Detonation 5-7

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"Taylor!" Dad burst into my room in the hospital.

"Hey Dad." Was my awkward reply.

He looked me over and focused on my leg that was currently laying atop a pile of pillows with a brace over the knee.

"It looks worse than it is." I assured him.

A head poked into the room to look around. "Hey kid doing okay?" Ramirez asked looking a bit harried.

"Fine. You?"

"Let you know what my knees stop shaking."

I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Your Dad drove." He explained and ducked back out the door.

I looked at Dad who was trying to glean meaning from the nurses communication board on the wall. "Dad, I'm fine. See no tubes or nothing. Just dislocated my kneecap."

He finally met my eyes. "The PRT called and said you were in the hospital." He ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't hear the rest. I think I dropped the phone."

"I'm fine." I repeated.

"What happened?" He collapsed into the chair beside my bed.

I frowned. I wasn't supposed to say much until debrief with the Director. "Stopped a kidnapping." That should be okay.

"With your knee?" He sounded skeptical.

"Kinda. Found out I shouldn't teleport onto moving objects." I said glad to brush over the sensitive stuff.

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I appear, I'm motionless. No transfer of momentum or vector, just poof there I am." I explained what Lisa and I had worked out to distract from the bumpy, and painful ride over to the hospital.

"Oooookay and how does that explain your knee?" I could hear the exhaustion and exasperation creeping into his voice. "Or the black eye.

"I tried to teleport onto a moving vehicle." I went for nonchalant.

Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why?"

"Kidnapper van." I explained.

"Hmmm." He leaned back in the chair. "What happened to being careful?"

"I was in a hurry." I explained. "The van kept making turns to break line of sight and I can't teleport forever."

"Where was Assault during all this?" He growled.

"Trying to catch up." I said. "He probably told me to wait or something but I kinda went off on my own and didn't turn my earpiece on after I did."

Dad sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"I called as soon as I could." I tried.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Did you get them at least?"

"Hurt a couple of them and got, uhh the girl away." I reeeeeaally hoped he wouldn't press to much on who 'the girl' was.

"There is that at least." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry."

He hummed a sound of acknowledgment if not acceptance. "I can't lose you too."

.

"The real question is why her?" Colin addressed the room. "I have read all the reports front to back and yet there is no clear reason to pick Alice over all the others present."

Lisa cleared her throat to get Colin's attention and started speaking anyway. "Is the question based on the people present at the time of abduction or on the list of Wards? Heroes? PRT and Protectorate personnel?"

Colin's eyes narrowed giving away his personal enmity towards Lisa. "On the persons present." He said through clenched teeth.

"Clearly you have something to add." Director Piggot's voice was one of tired patience. "Please let us skip the show and move to the reveal."

Lisa crooked one corner of her mouth, accepting the tacit truce. "Why me indeed? Would they have abducted someone out of the group no matter the team roster or did they have a specific target in mind?"

"I asked to skip the show." The Director sighed.

"Force of habit." Lisa walked over to the display showing a blurry image of the cape that abducted her. "This guy. He said one word when they grabbed me. 'Finally.' I think with this, it is likely I was his target. Add to that that from what we can tell there needs to be some similarity to the mass of objects switched." She turned to Colin. "Can you bring up the image of the abduction site?"

He did.

"Look here." She pointed to a dark patch on the sidewalk. "They let out some of the water from the barrel to bring its mass closer to mine, but not very much. I think this could be further evidence they had a specific target in mind."

"So what they drive around town hoping to catch you out in the open?" Ethan asked.

"No I think the string of abductions was a trap to draw me out." Lisa returned to her seat next to mine.

"What if you didn't show?" Jamie asked.

Lisa shrugged. "Do nothing. Keep the weird disappearances going to try and draw me out or write it off as a fail and try something else."

"What did they do with the other people?" Hannah asked.

Lisa shrugged again. "Dunno and probably nothing good, but I do have an idea of who is behind it." Lisa glanced at me. "I think Coil is back in the city." She said with a resigned air.

A few people around the room gave her a scrutinizing look.

"It would also explain why these guys might be targeting me specifically." Lisa slid her chair closer to mine and grabbed one of my hands and held it tightly in hers. "Coil once described, in detail, what he would do if I turned on him. And if we take into account the last time he knew about me?" She tapped a finger to the scar that marred the left side of her head.

I squeezed her hand back, both offering my support and out of my own anxiety around the subject. If Coil was going to go after Lisa he was going to have to get through me first.

"If it's true that Coil has returned to Brockton Bay, then it is clear he has been recruiting." Director Piggot sighed. "Very well, we have some thinking to do. Wards? You are dismissed. Everyone else I'd like to continue on this line of thought for a bit and see if we can't shake an idea loose."

Lisa helped me stand and passed me my crutches one at a time. "Ready?"

