A Side L
Lafter stared at it. For such a massive dick-face, Lung did have taste. Rich leathery taste, with fine embroidery, and the plushest cushions.
"We can't do this," she mumbled.
"While I understand the legalities are somewhat murky," the voice in her ear began, " I do believe we can."
"I'm talking about the chair, Veda. I mean the chair."
Lafter pulled the lever and let herself sink back into the plushness.
"It's such an injustice," she sighed.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
Why with all his money would Lung live in a grungy apartment building? Technically everything in the Docks looked pretty grungy, but this place looked especially grungy. The bricks on the outside walls appeared so worn Lafter worried the place might collapse any moment. The floorboards creaked and sat unevenly. The door caught. Lafter needed to shoulder it open.
And for such a crappy place, he had so much stuff. A big bed with poofy sheets, lots of Asian looking knick-knacks, and a preposterously fancy fridge. Nothing really matched. Gave the space kind of a tacky appearance but nothing looked cheap. Especially not the 72-inch plasma TV and the world's most luxurious recliner ever.
"This chair is too beautiful to destroy," Lafter mumbled.
"Is it?" Veda asked.
Such a sweet machine-kid, Lafter thought.
And she was kind of a kid. Veda talked with big words and knew lots of smart person stuff, but she lacked a certain depth. Lafter didn't quite know the right words. Depth seemed the most right. The depth of experience someone older than her had.
In the distance explosions rang out. Taylor would be fighting Lung. And maybe Bakuda. And Queen Gundam was parked on a mountaintop with a super gun, Aisha was in Boston, and Lafter was in the world's best recliner. A poor consolation given her inability to really match the scale of a fight between two bullshit tinkers and a literal dragon, but it's what she had.
The TV, while pretty, was excusable. Taylor had a bigger one in the workshop anyway. With Netflix. But the recliner?
Lafter jumped out of the seat and looked back at the mighty throne.
"I'm keeping this chair."
"I do not believe that is part of the plan," Veda said.
"We'll improvise."
"The plan is quite—"
"Oh come on!" Lafter looked up at the air, which felt kind of silly. Veda wasn't god looking down on her. "Live in the moment! Do something spontaneous! This will be good for you. The world doesn't run on plans!"
Lafter pointed, despite Veda being unable to see.
"Help me save this chair from a grisly fate."
Veda went silent, but Lafter didn't wait. She'd come around. In the meantime, Lafter knew she couldn't move the chair herself. She was fit but lifting it alone might be a bit much. Bad for the back. Even if she could heft it up herself it would be unwieldy to get through the door anyway.
"I'm going to need some muscle," she mumbled. Her phone pinged. Removing it from her pocket, Lafter smiled.
Veda was bringing the other van.
"Sweet."
Lafter checked her wig. Black really wasn't her color, and the contact lenses muddying her eye color itched. She didn't like the suit either. Way too cliche.
Oh well. Being a James Bond cliche had its novelty.
Lafter exited the apartment, descended the stairs and walked 'inconspicuously' down the street and into the back alley. The boys were still waiting in an 'inconspicuous' black car parked 'inconspicuously' on the corner and totally not watching Lung's apartment building.
The window rolled down as Lafter approached. She slipped her hand into her pocket, fingers brushing the saber inside. Nothing personal, but she knew the camps too well to assume anyone who came out of them couldn't hurt her. She understood too well the things some people ended up doing to survive, herself included.
Taylor just didn't get how bad things were in some countries. No one in America really did in her experience. Maybe the sisters, but a lot of them came from other countries in the first place too.
Muscles leaned his head out the window. Only a bit. Not enough that anyone might see his face.
"Hey, you done yet?" he asked.
The other boy leaned in too. Shinto or something, crap is that racist? No, his name definitely started with 'S' and ended with 'O'. She was terrible with names. Needed to talk to someone a bunch of times before remembering them right.
Except for Taylor. Taylor made an impression that made her really hard to forget. But back to saving the world's plushiest recliner.
"You guys have muscles," she noted with a smile, "can you help me real quick? I need some lifting power."
They both stared at her, one looking like a big broad shouldered clown and the other like an angry teddy bear.
