Chapter 16: Chapter 16: The Ground Floor is Dirty
Guardian
a Worm/Destiny Crossover
Chapter 16: The Ground Floor is Dirty
She knew it.
She just knew it.
There was no way on Earth or Heaven she would be able to do anything related to her and Tattletale's venture before Sabah dragged her somewhere and extracted detail after detail from Taylor's feeble, overwrought brain until she was satisfied. This time, the arena was the same outdoor cafe they'd eaten at after fighting off Strongman and his band of merry skinheads. She, Taylor, was fresh off her commitment to the new team and buzzing with nervous energy because of it. It didn't show overmuch, but it did show. Her foot was tapping a steady beat on the curve of one of the table's metal legs. The fingers of her off hand were accompanying her foot on her thigh. Even more than normal, she was itching to move, to do. It was almost unbearable. Almost.
Across from her, looking at her with dark, hooded eyes, Sabah was unusually quiet. In opposite of Taylor's antsy movements, she was still and sparing in her motions. She moved her pursed lips from one side of her mouth to the other and slowly spun her fork between her fingers. Something was turning in her thoughts, something that caused the normally gregarious, energetic girl to lose both of those qualities. Taylor didn't know what to say, and Sabah didn't say anything for a long few minutes until, "Are you sure this is what you want? You're not being blackmailed or manipulated or Mastered?"
"Yes, I'm sure, and no, I'm not." Something, some...instinct...for lack of a better word, had her dismissing the idea outright. "Come on, Sabah. We've only been friends a few months, yeah, but you gotta know by now I'm not doing anything I don't want to."
Sabah raised an eyebrow.
Taylor sighed, and conceded the point. "No one wants to go to school. That doesn't count." She picked at a fry, tearing little pieces off it with her fingernails and letting the pieces fall back to the plate. "I'm – I'm hoping you're in my corner on this. It's going to be bad enough, going after these guys, I don't...I don't want to be fighting my friend, too."
Sabah made a soft, quiet sound, full of something Taylor couldn't quite name. "Oh, Taylor. Is that what you thought this was about? That I was going to try and stop you?"
She shrugged helplessly. The sound came again. This time she could name it, and she named it hurt, and she didn't like it coming from her friend. She couldn't – or wouldn't – lift her eyes from the shredded french fry on her plate, not until a warm, smooth hand covered hers.
"Look at me, sweetie." She did. Sabah managed to pack sadness, understanding, and frustration into a single look. "I'm not the kind of person who tries to tell their friends what they can and can't do. I'm also not brave enough to be the kind of person who looks at the monsters in our world and goes, 'yeah, I can take 'em'. The fact that you are? It's fucking awesome, and it's scary as shit. But, yeah, I'm in your corner, Taylor. All the way, 'til the wheels come off and the end of the line." She smiled softly. "All that jazz."
Taylor sniffed, smiling back. "Thanks, Sabah."
"Of course, you're also out of your mind, but that's nothing new."
She laughed. "You just had to ruin it, didn't you?"
"Hey," Sabah let go of her hand and sat back. "can't let things get too weepy, I'll ruin my make-up. So, let's change the subject. Is Tattletale hot, or is she hot?"
Taylor groaned, face burning, and dropped her face into her hands.
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She was saved from having to answer that question by the devil herself calling. The default ringtone – she never had worked out how to change it – binged and bonged from her pocket until she dug it free and flipped it open, shooting Sabah a triumphant and not-at-all apologetic look. "Hey, Tattletale." Only after she said that did she realize that a public restaurant may not be the best place to have this conversation. But she couldn't skip out on paying for her half of the meal, so she decided to lower her voice and hope no one was actively eavesdropping.
"And how did you know it was me?" Tattletale's voice was light, airy. Teasing. She rolled her eyes.
"Because I'm psychic, duh."
"Huh." Taylor got the impression Tattletale was smiling. "How 'bout that?"
"What I can do for you?"
"You're the psychic, you tell me."
Taylor snorted a laugh into the phone and tucked an errant bit of hair behind her ear. "You want to BASE jump from the Medhall building? That's dangerous, and illegal. Shame on you."
