Celestial Worm Pt 20 (Patreon)

Part Twenty: Tracking Down Problems

[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Taylor

The guards couldn’t have been expecting them. Or rather, they shouldn’t have been expecting them. But one stepped forward. “Janesha of Mystal?” he asked, the helmet only muffling his tone slightly.

“The one and only,” Janesha replied cockily. “Where’s Tagg? He’s got his dick in a twist about a few inconsequential matters, and I’m here to set the record straight.”

“Really, Janesha,” Danny griped, and Taylor knew it was about her friend’s choice (or lack thereof) of language.

“Colonel Tagg is a busy man.” The guard made the statement as if saying the sky is blue or water is wet. “You’re going to have to make an appointment.”

“He’s the one been blowing up Danny’s phone here trying to make an appointment with me, so I figured I’d save him the time and make it now.” She flicked a hand dismissively. “But if that doesn’t work for him, he can stay ignorant for all I …” She turned to leave, but Danny caught her by the shoulder, and squeezed.

“Just ... let me try something before we go,” he suggested firmly.

Janesha ground her teeth and scowled darkly at the guards. “Fine,” she said, turning back around. “This was your dumb idea anyway.”

Danny stepped forward towards the guard who had spoken before. “Son, do you know who I am?”

“Hebert. Danny Hebert.” The way the guard said it, he was repeating something he’d learned by rote.

“That’s right.” Danny smiled, showing just a few teeth. “I’ve been involved in union business since before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye, and I know bullshit power plays. That’s exactly what this is. If Tagg wanted us to make an appointment, he wouldn’t have been calling me every five minutes for the past half hour. He’s the one who wants to talk to us, and you need to let us go up there right now to give him that opportunity.”

The guard moved back half a step and half-raised his containment foam sprayer. “If you attempt to force your way into the building—”

“Fuck this.” Janesha threw her hands through the crook of Taylor and Danny’s elbows and snapped, “Step.”

At her urging, they stepped forward with her, into the crystalline domain of the celestial realm. When they stepped a second time, they were in a well-appointed office. Behind a large desk sat a rangy man in a military uniform with short-cut hair, going grey over the temples, and a tightly-groomed moustache. He had a phone in hand, but the conversation cut off mid-word as they appeared out of nowhere before him.

Hiii,” Janesha said. “Janesha of Mystal. You wanted to see me. Here I am.”

Tagg slapped a button on his desk, and an alarm began to sound. “Guards!” he bellowed. “Guards!” Apparently believing that the best defense was a good offense, he leaped up from his chair and drew a pistol from a holster at his waist.

Taylor was actually pretty impressed; for someone who’d been taken totally by surprise, his reactions were commendably rapid.

Janesha sighed and stepped backwards towards the door. As boots pounded in the corridor outside, she reached out and laid a hand on the solid wood. A moment later, it became an expanse of riveted steel plate, stretching from one side of the doorframe to the other. The dull thudding from the other side indicated how thick it was.

“On your knees, hands on your heads, or I’ll shoot!” Tagg held the pistol in both hands, but his grip was firm and the barrel was steady.

“Knock yourself out, dickhead. It’d make my day if you bled out and died from a ricochet.”

“Janesha, please,” Danny said, once more attempting to take the lead.

Janesha closed her eyes and ran a tight burst of air through her lips in a blend of a raspberry and a tch. “Fine,” she growled, unhappily. She looked back at Tagg. “Put the gun down before you hurt yourself.”

Taylor watched as Tagg laid the pistol on the desk, as if deciding that he didn’t need it after all. Glaring at each of them in turn, but reserving most of his ire for Janesha, he took a deep breath. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you are all in right now?”

“Oh, I got the memo,” Janesha said, assuringly. “Most of it’s outright fuckin’ bullshit, but rest assured I got the freakin’ memo.”

Danny arched an eyebrow, but Janesha shook his query aside. “I’ll fill you in later, dad,” Taylor whispered.

“Good, so unless you want me to pull out the big guns like the Triumvirate and the Birdcage, I suggest you park it right now, little girl, and start answering a whole lot of questions.” Tagg pointed to the chair opposite his.

“Wait, wait.” Taylor tried to de-escalate matters as Janesha’s chest swelled with rage. “Just in case you hadn’t heard, this is Lady Janesha Nascerdios of Mystal.” It had smoothed things over before, so it was worth trying again, wasn’t it?

“I already knew that.” Tagg was no less hostile than before. “She’s still broken the law. As have all of you, by invading my office and keeping me prisoner here. And you will answer for it.”

“If that’s the deep shit you think I’m in, you’re a kiddy toddler in a wading pool,” Janesha said, rolling her eyes. “If you didn’t want to see us, you shouldn’t have blown up Danny’s phone. But you did, so here we are. And now you want to back-pedal and say we’re invading your office? Make up your realms-damned mind, Tagg.”

