Wilderness Hannah, page 15
part #3 of Damsel Series
After sweating enough to be gross, stretching and then showering, she contemplated ruining her sleep schedule by actually resting in the middle of the day. She didn’t really have anything coming up that required her to be awake during daylight hours, after all.
She was considering that, feeling more than a little sorry for the plight of the little rich girl, when she heard a voice. Not coming from another room, or even behind her, no, this one was, familiarly enough, in her head.
~Hey, Hannah...~
“Something going on, Al? I can... Well, you know, same old, same old. I can find a person for you, which, face it, you can almost always do better than I can, or I can give you money. That one... You know, sure, if you need it?”
There was a slightly annoyed sense of things from the boy. The man, really. No-one who was forced to live in the heads of thousands of people at once was going to stay a child for long. He may well have had an even more messed up childhood than she’d had, given that. She locked that thought down, as quickly as possible. Not because it might not be true, but because it was far too close to sounding like a judgmental bitch, and she wasn’t going down that path in life. Even if she were useless, she wasn’t doing that.
~Not trying to interrupt your processing of your reality or anything, but there’s a bit of an emergency? Doctor Sendra is planning to destroy the werewolf you and Superion X caught. I can’t say why, since how I got to that was kind of... Well, you know, I have rules. Still, you can probably help the wolf guy out, so you should call that in? I could, but... Really, you need a good excuse, to get you out of dinner tonight. With Alex Darius and Trevor Mitchner?~
The voice in her head managed to sound amused, at her expense. A thing that she understood, in a distant, rather overwhelming fashion, suddenly.
“Crud on a cracker. I... Well, at least I forgot about both of them? That will make me popular. Any thought how I should handle this? I don’t want to be a...” Really, what she didn’t want to be, as hard as it would be for anyone else in the world to understand, was her.
Which poor Al was no doubt being blasted with, in that moment. She was tired, and trying to focus wasn’t really working just then. Dropping into a trance would mean going to sleep, she didn’t doubt. She nearly froze, not knowing what to do at all.
“Fuck Al... Help? That, it’s weak, asking for help...”
There was a sound in her head, that spoke of being frustrated. Even more annoyed, in fact. All of that carried at one time, into her very being.
~Stop. Just make yourself let that one go. This is a chain of things that started due to outside triggers. I can’t tell you how to fix it all, but it really isn’t reality. Or magic pushing you around. This is just you, dealing with some things you need to. Only, right now, you have a life to save, if you can.~
She’d probably fail at it, not being good enough, or strong enough, of course. She was just... Useless, most of the time.
Except, and this had to be the kid’s real point, she had a cell phone and the numbers she needed, which didn’t really count as special, or important, but would let her actually get in touch with people who were.
That was, of course, almost everyone in the world. She, Hannah de Peyser, wasn’t even as useful as a street cleaner, or an auto mechanic. Both of those people did things that made lives better, every single day. She, on the other hand, played at improving herself and literally spent her time in VR, pretending it was going to do something that would impact her life at all.
Occasionally she’d found some people. That was, nearly, a good thing. For a few moments.
Even this one, calling people in to save that wolf guy, wasn’t really needed. Alistair could have contacted Red Cape, instantly, in his head. Calling him up was all she had planned, after all. She nearly told the boy to do his own work, instead of making things up for her to do, but she realized he hadn’t really gotten with her for that. It was an excuse, to remind her that she was about to have a sit-com disaster on her hands, having invited two dates over.
For the same time.
Sighing, not saying goodbye to Al, who was always with her, if he wanted to be, even if he’d gone silent in the moment, she dialed the phone.
Her voice sounded lifeless, even to her own ears, so she tried to put a bit of spring into it.
“Hello?”
“Damsel here. Doctor Sendra is planning to kill the wolf guy you collected the other day. I heard you’re the only one she’s willing to work with? If she doesn’t want him, she can pass him over to us and we’ll see if we can reverse things? I got word on that. From our psychic friend?” She didn’t know that they had to be that careful on the phone still, but she also didn’t know that they didn’t.
No-one had called her up for a long confab about how Tri-D being mainly fixed had taken care of that. So, until she knew for certain, being careful was in order. Maybe past that, even, since a lot of people around her had secrets they needed to be kept.
There was a deep inhalation. A powerful thing.
“Understood. I’ll handle this. My understanding is that... Well, there are possibly personal issues involved here, so I can’t speak about them, since they aren’t mine. Let me...”
The man hung up before doing whatever it was that he had planned.
Then, feeling like a louse, Hannah got on the phone, with Trevor, first. After all, he’d been the one asked last, so was the thing she needed to fix first.
“Trevor?”
“Hannah?”
“Right in one. I was up all last night. Um, having a meltdown, not actually getting busy with my side piece, which I don’t have, unfortunately. Can we reschedule, do you think? I’m going to be about useless and being around me isn’t something I can recommend, right now. Not unless you want to listen to me going on about how useless I am?”
There was a pause then, and the man didn’t sound upset. Just practical.
