Amelia, Ch 352- Taylor
The dimensional barrier made my power feel sluggish, creating a frustrating half second delay to my minions' responses. After the third humiliating time a shadowcat walked face first into a wall, I started to get a handle on the slow response, having them walk along the area instead of their usual trotting speed.
I found Sabah and the rest of the team near the entrance to the building. They were very much alive, though naked and doing what they could to cover themselves.
Only Anima had any clothes on. She and a blonde woman I assumed to be one of Accord's were both unconscious, but the bioscans from my zerg didn't indicate any immediate health risks.
"Don't worry, everything's fine now," I informed the collection of people. I had some of the 'cats expand their wing membranes and wrap around the nude men and women, giving them some semblance of privacy. Fortunately, we never found a way to install a sense of touch into the EB zerg. Why does the idea of seeing them nude bother me? It's not like I couldn't already use echolocation and various nonvisible light spectrums to see through clothes.
"Could you create some clothes, ones that are shunt capable?" I asked Amelia. "I'm estimating ten sets." ConfusionConcern. "Umm... Anima's the only one whose suit survived the power interaction. For whatever bizarre reason, everyone else has been stripped naked."
"Yeah, just give me a minute," Amelia agreed.
"We'll have clothes and medical attention for you in a couple minutes," I let the group know. "The interaction's over and the area's secure, cooperate with the shadowcats and we'll get you out of ground zero for a real checkup.
"Everyone appears to be alive, don't worry," I informed Lily and our medical teams. "I'm bringing them to our deployment zone. The power interaction appears to have destroyed everyone's clothing. Possibly something Manton Effect related, don't know for certain."
"Is..." Sabah hesitated. "Is Anima alright? What about GL? Uh, Genius Loci." I frowned, him I didn't see. His armor seemed to have been destroyed along with everything else. His power meant he was a living shaker effect, and this interaction was a blending of shaker powers. Did... was he caught in the mess and destroyed? There's nothing I could do to figure it out.
"Anima seems to be fine," I told her. "I don't know how to find Genius Loci."
By the time Amelia got the full body covering outfits ready, I'd brought her another shadowcat to transport them to our survivors. I'd also been cataloging the other stuff in the area. The wounded men and women who were the defenders of the drug den had been stripped naked as well, but left where they fell. Most of them were badly injured by shallow wounds spread all over their bodies. If left to heal naturally, their own families wouldn't be able to recognize them after the recovery.
Their weapons and electronics had been gathered in tidy little piles, almost as if they were being inventoried, although I couldn't figure a logic in their sorting method.
"Lisa, do you have a minute?" I asked. The sixth conversation I was running simultaneously. One of the others was the universe's dumbest mugging. Why the guy thought it was a good idea to try to mug someone on Avalon, I wasn't sure, but he was wrong. What passed as local police were happy enough to take my word for everything, but it still required a conversation with a bunch of officers and someone to take down my testimony.
"Kinda busy," she responded.
"No you're not," I countered. "You are doing literally nothing except fantasizing about Alexandria. We're having this conversation now."
The drugs, and in fact everything on the top few floors in the building that wasn't on a person seemed to have been left untouched, save as casualties in the fight itself. Things got uglier as I worked further into the building, with a number of bodies that were reduced smears on the walls. I guessed that the Interaction had a fight with them over the limited space in the lower levels. It wasn't the humans that won.
"I am not fantasizing about anyone," Lisa retorted.
"Lisa, I know you know exactly how good my senses are," I sighed. "I'm linked into your suit, I know what your eyes are following. Infravision, bioanalytic stuff built by some of the best biomanipulation experts on the planet. I know what crushing looks like, and right now you're acting like a schoolgirl who's hoping to salvage a ruined prom date."
"I am n-" she hesitated. "Fuck. I am, ain't I?"
"Pretty much," I confirmed. "But that's not the problem. The problem is how you've been acting lately. Seriously, I have no idea what's with you lately. You're prodding the Protectorate like you want them to retaliate."
My zerg finally got our teams' survivors to the medical staging area. I did the best I could to avoid watching as Lily kissed the still quite naked Sabah, use her own armor's wings to give her girlfriend privacy to dress. At least, privacy from everyone else. Clarice, Emma and Elena were there to check on Anima and the other unconscious woman. Boost was enough to take care of the others' minor injuries.