Laughter rang in her ear. It was...nice. Throaty and warm. "Not today, I'm afraid. Forgot my parachute at home. We're just going to have to settle for picking a base of operations."
"Oh, no, however will I cope?"
"I'll be there, of course."
That sent a flush through Taylor, and she fought to keep it off her face. Damn that girl. "That makes it worse, not better."
"Ha ha, very funny." She rattled off an address. "I'll be there in costume, by the back door. Meet me there?"
"Sure thing. See you."
"Bye bye, now."
Then she hung up. Taylor looked at Sabah for the first time since answering the phone and saw...something. It looked a lot like – like jealousy, but what did Sabah have to be jealous of? She ventured a cautious, "You okay?"
"Hm?" Just like that, it was gone. Sabah perked up. "Fine, why?"
"You looked..." She let it go. "Never mind. I have to go, we – "
"I heard." Sabah waved a hand, tugging her plate close to her. "Go and let your freak flag fly, baby. I hear slapping her ass and buying her Taco Bell works wonders."
"What."
"You heard me. Scram, you got an appointment to keep."
After digging enough to cover her half of lunch out of her pocket and tucking it under her plate, Taylor did just that. She left all thoughts of Sabah's weird behavior and even weirder advice behind her.
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Much like their first suggested meeting place, Taylor wanted to reject their first suggested base out of hand. Last time, it was because she didn't trust the walls to lack ears. This time, it was because she didn't trust the walls to stay upright. It was a warehouse, though not nearly as large as the last one she'd been near. Roughly the size of a gas station, it was a rickety, rusted congregation of corrugated sheet metal and filmy, grime-covered windows. The road that led to it was more pothole than asphalt, with weeds sprouting from the gaps. The front door had been painted over at some point in the past and was completely incapable of being opened as a result. This was why Tattletale said the back entrance. It certainly wasn't because there was a risk of being spotted. The building, henceforth called the Rust Bucket in Taylor's mind, was three-quarters of a mile from the meanest, barest part of the Docks, which put it around four miles from civilization. In that regard, it made for a perfect base of operations. It also made her want a tetanus shot just from looking at it.
She'd run home to change, having not been willing to shell out for a purse big enough to hide her costume in, and as such made it almost impossible that she'd beaten Tattletale there. The pale brown sedan just barely peeking out from the back of the building made it a certainty. After making sure that her cloak's hood sufficiently covered her eyes – though there'd never been a problem with that before – she crossed the road and made her way down the side of the building. The walls gave off near visible waves of heat, having spent a merry afternoon baking in the sun. That was probably why she could feel a little heat in her cheeks.
As she approached she heard a familiar sound – that of someone drumming their feet on the ground. Her ears were sensitive enough that she could pick up the individual pieces of gravel bouncing away, if she so wanted. That would also lead to her hearing everything else nearby at an incredible volume, so she refrained. She could also pick out the rhythmic hum of music, faint enough to make her think that Tattletale had brought something to amuse herself. Oddly, that little tidbit went a ways towards settling her. Like it made things a bit more real. Made getting around the back end of the sedan without being spotted easy, and a head of white-blonde hair, bobbing to a beat, came into view. Tattletale was in full costume – catsuit, gloves, mask. Pistol. And headphones, connected to an MP3 player in her lap.
Something occurred to Taylor then, a curiosity. This time, she was able to keep it from flying out of her mouth. Didn't that suit get hot? What she did instead was clear her throat, loud enough to practically be a close-mouthed cough. Tattletale jumped up, hair flying wild as she spun around, free hand making an abortive jerk towards the pistol at her side. When she saw Taylor, she relaxed and smiled. She pulled the headphones out of her ears and tucked them...somewhere, along with the device they were attached to. "Hey, hey, hey Guardian!" she spread her arms, as if to encompass the glory of the building behind her. "What do you think?"
Though she was able to refrain from commenting on Tattletale's catsuit, she wasn't quite as good at restraining her skepticism. "I think it's a miracle it's still standing."
Tattletale grinned widely and did a strange sort of hop forward. Almost too close for comfort. Almost. "That's exactly what we're looking for!" Taylor's brows rose, incredulity writ large on her face. "No, seriously, think about it! You want to build a massive tower that juts up into the sky and shouts 'I'm here, blow me up!'? You don't, because you're probably not crazy. What we're looking for is something exactly like this, something you'd never in a million years see and think 'cape base'. Well, there's also one other thing."
