Heatwave 9.1
Tuesday, May 31
You step outside and throw your arms wide, luxuriating in the feel of warm sunlight on your face. This has been a stressful year, what with bullies, traitors, magic, new schools, and cape fights, but somehow you managed it. Exams have been taken, answer sheets have been turned in, assignments for next year have been written down, and finally summer vacation has arrived!
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can bring you down today.
"Taylor!"
Your arms drop to your sides, but the smile does not completely go away. Kayleigh has been much less annoyingly peppy this past week because of the stress of finals, which made her much more tolerable for extended periods of time without making you want to either duct-tape her mouth shut or take a nap because her limitless energy just wears you out. Knowing her, she probably wants to set up a date for a giant pool party or something.
Turning around, you sidestep the students still streaming out of the building and wait for Kayleigh to come out. To your utter lack of surprise, she is not alone, but instead of one of her regular friends she is walking out with a new girl with bangs dyed bright blue. The green trim on her uniform jacket denotes her as a junior, which explains why you have not seen her in any of your classes like the rest of Kayleigh's friends though not why they are together.
"Hey," Kayleigh says in a slight pant when she comes to a stop. Did she run the entire way after you or something? "Wanted to introduce you to somebody. Taylor, this is Laura Horrigan, my absolute best friend since I was, like, six years old. Laura, Taylor Hebert, new girl on the block."
"We've met," replies Laura in a dry voice.
Her voice is a little familiar, but it's the hair that does it. There are only so many girls you've met before with blue hair. Were it not for that, you probably never would have put two and two together. She acted much differently when she was drunk. "At Greg's party, right."
Kayleigh covers her mouth but cannot stifle her giggles in time, and Laura gives her a
look. "Yes, the party, too. Let's have a bit of a chat, you and I."
The upperclassman walks you around to the side of the Winterrose Academy building before turning back to Kayleigh, who has followed the pair of you. "Can we get some privacy, please?"
"Sure, sure. No problem. I'll just give you two a little bit of alone time—"
"Kayleigh." The older girl gave a tight smile that made Kayleigh's teeth clack shut. "Shoo."
Your eyebrows rise when your friend scurries off. These two are supposed to be best friends, but you have to wonder just what kind of dynamic they have. Or is Laura really as irritated by this impending talk as she looks?
She sighs and holds out her hand. "Sorry about that. But as I was saying, that isn't the only place we know each other from. We've run into each other during work a few times." Cool mist starts wafting off her palm. You raise your eyes to meet hers. "You're Calamity Witch."
Well. That explains why she was so insistent on it just being the two of you.
"And you're Cailleach." She nods and cuts off her power. Now you have to wonder where she plans to go with this. If she means to fight you, perhaps thinking that you are without your 'Tinkertech' just because Perfect Storm is in standby form, she is in for an unhappy surprise, but her actions do not really fit that scenario. Why would she reveal herself when she could pelt you with ice from behind, or even better, catch you in the middle of one of her area blasts so no one could trace it back to her? No, that doesn't make any sense at all. Without a better option, you simply ask, "Why? And how, while you're in an explaining mood."
Laura looks away and purses her lips. "Regarding the how… I was telling Kayleigh about what we were up to Friday since she already knows about me, and your name slipped out. She didn't do it out of any kind of maliciousness, if you were worrying about that. It's just… " She cracks an unwilling smile. "I love that girl to pieces, but she is a total space cadet. I had a nice long talk with her about forgetting that kind of detail if she can't keep it to herself, so rest assured your secret is going no farther than the two of us."
"That doesn't explain why you'd out yourself to me. What, did you think, 'I'll just reveal my identity to her and everything will be hunky-dory'?" You know you sound more cynical right now than the actual supervillain, but you can't help it. What in the world made her think this was a good idea?
She shook her head. "Not in those exact words. More like it's the honorable thing to do, especially since you were unmasked during a Truce. Besides," she adds with a scoffing laugh, "you saved my life more than once last weekend. Holding this over your head is a poor way to repay you, don't you think? Now, are you really going to keep arguing for why I
shouldn't have done this and instead kept your identity to myself in case I need to hire a hitman or something, or are you going to just accept it and move on?"
…Yeah, that's probably the best move. "So where do we go from here?" you ask instead. Despite your confusion regarding this particular situation, you are vaguely familiar with the concept of mutual unmasking during serious things like Endbringer fights. No one has ever told you what comes afterwards, though.
"I don't know about you, but I expect I'll be busy for a while. Now that the Maras are officially kicked out of the city, new groups have already started scrambling to take over their territory and business. Not just local gangs, either. New York, Boston, even a few from Detroit or Chicago. Things are going to be a mess for a while," she concludes with a sigh.
You grimace. The thought of gangs from other cities coming in is bad enough, but now that she has mentioned it you cannot help but think of how few local heroes there are. Philadelphia's small cape population has been a boon to the city at large, but now it might come back to bite everyone in the rear if villain groups more familiar with tangling with a stronger opposition roll into town. "I know you guys don't normally talk to the PRT, but if you hear about new gangs moving in, think about calling them. Miss Militia and Chevalier have my number, and one of us should be able to go out and arrest them."
Laura gives you a sharp laugh at that, probably at the idea of capturing villains. You have seen Jotunn and Solaire in action, both against nonpowered MS-13 gang members and Cadejo. Jotunn does not seem to be one of those people who has much trust in the court system, though as a criminal himself his perception is by default skewed. "If things get bad, maybe we'll do that." A moment of hesitation precedes her pulling a notepad out of her bag and scribbling something on a sheet of paper. She hands it over with a faintly embarrassed blush. "Same for you. If you're booting gangs out of our city and you're getting swamped, give me a call.
