A Side W
It's hard not to draw notice when made of metal.
Weld got accustomed to it ages ago. The cameras. The whispers. The stares. Liking it or disliking it didn't change things.
He just listened to the music coming from his headphones and thumbed through the records on the shelf. The one nice thing about downtown Brockton Bay was how close together everything was. A nice cafe, a music store, and some clothing shops were all within a block of the PRT.
In different directions sure, but still.
In Boston most of the places he wanted to go were far from the PRT building. He needed someone to drive him around. The troopers were nice, but he liked doing things on his own.
Things like finding new music.
Elle and Olive had taken to listening to songs together but it was mostly pop stuff. Not really Weld's style, but maybe he could interest them in something?
The whole team needed to meld a bit more.
Alec and Chris were from the original Wards ENE team, and they were friendly but still uneasy of the new arrivals. No one knew when Vista was coming back. Lily and Olive came from different cities and their interests seemed pretty different. Elle was just waiting for the day she could leave, though she was cordial with everyone who wasn't a PRT employee.
For now, they were a team. It was a bit strange, and a bit too familiar at the same time. The sense of being in a new place. Again. A place he didn't know with people he didn't remember.
That's life in a way.
Everyone deals with it.
Case-53s just get it much more personally.
Weld gathered some of the CDs that might work together and turned to the register. He smiled to a pair of girls holding up their phones at him. That did annoy him. Always had.
Not in the 'yes I'm made of metal' way, but more in the 'do you need to point your phone at every cape you see sort' of way.
The looks, whispers, cameras he could handle. He wasn't sure why phones specifically got on his nerves.
He waved regardless.
People tended to think Kamil didn't do PR, but he did. He just didn't think it was the thing that should be the focus. You did PR because you had to, not because it was good in itself.
"That's a lot of music," the clerk said.
"I'm an avid listener," Weld replied.
She nodded and started scanning the bar codes. It was a lot of music. Fifteen or so CDs.
He'd dip a bit into the money the PRT gave him for food. It wasn't exactly in the rules, but he didn't get much out of eating. It didn't seem like much of a trespass to use the money he wouldn't use on food on something else he enjoyed.
His phone rang as the clerk worked.
He looked at the caller ID and smiled.
"Hey."
He refrained from saying Hunch's name. People didn't need more reason to pay attention to him.
"Hey, Weld," Hunch answered. "Nice morning?"
"Not so bad. First day of school. Getting some tunes for later."
"Team building exercise?"
"More or less."
He wouldn't say he had a favorite teammate, but Hunch was like him. It made their relationship different from the one they had with other Wards. If he had any reservations about leaving Boston, it was leaving Hunch behind. None of the Brockton Bay Wards would ever get it, nor would any of the other Boston Wards.
That wasn't an insult against them or anything. They just couldn't understand.
"Something up?" Weld asked.
"Just one of my feelings," he warned. "Not sure why I'm getting it now. The news is saying Brockton Bay is gang free."
Weld pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to the clerk.
"Basically," he said.
Newtype and the Protectorate dismantled the Merchants before Leviathan. Then Newtype arrested Lung and then the Empire outed her and she destroyed them. The Undersiders—minus Tattletale and Grue—were gone too. Tattletale was a giant question mark and no one knew what to expect from Grue but the consensus seemed to be that the Undersiders weren't coming back.
"Probably just my power acting up," Hunch suggested.
"Maybe."
If Weld had to guess, it might be Blue Cosmos related.
Even through the crowds of people avidly watching him, Weld saw the dirty looks. The glares. The angry whispers. Brockton Bay had a lot of Blue Cosmos. That didn't intimidate him. If anything he felt encouraged by it.
Case-53s weren't like other capes. They couldn't hide behind a mask and live life like they didn't have powers. Blue Cosmos always knew who they were.
You can't run from that. You have to face it head on. Reject its power to control your life.
That's what Phobos said about hate and Weld agreed with her.
The cashier packed up the CDs and Weld put the bag and receipt into his bag. He'd listen to one during lunch and take the rest back to his room.
"Good thing I'm durable," Weld said on the way out of the store. "I'd be more worried about you."
"Yeah. Not super excited."
Butcher was coming back.
