A.N.: It was a stormy night, two figures stood over a operating table. One of average height clad in a frayed white lab coat, the other with a rather obvious hunch.
"We are ready to start the procedure. Igor if you would." Said the coat clad figure.
"Yes, doctor Daimah." Came the answer from the other figure as it limped to a lever on the wall and pulled it.
Up on the roof a lightning rod extended and it wasn't much later when cached a lightning bringing it down the cables that connected the rod to the thing on the table and said thing started moving.
"Muahuahua, it's alive! It's ALIVE!"
Tale of a Biron
2.1
The next morning I woke up alone in the bed Missy and I shared at her insistence. It didn't surprise me that I slept in a bit, yesterday I wasn't able to come back to the safe house until much later than I expected after all. I looked around with bleary eyes until my gaze found the clock on the desk. Barely six hours of sleep, damn. I'd have stayed in bed if it wasn't for the loud argument I could hear downstairs. By the voices I'd say that this time it was Missy and Mrs Biron.
I lazily got up and out of the room. As I reached the stairs that went to the ground floor I reflected on last night's SNAFU.
Well, I know that they say that plans don't survive contact with the enemy, but my plan for last night was incredibly simple and should have been foolproof. Go in, distract Lung until Armsmaster arrives, get out. Of course as thinking that nothing could go wrong was tempting Murphy I had to go and spark the gang war days ahead of schedule.
After kicking the figurative hornets nest I had to hightail it out of there. I might have been able to hold my own against Cricket or Stormtiger, heck even against Lung or Hookwolf under the right circumstances. But against all of them at the same time? Oh hell no, not without calling Berserker and throwing him into the fray at this point would only have escalated things even more.
Instead I got into the nearest alley, made sure that I was out of sight, took the appearance of a homeless man and got out of there as fast as a baseline human could. A masked figure jumping from roof to roof might have attracted the kind of attention that I wanted to avoid. An unlucky vagabond running away from a cape fight on the other hand would be easily overlooked.
Getting out of the city took even more time than I thought. Having to dodge groups of gang members, either Empire's out to get even after the perceived attack, ABB's trying to defend their turf or Merchants that heard about the conflict and were trying to get the jump on some of their competition.
When I finally got far enough into the outskirts of the city where I could finally use my powers without getting unwanted attention it was already past two in the morning. Add to that another half hour to get to the house and some more minutes to swap myself with my double that was trapped by a sleeping Missy in a deceptively strong grip it's no wonder that I was still a bit sleepy.
When I got downstairs I found Missy with her hands firmly planted on the dinner table glaring at her mother while Mrs Biron was at the other side of the table with her arms crossed returning the glare. I think Missy was trying to look intimidating but the fact that she was in her sleepwear, a baggy hello kitty t-shirt and sweatpants, was working against her.
"I said no, and that's final." Mrs Biron's tone was harsh. "It's bad enough that I can't stop you from going, I won't allow you to put your brother in danger too."
"Have you even listened to anything I said?" Replied Missy slamming her hands on the table. "It. Is. Safer. He will be with me and the other Wards and even if they send us Wards out on search and rescue or something he'll still be in the second safest building in the city. A building full of PRT personnel."
"Send you out? With a freaking gang war going on. Yes, I've heard about that, it's all over the news. Just wait until I tell the Youth Guard..."
"Will you stop that already!?" Interrupted Missy gritting her teeth. "It's bad enough that no one takes me seriously because of my age even if I have more experience as a Ward than anyone on my team. You overreacting each and every time that I'm involved in something makes them treat me as if I'm made of glass."
"Overreacting? Don't think that I haven't noticed the scars."
"Yes, I've been in a couple of fights, so what? It isn't like I've been really hurt. They never send us against anything really dangerous and my teammates are always looking out for me anyway."
"And that ugly scar on your chest? Can you honesty tell me that it wasn't dangerous when you got it? Where were those teammates then?"
"That..." Missy seemed to deflate a bit "That was my mistake, not theirs. I underestimated the situation." Added Missy softly before going back to her previous tone. "But that doesn't have anything to do with this. Bobby is safer coming with me than staying here."
"And I said no!" Screamed Mrs. Biron before continuing in an icy tone as she turned away from Missy. "Why do you care anyway? You spend more time there than with your own family. I already lost you the moment you got those powers I'm not letting them take my son away as well." She said exiting the room not looking back at Missy even once.
When Missy turned to the stairs she saw me standing there and quickly averted her eyes but I still saw that her eyes were watery.
"Hey Bobby." She said as she rubbed her eyes.
"Hey sis." I replied, finally entering the dinning room "Are you okay?" I asked awkwardly.
"Yes, it's just mom being mom. Don't worry about it." She answered giving me a forced smile.
"What was that about?" I asked nodding in the direction where Mrs. Biron had gone.
"Something happened last night and the PRT is calling all the Wards to base, including me. We are supposed to be on stand by, only getting out to go to school to maintain our covers. Even our patrols are canceled." She said as she went to the stairs.
"But why?" I asked frowning as I followed her.
"Officially?" She sighed. "So we can respond faster if there's a situation where we are needed." She snorted "As if they'd let us."
"And the real reason?" I asked as we entered our room.
"To make sure some of us don't do anything stupid." Missy answered with a wry smile before softly adding. "Stupid Sophia."
I'm pretty sure that I wasn't supposed to have heard that last comment so I decided to bring the conversation back to the original topic. "And that thing with mom?"
"I..." She hesitated a bit as if she was about to say something but couldn't bring herself to say it. "I wanted you to come with me to stay with the Wards." She continued. I couldn't see her face because she had her back to me as she rummaged her bag looking for some clothes. "With me gone and only a handful of agents with minimum equipment this house won't be very safe if someone decides to come after you again."
"What about mom and dad?"
"I might be able to convince dad to come with us, but knowing mom she will be against it just because she can. If our house wasn't a crime scene we wouldn't even be here."
I frowned. To be honest going to the PRT building would limit my movements a lot, but it seemed to be important for Missy. I guess she still felt guilty for not being there when I 'disappeared'.
"I'm going to get changed in the bathroom." She said getting out of the room with an armful of clothes, leaving me with my musings.
"Dammit." I exhaled as I let myself drop backwards on the bed. It looks like I have a soft spot for my sister since I'd rather be put in a situation where it would be considerably more difficult to carry out my plans than see her upset. Well, after last night my plans were shot anyway and I might be able to find information on Dinah more easily from the PRT itself.
"I think I have an idea." I said without getting up when Missy came back from the bathroom.
"Huh?"
"I'm still a person of interest in an ongoing investigation, right?" I sat up and smiled at my sister.
"Yes." Missy paused in the process of putting away her night clothes. "Have you been watching too many police procedural shows lately?" She frowned.
"Never mind that." I said. "Who do you think we have to talk with to take me into protective custody?"
"I..." She blinked. "I'm not sure," Missy said bringing a finger to her lips. "But I know who might." She added with a smile, taking out her cellphone.
"You do that. I'll go get changed." I said getting up and taking my clothes for the day.
"Hey, Rory? It's Missy, sorry to call you so early..." I heard her say as I got into the bathroom.
