1.2

Charlotte couldn't think of a busier time in her life than the past few days.

Hell, the entire week had seen the prospective reporter running around the city trying to do everything she could to record as many perspectives on the Battle of Canberra as she could. From PRT officers, to the Protectorate hotline, to random members of the teams whenever she managed to spot them in town.

She'd almost tried to go after some empire capes with a bribe.

Fortunately for her and her hyper caffeinated, workaholic brain, Zhenyu was there to give her a dressing down for even considering it as an option, before locking her inside a room until she got enough sleep to be trusted with her own life and health again.

'Being awake doesn't make people magically wanna talk to me though.'

And therein lay the crux of her issue.

The Protectorate heroes all pretty much gave the same answer. The villains were either no-show or too dangerous for her to approach, and New Wave had released a joint statement on PHO and their official channel before turtling up and going silent about it.

So, if Charlotte wanted to get someone to talk to her, then she'd need to find the one person in town who'd witnessed the whole thing from start to finish and could provide her with intimate behind the scenes details about the fight against the Endbringer.

In short, she had to find Fontaine.

And for that reason she'd been damn near camping around the Boardwalk for the second time in a month. All in the vain hope that the hydrokinetic would appear closer to water after she was blocked from approaching the young cape by PRT officers regarding a 'rampage' of some sort.

Truly, the law remained the greatest enemy of the free press.

"No, it is not." Zhenyu's voice ground through the tiny speaker of her cellphone. "There was a super villain smashing up a bunch of abandoned buildings and you wanted to meander into an active demolition zone."

"I'm not that bad!" She whined.

"Yes, you are. Listen, sister, I love you. You know I love you. But if I took my eye off you, I'd have to go apologize to your grandfather for letting you slip your leash."

"Nah. Zeyde would just apologize for the trouble."

"Listen, I'm-"

"Doing your job, Zhen. You stopped me from doing something monumentally me stupid in a caffeine and delirium induced haze. I promise you. I'm just waiting for her to shark someone again. Nothing… aggressive."

Her editor and friend sighed.

"You sure?"

"I'm eating street noodles and doing schoolwork on the most bird shit free bench I've seen in this city in years."

"...Are you saying you think she scrubbed part of the boardwalk clean?"

She slurped up a mix of broth, green onions, and celery, enjoying the rich, warm liquid as it filled her up.

"Probably. I haven't managed to get anything out of the city, least not officially, but it looks like someone came through the entire side of the bay area and cleaned everything. Wasn't so much as a stray can tucked in a corner, according to a sanitation guy I could flag down."

"Hmm. Very well then. That's all unionized work. Maybe it's worth looking into on my end. For now, you do something simple and no running up to Nazis, yes?"

"Yes, yes. Go make your calls."

They hung up soon after and Charlotte huffed out a breath, watching it mist in the still somehow chilled air.

Their little cold snap enough to depress presence in the tourist areas of the city, but not enough to stop commerce outright. Not with things looking up. Not with the place… smelling different. Though she didn't actually want to complain too much.

Charlotte was cognizant that Brockton Bay was, more or less, the Neo Nazi capital of the Northeastern US. And her family had still been safe, if sometimes harassed, tucked into its water-facing community.

Proximity to the Protectorate and PRT buildings doing a great deal to reduce the influence of the Empire.

She did not want to say her hometown had smelled of… rot?

'No, that's the wrong word.'

Twiddling her pencil against her notepad, she let the squawking of the gulls rile and annoy her. Hoping the agitation might force something to click.

'Perhaps lack-of-care, if that could be an under smell.'

There had been a certain artificiality to the parts of Brockton Bay that were still functioning. Even places like Medhall, theoretically the economic heart of the whole town, had been a facade. A white wash over a crumbling tower, ever more pitiful when compared to even the, usually sporadic, anarchy of Boston.

Fontaine's arrival could be a sign of many things.

A sign of change for the better, or the bell tolling for Brockton Bay's death.

Charlotte wanted to believe it was a newfound hope, that having someone as powerful as Fontaine willing to help and clean up the city could only mean they were being given their second chance, maybe the last one they would ever have.

But they had to be willing to grab that.

If not here, if not now… if they let Fontaine pass them by or refused to look at her for what she really was, then their home might be doomed in a generation or two.