"They're pompous blowhards, they don't have the balls to retaliate," Lisa countered. "They keep trying to act like tigers, even after we've proven they're declawed kittens. We should be past the point where we have to pretend to care about shit like that."
"News flash, Lisa, most of us do care about shit like that," I reminded her. "Stomping all over everyone else's rights just because they're not as strong as us? That is quite literally the very thing Pantheon exists to stop."
"It was," Lisa corrected. "Now it's stopping Scion and saving lives. If the bureaucracy gets in the way of that, it's a problem."
"And goading Glaistig Uaine?" I followed up. "If she wanted to kill you, we'd have to stand there and watch because we wouldn't be able to stop her, and trying probably would have gotten all of us killed."
"Wouldn't have happened," she replied. "I've read all her transcripts, she wasn't going to attacked me, not over words. And I got all kinds of useful mental models off her that I can actually use in the future. Worth the nonexistant risks. Now I have a better feel for what she's wrong and right about."
There was only one survivor on the lower levels, hidden behind a a metal wall that had been clawed open, but apparently not filled by the interaction. A middle aged man whose tongue had been ripped out and his hands and feet severed. The injuries had been burned after, which probably saved his life. Judging by the other stuff in the room, I guessed he was Synth. We didn't know what he looked like out of costume, but it fit what we knew.
"Was she right about you?" I prompted.
"That I'm not one of her 'royal court'?" Lisa shrugged. "The Entities don't have political structures. That'd be like asking you if your zerg are royalty, compared to the special bugs Amelia makes you, compared to the natural insects you grab. I probably don't have one of the most powerful Passengers, not like you and Amelia have, but the idea of 'royal' anything is a delusion."
"I was more thinking about the 'hummingbird and eagle' thing," I pressed. There was no doubt she knew what I meant the first time. "Seriously, the way your acting makes me think that's what this is. You're operating way outside your actual limits and it's getting to you. Passenger mind fuck or whatever."
"Sorry, Taylor, that armchair psych isn't going to work," Lisa responded. "I'm doing quite nicely for myself. My power's being pressed constantly, I've got power, resources, all the success anyone could ever ask for. Fuck, my Passenger should be happy beyond all reason right now."
"What?" I asked.
"Remember all those conversations about Taylia? The addictive nature of the link?"
"Yeah," I responded, a mix of dread and irritation coming to mind. If she's going to make this another Taylia argument... ConfusionWorrySupport.
"Well, turns out there are other ways to achieve it," she chuckled. Alexandria gave her a look, no one else was paying much attention. "Rebecca and I found out that if you're a couple really good Thinkers, you can achieve it using sign language. My Passenger and hers are apparently quite happy together."
"Is that why you've stopped pressing us on the Taylia thing?" I asked. "Because you've tried it for yourself?" Maybe now she can understand how happy it makes us, and how clear it makes everything that was no doubt fogged by our Passangers, before. But then... "Wait, is that why you're acting this way? Because you've thrown out the 'conflict' excuse with what you just told me. You've been a bitch lately. You screwed with Crystal's team without even giving them a warning."
"It was good practice," Lisa argued. "Give them a chance to think on their feet."
"You did it for an excuse to spend more time with Alexandria," I countered. "Don't bother trying to lie to me, you know it won't-"
"I am secretly the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, sent back in time from the year two thousand one to stop Prussia from conquering Australia," Lisa interrupted dryly. To my surprise, the lie detection tech read her as telling the truth. "So, you were saying?"
"Cute," I managed to carry the sarcasm through the speaker of her suit. "But I am not dropping this. I want an answer. The real answer. Don't turn this into a scenario where I have to choose between our friendship and the wellbeing of the team. I'm sure you know how that ends."
"Not a threat that matters," Lisa retorted. "You prefer Amelia to me, anyway. And, before you start, no that has nothing to do with this."
"Then tell me why," I begged. "Please. We need to work this out. And I want to help. You're my friend, you've been with me since the beginning of the team."
"Yes, I have," she responded. "The problem is, you haven't. None of you have. The only founding members left of Pantheon are me, and fucking Bonesaw. Taylor died, and Amelia, and Crystal. Missy and Theo. You're their replacements, and I am the only one who even cares enough to mourn their deaths."
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A/N- And by "only one", she includes the audience.
