Realign 14.g
Thursday, August 16
Rings of blue light faded as Shipwright – Tim, as he had insisted she call him – and Dragon's teleporter deposited the three girls to the destination Taylor picked out for them, and Laura looked around with interest that rapidly turned into a mild annoyance. Of course Taylor would think a rooftop was the perfect meeting place. The cape in question was sitting on top of her staff as it floated in the air but turned around after the light show ended. Her lips twisted in some vague expression when she looked over them. "All three of you decided to show up, then?"
"There isn't much point in becoming mages like you and then sitting on the sidelines," Missy said with a shrug. The motion pulled Laura's attention back to the armored fake arm she had on that still had Laura in a very mild little freak-out because just what the hell?! "So what are we starting with? We taking out an entire gang at once or something?"
Taylor's expression grew into an actual grin. "Nothing that ambitious. See that building over there?" she asked, accompanying the question with a point at a long building on the other side of the street. "I've seen a bunch of regular gang members go in and out for the last hour. Terrorhorses, or should be considering what part of the city we're in. That'll be your testing ground."
"Doesn't sound like it'll be that much help getting ready to fight the Fallen of all people," Laura pointed out, pulling her eyes back to Taylor and away from the freaky robot arm. She also did her best to hold back a scowl because really? This was their warm-up?
The first response her comment earned was a waggling hand. "Yes and no, to be honest. Will it be exactly the same? Of course not." Taylor eyed her for a long moment before continuing, "But it isn't like you're exactly new to fighting. Both you and Missy were capes before you were mages, so the issue isn't learning how to fight but how to fight with your new kits. That part, this can help with."
Laura was barely listening to her, instead staring at Missy who in turn was staring right back. Missy was a cape? She had assumed she was like Kayleigh, just somebody Taylor knew and found out had magic. If she was a cape, though…
She shook her head. It was not as though she needed to know which cape Missy used to be, but she would not deny that she was extremely curious, and Missy probably felt the same way about her.
"Kayleigh, sorry but you're the one who has the most new things to get used to," Taylor added with a helpless shrug. "You're good with a gun, but you've never been in a real fight, at least not that I know of?"
Kayleigh shook her head.
"So you have a lot to learn. If it helps? I don't think you need to be the super-heavy hitter, and I don't want you to be. From what Tim and Firefly told me after all of you left, the magic bullets you can make give you more versatility than any of us, maybe all three of us put together. I figured you'd probably be more of a harasser or a sharpshooter. Keep enemies off-balance and take potshots where you can and that have the most impact. And," she added after a moment, "even if you aren't as magically strong as the three of us, that doesn't mean you can't be just as effective when we're dealing with normal criminals or common parahumans. I may have spells that can melt entire city blocks, but there's a reason I still use Flare Shooter more than any other spell except for flight. And since the people in that building are regular gang-bangers, you won't be in any danger whatsoever.
"As for this not being a real-life practice for going after the Fallen, there are a couple of reasons I want to hit the Simurgh family first. One is that they are the most dangerous to normal capes because they are filthy with Masters, but the other?" Taylor's smile became far sharper than Laura liked. "We are all mages with Devices. That means we are completely immune to Masters, and Cassiel is jamming up their own precogs. Probably ninety percent of the Simurgh family can't do shit to us. Just like the people in that building."
"And for the other ten percent?" she could not help but ask.
Taylor shrugged. "That's why we have Barrier Jackets."
"You know what? I'm feeling better about this already," Kayleigh told the group as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "The four of us are just going to barge in, kick some butt, and walk out? Sounds doable."
"Not quite," the more experienced mage told her, bursting their collective bubble. "It's more the three of you. I'll be up here watching the feeds from your Devices. If you need help or advice, I'll be able to give it to you, and I can teleport to you if you get really in over your head. Otherwise, I'm going to let you play around with the skills Tim uploaded into your Devices."
