Alexis was currently munching on some sourdough nibblers as she watched the exchange between Wingblade and Shaun. She had seen the map, but now it came into context for her what it was all about. She didn't understand why he had to be so mean about it all.
"If you swear again, I'm going to flick your nose," Alexis told him. She demonstrated with one of the nibblers - which disintegrated into pretzel dust. "Swearing is mean. Don't be mean, and we'll like you better. Do you want a pretzel?"
She held out the bag to him with a sweet, innocent smile on her face that somehow seemed discordant to the dismayed teenager that had broke a roof. Once accepted or denied, she goes immediately to speaking to Wingblade.
"Do you think it's wrong to date more than one person that you like? Kaoru said that it was wrong, but I don't understand why. If you like someone, you want to spend time with them, right?"
Bronwyn's aura is pretty subtle. In a lot of ways it's just an outgrowth of what most people have around them if you really look, just... more, but there's a sharpness to her gaze that only heightens as your spell takes effect.
Okay. Well. I guess that settles whether or not she saw me staring... She walked over just before the bell rang.
"Hey, Cassie, I think we should talk."
"Yeah, Bron! How's the grounding coming along?"
Wind and background chatter made it quickly clear that this was not the moment Bronwyn had hoped for.
"...You sound busy. Look, I'm... No, sorry, this can wait, and I don't want to pull you away. Umm, I borrowed Mary-Beth's phone in case you needed to get in touch with me, but Shaun still has my communicator. I... I guess that's really all I need to say right now, but with Bone Daddy, and the new Cassiphone witch-girl, and your talk with my parents... Could I see you tonight? At my window this time? Or I could meet you somewhere late."
As Cassie unfocused her eyes and let her vision shift, she could see auras surrounding the various students dotted around the school yard. Focussing on Bran, at first she couldn't see anything special except,... the other girl had definitely reacted when she'd focused on her second sight, and now,... S%&*! She's coming this way!
Cassie turned and did her best to thrust her remaining belongings into her bag as quickly as possible and then stood, turning to,.. "Hey Cassie, I think we should talk.".
Cassie's eyes darted around looking for a way to escape but finally settled one Bron as her shoulders slumped. "OK." she said, resignedly, "Here or somewhere more private?"
Concealed in her bag, her hand clutched her small, sharp, knife determinedly.
Alexandra moved quickly, to make it on time for her meet with Kaoru. she changed on the fire escape, and emerged onto the roof wearing a tight-fitted black outfit, red hand wraps, and a mask and bandanna reminiscent of the princess bride.
she steps up, and has to suppress a giggle almost instantly. Kaoru was done up a lot like her does she want to be my sidekick. do I want a sidekick? She wonders Y'know, I had meant in costume, but this works. just two adjustments. She says, first handing her a domino mask, and then offering a second bandanna if she wanted something to cover her hair regardless.
The outfit is great. and If we ever do official heroing, add the mask and it is golden. but right now, that hat makes you look associated with The Silver Shadow. and with what we're doing tonight, we don't want that. She smiles, and takes a laptop out of her bag, and hands it to Kaoru. stuck in a USB port is a dongle, and she dangles its mate from her index finger.
If I get this into their central server, do you think you could bypass their security and copy their files? She asks, smiling.
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"Shaun doesn't have your communicator anymore. Long story. Well, not really. He got into another fight. Anyway, yeah. I'll bring you a replacement. You want to meet at Monument Park? How does 11:30 sound?"
Shayera studies his face, then breaks into a wide, fierce grin. "Okay, I like you again."
She undoes the straps to let Shaun up, then puts the finishing touches on his back with a wide bandage to protect the stitches.
"Here's the thing: if you want to be a part of a team, then you gotta be a team player. I was trying to talk those jocks down, and I might have gotten through. But then it was more fighting, which I wanted to avoid.
"I actually have a secret identity, hard as that might be to believe. I would like to keep it as solid as I can. That means being Shayera the wannabe fashionista, not the crazy kung-fu Chinese girl who looks a lot like that hero with the metal wings. Understand?
"If you want to be a part of this," she gestures to the penthouse apartment with the supercomputer and the adjacent crime lab, "then don't make my normal life difficult. And that means pick your battles. Got it?"
She gives Shaun some space and time to explore the common area of the apartment while she talks with Alexis.
"Um, date? You mean romantically? Or just friends? You can have as many friends as you want, and will have you. But it's usually best to be exclusive when 'dating' dating. Uh, maybe I'm not explaining this right."
She has Alexis follow her into her bedroom where she changes out of her school clothes and switches to her usual Wingblade outfit. "So, you can have friends who are girls. You can have friends who are guys. You can have as many as you want, but it's also gotta be their choice to be friends with you. When you go out and do stuff with them, it's not really a 'date' but just going to hang out. For fun.
"Then there's the boyfriend-girlfriend thing. That's when you like-like someone, and you want to spend time with them alone, hold hands, kiss... and stuff. Those you usually call dates. And it's best to only go out on dates with one person at a time. Does that make sense?"
She steps out of her bedroom and goes up to her other houseguest. "Shaun, Alexis. Alexis, Shaun. Do you want me to show you around?"
"Well, if I'm right, we can talk right here and it will be private enough." The other students streaming past without paying any attention to their little showdown made her confident enough in her guess that she decided to press on with moderate subtlety.
"So, I guess here are my questions: Did the Witch of Aeaea just suffer from bad PR, and the chatty statue was just a jerk? Is the whole aura of unremarkability a mask in case people see you doing museum-type things, or are people looking for you-you? And will using real names make the glamer weaken? I feel very silly talking in circles."
***
"Monument Park, got it." I love you. "Bring the harness? If I'm gonna pay the penance, might as well enjoy the sin y'know? Awful saying. But... Bring the harness?"