Breathing in heavily through his nostrils, Tagg looked at each of them in turn once more. “Very well. Return my door to its natural state and we’ll say no more about it.”

Taylor knew damn well that the second Janesha turned that door back to normal, the room would be filled with PRT guards. Nevertheless, she’d seen Janesha and Scion … Sagun socialising like they were old friends, so hopefully Janesha knew what she was doing when she said,

“See? Reason and rationality are their own reward. You only had to ask.”

“Janesha,” Danny warned, clearly having the same thought process as Taylor.

“Chill, Danny. It’s okay. I’m gonna give Tagg’s door a bit of an upgrade.”

The second the door was reverted to timber, the sound of the handle rattling furiously from the other side filled the room. Then it stopped and was replaced by the heavy whoomphs of people attempting to kick and shoulder it in. Janesha chuckled at their efforts. “The door’s still openable with your key, Tagg, but without it, not even Behemoth has the strength to break it down. You’re welcome.”

That was confirmed when a moment later, a loud thump from outside indicated that the kicker had probably fallen on his ass; Taylor suppressed a snicker.

Janesha turned away from the door, then crossed the room to Tagg’s desk and slapped her hand on it, silencing the alarm. “That was beginning to annoy me.” Dropping her weight into a chair, she lifted her feet and crossed them at the ankle on the corner of the desk. “So, what did you wanna know?” she asked, slumping back in the chair to keep Tagg in view.

Tagg glared down at her. “Get your god-damned feet off my desk!”

Janesha arched her head backwards and continued to look at him. The longer they stared at each other, the softer Janesha’s expression came until she was batting her eyelashes at him. “Lemme hear it …” she said, her grin stretching practically to her ears.

Taylor wondered what was going on. Tagg was turning every colour of red in the spectrum and he leaned forward heavily on his knuckles, swearing furiously under his breath.

His reaction had Janesha grinning all the more. “C’mon, Taggy. It’s entirely up to you. You know what you have to say. How bad do you want them down?”

Tagg dragged his nails across the desktop and fisted them, his lips pinched so tightly together they were almost bloodless. “Please,” he finally spat. It was so low and so filled with poison that Taylor wondered how the veneer had remained intact on the desk.

“There you go,” Janesha dropped her feet to the floor and sat up properly. Her expression became all business. “Now that the tit-for-tat bullshit powerplay is behind us, what exactly do you want to know?”

Tagg continued to glare at her. “How did you remove Shadow Stalker’s powers?”

“With style and panache,” Janesha replied without missing a beat. “Next question?”

He made an impatient gesture. “No, what power did you use to do that? Can you do it to capes at range?”

“Ah, now I see what you’re getting at.” Janesha assumed a beatific expression. “No, I couldn’t do everyone at once, even if I wanted to. One on one, when I choose to, I can invoke the power inherent in me as Lady Janesha Nascerdios of Mystal and reach out and unscrew a power from any one person’s head. But they have to be right in front of me.”

“There is no power inherent in just having a name.” Taylor suspected Tagg was grinding his teeth, but he was pretty good at hiding it.

“Sure there is … or would you prefer to be called Private Tagg?” From the gleam in her eye, Janesha was enjoying the hell out of this. “Or Prisoner Tagg? Think you’d get anywhere near as many salutes that way?”

“They are in no way the same thing!”

“True,” Janesha agreed, as if deciding to throw him a bone. “You can only get pretend power by assuming your name and title. We get the real thing. Anyway, that’s how it’s done.”

“You said ‘we’. Who else is capable of removing powers like you can?”

“Sagun, for starters.”

That had Tagg back in his chair, swivelling to face his computer. “And what’s this Sagun’s last name? Nascerdios?”

Janesha opened her mouth to answer, then frowned thoughtfully and turned to look back at Taylor. “I don’t think Sagun ever told us his last name, did he, petal?”

Taylor went over her perfect memories as well, and shook her head. “I think he was in too big a hurry to torture and murder anyone affiliated with Cauldron.”

Janesha rasberried again. “That boy’s just gettin’ warmed up. Two’s a nice start, but wait’ll he gets his hands on the rest of ’em. Can’t say I blame him though.”

“No, me either,” Taylor agreed. Not that she’d ever had a sibling, let alone a twin, but she could imagine how homicidal she’d go if she had one and what happened to Edeena happened to them.

“I read the file on Shadow Stalker and your young friend here. Be that as it may, why did you remove the powers of so many people today? Surely not all of them were bullying her.” Tagg had gone from dismissive to derisive. “I doubt any of them even knew her. Even the ones in the local Protectorate and Wards, apart from Shadow Stalker.” His eyes flicked to Taylor. “Have you ever even met Gallant, Battery or Triumph?”

