Interlude The Fourth

Brian had called Lisa for a team meeting. It was late, after midnight, but Brian had said it was important and Lisa had no reason to disbelieve him. She entered the Undersiders' loft and went into the common area to be greeting by their group's nominal leader with a stern expression on his face.

"Spill."

Lisa blinked and drew upon her power.

Brian knows something.

Brian knows something that he thinks I know.

Brian knows something I didn't want him to know

Brian knows I'm using my power to figure out what he's talking about.

Brian thinks asking is a formality.

This has something to do with Taylor.

Lisa cut off her power there. She wasn't 100% sure what this was about, but she could guess. "Spill about what?" She only had so many minutes of power use a day, why should she waste it to confirm a suspicion?

"At about three thirty this afternoon," Brian began, "I called Taylor to cancel some plans we had this evening, telling her that my sister had run away from home again." He paused, clearly expecting Lisa to understand what he was getting at. "At five thirty, Aisha was flown home by Glory Girl, with a story about being rescued from violent meth addicts by Glory Girl and an independent Hero. When I went back to my father's house to talk to her, she couldn't stop laughing at me when I asked about the independent. Taylor's a hero." He wasn't asking. "And you knew when you set me up with her."

"She's doing it for fun," Lisa hurriedly explained, "and is mostly interested in 'big bads' and stopping muggings. She only really goes out heroing on weekend evenings or when she's taking a mental health day from school, and I've got a decent idea of her pattern." Lisa raised a finger to prevent Brian from interrupting. "Unless Lung or Kaiser goes off the deep end and there's open warfare in the streets, the chances of her coming after the Undersiders are slim to none."

"Lisa," Brian said slowly, "you do not set a supervillain on a blind date with a superhero. It's not done."

"You'd be surprised," Lisa said, "it's one of the more plausible suggestions for how Assault ended up with Battery… Not sure which one was the villain though."

"I thought they were siblings?"

"Also a distinct possibility."

Both teenaged villains shuddered.

"Anyway," Lisa continued, "you're not breaking up with her."

"We're not da-"

"And I'm going to explain why you're not breaking up with her," Lisa interrupted, "for one, you'll be good for each other. You're her type exactly and she's just out there enough to pull you out of your comfort zone. Two," Lisa held up two fingers, "She's already got issues with trust and betrayal that she's just barely getting over. You just breaking up with her out of nowhere would irritate the hell out of her mental scar tissue and… Look, I don't know what she was like before I met her, but I know it was bad and she was just starting to get past it."

"Lisa, we aren't-"

"Three," Lisa continued once again, refusing to let her leader voice his thoughts, "you're already attached to her. And four..."

"Damn it, Lisa, I'm not-"

"I have so much blackmail on you it's not even funny," Lisa finished with a grin. "Hurt my friend over a minimal risk and I tell your sister where you hide your stash."

"Mommy? Daddy?" interrupted a third voice in the snarkiest tone imaginable, "are you getting a divorce?" Brian and Lisa turned in unison to face the dark-haired pretty boy who had walked into the common room. Without missing a beat the boy, Alec, walked to the television, turned on both the TV and a game console, and flipped onto the couch with a controller in hand. "If you're done talking about Grue's Girlfriend, do you think you could go elsewhere? The gamers in Sydney get started around this time and I'd like to grief some Australian CoD players."

Brian's eyes twitched. "Fine, whatever, we won't do anything until this blows up in our faces." The frustration in his voice was palpable.

"If it helps," Lisa continued, "I'm not even sure she's really a parahuman-she claims to be magic and has a lot of focus on props, one of which seems to be Tinker-Tech, and I didn't even suspect she was a cape until she told me herself."

"So what?" Brian asked, "You think she got some Tinker to make her toys so she could play Hero or something?"

"Or that she found it somewhere," Lisa continued, "or it found her. Regardless," Lisa said, changing the subject, "I've got a decent grasp of her personality. On the off chance that we do run into her I'm sure I can talk our way out of a fight."

Meanwhile

Opal was returning from an errand. Yes, an errand. That was her story and she was sticking to it. Her Princess was sleeping soundly and Mr. Hebert was occupied with something, so now, of course, was the best time to do the ultra important, super regal, and not at all trivial task she'd decided that she needed to do.

