1.05
OOOOOOOO
Standard operating procedure in cape confrontations meant that the PRT agents would hang back until the members of the Protectorate called them in to assist. Or in this case until they were called in by us, the Wards responding to the incident. Three squads of PRT officers took positions around the building while hiding out of sight. While they wouldn't be much direct help at the very least they could work as useful spotters.
As the four of us poured out of the van Shades pressed a few buttons on some kind of wrist mounted computer he had on his armor. From the roof of the van rose a circular metal contraption that looked like an upside down UFO about four feet across. It floated down next to him and when it was close enough he jumped up on it. The platform sunk a little under his weight but quickly stabilized and held him up easily. A two foot long vaguely pill shaped drone detached itself from underneath the floating device and rose up to circle around the UFO- shaped platform. Shades did cut a good looking figure standing atop his platform in his yellow and purple-accented armor though it could only do so much to hide the fact there was a twelve year old boy underneath.
Escudo stepped forward and grabbed everybody's attention. "Ok, it looks like they gained access to the facility through the loading bay. We're going to check things out through there first. Remember we're using the buddy system for this one so me and Shades are together and Ripple is with Rewind. If the four of us need to split up for whatever reason that's fine but don't separate from your partner. We're going to go in quick and quiet and remember to keep in radio contact at all times," he said, his tone commanding and professional.
"Got it boss," said Rewind, her tone almost light despite the situation. Shades and I just nodded our agreement.
"All right let's move out. Don't cross in front of the loading bay doors until we check things out. It's a good bet they have people waiting for us," he said. With that he turned and took to the sky floating a few feet off the ground before moving forward. The platform Shades was standing on gave a mechanical whirl as it floated up and moved to follow closely after Escudo, the pill shaped drone following obediently after him. I turned to Rewind who gave me a nervous but excited smile before she began to stalk after her teammates. Bending my legs and lowering my center of gravity a few inches on instinct I began to follow the three of them bringing up the rear.
Escudo floated high and peeked around the corner of the building we were currently standing behind. After a few seconds I heard the build-in radio click in my ear.
"All clear," came his voice on my headset, "the loading bay is at an angle to us about fifty yards away. We go in low and fast, me and Shades on point. Remember there may be shooters and capes waiting for us so don't cross their field of fire."
I saw Shades draw and ready his gun and the air in front of Escudo seemed to shimmer with blue fractals as he used what had to be his personal shield. Floating a few feet off the ground the two of them rounded the corner, me and Rewind directly behind them. Half a football field away was a fairly ordinary looking white office building two stories tall with the loading bay clearly visible on the far side from where we were. The two fliers began to move in that direction at a good clip forcing Rewind and I to jog to keep up with them.
My stomach was doing flip flops from nervousness. This was the first time I'd been deployed as a Ward against other capes with no other heroes for backup nearby. As our boots hit the asphalt in the middle of the day I couldn't help but feel both terrified and giddy about what we were walking into. In a way as strange as it sounded I felt like I was in my element. I'd never had a particular liking for violence but I was someone who needed to have excitement and action in her life. This kind of dangerous and possibly life-or-death scenario was just the type of thing that called to me. Screw upholding the law and having people put you on a pedestal. To me the thrill of situations like these was the very best part of being a hero.
We reached the side of the building and Rewind and I pressed our backs against the wall as the two fliers floated nearby. With a hand signal from Escudo Shades fiddled with his computer and the drone flew up to the roof. A few moments later a nod from Shades gave the all clear.
"All right looks clear on the roof," said Escudo over the radio, "we're taking positions on either side of the bay. Rewind and Ripple stay here. Ripple, do you think you can use your power safely if there are people waiting for us inside?"
I fiddled with my headset until I found the transmit button. "Yeah that shouldn't be a problem unless there's a lot of dangerous loose objects laying around."
"Ok then, get in position. Shades you're with me."
I inched my way to the very edge of the open bay while Shades and Escudo flew over the opening to position themselves on the other side. After they were in position Shades pushed some buttons on his computer causing the drone to descend from the roof and hover just above the open bay doors. As I watched it lowered itself so it's the lens on one end could see inside for just half a second before floating back up out of sight.
"Looks like eight guys behind cover. I don't think they're capes," Shades's voice came over the radio, "looks like two assault rifles, one submachine gun and the rest have pistols. They're all wearing some kind of heavy duty goggles. Heavily polarized, probably. I don't think they know we're here yet."
