My Super Secret life…Villain-18.

Chapter 18.

*Before…

Link goes and showers and changes and I get dressed but not as heavily as before but I do pocket several of my toys and tricks for the just in case stuff because who knows what will happen here and stuff but I’m still kind of dressed down. Just my long coat and my combat fatigues and my shirts and hoodie but the hood down and I get some cash and fill several pockets tying TK alarms to them and stuff and Link comes out getting dressed in her usual and we lock up and we head back out into this strange mutant underground city.

*And Now…

I know it sounds a little paranoid to go out like that but it’s really not, not for me and Link’s got built in armed powers and the like and my TK well it’s really not too useful by itself.

Now give me something to actually move on the other hand.

We leave and she grabs a big duffle bag and locks up and we head down through some of the stairs here they’re mostly recycled things like fire escapes and construction stairs like the folding ones that have been jury rigged and then there’s the housing made from shipping containers. It’s inventive and it’s not that bad like one might thing really since a lot of them have plants real of fake ones I’m seeing both and those little Christmas tree lights and a lot of the containers are painted some just plainly or with fancy designs or animals and scenes and suck but they’re…they’re not that bad, I know street kids that lived in far worse and I’ve lived in worse.

It’s like those barrio places that you see in pictures of colonies like Fidel-Sola or Neo-Peru or like colonies like New Calcutta. People piled on people yet it’s sort of still a community.

But I’m aware this is one of the better areas and we seem to be sticking with it and Link’s taking me…

I see a shimmer.

“Is that water?”

“Yep it the canal.”

“The canal?”

“Ocean water it was leaked in after the crash a long time ago and the ship sealed things off when it was still going and when people started living here there was cuts made to reclaim sections and to open up others to the water and there’s a breach somewhere that the water is being pumped in and out from somewhere.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope there’s a chamber out that way a hundred miles or so that we call the drain that’s like this huge whirlpool and over that way in another place there’s seven huge pipes called the Falls that dumps sea water back into the system.”

“But why is there water coming in?”

“Rumors from the council say that it’s all overflow from the lower levels.”

“Are they flooded or aren’t they flooded?”

“Nope, there’s sections that are but they say they were sealed off like the others were here.”

“So there’s sea water here and there’s fresh but where does that come from?”

“The original meta and anthro settlers got tech that we control that handles the water issues and the sewage issues.”

“Oh and hush-hush?”

“Yeah we lose that and there’s no water and then we can’t live here and we’re not exactly welcome on the surface and there’s generations too down here now.”

I nod and we head down to what’s a sort of dockside market again all sort of shanty built and the bulk of it seems like floating docks made from floatables bound together with warehousing pallets and there’s.

There’s a boat city out there…I mean the water for this canal goes all the way out until it’s just blackness. This place is huge…I mean most people even on the planet do not get what that means but it is a ship the size of a mid-sized continent. I look up and I cannot see the roof, the place wasn’t even built remotely to human scale it’s just…well it’s big enough that there’s this lake or ocean that goes on farther than I can see and that is large enough that the water moves…it has wave action.

And there’s hundreds and hundreds of boats and boat homes here and there’s the scent of brine and fish? Like a boat city.

I’m sort of getting it as I see some of the anthros that are down here and some of the mutants. Otteroids and seal types and there’s other too. There was a lot of militaries from a lot of places that used these things, marines literally especially from the Federation a long time ago when the P’hari made contact with humans and the other paranoid stellar nations followed suit and well as soon as there was soldier anthros there was slave and sex anthros and lots and lots of just bullshit and well deep enough out in space a lot of illegal things just happen because they can.

And then there’s the fact that they breed, that there’s ones here for lack of a better option out of places to live.

There’s things here but some things, some things are dearly expensive. Anything like fresh fruit and veg is at the highest unless you’re looking at some mosses and some kind of kelp and mushrooms of fish and shellfish and the like and I get some of the mushrooms and some of the moss that Link says is good.

I try that and the texture is bizarre it’s feathery and tastes like arugula greens. It’s not my favorite thing but Link seems to like it and the fact that we have mushrooms makes it up to me, it’s one food type that I actually like a fair amount.

But twenty eight dollars a pound for oranges, seventeen for lemons, six for peas and five for green beans and it’s like that as is buying meat that isn’t fish. I’m paying out and we’re getting looks and twice I catch a pair of lightfingers trying to steal from me through my TK alarms.

I don’t get violent or anything they’re just kids and yeah so am I so it’s my grabbing the hand as it’s coming in and me staring them down hard and shaking my head.

