"You're a bastard sometimes, Alec," Brian muttered, rubbing his chest where his friend had got him four times in a row with a paintball the day before.
Alec grinned, raising his coffee to his teammate. They were sitting in the cafeteria, Brian having a mid afternoon break and Alec just goofing off as was his thing. Mark had commandeered one of the larger currently unused workshops for his training session, scattering the various security people, himself and Zephron, and the first batch of volunteers around the place, giving everyone ten minutes to hide themselves, before blowing a whistle and ducking.
They'd had half an hour's training on the elaborate paint guns, doing target shooting and learning how to deal with jams and misfires. He'd decided that a good free for all would be a decent way to get them used to the things, which had worked quite well. Handing out safety goggles and plenty of ammunition, he'd just let them get on with it while observing carefully.
Alec, who had been given one of the compressed-gas guns set up as a sniper rifle, had proven that he was indeed nearly as good a shot with a real-world gun as he was with a virtual one. He'd climbed up an access ladder to a catwalk along the side of the building, having looked around and assessed the situation with a surprising degree of professionalism, then thoroughly enjoyed himself taking pot-shots at anyone stupid or incautious enough to stop moving.
The magazine-loaded finned paintballs which he was using were a lot more accurate than Brian had expected, his friend quickly learning how to put them practically anywhere he wanted to within a few inches. That was more than good enough for him to pop one in the same place on Brian's chest time after time, which turned out to be really quite painful.
Alec hadn't helped by shouting "Headshot!" every time he managed it. Even when it wasn't actually a head shot.
By the end of the training exercise, the entire group of some twenty-five people were ready to string him up by his bootlaces and beat him with the guns, but Mark was very pleased. He'd moved on to practicing tactics, separating them into two groups, which alternated between attackers and defenders. Some three hours of mostly enjoyable but also quite painful work later he pronounced himself satisfied with the first session. They'd decided to train for an hour each evening, after a day off to let the first batch recover while he repeated the process with a second, larger group.
The goal was to end up with at least seventy trained auxiliaries to reinforce the fifteen or so regular security people, allowing them to field close to ninety people if something untoward started. When he'd seen how they all fared and could assess each of them individually, he'd start arranging them in squads with different specialties.
It went without saying that Alec would be a sniper. He had what the blond man called an unnerving gift for it.
Brian wasn't nearly as good a shot at range, but he was pretty pleased with his performance when the target was closer, as was Mark. The man had also said he had a good grasp of combat techniques and urban warfare skills, which could well come in handy.
They were going to start training on hand to hand combat fairly soon, when the security head had discussed the schedule with Saurial, Zephron who would be teaching karate, and a few others in the DWU who had specific skills that would be useful.
They had a couple of more than decent boxers, a judo expert in the electrical department, several people who were trained in a number of law enforcement skills including baton use, and several other combat skills. Brian got the impression that most of the DWU people could probably look after themselves pretty effectively even if they weren't noted for being experts in any one technique. Most of them were very solidly and strongly built, as befitted people who did a lot of heavy manual labor, even the females.
It wasn't too surprising that the Merchants and the other gangs tended to leave them alone.
Even a low level Brute would be careful around a group of people who could call on a couple of dozen friends with hammers, crowbars, and bats, and appeared to not be too worried about using them if necessary.
Now, he was gently rubbing a number of .68 caliber bruises, of which he had more than he really wanted. Alec wasn't the only one who was a crack shot.
Paintballs hurt. Even without the capsaicin load.
The anti-Merchant raid the night before had taken them slightly by surprise, a large number of PRT and BBPD people turning up and talking to Raptaur and her two cousins, but had also made everyone somewhat happier. Tension had been building ever since the rumors of Skidmark's mission to take on the Family had become known.
Not that anyone thought he could actually succeed, of course, but the collateral damage could be impressive. And no one wanted to be that collateral damage.
Now, it seemed like the threat had been abruptly reduced, but no one thought it had gone away. He was still out there somewhere with some friends, and Brockton Bay wasn't exactly bereft of other idiots either. They all felt it was time well spent to keep practicing and building up a proper defense capability, just in case.
Shit could still happen.
He looked up as Linda walked in, waving to the woman when she looked around. She smiled at him, waved, and headed for the coffee machine herself.
