Orthosilicic 2.7

(Taylor Hebert)

March 5, 2011, evening

Taylor had a really bad feeling. There was a sort of anticipation in the air that didn't dissipate, even as Crystal seemed to fall asleep across from her. Rogue, who was sitting next to her, was currently nodding along and frowning to something coming over her headset, leaving Taylor silent in the back of the bouncing van. How anyone could sleep in a car, especially while transporting a prisoner, was beyond her, but Crystal had seemed a little out of it earlier so she guessed it was possible. The problem was his sigh of relief from earlier. It didn't make sense. Didn't he know that they weren't in the clear until Rune was behind bars? The majority of villain escapes happened during prisoner transport! They could be attacked at any second by Stormtiger, or Hookwolf, or even Kaiser himself!

At least Rogue seemed ready for anything, hand on her weird curvy gun and constantly alternating her vision towards the driver and the back door. Her face was growing tenser and tenser as she watched, and a sudden "Right then!" startled Taylor out of her thoughts.

"W-what? What's going on? Are we being attacked?"

"No, you have nothing to worry about. Dauntless and Velocity are taking care of…" Rogue froze. "Er, attack? There's no attack happening at all. Heh heh…" Rogue scratched her face and looked back towards the door.

"You just said…"

"Right, nothing to worry about. We're taking care of it."

"So there is someone after Rune!"

"No! I mean…" She sighed "Look kid, I know you want to help, but we have no idea of your powers or skills. All we have on you are a cape name, a confirmed affiliation, and a vague power description. All you'd be doing is get in the way."

"But I…"

"Not to mention your partner seems to have been injured without telling us. What he get hit in the head by?"

"He's not unconscious, he's just asleep."

Rogue looked back over at Crystal and leaned forward a bit. "Really? My scans aren't picking anything… Oh, that's it! He's a changer right? They always mess up V2…"

Rogue was taking off a small box on the side of her helmet and fiddling with it, leaving Taylor to scrounge up an answer.

"I think so. I've seen two different forms so far, but I haven't seen him without crystals."

"Case-53, maybe? Has he mentioned any family members?"

"Yeah he's mentioned his family before, said they were hurt or something. And Case-53? The lady on the phone said something about Crystal being one too."

"Case-53s are capes with physical mutations, usually full body. Almost all are missing their memories, and have a marking on their body." She pulled up a symbol on her phone "Do you know if he has any tattoos on him, like this?"

It was an omega sign, etched deep inside a piece of gleaming metal in the shape of an arm.

"I've never seen him naked ma'am, so I couldn't tell you."

Rogue leaned over, grinning conspiratorially at her "Wanna ask him when he wakes up?"

Taylor wasn't sure if her blush could be seen through her mask or not, but it sure felt like it by the electronic eyebrows waggling on Rogue's visor.

"N-n-no! I just met him! A-and how are you doing that? The eyebrows?"

"Assault asked me to put them in, said they'd be useful. I guess I see what he meant." She waggled them again.

Fish barely had any time to put her head in her hands before Rogue began laughing.

"Just teasing you kid. But you can't ignore those muscles."

No, she couldn't.

A jolt interrupted Rogue giggling and startled Crystal awake "What, I'm up Sasha, don't… Oh, we still driving?"

"Yeah, Fish here was just…"

"I wasn't doing anything! Nothing! Nope!"

Crystal wasn't talking, but he was staring intently at Rogue.

Taylor turned to find out what was happening to see Rogue's hand up to her ear again, and an even larger frown than earlier.

"Welp, it seems you're getting to see some action anyway."

"What happened?" "More? Really?"

Taylor was excited, but cautious. It seemed Crystal was more reluctant than anything. He needed that nap, apparently. Were they ready? Who were they facing?

"Dauntless and Velocity are currently taking on Hookwolf and Cricket, but they saw Stormtiger and Victor headed this way. They suspect Othala's in the area as well, but there are no confirmed sightings yet."

"They're coming for Rune?"

"Well, I know I'd be upset if someone captured my teammates. As of now, the prison transport with Rune in it is the main target for them, but our van with Corporal Smith and the one with Sargent Green in it are easily considered 'collateral damage', so we have to get out and switch Rune out."

"What do you mean by 'collateral damage'?" Taylor asked hesitantly.

"Weeellllll, it means they don't care if we explode, just that Rune's vehicle is stopped. Soooo…"

The van pulled to a stop, and Rogue shoved open the doors, leaping out.

"Last one out is a rotten egg!"

Taylor glanced at Crystal, who was looking at her, and both sighed. Crystal then positioned his face towards a nearby building and vanished, leaving her behind.

"Oh thanks partner. Leave me behind to rot, why don't you." Taylor mumbled to herself as she hopped out of the van, just in time to see Rogue looking around next to a PRT agent.

"Where'd Crystal go?"

Taylor shrugged "No clue. Reconnaissance? We haven't really worked out a system yet."

"Great, we need everyone here to defend the transfer, and our Brute is gone." She paused "He is a Brute, right? He doesn't shatter, or anything?"

"He's a Brute, stronger than a diamond as far as I can tell. Besides, he can just teleport back if we need him."

"Right, teleport." Rogue turned away to help some PRT troopers move Rune to one of the identical vans parked next to the prison transport. After Rune was handcuffed in one of the cars, she froze and quickly turned back towards Taylor.

"Teleport? What?"

"Yeah, Crystal can jump to his line of sight I think. Why? I thought you knew about that?"

"It wasn't in his file, all we had on him was Changer and Brute. Not a fu-freaking Mover too."

"You can curse, I'm in high school."

