Chapter Text
Victoria Dallon
"Is he?" Clockblocker asked tentatively as I let Amy stalk closer to the man. It was horrible to see what became of him, his face was a shiny iridescent scream, his face already having been distorted by whatever that thing dumped on him. Amy reached out to touch him, and I almost panicked and told her to stop, but that wouldn't have worked, we needed to see if the civilian was alive, needed to know what to do next.
Amy's hand softly pressed down on the man and almost jumped back when she realized that the blackness was more like Oobleck than it was a solid. Everyone went tense as we waited for the disaster to spiral out of control, for the inky blackness to expand over and claim my sister too, but nothing came of it. Tentatively she pressed her hand back into the murky and darkness and shook her head.
Shit, this was bad. We had a dead civilian on our hands and that was our fault, I think the guilt of what just happened was hitting me harder than the knowledge that both the P.R.T. and my family was going to rake me over the wall for this. This was all my fault; I was the one to blame and-
"Ku ymg'ah'na"
Oh right, this wasn't my fault, it was her fault. I looked for the girl, for the little murderer, she had abandoned her original position between the three of us and was now directly under the beast she summoned. Standing with her arms crossed under the hole as if she was chiding a someone over an improper job, from the way she frowned she didn't seem very amused with the beast.
"Ya ymg'ok"
"Ah Y'nafl'ok"
The beast grumbled in annoyance, but the girl seemed entirely unmoved by the gesture, only tilting her head as if she was watching a child throw a tantrum. The beast continued to make grumbling sounds for some time, and she had the nerve to act annoyed, slowly kicking the back of her foot off the ground as if she was waiting for him to do something else.
"Ymg'ok: ymg'nafl'n'gha ng'phl"
"Y'nafl'ok, Y'ok ymg'nafl'n'gha VRO phl"
Another annoyed grumble before the girl finally broke "Stop being a baby!" he was being a baby? She just killed someone and she was treating it like it was some kind of joke?! I slowly rose to my feet and faced her before looking at Tattletale instead. She must've known what kind of monster she was bringing to the bank right? Attacking the girl while she was talking to the beast was a death sentence, so I chose a better target and readied myself to go all out.
"Glory Girl?" Clockblocker asked nervously behind me, grabbing everyone's attention. Tattletale watched me a moment before her stance shifted, she knew.
"Shit"
"Victoria!" Amy called out from behind me, but I didn't care. I forced myself from my feet and flew in a rage directly at that woman. It was her fault anyways and she got someone killed! Like anyone was going to care if I pressed her and took her down, she deserved it anyways. The girl in black watched my attack, like she could do anything. I just needed to take down one of them, just one villain and everything would be better, for me, for Amy, for Clockblocker for the guy that was killed. At least it would mean something at least he would be ave-
The scream that was released was louder than anything I've ever heard before. I could feel the building shift, but more importantly I could feel myself shift, my body was slowly being stretched out from the vibrations of that scream. I could call it painful but that wouldn't quite cover it, it was more than pain, it was a little like the explosion of taste that came from eating a mandarin, it was so many things at once that even when I tried to scream, I found my voice faltering.
"Phl'og"
The screaming was cut off and I fell to the floor, panting and heaving I tried to force myself to at least my arms and legs but collapsed under my own weight. Amy and Clockblocker rushed to my side and were checking on me but paused. The girl in black appeared briefly and crouched down to look into my eyes, I wanted to swat her hand away, but I felt too weak to do anything, I just let her finish her mini examination before she turned back around and talked to the beast.
"Ahnngh Fa"
"Y'Nafl'Ahnngh"
"Ymg'Nafl'Ahnngh"
"Y'Nafl'Ah, Chha Y'Nafl'Ah"
"Yes, you did!" She shifted the language to English again "I told you specifically not to kill anyone and then you killed someone, I asked you to still him and you didn't! Don't say that you misheard me, the language isn't English it's purer, you knew full well what I wanted in detail! What did you think vro phl meant?!"
