A/N: Man, my new job is really breaking me down. Sorry, guys, but my output is suffering because of it. There's hardly time to write anymore. But I will finish what I started. Hopefully I'm not letting a lot of you down. I'm trying to do my best but lately I've been so tired and getting a moment of quiet to write has been very difficult.
I want more than anything for ensuing chapters to live up to expectations.
Enjoy!
On the cab ride back to her building, Tori thought back fondly on her first real date with Jade West.
She had never believed in her dizziest daydreams that such a meeting could've happened. She felt so fortunate. Jade hasn't changed much since school by the look of her. Still very intelligent and achingly beautiful but there was something about her. She seemed thinner than when she last remembered her and on top of that something about her eyes.
Tori felt some sadness there. Whenever she wasn't talking or doing something active like eating; that glassy look would return. She was a steel trap when it came to being candid on how things have been recently. Jade was certainly someone with a lot on her mind.
Before long, Tori was parked and got out, paying the driver and telling him to have a good night.
Tori opened the door to her dark apartment, lamenting about how busy she has been that she doesn't even have time for a pet. Every day she returns to the same quiet, empty abode. She sighed as she plopped on the couch and grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table. Tori did her usual flipping of the channels until typically settling on the news.
What caught her attention was a story they were running about a series of unusual vandalism along downtown. Windows were smashed and trash cans were dented. The way the few witnesses who heard something made it sound, these little but persistent acts of destruction happened quickly. Police aren't certain about whether they were talking about one suspect or several. The path of wreckage mysteriously starts and stops, as if a tornado touched down on this city block and vanished into the sky.
Something about that just rubbed her the wrong way. Ever since that scene at the classified science lab, Tori was concerned about the possibility of any of these human experiments turned loose. Tori has dealt with everything from pick pockets to gang members. Everyday criminals were not foreign to her but Tori pondered if she would be able to handle anybody (or anything) with extraordinary abilities.
When Tori's dad passed, she was devastated. She was grateful that Jade was there to comfort her because she gets emotional when she thinks about him. Ever since then, Tori swore that she would take up the mantle of helping the citizens of Kinopolis. But her fear of anyone harming her sister or any of her friends (few as they may be) made Tori reconsider joining the police force. Tori needed a new face; a new identity she could disappear into. She thought hard about it and settled on a mask she found at a costume shop that she had forgotten all about. The white mask itself was commonplace enough that it was impossible to track the purchaser.
Then she needed a name.
Tori recalled every Sunday their dad would take the whole family to church. There was a gorgeous Catholic church that wasn't too far from home. She remembered the name: Our Lady of Victory. Tori sounded the name aloud and thought of shortening it to Lady Victory. It felt like her father was giving her inspiration from beyond the grave. It was something meaningful and a play on the full version of her birth name. Tori really liked it; something that would lift the spirits of those who were in trouble. It was the moniker of a champion.
But a cool costume and a name wasn't enough. Tori had to prepared for anything that was out there. This required two key components happily fulfilled by two darling people who turned into her best friends.
Caterina "Cat" Valentine was a college roommate and the pair were inseparable from the get-go. So much so that Cat convinced Tori to ask her sister for a job so they could work together at the magazine. But Cat was part-time. She spent the rest of her week teaching fighting and self defense classes. The funny thing is you would walk into one of her classes and be dumbstruck by the amount of male students. One would think a comparatively diminutive young woman wouldn't be of interest to a guy learning how to fight but she quickly proved them wrong.
Cat hailed from a long line of fighters. Her uncle was a local boxing champion. Her father and other uncle were both marines. Then you had her brother that became a federal agent, who supposedly is working for the CIA. People ask about work at every Thanksgiving and his answer is always "I'm not at liberty to discuss, guys." Long story short, Cat learned how to make it through a fight once she started school. People would see the bright, cheerful little girl and automatically assume easy pickings. They didn't anticipate that this same girl, when push came to shove, could take down a kid three times her size. Before she was in junior high, Cat could disarm a stranger or bully with her knowledge of pressure points.
Tori witnessed it first hand when they left shopping one night and was almost carjacked. Before Tori could react, Cat had the bad guy on the ground. She was sitting on his chest, cross-legged, until the cops arrived. It was like here was her bubbly friend but then when things got rough, her personality changed dramatically. For a few seconds, this little redhead was an unstoppable force.
When Tori approached her about helping her with her vigilante plight; Cat was eager to oblige. What followed was an intense three years of training. Cat was a hard teacher but she had to make up for lost time. You don't exactly go from goody-little-two-shoes Tori Vega to badass guardian of the night over a weekend. Heck, even to this day; Cat makes Tori come to the gym every week to bone up on her training when the students are gone and they have the place to themselves. Her reasoning to the half-Latina was "I don't want to pick up the newspaper and find out you have been killed because you got soft."
Then you had Robbie Shapiro.
He had crossed paths with Tori and Cat shortly after working at the magazine. Right off the bat, the curly-haired boy was smitten with the kitten. And you could tell she felt the same because she would act funny around him as well. Tori found it equally cute and frustrating. Here was a loyal friend; the toughest gal she knew hands down and then you had this brilliant, brilliant mind who handled technology in his hands like an artist with paint. You brought these two exceptional people together and they were reduced to awkward small talk and fumbling of objects they normally never dropped.
