SG: Innocent Bystander #5 - Your Boss Owns Your Soul 2/2

[Whitney Taylor]

*****


"Turkey melt, please."


Mina shivered at the deadened look in the sandwich scientist's eyes as he trudged away to prepare her order. Was this the way she would be after years in the service industry? "Is that how I'm going to look if I spend years in the service industry?" she whispered to Rezo, who had been outside Middle Grounds when they had come to pick up her scooter, and had come along to get his own lunch.


"Don't worry. You're way more likely to get vaporized or eaten before your soul gets crushed by customer service," he whispered back with a comforting pat on the shoulder.


"Mmmmmmeat sandwich?" Maow wailed plaintively to another sandwich scientist.


"What kind of meat." She replied, impervious to Maow's furry face and pleading, saucer-wide eyes.


"Is there somewhere nice and sunny we can take these to eat?" Mina was starting to get creeped out. "I don't really wanna look this closely into my possible future right now."


"Somewhere *nice*?" Rezo looked like he was going to say something more, but just then the windows of the sandwich shop crashed inwards accompanied by a purple and white hardsuit.


"ATTENTION PEONS!" the hardsuit boomed, "DO AS I SAY AND YOU WILL BE--HEY, DON'T I KNOW SOME OF YOU?"


"Hi Malmechano!" Rezo waved, "This is Subs 'n Grubs. Liquor store is next door."


"REZO! DIDN'T I LAY YOU OFF? I DON'T NEED YOUR INPUT, I KNOW WHICH BUSINESS I HAVE BROKEN INTO, FOOLISH MINION! I FULLY INTEND TO ROB THE SUBS 'N GRUBS OF THEIR CASH AND SALAMI! THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS RAID! THE LIQUOR STORE IS MERELY A CONVENIENT--"


"Are you going to kill us?" One of the workers asked, with the faintest note of hope in her voice. Her name was Kate, according to her nameplate.


"Oohh! Shoot me first!" The second worker, Todd, was younger and less beaten down. He jumped up and down waving his arms, enthusiastic for the first time in perhaps months. "Please free me from my unending drudgery."


"I don't. Believe this." Mina was rubbing her eyes. "I just--I just wanted to go have a nice day with--with what passes for my friends in this city after the third or maybe fourth worst night of my life but YOU COULDN'T HAVE THAT!" She hurled a napkin dispenser, which bounced unnoticed off the white hardsuit torso.


"ER. ARE YOU CRYING? BORING NORMAL PEOPLE LIKE YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE PROBLEMS." The purple hardsuit helmet turned back and forth between Mina and the workers. "THIS IS TURNING OUT TO BE A REAL DOWNER OF A HEIST. HOW ABOUT YOU JUST HAND OVER THE GOODS AND THEN I KILL ALL THREE OF YOU?"


"Wait! I just had a really bad night! I don't wanna die!"


"MAYBE NOT, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE YOU'RE THE SAME ILL BRED NOBODY WHOSE OAFISH CLUMSINESS LET A PACK OF MANGY CATS INTO MY LAIR. YOUR PRESENCE IS DEPRESSING. TELL YOU WHAT. HOW ABOUT I KILL THESE TWO FIRST AND IF YOU AREN'T LESS DISAPPOINTING BY THE TIME I--"


"You don't have to kill anyone! The cash register's right there, just grab it!"


"You're ruining this for us," Kate growled at Mina.


"How about everyone who *doesn't* want to die just gets on the floor?" offered Rezo, who was already under a table with a sleeping mask on.


"What's going on here?" A man emerged from the back. A pin on his chest read "manager". He took in the hardsuit and his eyes glazed over immediately. "LOSS PREVENTION MODE" he said in a different, robotic voice, his lips no longer moving. His eyes went red, and his chest opened up to reveal an array of missiles, which began to launch at the hardsuit. Mina had just enough time to see Maow drop from a panel in the ceiling, taking out both the workers before she dropped herself, rolling over to the table Rezo was under.


