Sophia
Things were going smoothly. A casual, slow drive around various neighborhoods, checking possible safe-house locations off the list. Hebert taking notes. Comfortable. Familiar. A different kind of excitement than her solo patrols, the physical thrill of using her power to enact righteous violence on the deserving, but still anticipatory, eager.
Hebert normally only spoke to give directions, or occasionally describe a murder in great detail. So she was surprised when she said, out of the blue, "I ran into Emma today."
Well that could only end one of two ways. "...Yeah?"
"Instep, solar plexus, elbow to the temple. Went down like a chump."
Despite herself, Sophia let out a little snort of amusement. Yeah, Emma was her best friend, for all that they hadn't spent that much time together anymore, but the girl was a little obsessed, and she couldn't say she hadn't considered slapping the crazy out of her before herself. And hey, clearly Taylor had been paying attention to her combat lessons.
"Nice."
She looked satisfied with herself.
Sophia would probably be catching an earful about it later. Or maybe she already had, her civilian phone was on silent, like her work phone, while she was patrolling. At a stoplight she reached in her pocket for her cell—
"Something is wrong—"
Sophia looked up at a sudden crack to see the empty street in front of her suddenly had two costumed figures, a crackle of lightning tracing over them. She recognized motherfucking Kaiser immediately; the other one was in a tech harness, blonde, visor, a Tinker, the new trigger. Sophia was already unbuckling her seatbelt when spikes of metal erupted inside the cabin, aiming for her face. She dove out of the way, yanking the car door open and tucking into a roll, reaching for her knife. Kaiser was there, heavily spiked gauntlet reaching for her, and she didn't phase immediately, she was out of costume—
Her hesitation probably saved her life. Lightning crackled all around them, a pulling sensation in her gut, blinding lights.
She was suddenly in a warehouse, strewn with junk, half-disassembled heavy machinery, the humming bones of some Tinkertech framework circling the four of them. Kaiser released the front of her jacket and shoved, and she stumbled back, still stunned by the abrupt teleportation. She shook her head, trying to get the spots out of her eyes, bumped into Taylor.
"Excellent work, Auxiliary."
As her vision gradually returned, Sophia could see the blonde boy nod. He was aiming some sort of ray gun at them both. She tried to memorize the details—he wore a harness, metal and black tubing, unpainted, clearly Baby's First Tinkering. Unidentifiable boxes, pieces of glass, tubing, LEDs, it all made Kid Win's lab look organized by comparison.
"Thank you, my Kaiser."
And he was either a serious fanboy or actually had a German accent. She'd heard enough bad fake ones to think he was the latter.
"What do you want with us?" Hebert's voice was mostly calm, only an undercurrent of tension betraying her stress.
"Don't try to pretend, Sarin." Well, shit. "You may not respect the rules of being a cape, but I know a rat when I see one. Auxiliary, disarm them. Be thorough. This pathetic saboteur relies on tricks and traps."
"As you say."
The cape moved the ray gun onto his shoulder, where it snapped onto a piece of tubing. The barrel focused on Taylor, even as he moved towards her, gestured for her to raise her hands. She did so, but her eyes were on Kaiser.
"What makes you think I'm Sarin?"
"Oh, I've been watching you for some time, you ambitious little fool." Auxiliary patted her down, but she ignored him, even as he pulled out two phones, three knives, a lighter, pepper spray, another rape alarm, several small plastic bags of unidentifiable powders from various hidden pockets… it was almost funny, honestly.
Meanwhile Sophia reached into her own pocket—
"Hands clear, mongrel." The ray gun on Auxiliary's shoulder was aimed at her, now. He was stock still, hands still grasping Taylor's calves, halfway through removing a fourth knife. "No sudden moves."
She squeezed the phone, pulled it out slowly. "Just trying to avoid getting groped, Hans. The fuck are you doing here with Kaiser, anyway?"
"Be silent, filth." Kaiser sounded like he was sneering at her behind his spiked helmet. "I'll deal with you after I've executed this race traitor."
Sophia was going to bark something back—she'd been wanting to mouth off to this loser for years—but Hebert made a gesture with one hand, still raised above her head in surrender. Fingers together, palm out towards her. Stop. Then curled one finger downward. Towards Auxiliary.
Ugh. Fine.
The Tinker finally finished with Hebert, then moved to her, taking the phone out of her hand and putting it on his belt with the others, including her civilian phone. He did not seem impressed with her hidden weapons, after the collection he'd gathered from Hebert. Only two knives, one at her back, one strapped to her ankle.
"Go and keep watch, Auxiliary. Keep up the good work."
"Jawohl."
As soon as he left the room, Hebert said, "Let her go. She's just my driver. I'm the one you want."
"How very noble of you. I'll consider it."
Hebert lowered her hands.
Looked Kaiser straight in the fucking eye.
And said, "It was the itching powder, wasn't it?"
Sophia heard a sound that might have been Kaiser's teeth grinding.
She slowly turned to look at Taylor.
"You didn't react to me ruining your expensive whiskey. Or bleaching your expensive suits. You just bought more. I don't think you gave a shit about your ex-wife. So I thought I'd get more personal."
Kaiser took a menacing step forward. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces."
Taylor didn't even blink. "I thought the minoxidil and the tadalafil would counteract each other nicely, but you really can't stop the former abruptly. It can lead to sudden hair loss."
"You bitch!"
Kaiser lunged at her. She didn't move, even as he grabbed her, stomping forward until he slammed her into the wall. She just made a small oof sound.
Sophia tensed, bending her knees, ready to move. She glanced behind her, found a small chunk of metal on one shelf, Tinkering supplies probably, and palmed it. Kaiser wasn't paying her any attention, and he wouldn't live to regret it.
But Taylor made that gesture again. Wait.
"You know the hard part about keeping my power a secret all this time, Kaiser?"
He shifted one of his hands til it was on her neck, and began to squeeze. "I suppose we'll never know."
And then from the fucking walls hissed a voice made of harsh buzzing, hissing and clicking noises. It was inhuman, barely understandable, but the words chilled Sophia to the bone, echoing and nightmarish.
"I never got to eat a Nazi alive."
And then Assault came crashing through a high window into the warehouse, a blur of red and shattered glass that stopped on a dime.
Kaiser immediately spun to put Taylor between him and the hero, freezing the latter in place. He and Assault shouted something at each other at the same time, Sophia couldn't tell what. There were muffled bangs and shouting coming from the other room, where other heroes were likely taking down Auxiliary, responding to the distress beacon she'd set off earlier.
No one was paying attention to her in the chaos.
She hurled the chunk of metal, using her power so that it unphased halfway through Kaiser's neck.
