[Evelyn Winters]

Amusement. A subset of reaction number two, caused by arrogance. Unbelievability. She believed she was delusional about her abilities. While since the incident, she has been far more delusional about certain things than previously (the bastard stole her mind too goddamnit), she had never had any delusions about her abilities. She was simply stating what she believed to be the truth. While she can lie, she detests doing so. Her brutal honesty can be off putting. Combined with her expressionless voice and facial expressions, it’s led some to believe she has some form of autism. Of course, she wasn’t simply being honest. She had always felt a need to establish her superiority to everyone, to let them know, and assure herself, that they were lesser, and this need had only increased since her brother’s death and her encounter with Glasgowman. While it was an expected reaction, this amusement annoyed her, it was her least favorite reaction. It meant they felt she was inferior. She would amend that. Somehow.

So that was what she was referring to when she meant help, her little tidbits about Glasgowman. She felt like laughing. Sonnet must feel some special sort of entitlement to believe she would ask her for help. Request her assistance, yes. Use her for information, yes. But ask for help? Absolutely not, she would never stoop so low. Especially for something she could easily extract forcefully. ”I won’t ask for help, I’ll ask for information, like I did previously. To ask for help would be admitting defeat, that I could not obtain this information otherwise on my own. There’s a difference between using someone, and bowing down and requesting help. And like it or not, you have been, and will continue to be, used. Laugh all you want, but you should know it is very difficult for me to tell anything more or less than the truth.”

Axel laughed, “God, you are terrible at this.”

”Well you never learned how to engineer a circuit board.” Evelyn smirked, speaking in Axevian.

“Cause it was boring and it sucked.” He pouted sarcastically.

Evelyn was getting tired of this "help" nonsense. She decided it was time she put Sonnet in her place. ”I do not exchange something of equal value for your ‘help.’”. She said, switching back to English as she walked towards her until they were standing only an inch apart, and pulled a knife out of her pocket. ”The only thing I will exchange is a lack of your pain or a lack of your death. You will not hold anything over me, I will hold everything over you. It will cost me nothing, but it will cost you everything. I could easily reach out and grab you before you could react. You require physical contact to teleport someone with you, I’m going to assume that if someone makes physical contact with you, you have no choice but to teleport with them. If that assumption is wrong, you either teleport away and I lose you, a small loss, you teleport somewhere else in this room, perhaps resuming our fight perhaps not, a neutral outcome, or you teleport me somewhere perilous then teleport away, but I promise if you do, I will sever your artery before you can leave me to die. If I’m correct, you either remain trapped here and possibly try to shoot me, although I assure you I can stab you far faster than you can reach for that gun, or, again, you try to teleport somewhere perilous for me, but I can also assure you that if for some reason I cannot get out of that situation I will kill you and if I do not die I will not let go of you. So if you do have anymore pertinent information, I would suggest you give it to me before I carve you up like I did the man in the bar.” She felt a surge of confidence, of power. This woman had been annoying her ever since they’d "teamed up," and once again she finally felt she had the upper hand. The risk of the situation was making her heart pound. It was invigorating.

”Unless you have something fun I can do like, say, kill someone who’s been giving you trouble or find some information for you that you’ve been unable to find yourself, then I will accept this exchange, but I will not sacrifice anything for whatever measly knowledge you may have on this man that I could easily extract from you by force.”

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

378

Evelyn Winters

Sonnet's smile grew wider, stretching perilously in the direction of a grin. Evelyn was posturing, that was all it was, and it was all it could be. Sonnet lived in the underworld, a world where reputation was everything, and she knew enough to recognise when someone was trying to make themselves bigger with words. Sonnet had never been much for words. Her reputation was one of action, she left the words to Kenshin, and he was a lot better at them than this woman was.

Her smile became a grin at the clumsy fishing attempt, as if she was going to disclose how her ability worked to this woman. It was clear that she had no idea how to deal with people, and worse, no idea how to deal with the underworld. Sonnet knew the Glasgowman by reputation, and she had dealt with his men, she could likely track down more information on him if she needed to, but she saw no need to do so for free. Even with this strange woman in her face.

