Contained

 

 

As Dyna pulled the trigger on the disruptor, sending the Hatman into a full-powered spasm, two things stood out to her.

The first regarded the Hatman himself. He was angry, obviously. That much should probably be expected given the situation last time she had been around him. Being locked down by the disruptor gun had not made him pleased. But the most important part was that he seemed angry with her.

He was here in the auditorium and he was looking at Dyna. Unless something had happened back in the truck without a word coming through their comms, both Ruby and Matt were still there. They were there and he was here.

He had switched targets?

Dyna was the obvious target. The one he would likely be angry with based on their last encounter. While she believed that he was after her, there was a slight chance at another possibility.

Backpedaling, Dyna moved around the stage toward the stairs that Maple had used to get up. She kept the Hatman in full view, not wanting to turn her back to him for even an instant. Dyna’s other thought involved the one who appeared, that she had used the spatial anomaly to escape from the Hatman, thus incurring his anger. It was possible that she was his actual target of the moment.

The anomaly on the stage was still shimmering like shards of glass, but the one who had forced her way from it was crumpled up in a ball, shuddering and spasming much like the Hatman.

“You shot her?”

“She’s a monster,” Maple said, waving the disruptor.

Dyna pressed her lips together. She couldn’t exactly deny what it looked like. But of the two otherworldly beings in the room, only one of them had tried to speak. Only one of them wasn’t getting back to their feet.

“Ado?”

“Monitoring the situation. Readings are confused. I am not sure if the disruptor fired by Mister Maple disrupted the anomaly or if the new being disrupted it on their way out. Either way, it seems to be dissipating.”

“Damn.” So much for putting Ruby through it. Would there be others? “I’m more concerned about the Hatman. I thought you were scanning for him?”

“Readings spiked just a few seconds ago. I was about to warn you, but you discovered the problem for yourself.”

Dyna bit back several sarcastic responses to that and focused on the problem at hand. “What of Doctor Darq? Has he gotten back to us with how we can contain the Hatman?”

“Yes.”

“He has?” Dyna asked, genuinely surprised.

“I am working on making the adjustments required to the containment system at this time. Or was before this conversation began.”

“Good. Great.” Dyna took a breath, backing away as the Hatman got to his feet. She didn’t fire right away again. Not now that she knew what a limited capacity they had for the full-power shots. She had been a bit too trigger happy back at the warehouse. “We’ll lure him back to the truck.”

Besides, they needed him moving.

“We?” Maple said.

Dyna couldn’t shoot him a glare without looking away from the Hatman.

“There are external doors to the auditorium,” Ado said. “I can see one from the truck. I imagine there is another on the other side. Please vacate the premises as soon as possible.”

“Maple,” Dyna said, watching as the Hatman’s head turned to focus solely on her. Its neck twisted, bending in a way that no human could manage. It was definitely after her and not the static-like woman. “Grab her,” she said, motioning with the gun, “and get her back to the truck.”

“Me?”

“Unless you want to try to distract the Hatman.”

Dyna, still backing up, caught Maple throwing a glance toward the Hatman before looking back to the ragged woman.

“I’ll get the static entity,” he said.

The Hatman cut off any response Dyna might have had for Maple. Though still experiencing mild spasms, it lunged toward her with its hand fully extended. He was still a good distance away. Not even out of the aisle. The lunge looked more like something he should do if his target was right in front of him.

Dyna still took a few hurried steps backward, moving alongside the stage. After the Hatman lunged a second time, no longer walking normally but creeping out like the monster he was, she took her eyes off him for just an instant. Long enough to glance back and confirm that Ado had been correct. There was a door to the auditorium. Maybe a fire exit. Maybe an entrance for parents or whoever would come to see the drama team put on a play.

The distance must have been a bit too much. Or maybe the Hatman just focused on whatever target was closest. Whatever the case, the Hatman slowly turned away from Dyna, focusing on the stage.

Maple stood over the woman, looking down with obvious uncertainty in his posture. Dyna couldn’t blame him. She wasn’t sure how she would pick someone up that didn’t look at all stable.

But she couldn’t just let the Hatman focus on someone else.

Taking so many steps backward left Dyna almost tripping over a loose plank. A short bit of wood that might have come from the armrest of one of the seats.

Keeping the disruptor at the ready, just in case she needed to put him down for a few moments, Dyna knelt and picked up the armrest. It wasn’t heavy. A piece of plywood with some fancy lacquer and sanding to make it look a little finer than it actually was.

Throwing it, tossing it with a spin, it smacked into the Hatman’s shoulder. It actually hit him. Which shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did, but there were a lot of weird things going on. The way Ruby barely existed, the door that had been shut in reality but apparently open somewhere else, and the way she was fairly certain that Ruby had shot at the Hatman to no apparent effect.

