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"Hey, it's not my fault that I gave you an opening to grab the staff and run out of here to lead the skeletons away and instead you decided it was more important to be a 'hero' and stick around pummeling things. And given that your 'costume' doesn't exactly hide your 'secret identity', it's pretty clear that you care more about your image that actually doing the smart thing. So instead of standing around yelling, why don't you actually go be useful like Herman, who you'll notice, hasn't bothered to stop and change his wardrobe."
She glanced at the still prone, still struggling Bone Daddy. She really hoped that if he died, all the animated skeletons would fall apart. But in case they didn't, she kinda thought someone should go talk to the crazy winged girl. Someone who most certainly was not going to be her; the last thing she wanted was all that rage directed at her. Internally, she heaved a sigh of relief as Silver Shadow decided to do it instead. She probably knew what she was doing.
Instead, she turned her attention back to the other dino skeletons. Her robots were still fighting them, despite what the idiot Scotsman was saying. They just weren't being very effective at it. Their program parameters were too vague. God she sucked at this. She ran back to grab her computer out of where it was still jacked into the security camera (Yeah, because *that* was super helpful. Good job Kaoru) and ran over to the dino t-rex (who was, for some reason, attempting to grab a bone dinosaur with its tiny front arms). She quickly plugged in directly to the creature. "Assuming control."
She then began directly controlling the t-rex to stomp over, finally stop that stupid music, and actually roar like a proper t-rex. Really hope this gets the skeleton's attention...
I'll show them useless. One out of MULTIPLE zords goes haywire AFTER crushing a bunch of skeletons, and somehow *I'm* the idiot? It's not my fking fault! Why can't they see I'm just trying to help? Why doesn't anybody ever take my side?
"OH YOU LITTLE-! Wait, whattabout Herman?!" He wheeled around to see the super-teen completely surrounded. "...F@%+." He motioned for the try-hard and homeless girl to stay put. "Stay with ta' mage, keep her out of reach! I'll be back!" With that, he charged the horde.
He was definitely not used to using an axe. The thing was way to heavy at one end, and he was too used to the majority of a weapon having an edge. The resulting clash between him and the skeletons was more akin to a brawl than a proper engagement.
He wasn't thinking clearly, wasn't paying full attention to the fight. In the back of his mind Shaun was retorting to Karou. OF COURSE IMAGE MATTERS YOU ABSOLUTE DICK! How the f#+~ is anybody supposed to take anything we do seriously if we look like a bunch of random-ass kids?! Oh, and that's a rich comment coming from the likes of you, a person so clearly absorbed in how they look SOOOOO much like they don't care! I cannot f+%*ing-!
His train of thought was severed by a searing pain across his back. One of the skeletons had just caught him across the back with an ancient katana. If the thing had actually been sharp, it would've cut him in half. As it was, it left a nasty gash, further bruised his already purple-from-impact back, and shocked him back to the present.
He didn't scream, didn't yell, but he did stagger. A mixture of nerves and fury boiled in his chest. He stood his ground, hoping that he wasn't bleeding too much and that Herman had taken the chance to get the hell out of dodge...
Seeing Shaun come to his aid recentered Herman. He'd seemed a cool guy, other than that grip he had on Shayera. It was good to have him at your back. It gives Herman a moment to really look at this situation like his parents had taught him.
Wingblade doesn't seem to have heard Silver Shadow, and for a couple more heartbeats she watches Bone Daddy struggle underneath her. Then, her arm straining as if she were fighting herself, she pulls her hand off his mouth.
Rising smoothly to her feet and yanking her wing tips free from the floor, she steps away from him as he lies gasping for air. She turns her back to him entirely as if he were an afterthought and takes flight.
Mercy wasn't sure what everyone was yelling about. The fighting was still going on, but she considered that there was a solution to the problem. Wingblade had left, which meant Bone Daddy was still conscious.
Unfortunately for her, she wasn't confident enough to try and knock him out and not accidentally kill him. Everything else seemed handled for now. She worried about Wingblade. She wish she could go after her, but she couldn't fly.
She was also starting to get hungry again. Fighting always did that to her.
When Kaoru's T-Rex starts to act like a T-Rex, the other dinosaur skeletons freeze, before backing away as fast as they can. Did these reanimated corpses carry their old instincts when faced with the king of lizards? Either way, it seemed possible to herd them with the robot.
And then a velociraptor skeleton came from Kaoru's blind spot and knocked him down, chuffing at her as its deadly clawed foot stepped on his chest. It attempts to go for the hacker's throat-
-and instead finds its jaws sinking into an outstretched arm. Mercy glares at it and rips her arm free, blood splashing all over Kaoru, before Mercy grabs it and throws it away from them.
And right next to Hex, where the raptor hisses and goes after her next.
"Stupid skeletons. Are you okay?" She asks, Kaoru getting a close look at how her torn up arm seemed to repair itself. "I don't want you to get hu-"
Apparently, pterodactyl skeletons could fly. So it shocked Mercy to suddenly be picked up by one, flown high above the museum floor!
Concentrating and letting her vision unfocus, Cassie sees cords of eldritch power connecting Bone Daddy to the animated skeletons. Not willing to wade into the fray herself, she yells out "Knock him out or something - that should stop them!" just as the velociraptor skeleton crashes against the floor next to her. Instinctively, she brings the Caduceus around in an arc, connecting with the creature's head. As it connects with the creature, the staff flares a bright light and the skeleton collapses to the floor in pieces.
Meanwhile, the headless statue of Odysseus, now the lone statue still standing, ignores the ongoing fighting and steps overt the remains of its ruined head. Bending down, it picks up two of the pieces - the bearded jaw and half of the head's upper half and pushes them together. The two parts of its head knit together and it replaces them on its neck, peering around at the floor - apparently searching for the rest of its head.
Haha, that's right b*tches! Cower before Rexy! Oomph! So distracted with showing how not-useless she was, Kaoru didn't see the other dinosaur coming in from behind one of the T-Rex's leg as it smacked into her, knocking all the air from her lungs. She doesn't have time to respond before it's lunging at her. Kaoru flinched. Blood splattered everywhere, getting all over her previously unworn outfit. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she idly hoped that Alexis didn't have any bloodborne pathogens that she had just been exposed to. Another part of her mind wanted to know if that was really her most pressing concern right now.
"Fk, I'm not some damsel in distress! I didn't need you to-" And then Alexis was getting carted off by a pterodactyl. Those fking pterodactyls again. Seriously? One made of bone could fly while her robotic one was still awkwardly hopping about doing nothing. Well, she could maybe change that. She uploaded some quick commands to her phone, dashing over to the useless non-flier and uploading new data to it: it was to follow the other pterodactyl around, so it could "catch" Alexis if she fell. Determined that she would at least get one thing right, she then quickly returned to helping herd the remaining dino-bones.
Thank God.
Bran continued to dodge the blows of a lumbering dinosaur. Eyeing the reeling Bone Daddy, he tried to force his way past the thoroughly spiky skeleton, but was unable to overcome the thing's sheer mass.
The newly repaired Odysseus however, had no such obstacles, striding unnoticed past the remaining dinosaurs to deliver a swift, stony blow to the side of Bone Daddy's head.
A few of the skeletons that had been given specific tasks continued to move for a short while, but most of them clattered to the ground like marionettes with their strings cut.