It wouldn't be long before Evelyn came up against something she couldn't just stab, and at that point the woman would be done. Sonnet wasn't the only metacriminal on the East coast, and some of them were a lot more powerful than she was. And there were always the Heroes to reckon with.

Eventually the woman finished talking, Sonnet didn't move.

"Got all of that out of your system? Great. Anyway…"

She stepped around the other woman. "Like I said, I'm not giving you my help for free, that's not how this town works."

She leaned back against the sink, crossing her arms, "Now if you want to do a deal we can, but like I said, I don't work for free. You want my help, it's going to cost you. And if you keep posturing, you're going to be trying to make your way through a world you clearly don't understand alone. Eventually you'll run into someone who doesn't have my sense of humour," which was saying something, "And they will end you."

She shrugged, "But there is something you can help me with. I need someone scared, and maybe if you lose the attitude, you can do that for me."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

“Posturing.” She scoffed, but said no more than that. There was clearly no getting through to this woman. She had no idea how many people she’s killed, no idea how many high-ranking people, gang members or otherwise, she’s eliminated, but listing them would take too much time, and it reminded her too much of that copypasta about the Navy Seal Axel showed her and the Axel in her told her that wouldn’t come off well. Besides, her memory got a bit blurry in the months after Axel’s death, and that’s when most of her high-ranking gang member kills took place. She would hate to be inaccurate.

Although, as much as she hated to admit, Sonnet did have a shadow of a point. Evelyn’s always looked at the underworld from above, as she does with everything and everyone. Axel was the one who got into the mix of it. Who talked with the people, learned of their politics, related to them. On high, yet down low.

“And look where that got me.” He interjected, unusually grim.

Yes, look where that got him, she had to remind herself. She had to stay above everyone. She could never bring herself to their level, even superficially. She had succumbed to human weakness once, and she paid for it. Dearly. She may not navigate through the world, as Sonnet put it, but she’ll fly above it, striking down those she needs to, extracting information from those who’ll give it to her. No one would ever end her. But for now, she’ll play this game.

She turned to face Sonnet. ”Scared. Sounds fun. I’ll accept it. Although I think my attitude is perfectly acceptable for such a task. Yours, however, could use some tweaking. That arrogance is going to get on my nerves if we’re going to continue as, how did I put it, ‘reluctant allies?’” She crossed her arms. ”What do you need me to do?”

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

309

Evelyn Winters

It was clear that Evelyn either hadn’t listened or wasn’t interested in learning from what Sonnet had to say. It was about par for the course, and at this point Sonnet wasn’t going to kick up a fuss about it. It was clear to her that Evelyn had been out of the loop for some time. She could obviously comprehend that metahumans were a threat, but she was basing her entire understanding of metahumans on her experiences with two who were far from the top tier. Sonnet was unusually able for a teleporter, but she was under no illusions as to her ability to take on a heavy hitter like Paladin. Even if Evelyn managed to kill a Hero, Sonnet really didn’t want to see what would happen to her after that. New York had introduced Tank not two weeks after she had put a previous Hero into the hospital, killing a Hero was a whole other level.

Sonnet ignored the comment on her attitude, knowing that the other woman simply felt the need to establish herself as an alpha dog in this situation. She knew that to challenge her again would be to just prolong this, and she hadn’t the time, or the inclination to continue this conversation in such a manner.

She produced a small plastic device from her pocket, tossing the flip phone over to Evelyn. ”Put your number in there, it’s no good if I can’t contact you. No matter what we are doing.”

Once that had been done, she took the phone back, then leant back against the sink with her arms crossed. ”On of the city councilmen has been causing some problems with one of our… projects. All I need you to do is remind him about the terms of our agreement. Preferably in such a way that he immediately returns to them.”

