Southside 2.2

The restaurant I chose had an outdoor sitting area. Even though spring was trying to hold its ground there was enough warmth in the air to let people know it was a futile effort. I just sat in the hard plastic seat at my table a cold tea when Sebastian came walking through the light crowd. I wasn't the only one who found the day comfortable as there were more than a few people milling about. Not exactly summer crazy, even for a popular franchise like this place, but still enough to fill half the seats around the table I chose.

I noticed Sebastian was wearing a heavier jacket than I thought was necessary for the chill. Other than he was also carrying a laptop I recognized from the other night. I didn't comment on it.

"Hey."

"Hi. Thanks for coming. I hope I didn't interrupt anything?" I asked.

Sebastian shook his head as he took a seat across from me. "Nothing that won't keep. Just doing some work on some salvage and wiring a second generator. My power needs exceeded the old one a month ago. Just hadn't gotten around to it."

"Oh."

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

I shifted a bit looking around trying to gauge how close people were to me and if they could over hear. Trying to see if it was safe to talk.

"Doing that draws attention."

"What?" I asked turning to him.

"Looking around is suspicious. Normal people couldn't care what you're saying, or who you are talking too. Too wrapped up in their own lives. Unless there are clues that peak their interest. Humanity loves drama, never let anyone tell you different. Loud noises, unexpected movements, things like that. Visual clues like dress style or differences in appearance. Like if I was older than you. An older man talking to a pretty girl, that kind of thing draws attention."

"Judging by what you said before, you are older than me." I started trying to ignore the fact he thought I was pretty. Probably just making his point, but he still said it.

Sebastian chuckled. "Technically, you are. I'm not even a gleam in my great granddaddy's eyes yet." He kept chuckling to himself as he watched my reactions. "Assuming he's even on this planet. Use your peripheral vision. Associate colored shapes and movement to people. Their details don't matter unless they do something that draws your attention, and then you need them. Voice modulation when necessary, like when they are closer. Just not so much that it's obvious you're trying to have a private conversation."

"How do you know this stuff?" I asked already knowing part of the answer even as I took mental notes about how he was talking just like he described.

"Part of my N7 training. Required during the N3 courses. Special OPs officers are more than just guys with really good guns. Though never discount the value, of a really good gun. I found they come in handy in a lot more situations than you'd think they would." He stated with a roguish smile.

I shook my head at his antics, but it was a lead in to one of my questions so I took the opportunity. "Renegade?" I asked.

"Like I said on the comm, Tattletale picked it. Told me using my name for work didn't sit well with her. When I didn't pick a name for myself, she gave me one."

"I don't think I've heard of her. Who is she?" I asked hoping that didn't come out as jealous as it sounded in my head.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice. "Local. We crossed paths a few months ago. I had just gotten my network tied into the local extranet. I was doing test runs on my access algorithms on local firewalls when I stumbled across hers."

A couple of tables away I noticed movement and looked. A couple of well-dressed guys had just taken a seat. I bet they went to Arcadia. Most of the well to do teens did. I turned back to Sebastian lowering my voice a bit hoping it didn't carry over them. "She's a tinker?"

"A what?" he asked.

I frowned forgetting for the moment he didn't know a lot about how capes were categorized. "Tinker powers specialize in technology. They build things. Ray guns, computers, stuff like that."

Sebastian shook his head. "Oh, no. She's not an Engineer. I'm not sure what her abilities are, but she noticed me tunneling through her computer's defenses. She couldn't keep me out but it clued me in someone was trying to so I cut the connection and scattered the trail. Wasn't hard to do. Like I said, most encryption I've come across here is worse than basic..."

More movement at that table distracted me. I needed a better way to keep track of people around us. Through my power I noticed that I had access to several small fliers. Fly's mostly. One of the first things I learned about my power was I always very aware of all the bugs in my ranges. At first it was almost impossible to filter out of my consciousness. Made sleeping almost impossible since they were always doing something and with my power I knew exactly where each of them were and what they were doing.

I knew from reading on the Wiki some capes could turn their powers off and on, but I couldn't with mine. I had to learn how to filter it all out. Took me weeks to get used to it. However, that aspect of my power was something I could use here.

