Arc 2, Ch 9: The Demon Held
Eatersgrin
Know what you're doing yet?
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"Define 'arrangements'."
A grin spread on my face in the near dark room. The look on her pale features tells me she can see the lighthearted cast to my expression and she wasn't really having it.
Taylor gave me the biggest sigh, "I meant for Madison - I'm not done with you, Alcaraz."
"It's nice to be wanted."
"Be serious with me!" her frustration was ever present. Her dark armored shoulders tensed, the bug shells catching the faintest light from the terrarium glow.
"I am, Annie. I - know she's one of your tormentors. This is not school. You are the authority here. If she doesn't want to listen we just give her to Rachel to clean up dog shit or for Coil to deal with, eh?"
I really wanted to hug Taylor and, well, I did so. I walked up to my Annie and instead of rejecting me she let me pull her close. I didn't want to upset her. I didn't want to remind her of the bad times. I just saved a life that so stupidly would have been snuffed out if I really was the villain I made myself out to be.
"I'm sorry. I'll - make it up to you."
Annie rubbed her face in my chest then pulled it back with a disgusted look on her face, "You smell like burnt plastic and the makeup counter at a department store."
"Lent her my shirt so they'd stop eye... doing her while I did as Lisa asked. I put it back on later, but before that she apparently decided she didn't like her make up or the perfume they put on her and wiped her face and neck off with it when I wasn't looking. When I found her up on a stage surrounded by sex weirdoes, it wasn't pretty."
She sighed and rested her forehead on my chest, "That does sound bad. Fine, fine, okay. So she knows you're you, what else does she know?"
"I work for Skitter and The Undersiders. That I was there to send them a message to The Merchants to leave the Docks and Boardwalk alone or I'd be back tomorrow and do worse."
Taylor looked up at me, "What did Tattletale tell you to do?"
"That I had a Merchant problem and to make it go away. So I walked in like I owned the place, claimed a crying Madison from whatever the hell that stunt was, and then had a meeting with Skidmark and Squealer and - I put a ball bearing through the guy's shoulder after trashing their office and then me and Madison walked out."
"You didn't kill him?" she asked rather matter of factly.
"He was bleeding really bad - oh, I think he passed out. I fought Mush real quick but my power was stronger than his. I took a - a uhh metal case from them. It's probably some kinda expensive drug the way they tried to fight over it but I said it was a penalty for being there that day."
Anne held her mask in her hand, "I really do not want to relinquish my independence in the base."
"Yeah it's been nice winding down as ourselves after a hard day's work."
My love cocked an eyebrow, "Are you going to keep treating Taylor as your girlfriend out of costume?"
"Of course, I am a proud girlfriend-having guy", I said with a grin.
"Alright then. You leave first, get her something to eat, drink, and I'll come down to give her the-" Taylor went still for a moment, "What did you bring with you again?"
A girl's screams came from below, piercing even through the sound dampening of the door, and that's when things went weird…
When it happened I couldn't remember the feel of the blade just under my eyeball. But now I could feel the sharp metal had scraped against the edges of the bone of my eye socket and I tried to blink but everything felt wrong. The knife biting into my head like a monster's tooth, the pressure of the flat of it against my eyeball put black and purple spots in my vision that swam across the demon mask.
The cries of fear as the demon held something in its hand, high for the other kids to see. It had cocked its head to the side as it held me up against the wall and dropped something at my feet. The warmth around the cold blade stung and again I couldn't blink right. Then the demon turned to ash and dust, the roar of Hell swallowing me up with heat and pain was both terrible and brief.
Void.
Stars.
Fish?
Dragons? No.
Something worse.
~~x
We woke up in a tangle on the floor.
Taylor blinked up at me as we laid there, "You too?"
I nodded.
"I'm here now, you're not alone", I reassured her but I was the furthest thing from solid right now.
I touched my eyes tentatively and I remember I wasn't even wearing the same face anymore.
"Madison", Taylor's voice broke me from my moment.
"I'll go check, follow after, as Skitter."
Taylor nodded and I picked myself up and threw myself over the railing and entered... Smoke?
Some kinda wet smoke.
The exposed skin of my face and neck felt prickles across it like the Sun's heat on the hottest days. The smoke or fog grew denser and I stumbled into boxes of supplies that hadn't been opened from the last resupply. Swirls in the thick gray clouds made weird faces and body-like shapes, mouths opening and closing wordlessly.
