Sowing Doubt Ch. 2 (Patreon)

CHAPTER TWO

Armsmaster was immediately confused at the scene he walked in on. He had to know that something unusual was going on from the dogs failing to attack him. I could almost feel him coming to conclusions as he saw two asian men prostrate on the ground in front of the unconscious dogs and their parahuman master.

Okay. The cat was out of the bag. He knew something was up. I’d spoken to Tattletale in panic but now that Hellhound wasn’t about to be murdered in cold blood, should I revert back to my plan to just be a ghost? 

Yes…

Then again, like the complete idiot I was, I’d just given a villain who seemed to be incredibly intelligent, if a little one-track-minded, a hint as to my real identity. Maybe at least letting them know there was a heroic boogeygirl out there might be a good idea?

Armsmaster had been talking to someone from a speaker and microphone in his helmet. I couldn’t latch on to nonliving tethers so I heard everything she’d said for the last hour or so, but I could not sense her sounds in real time. I’d noticed this little quirk of my power before, but I hadn’t realized it would be a weakness. If I wanted to hear what she was saying now I’d have to ping again, and that hurt. I figured I was done with that for the night. 

At the moment, I was worried speaking with him in his ear might interrupt their conversation, but I decided I didn’t have much of a choice. 

“Why… are you two laying on the ground?” Armsmaster asked, in a way that implied these two were complete morons. “Are you… fans, or something? Those dogs are tranquilized but they might wake at any time. I would not recommend remaining near them when they do.” 

“Y-You told us to!” One of them shouted loudly, sounding a little panicked, and still not moving.

“I certainly did not,” Armsmaster replied, but I kept the two men from hearing that, instead letting them hear hims say “So I did.” 

Tattletale walked out of the Casino’s back entrance, and Armsmaster jerked around to look at the girl. 

“You lying sack of shit,” Tattletale whispered. 

“I… honestly did not plan this. I swear,” I told her, feeling mildly guilty. I mean. I’d superbly duped her into practically handing herself in, and that kind of had been my intention, but I hadn’t wanted to do it by lying to her, and the mere fact that she’d gone to try and help Hellhound was enough to prove that she wasn’t… you know. Evil.  

That didn’t make me feel any better as Armsmaster raised his fist, took aim and launched a tranquilizer dart at her. 

“I will ghegh yuo fer dis…” the girl slurred before she toppled to the ground, the bag of money cushioning her fall. 

“This… is odd,” Armsmaster said, summing up the entire situation with an ease I thought my mom would’ve had trouble with. 

“Ah… yeah. That’s because of me,” I said to him, this time using the deeper male villain’s voice. I decided that I really didn’t want him thinking I was a villain or a rogue element. I wanted to be a hero after all. The villains could wonder who I was, but at least the heroes should know that there was a friendly ghost out there messing with the wind.

Armsmaster reacted instantly, whirling about to search for the source of the sound. 

“Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to freak you out! I’m a hero! I sort of… foiled their plan. I called in the tip. Sort of.” 

“Who are you? If you’re a hero then show yourself,” he demanded sharply. I winced. Something about his tone made me feel guilty that I couldn’t comply with his order. 

“I actually physically can’t,” I replied. “I’m not anywhere near you. I told the dogs to sit though, and distracted the undersiders. Kept them from hearing you approach. I’m a good guy.”

“You’re not acting like one,” he said, though he did seem to relax just a little. 

I winced, feeling a little downhearted. A little angry too. Who was he to judge me? It's not like everyone had a spare set of power armor just laying around!

“Yeah well if you’d known just how close those two guys on the ground were to murdering your villainess there, you’d be thanking me,” I said annoyed. 

Armsmaster’s eyebrow twitched. He paused for longer than he should’ve, which made me assume he was talking to the woman from his helmet.

“You’re right. I apologize. You agitated me, and it is rare that I am startled these days. I assume you are responsible for the dogs not attacking me?” He asked, sounding a bit more cordial than he had before. 

I flushed a little. “I uh… told them to sit, and they did.” 

I was unwilling to let him know exactly what my power was. Since I was using one of the villain’s voices, I figured he might be able to extrapolate that I could manipulate sound in some frankly ridiculous ways, but he likely wouldn’t garner anything about my tethers or my sonar. 

I actually heard his eyes widen, but he didn’t say anything.  

“Well, thank you. They would have been very difficult to stop without your aid.”

“A-about that. There’s one more dog out there somewhere. I think he got lost in… uhm. Something. I lost track of him before, but I’ve got him now. He’s still wandering around, sniffing about five blocks north of you.”

His eyes widened even further. “You’re powers let you sense that far? Incredible. You sound quite young though. Have you considered the Wards or the Protectorate?”