[ ] Check in with your new team – Dad did say the Privateers were going to start their raids as soon as possible, and right now, you'd love to have something to shoot. Especially after you tell him you're dropping out of Winslow.
-[ ] Still, despite wanting to shoot something, perhaps it would be better to go from there to get the paperwork for official Independent Hero Team status first. You just need to get your Dad's approval for it, since he's the team leader.
-[ ] Meanwhile, ask Perfect Storm to start compiling the paperwork for homeschooling and GEDs. You can start working on it this evening.
Set Up! 1.6
The Dockworkers Association office really does look awful from your vantage point floating overhead. The entire front of the building has collapsed, and while the dockworkers have cleared out enough of the rubble to rescue everyone who had been trapped inside and to slip inside for any personal belongings, it still looks like a tornado blew through it. In hindsight, it's a good thing your dad got powers; if he hadn't, this very well might be the end of the DWA.
You're not here to admire the scenery, though. You let go of your flight power and plummet like a stone, the ground racing up to greet you. Kicking it back on at the last possible second, you twist in midair and land lightly on your toes. A wide grin appears; that never gets old.
Your aerial acrobatics have caught the attention of several of the dockworkers hauling around debris outside, and two of them are now walking towards you. They are both carrying heavy scowls, which is a good thing as well as a bad thing. It's good because that means that your dad did not tell everyone about your real identity; most of the men would not be willing to take orders from a fifteen-year-old girl, even though you are a cape, and those who would wouldn't want to bring you along when they go after the gangs. It's bad because they probably think you're here to cause trouble.
Thankfully, that's an easy misconception to fix. "Hey, boys!" you call out to the pair, a sneaky idea making you try something. From looking at your body and your costume in the bathroom mirror, you know that while you still look like you, you're different enough that most people probably would not recognize you, but maybe if you act differently, too, it will throw them off even more. You just need to make sure no one will call you out on your act. You throw on the best coquettish smile you can, swing your staff around in a slow circle before laying it across your shoulders, and lean backwards nonchalantly. "I was wondering if you can give me a little help."
The younger of the men, maybe in his mid-twenties, nods, but the older man continues frowning at you. "Depends on what kind of help you want."
"This older guy found me yesterday and said you guys could use someone with my particular
skills. Called himself Captain." A spark of realization lights in their eyes. "Any idea where I can find him?"
The second man jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the three trailers set up in the parking lot. "He's in the middle one. Knock and wait to be told you can enter. You won't like it if you just barge in."
"I'll keep it in mind." You hesitate for a moment, gathering the necessary courage, and then you strut between them, throwing a wink at the younger man as you pass. "Later, handsome."
From the corner of your own eye, you can see him staring at you before his gaze drops a little lower. It lingers there only a moment or two, and then the older man slaps him hard on the shoulder and breaks the moment.
Pink stains your cheeks even as a giddy little smile lifts the corners of your mouth. You can't believe that worked! That isn't something you
ever would have done before finding Perfect Storm and getting powers, but then again, before all this you didn't have a body you would expect to find alongside Emma's in fashion magazines. Add in the self-confidence you had thought lost forever after your mom's accident and Emma's betrayal and this sassy streak you never knew you had, and suddenly you're having more fun just living life than you can remember or even believed possible!
Status (update parameter (personality)): 63%
Knocking a little rhythm on the door of the trailer, you don't wait for a response before you walk in. You don't know what you're expecting, maybe your dad doing paperwork or making calls, but it certainly is not the sight that greets you. He stares at you in embarrassment, and you tilt your head and look him up and down. "You never told me you were part of the Ren Faire scene."
"Who the hell are you?" demands the woman standing next to the far wall of the trailer, a heavy blue coat with brass buttons hanging from a second-hand mannequin nearby. She is a giant of a woman, taller than your or your dad and nearly twice as wide at the shoulder as him. People would probably mistake her for one of the dockworkers if it were not for the hair hanging down to her waist and the fact that she is incredibly top-heavy. As much as you regret your own flat chest, you would not consider trading busts with her.