"And the best way to get more people to know her is to get her to talk."

But good luck with that.

The only people who seemed to know what she sounded like were the Mayor and some members of the Protectorate. If Charlotte could actually get her to do some sort of interview or recording, or hell, just get her to make a verified account on PHO, more people would see her as less of a problem and more of a solution.

There were many problems with that.

Nobody knew where Fontaine would show up next. Nor did they know how to get in contact with her.

For all she knew, the woman could be right behind her and she wouldn't know Fontaine from Eve.

"Charlotte?"

She startled, almost jumping off of the bench, before turning around in surprise.

"Taylor?"

Taylor wasn't sure what to do.

In fact, she was pretty sure she was facing an improbability, statistically speaking.

So, lacking any further recourse, she cleared her throat.

"Charlotte?"

The other girl spun around, almost spilling what was left of her noodles, only for Taylor to nudge the liquid in the cup back towards the bowl.

"Uh, food."

Wincing, she was at least glad the other girl managed to keep from spilling the still steaming food on her leg.

"Oh! Shit. Crap, ah, my fingers!"

And managed to still get some on her hands.

She just kind of stood there, looking away, and waited for the other girl to clean herself off. But, hearing a lack of noise, she turned around and found her simply sucking the slightly burned side of her finger.

"Sorry about that."

"No, no." Only to be waved off, the other girl hissing as she shook her fingers. "Not your fault. I should have paid more attention. Still, uh, what's up?" Taylor noticed as the other girl glanced around a bit before relaxing. "Been a minute since we spoke."

And there it was.

Social activity. The mighty Fontaine's weakness.

That was what happened when the most interaction you got was your father, the hero you called to tattle yourself to, and the mysterious disembodied voice that inhabited your mind. While Taylor wasn't so horrible that she couldn't hold a conversation, starting one was still someone she was so rusty at she risked giving herself tetanus when she tried.

Perhaps it was a bit of an exaggeration, but she really did feel uncomfortable. And a little guilty. Even if there was no way anyone noticed her using her powers, it was still kind of off to not be wearing some of her mom's clothes when she did so.

"Yeah. My dad let me watch the interview. He, um, well, the Union was happy for the PR. They don't get… much… good news."

Charlotte snorted back a laugh.

"None that doesn't try to implicate them for a crime, you mean?"

Yeah, right, that. Kinda took the wind out of her sails when people accused others of being criminals when she specifically said she was the one doing it.

"It's incredibly stupid that people think the DWU would work for Fontaine. They kept the Empire and the ABB out of the docks as much as they could and the Union is clean. Painfully so. Because that was the only way to stay out of the line of fire."

That got her a smile, surprisingly enough, as the highschool journalist hopped up.

"Is that an official statement from an admin's kid?"

She paled.

"No, no, I just speak with my dad, you know?"

"Indeed. Still, I've spent the last three days with my bony ass on these very suspiciously clean, but still very hard benches, waiting on Fontaine to do something at a godly hour. So how about I pump you for information and buy you some noodles?"

"Last three days?"

A small frown from the other girl only increased Taylor's confusion.

"Yeah. Ever since she sharked some guy trying to dump their trash, then power washed the whole Boardwalk, this has kind've been her center of activity. Especially since the only other two pinpoints, Lung and those boats, took place at opposite ends of the map, making this dead center of her 'territory'."

Huh.

Taylor… hadn't actually thought about it that way. And it wasn't like she was worrying about establishing some kind of territory.

'Why should you? Everything the light touches is yours.'

Now was NOT the time for Lion King quotes!

"So yeah! The Enforcers love her, the shopkeepers are worried she's about to start charging for her services, and we've already got a few tourists hoping to see her. Strange to say that about a villain, though." There was a pause. "Actually, strange to say that about Brockton Bay."

Not sure how to take Charlotte's words, Taylor simply nodded, at the very least acknowledging the other girl's words.

"Now. Noodles for your noodle. Sound fair?"

"What?"

"Good. Come on."

Blinking, she simply followed along behind the other girl, happy to let her buy a cup of tolerably priced noodles and some chicken skewers from a guy with a cart, and listen to her as she described mapping out Taylor's alter ego and everything Fontaine had been seen or thought to have done.

She didn't even remember doing some of that stuff!

'Oh right, that was probably me.'

