Shayera feels a wave of relief when Bronwyn comes over to sit. She was determined to not feel bad if she needed space, and simply be patient despite the anxiety. Her mentor's phone call had only succeeded in distracting her from the emotions she was trying to suppress for the duration of the call. So her girlfriend showing up wanting to sit with her was a huge burden lifted.
Shayera gives her a smile as she scoots over to give Bronwyn room. She slides her tray of curry rice to the side so her brown-bag lunch had room. "Hey! Sure you can sit!"
She gives the other girls a look then turns to Bronwyn. "So, uh, you know that assembly yesterday? I got, um, picked to give, like, feedback this afternoon. With the director. So that's probably going to kill my evening."
That's.... not gonna tiptoe here, that is terrifying. Alexandra says How much can you tell me about that?
I think today proved that, if it comes to it, I'm willing to. Thought you might be mad about it. I expect Wing will be. probably Shaun too. She sayss But... yeah. next time, I'll stop you again, if I can.
Are we not going to talk about the other thing that happened today? how you were a girl? Because, that is a lot. You suffered enough damage I figured you were dead, and instead you are just.... someone else.
One frame... speedster. That could be problematic. She said
Yeah. Duncan has been missing for 14 years and he's Shaun's older brother. Probably the reason Shaun wants to be a cape. she sighs And, we probably want to bring him in on this... God, I hate that sentence.
Bronwyn gave her a kiss on the cheek as she sat down. "Sorry I pushed you more than you were comfortable with. I didn't mean to..." I can't talk about this in front of them! Instead unwrapped her own batch-made sandwich and began to methodically chow down, clearly still in a refuelling mode even without practice that morning.
"So, uh, you know that assembly yesterday? I got, um, picked to give, like, feedback this afternoon. With the director. So that's probably going to kill my evening."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Would you want me there for support? Or umm, any of our Buddies? I totally get it if you don't though. No pressure!" She knows Buddy always means Bran, right?
Bronwyn's kiss made Shayera's heart flip. Maybe...? No, no. Don't get worked up. Patience.
She sat quietly while Bronwyn ate until she told her about her meeting with the SCA overseer. Her response had Shayera guessing.
"Well, I was told it was a solo interview. It'd be great if you were there, but you'd have to wait outside with Ms. Ravencrest. So, you know, you wouldn't have to. I totally understand if you needed to do something else. Really. Like you said, no pressure."
"你們兩個很有趣," Yu Hiu giggles. Shayera glares at her.
"你們兩個很有趣"
Bronwyn's face became still for a full second at Hiu's giggle, only a slow blink showing any motion, then she looked over to try to read Shayera's expression.
Was that something about us..? Eh, if it's important she'll tell me.
"Well... what time this afternoon?" I've got track for three hours, but it's starting during last period... Doesn't leave a ton of time in between practice and blacksmithing... Find out the schedule first, time-turner later.
Shayera catches Bronwyn's glance. "Está bien. Ella piensa que estamos siendo graciosos." She smirks at the Chinese students, who seem much less engaged now that she switched to Spanish.
"De todos modos, voy ante el supervisor a las siete en punto. Me encontraré con mi 'jefe' de antemano."
"It's fine. She thinks we're being funny."
"Anyway, I go before the overseer at seven o'clock. I'm meeting my 'boss' beforehand."
She lapses into silence for a moment, then looks Bron in the eyes. "Thanks for joining me for lunch. If you don't make it tonight, can I call you? Let you know how it went?"
Bronwyn chewed her lip "¡Ay bendito! Le prometí a nuestro mano escocés que hangueamos y haríamos algo de herrería a las seis." Apologetically she explained, "Creo que él tiene secretos que necesitamos saber. Nos ayudarán a ayudarlo. Pues, si él nos dice al menos..."
With an impish smile beneath worried eyes she asked, "¿Quieres que lo deje plantado?"
"Either way, of course you can call me, Shayera. Please do."
"I think that he has some secrets that we need to learn about. They'll help us help him. Well, if he tells us at least...
"Do you want me to blow him off?"
Alexis looks plenty relieved to see that Alexandra is willing to do what needs to be done. He does looks perplexed by some of her other questions, though.
"Bronwyn was asking me about that before. Whether I am a girl or a boy. As if she couldn't see me," Alexis points out, shaking his head. "I am a boy. If I die, I might come back as a girl again or not. But I'm a boy now. What's so difficult to understand about that?"
Alexis frowns, looking at Bronwyn. "You don't see me either," He tells her, backing out of her hug. "You don't see me. You see her and tell yourself that's me now. But this is me now," he emphasizes by pressing his hand to his chest. "I am still me, but the one now, not the one then. Understand now?"
In a moment of realization and a touch of despair, Alexis pulls the snapback down closer over his eyes. "...Shayera won't see me now, but then. I have to go," He said before rushing off before they could get in a proper response. It was coming crashing down on him now. The sudden loss of identity. The struggle to differentiate himself with who she had been.
He never felt strange in his own body. Neither had she. But for the first time, it felt like these people, these friends didn't understand that he was the same, and also not the same. He wanted someone to confide in. Someone who he felt he could trust not to judge him as well as someone who wouldn't confide in the rest of the team about his issues.
Hence the past hour frustratingly trying to get Kaoru to agree to meet with him, with minimal results on his part. He was going to try one last time, this time being direct. He hoped that Kaoru cared enough to see the desperation in his message as he sent it to him.
Alexis.... That's not something most people do. you understand that, right? She says. Hell, most supers can't put that off, without some form of shapeshifting. So yeah, I can see you are male now, you were full frontal there before I loaned you the shirt
But, honestly, it's a little disconcerting. Quite aside from having watched you suffer immense trauma... and you describe it as dying, but obviously you aren't, obviously your cells are still working, even if your internal organs are damaged beyond functioning. And seeing you come back from that point, after I flayed your lower half to the bone, and that barely managed to knock you out of your kill state. Alexandra's words are coming a little fast here.
And, I'm pretty sure you have some form of immortality, and honestly, it's really freaky that there are people who can turn people into.... more of you. So yeah, it's still you, and honestly, the whole gender flip is not the biggest part of it, but it is weird, to see someone who looks like someone you knew, but isn't, looks like someone else.
"¿Ya sabes? Él tiene algo después de él. Además, tiene un pariente que se parece a él trabajando para Circe." She shakes her head vigorously while the Chinese girls start ignoring them for their book, game or phone. "Deberías ir. Él necesita a uno de nosotros alrededor. Tal vez uno de nosotros logrará que él hable."
She reaches over and gives Bronwyn's hand a squeeze. "You can come by afterward, if you want. I don't care if you'll be sweaty. I might need a friendly face."
Her switch to English catches the others' attention, and the trio look up and titter softly. In open defiance, Shayera leans in and kisses Bronwyn on the lips. She pulls back quickly. Is that too much? Dammit, I forgot. She studies her reaction with trepidation.
"You know? He's got something after him. Also, he's got a relative who looks like him working for Circe."
"You should go. He needs one of us around. Maybe one of us will succeed in getting him talking."
Bronwyn winced when Shayera used a proper noun instead of a euphemism You couldn't have called her La Bruja? But at least her friends didn't seem to have paid much attention, and besides- Seriously? A brother too? "Dame un break." She sighed, "Voy a hablar con él."
Shayera's kiss caught Bronwyn a bit by surprise, but she gratefully leaned into it until Shayera pulled away.
"Sure, we'll get dinner." Her eyes still sparkling from the kiss Bronwyn tried to firm up her features, but couldn't quite get rid of the traces of her goofy grin.
"La vas a hacer muy bien, ¿vale?
"Mira, sé que las cosas no eran perfectas, pero gracias a nosotros hay muchas personas que pueden ir a casa y ver a sus familias. Nada de lo que digan va a cambiar eso."
"Además," She leaned in and whispered in Shayera's ear, "definitivamente deberías hablarme más en español. Es muuuuy sexy..."
"You're going to do great, okay?
"Look, not everything went perfectly, but thanks to us, a lot of people get to go home and see their families. Nothing they say can take that away.
"Also, you should definitely speak Spanish to me more often. It's reaaaaaally sexy..."
***
Alexis set off running before Bronwyn even realized what had happened. "Hey, wait, Alexis!"
"¡Puñeta! Can you hold this. I've gotta get him, and-" Frustrated she just dropped her bag and took off after Alexis.
Ugh. He's fast. It's the middle of the day and we're right near school, I can't just go all out, right? Okay, have to do this carefully if- Oh Jeez!
