xx49.07.29 | 17:47 | Still Tuesday | [LUS]

"—just let him go, figured he needed time alone to cool off. Can't say I'm displeased to have him out of the way. Can't rely on that boy, 'specially not in this kind of situation."

There's a secret basement in Motoplasm's base, that's where we are now. He's got cameras set up all around the outside. There's like fifty gangers out there, all wearing purple—cars too, more than a dozen big black things. Mercy Killers, that's what Motoplasm said they're called. The biggest gang in Baker Boys. The boy Motoplasm and The Force saved was a Mercy Killer. I don't know why they're attacking his base now. They've got guns, some of them are shooting at the building, it seems pointless but it's still kind of scary. Maybe that's the point. Some of them have bottles, or lumps of concrete, they're throwing them at windows—which are all barred. Motoplasm said the windows are bulletproof too. This building looks old and dirty, but it's actually built like a fortress. I guess because of this kind of thing. The Force still isn't back, Motoplasm's worried about him. Shade's gone too, ran off about ten minutes before this happened, which I find deeply suspicious even though Motoplasm doesn't think there's a connection. I have seven minutes of The Force's power left, C2's psychic shielding, and I don't know how much of Shade's power—if he left ten minutes ago I'll set the countdown for thirty minutes, I shouldn't rely on it for longer than that. I also have Motoplasm's blood manipulation, of course, but I really don't want to use that.

"Do you have a response?" C2 asks Motoplasm. "This is the same gang that you interacted with previously—"

"Same gang. Not the same guys." Motoplasm is staring at one of the monitors, it shows the street in front of the building. There's no sound, but it's obvious that the gangers are shouting. "Don't know most of these ones. Couple of familiar faces. Local boys and girls shooting up the neighbourhood free clinic don't make sense."

"Except..." C2 trails off, then continues: "Except you took their drugs and their money. Those who you interacted with earlier may have reported what happened to their superiors. This is the reaction to your action."

"You must've known this would happen," I say. To be honest my knowledge of gangs only comes from TV shows but they're full of this kind of thing, getting revenge on people who stole from them. "You stole their stuff, of course they're going to want it back."

"I've taken 'stuff' before, it's part of the game, in the past they've had sense enough to leave well enough alone." Motoplasm's still staring at the screen, but I'm not sure what's so interesting to him. "It's known that I do for this neighbourhood—hell, half of the folks I get in here fly purple, I ain't happy that they're putting themselves in situations where they're getting bullets in their bodies, but I fix 'em up all the same. Get a lot of MK kin too, I'd bet you all the money I took tonight there ain't a soul out there who don't got family still breathing because of me and Mal, they should know better than this, they should KNOW better."

Motoplasm pushes himself up and heads for the ladder—he's going back up. He's going out.

"Moto—Motoplasm, what—"

"Stay down here, children. I got to deal to this."

"But The Force—"

"Don't know where Mal is, but this ain't gonna stand." Motoplasm's at the top of the ladder, at the hatch leading up into the garage above. "Gonna talk some sense into these little punks, hell if it ain't bad enough when outsiders come messing up my home but when it's my own people? Hell if I'm gonna take that!"

C2 and I watch as Motoplasm disappears up above. I want to follow but to be honest I'm scared—The Force's power is about to run out and what can I do with the rest of what I've got? Only Motoplasm's blood control might be useful...

"Charlotte—"

"I have to try," I say, as I climb the ladder. "I can't just let him go out there alone—"

"I can't let you go alone either," C2 says. She's coming up behind me, into the garage. And she's got a gun?

"C2!"

"It fires tranquillising rounds; non-lethal. I'm ... not inaccurate with it."

"But ... huh?"

"Nearly every day for the last four months I have been ... training. Blackbird Academy offers numerous self-defence courses. I've participated in most of them." C2 half-smiles at the gun in her hand. "In order to become less of a burden to you."

"C2..."

"We should hurry. Motoplasm will already be outside."

There's a side exit in the garage, it takes us to the right side of Motoplasm's base, into a narrow alley. There aren't any gunshots and the smashing of broken glass has stopped, but I hear voices that become clearer as C2 and I head towards the street.

"—think you're doing? This is YOUR damn NEIGHBOURHOOD! You even listening to me, girl?"

