Summus Proelium

Moments after that call with Casura, I was on my way, paint-sprinting across the rooftops as quickly as I could move. I had to make up for the precious seconds I'd wasted on the phone with that evil bitch. Not for the first time, I silently thanked the Touched-Tech that kept large parts of the city relatively cool, because there was no way I could've run like this in the one hundred and six degree heat that was actually happening. I would've taken one step in these coveralls and found an all-new way to melt without using any power at all. And it would've been a blessing.

Of course, I also attracted attention. People who lived around here may have been accustomed to their own Touched, but I was something new. Not to mention all the tourists. I kept getting people waving at me, calling out to me, taking pictures of me, and just generally trying to get my attention. What I really wanted to do was ignore them. This was too important, Paige and the others were too important to waste time with all this. But by the same token, I sort of had a reputation by this point, and if I deviated from that too much, people would realize something was wrong. Then I'd never be able to do what I needed to. As worried as I was about the others, as terrified as I might've been that Casura would just decide to amuse herself a bit too much, I had to pretend everything was fine. Which meant posing for pictures, joking around with these people, and just… basically wasting even more time that I absolutely did not want to waste.

Fortunately, I was already close to where I was going. Right down the street, really. So it didn't take that long before I got through all of that and continued on my way. Obviously, I didn't want anyone to know exactly where I was going, so I took a bit of a roundabout path instead of going straight across the street, and did the best I could to make sure I didn't have people following or watching. I used my teleportation paint to move over the last couple rooftops, staying in the middle so it wouldn't be easy to see where I was or where I was going. Plus, I didn't really want to have to play up for an audience again.

Finally, I landed on top of my target building. From there, after making sure it looked clear, I used my pink liquid puddle form to slip under the crack in the roof access door, avoiding all the cameras and such on my way down the stairs. It wasn't that hard to find the room I wanted, just by carefully slipping under every door along the way and checking the contents of each one until I got to the right place, the room with the right name on things. It would've been harder if my target wasn't so important, warranting a better room than most would get. So it was within the top couple floors. Skipping past the ones I knew were too good, it only took me fifteen minutes.

From there, I waited. It took almost another thirty minutes of standing around this place trying very hard not to lose my mind from anxiety before I heard approaching footsteps followed by the beep of the door unlocking. Quickly, I painted my way up to the ceiling of the room and crouched upside down as the figure below came in. I was silent and motionless while they closed the door after them, until it clicked and gave another soft beep to indicate that it was locked once more.

Now that I was certain they were alone, I pointed, sending a shot of black paint that hit the person in the back of the head. They gave a silent yelp, hand moving to touch the paint in obvious confusion. Their other hand was grabbing for their phone reflexively. But I was already dropping, landing right next to the person while activating the purple paint along my arms so I could yank them off the floor, twist around, and throw them. The phone tumbled from their hand to bounce along the floor. Meanwhile, before they knew what was happening, the person was sent crashing through a desk in the corner of this fancy hotel room. It might've been too loud in this space, but just before they hit, I sent a shot of black ahead to silence that thing as well.

I was right there a second later, using green speed to grab them again so I could bodily throw them back the other way. They slammed into the side of the plush couch there, before I used a shot of red on their ankle to yank them off it. As they fell hard on the floor and were dragged back over to me, I finally cancelled the red paint and put my foot down firmly on their stomach.

They were lying on their back, staring up at me in total shock as I stood over them like that. My expression might've been unreadable through the helmet, but I was pretty sure they had a basic idea of how angry I was. If they didn't, they had to be even more dumb than I already thought.

"Hey, Nqobile," I started flatly. "You know, seeing you at the arena was so fun, but we really didn't get much of a chance to bond. So, I think you and I need to have a little talk, one on one."

To say that Nqobile was confused was a bit of an understatement. She was lying there on her back on that plush, fancy carpet with my foot on her stomach, gazing up at me in complete and utter bewilderment. Which was pretty fair, given how much I had just ambushed the woman completely, as far as she would be concerned, out of nowhere. She had just come back to her hotel to unwind or clean up or whatever in between matches, a thing I had read about her tending to do while researching her on social media (the same place where I'd found out what hotel she was staying in), and now I of all people had suddenly attacked her in her own room.

Yeah, no wonder she looked completely lost right then, especially given I'd used my paint enough for her to be certain it was either really me or someone who was a really good imitation.

That ten second silence from the black paint hadn't worn off yet, and I didn't feel like canceling it early. Yes, I needed her to answer some questions, but honestly I was just too angry about everything to actually want to hear her voice immediately. Besides, I needed to lay out some things so she wouldn't waste all of our time trying to lie or deny shit. I really wasn't sure how I might have reacted to that while I was in this state of mind. It wouldn't have been very pretty.

So, I went ahead and hit her with another shot of black to refresh it. I felt her start trying to squirm out from under me to sit up, and immediately pushed harder with my foot to put a stop to that while snapping, "You should probably believe me when I say, you really don't want to give me a reason to decide to act on my feelings right now. Feelings about who you're working with."

