Perfect Day
The air just above the pool's surface was wildly cooler than the water itself. Ray was splashed and kicked more than once when he'd reminded Sophia of this noticeable detail as she kept getting out to sit on the edge of the pool.
"I'd have been all infatuated with you if we had attended the same school, Sophia."
"I'd have turned you down hard if you had ever asked. You weren't in anything, didn't stand out in anything, that's boring, Ray. It's really boring."
"Hey, hey, I helped my grandparents out a ton, plus the only time I got any Me Time was when the neighbor kids invited me to bonfires and shit. Best I could count on was walking girls home when it was late."
"Aww, the designated walker."
"I was always the gentleman."
"You weren't gentle with me!" she retorted as she slid back into the water.
Ray snorted, "You dug your nails into me!"
"You kicked me in the face."
"But you respected me after."
"Ehh, I slept with you after, that's not a form of respect ."
"It's a sexy form of respect."
"Shut up, you horndog".
He gestured at the horns on his head, and she splashed at him, "But, I, Mr. Designated Walker here didn't get any kinda attention in school. I was all head down, turn work in, avoid team projects. Dodged any bullies by being plain as toast, really."
"I mean, you told me you had a reputation for fighting?"
Ray shrugged, "Ehh, but it was mostly around the neighborhood. Empire Eighty Eight wannabes trying to make their bones by trying to pick off the brown kids, ya know? ABB tryna to figure out who was Central American and who was Filipino. I was scrawny but tall, so I had reach so it was easy to toss an elbow in the nose, kick to the chest. Also take advantage of the stereotype that Mexicans are fiery and Latinos are crazy, ya know?"
Sophia swam to the edge of the pool and rested her arms on the edge holding her in place, "Yeah, that's - I bullied some kids, one in particular really. She never fought back, figured she always just kinda hoped we'd forget about her. Her old friend said she changed after her mom died, just sort of poof fire went out inside, coasting through life. And that - that is an invitation to get preyed on."
"Whoa, that's - that's kinda fucked up. Her mom died, trauma changes people, seriously."
"Everyone gets trauma, everyone handles it differently but giving up on yourself is the worst. My Dad died and I ended up with my stepdad playing naked puzzle basement with me for years because I, like my mother, had no fucking backbone, okay? So my trying to toughen Taylor up, get her to react and fight back, never worked. That b- girl just never stood up for herself in the end."
"The End?"
"I haven't seen her in a while, none of us have been back to Winslow since Leviathan. Barely keep up with Emma on my cell but that body hijacker asshole fucking tried salting the Earth there."
"Ah, gotcha", Ray sighed before swimming closer to Sophia, a pensive look plastered on his scarred face.
"What?"
"If I had known you were doing that to a girl who's mom died it'd have killed my crush - instant bonercide."
"Bonercide? You said you'd be infatuated with me. Infatuated implies no sexual thoughts."
"Oh fuck that, opposite of infatuated. I'm completely fatuated with you. I mean, to be truthful... it's very very cold out here."
She slapped the water, splashing him in the face. He sputtered but still bobbed over closer to the edge.
"You hate me for doing that to her?" Sophia asked seriously, her eyes locked onto his bleary ones.
He shook his head, "No, we're different from them out there. We think different, act different, I - I feel you did that not just to help that girl but yourself. Cos if everyone stood up for themselves no matter the difficulty in their lives, the World could be better. It's what humanity did before Scion showed up, it's what it should keep doing instead of relying on my beautiful dark defender here to take all the chances."
Sophia smiled, it was big and bright and so very close.
~~x
After the week in the hotel while Mr. Pendelton made contact and arrangements with the PRT, Youth Guard, and a couple of Senators wanting to crack down on crime during an election year, Sophia seemed to show a new side of herself to Ray. Little things at first, even noticeable to their attorney, but not enough to reveal the truth of their partnership.
Once they left the hotel a proper plan was formulated during their flight, and a police escort to the city center later they stood on the sidewalk across from a small warzone. Sophia stared at the scene for a long moment before she slipped the domino mask on her face and was careful adhering Ray's to the smoother patches of skin on his scarred face.