"Looks like they came ready for you Escudo," came Rewind's voice over the radio.
"Yeah. Too bad something like that isn't going to make much difference with my power. All right we're going to go for a one-two punch. I'm going to go first and light them up with everything I've got. Ripple, you go in next and take care of anyone that is still able to fight. Keep in mind all these guys are hiding behind some kind of cover."
"That won't be a problem," I said into the radio, a tiny smile curling on my lips.
"All right," he said, and for the first time I could detect a hint of nervousness on his voice, "go in after the light dies down. I'm attacking on my mark. Three – two – one – mark!"
I saw Escudo activate his transparent blue fractal force field and step around the corner. He held his fists tightly by his side and they began to glow a blinding white interspersed with motes of blue, red and yellow. I heard guns go off, half a dozen gunshots loud and unexpected enough from the enclosed space to make me flinch. Escudo's blue shield rippled with light where the bullets struck but the shield held strong. After a second of charging Escudo threw his fists out towards the inside of the loading bay. What came out of his hands wasn't two solid beams of light but instead what looked like countless streaming white sparks with the occasional red, blue or yellow streaks intertwined within. They impacted the inside of the loading bay with a muffled whump I could feel in my bones followed a split second later by the sound of a nearly deafening explosion and enough bright light to make me see starts even from behind cover. That was with Escudo directing most of the light and sound away from our direction.
After the light faded I rounded the corner and ran into the bay. The bright light and the darkness of the inside had me effectively blinded. I cursed internally that I wouldn't be able to pick whoever still had a fight left in them individually.
Oh well. One of the advantages of my power was wide area destruction.
I got a mental 'feel' for the type of wave I wanted and tapped my foot on the floor. My power effortlessly flowed out of me and into the ground causing the concrete floor in front of me to bend and ripple. Concrete cracked as a three foot high wave with a mostly gentle slope shot out across the large bay with the speed of an Olympic sprinter. Even with my ruined night vision I could make out shapes of people and crates as they were flung into the air, cries of surprise and pain filling the air as they were all unexpectedly hit by an unstoppable force at thigh height. I'd long since mastered the art of giving thugs good hangtime when using my powers on them without breaking too many bones. The gang members and incidental objects all crashed to the ground painfully with differing levels of noise as my new teammates rushed in to finish off any stragglers.
Thankfully there weren't any. The combination of Escudo's concussion/noise/light blasts and being hit by my wave seemed to have taken the fight out of all of them. My vision began to clear and I could make out the men all dressed in black in various states of groaning pitifully on the floor and cradling their injuries.
"Good job Ripple," came Escudo's voice over the radio, "Shades keep watch and send your drone to scout ahead but make sure it doesn't get spotted. Rewind, Ripple, help me secure these prisoners and collect their weapons. Shoot them with your electro-bolts if it looks like they're going to try anything funny."
"My pleasure," said Rewind in a tone of voice that made it clear she hoped she would get an excuse to shoot them.
Shades floated higher in the bay to carry out his job while the rest of us set about securing the gang members. Pulling out a bunch of zip ties I had stuffed in my pocket I started tying both their wrists and their ankles together for good measure. By the way the thugs were acting I was betting they all had burst eardrums and were still having a hard time seeing. Still even severely weakened and bruised they weren't exactly cooperative and I had to put my knee into the back of more than one of them while tying their hands together.
"Hey Ripple, watch this," I heard Rewind say. I looked up to see her hefting her oversized crossbow up and pointing it at something.
"Rewind, what-" I started and then I saw what she was aiming at. A dazed looking thug in the corner had crawled to his dropped submachine gun and was making a grab for it. On instinct I almost sent a wave of earth to stop him when Ripple fired her crossbow.
It looked like something out of an old Earth Aleph science fiction movie. As soon as the arrow left the crossbow it crackled with blue electricity that left a streaming azure light trail as it moved through the air. The bolt hit the thug in the chest just as his hand closed around the gun. Instead of piercing his chest a round sphere of electricity four feet across erupted form where the arrowhead made contact. The thug twitched and spasmed as he was caught in the middle of the electric maelstrom. The electric sphere held its shape for half a second before winking out leaving bright spots in my eyes. The thug slumped over twitching occasionally and by all appearances very much out of commission.