Shaun sighed with relief as the straps were undone. "Ha, well, I'm an easy lad ta' like..." With as much discretion as he could he brushed the tears out of his eyes.
The disappearing munchie was a little nerves-inducing though. "Uh, a'ight..." He looked down at the snack, then at her. With a slow motion he took the bag. As much as he was trying to play it cool, he was starving. He'd missed breakfast and had accidentally given up lunch, so there was no way he wasn't taking free food. Even if it is coming from a maniac...
He listened intently to Shayera as he started wolfing down the salty food pellets.
"Here's the thing: if you want to be a part of a team, then you gotta be a team player. I was trying to talk those jocks down, and I might have gotten through. I actually have a secret identity, hard as that might be to believe. I would like to keep it as solid as I can. That means being Shayera the wannabe fashionista, not the crazy kung-fu Chinese girl who looks a lot like that hero with the metal wings. Got it?"
His lips pursed. "Mm, I get what ye're sayin', but that jack-a-...that jerk Jason wasn't gonna back down easy. He was five seconds from goin' ape-sh-..." He sighed. "From goin' nuts when ya' showed up." He glanced over to the homeless girl. "Y'kow ye're really puritanical f'someone willin'ta' fight topless." He punctuated the statement with a particularly crunchy bite.
"If you want to be a part of this," she gestures to the penthouse apartment with the supercomputer and the adjacent crime lab, "then don't make my normal life difficult. And that means pick your battles. Got it?"
His eye grew huge as he started to actually take in what he was seeing around him. "...yes absolutely mm-hm yep, I am COMPLETELY down f'that. Is that a supercomputer?" He started towards the device before receiving a reply, still munching on snacks.
By the time Shayera returned, Shaun was making a complete fool of himself. "AH-BA-CUS, PLAAAAY TA' FLOWER OF SCOT-!" He stopped as soon as he saw the girls approaching.
"A...tour!?' he squeaked. "Ahaha! F$@$ yes!" His hands shot to his mouth, sending the bag of pretzels flying. "Wait, s~$@, I mean-! F@$#! I meant-! Oh g#$&##nit!" He started backpedaling away from Alexis. "Waitwaitwaitwait-!"
As the minutes ticked closer to 11, Kaoru's anxiety slowly began to climb. Was she in the right place? Would Alexandra really show up? Maybe this was all some kind of prank? As he watch vibrated to announce a motion sensor getting triggered, she glanced down at the video feed to confirm who it was, surprised to see she wasn't in her Silver Shadow getup.
Y'know, I had meant in costume, but this works.
Kaoru pushed the trilby up from over her eyes, so Alexandra could catch the eye roll. "Sorry, but my plate mail is at the dry cleaners today. If I had been given more of a heads up, I might have been able to do something." 'Costume'? Kaoru had destroyed a pretty hefty chunk of her clothes before coming to Halcyon. And it wasn't exactly close to Halloween. This is about as close as she could have come even with more of a heads up. "Besides, it's almost Fancy Friday."
The outfit is great. and If we ever do official heroing, add the mask and it is golden. but right now, that hat makes you look associated with The Silver Shadow. and with what we're doing tonight, we don't want that.
She gives a long suffering sigh as she takes off the trilby. "Heroes. Think they have the fashion market cornered. What is the world coming to. But as you wish." As she puts the hat in her bag, she ignores the proffered mask, instead pulling out rather simple-looking white one that covered her entire face and head. It looked like an oval, theater comedy mask that had black cloth attached to the edges to hide the rest of the wearer's head. Ok, so maybe I have the *mask* of a costume at least. It had been a gift. One that she couldn't throw away. She hadn't exactly been sure if she had been supposed to bring a mask, and she wasn't exactly going to make herself out as a fool by wearing it for no reason. She put it on and undid the collar of her shirt slightly to tuck the cloth ends into it.
"Better?" The mask was apparently equipped with a voice modulator. One designed to make the user's voice appear natural rather than obviously modified. The voice Kaoru had chosen for herself was significantly deeper than normal (even when she was artificially lowering it to pass). It was smooth and refined with a slight hint of an RP English accent.
She smiles, and takes a laptop out of her bag, and hands it to Kaoru. stuck in a USB port is a dongle, and she dangles its mate from her index finger.
She took the computer but hesitated before responding. It would probably faster (and therefore safer) to use her own computer. It was already set up with her preferred developing environment, some code templates, and not to mention already had several scripts that might come in handy on it. On the other hand, as she was literally about to demonstrate, plugging an unknown USB into a computer was a really bad idea. But, well, if Alexandra was asking for her help with this, maybe that meant she didn't have the technical skills to do anything terrible. Though it's not like you can't simply *hire* people with those technical skills. But she also hadn't done anything to give Kaoru cause to mistrust her. Yet at least. And all her important accounts used multi-factor authentication anyway, so she wouldn't be able to do too much damage if this went pear-shaped. And if she wanted to appear competent, her own computer was really the way to go. Which she guessed decided that.
"I don't suppose you happen to have an IDE already installed on this? Or because I'm some l33t h4xx0r, do you expect me to just use emacs?"
She pulled out her own laptop and transferred the USB from the loaner to it. She started prepping her scripts for use. "If they're smart, they have a password limit lockout. If that's the case, I'll have to dump the entire drive as raw data to be shifted through later. That'll take longer, both to copy and then to break, though the breaking could be done elsewhere. If they don't have a limit lockout, it should be easy enough since I have something that can brute force it. In case you have to get out in a hurry, is there some kind of data I should prioritize copying? Assuming no password lock-out that is."
Shayera waits for Alexis to teach Shaun another lesson in not swearing, then starts showing off her apartment and superhero HQ.
"Med lab you've seen. It's got three beds, an operating suite, and an MRI that I can't use because of my wings. I'm still learning to use all this stuff. Abacus helps me; some of it's automated."
