- Location
- Australia
Huh. It's almost as though the whole idea was doomed to failure from the start.
Who'd'a thunk?
Who'd'a thunk?
- Pronouns
- She/They
scribbles furiously So you're saying not to build permanent structures on a beach as the tide's coming in? Interesting...
Part Fourteen: Adding Fuel to the Fire
- Location
- Australia
Earning Her Stripes
Part Fourteen: Adding Fuel to the Fire
[A/N 1: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
[A/N 2: I was going to leave this chapter for next month, but I decided to write it now, to cover points that have been raised by some readers.]
Sunday, September 12, 2010
11:51 AM
Firebird
"So you left it in the park like we arranged, right?" Emma kept her tone light as she strolled along the sidewalk with Madison. She'd learned a long time ago that if she smiled and acted as though she were saying nothing of consequence, people ignored the actual content of her words.
"Yeah, the one just up ahead." Madison gestured with a nod. "I built a basic camouflage kit into it. It takes note of the general area and disguises itself as whatever best suits the surroundings, according to the algorithm."
"Neat." Emma grinned. "I contacted Sophia and told her to meet us there. What's the bet she shows up in costume?"
Madison shook her head. "No bet. She loves being Stalker more than anything." She paused. "Well, no. She loves winning more than anything. But for her, being Stalker and kicking ass is the ultimate win condition."
"You might have something there." Emma wrinkled her nose as she considered the idea. "Maybe—"
Before she could expand on her thoughts any further, the burner phone she'd acquired for use as Firebird rang. Pulling it from its pouch, she saw the name on the caller ID display and rolled her eyes. "Hey, Soph," she said. "There already?"
"Well, duh," Sophia replied. "Waiting for you slowpokes to show up. Crime's not gonna kick itself in the teeth, you know."
"We'll get there when we get there," Emma told her. "Just a couple of minutes away. Many people in the park?"
"A few." Sophia paused. "I thought Mads was leaving her suit here. If we have to go all the way back to her place, I swear—"
"Chill," Emma said, cutting her off. "She says it's there."
There was another pause. "Well, I can't see the fuckin' thing."
Emma turned to Madison. "She says she can't see it."
"Tell her she's blind." The petite girl's tone was as deadpan as her expression.
"I fuckin' heard that!" Sophia sounded actually pissed at that.
Not wanting to be part of a three-way argument, Emma hastily said, "See you when we get there," and ended the call. As she shoved the phone back into her pocket, she gave Madison a half-disbelieving glare. "What the fuck? You know she's already pissed off in general. Why are you poking her like that?"
Madison shrugged. "I'm tired of walking on eggshells every time she decides to get a wild hair up her ass about nothing at all. And we both know what it's ultimately about. Maybe I just want to confront her with it, and make her see how stupid she's being."
"I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it," Emma said.
"Well, what is the right way?"
Emma didn't know, not for sure. But she knew what wouldn't work. "Don't hit her with it head-on. If she gets the chance to dig her heels in, she will." Somewhere at the back of her mind, she was certain that she would've reacted the same way herself if confronted with an inconvenient truth, before she'd had her recent epiphany.
"So what, I sneak up on her with it?" asked Madison sarcastically. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"Not sure." Emma considered what would work on her, then tried to imagine the same approach when applied to Sophia. As she and Madison had already discussed, Sophia's thought processes weren't the most rational these days, especially when it came to doubling down on Taylor's 'punishment' for … well, apparently for just being Taylor. "Maybe … pose a hypothetical and when she agrees to one thing, show her how Taylor's a parallel case?"
Madison tilted her head to give Emma a skeptical glance. "You have met Sophia, right? If she's in an argumentative mood, she'll deny that water's wet and the sky is blue. Just so she can be right."
Emma sighed. Madison wasn't wrong. "Just don't go at her head-on. That'll make her react the worst."
"Not giving me a huge number of options to work with, here. Just saying."
They turned the corner into the park and Emma hitched the backpack on her shoulder, her eyes scanning the trees and landscaping for two things. First; their third teammate. Second; inconvenient witnesses.
"Found her," she murmured, barely moving her lips.
"Okay, where?" asked Madison, equally quietly.
"In that … not sure what that tree is … third to the right, the one with the electrical junction box under it." Emma knew damn well that before she'd taken the vial, her eyes would never have picked out the shadowy form perched in the tree. Now, it was like her brain delighted in pointing out such things to her.
"Ah. Got it." Madison huffed a chuckle; Emma wasn't sure why. "Let's go say hi."
Emma glanced from side to side again. As Sophia had mentioned, there weren't many people in the park. If she stood on that side of the tree Sophia was lurking in, she could effect a quick change before people noticed. It was as good a plan as any. "So where's your suit?"
"You'll see." Madison chuckled again.
They converged under the tree; Emma moved around until she was covered from all avenues of observation, then opened her backpack and took out her helmet. Once that was on, she wasted no time in removing her outer clothing, which of course concealed her costume, and attaching the accoutrements that made her into Firebird. She'd practiced enough in the privacy of her room that she could manage it in under thirty seconds now.
There was a rustle of leaves, then Sophia dropped down on top of the junction box. "Took your own sweet time."
"Dad dropped me off at Emma's." Madison's tone was matter of fact. "We walked."
Sophia blew a raspberry. "And left your suit at home, right? So now we gotta backtrack."
"No." Madison tilted her head as if querying Sophia's statement. "What makes you think I left it at home?"
"Well, you're for sure not wearing it, and I can't see it anywhere around here," Sophia averred. "Unless you sank it in the lake. Which if you did that, I'm not helping you get it out."
Madison sighed and placed her hand on the side of the electrical junction box. "Activate."
"The fuck?" Sophia leaped sideways as the 'junction box' shed its holographic camouflage and began to unfold into the Blockade Mark 2 armour. "How the hell did you—?"
Emma was almost as surprised, but the hints Madison had dropped had prepared her. "Nice one. That auto-camouflage is really paying off."
Madison climbed into the armour and then set it to assuming its full form. "I thought so."
"Ha ha, very funny." Sophia stalked up to them. "Got me good. Can we fuckin' go on patrol, already?"
"Absolutely," Emma agreed. "I was thinking—"
For the second time in ten minutes, her burner phone rang. This time had her puzzled; she didn't think Madison would be prank-calling her from inside the armour, and Sophia was right there. Frowning, she pulled the phone from its pouch.
When she saw the name on the caller ID, her confusion increased. Why's Armsmaster calling me?
"Hello?" she said, after swiping to answer and putting it on speaker.
"Hello. I presume I'm talking to Firebird?" It was definitely Armsmaster's voice. Had there been a break in the Winslow case?
"That's me," she confirmed. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes. There is. It has to do with Shadow Stalker. Are you able to get in contact with her?"
She glanced at Sophia. "Yes. What's the problem?"
At the same time, Sophia's eyes opened wide behind the hockey mask and she made frantic negatory gestures. Emma realised why, a moment later. Shit, the arrows.
She still wasn't sure what to do about that. Sophia had broken the law, possibly murdered people with those arrows. But at that time, Emma hadn't known. If I'd known, would I have cared? She suspected not. The trauma from her encounter in the alley with the ABB had still been sharp in her mind at the time.
Intellectually, she knew, Sophia should turn herself in and accept whatever punishment was coming to her for that. With the stories Emma had heard passed around between her father and his work colleagues, if Sophia went in front of a vigilante-friendly judge, she'd only get a slap on the wrist, maybe some juvey time, and be out on the streets again in a few months. But this wasn't an intellectual exercise anymore. This was real life. And Sophia Hess never surrendered for any reason.
"I did a deeper investigation into the wreckage of Winslow after you left," Armsmaster stated. "I found something quite concerning." Emma glanced at Sophia. Here it came. "Winslow is an older building—was an older building—and standards were quite lax when it was constructed. I found worrying amounts of asbestos floating in particulate form in the general vicinity. It's now being misted down, preparatory to either being encased in concrete or dug all the way out, but Shadow Stalker went into the wreckage in her shadow form. There's a strong chance that she accumulated some particulates in her body, which could cause adverse reactions in the future. I strongly suggest that she seek a medical prognosis, or book some time with Panacea, as soon as she is able."
Wait, what? "Asbestos?" Emma had to repeat the word to make sure of it. "Are you certain?" This wasn't about the arrows at all?
"One hundred percent," he replied. "Kindly pass the word on to Shadow Stalker as soon as possible, if you can."
"I'll make certain to do that," she confirmed. "Thanks for letting us know."
"You're welcome." He ended the call.
"Asbestos?" Madison's tone was bemused. "I didn't even think of that. Huh."
"Ass-bullshit, if you ask me," Sophia retorted. "I feel fine."
"No, no." Emma held up her hand in a 'stop' gesture. "The more I think about it, the more likely it seems there was asbestos in that building. Getting it into your lungs, getting it into your everything, is a really, really bad thing. Asbestos is basically a rock, and the particles are sharp and jagged, so if you get it into your lungs, it'll cause scarring and shortness of breath. That's literally what they call asbestosis."
Sophia shook her head. "I feel fine. There's nothing to worry about."
Jesus Christ, it's like talking to a brick wall. Emma appreciated Sophia's hard-charging attitude when they were fighting bad guys, but her utter lack of give at any other time was really starting to grate. "No, it can get serious. It might take years to kick in, but you could end up wheezing like a ten-packs-a-day person."
"Years? I'm good then." Sophia waved a hand dismissively. "When the time comes, I'll get Panacea or someone to fix the scarring, and I'll be fine."
"Asbestosis isn't the only thing that can happen." It was time for one last try. "Did you know you can also get cancer from it?" She couldn't remember the word exactly, but it started with 'metho', and that was as far as she could get.
Sophia snorted. "In your dreams, maybe."
"Fuck, will you take this seriously?" Emma wanted to run her hands through her hair. Or punch Sophia. One of the two. "Most of your vital organs have a protective layer of cells over them. I can't remember what they're called, but if asbestos gets into those, it can cause them to go cancerous. It's sneaky as fuck."
"And if anyone could get asbestos all the way into those cells, it's you," Madison added helpfully.
"No. No, no, no." Sophia shook her head. "I can't get cancer that way. I go through old buildings all the time. They've gotta have asbestos all over, and mold and shit. I've never had any problems before."
"Have you ever gone through a collapsed older building, where the asbestos is floating around as particulates instead of in solid form, and have you ever gone semi-solid in those buildings to grab stuff, like arrows?" Emma raised her eyebrows behind her visor.
From the look Sophia gave her, the answer was 'no'. Unfortunately, the attitude was also 'no'. "Where are you getting all this shit from, anyway? Last I heard, you were a kick-ass type, not a medic type."
"You pick up stuff," Emma said. "I used to spend a lot of time sitting around with Taylor, listening to the Dockworkers talk about work hazards. Her dad was very vocal about it."
"Well, that explains it." Sophia rolled her eyes. "He's a Hebert, so he's full of shit. That was all probably just him making up ways for the union to gouge more money out of anyone they work for. C'mon, we've wasted enough time. Let's go find some asses to kick."
"But—" Emma cut herself off as Sophia turned away. This discussion was over, but maybe she could raise it again at another time. It was possible that Madison had a point; if they could snap Sophia out of her irrational hatred for Taylor, perhaps they could make her see reason on this aspect as well.
Sophia was their friend. It was their duty to try.
In the Car
12:15 PM
Taylor
"I can't believe Mr Sacke agreed to see us on a Sunday," Taylor observed as they made their way through weekend traffic toward the offices of GS&T. "I can't even believe they're open on a Sunday."
"Quite a few lawyers are," Danny said. "And he agreed to see us on short notice because what's happened to Winslow is likely to affect the case in some way."
Taylor blinked, the realisation stealing over her that maybe she might have gone a little too far. "Shit. Have I just lost us the case?"