“They probably didn’t know Edeena either,” Janesha cut in, which was just as well. Taylor hadn’t realised how many of the essence thieves were heroes from her hometown. “But that didn’t stop them from chomping down on her like she was an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Not one of those bastards was born with their powers. Every one of them was bought and paid for, and you tell me what happens to stolen merchandise once the authorities find out about it? Instead of blubbering about the repossession and sending you in to dog my ass, they should count their lucky stars they’re not being done for being in possession of her essence. The penalty for that one’s normally death all day long.” Looking sideways at Danny, she added, “And I’m not just talking about the specific thief here, either. Black holes are usually involved.”

Taylor saw her father turn an ugly shade of white as he swallowed. The idea gave her a queasy feeling as well.

Janesha refocused on Tagg. “So, I called in the nicest person I knew to deal with this, and she decided since those with the stolen powers didn’t know the whole story, they got to live. As did everyone else on this rock you call home, who had absolutely nothing to do with it.” She looked back at Tagg. “Again, you’re welcome, by the way.”

Tagg stared at her for so long, Taylor began to wonder if he was still alive in there.

“You don’t seriously expect me to believe that, do you?” he finally demanded.

“I don’t give a flying …”

“What exactly do you want from us, Colonel Tagg?” Danny asked, sliding his hand over Janesha’s shoulder, more for Tagg’s sake than hers.

“I want the truth.”

Janesha grinned suddenly. When she spoke next, it was in the gravelly tones of a well-known actor. “You can’t handle the truth!” It was a perfect imitation of the line from that movie.

Taylor started to laugh. She honestly couldn’t help herself. Her father must have thought it was funny too, even if he managed to swallow his amusement and clear his throat a few times.

“Be that as it may,” Tagg growled, clearly getting the reference, but showing no sign of humour. “I need the name of the person you called in. There is a process, and she circumvented it when she unilaterally decided the fate of American citizens...”

“Oh, put a sock in it, Tagg.” Janesha cut him off briskly. “You’re never going to get your hands on her, and trust me, you’re better off not trying.” This time, she looked at Taylor. “Cousin Col's dad aside, her maternal grandfather, who dotes on her like you wouldn’t believe, is the absolute ruler of where Dee comes from,” she said, alluding to exactly how screwed Earth Bet, and a whole lot of other places would be if that particular individual took a personal interest in the place.

Taylor didn’t need it spelled out any further than that. “Yeah, l-l-let’s-let’s not do that, thanks,” she said, suddenly feeling sick at the mere thought of it. Hell on Earth. True Hell on Earth. Oh, no thank you.

“Cousin Columbine is soooo above your paygrade, there aren’t enough zeros in the world to cover that paycheck,” Janesha went on, returning her attention to Tagg.

“Columbine Nascerdios, I assume?”

Janesha laughed. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that, Tagg. Suit yourself, I don’t care. She went home to …”

“I care!” Taylor shouted out, stepping forward to lean on the table, her eyes fixed on her friend. “You promised you wouldn’t destroy our world …”

Janesha patted her friend's hand. “Relax, petal. She’s not here. This is just a copy of her world, remember? Tweedledum here can look till the other eight levels of Hell freeze over. He won’t find her.”

Taylor relaxed and looked back at Tagg, who had his teeth gritted so tightly he was going to have a stroke if he didn’t calm down soon. Perhaps that was what Janesha was pushing for. Taylor certainly couldn’t rule it out.

“And it’s Lady Columbine Nascerdios to you, Tagg. You call her anything else and I’ll rip your throat out and make an artwork out of your internals.”

That for Tagg, seemed the last straw, and he went once more for his weapon sitting on the table. “I’ve heard just about enough … What the hell?”

The reason for the outburst was easy to see. Between one second and the next, without even a burst of light to announce his entrance, Scion had appeared in the office. The gold skinned hero looked around the room, and when his eyes settled on Janesha his relief was palpable. “Janesha, do you have anyone else?” he asked plaintively. “Those two barely knew anything at all.”

Janesha banged her fists into the arms of her chair as she shot to her feet and rounded on him. “You killed them already? What the hell, Sagun? You only had them an hour! Didn’t anyone ever teach you how to torture someone properly?”

“I guess I missed the course on advanced hellish Interrogation Techniques 101,” Scion snapped. “Sue me.” It was then that he took a good look around the room, and when he did, his gaze narrowed dangerously at Tagg. “Any particular reason you’re waving a gun at these good people?”

Tagg looked down at the gun and quickly placed it back on the table.

Scion's gaze shifted back to Janesha. “I really want the rest of those names …” he growled.

“Then you’re gonna have to calm down and make these ones count. There aren’t too many left, you know.”

Scion twisted his lips to one side and looked out the window, away from Janesha. The same way he had when he hadn’t liked what Lady Col was telling him.

