Industrial Strength Magic

Chapter 80: Parental Guidance

Listen, Perry.

If you ever realize someone’s been in your head, the first thing you need to do is watch their eyes, face, and body language.

So few minders learn how to keep a poker face or lie convincingly because they have a habit of leaning on the mind-control crutch. If you strongly believe one thing, but their body language says the opposite, there’s probably something screwy going on.

The second thing you need is introspection. Review your thoughts and feelings with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they didn’t leave any nuggets in there that might be altering your behavior.

Your best bet is an older minder. Sure, they’re most likely a bit better at what they do, but they’re less likely to aggressively alter your personality for their own pleasure.

And don’t assume young women are less problematic than young men. They’ve got their own issues. Young women who trigger as minders often have a specific vision of how an ideal world should work and take it upon themselves to force everyone into that mold. To ‘fix’ people’s perceived flaws. To make everyone ‘nice’. It doesn’t work out very often. I’ve seen more than a handful of suicides from square pegs being jammed into round holes.

The brain does not tolerate extensive meddling without snapping.

This one guy I was working with got caught by a minder woman who didn’t like they way his breath smelled like garlic, and to this day he brushes his tongue until it bleeds every day…

So..what was I saying?

Right. Body language is more honest than words, and self-examine your brain like never before.

-Dinner Rant From Mechanaut on Minders.

“I’m a detective with the Washington PD, assigned to babysit your ass.”

“Alright, detective. Stay right there if you don’t want your legs broken,” Perry said, busting into his locker and dusting off the garish ballcap with the stability-enhancing circlet glued to the inside.

The other circlet was welded to the inside of his helmet, obviously.

“Threatening violence against a police officer isn’t a great idea.” The minder said, crossing his arms, but not running the instant Perry took his hand off the guy’s shoulder.

He looked scared, but also irritated…. and kinda pissed. That was good. It lent credence to him being on the job and it going sideways.

“I’ll just tell ‘em I had no idea if you were telling the truth or not,” Perry said, catching Heather’s attention and waving her over. “And they’ll believe me, too. I’ll bet your precinct isn’t lining up to stick their necks out for you.”

“You don’t say?” Chase said, scowling.

“Wear this.” Perry said, handing Heather the ballcap.

“Seriously?” She asked.

“Penguin soup,” Perry said, giving Heather the mind-control warning.

Chase paled.

Heather practically snatched the ugly hat out of his hands.

“Don’t drop the control,” Perry said. “I want it to break.”

“The hell do you know so much?” Chase asked.

“I’m Paradox,” Perry said, grateful for his helmet preventing the minder from seeing his smirk.

“I can feel you smirking, you little twerp.”

Or not.

Heather tugged the hat on, her eyes going distant for a moment.

“Oh, it’s just Chase,” She muttered, her shoulders relaxing. “I was worried we were in some minder’s slave compound or something doing weird shit.”

Heather punched the middle-aged detective in the shoulder and handed the hat back to Perry.

“Hardcase!” Perry and Heather shouted, waving her over.

Nat went over to them and reluctantly put the hat on at their urging.

Once the control was broken, Natalie gasped and gave the detective an accusatory glare.

“Hey, lady, that was all you, I didn’t do none o’ that.” Chase said, raising his hands in the air and shrugging.

“None of what?” Perry asked.

“Not my business to say,” Chase said.

“What is your business?” Perry asked, now that all three of them were ostensibly mind-control free and glaring at him.

“My only job was to make sure you kids didn’t break curfew and wind up causing more chaos,” Chase said. “I don’t know if you noticed but you’d been at the center of a super battle every time you went out.”

“Yeah, I was there,” Perry said sarcastically.

“Well, after a certain number of ‘random’ attacks on the street, you gotta ask yourself if you’re the problem. Washington PD sure as hell asked that question.”

“Took me off the fun assignment for babysitting duty,” he muttered to himself.

“What was the fun assignment?” Perry asked.

“It’s my business not to say,” Chase said, shrugging.

“Why did your bosses decide we needed a Minder to keep us under control? Natalie asked. “Why not just a regular detective or a stern warning?”

