34

Main Summary:

Definitely caught up with current now. Haven't even checked this over more than twice. DX

Let me know if you find any errors.

Chapter Text

SUN FEB 27

The street the Boardwalk was on had a habit of sometimes getting a little too close to the waterfront. At times like these, instead of trying to fit proper store buildings between the street and the quay, they'd cram one of those little walk-up coffee huts in, or leave the space open. The view was nice enough, with the shining Protectorate Rig and the small islands with their old lighthouses. It would've been even better without the Boat Graveyard, but life in Brockton was all about taking what you could get, these days. In the summer, you'd never find one of those spaces without at least one food cart, but in the rainier winter season, only the more intrepid foodhawkers were out. I could already see the clouds rolling in, for the rain they predicted overnight and into next week.

So, for my display, I wanted a nice big open space to see the water, without any food stands so I wouldn't be unfairly swarming them or pulling their business away, and without any of the coffee huts for the same reason. There were a few options, but two of them were fairly close to Parian's, and another couple were smaller and situated in the lower-density northern half of the Boardwalk. I was actually pretty happy with the best option, near the southern end of the strip. With the border to Downtown to the immediate west, Arcadia and the University to the northwest, and the PRT building to the southwest, the spot was well centered to help obfuscate that I'd come from a shop in the area. To the immediate south were apartments for people working in the shops to have a shorter commute, but it was honestly more popular with the university students as a slightly cheaper alternative to campus housing. South of this line of nicer apartments, you had the 'Asian' sector, where Sue's tenement was, just north of the slums.

That decided, I stopped in at one of the Boardwalk's beauty stores and headed straight for the cashier, asking for a compact mirror. Not giving them a chance to have a problem with my bag, I bought the first thing they grabbed for me. It came with a little brush, and had little pads of compressed powder set in the other side. Foundation, eye shadow, blush. An all-in-one emergency makeup kit, at least four times as expensive as a standalone mirror. I wasn't sure if they were trying to shill me the more expensive one because I seemed to be in a hurry, or grabbed what they thought I needed, given my habitual lack of makeup. Either way, they didn't stop to chat, and I was in and out in under two minutes.

The next step in my plan was finding an alley that had a hidden spot lacking any obvious cameras. Even if they were tight, I felt weird about wearing an actual pair of pants under my costume ones, so off they came. I put on my masks, my pants, and my coat. Then came the boots, which I hadn't tried, but I trusted Parian to know my body fairly well, by now. Those came up almost to my knees, the rim a tad snug until it was past the bulge of my calves. The little sock of material the same shade as the bootleather felt a little odd under my toes at first, but didn't hinder my sight as much as rubber would've. I leaned down to inspect them, tugging at them to make sure they wouldn't come loose from the boots. They seemed pretty well buttoned in, though. There was a little strip of lighter material peeking out between the sock and the rest of the boots, which I assumed continued down over the toes under the cloth. Everything below my ankle was much more rigid than the stuff above it, helping everything hold its shape. After that, I tugged on my gloves, zipped up the hidden zippers, clenched my hands a bit...

And felt good. This was it. My costume was done. I held back the urge to squeal and hop in place for a bit, if only barely. I still had myself a bit of a shuddering shuffle-dance, as I grinned and clutched my hands in front of my chest. With my khakis stowed, I grabbed my bag and hopped between the alley walls, to put myself up on the roof. It was too dark in the alley to properly judge my hair as I did it, so that part waited for me to drop off my bag. A quick run a few buildings over, and I stopped on a roof with a proper rim to it, a couple feet high. It was enough for my bag to be hidden from the street, leaning in one of the corners. I grabbed mom's thermos and my hair needles, and headed for the center of the roof so that I wasn't visible from the street anymore. I stopped near the roof access hatch-door, which looked just as rusted-shut as it'd felt, given its proximity to an ocean-salt bay. The real positive of it was the little padlock I could feel inside, though. That looked just as untouched as the rest of it. No one was coming up here from downstairs, to stumble on my stuff.