Yeah, that one definitely got her attention. She completely froze, mouth opening and shutting a couple times. Maybe she was trying to say something past the paint, I wasn't sure. And I didn't care either. All that mattered was that she was definitely paying attention now. There was real fear in her eyes, and it only took me a second to understand that she wasn't really afraid of me personally, or of me going to the authorities. No, she was clearly absolutely terrified of how Casura was going to react if she found out that someone else knew what they were doing.

"I'm not gonna tell anybody, not yet anyway," I informed her while valiantly resisting the urge to mix in a lot of curse words. "I can't. Not with her out there." That was what I had called Casura about. Well, all of this really. I'd had to ask her if it was okay for me to talk to Nqobile and her partner, since they obviously already knew what she was up to. It was kind of an edge case, since she had initially told me I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone about her or what she was doing, but that was obviously intended to stop me from getting help from my friends or the authorities or whatever. I wouldn't be telling these guys anything new about Casura being here or her plan. But still, it was dangerous enough that I'd had to call to make sure. No way in hell would I risk Paige's life, or any of the others, on that sort of assumption. I wasn't that dumb.

But now I had been told it was fine. Talking to her, or just talking at her, or throwing her around a little bit, wouldn't break the rules. Honestly, on that last part, I wasn't quite as out of control as I had started to show myself as. Oh, I was definitely enjoying acting out just a little bit of the violence I had been imagining ever since I found out how much danger the others were in. But this was also about making her believe I was actually capable of being even more violent if she gave me any reason to be. Obviously, I couldn't actually make her as afraid of me as she was of Casura, but I needed to at least try to stop the woman from seeing me as a total pushover joke.

I wasn't sure how well it worked, but at the very least, the woman didn't immediately laugh at me. I seemed to have rattled her pretty thoroughly, and it was taking her a minute to try to collect herself enough to actually respond. I saw her taking a few deep breaths, and belatedly realized that it wasn't really me who had freaked her out so much. Seriously, she had just been talking about potentially betraying Casura, and now she came into her private hotel room only to be hit from behind and thrown around the place. No wonder she was so fucking terrified and had to take a minute here before actually being able to respond. When I thought about it that way, it was kind of lucky that she hadn't just straight up had a heart attack as soon as I grabbed her.

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Once the woman had taken a minute to process and realized that she wasn't either about to die horribly or be arrested, she exhaled slowly once more, then gave a shaky laugh. "Whew, right, you had me a little scared for a minute there, kid. I thought you were her." There was another brief pause before she realized, "Wait a second, is that what was going on back in that match? Is that why you were so motivated, because she promised to kill you or something if you don't win those rings?" Her smile right then was that of a person who thought she had the key bit of information to save her own skin. "I think there's something you might want to know about that."

It took everything in me not to throw her across the room again. I had to firmly remind myself that she wasn't the real problem here. She was just an opportunist, not the person I was really pissed off at. And acting out against her wasn't just wrong, it also wouldn't accomplish anything.

Still, I couldn't help but express a little of my anger by red-painting a nearby lamp, giving it a shot of black to avoid drawing any attention then throwing it at the floor near her. It may have been silent, but I still made my point as the base shattered and sent pieces flying in every direction. She went quiet, staring at me uncomprehendingly. I pointed at her, forcing the words out despite the sheer, frankly frightening amount of rage I could feel struggling to boil over. "She said I'm allowed to try to stop her. But I can't involve anyone who doesn't already know what's going on. Guess what, you do. Which means congratulations, you've been drafted. You're gonna help me stop her."

For a few seconds, she just stared at me from that prone position. Then the woman laughed again. She practically guffawed right in my face, which really wasn't helping that whole nearly overwhelming anger thing I was still trying to keep under control. Then her head shook. "Look, I don't know who told you that you were more intimidating than her, but they were lying. Just like you're lying to yourself if you think you can convince me to do anything that might annoy her."

I didn't throw anything else. Instead I dropped next to her, kneeling right there so I could press two fingers against her forehead. "Oh, but you're already doing something to piss her off a hell of a lot more than she would be if you do what I say," I pointed out in a low, smooth tone while watching her confusion and anxiety mount in those eyes. "See, she wants me to try to stop her. This whole thing is just some game for her. A test, a challenge, whatever. She's having fun with it. Point is, she wants me to do everything I can to foil her nasty plans, as long as I don't pull in anyone who isn't already involved." My fingers pressed a bit more firmly against her head. "But something tells me she didn't ask you to go behind her back and start planning out how to betray her, huh?"

As she flinched, I gave an exaggerated nod. "Oh yeah, I know all about that. I know about the guy you want to have take a look at that extra ring you borrowed. A ring I have, by the way." Her eyes widened and she started to say something, but I interrupted. "No, I wasn't a stupid enough to take it out of the arena and lead the authorities here. It's somewhere safe. Just not in the safe." With that said, I carefully held her chin to make sure she was meeting my gaze as much as she could through the visor. "Which means you and I are going to take that Tech friend of yours in there so they can look at the ring and see what they can do to stop her plan, or at least sabotage it as much as possible. Once they see what they can do, I'll go from there. I mean, we'll go from there."

