Rue: Web of Deceit - Part 37

Life, Relationship change

Having built a somewhat rocky relationship with the teenager up until this point, Blue decides to try something new to get Rue on-side before giving them an invitation they can't refuse.

It's another Friday afternoon, and Rue has the flat to themself as both Tara and Doug are working down at the club. Snuggled up with a well-worn copy of Little Women and a hot chocolate, they aren't expecting any more action for the week after their run-in with Pebbles on Monday  , but things are rarely that simple for the reluctant hero. Their phone suddenly breaks the quiet of their evening with an aggressive buzz from the coffee table. They levitate it towards themself and look at the caller ID. No name, but after their earlier dealings, Rue would recognise Detective Upton's number anywhere.   For a moment, they're tempted to ignore the call, anger bubbling up inside them at the thought of their last conversation. Regardless, they find themself clicking on the answer button, sighing as they hold the device to their ear. ''What do you want?'' They ask reluctantly, ''I haven't got any new leads for you to follow.''   "Rue. Shut up and listen," the Detective's voice echoes down the phone line, his tone grave, "Grab whatever you'll need for a long night and head down to the parking garage next to Martin's Mart. There's a white van parked up with the license plate L02A G3R. Get into the passenger-side door. I'll explain as soon as I can."   Anger effectively fuelled once more, Rue rises from the sofa, pacing through the room. “Sure thing!” They say with an overly sweet tone, “Anything else? Want me to grab you a coffee? Dinner?”   The line goes dead without the usual fanfare and Rue is left in silence, their jabs going unanswered in the most unsatisfying way.   “Absolute fucking- eurgh!” They throw the phone onto the sofa, watching it bounce once on the cushions before clattering to the ground. They continue to grind out a list of insults as they storm into their room, stuffing a spare change of clothes, the book they’d been reading, and their charger into a backpack. Stuffing their phone into their pocket and putting on their boots, they slam the door shut behind them, stomping down the steps and towards the destination Detective Upton gave them. They can’t help but feel apprehensive approaching the parking garage, using their heightened senses to look through the van once they spot it.   The van looks aggressively unassuming. Clean, with no embellishments or personal touches, it seems almost suspiciously normal, and looking through the walls of the van reveals only a few conspicuous details. The back is empty save for some foam padding, and the front is spacious and comfortable, with clean seats and even one of those little tree air fresheners.   They click their tongue, pulling their hood over their head and checking for anyone watching before they approach the van. They double check the licence plate once more, then quickly slip into the van’s passenger side, placing the bag down by their feet and sending a text to Alec: “I’m here. Now what?”   With a low rumble, the van's engine jolts to life and revs up despite the small handicap of having no-one in the driver's seat.   “Oh, fuck no!” They say, immediately grabbing the door handle.   The handle refuses to budge as the van begins to pull out of the parking space and out of the garage, maintaining a steady speed. As Rue's escape attempt is foiled, they feel their phone buzz with a message from that same familiar number. “Drama queen.”   They gape at the message for a moment, throwing their hands up in frustration. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was dramatic to freak out when a vehicle moves on its own,” They start out loud, kicking the dashboard, “So how about you tell me what the fuck is happening before I break that window and climb out?”   As the van begins heading towards the main exit road from Bathala, Rue doesn't get any more messages, but a few moments later can sense an uncomfortable shifting in the van. They watch in horror as various parts of the interior shift into amorphous blobs and combine in the driver's seat into the faceless form of the Detective in his Blue form, "We," he says, with little explanation, "are going for a drive."   “Start explaining. Now.” Rue growls, folding their arms across their chest and staring daggers at the man in the driver’s seat.   "Believe it or not, Rue," he says, his featureless mask turning to them briefly before turning the van down a slip road towards a disused retail park, "You're not the only one who's pissed off about what happened with The Dingo, and I don't actually exist just to annoy you."   “Well, you’re damn good at it…” Rue grumbles, staring out of the window. They shift uncomfortably in their seat, still none the wiser as to what they’re about to do. “So where are we going?”   "Here," Alec says as he pulls up inside the retail park. The place is long since abandoned, with old shopping trolleys littering the place and every wall coated in layers of old graffiti. He reaches over to the glove compartment and pulls out a plain, black balaclava before handing it to Rue, "Put this on and get out."   “Seriously?” Rue asks incredulously, and perhaps the van gets just a little bit warmer, “First of all, do all cars come with a complimentary balaclava?” They snatch the item in question from his hand, “And secondly, I am not putting anything on or getting out until you fill me in just a little more on what we’re doing here!”   "Yeah, I thought you might say that. So, I had a tech super-genius I know whip up a little something," he says, revealing another item he'd pulled from the compartment. It's some sort of small, white device with several unusual, blue ports that emit a faint glow.   "What the fuck is th-" Rue manages to say before Alec activates the device and they suddenly find themself lying on the ground, balaclava in place over their face and the superhero standing nearby, "-at?"   