Chapter 13

Cassidy looked back over her shoulder as she thought she had footsteps. She had only been gone an hour but had only made it three blocks away from the UHA headquarters. She half expected one of her handlers to be there, ready to scold her for leaving her room without permission. She lifted one side of her earmuffs up to get a better listen of her surroundings. What she thought she heard as footsteps turned out to be a rhythmic banging somewhere off in the distance. She sighed and fixed her earmuffs back to where they were and began walking down the alley once again.
She was taking side streets and back alleys to help avoid being spotted. She knew that once they realized she was no longer in her room they would send people out to search for her. While she knew that they just wanted her to stay safe, and that bad people would do horrible things if they could get their hands on her. It was this reason why she was doing what she was doing right now. This was her one shot at a normal life. She had heard it so many times over the course of her life. That she was an Alpha Level Hazard waiting to happen. If Omega level was a real classification, she would probably fit into that category with ease.
When she had heard the night before that there was a new Silencer in the city she had resolved to seek him out and get him to lock her abilities. She had only heard a small amount about him but she knew his name was Darius. She figured that would be enough to find him. After all, a Silencer is a big deal! People that can null out other’s abilities tended to create a huge wave in the Meta community. All she would have to do is ask around. Her walking slowed down as she realized something.
“I’m going to have to talk to people…” She mouthed under the scarf she was wearing to help obscure her face.
She took a few breaths to calm herself down. She didn’t have too much experience talking to strangers. She had lived her last seven years in a private room in the UHA. Only ever having contact with her handlers and tutors. Every now and then she would talk to one of the higher-ups. They would sometimes need to rely on her power, using her. At least she thinks that they were using her. Despite being isolated she did have access to television. She began to notice a pattern about a year ago that she seemed to have small inconsistencies in her memory. Cassidy found that right after these ‘memory events’ she would see on the news that some major crisis had been diverted.
At first, she thought it was just some figment of her imagination. But it was occurring too many times to be a coincidence. She had made requests in the past to get a Silencer to lock her ability, and being the UHA they should have been easy to locate one to do it. But the request kept being denied with the excuse that they couldn’t bring in an outsider to meet her, that it was far too dangerous. She now believed that they said no simply because that would mean that they would lose access to her power as well. Maybe she was being selfish, they were using her for the good of the world after all… but she was just so damned tired of it. She just wanted to be an ordinary girl. She wanted to go places, to be able to have friends. Was it not okay for a 13-year-old girl to be selfish?
“… Where am I?” She asked herself in a whisper as she looked around the alley.
“What do we have here?” She heard a soft voice behind her.
Cassidy turned her head to see three men walking down the alley behind her. They were scruffy looking and in their early twenties. As they got closer she could smell that they clearly haven’t bathed in a while.
“Umm… Do you k-know a Darius?” She asked weakly, her voice barely audible through the bundle of cloth wrapped around her face.
“What? We didn’t catch that.” One of the men said as he leaned down to get a closer look at her.
He reached his hand up and attempted to pull her scarf away from her face, but she took a step back in a reflexive motion.
“Whoa… Hey now, we don’t want to hurt you. I just want to see how cute you are.” The man said as he took a step closer.
“I-I’m sorry… I have to be going.” Cassidy said as she turned to walk away.
“Okay…” The man briefly said but then quickly reached out his hand, took a fist full of her hair and pulled her back to him.
Cassidy let out a surprised scream, but it was stifled by her scarf. She felt an arm wrap around her neck, the pressure suddenly making it hard to breathe.
“Go get the van!” The man let out.
“Are you sure she's okay?” One of the men asked as the other ran back down a side alley.
“Female, blond, young… that’s all they asked for.” The man said back.
“I thought they wanted redheads now.” The other man said.
“Did they? I could have sworn they said blond… fuck… uh… screw it, we can dye her hair.” The man said.
Tears began to flow down Cassidy’s face as she listened to them talk about her as if she was some toy. Was she getting kidnapped? What for? It’s not like they knew if her parents had money for a ransom. Hell, they didn’t even know if she had parents.