It creeped the fuck out of me.
My heart was racing and I started nervously laughing, it hitched everytime I breathed in giving it a weird staccato pattern. I don't know what to fucking do.
All I remember is Madison is down here.
Should I call out to her? Is she even alive? Did the fog things eat her up? Was she the face and body I see in the wet smoke? Did we all die and this is - this is our hell?
"Jack!"
The voice came from somewhere in the thick gray soupy air.
I tried to speak and again my laughter returned, rapid and full of panic.
Fuck.
I tried to step backwards away from the Fog and I ran into the boxes again. We're to those in front of me? How'd I get turned around? I don't remember turning.
"Ma- hahaha- Mad- hahaha- Maaaaaad- hahahaha-ha, son?"
I felt a hard grab me from the dark and I thrust my other hand forward into the gray smoke.
"OW! JACK, MY-!"
I hurt the voice and suddenly my eye hurt, it burned from dirt under the fingernail of the strong finger that poked it. I clutched my face and laughed more.
"Dust Devil, I am sending down some flying bugs, follow them out, no matter what you do - just follow them out."
Was Taylor okay? Was she trapped too? Did she poke me in the eye? What is- against the gray a black and yellow little insect body passed in front of my face.
I took a step towards it and laughed.
"Jack!?"
Again it bobbed in front of my face and I stepped towards it, with a nervous giggle.
"Jack, don't leave me!"
I was up the stairs halfway to the second floor when I started feeling myself calm down. I had a headache, I was sweating like a pig, I felt nauseous, and I'm pretty sure I'm dying.
"JACK! JAAAAAACK!", Madison kept calling out from the center of the smoke bank.
"She triggered?" I asked, barely holding myself up leaning on the railing.
"I guess - tell her to calm down. Try to get her to stop. I'm going to call Tattletale, try to figure this out."
The fog slowly climbed up another step, the fringes of it like the silhouettes of fingers reaching out.
"Madison, calm down. I think you just got powers. You need to get - get out of the headspace that made you get powers."
"I felt like shit, I was sweaty and I puked on your shirt and- like I said my head was killing me, probably from taking the pills so much. But I'm - feeling better when you came for me. Please come back down here?"
"I will when you - oh god, stop that smoke stuff. Please, just calm down. Focus on not being scared. You're safe, you're not with the Merchants. I'll come down ... if it will help but know I'm going to be all messed up in the smoke stuff. I really don't feel good", I held my stomach with one arm and stepped down into the smoke again.
The edges of the smoke recoiled from my body as I waded into it further. The stairs slowly revealed itself, the boxes and furniture, then finally the floor. Madison was weirdly positioned at the center of the smoke, doing a sort of push up but her midsection touched the floor, the top of her head and toes of her feet pointed at each other.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I saw that the left half of her face had dark veins visible that slowly faded into silvery-white traces of the veins, like tattoos.
She opened her eyes, "I do yoga when I get upset. I felt like I was dying and usually it helps me calm down, but then that stuff started appearing no matter how much I tried to focus on my positions... you look rough, Jack."
Madison stood up, looked around the area, found a light switch and started rifling through the fridge, like all that craziness didn't just happen. I took a seat on the stool she abandoned and out of nowhere she hit me in the face with a bottle of cold water I didn't know I desperately needed. I ignored the attack and chugged it.
The disheveled girl in my makeup stained shirt ripped open a clear package of club crackers and wolfed a stack down. I've seen a snake eat a frozen mouse so, yeah, it's kinda like that.
"Hey, Madison - what happened a couple minutes ago? You're acting like you're not sick anymore, you just got powers? You were just on the stool I mean-"
She shrugged and that's when I saw one of the two latches on the metal case on the countertop undone. I flicked open the second latch and there was paperwork in a clear portfolio, and four vials. Long test tubes like from chemistry with black stoppers and a label with some letter code on the side.
The case had six spots for test tubes but four were filled, a fifth looked like it had been used to hold one and the sixth looked unused.
"Madison?" my head pounded, and the bottle of water only temporarily helped.