"Orga told us to stay in the car," Muscles answered.
"Yeah." Shino—that's it—grinned. "But he also said that after today we'd be free to do anything we wanted right? No more ABB. No more Lung. We can do whatever we want!"
"And right now"—Lafter smiled broadly—"You want to lend me some muscle!"
Muscles frowned. Well, frowned more. Lafter had yet to see him smile. Not that she'd seen much of him but, whatever.
"Shino—"
"Come on Akihiro! We can't leave a lady hanging!"
"We're supposed to be waiting here and looking suspicious," Muscles reiterated.
Which is why they were both wearing cheap off the rack suits. Didn't really fit them well, though they did look scary. Scary in a cliche big guys in black suits sort of way. Not that anyone could see them. Neither boy could quite pass for Caucasian…but then again…
She suggested, "And this will look even more suspicious!"
She leaned against the car. There weren't many people on the street, but they clearly knew who lived in the apartment building. Lafter got more than a few looks walking about. If anyone took pictures of her walking in with two Asian guys? That might make the scheme work even better!
"It'll be fine." Lafter waved a hand. "Stop worrying!"
Finally coaxing them out of the car, she led the boys into Lung's building and up the stairs to his apartment.
Shino crossed his arms, glancing around the apartment.
"You'd think Lung would have a cooler place. I mean, we paid him so much money. Where did it all go?"
Into huge TVs and the world's best recliner to start.
Reminded, she waltzed over to Lung's computer and pulled the USB out. Lafter didn't see how people wouldn't suspect the 'computer cape' of screwing with Lung's computer but Taylor seemed confident it wouldn't be an issue.
Just another wild ride on the Taylor train. Always a good time.
Stashing the USB into her pocket, she looked over the papers she'd littered about Lung's table. Lots of numbers and some deeds. Taylor gave her the big explanation but Lafter figured she'd just wait and see. If Hookwolf actually got pissed off enough to do something stupid, maybe then she could fight Cricket.
That sounded like a good time.
"Seems kind of run down." Muscles turned to Lafter, asking, "so what do you…" He trailed off as Lafter pointed at the recliner. "You can't be serious."
Lafter simply pointed her hands more intently and said, "Sit."
He sat, and ever so slowly his grumpy face started fading.
"Right?" Lafter asked. "We are saving this recliner!"
Shino leaned forward. "Like heroes?"
Lafter looked him in the eye.
"Yes."
A minute later Muscles growled. "Are you pushing Shino?"
"Of course I'm pushing, you're not pulling hard enough!"
"Looks like a tight fit," Lafter mumbled. "Maybe if we tried it at an angle?" Veda spoke in her ear, and Lafter quickly amended, "nineteen degrees clockwise?"
"What?" Shino asked, looking over his shoulder.
Lafter shrugged. She didn't really know math.
"Maybe if we just twist it this way," Shino suggested.
"Not that way!" Muscles snapped as his hand got pinched against the door. "Shino!"
"Oh. Whoops."
"Twist it the other way?"
"This way?"
"No that's the same way! You're crushing my hand!"
"Sorry. This must be why those moving jobs paid so well."
"You didn't do anything on those jobs!"
"Yeah, I didn't notice before. This is kind of hard."
Lafter wondered how the two of them ever managed as criminals.
In the distance the explosions stopped. Akihiro and Shino didn't seem to pay it much mind. Lafter waltzed toward a window and looked out, but she couldn't see anything. Too far away from the fight and taller buildings blocked her view.
She gave a sideways glance to Shino and Akihiro. She didn't know them, but there was a sort of unspoken camaraderie among their kind. They all understood on some level. They'd seen the worst of it first-hand and they knew.
The world can't be saved.
That's what Taylor really meant. Change the world? It's just save the world with an extra step, really. But everyone learned eventually it was doomed. It was easy for those who'd never seen an Endbringer, or the Blasphemies, or the Nine whatever they were like. They could live in blissful ignorance.
Nothing wrong with fighting the darkness, of course. Thinking back to the heat and the fire, Lafter only saw every victory as delaying the inevitable. She kind of liked it. If you're going to go, might as well go with a fight. Drag it about. Make it last.
