Nuclear Fire - 26
As I fill Long John's bowl with water, my mind wanders to the events of the previous day, and to the revelation I had while following Taylor around:
We lack manpower.
The Mecha-Zerg are all well and good for more generic work like digging or killing, but sometimes you need someone capable of making their own decisions. Someone who can rationalize and work on their feet. With this, I mean that we need more allies with human-levels of intelligence or a close approximation of that.
My first thoughts were the Guardians Yue and Cerberus, or maybe their counterpart Ruby and Spinel. Each one is extremely powerful, easily capable of going one-on-one against most capes, but the amount of time and materials I'd need to create them is staggering.
They are semi-biological creatures, so if I were to create them I'd be talking about weeks of them growing inside a tank. The result would be spectacular without a doubt, but once they're ready it might be too late for them to be of any help.
I need something faster, something strong enough to make a difference when I throw it at our enemies, and independent enough to not need my constant supervision.
I need The Fight.
The Fight isn't just a combat maniac, but a battle engine capable of predicting her opponents, learning from them, identifying weaknesses, and adapting to changing circumstances of the battlefield! Capable of working with my implants and with any melee weapon I put on her hands, she'll be a massive force-multiplier.
And all of that, on top of being a combat maniac!
My mad ramblings get interrupted by Long John walking to me and dropping on his back showing me his tummy.
"Taylor's spoiling you too much," I say while I scratch him, "Who's a good boy? Yes, you are."
Now, where was I? Ah, yes.
The Fight isn't as intelligent as the Guardians who could pass as normal humans, but more of a 'fire and forget' kind of weapon. Because of this I'll need the full version of her, one with a hard-light body who can assist us on the field. And that's easier said than done as I'm running low on the jewelry that Taylor bought for me.
While musing over the importance of supply chains, my stomach announced its desire for food with a growl so loud that Long John barks back at it.
I pick him up and head to the Kitchen, checking the TV on my way and setting my Visor to read the latest news. The big event of the day was the Empire striking back against Lung's newly conquered territories, the internet having been flooded with photos of Hookwolf, Crusader, and Rune battling ABB mooks. The TV is less excited about it, not going in as many details as the PHO thread does, maybe to keep the general public calm.
With a sandwich made and already half-eaten, I march confidently back to the basement when Taylor arrives.
"Mo-ning." I wave at her, my mouth full.
Her reply is a disheartened "Hi" followed by her dropping on the sofa like a puppet with her string cut.
Geez, did Taylor just get replaced by a zombie?
Shit, that's no laughing matter! That could have actually happened!
I take a drink to clear my throat, and as she has claimed the entirety of the sofa for herself I push a chair in front of her, "Hey, what happened?"
Leaning against the soffa, she throws her head up, "I'm not sure." That only makes me more concerned than before.
"What do you mean by that?"
She pushes her hands together, toying with her fingers as she articulates her words. "I think I got complimented?"
Was it a boy? Should I bring a shotgun and give them 'the talk'? "I-- think that's a good thing?"
"Okay. Yes. It is. I think." She shakes her head to push the doubts away and straightens up to look at me. Then she starts the recount of the events, "Some of the girls started asking me about my clothes. I think they were being honest when they told me they liked them, but then they asked me where I had bought them and I made the mistake of telling them I had them made!"
"Why was that a mistake?"
"Because they went crazy after that!" She yells, throwing her fists up in the air, "They started asking how much they had cost me, who my designer was, and half a dozen other stuff that I didn't know how to answer! I made a fool of myself. I was such a blubbering mess! I told them it was a family member and that only made it worse! But what was I supposed to say to any of that?"
Well, Taylor has been taking to Arcadia a different set of clothes each day since the start of the week, all of my design, so it's only natural that someone noticed it, "I'd start by asking them how much they are willing to pay for a dress like yours."
She arcs her eyebrows in disbelief, "Seriously?!"
"Yeah." I shrug, "We can always use more money, and it's not like sewing dresses will take me any time thanks to the scarabs." I filled them with all of Tomoyo's knowledge, and that gave me a good hundred different permutations of dresses without considering colors. If I start feeding them fashion magazines, that number will only go up.
"But how would any of that work? As weird as it was you knowing mine, how will you know their sizes without even meeting them?" She pauses, her eyes narrowing, "Because you aren't meeting them, are you?"