She leads him into the next section below the living area. "Full chem lab. There's the decon shower, and over there are the GC-MS, ICP-MS, and the ion chromatography device to analyze substances. There's also an array of chemicals to mock up things like solvents and counteragents. Abacus is helping me learn this stuff too."
She next climbs the stairs to the main floor, instructing Abacus to close the lower level. As the floor slides shut, she points to the bank of computer screens. "You've met Abacus. Voice activated, keyed to my voice. He'll follow certain guest commands but a lot of the interface is in Mandarin. Sorry." She says a string of words in Chinese and The Flower of Scotland starts playing over the speakers.
Shayera leads him through the exercise area full of bent barbells and a ruined punching bag, then to the next level. "My bedroom. Off limits," she says with a smirk. The large kitchen is a gourmet's dream, and features a well-stocked fridge and pantry.
The upper level features a bunch of couches and a big screen tv, and overlooks the balcony that and high glass windows that reveal the dazzling display of Halcyon City's Tower District.
"The balcony is great, too. But if you're afraid of heights, it might not be for you. Especially the infinity pool. You want to come outside?"
================
Wingblade collects the harness and dives off the balcony. She free falls a few seconds, then streaks across the sky toward Northside and Monument Park.
I'm early, she notes when she gets there at only a quarter past eleven. She finds her favorite spot on the shoulder of the Forgotten Hero and puts her back against his ear. Trying to quell the rising excitement, she pulls out Abacus' hand-held and starts scrolling through the news feeds and emergency alerts.
Alexis listens closely as Shayera lectures her. She takes a moment to review what she's telling her, over what she's observed. It comes to a distinct conclusion.
"Oh! Okay, so...like how you want to date Devaun as a friend, but he wants to date you the other way. But you also want to date Bronwyn the other way. If she fixes my armor, then it's okay with me," She said to Shayera in the bedroom. "But how Kaoru said it seemed like he didn't want to be romantic, so I guess he just wants to be friends. I get it now. But I don't get why he doesn't want to hug. Hugs are nice. You hug me and it feels nice," She pointed out.
Outside the bedroom, she looks at Shaun as he screws up and starts to swear again. She smiles at him, and gets up close to him, enough to place her fingertip on his nose. It feels like she could easily squash it into his face.
"Don't waste food," She said, indicating the scattered pretzels. "You never know when you'll eat next. Please stop swearing, or Shayera will probably ask you to leave." She looks over at the wide open balcony and the skyline. Then she kneels and starts to pick up the nibblers and carefully put them all into the bag again.
"Come with us on a not-date tomorrow. We're going to see a movie. I've never been to a movie theater before," She says happily. "What movie should we see?"
Bronwyn smiled. Show up ten minutes early and she's still already waiting on that statue. Not that she was complaining.
She wasn't all spruced up, just a zipped up hoodie and some sweats, so it was trivial for her to vault up onto the statue to join Shayera.
"Hi! Okay - I know we have just a ton of stuff to talk about, and a lot of it's important, but-" she leaned in to give her girlfriend a deep kiss that she barely kept from lingering over. "Hi. I missed you." The kiss was broken but she still leaned in to rest her forehead against Shayera's. "So, tell me about Bone Daddy."
Shaun follows the look towards the balcony. "Uh, y-yea', got it." That was WAY to close.
So she was going on a date. Well, "non-date." His first reaction was to say no, but considering that Shayera was clearly not interested in keeping this Alexis under lock-and-key, somebody responsible had to keep an eye on her. "...sure. Why not, right? Ah, I don't know what-all's playin' right now though. Lemme...check..." He had reached for his phone, only to to feel an empty pocket and remember that it was still at the house. "Right, forgot I forgot that...uh, well, if there's any action or comedies I'm down. No horror movies though, or...or musicals."
He didn't understand half of the words Shayera was rattling off, but everything looked awesome. He gave the heroine a massive grin when she had the machine play the anthem. "Thanks. This voice command stuff always gives me trouble."
By the time they reached the balcony, Shaun's chin was practically dragging on the floor. "An' I thought my old man's new place was rich-lookin'..." With no hint of fear he jogged to the edge of the overlook. "Lemme guess, ye' jump right offa here ta' fly, right?" He propped himself on the railing with his elbows. "God that must feel awesome, just lettin'ta' world fall away...not a worry in ta' world..." He turned his head to her quizzically. "I...don't suppose ye' give...rides?" he asked sheepishly.
Looking out over the city as the sun started to set, Shayera gets a far away look in her eye. "There's no feeling like it in the world. Just you and the wind." She arches an eyebrow. "Rides?"
She steps back and appraised Shaun's figure. "You're what, 125? 130 kilos? I don't know how fancy I'd be able to get, but I could keep us in the air. Oh, wait, no, I just stitched you up, I'm not going to risk ripping them open again.
"Later," she says with a seductive smile as she starts to head inside, "if you behave."
================
Shayera returns the kiss, surprising herself with how much she missed it. It was briefer than they both would have preferred, but they both had burning questions.
Bronwyn got to hers first. Shayera's dreamy smile disappeared and her face went neutral. "Oh. I'd already been though that with Whip. Um. So, ah, it should be all right. You didn't stop me, which was what's important, right?"
"126.3, actually. Give or take a couple dependin' on when I ate last."
He rolled his eyes. "Aw c'mon, I pop stitches all ta' time! It's no big deal!"
"Later, if you behave."
He primed a retort, but stopped. "...yea', a'ight. I'll 'behave.' But I'm gonna hold ye'ta' that offer! Soon as I'm fit, we goin' flyin'!"