“I mean it,” Janesha emphasised, but then she relaxed and added with a shrug, “But, I suppose I can’t ride your ass too hard, since I might’ve lost it at Eidolon too.” With a wry grin, her thumb swung to Taylor and she added, “Though in my defense, she was the one who wanted me to make it quick.”

Both the adult human men gasped at what she implied, and Taylor had never felt more like a bug under a microscope than she did at that moment. Her father’s stare was especially blistering.

Suddenly, the carpet between her boots was the most interesting thing in the room.

So, of course, Scion drew even more attention to her by saying, “Hey, you were on the walkway.”

As Taylor looked up, the golden skinned hero/godling was pointing straight at her, more as an acknowledgement than an accusation.

“Wow, so much for wearing a mask,” Taylor snarked. But then she remembered who she was talking to and nodded meekly.

“Heh, a mask isn’t going to do much to hide someone’s identity from me … whoa, hold the phone.” Scion’s whole demeanour changed as he walked around behind Janesha with his eyes fixed on Taylor. “Niiiice,” he drawled, circling her the way a cattlemen circles livestock. His attention swung back to Janesha. “You gave them Namor upgrades.”

Janesha tched. “If you say so, nerd-boy.”

But Scion wasn’t done. He did the same appraising circle of Danny. “No, I’m serious. This is nice work. But how come you didn’t give them flight?”

“Because they didn’t ask for it … and what makes you think I answer to you anyway? Cheeky prick!”

Scion swivelled on his heel to face Janesha squarely. “For starters, last time I checked, this is my realm. Mine. And everything in it; also mine.” He flicked a finger to encompass Taylor and Danny. “Including them.”

Janesha clenched her fists and threw them into her hips. “And did I, or did I not just get your sister the help she needs, calling in Cousin Col? Hmmm? What’s the control of two mort…er…people in the face of that?”

Scion appeared to lose his bluster. “Yeah, that’s fair,” he said, after a moment of mulling it over. “You can have those two. Just don’t take anyone else.”

Janesha grinned like a kid on Christmas morning and did a little one legged victory wiggle on the spot. Then she sobered and said, “You can keep the rest of ’em, Sagun. I just wanted these two.”

Scion looked at Danny and Taylor curiously, as if trying to figure out why they were so important to her. Without a word, he held out his hand to Danny, who shook it somewhat nervously.

“I-I’m D-Danny Hebert, sir,” Danny stammered.

“Sir, huh. I like the sound of that,” the golden man said, bobbing his head to himself. “Sagun Hawthorne.”

“JUST HOLD ON ONE MOMENT!” Tagg’s bellow shook the office.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Janesha quirked an eyebrow upward, but it was Scion who snapped, “What?”

Tagg had his hands clenched again, and Taylor thought he wanted to pull his hair out by the roots. “What in God’s name is going on here? What is Scion doing in my office? Talking? This is Scion, right? What’s a Namor upgrade? And what was that about Eidolon being dead? Who killed him?” He drew a deep shuddering breath. “WHO ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE?”

Predictably, Janesha took point. “It started with a dirty PRT commander, who led me to Eidolon. Eidolon was secretly controlling the Endbringers to attack your world just to make himself look good, so I killed him. In doing so I neutralised the Endbringers. That Simurgh bitch was personal, so I ripped the fake cow to pieces and stomped her out of existence. Again, you’re welcome for that, too. As for why Sagun’s here …” she turned to the man in question. “It’s because … Sagun?”

Scion—Sagun—whatever—scowled. “I want those names.” He then glanced at Tagg and added, “Scion’s just a name people gave me because I didn’t speak up properly when I talked to that one reporter that time. Depression is a bitch like that, and I couldn’t be bothered correcting everyone. My real name’s Sagun.” He took a second, as if to remember what order the questions had been in. “And a Namor upgrade is—”

“Never mind what a goddamn Namor upgrade is,” Tagg interrupted, his eyes fixed on Janesha. “You … executed … Eidolon? Did you get any proof of what he was supposed to have done? Did you inform the relevant authorities? Did you do anything except take the law into your own hands?”

There was a blur of motion, and suddenly Sagun was standing in front of Tagg, the desk lying in two splintered heaps to the left and right. He reached out and picked Tagg up by the front of his shirt, effortlessly lifting him until his feet dangled above the floor. While Tagg ineffectually struggled and batted at the glowing golden hand, Sagun moved forward until Tagg encountered the window. Without even a gesture on Sagun’s part, the window vanished into vapour, and the golden man held Tagg out the window, over a hundred feet of empty air.

“Listen to me, little man.” Sagun was no longer chatty and friendly. His expression was intense to the point that it was frightening, and Taylor wasn’t even the person who was being dangled out the window. “Do I have your full attention?”

Tagg choked a little and clawed at Sagun’s hand. Predictably, this had zero effect, which was a good thing for the PRT colonel. If he somehow forced Sagun to let him go, what did he think was going to happen next? Taylor wondered absently.

