Recovery 7-2
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Lisa had been a little on edge after our run in with the mysterious woman "D". Her anxiousness had only increased as the afternoon went on until she insisted we go to an after party. It was the first time I had ever been to anything like it. Someone had decided using black lights for the place was a good choice and the music was only "music" in that it was rhythmic and seemed to change to some degree over time.
Lisa had dragged me over to a back table where she bought us a colorful assortment of what looked like jell-o, portioned out in little cups. I had never been one for jell-o, never saw the appeal enough to want to try it. Last night though, the way Lisa way putting them down? I figured why not try it now?
I thought the little portions were silly until Lisa told me they were alcoholic. Which explained the sweet burn of the jell-o, and that normal jell-o did not, in fact burn a little. I'm such an idiot.
I should have stopped her. At the very least I should have slowed her down. In the end I had to all but carry her out the back and dodging offers to help so I could get us out of sight and teleport us home.
Teleporting turned out to be another bad idea.
Just as soon as we landed in our bedroom Lisa lurched away from me towards the bathroom and I could hear her emptying her stomach interspersed with woeful curses.
It was going to be a long night.
.
Lisa padded down the stairs just before noon. She was holding her head with one hand and clutching the railing with the other. In general she looked like hell.
I traded a look with Tori who rolled her eyes.
"You okay?" I called to my girlfriend.
"Uuuuhhhhh." She moaned, "not so loud."
"Uh huh. Breakfast?" I pointed to a covered plate of eggs, sausage, and what remained of Tori's preferred turkey bacon.
Lisa grumbled but set to making a small plate.
"How much did you drink last night?" Tori set her elbow on the counter to prop her head up, basking in her roommate's suffering.
"Too much." Lisa muttered over her plate.
"Why?"
More grumbling.
I set a mug of hot tea in front of her. "I want to know that too. You really worried me last night."
"Sorry." She took a minuscule bite of sausage and it looked like it took her effort to chew and swallow. She must still be nauseous. "Yesterday Taylor and I bumped into someone."
"Okay?" Tori huffed as Lisa made us wait while she ate another bite and sipped at her tea. "Who?"
"I don't know her real name but she goes by Dame, and she is the leader of Oasis." Lisa set her fork down and dedicated both her hands to her mug.
"Oasis?" Tori sat up straighter. "The villain organization?"
Lisa shrugged. "You say villain, some say mercenary group, and others call it a sanctuary."
Tori seemed a bit upset by the deflection. "And what do you say?"
"A year ago?" Lisa touched the scar on her head. "Sanctuary. Now? Mercenary group is close but it doesn't quite cover it."
"What do they do?" I asked.
"As I understand it, Oasis takes in Capes that have nowhere else to go." Lisa didn't meet our eyes. "Sometimes they even raid a gang or organization to rescue capes that were forced to join."
Then it clicked. Lisa's conversation with Heartful Dame. Lisa as Tattletale had reached out to Oasis for rescue. That's how she knew them.
"The trick of it is," she sipped her tea again. She must be feeling better to be indulging her vice of drip feeding information like this. "Anyone who joins Oasis has to abide by Oasis's rules. Just like most parahuman organizations I guess."
"So just another gang?" Tori spat.
"Pfft hardly." Lisa scoffed. "Oasis doesn't deal in drugs, murder for hire, protection rackets, or even fight for territory. Hell, the fact that you never even heard of them is proof enough that they are not 'just another gang' despite how big the organization really is. Oasis has pulled operations all over the Midwest and east coast, probably some even out west if I had to bet. To be that big and still fly under the radar?"
She left the last bit hanging and picked up her fork.
"So," Tori got up from her seat. "Are you going to report Dame and Oasis?"
Lisa glanced at me before meeting Tori's eyes. "No."
Tori took a deep breath through her nose and let it out. "Why?"
"Multiple reasons." Lisa gestured with her fork. "First and foremost, they were at Pride Fest, as civilians I might add. The community doesn't need a bunch of PRT and Protectorate Heroes combing through looking for Oasis members, not that they would be able to identify any beyond maybe Dame herself."
"But-" Tori began but Lisa cut her off.
"Secondly, Dame and her people probably cleared out soon afterwards." Lisa set her fork down and pushed her plate away. "Lastly, they're not bad people. Just because Oasis got labeled as a Villain Organization, or gang most likely, doesn't make them bad people. Just like being called a hero doesn't make a good person."
