Horizon paces, frustration on his face as he clearly feels conflicted about Praetoria wanting to keep this a secret. "Prae...we'll talk about this after you've recovered," He tells her, glancing at Kylie. While she distracts Kayla, he gestures for people to come close to him.
"If Dr. Dread has access to the Praetorian powers, we can't just say nothing to the other teams," He whispers out of Prae's earshot. "But...if Prae wakes up tomorrow and she can use the Regalia again, then it's something we can sit on for a while. We still have to tell them the second we know a confrontation with Dr. Dread is happening again."
He paused, as he suddenly realized exactly what he was doing again, wincing and pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "...Just to be clear, that's my opinion. I'm not trying to give orders or anything like that. You all should do what you think is best."
"...Great. Everyone thinks I'm with someone who clearly does not like me," Shin rolls his eyes. "Not sure what the Church of Psyche is about..."
The details Kylie gives him about the church give him pause, and disturb him. He crosses his arms, frowning and stepping around a strange angle. "...This sounds a lot like Japan. I mean, if they're doing good deeds, that's fine, but...Emperor Hirohito was revered as a living god in my father's country. The emperor's authority was used by his ministers and generals to do what they pleased. That's how my father used to describe it, and I guess this sounds similar. Maybe you should make sure they're not using your name to do anything unsavory. I just...don't want anything bad to happen to you."
Again, there was that undefined affection he felt towards her. He cleared his throat, turning. "We should...talk later. Maybe tonight."
Kayla, once assured that no one on the team will try and call or tell anyone her secret, let’s some of the others slowly help her to bed. She curls up, clutching a pillow in her arms as she rolls on her side.
The next morning the sound of someone using the punching bag can be heard to anyone passing by the gym. Inside, Kayla, wearing her usual sports bra and yoga shorts for her exercise routines, is there striking and kicking at the heavy bag. Her bare feet and hands are taped up like a mixed martial artist, and her body is covered in a sheen of sweat from how long she has been at this. She obviously woke up very early, if she actually slept at all...
Of note, the bruises and scrapes that had littered her body the night before are all faded away to nothing, though her knuckles and shins are red from the repeated strikes on the bag.
"You want any company, Kayla? I've got some morning routines to go through too, but I don't want to intrude. The heavy bag's all yours either way."
"That's the power of the camera, Shin. People are happy to write the rest of the story in their own heads. Don't worry though, she probably would have shipped anyone but me with Mosaic if they'd been the one with her in a damsel carry.
"And I'm not too worried about them abusing my name - they're the only ones who get excited by things being done in it, and it's not like they can do it in secret. If they get out of line, I'll step in." A buzz went through the connection. "I think that's Gothic getting close, we'll want to hear how that went, but sure, we can talk tonight."
Kayla sends a mental reply. ::Yeah. Come on in.::
Kylie didn't say anything as she entered, just rolled out her mat and started working through some warmups for her morning yoga. A couple minutes went by before she sent any actual words. The 'line' was open between their minds, but aside from the slowly building hum of effort, and the peace that came with it, Kylie didn't project anything.
But eventually she asked, "Does any of that hurt?" The link flashed with images of Kayla's reddened hand and legs. "You'll probably want to ice them either way, just to make sure no one worries."
The next morning, Horizon had once again slept terribly. Worry over Kayla, Hoshiko, Kylie, and even Gothic had him perched at his console, looking up things about his future. Specifically, he looked up his son, stuck in prison for a life sentence. What he read about him was not encouraging at all. He went by Morningstar, and he had similar powers to him and Ballista. The crimes he had been convicted of were terrible, more so when he learned that Ballista's mother actually gave birth to her in prison. That's how she ended up in foster care.
Hours of research led into a few brief hours of sleep. He'd forgotten about talking with Kylie over the chaos of Praetoria's arrival. Perhaps he'd try to remedy that now. But he also thought that he should ask someone else for advice on what he wanted to discuss.
That's why he was knocking on Mattie's room door, with a plate of hot scrambled eggs for her as a consolation and apology for the awkwardness between them. He figured she'd understand a fellow girl better than he could understand Kylie. "Hey Scorch? I was hoping to talk with you about something..."
When she gets to the breakfast, he lays down his first question. "I know Rory and Prae are seeing each other. Do you think that's appropriate, for teammates to be romantically attached?"