Finally, he seemed to wise up. Still clinging to Sagun’s wrist, he nodded feebly. Sagun tilted his head, and brought him back until the toes of his immaculately shined shoes were just able to get a grip on the window ledge. “Are you going to listen to me?” asked the golden man. “Because I really, really hate repeating myself.”

His hands wrapped around Sagun’s wrist, Tagg nodded again. “Yes,” he rasped. “I’m listening.”

“Good.” Sagun fixed Tagg with a glare even more intense than before. “Janesha does not answer to your puny authority. Eidolon committed many crimes against my people and yours. Crimes that if fairly reported would have seen him tried and convicted to death by any reasonable authority. Janesha found these crimes out and, lest he hurt one more person, she dealt with him swiftly and humanely. So yes, she took the law into her own hands. That was because she was the only person qualified to do so, at that place and time. No court in America could have been trusted to do anything but try to find reasons to acquit him for his crimes; I’m certain of that. She’s above all that, she took it into account … and she did what she had to do. Is that understood?”

For a long, long moment, Tagg met Sagun’s eyes in an attempt at defiance, then finally the human yielded. “Yes,” he muttered. “It’s understood.” He took a deep breath, seeming to gain strength through it. “But what did he do that was so terrible? And what did you mean by ‘my people’?”

“What part of he was controlling the Endbringers did you not understand?”

“I … I just find it really hard to believe.” Tagg spread one hand in a helpless gesture. “I mean, he’s … he was … Eidolon. You may as well expect Alexandria to be committing a crime as well.”

“And that would be the next name on that list you were looking for, big guy,” Janesha said cheerfully, as Sagun brought Tagg back into the office and dropped him unceremoniously on his feet.

The golden man swung to face her. “Alexandria,” he repeated disbelievingly.

Janesha nodded. “She’s also the head of the PRT, which I’m pretty sure is against even their rules. Rebecca Costa-Brown? So, you’ll find her up in the PRT headquarters in Washington DC.”

Tagg’s head also snapped around to stare at her. “You have to be joking,” he whispered. “The Director is …”

“… tall, statuesque, icy, gorgeous, with long black hair and a permanent tan,” Danny completed. “Interestingly enough, that description also fits Alexandria perfectly. Now, I know they’ve been seen together in public appearances together, but body doubles are a thing.” He shrugged. “I would never have picked it either, but I trust Janesha utterly with things like that.”

Janesha buffed her nails on her tunic, then admired them. “Thank you, Danny,” she said warmly. “That means a lot to me, coming from you.” She switched her attention to Tagg. “I found out from a waste of space calling herself Doctor Mother, and confirmed it with the world’s first and only super-powered accountant. The other ones you want are called Contessa, Doormaker and Clairvoyant. There was one other person involved in that group, but I’m not putting him on the list, because those other douchebags hid what they were really doing from him. Seems he was the ethical one of the group, and if he found out what they were doing, he’d have brought the whole organisation down around their ears, or died trying. That gets him the pass.”

“Alexandria, Contessa, Doormaker and Clairvoyant,” he repeated, memorising the names.

“That’s right,” Janesha told him. She turned her attention to Tagg. “So yeah, all those people who lost their powers, should be damned grateful they’re still alive. Because they shouldn’t be. Fruit of the poisonous tree and all that jazz.”

“That’s for an evidence chain.”

“The shoe still fits,” Janesha countered.

Sagun lifted himself into the air. “I trust I’ve made my point adequately,” he stated, his entire body beginning to glow, which apparently meant he was ready to leave. “Anyone who wants to mess with Lady Janesha, or her friends, will have me to contend with. Is that perfectly understood, or would you like me to explain matters more thoroughly? Perhaps in orbit around Jupiter?”

“Try on Titan,” Taylor offered. “The oceans are nice, if a bit monochrome.” She’d dabbled her toes in the freezing liquid the one time she and Janesha had visited, but declined to go for a swim. There was a difference between 'perfectly harmless' and 'perfectly comfortable', and even with her upgrades, she considered three hundred below zero to be pushing the envelope a little.

“I’ve got the point,” Tagg said hastily, straightening his collar. “If I do not leave Janesha of Mystal and her friends alone, you will return. I understand. But you do realise, I’m going to have to follow up on your allegations about Chief Director Costa-Brown,” he said. “And when she asks, I’m going to have to tell her who made those allegations about her.”

“The whistleblower laws …” began Danny.

“She won’t live long enough for that …” Sagun cut in.

Janesha slapped the edge of the table. “What did I tell you about taking your time, you big oaf?”

Sagun smirked at her. “I have three others.” He looked from Danny to Taylor. “Be well.” With as little fanfare as he’d arrived, he vanished again.