Alec watched, a smirk on his face. "Like an older woman, Brian?" he asked in a sly voice.
Brian flicked a left-over pea at him, catching him on the forehead. "Don't say things like that where she can hear," he replied in a low voice.
"Good looking, isn't she?"
"It's not like that."
"Do you want it to be?" His friend made a little gesture that caused the larger boy to sigh. "Trapped here with the rest of us, no one to play with..." Alec smirked as Brian muttered something rude under his breath.
"I just like her, OK? And not like that, before you say anything," he warned, raising a hand as Alec opened his mouth. "She came across as someone who needed a friend and she's interesting as well. So shut up."
The black-haired boy mimed zipping his mouth, although he was grinning.
"Hi, Brian, hi, Alec" Linda said as she walked over and joined them. "Mind if I sit here?"
"No, not at all," he smiled, waving at the chair on the other side of the table.
She sat and put her coffee down. "Why do you have little bruises all over your arms?" she asked, looking at the darker splotches down his bare forearms.
"Training," Alec said. "And not ducking fast enough."
The brunette looked curiously at the younger boy, who appeared amused, then back to Brian. "Training? With what?"
"High velocity paint," Brian grinned. "You wouldn't believe it would hurt so much." He jerked his thumb at his companion. "He was taking special enjoyment in shooting me whenever he could. Don't worry, I heal fast."
"You can always go and talk to Metis or Ianthe," Alec pointed out. "Or Amy, when she's around." He looked thoughtful. "We do seem to have a lot of healers here. Four of them in the entire city and three of those hang around this place."
"I don't want to bother them for a few bruises," Brian replied. "They'll heal soon enough. So, Linda, how are you doing today?"
"Not bad at all," she said with another smile. "I'm feeling a lot more rested than I was over the weekend, I've got a job in the vehicle depot as a mechanic, and I've also got a private workshop that Danny's letting me use for personal projects. It needs cleaning out but that shouldn't take long."
"Do a lot of personal projects, do you?" Alec asked with what actually looked like mild interest.
She shrugged. "On and off. Danny said there was lots of space when I asked, no one was using the place, so he's fine with me having it for now. I have a couple of ideas I want to play with. When I'm not fixing some of the construction equipment, there's a lot of it that needs some attention. Do you know Kadir in the depot?"
"Ah..." Brian thought, finally placing the name. "Big middle eastern guy who looks like he eats nuts and bolts for breakfast?"
"That's him," she chuckled. "Not as tall as Zephron but nearly as wide. Be interesting to see which one would win at arm-wrestling. Anyway, he runs the place, he gave me a couple of test jobs this morning, and seems pleased with the results. It was interesting. I've got a knack for repairing things without the manual, so I'm going to be working on a couple of huge old bulldozers that have been sitting in the back of the garage for longer than I've been alive. No spares, no manuals, no information at all."
The woman smiled. "I like a challenge, I think. And it'll help people, which is more than I've managed to do for quite a while."
"Good luck with that, then," Brian said. He raised his coffee to her. "Welcome on board, hopefully you'll enjoy it here. We do, or at least I do." He looked at Alec, who simply looked back with a tiny smirk on his face. "He doesn't care as long as he gets seven square meals a day and all the computer games he can play."
"You have another friend here, don't you?" she asked tentatively. "Rachel? The girl with the dogs?"
"Two, actually, Rachel is indeed the girl with the dogs, and she loves it here, then there's Lisa. Who also seems to be having a hell of a lot of fun. She's managed to end up as Mr Hebert's personal assistant."
"Oh, right, I've met her. She sorted out my DWU ID and papers. But I haven't seen her today yet."
"Still in bed, I think," Alec put in. "She staggered past me when I was going for breakfast, looking like she'd been up all night. Again."
"OK. I guess she'll find me when she needs me. Until then, I'll just get on with work." Linda sipped her coffee, falling into a pensive silence. Brian watched her for a moment, glanced at Alec, who shrugged minutely, then just sat there quietly until he'd finished his own drink.
"I have to get back to work," he said when he emptied the cup. "I'll see you around."
"I expect so," she said, looking up from the table, which she'd been gazing sightlessly at, apparently thinking hard. "Sorry, I'm not being very friendly right now. I have a lot of things to think about, and a decision to make."
"Anything I can help with?"