I directed the flies by placing one on each person around us. As they settled down I started mapping everything out in a way that I could make sense of. Another aspect of my power was I knew exactly how far away each bug I was placing was in relation to me. When people shifted in their chairs, laughed, or moved about I knew. The only thing I was really concerned about was how close they were to me so I started filtering the rest out. It wasn't nearly as distracting as I thought it might have been and allowed me to focus more on making sure my voice didn't carry too far.

It only took a few seconds but I was distracted enough I almost missed what Sebastian was saying next. "...ple of days later I came across Parahumans Online. Found a message from her posted there addressed to 'Fly by Night'. Said I could have at least bought her dinner after sneaking in through her window."

I rolled my eyes at that. Tattletale was already sounding like quite the character. "Wouldn't have grabbed my attention but she posted a segment from my hacking algorithm. I figured she was an engineer who must have gotten part of the code before I sanitized it. Piqued my interest enough that I agreed to meet with her."

"Since then she contacts me when she needs a strategist. Tried to recruit me for her squad, the Undersiders. Wasn't interested. I didn't think I'd be here this long and I've been trying to not involve myself. My leading theory then was I might have somehow slipped through time after the Crucible fired. Maybe we damaged the quantum filaments that kept things flowing in one direction or something equally impossible. Could ruin things for the future if I changed too much."

"Oh." A lot of that went over my head. Still, by the parts I understood I could see where he was going with that. "But now you don't think that's the case?"

"No, pretty sold on the idea of an alternate dimension. If only because it makes more sense and I can understand it better. Besides, there was nothing in my peoples past even remotely like parahumans. An alternate dimension is the only thing that makes sense."

"Oh."I waited until a couple of people passing too close went far enough away before I started talking again. Sebastian apparently noticed them too and smiled at me. He didn't know I was cheating, but it still felt good.

"Um, what did you mean when you mentioned being a 'Strategist'?"

"They're criminals. Small time. Pay well and they go the extra mile to avoid harming civilians. I've worked with worse. Now and then Tattletale will contact me when a job of theirs is risky enough that they can't guarantee a flawless execution." He leaned in a bit emphasizing his point. "They're very particular about their reputation."

I fidgeted frowning. "You work with, and rob criminals?"

He shrugged as if it wasn't anything new. "Like I said, I've worked with worse. My old squad was full of interesting characters with a diverse background. I learned a long time ago, the best of the best doesn't necessarily come from the upright and honest. As for robbing criminals, I need resources. They have them. If you're fast, careful, and efficient, you can make a lot of credits robbing criminals. Feels good too. Besides, it means less jobs, takes less effort to rob one criminal storehouse compared to trying to get it through any other channel. Tech is expensive. Even garbage tech. Probably because it takes a lot more of it to get to where I want."

"What about reprisals? Aren't you worried there going to want their stuff back? Or even revenge?"

Sebastian shrugged obviously unconcerned. "If they can find me, they're welcome to try."

I felt a slight chill race down my spine at the tone in his voice. There was something about the way he said that which made me think trying would be a very bad idea. I had a momentary flash back from our fight with Lung. Yeah, defiantly a bad idea.

I decided to change subjects. That one was skirting way to close to things best left unsaid for the moment. "What are you going to do now?"

"Do?"

"Well, have you thought about going to the Protectorate for help? Maybe they can find you a way home." I suggested.

He shook his head. "I considered it when I discovered that this world knew of, and had access to other dimensions. I was surprised how common the knowledge was. In my dimension, if something like that existed it would have been hushed up and buried so deep only the Council would have known if it's existence. Anyway, once I learned of the communications channel with what your people call 'Earth Alph' I went looking for others. What I found was references to very specific legislation banning any other attempts to gain access to other worlds. Not that I can't understand why, but that led me to discover that should any D.C. be found they were to be detained indefinitely."

"D.C.?"

"Dimensional Crossover."

"Why would they do that?" I asked confused. I knew of the policy of not actively crossing over to other worlds because it was believed it could cause a war, but it didn't make sense they would hold someone forever if it was accidental. With all the weird powers out there, you would think it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Sebastian shrugged. His eyes darted for just a moment to the right before they fixed on me again. Through my power I knew he was checking on a pedestrian that just crossed the road near us. "Not sure. It's classified and hidden behind firewalls I haven't been able to hack yet. I'll need a lot more hardware before I can even attempt it."