I'd considered just hiding the thing underground, but on the Boardwalk, the only way to do that was to tear up the surface, first. Even if it wasn't obvious enough to get people curious or digging, the city actually cared about this place. I didn't want to just make work for city ordinance. I briefly considered heading all the way to the beach, to stick my bag under the sand. I'd need to go a ways out to find sand deep enough that someone couldn't just dig it up in an hour or so if they found the metal in it or saw me bury it though, and the potential for rain before I was done made me think the chance of rainwater trying to force sand in wasn't worth it. Digging down into the sand to near or below sea-level was stupid, leaving things in saltwater was asking for it to be ruined.

It was fine either way. I could always keep an eye on the bag, in case someone found or messed with it. I took off my ceramic mask, since I didn't want to risk tying the straps up in my bun. Then I uncapped my water, took out the little mirror, and did my hair. It took a few tries to get it to work and not jostle itself loose with a little bent air. After replacing my outer mask, I took another look at the bun in the mirror. I rather liked that the lanyard-type straps I found for my masks were the same color as my hair. They easily attached to the little ringlets just inside the edge of the mask. The domino masks I got from Amy were white, but the straps for them were black, and only a little darker than my hair. I didn't really care if I had to undo my bun or cut the strap to get that one off, since I had no intention of unmasking before I was done anyway.

That done, the water went back in its thermos, which I levitated by the water inside it to put it back in its pocket. The mirror went in one pocket, while my phones came out of another. Then my civvie phone went in a pocket, before I dialed the PRT on my cape phone and started running. I was three blocks from my bag by the time the non-emergency line clicked over, and they gave me the usual greeting.

I slowed down, wandering closer to the edge of the roof. The next time I hopped, someone on the ground noticed, and I waved. "This is Terraform. I was thinking about doing some power training, would the PRT have any problem with me doing that near the Boardwalk, as long as everyone was safe?"

"One moment." The man said and started typing. Probably a memo to their Protectorate half. "How close to the Boardwalk, and what kind of training?"

I hummed in thought, pausing my walking, which also let the small but growing crowd train cameras up in my direction. "My original thought was on the quay, I could pull water up from the Bay, maybe make some fences from ice to keep people back, but nothing's stopping me from freezing the water and doing the practice a ways into the Bay." I shrugged, even though I knew he couldn't see it. "Maybe twenty, thirty feet out, then?" Eight to ten meters sounded about right, to me.

There was more typing. "Could you hold off for a bit, I'm waiting for confirmation from the top."

"Oh, I'm not there yet. I can probably draw the trip out to half an hour if I need to, or call it off." I shrugged and hopped to the next roof, easily managed with my stronger legs and a little airbending to drift a bit.

"Thank you, ma'am. Shouldn't be half an hour. That said, would you mind if I put you on hold for a few minutes?" I didn't mind, and said as much. Seven minutes of rooftop wandering and listening to elevator music later, he came back on the line. "Sorry for the wait, ma'am. You should be good, Director Piggot, Deputy Renick, and Miss Militia have all signed off on the powers display, as long as it stays on the water. I've been asked to remind you that the truce is expected to break down in the next week, two if we're lucky. Though, you should be fine if you keep to the Boardwalk in the future."

"Thanks for keeping me in the loop. I can't think of anything else I'd want to do for training, given my trouble at the Trainyard." I knew the truce wouldn't last forever, but it was nice to have a timetable.

"Oh, no. Thank you. The Directors have been much happier, since you've started keeping us apprised of your public appearances."

I didn't think I had made any appearances before I started calling them, but… no, they probably did include the Trainyard training, even though there wasn't anyone around until the Merchants showed up, and I hadn't had my proper costume then. "I'm happy to work with the PRT for the public's sake. I'd hate to cause a panic just because I need space to practice with my powers."

"Well, we would always make space for a Ward, if needed…" I gave him an unimpressed hum. "…but this does seem like a good alternative. Patrols have been informed, and we've sent notes to our call centers. Good hunting, miss Terraform."

