Side-Step MB
Missy tried to focus, but her mind wandered.
Professor Katagiri went back and forth with Flechette and Weld about the nature of Miss Militia's power. Why could it replicate machines she couldn't understand. Guided missiles and the like. Yet it could not produce even the most basic tinker-tech. Why could she only make weapons?
Normally she'd find that fascinating. She liked Hannah, and she had a cool power. That's the kind of school she wished she could have all the time.
Movement to her side caught her eyes.
She needed to rise slightly to look over the ball of the green robot StarGazer used to join the class. Rumors said StarGazer didn't have a body. She lived in machines. Missy believed them now. It explained why no one ever saw her and why she could be so smart while seeming so young.
Taylor jotted something down on a paper and pushed it toward Chris. Chris read the page, wrote something down, and pushed it back.
Passing notes?
She looked away, glancing at Olive on her other side. The girl stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. She paid attention, but she also thrashed her thumb about. Lafter's opposing thumb thrashed back, the two girls locked in some battle they apparently took very seriously. Weld sat on his wooden chair with a small smile. Alec pretended to doze off, hiding his phone under the table. On Chris' other side, Lily seemed completely absorbed in the discussion.
Professor Katagiri occasionally sent questions to those around her, prompting them to involve themselves. Most gave answers. Chris and Taylor did pay attention despite the note passing between them. They offered a comment here and there.
It seemed so preposterously normal. Why did that seem so strange?
All she did was get herself kidnapped, and nothing felt quite right.
She'd gotten herself in tight spots before. The time with Hookwolf came to mind. She survived that and everyone panicked but she was fine. Well, save for the scar on her chest. She had mixed feelings about that.
But she fought Hookwolf. Maybe she didn't win, but she fought him.
She didn't even remember what happened. She blacked out in the middle of a patrol, and then Chris was helping her up. And she hit him in the mouth with her elbow. Was that it? Something hit her in the back. A taser or something. She felt the darts with her power, but couldn't twist space fast enough to stop them.
The old her would have taken that as an excuse to work on her power. Bend things in a smaller space. Bend them faster. Fine control. That's what Hannah would call it.
Now though, she found it hard to focus on that.
She didn't even get overwhelmed. She didn't fight and lose. She got pushed over.
And only Chris came after her. That stung. She hated that it stung. She wasn't some baby who needed coddling but, really? Someone took her and they just sat there and let one Ward go it alone?
That's not how teams should work.
"You okay?"
I'm sick of that question, she thought.
She looked up at Taylor. The look in her eyes struck Missy. Taylor was weird. Driven, like a machine. It showed in her attitude. How she carried herself. Focused and confident.
That was still there but, something else. Something new. Like she was looking at something very far away.
"Fine." She pushed her chair back and got up. "See you tomorrow."
Taylor let her pass and Missy ignored the feeling of eyes drilling into her back.
She caught up to the others, matching her pace to Chris'. She glanced over her shoulder, watching as Lieutenant Ramius met with Taylor. Miss Militia was there too, saying something to Lafter.
"What were all the notes about?" Missy asked.
"Hmm?" Chris still held the paper in his hand. Missy waited expectantly as he looked it over. "Stuff about teleportation. She was curious how I moved my tech from one place to another."
Missy raised her brow. Something so tinker-y? She thought…
What did she think?
They walked back to the Ward base as a group, but Missy felt out of place all the same. It wasn't their fault. She knew how it worked. The PRT says sit and they sit. But that was the problem.
Chris came. The only one to ignore orders and try to rescue her. Three if she counted Miss Militia and Stratos.
She thought she might get over it after a few days. A week later she was still wondering when she'd stop feeling so abandoned.
They got back to the Wards base just past the hour. Alec went to the couch to play his games and Olive followed after him. She said something about beating him in Smash. Weld sat down at the console. He often did, even when he wasn't on duty for it.
"When is Labyrinth dropping by?" Lily asked him.
"Thirty minutes," he answered. "And they probably won't let her keep that name. She's outed, so the Director said to just call her Elle."
Already?
"You guys hear that?" Weld turned to the room. "If you want to mask up be sure to do it fast. Your choice!"
Missy nodded and walked down the hall toward her room.
"Missy!" Lily called.
"I can dress myself thank you."
She snapped her eyes shut. She didn't mean to say that. Lily just wanted to help.
Missy kept her feet going, walking to her room.