They leave looking scared, I’m a thief, from the upper streets and sometimes this would be a beat down offence down here it’s who knows but I’m not going to bash a child over trying to lift off of me.

I was that young once and it wasn’t too long into being that age when I had to hit the streets myself.

Link looks at me and she gives me a nod.

I shrug. “It was a kid.”

“And a lot of people would have done something anyways.”

“I’m not a lot of people.”

“This I’m starting to get.”

I sort of smile and I move along with her to other things and more shopping. Some is for me, I get a few sewing supplies and things and moreover it’s still food and I’m buying some canned stuff in this damaged canned goods place and there’s some that’s perfect like canned fried rice, it’s like freeze dried and lasts forever just about and then there’s other stuff it’s heavy after a while but I want her to be stocked up and I want to eat the stuff that I want to eat without stressing her reserves and being a bad guest.

Okay yeah there’s some of I’m wanting to be a good girlfriend.

Not that I’m her girlfriend or she’s mine but it’s still there, and part of me want to leave this really good sort of impression before her and Jeff really find out just how not like they think that I am…that I really am.

Even doing this, even shopping I have these plans in my head of what I’m going to do topside back home and watching things and people here too and there’s this waiting violence in the back of my head like I’m planning for another attack in my head and building all these plans of attack and ways to hurt them.

Normal people don’t daydream about violence.

I think I have a look too, there’s twice that there’s two rodent anthros and we’re getting looks and stares or I think that they’re stares and they end up not doing anything and just we sort of pass each other without incident save for the stare down thing and then we’re out of that area of Freaktown and we’re headed back into her home grounds and it’s, it’s almost gentrified by comparison really.

There’s three elven looking ones that pass us one the other side of the street and they’re looking at us. All three are women or female looking and they’re dressed pretty sort of sexy and goth like and I can feel it, the feeling of power building in Link and in them too and there’s a stare down for sure and I adjust my pace to put myself in the line of sight in between her and them.

I feel the tickle of being scanned and I flash her bodies, the bodies I found from that bastards place in the drums left like that in the sewer.

I see one flinch and she stares at me and I point at her and give her a TK poke with that. It’s not going to hurt her but it gets her attention and theirs. I waggle my finger in a no-no-no gesture. I get the stink eye and they’re rapidly looking back and forth and I still feel the buzzy sensations. They’re having a telepathic chat.

The eye thing’s a tell as far as I can tell it’s an autonomic reflex to look at someone that you can see while being telepathic with them.

I tap her on her forehead this time. I believe the ancient phrase is “Hello McFly…”

She gives me a dirty look and the three come towards us crossing the street and Link sets her things down then looks at them. “Dawn, Thea, Mandeline.”

“Josephine.” The one called Mandeline almost spits.

“Link.” I say to them.

Dawn glares at me. I don’t even set my things down. “It’s impolite to stare almost as bad as trying to thought scan without permission.”

“You can’t prove shit.”
“I’m not trying to prove your existence I’m just saying you’re fucking rude.”

She bristles. “Watch it Barbie, this isn’t the surface.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Barbie hardly for one I’m not blonde.”

“It’s slang outsider.” The one called Thea sniffs.

“I don’t care what I do care is that you tried to get into my head uninvited.”

Dawn glares. “What are you going to do outsider call the marshals?”

“Link’s right here.”

“Josephine’s an effing traitor.” That’s Mandeline again.

I raise my head. “Ahh…so you that little group of assholes.”

Mandeline shouts. “What!”

“You’re the cosplayer metas running around playing fae court and congratulating yourselves on being pretty and stuff.”

Mandeline makes a move and she has two balls of energy in her hands and they’re giving off heat and I feel Link do a thing and she has her bow out and formed and an arrow ready to let fly. There’s little wisps if ozone coming off the arrowhead.

Instead of people running I see people headed this way.

“You really want to do this ladies? I’m not in the mood to play nice.”

Dawn flicks her wrists and her fingernails become like six inches long and they suddenly look sharp.

I open a pocket in and grab some of the bullets that I have in there and float a dozen and a half out and spin then like a gatling gun. The expression on their faces change pretty fast and they back up and several anthro-canids show up with guns and used army surplus and one of them looks at me and then at Link and then at the three women.

“Stand down, unless you’re issuing a challenge you’ve all been told that this is forbidden.”

Thea frowns but she’s actually the first one to back off and she’s the only one that never drew or powered up. “This is an internal matter.”