"Just so we're clear, there's room for more spell codes later, right?" Missy asked. "I know Tim and Perfect Storm said the base level summon wasn't for combat, but I was kind of hoping they might be okay at it? They're… not."
"I assume so?" Taylor answered with a shrug. "Storm has plenty of memory for spells, so I assume your Boost Device should as well."
"Awesome. Let's get started!" cheered Kayleigh. She struck a pose, her right hand braced on her hip and her left hand with her Device up in the air. "Transformation Sequence, activate!"
Ribbons of yellow light streamed down from the bracelet to wrap loosely around Kayleigh's body and glowed a bright molten gold before flashing once more. Laura took one look at her before sighing. Where before had been a reasonably normal teenage girl now stood an escapee from a comic book convention. The yellow shirt she wore looked fine until one's eyes moved to the way too puffy shoulders, slimming down and fading to white as they passed Kayleigh's elbow on the way to her wrists. A dark brown corset was laced with white threads around her middle, but below that was a dark purple skirt that only went to her mid-thighs and did not at all fit the colors of her shirt. Then there were the clunky knee-high combat boot lookalikes that continued the brown leather theme of the corset.
Another look at Kayleigh's face drove home the most glaring mistake. "You don't have a mask," Laura reminded her.
"Oh, that's right. A mask," Kayleigh said with a smile and the most unconvincing innocent voice Laura had ever heard from her. Another flash of yellow light put an oversized pair of aviator sunglasses on her face, which would not be so bad except it also added a brown beret with a white puff ball sitting at a jaunty angle on her head. "There. Is that better?"
"What about those guns you got?" asked Missy.
"I'm so glad you asked!" Twin flashes of light appeared in her hands, and they left behind guns that did not look at all like they had back in Dragon's lab. The pistol in her right hand was plated in gold with black enamel all down the slide. That one looked fine. The revolver in her left hand, however, made Laura want to gag with all the cutesy bullshit Kayleigh and Firefly had done. It too was gold, but it had patches of metallic pink on the frame, and the cylinder and the handle were both painted the same purple as Kayleigh's skirt. The little red heart-shaped pendant hanging from the end of the handle was just the cherry on top.
Light from one of the street lamps flashed off the barrel and what appeared to be writing on it. Taking a deep breath to keep her calm at her best friend taking her cape persona as unserious as possible, Laura asked, "Kayleigh. What did you write on your guns?"
"It didn't seem right that fantastic one-of-a-kind guns like this didn't have names," the girl answered with a smile that was on the wrong side of the line dividing normal and crazy. "And we're magical girls. It's only proper that we go out and defeat the bad guys with the power of Love and Justice."
Silence reigned for a moment.
"Remember what I said in Florida about how there isn't anything wrong with her?" Missy said from behind Laura. "I'd like to take that back now."
"That's… very you," Taylor said with a weak smile that all but screamed how much she was regretting giving Kayleigh magical powers. In her shoes, Laura knew she would feel the exact same way.
Laura turned around and gave Missy a pleading look. "Please. As apparently one cape to another, please tell me your costume is more sensible."
"It's sensible to me." A shrug, and Missy disappeared in a flash of bloody red light.
When she reappeared, Kayleigh let out a delighted 'oooh'. It was better than Kayleigh's outfit, no question about that, but it was still weird. The part of the costume that drew her eye most, even more than the shiny steel arm, was the wide right sleeve that went from the younger girl's knuckles up her arm and then reached around the top half of her chest and presumably her back only to stop at the opposite shoulder. The drape itself was a bright white with red swirls all over it that looked almost like fingers of smoke. The wraparound blouse beneath it was black, and then below that was an ankle-length skirt in red that glittered as she moved. A second glance proved that the sparkles were make of silver sequins in the same smoke pattern as the sleeve. Unlike Taylor or Kayleigh, her mask was not around her eyes but instead covered up her nose and mouth almost like a pilot's oxygen mask. "Does this appeal more to your sensibilities?" she asked, the mask distorting her voice to sound flat and mechanical.
