Say What?
“I’m sorry.” Battery blinked several times, the prayer that what the young girl across the table from her just stated out loud was all some elaborate hoax devised by her husband, the asshole if he set this up, almost too much to contemplate. “You think you can create your own Endbringer to fight the actual Endbringers? That’s what you said, right?”
The teenager wearing a cheap plastic domino mask along with tangerine colored sweatpants and a Bullwinkle backpack smiled as she nodded her head. “Yes, ma’am.”
Battery lifted her left hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose, the onslaught of the migraine level headache that she knew was on its way, was prevented from reaching its destination due to the visor of her helmet that blocked the upper half of her face. The young hero had to settle for inhaling deeply through her nose and counting to ten… three times… before she chose to engage the girl, this potential Parahuman, with any sense of decorum.
“And how, exactly, are you going to create…” she lifted her fingers and made quotation remarks when she said ‘create’ “… your very own Endbringer? That seems like it would be a bit hard to accomplish.”
“You’d think so, right? But ever since I got these powers, I can summon pretty much anything.” The girl pushed some of her dark hair away from her face. “I started with a cat, since my Dad never would let me get a cat. He said it was too much responsibility for a girl like me, and while he wasn't trying to be mean, exactly, he said that he knew he’d end up having to feed it and clean up after it, so no kitty for me.”
The hero found herself blinking several times again as she tried to follow along the girl’s train of thought. She sincerely hoped that this was a joke from Assault, otherwise, she had a crazy person on her hands.
“After I saw that calling Mister Munchkin worked, I called for another cat for him to play with, but I couldn’t. I was worried that I’d used up my one use of a power to summon a kitty, who is a very nice kitty, don’t get me wrong, but if I could only summon one thing, why limit myself to a cat, ya know?” Battery nodded, but only because it seemed the natural thing to do. “Anyway, I was a bit upset, but then I summoned a puppy.”
“A dog?”
The youngster nodded. “Yeah, so now I had a dog and a cat. I wondered if that meant I could only call one animal at a time of each, so I banished the puppy.”
“Banished?”
“Sent him back to wherever I called him from, I guess. I tried summoning him back again, but it wasn’t the same puppy. Kinda weird, ya know? So, I had a new puppy, Prince Leopold, but it ended up being a girl, so Princess Leopold, and Mister Munchkin and me.”
“How does this lead you to having an Endbringer?”
“I’m getting there.” The girl that had introduced herself as Ark complained. “See, I decided to see how many things I could summon.” She leaned forward across the table and whispered conspiratorially. “It’s a lot.”
“What’s a lot?”
“Well, so far, I have Mister Munchkin and Princess Leopold along with a wolf, a tiger, a lion that really doesn’t get along with anyone, a rhino…”
“Where are you keeping all of these animals?” Battery interrupted as she remembered a report that had come across the PRT’s desk last Tuesday where the Brockton Bay Police Department had put in a request for Protectorate assistance regarding several wild and exotic animals thought to having been smuggled into the Bay for nefarious purposes. Miss Militia had theorized that a collector was adding to his or her personal menagerie.
The girl’s cheeks darkened. “I tried using one of the empty warehouses down by the docks, over by the fourteenth pier.” She waited until Battery nodded in understanding. “But they started complaining about being bored.”
“They complained?”
“Sure. I can talk to them.”
“And they talk back?”
She smiled widely. “They do. That’s how the giraffe told me that he wanted to be named George.”
“George? George the Giraffe?”
The teen girl nodded happily, her eyes bright. “Yep. I felt bad that I hadn’t waited to see what Mister Munchkin or Princess Leopold wanted to name themselves, but they said it was okay. I sure was glad to not make my new friends upset so early in the relationship.”
“Ark, this still doesn’t explain about you, what? Summoning your own Endbringer. Why do you think you can do something like that?”
“That’s true, but when I called for the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Dragon, they both came out all right.”
The woman in the blue-circuited costume stood, her heart beating rapidly. Was there an actual dinosaur loose somewhere in the city? Did she need to sound the alarm? “What?”