He shook his head. "I doubt it. Mainly because if that was the case, he could've told us over the phone instead of getting us to come all the way into his office to give us the bad news. With any luck, it just means we have to readjust some aspects of the case. After all, they still fell down on the job in a major fashion. The presence or absence of an actual school building doesn't actually change that."
"Right." She essayed a weak chuckle. "So, I guess it's a good thing I didn't do it in the middle of the school day. Because it's hard to sue someone who's dead."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." He cleared his throat. "But getting back to the subject of you destroying the school, and sneaking out in general …" he heaved a deep sigh. "We do need to talk about that. You were incredibly irresponsible, and I'm not sure you understand just how much trouble you could be in right now if things had gone differently."
She stared at him. Up until this point, he'd been almost light-hearted about the whole thing. Now, it seemed, the other shoe was dropping. "Umm … I thought you weren't angry?"
"Oh, I was." He kept his eyes on the road, and the tone of his voice never changed, but the steering wheel creaked under his grip. "But last night, when I first saw you, the main thing I felt was relief. Relief that you were alive, relief that you'd come back safely, relief that you'd come back at all. Before that point, when I was tearing the house apart and you weren't there, it was like I'd lost Anne-Rose all over again."
Taylor felt a lump growing in her throat. She recalled, back in the darkest times, seeing her father wander aimlessly from room to room. At the time, she hadn't known what he was doing, but now she did. He was looking for Mom.
"I'm sorry, I—"
"You didn't know." His voice was rough. "Yeah, I get it. But when I saw you come in through the window, it was like you'd been dead and you were alive again, and all I could think for a moment was thank you, God." He paused for a moment, to pull out and pass another car. "But after that moment, the anger came in. I wanted to yell at you so badly, but two things stopped me."
"Two things?" She asked it quietly.
"Yeah. First, we just got back in touch with each other. We are making progress. We're talking, you're smiling, and we are on track to taking Winslow to the cleaners." He heaved a deep sigh, hands still gripping the wheel. "I was terrified of turning that around, that you'd pull all the way back into your shell again."
"Oh. Wow." Taylor hadn't considered it that way before. The fact that her father thought getting a smile out of her was important progress … how far down did I go?
"Mm-hmm." He slowed for a stop at the lights. "And then there's your powers. Once you explained those to me, I knew I had to be even more careful not to start an argument that would leave you angry and resentful."
"What?" She stared at him. "I'd never hurt you!"
He blinked in confusion. "What? No, I didn't mean that. I just … well, we were both getting tired, and that's when tempers are most likely to fray. If you got upset and decided to storm out, there's no way in hell I could stop you. You could literally walk out through the wall. I didn't want you leaving the discussion angry. So I held it in, conceded points where it didn't matter anymore, and guilted you where it did. You're more important to me than Winslow."
"Oh." This was a new side to her father. She'd heard of his negotiating prowess before, on behalf of the Dockworkers, but it was the first time he'd used it on her. "And what was the second thing?"
He sighed, and looked tired all of a sudden. "My father had a temper, too. He used to yell at me and Mom over the most trivial things. I felt the rough side of his hand more than once, growing up. When you were born, I swore that I'd never yell at you like that, or strike you. That's why I always left the discipline to your mother."
She'd heard about her grandfather's temper, of course, but she hadn't known the other bit. "Okay, but just because I didn't go to bed angry, that doesn't mean that …" Frowning, she tried to untangle the rest of the sentence in her head. "I mean, did you?"
Wordlessly, he lifted his hand off the wheel and showed her his palm. Four tiny bruises marred his skin, right where his nails would've been digging in. "I was furious. But there's a time to push for concessions, and a time to give ground. You were still there in the morning, so I figure I made the right call."
Taylor bit her lip. Her father had spent the night in seething anger, and it was all her fault. "I'll … I'll, uh, try to do better. And I really do promise to tell you if I'm going to go and do superhero stuff."
"And I appreciate it," he said. His smile, though a little pained, was genuine. "I'm likely to stumble a bit, too. I'm not used to being the dad of a superhero."
Wow, she thought as he found a parking spot and pulled over. I've wrecked a car and a school, and he's still got faith in me to be a hero. It put a warm feeling in her chest that refused to go away.
The Offices of GS&T, Attorneys at Law
Danny
The front page of the paper showed an impressive heap of rubble, being sprayed down by fire department trucks, under the caption SCHOOL'S OUT. In the foreground was the partial sign, reading SLOW HIGH. Mr Sacke spread his hands, smoothing it down, then looked up at Danny and Taylor.
"An interesting development," he noted. "It does make certain aspects of our case more complicated, but I can't see a problem with pushing through the individual charges of negligence against all staff members who stood by and allowed the bullying to take place. The school officials can of course claim that any and all paperwork pertaining to this has been destroyed, but that's merely a speedbump. You have your evidence and your testimony, and the fact that someone appears to have demolished the school in one night can be used to prove that you are not the only ones who have a problem with it."
Danny cleared his throat. Despite his confident statements to Taylor earlier, it was a relief to hear his thoughts borne out. "So, we'll be going ahead as planned?"
"Mostly, yes," agreed Mr Sacke. "There will inevitably be a police investigation to determine whether you had any hand in the demolition, being people with a stated grudge against the school, but I'm certain that it will only be a formality." He paused, his tone becoming more serious. "Unless of course you did have a part in it, in which case the lawsuit will likely disappear without trace."
"Mr Sacke," Danny said firmly. "While I have some knowledge of handling explosives, I can categorically state that I had nothing to do with it. In fact, I was in bed when the school was demolished. It woke me up. As for Taylor, she's never been trained in their use. I doubt she'd know C-4 from blasting jelly."
Taylor shrugged. "It's true. I don't. Anyway, I heard the bangs too. Me and Dad went and had cocoa in the kitchen until we'd settled down, then we went back to bed."
"Good, good." Mr Sacke smiled. "I'll keep you apprised of the situation, then." Standing, he offered his hand. Danny and then Taylor shook it.
They were careful to not even look at each other until his office door had closed behind them.
A Rooftop in Downtown
Firebird
"Blockade to Firebird, I think I've just spotted someone we both know." Madison's voice came over the radio earpiece quite clearly.
Emma was perching up high, keeping an eye out for pickpockets, purse snatchers and straight-up muggers, when the call came through. Sophia was across the street and down a ways, doing the same thing. Down at street level, Madison in the Blockade suit trod her way along the pavement, careful not to step on children and small pets.
"Copy that, Blockade," Emma replied crisply, wondering who she was talking about. "Give me a direction?"
"Sure. From where you are now … call it ten o'clock. Just coming out of a big office building, black shiny reflective windows. She's with a tall skinny guy. Her dad?"
"Wait one." From the description, Emma was almost certain she knew who Madison was referring to. Reaching down to her utility belt, she retrieved a small pair of binoculars. It was useless to try to get Madison to make a pair that didn't need both hands to use, so she was going with a basic commercial set for the moment.
Given the direction and the building, she flipped up her visor and held the binoculars to her eyes, panning over the people emerging from the building. This was where the lack of trade on a Sunday paid off; it only took her a few seconds to fix on the people Madison had spotted with her extra elevation.
"Wait." That was Sophia. "You're not telling me she's here? Right now?"
"Sure enough." Emma observed the pair of them through the binoculars a moment longer. Taylor was striding out, swinging her arms, not closing in on herself and shuffling along like Emma was used to seeing her do. That I made her do. The thought was intrusive, and she mentally waved it away. Yes, I know I did bad things. I've stopped doing them. I'm not that person anymore.
To give herself something else to think about, she turned her focus to Danny. It had been longer since she'd seen him; there were new wrinkles in his forehead, but he also seemed upbeat. She wondered who he'd been to see in that building.
"Well, she seems happy." Madison sounded like she was paralleling Emma's earlier line of thought. Her tone sounded relieved, which Emma could understand.
If Taylor was happy now, all they had to do to make things better was … nothing. Stepping beyond their self-realised awareness to act on the epiphany promised to be messy. Right now, they were doing good simply by not harming Taylor, and that was a good thing. Wasn't it?
"What? No." That was Sophia. "They can't … no." She sounded frustrated and angry. Emma began to wonder if they shouldn't have had the intervention before going on patrol.
"Shadow Stalker, this is an unsecure channel." Madison's voice was crisp and no-nonsense.
"Copy." It was a growl.
"Hey." For the first time, Madison sounded insecure. "I think … yeah, she just spotted me. Shit—!"
Emma froze as the slender figure darted onto the road. A horn blared and tyres screeched … far too late.
Taylor
It was looking like a good day, after all. Sure, she was grounded for the next two weeks, but she hadn't totally messed things up by breaking Winslow like she had. Best of all, with the Federal relief money coming into the city—there was still a long way to go until they cleared the Boat Graveyard, but at least they were working on it—there would be enough for the surrounding schools to take on the overflow of teachers and staff from Winslow. The ones that the lawsuit didn't hammer into the ground, of course.
"So, home again?" she asked.
"Home again," he confirmed. "You worded your answer just right in there. Very sneaky. I'm thinking I might have to start being more careful about trusting what you say."
"Da-ad!" she protested laughingly, as he grinned at her. "I'm totally up front and transparent. No secrets at all, that's me."
"Mm-hmm." He gave her a very skeptical look. "I'll believe it when I see it."
"Pfft." She raised her nose in the air and affected disdain. "You don't—" And then she saw, on the other side of the street, the huge bulky form of Blockade. All thoughts of playful banter fled as she realised that there was a witness to her being locked in the locker. If Blockade himself could attest to the fact that the locker had been actually locked when he tore the door off, that would make the case against Blackwell so much more airtight. "Hey!" she shouted. "Wait!"
Blockade seemed to turn and look straight at her for a moment … then kept moving.
No. No, no, no, no. Taylor didn't even stop to think; she ran straight out onto the road. What she didn't see was the pickup bearing down from her left. A horn blared, and its tyres shrieked as the driver stood on the brakes … far too late.
"No!" Danny was right there. He grabbed Taylor, swung around, and hurled her toward the curb. But he couldn't do that and get out of the way of the onrushing vehicle.
In the instant before impact, Taylor stopped. Grabbing his wrist, she latched on. Her power kicked in, turning him monochrome. The truck hit him, but the meaty crunch was more of a wooden thud. Still in her grasp, he went around in a semi-circle with her as the pivot point. At the same time, she hadn't moved quite far enough out of the way, so every panel on the entire right-hand side of the truck crumpled against her body or peeled off with an ear-piercing metallic shriek.
The truck juddered to a halt a good thirty feet onward. Its passenger-side panelling was wrecked, and the wing mirror was currently hanging off Taylor's shoulder. Plucking it off, she dropped it on the road, then let go Danny's hand. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Danny
"… yes?" he asked rather than said, feeling his ribs. It felt like he'd just been shoulder-charged by a burly Dockworker, not hit by a moving truck. "How did that—?"
"I, uh, I guess, my power—" she began.
He looked around. "Move now, talk later," he said crisply. People were starting to point and ask questions, and he didn't want Taylor to be the subject of those questions.
"Right," she said, and all of a sudden she was wearing black shades over her glasses.
They hustled along the sidewalk, heading for the car. Nobody shouted from behind them. Nobody took a picture from in front of them. Heads down, eyes front, they kept moving. I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing.
He got to the car first and unlocked it; they both got in and sat panting for a moment. Then they put their belts on and he started the car.
"Okay," he said quietly as they pulled out onto the road. "What the hell made you run out on the road like that?"
She grimaced and put her face in her hands. "Okay, yeah, that was a totally stupid thing to do. I wanted to talk to Blockade, and I didn't want him to get away."
"About the locker?"
She nodded. "About the locker."
He let out an aggravated sigh. "Okay. Christ, I thought you were just going to get run over. Don't do that to me!"
"I would've been fine," she protested. "My power would've saved me."
