Kathy's Brockton Bay Adventures
Sat. 23. April. 2011
"Aren't you excited Kathy?" Danny asked me while he drove and I sat in the backseat of the truck.
"More nervous than anything," I comment as I fidget with my belt.
"You don't need to be, just follow the instructions and you will have some good old American fun." his effort to make me feel better was appreciated but wasted.
"I appreciate the idea of practicing the safe handling of weapons, I will remain slightly biased against having fun with tools that are specifically made to harm and/or kill people." I comment apprehensively, "But I'll humor you for the sake of cultural appreciation."
Danny gives a dry laugh as Taylor eyes me in the back mirror.
It doesn't take much longer for us to arrive, the place is outside of the main city area surrounded by fields, some cars were parked and the place looked relatively clean.
"Jimmy, the owner of this place, used to be a dock worker before he opened the range," Danny comments as we walk in.
"Danny!" The tall bearded man greets us from the counter, "And Taylor, I haven't seen you since you were a pint that barely reached my knee."
"With how tall you are that could be anywhere between one and thirteen years." My comment got a hearty laugh from the man.
"And you must be Katarina." he says as he comes around the counter and shakes my hand, "Well, what are we waiting for, let's get you two started."
We walked up to the range and it looked like Jimmy already had everything prepared, there even was a step in front of one of the boxes for me to stand on.
He turns to me and Taylor, "Now, what do the two of you know about guns?"
"Don't point at anything you don't want dead, always assume it's loaded," I responded dutifully.
"Correct, that is two out of four, Taylor, you know the other two?"
"Keep your finger off the trigger until your gun is pointed at the target and always check your target." She also responds like a book.
"Isn't the second one the same as never pointing at anything you are not willing to shoot?" I ask with curiosity peaked.
"A common misconception." Jimmy explains, "First you point your weapon at a target you are willing to shoot, second you make sure that there is nothing between you and the target or behind the target in case you miss."
"For example, here at the range always have a look around. If there isn't some fool walking around between the booths and the targets, even if just by accident, something might be in the way, something you don't want to hit despite wanting to shoot the target."
"Makes sense." I nodded in understanding.
"Now, I assume none of you ever shot a weapon before." Both of us shook our heads. "Then let's start with the basics." He had a bright smile as he clapped his hands. "First Taylor."
He then gave her protective gear and we went over to a boot, then he went over the rules with her in more detail, told her about the gun, and it was time for her to fire.
She emptied the magazine and Jimmy looked at her target with a pair of binoculars.
"Not bad for a first try, you got the technique down, now practice a bit and you will be hitting bullseyes." His encouragement made Taylor smile but it had me scratching my head a bit. Wasn't she able to perfectly aim thanks to her power?
Yes, something about her being aware of all the bugs' exact position in space allowed her to land perfect shots.
"Hey Taylor, can I talk to you for a second?" She looked at me surprised but came along.
We went a few steps away from them as Jimmy looked at Danny who shrugged.
After we walked some distance and I was certain that the gunshots would drown out our voice, I had Taylor lower her head so that I could speak into her ear.
"If I remember correctly, future you could somehow fire perfect shots without even looking, something about aligning bugs combined with your special awareness."
Her eyes widened and she nodded at me with a smile.
"Don't you want to try next Kathy?" Danny asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"No, I will let Taylor go for a bit, I can always try later." I shook my hands
Jimmy had other plans.
"Na, come now kid, I know that look." He then literally dragged me to the gun range. "We're gonna get that fear right out of you." He announces joyfully.
"Oh boy," I say as I eye the murder instruments laid out in front of me.
"Now first let's start with the basics." He then points at the smallest. "This right here is a 'Colt 380 Mustang' and fires a .380 ACP round."
"I have no idea what any of that means," I comment.
"Tiny bullets that can still kill people." Danny comments.
"First take the gun into your hand." I do so reluctantly while making sure that it's pointed downrange, "Now load the magazine." Again I do as told. "Now, do you think this gun can shoot yet?" He quizzes me.
"No, there is no bullet in the chamber yet." I pull back the slide. "Now there is a bullet in the chamber."
"Very good, now aim, check your target, put your finger on the trigger, and fire."
Taking a deep breath I held the weapon in both hands and aimed. Another deep breath and I pulled the trigger.
The recoil was much weaker than I anticipated but it still spooked me a little.
"Alright, not bad for a first shot wanna try again?" his smile is blinding.
