March 29th, 2011 - Tuesday
Late Evening
Taylor woke up to a prickling sensation all over her arm. Must be the nerves healing, she thought as she tried to move her fingers. She got them to twitch visibly, and the wrist was responding as well, but her sense of touch was off and her shoulder was still uncooperative under the wrapping. Still, it was a definite improvement compared to before her daytime nap, and a few more days would likely see her arm completely healed.
She did not intend to wait that long.
After sending a message to Jennifer, Taylor went to the kitchen to find something for... is it still supper if you just woke up?
It took five minutes for the phone to ring, and she put the sandwich down before answering it.
"Taylor. Feeling better?"
"Regaining touch, and I can move the hand and fingers somewhat. Have anything for me?"
"Unfortunately, no. The Empire tried to intercept Othala's transport from the PRT HQ to the Rig a couple of hours ago."
NO. Was all that really for nothing?
"That didn't quite work out as they planned, however. The transport was a decoy - only a couple of trusted officers knew about it - and the 'prisoner' was a PRT officer in an Othala costume. The real one's still at the PRT HQ, and now has Rune for company."
"The Empire can't be happy about that. Though... how did you find that out so quickly?" Taylor asked. They'd have to have been on alert for anyone sneaking information out for that plan to work...
Jennifer's laughter rang in her ear.
"Oh, they caught the guy who leaked the information to the Empire. As for me... let's say that the rent on an apartment less than a block away from the PRT HQ may be expensive, but I can afford it."
It took Taylor a couple of seconds to process that. Then she started laughing along. She stopped after her shoulder twinged a bit.
"I still need to get my arm fixed up before fighting capes. If you haven't found a good place to go after..."
"Nothing exact, sorry. But there have been clashes between E88 and the ABB remnant on the outskirts for several nights in a row. You'd probably find something if you started at 42nd and circled north towards the docks. I could ask Lim to drive you to base and there, if you think you're up for a foot patrol?"
"Of course. What about the way back? He's not going to stay up all night waiting for me, is he?"
"He won't have to. Grab something to write with."
Twenty seconds later, there was a notepad and a pen in Taylor's hands. She wrote down the number Jennifer recited.
"The New York cell are sending few people our way. Ibis should be in the city in a few more hours - he's a flyer, he can give you a lift to base and drive you home from there. That is, if you don't mind heights?"
"No, I don't."
"I'll make the calls, then. Good hunting."
Jennifer hung up, and Taylor went to find some clothes that wouldn't be too problematic between her costume and the shoulder wrap. She was ready to go by the time Lim called, though getting sneakers on mostly one-handed took some fumbling.
As she got into the passenger seat, she noticed Lim himself had more than his share of bandages covering his burns. Their edges stuck out of his shirt's collar.
"Hey, Lim."
"Hello, Taylor. Aiming for a Purple Heart too, I see?"
"Ha ha. I'll be fine soon enough. You?"
"Burns aren't very pleasant, but they're healing. I'll deal," he said, starting the engine.
The drive to base was rather uneventful, though Taylor was a bit surprised to see another car parked behind the warehouse.
"That one's for the new guy," Lim explained when he noticed Taylor eyeing the car warily. "Flight's good, but flying to your civilian home isn't the best idea. And I presume that he can't carry a car in flight."
"So why not drive?"
"If you had the choice to fly, would you not do so?" he asked, chuckling.
"...Point."
As they made their way upstairs, Lim motioned Taylor to follow him into the office. Once there, he opened a drawer and pulled a set of car keys out.
"Keys to the car. So Ibis knows where to find them. Now go, get suited up," he said, dropping the keys back in the drawer.
Taylor went, though her costume's close fit made it difficult to put on with her left arm still barely responding. When she finally got back to Lim, he mumbled something she was fairly sure was a "women getting dressed" remark while shaking his head. She chose to ignore it, and they got in the car again, heading towards the Empire/ABB border territories.
It took surprisingly little time for Taylor to start sensing anger at the edge of her range.
"Drop me off here," she told Lim, and he obliged. She got out, waved goodbye as he drove away, and started navigating towards the angry crowd. She was halfway there when the first gunshots started ringing, and abandoned all subtlety to run straight toward it with renewed vigour. Her shoulder started tingling again, and she could almost feel a crawling sensation.