"Egn Shug'Chfu, Y'Nafl'Ok, Ymg'Ok Aqlo"
The girl rolled her eyes before straightening her back and glancing at Tattletale, her partner took the hint and turned back around and seemed to be purposefully ignoring what she was saying to the beast. Clockblocker watched the exchange between them before focusing back on me "Hey, are you alright?"
"Yeah, no matter what that bi-"
"Could you all watch your language?" Tattletale suddenly asked, watching the three of us with an amused smirk "I don't want me new teammate picking it up any… 'vulgar' words, it doesn't really fit her, as you can see" Tattletale nodded her head towards the girl in black who was pouting at the giant beast. Even if I wanted to take her down, I could admit that hearing her swear would feel more wrong than the horrific language she was reciting. Wait a minute, why am I agreeing with Tattletale?!
"What's your little freak even doing?!" I bit back, ignoring the deep grumbling coming from the walls at the beast "How's she going to fix this?!"
Tattletale went quiet and looked back to her teammate, who was still engaged in what seemed to be a very spirited discussion with the beast before sighing and running her hand over her head and through her hair "I don't know, honestly if I tried to figure it out I just get a worse headache and she has to help me out of it, it's for the beast I don't dig too deep with her plans."
"Bullshit!" Clockblocker bit back "I mean come one Tattletale, the Undersiders are many things but murderers?! I mean, she's basically an S-Class threat" he gestured hopelessly to the girl as she talked to the beast, clearly ignoring what was going on around her "You can't seriously think she's going to be a benefit to you?"
"She held off the three of you without much of a fuss" Tattletale chided smirking, though it's clear it was a hollow one.
"She also killed someone! Are you just going to let that continue to happen, what happens when the Protectorate learns what happened? What happens when they call up the government? Do you honestly want everyone and their dog coming after you for harbouring an S-Class threat with a kill order?!" Tattletale frowned as she considered what happened and what their future looked like.
Suddenly the girl in Black gave out a great huff "Fine!" she turned and approached us, keeping her eyes trained on me and I could feel my skin crawl. Ignoring Clockblocker and Amy she leaned down and wrote something on my skin before anyone could protest or get in the way.
"Wk'hmr Ya H'chthafh"
At once I felt the pain I was under disappear and the girl shifted a little, did she take my pain and give it to herself "Pick me up" she commanded quietly. Knocking me out of my train of thought and drawing a word of protest from Amy, who was already trying to reach for the quill.
"What?"
The girl was absent mindedly wrestling Amy and Clockblocker without any real effort, pushing the two gently away as they tried to reach for her. Only for the beast to groan and everyone to calm down, Amy was still a hostage, even if it seemed like the girl allowed her to wander around more after what happened. "I need you to pick me up and bring me level to the hole, so I can argue with the him."
"I'm not going to-"
"Do you want me to revive that guy or not?" her words were more forceful, I looked up to the girl and realized that she was just as worried as everyone else about the guy. Granted it was probably to avoid being hunted and killed by the government, but it was concern nevertheless.
"Fine" I forced myself to my feet, the girl offered me her hand, but I refused it and took Amy's and Clockblocker's instead. I followed her to the part of the wall the hole that held the beast was and picked the girl up under her armpits. Now that I got a better view of what was inside of the hole I could feel a tinge of regret, it was deep, unfathomably deep and those distant stars I first saw were eyes that focused entirely on me and then entirely on her.
"Y'ahnngh ymg'psm"
"Y'Nafl'Psm Ymg'Ahnngh"
"Ymg'Nafl'Psm Y'Ahnngh"
"Y'Nafl'Psm Ymg'Ahnngh"
The two continued this back and forth between each other, the sentences barely changing as the two spoke. What were they even saying? I couldn't really understand it but from the way the girl pointed at herself when the words began with Y' and the way she pointed at him when she said Ymg' I guess the two meant "Me" and "You" specifically, but what was she saying? Why weren't the rest of the words changing?
