Summus Proelium

"Are you kidding me!?" Rubi all-but erupted with a hissed whisper as soon as her brother and pseudo-sister had finished explaining what they knew. "You're telling me that Paintball-- Cassidy Evans is down there in Phoenix with Casura, Casura forcing them to play puppet for her by keeping Paige, Sierra, and probably Flea hostage, and you don't want me to sound the alarm?"

The three of them had left that alley and went to the most private, safe place they could find in short order. Namely, Rubi's car, parked around the corner in an empty lot. It had been upgraded by Ten Towers to display different things in the windows so anyone looking that way from the outside would only see a couple normal, average people sitting there talking to one another. So they wouldn't see the newest Touched member of Ten Towers or two of the Prev members of Avant-Guard, all in costume, sitting in the car having what was clearly a very intense discussion.

And speaking of an intense conversation, the new sound-proofing on the car meant no one would be able to hear anything they said even if they were screaming, but that didn't stop the woman from instinctively lowering her voice just from the sheer magnitude of the discussion.

"Rubi," Roald pointed out as gently as possible under the circumstances, "who're you gonna tell? You think Casura doesn't have ways to find out if the authorities start getting involved? We already know she likes to blackmail and threaten people into doing what she says, and she knows Paintball has really powerful friends here in Detroit. The second anyone she's threatened into keeping an eye on things here finds out there's even a rumor that she's in Phoenix, she'll kill the hostages. And she'll have fun doing it." His voice cracked. "We can't let that happen, Rubi."

Murphy nodded quickly from the backseat, grabbing the front passenger headrest and shaking it hard enough to rattle Roald a bit. "He's right, Rubi! We can't risk telling anyone official, anyone who might actually file paperwork or say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Not until Sierra and the others are safe. If they die because we told the wrong person, we… Please don't do it."

Holding up a hand to stop them, Rubi turned to slump back in her seat. She stared forward out the windshield, watching cars passing on the nearby street. For over a minute, they all sat like that in complete silence while she absorbed all this and ran through her rather limited options.

She hated this, hated the idea of not reporting something this huge. If Casura was at those games, she was obviously about to do something horrific. But the other two were right, the second that evil bitch found out there were any moves against her at all, she'd kill those girls. If she didn't report it, all those people could die. If she did, Paige, Sierra, and Flea would die. She couldn't do that, not if there was any other option. Not as long as there was still a chance to get everyone out of this alive and safe. Or at least all the people that Casura hadn't already killed.

In the end, after what felt like several hours but was less than two minutes, the blonde woman finally gave a short nod as she came to the best possible decision she could. "I won't make an official report yet. Not until we find out if it's even possible to save them. But I'm telling Caishen." She held off the protests with a raised hand. "You trust Cassidy, you trust your team. I trust her. If I tell her the full details of what we're dealing with-- no, not that, not who Cassidy is, I get it. If I tell her about the hostages, she won't make it official. But she can get some balls moving even if she can't go that far. She's the field leader of Ten Towers, she'll tell the team to be ready for some field exercises or something. Anything to get people suited up and prepped. And when the hostages are clear, they'll be ready to move in. Or… or if it comes down to it and we have to choose between sending out the team or letting Casura do whatever she's planning, you guys both know what we have to do." She tried to keep her voice steady, even as the disgust with herself for what she was actually saying threatened to overwhelm her. If they had to choose between making an official alert so everyone could be ready to stop Casura, or letting her get away with her plan just to save the others, it wasn't actually a choice at all. They had to stop it.

The other two exchanged looks, Roald and Murphy silently staring at one another before the latter spoke. "Yeah, we know. If it comes down to that, we have to call in the cavalry to stop her. Sierra and the others would want that. So would Cassidy, even if…" She hesitated before exhaling audibly while looking away to stare out the window, fists clenching tightly by her sides.

"Even if," Roald echoed. That was all that needed to be said, all any of them dared say right then. It made them too sick to actually voice the fear they had. "But you've gotta tell her to be really careful, Rubi. She can't make it official, she can't say anything about Casura yet, nothing that might end up getting back to her and tipping her off. We have to try to save the others first."

"I'll make sure she understands," Rubi promised. "But I don't think it'll be that hard. She has a kid, guys. She's not some heartless corporate monster. She's a good person, and she likes you. Not to mention Paintball and the rest of your team. She's not just going to risk lives without giving us the best possible chance she can to save them. Trust me, okay? She'll understand."

Only after getting through all that did her eyes widen with realization from behind that helmet. A string of creative cursing that she would feel bad about saying in front of them later poured out. At the same time she grabbed the steering wheel and squeezed so hard it almost broke right off.

From the back seat, Murphy quietly noted, "I think she just remembered the other problem."

She was right. In the rush of absorbing their news and the magnitude of the threat in front of them, Rubi had momentarily forgotten that it wasn't actually going to be that easy to tell Caishen what was going on. The woman, along with that visiting Chicago Star and both of their very young daughters, were currently caught in a stasis field at that restaurant. And not just them, there was also-- "Wren," Rubi realized aloud, almost throwing herself into an even louder flood of violent cursing. "You need the kid and her teleporters if you're going to have any chance of getting those girls out of there, even if we can actually figure out where she's keeping them."

