Chapter 6: Pride

"Owl, I'm seeing some suspicious activity in this alley." Kid Win's voice crackled in her earpiece.

"Mmmm…how suspicious are we talking? A group of drunken men or Lung scratching letters into a wall?"

"Uh." He replied. "Just two guys huddled together. I think they're smoking something."

"Okay." She crouched further onto the rooftop, taking a silent pace forward. "Anything to indicate that they aren't just normal cigarettes?"

"Well, er, no." The embarrassment in his voice rose slightly. Another step.

"This close to the boardwalk then at most it'll be weed, so unless they're hauling around a load of it isn't again the law."

"Right." He said. "I wasn't really sure…" Kid Win trailed off.

She let out a soft giggle. "Its only your third patrol, you can relax Winnie. I was high strung too once. Besides, you're making a far worse mistake right at this moment anyway."

"I am?" He straightened up, alarm in his voice. "Wha-" The question turned into a high-pitched scream as Nightowl pounced on him from behind, her mass pinning him to the floor and keeping his hands well away from his laser pistols. She leaned in close to his ear, delighting in the panicky breaths he was taking.

"Situational awareness, Winnie."

She jumped off of him, flicking her tail back and forth happily.

"Christ, Owl, don't do that." Kid Win said, struggling to his feet and picking up his hoverboard as he did. Nightowl laughed again and leapt across the gap to the next building. Kid Win followed at slower pace.

"Its how I learned." She countered, prowling forwards to peer down into the new alley. "But you were seriously tunnel visioning."

"Yeah yeah." He grumbled, only just catching up to her before she was on to another roof.

"You don't really need me here do you?" The young Tinker half-stated.

"Nah. But I'm not allowed to do solo patrols and Stalker was busy tonight."

She saw him slumping slightly in the corner of her eye and turned sinuously towards him. He stumbled a bit, having been caught in her stranger effect momentarily.

"Seriously though. You're new. You'll catch up, and then it'll all be okay. Yeah?"

Chris tried to match her gaze but the hollow voids made him a bit queasy, so he settled for focusing on her nose, glad his visor hid his eyes.

"Yeah." He agreed, feeling only slightly better. He'd only known her for a few weeks and, if her were frank, she'd been intimidating for all of them. Shadow Stalker too.

They were well known in the city for being some of the best Wards the ENE division had produced in recent years and were expected to go far in their careers.

He had known that Shadow Stalker was a girl, obviously, but Nightowl was known for never appearing outside her changer form so everyone had, incorrectly, assumed she was a he.

He had been taken by surprise when they all unmasked for each other and Nightowl had turned out to be a distractingly attractive redhead, one that he could admit to himself that he had formed a crush on nearly straight away.

It left him wrongfooted most of the times he interacted with her and she seemed to delight in only making it worse for him.

The only saving grace that was while Emma Barnes was someone who he struggled to keep his eyes off, Nightowl was as hard to look at as ever.

She seemed like an unholy cross between a human, a lemur, and a big cat.

Her forelimbs were slightly too long compared to her back legs, as though they had been stretched out, and ended in clawed hands that had an extra joint in the fingers.

Her back legs were powerfully built, and seemed to end more traditional paws, until she gripped something with them and it turned out that they too were similar to hands.

Nightowls face was flat with wide, blank eyes, which is where Chris figured her name came from.

She had the nose of a cat, but human lips that opened into a mouth filled with teeth and fangs.

He had seen her yawn, once, and he was fairly sure that jaws weren't meant to open that far unless they belonged to a snake.

Her fur seemed normal at first, until you got close enough to see that they were more like long lengths of tiny segmented shards of glass, similar to the larger ones that ruffled up on the back of her long, deep chested torso and made her tail so dangerous.

That was what gave her the similarity to the lemur, aside from the front legs, as her tail was at least as long as her body and prehensile.

Chris had seen it spear straight through an armoured training dummy once. To top it off each of the flat plates that made up her form look as if it had a faint night sky reflected in it that moved slightly out of time with what she was doing, only adding to the stranger effect she caused of making it hard to focus on her properly.

"Come on." She said, rising from where she was sitting like a cat. "We've got another hour yet."

"Just maybe slow down a bit." Chris asked. "My hoverboard is a slow ride and I haven't managed to increase its speed yet."

"Well, Winnie." Nightowl said, peering over her shoulder at him, and he could hear the grin on her face. "Would you prefer to ride me?"

He choked on the breath he sucked in and nearly fell of his board but managed to stay on through sheer determination.

"No no." Chris said, hoarse. "I'm fine on this." He ignored the sound of Dennis raucously laughing through the earpiece, knowing the joker was purposely pressing the broadcast button.

"Alright." Nightowl said, about half an hour later.

She sounded serious this time, so he sidled up next to her as quietly as possible to watch where she was pointing. "This is what a drug deal looks like, generally."

There were a bunch of big men at one end of the alley leaning on a car, their muscles and tattoos clearly on show. "Empire." She continued. "Waiting for the client, probably mid-level since I can't see any capes. Anything serious and one of them would be here, but you don't get a car and five men just to sell to little Jimmy down the road."