Maybe he was trying to lose pursuit, maybe he didn't think the cars were really all that dangerous, maybe he just wasn't looking, but Alexis cut across a street heartbeats ahead of oncoming traffic. By the time Bronwyn even could have crossed after him... He was gone.
Fine. Guess he needs some time.
Bronwyn: Hey Alexis. I'm really sorry I upset you. Can we talk later?
Kaoru gave Alexandra an incredulous look. "What the hell did Shaun do to you last night?" It was mostly a comment made in jest. Mostly. "Besides, he was, like, 2 when Duncan disappeared. I doubt he even remembers the guy past stories his dad told him. Besides, I figured if we just sit down for a little bit, maybe we can find whatever alias he's using here?* And when I talked to him, he said he liked to spend what free time he had in the park, so I figured lurking around there, I'd be bound to run into him eventually. I actually bought an mp3 player that I loaded up with the kind of music he liked that I was going to give him. Before...well...before the conflict yesterday." She paused to look around before leaning in close to whisper without being overheard. "That's what the tracker's for. I figured I could put it inside and maybe figure out where he's staying."
A brief look of guilt flashed through her eyes as she glanced down, chewing on her bottom lip. She looked up and locked gazes with the other girl, gingerly placing one hand on her forearm. "I- I don't think he's a bad person though. I mean, his company seems pretty sketchy at least. But even if it's straight up evil...I think he's just in a bad place. He talked about his boss having some kind of iron-clad contract with him. It sounded like it would be pretty bad if he broke it. But he doesn't like his job. I bet if we could get him out of it, he'd leave in a heartbeat! I don't- I mean I think- It might not even be possible but...I guess, if we're going to look into this, just...keep an eye out for some way we could possibly maybe...I dunno...help him perhaps?" Suddenly feeling very foolish, she broke eye contact and retrieved her hand. Voice now flat and emotionless, she added, "Sorry, dumb idea. It'll probably only backfire when all we need is some kind of leverage if we run into him again."
It wasn't until the period immediately following lunch that Kaoru noticed she had mail. She had to suppress a snort at Alexis' response. Wanting a "male" friend was both a weird qualifier and ironic. What could a "male" friend even do that a female one couldn't? ...wait...Alexis didn't want to talk about...y'know...male things, right? She suppressed her instinctual desire to blush and flail about at the idea, managing to only mentally flounder. Sh*t, how would she even answer things like that? Should she- should she research that kind of thing? Were there even such sources on the internet? Would those sources even be accurate? She spent another few moments agitatedly attempting to figure out how she would make that work when the obvious finally struck her: if Alexis asked anything inappropriate, she would simply point out that fact and say she wasn't comfortable talking about it. The crisis was averted.
But still...wanted to hang out with a guy seemed like a weird ask. Back at her old school all her friends had been female, but she had never really felt like she was missing out on anything. Or was this another one of those "I am actually trying to date you but not using the correct word because I don't really understand what it means to hang out as friends" deal? That was probably it. Crap. And if she asked about it, Alexis would just insist it was hanging out. Double crap. Well, ok, she could find ways around that. Definitely. Uhhhh....ok.
She spent the rest of the period desperately trying to google up some kind of activity they could do. Nothing stereotypically date-y. Nothing that couldn't be done as part of a group. Definitely nothing that would involve Alexis somehow managing to dump a food bill on her that she was expected to pay. She bookmarked 'Espresso Yourself' as something Alexandra might be interested in. She got distracted a couple of times, heading down a rabbit hole as she explored some of the activities the city had to offer, but finally, she shot off another email to Alexis.
An escape room was a good idea, right? Those were hardly romantic and could be a lot of fun. Plus there were several in Halcyon that looked to be way higher production quality than anything Sioux Falls had had.
Only once she had sent her response did she notice the annoying spam email. It was a little bit impressive that they managed to sneak their way past Google's filters. But she still wasn't anywhere near dumb enough to open it. Even if she had automatic image loading disabled to foil any tracking pixels, if the email had been sent by an especially clever hacker, it could still wreak havoc on her system if she weren't careful. And what would be the upside to doing that anyway? Going to see "superwrestling" was hardly appealing. Admittedly, wrestling was more interesting than, say, baseball. But that was like saying she'd rather shoot herself in the foot than the hand. Going and watching other people play sports had always baffled her as a pastime. Wouldn't people rather, y'know, actually play the sport? Not that it mattered anyway; spam was always something along the lines of a scam or a phishing attempt. Whatever it promised was a lie aimed at getting you to engage with it. She shook her head and then sent the email directly to spam.
Shayera's ears burn hotly when Bronwyn whispers to her. She unconsciously scoots closer as she smiles. "Absolutamente."
She takes a cathartic moment to appreciate Bronwyn's smile and her closeness. Maybe she doesn't want to take that big of a step back? Or maybe it won't take long?
"Dinner sounds great," she says.
Shayera goes back to class, feeling much less anxious.
A thought hits her during Arabic and she taps out a quick message to Alexis.
李秀英: Meet me after school. U need a new scan to get into my apt. K?
Starting to get better about train-timing, I barely lost any time with that transfer.
Bronwyn had beaten Shaun there, so she'd been able to quickly transform back to Bran and remove the armor pieces that needed repair, move a few cars aside to make it easier to get at the equipment and supplies they'd need today, and then, since track practice really didn't count as a workout, bang out a few reps with her improvised barbells.
Then it was back up and over the wall to wait for him. Don't want him to get into any bad habits, so we'll just go through the front gate today.
"Hey Shaun! Welcome to Los Hermanos Hauling. A friend of mine and Bran's works most of the late shifts here, and helps keep people from sniffing around my supplies, so Bo'll let us in, and we'll be on our way!"
She led him over towards the front gate, giving an exuberant greeting in rapid fire Spanish to a smiling guy in his mid twenties who mainly stuck to one word answers. For Shaun's benefit she switched back to English towards the end though
"...So Shaun's good to go through?"
"As long as he's with you, or you're already here, sí. But you better behave with her, eh cabrón? ¡O si no, el gigante te aplastará!" He emphasized the threat with a big clap of his hands, but softened it with a long laugh. "Go on in."
Bronwyn immediately beelined through a twisting maze of smaller junkheaps separated by barely enough room to get a truck through, and even then only if you weren't too worried about a few scratches, continuing on to an area farther back where miscellaneous metal and junk gave way to larger items. Cars, industrial kitchen appliances, and already crushed cubes of the same made a much more formidable wall.
"Want a boost up?"
Shaun jogs up with his kit over one shoulder and an olive duffle over the other. The new bag is obviously heavy, with its straps pulled taught like piano wires under its own weight. Shaun doesn't seem to mind the extra mass though, as he smiles and gives his teammate a friendly wave. "Hey yourself!"
He gives the junkyard manager a befuddled expression when he threatens(?) him, and gives a forced chuckle when he laughs. "Heh, uh, yea', sure, whatever y'say boss." As soon as they're out of earshot of Bo, Shaun leans in to Bronwyn. "So was he just bein' a joker, or does he not know 'bout ye'n' Wing? I don't wanna go blabbin' again if I can help it..."
The trash-path might as well be made of gold to Shaun. On multiple occasions he asks to stop for a second so he can pry another bit of junk out of something or another. "Okay, that's two micro-motors...'nother few inches of wire...five empty cans...some rubber...uh, sorry Bron. Just takin' stock...wait, Bo's not gonna mind, right?"
He takes Bronwyn's offer with help over the wall (which proves to be a bit tricky due to the duffel), and takes a moment to sit on top of the Great Wall of Appliances and take in the surprising sight nearby. "Are...are those cars?" Shaun hops down and goes to inspect. Sure enough, two wrecks that could have at one time been sedans were speared together by a massive piece of i-beam, forming what could only be described as a barbell. "...I'm gonna take a wild guess here'n say that Bran's a frequent visitor?"
"Shayera doesn't come by here all that much. She's got her own gym and everything... so she doesn't need to. She's busy a lot too, so I mostly do my smithing when she's not available. It's fine if Bo knows about us, but unless he's stalking my insta I don't think he would."
She chewed her lip as Shaun examined choice bits of salvage, "Umm... the space is free as a favor, but the junk isn't. Bo and his brother've gotta make a living, you know? If there's something you're looking for, he can get it at cost though. He doesn't like, insist on bag checks, but I don't want to abuse the hospitality..."
Once Shaun's boosted up the wall she backs off, and takes a running leap to get her fingertips to the top of the wall, hanging for a moment before pulling herself up to gaze out over her handiwork.
"Oh, yeah. That took a while to put together. Getting the beam through them was easy enough, once the gas tank and the batteries and everything had been taken out. Just in case, you know? But it was a lot of straps and welding before that felt safe enough to use." She points to a chalked on hand outline in almost exactly the middle. "Making sure that he could grab the exact center of gravity was important too."
