"You sure she's around here?" Clockblocker sounded curious and slightly irritated.
"I think so," Kid Win replied, standing on his hoverboard and looking around carefully. "We got reports she was walking around in this area, and someone else said he saw her climb up here a few minutes ago."
"With the speed Vista says she moves, she could be miles away now. Why are you so keen on meeting her, anyway?" the clock themed cape asked, moving to look down the side of the office building to the ground, some four stories below them, shudder a little, then move back to a safe distance. His colleague was fine with heights, he could fly, although if he actually ever fell off that thing he was in trouble, but Dennis didn't like heights at all much.
"I'm just curious. She sounds interesting. You don't see a lot of non-human seeming capes that aren't Case 53's, who can never remember anything, which tends to make the ones I've met sort of, well, a bit weird." The other teen shrugged. "From what Vista and Gallant told us she's got a sense of humor and is interesting to talk to, so I thought it would be nice to meet her. We're sure to run into her sooner or later, why not now while there's nothing going on?"
"Point to you, I guess." Clockblocker turned in a circle. "But I can't see any signs of her, not even footprints in this stuff." He prodded the pea gravel covering the tar-sealed roof of the building, which was flat and festooned with tall air conditioning units. "Guess she moved on. We'll have to keep looking."
"I'm surprised you're not more interested in meeting her," Chris commented, smiling under his helmet. "From what we heard she has a sense of humor nearly as bad as yours. Surely you're planning on freezing her or something as an introduction? That's what you normally do. Practical jokes are sort of your thing."
"Miss Militia told me not to," his friend replied.
"Like that's ever stopped you."
"Plus she's apparently got huge teeth."
"And?" Chris' eyes suddenly widened as a shadow separated from the air conditioning tower immediately behind Clockblocker, slowly resolving into a tall, slender, reptilian woman who was soundlessly creeping forward, taking careful steps with her tail held up behind her clear of the gravel. About to say something, or possibly scream, he froze when she raised a long, taloned finger to her short muzzle. Debating the merits of the idea for a moment he finally decided to see what happened, trying not to give the game away. As an afterthought he gave the command with a specific flick of his eyes that turned on the camera mounted on his helmet above his visor, recording the whole thing. Just for review later, of course.
"And maybe her sense of humor doesn't apply to jokes aimed at her? I don't want to get chased and eaten by a six foot tall angry dinosaur woman or whatever she is!" Dennis replied with a little annoyance. "Sure, if I knew she'd take it OK I'd play a joke on her, but I think I need to find out more about her first."
Kid Win watched with wide eyes, luckily hidden by his visor and the dark, as the creeping lizard girl arrived directly behind an oblivious Clockblocker, moving impressively quietly and slowly. If he wasn't watching it he'd never had known she was there, which was just the smallest amount worrying in a number of ways. She paused, cocking her head to one side, then the other, as if deciding what to do. He watched with bated breath.
Eventually, while Clockblocker was expanding on his views about not pranking capes who could actually chew on you and probably enjoy it, she seemed to come to a decision, reaching into a pouch on her belt and removing a small bottle with a metallic green label that glinted in the dark. Kid Win recognized it with instant hilarity, working out immediately what her joke was, but managed to keep a straight face with enormous effort.
Gently unscrewing the lid, Saurial smirked, then held the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce over Clockblocker's right arm and started shaking it.
"I mean, Gallant told us about that huge hammer she was waving around like it was nothing! One hit would probably pulverize me. Or you. What if she's like Rune was, did you think of that? Sure, she's a villain, but she didn't have to get so worked up about what I did. It was pretty funny, I thought, but girls can be strange about jokes."
Chris watched small, pungent drops of orange-colored liquid fall to his friend's sleeve and soak in. Dennis didn't notice.
"And you remember that time I froze Panacea? She threatened to give me tits the size of my head if I ever did it again and I don't think she was joking. She's really grumpy a lot of the time."
