Monday morning's gossip of choice was split between the container ship move and a short clip someone had captured of Taylor's moped hovering. The latter was enhanced by her arrival to school on said hovering moped, with people having been waiting with phones ready to see if it was true.
:lol Welcome back to the limelight, Taytay!
Taylor did her best to not let anything show on her face as she composed a text message, then fired it off to Vicky. She only let her grin show when she saw Vicky checking her phone a couple minutes later.
"Oh come on Ames," Vicky whined. "Really? You kept that a secret from me?"
"What are you talking about?" Amy asked, obviously confused. Vicky showed her phone to Amy, who narrowed her eyes. "TAYLOR!"
Taylor snickered as she made her way to class, Amy fuming about her fun being ruined.
Amy: Well played, Taylor. Well played.
To quote a certain bunny: "Of course you realize, this means war." A PRANK war!
By lunchtime the morning gossip had been derailed and discarded, as apparently they'd arrested a dozen people in connection with the radiation poisoning. The gang member's ex had apparently worked with several others to obtain the polonium, which had been provided by a tinker in New Jersey. She'd then gone on to ensure that he ate the stuff, working with two others to keep suspicion down. One of those two was in critical condition in Boston due to mishandling of some kind, but details were scarce.
Wow... talk about vindictive. She actually went and GOT OTHER PEOPLE IN ON IT just to kill her ex.
On top of that, the tinker had been arrested and they were now looking into their records on who they'd sold materials to. Who the tinker was had been kept a secret for a number of reasons. What those reasons were was also being kept secret. All that was said was that they weren't working for or affiliated with the PRT or Protectorate at the time.
*sighs* Bloody idiot. Did they think nothing was going to come of that?
(Actually, just a thought... is Alexandria immune to radiation? I know she can tank Behemoth's kill-aura, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing.)
"It says here that they kept the extra they didn't use at first and then tried to feed him more after he was healed," Dennis said, his tone indicating disbelief. "I mean, really? He was saved the first time and they thought they could try again? He'd know the symptoms and book it to the hospital immediately!"
"I'm more amazed where it says that they filed the receipt for the purchase with their accountant," Vicky admitted. "Apparently they thought it was possible the purchase might be tax-deductible?"
Some further reading showed that the accountant had, once they saw what the receipt was for, gone straight to the feds with it.
*facepalm* They KEPT it? And they filed a RECEIPT? What did they THINK was gonna happen?
Oh, and it has enough power for two seconds of 'Plaid' mode, but I don't see myself ever using it as that's an all-or-nothing thing and it's got a ninety-plus percent chance of exploding if I do."
"Plaid mode?"
"Yeah. But going at just under three hundred megameters per second in a straight line doesn't seem like a good idea." Amy blinked at that, apparently stunned.
:lol Ludicrous Speed!
"There's a group of Merchants looking like they want to create issues," Dean said, looking around a corner. "Most of them are armed."
"I wonder if we could scare them off," Missy wondered. "But short of a show of force?"
Taylor blinked, and got a grin on her face. "I don't suppose we could try pranking them?" The other two Wards looked at her. "I mean, I have various Bluetooth sound devices in particular?"
"A little discrete spatial warping to get them into position," Missy said, grinning and rubbing her hands together. "Please tell me some of them are the point-projection kind?"
"Of course," Taylor said as she pulled several out of a pouch. She then pulled out the demon duck speaker. "Think we can slip this next to them after we distract them with others?"
Dean lost his composure at that and started snickering.
"Oi," Dean said over one of the speakers. "What're you lot doing in our alley?"
"Who said that?" one of the Merchants asked, the group spinning to look at the brick wall Dean's voice seemed to come from.
"It looks like they're gathering to create some trouble," Missy said over another speaker, this one pointing at the ground next to the group.
"Why would they do that in our alley?" Taylor said over the last speaker, which was set to point into the group of Merchants instead of near them. That had the effect of causing them to jump away from the voice in their midst.
"I don't know," Dean replied. "I don't think I like it, though."
"Find them," one of the Merchants said. "And we'll make them pay for this!"
They were able to tell that the group was starting to spread out, which was Missy's cue. She slipped the demon duck speaker into the middle of where they had been. Taylor then started an evil laugh playing from it. That caused the entire group of Merchants to turn to look.
"That wasn't there a minute ago," one of them said.
