Summus Proelium

The more he thought about it, the more convinced Ryder Towling was that Cassidy Evans had been cursed by some sort of evil, ancient witch to never be able to go even a single week without having some sort of massive emotional upheaval that stretched them to the very limits of what any person could be expected to deal with. This, right here, the time in Arizona, was supposed to be a chance for them to get away from every problem in Detroit and just relax. Sure, it wasn't really any of Ryder's business, but to be honest, he had been psyched to hear about the trip. If there was any person in the city who deserved a break from all of it-- okay sure, there were a few, but Cassidy had to be right up near the top of the list. They needed some time.

And yet, here they were, two thousand miles from home and still right in the middle of a life and death situation. This time with one of the worst Fell-Touched in the world. Not for the first time, he really wished there was some different word for the sort of villain that woman was compared to the sort he and people like Dani and KD were. They were thieves, robbers, they fought people and yeah did some bad things. Some of them much worse than others. But Casura was a monster. On paper, they were all Fells. In reality, there was a stark difference between them.

Anyway, lamenting Cassidy's inability to catch a break at any point wasn't actually helpful now. Nor was freaking out about Casura being involved, though Ryder did allow himself a minute or so for that. If he hadn't, it would've been impossible to focus on anything else. He just stepped aside once they were back in Dani's hotel room, put his forehead against the wall, and let all his internal voices scream their way through his soul until they were finished for the time being. The painting on the wall nearby was a print of van Gogh's At Eternity's Gate, which felt appropriate.

Finally, he looked down to see Mars Bar, the iguana, pressed up against the wall right by his feet. The big lizard (well, not as big as he was in his bear form, but still) was peering up at him with what looked an awful lot like curiosity. Which just made Ryder wonder yet again just how intelligent Dani's lizards were at this point. They were clearly more than normal lizards, even if they weren't up to human level sapience. It was something he wanted to look into at some point.

But now wasn't any more the time for that than it was time for him to keep his head against the wall, lamenting Cassidy's obvious curse. It was time to focus. Which he did after reaching down to scratch Mars Bar's head, turning then to look at the other two. When he did, Ryder saw Dani and KD both watching him from the table by the door. The latter spoke, "So, you're saying good old Casura's got a couple of Paintball's teammates, and maybe even one of the Conservators, hostage so she can… force him to do what, exactly? What the hell is her big end goal here?"

Grabbing a few sodas from the minifridge and handing them out, Dani popped the tab on hers before sipping from it with a grimace. "That's where it gets even more complicated. I guess the rest of Paintball's team managed to spy on h--" She coughed on her soda. "--him somehow, I dunno the details. But they overheard him talking to that Nqobile chick, the emcee or whatever. Anyway, the most they got out of that was something about the rings they give out to the game winners. When Paintball confronted her, she said there was something he should know about the rings if Casura was trying to force him to try to win one. Safe bet she did something to them. From what they could tell, Paintball wasn't surprised to hear it. That's about all they've got now."

KD made a confused noise, shifting in her seat. "So wait, does that mean Paintball already knew Casura was-- oh. Right, he probably found out what was going on, cuz that's what he does, so the bitch kidnapped his friends to force him to play along and not tell anyone. But uh, why would she do all that and go through the trouble of risking Paintball telling someone anyway instead of just killing him? I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm glad she didn't. Or hasn't yet. But why?"

Ryder spoke up immediately to answer that. "Games. She likes to play games. It's not just about doing things efficiently or carefully. Definitely not carefully. She likes to have fun and let people try to stop her, but only under her controlled circumstances, her rules. She picks specific people who are allowed to foil her plans or whatever. Or try to, anyway. They don't usually get very far." He hesitated as the others looked at him before shrugging. "Oh, it's not like she's some long-standing hobby of mine or anything, I've been running searches with my Mites ever since you brought her up."

"And you've been doing all that while we were talking," Dani finished for him before shaking her head. "You know, I'd never trade my lizards for anything, but that does sound a bit convenient."

A thump a moment later made all three of them over to see a book about the history of Arizona, that had been left on the bedside table, laying open on the floor where it had been pushed by one of the lizards. Now, Tuesday, Riddles, Holiday, and Twinkletoes were all gathered around it, licking and sniffing the open book and batting their snouts against it like they were all trying to figure out what the symbols on the pages meant. Like they were actually trying to learn to read.

Quickly stepping over there, Dani went down to her knees to pet the lizards, head shaking. "Aww, guys, you don't need to do that. You're the best lizards ever. I promise, I don't need you to be anything other than what you are. Let me be the reader in our group, okay? Besides, if you guys learn how to do that for yourselves, I wouldn't need to read you bedtime stories, and then how could I pay you back for all the help? You've gotta leave me something to do for you."

She gently gathered them up in her arms before laying them down on the bed. "Here, it's your favorite." Even as she said that, the girl was using the remote to flip the television over to a marathon of Flintstones cartoons, a mix of the old classic ones and the new version that had started a few years earlier. Immediately, all the lizards, including the ones who hadn't even been paying attention before, gathered up by or on the bed together and stared at the screen intently.

