Chapter 3 - Manipulators

Wind roared through the gondola, but that did not stop Fade from hearing the woman correctly. She said “manipulator”. Within the past couple of days that word was coming up far too often to be a coincidence. Fade stared at the woman with squinting eyes.

“Do you think the guards saw our faces?” Obli asked Vious.

“Of course they did, we were looking right at them,” Vious responded. Obli bit their lip with worry. “Don’t worry babe, they can’t arrest us for catching a person.” Her face quickly turned from a softness she only showed her family to being very crossed. “And who the hell do you think you are dragging our family into your business?” She shoved her finger straight at the woman’s face.

“Woah woah! I didn’t do anything but hitch a ride,” the woman pointed out.

Vious stood up. “You know that’s a damn lie. Guards are going to show up to our house tonight because of you.” She grabbed the mysterious woman by the collar. “So. I’m asking again, who the hell are you?”

The woman only kept her cool for a second before Vious lifted her over the railing leaving her upper body dangling out of the gondola. The cage was leaning at a rather harsh angle. Both Fade and Obli had to hold on to the railing.

With a yelp the dangling woman said, “Terra! My name is Terra! I swear it’s Terra!” Vious didn’t pull her back in. “I suppose you also want my status. I report to the highest level of command!”

Like it took no effort at all, Vious lifted Terra with one arm back into the gondola and planted her firmly in a seat. She gave Terra a stern look before taking her place besides Obli.

Fade blinked a few times in disbelief. Apparently she was the only one wildly out of the loop. “Highest level of command?” Fade asked.

“Don’t,” Vious commanded while pinching her nose. She hadn’t looked this frustrated since the night Fade was dropped off home by a guard who had caught her climbing down a rather precarious pipe. “What am I supposed to do? There’s no way we aren’t going to be investigated for this…”

Terra’s eyes lit up with excitement. “You obviously don’t get it. I report to the highest level of command, so I’m the best of the best.” Everyone looked at her with confusion. She started over again. Pointing towards the Fifth Division she started talking. “You see that we’re almost there? Undoubtably there will be guards waiting for me.”

“For us,” Vious interjected.

“Get over yourself,” Terra snapped back. “They just want me. Just act fearful, I’ll look menacing as I jump out of the cart. Feel free to point them in the direction that I leave. Cooperate with the guards.”

“That doesn’t change anything! They saw us catch you.” Obli pointed out.

“Claim ignorance,” Terra offered. “You didn’t know who I was, and no one can blame you for wanting to catch a person from falling down.”

“This is a terrible idea,” Vious muttered.

Before anyone had the time to debate the plan further, the Fifth Division gondola station was approaching. Both Vious and Fade moved towards Obli at one end of the gondola making the whole thing tilt their direction. Terra stood on the seats at the other end and started yelling profanities at them that Fade didn’t even know existed.

Predictably, a crowd of guards were waiting for us. Most of them had batons at the ready, with one guard holding a long wooden rifle with a bayonet attached. At least, Fade assumed it was a rifle. She had never seen one before. A citizen of the Fifth Division wasn’t worth the bullets.

In a very surreal moment, Terra jumped off the gondola at the last second dropping to a floor below the one they were heading to. When she performed her immaculate stunt, they all went rushing towards the staircase. She proceeded to drop from floor to lower floor catching herself at each level as she fell. It was absolute insanity. One slip up and she’d be lost to a 4000 foot drop. It was a wonder the wind didn’t carry her away as she fell between floors.

Fade heard Vious and Obli give audible sighs as the gondola locked into the station without a single guard waiting for them. It appears no one really did care they were on the same gondola as Terra.

As Vious pushed the both of them out of the metal deathtrap she muttered, “can’t we just have one day to ourselves?”

Both feet planted firmly on the ground, Fade took a deep breath. She had run ins with guards before, but it was always for small things. To see that many waiting for one woman was an unbelievable sight. Even now she could hear their stomping boots as they left the station. She could only assume Terra had made it out way before the guards could scuttle down the stairs.

“Come on Fade. Let’s go home,” Vious whispered into her ear as she wrapped her arm around her.

Fade always loved it when her mom held her close. It didn’t happen very often. Of her two parents, Vious was typically the one to be more reserved with her affection.

“Don’t I get to join?” Obli asked. Before Fade could object, she was sandwiched in between her parents. “What a day! I cannot believe we met Professor Fog and Terra and that lovely guard your mom will not tell us the name of!” they said to no one in particular.

Vious’s face went red. “I told you, he’s a nice man. What more do you want?”

Fade tried her best to pretend she wasn’t there as they exited the station, which was extraordinarily hard as she was sandwiched in between the two of them.

“A heads up is all,” Obli requested. “I don’t like surprises, like when manipulators just casually jump onto your gondola.”