"And if that truck had come to a complete halt after wrapping its front end around you, the driver would likely have serious injuries, and you'd be totally outed right now," he snapped. "As it is, I don't know if we made a clean break or not. I thought you were going to be responsible with your powers!"
Silence fell in the car as he drove on steadily, careful to travel at exactly the speed limit. He wanted to say more, but didn't; it felt like he might have said too much already.
Eventually, Taylor let out a long breath. "I fucked up," she admitted quietly. "I didn't think. I acted first, and damaged that guy's pickup, and I could've gotten you killed. I'm sorry."
He nodded. "You could have, but you didn't. You saved my life." She'd admitted culpability, and it was time to give credit where credit was due. "Was that the ten-times-tougher thing?"
"Yeah." She sniffled. "I'm glad it worked. How are your ribs?"
"Like Kurt just picked me up and gave me a bear hug," he admitted. "Sore, but usable. And a lot better than they might've been."
"Good." She essayed a weak smile. "So, I'm still grounded, right?"
He snorted. "What do you think?"
"Just checking."
Firebird
As the car drove off, Emma keyed her radio. "You guys saw that, didn't you?"
"Sure as hell." Madison sounded a little shell-shocked. "I thought he was street pizza for sure."
"What the fuck was that?" Sophia, on the other hand, sounded outraged. "How did she do that?"
"I don't know," Emma said. "But I want to find out." Whatever that was, it wasn't a weak destruction power. And she sure as shit didn't pass out afterward.
"Are you sure we don't want to recruit her?" Emma couldn't tell if Madison was being serious or not.
Apparently, neither could Sophia. "Fuck off."
"Suit yourself."
End of Part Fourteen
Part Fourteen: Adding Fuel to the Fire
[A/N 1: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
[A/N 2: I was going to leave this chapter for next month, but I decided to write it now, to cover points that have been raised by some readers.]
Sunday, September 12, 2010
11:51 AM
Firebird
"So you left it in the park like we arranged, right?" Emma kept her tone light as she strolled along the sidewalk with Madison. She'd learned a long time ago that if she smiled and acted as though she were saying nothing of consequence, people ignored the actual content of her words.
"Yeah, the one just up ahead." Madison gestured with a nod. "I built a basic camouflage kit into it. It takes note of the general area and disguises itself as whatever best suits the surroundings, according to the algorithm."
"Neat." Emma grinned. "I contacted Sophia and told her to meet us there. What's the bet she shows up in costume?"
Madison shook her head. "No bet. She loves being Stalker more than anything." She paused. "Well, no. She loves winning more than anything. But for her, being Stalker and kicking ass is the ultimate win condition."
"You might have something there." Emma wrinkled her nose as she considered the idea. "Maybe—"
Before she could expand on her thoughts any further, the burner phone she'd acquired for use as Firebird rang. Pulling it from its pouch, she saw the name on the caller ID display and rolled her eyes. "Hey, Soph," she said. "There already?"
"Well, duh," Sophia replied. "Waiting for you slowpokes to show up. Crime's not gonna kick itself in the teeth, you know."
"We'll get there when we get there," Emma told her. "Just a couple of minutes away. Many people in the park?"
"A few." Sophia paused. "I thought Mads was leaving her suit here. If we have to go all the way back to her place, I swear—"
"Chill," Emma said, cutting her off. "She says it's there."
There was another pause. "Well, I can't see the fuckin' thing."
Emma turned to Madison. "She says she can't see it."
"Tell her she's blind." The petite girl's tone was as deadpan as her expression.
"I fuckin' heard that!" Sophia sounded actually pissed at that.
Not wanting to be part of a three-way argument, Emma hastily said, "See you when we get there," and ended the call. As she shoved the phone back into her pocket, she gave Madison a half-disbelieving glare. "What the fuck? You know she's already pissed off in general. Why are you poking her like that?"
Madison shrugged. "I'm tired of walking on eggshells every time she decides to get a wild hair up her ass about nothing at all. And we both know what it's ultimately about. Maybe I just want to confront her with it, and make her see how stupid she's being."
"I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it," Emma said.
"Well, what is the right way?"
Emma didn't know, not for sure. But she knew what wouldn't work. "Don't hit her with it head-on. If she gets the chance to dig her heels in, she will." Somewhere at the back of her mind, she was certain that she would've reacted the same way herself if confronted with an inconvenient truth, before she'd had her recent epiphany.
"So what, I sneak up on her with it?" asked Madison sarcastically. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"Not sure." Emma considered what would work on her, then tried to imagine the same approach when applied to Sophia. As she and Madison had already discussed, Sophia's thought processes weren't the most rational these days, especially when it came to doubling down on Taylor's 'punishment' for … well, apparently for just being Taylor. "Maybe … pose a hypothetical and when she agrees to one thing, show her how Taylor's a parallel case?"
Madison tilted her head to give Emma a skeptical glance. "You have met Sophia, right? If she's in an argumentative mood, she'll deny that water's wet and the sky is blue. Just so she can be right."
Emma sighed. Madison wasn't wrong. "Just don't go at her head-on. That'll make her react the worst."
"Not giving me a huge number of options to work with, here. Just saying."
They turned the corner into the park and Emma hitched the backpack on her shoulder, her eyes scanning the trees and landscaping for two things. First; their third teammate. Second; inconvenient witnesses.
"Found her," she murmured, barely moving her lips.
"Okay, where?" asked Madison, equally quietly.
"In that … not sure what that tree is … third to the right, the one with the electrical junction box under it." Emma knew damn well that before she'd taken the vial, her eyes would never have picked out the shadowy form perched in the tree. Now, it was like her brain delighted in pointing out such things to her.
"Ah. Got it." Madison huffed a chuckle; Emma wasn't sure why. "Let's go say hi."
Emma glanced from side to side again. As Sophia had mentioned, there weren't many people in the park. If she stood on that side of the tree Sophia was lurking in, she could effect a quick change before people noticed. It was as good a plan as any. "So where's your suit?"
"You'll see." Madison chuckled again.
They converged under the tree; Emma moved around until she was covered from all avenues of observation, then opened her backpack and took out her helmet. Once that was on, she wasted no time in removing her outer clothing, which of course concealed her costume, and attaching the accoutrements that made her into Firebird. She'd practiced enough in the privacy of her room that she could manage it in under thirty seconds now.
There was a rustle of leaves, then Sophia dropped down on top of the junction box. "Took your own sweet time."
"Dad dropped me off at Emma's." Madison's tone was matter of fact. "We walked."
Sophia blew a raspberry. "And left your suit at home, right? So now we gotta backtrack."
"No." Madison tilted her head as if querying Sophia's statement. "What makes you think I left it at home?"
"Well, you're for sure not wearing it, and I can't see it anywhere around here," Sophia averred. "Unless you sank it in the lake. Which if you did that, I'm not helping you get it out."
Madison sighed and placed her hand on the side of the electrical junction box. "Activate."
"The fuck?" Sophia leaped sideways as the 'junction box' shed its holographic camouflage and began to unfold into the Blockade Mark 2 armour. "How the hell did you—?"
Emma was almost as surprised, but the hints Madison had dropped had prepared her. "Nice one. That auto-camouflage is really paying off."
Madison climbed into the armour and then set it to assuming its full form. "I thought so."
"Ha ha, very funny." Sophia stalked up to them. "Got me good. Can we fuckin' go on patrol, already?"
"Absolutely," Emma agreed. "I was thinking—"
For the second time in ten minutes, her burner phone rang. This time had her puzzled; she didn't think Madison would be prank-calling her from inside the armour, and Sophia was right there. Frowning, she pulled the phone from its pouch.
When she saw the name on the caller ID, her confusion increased. Why's Armsmaster calling me?
"Hello?" she said, after swiping to answer and putting it on speaker.
"Hello. I presume I'm talking to Firebird?" It was definitely Armsmaster's voice. Had there been a break in the Winslow case?
"That's me," she confirmed. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes. There is. It has to do with Shadow Stalker. Are you able to get in contact with her?"
She glanced at Sophia. "Yes. What's the problem?"
At the same time, Sophia's eyes opened wide behind the hockey mask and she made frantic negatory gestures. Emma realised why, a moment later. Shit, the arrows.
She still wasn't sure what to do about that. Sophia had broken the law, possibly murdered people with those arrows. But at that time, Emma hadn't known. If I'd known, would I have cared? She suspected not. The trauma from her encounter in the alley with the ABB had still been sharp in her mind at the time.
Intellectually, she knew, Sophia should turn herself in and accept whatever punishment was coming to her for that. With the stories Emma had heard passed around between her father and his work colleagues, if Sophia went in front of a vigilante-friendly judge, she'd only get a slap on the wrist, maybe some juvey time, and be out on the streets again in a few months. But this wasn't an intellectual exercise anymore. This was real life. And Sophia Hess never surrendered for any reason.
"I did a deeper investigation into the wreckage of Winslow after you left," Armsmaster stated. "I found something quite concerning." Emma glanced at Sophia. Here it came. "Winslow is an older building—was an older building—and standards were quite lax when it was constructed. I found worrying amounts of asbestos floating in particulate form in the general vicinity. It's now being misted down, preparatory to either being encased in concrete or dug all the way out, but Shadow Stalker went into the wreckage in her shadow form. There's a strong chance that she accumulated some particulates in her body, which could cause adverse reactions in the future. I strongly suggest that she seek a medical prognosis, or book some time with Panacea, as soon as she is able."
Wait, what? "Asbestos?" Emma had to repeat the word to make sure of it. "Are you certain?" This wasn't about the arrows at all?
"One hundred percent," he replied. "Kindly pass the word on to Shadow Stalker as soon as possible, if you can."
"I'll make certain to do that," she confirmed. "Thanks for letting us know."
"You're welcome." He ended the call.
"Asbestos?" Madison's tone was bemused. "I didn't even think of that. Huh."
"Ass-bullshit, if you ask me," Sophia retorted. "I feel fine."
"No, no." Emma held up her hand in a 'stop' gesture. "The more I think about it, the more likely it seems there was asbestos in that building. Getting it into your lungs, getting it into your everything, is a really, really bad thing. Asbestos is basically a rock, and the particles are sharp and jagged, so if you get it into your lungs, it'll cause scarring and shortness of breath. That's literally what they call asbestosis."
Sophia shook her head. "I feel fine. There's nothing to worry about."
Jesus Christ, it's like talking to a brick wall. Emma appreciated Sophia's hard-charging attitude when they were fighting bad guys, but her utter lack of give at any other time was really starting to grate. "No, it can get serious. It might take years to kick in, but you could end up wheezing like a ten-packs-a-day person."
"Years? I'm good then." Sophia waved a hand dismissively. "When the time comes, I'll get Panacea or someone to fix the scarring, and I'll be fine."
"Asbestosis isn't the only thing that can happen." It was time for one last try. "Did you know you can also get cancer from it?" She couldn't remember the word exactly, but it started with 'metho', and that was as far as she could get.
Sophia snorted. "In your dreams, maybe."
"Fuck, will you take this seriously?" Emma wanted to run her hands through her hair. Or punch Sophia. One of the two. "Most of your vital organs have a protective layer of cells over them. I can't remember what they're called, but if asbestos gets into those, it can cause them to go cancerous. It's sneaky as fuck."
"And if anyone could get asbestos all the way into those cells, it's you," Madison added helpfully.
"No. No, no, no." Sophia shook her head. "I can't get cancer that way. I go through old buildings all the time. They've gotta have asbestos all over, and mold and shit. I've never had any problems before."
"Have you ever gone through a collapsed older building, where the asbestos is floating around as particulates instead of in solid form, and have you ever gone semi-solid in those buildings to grab stuff, like arrows?" Emma raised her eyebrows behind her visor.
From the look Sophia gave her, the answer was 'no'. Unfortunately, the attitude was also 'no'. "Where are you getting all this shit from, anyway? Last I heard, you were a kick-ass type, not a medic type."