"What is this?" she shouted over the crash of the manager bot walking straight through the counter. "What's going on?" Rezo just lifted the corner of his sleeping mask and looked at her as if she had asked a stupid question. Mina took this as her cue to be more specific. "Where did he get a hardsuit? Why is the store manager a robot?"


"SURRENDER, COMMUNIST TERRORIST FASCIST!"


"EAT RAILGUN ROBOT SCUM! THAT WILL TEACH YOU TO TAKE JOBS FROM HARD WORKING AMERICANS! AHAHAHAHAHA!"


"He bought it used." Rezo called over the sound of lasers. "Said the paint job looked like a lab coat."


Mina looked up long enough to see Malmechano's hardsuit grab the arm of the robot and swing it around, throwing it out the window. Stepping out behind it, he pressed his advantage with another volley of laser fire. Mina took their brief absence as an opportunity, and vaulted what was left of the counter. On the other side, Maow sat on the older woman, who was larger, and kept the man's head pinned to the ground with a clawed hand. The three were having an animated discussion.


"I am delicious!" declared Kate. There was a muffled yell from Todd. "*We* are delicious!" she corrected. "Between us, there's enough meat to feed an army of humanoid cats!"


"Consensual cannnnnibalism is an unnnnsettled question, ethically speakinnng. I don't knnnnow if I'm comfortable innnnnnntroducing such an arrrrrrrangement."


"You're trying to get killed AND eaten now?" Mina panted. "What is wrong with you people?"


"I've worked 90 hours this week and I still can't feed my four kids. The settlement my family will get will more than make up for my wages."


"Mmmph!" Maow adjusted her hold, and the man turned his head. "You don't know what it's like working here!"


"Try me," said Mina, "starting with that robot thing."


A Hummer exploded in the parking lot. ("YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE," the robotic voice shrieked. "MUAHAHAHAHAHAH" replied Malmechano.)


"Every bathroom trip, timed. It waits outside the door, listening. Do you know how hard it is to go when--"


"All right, all right! I think I get it. Why is it here?"


"Some kind of corporate experiment," Kate put in. "They tried to automate the workers first. It turns out they couldn't mass-market a robot sophisticated enough. They kept glitching up during complicated orders and customers didn't find them satisfying to yell at. But then someone came up with the idea of replacing the managers instead. It turns out that a manager's job is much easier to automate. All they have to do is tell us to come in on holidays and watch us while we work."


"Corporate seems real satisfied when they come by now," Todd said, despairing. "They want to expand the program to other stores. They just needed to test the loss prevention system."


"Still," Maow said thoughtfully, "There mmmmmust be something more prrrrrroductive you could do, than simmmply end your lives. Some kind of rrrrrrrretaliation..."


"I know what." Mina's eyes were shining with terror and excitement. "We need to make sure Malmechano wins this battle!"


*****


The door was marked Employees Only.


"But none of us has the key to it," Todd explained, "And we don't know where it's kept."


"And there's this," Kate added. She flipped up the panel of a lightswitch by the door. Behind it was some sort of fancy high tech scanning instrument with a red LED attached. "It scans people's eyes. I think the only people it lets in are some kind of maintenance from Corporate."


"Put me down! Hairball," complained Rezo, who, having refused to move, was being carried over Maow's shoulder. She dropped him at Mina's feet.


"Can you open this?" She demanded. Another explosion came from outside, this time causing the lights to flicker. Mina hoped it was another Hummer, and not the supervillain's hardsuit.


The ex-henchman sat up and eyed the retinal scanner. "I could pick the lock, but it's probably a dummy. I can't do anything about the scanner. Can I go now?"


"What about... This!" With a flourish, Mina drew forth her trusty laser pointer.


"That's a laser pointer," Rezo pointed out, "It's just meant to distract..." His eyes drifted over to Maow, and he shut up.