“That matter was settled when Link settled it a long time ago, we’ve told you all and your court that’s the end of the blood feud.”

Mandeline powers down glaring at us. “Fine…fine here but it’s a big city Josephine and it’s a big ship.”

I look at her. “And I’m not one of you honey so I’m not restricted by this edict so if you want we can still do this.”

The lead dog a rotti by the look snarls. “Not on my effing watch, now look you…stand down with the gun trick…now!”

I look at him. “Fine, I’m just defending myself given how claws over there tried to climb in my head.”

He looks at her. “Did you?”

“So she says.” Dawn spits literally at our feet.

“I can bring a reader in.” He looks at me.

I float my rounds away and shift my bags in my arms. “No, she knows what she did and she knows that I caught her and that bullshit’s on her honor. I don’t need to press it.”

He looks at her. “I can still bring one in, and with all of this that you three were trying to do I can imagine that the punishment will be steep.”

Thea shrugs actually. “And you’re not going to why?”

He dog wuffle/sighs. “Because you three are going to fuck off back to your district and your zone and spend the rest of the day and night there got it?”

Dawn and Mandeline look like they want to argue it but Thea nods. “Done, and thank you for your patience sir.”

They’re doing the telepathy thing which makes the other dogs growl and shift nervously and the three of them back away and they leave Thea in the lead and she’s actually the calmest and maybe the ringleader or just the coolest head either way she’s leading them away but she shot Link this look and a smirk and the expression on Link’s face said she got a telepathic message and it pissed her off.

The rotti looks at me. “I heard you did that before, it’d kinda be a good thing if you didn’t.”

“I thought the laws were pretty cut and dry around here?”

“We make exceptions on occasion for people who can become walking fully automatic weapons.”

“Really?” I stare at him. “Maybe I should leave the city then?”

“No, no just some restraint is all please.”

Well they’re being nice and they’re not threatening me or Link and that’s saying a lot and they kind of did their job and they’re really, really not being like cops about it.

No, not a fan of the police.

They leave us and I’m looking at Link. “You okay?”

“No, but that won’t change things.”

“Suppose not, this stuff from before?”

“Yeah lesser members of the court families, they were just kids when I did what I had to do and left.”

“So little shits mouthing off and trying to make their bones?”

“Pretty much.”

“Still…you going to be okay?”

“Yes, this is shit I have to deal with it happens, it’s going to happen. It’s not like I can just walk away from it all.”

Well she can, I mean she can just say fuck it and take off, she doesn’t have to be here she’s making the choice to.

No…I’m so not saying that to her.

And I’m not asking her to move in with me.

I’m not good for her and she might not be good for me given there’s no guarantee that her trouble wouldn’t show up anyways like she and Sheppard did in my neck of the woods.

So I nod and I try to sort of look like I’m sympathetic and I sort of am it’s just I see alternatives but then again I don’t have the ties that she has here or the history.

I have things with me and my neighborhood.

This is her neighborhood.

And then there’s the fact that she’s obviously upset and everything and well what do I do about that? I like Link we’re pretty good as two people that are just sort of hooked up. But I mean it’s not a relationship and it’s not like I know her really all that well but I am with her and I do want to make this whole thing suck less.

Hmm… “You have a vid-player?”

She looks at me sort of with that mental circuit breaker on her mad on just got switched or tripped and she nods. “I’ve a digital binder. It takes mini flash chips.”

“You have any movies?”

“Some you want to watch something?”

“I was thinking about it. You know anyone that sells chips?”

She actually grins. “Lots, this is the biggest black market on New Haven.”

“Cool show the way.”

Link smiles a bit as she leads the way looking at least cheered up by the thought of another mini-adventure and she takes me to this…well it’s some sort of open area or it was but where there would be maybe lamp posts there’s metal beams and girders like an unfinished building or something but it’s draped with cloth and flags and stuff like an old school bazar.

It’s a great big and really cheesy but worldly or rather other worldly flea market.

As in a whole lot of everyone and anyone else’s throw away things that might be remotely good is piled high here and a lot of stuff that’s been shipped in that’s odd or crap.

Including movies in dozens of different forms and the standard of course is mini-flash-chips about one centimeter wide and two long they hold either all the stuff related to a movie on it or in the case of shitty movies ten or so or like a season of television shows.

And it’s mostly all crap, but some of it looks like it might be funny crap. I’m actually pretty well versed in this stuff.

When you’re on the run, you hole up a lot. And you hide and stay hid sometimes as long as you can and sometimes you play a lot of videogames and read a lot of books and you watch a lot of movies.

