Chương 25: Chapter 25
Danny hefted a bundle of 2x4's, slinging them over his shoulder as he walked across a street filled with rubble. The Dockworkers Association had managed to catch a break with the city's most recent disaster. With Fortress Construction buying up nearly all the destroyed land, the need for manual labor skyrocketed. It wasn't quite the kind of work they did before the Boat Graveyard, but it would put food on the table and the DA jumped at the chance for work. It was backbreaking labor to be certain, and they were expected to show up no matter how grim the conditions. The massive rain cloud creeping towards the city would put an end to their work soon enough no matter their efforts, Danny knew, but until then the men of the docks would continue to work and be thrilled for it.
Still, as grateful as Danny was for steady pay, he couldn't help but tremble at the sheer damage done to the city. Damage done by a single cape, a single villain, the kind of person his daughter wanted to fight on a daily basis. It was almost inconceivable for Danny, to have such insane power within a single person. How could a normal person ever stand up against it? How could he protect Taylor from something like this.
And her friend claimed to be stronger still.
The gulf between Danny and his daughter seemed to widen every day, and not just in ability or power. She was so... happy now, so unburdened by the guilt and shame that followed Danny everywhere even now. He was not there for his daughter when she needed him most, and in his failure it seems as though he lost all ability to relate to her. She had friends for that now, strong friends who understood her, helped her, protected her. Friends who had usurped his duty with careless ease.
He was proud, of course, proud of what Taylor had overcome and what she had accomplished, but all the pride in the world could not drown out the fear. He saw it every night in his dreams, his daughter's broken body, dead at the feet of monsters while he stood by, helpless. What could he do, what power could he bring to bear should his little girl need his help?
He was so very lacking, and there was nothing he could do about it.
At the very least, with this job, he could put an end to the charity he'd been forced to accept. The lump in his pocket was a constant unpleasant reminder of Annette's death, but Taylor had insisted, and after three hours of arguing Danny reluctantly accepted the need for a cell phone. What he would not, and still did not accept, was the extravagant piece of technology Taylor's insane friend had provided him. Unfortunately, every time he left it at home it somehow ended up in his briefcase, or his office, or his pocket. So, he would get paid for this job, and buy proper phones, one that you could make calls with, and only make calls with. Neither he nor Taylor needed the distraction a smartphone would bring.
Danny placed his burden on the side of the street, carefully stacking the wood alongside stacks of other materials. He was glad he could do this, at least. Danny couldn't fight gangsters, or beat up villains, but he could contribute in his own way. The slow and steady path towards reconstruction, towards a future that held some semblance of hope. Maybe things would get better. Maybe he would find some way to connect with his daughter before she was lost to him forever.
The small flame of optimism was quickly snuffed out, as a cry of alarm echoed through the gloom. Danny quickly wiped the sweat off his glasses and peered down the street, searching for the source of the commotion. A quiet rumble shook the air, and Danny would have mistook it for thunder if not for the cloud of dust that rolled into the street. He could see men there, faces he recognized, running towards him, barely outstripping the tainted air.
"Was there a collapse!?" Danny shouted to them. He could hear more shouting behind him, as his fellow dockworkers were alerted to the situation. They would rally to help their own, like always.
"MERCHANTS!" Came the reply, a panic filled shout that was followed by a grinding, scraping, crash. A hulking shape rose in the dust, a twisted figure of jagged lines and sharp edges and a dozen grasping tentacles.
Danny watched, paralyzed somewhere between fear and anger, as the nightmare's tendrils grasped at gravel and wood and rubble and pulled the debris inwards. Each piece joined together, giving armor and size and weight to the monster even as it ripped away the hard-earned progress that Danny's people had made.
New men poured out of the dust, dirty, emaciated men with madness in their eyes who fell upon the fleeing workers, beating them with bats and bare hands. The monster followed them, shattering half built houses with careless swings and absorbing the materials within itself.
A rough shake broke Danny free of his paralysis, Ted- something, stuck around just long enough to bellow, "Run!" before fleeing with the rest of the crowd.
"This town belongs to The Merchants!" was the prevailing cry, an echoing chant taken up by a crowd of mad men.
Danny turned to run, fumbling with his phone and cursing wildly. He hated the choice he faced. To call the Protectorate, and pray that they were close enough to respond, or to call his daughter, and beg the help of her powerful friend. Could he risk the safety of his friends, men who he worked beside every day, when a single call could end the danger? Could he risk the safety of his daughter, his brave, idealistic daughter who would come rushing to help him no matter how he protested? Every second he wasted another man was hurt, another building destroyed, and the golem carved out of wood and mortar grew ever larger.