She groaned and tossed the empty plastic wrapper in the sink, "Okay, I felt really bad and I figured that there was a drug in the case that could help me stop feeling bad. I know, it was stupid, but hey - it worked."
She smiled a cute little smile, like she was a little girl who was wearing her mother's smudged make up and dressed up in ladies underclothes she found in sizes too big on her. Her smile dropped as Skitter walked into view.
"You have seen my minion's face. That's enough for me to deal with you in the harshest way possi-"
"Hebert?"
Skitter went silent.
"It's you - isn't it? You're the right height, your hair is a dead giveaway, and you've hissed words at me before. I know that tone."
Oh, now she wants to talk about people taking tones?
"Jesus, you're - you're an Undersider? That means you have been doing cape stuff while we were in sch- you never used your powers on me."
Again reality slowly dawned on my rescuee, "Wait, how come you didn't -?"
Skitter held up a hand and pulled her mask off, "Because I didn't want to hurt any of you, it wouldn't be fair. Despite what you, Sophia and Emma did to me, it wouldn't be right to send an army of every nasty thing hiding in the dark corners after you at school or at your homes."
Madison's body quickly swallowed up with her cloud of smoke.
"No, you will not retreat into your power. This conversation is happening. Focus, Madison, for once in your life. Take this seriously."
The air in front of her cleared, framing her face as she spoke, "What am I?"
I tried to shake the illness I felt. Did Madison's power make me sick? Or I remember she did say she felt better after I entered the smoke, and she did say she'd probably go through withdrawal. Is that what this is? Did she give me her sickness?
My head hurt even more and instead of thinking over this too much I swapped to my breaker state and I felt so much better. I took a vaguely human shape with my breaker form and spoke, "After drinking or snorting what was in that case, you triggered and you're a cape."
Taylor found a large crate sitting against a wall and hopped up onto it as she dangled her mask from her fingers, "You know who we are, and if you pop up with powers and, I'm assuming you took that chemical from the Merchants, they'll know you used their stuff. They'll want both you and the chemicals back."
"So - I'm stuck with you two?" The smoke withdrew into her skin; the veins on half her face were dark for a few seconds before fading back to a white outline. "I'm sorry but I can't stay I gotta - I gotta go."
"Where? Do you even know where your family is? And if you go to the authorities and explain yourself - you will not be able to have a normal life. The PRT will just talk your parents into sticking you in The Wards. Just like him", Taylor tossed her mask at me and the silk material easily caught in my wind current and circulated through my shape.
"So you're a Ward?"
"Was."
"Wow, I used to pick on a Ward and a Villain, heh."
Taylor did not look pleased at that line, "Bad stuff happened and the people who trained Ray and were looking out for him let him get taken by a villain. So now he works with me. Doing some bad to do some good. Just like you saw out there."
"Okay, alright. Enough - even if I went to my parents we're stranded until we get help, adding my screwing up and getting... What? Smoke powers? What's that going to be good for?"
I swapped back to my human form and like flipping a switch I was back to being sick and tired of being sick and tired, "Taylor makes her power work. Listen to her, she's your best chance to find a way to make this work for- Jesus, did you give me your withdrawal symptoms?"
Madison nodded with a pout on her face, "I think so, Jack."
"Jack?" Taylor asked, clearly tired of all this.
"I told her she has two options: either leave with me or stay with the Merchants, Jack and Shit."
Taylor snorted, "It's always nicknames with you. Go upstairs, shower, go to bed. If you're awake I'll bring you some food and - withdrawal... Do we need a medic for help?"
"He already called one for me, plus clothes are coming for me. Dibs on the shower!" Madison seemed way too chipper for how I felt after saving her.
I climbed the stairs, forcing my limbs to move despite my splitting skull.
Taylor continued, "There is a shower down here, and since you're staying, pick a bunk bed. First floor is the living quarters, eating, sleeping, and hanging out. Second floor is Skitter's space for our business."
"And the third floor?" Madison asked with a tone I did not care for.
"Everything that's up there - is mine", was the last I heard as I shut the bedroom door behind me.
~~x
Skitter was standing over me when I woke up. Taylor was stock still standing there as I stirred, and I was drenched in sweat. Lips chapped, mouth dried out, but no headache or nausea or body aches like before.
"Annie?" I spoke.
She didn't move, instead she held out a bottle of water in my direction. I took it and greedily chugged it down.