Newtype had passed the word on from Forecast. She'd started seeing the villain more and more in her visions. Celestial Being took it as an early warning that the long summer of silence from the undying villain was over.
"You guys will be okay."
They would.
It was hard losing so many to Leviathan. Harpoon and Hawke. Phobos and Spectre both got hurt pretty bad. Boost blamed himself and the PRT transferred him to another city. Probably the best for him.
A new place.
Kind of like Weld.
It was hard to describe.
He liked his friends. Kamil did a lot for him in Boston. He was fortunate, far moreso than many other Case-53s. Trainwreck came to mind.
Joined up with a bunch of drug dealers and then torn apart by Lung.
But Weld didn't feel sad. It was life. You move on. Make new experiences. New memories. New friends. Take whatever holes you have and fill them with something new and good, and you take the bad because that's life too.
Maybe that was a Case-53 thing too.
"School year is starting early, isn't it?" Hunch asked.
"It's because of all the stuff that happened with that one school."
"Oh right, the Case-66."
"Yeah. The district is trying to cope and added two weeks to the school year."
"And they put it on the front end?"
"I guess."
"Weird."
"Is what it is. You guys aren't starting back up till mid-October, right?"
"Yeah. They're still rebuilding the schools. Should be done bailing all the water out by then."
Weld smiled.
"How are they going to handle you-know-who?"
"I think she's going to go," Hunch revealed. "I guess you left for Brockton Bay before it got obvious, but something changed. She's nowhere near as mean as before. She's actually nice now."
Weld paused at the bus stop.
"Weaver is nice?"
A few heads turned his way. Mostly those that tried not to look at him. The rest just seemed to get more excited.
"Yeah, right? Guess the fight had some kind of effect on her. They even took the ankle monitor off."
"Really?"
"Hey, I'm happy she's not avoiding looking at me anymore."
Weld frowned. "You noticed that?"
"She hangs out with Orbit a lot"—Rune—"but honest she's not so bad either ever since she apologized to Spectre for, you know. And get this. Weaver is the one who told her to apologize."
Weld needed a moment for that. He navigated the bus carefully, avoiding the metal bars connecting seats to ceiling.
"Yup," Hunch replied. "Miracles can happen apparently."
The bus started up, and Weld wasn't quite sure what to make of that. He didn't know the whole story behind Weaver. Emma. Kamil simply said she'd done some things and triggered when the police came for her. Not that uncommon a story in the Wards actually.
Phobos started off the same way and Boost joined after shoplifting some parts for tinkering.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Most of them never wear an ankle monitor, not in the Wards.
"And things are okay with Orbit now?"
Weld just tuned the bus and the onlookers out.
"I mean, not sure how to qualify that? There's the whole Nazi thing but she isn't that bad now that she's loosened up. But there's the Nazi thing and it's like 'sure you're nice but there's the Nazi thing' and not sure how to handle that."
"But she isn't causing any trouble?"
"If anything Phobos has taken her as some kind of project or something."
Weld glanced out the window.
"Sounds like you guys are doing good."
"Yeah, it's alright. You?"
He didn't really know.
The PRT moved him to Brockton Bay for a bunch of reasons. The Wards needed a leader, or at least no one thought Kid Win was up for it and Vista was too young. There were worries the gangs might go right back to war, but then Newtype arrested most of the ABB and the Empire tried to go into hiding.
Now the gangs were gone. Piggot talked about a repeat of the Boston games, but would that happen? Newtype—Taylor Hebert— had a precog, three of those suits that apparently impressed Hero and Dragon, and she only seemed to be getting started.
Which was a weird thought.
Her identity was out now, but she had the tools to survive that. Half the capes she worked with didn't have identities anyway.
Out the window he spotted Arcadia and said goodbye to his friend.
Maybe they'd see each other soon if the PRT decided it didn't need a full department in Brockton Bay.
Weld got off with a dozen other teenagers.
The school looked almost too good for Brockton Bay. He'd been to the Docks and some of the areas south of the Towers. Downtown and the Towers were nice, but the rest of the city showed its age, gang violence, and poverty.
He almost felt bad looking at such a nice school in light of that. Boston wasn't perfect but the city's neighborhoods weren't so stark.
