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Today's escort was another PRT officer Alex didn't know. Sergeant Slaine Cruickshank, a slender, lightly-built white guy with dark hair and a neatly-trimmed beard, and another non-issue firearm at his hip - the thick blocky shape of a Desert Eagle was unmistakeable even in the holster, it was just a very fat gun.
Sergeant Cruickshank was not inclined to take Alex for a jog outside, so she was condemned to the treadmill. Wasn't too bad this time, though - she'd finished her interior helmet electronics, so she could just wear her helmet and use the motion sensors in her gloves to work the interface, get some design work done while she jogged. Work out the use aids she was planning to put into the halberd later this morning. It looked doofy but she only had the one set of head-mounted electronics right now, so just wearing the helmet it was.
The distraction was enough to keep boredom from overcoming her, so she managed to push herself to the point of actually getting tired. She closed her workscreens so she could see, and shut down the treadmill. Taking her helmet off - there was a domino mask beneath - she looked around to take in the current state of the gym.
More PRT agents had come in to do their morning workouts as the hour got more reasonable. Her own agent had someone talking to him - a petite woman, even smaller than Alex, with mousy-brown hair and thick glasses, looking particularly dowdy in an ankle-length skirt and a thick monocolour brown sweater. Quiet, the kind that tended to disappear into the background or get bullied. (Alex, as someone who hunted bullies for sport, was something of an expert in the kinds of people that got bullied)
Alex opted not to interrupt, simply moving to her laptop to continue her design work. She could wait until his conversation was done before heading back to her workshop in Wards HQ - not that it was half as elaborate as Kid Win's, until she officially existed and her tinker budget cleared she was basically just using a PRT armoury workshop that'd been moved into WHQ.
It was only a moment before the Sergeant noticed Alex was done, and came over, the woman trailing awkwardly behind him. "Ripple, sorry for the wait. Let me introduce you to my wife, Rhonda."
The woman offered Alex a small nod. "... good morning," came out in a bit of a whisper.
"Morning," Alex nodded back. "Did you two want to talk more?"
The Sergeant looked to Rhonda, assessing her opinion before stating his own. "... nah, we have time to ourselves at home. It wasn't anything too important, just, you know. Spending some time together while we had it." Right, that was how functional families worked. They spent time with each other because they enjoyed it.
Alex tried not to let her jealousy leak into her voice. "I was gonna head back to WHQ, so if you wanted to stick with her, I can make my way back on my own."
"You can but I'm assigned to escort you. I'll take you to the door then link back up with her. How long before you have to start, Rhonda?"
The woman shrugged. "... not that long. I have a lot on my desk today. The city's louder than normal right now."
"Yeah. Okay, I'll try link back up with you before you have to start, but I won't keep you too busy. See you soon." He waved, a little awkwardly.
Alex closed her laptop and stood up, and they headed through the halls of the PRT to Wards HQ.
… normally Dean arrived to visit around this time - when she'd finished her morning workout and was heading to WHQ. No sign of him today. She tried not to feel disappointed when the WHQ door closed behind her without his arrival.
Didn't entirely succeed. It wasn't like she wasn't used to loneliness, but that didn't mean she liked it. If anything, it had made her hate it more. She'd had a lot longer than average to mull over each distinct and individual texture of how much it sucked.
She wasn't normally this hung up on Dean specifically. He was her best friend, she liked spending time with him more than anyone else, but there were other people she'd hung out with at school. Mostly outcasts and loners that she'd met by the simple expedient of punching their bullies. Just, none of them had access to Wards HQ.
And maybe she was thinking more about him specifically after the meeting last night had threatened to take him away. It wasn't like she couldn't see the Director's point. The fact that his family company had turned up at all was a bad sign. The plain and unadorned facts looked incredibly suspicious. It was logical to suspect him. She just… didn't want to.
