Summus Proelium

Yawning widely as she sat at the desk in her bedroom listening to music on her headphones so she wouldn't disturb her stepmother, Kella, Jae Baek drummed her fingers along the wooden surface. Her homework was spread out in front of her, but she wasn't reading or processing it. She had been staring at the same paragraph for the past several minutes without getting any closer to understanding it properly.

She knew she needed to buckle down and focus. The school year was almost over, but it wasn't quite done with yet. She still had finals to get through, and the shit storm that would fly if she screwed that up would be epic indeed. She was the last of the assortment of ethnic kids her father and his original wife had adopted to still live at home, after all the others had gone on to great universities or careers. Failing her junior year of high school would be… bad. Her father and her siblings were all busy with their lives, and she wasn’t going to let them start getting distracted worrying about her. So, the studying continued, no matter how tired she might have been. Time to focus.

It had been another incredibly long and busy day, trying to keep the city from falling apart. Part of that had been dealing with Oscuro’s attempt to assassinate Amanda Sanvers, but most of it was spent protecting supply trucks from being raided. Several of the small to medium-sized gangs and other opportunists had somehow decided that it would be a great idea to steal supplies being brought into the city and sell them at a high mark up. Why the larger gangs didn't seem to be getting in on that remained a bit of a mystery. Unless they were just too distracted fighting each other. Or maybe they thought the authorities would be on top of that and didn’t see it as worth the risk. Especially given the way it could turn the public against them.

But, to be perfectly honest, Jae was just glad they were staying out of the way. Or had been, until Cuélebre’s group decided to attack that prisoner transport. Amanda Sanvers. They tried to kill Cup, and… and that was a bad thing. It was a bad thing, right? Yes, definitely. Amanda had surrendered, she was a prisoner. They had a responsibility to keep prisoners safe, or the entire system would fall apart.

It didn’t matter how bad Amanda was, or what terrible things she’d done. She had surrendered, and she had rights. No matter how tempting it was to forget that sometimes. Especially when it was obvious she was planning something. There was no way she had actually been forced to do those things against her will or whatever story she was trying to sell. She was definitely planning something bad.

And when she inevitably makes her escape, we’ll see her nefarious schemes take shape. Whatever the truth of her sly and shady plot, when all is told she’ll have what she has wrought. She shan’t get away free of scott, when we give her a nice big swat.

“Free of scott?” Jae murmured out loud with a shake of her head as she looked over her shoulder to the bed where the jester’s mask was sitting on the pillow. “Eh, that’s a bit of a stretch to make the rhyme work. I think we can do better than that.”

She won’t get away with her wicked scheme, if we hit her with a two-by-four beam.

After giggling, Jae groaned. She still hadn’t processed what she was trying to read. Pushing herself up, she stretched and headed for the door. Coffee. She needed coffee if she was going to get this homework done. Maybe then she’d be able to focus.

After heading downstairs and hearing Kella practicing the lines for her next audition down the hall in the living room, Jae quietly moved to the kitchen and set about making that coffee. No doubt her stepmother would smell it and come searching for her own cup, so she made enough for her as well. Soon, she had a piping hot mug, the scent of which was practically ambrosia on its own. Surely this would help.

No sooner had she taken a sip, however, than there was a knock at the nearby back door. Jolting just a little in surprise, Jae looked that way, seeing a familiar face there by the glass. It made her blink, before she moved to open the door. “Zed?”

“Don’t forget his smarter, cooler twin sister,” Lexi, standing a bit further away, put in. Both of the Chambers twins were there on the back porch, giving her a pair of sheepish smiles. “Uh, can we talk for a minute? If you’re not too busy.”

Tilting her head, Jae stared uncertainly at the two of them. “Why are you knocking on the door and skulking in the backyard? You two are living here, remember?” The twins had been staying in one of her siblings’ old rooms since the quarantine had resulted in them being stranded away from their parents. She’d thought they were asleep in there.

Lexi looked even more sheepish than before, kicking her foot lightly against the deck. “We, uh, went out for a bit. Then we came to find you and you were in the kitchen and we didn’t want to startle you by opening the door and walking right in. You know, after the days you’ve been having.”

Her brother’s head bobbed in a quick nod. “I mean, knocking on the back door and scaring the shit out of you that way probably wasn’t much better, but it sounded good at the time.”

“And we kinda wanted to make sure Kella wasn’t around before we talk,” Lexi put in.

“Yeah,” Zed added while peering past her. “your stepmom is kinda… a lot. And we don’t have time for it.”

Looking over her shoulder and hearing the woman continuing to practice her lines, Jae shrugged. “She’s busy running lines for her next audition. Which should take another hour, so we can go up to my room and talk.”