Kylie can sense Kayla’s pent up frustration, anger, and guilt flowing around her mind fluke three turbulent rivers joining together. She also remains silent as she wails away on the heavy bag.
When Kylie asks her question, Kayla just shakes her head. ”Nothing like last night,”” she says as she stops a moment. In the brief reprieve, a close examination of Kayla’s legs reveals the red area fading fairly quickly. She then looks back to the bag and continues her strikes.
Mattie answers the knock on her bedroom door wearing her boxers and a tank-top. Smiling at Shin as he stands there baring a plate full of scrambled eggs. Mattie follows Shin to the kitchen and sits down, busily consuming her food as her nervously asks his question. When he does, she can't help but almost spit it out in surprise.
"Ummm," she says, nervously eyeing the boy, not sure of his intentions "Yeah. I don't have a problem with them being together. I mean, not really. Why?"
He took your... no. That's not okay, it will never be okay! we should tell people! Other people should know. Holly says. the thought of people taking powers makes her deeply uncomfortable. He's... that's... worse than Shard, maybe as bad as Dusk!
Shin smiles awkwardly. "Yeah...but I could always use more guidance. Silver Shield helps, but she's got her hands full with Rory and Mattie. When I first got my powers, I thought I'd start off as someone's sidekick, but that never happened. So...maybe, if you ever have time, you might give me some pointers or training? I mean, if you're okay with that, I don't want to impose!"
Whippoorwill considers that. "Usually everyone wants to learn off of Cap. He's got it all down."
She glances away briefly, then looks him in the eye. "All right; if you're serious about this. I could probably spare the time, if you don't waste it."
She turns to head deeper into the headquarters, then looks over her shoulder, one of her huge feathered wings moving out of the way instinctively. "I'll be in touch."
”Holly! Please no! She specifically said it only worked on me. I...I trusted you...please don’t prove me wrong...” she says, turning to Holly and taking both of her hands, her eyes darting back and forth between hers.
"My. Well, I'll keep your secret... but it might be a good idea to tell a toned down version of the story. Let people know that Dr. Dread is on the prowl and gave you a beating, without the specifics. Up to you, though. I've got my own secrets, I won't go spilling other people's."
Isaiah considered this Doctor Dread. An armored figure, not always the same one, menacing the same line across generations? Either some group was passing the torch along, or something fishy was going on...
"Hmm... This is just speculation, but you say Dread has been around for a long time? Not always the same person wearing the armor, right? What if Doctor Dread is actually the armor, and the wearers are just accomplices?"
"Okay, I'm glad to hear that. Already coming back." She considers how long Kayla must have been pounding away at the bag to have worked up that much of a sweat, and decides it could even be true.
"We're getting you back in the scanner this morning either way," she continued, feet dangling above the back of her head in a full Locust, "but how do you feel about a return to Bayside once everyone's up and at 'em. We'll see if any clues were left behind."
Shin is awkward as he continues to talk to Mattie. "You're not worried that it might be a distraction or make them vulnerable? Look, I just...there's someone on the team that I like a lot. But I'm worried about doing anything about it because I don't want to cause the team more trouble. I'm not even sure if this person likes me that way or more like a big brother. So I wanted to ask your opinion if you think I should do anything about it."
Kayla leans back on the exam table and folds her arms over her eyes. ”I...dunno. Maybe? But this all just happened and I need time to think about it all.”
Kayla stops striking the heavy bag again and says ”I hope they are. I feel better, but I don’t know if that’s from what powers I have left fixing me up, or if they are recovering, or what. Like I said, this has never happened to anyone of us before...” she says as she looks over to Kylie for the first time, and her face blushes almost the shade of her shins.
She steps away from the bag, catching her breath a bit and flops down on bench near the spot Kylie is doing yoga, stretching out on her back and looking at the ceiling. ”That’s fine, I want to know what the scanner shows too. But...I’m not ready to go to Bayside. I need time. Time to recover. Time to figure this out. And I have an idea for that...but I don’t know if you guys are interested, but I hope so...I think we need this, not just for giving me a chance to recover, but also as a team...”
She rolls her head over to Kylie, and her eyes wander across the psychic’s body. ”And...we had agreed to talk, too...”