"I think he's the last one we need to tie up," said Rewind as she stalked over to the guy she had just shot. Looking around I realized she was right. Standing up from where I had just tied up my last guy I found myself following after her.
As I neared the electrified thug I saw the spent arrow next to him suddenly disappear. I made a startled noise causing Rewind to look back at me. In her hand I noticed her crossbow was once again loaded and ready to fire.
"When I reset something it pulls back the same matter that was there before to make whatever I'm touching like new again," she said answering my unasked question, "I can't just create new things out of thin air. If I could I would have made myself a millionaire in the first week." Her voice was light and humorous with a hint of teasing. Either that is how she dealt with things or she'd really enjoyed using her toy on that idiot who had reached for his gun.
"Cut the chatter. Get the last prisoner secured and take their weapons. We still have the capes to deal with," said Escudo.
At that moment the radio in my ear cracked to life. "Ward team, this is PRT squad one," said the new voice in my ear, "we have just spotted Cat Sith leaving through a side door on the north side of the building. Repeat, we have just spotted Cat Sith leaving through a side door on the north side of the building."
"Shit," cursed Escudo. He seemed to hesitate for a second before turning to us. "Rewind, Ripple go after Sith. We'll finish here and join you. Double time it they might be making their play to escape with the loot."
"Got it," said Rewind all humor gone from her voice. Without another words she turned and ran back outside. I hesitated for half a second before running after her.
It seemed a little reckless but we ran for all we were worth towards the north side of the building. My legs were longer than Rewind's and I'd always been a good runner so I quickly outpaced her and left her behind. I would have kept pace with her but my blood was running too hot and the thought of letting the capes escape without a fight was almost abhorrent. Maybe I wasn't as experienced as some of the others but I was still a fighter down to my bones.
I passed the edge of the building and skidded a few feet to a stop. At the other end of the building I spotted a man looking at me who could only be Cat Sith. He was of average build, tall and wore a long and narrow Indonesian-style tribal mask with thick lips. His outfit was black combat fatigues with a beat up looking wide brimmed hat. About half-way between us stood a smoke-like… thing. Standing five feet at the shoulder and nearly as wide it gave the impression of danger and coiled power. It was reminiscent of a feline in shape but the edges were all blurry like it couldn't quite decide to have any defined edges. Then I noticed another one of the smoke-cat things, hard to spot as it stood under the shade of a tree next to Cat Sith. I could make out something strapped across it's back, something that looked like extremely oversized saddle bags.
It had to be the stolen goods. Apparently they'd managed to get the vault open after all.
The closest smoke-cat looked at me and even tilted it's head in a distinctly animal-like fashion. Then it charged at me without any visible commands from Cat Sith. It was shockingly fast as it moved towards me but the projection still had a lot of ground to cover. With a thought a six foot wave of earth shot towards the feline at over fifty miles an hour. To my surprise the smoke-cat flowed over it like wind passing over a moving car. It lost a step for a moment before rapidly closing the distance between us.
Out of sudden desperation I took a step back and threw an even larger wave of earth at it which the construct once again effortlessly flowed over. Then it was right on top of me slashing down at my chest with one of its huge indistinct paws. I backpedaled furiously but the claw still caught my borrowed body armor. The force of it made me stumble and left deep claw marks on the armor. Before I could back up anymore it lunged and rammed me with its body.
It was like getting hit with a mattress at twenty miles an hour. The creature was surprisingly soft but the impact still sent me flying. I flew a few feet through the air and landed hard on my back, the body armor thankfully offering me some protection. The smoke-cat opened what passed for its mouth and tensed to jump at me.
That's when the bright streak of an electric blue bolt passed through the body of the smoke-cat, visible even while it was on the inside. It didn't seem to hurt it but it distracted it for a crucial second before it turned back and pounced on me. With the tap of a finger on the earth I sent another wave of towards the cat, this time as tall and as slow as I could make it. The ten by ten foot wall of earth seemed to hinder as it pushed towards the smoke-cat at the speed of a fast walk. However as I got to my feet I saw it's smokey claws peek over the top of the earth wave that was already starting to collapse. It pulled itself up and jumped down at me from its perch.
Suddenly Rewind was standing in front of me in between me and the smoke-cat with her hands held out in front of her. I would have yelled at her to get out of the way if I'd had the time but the projection was already almost right on top of her. For a second I thought I was going to see my new friend get shredded when Rewind stepped forward and touched the construct.