“You really shouldn’t mess with a girl’s hair!” She heard another girl’s voice yell out.
The two men looked down the alley only to see another young girl. Her rust-colored hair was in a ponytail which reached midway down her back. She was in a red hoodie and jeans and she had fingerless gloves on her hands.
“You her friend?” The man asked.
Cassidy tried to look at the girl, but all she was a blob through her tears.
“H…Help…” She tried to say out the man tightened his arm around her neck.
“She’s a redhead.” The man standing in the back said, looking at the new girl.
“Grab her too.” The other order.
The man nodded and walked around him and Cassidy. He smiled looking at the girl.
“You’re not going to run?” The man asked.
“I only run from things that scare me.” The girl said back and cocked her head.
“Oh? I don’t scare you?” The man asked as he stopped in front of her.
“Unconscious people don’t scare me, no.” She said with a smile.
The man raised his eyebrow before letting out a loud breath of air. His eyes bugged out and he fell to his knees in front of her. He clasped at his stomach before falling over on the ground, vomit spilling from his mouth. Cassidy could feel the grip on her loosen as the man holding her stood there stunned.
“H-Hey! Get back up! She’s not even close enough to touch you!” The man yelled out.
“S-She… She punched… me…” The man said as he gasped on the ground.
“You! Let her go and I won’t castrate you.” The girl said.
“The fuck… What did you do!” The man asked before he tried to tighten his grip on Cassidy again.
“The same thing I’m going to do to you if you don’t let her go.” The girl said back.
The man looked back over his shoulder. He wondered where the hell his buddy was with the van. He should have been here by now.
“We already took care of your friend.” The girl said.
“Who are you working for?” The man asked.
“I work for Madam Justice!” The girl said to him with a smile.
There was a prolonged moment of silence before the man looked at her confused.
“Oh, goddammit…” She said before she balled her hand into a fist and pulled it back.
In the blink of an eye, her fist was outstretched in front of her. A small wisp of smoke arose from her gloves. Cassidy heard a wet thud and felt the arm around her loosen and release her. She took a step forward before she went down to her knees and began to gasp for air.
“You alright?” The girl asked walking up to her.
“Haaa…Haa… What?” She said looking back behind her at the man laying on the ground.
His of his teeth were missing and blood was flowing freely from his nostrils. Cassidy blinked back as she turned back around to see the other man getting up and trying with all his might to run away.
‘Umm…” Cassidy said as her gaze pointed the other girl where to look.
The girl looked back over her shoulder and then turned quickly. She swept one of her feet in a horizontal ark along the ground, smoke suddenly engulfed her ankle. Cassidy watched as the man’s legs seemed to be pulled out from underneath him. Landing hard on his side, he let out a small yell of pain. Cassidy looked up to the girl in awe. She was so badass!
“Are you a Meta?” She asked.
“Hmm? Uh yeah… You okay?” She asked as reached her hand out to her.
“Y-Yeah… I think so. My neck hurts a little but I think I’m fine… Thank you so much!” She said to her, taking her hand and getting back up onto her feet.
“… Why are you wearing a… nevermind… uh… “ The girl said just now noticing Cassidy’s winter attire.
“You should go home, It isn’t safe on the streets right now.” The girl said to her as they began to hear voices coming down the alley.
“Oh no! Are there more of them?” Cassidy asked as she quickly hid behind the girl.
“N-No… Those are my friends…” She said as a group of teenagers began to gather around the man that had been tripped.
“Yo! Cat! Everything alright here?” A taller boy asked out.
“Yeah, this was easy. What about the van guy?” The girl asked.
“Bastard got away…” He said weakly and braced for impact.
Cassidy blinked and looked at the girl. She could see a look of anger on her face. The girl walked up to the group in a hurry and began to shout.
“What do you mean he got away?! There were four of you! I took out two guys by myself!” She berated them.
“Calm down! You know none of us are as strong as you.” The boy said.
“I repeat… There are four of you…” She said to him, raising a hand with the same number of fingers displayed.
“He had a van!” One of the other boys said out.