I nodded back to her and we left the briefing room long enough to reach the ladies room on this floor.

"I wish you didn't have to teleport around using the bathrooms." Lisa huffed.

I grinned back at her. "Me too but it's the only way to avoid setting off a bunch of alarms."

"We I guess at least we know the government isn't monitoring the bathrooms." She grinned at me. "Yet."

"Don't put that in my head or I'll leave you here."

"No you wont." She said with a confident smile. "You havnt let me out of your sight since you got out of the hospital."

I frowned at that. Had I been following her around?

She circled around me to mold into my back, snaking her arms around my middle. "It's okay Taylor. I got a little spooked too."

I laid my hands atop hers leaning slightly back against her to keep my awkward balance of one leg and the pair of crutches. I felt her forehead on my back. "Ready?"

"Yeah." I focused on the girls locker room and we appeared in my unofficial teleport corner of the lockers. My knee twinged at the instant change and shift in balance that came with the tightening of muscles for the teleportation.

"Wanna hit the couch and take the brace off for a bit?" Lisa squeezed my middle and slid a hand up to brush the underside of my breasts in a teasing prelude to her next suggestion. "Or should we go back to your room and shut the door?" She whispered.

"Only Lily should be in right now and she has console duty until 4." She reasoned.

He hand made another pass that broke any possibility of a choice.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Room." I said with some effort and a burning blush on my face.

It was only this week Lisa and I had started exploring the physical side of our relationship, the need to be close to each other driving the hormone fueled actions to more daring (at least for me) exploration and timing.

Lisa squeezed me tighter. "Let's go." She slipped from her embrace of me to practically skip out ahead towards my room.

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"You are in a good mood." Lily flopped down on the other side of the couch.

"I'm reading a book?" I questioned.

Lily turned on the television but kept the volume respectable. "You are smiling."

I could feel the heat of embarrassment creeping up my neck. "It's a good book?" I returned.

She looked at me skeptically. "Sure it is."

I lifted the book to block my view of Lily as I went back to thinking about my time with Lisa.

"It's upside down you know." Lily drawled.

Fuck.

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"Found out who that asshole was that tried to take me to Coil." Lisa all but fell onto the couch.

"Who?" I all but exploded with curiosity and a quickly growing need for revenge.

"An asshat calling himself Trickster. He is a part of a roaming group called The Travelers." Lisa snorted. "A bit on the nose but they are not stupid. Even though they are villains for hire they haven't been caught yet."

"They?" I asked.

"Hmmm." She hummed a confirmation. "There's a few of them but only three make regular appearances for jobs. There is Ballistic who is a kind of kinetic amplifier. Sundancer's power let's her create a miniature sun in her hands. Super dangerous for all the reasons people don't normally think about, like radiation and shit. Then Trickster, the ass. We seemed to have a better handle on his powers than what I've been able to turn up."

"And how did you 'turn up' the information?" I eyed her nervously.

She waved her hand to dismiss my worry. "Traded information on PHO. Nothing classified. Actually everything I 'gave' was already on PHO I just kind of, put it all together as it were." She air quoted the word gave. "If it makes you feel better it wasn't even for Brockton Bay and I used a throw away account."

That did make me feel better. I leaned back into the couch cushions. "Well you know better than I would."

She smiled at me. "But you still worry."

"Yes."

"Well don't. I doubt coil came to The Bay for little ol me." She leaned her not me and I lifted my arm so she could snuggle closer.

"He better not." I lowered my arm to pull her tighter. "I can't loose you."

"Oh Taylor." Lisa sighed. "I'm not going anywhere."

.

Fuck. Fuck. Fucking. Fuck.

"Need a hand?" Tori's voice drifted down the hall.

Ffffffffffffffffffffuck

"Please." I ducked my head in defeat of the heavy door to the gym.

Tori walked up and pulled the door effortlessly open. "Not an easy thing to do with crutches?" She asked.

"Normally it's just awkward but this door is like a million pounds." I grumbled. "And it's a pull door."

"What are you doing in the Gym anyway?" Tori asked.

"Physical therapy." I gestured at my knee. "I'm not supposed to put much weight on it and….stretching it out through the exercises in the Wards base is…well."

"The boys staring?" She guesses.

"Yeah." I sighed.

"Whose your PT?"

"Officially it's a doc out of Brockton General."

"Unofficially?"

"One of the PRT team medics used to study PT in college. She's helping me."

"That's lucky."

"Tell me about it." I said. "And I knew her too."

"Weird."

"Cape life is a small world I guess." I shrugged. "What about you? With your super strength I didn't think you need a gym."

"Hmm doesn't help with keeping a figure." She placed a hand on her stomach. "I've started getting soft, sitting around here for so long."

I gave her a skeptical once over. She still looked the same to me. "If you say so."

