Chapter 12

-Dean-

The elevator to the Wards area opened, and Sophia entered, wreathed in her usual red-grey of anger and boredom. With her finally here, that was all of us here at the same time - not something that ever happened by chance. Today's meeting had been called by Triumph for as soon after school as possible, and while a new Ward's recruitment was possible, I was quite certain what this meeting was really about was the new cape Assault and Battery ran into last night even before I saw the faint purple concern in Rory's aura. He was standing in front of a screen, wearing the full gladiator regalia minus the helmet that everyone except Sophia was too polite to tell him looked ridiculous.

"Okay, now that we're all here," Triumph began, "there's a new cape in town you should all know about. Here's… well, the closest we have to pictures of her," he said, and pressed a button on the remote he held in his hand. The screen behind lit up with an image of the Protectorate ENE's dynamic duo, with a blurry, staticky shape in front of Assault. The distortion was bad enough that only "tall, Caucasian, with dark hair" could be seen with any sort of clarity.

"The Stranger, temp name 'Imp', is a girl in her late teens to early twenties, according to the two," Triumph answered. "We don't know why she approached them, or whether she's even aware of her power, but an odd manner of speech has been noted. It's unclear at this time if she actually has a sister or was attempting misdirection, but she asked for an autograph for her sister, 'the impatient imp', hence the name chosen."

"Seems like a fairly weak power," Aegis noted. His aura was the usual earthen calm. "Do we have any hints about other abilities she might have?"

"Odd speech and strange behaviour could be a sign of Thinker, but it's hardly conclusive," Triumph conceded.

"Or she could just be crazy," Clockblocker whispered next to me, straightening up as Rory coughed, and shot him a dirty glare.

"Something to add, Clockblocker?"

"..." Dennis swallowed. "Could she just be faking it? The crazy girl bit, I mean. Hamming it up like I do? She did approach Assault after all. He's pretty openly the most likely hero to roll with a joke."

"It's... possible," Triumph allowed, "especially if she was seeking attention with this. However, considering she had her Stranger power active while out of costume, we suspect she can't control it, at least not completely. This would, ironically enough, make her surprisingly easy to find. Armsmaster and Dragon wrote a patch for the software on the cameras we all carry on patrols that they hope will help us spot her, since she only seems to interfere with electronic surveillance. If any of you run into her on a patrol, current orders are to try and initiate dialogue." Shadow Stalker scoffed at that, her eye roll obvious even under the mask she wore.

"New capes that don't hurry to sign up don't always appreciate that," Missy pointed out, looking a little put out at being in agreement with Sophia.

"Unfortunately true," Triumph agreed. "Which is why you need to be very careful not to push too hard - Strangers/Thinkers tend to be wary to the point of paranoia, though she's likely not that bad if she is willing to show herself in public like that. Unless anyone has questions, the patrol schedules for the next week will be..."

"One of these days," Dennis complained, "I'll make the costume designers go out in this weather wearing a skintight outfit. 'Mild winters' my butt!"

"It's better than Houston," Vista pointed out, amused. "The Wards team over there didn't even have winterized costumes when that freak blizzard hit them last year. And you can say 'ass' in front of me, I'm not five."

"Vista!" He hissed, sounding scandalized as he put his hands on the sides of my helmet. "You can't say things like that in front of Gallant! He has sensitive ears." Vista tried to frown, but between her mask and having to suppress a chuckle, she didn't succeed.

Our relatively peaceful patrol past the edge of the Docks was interrupted by the sound of shouting from a few streets down. Checking our bearings, the only thing of note I could think of in that direction would be the old DWA building. I tried not to take too much notice of how Missy's mix of happy yellow at finally being allowed to patrol at this hour now that her thirteenth birthday had passed and the faint pink shade she always had when she was near me were suddenly joined by the faint orange anticipation. Sometimes, that girl worries me… and I don't mean being worried for her. Dennis was more appropriately concerned. I activated the comms.

"Gallant to Console, we're hearing a commotion in the direction of the DWA building. It's probably just a few rowdy drunks arguing about past glories, but maybe we should take a look to make sure?"

"Permission granted, Gallant. Observation only for now." There was a momentary silence on the other end. "I'm having Assault and Battery shift their patrol your way just in case, but if it's anything more than drunks, try not to get spotted." Nudging Vista, I took a moment to be thankful that it was Aegis on console tonight. He generally had the decency not to mention his concerns were based on her age. That or the girl's attempts at percussive persuasion were bearing fruit.

"Hey, Vista, can you take us up there?" I asked, pointing. She nodded, and the space around us twisted, everything bending like a funhouse mirror for a moment until the rooftop was suddenly a literal step away. The shouting was clearer now, and I could make out the words "chink" and "slant" among others.

"No points for guessing who's causing trouble tonight," Clock said. We carefully approached the edge and looked down. There was a group of men in Empire colors in a standoff against the Dockworkers. Both sides had baseball bats or knives, and I could see a few of the Nazis had sawn-off shotguns as well, although no one had drawn one that I could see. This situation could likely still be resolved without violence. One of the louder skinheads that were threatening the Dockworkers shouted something about "covering for slave traders" and threw a brick. It barely missed a tall, balding man, who was quickly dragged away from the front by another. Tensions ratcheted up, but the surprise that rippled through both sides of the standoff told me the brick was off script, and for a moment I hoped that this meant the Empire wouldn't go any further. The hope was dashed right as I opened my mouth to report in to Console, when I saw a girl jump off a nearby rooftop, land next to the thrower, grab him by the shoulders and knee him between the legs hard enough that his feet left the ground. Dennis and I winced in sympathy. It wasn't until I saw his aura flash in pain that I realized the girl didn't have one. Then the scene descended into pandemonium.