"They like to watch Flintstones?" KD asked after watching them enjoy the show for a moment.

"I think it's about seeing the dinosaurs helping out as appliances and stuff," Dani replied with a small shrug. "They feel a sort of kinship with them or something. But yeah, they really like it."

With that much done, and the lizards entertained for the time being, the three of them went back to talking about what they were going to do now. It was Ryder who asked, "So, if she really did something to the rings, did you bring me down here to try to get a Mite into one of them? Cuz, I mean, I'll give it my best shot, but like I said before, Touched-Tech is kinda tricky to work with."

"Yeah, and we can't exactly go to Paintball for help getting hold of one, can we?" KD pointed out as she moved to sit on the bed, gently scratching Scatters. "Not if she's keeping an eye on him."

"We're pretty sure she's using some sort of power to make sure he toes the line," Dani replied. "That's one of the things the others are trying to figure out, how she's doing it and maybe even how to block her or whatever. The point is, that's their job. And uh, I mean, it'd be cool if you could get into one of those rings and snag anything useful out of them, but no, that's not why we brought you down here, Ryder. Not the main reason anyway. But before we get into all that…"

She looked at KD, who blinked and straightened up with a frown, hand moving off Scatters briefly until the tiny Neon Day Gecko lifted herself up to push her nose back into the girl's palm, prompting a little more scratching. "What, don't tell me you don't want me here. I can help too."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Dani quickly agreed. "You could, but you don't have to, that's all I was gonna say. This is dangerous, KD. Like, really goddamn dangerous. You know about Casura's reputation, we all do. If this goes sideways, we could-- bad things could happen. No one would blame you if you just walked away while you could. I just wanted to give you the chance to do that before we get too deep in the weeds here. If you wanna take off, go ahead. Wish I could."

Hopping to her feet with Scatters in the palm of her hand (turned so the tiny lizard could keep watching the television), KD immediately replied, "First of all, you two are my friends, so like hell would I just run off and abandon you guys to deal with this bitch by yourselves. It just wouldn't happen, that's not me. If she takes you down, she's gonna have to go through me too." The words were strong, but her voice still caught a bit through that, and she had to gulp hard before saying the last part, steadying herself with a deep breath. "I wouldn't abandon you guys, period."

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The small girl waited until the other two nodded before pushing on. "Anyway, even if we weren't friends, I also owe Paintball like… a lot. Seriously, do I really need to remind you guys about that whole thing with Jason and Jennica? Jason's only still alive and not sitting on Breakwater cuz old Paints and his team stepped up. And Jennica… she's getting the help she needs right now because of him too. So yeah, I'm staying right here to help. You just tell me what we're doing."

With that settled as much as it could be, Dani exchanged a glance with Ryder. Immediately, he shook his head. "Hey, don't look at me. I'm sticking around too. Sure, I'm so scared right now it feels like I'm about to pee myself, but I'm not going anywhere. I mean, unless your plan involves us going somewhere for the whole stopping Casura thing. I'll go along with that. I wasn't saying I'm gonna stay in this room the whole time. It was just a--err, never mind, you get it." Blushing, he settled back and folded his arms over his stomach. "Point is, I'm gonna help. So go ahead."

He watched, doing his best to calm his nerves (it didn't help much) while Dani visibly steadied herself before launching into her explanation. "Okay, well, thanks, guys. The thing is, we've gotta find out where Casura's keeping her hostages, and the idea we came up with has to do with that Dance Dance Revolution thing. She attacked that person who beat her score, so we were kinda figuring the arcade where it happened might be near a place she's spent a good bit of time at. You know, enough to notice the score thing and see the person beating it. That's the best lead we've got anyway." A brief pause followed before she admitted, "It's the only lead we've got."

Realizing what she was saying, Ryder piped up, "So you want me to go down there and try to get into their cameras to see where she goes, where she comes from, that sort of thing to track her? Maybe we can find her safehouse and get those hostages out of there while she's gone."

"That's the idea," Dani confirmed. "But first we've gotta find the right arcade. We tried checking the news, but… uh, there's not really a shortage of stories about fights, and none of them come right out and say that it was by an arcade. Not yet, anyway. It's still pretty early. Too early to get that sort of detail, apparently. But we think the police and hospital reports might have more."

KD was the first to find her voice after that, squeaking out a surprised, "You want Ryder to go near a bunch of cops and infect all their computers to check their reports to find this arcade?"

"Want is a strong word," Dani pointed out with a grimace while moving to plop down next to Bumbershoot on the floor so she could pet him. "But yeah, we think it's the best way to figure out where this bitch is. But like I said, if any of you wanna back out, no one's gonna blame--"

"I'll do it," Ryder interrupted immediately. "Come on, it's Paintball, you know I will. Whatever it takes to get him out from under Casura's thumb. But we better get started, before anything worse happens." Even saying that left the taste of ashes in his mouth. The simple act of implying that worse could happen made the boy feel like he'd made it possible, no matter how dumb that was. He pushed the thought away as much as he could and focused. "Let's go find that arcade."