"You pick up stuff," Emma said. "I used to spend a lot of time sitting around with Taylor, listening to the Dockworkers talk about work hazards. Her dad was very vocal about it."
"Well, that explains it." Sophia rolled her eyes. "He's a Hebert, so he's full of shit. That was all probably just him making up ways for the union to gouge more money out of anyone they work for. C'mon, we've wasted enough time. Let's go find some asses to kick."
"But—" Emma cut herself off as Sophia turned away. This discussion was over, but maybe she could raise it again at another time. It was possible that Madison had a point; if they could snap Sophia out of her irrational hatred for Taylor, perhaps they could make her see reason on this aspect as well.
Sophia was their friend. It was their duty to try.
<><>
In the Car
12:15 PM
Taylor
"I can't believe Mr Sacke agreed to see us on a Sunday," Taylor observed as they made their way through weekend traffic toward the offices of GS&T. "I can't even believe they're open on a Sunday."
"Quite a few lawyers are," Danny said. "And he agreed to see us on short notice because what's happened to Winslow is likely to affect the case in some way."
Taylor blinked, the realisation stealing over her that maybe she might have gone a little too far. "Shit. Have I just lost us the case?"
He shook his head. "I doubt it. Mainly because if that was the case, he could've told us over the phone instead of getting us to come all the way into his office to give us the bad news. With any luck, it just means we have to readjust some aspects of the case. After all, they still fell down on the job in a major fashion. The presence or absence of an actual school building doesn't actually change that."
"Right." She essayed a weak chuckle. "So, I guess it's a good thing I didn't do it in the middle of the school day. Because it's hard to sue someone who's dead."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." He cleared his throat. "But getting back to the subject of you destroying the school, and sneaking out in general …" he heaved a deep sigh. "We do need to talk about that. You were incredibly irresponsible, and I'm not sure you understand just how much trouble you could be in right now if things had gone differently."
She stared at him. Up until this point, he'd been almost light-hearted about the whole thing. Now, it seemed, the other shoe was dropping. "Umm … I thought you weren't angry?"
"Oh, I was." He kept his eyes on the road, and the tone of his voice never changed, but the steering wheel creaked under his grip. "But last night, when I first saw you, the main thing I felt was relief. Relief that you were alive, relief that you'd come back safely, relief that you'd come back at all. Before that point, when I was tearing the house apart and you weren't there, it was like I'd lost Anne-Rose all over again."
Taylor felt a lump growing in her throat. She recalled, back in the darkest times, seeing her father wander aimlessly from room to room. At the time, she hadn't known what he was doing, but now she did. He was looking for Mom.
"I'm sorry, I—"
"You didn't know." His voice was rough. "Yeah, I get it. But when I saw you come in through the window, it was like you'd been dead and you were alive again, and all I could think for a moment was thank you, God." He paused for a moment, to pull out and pass another car. "But after that moment, the anger came in. I wanted to yell at you so badly, but two things stopped me."
"Two things?" She asked it quietly.
"Yeah. First, we just got back in touch with each other. We are making progress. We're talking, you're smiling, and we are on track to taking Winslow to the cleaners." He heaved a deep sigh, hands still gripping the wheel. "I was terrified of turning that around, that you'd pull all the way back into your shell again."
"Oh. Wow." Taylor hadn't considered it that way before. The fact that her father thought getting a smile out of her was important progress … how far down did I go?
"Mm-hmm." He slowed for a stop at the lights. "And then there's your powers. Once you explained those to me, I knew I had to be even more careful not to start an argument that would leave you angry and resentful."
"What?" She stared at him. "I'd never hurt you!"
He blinked in confusion. "What? No, I didn't mean that. I just … well, we were both getting tired, and that's when tempers are most likely to fray. If you got upset and decided to storm out, there's no way in hell I could stop you. You could literally walk out through the wall. I didn't want you leaving the discussion angry. So I held it in, conceded points where it didn't matter anymore, and guilted you where it did. You're more important to me than Winslow."
"Oh." This was a new side to her father. She'd heard of his negotiating prowess before, on behalf of the Dockworkers, but it was the first time he'd used it on her. "And what was the second thing?"
He sighed, and looked tired all of a sudden. "My father had a temper, too. He used to yell at me and Mom over the most trivial things. I felt the rough side of his hand more than once, growing up. When you were born, I swore that I'd never yell at you like that, or strike you. That's why I always left the discipline to your mother."
She'd heard about her grandfather's temper, of course, but she hadn't known the other bit. "Okay, but just because I didn't go to bed angry, that doesn't mean that …" Frowning, she tried to untangle the rest of the sentence in her head. "I mean, did you?"
Wordlessly, he lifted his hand off the wheel and showed her his palm. Four tiny bruises marred his skin, right where his nails would've been digging in. "I was furious. But there's a time to push for concessions, and a time to give ground. You were still there in the morning, so I figure I made the right call."
Taylor bit her lip. Her father had spent the night in seething anger, and it was all her fault. "I'll … I'll, uh, try to do better. And I really do promise to tell you if I'm going to go and do superhero stuff."
"And I appreciate it," he said. His smile, though a little pained, was genuine. "I'm likely to stumble a bit, too. I'm not used to being the dad of a superhero."
Wow, she thought as he found a parking spot and pulled over. I've wrecked a car and a school, and he's still got faith in me to be a hero. It put a warm feeling in her chest that refused to go away.
<><>
The Offices of GS&T, Attorneys at Law
Danny
The front page of the paper showed an impressive heap of rubble, being sprayed down by fire department trucks, under the caption SCHOOL'S OUT. In the foreground was the partial sign, reading SLOW HIGH. Mr Sacke spread his hands, smoothing it down, then looked up at Danny and Taylor.
"An interesting development," he noted. "It does make certain aspects of our case more complicated, but I can't see a problem with pushing through the individual charges of negligence against all staff members who stood by and allowed the bullying to take place. The school officials can of course claim that any and all paperwork pertaining to this has been destroyed, but that's merely a speedbump. You have your evidence and your testimony, and the fact that someone appears to have demolished the school in one night can be used to prove that you are not the only ones who have a problem with it."
Danny cleared his throat. Despite his confident statements to Taylor earlier, it was a relief to hear his thoughts borne out. "So, we'll be going ahead as planned?"
"Mostly, yes," agreed Mr Sacke. "There will inevitably be a police investigation to determine whether you had any hand in the demolition, being people with a stated grudge against the school, but I'm certain that it will only be a formality." He paused, his tone becoming more serious. "Unless of course you did have a part in it, in which case the lawsuit will likely disappear without trace."
"Mr Sacke," Danny said firmly. "While I have some knowledge of handling explosives, I can categorically state that I had nothing to do with it. In fact, I was in bed when the school was demolished. It woke me up. As for Taylor, she's never been trained in their use. I doubt she'd know C-4 from blasting jelly."
Taylor shrugged. "It's true. I don't. Anyway, I heard the bangs too. Me and Dad went and had cocoa in the kitchen until we'd settled down, then we went back to bed."
"Good, good." Mr Sacke smiled. "I'll keep you apprised of the situation, then." Standing, he offered his hand. Danny and then Taylor shook it.
They were careful to not even look at each other until his office door had closed behind them.
<><>
A Rooftop in Downtown
Firebird
"Blockade to Firebird, I think I've just spotted someone we both know." Madison's voice came over the radio earpiece quite clearly.
Emma was perching up high, keeping an eye out for pickpockets, purse snatchers and straight-up muggers, when the call came through. Sophia was across the street and down a ways, doing the same thing. Down at street level, Madison in the Blockade suit trod her way along the pavement, careful not to step on children and small pets.
"Copy that, Blockade," Emma replied crisply, wondering who she was talking about. "Give me a direction?"
"Sure. From where you are now … call it ten o'clock. Just coming out of a big office building, black shiny reflective windows. She's with a tall skinny guy. Her dad?"
"Wait one." From the description, Emma was almost certain she knew who Madison was referring to. Reaching down to her utility belt, she retrieved a small pair of binoculars. It was useless to try to get Madison to make a pair that didn't need both hands to use, so she was going with a basic commercial set for the moment.
Given the direction and the building, she flipped up her visor and held the binoculars to her eyes, panning over the people emerging from the building. This was where the lack of trade on a Sunday paid off; it only took her a few seconds to fix on the people Madison had spotted with her extra elevation.
"Wait." That was Sophia. "You're not telling me she's here? Right now?"
"Sure enough." Emma observed the pair of them through the binoculars a moment longer. Taylor was striding out, swinging her arms, not closing in on herself and shuffling along like Emma was used to seeing her do. That I made her do. The thought was intrusive, and she mentally waved it away. Yes, I know I did bad things. I've stopped doing them. I'm not that person anymore.
To give herself something else to think about, she turned her focus to Danny. It had been longer since she'd seen him; there were new wrinkles in his forehead, but he also seemed upbeat. She wondered who he'd been to see in that building.
"Well, she seems happy." Madison sounded like she was paralleling Emma's earlier line of thought. Her tone sounded relieved, which Emma could understand.
If Taylor was happy now, all they had to do to make things better was … nothing. Stepping beyond their self-realised awareness to act on the epiphany promised to be messy. Right now, they were doing good simply by not harming Taylor, and that was a good thing. Wasn't it?
"What? No." That was Sophia. "They can't … no." She sounded frustrated and angry. Emma began to wonder if they shouldn't have had the intervention before going on patrol.
"Shadow Stalker, this is an unsecure channel." Madison's voice was crisp and no-nonsense.
"Copy." It was a growl.
"Hey." For the first time, Madison sounded insecure. "I think … yeah, she just spotted me. Shit—!"
Emma froze as the slender figure darted onto the road. A horn blared and tyres screeched … far too late.
<><>
Taylor
It was looking like a good day, after all. Sure, she was grounded for the next two weeks, but she hadn't totally messed things up by breaking Winslow like she had. Best of all, with the Federal relief money coming into the city—there was still a long way to go until they cleared the Boat Graveyard, but at least they were working on it—there would be enough for the surrounding schools to take on the overflow of teachers and staff from Winslow. The ones that the lawsuit didn't hammer into the ground, of course.
"So, home again?" she asked.
"Home again," he confirmed. "You worded your answer just right in there. Very sneaky. I'm thinking I might have to start being more careful about trusting what you say."
"Da-ad!" she protested laughingly, as he grinned at her. "I'm totally up front and transparent. No secrets at all, that's me."
"Mm-hmm." He gave her a very skeptical look. "I'll believe it when I see it."
"Pfft." She raised her nose in the air and affected disdain. "You don't—" And then she saw, on the other side of the street, the huge bulky form of Blockade. All thoughts of playful banter fled as she realised that there was a witness to her being locked in the locker. If Blockade himself could attest to the fact that the locker had been actually locked when he tore the door off, that would make the case against Blackwell so much more airtight. "Hey!" she shouted. "Wait!"
Blockade seemed to turn and look straight at her for a moment … then kept moving.
No. No, no, no, no. Taylor didn't even stop to think; she ran straight out onto the road. What she didn't see was the pickup bearing down from her left. A horn blared, and its tyres shrieked as the driver stood on the brakes … far too late.
"No!" Danny was right there. He grabbed Taylor, swung around, and hurled her toward the curb. But he couldn't do that and get out of the way of the onrushing vehicle.
In the instant before impact, Taylor stopped. Grabbing his wrist, she latched on. Her power kicked in, turning him monochrome. The truck hit him, but the meaty crunch was more of a wooden thud. Still in her grasp, he went around in a semi-circle with her as the pivot point. At the same time, she hadn't moved quite far enough out of the way, so every panel on the entire right-hand side of the truck crumpled against her body or peeled off with an ear-piercing metallic shriek.
The truck juddered to a halt a good thirty feet onward. Its passenger-side panelling was wrecked, and the wing mirror was currently hanging off Taylor's shoulder. Plucking it off, she dropped it on the road, then let go Danny's hand. "Are you okay?" she asked.