Oh, Taylor of little faith. "No, I'm not. But remember: tinker. I'd just need a full-body photo of them, front and side, to feed into my scarab."
Her face scowls into that look that makes me think she's about to strangle me. "You do realize that you're asking me for photos of my classmates, don't you?"
Does she really think I'll do anything unworthy with them? If I want nudes the internet is full of them, and if I want a girlfriend I'll just build one. "If you think they'll get uncomfortable with the idea, just tell them I'm gay. I mean, they believe I'm a clothes designer, so you're already halfway-- ouch!" I rub the sore spot in the back of my head, "Why did you do that?"
"Don't say stuff like that," And now she's giving me the look of 'I'm screaming inside my head and giving myself a headache in the process'. "That was so not the point, but-- I'll think about that, alright? That's all I promise." She pinches the bridge of her nose, her breath coming in short bursts. Long John is nibbling at her leg, and as she puts him on her lap the tension finally leaves her shoulders, "And how was your day?"
Ah, topic changes. The best way out of an uncomfortable conversation.
"Less exciting than yours, that's for sure. School was normal," Missy and Aisha have been avoiding each other and that brought a measure of peace to everyone, "But I'll need some more resources to keep tinkering. We can go buy them with the money we still have left, or beat-up some gang members and steal their phones."
"Oh, my, I wonder what option I'll pick." Taylor laughs. "I have homework to do so give me a couple of hours, but after that we're going out."
During the morning, the hit-and-run attacks launched by the E88 dispersed after Oni Lee and Lung arrived at the scene, but not before causing as much damage as possible.
And there was a lot of it.
The Empire capes focused their attacks on non-white neighborhoods, and even if the civilian casualties were kept low -small mercy that- the material damage is off the charts. Bullets were shot, Molotov cocktails were hurled, and several buildings were set on fire.
Another small mercy is that Kaiser has kept his aim set at the Dock and has avoided Merchant territory, maybe not wanting to open himself to another front. The Wards have also been kept on reserve with no sighting of them so far. With this, I hope that Aisha and Missy remain safe. They have to. After Taylor, they are the only friends I have here.
"I have a couple of looters across the street," I inform Taylor, who's busy collecting her swarm.
"Yes, I see them."
Now, with the sun starting to set, the gangs have retreated to lick their wounds leaving the disenfranchised to roam around. Our current target is a band of teenagers looting the shops damaged in the crossfire and abandoned by their proper owners.
Mind you, the only reason why we're saving this stuff is that the current target is a furniture store. If these people were trying to rob an electronics store, I'd be fighting them for the right to
repurpose the place.
Not many shops like that around this part of town, sadly.
The first signal that the group of looters receives that something's wrong comes when one of them slaps his face trying to sweep a wasp away. Soon they realize that the one wasp is followed by hundreds, and their screams echo through the empty streets.
They scramble away, abandoning their loot to run faster.
"Should we have captured them?" Taylor asks me once the group is outside the range of her control.
I shrug, "They look just like opportunistic idiots. Scaring them should be enough as long as they don't turn violent." That and I doubt the PRT and Police have the manpower right now to deal with all this, but I don't want to get technical here.
Now, let's see. Did they leave anything of interest behind?
No. Their bags only contain clothes and what seems to be gizmos stolen from a gift shop. We don't even know where that stuff comes from, so we leave it there and move on.
During our patrol, we find would-be muggers, drug dealers trying to set up shop, random vandals, and even more people trying to rob the empty buildings. We deal with all of those, getting some resources for our troubles. We steal the drug dealer's money, and one of the looting groups has some cell phones.
But it's still far too little for the time and effort we're investing here! The moment we think that we're done with one place, something new pops up to divert our attention, making me feel like we're trying to fix a cracking dam with duct tape.
I'm reaching the limit of my patience and I'm about to suggest hanging some people as a deterrent for the rest when Taylor's sense of smell comes once again to our rescue.
"Wounded person." She suddenly announces.
"Where?"
"It's over-- over there?"
The confusion in her voice gets explained once I follow the line of her finger and my visor identifies 2 people. One is the victim, lying flat on the ground, and the other, hovering above him, is someone who I tagged several nights ago: Victoria Dallon. Or Glory Girl, as she's in costume.
Fuck.
Dark, empty buildings loom over the alley where the event took place, blocking the sight of any random onlooker, and as we get closer my visor pings to a cellphone and a distressed call.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up!" Glory Girls cries into her phone, but the only one to answer her is a pre-recorded message informing her that the number is unavailable. She spits a curse and punches the number one more time for the same result.