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

In the end, it took three hospitals and two police stations for them to find what they were looking for. Them, at that point, was just KD and Ryder. Dani had been called off to help Raindrop with something Paintball's team had asked for, so they had to split up. Which was just as well, since spending any time around cops was dangerous to begin with, let alone if there was a black girl with them. And no, Ryder was absolutely not comfortable being there himself. Criminal or no criminal, being a trans guy close to a police station didn't exactly fill him with warm fuzzies. He really had absolutely no desire to spend any more time around them than he absolutely had to.

Thankfully, they finally found the right place. A guy in his twenties had been viciously assaulted just down the street from one of those big, three-story arcade buildings with the virtual reality rooms upstairs. He'd spent a couple hours there and was attacked by someone whose face he never saw. Someone who was able to throw him around easily, and moved faster than a normal person. But the clincher was that the guy remembered something about his attacker being on the phone through part of it. That bit matched with what Dani had said Cassidy's team heard.

Now, Ryder and KD were at the arcade in question. He was pretending to watch KD play an old Simpsons game, while most of his focus was actually on directing the Mites he'd slipped into the building's computer system while the girl had briefly distracted the security guard near his office.

Even with his power, it was still taking awhile, because he had to jump the Mites through about three different computers in that room to even find the one connected to the cameras, then scroll through the footage to the right general timeframe until he managed to spot the person who matched the picture of the victim in the police report. And that wasn't easy either, given how badly beaten the poor guy had been. Between the black eyes, the blood, the bruises, and all that, his face was barely recognizable. But eventually, Ryder was pretty sure he had the guy.

From there, it was a relatively simple matter to shift the view to the outside cameras the guy walked out. Tugging KD's sleeve, he followed the same path, turning right just like their victim had before starting to head that way. A quick scan of the area revealed just a few cameras with a decent view of the area. One was a traffic camera, and two others were part of the security systems for other stores across the street. He took a moment to look at each of them as subtly as possible before settling on the camera attached to the front of a jewelry store as the best option for what they needed. Thankfully, that didn't mean walking into the shop and getting KD to distract the clerk there like she had the guard back at the arcade. He just walked under the camera, made sure no one was looking too closely, and made a motion like he was flicking his hand through his hair to toss a Mite up into the thing.

From there, he and KD did a little fake window shopping, blending in with the tourist crowd as the Mite went to work. Ryder scrolled back through the camera's footage until he matched its time with when he'd lost sight of the victim as he'd walked out of range of the arcade's cameras. But most of his focus was on other people. He watched the footage to see who was paying attention to that guy, and which of them followed him into the alley where he'd been jumped. Most importantly, he was watching to see just what direction that person had come from.

Obviously, Casura hadn't walked down the street to attack the guy in broad daylight as herself in costume. She might have been pretty blatant much of the time, but it was even she wouldn't want to draw that sort of attention just yet. Which was why Ryder wasn't exactly surprised when the person he saw follow that guy into the alley didn't look at all like the pictures he'd seen of her, either in costume or not. In fact, it didn't look like a her at all. She was either shapeshifted or using some sort of Incogniter tech as a disguise. Whatever it was, she looked like a slender guy with short blond hair and red tattoos all the way up both arms, wearing ratty jeans and a tank top. He-- or she, rather, was definitely following the victim in question. Even better, she was already tugging a phone out of her pocket just as she passed out of view of the camera.

Fast forwarding the view while hoping he wouldn't have to go find another camera on the opposite side of the alley, wherever it came out at, Ryder was relieved when he saw the slender figure come back out not even two minutes later. He strolled away with blood on his fists. Blood that quickly vanished, like it was absorbed right into his skin. Yeah, that was definitely Casura.

Unfortunately, she rounded the corner down the street and was completely out of sight of any building security or traffic cameras. There just weren't any on that street, annoyingly enough. That was the bad news. The good news was that, thanks to a suggestion from KD, they weren't completely screwed. Ryder found the nearest camera he could and scrolled intently through the footage from earlier until he spotted exactly what they needed. It was a car that had been parked on the street they needed to see. A car with its own security system, including cameras.

The car wasn't there anymore, but it didn't take long to use more traffic cameras to track it down to an apartment building a few blocks away. Infecting the thing with his Mites, Ryder went through that footage until he found the time in question, whispering a quiet thanks for the fact that these security systems were always recording, even if it was a terrifying prospect outside of this specific situation. And there she was. He watched the camera feed as the disguised Casura crossed the street and walked right through the side door of what had apparently once been some sort of candy store or something. A candy store that was closed up tight, with bars over the windows. Yet Casura strolled right inside and no one batted an eye. Or even glanced that way. Either another power meant to keep people from paying attention, or general public distraction. Whatever it was, she went right in that building and didn't come out again, at least from that door, at any point until the car he was using left that spot. There was, however, a pizza delivery an hour later. And from the look of things, it was for more than one person.

Recalling his Mite, Ryder turned to KD, who was examining some graffiti on the nearby wall. "Come on, we need to look around a little more, but really carefully."

"That mean what I think it means?" the girl asked with a raised eyebrow.

Swallowing the lump of nervousness in his throat, Ryder nodded. "Yup.

"I'm pretty sure we found where Casura's hiding those hostages."