Surprise slowly gave way to anger in the auras of the Empire goons, only to be shaded by confusion again when one of the brick-thrower's friends stepped forward from under an awning that had blocked our view and slammed a baseball bat into her head, a loud cracking noise echoing through the now otherwise silent night but barely budging the girl a few inches. She seemed fine. Wait... I caught sight of the bat. Is that blood? That's a lot of— She dropped the wailing brick-thrower, slowly turned around, and headbutted the new attacker, who staggered backwards, tripping over himself and landing like a sack of potatoes. Okay, then… bloody head wound or not, I guess she's fine?

"The monitoring program's reporting that Imp is in front of you - Are you seeing anyone unusual?" Aegis asked us through the comms.

"...You could say that, the girl we're looking at has no aura I can see. Also, we're going to have to add Brute to her file," I answered as the girl smashed through a couple more Nazis. "Jumped off a two story building and took a baseball bat to the head without problems, also enhanced strength—"

I was cut off by a gunshot - some of the Nazis had pulled out their shotguns, and the one nearest our mystery girl even tried to fire, but the gun only went off after she kicked the barrel away from her face, the pellets kicking up a cloud of brick chips as they struck the wall.

"Are you alright? I heard gunfire! Assault and Battery are on the way."

"We're fine, wasn't aimed at us," I tried to calm Aegis down. "Imp's fighting the Empire thugs. Should we assist?"

"...Negative. You're the only one with armor - it's too dangerous. Keep your heads down and wait for reinforcements." I resisted the urge to ask how many times he'd let himself get shot doing this job. I knew it was over a hundred, but I also knew it wouldn't change our orders. We weren't Brutes.

"We're not going to need any reinforcements at this rate," Vista noted dryly as Imp continued weaving between blows, using thugs as cover against their fellows with guns.

"Yeah. Just a cleanup crew with a sponge." Dennis surrendered the last pretense of professionalism and started a running commentary. "Next up, we have Nazi Eight and Nine with an encore of the 'run up to the cape and try to hit her fists with our faces' strategy, that one's always a classic! And watch our challenger spin them like roulette wheels!"

"Look closely," I interrupted him, watching as Imp sent another goon sprawling. "How badly injured do you think these guys are?"

"...She's playing it safe," Vista realized. "Broken bones for sure, especially gun hands, but she's not going for the kill. That's one bit of good news in this whole mess… shit!"

One of the last few Nazis standing apparently decided that friendly fire was preferable to an unfriendly cape, and fired his shotgun into the melee. Imp shoved her opponent out of the way, likely saving his life, but took the blast straight in the chest, blood spurting. She staggered backwards, then regained her balance and jumped, knocking him to the ground and leaning in. Her previous opponent fled the scene, fear, anger and disappointment mixing in his aura.

"Ah, Console? Imp… is she biting him?" Dennis spoke into the comms as we watched. A few seconds later, she let go and turned to face the remaining Nazis, still crouched over the guy's chest.

"That's what it looks like, but she may just have some kind of sedation power like Newter's," I added, watching the guy's aura show signs of exhaustion and… pleasure?

When Imp stood back up, the remaining Nazis finally turned to run. She watched them leave, then started walking away, turning a corner as the man who'd almost been hit by a brick at the start was finally released by his friend and came running. I looked around, saw no sign of her, and contacted Aegis again as a girl climbed up the fire escape next to us.

"Console, the situation's resolved. Imp is gone."

"What?" Aegis asked, a note of worry in his voice. "But… the monitor's saying she's still there!"

"Well, she isn't," I answered. "I'm pretty sure we'd notice if she was, there isn't really anything for her to be hiding behind. Not even an air vent or chimney, it's just us and some civilian girl up here on the roof," I elaborated. The girl in question leaned toward us, licking her lips, then shook her head, dropped a pile of wallets next to us and walked away - right off the roof's edge.

"...Wait, those weren't here before!" Vista exclaimed, pointing at the wallets, drowning out Aegis' next words.

"...and that's why I spent the whole Saturday in M/S," I finished explaining why I missed our date to a none-too-pleased Vicky.

"Ugh. Don't you think that's a bit overkill?" she asked with a groan.

"Of course," I immediately agreed, "but you don't really get to call M/S procedures too strict from inside the cell."

"I guess that makes sense," Vicky laughed. "Did you at least get anything useful from the witnesses?"

I looked around for eavesdroppers once again, just in case. We shouldn't be overheard in this booth of the restaurant, but it never hurt to be too careful.

"Yes, actually. Have you heard about that locker thing in Winslow earlier this week?" I asked her.

"What?" Vicky snorted. "That thing with the girl's locker full of blood and the bloody footprints leading away from it?" She recounted, her eyes widening as she lifted her hands over her head, wiggling her fingers and making spooky ghost noises. "...and they never found the girl!"

"Um." I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah…"

"Wait—" Her hands dropped. "That actually happened!? I thought Ames was fucking with me. Or the nurses with her or... something."

"I wish."

"Fuck. That's…"

"Yuuup."

"And this new girl…." Vicky dropped her voice a bit, smiling at one of the waitresses as they passed by our table. "They think that's her?"

"Pretty sure, yeah. Well...as sure as we can be with a Stranger. That guy who nearly got bricked? That was her dad. He's the one who filed the missing persons report, and he identified her when he was giving his statement," I said. "That's a start, at least…" I shook my head. "I actually have a friend at Winslow, but even they didn't know anything useful about that whole business."