"Oh, good." Rogue tilted her head down for a second then back up. "Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing. Can you call back Crystal or something? We need to get going"

"I'm afraid your friend is being held up at the moment." A voice rose from the alley.

A man wearing baggy pants and a striped shirt walked out, head held low as the sound of his footsteps thumped out. All movement seemed to freeze as his words echoed out, but it was rapidly kick started by the sound of Rogue's voice.

"Go! Get to HQ! Now!" Rogue screamed out to the three drivers as she slowly stepped in from on Taylor, almost as if…

Taylor held out her hand and stopped Rogue from blocking her vision. "I can protect myself. We should work together for now."

The sound of squealing tires blocked out her response, but Rogue's insisting hand and idea of 'protecting' her was getting annoying. Slowly rapping onto the ceramic body vest she wore, Taylor stopped all further arguments.

"You're going to fight anyway, aren't you?" Rogue asked with a sigh.

At her nod, another sigh rose. "Fine, fine. Just be sure not to get hit by my shots. Even your vest can't stop my EG"

Taylor didn't have time to ask what the hell an 'EG' was before a soft clapping rose from the man Taylor was secretly hoping would go away.

The man was looking up now, but any expression he may have worn was obstructed by a mask made to resemble the face of a snarling tiger, pale white with jagged black stripes.

"I am as pleased to see the techno-nigger defending children as the next, but I must agree with the girl." He paused until Rogues mouth twisted in anger and grinned "Both of you will be fighting tonight."

A twist of his hand left Rogue yelling a warning while darting to the right, leaving Taylor standing in the path of a spiraling whirlwind of air.

"Fish, get out of there!" Taylor heard over the roaring wind, and hastily agreed, rolling down the block, around the corner, and behind the newly revealed Stormtiger in a few seconds.

Rogue's indignant yell sounded out, and even the Nazi was stunned at the intensity "She's a fucking Mover too? Seriously?"

Taylor returned her attention towards her antagonizer and lifted her hands to blast him in the back, but her chance was gone. Before her agonizingly slow water could reach him, her foe leapt forwards towards Rogue, who was holding an oddly shaped rifle up at him.

"Well if the child is smart enough to flee, what does that make you?"

"A professional." Sparks flew towards Stormtiger, but a twirl of his fingers blew them to the side, leaving the humanoid tiger flying towards an annoyed hero, who happened to be leaning a bit towards the left.

A small explosion burst out of something on Rogue's back and she jumped away, leaving a slightly singed tiger-man behind.

"Go help your friend kid, I got this punk."

Taylor was too stunned to act, but jerkily nodded at the smirking hero suddenly standing in front of her.

A light shove and a pointing finger finally caused her to look upwards towards the increasing sounds of rage coming from the roof.

Taylor opened her gloves with a small blast of water, and nodded again, flying upwards and leaving behind a newly soaked Rogue that was turning back to face laughing Stormtiger.

"I know you've never see a woman this wet before, but that's nothing to laugh at."

Taylor giggled a bit, but barely heard anything else as the sight of the roof battle came into view.

Crystal was popping all over the gravely roof, never staying in one place for long as a man wearing a red shirt under a black breastplate glared angrily around the roof next to an peeved looking woman in a red bodysuit.

Victor and Othala.

Taylor was rather annoyed by the amount of trouble they were in.

"Stay still for one second you insolent crystal!" Victor yelled while throwing bursts of fire at wherever Crystal showed up.

Othala, with her hands on Victor's shoulders, was looking at Taylor, who had plopped her feet down near the edge of the roof.

"Victor, we have another one, can you stop toying with the crystal boy and actually use your power for once?"

"Dear, you know how I enjoy a good fight. If my opponent won't even stand still, where can I get my fun?"

"How about fish-boy over here, he looks like a decent challenge"

"I'm a girl, you fucker!"

Victor paused for a second then bowed at her, almost mockingly "I am truly sorry. How about you join us and we can discuss this in private."

"She's not a Nazi either, just so you know!" Crystal said while running at Victor, fists raised.

Taylor was too busy having a stare off against Othala to really pay attention to what happened next, but the result was Crystal being knocked back by an annoyed looking Victor.

Othala glanced back towards Victor, leaving Taylor the victor. Hah! She can too make a joke!

"You really aren't getting this, are you?" Victor sighed while returning his hands to their original position "You can't hurt me right now. You keep trying, but you keep failing. If you turn back now and tell us which vehicle Rune is in, we can be on our way."

Othala was looking back at her now, so Taylor couldn't do anything too obvious, but it was clear that her attention was mostly focused on her crystalline partner.

"And I keep telling you, I don't know which car she's in! The last I saw her, she was leaving the…"

"Crystal!" Taylor yelled out to interrupt him.

She really didn't want to give the Nazi's any more hints at Rune's current location.

"Don't give away anything. Even if it seems unimportant, it could be useful to them."

She saw Crystal shake his head "Right, sorry. Wasn't thinking straight."

"As much as I love talks between teammates during a fight, we are supposed to be fighting." Othala spoke up "Let's get this over with, right Victor?"

"Right dear." Victor sighed dramatically into Othala's shoulder. His wife? Girlfriend? They seemed close. "Sorry to cut this short kiddies, but my dear's getting impatient. Let's make this quick." The tone shifted for something much darker than before "Shall we?"

Invincible villain, not using his powers apparently, attacking with fire while his wife? Girlfriend? Whatever, held onto his shoulders. If she could just figure out what Victor could do…

"We got this, right Fish?"

Of course he'd jinx it.

He needs to concentrate, and he fucking jinxes it.

Wonderful.