Linda shook her head, but smiled a little. "No, I don't think so, but thank you for the offer." Looking around the room at the other people who were coming and going, she added, "This place is… not what I expected."
"Hopefully it's what you needed, though," he replied.
"I think it probably is." Her response took a moment, but seemed sincere. "So far it's working out very well."
Picking up her cup, she looked at the clock on the wall. "I should get back to the garage as well. Nice talking to you." She gave him a smiled, waved to Alec, then hurried off.
Brian exchanged a look with his friend, then headed towards the exit, wondering what decision she meant.
Taylor watched Vicky leave the school, wondering what was wrong with the girl. She smelled worried, or more accurately rather scared, and had been giving her odd looks every time they'd passed the entire day. It had got worse after lunch.
She was somewhat concerned, she liked the blonde and hoped that it wasn't anything serious. And she couldn't work out why Vicky twitched every time she smiled at the girl.
"You sure she's all right?" she asked Amy, who was standing next to her, also looking after her sister, who had nearly leaped out the door, towing poor Dean behind her helplessly.
"I don't know what the hell is up with her," her friend said. "This isn't normal. But she won't tell me what the problem is. It's nothing medical, I checked, she's perfectly healthy. But definitely stressed."
"Maybe it's worry about flying into that building?" Taylor suggested as they headed for the exit. "Your mom is pretty intimidating, I could see her getting mad being something Vicky was scared of."
"She's not going to be happy about it, no," Amy smiled. "But Vicky gets yelled at all the time for breaking things. She's used to it, although I have to admit it doesn't happen very often these days. I think it must be something else."
"Huh." Taylor thought, but drew a blank. "Oh well. Let her know that if she needs anything, I'm happy to help out." She smirked a little. "I'm sure the Family would help as well."
"Probably," Amy laughed. "It's probably nothing. She can be a bit moody sometimes, as you know. She'll perk up and forget all about whatever it is sooner or later." They both turned when Lucy came up behind them, greeting their friend.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said with a smile.
"Not getting a ride with Mandy's mom?" Taylor asked, since it was the normal procedure. The older woman worked fairly close to Arcadia and the schedules worked out conveniently to allow her to pick both girls up on the way home, as Lucy and Mandy lived quite close together.
"No, Dad's going to visit gran this afternoon and I'm going with him, he's going to be here soon," she replied.
"Oh, OK. In that case, see you tomorrow." Taylor smiled at her friend, the other girl waving as she headed down to the road to wait.
"Want a lift or are you going to run this time?" Amy asked quietly.
"I'll come with you," Taylor said. Both of them headed for the truck. Shortly, having removed the fill-in plugs that covered the tail holes, both of them were sitting in the vehicle as Amy drove carefully around the other cars that were picking up various students. They'd altered the seats over the weekend to have the fractional dimensional pockets that both of them had missed the first time around, which made life a little more convenient.
"This is much more comfortable," Taylor commented as she leaned back. "It's the only problem with having a tail, sitting in a normal car seat."
"I know," Amy giggled. "I love my tail, but that was a pain in the ass. Literally. This is way better." She glanced at her friend. "So. Dragons over Brockton, hmm?"
"That's the rumor," Taylor replied mildly. "I'm not sure I believe it. You know PHO, full of weirdos."
"It is that, yes."
They exchanged a look, then started laughing. "It was fucking amazing," she said happily, beaming at the other girl. "Absolutely incredible. The water rocket was too, of course, but there's something about feeling the air over your wings that's really cool. I could spend hours doing that without any trouble at all."
"Did you have any trouble working out how to fly?" Amy asked with interest. "I remember the water thing..."
"Most of the city remembers that," Taylor snickered. "Well, it wasn't entirely easy, I have to say. I must have had to swim back to the beach about… maybe a couple of dozen times? I'm glad I didn't try it first in public, that would have been embarrassing. But we got it in the end. The form's pretty much optimized now, it flies really well. Glides well too." She looked at her friend. "Varga suggested you might be interesting in a ride."
"Now there's an idea," Amy grinned. "That could be fun. I've been missing Raptaur-rides, I have to admit."
"Not as good as doing it yourself, but still great. We need to work out something like it for you guys."
"There are other things to finish first, but yes, I want that too."
"Think Linda's made a decision yet?"
