This chapter given a do-si-do by Abhorsen, Undead Robot, and broughtfromxp.

Tango 2.4

The plan had been going perfectly until I noticed one of my thralls was up to something.

"Just a minute, Grue," I said, tone clipped thanks to the building pain I was feeling behind my eyes, "I've got to go deal with something."

With some levity injected in his hollowed-out voice, he replied, "I think we can manage without you for a minute." Bitch just kept stuffing money into a bag.

I strode into the main lobby area, where the bank's patrons were slowly falling under my spell. Gesturing to a mousy-haired girl, I commanded, "Come with me."

She glared at me, but didn't have much choice in the matter. She stumbled to her feet, fighting my control the whole way. We stepped out into the hallway, heading for Tattletale.

"What do you want from me, you creep?" she demanded, eyeing my back for openings as she clumsily fought to stop walking.

"I want you to stop messing with me," I stated flatly, rubbing my temple as best I could through the kevlar-reinforced silk. "I can tell you're doing something to my power, and you're going to stop."

The girl stiffened a bit. "What? What are you talking about?" she protested. "I'm just some girl."

Yeah, no. It didn't take me having partial control of her body to tell that she was lying. "You're not just some girl, that's for sure. 'Some girl' wouldn't keep touching the bugs I put on people." Even if I hadn't literally noticed her seeing herself in the act, the look of surprise on her face would have confirmed it.

We turned the corner to the administrator's office, where Tattletale, who was still in a sling, had her feet propped up and was busily typing away with the remaining hand. "Hey Tattletale, can I borrow your brain a sec?"

"Sure thing," she said, kicking to spin around dramatically. "What's the issue?"

"Getting some kind of feedback from my power. Saw her touching bugs. Any idea what's up here?"

"I-mmmph!" the girl said as I forced her to hum instead of interrupting.

"Hmm," Tattletale said, stroking her chin. "Well, I'd say your problem stems from that girl you have there being Amy Dallon, and that the feedback is her altering your bugs in some ill-fated attempt to free everyone. I'll let you deal with that situation yourself, I've got a juicy trust fund to drain." She smiled. "Oh, and ETA 7 minutes for the Wards, pass it along."

"Thanks," I said, now mulling over the situation as we walked back towards the lobby area. I glanced over at Amy, and realized I was still forcing her to be quiet. I relaxed my control.

"You bitch! Who do you think you are, controlling people like this!" she said as she sashayed back and forth modestly.

"I think I'm doing this in the least violent way I can," I said, propping up my arm to stroke my chin as I thought about the situation. On the one hand, she had almost foiled all of our plans singlehandedly, and caused me a killer headache that was only now starting to fade as my swarm hunted and killed the altered bugs. She was a liability in the crowd, too likely to get her hands on something and make a move. I should punish her for trying something and be done with it.

On the other hand, she was the daughter of the first decent adult I had met in months(that wasn't my dad, of course). This girl, who was releasing a string of invective that would make a dockworker blush right now, was just a hero trying to do good in a bad situation. She didn't deserve to be traumatized for her trouble.

"You'll stay here, and if I catch you doing anything like that again there will be consequences," I said, interrupting her tirade and walking away. Entering the lobby, I walked over to whisper an update to Regent. "She'll be under my watch for a bit. It's Panacea. Also, 5 minutes till Wards."

"Gotcha. Everything's good out here," he replied. "Next step, I guess. Don't really see the point though."

"A happy hostage is a less traumatized hostage," I mumbled before turning to the room. Raising my hands, I began dismissing the rodents and bugs. "Thank you for your cooperation," I said. "I'm sorry I had to threaten you all like that. You're free to quietly talk among yourselves, but please stay on the floor for now. My teammate will be watching." I strode out, past the fuming Dallon, to the vault where Grue and Bitch were working.

"Got it sorted for the moment, but the plan needs a slight change," I said as I sat back down to fill my abandoned bag.

"What's up?" Grue said as Bitch wrenched open another deposit box and bagged the contents.

"Well, turns out we accidentally took Amy Dallon hostage. She tried pulling something, I handled it, but I'm betting she'll try again if I don't watch her myself." I sighed. "Which means I probably need to stay in the bank with her and the physically infirm hostages. Sorry I can't help."

"Wait, you're backing out?" Bitch said, turning to face us. "This was your plan!"

"No, I'm still gonna do the whole plan, just that I'd have to stay inside instead," I corrected hurriedly.

"I don't like it. What if we need you to change things on the fly?" Grue commented. "Things can get hectic in a fight, after all."

"Well, what do you suggest?" I asked, exasperatedly zipping up my last bag and dragging it over to Brutus. "I can't bring her outside with the rest, she'll be too close to the swarm."