Robbie was a wunderkind. He could have easily been the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates; designed a few popular gadgets and live off the wealth. But Robbie had his sights set higher. He was looking for things that could help change the world. Being the nerdy type, he was often not taken seriously despite his achievements. But he was contented with helping others by way of supplying Tori with gadgets to power her one woman army against the scum of Kinopolis. Robbie customized the super car that could take Tori from one side of town to the other in a pinch and (along with Cat) designed a suit that would be, as he described it, a fashionable Swiss army knife.
Tori now had access to a grappling gun which was attached to a newly-designed string that was super durable. Robbie had a machine that could make a synthetic version of spider silk. Now you had something almost as thin as sewing thread but strong enough to handle the weight of a car. Other goodies included: tracking devices, smoke bombs, a miniature saw, sticky gel packs, taser gun, and then you had little ball bearings that were explosives. Robbie was proud of these in particular because you could set them to blow up at impact, detonation by remote, or 10-second delay.
Cat and Robbie, along with her sister, were the only ones who knew Tori's secret. This made it extremely difficult in forming relationships with anybody else. She felt very strongly toward Jade and have visions of an actual future with her. But she's scared. She doesn't know if she will understand this side of her, let alone be trusted to keep it to herself.
Tori used logic most of the time, but here it wasn't as easy.
Jade had to know about Tori's alter ego. How can she come up with excuses for where she goes to at night. Admittedly, Tori felt a pang of guilt the more she thought about sitting this night out for her date. Other than the vandalism, nothing of note went down so she slowly pushed the guiltiness out of her mind.
"If you really like her, maybe even love her, you must tell her eventually."
As she pondered this dilemma, Tori drifted off to sleep in front of the TV which was her go-to evening routine when she stayed in.
Harris and Oliver returned to the station only to find the squad room crawling with suits, all carrying boxes.
"What the hell is going on?" Oliver asked.
"OLIVER! HARRIS! FRONT AND CENTER!"
The partners turned to the direction of the chief's door and took a deep breath before entering. He slams the door, making the Venetian blinds rattle. His hands shook as he took out a pack of nicotine gum.
"On the wagon again, sir?" Oliver asked, flashing his usually disarming grin.
"Shut up!" the chief growled.
There went his smile.
"Chief, what are those guys doing?" Harris asked, pointing toward their desks. "That's our stuff they're taking."
"Look," the chief folded his arms. "I don't know what in god's name you guys got yourselves into but my precinct has been overrun with G-Men. Apparently, you two outdid your usual jackassery and stuck your noses where they didn't belong."
"Sounds like a lot of smoke..." Oliver gulped. "...sir."
"Yeah? Well, orders came from the commissioner on this one. Now if there is one asshole I want out of my office it's that guy. You two come in at a very close second. When the feds put pressure on him, then he comes down on me. Hard. So at the risk of getting any of our asses thrown into a federal prison I was forced to cooperate. Hence, they're taking your shit."
Harris threw up his hands "Unbelievable."
"What's unbelievable, Andrew, huh?" he barked. "It's the United States Fucking Government. You want to tango with these guys? Do you?"
"But they're clearly covering up this whole thing about a lab and missing people..." Harris replied.
Oliver then interrupted, adding "Cold cases going back at least ten years, could be reopened..."
The chief rubbed his forehead, having heard enough.
"Listen, it's out of my hands" he sighed. "Now get out of here and don't let the door hit your rears on the way out!"
Harris snorted and stood up, making as defiant a noise with his chair as possible. Oliver just contritely followed his partner, leaving quietly.
"So what do we do now?" Oliver asked.
"Don't know, Beck" he replied.
His cell rang and he answered it.
"Harris."
Suddenly a look came about him that got Beck's attention.
"Who is it, 'Dre?" he whispered.
He held up his hand for him to be quiet while he listened to the caller. The person on the other line was male but using some kind of device to disguise his voice.
"Hang on," Harris told the caller. He covered the receiver and told his partner "There's some guy who says he's from the government. He says he has information regarding our..." he checked around to make sure nobody else was in ear shot. "...our research."
"Oh great," Oliver sighed. "Another mysterious whistle-blower. Does this one also wear a mask?"
"Sssh," Harris said because the other guy was saying something else. "Okay," he nodded. "Alright."
Oliver stood in impatience, wondering what the stranger was telling Andre.
"Yes, we will" Harris said before holding his phone away from his ear. "Hung up."
"So?" Oliver asked.
"Come on," he grabbed Oliver's arm. "Let's get to the car. I'll explain there."
In the parking garage, Harris and Oliver sat in their car.
"So what did this guy say, Andre?"
He cleared his throat "Basically that he had recently been a part of a covert experiment that specialized in biological modifications."
"Goddman," Beck slumped down in his seat. "Then Wonder Woman was right. There really is a cover-up."
"They don't have any pics or video; all got lost in the fire. But the surviving doctors have a physical description of the girl they took in right before the accident."
Beck raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Right here," Andre replied holding up his phone. There was a text message from the caller. Both this and the phone call come up as Unknown on the caller ID. "You ready for this?"
Beck nodded.
Andre started reading the text "Female. Caucasian. 5'7". Brunette. Blue-green eyes."
The Canadian gave an are-you-serious look to his partner.
"What?" Andre asked, annoyed by the stare.
"Doesn't sound much like a threat to...anybody."
"Well, you know what? The fact is the missing persons would probably get us nothing, because they're probably all dead. This one is apparently alive."
Beck exhaled, taking all this insanity in.
"Alive and kicking?" he asked.
"Enough to put a sizable dent in a fire engine," Andre replied.
"Well alright then," Beck nodded. "Let's roll."