"Visitors?"
"Medic and the clothes drop off are delayed."
"Okay."
Finally Skitter turned to me, "Yes, Visitors - for you."
I ran a hand through my hair and scratched the back of my head, "Want me to go?"
"How do you feel?"
"Better, a lot better. Just dehydrated and remember nothing after the shower."
"Then yes, it's either Dragon and two Wards or three Wards with one piloting a drone remotely or two Wards and one is Kid Win with a floating device of some kind."
I stood up and approached Skitter, finding that spot where her mask and costume overlapped. I lifted that seam up until her neck was exposed and gave it a light kiss there, "Good morning to you too, and alright I'll get out there, see what they want. Gotta check on the Merchants anyway."
"Also your guest decided to stay with us, I gave her a lesson on her power use last night, and she's practicing her control on the second floor in the meeting room right now. Be careful of any fog near the stairs."
"So it's fog, now, not smoke?" I asked as I picked up my costume off the towel rack in the bathroom and started slipping it on.
"Other than making people babble or laugh uncontrollably, I didn't notice any other features to it than it feeling wet as I and my bugs wandered through it."
Wow she actually risked herself entering it, "You didn't get sick from it? Madison didn't have her symptoms return?"
"No, to all of that. So you're saying she transferred her illness to you and it was temporary?"
"I guess so".
"So she can hide herself, and if anyone enters her power's range she can transfer any of her injuries or sickness to them. Plus her power range makes people make noises and mess with their fight or flight response so she can locate them."
"Those vials are dangerous. She screamed when she took it."
"She said she felt like her headache was actually splitting her head open."
"Damn… what do you think would happen if we took a vial?"
"No, Ray. Just - no, it's not worth it and why?"
I shrugged, "Morning brain fart. Forget I said it".
I slipped on my mask and Taylor walked over to me and fixed the placement of my horns, "Now, don't mention Madison or the powers in case details. Try not to do anything that would bring Coil down on us either."
"You're coming out there too? That's why you're dressed."
"Yes, to oversee the people, check on the rebuilding we started yesterday, call in a supply run for distribution. Our clean up efforts really made this come together quickly."
"Great. Good to hear. Who's watching Madison while we're out? It's a bug, isn't it?"
Skitter nodded, "Also, she saw her face last night, when she showered. She doesn't want anyone seeing her like that."
"It wasn't really bad, it's like very light tattoos except when she's got her powers cranked up."
"No, Ray, it's - she's not going to be wearing sleeveless tops and short shorts anymore."
"All over?"
Yikes.
"At least half her body, yeah. But she's pretty adamant if she's stuck with the powers and that's the price she's going to get good at it."
I could see that, that's better than moping. We left the room and made our way down the stairs and to the secret entrance through the storm sewers.
"Uhhh, we should order like components for a costume or if not that also maybe a hoodie or some kinda," I gestured to my face.
"Veil".
"Yeah, veil or a cloak. Something to help her cover it up no matter what she wears. She shouldn't have to restrict what she dres-" I caught Taylor giving me the stare even through her mask, as we walked the streets of her territory .
"What?"
"You actually care."
"Well we're stuck with her, she's on her own. She's living with us, she's-"
"A bully with powers that are more than a little scary."
"She's also a teenager like us, who got stuck in a bad situation and made bad moves. Speaking of-"
"I have the vials and the paperwork on me", she tapped the armored panel on her back casually.
"I'll talk to Lisa after this, about the vials and get her to feel out Madison or at least confirm what we know."
"Or we could go over the paperwork and figure it out ourselves over pizza? Besides, it's probably just instructions. I mean the Merchants had it and I wouldn't trust them with a twenty four piece puzzle unless they had the box."
"Ray", Taylor said my name not as Skitter but as herself, like I'm being ridiculous.
"Marry me?", I asked her again, not wanting to be come down on in public by the resident crime lord.
She huffed out a small laugh, "No, not today".
"Aww, alright, then this is where I speed off and later come up with some big gesture at an inconvenient time."
"Don't you-"
I zipped off mid protest. One thing I did learn from watching Abuelo over the years was he never stopped treating Abuela to random shows of love or romance. Sure he could be gruff and really focus on work but he never took her for granted that she was fine with everyday being the same. I remember getting dropped off at a neighbor's house with a sleeping bag, a three liter of soda and money to order pizza. The next day finding out she had no idea where I was but they went out for dinner and dancing a state over.