“Actually,” Lexi objected with a visible wince as she stepped up next to her brother, “we should probably go. I mean, all of us. Uh, it’s less talking to us and more talking to Grandstand. As in talking her out of her plan, right now, before it’s too late.”

Jae stared at them for a brief moment, then pinched the bridge of her nose and frowned with realization. “She wants to attack Amanda Sanvers doesn’t she?”

Of course she would. Yes, the actual person responsible for killing the woman’s reporter friend had been… killed (Jae still found it hard to think about Jerry, or about what happened between him and Amber), but he had done that whole thing specifically on Cup’s behalf. Of course Grandstand would want her dead too. Her chance for personal revenge against the killer himself had already been taken away, she had obviously transplanted that desire for revenge onto Amanda.

“Got it in one,” Zed confirmed. “She promised to wait until we got back to talk to her about it, but um, I don’t know how long she’ll stick to that. And we need reinforcements. She might listen to you if you tell her how bad of an idea it is.”

Telling the twins to wait there, Jae went back upstairs. She gave a last look at her homework lying on the desk, then grabbed a light jacket and shrugged into it. It was summer, but there was a breeze cooling things off. Plus, she was able to shove the jester mask into one of the inside pockets, just in case. “I really hope things stay calm.”

We’ll do our best to make her see reason, and that this is not proper killing season. But should she insist on playing the cutthroat, let her carry on is my own cheerful vote.

Grimacing to herself, Jae took a pair of sunglasses and a second mask, this one the simple ski variety, then quickly headed back downstairs. She left a note on the table next to the coffee for Kella, then went through the backdoor to join the twins. “We should hurry. I don’t think she’s a very patient person at the best of times. Let alone now.” Actually, she said that, but there was a lot about Grandstand that was a mystery. If she was even still calling herself that after everything that had happened. But whatever name she ended up using, Jae genuinely had no idea how she would react to being asked not to kill Sanvers. Especially after already losing out on Jerry.

Losing out on Jerry… sigh. The thought made Jae stumble a little, drawing concerned looks from the other two before she shook her head and gestured for them to go on.

The three of them took a bus to the right general area, near a four-story apartment building that had definitely seen better days. But they weren’t going into the apartments. Instead, the twins led her around the back, through an empty field and toward a dilapidated shed whose own better days had come years before the main building’s.

Before reaching the place, all three of them put those ski masks on. Jae hesitated with her hand near the jester’s mask, but decided against showing up like that. Yes, Grandstand already knew about her, but… but no, this wasn’t a problem for Carousel to deal with. Not yet, anyway. They could still handle this.

Stopping that one may take confidence and luck, or failing that, hitting her with a truck.

Biting her lip as the thought passed through her mind, Jae walked with the other two all the way up to the shed. The door opened as they approached, revealing Grandstand herself standing just inside. She gave them a doubtful look. “You certainly took your time. You’re lucky I do my best to keep my word. I told you I’d wait long enough for you to explain exactly why killing this evil bitch is a bad idea. I mean, for fuck’s sake, you should be thanking me for dealing with it quickly and quietly. But fine, give it your best shot. You’ve got five minutes.” Her voice was firm, leaving no doubt of how serious she was about that time limit.

She also stepped aside for them to go in out of sight, so Jae did just that. The twins were right behind her, before Grandstand pulled the door shut. If she couldn’t be talked out of her plan, the first indication they’d have would probably be finding themselves staring at the open door and no sign of the woman.

Five minutes to talk her out of this? Jae really should have come up with something better to say. She’d tried on the way over here, but honestly, she just… didn’t know how to say it in a way that didn’t come off as cliche and naive.

“She deserves to die.” Well, that probably wasn’t the best way to start, judging by the look the other two gave her. But those were the words that came out. “She’s done evil, horrible things that can’t be forgiven, and she’s lying about that not being her choice. She’s probably planning on doing even worse things if she gets out of this.”

Grandstand gave an audible cough. “I can’t say I expected you to take this particular tack, but color me intrigued. Is this about you talking me out of my plan, or asking to join in?”

Holding up both hands for her to wait a moment, Jae pressed on. “She deserves it, but you don’t. I mean, you don’t deserve to be the sort of person who murders a helpless prisoner.” She ignored the woman scoffing at the term ‘helpless.’ “She is being held in custody. Bypassing all of that so you can kill her would make you a target for the authorities. Even more of a target. They couldn’t let that go. No matter what they think about whether she deserves to live or not, if they just allowed you to get away with killing a prisoner who surrendered to them, no one else would even try anymore. They’d have no choice but to come after you with everything they have, just so everyone else in the future knows that they’ll either protect the people who surrender to them, or move heaven and earth to bring down anyone who threatens that.”

“You think I can’t handle being a target?” Grandstand snorted at that. “In case you forgot, my entire thing is drawing attention. Or getting rid of it.”