“Umm … D-Did he just say he was going to murder my commanding officer?” demanded Tagg, recovering quickly.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” Janesha told him scornfully. “She’s almost as big a criminal as Eidolon was. And according to Harbinger, she made sure the Triumvirate left the Nine alone, on the off-chance that they might come in useful someday. Which reminds me.” She hummed thoughtfully, rubbing at her chin. “Do you guys really need to go home right this second?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Danny advised her. “Remember the reason we came here in the first place?”

“Yeah. I do.” Janesha fixed Tagg with a steely glare. “You have Armsmaster in Master/Stranger quarantine for the crime of not agreeing to rush straight out and arrest me when you ordered him to. Correct?”

“I had valid grounds for taking you into custody,” Tagg from between gritted teeth. “If you had any respect for the rule of law, you would be giving yourself up, right now.”

“If you had any respect for the rule of law, you'd be following due process and arranging for an arrest warrant,” Danny remarked. “Don’t those things really count when it comes to parahumans anymore? Or is it just the teenage ones?”

“No, your first guess was the correct one, Danny.” Janesha wrinkled her nose at Tagg. “When it comes to parahumans and the law, the PRT has a whole toolbox full of exceptions they can pull out of their collective asses to get the result they want. ‘For the purpose of public order and safety’ is a very wide umbrella when it has to be. Plus quite a few that basically boil down to ‘because we want to make an example of someone’. Like that singer, Canary? The trial hasn’t even started yet and it’s already an open secret in some parts of the PRT that it’s a done deal; her feathered ass is going in the Birdcage.” She rolled her eyes. “And don’t get me started on their spin on Kill Orders.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “I’m just going to say, Janesha, you don’t strike me as being all that squeamish about people being summarily executed.”

She blew a small raspberry. “I don’t. But everyone where I come from knows the score. Mess up, annoy the people in power, and you’ll get landed on by a ton of trouble, up to and including death. The bit that’s pissing me of is how for the last few millennia you’ve been fighting and clawing and dying to establish a rule of law that’s supposed to apply to everyone, top to bottom, without fear or favour. Everyone’s supposed to get the chance to defend themselves and nobody’s supposed to be shafted too badly. But this prick and his entire organisation have set it up so if any parahuman puts a foot out of line, absolutely anything can be done to them in the name of public safety, or just because these dickheads feel like it. Like Cousin Cora would say, that’s not fair.”

“Parahumans can be far more dangerous than ordinary humans if they go out of control.” Tagg’s voice was low and deadly. “We have to instil what laws we can in order to make them think twice before lashing out at those around them.”

“Yeah, like the Birdcage, which has no appeal process, so they’ll fight ten times as hard not to be sentenced there,” jeered Janesha. “And did you idiots even think the mechanism of Kill Orders through, or did you just scribble something down and knock off for the day? Anyone can kill someone with a Kill Order, and they’re guaranteed to be able to claim the reward without being arrested for their own crimes. So, we might have some psycho who blows away a dozen false positives before nuking a small town just to get the right guy. He shows up with the proof that the Kill Order recipient is dead. By your rules, you can’t arrest him for outright murdering twenty thousand people just to make one guy dead. And you have to pay him the reward.”

“He would then earn a Kill Order of his own for his crimes—”

“And if he made up a masked identity to claim the reward, because he’s not stupid? Which he then changes out for another masked identity, to go after the next Kill Order?” Janesha shook her head. “You’re encouraging mass murder by masked killers, to prevent more potential mass murder by masked killers. How is this in the least bit a workable plan?”

From the lemon-sucking expression on Tagg’s face, he would dearly have loved to throw a rebuttal into Janesha’s face, but he didn’t seem to have one at that moment.

“Okay, I think you’ve torn down his worldview enough for the moment,” Danny suggested. “Back to Armsmaster?”

“Yeah, Armsmaster.” Janesha was still facing Tagg. “Since Armsmaster hasn’t been Mastered, I’d appreciate it if you let him go about his business.”

Tagg twisted his lip and glowered at Janesha. “As if I’m going to take your word on who’s been Mastered and who hasn’t been.”

Janesha sighed. “Give me your phone,” she ordered.

Without demur, Tagg handed it over.

Holding it up, Janesha asked, “Is this your phone?”

“Of course it is!” snapped Tagg.

“Did I steal it from you?”

“No. I gave it to you.”

“Why?”

Tagg frowned. “Because you asked me to.”

“Told you to,” Janesha corrected him. “Why would you, a ranking PRT officer with a phone presumably stuffed full of secrets, hand said phone over to a teenage cape whom you don’t trust one inch? What possible reason could you have for doing so?”

“I decided it couldn’t hurt,” Tagg declared. “There’s no way you can guess the password, so it’s safe to humour you just this once.”

“Miranda seven one zero four one six, with the ‘I’ in Miranda replaced by a one,” Janesha recited without missing a beat. “Your oldest daughter’s name and your wife’s birthday plus one day, one month and one year.” As she spoke, she tapped it into the phone. “Huh. The PRT logo as a homepage screen. You’re really serious about them.”

