Mr. Saturday Night Special
11
Commissioned by alethiophile.
Shinji's car pulled up in front of the Dallon home. From the back seat, Amy sighed quietly. "I guess this is me."
"You know, cousin, if you want to hang out more you've got this nifty little thing called a cell phone? Just walk your fingers across the buttons and give someone a call," Crystal teased.
"Maybe I will," Amy nodded. "It was fun."
"Would it…" Taylor hesitated and Amy sent her a questioning look. "Could I come over some time?"
The brunette smiled. "Sure. Just call ahead. Anyway, later."
Amy quickly got out and hurried up to the house. As soon as she opened the door, it revealed the blonde form of Carol, frowning at her. Amy paused, only to hurry past as Carol jerked a thumb inside and walked down her drive towards the car. Shinji cracked his window as she approached. "Detective."
"Mrs. Dallon," Shinji greeted.
"Hey aunt Carol. Sorry for keeping her out late. We were celebrating."
Carol raised an eyebrow, considering the people in the car before asking, "Celebrating what?"
"The BBPD made a big bust this morning and arrested most of the faculty of Taylor's school," Crystal explained with a grin.
The older woman chuckled, a smile pulling at her lips. "Congratulations, Taylor. Tell your father to call me tomorrow, please. I've made some progress on the case and this new information changes things. For the better. It'll make things easier."
"I've been put on involuntary vacation, so if you need me for something, give me a call," Shinji offered, and Carol nodded.
"I just might. Alright, have a good night," she turned and made her way back inside and Shinji pulled away.
"Is she always so… intense?" Taylor asked, and Crystal nodded.
"You have no idea. Surprised she didn't blow a gasket about Amy being out so late," Crystal sighed. "Anyway, let's get you home, and then Shinji and I can go home~."
Taylor chuckled quietly once, shaking her head. Shinji caught her looking into the rearview mirror, her eyes meeting his. "I uh, I wanted to say…" the girl looked away for a moment and a small smile pulled at her lips as her hands fisted in her coat. "Thank you. You're the first person to actually believe me since," Taylor swallowed thickly, "since mom…" She cleared her throat. "Yeah. I'm not… happy about Emma and the others getting a deal, but I've been thinking about it all night, and you're right. They wouldn't have been allowed to do what they did in the first place if the adults had done their jobs. I don't like it, but I don't have to deal with them anymore and they won't be able to do what they did to me to anyone else. So… thanks."
Shinji briefly considered telling her that he could let her deal with those girls herself, but decided that now wasn't the right time. Instead, he sent her a grin. "You're welcome."
Taylor nodded and looked away, reaching up to wipe at her eyes. Shinji turned his eyes back to the road and continued. "You know… With school out and me being forced to take a vacation to keep my head down, that leaves both of our days free for the foreseeable future."
"Yeah?"
"What do you say? Want to ride around and practice with your powers all day?"
The girl chuckled and nodded. "Sure. Sounds fun."
"Wish I could come, but I've got class, and then patrols," Crystal pouted. "Well, have fun, you two."
Eventually, Shinji pulled up in front of Taylor's house and parked. The girl got out, then opened Shinji's door. Leaning in, she squeezed him in a tight hug. "Thank you."
Shinji hugged back as the girl silently shook for a few moments, before quickly disentangling herself and hurrying inside. Crystal chuckled. "That was cute. Come on stud, let's get back to your place before I turn into a pumpkin. Ugh. I really hate eight A.M. classes."
"Where are we going?"
Casting a glance over to Taylor as they drove outside of Brockton Bay, Shinji reached out and tapped the screen on the mount currently resting in front of his radio. "An old quarry outside of town. The department rents access to it, along with county and state police, and have turned it into an outdoor shooting range. It's quiet, in the middle of nowhere, and no one but cops and a few locals who know about it come out that way."
"Why are we going to a shooting range?"
Shinji just grinned. "You'll see."
Taylor rolled her eyes and turned back towards the window, looking outside for a moment before her eyes drifted down to her hands. A stop last night before Shinji took her and Amy home had gotten her a roll of elastic bands of the kind typically found in underwear, socks, gloves, and other things. She had stayed up a bit late, measuring her wrists and where she wanted a set of gloves to end, cut the bands to length and sewed them together, then set the spiders to trying to make a set of gloves.