When she turned the last corner, she saw exactly what she'd expected - nearly dozen skinheads with varying weapons, surrounded by a similar number of men in red and green. They were taking cover behind cars and around corners, the ones with guns - that was most of them - occassionally peeking out to take potshots. None of them had noticed Taylor yet as she was coming in from behind the ABB, which gave her time to think. On the one hand... she thought, experimentally flexing the fingers of her left arm. They responded much better than they had when she left home, and she felt the fabric of her outfit rub against them. There was a slow shifting in her shoulder, accompanied by a persistent tingling. She was sure her shoulder would be good as new in minutes. On the other hand... she saw an ABB member fall back into cover with a cry, grasping his shoulder. Even if they were gang members, Taylor didn't want to let them kill each other.
The decision was made for her when one of the ABB members spotted her when he dove back into cover.
"Cape!" he shouted, raising his gun in her direction. Taylor ran toward him in a zig-zag, though his panicked fire went so wide it probably ended up putting her in more danger of getting hit. She tore the weapon from his grasp with her good hand, tossed it aside, and drove a knee into the man's stomach, leaving him on the ground. He didn't quite start retching, but his pained groans were so loud in the sudden silence. Taylor turned around to see both sides staring at her.
The momentary spell was broken a second later as some of the gunmen remembered their weapons. Taylor went after them first, since she figured they were more likely to kill someone. At least the gang members didn't put their differences aside to shoot her together, which Taylor counted herself fortunate for. She didn't want to use her power to anger them further, not when they were all armed and trying to kill each other already, but even without that she was fast enough that only the ones she charged had so much as a chance to hit her, and nobody seemed to be carrying heavy enough guns to punch through both her armor and her power.
The next three ABB members went down as easily as the first, and Taylor decided it was time to go after the skinheads. No reason giving either side a victory here, and if I ignore them they might run off before my arm's healed. Crouching behind the car the last ABB member had used as a hiding spot, she flexed her arm. The hand moved just fine, with only traces of the previous numbness there. The elbow was fine, and the shoulder... she couldn't quite raise the arm above shoulder level, but trying was met with only mild discomfort instead of pain, so she guessed it'd be fine by the end of the fight. She stood up, stepped over the downed ganger and stormed the Nazi line.
Some shotgun pellets bounced off her armor, but any skinheads that weren't aiming at her already didn't have the time to correct their mistake. She was in their ranks before the gunmen managed to complete their shout of "LOOK OUT!"
Knock guns out of hands. Shove melee combatants into each other. She barely noticed that the ABB started retreating, but when the Empire turned to run, she charged and knocked down the last one with a gun. He hit the ground with a loud thud, and Taylor winced at the sound. Might have broken a rib, there. But it solved the most important concern - with firearms out of the picture, she could use her power without worrying about killing them. She pushed her power towards the half-dozen runners, and shouted "GET BACK HERE!" at them. They skidded to a stop, and turned around to face Taylor. She raised her left arm high in a middle-finger salute, testing if it was moving properly. A minor hitch at the very edge of flexibility. Taylor could honestly think she'd sleep that off, but the chance to heal it up faster was right there. As the skinheads charged, Taylor turned around and started running, keeping them just out of reach.
After a good thirty seconds of running laps around the nearest building, Taylor tested her arm once again. Satisfied with the results, she turned around and faced the charge of three baseball bats, two lead pipes and a knife. Taking the angry gang members down with the same moves she'd practiced so many times by now, she had to admit to herself that fighting unpowered people just wasn't fair.
Even if a part of her enjoyed it anyway.
Once the Nazis were curled up on the ground, groaning in pain, their weapons scattered, Taylor looked around to examine her handiwork. There were a couple of harder takedowns, but it didn't seem like anyone was dying, though there was some blood in places where people got shot before getting rescued by their comrades. She walked away, and once she was sure she was out of earshot, she pulled her phone out and dialed the number Jennifer had given her. She did it with her left arm, just to enjoy it having healed again.
"Who's this?" was the answer from the other side. The voice was masculine, though somewhat high-pitched... as much as Taylor could tell past the sound of rushing wind on the other side.
"Eris. You're Ibis, right?"