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

Evelyn caught the phone and, glancing up at Sonnet, put in quite a long and unusual number. She’d crafted her own cellphone for this specific purpose. I could not be traced nor could it be identified by manufacturer, as she was the manufacturer. She’d used the phone to place precise calls to certain targets when she needed them in a particular area, but she’d never given out the number. It was odd, like she was putting herself on their level, but she’s been having quite the repulsion towards that idea as of late, so maybe she was just overthinking it. Once she’d punched the number in, she tossed the flip phone back to Sonnet.

Blackmail. Intimidation. Exciting. She hadn’t done that in a while. Not since her...incident. She missed it. And a councilman too. Not a senator, but certainly not a plebian. ”Sounds promising.” She said, her tone lightening. ”And I know vagueries can be fun for some people.” She glanced over at Axel. “God knows you love them.” She said in Axevian, smirking.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Axel smiled slyly, tilting his head up.

”But I’m going to need some specifics.” She said, switching back to English. ”Who is this councilman? Where does he live? What are the terms of your agreement? What is your project?” Most of this information she figured she could find out herself once she learned his name, but she reckoned simply asking would be easier, even if she might not get an answer, she wasn’t quite in the mood for sleuthing. ”Does he have any children, grandchildren?” She asked. She had a plan forming in her mind already. She knew Axel would’ve just seduced him, record them having sex, and use it for blackmail, that was always his go-to, but the very idea of sex repulsed her. Her go-to, especially in the time immediately after Axel’s death, was simply pressing a knife to their throat. She found the prospect of imminent death in the face of failure to meet her demands was a very motivating influence. But she was looking for a little fun. It was time to get creative.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

268

Evelyn Winters

Whatever mood had been afflicting Evelyn seemed to lift once Sonnet offered her something else to focus her attention on. That could be dangerous in itself. Clearly she was a fickle creature, and Sonnet would have to be careful not to end up in the crosshairs herself if this woman had another seemingly psychotic mood swing. She would rather avoid another violent encounter if she could.

She smiled as Evelyn began to ask more questions about the man, it showed a willingness at least, even if she wanted to know perhaps a little too much. Sonnet rarely had much to do with this side of operations beyond terrorising the people in the pocket of the Yakuza. Kenshin was the one who handled most of the details.

"His name is Mark Alexander, he's young, ambitious, and greedy, he wants more, but that's not how deals work with us."

She shrugged, and as she spoke there was a tone of contempt in her voice. "He has a taste for young women, but is single, so there's no avenue for blackmail there, he's never been interested in paying for those affections either, so we don't have anything like that on him."

Shaking her head, she smiled, "He wants to be Mayor one day, and that takes money, so he's trying to shake us down."

"The deal?" She waved her hand dismissively, "I'm not sure what it is, some vote we need to go our way. Probably some legislation or development that we need. I leave that sort of business to my superior. I don't usually bother to ask what it is."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

Her inward grin grew. No children. She would have to work harder to find his vices. A challenge. She was getting excited. ”Young nieces, nephews, he must have some. Maybe just siblings, perhaps. Parents that he cares about.” She said, partly asking a question, partly just thinking out loud. It’d be extremely unlucky to not have at least one of these things. ”If you don’t have this information I’ll be happy to find it myself.”

The tone in her voice intrigued her. Did she have something against the sexually liberated, as Axel would call it? He would also just call it being a whore, he always like being labelled a deviant. She looked over at Axel, a little smile on her face, which he matched. If only Sonnet could meet him. She would love to see how she would react.

She didn’t know what they wanted out of this councilman. She just followed orders blindly. Evelyn’s respect for this woman diminished greatly. ”It’s disappointing that you have superiors. I know that’s how gangs work, but for some reason, I expected more from you than that.” She told her with full earnesty. ”It’s a folly to allow yourself to be subjugated." Even when Evelyn worked in the police force, she always considered herself to be in charge, even if her title labeled her below another. She always did whatever she wanted, always had more information than everyone above her, and always made sure she had plenty of dirt on her “superiors” so she always had power over them, and never the other way around. The only person in the world she ever considered to be her equal was Axel. Now all she had was Cat, who, while a worthy equal, was certainly no replacement.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

288

Evelyn Winters

"Then you'll have to find it out yourself. If I do all the work, it defeats the point of the trade if I do it all myself. He's obviously not as easy to control as most, otherwise he wouldn't be an issue. I'll leave it up to you to find a weak spot. Short of killing, maiming or torturing him, it's on you. At that point people might start questioning why he changed his vote. And it makes the whole thing irrelevant if that happens."