Roald put his hand on her arm and squeezed. "Yeah, we were waiting in your office to tell you about all this when we heard what's going on down there." The boy paused before tentatively asking, "They're gonna get them out of that place tonight, right? I mean, if it takes too long to break that stasis field, if Wren's out of commission for days instead of hours, it'll be too late, and…" He trailed off into silence, looking away with an obvious wince at the thought. His hand rose to grab the ski mask that had covered his face and pulled the thing off so he could stare down at it with such intensity that it was like he thought the mask itself would have answers.

"If they can't get her out, we'll have to find another way." That was Murphy, reaching up around the seat to squeeze her best friend's shoulders. "It sucks. It's scary, but if we have to we will."

The girl had pulled her own mask off as well, and Rubi shifted a bit in her seat to look at the two of them. Somehow, over these past couple months, her little brother and the girl who was like another sister to her had changed. They had grown into very different, stronger people than they'd been before. They had matured thanks to having jobs and money, sure, but it was more than that. They had responsibilities that went beyond that. The two of them had saved people.

Murphy especially had changed over these past weeks, even if you had to know her really well to see it. She had always been a very angry girl, prone to lashing out if given any reason to. It was understandable given the situation with all their parents. But ever since she'd lost her brother when he was gunned down right in front of her, Murphy had… softened maybe wasn't the right word. It was like she took the time to think a bit more before letting her anger explode.

In all honesty, the girl shouldn't be dealing with any of this at all. She should have been taken away for a very long break from all this so she could actually start to process that loss. It was wrong for her to still be involved in these situations, but trying to order her to stop wouldn't go well. Trying to order her to do anything at all wouldn't go well. Especially considering what she was actually doing. She helped people. She saved people. Maybe that helped her deal with the fact that she hadn't been able to save her own brother. Rubi couldn't take that away from her.

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At least Murphy was seeing a psychologist thanks to Ten Towers. The man was sworn to so many different levels of secrecy it was a wonder he could talk at all. Absolutely no one was supposed to hear anything his clients said, because he was meant to work with Touched. But even then, Murphy had made it clear that she wouldn't tell him everything. There wasn't a chance in hell she would say anything about who Paintball was, about the Ministry, or anything like that. None of them were anywhere near naive or stupid enough to take that sort of risk.

But she did talk to him about being there when her brother was shot. She even talked to him about stealing that car to try to kill the man responsible until Paintball showed up to make sure she didn't go that far, and to help her bring the man to justice. She talked about her parents being in prison, and how that had affected her life. She talked about how angry she was that they weren't there anymore. The doctor didn't tell Rubi any of that, of course. Those were the things Murphy herself had mentioned telling him after the fact. Which, honestly, was proof on its own of how helpful he had already been for her, even if she couldn't tell him every single detail.

The point was, they weren't helpless little kids anymore. They had been dealing with real problems, and now they were facing quite possibly the worst one of all. Pencil had been bad enough, but Casura was a threat on a whole other level. Their only hope was to not have an actual fight at all. She would kill them without a second thought, like flicking a bug off her arm. And with about that much effort. She regularly fought entire adult teams, including Armistice. It was enough to make Rubi want to order them to back off and leave the whole situation alone.

But she couldn't. They knew it was dangerous. They knew how much of a threat she was, and how easily they could die here. They knew how easily she could kill their friends. But they were here anyway. They were dealing with it as well as they could. Murphy and Roald wouldn't abandon their friends, and she couldn't ask them to, no matter how terrified she was of what might happen. Somehow, they had to find a way to save Paige, Sierra, and Flea while still stopping whatever Casura had planned. And the best chance of doing that was with Wren and Caishen both being out of that damn stasis field so they could start working on actual solutions.

Unfortunately, right now it looked like there wasn't actually any way they could make that happen themselves. Rubi had no idea how to undo a Touched-Tech stasis field. Or any other flavor of stasis field for that matter. And she was pretty sure the subject hadn't been covered in any of Roald or Murphy's public high school classes, unless school had changed an awful lot in the couple years since she left. No, it was really looking like they were just going to have to wait.

And hope that when the stasis field finally came down, there would still be enough time to stop Casura before she pulled off whatever horrible thing she was trying to make Cassidy help her do.

**********

Pacing back and forth anxiously in front of what looked like a simple old gun shop in a strip mall, Dani checked her phone again for any new updates. She was entirely too aware of what sort of image she was giving off right then as a black teenager looking very high strung right in front of a gun store. But no matter how much she told herself to calm down, it just wasn't helping at all.

She couldn't get in touch with Amber. She assumed that the other girl would want to know what was going on, but it turned out that the Minority were off on some big mission or something. And that included Amber, even though she was still supposed to be on forced vacation right now.