"What is she doing?" Taylor asks next to me, using the edge of the roof we're standing on as a barrier to block the hero's line of sight.
I don't reply, even if I know the answer: Victoria has once again gone too far and is trying to bring Panacea here to save the life of the guy she almost killed. Of course, the guy's still breathing, so depending on who he is and what he did I'd argue that she hasn't gone far enough.
We teleport to the entrance of the Alley, hoping for an open and non-threatening approach, and from there Taylor waves at the distressed girl.
"Glory Girl! We are-"
Our friendly greeting is ignored with the flying hero descending in front of us like the blow of a hammer, executing a perfect three-point landing in the process.
Did-- did she just do a superhero landing?
I don't have time to make fun of her as I find my air lacking, and my tongue twisting in utter terror.
Is this what her aura feels like? And the PRT publicizes it as just a shaker effect! Bullshit!
"Who are you? What do you want here?"
Why's she doing this? She isn't supposed to be this stupid!
This is bad. This is so bad! I can't breathe. My knees are shaking. I want to run away but my legs don't respond to me.
[Warning: organism submitted to high stress. Compensate?]
Yes, bloody, yes! And do the same for Taylor!
My eyes lose focus for a moment, and the fear remains there, but the pressing nail against my brain turns into a distant ache at the back of my mind.
Now I feel drowsy, also a bit sleepy, and I don't want to even think about the cocktail of drugs that my implants are injecting in my bloodstream to compensate for Glory Girl's aura.
It's not a perfect solution, but at least I can think coherently once again.
So can Taylor, who starts yelling, "Stop doing that!"
If Glory Girl is surprised by her aura not affecting us as much as it should, she doesn't let it show in her face, "I will, the moment you tell me who you are!"
In Taylor's defense, she hasn't swarmed the flying brick with her wasps. A good thing because even without her aura I don't like our odds against her. "We're Ladybug and Tech-Priest!"
The hero blinks in confusion at that, "Lady--" She cuts herself off, her face warping in surprise, "Oh, shit! You're the medical tinkers!" Gone is the rictus of fury, and gone is the pressure over my shoulders as her aura stops affecting us. "I'm sorry!" She floats down, peacefully this time, to get herself to our level. She offers Taylor a hand, but Taylor slaps it away.
"Is this how you treat every new hero you meet?" Taylor asks through clenched teeth. I'd argue that we aren't exactly heroes but that doesn't invalidate her point.
"Look, I'm sorry. It's just that things with the Empire have been getting out of hand and you're kind of dressed like the Nazi flag."
Is she talking about the red and black? Come on, that's an amazingly stupid reason to judge someone! It's not like we carry swastikas around.
Taylor also shares my opinion on the matter. "My name's Ladybug! What other color were you expecting me to wear?!"
Glory GIrl gives us an embarrassed smile as she scratches the back of her head, "Yeah, it's kind of funny in hindsight." Then she floats back and signals at the-- oh, yes, I had forgotten there's a dying man over there. "Hey, can you help me with this?"
I exchange a look with Taylor, who nods at me, and I move on to do my thing. Using the chance to recover the pieces of a broken cell phone below the patient.
In just a moment, my drone confirms what I was already suspecting: legs and ribs are broken, there's some internal bleeding, and he has a concussion. "The patient shows signs of heavy trauma caused by falling from a great height." I dramatically stand up -I always wanted to do that- and stare Glory Girl right in the eyes, "Did you do this?"
She's taken aback by the accusation, and across my visor a warning flashes informing that her aura is active again, "Look, it was an accident!" Wow, she's actually worse than me at lying. That's an accomplishment!
"An accident?" Taylor yells, "How can you accidentally throw a person to his death?! Why shouldn't we call the police?"
"I can bench-press a truck!" Glory Girl argues back. "Sometimes I don't measure my own strength. And yes, I understand I messed up! But, please, this is bigger than me. If this gets out it also affects my family. I don't want this to get back to them."
Shit, what a mess. I kind of understand her point, mistakes happen and our powers can be hard to control.
[Compensating]
Compensating? What is it compensating-- oh, for fuck's sake, now we're under the effect of her awe aura!
"Are you seriously trying to guilt-trip us into hiding your mess?" Boy, does Taylor sound furious.