When 3 AM rolled around Rory decided to give up his battle with sleep, not wanting to disrupt anyone else he remained in his room working on schoolwork. Once he felt it safe to get up he grabbed some pop-tarts and headed for the back alley where he kept some tractor tires and other equipment that better suited for the outdoors.
Finished with his workout Rory can hear the heavy thuds of someone smashing the heavy bag, Rory enters the gym, "Sounds like you are feeling better, hopefully today will be light on actual fighting. Maybe we could finally get a chance to train together as a team... what a concept right."
Kayla has no more than asked her last question when Rory walked in. She blushes heavily and sat up on her elbows to look at him. ”Hey. Yeah, a little. And...I was thinking last night, and I have an idea for the team to do together. But I...I don’t know if everyone will want to.”
When Rory walks in, relief and frustration flare briefly in Kayla's mind, before Psyche walks back her presence a little. "Oh... umm. Hi Rory."
She levitates a few inches off the ground to give herself the space to quickly unfold without concern, but her focus is on Kayla. "What's the idea?"
Kayla swings her legs off the bench into a normal sitting position as she replies. ”Well, I need time to recover, right? See what all I actually get back, if anything...anyway. My parents gave me this thing for my Sweet Sixteen this year, and I hadn’t used it yet. And it’d be a nice team building thing not involving fighting for once...I dunno...”
She sighs and says really quick. ”You guys think the team would wanna come to my families island get away in the Caribbean for a week?”
Oh my go, Yes, Yes, a thousand yeses! Holly replies jumping a clapping a little. I would need to pack a few bags, but Yes!
”AAHH!” Kayla squeals with a start when Holly exclaims from the gym doorway. ”Holy shit you scared me, Holly!” she leans forward onto her knees and hangs her head to catch her breath, when she notices something. Her hands had...just briefly...had a glimmer of light around them, like the gloves to her Regalia!
”Oh my god!” she says as she sits bolt upright and holds her hands out. Though the gloves are gone now, she still asks ”Did you guys see? They were there, just for a second!”
"Hmm.. Well, we could. I suppose there isn't too much we can do with Apotheosis directly; we'd need to wait for a time when we could bait him properly anyway. And if we're not intentionally baiting, avoidance may be better. And I wouldn't want to go into that with Praetoria in her current state. So why not?"
Mattie blinks as Shin begins to talk, her mind racing. Oh my god, is he? He is. He's coming on to me. Oh god this is so awkward! What do I say? Gotta let him down gently.
Mattie leans forward and lets her hand rest gently on his arm. Smiling nervously, she answers. "Shin, I just want you to know. I really like you, I really do. I mean, you're sweet, and honest, and you care so much about your family, and you say such weird things" she laughs, a little sadly. "It just that, well, Shin, I,...."
Whatever she was going to say is interrupted as......
Kylie's smile is small, quite overwhelmed by the warmth of her relief that bubbles out from her mind to everyone in the base.
"That's wonderful!" Maybe a vacation isn't a bad idea. If Kayla really is going to bounce back, then we really shouldn't rush in while she's still vulnerable. We can always do Isaiah's switcheroo when we get back if we still don't have any leads on their base, and this will get us neatly off-grid while they're still trying to capture me.
"I'm sure Rory wouldn't mind if we got a little training in while we were there, but the vacation sounds great!"
***
"Hey Mattie, I've got good news. It looks like we've found a private beach for you after all." The sending is accompanied by the slight pins-and-needles sensation of a teasing smile before she broadens it to include everyone who hasn't made their way to the gym. "Hey guys. Sorry if I just woke you up, but Praetoria's got a very important briefing on our next mission. We're in the gym."
Oh.
The way she leaned in and touched his arm, looked atbhim, the tone of her voice - he'd dismissed this before, but Mattie was clearly harboring a crush for him, and he needed to clarify before things got awkward. Then Kylie broadcasted to him and he lost his chance.
"Uh. Let's pick this up later," He tells Mattie, smiling at her and wondering how to let her down without crushing her. It wasn't because she was Irish, that he had to make clear. He was interrupted again by his communicator chirping at him.
"...Whippoorwill wants to start my training today near Rustside. Oh boy. I hope it goes well." He says as they get ready to leave.