"That's about 5-tons or so? Definitely enough for him to notice, especially as a bicep curl, but I'm sure I haven't maxed him out yet. I've tried building something heavier for him, but more weight makes getting a bar you can still grip even harder, and if the bar's too weak and it snaps... Bran's tough, but that kind of force isn't fun for anyone." She gestures at some loosely foot shaped craters. "It also concentrates more weight than concrete is really designed for," with a twist of her mouth she nodded her head at the torn out chassis of a school bus. "Spreading out the pressure is important. I've got some thoughts on how to make that work in the future, but just grabbing the undercarriage and lifting definitely isn't the way to go."
She shrugged, "I mean who knows if you can really train up mythic might anyways, but I've gotta at least do my best to help him improve if I can, right?"
"But hey, we're here to do some smithing."
Bronwyn hopped down from the wall and wheeled out a clearly homemade forge from behind a relatively intact car. "You ever hooked one of these up? It's closer to a gas grill than you'd think. Propane tank and hammers're over near the target range." She pointed to a long flat industrial freezer that was riddled with puncture holes.
"Um. Okay. I think this was explained to me before," Alexis said, rubbing his chin as he thought for a moment. "Um...so there was a ship. It was built brand new, and became famous because someone...uh, a king I think, he owned it. He sailed it around the world, and every time that he docked for repairs, more and more parts of the ship were replaced. By the time that he finally returned home from his journey, every part of the ship had been replaced, with nothing of the original remaining. So...is it the same ship that the king sailed with, or something completely different?"
Alexis let out a breath, obviously frazzled reciting a long buried anecdote. "So, I mean, it's like...I still died. My body perished, and then rebuilt itself, but different because I died. I think that I'm different but the same as before I died. Um...the ship isn't the same, but the king still owns it. So therefore its the same ship," He finishes, taking one more bite of food before pushing it away. "...This is the first time that anyone else has been bothered by me changing. This is the first time I feel like there's something wrong with having changed," He admits, standing up from his seat.
"I'm going to try and sleep. I'm really tired," He excused himself, searching for a decent place to tuck in for the night.
Alexis: Bronwyn, I need to talk to someone else about it. Sorry.
Alexis hung out in the commercial district for the school day. He didn't want to seem idle, so he was trying to learn on his own the different sort of apps that you could use on a phone to try and figure it out. He was glad to see Kaoru responding to him, agreeing to do something together. He had no idea what an escape room was supposed to be, but as long as he had a chance to spend time and talk with him, maybe he could act as a sort of mentor for him in what it was like being a boy.
What currently irked him about that was feeling as if there was something wrong with him now. That people seemed to treat him differently. He saw how everyone else acted around him. Even Shayera seemed to not know how to act with him. He wished-
He blinked, looking up at a street corner and staring for a minute or so, before slowly getting up and walking out of the cafe he'd been in and stepped around to the alley. He was pretty certain that he'd seen Superbia out there. If that was true, then Humilitas wasn't far behind them. He turned down the alley, and paused again. Then he turned around and walked out onto the street. He walked directly towards Superbia, growing more certain of who they were as he got closer, enough to see the face on the missing persons' poster. A familiar face. One he didn't have anymore.
Superbia turned around, glanced at Alexis briefly, then walked away. Alexis was terrified he would turn right around in recognition and try to take him in. But he just walked away. He hadn't even really seen Alexis standing there. As if...
...As if he was someone else. And the advantage of his new form seemed more apparent to him than ever before. So long as he didn't make waves, they couldn't find him. At least, not unless they knew he was part of the new team. But the realization made him happy.
When Shayera's text came through for him, he replied immediately to her.
Alexis: I'll be there.
Alexis is there in front of the school, noting one person who was on the perimeter, not exactly watching the teenagers coming out but most certainly aware of them. He assumed they were looking for him still.
People around the school are starting to chatter about the upcoming Superwrestle promotion happening on Sunday. Posters have been put in the area to draw in crowds for the independent wrestling league. It claims that it was the only league in the city to have actual wrestlers with powers and abilities in their matches. The most interesting was the feature match:
GREMLIN, THE RINGBREAKER vs. NEW DEFENDER, THE KILT!
Undercard matches: Gentleman Jarvis vs. Orange Cassidy, Dyna Shock vs. Ember Heat vs. Alice Frost, The Wright Bros. vs. DNAvengers
”Uh-huh. A’ight. Just wanted ta’ make sure.”
With a groan, he tosses a piece of rebar back into the clutter. ”Damnit, fine. See, that’s what I really miss ‘bout home; nobody at ta’ dump gave a s*&* when I’d go scroungin’. Here I can’t do so much as take a screw...an’ I get it, livelyhood n’ whatever, but I can’t keep buyin’ stuff, it’s upcharged as f~*#...! Ah, whatever. Problem f’another day.”
Shaun is visibly taken aback as Bronwyn gives him the tour. ”FIVE tons?! F@@# me...!” He’d know Bran was strong, but this was a whole other level. Thank God he can control it. Otherwise he would’ve sent me into space when he threw me...!
He ponders the weight distribution for a moment. ”Hm...y’know, ye’ could maybe try some other exercises? Like maybe y’could rig some cables t’gether n’ make a wall rope? Or! Or, how ‘bout a track to roll ta’ bus down, tire style? Y’could make some arm n’ leg weights f’resistance trainin’ outta those engine blocks...or maybe...ah...uh, y’know, y’probably know what ta’ Tin Can needs mor’en me, so I’ll just stuff it.”
Shaun gives the mini-forge an appreciative glance and smile. ”Well, it’ll never fit Aon-Adharcach, but it’ll work just fine.” He drops the duffel with a loud clang and begins rummaging through it. ”Nah, never used one this small. My Gran’da’ built a proper one back home. I must’ve spent a solid year in front of that thin’, barely havin’ a clue what I was doin’. I warn y’now, I’m not ta’ greatest, but I can promise ya’ I won’t blow it up like ta’ last one. THAT was a f+++-up I never lived down.” He gives a good-natured chuckle, hoping that he hadn’t accidentally actually made the girl nervous.
”Now, let’s get warmed up...” He paused for comedic effect. ”-with somethin’ simple.” From the duffel he produces a half-dozen steel blanks, a pair of thick gloves, and some well-worn smithing tools. ”So! What’er we feelin’ today? Daggers? Kunai? Bowie?”
Bronwyn nodded along gamely, "Well like I said, you'll get cost, so you don't have to worry about getting upcharged. But either they paid to bring this stuff here, or they payed scroungers for it. Free space, no questions, and at cost materials, sometimes on demand seems pretty good to me."
"After he got the bad grip on the bus we tried the rolling thing, but it. was. LOUD. Not a very neighborly way to work out! I'm thinking a better lattice of supports, or just making sure to properly secure grip points to the axles should work... Doesn't really solve the footing problem though..."
Bronwyn blinks at Shaun's description of her forge as small, keeping the offense from her face, but she did have to admit that it wasn't really sized for huge honking swords. "Well, job one for me is some assessment, but for you... I dunno, kunai? Seems like you'd always be losing a bunch of those." With a well practiced look of strain she brought Bran's breastplate up to her workspace. "This is really about as big a piece as I've fired at once anyways, but hopefully when that Erymanthian guy hit Bran it just crumpled. It'll be a lot easier if I can just repair it instead of having to start from scratch."
She began to feel her way along the damage, making a few early taps with a mid-sized sledge, but really just getting a sense of the task ahead of her. "Are you doing okay with that mission by the way? I haven't gotten a lot of details about everything that happened to Alexis, but I'm sure it was awful..."
Shayera followed the flow of students disgorging from the school building until she reached the rows of cars waiting to collect their passengers. She said her goodbyes to the fashionistas and the Chinese trio, then paused before she got into the high-performance sports car driven by Ms. Quinn.
She surveys the crowd, rolls her eyes over the excitement over superpowered wrestling, spots Alexis, and waves him over.
"Hop in!" she says when he approaches. She squeezes in next to him in the minuscule back seat. As the engine roars as they take off, she turns to him. "So, Whip should be there, so I'll get to introduce the new you to her. I was purposefully vague in my report about what happened -- just that you got hit with the parting shot and you regenerated -- since I don't know who's going to see that report besides the overseer. But Whip's going to want to know more details."
She frowns a bit when she sees him. "So, how was your day? School was pretty boring today, so you didn't miss much."
Shaun gives her a skeptical look. ”Hmmm. Well, doesn’t much matter anyway. I’m just ‘bout broke, so...”