More Tabasco sauce fell. Chris was watching with wild inner amusement, wondering when his friend would notice. It took about another fifteen seconds. "Hey, what the hell is this?" Clockblocker suddenly said, lifting his arm in front of his mask and staring. He looked up, then around, as Saurial swayed lithely back and forth behind him to stay out of his field of vision. "There's some sort of liquid all over me."
"What is it?" Kid Win managed to choke out, suppressing wild laughter.
"I don't know, it's all sticky." Poking it with his other hand, Dennis looked at his finger, then quickly lifted his mask just a small amount and sniffed. "Hey, that's..."
He froze, then slowly turned to look behind him. Saurial leaned forward and grinned widely, licking scaly lips with a long forked tongue. "I love Tabasco sauce on my food," she hissed menacingly.
"AAAiiiieee!" Clockblocker screamed, jumping back in horror and tripping over himself in the process, landing on his back on the roof, then panting for breath. She stared, then almost collapsed laughing, while Chris nearly fell off his hoverboard, tears of amusement running down his face.
"I wish I could see your face," she giggled, in a much more normal voice than the extremely disturbing, barely human one she'd used before. "That was fantastic. Should I put it up on PHO?"
"Send it to me, I want to show the others," Kid Win gasped, still laughing, having spotted the camera she was wearing immediately. Dennis looked from one to the other of them, his head moving jerkily and his body language still showing he was very confused and extremely rattled.
"Oh, you bastards," he finally growled, working out that he'd been the butt of a prank. "How long did that take to set up?"
He glared at the other Ward, or at least Chris assumed he was glaring. "Was that why you dragged me up here saying you wanted to meet her?" Chris shook his head, giggling to himself.
"Spur of the moment thing, Clockblocker," she admitted. "I was just lying on top of that tower thing over there enjoying the quiet and having a snack when I heard you guys talking. You have a reputation online as a joker so I thought I'd see what happened." She waved at the air conditioning tower, then held up the bottle of sauce. "I like this on eggs, I bought it this afternoon."
"Eggs?" Chris queried. She pulled one of the hen fruit in question from another pouch and held it up.
"Eggs," she confirmed. "Last one." Sprinkling the thing with sauce she tossed it into her mouth, shell and all, then crunched down and swallowed. "Nice."
"Oh, my god," Clockblocker moaned, disgusted, while Chris felt his stomach roil. "That's revolting."
"They're great, actually," she retorted. "And high in nutrients, with no fat."
She studied the white-garbed cape and smiled again. "I'd offer you a hand up but I suspect there would be retaliation involved. I have no wish for a picture of me standing frozen like an idiot to pop up on the web so I think I'll just stay over here."
After a couple of seconds he shook his head, then stood up, brushing himself down. "OK. Right. The crazy lizard monster girl has a warped sense of humor. Note to self, look over shoulder more." He sounded amused by now, his sense of the absurd coming to the fore. "You got me. That was actually a good prank." Looking intently at her, he asked, "Please don't do it again, you scared the shit out of me."
Chris turned his camera off again, grinning.
Laughing, she nodded. "I'll never do it again to you. Can I do it to other people?"
He nodded back. "Oh, hell, yes. Just tell me first so I can watch. I want to see Assault jump three feet in the air and scream like a little girl."
They shared a look, then laughed like idiots again. "Sorry, Clockblocker, I couldn't resist," she apologized when they all calmed down. "I'm not used to meeting people I can actually joke around with like this, it's nice."
"Tough childhood?" Kid Win asked.
She shrugged. "Not really, but parts of it were hell. I seem to have met more friendly people, or at least people who aren't actively hostile, in the last month than in the last several years."
A crash from below made her cock her head again, listening, then walk over and peer down the side of the building to the street. Kid Win turned his board around so he could see as well. A large truck was half-embedded into the side of the building, with about a dozen people wearing E88 colors jumping out the back of it and kicking glass away, then going into the department store that comprised the lower floor, carrying hammers and large empty bags.
