Chapter 20- Conversations, cuddles, and phone calls
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
May 20th, 2011. Friday.
"Morning, Eon." Taylor said, stifling a yawn. "What's up?"
"Shadow's gone to visit the Dallon's, so I was wandering if Swarm wanted to come out and patrol with me." The silver Ninetales replied, sounding similarly tired.
"I guess I could, sure." She glanced at the clock, then held the phone to her ear with her shoulder while she started sorting out her costume, now completely repaired from the damage it'd taken when her arm had been crushed. "Don't see why we should really bother, given that it's still technically Endbringer Truce and most the building work is getting along well enough to not need Parahuman assistance, but I'm game."
"To be honest, I was mostly thinking of it as a way to just relax without being stuck at the Den or your house." He admitted. "We always need to be careful at your house, and here at the Den there's nothing to do."
"Maybe we should see about getting internet installed." She joked, digging out her mask.
"Pretty sure that would mean bringing people to the Den, which I'm not fond of, but it could still happen." She could hear a shrug. "Either way, Shadow's going to be making new allies and having fun, so I figured a couple of routes around town just having a wander would be nice. Show the flag, have a look around at things, talk about some stuff that's alright for public- or just shove an audio illusion over us both and not care- and maybe say hello if any of the Wards or Protectorate happen to cross our paths."
"We should probably try and keep some kind of operational security, even if you can stop people from hearing us, Eon." Taylor laughed. "But that's fine. I'll meet you at the Den in… maybe an hour? I still need to eat, and I smell food downstairs."
"You go do that, I'll see you then, Swarm." The Ninetales hung up on her, leaving Taylor to find a bag to stuff her costume in, followed by a bunch of random other bits, a few squares of spider silk fabric just in case she got an opportunity to drag Eon to talk to someone, and her phone. Heading downstairs, she grinned at her father, who was sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes reading the paper.
"Hi, Dad." She waved, hurriedly pulling her own plate over and sliding into a seat.
"Good morning, Taylor." He smiled back. "I heard you talking to someone?"
"Eon." She filled in, pouring syrup over the pancakes and grabbing a knife and fork. "He was wondering if I fancied a wander around town today, just to talk and show the flag, so to speak. Shadow's over at the Dallon's, apparently, so it'd just be the two of us going about town. I'm gonna meet him at the Den and we'll just go from there." She looked over at him. "That's ok, right?"
"I'm glad you're spending time with your friends, Taylor." He assured her. "Even if it is running around in a costume terrifying and beating up muggers."
"There's not going to be many of the muggers around at least, most of them aren't quite stupid enough to be causing trouble during rebuilding." She paused. "Well, there's the Merchants, but I hear they've been having some awful difficulties recently."
"Difficulties involving bugs and strange invisible things vanishing their drugs and money, by any chance?" Danny asked, looking amused.
"Something like that, yeah." She chuckled in return. "It's apparently become something of an open secret that we like to target the Merchants. To everyone but the Merchants, I guess."
"I'll never be opposed to you dealing with the drug dealers, Taylor." Danny told her. "Now, eat those pancakes and go have some fun. I'll be keeping an eye on PHO at work to make sure you don't blow something up or whatever."
"We never do, Dad." Taylor blushed. "We're careful, neither Eon nor Shadow's fire burns anything normally because they're good at controlling it, and I haven't caused any trouble with my bugs yet."
"Having a healer on team probably helps, so remember that you don't have her today if you get into trouble."
"I won't."
"Hey Eon." Taylor waved, jogging into the clearing.
"Hi, Taylor." He smiled back, waving a tail. "Have a good night after yesterday?"
"Yeah, it was nice. Dad and I talked a lot, I think he might want to talk to you about that deal we made with Lung and what you think of it, but we can do that later." She swung the backpack from her shoulders and started digging for her costume, a shield of bugs growing around her as she did. "So, what's the plan for today? Just wander around looking at stuff and get some food?"
"Pretty much." Eon agreed. "If we find some trouble we'll end it, obviously, but otherwise just a walk about town and maybe a meal if there's any nice restaurants open."
"There should be. Enough of the Boardwalk managed to get left sort of alone, somehow, even despite that stupid tsunami, and even then there's plenty of places that aren't on the Boardwalk we could go to." She responded from behind the wall. "Anything in particular you want to try, or are we just going wherever we find first?"
"I'd say that Thai place, but I know Shadow wants to go there and wouldn't ever let us live it down if we went without her." He hummed. "Maybe we can try around that area and see if there's anything nice around it that isn't that?"
"Fine by me, just make sure you bring a lot of cash." She nodded. "Some of those places are expensive to eat at. Not as bad as on the Boardwalk, sure, but still not great by any means."
"Will do, Swarm." Eon made his way over to the Den, pulling the Wonder Bag over towards him while he opened the box with all of their money in it. Pulling a bundle out, he spent a moment looking at the amount the team had, before chuckling and turning away again. "So quickly back up to a budget like we're used to… and far easier than how it happened back home." With a half grin, half grimace at the memory of some of the horrible missions they'd done as a team for starting cash- or to make up the cash for Shadow's massive splurge on the recipe for Max Elixirs, even if it has been well used- Eon dumped the bundle into the Wonder Bag, plucked the Map from its place on the shelf, and tied his scarf around his neck with the Badge in pride of place.
He liked this scarf. Swarm had made it from spider silk, then carefully dyed it silver-white so it blended in quite well with his fur. He once again made a mental note to talk to the Kecleon twins that ran the market in town, as well as his Ariados team mate, to see if it would be possible to do something similar and if it would sell.
Then again, maybe it'd be better to approach… whoever it was that ran the tailors in town, he couldn't remember right now. He hadn't had much contact with them, but they'd probably know better than the Kecleon or him whether or not silk scarves like these would sell. Shadow would probably know, actually, he recalled that she'd gotten a bunch of scarves and bags made for her siblings as a birthday gift a little while before they'd left for Bet, though not made out of silk like this one.
Shaking his head, Eon pulled himself out of his thoughts- it'd be a while before he would be able to do that, after all, so it could wait- and wandered back out of the Den, seeing Swarm fully in costume, drawing her bugs back into the secret slots on her clothes while hiding the bag out of sight in a little storage area in the Den. That had been added a little while ago, when they'd finally decided it was too much hassle for Swarm to duck in, and far too much work to build the Den upwards more, so they'd added a hatch that dropped into a box for her stuff, and a pulley system that used her spiders to bring stuff back when it was needed.
