Hadassah

Apologies for the delay. I usually schedule these ahead of time. Please enjoy!

She didn’t know quite how long she was out, but it couldn’t have been long, as she felt warm hands on her back and Tyson saying, sounding almost panicked, “ Oh oh, no, Erin. I- Just-” 

Erin groaned and said, “I’m… fine.” Her hand found her head and she started to roll over. Her arms ached, but nothing screamed in protest.The Plot never left her, but it's buzzing was dull against the pulsing aches across her body. 

“Don’t move, if he- if you have any broken bones it-”

“It’s fine.” Erin’s face felt warm, but when she touched it and looked at her fingers, they were dry. Then she remembered what happened. She demanded, “Is he gone?” She looked at Tyson, who looked genuinely frightened, or was simply acting well. 

“Oh thank- I’m so glad you’re- I- I’m not sure, I- Erin, I’m so sorry. I will make sure he’s gone. And get help. Just stay here. Don’t move. I’ll get help!” Tyson fled, his footsteps echoing on pavement. This was good. His panicked voice in her ears had amplified the ringing sensation. 

Her skin finally stopped buzzing as he disappeared out of sight.

She eventually scooted so that her back was to the wall, nearest her bike. She wasn’t thinking anything in particular, her thoughts scattered. She tried leaning her head against the concrete, but it hurt. She forgot she’d hit her head too. The back of her head was still trickling blood, she was pretty sure, and she couldn’t tell if it was a lot or a little. Her jacket arm where she’d been thrown against the asphalt was scuffed to near ruins, and she was glad she’d decided to wear leather. Not that she’d expected to fight a Protagonist that night.

The older man who’d been paralyzed by Rex’s monologue wasn’t anywhere to be seen either. She didn’t know if he’d fled after Tyson had gone, or if he had fled with Rex. 

Sometime - she wasn’t sure how long - a police car wailed up the parking garage. She put her hands over her face, her headache pushing its way to the forefront of her pains.

The doors opened in succession and over the wailing, Erin heard someone shout, “Hands up where we can see them! No sudden moves!”

Erik pulled her hands from her face to look around, to see if Rex had returned.

When her eyes adjusted to see past the headlights, she realized the two cops in this car had pulled their guns and were aiming them at her.

Confused, and without the Plot giving her directions, she raised her hands in surrender.

It turned out that these two cops were puppets. They didn’t read her any rights, and their eyes were glazed over, without any real recognition of what was happening. Erin didn’t understand why, until she realized that when they motioned for her to stand next to the cop car, that they were on camera. The little corner where Erin has parked didn’t look like it would have been within sight, but these police officers were.

Was the Plot anticipating that a Protagonist was going to review the camera later?

So she stood next to the police car with her hand cuffed before her, while the cops looked stiff and uncomfortable, one of them muttering quietly into their car radio.

After a little while later, an unmarked cop car pulled into the parking garage onto the same second level. She’d gotten lots of practice spotting them as a motorcyclist. Detective Grant stepped out in plain clothes and sauntered up.

 “Erin Razor. Of course. You still alive in there? Frankly, I’d rather have a body bag on my hands if the Plot doesn’t have you.”

“Detective Grant. I’m sorry you aren’t on suicide watch.” Erin set her jaw. She was not interested in another lecture about how she should have become homeless or whatever to satisfy Grant’s dislike for those too close to the Plot.

“I’m sure you are.” She glanced at the police officer that watched over Erin, glassy eyed by the Plot. “Officer Christoff. You and Officer Zeigler can take a walk. I will watch our suspect.” Detective Grant was a little shorter than Erin, but held herself tall, her dirty blond hair was in a tight bun. 

Officer Christoff nodded emotionlessly and the both of them wandered off towards the stairwell, Zeigler leaving the car and the radio behind. 

“Suspect?” Once the two police officers were out of sight of the camera, they stumbled and broke into a much quicker walk away from the car, Christoff looking back at Erin, his face grey with fear. 

“Don’t even, Erin. Do you think they are being staged by the Plot for your benefit?” 

Erin’s headache was just a dull pain, and it might have been as much as an hour since the police arrived. She’d been giving it some thought. “No. For some reason the Plot wants me arrested.” 

“Police got report of a domestic dispute between you and a man. The older man who made the call said you hurt him first.” 

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Detective Grant motioned to the cuffs on Erin’s hands. “You tell me why a backdrop dispatcher and two of our best officers were dragged out here on strings? What exactly is the story here?”

Erin glanced again towards the cops far enough away in the dappled shadows of the half-lit parking garage that she couldn’t see their faces anymore. She couldn’t help but shrink in one herself, feeling guilty all the same. 