As the sounds of battle came to a close, approaching sirens began to make themselves known, but before any real help could arrive, the first flashes of photography were already capturing the new hero Odysseus, standing triumphant over his defeated villain.
With their targets disabled, the mechanical dinosaurs stopped moving and powered down. It was then a simple matter to have the T-Rex put the misbehaving kitty out of commission, and shut down the king of dinos herself. Seeing as the pterodactyl had gotten smashed attempting to catch Alexis, that wouldn't need to be deactivated. Grabbing her drone, Kaoru was actually kind of surprised none of the dinosaurs had managed to eat the thing. Shoving it in her bag, she then rapidly began heading in the opposite direction of the media crew (and the crazy statue dude. She still wasn't sure what his deal was) to head home and make a much-needed wardrobe change. Until then, she used her backpack as best as possible to make the blood a bit less conspicuous.
As the photographers descended, Cassie shrank back, not wanting to be caught on film, despite Gabrielle's assurances that the charm would stop anyone being able find her, even if she were caught on film. As someone coughed just behind her, she jumped and turned to find a young casually, and a bit scruffily, dressed man, standing behind her holding out his hand. For a moment she stood staring - was that a mouse he was holding?
Before she had time to speak, the mouse made a series of high-pitched squeaks and gestured at the staff she still held. "Good morning miss." said the young man, reaching forward. "Allow me to translate for the doctor. She says thank you for holding onto that, but it is, perhaps time for you to return it."
Cassie blinked. "Umm, what? The doctor? What, you mean the mouse."
"Yes miss," the man replied. "This is Dr Emily Stevens, director of the department of antiquities." the mouse gave another small series of squeaks. "She says thank-you for your help, but that you aren't sufficiently trained to be allowed something like the Caduceus. You may not have realised, but it quite dangerous to those new to the arcane arts."
"Urrr,.. OK? I guess?" Cassie responded, letting the man take the staff from her suddenly weak fingers. The mouse gave another satisfied squeak and the man nodded.
"Once again, the doctor thanks you for your help and,.. " he gives a slightly surprised look at the doctor, "she says that you should visit again soon. That she'd be very interested in talking with you about your mother."
With that the man turns away and, carrying the staff, exits smoothly through an adjoining door marked 'staff only.
OK, Well that was just weird! Cassie thought to herself, before turning back to the room just in time to see the emo kid - Kaoru? - sneaking away.....
Alexis was struggling but couldn't get an angle. She was also surprised this thing was strong enough to carry her off. She grunted and flailed.
Then the statue kicked Bone Daddy hard enough to make this magical monster stopped being magical.
Which meant that Mercy plummeted a hundred feet, landing with a meaty thud into the concrete that was only broken thanks to the dozens of dinosaur bones that cracked apart instead of her own. She was still certain she'd ruptured some organs, and fresh blood spilled out through the grated holes of the helmet she was wearing.
She looked up to see that more or less everyone seemed safe. She didn't know where Shayera had gone though. She was starving. She needed to eat something. She'd lost a lot of blood today after all.
She also needed her armor repaired and refitted if she was to do this sort of thing. Mercy wasn't doing anyone favors if she was constantly ripped apart. She went and grabbed the union jack shirt and belt where she'd stowed it, tossed the helmet and the borrowed shirt, wiped away as much of the blood as she could, and headed outside to find Shayera. Hopefully she just went home-
The sight of a woman with wings flying overhead gave her pause. That wasn't Shayera. Didn't she say her mentor was winged like her? That must have been her. Willow-Whip. But she didn't know Alexis. So she stood by and waited, ready to follow her to her student so that Alexis could check on her. Especially after that bad man had touched her.
She wish she could have kicked him in the head too.
Kilt blinked in moderate disbelief as he stood there, still bleeding from his back, as he was completely ignored in favor of a damn statue. ”What ta’ f$#+ is with this town...?” He unceremoniously tossed aside the axe and started jogging back to where the mage girl had been.
When he got there though, she was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the try-hard or the helmeted girl. Just a few scattered students who were currently tapping excitedly at their assorted screens. Again though, he felt that weird sense of deja-vu, and something at the edge of his thoughts told him he was...overlooking something. He shook his head and retrieved his duffle from where he’d hid it behind the displays.
He turned to leave, when a shock of pain ran up his spine.
At first he thought it was just the cut, but...it wasn’t. It was like before, a chill so severe it made his back snap straight as a pole. Again, with strange certainty, he knew he was being watched...
He swallowed hard, and muttered the mantra. ”Na eagal bàs, agus eagal bàis thu...” He should have been ecstatic, jumping in front of that stupid statue and getting his name on the nightly reports, but...instead he felt that stupid mess of worms in his gut, he heard a voice in his head to just leave.
So with an angry sigh, he snuck out the rear, wondering how the hell he was gonna stitch something on his back.
After exiting the museum through a skylight, Wingblade slips through some of the ducts from earlier and makes her way back to a deserted section of the museum that had previously been evacuated.
Though she wanted to launch herself into the sky and return home to decompress, her desire to keep the suspicion off of Li Xiu Ying being Wingblade caused her to try to salvage that secret identity. The talisman helped, magically disguising her wings and switching her action clothes back to the clean ones she'd wore to the field trip that day. Once changed, she drops from the vent down to the storage closet, slips from there and is able to slip into a crowd of students more focused on their phones than the scene developing before them.
Now back to Xiu Ying, she works her way through the crowd until she finds Renae and Portia and their crew. They react is relief to see her, and Shayera concocts a quick story of hiding in a hollow terra cotta soldier in the ancient China display which had mercifully been spared by the superhero fighting.
She then grows quiet, watching as the adult heroes descend upon the scene. One, Whippoorwill, glides in and alights on the roof of the museum for a moment while she surveys the crowd. There's the briefest moment of recognition on her face before her eyes track past Shayera. Seemingly satisfied the students were safe, Whippoorwill slips through breach in the wall and starts ensuring everyone inside the museum was safe.
Most of the students, after catching a glimpse of the adult heroes arriving, begin heading back home. The field trip was a bust, so most of them took the opportunity to take an early break. Shayera hangs around, sitting with a few others who are a little more shell-shocked from the super powered battle.
She stares off into space.
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Cassie fumbled the charm from her pocket and, now that attention seemed to be on Odysseus, she quickly slipped it over her head and slipped away into the crowd of students, making he way to the back of the throng, before finding a position where she could see what was happening.
Back in the area she'd come from she could still see the 10 foot statue of Odysseus towering over the fallen figure of the Voodoo-guy, clearly enjoying the attention he was receiving. Over the sound of students talking excitedly about the days events, she was able to pick out a few of the questions from the reporters, and was easily able to hear Odysseus' booming response.
"Who are you? How did you come here? Can you tell us what happened" came the shouts of the reporters.
In response, the statue threw back its head and laughed.
Mercy watched Whippoorwill, and noticed her gaze rest on a face in the crowd. She followed the line of sight and found Shayera sitting with some of the others, including her friends. The ones she wasn't sure about. Shayera had introduced her to them but she'd apparently just come off as 'the stray Xiu Jing picked up', whatever that meant.
