Beast of the Bay 1: Worm
There were times that Tattletale regretted ever gaining powers. Times like now for instance. Running from a psychopathic suicide bomber really made one question their life choices.
‘What the fuck was he even doing at the casino!?’ Tattletale thought angrily to herself as she and her team fled through the city, ‘Coil said he was on the other side of the Bay! I swear that fucker has it out for me more than usual lately!’
Tattletale cursed violently as she held tighter onto Brutus’ fur and Grue’s jacket. Air whipped violently against her face as she and her team fled through the nearly empty streets of Brockton Bay. Slumped down in front of her, Grue shifted slightly, moaning incoherently in his semi conscious state.
She just ignored him and tightened her grip on his jacket so he wouldn’t fall off of the dog. She looked over to Regent who was riding Angelica along with Bitch, “Is he still following us!?” She yelled.
Regent didn’t even glance at her, preoccupied with focusing on his power, “What do you think!?” He yelled back, “There’s no way that psycho will let us go unless Lung tells him to or we get away on our own!”
And with Grue out of commission, that was extremely unlikely. Even on the back of Bitch’s dogs, there was no way they could escape a teleporter without some kind of smokescreen.
She was proven right as she heard a thud behind her. She turned her head back and came face to face with a glaring red oni mask. Oni Lee pulled a dagger from his bandolier and thrust it straight at Tattletale’s face, aiming right between her eyes.
She cursed violently, turning her head to try to avoid the knife to no avail. Just as she thought that this would be the end for her, Lee jerked suddenly to the side, falling off of Brutus’ back and colliding with the street below, turning into a plume of white ash on impact.
Tattletale looked over to Regent with a relieved grin, “Thanks!”
He just waved her off, “Yeah whatever, Grue wouldn’t be happy if our resident Thinker got turned into a shish kebab while he was out. He might dock my pay or something.”
Is completely serious
“Of course he is.” She muttered sarcastically.
“What’s the plan?” He asked, motioning with his hand and sending a clone plummeting down from a building in front of them. He turned to ash just as Tattletale passed and she gagged as the white carbon flew into her mouth. She could hear Regent’s grin as he spoke again, “As much as I enjoy running for my life, I kind of want to go take a nap. And Grue isn’t looking too hot either.”
Tattletale glared over at him even as she pushed her power into overdrive, trying to pick up anything that might help them escape. She moved her gaze across the buildings as they passed them, hoping her power would pick something up.
Buildings are abandoned
Have been abandoned for some time
No sign of homeless presence
Odd for this part of the city
Graffitied bird symbol on alley wall
Signs indicate you are nearing Menagerie’s territory
“Shit.” She cursed to herself at what her power told her, she hadn’t realized that they had strayed that far from the main city.
Around a year or so ago, a cape named Menagerie appeared out of nowhere and claimed the Boat Graveyard as her territory, welcoming all those who were willing to follow her rules, promising to protect those who did and threatening to kill anyone who did not.
Naturally, the gangs took exception to that, and only a single day later the Merchants confronted her, attempting to force her out of what they perceived as their territory.
She killed them all. Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, all dead along with dozens of their unpowered members, including those who tried to flee, effectively ending the Merchants as a gang as Menagerie cemented her claim on the Boat Graveyard.
This of course created a massive power vacuum as the territory the Merchants once claimed was up for grabs by whoever could get to it first. It was an all out gang war in the streets of Brockton Bay for several weeks before it eventually calmed own and a new status quo was introduced.
In that time however, Menagerie hadn’t been idle. She had truly claimed the Boat Graveyard, or the ‘Zoo’ as it was now called, erecting massive wooden fences in astounding time, shutting her territory off to the outside world.
The Empire, mostly content with their own now expanded territory, were content to more or less leave her alone, not willing to fight a cape who had so easily killed three other parahumans at the same time.
The ABB, or more accurately Lung, apparently had some sort of twisted respect for Menagerie, most likely seeing his own fight with the PRT in her decimation of the Merchants. He had ordered his gang to stay away from her, giving up the Zoo without a fight.
The PRT did the same thing that they had done to the most dangerous parahumans, capes like Hookwolf, Oni Lee, or Lung. That is to say, they did nothing at all, deciding that what she was doing was no different to the other gangs and choosing not to poke the sleeping bear as it were.
