Bro In A Bind

Devlin would like the record to show that he had never been on board with the whole illegal vigilante idea. From the moment he’d first caught Daniel climbing through his window, decked out in leather, and with a sword hanging from his belt, he’d been against the concept on principle. Unfortunately, despite his many frequent, varied, and fervent objections Daniel wouldn’t be made to quit. Worse, Daniel had shown a knack for drawing other people into his dangerous and -it could not be overstated- highly illegal hobby.

Really, once they announced they would be calling themselves the Orica Fighters, there was really only one option for what Devlin could do. With his brother and all their friends being so insistent on throwing themselves into danger night after night after night, Devlin had had no choice but to tag along with them. Someone had to make sure they weren’t going to get hurt or killed or arrested or any other number of horrific things Devlin could list off.

And, just like he’d known would happen from the start, something horrific had indeed happened. Devlin had been out on patrol when he’d been ambushed by the very gang he’d been trying to track down. Next thing he knew, Devlin had woken up in the middle of an empty room. His arm was twisted painfully behind him, and a quick inspection revealed his hand pinned to the wall behind him.

It took Devlin a minute to figure out how he’d been pinned in place. He couldn’t turn to look at his hand, not with how his arm was bent and pinned. Instead he’d had to just feel it with his free hand.

“They messed with my gauntlet,” he said in a low voice. Devlin’s head was tilted way to the side so he could push the button on his commlink with his shoulder. “Set the magnet to full blast then broke the power slider. It’s latched onto the wall and I can’t pull away. I can’t work with it at this angle. I need someone to come help me out.”

“Copy that,” Oriceye said. “Your tracker’s still active. I have Iarumas on his way now. Should be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Maybe a bit faster,” Iarumas reported.

Devlin grunted in response. “Okay, that’s great.”

“Camera in your visor isn’t transmitting. What can you tell us about where you are?” Oriceye asked. “It says here there’s a warehouse on your location, but I can’t find anything online about it. No floor plans, no records of who owns it, nothing.” A groan echoed through the commlink, overpowered only by the harsh clicking of a keyboard. “If it weren’t on the map, I’d tell you it doesn’t even exist.”

“I’m inside of it,” Devlin countered. “So it must exist.”

“Don’t go getting all philosophical on me!” Oriceye snapped.

“Sorry. But there’s not much to tell you anyway. The room is completely empty. No windows. One overhead light embedded into the ceiling. Two doors, both closed. Metal walls. I’m the only one in here.” Devlin closed his eyes and strained to listen for a moment. “I’m not hearing anything.”

“Whoever has you, did they take your visor?” Iarumas asked.

“No,” Devlin said firmly. He finally stopped feeling his trapped hand and reached up to adjust his visor. “It’s still here.” He looked down to see a blue satchel sitting snugly across his chest. “My bag too.”

“I can confirm that,” Oriceye said. “According to the logs they haven’t been taken off at all.”

“That’s weird,” Iarumas muttered. “Why wouldn’t they have taken the opportunity to unmask you?”

“No idea,” Devlin admitted. “And frankly? I don’t really care to find out.” Devlin gave an experimental pull to his broken gauntlet. It didn’t budge. It didn’t even move enough to squeak against the wall. “Gauntlet’s still stuck to the wall. So if you could come get me out of here, that’d be great.”

“On my way,” Iarumas promised.

“Thank you.”

“Can’t you just take the gauntlet off?” Oriceye asked.

“Safety lock,” Devlin explained. “As long as the gauntlet’s powered on, it can’t be taken off.”

“Ten minutes. We’ll get you out of there soon.”

Of course, that would be the exact moment that Devlin heard footsteps approaching him. “Might not have ten minutes,” he said in a rush.

“What’s going on?!” Iarumas and Oriceye both demanded.

One of the doorknobs twisted in a slow and deliberate manner, cutting off any response Devlin might have given. The door swung outward. Some distant background part of Devlin’s mind took a moment to catalogue that beyond the door stood a staircase going up, meaning he was most likely underground. Though the rest of Devlin’s focus was on the woman who walked through the door instead.

She had blonde hair extending down beyond her waist. Thanks to the dim light of the room, Devlin couldn’t be completely sure but he was pretty sure that one of her eyes was a striking yellow color. The other was deep black. Not just her iris, but the entire eye. It was just a deep void in her head.

The woman pursed her jade green lips and let out a low whistle. She sauntered across the room. She came to a stop in the exact center, well out of reach of Devlin’s free arm. “Magnetism,” she said firmly. “As I live and breathe. Bit younger than I expected, unless you just have a really good skincare routine. Do you have a really good skincare routine?”

Devlin didn’t respond. He just set his jaw and stared at the woman.

“One that you’d be willing to share? No? Okay, thought I’d ask.” She crossed her arms and whistled again. “You know, ever since your debut at the bank, we’ve been wanting to meet you guys. We weren’t really expecting you, though. Most of the time you just hang back while the others do the work, right? Some call that cowardly, you know. But we just think it makes you the sensible one.”

“Who is that?”

“Who are you?” Devlin demanded.

The woman’s face shut down completely, giving nothing away. She stared at him for a long time.

“Magnetism?” Oriceye asked softly. “You there?”

“Eight minutes,” Iarumas reported. “Just hold out for eight minutes.”

“A fan,” the woman eventually said. “In fact, probably your biggest fan. A fangirl, if you like.”

“Iarumas is seven minutes out. Keep Fangirl talking.”

“Why did you want to meet me?” Devlin blurted out.

Fangirl stopped and stared at Devlin. Her mouth, which had been open to continue speaking, just kinda hung limply instead. “Why wouldn’t I want to meet you?” she asked. “The Orica Fighters. Real life superheroes.”

