Summus Proelium

Okay, so, we had a few different things to deal with as it turned out. Not only were the Cuddle Corps here in the shop, they had overheard basically all of our secrets. They knew everything about who I was, what the Ministry was and who their leaders were, what we were doing with Pittman, the fact that Paige and Sierra were biolems, basically everything it was possible to know. All the important stuff anyway. Because we’d had no reason to censor ourselves inside this shop in front of a few stuffed animals. Or at least, we'd thought we didn't have a reason to do that. But that showed what we knew.

The next time someone told me I was being overly-paranoid, I was probably going to punch them in the nose. Or maybe I'd just start laughing at them. I wasn't sure yet. Maybe I’d just start laughing and hitting them at the same time. That wouldn’t raise any red flags, right?

But no, that wasn't the end of our issues. Not by a long shot. The whole reason these guys had to come here in the first place was because they overheard some other guys who had been hired to come here to abduct Wren. Hired by Breakwater, as a matter of fact. But no, it wasn't in retaliation for us stealing that teleport machine right out under their noses. Instead, they wanted to kidnap her because they knew she was a movement specialist Tech-Touched, and they wanted her to help them defend against the very machine we had stolen in the first place. They just thought she could help them, and their way of extending a job offer, apparently, was to try to send men to throw her in a sack.

Which, to be fair, having people chained up and dragged unwillingly to their island was pretty much their entire business model, but come on.

Sure, the Cuddle Corps had dealt with those guys for the time being. But that didn't mean Wren was totally safe. If Breakwater wanted to grab her like that once, they would try again. They would either get messages to people here in the city, or send another group in. Either way, it was obvious that she was a target now.

And she wasn’t the only one Breakwater would be interested in if they got too close. We had Pittman here, and still had to figure out what to do with him now. We had already sent the evidence about Amanda Sanvers creating Sleeptalk to the authorities, so they were going to have to convince her to give them the cure. Especially now that the whole plan to hold a bunch of people hostage at my school in exchange for Pittman’s release had fallen through.

Oh yeah, and one of the main reasons it had fallen through was because the Ministry’s favorite assassin killed everyone there. Leaving behind a bunch of hostages who, as of right now, were having their memories rewritten. Or already had. Because that was just such an A Plus plan to go on back to whenever someone went through something traumatic. Just erase their memory and pretend everything is hunky dory. Perfect response, no notes.

Meanwhile, the other main reason that hostage plot had fallen through was because Ryder gave us the heads up. Which meant that he now knew even more than he had before. Not everything that was going on, but enough that he was going to have a lot of questions. Questions that he deserved to have answered. Especially after everything he had already done and kept secret. Even if the idea of involving him even more in stuff that could get him hurt again made me want to start screaming.

Was I forgetting anything? Oh yeah, now that we’d had to ask the Ministry for help and throw the Pittman name at them, they obviously knew that we knew about him. So, I was pretty sure they were going to put two and two together and realize we had the man. That is, if they didn't just get that directly from the disabled Biolems they had taken with them. Which meant they would almost certainly be demanding we hand him over to them any minute now. And now that we knew what that Z girl was capable of, their demands held a hell of a lot of weight. I didn’t know how we would refuse to give Pittman to them. Nor was I sure that we shouldn’t just do that. Some part of me wanted to tell them no just on principle, but why? Was I just being stubborn? Was I afraid of what they would do to him? Or was I afraid that even after all this, they would still try to make him work for them, that they would actually employ him. They weren’t that stupid, they couldn’t be. Yet there was a part of my mind that wouldn’t shut up about that faint possibility. I had no idea what we would do if they did try that.

And, of course, on top of everything else, my parents were still in the hospital. We’d done all we could, sending all the proof to the authorities to get them to force Cup to make a cure, but as of right now it wasn’t done yet. The Cuddle Corps were here, Breakwater people were trying to kidnap Wren, we had Pittman upstairs, Amanda was secretly his apprentice and the one behind Sleeptalk, the authorities were trying to force her to make a cure, her people knew we had Pittman and had tried to hold innocent people hostage to force us to give him back, the Ministry either knew or would know we had him and would probably demand we hand him over, and all those hostages were being memory-wiped. I had all that other shit bouncing around inside my head, while still dealing with the fact that my mom and dad were sick.

“Uh, Paintball?” Murphy was the first to speak up, breaking the silence that had descended on the shop while I had been going over all that in my head. “You okay? You’ve been staring at that wall for a minute now and uh… I think we’re all a little afraid you figured out a way to spontaneously force an out-of-body experience so your spirit could go scream in a tunnel somewhere.” Her voice was a little strained.

Roald started to say something, but I took a breath and nodded. “I’m okay. I just--fine, I’m--definitely not fine, but I could be worse. We could all be worse.” Of course we could, we could be dealing with Wren being kidnapped by people working for Breakwater. Instead, we knew about the threat now and had… help to deal with it.

First things first, I focused on the assembled stuffed animals. They were all together on one of the counters, next to where Wren was sitting. “Thanks. That-- that seems really inadequate considering everything, but seriously, just… thank you. Thanks for being there, for stepping in to stop them, for showing up and telling us the truth… um, eventually. And um, you know, for saying you’ll keep all this secret. Thanks for everything. I, uh, really don’t know how to say it any better. We owe you.”

Aspen, the bunny, popped up to her feet, then hopped onto the back of Oak, the turtle. “Hey, we couldn’t just let them kidnap her! Even if we did think being bank robbers would be a good idea to make people leave us alone, that doesn’t mean we’re okay with jerks like that!”

Cherry, the duckling, raised a tiny wing. “Um, I still think it’d be cool to rob a bank. Especially if we get to wear masks and fedoras. But yeah, definitely not okay with kidnapping.”

“Dude, you’re not wrong, robbing a bank sounds cool.” That was Sierra, who gave them a thumbs up before looking over at me with a shrug. “What? I didn’t say it’d be fun to hurt anyone or blow up the bank or any--actually come to think of it…”

“No one’s blowing up a bank. Or anything else,” I insisted with a groan. “Please, let’s try to be a better influence, huh?” Turning back to the newcomers, I added, “And speaking of influence, what are you guys gonna do now, exactly?”

Maple, the monkey, raised both arms and extended them out to about twice their normal length. “Like we said, we wanna help! We’re gonna stick around and guard this place for you! No one who comes in here will ever suspect that the stuffed animals sitting around are security guards for you! We can sound the alarm, attack them, or just watch and find out everything about whoever breaks in.”

“And we can help in other ways too,” Willow, the penguin, quickly noted. “We can help around the shop, clean stuff, build stuff, carry stuff, we’re good at stuff!”

“But…” I hesitated before offering a weak, “what about the people who care about you? Won’t they be worried? You ran away from home. Isn’t there, um, someone?”

Peyton nodded quickly. “Yeah, there have to be people who are going to be worried about you. People who miss you. And… and that you miss.”

“We care about us,” Ash, the dragon, informed me firmly while rising up onto his hind legs and spreading his wings out. “The only thing Mister Imens cares about is his career. And our parents… um, they didn’t exactly stick around for very long.”

“They left us with the Minority people,” Oak put in. “While it’s true that there were those who were friendly with us, who probably cared about what happened to us, nothing about that place was a home. We shall miss those who were nice and decent, particularly our teammates. But the very fact that we did walk away, and wish to stay away, should say a lot even if specific words fail us.”

Aspen’s voice was firm. “We’re not going back. If you don’t wanna let us stay here, we’ll go somewhere else. We uhh--don’t worry, we’ll keep your secrets, all of them, no matter what. We’re not stupid blackmailing jerks. We won’t tell anyone about you, ever. But we’re not going back to Ohio, and we’d like to help you. Please uh, let us help.”

Wren hopped up, giving a quick nod. “We can’t make them leave! They can help, they already helped! Please don’t make them go away, not after everything they said.”

Oh boy. There was a lot I wanted to say about all of that, but my gaze turned toward Fred. “When it comes down to it, this is your place. Yours and Wren’s.”

“By which,” he grunted, “you mean that if this whole situation blows up, I’m the one legally responsible for not telling the cops that we have a bunch of child runaways here. They tend to frown a bit on that at the best of times, let alone when it’s child superheroes. Beloved child superheroes who happen to be incredibly popular.”

And yet, after saying all that, he stared at Wren with all those living stuffed animals gathered around her for several long seconds before giving a heavy sigh. “How about this, we’ll wait until the quarantine comes down and figure out something to do then. Maybe they’ve got some sort of system for assuming custody in this sort of situation. It sounds like your parents left and you were kind of just taken in by the officials over there, so… I dunno how that works. But we can figure it out. I uhh, I hope.” He was grimacing a bit by the end, but gave a weak smile when Wren threw herself that way to embrace him.

Paige finally spoke, her voice reassuringly calm and reasonable. “Seems to me they probably won’t want to have you go on the news complaining about how they’re dragging you back to a place you don’t want to be. You may not like being popular, but it’s your best weapon in a situation like this. People will listen to you. Plan out exactly what to say, look into the legal avenues open to you, and then promise to scream to all your fans about how bad those people are treating you. They don’t want a scandal, so they’ll probably quietly agree to some sort of transfer.”