With a long sigh Vious looked up into the sky with nothing else to say. The conversation was over, at least for now. Fade hated it when the two bickered. She usually wasn’t blessed with such close proximity to their arguments. The tension between them was unbearable.

As the sun set they finally reached their home towards the outer edge of the Fifth Division. Fade ran ahead, unlocked the door, and ran straight up to her room. While she absolutely had fun, the day was a little too eventful for her tastes. Crawling up onto her bed, she bundled into a blanket to watch the last of the sun set from her little window. The sight was always beautiful, even if she didn’t have a view of the ground below. The clouds filled the sky like an open white canvas. Red streaks overlapped with orange streaks cut off by random shadows making it look like an endless field. She always wanted to take an airship far off where all the rumbling of wind on sheet metal would dissipate into nothingness. Where complete and utter silence could exist.

A jarring knock at her bedroom door stirred Fade from the beautiful sight. “Come in,” Fade squeaked.

As expected, Obli poked their head in before entering the room. “Did you have fun today?” they asked. Fade nodded in response. “Look, Fade. I want to apologize for earlier.” They sat on the bed and offered an arm. Without hesitating, Fade cuddled next to her Nini. “I didn’t mean to roast mom. That was wrong of me. She does one hell of a lot of work to keep this house standing.”

“I know,” Fade affirmed.

“That being said, sometimes she stresses me out. I still love her which is why it’s upsetting to see her have to stretch such great lengths and suffer in silence. It breaks my heart.” A tear started to form in their eye. “I’m sorry we can’t do better.”

Unsure of what she was missing, Fade figured it was best to not press the issue. “For what it’s worth, I think your doing pretty good.” A moment after she spoke Obli started sniffling and hugging Fade so tight she couldn’t breath. “Nini, please! Your crushing my rib cage!” Slowly the sniffling turned into giggles as they continued to give an absolute bear hug.

Moments later Vious entered the room. “Glad to see you two are having fun.” At this point Fade was pushing Obli away who was very satisfied with themselves for torturing Fade with affection.

“That’s one way to put it…” Fade responded while jumping off the bed finally escaping their grasp. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask. What are Manipulators? Multiple people have said that word and I’ve never heard it used as a title.”

Vious’s face dropped into disappointment. “I knew you were going to ask that,” she muttered. “Long story short, Manipulators are citizens who feel that things need to be run differently around here: literally. They’re known to be very talented at running through the city without being detected.” She leaned against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. “Naturally, they’re really good at doing illegal stuff.”

“Like graffiti?” asked Fade. They sounded like the type of people who could reach scaffolding on the pillar. Maybe Professor Fog was referencing Manipulators with his drawings he showed last class.

Obli smiled. “Yes, graffiti is one thing they do.”

“They do a lot worse,” Vious added. “Point is if you don’t want to be arrested, don’t talk to them. And no climbing on buildings! I don’t want you taking inspiration from Terra. You’ve already given us enough trouble showing up home with a guard escorting you.”

Echoing from down the stairs three loud knocks rattled the front door. It was almost as if they spoke a guard into existence.

“Speaking of which,” Vious trailed off as they slipped down the stairs.

Obli and Fade stayed upstairs peering down at the front just within earshot. The door was only slightly ajar, making it impossible to see the guard.

“What do you want?” Vious asked with a rather stern voice.

“Evening,” the guard greeted. “Do you have a moment for a few questions?”

The guards were always polite at night. Something about a long day’s worth of work really wore down the stone-faced attitude.

“What do you want?” Vious repeated.

“Did you see this woman?” the guard whispered. It was hard to see from the top of the extended stairs. In their apartment, they had half of the first floor and a small second floor placed over the other tenants’ roof. Fade’s room was actually suspended by some pillars over the other apartment. Fade could only guess what was going on down the long staircase.

Vious didn’t open the door all the way. She peered down at what was probably a photograph. “Sure did. She jumped into our gondola today. Then she jumped out.”

“So you have no association with this woman?” the guard pressed.

“Nope. Never seen her in my life until today.” Vious stood back up and started biting her lip.

There was a long pause before the guard talked again. “Alright, that will be all for tonight. Good evening to you.”

Without replying Vious closed the door and looked back up to Fade and Obli. “I told you that woman was nothing but trouble.”

Obli walked down the stairs to join her. “Agreed. I am about ready to fall over. Let’s get some rest.”

Fade’s parents waved goodnight and went to their bedroom. Taking a step back, a wave of exhaustion swept over her as well. Stumbling back into her room, she flopped onto her bed too tired to take off her clothes. Drifting off into a deep sleep, Fade let her mind wander through all the things she saw at the museum.

Until there was a tapping noise. Opening her eyes, her room was pitch black. Only the moonlight lit a small part of room seeping in from her dusty old window. And there it was again. A tapping noise. Almost like a fingernail on glass. Lazily getting up, Fade looked out into the night.