<><>
Danny
"… yes?" he asked rather than said, feeling his ribs. It felt like he'd just been shoulder-charged by a burly Dockworker, not hit by a moving truck. "How did that—?"
"I, uh, I guess, my power—" she began.
He looked around. "Move now, talk later," he said crisply. People were starting to point and ask questions, and he didn't want Taylor to be the subject of those questions.
"Right," she said, and all of a sudden she was wearing black shades over her glasses.
They hustled along the sidewalk, heading for the car. Nobody shouted from behind them. Nobody took a picture from in front of them. Heads down, eyes front, they kept moving. I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing.
He got to the car first and unlocked it; they both got in and sat panting for a moment. Then they put their belts on and he started the car.
"Okay," he said quietly as they pulled out onto the road. "What the hell made you run out on the road like that?"
She grimaced and put her face in her hands. "Okay, yeah, that was a totally stupid thing to do. I wanted to talk to Blockade, and I didn't want him to get away."
"About the locker?"
She nodded. "About the locker."
He let out an aggravated sigh. "Okay. Christ, I thought you were just going to get run over. Don't do that to me!"
"I would've been fine," she protested. "My power would've saved me."
"And if that truck had come to a complete halt after wrapping its front end around you, the driver would likely have serious injuries, and you'd be totally outed right now," he snapped. "As it is, I don't know if we made a clean break or not. I thought you were going to be responsible with your powers!"
Silence fell in the car as he drove on steadily, careful to travel at exactly the speed limit. He wanted to say more, but didn't; it felt like he might have said too much already.
Eventually, Taylor let out a long breath. "I fucked up," she admitted quietly. "I didn't think. I acted first, and damaged that guy's pickup, and I could've gotten you killed. I'm sorry."
He nodded. "You could have, but you didn't. You saved my life." She'd admitted culpability, and it was time to give credit where credit was due. "Was that the ten-times-tougher thing?"
"Yeah." She sniffled. "I'm glad it worked. How are your ribs?"
"Like Kurt just picked me up and gave me a bear hug," he admitted. "Sore, but usable. And a lot better than they might've been."
"Good." She essayed a weak smile. "So, I'm still grounded, right?"
He snorted. "What do you think?"
"Just checking."
<><>
Firebird
As the car drove off, Emma keyed her radio. "You guys saw that, didn't you?"
"Sure as hell." Madison sounded a little shell-shocked. "I thought he was street pizza for sure."
"What the fuck was that?" Sophia, on the other hand, sounded outraged. "How did she do that?"
"I don't know," Emma said. "But I want to find out." Whatever that was, it wasn't a weak destruction power. And she sure as shit didn't pass out afterward.
"Are you sure we don't want to recruit her?" Emma couldn't tell if Madison was being serious or not.
Apparently, neither could Sophia. "Fuck off."
"Suit yourself."
End of Part Fourteen
- Location
- Elsewhere
It's part of the "pure evil" bit.
"We are not here to debate the existence of any alleged 'school' that may or may not exist..."
- Location
- Australia
Even when it existed, Winslow was an alleged school.
You can see Sophia going further and further off the rails in real time.
Because you need more than a quick high to get through a day there.
ExaltedNekoKun
Exalted Glorious Feline Light Source!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Lord/Fuzzball
The way this has been written, I'm beginning to wonder if it was Sophia's posessiveness and Emma's break that led to her grudge against Taylor, or if there was some background with the Union or Danny in particular that was ruminating in the background that she latched onto when the bullying campaign began. Perhaps a relative that Danny was responsible for not hiring, or maybe firing (generally the persons doing the hiring in an organization are at least somewhat involved in firing employees as well).
- Pronouns
- She/They
I read it the other way 'round - that once Sophia latched onto Taylor=target, thanks to Emma, the need to see Taylor as worthless has expanded to seeing her dad the same way, and thus the DWA getting dismissed by association. Add that to her own need to see herself as invulnerable, and it becomes part of her excuses to justify ignoring the legitimate concerns of asbestos exposure and dismissing the reason Emma knows about it. Sophia's very good at justifying her behavior to herself, after all; Emma and Madison can see that for what it is now, but that doesn't mean they can logic her out of it.
- Location
- Bowling Green
It seems a but sudden how Emma and Madison switch to viewing thier actions as wrong. They went from actively attempting get her Birdcaged to claiming it was super wrong in less than a week.
- Location
- Australia
So ...
Imma take a wild guess and assume you haven't been reading any of the comments, especially those made by me.
Especially those about, say, the contents of the vials that Emma and Madison drank.
Especially how those vials were formulated toward 'balance' and 'stability' respectively, and have been affecting Emma and Madison's bodies and minds (as well as defining their powers).
Especially the way the vials have been nudging Emma toward a more balanced mindset, and Madison toward a more stable mindset.
Sophia's been pushing the Taylor hate over the last few chapters, suppressing their new thought processes; it's only when Emma got to talk to Madison alone and raised the concern that they both realised how fucked-up her worldview (which they once shared) now looked to them.
But there have been hints leading up to this. Madison even suggested just recruiting her before the force-feeding, and Sophia shot that down.
Their vials have literally been forcing them back toward sanity and an understanding of how fucked-up their actions have been.
There's a ways to go yet, but they're on the way.
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Wait so what is Taylor's vial formulated towards? Because Taylor is also being mentally affected by her vial.
Trace Coburn
BattleTech Starfighter Analyst
- Location
- NDBBM, New Zealand
She's become virtually indestructible and/or unstoppable. The 'price' of that is a whole new outlook on the 'minor' (and major) annoyances of life...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqbk9cDX0l0
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqbk9cDX0l0
Last edited:
About Emma, Madison and Taylor's powers, and the vial effects on them
- Location
- Australia
Basically, this:
Here's what I posted to SB, regarding the effects of the vials:
Emma:
- The ability to express any purely physical skill to the maximum level of capability possible within her physical limits. She can also analyse what needs to be done.
- For example, if she needs to fight, she can fight to the limit of her own physical capability, and read an opponent's fighting stance and see what they're likely to do before they do.
- Likewise, she can handle any weapon and automatically make use of its options to its maximum possible capability.
- Her body has been pushed to its maximum physical capability (according to her age, weight and body size) in dexterity, strength, endurance and health, and will permanently stay there. As she ages and gains body mass, this will improve.
- Eyesight, hearing and other senses are now as good as they can be for her, and will stay that way. They will not deteriorate with age.
- She will automatically heal microfractures, concussions, minor cuts and bruises overnight, and will heal any nastier injuries as if receiving the very best possible medical care.
- Deeper cuts and broken bones will heal in days, not weeks.
Her whole attitude now is about balance and adaptation to new circumstances.
Madison:
- The innate knowledge of how to build forges and foundries and cutting devices, and operate them to create 'good steel' from common metals.
- The ability to Tinker up extremely durable devices (from good steel) and make them so they don't break or have egregious weak points.
- Her Tinker specialty is tied to 'durable and powerful but overly bulky' as opposed to building certain items. She can theoretically build anything, but she can't build it small or delicate, and she really needs to build it out of good steel. So, no plastic radio earbuds that pick up sound from half a km away (she can build a helmet that weighs 20 lb, can be used to headbutt Lung into submission, and will be able to listen in on Kaiser holding a meeting with the Empire 88 from all the way across town, but not the earbud).
- As a secondary power, she has more endurance and is much more resistant to heat exhaustion. She's also packed on some muscle, just from operating her forge.
- Finally, the basic knowledge of how to operate devices she builds for herself, such as her power armour or her weapons.
Her mental state is now about stability and reliability.
Taylor:
- Creates a black and white force field (she can manually adjust the pattern, or otherwise it looks like oil on water) that manifests within an inch of her body (including her hair, not including her clothing). Will go over clothing if it's under an inch thick and she wants it to, otherwise it will go under clothing.
- Force field is entirely impenetrable and can not be moved by any amount of force unless she wants it to. It will form automatically to protect her from harm, unless she doesn't want it to. New types of harm will be defended against, even if she is currently holding it off from another type. (She can't be feinted into dropping her shield against something irritating but harmless, then get hit by something that smooshes her).
- By touching something, she can extend a TK-like field around it, with a visible effect that makes it go monochrome, gives it 10x durability and internal integrity, and makes it massless with regard to her (negating all weight and inertia as far as she's concerned). The effect lasts until she lets the item go. If it's moving when she lets it go, inertia kicks in. If it's off the ground, gravity kicks in. Upper limit not yet known.
- Once the field encloses her completely, she's locked off in her own private pocket universe. She can vaguely feel physical impacts transmitted from the outer 'shell', but there's no direct communication, and she cannot be harmed by any means unless the dimensional barrier is first breached. If she's locked off like this, she's got a finite amount of air before she passes out or opens the field.
- The field allows her to 'jump' high and and far, and 'fall' slowly, but she can't fly.
Her mental state is now about doing what she wants to do, rather than bending over backward for a world that doesn't give a shit about her.
- Location
- Elsewhere
She is now the Unstoppable Force, and the Immovable Object.
Exciting times are ahead.
My theme song.
Hopefully Taylor will at least get a little smarter about her lack of fucks.
Part Fifteen: Agreements and Confrontations
- Location
- Australia
Earning Her Stripes
Part Fifteen: Agreements and Confrontations
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Taylor
The car ride home was quiet and introspective on both sides. Taylor didn't know what thoughts were going through her father's head, but she had enough of her own to worry about, given that her rash actions had come close to killing him, and had nearly wrecked the pickup. Was it wrong that she barely even considered the latter as a problem? If Dad hadn't been there and I'd been hit … would I have cared, or just kept going?
That was something to worry about. Just because I can wreck something, doesn't mean I should. Winslow being a prime example.
Not that she was about to regret the destruction of the school. Certainly, it had been a mostly impulsive act, but as far as she was concerned, it was entirely justified. If they'd wanted her to not destroy it, then they shouldn't have let people bully her in it to the point that she got powers.
Anyway, I didn't wreck it. It was in perfectly good condition until I let it go. Not my fault it couldn't stick the landing.
Just for a moment, she wished she could've seen Principal Blackwell's face when she saw the news. Or better yet, when she saw the rubble first-hand. Fuck her and the power trip she rode in on.
"Taylor?"
Jolted out of her reverie, she looked around. "Yeah, Dad?"
"I'm thinking perhaps it might not be a bad idea for us to work out some rules for you to follow when you do go out as a cape."
She blinked and stared at him, wondering how he'd managed to read her mind. For some reason, she'd assumed he was thinking 'Dad' thoughts, to do with paying bills and other boring adult business. Apparently not.
"Rules?" she asked cautiously. "What sort of rules?"
When she didn't shut him down entirely, he seemed to relax a little. "Well, basic ones, such as not breaking things that really don't need to be broken, like buildings. Oh, and cars, too. Throwing cars might be a superhero trope, but every car belongs to someone and it might be their sole means of getting to work. And also being careful when you're dealing with people. They're a lot more breakable than cars and buildings, even if they're bad guys."
That all seemed fairly straightforward. "Well, I wasn't about to go on a roaring rampage of destruction," she pointed out. "Or go around to Emma's house and punch her in the face."
"Good, good," he said agreeably. "Glad to see that's still the plan. Or not the plan, as the case may be."
"It's still a little bit annoying that Principal Blackwell's version of events says that I wasn't even locked in the locker." She thumped her head against the headrest. "It makes me look stupid, and might even weaken the lawsuit if their lawyer leans on it hard enough. That's why I wanted to talk to Blockade and get his side of things. I mean, if he fronts up and says, 'your honour, that locker was definitely locked when I tore it open', they've gotta pay attention, right?"
"Well, I know I'd pay attention if some guy in an eight-foot-tall power-suit testified to that sort of thing," Danny agreed. "It wasn't a bad plan. Your execution needed refining, was all."
She rolled her eyes. "I already said I was sorry for running out into traffic and nearly wrecking that guy's pickup."