It probably meant that hitting him with her car would have worked.

Lost regrets aside, Dyna waited for the Hatman to fully right himself. When he did, he didn’t turn to her. He placed his hands on the edge of the stage like he was about to climb up.

“Hey!” Dyna shouted, taking a few steps forward. She didn’t have any other planks handy, but she did have a few of Ado’s masks. “You remember me?” she said, flinging one of her spare masks. “You better remember me! You stared at me but left me behind. You’re going to regret that, bastard.”

Dyna wasn’t sure if it was the mask, the step forward, or the shouting, but something did it. The Hatman turned slowly, head swiveling at an angle. His face, momentarily hidden beneath the brim of his hat, twisted into a scribbled snarl. His hand swiped out toward Dyna, long trails of permanent marker trailing behind each of his fingers.

Skipping backward, Dyna barely avoided his grasp. Something about his arm reached out further than he should have been able to. She felt… something. A tingle in the back of her mind that she couldn’t quite place. The fact that it managed to reach through the protective mask churned her stomach. But she could still see the Hatman. Maple and the static-person were still on stage. Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough to affect her.

At least not yet.

The Hatman’s interest in Maple and the static-person vanished entirely as he took step after step toward Dyna. She backpedaled, maintaining distance but not rushing. If she got too far away, she was worried he might turn back to the others.

Dyna’s back hit the wall.

The door would be a short distance to the right. Just five steps. Behind the Hatman, Maple had scooped up their unexpected guest in a haphazard fireman’s carry. Though it didn’t look that stable. Every time the static-like shimmers crossed her body, Maple stiffened. Probably thinking that he was about to be attacked. But, though their eyes didn’t meet, Maple still looked to her and offered a small nod of his head. He hopped off the stage behind the Hatman and hurried out the same way that they had entered.

“Ado, I hope you’re ready,” Dyna said, rushing over to the door once she was sure that the Hatman wasn’t going to turn and chase Maple. “I’m coming out.”

“I am readying equipment. Take your time. I mean it, at least a few minutes.”

Dyna doubted she had a few minutes. Not without expending the disruptor gun. And that could be done outside and in line of sight to Ado’s more powerful version that was attached to the truck. Dyna was saving her gun for an emergency.

The door thankfully opened. Dyna had expected it to. It wasn’t labeled as an emergency exit, but did have the push handle bar that meant it probably didn’t lock from the inside.

Although the door opened, Dyna didn’t rush out. She didn’t want to get closer to the Hatman, but letting him out of her sight might mean he would turn and chase after Maple.

Tense and watching, Dyna waited until the Hatman was practically on top of her before ducking under his arms and slipping out into the chilly night air.

Ado stood outside the truck. The large human-sized tank of liquid could apparently move along rails, for it was out of the truck and slowly lowering itself down next to Ado. Matt was awake and had apparently been charged with their safety, holding the larger disruptor gun in his hands as he sat on the edge of the truck, legs bent off to the side. Though it was a strange implement, he held the disruptor with confidence. As expected of someone used to fighting off the Hatman with a shotgun.

Both wore protective headgear. In Matt’s case, his was the same standard mask that Dyna and Maple had on. Ado, on the other hand, had replaced or augmented her goggles with a full-head helmet. Her costume change didn’t stop there. Sporting a slimmer version of the Psychodynamics silver protective suit, the only way that Dyna could even tell that it was her was process of elimination. Matt was in the truck. Ruby was intangible. Maple had gone the other way and was probably still running through the school’s halls.

“What’s the plan?” Dyna shouted.

Ado jerked. A moment after, Dyna heard an irritated voice over her headset. “I can hear you just fine.”

“Great! Then you can answer my question,” Dyna said, backing up across what was probably a parking lot for school buses.

The Hatman was following. He… felt a lot less dangerous now. Out in the open, Dyna would be hard pressed to wind up cornered. He just wasn’t that fast, even angered as he was. And the masks removed his biggest threat. That of his utter imperceptibility. Knowing where he was made it practically trivial to avoid him.

Though with the way the cylindrical tank was lowering to the ground—the bottom was coming out from under it so that it might rest horizontally—the truck probably couldn’t be moved in a hurry. At least not without damaging the equipment.

“The plan,” Ado said far too slowly for Dyna’s liking, “is simple. I have just completed the tuning of the psionic entity disruptor.” She waved toward the weapon Matt held. “Lead him closer, we’ll fire. Assuming all goes well, the entity will be rendered inert. Temporarily, but it should be long enough to contain it,” she said, now waving down to the tank.

Now horizontal, the tank rotated so that its back was upward. Unlike the curved glass front, the back was flat and covered in all manner of machinery. A seam split across the back, opening the container of liquid to the world.

