Blood dribbled from her chin, leaving a streak of red on the ground of the warehouse from where she skidded. Daisy grimaced at the floor. This really was not her day. A hand grabbed the back of her now ripped leather jacket and hauled her to her feet. Her left eye was swollen, and she felt more than saw the approach of two more Watchdogs. The one behind her ripped one of her gauntlets off, sending shocks of searing pain up her arms. Movement cut through the pain. Someone else entered the warehouse. But their vibrations were… off.
She threw her head back into the man as he tried to grab for her other gauntlet. He stumbled back in surprise. Daisy dropped. Shots zipped over her head. The man behind her screamed. She didn't spare a glance back at him. Her leg kicked out at the kneecap of the closest standing Watchdog. The shockwave that rippled out from her heel shattered his knee and sent bone fragments deep into his tendons. He dropped.
She felt the vibrations of the other one's gun shift, readjusting to aim at her. A shot rang out. Daisy managed to lift a black and blue arm and conjure a small wall of vibrations. She braced for the impact of a bullet against her powers, a soft cry escaping her lips. She felt nothing.
Someone was coming toward her. The one with the funky vibrations. Something pushed tentatively against her weak barrier. Another soft cry slipped from Daisy's lips. Her powers slipped. Her free hand palmed a gun that had skidded close to her when one of the Watchdogs fell.
A calloused hand grasped Daisy's outstretched arm. The touch was gentle. Until it tried to haul Daisy to her feet.
"Fuck!" she cried as another wave of searing pain shot up her arm. Her feet scrambled to find purchase and push herself up to stop the pain. By the time she reached her feet, her gun was already aimed at the chest of the woman still holding her hand.
The woman raised an eyebrow. Her free hand held a gun as well, aimed at Daisy's head. Daisy glanced down to their still connected hands, then back up.
"Uh… Sup?" Daisy ventured.
The handprint painted in white across the woman's face shifted with her features as they settled to something that seemed vaguely amused. Slowly, the woman's fingers moved to let go of Daisy's. Daisy copied her action. Together, they hesitantly pulled their hands away, each move carefully telegraphed. Their guns didn't lower.
"So are you like… the murder type or the leave them here for the cops to deal with type?" Daisy asked.
White-handprint-lady shrugged and her left hand made an either-or kind of motion.
"Oh, cool. I'm a leave them for the cops as long as the cops aren't super corrupt kind of gal myself so I'm just gonna head out now."
She nodded.
Daisy nodded back. She lowered her gun first. Her feet twisted to turn her back to the woman. No vibrations screamed at her. No pain punched through her body. Well, except for the searing pain in her arms that made her seriously consider amputation. She ran. Behind her, she heard three shots, then nothing.
It took three days before the meds Yo-Yo smuggled her knocked the pain from I-want-an-amputation to maybe-something's-broken. Daisy decided to celebrate the occasion by finally dragging herself out of bed and taking a shower. She parked her van outside of a twenty-four-hour gym and headed inside. She only really used the place for discreet showers at three am. Constant brawls left her too sore to actually work out these days.
She could always count on the place to be dead when she went in. The single employee who worked overnight kept her nose down and in a book and no one else was insane enough to work out at this hour. But this time, the employee behind the counter looked annoyed. The first sign that someone else was here. The second was the rather loud echo of music coming from the main part of the gym.
Daisy closed her eyes briefly, tuning in to the vibrations of the gym, hoping to identify how many people she had to worry about, but trying to narrow in on anything through goddamn bass echoing off of the concrete walls just gave her a headache. She let out a frustrated sigh. The showers were at the back. She'd have to walk past whoever it was.
Her fingers tightened around the strap of the duffel bag slung over her shoulder and she stepped past the counter. The floor beneath her feet buzzed with the pounding of the bass. She eyed the single figure on the gym floor. They were going at the punching bag. An old speaker set by their feet, the source of the music. Their head bopped along to the bass as they pummeled the bag.
As Daisy came even with them, they finally noticed they weren't alone. They turned. They locked eyes. Daisy knew. And Daisy knew that white-handprint-lady now without her signature handprint knew too. The first thought that struck her after that revelation was that white-handprint-lady had definitely showered since the fight. Then she was dodging a kick and spinning out to the side, holding her free hand up in the air. And was that a flash of metal she saw by the woman's ankle as it flew past her?
"Woah! Chill!" Daisy said.
The woman settled into a defensive stance, eyeing her warily, but she did indeed chill. Or at least didn't launch another attack.
"I didn't follow you here. You can check with the lady at the desk. I'm here pretty often," Daisy explained. "Never seen you around here before, though."