"What? No, I-"
"Oh, shut up! You're just a coward who doesn't dare to face consequences!"
[Compensating]
Once again I feel drowsy as Glory Girl rises an inch above the ground, just enough to look at the taller Taylor down, and closes her hands into fists. "So you don't like me. Fine. Is this worth letting a person die?" And then she has to go and play that card!
There's a moment of tense stalemate as the two girls look at each other. Would the Dark Coil be able to go through her shield? I doubt it, but even if we can bring it down Glory Girl is still insanely fast and strong.
Thankfully it seems we won't be fighting.
"No. It isn't." Taylor says after a moment of consideration, her radiating anger almost palpable as she turns to me, "Heal him."
"As you wish," I shrug, starting the healing process. Unlike the patients at the hospital, this time I order my drone to use minimal sedatives so the guy wakes up the moment the process is done. "But just so you know this person is an Empire member." I know that from his shaved head and nazi symbols tattoed over his skin.
"Yes, he is." Glory Girl confirms, "I was interrogating him to find out the location of the rest of his band, but then things got out of control."
"You can bench-press a truck. How can you lose control of a normal human?" Damn, Taylor, chill! Don't antagonize the human cargo plane!
"I squeezed too hard, he screamed, and I accidentally let go."
"And now you're using us to hide it." If the venom in Taylor's words were turned real, I doubt that even Glory Girl's shield would be of use against it, "So much for New Wave's famous accountability, isn't it? And couldn't you have just brought him to the police?"
"From a legal standpoint being an 'independent hero' is little better than being a vigilante." Glory Girl explains while massaging her forehead, "If I don't catch them in the act, my hands are tied. That's why I wanted the location of their safe house because any confession I get out of him he can later claim I got under duress. Yes, I did read the PRT procedures manual."
"So much for the blonde stereotype. Small mercy that."
"Okay, that's enough you two!" I yell before things can keep escalating, "Can you at least tell us what he did?" That's the important part.
Glory Girl takes a deep breath to compose herself, "He set a house on fire with the family still inside, after his accomplices blocked the door."
"Are you sure it was him?" I feel my teeth aching as I grind them.
"Yes. I was there." She replies with a haunted expression in her face, "I managed to get most of them out, but the father didn't make it."
If I'd been in her place, I'd have started with breaking each of the guy's limbs to get the information out of him, before dropping his body in the middle of the ocean. Why am I healing him again?
The moment of silence following Glory Girl's explanation is broken by a mocking laugh.
It takes me a moment to realize it's from the guy, my drone almost done with his wounds. "I was just sending the trash to the incinerator." His laugh turns into a broken scream of pain as I forcefully tear my drone away from his chest. Without giving it time to properly detach, the result is an ugly mess of dozens of tiny scars, with pieces of skin missing and the blood freely flowing. It doesn't make for what he did, but it's a start. "You fucking asshole! You know you can't do this!" The man sobs, aiming a crooked finger at Glory Girl. "I'll sue you! Kaiser will destroy you once he hears about this!"
Seriously? Is-- is this really happening? But does he seriously think that the threat of a lawsuit is any deterrent against what I'm about to do to him?
I transform my hand into the plasma buzzsaw and the man's face goes white. "There won't be any evidence once we kill you and dispose of the body." A cut here and a cut there. We then scatter his pieces all over the Bay so he's never found. The buzzsaw can cut through reinforced concrete, so a human body should be no match for it. It'll be messy but effective.
"What? No, you can't do that." Glory Girl yells and grabs me from behind, pulling me away from the bastard.
"Let me go!" I struggle against her iron grip. If I get a good angle I should be able to punch her with enough strength to bring her shield down and taze her.
"Not until you have calmed down!" Her aura is back in full effect, but so are my implants.
"Oh, please, you want to do this just as much as I do." I shoot a look back at her. "Just give me one reason why we shouldn't kill this trash!"
"I'm not letting you murder a person in cold blood!"
"Would you prefer it if I said that I'm 'putting him down'? Or maybe 'break'. A thing can't be killed, only broken. No one will care if I break a thing, will they?" This argument is so bloody pointless, "Oh, but why are we having this discussion? It's not like I care about your opinion."
There! My fingers close around the Riot Prod, now I just need a good agle-- but my sight is not fully occupied by Taylor staring down at me.
"You might not care about her opinion, but what about mine?"