Slowly from below her field of view, a head lifted itself right up to the window. Freaking out, Fade jumped back off her bed and stumbled into her desk miraculously not knocking anything over. Taking a second glance, she could make out a few details. Long hair, wide eyes, and fingers clutching the window sill which was definitely the only thing keeping the woman from falling. It was Terra. No one would could scale the side of her apartment and make it up to her room that was suspended in mid air. She knew there was nothing that woman was standing on, it was a straight drop from her window to the roof of the other apartment.

In an attempt to get her to go away, Fade tapped on the window with a little bit more ferocity and a very cross face. Obviously it didn’t work, as she gave a thumbs up and disappeared.

Moaning in displeasure, Fade slid down the stairs and opened the front door without making a noise. Her parents weren’t exactly light sleepers, so sneaking out at night was never too hard. Of course, Fade was never stupid enough to slip outside so she could wander the streets veiled in darkness. Bad things happened at night. Murders, mugging, people being tossed over the edge. Her parents’ warnings were warranted, which is why she usually only climbed onto the roof to get a night view. Her parents were only a few seconds away if she ever got into trouble.

Except this time she wasn’t just going onto the roof. Despite the bad things that could happen if she was seen with Terra, she couldn’t help but be curious. What did this woman want?

Before she knew it, her legs hugged the warm metal pipe just outside her front door as she pulled herself up. No one ran boiling hot water at this time, so she wasn’t going to burn herself. (The first time she did burn herself on that pipe, it made for a very interesting morning explaining how her parents didn’t see the giant burn the night before.) Within a few seconds she was standing on the neighbor’s roof, looking at a silhouette approaching her.

“We’ve had our eye on you.” Terra whispered when she was in earshot. The moonlight was bright enough for Fade to see how disheveled she was. Her Lady Mary jacket had an actual bullet hole on the bottom (that must have been a close call), her chino’s were torn at her right knee, and both her iron-clasped boots were scuffed as all hell. Completely badass, but also a little terrifying.

“Uhhh…” Fade stumbled with her words unsure of how to respond. Most of the time when people say super creepy stuff in the middle of the night, they’re about to mug you. For some reason she didn’t get that vibe.

“Though to be honest, everyone has. Most kids don’t break the law so openly. You really seem to not care.” She took a seat on the roof, looking up at the stars. Her hand patted the spot next to her.

“You’ve been watching me run to class?” Fade asked. It seemed weird that a skilled criminal would be watching a student jumping from roof to roof trying to not get detention.

Terra laughed, “not exactly. When I have work on the Fifth Division it’s hard to not see you hopping around.”

Before Fade could ask another question, a rather large bang sounded from below them. In the blink of an eye Terra sprung up behind the other side of the roof pulling Fade with her and shoved the both of them into the crevice under her room. The space was all to familiar to Fade. Since the second floor of their apartment was raised above their neighbors, the space in-between the first floor roof and the second floor made for a wonderful, private space when she needed to get away from her parents. Except now Terra had invaded her space.

Footsteps stomped inside the house. The loud bang must have been a door breaking down. It was hard to tell who was being raided, until the stairs above them bowed under far too many feet. They were in Fade’s house. Not the neighbors. Her parents were in trouble.

Trying to take a step forward, a hand pressed her back down to the roof. “What the hell! Let me go Terra!” Fade hissed.

She only responded by putting a finger up to her lips. Steps spread throughout her room and the bathroom. Muffled voices could be heard further down. Assumedly those voices were her parents. She doubted they would try to escape. It was never worth it: especially when there were so many guards. It was hard to keep track of all the different footsteps when there was so much banging around.

Suddenly everything went silent inside. Footsteps marched away from the house. Fade tried to get up but Terra forced her down again and whispered into her ear, “there’s nothing you can do! Stop struggling.”

They waited for what seemed like forever until Terra finally let up her grip. Without hesitation, Fade ran towards the front of the apartment, slid down the metal pipe, and looked inside. Their front door was beaten down, lying on the floor. The nice, wooden kitchen table was knocked over. One of the stairs towards the bottom of the staircase that Fade suspected was about to break was indeed cracked. The walls were all scratched up. Everything was dark.

Stepping onto the beaten down door, Fade called out, “Nini?” No response. “Mom?” Slowly Fade made her way through the kitchen which was also ransacked. Cracked dishes were scattered on the floor. The ceiling Edison lamp was shattered. The door to her parents’ bedroom was askew and wide open with the top hinge broken. Where her parents should have been was instead an empty bed.

“Well shit,” Terra gasped from behind her. Fade turned around to see her standing in the front doorway. Rolling her eyes she muttered, “guess you’re coming with me.”