She should, she knew that. It was her responsibility to see this through, whatever it cost her. But that cost kept on climbing. It had started with her father, then Honoka. She didn't want to look, to suspect, to think about it. She didn't want to see anything that'd raise the cost further and lose Dean too.
… man, one day he didn't show up and she was already getting this maudlin. It was fucking sad.
Alex shook herself out of it, heading to her workshop. WHQ was always so quiet in the mornings. A huge space meant for any number of teenagers, and hosting only one until everyone's half-days at Arcadia timed out. It was a familiar feeling, rambling alone in a space too big for one, but it had never been a pleasant one. Better to bury herself in something mechanical. Focus hard enough she stopped thinking about the empty space. It wasn't like she was gonna run short on projects anytime soon.
Ripping up Honok-Spiral's drones should be later. Cooperatively with Armsmaster, so he could learn from it too. But she still had armour plates to finish up, last touches on the helmet electronic suite, and increase the strength, get some practice in with augmented speeds. Plus finishing up with the halberd - it'd be a lot easier to use with microthrusters in the butt and just below the head helping to swing it. Should more than make up for the awkwardness of its length.
After that… well, she might have time for another project before heading out this afternoon. Two obvious ones - one, a mobility device so people with their own mobility aids Spiral couldn't just walk away from their beatings whenever they liked. Unconscionably rude. Two, a weapon of her own forging, as Armsmaster had suggested. She wasn't ready to replace his halberd with a main weapon yet, but she could do with a sidearm - a sword, easy to carry in an out-of-the-way sheath and have on hand at all times.
She was still guessing as to her specialty, but things were starting to narrow down. It wasn't electronics. She'd found working with radio systems easy, and she'd had just as easy a time installing a sonar detection system in her helmet, but the rest of the interface was, according to Armsmaster's inspection, within tinker standards. But the radio and sonar were well above the curve. So it wasn't the electronics, it was what those electronics were interacting with - electromagnetic and acoustic waves. There was something about vibrations and frequencies that she just found really easy to work with. So her sword would be a vibroblade, to see if that pattern held true. Certainly she was full of ideas on the concept.
… probably best to have the sheath integrated into the weapon so it could serve as a big old whacking rod when she wasn't supposed to cleave her opponents in half (which tbh was most of the time). Maybe put something spicy into the sheath too. Or hook it in so it vibrated too.
She'd barely even finished jotting down concept notes in her laptop when the buzzer rang throughout the Wards headquarters. It took her a moment to recognize, and with a sigh, she pulled her domino mask back on and made her way out into the main room. The buzzer would keep going until someone hit the acknowledgement button on the console to affirm that yes, everyone inside was masked up.
It wasn't Dean. Buzzer only went off when non-Wards personnel were coming in. More likely it was just maintenance guys.
Turned out not to be either. The entrance whirred open, and discharged a pair of girls, unmasked and escorted by Miss Militia, in fatigues and American flag scarf, a Colt 1911 type pistol of some breed sitting comfortably in a holster at her waist. One girl with freckles and frizzy brown hair, the other tall, curvy, blonde, aggravatingly perfect, both with guest ID cards on lanyards around their necks. The Dallons, Amy and Victoria.
Alex blinked owlishly.
So did Victoria, Amy, and Miss Militia. They all just stood there blinking at one another for a moment.
Eventually Miss Militia broke the silence, her pistol dissolving into green-black light that reformed into an M16, then settling into a pair of Uzi SMGs. Though she didn't aim them or anything, they just settled awkwardly into her hands. "... I didn't realize we had a new Ward." She wouldn't, the paperwork was being held back as long as possible so if you hadn't just spotted Alex in the building halls you wouldn't know.
Alex chuckled nervously. "Yeah, uh… I'm Ripple, hi?"
"... Alex?" Victoria asked to clarify. Being a girl now didn't make her unrecognizeable. Dammit.
She slumped, cheeks red with embarrassment. "... yeah." Dammit she hadn't wanted to be seen like this by Victoria of all people. Or Amy for that matter.