I thanked him, and ended the call. Now that I knew I was definitely doing this, I turned away from the street and grabbed my civilian phone to send dad a quick text that I'd be out until at least when we normally had dinner, practicing. With everything squared away, the only thing left to do was to head to the spot and do the thing. I turned back to wave to the small crowd of cape geeks and tourists who'd been following along on the ground with their cameras. Free publicity, right? I pointed along the Boardwalk, then sped off in that direction, quickly eating the last few blocks to the open quay I'd scouted via earthbending. I leapt from the last building, coming down on the quay's railing, in a gap in the crowd. A little airbending slowed my descent enough to make it passably elegant, landing on one of the concrete rail posts.

By the time I turned back to the crowd, the few I'd startled had finished backing or skittering away. It wasn't terribly dense, maybe thirty people who'd been walking between stores, lounging and chatting, or tourists gawking at- or taking pictures framed by- the Protectorate HQ. They'd all stopped to stare though, and more people came from around the buildings. They'd already had places they were headed to and wandered into view, or saw the crowd's reaction and were curiously investigating. I could already see phones coming up, or people who'd had them out for pictures tapping their screens to swap to video.

Right. All the pressure. I brought my hand up for a little wave. "H-hi, everyone." They all kept staring. One of the few kids here with their parents waved back. I let my hand drop. "Uhm..." My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. Serious hero. Serious hero! "Right!" I projected my voice, which amounted mostly to shouting, as unpracticed with it as I was. "I was going to practice with my powers anyway, and figured people might like a show. However!" I brought my hand back up, pointing down at the stone pillars and metal fencing that made up the quay's safety rail. "Everyone needs to stay on this side of the rail! The PRT's going to be very unhappy with the both of us if you throw yourself in the bay. Be safe!" I turned back to the water, raising my hands and drawing a large bulge of water up out of the bay. My hands pressed down, flattening the top into a rectangle about three by ten meters, butting up against the concrete siding of the quay. Then I pushed my palms out, forcing the heat from the mass until all that remained was an eight by thirty foot block of ice a short drop down from the Boardwalk. I wasn't thrilled about standing on ice for hours, though. The last thing I wanted to do was slip and fall on camera because I forgot to keep the ice forced solid, or give myself frostbite because I had to keep the ice super-cold to prevent melting from body-heat and slipping... Ugh.

I swirled my hands, churning the water at the bottom of the bay, before pulling the thick silt-filled water up and into the air. This was then spread over the ice, before I pulled most of the moisture out of it, and froze what was left. The result was basically several inches of silty permafrost between the ice and the air. Figuring this was about as good as I was going to get, I hopped down onto it and spent several moments testing the grip and temperature. It was still really cold, but I thought I could work with it, and my feet didn't slide any. Satisfied, I repeated the process to form a beveled dais near the end, before I hopped up the slight slope and settled myself in the center of it, then gave a slow twirl as I inspected it, and nodded to myself. Almost perfectly flat, with at least a meter's clearance on either side from the center. I wasn't planning to move that much, but the leeway was nice.

My senses weren't reporting optimally, but I could still easily feel the nearby Boardwalk, and keep a metaphorical eye on my bag. Naturally this meant that when I turned my eyes back to the more permanent concrete quay, I was unsurprised to find the available standing room just behind the rails was already full. There wasn't much of a second row behind them yet, but that was only a matter of time. Almost half of them had their phones out now, though only a quarter or so had them pointed my way. After a couple seconds of trying to think of something else to say, I gave up. Instead, I gave a small bow, and turned back toward the bay.

I let my hands drift out in front of me, pinching my fingers as they passed waist height. As my hands continued upward, a pair of meter-thick columns started to draw themselves out of the bay. With a quick downward chopping motion, I split them in half, then took a step back, letting the motion of pulling my hands back to behind me roll down from my shoulders, through my spine, settling my weight on my back foot. This pulled half the original pillars behind me, until they settled into a square around me. I wanted to see how many I could control at once, so I started slowly spinning on the balls of my back foot, pulling the pillars into a helix starting from the tops. Once I had the whole thing spiraling around me, I started splitting them every couple seconds. 8, 16, 32, 64... 128... when I tried to split it again into nearly three hundred little strands, my control slipped and the whole thing flowed into a sphere around me.