“Because of those two,” Chase said, pointing at Heather and Perry. “Miss, I’m not sure you understand exactly how little these two care about authority.”

Nat glanced at Perry and Heather. Perry met Heather’s gaze. They turned back to Natalie and shrugged. It was fairly accurate.

“I’m just not sure why you thought risking an inter-city incident was a good idea,” Perry said.

“Why, did I do something wrong?” Chase asked.

“Noncombat mind-control is illegal.” Perry said.

“In Franklin.” Chase said, pulling out his wallet and flipping it open to reveal a license in big bold lettering, with Chase’s face on the front. “Here, I got a license to dick with your head to the extent I deem necessary to do my job. I could’ve done a lot worse and the law would’ve been on my side.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t,” Perry said.

“Not my first rodeo, kid,” Chase said, putting it away.

“So, umm…what now?” Natalie asked, glancing between the three of them.

“Well, you can either accept my oversight during the remainder of your stay or I can call in the big guns, and they can babysit you. Trust me, she’s not gonna like getting saddled with teens, and she’ll take it out on you.”

“Who are we talking here?” Perry asked.

“Serenity,” Chase said, his expression steady.

Serenity, ironically, was not a very serene individual. She’d purportedly chosen the name as a goal to work towards, since she had a habit of losing her temper and rendering everything around her into giblets.

Perry thought it might’ve been a joke at her expense and she’d owned it.

In any case, the bruiser was infamous for giving others a hard time. She’d left Franklin for Washington half a decade ago for better pay and less competition.

Perry opened his mouth to respond, but all thought was wiped from his mind by a sudden blaring siren that emerged from the P.A. system in the armory as well as each of their individual phones.

WALL BREACH IN YOUR AREA.

Stay indoors, stay quiet, and cover your scent with baking soda. We are working to drive the prawns back out. God bless.

Not a potential wall breach. An actual wall breach.

Perry felt a rumble shaking his legs as the secondary walls dividing up Washington’s different districts began to raise out of the ground.

“Armor, now!” Perry shouted, his voice drowned out by the chaos as the surroundings turned hectic. Supers arming themselves at a sedate pace began sprinting across the floor, tossing their hyperweave and blasters on, some in the literal blink of an eye.

Nat sprinted for her mechsuit, getting knocked to the ground by a larger super rushing past her.

The little Tinker was too focused to stay down, springing back to her feet without losing any momentum, putting her foot in the stirrup off the front of the cockpit and hauling herself inside, slapping the close button as she settled into her seat.

Heather pulled the hood of her stealth-suit over her mane of red-golc hair, instantly becoming difficult to locate.

Chase put his back to the wall and pulled out his phone. Brows furrowed as he navigated it. “Sssshit,” The blond detective muttered.

“I’m ready!” Hardcase shouted through her speakers as she tromped over while simultaneously strapping herself in.

“Here’s where you’re needed,” Chase said, pinching his screen before flicking it forward.

The side of the armory lit up with a projection of the detective’s phone, showing a flashing red segment of wall along with red-highlighted streets branching off in no less than three separate directions, showing the flow of Prawns into the city.

“They’ll have a sweeper reinforce the gap itself,” Perry said, tapping the breached wall. “We’ll need to go to one of these three streets, contain them and push them back toward the breach itself.”

“Which street should we go to?” Heather asked, studying the map

“If it’s all the same to you,” Chase said, poking the southeastern street on the way past them. “This one’s closest to my daughter.”

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Perry said, but the detective was already gone, the only sign of him was his coat fluttering through the doorway.

“I don’t think he’s lying,” Heather said with a shrug.

Perry glanced at Nat.

“There’s the Police department,” she said, her mechsuit poking the northwestern side of the map. Furthest away from the street he’d indicated, and therefore least likely to get reinforcements form the locals. Where they could do the most good.

“It’s as good a place as any!” Perry shouted over the sirens.

Corner of Annubis and Ellaine Lane. Perry made a mental note of a street one block further back, accounting for spread that would occur before they arrived.