At first I wasn't sure what happened. One second the cat-projection was set to tear us apart and the next it disintegrated into plain regular smoke as soon as Rewind touched it. Whatever she did it didn't seem to surprise the girl as she turned and hurried to my side before the smoke had even cleared.
"Are you ok?" she said putting a hand to my chest.
"What did you do?" I asked. It was the only thing I could think to say.
"My power destroys projections," she said simply before stepping away and hefting her crossbow. "You're all fixed up. We still have to deal with Sith. I'll chew your ass out for leaving me behind later," she said in a tone of voice that had me suddenly very much not looking forward to that conversation.
A quick glance down revealed what I had suspected; Rewind had repaired the body armor that the smoke-cat had shredded. That power of hers was extremely handy.
Looking up I saw that Cat Sith was still standing in the same place about fifty yards away looking at the two of us. Directly in front of him two more masses of smoke were gathering and coalescing into denser and more distinct shapes while the shadow-cat with the saddlebags seemed to growl at us from his post next to the Master-type cape. Arrogant bastard. Even though he didn't know anything about me since I hadn't attacked him yet he probably thought he was out of my range.
Big mistake.
Even though it wasn't necessary using my hands or feet when I used my power made it easier to focus and direct it in just the way I wanted to. Stepping forward I threw my fist out at Cat Sith. A two foot wave shot out at him with enough speed to break both his legs. To his credit he tried to jump over it but he didn't count on the wave steadily picking up speed over the distance. The wave hit his feet mid jump, flipping his legs high into the air and sending him crashing into the ground face-first.
That was certainly satisfying. It was clear from how slowly and gingerly he was moving that he'd been hurt somehow. Ripple took aim with her crossbow and fired angling the crossbow somewhat upwards to make up for the distance. While the arrow was in flight the new smoke-cats finished forming. One of them jumped forward and with a motion very much like that of a real cat batted the arrow out of the air.
"Come on lets go," Rewind said, "as long as I touch them I can disrupt them and get a clear shot." Without waiting for a response Rewind ran straight towards the smoke-cats, her black cape billowing dramatically behind her.
I took off half a second after her making sure to keep pace with her this time.
The cats charged us one going for Rewind and the other coming after me. The first one tried to claw Rewind presumably trying to hurt her before she could disrupt it. As soon as its paw touched Rewind it lost all cohesion and went up in a literal cloud of smoke.
The second one came after me and I decided to try a different tactic. I sent ten back-to-back six foot tall waves of earth hurling at it at high speeds. It seemed to slow it down more this time looking like a cat on shaky legs and is bounced up and down on my ripples. When it was nearly past them I threw up another ten foot tall wall of slow moving earth. Like the last smoke-cat this one jumped on top of it and tensed to pounce on me from above. At that second I cut the energy of the wave.
The whole thing collapsed and the projection fell ten feet looking for all the world like it was surprised at suddenly finding its perch of earth gone. By the time it landed Rewind was there pushing her hand into its side. Its mouth opened into a silent scream of rage as it dissolved back into simple smoke.
I stepped through it and looked to see Cat Sith being dragged around the corner of the building by his final projection ladened with saddle bags. I was starting to suspect I'd broken his ankles if he wasn't walking under his own power. Rewind lifted her crossbow and fired. The smoke-cat's long tail almost casually batted away the electrified bolt before it dragged Cat Sith around the building and out of sight.
"Shit," Rewind cursed before she made to run after them.
"Wait," I said. Rewind stopped and looked at me impatiently.
The corner of the building was still some twenty five yards away. After what happened last time I didn't feel like giving Cat Sith a chance to catch us flatfooted as we predictably came running around the corner of the building a second time. Praying I wouldn't get a speech about excessive property damage I stepped a bit away from the building and tried to guess where in relation to me Cat Sith was currently being dragged by his smoke-cat. Not that it terribly mattered since I could make my waves as wide as I wanted.
Once I had a good estimate I sent a wave about thirty feet across towards the direction I thought Cat Sith was currently at. Of course this meant that my wave would have to pass through the building. The only downside to that was that it would wreck the foundations, the walls and pretty much everything else that was important in a building. The upside was that physical barriers did absolutely nothing to reduce the strength or effectiveness of my waves. My wave passed through a sizable corner of the building causing the whole structure to rise up and fall as the swell of earth passed underneath it.