The woman's eyes narrowed, flicking down to Daisy's lips. After a moment of consideration, she offered a small shrug.
Daisy cocked her head. Her gaze darted to the speaker. Then back to the woman. Then to her lips. Realization lit in her eyes. She pointed to the woman then tapped her index finger once against the side of her chin and once against her ear and raised her eyebrows.
The woman's eyes narrowed even more. She gave a slow nod. Then pointed back to Daisy followed by pointing two fingers at each other and rotating them clockwise. She finished with another point and raised brows.
Daisy grinned and made a knocking motion with her hand, then continued to sign, "ASL I learned for my friend," she pointed to a spot to her left. "Brain damage, he has. Talking hard."
The woman's stance eased. Her right hand formed a Y shape and moved back and forth slightly.
"I'm Daisy," she signed, fingerspelling her name. "You?"
Maya made the sign for dragon, but a bit smaller, and positioned over her heart.
Daisy slid her right palm across her left, then made the shape of a D with both hands and lightly touched them together. She finished by pointing at Maya and offering another smile.
Maya made a Y shape again, but this time shook it side to side instead of back and forth.
"You, I owe," she signed. At Maya's questioning look, Daisy continued. "For saving me."
She frowned and tapped two fingers against her thumb while shaking her head. "Watchdog HQ I go to take care of them. Know you there, I didn't. Save you, I didn't."
Daisy scoffed. "Me, you still saved. Watchdog," she pointed to her right then shifted her shoulders in that direction and mimed pointing a gun and pulling the trigger. She then shifted her shoulders back to the left and stuck out her tongue, her eyes rolling to the left. Her right palm faced up, her left faced down. Then she flipped them both to the left.
Maya tapped her two fingers against her thumb again. She pursed her lips in thought and settled on signing wall and then vibration and finishing by pointing to Daisy.
Daisy responded by making the sign for wall, then forming a finger gun on the other side of the wall, facing toward her, and her non-dominant index finger traced the path of a bullet from the muzzle of the gun through the wall and to her chest. Then she simply signed, "weak. Me, you saved."
Maya spread her fingers and tapped her thumb against her chest with an eye roll.
"Good," Daisy signed. She crossed over to Maya's radio and switched it off. A frustrated noise from behind her made her snort. She turned around to meet Maya's death glare. "Girl, front desk, annoyed. Reading, she's trying."
Maya pointed to her angrily with her left hand then slapped her right hand on top of her pointed left finger and flicked it up toward her arm, then back in the opposite direction. At Daisy's vaguely amused, but slightly confused expression, she huffed and slowed it down. She separated the two signs for Daisy to understand. "Music murderer," she signed. Then she combined the two signs again and pointed to her.
Daisy laughed. Maya's glare sharpened. Daisy bit her lip to try to hold the rest of her chuckles in and beckoned Maya to come closer. Reluctantly, the woman moved over to her. Daisy reached out but stopped just short of touching Maya's arm and looked up at her, raising an eyebrow in silent question.
Maya watched her. Her jaw tensed. Her head dipped in a nod. Daisy's hand continued forward until it gently rested on Maya's forearm. She couldn't help the gasp that escaped from her mouth when she suddenly felt it. It was like the song she was listening to before came alive under her skin. The beat resonated through her bones. The melody danced in the twisting fibers of her muscles.
When Daisy started to pull away, Maya's hand shot out to grab her wrist, keeping her in place. She took a step in closer to Daisy, leveling her with another glare.
Daisy chuckled and signed with her free hand, "shower, I need. Stinky."
Maya glanced at her signing hand and then took a hesitant sniff. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Told you. I shower, vibrations continue. You, worry don't."
She narrowed her eyes at Daisy. Her grip slowly relaxed on her wrist. Daisy's hand pulled away. It was as though someone turned down the volume. The beat still resonated in her bones, but it didn't pulse in her head. The melody still danced between her muscles but didn't make her desperate to move along with it. She crossed her arms, letting her distaste be known.
Daisy simply rolled her eyes. "Fast, I try," she signed. Maya gave a nod. Daisy hurried off to the locker room.
When she came back, Maya was working on the punching bag again. She seemed to feel Daisy coming and turned to her when she appeared at the entrance of the locker room. Daisy ran a hand through her wet hair and glanced down at her phone. "Breakfast?"
"You buying?" Other than a quick odd glance at the clock, which read four am, Maya didn't seem opposed to the idea.
Daisy chuckled softly. "Yeah. C'mon, Little Dragon."