The door opened behind us and Charity Carpenter ducked in. "Oops, sorry, I didn't know you had company." She smiled.

"If I didn't I would still be stuck out the door." I joked.

"I can leave." Tori offered.

"Nah don't worry about it." Lisa said slipping into the gym. "So long as you don't ogle my girlfriend like a hunk of meat."

Tori snorted. "I won't."

Lisa looked her over. "Hmmm. I was planning on some cardio while I waited. Join me?"

Tori sighed. "Sure."

I looked between the two, sure that I had missed something.

"Ready to get started?" Charity asked.

"No." But I pulled off my hoodie and awkwardly shimmied out of my sweatpants to reveal the sports bra (laughable and totally unnecessary) and yoga pants Lisa had picked out and help me dress.

Charity cocked an eyebrow at me.

My face burned. "My girlfriend picked them out." I explained.

"Uh Huh." Charity flicked a look over where Lisa was openly beaming from her treadmill of choice. One that faced directly where I would be stretching out my leg. "Well whatever you two are into leave me out of it."

I knew it was a joke but I felt my embarrassment on my face and stopped my self from reaching for my hoodie.

.

I admit I had a harder time than usual with PT. It wasn't the stretching and twisting of my knee so much as seeing my girlfriend and Tori jogging almost in step with each other. Facing me.

"You seem a little distracted today." Charity drawled.

I cleared my throat and tried to banish my impure thoughts. "Sorry."

She gave me a soft smile. "It's fine. I was your age once and I would be fibbing if I said I haven't drooled over Michael working out in the yard."

I gave her an embarrassed smile of appreciation.

"We are done anyway." She patted the foot of my injured leg. "Remember to keep weight off it as much as you can but you still need to move it regularly or it will stiffen up again.

"I will. Thanks Charity." I slid the knee brace under my leg and folded it over in a now practiced motion.

"No problem." She gathered her things. "See you later."

I gave her a wave as she left.

The sound of Lisa and Tori's jogging slowed so I struggled with my crutches until I could stand and hobble their way.

"How was PT?" Lisa eyed my knee brace.

"Getting better." My eyes followed a trail of sweat off neck down into her cleavage.

"What with how you were staring at Tori and I, I thought you might get up and walk over without help." Lisa laughed.

My eyes shot up to hers and she gave me a teasing wink. "I mean I can't blame you. Tori cuts a hell of a figure."

The sweat pants were baggy and didn't do much for me, but the way Tori filled out her own sports bra definitely added a few degrees to the flush creeping up my neck. I caught myself staring and returned my eyes to Lisa who was beaming.

"You two are so weird." Tori quirked an eyebrow as she studied us.

"How so?" Lisa cocked a hip but her smile never faltered.

"I mean you practically encouraged her to check me out." Tori crossed her arms. "Who does that?"

Lisa shifted her weight to the other hip. "Oh, that." She waved the idea away with one hand. "So what if she looks? I know she's not going to dump me just cause she sees a hot rack and a pretty face. Hell, if you get her all excited then that's less work I have to put in to draw her out of her shell."

'All excited' she said and I briefly wondered if i could die of embarrassment.

"I've only just gotten her comfortable enough to get to second base on her own." She gave me another playful wink. "It's not much of a stretch for her wanting to check out other boobs. Tell ya what, if I ever get to the threesome stage, you want in?"

I swayed on my crutches as my head spun with that image and embarrassment.

Tori reached out and caught my arm before I could fall and jerked back with a hiss and a flush of her own.

Lisa winced and grabbed for me pulling me to lean against her. "Oops. Too much all at once. You okay?"

Tori shook her head and took a few deep breaths, face flush. "Not used to it. Forgot."

The oddity of it paired with my concern for Tori helped me settle down enough to start thinking again. "What happened? Did I hurt you?"

Tori shook her head again. "No." She waved a hand at Lisa. "You explain. I need some water." She made a beeline for the restroom.

Lisa led me over to the bench along the wall where we sat down.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Yes and no." She tilted her head one way then another. This was something I knew she did when thinking on how to phrase things.

"She told me a little about it and," she tapped a finger to her head. "My power filled in some of the blanks which Tori has confirmed. Panacea changed Tori's brain when she healed her from the bank. Including her powers."

I gasped. "I didn't know that was possible."

"Neither did I but powers are weird right?" She shrugged. "Anyway when Tori woke up everyone including her though she was having the occasional weird mood swing as a side effect of the healing. In reality whatever Panacea did to turn off Tori's aura actually kind of reversed it so now she feels other peoples emotions during physical contact."

My mouth dropped open. I tried to parse the ramifications of that and shivered.

Lisa nodded. "Exactly. Probably why she wears a hoodie and sweats all the time. The extra coverage cuts down on accidental contacts."

"Sssooooo when she caught me…" I thought back to what I was feeling at the time.

