morP 3.4
Taylor sat in her seat and tried to will the bus to drive faster. It had taken her a solid month of planning to set up the events on April Fools' Day. How much could she get done in just an afternoon?
Means, Motive and Opportunity. She had all three but the time to act was rapidly running out. The biggest reason Taylor was willing to take action was that the Track Team had something planned and anything she did would get lumped into the blame which accrued on them.
Taylor got home, took some more pain relievers and raced up the stairs. She tried to organize her thoughts while she showered, and had to shampoo three times before all the dried blood and sticky congealed juice came free.
Her biggest problem was deciding how to get the most bang for the buck, what could she carry and not arouse suspicion on the bus?
The bus.
Here she was, planning her mission and she had to factor in taking the bus. Well, it's not like she could wave a wand and have the Butterfly Mobile ™ appear magically, now could she? Taylor scrapped her initial grandiose plans due to the tyranny of logistics and plotted out what else would work.
She exited the shower, toweled her hair dry and made her way to her room. Even though the warmth of the shower had eased her aches and pains, she knew she'd have to bandage herself up before heading out. Finding an outfit which would look OK at the dance under her silk outfit was a chore. However once she had taken some more pain medication, bandaged herself up, and pulled her costume on over the bandages she found that it sort of worked like support hose, only full-body.
The bulky armor panels would have to go, though, as would the chest armor and the rear armor which doubled as her main storage compartment. The integrated shin guards could be covered by her usual baggy pants, as would the elbow pads. Fortunately she had designed the shoulder armor to be removable otherwise she would look like a picture of her mom from the '80's, only without the big hair.
Her burner phones fell out of her storage compartment along with the business card she'd got from Shadow Stalker last night. After some consideration she decided to text the number she'd been given. It initially seemed at cross purposes to what she was about to do to her tonight, but she needed every bit of evidence she could use against Sophia at some point so stringing her along was just a part of the overall strategy. She needed Shadow Stalker to be with her in order to turn around and use that against Sophia, after all.
Even though the limited time she had was ticking away, she couldn't just leave immediately. A teenager out and about during school hours on a Friday just screamed 'Please call the truant officer,' in every language.
Taylor still had to call her father for a cover story now that it was a more realistic time when the bus would actually drop her off at home normally.
"Hello, Dockworkers Union, Daniel Hebert speaking. How can I help you?"
"Hi Dad, I was invited to a dance tonight, and I want to go."
"Okay… Who is this boy, and do I need to be worried?"
"Dad, it's not like that, it's kind of a group thing. A dance for all the dance organizing committees to get together, relax and not miss all the fun running things behind the scenes for a change."
"Uh huh. Y'know, Taylor?"
"Yeah, Dad?"
"You can call me and I'll come pick you up anytime. I'll be by the phone all evening, and Taylor?"
"Yes, Dad?"
"It's good to see you getting out and socializing. At this rate I thought I'd never get to do the 'K'CHUCK' speech."
"The 'K'CHUCK' speech?"
"Yeah, the one where I ask him 'So you're dating my daughter?' he says 'Yes,' and I work the pump action of the shotgun on my lap, it goes
'K'CHUCK' and I say 'So we understand each other?' while glaring at him."
"No, Dad. It's not that kind of date."
"Too bad, I've been waiting to do that for years."
"I love you dad."
"I love you too Taylor. Have fun and be safe."
Unfortunately for my father, I only planned on doing the first half of what he just asked me.
Taylor rode many busses as she zigzagged all over town to surreptitiously gather bugs everywhere she went while she bought supplies. Multiple 'close enough' bus trips allowed her to guide the swarms she'd gathered on top of each bus she rode near Immaculata.
It was a mostly uneventful afternoon, except for once where she got off the bus at the hardware store, and a junkie snatched her duffel bag then ran down an alley. The resulting screams when the junkie ran back out of alley screaming about spiders was oddly satisfying.
She had enough time to get a good dinner in and pick up some more pain relievers since the bottle was now empty. Taylor pondered having her bugs liberate a few pills from behinds the counter of the pharmacy across the street when the waitress arrived with her meal.
By the time the sun began to set she had gotten pretty good at guiding her swarms through tunnels, sewers and drains or flying swarms surreptitiously from tree to tree around Immaculata.
Taylor was confident she could pull this off, and even follow up at school on Monday with her swarms that lived under the school.
Principal Blackwell straightened her desk just so, gathered her belongings, and reveled in the achievement of one small victory today. As usual, she was the last one to leave the building. She turned her master key in the lock and armed the security system, not for its' regular weekend program, but to allow access to the building tomorrow.
The stars had aligned and fortune favored her as the exterminators had an immediate opening in their schedule this weekend. Then during spring break in two weeks they could return and shovel out all the dead bugs and any hatchlings or newcomers which died eating the poisoned carcasses of their fellow insects and do a really thorough cleaning.
She steered her car out of the parking lot and drove home feeling satisfied.