“Yeah and Lang is our tank! You were supposed to anchor the van in place!” She said turning to the tall boy again.
“The guy bolted the moment he saw us. I didn’t have a chance to get close to his van… It doesn’t matter anyway. We can question this guy.” He said.
“Umm…” Cassidy said out nervously.
“What!?” Cat asked loudly as she looked back at her, causing Cassidy to jump back slightly.
“Uh, shit… Sorry… What is it?” She asked again with a sigh.
“I’m sorry but… D-Do you know of a Darius?” She asked.
“Who?” She asked back.
“Cat, who is this?” The boy named Lang asked pointing to Cassidy.
“I don’t know, they were in the middle of kidnapping her.” She said.
“Oh?” He asked and looked down and kicked the man on his back.
The man let out a cry and then began to curse at them.
“Y-You kids are so fucking dead! Ahhh… You don’t know who your fucking messing with!” The man spat as he clasped his shoulder that seemed to be dislocated.
“Then could you please tell us who we are fucking with? What is your boss’ name? Where can we find him?” Lang asked and kneeled down to the guy.
Cat watched for a moment but then looked over to Cassidy. She was watching as the four boys gathered around the man. Cassidy noticed Cat watching her and met her gaze. Cat turned back to Lang.
“I’ll leave the interrogation to you.” She said and walked over to Cassidy.
Lang gave her a nod and turned his attention back to the man. Cat walked over and took Cassidy by her hand and lead her down another alley. Cassidy looked back over her shoulder until she could no longer see the group.
“W-What are they going to do to him?” Cassidy asked.
“Don’t think about it. What’s your name?” Cat asked.
“Oh, It’s Cassidy.” She replied.
“Okay Cassidy, I’m Catalina. Where do you live? I’ll walk you home.” Cat said to her trying to smile.
“Uh… Well, I can’t really go back home right now…” She said.
“It’s too dangerous to be walking out in the open like this. The city is a shit hole right now. You need to go home a stay there.” She said to her.
“I need to find someone.” Cassidy said back.
“That Darius person you were asking about? Who is that? You dad or something?” Cat asked.
“N-No… Nothing like that. He’s… Umm… It’s sort of a secret.” Cassidy said looking down a bit.
“Oh! Boyfriend?” Cat asked nodding her head.
“What?! No! Absolutely nothing like that!” Cassidy said shaking her hands out in front of her in denial.
“Oh, uhh… Do you have any idea where he is?” She asked.
“N-No… None whatsoever…” Cassidy said.
“So… Wait… Were you planning just to walk around and hope you bump into him?” Cat asked.
“I also plan on asking people…” She said knowing that it wasn’t much of a plan at all.
Cat sighed and tilted her head up.
“Look… I can’t just let you walk around like this. I’ll just take you home to your parents. Alright?” She asked.
“My… I don’t have any.” Cassidy told her.
“O-Oh… Sorry, did you lose them during the Invasion?” She asked with a delicacy in her voice that Cassidy had not heard from her before.
“No, It was long before. Don’t worry about it, you didn’t hurt my feelings or anything.” Cassidy said to her.
“Mmm… Still, Sorry… Uh… Do you have any guardians to go back too?” Cat asked.
“Well… Yeah, but I can’t… If I go back they won’t let me out. I need to find Darius at all costs.” She said to her.
Cat looked her over and sighed again. She turned around and scratched her head as she thought for a moment. She then shook her head a little, grimacing at the feel of her hair. It had been over a week since her last shower and she could feel her hair weighed down with dirt and sweat. She looked back at Cassidy and blinked. She hadn’t really given it much thought but she was clean. Her skin was unblemished and her hair was radiant. Cat walked closer to her and leaned her face towards her.
“W-Wha-”
“You smell like coconuts…” Cat said to her.
“O-Oh… That’s my conditioner.” She said.
“Your place has running water?” Cat asked, her eyes wide.
“Yeah?…” Cassidy said.
“…And electricity?”
“Yes, why?” She asked.
“Nothing… Listen, since your so dead set on not going home... how about you stay with us till you find this guy you’re looking for?” She asked.
