章 2740: 2.5
The trip away from the Rig back to the rest of Brockton Bay had few differences to the trip there. For one it was still fairly quiet, it had a PRT van and I was pretty sure the same people who took me to the base were also the same people who took me off.
It was only when I was left by that phone booth awkwardly waving goodbye did I realize the nerves I had.
Giving a sigh of relief I wondered what I should do now. First thing first I had to find a quiet area to unmask and go back to being boring old Taylor. I wouldn't want to break the facade that I wasn't skipping class as Vim by having someone take a photo of me. Knowing my luck someone would note that the photo was taken during school hours and post it online. Not that I was famous enough for anyone to do that yet but I didn't want to take any chances.
I got to meet Armsmaster again, get his autograph, visit the rig and share my potions with him.
That was all good yet it was all starting to be overshadowed by guilt.
I thought I could pretend, that I could just lie to him.
I was a hero, I was better then my tormentors. To that end I promised that I would go back to school and become the person that the heroes thought I was!
After today that is.
It would be way too awkward to walk into the school now. Frankly it would probably be awkward explaining why I was not there tomorrow either. As I pondered my predicament I came across an easy solution.
Poisons, more specifically one that decreased my stamina.
Early on in my power testing and potion making I had accidentally brewed a bunch of poisons.
Most of them were either too situational to make a difference or simply too risky. Making someone weaker to frost would probably never come up and quite frankly the poisons that damage health might kill people. I didn't know if they could kill people though, it's not as if I could really test them on any non-brutes. Besides only bad guys use toxins. The biggest exception of course being tranquilizers by definition I supposed but that was besides the point.
Now stamina poisons on the other hand could work well enough on me to fool dad. He'd probably phone ahead and tell school that I didn't look so well just in case they decided to check up on me as unlikely as that sounded.
I didn't want to deceive dad like this but it was necessary.
By tomorrow I'd be a model student!
Walking by I began to wonder how my pocket dimension worked.
Pocket dimension, that didn't sound great, I'd have to come up with another name for it.
Inventory!
That felt right. Okay focus Taylor, your inventory and your new powers! How do they work? Besides the ability to jam a bunch of stuff into my backpack without it all taking up any space I could eat stuff through my mask. That felt useful but what if I ran up against a villain who could shoot sleeping gas at me? Would my power work against me then? Would the gas go right through any face coverings I had?
Well I could test that some other time. I could buy a gas mask and then stink bomb myself. That was a non-lethal way to test my powers right?
Okay, hiding spot to change clothes. I couldn't use any toilets, it would be too suspicious. Hero goes in, Taylor comes out. No hero inside and Taylor didn't go in? Well only one conclusion then!
I couldn't go into anywhere crowded either, with my outfit I simply stood out too much.
I could use my Veil to escape I supposed but I wasn't confident enough in that power quite yet. I mean seriously, I had a stranger power that only worked if noone was looking at me to begin with. Knowing my luck a random kid would be staring at me the moment I left the toilets breaking my power wide open.
I'd have to use my Veil in a dark alley way to strip and dress. It wasn't perfect but at least there would less of a chance of me being found.
That sounded like a terrible idea if said out loud.
Still it was probably the only thing I could do. Crouching down I crept my way through the twisted labyrinth that was Brockton Bay and eventually found the perfect alleyway, the one that I used originally to change into Vim.
I had picked out this spot earlier since it had no doors to suddenly open as I changed clothes, no windows to peer out of and it had a big dumpster to hide me from view! Perfect!
Alright first goes the black shirt, into the bag you go. Nope, not bag, the Inventory! I smiled as it disappeared from view.
Next I'd grab my pants, good bye pants! Now for my mask! POP! It didn't actually go pop, but I imagined it did so it might as well have.
"Uhh hello?" My eyes widened at the intruding sound. I certainly did not give a shrill scream as I covered my bare body…. Which was no longer bare. As surprised as I was my mind helpfully pointed out that I was fully dressed as Vim, mask and all.
"Oh wow, that's a useful power." A figure approached me. "Hello, nice to see you again."
It was a blond girl, hair done in a bun. She was shorter than me with a freckled face that sported an infuriating grin that reminded me too much of the smug look that Emma would often give me. Still confused over what my power had done I tried to clear my head. No wait, it was two people.
The second was a handsome guy with dark skin and a muscled frame that wouldn't look out of place on a hero. Or a poster in my room my treacherous mind provided. Point was he was good looking.
"Uhh hello citizens!" Smoooooth Taylor, smooooth. "You shouldn't sneak up on a hero, I could've mistook you for a pair of villains!" That sounded suitably heroic right? The girl's grin widened and she began to giggle. The guy on the other hand seemed a bit nervous and protectively stood by the girl.
"Haha, yeah, you could've mistaken me for a bad guy, wouldn't want that would we?" She asked sarcastically. "Scary!"
I was a bit offended at that. "Hey, I could've hurt you!" I didn't want to of course but a surprised person could do a lot of damage without intending to.
"Not without your bat you're not." My bat? I froze there. "In case you haven't figured it out I'm Tattletale and he's Grue."
I was speechless. Did a pair of villains reveal their faces to me? Why were they doing this? Unless, this was all a trap! I took a step back, wait how did they even find me here?