"Maow, you have the keenest senses. Why don't you keep watch?"


The catgirl nodded to Mina, and turned to examine the battle outside.


"It's not going to do anything!" Rezo protested as Mina flipped through settings, aiming the pistol-shaped artifact at the scanner and trying various settings. "Well, you might burn out the detector, but..."


"Incoming!" Maow yowled as a stray missile headed into the devastated restaurant. It was at this very instant that the red LED turned green, and the door opened. Fortunately, it opened inwards, allowing all of them to pile in ahead of the explosion.


"Shouldn't have worked..." Rezo coughed, brushing dust off his clothing.


"Shut *cough* up and help me break this thing!" Mina had bounded in first, and was staring at a pod large enough to accommodate a humanoid robot. It was surrounded by buttons and readouts.


Maow crawled over to a large piece of equipment. "This lllllooks like a spammm powered rrrrreactor. The robot must use it to rrrrrecharge. Dangerous."


"Whoa," Todd and Kate said in unison, having never been allowed into this room.


"Are you trying to become a henchperson now?" Rezo demanded, "It won't help you to work for nothing, you know."


"Nooooo, I'm trying to stop an evil corporate plot before it engulfs my workplace. Where you work now too, ever since you blackmailed the cook, I'm pretty sure! Anyway," and she began pressing buttons.


"Oh." Self interest began to kick in. "Yeah, don't mess with that. Those are the reactor controls. I think this alters the AI mode, so..." He pressed something. A distant, indistinct robotic chatter suddenly fell silent. "There." There was a loud BOOM from outside, followed by familiar maniacal laughter, followed by silence. Kate and Todd edged out the door.


"Whew!" Mina leaned back. "Time to get out of here."


"Minaaaaaaaaa! What did you dooooo to the reactor!" Maow screeched suddenly. The catgirl pawed at the interface, panicking. There were lights on it now. Ominously colored lights. Lights that had definitely been dark when they first entered the maintenance room.


Mina turned to the panel and desperately tried to remember which buttons she had pushed. At the same time, Rezo lunged for the reactor.


The world went white, and he screamed.


*****


Blue and purple and red blotches were the first things to distinguish themselves to Mina's eyes. She blinked hard, and the brilliant colors began to fade to the grays of her surroundings. A brief inventory determined that all of her parts were intact. Maow, she thought. The catgirl had such big, sensitive eyes. "Maow?" she said out loud.


"Ahhhhhnnnnnnn!" It was a slow, pained wail. Mina felt her way over to it.


"Are you hurt?"


"Can't seeeeee!"


Mina felt fur under her fingers, saw a black and white blur of a face, no red. "My vision's coming back. I'll get you out of here."

"Hey."


"Rezo! Are you hurt?"


"I feel pretty good!"


"...No way."


"Better than ever, actually."


"*No*."


"In fact I feel pretty invincible? ‘Snice."


Mina shut her eyes tight, briefly bringing back the explosions of color. "Rezo I'm going to need you to shut up about that right now. Just tell me if you can see."


"See? Oh shit! Wait, my eyes were closed. Yeah, I can see. All those lights and panels look back to normal now." He sounded baffled. "That's what you wanted to ask, right? I didn't do it, though."


"Can you get up? I need help with the catgirl."


"Oh yeah, I guess none of us wanna get caught here. Good thing the security cameras got wrecked in the fight." A blurry form began to move, shifting from horizontal to vertical. Mina coaxed the whimpering catgirl to her knees as the lights on the console came slowly into focus. Whatever had happened to Rezo, she reasoned, must have reset the reactor somehow. She retrieved her laser pointer, shoved it back into her purse, then she and Rezo took Maow's arms. Between the two of them, they got Maow to her feet and through the door.


Back in the kitchen area, she was able to make out Todd and Kate, kneeling beside an open safe stuffing a small backpack with assorted bills. They had very guilty expressions on their faces, but Mina didn't have time to worry about that. Maow suddenly stiffened, ears up, and flung herself to the side, shoving Rezo and pulling Mina along with her into a pile of debris.


