One of Forms
Her anxiety over her clothes was only vindicated when she finally arrived at the coffee shop.
The girl in the suit was already there by the time she arrived, wearing a semi-formal set of dark blue jeans and a black blazer with a simple red tie, and was seated near one of the windows sipping tea.
Lisa had decided to forgo coming in her costume as well as something more relaxed and had exited her house wearing a similar set of semi-formal clothing with the exemption being that instead of a tie, she wore a nice long blazer and a simple white shirt.
One of the things that caused Lisa to pause though was the fact that the girl no longer had red accents in her hair and was wearing thick black rimmed glasses on her face hiding simple brown eyes. It took only a second for her power to confirm who she was but it was enough for Lisa to hesitate for her power had also previously confirmed that the previous hair colour was natural and so were her strange eyes that gave the girl perfect vision.
She dismissed it as part of Ma'at's cape costume but still mentally filed the observation for later.
She approached the teenage girl and was quick to greet her in a manner as friendly as she could be.
"Hello! Thank you for coming!"
The girl smiled fleetingly and greeted her with a "Hello" and waved to the chair in front of her.
"My name is Lisa. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"You can call me Taylor and the feeling's mutual."
"I have only ordered some tea while I waited. Do you want anything?"
"Sure."
The raven-haired girl raised her hand and snapped her fingers producing a clear sound that swiftly caught the staff's attention.
One of the waiters quickly approached them, a gangly male teen wearing a stiff, nervous smile, who softly asked for their orders. Lisa, having decided that the day would be long, asked for a macchiato while her companion simply waived the waiter off.
Both girls started to make small talk as soon as the boy left their side.
The small talk quickly evolved to a contest of wits as they took each other's measurements.
Lisa quickly deduced Taylor to be a pragmatic, intelligent and book-smart girl who seemed to only recently having broken through her shell, both as an introvert and as a naïve teenager. Lisa tried to keep her power away from new observations for if she had it on it would give her all the answers quickly, taking the fun off this endeavour. But Lisa couldn't keep her power too far away for it would give her a headache, so she used to confirm or deny her own suppositions.
"So how long have you been a cape?" Lisa asked fully knowing that Taylor debuted when she rescued the Undersiders.
"A few months. I have been busy fully exploring my powers before actually going out."
"Nicely done. You have no idea how many newbies go half-cocked and die before they can even get their names in places beyond the PRT reports."
"Somewhere between 25 to 30 per day across the Eastern Seaboard alone."
Lisa had to hide her smile in her carton cup.
"And the business idea?"
"I find being a hero to be a constraining ideal and a villain to be too singular a path. So independent was the correct move. I have to say I wasn't expecting the amount of bureaucracy needed to establish myself and my business."
"So… the PRT knows about you?" Lisa blinked.
"I recently registered in the NY branch of the PRT." Taylor answered.
Lisa had to restrain herself to not let her jaw drop for a second there. Shit, she thought, That answers why couldn't find anything in BROCKTON'S PRT! The only PRT branch database she had access thanks to Coil. The different branches had both a lot of independence between each other and a distinctive rivalry depending on the directors in charge. Of course, the New York director wouldn't say anything about another independent getting registered in their sector to other directors unless they had recruited them to their branch. Especially if Taylor half-assed her obligatory power assessment and obfuscated her real powers from the PRT, making her seem weaker than she was to the powers above. Technically, that omission of the truth wasn't even illegal since some Thinker down in Ohio broke PRT's database and used the detailed information on his city's independents to either kill them or incentivize them to join his gang. Sure, a common database existed between all branches but the information was sometimes even vaguer than the ones in the private servers.
Lisa put down her cup and inspected the girl in front of her.
"Can you tell me what you did to Lung?"
The raven-haired girl tilted her head, as if in consideration, making Lisa reminisce about that night, and said:
"It seems he survived."
"No, he didn't. He was a corpse last I saw him. You opened up his skull and took part of his brain away. Even he can't survive that."
"Well." The girl sighed with a gallic shrug. "Then I don't know what to tell you."
"But you did do something." Lisa accused, slightly preening at knowing she was right.
The girl named Taylor simply picked up the saucer then, lifted the teacup to her mouth and sipped with her eyes closed.
The moment she opened her eyes, Lisa felt as if the floor had given out on her at the same time her head was cleaved in half.
She tried to breathe but it felt as if there was a hanging rope around her throat, ready to be hefted across the coffee shop's rafters to lift her and smother her until she twitched no more.
She tried to move but her body felt cold as if she had been bitten by a red and black snake whose frigid venom had filled her veins, replaced her blood, and paralyzed her muscles.
She tried to think but her power filled her head with such noise she felt as if one of her neurons had rebelled and car bombed her brain.
The girl who was Ma'at had yellow and red eyes, perfect circles upon circles of those colours with no pupil whatsoever.
The entity smiled – a small, amused smile – and spoke in a deliberate tone of voice:
"Perhaps I did. But we both know you won't do anything about it."
The girl in the suit drank once more from the teacup, closing her eyes in satisfaction at the taste.
With that motion, the overwhelming feelings assaulting Lisa disappeared as quickly as they came.
She had to grip her armrests to prevent herself from collapsing of relief at the sudden lifting of the metaphysical weight bearing down on her.
She gulped.
For a moment there was naught but silence between the occupants at the table. Feeling she needed to reconnect with reality, Lisa had taken to continue sipping her large macchiato all the while wishing she was drinking an Irish coffee instead. Taylor, who regained her soft brown eyes, was looking outside of the window watching the crowds moving about.
The silence was broken only by the waiter, this time a homely girl with lips drawn in the shape of a content smile and hands full of callouses, who asked if everything was good.
Both girls at the table gave their answers in affirmation and then the waiter asked if they wanted anything else.
Lisa could not resist and asked for a few of the chocolate cookies that were displayed at the front of the shop; Taylor, instead, asked for the chocolate cake with the strawberry on top plus another round of tea, this time of bitter black tea to pair with the sweet delicacy.
The silence continued for a few more moments.
"Can I ask…" Lisa stumbled. "What exactly are your powers?"
"Oh? I thought you would be more discreet in your approach."
"Well, I don't think that will work anymore."
"And why do you want to know?"
"Well, can't very well hire you if I don't know what your capabilities are, can I?"
"Fair enough. Before that, however, why do you want to hire me exactly?"
Lisa stopped talking as the waiter arrived with their orders. As soon as the waiter moved on, the Thinker spoke again as she nibbled on her cookie:
"Tell me: what do you know of Coil?"
A/N: Well, I am not dead... *yet*.
Unfortunately, I am even busier than normal since I was not able to finish my MD last month having needed to push forward the delivery date on my dissertation.
SO! Expect updates to be erratic.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter!