Realign 14.2
Tuesday, August 2
"You going to call that number or just stare at it some more?"
You ignore Samantha's comment with the ease of long practice. In front of you is a screen containing all the contact information stored in Perfect Storm. You never use it, mostly because it is so much easier to tell your Device to call the person in question, but right now it gives you a degree of separation that you need to consider your actions.
"I'm pretty sure if you tap her name, Storm will call the number."
"Shush." You tear your eyes away from Laura's name. "I don't know what I would say. 'Sorry I called you a coward and said you deserved to be murdered. By the way, you're a magical girl!' Yeah, I don't think that's going to work."
The Guardian Beast sighs. "Not phrased like that, it won't. You haven't thought about what you're going to say to her at all, have you?"
You have thought about it quite a bit. The problem is that even after all that thinking, you still haven't yet figured out what to say and how to say it. You made some horrible accusations out of anger, and then not only did she prove you wrong but she did it in the most impressive way. It is hard to call someone a coward when they then let the Simurgh into their brain, which Cassiel admitted she told Laura when you questioned her about it during those two days in Master/Stranger quarantine.
In Laura's shoes, you do not think you would have been willing to do the same.
Flicking the screen, you scroll through your list of contacts to find someone else to talk to who does not bring up so many complicated feelings. Your finger lands on the name Standstill, and you tilt your head in thought. You have not spoken to the hero turned villain turned hero in a while, not since the two of you gave a quick class about Guardian Beasts to the Philadelphia PRT.
Now you find yourself wondering how she is doing.
You give the name a tap and watch the screen expand. Now you just have to wait. She is a full Protectorate hero, so more than likely you'll be sent to voice mail—
"Hello?" a voice asks after only a couple of seconds.
Or maybe she has today off. "Standstill, it's Calamity Witch. I was just calling to see how you and Cat Sith were doing."
Her snort catches you by surprise. "Trust me, you don't want to know."
"No, now I very much do. I know I'm not part of the Adepts or the Protectorate, but we're both mages. There aren't enough of us for us to leave each other out in the cold." Not that you have kept up with Maclibuin or Epoch, either, you realize guiltily. You taught them magic and have only given them passing thoughts since. «Storm, can you send Maclibuin a text? Just checking in, seeing how he and Epoch are doing.»
"That'd be a first," Standstill mutters almost too quietly for you to hear. "You really want to hear me bitch about my day?"
"I have nothing better to do," you tell her in a forcibly lighthearted voice.
"That makes two of us. I'm stuck on Console." That is what the faint clicking in the background is! "Actually, there's no one else in here at the moment. Let me… Okay. If you have that much free time, you can teleport in."
Teleport in? Just like that? You turn to look at Samantha, who gives you a shrug. Alright, then. Dismissing the screen, you spin code through your head and hurtle both of you through space.
The room that reforms around you looks more like a lounge area than an office. Couches and chairs are scattered around with a few coffee tables added almost randomly. A door in the corner leads to what looks like a kitchenette, but one that is rarely used if the stack of pizza boxes and Chinese take-out containers piled up in the trash can are any indication. One wall of the room is taken up by almost a dozen screens set above a desk with three keyboards. It is here that Standstill sits, her cowl pulled off and lying on the desk within easy reach.
A black house cat is stretched out on the middle cushion of one couch, and she opens one green eye to look at you and Samantha before closing it and returning to her nap.
"Don't try sitting in that couch," Standstill says helpfully, typing something on one keyboard. "The last time Jouster tried it, she turned into a tiger just to spite him. She's claimed that as her territory."
«Jouster is an asshole,» the cat replies. «I don't know why you wanted to date him at any point, though it explains your thing with Felix Swoop.»
"Hey!" she yelps, her cheeks stained bright red. "Ix-nay on anything about my love life!"
Cat Sith has her eyes closed, but you still imagine you can see them rolling. «More like your sex life. There was no love in either of those.»
