Amelia, Ch 260- Victoria
"Dammit, bitch, what is it going to take to make you leave me alone!" Inexorable screamed at me. "It's been four fucking days, already!"
"Well, stop robbing banks, for starters?" I suggested. "And maybe turn yourself in?"
It turns out my power was, in fact, unable to stop the man whose power was to literally be unstoppable. He could not be injured, he could walk through any barrier, and he could extend that invulnerability to anything he touched. In this case, a garbage bag full of cash and valuables stolen from a bank vault. Luckily, outside the whole unstoppable thing, he was baseline human. No stronger, or faster, or smarter, than anyone else, unless you were directly preventing him from moving.
"Sorry, sugar tits, ain't happenin'," he countered. "You'll have to leave eventually. Next Endbringer fight, maybe? For the couple mil in this bag, I think I can wait you out for a few more weeks."
"Why even rob banks, anyway?" I asked. "Two mil is jack shit for a parahuman with your power. You could make that much a month just being a movie stunt double. Or to show up at Endbringer fights and give them hugs. I'd pay you a couple mil to watch that show."
"I don't get along well with others," he snarked. I could tell how tired and irritable he was without powers. Sleep was not something I was letting him have a lot of. I needed him to stop thinking clearly and start making exploitable mistakes. One of the better ones was him diving into the ocean for a night. We came up several miles off course, in this small forested area. No people meant no potential hostages or disruptions to people. It was just me, and him, and my radio.
"Or someone paid you a lot of money to rob a bank, because they wanted to see the bank's reputation damaged," I stated. "And your power has some kind of quirk to it that leads you to believe it won't work on Endbringers. How's that?"
"Fuck you," he cursed.
"Thought so," I smirked. "So, your boss? Ah, you don't know who it was. Anonymous payment, throwaway cell. Give me a few, bet I can figure out your account numbers. They were involved in a crime, so they can be frozen and confiscated. Is what's in that bag worth what's in your bank?"
"No way," he growled. "You don't have a power like that."
"Sure I do," I leaned casually against a tree. "I'm a telepath."
"Bullshit, there's no such thing," he growled.
"Sure there is," I quipped. "Lots of us. We just don't like talking about it. The whole 'Simurgh' thing, y'know. There's three others on my team. Including Khepri."
"She controls bugs," he argued.
"Yeah. Using telepathy," I retorted. "Works on humans, too. But she can't actually control people. Just bugs. Because bugs are too fucking stupid to tell the difference between her thoughts and theirs."
"You're lying," he insisted.
I shrugged. "Probably, but is that a gamble you're willing to risk thirty mil... no, make that around forty mil... on?"
"Fine, I'll just think about something else," he argued. "You, for example, and all the things I'd do to you." He unzipped his pants. I pulled out my cell phone and pointed the camera at his crotch.
"Go for it," I dared. "I promise you this video will be uploaded faster than you can moan your boyfriend's name."
"That's illegal," he argued.
"Not in the slightest," I replied. "If I were filming you secretly, you'd have a case. But this isn't your property, you're aware of my presence, and I am recording the pursuit of a fugitive. A very, very, slow pursuit. Expose yourself and the only thing that happens is you adding some kind of sex crime to your record. Also, you'll be laughed at by the entirety of my online fanbase, so you probably should think twice. Because, seriously, if I was a guy and mine was that small, that'd be my Trigger event." Not true, if anything he might be a little above average. But he struck me as the kind of guy who'd be upset by a girl insulting his manhood.
"I will fucking murder you!" he screamed and threw a rock at my head. Yup, totally called that one. I didn't even bother to move, as it bounced off my cheek. He was baseline human, after all.
"Meh, even if you did, I'd be back up and moving in less than a day," I faked a yawn. He couldn't help but yawn as well. I flicked a ball of mostly pine needles and mud into his mouth. He gagged and started spitting out the mix and trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "So, would you like to listen to more music? One of my fans has this one from Aleph that is, according to her, 'the worst song ever made, ever'. I'm not sure I believe her. Or, at least, I'm hoping it's a her. The screen name is the number two, followed by 'cute', then the number four, then the letter u."
"All aleph music is shit," the man muttered.
"A friend of mine says it's because they're bored," I replied. "They got nothing better to do, so they make movies and music faster than we do because people buy it up faster. So Bet has to worry about quality to make money, while Aleph is just pumping out as much quantity as possible. Plus, apparently they have something called 'autotune' over there, it's why their music all sounds like it was sung by the same person."