Motoplasm's standing in the street, he looks REALLY angry. The gangers aren't exactly pointing their guns at him, but there's so much tension that I feel a little sick. C2's beside me, she's got her gun, she's actually holding it like she knows what she's doing.

"You talking to me about neighbourhood? That ain't what this about, Le-roy. This about respect."

It's a girl who's talking, I didn't even notice her before, she's so much smaller than the guys around her. She's short but broad, with a flat face and wide eyes, her hair in braided beads under a purple bandanna, wearing a black leather jacket over a purple and black striped shirt, black jeans, bright purple sneakers.

"I ain't seen you before," Motoplasm says. "You even from here? What's your name, child?"

The girl makes an infuriatingly arrogant 'tch' noise before replying:

"I'm Little Mercy, and that AIN'T the last time you're gonna hear my name. Now you gonna say something I wanna hear, or are we gonna have to go hard? Where's my money, Leroy? Where's my stuff?"

Her gun's small but I can see the hammer from where I'm standing, if I could get a field on it like The Force did—it wouldn't stop the others from shooting but she's clearly their leader, if she can't shoot...

Motoplasm crosses his arms. "Little Mercy running with the Mercy Killers. Now that ain't no coincidence."

"Nah it ain't," Little Mercy says, as I concentrate on her gun. Control, that's all I need, just control. "These are MY people."

"So what about Momo?"

"What ABOUT Momo?"

My force field is too big, I can see it, it's THERE but it's too big, if she even looks at her gun—and I can't get it smaller, I can't make it smaller without destroying it, how does The Force DO this?

"You saying you're top dog now?" Motoplasm asks.

"I'm saying when I ask you a question you better be answering. Where's my money, Leroy? Where's my stuff?"

Motoplasm smirks. "Don't know what you're—"

Little Mercy raises her hand—her empty hand, and Motoplasm's flying back against his front door, slamming into it with a sickening impact. He doesn't fall, he's held there, she's holding him there—I glance down at my Opal.

Five powers.

Shade, C2, Motoplasm, about two minutes of The Force ... and Little Mercy.

"This?" she says, holding up her gun. "This just for show. This just a distraction."

And then she sees my field, glowing purple against the gun's hammer.

"What the hell—"

I duck back into the alley but too late, a couple of the gangers saw me, they're shouting—I push C2 back then step out and sweep my arm around, gasping as I feel the energy's release, more than a dozen of the approaching gangers are pushed back off their feet but there are dozens behind them, I sweep my arm again, then push my hand towards Little Mercy—but she's pushing her hand towards me. I'm weightless, then I slam against the alley wall, bounce off and sprawl on the concrete ground. I'm pushing myself up before I even slide to a stop, I hear a gunshot and then another and I turn, C2's firing, one of the gangers is down but another has her—then he's off his feet, I don't know how but he's gone and C2's firing again—but then her gun's gone and she's falling—no, she's ... she's...

Held. Halfway through her fall, stopped by some unseen force, I'm running towards her but she's being pulled away, the gangers are staying back but Little Mercy's there, she's pulling C2 towards her, away from me—then C2 falls to the ground as Little Mercy gasps then screams, flinging her arm towards Motoplasm, pulling him away from the door then slamming him back against it. This time she lets him fall, and he slumps to the ground, unmoving. I'm still running to C2 but Little Mercy has her again, jerks her away—except she's not pulling, never pulling, only pushing, I understand now, force blast, that's her power—

"Come here, sweet."

I try to push Mercy down but she's already slamming me back again—I push myself back towards her with a blast from behind but now she's got C2—no, two of her guys do, big men holding her by the arms, and they've both got guns—

"Now just who the hell are you?" Little Mercy asks me, her tone weirdly soft. "One of Leroy's little rats? Nah, because you did what I do. You smart enough not to try nothing? You care about this one?"

My eyes go to C2. She's not struggling. She's just staring down at the ground. But I can see how scared she is.

"Please don't hurt her." I can't help but glance at Motoplasm, I don't know if he's dead or just unconscious. "I'm listening, I'm listening to you. Just tell me what you want."

"Two things." Little Mercy's smiling now. "I want my money, and I want my stuff. You know what I'm talking about. So you run on in and you run on out and we're all gonna be real happy. Hear me?"