"No idea. She was certainly looking thoughtful yesterday, though. We'll find out today, I expect. Have you worked out how to actually do it?"
"It depends on exactly what's needed, and some of the more extreme methods would need some help from you, but I've got a number of ideas." Amy glanced at her for a moment then went back to driving. "I'm looking forward to trying it, actually. This is really interesting."
Taylor nodded, feeling much the same.
A couple of miles further on, Amy turned off the main road, heading towards the shoreline. As they were driving down the new road, sirens from behind them made her look in her rear-view mirror, and Taylor look over her shoulder. There was a BBPD cruiser, lights going, coming up behind them at high speed. Amy indicated and pulled over to let it past, as did the other vehicles in the way. The car whipped past, the siren dopplering down in pitch, then slammed the brakes on and slid around the next corner on the right.
They exchanged glances. "I wonder what that's about?" Taylor said. Another siren from behind heralded the arrival of another police car, which did the same thing, followed by a PRT truck. The latter vehicle leaned heavily as it only just made the turn.
"Something interesting," Amy replied, checking that there weren't any more vehicles about to jump out at them, before pulling out onto the road again. Rolling down the window, Taylor listened, hearing gunshots, then sniffed.
"Merchants," she sighed. "Must be some of the ones that left after our first operation. I can smell the drugs on them."
"Should we go and take a look, do you think?"
"Bit difficult, we're in the middle of traffic in broad daylight," Taylor pointed out, looking around them. There was now at least fifteen other vehicles clogging the road as everyone slowed down to see what happened next. That was the problem with Brockton Bay, she thought, people around these parts not only were very used to this sort of thing, but wanted to watch. It was very nearly a spectator sport.
All it was missing was…
"Yep. There we go," she grumbled slightly, pointing to the side. "Aegis up there, see?"
"And Miss Militia coming up behind on her bike," Amy said, looking in the side mirror. The military-themed heroine zoomed past moments later, weaving in and out of the stopped traffic with great skill. Above them, Aegis was floating a couple of hundred feet up, talking to people on the ground via some sort of headset. Taylor listened to his conversation, as did Amy. By now the road was completely blocked.
"Can you hear the other end?" the Dallon girl asked. "I can't make it out, although I can hear him."
"Yes, he's reporting on the situation," she replied. "Five of them held up a pharmacy, I guess they were after drugs."
"They're probably going into withdrawal now if they didn't think to take any of their narcotics when they ran," Amy suggested.
"Guess so. Ah, the cops just got one of them with a taser. The other four scattered, they had hostages, but they've let most of them go. Two are going south towards the bay, they've got one of the clerks with them, the others are heading in two different directions with a hostage each."
She listened, concerned and annoyed that she couldn't really do much without blowing their cover, while reporting on what the tinny voice in Aegis's earpiece was saying.
A couple of minutes later, she nodded in satisfaction. "Miss Militia just got the two that went towards the bay. The hostage is safe, but has a broken ankle. The cops are chasing one of the others, but they've lost the fourth one."
Shortly after that, they heard shots in the distance again. Aegis dived out of sight behind one of the buildings. Wondering what was going on, they waited. Several people had gotten out of their cars and were videoing the entire thing with their phones, and a couple of cars over someone had a police scanner that they could hear fragments of conversation coming from.
"I think that was the one that went towards the Boardwalk, the one the cops were after," Amy noted.
"Yes, so do I. I wonder where the other one is? He's close, I can smell the bastard, but the wind's blowing in the wrong direction." Taylor listened, focusing her Varga-granted senses and closing her eyes. "Off to the right, behind that shop," she said after a moment. "Swearing like an idiot. He's not in a good mood."
"What do we do?" her friend asked, looking over in the direction Taylor was pointing. "You could shut him down in seconds. For that matter, so could I. But with everyone watching..." She scowled blackly.
"I know, it's fucking annoying," Taylor muttered, tracking the progress of the ex-Merchant with her ears as he came closer, sounds of people shouting and running around also present. They heard a couple of shots. A moment later the door to the shop, a clothing store, slammed open and half a dozen people came running out. They looked at the scene, then each other, then back to the shop in time to see a tall, skinny, and very angry man who looked like someone had already beaten him severely come running out of the shop waving a pistol.