"I can read minds, you know." Still speechless. "I'm not here to fight, I'm just here to return something of yours." It was then I noticed the bat leaning against the wall next to her.
Slowly I approached them scanning the area for the rest of the Undersiders. Grue seemed to hover over Tattletale who continued to grin offering my bat back to me.
"Even if you could read my mind that doesn't explain how you found me." I argued with the bat finally back in my hands. I clinically noted that it had bite marks as I retrieved it. Very big bite marks.
She rolled her eyes.
"Wasn't that hard, got a dog to smell your bat and track you down." She told me.
"Wait, why would my smell be on the bat? It belongs to…" My brain shut down at that point.
"Took awhile to find you here in this alley specifically but I had my ways." I gripped the bat tighter. If this two bit villain thought she could threaten my dad then she had another thing coming.
"Woah, calm down like I said not here to fight."
"No, you're here to blackmail me!" I argued.
"Which is why you should calm down." She just kept SMILING! "If I was blackmailing you then one of my teammates would be at your house right now waiting for me to make a call. Dumb of you to threaten me." I froze, I had let my anger get the better of me, I had to slow down and think.
"Tattletale." Grue of all people seemed to warn her.
"Not that they would be, like I said not here to fight and I'm not here to even blackmail you." I still felt trapped.
Confused at the situation I tried to clear things up.
"Okay, you're not here to fight and you're not going to hurt my dad so what's the deal?"
"Like I said, returning the bat." She replied. It was then that Grue stepped forwards.
"Sorry for Tattletale, she likes antagonising people." Oh wow, that was a nice voice. Wait he was a bad guy! "We're villains sure but we're still human and we're grateful that you managed to drive off Lung, we might've died otherwise." So what gratitude was enough to hold them back from blackmailing me into committing crimes for them?
"Look." Tattletale piped up again. "We're thieves, we don't kill and we don't blackmail people and to prove we're on the level I want to give you this." It was then she presented me with a lunch box.
An Alexandria lunchbox, I think I had one just like it once upon a time. Putting away the bat, with my Inventory power I could have it back out in a flash.
"Really?" I asked skeptically. Still I took the box to find that there was a strange weight to it.
"Open it." She told me. This could still be a trap, a bomb of sorts. I was tempted to just set something on fire and arrest them both but if this was a trap then why didn't they just attack earlier when they surprised me without a weapon?
So I did as she said and opened the lunchbox. It was filled with...
"Money," I breathed, caught off guard by suddenly having so much in my hands. Ten stacks of bills, tied with paper bands. Each of the paper bands had a number written on it in permanent marker. Two hundred each…
Tattletale answered before I had the number totalled up in my head, "Two grand." She told me.
Even with the numbers that Armsmaster had given earlier, this still shook my world. With this I'd have more than enough to buy an anvil! I could probably even grab a grindstone and still have more then enough leftover to make a workbench!
"I can't accept this." I told them. It was ill gotten cash.
"Fine, we'll take it back and spend it on guns or something." I froze, reflectively clutching the lunch box to my chest protectively. I felt conflicted.
"Look, if you really feel bad about it then take the money and give it all to charity, whatever but like I said, we want to make things even between us both." I looked up to her again then down at the money. I made my decision putting the lunchbox into my Inventory.
Now that I was no longer angry I could think again and my mind picked up on something that I hadn't before.
"The bat I can understand, I lost that when I confronted Lung, something related to your survival." I began. "The money is a bit of a stretch but I guess if you truly thought you were going to die then I can believe it." Tattletale still smiled. "What I don't get is why you unmasked."
"Well you're a hero, what was I supposed to do, approach you in costume in broad daylight? What would've happened then?" Okay that was a good point.
"Wait a second." Grue interrupted. "You KNEW she was a hero to begin with?"
"Well maybe? That's not important right now." She shrugged. "Besides it was clear that she was one of the good guys when we surprised her and she was all like 'be careful, I could've mistook you for bad guys and hurt you' thing."
"But we didn't know befo- goddammit Tattletale, you and I are going to talk about this later."
Tattletale didn't seem apologetic in the slightest.
"Anyways!" She started back up again. "The point is we're the lesser of every other evil out there in Brockton Bay, we sometimes steal money from people who won't miss it or other bad guys. Bad guys who sell drugs, beat up innocents and sell people off as sex slaves, I think we're saints in comparison."
"That doesn't make it right." I answered.
"No but it doesn't make us any less human which once again is why we're thankful for you saving our lives. I mean that's what a hero does right Miss Hero?"
"It's Vim actually." I answered back almost absently.
"Alright Vim, anyways we gotta go, no rest for the wicked and such." Then they left. Grue looked back at me one last time, an unsure expression on his face.
"Stay safe Vim." He called back to me before heading off.
I gave them a few minutes before activating my Veil again. She pierced my Veil. There was no warning. One second no one was looking at me then suddenly BOOM she did! Her perception must've been insane!
I grimaced.
Once I was confident I was alone again I tested my powers and in a blink of an eye found that I was wearing my normal clothes again. Just boring old Taylor. I had quite a day today.
I thought I was being blackmailed.
I went back home, all thoughts of my powers gone from my mind and when dad finally came back I hugged him.
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