Interlude: Lisa 02

Lisa finished wrapping the motel towel around her hair and fixed her gaze on herself in the mirror, hands spread wide on the countertop. Her fingers clenched tight around the ceramic, wanting to poke at the space between her eyes. It was stupid. There was no hole, there wasn't even a phantom pain of a hole. Now that she was clean, no one would have ever known that half a day ago she had been lying in her own blood and brains.

Her fingers itched, her hands shook. She needed to touch it.

Jerking her head down and tearing her sight away from her forehead, she forced a smile, feigning the confidence she did not feel, then pushed back from the sink. Prancing back into the main room of the shitty little motel, Lisa plopped down on the bed, playfully punching Taylor's shoulder.

"Your turn, hon."

"Are you sure?" Taylor asked, her voice far too quiet, her gaze still locked on the foot of the bed.

"Tay, we can be apart for fifteen minutes. There were no issues while I was in the shower, right?"

"Sure." Taylor's tone was far too flat. Lisa barely stopped the groan before it could escape.

"You didn't take your eyes off me while I was in there did you, hon?"

Taylor winced, looking to the side. It was almost cute how she tried to whistle - and utterly failed to produce any sound besides a gust of air.

"Tay, I'm fine. It's been longer and longer between your top-offs. You can take some time to get clean and feel like a real person again. A brief dip in the ocean does not count."

"…Can we compromise?" She asked. "You could go in with me."

Lisa smirked, wriggling her eyebrows, very aware that she only had a bathrobe on at the moment. "Aww, that sounds remarkably forward of you, Tay. I'm flattered!"

Taylor's cheeks lit up cherry red. "I didn't mean it like that! It doesn't have to be - I just meant - It's just that then I wouldn't feel so anxious about leaving you alone out here and possibly getting distracted and missing you…"

"Tay," Lisa murmured, taking pity on the girl and laying her hand on Taylor's cheek gently tugging the brunette's head towards her. She'd hoped the teasing would head this off, even if she hadn't really thought it would. She'd been expecting this. It still hurt to see it. "You are still so amped up you're my own personal night light. If anyone bursts through that door or jumps in the window, you're going to be beside me before the glass even hits the floor. You're not going to miss me hacking up a lung, or collapsing, or calling for you."

"But what if -"

"I promise that I'll come in if I even just start to feel weak."

"Cheater," she said, the ghost a grin flickering across her face.

"Now, now, you know my power is still staticy. Don't go blaming my Sherlock ability just because I'm good at reading you, babe."

She winced. "I'm still worried about that."

"Don't be. I can almost feel it rebooting. It's fucking weird, but it's getting its getting its feet back under it. Whatever you did definitely threw it for a loop. It's just static, Taylor. I'll be tip-top by the time I'm weaned off your drip feed." Lisa chuckled and squeezed her hand. "And even if I'm not, even odds that I'm still the smartest person in any room I walk into. Right?"

"You're so bad," Taylor murmured, a soft chuckle following the admission.

"And yet you love me. Go, take a shower, and don't forget to wash your hair, hon."

"Okay. I'll at least try to relax." Taylor let out a shaky breath and stood. "You'll call them?"

"I will. Are you sure you don't want to talk to them yourself?"

Taylor turned away, wincing. "I…I can't. Not yet. I know you said that it's okay, but…I can't."

"That's fine. Baby steps. Get clean, then we'll sleep, then we can go on a short road trip, then we'll revisit this. Deal?"

"Deal." As she walked towards the bathroom, she stopped by the small cage on the office table and reached in to touch the hamster. Lisa caught a small flash of gold pass between master and pet before Taylor cooed to the critter, then continued to her shower.

Lisa moved from the bed to the chair in front of the cage, leaning on one arm as she watched the little guy run around his wheel, not a care in the world. "Quite a pair we make, huh Mr. Spinster? You seem to be taking this resurrection thing far better than me, eh buddy. I don't get it. Do hamsters just not have existential crises? Is that your secret?" The hamster continued to ignore her and performed his exercise routine. "You could at least pretend to care that we're trend setters. First human, first rodent…"

The water turned on and Lisa grunted. "Well, that's my cue. She can probably still hear us over the noise, but hey, it's the best we got, so we work with what we can."