"Won't the white and red make you stand out? The yellow and purple Kayleigh has is bad enough, but your colors are even brighter," Taylor told her. "It's going to invite people to take a swing at you."
"You just let me worry about that," the robot voice said, sounding almost eager for that exact thing to happen.
Laura's brain caught up with something, and her gaze flicked back and forth between Taylor, Kayleigh, and Missy. "Will I have to wear a skirt too?" she asked. She never was a skirt kind of person. Even as Cailleach, she had a full bodysuit with legs. If magic armor costumes required a skirt to function properly, she was going to be deeply unhappy.
Taylor gave her a confused look. "You can wear whatever you like."
"What do you mean, will you have to wear a skirt?" Kayleigh asked on the heels of Taylor's statement. "Haven't you figured out what your costume should look like?"
"I— Well— Not really?" Her cheeks were threatening to burn up with how deep her blush was. "I was busy, okay! I spent all last night working through the training program Dragon loaded on my Device! Whoever came up with it was an absolute maniac. I didn't have time to come up with a costume."
"It's okay. It's okay," Taylor said in a placating voice, her hands held up. "If you want, I'm sure your Device can come up with something for right now, and if you don't like it you can always change it later."
She looked away. That was not the worst suggestion ever, and it was not as if she had a design in mind to run with already. «Fragarach? Can you hear me?»
«Yes, sir,» the deep voice of her Armed Device replied in her head.
A breath rushed in, but after a moment she let it out in a sigh. She had told him multiple times last night not to call her 'sir', but it seemed that verbal tic was one she was not getting rid of anytime soon. «I need an outfit. Can you come up with one? Temporarily, anyway.»
«Theme?»
The theme? She didn't know! «Not whatever Kayleigh's doing,» she finally decided. «Maybe something knight themed? Taylor did mention something called Knight Armor. But not just a boring generic knight. God knows there are a million and one capes out there who took that road. And no boob plate or armor bikini or any of that creepy fetishy shit.»
«Acknowledged. Knight theme. Individual. Functional.» Her earring gave out a deep metallic thrum, and the entire world faded into darkness until her own arms were the only thing she could see. The surroundings lit up again, but this time it was a faint blue-white light from all around that made her feel as if she was floating in the middle of an air pocket deep inside a glacier. It was… honestly breathtaking.
A bitterly cold wind sprung up from below her feet, causing her to shiver slightly. Her shirt and shorts and shoes started glowing white, and before she could say anything they fell apart into bursts of snow that immediately vanished to leave her wearing nothing at all.
«Initializing.»
Grinding came from where the wind originated, and she looked down to find chunks of steel flying her way. The chunks slowed as they got closer and came to a stop in orbit around her legs before falling inwards and forming a pair of armored boots with low wedge heels. More metal followed them, and armor wrapped around her knees and thighs nearly to her hips. Inlaid along the steel were strips of sapphire blue to bring attention to the edges of the armor. Light flashed above the thigh armor, her Device at least giving her back some underwear.
It was not from below but behind that the next piece of clothing came, and she was using that term loosely. A wide strip of animal hide of all things wrapped around her torso, the grey and black fur tickling slightly as it moved but radiating an unbelievable feeling of warmth. It finally stopped at her neck, and frost spread out on the hairless side only for the patches to join together and expand into a pure white chain mail shirt. It was no boob plate, she would give Fragarach that, but it certainly fit and flattered her figure.
Cracks, like ice being stepped on, distracted her from her evaluation. She looked up to see two circular diagrams floating to the sides, and her hands were pulled towards them as if by gravity until her arms were completely extended. The circles spat out more steel, this time linking up around her hands and forearms to create fingerless gauntlets that somehow had more fur along the edge close to her elbow. Another flurry of metal flew out and melted onto her shoulders to form pauldrons with visible knotwork designs all over the surface.
Laura pulled her hands away from the circles and looked at the armor now covering her limbs before giving it an approving nod.