”Kunai y’say? Well, let’s hear what they think.” With surprising deftness, he launches the blank end over end, ricocheting it off the concrete and catching it with his other hand. With a thoughtful expression, he brings the bar of metal to his ear and listens to its hum. ”...ha! Y’got good instincts Bron. Kunai it is.” He watches her lifting the breastplate with some amusement. ”Uh-huh, ye’ uh, need a hand w’that?”
As Shaun gets the forge fired up, his mouth thins into a small line. ”Yea’, it was...pretty f$!~in’ awful. I was pretty much at ground zero for ta’ roastin’. An’ when sh-HE, he, came back...y’ever seen those clips of bugs moltin’? Like that, but with a person, an’ third-degree burn skin. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy sh-HE’s okay, but that was awful ta’ watch up close...” And Duncan might have been the one who did it...
”...honestly though Bron, I really wanted ta’ talk ta’ya’, ‘bout a few thin’s actually.” With a soft puff of embers, he places the first blank into the forge. ”Some a bit heavier than others, but let’s start with a...happy accident? Uh, y’know the VP? Well on ta’ day at ta’ theater, she had cornered me ta’ chew me out on bein’ hung-over. But while we were talkin’ she told me ‘bout ta’ school’s Defender intern program, an’ I promised ta’ shape up f’ta’ sake of tryin’ out. Thin’ is though, I am workin’ f’ta’ Defenders now, so I’m wonderin’ if I should even bother actin’ like I need ta’ try-outs, y’know?”
"Well... is there anything you have to do for the tryouts that won't help you be a better hero? What's the harm in being over-qualified, you know?"
"Tsk. Mosly just dented, but I've got a small tear up by the collar. Patchable but..."
Refiring and forging this whole thing will take a lot of time, and fuel... I'm on my last tank here. I'll wait til the armor's in worse shape.
"Eh, patchable should be good enough." She fished out a ball-stake and took a hammer to it, using its rounded tip to help smooth out where Ery's strength had undone her hard work. "Like, not being hung over all the time is probably good for that, but also... I mean, do you even want to be?"
"I guess not, but it just feels...disingenuous. Plus, there's no way I'm gonna actually go through with ta' tryouts now. I don't wanna take a spot from somebody who actually deserves it."
He rolls his eyes. "No, 'course not. But ta' night before that day was...rough. I needed ta' be buzzed, bad. Went a little overboard."
"Matter ta' second: Alexis. I've been tryin'ta' get through ta' he-HIM (Jesus I'm not used ta' that), but I feel like she just blows me off every time. I just...I don't get it. I don't get him, in more way than one. I don't suppose ye've got any pointers?"
I can't keep putting off the big one. But how the hell is she gonna react? I lied to her girlfriend, and by doing so possibly accidentally protected my possible supervillain older brother. But...it's not exactly like I can ask Wingblade about this. And the rest of the team is sure as hell not an option. Jesus this is so f#$!ed...
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"Alexis... Well, I've had practice, I guess. Like, you can't just assume that he's going to react to things in ways that make sense to you, because there's been nothing in his life that taught him to act the way you would. So... I mean the first thing to do is listen to what he tells you about himself. And not just with his words. If there's a behavior that's really a problem, ask him about it. You might learn a lot about why he acts that way. I know you've had hard times Shaun, but I... I really don't think you can imagine the kind of brutalized, numbing agony that is everything he used to know. That knife you're making has to be placed under unbelievable heat and pressure to be what you want it to be. Every edge, fold, and whorl is something that was done to it, and that's only after all the work that went into providing you with the blank.
"Imagine if that knife could scream."
She'd stopped working a while ago, but raised up her goggles to wipe her eyes against her sleeves.
"So have patience, have compassion, but don't forget that you're grabbing a blade with your bare hands. He is dangerous. If you want him to open up to you, that means making yourself vulnerable, in more ways than one.
"And never forget how much strength it has taken for him to come so far already."
Alexis is holding one of the flyers for Superwrestle in hand, given to him by someone handing them out to the high school crowd flooding out for the weekend. It seemed like it might be fun. He had to see if Kaoru would like that. Though the main event match confused him a little bit. Shaun was a wrestler? Also, what was wrestling?
"I'm going to hang out with Kaoru this weekend. He wants to go to an escape room. I don't know what it is, but I'm happy that he wants to spend time with me," He told Shayera. "I wanted to go clothes' shopping, but he said that his style wouldn't suit me."
He looks down at his late nineties inspired clothing at the moment in some distress. "...This seems messy. And too loose. I want something like...um, like a gentleman would wear," He decides off the cuff, looking down at the smaller girl.
"...do I still get to stay with you?" He asked, fear creeping in his voice. "Or do I have to find some other place to live? I'm still me," He stressed to Shayera, hopeful she could see him.
Shayera glances at the flyer but seems unimpressed. She looks sympathetically at Alexis as she considers the new boy's issues. "You can stay at my place for as long as you like. Okay? I get it that Bronwyn asked you to find another place yesterday, but you seriously can stay with me. I mean it."
She studies the clothes Alexis is wearing, and shrugs. "It's not bad, just a bit outdated. Okay, a lot outdated, but you can survive this. Something a gentleman will wear? We can look at suits and sport coats if you want. That's a bit more grown up than people in our age range, but it could work for you. I'll see what we can find for you," she says, trying to be helpful.
She thinks about Kaoru's idea of an escape room and gets a puzzled expression. "I don't really know what an escape room does. I guess it means you try to get out of death traps using your wits and resources. It could be fun. Just try not to use super powers if you can."
Shaun is unusually quiet as he absorbs what Bronwyn says. Old memories stir when she mentions the brutalizing training. Memories of long, sleepless nights. Working his body till it broke. The boulders. The river. The night he thought he couldn’t do it...
A gloved hand traces the old scars down his forearm. ”Yea’...no idea...”
”Weakness isn’t tolerated out there lad. And it won’t be tolerated here either.”
He clears his throat and inspects the forming blade. ”S!~%. I am out. Of. Practice.” He shows Bronwyn the warpped approximation of a dagger. ”Glad I didn’t start with the dirks, I’d have ta’ scrap’em outright.” He pops the metal back in as he contemplates the last item for conversation.
”Okay, so, I just gotta wait n’ choose my moment w’him. Got it.” Tell her... ”Well, uh...” Tell her. ”I think, um...” TELL HER.
His expression turns towards guilty as he turns to face Bronwyn properly. ”Okay, um, look. There’s kinda one BIG thin’ I wanted ta’ talk t’ye’bout. But...listen, y’can’t tell Wing, okay? I know, I’m sorry, that’s amazin’ly not a good thin’ t’say, but I think I might’ve messed up with her n’...I dunno, it’s...a complicated thin’...”
When Shaun traces his tell tale scars, Bronwyn gently takes his hand. "I've seen these scars before, Shaun. I know you've seen dark times, darker by far than I have. I still meant what I said.
"And I'm sorry Shaun, I can't promise you that I won't tell her. But if it's something you can trust me to know, it's probably something she should too. And if you've got reasons why she shouldn't in specific... Well let me just ask. Is this about the Grim? I mean, the uh, Cu Sith, or is it about your brother?"
Kaoru saw Alexis response. Despite herself, she was a little bit excited. She had only been able to do two other escape rooms thus far, but she had loved both of them despite their simple, kind of crude set up. But she had read about ones online with hidden rooms and all sorts of mechanical devices to automatically make things move when you solved the correct puzzle. She had even read about one with an actor who pretended to be a zombie whose leash got longer and longer the more time went on, so you had to be careful about dodging them. She was really hoping the one in the Tower District had some kind of fancy mechanics involved. The quality of the props and setup looked much better than she was used to based on the pictures, and the reviews suggested it was a lot of fun.
She quickly typed up an email.
Alexis and I were going to do an escape room in the Tower District tomorrow at 1:30pm. It's for 4-7 people. There might be random people joining us, but these things are generally more fun if you can do it with people you know. Tickets are $30 each. Let me know if you want to go, and I'll buy one for you. You can venmo me later. Meet at 1:15pm at <insert some address I don't feel like making up>
Kaoru glanced at one of the posters hanging up and then does a double take. Shaun was participating? That seemed like false advertising since he didn't have any powers.... But also, were they supposed to be doing that kind of thing? She wasn't super sure about the super laws here, but that seemed questionably legal for an underaged person to participate in. And it might reflect poorly on the rest of the team. Though more importantly, if they weren't supposed to be doing this, it was a perfect change to get Shaun in trouble. She quickly snapped a picture and brought up her email.
