Complications 3-8

"How's the fit?" Missy asked.

I tugged at the fabric of the costume. "It's heavy."

Missy laughed. "Well duh! You're wearing a big armored coat. It's got the same mesh in the fabric that my costume has."

"Maybe that's why you are so short." I teased.

"Ha Ha very funny." She didn't sound amused but took it in stride. She would tease me about my height after all.

I pulled at the fabric at my chest. "I don't see why they thought this was was a good idea." There was padding that gave shape to the coat. It presented as if my breasts were larger than they were. Not that took much doing.

"Oh, that, Yeah Battery's costume does the same thing." Missy said. "She said it was about changing the proportions of your body to help hide your identity. There's probably some at your hips too."

I checked. There was, though I wasn't sure about the identity thing. Part of me felt like this was a ploy to make me more appealing to the public. Getting me closer to an ideal body shape. I fussed with the addition some until it sat more comfortably against my chest.

"Thankfully I don't have to worry about that yet." Missy teased. "You going to go out and show the boys?"

"I'm not really the show off type." I said.

She gave me a flat look. "You are wearing mostly white and have bright flashy neon fire that explodes. I think you can forget about staying in the background." She waved a hand. "Besides, capes are like celebrities. I mean look at Browbeat. He went on a single patrol before his parents locked him down and he was all over PHO for a week."

I frowned.

"At least your costume is badass." She consoled.

That buoyed me despite myself. It was kind of cool to have a real costume.

She tugged at my arm, "Come on let's show the boys then maybe we could go out for a volunteer patrol together."

"Volunteer patrol?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's mostly just an excuse for us to go out in costume when we aren't on the Rotation for the day. There are rules though. Like we have to stay out of the dangerous areas unless we have a mentor along or no fighting with villains without calling in first. Mostly we can just do what we want otherwise.

A day out in the city with Missy as capes? It sure sounded like fun.

I smiled. "Let's do it."

"Sweet!" She began pulling her costume together to get changed. I turned my back.

Once she was set with everything she wanted we moved down from our lofty room to the Wards room proper.

"Oh, hey! You finally got your costume." Chris said.

His words drew the attention of Dennis and Dean, the only other two present and whom were dressed for patrol.

"Nice costume!" Dennis said. Clockblocker. Whatever. He was wearing his costume but his helmet was off and the name protocols were getting confusing. He pointed at the white and black of his costume. "We match. Are we supposed to be a duo?"

Missy scoffed. She had her costume on so I guess it was Vista now. Damnit. "Dream on. If anything, she is your replacement."

More like Shadow Stalker's replacement, but I didn't say it.

"Get real V." He posed like a French runway model. "As if anyone could replace this."

I mentally facepalmed. Dean, uh Gallant, physically did so.

"You are so weird." Vista said.

Clockblocker clutched his heart in dramatic fashion. "You wound me."

Gallant headed the act off before his friend could gain any more momentum. "Are you two going out with us?"

Vista flushed a little bit. "No, we are going out on our own for a bit." She elbowed me. "You know show off the new girl."

It was my turn to flush a little.

"Just make sure you- "

Vista cut Gallant off. "I know the rules and Wisp will be with me. I got this."

Gallant looked at me and I gave him a shrug. "Well if you're sure, just don't forget your earplugs." He said

"The what?" I asked.

Chris pulled a box from a shelf. "Here take one and put it in your ear. It's a radio that we use to stay in contact with each other and with the console operators." He demonstrated by putting one in his ear and tapping it with a finger twice so a blue light blinked a few times then went dark. "See? Now it's set to listen for key words like registered cape names, danger words, and a few others. It's really cool when you get into it."

"Which we won't be." Vista took her own ear piece and put it in her ear.

I took an earpiece for myself and did as Chris instructed. There was a beep and then nothing else. It didn't even impede sound like it wasn't even there.

"The only thing you reallllyyy need to know about these is how to turn them off." Vista said.

"Oh! Just hold down the button until it beeps." Chris supplied.

Vista rolled her eyes. "Well we are going to go." She waved me towards the elevator.

"We are taking patrol route 3C." Dean called out behind us.

"Okay!" Vista called back without turning from her path to the elevator.

I eyed the elevator. I wasn't really feeling like putting myself through the ride up to the lobby. "Meet you upstairs?" I ventured.

Vistas gave me a questioning look then a glance at the elevator. "Oh yeah I forgot. Could you take me with you? I want to see what your power is like."

I blinked. "Um, I can, but you have to be close to me."

My tone must have warned her because she asked. "How close?" With a slight narrowing of her eyes.

"Um basically hugging." I said. "I'm getting better at it but that's the best I can do right now."