Strange, Mr. Hebert had been up in his bedroom when she'd left, but now he was downstairs in the living room, watching the cable news with the volume on mute, a glass of some brown liquor in one hand and the crystal he'd snatched up from the basement the day that she and her Princess warded the house. On the floor, within easy reach of the man sitting on the couch, was a bottle. The man kept looking away from the television to contemplate the crystal, a dour expression on his face.

"Mr. Hebert?" She called out as she approached, "are you alright?"

The man finished his drink in one gulp, set down the crystal, and poured himself another before he answered. "My cup runneth over, Opal. Unfortunately, it's full of elephant shit."

Opal cringed at his coarse language but didn't comment. "What happened?"

Mr. Hebert sighed. "Before I can tell you, you have to promise me that you'll never tell Taylor what I'm about to tell you. More so than our family's history as one of Magi, more so than any secret The Wizard Marshal or your siblings may have asked you to keep, more than anything, you can't let Taylor find out."

Opal gulped, an impressive feat as she had neither a mouth nor a throat, but she made a nodding motion. "Alright, I promise."

"This," he said, picking up the crystal, "is a mystic code that was created by my Great Grandfather. It died when the mana started vanishing, but I kept it all this time as a keepsake… And sometimes a paperweight..."

He trailed off, and Opal let him gather his thoughts and continue.

"But, it suddenly snapped back to life while you and Taylor were," he made a motion with his hand, and Opal knew what he meant. "It's a divination tool," Mr. Hebert explained, "as long as this crystal has a magical charge, even a fifth-rate magus with hardly any training could divine the contents of a soul and trace it all the way back to Akasha."

Opal suddenly remembered the question he'd asked her, back when her Princess had flown for the first time. "A tool to easily learn someone's Origin?"

"It's been years since I've worked even the merest of mysteries," Danny admitted, "but a magus upbringing leaves you with habits that die hard. After weeks of consideration, I chose to sate my curiosity about Taylor's magical aptitude, and I chose poorly."

Opal began to fear the answer, but she had to ask. "What is it?"

"Well, for starters, she's not an Average One." The former magus took a sip from his drink, "she's something else. Something far rarer, far more special, far more prized, something... Something far more blessed, but far more cursed."

Opal realized what Mr. Hebert meant and blanched. "Oh. Oh Dear." Opal felt that if she had a respiratory system, she'd have been hyperventilating at that moment. "I… I could contact my sisters or their masters, or Lord-"

"No!" Mr. Hebert shouted. He stood up in a hurry, dropping his drink and spilling half of it on the carpet. "I don't care what advice they could give or how good their intentions would be, the more people who know the more likely it is that Taylor-or worse, someone wanting to use her-could learn about, about this, and..." The man seemed to bite his own tongue, forcing himself to calm down. Opal realized that he didn't want to wake Taylor. He sank down back into the couch. "Opal… I saw a martyr dying for what he believed in. I saw a young Aztec woman on a sacrificial altar. I saw a child in the heart of Europe being tortured to death by her own mother for some dark thaumaturgy and an elderly Japanese woman putting some of her own life into spells to protect her daughter and unborn grandchild." Danny picked up his glass and downed what was left of its contents. "I saw a hero with Taylor's voice begging for death and I knew that she'd destroyed herself trying to save as many people as she could, no matter the cost." There were tears in the man's eyes "Opal? If you let Taylor find out about this-if she is dragged or consumed by her Origin-I'll never forgive you."

Another gulp "understood."

"I should destroy this," Mr. Hebert said in reference to the mystic code, "it's too big a risk-if Taylor got ahold of it..."

"Perhaps you should maybe sleep on it and reconsider that in the morning when you're sober?" Opal wracked her non-existent brain for something she could say, but all she could think off was to change the subject. "If it makes you feel better, I think I've got enough video evidence of certain brutes attempting to abuse my Princess that, the second she's finally willing to go to the authorities, well, the cretins will be so out of luck."

"...Thank god," the man said after a moment, "some good news." It was a testament to Mr. Hebert's state that he didn't ask a follow-up question. Instead, he put away the bottle of liquor and went to bed. Opal sighed, thinking of the number of secrets she was keeping on behalf of the members of this household.