"Want to help round those idiots up?" she sighed, glancing over at them. Kid Win and Clockblocker exchanged a glance as she jumped off the building, falling to the street and landing on top of the truck with an enormous crunch while heavily distorting the roof, then lightly hopped off and disappeared inside the building after the ram-raiding robbers.
"Well, that happened," Chris noted. Clockblocker nodded, wincing at the distant screams rising from below. Tapping his earpiece, the Tinker said, "Console, attending a vehicular assisted break in at 1601 Atlantic Drive, independent hero Saurial already on site. Permission to assist?"
"Wait one, Kid Win," the surly but professional voice of Shadow Stalker who for some reason had been assigned permanent console duty came back. A moment later, she added, "Permission granted to assist."
"Thanks, Console," he replied then tapped the earpiece again. Glancing at Clockblocker who had been listening, he smiled. "Come on, lets see what she can do."
"She's probably already sprinkling Tabasco sauce on them," the other cape muttered, sounding both amused and a little worried, then started descending the fire escape to one side, Kid Win floating down on his hoverboard.
Martin frantically dived for cover, swearing and sweating, as some of his fellows ran past screaming, looking for the way out in the nearly pitch black room. Something was in there with them, he could hear it moving every now and then.
Pressing himself into an alcove next to a display of toasters or something, he could barely make it out in the dark, lit only by a couple of distant emergency exit signs, he listened carefully, looking around and trying to make out what the hell was going on. A flicker of motion twenty feet away made him whip his head around, then point his gun that way.
There was another scream from the other side of the store, horrifically cut off half-way, that ended in a gurgle. Two shots sounded, then two more. He sweated harder. A flashlight bobbed around as if someone was waving it about, then suddenly stopped. Yet another shot rang out, echoing in the large room, before there was a meaty smacking sound, following which something flew a considerable distance and crashed into what sounded like every last saucepan in the place. The flashlight dropped and rolled, the light swinging around casting crazy shadows across the room, then went out with a metallic crunch.
There was a long pause, during which he formed the opinion he was probably the only one left.
"What the hell is it?" he whispered.
"It's just me," a female voice said in his ear. He screamed like a five year old and spun around, knocking small appliances flying, then fired rapidly. The muzzle flashes gave him a stop motion view of something tall and thin, with what looked like a long tail, scuttling appallingly quickly across the floor and, most horrifyingly, up the wall to vanish towards the dimness of the ceiling, fifteen feet up and covered with air conditioning ducts.
Panting, he stared around wildly, trying to remember how many rounds he had left. By his best estimate, it was perhaps five.
Lifting his weapon in a trembling hand he panned it across the scene. There was no sound of any of his companions now, all of them having fallen silent.
"Nick!" he whispered urgently, wondering if his best friend, the one who had sponsored him to the E88, was still standing somewhere. There was no answer. He tried again.
"He's the short guy with the scar on his cheek, right?" the voice said again, from right above him. He looked up to barely make out what looked horribly like the glint of large, pointy teeth a few feet over his head, the owner of those teeth, which he was strongly beginning to believe came from hell, hanging head down attached to the wall. All that was visible in the dim light was a dark shadow on the wall, but it was obvious it wasn't human.
Raising the gun he fired again, the flash showing a mouth with too much dentition in a head like a huge lizards one, its eyes black and shiny. He blinked as his eyes readjusted after the short burst of flame, then saw it was gone again.
"Why don't you just stop this and we can all get out of here?" the voice said, sounding like it was trying to be reasonable, now in a completely different place. He didn't believe it. The thing was obviously trying to tempt him.
That's what they did.
After a few seconds, he slowly tried edging in the direction of the exit as shown by the signs. Nothing happened, so he kept working his way in that direction. His heart was going like mad, he felt faint, and he was deeply regretting his current career choice. No amount of getting to beat up blacks and chinks made up for being hunted by a demon. He'd leave that to crazy people like Hookwolf, who'd probably enjoy it and actually stand a chance.
Nearly at the exit, Martin stopped, knowing damn well from the movies that this was the most dangerous point. If it was going to jump him, it would do it… right... now.
He spun and fired three shots, then listened.