“It’s okay. Petey didn’t want to stay.”
“Petey? The dragon?” She inquired as she retook her seat.
“No, Petey was the T-Rex. Vicki likes it there. But Petey, he was so silly talking. My Mom used to talk with her hands. Dad used to say that she’d be a mute if someone tied her hands behind her back. Petey was like that, those little arms swinging back and forth. He seemed sad looking around. We talked a bit, but the bull elephant and the spider monkey kept interrupting. I realized then that I probably should come down and talk to you guys about helping and stuff. Maybe see if we can find a place to house all of them.”
“Why not send them back?” She asked. She wondered why no one had joined her from the other side of the two-way mirror. Surely, someone somewhere had been confirming what the girl was reporting to see if any of it might be true. Why was she still conducting this interview on her own?
“I told you, silly. If I banish one of my new friends away, someone different comes back when I try again. How would you like it if I sent you away and then when I tried to bring you back, it was someone else in your outfit, huh?”
Battery sighed while resisting the urge to pound her head repeatedly upon the table between them. “I see your point. So then, the dinosaur wanted to go?”
She nodded again. “Yeah. Like I said, he was sad. It seemed a lot meaner to force him to stay. Was that wrong?”
“No.” She offered the younger girl a smile. “I think you did the right thing. I don’t think anyone would want a sad Tyrannosaurus Rex running around the city.”
Any further opportunity to continue the conversation slash interview was interrupted when the door thankfully opened. Battery looked up and over her shoulder towards the mirror’s reflection to see Director Piggot enter the room. She was moving slowly, as if today was a particularly bad day, and her lips were pressed thin and downturned. Oh, she was not happy. Not happy at all.
“Ark.” The squat, blonde-haired woman barked out as she placed both hands upon the table’s surface and proceeded to loom over the young masked girl. “My name is Emily Piggot. I’m in charge here. How many of these so-called animals have you Summoned so far?”
“Wow. A lot, probably. Do you mean in all or just that are still here?”
“Let’s start with still here and work outwards from there.”
At the order, the girl’s face scrunched up in obvious thought. That she was taking as long as she was made Battery fear for the potentially high number that was going to be forthcoming. The report that she vaguely remembered seeing had mentioned nearly ten or so… and none of them had been anything dangerous like lions or tigers or bears. And there had definitely not been anything about long extinct lizards or monsters from some fantasy novels.
“Well?”
“After Winnie, I think around fifty. Maybe fifty-five.” She sighed. “A lot of them wanted me to summon others that they could play with. Might’ve gotten a bit carried away and then lost count.”
Battery tried to not interrupt, but she was dying to know. “Who’s Winnie?”
Ark pulled the backpack off from her shoulder and then reached into her bag. As her hand slowly withdrew, the Cape instinctively pushed back in her chair in utter disbelief. Within her blue knitted gloved hand, there was a three-inch tall female form. With wings, much like a dragonfly might have. She slash it was almost beautiful, in a terrifyingly horrific way. Its features were definitely not human.
“Say ‘hello’ to Battery and Mrs. Piggot, Winnie Wynn Windrider.” The… whatever it was, offered a glare at Ark before turning to look at both of the adults that were on the other side of the table from where the teenager was sitting.
“Sal’ta’ons, oo’man.” It dipped its chin towards the Director. It moved its blank eyes to where Battery waited with a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach. “To you, ‘sence drink’r, be war’d that the pris's be heavy.”
“What?” Battery uttered, but the creature Ark called Winnie had returned her attention to its summoner.
“She’s a fairy.” Ark offered with a laugh in her voice. I didn’t mean to bring her here, but she hopped a ride when I summoned Roberto. I've offered to send her away, but she keeps talking about the Twins. One dead and one alive, both waiting. I don't understand, but she says its important.”
“Roberto?” Piggot was the one that asked the question this time, all the while her gaze never strayed for the fairy still standing upon Ark’s outstretched palm. “Who or what is Roberto?”
“Oh! He’s my unicorn.”
Forget banging her head on the table. Battery needed a drink. Something alcoholic and very, very stiff. At least a double.