“Sure? On the rescheduling. Also, I met you for less than an hour, and you proved to me that you are far from useless. You drove off the voices of the dead. Only for a while, but just that was a relief. Not to be that clingy guy, but even if you don’t want to actually hang with me in a dating way, we still should get together. Eat popcorn... Scare away ghosts. A good time will be had by all?” He went silent then.
Hannah sighed.
“Thanks. I feel almost like I have something useful to do. Though, yes, on the dating way of things? If that doesn’t work, well, screw it, I won’t leave you sitting in a pool of screaming ghosts, if I can help it. Though seriously, at least go for the booty call, right?” She stopped, then shook her head and was simply honest.
“I also managed to double book? Literally two dates for the same night, at the same time. Before you think I’m picking him over you, I’m canceling out on that one as well. I wasn’t kidding about the no sleep thing.”
There was a playful tone then, as the man chuckled a bit.
“Oohhh. Now I’m jealous. I suppose that this other guy is a good-looking billionaire, with a bad boy reputation? Just remember, I can wow you with my neediness and less than average good looks, as well as empathetic ways. Women love all that, don’t they?”
She blinked. Mainly at the description that the man had given her.
“Um, not to be a bitch, but the way you described the other man was nearly perfect. In case it was a psychic thing and you need feedback? An old family friend, who’s twice my age and not interested in getting me into bed.” At least he’d kept the flirting to a minimum even if she’d dropped some pretty heavy clues that way. “Also bald, so...”
She didn’t have anything against men for that, but there was a sigh from the phone.
“Probably not psychic. Just the perfect storm for my insecurities. Still, you’re canceling on him, too? That sounds legit, then. Let me know when you have time?” The words were a bit passive aggressive, at the end, but she understood how that one could happen.
“Will do. Sorry. Later!”
Then she called Alex, explained and didn’t have to do nearly half as much that way. He simply presumed that she was busy. Then, it was really clear that she’d been thinking of their dinner as a date, and he’d been networking with the potentially useful daughter of a colleague.
Which in the end, didn’t leave her feeling good about herself at all. Instead of sleeping too early, feeling like crap, she dragged herself into the VR chamber, which should have probably been a guest room, and threw herself into pretending that playing games was going to improve her chances of surviving in real life at all.
A thing she suddenly sucked at.
She played against bots and had to fight hard to not die once for every one of the virtual soldiers she took down. Headshots had become nearly impossible, suddenly, and she had to mainly hide, taking potshots when she could manage it. Even then, they normally killed her. It was vastly frustrating, but even feeling down on herself, she understood it was about being too tired. That and lacking focus.
So she forced herself to do better. It wasn’t perfect, but she did get herself to a ten to one kill death ratio and held things there, for an hour. Then she recharged her gear, and cleaned the lenses, her eyes trying to close on their own.
No-one called her, and Nate didn’t come home, for the rest of the day. Kate didn’t even send a text. She could have begged for attention, of course, but given everything that felt too weak, really. She tried to rally, reminding herself that just sleeping would, very likely, leave her feeling better. As it was, she started drinking coffee, and then worked on meditation. Just sinking into her own thoughts, going deep. She was wired enough that sleep didn’t come, for some reason.
Which meant, at nine that night, she was, finally, about as deep as she’d ever been, when she noticed that the phone was about to ring. The smears of probabilities were all over the place, though she was able to follow the lines to scoot forward, cross legged, and pick up her cell from the smooth coffee table in front of the white sofa, with her eyes closed.
Her own voice felt far away.
“Hannah here, Guardia.”
There was a funny sound then, that Hannah wasn’t tracking completely.
“This shouldn’t show up on your phone...”
“It doesn’t. I’m in a trance.” That might not be a real explanation, but Hannah simply waited. Not that she could tell what was going to happen, in the moment. There were words coming.
It didn’t take a psychic to get that one.
“I need someone found. Tom. He’s a contact of mine and I haven’t heard from him in-”
Hannah didn’t speak, or pay attention to what the other lady was saying in her ear. After seven or so minutes, at least she thought it was something like that, she caught a rough image of the man. It wasn’t perfect at all. Sometimes, if she was truly in the right mental state, she could see things as if they were nearly photographs.
This wasn’t that.
“Dark hair. Suit. Nice, but nothing designer... He’s sitting on a sofa. There’s a woman there.” She noticed the rings, which were tied together, in her head, with a thin blue line. “His wife? They have similar rings. Anyway... She... Is holding something. Awkwardly.”
Hannah guessed gun, well before she worked that out, and knew that meant she might be putting it in the picture. So, instead of reporting it, she focused harder, trying to let go of her conscious mind. To simply accept what was there. The whole picture danced.
It wanted to fade as well.
“Sleep deprivation. This isn’t clear. Sorry. Um...” She had to reset, and focus on the woman, who had a name that seemed to be something like Farah, as silly as that sounded at the moment.
Guardia gasped.
“Fuck, then. Where are they?”
It took nearly twenty minutes for her to focus enough to get an address. That was just a room number and the name of the hotel. One not all that far from where she was at the moment, really. About two miles.
