Fluff

Chapter Fifty-Six - Tense

“What was that?” Emily asked. She felt a shiver running down her back, from right at the base of her neck and flowing down along her spine, as if someone had pressed an icicle against her bare skin.

Handshake’s smile never so much as twitched. “Did you think I was one of those brave idiots that fakes having a power?” he asked.

She ran her hands up and down her biceps for warmth while her mind raced. Handshake had mentioned once that his power allowed him to form deals with people, but beyond that she couldn’t quite remember all the details.

Teddy stomped over to Handshake, eyes narrowed and fists clenched. “What’d you do to me and the Boss?” she asked.

“Hey, he did it to me too,” Athena said.

“And her,” Teddy added.

Handshake raised his hands in surrender. “Nothing, nothing much. I merely enforced the contract that we agreed to. As long as everyone abides by the terms we agreed upon, we will all get our just remunerations in the end.”

“What’s that even mean?” Teddy asked. “Use normal people words.”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Handshake said. “As long as you protect me, and your Boss tells me what she knows about our current target of curiosity, then I’ll be obliged by my power to fulfil my end of the bargain. Likewise, you’ll want to fulfil your own end.”

“What?” Emily asked.

“It’s nothing too bad,” Handshake said. “My power will help you carry out your end of the bargain. Little nudges and hints. And it’ll discourage you from purposefully failing to meet your obligations.”

“How?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “A bit of foreboding here, some twitching there. Nothing too intrusive.”

“I can give you plenty of foreboding if you want,” Athena said. She was glaring at the man, and for a moment, Emily had the impression that the lights in the little conference room were turning dim and that the shadows in the corners were elongating.

“Hey now,” Handshake said. His smile didn’t twitch, but his voice did waver ever so slightly. “You’re meant to protect me, not attack me.”

Athena huffed, and the room snapped back to normalcy so quickly that Emily wasn’t entirely sure she’d actually noticed anything.

Handshake looked at his wrist and hummed. “We should get going. We’re a minute shy of when our meeting is meant to begin, and I don’t want a reputation for being unpunctual.” He adjusted his jacket, shifted the tie beneath a little, then patted down his slacks before heading for the door.

Emily felt her fists tightening by her side, and for a moment she wasn’t sure what to do, or for that matter what she was feeling.

How could he just spring that kind of thing on her and expect it to be okay? She... she was angry? Not angry-angry. Emily wasn’t the sort to throw fits. Those always had people paying way too much attention to the one being disruptive, and Emily had never handled attention well.

When she was angry, at least, when she was angry when younger, she would just bottle it away and let it fade. That was the calmest way to deal with it.

But then, she’d never been angry because someone was threatening her and her sisters.

She shook her head. Summons, not sisters.

“Come on girls,” she said. If she didn’t have a choice, then she didn’t have a choice. It still left a bad taste in her mouth and made her stomach roil in displeasure. Emily didn’t know what she would do. Even just a strongly-worded comment felt like too much, but she... she just didn’t like being taken advantage of.

She didn’t quite glare at Handshake’s back as she followed him, but the look she gave him was certainly very stern.

They exited into the corridor to find a group of three men in clothes that didn’t fit the hotel walking by. The place was a nice, clean establishment, not one that fit the raggedy, either too-tight or too-loose clothes of the three men.

Emily reached her hands down and wiggled her fingers for just a moment before each hand was grabbed by a summon.

“Are those the ones we’re meeting?” Teddy asked. Her voice was just low enough that the three didn’t seem to notice. They moved over to a door deeper down, then slid into a well-lit room, leaving the door open behind them.

“I think so,” Emily said.

Handshake paused before the entrance, twisted his jaw left and right, shrugged a few times, then refixed his smile in place. “Are you ready, girls?” he asked.

“You didn’t say there would be three of them,” Athena said.

“I expect that only one of them has powers. Cement is the only remaining member of his group that has powers. At least, as far as I know. And we’re a floor or two above any cement. We should be rather safe.”

“Don’t know if I believe you, hand guy,” Teddy said.

Handshake turned his smile to her, but instead of saying anything, he pushed into the conference room.

Emily let go of her summon’s hands. Teddy moved in first, then Athena ran her hand through her hair and followed with her jaw set.

Being the last one in, Emily paused for a moment and pulled the door shut behind her.

The trio of men, though really none of them seemed to be any older than their mid-twenties, were all gathered at one end of the conference table. One of them was on the ground, toying with some wires connected to a laptop sitting atop the table. Another had his feet on the surface and was cleaning out his nails with the tip of a knife and the last was just sitting back, head swaying back and forth to the beat of a bassy song that was pouring out of his headphones. He had a mohawk, but it was pressed down in the middle where the headset cut across his head.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Handshake said as he pulled out the seat opposite the three men. “I assume you’re the representatives Cement chose to send?”

The one with his legs on the table snorted. “Yeah. That’s us,” he said.

The contrast between the prim and proper Handshake and the three of them couldn’t have been clearer.

Emily stood towards the back of the room, nearly out of sight of the others. Teddy took a spot between her and Handshake, and Athena pulled out a chair, then placed her own feet on the table. Though that meant she was almost falling out of her chair just to reach.

“Man, you brought kids to this thing?” the one Emily assumed was the leader asked.

“If we’re all civilised and act with decorum then there’s no harm in that, right?” Handshake asked.

“I’m not going to kick a kid’s teeth in,” the leader said. “But still man, Just not cool you know? What if I wasn’t such a paragon?” He waved his knife around in a circle. “Could do some nasty things to them. Powers or no.”

“Perhaps,” Handshake said. “I presume that none of you are Cement?”

“Nah,” the leader said. “The boss thought it’d be wiser not to show up in person. That’s what he’s here for.” He gestured to the one still on the ground with his knife.

“Yeah yeah, nearly done,” the man said. He stood up, a wire in hand, then plugged it into the laptop’s side. “Let me just log in and all that.”

A minute passed in awkward silence, with only the shuffling of the guy listening to music to fill the void and the occasional machine-gun clack of the laptop’s keys. Then the computer was turned around and pointed in their direction.

The screen had a large ‘S’ on it, white over a black background. The light next to the webcam was on, blinking a steady red.

“Greetings,” a deep baritone said from the machine. “Handshake... The Boss, and if I’m not mistaken, Ursa Minor. I’m unfamiliar with your other companion.”

“You can stay that way,” Athena said.

“How very feisty,” the man said. “Well then, I do believe we’re all here for business, perhaps we should get to it?”

“Indeed,” Handshake agreed. “Are your own companions trustworthy enough to discuss these things?”

“You can speak freely,” Cement said.

“Brilliant, now then, as per our previous agreement, I’m here in the flesh, meeting with you and some of your representatives. Are you ready to begin?”

The laptop was silent for a moment. “Yes, I think I am. Let’s try and see if the two of us together can uncover a little bit about the Cabal, and if we can see about freeing Homie from his cell.”