All in all, the Zoo had become one of the safest places in the Bay. As long as you weren’t a member of a gang of course.
It was also probably the only place they could go that Oni Lee wouldn’t follow.
Tattletale thought hard for a moment. Trying to come up with another solution and coming up empty. The Zoo was their only option with Grue out of commission.
‘I hope I don’t regret this.’ She thought to herself as she turned Brutus, “Bitch! Take us to the Boat Graveyard! He won’t follow us there!”
“Seriously!?” Regent asked incredulously, “You want to willingly go near that crazy bitch!? You want to die that badly?”
“It’s either her or Lee! And she at least might be willing to talk with us!” She yelled back before looking to Bitch, “We’re already nearly there, we should see the gate any second now! Punch it into overdrive!”
Bitch grunted her acknowledgment and firmly tapped her heels into Angelica's sides, “Angelica, Brutus, sprint!” Tattletale hung on tighter to both Grue and Brutus as the massive dog’s speed nearly doubled, long legs eating up the pavement as he obeyed his owner’s command.
It only took a few seconds of this increased pace before the gate was suddenly in view. It was massive, nearly fifteen feet tall and made of dark brown wood and Tattletale could immediately tell that no normal human would be able to open it.
As they got closer to the gate, Regent suddenly relaxed, bringing his hand to his mask and lifting it slightly to rub at his face, “He stopped chasing us. He’s just sitting on that building and watching us. Creepy asshole.”
Tattletale looked back toward the building that he had indicated and could just barely see Oni Lee’s figure crouched on the edge of a tall building, staring in their direction. She stared at him for a moment before turning back forward on her mount as Grue groaned lightly.
“He was hit pretty hard.’ She thought to herself as she inspected her leader. She couldn’t see his expression under his helmet but she imagined his face was scrunched in pain if the way he was groaning was any indication, ‘He might have a concussion. We need to get him medical attention quickly.’
She looked back toward the gate as they moved toward it, ‘Maybe Menagerie has a few doctors cooped up in there that would be willing to take a look at him. That is if she’s willing to see us in the first place and doesn’t just attack us right off the bat.’
As they approached the gate, the dogs slowed down as if suddenly uneasy, stopping right in front of the massive wooden gate. Tattletale looked up it, not seeing anybody nearby looking out for new visitors which made sense all things considered.
“You think we could just wait here for a bit and turn back?” Regent asked semi hopefully, “He might get bored of waiting and leave.”
Tattletale turned back toward the buildings behind her, moving her gaze to where she could barely see Oni Lee’s figure watching them from a distance and activating her power.
Not willing to follow you
Is waiting for you to leave
Is prepared to wait as long as it takes
Will not leave unless called away by Lung
Believes Menagerie will kill you
Is hoping Menagerie will let him kill you instead
‘Fucking psychopath!’ She thought viciously as she glared in his direction. She turned toward Regent and shook her head, “He’s willing to wait for days if he has to. He is not gonna leave.” She tapped lightly on Brutus’ side and pointed toward a post hanging on the massive gate, “Brutus, forward.”
The massive dog loped closer to the gate, bringing Tattletale within reach of the large bell that hung on the post. She grasped the cord hanging down and pulled, once, twice, the loud chime of the metal bell ringing out through the empty space around the team.
She motioned for Brutus to back up, returning to her team’s side as they waited for someone to come to the gate.
One minute passed. Then two. Then three, then four, then six, until eventually ten whole minutes had passed with no answer to the bell. Under her, Brutus shifted in apparent discomfort.
“Maybe she’s not home. Think we should just go in? She definitely won’t have an issue with that right?” Regent asked sarcastically, though Tattletale could tell that the oppressive silence was getting to even him.
“Shut up.” Bitch said flatly as she tensed slightly. Below her, Angelica was turning her massive head this way and that, sniffing wildly as if trying to locate something. “She’s already here. Watching us.”
The butch girl looked around as she tried to locate the cape, before she suddenly shot her gaze up above the wooden gate prompting Tattletale to do the same. As the thinker’s gaze crested the top of the gate however, she froze.
There, perched on a small wooden platform at the top of the massive gate, was a panther. It was huge, at least thrice the size of a regular panther, its fur was made of roiling shadows that curled up into the air before dissipating silently.