Something in my mind began to panic, was she trying to trick me? Bringing me up here so the beast she summoned could finish me off? Was it all just a ploy? I mean she killed a guy so why wouldn't she take it out on me? I wanted to drop her, to scoop up Amy and get far away from here but before I could the conversation finally shifted.
"Ymg'kof H'tse, Ymg'nafl'ned'og"
The beast roared and charged the opening; I wanted to flee but the girl in my arms grabbed my sleeve to keep me still. She was calm, far too calm and was asking me to trust her as well silently. It was too much to ask and we knew each other too little, but I sighed and took a deep breath, I was going to have to let her deal with this.
What came from the entrance was a moving shadow, it was like it had an exoskeleton made of fluid with hundreds of limbs and spines pointing out. One jagged raptorial was thrown like a lance towards my head but the girl, without hesitation, raised one hand to shield it and the limb was halted, apparently, he couldn't harm the girl. Though it seemed like it wanted to, was it because the two were in league or something to do with the summoning.
"Sta C'tse, ymg'nafl'ahng"
This seemed to have finally annoyed the girl who suddenly reached out and grabbed the limb. Not letting go even as the beast tried to haul it back into the darkness, forcing me into a jerky tug of war between the creature who was unfathomable in every shape and form and the girl in my arms.
"Ia Ia Vithga*, s'uhn ned, vugt-"
"Ha Y'Ahnngh, ymg'psm"
The girl finally tapped me lightly on the shoulder and pointed to the ground "I can revive him now" she told me gently; I was thankful and slowly drifted away from the darkness and down to the ground with the man. Tattletale and Amy were crowded around him, the two discussing what possibly could've done this to someone while Clockblocker was watching the exchange.
She silently ignored everyone's presence and kneeled to the ground next to the person on the floor. She wasted no time and began writing something quickly on his forehead, covering one hand when Amy and Tattletale tried to see what she was writing and giving an annoyed look "What did I say about looking at my writing?" Tattletale at least looked away, Amy didn't acknowledge her, the girl sighed.
"Lw'nafh"
The dark Oobleck that had consumed him began to crack, just one, then three, then five and then hundreds before the man busted out of his new prison. Panting and gagging as he did and looking around in fear, Amy tried to reach him first, but the girl beat her too it, placing both hands on the side of her head and forcing eye contact "Did you see something?! What do you know?!"
The man painted and winced from the shouting before dry retching and finally speaking "I saw nothing! I saw nothing! Please, it was so dark!" he began to sob when the girl let go of him and turned to speak to Tattletale quietly, letting Amy examine him more closely and conclude that he was indeed ok.
"Ok!" she announced quickly to the man "You should be fine but check in with the doctors in about a week." She then quietly turned to her beast and dropped her smile, clearly still being angry as she was before.
"Ymg'bug ph'gnith"
The hole made a horrible crackling sound as it slowly twisted around and into itself. It was like watching a whirlpool close in on itself as the wall returned to normal in a sickening manner until the last thing we heard was the chittering laughter of a being who got to play one last sick joke on us.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Tattletale asked her teammate nervously, the girl shrugged.
"He wasn't doing as I asked, he's more of a danger here than I thought, I'm going to get a lecture from Grue too." It was done to comfort Tattletale, that much was obvious but something in her smile revealed her fear of lecture to be more real than I originally thought.
"So…" Clockblocker interjected, straightening his clothes and taking up a more ready stance "What are we going to do now?"
"Can't let us off with a warning?" Tattletale answered almost immediately, she was expecting this "We did save a life after all."
"One that your little freak took, terrorist fu-"
"Uh, ah, ah! What did I say about swearing?" Tattletale wagged her finger at the three of us in that oh so annoying answer "What would my poor innocent Black think of such, foul language" she covered her teammates ears with her hands like a small child. Black in turn smiled pleasantly.
"Enough, if you don't want to get a kill order than you will hand her over to us so the government can handle it!" I barked at the girls, but Tattletale only topped her chin while she thought in a dramatic matter.