Alexis double checked to make sure any blood she had on her wasn't excessive and eye-catching, wiping it off before going to take a seat next to the disguised Wingblade. She was worried because she didn't look fine. She'd been ready to kill the man that had touched her.
Mercy was finding herself glad that she didn't, though.
"...I'm glad you're safe. And that...you didn't do anything that would have made you feel bad later," She offers to Shayera. "Can we go home now? I'm really hungry. You must be starving too." She wasn't sure what else to do.
So she just gave her a hug and hoped she wouldn't be thrown off and called gross and smelly.
That zángano is going to bleed to death if I let him.
As Bran the Blessed also tried to find a discrete exit, he halted Shaun with a quick offer.
"Kilt, please hold a moment. Your wound will be difficult to tend by yourself, and I would not see you further harmed for seeking to help others. I must depart, but if you wait there," the towering warrior pointed to a nearby alley, "an acolyte of mine will soon be with you. She will bear a token of my favor to identify her."
I really need to go make sure Shayera's okay. But Shawn really might be too hurt to deal with this by himself. She'll understand.
After a discrete change, Bronwyn's first stop was a nearby drugstore - for some reason she hadn't brought a fully-loaded first aid kit in her purse. She'd briefly hoped that she could double up while she was there, but a quick browse showed there really was no such thing as a "Sorry I stabbed you" greeting card, so she decided to skip it, and just text instead while she walked back towards the alley.
Bronwyn: So that got crazy.
Bronwyn: I'm okay btw. Just have to tie up a loose end.
Bronwyn: hope you're okay too.
He'd better still be here. Though if he's not I could probably follow the trail of blood...
"Kilt? You still doing okay? Bran sent me?"
The look Shaun gave the armored giant could have melted solid steel. He was mad. Not the mad he'd been up until this point, no that as just getting hot. He was pissed now. But...the stupid tin can was right. It'd be way too hard to stitch this in a bathroom mirror.
His mouth hardened into a thin line. "Yeah. Fine."
He shuffled over to the alleyway and leaned against one of the grime-peppered walls. He could feel a rivulet of blood running down his back now, which was not good. It didn't feel too bad, but bleeding was never good period. "No injury is small if not treated properly."
"Kilt? You still doing okay? Bran sent me?"
Shaun glowered towards the spot the voice came from, but faltered somewhat when he saw the girl from the school tour. "It's...you. Uh, Brownie, right?" He suddenly felt very self-conscious about the fact that he'd largely skipped classes the entire time he'd been at HH. "What ta' f@## is someone like ye'doin' with a dick like Bran?" He didn't move to present his injury to the girl, not until he was sure she was actually with the knight.
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Before the reborn Odysseus can say anything more, a shimmering glow appears near him and is soon replaced by a portly man in a dapper white suit. Even without the suit, Dr. Orson Arkane was recognizable as one of the most ...distinct supers around.
"Well, well, well. Bone Daddy. You superfluous hack! You took the bait perfectly. Now you'll be off to Limbo for counseling. And ...well, you'd be Odysseus, yes? I foresaw your imminent return and should have guessed it would be here. Care to join me as I catch you up on the past few centuries? I have wine."
That seemed to be enough for the ancient Greek, who, to be fair, must have been rather thirsty.
"Another win for the good guys," the Dr. said, and looked around at the devastation. "Ah. Whipporwill. A pleasure, as always. I see your protege and her friends brought Bone Daddy down. With ...the usual property damage. Just a moment." The grey-haired sorcerer began chanting and gesturing and all the damage seemed to be rewound and undone.
Herman was glad for it, but it didn't make it any less creepy. Magic was f#+~ed up. And then the villain, the sorcerer, and the ancient Greek were gone as if they were never there. Ugh, magic is creepy.
The reporters still preferred to talk to adults, it would seem. "Whipporwill! What about reports that Wingblade was here fighting Bone Daddy, along with Bron the Blessed, the Silver Shadow and unknown other young supers?"
Herman was still angry from the day before, and his adrenalin was still pumping. Don't don't don't don't don't but he did. "Unknown my ass! I'm the motherf%+@in American Dream!"
The reporters still preferred to talk to adults, it would seem. "Whipporwill! What about reports that Wingblade was here fighting Bone Daddy, along with Bron the Blessed, the Silver Shadow and unknown other young supers?"
Herman was still angry from the day before, and his adrenalin was still pumping. Don't don't don't don't don't but he did. "Unknown my ass! I'm the motherf+++in American Dream!"
"I will be discussing Wingblade's involvement with her later, and investigating whether anyone violated the SIDEKICK laws," Whippoorwill says to the press, giving a pointed glance at American Dream after his outburst.
"Now if you'll excuse me, the mess has been cleaned up, but it's still a crime scene."
She turns, her mighty wings blocking the mass of reporters.
Bronwyn blinked, hard. Brownie? He can't have meant that the way it sounded. "Bronwyn," she corrected, shaking her bracelet so the miniature, dangling Gae-Dearg was clearly visible. "You're right though, pretty jerk move, making sure you don't bleed to death and everything. But as for what I'm doing helping, think of it as community service." She gave him a quick twirling gesture with her finger. "Come on, I need to get a quick-clotting bandage on that. Once you won't be leaking all over our Lyft we can go somewhere to clean and dress that properly."
Shayera tried to keep from gasping during the crushing hug from Alexis, but still let out a squeak from the air rushing out of her lungs. "Thanks. I'm glad you're okay too." She gives the other girls of the clique a glance. "I wasn't going to rush out there when it wasn't safe," she says with a silent look to remind Alexis of her secret identity.
"Yeah, food sounds good," she says as her phone pings. She pulls it out of the pocket and turns it on.
While Shayera is looking at the messages, Portia leans over and whispers, "You can go ahead and tell us. You're Wingblade, right? You disappear, she shows up? Don't worry; it's cool."
Shayera lets out an exasperated groan. "Not this again! I hid. I got separated, and I hid. When I peeked, I saw Wingblade stabbed through the gut with a spear." She rolls up the bottom of her tee, exposing her midriff. "No hole. No blood."
Renae nods. "I saw that too. She looked way scarier than Shayera here."
Shayera gives them a look that says see?. Then she finishes tapping her message and hitting send.
李秀英: glad yr ok too.
李秀英: thx for not stopping me
李秀英: ps yr dress is pretty
She stands up and looks to Alexis. "Let's go. I think there's a pizza place nearby. Sound good to you?"
He snaps his fingers at her. ”Right, right, ta’ athlete.” He turns around and folds his legs, sitting cross-legged in the ground. ”No ‘fence ta’ye’ lass. Ye’ just seem too pleasant ta’ be workin’ for ta’ likes of him.”
He crossed his arms and shook his head. ”He’s a right bastard I tell ya’. Don’know if he told ya’, but he ‘cided ta’ toss me ‘round ta’ other night. Got caught on a camera, now I’m a right-fresh laughing stock...”
”Don’need ta’ go anywhere ta’ dress it.” He unclipped his sporran and handed it to her. ”Got everythin’ya’ need right here. Alcohol, gauze, needles and thread, ta’ whole works. If ya’ need any tips, I’ve got some s’perience with patchin’ myself up, s’just ask.”