Nothing.
Allowing himself to relax a small amount, he turned around again, then opened his mouth, only a faint hiss coming out as his eyes bulged. The horrific thing standing there mere feet away tipped its head to the side inquisitively, looking weirdly puzzled. "Are you all right?" it asked, "only your heartbeat is really fast."
"DEMON!" he screamed in a shrill voice, firing the last of what turned out to be two shots into its face then throwing the gun at it, which it caught without any apparent effort, before throwing himself past it and out the door onto the street while it was distracted.
The half dozen police officers and the two young capes standing there staring at him came as a profound relief. He hid behind Clockblocker, shivering. "It was all around us. Nowhere to hide. It got Nick, and James, and Alicia, and Jason..." Trailing off he stopped gibbering, holding his hands out, wrists together. "Please arrest me and take me somewhere safe."
A couple of the cops looked at each other, then obliged. The click of the handcuffs locking around his wrists was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "We should get out of here before it comes out," he added, twitching his head around in an attempt to look into every possibly hiding place. "They're sneaky. It could be anywhere."
Spotting a movement to the side, he spun wildly around. "There! Over there! Shoot it!"
Almost everyone jumped wildly despite themselves and looked.
"What's he shouting about this time?" the voice said from his other side. Very slowly he looked around, to see the armored, scaly horror standing next to Kid Win, who seemed to be ignoring the fate he was risking. The Ward shrugged.
"No idea."
"Weird. He was all jumpy in the store too. Maybe he needs some sort of psychological help?"
"Maybe," Clockblocker replied, his shoulders twitching for some reason. His voice sounded strained. "You need to be a bit odd to join the E88 in my opinion anyway."
Both the monster and the other Ward nodded slowly, then all three turned around and walked away. "I want some more eggs." The voice floated back to him as he shivered, wishing he had dry underwear.
"Oh, god, it's breeding," he whispered.
The policeman who had put the cuffs on him put his hand on his shoulder, gently urging him towards the back of the nearest police car which was waiting with an invitingly open back door.
Martin got in gratefully and closed the door himself, settling back for a trip to the nice safe police station and resolving to join the priesthood when he got out. Maybe then he'd be safe.
Unless it bred.
Taylor sat on the low wall surrounding the small park a few blocks from the crime scene, the leafless limbs of the trees and the limp brown grass giving a rather depressed look to the place, watching Clockblocker roll around laughing himself sick. She popped another egg into her mouth, exchanging a glance and a raised eyebrow with Kid Win, who was sitting next to her with his hoverboard leaning on the wall next to him. Well, eye ridge in her case, but it was the same effect.
"Is he always like this?" she asked, removing the top from a bottle of water and taking a drink.
Kid Win shrugged a little. "He's got a strange sense of humor and sometimes it gets away from him," he admitted. "It wasn't that funny."
"You… him… eggs..." Clockblocker gasped for air. "All around..." He shook his head helplessly, lifting it to peer at the two others who were looking down at him, then roaring with laughter again.
"Ignore him, we normally do. Vista or Gallant will slap him, the rest of us just get on with other things," Kid Win advised with a sigh. He turned to Taylor. "That was impressive in a sort of horror movie way, I have to admit. Were you trying to terrify them?"
"Only a little," she said, eating her last egg and crumpling up the box. "They seemed to over-react a lot, though. It was a bit strange." It really was, she'd just gone after them one at a time, the remaining ones getting more and more worked up. Perhaps hunting them down in the dark was too much? It was pretty efficient, but if it had that much effect she needed to tone it down a little before someone fell over from a heart attack due to the excitement.
"I got five of them with a sleeper hold immediately before they knew I was there, then they started shooting. I had to go after the guns, then, before they hit each other. That last but one guy was firing all over the place, I had to smack him with my tail to put him down before he hit that friend of his."
Kid Win looked at the appendage that was curled across her feet. "Don't you get cold with bare feet and exposed skin like that? Or scales, I mean. It's only a little above freezing right now."