And then his phone lit up with a call from Taylor.
He answered quickly, ducking behind the closest house while masking his panting and cupping the speaker with his hand, "Pumpkin this really isn't the best ti-"
"Dad!" Taylor interrupted, "We just got word The Merchants plan on raiding the construction crews near you! I'm almost there, but you need to spread the word and get out of there!"
"Uh." Danny winced as someone screamed behind him, "It might be a bit late for that sweetie."
"...I see." Taylor's reply was quiet, her voice controlled in a way that gave Danny goosebumps. "Hide somewhere Dad, I'll be right there."
"Taylor, no! You don't need to-" There was a click, and the call ended. Danny stared at his phone, aghast. How could he convince her to stay away? How could she hope to fight the thing that towered over the street?
He peeked around the nearest wall, determined to at least try to help his daughter, though he wasn't certain what he could possibly do. He wasn't about to charge the Merchant cape, getting killed would help nobody, but maybe if he could make it to one of the garbage trucks...
Danny's thoughts of action movie maneuvers were derailed by the buzzing. That was the best description he could come up with, though it seemed to woefully inadequate. It was the sound of cicada in the moonlight, of flies circling refuse, of roaches covering the walls of a ruined building and crawling and crawling. It was the sound of locusts, of a plague that drowned all of creation.
It was the sound of his daughter, and the army she brought with her.
It was an endless field of black that greeted The Merchants, a natural disaster slaved to an angry teenage girl. The insects were almost invisible against the darkened sky, great clouds of grey, flush with rainwater, that blocked out the sun. They crashed down onto the street like the tide, insects of every shape and size clinging to addled gangsters, crawling and burrowing and biting every inch of exposed skin.
Danny had never feared his daughter, had never seen her as anything other than his precious little girl who needed and deserved his protection.
The screams neatly shattered that particular delusion.
The sky opened up, a deluge of water to wash away The Merchant's sins, and the dull roar of rain drowned out the swarm, but Danny could still see, if only in flashes. Addicts seizing, falling, rolling on the ground in agony, covered in stinging insects. The monster who single-handedly destroyed the week's work of twenty men in less than five minutes, flailing wildly at the air. It was just a shape, a shadowy outline in the rain, but Danny watched as it tore at itself, slapping at its arms and legs, ejecting great chunks of material. Taylor's swarm wrapped around it, great tendrils of undulating black that struck like snakes and burrowed through cracks in the monster's armor.
The giant's legs collapsed, shattered and fell apart as it began to spasm. The arms sloughed off, the chest broke, and a man spilled out onto a pile of debris. The swarm seemed to swell, twisting itself into a shifting bipedal husk, a child's faceless nightmare, the monster that dwells beneath beds and inside closets. It stepped towards the man, the Merchant cape, who desperately crawled backwards. Danny could see his mouth moving though his words were lost to the pounding rain, perhaps pleading for mercy or swearing vengeance or asking what the hell are you!?
"WHY WOULD YOU ATTACK HERE!?" Demanded a voice, his daughter's voice but twisted into something almost unrecognizable, formed out of a thousand buzzing wings. "WHAT POSSIBLE REASON COULD YOU HAVE FOR ALL THIS DESTRUCTION!? DID LUNG NOT CAUSE ENOUGH DAMAGE TO SATISFY YOU BASTARDS!?"
Danny stepped out from his hiding place, moved close enough to hear the reply. He needed to know every bit as much as Taylor.
"D-distraction for the he-heroes." Came a stammered, pained reply. "S-so Skidmark and Squealer can hit the T-Travelers... Show everyone... who o-owns this town."
"Yes, you showed everyone how you can beat on unarmed men. Well done." Taylor's voice was quieter, less oppressive yet still scathing in its intensity. The humanoid swarm glided towards the fallen cape, and the man shrieked, throwing up his hands to ward off a blow that never fell. Instead the swarm stopped in front of him, leaned towards him in a grotesque parody of human movement.
"Your bosses will join you in a cell soon, I guarantee it." Taylor's voice hissed, chittered, clicked, "Now sit there and shut up while I call the..."
The swarm stopped, froze for an instant, then turned towards the shoreline.
"Oh no..."
Danny followed the sightless gaze, looking towards the coast, towards the looming clouds and open ocean.
Towards the blaring sirens.
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