"Seriously, Ladybug?" Why here? Why now? We already killed people before, and those ones deserved it just as much as this one. Is it because of Glory Girl?
"Yes." Taylor repeats. "Let him go, Glory Girl."
I drop to the ground, feeling like screaming. My only satisfaction is the trail of blood I see leading away from us.
While we argued the gang member tried to flee, but the wounds I inflicted proved too damaging and the guy collapsed without even reaching the end of the alley.
My hands transform back into the medical tool as I approach him, "I'll proceed to remove all the wounds and scars caused by this encounter, so you better stay still."
"What? No! Stay back!" He remains conscious and tries to scramble back but is stopped by the swarm of bugs suddenly covering his face.
"Do as he says." Taylor orders in a chilling voice.
Fuck you, Taylor! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!
And fuck Glory Girl too, who's floating next to me ready to intervene if I try to kill him.
I won't harm him.
As much as I want to, I won't.
"There!" I announce, "I removed all evidence that anything happened to you, so leave before they change their minds."
The man clumsily picks himself up from the ground and, making a guttural sound, he spits at Glory Girl. I take a step forward but then two pairs of hands close around my shoulders. One pair would crush me if they tried, the other pair I don't want to fight.
The man then sprints away leaving behind a faint smell of urine, and I'm released.
"For the record, I deeply disagree with this," I inform them of my displeasure. Not sure if that'll account for anything, but it's there.
"Duly noted." Taylor says with a sharp nod.
It looks as if she's about to tell me something else, but then Glory Girl interrupts.
"Hey, Ladybug." The hero floats next to us, the spit rolling down her forcefield without staining her clothes. Despite everything that happened, she looks calmer now even if she keeps throwing dubious glances in my direction, "Thank you. I already told you this, but sorry for putting you through this."
"I don't need or want your apology." Taylor ignores her as she walks to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Also, we aren't done with that man. Not for a long shot. I tagged him, and he's also carrying one of my bugs."
She-- what?
I check my visor. Yes, he's there! A blinking 'blip' that's steadily getting away. All my anger vanishes as I realize what Taylor just did. Oh, I could kiss her right now! "After this, and without his phone, he'll go straight to his partners!"
"You're planning on following him!" Glory Girl has also put the dots together, "You aren't going to kill them all, are you?"
"No, we aren't." Taylor insists, her voice reaching the edge of her patience, "At least not if we can avoid it," She throws a glance aimed specifically at me, "And we do have a lot of non-lethal options."
Fine, fine. If that's how she wants to handle this, I can accept that. I can live with sparing one gang member in exchange for severely hurting a dozen others.
Yes, I like this plan. I'm excited to be part of it!
"Well," Glory Girl rubs her hands together, "What are we waiting for?"
"Why would we let you come with us?"
"Ladybug!" I yell again. The man's getting away and I don't want to risk him escaping the reach of my visor. "We don't have time to argue about this, and Glory Girl can be helpful." As a human shield, if nothing else, and I don't want her following us around and making a mess where we can't see her, "Your teleporter makes you harder to spot, so go ahead and we'll be close behind." Her bugs also make her harder to ambush, but I don't want to mention that out loud.
"Fine." And without another word, she disappears.
"Okay, follow me." I signal at Glory Girl and with a single leap, I reach the roof of the nearby apartment block. Then I jump again, keeping up with Taylor's teleporter.
Thankfully our guy-- or quarry, I'd say, Isn't going that fast. Every so many meters he glances over his shoulder to check the sky, or takes unnecessary detours across twisting alleys.
If Glory Girl was the only one chasing him, that'd have been enough to lose her, but the gangs still don't know the full extent of Ladybug and Tech Priest's capabilities.
I-- should be careful about referring to myself in third person like that. That road leads to madness.
Noticing that time isn't as essential as we initially thought, Glory Girl catched up to me so we can talk, "Hey, a moment. I need to ask you something. You aren't very-- I don't know how to say this--"
"Normal?" I reply without even a faint trace of mockery or sarcasm, "I'm functional if that's what you're asking." This must be about my little 'episode' back there at the alley. "But you shouldn't worry because I have no interest in senseless acts of violence, I despise animal cruelty, and I have no interest in forcing myself on anyone for the sake of carnal pleasures." Those are the main traits of a sociopath, as I remember them. As long as I don't go out being an asshole, people should leave me alone.
"You don't need to get too detailed." She groans, "I hope you're telling the truth because I very much admire what you two have been doing. But, damn, you actually sound like an AdMech."