“Are you sure!? That would be great! Truth be told, I don’t really know my way around the city much. So being with you would be great.” Cassidy said.
Cat nodded. She had no idea who this Darius person was but had to be incredibly important to her to leave the security of electricity and running water behind. Cat looked her over once more and blinked looking at her shoulder. A pulpy, bloody half of a tooth was casually laying on her scarf. It must have landed on her when she laid out the man that was holding her hostage. She coughed a bit and looked back at Cassidy.
“So… I guess we should be-” She said as she stepped closer to her to place her hand on her shoulder to turn her around, and to secretly flick it off.
“Hey!” They both heard coming up the alleyway.
Cat stopped and looked up to see Lang and the others walking towards them.
“What? Did he talk?” Cat asked.
“Kinda… Those guys are pretty low down on the ladder. They hand people over to some other guys under the South Street Overpass. They don’t know where they take them from there.” Lang said.
“It’s a precautionary measure so if they get caught, they can’t get their minds read to reveal the location of their actual hideout. They apparently don’t even know who they hand them off to. They wear masks and refer to themselves as days of the week… Mr. Friday, Mr. Monday and stuff like that.” One of the other boys said.
“But… Who do they work for?” Cat asked.
“They don’t know… That whole ‘Do you know who we work for!?’ act was just that… an act… You got a tooth on your shoulder…” Lang said pointing to Cassidy.
“Huh?” She asked completely lost in what they were talking about.
“Your shoulder… Here.” Lang said as he flicked it off for her.
“Oh… Ewww!” Cassidy said as she shaking off the rest of her clothes to make sure nothing else was on her.
“… S-So…” Cat said while looking at her freaking out a bit.
“So… we have a lead at least. South Street. This isn’t the only group they have hunting the city. We scope out South Street next and wait for a deal to go down and then try to get more info.” Lang said to her.
“Ummm… What’s going on?” Cassidy asked as she calmed down a bit after feeling confident that no other body pieces were on her.
“Sorry, Who are you?” Lang asked looking at Cassidy.
“Oh! My name is Cassidy Widdle! It’s nice to meet you!” She said with a smile.
Lang looked at her and then glanced over at Cat.
“She’s coming with us back to base. She can’t return home right now for some reason.” Cat said.
“What reason?” Lang asked.
“I have to find someone named Darius.” She said to him.
“… You know it’s really dangerous out, right? If you have a home to go back to, you need too.” He told her.
“I-I Have to find this man… It’s a matter of life and death to me.” She said.
Lang looked into her eyes, and after a few moments, he sighed. He threw his hands up and looked to Cat.
“She’s your responsibility.” Lang said.
“Yeah, okay.” Cat said sighing herself.
“I-I can take care of myself.” Cassidy said.
“Whatever… To answer your early question, we are tracking down some people that were kidnapped.” Lang said to her.
“Oh! That’s horrible! Are the kidnappers asking for money or something?” She asked.
“… No… “ Lang said and walked past her.
“Let’s go back to base.” He said to the rest.
“… Does he not like me? Did I do or say something wrong?” She asked Cat.
“It’s not that, Lang is sort of our leader. He’s just stressed out.” Cat said as they followed a little behind the group.
“Did… Did someone close to him get kidnapped?” She asked.
“… His little sister.” Cat whispered.
“Oh no…” Cassidy said covering her mouth.
“W-Why not go to the Heroes Association or the Police for help?” She asked.
“Because they don’t give a shit!” Lang shouted back, having clearly overhearing them.
“Besides… Not like the Police are a thing anymore.” One of the other boys said as he pulled out a dart from his pocket.
He took aim at the empty soda can further down the alley and then quickly swung his arm down and then back up, tossing it high into the sky. Cassidy watched as a few seconds later it landed, hitting the can dead on. She blinked and then processed what the boy said.
“What do you mean? The police are gone?” She asked.
“They shut down. That news should have spread throughout the city. Have you been living under a rock?” The boy asked as he bent down and grabbed the dart when he got close to it.
“N-No… What about the Association? There is no way they would ignore kids being kidnapped!” She said.