He looked around frantically, pointed the gun at a couple of pedestrians who had made a motion to jump him, both men freezing, then ran towards the road. "You don't think he's..." Amy said in a wondering manner as the man wildly scanned the cars in range, then fixed on them.
"Looks like it," Taylor said, with inner glee. "Look helpless, quick."
"OK." Amy recoiled in visible fear as the man ran up to them and wrenched the passenger door open, grabbing Taylor by the arm and pulling. She grinned at her friend, out of his sight, then let him yank her out of the truck.
"Hey, you bastard, what the hell are you doing?" she shouted. Behind her she could hear Amy snickering very quietly.
A shout from the other side of the street made both of them look, to see several BBPD uniformed officers pointing guns at the man. One of them yelled, "Let the girl go and get down on your face, NOW!" at the desperate man.
"Fuck you, pig!" he screamed back, shaking Taylor. She went along with it, trying not to smile. "Get back or I cap the bitch."
He pointed his gun at her ear from inches away, then raised it to aim at one of the officers who had been moving in a crouch between the parked cars. He fired, the shot making everyone duck, while the round itself shattered the side window of one of the cars. The woman in it screamed, threw her door open, and dived out, rolling behind another car. As far as Taylor could tell she was unhurt, although terrified.
"You know you're not going to get away, so why not give up?" she asked in a mild tone.
"Shut up, cunt, or you get one in the face," he howled at her from close range. She raised a hand and wiped spittle from her face.
"Thanks."
He shook her again, hard enough that had she been a normal person she'd probably have bitten the end of her tongue off. "Keep your mouth shut. You, in the truck, get in the back seat."
Amy leaned over and looked at him, an expression of fear on her face. "Do you want me to leave the keys in the ignition?"
"Of course I fucking do you stupid slut!"
"Got you." She didn't move.
"I said, get in the back seat!"
"Now?" Amy leaned over again to see him.
"Yes, fucking NOW!"
"Oh. OK. Got you."
Again, she didn't move, merely watched him. She was giving a good impression of someone made indecisive by worry.
Taylor was trying very hard not to laugh or look like she found the entire thing as funny as she did. She, of course, had nothing at all to fear from his silly pistol, and with all the mods Amy had done to herself, it would at best annoy her and ruin her clothes. Which would annoy her even more.
Deciding that it was time to bring this to an end, she put her free hand in her pocket, forming one of the now-standard collapsible batons in it. She needed to make sure that no one suspected anything was wrong, but having one of them on her person was entirely reasonable, especially in this city.
Looking around she could see a couple of dozen people watching, which was annoying, but better he threaten her than someone who could be hurt. The cops had been joined by Aegis, who was hanging in the air ten feet over the road looking very frustrated, since he clearly didn't want to risk her getting shot. She could smell his irritation with the man.
"Will you move you stupid cow?" the drug addict screamed at the top of his voice, shaking with both fury and the results of not taking his medication. As soon as he moved his gun towards Amy, Taylor whipped her baton out of her pocket, extending it in the same move, and brought it over her body to hit his wrist a couple of inches above the hand. She very carefully pulled the blow to avoid simply severing the limb, which wouldn't have looked very good, and would have blown her cover instantly. Even so, she heard the bones shatter with a dull crack, as did everyone within fifty feet.
The ex-Merchant screamed in agony, the gun dropping to the road with a clatter. She kicked it under Amy's truck, then as he released her and grabbed at his broken arm, whacked him in the ribs in a precise blow, then over the shoulders as he folded up. There was dead silence as the man collapsed onto his face and passed out.
Stepping back, she closed the baton between her hands and put it back into her pocket, not dissipating it since there was a good chance the cops were going to want to look at it. Amy got out of the truck and rushed around to her, a mask of worry for her friend on her face, although Taylor could see the hidden amusement in her eyes. "Oh, my god, Taylor, are you OK?" she shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders, then holding her hand. After a moment, she announced loudly, "Only bruises, thank god. Here, I'll fix them."
Taylor was trying very hard indeed not to laugh at this point. The whole act was ridiculous, yet necessary.
The police, after a moment's startled shock, charged towards them, pulling her and Amy away from the criminal, fairly gently, then surrounding him with aimed guns. One of them knelt down and looked him over. "Broken arm and rib, I think," he reported.
"I can check if you want," Amy said. They all looked at her.