Tagg went red and white by turns. “Give me that back right now!” he snapped, lunging at Janesha.

“Sure.” Janesha handed it over again. “Now, the point of this little charade is that if I had Mastered you into releasing Armsmaster from Master/Stranger quarantine at any time, you’d have done it without question. But I didn’t. I’m giving you the choice to do the right thing.”

His chest swelling, Tagg gritted his teeth. “I would not have—”

“Give the order for Armsmaster to be released from Master/Stranger quarantine,” Janesha commanded.

“Certainly,” Tagg said at once. Holding his phone to his ear, he said, “Give me Master/Stranger holding. Immediately.”

“Stop.”

Tagg paused.

“Why are you releasing Armsmaster from Master/Stranger holding?”

“Because you’ve convinced me that he’s not under Master influence,” Tagg said at once.

Janesha let out a tiny sigh. “Fine. Keep going.”

As Tagg spoke on the phone, Janesha turned to Taylor and Danny. “I tried,” she said quietly. “I really tried. There’s no reasoning with the man.”

“What was that bit with his phone?” asked Danny.

“Normally, people can rationalise away a Bender command as something they thought of themselves,” Janesha reminded him. “I thought with the Master protocols the PRT has, he’d maybe recognise the signs of being Mastered in himself. But mortal brains just can’t analyse celestial influence. He kept on editing it out and forcing his brain to come up with reasonable excuses. I could’ve made him put a video of him dancing the can-can on PHO and he would’ve had an explanation for doing it.”

Taylor smirked. “So tempting to ask you to do just that …”

“... but we’re not going to encourage you to abuse your powers,” Danny finished firmly. “Reversing his sanction on Armsmaster, I’m good with, because even though he’s an overbearing, officious ass, I still don’t want to see him turned into something unfortunate because he pushed you too far. Humiliating him for no actual purpose, I’m not good with. And in any case, the moment he reviews the footage from his security cameras, he’s going to be twisting himself in knots trying to figure out exactly why he did those things.”

“Meh,” Janesha said, dismissively.

Tagg ended the call and turned back to Janesha. “I’ve given the order,” he said. “Armsmaster will be cleared from Master/Stranger quarantine in fifteen minutes.”

“Good.” Janesha nodded. “Do you have any idea where we might find the Slaughterhouse Nine? I was thinking I might pay them a visit.”

“The Oregon National Guard clashed with them … barely half an hour ago,” Tagg said, checking his watch. “Unusually for them, they fled instead of attacking. The National Guard commander wasn’t sure why.”

“I think I know why,” Taylor said. When the other three looked at her inquisitively, she shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious? That was about the time Lady Columbine was pulling the powers back into Edeena. If the Nine had one or more members with Cauldron powers, suddenly losing that firepower would shake them badly.”

“Hah, yeah, that fits.” Janesha grinned and offered Taylor a high-five. “Oregon, huh? I wonder …”

“What are you thinking?” asked Danny.

“I’m thinking that it would be a lot easier to cover the ground with Cloudstrike, but she can only take two riders at most.” Janesha twisted her lips to the side. “So we’ll drop you home, go find the bad guys, then come get you when it’s time to kick some ass.”

Tagg cleared his throat. When Taylor looked around, he had an uncomfortable expression on his face.

“Yeah, what is it now?” asked Janesha. “Gonna tell me I’m not cleared to go mop up some unrepentant scum that should’ve been atomised twenty years ago?”

“Not … precisely.” Tagg grimaced. “Even if they’ve been reduced by the power losses, the Nine have a reputation for making it very expensive to attack them. I know you’re both capes. Miss Janesha, but …”

“Lady Janesha.”

Tagg paused. “Lady Janesha, I’ve seen how powerful you are. I would still be remiss in my duties if I failed to urge you to reconsider your decision, or at least be very careful in how you go about it.”

“Huh.” Janesha tilted her head to one side as she looked at Tagg. “Careful there. You might have me thinking you’re a worthwhile human being after all.” She tapped her foot on the floor; Taylor saw her screw the toe down slightly, as though she were grinding out a cigarette butt. Behind Tagg, the pieces of the desk flowed together then rebuilt itself, the computer sitting in the middle and the papers all stacked to one side. “You’re totally welcome.”

Tagg looked around, startled. Before he had a chance to speak, Janesha grabbed Taylor with one hand and Danny with the other. Used to this move by now, Taylor stepped forward with her. Danny was quick off the mark, and did the same on the other side. They went up into the celestial realm, and came out in Danny’s living room.

“So now I wait?” asked Danny, raising one eyebrow. “While my daughter and her altogether-too-powerful best friend go and locate Jack Slash?”