Slitted yellow eyes stared down at them unblinkingly, seemingly glowing in the dim evening light. It was still as a statue, all four legs curled underneath its massive body as if it was totally relaxed despite being in the presence of four different capes. Which, now that Tattletale thought about it, it probably was.
Panther is Menagerie
‘Yeah, no shit.’ She thought to herself as she tried her best to hold the other cape’s gaze.
Tattletale swallowed roughly at the piercing yellow eyes of the cape above them before steeling herself and calling out to her,“Hello? Menagerie? We’d like to talk to yo-.”
“No.” The transformed cape interrupted her, voice deeper than Tattletale expected, “You are not welcome here. Leave or I will make you.”
Does not like capes in her territory
Likes the fact that you brought Oni Lee straight to her territory even less
Worried that he will call Lung, leading to the people in her territory being hurt
Is contemplating killing you to get him to go away
Willing to do to you what she did to the Merchants
Is confident she could do it alone
Worried about hero backlash but not enough to change her mind
Around the Undersiders, the shadows thickened, lengthening and darkening as Menagerie exerted her power. From the shadows came various snarls and howls and Tattletale felt her mount stiffen under her.
“I will not ask twice.” Menagerie’s tone was final and Tattletale swallowed roughly as the shades of numerous snarling beasts came from the darkness around them, red eyes glowing hungrily. Wolves, tigers, hyenas, all seemingly made of solid shadows, all ready to tear them apart at a moment's notice.
Under her, Brutus bristled, tensing and growling at the emerging shades who growled back even louder. Tattletale knew that if she didn’t stop this, a fight would ensue, one they would definitely lose. The Undersiders main strength was hit and run, and with Lee between them and the city proper as well as the fact that Grue was out of commission, there would be no running. And if they tried to fight, Bitch’s dogs would be overwhelmed and they would all be ripped to shreds.
“Wait!” She scrambled to think of something, anything, to prevent her from becoming animal food, “We can pay you! You take tributes right?! We can pay you if you let us hide out in your territory for a few days! Please, our teammate’s hurt and we need somewhere to lie low!”
While Menagerie was well known as one of the most ruthless capes in the Bay, already having a bodycount consisting of the entirety of the Merchants cape roster and a not so small number of their unpowered members, Tattletale knew she was also very protective of those that called her territory home. Homeless people, ex drug addicts, former prostitutes, the other forgotten dregs of the city, all of these people called the Zoo their home. Tattletale knew that taking care of that many people must be expensive, and Menagerie wasn’t exactly rich.
She was quickly proven right as the snarling stopped the moment she made the offer. The shades stayed however, red eyes locked onto them as their master took in her words.
“How much?” Menagerie asked, and Tattletale nearly sighed in relief.
“Forty thousand.” It was over half of what they had stolen from the casino. The team’s pay would be much smaller than what it would have been but given that they weren’t arguing, they were willing to take the pay cut for a chance at survival. Brian probably wouldn’t be happy when he finally woke up, but given that this whole thing was partially his fault anyway, he had no right to complain.
There was a tense moment of silence as the animal cape considered her offer before finally, the shadows receded and the shades disappeared back to wherever they had come from.
Menagerie leapt down from her perch, shifting forms as she fell and landing on two feet in front of the Undersiders.
She looked up at Tattletale, slitted golden eyes piercing her from under a thick layer of eyeshadow, “If you are lying to me, I’ll tear you apart and feed you to my dogs.”
Not a threat. A promise.
Hates liars. Hates being manipulated even more.
Tattletale nodded shakily, sweat beading her forehead as her power spoke to her, “I’m not lying. We’ve got the money with us right now, we’ll hand it off once we’re safe.”
Menagerie stared at her for a moment longer before nodding. She turned back to the gate and knocked on its wooden surface, once, twice, three times. There was the sound of something being shifted out of the way before the large gate swung open, allowing them entry into the Zoo.
“Come. If you stray from my path, I’ll kill you.” She stated simply and walked inside.
Tattletale looked over to Bitch and gave her a nod. The butch girl tapped on Angelica’s side, urging him forward through the gate. Tattletale did the same for Brutus, holding tighter onto her unconscious teammate as the massive dog began moving again.
As the gate closed behind them, sealing them inside the Zoo, Tattletale couldn’t help but worry that they had escaped one psychopathic cape only to run into the arms of another.