<Insert image of poster annotated with a big red box around "THE KILT" and a big red arrow pointing to the name>
Shaun tugs his gloves up, vainly trying to cover up the marks. ”Yea’...yea’, I know...”
He bites on his lip to the point that it starts to hurt a bit. ”...my brother. I mean, maybe. But, probably? Okay, jeez, just uh, buckle in f’this one.” As he talks, Shaun starts pacing back and forth. ”So, I guess during ta’ fight, Wing saw ta’ head prick behind ta’ Cerci Goons at ta’ park. An’ she decided ta’ confront me ‘bout it, because ta’ bastard looked like me. At first I thought she was makin’ some a#@~&*@ joke ‘bout Scottish people, but then I remembered *sigh* my old man’s favorite family history lesson...”
He picks up a blank and begins fiddling with it as he paces. ”It’s an old family legend ‘bout how my great-great-great-times-who ta’ f&#~ knows gran’da’ saw a dying rabbit on ta’ side of ta’ road n’ raised it back ta’ health. Yada-yada-yada, turns out ta’ hopper’s a giant in disguise, blesses great-ta’-infinity gran’da’ with a “lineage of strong souls,” whatever ta’ f$~+ that means. Story never gets canonized (an’ f’your own safety, never brin’ up Scottish myth canon ta’ my old man), but it’s used ta’ explain a weird...I dunno, gene quirk our particular branch of ta’ clan has.
”If ye’ve met my old man, y’know me n’ him look alot alike, yea’? Well ta’ same’s true f’him n’ Gran’da’. An’ Gran’da’s gran’da’. An’ his gran’da’s gran’da’-...y’get ta’ point. Basically, all ta’ lads in my family get ta’ same-ish face generation after generation. Supposedly, it’s a side-effect of “ta’ Blessin’ of ta’ Giants” we all have.
”An’ Shayera specifically said that ta’ head prick had my face. Now’s far as I know, only other person who should have my face is...Duncan. That’s uh, that’s my brother...”
With rhythmic clangs, Shaun begins bouncing he blank off the concrete as he walks, surprisingly without looking. ”BUT, that doesn’t make any f&#!in’ sense. Dunc’s a coward n’ an a$@@&+~ n’ a lair n’ a all-around c$+@, an’ God knows if I had ta’ chance n’ excuse ta’ deck him as hard as I f+$$in’ could I would, but...his big thin’ was heroes. He wanted ta’ be one, so bad that he basically gave up bein’anythin’ else. He just lost himself in his stupid-ass fantasies. Like, I mean, Bron, he was fat as f~##. Couldn’t outrun a turtle or lift a 25. An’ he was convinced he was gonna be a big name like American Dream r’Whippoorwill. He was delusional, an’ importantly, he sure as f@@* didn’t have any powers...”
The clangs come to a dead stop along with Shaun’s anxious pacing. ”...but...but Wing said that he was ta’ one who killed Alexis. Plus, if he’s workin’ with Cassie’s mom...God this is so f$!*ed...”
Bronwyn sat down on her bench as Shaun spilled forth, her eyes warm, her mouth serious, and her mind focused.
Okay... First thought wasn't a relative? I mean... his brother left when he was like, two right? That's when he said his nightmares started... Okay, makes sense he wouldn't think of him first. If Patrick had walked out of our lives when I was two, I wouldn't think of him.
Well I do believe in giants. Checking faces would be easy enough, and Shaun's got too much family baggage to just believe those stories uncritically, so no reason to assume that's just a family myth.
Blessing of the Giants... that's what that three-howling thing said when he was possessed. Okay, well, still hadn't traced that back to anything but Beowulf, so now I've got a better lead for MB.
That shot's a little too good for him... Agitated, in motion, poorly balanced, uneven ground. Over and over too.
Whatever haunts him might be active now...
Okay, story first, spooking the spook later.
Her mouth twisted angrily as Shaun got unpleasantly vulgar, but he'd said something much more important behind the obscenity.
"Well... It's sad, it really is a tragedy, but his path's not really inexplicable. Duncan would hardly be the first person to sell his soul. Not everyone does it so literally, but if he's working with Circe, then we at least have a strong idea of his new powers' origin.
"And Shaun, I promise, we'll try to save him. What you told me about him is important. But you're talking like you hate him, and not just the idea of him either. You really hate who he was, and you can't really hate what you don't know.
"But you told me the nightmares came when he left, and that your nightmares started when he was two. So is it just someone else's memories? Or is there someone else in there with you?"
”Well... It's sad, it really is a tragedy, but his path's not really inexplicable. Duncan would hardly be the first person to sell his soul. Not everyone does it so literally, but if he's working with Circe, then we at least have a strong idea of his new powers' origin.
”But HOW? How ta’ f&$% does a nobody loser from ta’ middle’a nowhere Iowa get some twisted-ass “job” with an immortal cailleach!? An’ more ta’ t’point, my brother is not a killer. He couldn’t handle a dead rat, let alone whatever ta’ f@$& he did ta’ Alexis. Him bein’ Circe’s right hand just...it doesn’t add up...” With an annoying familiarity, the weird sensation of forgotten knowledge returned.
Shaun jaw stiffens to the point that his teeth hurt. ”Trust me Bron, I hate him. More than ye’ll ever know. I honestly don’t give a s&+% if he’s saved. Whatever he gets, he has it comin’...”
He sighs in mild annoyance. ”Yes Bron, they’re mine. I know I can be forgetful sometimes, but I can remember my kiddie years as good as anybody else. An’ what ta’ hell could my nightmares even have ta’ do w’this?”
At first, Bronwyn doesn’t detect anything. Not the slightest glimmer of magic, or even something more noticeably strange...
...then Shaun starts pacing again, and walks in front of Bran’s breastplate.
Due to its usual location on the giant, the armor has picked up a slight tinge of magic. Nothing exceptional or especially noticeable, but it’s there. Well, it’s there so long as Shaun isn’t in front of it.
Like finally understanding an optical illusion, Bronwyn’s magic sense shifts to the negative space and immediately detects an layer just above Shaun’s skin that is completely devoid of magic. It’s incredibly small, and at times it seems to briefly flicker out, but it’s definitely present.
Bronwyn looked levelly at Shaun, feeling the weight of his emotions. "Shaun, most people don't remember anything from when they were that young. Let alone... patterns of someone else's behavior. Think back, try to remember: Do you know how your dad felt about Duncan? Or your grandfather?
"Do you know how Duncan felt about himself?"
She decided to make a gambit. "And since we're talking about family secrets, do you know about your aura? A thin slice of the world around you that blocks out magic? Bran saw it, but I thought it was a charm like Cassie's, something to hide you from the spirit that's chasing you. But if something else is using it to hide in you, you might not know, would you?"
For the briefest of moments, Shaun’s anxiousness dissipates into genuine confusion. ”...I...well, his habits were pointed out ta’ me later, but...ye’ really don’t remember that far back?”
His mouth twists into a scowl. ”All I know ‘bout what they thought of Dunc is what they told me. An’ how ta’ f$#& should I know what he thought of himself? More’en that though, what does any of this have ta’ do w’ta’ problems at hand?”
As soon as Bronwyn mentions the aura, it tightens even closer to Shaun’s skin and nearly fades away entirely, like a hermit crab retreating into its shell. Shaun himself, meanwhile, glares at Bronwyn with a surprisingly angry expression. ”...that’s not funny Bron.”
"Shaun, I've kept your secrets the way you asked, even though it's been making it harder to help with them. But you're the one who just told me about blessings on your bloodline that link the men of your family, and you're the one with the very early memories.
"Look, this isn't a witch hunt, Shaun. I'm happy to let you keep your secrets, but like you said, they're the matter at hand right now. So, what do you think is more likely? That the strange forces that have haunted you left some kind of mark, or that I'd think it was funny to scare and anger you? I know you might not know these answers, but believe me, they're questions that need to be asked."
Bronwyn didn't approach him, didn't move into a defensive stance, she just sat, hands in her lap to see who was going to respond.
"Alexis was raised in horror, Cassie's mother is a child murdering monster, and I'm sure Alexandra's got to have an evil uncle or two. No one's going to hold Duncan against you. But Shaun, there's more to what's going on than just him. So what can you tell me."
The comment about bloodlines elicits an exaggerated eye roll from Shaun. ”Christ, don’t tell me ye’ actually believe that s$%&.” Still, the revelation about his early memories was...unsettling. I mean, it’s not impossible right? There are people out there with perfect memories. Maybe it’s...I dunno, some limited form of that?