She looked me over with a flick of her eyes as if see if I was telling the truth. "Yeah, Maybe I'll wait then. Let's meet in the garage instead of the lobby though. I want to avoid picture takers until we are out in the city."

Paparazzi in the Lobby huh? Yeah, I think I want to avoid them too.

I waited until she boarded the elevator and I focused on the women's locker room off the garage.

"Mother of God!"

The startled yelp of a woman in turn startled me.

"Don't move!" The voice came again this time with an edge.

Oh, right the costume.

"It's Willow Wisp." I said slowly.

"Prove it. Turn around." She said. "Slowly."

I turned to find Charity Carpenter dressed in street clothes aiming a pistol at my chest.

"Hi Charity." I said and I lowered my hood, the bottom half of my face still hidden by a Glenn approved version of a sleek filtration mask. The only real throwback to my solo costume.

She lowered her gun but did not put it away. "Mary and Joseph. You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry. I thought it was better to pop in here than in the middle of the garage." As half my face was currently covered, I gave her my best sheepish shrug.

She gave me an exasperated look. "Why pop in at all?"

"It beats the elevator?"

She gave me a flat look obviously not appreciating my reasoning but she did put her gun away. "Maybe it's best not to 'pop in' where people are trained to foam or shoot at surprises."

She had a point.

"I like the new outfit though." She said.

"Thanks." I liked it too. While I'm not really a big fan of all the white, it did look cool in the mirror.

"The White is a bold move though." She looked me over again with a critical eye. "But, I think, maybe it suits you in a way."

What did she mean by that?

"Are you going out on patrol, or did you get roped into a PR event?" Her tone at the latter subject was telling.

"Volunteer patrol with Vista." I explained. "She is going to show me around and walk me through the process."

Charity nodded. "She's young but she has a good head on her shoulders about the parahuman side of things. You two be careful out there?" She said it like a question.

"Of course." Which was probably true. If not then we were probably the two most mobile capes in the bay if you counted out the fliers. Even then if it was a race? I might be able to outpace them all. "I should be going."

Charity smiled. "Try not to have too much fun." She teased as I left the locker room. I just waved in response.

Vista was waiting for me near the door to the lobby.

"Geez, did you get lost?" She asked.

I pulled my hood back up. "No, I ran into someone I knew."

"Oh. Well are you ready to go?" She started leading me to the exit without waiting to hear my answer.

I answered anyway. "Sure." And I followed.

.

"And this is Brockton University." Vista explained as we over looked the college campus from the rooftops.

"You know I live in The Bay too, right?" I asked.

Vista crossed her arms. "Yes, but this is one of our patrol points."

I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the ward patrol routes were in nicer parts of The Bay. But that wasn't something I was going to get into with Vista. Despite her maturity I wasn't sure if she would understand why the subject would irritate me the way that it did. So, instead I raised my hands in a surrendering gesture and allowed her to continue playing tour guide. Or as she called it my Wards mentor.

"While on patrol we are assigned patrol points it's up to us how we get there and in what order. But- "

I cut her off, "but you have to spend at least the minimum amount of time surveilling the patrol point before moving on to the next. You told me all this when we stopped at Arcadia High."

I paused as an idea struck me. "You're looking for Gallant." I voiced my thoughts.

Vista blushed furiously even as she denied it. "No!"

She totally was.

"Did De-Clockblocker say something?" Vista demanded.

"Oh yeah, Clock is out on patrol too. Are you crushing on him instead?" I teased knowing full well Gallant was her focus of affection.

Vista's reaction couldn't have been stronger if I had jabbed her with a cattle prod. "Ew! No! Why would you say that?" She made a show of gagging in an exaggerated manner. "That's so gross."

"So, Gallant then." I said with a smile that was hidden behind my mask.

Vista glared at me hands firmly placed on her hips. "No."

"What, is he gross too?" I had her now.

"No." She kept up her glare.

I reveled in the fact that she couldn't see my smile. "Why not?"

"He's nice and gentlemen's and handsome and -" her jaw shut with an audible clack of her teeth.

I lowered my hood and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ok, I like him. So what?" She looked angry that I had tricked her into it. "You going to tease me about it."

I shrugged. "Nothing mean spirited."

She gave me a skeptical look.

"I'm out of practice." I admitted. Then there was my best friend Lisa who isn't the best role models. "Shadow Stalker kind of drove everyone away from me since high school started. Its only since I got powers that I started marking friends again."

"And all your friends are capes?" Vista asked.

"Yeah, you guys in the Wards and one other." I realized what I had said just a moment too late.

"Wow, that's rough." Vista said. "I mean I don't have a ton of friends, not even a lot, but I do have some outside of the Wards."

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. She didn't pick up on it. Thank. God.