They pick themself up from the ground, wiping the dirt from their hands on their jeans, and silently stare at Blue, jaw tense with rage. They take a few deep breaths, holding themself back from throwing a punch at one of Bathala's most famous heroes, and something within them shifts. They suppress the fury, regain control over their fire powers, and though their face is now concealed, their body speaks of a level of resignation. “Fine!” They say after a while, their eyes unusually cold, “Guess you’re not going to tell me anything, so just lead the way so we can get whatever this is over with.”   "I'm impressed, Rue. Honestly," he says, putting his hand into the pockets of his coat, "I wasn't sure you'd have the self-control not to come at me for that one," he chuckles to himself, taking a step closer to them, "But I'm not here for more of the same grumbling and sarcasm that you usually conduct yourself with. I want you to let it out a little," he notes their eyes, the usual disdain present, but a furrowing that denotes their confusion, "Go ahead, Rue. Hit me."   Rue lets out a humourless laugh at that, shaking their head. “No.” They pull the balaclava off their head, dropping it to the ground. “You don’t want to deal with my grumbling or sarcasm? I’ll make it easy for you. Unless you brought us here for anything else, I’m leaving.”   "Nice dramatic gesture," Alec says, glancing at the discarded mask, "Frankly, the mask was for your own good anyway. Didn't think you'd want to risk being seen with me," his form begins to morph, soon taking on the gangly proportions and uncomfortable grin of The Spider, "Or have you forgotten who you work for?"   Their skin instinctively crawls at the image, but Rue stares the man down, smirking deviously. “Yeah, you’re right,” They say coolly, “It would be pretty bad if he saw me with you - do you think I could pay for my freedom with your identity, Detective?”   Alec pauses for a second, studying their face for a moment, his own morphing back into its previous featureless form, "I guess this is what I get for trying to let you protect yourself," he says, shrugging. "It's a nice bluff, Rue. You have a good poker face, I'll give you that," he says, trying to keep the tone light, "I just don't believe it. You agreed to help us with Creel, you took down the Dingo, you helped  Rachel with that flamethrower guy, and she told me about the courthouse. You're not the cool and aloof criminal you pretend to be. I've seen it, Rachel's seen it, and Rani definitely saw it. You've got the makings of something better inside you, and as much as you try to hide it, I think you feel it too."   “Then you’re all blind.” Rue shrugs before turning their back to Blue and walking away, calling over their shoulder, “I guess we’re done here?”   "Well, if you really are an irredeemable criminal with superpowers," he says, his tone becoming stern, "Then I guess you leave me no choice..."   Rue's seen Alec in action once before. They've seen that he's pretty fast, but that was when he was up against regular criminals. What they aren't expecting is just how quickly he moves when facing off against someone with powers. His hand flies forward at a blazing speed towards them, expanding and stretching outwards so that the moment it makes contact with Rue's back, the tendrils that once made up his fingers wrap around their entire torso, pinning their arms to their sides. The mass of whatever-the-fuck quickly begins to squeeze them uncomfortably tight as Alec lifts them into the air, "Come on then, Rue. Show me what a big, bad criminal you really are."   Alec has barely finished his sentence when a blaze springs to life, enveloping Rue’s body and his expanded hand in flames. Their body is rigid within his grip, eyes wide and frantic as they force the hero to pull his hand back, after which the flames shift and Rue blasts themself further away from him, stumbling slightly as they land. “Don’t. Fucking. Touch me…” They grind out, their self-control slipping as they brace themself for another attack from the hero.   Alec retracts the expanded hand, watching as large chunks of burning biomass slough off and onto the floor. He regards it curiously for a moment before it reforms into a more normal shape and he turns his attention back to Rue. "So, that's what it takes, eh?" He calls out to them, studying their movements and wary of getting too burnt, "Alright then." In another flurry of movement, Alec dashes over to the nearby rank of trolleys, his arm splitting into several and attaching to multiple. Using his momentum and the natural elasticity of his current form, he slingshots a volley of four trolleys through the air at Rue.   Rue dodges by blasting themself backwards just before the trolleys crash to the ground with a loud clatter, keeping their eyes trained on Blue as he moves forward. Fuelled with adrenaline and uncontrollable fury, any reservations about using their powers are forgotten, their senses instinctively honing in on the target within their sights. They let out an almost primal roar as they reach out with unleashed telekinetic might, the air rippling around them as they lock their sight on the nearby van.   Despite his featureless visage, Rue could almost see the surprise on Alec's face as the vehicle lifts off the ground and flies towards him. They don't quite hear what he mutters to himself through the haze of anger, but can be fairly sure it wouldn't be allowed on daytime television. Much to their own surprise, though, Blue makes no attempt to dodge or evade the gigantic projectile, even though he easily could. Instead, he plants his feet and quickly extends a number of further tendrils from his hips, embedding them in the ground. His arms then stretch forward, attaching themselves to the van as it hurtles towards him, soon joined by another and then even more, eventually leaving Alec looking more like a gooey tree than a man. Nevertheless, he stays rooted in place and through obviously great physical strain, denoted by his groan of effort, manages to catch the flying van.   