It was better than laying helpless as you burned away. But it was a lost fight. They couldn't win.
She kept expecting Taylor to realize that. That she would turn back from the dark and be more realistic. She beat herself up too much. Pushed herself too hard. What's life without living?
But Taylor didn't turn back.
She just kept going, even after Boston. Even after that whatever-the-fuck happened with Cranial's kids. Even after seeing how fucked the world's heroes could be.
She kept going, never looking back. She started living. Reading her books and spending time with her father. Getting Lafter a green card so she didn't have to worry about being forced back 'there'.
Why doesn't she turn back?
The boys got the chair through the door eventually.
"By the way, do we want to deal with that?" Muscles pointed back into the room. "That looks dangerous."
"Nah." Lafter glanced down at the bomb sitting on the floor. "It'll be fine once we get the chair out of harms way!"
Getting the plush thing down the hall worked out to be pretty easy, and the boys could definitely lift. Akihiro led it down the stairs, holding the thing up so it didn't drag. Veda brought the van around back and the boys worked the recliner into the back.
"Awesome," Lafter cheered. "Thanks!"
"No problem," Shino said, hands on his hips. "Why does Newtype need Lung's chair anyway."
Lafter glanced at him. "For justice."
He shrugged. "Okay."
"Really, Shino?" Muscles sighed. "She wants it for herself."
"Justice is stressful," Lafter replied. "I need to relax sometimes."
"So you're stealing a recliner?"
"I am salvaging a recliner! It's different."
Muscles seemed unconvinced.
Lafter closed the back doors of the van and Veda drove off.
The sounds of explosions didn't start up again. So, fight over. Taylor won. Or she got blown to bits. Well, Veda would be freaking out if that happened so probably not blown to bits.
No one could ever call Taylor boring. Lafter certainly enjoyed the ride. And it was a good ride. A few dreary bits here and there but that's life. Sometimes it just kicks you where it hurts the most. Get up, keep going.
She figured that was why she kept following, even as Taylor continued wading into the abyss. She'd thought Taylor was sort of like a machine at first. She seemed so shut off, like she wanted to hide behind her mask.
That wasn't really right though.
Taylor did hide behind her mask, behind being Newtype. But maybe it would be better to say being Newtype gave her strength. Strength to get back up and keep going when anyone saner would have turned back long ago. Almost made her think there was something beyond the dark. Something only Taylor could see.
Maybe something she could see too, eventually.
"Hey, you okay?"
Lafter glanced at Muscles. "Hmm?"
"You're staring at the wall," he said.
"Is it an important wall?" Shino asked. "Looks pretty normal to me."
Lafter glanced at Shino, then turned to Muscles. "He's not the brightest guy, is he?"
"He makes us laugh."
Shino laughed. "I am a funny guy!"
Well, at least he could laugh at himself. That was an important skill!
"Shouldn't we get going?" Muscles asked.
"Yeah," Lafter mumbled. "Probably. We have to stalk off where everyone sees us stalking!"
They walked back to the car and Lafter called shotgun.
"That was my seat," Muscles grumbled.
"Shotgun!" Lafter repeated, taking her seat and relaxing in a very inferior chair.
"Come on Akihiro," Shino urged. "It is ladies first! That's the saying!"
"I take it back." Lafter grinned. "You are very smart."
"Thanks!"
"Let's just get out of here," Muscles grumbled. He took a seat in the back and Shino started the car up.
Lafter leaned back in the seat.
"You're sure that bomb is okay?" Muscles asked.
"Oh right." Lafter pulled her phone from her pocket and pushed the big red icon.
Behind them, the top half of the apartment building exploded. Not enough to really damage the structure or hurt anyone, but enough to make it look like a super creepy cover up.
She ignored the boys' looks of confusion and enjoyed the giddy feeling of an explosion well executed.
"Huh." Lafter cocked her head to one side.. "Funny."
Muscles looked back at her. "What is?"
She glanced at Shino and then craned her neck around to meet Akihiro's permanently angry face.
"I was just saying the other day that you're not really part of the team till something explodes."