Something seized her waist, and her eyes shot downward to find another strip of hide wrapped around her like a belt. A belt that gained a second belt when squares of studded leather landed on the hide to form a complete ring. From the bottom of that leather belt was spat a wide strip of ragged blue cloth that went down to the middle of her shins. It was a skirt, she realized with a hint of disgust, but with slits on both sides wide enough that it was almost more like a very wide loincloth instead. And, to her relief, when she tried to move her legs around those slits were wide enough that they would not constrain her legs at all.
A tap on her head, and she looked up to find a mask looking back at her. A masquerade mask, she realized. Not entirely unlike Taylor's, but where the fire magician's mask was all red wire twisted together, this was a curved band of steel with eye holes ringed in blue and even little wedges on the outside corners of the holes that made it appear almost like eyeshadow. She would take it, and without hesitation she turned it around and pressed it against her face.
Her hair tingled and was gently pulled as if it was being stretched out. Which was exactly what happened, she saw when something tickled the band of skin visible between the short sleeve of the chainmail shirt and the gauntlet. The tickling was from several strands of hair that were far longer than where they previously ended at her shoulders, and instead of dark brown they were the same blue she dyed her bangs.
She sighed, but a small smile sat on her face. At least no one could recognize her based off her hair anymore.
Her earring was tugged out of her ear, and she watched it float in front of her only for it to suddenly grow and stretch into a foot-long cylinder of steel. From the left, right, and top ice started growing. On the left, it created a curved claw. On the top, a conical spike. And on the right, it reached out and then down until it was a large bearded axe. The ice shattered and blew away in the wind that had yet to cease, and under the ice now lay metal to create the head of the halberd she had practiced with the entire night before. A handle flew out to screw into the head, and without hesitation she grabbed it and twirled it around before swinging it across her body.
At which point she saw that the strange glacier had vanished only for the real world to return, which in turn meant the other members of their little team saw that little display.
Kayleigh gave her a joking wolf whistle. "As armor goes, that's not half bad."
Taylor was also examining her costume. Laura could not tell if she was imagining it or not, but it looked almost like Taylor's eyes were lingering on the quick flashes of skin above the top edge of her leg armor and the way her chainmail was molded around her curves. "It'll work," the more experienced mage finally pronounced.
"Now that we're all dressed up in our Sunday best," Missy said, interrupting the awkward evaluation, "let's get to the fun part of all this. Knocking some heads together."
The door of the gang hideout they were about to clean out was unlocked, and as she opened it up to view the dilapidated coat room beyond Missy had to admit that she was disappointed. She had hoped to get the chance to blow the door off its hinges with her particle cannon, but this was probably for the best. The explosion would have been audible even with the rap music rattling the walls, and it would be much more fun for these guys to turn around and just see them waiting.
Just thinking about that made her smile behind her mask in anticipation.
«Alright, you three,» Taylor's voice said in her head. «Have your Devices send me a video feed so I can keep track of everything. Then you can go play.»
«Cal, go ahead and link her in,» she told her Device. While it was occupied with that, she turned to her new teammates. Being on an all-girl team was going to take some getting used to; in Brockton Bay, it was just her and Shadow Stalker, and here in Philly she had been the only girl in the Wards. "Looks like it was a duplex or something at one point," she said before pointing at the stairs going up to the second floor and the two doors on either side of the room. "We have left, right, and up. Who wants which?"
"I can take upstairs," Laura said immediately, her halberd resting against her shoulder and one hand idly playing with her now long blue hair. Missy at one point had questions about just where Dragon would have gotten a training program for Laura to learn how to use her weapon, but as soon as the older mage transformed, she knew the answer. It was a good thing she had seen Armsmaster fight before because that experience would come in handy working with Laura. Or Scathach, considering they were all in costume.
Kayleigh – because there was no way Missy was ever going to use the gunslinger's full cape name. 'Sailor Shining Shot' was too weird and way too long – shrugged. "I'm good with either one."
"You take left, then, and I'll go right. But first, let's make sure nobody can slip out through a back door."
