Welcome to the Family (Sidekick Quest)

[x] Suit 4
[x] Pull Rank

"She's one of us. It's Family business, officer."

The sergeant adjusts his glasses, getting a better look at you, and you catch a reflection of yourself in the lenses. For a moment, you see what he sees.

It's times like this that you're grateful for the full body costume. So many of the Family wear masks that leave at least part of their faces open, and you're well acquainted with the benefits of the strategy – but when you give an order, a fifteen year old boy staring down a man three times his age, all the man can see is the callsign.

"Well it's load off my shoulders." The sergeant shrugs and walks over to the nearby desk, where he takes a seat in a very past-its-prime swivel chair and fiddles with the dashboard until the jail cell slides open. "Can't say I'm gonna miss you, sweetheart."

"And here I was, growin' so fond of ya." Dissent leans on the southern drawl when she speaks, stretching each vowel to just before the point of breaking. "Wanna be my man on the force, Henry?" She strolls out the waiting cell door and promptly sits herself down on top the sergeant's desk.

You clear your throat. "Dissent." Augur has this way of saying a name, flat and sharp as a sword, and though you can't quite match it, you think you come pretty close.

It certainly gets Dissent's attention. She looks directly at you for the first time since you walked in the door, her expression a fortress – but then it's gone in the flash of a smile, impossibly white teeth shining in unnaturally perfect lines. "Ain't gonna be long, promise." She nods towards the sergeant. "Henry still has my effects."

For a moment you think she means the jewelry, and your blood goes white hot – but then the sergeant pulls a bag out from under his desk, black and white and small enough to be hidden under a coat. Dissent takes it with a bow, then reaches into it to produce a wallet of sleek black leather. "A lady's word is all she's got," she says, and with a twist of her wrist she palms the wallet as if it were a playing card. One moment it's there – the next there's nothing in her hand but a single dollar bill.

"Might as well make it worth something," the sergeant says. He reaches out and takes the bill, raising it slightly as if in salute. "For what it's worth, I believe your rotten luck now. Promise me you'll stay out of the casino?"

"Don't you worry on my account," Dissent says. "I'm reformed now, ain't you heard?" She hops down from the desk, gives the sergeant one last smile, and then turns her full attention to you. More specifically, she turns her whole attention to walking by you like you aren't even there.

You let her go, working your jaw beneath your mask. Another benefit to the suit – you're not sure how you would vent with your face exposed. "Thank you, officer."

The sergeant has already turned his attention back to his book. He seems genuinely surprised to look up and still see you there. "Nothing to say thanks for," he says. "Just hope I didn't screw up no Family operation. You guys do good work."

"It means everything to hear you say that." It's the line you've memorized, but that doesn't mean some part of it isn't the truth. "You haven't interfered at all. In fact -" You turn your head back and forth, sweeping your gaze across the empty room, and then lean in slow towards the sergeant. He feels the secrecy in the motion, the invitation to conspire, and leans in to you meet you. The trick of conveying a thought in body language is one it took you a while to learn – the full body costume has its drawbacks, however much you enjoy it – but it's a vital one. "In fact, you've been a great help."

"No shit?" the sergeant asks. The room is still empty but he is hushed, furtive.

You touch a finger to your lip. "The Three-two does good work," you say, glancing around the precinct. "The Family appreciates the hell out of it."

"That's good...that's great to hear," the sergeant says, a smile stretching across his face. "Good luck out there. Cardinal. Sir."

You find Dissent waiting by your bike. On your bike, technically, but you're still riding a little high from your performance inside. Besides, Augur would want you to give Dissent the benefit of the doubt. "Tell me something Cardinal," she says, low enough that the cop at the door can't hear but loud enough to be obnoxious. "How come even through that mask I can tell you're about to give me a lecture?"

And the sweetness of triumph curdles into frustration. It was nice while it lasted, at least. "I was actually expecting you'd talk. Something with the words thank, and you."

"For what?" she says around a chuckle. "For losin' me my last bet ever?"

"That's what that was in there?" You ask, shooing her off the bike. She stands up, palms out as if in surrender. "You weren't just bribing the NYPD?"

Dissent crosses her arms, her smile never faltering. Her face is torn up after whatever happened last night, but if it so much as twinges she doesn't show it. "As if Henry would ever take a bribe. He won that fair and square."