“Cassidy…” Cat said looking over at her.
“No need to be so defensive…” The boy said.
“I-I’m not being defensive!” She said.
“We already went to them… They said they will look into it, and for us to go home.” Lang said.
“The Heroes are stretched thin around the city just trying to stop looting and riots.” Cat said.
“We are on our own right now. If we can find out where they are being held we can go back to the Association for help but for right now we have to do all the investigative work.” Lang added.
“Why are they even kidnapping people if they don’t want a ransom?” Cassidy asked.
The group was silent for a few moments.
“… Because there are a lot of sick fuckers out there and let’s leave it at that.” Lang said.
Cassidy’s eyes widened a bit in realizing what he meant. Cat looked back at her when she saw that she stopped walking.
“Cassidy?” She asked.
The others stopped and looked back at her as well.
“I’m sorry… I-I didn’t… “ She said to Lang as tears began to form in her eyes.
Lang looked back at her and sighed.
“It’s fine. You were just asking a question. I know you didn’t mean any harm by it.” He said to her.
“But…” She said as Cat walked up to her and placed her hand on her shoulder.
“Come on, our base is just a few blocks away.” She said to her and took her hand and got her walking again.
Ten minutes later they had made it back to the ‘Base’. It was the boarded up ruins of an apartment building. Cat walked up to a large beam blocking a doorway and took a deep breath. She began to lift it with a little bit of strain on her face as she motioned with her head for everyone to go. They all quickly made their way under the beam and when they got to the other side the all the boys braced the beam with their shoulders and let Cat walk in as well. As they counted to three the let go of the beam and fell back down into place with a loud thud.
“You’re strong!” Cassidy said to Cat.
“Heh, Yeah. One of my two ability is enhanced strength.” Cat said to her as they walked the dark hallways of the building and came to the stairwell.
“And your other is... Like some sort of telekinesis right? You can hit people from across the room?” Cassidy asked as they descended towards the basement.
“Nope. No one ever guesses it right…” She said with a sigh.
“Can you blame them?” The dart boy commented as they walked up to the large iron door of the building bomb shelter.
“Then what is it?” Cassidy asked getting more excited.
Cat rapped on the large steel door four times.
“The Association calls it ‘Active Kinetic Energy Translocation’… Fancy way of saying I can throw punches…” Cat said as they heard five loud bangs on the door that caused Cassidy to jump.
“O-Oh… Translocation?” She asked.
“It’s like Teleportation but you don’t really go anywhere… I don’t like the sterile naming system the UHA uses. I like to call it ‘Ki Blasts’.” She said as she took a step back and put her hands to her side.
She took a deep, dramatic breath and then shoved both of her hands in front of her. Her palms pointed toward the door. A loud bang hit the door and the smell of ozone filled the hall. A small waft of smoky mist began to dissipate from her hands. Cat smiled a bit as the door began to open.
“Did you just do a Kamehameha?” Cassidy asked clapping her hands with a smile on her face.
The entire group looked back at her.
“Y-You know Dragon Ball?” Cat asked a bit shocked.
“Of course… why?” She asked.
“You don’t seem like the type of person that would… know what it is.” Lang said.
“I don’t get to go out much so I watch a lot of movies and TV shows, I also play a lot of games.” She said.
They looked back at the door as it opened completely. A young girl that had to be only 9 or 10 years old stood there. She had her finger on her lips to tell them to be quiet. Cat gulped as that could only mean one thing.
“How many times have I told you not to use your power on the door you stupid piece of cat shit!” They all heard yelled from inside the shelter.
“S-Sorry…” Cat said as they entered.
The shelter was lit with candles and battery powered lanterns. It was pretty basic, just one large room the width and length of the building with concrete pillars to support the floors above. Cassidy took a head count and could see that there were about 25 kids here, all with ages ranging from as low as 5 to 18. She followed the group as they walked over to a mattress with a girl laying down on it. She had two blood-stained tissues in her nostrils and a damp cloth covering her eyes.
“It’s like the inside of a bell in here. The harder you hit the door, the louder it reverberates… Dumbass…” She said as she lifted one side of the cloth up to look at them.