Scathach tilts her head. "This is the summon you aren't super thrilled about?"
"I'm not not thrilled. It's just…" Missy sighed. "Just watch. Calico Laughing, bring out the horde."
A bright circle with an eight-pointed star spread out below her feet, and when it reached its full size two dozen balls of light appeared and swelled up to their full size. She could feel the creatures inside forming, coming together piece by piece almost like how it felt when she first put her Barrier Jacket together. Once they were all assembled, the circle and the lights vanished.
"Awww," Kayleigh cooed at the sight of all the light brown puppies that were sniffing at their new environment.
"I get why you don't like them," Scathach said after a moment. "They aren't all that impressive, are they?"
She did not dislike them! They just were not good for helping out in a fight, but that was not the same thing as being useless! A mental command to her pack, and they turned their heads in unison towards the ice knight with their eyes glowing the same red as her magic.
"…Okay, that's creepy," the blue-haired girl admitted. "I'm, just, gonna go upstairs now."
Missy gave her a nod and looked back at the now-placid doggies. "Surround the building. If anybody but the three of us comes out, or anyone gets close, let me know."
The puppies each gave a high-pitched yip and moved away, leaving her standing there in a thoughtful silence. She did not know exactly how intelligent these summoned creatures were, but she did know that she would not have been able to give that kind of direction to a dog and have it obey. If she did figure out how to summon the next level of summon, how smart would it be? Was it possible to summon smarter than herself?
"Maybe being a Master is more complicated than I thought it was going to be," she muttered to herself.
Loud bangs coming from the building pulled her out of her thoughts. Both Scathach and Kayleigh – Sailor? That seemed like a decent nickname – were in the building already, and she was out here lost in her own head. "Oh well," she said to herself as she strolled inside and turned to walk through the doorway on the right. "It isn't like I can't catch up—
"Well hi there," she added when she saw the room was already occupied. A man with wrinkles that made him look older than he probably really was sat on the couch, a glass pipe hanging from his mouth and his glazed expression explanation enough for why he was relaxing while gunshots were still going off around him. "Just keep sitting there, and I'll leave you be."
"Cape!" he yelled, the situation finally penetrating his drugged-up skull. His hand reached for the waistband of his pants.
Missy stood there waiting.
Only after he pulled out the gun and she could clearly see it did she move. Red lightning exploded around her as parts of her Barrier Jacket fell apart, the processing power that had been dedicated to making them real instead running through an alternate program. Pulling the handle of her weapon off her belt, she thumbed the switch and watched a khopesh blade materialize in slow motion. The man's arm was not even halfway up when she reached his seat on the tiny stained couch, and she took a casual swing and watched the blunt edge of her blade slam into the side of his head.
She slid to a stop, and the world returned to normal speed so the man could hit the ground. Out cold.
Missy rolled her head before taking a look at her new stripped-down costume. Sure enough, it looked exactly like it was supposed to based on the simulation she had her Device run when she was putting this all together. The white sleeve was completely gone, revealing the top half of her blouse and the fishnet that connected the V-neck to the bottom of her mask, as well as the black bracer wrapped around her right forearm and the hemispherical studs around the wrist edge that contained the computer portion of her Device. The skirt was just mostly missing; instead of a floor-length ensemble, it was now a triangular little half-skirt with a tasseled edge that went from her right hip diagonally to halfway down her left thigh. Beneath where the skirt used to be was a pair of grey tights and tennis shoes that had gunmetal plates on the sides and back.
«I'd call Haste Mode a success. What do you think, Cal?»
«Agreement, master. Expression on enemy's face recorded for later review.»
She snorted at that. Not that she minded; having a photo album of villains and criminal with dumbstruck expressions when she suddenly wasn't where she was supposed to be was going to be hilarious. She just needed to make sure that Dennis never learned she had based part of Calico Laughing's personality program on him, even if she turned it down by a lot.