You take a seat on the bike, uncomfortably far forward. It's not a vehicle built for two, but it'll do in a pinch. "You bet that nobody would come get you," you say, turning your attention to your dashboard. "You understand how that looks, don't you?"

"Don't be so dramatic." She slides in behind you, wrapping her arms around your stomach. She's perfectly capable of sitting back on the seat – she could probably do handstands on it in while it tears down the interstate – but of course that isn't the point. "I said it'd take you a whole day, is all. You should've just let me rot for another few hours."

"Ah, shit," you mutter, "We agree on something."

You gun the engine and the bike takes off like a shot. Dissent's laugh is torn away as the two of you go from standstill to sixty in just over two seconds.

"Do you have a callsign?"

It's Isaiah who asks, which is no surprise – Kennedy is too shy to speak and you're too stubborn, and he's not going to sit in silence if Blackbird isn't requiring it of him. And though he's been bouncing questions off her all night getting nowhere, this one seems to pique her interest.

"I've got a few cookin'," she says. "It's a tricky recipe, ain't it?"

Isaiah's eyes light up – he seems more surprised than you that something finally landed. "Oh, but the Family makes it easy," he says, each word practically tripping over the next one. "There are a bunch of legacy names just lying around, and if you don't like any of 'em you can go with the theme. Like, uh...Gull is free."

"A little bland, don't you think?"

"Okay, nothing bland...Harlequin?"

"Am I a clown?" The smile that creeps across her face is so infectious that you would probably start grinning yourself, if you were anyone else. Even the corners of Kennedy's mouth are turning up. "Is it my makeup?"

"It's a duck!" Isaiah protests.

"Well I hate ducks nearly as much as I hate clowns. Next."

"Dove?"

"I'm too fun for that."

"Swallow."

"Oh honey, I ain't that fun."

This back and forth continues for several more minutes, Isaiah suggesting a new name and her shooting it down with a wry remark, until Isaiah is clearly getting to the end of his list of bird names. You watch him struggle internally for a moment – you think he might be getting desperate enough to try Pigeon – before you decide to step in. "You've been shooting the kid down all night," you say, crossing your arms. "Are you ever gonna take him seriously, or just shoot him down forever?"

She just smiles, smiles, smiles.

"So where are we heading, your highness?" Dissent has pressed herself tight against you, her lips practically touching your mask so that you can hear her over the roar of wind and traffic. You try to lean forward, to escape her, but that only seems to encourage her. You're pretty sure people aren't supposed to bend like that, and yet.

"I'm taking you back to the aerie." You've already pinged Augur, who is too busy handling a crises in the industrial quarter to check in with you personally.

"But it's not even my bedtime yet," Dissent says. "And I still have work to do."

"Knocking over more jewelry stores?" You don't mean to run the red light, but by the time it changes you're too committed to stop. Technically the Family doesn't have to obey traffic laws, but Blackbird tends to frown upon abuse of that particular privilege.

You can feel her smile against your mask. "Please. You really think I'd bother with a podunk little shop like that? So not my taste."

"They caught you red handed, Dissent."

"Not what I meant! I only swiped that jewelry as part of my investigation."

You throw a look over your shoulder. "How stupid do you think I am?"

She just smiles, smiles, smiles. "You really want me to answer that?"

You throw the bike into a turn, hopping the sidewalk and into an alley. It leaves a streak of rubber across the ground as it bleeds momentum, then bucks hard enough to nearly throw the both of you before it stops completely.

You're off the bike in a storm of motion. "When are you going to get it through your head that this isn't a game?"

She meets your frantic agitation with self-satisfied tranquility, leaning back in her seat. "The costumes probably don't help my confusion."

"Ungrateful-"

"Prude."

You step forward and manage to stop yourself just before throwing a punch. It would feel incredible to lay her out, but that's not how you win this exchange. "Blackbird sent me out here to clean up your mess," you say instead, swallowing the frustration that threatens to choke you. "Now I'm taking you home, so you don't cause another one."

Dissent watches you for a moment, as if waiting for an opportunity to break through your wall of composure. When none presents itself, she sobers a fraction. "I was being serious," she says. "The stealing was part of my investigation."

"Really. Was the jail?"