They were a bit uneven, a little tight in places and loose in others, but they covered her hands properly and were pretty dang good for a first attempt with nothing to brace how the webs should be shaped. They were something she had made herself, with her powers, proving that her bug control was useful. She was proud of them.
And in making them, she had learned some things. For one, if she gave her bugs orders, they would carry them out even while she slept—her power just sort of working in the background. For another, if she didn't give them step by step, detailed instructions then her bugs would use their natural instincts to kind of fill in the gaps. In the case of the gloves, they had built a web structure around them to hold them in place while they were weaving them. It wasn't perfect, but it worked, and it gave her ideas for how to improve things.
I'll need to make some sort of frame or something to my measurements for them to work with. That would be easiest. Too bad I can't just have them make it right on top of me, but I can't sit still for that.
They rode in companionable silence for a while longer, until Shinji pulled off the old, poorly maintained blacktop onto a road that had been covered in white rocks. Shinji stopped at a metal gate over the road and got out, pushed it open, then quickly got back in and drove them through. Taylor looked around as she took the place in. It was just a large pit, dug out of the dirt of what had been the top of a hill, with twenty or so foot cliffs on every side but the road leading in. Short, thin pines grew here and there along the inner edges, but the interior was mostly clear. Shinji parked in a roughly rectangular patch of more of the rocks that served as parking. He killed the car and Taylor followed when he got out and popped the trunk.
"Here, carry this," Shinji said, holding out a long, cloth bag to Taylor. She took it and hauled her own heavy duffel bag out of the car. Shinji pulled a folding plastic table from the trunk and closed it, then took Taylor's much heavier bag.
He stopped not far away, in front of a line of wooden planks. Some stood about the height of a person, while others were fairly low. Some were bare, while round, metal discs on chains dangled from others. Placing the duffel bag down, Shinji quickly set up the plastic table and took the long case from Taylor.
"Alright. So you want to be a hero," Shinji began, and Taylor nodded, perking up a bit. "Remember my courses on how to fight with a knife?"
"Yeah," the girl nodded.
"And you didn't want to do them, right?" he asked, and she nodded again. "Why did I teach you anyway?"
"Because it's better to know than not, and I might have to use one even if I don't want to," Taylor recited from memory. "Let me guess. Guns, too?"
"Yup," Shinji nodded, unzipping the bag and opening it to reveal a somewhat long gun that looked to be made mostly of wood, and several pistols. Taylor couldn't make heads or tails of the long one, but the pistols were all things she recognized from TV, or thought she did.
"I really don't want to use guns as a hero. They're only made for killing. They're not good for anything else," she shook her head. "They're not safe."
Shinji sent her one of those looks that made the girl cringe and feel about six inches tall. He didn't berate her or belittle her, he just looked at her. Like he was disappointed because he had expected better. Instead, he grabbed a staple gun and pulled what looked like a poster off of a roll sitting in the case. Walking over to one of the taller wooden targets, he quickly stapled up the poster, revealing it to be a picture of a woman being held hostage by a man behind her, wearing a ski mask and holding a gun to her head. Moving back to the table, he put the staple gun away and opened a pocket on the long case, pulling out a couple of pairs of safety glasses and ear muffs. He handed one of each to Taylor as he pulled his own on, letting the ear protection dangle around his neck.
"Only good for killing, right?" he asked, nodding and bringing his hand up, clicking a button on his watch. "Okay. You have one minute to tell me how you'd free that hostage, starting now. Go."
"Uh," she looked downrange to the poster. "Can I use my powers?"
"Absolutely," Shinji agreed.
"Swarm him with bugs?"
He clicked his watch. "And she's dead. He panicked and pulled the trigger. Try again."
Frowning, Taylor asked, "Can you tell me more about where we are in this hypothetical situation?"
Shinji grinned. "Better. You're in a building. Say it's a bank. There are other hostages around that he could also hurt. Clear lines of sight, so you're not going to be able to hide anything."
She thought for a moment before nodding. "I move in bugs through the ceiling and drop them down on him—"
"He panics, squeezes the trigger, and kills her."
Frowning, Taylor tried again. "Move bugs in from behind him—"
"He hears them and kills her."
Taking a breath, she asked, "What if I talk to him? Try to distract him and stall so I can move bugs into place?"