A huge part of survival is keeping your mind off of things sometimes to have a distraction from things.

Because sometimes your life is too horrible to face without it a whole lot of the time.

I get a lot of these and some are actually for me and some are for us to watch and I get a few incidental odds and ends that are just things I want just because. Kids toys and marbles super glue and those mini canisters for the foamer pots for like whipped cream and air-soft guns, Allen keys and really small tools for glasses and watches and really small drill bits for like making small things like jewelry and socket wrench heads and screw driver head tips and all these things that I can use.

And zip ties, I get like bags and bags of those and cheap large garbage bags too.

Then we’re heading back to her place together.

I’m actually glad to get there we were out a lot longer than I thought and using my powers as the whole TK proximity alarm and the stuff with those Dark fae girls and all the walking and shopping I’m a little done in, well more in need of a bit of down time and to relax off of my feet is closer I guess.

We get in and we lock the doors and set things down and…

Nothing is going to spoil right away with the things that we bought so I take her by the hand into her bedroom and to the bed and fall-flop onto her bed and pull her down with me.

“Rikki!”

“Come here, just lie down with me awhile I’m bushed.”

“We should put stuff away that might spoil.”

“Most of the fresh stuff we’re going to cook the rest will be okay for a little while you wore me out with all the tramping.”

“Next time pedi-cab then?”

“They have those here?”

“Yaaa of course we don’t have a lot of stuff but those and litters are actually businesses down here.”

“Okay I’ve never so yeah….besides…”

“Besides?”

“You need the hug.”

“I need the hug?”

“Yes, movie shopping and the flea market place was fun and it was distracting but it’s still there.”

Link nods and she sighs. “Yeah….but everything helped y’know.”

“Then let me help some more.”

“Okay…And Rikki…”

“Yeah…you’re welcome.”

She lets out this tired breath and I spoon with here and hug her a little tighter.

I’m not one of those people but even still sometimes, even having just someone to hold you even if it’s just for like half an hour is a huge help.

Someone should write a book on ‘The truths of being alone.’ or something.

We actually just lay there for a little while and we end up just dozing. I sort of come too when my less tired meets needing to use the bathroom and then there’s the thought of food.

I get up and actually get undressed slipping out of all my things and then slipping into a baggy guys t-shirt and boxer shorts which I like sometimes over panties and I pad out to the bathroom and start getting things set out from my things that I’ve bought and got on the other shopping trip and I’m putting the food out and it’s like I said mostly canned stuff and dried stuff and boxed stuff but there a few of the whole other things too.

We have the veggies and the meat I got since fish is the staple here we really didn’t go for that and I use the chopped meat which looks like beef and I mean “looks” and it smells okay but I take it and I add salt and a good amount of pepper and then a little shake of instant coffee and some liquid gravy maker and mix it together. I take an onion and fine chop it and slice up a lot of mushrooms and get the chopped beef into patties and I cheat…I do them loosely but not too badly and I wrap them in their own little TK force.

The rest of pretty easy I shell the peas and clip the beans and I peel two potatoes and I get the peas and beans on and the potatoes cubed up and cooking and then it’s draining them saving the water and then adding some instant potatoes to the cooked ones after I drain off about half of the water and save that with the veggie water and I flip the burgers which flip perfectly non-stuck from my TK layer.

I add in the onions and mushrooms and let them sear in the meat-fats before adding some more of the gravy maker and the saved water from the veggies and potatoes and I turn it to simmer I look up and see Link sitting at the sort of counter thing she has smiling with her hair loose and she’s in a sleep t-shirt but she’s doing the chin on hand thing.

“It’s kind of awesome that you’re cooking.”

“I like to eat and it is cheaper.”

She nods. “Still, this is nice and the place smells great.”

“Just Salisbury steaks and mushroom and onion gravy with mashed potatoes and peas and beans.”

“That’s not just that’s…that’s stiff I usually don’t get to eat a whole lot…and have cooked for me like never.”

I smile.

“You can set up the movies and stuff.”

“Sure.” She leans over the counter thing and she gives me a kiss that’s…

I think it was a you mean something kiss.

I’m not going to freak out about it but I’m not going to read too much into this too because…well it’s just me.

And it is looking like she might be at least like a Jeff level of relationship though.

And maybe that’s sort of a complication that I might just have to live with like him.