It fit her new role, though, and that was what mattered. She started taking a leisurely stroll down the hallway past the couch, a stroll that to anybody else would look like her sprinting. As Vista, her job was easy. Cut off escape routes, keep the fight contained, speed up their deployment. Maybe if she had a chance for a few hits, dash in and take them before dashing right back out, but combat was not her main role. It had been appropriate for the always-eager kid she had been when she first joined up.
Her situation now was more complicated, and her magic actually made that even worse. She wanted to deliver some punishment, but her Rare Skill was most useful for a back-row support staff. That was not what she had wanted to be, but from everything Tim and Dragon had said her ability was just too useful to ignore.
It had actually been her confrontation with Miss Militia that gave her the idea that became her entire theme. All she had done was smile at the assumption that it was going to be just her and Taylor, and that had been enough for Miss Militia's weapon to change from something innocent to a pistol. To prepare for a fight.
Maybe she should have been upset. Maybe she should have been scared. All she felt in that moment, though, was excitement. A simple expression, satisfaction at knowing something someone else did not, had put a highly experienced cape on the defensive. Off-balance. Confused.
She could easily see herself enjoying that feeling forever. It was intoxicating.
If everything about her new power was contradictory, she would embrace it. She would never be what people expected. Her full Barrier Jacket was bright and colorful and looked like it was not meant for hand to hand, and anyone who attacked her would find a blade coming at their face at super speeds. Her summons would let her know what was happening around her so she could never be caught by surprise, and if she did get a combat summon, her enemies would focus on her and be unaware that there was another knife in the dark. Her name, even, made her sound like a careful, ponderous academic when in reality she was a lightning-fast cyborg ninja. Only the name of her Device hinted at the truth.
Vista might have been content as a side kick whose main job was helping the real heroes, but Scarlet Grimoire? She was an unapologetic trickster.
She approached another doorway and grinned at the two men both carrying guns who were staring back at her. She already knew what she would do. All she was doing now was giving them the opportunity to give her the excuse. Sure enough, they pointed their guns at her. «Now.»
"Blitz Action."
She had seen Calamity Witch use Blitz Action before, attacking the Fallen who had captured her within her own mind in Florida. It was one of the reasons she wanted that spell as part of her starting repertoire. She did not recall Calamity Witch being as fast as she was now, though.
First step, she was halfway to the men from her starting position. Second step, she was between them. The hook at the point of her khopesh went around the wrist of the man on her right, and she pulled that hand and the gun it was holding around and downwards. The gun went off, and by the time the other shooter was screaming at the bullet that had just punched a hole in his leg she had already slammed the edge into the first ganger's knee and swung a backhand with her closed left fist into his jaw. He went down, and a glance at the second man found him still on the ground, his hands wrapped around the wound in his leg. She was no expert in anatomy, but it did not look like he was immediately going to bleed to death.
She switched the khopesh to her left hand so she could aim her right hand at the guns the two men had dropped. "Seal up the guns. We'll drop them off somewhere when we're done."
A squeaky chirp was Calico Laughing's response before the two pistols dissolved into swarms of red motes.
More gunshots were coming from down this corridor, and she headed that way only to stop in her tracks at the strange sight before her. Five grown men were clumped together a couple of feet above the floor, and they were all spasming as bolts of electricity flickered over them from one to another. Another cluster of stuff, this time beer bottles and porno magazines and a trio of guns, was stuck to the side of an armrest, and between the items she could see a blue and black swirl in the very middle.
She turned her head to give the yellow-garbed gun girl a questioning glance. "How in the world did you manage this?"
"Did you think I only had bullets that hurt people?" Sailor asked, sticking her guns to her sides at the waistband of her skirt despite a lack of holsters. She must have done the same thing Missy had, making her Barrier Jacket with pseudo-magnetic strips that latched onto one specific object. "Nope. I decided that when it comes to elements, I was going to focus first on lightning since Calamity and Scathach have fire and ice taken care of, and it is kind of fun tasing people. That gave me plenty of time to come up with weird stuff for the other bullets." She waved a hand at the whirlpool of trash with a brittle smile. "Voila. Gravity bullets."