"That I am. Calling for a lift, I take it? I'm about twenty minutes out from the city. Could you find some tall building nearby to get to the roof of? Easiest way for me to find you - I'm not exactly familiar with the city besides the key points."
"Okay. I'll see if I can find anything good. I'm west of the Docks right now, if that helps."
"I think I know where those are. Alright, I'll call you when I'm closer."
Ibis hung up. Taylor located the nearest fire escape and used it to climb to the roof so she could look around. Since this was a residential area, most of the buildings were unfortunately uniform blocks of flats. Finally she spotted a mall - it wasn't quite as large as Weymouth Mall, but it seemed like it'd have a distinct profile from the sky. After climbing back down the fire escape (she did not want to risk roof jumping), she made her way towards the mall, keeping an eye out for anyone still awake at this hour. There were only a few people still out and about at this hour that she could easily avoid, though she thought she'd heard police sirens in the distance. Heading towards where the fight had been, if Taylor had to guess. Still, they faded away soon enough, and she was halfway to the roof when her phone rang. She quickly picked up.
"Okay, I'm west of the docks now. Where are you?"
"Climbing to a roof of a mall. Not the tallest building around, maybe, but there aren't many options out here and it should look distinct from on up. Are there any landmarks near you? I should be able to guide you there."
Taylor spent five minutes trying to direct Ibis. Eventually, he interrupted her.
"I think I see you. Wave your free hand?"
Taylor raised her hand and waved, scanning the sky.
"Yes, that's you. Coming in for a landing."
Taylor eyed the sky, but didn't see any sign of him. She started turning in a circle, and saw movement out the corner of her eye halfway through. It was a cape in an indigo robe, with skeletal wings of the same color coming out of his back. He spiraled down onto the rooftop, landed with a bit of a slide, and turned to face Taylor. His mask matched the rest of his color scheme, covered his face above the mouth, and reminded Taylor a little of a bird of prey. A duffel bag hung by his left side. Taylor was amused to note that he was almost an inch shorter than her.
"Hello, Ibis," Taylor greeted him.
"Eris. A pleasure to meet you," he said, with an exaggerrated bow. " I hear you wanted to ride me?" he continued, smirking. Taylor opened her mouth, then his words hit her. She sputtered, he chuckled.
"Jokes aside, it would be better to get moving. Hop on my back - bridal style isn't fun for long flights even when the passenger isn't taller than me."
Ibis turned around, and Taylor climbed on his back, after some effort to find a good handhold that didn't have her holding on to his wings. Up close, she noticed they were a little translucent on top of a faint glow of their own. Slowly, they took off.
"Ah, do you need much concentration to fly? Because I have a question," Taylor asked the flyer.
"Ask away."
"How did you get from New York to here when flying at this speed?"
"I'm not saying you should go on a diet, but you're not exactly a feather," he snarked. "More importantly, we're still accelerating. I get way faster than this if I can fly in a straight line for a while. All the faster to take Web's money."
"Don't like her much?" Taylor asked.
"And she doesn't like me, but... She's professional, and pays well. There are worse people to get in contracts with."
Can't imagine why anyone wouldn't like him, Taylor thought sarcastically. The rest of the trip passed mostly quietly - and he really did build up a decent speed in about a minute - besides her giving directions to the base. The landing wasn't particularly smooth, but it was decent enough.
"Fancy place. Not the most luxurious I've seen, but there's space. What's in the crates?" he asked as they entered the warehouse.
"Web's projects. Mostly spiders, I think," Taylor said, noting Ibis's lip twitch when he heard that. She grabbed the car key from the office, tossed it to him, pointed him to one of the changing rooms and went to change herself.
She was done first, and a minute later a dark-haired, green-eyed man of an ethnicity Taylor couldn't even begin to guess walked out.
"Earl," he introduced himself.
"Taylor," she answered. They got in the car, and he took Taylor home before driving off. At least the car having a GPS meant Taylor didn't have to do the navigating.
Though I should probably look into learning to drive for myself once I have the time, Taylor thought, before turning in for the night.
...It turned out that sleeping through most of the day and getting into a fight enough to get the adrenaline pumping, but not enough to fatigue her threw off her internal clock. Taylor decided to spend several hours reading one of the books that came with the apartment instead, and made a mental note to get some of her own the next time she went shopping.