“Who is this?” She asked.
“This is Cassidy. She will be staying with us for now.” Lang said.
The girl sighed and lowered the cloth with a clearly annoyed expression on her face.
“It’s hard enough feeding everyone here as it is.” She said.
“… Gwen, why is your nose bleeding again?” He asked.
“Why do you think?” She spat.
“I thought we agreed that you would only use your ability till you started to feel a headache and then stop for the day.” Lang said.
“Stop nagging me…” She said.
“You can die if you use it too much!” He yelled at her, the entire room falling silent and looking over at them.
“I know my fucking limits!” She yelled back and sat up, the cloth on her face falling to the ground to show one of her eyes was suffering from a broken blood vessel.
She immediately fell back into the bed and breathed heavily as the sudden movement didn’t do her migraine any favors.
“Hey!… How many times did you do it?” Lang asked.
“… Seven.” She said.
“Seven!… Goddamnit… Just… Just get some sleep.” He said to her and picked up the cloth and rewet it with a bottle of water that was next to the bed.
“What is going on?” Cassidy whispered to Cat.
Cat motioned to the rest of the group and the walked away from the two.
“That's Gwendolyn. She and Lang are a couple.” Cat said.
“Oh… And she is a Metahuman too?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah, we have about 31 people here and 6 of us are Metahuman.” Cat said to her.
“Oh!? So you, Lang, and Gwendolyn…” Cassidy said
“Me!” The dart boy said and waved his hand at her.
“…Sorry… What was your name again?” Cassidy asked tilting her head.
“I-I never gave you it… I’m Dale. This is Joe and that is Trilby.” He said motioning to the other boys in the group.
“Oh! Sorry… I barely noticed you two.” She said.
“It’s okay… We don’t talk much.” Trilby said.
“Still… Sorry.” She said to them.
Cat turned away from the group as she desperately tried not to laugh at the boys.
“Anyway. You know Cat’s ability. My ability is ‘Active Trajectory Manipulation’.” Dale said to her while doing air quotes with his fingers.
“So you can like alter the way things move? Oh! When you used the dart in the alley!” Cassidy said.
“Yep.” Dale said proudly.
“What are both of your abilities?” She asked looking at Joe and Trilby.
Cat began to laugh louder.
“We don’t have any.” Trilby said with a smile.
“Oh… Sorry, I just assumed… Sorry.” Cassidy said to them.
“It’s fine.” Trilby said as Joe waved his hand to tell her it wasn’t bothering him.
“Anyway, Lang can touch something and it will stay in place. Like completely unmoving. He can use is power on a piece of paper and it will hang in the air. You can then take a sledgehammer to it and not even faze it!” Dale said.
“Wow!” Cassidy exclaimed.
“Gwen over there really good at taking tests!” Dale said.
“What?” Cassidy asked.
“Ha… Haaaa… No… Ahem… Gwendolyn can, when giving multiple choices to a question, find the best answer every time. But she gets all messed up if she uses it too much, too quickly.” Cat said wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
“Why was she using it for now?” Cassidy asked looking back at the two.
She could see Lang leaning in close to her whispering things. Gwen was just smiling and nodding her head a little. Cassidy smiled seeing who cute they were together.
“Over there.” Cat said and pointed to a wall.
Cassidy looked over to see a city map. It was a fairly detailed one that showed individual buildings. She could see a number of them crossed out with a marker.
“She has been trying to find out where those assholes are hiding everyone. But with the sheer size of the city… It’s just taking too long. So she has been pushing herself harder. That’s why we are trying to find information to narrow the search area down.” Cat said.
“Wow. She is pretty amazing.” Cassidy said.
“Yeah, I just wish she didn’t have mini-aneurysms when she used her power. It would quicken things up.” Dale said and then froze when she glanced at the look of horror on Cassidy’s face.
She had let her guard down. Cassidy quickly raised her hands to her ears but it was too late and tried to cover her mouth. She could feel the pain building in her lungs. As if she was exhaling powdered glass she yelled.
“W-Wish Denied!”