You? How?!

'I get bored on your morning walks. A lady has to distract herself when she listens to the same songs on repeat.'

Seriously, her powers were being awfully chatty today.

"You don't have any leads I could use right? Like, your dad works here around the clock, so maybe he knows something the public doesn't?" Leaning closer, Charlotte's eyes sparkled in interest as she invaded Taylor's personal space, wielding her recorder as if it were a microphone.

"Ah, I don't know. I mean, I don't think he's the type to hide anything."

Or, well, if he were he was better than her since he actually discovered her secret identity. Such as it had been.

"Hmm. If you say so? It's just been so frustrating trying to write more pieces on Fontaine when we barely get any time to talk to her. The only ones who do won't talk to me either."

Taylor had to smother a sigh.

"Maybe it's because she's a villain, you know. Not a public servant."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, you're not the first one telling me to avoid villains today. But seriously? Fontaine? Everyone in town knows that lady doesn't act like a villain. Cleaning the water and scaring people away from throwing trash in the ocean? What kinda crime is that?"

Taylor shrugged.

"Eco terrorism?"

Charlotte took the suggestion and gave a thought hum.

"Quite possibly. It's worth considering most of what she's done has involved cleaning up the environment or defending cities from outright destruction."

'Not exactly villain behavior.'

'Yeah!' Taylor mentally interjected. 'Well then why didn't you say anything about it? What was it about teaming up with someone else now and poking holes into the plan?'

'Because I'm not actually against it. It adds just the right dash of drama to the performance. The tragic heroine who cannot find it in her to trust the good in the hearts of others and yet finds herself unable to resist the call to justice from within her own.'

Taylor almost violently ignored the crazy woman.

In that she had to grit her teeth involuntarily not to snap at her.

She was not in one of her mom's books.

However, the journalist took that reaction the wrong way.

"Ah. One of her fans. I see. Sorry about that."

Her expression turned to a wince.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to be rude. Just… a lot's happened, is all."

"I imagine so. Again, Taylor, thank the Lord your father wasn't hurt when the ABB went insane. It was insensitive of me not to at least keep that in mind."

Deciding to simply accept the apology, she forced herself to relax again.

"Well." The villainess, secret or no, held up her cup of noodles. "Thanks for the food. Why don't you show me around, since you've been staking the place out. Anyone new or interesting?"

She hadn't actually been to the Boardwalk all that often recently, and when she did it was usually too early in the morning to catch any of the shops open so, ironicall, she didn't know how the people there felt about her until Charlotte brought it up.

"Oh, well, I wouldn't say much changed. There's the food cart guy. He's pretty loud and upbeat and people seem to like him well enough. I think he and Zhen Yu know each other."

Well, his food was good so she'd let him stay.

"As for really anything else, I guess there's a new fortune teller who, apparently, is actually really good. If you're into that kind of thing."

"Isn't the trick for that just to be vague and maybe do some cold reading?"

"Allegedly she's able to be very specific, at least if you pay well, and has been able to do a lot of good."

"So a Thinker?"

That got a laugh.

"Man, I wish. When I went there trying to fish for clues she just told me I wasn't gonna find any and to just buy a souvenir and come back later. It was really scary accurate because I wasn't even asking questions!"

Well now, wasn't that interesting?

Someone new happened to set up shop and with what apparently passed for divination powers to boot.

'You did mention something about seeing the future being possible, right? You don't think…?'

'No.' Focalors responded. 'If she was a Prophetess, you'd be better off putting this woman out of her misery. Fate and Destiny are cruel tyrants, made all the more terrible by the simple fact their swords fall without mercy or hatred.'

Taken aback by her power's vehemence, Taylor simply gave a small nod.

"So let's, go check her out. Um, if that's ok?"

"More than. You're paying this time!"

"You paid her?"

"She told me I'd be back and I should go ahead and pay now."

"I… what?"

That sounded way too laid back! Who parted with their money so easily? The Boardwalk was a tourist trap for crying out loud! Everyone knew that!

"Oh, it's simple. I've got a prepaid visit and that means whenever I run into trouble actually digging into a case, I'm gonna go stroke her ego until she helps me. I was also hoping to add the whole astrology thing to my blog, you know, post her advice and predictions on cape related things. I thought it would be pretty novel!"