Lisa pulled out her phone and punched in the number. It had barely finished the first ring before the phone was answered.

"PRT Emergency Response. Are you in immediate danger? What parahuman has threatened you?"

"Huh, you know, I've never actually called this line before. Is that a new response or is that normal? Because it feels rather on the nose for the moment. Director's kind of started a war on her way out so it makes sense if you guys updated the script."

There were several seconds of silence while the receptionist collected herself. "Miss, I need you to identify yourself."

"Pretty sure you've already done that during the pause. I gave you an ample voiceprint and a flippant response twice now. Do me the favor of not saying my name on an open line and just transfer me lady. Armsmaster please."

"Standby."

As the hold music started to play, Lisa slipped a leaf of lettuce through the top of the cage. The hamster squeaked with joy and leapt off of the wheel to run towards the vegetable, the exercise implement momentarily forgotten.

"If only everyone was so easily distracted," Lisa murmured.

"Armsmaster speaking, this line is secure. Am I speaking with Tattletale?"

She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "Might as well just call me Lisa. I gave up my alias when I decided to cut and run with my girlfriend and then I basically blew it to steaming pieces when I had a panic attack in front of Vista and her bodycam."

"Mm," he grunted. "There are still protocols."

"I cannot stress enough how much I don't care. Is Vista alright? We left in a hurry as soon as everyone started showing up and I think I blacked out for a minute with how fast Taylor was moving. You got her okay, right? She's fine?"

He paused. "You know I can't actually fully answer that question."

"I do. But you can give me something. Is she at least safe and not catatonic?"

"She is recovering and is speaking to those around her, yes."

"Awesome," Lisa said, the release of tension was a palpable weight off of her shoulders. "I know she was freaking out, bad. It's nice to hear that not every aspect of the Wards is fucked up beyond measure."

"…Many things have changed in the past three days."

Lisa blinked. "Fuck, it really has only been that long. Jesus, no wonder she's still so clingy."

"You are with Braid now?"

"I knew we were going to get there eventually," Lisa sighed. "Alright look, before I answer anything further, I need your promise - you personally - that this call isn't going to be tracked and that we're not going to get a raid team on our ass at the end of it. I don't want to tell Taylor as soon as she gets out of the shower that we have to leave immediately."

"That is a rather large concession, Lisa," Armsmaster stated.

"I know."

"You can't expect me to agree."

"But I do. You wouldn't still be head of the Protectorate if you didn't actually know you had screwed up; if you weren't taking that blame and the heat that came with it. You've proven yourself a good man simply because you're still where you are. Keep being that good man, Armsmaster, give me the time I need to calm Taylor down and get her to a point where she can interact with everyone again without her freaking the fuck out."

"You are asking for a very large leap of faith here," he said. Lisa could hear the frown in his voice.

She shrugged. "I'm already making one, calling you. But people have surprised me in the past few days. One of my friends actually proved he was a friend. I wouldn't have called that. I actually had him pegged almost entirely wrong. There was a chance that if I worked at it, I could have pulled the right strings, gotten to a place where I was part of his crowd, but I wasn't ever really sure where I stood. I don't know how my girlfriend did it, but she did that all by herself, without a Thinker power, and managed to drag me into his rotation too. So I'm making the leap of faith here, assuming that you'll keep acting in her best interests. And I think you can make one in return."

Armsmaster's sigh had frustration writ large in the exhalation. "I at least need to know that she is doing well."

"Oh yeah," Lisa said, waving her hand over her shoulder and scowling at thin air. "She's just peachy. Taylor watched me get my fucking brains blown out, not just in front of her, but over her! And one of her only friends was kidnapped and about to be tortured until there was nothing left but a weapon. And she was convinced her dad and her family friends were dead. And she thought her other friend hated her. And she was still spiraling for using her power in a way that she had promised herself she wouldn't! And to top things off, SHE JUST KILLED 42 PEOPLE, INCLUDING THREE CAPES, IN THE SPAN OF FIVE MINUTES!" By the end of her rant, Lisa was shouting and breathing in short gasps.

The hamster wheel squeaked as the little guy kept running, not a care in the world.