“Got it. I’ll report, later.” Then the cell phone went dead.
Getting up, forcing herself to change her clothing, Hannah got into her bed, not knowing when she’d wake up at all. Hoping that, when she did, the crap in her head would have calmed down a bit.
She woke up, after a fitful night’s sleep, that felt like she was just there, not really drifting off at all, even though she felt fine when she woke up, to her phone ringing again.
This time it wasn’t Guardia at all.
It was Red Cape.
“Hello?”
“Damsel? I managed to get Sendra to hold off. That wasn’t easy. She won’t tell my why she’s acting like this, but... It isn’t normal for her. We might want to move this man today, if we can?” He sounded a little panicked over the idea, which wasn’t the kind of thing that was normal, really. He was normally pretty calm and collected.
“I’m on that, then. Let me get things into motion.” She was, feeling down about how useless she was or not, kind of needed for this one.
Not for anything real, of course. Just because it was, in part, her plan. She’d built the transfer cage in the Never, after all, using magic, and worked with Debbie on opening the rift in just the right spot, in practice, several times. How they were going to force the creature through, into the other side, she didn’t know.
Still, Red Cape seemed to think that sounded fine, after whatever kind of night he’d had, getting that to be allowed, so she called Debbie and Lash. Not that Lashondra was needed for this one. No more than Hannah was, at least. Still, they also got Wisp, since powerful or not, the poor guy was mainly used as a pickup truck, or maybe a bus, for the rest of them. Teleporting Uber.
It was important work. Even if it sounded a bit menial as far as labor went. Thinking about that, Hannah tried not to draw down when she noticed the faint feeling that someone was coming into her living room. She looked over at the right time and for one of the very first occurrences of such a thing, noticed Wisp popping into being. He was just there, suddenly.
The man, sounding like he normally did, spoke her name.
“Hannah? Are you all right?”
She forced a chuckle.
“I look that good? Things have been rough. I don’t know... It’s probably PTSD, but it might be other things. My life... I’m not really good at this, am I?”
Wisp moved forward then and hugged her, which wasn’t the relationship that Hannah had with the man. Even if it was her best friend, Kate, just playing a part.
“Good at what? Saving wolfmen? So far, so good, on that one, really. Superion X told Lash and Debbie that it was actually really close. That you got him there in time.”
She shook her head.
“Al did that. I just played secretary. I meant life, in general. I kind of suck at it. Everything I do ends up going wrong. I wasted a decade pretty much just partying. Now I’m just... Playing at this whatever it is I’m doing. I mean, I don’t have powers. I can just do what everyone else can. Even in the Never, that’s not special. I’m just...” She nearly said ordinary, but even that was wrong. Ordinary people were valuable. “Not much.”
She didn’t know what Kate would say to that. Worse, she kind of figured the Wisp was about to hand her a well broiled section of her behind, for having been that petty and lame. After all, they had a real job to do, and that wasn’t about sitting there and soothing her feelings.
“Never mind. We need to get to this stuff first. This is just old baggage coming back, you know?”
She didn’t go into it. Just in case there actually wasn’t time.
The Elysium Lab complex was impressive, if in a plain way. It was big, white, silver in places and had hard tile flooring that was practical, rather than expensive. It made up for that blandness with millions of dollars of equipment, however. They moved directly into an area with a glowing cage. There were parabolic reflectors, like satellite dishes, pointed inward, seeming to hit something like bits of metal, flakes of it, that hung in the air, not moving.
When the wolf saw her, even if it had been still moments before, it threw itself at the barrier. That held really well, not even making a sound as the shining bits in the red light of the field bounced and set the creature back. Seemingly unharmed.
There was no-one else in the room with them. No Doctor Sendra, whoever she was, or the Red Cape. Just them. For some strange reason.
Debbie nodded.
“I can work through this containment field. It’s high-level tech, but shouldn’t interfere at all. Let me get started? It will take about ten minutes.”
That was spent muttering. Wisp didn’t try to talk to her about anything and while Lash looked concerned, the woman didn’t exactly rush over to check on her tiny blonde friend.
Which made perfect sense. One of them had spent a decade in a demon prison, in a reality that didn’t make logical sense, and the other was a spoiled, self-important, piece of wasted flesh. For a moment she wondered if it would have been better to let the wolf thing eat her.
A thought she stopped, instantly. After all, she wasn’t a victim. That was victim thinking, and no matter what else, even if she couldn’t be strong or useful, she wasn’t letting that kind of thing back into her life. Even when she’d been making a mess of things, she wouldn’t have really gone the easy route like that. Not directly.
So, focusing, she dropped into a trance, and used the ten minutes that Debbie needed, to calm herself and focus. Hard enough she could see what was about to happen. It was much easier when she’d had sleep. Not that it was clear or anything. It was a set of thoughts, more than a real vision. A feeling, in three different places, in the moment.
All centered on her, for the time being. What she was about to do.
The first was stand there, waiting for someone else to move the beast. That would, in the end, be Wisp, lifting it up and setting it into the cage in a different reality.