"Yeah, and I guess it must have been a heavy dose of it too." She glanced at the door. "At least it may have been in a similar vein to what she was already feeling."

"What?"

"Embarrassed and, uh, frustrated." The way she said it, i knew what she meant.

I sputtered.

"We talked a little while we were running and she mentioned being a bit frusated herself." Lisa explained. "Add to that she was embarrassed to talk about it."

I filled in the blanks. "So naturally you made her talk about it."

Lisa gave a guilty smile. "Bad habit I know. But really it's good for her to talk about it to someone. Why not us?"

"She wasn't talking to us. Just you." I must have been a bit jealous and possessive when I said it because Lisa put a hand on my good knee and squeezed.

"Both of us. She said she liked talking with you on the roof a while ago. I told her we would be more than willing to listen if she needed to talk. So she did. You were busy."

"Oh." I felt a odd feeling wrap itself around my heart.

"Really Taylor, I love you. I'm not going to leave you for a nice rack and a pretty face."

I couldn't help but smile. "I know. I love you too. It's just…"

She placed a single finger on my lips. "I know." She turned more toward me and laid her other hand on my thigh.

I opened my mouth enough to entrap her finger.

She slid her hand higher on my thigh.

I sucked gently on her finger as she drew it away so she could lean in and press her lips to mine.

I braced one hand on the bench and raised the other to her slide around her waist encouraging her to come closer.

Her hand slid from my outer thigh around to my inner thigh and up to her intended destination.

I gasped.

Predictably the door to the restroom clicked open.

Lisa didn't pull away. She pushed her lips more firmly against mine.

"Mmmmnnnn" I tried to indicate that we weren't alone.

"Oh Jesus." Tori sounded more exasperated than affronted at our…..display.

Lisa pulled away and I felt the light chill of her physical absence on my lips and…..elsewhere. "Care to join?" Lisa's trademark teasing smugness on full blast. "Maybe with the two of us we could finally overcome Taylor's shyness."

I gasped at Lisa. I couldn't believe she had said that.

"I-" Tori looked like a deer in headlights. "-uh." She shook herself. "I better go." She bolted from the room.

"Wasn't a no." Lisa beamed at me.

I was speechless and too shocked really to process.

"Come on, let's find somewhere we won't be interrupted again." Lisa took my hand and hauled me to my feet before passing me my crutches. "God I wish we could get a hotel or something."

.

Landed awkwardly and fell to the floor in the middle of the Ward's Base. This being the first time I had teleported since my injury. The crutches only made things worse.

"Lisa!" I called desperately.

Lisa, half dressed in her Alice costume, barreled out of the locker room. "Taylor?"

"Here." I struggled with my damned crutches to stand.

"What are you doing here?" She looked a bit wide around the eyes. "You can't go out with your knee like that."

"If you are going then I am going." I clenched my jaw

"Taylor I'm only going to be in the back helping with information and planning." She helped me up.

"I'm still going with you." I persisted. "Even if I can only stay at the back with you."

"I'm worried you won't be able to stop yourself." She brushed her fingers gently across my cheek. "You're too damn heroic."

I met her eyes and she sighed.

"Fine let me help you get dressed we need to hurry." She led the way to the locker room.

"Where is everyone else?" I looked around the mess of the base.

"Already gone." Most of them were here when the alert came through. "I was in with the Doc when I heard so it took me a bit to get down here."

I shook my head. "How? I came as soon as the siren sounded."

"The alert goes out to the heroes first so they can help organize the evacuations and prep for the arrivals." She pulled out my costume from my locker and started laying out all the pieces.

I leaned my crutches against the lockers and began pulling off my clothes, the stress of the whole thing overwhelming any embarrassment I may have felt. Eventually I asked the most pressing question. "Which one?"

Lisa blew out a calming breath.

"Leviathan."

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Author's Note: Hello All! Sorry for the wait. This one is my fault. I kinda dove off the deep end and started a bunch of side projects that I have been kicking around a while. This one is my main work and I intend to keep it that way but I've needed to kind of branch out and play in the sandbox some before I could come back to work on this. If you're curious where I've been up to I included the idea drafts that I haven't tossed in the bin.

Wednesday/Enid. I've joined the bandwagon on this one. After watching the show and reading a couple a stories I had to start one of my own and boy did it take me places I didn't expect.

Korra/OC. I had started and abandoned a story when the series came out following an OC that was Tenzin's eldest Daughter (before Jinora) who leaves Air Temple Island to follow her Korra off on her adventures.

A DND Original following a Bard that gets caught up chasing a Paladin and her party on a holy mission to defeat a rising necromancer cult.

And lastly I've started preparing The War. This is a follow up to my first posted story The Gift.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Oh PS. I missed the join up email for AO3 because it took like a week to come through and it ended up in the spam folder. I submitted a new application today so fingers crossed this time.