"You did," agreed Danny. "But saying sorry to me doesn't pay for the thousands of dollars' worth of panel damage. Now, his insurance will probably cover it, especially as he wasn't breaking the road rules as far as I can tell. But he's still got to pay the excess, which is probably going to knock his finances around. Bottom line: you didn't totally wreck his life, but he is going to be affected by this for some time to come. If we can manage to avoid this as much as possible in future, that'll be a good thing."
Taylor thought about that. He was making some reasonable points, and he wasn't saying anything she could actually argue with. "I was half expecting you to say I needed to mow lawns or something until I'd earned the money to pay him back," she confessed.
"I could have led with that," he agreed. "But you're mature for your age, and you've acknowledged where you went wrong. Forcing you to perform punitive chores over and above the grounding wouldn't actually fix anything, and it would risk outing you as a parahuman. I'd prefer not to go down that road, thanks."
"Well, I'll definitely try not to do it again," she assured him.
He smiled. "I'd appreciate that. I don't have all that much hair left, and it can only take so much stress. However ..." He paused for a moment. "Have you thought about joining the Wards? Just as a suggestion?"
She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he had her welfare in mind, that it wasn't an attempt to shirk his responsibilities as a father. Also, he'd phrased it as a suggestion, not an ultimatum.
"Two reasons why not," she said. "First, once they did power testing and figured out that yes, it was me who improved Winslow's overall look considerably, they'd have us both over a barrel. I'm suspecting they'd take away all option for me to leave the Wards until they were done with me, or alternatively hit you with legal penalties until you agreed to sign me into the program for the foreseeable future. Also, I'm pretty sure that would sink the lawsuit for good."
He pursed his lips as he drove, tilting his head in a thoughtful manner. "That's a very good reason. What was your second one?"
She shrugged. "I just got out of one high school drama-filled hellhole. Going to Arcadia, I'm likely to encounter another, if not as horrific. Why would I voluntarily expose myself to a third one, this one with powers attached?"
"Ah. Good point." He nodded in agreement. "Wards, off the table. Understood."
"Good." She leaned back in her seat. "Thanks for being understanding."
"Hey," he said lightly. "I might not be the greatest dad in the world, but I'll always try to be there for you."
Closing her eyes, she smiled. "I know."
An Inner-City Park
Firebird
"What the hell?" Still costumed up, as were Emma and Madison, Sophia glared at the both of them. "Why'd you wrap up the patrol?" She took a step closer to Emma, fists clenched. "Is this more bullshit about how you're the team leader now, so you get to give us stupid orders whenever you want?"
Emma knew damn well that trying to tell Sophia to calm down would invariably have the exact opposite result, so she did no such thing. Glancing around, she decided that the inevitable rubberneckers were too far away to hear what they were saying. Might as well just say it.
"Shadow Stalker," she said formally, "Blockade and I are concerned about you. We want to talk to you about things you've been doing and saying. Can we maybe go back to Blockade's workshop so we can chat out of costume?"
At that moment, she felt most strongly the lack of a classic superhero base. Having a location they could gather out of costume to talk frankly about cape matters without worrying about eavesdroppers was always a good thing. The closest thing they had in that regard was the abandoned warehouse Madison was using for her Tinkering, and that was somewhat lacking in creature comforts, not to mention uncomfortably warm when she was doing her good-steel pours.
"Why bother de-costuming?" Sophia snarked. "Pick a rooftop, any rooftop."
"That's not a good option for me." Madison wasn't protesting; she was stating a fact. Putting the ball back in Sophia's court. It wasn't that she couldn't get her suit up onto any given rooftop. The jump jets would see to that. The simple fact was, weighing in at four tons, she would be in danger of falling through any given rooftop, and they were all fully aware of it.
"Yeah?" Sophia gave the suit a derisive look. "Seems to me that's a 'you' problem, not a 'me' problem. If you could pull your head out of your butt long enough to build something lightweight, you wouldn't have this issue."
The bulky suit took a step forward. "You know that's not how my power works. Why are you being so difficult?"
Sophia twitched her head as though she were rolling her eyes behind the hockey mask. "Why are you being such pissy little snowflakes? You wanted to talk to me about Hebert, right?"
Emma looked around again. Their audience was still keeping its distance, but she couldn't guarantee that there weren't any high-tech microphones or Thinker powers being directed at them. "Her, yes," she conceded.
Sophia shrugged. "Then there's nothing to talk about. She's going down. We all know she's going down. You two weak sisters can wimp out all you like, but it's gonna happen."
"Okay, can we just take a step back here?" asked Madison. "Why? What's the endgame? What do you get out of this? What's the payoff?"
Sophia gave Madison's suit a look, her head-tilt expressing the puzzled surprise that Emma just knew Sophia was showing on her face. "Not sure what you're asking there, short stuff. I just told you what the payoff is. Hebert's going down."
"Yes, but why?" Emma tried to make the question sound as reasonable as possible. "What's the point?"
The expression Emma could see through the hockey mask now that Sophia was looking at her was reminiscent of a fifth grader trying to understand quantum theory; the words were all there, but she couldn't understand the order they'd been placed in. "What do you mean, why? The point of all this has always been to fuck with Hebert. But now she's happy, and she's got good powers, and she doesn't deserve any of that shit."
"But why doesn't she deserve it?" Madison was somehow able to tune her modulator to match Emma's reasonable tone. "We don't lose anything from it. We could just walk away. Be heroes. Leave her be."
"She doesn't deserve it, because she's Hebert," insisted Sophia, as though explaining how two plus two inevitably equalled four. "She deserves to be down in the dirt. We had her there. But we took our eye off the ball, and she got up again. She's pretending she's got a right to walk around with her head in the air, like she's better than everyone. She's acting like she deserves to have powers. Well, somebody needs to show her just how wrong she is, and that somebody is me."
This was getting nowhere. "You're too close to this," Emma said. "You're treating it like a zero-sum game, like her winning equals you losing. What if it wasn't like that? What if her success didn't affect you?"
Sophia shook her head. "You're not making any sense. Hebert is a loser. We're winners. We're strong. The strong belong on top. The weak deserve to be kept down. I thought I taught you that."
Emma hid a grimace as she remembered acting on those very words. Why did I even take that seriously? There was no way she would consider acting like that now.
"Bullshit." Fortunately, Madison had her exterior speakers turned to the lowest volume. "We're heroes. Heroes help everyone." She left the rest of it unspoken, but Emma heard it just fine: The ones who push people down are the villains.
It seemed Sophia had also heard the subtext, because she tilted her head slightly. "You really think we should back off on Hebert?"
Emma nodded, feeling a surge of hope. Holy shit, she's actually listening. "I really do. In fact, I think we should reconsider the whole thing. I mean, what's she ever done to us?"
"Also, if that power we saw was any indication, she's strong," Madison added helpfully. "Not weak at all. That makes her one of us instead of one of them, right?"
"… huh." Sophia rubbed her chin under the hockey mask. "Maybe we can back off for a bit until I've got this figured out." She raised a finger. "But she's not off the hook, not yet."
"That's all I ask." Emma let out her breath in a silent sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "Just think it over, okay?"
"I can do that." Sophia glanced from Madison to Emma and back again. "Still, we haven't kicked any ass today yet. How about we go find a Merchant drug den or something? I want to fuck up some deserving asshole's day."
"I can do one better than that." Madison sounded pleased with herself. "Pretty sure the Empire's going to be holding a dog-fighting ring tonight, somewhere. I'm thinking we find a foot-soldier and shake him down until he gives with the deets, then crash the party."
Sophia grinned. "Perfect."
As they prepared to leave the park, Emma looked up at the powersuit's glowing eyes and raised her eyebrows in silent query. Do you think that went well?
In response, the massive metal shoulders shifted up and down in a shrug. I dunno. Wait and see.
Sophia was their friend. They owed her that much.
Armsmaster
Colin looked up from the latest iteration of his halberd as the screen over the workbench dinged with an incoming alert. He selected the ACCEPT option from his helmet HUD and leaned over the halberd again. "Yes?"
"Armsmaster, this is Lieutenant Harris. You asked to be copied in on any other incidents similar to the 'woman of stone' situation with Uber and Leet?"
"Yes, yes, I did. You have something?" He put the micro-probe down and straightened up to face the screen. The halberd could wait.
"We do. About thirty minutes ago, a woman and a man stepped into traffic in the Downtown area, right in front of a pickup truck. The driver was unable to avoid a collision. He hit the man square on, and the woman took a glancing blow."
"And the result?" Colin saw images incoming to his helmet, and blinked to accept them.
"The man bounced off his fender like a rubber ball, but the woman destroyed the panelling all the way down the side of the truck. It's like he scraped it past a telephone pole. What witness statements we have indicate that the woman didn't move at all."
"That fits, yes. Do we have any actual descriptions of the people involved?" Unconsciously, he leaned forward as he listened for the reply from the PRT officer on the screen. The photos opened up in his HUD, showing the wreckage of the side panels.
"Just a petite woman or a tall girl, and a taller man. They left the scene before anyone could get a name, or even take a picture. The driver said she had dark hair and was wearing white from head to toe, but none of the CCTV images we've been able to gather show anyone with that colour combination."
Colin thought back to the previous incident. That girl had been wearing white, too. The chances of it being the same one were getting better all the time. "Thank you anyway. Send me the final report, please. I'd appreciate it."
"Roger that, sir. Harris, out." The screen went blank again.
Thoughtfully, Colin put the images up on the screen and began to study them in detail. There was minimal damage shown to the pickup's fender, where the man had reportedly bounced off it, but Harris hadn't been overly exaggerating when he said the side-panels had been destroyed. Some had been torn off altogether, while others were just horribly bent inward. Even the wing-mirror had been ripped off and lay some distance behind the point where the pickup had stopped. That's probably where she was standing.
He went over the footage that had also been sent through but as Harris had noted, there were no girls in white showing up on it. There were a few with dark hair, and some tall men, but no white clothing in evidence.
Activating a second screen, he roughed out a 3D model of the street, then activated a program designed to place the various elements on it to recreate the scene. While he was working out the viewpoints shown by the various CCTV cameras, the first screen dinged again with a notification.
A witness has placed Blockade of The Real Thing almost directly across the road at the time of the incident – Harris.
That was definitely something. Leaving the computer to work out the final placement of the cameras, he called up the number Firebird had supplied as a contact. There was none for Blockade or even Shadow Stalker, but it would do for the moment.
Let's see what we have with this.
Firebird
The bulk and heft of the Blockade armour might have made it difficult for Madison to get it into buildings with low ceilings, or onto rooftops, but it was tailor-made for intimidating the absolute fuck out of gangland lowlives. Emma knew the classic trope involved dangling them off rooftops until they spilled their guts, but some of these guys weighed a lot more than she did, and she didn't want to be faced with the choice of letting go or falling with them. She didn't want to accidentally kill them, after all.
Sophia had actually suggested something of the sort, only with two of them holding the guy, but somehow Emma suspected that wouldn't be nearly as scary. However, when Madison gripped the asshole's ankles with one metallic hand and hoisted him up until his head was dangling a good six feet off the grimy asphalt of the alleyway, he hastened to talk. Emma personally suspected it was the glowing red eyes and the robotic tone Madison affected that really loosened his tongue.
The location and time of the upcoming dogfight were just two of the details that they got from the babbling mook. Emma took note of the rest, because it was all useful data, but they could only deal with one thing at a time. After he ran dry, Madison began to lower him to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma noticed Sophia loading her crossbow.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed, moving so the guy wouldn't see what her teammate was up to. "He answered our questions!"
"And now he'll run straight to Kaiser and tell him what's going on!" Sophia whispered back. "I'll just nail him to the wall for a few hours."
"And the next guy'll refuse to talk to us altogether." Emma couldn't believe Sophia didn't get this. "Anyway, he won't say a word."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "And you know this how?"