If I had to guess, maybe two hundred separate parts of a single, larger whole? That seemed perfectly fine, for the moment. Now I had to wonder how many different things I could manage at once. I stopped my twirling motion and with it, the spinning of the water in the dome around me. I pulled it up, shrinking it into a large ring above me, which I then froze solid. I raised a hand to draw another, thinner stream of water from the bay, which threaded its way over, around, and through the ring of ice. When it was almost circling back on itself, I stopped drawing more from the bay, and started snipping off globs from the front of the stream into softball-sized spheres. These I sent off in different orbits around the ring, different speeds and distances, and opposing rotations. It was starting to get difficult at around 50 of them, not from any strain on my part, but because they kept crashing into each other and exploding. It was especially hard to keep the ones behind me that I couldn't see apart. I knew where I wanted them to be, but there must have been some hiccup between visualization and implementation. When I ran out of stream to snip apart, I started re-conglomerating the falling droplets into new spheres to add back in, instead of letting the water rain back into the bay.

Honestly, as I got better with it, I started crashing them together on purpose. The crowd seemed to like the glittery explosions more than the displays of precise coordination. I was glad the clouds had rolled in as fast as they had, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun for the onlookers with the harsh afternoon glare reflecting back in their eyes. I'd need to keep that in mind, if I decided to do this again. For all that it was getting easier though, I could tell the only reason I could even manage this much was because they were all moving in roughly the same direction. The soft steps, gentle sway of my spine and hips, and circuitous motions of my hands and arms... that only kept them all moving counter-clockwise around me. Even the ring of ice had started picking up a tiny bit of spin I hadn't intended, due to my focus on the spheres. The little motions, though- slight tweaks to trajectory or velocity within the greater flow- were a matter of willing it to happen while I maintained some control over them.

It was about twenty minutes, maybe half an hour, since starting on this, that I stopped. The crowd was starting to lose interest, and I'd learned what I'd wanted to from this exercise. The ring I'd been using to give myself a concrete frame of reference melted, the spheres flowing into it, and the whole mass swirling into a rough chaotic spiral before splitting in half and floating to either side in front of me. The right, I started to freeze, and melt, and refreeze into ever more elaborate snowflake shapes. The left I kept liquid, forcing the amorphous blob to float itself into various rough geometrical shapes.

A few minutes into this, my attention was broken by a shrill voice excitedly crying "Teddy!" and breaking through the din I'd been ignoring up until now. Most of the crowd had been talking amongst themselves, but a few had called out to me. This had me stopping though, considering the cone floating to my left, which had just ceased being a rectangle. Had the kid seen something I hadn't intended, in the shift? ...was there any reason I couldn't do animal shapes?

With that thought, I flowed the two masses back together, and tried to actually manage a proper bear shape. It... wasn't great, but for all I knew, I was being too critical of myself again. Slightly oblong spheroids for the head, muzzle, and ears. Pear-shaped body, and roughly cylindrical stubby limbs. No one could say it didn't look like a nearly transparent stuffed bear. I got a cheer and some polite clapping, and a little boy started loudly demanding dinosaurs. I supposed if there was anyone I didn't mind taking requests from, it was the kids. Might as well make their day, I thought with a smile.

My dinosaurs were even worse than the bear. They needed more detail, and I actually tried making them move, which didn't help any. Still, the kids were happy, and the crowd seemed impressed by life-sized obviously-fake replicas. The requests changed after that. Dogs, cats, birds... I was making a small herd of ponies gallop around my platform when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey! Do you do ice sculptures?" Assault shouted, grinning like a loon.

I let the ponies collapse into the bay. I'd only been able to manage six of them because I'd kept them all moving the same directions, and even though their legs moved under them, they were still moving with the same general 'flow' as their bodies, just at different angles or velocities. Still, that was pushing my limits a bit, and I was thankful for the excuse for a break, even if I'd never admit it. I turned a petulant glower his way, even though it was covered by my mask. He'd managed to slither his way through the crowd, and was standing just behind the rail off to the side a bit. Dauntless floated in the air next to him, on the bay side of the rail, giving me a sheepish smile.