Your dad sighs and asks you, "You remember Lacey, don't you? Kurt's wife?" You nod. "Lacey, I know it's been a couple of years since you saw her, but that's Taylor."
"Taylor? Really?" He nods, and Lacey looks at you with new eyes. "Holy hell, girl, how old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"Woulda pegged you for eighteen in that getup.
Maybe seventeen, but that's pushing it. And you let her wear that?"
"It wasn't exactly my choice," answers your dad in a sardonic voice. "Annette always warned me you have to pick your battles with teenage girls, and that goes double when they can shoot you with lasers."
Lacey looks at you in shock and maybe a little bit of nervousness. Trying to lighten the mood, you grin and ask, "So does that mean I can stay out later than nine on school nights now?"
"Don't count on it. That's a battle I'm still willing to fight." You and Lacey both laugh. "And speaking of school, why aren't you in class?"
Your smile fades. "You might want to sit down for this one."
"Oh, great."
He walks deeper into the trailer and sits down in a chair at the far end. Now that you're looking, you can see a thick line of bright yellow paint stretching across the floor, and poking your head out the window shows that a circle of the same color goes around that end of the trailer. "You figured out your range?"
"Sixteen feet. Come inside that, and you're close enough that I'll take control of you whether I want to or not." The faint tension in his shoulders fades as, presumably, he lets go of the rein he has been holding on his powers so Lacey could dress him up in the thick black pants, heavy boots, and puffy white shirt he is currently sporting. "I'm sitting down. Why aren't you in school?"
"I dropped out."
"What?!"
You hold up your hands when he jumps to his feet, Perfect Storm's staff form hanging obediently in the air next to you. Lacey can't seem to decide if she should stare at him, you, or it. "I just couldn't stand dealing with the bullies anymore. If they kept messing with me, I don't know that I wouldn't smash a Flare Shooter in Emma's face, and going Carrie on a high school wouldn't be a very good reputation for a new hero, now would it?"
"Emma? Your best friend Emma?"
"My
ex–best friend Emma who spent the last year and a half making my life a living hell." He stares at you in confusion and disappointment, to which you shrug helplessly. "You had enough to deal with with finding jobs for the dockworkers and paying the bills you tried to keep me from seeing. I didn't want to burden you any further."
Your dad blushes at the mention of the bills, but he rallies quickly. "Burden? Taylor, I'm your father; if you can't handle something on your own, you're
supposed to share it with me so I can help you."
You could barely keep yourself afloat, let alone me, too, you think but carefully do not say. The two of you decided last night that you are going to do your best to fix your strained relationship, and reminding him of that, no matter how true it is, would not help you in that goal. "It doesn't really matter now, though, does it? I'm done with Winslow."
"You still need to get an education—"
"Already taken care of." You give the dark red gem of your staff an affectionate pat, and Perfect Storm chimes in appreciation. "As soon as I left school, I asked Storm to research what I need to know about qualifying for homeschooling and getting my G.E.D. From what he found out, it's not that hard to do. We can talk about it when we get home if you want."
He nods and stands so he can walk back over to you and Lacey. "Let's do that. So why are you here?" His eyebrows wrinkle together, and he admits in a strained voice, "If you were hoping for a fight, Alexander and some of the other guys are heading out to follow up on some rumors that the Merchants have set up shop near here. They… probably wouldn't mind if you wanted to tag along…."
You can tell that he desperately wants you to pass on getting in a fight this soon, so you happily oblige him. "As fun as that sounds, I actually thought I could handle something else. I know you aren't happy with them, but I figured I could head over to the Rig and register us as a legitimate hero team."
"That's what I meant to do today," he mutters. "I was going to ask Margaret to call the PRT, but then Lacey showed up and…. Anyway, that doesn't matter. If you want to take care of that, sure. Meet us back here when you're done, and we can all go over it as a group."