Tori was fuming, her fists balled up.
"Okay I think that's enough." I moved behind Lisa and nudged her out of her chair and towards the stairs. "Why don't we get a shower and swing by HQ today? I need to check my patrol times for the week."
"Ugh," Lisa groaned. "I wanna stay in today."
"You should have thought about that before you tried to drown yourself in jell-o." I steered her by the shoulders.
Tori didn't look at us as we left.
.
I pulled at my costume feeling a bit self conscious at being a public Hero again. I mean, I hadn't stopped being a hero, I just hadn't been out on patrol since Bakuda's bombing spree. God, that felt like a lifetime ago.
"Wisp?" Assault waved a hand in front of my face. "If it's too soon, we can turn-"
"No," I shook my head. "No, I'm okay. Just it feels weird to be out on the job again."
Assault looked out over the streets towards Chicago proper. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Chicago is bigger, cleaner, and safer than Brockton."
"It's almost like it's quiet here."
"Toooo quiet." Assault agreed.
I shook my head in disgust. I should have known better than to give him an opening like that.
"What I mean is that while there are gangs here it's not like Brockton. They don't have a stranglehold on the city. People don't have to look over their shoulders like they did in Brockton. It's…I don't know?"
I waved at him to help me find the right word.
"Organized?" He offered.
"Yeah, or as close as it can be."
"So organized crime?"
Oh no. "Don't start."
"Mobsters in Chicago," he teased. "Who knew."
"Please do-"
The unmistakable crack of gunfire cut the mood and set us both on edge.
"Control, we have gunfire near patrol point one two gamma." Assault looked around. "I can't really pin down a direction with the echo. It almost sounds like it's coming from more than one location."
The gunfire grew louder and more frequent. It was getting closer.
"Control, things are escalating out here. Request additional teams, PRT, and PD support." He listened to the response and I could see his frown deepen. "Understood but I want to point out I have a Ward wi-"
I saw his fist clench and unclench.
"Underst-"
I wondered who on the other end could interrupt Assault.
"You can shove your 'acceptable risk' up your ass. Assault out."
I felt a little guilty that Assault had probably just gotten into trouble for trying to look out for me.
"Fuck." He gave me a guilty look.
I shrugged. "I've heard worse."
He huffed a laugh. "I bet you have."
"Guess we are taking on an unknown number of gunmen?" I asked.
"Yeah," he looked me over. "You good? You have your vest?"
"Duh," I knocked my knuckles to the front of my costume.
"Alright, let's check it out first but if we have to jump in we stick with our plan. I'll distract and you hit 'em with your fire. "
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" My fire isn't necessarily the safest thing.
"If they're shooting at other people then absolutely." Assault stretched and jogged to the edge of the building we had used for a break.
I never really understood Assault's powers, but what I did understand was that he could take the energy from the fall and translate it into a kind of speeding jump that really should qualify as a mover rating if it didn't already.
I teleported, keeping to the agreed distance behind Assault. Both to watch his back and to let him draw all the attention.
When we arrived on scene it was actually Chicago PD that was responsible for the gunfire. They were trying their best to hold back an advancing group of… robots? They were humanoid and metallic and just looked off. Like none of the pieces should fit the way they did.
So, robots, for lack of a better term, were smashing their way down the street. It was a little surreal, like a scene out of one of those Saturday morning Hero cartoons.
Assault bounded to a stop behind the police line and called out to them.
Thankfully Chicago's finest waved him over and they talked briefly before Assault broke off and bounded up to me.
"Oookay, so we have vandal robots." He shrugged. "Not something you see everyday but here we are. You think plan zombie would work?"
"Plan what?" In a world of capes that had to be a real thing. Probably.
"Plan zombie, take them out completely and quickly and as safely as possible. You know, keep them from spreading?" He gnashed his teeth a couple times imitating a biting zombie.
"Are you suggesting that if you get bitten you'll turn into one of those robots?"
"No. No. Definitely probably not."
Below there was the sound of crunched metal and broken glass and we peeked over the edge in time to see a new robot thing from out of the scraps and engine of a torn up car.
"Okay now we know." Assault sounded almost gleeful. "Plan zombie is a go!"
He vaulted down and just kind of bounced into a robot sending it crashing into another car.
"Woo!" Assault cheered and booted another back up the road.
All the robots froze and turned to my Mentor.
I could almost hear his 'Uh-oh' from here.