"Just because I can, doesn't mean I should. If I made you something, I'd have to start making things for everyone else." The crowd's excitement started getting a tad rowdy at my words, so I raised my voice. "But! I don't feel comfortable with that. What if people hurt their hands holding ice for too long, or dropped it on their feet or something? It's not like they'd even last that long. It seems like a crummy trinket to give out at this sort of thing." The mood shifted negatively at that, people loved free shit, even if they couldn't keep it forever. "Maybe if I do a big earth training day or something, I can make things that'll last, for people." That seemed to mollify them, and I turned my attention back to Assault. "Why do you want to know, anyway?"

He kept grinning, but his insides tensed and twitched in a way that told me he was fighting down the urge to giggle. "Ehh," He shrugged. "Director seems like she needs her own personal honey badger, is all."

Hmm. I couldn't tell if he was mocking her by implying she needed a visit from a particularly vicious animal, or making some reference to her personality I just wasn't getting. I only knew Director Piggot by her reputation as a no-nonsense hardass. Even through all the jeers and lost faith in the Protectorate and PRT in the Bay, with their limited record for success with the city's abnormally well-entrenched gangs, very little of that was aimed her way. It probably had something to do with how bright and visible the Protectorate was in comparison to the PRT, everyone thought of the heroes first, in both success and failure, where the gangs were concerned. The cynic in me wanted to assume she was just a politician, good at deflecting bad press and failing upwards instead of getting fired... but that was probably unfair. My mind jumped back to Amy, calling Assault an asshole. Maybe that was all this was? Some jerk being an ass to his boss? Dauntless groaning and chastising him wasn't helping his case, any.

I missed what he said, absorbed as I was in my musing, but decided to press on. "So, are you both staying to watch, or...?"

Dauntless cut in, first. "Oh, no. We just swung by on our way in." He pointed off towards the north ferry dock, where the hardlight bridge connected the city and rig, when it was on. "Figured, ah... couldn't hurt to check on you." I couldn't feel his emotions, but my prior interactions with him left me thinking he was being sincere. They'd probably been on patrol in the south, or stopped a little out of their way, heading to the rig from the PRT building.

"You seem to be doing fine!" Assault cheered. "Though if you'd like to take a break-" oh geez, had he noticed? "-we could break out the sharpies and do autographs for a while. We were gonna' do a couple dozen anyway, for a nice crowd like this one." Dauntless sighed, but didn't disagree. Did I even want to do autographs? I knew that was a thing, but I hadn't thought to bring something to write with. Should I have practiced signing things? When would I have had the time? Doing that instead of homework before bed? Assault must've seen me shrink back a bit, as his grin faded. "D, stall?" He shot quietly at his partner, before hopping down onto my platform. Dauntless popped into the air, stutter-stopping to land on the other side of the crowd, where he called for people to start a line and pulled out a pen. Assault gingerly crossed to where I was, slowly growing to trust my makeshift quay's grip as he went. "Gonna' guess you haven't done autographs before?" He asked quietly after he hopped up to join me, turned away from the crowd so we wouldn't be overheard.

I heaved a sigh. He was way more observant than I was used to dealing with. "Haven't even practiced it, yet."

He winced. "Oof, sorry. Weeell, it's fine. It wasn't a priority, and it's like… 'How to Ward 203' anyway." He rolled his hand in front of his chest. He seemed to be a very physically engaged speaker, talking with his hands. "They spend something like a month figuring out names and image stuff, and memorizing the rules, before they start actually prepping for public appearances. Figure you're ahead of the curve." That wasn't nearly as reassuring as he was trying to make it sound. "Anyway, Cliff Notes version; you have a signature and an autograph. These are not the same thing. Autographs shouldn't look anything like your normal handwriting. …signatures either, if you can manage it, but cape secrets and all. Handwriting can be traced, and anyone can look up your autograph when you start giving it out." I was honestly a little surprised by how seriously he was taking this. "The best thing you can do for now is either pin a gaff on me and dodge out entirely, or just focus on making your autograph as not-yours as possible for now. It doesn't have to be consistent, fans are happy with a barely legible scribble. More important they can't use it to trace your handwriting, or forge your signature." That sounded like generic 'famous person' advice, but it made sense for capes, too.

