Vista was unhappy. It was a recent revelation that she didn't like where her life was, but she wasn't the type of person to sit around and mope about it. She did what she could to improve her quality of life. Which wasn't much at her age, but she was still proactive in trying to make herself happy. Which was why she was so surprised to realize just how unhappy she was. It wasn't even just recently, either. It was something that had been building for a while, even before things in the Bay started getting so crazy. It was just that everything had been magnified with the sudden escalation and with the sudden discovery of an outlet that was a lot less strict, well, it was far easier to see how things had spiraled.
Still, Vista wasn't one to wait for things to get better, so she scheduled a meeting with Director Piggot and Armsmaster to talk through some of the things she wanted. She wasn't really expecting them to budge, but the answer would always be "No" if she didn't ask. By the day of the actual meeting, she was extremely angry and disappointed with her leadership. When she learned the truth about how Bakuda was caught at that fundraiser event, she was mad. Not only that they were passing off Bakuda's capture as their own, but at the fact she'd been given a kill order when they knew she had a dead man switch and apparently enough bombs scattered across the coast to glass the entire eastern seaboard. How the fuck she'd managed that they'd never know, but the fact that didn't take the threat of it seriously made her question the competence of the people she worked for.
When Sacrosanct broke Canary out, she was initially mad at Taylor. Why would she break out a criminal bound for the Birdcage if she wanted the make the city a better place? Then she looked into the case, wanting to know what would have driven Taylor to do such a thing. What she found pissed her off to no end. Paige Mcabee's trial was a Kangaroo Court so blatant she had no idea how it was allowed to progress the way it did. A judge with obvious bias against Masters of any type, Brute restraints, a lawyer that neglected her, and a jury that seemed to be just as biased as the judge created a case that looked like a sham. It looked like people had been paid off to make this happen and the fact that people were acting like it was perfectly okay because of what her powers could do? A power she didn't even know she had until it was too late? That sat wrong with her. It made her realize just how terrible it was to really be a Cape.
She felt like she was at the bottom of the ocean. The idea that you lose some of your basic rights the moment you get powers terrified her. She was listed as a Shaker 9. That was the point where they would seriously consider launching missiles at the city to deal with her specifically. Even the thought that she could end up in that situation because someone thought she stepped too far out of line made her chest tight. That she could end up in Canary's situation under the right circumstances was a source of anxiety for days on end. Even with her new powers she was still terrified of ending up like that.
But, she was tough. She pushed past her fears and decided to have a bit of faith in her leaders, disappointed and upset with them as she was. She didn't plan on doing anything that would put her in that situation, but then who does? No, she'd just go have a civil discussion with her bosses and ask for a few things she wanted and hopefully they could talk it out without a problem. There were things she wanted, and she'd be willing to compromise to an extent, but it's not like she wanted much or that what she wanted was unreasonable. It wasn't like she was asking to triple her pay, she just wanted the ability to defend herself at close range and to be allowed to take part in the leader courses. That shouldn't be a problem.
"Right, now that you're here, let's get this over with so we can return to more important business," Piggot said as Vista entered the room.
She had to restrain the scowl that threatened to cross her face. A "Civil" conversation was already thrown out the window and she'd just gotten into the room. She sat across from her bosses and next to Aegis, who was also technically her boss and who she had no idea would be here, and started speaking.
"I want to discuss having a weapon," both adults were already opening their mouths to deny her, " And participation in leader training," She said.
"No to both of those things," Piggot said.
"We've been over this before, Vista. You aren't allowed to have a weapon because we don't want to encourage you trying to fight when your role is support. As for leader training, you're simply too young."
"If that's all—," Piggot started.
"Hold on. We can't even discuss this?" Vista asked.
"There's nothing to discuss, Vista, the answer is no."
"Having you in close quarters combat would be bad form in the first place," Aegis added.
"And if someone gets close to me? I have no way of fighting if someone gets close enough to grab me," Vista retorted.
"No one should get that close to you in the first place," Armsmaster said, "Your teammates should keep them off of you."
"And if they can't? If we run into someone who can get close to me in an instant like Oni Lee? I'm not asking to be carrying around a gun or baton, just something that will help me keep people off of me if they get close enough. Tasers in my gloves or something like that. I'll take Mace at this point. Literally every one of my teammates has a defense against close quarters opponents except me."
"We simply can't give you a weapon because not only is it bad PR, but you're too young to be handling a weapon of any kind. Just like you're too young to take control," Piggot said.
