Victoria Dallon bathed in the lambent glow of a brilliant full moon as she soared over the twinkling nighttime skyline of Brockton Bay. Her cape, trailed out behind her, snapped in the wind rushing past her face. Not at all a bad night for a flight. In the absence of anything planned for the evening by New Wave, and with Ames out at one of the hospitals, a quick bit of solo patrolling before linking up with Dean had seemed like a great way to pass what might otherwise have been some wasted hours.
As she passed over the last skyscraper of Downtown and dropped down to match the lower buildings, a faint glow caught her eye. A couple blocks to her west, on the roof of a five-story apartment building, a laptop screen stood out bright against the darkness. Her curiosity piqued, Victoria shot up to avoid detection, and flew closer. As she approached, she saw two figures hunched over the laptop, their backs to the three-foot-high brick wall which enclosed the top of the building. Victoria peered a little closer, then nodded. It might be dark, but that combination of fedora and coat with a petite female frame were unmistakable. Only Shamus was eccentric enough to sport that look, which also identified the gangly figure next to her as Flutter.
With nothing else to distract her, Victoria found herself unable to resist the tug of curiosity. She dropped down towards the roof and touched down silently on the far side. Both Shamus and Flutter remained fixated on the laptop
"Hiya, Flutter, Shamus," she said with a cheery wave. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you guys up to?"
Shamus's head snapped up, and she bit her lip to choke down a startled exclamation. Victoria carefully smoothed any hint of satisfaction out of her facial expression. Messing with people like that might be rude, true, but she'd gotten the impression that Shamus needed you to needle her a bit to get any real respect from her. Flutter, on the other hand, didn't so much as budge. Her lenses hid her eyes, but from her non-reaction Victoria would have bet she'd sensed her during the landing. That had to be the early-warning bug sensor net Flutter had mentioned when they'd pulled her and Shamus off of that rooftop. Victoria marveled at the possibilities. Honestly, she had to find the time to sit Flutter down and talk through her power at length.
"Jeez, you scared the crap out of me!" Shamus said with a groan. She nudged Flutter. "You could have warned me, you know?"
Flutter shrugged innocently. "She came down pretty quickly."
Shamus scowled. "You just wanted to see me jump, admit it."
"I can neither confirm nor deny that." Flutter waved back to Victoria. "It's good to see you, Glory Girl. I hope you're doing OK."
Victoria smiled. "I am, thanks. Hey, is that a new costume? It looks great." The drab, utilitarian grays which had previously comprised Flutter's outfit, suggesting some kind of giant spider or pillbug, had been replaced by rich orange and black. The overall effect was much more welcoming. Victoria found herself nodding in approval.
"It is, thanks," Flutter said. "Actually, talking to you got me thinking about my image a lot more, and Shamus ended up connecting me with Parian to work on the design."
"You should've seen how horrified she was at what Flutter was walking around in," Shamus said. "Personally, though, it was a lot easier to cast you as the bad cop in that outfit. I'm too much of a conversationalist to make a convincing one myself, either."
Shamus motioned to Victoria. "Hey, take a seat over here and stay low, alright? We're in the middle of a stakeout here. A Greek goddess walking around on the rooftop is going to draw some eyeballs."
Victoria nodded, crouched, and scurried over to join them. She sat on the other side of Shamus and peered at the screen, which appeared to show video feeds of the exterior and interior of the adjacent building. "So, you guys are doing a stakeout? Do you have a webcam set up or something?"
"Yup," Flutter said. "We set one up on the rim of the roof here, and I planted a couple other small ones inside that building earlier with bug teams."
"That's pretty creative," Victoria said. "I'm not sure if it's entirely by-the-books legal, but I'm not my mom, so I'm not saying anything. Hey, what kind of bugs did you haul it with? That sounds like it'd be pretty difficult."
"Well, it involves quite a lot of spider silk," Flutter said. "But you'd be surprised what you can get done with enough bugs."
"What inspired you to drop in, if you don't mind me asking?" Shamus asked, just a tad peevishly. "I seriously need to get into the habit of looking at the sky more, apparently, with all you guys zipping around willy-nilly up there. Have I ever mentioned how unfair it is that flying's always a package deal?"