"Wow," said Rewind sounding a little floored.
"That should have knocked him on his ass pretty good, hopefully enough to keep him down for a while," I said to her. "Come on lets go check on him," I said and took off jogging towards the end of the building, leaving a gawking Rewind behind me.
I hadn't gone more than ten steps when I heard Rewind shout a warning behind me. "Watch out!"
Some instinct told me to throw myself to the ground which I did, flinging myself gracelessly to the side. Behind me I heard the distinct sound of something heavy landing on the ground where I had just been standing. Clumsily rolling to my feet I saw who had attacked me from above; our mysterious third and unknown Parahuman.
He wasn't wearing any mask but he probably didn't need it. Everything about him, his skin, hair, even his eyes were the color and texture of liquid mercury. He wore urban camouflage pants and black boots along with a ratty brown long coat with no shirt underneath. I barely had time to register all this before he charged me.
I didn't think; instinct took over. Instead of backing away I brought my elbow up and stepped into him. My elbow caught him on his nose sending him staggering back a step though I got the impression that reaction was more out of surprise than any real pain. To my surprise his face had not felt any harder than that of a regular person.
Suddenly the new cape spun and I saw the movement just barely got him out of the way of one of Rewind's electro-bolts. As he turned he reached into his coat and pulled out the biggest damn handgun I had ever seen before coming to a stop and leveling it directly at Rewind.
Rewind tried to dodge but I could tell it would be too late. With a thought I sent the fastest wave of earth I could directly at his ankles. The ripple hit his feet and knocked him almost horizontal to the ground sending the pistol shot going wide.
He hit the ground and I began to make the ground undulate violently underneath him. It was a trick I had learned that made it impossible for perps to get back on their feet or do much of anything at all. The mercury cape struggled to move under his own power but the continual waves made it impossible for him to get any meaningful traction. He even let go of his gun to give himself an additional hand to move himself but it was meaningless. Unless he had some kind of Mover power he wasn't going anywhere.
Rewind picked herself up off the ground where she had thrown herself and picked up her crossbow.
"Thanks Ripple," she said.
"No problem," I replied a little more chipper than the situation called for.
Then she shot the mercury cape.
The bolt caught him in the back and the familiar sphere of blue electric current caught mercury cape in the middle of it. He writhed and spasmed more than was normal for a person though eerily his metallic face stayed completely still and expressionless the entire time. After the electricity died down he lay on the ground, limp and unmoving.
"Well, we got one," said Rewind happily.
"Yeah I guess so," I said, "still be careful though."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, "would you mind stopping that wiggly earth thing? It's making me dizzy. I'm going to call in a PRT squad to come foam this guy."
I obliged, keeping a close eye on mercury cape while I stopped creating waves.
"PRT squads, this is Rewind," I heard her on the radio, "Requesting a foaming on the north side of the bui-"
Quicker than a snake the mercury cape moved. He produced a revolver and shot me in the chest and then shot Rewind in the stomach before I'd even registered there was a threat. I didn't mess around at that point; I sent a four foot wave directly at him fast enough to kill a regular person. Mercury cape somehow jumped towards the building fast enough to avoid it which would have been impossible for any normal person and most capes. His hands sprouted dozens of inch long metal hooks and he slammed them into the side of the building. With almost physics-defying agility he started digging into the wall with those hooks and climbing up towards the roof.
I rubbed my chest; it hurt bad but not nearly as bad as it could have been. The body armor had done its job and the revolver must have used a smaller caliber bullet. A quick look at Rewind showed that she was rubbing her stomach but was already starting to walk it off. Her armor was even better than the standard PRT gear I was wearing. She was looking up at the mercury cape climbing up the side of the building like a spider. I could tell by the turn of her mouth that she was pissed.
As she went for her crossbow I looked up at the climbing cape and noticed something I'd either missed before or had just begun. There were sounds of gunfire coming from the roof. A moment later there was a bright flash of light I could see over the lip of the building. I knew right away what that meant. Escudo has somehow ended up fighting on the roof and Shades was most likely with him.
Mercury cape was already half way to the roof. Shit. They didn't know he was coming.
Rewind hefted her crossbow and fired a shot at mercury cape hitting him in the lower back. This time however he ignored the electric field all around him and just kept on climbing completely unafected. He clearly had a half way decent Brute rating.
