen counter and plopped down next to me on the couch. “I’d like to think I’ve been patient enough and given you some time to work in peace but it’s been eating away at me and Gold for a while now. Even Pink wants to know.”

I stared back, blankly.

“What do you want to know?”

“Your source,” she replied. “Namely, how you knew about Splicer. I think it’s time I had a little chat with them.”

Oh, right. I forgot about that.