Lisa took a great gulp of air, focusing on the steady squeaking, forcing her breathing back to normal. Once she finally felt centered again, she continued, back in a normal volume, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. No, Taylor's not fine. I'm not fine either. I'm not taking this very well. But we're both doing better, and the less my hands shake and the less I cough and start to feel my heart give out again, the more my confidence is coming back. Give me a week. We should both be in a decent enough head space by then. Just…give me a week to sort us both out."

"…I'm sorry. I am not the best of people to speak with about this. We had assumed you would contact Assault. I can assure you, we have personnel who can help."

"I'm aware. But Taylor is still not comfortable returning. She's worried about one more disappointment breaking her again, and I can't blame her. It's been too much, too fast. Too many roller coasters of emotions. I can help her. She's already calming down. Besides, you really don't want to risk a girl who's empowered more and more by each and every kill to snap while she is in the middle of the PRT building surrounded by officers, Wards, and Protectorate…do you? Let her get centered again - on her own time."

"Lisa," he paused, Lisa heard a faint seagull caw. Had he been on his bike this whole time? Had just stopped? Ugh, she missed her power. "Is the effect permanent? Is this just…a prolonged goodbye?"

Ah. That was why he had stopped. Her guess had been right. He was a good man. Lisa closed her eyes. "We think it's permanent. The amount of life energy - Taylor named it 'essence' after a video game she played as a kid - seems to be proportional to how long someone's been dead, as well as their mass, sapience doesn't seem to be a factor. There is a limit; she swung by her mom's grave, no go. Parahumans might work differently, we're not entirely sure. Conversely, I am currently feeding an undead hamster that had been dead since she became a Ward."

"Are you forever tied to her?"

"Not forever, just for the moment. Until my 'fire is restarted'. Whatever the fuck that means. Her power drip feed is slowing though so I should be finished in another day or two, maybe. It'll definitely be permanent then."

"Mmm." Armsmaster stopped again. After a few seconds he continued, "You are being far more forthcoming than I had expected."

"It's tactical. The more you understand her power, the less likely everyone is to try and pull her in by force, and instead give her the time to come to grips with it all on her own. It's also personally important. God forbid some jumped-up idiot wanting to make a name for themselves tries to nab us, and actually manages to succeed, and separates us too soon…I'm dead. That's it. No second shots. I'm just…gone. I'm not ready to die, not again. So we're not coming in until I'm off of life support. The hamster too."

"I understand."

"I also really did want to check on Vista. We hung out before the shit hit the fan, she was cool. Good kid."

"Vista is the best of us."

Lisa laid her head down on her arm, barely even noticing that the water had shut off. "We also wanted to make sure that you got our version of what happened in the base."

"I'm listening."

"This part you can record if you need to."

"I've been recording everything, Lisa. I am a Tinker, talking on a line fed through my own helmet. This entire conversation has been recorded. You are a poor Thinker if you neither assumed nor realized that."

She laughed, a near manic sound before she managed to catch herself and strangle it in her chest. "Yeah, my power got overloaded for a bit. It's still pulling itself back together and I'm not at my best as it is. Anyway, so, Coil. We went to get a van to get out of the city, intending to take a few personal items with us. We were just going to buy a cabin in the woods or something stupid like that. I was going to try and get Taylor calm then get her to understand that she didn't do anything wrong, while searching to see if her family was okay. Fucker betrayed us from the word go."

"We're aware."

"Vista was already in his office when we got there. Knew we were screwed right away. I tried to negotiate for the two of them to walk. Didn't work. He killed me. Wanted to break Taylor more. Surprise, surprise, it fucking worked. Play with fire though, and you get burned. Well fuck you Coil, go and eat a whole bag of literal dicks while you burn in hell, asshole."

A hand settled on her shoulder squeezing hard. Lisa felt her chest warm. She wasn't sure if it was from Taylor refilling her 'fire' or from the human contact. Either way, it was…just what she needed. She reached up with her free hand to clasp Taylor's fingers.

"So yeah, Taylor managed to boost herself just enough to pull power from one of the mercs before she killed herself from the strain. Then she took out the other threats in the room, healed Vista, and rezzed me. Then more mercs tried to get into the room. There was the potential that they would have stood down if they knew Coil was dead, but there were a lot of psychos and guys who just liked violence there too so there was always going to be some sort of fight. Taylor stopped them from getting to me or Vista. I could barely stand through all of it and she had to run back to me a few times to keep me from dying - again. Three Travelers tried to kill her, one of them she left alive after depowering the girl. I'm pretty sure she can't pull that trick again. The way she described it, it sounded like a rather unique situation. She wasn't draining the girl, she was draining whatever the power was, because it was broken. Somehow. Either way, it doesn't matter. Oh, she also left the fourth Traveler alive after that one was no longer a threat. Taylor only hurt people that were direct threats trying to kill her or us. Everything was self defense."