"I'll get right on it."
"Ah ah ah!" Lacey said. "Taylor, I need to you back me up on something before you go. Something's missing from this costume, and Danny refuses to admit that I'm right about it."
You smile, both at her obvious desire to make you play dress-up – an activity you disliked even when you were a little kid and something she had suggested innumerable times when she and Kurt visited the house – and at the disgruntled roll of your dad's eyes. Still, a good costume could make or break a hero. You were glad Perfect Storm came with a costume already built in. "Let me see the full thing?"
He slips a bandana with eye holes already cut into it over his head and pulls on the blue coat, then looks at you with a pleading expression. Glancing over the costume pieces still available, you spot one that is just too perfect to pass up. "We didn't pick the same theme for our names," you tell him while picking it up. "We didn't design our costumes to look similar or even share the same color scheme. But we
can match in the ridiculousness of our hats." You drop the tricorne onto his head and give Lacey a satisfied nod. "There. Now it's perfect."
He just sighs in resignation, but a small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Soaring over the calm waters of the bay, you do your best to tamp down your enthusiasm to socially acceptable levels so you don't embarrass yourself when you reach the Rig. The headquarters for the Brockton Bay Protectorate, it is said to possess an impenetrable forcefield, hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles, and whatever other defenses a renowned Tinker like Armsmaster can cook up, but nothing springs up or out to harass you when you come cruising in for a landing on the helipad. Well, nothing until the two PRT agents sitting next to the door spring to their feet and grabbing a couple of water-gun-things that are connected to the building by long hoses.
"Identify yourself!"
You send them what you intend to be a disarming smile, but neither agent seems to notice. "My name is Calamity Witch, and—"
"Get on the ground!"
"For what?!" you demand in shock. One of them points his weapon at you, so you hastily continue, "I just want to pick up some paperwork!"
That throws them for a loop. "…Paperwork?" the less trigger-happy one asks.
"Yes! I need the forms to register an independent hero team!"
"…You're a hero?"
You really have nothing to say to that, but thankfully that seemed to be a rhetorical question. The more vocal of the pair reaches up to the handset strapped to his shoulder and whispers into it, the words too quiet for you to make out. A few more exchanges occur before he lets his hand drop and stands there watching you.
One minute passes in awkward silence, then two. You are seriously considering just taking off and letting your dad know that he needs to call the Protectorate and have them mail the forms to you when the door in front of you slides open.
"And now the confusion makes sense," the woman says as she steps onto the platform. The stiff winds send the ends of her scarf, the fabric styled as an American flag, whipping behind her. "You're Calamity Witch, then?"
"Y-Yes." Miss Militia. You're talking to Miss Militia! She was never one of your absolute favorite heroes, not like Alexandria or Armsmaster or Legend, but you know your dad, alongside a large chunk of the dockworkers, has always been more fond of her than any other member of the local Protectorate. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" Stepping forward to shake her offered hand, you stumble to a halt when the PRT agent holding the spray-gun – almost certainly containment foam, you finally realize – lifts the barrel in your direction. Looking at the elder heroine and animatedly rolling your eyes, you try to drop into a curtsey.
Well,
'try' is the wrong word. You do manage something, your left leg bending forward while your right slides leftward in front of it until you're a third of the way to the tarmac. You pop back up, doing your best not to reveal just how surprised you are by yet another strange motion Perfect Storm loaded into your head along with your powers.
Miss Militia blinks rapidly at the gesture before shaking her head. "Agent Simmons, I do believe you can put that away. In fact, I insist; the last thing we want is to start a fight over nothing. If you'll follow me, Calamity Witch, I think one of the conference rooms would be far more comfortable than out here."
"Calamity's fine," you tell her after you enter the building. You do like the sound of your cape name, the implicit threat lurking beneath it, but coming from a future ally, it is a bit of a mouthful.