"You've gotten really quick at that." He complemented, watching as more spiders closed up the shell backpack and vanished into her hair.
"It's definitely a lot easier than it was before, I'll give you that." She grinned. "There are days where I think I probably shouldn't have fitted this thing so well. But then I normally stop caring, because it looks cool."
"Cool is good, of course, but if you feel miserable, you could always remake it." Eon suggested, laughing when she grimaced.
"No thanks. I've already got this one, plus I'm most the way through the new one- I'd be further, but I had to do those repairs on this one, which put things behind a bit. Plus I lost a few spiders to Leviathan, though most my important ones are safe."
"That's good." Eon trotted over to her side, and after a moment where both of them mentally checked that they had everything, began moving out towards the Bay. "Have you spoken to Aquamarina since she went home?" He asked, as they got closer to the border of the Den's illusion field.
"A few times, yeah." She nodded. "We've talked once over the phone, then we decided that it'd probably be better to just communicate through PHO because that way we can just send messages to each other and get back that way. Plus it doesn't waste messages on the burner phones which we might need for an emergency or something."
"That's a good point. Anything interesting, or...?"
"Not too much, to be honest. We've just talked a bit about our different experiences in the city. LA's a lot better, despite the fact that the city's a lot bigger, because... well, Alexandria." She chuckled. "She apparently scares the crap out of criminals a lot more than most people, so it's mainly petty crime on the outskirts where Alexandria doesn't tend to show up."
"Meanwhile with us, there's stuff going on absolutely everywhere because there's not enough Protectorate to handle the entire city, the Wards aren't supposed to get into Cape fights if they can avoid it, and most the Independents are either neutral, get the hell out of this city as fast as they can, get snatched up by the PRT, or end up dead because of the other Capes." Eon sighed. "Y'know, there are days where I occasionally wonder if we should've arranged to join up with the PRT when we first arrived."
"Really?" Swarm glanced down, a raised eyebrow clear in her voice.
"Mhm. But then I realise it probably wouldn't have worked out well. We didn't think of playing up the kitsune angle and changing our story about a bit until after the chat with Tattletale and our trip to the library, and we'd probably have had to give some kind of story anyway; being all mysterious like we do as independents wouldn't be as much of an option. It's better that we're working separately to the PRT because of that." He shrugged. "I suppose part of the reason I wish we had is because I'm used to the Guild support."
"Pardon?"
"Back home, the Adventurer Guild- well, for us it was specifically the Wigglytuff Guild- works really closely with Rescue Teams in the area. For most Pokemon, the Guild is where you go to leave mission requests, because you know that they'll make sure the team taking it can handle it, and for us it's also a place to request support. If you're in a Dungeon and need some help, you can send a request back with the Badges and they'll send out a new Rescue Team to come help you out of the Dungeon you're stuck in. I don't know if the Wards and Protectorate do the same thing, of course, but even so having someone in the background on the console must be helpful for them."
"I suppose." Swarm nodded. "I'm glad you two didn't, though. We wouldn't have ended up working together if you had."
"Did you ever think of joining the Wards?"
"Only for a few moments, right at the beginning." She said, as they left the field. "But I decided not to. I was struggling in school with the bullies and everything, and jumping into another nest of teenage drama, this time with superpowers added, didn't seem like a good idea. That's also why I never told Dad about my powers until recently, I was pretty sure that he'd want me to join the Wards. I got lucky that I'd already established myself with you guys before I had to tell him."
"Fair enough." Eon hummed. "Going back to the original point, though, I can see why Aquamarina has it a lot easier than us here. I guess Houston and New York probably do too, given that they have the other two parts of the Triumvirate."
"I don't know much about Houston, but New York has its own bundle of issues. The Teeth, for one."
"Ah." Eon knew vaguely what the Teeth were, since it'd come up in the earlier bits of research they'd done on their new world, but it still took a moment to recall. "Led by the Butcher, right? The one that jumps to their killer."
"Yep."
"Yeah, I don't suppose having that group of nutcases around would make New York feel much safer." Eon couldn't help but grumble. "Heck, we're miles away from them and it makes me uneasy."
"There are an awful lot of gangs around, aren't there?" She reflected, as the pair began approaching the outskirts of the city. Most of this area was undamaged, ignoring the amount of mess left behind by little gang skirmishes, but that made it reasonably easy to slip into an alleyway and begin making their way towards the more populated areas for their patrol and wandering about.
"Far too many." Eon agreed. "Our world doesn't really have gangs, as such. There's sometimes groups of outlaws that band together for protection and to make crimes easier, but for the most part all outlaws work solo. It's fairly easy for Rescue Teams to deal with outlaws, even the newer ones. And there's not really that many criminals around even so, for some reason."
"Your world just seems better, to be honest." Swarm admitted, lowering her voice. "If it weren't for Dad- and the whole 'no memories' thing that you have- I'd probably take any offer to come to you guys."
The Ninetales froze, staring up at her.
"Seriously?" He managed, after getting his voice to work. It was still pretty hoarse, though, and he cleared his throat before continuing, "But… why?"
"Better than Bet." She said easily. "No Endbringers to worry about every three months, no real need to worry about suddenly being attacked by criminals, no secret identity needed, and the chance to run about in weird magical dungeons doing stuff for people or just finding things. Plus no bullies."
"I suppose no bullies would be a good reason." He allowed. "But there's bound to be more positives to Bet than you're saying."
"If there are, they're escaping me."
After a moment of thought, Eon nodded. She's not wrong… there really doesn't seem like much good here. "Fair enough, I suppose." He sighed, starting walking again. The taller girl followed after him as they ducked into an alleyway, both of them silently agreeing to move off of any subjects that might let secrets out.
"You said Shadow'd gone to the Dallon's?" Swarm asked, after a few moments.
"Yeah. Glory Girl called this morning, woke both of us up. I didn't listen to the call, but she sounded kinda upset. Shadow went out with a lot of money and a bag, muttering something about shopping."
"I see." Eon got the feeling Swarm knew more about this than she was saying, but if Shadow hadn't mentioned it to him before, he wouldn't ask.