"Should we wait for the client to show up?" He asked, taking a picture of the men.

"No. If too many show up we'll struggle to subdue them without having to switch to actually harming them. I can handle five easily, and from what I read on the profile briefing your pistol's taser setting is almost as good as the tranq on Stalker's bolts, yeah?"

"I think so." Kid Win agreed. "You read those?"

"Yes." Nightowl said, twitching her head in her version of rolling her eyes. "If you don't know what your allies are capable of you're at serious risk of fucking up, especially when it comes to Tinkers. You should've memorised those briefings."

"Sorry." He began, but Nightowl cut him off.

"S'cool. I'm gonna call this in." She pulled back from the edge, motioning for him to continue watching the men in the alley.

"Console this is Nightowl, we've spotted a probable drug deal, Empire affiliations, no sign of capes. Permission to engage?"

"Nightowl this is Console." Miss Militia's distinctive accent came through the headpiece. "Permission granted but disengage if they pull guns."

"Miss M-"

"Nightowl. I would order that regardless, but you aren't the only one on the patrol."

"Fine. Engaging with trepidation and timidity, ma'am."

Nightowl leapt forward off of the edge of the building without warning, leaving Chris to scramble onto his hoverboard to follow. She had enough momentum to reach the bonnet of the car, crumpling it under her weight and leave deep gouges in the metal.

"Surrender." She said, and even with the adrenaline in his blood he could hear the boredom in her voice.

The Empire man closest to the door pulled a metal bat out of the car and swung it at her, to which she responded with a swipe of her claws.

The bat fell to the floor in pieces but the thug had little time to react as Nightowl had already pounced forward and toppled him to the floor. The others had pulled themselves together and had pulled weapons by then, but seemed unwilling to advance.

She took a step towards them, over the man, and Chris realised that he should be helping. His taser shot hit and the flunky spasmed a few times before falling still, breathing heavily.

The four of them were trying to surround her, and Nightowl nearly laughed at them.

It was like children trying pincer tactics on a tiger, unable to realise how out classed they were.

She hopped to the right and speared her tail forward. It didn't pierce her targets foot, instead digging into the concrete next to it, but she had only wanted him to move anyway.

He left a gap open which she slid into, body-checking the unsteady man to the floor at the same time as she swiped a paw at another.

He screamed as his leg moved in a way it wasn't meant to and she winced internally, knowing that she was in for a lecture about excessive force.

Still, he wouldn't be getting back up, leaving her free to leap at the remaining two thugs. Mid-air she used her tail as a dragline to twist about and land early, avoiding the lump of rock that had just been launched at her. Three Empire capes, Krieg, Rune, and Alabaster were descending into the alley on top of what looked like a ton of pavement.

"Not the prey we hoped to catch." Krieg said, gesturing forwards. "But it should still send a message." Alabaster hopped down alongside his superior, while Rune rose back into the air, gathered ammunition hovering around her. Nightowl glanced back to see Kid Win edging closer to her. He had tied up the first one she had beaten, at least.

"Console, this is Kid Win, we've been engaged on by three Empire capes. Krieg, Rune, and Alabaster." He managed to get the sentence out with remarkable speed but was interrupted when he had to dive to the side to avoid the rock hurtling at him.

Nightowl herself was forced to focused on the two older capes, both of whom were making their way towards her with decisive steps. They didn't speak, so Nightowl had to assume that they were used to working together.

She also knew, however, that Alabaster could take everything she threw at him, and so they seemed surprised when she lunged towards them. While they had more experience she was quicker by far, enough so that the albino cape was pinned to the floor through his chest by her tail before he could even start to dodge.

"Get out of there right now." Writ spoke up on the comms, furious. "I'm on my way to your current position, I'll be there in less than two minutes."

Nightowl didn't reply, instead making sure that her strike had been true and had severed Alabaster's spine.

Not that it was a hard shot to make, with her tail blades being as wide as they were, but it was nice to know that her skills weren't slipping.

The Empire cape could only gasp and try to push her tail out with his arms but all that served was to cut his hands up. She only realised the mistake she had made when Krieg got close enough for his power to begin affecting her but not enough that she could attack him without leaving her back exposed.

One of the non-powered minions who hadn't been taken out tried to step closer, but Krieg held out a hand to stop him. He seemed willing to let his power build up strength before trying anything. She floundered for a moment until she eyed the fight taking place between Rune and Kid Win.

They were swooping rather close to the ground at times, and so Nightowl waited until she felt the shudder run through Alabasters body to signify he had just been healed and reinjured. She then jumped backwards, slower than she was used to, then rebounding off the wall towards her teammate.

She had to take a missile meant to Kid Win in the process, as the idiot had turned to watch her move and missed the lump Rune had just shot at him.

A snap echoed in the alley, like the sound of ice cracking in a glacier deep below the surface, and she felt one of her plates crumble. It was on her torso, thankfully, so she swept her tail up and around to cover the spot.

"Why are you even here?" She asked, stalling for time.