My head bobbed. “The point is, we’ll figure it out. One step at a time. And right now, we don’t really have to worry too much about that specific thing until the quarantine comes down.” Which, I reminded myself, would be after my parents and everyone else who had been infected were finally cured.

Everyone seemed to agree with that. Which, yes, meant we were basically kicking the can down the road, but that was just going to have to work. We had more than enough to deal with as it was. Besides, I couldn’t say it wouldn't be nice to have more help watching over the shop. These guys were right about how effective they could be. Even we hadn't noticed them until they spoke up, so any strangers who broke in wouldn't have a chance. Especially if they had no reason to think the Cuddle Corps were even in the state, let alone city.

Hell, come to think of it, even the Ministry didn't know they were here. They could be a surprise all across the board. And God knew we needed as many surprises as we could get.

And, well, there was the fact that they knew all our secrets. Yes, they had promised not to tell anyone, which I really appreciated. But if they did go off on their own, there was always a chance they might either accidentally give something away, or get in trouble and have it forced out of them.

So, it just made me feel like it was a little safer, both for us and for them, if they stayed here. Part of me felt bad for that, thinking I should send them back home. But if it was like they said, they didn't really have much of a home to go back to. Their parents had abandoned them for the government to take care of, which was just pathetic. If I wanted them to have a home, we should help them turn this into one.

Well, at the very least, Qwerty was on board. He and Ash were flying around the room, both whooping with excitement. Well, technically only the toy dragon was flying under his own power. Qwerty had his wings extended along with his arms and legs. Ash, meanwhile, was above him, using his front and back paws to hold onto Qwerty’s. That way, when Ash flew, he could carry Qwerty underneath him, while the latter kept his wings spread out. They did several circles through the room that way, each cheering one another on.

Yeah, it was starting to look like they had both found a best friend just like that. How could I possibly break that up? We were just going to have to figure something out.

Leaving them like that while the others looked on, Paige, Sierra, Peyton, and I stepped upstairs. We were all staring at the man still trapped in that virtual reality machine. He couldn't see or hear us. He had no idea what was going on here. Well, no, I didn't think that was true. I was pretty sure he had a guess or two about at least some of what was happening. Even if he didn't get the specifics.

“We should shoot him in the back of the head and be done with it,” Sierra announced finally while we were all staring. “There's enough problems to deal with. And every minute that passes is another minute where something could go wrong. There's still more of his people out there waiting to take another shot at us. If they get lucky and he escapes…”

Paige muttered a curse under her breath before turning to face us. “He won't escape. He can't escape. We can't let that happen. She's right, we should just end this right now.”

I knew they both had a point, but still, my face blanched. “We can't just kill a prisoner like that, come on. That can't be who we are. He's completely helpless right there.”

Paige snapped, “He's not helpless. And if he gets out of that, you better believe he won't show any of us any mercy. None.”

Meeting her gaze, I nodded. “I know, but we have to be better than that, Paige. We can't just execute him. I know life isn't a fairytale. I know that sometimes there are bad people who are better off dead before they can hurt anyone else. But he's a prisoner. He's secured, as secure as we can possibly get him. We can't execute someone like that.”

Peyton agreed with that, looking just as sick at the question of what we were going to do with him as I felt. The four of us talked about it for another minute before deciding we were too tired to get into it. That would have to wait until everyone got some rest.

Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one staying here tonight. Paige and Sierra would be sticking around as well. Part of me wanted to argue that they were probably the least safe people to have in a building with Pittman if he happened to get out, but I didn't think that would be a very helpful argument. Not given the mood they were in.

Finally, I couldn't focus anymore. It had been an incredibly long day, and I was just done. There was so much to deal with, so many problems to handle or wait for others to handle, that I was losing track of the details. We had been in that big fight with Oscuro, had gone to Amanda's lab to find that proof, and dealt with that hostage situation, all before coming back here and finding out that we were being spied on by the Cuddle Corps, who were going to stay here at least for the time being.

It was a lot, more than a lot. At that particular moment, I just couldn't handle it anymore. I couldn't make any decisions. It was time to go wind things down and actually get some sleep. Or at least try to. If I could fit that in between worrying about my parents, the Cup situation, what the Ministry was going to do when they found out we had Pittman, what we were going do with Pittman himself, how keeping the Cuddles around could backfire, the fact that I had to go to school tomorrow and pretend everything was okay, how much I needed to tell Ryder and how he would react to all that…

Come to think of it, I might not be getting to sleep for a while.