As he followed her back inside, a thought crossed his mind. "Uh, hey, Shayera, would ye' mind if I...slept on ta' couch? My old man's on me again, don't wanna risk goin' back tonight...though I do need ta' get my stuff...y'know, just forget it. I'll case ta' place n' see what it's like." He started for the elevator. "Thanks for ta' help, by ta' way. An'ta' tour. It was cool! First secret base I've ever seen personally."
fair. you're new to this. and I wouldn't go with Plate mail for you. unless you wanted to go for the whole "cyber-knight" power armour thing. but you seem to work more with software than hardware. Alexandra says. She nods at their choice of mask. it wasn't half bad.
the laptop has a simple IDE on it. but probably not to your specs. Just didn't know it you would bring one. better to bring it, than risk having to scrap this plan. But by all means, use your own. She says. She takes a seat as Kaoru starts setting up.
Our mission is twofold. Firstly, I want to see their files on the good guys. Want to know what they say about us. And the second, i want their personnel files. embarrassments, incompetence. stuff we can paste across the internet, to tweak their collective nose. She says
Alexandra hands Kaoru a burner, and hooks her own up to the earbud on her ear still. I'll tell you when I have the device in place. after you've got all the files, hit the button on the bottom of the dongle, and it'll burn out it's mate. Quite literally. Might also short out their server. Alexandra chuckles at the prospect.
And she is off. climbing down until she is near a second story window, and then cutting her way in with a glass cutter, before moving deeper into the compound.
it isn't long before she finds the server room. only one guard on it, and he is tazed before he even finished turning to see who opened the door.
I've got the dongle in place. your turn. she says over the comms.
"If he's sleeping on the couch, then I want to sleep with Shayera in her bed," Alexis says adamantly, munching on the same bag of pretzels that she'd recovered from the floor. She chewed slowly and swallowed before continuing.
"Shaun, do you want to invite the magical girl from yesterday too? She seems lonely. And the statue was mean to her, so I want to be her friend so she won't be sad." She stated with simple to understand intentions.
"Also, Shayera, is Bronwyn going to fix my armor? I really want to make sure I'm not shot or stabbed again. Though maybe she can add a parachute. Then it won't break like before." She nods, figuring that was probably the best solution.
"I mean, I guess. I was just proud of you for stopping when you did. I would have had a hard time with that too. And we hadn't gotten to talk about it... or that I stabbed you." Her face became a mask of consternation; she pulled back a bit to give Shayera space to answer, but right away she brought her hand over to rest on top of Shayera's. "I'm sorry I couldn't think of a better way to help you. Are you okay with how everything went down?"
Shayera looks dubious as Shaun starts to leave. "You can stay. There's room, as you can see. But if you want to go, I won't stop you." She goes over to a small shelf near the elevator and grabs a plastic card with a magnetic stripe. "Here's a skyrail pass. It's the best way to get back to Northside. Have the elevator take you to the skyway level, then turn right as you leave the elevator. The signs'll point you to the station from there."
She turns back to Alexis. "Oh, we didn't choose our movie for tomorrow." She moves over to Abacus and swiftly calls up the movies and showtimes. "Let's see... no horror or musicals? Then there's a pirate movie, a space movie, something with cops, and a kids cartoon about talking motorcycles. And a rom-com. There's always a rom-com."
She also looks a bit sad. "And the magical girl can't come. She's grounded."
=======================
Shayera's eyes grow distant for a moment. Then she blinks and registers what Bronwyn just said. She forces a smile. "Oh, of course. Stab me, that's fine. Bone Daddy had me pretty good. So definitely worth it."
"Pirates," Alexis says as she takes a look. It seems like a fun movie. "What's grounded? And you know the magical girl with the staff?" She asked Shayera. She leans in quite close to her, looking over her shoulder at the Abacus screen and thinking to herself.
"We should invite Bronwyn too, I guess. But I'm worried Kaoru will think that it's also a date if you two are there together," Alexis suggests. "...I don't want you to give me rides. It's scary to be up so high. Even scarier to fall," She says in remembrance.
"I still want to look nice. What would make me look good for someone like him?" She asked.
Shayera's mouth hangs open in an aborted explanation as suddenly she realizes she's the confused one. "Um. Ahh, staff? Not..? Oh, the magical girl!" Who??? "Be my guest. The more the merrier. I might have been thinking of someone else."
She tries to force the confusion aside, and chalks it up to the mayhem and chaos of the fight at the museum -- and also that she spent much of that fight in some bubblegum haze working for Bone Daddy.
Instead, Shayera focuses on Alexis' idea of leaving Bronwyn out (since she's the one grounded). "That's probably a good idea. You don't want to put any pressure on Kaoru. I think picking out an outfit that you like and makes you comfortable will be best. Don't worry about trying to pick something out that he'll like. You've made it known that you like him, so now the decision is his. Try to force it, and you'll push him away."
Her mind walks back through their recent conversations suddenly and she asks Alexis, "What makes you think that Bronwyn and me are together?" I thought we were being discrete.
"Hey." She squeezed Shayera's hand, running her thumb along Shayera's fingers. "It's me. You can tell me you don't want to talk about it, but don't just say it's fine. He got to you bad. It'd be crazy if you didn't want to hurt him.
"Shayera, I know that was a struggle, but I trusted you to win. I thought that was why you thanked me for not stopping you. Am I wrong?"
Shaking her head, Shayera leans back and rubs her arms. "No, you're not wrong. It's just-- the red came back. First time since I'd come back, so I'd thought, you know, that it was gone for good. I was wrong."
Shayera's never told you about the red.
Shaun started at the pass, smiling. "Shayera, ye' truly are an angel." He re-donned his shirt (gingerly) and grabbed the duffle. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Don't wait up f'me." With a surprisingly vigorous sprint he jumped into the elevator and pressed the floor button. "...OH! An' be sure ta' let security know I'll be comin' back wi-!" The elevators doors closed before he finished. "...ah, I'm sure it'll be fine."