"I think... I should try it." I didn't want to disappoint the crowd, even if I could manage to give myself an out from signing things, like he'd said. And this was something that I'd have to deal with eventually, right? "It'll be good experience for the future, but..."

He dug into his kit and held out a red 'Assault' themed marker. Because of course he did. He seemed to detect the glower I sent his way, but it only made his grin wider. "Asshole." I muttered.

When he was done laughing, he held out the rest. Battery blue, camo olive green for Miss Militia, a darker red for Velocity, plus bronze, silver, and gold gel-markers for Dauntless, Armsmaster, and Triumph. "Y'know, people keep messing up my name that same way, and I have no idea why." He chirped happily.

"I'm sure you don't." In the end, I took the Armsmaster one. I was pretty sure it was the exact same pen he'd used to sign my baton, the last time I'd seen him. I handed back his own comparatively pink marker. "Anything else I should know?"

He shrugged. "Couple Wards patrols out today. They might stop by, too. Aside from that? Don't sign anyone's butt. That's just weird."

I punched him in the shoulder, but he just chuckled and rocked back slightly. "What, boobs are okay?"

"Everyone likes boobs." He quietly cheered, before leading the way back to the boardwalk. I grumbled and fumed, but didn't think telling Assault I wasn't gay, or that I took offense to the hints at being flat, helped my secret identity or my image for the crowd. He waved the few people who'd stayed focused on us away from the railing, and he hopped up into the space they cleared. Then he whistled. "Hey, Dauntless!"

I hopped up after, and Assault started calling for lines for us. Dauntless started making his way over, and the pair settled in to bracketing me on either side, limiting how much of the crowd could swarm me at once, which I appreciated. Thankfully the crowd wasn't nearly rowdy enough to have me signing body parts, though I did get a couple requests to sign the shirts people were wearing. I decided to use a blocky print for my autographs, for now. I didn't really trust myself not to slip into my normal writing style if I tried anything else. I was fairly proud of how well I could write, given mom started teaching me early, and always complemented me on it. Not that having nice handwriting has helped any, the past couple years... but I'd take every little bit of pride in myself I could manage.

I'd figured on giving myself half an hour for autographs, then getting back to practice. It was about twenty minutes in that I realized something was odd with someone in line. I could imagine being bored in line for someone else, a couple parents and a teenager with a cape geek friend had already passed through my line as examples, but this boy seemed more... muted, than actually blank. He was frustrated, like bored people were, but the small flashes of other emotions I expected weren't there. Instead there was just a dull smugness and self-satisfaction. Amusement with no joy or glee. My brain stalled when he finally made it to the front of the line. "Could you make it out to 'Lisa'? I want to rub this in her face."

He was about my age, and smiling. It was a pretty smile, beautiful even. I immediately hated how much prettier his smile was than my own over-wide frog mouth could manage. When he said her name though, the pieces fell together in my head. Lisa wasn't a rare name, but how many emotionally dysfunctional boys would know girls by it? No, I cursed silently to myself. This was probably Regent. He was holding out a white shirt, the fine material making me think of it as more of a blouse than anything I'd expect a boy to wear, despite the male cut. He'd drawn it out of a paper shopping bag full of similarly higher-end clothes. His smile seemed frozen in place, even as I felt the tendrils of suspicion creeping through him at my increasingly awkward staring. Right, shit. I think I flinched, before gently taking the soft cloth from his hand. "To Lisa, then." I didn't bother scrawling any platitudes on it. Just 'To Lisa, Terraform' in two lines. "Thank you for coming by."

His mood was still wary, but that smug self-satisfaction flared a little. "Any time, babe." He took the shirt and left, not even bothering to look at the autograph before slipping the shirt back in his bag. This whole situation was... very weird.

After that, I felt done with signing things, for now. "Alright, I think... six more, and I'll go back to practicing." The next group with a kid was six places back. There were groans and cries at my words. "I'll do another round of signing before I leave. How about that?"

Assault laughed, to my left. "Don't let them dictate terms, or you'll be here 'till Thursday. If you do another go, set yourself a timer or something. Then call it a day." He scribbled down another autograph with his Triumph Gold marker.