"There, so long as you don't headbutt anyone or pick at your face the mask should hold."
Ray grinned, "Thanks, Dulcinea."
Her smile dropped, a stern look crossed her face as she jammed a finger in Ray's chest,
"Watch it, keep the jokes in check. She does not like it but - it's growing on me."
Ray grabbed her finger and play bit at the first knuckle.
"Ya know that headbutt I mentioned?" she asked unamused.
His grin grew wider and released her finger, "Yeah, I bet it's coming later, but so long as you're the one delivering it, I'm down."
Sophia sighed deeply, as she exhaled any playfulness left her body with her breath as her posture and stance changed. Shadow Stalker, the predator, stood before the doors to the lobby of the PRT HQ in Brockton Bay.
"I don't - I don't remember this place getting so damaged", Shadow Stalker murmured just loud enough for Dust Devil to hear, as they passed through the doors. Plywood and metal screens filled in anywhere there should have been glass.
"The Nine?"
"Yeah, Shatterbird", she replied.
Ray let off a whistle while observing the damage that had grossly marred the lobby. Once framed pictures were replaced by canvas prints of the fallen and current Protectorate and Wards hung on the walls. PRT Officers tensed as Ray looked their way, their eyes fell on his mostly uncovered face. He'd covered up his scars a lot less since the hotel. He was off putting but at least not to Sophia and that was support enough to-
Rifles and ceiling turrets suddenly trained on Ray, "Put your hands on the back of your head and assume a kneeling position!" One of the officers commanded.
He rolled his shoulders and made a show of cracking his neck, his eyes searched the turrets until he caught the glint of a camera lense, "Look Piggot, I'm not turning myself in because you all let me be captured by-"
The turrets powered down and swiveled away, a PRT officer had a hand to his ear and then motioned for the other officer to lower his rifle. The lights to the lobby even changed intensity, dimming a bit as the sound of the elevator at the back of the room dinged at it's arrival. Piggot's assistant arrived and beckoned the pair of capes, both used their powers to cross the lobby and materialized one at a time inside the elevator.
"Jesus", the Assistant muttered in surprise.
"Name's Ray. Had a neighbor called Jesus, though."
Sophia sighed again, as she made a fist.
"The Director is going to assume you both are turning yourselves in for debriefing and both of you to be readmitted into The PRT but in The Wards program. Anything less than-"
"Shhh, just take us to your leader, amigo. Any terms dictated will be between Us and your boss, but you did a great job keeping your shit together."
The Assistant sputtered for a moment and returned their gaze to the lighted buttons panel. The familiar ding announced their stop at their floor and the doors opened to a much larger beach ball sized Dragon Drone hovering in front of the door.
"Hola, Dragon. Nice upgrades."
The drone dipped low for a moment almost in a curtsy but no audible response from his favorite tinker or her amped up security drone.
"Ahh, you're busy. That's cool - but uhhh can you move so we can go speak, peacefully, with the Director? The power use was all for show, Please?"
Shadow Stalker turned to Dust Devil, and held her arms up incredulously "Please?"
"A wise man once told me that anyone with power should only ask for what they can simply take. I just figured I'd ask nicely", despite the last time he had met with Dragon and what went down, Ray couldn't exactly blame her. So far he'd learned that there weren't that many good people in the world, so why make enemies with one of his favorites, when he liked so few to begin with.
The bot hovered out of the doorway of the elevator and Shadow Stalker took point leading the way to Piggot's office. As they proceeded PRT Officers were scattered in clusters in almost every room leading up to the office. Inside was Director Emily Piggot, the rotund blonde wore a tired visage who's level gaze was locked onto her assistant and not the two capes. The assistant simply shut the door behind themselves and stood in the corner by a file cabinet stacked with paperwork.
Moonlight filtered through the spaces between the boards that blocked the window frame painting the director in a silver striped silhouette that vaguely reminded Sophia of The Siberian.
"Well?" Piggot started the meeting, hands flat on her desk. "You already ignored the sole deal I'm willing to offer you: The Wards for the both of you, probationary status. Of course you both stay here for the duration of your time with the Wards, seperate rooms, and retroactive pay for the issues from the Empire incident to today."