She'd decorated it of course, but she kept it professional. No stuffed animals or girly stuff. She kept books on a shelf. Operating manuals and guides on developing leadership. She barely read them honestly, she just liked the image they presented to others. She had one family photo, and some posters along the wall from various heroes.
Carlos and Dennis' held prominent positions over her desk. She didn't want to take them down.
She stared at her costume, stored in a small alcove next to a closet. She shifted from one foot to the other. She knew how to put it on, but she didn't want to.
It always felt so strange not wearing it. Like she wasn't herself. After her parents split and started being assholes about it, being Vista came easier than being Missy Biron.
But now, the idea of putting it on felt strange.
When did that change?
Labyrinth. She remembered the briefings on her. A powerful shaker. Maybe as powerful as her. Is that why they didn't come? They wanted to trade up to an older and stronger cape? All Missy did was twist space. Labyrinth could raise buildings from the ground.
A stupid thought, but it came to her mind regardless. Why have her when they could have someon—
"Missy?"
She flinched, turning to face the door.
Chris peeked into the room. "You left the door open. You okay?"
That stupid question.
"Fine," she grunted.
Chris watched her, and after a moment stepped into the room.
"Want to talk about it?"
"I said I was fine."
"We can talk about how fine you are." Chris raised a hand and scratched the back of his head. "If you want."
Missy frowned. He was different. He'd changed after Dennis and Carlos. Become…She didn't know. He used to be so timid. Nervous. Easily flustered.
And then he got up in front of everyone at the memorial and said exactly what he thought.
She looked at her costume. Vista's costume. The thing still felt unnaturally alien to her. When did that change? She identified so strongly with Vista for so long. Far more than she identified with Missy Biron. If given the choice, she'd call herself Vista. Not Missy.
But now it felt empty. An empty costume with nothing in it. A shell she used to protect herself.
"Have you ever thought of leaving the Wards?"
She didn't look at him. She didn't want to. Her chest felt a little less tight getting it out. A weight off her shoulders. How long had the question weighed on her?
"Yeah," Chris admitted. "I have."
She thought so. He'd been so angry after Carlos and Dennis died. Angry at the PRT. Angry at the Protectorate. Angry at the Youth Guard.
She thought—when she saw the notes being passed—that he might have been planning to join Taylor.
Missy could see herself doing that. Dinah was her friend, and Taylor? Newtype scared her. Ever since her first appearance. She seemed so intense. Missy found it too similar to Shadow Stalker and assumed they'd be alike. Especially after Sophia started following everything Newtype did.
But she wasn't like Sophia. Taylor could be a total nerd, and Missy didn't think that in a mean way. Taylor was smart. Strong. She practically destroyed the Merchants and Coil and forced the Empire onto their bellies, telling the PRT and the Protectorate exactly where they could stick it the entire time.
Chris stepped up beside her, turning toward her costume.
"Is that what you want to do?"
"I don't know," she admitted.
"Is this because of what happened?"
Missy fought back the tears. She wasn't a child. Capes didn't get to be children.
"No one came for me," she whispered. "Just—"
She raised her head and looked up at him. Chris wasn't particularly tall, but everyone stood over her. Her unfortunate lot in life.
Chris didn't meet her eyes. He fixed them on her costume, a familiar intensity to his gaze.
"Miss Militia and Stratos came."
"Later than never," Missy mumbled. She felt bad about that. She knew they came, but it just didn't make up for the bitterness.
"Mockshow covered for me," Chris said. "She took my com, smashed it, and said she'd say she lost track of me. She wanted to come. Olive isn't fast enough to get across the city quickly and my board can't carry two people."
Missy tensed. She hadn't heard that. That explained why both of them were on console for the next week.
"And didn't Lily and Weld meet you after you got out of M/S quarantine?"
"And they've been treating me with kid gloves ever since."
"It all happened so fast," he continued "Even if they threw the doors open and ran, it would have been over before they arrived. You shouldn't have snapped at Lily like that."
Missy scowled. "I know."
"And I know Alec acts like he doesn't care. We both know that. But he was playing Dark Souls when I got back. You know he only plays Dark Souls when he's beating himself up over something."
She did, "But you're still the only one who came."
"I was the only one in a position to come. Just lucky is all."
And she knew that too. "It still hurts."
Silence filled the room. Did he not know what to say to that?
Missy stared at her costume, not sure which was more empty.