She nods genially and opens a door to reveal a room with a small table and some chairs, all made from a dark red wood. "Coffee?" she asks, pouring a cup from a carafe in the corner and adding some sugar to it.
"No, thank you."
"If you're sure. Sometimes it's the only way I can make it through the day." Pulling out a chair, she sits down and waits for you to do the same, then unwraps a straw and drops it into the cup. "So, Calamity, you're here to register your team as independent heroes, is that right?" You just nod, and her eyes crinkle with good humor. "That's always an exciting time. I have to admit that I'm surprised, though; by the time most independents decide to join a team instead of going it alone, we've at least heard of them. I'm afraid I don't think I've ever heard your name come up before."
"Oh, you wouldn't have," you tell her with a laugh. "I got my powers only a few days ago."
Miss Militia gives you a quick double-blink. "A… a few days?" You nod. "And you've already found a team? That's quick work." She slips the straw through a gap in her scarf and takes a sip. "If you don't mind my asking, what made you decide not to join the Protectorate?"
Join the Protectorate? Did she mean to say the Wards—
You fight not to display the grin that wants to break through. It looks like Lacey isn't the only one who thinks you look older than you really are. "I thought about it, but… it just seems a little too… rigid for me." There, that is better than telling her that it is because your dad thinks they don't do enough to clear out the gangs that have entrenched themselves in Brockton Bay. "When Captain offered me a spot on his team, that was one of the things we discussed. When I'm not playing the part of their flying artillery, I get to be flying artillery on my own terms."
She laughs at the joke, weak though it may be. "Captain. I must be really behind the times if I don't know either of you two. What's your group's name?"
"The Privateers. And you wouldn't know him, either," you comfort her. "He got his powers recently, too."
The hero's eyebrows furrow briefly. "So you all found each other shortly after your triggers, then? How many people are in your group? Three, four?"
You glance upwards, trying to remember how many of the dockworkers your dad said were probably going to join the new business. "Thirty-five or so?"
"Thirty-five." You nod, surprised at her surprise. "That's… Wow." She takes another sip of her drink. "I didn't know we had that many parahumans move into the city recently."
No wonder she looks shocked, you realize. Thirty-five capes? You wish! That would be more than all the villains in Brockton Bay put together. You can't help the laughter that bubbles up. "As nice as it would be to have that many capes, that's not what I meant. Captain and I are the only parahumans on the team. The rest are regular guys who are just tired of the gangs walking all over them."
Miss Militia goes still for a long moment. "Your team is a mix of parahumans and normal humans. That… could pose a problem."
"What? Why?"
"Because hero teams are registered with the Protectorate, not the PRT." Seeing your expression of confusion, she explains, "Entry into Protectorate is limited by law to parahumans, just as membership in the PRT proper is only for unpowered individuals. If a hero team is mixed like yours is, it legally cannot be registered."
"We can't register just because we want to work together?!" you demand.
"I'm afraid so. Technically, you and Captain could register as a team of just the two of you, or you could register independently. But the rest of the Privateers?" She shakes her head. "The PRT does not like civilians, who almost universally do not possess the training necessary to safely contain villains, interfering in cape fights. They place themselves in danger unnecessarily and make the PRT's, and our, jobs more difficult because we have to protect them as well as fight the villains." Leaning back in her chair, Miss Militia continues in a gentle voice, "Affiliating yourself with the Protectorate, even if it only registering with us, gives you a license for what is essentially state-sponsored vigilantism. Your team would not have the same legal protections. Theoretically, they could be arrested for assault and battery any time they got in a fight with one of the gangs, though whether the D.A. would bother charging them is another matter entirely."
"What are you saying? That they don't have the right to fight against the gangs just because they don't have powers?!" Righteous indignation flows hot in your veins. If it weren't for Perfect Storm,
you would not have any powers. The thought that your Device, not your desire to help or the simple need to defend your home, is the only reason you would be allowed to stop the gangs rankles.