Bitch turned around, grumbled, "I don't see why you can't just keep an eye on her outside."

I thought about it as I lugged the bag up to the dog's harness. The plan as it stood was simple: I was going to use the civilians to dissuade ranged attacks, cover the ground with rats to trip and harry those on the ground, and use birds and bugs on Aegis or Kid Win should they fly. It would still work as planned if I stayed inside, but my senses were far easier to rely on than the hostages', so I wouldn't be as flexible.

A thought occurred. "Hey, Bitch, you might be on to something..."

"There's a road I'd like to tell you 'bout, lives in my hometown!" The hostages began to sing.

"I know you're not happy about this," I said as we curtsied to each other, "but consider it retaliation for messing with me earlier."

"Lake Shore Drive the road is called, and it'll take you up or down!" they sang as my dance partner glared at me hard enough to set the air between us ablaze.

I turned my attention to the rest of the fight, ready to intervene if needed. We'd gotten lucky with both timing and powers; Kid Win and Shadow Stalker both could have been an issue, but as it stood my worst issue was Clockblocker; the others could be handled by Regent, Grue, and Bitch. I just had to take care of him while keeping my biology-altering dance partner away from any direct contact with living material, here in the dead zone I'd created for my teammates.

The average person would be surprised to know how many bugs, rodents, reptiles, birds and other small things there were in a given city. I hadn't even had to try very hard to amass more than enough rats, squirrels, mice, and cockroaches to completely fill the street with a thick carpet of life. As Grue's darkness had spread from the bank, my horde poured out of storm drains and alleys, forming a lazy river of bodies that swirled around the feet of anyone not under my protection, hopping along to the cheery beat as they spiraled around in the quiet void.

"From rats on up to riches, fifteen minutes you can fly," chorused the thralls.

By the third line, things were already going better than expected. Vista was already basically mine by the time we'd emerged, thanks to an early arrival and low body mass; a bit of pressure, and she was riding the rat train in no time. Her warning came too late for Gallant, who managed to trip with a few well-timed rats underfoot. He started getting dragged along too.

"Pretty blue lights along the way, help you right on by, and the blue lights shinin' with a heavenly grace, help you right on by!"

One chorus down, and we were already almost ready to go. We just needed to deal with Aegis and Clockblocker. Bitch could deal with the former, but only Regent and I could handle the latter. I turned my attention to the swarm.

Clockblocker, to his credit, had already managed to freeze several dancers and an unknown number of rats and bugs. He was steadily wading through the swarm, roughly three-fourths under my control already and fighting it all the way. That changed quickly when I told the next wave of rats and squirrels to start biting. He froze the first few attackers, which had the unfortunate side effect of freezing their teeth into the fabric of his costume. The moment spent extricating himself was all I needed to bury him in a horde. They focused on tearing the cloth, bugs and smaller rodents forcing their way into the holes so that he couldn't freeze them without pinning himself. By the time he was free of the first wave of critters, he resembled a flailing, squirming tower of furry bodies and chitinous shells.

At some point, it got to be too much for Clockblocker and he froze them all, effectively locking himself in that position for ten or so minutes. I immediately lowered my control over him to the bare minimum, not wanting to hurt him further on the frozen claws of my horde, and made a note to remove the creatures as they reappeared over time. I turned my attention to Aegis, but there was little point. Regent and Bitch had teamed up, and he was currently ineffectually punching Angelica in the snout to the beat while being shaken like a chew toy. I gave him twenty seconds before he couldn't even manage that.

"Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town! Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble-bound!" ended the first refrain.

Amy spun, and I caught her, bringing her in for a dip before locking arms to do-si-do. One of my thralls inside the bank signaled Tattletale that we were just about done, finding her already at the door. Grue helped her mount up.

Gallant stumbled to his feet, finally recovering. It was too late for him to do much of anything, in my opinion, but I admired his determination. He lobbed an attack, and Regent made him flinch up so it sailed high over Grue. I heard a phone ring in Gallant's helmet, but it hung up immediately. Strange.

A moment later, I felt a person fall into my range with meteoric velocity. I barely had enough time to flinch away as they landed right in front of me and my dance partner, making the ground shudder silently under Grue's fog and scattering debris everywhere.

As the heroine stood and dusted herself off, I felt an overwhelming, all-consuming fear. My thralls and swarms stumbled as my base instincts tried to redirect the emotions, but I just barely clamped down on the impulse. My last shreds of sense said that maintaining control over the already dangerously emotional crowd was more important than my own emotional distress. Which was nice and all, but it didn't keep me from freezing like a deer in headlights.

"Get your hands off my sister, you creep," Glory Girl said, cracking her knuckles, "or I'll break them off."