Vista was really glad she'd worn her visor because talking in circles like this was starting to make her eye twitch.
"And that's another thing. I'm one of the most experienced members of the team. Aegis is leaving in a month and Clockblocker soon after that. Gallant has maybe six months as leader after Clock is gone. Then what? You want to put Stalker in charge?" Both Piggot and Armsmaster blanched at the idea. "And if the leader is taken out of commission having someone who actually knows what they're doing instead of just tossing it to the next oldest would be better for any combat situation we end up in."
"While a good idea," Armsmaster conceded, "You're still to young to assume control in any situation. We can neither give you a weapon nor can we put you in leader training until you're older."
"With that settled," Piggot started, "Go back to your quarters. Do not bother us with this again, Vista. The answer is and will remain "No" until you're old enough to qualify for those things."
Vista took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She stood up as calmly as she could and nodded.
"I'm done." She said.
"Excuse you?" Piggot asked dangerously.
"I'm done. I'm leaving. Don't bother scheduling me anymore." She walked towards the door as the others processed what she said.
"Hold on, Vista!" Aegis said, closing the door right as she opened it.
"You can't quit, Vista. That's not possible," Armsmaster said.
"Fucking watch me," She said, opening the door again only for Aegis to close it back.
"Come on, we can talk this out, right, Vista. There's no reason to take it this far."
"They aren't interested in discussing anything and I'm at the end of my fucking rope with you people." She opened the door only for him to close it again.
"You don't mean that right? You're just upset. That's fine. How about we go talk it out? Take some time to calm down?"
"Eat my asshole, Carlos!" Vista shouted. "Just gargle my fucking colon you dumb asshole! I'm sick of you people! I'm sick of Piggot's casual bigotry! I'm sick of Armsmaster's nonchalant dismissal of us! I'm sick of your goody-two-shoes boyscout bullshit! I'm sick of that walking amalgamation of pure bitchary Shadow Stalker. I'm done. I'm leaving. Good luck and good fucking bye."
She swung the door open as hard as she could, causing it to break in half against Aegis trying to keep it shut and started down the hallway. As she neared the elevator she saw the Espada take off from the front of the building, splitting up after a moment.
She knew what she was going to do after this.
"Code 18, I repeat, Code 18. Do not let Vista leave the building and apprehend her by any means possible." She heard over the building speakers.
"God dammit," She said, turning to see both Armsmaster and Aegis chasing after her. She booked it for the stairs, bursting through the door and jumping down the flight with ease. Armsmaster tried his best to keep up with her as she jumped down the flights of stairs, sometimes kicking off the walls if she over shot her jump. She lost Armsmaster fairly quickly, as he couldn't keep up with how fast she was going down the stairs, but Aegis was keeping up with ease, flying down the stairs after her.
He passed her as she kicked off a wall down the next set of stairs and tried to catch her.
"Fuck off!" She shouted, suddenly growing three extra arms and punching him in the face. The blow knocked him back into the concrete wall, cracking it before he fell to the ground. She heard him groan as she ran past, sighing in relief that she didn't kill him with that hit.
She swing the door open on a random floor and took off down the hall, hoping over the unprepared PRT members or distorting space for the few who were and ran around a corner and into an empty room. She wasted no time opening a portal and running through it, hearing the door burst open and Carlos shout behind her just as it snapped shut.
Vista, no, Missy walked quickly to Las Noches. She stopped as she saw the woman on the floor holding a child.
"Uh… Hello?" She asked.
The woman snapped her head up to look at Missy.
"How did you get here?" She asked warily.
"I just opened a portal."
The woman visibly relaxed.
"You must be a new member then. Don't mind me," She said lowly. "I'm just… I'm just thinking."
"You're bleeding," She said, walking over to the woman.
"It's not as bad as it looks. I'll live until Sacrosanct can heal me."
"What happened?"
"The Empire is on a rampage because their identities are all over the news. They've been rampaging around the city."
"What? How could they be…?" Missy trailed off. It wouldn't make sense for them to be rampaging around the city for longer than five minutes without the PRT being informed. But then again they sometimes had a tendency to be slow about these . Why no one had interrupted her meeting to inform the Director of this was beyond her, but she knew she was going to help. She quickly switched into her new costume and rolled her shoulders as she opened a portal into the Docks.
It was time for Gorgon to make her debut.