Summus Proelium

I slept. It made me feel guilty the next morning, but the truth was, I didn't toss and turn nearly as much as I expected to. Maybe that was just because I was so tired after doing those events and dealing with the emotional garbage, or maybe some part of me realized that I wasn't going to be any good at the actual saving my friends part if I spent the entire night agonizing over the fact that I hadn't saved them yet. Except that didn't sound right, because my subconscious self had never been good at actually listening to what my conscious self was trying to tell it. So it was probably just the first one. Regardless, I slept so much better than expected and woke up completely refreshed.

Granted, the second I woke and realized what was going on, my guilt over what sort of sleep Paige and the others must've gotten in their situation rushed in to help make up for my lack of tiredness. But I pushed all that aside, took a quick shower, then got dressed and had breakfast with Simon down in one of the very busy hotel restaurants. Mom and Dad had already left for what I was assuming would be a Ministry meeting or whatever about what happened in Detroit.

Of course, that didn't explain Izzy's absence. According to Simon, she'd gotten up a whole hour earlier than me and was already hanging out with some friend she'd met the day before. And how bad was it that my first impulse when I heard that was to panic that this 'friend' was actually just Casura in some sort of shapeshifted disguise finding out more about us or something? Never mind how little sense that made, logic wasn't about to interfere with my ability to assume the worst.

Honestly, it was almost certainly just Dani. The two of them were probably trying to figure out how they could help. Which was a whole other reason for me to be anxious. Except wait, if it was just Dani, why would Izzy lie about meeting some new friend instead of just saying that? I was so confused and nervous right then. Was it possible this really was about Izzy meeting a kid her own age and hanging out? I-- maybe? This whole thing was so weird, and I didn't dare voice too many questions about it because I didn't want Simon to start putting too much thought into it.

On the plus side, that was just one more bit of emotional turmoil I had to hide from my brother, and at this point, I was an expert at that. So, I made small talk with him, doing my best not to let my voice catch or bounce my leg too obviously while glancing at my phone. I was watching the time as well as checking for any messages from Wren. My entire plan, such as it was, depended on her being able to fake up those plans. And yes, expecting her to have them already after just giving her the request yesterday and telling her not to work all night was absurd. But that didn't stop me from anxiously staring at my phone just in case a miracle happened. Until she got back to me with that, I just had to wait.

Well, not exactly 'just wait.' I had other events to participate in, more ways of at least trying to take my mind off the very real life and death situation going on with Casura for a few minutes.

Except the next one they had lined up for me wasn't until this afternoon. Which meant I had hours and hours left before I'd have that distraction. And with the whole stopping Casura by getting Safeguard to leave town plan on hold until Wren got back to me, I just… what was I supposed to do, sit here with my thoughts? I'd almost rather die. If I tried twiddling my thumbs, I'd probably do it so fast I'd snap the damn things off. No, I needed something else to keep busy, another way to get my brain to focus on something other than listing all the ways I could fuck this whole thing up.

A low, quiet but insistent whistle caught my attention. Blinking up from my empty plate of food that I had apparently been spending the past few minutes staring at very intently, I found Simon gazing at me with a raised eyebrow. Once I focused on him, he rose from his seat and gestured for me to follow. "Earth to Booster. Come on, there's plenty of time before the next games start up, I need you to go shopping with me. We've gotta pick up something good while we're here." As he stepped away, his little gray cat, Bailey, trotted right out from under the table where she had been perched by his feet the whole time, eating the scraps he dropped for her. A waiter had tried to say something about not having cats in the restaurant, but between Simon handing him a hundred dollar bill and the cat hissing dangerously, he'd agreed to let it go as long as she didn't go wandering around the restaurant and just stayed right there. Which she did.

I was already starting to stand up to go after them while cluelessly echoing, "Pick up something good?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but at least it seemed like an actual distraction.