A crunchy crash and a slightly maniacal chuckle were her second clue that Malmechano had come back to claim... whatever.


"THE SALAMI HAS BEEN RUINED! AND I BELIEVE THAT IS MY LOOT YOU ARE MAKING OFF WITH, PEASANTS!"


"Come and take it! What do we have to lose?" Kate shouted defiantly. There was a pew-pew sound of laser blast, and she cried out in dismay.


Mina popped her head up from behind a box while her companions burrowed under rubble. She saw the hardsuit, battered and with sparks coming out but still looking deadly enough for the likes of her. The two workers were trying to take cover behind the open door of the safe. A fresh burn mark, uncovered by dust, scorched the floor next to the safe. "Malmechano!" she said. "Let them go. I helped you win, so you owe me."


"WHATEVER. JUST HAND OVER THE LOOT AND I'LL BE ON MY WAY!"


"It's ours!" Todd cried, "We worked for it!" There were tears streaking his dusty cheeks.


Mina fought the urge to bury her face in her hands. This is too much--she shoved the voice back down. "It's not worth your lives," she told the two service workers. I don't want to see anyone else die.


"Says you! My other two jobs won't even cover my rent!"


"BOO HOO HOO! IF I HAVE TO LISTEN TO SOB STORIES I'M JUST GOING TO KILL YOU ALL."


"Shoot us and the cash burns!" Todd shouted.


"There's more valuable stuff here to steal! There's all this equipment from the robot guy. A--some kind of spam reactor. That's got to be worth something, right?" Mina put in.


"THAT PIDDLING SAFE WON'T PAY FOR THE DAMAGE TO MY SUIT... VERY WELL, LET'S SEE THE REST OF THE GOODS." The hardsuit stepped forward and around the open door of the safe, where Todd was trying to hide his entire body behind the cash filled backpack. Ignoring the other civilians, the villain turned to Mina.


"In there," she stood up, pointing to the open utility door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Todd and Kate start to move. "You can see the pod where the robot charges itself," she added hastily. "It probably does it at night, when there aren't any employees or customers around. There's the panel with the manual overrides, with all the lights, see? That's where we got it to stop attacking. And that big box thing there is--"


"STOP THAT BABBLING!" A light shove from the hardsuit arm sent Mina sprawling onto her rear. "WHICH ONE OF US IS THE GENIUS SCIENTIST, ANYWAY? YOU TWO! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" The last part was directed to the escaping sandwich workers, who had snuck towards freedom while the villain was distracted. Discovered, they launched themselves through the broken window, abandoning stealth. Roaring with rage, Malmechano fired a final missile as the fugitives ducked to the side. Mina shut her eyes and covered her ears, but in that same instant felt a hand close around her ankle.


A strange sensation came over her then. She became aware of a solid, comforting anchor inside herself. All she had to do to be safe was lay back and grasp it, which she did.


The explosion of the missile against the side of the restaurant made the floor shake and more dust and rubble fall, but it sounded to Mina as if it happened on a television at half volume. Bits of ceiling tile fell towards her, only to slide away a few inches from her face. She watched this, fascinated. Invincible.


Malmechano took a step forward, as if to pursue his lost loot. Then he paused, his head swinging back towards the utility closet and its unexplored treasures. Back and forth he went, a series of indecisive one-eighties, until his gaze stopped in the middle. Stopped on Mina.


"YOU HAVE A BIG MOUTH, FOR SOMEONE OF SUCH LITTLE CONSEQUENCE." He pointed a wrist-mounted laser cannon at her, and fired.


Mina stared wide eyed at the beam of light splashing against an invisible barrier. He was really going to do it! And she was stopping him, sort of. She felt very aware of the hand wrapped around her ankle, a lifeline.