"He figures out what you're doing and kills her."
Looking frustrated, she asked, "Is he going to kill her no matter what I do?"
Shinji nodded. "Pretty much. Sometimes, it's like that."
"Then what am I supposed to do?!"
Sighing, the detective shook his head. "You've got the same choice I do at that point." Reaching up, he pulled his ear protection on and sent her an expectant look. Taylor quickly pulled hers on.
The brunette watched as he turned and drew his service weapon in one smooth motion. The detective shot from the hip, a single shot that echoed off the walls of the gravel pit around them. Taylor looked at the target some fifteen feet away, to see a single hole in the gunman's face.
"Situation resolved," Shinji holstered his pistol.
"Wouldn't he just shoot her after you shot him? Reflexes or his body twitching and squeezing the trigger?"
The man shook his head. "That would take out the brain stem. It's like flipping a switch from 'on' to 'off.' He'd just drop dead, go completely slack. Yes, there is a minor risk that the body might jerk or tremble and fire, but it's less than the certainty that he's going to shoot regardless. Sometimes, you have to make a split second decision, right now, and there are no good answers."
"…What if we just give him what he wants and let him go?"
"Then he takes the hostage with him and likely rapes and kills her. You want that on your conscience?"
The girl winced and shook her head. "It's not fair."
"Fair?" Shinji asked, incredulous. Gesturing at the target, he said, "He started by taking a hostage and threatening her life. What part of that is fair to you? This isn't a game. We aren't out there playing cops and robbers with everyone agreeing to a set of rules that they promise not to break. Even with capes, the so-called 'unwritten rules' are worth about as much as the paper they're printed on. Good to throw around when it's convenient, but the moment it inconveniences someone who thinks they're strong enough, they're going to disregard them. So it's better you learn how to deal with these things now, than being completely clueless when the time comes."
Sighing, Taylor nodded. "Fine. What do I need to do?"
"Rules first." Placing his service pistol down on the table and taking a pistol out of the bag, he asked, "Which of these is loaded?"
Taylor considered it for a moment before pointing to his and asking, "That one?"
"Trick question. You haven't checked for yourself, nor are they fully disassembled, so assume they both are." With that, he removed magazines from both, ejected the round from his service pistol, and locked the slides back on both. "Are they unloaded now?"
The brunette opened her mouth, only to pause. "Can I look?"
"Sure."
She moved closer and checked both. "They're unloaded."
"Okay then. Rule two. Always be sure of your target and what's around and behind it. People and other things move, and bullets can over-penetrate or ricochet." When she nodded, he continued. "Rule three. Never point a gun at anything you don't intend to kill. The corollary of that is that anyone pointing a gun at you intends to kill you. It doesn't matter if it's unloaded, don't do it. Always keep it pointed in a safe direction when you're not ready to shoot. Either down or up," he demonstrated. "Keep your finger away from the trigger until you're ready to fire."
From there, he walked her through loading, unloading, and holding a handgun before finally deciding she was ready. He had her take up his pistol and point it at the target, then moved in behind her, his hands tapping her legs.
"Spread your legs a bit. One leg a bit ahead of the other. There you go." His hands rested on her hips and Taylor's breath hitched as he adjusted her positioning. She barely heard his next words as his hands moved to her shoulders, then her back, then her arms, pushing her this way and that as he got her where he wanted her.
Hormones, why now?! she complained, trying not to blush.
"Alright," Shinji's hand rested on her shoulder and he backed a couple of steps behind her. "You're ready. Safety off, aim, breath out, then gently squeeze the trigger."
Taylor forced herself to focus and ignore the butterflies in her stomach as she chided herself for being stupid. He was older than her and had a girlfriend. And that girlfriend was Laserdream. There was no way she could even begin to compete with that.
But it felt really nice…
Shaking her head, she aimed as he had instructed, took a breath and let it out, then very reluctantly pulled the trigger. The gun kicked in her hands, the force of it running through her body, and she nearly dropped it. Her heart hammered in her chest and her mouth felt suddenly dry. Absently, she noted that she had hit the paper, but way off away from where she was aiming—high and to the right.
Shinji was there behind her again, reaching around and cupping her hands holding the gun—and at that point Taylor realized she was trembling. "You okay?" he asked, his voice rumbling through her body and the warmth of his body seeping through her coat.