None of this was helping Dani's nerves at all. She couldn't help but wonder if that little mission secretly had anything to do with Casura. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch for that woman to do something just to keep Cassidy's friends busy, would it? Worse, and the part that made her pace so much right then, was the fact that the bitch would be equally likely to just kill them.

And it wasn't only worrying about Amber that was making her pace around right here, even if every minute it took that girl to return her messages made Dani feel like she was going to throw up in that dumpster behind the shop. No, she could have given herself an ulcer worrying about Amber anywhere. She was here in front of this store for a very different person. A person who was going to get a slap if he didn't--

"Hey?" The sound of the voice cut through her musings and made the girl jump. She hadn't even heard the door of the shop open, but there it was, with Ryder standing there staring at her with an uncertain look. "You good? Cuz from over here, it kind of looks like you're about ready to--"

Dani interrupted, reaching out to grab his arm before pulling him with a quick, "It's about time, we're gonna lose this whole score if you don't move your butt. Didn't I say it was a limited opportunity? How long does it take to get a simple teleport?" Yeah, she felt bad about getting on his case just because she was upset and anxious. And for lying to the guy about why she wanted him down here (especially when it came to money) in the first place, but she knew he'd want to help once he knew the truth, and she didn't want to get into the whole story over the phone. Especially considering she wasn't sure how good of a poker face he might have in that situation, and one of the last things they needed was for Blackjack to realize something was going on and start poking around in a way that accidentally tipped Casura off. So, she'd lied and told Ryder she had a chance at a big score, but needed his help to get through some high tech security. She'd make sure to apologize for all that as soon as she was done giving him the actual details.

Ryder was shaking his head as she dragged him over to her rental car. "Hey, sorry, there was a bit of a line ahead of us. I mean, thanks for finding a teleporter Sell-Touched down here on short notice, but there's only so many spots in line bribery will let you cut when everyone else is bribing the guy too. Turns out a lot of people want to come to Phoenix this week. Or leave quickly and without using any of the roads or airport. That guy's booked solid through Sunday."

That was the real purpose of the shop back there. The gun part was a front for the teleport business. Or maybe it was half and half. Either way, Dani was pretty sure he made the bulk of his money moving people all over the country. She'd had to ask Spades where to even find someone like that on such short notice, and now he was expecting a finder's fee. But whatever, it had gotten Ryder down here in what she had to admit, after putting aside her anxiety, was record time. She had only contacted the guy an hour earlier, and he was already right here.

Now she just had to explain the actual situation and then apologize for the whole lying thing. Unfortunately, she was still in the middle of pulling him to her car for some privacy to get into that explanation when another familiar voice called out, "Hey, wait up a second, would ya?"

Blinking in surprise, Dani turned on her heel and stared at the next person coming out of the shop. "KD?" It was her, carrying a large backpack and eating a grilled chicken sandwich.

Us. Oh, right, Ryder had said there was a line ahead of us. Dani hadn't even caught that. Damn, she really was out of it right now, wasn't she? This was a lot to deal with, and there was still nothing from Amber.

Ryder was nodding. "Oh yeah, she and I were gonna do something tonight before you called. She wanted to help and I figured more hands couldn't hurt. Besides, you should've seen her sad puppy eyes when she thought she was gonna be left all by herself. I just couldn't do that to her."

KD beamed incorrigibly. "Yeah, he's pretty easy to manipulate. He should really work on that. But hey, I didn't wanna be bored, and you were gonna make me be bored. Besides, you said this was a big score. How could I resist money?" Even as she said that, the small girl was opening the back door of the rental car to toss her bag in, before jumping after it and calling over her shoulder, "Let's get this show on the road! If we get done quick enough, we can still catch a movie."

Oh boy. This was going to complicate matters. But it wasn't the end of the world. Dani trusted KD. Not enough to expose Cassidy's identity or anything like that, of course. Which meant she couldn't be involved in every aspect of this. Maybe not even most of it. But still, she wouldn't be working with Casura. She was like Dani and Ryder, a thief, not a monster. And there was no real reason for that woman to have gone out of her way to get KD in her pocket anyway. If it came down to it, she would just give the other girl the option of sitting this whole thing out. And apologize for getting her hopes up for a big payout.

Right, it was a complication. Taking a deep breath, Dani checked her phone for any messages from Izzy. Seeing nothing, she sent a quick update of her own, letting the girl know what was going on and that she had more help than they'd planned on. With that, she stepped down into the car next to Ryder. "Okay, let's see, where do I start?"

Raising a hand from the backseat, KD cheerfully put in, "Maybe with the fact that there's not actually a job and definitely no money?" As both Dani and Ryder turned to look at her, she offered a shrug. "What? If it was an actual job, you would've asked for my help from the beginning. You didn't, so it's a personal thing, probably something to do with Paintball since he's down here too. You need Ryder's help cuz he's friends with him or whatever. But you didn't wanna say that over the phone, probably cuz you were afraid Blackjack would butt in. Or some other reason. You didn't wanna ask me cuz I barely know the guy. But hey, I'm here, and I wanna help. So, what're we doing?

"What sorta trouble has ol' Paints gotten into now?"