"And that would be?"
"A basement, and another one below that. Two floors underground. Come on, I wanna show you!" Tattletale, practically vibrating with energy, darted in to seize Taylor's hand and drag her inside.
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Inside the warehouse looked like outside the warehouse, only hotter. It was completely empty, the sound of their footsteps echoing slightly as they walked across the filthy cement floor. As she was being guided along, Taylor looked around to try and spot the door that would lead to these alleged basements. Also, one or two glances at the roof, because she still didn't trust it. She found nothing. It was only when the sound of feet-on-cement became feet-on-metal that she realized her mistake. Tattletale let go of her hand, leaving it feeling strangely empty, to walk over the trapdoor and kick the debris covering it away. "A trapdoor?"
Tattletale nodded, grinning widely. "Yeah! Come on, it's rusty, so you're gonna have to help."
Together, they bent over the door and grabbed the handle in a four-handed grip. Taylor looked over at the other girl. "On three?"
The response she got came with a grin, "Lift with your legs!"
She counted it out, and they heaved the door open. Not that it came willingly or without making a horrendous screeching sound right out of the mouth of a horror film monster. It echoed around the room, unwelcome and unappreciated. As they pulled it up it came towards Taylor, forcing Tattletale to let go and herself to take a few steps back to lower the door to the ground gently. She'd already suffered one loud noise and was in no mood for another. Once done she found that the palms of her gloves, and indeed her exposed fingers, had been dusted with flaked rust. It came off with a few brushes against her pants – oh, was she going to hear it from Sabah – and then she went to see exactly what she'd just help unearth.
About what she'd expected. Concrete steps leading down into a vast darkness, full of mystery and the unknown and...well...probably some empty rooms or something. Some more empty rooms. Maybe six steps down she spotted a very old looking light switch, sprouting a track of wires leading into the dark. She went down the steps – it turned out to be five, but whatever – and flipped it up. With a crackle and an electric hum that she was familiar with, a bulb burst into faded, orange life. From behind her, she heard Tattletale give a little laugh and say, "And she said, let there be light, and there was, and it was good."
She turned to look over her shoulder. "You are way excited about this."
The look she got back was doubting. "You're not?"
Taylor shrugged, "Fair enough." and turned back. As they descended, more lights popped on overhead, gradually illuminating a staircase with a slight curve to it. It couldn't be much farther to the bottom, given how the whole city was only a few dozen feet above a huge underground lake. A little grin crossed her face. Even if all they found was rat shit and some old newspapers, this waspretty damn cool.
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It was pretty clear to her that they were the first people to find this place in a long time. The air was thick with dust and a stale, musty odor. The overhead lights cast shadows into the room's corners, and a thick coating of dust covered the floor. It looked like this room had once been some kind of storage, and from how there were no air vents, whatever was being stored hadn't been very sensitive. The far wall was host to a sunken door, the kind with a wheel set in the center instead of a knob. A bulkhead door, she thought they were called. The wall to her left just had an open frame, through which was another room, equally as empty.
This place needs a lot of work. A lot of work. Maybe even too much work.
Tattletale crossed behind her to go into the room to the left, while she went to inspect the door. Her cloak swished behind her, kicking up dust eddies as she walked. She rapped her knuckles on the metal, then dropped her hand, sliding her fingertips over the wheel. It was smooth and cool and oddly clean. Stainless steel, maybe? It was out of place, that much was becoming clear. Her fingers curled into a solid grip, and she gave the wheel a spin. Unlike the trapdoor, it went smoothly, pulling metal bars out of niches in the wall and swinging inwards with nary a sound. Another staircase was revealed. One had drifted down to the hilt of her knife as she took a single step over the threshold.
Suddenly, there was light. Bright, white light. She startled, no more than a clench of muscle. The source was a strip of LEDs set in the ceiling, going down only a half-dozen feet and then forward into a gray steel hallway. "Hey, Tattletale!" she shouted over her shoulder. "I found something you're going to want to see!"
