-10-
"So once the fires were out and the robotic dishwashers finished exploding, I dropped down on my knee and asked her to marry me."
I gave Assault an incredulous look before turning to his supposed wife.
"It's true." she nodded. "Though I did tell him he had to do it again when he got a proper ring. The half melted hex-nut wasn't all that romantic."
I was silent for a few moments, processing his story as we made our way to the what appeared to be some kind of well appointed rec-room crossed with a work space. A large dome shaped room that appeared to be made of modular sections, in what I could only guess was the typical arrangement. A set of couches and coffee table, along with a small kitchenette were huddled at one end near a wall mounted flat-screen, a cluster of high-tech computer terminals and monitors filled the other side. Beside that, a bunch of doors lined one of the walls, which I could only guess led off to private rooms. Much like the rest of the building, it was primarily in shades of blue and grey. It did however look much more lived in, with little touches of personal taste evident in decorations. "Well, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at white-goods quite the same."
"Assault's going on about that again?" A warm, deep voice called out.
I turned to see who had spoken. A tall guy in an impressively form-fitting rust-red body suit had followed us into the room. I couldn't make out much facial detail beyond olive skin-tone due to the helmet, but his friendly smile was visible enough. That and his abs, which were practically highlighted by the silver shield logo pointing down at them from his chest.
Ah, so that is your preference?
Quiet you.
"Hi, I'm Aegis." He introduced himself, unnecessarily but politely, and held out his hand in greeting. "It's nice to meet you."
"Likewise." We shook hands, and I was mildly distracted by how warm his was.
"So I hear you're interested in joining us?" I shrugged, but he seemed to take it in stride. "If you want to take a seat, I can answer some questions while we wait. The others should be here soon."
"We'll leave you to it then." Battery announced as she glanced over at Assault. "We've got a patrol scheduled. Hope to see you again soon."
"Yep, we'll see you later Kiddo." Assault gave me a mock salute as I was reminded of my Dad's frequent use of that little endearment. It must have been more common than I thought.
"Farewell." I waved goodbye with my hair as I dropped into the offered couch. As I sunk in, I immediately decided that it was the most comfortable example of lounging furniture I had ever encountered. Was it more expensive than all of the furniture of my house combined, or simply some kind of Tinkertech? Of course, one did not preclude the other. I let out a relaxed sigh.
"I can see you enjoy the new couch."
"It's nice." I smiled and nodded as he took a seat on the other couch, across the cluttered coffee table. A few gadgets were interspersed with magazines about all sorts of disparate interests. I could see a teen fashion mag half covered by an issue of Mad Magazine, in turn partially obscured by a fitness periodical. "So, what do you guys do as Wards? I've seen a few patrols and heard about school visits, but haven't really dug into the details."
"Yes, we do both of those. The patrols are thankful more regular than any visits." He gave me a smirk. I had a feeling that I was missing something. "Unless something else comes up, we patrol in teams of two on a daily schedule. We might have two patrols a day, but with school days being what they are, the earlier and later patrols get left to the Protectorate."
"So no full time hero work for us teenagers then?"
He shook his head with a bemused grin. "No, while Wards in the Bay get a bit more action than elsewhere, they're always hesitant about pushing children into the big Cape fights. Doesn't stop it happening, but they do their best to make sure we still get an education and social life."
"Well that would make for a change of pace." I snorted, managing to diminish his ever present smile.
"Oh? Did you want to talk about it?" He asked hesitantly. I could tell that he found the idea uncomfortable.
"Winslow High is a cess-pit full of equally shitty human beings." I shook my head and gave him a smile of my own. "That about covers it."
"I had heard something along those lines." I could only assume his eyebrows were askew behind his mask-slash-helmet. "You're awfully cheerful about this."
"No sense dwelling on the past." I chuckled at the quirking of his lips. "That way lies Stephen King films."
"Carrie?" He asked with a hint of concern in his previously pleasant voice as he leaned forward.
"I was more thinking dull and unsatisfying." I chuckled. But sure, that was an option and likely outcome if I returned to Winslow. Just because I didn't care anymore didn't I would just let anything that had happened in the past reoccur without retaliation.
"Not a fan of King then?" He said, relaxing a fraction.
"The books weren't too bad, my Mom was a bit of a fan. If only to point out some pacing issues to her students."