Nqobile waited a moment as though making sure I wasn't going to say anything else then asked quietly, "And what's in it for me if I do that? I mean, I'm being offered a hell of a lot of money and power by her. Not to mention that part where pissing her off is probably going to go pretty badly for me. I need some assurances from you. Monetary ones and law-enforcement ones. The sort of promises where I get to leave safely and with a hell of a lot of money, and you don't help anyone find me." She had the nerve in that moment to smile at me, the look and her words seriously trying my decision not to punch her. "I can be very helpful if I'm sufficiently motivated."

After staring at her briefly, I took my phone from my pocket and held it up. "You want to know what's in it for you? Fine, I'll tell you. If you don't agree to help me right now, and do everything in your power to make sure she doesn't get away with this, I will call her. I've got her number right there, see? I will press that send button and I will tell her what you've been up to. Maybe, just maybe showing you how displeased she is could distract her long enough for me to do something useful so she won't be able to hurt innocent people." My voice was sharp, and at this point it wasn't exactly hard to inject it with enough anger to make the threat sound totally real.

The woman was squinting at me. I could feel her squirming uncertainly as she clearly tried to decide how to react to all that, and how to profit off this whole situation. "You expect me to believe that you'd actually sell me out to that crazy bitch? Come on, let's be serious here. Let's try to be productive with this whole negotiation. You're one of those hero types. I've seen what they said about you. I've seen the sort of stuff you do. I've seen how far you'll go to help people." Her head shook. "No, there's just no way you'd let her kill me. That's not who you are, little boy."

Seeing her smug expression, seeing how convinced she was that she still had the upper hand here, that she could use the fact that I wasn't an evil piece of shit to save her own skin and even profit from it, sent a rush of overwhelming anger through me. Considering how upset I was about Paige and the others, it was practically a miracle that I managed to keep myself together enough not to lash out. She was seriously asking for it. Begging for it, really. This wasn't just about my friends, it was about all the innocent people Casura was absolutely going to kill if she used the rings to take control of all those Touched. Hundreds-- thousands of people would suffer and die, and this piece of shit thought she could just go ahead and use that to bargain and get money?

My fist tightened while I looked at my phone then back to her. I had to take a deep breath to control myself. I could feel the anger, the frustration, the fear about what was happening to Paige and the others threatening to overwhelm me. I was so close to the edge, so close to doing something I shouldn't. Every second, every fucking second I wasted just trying to convince this selfish bitch to actually do something to stop a monster from killing thousands of people was yet another second where worse things could be happening to Paige. She trusted me. They trusted me. I was the only person who could help them right now, the only person besides Casura who knew what kind of danger they were in. I was the only one who could get them out of there alive. And this woman was actually still trying to make an actual profit off all that. She was just… just…

"Okay," I finally managed, "when this is over, I won't turn you over to law enforcement. I won't try to stop you from leaving. And I will contact a group who can pay you everything you ask for and tell them exactly how instrumental you were in stopping this from being a hell of a lot worse. That's the best I can do. No Stars or Shields, and I put you in touch with the people who can both help you disappear and reward you." I stood up, extending a hand down to her. "You have my word."

I really was telling the absolute truth at that moment. There wasn't a single lie in anything I said. I was just leaving out the fact that the people I was going to put her in contact with, the Ministry, probably wouldn't be all that keen to give her everything she was demanding. In fact, she might have been better off with the actual authorities. But I wasn't about to tell her that. She was the one who insisted I couldn't tell the cops, couldn't chase her, and had to give her a way to make money off all this, so fine, I would do all of that. I would follow the absolute letter of what she demanded, and let her deal with the consequences once they came to bite her in the ass.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before she hesitantly took my offered hand and let me pull her to her feet. She was squinting at me uncertainly, clearly trying to decide if she could trust what I was saying. But in the end, she didn't exactly have much of a choice. This was the best offer she could hope for, and both of us knew it. So, that uncertain look faded into a confident smile as she gave a little nod. "Fine, good enough, I guess. So what are we waiting for, Paintball? Let's save the world or whatever."

"Or whatever," I echoed before hitting her right in the forehead with a shot of red, using another on my glove to yank her back down so I could grab her by the side of her head, using a tiny bit of purple strength to keep her there. Once we were face to face, or face to visor, I spoke in a very quiet voice that she had to strain to hear. "She has people I care about. If I fuck this up, she'll kill them. So, if you do anything to risk their lives, anything at all to put them in more danger, I will use every considerable tool I have to destroy your life. She'll kill you for fun. I will make your life a living hell. I will ruin your reputation, your name, your bank account. I will break everything you own. I will make it my life's mission to take everything in this world that has ever given you a single moment of joy and burn it to the ground. Do you understand?"

Only once she nodded did I release her. "Good. Let's do this then. And just think, if we do this completely right and get incredibly lucky, we might actually get through this in one piece.

"Then you can get exactly what you asked for."