There's a small part of them at the back of their mind that's impressed by Alec's feat, but there's another part of them, an instinctual part of them that's solely focussed on survival, that sees the opening he's left and urges them to take advantage of it. Their hand moves up in Blue's direction, a ball of flame forming in their palm, aimed straight at the centre of the gooey shape. They can feel the fire growing, its destructive power increasing until they can barely maintain control over it.   They're about to let that power go, release the wrath they feel with a massive blast, but then they hear Evelyn's dying scream. They remember the panic and agony in that wail, remember the smell that followed, the pit that they felt in their stomach as they realised what they'd done. Unable to regain enough control to extinguish the flames, the built up force already moving forward, Rue quickly moves their hand ever so slightly to the right, the blast soaring away from them and narrowly missing Blue. ''Fuck you!'' They shriek in anguish, ''Fuck all of this! I never wanted any of this, I just did what I had to survive, so why don't you just leave me alone?!''   "I know!" Alec roars as he lowers the van to the ground, his multitude of limbs straining with the effort, "For the love of God, Rue, I know!" His arms quickly detach themselves from the vehicle and Alec reforms back into his humanoid shape. His voice remains impassioned but he makes no attempt to continue his attack.   Instead he walks forward, closing the gap but still keeping his distance as he tries his best to get through to them, "I won't claim to know you, Rue. But I know pain, and I know anger. I know what it feels like to have no control over a situation and to feel stuck in a place that seems custom-built to hold you down or hold you back," he takes another step forward, lowering his voice to speak frankly with the teen, "I'm not asking you to be a superhero, and I'm not asking you to suddenly treat me like an old friend, but I've seen what that kind of anger does to a person. It eats away at you until there's nothing else left, and I think you deserve more than that. I am offering you the chance to take some of that anger, and choose to direct it at someone who deserves it. To maybe spend a little time acting like the person Rani sees when she looks at you, and maybe retake a little bit of that power that’s been denied you."   Rue flinches away instinctively as Alec approaches, their body still tense and ready to continue the fight at a moment’s notice, but they listen. They listen, and a little bit of the tension begins to deflate, replaced with a weariness that sinks deep into their bones.   “I’m trying, okay?” They mutter despondently, the pout on their face reminding the hero that they are still dealing with a kid, “I tried with the Dingo and look what good that did. What’s the point of any of this if it makes no difference?”   "You made a difference, Rue," he says, his voice calm and sympathetic once again as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper and holding it out to them, "Unfortunately, part of growing up is realising that sometimes systems fail us. It's why I started doing what I do. But that doesn't mean it was all for nothing."   Rue frowns at the proffered piece of paper, hesitant to take it. “Systems only ever work for a select few,” They say with a noncommittal shrug, “I know that much from growing up in the Railyard, I just…” They look down at their feet, their expression shifting to something akin to embarrassment, “I hoped that with you involved, things would be different… That having a hero there would make the system work…”   "I know, Rue, and I'm sorry," he says, "But that's why people like Rachel and I do what we do. To patch the holes in the system until we can implement a new one. There's things happening behind the scenes that I'm not at liberty to discuss, but it will get better. I promise."   ''Don't make promises you can't keep.'' They warn not unkindly, taking the crumpled piece of paper. Though it's faint, their anger dissipates a little, along with the adrenaline from the fight, ''What's this?''   "I'm not," he says with surprising confidence as Rue opens the note, "It's a list of the men that the Dingo gave up as part of her plea deal. I've not been sitting on my hands these past few weeks. I know who they are, and I thought you might get some catharsis in helping me take them down, and maybe save a few people in the process."   ''Wh- And you thought I needed to blow off some steam before playing punch the pedo?'' They ask incredulously, ''That's like serving me cake before taking me to an all you can eat desserts buffet!''   "Well, firstly I had to be sure you could control yourself. Those monsters are no good to me burned to a crisp," he says, looking at the char marks where Rue's fireball had hit ground, "And secondly, the attitude's getting old and I thought you could do with letting out some of those frustrations," he chuckles to himself, crossing his arms as he waits to see what the teenager will make of his little ploy.   “You do realise I’m going to give you double the attitude now, right?” Rue says, visibly unimpressed with Alec’s reasoning, “As for the control… That’s fair, I suppose.” They follow his gaze to the charring on the ground, guilt flickering across their eyes. “I promise I won’t burn anyone to a crisp unless it’s the only option we have left. Can’t promise I won’t break a few bones here and there, though.”   Despite his expressionless form, Rue could almost see the smile forming on Alec's face, "This attitude, I can handle," he says, shrugging, "And I consider the broken bones the cost of doing business. So... We good?"   “Yeah, we’re good,” They nod in affirmation, the ghost of a smile on their lips, “so are we kicking their asses in alphabetical or geographical order?”   "Well, first we've got to make another stop..." he says, trailing off for a moment, "For supplies."   ''Alright, well, what are we waiting for?'' Rue asks, walking towards the van. They pause briefly, glancing at the discarded balaclava on the ground, and telekinetically pick it up, ''Lets go get those supplies.''