He wanted to think she’d said it to be hurtful. He was used to people trying to be hurtful. But...she wasn’t. She wouldn’t just say something like that. Maybe Bran was lying to her, but that wasn’t her fault. He groaned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. ”Okay...fine. Let’s say that I do have an “aura.” If that’s ta’ case, then why aren’t I immune ta’ magic? If this thin’s blockin’ off mystic s$$$, then how does stuff like Cassie’s healin’ r’Bran’s strength work on me? Shouldn’t it, I dunno, bounce off r’somethin’?”
”I’m sorry. I know I’m bein’ a pain in ta’ ass ‘bout all’a this, but...I thought it was over. I though that once I was out of Iowa, I could leave behind all ta’ s*#* from my past.” He sighs dejectedly. ”Guess that’s a hard no...
”Look, I get that I f#~&ed up in not tellin’ Wing, but I didn’t want ta’ believe it was him. An’ please f’ta’ love of God don’t tell Cassie. She’s already spooked, I don’t need her worryin’bout me n’ my s@%!, or worse...”
He thinks for a moment his nervous tricks with the blank resuming. ”...I think the Cu Sith from ta’ alley isn’t ta’ same one from my nightmares. That one talks, an’ it’s got...got a seriously jacked-up face.” He waves a hand in front of his left eye. ”Half of it looks...I don’t know exactly like what, but it’s nasty as f~&!. Smells dead...in ta’ nightmares anyway...”
Bronwyn nodded slowly. I mean... a spirit having an easier time manifesting itself in dreams is pretty standard. They could be different though. He'd have a better sense of it than me.
About that at least...
"Well... Bran's strength isn't like a spell, but that's a good point about Cassie's healing thing. The thing is Shaun, you actually have ignored some of her other spells without knowing it.
"Look, if you say you don't know anything else about what's going on with you, I'll believe you. But... I trust what Bran saw. It's hard to hide much from his sight, and someone could have whammied you without you knowing.
"So here's what we've got:
You have very early memories. Not... technically impossibly early? But pretty close if they're actually as vivid as you describe.
You've got a long-time legend about your family that's born out by what you've seen of it, and really only doesn't make sense if giants and magic aren't real, but since we both know they are... Well that's why this is on the list.
There's a strange negative aura of magic around you, visible to Bran's eyes.
Not all of Cassie's spells work on you.
I've seen you be haunted and possessed by a strange spirit, and while Shayera hasn't given me the details, it sounded like she'd seen something similar.
Your missing brother is working for Circe, and has been given some kind of mystic investiture, which might feed into some of the other things we've talked about.
"Looking at all of that... This is well past the 'just walk it off' stage, Shaun.
How do you want to go forward?"
Shayera glances at the flyer but seems unimpressed. She looks sympathetically at Alexis as she considers the new boy's issues. "You can stay at my place for as long as you like. Okay? I get it that Bronwyn asked you to find another place yesterday, but you seriously can stay with me. I mean it."
She studies the clothes Alexis is wearing, and shrugs. "It's not bad, just a bit outdated. Okay, a lot outdated, but you can survive this. Something a gentleman will wear? We can look at suits and sport coats if you want. That's a bit more grown up than people in our age range, but it could work for you. I'll see what we can find for you," she says, trying to be helpful.
She thinks about Kaoru's idea of an escape room and gets a puzzled expression. "I don't really know what an escape room does. I guess it means you try to get out of death traps using your wits and resources. It could be fun. Just try not to use super powers if you can."
"I guess that would be cheating," Alexis says, nodding as he thinks about what he might look good in. Really, he wasn't sure what his looks would be suited for, but he did know that he didn't want to look like he had raided a donation bin anymore.
"...I met one of the Triakosia today. But he didn't recognize me. Neither did one of my classmates. I don't know if I'm glad or sad for that," Alexis admitted. "...I think maybe they don't know who I am. Maybe I'm safe if that's true."
"Well... Bran's strength isn't like a spell, but that's a good point about Cassie's healing thing. The thing is Shaun, you actually have ignored some of her other spells without knowing it.
"Wait, what!? Really!? Oh f!&+ me! Then she probably already knows! Gah! Damnit, I hope it isn't like super douche-y ta' ignore other people's spells..."
Moving forward... Shaun takes a seat on a stack of tires, one hand rubbing at his neck while the other idyll toys with the blank. "Uh...I dunno...I mean, I've never really done this Scooby-Doo s@+# before. Have ye'? Is there a good place ta' start?"
"...I met one of the Triakosia today. But he didn't recognize me. Neither did one of my classmates. I don't know if I'm glad or sad for that," Alexis admitted. "...I think maybe they don't know who I am. Maybe I'm safe if that's true."
"Safe for a while, anyway. If you being a girl threw them off your scent, being a boy again -- different, I get it -- might be enough for them to hone in on you. As much as I understand wanting your life to resume like nothing's changed, I don't think you can afford to. Not without provoking a confrontation before we're ready."
Shayera grows quiet and in thought while they ride the rest of the way to her apartment. When they arrive, she switches to Mandarin to instruct the lower level security system to scan Alexis. She transfers the access provided to girl-Alexis to boy-Alexis, and then they're soon shooting up through the high-speed elevator. Whippoorwill is already there when they step out into Wing's apartment.
"Hey, boss," Wingblade says in greeting. She sticks her thumb at Alexis. "Meet the new Alexis. You know that parting shot by the captain of Circe's goons I had in my report? Well, I know I just said it hurt her and she regenerated back no problem, but it was worse than that. She died, and he regenerated. He's back, with the same memories, but he's a he now."
Whippoorwill arches an eyebrow as she processes her protégé's report. "That... changes things. I was already concerned that your report said this 'Sal' used deadly force against a group of teens." Frowning, she steps over to Alexis, studying him. "I've not seen a power like that. Did the Triakosia give you that ability?"
Alexis looks at Wingblade's maternal figure with interest. Perhaps it was simply the fact he was taller than her now, standing in his borrowed clothes. Though he felt embarrassed by them, like he should be wearing something that was more professional or formal to be meeting her.
When asked about the Triakosia, Alexis wondered if he should come clean. Considering they already knew about this, he figured there was no reason not to tell them. "...I don't know. Because every time I die and come back, I lose memories. My earliest memories are of drowning. But I didn't lose consciousness, so I could feel everything. It hurts worse than burning alive," He tells Whippoorwill, fidgeting a bit.
"I know...I was paired with someone. All the Triakosia work in pairs. But I can't remember them anymore," He admits painfully. "I think they must be dead. But the others are here in the city. They don't recognize me, not that I've changed," He tells them, taking a seat.
"The Triakosia work for Xenophon. He's scary, and everyone listens to him, but..." He pauses, before continuing. "...I still love him. All the Triakosia love him. Everyone else would die before betraying him. And the Hoplites, they also work for him. They're...um, like the Triakosia, except they don't have powers. They're trained like us though. And...um, we get shipped around in planes and trucks and boats all over the world. Some of them have this sign," He says, drawing an omega on the table with a pen and magazine. "...I don't know anything else useful."
"The way I see it we have a couple choices. We could try to burst the bubble of whatever your aura is. That would probably be safer with Cassie and Bran, but it's a fairly direct confrontation either way. Otherwise... I think we need to talk to your dad. If you really don't know any more... He's the place to check. We can ask the Erymanthian about Duncan too. Once we can get access to him at least."
Shaun’s expression of tension would almost be comical if the topic of conversation wasn’t so dire. ”Oh...great. F~%@in’, just, awesome...yea’. I’m just lovin’ those options. So I’m either within verbal assault range of my old man, talkin’ta’a literal monster ‘bout my c+@! brother, or literally bein’ta’ subject of a f&~&in’ exorcism, which would be performed by a caveman wearin’ a car n’ Cassie. Next ye’ll be tellin’ me I get ta’ be Alexis’ new playthin’ durin’trainin’...”
He pauses to hammer at the new dagger, then sighs frustratedly. ”Lesser’a three evils here is Oinks-a-lot. Let’s talk ta’ him before we do anythin’ too crazy. Hell, maybe we’ll get lucky n’ he’s actually an oracle or some s&~#. Just tells us all ta’ answers right then.” If only...
Whippoorwill muses. "Sounds like they discovered you early and subjected you to some 'tests' before bringing you into the Triakosia. Maybe a specialist can work with you to recover your old memories, give us some clue where you came from and if you still have a family. I can help you deal with the mental conditioning--" she glances at Wingblade-- "I've had some experience in that regard."
She gives a tired sigh and addresses both youths. "But I have to first work with Wingblade to prep her for her first meeting with the SCA overseer. That mission I gave you went pear-shaped quick, but overall I think you handled it well. You engaged too soon, and too aggressively, but... well, ultimately you were successful in meeting the objective."