For her part, Amy's eyes were wide as dinner plates and her mouth was working helplessly, like a gulping fish.
Miss Militia looked between the three of them, her dark green light transforming back into a 1911 pistol - one of the fancy custom-made models, with the name of the custom-manufacturer, Kimber, stencilled on the slide in an elegant cursive - that twirled around her hand without seeming to take much notice from her. "So, I should introduce myself to the new Ward, but you seem to know each other, and it's not long before school, so I'll let you all talk in private for now. I'll be just outside." With a polite nod, she withdrew out the door, leaving the teenagers to their own devices.
Alex sighed, pulling off the domino mask and slumping in one of the chairs. "... what are you two even doing here?"
Victoria shook her head, perching on the couch. "Checking on you, actually. There's an Amber Alert out for you so you can understand why I was worried?" Amy sat down next to her, still staring at Alex.
Alex buried her face in her hands. "... Did Dean…?"
"Yeah, but not the way you're thinking. Not intentionally." Victoria shrugged. "I mean, he's your friend, but he wasn't worried at all that you weren't turning up for classes, even when I told him there was an Amber Alert on you." Dammit. Trust Victoria to keep up-to-date on local Amber Alerts. "He should have been worried. That he wasn't told me he already knew where you were and that you were okay. It didn't necessarily mean it was a Wards thing but he froze up when I asked him, so…" She shrugged again.
It was not fucking fair that a girl that perfect, popular, and beautiful was smart too. Alex just had brains and fitness, Victoria got the whole package.
"He said he was planning on turning up to say hi, but we agreed to do that sort of thing entirely separately. I don't know if you've heard but we're kinda on the outs right now and we'd probably end up fighting if we were here together."
"... yeah. I heard." It was always like that. Their relationship was always off and on, Victoria always jerked Dean around.
"So… I'd ask what happened but I guess your trigger was a bit wild?"
"Yes." Alex's voice was sharper. This she could be sure of: shut her out. They were classmates but they had never been friends and Victoria was not entitled to hear word one of what she was dealing with even if it wasn't classified. "But I'd rather not talk about it."
Victoria held up her hands, palms open. "No no of course not. I know we're not that close. You've got your own friends. But I'll offer a shoulder anyway, or whatever kind of help you need. Triggering is something every cape goes through and it sucks, so we've all gotta have solidarity. And you got more added on top. So like… I want to help as much as I can."
"... thanks for the offer, I guess."
Amy, who had been busily staring at Alex, spoke up. "One thing Dean can't help with is lessons. We have years of learning how to be a girl, you sort of got thrown in the deep end. Has anyone been teaching you that stuff?"
Alex twitched. "Doctor Rivers was pretty particular about wiping front-to-back," she grumbled. She certainly didn't want a yeast infection (what even was a yeast infection, why was there bread down there?!), but it would've been nice not to have to think too much about what was going on downstairs.
"Right," Amy nodded. "Now you shouldn't have heard this from the Doctor but you might have heard it from other women - douching. Some people recommend it. Don't do it. The benefits are unproven, the vagina is self-cleaning, and you're more likely to introduce an infection when you mess around with the natural bacterial culture."
"Wait shit, really?" Victoria turned to her sister in surprise. "Damn, some stuff I can learn too apparently."
Alex had her face buried in her hands, really not wanting to hear this. "... can you please just write this on a note or something?" She tried not to let her tone of voice turn into a wail. Success… limited. "I'm not gonna be able to remember everything." The main thing she was going to remember was the humiliation of being told how not to clean her genitals by a girl she'd taken on dates.
Amy was smirking. She was trying to hide it but Alex could see. Why was this getting more reaction out of Amy than anything Alex had done as a guy trying to make sure she enjoyed the dates? Dammit. Sadist. But she did have mercy and pulled out a school notebook, ripping a page out to start writing on.