Dyna eyed it for a moment, wary of getting too close, before double-checking on the position of the Hatman. He was out of the school’s auditorium, moving directly toward Dyna. Despite his proximity, Dyna felt little danger. She had a nearly full powered disruptor and Matt had the one hooked to the truck. Both of them together should be able to stop him in his tracks long enough to get the truck moving again. Maple would be out sometime soon as well with his own disruptor.

“Containment silo prepared,” Ado said as the back of the tank finished opening. She stepped aside, taking the disruptor from Matt, who handed over without complaint. “Please move closer so that we might properly disrupt the entity.”

Dyna didn’t need to be told twice. Mostly because she was already moving in their direction. Closer to the truck, when the overgrown brush that might have once been nice greenery turned to asphalt, Dyna veered off. If she kept running straight, she would be directly between the Hatman and the truck. And she had no intention of getting disrupted herself.

Ado’s disruptor did not follow Dyna’s movements, thankfully, but remained trained on the Hatman. She adjusted the knobs on the side of the gun as she aimed. One went two clicks forward. Another went a few clicks back.

“You said you had this calibrated.”

“Last minute adjustments to ensure everything goes smoothly. My visor is far more intricate than much of the vehicle’s equipment,” she said, still clicking the dials.

The Hatman stopped abruptly just a dozen feet from the rear of the truck. Maybe he sensed his former target in Matt. Or maybe Ruby was yelling at him in a way that only he could perceive. It could be that he realized Ado had been the one to fire the final disruptor blast back at the warehouse. Whatever the case, he stopped, turned away from Dyna to face the truck, and took a single step.

Ado clearly decided that was far enough. Whether or not her calibrations were finished, she pulled the trigger.

Unlike the previous times, there was no spasm or seizure. The Hatman took one additional step, but was utterly unable to put even a modicum of weight on that foot. He toppled forward, face slamming into the ground. His hat’s brim bent upward against the asphalt, but didn’t come off.

Dyna didn’t move, watching the Hatman but unable to see even a finger of his twitching. Ado was much the same, keeping the disruptor at the ready.

Matt was the first to speak.

“Is that it? It’s over?”

“It feels too easy,” Dyna said.

Ado’s grip on the gun tightened. “It was not too easy,” she insisted. “Everything went as expected. This is what happens when you plan properly. And to answer your question,” she continued before anyone could speak, “no. It is not over. We must contain it.”

“We? You’re the one in the full-body protective suit.” Dyna glanced back to the Hatman. “How long is he going to be like that?”

“A minute or two.”

Dyna blinked. “Then you better hurry up and quit standing there.”

Ado hesitated, but nodded her head. Beaconing Dyna, she handed the corded disruptor over. “If the entity so much as twitches, fire, please.”

“At you both?”

“I should be protected.”

“Well I can certainly do that. Hurry.”

“Yes.” Taking a breath, Ado slowly approached the downed Hatman. Using her foot, she nudged him only to get no response. Taking that as a good sign, she bent and grabbed one of his arms.

Hauling him back, dragging him along the ground, Ado stopped next to the tank. It wasn’t water, Dyna decided. She didn’t know what it was filled with, but it looked more gel-like and smelled strongly of hand sanitizer. Despite Ado saying only a minute, she managed to heave the Hatman up and over the bottom edge of the tank, dragging him through the gel-like substance until his head reached the far end.

As soon as the tips of his boots were slowly sinking into the gel, Ado reached up into the truck and pulled down on a red-handled lever. The back of the tank slammed shut in far more haste than it had opened with. Only once the tank started righting itself did Ado seem to relax.

“That’s it then?”

“That’s it,” Ado confirmed.

“It’s not going to escape? Phase-wandering through the tank’s walls?”

“No,” Ado answered instantly. “Absolutely no chance. This isn’t the only such entity contained in this manner. According to Doctor Darq, there has never been a successful escape of a properly contained entity.”

“Good,” Dyna said, watching the tank.

The Hatman slumped forward as the tank fully righted itself, still suspended in the gel. His chin tucked down into his chest, face hidden behind the wide brim of his hat. Dyna made no attempt to catch a glimpse of it.

She simply stood, watching as the tank lifted up on its rails, slid back into the truck, and anchored itself into place.

Matt, Dyna noted, had a glisten of tears in his eyes. Probably relieved. Dyna was relieved as well. Though lacking most memories from her first encounter with the Hatman, they were now one step closer to getting Ruby back to normal. Once that was done, maybe she would finally be able to get a bit of rest. Until then…

“Is it safe to come out?” Maple said over their headsets.

Until then, they did still have one other unexpected guest to deal with.