"Twenty, thirty minutes, at most. Don't let yourself become overwhelmed if it's just you." Dauntless added from my right, taking an autograph book from what looked to be a cape tourist, signing his own appellation down with a more reasonable generic black permanent marker.

"Right, thanks." I said, getting back to the line in front of me. While I was talking with them and signing things, I was also keeping my senses pinned on Regent as he left my field of view. I wasn't going to just let him leave unobserved, when it took so little effort to do so. My range was going to take a hit when I went back to practice, but as long as he stayed on the Boardwalk? I wouldn't even have to change my schedule to track him down later.

A few minutes and six autographs later, I backed myself against the rail again to bring the two Protectorate capes into my field of view. "Thanks again, guys."

"No trouble at all." Assault said, finishing up. "You heard the lady, sorry, sorry! Time's up." He turned back to me. "See you 'round, kid."

Dauntless chuckled at his partner's enthusiasm. "It was good seeing you again, Terra."

I gave them a small wave, and Assault reached out a hand to clasp Dauntless' arm. The flier hopped them into the air, before jumping them over to the roof of the shop just to the north. Assault fell the short ways to the roof proper, turned back and gave a gigantic stupid-looking wave. "Later, e'rrybody! See ya' soon!" Then hopped away to follow after Dauntless, who'd flown ahead.

I couldn't help but snort, biting down giggles at his antics. "Oh well, back to practice." I put a hand on the rail and hopped over it, taking my walk back to my little dais slowly to make sure I could keep Regent and Assault in my 'sight' as long as possible. I didn't have any trouble with it, Assault easy enough to keep track of, running along the rooftops, and Regent having slipped into an electronics store. People were coming and going from the crowd, and I could still detect everyone who'd gotten autographs, on top of everyone else. Everything on this half of the Boardwalk. Might as well practice with that too, while I was here, right?

With that, I pulled streamers from the bay, starting five circles swirling lopsidedly around me. The 'petals' closed up around me, the streamers swirling into each other before breaking into a new pattern of swirls and rings around me. I wasn't too worried about what they wound up looking like, just making sure to shift into new patterns with at least a few different parts every couple seconds. I knew my limits now, I just had to keep pushing myself to just under them, for now.

The sun set behind me not long into my second stint of practice. There were more than enough lights around the Boardwalk and on the quay for myself and anyone that wanted to stick around to see what I was doing, though. I figured half an hour there, maybe an hour after sunset by now, it was probably around seven. If I stopped soon, took half an hour for more autographs, I could be home around eight and-

"H-hey, Ter-"

I was already throwing myself to the left with an airburst, landing sliding along the bay as ice formed under me. My momentum took me around as I forced the ice into a curved ramp, bringing me back around to see... Aegis and Kid Win, the latter rocked back on his board in shock, hand still raised in greeting.

Maybe... I was getting too absorbed in training and tracking people. I dropped my aggressive stance, slumping into a tired stagger before throwing myself back up onto my platform with a waterspout. The ice I'd just formed collapsed into water behind me. I pointed up at them with an admonishing finger. "Don't sneak up on me!" I snapped. Kid started stammering out apologies while Aegis glared my way. I heaved out a sigh. "Sorry, I'm sorry. I don't handle surprises well." I motioned back to the previously thinning crowd almost thirty feet away, and then back up at them, barely fifteen feet away and floating above the height I'd been keeping my water at. "You're a lot closer than I thought anyone was, too." I really didn't want to let on that the real reason was because they were flying and I couldn't sense them coming.

"Well, no harm done." Aegis stated diplomatically. "We'll... remember to get your attention from farther back, in the future."

I waved it off. "No, it's... ah, thanks. I'd appreciate it. I'm just tired, I think. Had an eventful morning, and spent the last..." I grabbed my cape phone to check the time; 7:24. "Three and a half hours training."

"Oof, yeah." Aegis nodded along. "That'd do it. We were just stopping by, wanted to say hi."

"I, uhh..." Kid stammered a little, before visibly swallowing. "I wanted to see how you were doing, after..."