"Don't Tell anyone I like Gallant okay?" Vista asked.

It wasn't like it wasn't obvious. "Okay."

"Promise?" She asked very serious.

I gave her my best sober and serious tone. "Promise."

Our headsets buzzed as they automatically activated. "Console to Vista and Willow Wisp." It was Chris' voice.

Vista took the lead. "Vista responding with Wisp go ahead console."

"Reports of suspicious activity near Brockton Central Bank. Gallant and Clockblocker are checking it out but they requested additional support. Can you head over there?"

I knew we were going as soon as Chris said Gallant.

"Vista and Willow Wisp responding to support request." Vista was back to her cool professional act. Or I hoped it was an act. No thirteen-year-old should sound that jaded.

"Sure, you can't teleport us?" Vista asked.

"Not unless you want a really tight hug or to ride on my back like a backpack." I laughed a little at the end.

"No." She frowned. "You are going to have to tell me how you found out that your power works like that."

No. No I don't think that's a good idea. "Long story."

She shrugged and waved a hand and the space between two rooftops collapsed until they were almost touching. She stepped through and reality snapped back in place.

I watched and she bent and twisted reality itself to travel. To think she thought my non-burning Fire was weird. I teleported to catch up.

.

All was quiet when we reached the Bank. Nothing was out of place, no damage, no screaming people charging down the side walk.

Nothing.

"Willow Wisp to Team. I don't see anything wrong."

"Stand by Wisp. Console to Wards team. There is a follow up report of a suspicious vehicle in the area. White van, no plates."

I looked below me at the white van parked in the alley next to the Bank.

I teleported to a better position.

No plates.

"Wisp to console. I see the van."

"Location?" That was Gallant.

"In the alley next to the bank." I looked closer at the van. "It looks empty."

"Vista? Can you get a look into the bank without causing a fuss?" Gallant asked.

"On my way to your location." She reported.

There was silence over the line but I could see the telltale distortion of Vista using her power to warp the bank windows up to her and Gallants position on the rooftop across the street. They gestured to one another then vista hurriedly snapped reality back into place. Dean raised a hand to his helmet.

"Gallant to team. Bank robbery in process. It's the Undersiders."

My heart sank.

Lisa's team was in there. She was probably in there.

"Gallant to console."

"This is console go ahead."

"Requesting additional support for a bank robbery in process. Multiple villains on location. Count unknown. Civilian hostages likely. Count unknown." He paused. "Inform the Protectorate. We might need their help on this one."

Chris radioed back, voice serious. "Sending out the alerts now." A pause. "PRT squads gearing up now. ETA five to ten"

Fuck!

Did Lisa know we were out here?

Do I warn her? I brushed my hands across my pockets. Nothing. No phone.

Of course not I wasn't supposed to carry my phone in costume.

Agghh l. I wanted to pull at my hair in frustration.

"Gallant to team. Velocity and Armsmaster are on route. They should arrive about the same time as the PRT if not sooner.

Shit!

If Lisa didn't do something now, she was going to get caught for sure. I have to think of somethi-.

A white blur shot in through the bank's upper windows.

"Team move in now!" Gallant yelled through the radio. "Go go go!"

I didn't have a vantage inside the bank from where I was so I teleported to the front door.

And was nearly crushed and a lizard dog smashed bodily through the glass and steel entrance.

Sideways.

I teleported further into the bank to avoid being crushed.

It was chaos.

Grue's darkness was filling nearly one half of the bank and there was a terrible snarling and growling coming from within.

I didn't see any of my team, I didn't see any of Tattletale's team but most importantly I didn't see Tattletale.

Civilians were lying on the floor face down hands covering their heads, the odd one brave enough to be looking around.

I looked around again. They needed to leave. Casualties wouldn't help anyone in this situation.

There above the hall to the offices, an emergency exit sign.

"Everyone please m-" the sound of a gun being fired cut me off.

"Stay right where you are." Tattletale stepped out of her teammate's darkness gun in hand pointed above the head of the civilians.

What. The. Fuck.

"You must be the new Ward." Tattletale waves the gun in my general direction. "I heard about you."

Of course she had, we were frien-

She winked at me.

It was an act.

But an act for who? Her team already knew about me. Then the act was for my team.

"Who are you supposed to be?" I asked.

She beamed, whether from me understanding or as part of her performance I wasn't sure.

Gesturing to herself with her free hand she made her over the top introduction. "Who am I? I thought at least the Wards would know who I am. I am Tattletale, the all-knowing, and -" she abruptly pointed the pistol at two very scared, older Asian men lying on the floor, a duffel bag between them. "You two, silence please. You're being very rude interrupting a lady like th-... fucking serious?" Her act dropped in an instant.