It wasn't his to know, it seemed.
"How come you don't call her Vicky?"
"She never said I could."
"That… feels like a weird distinction to make."
"I make the same distinction between your two identities, too. And if anyone else gave me their names, I'd do the same there. It feels… right, I guess."
"Even still, it wasn't Glory Girl who called this morning, it was Vicky. She wasn't calling on Cape business, and she probably wasn't in costume if she was calling from her home, so by your logic it was Vicky calling."
"…You make a good point."
The two of them continued chatting all the way into town, easily ignoring the cameras that were pointed at them once they got onto the main streets.
Shadow stared upwards at the door, annoyed.
"Dang humans being so much taller than me…" She grumped. "Lessee…" Looking around, she picked up a small rock with her Extrasensory and lifted it to the level of the doorbell, using it to push the button for her. The faint noise of the bell ringing inside made her perk up her ears, and a few minutes later a tall man was at the door, looking vaguely familiar though different to when he was in costume. "Hiya!"
"Oh. Hello, Shadow." Mark Dallon greeted, looking down at her. "I take it you're here to see Vicky and Amy?"
"Yup. Vicky called earlier, so I came, like I said I would." She nodded, as the giant man stepped out of the doorway to let her pass. She carefully shifted the bag off her back, holding it in the air next to her, then squeaked as she suddenly joined it.
"Hi, Shadow." Vicky mumbled, sounding miserable.
"Hey, Vicky." She grinned, once she'd gotten over her shock. "I brought ice cream."
"Thanks." The girl grabbed the floating bag and carried both of them into the main room, where Amy was sitting on the couch looking tired. "Ames, Shadow's here."
"I know, Vicky, I heard." The Brute landed on the couch next to her, placing Shadow in the middle of them both. The Vulpix was promptly snatched up by Amy, who held her close as well.
Shadow just chuckled, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "You two do realise we're gonna need spoons for the ice cream, right?"
"Mhm."
"Are… you gonna get any, or…?"
"Sure."
"In a minute." Shadow laughed again, shaking her head slightly.
"You two…" She sighed, then nudged Amy in the face. The girl looked at her, apparently a little confused, and she tilted her head. "How many hugs do you two need?"
"Probably a lot."
"We could do it a lot more effectively if you and Vicky were also hugging."
"Good idea." Vicky mumbled, pulled both of them over. Amy was now bright red.
The three of them sat there for a while, Shadow just waiting for the girls to finish up with their cuddle quota and stop being quite as mopey. To try and help it along, Shadow hummed out a tiny Heal Pulse/Heal Bell combo, lighting up the room a little with energy.
Amy mock-glared at her. "That's cheating."
"That's helping." Shadow corrected, sticking her tongue out. "That's what I'm here to do, right?"
"Cheating." Amy retorted, still grinning even so. "You're cheating."
"Look, I brought ice cream for this, and if you two sit here moping and cuddling the fluffy fox critter all day then we won't get to eat it."
"…True." Vicky nodded, moving Amy slightly and floating off the couch. "I'll go get spoons." The blonde floated off, and Shadow looked up at Amy.
"So, aside from eat ice cream, what do you want to do?"
"Dunno." Amy shrugged. "I honestly thought today was basically just gonna be us both moping, but with you about and ice cream. I didn't expect you to cheat like that."
Shadow snorted. "So I'm guessing a movie of some kind, laugh at people on PHO, then go for a walk or something?"
"That… could work." She agreed. "Means getting changed again into something better to go out in, though." Shadow glanced at the leggings and t-shirt she was wearing.
"I don't see a problem with that?" She then looked over at Vicky, who'd just floated through the doorway holding three spoons. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, this one slumping off one shoulder.
"It's about presentation. We're not supposed to look silly when going out, because it reflects on New Wave."
"And that matters why?" Shadow huffed. "Capes should get time off. Even open Capes like you guys. Just go out like that, if you want. Who's actually gonna care?"
"That's… a good point." Amy nodded slowly. "Hey, Vicky, some silly movie, PHO and then a walk sound ok to you?"
"Well, a walk might be alright for you, but I have no need for such exhaustive activities." Vicky replied, mock-haughtily. "I'll fly instead."
"That's fine too." Shadow agreed. "Hey, if we aim for lunch, maybe we could meet with Eon and Swarm and go to that Thai place I want to try."
"Are Swarm and Eon out?"
"No idea, Eon was still drowsing when I left, but if I asked they'd probably be willing to meet up for that and maybe a bit more of a wander around." Shadow shrugged, lifting her bag from the floor. She slipped her phone out of the side pocket before pulling the ice cream tub out and popping it open.
Vicky immediately stole it from her, digging in with the one spoon and handing another to Amy. Shadow meanwhile sent her team leader a text, then stole the third spoon and took her own scoop.
A reply came back quickly, just as Amy was slipping off the couch and over to the film case next to the TV, and Shadow glanced over it with a muffled laugh.
Swallowing the ice cream, she explained, "Eon and Swarm are already out, apparently. Eon was bored, called Swarm to see if she fancied going for a wander around the city in costume just for the fun of it, Swarm said yes. They're fine for meeting up for lunch if you are, they were apparently thinking about going to the Thai place but didn't want to go without me."
"Then that sounds like a plan." Vicky smiled widely. "I like that Thai place."
"The one downtown?" Amy asked. Shadow nodded. "Yeah, that place is great."
"I'll tell them we'll meet them there, then. About one sound good?" Both girls looked at the time.
"That gives us three hours. Plenty of time for a movie, some giggling at PHO, and still getting there even if we don't want to hurry." Amy easily agreed. "Now, How to Train your Dragon? It came out before Christmas, Shadow, so I don't know if you've seen it yet…"
"I haven't." She confirmed.
Twenty minutes later she was staring avidly at the TV, absently sharing the ice cream, eyes sparkling.
"There they are." Amy pointed, carefully adjusting her grip on Shadow as she did.
"I see them." Vicky slowly descended from the air, landing just beside the other two members of Team Inari with a smile. "Hi, Eon, Swarm."
"Hello, Glory Girl." Eon greeted, as she put Amy on her feet.