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Once there, she moved immediately to the adjoining bathroom, stripping off her bloody clothing. G*ddamn it, it soaked through *both* my shirts AND my bindings? Sighing, she grabbed a fresh sports bra and bandages to rebind her chest. That done, she grabbed a fresh pair of jeans, simple white long-sleeved undershirt, and a navy button up. She hadn't exactly expected to need a wardrobe change today, so she hadn't picked anything out. But she also wasn't likely to run into anyone anyway. She quickly threw her bloody clothes into the washer; it wouldn't do to have her mom come home and start asking why her shirt of all things was in such a state.
As the washing machine started, she tried to figure out what to do next. It had been an incredibly stressful few days, and her nerves felt about fried. God, what was I *thinking*? She could've been killed. She might have almost been killed if first Silver Shadow and then Alexis hadn't stepped in. She should have just run away when all the commotion started. Then at least she wouldn't have needed rescuing. Twice. How pathetic. And it's not like her being around had really helped anything. If anything, she had made things worse. If she hadn't tried to hack the security system, the guard wouldn't have come after her, and Silver Shadow wouldn't have needed to save her. If she hadn't hacked the dinosaurs, the saber-toothed tiger wouldn't have gone after the students, Alexis wouldn't have needed to step in, and she wouldn't have gotten hurt (though that could have been a lot worse if the girl didn't apparently have some kind of freaky healing ability). If she hadn't tried to prove Shaun wrong by helping Herman, she wouldn't have been anywhere near the velociraptor, and then she wouldn't have needed to be saved again. So really, what the hell had she accomplished by trying to play the hero? Nothing. Big fat zippo for the big fat zeppo.
Ugg, she needed to decompress. Which meant music. But she couldn't just listen to it (such would only invite more thinking). No, she needed something more active. She needed to play. Ideally piano, but given that her mom could return at any moment, that was a no-go. The last thing she wanted was for her mother to get all excited over the fact she was playing again. And then there would be talk about music scholarships and competitions and Juilliard. She was not about to give the woman the satisfaction of seeing her play again. Which just left the more portable violin. She grabbed it along with her backpack again (this time remembering her headphones just in case she needed them) and a folded up music stand and headed out to the park.
Some relaxing and then that's it. No more of this heroing crap. Those who don't try/Never look foolish.
-----
Kaoru spent some time wandering around (or rather "casing") Monument Park. It took a while, but she eventually found a secluded area under a nice stone bridge where she was pretty sure the acoustics would be good. She quickly pulled out her computer. She had found some sheet music for a medley that looked interesting. And she was pretty sure the echoy underpass would work perfectly with some of the more haunting parts of Phantom. It was a simple task to feed the sheet music into a program she had written a while ago to synthesize the other musical instruments while also uploading the violin part to her tablet to read. It wasn't a great option, but given that she didn't know how to play the other instruments and definitely couldn't play multiple things at once, it was her best choice. It just meant that the sound quality of the synthesized instruments wouldn't be as good, and she'd have to stick more closely to the predefined tempo than she might have liked. One day she really needed to write a program that would take her part as audio input and automatically adjust the feedback to match her.
Music uploaded and tablet set up on her music stand, she quickly pulled out her violin. After a quick tuning session, she played a few test notes, enjoying how the sound bounced around the relatively enclosed space. Yes, this had definitely been a good choice. She quickly did a few dry runs of the trickier parts of the music before starting her program and beginning to play in earnest. Smiling, she focused on the swirling sounds and lost herself in the composition.
At least he's prepared.
"The tools are here, sure, but an alley isn't really the best place to go to work. Especially an alley right near where you were violating the SIDEKICK laws. Lemme just stop the bleeding and we'll get off the street. I've got a place."
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Alexandra watches the other teammates drift away. Again. she wished they'd stick around. whatever.
she goes out of the police, but stops on her way there, to give a bit of a statement to the Gathered Media. I think we all know the real heroes here, however. The SCA, Who's timely arrival She gestured, an exaggerated movement to match the sarcasm dripping from her, to the SCA Vehicles, currently pulling up, after even the regular police Served to protect us all, and defuse this crisis, before significant property damage, or harm to bystanders were reached. We are doing quite well without us junior heroes. After all, without them, it would have just been a... oh, ten minute unopposed rampage aided by stolen magical artifacts. don't know why we ever allowed those kids to be heroes in the first place.
She also takes the time to flip the bird to the agents climbing out of their vans in riot gear as she goes to debrief Quinlan.
Brandt had once brought her and the other people in her camp a pizza. It was delightfully delicious. "Okay. Can I pick what goes on it?" She asked.
The pizza parlor was your usual greasy fare with a few booth seats and a bustling kitchen with a large oven the pumped out hot baked pies as fast as they were ordered. The smell of them made Alexis' stomach growl so loud that Portia actually jumped a little.
"What can I get you ladies?" The clerk at the front asked after hanging up the phone.
Alexis spoke up. "I want one of those." She pointed at the picture of the pizza.
"All right, what size do you want?"
"Big."
"Uh, sure, and what toppings would you like?"
"...Um. Everything. Do you have peanut butter?"
"You want...peanut butter...on a pizza?"
Alexis blinked. "No, I want everything on the pizza. Peanut butter for after."
"O...kay, so a supreme pizza, and...we have these peanut butter cookies." the cashier attempted to helpfully suggest, gesturing to the dozen shrink wrapped cookies on the side of the counter.
Alexis grabbed all of them. "I like cookies," She said with a smile, going to sit down and start unwrapping. The cashier boggled at her for a bit, before looking at the clique.
"Uh, is someone else paying for her?" She asked, making Alexis freeze up with half a cookie in her mouth. She assumed Shayera would be paying for her food. Did she get it wrong?
"I'll cover her," Shayera says to the clerk. "Anyone else want to share one with me?" she asks, turning to the clique of girls focused on their phones.
Portia puts her phone against her shoulder and shakes her head. "My dad's picking me and Trisha up," she declares, rolling her eyes. "He saw the news." She then goes back to talking on her phone.
Renae shrugs, tapping some sort of text on her cell phone.
"Okay. Just a small veggie for me," Shayera orders, then gets a couple drinks for her and Alexis.
After Portia and Trisha say a quick goodbye and leave the restaurant to meet her dad, Renae squeals and jumps up to Shayera excitedly, who was just about to sit down with full drinks.
"Omigosh! He's still coming!"
"Huh? Who's coming?" Shayera asks, confused.
Renae beams. "Devaun! I told him about the field trip today and he was going to meet us! But then the supervillain attacked and they shut down the street. But they just lifted it, and I told him where we were!"
Shayera forces a smile. "That's nice... but I really don't feel--"
Renae sticks her finger out and shakes her head side to side, brooking no dispute. "Oh, no! Here's your chance! You've been complaining about not being able to see him."
I have? Shayera thinks, wondering how Renae could be so oblivious. Her smile becomes weaker. "Yeah, I guess this is our chance. You gotta take them in Halcyon, since you never know when you'll be in the middle of a fight between robotic and skeletal dinosaurs. What a nice surprise, Renae." She slumps back in her seat and watches Alexis eat the last of the cookies as an appetizer.
He huffed. ”Whatever. Just be easy with ta’ bruises.”