"I decided not to leave," Chris finally said.
Missy felt the tension roll from her body.
"Why not?"
"Carlos was a Ward. Dennis was a Ward. I'm a Ward."
"But…" Missy trailed off. "You're so angry."
"Yeah."
"Then why? Why stay?"
"Because running away won't change anything."
Running away? "But Newtype—"
"Has her eyes set elsewhere. Newtype, Taylor, I'm not like her. I feel like she's looking at something very far away. All I really want is to be the best person I can be. Protect my friends."
And his friends were Wards. Was it that simple for him?
"You know you don't have to put it on if you don't want to, right?" Chris pointed at her costume. "The PRT. The Protectorate. Your parents. No one can make you. It's your choice, Missy. Do what's best for you."
Missy turned back to her costume. She remembered the first time she saw it. All the Wards from back then had grown up and graduated already. Rory was the last, and the only one still in Brockton Bay. She hated the skirt. The visor. Everything. She hated how kiddie it looked.
It grew on her at some point. She liked being Vista.
"I'm going to go get dressed," Chris said. "You going to be okay?"
"Yeah."
Chris turned, and Missy watched him go. He closed the door behind him as he left.
She stared at her costume for awhile before putting it on.
Alec and Olive decided not to put their Costumes on. Kid Win and Flechette stood with Weld, looking at something on the console monitors.
"What is it?" she asked.
She reached out and tugged at Lily's wrist. The older girl looked down and Missy mouthed a silent apology. Lily nodded, her face hidden behind her mask.
"Something about Medhall and the Empire," Weld replied.
The news report played on one of the monitors, a pretty reporter reading off some papers in front of her.
"The information was supplied by an individual identifying themselves as Swartz Bruder, believed to be an alias. Initial reports are calling this a whistle blower. Someone within Medhall who describes themselves as unable to remain silent about the ongoing role Medhall plays in supporting the parahuman gang, Empire Eighty-Eight, a neo-Nazi group."
"Medhall?" Missy mumbled.
Weld nodded. "They were just saying that the report details how the Empire moves drugs from Medhall's warehouses to the street."
"And what, replaces them with knock offs?" Missy asked. "Sells the real stuff at a markup?"
"No," Flechette answered. "It says Medhall is manufacturing drugs for the Empire. Says the company CEOs are all Nazis who support the gang."
Missy blinked.
That was big. Really big.
The Empire had become so quiet lately. Armsmaster said it looked like they were ditching a lot of street level crime and going into more easily concealed activities. Ones Newtype couldn't just blow up with her suits. High end party drugs, laundering, and financial schemes. That sort of thing.
And now what? They get undone by some insider with a conscience?
"Schwarz Bruder means black brother," Kid Win said. "Though, I'm pretty sure that's not how it's supposed to be spelled."
"Someone calling themselves black brother in German?" Lily asked.
Chris shrugged. He looked to Weld. "Think anything will happen?"
Weld shook his head. "I don't know, but I think we'll get a briefing about it."
Missy remained silent as they talked, watching them.
She looked over her shoulder, watching Alec and Olive fight over the 'good' controller. Naturally, Alec flicked his wrist and Olive's arm and leg spasmed and sent her toppling. She called him a cheater. He told her to prove it.
Kid Win and Flechette said something about Watchdog getting involved. Financial investigations were more their forte. The local Protectorate wouldn't get involved unless search warrants were issued for any property or Empire capes made appearances.
She looked up at Chris, keeping her head straight so he wouldn't notice. He seemed the same height, and she'd know. Her power didn't work with people but it did sort of work around them. Enough that she gained a good sense for measuring with it.
When did he get so tall?
The alarm dinged, and Missy turned toward it with Kid Win and Flechette. Alec and Olive paused their game, and Olive leaped over the back of the couch and pulled a cloth mask from her pocket.
She lined up beside Missy, leaving Alec to lazily get up and walk over.
The door opened, and Triumph stepped in.
"Wards," he called with a smile. "Is it just me or have I not been down here in forever?"
"It's okay if you forgot about us," Alec mumbled.
Rory laughed. He stepped aside, and Stratos followed him in with a wave.
Behind him, a slender girl with shoulder length blond hair followed. She wore a small smile on her face, and quickly looked around the room as she entered.
"Hi." Weld stepped forward, hand held out. "I'm Weld. Team leader, for now."
"Flechette. Lily."