- - -
Turned out, he'd gotten lucky. Dear old man was nowhere to be seen. He's probably out looking for me...no, stop thinking about it. He deserves nothing less than this.
He lifted up the floorboard under his bed and retrieved his still semi-fixed kit. Only the handle-end of the case wasn't back together, instead still clinking about in an old plastic shopping bag. He grabbed both, plus his maintenance tools, his phone, a fresh bottle of whiskey, and a few changes of clothes. After some thought he also packed swim trunks and a few of the "gadgets" he'd been working on. They were nothing pretty, but maybe he could get that computer to help him out? Still not sure how the heck that thing works...
Everything packed, he started for the window, then paused. The old man had moved stuff, a box full of CDs sharpie'd in Shaun's handwriting was now resting open by the windowsill. Christ, I haven't seen these things in months...
He gingerly picked up the top-most disc, labeled in childishly big letters "FAMILE NITE." The worms started churning again. He must've...gotten nostalgic...
A tear started welling up. Shaun bit his lip. No. He deserves this. He deserves this... With renewed haste he scaled down the house and jogged for the fence once again. What he didn't realize was that he'd dropped the disc into his bag by accident.
- - -
By the time the super-elevator returned him to the penthouse, it was nominally quieter. Looking around, he cleared his throat. "Hello? Shayera? Alexis? Uh, Jeeves?" He glanced at the supercomputer. "...Abacus?"
Bronwyn nodded slowly, "I'm guessing The Red is more than you just getting mad? Tell me about it."
fair. you're new to this. and I wouldn't go with Plate mail for you. unless you wanted to go for the whole "cyber-knight" power armour thing. but you seem to work more with software than hardware.
"Hardware takes a lot longer to build. And unlike software, if you mess up you can't just hit Ctrl-Z. If you're lucky, you can fix your mistake. If you're not, you have to start over on the piece. Not to mention you actually need materials to build hardware."
the laptop has a simple IDE on it. but probably not to your specs. Just didn't know it you would bring one. better to bring it, than risk having to scrap this plan. But by all means, use your own. She says. She takes a seat as Kaoru starts setting up.
Our mission is twofold. Firstly, I want to see their files on the good guys. Want to know what they say about us. And the second, i want their personnel files. embarrassments, incompetence. stuff we can paste across the internet, to tweak their collective nose. She says
Kaoru nods in acknowledgment of Alexandra's planning, her mask hiding her smile at the second part of her plan. Sounded like the kind of prank that was right up her alley. She plugged the burner into her computer to route through that since trying to hold it up to her ear would get awkward. She then sat and waited for the signal to go. The wait was simultaneously excruciating and boring. It's not like she had any idea what Alexandra was up to inside the building. Sure, she probably could have tried hacking into camera feeds inside. But she wasn't about to risk tripping some kind of alarm just for the purpose of satisfying her own curiosity.
She got the signal and started the program. Please let this work.
=====================
Shayera shrugs. "It's what I call it. It's like a... different level of consciousness? It's not a different personality, not really. But I've never had one of those, so I can't really say for sure. I just get... focused. Honed in. On the fight. On the target."
She focuses Bronwyn with an uneasy look. "But it's not good. Every time I've killed, every time I've really hurt someone, I've been in the red. Whippoorwill has worked with me, training me to fight without it. To keep myself in control, so I don't use it. And to pull myself out of it when I in it."
Shayera puts her hand on Bronwyn's shoulder. "If you'd have tried to stop me, there's a better than even chance that you'd have become the target. And I didn't know how badly Bone Daddy's magic had affected me. If I couldn't stop myself, I'd rather it be him dead than you."
"Well. You pulled out of it this time." Bronwyn gave a small smile, but her eyes were serious, "But keep training. If I ever think you're too far gone to make the right choice by yourself, I won't stand by."
Cassie frowned, but nodded her assent and sat back down, keeping her bag, and the small bone knife it contained, close by. When Bron sat down, she replied. "Ok, we can talk but,.... fair's fair. I show you mine, you show me yours. I get to ask you a question for each one you get to ask of me. Fair enough?
"Aeaea?... I guess you mean Circe? No, she's as bad as the legends say... maybe worse. Although the statue, Odysseus... Yeah he seems like a jerk anyway. You can call me Cassie. I prefer that anyway. Circe's my mom. Now. Who're you, and why can you see through the glamour when no-one else can?"
Shayera sits upright, shaking her head. "No! Nonono, you don't interfere! You gotta stay back. Because if you stop me, then you stop me."
"Shayera, I know how heavy the burden you carry is. That's why I'd have to try, right? If that meant you went after me, well then I'd try to stop that also. And I bet you'd fight pretty hard not to hurt me too."
Shayera squeezes her eyes shut, frustration evidently mounting. "Except that... it doesn't work that way. You have to trust me. I can beat it. But only when I get right to the edge. Before that, everything's just... an obstacle."
"Shayera, I do trust you. I'm just the backup plan."
Shayera groans in exasperation and tugs at her hair. "I shouldn't have told you. No. It works better when there's nothing stopping me but me. If you're there to step in, then why should I fight so hard? You'll make it worse."
"I know how important it is that you're able to beat this. I trust you. I just did.
"Can you trust me to know the difference? I just stopped you when you were under Bone Daddy's control, and stood back to let you stop yourself when you were free."
She visibly relaxes, and tension drains from her in a rush. She leans forward and puts her head on Bronwyn's chest. "Maybe this was a fluke. But maybe it's back. I don't know."
Bronwyn puts her arms around her, easily slipping around her wings without a moment's thought to any awkwardness. "I know how strong you are. You're going to beat this, and I'll be right here afterwards."
Shayera doesn't move from that position for a while. Eventually, she lifts her head a little and asks, "So? How did Kilt manage to get you grounded? And your parents hate me now, don't they?"