Rapid footsteps and a single, muffled curse preceded Tattletale's arrival. Taylor scooted over as much as she could to give the other girl room, but it was still a pretty tight fit. The idea of moving down a stair to make more space never got any traction. She watched the other girl look up at the lights, then down the stairs to the hallway. "Whoa. This is unexpected."
"You didn't know about this?"
Tattletale shook her head. "Not at all. I was thinking we'd find something we could do up ourselves, or get some help. I know a guy who does base construction for hero groups, I thought maybe I could pay extra to keep ours on the down low, but this...this is completely unexpected." She turned to smile widely at Taylor. "Let's have a look around. See what we've stumbled into."
Taylor gestured down the stairs. "Lead on."
After sticking her tongue out, Tattletale did just that.
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What they found was surprising. Also, more extensive than Taylor was expecting. Although...her expectations had been blown away by the two rooms they'd found before this, so at this point anything was more than she was expecting. It was two larger rooms, set end-to-end and about half a football field in total size. Attached to each large room were three smaller rooms. All of them were the same gray steel, all of them had the LED strip in the ceiling, and all them were completely empty. It was completely quiet. The lights didn't hum or buzz, even to her ears, the air conditioning made sound as it came through the vents. The only sounds she could pick were that of her and Tattletale's feet and the gentle swish of her cloak. Eerie didn't begin to cover it. "What is this place?" She didn't know why she whispered. Her voice was unnaturally loud and resounded in the emptiness.
"I think..." At least Tattletale was whispering too. "I think this was going to be somebody's base."
"Then what kept them from finishing it?"
A shrug. "Could be anything. They got recruited, they got killed, they ran out of money, they left town because their spouse found out they were cheating. It's not like the turnover rate in this city is small. Without knowing more, I can't say for sure."
Taylor hummed and spun in a circle. She could see the potential. Training room, equipment lockers, computer banks, big projector screens on the walls. Big, squishy armchairs. They could definitely make use of this place, and it would cut down on their prep time by – well, the exact amount escaped her, but it would be a lot. It was kind of strange, though, to be building on the foundation left behind by someone else. Not wrong, necessarily, just...odd. She turned to find Tattletale running her open hand down one of the walls. "You don't think this is a little weird?"
"Which part, the finding the partially built base underground or the appropriating it for our own use?" When she put it like that, Tattletale kind of had a point.
"Both, actually."
"Well..." Tattletale dragged the word out, frowning at the floor and tapping her lips with a finger. "Yeah, it's weird, but not as weird as you might think. For example, I know for a fact that Uber and Leet's current base used to be a workshop for a Tinker who never got a chance to debut before, well – they're gone now. And before you helped clear them out, the Merchants were squatting in an old ABB warehouse. Property changes hands here all the time, is what I'm saying."
"Using villainous examples is reassuring." Taylor felt that needed to be pointed out. "Seeing as we're sort of trying to be heroes, here."
Tattletale met her eyes for a moment before looking away. "Okay, fine. I admit that I can't think of any examples of hero teams doing the same thing, but I know there are some who have, it's impossible to go forty feet nowadays without tripping over something cape related. But if this isn't your style, or you just plain don't approve of making our base here, say the word. Gets my vote, though."
Taylor closed her eyes, for a moment so incredibly tired of being forced to make life-altering decisions. Seemed like there wasn't a day that went by where she wasn't making some horrendously important choice over another. Charge the Merchant tank or hide behind the heroes? Approach the fabric based Tinker who wasn't actually one or try and put her own costume together? Say yes to Tattletale's crazy plan or let it go by? I don't want to have to choose anything else. She must have kept her eyes closed, and been quiet longer than she thought, because Tattletale piped up again, a slight edge of something that might be worry to her voice.
"Really, though. There are plenty of places we can look at, I just thought we'd start with the best place, I had no idea this was down here."
Taylor opened her eyes and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way. "It's fine, I just needed a minute to think. If we didn't use this place, how long would it take us to set up somewhere else?"
"Months, probably. Longer, depending on how long the backlog is."
"And if we set up here?"
Tattletale shrugged. "Three weeks, maybe a month. There's a lot to do, but having the basic construction already done? It puts us ahead by a lot."
"Okay, then," Taylor nodded, decision made. "Let's get started."
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