"You can call me Vicky, you know." She laughed, as Amy let Shadow down onto the ground as well. The Vulpix stumbled a little as she regained her balance, then trotted over to her team. "Besides, this isn't anything Cape-y, just all of us ending up for lunch in the same place." Eon laughed as well.
"I suppose so, Vicky." He looked down at his second. "Have fun, pix?"
"So much." She grinned widely in return, eyes sparkling again. "We watched a movie, it was so cool, Eon. You need to see it. So many dragons…"
"Is that the new one that came about before Christmas?" Swarm asked Amy, who nodded. "I haven't seen that yet either, actually. Never got around to it."
"You need to, Swarm." Shadow told her. Gently, Eon placed a paw over Shadow's mouth, making her look up at him irately.
"Maybe we should all go inside and get food before you start rambling about the dragon movie?" He suggested calmly, making her sag.
"Are they ok with you eating in costume here, Swarm?" Amy checked.
"Yeah, we asked just before you got here. Just leave the bugs outside." She nodded. "Which I've already done, so we can go in."
Their entry caused a bit of a stir with the people already in there- apparently while they'd noticed Eon enter and speak to the counter earlier, they hadn't been expecting the entirety of Team Inari plus some of New Wave to show up- the people currently on the counter were rather calm as the group of Capes placed their orders, found a table, and sat down.
Shadow stared at Swarm for a few moments, her tails waving, then nodded. "Check that for me, please, Amy?" The healer looked at the insect controller, frowning.
"That's the same illusion you used last time, isn't it?" She queried. "Just set up for only half of her face instead?"
"Yeah." Swarm nodded, the static-like effect moving with her. "We can't completely deny PHO of all the pictures of us being here, can we?" Vicky laughed.
"That's nice of you."
A few seconds later, Shadow again began rambling about the movie they'd just watched. This time, Eon let her, merely rolling his eyes at the others before settling back to listen. Her rant- there wasn't really much else to call it, given that no-one else got a word in edgeways the entire time- only came to a halt when the food arrived, mostly became Swarm jumped in to ask a question before she could get started up again.
"Say, Vicky, do you happen to know where Parian's set up her shop?" Swarm asked, making the Brute look at her in surprise.
"Ah, yeah. It's just downtown, I think?" Vicky replied. "It's pretty hard to miss, though, given that she tends to have little dolls scattered around the place, in the windows and stuff. Why, thinking about a costume redesign or something already?"
"Not really. I'm making a spare one, as a backup in case something goes really wrong and I need more time to repair it." She very carefully did not look down at her left arm, where her costume still held a few marks from the Leviathan attack. "But I was actually just curious about talking to her, plus I know Shadow wants to meet her."
"You said she uses giant teddies." Shadow snarked. "Of course I'd like to meet her. That sounds awesome."
"…Pix, how much of a sugar rush are you on, right now?" Eon asked suspiciously.
"Not much!"
"Kinda a lot of one." Amy overruled, one hand on Shadow's back.
"Oh, joy." Eon sighed. "I'm sure this'll be fun, won't it."
"I'm always fun."
"Depends on your definition of fun, pix."
The group all chuckled, breaking up the snarking match between the two, and the conversation drifted to other things.
Sarah glanced down at the phone in her hand, then the number sitting on the table next to her. Sighing, and knowing that she'd probably put it off for long enough by this point, given that it'd been nearly a week, and with the low amount of damage that'd been done during Leviathan there wasn't much of a chance that they'd still be doing damage control up there, she dialled the number.
"This is Miss Militia." The Cape on the other end of the phone answered.
"Hello, Miss Militia, this is Lady Photon." Sarah said. "I was hoping you'd have a moment to talk."
"Certainly, Lady Photon." Miss Militia sounded surprised. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I'm actually calling you on the behalf of Team Inari, today." She explained. "In the aftermath of the attack on Sunday, Amy had a rather curious idea about a possible use of Shadow's powers. The girl herself is uncertain as to whether or not it would work, but she's happy to test it, especially given the possibility for helping others. I offered to call you for her, since New Wave is a rather more established team than Inari is."
"Quite. What exactly was this idea of Panacea's about?"
"Amy thinks, and after hearing a description of how her power works from Shadow I have to agree, that it's possible that Shadow's healing might be able to remove Master effects."
There was a rather long silence on the other end of the line.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Photon, I fear I may have misheard." She came back faintly.
"It's possible that Shadow might be able to remove Master effects using her power." Sarah repeated, grinning widely.
"I see." There was another long silence. "If that were truly the case, that could have a drastic effect on a large number of things."
"Hence why Shadow is willing, and indeed rather eager, to find a way to test that out." She told her. "She clearly knows quite a lot about the state of the world, and she wants to help. I believe clearing out the containment zones was mentioned in passing to Amy more than once."
"What, in your opinion, would she want to test it on?"
"She's already admitted to being uncertain as to what sort of Master powers she can affect, given that her powers don't stop Swarm's from working, but she also thinks it's possible that that's just because she considers herself to be on the same team, thus stopping any of the possible negative side effects," Sarah reported, mentally thanking Vicky for that little titbit, "So access to another Master who controls minions, some kind of mental Master, and perhaps one that affects a person physically as well, like a puppeteer-style Master. That covers most of it, and would give quite a lot of information as well."
"Thank you for your call, Lady Photon." Miss Militia replied, after another moment of quiet. "I'll have to speak to the Director about this, and most likely we'll end up calling in a few favours from other PRT departments to try getting our hands on some people who're willing to help, but just having the possibility would be incredible." She paused again. "Would it be alright if I called you again once we have everything set up? We seem to be lacking in a contact number for Team Inari in general, let alone Shadow, and I don't think sending the Wards about in the hopes of them running into her would work very well."
"You could always send them a message on PHO." Sarah suggested flippantly. "But calling me back would be fine, thank you. I'll make sure the message gets passed to Shadow when it's all set up."
"I don't think PHO would be the best way of securely sending information." She laughed. "Thank you, Lady Photon. It seems rather likely that I'll be calling you back quite soon."
"I'll be waiting." She promised, before hanging up. Placing her phone in her pocket and the number in the safe, she left the room and headed for her family, feeling like there'd been a job well done.
Hannah stared at her phone for a few seconds, thinking hard, then dialled a new number.