"I hear you," I say, but I don't want to do what she says, I CAN'T do what she says, I don't care about the stuff but I can't leave C2, I can't leave Motoplasm—powers. Plasmakinesis, slow her blood, stop her blood, is anyone bleeding? Not that I can see. Her ability, force blast, kinetic waves of aura-energy, blunt but powerful, she's stronger than me, I'm copying five powers, I'm too weak, I can't win against her in a direct fight, and she's got C2, and ... and...

No other option.

"I'm going in now," I say. "Please stay here, please don't do anything, I'm going to get your bags and I'll be out again as soon as I can, okay?"

"So stop talking and start running, Red."

I stop talking, I start running. Motoplasm's not dead, I can see him breathing as I pass, I can feel his blood flowing, but he's out cold, no help right now. The repair shop's a blur, the apartment's a blur, there are the bags, most of the money's out and some of the drugs, I kneel to scoop them in, it's taking too long but she'll know, if it's not all here she'll know and she'll—

"NO!"

Gunshots, yelling, I tear back through the repair shop and out the door but too slow, C2's gone, nothing but a few gangers lying on the road and a man dressed in black watching the gang cars as they tear down the road, and then watching me as I run after them—

"Let go!"

I clutch at the hand around my wrist but the grip's too strong, I can't pull away, I can't get away, he's got me and I can't do anything—

"LET GO DON'T TOUCH ME LET ME GO!"

The man grunts in pain as the blood in his arm stops flowing, looks back at Motoplasm, still unconscious, I wrench my arm free and stagger back, and I thrust both hands at him, send everything I have against him in a force blast—

Which does nothing.

He stares at me. I stare at him. Then he comes for me and I scream and put my arms up defensively and a massive unstable force field explodes into existence, rippling and warping.

"What are you?" the man rasps, his voice low and rough.

"What are YOU?" I can see him through the shield, he's wearing armour, and a helmet with a triangular visor that leaves his mouth and chin uncovered. "You just stopped me from saving my friend! They're gone now, I can't catch them, I don't know where they went!"

"But I do."

"WHAT?"

The man reaches out a gauntleted hand and touches my force shield. It sparks and snaps at him. He nods as if satisfied, then narrows his eyes as he looks at me.

"You can mimic promotions," he states. "Interesting."

Before I can do or say anything I realise The Force is here, he's kneeling beside Motoplasm, a stack of pizza boxes on the ground. He looks up at me and the armoured man.

"What happened here?" he asks. His voice is calm, and yet it makes me shiver.

"They took C2," I say. "And this ... THIS stopped me from—what TOOK you so long to get back? WE NEEDED YOU!"

The Force is checking Motoplasm; he takes him into his strong arms and straightens before replying:

"There were some children picking on a dog. I had to take care of that before returning. It took longer than I expected because I had to get the dog back to its owners and one of the children back to her parents."

"Malcolm, I should check Leroy," the armoured man says. The Force nods.

"What?" I say. "WHAT? You KNOW this ... THIS?"

The armoured man is already walking towards The Force, who still has Motoplasm in his arms. They're going inside. Yes, of COURSE I follow them!

"Why aren't you talking to me?" I demand, as I follow them through the house. "Did you not HEAR me when I told you that those gangers HAVE MY BEST FRIEND?"

"She'll be fine, they still need her," the armoured man says. He glances back at me. "If I hadn't acted, you'd both be dead."

I don't really have any response to that other than outraged silence. How DARE he! That's just ... I don't even know, how can he just SAY that? He can't know!

The Force is laying Motoplasm down on a raised bed thing in the clinic, the armoured man is tapping away at a holo-keyboard that appeared on his left wrist.

"Not damaged, just unconscious," he says. "Nothing to worry about."

The look of relief on The Force's face helps me calm down a little.

"I'm ... I'm glad Motoplasm's okay," I say. "I really am, but we can't—C2 has been TAKEN, do you both realise this?"

"I tagged her before they got her in the car," says the armoured man. "Got Little Mercy too. I know exactly where they are. So do you want to carry on with your little temper tantrum, or do you want to help me retrieve your friend?"

"That ... I ... well before ANYTHING else I want to know WHO YOU ARE!"

The armoured man looks down at the holo-screen on his wrist as he replies:

"You can call me Chass."

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