"It, it just surprised me," she lied, not wanting to admit the truth. That right after the shot, she had been absolutely terrified. But she was okay. It hadn't exploded in her hands. No one died. Other than feeling kind of… fluttery, she was fine.
"Alright. Try again. You jerked when you should have squeezed. Just go a bit slower next time," he instructed and backed away.
Taylor nodded. Biting her lip, she took aim again. This time, she was much less reluctant as she pulled the trigger again. She was ready for the kick this time and the gun barely jerked in her hands. She felt the tingle in her palms and the shock of it through her body, but… It feels kind of good. And I got closer that time!
"Can I go again?" she asked, surprised at just how eager she felt.
"Go ahead," Shinji chuckled. "Fire until it runs out. We've got plenty of ammo."
"Mm." With that, she steadied herself and went again. And again. Until eventually, the top part of the gun locked back and she knew that meant it was empty. The target was full of holes and those last few had actually been really close to where she was aiming.
"Good job," Shinji congratulated her, and Taylor hated how her heart skipped, and just how much those words meant to her. How good it felt to hear them.
"Thanks," she murmured, putting the pistol down on the table.
From there, Shinji showed her how to remove the spent magazine, put in a new one, and how to reload the empty using a tool. Then, he had her go through several more magazines and a bunch of different pistols. By the time lunch time came and he opened the cooler he'd brought for them filled with sandwiches, Taylor was feeling pretty confident in herself—even if her ears rang a little and her arms tingled.
She almost didn't want to admit it, but she was having fun. It wasn't just the shooting that was fun—but to her surprise, she found herself enjoying it. Mostly, it was spending time with someone who actually listened to her. Who treated her like an actual person. Dare she say it, a friend. It helped that Shinji had done what he said he would, or as much as he could given the crappy circumstances. He had done what no one else could, or had even bothered to try.
As they sat in his car and ate while the heater ran, Shinji pulled her from her thoughts as he said, "Let's try something new, next."
Sipping on her soda, the girl nodded. "What do you have in mind?"
"Let's mix your powers in. You know where every bug in range is, right?"
"Yeah…"
"So we'll use that to our advantage. I want to see if you can hit a target with your eyes closed. Normally, I wouldn't encourage trick shooting like this without more experience on your part, but we've got the place to ourselves and you've got an advantage here, so I think it'll be fine."
Frowning, Taylor asked, "How would I even do that?"
"Well," Shinji hummed, "why don't you put a bug on a target then try to hit it?"
"Alright."
They finished up their lunch and moved back outside. Taylor opened up the duffel bag she had brought and sent out a bunch of flies, moving them to every target on the range. Taking up a pistol and making sure it was loaded, she took up the shooting stance Shinji had taught her and closed her eyes. Focusing on her powers, she pointed the pistol and squeezed the trigger. A satisfying ping! rang out as she hit one of the gongs and the fly disappeared from her power.
"Huh."
"Nice. Now, do it again," Shinji chuckled.
Taylor shifted her aim and squeezed. Ping!
Without having to be told, she did it again, moving faster between shots, until eventually she ran out. Opening her eyes, she found herself grinning so hard it hurt. "Oh my god, that was amazing!"
"Good job, kiddo. Now try it with the rifle."
"Why did you bring that, anyway?" she asked, removing the magazine from the pistol and waiting for him to show her how to handle the rifle. "And what's that thing on the end? Is that a silencer?"
Picking it up, Shinji slapped in a magazine and demonstrated how to cock the lever and rack a round. "Suppressor. And because sometimes, you're going to want to disable cameras, lights, and other things and can't linger, or don't want to hit a target that day. Using a suppressor and subsonic rounds means it's quiet enough that most people won't even hear it being fired over the usual city noise, and if they do they'll think it's just a firecracker. I figure it's something you might actually want in your kit. A tool, not a weapon. Still deadly if you misuse it, but you hopefully won't be using it for anything other than sabotage."
Taylor considered it for a few moments as she lifted the rifle to her shoulder under Shinji's instruction, then fired. With the first shot and ping! of a gong, she was in love. It was quiet, there was no recoil, and as she worked through the magazine using her flies as markers she thought of all the ways she could use it that would be faster or just better than using bugs.