I trip, and it's thanks to The Jump controlling my movements that I don't come down rolling over the ground. "Excuse me?"
"Yeah, come on! With your costume and the name Tech-priest? Kind of obvious."
This-- this is most definitely unexpected.
And unwelcome.
I did check for the story of Games Workshop and they never released Rogue Trader in this timeline, Zion's arrival throwing it in disarray.
Warhammer Fantasy exists and is fairly popular, but 40k never became a thing here. No one should know about the Adeptus Mechanicus!
"How do you know about it?"
Glory Girl turns around, flying on her back. Now she's just showing off! "I was part of a playgroup that imported tabletop games from Aleph. We disbanded when our game master went to college but it was fun while it lasted."
Fuck me! Of course, a bunch of rich, meddling kids would be my downfall!
"But if it makes you feel better," She continues, "It's not like the name is trademarked. And I never met another person who knew about the setting."
Well, that's something at least.
"Tell me if the group gets back together. I wouldn't mind participating."
"Will do!" She laughs. "I even bought some miniatures from a guy in New York, but I never painted them." The story of my life.
"Sisters of Battle?"
"Eldar, actually."
"Filthy Xeno."
With our minds back on the mission, we continue in silence, and after what feels like close to an hour of aimless wandering I receive a message from Taylor.
"He has reached their base." She says, "It's the white building over there." The place she's marking with her visor is a two-stories house sandwiched between a market and a second house.
Next to me, Glory Girl is listening to the discussion, "Alright!" She raises up, but I stop her. Thankfully she listens.
"Wait, wait! Ladybug, anyone in there that she shouldn't punch?"
The place houses some fifteen people, all young and armed with a variety of weapons. There aren't civilians in there, and our guy is currently banging at the door, maybe hoping to tell the others about what we did.
My observations get confirmed by Taylor, "None." The door opens and our guy rushes in. Time to silence them all. "I'm sending my bugs in."
None of them have any idea of what's going to happen to them.
"Excellent!" I can already taste the screams of the gang members. "You take the ground floor." Then I turn to Glory Girl. "Go, the upper floor is yours."
"That's what I wanted to hear!" She cracks her knuckles and then charges in, ramming through the wall as if she was a cannonball. I can see why she gives Amy so many headaches.
The defenders panic from the unexpected assault, giving her the chance to steal weapons and crush them in her grip. Each shot deflected brings Glory Girl's shield down, but her mobility paired with her aura and Taylor's relentless bug assault makes sure that no one can capitalize on that.
There's a discharge of electricity on the ground floor signaling Taylor's use of the Dark Coil, and half a dozen people go limp.
One of the defenders tries to escape through the hole that Glory Girl caused, but Taylor teleports next to him, smashes his face in with the butt of her tranquilizer rifle, and then shoots him in the neck.
Her appearance throws the rest of the defender in a frenzy.
One pulls out a grenade, but Glory Girl body-smashes him, takes the grenade, and presses it against her chest. There's a muted explosion, but she remains unharmed.
And that's enough time for the Dark Coil to recharge, and with a second swing of Taylor's blade, the rest of the gang goes down.
With things having calmed down, I jump to the roof and from there I make my way down to where Glory Girl is trying to start some small talk.
"Hey, good job here."
Taylor ignores the compliment and walks to me, "Anything here that you can use?"
I look around. There's a lot -and I do mean a lot- of Nazi parafernalia, but also some phones, a couple laptops, a TV-- oh, is that a gaming console? "There is," I confirm and get down to work dismantling the devices.
"Good. I'll tie them up." Taylor announces and pulls out her zip-ties while making it very obvious that she doesn't want to interact with the hero.
And for her part, the other girl pulls out her cellphone. "And I'll call the police to pick them up. Any objection to that?"
Taylor remains quiet, so it's up to me to answer her, "None."
She floats away to make the call, and in a moment she's back. "Okay, they should be here in five minutes."
Not much time but I'm almost done. "Question," I say. "If the police interrogate our guy, won't he speak and tell them what we did?"
"Oh, shit, you're right!" Glory Girls brings a hand to her face, "I guess I'll have to deal with that."
There's a sardonic laugh coming up the stairs as Taylor rejoins us, having finished with the zip-ties, "I wouldn't worry about it. You're rich, pretty, and the daughter of a lawyer. No one will believe that you did anything wrong." Then she turns to me, "I'm done here. See you outside."