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Rory jerks sideways unaware of Holly's nearby presence. "See I knew you'd be okay," he said with slight relief that Kayla would be fine. "I'm going to go check on Mattie, she is normally up and moving by now." Rory heads over to Mattie's room and knocks while opening the door, "Wakey wakey eggs and bakey, you felling alright you're normal...." Rory's words come to a dead stop as the door finishes opening and he sees Shin... sitting with his baby sister... in her room... with her arm... resting on his....
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"Umm, yeah, later. Good idea." Mattie agrees, just as Rory bursts into the room. Seeing him, she snatches her hand away from Shin's arm, a light blush suffusing her cheeks.
Kayla smiles mischievously at Kylie’s deceptive message to the team. She nods as Rory goes to look in on his sister, and jumps up when she hears his outburst. She sees Rory looking like he is about to tear into Shin, and reaches over to pull him away. Right away, how much weaker she is becomes evident to everyone, as Rory is able to easily shrug off her grip.
She jumps around in front of him and puts a hand on his chest. ”Rory! Stop!”
The shock of Shin in his sister's room was replaced shock of him being able to pull away from Kayla, Rory swallows hard and puts his hands up and backs off, "Sorry I will wait for you to answer the door in the future..." his words are matter of fact and sound super forced like he is just trying not to yell. He continues to back up until he runs into the wall and just stands there shaking his head.
Rory's arrival was yet another spanner in,the works for that morning. "We're just having breakfast and hot coffee," He quickly defends his presence there. He was even wearing his hero costume, so it wasn't like he was trying anything. Or wanted to try anything. He got to his feet at any rate, before Praetoria came in and interjected herself between the two boys.
"...Yeah, I should go," He said, leaving swiftly and heading to the gym to escape the uncomfortable situation. He spoke up to Kylie when he saw her, too flustered to pat attention to her yoga gear. "You know the bus schedule? I have to go to Rustside to start my training and I don't want to be late."
”Before anyone goes anywhere, or says or does anything they may regret,” she says looking between the two boys, ”there is something I wanna talk to everyone about. Some of you already heard, but let’s meet up in the gym and talk...”
She gets a light hoodie and tosses it over her shoulders on the way. She doesn’t bother zipping it though. Once everyone was present, she said ”So, I think my powers are coming back, slowly. I don’t know if this means Dr. Dread is losing them, or if she will have those forever now and I am just regaining the lost strength. Either way, I need time to get back to full strength. And I don’t want anyone else knowing my, or other members of my family, can have their powers taken with this new technology Dr. Dread has developed just yet. I’ll tell Uncle Judge once I’m back to full power. But I don’t need him coddling me or worse, grounding me in the Tower. I was holed up in there for four years, and that’s the LAST thing I need. So, I came up with a plan.”
She smiles and adds, holding up a golden credit card ”My parents, at my sixteenth birthday party, gave me a week, all expenses paid trip for me and ten friends...not that I had any then. But I do now, and I think this a perfect time to take it. School’s out, it’s summer, and we could use some actual team stuff that doesn’t involve fighting for our lives. It’s at my families private island in the Caribbean. Private airstrip, and we could take the family jet. If we wanted to take a night out in a city, we could be there in a few hours. We could tan all morning on the beach, and then go shopping in Madrid that evening and stay the night in Catalonia Las Cortes.”
”So what do you guys think? It’ll be a good thing for the team. Give us time to get to know each other as friends and not just as team mates. And sort ourselves out!”she asks, her face glowing with excitement and hope.
Mattie jumps up and interposes herself between Rory and Shin just as Kayla. Yeah, really," she says you should knock! But we weren't doing anything anyway!
She's quickly distracted by Kayla's suggestion though, and she breaks into a wide grin. "Private jet? Catalonia? Private beach? (she shoots Kylie a surreptitious glance) Sounds amazing! I am so totally down for that!"
"As long as nobody minds Inquiry tagging along, I can be for it. It would be a good idea for us to get off the grid while you're recovering; we want to keep Psyche away from Apotheosis, and we don't want to try a strike until you're back up to full strength. Hopefully the Alliance will be able to make some progress while we're away, too. And a break may be a good idea. Tensions seem to be high right now."
Rory begins to hum Kokomo
Kylie's eyes lit up at the added enticements of getting to travel the world whenever she was tired of paradise. "I assume it's a press-free beach? I've been going out so much as Psyche that I'm already working on the oddest tanlines from my webs."