"Just shoot it," another said. "It's just a stupid speaker, right?"
Five gunshots later the group was staring at the still laughing and more worryingly untouched demon duck, since Missy was warping space around it just enough to keep it safe. The fact that the warping was also distorting the sound probably helped the whole performance, actually.
"I'm outta here," one of the group finally said, turning to run. A minute later the entire group of Merchants had scattered. It took another fifteen minutes for the three Wards to recover from their laughing, and two more to collect everything.
Hmm... I almost feel bad for the Merchants. I probably shouldn't laugh. *snorts* Ah, who am I kidding. :lol
She moved to the street edge of the roof to take a look, and sure enough she could see Oni Lee just standing there with what appeared to be a non-parahuman child with a green mask of some kind on.
"Greetings Maul," Oni Lee said, bowing. "Allow me to introduce my niece, who has decided to go by 'Kappa' for now."
"Hello," Taylor said as she got closer. "Why 'Kappa'?"
"She loves swimming and cucumbers. She's a bit shy, though. I wanted to thank you for your part in assisting me, and am hoping you can pass my thanks to Panacea as well. Even if the first few times I used my powers after I'd mostly recovered were a bit embarrassing."
"Unca Lee was nakey," 'Kappa' said, giggling, causing Oni Lee to sigh.
Aww... that's cute. I assume that's Lung's daughter.
Amy: So Oni Lee was out with what we presume was Lung's daughter?
Taylor: Yep. She hasn't triggered, but was running around as 'Kappa'. Because she liked swimming and cucumbers?
Amy: That's kinda cute.
Taylor: Why is it cute?
Amy: Oh, right, you probably haven't had a teacher go on about Japanese mythology. You should look kappas up.
Going by her chosen name, I suspect she want's water-themed powers. If she gets any. Hopefully her (potential) trigger event isn't anything too bad... advantages of being a second-gen cape.
Oh, have you tried forward-projecting the gun while side-projecting the bullet?
Dammit Amy! Stop giving her ideas to make her BS barrage thing even more scary!
Apparently we don't qualify for active defenses like automatic taser turrets, and there was some grumbling about needing to build a new home from scratch if we wanted 'proper' structural enhancements?
*sighs* That's a shame. Automated defense turrets are always nice.
This would all be fine, except that everyone wanted to gossip about how it might have come about instead of just asking. She even had a not-quite-a-lie 'answer' provided by the PRT to tell people.
Oh well. Eventually someone might just ask her, right?
You... do realize that these are teenagers, right? Why ask when you can gossip?
"Hey Taylor," a boy in her Math class said just after she'd sat down for lunch. The main issue she had with him was that he was named Greg, but that wasn't his fault. "What's up with your moped?"
Huh... I stand corrected. Apparently some of them DO have enough common sense to just ask.
Taylor: Tomorrow afternoon is going to be amusing.
Amy: Wait, what? Why?
Taylor: That...is not my secret to tell.
Amy: Damn you.
Amy actually kicked Taylor under the table at that point, but Taylor just grinned in response.
:lol Point to Taylor again. You've gotta step up your game, Panpan. Try and fluster Taylor with something for once.
Then again, Taylor has a bit of an unfair advantage...
Taylor gave that some thought. "Am I allowed to do so by jumping off of the building? I never did get to do that properly back when I was introduced."
"I'm not sure how that showcases the flying platform."
"It has a 'please catch me' button."
"Oh. In that case, go for it."
Like Batman and his plane! Only less edgy.
"What's up with the Empire thugs today?" Brian asked while they waited for a police van to pick up the group they'd found attacking a couple of black kids. "Most of them have been oddly, well, skittish once they see Maul?"
"No clue," Dennis replied. "Not that I'm complaining too much about not having to fight most of them, mind you. But watching three groups of them go from 'willing to attack' to 'back away slowly as they peacefully disperse' just because they spotted her is weird. This group surrendered very politely when she dropped in."
Huh. Looks like Kaiser spread the news around. Good.
Taylor: So I dug up the thread, and I'm not sure if I should be horrified that there are people wondering if the 'trio' were pushing people away from me because they had crushes on me.
*grimace* Egads... the things people come up with...
Taylor: So basically there's no way to make them stop, and anything I do will make it worse?
Amy: Yep.
Taylor: Sometimes the internet sucks.
:lol Welcome to the downsides of celebrity status.