"An English teacher?" He guessed, to which I nodded.
"Yeah. She taught at the college before she died." I shrugged while he flinched. "Dad and I were more fans of others like Carpenter, Cronenberg or Craven."
"One of them did that Thing film right?" I nodded at his attempts to steer away from dead parents. He stared at my hair for a few moments. "That makes more sense than I'd like to admit."
"Oooh, that just gave me even more ideas of what to do with my hair. I hadn't even thought of that." I gave him a cheerful smile. "Thanks."
"You're welcome?" He leaned back into the couch, shaking his head.
"So, who's the new girl?" I turned my head to see the newcomer stepping out of one of the many doors I had noticed earlier. He was a smaller guy clad in a fully concealing white costume. Grey clocks ticked away or slid around on the surface. Really, that seemed super-excessive as far as costume details went. How much crazy-compact tech went into creating that?
"Oh, sorry, I didn't catch your name." Aegis blushed a little from what I could see. "Had you decided on one?"
"Unless I think of something else, I'm going with Dervish."
"Huh?" The newcomer, obviously Clockblocker, was confused. Aegis didn't look much more enlightened. "What's a Dervish?"
It made sense that not everyone was as bored and desperate for escapism as I was, so it wasn't all that surprising that they hadn't read up on history. Not that Assault seemed like much of a history buff. Strange.
"A member of a sect of dancing fanatics that dress kind of funny, but have some history of warfare."
There were silent, and I imagined blinking in confusion.
"I seem to dance as I dodge bullets and kick ass."
"Well why didn't you say so." Clockblocker laughed as he plonked himself down next to Aegis. "So not a name based on the wild hair then?"
"You've been spending too much time with Assault, haven't you?" I sighed. "He suggested the same thing."
"I like to think of it as him spending too much time with me." His body language was exaggerated as he talked. Kind of like one of those Japanese Cape shows. Well, before Kyushu anyway.
"To-may-toe, To-mah-toe."
"So, how long have you had your powers anyway?" The boy in white asked. "I would have thought you'd have trouble going unnoticed with that hair."
"Oh, I only really got them last night. And you'd be right about that as I was attacked not even an hour later."
"Oh shit, that was you?" He excitedly leaned forward. "I heard something about a gunfight last night. What happened? How'd it go?"
"Not I bad for my first night out." I waggled a hand. "Stomped some minions, beat someone up using my hair and their own gun, dodged most of the bullets."
"Most?" Aegis asked with a hint of concern in his voice.
"I only got hit by one, but sniper rifles hurt." I shrugged. "I think I over-committed when I was fighting the five mercs in the alley. Couldn't quite get out of the way in time."
"Oh don't tell me you walk around with gaping wounds like Zombie Boy here?" Clockblocker asked before getting swatted by his team-mate.
"Nope. Panacea patched me up before fleeing from my scary-eyes and hair-of-doom." I tilted my head. "She didn't say, but I had to have been missing a good chunk of my lung and ribcage. All fixed now though." I tapped my chest, where the large hole was just last night.
"Well you've bounced back pretty well then." Clockblocker chuckled nervously. "But what's so scary about your eyes?"
I shrugged. "Not sure myself, I just think they're odd. But the first person I saw after all
this happened," I waved around my face, "ran screaming in terror. Apparently my voice also does some freaky fear thing, but I don't notice."
"Oh, that's what that is?" Aegis sighed. "I thought I was just being paranoid."
"Ditto." Clockblocker agreed, while I just shook my head in amused resignation.
"Maybe I should just call myself Creepy and be done with it."
"Hairy McScary?" Clock suggested, before shaking his head. "No, too pretty to be named after a dog."
"What?" I asked, though I wasn't sure if I was more concerned with the reference or being called pretty.
"You know, Hairy Maclary?" At my continued blank glare. "Of Donaldson's Dairy? Children's book about a fluffy terrier?"
"No."
He turned to Aegis, only for him to shake his head.
"Philistines."
"Because I haven't read a children's book?" He nodded at my query. "It's not like I'm asking who Yeats is."
"Who?" He asked, before cracking up. "I kid, I kid. How could I forget the guy our English Lit professor keeps harping on about."
I nodded at that. "You have a point. My Mom used to wax lyrical on his works."