“Let’s go!” Perry said, running out the front door that led to the parking lot. The shuttle that had been waiting to transfer them to the wall was idling without a driver.

Unprofessional.

“Look out!” Perry shouted as he flew past Chase, picking the detective up and tossing him over his shoulder.

“Wait, my car’s over there!” Chase shouted, pointing at a decrepit sedan that looked older than Perry and Heather combined.

“We’re faster!” Perry said, gaining altitude as Chase’s screams raised in pitch commensurate with their height.

Six streets over four streets back, Perry thought as he oriented himself on the wall, where explosions and distant screams were already filling the night air.

Hardcase and Wraith leapt over the buildings, following along behind Perry without missing a beat.

Six streets over and four streets back, Perry saw streetlights blinking out. The only sign that Prawn were trampling through the streets, knocking the infrastructure down.

They didn’t exactly start fires. That was mostly people who did that, either by accident as part of an attack, or intentionally to loot in the chaos, or in the mistaken belief that fire would ward off the wild animals.

Land animals, sure, but aquatic animals don’t exactly have an inborn fear of fire. And Prawns in particular could ignore roaring flames, crawl their way into a burning apartment complex and snack on the nicely roasted humans within.

They landed on the corner, just a block ahead of the tide of squirming prawns, only visible as an occasional glimmer off their shells.

At least, until Hardcase turned on her floodlight and revealed a street packed building-to-building with the monsters. The bus-sized creatures seemed to be attracted to the light, redoubling their inchworm wriggling until they were within leaping distance.

As soon as they touched down, Chase dashed away at a madcap speed.

“I’ve gotta make sure my daughter’s safe!” he shouted over his shoulder.

“Perry, can you get his kid somewhere safe and bring him back here in less than a minute?” Nat asked, the minigun on her floating arm whining to life.

“Watch me,” Perry said, bursting his jets and setting out after Chase.

The super detective would be useful against prawns, because the monsters weren’t particularly smart or strong-willed. Chase could be used for some light crowd-control, which would make the fight much easier.

Perry also wanted to keep the minder within line-of sight in case they were still under mind-control. There was no such thing as being too safe, or 100% sure you weren’t being messed with.

Perry scooped up the detective for a second time.

“Which way?” he demanded, following the Minder’s pointing finger to an apartment complex.

“That one!” he said, pointing at a window.

Perry didn’t have time to find the entrance to the apartment from the hallway, so he gently smashed through the glass.

“AAIIII!”

In the center of the room was a woman in her early twenties, halfway into a distinctive hyperweave outfit covered in shiny glitter. And by extension halfway out of it.

“Dad, what the hell?” She demanded, arms clasped in front of her chest.

Perry’s eyebrow rose. His daughter is older than I am, and a super. What the hell am I even doing here?

“I’m just making sure you’re okay,” Chase said, flopping out of Perry’s grip and climbing to his feet. He scowled when he saw the hyperweave. “I thought I told you not to do that vigilante bullshit!”

“Oh, like you listened to your parents when you got powers?” She demanded, slipping the hyperweave over her shoulders while Perry averted his gaze.

“And I screwed everything up!” Chase shouted with the air of someone who’d fought that battle before. “At least learn from my mistakes and get registered. Please.”

“Your daughter is Spangle?” Perry asked, identifying the super by her distinctive, glittery outfit.

“Who’s this?” Spangle asked with a frown.

“He-“

“I’m Paradox,” Paradox said, offering her his hand.

“Oh, the Cardboard Kid from Franklin?” She asked, shaking it. “I saw you on the highlight reel from Franklin city. A tinker taking out half a dozen prawns with nothing on but a sword? It was pretty impressive.”

“Well, it wasn’t my idea.” Perry said, blushing under his helmet at the praise.

Chase frowned, glancing back and forth between Paradox and spangle.

“No. No. HELL NO! Chase said, shoving Perry bodily through the apartment and out the front door, into the hallway.

“You’ve already got enough on your plate, kid,” Chase said, his thunderous expression framed by the door for an instant before he slammed it in Perry’s face.

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