"Trust the American government to take proper care of my friend? Hm… I think… I wasn't born yesterday."
That was that I guess? With no beasts to stop me I launched myself from the ground, throwing myself at the two of them, quickly followed by Clockblocker and Amy. She doesn't have any spells ready and if I can make it to her in time, she won't be able to write any new ones. That was my plan anyways, before I noticed a confident smile on the girl's face and she opened her mouth.
"Fmleth"
The two Undersiders held hands and within an instant the criminals I was charging became Amy instead. I almost squeaked at how quickly I had to hold myself back and come to full stop, nearly knocking my poor sister on the floor. We panickily looked around only to see that the entire room full of hostages shifted around, why? How? It was then I spied the pieces of paper they were holding, it was covered in the same symbol at least thirty times over. Was that part of the plan all along?
"Black" Tattletale began, with a knowing smirk on her mouth "Hit it."
What followed was the rapid repetition of her spell, everyone shifted positions with each other within seconds. People were spending less than a second in the same spot, it was impossible for any of us to catch up with the Undersiders especially since Amy was wrapped up in their vortex. Clockblocker looked at me with a stunned expression before the gears in his mind began to work "They can't move somehow who's frozen with my power, If I can get in there, I can try to limit how much they can change."
I nodded and flew above them as Clockblocker rushed into the crowd reaching out and freezing about three people at once. I cringed at the sight of innocent people getting caught up in this but with how this girl's powers worked I couldn't risk any nasty side effects from continued exposure. It was working, I think, there were less people being shifted around, with more frozen we could isolate Tattletale and her teammate and take the two of them down. Then it was only a matter of Regent, Hellhound and Grue and we'd be good.
"I'm almost out!" Clockblocker insisted in the distance "I'm not sure how many more I can freeze but with this amount it should be eas-" Just then one of the people he froze was moved and the changing stopped. Black and Tattletale stood quietly where the frozen person was, I could see that the frozen people were just moved, not released. What was this girls' powers?!
"Hey Clockblocker" Tattletale began smugly "What's that on your shoulder?"
Panickily, he checked his shoulder where the girl was sitting earlier only to find a glyph on it "Shi-"
"Ya ymg'LLLLL"
He flew from the two of them, bursting out the window and onto the street where he was consumed by Grue's darkness. The two girls immediately continued their change, though notably the civilians had begun to discard their sheets of paper which meant it was more a handful of people changing positions rapidly, one of them still included Amy.
Something wasn't right, the girl snuck a symbol onto Clockblocker, so it made sense why her strategy was to rapidly change, draw him in and make him lower his guard, but why were they still doing it? They had to be running out soon and when that happened, I'd just swoop in and take them down? But they were so sure? Did they have something else? Did they write on something else? On someone else? Oh no.
Amy was finally in the correct position; she looked around confused and finally met my eyes before the girl in Black pointed at my sister. Tattletale rather looked me in the eyes, with a smug smirk in her eyes.
"Ymg'bug'og"
Amy was thrown from her feet and into the air where she exited quickly and picking up speed flew down the road. Shit, shit! What did they do?! I rushed towards the girl in black, to make her bring back Amy, to make her pay for what she did but Tattletale raised a hand that stopped me.
"My friend over here sent her down the road and to Fugly bob's, poor thing is picking up so much speed that when she does reach that corner, she'll probably break something, it was her back that Black here wrote on so probably her spine? Ah but it doesn't matter, you can take us down and let Amy gamble with the injury, I mean, she can just heal herself. Right?" I gritted my teeth as I watched that expression, she was bathing in her victory but there was something more. Anger, bitterness towards me, why? Because I asked her to offer up her teammate on a silver platter?
I bit down my bitterness; there were still heroes here and I needed to put my trust in them while I saved my sister. Even if the Undersiders got away today, there would be someone who caught them and I would gloat my own victory into Tattletale's smug face. I didn't spend long deliberating and rushed out the window after my sister.
Family was more important after all.