"Used to?" He asked, even as Aegis mouthed for him to stop.
"Well she has been dead for a few years now."
"Oh shit. Sorry." He said quietly, before thumping his helmet against the table and mumbling further. "Stupid."
"No problem." I waved him off. Really, it wasn't that big of a deal. "How were you to know I'm orphaned?"
"Use of past tense?" He muttered from where his head was resting on the coffee table.
"Well I guess you've got me there. Maybe I should get a name tag saying 'Hello, I am: An orphan'." Clockblocker let out a strangled chuckle while Aegis looked at me with pursed lips. I shrugged.
An alarm sounded through the room and my hair tensed as if to strike at its source. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, the speakers were out of easy reach. "What's that noise?"
"Oh that's just to let us know we need to mask up."
"I guess that would be useful." I assumed that the rest must be coming in soon. "But on to more cheerful topics. What do you do for fun around here?"
"Don't ask Clock about fun." A new voice interjected. "You're not going to get a serious answer."
I turned towards the suspiciously silent doorway, where the remaining Wards members were standing. At least I thought it was all of them, I didn't recognise one of them so perhaps there were more than one new recruit I hadn't heard of. In this case, it was some grossly over-muscled guy in a dark-blue diamond check body suit.
Muscles in moderation. Noted.
Okay, yes. I like beefcake, but not to Schwarzenegger levels. Now quit it.
"And don't listen to Gallant, because he doesn't have a sense of humour." Clockblocker shot back, but with no real heat. I had a feeling this was one of those long running in-jokes. At least I had an identity to match to the voice.
Vista was pretty obvious as I was wearing a replica of her visor to hide my eyes, though she was smaller than expected. Her green and white costume gave me flashbacks to my brief glimpses of Malfeas and its Green Sun. Gallant was also hard to miss in his knight-in-shining-power-armour getup. Kid Win looked strange without his hover-board, but his own red/gold armour was pretty iconic and reminiscent of Hero. Finally, Shadow Stalker, with her dark cloak and her stern-faced mask. She flinched as I took-in her appearance. Odd.
I swear that she shares her name with some Exalt or other.
"What about the rest of you then?" My words sent a small shudder through the newcomers and brought a smirk to my lips. "Oh and sorry about the fear inducing voice. I can't really do anything about it and charades isn't a practical way to communicate."
"That's okay." Gallant spoke as he moved to join the other two on their couch.
Vista bypassed the space between the door and the seat, dropping right next to me with a faint 'pomf' noise. Kid Win ended up sitting on my other side with quite a bit more space between us. Meanwhile, the unknown perched on one end of the other couch. Shadow Stalker ended up grabbing a chair from the kitchenette despite the free space left on the couches. I didn't think I was all that terrifying, but perhaps she was just respecting my personal space given the strangely adorable space-warper sitting to my left.
"Hi, I'm Vista. But you probably knew that, wearing one of my visors and all. Any reason for tha-" Then her head tilted as she seemed to notice some other details. "Oh my god, your hair! How are you doing that?"
I was startled by the rapid speech, more so by the quick change of topic. But still, I decided I should return the favour.
"Call me Dervish, or Taylor as my identity's probably plastered all over the internet by now." I caught some startled movement from Shadow Stalker and Gallant, the rest seemed more sedate about my reveal. "The hair, I have full control over when I concentrate, otherwise it does its own thing."
I demonstrated by gently prodding her side with a few locks and causing her to giggle before shifting a bit further away. Several more locks pointed up the mirrored lens. "As for mimicking you, these were the only thing available to cover my eyes. They've already terrified a PRT trooper and made Armsmaster and several more nervous."
A snort dragged my attention to Shadow Stalker, who had her arms crossed over her chest, clearly unimpressed. I tilted my head her way.
"I don't see how you're in any way scary." Her tone was familiar somehow, but I couldn't recognise her voice. Admittedly, her mask did lend an odd reverb to her words. Kind of cool actually. That would have been much better that this thing that makes everyone nervous.
Unless you want people to be rightfully in awe of your power.
Well there is that, I guess.
"I don't really see it either." I shrugged. "I just figure it's less drama not having people running and screaming anytime I get eye contact."
"Exaggerating much?" She scoffed.