Simply making some noise of agreement, Taylor struggled to follow, instead coming to the conclusion that she wasn't cut out for being a journalist.

Hobby or not.

It was still worth checking out, though, so Taylor followed Charlotte through the crowd and away from the food cart. The duo marching deeper into the boardwalk's increasingly expensive and gaudy traps until a taller but slimmer rooftop appeared in the distance, peaking over the surrounding buildings.

Frankly, the place was less a store and more of a shack made out of shimmering cloth.

"Don't worry. It's just a tent put up over the top of the building. The place is actually to code."

"Ah."

Taylor was more confused by how a fortune teller had the money to get something like that built. But if it was just an illusion, that made sense.

"Damn, that was a bit much." A very frumpy looking woman walked out of the store as they approached, complaining to her friend. "The advice was good, but did she have to be such a bitch about it?"

"Well Sally, you did imply she was a fraud. Twice. To her face."

Said friend seemed much more pleased with her experience, barely stifling giggles. Which was a bit strange hearing from a woman her age. But that was hardly a bad thing, per se. And fortunately the duo didn't seem to notice the two teenagers standing to the side as they gossiped.

Though it did give Taylor a few jitters.

She wasn't looking forward to this.

"Well, seems like we're the lucky ones. She just got done with a reading so we can at least pop in and say hello."

Unfortunately the peppy journalist wannabe didn't seem to notice or care about her trepidation as she pulled Taylor through the raised shack-and-a-half's open door, which jingled as they passed through with soft tinkling bells.

"Oh, more clients! Stay right where you are! Madame Mona will see you in a minute!"

There was some shuffling from farther away, as well as the soft rattling of beads in the wind as steps echoed down the hallway, leaving Taylor to take a look around as Charlotte giddily leaned over the counter.

The shop, if she could call it that, looked a bit spare.

There were the usual things one expected from a wannabe occultist. Cards, polished painted stones, weird boards that she might have seen in some shitty horror flick once or twice. Nothing that really screamed magic to her, though she could tell there was… something in the air.

Something familiar.

'Oh my. This is… quite unexpected.'

What did she mean?

'Well, let's just say that there might be more to this than I expected. But we'll need to meet this girl first.'

Great, a minute into this shop and she was already getting cryptic messages.

That was when the door to the back parted to reveal the eponymous Madame Mona… who just turned out to be a blonde girl their own age wearing an oversized poofy hat and what looked like a star shaped medallion hanging around her neck. All as great, green robes billowed with each step. Really, it still looked like a costume, but definitely wasn't something out of a costume shop.

It looked about as good as her first one!

And going by the amused smile on the blonde's face, she was more than aware of it. She almost looked smug about it.

"I told you, you should have gone ahead and prepaid, didn't I?"

Charlotte snorted.

"Well I'm not double paying. So how about that reading?"

Madame Mona's eyes flicked between them, studying them, Taylor could recognize that. Something almost predatory as she sized them. Had this been anywhere but a tourist trap she would have thought it was almost… Emma like.

"Very well. The both of you, then, since you were so kind to follow my advice from before."

And just like that, she was seemingly back to normal. Her green eyes turned into something smug, almost satisfied as her high bun glinted with shining pins.

"I'm not really interested." Taylor protested.

"Nonsense! I said I'd do a reading for you both."

"Well, I'm not interested in spending too much money."

"And I didn't say you'd need to pay! Now. Sit down."

Tugging a small, almost rickety wooden table out of a corner and placing three equally wobbly wooden chairs around it, the blonde used a simple trick of slight of hand, or so Taylor supposed, to pluck a deck of cards from one of her sleeves.

To be perfectly honest, it might not have been a trick.

The robes were just that poofy.

"Come on. It's on my dime, already."

Opening her mouth to decline, she paused when Focalors said something that threw her off.

'We'll need to talk later. I know I was the first one to arrive and there's something real going on here. Please, get a reading. If anything… serious starts happening, I'll intervene.'

Another day at work.

Another row of suckers to rip off for money.

Though she wasn't really doing anything too shady. Or, well, she put the effort in to leave people better off than they were when they showed up.

Not exactly a difficult thing to do when all that involved was drinking a cup of very expensive tea, reading the grinds or the leaves, holding someone's hand, or even just dealing out a hand of cards. Something that could take as little as five minutes or as long as half an hour - entirely up to how much the client was paying. And playing along.

