Rue: Web of Deceit - Part 35

Gathering / Conference

In the ongoing drama of the buried courthouse, Rue finds themself joined in their efforts by Rachel Stevens and Amelia Abel, the trio looking to save Jonathan Sinclair from his would-be assassin and get back to the surface.

“Ahhh I’m going to regret this…” Rue mumbles to themself as they quickly get back to their feet, readying to do something to address the stone-clad monstrosity in the room that's quickly bearing down on Sinclair.   They rapidly close the gap left between them, using the table next to their fallen one as a step up onto the golem’s back. Using his hunched over form in their favour, they swiftly climb towards the colossal head, wrapping their right arm around where normally a neck would be as well as they can. Holding the hot sauce bottle with their left hand, they snake it around towards the front of his face, squeezing a healthy helping of the sauce into his eye.   “Get out of here, Sinclaire!”   The supervillain cries out in agony as Sinclaire bolts for the exit door to the cafeteria. Rue holds on for a moment to make sure their attack is successful, but soon has the wind knocked out of them when another pillar of earth rises up below the two of them, Rue's body losing strength as they're crushed between their target and the ceiling.   Blinded by the irritant in his eye, the supervillain grabs Rue from off his back and throws them with remarkable strength across the room, their crumpled form landing with a dull thud at Sinclaire's feet as he nears the exit doors, and the humanoid pile of rocks and concrete retreats back into the earth from whence he came.   Rue lets out a pitiful groan, their ribs aching as they draw in a painful breath, “Ow…” They grind out, propping themself up on shaky arms.   They look around the room, ears trained on the slightest sounds as they try to find a trace of the golem. While they can definitely sense the earth moving beneath their feet, their assailant seems to have retreated for now. Though, there's no telling for how long.   "Is..." Sinclaire whispers, frozen beside the door as he searches blindly for the handle, "Is he gone? Did you get him?"   “I- Ah, fuck- I doubt a little hot sauce is going to stop him for long,” Rue winces, their body trembling from the strain of getting back up. “We’re not going to wait around for him to return though.”   They pull their phone out of their pocket, not exactly surprised to see the screen shattered to bits, but all the same annoyed. They wouldn’t have an issue to navigate the dark on their own, but they’re sure Sinclaire would get more than a little suspicious if they carried on without a light source, “You got your phone?”   "Oh, yeah," he says, fumbling around in his pocket before pulling out a device, "I think I've--"   He doesn't get a chance to finish his thought however, as the door he'd been groping at suddenly bursts open, a loud crack echoing around the cafeteria as the reinforced fire door slams into the lawyer's skull, throwing him backwards, his body landing splayed across the cafeteria floor as the shapes of Suplex and Amelia Abel emerge from the hallway, the latter shining a torch into the room.   "Did I get him?" Rachel asks, her usual zeal for violence shining through, "Did I hit the villain?"   "Err... No, Rachel," Amelia says, shining the torch onto the lawyer's unconscious form, "I believe you just knocked out Jonathan Sinclaire."   "Oh, shit..." She says, pausing for a few seconds as she looks around the room, before eventually shrugging, "Seems like a win to me. Hey, Rue."   Rue stares at the two women in utter disbelief.   “Took you long enough,” They grumble, clearly not too bothered that the lawyer has been rendered unconscious. “Simon has gone underground after I hot sauced his eye, pretty sure he’ll be back, though.”   They move over to Sinclaire’s prone form, nudging his shoulder with their boot. With the man out cold, Rue turns back towards Amelia and Rachel, “Seems like he is still plenty squishy underneath all those rocks, so as long as you punch hard enough it’s bound to hurt.”   "Damn, I just can't seem to catch up with this guy," Rachel mutters, kicking the floor in her frustration, "But as for punching him hard enough, you just leave that up to me."   "You squirted hot-sauce into his eye?" Amelia questions, raising a brow as she checks Sinclaire's vital signs. Once she's fairly sure he isn't about to die of any sort of unseen blood loss, she stands back up, looking Rue up and down before speaking again, "Rue, is it? You another of Rachel's super-friends?"   "Amelia, I'm on the clock," Rachel groans as she joins the pair, "It's Suplex."   "We're not children, Rachel," Amelia mutters, rolling her eyes, "We don't need your silly codenames."   They frown for a moment at the interaction. They vaguely remember the shift in Rachel’s expression when Jasmine had suggested using Amelia as bait, but they hadn’t expected the, for lack of a better word, disapproval in Amelia’s voice.   “Figured I’d aim for what looked like it might be a weak spot,” Rue shrugs, their muscles somewhat protesting against the movement.   Uncertain of how much Amelia had been told about them and wary of the exoskeleton’s ability to record everything, they keep their answers as vague as possible, “I’m just a Railyard roach, it’s how I know Suplex.”   "Fair enough," she says, shrugging, "You looked a little familiar is all."   "Right," Rachel says, clapping her fist as she shifts into her more superheroic mindset, "We need a gameplan to take this guy down."   "I'd suggest taking Sinclaire upstairs," Amelia replies, lifting the man up and throwing his unconscious form over her shoulder, "Hopefully that'll make it harder for our assailant to travel around under the floor."   “Up. Sure. But maybe not the same way as everyone else has been running?” Rue suggests, relieved that Amelia didn’t pry further, “He may only be interested in Sinclaire, but I’m guessing we’d like to keep the amount of possible collateral damage to a minimum?”   "There's a fire escape on the outside wall," Rachel says, "Should lead up to the roof."   ''You mean right alongside the earth he sank us into?'' Rue asks warily, ''We don't know if it's just rocks and concrete he can manipulate - what's to say he won't attack us from the side then?''   Rachel deflates slightly as she begins to explain herself, looking down at the floor, "It's not like we're any safer in here," she shrugs, "Whatever we do, we'd better do it quickly."   ''Alright, fire escape it is,'' Rue says with a sigh, turning towards Amelia and the unconscious Sinclaire, ''Since you've got your hands full, how about I take that torch and light our way out? Suplex can keep her hands free in case Pebbles shows up.''   "Yeah, sure," Amelia says, underhand-throwing the torch in their direction, "Alright, Rachel. Lead the way."   "Alright, c'mon then," the hero replies, clapping her fist and almost skipping towards the back door to the cafeteria.   Rue deftly catches the torch as they bring up the rear of the group, keeping slightly to Amelia’s right to shine the light ahead of them. The group quickly head out onto the fire escape, the steel steps snaking up towards the roof. Despite effectively being outside, no light seems to reach them this far down, the earth towering far above.   As the group slowly starts to ascend, Rue makes a conscious effort to absorb each sound, filtering through the barely noticeable hisses from Amelia’s exoskeleton, the soft breaths coming from the unconscious man dangling over her shoulder, and Rachel’s heavy footsteps.   Keeping their free hand on the soil, they feel for the faintest tremors, their vision focussing on any heat patterns that might shift in their surroundings. In the darkness, Rue's senses reach their most acute. Every padding footstep and hushed whisper from within the courthouse becomes amplified to a near-painful degree, and through their hand, pressed against the earth, they can feel the city around them. The sewers, the railway tunnels, the traffic overhead, and the unmistakable rumbling growing faster, louder and nearer. Rue's eyes shoot open and they realise that they've only got seconds to react.   “On our left!” They call out, subtly using their telekinesis for support as they physically push Amelia and Sinclaire further up towards the first level. Rue twists their body to the side in search for a rapidly approaching golem, hesitating briefly as they run through their options.   The next few moments seem to happen in slow motion as Rue scans the wall beside the group, wary of something happening, but is nevertheless surprised as another pillar made of earth shoots out towards them with enough force to crush them against the courthouse wall. They have scarcely a moment to realise what's happening before Rachel has interposed herself between them and the encroaching earth, the pair being knocked forward, but the Railyard hero able to brace against the courthouse wall firm enough to stop them being crushed. She grimaces at the effort, making a point to smile at Rue, effectively pinned between her arms as she speaks, "You okay, Kid?"   Rue stares at Rachel wide eyed, frightened by the sudden attack and their own helplessness to avoid it.   “Y-yeah, I’m good,” Rue stammers, rapidly pulling themself together, “Thanks.”   To be continued...