Chapter Three
Missy narrowed her eyes. It wasn't a squint. Squints were for suspicious people or people that had bad eyesight. Narrowed eyes were for badasses--like her--who were getting ready to chew bubblegum, kick ass, and get people to vote for them to make the city a better place.
She was in her Sunday best. A nice skirt and blouse and a little business jacket that she knew made her look more mature. Dressed as she was she could maybe pass for a fifteen year old.
Missy narrowed her eyes even more and tightened her hands into fists. Serious business fists. She could do this. Easy peasy, squeeze a lemon in someone's eye and watch them cry. She just had to get back to knocking on doors and selling her product:
Justice.
The last street had ended up with her getting laughed at, a dog that had been twice her size trying to chase her before she'd jumped onto a roof, and one fat guy asking her some very rude things before she ran off, his location given to the nearest patrol car. All in all, it could have been worse. It definitely could have been better, but it could have been worse. At least the street before that one had been nice. An older lady had agreed to vote for her and also gave her freshly baked cookies. Chocolate chip. Score.
Nodding to herself, Missy started her door to door campaign again. The first two houses she knocked at were quiet, and no one answered. Then she almost skipped the third because there was no car in the entrance, but a light from the top floor caught her attention.
Missy paused for a moment and shored up her badassery (it was a noun) before walking up the path to the two story house.
She brushed off a couple of flies and took a sniff to see if there was something rotting around attracting them, but there really wasn't. Not that she could tell. She brushed her blouse to remove any stray cookie crumbs, then started up the steps.
Being surrounded by flies while making a pitch wasn't a very good look.
The second step creaked under her weight, all eighty pounds of pure muscle, and Missy warped the world so that she ended up at the top of the steps without crashing through them. "Maintenance is a thing, you know," she grumbled.
Shaking her head, Missy turned to the door and reached up to knock.
Her hand never even made it.
The door swung open and Missy's eyes widened as a hand shot out, grabbed her by the collar and yanked her in.
She was about to show off what two years of CQC, pent up rage, and a whole lot of physics defying bullshittery could do to someone's soft bits when a knife was placed over her throat.
The door snipped shut and things were suddenly a lot worse.
"W-why did they send you?" someone asked.
"What?" Missy squeaked. She grabbed the... girl's wrist and tried to pull the knife back, but the girl was heavier, even if it was clear she wasn't as strong.
Missy was going to buy a taser and PR could go and fuck themselves with it if they thought they could tell her what to do in her civilian life.
"You're Vista," the girl said, her words faltering. "From the Wards. Which means you're here to... to recruit me, or - or arrest me or something."
Missy blinked. "What?" she asked again. "Why the hell would I do that?"
"I felt you doing something to the world with my bugs," the girl said. "What am I supposed to think?"
Her eyes had gotten used to the dimmer light in the corridor, enough that she could see the panic and fear in the girl's expression. "Okay, okay, calm down, alright?" Missy said. She hadn't been allowed to attend any of the hostage negotiation seminars, but she had watched plenty of movies while on console duty. Close enough. "Look, I'm not here to hurt you, or do anything, okay?"
The girl looked from her to the door, then back. "You're alone?" she asked.
Missy hesitated before answering. "Yeah, I am. Just me. Minding my own business. I didn't mean to, uh, bother you."
The girl pulled back. "Oh my god, I attacked a Ward," she said, her hands coming up to cover her face and revealing the... the butter knife she had been holding onto.
It wasn't even serrated or anything. Or rusty. Or just in any way sharp.
Missy felt just a little silly now.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," she said, then a little belatedly, "And I'm totally not a Ward."
The girl's panic subsided a little and she watched Missy for a few long seconds. "And I'm not a parahuman?" she tried.
Missy smiled. If anything, her captor was quick on the uptake. "Okay then," she said. "Uh, can I leave?" she asked.
She was totally going to report this, but that was no reason to be a jerk about it.
"Why were you here?" the girl asked.
Missy licked her lips, but this time she wasn't going to be caught unawares and she could smash through the door's foot-wide window with but a twist of her power. "I'm running for mayor," she said. "Of Brockton Bay."
The girl blinked, then a smile tugged at her lips and she started to laugh.
"Hey!" Missy forgot about her plan to jump out the window in favor of defending herself. They'd already established that there wasn't much to be worried about. What was the other girl going to do? Poke her with a butter knife? So scary. "I really am running for mayor. I was campaigning for votes."
The girl shook her head, hair going everywhere. "No, it's just. I thought you were, but it's just... Wow." She sniffled. "Okay. So Vista wants to become mayor. Okay."
"I told you, I'm not Vista, I'm Missy. Missy Biron." There was no use in hiding her name if she was going to use it to get into an elected position.
The girl smiled again, this time coming across as more than a little sheepish. "Okay, Missy. I'm Taylor. And I'm sorry about, you know." She wiggled the butter knife around.
"It's fine."
"So, uh, why are you running for mayor? Aren't you a Ward? Don't they pay well?"
"They don't." Not that Missy was bitter or anything. "But that's not the point and I wouldn't know, seeing as I'm not Vista," Missy said. "I just want to, you know, make things better."
"Oh." Taylor said before nodding. "That's good. Great even. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed here. So many of them. I think having a hero as a mayor might be cool. A hero and not just another old guy in a suit."
"I know, right?!" Missy agreed fervently. "I'm not done building my, uh, platform yet, or pulling together my funding, but I'm getting there. It's all going to be about making the city a safer place. Being tough on crime." She paused for emphasis. "Extra tough."
"I can get behind that." Taylor nodded. "That's good. The PRT people didn't send an escort with you?"
"I'm not working with the PRT for this. Or for anything else. I'm not Vista, I'm Missy."
"Right. "Do you want some tea, Vista?" Her lips twitched. "… Missy?"
"... fuck it, sure," Missy muttered. "Do you have juice?"
***
So, Blackmarch has become this fic's co-writer. Somehow. I dunno, it was 4am and we might both have been a little inebriated. Anywho~ more Mayor Missy!
Wanted to give a shout-out to Eli who made the bad grammar go away.