"Where we-?"
"Shh. Quietly."
Because barring some surprise revelation from recent comics, Ono-boy still has
ears.
"Where we goin'?"
"The Philadelphia Water Department Field Office. We can't really keep searching for the Mask while they're all riled up like this, so we're evading."
And this building is one you think is a potential hiding place? Information from Carlyle? Can you even trust anything he told you now?
"How much trouble we eeyn?"
This part of the city is mostly two-storey buildings, so I change my flight pattern to float just over the roofs. That should limit the angles from which we're visible.
But it does make high-speed manoeuvres much harder, having to dodge HVAC plants, communication antennae and roof access stairwells.
"Eh. I'm pretty sure I can get us out of the city by burrowing down and getting out from under the barrier that way. But…"
I try scanning for Agent Carlyle, and… Get nothing coherent. Infrared gets me more useful information, but only really shows that people are spreading out, both civilians and Justifiers. Searching for us. I see… Children, leave the nearby houses and blankly stare about in response to some impulse relayed through the Anti-Life.
No doubt ready to scream for the masters if they spot anything unusual.
"Without a lead, we might have to scrub the mission, which is going to make things… Difficult."
There's no replay as I land us on the Water Department roof.
Maybe sending some pointed messages to Ub'X and any other Indigo Lanterns he can broadcast to would help... Unless he's already in their spam filters.
"Tuppence?"
She looks like she's about to…. Throw up? Curl up in pain?
I mean... I
assume you included painkillers in your medical treatment.
"Tuppence?"
"Get… Gettin' worse."
...Dammit, OL. Did you forget people feel
pain?
The Water Department is another two-floor building and has no roof access. There are a few people inside, but when you've got a mind control economy some things can be ignored.
Can't see Onomatopoeia anywhere…
That doesn't mean he's not there, OL. Be
very careful.
"I'd never broken a bone before I became a superhero. I guess that was your first time as well?"
She nods, breathing hard and squeezing her eyes shut.
Somehow, I don't think it's
just that, though, as painful as it is.
"It ain't… Tawkin' about that."
"What's it talking about, then?"
Ah. The Anti-Life seizing on a moment of weakness...
"Lahk… How we already lost, how all we c'n do is watch ev'ry one who already got taken over do what Mannheim wants."
"Oh, yeah, fixing human civilisation after this is going to be a lot of work." Though I'm kind of looking forward to it. There's so much room for improvement! "But Mannheim's making a rod for his own back here. Darkseid would be fine in a universe where he's the only thing that can think, but all Mannheim is doing is turning himself into an extension of Darkseid. He's already stopped existing in any meaningful way. You, on the other hand, are still here, so really you're doing better than him."
An... Unusual way to look at it, even if it is
accurate. Not sure that makes her feel any better, either.
"Aha ain't-. Lahk… Ah did some stuff, but ah figured… Stuff lahk this happened, the Justice League would deal with iht."
"We are. Darkseid doesn't really care about this world; Mannheim won't get given anything that he doesn't already have." I shake my head. "Creation is harder than destruction. I could make everyone in this city… Except maybe the Justifiers… I could make them want anything I want them to want. But that wouldn't free them, just make them my puppets rather than Mannheim's. And then he'd almost certainly turn up in person, so even if it wasn't pointless it would.. be... Self destructive."
Since he can't afford that level of resistance in his Narrative of domination.
That doesn't seem to be working. I think I'm doing 'reassurance' wrong. When your emotions are overwhelming you, I doubt that a well-reasoned rational answer is really the answer.
So I hug her instead.
Going back to basics, eh? And showing that just maybe he might be the best person to wield a
conventional Compassion Ring.
Not grabbing her hard, not… The way I hug Jade or anything like that. Don't want a repeat of Zatanna. Just friendly reassurance sort of thing, in the hope that my close presence will calm her down. From her heart rate it sounds like it's working a little.
Ah… Give it a moment..?
I mean, I doubt her parents were brave enough to hold her this way, given that even as a toddler, she could have snapped them like twigs...
"Feeling better?"
She pulls away, nodding grudgingly. "Ah hate this. Ah hate feelin' this."
...Sometimes, you
do just need a hug. Human contact. That feeling of being encircled by someone else, that for a little while, you're
safe.
I nod. "Quite understandable. Ready to go in-"
Her head jerks up, blinking. "It's gawn."
What, just gone? That seems...
Excessive just from a hug.
"-side… Ah, did you have some sort of grand philosophical revelation? Because if so, congratulations."
"N-. No." She shakes her head, frowning. "Ah don't think ah did, anyhow. How would ah know?"
And no coloured quotation marks. Not that I expect to see too many of those show up. Chapters with more than one are a
nightmare to type up.
"Did certain things that confused and bothered you before not bother you anymore?"
"No? Ah ain't gaht a voice gowin' awn about it no more, but that awl still… Ah mean, it's a problem, ain't it?"
Okay, not gone. But not muttering in her ear, so an improvement.
"Okay." I frown. "Just a second."
Keeping the hologram projector on me and projecting a random section of sky, I fly upward, looking towards the city centre. People… People have stopped moving. Some of them are sort of looking around like… Like they've just been freed. The Justified are still moving, but there's a bit more… Uncertainty. I… Don't know what could have done this. The broadcaster is still there-.
Huh. That should be a cause for celebration, but you just
know the other shoe is spinning up there, just waiting to fall on your head...
The force garrisoning it… Doesn't appear to be there any longer.
Magnify.
Okay,
that's out of the ordinary.
A lot of them left, presumably to look for me and Tuppence. The rest are very dead, Karshon standing blood-covered over their remains.
I guess he wasn't Anti-Lifed, then.
Oh, come on! So he isn't the city boss, then. He's an opportunist, taking the moment their back is turned to stab them...
Someone… Agent Carlyle, is standing by the broadcasters with the Mask on his face. Is he using it to disrupt the broadcast? I didn't realise that it would be used to do that by itself. If he's freed the whole city with it-. I mean, it's got possibilities as a technique but it's probably just going to bring Finality Man down on our heads.
Looks like Karshon's saying something to-.
On the upside, now you know where it is. It's just a matter of getting it off of
him now.
**All will fear me.**
A cry goes up from the city, a scream from the mouths of the people who had been ground under by the Anti-Life for so long. Below me Tuppence crouches down, arms wrapped around her knees. Others out across the city cower or try to hide while the Justified start running or jumping in vehicles to get back to the broadcaster as fast as they can.
And Karshon starts to grow.
...Yeah, I'd say that's bad. The other shoe has hit the floor with a thundering crash...