"Fuck, it's Amy Dallon," one of the men said, looking surprised. He inspected Taylor, his eyebrows going up. "I know you. You're Danny Hebert's daughter, right?"
"Yes, that's me," she acknowledged with a nod.
The sound of a motorcycle approaching made all of them look, to see Miss Militia pull up. Aegis, who had been reporting the progress of the drama to her, landed next to her and spoke quietly for a moment, the woman nodding, before she turned the bike off, flipped the stand down with her foot, and got off. Amy and Taylor watched briefly, then turned back to the officer.
Pushing his hat back a little, he grinned, before peering down at the unconscious man. "Like father, like daughter," he chuckled. "That was pretty impressive. Who trained you in that sort of thing?"
"Saurial showed me some good tricks and gave me the baton," she smiled.
"Ah." He nodded. "I understand. I'm glad you're all right, I wouldn't want the Family getting pissed about a friend of theirs being hurt. And I definitely don't want Danny Hebert on the warpath." He turned to Amy. "If you could make sure he doesn't have anything serious wrong with him, that would help, Miss Dallon."
"Sure," she replied, kneeling down. "Yep, broken rib, fractured ulna and radius. Clean breaks." She looked at Taylor. "Did you have to hit him so hard?"
"Yes. He was about to point a gun at you."
They could each see that the other was grinning internally. "Fair enough, can't argue with that. I'll fix him, but he's going to ache for days." She smiled at her friend, then turned to the officer. "He threatened a friend of mine. So he gets to keep the bruises."
The man seemed mildly amused. "I'm not going to argue with an angry Panacea," he replied. Amy grinned, then got on with fixing most of the damage.
Carlos watched in astonishment at how efficiently and brutally Taylor Hebert laid her assailant out, wincing at the sound of bones breaking. He'd got the impression from watching her at school that she was a very calm individual, and now he added to that impression another observation that in a pinch she'd use that same calm to cause serious damage if necessary. There was no wasted motion, no panicking, merely a seized opportunity and a blur of movement.
Whoever trained her had known what they were doing, and had equipped her with some pretty effective skills. As far as he knew she was right-handed, but she'd pulled that baton and flipped it open with her off hand without any trouble at all. Perhaps she was ambidextrous? Or, her instructor had been sure to train her to use both hands, for exactly this sort of situation.
He noted that she'd immediately kicked the weapon out of reach as soon as it hit the ground, pivoting on her heel in the same move that removed the gun to very neatly lay the guy out flat with an elegant economy of effort. When she was done, she just stepped back, closed the baton, and slipped it into her pocket without any fuss, still looking pretty calm. For a moment he wished Dean was here to tell him whether she really was that laid-back, or could just hide it really well. It could be either.
Miss Militia pulled up below him, so he landed next to her, both of they watching the cops rush over and make sure the perp was down. "What happened?" his superior asked after a quick look. Both Taylor and Amy were hidden behind the police contingent at the moment.
"Guy came out of the shop there, must have got in through the back, tried to jack that truck, and pulled the passenger out. It's Taylor Hebert. She was with Amy Dallon, that's her vehicle."
The woman winced visibly, at both names. "Oh, hell. Just fucking wonderful. Are they hurt?"
"No, not at all." He shrugged, smiling a little, mostly in relief. "It was pretty impressive, actually. That idiot pulled the door open and hauled Taylor out, trying to use her as a hostage, I think. He ordered Amy to get in the back, waved the gun around, fired a shot at a cop, then got careless. Turned out that Taylor had a collapsible baton in her pocket and she sure knows how to use it."
Miss Militia's eyes widened over her scarf. His smile grew. "As soon as the ganger was pointing the gun away from anyone, she whipped it out, broke his arm with it, then probably a rib, kicked the gun under the truck, and laid him out flat. It was almost a work of art, actually. Someone has trained her very well."
The woman stared at him, then turned to watch as the cops moved around, Taylor becoming visible. One of the officers was talking to her, obviously having recognized both her and the Dallon girl. They listened as the girls talked. "She's been trained by Saurial," Miss Militia sighed. "Of course. I should have known. Danny Hebert has probably had the girl training his daughter since the moment they met. To make sure nothing like what happened before happens again."
"That makes sense," Carlos nodded. "A lot of sense, actually. I can't think of many people who would be better instructors on hand to hand combat."