"I like it," she finally admitted as she emptied the magazine and ejected it, laying the rifle on the table.
"Good. Because we're going to be using it tonight. Or you will, rather."
"Eh?" Taylor blinked, and Shinji grinned.
"I've got some other new toys for you to play with. A tablet and micro cameras you can move with your bugs. You're going to figure out how to map out a building, draw maps, then track people and draw their positions in realtime."
Taylor smiled. "Sounds fun."
"How're you holding up?"
Sophia looked up from where she was doing sit-ups, finding Shinji leaning against the bars to her cell. She ignored him and kept going. Eventually, she did grunt out an answer. "Food sucks. Bed's lumpy. But I've got a cell to myself and they're letting me shower alone, so some dyke hasn't made me her bitch yet. I get out today?"
"Yep. Just came by to let you know we made the bust on Winslow. I've got a meeting with my sergeant in five minutes, but I figured I'd stop by and let you know. You should be out by the end of the day."
Pausing in her routine, Sophia sat up and sent him a contemplative look. After a moment, she nodded. "Thanks."
"Keep your nose clean. I don't want to have to see you in here again," he sent her a pointed look and Sophia bristled for a moment, before nodding. With that, he left her alone to her thoughts again—as she had been for the last three days or so.
Once more, she found her thoughts turning back to Shinji. How he had made her feel, sure. He had popped her cherry and, as bad as the situation was… it was also kind of fun. She was getting kind of warm thinking about it. But mostly, she was thinking about what he had said. He had put words to what she had felt since getting stuck on the Wards, after she got caught staking some nazi to the ground.
She was wasted in the Wards. They were too soft. Too ineffective.
If she were being honest, it wasn't the fault of the people on the team. Yeah, most of them were soft, but at least they wanted to do more—especially Vista. No, it was Piggot and political bullshit holding them back.
Sophia could think of a dozen ways that even just three of the current Wards working together could pretty much wipe out all crime in a single night, if they could track down where those fuckers were hiding. But none of that mattered if Piggot didn't want to risk getting her ass in a sling, because some higher up might protest the Wards being put in danger.
And then there were the proposed PR runs… Sophia hated the idea of being paraded in front of a crowd like some kind of dancing monkey. Instead, she'd rather be out there, making a difference. Maybe having Shinji holding her leash wouldn't be so bad, if it meant she got to do something and feel useful for a change.
Eventually, someone banging a night stick against her cell door pulled her from her thoughts. "Time to go, Hess. Your mother's here."
Fuck.
Entirely too soon, she was sitting in the passenger seat of her mother's car, listening to the woman complain. "What the hell were you thinking, girl?!"
"I don't know," Sophia grunted, but that was a lie. She knew exactly what she had been thinking. Hebert was weak and she deserved whatever she got. If she just took it, that was on her. If she actually stood up for herself, then she might actually be worth something. Maybe. Sophia doubted it. Either way, it was a good way of blowing off steam from dealing with Piggot's fat ass, her mother, and everything else going wrong in her life.
"Yeah, well you better fucking figure it out. I—" Her mother cut herself off when her phone rang. Picking up, her mother ignored Sophia as she answered. "Hello? … This is she. … The PRT? What's this about? … Yes, she's here." Sophia perked up at that, straining her ears.
"We believe your daughter may be in violation of her probation. We need her to come into the office for questioning, as soon as possible. Where are you now? We can send someone to pick her up."
Fuck! Sophia's hands clenched in her coat. Shinji may have promised to talk to the DA and have him go easy on her, but that was in her civilian identity. The PRT had her by the short and curlies, when it came to her probation—which, admittedly, bullying Hebert and getting caught would violate. And with the cops having all the evidence, that was going to make its way to the PRT shortly. So regardless of her deal with him, they could—and would, given it was Piggot—decide to pursue her for that separately.
She was… completely and utterly fucked. And not in the fun way.
They'll send me to juvie. If it comes out that I used my powers, then… What Shinji said about the whole 'with a parahuman power' thing applies. They might throw me into actual jail. Fuck! I'm not going!
"…Alright, I'll meet you there," her mother agreed, and Sophia heard something in her voice that she wasn't expecting. Her mother sounded like she was giving up. On her. Like she knew exactly what was about to happen and had just resigned herself to it.