"I wish. Just when I thought I was free from the tyranny of glasses, I'm going to be stuck with shades if I want to actually have a meaningful conversation with people."
She stood from her seat and walked over to me. Gallant was sending odd looks both her and my way, judging by his helmet movements. Shadow Stalker leaned down to stare at me.
"Let's see 'em then." She stated from much closer than would usually be comfortable. Personal space didn't really seem to be as much of an issue as it used to be. I suppose having a demon in my head made such a concept moot and Adorjan made anything else seem tame by comparison. I shrugged, figuring she knew what she was in for. They'd probably been briefed, even if they were acting like they weren't. I mean, if
I was going to send a bunch of kids in to meet a possibly dangerous cape, I would at least give them the cliff-notes.
"Okay then." My hair dropped the visor down enough for our eyes to meet unimpeded.
As her oddly-familiar brown eyes stared into my own, her pupils dilated and she let out a strangled noise. "Eeep." Then the contact was lost. Brown eyes became oddly reflective as she switched to her shadow-state and immediately fled away from me, passing through the coffee table, the couch full of Wards and halfway through the wall before jerking back with a faded scream and resolidifying on the floor in a groaning heap. Really though, after seeing He Who Laughs at Misfortune, shadow didn't seem like an accurate description of her ghostly form. Hell, I could kind of make out her skeleton in there, warped as it was. The others seemed startled by her reaction, so it was possible they weren't briefed after all.
"Well I did warn her..." I muttered even as my visor was readjusted by countless dark strands. I turned towards the unknown Ward. "Sorry, but I don't recognise you."
"Browbeat." He said with some hesitance, still looking over his shoulder at his team-mate. "Umm, guys. Shouldn't we do something about Stalker?"
That seemed to snap the rest of them out of their staring at her crumpled form and the room became a flurry of movement.
"Yeah." Aegis spoke and stood up, just as Clockblocker started laughing. That didn't stop him getting up to help though. Vista looked as if she was watching a tennis match as her gaze switched between Shadow Stalker and myself. Her mouth seemed to shift more into a grin with each turn. Gallant joined Clockblocker and Aegis as they moved over to their team-mate. He did look over his shoulder at me as he went though. I guess he must have been worried that I'd do the same to the rest, but I had no reason to. Kid Win meanwhile called someone or other with his helmet. Having a radio like that would be so handy. No need to carry around a cell-phone.
As some medical staff burst into the room no long after, I couldn't help but think that this was more entertaining than I had expected. Hopefully a certain shadowy ex-dragon was getting enough laughs out of this to qualify for his 'request'.
I do believe he is being entertained.
Well that's good.
"So, is every day like this?" I asked. Browbeat just shrugged, not sure what to do with himself. If he was as new as I guessed, he probably wouldn't have a good idea of the usual anyway.
"Not quite this funny." Vista cheerfully supplied as she turned up to face me. "But maybe that can change?"
She wore a hopeful smile that seemed to be poorly plastered over an amused smirk. While Clock had stopped laughing as soon as the medics had appeared to tend to Stalker, she still seemed much too amused by her team-mate's misfortune. While it was possible this tiny girl with terrifyingly versatile powers shared some interests with my not-quite-a-benefactor, that smile was familiar. The sort that accompanied pyrrhic amusement when things went awry for Emma, Sophia and Madison. Frankly, Shadow Stalker hadn't given me the best of first impressions, so the later seemed more likely.
I had no real attachment to any of these people yet, but they hadn't exactly put me off joining the Wards either. The joking was more friendly, in the same way that the Sarg's irreverence was. Well, not quite, but close enough for government work. While Shadow Stalker acted tough, I couldn't imagine her trying to stick with that after today.
"I won't promise anything, but I guess I can at least look at the paperwork and see how much red tape there is." I let out a sigh as she switched to a more cheerful grin. "But you owe me for having to deal with bureaucracy."
I could only wonder just how restrictive being a Ward would be. If I wasn't allowed to go clean up the gangs, I had a feeling things would get interesting in more of an 'Ancient Chinese Proverb' style than today's excitement. If I was going to get bored by paperwork, I doubted that Mr. Schadenfreude would be at all impressed by it. Surely there were other options than Ward or purely independent?
-Some minor edits to have Vista more age appropriate-