With Madison adding some unwelcome tension, I needed to find a way to make Taylor feel better. I'm not a hundred percent sure on how to do that. We never had a 'date date', we'd done date-like stuff but it was always part of being friends or part of her thing with the Undersiders. I still wanted her to see her dad, dinner with her dad wasn't date-like either but - maybe I can do something afterwards. We could do something to help her decompress after seeing him.
I
When I arrived at the edge of Skitter's territory I found the creepiest thing I've ever seen: a head wearing an oni mask with two huge fleshy kinda bat wings extended from the sides of the head. It flapped to keep itself about six feet from the ground while its esophagus and lungs and heart tightened, inflated, and beat accordingly.
A blonde little girl held the end of the esophagus like the cord of a balloon and smiled up at me while blood and viscera stains were still encrusting on her leather apron covering her dress.
Next to her was a greasy older guy, his photos I was familiar with because he was the most human looking of the group. He reminded me of the used car salesman from True Lies mixed with Robin from the funny Robin Hood movie.
It was a nice day, Sun was out. Sky is blue. Just a little girl with her human head balloon out on a stroll with a maniac.
"That Oni Lee?" I asked, because I hoped it was, that bastard tried to kill me back when I was no one in particular.
The girl's face lit up, "Oh yes, Jack had promised me a whole bunch of new people to work on but it looks like you drove them off."
Jack Slash tutted but didn't speak.
"So we visited a couple of people he had his eye on. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with Lee here but for now - and I'm being soooo rude. I'm Bonesaw."
Oni Lee's head struggled to keep itself up,l. He let out a gurgle as the biotinker curtsied and that caused her to grip the bottom end of his organs a little tighter while clutching her dress.
"Little Lady, you can call me Dust Devil. You're far nicer than the files paint you to be", I returned to my The Duke voice.
Riley Davis blinked her eyes at the revelation and looked to Jack.
"Guilt by association, I imagine", he explained to her.
The leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine then turned to me, "So, the ones that couldn't or wouldn't leave the shopping mall informed us you scared off the bulk of their kind with the promise of a bucket of balls?"
"Sir, Ball bearings", I reached into my pouch, grabbed one, and calmly held it out to him in the palm of my hand.
"Mhm, mildly interesting, but what exactly transpired to make them fear you despite outnumbering you?"
I shrugged at the guy, the breeze blew open the bottom of his unbuttoned shirt. An array of knife handles were tucked into his pockets and waistband of his trousers.
"That's rude to shrug, Mr. Devil. It's more polite to answer Jack, because Jack is being polite", in a remote way Bonesaw reminded him of Abuela.
I'M SEVERAL BLOCKS AWAY FROM ABUELA AND THE SHELTER TALKING TO PART OF THE NINE!
"Apologies. I don't meet infamous people on the day to day, but to answer your question I figure it's easier to do business where your business is welcome."
From his front shirt pocket Jack pulled a wooden handled razor blade, still folded in on itself. I tried not to eye the weapon, just hoping my power will automatically save me if he flicks the blade at me.
He dangled the handle between his index finger and thumb, as Oni Lee gurgled again, his organs making wet noises as they bounced into each other while he hovered in place.
"What brings you to this part of town, little lady?" I figure the longer I keep their attention the less damage they're doing.
"Looking for new people to have fun with!"
¡Madre Dios!
They're here to kill us.
"Oh no, Dust Devil, the look on your face says you are thinking the worst. No no, our little lady here is quite right. We're here to find new people to have - with us", Jack flicked out the razor blade and carefully trimmed the edge of his buzzsaw shaped beard and then snapped the tool shut.
"I'm here today eyeing up my possible candidates for recruitment. Oni Lee here failed to have imagination despite having a wildly interesting power but - you on the other hand cowed an entire group with decisive use of a single metal ball", the older man grinned.
"This is less a volunteer thing and more a voluntold thing, right?"
"Oh he's a sharp one, Jack".
"I'm not letting that pun go, Bonesaw, on account your Mr. Devil is addressing you as a proper Lady."
They shared a laugh, Lee groaned, and I died a little inside.