As Isaiah echoed her earlier thoughts, she gave him a considering look and a small smile. Good. He needs a good head on his shoulders if he's going to stick it into the lion's jaws on my behalf.
She thought about joining in admonishing Rory, but didn't want to pile on. Honestly though. I suppose he'd seen that Kayla, Holly, and I were awake, and Gallowglass was off at her place. But that's not just Mattie's door anymore - a bad habit if he keeps it up.
"I don't know the bus schedules, Shin, but I'd be happy to just drop you off. Rustside isn't far. If you'd prefer to go incognito, though, we could call you a..." she considers his lack of a smartphone, ...cab."
Kayla giggles at Rory, and is clearly extremely happy that everyone seems to be on board.
”Okay then, it’s settled! You guys go start packing. If anyone needs to go shopping, we can do that too! And yes, Kylie, it’s an island my family owns. We go there when we need time away from all this super hero stuff. We can work on whatever tan lines we want there,” she adds with a joking wink.
Before everyone leaves, she looks to Rory and whispers, ”I need to talk to him a minute, Okay?”
She then says ”Hey, Shin...can we talk a second?”
Rory gives a bewildered shrug "Why would that not be okay?"
Shin listens to Kayla's plan, frowning and tapping his foot. It sounded like some millionaire's getaway. He wondered if Kayla knew how warped it was that she had so much money to burn from her heritage. "I think that's probably a good idea," He admitted. "Can you wait a day, though? I have to train with Whippoorwill. I don't think she's the type to go off on a holiday." In fact, he was expecting her to think this idea of leaving Halcyon City for some far off beach was probably ridiculous. He couldn't imagine enjoying himself there either with Hoshiko still under the Alliance's watch.
At least he'd basically seen what amounted to bathing suits with these girls already, so he could cope with that.
When Kayla asks to talk in private, he just nods quietly and walks with her into the med lab. He figures its a good idea to get the scanner to check her out and determine if her injuries were all gone now. "I'm not going to rat you out, if you're worried about that."
”Maybe because you already wanna knock his head off?” she says with a sly smile.
She tns to Shin and says ”I was thinking we leave Friday. That gives everyone tomorrow to get things ready.”
As the two walk to the med lab, and Shin makes his statement, she just nods and says ”Thanks. I was,” as they entered the lab proper. She shirked off the jacket as the door closed behind them, and hopped up on the table and laid there quietly as Shin ran the scanner.
As the others watched the drama unfold, holly just mutters She could do so much better and heads into the kitchen, starting on an egg-white omelette for breakfast.
she turns on the video-call funtion of her phone, and calls Ms. Lester Hey, apparently the team is going to the Caribbean for the week on Friday. any publicity stuff you want me to do between now and then?
"No more internal injuries. Apparently whatever keeps you healthy and whole also makes sure that you stay that way," Shin comments as he looks through all of the scanner data. It's easy enough when it's translated into a layman's description. He finishes up with the scan, looking over where her injuries were last night.
"I'm not going to go demanding you tell the Alliance about this either. I'll save my breath there. I do think leaving the city seems kind of unorthodox when we're just starting to establish our presence. But you need a break, I get it. I could probably use one as well. But I don't like leaving things undone here. There's a lot that can happen in a week. Can you maybe think of a place closer to Halcyon, just in case we're called back to action? I just don't think it's responsible of myself to rush off to an island to play around when there's so much I have to do around here."
Kayla sits up and says ”It’s not to ‘play around.’ This trip is important for reasons beyond just ‘tactical preparedness,’” she says, using a phrase her father had used repeatedly in her training. ”We need to become friends, the whole team of us. Right now, we’re just teammates. We will be so much more coherent as a team if we aren’t holding frustrations and grudges against each other. So one week off to try and build those friendships doesn’t seem like a big investment to me. If everyone wants, we can still do some drills or whatever while we are there.”
She hops off the table and puts the hoodie back on and zips it up. ’Besides, Halcyon survives for how many years before the Sentinels? I don’t think we’ve made such a huge impact that we will be sorely missed for one small week. Even if you guys did catch Shard.”