"Oh." I muttered trying to ignore the fact he was not only planning on hacking into classified files, but had already likely tried.

"What about you?"

"Oh, well…"

Sebastian opened up his laptop while I tried to figure out how to answer him. "Not sure what you mean. Like, am I going to college after high school? My dad wants me too, and I've thought about it."

"That's part of it. Any idea what you want out of advanced education?"

As I thought about it I realized I hadn't really thought about my future, aside as my career as a hero, since I got my powers. Before I thought about possibly getting a degree in English, like mom. Maybe teaching, but that soured fast in the last couple of years. Really, anything to do with school seemed like a bad joke to me now.

As I started to answer, I frowned at how neatly he turned the conversation on me. "No actually. I mean, except for what I was doing last Saturday. Even if I did almost die before you saved me."

"Why not join…" He looked to the screen for a moment before turning back to me.

"Sorry, ever since the other night I've been trying to learn more about your world but I'll be honest, history was never my strong suit. I'm decent at intelligence gathering but I'm far better at using it, than getting it. Ah, there it is. The Wards. Why not join them? Training, protection, they even pay you. Grants for college and the promise of work with the Protectorate. Some of these enlistment packages are pretty nice. From what I've seen of your abilities, you could do really well there. Joining seems to be the thing to do. Like joining the Alliance was for me."

It was my turn to shrug. I ran my finger along lip of the cheap plastic cup that my tea was in as my eyes stared unfocused at the fast food restaurants logo on it. It took me a while to put it all into perspective before I started to explain. "It's complicated. My school life isn't all that great to be honest. I considered applying, but the idea of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and restricting schedules seemed self-defeating." I sighed as the real reason came out. "Besides, I'd have to tell my dad about...what I can do. That's complicated for a completely different reason."

"Huh." We lapsed into silence for a while. The crowd around us was picking up and I was starting to get worried someone might overhear us. I was thinking of saying something about it when Sebastian started talking again. As I looked up from my tea I noticed he was looking at his laptop screen. "Unrelated question. What do you know of Captains Hill?"

I blushed, fidgeting a bit in my seat. "Um, its way out on the west side. At the top there's a place that's scenic. Popular with the locals. Ocean view kind of thing. See the whole coastline, the whole city."

I looked away. I didn't mention that it was also the place most adventurous couples went. Usually at night so they could be together. I'd heard the stories at school during those times when people forgot I existed. So and so took so and so. They did things or things didn't happen.

As I took a sip of my tea I couldn't help but wonder why he was asking me that. He wasn't suggesting…

Was he?

"Interested in getting wet?"

I snorted my tea. My eyes widened behind my glasses as I covered my dripping nose and mouth with my hand. "Excuse me?" I asked shocked.

I didn't notice when he pulled out his cell, but as I was busy pulling some napkins from the dispenser on the table to clean myself up I saw him looking up from it. I was very thankful he didn't add to my current embarrassment by commenting though I could see the glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "I just got a message from Leet agreeing to trade. Friday night."

"You want me to go with you to meet villains?" I asked quietly, still trying to recover from my misunderstanding. Not to mention trying to keep up with the conversation changes. "With Leet?"

He nodded easily. "I figure he'll bring his whole squad with him. He doesn't strike me as the type to meet with a random unknown solo. But the way I see it, why not? Best case scenario it's a quick transaction with the possibility of a new contact. Worst case scenario, we'll have to fight them. Either way, should be fun. I figure Captains Hill is pretty remote from what you said. Matches up with the layout I found. It'd be a good place to talk about that, and a few other things. Getting a bit crowded here."

Feeling like a complete idiot about where my mind was jumping too I nodded. I blamed dad for it. Thinking the way he did about this. "Buses don't run up there at this time of evening." I informed him.

"Not a problem. I have transportation."

"You know how to drive, and have a car?" I asked surprised. I really hoped it wasn't stolen. Though if it was, I can't say I'd be surprised. He seemed to steal everything else he came across.

He smiled widely showing his teeth. For some reason, I started to get a bad feeling about this.