"Eep," I responded lamely, trying to process the situation while in the grip of absolute terror. Once I had, I did the only thing I could; I sent Amy spinning into her sister's arms and ran for my life. Regent grabbed my arm, swung me up behind him with a grunt of pain, and Bitch whistled.

And it starts up north from Hollywood, water on the driving side...

"Hey, get back here!" the other Dallon child yelled as we pealed out of there, the dogs' claws chewing asphalt as they bounded down the empty street. I received an almost dizzying amount of information when I tried to sedate Glory Girl with a touch like Panacea reportedly could; apparently she had a much more complex mental component to whatever she did than I would have expected. Instead, I told her to cling to her sister, preventing her from taking off immediately.

Glory Girl, frustrated at our getaway, gently removed her sister-who was oddly more clingy than I'd expected, for an impromptu distraction- and took off in the direction we'd left in. As Grue covered us with darkness and we began to split off, I used Aegis to body-block the fellow Alexandria package just long enough that there was little hope of her finding us on her own, wincing as she swatted him aside with a wet snapping sound.

"Next left," I yelled to the darkness, glad my headphones were there to hold back complete silence. "We need to shake her!"

Grue must have heard me, because we abruptly veered left moments later. Through the eyes of a thousand birds, I watched Glory Girl pursue us. She kept diving into the shadowy depths Grue had made, surfacing moments later. I guessed our location, using the general senses of where people and animals were to determine what part of the cloud we were in, moving too fast to take anything but the smallest bugs over before they left my range. Glory Girl wasn't even close.

Running south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town. Just slicking on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound!

She must have realized the same thing, because she flew up, surveying the city. For a moment, I thought she would give up. Instead, she turned our way, flying high and fast. I soon realized why.

"There's not enough darkness!" I yelled. "She's looking for where it's spreading in a direction, not where it's spreading out in every direction!"

We abruptly turned left again. My birds reported the darkness had ceased to grow. A hollow opened up around us as the dogs came to a stop in an alleyway, only noticeable by the sudden lack of utter silence around us.

"Okay. Is Glory Girl is still looking for us?" the darkness said with Grue's baritone, simultaneously hollow yet full, strangely flat in this orb of echo-free space.

"She is. Roughly thirty seconds before she reaches our area," I reported.

"She'll never find us in here," Regent said.

"She doesn't have to," Tattletale replied. "All she has to do is keep our general location until reinforcements arrive. They'll stop us. We need to lose our tail." Atop Angelica, Bitch shifted uncomfortably at the idiom.

"I think we should head for a clothing store, raid it, and blend into the crowd," Regent suggested with a shrug. "We stash the bags in a dumpster or something, maybe."

"Glory Girl's overhead and the PRT are already on scene at the bank. Barricades are being deployed," I reported. "Whatever we do, we've got to decide now."

"Right," Grue said. "Tattle and I will draw her away and circle back, you three stash what you have." With that, he kicked at Judas' ribs and bounded off; Bitch followed his lead, trusting Angelica to lead her to safety as she headed south.

And it's Friday night and you're looking clean, too early to start the rounds...

Regent and I turned to leave too, but just before we reentered the wall of darkness, I felt Glory Girl reenter my range in a full blind dive. Which wouldn't be that much of a problem, except that by some twist of luck, she was headed directly for our little pocket. "Shit, here she comes!" I hissed, not a moment too soon. Regent took his feet away from Brutus, who stopped and stayed perfectly still, expecting us to dismount.

The heroine slammed into asphalt in the lightless dome of the meeting place. "Dammit," she cursed, floating up. A moment later, she paused. "Huh. I can hear myself?"

I prayed silently that she'd fly away.

Brutus sneezed.

"Fucking found yo-" she said, the words cut off as we bolted. She charged after us blindly, smacking into a car we'd leapt over, buying us just a few more seconds, which was all we needed to get away. I wasn't controlling Brutus directly, but a nudge here and there kept us from crashing as I led us into an alleyway. The elder Dallon child blew past us in a wave of emotion, and then it was just us two villains in the dark.

Just you and your mind and Lake Shore Drive, tomorrow is another day; and the sunshine's fine in the morning time, tomorrow is another day...

Twenty minutes later, as my control wavered in the last of the hostages and I slowly lost vision on the mess at the bank, the darkness finally began to fade. Anyone looking for us could have spotted a lanky girl and a skinny boy consoling a terrified rottweiler as the light returned to the small shopping district, but they weren't looking for us. There were no police barricades to avoid, no random checks. The only sign that anything was wrong with the world was the fact that a shop had been looted by opportunists during the blackout. Somewhere in the lower Docks, a pack of birds and rats guarded a certain dumpster especially fiercely. For better or worse, I was a villain.

No, scratch that- I was an Undersider.