"Mockshow!"
"Alec."
"Kid Win." He pulled his mask off. "You can call me Chris."
"Hello again," the girl replied.
Missy shifted her attention to L—Elle. She went through the practiced motions of rehearsing herself. She learned it well from PR. How to project. How to get her tone of voice right. She did it frequentl—
This is fake, she thought. I'm being so fake right now.
Elle was still talking to Chris when Missy stepped out of line. She knew Rory, and she didn't want to confront him with it. Weld was nice. She liked him, even if she missed Aegis but she didn't feel like they knew one another all that well.
She looked up at Stratos. "Can I talk to you?"
He seemed confused but nodded, walking with her to the side while the others watched.
They stopped in the hall a fair distance away.
"What's eating you?" Neil asked.
He reached up and pulled his visor off. It occurred to Missy that local Protectorate and Wards used a lot of visored masks but that was just her trying to delay things.
"I think," she mumbled. "I think I want—" Her voice caught in her throat.
She didn't know what to say.
Did she want to resign? That seemed too final. She wasn't ready to take that step. There'd be no taking it back. The others saw her stalk off with him and she didn't know what to say. What would they think if she just went back now?
Neil blinked and crouched. He was tall enough that doing so put his head on the same level as hers.
"This has been hard on you, hasn't it?" he asked.
"I can deal with it," she insisted. "I'm just not sure I…"
What? Trust them? Feel safe? Belong in this costume?
"Everyone finds themselves where you are, you know." His hand fell atop her head, and Missy bristled at the treatment. "You don't have to make up your mind right now. It's okay not to know what you want."
"I want to be a hero," she said, incredulously. That hadn't changed.
"And what is a hero?" he asked.
Missy scowled. That was obvi—
"You can't strive for your goal until you know what it is," Neil told her. "And it's fine to not know. I've seen people older than me with no idea what their lives are about."
Missy thought back to Chris. He wanted to protect his friends. Is that what being a hero meant to him? And Taylor's eyes. That look they had. What did being a hero mean to her?
Missy wanted to be a hero. She wanted to rescue people. Beat bad guys. Arrest villains.
It never sounded so hollow before. Something someone thought because they'd never been in a situation where they didn't know what the right thing to do was. A simplistic answer. A kid's answer.
"You want to take some time off for yourself?" he asked.
Missy hesitated.
And then she nodded.
Neil smiled and put his visor back on.
"That's fine too. Come on. We'll go talk to the Director real quick and I'll get you home."
She nodded again and followed him back. He told Triumph she remembered something and wanted to talk to someone. Missy kept her eyes down. She kept them down the entire time. When Stratos took her to Piggot. When he drove her home. When she walked into her home.
Well, her mother's home.
The woman looked like her. Short with brown hair and a lithe figure. She was in the kitchen on the phone when Missy walked in, but poked her head out at the sound of the door closing.
"I'm home," Missy mumbled.
"Missy? Where have you been? Your friend arrived here an hour ago."
Missy snapped her head around, looking at her mother.
"Friend?" she asked.
"She's been waiting in your room."
Missy went up to her room.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Dinah pulled two half-pints of ice cream out of her bag and set them on the bedside stand.
"I brought ice cream," she said.
Missy closed the door behind her.
She pulled her shoes off and watched Dinah work the top of one half-pint off.
"Did Tayl—"
"No," Dinah answered. "I'm here because you seemed down."
Dinah took a seat on a bean bag chair by Missy's bed and stuck a spoon into her half-pint.
Missy sat on her bed and took the other half-pint.
She didn't feel ashamed. Embarrassed and a little childish, but not ashamed. Stratos asked a good question. One she took for granted before. One worth spending some time to think about now that she'd realized how fake her answer was.
"Dinah, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you a hero?"
"Because life is a box of chocolates."
Missy turned her head. Dinah shrugged.
"If I'm going to have a power I might as well do something good with it."
"That's it?"
"Yup."
"That simple?"
"Nothing in my life is simple." Dinah pushed a spoonful into her mouth and asked, "We can watch a crummy movie."
Missy sighed. "I have Rush Hour?"
"I said a crummy movie." Dinah reached into her bag. "I brought Rush Hour 3."
Missy settled in.
Why was she a hero? What would Missy Biron become now? She didn't have a good answer. Yet. Might as well eat some ice cream and watch crappy TV while she thought about it.