"Not really. I'm not cold blooded or really a reptile, I'm… something else." She didn't want to go into details but he seemed genuinely concerned and interested.
"It was cool to see, though," he replied after a thoughtful nod. "Have you had a lot of training in hand to hand combat?"
"Sort of, yes. Also sword use, single and dual, some war hammer sort of thing, and I'm experimenting with how those work when I substitute a baton for a sword. I don't want to kill anyone and I'm strong enough to cut a normal person in half with one swing of a bat never mind a blade." She glanced at him, then went back to watching Clockblocker, who was wheezing a little as he managed to pull himself together enough to sit near them on the wall.
"Gallant said you told them that you could lift a couple of tons, so I can believe that," the Tinker noted.
"I tested myself, I can dead lift nearly five thousand pounds, although that was the limit mainly because it was the biggest weight available at the time," she commented, sipping her drink as he gaped a little. She didn't mention that in her Saurial form the limit was noticeably higher than her base form, although she hadn't bothered to find out how much yet.
"Holy crap, that's impressive." He sounded amazed. "That's more than Glory Girl can lift as far as I know and she's way up there in Brute ratings." After a moment, he added, "Are you going to register with the PRT? Or come in for official power testing?"
"I haven't decided yet on the first one, and no, at the moment I have no plans for the second one." Finishing her drink Taylor put the cap on the bottle and tossed it towards a nearby public garbage receptacle, smiling when it actually went in, bouncing off the rim and falling inside.
"Fought any capes yet?" Clockblocker asked from her other side, having finally recovered, although his voice was hoarse. She shook her head.
"No, it hasn't come up. This is the third time I've grabbed some idiots with guns, though. Last night I got some ABB and merchants who were shooting up the docks, then of course there were those E88 guys in the warehouse the night that I met your friends. That was my first time."
"In this city you're bound to sooner or later," Kid Win commented. She shrugged.
"Probably but I'm not looking for trouble. Enough of it seems to find me to keep me busy. Every time I've gone out something has happened."
"Par for the course," he smiled. "Hey, can I have a copy of that footage? Both the prank and the store action."
"Sure." Looking at him for a moment, Taylor added, "You're a Tinker, do you have some sort of device to read the memory card right now?"
"I do," he told her, peering at the camera. "Standard USB port, right?"
"Yep." Reaching up she caught the camera as the Varga, who had been laughing nearly as much as Clockblocker but had finally stopped snickering, dissolved the straps. "Here you go. There's nothing on it but those two files."
Taking it from him he popped open a port on his left gauntlet, pulling a cable out, then plugged it into her camera. A few seconds later he unplugged it and handed it back. "Thanks, Saurial."
"No problem." She smiled at him as she reattached the device.
"Is that another use of your matter control power?" he asked curiously, watching the process with interest, as was Clockblocker. She nodded, as there was no harm in telling them.
"Yes, it's really useful, actually."
"I can believe that."
"I have to ask, why the sunglasses at night?" Clockblocker put in, making her turn her head and look at him. "Not that they don't look cool, mind. Are your eyes too sensitive to light or something like that?"
"No, it's mainly so that people don't freak out any more than they already do," she replied, reaching up and removing them. He stared at her glowing orangeish slit-pupilled eyes for several seconds, then nodded slowly.
"No offense, but I can understand why they might."
She smirked, putting them back on. "I can't see it myself, I think my eyes are pretty."
He froze, then tentatively nodded again when she looked quizzically at him. "Um, yes, so do I, I guess." Once more she smiled which seemed to make him relax, Taylor finding the whole thing sort of amusing.
Pulling out her phone she looked at the time display on it, then put it away and stood up. "Sorry, I need to go. It was interesting meeting you two. Only Aegis and Shadow Stalker left and I'll have the complete set."
She noticed the way Kid Win glanced at Clockblocker, who looked back. "Shadow Stalker isn't currently available, but I'm sure you'll see Aegis soon." Clockblocker was still sounding a little breathless.