"But it's interesting that it is, right?" Victoria said. "I mean, why is that? Arbitrarily defying gravity's just as impossible as making an antimatter bomb, but you never see any Tinkers who can naturally fly. Or Thinkers, for that matter. Doesn't that make you curious?"
"A little, I guess?" Flutter said. She quirked her head. "I guess I never thought about it too much, honestly." The neutral tone of her voice and the bulbous matte of her goggles still created a fairly intimidating impression, even with the new suit. Suggesting she add some color had definitely been the right choice.
Shamus quirked an eyebrow. "Wow, I didn't realize you were this much of a cape geek. That's pretty surprising. Uh, no offense?"
Not taking the bait seemed to be the wisest course of action. "Aren't you too? You've got investigative Thinker powers, after all, right? I mean, I assumed from the detective outfit, but you've clearly put a lot of work into cultivating that image. I figured you'd be all over these kinds of big-picture mysteries."
"That's a trade secret," Shamus said with a non-committal twist of her lips. "Now, quit dangling intriguing existential questions in front of me before I get a headache. I've got a stakeout to focus on here."
"That's not her being rude or anything, by the way. She literally will get a headache," Flutter added helpfully. "You could maybe call it a bit of karmic justice for getting to lord it over us the rest of the time."
Victoria chuckled. Flutter certainly had changed. When New Wave had first pulled Shamus and Flutter off of that rooftop months ago, Victoria had done her best to learn a bit about Flutter by drawing her into a conversation, but the girl had almost seemed unused to just talking to people. Now, though, it seemed like she could hold her own, and then some. All things considered, Shamus had probably been pretty lucky to find a partner who knew how to be a little more diplomatic.
That brought another thought back to Victoria's mind.
"Hey, what ended up happening with that jaunt you took through Empire territory a while back? Did you end up finding whatever you needed?"
"Oh, uh, yeah", Flutter said. "That all ended up working out. Thanks for asking."
"That's good to hear. The Empire hasn't been pressuring you guys too much, has it?" Victoria asked. She cracked her knuckles. "We'd always be happy to jump in and help if they do. It'd be a genuine pleasure, I promise."
"Appreciated, but we've got the situation under control," Shamus said. "If they want to fuck with us, let's just say they'll find out that there's big downsides to trying to push around Thinkers."
"I'm sure you guys have a handle on it, but if things do get a little too nasty, don't wait until it's too late to reach out," Victoria said. "You guys are good people, and god knows those are in scarce enough supply in Brockton these days. Plus, any chance to pound on those guys is seriously welcome."
"We'll keep that in mind," Flutter said. Her head tilted towards the laptop screen. "Hey, did something just move on camera two?"
Shamus hummed. "Maybe, maybe. I still don't think that this guy's going to shift for at least a few more minutes, though."
Victoria adjusted her crouch and leaned in. "What's with the stakeout, if you don't mind me asking?" she said. "Are you guys on another Empire case?" Sure, it might be butting in a little, but where was the harm in asking?
"Gee, you've got the Empire on the brain," Shamus said. "Nah, we figured it'd be best to avoid prodding them in the eye for a bit. This is some pretty bog-standard PI work for a change. Extortion, theft, all very petty and extremely sordid."
"It is a little refreshing to not have to worry about the other guys having superpowers for once," Flutter said. "I could get used to that." Her posture shifted a bit awkwardly. "Although I guess I did get us nabbed by run-of-the-mill goons our first time out."
Shamus waved a hand. "First of all, we agreed we'd split the blame on that, and second, I'd like to think we've learned from that particular experience. Not gonna happen again on my watch."
"Hence the cameras, I assume?" Victoria said.
Shamus nodded. "Exactly. The watchword is watchfulness."
Flutter shook her head. "If that's what you came up with, you must be even more tired than I am, which is really saying something."
Shamus grimaced. "Not my best work, I'll admit," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I really am beat."
"How long have you been up here for, anyways?" Victoria said.
Shamus checked the very expensive watch adorning her left wrist. The understated, classic style of the watch perfectly complimented Shamus's finely-tailored vintage coat. Might be Parian's work there too, come to think of it.