The three of us, counting the cat, were already in the enormous hotel lobby when Simon finally replied, "Okay, don't tell me I'm the one who remembered this year and you forgot, cuz that's just weird." His head turned to gaze at me while still walking, expertly sidestepping an oncoming bellhop and the luggage rack he was dragging without looking. Bailey dashed right through the open space between the guy and rack, giving him a soft warning meow to stay out of her way.

Before I could do more than blink at my brother a couple times while going the other way around the bellhop, he prompted, "It's gonna be the end of June real soon, dude. What happens then?"

My mouth opened, before a sudden rush of guilt filled me as I practically tripped over my own feet just as we reached the lobby entrance (stumbling enough to make Bailey dart sideways and give me a look and an anxious meow). "Anniversary! It's gonna be Mom and Dad's anniversary!"

"Ding ding ding," Simon confirmed. "And they say you're the responsible one. Anyway, we're gonna meet the kid down by the shops. Dunno if she's bringing her new friend or not, but I kinda figured she should be involved in the whole anniversary gift thing. You know, being part of the family and all. We can start looking until she gets there though. It's gotta be something good."

By the time we passed through the doors to the outside world, there was already a fancy red Mercedes waiting for us, with the valet holding the keys out for Simon. Apparently my brother had rented a car so he wouldn't need to depend on Ubers while we were down here. He even teased me about how I probably couldn't wait until our parents let me take that driver's test so I could actually drive myself around. And the fact that it had entirely slipped my mind that I was about to be able to do that was the best sign yet about just how goddamn distracted I really was. As if the whole anniversary thing wasn't enough on its own. My brain was just turning into mush.

But hey, if nothing else, at least I had something to keep me busy for a couple hours or so. After the whole Sleeptalk thing, our parents really did deserve something nice for their anniversary. Maybe I'd even get really lucky and find something that they could use in their evil crimelording. It was too bad Simon already had the pettable fluffy cat, but there had to be something good.

Just how much could volcano island lairs full of death traps be going for these days anyway?

************

So, I went shopping with my brother and new sister once she made it there. It wasn't exactly how I had seen the morning going when I woke up, but a distraction was a distraction. The three of us (four counting Bailey, which I really needed to do because she kept up with us the entire time) had traipsed all over about six different shops looking for something special, before eventually finding it. Granted, the present wasn't a volcano lair, so it couldn't be the best choice, but the thing we had settled on was at least a solid second place. Not that it actually was a 'thing,' at all.

Yeah, after all that walking around looking at jewelry, clothes, and stuff like that, we ended up buying them tickets to this neat underwater cruise on board the giant Touched-Tech submarine Revolver. Which was apparently the name of the album the Beatles' song Yellow Submarine had been part of. And yes, the ship really was yellow. Err, were submarines still called ships? I wasn't sure. And the second I had that thought, it just reminded me that I would've asked Paige if she was around. Which was a pretty definitive end to me being distracted from all that stuff.

But oh well, I couldn't have done anything useful about the Casura situation in that time anyway, and we really did need to get our parents that gift. Even then, I still had hours before my first match, and no more surprise anniversary gifts to kill time shopping for. I was just going to have to find something else to take my mind off all that. And I still wasn't getting any responses from Amber, so the Minority were clearly still under quarantine. Or she was sleeping after all that. Either way, worrying about that was another thing I needed to be distracted from. Maybe I could change into my costume and take a lap through the city to see if anything caught my attention? Or I could just go back to the arena and keep putting down some more of my secret graffiti paint.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Except I didn't have a chance to do either of those things. No sooner had I separated from the others (with everything that was going on, I didn't even think to pull Izzy aside to ask where she'd been) and started making my way through the alley behind the parking garage we'd left Simon's car in, than my phone buzzed. At first I thought it was Wren, but once I fumbled the thing out of my pocket, I found a text from a blocked number. Which I would've chalked up to spam and ignored, but the message had my Touched initials (PB) and an address to some building on the other side of the city along with instructions to come in costume and to not try to contact anyone or there would be consequences. Which-- oh fuck, Casura wanted to talk to me?