"Fair enough. Anyway, see you guys around. Bye." She tossed the crumpled up egg carton away after the bottle, then headed for the building across the street, rapidly climbing up the front of it. At the top she waved down at them, receiving a wave back from Kid Win, then started running, heading towards the docks where she'd change.
"That was somewhat intriguing," the Varga commented slowly as she bounded from roof to roof.
'Wasn't it?' Her mental voice was flat. 'I'm guessing that Aegis is that Carlos guy.' She'd immediately recognized the scents of the red-headed Dennis and his friend Chris from Arcadia, who had been sitting at the table with Dean, who she knew was Gallant. And who knew what her human form looked like.
"It seems very likely. A group of people like that would in all likelihood spend time together off duty, and the chances of there being four male Wards, three of those being the ones we have identified so far, without the fourth one being the other person at that table, seem remote. Although not impossible." Her companion sounded thoughtful.
'True, but I'm nearly certain that both of them smelled faintly of Carlos. I didn't really get close enough to him at Arcadia to be sure, but I will sooner or later, assuming I don't meet him as Aegis.' She flung herself across a street, catching the taller building on the other side with all four limbs and rushing up and over it.
'Of course, the elephant in the room is that both those guys also had a very faint hint of eau de Hess, as well. That's four so far, all Wards. I'm beginning to get an idea of what's going on and I'm not sure I like it,' she continued after a minute or so.
There was no response from the demon, but she could feel he felt the same way. Deciding she needed more information, which would come along in due time, she kept moving, enjoying the action and the speed. Once again she'd enjoyed meeting these members of the Wards, and was impressed by Clockblocker's ability to take what was actually a slightly mean joke, something she felt a little guilty about even now. But she'd wanted to see what happened afterwards.
It had been screamingly funny, though, although she had no intention of posting the video online. That would be too much. If Kid Win did it, it was on him.
The Tinker had obviously been fishing for information, which she'd given him in full knowledge that it would almost certainly end up in the dossier that the PRT was undoubtedly building on her cape persona. It would be an obvious thing to do with any cape, so she assumed they probably had threat assessments for more or less all of them, which weren't made public. It's what she'd have done in the same place.
It was quite nice that they hadn't pushed the idea of the Wards again, and wondered it that was deliberate, or just due to those guys not being particularly interested in the subject. When she'd recognized Sophia's scent on them, although the back of her mind was half expecting it, she'd become quite irritated again, although not as angry as she had with Gallant and Vista. It proved much easier this time to keep it from affecting her, though, which was something she was pleased about. She didn't like being driven by anger, she had far too much of it buried deep inside after two years of torture to be happy about it, even with the intervention of the Varga.
He was slowly helping her come to terms with it and get rid of it, and one day she was sure she'd be over the whole thing, but right now she wasn't and didn't want to risk letting herself stew over the sorry events of the recent past. They were done and over and best left where they were in her opinion.
That said, she sort of owed the Three Bitches thanks in a strange, perverted manner. Without them, she'd never have reconnected with her father, she suspected, or at least not to the level she had, she'd never have ended up with the Varga, and she probably wouldn't have the self control she was learning. Or the ability to do… this!
The small number of people on the street fifty feet below looked up at the cry of "WheeeHooo!" that echoed around the place, wondering what caused it, and a couple of them were quick enough to see a form flip twice as it cleared the sixty foot gap, before disappearing over the rooftops, a long tail flying out behind it.
When he was sure that Saurial was probably far enough away that she was out of any vaguely sensible auditory range, and adding a significant safety margin, Dennis relaxed slowly. "Jesus Christ," he muttered. "That girl is terrifying."
Kid Win nodded soberly. "I really don't think she means to be," he replied. "She has a… slightly different outlook than the rest of us in some ways. She seems nice, though. In a sort of 'don't for god's sake fuck with her' way, I mean." He glanced at his friend with a small smirk. "Going to try to get back at her for that prank? Which was fucking hysterical, by the way."
"Not a chance. She's probably laugh it off, true enough, but… I wouldn't want to risk it if she didn't, not until I know her a lot better. I can't help thinking that trying to push her would be… not good."
