Team Moms or Team MILFs?
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife,
@hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend
@SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas
@Tamahori and
@32nd_freeze and
@Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates!
Enjoy!
Power Play
8.9
-.-.-
"Remind me why -" Carol definitely did not hiccup because that would be rude, "- why we agreed to this again?"
"Because with our daughters becoming…
involved with one another," Lilith put down the word
bards to the end of
car, making
cars, the B of
bards on the mid-left triple-word tile, "I thought we should -"
"Is that
really the best you could do for triple word?" Sarah peered at the board before frowning and looking down at her own tiles. "... better than mine."
"Unfortunately." Lilith sighed, digging in the bag for fresh tiles. "But as I was saying - I thought we should get to know each other as… people. Rather than capes."
"Which is why you're still wearing your mask."
Manipulative.
"While the walls between my identity and my career are barely more than a polite fiction, they are still there, for what little it's worth." Lilith sighed longingly. "I would very much like to remove it, but it would bring those walls down. It
itches something fierce."
"Ah, body glue?" Carol remembered that feeling from early in her career. Back when wardrobe malfunctions were something she worried about on a frequent basis, before having a child had made her revise her costume to cover more of the parts of herself she hated. "It's better to buy from the art shops than the adult stores."
"Oh?" Lilith raised an eyebrow as Sarah played
scorch. "
Oh - because for art -"
"It's
expected to stay on."
"That makes
so much more sense." Lilith leaned down -
for her drink, not a weapon, Amelia already reported the weapons in her arms - and finished her beer. "Urp - pardon. It's been - quite a while since I last drank heavily."
"You only drink on special occasions?" Sarah ventured, while Carol struggled to turn the jumble of letters on her tray into a feasible word.
Lilith let out a very un-ladylike snort. "Goodness, no, I drank every exam season. Teaching
and studying."
For some reason that
did strike Carol as amusing. "Winning a case or dealing with a stressful one."
"I only drink every now and then." Sarah's face turned pink. "It's nice to relax." A pause - "Cider. I only get tipsy, not wine-drunk."
"I miss the days when I was young and could handle the hangover." Lilith lamented, shaking her head and looking to the sky. "Sorority parties, graduation…"
"You - used to be part of Lustrum, right?" Sarah enquired, with just a bit less eloquence than she was usually capable of. Carol frowned and laid
hammer with
bards. "Things wrapped up with her before we really made it onto the scene."
Lilith's finger prodded a tile along the holder in front of her. "... yes. Yes I was part of Lustrum's group." Carol had, obviously, already known that. But there was a difference between knowing and hearing a villain outright admit that she'd been part of a violent terrorist group, with
wistfulness in her voice. "It became a mess, at the end. Too many different ideas and dreams, impossible to co-ordinate action because any co-ordination had you killed or the shit beaten out of you by the authorities. I think it started to become too personal for her as well. Too much about revenge for all the poor girls hurt, guilt and blame and all the rest. By the time that fight with the Chicago and Houston teams happened…"
That wasn't quite how Carol remembered it on the news - though she, more than anyone, was aware of how the PRT could twist
that. Sarah had exaggerated slightly by saying they hadn't been around. They had been - god, it was… just after they'd taken down Marquis that the news about Lustrum's final stand had come in.
Sarah however, sat forward, a glint in her eye. "Did she throw good parties? You heard stuff on the news - "
Lilith smirked, and her posture shifted to something more akin to the one she'd had when talking to the PRT. "Oh
darling, that was one of the few things the newsies got right. Though calling them parties is a bit of an understatement."
"Oh my."
"
Oh my indeed." Lilith leaned forward, purring her words. "Chrissy didn't really drink, or do drugs - well, other than pot, I suppose. So destressing took other, more
salacious forms."
Sarah grinned, and entirely inappropriately waved her arms in the air and quiet-yelled, "Orgies!"
"More like competitive attempts to understand and please and educate a variety of women sexually. Which I suppose could be classed as an orgy."
Carol swallowed. "Wh- ahem. When the PRT shared an intelligence report on you, it was -
noted - that you were one of Lustrum's. Highly ranked lieutenants?"
"Oh
yes," Lilith rested her chin in her hand, looking to Carol with hooded eyes. "Care to find out why~?"
"I'm - I'm married."
"I'm bi."
Sarah, unhelpful bitch that she was, cackled.
"But possibly it would be a little too strange given our daughters' relationship." Her gaze swept over to Sarah. "I could show you I suppose~"
"Make that offer after this crisis is over and I'll see what I can do."
"Sarah!"
"What?"
"Sounds like you girls have had a bit too much to drink." Neil was approaching with a raised eyebrow and one arm held gingerly.
"
Oh my." Lilith reared back in her seat, one hand over her chest as Carol openly gaped at the woman
checking out her sister's husband. "This crisis can't end soon enough."
"
Lilith!" Carol hissed. Quietly. Wait - why was she doing that again?
"Sorry, ma'am. I'm afraid I'm married."
"Who do you think made the suggestion?~"
Neil simply turned to look at Sarah, who was laughing so hard she was pounding the table and struggling to breathe. "I see where your daughter gets it."