The experienced heroine finally breaks the pregnant pause. "What I am saying is that you, along with the rest of the Privateers, need to be careful. Knowing that it was your actions that led to your teammates' deaths is one of the worst feelings in the world, and I don't want anyone to have to deal with that pain."
"We're
already dying," you snap in response. "The only question is whether we fight and risk dying faster or lie back and let the gangs strangle us in our sleep."
The tick of the clock sounds loud in the quiet that follows your declaration. "Can I just get that paperwork? I need to get back to my team."
She nods and reaches out to pick up a slim manila folder that rests farther down the table. Flipping through the pages, she pulls out a few sheets. "Independent hero forms for both you and Captain, and a team registration form if you decide to go that route instead of signing up individually. They can be delivered here or to the PRT office downtown. I recommend you deliver them personally or through a courier you can trust; forms that were mailed to us have occasionally gone
missing."
Folding the papers in half, you let Miss Militia lead you down the hall to the helipad. Just in front of the door, she stops and pulls a card from one of her fatigues' many pockets. "For what it's worth, Calamity, I really do hope things turn out well, for you and the Privateers. If you ever find yourself in over your head, though, I want you to call me. Us heroines need to look out for each other."
You nod and walk out the door. The two agents are still there, both staring rigidly at the city. You glance in that direction before stumbling to a halt. A large cloud of dust is drifting over the northern part of the city. Over the Docks.
You run to the edge of the platform and jump off. The wind whips past you as you fly over the bay, and the papers flutter noisily. You can't keep these in your hands during the fight; you will just drop them, or they could be damaged by whatever fight is going on out there. Spotting the flat rooftop of a building sitting just off the shoreline, you drop down and transform as soon as your feet hit the concrete so you can stuff the documents into the inside pocket of your coat, and then you immediately redeploy your Barrier Jacket. You rocket through the sky as fast as your powers, your magic,
whatever can carry you.
It does not take long to reach the source of the disturbance. The hideous lovechild of a tank and a train engine rolls through the ruins of a building on gigantic treads, and the machine guns mounted on the mechanical monstrosity swivel and turn to keep firing at the group of men dressed in casual clothes and black ski masks, baseball bats and crowbars and even a couple of shotguns cradled in their hands. Squealer, for that is almost certainly who is driving the ugly vehicle, is spraying the place with bullets, but she can't seem to hit anyone. The gang fighting her is too skilled, too in tune with each other to be caught. Some of them are even avoiding blasts that there is no way they can see.
A terrible idea forming, you look at the second group again. They are moving with perfect coordination, inhumanly so.
Parahumanly so.
You bleed off your speed in a forward somersault and slam your boots into a rooftop; when your hat almost rolls off your head from the sudden change in speed, you grab the brim and pull it securely back into place. The guns turn to point at you, and a couple of the Privateers look up at you, too. Everyone acts like they expect something now that you're here, something more than just kicking Squealer's ass.
Oh, right. Banter. That's what everybody's waiting for. How do you do that?
"You know," you finally get out, "It's a bad idea to start shooting up my team. That sort of thing makes me… unhappy."
There, that should do it, especially with that deliberate little pause at the end. Your opponent, at least, seems to think so; the treads on one side of the train spin backwards to aim the giant cannon installed in the front directly at you. You got her attention, all right.
Now you just to figure out how to get you and the rest of your team out of here.
…Holy crap, Miss Militia became way more devious than I intended her to be.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil
[ ] Frontal assault – The armor is bad, but what makes this contraption so dangerous is all the guns. Destroy those, and everything gets easier.
[ ] Pin her down – Take out the tracks. If you can stop the vehicle from moving, it will be easier to tear it apart piece by piece.
[ ] Cut off the head – A weapon is only as dangerous as the one wielding it. Dodge the bullets and aim your fury at Squealer herself.
I will accept write-ins for stunts during the actual fight. Just attach them to one of the above options.