Malmechano pulled his arm back, the laser beam cutting off. "SO, MORE THAN A NOBODY AFTER ALL. WELCOME TO THE METAHUMAN ARISTOCRACY." He looked at her down on the floor. "THOUGH NOT TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS, I THINK."


Mina was about to protest that it wasn't her, really, but the hand around her ankle gave a squeeze, and so she remained silent.


"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH YOU RIGHT NOW. I HAVE LOOTING TO DO. BUT I REMEMBER WHERE I'VE SEEN YOU BEFORE AND I *WILL* BE HAVING A WORD WITH YOUR MANAGER. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!"


"Noooooooooo..." Mina wailed feebly in response to this dread threat. The hand around her ankle tightened into a vice.


The hardsuited villain turned and strode into the maintenance room. As he was starting to make exclamations of delight, Maow rose soundlessly from a pile of debris and launched herself at the door, slamming her hand against the panel and causing it to whisk shut.


Rezo popped up from his own cover, letting go of Mina's leg. The sensation of untouchable power vanished abruptly, leaving her feeling quite squishy. "Time to go. That won't hold him for long." Already, there were indignant shouts coming from behind the door.


"I hope he's not crazy enough to set off missiles in there," gasped Mina, climbing to her feet.


Maow shrugged, unconcerned. "Wwwwiill help cover up ooooour presence if he does."


"Are you okay? I thought you were blinded."


"Nnnnnever been blind. Nnnnnot since I was a kitten." The catgirl stalked proudly ahead, tripping and nearly falling over a metal tub.


"Maow!"


"What?" She responded with great dignity. "Nnnothing has happened."


Mina took her elbow anyway. "Nevermind. I just hope our scooters are all right."


The machines had been knocked over and hit by flying debris, but otherwise seemed all right. "We should split up." suggested Rezo, picking up his battered Vespa.


"Good strategy," mewed Maow.


"Okay." Mina righted her Genuine Pal 250, then, unable to hold herself in, whirled to face him. "You... It's so unfair-- You saved me, though. I've never heard of anyone lending powers out like that--"


"I think I hear sirens and lasers..." Rezo started up the scooter.


"Oh, all right. Thank you. I'll just go and vomit with envy when I reach the privacy of my own home."


"Iiiii think you did verrry well. Perhaps the nnnnnext unstable reactor will give yoooou yooooooouuur powers?" Maow purred in her ear as she settled in, wrapping her arms around Mina and resting her soft chin on the shorter girl's shoulder.


As she buzzed out of the parking lot, Mina resisted the urge to stop and stare at a figure rising from the ruin in her rearview mirror, improbaby burdened. Instead she hit the gas, wanting to stay ahead of the just-arriving police, with whom she had spoken last night. She had already come to the conclusion that they were not up to dealing with metahuman criminality. Her adrenaline had begun to wane, and she felt just as dismal as she had this morning but even hungrier.


"Where do you want to be dropped off?" she shouted. This was met with silence. "Maow?"


"Drrrropped off?" came the confused answer. "I'mmmmm coming home with you."


Mina pulled off onto a side street and parked under an overhanging tree canopy. Turning around, she pulled off her helmet and half turned to look at her companion. The gaze that met hers was uncomprehending, pleading.


"You--you can't just move in. I have things I need to do. I still have to call my mom." She remembered as well the gadget stored under her sink, plucked off of the same contraption the chaotic catgirls coveted...


Maow's soft fingers brushed her face. "But yyyyou are still sad. Ssscared." Mina closed her eyes as the rough tongue licked her messy hair. It was a funny sensation, but kind of nice. Too confusing.


"Nope," she said, pushing away. "You were attacking me with your friends just last week, and this is all moving too fast! I let you get away with things because you're like a cat. But you're much more than a cat, and it's so hard to sort out! So just tell me where--Maow? Maow?"


But the catgirl had already made her exit.