Well if everyone was going to behave like
children - "I believe only
my daughter sees where Lilith's daughter
gets it."
"Oh my god,
Carol!" Sarah gasped, scandalized. "
Ohhhh, it is
so hard watching those three. I swear we should just lock the lot of them in a closet and not let them out until they've at least kissed."
"Hrmmm." Lilith made an almost unhappy noise, draping herself over the back of her chair. "Don't know how I feel about that. It's
good she has someone to love, but. But I'm scared for her."
"Amy's a good kid." Neil patted Lilith's shoulder, ignoring her murmur of '
I bet you give great massages with such strong hands mister Manpower~'. "And Taylor's pretty good too. They'll keep each other afloat, I'm sure."
Lilith nodded. Then grinned. "Let's - lock them in a room together."
"Oh my
god." Carol put her hand over her face. It had been - difficult to discern
which of her daughters Taylor's indiscretion had been with but - Amy and Victoria were
sisters. Not blood sisters not yours never yours - that traitorously paranoid part of her mind spoke up, words muddied by alcohol and music. Along with thoughts she desperately tried to suppress about Neil and her sister together - "We
should. I can't believe I'm going along with this."
"How about - and just hear me out -" Neil held up his big strong hands -
she remembered the words 'manhandle me' being torn from her throat - "We let them figure it out among themselves. I've seen it too, but pushing them isn't going to make it work."
"Honey, where's your sense of
adventure?"
He smiled and leaned down to kiss his wife's forehead -
I want a kiss too - "It took a backseat when yours got overexcited." Sarah made a whining noise and buried her face in his stomach.
"Mmm. Hey. B-Brandish." Lilith's hand slapped over Carol's, held her tightly, wavering in her seat. "I heard your husband is. Had. Has some medical issues. Chemical bran imbalance. Brain."
Carol bristled. "I'm not letting you do anything in this state -"
"Good plan." Lilith nodded, her whole body rocking. "Good plan."
Silence.
"... were you… going to say something?"
"Oh! Yes. Yes. Right." Lilith giggled. She hadn't drunk more since before but it was hitting her so
hard. "Right." She swallowed. "Neurochem. I can do that. Implant or meds."
"And I assume you've
tested this method you want to use on my
husband?"
"Psshhh. Mmmm. Maybe. No. I'm getting
Thoughts on it though, designs and - and." Lilith's head drooped down to the table. "Mmm."
It's like dealing with a drunk Taylor all over again. A family of lightweights?
"Tinkers and alcohol can produce
interesting results." Neil noted. "Should we take her home or…?"
"I think she - has residential quarters. Set up here." Carol nodded slowly. "I can't drive." That wasn't right. "Like this."
"We know." Neil smiled, patted her head and she couldn't help but lean into it. Just like Sarah was on his other side.
"Should we stay?" Sarah perked up. "We're not -
allies, per se, but - as long as we're here, they can't.
Do anything."
"By
they, you mean…?"
"Merh." Sarah gestured. "Or the Protectorate, I guess. 'Sides, we're having
fun. Been too long since we did something fun."
"Lilith, do you know if there's enough spare rooms available for all of us?"
"Plen'y o' ma'resses." Lilith mumbled into her arm with a yawn. "Mine's
lonely."
Carol paused, hesitantly. "You've never…?"
"An' bring someone in that could hurt
my daughter?" Lilith raised her head blearily. "No… no no no, never. Never risk her. Never. Can't - can't do that now. Can't save her. My Little Owl is -" she sniffled, "She's big owl now. Doesn' - doesn't need the nest anymore." She gestured over to where the girl in question was boisterously snuggling up to Amelia, much to the healer's chagrin. "Makin' her
own nest now."
"Speaking of nests," Neil picked up Lilith, who made a noise that was both startled and indecent at the same time, "If you three want to curl up in bed like the old days -"
"
Oh my~" Lilith purred, draping her arm over Neil's neck. "Tha' soundsh…" she blinked a few times and her head lolled forward. A cut-off snore came from her moments later. "Mmmm… up… s'upstairs. Red on the door, shecon' - second right."
Carol got to her feet unsteadily - times like this she wasn't sure if she was glad or not that flying wasn't one of her powers. Sarah didn't seem to have any issue floating after her husband. Maybe she could cheat with her power too - just. Become an orb in Lilith's lap and come out when it was safe. Or they'd stopped moving.
She finished her wine and stumbled after Neil, using her sister to keep herself upright. There was definitely a slope to the ground here. Yes.
Lilith's bedroom was surprisingly sparse. Just a bed, dresser, makeup station, and sewing bench with discarded costume pieces draped across it. And two beds? "Tha' one's Sherrel's. When sh' uses it." Lilith waved her arm in the direction of the wall. "
This one - mine." Neil put her down and she crawled over the covers, tossing away her mask and bits of costume as she squirmed under the covers like a snake. "C-care to join -" her flirt was interrupted by a yawn - "Mmh. Join me~?"
-.-.-
"Y'know, for a party in the middle of a gang war…" I started, stretching as we walked back to the main building, "That was surprisingly… fun and non-violent."