"Wait--" Glory Girl tries to reach for her but Taylor has already teleported away, "I really fucked up with her, didn't I?"
I'm a bit speechless myself. I hadn't realized how much Victoria must have reminded Taylor of Emma.
"You did an amazing job pressing every single one of her buttons." Not like that's much of a consolation, but it's something, "I'll try to talk to her, but no promises there."
I take a step to leave but she stops me.
"Hey, wait! Before you go there's something you should know." She makes a pause there. I'm not sure if it's for drama or because she's doing something she shouldn't, "Kaiser wasn't the one to attack Lung's territory."
Oh? They know that he didn't do it? Good to know that the heroes aren't that stupid.
"I assumed as much. The Undersiders aren't in his payroll."
"No, they aren't. But this next part is important, the one who started this and blamed the Empire for it, was Coil." Yes, all that she's telling me are things I already knew or assumed, "Your team hit him hard when you rescued the parahuman children, and this seems to be his way of retaliation."
Wait, that last part I didn't know, "Those children were parahumans?"
"You didn't know?" She cocks her head, "They were victims of a Yangban human trafficking ring."
The Yangban operating in Brockton Bay? Well, Accord was in contact with them, and Accord is also a close contact of Coil.
Shit, this is getting far too big for my taste if we're now dealing with international criminal organizations.
"How do you know all of this?"
She gives me a mischievous smile, "Let's just say that this wasn't the first Empire goon I interrogated, and that I have inside information from the PRT."
Meaning: Gallant talked. Not like I can blame him, who wouldn't want Glory Girl as a girlfriend? She has some amazing-- damn it! System, compensate!
System?
Nothing.
That wasn't her aura, that was just my hormonal-self talking, wasn't it?
"Okay, thanks for the warning." I wave at her, "We'll contact you if we find anything."
And then I jump away to rejoin Taylor.
"Are all heroes like that?!" Taylor cries out into the night sky once we find ourselves several streets away from the Empire's safe house.
"You mean flawed human beings?" That's what we all are, isn't it?
"Oh, don't you go making them sound better!" She swings her arms around, "Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate, was a self-centered prick. And Glory Girl, the poster child for New Wave, was a petty bully."
A bully? I honestly think she's projecting a bit here, "I think you're exaggerating."
"Am I? You saw what she did back there."
"Allow me to point out that I did worse."
"Yes! But we are us, and they are heroes! I wanted to believe that the people protecting this city were better than that." And that's why looking up to people is a bad idea. Inevitably you'll end disappointed, "And the worst part was when she tried to manipulate us into not telling what had happened. When next? Will I find out that Emma is a freaking Ward?"
I bite my tongue to not answer that. Emma might not be a Ward, but Sophia is, "I really don't know what to tell you."
She shakes her head in frustration, and then goes suddenly quiet, "Be honest with me here, should we have done it? Should we have killed the guy?"
My eyes widen in surprise underneath my mask, "Why are you asking that?"
"You heard him," Her voice is little more than a whisper, "Not only he confessed what he did but was proud of it. The idea of someone like him walking free makes me sick."
And now she knows how I feel. But, come on! I am the one with tunnel vision here, without Taylor who will point me at the bigger picture? "You did the right thing by stopping me. That way we followed him and did more good."
"And after that? What if they break free and go out to harm more people?" She presses her palms against her face as if holding back a scream, "Sometimes I miss not having powers. Back then everything was so much simpler."
"Welcome to the real world, where everything is complicated and no one will give you a straight answer."
She groans into her hands, "It shouldn't be that way. I don't want it to be that way. Why can't the heroes just be good and the villains just be bad? Instead of that I'm here wondering if killing a person is the right thing to do."
Silence fills the empty space between us, and so I cross it to pat her back, "If it makes you feel better, next time you can turn around and let me do with people like him as I see fit. You won't need to ever know if I killed him or not."
Will she be okay with that? It's the good old 'I won't be lying if I don't know'.
"No." The forcefulness of her statement makes me flinch, "I already forced my decisions on you when I took you to Winslow. I'm not doing that again." Well-- that's something I can appreciate, "I don't want to be like Glory Girl, Emma, or anyone like them. Whatever happens next, I'm taking responsibility for it too. Now come, let's keep patroling for another hour before we go home."
I follow her, hoping that she doesn't come to regret what she just said.
...