Ray shook his head, "Listen, Director. You may have fought monsters, but you - you are not a monster. Monstrous choices, horrific measures, but you've never gone into a fight wanting it like a damn predator. Where fighting is as much a motivator as hunger and fucking."
Shadow Stalker cocked her head to the side at the last bit of Dust Devil's statement. It was true, the need for conflict either for the fight or to test the mettle of others with powers was omnipresent.
"You done, Dust Devil? I'm about to call in Defiant and Dragon who are chasing monsters to deal with -" Piggot was cut off.
"No, we're not done. Don't send Protectorate, don't send Wards. No PRT, and no cops. In recent history, before powers showed up, humanity had its own way to topple Warlords and regimes. You find their enemies, fund and arm them, and send them in as Peacekeepers or Rebels. If they fail, your enemies are weakened from fighting. If they win, you already cut them a deal for their service, and either way you can roll right in", Shadow Stalker stabbed the director's desk with a finger punctuating her point, but the woman didn't flinch.
"So who are you suggesting we send after the Undersiders, exactly? No capes, no cops, so we phone up the governor and ask for the National Guard?"
Shadow Stalker pulled a folded up file folder from a baggy pocket of her pants and flopped it on Piggot's desk, "Give us the people in that folder, and we'll give you The Undersiders and anyone who ever helped them."
Emily Piggot paged through the printouts and photocopies, "You want us to arrest some of these people... as your payment, why?"
Dust Devil snorted, "Nah, they're going to help us whether they want to or not. We just need their locations so we can gang press them into service."
"And what makes you think I'll say yes to any of this?"
"We still have connections to the Youth Guard. PRT failed to properly support Shadow Stalker with mental health care after her trigger, and The Wards were more concerned with results than to monitor her interactions with her teammates and patrols. And I was royally fucked from the moment I rolled into this city with my treatment, which led to my kidnapping by agents of The Elite while supposedly under your protection."
Piggot beckoned her assistant to her side, "This city is under Siege, and in any good siege even the children suff-"
"Yeah, and we're going to help break it, now give us the locations of our assets, and then all the up to date info on The Undersiders and their territories"
"As Wards, Protectorate? Can't expect us to hire you as mercenaries considering your Asylum stay and her stint in our prison system."
"Shadow, what was that term we were discussing on the ride over? Ya know, the one you said the CIA was fond of?"
"Slush fund?"
"Yeah, that's the term. All that spare tinker cash, asset forfeiture, tinker scrap recycling, consultant fees-"
"Get on with it, Dust Devil", Piggot's stern face was redder than usual.
"Bounty Hunters, we'll bring them in dead... or alive", Shadow's pause was just a little too long.
"There are no 'active' kill orders nor bounties on The Undersiders."
"No, no, Director, you only pay for the results, but don't think we do not appreciate how you said 'active'".
Piggot held up a finger pausing the conversation, whispered something into the ear of her assistant, and handed them a note she scribbled out. The assistant hustled out of the room quickly and quietly.
"You like?" Ray asked.
Piggot relaxed and sat back in her chair, "So you'd function apart from the Wards or Protectorate, with purely informational assistance from the PRT itself, answering only to your own private legal counsel, right?"
"Yeah, we got a lawyer."
"And as to the people on the list: a Rogue, a retiree, and - a degenerate?"
Sophia jumped in again, impatient, "Support, consultant, logistics. What of it?"
The director raised an eyebrow at Shadow's challenge, "Just curious. Anything else I'm missing here?"
Ray made the finger guns gesture, "Start up capital."
Piggot shook her head, "So it is a proper shakedown. Continue."
"Heeeeey, we're teenagers, not like we're going to spend it on a party at your house. So that brings us to: that cash, our spare costumes, and I need my van back."
Piggot's desk phone suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. She took a moment to pick exactly which line to answer first. In hushed tones she exchanged a few words with the caller then hung up. A moment later the rest of the lines blinked out, unanswered, "I do believe we can make those arrangements, Miss Hess, Mr. Alcaraz."
~~x