He was indeed bruised, a huge strip of dull purple across his shoulders. Upon closer inspection though, he had more scars than at first glance. There was a still-healing gash on his flank, scores of tiny and not-so tiny cut marks on his lower back, and three pale circles that looked unsettlingly like bullet scars, each one matched a little too perfectly to a rib on his right side. Almost all of the marks were very old though, and from the looks of things had healed pretty well.
Shaun disgruntedly fiddled with a dagger while the athlete worked. ”So...ye’ came from out front, yea’? Anybody look hurt? No...no body bags, right?”
"There were a couple injured, but you guys kept it from anything worse." Bronwyn finished quickly, just focused on stopping the bleeding for now. "And Shaun, anytime you can walk away saying that, you did good."
"So... do you need a shirt or pants or something? What happened to your civvies?"
If he'd been in a better state of mind, Bronwyn's compliment probably would have made him feel like a million bucks. As he was, it got a small, brief smile. "If ye' say so doll..."
The question about the clothes elicited a frustrated raspberry. "I got my pants." he patted the duffle for emphasis. "My shirt was, once again, I might add, lost ta' the crazy b+~@% in the war helm. Ta' try-hard on your tour, Carrot-Cake or whatever, decided MY clothes were good f'HER to use." His fists balled in anger. "Like I get that she was having' a wardrobe malfunction, but f'F***'s sake! I just wanna get through ONE super-fight without needing' a new shirt." He shook his head. "Plus, I don't know what ta' hell Wingbalde sees in her. All I see is a nuclear-level tantrum waitin'ta' go off. If it had been ME takin' her down, she'd be off ta' th'tank right-quick!"
Alexis munched quickly on her cookies as she listened to the conversation that Renee was having with Shayera. She was really good at listening. She even enjoyed it because it helped her to understand how people acted. But she was confused about the very different reactions that both of these girls seemed to be having about this Devaun person. Renee seemed to be intent on trying to get Shayera to be with him. But Shayera wasn't warm to the idea as Renee was, so what did that mean?
She pondered it over as the large pizza came over, sizzling hot with toppings. It looked and smelled delicious, as she tried to figure out how to eat it, going from the outside first and biting into the crust, making her way down the slice to the tip. All while thinking about if Shayera wanted to meet Devaun. If she didn't, then why didn't she just tell Renee she didn't want to meet him? There were questions she wanted to ask, but not in front of her friend who didn't know her as Wingblade.
She kept her head down as a couple other teens came into the parlor. "Jeez, that was pretty noisy. Did you find out anything?" One of them asked the other.
"Eh, who knows? I don't think we'd find him that easily. That's why I don't like coming to Halcyon, all these stupid superfights causing a headache for everyone. Hey, give me a turkey sub!"
"Meatball for me. And Halcyon's not all bad," The girl commented. She was dressed in tight fitting leather, the fade of her undercut with an upwards pointing echelon.
"What's not bad about it?" The boy asked, a similar hairstyle with a downwards pointing echelon on the opposite side. He was dressed more casually in denim.
"The view for one," The girl said with a smile at Renee and Xiu Ying. Alexis was keeping her head down, gnawing on her next slice.
"Fair point. You want to pay for all this, Ava?" Her (boyfriend?) asked her.
"That's not like you, Char," She chastised him, before footing a twenty to the cashier as they took their food and left.
Alexis hadn't noticed. Her thoughts were still mired on why Shayera didn't want to see Devaun. Eventually, the dam broke after she'd finished the last slice of her pizza.
"Why do you care so much whether or not she sees this Devaun?" She interrupted their conversation that had clearly gone past that topic already. "You should let her decide when she wants to see him instead of forcing it."
After the events at the museum, Cassie had quickly slipped away, worried that all the media attention would draw Circe's interest, especially once word got out that Odysseus, or at least his statue, had appeared, and that she had been a part of it. As she walked through the park adjoining the museum buildings, her phone buzzed and she glanced at it, seeing that Gabrielle was calling. Sighing, she tapped the phone and held it up to her ear.
"Cassandra", came the woman's voice, tinged with worry. [b]"I'm watching the news and you're all over it! What happened? Are you OK? You know you really shouldn't have gotten yourself involved - you know that doing things like that will just draw your mother's attention! Where are you? I'll come and get you right away!."
Cassie grimaced. "Yes Gabrielle." She answered. "I'm fine. I didn't mean to get involved but everything just kind of,.. happened. No, I'm fine to get home on my own, I want to do some stuff first. No, just some shopping. Yes,.. I'll be back for the lessons on time."
Hanging up, she slipped the phone back into her pocket and looked around. She didn't really have anything planned - she just didn't feel like heading back to Gabrielle's flat just yet.
A couple of hours later, Cassie arrived back at Gabrielle's flat. She'd spent the intervening time checking out some clothes, trying various things on, even though she couldn't afford them, and no-one'd notice her even if she had put them on. The sales staff had pretty much ignored her, so she'd been able to try on lots of decent clothes. It wasn't as much fun without some friends there too to tell her how good she looked though.
As soon as she'd opened the door Gabrielle bustled up and had enveloped her in a giant hug before standing back and inspecting her. "Well now. I've seen a bit more of what happened at the museum." she said "And suppose I can't blame you for what you did. That gibbering fool Bone Daddy certainly couldn't be allowed to get his hands on the Caduceus, and you were some help there. You show great promise you know? Not many novices would have been able to do what you did - even if it has resulted in some statue calling itself 'Odysseus' clomping around the place. I hope, though, that this has made you see how important our lessons are? If you'd been paying more attention you would have been able to control the thing much better, and you would have had many more options if you'd learnt more of the spells I've been trying to teach you!"
Cassie had let the plump woman take her hand and lead her into the backroom behind the shop where they'd spent several hours going through the tedious routine of clearing her mind, learning lists of the various components to cast different types of spells - sometimes they made sense. More often though, they didn't. The elements for instance - obviously they weren't the same as the ones she had to learn about in science class, but they weren't also weren't the same as the classical four physical elements (Gabrielle preferred the word Essenses) - All of them were organised into pairs of opposites for a start: Fire and Water, Earth and Wind,.. but then there were others too: Light and Dark, Order and Disorder, Energy and Lethargy, Gravity and Levity, and overriding all of these 'purpose' (telos). What made it more difficult was that different elements had different effects depending on each of the others, the context, the season, the time of day, even what colour you were wearing!.. It was enough to make Cassie scream!
Renae had been goggling over the way Alexis has been packing away her large supreme pizza and alternately checking her phone. Shayera's pie had come a little bit after Alexis', and she picked at it in silence.
When Alexis finally asked her about Shayera and Devaun, Renae blinks and looks like she's about to lay in to the homeless girl. Shayera puts her hand on the fashionista, shaking her head. "It's all right."
She turns to Alexis. "It's fine. Devaun's sweet. He and I went on a blind--"
Shayera is interrupted by the door to the pizza parlor swinging open. A young man with well-tended two inch-long dreads enters. He spots Renae and Shayera and smiles wide. "Hey, cuz," he says, then looks at Shayera. "Hey, beautiful. Sorry I'm late. I had to change out of my super suit after bringing that guy that attacked the museum to justice."
Shayera giggles, rolling her eyes, then dutifully gets out of the booth and goes to accept a hug. "My superhero. Hey, Devaun. This is my friend, Alexis," she says gesturing to her. "Alexis, Devaun."