"What is it?" The Lisa I knew didn't stop her fun for much. If she was serious then the situation was worse than I knew. Considering she was holding a group of about 20 people at gunpoint? The situation was already pretty damn bad.

"Everyone up!" Tattletale barked. "You are leaving. Grue?!"

"I'm kind of busy!" Grue's voice came from his cloud of darkness, as if the very cloud itself was making the sounds.

"We have a problem!" Tattletale snapped back.

A lizard dog skidded out of the darkness, being pushed by Glory Girl whom held its jaw open with both hands.

"No shit!" Grue called back.

Glory Girl whirled, flipping the dog thing onto it's back as it was sent skidding back into the darkness. She rounded on Tattletale.

"Fuck." Tattletale summarized.

"Where is Amy?!" Glory Girl looked pissed.

Tattletale's head rocked back. She glanced at the crowd. "Amy Dallon would you please go with your sister?"

Glory Girls brow furrowed and she glanced at me.

Not knowing what else to do I shrugged at her. Her brow furrowed further and I felt like maybe the wrong message had been conveyed.

Amy Dallon stood from the center of the prone crowd. "I'm not leaving these people to be your hostages."

Tattletale waved her gun in a dismissive gesture. "Fine take them with you. Just go. Get out of here. Leave already."

Now I was confused.

No one moved to leave.

"Fuck it." Tattletale huffed and pointed her gun at the two men with the duffel. "Those idiots have a tinker bomb and- "

Glory Girl slammed into Tattletale and sent her skidding across the floor.

I shot a look at the two men who were somehow more scared now than when the gun was pointed at them.

"She said there was a bomb." I realized, talking my way through the idea. "We need to get these people out of here."

"Holy shit, Willow Wisp?" Glory Girl asked. "I wondered who you were. Nice costume."

Did she not hear the part about the bomb? "Everyone get up and move to the door." I used every fire drill I had participated in in school as a reference for how to evacuate people. "Leave everything behind. Let's go. Calmly and quickly head for the door.

The damn lizard dogs burst out of the darkness to bar our path to the door.

"Can you take one?" Glory asked me.

"Maybe." I called fire to my hands. "But we may not have to fight." I said before raising my voice. "Grue! Tattletale said there is a bomb! Time to go!"

"Where is she?" Grue's voice drifted from the darkness, zero hesitation.

"Counter." I sent the bright blue fire hovering over in Tattletale's direction.

"What are you doing!" Glory Girl hissed as she grabbed my upper arm.

"Evacuating people." I snapped back.

"They are villains!" She retorted.

"So they should die?" I questioned.

The darkness began to dissipate and Bitch ran out to her dogs whistling. Grue strode over to Tattletale.

Glory Girl was silent. I didn't wait for her I needed to find my tea- duh the radio. "Wisp to team. Villains say there is a bomb and I believe them. Evacuate."

Nothing.

"Wisp to team?"

Again nothing. I looked around. Where they still in the darkness? There wasn't much left.

"Wisp to console?" I tried.

"Dragon here. Wisp What is going on?"

The hell? Dragon on our radio? No time, roll with it. "Dragon, the villains say there is a bomb and we are trying to get the civilians out."

"We?" Dragon asked. "I have been unable to raise the rest of your team on radio are they with you?"

Unable to rai- "No, I'm here with Glory Girl. Panacea was one of the hostages." I looked around for my team. Still no sign.

Damnit.

Another piercing whistle and the dogs took off, bitch astride the largest, the other two, riderless, had what looked like makeshift burlap saddlebags thrown over their backs.

Whatever. More important things to do.

I turned to the counter, Tattletale and Grue were gone.

Glory Girl and Panacea were directing the civilians out the ruined front door. All that was left was to find my team.

Naturally that's when the bomb went off.

Pain.

White hot and unending.

Seconds.

Minutes.

Hours.

Days.

Years.

A life time of pain all compressed into an instant.

Then blissfully everything stopped.

.

Author's Note: I took my time with this one, writing and rewriting the Bank scene. I think I'm finally in a good place with it for the story. I do think it could be better written, just not by me. Before there is a comment on it. Yes, I did intentionally shorten the sentences as the Bank scene progressed. I wanted to show Taylor's tension and her narrowing perspective. How well I did or did not achieve this is up to you.

So, we are moving on.

It's the end of the Arc for Taylor. Next we are going to explore a couple of interludes to refresh my perspective, keep Taylor from becoming creatively stale for me. At the moment I'm thinking three interludes. One each for Lisa, Sophia, and I thought I might try one for Armsmaster. We will see how that goes.

Huge thank you to you who have read this far, to you whom Fav and Follow, and to you whom Review. I really can't thank you all enough.

K. Raiden