"Yeah." Victoria snickered. "And if we ever see Barnes again, we can mention
Magical Girl Doggy Dick and see if she gets the reference!"
Amy had needed to explain that one for me. And
oh boy did that give me some new uncomfortable knowledge about Emma.
Everyone was sort of beginning to drift off now - half the Dockworkers had gone home, half of New Wave was… somewhere that wasn't the Scrabble table, and the only reason I wasn't worried more was because I knew I had a room here. "Diiiid anybody see where Team Moms went?"
"Think they drifted off inside maybe?" Crystal took a swig from a bottle that was, in her own words, 'probably not beer, eyy'. "More fun for us without the adults hanging over our shoulders."
I bit my lip.
"Taylor, whatever you're thinking,
no."
"You don't even know what I'm thinking about!"
Victoria poked my shoulder. "I know that look."
"Three things it could be." Amy held up her hand, middle three fingers up. "Sex." Middle finger down. "Violence." Pointer down. "Alcohol." Ring finger down.
"... um."
Crystal let out a shriek of laughter. "She was
right!"
"I mean - I know I get plastered easily by proxy, but what if we just - didn't do it by proxy?" I tried for a helpless grin and a shrug, not sure anybody bought it.
"Nah. I'd be down for some violence though. Like - what actually got
done today? Sure Mom and Aunt Sarah got to relax, and this party was cool, but the PRT still did… whatever they were doing, and the Empire's still out there." Victoria sighed. "Ugh. Sorry. Having one of my fighty moods."
"I mean." I shrugged. "Nazis
are a problem we could fix." I bit my lip again. "And… though you might get in trouble if
you went out…" I looked over to where the armwrestler Beasties were curled up on the ground, control caps on the table just
waiting for someone to have a go. "The Empire's already started grudge matches with
Eden…"
"Are we really going to use a tinker's tech without them around to provide maintenance and instruction?" Victoria frowned. "That seems like it could go wrong very quickly."
"I can help. I'm… familiar enough with how some of it works from Taylor." Amy sipped on her orange juice. The orange juice I was roughly
ninety percent sure was just orange juice.
"Heck yeah!" Crystal threw her hands up like I'd seen Aunt Sarah do earlier. "Let's do it!"
"Alright." I grinned widely. "Let's get these guys inside and we can start working on them. Oh - Victoria, that reminds me, I had a uh. A theory, earlier, about why my power works between bodies, but it needs some testing."
"You -" Victoria paused in midair, floating after us. "Just to be clear. You want to make powered Beasties."
"I mean - I've got a Corona whatever in both bodies, but I don't think the Beasties do by default…?" I looked to Amy, who shook her head. "If we put one in, maybe it'll… y'know. Do the thing."
"Corona Gemmas aren't just plug and play." Amy pointed out, putting her hand on the hide of - what was this one called… "Yours are
similar, but there are subtle differences and I don't know enough about how they work or how your power works to say what difference it makes in the expression of it. So if we wanted to have a Beastie capable of using Victoria's power - I'd have to copy
her Gemma, I think."
Victoria and I shared a look as Amy glared at the both of us. "Should we uh. Give it a shot?" I asked. "Flying Brick Beastie?"
"Lasers!" Crystal cheered.
"I think she's drunk." I whispered to Amy, who just rolled her eyes. "... man, no
wonder Eric thought she was on drugs earlier. She's a bit of a party girl."
"Naahhhh," the (party) girl in question said. "Parties fuckin
blow. Parties where you get to be a giant
monster and beat up Nazis? Hell yeah!"
"Okay -" Amy paused. "Oh. I can't copy my own. So - once again I'll be left out." She sighed.
"Hey. We haven't actually tried
any cape in a Beastie yet, so who knows. We might not need powers, or need you to copy brain stuff." I squeezed her close. "Or matching ones. And if all else fails, we can ask Mom to try to copy yours for you. When she's sober, I guess. Or maybe it won't work at all?"
"You're kind of living proof it
can work." Amy poked me in the ribs.
"Besides, we're uh. Probably going to need someone to keep watch over us while we're out there." Victoria forced a smile. Judging by the way Crystal started looking at her differently, I was going to guess she was pushing her aura a bit as well.
"Fine. Whatever. Do you guys want stuff lethal or not?"
"Probably better to go with
not." Vicky grabbed the control caps and looked one over critically, frowning and muttering about Tinkers being bullshit. "How do we wanna get these inside?"
"Put on a hat, walk them inside and into their tanks, I'd guess." I shrugged. "I… kind of want to see what'd happen if I put a cap on myself, but…"
"Better not to risk it when playing with brainmeats." Crystal took one of the caps from Victoria and put it on her head, legs wrapped round the scales of one of the beasties. "... is there an on button?" Feeling around, flicking something - the Beastie under her jolted and almost knocked her off. "I - think I found it? Wow this is - this is not fun."
I grimaced. "New plan - go inside, sit down, and
then walk it in. Victoria, same for yours."
"And what about me?" Amy folded her arms as the other two girl shrugged and flew inside because they were too lazy to use their legs.
"I'll walk you in," I grinned, offering her my hand.
Together, it felt like the beginning of something beautiful.
