The Lowdown, Straight Up

Belle drawls, "Don't worry, Miss Tane, these are the good guys."

Janet sits down with a sigh and places her knife and gun on the table to check them, and says "Perhaps since Sky was the first one in he'd like to go first? I think the most the rest of use came in after we heard a gun shot. Personally, I came in through the kitchen wall."

Kaze Fades into the building. She has the Russian in her arms. Sets him down near her gently, Very gently for someone who has just stuck a fork in someone else's brain.

She pulls out a package wrapped in plum-coloured silk, the edges stained with crimson.

"The man covered in kanji--tattoos. He Travelled to the upper room where I had put the winged girl--for safety, I had thought. Away from the bullet streams."
"As we came in, he was finishing... draining her life... and power unto him. He said, 'Silly Power! What have you made now?'"
"Later, black wings sprung from his shoulders."

"He called out 'Armor' before he was shot. 'Lightning' before using it and 'Travel' before doing so."

"When... Su-nai attacked him, he remarked that it was excellent to fight a Boomer. Perhaps he wishes that power as well."

She pauses, delicately. A bit reminiscent of a cat considering its kill. She glances at the silk package and its spreading stain.

"Before he could travel, I... impeded his ability to do so."

"He left this in the chimney."

She unwraps the silk, displaying a crudely butchered leg festooned with kanji. Her is expressionless.

Sonny-boy looks at the leg, "Great, now Ah'm even more likely to have nightmares tonight." He mumbles while blinking sleepily.

Sky says, "Miss Tane, I have never before heard of a talent that lets someone see some other joker's talent, nor one where growing wings outta your back is copacetic. Seeing as these Imperials are hunting your head, and we all saved your bacon, what say you give us the low down straight up?"

Christine gathers her wits, blinking.

“Well, I never had this talent before, either. But since around Christmastime, I saw people’s Powers plain as day. I didn’t know what I was seeing at first, but I knew Nick was an Icebox in the war, and he had it. They look like snowflakes of light, all different colors, glowing out of your heart, or near enough.”

“Each Power looks different. Nick and O.K. and I hooked up to make some money, first by robbing some guys who gave Nick a hard time at the rail yards. They didn’t have much, but one of them had a Power. He didn’t use it, though, even when O.K. was kicking his tail. I thought maybe he didn’t know he had Power at all!”

“We had to scat out of town then, because we made too much fuss. I saw Scorchy at the train station, and he had the same Power that hobo did back in Sparta. Well, I asked him, and he didn’t know he had any Power. So I tried to show it to him, but he couldn’t see it.”

“I touched him, and the Power lit up like an electric sign! He burst into flames right on the spot, and was he scared until he saw he wasn’t hurt! Nick put the fire out with his Power, and that’s when we got the idea of robbing banks. Scorchy thought they wouldn’t be ready for a whole gang of Actives, and with me spotting people with Power, we’d have a whole gang in no time!”

She pauses, pulling her lower lip.

“And we did. I Activated K.D. McCabe in Lubbock, Texas. He turned out to be a Brute, like O.K. Didn’t want no part of crime, but he didn’t turn us in. And Shirley Lewis in Dallas, she was a Mouth. She told us we had to make her boss of the gang, and of course we all went along, but when she went to sleep Nick froze her solid and we got out of there. The rest of us thought he’d gone crazy – we believed her when she said she was just naturally in charge.”

“Next time I Activated someone, the boys were all around her, and Nick had wax in his ears. That was okay, though, because Shara was happy as could be when her wings came out! She shot right up in the air and didn’t come down for ‘bout half an hour.”

“Truth is, we didn’t see how a flyer was going to be useful in our racket, but she was so grateful we all liked having her around anyway …”

Her face falls.

“But then, I suppose those Chinee got her, too, or she’d be here with us. Is that what happened?”

Because of where everyone is sitting or standing, Christine Tane has not yet seen the bundle which Kaze has shown everyone else.