Pritchard Memorial Park was situated atop a hill that afforded it a spectacular view of the bay. The park had been built as part of a previous Mayor's urban development project. I had looked up the history of it once on a whim and it had been the beginning of Mayor Pritchard's initiative to reclaim some of the abandoned areas. The location used to be a burnt out husk, something left behind by a visit from the Slaughterhouse Nine in the past. It had sat there, ominous and brooding, for years before the Mayor had succeeded in convincing the city council. The area had been razed and become a park, but before the rest of the project could get underway, Mayor Pritchard had suffered a stroke and passed away.
The park had been named in memory of him, but the full scope of his project had been passed over in his wake, leaving just this. All the same, it was kept well-maintained and covered a fair amount of ground. There were walking paths, and a playground, plus one section had covered areas for large gatherings. We were early enough that the Sunday crowds had not begun to fill the area, so much of the playground was ours.
Philippe was currently perched at the top of a huge wooden castle that had multiple levels, trying to coerce Shawna into a game of tag and failing.
"Nerd," she yelled back at him. "We're not six. And anyway, most of the space there is too small for us to run through properly."
"Chicken!" he called back.
Shawna sighed, glancing at us. "Can I give him away? Please?"
"I think you're a bit over the age limit for being on there, Philippe," Lily called with a grin.
"Swings?" I asked Dinah. She nodded and went over to one, I took the one beside her and we started swinging.
"I don't do this often enough," Lily said, wandering over and taking up a swing herself. "Why is just going and forth like this so much fun?"
"I used to want one in the backyard at home," I murmured, feeling the air on my face as kicking off my legs pushed me higher. "But dad said there wasn't enough space to really manage it.
Philippe made several more entreaties to draw us into a game of tag while busily climbing around the castle, but we declined as Shawna took up another swing and fell into an easy rhythm with us.
"Think we could stop for some take out chinese on the way back?" I asked after a while. "Or some ice cream?"
"Ice cream, yes," Lily replied. "Take out, no. We can see about some delivery though."
I nodded and brought my swing to a halt, idly kicking my legs at the dirt below me. "Chang's, if we do that. They have the best rangoon, ever."
Shawna made a face. "Ew. How do you eat that?"
"Usually by opening your mouth and sticking it in," I replied without thinking. Silence met me and I gave a push, setting myself into motion. I glanced toward Lily and Shawna, who were staring at me with odd expressions on their face. "What?" I thought about what I had just said.
"Not remotely what I meant," I shook my head, flushing slightly. "Honestly. Gutter much?"
"You have to admit, it was kind of easy," Lily said with a grin.
"So's she," Shawna quipped, making a deliberately exaggerated face at me before cracking up.
"You're both terrible," I said, stopping the swing so I could stand. Lily started to say something else, but was interrupted as the most awful noise I had ever heard tore through the air, and a row of trees at the edge of the park were smashed aside, a large something carving a furrow into ground, tearing past us. It looked like sort of mechanical beetle and in the huge gap that now existed where there had been trees, I could see a figure floating. A cape fight?
Two more capes appeared on either side of the beetle-thing as it pulled itself up. They didn't try to prevent this, so I assumed they were with whoever was in that thing. I recognised them now. By picture at least.
Carapacitator, a tinker. Acoustic, the slender woman on his left, a sound manipulator. Chubster, the slightly overweight male on his right, used energy for attacking. Which meant that ...
The flying figure resolved into that of a female as she dove at them. A beam of light slammed into her, driving her to the ground like it had physical mass.
Incandescence.
She floated in the air, balanced on a disk that appeared the same as what she had hit the other one. The blonde was picking herself up and I saw that it was Glory Girl. A girl and boy dropped into view beside her. Laserdream. Shielder.
New Wave. Or some of them, at least. And they were fighting the Quartet. The four of them were a small-scale criminal group that kept a low profile.
And we were right here in the middle of it. I glanced at Dinah and remembered my earlier thought.
Coming to the park was a huge mistake.