"Well, I'm damn glad that she did. If either one of them got hurt on our watch there'd be hell to pay, from New Wave or the DWU, and I honestly don't know which alternative worries me more."
"DWU," Carlos said immediately. She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "They know the Family..."
She paled a little. "Very good point." Watching as Amy knelt down and started repairing the unconscious gang member, she waved him after her. "Come on, let's see how they are. We don't want them going home and saying we just stood there and let the police do all the work, that would just be embarrassing."
He hid a smile as he followed the woman towards the crowd of cops, and the larger crowd of bystanders who were indulging in one of Brockton Bay's favorite pastimes, watching the aftermath of crime.
Amy, scenting a familiar person behind her, two in fact, stood and turned to Carlos and Miss Militia, who were approaching from where the older cape had parked her bike. The boy smelled intrigued, the woman was definitely worried. Glancing at Taylor she could tell that her friend had obviously picked up on this, not surprising since her senses were wildly better than even Amy's own highly improved ones.
Both stopped a few feet away. "Hello, Panacea," Miss Militia said. "I don't believe I know your friend. Are you both all right?"
Amy could tell, almost immediately, that the statement of not knowing Taylor, or at least of not knowing of Taylor, wasn't entirely accurate. Partly because of the slight change in scent, partly due to the look in the eyes she could see over the scarf, as the woman inspected both of them. Not to mention her reaction when Carlos had mentioned who was involved in the small drama.
"Wow! Miss Militia!" Taylor exclaimed, smiling. "I've always liked you. It's nice to meet you."
Amusingly, this was actually true, Amy thought with inner laughter. Her friend did genuinely rather like the older woman, and found her odd fear of her reptilian alter-egos and the Family somewhat peculiar.
"We're both fine, Miss Militia," she replied. "I wasn't even touched, and he only bruised Taylor when he pulled her out of the car. She hurt him a lot more than he hurt her." She looked down at the now-healed but still unconscious man, who the police were in the process of restraining and lifting. "Good thing, too, or I'd have got very annoyed. No one hurts my friends and gets away with it."
She met the other woman's eyes straight on. "No one."
"I see. Can you tell me what happened? We always need to file a report when a Parahuman is involved in a crime, even if as a victim. And I may need to explain this to your mother, who is… a stickler for the rules."
Carlos, even with his costume hiding his face, was now radiating a certain amount of agreement, and Taylor was grinning.
"She is a bit, isn't she?" Amy laughed. "Sure, we were just driving along..."
Going over the entire thing didn't take long. The officer who had recognized both her and her friend was taking notes, while Miss Militia had a small digital recorder in her hand. When she was done, and Taylor had given her version as well, the woman turned it off and returned it to a belt pouch, nodding to them.
"Thank you. It seems you reacted very sensibly. Although, Miss Hebert, I'd suggest that it's not entirely safe to take on an armed man."
"He wasn't very good, and I wasn't going to risk him shooting Amy," Taylor said. "Saurial trained me pretty intensively for exactly that sort of scenario. She doesn't like bullies any more than I do." Taylor met the eyes of the female cape without flinching. "I had a bad experience with a group of bullies. Never again. And I'm not going to let anyone hurt my friends either, any more than Amy would." She shrugged, smiling suddenly. "I mean, I'm not a Parahuman like Amy is, but I'm quick and tall enough to have a decent amount of leverage. He wasn't expecting anything, was so strung out he could barely walk straight, and he paid the price."
Miss Militia looked and smelled a little uncomfortable when Taylor made the comment about bullies. Interestingly, so did Carlos. Amy knew her friend was undoubtedly watching both their faces right through their disguises with her weird thermal vision and would have picked this up even before she did. Clearly both of them knew about the Winslow situation. Just as clearly they didn't want to let on that they had any idea about it.
"Bullies are always unpleasant," the woman agreed. She looked over to the ex-Merchant as he was loaded into a cruiser. "Although I think an armed assailant is slightly more than just a bully."
"Same principle, though," Taylor smiled. "And on the street, when he's waving a gun, I can hit him. In my old school I couldn't have got away with that." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Actually, in that damn place, perhaps I could have. Not like anyone ever did anything. Half the students were armed, a lot of them with more lethal things than batons."