"Dumb bitch, you'll have to suffer through it, too."
"Oh, I could have sworn I already told you," I replied. I had, of course, a couple days ago. But lack of sleep really fucks with memory. "Partial shapeshifter. I turn off my hearing. Speaking of, should we get started? I'm told that listening to 'Friday' for more than fifteen minutes has the possible side effects of permanently losing thirty IQ points, spontaneously contracting AIDS, and holding one's own head underwater until the bubbles stop,. Lemme know how you're doing after six hours."
My phone beeped. Emma? "Oops, gimme a minute," I requested, then answered. "Hey, Red, what's up?"
"There's an experiment to try, we think you should be there," she informed. Riley's. One of our unspoken codes was if no names were mentioned over the phone, and it wasn't immediately obvious who we were talking about, it usually meant Riley.
"That important, huh?" I asked. I could tell by the excitement in her voice that it was definitely important to her, at least.
"Yes," she answered. "Can't talk about it too much. All hush-hush, you know how it goes."
"I'm kinda in the middle of something," I replied.
"Gotcha covered," she answered. "Minerva's already making the calls. See you soon."
"Awesome," I replied and hung up.
"Well, good news for you," I replied. "I'm leaving soon. You were right, you can outwait me."
"About fucking time," he muttered.
"Bad news is, you made my bosses impatient, so they're calling in the big guns, right about now," I paused theatrically for about thirty seconds. "Dammit, I really need to work on my ti-"
Atropos popped in, along with Janus and a cape I didn't recognize. He was in clearly tinker tech battle armor, with a chrome color scheme. Pretty generic aesthetics, all considered. No obvious weapons, either, but my power was telling me there was a lot of utility concealed in that equipment. "Long time, no see," I replied smoothly. "So who's the new guy?"
"Wavelength," the apparent tinker answered. A compartment opened up on his chest, showing a badge. "I'm with the FBI. This is a federal reserve, so he's our jurisdiction until further notice. Nothing you particularly need to worry about. I was told the suspect would be captured when I got here."
"He will be in a minute, don't worry," I answered before looking back toward my friends. "Hey, where are the girlfriends?"
"At the base, already," Eric replied. "Or hers is, at least. Mine's probably in bed. It's past midnight, so we're a little tired."
"You think that's bad," I smiled. "This poor bastard's been up listening to Aleph music for the last three days." Plus another day spent underwater.
"Aren't there laws against that?" he asked.
"There really should be, but no," I remarked. "So where were we? Ah, right. He's like a dimestore Sibrian. Has the invulnerability and a sort of power resistance, plus he can walk through walls and containment foam like they're made of wet cardboard. None of the ripping people to shreds or disintegration, though. Oh, and he can choose what does or doesn't effect him, so he can be treated by modern medicine."
"Oh, good," Lily responded. "Authorized level of force?"
"Nothing lethal," I answered. "His worst crime is breaking a shop owner's ribs for not paying protection. So, don't hold back on the nonlethals. But first, at least give him a chance to surrender."
"Go fuck yourself," he spat. Getting repetitive, there. Then again, four days without sleep, I guess I could forgive him for a lack of witty comebacks. He dropped, screaming, as a pair of bolts pierced his lower legs. She deliberately missed his shin bones, so it was all muscle damage, but it was painful muscle damage. I walked over and picked up his garbage bag, with all its valuables, before he remembered to start shielding it again.
"Well, I think that's everything," I replied, handing the bag over to the FBI cape. "Do you need anything else?
"Not at the moment," he answered. "Your pursuit has been documented. We may need you for testimony at a later date, I trust you'll make yourself available."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Didn't spend four days on this, just to lose the crook. See you later, Inexorable." He didn't answer, being far too busy crying and holding his legs. He wouldn't die, his power had staunched the bleeding already. But he wouldn't be going anywhere under his own power any time soon.
The world changed, and we were standing at the portal to Avalon.
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A/N- This chapter sorta accidentally wrote itself. In lieu of a Sophia chapter because I have exactly no inspiration for that at all.
Also: I kinda feel bad for that guy. Sure, he got shot in both legs and then lost two mil in order to avoid listening to Friday for six hours, so that's a plus. But two of those three days was a Bieber marathon. The third is best left to your imagination.
And it was all recorded and will find its way online.