Emma waited until fading footsteps heralded the exit of their interrogation target. "Because what idiot goes to the boss and says he's just spilled the beans on everything he knows about? Trust me; he saw nothing, he heard nothing, he said nothing. If he admits to speaking to us, he's dead."
The crossbow went away again, but Sophia gave Emma a dirty look. "I sure hope you're right about this. If we show up at that dogfight and find the whole Empire Eighty-Eight cape lineup waiting on us, it's gonna suck giant stinky elephant balls."
"Don't worry, Shadow Stalker," Madison jibed. "I'll protect you from those mean old Empire Eighty-Eight capes."
Just as Sophia gave the looming powersuit the finger, Emma's phone rang. "Hang on, I've got to take this." Stepping away from the other two, she pulled out her burner phone and looked at the number. It wasn't familiar to her, but she swiped the accept icon anyway. "Hello?"
"Hello, Firebird." She recognised the voice at once. "Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Armsmaster, hi," she replied, raising her voice slightly so her teammates could hear. "Sure. How can I help?"
"I was hoping to ask Blockade a few questions. There was a traffic accident on Leland Street about half an hour ago, and witness statements place him across the road at the time. Could you put him on?"
"We're currently out and about," Emma hedged, "but I can put the phone on speaker. One second." She tapped the appropriate icon, and gestured to Madison. "Blockade? It's for you."
"Blockade here," Madison said promptly. "What's the problem?"
"Did you witness a traffic accident on Leland Street half an hour ago? More specifically, did you happen to see who was involved?"
Sophia opened her mouth and Emma frowned, making a slashing cut-off motion with her free hand. She knew damn well what Sophia intended to say—Yeah, that was Taylor Hebert—and was quite willing to cut the call if she had to.
Madison, however, forestalled the danger by reaching down and wrapping her entire hand around Sophia's head, gagging her quite effectively. "Yes, I was in that location," she said as though nothing untoward were happening. "However, I was looking in a different direction when it happened. By the time I realised what was going on, I couldn't see who had caused it. The driver's airbags had functioned adequately and he was entirely unharmed, so I chose not to make a nuisance out of myself by blocking traffic."
There was a pause at the other end. "Ahh. Understood. Well, thank you for that."
Emma watched with mild bemusement as a wildly struggling Sophia went to smoke form and back again without managing to free herself. "Was there anything else we could help you with, Armsmaster?"
"No, that's it for the time being," he said with barely concealed disappointment. "Thank you for your time."
"You're welcome." She cut the call.
As Emma was putting her phone away, Madison released Sophia. "What the fuck?" blazed the ex-vigilante. "What did you do to your suit?"
"What do you mean, what did I do to it?" Madison managed to sound almost affronted. "My suit is working entirely within specs."
"I mean, I couldn't ghost through it!" Sophia glared at Madison, as though trying (and failing) to figure out how to kick the ass of an eight-foot-tall human-piloted robot. "How did you do that?"
"It's made from good steel," Madison explained patiently. "It doesn't let anything pass through it. I formulated it better than that."
"Steel doesn't work like that!" It was a screech of righteous outrage.
"Well, no. Steel doesn't. But good steel does." Madison's tone was as matter-of-fact as someone explaining that things fall down, water makes things wet, and the sky is occasionally blue.
"Argh!" Sophia kicked out at a stray tin can lying inoffensively nearby. It clattered and banged as it bounced off down the alleyway. "Tinkertech is such fucking bullshit!"
"No argument there." Emma made sure not to so much as crack a smile, no matter how funny she found it. "But how about we go after the Empire instead of each other?"
It was precisely the right thing to say. Sophia cracked her knuckles. "Let's fuckin' do that."
"Let's go kick ass and take names."
"Names?" asked Emma rhetorically. "Who needs their names?"
End of Part Fifteen
Part Fifteen: Agreements and Confrontations
[A/N: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Taylor
The car ride home was quiet and introspective on both sides. Taylor didn't know what thoughts were going through her father's head, but she had enough of her own to worry about, given that her rash actions had come close to killing him, and had nearly wrecked the pickup. Was it wrong that she barely even considered the latter as a problem? If Dad hadn't been there and I'd been hit … would I have cared, or just kept going?
That was something to worry about. Just because I can wreck something, doesn't mean I should. Winslow being a prime example.
Not that she was about to regret the destruction of the school. Certainly, it had been a mostly impulsive act, but as far as she was concerned, it was entirely justified. If they'd wanted her to not destroy it, then they shouldn't have let people bully her in it to the point that she got powers.
Anyway, I didn't wreck it. It was in perfectly good condition until I let it go. Not my fault it couldn't stick the landing.
Just for a moment, she wished she could've seen Principal Blackwell's face when she saw the news. Or better yet, when she saw the rubble first-hand. Fuck her and the power trip she rode in on.
"Taylor?"
Jolted out of her reverie, she looked around. "Yeah, Dad?"
"I'm thinking perhaps it might not be a bad idea for us to work out some rules for you to follow when you do go out as a cape."
She blinked and stared at him, wondering how he'd managed to read her mind. For some reason, she'd assumed he was thinking 'Dad' thoughts, to do with paying bills and other boring adult business. Apparently not.
"Rules?" she asked cautiously. "What sort of rules?"
When she didn't shut him down entirely, he seemed to relax a little. "Well, basic ones, such as not breaking things that really don't need to be broken, like buildings. Oh, and cars, too. Throwing cars might be a superhero trope, but every car belongs to someone and it might be their sole means of getting to work. And also being careful when you're dealing with people. They're a lot more breakable than cars and buildings, even if they're bad guys."
That all seemed fairly straightforward. "Well, I wasn't about to go on a roaring rampage of destruction," she pointed out. "Or go around to Emma's house and punch her in the face."
"Good, good," he said agreeably. "Glad to see that's still the plan. Or not the plan, as the case may be."
"It's still a little bit annoying that Principal Blackwell's version of events says that I wasn't even locked in the locker." She thumped her head against the headrest. "It makes me look stupid, and might even weaken the lawsuit if their lawyer leans on it hard enough. That's why I wanted to talk to Blockade and get his side of things. I mean, if he fronts up and says, 'your honour, that locker was definitely locked when I tore it open', they've gotta pay attention, right?"
"Well, I know I'd pay attention if some guy in an eight-foot-tall power-suit testified to that sort of thing," Danny agreed. "It wasn't a bad plan. Your execution needed refining, was all."
She rolled her eyes. "I already said I was sorry for running out into traffic and nearly wrecking that guy's pickup."
"You did," agreed Danny. "But saying sorry to me doesn't pay for the thousands of dollars' worth of panel damage. Now, his insurance will probably cover it, especially as he wasn't breaking the road rules as far as I can tell. But he's still got to pay the excess, which is probably going to knock his finances around. Bottom line: you didn't totally wreck his life, but he is going to be affected by this for some time to come. If we can manage to avoid this as much as possible in future, that'll be a good thing."
Taylor thought about that. He was making some reasonable points, and he wasn't saying anything she could actually argue with. "I was half expecting you to say I needed to mow lawns or something until I'd earned the money to pay him back," she confessed.
"I could have led with that," he agreed. "But you're mature for your age, and you've acknowledged where you went wrong. Forcing you to perform punitive chores over and above the grounding wouldn't actually fix anything, and it would risk outing you as a parahuman. I'd prefer not to go down that road, thanks."
"Well, I'll definitely try not to do it again," she assured him.
He smiled. "I'd appreciate that. I don't have all that much hair left, and it can only take so much stress. However ..." He paused for a moment. "Have you thought about joining the Wards? Just as a suggestion?"
She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he had her welfare in mind, that it wasn't an attempt to shirk his responsibilities as a father. Also, he'd phrased it as a suggestion, not an ultimatum.
"Two reasons why not," she said. "First, once they did power testing and figured out that yes, it was me who improved Winslow's overall look considerably, they'd have us both over a barrel. I'm suspecting they'd take away all option for me to leave the Wards until they were done with me, or alternatively hit you with legal penalties until you agreed to sign me into the program for the foreseeable future. Also, I'm pretty sure that would sink the lawsuit for good."
He pursed his lips as he drove, tilting his head in a thoughtful manner. "That's a very good reason. What was your second one?"
She shrugged. "I just got out of one high school drama-filled hellhole. Going to Arcadia, I'm likely to encounter another, if not as horrific. Why would I voluntarily expose myself to a third one, this one with powers attached?"
"Ah. Good point." He nodded in agreement. "Wards, off the table. Understood."
"Good." She leaned back in her seat. "Thanks for being understanding."
"Hey," he said lightly. "I might not be the greatest dad in the world, but I'll always try to be there for you."
Closing her eyes, she smiled. "I know."
<><>
An Inner-City Park
Firebird
"What the hell?" Still costumed up, as were Emma and Madison, Sophia glared at the both of them. "Why'd you wrap up the patrol?" She took a step closer to Emma, fists clenched. "Is this more bullshit about how you're the team leader now, so you get to give us stupid orders whenever you want?"
Emma knew damn well that trying to tell Sophia to calm down would invariably have the exact opposite result, so she did no such thing. Glancing around, she decided that the inevitable rubberneckers were too far away to hear what they were saying. Might as well just say it.
"Shadow Stalker," she said formally, "Blockade and I are concerned about you. We want to talk to you about things you've been doing and saying. Can we maybe go back to Blockade's workshop so we can chat out of costume?"
At that moment, she felt most strongly the lack of a classic superhero base. Having a location they could gather out of costume to talk frankly about cape matters without worrying about eavesdroppers was always a good thing. The closest thing they had in that regard was the abandoned warehouse Madison was using for her Tinkering, and that was somewhat lacking in creature comforts, not to mention uncomfortably warm when she was doing her good-steel pours.
"Why bother de-costuming?" Sophia snarked. "Pick a rooftop, any rooftop."
"That's not a good option for me." Madison wasn't protesting; she was stating a fact. Putting the ball back in Sophia's court. It wasn't that she couldn't get her suit up onto any given rooftop. The jump jets would see to that. The simple fact was, weighing in at four tons, she would be in danger of falling through any given rooftop, and they were all fully aware of it.
"Yeah?" Sophia gave the suit a derisive look. "Seems to me that's a 'you' problem, not a 'me' problem. If you could pull your head out of your butt long enough to build something lightweight, you wouldn't have this issue."
The bulky suit took a step forward. "You know that's not how my power works. Why are you being so difficult?"
Sophia twitched her head as though she were rolling her eyes behind the hockey mask. "Why are you being such pissy little snowflakes? You wanted to talk to me about Hebert, right?"
Emma looked around again. Their audience was still keeping its distance, but she couldn't guarantee that there weren't any high-tech microphones or Thinker powers being directed at them. "Her, yes," she conceded.
Sophia shrugged. "Then there's nothing to talk about. She's going down. We all know she's going down. You two weak sisters can wimp out all you like, but it's gonna happen."
"Okay, can we just take a step back here?" asked Madison. "Why? What's the endgame? What do you get out of this? What's the payoff?"
Sophia gave Madison's suit a look, her head-tilt expressing the puzzled surprise that Emma just knew Sophia was showing on her face. "Not sure what you're asking there, short stuff. I just told you what the payoff is. Hebert's going down."
"Yes, but why?" Emma tried to make the question sound as reasonable as possible. "What's the point?"
The expression Emma could see through the hockey mask now that Sophia was looking at her was reminiscent of a fifth grader trying to understand quantum theory; the words were all there, but she couldn't understand the order they'd been placed in. "What do you mean, why? The point of all this has always been to fuck with Hebert. But now she's happy, and she's got good powers, and she doesn't deserve any of that shit."
"But why doesn't she deserve it?" Madison was somehow able to tune her modulator to match Emma's reasonable tone. "We don't lose anything from it. We could just walk away. Be heroes. Leave her be."