For the first time since you've known Dissent, her smile actually falters. "No," she says, the southern drawl still heavy but not quite as pronounced as it had been in the precinct. "I fumbled the swipin' a bit, alright? Got me so mad I spent all last night practicin'." She demonstrates by producing a quarter from thin air. "I was gonna return 'em before anyone noticed they were missin'. Or at least pay for 'em."

"Typically, you pay before you take the stuff." You shake your head. "If it was really for an investigation, the Family would've been more than happy to pay."

"They needed to be stolen," Dissent says. She glances around suddenly. "Mind if we have this talk somewhere a little more private?" She points up into the sky, and though you'd rather be back on the bike and on the way to the aerie, you find yourself nodding. Dissent pulls her grappling gun from under her purse, and you point your arm to the lip of the building above you, firing the grapple built into the armored gauntlet.

Moments later you're both on the rooftop, the night wind sending Dissent's hair and coat streaming. It's not the most practical outfit, but you wouldn't be Family if you couldn't appreciate a little theatricality. "Keep talking," you tell her.

"They needed to be stolen," Dissent says again. "Or else the mark wouldn't a trusted me."

"You still should've told Augur."

"An' have her what, buy the jewelry with one a' your secret Family accounts?" Dissent shakes her head. "There are eyes on your money, your highness."

"Family security is the best in the world."

Dissent steps up onto the edge of the rooftop, holding her arms out, and turns a pirouette. "Of that I have no doubt," she says. "I'm sure y'all got accounts that are still all secret-like, but some of them are definitely bein' watched an' I ain't sure which is which. Better not to risk it, hm?"

It's not how you would've done it, and it's tenuous – but there's a logic to the argument that you can't just ignore. At the very least, her trying to convince you is better than the constant needling. "You still haven't said why you needed stolen jewelry in the first place."

"Well a girl's got to save the best for last," Dissent says. "I have a meeting with the Khao Manee Association."

You actually laugh. "Okay, now I know you're bullshitting me."

"Cross my heart!" Dissent says, tracing the X built into her costume's chest.

You still don't believe it. The Khao Manee Association has been giving the Family fits since the fifties, when it was just one woman swiping jewels, works of arts – anything famous and expensive that wasn't nailed down. She narrowly escaped the first Blackbird dozens of times before getting out of the field and expanding her operations, turning her thrill-seeking into a global crime syndicate as notorious in the Warsaw Pact as it was in the Free World. "Do you know how long the Family's been trying to get a bead on the KMA? They're ghosts."

"Oh, they're skittish alright," Dissent says, "but they're thieves. They can't smell a score like this an' sit by without at least tryin'."

"A score like this," you echo. You can only think of one score that would be big enough for the KMA to take the risk of engaging directly with a known member of the Family. "You're offering them insider access to the aerie."

Dissent shrugs.

"What is this?" You ask, mimicking the motion. "You can't just do this," you shrug again, "to that. The KMA hasn't gotten into the aerie in decades, we'd like to keep it that way."

"I ain't stupid," Dissent says, frowning. "An' even if I offered to get them inside, they wouldn' take me up on it. They're as prickly as you 'bout strangers." A moment, considering. "Maybe not quite as prickly as you."

"Hilarious."

Dissent ignores you. "That's what the jewelry was for," she says. "A way to prove my dedication. There's a KMA agent waiting for me right now at this great lil dive in Hell's Kitchen."

"But you don't have the jewelry."

Dissent's eyes sparkle, and from seemingly nowhere she pulls a sapphire ring. It shines in the New York City light – hardly a crown jewel, but not an inexpensive piece by any metric. "I ain't all fumbles, your highness."

Your stomach drops out. "You're unbelievable," you mutter, stepping forward and swiping the ring out of her hand. To your surprise she doesn't even try to stop you, just watches you with a calculating eye. "You know we have to return this."

"That was always the plan," Dissent says, "I said as much, didn' I? Store took a real beatin' durin' the robbery. It'll take 'em at least another day to realize it didn't fall into a grate, or under a desk."

You stare at the ring. "We should at least tell Augur," you say. You raise a hand to activate your comms, but halfway through the motion Dissent catches your eye and you hesitate.

"You always tell mommy and daddy what you're up to?" She asks.

[] Call Augur

• "That's who I am. Don't need your approval."​

[] Go ahead with the investigation

• "Augur's got her hands full. We'll fill her in after the meeting."​