Whippoorwill has Wingblade change into her action outfit and the two of them fly off, leaving Alexis alone in Shayera's apartment.
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Wingblade settles into the chair and puts her hands in her lap, like she'd been instructed. No fidgets, no little movements. Even though she really wanted to adjust the black domino mask over her face that her mentor had insisted she wear. She hated the things. They messed up her senses and all the little enhancements that Whetstone had added only served to distract her rather than help. After three very expensive masks "accidentally" got busted during outings, Whippoorwill finally relented and let her go maskless.
But now, in front of SIDEKICK Overseer Fleming Innis for her first report, Whip had insisted. It would help hide her facial expressions, she had said.
The rail-thin man with wispy blond hair and small, wire-framed glasses studied the laptop one last time before addressing Wingblade. She was told what to expect. He would try to make her sweat by going over her report in excruciating detail, and most likely start out by making her sit and wait on him. So far, Whippoorwill was batting a thousand.
"So, Wingblade," he begins, his voice coming across as extremely condescending. "before we begin, do you have anything to add to your report?"
She had spent a good amount of the last evening working on it while Bronwyn slept and it was as complete as she thought she could make it. "No. No, sir."
Mr. Innis looked extremely disappointed and gave her a look. She was told to expect this tactic. Long moments of silence, disapproving looks, convoluted questions. Whippoorwill had tried to prep her in the hours after school, since she wouldn't be allowed to be there with her as Wingblade gave her report.
"So, you are given confidential information regarding the missing ambassador and the other abductees. You are assigned the task to patrol the Waterfront Park and search for evidence of the ambassador or the kidnapper." Mr. Innis looks up from the screen and makes eye contact with her.
Noticing that he left off a very important piece, Wingblade can't help but take the bait. "And engage only if we've eyes on the missing people or the kidnapper. That was also part of the mission."
With a devious smirk that has Wingblade wondering if she'd already made a mistake, Mr. Innis types a few things on his laptop before continuing. "Very well. So then you immediately split your team, sending two to harass the ambassador's daughter, while the rest explores the park."
Wingblade's arched eyebrow was shielded behind her domino mask. "Not harass. Talk with. To see if she had anything she could tell us."
"Right, that's what you said in your report, but could either of the people you sent speak Portuguese?"
Wingblade wanted to fight this, to explain further. But she decided to pick her battles. "No."
More typing. "I see." Mr. Innis then continues. "Meanwhile, in the park, you split the team up further--"
"To cover more ground," Wingblade interjects and immediately regrets it.
"You split the team, and failed to realize that communications were compromised." Mr. Innis pauses and looks at her.
Wingblade makes an effort to unclench her jaw. "Comms were fine inside the park. We stayed in contact with each other. SCA and Defenders were radio-silent. So I didn't notice our signal was blocked."
The overseer makes a few more notations before continuing. "Machina gains illegal access to a security camera which--"
"I got him permission," she interrupts.
"Using deception," Innis concludes. "You get a video still of a person in a straw hat. No face. Just a hat."
Wingblade rankles. "And guitar. Plus, it matched the description Mercy and Kilt got from the witness."
Innis pushes his glasses up on his nose. "Then you approve a magic spell to be cast in a populated area."
"A detection spell." Wingblade takes a deep breath, trying to keep this guy from getting under her skin. "And it worked. We found some additional leads in the park."
The overseer gives her an unimpressed look. "Leads. Which you then proceeded to engage, without approval from SCA."
Wingblade sees the trap. She takes another breath to center herself, then proceeds slowly. "Hex's spell ID'd three matches. Machina and I eliminated one through peaceful contact. Silver Shadow and Acolyte eliminated another. That left only one. Hex determined it was strong."
Innis looks up again, his mouth twisted in a sneer. "So then Mercy proceeds to attack without provocation, causing collateral damage and injury to numerous bystanders. Her only backup is 'Kilt', who uses swords?"
Wingblade glares at him. "I've got swords for wings. What's your point?"
"He doesn't have powers, does he?" Wingblade shakes her head. "And Mercy has superhuman strength. A swordsman and a human battering ram assault a target in the middle of a populated area."
She wanted to throw Mercy under the bus. She wanted to tell this guy that Mercy engaged contrary to her orders and the escalation was her fault. But that's not what the leader does. "My instructions were unclear. Machina, Hex and I were approaching, Acolyte was compromised, Silver Shadow dealing with that. I didn't want the target to get away. I gave the order to apprehend the target."
"But he got away after half your team had to stop and render first aid."
"He tried. I was able to follow him, and Kilt, Hex and I managed to catch him. He put up a fight, but Hex stopped his magic. Then the goons showed up, but Machina tapped into their comms and called them off for a time, letting me extract the target."
Innis takes a few notes, but is quickly back focusing on Wingblade. "And then you proceed to hand him over to the animal people. I thought you had enhanced senses?"
Wingblade tries not to scowl, since that fact still burned. "I was being chased by a trio of harpies at the time, and it was an SCA van!"
The overseer seems nonplussed at that fact. "Let's not belabor that point. Silver Shadow alerted you to the fact that you had lost your target." Not seeing any point to disagreeing, Wingblade nods. "She places a homing beacon on the van, giving you a means to track the van to their hideout and avoid further conflict in the public space. Yet you chose not to."
Wingblade has to dig a wing into her back to keep her composure. "The battle was already happening. I countermanded Silver Shadow's plan, since the target's a shapeshifter. I believe he's being treated for acid burns now, so leaving him in their hands was not an option."
"But now we have no idea of this faction of animal people and what they wanted with Encantado."
We have a few leads I'm not putting in a report I can't control who sees it, Wingblade thinks, but says nothing about that. "We have the giant pig guy."
"Yes, the one you maimed. We'll be lucky he doesn't sue the agency for what you did to him."
Wingblade clamps her mouth shut before she asks whether a boar has rights in court.
"And then there's the power lines you cut down."
Grateful for her mask hiding the rolling of her eyes, she says, "Halcyon's been on a redundant electrical grid ever since Electronimo in the Sixties."
"Then what about the 300-year-old trees you cut?"
"Just a few limbs. They'll be fine. Boar-guy destroyed the one, trying to get to Machina."
Innis takes a moment to clean his glasses with a handkerchief. He goes back to his computer and scrolls through his notes. "Let's see... witnesses report seeing Mercy attacking you? I don't see that in your report."
Wingblade goes rigid. She wondered if she should have included Mercy's rampage, but she couldn't figure out how to spin it. "Maybe they were mistaken? The fight was pretty chaotic."
Innis gives her a triumphant smile as he turns the monitor to her. There's a security camera feed showing from a distance Mercy slamming Wingblade into the ground. "Do you think the video is mistaken, as well?"
Stopping a gulp before it becomes noticeable, Wingblade measures her breathing. She decides to shake her head rather than respond audibly. The video captures the beating Wingblade received until she manages to flip them over and take flight, carrying them both out of frame.
"You reported that Silver Shadow used a high-explosive on the battlefield, but you neglected to list its target. It wouldn't have been Mercy, would it? As a means to stop her rampage?"
Wingblade looks at him evenly. "Mercy is a valued member of the team."
"How can that be? If she cannot follow orders, and she cannot tell friend from foe?"
"Mercy is a valued member of the team," she repeats.
"I think I've heard enough." Overseer Innis closes his laptop, folds his hands and leans forward at his desk.
Wingblade almost let out a breath of relief at this session being over, but she could tell he had more to grill her about.
"What I see from this report is a completely inept team that lacks cohesion, discipline, rudimentary safety precautions, and maturity. Again I ask, is there anything you'd like to add to your report? Some explanation of the actions of Mercy, Kilt, Silver Shadow, Acolyte, or Machina? Bran the Blessed showed up late as well."
Wingblade feels tears welling up in her eyes and again is grateful that Whippoorwill insisted on the mask. She measures her breathing, letting her mentor's words comfort her. No matter how brutal Mr. Innis could be in this review, he couldn't shut down the team. He didn't have the authority to overrule the Defender's sanction. All he wanted was to shake her confidence, and try to get her to bad-mouth her teammates. She wasn't going to do that.
She tries to ignore the lump in her throat as she shakes her head. "N-no, sir. I stand by my report, and my decisions as field leader."
Overseer Innis sits back in his chair and drums his fingers on his desk. "Then I've no choice but to relieve you of your duty as field leader."
Wingblade is on her feet in an instant, wings flared out. "WHAT???"
The overseer's finger is suddenly hovering over a red button on his desk. She forces herself back down in her seat. Though trembling, she tries to keep in control. "I-- I see. Who will be the new leader?"