Sonnet turned away to wash her hands in the icy water of the sink, dropping the heavy bucket down beside it as she did so. With her back to Evelyn, she allowed herself to smile at the woman's attitude towards her position within the Yakuza. Sonnet had no illusions as to her level of power. Or her ambition. She wasn't content to stop where she was, but she knew that women rarely made it to positions of power in the Yakuza. In the Yamaguchi-Gumi they had less than a handful of female heads in their history, and each one had simply inherited power when their husbands had died. None had reached the level Sonnet had alone. Besides, taking the woman seriously would only be a road to bloodshed. Mad she may be, but she had proved herself to be dangerous.

She turned back to the other woman, "Yeah, I'm sure it is."

Shaking her hands free of the water, she rubbed the dry on the side of her jeans, glancing back up at Evelyn through her fringe. "So do we have a deal? I make inquiries on your behalf, and you bring the councilman back into line?"

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

”Just seeing what you know.” She replied. ”Trust me, as I said, I can find this information on my own. I’ve done this many times before.”

“It’s gonna be weird doing it without me, huh?” Axel said, humorous, but with a hint of melancholy.

”Hm.” Evelyn grunted. They hadn’t always done blackmail-intimidation together, in fact oftentimes they did it on their own, but emotional hindsight always seemed to color things. She remember all the times Axel would get close to the target, sometimes very close, learn about them, reveal their dreams, desires, relationships, secrets. Then Evelyn would confront them with this information, corner them while they were alone, break into their abode if they lived by themselves, she always loved surprising them like that. Sometimes they would switch roles, for practice. Oftentimes they would team up during the confrontation. Axel got off on their fear as much as Evelyn did. They grew up doing it together, learning from each other. ”Yeah, it will be weird.” She concluded, speaking in Axevian.

She was surprised when Sonnet agreed with her. So far it had seemed to her to be a mutual power struggle, her arrogance versus her superiority, but here she was, admitting weakness. It felt validating, if not slightly disappointing. She was somewhat enjoying their game, even if it was annoying her.

”Yes, we have a deal.” She said in English. It just hit her that she was finally making steps towards finding Glasgowman. She had an insider, a fringe insider, but an insider nonetheless. Maybe she had no information, maybe she thought she was just using her, but with the intel she got from the man in the bar, she finally had a some solid leads. She was getting closer. Closer to ripping that asshole’s intestines out of his goddamn eye sockets. She was excited; happy even.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

247

Evelyn Winters

"Good."

At least the woman was in agreement now. Although she had continued to speak in that strange other language. Again Sonnet wondered whether she was wearing a wire, not that it made any sense. After all, no undercover cop would have so casually killed an innocent bystander, no matter who they were investigating.

Perhaps forming an alliance with this woman was a mistake, she was clearly unstable, and unstable meant unpredictable. Hardly something one wanted in an ally. She would have to keep a close eye on this woman. Amusing her fall might be, but Sonnet would have to be careful that she didn't get caught up in the fallout. When someone as unstable as Evelyn seemed to be went up, she would take down everyone near her.

She turned around, leaning back against the dirty metal sink. "I'll take you back to the city, no doubt you could break out of this room, but it seems ill-mannered to leave you locked in."

The steel door that she glanced towards was clearly rusted shut. Sonnet had a key somewhere, but since she had never entered this room via the door it had long since escaped the avenues of her mind. It wouldn't hold up to determined assault, but it seemed unnecessary to leave the woman here in this situation.