I focused my power on an image of a night sky full of stars.
Around me bright white motes of light flicked into being. My own stars in a way. I would only get one chance for a surprise attack.
Below, the robots advanced on assault and he was holding his own. Or, he would be, if he was doing any damage on the robots.
Okay, don't hit Assault.
I held up my hand to a group of my stars and when I brought my hand forward I focused on the closest of the robots. My stars shot fourth and impacted my target in a rapid staccato of impacts. Sparks showered the area and obscured my target but I couldn't wait to see the results. I brought my other hand up to my stars and directed this group into a second robot.
"Wisp!" Assault called voice tight with exertion. "Little help."
I looked over to see Assault grappling with a robot. He was being forced back in order to keep another two from getting behind him.
I checked the two I had hit with my stars.
Fuck. Either my stars didn't do as much damage as I thought or these things were just that durable.
I teleported behind Assault. "Time to go!" I grabbed him around the middle and teleported us back up onto the rooftop.
"Ugh I don't know how you can stand that." Assault put a hand to his head. "It's like being upside down and right side up at the same time."?
"Did you manage to stop any of them?" I asked.
"No, but I can confirm there's no one inside any of the ones I hit. They're too damn heavy."
My blood went cold. I hadn't even considered one of the robots could have some inside.
"Pretty tough too," Assault continued. "I smashed one clear through a car just for it to get back up and another one to pop up from the wreckage."
"Assault Team come in."
Assault beamed at the name. "Go ahead console."
"Battery Team is almost to your location and PRT squads are right behind them."
"Good and bad new console." Assault peered over the ledge where the robots resumed smashing their way down the street. "Good news is there haven't been any injuries so far. Public or otherwise. The bad news, we haven't been able to stop one of these things yet."
"Describe things." Console returned.
"Oh, right, um so basically they are kinda like scrap metal robot people."
"Repeat your last."
Assault traded a look with me and shrugged. "I don't know how else to describe it. There's a bunch of scrapbot things vandalizing a bunch of stores and anything outside. They're ignoring people for the most part but that's turned this into a social media circus."
I looked over the ledge too and sure enough there were people on all sides of this mess with their phones out. Even a few looting some of the previously smashed stores. I pointed them out to Assault.
He sighed. "We got looters down here now too."
"Copy. CPD is routing more units your way."
"Wisp and I will try to keep things contained here. Assault team out."
"Contained?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "Keep them away from people and try to slow them down I guess. I'm going to see if I can't get the ones in the store back out onto the street. Think you can crank up the fire power and knock one of these things out?"
I focused my power and stars winked into being around me. "I can try."
"Sweet." He cracked his knuckles and hopped over the ledge. "Round two."
I held out my hands and willed a star to life between them, feeding it, growing it. The process was second nature to me now.
That was before my power changed.
The star in my hand didn't get bigger. It didn't change size at all even though I could feel my power feeding it. What did happen was a feeling as though the hair on my arms was standing on end. I cut off the flow of power to the star.
It remained the same as before, an energy, seemingly vibrating in my mind. Ready to let go.
I "carried" it to the edge where Assault had jumped off and loosed the vibrating star at a robot that was on the periphery of where Assault was fighting.
It flew, straight at my target, fast and bright as any I had used in this fight. The impact showered the area in a spray of sparks and the tearing shriek of torn metal sliced up the street.
Below the robot wobbled and looked like it would fall, but it steadied and rejoined the melee with Assault.
It didn't work.
I had given it a solid hit and it didn't work. This was a fight I couldn't win.
"Assault Team status." Battery's voice came over the com.
"Wisp here, the robots are still here and Assault is slowing their movement up the street but we have not been able to drop a single one of them. They are durable and work together."
"Understood. We are approaching from the south. Battery team out."
We?
Who could keep up with Battery?
Battery and Antares bounded up the street and into the fray.
I stood, shocked at the speed Antares was moving. She must be using her super strength to push herself at speed. Had she been working with Assault and Battery? The movement was extremely similar in its execution. How was she stopping her momentum?
The addition of Antares' strength and Battery's speed turned the tide and the three began corralling the robots into a single group. I felt a bit useless on the sidelines, my stars ineffective against the stupid robots. Again, I could only watch as I relied on others to be the Hero.
The crowd gathered at the edges of the scene cheered the trio on at the apparent victory and I debated on teleporting down to join them.