"I've someone in mind."
At around eight o'clock Friday, everyone gets a message through their comms from Wingblade. "Uh, guys. Can we have a team meeting tonight? Real quick? It's important."
It's his brother, Kay'. He has a right to be in on it. plus... yeah, he was 2, but I think he does have memories... She says But, I can help, of course. But I don't want you to try to plant anything on him. minimizing contact would be ideal, given what he did to Alexis...
The council of A$~~!#$s just chew you out, and you wanna pass on what counts as advice in their psuedo-brains? Alexandra asks.
After a pause, Wingblade responds to Alexandra. "... not exactly. Look, it should be face to face. Okay? Can you all come?"
"...Are you okay?" He asks over the comm, his voice muffled - apparently he was trying to speak through a mouthful of something he was eating. "Meet at the penthouse?" He asks, before swallowing audibly.
When Shayera flies back in, Alexis can be found in the gym, working on the super weights. The problem of his lack of clothing can be seen in his choice of workout gear - shorts from a couple of days ago that had been relatively loose, now tightly pressed against his thighs and hips in an uncomfortable manner. He powers through it, pushing his muscles to the breaking point, only for him to easily recover enough to go again for another set. When he notices Shayera is back, he stops and goes to towel off, walking over to her.
"...You seem upset," He's quick to say, looking at her body language. "...was it something I did?"
Kaoru's voice remained flat and emotionless as she muttered, "Don't really think Ery throwing her at Wingblade was Duncan's fault. Besides, they both have super healing, so I don't see what the big deal is." She still thought talking to Shaun was pointless. But Alexandra probably knew better, and if that's what she wanted to do, she could probably suck up listening to the idiot's grating voice trying to shred every last nerve.
She cleared her throat. "As mentioned, he disappeared around 2005, same time his mom died. I'm assuming that was the stressor that made him leave, but he also has some posts online from about 4 months before, mentioning getting a new job and lots of training suddenly taking up a bunch of his time. No details on what this job was though. Might be his new employers helped him disappear, and he dove into work to distract himself from his mom's death." Much like my mom did. She paused, looking around to make sure no one overheard her and speaking more slowly. "Or...maybe his new job killed his mom? I remember someone or other saying they thought he worked for a powerful sorcerer, and he said his contract was terrible. Maybe the fine print said something about sacrificing his mom, and then he was kind of just stuck with them?" She gave a half shrug. "Either way, he's into music and capes, but that's not exactly unique, so I still have a lot of ground to cover."
Kaoru and Alexandra spent the rest of lunch trying to narrow down the list of possible aliases for Duncan. Like a lot of PI and hacking work, it's rather tedious; a lot of probing in one direction, coming up empty, and then trying to probe in a different direction, often with the same results. However, they are eventually able to discover Duncan's local alias: Dr. Duncan Willingham. It didn't explain why the rest of his group kept referring to him as 'Sal' ("Maybe a codename to protect his identity? Though he wasn't exactly wearing a mask..."), but once they had an alias, it was much easier to find out more. Saying that the alias was flimsy was an understatement; you so much as looked at it and fell apart. Or at least, it did as soon as the person looking was either Kaoru or Alexandra. Alexandra found a number of places where his identity seems to contradict itself as Kaoru found hole upon hole where a real person would have data but Duncan did not. Either way, it seemed Duncan was pretending to be a museum curator. One who, despite his lack of apparent bank account, flew regularly on a private jet service named Daedalus. Though at least he remembered to give himself a passport.
In the last few minutes before the bell rang for the end of lunch, Kaoru modified the poster-person script she had been using to instead search for Duncan's face and uploaded it to her server to run in the background. She was just about to close her laptop and head to class when the program brought up a random piece of security footage from a robbery of the Halcyon Museum about 10 years ago. The robber in question appeared to be red-hot and looked like a walking x-ray. Kaoru shruged apologetically at Alexandra, "Facial recognition software is never perfect. Maybe he's a relative of Duncan's? Especially if that whole heat thing wasn't just in my imagination..."
*****
Lighting the fuse on her delayed bomb wasn't nearly as satisfying as watching the explosion, but she did her best to savor the feeling. She pictured the chaos that would ensue. The mockery. The humiliation. Though she did regret the fact that the boy would likely have no idea why he was being punished. It likely meant he wouldn't learn from the experience and would simply repeat his previous transgressions. But there was no way around that without being stupid, so this would have to do.
Her phone buzzed and Kaoru felt her blood run cold when she glanced at the text notification. F%@~, how the hell had Delphi found out about her program so quickly? She scanned her computer for virus or spyware or such daily! Surely they weren't monitoring social media the same way they monitored government websites? Maybe if she just ignored the text she could feign ignorance? Her phone had been off. It was out of battery. Cell reception was terrible at her house. Except if she were in Delphi's shoes, she'd make her point by rewarding silence with slowly escalating hacks until they finally responded. Numbly she opened her messenger.
< You will be pleased to know that Robert Thompson is doing well.
What the fk? Who the hell was 'Robert Thompson'? A relative of Bren's? No. Someone who had suffered a similar fate to the one in store for her target? A quick google search didn't reveal anything, so if that were the case, it hadn't gotten much coverage. Her brain spun on its little hamster wheel until she finally gave in. Play dumb! Or...I guess not play since you have no idea who he actually is...
> ...who?
< Robert Thompson. The man you helped.
"Helped"? When had she helped some rando? And why would Delphi be telling her that he was "doing well"? Was this some kind of mind game? Had one of her hacks had unintended side effects, and Delphi was trying to guilt her now?
> ???
< The man in the park who you performed first aid on.
< The situation would have been much more serious if he had panicked and pulled that piece of wood out. He might have bled out before the paramedics had a chance to get to him.
< He spoke quite well of you to the police officer who took his statement.
Oh right. That guy. She quickly suppressed the pride she felt at the recognition. It was just a ploy. Empty words meant to butter her up right before asking a favor or telling her something she didn't want to hear. And more importantly, how the fk had Delphi even known that was her? Should she continue to play dumb? That was probably the better bet.
> I don't know what you're talking about.
< Refusing to take credit for a hack is smart, but there's no reason to deny when you did a good deed.
< Besides, I read Wingblade's report.
< Using a pseudonym was smart. The SCA's digital security leaves much to be desired. As well as apparently their physical security.
< You've been careful, but I need not remind you that some of your earlier...excursions into the world of computer security are still linked to the name "Apocalypse." Even I cannot be sure that I've managed to scrub them all.
A tiny knot of rage twisted inside her. There it was. A reminder of part of the threat Delphi posed to her. "Do what I want or I'll release details of your illegal hacking activities." Ugg, if only she could get in contact with Pinky! Then she'd at least be able to fight back against this fking bully.
> If you're so concerned about their security, why not get off your ass and actually do something about it?
There was a longer pause than normal as Kaoru waited for a reply. Much longer than should have been warranted for such a short response.
< I'm busy with other matters.
In the middle of calling BS on Delphi's flimsy excuse, another message from the other hacker came in.
< Perhaps you should look into the SCA's security breaches.
< Their system would greatly benefit from your know-how, and perhaps it would buy some good will for you and your team.
Good will? What did she care for good will? Only 3 more weeks, and she'd be out. And why would good will for the "team" matter? They could build their own damn good will. They'd probably need it too, after that mess Alexis had made. Though admittedly, if Alexis hadn't screwed up, she wouldn't have been quite as badass with handling the aftermath. So since she couldn't be blamed for someone else's mistake, it had really been a net gain for her. She probably couldn't just outright refuse Delphi though.
> Maybe.
It was then that her comm went off, announcing a team meeting. *Another* one. Geez, this whole 'team leader' thing is really going to her head... She latched onto the excuse anyway.
> gtg. Wingblade is calling a team meeting.
< Ok. Think about what I said though.
< And good luck.
"Good luck"? With what? God Delphi was cryptic. It was like every piece of information cost them money or something.
Kaoru growled softly. What the hell was kids' WB's deal? Didn't she realize that her place wasn't exactly conviently located? And even if she was ok burning through cash like it meant nothing, that didn't mean everyone else wanted to have to call lyfts every time WB's whims demanded it. For Christ's sake, they all went to the same damn school. Couldn't she just call for meetings after class when they were already there? Rolling her eyes, she started looking up bus routes to get to the location. It wasn't going to be nearly as fast, but if Wingblade was going to last minute interrupt everybody's activities, she was damn well going to have to wait.
Sighing, she grabbed her stuff and started slowly trudging to the nearest bus stop. On the bright side, since everybody was going to be there, she could update all their comms.