Harmony – 5.1

April 25th, 2011

"Taylor, I'm beginning to think you've been corrupted," Vicky said to me, with an uncharacteristic serious tone.

I scowled at her. "What do you mean? And use our codenames."

"To start with, your recent foray into the world of underage drinking," Vicky answered back.

"With alcohol that you supplied!" I pointed out. It was just some champagne at her birthday party, but still. That one was totally her fault.

"Well, it was also your idea to ditch school this time," she replied.

"Well, yeah, but for good reason!" I protested. Dad and I still weren't exactly talking to each other beyond meaningless pleasantries, so I had no choice but to stalk him at his workplace. Sure that sounded weird saying it out loud, but I needed to get to the bottom of why the Merchants were pushing into that area.

The dockyard where the Dockworker's Union was based had always been a fairly low value area, and one that the gangs didn't really fight over. Shipping wasn't as big of a thing as it used to be just in general, but Brockton Bay's shipping industry had been particularly hard hit. With the boat graveyard further limiting the flow of traffic into the bay, the number of ships entering and exiting Brockton Bay had slowed to a trickle over the past decade. There simply weren't a lot of money or people in the area.

We were trying to be discreet, so we couldn't exactly go out in costume in the middle of the day. Vicky attracted plenty of attention in her civilian garb as well, so the two of us along with Lily were in disguise and using pseudonyms. Vicky had chosen Glinda and Elphie for herself and me, while Lily went with Yuki.

We needed to dress down to fit into this area, but I couldn't find my old clothes at first. Vicky had ran into my basement though, and somehow magically appeared with a lot of my old shabbier clothes that I thought I lost. The clothes were quite dirty, with what looked like coal dust on them, but Lily had said to leave it soiled. It would make for a more convincing disguise. So we were all wearing my old ratty hoodies. The one I was wearing even had knife holes in it. Vicky couldn't fit into any of my pants of course, since she actually had hips, so she wore one of her jeans that had rips and holes in them. Unlike my pants which were shabby due to wear and tear, her jeans came that way brand new and had cost two hundred dollars.

It was surprisingly uncomfortable being back in my old clothes, the stuff that I would wear at Winslow. It felt too much like stepping into the past and being the old Taylor again. Friendless, ugly, and worthless. I took a deep breath and exhaled hard, trying to expel those nasty thoughts simultaneously. I wasn't that person anymore. I had friends now. I was even dating now! That part was a surprise to me. Part of me had feared that I would end up as some kind of lonely old cat lady, with only Mrs. Fluffypaws to keep me company. Except she wasn't even my cat!

I had no idea why Vicky wanted to be with me. I mean, Vicky was famous, popular, and beautiful. I was just… me. Of course I found her attractive, but I never thought that she would actually want to be with me in that way. It was a lot to try to wrap my mind around, but I was taking a page out of her book and just going with the flow.

"And you dragged two young, impressionable school girls down the path of truancy with you," Vicky added.

"Um, technically I'm not truant," Lily chimed in. "I graduated a year early, so I already have my high school diploma."

"Hush Yuki," Vicky said to her, "there's no need to defend the wicked Elphie right now." Vicky turned to face me. "And then there was that weird incest fantasy you told me about."

"That wasn't-, ugh, I was just joking alright!" I defended myself feebly. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell Vicky my suspicions about Amy. I mean, it's not like I was one hundred sure that Amy was in love with her own sister. Vicky been giving me plenty of grief about it ever since, and I was dreading Amy's reaction if she ever found out about what I said.

Vicky smirked at me. "Though I guess I should be flattered that you think I'm so amazing and beautiful and wonderful that I could even charm my sister."

I rolled my eyes at her, but let her have the last word on that subject. Vicky had been a bit down lately, so it was nice to see her back to her old self. The details of her birthday party had unfortunately leaked out onto PHO. The tabloid headlines read: "Glory Girl terrorizes schoolchildren at birthday party!" From what she told me, her mom had chewed her out quite a bit for losing control of her aura in such a public fashion.

"So," Lily said, thankfully changing the subject, "I get that we're out dressed like hoodlums, but what exactly is the plan here? Just hope we stumble on someone who knows something and interrogate them?"

"Nah," Vicky said, "we just need to get around the vicinity of various shady looking people and then have Elphie use her mind reading magic to commit a gross invasion of privacy."

"Wait, you can read minds?" Lily asked me, with a panicked look on her face.

"I think so? It's either that or some kind of cold reading ability," I replied. "But don't worry. I would never use it on a friend. Or in a situation that wasn't important. I hold myself to a very high standard of responsibility with it." Inadvertently peeking into Amy's mind had taught me thatparticular lesson. Lily still looked pretty scared though. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. I hated all the Simurgh comparisons that my power came with. "I've never used it on you. I promise."

Lily looked a bit mollified, though still nervous. We made our way deeper into the docks district, and towards the Dockyards where my dad worked. We were walking through some of the more questionable parts of town now. It was pretty bleak, as abandoned storefronts with busted windows and excessive graffiti on walls greeted as we walked through. Looking around us, it was hard to believe that we were only a relatively short drive away from the thriving downtown area with its gleaming skyscrapers and yuppie joggers.