Something was off about how the other girl was acting, and it did not take long for Missy to figure out what that might be. "Are you okay with all this?" she asked, waving her hand at the room and the situation in general.
"I'm fi—" Kayleigh interrupted herself with a sigh. "I'll be fine. It's just, getting shot at is a new experience for me, and I can't say I like it. Even knowing they can't hurt me, it's still nerve-wracking."
"It was the same for me when I first started," she admitted. "I won't say you get used to it because there will always be the chance you're going to get shot, but it becomes part of the job. That was before we became bulletproof, though, so maybe we will get used to it." Missy shrugged. "I don't know on that one."
"Guess we'll…" Sailor looked up at the ceiling. "Do you hear that?"
Missy did not have the chance to ask what she meant because the answer rapidly became clear. Part of the ceiling cracked and crashed down, and a figure came down with it. The dust from the broken plaster drifted down to the ground to reveal the now filthy armor of Scathach. "Oh good, you're both here…" She trailed off when she noticed the clump of people. "Who did that? And why? And how?" A moment later, Scathach shook her head. "I feel like I missed something."
"You did, and it was awesome," Sailor told her with a bright smile.
A light flashed in the corner of Missy's eye, and she opened a screen in midair to show the view from one of the puppies' vantage points. "Are you two both done with your people?"
"Yeah. Why?"
She dismissed the screen and looked back at Scathach. "Because we have Protectorate company incoming."
«Do you want me to come down and talk with them?» Calamity Witch asked, speaking for the first time since they started the attack. «I'm the one they already know, and it keeps you guys from revealing yourselves if you don't want to.»
Even though she knew the question was voiced to all of them, Missy could not help but feel that it was directed at her specifically. Mostly because the two capes on their way were Sere… and Miss Militia.
Turning off her khopesh, she clipped it to her belt and returned her Barrier Jacket to its normal form, sleeve and skirt and all. «I'd rather not deal with them right now, if it's all the same to you,» she answered with a mental sigh. She knew she would have to deal with Miss Militia eventually; it would not surprise her if the hero, but still not Hannah, decided to visit her at the apartment to try giving her a piece of her mind. Putting it off, even if just for a few hours, would still give her time to get in the right headspace to deal with it.
Right now, she was not in that at all.
Scathach gave her a suspicious look but added, «I think you can guess that I'd like to stay out of sight for now.»
Oh? Missy's eyes narrowed. She knew Laura had not been a member of the Wards, so her reason not to meet the Protectorate was not the same as Missy's own. An independent hero, maybe, one who had gotten on the Protectorate's bad side? Or even stranger, a villain who was flipping sides? It would not be the first time Taylor had convinced somebody to do that, not if the rumors she had heard at base about why a racist like Purity was suddenly a probationary hero in New Orleans were any indication.
«Ooh, I'll head out and talk to them with you!» Kayleigh said, making it painfully obvious that she was the only one of their group who had never dealt with the Protectorate in some way or another.
Taylor's voice came to her again, though it sounded faintly different and from the question itself it was obvious that this one really was for her ears only. «If Miss Militia asks about you, what do you want me to say?»
«You don't have to tell her anything. I told her what she needs to do if she wants to talk to me.» She had given Hannah every opportunity to come to her, even left a message on her cell phone when she quit the Wards a full week before Miss Militia thought to check the apartment. Then again, she had intentionally called Hannah's personal phone, not her work phone, so it was up in the air when she would see it at all.
Missy hoped it would be sometime before the year was out, if only because Miss Militia finding the message after that time would just be pitiful.
«Okay.» Taylor switched back to the group frequency, as it were, and continued, «We'll meet up at Dragon's lab after. Then we can go over ideas for the name for our group before we head after the Fallen.»
I had WAY too much fun with Kayleigh's guns. :D
Silently Watches out.
