Flickers at Freshfields 6 by James Wylder

Flickers at Freshfields 6
by James Wylder

The power went out. That was the sign Katie had been waiting for this whole time. She’d staked out the building, she’d infiltrated it as a customer, she’d even seen the love and loss of its denizens. But now, SIGNET’s investigation was coming to a close. It was her job to observe, and so she would observe.

Swiftly, she made her way closer, only for the SIGNET crew to ram their vehicle right into the side of the building! She tensed. This was serious. She moved quicker.
By the time she caught up, the team had already entered the building, so she followed their ruinous entrypoint into the building, stepping around the people carrier and over the door into the dark store beyond.

It occurred to her that they might see her face, and she realised she had something just for that. She pulled out from her bag the comedy mask that she’d been given, and put it on. She could hear her breath in the mask as she moved through the shadows — till there was some light. Torches. The glow of scanners and sparks. There were several of the members of SIGNET in a pile at the bottom of an escalator. She pulled out her own torch, one of those tactical metal ones they claim in the ads the army uses. Something odd was going on. This became clear when something leapt at her, and she shrieked as she smacked it to the ground.

There, glowing and sparking, was one of the store’s scanners.

What? Why? How? She had several questions, but no time to really dig into them.

She turned her torch on, and one of the SIGNET members — Olivia she was pretty sure, raised a hand to cover her eyes. They were getting up from the floor, and more lights were approaching. What was going on?

“Who are you?” Xana SIGNET asked.

Katie tried to think of what to say. She couldn’t give up her secret identity as a Flicker, or her real name. But as she saw Jae-Sun SIGNET rise up, she had her answer.

“I’m the Love Defender! And Jae-Sun Park, your time is up!”

“What the hell?” he asked, genuinely.

She didn’t have time to answer, because she had to roll out of the way as something came barreling towards her, and then at the three SIGNET agents. As she righted herself she realised what it was: one of the store’s electric carts that the elderly and disabled could use to shop. It was driving on its own, and all the limits on its motors had been blown so it was moving at a rocketing pace that could actually kill someone. Xana pulled Olivia out of the way of it, and Jae-Sun dodged a second as they crashed into the escalator. 

A third came charging in, and Katie sidestepped it, and then shifted her weight into a body slam that knocked it to its side, wheels spinning like buzz saws against the air. She landed effortlessly on the other side. Unfortunately, it looked like the rest of the carts had all gone in and once, and had at least partially hit the SIGNET crew, who were pulling each other up again, Xana holding her side. 

Was the danger passed? Sure, it seemed like it. Katie didn’t really know what was going on, but she had a mission. A mission that meant she had largely forgotten her real actual mission of observing the SIGNET crew from a distance.

“You thought you got away with it, but you can’t run from me, and now it's time for you to face justice!” she said, pointing.

“...Is… Is it?”

“Er, yeah.”

“Why?”

She answered that by running at him, and leaping into a flying kick. He sidestepped, and grabbed her leg in the air, but she was ready for that and pulled her knee up under his chin. His teeth clicked from the hit.

He didn’t let go, however, and spun her, letting go to throw her towards a support pillar. She could see his surprise when she floated lightly towards it, caught herself on the pillar, pulled her legs up so her feet could push off of it, and rocketed down at him like a flying squirrel.

Sometimes being part bird-person was cool, actually.

She made impact, and they tumbled on the ground, till they rolled apart, and both kipped up to their feet. Jae-Sun put his fists up. Katie nodded. The time for tricks was over.

Each threw punches at each other, blocked, tried to sweep the other’s legs. He landed a gut punch on her that sent her reeling and she staggered back.

“No really, what the hell is going on here? Why are you attacking me? You’re not with SPIMS!?”

She rose to her full height. “No. I’m the Love Defender.”

“You already said that!”

“That poor woman was cute, and sweet, and you absolutely broke her heart, you cretin!”

Jae-Sun’s head tilted to the side, his fists going slightly loose. “Are you s—”

He was punched in the face. Katie did not let her opening slide.

Jae-Sun grabbed his nose. “Okay! I’m sorry! Look uh—” he gestured, and she realized that Olivia and Xana were back to back, surrounded by hopping scanners spitting sparks. Olivia was whacking away with a broom, Xana with what looked like part of a vacuum cleaner. “—Could we save my friends and then kill me?”

Katie sighed. “Fine, sure, whatever.”

The fight against the scanners was exhausting, embarrassing, and rather boring as each of them kept getting mild shocks as they battered them to pieces.

They’d nearly finished them off, when the remaining scanners just… stopped.

“Looks like the others did it,” Xana said.

“Hooray!” Olivia said, throwing her hands up. “The three gods had our back all along! Unless they’re dead!”

Everyone looked at her.

“They’re probably not though.”

Everyone continued to look at her.

“I’m normal,” she concluded.

Katie nodded. “You know what, I’ve had enough for today. I’m out. You guys uh…” she gestured with her hands in a way that really didn’t convey anything. “Jae-Sun, stop being a jerk to women. Okay, bye.”

She ran off, hearing in the distance Xana saying. “What exactly did you do, Jae-Sun?” with more than a little annoyance in her tone.

Katie ran out the door, out into the parking lot, and across the street.

Fred was there. The Blue Candle Coffee shop was closed, but he’d obviously waited up to make sure she wasn’t dead. A nice courtesy.

“So uh, how’d the mission go?” he asked as she shut the door behind her.

She pulled the comedy mask off, and gave a thumbs up. “Justice was served, love prevailed, AI was defeated, and apparently I can do a flying kick.”

He thought about that. “...Kick-ass.”

She grabbed a cup of water, and sat down to down it. Just another day in the life of a Flicker. 
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“Kick-ass indeed, Fred. Kick-ass indeed.”

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