I couldn't think of a single good reason for her to be calling me to some sort of private meeting. She was probably snickering all about how freaked out I was, enjoying this moment of making me jump through even more of her hoops. Maybe she just wanted to threaten my friends some more because I wasn't working quickly enough for her liking, or she somehow knew what I was planning and wanted to make me back off. Or-- yeah, I had no idea. And the blocked number the text had come from wouldn't accept a call or return message, so I couldn't ask for any details. Hell, even if it wasn't blocked, I wouldn't put it past her to include herself in that order not to try to contact anyone. Not that she was likely to give me any answers even if I could actually get the questions out, but it was still just one more bit of frustration on top of a very large pile. And yet, in the end, what else could I actually do besides follow the instructions in the text?

If I was back in Detroit, I would've made it to the address I'd been given a hell of a lot faster. But I was in Phoenix, and I just didn't know the city nearly well enough to move at full speed. I kept needing to stop and look around to get my bearings, find the next spot to jump or teleport to, and just to check the map on my phone to make sure I was still going the right way. Not to mention the part where I had to duck behind a water tower on one of the buildings to avoid what looked like a couple Star-Touched doing their own run through the city. In any other situation I would've loved to hang out with them, maybe even challenged them to a race or something. But right then, the only thing I could think about was what would happen if they followed me and saw Casura. Or even just figured out I was nervous about something and brought it up to the wrong person. There were so many ways that any interaction with those people could go very wrong.

On the other hand, every second I wasted crouched behind that water tower instead of moving was another second where Casura might get ticked off that I was making her wait and decide to do something about it. Even if the only thing she did was come find me, how would she react to finding out what the holdup was? My best case scenario in that situation was that she just dragged me off. It was equally plausible that she would hurt or… or kill those Stars for making me late, even if they had no idea what they were doing. I just--fuck, damn it, I had to get moving.

At one point, my paranoia was so bad I thought I caught a glimpse of something on the far side of the roof out of the corner of my eye. Which was immediately followed by what I could've sworn was a flicker of a blueish-green glow from almost right behind me. But neither actually led to anything. I looked behind me, around the water tower, and even checked that side of the roof (being careful to stay out of sight of those people in the distance), only to find absolutely no sign of anything or anyone. I was clearly the only person here, so my mind was playing tricks on me.

Finally, those Stars moved on, joining up with some other group before heading off. It sounded like they were all from different cities and were planning some sort of private race or contest, outside of the actual games. They were laughing and playfully taunting each other, and just… yeah, doing things I couldn't even think about right then. But at least they were gone, so I was able to leave my little hiding spot and keep going. I tried to pick up the pace, glancing at my phone a couple times on the way to see if I had any angry messages. There was nothing. Not that it was easy to tell that, given how slow my phone was being for some reason. Maybe it was just because I was already agitated and in a hurry, but seriously, it seemed to take way too long to bring up the map again, even when I tried just looking at my phone directly instead of using the heads-up display in my helmet. There was some sort of lag, which was just all I needed now.

Eventually, I made it to the address I'd been given, which turned out to be some old apartment building that was under renovation. Which I realized might be a good place for Casura to be keeping a group of prisoners out of sight, with all the amenities they'd need. I had a very fleeting thought about making a run down through the building to look for them, but dismissed it as dumb. If I did anything to piss Casura off right now, she-- no, I wasn't gonna do that. I'd follow her instructions to the letter. Which, for the moment, meant just waiting for another message.

Not that I had to wait long. No sooner had I landed on the roof, than another text popped up from a blocked number. This one ordered me to go into the building through the roof access and take the elevator all the way to the basement. It specified that I needed to stay in the elevator and ride it all the way down, not use any of my shortcuts or tricks. Yeah, this was getting weird. Was Casura trying to exercise her control over me, playing puppet master, or something else?