"Anyway, take care. I'll see you around maybe."
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I suppose it really depends on how much you trust what Cailleach told you," Tim says, not looking up from his holographic screen. "If you think the warning about gangs from other cities muscling in on what used to be the Maras' turf is true, then yes, it would be worth keeping one ear to the ground. If you have doubts about it, wait until the Protectorate gives you an official warning or just call them up yourself and verify it. I'm surprised she tracked you down to tell you in the first place."
"We did just fight the Maras together. Maybe she felt it was cape courtesy or something." You omitted many of the details about the conversation you had at school when you asked Tim for advice on what to do with the information she passed along, but so far he does not have any ideas you did not already think of yourself. Changing the subject, you wave your hand at the briefcase above which the screen floats, lines of code scrolling up. "What is that, anyway?"
"A simple AI I've been working with off and on. Originally it was supposed to be a backup data assistant, something useful but not strictly necessary that would let me practice the kind of programming I would need to do to build Devices, but with Danny gone"—this he says with a wince—"I thought it might be better to adapt it to keep track of everybody when they go off on raids. With a little bit more work, I'd like to make it capable of actually giving advice and help coordinate the attacks. The briefcase holds the necessary hardware and power convertor. I'm just giving it a final test run before I take it over to Kurt. It won't completely replace Captain's power, but it should fill in some of the gaps."
That answer raises more questions as well as a mild amount of shame. When your dad was injured, you were justifiably more worried about his health and whether he would wake up than anything else, but all the same it is sometimes difficult for you to remember that you and Samantha are technically members of the Privateers, too. You have just always had your own things to do, to the point that the majority of your contact with the 'Privateers' is talking to Tim and a few things you've picked up from Kurt and Lacey. "How is everyone holding up? I know Dad was the leader of the team, so now that he's gone…"
Tim is quiet for an awkwardly long time, and you cannot decide whether it is because he wants to concentrate on his programming or because he would rather not answer. Eventually he dismisses the screen and turns to face you fully. "As you might imagine, things are a little… tense right now. Danny's power didn't just make it easier to coordinate with each other. It also reinforced the idea that no matter our personal disagreements, we were all acting towards the same goal in the end. Between the loss of that feeling of unity and the loss of actual leadership, you can probably guess how things are going. A few people are trying to keep everybody working together, but that has created its own issues because they all see themselves as the best person for the job."
"Why don't you take charge, then?"
"Because everyone, including me, knows I'm not the leader type. I'm happy to help, but I do not want the headaches that come with being in charge of everything." He loses his smile. "Not to mention, it sounds like a lot of them have taken the idea of being a group of normal humans who can defeat capes as a point of pride. Danny leading us was one thing – he's always been the boss – but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't want another cape on top calling the shots."
Well. That is just a bit of an unwelcome surprise. Maybe you should pop your head in and try to smooth things over. You aren't your dad, but you are his daughter, so that might give you a bit of sway over the men, although leaving them to do their own thing all this time won't help matters. You just have to pencil that into your schedule. It isn't like you plan to be busy.
Oh, who are you kidding? You never seem to have enough time to do everything you want, and that won't change any time soon. You know you need to contact the TSAB again and try to get a more thorough explanation of whether your experience was standard procedure from Admiral Tucson. And you still have to take Dragon and Tim to the Dragonslayers' base so they can tell you what parts of the extravagantly complicated computer system allowed the Dragonslayers to hack into her systems. Then there's the less dramatic but still so satisfying news you need to pass along to Vista that true to his word, Tim has built her a better prosthetic arm for her civilian life, one that can experience a fully human range of sensation. Oh, and you still haven't called Epoch back about when you're going to teach magic to him and the other Adepts.
About the only advantage of school being out for the summer, you decide, is that you can now sleep in without anyone yelling at you.
Gained Key Item "Cailleach's phone number". Don't abuse the privilege.
Kayleigh: Do it! Use it, abuse it, molest— *mmph umph mm*
So that you are aware of how time is passing, Perfect Storm can now create another template-bearing Device. Tim has 7 weeks until he can cross-train.
Here are this arc's available plotlines. Pick two for this week.
- Tickets to Gangland – If Cailleach is right, not only do you have to worry about local villains trying to fill MS-13's shoes, but out-of-towners too. Keep an eye and ear out for any invading capes and confront them if they start causing trouble.
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind – The Enforcers captured you then let you go with an apology, but you have to wonder just what in the world was really going on. Call up your friend the Admiral and grill him for a little more detail.
- Long Live the King – Without Danny in charge, the working relationship among the Privateers is becoming strained, and already some people are jockeying for the title. Talk to a few people and figure out if you can smooth things over.
- Looking for Trouble – Go on patrol and maybe befriend someone. Or Befriend someone. Same thing, right?
As promised, there will also be one additional activity per week that is reserved purely for leisure activities. Hanging out with other characters in non-combat settings, exploring Earth Bet or alternate Earths, training, scanning for Linker Cores, handing out IAE templates, what have you. Since Taylor is on summer break and no longer has school taking up her time, I might give you a second activity per week, but let's test it out first, shall we?
Important note: to socialize with a character, Taylor must have at least a cordial relationship with them. That means Vista, Tim, Kurt, Lacey, most of the Privateers really, Miss Militia, Kayleigh, Dragon, Epoch, Chevalier, Cailleach (civilian or cape version), Circus, Solaire, pretty much any of the capes you went doggo-hunting with… I think that's it? If you want someone else, just ask me and I'll give you a yea or nay.
Take 24 hours to talk this over.