"That'd be, uh, six hours now? Wow, really? Jesus. What a way to spend an afternoon."
"And evening, now," Flutter added helpfully. Shamus just groaned.
"Honestly, I'd have a hard time staking something out for more than like thirty minutes, and that might be a charitable estimate," Victoria said. "You guys have seriously been up here all day? Hats off to you."
Shamus doffed her hat in reply, then pointed the hand holding it at Victoria's head. "Looks like you forgot to wear yours today. Happens to the best of us."
"I imagine the gesture would look a bit silly with a tiara," Victoria said.
"Point taken," Shamus said. "Say, aren't you going to miss linking up with that Protectorate patrol you're meeting?"
"Eh, I've got a few minutes." It was a little creepy how she did that. And fascinating, of course. Not telepathy, obviously, but then what was it?
"Oh, you'd better believe it's telepathy," Shamus said with a devious waggle of the eyebrows. "Like an open book."
Victoria smirked. "Yeah, sure. Careful about piquing my interest if you do want to keep the particulars a secret. I've been looking for another research project to dive into."
"Well, if you're ever in the mood, I could probably use some more info on how mine works," Flutter said. "I keep feeling like I should be able to sense more through my bugs, but I can't quite work out how. It feels like it just keeps barely sliding past my fingertips."
"That does sound like exactly my kind of fun," Victoria said with a grin. "If I turn anything up I'll let you know." She peered at the camera feeds again. "Are you sure you don't want me to just bust in there and grab the guy? Ten seconds, tops."
Shamus sighed. "As fantastically tempting as that is given how long we've spent sitting on this rooftop, I'm afraid it's not that kind of case. If we thought the brute-force approach approach would work, I'd have Flutter covering this guy with centipedes from head to toe right now."
"To be clear, vicious bug swarms are not my first solution to everything," Flutter said. "Sometimes I think we give off the wrong impression there."
"Hey, if it works," Shamus said. Victoria wasn't quite sure, on account of the mask, but she thought she heard Flutter give a resigned sigh.
"Anyways, thanks for the offer to help," Flutter added. "Y'know, I think I'd love to punch through a wall at least once in my life. It must be quite a rush."
Victoria laughed. "Well, I can't lie, it does feel pretty fantastic. Great way to let off a little steam. Even so, though, you two guys have a completely unique way of perceiving and interacting with the world, in a way that I literally probably can't even comprehend. Don't you think that's kinda incredible?"
Shamus beamed. "Why yes, I do think I'm pretty incredible. It's about time some other people started noticing. Thanks for that!"
Victoria snorted. "I'm very happy to have helped," she said dryly. "Really, don't mention it."
Flutter tilted her head, as though listening to some unseen voice. A moment later, she turned to Shamus. "I'm pretty sure our guy's on the move," she said.
"Bug tracer?" Victoria asked. Honestly, it truly was a fascinating power.
Flutter nodded. "People still haven't seemed to catch on. I guess I'm still flying under the radar."
"And the lower the profile, the smaller the target, which suits us just fine for now," Shamus said. "Yup, there he is on camera two, heading downstairs. That's our cue." Shamus snapped the laptop shut, slid it into a backpack on the ground next to her, and clambered to her feet. Flutter scooped up the backpack and tugged it on. Shamus clearly felt that toting around a backpack would clash more than a bit with her exquisitely tailored outfit. She had a point there.
"Sorry to bail on you, but we have to get moving," Flutter said. "We've got to tail this guy a ways across town."
"The plot thickens!" Victoria said. "Well, don't let me keep you. Thanks for humoring me." She rose a few feet into the air and gave the two of them a jaunty two-finger salute. "You guys have to fill me in the next time I see you!"
"As long as you don't nearly give me a heart attack again," Shamus said. "That's my one condition."
"Think of it as me keeping you on your toes," Victoria said with a wink. "You never know who might be flying around up here! Seeya around, guys."
Flutter waved goodbye, and nudged Shamus, who half-heartedly waved as well. The two of them disappeared into the roof stairwell as Victoria rose into the night.