Taking another deep breath, I steel myself before emptying all 5 remaining bullets into the target before placing the gun back on the table.
"See, it wasn't so bad." He gave me a pat on the back. "Your shots weren't that inaccurate either." He handed me the binoculars and I got to see the results for myself. Five bullets landed on the target itself, but all of them were very far left.
"Typical beginner error, you shot with the tip of your finger and that caused your gun to go to the left," Jimmy commented. "Reload and try again."
I did as told and this time with the instructions on how to properly press the trigger I landed a bullseye with one of the bullets, pure luck I suspected.
Then it was Taylor's turn. I think I only noticed the bugs on the gun because I paid attention, but she just went and landed half the shots as bullseyes on the first clip.
Then Three fourths.
By the third, she found the right grip on the gun and landed every single shot perfectly.
"Hot damn! We got a talent here!" Jimmy praised as Danny looked at her worried, he then looked at me questioningly and I gave a slight nod.
Understanding my hint he convinced Jimmy to drop any plans to see if Taylor had the skill of a professional.
Then it was my turn again!
And honestly, I slowly got used to firing a weapon.
Dare I say, in the end, it even was fun.
A few hours later we were back home.
"Well, that was exciting." Danny said when we came back home, "I hope you two had fun."
"Honestly? Yes." I answered, "I didn't expect it but here we are, now let me take apart the TV to make a giant laser gun please."
"Wha..." he looks at me wide-eyed but once he notices my smug grin he smiles back.
"Well, time to call Armsmaster then." Taylor quips in.
"Sure." A yawn escapes me, "But tell him to come later, I need a nap." I say as I make my way upstairs.
"I will wake you for dinner," Danny says.
"Sure, good night," I would need the rest if I was supposed to go out today with Taylor and d'Eon.
Many hours later Taylor and I were in my lab costumed up, I in my Rig-like costume and Taylor in her bug-suit.
"So who is this 'Brute' that you want to join us?" Taylor asked nervously.
"To explain that I will need to first explain to you what my current specialty is." I finish putting on my costume and go to my workbench to print out a mask for d'Eon.
"What, you made a person?" Taylor asked worriedly.
"Not really? As I said, let me explain." I turned to her after I finished the input, "My power focuses on..." I decided to not call it fiction, "Alternate universes, and technologies as well as mechanisms that work there."
"That includes worlds that have magic and similar that I can imitate," I scratch my chin searching for the right words. "I get, sort of visions of the worlds and ways that I can use them, and my current specialty comes from a magic world that has a summoning ritual that allows you to summon a spirit that you can form a contract with, in return for its services."
"I, through my technology imitated the summoning ritual and made such a contract."
"You didn't make a deal with some demon, did you?" She looks at me, her face filled with worry.
"I believe I would be aware of having demonic ancestry." d'Eon quipped in making Taylor jump. She then materialized and did her typical curtsy. "I am the spirit mentioned. You may call me Saber, une fleur qui n'a pas encore fleuri."
"Laying it a little thick there, aren't you?" I comment as Taylor stares at d'Eon flabbergasted and red. Not that I could blame her with those gorgeous turquoise eyes boring into her, her kind smile, the blond hair that flew down her lily shaped cloake over her skintight, dress and… God, Damn, It.
"I am merely being my best self Master, nothing more and nothing less."
"Who…?"
"Don't bother Taylor. Servants, as they are called, are extremely reluctant to reveal their true name for various reasons." I get her to look away from d'Eon by poking her in the side, "She is from a universe where magic is real and permeates all of history, important personalities that are well known or achieved great deeds get recorded in an archive called the Throne of Heroes, they then can be summoned at their prime into the world for various reasons. The reason they don't reveal their names is that if you, for example, had Achilles as a servant then every fool would know how to kill him, with me so far?"
She nods extremely reluctantly.
"Good, all you need to know is that if things go bad you can rely on Saber here to stab the bad and make it go away."
"A little bit of a cras description but yes, I shall make the enemy regret standing in our way." She announced proudly with her sword out.
"Any questions?" I turn to Taylor again.
"So, so many..." She confesses.
"Any that need imminent attention?"
"I... really don't know."
"Fair," A ding from my fabricator signaled completion, "I know you shouldn't need it, but just in case," I hand d'Eon a simple jester mask that fits her overall theme of feminine musketeers, "Now with that handled, let's go!"
"There is one last issue that needs mentioning I believe." d'Eon said as she put on her mask, "I will obviously be addressed as Saber, but what about you two?"