Devaun embraces Shayera tightly, then lets her half out of the hug, keeping one arm around her waist. "Hi," he says to Alexis, then turns to Shayera and snakes his other hand back around her waist to hold her close. "Honestly, I was worried. I even got out of my car and tried to jump the barrier. But I got caught, and then they wouldn't let me back to my car at all..." He moves in for a kiss.
Shayera turns her head so he kisses her cheek. Devaun works himself down her neck. "I've lived in Halcyon long enough to know what to do. You run, you hide, you stay out of their way," she says with a roll of her eyes.
She disentangles herself from Devaun's arms and moves to sit down in the booth. "You want some pizza? I've got a few slices left."
Renae pipes up. "Better hurry, or else Alexis will devour it."
Shayera gives Devaun's cousin a look. "Bye, Renae!"
The fashionista gives a suggestive shake of her hips. "Okay, I can take a hint. Alexis, you want to come with? There's an ice cream place a few blocks down, if you're still hungry after a whole pizza."
Bronwyn reflexively smiled politely, but her voice was firm. "Shaun, not your doll. Really."
She let that breathe a moment before she continued, "And you should be glad you didn't get her sent off to jail. She helped save a lot of people today too, and she couldn't have helped anyone even if you had managed to bring her in, and hadn't been so hurt trying that you couldn't help today." She shrugged but there was nothing diffident in her expression. "If you're trying to save people, sometimes you can't just hit the ones that frighten you.
"I'm gonna go grab you a new shirt; you deal with the whole pants situation, and we'll get out of here. Also... have you ever thought about armor? If that sword had been sharp, this could've been a lot worse."
Alexis was quietly taking in what was happening after Devaun arrived. The way that Renae was revealed to her to be Devaun's cousin (Wants her family to be happy). The way Shayera avoided directly kissing Devaun and how he didn't seem to notice (Shayera doesn't like him, even though he's a superhero too). It was distressing for her to see Shayera in obvious distress. She wanted to help. But doing that was the same as doing what Renae was doing, trying to help and making things worse.
Shayera at least seemed to want Renae to go. If she stayed, Renae would stay. She figured that she should help Shayera by going with her. "I'll go to your place after," She told Shayera, looking down at the floor while following Renae. Who she supposed she could at least try to get to know, like Bronwyn.
"Did you know that unlike water, milk freezes at thirty-one degrees Fahrenheit instead of thirty-two?" She asked Renae. She seemed to like ice cream, so this felt like a good icebreaker. "Adding in sugar and other ingredients also changes its melting point to lower, meaning that ice cream needs to be kept at much lower temperatures than the freezing point of water." She finished, happy to have informed.
"...Uh, sure. Say, have you been tested?"
"I haven't taken any tests for classes yet."
"...Nevermind, then," Renae said, typing on her phone. Hey, ur girl, is she on the spectrum?? Don't want to upset her again. She texted to Shayera.
******
As Kaoru enjoyed his synthesized orchestra and played the violin, he saw a small audience of two that had stopped to watch. One was a young black woman with a heavyset build, while the other was a rail thin young Indian man with a hawkish nose. They were both carrying a couple stacks of missing person posters.
"Wow," The woman said, smiling as she clapped to the music. "You're really good! Those are some incredible violin skills. I'm quite jealous," She told Kaoru with honestly. "Sorry to disturb you, we're just putting up posters. Got to broadcast as far as we can," She excused them as they started to put them up around and under the bridge.
MISSING
Mercer Kelly
The young boy on the posters looked on impassive at viewers. It was jarring compared to the smiling photographs that were normally put on posters like this one. Kaoru found the thin Indian man handing her one as well. "There's a thousand dollar reward if you have any information. Just call the number on the bottom. Tell your friends too," He told her, voice accented to appear to be from across the pond. "I'm done here, Tempe," He told her, heading over and walking with her out of the way, leaving Kaoru alone.
”Wha-? Frightened? Who said I was frightened? I’m a hero, I don’t get scared. A-An’ I mean, yeah I’d help her if there was somethin’ta’ help, but...I don’t know, somethin’s loose in her skull.”
As he stood back up, gingerly testing the first-aid, he chuckled at Bronwyn’s offer. ”Not a chance do-.” He stopped himself and sighed. ”LASS. I need ta’ be mobile. ‘Sides, ta’ less I look like ta’ Tin Idiot’s sidekick ta’ better. (Again, no ‘fence ta’ ye’.)” He resumed his position leaned against the wall. ”This cut jus’ means I still gotta get better.”
As the athlete left his field of view, he finally let the pain from the treatment show on his face. G@* D#*N that bruise HURTS... It took him a bit longer to change into civies than normal, what with him trying to not undo anything on his back. As he re-buttoned his pants, a cold breeze blew through the alleyway. DAMN this weather! I might not want armor, but at this point I might need a sweater...
Then he snapped upright as the chill bolted up his spine again.
@Bronwyn: As you return from getting a shirt, a burst of magic suddenly flares from the alleyway you left Shaun in. What do you do?
As soon as she notices she has an audience, Kaoru stops playing and glares at the newcomers, shoulders tense. She silently watches as the newcomers poster the place and finally leave. She tapped her fingers idly on the body of the instrument. A grand to spend with no questions from her mom wasn't exactly something to be scoffed at. But at the same time, that seemed a little high for some missing kid, so maybe it was a scam? They get people calling in and then sell those numbers to telemarketing agencies or something. Or some Nigerian Prince thing: you call and they ask for a couple hundred dollars to free up the cash. Well, she didn't need to decide if it was worthwhile just now anyway, so she pulled out her phone and took a picture of it.
She tried briefly to get back into the music, but the strangers had broken the spell. Now she just kept getting distracted thinking about what other people might happen upon her as she played. True, it was pretty unlikely it would be anyone she knew. But just in case, it wouldn't do to have people seeing her...like that. She'd have to set up some motion sensors around the park to find a truly remote area. But it was also getting kinda late, so she should probably head back. She needed to arrive before her mother, so she wouldn't notice her carrying the violin case. Sighing, she packed her things up and headed out.
Shayera's phone buzzing gives her an excuse to check it, and she immediately pounces on the opportunity. Oh, I really hope I'm doing the right thing, here, she thinks when she sees Renae's text.
She taps out a quick reply. Good guess. Send her back here if theres a problem
Shayera lets Devaun eat the rest of her pizza, even though he voices a few complaints about the lack of meat. "That was good, considering. You sure you don't want me to pay my share?"
Shayera shakes her head. "No, really. It's fine."
Devaun nods, thinking. "Okay, well, you want to walk? I saw on the way here the University has a home baseball game tonight. It's not too far from here. You want to go? They always have tickets for sale."
She'd seen a couple sports events from the sky as Wingblade, but never a full game, and never from the seating area. "Um, okay." She follows Devaun to his parked car and gets in. Devaun drives them a few blocks to the baseball stadium and after pecking a bit on his phone, he announces, "Okay, I've got our seats. They're a little high, but hopefully they'll let us see everything."
Ultimately, the seats weren't great, but Shayera's eyesight compensated for the distance, and she received a decent experience in college baseball.