Sonnet held out her hand again. "I'm told it's not quite as bad the second time, although everyone seems to still dry heave a couple of times."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

She looked over at the door. No doubt she could. On the off (or perhaps not so off) chance there was no white vinegar in the apartment, she could easily create a similar, and perhaps more powerful, solution with what she could find in the apartment to eliminate the rust. It would be time consuming, but she could do it. However, given the context of their relationship, the praise seemed almost condescending.

“Never satisfied, are ya.”

She laughed, ”Rarely.” She replied in Axevian. Which made her wonder. No comments about her talking to herself in a mysterious language. Typically she would get a “who are you talking to” or “what are you saying,” which she would either ignore or make a sarcastic comment about or tell them the truth depending on her current patience for human interaction. But so far Sonnet hadn’t said a word. Evelyn had perhaps interpreted a look or two, but nothing out of her mouth. What must she be thinking?

“Who gives a fuck?” Axel quipped as he floated through the air lying on his back, hands behind his head.

”True.”

Evelyn took a deep breath inward as Sonnet once again held out her hand. She didn’t like touching people, and she certainly didn’t want to do it again. Not to mention, she didn’t like relying on people, and she’d been relying on Sonnet for an uncomfortable amount of things lately. Plus, there was no guarantee Sonnet would teleport her somewhere desirable. Evelyn could still employ the strategy she’d laid out beforehand if need be, but she was still reluctant. Nevertheless, she put she discomfort, dignity, and paranoia aside, and grabbed ahold of her hand.

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

284

Evelyn Winters

Downtown Manhattan wasn't particularly busy at this time of night. New York might well be the city that never sleeps, but at night time it at least dosed. Even so, Sonnet had chosen to reappear in an alleyway with the other woman in tow. Attracting attention right now was not something they wanted to do, especially since a few witnesses had escaped the scene where she had fought Evelyn.

This would mean they would only attract the attention of a drunk or two. And that hardly mattered. There was no one else in the alley, and Sonnet found herself almost inexplicably relieved. Judging by what she had seen so far, Evelyn might well have killed anyone who had witnessed their reappearance.

She stepped away from the other woman quickly, in case she still had enough in her system to actually produce vomit. That and her habit of talking to thin air was beginning to unnerve her. She wasn't sure which was more comforting, that the woman might have a hidden ally somewhere that she was communicating with, or that she really was talking to herself. Perhaps they were all just voices in her head.

None of them filled her with much confidence. She made sure to keep the other woman in her peripheral vision even as she looked down the alleyway.

"I'm leaving you here."

As she spoke she flipped open the small plastic phone and sent a text message to the number Evelyn had saved into the device.

"That's my number. Contact me when you have something. I'll have information on your Glasgowman by then."

She flipped the device closed, and as the snap echoed through the alleyway, the diminutive woman was gone.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Evelyn Winters]

Evelyn felt her head spin as her feet landed on the city concrete. She felt another wave of nausea; less powerful than last time, but (after assessing her surroundings, making sure it was safe) she still stuck her fingers down her throat to get rid of the feeling immediately, a meager stream of vomit poured out of her mouth. Nausea alleviated, she aired out her hand to get rid of the uncomfortable warm feeling of another’s touch.

No one was around. Fortunate, because she was tired. Her ribs were aching and she wasn’t in the mood for murder. She just wanted to get home, see what Cat’s been up to. Maybe he’d left her a present or two. She’d been getting quite fond of stuffing half-eaten animals. She found it relaxing. It was the first artistic endeavour she’d ever really been interested in. If only Axel...well, she supposed he could see what she’s done, in his own way.

She looked over at him. He gave her a knowing smile that she wasn’t quite sure how to interpret. He shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I like what you’ve done.”

”I know.” She muttered in Axevian.

She simply nodded at Sonnet’s words. Once she teleported away, Evelyn stepped out of the alley towards the street. She looked around. It was a bit of a walk home, but not too far. At least the weather was nice. She took her jacket, now stiff with blood, and draped it over her arm, and began her journey back to her trailer.