He took the steps slowly. New kids always looked around on the first day. Easy to hide checking the routes and the paths the PRT advised in case of emergency. They'd adopted a whole new procedure to deal with so many unmasked capes in the city, from New Wave to those exposed by the data leak back in March.
A woman stood at the top of the steps, greeting students as they entered.
She noticed him as he approached, saying, "And you must be Weld."
Weld smiled. "Yes, ma'am."
"Natarle Badgiruel, vice principal." She held her hand out and he shook it. "We're handling a large influx of new students this year, if you wouldn't mind going down the hall and to the right?"
Straight to business then.
"Yes, ma'am."
He followed the directions, not stopping to recognize Chris as he entered behind him. The weirdest part of the Wards in his book. He didn't get to hang out with his friends at school, or in public. Not easily.
You got used to it.
"Hey, Weld, right?"
Weld turned his head, looking down as Chris fell in beside him.
"Um, yeah."
He introduced himself with a small, knowing, smile. "Chris. I'm helping with new student orientation this year."
Oh. "Thanks in advance I guess."
"No problem. Right over here."
Chris pointed and led Weld into a small classroom. There were no desks, just chairs. Lily was already inside, along with a half dozen other Asian girls her age. A boy who looked a lot like Chris too, and some girls who could pass for Olive. They were older than her—being in high school—but the PRT was more than able to fudge a Ward's age.
And then there was Lafter.
"Hi Weld," she greeted with a wave.
"Hey, Lafter."
He walked toward her. Capes without masks should stick together or something, he supposed. That, and Lafter was always friendly in his experience.
"You're here early."
She shrugged. "I had to take a bunch of tests and stuff. Kind of curious if it's possible to flunk out of school before you start."
Right. He'd heard Rory and Sam talking about Militia sponsoring Lafter's visa. She was in the country legally now. She'd apparently been hiding out with some nuns or something.
Other kids gave them space, though that didn't stop anyone from staring or taking pictures with their phones. Lafter didn't seem to notice at all.
"You haven't been to school before?"
"Not since I was seven," she answered. "And that school was German. Don't really remember an—"
She stopped and leaned to the side. Weld looked over his shoulder to the door as one of Newtype's robots flew into the room. The pink one.
"Hey, Pink," Lafter said, clearly not expecting it. "What—"
"Lunch, lunch."
The robot carried a small brown bag beneath it, tied to the device keeping it aloft by a string.
Lafter took it.
"Oh. Thanks."
"No problem, no problem."
The robot turned and flew back out of the room.
The room was silent until one of the girls who looked like Lily declared, "this is going to be so cool."
Other students filtered into the room. Weld didn't recognize Chariot when he arrived but Lafter did.
"Trevor," she called. "Pink bring you lunch too?"
He held up the small brown bag in his hands. "Um. Yeah. Not sure why? I made one for myself."
"I think she just wants an excuse to cook something. You should see the stuff Taylor and Danny eat."
"Huh. We can do that now can't we?"
Lafter grinned. "We can certainly guilt trip her until she lets us feast!"
Chariot—Trevor—glanced around, clearly trying not to look anyone in the eye. "I'm not sure I'm cool with that?"
Lafter pointed at him. "Then I'll start by guilt tripping you."
Guess the PRT wanted all the unmasked capes in one school.
"Is Newtype coming?"
One of Olive's look-a-likes asked.
Trevor rubbed the back of his head and Lafter started to speak.
"There you are."
Weld, and everyone else, turned to the door.
Taylor Hebert stood there, a bag hanging from one hand. She wore a pair of dark slacks, nice shoes, and an ivory blouse. Looked a lot like the outfits Labyrinth wore most of the time.
It worked for her.
"Pink brought you guys lunch?" she asked.
"Yes," Trevor answered, and Lafter held up her brown bag.
Weld noted the look of shock on Trevor's face, and Chris' for that matter. Neither of them seemed to expect to see her. The only person who looked unsurprised was Lafter.
"Sorry." Taylor sighed. "Apparently she decided to make sandwiches for everyone. I don't know why." She shook her head. "So, yeah. I'll see you later."
She turned and left.
Lafter glanced around the room and then pointed at the empty doorway.
"There she was."