”But that’s not why I wanted to talk to you Shin,” she says as she turns back towards him, tears in her eyes. ”I’m...sorry about before. The other day on Inquiry. But you have to admit you were purposely trying to push my buttons,” a hint of anger poking through her emotion wracked face, but only briefly as she takes a breath and continues ”But I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that. You were reconnected with some family and were confused. And what with everything going on in my own family...it’s just made me think...and I feel bad about lashing out at you like that.”
She walks over and gives him hug. After a small moment, she leans back and looks him in the eyes. ”When we get back, I promise to try and help you properly reunite with her on a more permanent basis. But we have to do it the right way, okay? Let the Alliance run their protocols?”
"Well of course I was trying to push your buttons. I was trying to push you to be the leader that we need. That was a mistake," Shin said. He shifts awkwardly in the hug she's giving, mostly because he knows she's strong enough to crack his ribs and he's not sure if her sense of pressure is all right.
"You know we all covered this while we were at Alliance HQ, before you went off on your own. You do that a lot, you know," He points out to her. "And I know that sometimes it's my fault for ticking you off. You've got a legacy to live up to and family to take care of here in the city. You might be right that it'll be fine for a week without us on patrol. I'm just saying that we don't have to fly off across the ocean to connect as a team. And that some people may not want to be friends with others," He finishes.
"...Look, I have training with Whippoorwill. I'll be back later. Let's at least plan out this vacation so we can be back here at a moment's notice if needed," He requests of Kayla, heading out to the elevator and then to the bus stop. He wouldn't be back until later in the evening.
Kayla starts to respond a couple times, but Shin continues on preventing her from replying. By the time he’s done just shrugging off her attempt to bury the hatchet, she’s trembling with pent up anger, but bites her tongue for now.
After Shin leaves, Kayla goes to the gym again. She takes the jacket off and throws it in a heap by the bench, and proceeds to resume taking out frustrations on the heavy bag.
Praetoria's anger made the gym feel like an oven, so Psyche decided to give her some time to cool off... I guess her conversation with Shin left her in a glorious mood.
Packing would be quick, and like Praetoria said, they could always make a 'quick trip' if they needed something to dazzle. So she wanted to make sure the rest of the matters went as seamlessly as possible. She knew that Shin's and Isaiah's paperwork would obviously need to be fabricated, even if Isaiah would probably just fly around in Inquiry's stealth mode anyways, and she assumed Holly and Kayla were already set, but it seemed worth checking on Rory, Mattie, and Ness...
"So, while I'm out shopping for a few essentials, who doesn't have a passport? If we're leaving this week, we'll need to use an expediter."
"Oh, and Isaiah, what were Mattie's measurements from when you made her that dress? I might pick up something for her while I'm out as well."
"And could I make plans with someone for later today? Doesn't matter who or what they are."
He did not expect his first day as an apprentice to be plummeting to his death.
The wind whipped at his body as he saw the ground start to come closer. He tried his best to squash the panic in his mind as he struggled to utilize his powers the way that Whippoorwill said would be 'as natural as lifting his arms' for his body. It seemed easier said than done, and not for the first time he found strong hands gripping onto his shoulders and lifting him up again. He looked up at his mentor, trying to shout above the roar of the wind around them.
"This is not working!" He cried out. He'd done it at least six or seven times now, trying to flex that invisible muscle that made him fly. Whippoorwill had pointed out to him that even if he didn't understand the mechanics of flight, he could better understand by doing rather than theorizing on his own time.
"Do you want to be the only hero who takes a bus to fight crime?" She retorted, climbing higher into the sky with him. He wanted to scream and say yes, it was preferable to smashing his skull open on the pavement of Rustside below. He didn't have time to argue as she released her grip again, letting get a good head start before diving and matching his speed. At this point, he knew empirically that he was in no danger. But his instincts continued to scream and panic.
How did Prae and Ballista fly? It didn't make any sense, the mechanics of flight. His future self could do it. He had to be able to do it. He just needed to do it.
Do it. DO IT!
His surprise came when he found himself slowing down, except Whippoorwill was still flying right next to him. He felt the vantablack shell around him come into being, as he slowed...and slowed...and finally stopped, floating about fifty feet from street level. The winged heroine crossed her arms as she smiled at him. "Not exactly graceful, but you've done it. Now, did you really need to know the physics of it all to make it work?"