"Could I see yours, by the way?" Miss Militia asked politely. "Professional curiosity only. You're perfectly at liberty to carry one for self defense, which this clearly was."
"Sure," Taylor replied, sounding happy, pulling the thing from her pocket and handing it over. "It's a nice one. Saurial made it for me."
Miss Militia examined the weapon, a couple of the cops doing the same, all of them looking interested. "Tac-Smack?" one of them laughed, when he read the lettering on the side. "Fucking fantastic. Where can I get one?"
"I think the Family are probably going to start selling them to people they trust soon," Taylor smiled. "You could go to the DWU and ask, they have a lot of respect for the police and would most likely help you out."
Flicking it open with a practiced motion, the older woman looked impressed, then tried flexing it. "It's made of that ridiculously strong metal they use, isn't it?"
"EDM. Yes, she said it was basically indestructible. I guarantee you won't be able to bend it." Taylor and Amy both watched as the cape played with it, then handed it to one of the cops, who did the same, waving it, then mock striking at an imaginary assailant. Nodding, he handed it back to her.
"Very nice. I'll definitely be looking into that. It's got a good balance. The guys at the station might want to talk to your friends as well."
Pressing the button on the end and closing the thing one handed against her shoulder, Taylor dropped it back into her pocket. "I'll mention it when I see them next," she assured him. "It came in handy today."
"If I can just get an official statement from you, ladies," the first cop said, "you can be on your way."
"Of course." They waited while he filled in a couple of witness statement forms, asking a few more questions and referring to his notebook.
"Great. That's all we need. Thank you both, and I'm glad neither of you were harmed." He looked at the car with the now-conscious and very loud former Merchant. "Those guys are a fucking pain in the ass. I'm very glad that your friends took most of them out last night. We'll probably be rounding up the last few of them for weeks, the ones that aren't still running." Turning back to them, he added, "Miss Hebert, please pass on my best wishes to your father."
"I'll do that, Officer. Thank you for coming to our rescue."
He chuckled, smiling. "Not that you seemed to need it." Nodding to them, then the heroes, he headed back to his vehicle and the other police officers, stopping to talk to a couple of them.
"Miss Militia, were there any casualties from this guy's friends?" Amy asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "As long as I'm in the area, if there are, I'm happy to heal them."
"Actually, yes, there were a couple of injuries," the woman said, sounding pleased at the offer. "We're still waiting on an ambulance, so if you could do that I'm sure the victims would appreciate it very much."
"OK. Show me where they are, I'll fix them up."
The woman made a call on her headset, then motioned to them to follow as she got back on her bike. The remaining police officers quickly cleared the few cars still blocking the road, moving the spectators on, and allowing Amy and Taylor to follow in her truck.
Hannah watched the bright blue truck drive off, the girls inside waving to her and Carlos. Amy had quickly repaired all the injuries, for which she'd received some heartfelt thanks, talked to the victims for a couple of minutes, signed three autographs, and then left. The Hebert girl had watched with interest, asked Hannah for an autograph as well as Carlos, smiled at them, and gone off with her friend, apparently none the worse for her short ordeal.
"That's a pretty strong-willed young lady," she commented to the Ward as he landed next to her again, having been flying around helping the police find one of the weapons the gangers had dropped during their escape. "For someone without powers, she's not bad. I suspect that by the time Saurial is finished training her, she'd be a difficult opponent to most people."
"I'm told that's a Hebert characteristic," Carlos replied quietly. "They're stubborn and don't know how to quit. And Taylor is, according to Vicky, and Amy for that matter, very smart and very driven. And really doesn't like bullies. Not that I can blame her, considering."
"No," Hannah mused reflectively. "No, you can't."
Internally, she was just happy that the girl hadn't Triggered after that fucking stupid stunt that Sophia and her friends had pulled. Colin had been right to worry about it. Based on the impression she'd developed while talking to her, Taylor Hebert with powers would be… very dangerous indeed.
She was bad enough with just an indestructible baton, given an opening. That idiot ganger was lucky to only have got a broken arm out of it.
Relieved that things had worked out so well, she got back on her bike, radioing the control room for the next assignment, and slightly wearily wondering how many more ex-Merchants were running around her city causing chaos. At least, when they finally rounded them all up, that was the end of that particular gang.
Only a few more to go, and Brockton Bay would merely be a dangerous city, rather than a lethal one.