"Hello, Director." She greeted, when it was picked up. "I've just been given some information that I feel you might find very interesting…"
"Morning, Eon." Taylor said, stifling a yawn. "What's up?"
"Shadow's gone to visit the Dallon's, so I was wandering if Swarm wanted to come out and patrol with me." The silver Ninetales replied, sounding similarly tired.
"I guess I could, sure." She glanced at the clock, then held the phone to her ear with her shoulder while she started sorting out her costume, now completely repaired from the damage it'd taken when her arm had been crushed. "Don't see why we should really bother, given that it's still technically Endbringer Truce and most the building work is getting along well enough to not need Parahuman assistance, but I'm game."
"To be honest, I was mostly thinking of it as a way to just relax without being stuck at the Den or your house." He admitted. "We always need to be careful at your house, and here at the Den there's nothing to do."
"Maybe we should see about getting internet installed." She joked, digging out her mask.
"Pretty sure that would mean bringing people to the Den, which I'm not fond of, but it could still happen." She could hear a shrug. "Either way, Shadow's going to be making new allies and having fun, so I figured a couple of routes around town just having a wander would be nice. Show the flag, have a look around at things, talk about some stuff that's alright for public- or just shove an audio illusion over us both and not care- and maybe say hello if any of the Wards or Protectorate happen to cross our paths."
"We should probably try and keep some kind of operational security, even if you can stop people from hearing us, Eon." Taylor laughed. "But that's fine. I'll meet you at the Den in… maybe an hour? I still need to eat, and I smell food downstairs."
"You go do that, I'll see you then, Swarm." The Ninetales hung up on her, leaving Taylor to find a bag to stuff her costume in, followed by a bunch of random other bits, a few squares of spider silk fabric just in case she got an opportunity to drag Eon to talk to someone, and her phone. Heading downstairs, she grinned at her father, who was sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes reading the paper.
"Hi, Dad." She waved, hurriedly pulling her own plate over and sliding into a seat.
"Good morning, Taylor." He smiled back. "I heard you talking to someone?"
"Eon." She filled in, pouring syrup over the pancakes and grabbing a knife and fork. "He was wondering if I fancied a wander around town today, just to talk and show the flag, so to speak. Shadow's over at the Dallon's, apparently, so it'd just be the two of us going about town. I'm gonna meet him at the Den and we'll just go from there." She looked over at him. "That's ok, right?"
"I'm glad you're spending time with your friends, Taylor." He assured her. "Even if it is running around in a costume terrifying and beating up muggers."
"There's not going to be many of the muggers around at least, most of them aren't quite stupid enough to be causing trouble during rebuilding." She paused. "Well, there's the Merchants, but I hear they've been having some awful difficulties recently."
"Difficulties involving bugs and strange invisible things vanishing their drugs and money, by any chance?" Danny asked, looking amused.
"Something like that, yeah." She chuckled in return. "It's apparently become something of an open secret that we like to target the Merchants. To everyone but the Merchants, I guess."
"I'll never be opposed to you dealing with the drug dealers, Taylor." Danny told her. "Now, eat those pancakes and go have some fun. I'll be keeping an eye on PHO at work to make sure you don't blow something up or whatever."
"We never do, Dad." Taylor blushed. "We're careful, neither Eon nor Shadow's fire burns anything normally because they're good at controlling it, and I haven't caused any trouble with my bugs yet."
"Having a healer on team probably helps, so remember that you don't have her today if you get into trouble."
"I won't."
"Hey Eon." Taylor waved, jogging into the clearing.
"Hi, Taylor." He smiled back, waving a tail. "Have a good night after yesterday?"
"Yeah, it was nice. Dad and I talked a lot, I think he might want to talk to you about that deal we made with Lung and what you think of it, but we can do that later." She swung the backpack from her shoulders and started digging for her costume, a shield of bugs growing around her as she did. "So, what's the plan for today? Just wander around looking at stuff and get some food?"
"Pretty much." Eon agreed. "If we find some trouble we'll end it, obviously, but otherwise just a walk about town and maybe a meal if there's any nice restaurants open."
"There should be. Enough of the Boardwalk managed to get left sort of alone, somehow, even despite that stupid tsunami, and even then there's plenty of places that aren't on the Boardwalk we could go to." She responded from behind the wall. "Anything in particular you want to try, or are we just going wherever we find first?"
"I'd say that Thai place, but I know Shadow wants to go there and wouldn't ever let us live it down if we went without her." He hummed. "Maybe we can try around that area and see if there's anything nice around it that isn't that?"
"Fine by me, just make sure you bring a lot of cash." She nodded. "Some of those places are expensive to eat at. Not as bad as on the Boardwalk, sure, but still not great by any means."
"Will do, Swarm." Eon made his way over to the Den, pulling the Wonder Bag over towards him while he opened the box with all of their money in it. Pulling a bundle out, he spent a moment looking at the amount the team had, before chuckling and turning away again. "So quickly back up to a budget like we're used to… and far easier than how it happened back home." With a half grin, half grimace at the memory of some of the horrible missions they'd done as a team for starting cash- or to make up the cash for Shadow's massive splurge on the recipe for Max Elixirs, even if it has been well used- Eon dumped the bundle into the Wonder Bag, plucked the Map from its place on the shelf, and tied his scarf around his neck with the Badge in pride of place.
He liked this scarf. Swarm had made it from spider silk, then carefully dyed it silver-white so it blended in quite well with his fur. He once again made a mental note to talk to the Kecleon twins that ran the market in town, as well as his Ariados team mate, to see if it would be possible to do something similar and if it would sell.
Then again, maybe it'd be better to approach… whoever it was that ran the tailors in town, he couldn't remember right now. He hadn't had much contact with them, but they'd probably know better than the Kecleon or him whether or not silk scarves like these would sell. Shadow would probably know, actually, he recalled that she'd gotten a bunch of scarves and bags made for her siblings as a birthday gift a little while before they'd left for Bet, though not made out of silk like this one.
Shaking his head, Eon pulled himself out of his thoughts- it'd be a while before he would be able to do that, after all, so it could wait- and wandered back out of the Den, seeing Swarm fully in costume, drawing her bugs back into the secret slots on her clothes while hiding the bag out of sight in a little storage area in the Den. That had been added a little while ago, when they'd finally decided it was too much hassle for Swarm to duck in, and far too much work to build the Den upwards more, so they'd added a hatch that dropped into a box for her stuff, and a pulley system that used her spiders to bring stuff back when it was needed.