"I think that is none of your concern, child." Krieg replied as he helped Alabaster to his feet. Despite her knowing how his power worked it still irritated her to see him up and standing about with a cocky smirk, no worse for wear.

"Do not hurt them too badly. They are only Wards." He instructed, making sure his men were listening. Nightowl whipped her tail round angrily, scoring into the concrete. Her destroyed plate had already reformed, and she hoped that none of the Empire had realised it had been broken.

"Stay behind me, Win." She said, stepping in front of the other Ward. "Shoot anyone who tries to flank me."

Rune tapped the wall by her, launching another shot at them, but she underestimated Nightowl's reactions, who batted it aside with her tail.

Kid Win took the opportunity to start shoot back, at Krieg, who sidestepped quicker than should've been possible.

He did clip Alabaster, but the man shrugged it off, and then they all began to run at the pair of Wards. They braced themselves, drawing closer together, but a white wall dropped out of the sky to slam in between them and the Empire.

Writ landed on top if it and a slew of paper shreds followed her, falling down like snow. She had formed a long spear and held it low in one hand, looking like a radiant knight to the two of them in her armour.

"Ah, frau-" Krieg began, but Writ cut him off.

"Did you think four would be enough?" She asked, and the three Empire capes froze. Crusader was lowered into sight, cocooned in paper, on top of which coiled a snake-like construct. It was reared up and the spike-like head was hovering barely an inch from the cape's eye.

The snow of paper became a storm above, then Rune too was dropped to the floor, bound and gagged. Writ casually threw the spear at Alabaster, propelling it with her power hard enough to pin him to the wall through his chest. She kept her eyes on Krieg for the entire time, pacing around him in a circle.

"Eight would not be enough." She continued, as a tendril of paper slipped around Krieg's leg and squeezed hard enough for the bone to crack.

"Twelve would not be enough." Another wrapped around his shoulders and held his arms fast, although this time she kept it light enough to avoid breaking his ribs.

"Your entire herd of racist thugs would not be enough if you threaten my Wards again." She was almost hissing by this point, and Nightowl felt a rush of glee run down her spine. Writ dismissed the Empire then, turning her attention to the two Wards, and the glee fled. She could tell by Writ's body language that she was angry with both of them.

"Console, this is Writ. Four Empire capes captured, Alabaster, Crusader, Krieg, and Rune. Awaiting containment and retrieval."

"Writ…" Kid Win began but trailed off when Nightowl nudged him. "Wait until we're alone." She murmured, nodding towards the enemy capes.

The PRT had shown up quickly, already on route from Kid Win calling the fight in.

They had foamed and tranquilised the capes and unpowered members and were shipping them to the Rig, with Kid Win along for the ride as a learning experience.

That had left Writ and Nightowl alone for the journey back, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Writ had forgone her usual griffon and instead was mimicking her student, having formed the shape of a great lion around herself.

"Do you know why I am angry?" She asked after a few minutes of silent travelling.

"Because I got into a fight with three Empire capes?" Nightowl said, slunk low to the ground.

"No. I am angry because you still focused only on the enemy you could see. Both at first, when you didn't check the surrounding rooftops for any reinforcements, and then when you were engaged on you didn't immediately run. They would not have risked the force necessary to stop you from leaving, not when you're a Ward. You think only of fighting, of what is in your face."

"Sorry." She said, despondent. Writ let out a sigh.

"What you did right, however, was protect your teammate, and fight well."

Nightowl look up, hopeful.

"The rest will come to you, eventually." Writ drew herself up then, standing proud in her lion shape. "But I will not forget that you deliberately disobeyed me. And not only that, you put Kid Win in danger too!"

"It wasn't deliber…" Nightowl trailed off, confused that Writ didn't sound angry. She narrowed her eyes. "Are you quoting the Lion King just because I look like a cat?"

Writ didn't reply for a moment, before letting out a giggle.

"I have been waiting to say one for so long."

"I'm going to start calling you Mufasa." Nightowl muttered.

"Only if I get to call you Simba!" This time the older woman couldn't restrain herself, and started laughing outright.

"Don't you dare!"

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"You have no right to wear that face." She hissed out, staying where she was even as her mind raced through her options. A twitch of Eden's arm resulted in Taylor being forcibly pulled into the seat.
Eden blinked once and made no move to change her appearance. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Taylor unwilling to engage and Eden seemingly happy to continue observing her.
"You have potential. But you are correct. A mother should not look like her daughter."
Taylor felt a frown slip onto her face for a moment before she reclaimed her apparent passivity. A mirror shimmered into being in front of her and she froze in horror. Her face was different, and she hadn't noticed it change. More finely boned, elfin, and a glance at the Entity opposite showed many similarities between them.
"A daughter should instead look like her mother."

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A little bit late but eh. You got a silly omake to tide you over. For clarity, basically no one but her teammates know that Annette can sense things through her paper, so the Empire were expecting to be able to sneak up on her using Crusader's ghosts.

I'm going under general anasthetic for an op on Thurs morning and I'll have a week of being stuck in the house because of it, so there might be more story than usual. Or I'll write like three stupid omakes per day but we'll see.