Janesha smirked. “Just powerful enough, Danny Hebert. If you want ridiculous levels of celestial power, you’ve gotta look higher up the pecking order than me. But yeah, that’s about right.”

“You sure you still want in on this, Dad?” Taylor put her arm around her father. “You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to.”

He snorted. “You have to be kidding. I’ve got the same modifications as you, don’t I? You got to go fight the Simurgh. Give me the chance to face off against at least one terrifying monster before we’re done, all right?”

Janesha put her hand on his arm. “You’ve already done that, Danny. Remember?” She nodded to where the tiny statuette of the talot sat on the bookshelf. “Talots are far more dangerous than construct monsters or empowered humans. You have nothing to prove to either of us.”

This time, he let out an aggravated sigh. “I’m not trying to prove a damn thing. I just want to get my licks in before it’s all over. I want the chance to fight something when I’ve got a chance of beating it, instead of just annoying and distracting it.”

Surprising Taylor, Janesha laughed out loud. “Danny Hebert, sometimes you can be so infuriatingly human that I want to scream. But sometimes you’re so Mystallian you may as well have been born there. Certainly we’ll come and get you once we find them.”

<><>

To say that Jack Slash was unhappy would be to perpetrate a massive understatement. He was, by turns, nervous and furious. Scared; never. Any chance of him simply feeling fear had long since been burned away by his long career in delivering fear (sometimes quite briefly) to others. He had gotten used to being the one who danced between the raindrops, who came out on top, who always out-guessed the most dangerous of foes.

But he really, really, really did want to know what had happened to the absent members of the Nine. Shatterbird, not so much. She was, when he came down to it, a one-trick pony, and her one trick had begun to grate on him. But the Siberian had been so very useful. Not only as an instrument of inflicting fear (at which she was almost as good as him) but also keeping his Bonesaw calm and happy, and of course ensuring that any rude attempts at ending his life were futile.

So where had she gone? Who had so adroitly removed her (and Shatterbird) from the board and yet failed to capitalise on their sudden advantage? He hadn’t spotted any capes or even Tinkertech being wielded by the National Guard forces. A frown crossed his face as he recalled Shatterbird’s warning to retreat. What did she see? What did she know? How did she know?

It was a puzzle, a mystery, a conundrum for the ages.

He hated puzzles.

“Mr. Jack?” He looked down at Bonesaw. She appeared just a little lost. Having her adopted mother-figure vanish from under her might have that effect, he supposed.

“What is it, poppet?” He put on his best ‘careless Jack’ attitude. Never let them see you sweat.

“Where’s Siberian?” That was little kids for you. No beating about the bush. Just straight-up ask the difficult questions. He was just glad that she knew enough about human anatomy and biology to make giving her the Talk unnecessary, not to mention redundant. Some things were too horrible for even a ruthless supervillain to face.

“Well, just between you and me, I’m not entirely certain.” He smiled at her, injecting all his dash and verve and vigour into it. “But just so you know, I got along just fine long before she joined the Nine, and until she decides to show up again, we’ll get along just fine without her. ’Cause we’re tough and smart, right?”

Just for a moment, she gave him a look that was entirely too grown-up for his liking, then it morphed into a guileless smile. “Sure we are, Mr Jack!”

As she skipped away to join Burnscar on the other side of their makeshift campsite, he sent a suspicious gaze at her back. It didn’t feel like she was planning anything against him, but he didn’t like even the level of deception he’d just seen.

Then he totally forgot about her, because something flickered at the corner of his sight. He looked around, but there was nothing there. Fortunately for his mental equilibrium, Hatchet Face and Burnscar were also looking at the sky. “Did you see that?” he called out. Without even thinking about it, he took a knife into each hand.

“Just a blur in the sky,” Burnscar said. “Didn’t see anything else.”

“Fast moving, straight line—shit, there it goes again!” Hatchet Face pointed, but by the time his arm straightened, there was nothing to see.

Jack was impressed. Whatever it was had an airspeed so fast it should be leaving sonic booms, but it wasn’t.

“What is it?” asked Burnscar. “Whatever it is, it’s fast.”

“Trouble,” Jack said automatically. It was a safe bet; when you made your living as an S-class threat, anything new and unusual in the area was by definition trouble.

The thing whipped overhead one more time, so fast that he didn’t even have time to bring up his knife to project a cutting-field into the air ahead of it. It was so fast that he started to blink, and it appeared and was gone before he had time to finish the action.

Lifting up both knives, he projected their fields upward so that if the thing overflew them again, it would possibly encounter his blades.

But it didn’t come over again. Instead, something else happened.

“Hey! You!” It was a strange voice, coming from the treeline. He whipped around. Three people stood there; two teenage girls and a tall, skinny adult. The girls were costumed, but the guy was in civvies.

The girl in black with the fluttering cloak folded her arms. “Yeah, you. Jack Slash. I want a word.”

 Part 21