"That's what Gallant said," Kid Win noted. "He's usually right about that sort of thing."
Clockblocker shivered. "I noticed you didn't ask her about her supermetal that Armsie's so interested in."
The Tinker shook his head. "Like you said, and he did as well, I think it's best to wait until we know her better."
"True."
They sat in silence for a moment, then both stood up. "It was a damn good prank, though," the red head chuckled, not at all annoyed about it. He appreciated the work of a master when he saw it, even if it was at his expense, once the initial fright had passed. He really wanted to see her do it to Assault.
"You went higher pitched than Vista when she's excited," Chris snickered, gliding alongside him on his board.
"No, I didn't."
"Trust me, you did."
"Can't be true. We should test it. You record it, I'll show her something cute."
"Idiot."
They headed on the rest of their route, playfully griping at each other.
Miss Militia watched the playback of the store robbery that Saurial had so efficiently and unnervingly shut down with an intent look. Beside her, Armsmaster, his helmet off, was also watching. He seemed impressed, slightly.
"Shit," Aegis said with a twitch at the first person view of a movie monster hunting down humans in a dark room. The muzzle flashes periodically lit the place like camera strobes, showing screaming people fleeing in all directions, while the camera panned about, then shot towards one of them, rotating through a complete barrel roll as the cape made use of the shelves and floor to run across. "Über and Leet only wish they could pull something like this off."
A pair of scaled arms reached out, competently executing what she recognized as some form of martial arts sleeper hold, not one she was familiar with, but obviously effective, as the struggling man immediately slumped into unconsciousness. Saurial lowered him to the ground with surprising care, then put his hands behind his back, a set of the restraints she'd seen on Colin's monitor the other day forming with no fuss around his wrists, linking them immovably together. The Tinker leaned forward, clearly fascinated.
"That is… remarkable," he mumbled to himself.
They watched as Saurial plowed her way through a full dozen E88 gang members in minutes, without a single injury she could see, and no collateral damage directly caused. Quite a few things got knocked over but that was mainly due to the panicking men and women.
The second to last man was sent flying a remarkable distance by a flick of a strong tail, making her nod at the confirmation that she could weave that limb into what were definitely practiced hand to hand combat skills. She wondered where the cape had learned to fight like that, especially with her tail.
The last man was both very funny and rather horrifying, as he was apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She couldn't find it in herself to have much sympathy, she recognized him as someone who had been responsible for more than his fair share of attacks on minorities, but she still found herself wincing as he fell apart.
When it was all over and the recording ended, the lizard girl having apparently stopped it as she exited the store behind the fleeing gang member, in no particular hurry, she turned in her chair and looked at the other Wards. Gallant had a sort of bemused, slightly stunned look on his face, mixed with a sort of worry that seemed odd to her, Vista was staring wide eyed, Clockblocker and Kid Win were exchanging glances, while Shadow Stalker, who had been allowed to view the video for informational purposes, was staring in what looked like horrified awe.
"Thoughts?" she asked.
"I'm never playing laser tag with her, that's for sure," Clockblocker immediately said, making her sigh just a little.
"Useful thoughts?"
"She's extremely mobile, especially in a confined space," Aegis replied slowly. "Containing her would be an absolute nightmare without significant force. She's amazingly quick to react as well. Combined with her strength she'd be hell to fight."
"Even without weapons," Gallant added. "She only used her hands, feet, and tail the entire time."
"Very tough, none of the guns slowed her in the slightest," Vista mused. "She didn't even notice, really, although she went after the ones shooting first."
"Saurial said that was to stop stray rounds hurting the other suspects," Kid Win noted. "She seemed honestly worried about that possibility."
"Significant skill in some form of hand to hand combat I don't recognize, optimized for someone with a tail," Armsmaster put in after some thought. "Efficient, quick, designed for maximum damage with minimum effort. Something like Krav Maga but not. She was seriously limiting herself to avoid causing injuries."