“Vigilantes.” The sullen correction from Iarumas echoed in Devlin’s ear.

“I’ve been following your work, and I have to say: I’m impressed. Very impressed. You know, it took us a while to get our hands on one of you?” She whistled again. “Don’t get to say that about many people.”

“And why?” Devlin pressed. “Why did you want to meet us?”

Fangirl laced her hands behind her back and let out a soft hum. “The rest of your team is listening to me, right? We had to break your camera, obviously, though we didn’t touch your radio. So, they’re listening?”

“Don’t say anything,” Oriceye hissed. Devlin didn’t respond, though he hadn’t been planning to even without the warning.

“Seven minutes,” Iarumas added.

Fangirl nodded. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She clicked her tongue a few times. “Sorry, I’m not sure where to start. Wow, I think I’m nervous. That’s… new.” She shook her head and closed her eyes, taking deep and measured breaths. “I can do this. I can do this. I am in control.”

“Six minutes.”

“I hate to say this, but you’re going to have to get her talking. We need information.”

Devlin suppressed a groan, though from the way Fangirl’s eyes snapped open he assumed he did a poor job. “In control of what?” he prompted.

Fangirl released a breath that caused her lips to flap together. “Ideally? You. And that’s all of you, you. Not just you, you. But there’s no way any of the Orica Fighters will consider joining us?” Fangirl stared at Devlin expectantly.

“You haven’t exactly told us who you are.”

Fangirl scoffed and waved her hand dismissively. “Well, I’m obviously not gonna tell you guys that unless you join up. I’m not an idiot.”

“Her whole pitch says otherwise,” Oriceye grumbled.

Fangirl shrugged. “Still, though, can’t hurt to ask. Any of you interested in abandoning your aimless crusade and joining an unspecified group to commit unspecified acts?”

“No,” Devlin said flatly.

“Can’t fault a girl for trying,” Fangirl mused. She examined Devlin again. “They’re not unspeakable acts, you know. Not even really anything worse than you’ve already done. Legally speaking, you understand. That change anything?”

“That’s basically an admission that she’s a criminal.”

“That’s basically an admission that you’re a criminal.”

Fangirl snorted and laughed. She bent over and wrapped her arms around her stomach, laughing and laughing. “When did I say that?!” she asked. She fell into laughter again. “And here I though Compound was supposed to be the funny one.”

“Four minutes.”

Fangirl finally straightened up. She lifted her hand to wipe a few tears from her eyes. “So that’s a no on joining us, then? Shame. We could’ve made good use of a vigilante division. I guess that means I’ll just have to stick with plan A for you guys.”

“And your plan A is?” Devlin drawled out.

“Oh, just a general warning, for now.” In the blink of an eye, Fangirl had crossed the distance between her and Devlin. She grabbed the strap of the satchel slung across his chest. She gave it a sharp yank, forcing Devlin closer to her. His arm, already twisted behind him, protested at the movement. Devlin couldn’t hold back a grunt of pain. Especially with how the strap dug into his shoulder.

“Stay out of our way,” Fangirl snarled. She yanked Devlin’s body to the side, twisting his arm further and further. “Don’t mess with any of our projects. Don’t step up, don’t get in our way, don’t play the hero, don’t even look at any of us. Just stay out of our way, and… well, as I said, I’m a huge fan.” Fangirl eased up on Devlin, letting him straighten back up into a somewhat comfortable stance. “I’d hate to have to do anything drastic.”

Fangirl released her hold on Devlin’s satchel. He pulled as far back from her as he could manage, though it obviously wasn’t very much. He groaned and tried to catch his breath, not saying anything. Nor did he look away from Fangirl.

She whistled again and nodded. “Glad to see you got the message.”

“Three minutes.”

“You haven’t told us who you are!” Devlin called out. “How are we supposed to stay out of your way if we don’t know anything about you?”

Fangirl shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to quit vigilantism entirely,” she said easily. “Shouldn’t be too hard for a sensible coward like yourself.”

Devlin didn’t let himself react to her words. He just stood in place and watched her. “So cool,” Fangirl muttered. She turned to walk away. Halfway across the room, she stopped. Fangirl tilted her head in what Devlin presumed was a thoughtful manner.

With no warning, her body snapped into movement. She to blur as she spun around once more, her hair fluttering behind her. Her arm lashed out and caught Devlin’s satchel. She yanked it to the side. Devlin’s body pitched after it, his arm crying out in protest. The strap dug into his shoulder and back. A moment later it snapped, releasing the satchel from his body.

Fangirl kept spinning until she once again had her back to Devlin. She held up the satchel. “Souvenir,” she explained.

Fangirl approached the second door. As she reached out to it, Devlin held out his free arm. He angled his gauntlet and pressed his thumb to the power slider on the side of his index finger. Fangirl pushed the door open, revealing another staircase. This one led down.

Devlin increased the power to his gauntlet. The metal door snapped shut, slamming right in Fangirl’s face. Her hair fluttered slightly.

Fangirl slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder. “Magnetism. Think back to how easily we caught you. Imagine all the things we could’ve done to you if we’d wanted. Now ask yourself one question. Do you really want me to be in the room when your backup bursts in?”

Devlin hesitated, his arm drooping just a bit.

“Magnetism, don’t,” Oriceye hissed in his ear.

“One minute,” Iarumas added.

Fangirl quirked an eyebrow.

Devlin lowered the power on his gauntlet. His arm dropped to hang limply at his side. Fangirl pushed the door open. She whistled to herself and sauntered out of the room. The door creaked shut behind her. A few moments later the other door burst open. It banged against the wall as Iarumas sprinted into the room.