Well that opened up some options for me.
I put my hand on the wall directly underneath mercury cape and pushed the button on my headset. "Escudo do you copy?"
There was a moment of silence before the reply came through. "Kind of busy right now Ripple. Fighting Ink and his inked up thugs on the roof," he said sounding strained.
"Just letting you know you got incoming, mysterious metal cape coming up the side of the building. He's the one you're going to see flying," I said.
"Wait, what?"
Mercury cape had almost reached the lip of the building. With a thought I sent a wave of my power up the side of the roof with as much speed and strength as I thought the mercury cape could handle. The concrete wave hit him just as he was reaching over the side of the building. There was a loud sound like when two heavy objects collide at high speed and mercury cape was send hurling upwards, flipping and twisting uncontrollably in the air as he reached heights of over twenty feet.
"Hot damn!" I heard Escudo exclaim over the radio. The smirk that crawled across my face was completely out of my control.
"Serves that bastard right," said Rewind.
That had looked pretty sweet. I hoped that when he had landed on the roof after his unexpected flight mercury cape had been put out out of commission. If things got too hot I had to trust that Escudo and Shades would be able to fly themselves out of there. "Come on," I told Rewind, "we gotta see if we can catch up with Cat Sith."
We took off jogging and I privately hoped that my last wave had left Cat Sith unconscious somewhere. When we turned the corner where the cape had disappeared around before though he was nowhere to be seen. I was debating what to do next when the radio cracked to life.
"They're bugging out. Ink, his men and the unknown cape just jumped off the roof on the south side of the building. I can see Cat Sith there with three of his projections. Looks like they have some vans waiting for them on the other side of a canal on the south side. PRT teams, move in and try t-" Escudo was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. It sounded like someone had decided to start throwing grenades.
"Oh crap," said Rewind sounding genuinely worried. Without a word she took off running towards the south side of the building with me trailing behind her.
When we got there I could see a canal maybe fifteen feet across and Cat Sith, his smoke-cats, mercury cape and at least half a dozen men pulling themselves out of the water. The men all had tattoos on their faces that even from this far away appeared to moving on their own as if they were living things. One of the men was shirtless, his body completely covered with shifting tattoos and wearing a metal mask engraved with tribal patterns everywhere. That had to be Ink.
For a minute I was undecided on what to do. I couldn't hit them accurately from here. For my wave to pass through solid, then water, then to a solid again it would naturally loose much of its force. The best I could do was overpower the wave to compensate for the power reduction and hope for the best. However I could easily kill someone that way. I didn't want to start my first day as a San Francisco Ward by killing someone.
I looked around for my other two teammates and spotted them flying near the roof of the building. From where I was standing thankfully neither of them looked injured though Escudo was showing visible signs of exhaustion.
I clicked on my radio. "Boss," I said as I watched the men piling into the vans across the canal, "do we pursue? If I can get to the edge of the water I might be able to safely knock over the vans," I said. It went without saying that if I tried to do that I would also probably be dodging bullets.
Escudo was silent for what seemed like a long time before he answered. "Negative," he replied, sounding unhappy about it but trying to hide it behind professionalism, "too dangerous. The Gore are known for planning numerous escape routes ahead of time and having ambushes ready for any pursuers. I don't like it but the best thing we can do right now is let them go."
If Escudo and Shades tried to follow them they would be putting themselves in danger and me and Ripple wouldn't be able to keep up with vans. I tightened my fists in frustration. Damn. It almost physically hurt to have to have to stand there and watch The Gore drive away. Why wasn't Escudo blasting them? Where the hell was the PRT?
I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt a hand land on my shoulder. Even though only her mouth was showing I could make out her concerned look. "Hey I hate this too. We all do. Don't worry, we'll get them next time," she said trying to sound sympathetic.
I took a deep breath and let it go as I watched the vans turning a corner in the distance. "Still feels like we lost," I said.
Rewind shrugged. "Maybe yeah. But we all made it out in one piece. That's a win as far as I'm concerned," she said. "Come on," she said gently pulling me away from where I was staring, "the most horrible part of the day is still to come."
I frowned at that trying to think of what she meant. "Paperwork?" I asked.
"Paperwork," she confirmed as she threw her arm around me. "Welcome to the San Francisco Wards."
OOOOOOOO