"What makes you think that Bronwyn and me are together?"
Alexis takes a moment to think about that. "...You look at her differently than Devaun. You like holding her hands. She looks at you the same too. You also looked happier to be going on a date with her yesterday than with Devaun." Alexis tilts her head onto Shayera's shoulder. "She was also dressed really, really pretty at the museum, and I think it was because she wanted you to see it."
When Shaun comes into the front door, Alexis is currently parked in front of the TV, munching on a bowl full of vanilla wafers and watching A Midsummer Night's Dream with rapt attention. She seems to only be shortly into it, as Puck has just placed the magic flower dew on the eyes of Lysander.
She glances back at Shaun as he enters, blinking a couple times. "...If you try to magically make me fall in love with you, I'll kick you," She warns before going back to her movie.
"Don't make Kaoru magically fall in love with me, either. I want him to do that naturally." She said. "Like how Olivia falls in love with Sebastian, even though its really Viola in disguise. I want to be loved like that."
The look he gave Alexis was a strange mix of confusion and concern. ”Uh, sure? Who ta’ he-...heck is Kaoru? Don’t tell me somebody was cracked enough ta’ fall f’ye’...
Shaun tapped the new comm on. ”Eh, Shayera? Ye’ on? I’m back at ta’ base, where are ye’-?” Behind him, the elevator binged and disgorged the heroine. ”-at?” He turned to face her. ”Ah, there ye’ are.” He hefted his armful of gear and sundries. ”Got my sh-...stuff. Where should I set up shop?”
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"Oh I have no idea. They haven't said a word to me about you coming over." Bronwyn gave Shayera a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. "So it's a good thing I was listening in the whole time. What you said was really wonderful."
"As for Shaun, I thought he was going to bleed out if he tried to macho-away his sword wound, so I brought him back to the house to sew up his back, and then my parents came home early and found me and a shirtless Scotsman in the kitchen, and you know how I'm not supposed to have boys over alone. Then Shaun and my papá got in a fight that I didn't overhear all of, but it ended with Shaun yelling at Papá to go... screw himself."
Shayera rocked back in surprise. "Really? Oh, man. That's... going to give them the wrong idea. Wow. How long do you think this is going to set you back on 'the talk?' Since..." She buried her face in her hands. "Oh. Oh, dammit, I'm so stupid."
"They're going to say I corrupted you!"
Bronwyn made a sour face, "Well yeah. That was always going to happen though. That's why I was thinking about not having you there. I don't know. They both seem really awful."
Her eyes widened, "I mean both options. Of ways to tell them."
Shayera leaned forward, listening.
"Look Shayera, I mean it's going to be really hard no matter what, so I really want you to be there. But I'm afraid if you're there they'll blame you, or be really horrible, and... I just don't want you to hate each other!" Stay calm Bron. Stay calm.
Shayera thought on her conversation with Cesar and Marian last night. After a few mental gymnastics, she said slowly, "I think I can manage to not hate them. I mean, they obviously love you. So that's a good starting point, right?"
Bronwyn tried to smile, but it looked quite fixed, "You had to think about it pretty hard though. Plus, if they said something awful to you, then I don't think I'd keep my temper either."
Shayera put on a brave face. "I was making a bad joke. I won't hate them. And yeah, I'm sure it's possible for them to say something mean and hurtful. But really, what could they say that I haven't already heard in some way? Right?"
Bronwyn asked simply, "What if they said something about me?"
That froze Shayera for a moment. A couple emotions made war on her face before she said deliberately, "They won't mean it. Not for real."
She reached out and pulled Bronwyn close, having her twist around so that she's leaning back against her. Shayera linked her own hands around Bronwyn's torso and held her close. "Look. There's no rush. I'm being stupid with Devaun, and that's putting pressure on you. We can wait. I'm not doing anything with him, and can end it whenever."
Bronwyn smiled "I want to tell everyone. It's just hard. All the people I love most in the world are going to be in for a really painful day."
After an uncomfortable span of moments contemplating that, Shayera pulled out the harness"Feel like being cheered up?"
Light glimmered in Bronwyn's eyes as she thought about flying. "Okay, okay. One thing first: I tracked down Cassiphone, the magic girl with the staff? I'd like to bring her along to the next team up. She's got the goods, and I think we could help her."
Something looks like it clicks with Shayera. "Oh! The magic girl Alexis wants to invite to the movies! At first I thought she was talking about you. Was she at the museum too? So, you think she's someone we need to talk to?"
"...Yeah." That glamer is so creepy. "I'll see about bringing her along. She's got some memory stuff protecting her that's going to make it hard to give you more details for now."
Shayera furrowed her brow, trying to think about what she remembered from the fight at the museum. "That fight was a mess. You think it was the start of something? Kilt, Alexis, magic girl, Silver Shadow... A lot of capes, all in one place. Then there's one more... I still have to pass along a message. Then we'll see if he's also going to get involved."
"Well, when Cassiphone grabbed the Caduceus... I can tell you for sure that just about every witch, wizard, warlock or w-..w-... okay, I don't have a 'W' word for gods or goddesses. But they all noticed, I'm sure of it. So even if it wasn't supposed to be the start of something, I think we should make sure it is. Time to really get the Team together."
"But first, you want to fly?" Shayera took her harness and started looping it around Bronwyn.
Bronwyn stole one last kiss, "Don't you dare land."
"Deal."
***
"Circe's my mom. Now. Who're you, and why can you see through the glamour when no-one else can?"
"Well, like you know, I'm Bronwyn..." She shook Gae-Dearg out from among the other charms on her bracelet, "...and I carry the link that lets Bran the Blessed cross over to our world. There's some side effects to that, and I think that's why I can notice you."
"Are you hiding from your mom?"