"You've gotten really quick at that." He complemented, watching as more spiders closed up the shell backpack and vanished into her hair.
"It's definitely a lot easier than it was before, I'll give you that." She grinned. "There are days where I think I probably shouldn't have fitted this thing so well. But then I normally stop caring, because it looks cool."
"Cool is good, of course, but if you feel miserable, you could always remake it." Eon suggested, laughing when she grimaced.
"No thanks. I've already got this one, plus I'm most the way through the new one- I'd be further, but I had to do those repairs on this one, which put things behind a bit. Plus I lost a few spiders to Leviathan, though most my important ones are safe."
"That's good." Eon trotted over to her side, and after a moment where both of them mentally checked that they had everything, began moving out towards the Bay. "Have you spoken to Aquamarina since she went home?" He asked, as they got closer to the border of the Den's illusion field.
"A few times, yeah." She nodded. "We've talked once over the phone, then we decided that it'd probably be better to just communicate through PHO because that way we can just send messages to each other and get back that way. Plus it doesn't waste messages on the burner phones which we might need for an emergency or something."
"That's a good point. Anything interesting, or...?"
"Not too much, to be honest. We've just talked a bit about our different experiences in the city. LA's a lot better, despite the fact that the city's a lot bigger, because... well, Alexandria." She chuckled. "She apparently scares the crap out of criminals a lot more than most people, so it's mainly petty crime on the outskirts where Alexandria doesn't tend to show up."
"Meanwhile with us, there's stuff going on absolutely everywhere because there's not enough Protectorate to handle the entire city, the Wards aren't supposed to get into Cape fights if they can avoid it, and most the Independents are either neutral, get the hell out of this city as fast as they can, get snatched up by the PRT, or end up dead because of the other Capes." Eon sighed. "Y'know, there are days where I occasionally wonder if we should've arranged to join up with the PRT when we first arrived."
"Really?" Swarm glanced down, a raised eyebrow clear in her voice.
"Mhm. But then I realise it probably wouldn't have worked out well. We didn't think of playing up the kitsune angle and changing our story about a bit until after the chat with Tattletale and our trip to the library, and we'd probably have had to give some kind of story anyway; being all mysterious like we do as independents wouldn't be as much of an option. It's better that we're working separately to the PRT because of that." He shrugged. "I suppose part of the reason I wish we had is because I'm used to the Guild support."
"Pardon?"
"Back home, the Adventurer Guild- well, for us it was specifically the Wigglytuff Guild- works really closely with Rescue Teams in the area. For most Pokemon, the Guild is where you go to leave mission requests, because you know that they'll make sure the team taking it can handle it, and for us it's also a place to request support. If you're in a Dungeon and need some help, you can send a request back with the Badges and they'll send out a new Rescue Team to come help you out of the Dungeon you're stuck in. I don't know if the Wards and Protectorate do the same thing, of course, but even so having someone in the background on the console must be helpful for them."
"I suppose." Swarm nodded. "I'm glad you two didn't, though. We wouldn't have ended up working together if you had."
"Did you ever think of joining the Wards?"
"Only for a few moments, right at the beginning." She said, as they left the field. "But I decided not to. I was struggling in school with the bullies and everything, and jumping into another nest of teenage drama, this time with superpowers added, didn't seem like a good idea. That's also why I never told Dad about my powers until recently, I was pretty sure that he'd want me to join the Wards. I got lucky that I'd already established myself with you guys before I had to tell him."
"Fair enough." Eon hummed. "Going back to the original point, though, I can see why Aquamarina has it a lot easier than us here. I guess Houston and New York probably do too, given that they have the other two parts of the Triumvirate."
"I don't know much about Houston, but New York has its own bundle of issues. The Teeth, for one."
"Ah." Eon knew vaguely what the Teeth were, since it'd come up in the earlier bits of research they'd done on their new world, but it still took a moment to recall. "Led by the Butcher, right? The one that jumps to their killer."
"Yep."
"Yeah, I don't suppose having that group of nutcases around would make New York feel much safer." Eon couldn't help but grumble. "Heck, we're miles away from them and it makes me uneasy."
"There are an awful lot of gangs around, aren't there?" She reflected, as the pair began approaching the outskirts of the city. Most of this area was undamaged, ignoring the amount of mess left behind by little gang skirmishes, but that made it reasonably easy to slip into an alleyway and begin making their way towards the more populated areas for their patrol and wandering about.
"Far too many." Eon agreed. "Our world doesn't really have gangs, as such. There's sometimes groups of outlaws that band together for protection and to make crimes easier, but for the most part all outlaws work solo. It's fairly easy for Rescue Teams to deal with outlaws, even the newer ones. And there's not really that many criminals around even so, for some reason."
"Your world just seems better, to be honest." Swarm admitted, lowering her voice. "If it weren't for Dad- and the whole 'no memories' thing that you have- I'd probably take any offer to come to you guys."
The Ninetales froze, staring up at her.
"Seriously?" He managed, after getting his voice to work. It was still pretty hoarse, though, and he cleared his throat before continuing, "But… why?"
"Better than Bet." She said easily. "No Endbringers to worry about every three months, no real need to worry about suddenly being attacked by criminals, no secret identity needed, and the chance to run about in weird magical dungeons doing stuff for people or just finding things. Plus no bullies."
"I suppose no bullies would be a good reason." He allowed. "But there's bound to be more positives to Bet than you're saying."
"If there are, they're escaping me."
After a moment of thought, Eon nodded. She's not wrong… there really doesn't seem like much good here. "Fair enough, I suppose." He sighed, starting walking again. The taller girl followed after him as they ducked into an alleyway, both of them silently agreeing to move off of any subjects that might let secrets out.
"You said Shadow'd gone to the Dallon's?" Swarm asked, after a few moments.
"Yeah. Glory Girl called this morning, woke both of us up. I didn't listen to the call, but she sounded kinda upset. Shadow went out with a lot of money and a bag, muttering something about shopping."
"I see." Eon got the feeling Swarm knew more about this than she was saying, but if Shadow hadn't mentioned it to him before, he wouldn't ask.