As the evening wore on, Shayera checked her phone for updates on Alexis (through Renae) and Bronwyn, and finally when the game was over it was time for her to head home. She let Devaun plant a kiss on her lips, but she didn't give him an opportunity to fondle and caress her.
"I really gotta get back home. Thanks for taking my mind off the museum. It was a nice evening," she tells Devaun. Then she pretends to call in a ride. Instead, when she's out of the boy's eyeshot, she restores her wings and takes flight. Before she reaches the Towers District, she stops on a high church steeple and checks her phone for messages -- expecting the inevitable Bronwyn outreach, and verifying that Alexis was headed to her apartment.
In search of a discrete shirt, Bronwyn headed to the drugstore, again.
Just had to leave my duffel at home today. Sure Bran's hoodie would have been huge on him, but it would've been *something*.
I really shouldn't be running around in these heels, I just know I'm going to find all kinds of scuffs and scratches when I get a chance to look. They're her favorites too.
Shoe repair. That's the next one. Brushing up on First Aid has already come in handy, but being able to fix up shoes could come up, right?
Rather than meet anyone's eyes and invite questions about why the 6-foot-something girl in the party dress was buying a 3-pack of men's t-shirts, she fished out her phone.
李秀英: glad yr ok too.
李秀英: thx for not stopping me
李秀英: ps yr dress is pretty
Bronwyn: I trust you.
Bronwyn: 4 now I'm all bactine and back-stitches.
Bronwyn: but we could meet up l8r?
After a moment she opened up a new conversation, scrolling through her contacts to "Kaoru (New Boy)."
Bronwyn: Hey, we don't have to talk about it
Bronwyn: but you were really brave today.
Bronwyn: Thanks for helping make sure everyone was safe.
Then something flared against her senses where she'd left Shaun, and she broke into a short-stepped scurry, rushing to get there as fast as she could.
Kk, she's nice when she's not ovrprtctv. Needs her own phone.
UOMe for the triple banana sundae she demolished
Hope Devaun's showing u a good time! ;)
Alexis said she's going to ur place. Call me after the date!
*****
The ice cream had been really good. So had the hot dogs that she'd gotten from a sausage cart outside the ice cream place. Renae commented how jealous she was about how she could pack away all of that food and still have a great figure. Alexis didn't really understand, but having a great figure probably meant that she thought she was pretty, so that felt good.
She walked to the penthouse building, thinking for a moment about the museum fight. It had felt different than just fighting to survive or fighting because she'd been ordered to do so. She'd fought to protect people that she cared about. That had felt good. Doing that unarmored was not as great.
Hopefully she could get her own fixed up. She'd bring it to Bronwyn to see. Heading up to the apartment, she rocked back and forth, remembering in her head the code for accessing it. But she couldn't activate the nice voice that gave lots of information.
Inside the apartment, she paused for a moment. The window was open, and it gave her chills. Then again, Wingblade was always flying up here, so she didn't think it was anything to be worried about. She closed it up and went to change her clothes and shower. There was still a bit of blood on the leggings. She threw on decent shorts and a loose T-shirt to wear into the gym room. Weight training until Wingblade came back was probably the best way to cool off.
It would probably be surprising for her to know that she wasn't alone in the apartment at all. Especially when she was using one hundred kilogram free weights in both hands as she worked on her balance.
Shaun turned to look at the far end of the alley just as Bronwyn returned. What he saw made ice in his veins. ”No...that’s not...possible...”
Framed in the walls of the alley was a massive dog.
Easily 5ft at the shoulder, the beast was covered in long, wiry hair of some kind of off-black color. It’s limbs and muzzle were slender, but rippled with lean muscle. It bore a horrible snarl, yet strangely no sound came from its lips. And that was not the only strange part of the creature. It’s eyes simmered with faint, blood-red light, and its tail almost doubled its already considerable length, wrapping around the hound’s legs like a serpent. The fur on the tail was longer than on the rest of the beast, but it was contained by braiding all along the appendage.
Shaun began to slowly back away from the monster. ”No. No, no, nonononono...!” The worms were in a frenzy now. He felt like he was going to puke any second. It was looking right. At. HIM.
The hound raised its head and finally broke its eerie silence, releasing a long, low, hollow howl that ripped through the air like a stormfornt made of knives.
He stumbled and fell, collapsing onto his back. His heart was hammering in his chest. It felt like before, when he was a kid. This can’t be happening!
And just like that, it wasn’t.
He blinked, and it was gone, leaving only his accelerated pulse.
@Bronwyn: You see all of this, but only hear Kilt. Even when the dog seems to howl, you hear nothing. However, you can feel waves of magic coming off the beast as it mimes the howl. It all takes place in seconds, and in even less time the creature vanishes with nary a trace of magic, as though it simply ceased to exist. Shaun is now on his ass, staring at where the hound once was and breathing concerningly fast. What do you do?
What the..?
Bronwyn quickly dropped to the ground, breaking Shaun's line of sight to where the apparition had been. "Shaun? Hey, Shaun! Eyes on me okay? We're going to do this together okay? We're going to breathe in, nice and slow, okay?" With one hand she held him upright to make sure he wouldn't pitch over and hit his head, while with the other she gave a slow count of 1...2...3... She started breathing out, 3...2...1...
"Okay Shaun? Nice and easy?" 1...2...3...
He was 2, getting scolded because he’d wet the bed again.
He was 3, crying under his bed and trying to go back to sleep.
He was 4, listening to the psychologist tell daddy about the pills.
He was...he was in the alleyway. Bronwyn was looking him dead in the face. She was...counting? Why was she counting? She was...the breathing count. He knew this one. Shakily he followed along, slow breaths, in and out.
After three or four breaths, he steadied himself and closed his eyes. ”Na eagal bàs, agus eagal bàis thu.” He pushed Bronwyn off of him as he stood up. ”I’m...I’m fine...I’m good...” He hastily ripped open the shirts and put one on (unknowingly) backwards. ”Where ta’ f%&+ is your ride? I need-...let’s get ta’ hell outta here...” With shaky steps he started towards the nearby street.
Within a few strides she was under his shoulder, arms . "Okay. Ride's here. Ride's here."
She didn't want to spook their driver, so she kept her questions to herself until they arrived at her home.
"Let's get you upstairs. I'll finish stitching and you can tell me what we just saw."
Still supporting him, Bronwyn led Shaun upstairs to her room. Thankfully, it was mostly clean; her desk was clear, her arming chest was open, but nothing more damning that a layer of chainmail was on top. Nothing was really scattered around on the floor, but she felt a twinge of embarrassment as she realized her laundry hamper was on the brink of overflowing. Okay, whatever, we've got more important things to worry about. I should really just start stuffing that in the closet though.
"Okay Shaun: Shirt off, mouth open. What was that dog? Why were you talking about Death?"
With a few swift keystrokes, she had access to the security feeds. It was...quite a chaotic scene. Bones were coming alive and people were panicking. But not everybody. To be expected of Halcyon. There's always *someone* trying to make a name for themselves in every situation. And there was that person again. Looked like they were trying to get into the camera feed via hardline. Seemed to be having trouble too, until some girl came up to talk to them; she recognized that 'aha' face of finally breaking through. She checked the feed for signs of tampering. The unauthorized access had been clumsily covered and the access attempt wasn't well executed. It wasn't up to Apocalypse's normal coding standards, but it was undoubtedly hers. Probably a result of coding in a rush under pressure. Though the girl seems to have undergone a rather drastic change in appearance...