He shook his head, and then realizing his shell didn't exactly move with him, spoke up from inside of it. "No, I guess not. I thought there would be a trick to it. But its more like...I'm just defying gravity. It doesn't make sense."
"You're a thinker. Same as Dusk, always planning and plotting and trying to control every piece on the board or at least predict their movements. It's not an insult, but you have to understand that sometimes you don't get the time to think before you act. Which is why you've got to train to react in the right way," She lectured him, before her attention veered away. "Over there. Looters, taking advantage of yesterday's battle. Let's go," She directed as she took off.
He didn't think about it so much as he followed, trying not to think about how he was propelling himself forward, just letting it happen. "Why would they try something like this?" He asked Whippoorwill.
"Probably because the store owners closed the stores while clean up is still happening. Police is still stretched thin. Don't worry, they'll probably disperse once we land," She tells Horizon, as they come over to the closed corner store. The front window has been smashed open, and several men are coming out carrying bags of cartons of cigarettes and beer, another carrying a cash register. Whippoorwill flicks her wings, diving down and flipping before making a graceful landing right in front of them.
Her student on the other hand just slams down behind them, the shell disappearing as he shakily manages to stay on his feet. He still needs practice with the landing part. "Hey! Put it down and get out of here!" He calls out the nearest guy. He looked like he shaved with a rusty blade, one that probably looked like the knife that he'd just pulled out and was thrusting at Horizon. He froze as he stared at the blade in a stupor. He'd never been attacked like this.
The assault was subdued as a quill swept through the air, sending a stunning jolt of electricity through the man that seized him and made him drop his weapon. Whippoorwill's attractive face contorted into righteous fury as she spread out her wings in intimidation. "You boys want to try that again?" She asked in a chilling tone of voice.
No one wanted any part of it, as they dropped their loot and ran off, one of them pausing long enough to haul the assaulter up to rush away. Horizon just stood and looked at the knife that had he'd nearly been stabbed with, sticking out of the ground where it had been dropped. His mentor sighed as she strode forward, picking it up and twirling it between her fingers.
"Kid, I think we need to work on your close combat skills. Do you not know any self defense or martial arts?" She asked.
Shame burned in him, but it was converted quickly to anger. "Yeah, because all Asians are born knowing ancient martial arts," He said, unable to bite his tongue quick enough.
Whippoorwill glared down at him. "I'll let that slide seeing as you're probably all nerves after a brush with death like that. Come on, to the rooftop," She told him, flying up. Shin winced, guilty of his quick remark as he managed to fly himself up there and set himself down more gently as well. The heroine was already setting herself up in front of him, her weapons and quills hung up on a air duct for now.
"Have you ever been in a fight? Not the super fights you've been having, but actually punching and being punched?" She asked him, letting him get into a stance for fighting, stepping in and correcting his balance at times.
"A few. My sister was picked on a lot by older white kids in the neighborhood. I had to step in and protect her a couple of times," He answered honestly. The jab Whippoorwill sent at his face stopped millimeters from his nose, as he flinched back a half second late.
"So you can take a punch at least. I think this is going to be what we work on when we train together. Flight was easy, but you'll have better luck figuring out the rest of your powers on your own." She steps back and has him watch as she telegraphs a jab and a straight punch, then shows him a basic counter for that.
"Why work on this? My powers are usually best at range," He pointed out while copying her.
Whippoorwill added a low kick to her set, pointing out how to hit the shin just right to cause the most pain with the least damage. "Your powers are also deadly radiation. They can kill people. So I'm giving you options that don't rely on your powers and won't kill who you're fighting."
Shin nodded and focused on his task, letting time fly by as he worked on the basic techniques that Whippoorwill was teaching him. He didn't expect to learn how to become a jiujitsu master overnight, but he could see she had a point about adapting and gaining new tools. Curiosity did get the better of him, so he asked a question.
"Am I your first student?" Horizon asked as he blocked a slow punch from his mentor. She paused, examining his face and glancing away for a moment.
"No. But she's doing fine on her own now. You might meet her if you stick around long enough," She replied as she threw him a curveball and swept his leg, putting him on his back. "Do you plan on sticking with the team?"
Now it was his turn to pause and consider before answering as he picked himself back up. "I like the team. But some of them frustrate me. Praetoria especially. She...she wants the whole team to take a week off to jet to some island in the tropics for team building." He grumbles, getting back into position.