Her mother put her phone in the car's cup holder and blew out an exhausted sigh. "I love you, but you make it hard, Sophia." Casting a glance at her, the older woman shook her head. "We're going to the PRT and you're going to have to explain yourself to them."
"Fine," Sophia grunted, watching the road and paying attention to the mid-day traffic. It was rush hour and even though Brockton Bay was a shithole, it was still busy at this time of day.
Eventually, what she was waiting for happened. Her mother stopped for a red light. Reaching out, Sophia grabbed her mother's phone at the same time she hit her seatbelt release. Opening the door, she rushed out of the car.
"Sophia?! Sophia! Get back here! You're only making it worse on yourself!"
Sophia ignored her mother as she ran into an alleyway. Turning a corner, she tossed both her mother's phone and her own into a trash can. From there, she took a running leap and used her powers, the momentum carrying her up and onto the roof of a short building. Another few jumps like that got her at rooftop level and she ran, hauling ass across town. As she went, PRT SOP and response times came to mind.
Her mother would take at least a few minutes to call it in and inform the PRT that she'd run. Maybe as much as half an hour, but she didn't count on it. From there, Piggot would have them track her phone and send a team. When that didn't pan out, they'd send a team to her mother's apartment—it would be the very first place they looked, once they figured out she had ditched the phone.
Once they couldn't find her at her home, they would quietly circulate word with the police and other agencies to be on the lookout for her. They might send a few Protectorate or Wards members to look for her directly. They would stake out everywhere she might go—her mother's apartment, the homes of any friends she had, Winslow. They would get warrants to wiretap the phones of those people, as well. They would also probably try to predict what she might do, if she had a grudge against someone for this happening. Which meant that they would have surveillance on Hebert and Shinji—people that, logically, if she had a grudge she might take this opportunity to get revenge against.
They'll keep it up for a week or two, then scale back and eventually stop entirely inside of a month, when nothing happens. I just have to keep my head down until then, she decided, phasing through the apartment building's wall and into her bedroom. Grabbing her backpack, she collected some clothes. In the back of the closet, in a gym bag buried under some other things, she found the spare costume and tools she had put together, along with a little money. She didn't trust any of the crap the PRT gave her not to have trackers in it.
Wadding up a blanket just in case, she vacated the apartment and pulled her hood up over her head, running across rooftops to get away before eventually dropping to street level. From there, she headed to a local library—where it was warm, out of the elements, and she could loiter until they closed. Then, she began to plot out her next moves.
Find shelter and establish a base. More than one. Old churches, libraries, buildings on the college campus—they're bound to have rooms that no one uses and I can just borrow. Any house with a 'For Sale' sign, as long as it's empty, if it's got an attic or basement. No-tell motels, after midnight. As long as I don't turn on the lights, I can use their shower, toilet, and electricity to cook food. Secure food and water. I can steal from the big box retailers. They won't miss it. Slip in the back when they're closed, take a little, leave. No cash, just what I need. Need a phone with internet access. I'll steal one of those too.
Then… we wait. Lay low. Maybe go out every now and then, but stay away from the areas the Wards usually patrol. Start hitting the gangs and taking their money. Shouldn't be hard to find a nazi and follow them home. I don't need a team. I don't need anyone else. I can do this on my own.
Emily Piggot squeezed the phone in her hand until the plastic creaked. "Repeat that. She. Did. What."
"Ran away, ma'am. Her mother reported that she jumped out of the car when it stopped at a red light."
Taking a breath and letting it out through her nose, even as she felt her heart rate climbing and the ulcer gnawing at her gut, Emily growled, "Armsmaster and Militia, my office, half an hour."
She hung up before her secretary could acknowledge the command. Opening the top drawer of her desk she pulled out a box of antacid and spilled four of the fruit-flavored chalk pieces into her hand, slamming them into her mouth as she put the bottle away.
One of her handlers had been arrested. One of her Wards had potentially violated her parole and run.
Something was rotten in her department and she wanted to know what, who, when, how, and why—yesterday. Someone was going to fucking swing for this, this… cluster fuck.
A beeping from her arm cut off that train of thought and she looked down to the little blood pressure monitor strapped to her wrist, currently wailing that her BP was dangerously close to cardiac arrest.
A fine fucking day to start worrying about my health.