It wasn't his to know, it seemed.
"How come you don't call her Vicky?"
"She never said I could."
"That… feels like a weird distinction to make."
"I make the same distinction between your two identities, too. And if anyone else gave me their names, I'd do the same there. It feels… right, I guess."
"Even still, it wasn't Glory Girl who called this morning, it was Vicky. She wasn't calling on Cape business, and she probably wasn't in costume if she was calling from her home, so by your logic it was Vicky calling."
"…You make a good point."
The two of them continued chatting all the way into town, easily ignoring the cameras that were pointed at them once they got onto the main streets.
Shadow stared upwards at the door, annoyed.
"Dang humans being so much taller than me…" She grumped. "Lessee…" Looking around, she picked up a small rock with her Extrasensory and lifted it to the level of the doorbell, using it to push the button for her. The faint noise of the bell ringing inside made her perk up her ears, and a few minutes later a tall man was at the door, looking vaguely familiar though different to when he was in costume. "Hiya!"
"Oh. Hello, Shadow." Mark Dallon greeted, looking down at her. "I take it you're here to see Vicky and Amy?"
"Yup. Vicky called earlier, so I came, like I said I would." She nodded, as the giant man stepped out of the doorway to let her pass. She carefully shifted the bag off her back, holding it in the air next to her, then squeaked as she suddenly joined it.
"Hi, Shadow." Vicky mumbled, sounding miserable.
"Hey, Vicky." She grinned, once she'd gotten over her shock. "I brought ice cream."
"Thanks." The girl grabbed the floating bag and carried both of them into the main room, where Amy was sitting on the couch looking tired. "Ames, Shadow's here."
"I know, Vicky, I heard." The Brute landed on the couch next to her, placing Shadow in the middle of them both. The Vulpix was promptly snatched up by Amy, who held her close as well.
Shadow just chuckled, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "You two do realise we're gonna need spoons for the ice cream, right?"
"Mhm."
"Are… you gonna get any, or…?"
"Sure."
"In a minute." Shadow laughed again, shaking her head slightly.
"You two…" She sighed, then nudged Amy in the face. The girl looked at her, apparently a little confused, and she tilted her head. "How many hugs do you two need?"
"Probably a lot."
"We could do it a lot more effectively if you and Vicky were also hugging."
"Good idea." Vicky mumbled, pulled both of them over. Amy was now bright red.
The three of them sat there for a while, Shadow just waiting for the girls to finish up with their cuddle quota and stop being quite as mopey. To try and help it along, Shadow hummed out a tiny Heal Pulse/Heal Bell combo, lighting up the room a little with energy.
Amy mock-glared at her. "That's cheating."
"That's helping." Shadow corrected, sticking her tongue out. "That's what I'm here to do, right?"
"Cheating." Amy retorted, still grinning even so. "You're cheating."
"Look, I brought ice cream for this, and if you two sit here moping and cuddling the fluffy fox critter all day then we won't get to eat it."
"…True." Vicky nodded, moving Amy slightly and floating off the couch. "I'll go get spoons." The blonde floated off, and Shadow looked up at Amy.
"So, aside from eat ice cream, what do you want to do?"
"Dunno." Amy shrugged. "I honestly thought today was basically just gonna be us both moping, but with you about and ice cream. I didn't expect you to cheat like that."
Shadow snorted. "So I'm guessing a movie of some kind, laugh at people on PHO, then go for a walk or something?"
"That… could work." She agreed. "Means getting changed again into something better to go out in, though." Shadow glanced at the leggings and t-shirt she was wearing.
"I don't see a problem with that?" She then looked over at Vicky, who'd just floated through the doorway holding three spoons. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, this one slumping off one shoulder.
"It's about presentation. We're not supposed to look silly when going out, because it reflects on New Wave."
"And that matters why?" Shadow huffed. "Capes should get time off. Even open Capes like you guys. Just go out like that, if you want. Who's actually gonna care?"
"That's… a good point." Amy nodded slowly. "Hey, Vicky, some silly movie, PHO and then a walk sound ok to you?"
"Well, a walk might be alright for you, but I have no need for such exhaustive activities." Vicky replied, mock-haughtily. "I'll fly instead."
"That's fine too." Shadow agreed. "Hey, if we aim for lunch, maybe we could meet with Eon and Swarm and go to that Thai place I want to try."
"Are Swarm and Eon out?"
"No idea, Eon was still drowsing when I left, but if I asked they'd probably be willing to meet up for that and maybe a bit more of a wander around." Shadow shrugged, lifting her bag from the floor. She slipped her phone out of the side pocket before pulling the ice cream tub out and popping it open.
Vicky immediately stole it from her, digging in with the one spoon and handing another to Amy. Shadow meanwhile sent her team leader a text, then stole the third spoon and took her own scoop.
A reply came back quickly, just as Amy was slipping off the couch and over to the film case next to the TV, and Shadow glanced over it with a muffled laugh.
Swallowing the ice cream, she explained, "Eon and Swarm are already out, apparently. Eon was bored, called Swarm to see if she fancied going for a wander around the city in costume just for the fun of it, Swarm said yes. They're fine for meeting up for lunch if you are, they were apparently thinking about going to the Thai place but didn't want to go without me."
"Then that sounds like a plan." Vicky smiled widely. "I like that Thai place."
"The one downtown?" Amy asked. Shadow nodded. "Yeah, that place is great."
"I'll tell them we'll meet them there, then. About one sound good?" Both girls looked at the time.
"That gives us three hours. Plenty of time for a movie, some giggling at PHO, and still getting there even if we don't want to hurry." Amy easily agreed. "Now, How to Train your Dragon? It came out before Christmas, Shadow, so I don't know if you've seen it yet…"
"I haven't." She confirmed.
Twenty minutes later she was staring avidly at the TV, absently sharing the ice cream, eyes sparkling.
"There they are." Amy pointed, carefully adjusting her grip on Shadow as she did.
"I see them." Vicky slowly descended from the air, landing just beside the other two members of Team Inari with a smile. "Hi, Eon, Swarm."
"Hello, Glory Girl." Eon greeted, as she put Amy on her feet.