"Saurial didn't seem particularly fussed about which way up she was, which suggested to me she doesn't suffer from vertigo or other things caused by hanging head down in normal people." Aegis looked fascinated now. "Her body is internally as different as it is externally."
"Her senses are much better than we thought, at least her vision is. That camera she uses has exceptionally good low light performance, but even so she could obviously see much better in the dark than it could," Kid Win said thoughtfully. "Even with her sunglasses on. She didn't hesitate even once that I saw, and it was nearly completely dark in there. After she turned the lights out herself, of course."
"She capitalized on her abilities to tilt the situation as much in her favor as she could to make it as quick as possible to bring to an end," Armsmaster commented, nodding a little. "Again, efficient and ruthless. Even the psychological warfare part of the operation was nicely judged. And effective."
"To be honest, what I saw suggests a cape who has been fighting for years, rather than days," Miss Militia remarked, leaning back in the chair and staring at the blank screen for a moment. "Which is odd. True, powers normally come with instinctive knowledge of their use but the sort of thing we saw mostly comes from experience in fighting."
She noticed that Clockblocker was sitting quietly, apparently thinking. "You have something worrying you, Clockblocker?"
He shook his head. "Not worrying, actually. More curious. The thing I find odd is that she genuinely doesn't seem to want to look for fights, I got the impression she was just as happy to let people get on with their lives and would appreciate the favor being returned. But at the same time she didn't like things being shot up and would step in to prevent it."
The boy paused for a moment, then added, "She also seems to get on surprisingly well with the cops. She was polite and respectful and they all were the same back. It's a little strange, some capes and cops really don't get on at all."
"Would you say she sees the world in black and white?" Miss Militia asked curiously. "Like it's us and them?"
"No." Everybody turned to Gallant who looked back. "Unless by 'us' you mean her family and anyone she feels she owes something. Oddly enough, I'm not entirely certain that would necessarily exclude villains. I think she tends to assess each situation and person she meets on their own merits, rather than applying a generic good guys and bad guys template to it." He sighed slightly. "Vicky has a tendency to do that sometimes so I recognize it when I see it. I don't see it with Saurial from the brief contact I had with her or what Kid and Clock have reported."
Nodding a little, the military cape made some notes. The profile she was building for Saurial was a little peculiar in cape terms. Oddly enough, it was making her less worried in some ways and more in others.
"We'll have to raise her Mover and Thinker ratings by some amount," Armsmaster noted, making her nod as she wrote.
"Definitely. That was in no way Mover 1 and Thinker 1," she muttered, thinking, then writing some more. "Brute rating is probably low as well but without more information we have no idea how much. I wish we could test her."
"I asked and she's still not interested," Kid Win said.
"All right, you tried. Thank you." She wrote for a few more seconds, then put the pen down.
"It would be useful to get confirmation of the idea that she's a Changer of some sort, but I suppose that's unlikely." Turning to Shadow Stalker, who had been silent the entire time, she said, "Do you have any observations, Shadow Stalker?"
The girl looked back at her blankly for several seconds, her expression impossible to read, then stood, picked up her mask, put it on, and left, not saying a word.
"Guess not," she muttered as everyone watched, then exchanged glances and shrugs. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment.
"Want to see Clock scream like a girl?" the young tinker suddenly asked. He was grinning. She looked at him, then the named cape, who had a long-suffering look on his unmasked face.
"Yes. Yes I do," she smiled. Even Armsmaster seemed to have a tiny smile.
When the video of the reptilian girl's impromptu prank, seen both from her camera and Kid Win's side by side on the monitor, was finished, that little smile was just a tiny amount larger.
It gave her hope for the future, and made her wonder how she could maneuver Assault into the same situation…
Vicky sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, and reached for her phone, which had just indicated somewhat rudely that it had a text she should read. Prodding the screen with an elegantly manicured finger, she opened the SMS application.
"Apologize to Saurial soon. Seriously. D."
Staring at it for a moment, she put it back on her bedside table and lay down again, trying to go back to sleep. This proved difficult for some time.