Cassie leans forward to look at the charm and then glances up at Bron quizzically. "Really? Bran... hmmm,...." she thinks for a moment. "Yes. She's not nice and I really, really don't want her to find me. I probably shouldn't have done anything at the museum but,... Well I did. I didn't see you there though.... So, What kind of side effects?.. I'm new to this whole magic thing, but I know a bit about the charm and it'd take a lot to see through it."
"I've got a reflection of some of his abilities. And well, Bran's got a knack for seeing the unseen. Being a guardian is one of his duties after all. So, why did you help keep things under control? Bran was worried you might want to keep the Caduceus for yourself, but you gave it back."
Shayera flushes hotly when Alexis states her observations. "Okay, then. Well, keep it to yourself, if you don't mind. Bronwyn's family doesn't know yet, and telling them..." She thinks a moment. "Telling them has to be done the right way. I'm sure I can't explain it right, so please don't ask."
Shayera points over near the exercise equipment. "That's probably the best place for right now. I'll have to do some thinking about how all this is going to work if any more decide to crash here."
When Alexis starts talking about falling in love, she almost tries to caution her away from the fantasy. She stops herself, though, deciding that the better thing to do is just let her enjoy it for a while.
Her comm buzzes in a signal only meant for hers. "Oh, that's Whip. I gotta go. Help yourself to anything in the fridge, enjoy the pool, don't bust your stitches!" She runs out to the balcony and takes flight.
Alexis looks up. "Can I meet her?" She asks Wingblade, but she darts off before she's able to respond. Alexis pouts a bit but goes and watches more of the play in movie form. She's already thinking about how the not-date will go tomorrow.
It occurs to her that Shayera didn't tell her if Bronwyn was going to fix her armor or not. She needed it if she was going to be a secret crimefighter.
She broadly ignored Shaun in favor of her play until it was finished, then let out a long yawn before heading up towards Shayera's bedroom. She was sleepy. And Shayera didn't say she couldn't sleep in her bed tonight.
"...Good night." She paused long enough to say to Shaun, before disappearing.
Kaoru started swearing mentally. She'd tripped an alarm (such a rookie mistake) and now they were backtracing her. She forced back tears of frustration. She had just wanted a distraction but apparently, all the drama of earlier in that day was playing havoc on her concentration. She was just so fking tired. She wanted to lay down and never get up again. But she couldn't. Not just yet anyway. She at least needed to clean up the mess she had gotten herself and Alexandra into. So much for appearing competent. Way to fk things up. Again. Gods you're useless.
"You should get out of there. Since it's all remote including destroying the USB pair, there's no reason to stick around and risk getting caught." She was really glad the voice modulator negated whatever tone she was speaking in and made everything come out a soothing and relaxed. It was possibly the only thing she had gotten right thus far.
The back hacking was a problem. But worst case, she'd wipe her computer. It would set her back, but it wasn't like she didn't have backups. More important was to get the info Alexandra wanted. She'd trusted her, and Kaoru didn't want to betray that. She was about to start doubling down on her effort when she stopped. Her hands were shaking from the adrenaline. The hormone was great if you needed to sprint away from a tiger or life a car off your child. But it was terrible for thinking. Which meant it was terrible for hacking. Working under pressure had never been her forte. Her strength was in thorough preparation and planning. She needed to step back. So she took a deep breath and attempted to Assess the Situation.
The fire escape behind Kaoru rattled, almost hiding the sound of someone cursing under their breath as they climbed. The beam of their flashlight flickered up towards the roof for a moment before they concealed it once again. She still had a few moments, but they were coming.
Cassie pauses and looks at Bron quizzically. "Hmmm, OK." she replies. A reflection of his powers? Would that be enough to see through the charm? I'll have to ask Gabrielle a bit more about how it works.
"I probably shouldn't have gotten involved." Cassie says "But i knew that if" she glances around and lowers her voice. "If that voodoo guy got what he was after it'd be bad for everyone so, well, I guess I thought I had to do something. The Caduceus is powerful, like, really powerful. It was tempting to try to keep it. Really tempting, but other people, bad people like my mom,.. they would've come after me to get it and I don't need that. I just want to stay safe. If I can. I've got enough problems with just mom after me."
Cassie looks up at Bron. "OK, next question. So, you can see through the glamour... Which is,.. unsettling, I was told that was almost impossible. Will you promise not to tell anyone else? Why should I trust you?"
Shaun looked at the familiar stack of mats and pads. "...a'ight." Well, at least this one won't get me beaten awake by a janitor... "An' don't worry, I won't be in ya' hair f'long. Jus'till my old man cools his head."
As he haphazardly set down his stuff, his ears perked up. "Holy f-...cow, I'd forgotten! You work with THE Whippoorwill! Bada-!...cool. Do ye' thin ya' could-?" He turned back around just in time to see Wingblade jump. He rushed to the railing, watching her dive and soar away. "Badass...!"
While Alexis watched the movie ("Looks like crap ta' me, but whatever."), he got to work. As much as he wanted to go on patrol, he was also starting to realize that maybe the back cut was worse then he thought, at least judging from Bronwyn and Shayera's reactions. So, if tonight wasn't going to be a hero night, it was a construction night.
By the time Alexis passed by to say goodnight, he'd finally finished putting the kit back together. He tested the latches a few times, made sure all the fairy lights were working properly, and adjusted the foam to fit stuff better. All-in-all, probably better than the first time he'd made it. "Improve with every rep, every step, every time you iterate on something. However good you were yesterday, you need to be that much better tomorrow." Improvement made.
The next few hours were sword and knife maintenance; sharpening, polishing, the works. The claymore in particular had a few scratches from the rubble, but thankfully they buffed out easily enough. Unfortunately, a quick count told him he was rapidly running out of daggers. I need to talk with Bronwyn again, see if she can get me to that forge she was talking about...actually, I should get her something. An apology present. He flipped open his wallet. ...or maybe just a card...or a pack of gum...