But what had I done? Scuff up a couple of robots? Play taxi for Assault so he could get a quick breather?
The crowd cheered again as the robots fell clamorously into a pile, as if their strings were cut. The Heroes of the day didn't miss a beat and waved to the crowd.
No, I wouldn't join them. I hadn't earned it.
"Wisp." Assault's voice came over the radio. "Come down and get in the limelight."
"I didn't do anything," I muttered back.
"Come on kid," Assault drawled. "If you don't come down here I'm going to point up there and then everyone will be looking at you. Just you."
I cursed under my breath so my earpiece wouldn't pick it up, teleporting down to stand beside Assault as my mentor and conveniently the most obscured spot from the gaggle of press.
Most of the crowd dispersed pretty quickly after. No one likes to watch the clean up. Except maybe the linger press.
"What are these things?" Antares nudged one of the fallen robots with her foot, and the pieces came apart like they had never been attached at all.
"Robots, duh." Assault started picking through the pile of parts.
"I don't think these qualify as robots." Battery walked the perimeter of the pile rather than pick through like her husband. "A Master comes to mind."
Antares moved her foot away from the pile as if she had been burned. "Not a Tinker?"
"Definitely not a Tinker." Assault hauled a large piece from the pile. "Wisp and I both saw one of the robots form up out of the debris from a car."
We had, though I didn't understand the implications then. I was too focused on the robots themselves.
"Then there's the whole thing where Wisp blew a hole clean through one of the robots and it just kept going." He held up what looked to be the remnant of a car hood folded in half and curved vaguely into what may have passed for a chest plate. There was a hole punched through the metal and the edges looked rough and blackened.
"I did that?" I walked over for a closer view.
"Sure did!" He said proudly. "Made a hell of a noise and sprayed those sparks everywhere. I was kinda expecting you to slam down one of those big fireballs like with Le- ah- Ol' Armsy back when."
"I tried." I held out my hand as if I was going to create another. "But it didn't work the same." I dropped my hands.
"Huh." Assault tossed the ruined metal he was holding back into the pile earning himself a glare from his wife at the unnecessary noise. "I guess we didn't get your powers figured out before you took your girlfriend for a swim."
Shame filled my stomach.
"We should probably find some time to get that finished." Assault didn't notice my discomfort. "Probably going to need some better targets."
"Yeah." I looked away at the clouds on the horizon. "Maybe."
.
A shadow loomed in the darkness of the shelter. Lit only in fleeting bursts of light when sparks burst from severed electrical lines. Water lapped at my legs, a slow terrible current moving ever away from the monster that created it. The air was thick with the smell of dust, and blood, and worse.
So much death in a moment.
So much terrible pain suspended in time.
My mind dragged low by despair, my body of leaden defeat. I could not stop this monster. With all the power I could muster it wasn't enough.
"Taylor!"
The splashing of a man passing, the slow terrible futility of his fight. His death.
Flash.
My father, held by Leviathan, face wracked with pain and despair.
"Taylor!"
The next flash reflected off blonde hair. Her face a twisted mess of defeat.
"Taylor!"
Flash.
The hair dark, long, draped over a face pale with death.
My face.
Me.
Dead at hands of the monster.
Flash
"Taylor!"
I jerked out of my nightmare and into waiting arms.
Flash.
Our bedroom lit with sharp clarity and shook with the ferocity of thunder raging so close.
Her arms tightened around me. "Tay?" Lisa's voice was soft, filled with worry.
"Yeah." Was all I could say.
Flash.
Her eyes were on mine, tears wet on her cheek.
"You were thrashing around." She whispered once the thunder passed. "I couldn't get you to wake up."
"Did I-?" I wasn't sure how to ask.
She snorted. "I'm okay. It's you I'm worried about."
I shivered as the memory of the dream raised the hairs on my neck. "It was Leviathan, I was back in the shelter."
"Oh Tay," she pulled me tighter to her.
"I couldn't save him." My throat constricted around my words. "Or you. It was like I was already dead."
Lisa squeezed me more and I thought I heard her choke back a sob of her own.
"I didn't." Her voice thick with repressed tears. "And you didn't. You came back to me and I'm not going anywhere."
"Me either." I raised my arms up to hug her back.
"I love you."
Flash.
I saw her lips move but the thunder drowned out her words.
"What?"
She hiccuped a little exasperated laugh. "Figure it out." Then her lips were on mine as she lowered me back to bed.
.
End Chapter