Even without her powers, it was pretty easy to figure out if someone just needed a little push. Her abilities just told her which way to point them.

Really, had Lisa known that playing backstreet fortune teller would be this fun, she would have given it a try first instead of trying to game the stock market. At least then she would be doing something fun instead of looking through numbers on a screen all day long.

Now?

Now she got to look people dead in the eye and tell them to get their lives back together while being paid for it, and the best part is that technically she didn't even need to be doing this, but her 'boss' had pitched the idea of placing her somewhere closer to Fontaine's assumed territory so she could observe the girl in action.

So it all worked out in her favor!

'Even got him to rent me this place and let me spend money to decorate.'

That was how Madame Mona's was born, a simple flash of whimsy. A way to hide in plain sight while exercising her powers under the simple cover of a fortune teller. The kind of work that stunk of superstition and would have her actual abilities doubted so long as she managed to keep the experience genuine.

Unfortunately, she hadn't caught much fish in her net.

A few dirty secrets here or there.

Some cheating spouses, someone money laundering from a charity, which she made sure to write down the name for later as a possible blackmail target. But no one her boss actually wanted her to find.

The one Lisa… ahem… 'Mona' wanted to find.

Fontaine.

This was the area she was associated with by and large, though Lisa had some surveillance gear near the former ship graveyard in case the mysterious cape decided to return to the scene of her 'crime'. She doubted it, but it was still a possibility.

And there was no way she was gonna pass up on spending Coil's money.

'He's only going to put up with this for so long, though.'

Fortunately for her, a new lead might have just walked through the door.

She wasn't anything impressive, just another cape enthusiast with way too much energy and some unresolved guilt. She hadn't gone deeper than that out of disinterest and handed the girl a coupon to come back later since she didn't have the time and wasn't in the mood.

Only now there was more to it.

Because she brought a friend along.

Double the customers, double the pay, as they saying went.

That wasn't the only thing she was getting double.

'Subject is annoyed. Subject is amused. Subject is curious. Subject is intrigued. Subject believes friend is wasting her time. Subject wishes to play things out and see what happens. Subject is uncomfortable around strangers. Subject thrives under attention.'

Immediately, her powers went haywire, the repeated patterns of doubled, often contradicting information being hammered through into her mind's eye like a nail. The shock nearly sent Lisa faceplanting before she quickly gathered herself and instead turned her focus to the first girl, Charlotte.

The one who might have brought her the most interesting person she'd met since she came to the Boardwalk.

"Madame? Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes. Sorry, I was just distracted for a moment, almost stumbled too… curse these loose floorboards."

The taller girl smiled wryly.

"Couldn't foresee the stumble?"

Lisa kept her smile in place, accepting the jab at the hocus pocus she was preaching with due grace. But of course, she couldn't help but bite back.

"And waste the gift on that when I could use it on you lovely customers? I couldn't dream of that!"

The peppy, unbothered answer seemed to be the ticket, taking the winds out of the tall girl's sails as she sighed and looked away. Obviously not used to someone playing along with her jabs instead of hitting back, so to speak.

"Subject is uncomfortable with attention. Subject wishes for more attention. Is amused by the interplay. Subject wants to leave. Subject wants to stay."

And then there was that little chestnut.

Again, and again. Her power just seemed to see double when it came to the taller girl, frequently giving her outright antagonistic tidbits of information.

'Could she be like Circus? That would probably still require powers, or psychosis, and she's not in costume so simply disguising her sex wouldn't be possible.'

DID didn't work like on TV. Schizophrenia might be a possible answer - explaining the violently contradictory aspect of the info. But not likely at all.

"So tell me, since our dear investigator here did pay, would she like to go first?"

Turning to face the first girl, she kept the corner of her eye on the second. Reading the subtle relaxing of her body language as she attempted to meld into the background of the shop.

"Ah, I do apologize, but I'm afraid you will need to join us."

Tapping the rickety chairs, she spun about for a moment, performed a slight card trick by snapping the deck from one hand to the other, and took her seat.

That trick required three hours of practice to get right.

But when the second girl tensed up, seemed to go through two entirely different sets of emotional responses, and then simply sighed… Lisa knew she'd found something good.

She just didn't know what it was yet.