"You can call me Vicky, you know." She laughed, as Amy let Shadow down onto the ground as well. The Vulpix stumbled a little as she regained her balance, then trotted over to her team. "Besides, this isn't anything Cape-y, just all of us ending up for lunch in the same place." Eon laughed as well.
"I suppose so, Vicky." He looked down at his second. "Have fun, pix?"
"So much." She grinned widely in return, eyes sparkling again. "We watched a movie, it was so cool, Eon. You need to see it. So many dragons…"
"Is that the new one that came about before Christmas?" Swarm asked Amy, who nodded. "I haven't seen that yet either, actually. Never got around to it."
"You need to, Swarm." Shadow told her. Gently, Eon placed a paw over Shadow's mouth, making her look up at him irately.
"Maybe we should all go inside and get food before you start rambling about the dragon movie?" He suggested calmly, making her sag.
"Are they ok with you eating in costume here, Swarm?" Amy checked.
"Yeah, we asked just before you got here. Just leave the bugs outside." She nodded. "Which I've already done, so we can go in."
Their entry caused a bit of a stir with the people already in there- apparently while they'd noticed Eon enter and speak to the counter earlier, they hadn't been expecting the entirety of Team Inari plus some of New Wave to show up- the people currently on the counter were rather calm as the group of Capes placed their orders, found a table, and sat down.
Shadow stared at Swarm for a few moments, her tails waving, then nodded. "Check that for me, please, Amy?" The healer looked at the insect controller, frowning.
"That's the same illusion you used last time, isn't it?" She queried. "Just set up for only half of her face instead?"
"Yeah." Swarm nodded, the static-like effect moving with her. "We can't completely deny PHO of all the pictures of us being here, can we?" Vicky laughed.
"That's nice of you."
A few seconds later, Shadow again began rambling about the movie they'd just watched. This time, Eon let her, merely rolling his eyes at the others before settling back to listen. Her rant- there wasn't really much else to call it, given that no-one else got a word in edgeways the entire time- only came to a halt when the food arrived, mostly became Swarm jumped in to ask a question before she could get started up again.
"Say, Vicky, do you happen to know where Parian's set up her shop?" Swarm asked, making the Brute look at her in surprise.
"Ah, yeah. It's just downtown, I think?" Vicky replied. "It's pretty hard to miss, though, given that she tends to have little dolls scattered around the place, in the windows and stuff. Why, thinking about a costume redesign or something already?"
"Not really. I'm making a spare one, as a backup in case something goes really wrong and I need more time to repair it." She very carefully did not look down at her left arm, where her costume still held a few marks from the Leviathan attack. "But I was actually just curious about talking to her, plus I know Shadow wants to meet her."
"You said she uses giant teddies." Shadow snarked. "Of course I'd like to meet her. That sounds awesome."
"…Pix, how much of a sugar rush are you on, right now?" Eon asked suspiciously.
"Not much!"
"Kinda a lot of one." Amy overruled, one hand on Shadow's back.
"Oh, joy." Eon sighed. "I'm sure this'll be fun, won't it."
"I'm always fun."
"Depends on your definition of fun, pix."
The group all chuckled, breaking up the snarking match between the two, and the conversation drifted to other things.
Sarah glanced down at the phone in her hand, then the number sitting on the table next to her. Sighing, and knowing that she'd probably put it off for long enough by this point, given that it'd been nearly a week, and with the low amount of damage that'd been done during Leviathan there wasn't much of a chance that they'd still be doing damage control up there, she dialled the number.
"This is Miss Militia." The Cape on the other end of the phone answered.
"Hello, Miss Militia, this is Lady Photon." Sarah said. "I was hoping you'd have a moment to talk."
"Certainly, Lady Photon." Miss Militia sounded surprised. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I'm actually calling you on the behalf of Team Inari, today." She explained. "In the aftermath of the attack on Sunday, Amy had a rather curious idea about a possible use of Shadow's powers. The girl herself is uncertain as to whether or not it would work, but she's happy to test it, especially given the possibility for helping others. I offered to call you for her, since New Wave is a rather more established team than Inari is."
"Quite. What exactly was this idea of Panacea's about?"
"Amy thinks, and after hearing a description of how her power works from Shadow I have to agree, that it's possible that Shadow's healing might be able to remove Master effects."
There was a rather long silence on the other end of the line.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Photon, I fear I may have misheard." She came back faintly.
"It's possible that Shadow might be able to remove Master effects using her power." Sarah repeated, grinning widely.
"I see." There was another long silence. "If that were truly the case, that could have a drastic effect on a large number of things."
"Hence why Shadow is willing, and indeed rather eager, to find a way to test that out." She told her. "She clearly knows quite a lot about the state of the world, and she wants to help. I believe clearing out the containment zones was mentioned in passing to Amy more than once."
"What, in your opinion, would she want to test it on?"
"She's already admitted to being uncertain as to what sort of Master powers she can affect, given that her powers don't stop Swarm's from working, but she also thinks it's possible that that's just because she considers herself to be on the same team, thus stopping any of the possible negative side effects," Sarah reported, mentally thanking Vicky for that little titbit, "So access to another Master who controls minions, some kind of mental Master, and perhaps one that affects a person physically as well, like a puppeteer-style Master. That covers most of it, and would give quite a lot of information as well."
"Thank you for your call, Lady Photon." Miss Militia replied, after another moment of quiet. "I'll have to speak to the Director about this, and most likely we'll end up calling in a few favours from other PRT departments to try getting our hands on some people who're willing to help, but just having the possibility would be incredible." She paused again. "Would it be alright if I called you again once we have everything set up? We seem to be lacking in a contact number for Team Inari in general, let alone Shadow, and I don't think sending the Wards about in the hopes of them running into her would work very well."
"You could always send them a message on PHO." Sarah suggested flippantly. "But calling me back would be fine, thank you. I'll make sure the message gets passed to Shadow when it's all set up."
"I don't think PHO would be the best way of securely sending information." She laughed. "Thank you, Lady Photon. It seems rather likely that I'll be calling you back quite soon."
"I'll be waiting." She promised, before hanging up. Placing her phone in her pocket and the number in the safe, she left the room and headed for her family, feeling like there'd been a job well done.
Hannah stared at her phone for a few seconds, thinking hard, then dialled a new number.
"Hello, Director." She greeted, when it was picked up. "I've just been given some information that I feel you might find very interesting…"
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