Whippoorwill arched her brow, before engaging him again, faster this time. "That seems like a strange thing to be upset about. Giving you a free holiday in paradise, how dare she," She sarcastically commented as her hand grabbed his wrist, locking it behind his back.
"I...there's a lot still to be done here. We don't need to leave to team build. We just...I don't know, we can go see a baseball game together, or hit a public pool. This just seems like we're spending a lot of money on something unnecessary." He confides.
Whippoorwill lets his arm go, crossing her own over her chest. "Is this about the money? Or are you perhaps feeling guilty about leaving?"
Shin flinched as if she'd hit him with one of her jabs. "...Yeah. I'd feel guilty if I left Hoshiko to go on vacation. I still don't know what my future self is up to either. It doesn't feel right at all to leave this place behind, even for just a brief period."
The angelic heroine sighed, looking like she'd heard something like all of this before. "The way I see it, this is your opportunity to let your teammates know exactly how you feel. If you tell them that you're feeling guilty, they'll understand why and respect that. Your guilt is a barrier keeping you from being a better hero. You can't move past that without confiding in your team, kid."
Shin was thoughtful for a few moments on her words, scratching his temple. "...I'm keeping secrets when I don't share my feelings. I really hate secrets," He sighed, getting back up and getting ready for another round, when Whippoorwill's communicator beeped at her.
"The Alliance needs me. Sorry kid, we'll have to pick this up again later. Don't worry about missing training if you practice while you're having fun. Most importantly, try to have fun while you have a chance. You never know when the fun ends," She told him, spreading her wings and lifting off of the roof. "I'll let Ballista know you're thinking of her. By the time you get back, you'll be able to have regular chats with her," She promised.
Horizon looked mollified by her promise, watching her fly off towards headquarters. He figured that he should do the same as well. In fact, he was excited at the prospect of showing off that he could fly now. Taking the lessons imparted by Whippoorwill with him, he headed back to the base.
A vantablack missile floats into the elevator for the base, as Horizon proudly showed off his new trick with his powers for everyone there to see. He's hoping for Kylie to be happy for him the most, but he also needs to talk to Kayla. "Anyone know where Prae is?" He asks whomever was in the room.
Mattie heads back to her room and changes into her usual training gear: shorts and a tshirt, and makes her way to the bases' gym. She pauses in the doorway for a moment, silently watching Kayla train, before stepping into the room. "Wanna spar?" she asks, as she walks towards the older girl. "I know you've had a fair bit of training, but maybe it'd be worthwhile trying it without your powers at full strength? I mean, you've never really had to fight anyone without being inherently stronger than them, and essentially invulnerable... Might be good practice? I should warn you that I'm pretty quick. Something to do with a higher body temperature enhancing my metabolism. Yeah, I don't understand it either...."
When Mattie approaches her to spar, Kayla grabs the heavy bag to stop it, breathing heavy from how hard she was going at it. She starts to say no, but Mattie makes some good points and she eventually agrees.
The pair move to the sparring mat and Kayla takes up a ready stance. ”You’re right, I’ve had some training...but I’ve also relied a lot on my powers. Don’t take it easy on me. I’m curious how I’d hold up.”
The team can let Shin know that she’s been in “a mood” all evening. She spent most of the day in the gym, but eventually Mattie showed her where the pool area was, and she was now soaking her muscles in the hot tub.
When Shin arrives, Kayla is leaning her head against the side of the hot tub with her back to the door, her blonde hair cascading down the side. Her eyes are closed, and her face is clearly troubled. She doesn’t seem to notice him.
Kayla, still a bit worked up from her apologies dismissal from Shin, lunges into an overly aggressive series of strikes. Mattie, however, is as quick as she promised, and without her own enhanced speed Kayla fails to even come close. Kayla’s last kick goes high, and Mattie manages to grab it out of the air and sweep Kayla’s other leg, sending the taller blonde to the mat with a thud!
Mattie is able to quickly take advantage and before Kayla realizes it, the younger girl has Kayla locked in an arm bar! Kayla strains to free herself, but Mattie’s legs against her neck and ribs hold her down, forcing Kayla to tap out!
Once let loose, Kayla just rubs her arm as she pants to catch her breath.
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