"So I don't want to push too far, but have you figured out bras?" Victoria gestured to her own chest. "I know you're athletic and you've got a bit going on up there so it's gonna get real painful if you don't have it bound down."
Alex just sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I know. It's on if you must know. What am I supposed to figure out, exactly?"
"The hooks at the back? It's usually beyond our flexibility so there are a few unintuitive tricks to make it work."
Alex stood, folding her arms behind her upper back to demonstrate she'd had no issue with that.
Victoria whistled. "Wow, you're way more flexible than I am. I have to go thumbs-down to get enough range of motion."
"yaaaaay," Alex deadpanned. She did rotate her arms surreptitiously. That did make the range of motion back there much wider, huh.
Victoria pursed her lips, looking to Amy before returning her gaze to Alex. "... so, how's it been? The walk on the other side, I mean?"
"Humiliating. This whole bit did not help."
"... yeah, that's fair. Sorry. I don't think there's anything more you need to know to deal with your body. But hey, feel free to hit me up if you want a lesson in anything! There's loads of stuff you could learn about being a girl, and it's all optional, but if you wanna take the option, I'm around."
Yeah, she would be an expert at being a girl, wouldn't she? Victoria certainly executed it perfectly all the damn time. "... fine."
"And if you don't, no worries. Whatever you decide, I'm in your corner." And Victoria smiled. That perfect, unapproachable smile. Impossible to imitate, impossible to compete with. Never missing a beat. Not a single flaw. Not a single angle by which to approach. A beauty that left all who beheld it in despair.
Alex tried not to break out crying. She tried. When she failed, she looked away, bringing her hands up, trying to hide it, to wipe it away. This was fucking humiliating. This was why she hated dealing with Victoria, she was so fucking perfect it was impossible to feel anything but inadequate around her.
Victoria gasped, and the pressure lightened. She was still infuriatingly perfect, but… at least it was easier to ignore now. "I'm so sorry! I-I was trying to-! That was supposed to be reassuring!" She scrabbled in her backpack for tissues. "U-usually when I use my aura like that it comforts people! Sorry I was trying to help!"
Alex snatched the tissues she was holding out, turning away to attend to herself. Goddammit her nose was running, fucking gross. Victoria probably even cried pretty. Of course she would have this adverse allergic reaction bullshit to Victoria's damn powers, she couldn't just be in awe and rapture like everyone else.
Victoria looked around, at a bit of a loss. Eventually she turned to Amy. "... did it work normally for you?"
Amy nodded, biting her lip.
"I… Alex, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel like that. My power isn't supposed to do that. It's… it doesn't actually create an emotion, not directly. It's more contextual. Like… when I flare my aura, it just increases my emotional impact. The effect it has is supposed to be contextual. Like, if I'm against you, you're scared, if I'm on your side, you're relieved to have me there. I was going for the latter, I swear!"
"... yeah, well it's always made me feel like shit," Alex mumbled into her wad of tissues. "Not normally this bad." Probably a mix of normally being on the fringes vs the direct target, and just being more delicate right now. Goddammit. "You just never noticed."
"Huh." Victoria looked puzzled. "Always? I guess that means the context is different for you? But what context would make it just crater your mood like… that. Oh." Her eyes widened and she stopped talking.
Alex looked up at her, eyes still bleary with tears. "What?"
"I. Uh. Shit." Victoria looked around wildly. "I, uh. Right! Amy! We should probably get to school before we're late!"
Amy blinked. "Eh? Sure?" She put down the medical advisory note she'd been writing. At least Alex could digest that away from other people.
"The fuck did you just 'oh' about?" Alex grumbled, wiping her nose.
"Nothing it's fine nothing wrong with it I just need to think that's all," Victoria babbled as she made her way back to the exit.
"At least tell Miss Militia to wait until I'm decent!" Alex yelled after the sisters. Even if she wasn't gonna get an answer she could at least not have more people walk in on her crying.
Goddammit. Stupid aura.
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