But this was promising. She wasn't just a cracker, breaking into a government database to enact a vendetta against some boy. She could do good. She was in fact, attempting to aid some of the would-be heroes in this time of crisis. Perhaps away from Pinky's influence, she could be guided to a better path.
She pulled up her messaging app and sent a quick note to Whippoorwill.
> Congratulations to your protégée on her victory at the Natural History Museum today. Kindly inform her that should she require technical support, she should call upon the aid of one Kaoru Miyamoto. I believe they attend Halcyon High together. I suspect the child could benefit from the positive influence of up-and-coming heroes. Use the passphrase 'Apocalypse'.
-----
Interest. Location of Cal confirmed: Halcyon City.
Annoyance. Communication still blocked.
Amusement. Cal attacking others with robotic dinosaurs. Archiving idea for later usage.
Dismay. Cal acting according to Protocol: Hero.
Determination. Error must be corrected.
Idea. Delphi is not everywhere. Rerouting in process...
-----
She left him to his food as she headed upstairs to plug her computer in before flopping down on her bed and doing likewise with her phone. She blinked, surprised to see she had multiple text messages. Who would be texting her?
The first 3 were from Bronwyn. Right. Because she had given her her number. Probably not the best idea. But...well, what are the chances she's also a hacker and who wants to get into your phone? She felt a brief pang of guilt that in her rush to get changed and find an escape she had completely forgotten that she had been unable to reach her in the middle of everything. But she guessed this meant she was ok? Maybe? Kaoru's eyes narrowed as she dissected the message.
Hey, we don't have to talk about it: Probably meant Bronwyn didn't want to talk about it. Or just didn't want to get into a long conversation with her.
but you were really brave today.: Was she mocking her? Oddly enough, it seemed unlikely. She was probably just trying to be nice. Again. God she was such a confusing person. The praise rang hollow though because really, 'brave' was the nice way of phrasing 'stupid'. The only thing really separating the two ideas was results, and no one could really argue that her results had been lackluster at best.
Thanks for helping make sure everyone was safe.: Another pang of guilt at how she definitely hadn't remembered to check on Bronwyn after the whole incident. It...wasn't an intentional dig though, right? I mean, why would Bronwyn have expected her to check up on her? Ugg, this would be so much easier if I could just hear her tone of voice. ...Ok, a lie, but at least that would make it a LITTLE easier.
She put down the phone. And then picked it up again. She was...probably expected to respond, right? But what was she supposed to say?
> You ok?
S!!~ that came out wrong. She hastily typed a follow up
> Tried to loop you in on the video feed but couldn't connect to your phone.
> You smash it?
No, that was dumb. If she had smashed it how would she be texting now?
> Thought your phone might've gotten smashed. And you along with it But I guess not.
Her fingers continued to hover over her keyboard. It was awkward, and she wasn't sure how to make it any less so. But at least this way Bronwyn couldn't stare at her as she stood uncomfortably around. She didn't have to avoid looking at her, so she wouldn't see her reaction. This way was safer. Otherwise, she would have probably needed to find her at school the next day. Though that way I could at least visually check for any missing limbs...
She shook her head and went on to the other texts from an unknown number.
< Saw you on the news today. Good job helping out at the museum
She sat bolt upright. Who the fk?
< There is still room for improvement though. You need to learn to code under pressure.
She felt cold as she plugged her phone into her computer, desperately trying to trace where these messages had come from.
< I've let some local heroes know that they can count on you for technical assistance.
Sh*t, whomever had sent this had bounced it off of at least a dozen different servers.
< Don't be surprised when they contact you. They will identify themselves with the code phrase 'Apocalypse'
The technique was familiar. It could only be Delphi. And she had told them her hacker handle. Fk. Her only hope was that if they needed her help, maybe they wouldn't be tech savvy enough to make that connection.
This is kind of encompassing the whole scene, but this is the moment when I thought he might actually open up :-)
The entire ride home, even walking up to Browyn’s (weirdly huge) house, Shaun found himself jabbering. He hadn’t jabbered in years. Of course, he also hadn’t had an attack in years...
So he made comments about the car that took them to the house, he made comments about the neighborhoods they were driving through, he made comments about the house. He wasn’t thinking, or even really hearing any of it though.
Bronwyn question about him telling her what was going on finally got him to stop talking.
”Okay Shaun: Shirt off, mouth open. What was that dog? Why were you talking about Death?"
In silence he slipped the cheap shirt off, let her get to working fixing his back. She cares enough to take me to her house and stitch the cut. Maybe...she won’t think I’m b*%&&#&?
He took a deep breath. ”So...you speak Gaelic then? Only way ye’ coulda...understood ta’ mantra...”
God I hate being off my game...
Another breath, then he began.
”When...when I was born my mam...my mam wasn’t ta’ healthiest person n’...after she had me, she got sick. Really sick. My old man tried ta’ take care of her. My gran’da’ moved in ta’ help out. My brother-...” His fists balled. ”...my brother left.” That’s it. Focus on the anger. I’ve gotten out of this without the pills before, I can do it again. ”It was...pretty well determined she wasn’t gonna make it. I didn’t fully get it at ta’ time.” Without conscious thought, he begins to nervously rub both sides of his neck.
”That’s when ta’ nightmares started.”
”They were bad. Vivid as all hell. Made me...a-anxious.” He tried unconvincingly to act like that was the word he was intending to use. ”Got ta’ point I needed meds ta’ keep it together. My old man though I was...I dunno, broken, or some b*$$*+#@ like that...tried ta’ get me fixed...” He goes silent, then looks back at Bronwyn to see her reaction.
Wingblade thumbs through her messages, checking first Bronwyn's texts, then noticing Renae's.
She settles on the church steeple, putting her back against the cross as she calls her date's cousin. "Hey! You get back okay?"
"Yes, I know it's early... It's a school night!... Whatev... He took me to a baseball game... We left a little early... It was fine!... Kiss cam? What the heck is that?... Huh. No, nothing like that happened... Really?... I'm not going to answer that, Renae... Yeah, this weekend. He's taking me to another music festival where I'll see him play.
"Okay, gotta go. See you tomorrow. Bye!"
She cuts off her phone and drops it in a pocket while she thinks on this weird disingenuous romance triangle she'd stumbled into. I really should have said no. I'm not good at this.
A good while passes with her in thought. She ruminates on the events of the day, including the mind-whammy she'd received, and then on Alexis, Bronwyn and Devaun.
She was deep enough in thought that she jumps a bit when her communicator goes off.
"Yeah, boss," she says to her mentor. She had expected the usual post-fight analysis, but wasn't really looking forward to this one. "Not at my apartment? Okay, I'll meet you there."
”So...you speak Gaelic then? Only way ye’ coulda...understood ta’ mantra...” "Gaelic? Just bits and pieces really, I'm not like, fluent..."
”...Got ta’ point I needed meds ta’ keep it together. My old man though I was...I dunno, broken, or some b#@&&**@ like that...tried ta’ get me fixed...”
"I'm really sorry, Shaun. That's horrible, but... I just saw that dog too. No matter how bad a nightmare gets, it doesn't just show up in an alley. Has that happened before?"