"Days like today, I wish I hadn't given you the ability to talk," the cape mutters, but the smile on her face belies her words. She turns to you and gives you a small, weak smile. "We haven't exactly met like this. Out of costume, my name's Sarah."
A thought has your hat and mask vanishing. "Taylor. And she's still Samantha." You look around the room again. "Are you sure it's okay for us to be here? We aren't Protectorate, after all."
She shrugs. "It's okay. This is the branch that Legend is personally in charge of, so we often play nice and open like this to capes who are thinking about joining up. There's an alarm set up for just that reason. It'll go off for ten seconds when someone hits the button to enter, so that gives us time to put masks back on. Way more than enough time for you, apparently," she adds with a quirked eyebrow.
"My costume is a full-body illusion and forcefield. One of the benefits of magic." That comment causes her to frown, and you find your worry returning. "You offered to bitch about your day. Lay it on me."
«She's miserable.»
"Things haven't been going great," she explains, ignoring the commentary from her Guardian Beast. "Mostly it's because I painted myself black when I left to join the Adepts and then came back with my tail between my legs. There isn't a lot of trust left, and then Cat decided she had to be a cat to everyone, so…"
«I will not go so far as to say that humans are lesser beings, but it is a near thing.»
That pulls a smile from Sarah, and you find yourself mirroring the expression. "I remember Legend had some complaints about her fitting in."
"They seem to have sorted things out between them, or at least they're pretending to do so for my sake. Took them long enough, though." Once again the humor falls away. "No, my problems are more to do with my capabilities or lack thereof, not to mention trying to fit them in with my job. I heard you were in Sydney."
You assume there is a point to this seeming non sequitur. "I was."
"Me too, not that I could do much. Not much of a use for search and rescue thanks to Dragon's new armbands, and Cat refused to leave my side, so I wound up standing around with the wave group so she would use her shield to block the waves." Sarah crossed her arms and scowled at nothing in particular. "Felt pretty damn useless, I can tell you that much. Not like I can put Leviathan to sleep. Tried that, actually, with all the charms Mac made for me. Didn't even touch him."
"Not much does," you remind her. "Five of us poured some of our heaviest firepower on him. He just blocked it with his echo." Which does make you a little happier in hindsight that you did not shoot him with Ragnarök and miss.
"It sucks alright. 'Course, my power always makes me useless. It was why I joined up with Epoch in the first place. Thought we'd come up with some way for me to stay awake." She sighs. "Anyway. I thought being useless and mistrusted was bad enough. Turns out being mistrusted and seen as scary is far worse."
"What happened?" asks Samantha.
«She saved a bunch of idiots who should be kissing her feet in thanks, and instead they are treating her like a monster,» Cat Sith says with an audible growl.
"It's— Okay, it is that bad." Sarah looks over at the screens and nods to herself. "Sorry, have to make sure things are okay. Console shifts are ninety-five percent boredom and five percent terror.
"It was this past weekend. Cat and I were actually in the field for a change, working with a few other capes from the other borough offices. There is a Master running around in SoHo, so enough rich people screaming about it to the mayor turned it into an all hands on deck situation. We actually managed to track her down. Powerful emotion manipulator; the Think Tank thinks she may be one of Heartbreaker's kids."
You wince at that. Heartbreaker is considered to be the human-controlling Master in North America. Any kids of his, presuming they have powers related to his own, would be scary for anyone without telepathic immunity to fight.
Sarah gives you a nod. "Looks like you get the picture. Problem is, by the time we found her, she already knew we were coming. Toyed with us for a while, but then she decided she had enough fun and it was time to run. As she was walking out, she hit us with a ton of depression and guilt and told us to kill ourselves."
Cat Sith growls at that and slides off the couch to pad over to Sarah's chair and hop into her lap. Sarah runs her hands through the black fur and takes a deep breath. "Sorry. I can still feel it in the back of my head sometimes. Cat was outside in tiger form, and because she wasn't human and doesn't think like a human, she could throw the effect off. Then she noticed what was going on in my head and yelled at me."