I imagine Dad would be pretty upset if he found out I was ditching school for this, so it was good that we were in disguise. It felt weird being out on a mission without my Nightingale costume or most of gear. I wasn't completely unarmed though. I still had my pepper spray, as well as a brand new Taser. A real genuine one, and not just a cheap stun gun like what I had before. Apparently Taser was actually a brand. It was just one of those things where the brand had become synonymous with the product itself, like jacuzzi or velcro or zamboni. Quinn had given me a bit of an impromptu intellectual property lecture when I asked him to buy me several Tasers, so that Dad and I would always have one around.

Vicky nudged me gently, shaking me out of my musings, and pointed towards a shady looking vagrant who was huddled over at a bus stop. "What about that guy," she whispered quietly to me.

I sighed, and activated my thought detection spell. This whole thing was a bit uncomfortable for me, but I guess we really didn't have anything better planned. I turned my focus towards the vagrant. Shit shit shit. I'm outta crank. Need to score a fix. Shit shit shit. But I got nothing…

I grimaced and turned away from him. "Not him," I murmured back to my companions. "He doesn't know anything." Just another despondent soul sucked dry by the ennui of- Ouch! I rubbed my forehead where Vicky had just flicked me. "What was that for?"

Vicky stared straight into my eyes. "You had that look on your face like you were monologuing internally about something depressing."

"I was not!"

"Uh, why are we starting with trying to find Merchants?" Lily interrupted. "You know some of the Dockworkers right? Wouldn't a better starting point be just going to the Docks and chatting with a few of them?"

"B-but… our disguises!" Vicky protested. "And our code names!"

I winced. Did we waste all that time coming up with all of that stuff, when a much simpler approach was available? Sure I didn't want Dad to know what I was up to, but I could probably get in and chat with some of the other guys there. At least Vicky had fun during the planning stages. "I guess that's why you're the veteran crime fighter, Lily."

Lily laughed sheepishly. "I don't think being a veteran had anything to do with that."

With a new plan in motion, we eventually we made our way to the actual Docks where my Dad's office was, with Vicky sulking all the way. I patted her on the back as we approached. "There, there. Don't worry Vicky, the disguiseswere a good idea." They really weren't.

Vicky let out a sigh as her shoulders slumped a little. "That's OK. You don't need to patronize me, Tay-Tay. I'm a big girl."

The Dockyard was surrounded by fences with barbed wire, with a gated area and security shack the only way in. Other than flying of course. A lot of conventional security measures were pretty meaningless when dealing with capes. A number of brightly colored shipping containers were visible through the fences, but there were too few of them for a port of this size.

"Huh, that's new." I pointed towards the small guard station at the entrance. There were four burly looking men standing around, looking suitably menacing. "Usually it's just one guard, Frank, during the day," I explained.

"Upgraded security?" Lily asked. "But where did the money come from?"

"Let's go ask him!" Vicky suggested.

Well that was blunt, but the straightforward approach definitely suited Vicky. "Alright," I agreed, "but let me do the talking."

We approached the front gate, but were immediately stopped by a large man with a shaved head. I frowned at the sight of his haircut. He looked too young to be naturally bald, but I didn't want to make any assumptions. I mean, it's not like every bald guy in town was a Nazi. Maybe he had alopecia, or just had early hair loss issues.

"Beat it, kids. This is private property," he drawled at us. Fuck, I'm not getting paid enough for this shit. It's boring as hell.

"Uhh, are you new here?" I asked.

"What part of beat it did you not understand?" Goddam hood rats. Always up to no good. Although the blonde one is kind of hot… she looks familiar...

"Relax! My dad works here," I quickly said, hoping to interrupt that particular train of thought. I had to direct the flow of conversation adeptly in order to read his surface thoughts. "Where's Frank? He's usually here."

The security guard, Jason according to his nametag, visibly relaxed. "The old guy? Reassigned or fired. I don't know. He wasn't cutting it anymore." Not like the rest of us could do shit if any capes actually did show up.

"Well I'm glad to see they're finally taking security seriously around here," I said, sending a quick glance at the rest of the security guards. "There's a lot more security now compared to before. Good thing they found the room in the budget, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess," Jason the security guard replied slowly. What's with this kid. Not that I'm complaining about the new job. If that Medhall contract hadn't come through, I'd probably be working for the fucking E88 now. "Who's your dad? Do you want to see him or what? I'd have to call you in."

Shit. What to do. I flashed him my winningest smile. "Umm, maybe not. I'm actually ditching school right now actually. I was just in the area, but I don't him to find out."

The security guard sighed. Is she really trying to hit on me? I ain't no pedo. "Look kid, you can't hang around here. If you're not going in, then you need to get lost."

I nodded quickly and scurried back to where Vicky and Lily were waiting for me.

"We're not going in?" Lily asked.

"With the new security guard, I'd have to call my dad to get in… which I'd rather not do right now," I replied sheepishly. Ditching school and skulking around his workplace looking for clues… it was pretty much the exact opposite of what he wanted from me right now. "I did get one thing from him though. He thought about some contract with Medhall when I asked him about the new security budget."

"Medhall?" Vicky tapped her chin thoughtfully. "That's the second time they've shown up this month in something we've dealt with."

Before we could figure out what to do next, the sound of sirens filled the air. It had to be at least several police cars, though I couldn't see anything from where we were. Cop cars driving around wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence for this neighborhood.

"That sounds like trouble. Should we check it out?" Lily suggested.

"Now? While you guys are out of costume?" Vicky asked. "I mean, I can go check it out. It's probably nothing."

"We'll come too," I said. "Just in case you need backup."