Supper doesn’t take a whole lot longer than that and she comes over and we do the get our servings right out of the pots and pans while their still on the stove/cooking area and then head over and sit on the sofa thing and she has her computer on a couple of plastic pop crates and at just the right level and we sit and we lean on each other and we eat and start watching movies.

I’m glad I made as much as I did because we have two helpings each and end up doing that stuff and against each other holding and completely relaxing thing and just watching movies.

I’m a big fan of things like action movies and shows and Link likes comedies and romantic comedies and I can take them or leave them because it’s hard to really identify with the characters for me.

After about two movies I slip off the couch to the floor and Link looks at me. “What?”

“This is cool but I have work to do.”

“Work?”

“On my gear.”

“Oh…okay cool need help?”

“No…I’m good.”

She nods and slips into my warm spot and stretches out and starts watching another flick and I move things out and I go and I start to get to work.

The under suit is first and that’s that breathable sport material and I’m using My TK to knit the cloth together unweaving parts after the cutting and then reweaving them together to be seamless and I start to do the same for the other things.

Thick tank styled armorcloth layered shirt sort of like a bullet proof vest but lighter despite the layers and then after that making a military styled tactical vest/jacket with all of the pockets and more even added to the sleeves all make from the armorcloth I need pockets and pouches for my toys and tricks.

My utility belt is next and that’s just some of the regular fabric but pretty heavy duty stuff and it’s again pretty military looking this will be for all of my tools and such instead of my weapons and the like.

The pants are the same too and I’m going for a loose leg that’s easy to move and to fight in and has some good utility pockets at the same time and it’s a bit of trial and error a few times to get it all right.

And I make a mask; it’s sort of a balaclava with two woven to be a longer neck to cover my throat area up and the head has fake leather TK sewn to it but I leave room for it to stretch to fit and I leave the eyes open like a sort of ninja look or SWAT look to it and that’s because I don’t want my eyes obstructed. I do make holes for glasses and I have a pair of those blue lensed night time hunting/shooting glasses.

Glasses are different than goggles or too close eye holes or that sewn in lenses in a mask thing that some people do. Especially shooting glasses which is why they wear them in the field so much.

I even go into putting patches on. These take time and I’m using blank patches and silver thread and make a rook chess piece on them and on the back of my jacket the same thread but I make it shaped like a crow/raven in flight but like a top view…there’s a cult comic called The Crow…my rook, my white raven symbol is that sort of shape on the back of my battle jacket.

The whole thing is a whole lot of work and a lot of concentration as I’m grabbing thread or fabric threads and unweaving and re-weaving then and doing the pockets and the pouches and then the embroidery.

I stop and see Link with two coffees. “That’s amazing, Fabric manipulation?”

“Huh?”

“You can manipulate fabric.”

“No…I’ve never heard of such a thing…it is a thing right?”

She nods and takes a sip of hers and then looks at me. “TK? You did that all with TK?”

I nod and sigh at the drink of coffee; it’s hitting that really wanting a hot drink craving.

“Rook…you’ve been doing that for like three hours.”

I lean back and stretch rubbing at my back. “I know I got into it and my back’s feeling it.”

“Your back’s feeling it what about the rest of you, you’ve been doing like I don’t even know how complex of telekinetics for like three hours your brain should be mush.”

I smile at her. “You’re exaggerating I’m doing very small power level things and I’m just shifting power to compensate.”

“Huh?”

“Well I’m not going really out of touching range, so all that energy that I would be using to do this from across the room isn’t being used so I’m using that energy off instead.”

She’s looking at me again. “Do you know how much control you have to have to do that?”

“I live in my TK Link, I have crappy range and compared to some my lift weight is next to zilch so I’ve grown up to use what I have by doing whatever I have to do with what I have.”

“You know that’s still completely uncommon and I’ve never seen any mover do what you did with the bullets.”

“Yeah well that took a lot of working out but it can be done like the thing with the bus.”

She points her mug at me. “And that too, you said you couldn’t lift a lot of weight but you still did that.”

I shrug and smile. “I have my secrets it’s part of my charm.”

Link looks frustrated and amused at the same time. “It is dammit.”

I finish my coffee and I start getting everything on and finish it all with leather gloves those thin ones you see as the fancy type on TV as presents and stuff for women and black combat/hiking boots.

I’m moving around and getting a feel for it and Link looks at me and gives me a thumbs up while she’s yawning. “Looks good kinda paramilitary though.”

“I wanted lots of pockets.”

“I thought that you’d go all cape and cowl spooky like.”

I look at her as I’m actually fitting my gear in to all the pouches and pockets and slots. “No capes.”