“Not like this,” Jae shot back. “They’ll bring in specialists, you’ll never get a moment’s rest. You don’t have Cuélebre for backup, or any of the rest of Oscuro. In fact, they might be a bit annoyed with you. There’s no one you can turn to for help if you draw that much heat down on yourself.”

For a second, it looked like Grandstand was going to say something about that. But in the end, she simply shook it off and gestured vaguely. “Here’s the thing, even if you’re right and I get hunted like that, Jolene was my friend. She was the first friend I made after I--after I went through something pretty big. She taught me a lot. She helped me. I may not be able to kill the piece of shit who murdered her, but if you think I’m just gonna let the person responsible for him doing it walk away scot-free, you can--”

Jae interrupted, “Not scot-free, no. But if you kill her now, you let her die with a question mark on her file, an asterisk in her history. If she dies now, the official story will be that she wasn't responsible for what happened to your friend. I know that might not matter to you, not compared to just letting her go, but that's not the only choice. If you turn that anger toward proving she's lying right now, you can get that protection taken away from her. You can make sure everyone knows what she really is once and for all. You can make sure that the last person responsible for Jolene’s death gets written into the history books the right way, so everyone who cares about her gets that closure. No questions, no asterisks. If you kill her now, in a way, she wins. Some people will think she’s a martyr, they’ll see her as a victim. A victim you murdered in cold blood. Do you really want the person responsible for Jolene’s death to be seen as a victim? You prove Amanda Sanvers is responsible for everything that happened, that she’s not a victim, and you give Jolene the closure she really deserves.”

Finally ending with a shrug, Jae murmured, “If you kill her now, it’s just for you, to make yourself feel better. If you put in the effort to prove Amanda Sanvers is lying, it’s for Jolene. And for everyone else who is grieving for her.”

Grandstand was silent for a few long seconds after that, while the twins stepped up on either side of Jae. Finally, she audibly exhaled and muttered a curse. “Fuck. Okay, fine, it might not be the best argument, but I guess you have something resembling a point. Killing that little bitch would be for me, not Jolene. Hell, if you ask me, the big wigs already know she's full of shit, but they're hoping to use her. They think they can get something useful out of that brain. So yeah, I'll prove she's lying. Not for the deluded fucks in charge, but for everyone else. I'll expose what she really is to everyone. Then Jolene can--well, I don’t believe in ghosts, but she can metaphorically rest.” That claim to not believe in ghosts came with a small smirk that made Jae raise an eyebrow behind the sunglasses she had put on to help hide her eyes. Some sort of inside joke with herself? Because if so, then…

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Lexi spoke up. “Okay, so how do we do that? You know, prove this lying bitch is--um, lying? How do we find that sort of proof?”

“Look through their old hideouts, to start,” Grandstand announced firmly while straightening up. “Any place she wouldn’t have told the authorities about. But if we’re gonna do that, we need to find the one Touched we know they still have out there.”

Some may call him canine, but he’s far more a swine. But no, I regret that claim, slander of pigs not my aim. That monster’s just vile, he’d kill all with a smile.

“Shovel,” Jae noted out loud. “The TONI dog, he’s still out there somewhere.”

“And he’ll be able to answer a lot of questions, if we can convince him.” Even as he said that, Zed sounded doubtful. “But uh, I’m not sure how we can do that.”

Grandstand shook her head. “One step at a time. First we track him down. Then we’ll work out how to make him…” She paused, looking at Jae intently. “Okay, do you have a radio in your pocket? Because I swear I keep hearing something.”

That startled the other girl, making her stare that way while her hand reflexively moved to cover her jacket pocket. The motion clearly made Grandstand suspicious, the woman already snapping her own hand out as though to grab her. Left with little choice, Jae tugged the jester’s mask out. “It’s nothing, just…” She held it up for them to see.

“Heh, yeah, see?” Lexi shook her head. “It’s not like the mask can talk by itself.”

Before Jae knew what was happening, a hand abruptly snatched the mask out of her hand. Grandstand had it, already turning toward Lexi, who stood flat-footed as the jester’s mask was pushed over the ski mask she was already wearing.

“Hey, don’t be so awful and rude!” Lexi’s mouth blurted as she stumbled backward. “Lest you find yourself thoroughly sued!”

Just as suddenly, the girl blurted, “What the hell?” Her hand snapped up to take the mask off, holding it in front of herself to stare in disbelief.

With shaking hands, Jae took the mask from her, giving a sharp glare toward Grandstand. “Stop,” she snapped, holding the mask close. “Just stop.”

“What… what just happened?” Zed asked with a shaky voice.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Grandstand casually noted without taking her eyes off Jae. “You know we have Touched animals. There’s even Touched plants out there. They become sapient too. Rare, but there’s a few. And that right there? That’s a Touched object.

“Carousel is the mask.”