*****


Amy Sunderland's business phone buzzed a crucial instant before she could strike the killing blow. Her opponent took advantage of her distraction, and Ramrod's bullets struck home, knocking the digital figure of Fallen Angel off the Space Needle and causing her life counter to go down by one. Biting back a foul curse with some effort, she handed her controller to her watching niece, who shrieked with glee.


"Y'all have fun. I gotta go take this."


She stepped out onto the back porch, closing the door firmly behind her. After checking for inconvenient neighbors, she flipped her phone open. The Belles of Bellum... this would have been the mind influencer, lifted from that loudmouth Malmechano. "What can I do for you, Miss Rule?"


"I have a complaint to make," The accent was old Southern aristocracy, and rather exaggerated by Amy's reckoning.


"No refunds."


"Miss Amy, I made a purchase from you in good faith. I and my associates have spent some time studying the item you sold me and we have come to the conclusion that it has been sabotaged. This is not the level of service we expect."


"You got it in the condition I found it. I never mess around with this stuff." Amy, who ranked neither the "mind control" device nor its purchaser's technological expertise highly, couldn't rule out the possibility that the machine was working perfectly but with no effect anyone would notice.


"Perhaps something could have fallen off in transport? Because my expert assures me that this machine is short one car-bunk-u-lar co-ag-u-la-tor." The voice pronounced the scientific gibberish with slow and careful precision.


"Ain't seen one of those around, but if I find one I'll give you a call."


"Don't you hang up on me, Miss Amy," the voice softened, but the accent sharpened, "I don't intend for you to defraud me. I will have a complete machine or you will regret it."


"You do know where I work, right? I'm pretty well appreciated there. In what way are you gonna make me regret it that ain't gonna make you regret it more?"


"Why don't you just shut your mouth and take a listen?"


Shutting her mouth was never on Amy's agenda, but before she could think of anything to say she heard it. The clop clop clopping of horses' hooves came first, followed by the cheerful sounds of "Dixie." She ran around the side of the house in time to catch sight of the carriage. She recognized the carriage, though not the man driving it; he waved at her, sending chills down her spine.


"I take it you understand me?"


Amy Sunderland resisted the urge to look back at the house behind her, where her nephews and nieces played Super Smoosh Guys, and the rest of her family prepared for dinner. "Okay, Miss Rule! I really don't know where that co-uncle carbohydrate whatever is! If y'all really want I'll even give you your damn refund, okay?"


"That will not do, I'm afraid. I have plans for this particular contraption. I have waited for too long for the power to oust those carpetbaggers sitting pretty up there in Savannah, keeping decent southern superguys from enjoying the fruits of the Hostess City! Now you think real hard about where that part might be, and you call me back within the hour."


The line went dead. Amy stared at the carriage until it was out of sight. A part of her mind had been working on the question even while she was protesting her ignorance. Two people had helped her that night. She was sure Rezo hadn't deliberately messed up anything. He was too self-interested, and he just didn't possess the drive. But the other person... she had the initiative, and the annoying self-righteousness, to do something any number of stupid things.


Amy looked down at her phone, and then up at the house. Her sister in law opened the door, waving her in for dinner. Amy held up a hand to indicate that she would be a minute, then looked at her phone again. "Sorry, kid..." she whispered as she redialed...


*****


At the same time...


A number of computer monitors bleeped and blooped contentedly in a shaded upper-story room. One of the monitors, which like its companions displayed arcane formulas incomprehensible to the ordinary layperson, began flashing red and bleeping with considerable urgency. When this failed to elicit a response, one of its usb ports disgorged an imp. Activating its tiny built in jetpack, the imp took flight, searching for the room's occupant. It soon located him: a tall, heavy-set black man intently studying a small but complicated electronic eye. The imp screamed; the man did not respond. The imp seized an earbud and yanked, then screamed again. This time the man turned his head to listen.


When the imp had finished, the man sighed, reaching for a microphone. "Small problem down south. Come talk to me."


*****


Song credit:

"Bury My Lovely" by October Project

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