"The video footage we have recovered supports that explanation," Armsmaster said. "Is there anything else you would like to add?"

"Just one more thing. And it's more of a question." Lisa stopped as Taylor's grip tightened on her shoulder. She didn't wait long though. They needed to know. "Her dad. Is he alive? Mr. and Mrs. Murphy too."

"All members of the household were recovered unharmed."

"Dad's okay?" Taylor gasped.

"Braid?"

"I…I don't want to use that name anymore," Taylor whispered.

"That's perfectly fine, Taylor, what name do you want to go by?" Armsmaster said.

"I'm not sure yet…"

"Alright, let us know when you are. Would you like to see your father?"

Taylor's grip tightened and the golden light in the room dimmed to almost nothing. Lisa sighed. She turned around and pulled Taylor down so that the other girl could curl up onto her lap, her closed eyes buried into Lisa's shoulder.

"I can't. Not…not yet," she whispered.

The hamster wheel squeaked and Lisa stroked a hand through Taylor's hair.

"We're pretty sure that she can heal him. At least we hope so. But no one can just waive a magic wand and make everything all better, Armsmaster. We're taking it slow. Baby steps. Once me and Spinster are back up to full power, we'll call again. Just…give us a week. Can you do that?"

There was a prolonged silence. Long enough that Lisa started to worry. Finally, he replied, "If you stay in the city, be certain to stay clear of the out-of-town heroes. There hasn't been time to fully brief them, and there are concerns about privacy. While your identity is safe amongst the heroic individuals in Brockton Bay, Taylor, we are uncomfortable divulging more than need-to-know information to anyone outside our limits. And a large chunk of your current situation involves both professional and personal matters. It would be hard to describe things adequately without revealing your identity."

"Translation: they won't be nice if they see us," Lisa stated.

"We've requested, but, no, I can't guarantee it. No matter how kindly it's coached, Taylor is indeed a significant threat to anyone she comes across."

"Yeah, well, it could be worse I suppose." Lisa smiled and reached out for her phone. "Thanks for the talk. We'll call back later."

"Before you disconnect, I implore you to keep in semi-regular contact. If not for my peace of mind, or your own, do it for Vista's. She has been blaming herself for this entire mess, most of all for not doing more to try to help after awakening in the base. I can provide her with an untapped phone to ensure that calls are not monitored and I will send you the number."

"I…can call her," Taylor murmured. "Can you…get one to Glory Girl too?"

"Yes, I can. Please be safe, and do not forget, we are here, ready to assist. We are all very aware of how badly things were handled, how much was missed, how much we failed. We can do better, and we can help."

"Thanks," Taylor murmured.

Lisa tapped the disconnect button and felt Taylor collapse back against her.

"That wasn't so bad."

Taylor nodded, her wet hair tickling Lisa's chin.

"Alright, Tay, as comfy as this for you, my back is killing me. Up girl! Blow dryer, then we can lie down."

Before Taylor stood, she leaned back, opening her glowing eyes again. "Lisa, I…thank you. For…I'm not even sure what I'm thanking you for."

"For just being awesome, I'm sure."

Taylor grinned. "Sure."

Lisa leaned forward, kissing her, feeling the tension leech out of Taylor's wiry frame as she relaxed. Pulling back, she smirked, playfully smacking the brunette's arm. "Now get up, nerd. You'll catch a cold with all that wet hair!"

"Fat chance of that right now," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. She still stood and went to the sink, grabbing the hair dryer and going to work.

Lisa grabbed another piece of lettuce and dropped it into the cage. Mr. Spinster rushed over to it, his wheel, once more, momentarily forgotten. "You are so lucky, you just don't care that you died." The hamster squeaked, pressed his paws against the cage for an instant, then jumped back on the wheel and started all over again.

"Maybe I should take up running."

Yeah. It looked very therapeutic.