"Kitty-tinker of course." I quite liked the name, "They gave it to me, might as well use it."
"And you Taylor?" d'Eon turns to her.
"Eh, I..."
"You still haven't picked." I look at her disbelieving.
"Names are hard, ok?!" She crosses her arms defensively
I tried to think something up but besides the canon names and some very typical ones, nothing came to mind.
"What name did I have… back then?" She asks nervously.
"Skitter, Weaver, Khepri," I listed.
"Three names?" Taylor asked confused.
"Other you went through a lot of stuff, to put it lightly." I put my hand on my chin and wracked my brain for a good name, naturally there was a lot to pick from through all the fanfictions but… "How about Cicada?" She shakes her head, "Beetle?" She shakes her head frantically, "Scarab?" She gives a vague notion with her hand.
"If we can't decide right now then how about Chrysalis," d'Eon suggests, "And later on we'll see what hatches and name you after that."
Taylor nods reluctantly.
"Ok, now for the second time, let's go!"
########
"You know, this is exactly how I imagined it to be," I comment an hour into our patrol, my suite warming me, and preventing me from suffering the cold dry air.
"It is?" Taylor says curiously.
"Of course, the city is not some crawling hellscape where around every corner you will find some evil guy robbing an old grandma," I explain. "In the first place patrols are not about stopping crime but about deterring it by showing presence as well as being close in case it does happen."
"You sound like some PRT pamphlet," Taylor says.
"Think about it, with Bakuda you were specifically looking for the problem. Here?" I point at the empty streets. "We are just walk around looking cool."
"That and nightly walks are healthy for young bodies such as yours." d'Eon threw in.
"I guess?" I wasn't quite able to tell how she felt with her mask on. "It still feels like we are supposed to do more."
"That is because you have a false sense of how the life of a cape is supposed to look, you only see news about fights, accomplishments, and other things that are newsworthy, the thirty hours of patrols that they do per week are not something you will ever hear about unless you live that life."
"That and we are already doing a lot, mon amis." d'Eon says as I notice her stepping closer to Taylor, "From what I was told your power is amazing at covering the area. Wherever you are will be safer because of you."
"I guess?" Taylor was clearly not used to the praise.
"How did that Bakuda thing go by the way? I only know the rough events." I threw in.
"Not much to tell honestly," She scratches her arm, "I found where they wanted to ambush her, then tracked her with my bugs, and when she was alone I ambushed her, then when I found Armsmaster driving towards the scene I made Bug arrows pointing towards her."
"Simple and effective, that way he got where he needed to be and you didn't have to show yourself in case he turned hostile," d'Eon now had her hand on Taylor's shoulder, "What a versatile power you have, and insects are everywhere, you would never be out of options."
Taylor didn't respond this time.
We silently continued our walk, only occasionally spooking some hobo or making a few people switch to the other sidewalk.
Brockton Bay at night was very somber. Every third light was broken and occasionally there was damage on the street or sidewalk. You would expect more things going on on a Saturday night.
"Actually that is a good question."
"What is?"
"Where is everyone?" I gesture around, "It's Saturday, I would expect the dumb teenagers and drunks everywhere."
"They are probably around the inner city areas," Taylor says, "There are some clubs and bars there,"
"Well, why aren't we there?" I ask her curiously.
"I… am not sure what we do there?"
"Patrol of course, where there are people there is crime, and that is what we are out for." I turn on my heels and start marching, "To the clubs!"
"Wait, what?" Taylor clearly was not ok with this.
"Kitty-tinker is correct that crowded places will yield us much better results than these empty streets." d'Eon affirmed my decision, "Even considering that she is going the completely wrong way." She smirks at me.
I turn to her and tilt my head to indicate my confusion. I was usualy not that bad with directions.
"The inner city is that way," she points to my left.
"Really? I could have sworn..." I made another heel turn and started walking.
"Wait, are we really going there?"
"Of course, where else can we have the biggest impact?" I affirm.
"I believe the issue is that our fellow teammate still is a little crowd shy." Taylor clearly is trying to say something to d'Eon but nothing comes out so she just huffs.
"Don't worry about Saber, Chrysalis. Part of her power is being impossible like that."
"I must protest, this is an all-natural skill in front of you." I snorted in response.
"Anyway, we can skip the crowded places tonight if you wish, but if you want to prevent crime you need to be where the people are."
I could see her squirm a bit inside her costume but eventually, she seemed to have steeled herself.
"Ok, let's go."
And so we journeyed to the more crowded places. On the way, I could see how the living conditions changed from one street to the next, less damage on the sidewalks, more working lights, and actual people for a change.
Paying attention to it I could see how Taylor seemed to visibly shrink into herself the more people saw us.
Suddenly she perked up and turned towards a wall, then she started walking and rounding two corners we landed in an alley where five teenagers were very obviously assaulting a young couple.
"Cowards," I said just loud enough to be heard. They turned towards us and it was somewhat comedic when they all realized they were facing masked individuals. "So are you going to leave peacefully or," I made a show of having my arm-blade burst out, all of them instantly backed away wide-eyed, "Or will there be problems?"
"N-No, no problems, none at all." They backed away further, and as the bugs started to swarm they took off running.
"Hey, at least they are smart cowards." I commented as I retraced my blades back, "You two alright?" I asked the couple who also eyed me fearfully.
"They didn't hurt us." the boy, probably around seventeen years old, responds first.
"Good to hear, take care of yourself and do avoid dark alleys, you hear?" I make myself sound extra cheerful fully aware of the creepy effect it had.
"W-We will, thanks." And then they took off running too.
"Bye! Have a great time!" I carefully wave as I giggle.
"My master is the sadistic type, I will need to remember that." d'Eon comments.
"Hey, it gives them two things in dark alleys to be scared of, wannabe gangsters, and me."
Saber giggles at my antics and we move on, Taylor spotted another attempted robbery but again we simply scared them away.
After three more hours, we called it quits and went home.
We took off our costumes in my lab, Saber simply putting the mask on my desk, and me storing it back in my ring. Only Taylor had to manually undress.
After she is done she stares at her mask in confusion.
"What's the matter? Having second thoughts about being a Hero?" I tease her lightly.
"No, yes, kinda?" I tilt my head, "It's just, back at that alley, you handled it so… aggressively? I felt a little like a bully. I know it's stupid but..."
"There is a difference between being assertive and being a bully." I explain to her, "And I know why you are hesitant but sadly having bugs crawl under everyone's eyelids is not an alternative."
"Why would I do that to random people?!" She explains in horror, "Bakuda is a mad terrorist, that is the only reason I did that."
I blink repeatedly and shake my head before speaking, "Ignoring the fact that you made bugs crawl under someone's eyelids, again," She looks even more horrified, "As a cape, you must project authority, the other you did that by being terrifying as hell. It's called Charisma and it will help you a lot if you learn how to project it naturally, especially because capes need to at least have some form of public image."
"I believe I could help you with that Taylor." d'Eon smiles again with her gorgeous lips and….
"Stop being so impossibly beautiful, damn you!" I punched her side, which of course did nothing.
"Why what a sadistic little master I have." Freaking tease, I don't remember her being so teasing. "But as I was saying, Taylor, I have experience with people, a lot of it actually, if you wish I would gladly teach you how to project yourself into a room."
"I am not sure that I want that." She backed away nervously.
"Nonsense, a Chrysalis will be made to hatch and its inner beauty shall daze nature itself." d'Eon announced as she invaded Taylor's personal space by wrapping her arm around her, "And there is a lot of it in you, take it from someone with experience on the matter."
"Hard to trust that if I don't even know who you are." Taylor attempts to back away but d'Eon was not letting her, A-rank Strength was a bitch.
"How about a deal then, I will tell you something about myself, every day a small tibit of my life will reach your ear, and in exchange, you will try to attend all the lessons I give you."
"I would take that deal Taylor, there are few others that could teach you as well as she can." I threw in as I sit down on my workbench and start fiddling with some magic circles, I would need this spell tomorrow.
"I… ok, deal." Taylor agrees reluctantly.
"Wonderfull, we shall start tomorrow, then we will have such a good time." She clapped her hands together joyfully.
"Sure," Taylor sounds much less enthused as she yawns, "Anyway, I am going to bed, what will you do?"
"I still have to make some notes on a project I want to start tomorrow, don't worry about me, I reduced the amount of sleep I needed over a month ago." I waved her off, "Good night."
"Goodnight Kathy." With that, she left.
A few minutes later d'Eon still stands at attention behind me but doesn't say a word knowing that Taylor could still listen. She only looks over my shoulder as I type a short message to Lisa and smirk when I send it.
Tomorrow I want to meet the team
I have a new member for you
And a job
cy later