“You know Spectacular, the new hero that showed up last night?” Detective Grant motioned for her to continue. “Did you know his alter ego is Rex Magnum? He must have invaded not long ago. Tyson wanted to show him some of the… amenities of the world, and had Janey invite me out, as if we were all friends.”

“You got pulled into a double date with another Protagonist and you expect me to believe you aren’t a Pawn?”

“I’m not a Pawn. It wasn’t a double date. I made sure of that before going.”

She laughed; it wasn’t pleasant. “I am glad you seem to think you can sternly give the Plot ground rules.” Erin didn’t have anything to say to that. “Was Tyson showing him around as a reward for helping save the city?”

Erin shook her head. “I think he knew Tyson from outside our world. I was asked to go out on Monday, well before he arrived. I think he was going to join the Cavalry.” 

Detective Grant wasn’t writing any of this down, though she’d pulled out a notebook and a pen. “Was?”

“Well, he attacked me. I think he might have killed me except Tyson showed up.”

“Don’t fuck with me Erin. Invaders don’t play villains. Just be honest. Did you get Puppeted? Are you going to be a Pawn villain we are going to dread two nights a week? Might be better to book you now, so we have your prints.” 

Erin was shocked by the vehemence in Grant’s voice, feeling a sudden echo of her fear when she saw Rex that first time in the same parking garage.

“I’m not lying. Rex said I wasn’t ‘supposed to actually fight back’ after he lasered himself. His eye beam bounced off the metal when I leaped away.”

Detective Grant said, begrudgingly, “Reports last night said that Spectacular’s eye beams seemed to bounce off of different surfaces, each color a different surface.”

“He shot green at me.”

“Hm.” The Detective faked writing down the statement. Erin figured it was just a show for the camera. It made Erin’s heart sink. 

“Don’t put this in the police report.”

“I’m not a fucking idiot, Ms. Razor. Continue.”

She wasn’t sure why she so wanted Detective Grant to believe her, but somehow in her head, if she couldn’t convince Detective Grant, it was likely no one would believe her. 

“Anyway, I got stopped from speaking a few times by the Plot tonight, but I was never Puppeted. Rex is real grade F material, broke the fourth wall multiple times. He even tried to say something he wasn’t supposed to and the Plot stopped him. He asked me why I wasn’t acting like everyone else, treating him with more respect. He acted like he expected the Plot to clean up after him. Even Tyson seemed annoyed by him at dinner. But he got worse when he was alone with me.” 

Protagonists were rated online for their presence and how much havoc their mere presence wrought upon the world. Rex was clearly among the worst, dragging Tyson down with him. Of course, Tyson had among the highest ratings in Meridian City... until he took Janey as his first Pawn. 

Detective Grant didn’t believe her. “Some people black out when they are Puppeted, you must be delusional.” 

“I didn’t black out. Is he okay?” 

“Who? Rex? We still haven’t found him. Don’t worry about your beau.”

“No,” Erin growled at the accusation, before softening. “I mean, the guy… the older man who saw it happen.” She didn’t care that the Plot had him call the police on her. Not his fault.

Detective Grant did not seem to buy her earnest concern. “He’s… alive. They found him catatonic at a payphone before I got here. He’s going to need a shit load of therapy. He says he blacked out. My cohorts believe him. My guys are going to need therapy too. They’re gonna wake up in the middle of the night for the next two weeks, wondering when the Plot will take them permanently.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me, you need to do it to them.”

“I think I will spare them risking being Puppeted again.” 

“Glad you have some decency.” Erin was about to snap back, but Detective Grant motioned, heading her off, “Tyson called us as well.” Erin frowned, not sure where this was going. “Told dispatch that a woman had been attacked and injured here and that you might need help.”

“So you believe me?”

“Not really, but it says something that the Plot wants you held, even though a Protagonist thought to call and take care of one of his Pawns.” Detective Grant gave her a small grin as she said this. None of her smiles were kind. 

Erin was about to say something as one of the fluorescent lights behind the detective flickered alive. Then a whole row flickered on. 

Detective Grant must have seen something on Erin’s face and looked back. As she did, all the previously dead fluorescent lights in the garage started to flicker alive. 

The police officers on the far side of the garage were illuminated and looked frightened. 

“Speak of the devils. I guess we find out why the Plot wants you here now.”

Now that the scene was illuminated like it might be ready for film, they both heard the sound of squealing tires as a car rounded the corner to come up the ramp to the second floor, where they were. A bright red convertible with the top up came around the corner, shining like it had just been washed. The car - one Erin had seen multiple times on the Protagonist forums - screeched to a halt behind the police car.