«I didn't know exactly what was going on,» the Guardian Beast says with a shake of her head. «I could tell something wasn't right, though.»
"When she did that, it snapped me out of it, but I was the only one. Some of the others were about to follow her command, and I didn't have many options available to me. So I, well, whistled."
"You… whistled?" You have to be missing something because that makes no sense.
She nods. "I whistled, in my head. I have powerful telepathy, so I used that and sent that whistle to everyone I could. It worked to block her powers over them just like it did me, and we could give chase. When she saw we were after her, I guess she panicked, and we had to deal with everyone in the hotel she had control over attacking us. By the time we finally had that taken care of, she was gone.
"Word got around after that. I've never done anything like that before, and for some reason trying to explain it as a magic power isn't convincing to most people. So now everyone believes I have a Master power that's stronger than one of Heartbreaker's kid's powers and I've been hiding it all this time. Doesn't create a lot of trust. Legend tried to calm them down, but apparently they didn't listen to him, either."
"Wait. You saved their butts, and they're being dicks about it?" you demand.
«Pretty much.»
"Unfortunately. None of the other borough offices want their capes near me, and the ones here already thought they had reason to keep me at arm's length. So long story short, whether I like it or not I'm getting rebranded and have to transfer to another branch. They haven't told me where, but Legend promised it wouldn't be the ass end of nowhere or a quarantine zone. L.A. or Houston is possible since those are Alexandria's and Eidolon's cities. Chicago maybe. Or Kansas City, especially with the Fallen expanding out like they did in Florida." She shrugs. "I don't know."
Sarah hesitates for a moment. "That does bring to mind something I, uh, do want to talk to you about." You wave for her to go on. "Back when you were offering to teach us magic, you said you could gives us a tool to help us with it or… something else, where we remember spells we've never used before? Something like that, anyway."
You nod, thinking you know where she is going with this.
"I remember I said thanks but no thanks to both of those because I would have to go through the trouble of rebranding, but, well… I mean, I have to rebrand now anyway?" She grimaces. "It sounds really selfish to say it like that, and I don't want it to sound like I'm ungrateful for teaching me how to make Cat Sith. It's more like I'm rethinking my decision, both because my power's kind of crap and useless and because completely getting rid of it and going full magic would give me a fresh start. Even if I rebrand with the same power, word's probably going to get around that the new cape with the sleeping power is that traitor Standstill, don't trust her."
"No, I get it," you assure her. "I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you right now. Making templates isn't easy or simple, and I can't do it for… How long until we can make a new template, Storm?"
"Ten days," the Device answers.
"For that long. A regular Device would be more doable, but I can't build them on my own. You and I would need to coordinate things with Shipwright."
She nods along with your words. "I can understand that. I know I'm springing a big request on you out of the blue. And this is after I already refused. I'm actually kind of surprised you're willing to consider it at all. I appreciate it!" she adds before you can say anything. "I'm just surprised. It's, you know, more trust than I'm getting from my own team right now, and they've known me for three years."
«Response from Maclibuin, Mistress. 'We're doing real good right now. I got a new job with one of the children's hospitals in town. That's keeping me busy. Epoch hasn't gone the rogue route yet, but I think he's having too much fun spanking some of the local gangs and upstart vigilantes. Things are going better for us now than they have pretty much since we started the Adepts.'»
You are glad two-thirds of the Adepts are happy with how things are going. Now you just have to figure out what to do to help the last one. "Like I said, we're both mages. There are only a few of us running around. Let me see what I can do to help, okay?"
"Thanks," she says softly. "Don't think it's something you have to do right now. Rebranding isn't fast. I probably won't be going anywhere until September. Anything you can do to help before then, though, I'll be thankful for."
Silently Watches out.