"She doesn't deserve it, because she's Hebert," insisted Sophia, as though explaining how two plus two inevitably equalled four. "She deserves to be down in the dirt. We had her there. But we took our eye off the ball, and she got up again. She's pretending she's got a right to walk around with her head in the air, like she's better than everyone. She's acting like she deserves to have powers. Well, somebody needs to show her just how wrong she is, and that somebody is me."
This was getting nowhere. "You're too close to this," Emma said. "You're treating it like a zero-sum game, like her winning equals you losing. What if it wasn't like that? What if her success didn't affect you?"
Sophia shook her head. "You're not making any sense. Hebert is a loser. We're winners. We're strong. The strong belong on top. The weak deserve to be kept down. I thought I taught you that."
Emma hid a grimace as she remembered acting on those very words. Why did I even take that seriously? There was no way she would consider acting like that now.
"Bullshit." Fortunately, Madison had her exterior speakers turned to the lowest volume. "We're heroes. Heroes help everyone." She left the rest of it unspoken, but Emma heard it just fine: The ones who push people down are the villains.
It seemed Sophia had also heard the subtext, because she tilted her head slightly. "You really think we should back off on Hebert?"
Emma nodded, feeling a surge of hope. Holy shit, she's actually listening. "I really do. In fact, I think we should reconsider the whole thing. I mean, what's she ever done to us?"
"Also, if that power we saw was any indication, she's strong," Madison added helpfully. "Not weak at all. That makes her one of us instead of one of them, right?"
"… huh." Sophia rubbed her chin under the hockey mask. "Maybe we can back off for a bit until I've got this figured out." She raised a finger. "But she's not off the hook, not yet."
"That's all I ask." Emma let out her breath in a silent sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "Just think it over, okay?"
"I can do that." Sophia glanced from Madison to Emma and back again. "Still, we haven't kicked any ass today yet. How about we go find a Merchant drug den or something? I want to fuck up some deserving asshole's day."
"I can do one better than that." Madison sounded pleased with herself. "Pretty sure the Empire's going to be holding a dog-fighting ring tonight, somewhere. I'm thinking we find a foot-soldier and shake him down until he gives with the deets, then crash the party."
Sophia grinned. "Perfect."
As they prepared to leave the park, Emma looked up at the powersuit's glowing eyes and raised her eyebrows in silent query. Do you think that went well?
In response, the massive metal shoulders shifted up and down in a shrug. I dunno. Wait and see.
Sophia was their friend. They owed her that much.
<><>
Armsmaster
Colin looked up from the latest iteration of his halberd as the screen over the workbench dinged with an incoming alert. He selected the ACCEPT option from his helmet HUD and leaned over the halberd again. "Yes?"
"Armsmaster, this is Lieutenant Harris. You asked to be copied in on any other incidents similar to the 'woman of stone' situation with Uber and Leet?"
"Yes, yes, I did. You have something?" He put the micro-probe down and straightened up to face the screen. The halberd could wait.
"We do. About thirty minutes ago, a woman and a man stepped into traffic in the Downtown area, right in front of a pickup truck. The driver was unable to avoid a collision. He hit the man square on, and the woman took a glancing blow."
"And the result?" Colin saw images incoming to his helmet, and blinked to accept them.
"The man bounced off his fender like a rubber ball, but the woman destroyed the panelling all the way down the side of the truck. It's like he scraped it past a telephone pole. What witness statements we have indicate that the woman didn't move at all."
"That fits, yes. Do we have any actual descriptions of the people involved?" Unconsciously, he leaned forward as he listened for the reply from the PRT officer on the screen. The photos opened up in his HUD, showing the wreckage of the side panels.
"Just a petite woman or a tall girl, and a taller man. They left the scene before anyone could get a name, or even take a picture. The driver said she had dark hair and was wearing white from head to toe, but none of the CCTV images we've been able to gather show anyone with that colour combination."
Colin thought back to the previous incident. That girl had been wearing white, too. The chances of it being the same one were getting better all the time. "Thank you anyway. Send me the final report, please. I'd appreciate it."
"Roger that, sir. Harris, out." The screen went blank again.
Thoughtfully, Colin put the images up on the screen and began to study them in detail. There was minimal damage shown to the pickup's fender, where the man had reportedly bounced off it, but Harris hadn't been overly exaggerating when he said the side-panels had been destroyed. Some had been torn off altogether, while others were just horribly bent inward. Even the wing-mirror had been ripped off and lay some distance behind the point where the pickup had stopped. That's probably where she was standing.
He went over the footage that had also been sent through but as Harris had noted, there were no girls in white showing up on it. There were a few with dark hair, and some tall men, but no white clothing in evidence.
Activating a second screen, he roughed out a 3D model of the street, then activated a program designed to place the various elements on it to recreate the scene. While he was working out the viewpoints shown by the various CCTV cameras, the first screen dinged again with a notification.
A witness has placed Blockade of The Real Thing almost directly across the road at the time of the incident – Harris.
That was definitely something. Leaving the computer to work out the final placement of the cameras, he called up the number Firebird had supplied as a contact. There was none for Blockade or even Shadow Stalker, but it would do for the moment.
Let's see what we have with this.
<><>
Firebird
The bulk and heft of the Blockade armour might have made it difficult for Madison to get it into buildings with low ceilings, or onto rooftops, but it was tailor-made for intimidating the absolute fuck out of gangland lowlives. Emma knew the classic trope involved dangling them off rooftops until they spilled their guts, but some of these guys weighed a lot more than she did, and she didn't want to be faced with the choice of letting go or falling with them. She didn't want to accidentally kill them, after all.
Sophia had actually suggested something of the sort, only with two of them holding the guy, but somehow Emma suspected that wouldn't be nearly as scary. However, when Madison gripped the asshole's ankles with one metallic hand and hoisted him up until his head was dangling a good six feet off the grimy asphalt of the alleyway, he hastened to talk. Emma personally suspected it was the glowing red eyes and the robotic tone Madison affected that really loosened his tongue.
The location and time of the upcoming dogfight were just two of the details that they got from the babbling mook. Emma took note of the rest, because it was all useful data, but they could only deal with one thing at a time. After he ran dry, Madison began to lower him to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma noticed Sophia loading her crossbow.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed, moving so the guy wouldn't see what her teammate was up to. "He answered our questions!"
"And now he'll run straight to Kaiser and tell him what's going on!" Sophia whispered back. "I'll just nail him to the wall for a few hours."
"And the next guy'll refuse to talk to us altogether." Emma couldn't believe Sophia didn't get this. "Anyway, he won't say a word."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "And you know this how?"
Emma waited until fading footsteps heralded the exit of their interrogation target. "Because what idiot goes to the boss and says he's just spilled the beans on everything he knows about? Trust me; he saw nothing, he heard nothing, he said nothing. If he admits to speaking to us, he's dead."
The crossbow went away again, but Sophia gave Emma a dirty look. "I sure hope you're right about this. If we show up at that dogfight and find the whole Empire Eighty-Eight cape lineup waiting on us, it's gonna suck giant stinky elephant balls."
"Don't worry, Shadow Stalker," Madison jibed. "I'll protect you from those mean old Empire Eighty-Eight capes."
Just as Sophia gave the looming powersuit the finger, Emma's phone rang. "Hang on, I've got to take this." Stepping away from the other two, she pulled out her burner phone and looked at the number. It wasn't familiar to her, but she swiped the accept icon anyway. "Hello?"
"Hello, Firebird." She recognised the voice at once. "Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Armsmaster, hi," she replied, raising her voice slightly so her teammates could hear. "Sure. How can I help?"
"I was hoping to ask Blockade a few questions. There was a traffic accident on Leland Street about half an hour ago, and witness statements place him across the road at the time. Could you put him on?"
"We're currently out and about," Emma hedged, "but I can put the phone on speaker. One second." She tapped the appropriate icon, and gestured to Madison. "Blockade? It's for you."
"Blockade here," Madison said promptly. "What's the problem?"
"Did you witness a traffic accident on Leland Street half an hour ago? More specifically, did you happen to see who was involved?"
Sophia opened her mouth and Emma frowned, making a slashing cut-off motion with her free hand. She knew damn well what Sophia intended to say—Yeah, that was Taylor Hebert—and was quite willing to cut the call if she had to.
Madison, however, forestalled the danger by reaching down and wrapping her entire hand around Sophia's head, gagging her quite effectively. "Yes, I was in that location," she said as though nothing untoward were happening. "However, I was looking in a different direction when it happened. By the time I realised what was going on, I couldn't see who had caused it. The driver's airbags had functioned adequately and he was entirely unharmed, so I chose not to make a nuisance out of myself by blocking traffic."
There was a pause at the other end. "Ahh. Understood. Well, thank you for that."
Emma watched with mild bemusement as a wildly struggling Sophia went to smoke form and back again without managing to free herself. "Was there anything else we could help you with, Armsmaster?"
"No, that's it for the time being," he said with barely concealed disappointment. "Thank you for your time."
"You're welcome." She cut the call.
As Emma was putting her phone away, Madison released Sophia. "What the fuck?" blazed the ex-vigilante. "What did you do to your suit?"
"What do you mean, what did I do to it?" Madison managed to sound almost affronted. "My suit is working entirely within specs."
"I mean, I couldn't ghost through it!" Sophia glared at Madison, as though trying (and failing) to figure out how to kick the ass of an eight-foot-tall human-piloted robot. "How did you do that?"
"It's made from good steel," Madison explained patiently. "It doesn't let anything pass through it. I formulated it better than that."
"Steel doesn't work like that!" It was a screech of righteous outrage.
"Well, no. Steel doesn't. But good steel does." Madison's tone was as matter-of-fact as someone explaining that things fall down, water makes things wet, and the sky is occasionally blue.
"Argh!" Sophia kicked out at a stray tin can lying inoffensively nearby. It clattered and banged as it bounced off down the alleyway. "Tinkertech is such fucking bullshit!"
"No argument there." Emma made sure not to so much as crack a smile, no matter how funny she found it. "But how about we go after the Empire instead of each other?"
It was precisely the right thing to say. Sophia cracked her knuckles. "Let's fuckin' do that."
"Let's go kick ass and take names."
"Names?" asked Emma rhetorically. "Who needs their names?"
End of Part Fifteen
This does remind me of the "avoiding collateral damage" talk Maxima gave Sydney in the superhero webcomic Grrl Power. Bits like how cars belong to people, but also if you can throw a car you can probably punch harder than you can hit with it, how you should assume that whatever you throw (like a car) or shoot might miss and destroy whatever is behind the bad guy, and that buildings are both often full of people and generally really aren't all that tough by super-strength standards.
A point she made that does apply to Taylor's powerset is that if she's going to smack bad guys around, the safest direction is straight down. First because there's probably nobody there to get hurt or killed; second because anything down there is almost certainly either owned by the government or nobody at all, not by easily impoverished private citizens. And third, because smacking somebody into a planet hurts them a lot more than smacking them into a building. If Taylor punches Hookwolf into a building he'd probably go right on through without much more than annoyance; if she smashed him straight down hard enough to embed him in bedrock or the aquifer, he'd be in a bit of a pickle.
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KillerFish
Grumpy Owl, Bird Lawyer
Sophia's so far off the deep end, she's swimming mid Atlantic, but I'm sure this will have no negative repurcusions whatsoever!
- Location
- Australia
She's sure of that too ...
- Location
- Bosnia
It sounds a little bit like The Good Stuff that Saurial uses.
Kaernetron
Feuergeist
- Location
- Weit, Weit dort Oben
Could also be a precursor alloy to Warsteel (because it wasn't forged in wrath). Disrupting breaker powers is somewthing I can see warsteel doing.
Heh, it would be funny if she spends all night trying and failing to kill Taylor, and the latter never even wakes up because Sophia's just that ineffectual against her.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I don't know why, but I got some serious Yechnus "That doesn't go there!" vibes from Sophia's incredulity over Madison's goodsteel blocking her shadow state. I was initially thinking it was just electronics in the suit.