Well, whatever, it wasn't like I could refuse or negotiate. Though when I did finally get face to face with her again, I was definitely going to tell her to show me proof that Paige and the others were still alive. Not that I really expected her to break her word for no reason (assuming I hadn't accidentally done anything she could pretend was an actual reason), but I still had to know for sure. What if… what if Paige or one of the others had done something to try to escape and she had-- god damn it, I had to stop working myself up like that. I just had to focus on following her instructions. Which, for the moment, meant heading into this building and finding the elevator.

The roof access door was unlocked, so I just walked right in and down a narrow set of steps to get into the main part of the apartment building. From there, it took about two seconds to spot the elevator. It wouldn't have been difficult to begin with, considering the signs and the fact that it was almost directly across from the stairs I'd just come down. When you added in the light above the thing that seemed to be the only working lights in the corridor, and the open door just beckoning me to step inside, it was… okay, almost as obvious as it was creepy. I really did not want to get on that elevator. Everything in me was screaming that this was clearly a trap.

But what choice did I have? And for that matter, if Casura wanted to hurt or kill me, she didn't exactly need to go through all this. She obviously just thought it was funny to creep me out, and the longer I stood around staring that way, the funnier she probably thought it was. If I couldn't hurt or stop her now, the least I could do was deny her even more amusement. So I shoved down all that fear, took a deep breath, and stepped into the brightly-lit elevator. The gulp that escaped me as the doors closed was probably inaudible, right?

The hair on the back of my neck was standing up as the doors immediately closed as soon as I was in the damn thing. I didn't even have to press any buttons before it began to descend. Yup, Casura was definitely enjoying this. Her and her damn games. She could've appeared right in front of me at any point and just told me what she wanted, but no, she had to make me go through all this.

And speaking of going through this, it wasn't over just yet. When I stepped out of the elevator in the basement, I was in a small garage area. There was a sedan sitting there with the rear passenger door open, and no apparent driver. As I stood there looking at the thing, a new text came in, telling me to get inside and sit still until it took me where I needed to be. Yeah, this had passed ridiculous a long time ago. I almost spoke aloud to tell her to knock it off and just show herself, since she was obviously watching me. But an image of Paige passed through my mind, followed by Sierra, Irelyn, and Echo. Muttering a curse, I took a seat in the car and buckled myself in. A second later, the door closed on its own and the car started to drive out into the busy Phoenix streets.

What followed was a ridiculously circuitous drive through the city. We must've gone in at least four circles, meandering our way through the streets, backtracking, sometimes going too slow before suddenly picking up speed. We drove around and around, before the car finally pulled through the open gate of what had once been a twenty-four hour fitness center. The place was closed now, and looked like it had been for awhile.

As the car parked right in front of the entrance, the doors opened. Both the one next to me and the one on the building itself. I didn't need another text to understand what was supposed to happen. Still, I really needed this to be the last bit. If she tried to send me on another leg of this stupid runaround…

Heaving myself out of the car, I walked right in through the doors and into the main area of the gym. As soon as I did, I could hear an odd humming sound. It was like the entire room was very slightly vibrating. Just a constant very low thrum that I could feel in my teeth. I shook that off while raising my voice. "Okay, can you just show yourself already? You had your fun, now tell me what you want."

"Sorry, we had to make sure you weren't being followed or tracked, and that there was no way for anyone to listen in on this," a familiar voice announced. A familiar voice that absolutely wasn't Casura. It was coming from the other side of the gym, where a door had just opened up, allowing several figures to come through.

"But now that we know it's safe," Peyton continued as she was joined by Murphy, Roald, Wren, and Qwerty, "we can all talk about what we're gonna do next."

"Uh huh!" A voice right at my hip piped up, as Cherry the Cuddle Duckling poked her tiny head out of my pocket-- out of Wren's special bag connected to the shop where they'd been eavesdropping on me from. "And about how we're gonna save Paige, Sierra, and Flea from Casura."