That done, he finally wandered down to the kitchen. "A'ight, what we got? Eggs...cabbage...celery...what the hell is that?" He extracted a tupperware tabled "birds nest soup." With a quizzical eyebrow raise, he popped the container open and sampled the contents. "...what ta' f~#! is this, an' why does it taste so good?" He found a spoon and greedily finished the broth.
Next stop was the pool, which turned out to be heated. A quick change into his trunks (tartan-patterned, of course) and he was doing lazy laps around the basin, stopping occasionally to look out at the skyline. Despite Jason and Try-Hard, today had turned out pretty good. Shayera was on board with the hero thing, he had a nice place to crash for the night, kit was back together, things were looking good.
Then his thoughts turned to Alexis.
What is up with her? First she's an emotionally unstable wrecking ball, then she's going full-on Amazon warrior, now she's, what? Shayera's semi-naughty house-pet? Whatever she is, she's too off-kilter to leave unattended. Maybe I should say my old man kicked me out, so I can stay here longer?
He rubbed his eyes. No, that'd be creepy. I gotta figure something out though. Maybe, since Wingbalde's fully let me into the clubhouse, I could just say I'm dropping in for a sit-rep?
He sounded a yawn not to dissimilar to a whale noise. No, no, Alexis might get suspicious of that...maybe I could...tag her, somehow? Like a...GPS...or... "Zzzzzz..." With thoughts swirling like eddies, the warmth of the pool drifted Shaun off to sleep.
Bronwyn couldn't help but smile when Cassie talked about feeling like she had to do something. I was right
"I know you're new to Halcyon, Cassie, but hopefully Bran's done enough good for his name to carry some weight. Hopefully mine would too, if you ask around. You can trust me.
"I think we can help each other more than just staying quiet though. You jumped in at the museum when it put you at risk, because you wanted to do the right thing. If you want to help more people, I know some heroes who would be glad to have you join them."
"Yeah, I've heard of Bran, and I met him, along with that guy Shaun who gets around in a kilt all the time." Cassie replies. Ummm,... let me think about the whole 'hero' thing though. I'm not a hero or anything it was just,... I couldn't just let voodoo guy get the staff." Cassie thinks for a moment a shuffles a bit nervously. "Ummm, one thing though." she says "ummm,.. its really hard to make friends when you've got a magic charm telling everyone that you're not interesting. You're, like, essentially the only person who's really said anything to me since I got here and,.. " she gulps, "God this sounds sappy but, ummm, would it be OK if I hung out with you a bit? It's been kind've lonely, and I'm not used to being, you know, ummm,.. unpopular and invisible."
Why'd I say it like that? God, I feel like such a loser! I hate this f#@&ing charm.
Shayera lands hard on the balcony. Her hair is frizzed out and there's a smell of ozone still lingering about her. She is about to step inside when she realizes that Shaun is in the pool and, from the sound of the noises coming from him, asleep.
"Ahem! I doubt that's the place you want to spend the night. Shaun!" She steps to the edge of the pool and a quick flick of her wing sends a splash in his direction.
Bronwyn just reached over to give her a side-hug. "Of course. But I'll tell you something. All you need to be a hero is to help people when you're needed. You've done that part already. I've got a pretty good guess that you'll do that again."
"Oh. As far as hanging out goes, I am mega-grounded for... Y'know? They didn't actually say... But for a while at least. So, there's two ways I can hang out with you until approximately the end of time. One: Here at school, a seat's always open at my table. That's a real offer. Two: Team stuff, 'cause helping people is more important than being grounded."
He's running. Across land, across water, across air. It pursues.
From Shayera's position at the edge of the pool, she can faintly hear Shaun muttering in his sleep as he spins lazily in the water. "...na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort...na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort..."
His heart is hammering. His pulse a hum in his bones. He's crashing through leaves, through stone, through metal. Must run, must flee, must escape!
As the water sails through the air, it is suddenly jerked sideways by an unseen force. In the center of the pool, Shaun begins to spin faster. "...na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort...na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort...!"
It was still there, at the edges of his vision. The beast, the hound, rabid foam at the corners of its maw. It hungered for death. For HIS death.
Any elevation on Wingbalde's part reveals a strange series of eddies in the pool, flowing in spiral patterns and moving against the natural flow of the water. At the center of it, at the heart of a massive, central curl, was Shaun's spread-eagle form. "...na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort! Na cuir eagal air bàs, agus bidh eagal air bàs ort!" He was almost yelling in his sleep now, his breath rapid and ragged.
Whatever was going on with Shaun wasn't natural, that's for certain. Wingblade has encountered her share of weird things, and struggled to think of something that was similar.
Whatever this is, it's never been in Halcyon before. Wingblade's first thought is of Celtic knots and carvings, but the swirls are too separate, too simple in design, too...ancient. She easily surmises that this is magical in nature, but a magic that she is utterly unfamiliar with.
His chest was on fire. Literally. A flame the size of his fist was nestled right where his sternum should have been. He stop, only for a moment, to touch it, to let its marvelous glow wrap around his fingers like ivy.
In that moment, it caught him.
The water stopped in its tracks. Shaun ceased spinning, his form inverted from Shayera's point of view. In a voice that was not his, he spoke. "Chan eil eagal air a ’bhàs, Shaun MacGriogair."
With shocking swiftness the waters fled the center of the pool, lowering him almost to the tiled bottom, and crashed back down.
"Okay, whatever that is, it's not good. Abacus, full illumination!" she shouts. "Speakers on! Play something with bagpipes, I guess!"
The balcony suddenly becomes bright as day. The speakers begin blaring a heavy rock beat. "Not AC/DC! Something Scottish!"
The music switches to Scotland the Brave. "Better?" She watches expectantly, debating whether she should dive in and get him.