Right. He'd been the only Brockton Ward at Canberra. I waved them closer, not wanting to shout our conversation where the cameras could pick it up. A wave of my hand had a stream of water leap from the bay and shape itself into a blocky, rudimentary throne of ice that I plopped myself down in. Between my pants and the bottom of my coat, I had a good two or three centimeters of fabric between my butt and the ice, so it wasn't that cold. Certainly not enough to dissuade me resting a bit while coming down off my adrenaline spike. The pair floated down, Aegis taking a slow straight path to land on my little dais, while Kid slipped to the side, his board sending him in a rocking chicane as he quickly dropped height before coasting over.

"You want a seat?" I asked after both had landed. Both politely declined, so I waved them a little closer, skidding a foot to send my seat grinding around about forty degrees closer to pointing away from the Boardwalk. I didn't want my voice to carry, but also didn't want to look like I was completely hiding from view. "You look better." I said to Kid, after they stopped only a couple feet away.

"I, uh… yeah." He muttered. "Doing better. Had a few days off. I just…" His emotions were fairly complicated. There was a mix of things, joy, frustration, agitation, his heart was beating and I could see a bit of blush peeking out from the bottom of his visor. The majority of his mood though? A sense of shame. "I'm sorry for just leaving you guys, when…"

"No, don't." I said, sitting up a bit more and waving a hand in a 'cut that out' motion. "We were all fine, I don't blame you for taking care of yourself. I might've done more work, but I think you had the harder job." Unlike me, he would've had to actually interact with people, warning them back, forcing them to stay, even if he would've stayed away in the air for it. I didn't have any trouble keeping from dipping into the panic and stress and existential horror that plagued the people of Canberra after the attack, unlike him. "I'm just glad you're feeling better. I'm a little surprised they have you back to patrolling so soon, even."

"Oh!" He'd gotten a bit introspective at my words, then perked up a bit at my concern. "They can't make me do anything until next week. I volunteered. I, uh… can't stay in and tinker for too many days in a row, or I get yelled at. It was either go home or patrol, so…"

When he didn't continue, I hummed thoughtfully. "You don't want to go home? Are you okay?"

He grunted in confusion before he got it. "Oh, no. I'm fine. Home is fine, my parents are great, it's just… complicated."

Aegis dropped a hand on his shoulder to stop him, then turned back to me. "That's a little rude to ask."

"Sorry." I said, shaking my head. "As long as everyone's safe, I won't pry. I felt I had to make sure, though."

He stared, scrutinizing me for a few long seconds, before he nodded. "I get that, but it's still a bit too close to trying to unmask someone." His mood shifted abruptly- at least it seemed that way to me- from wary and agitated, nearly hostile, to confusion, indecision, curiosity, and... hunger? Then settled on various flavors of caution and amusement. "So, Dauntless and Assault stopped by earlier, right? How'd that go?"

Oh, he'd been trying to change the subject. Had to remember that I couldn't trust my emotion sensing completely with him. What'd he do, shift more of his hormone production to his large intestine? I shook my head to clear my musings. "It went well. We stopped to do some signatures, and they helped keep me from getting overwhelmed, my first time. Met some interesting people." ...what the hell was Regent doing in a lingerie store? "I, uh..." I grabbed the Armsmaster marker from my pocket. "I might have kept his pen? Is that weird?"

"Don't tell Battery." Kid muttered, getting a soft elbow nudge from his partner.

"Nah, no one's gonna' miss a marker." Aegis answered more seriously. "We're supposed to keep a few on us, and we get a little budget for PR things like that. If he blows his on novelty stuff and then loses them, it's on him."

I chuckled. That seemed like him, yeah. "So you do a lot of PR stuff? What do you spend that budget on, besides pens?"

"Runs a bit of a gamut. Wards patrols are technically PR things, since they're supposed to be safe areas where we can't get into fights. Brockton's just..." He shook his head and sighed. "Anyway, we do signings, show up at charity events to draw bigger crowds for them, help out around the city in ways our powers are uniquely suited for, show up at community centers for events... Most of it's just the patrols, though. And the budget..." He pondered how to answer for a couple seconds. "Budget's just a budget. You spend money and sign it off, send it up the chain for approval, usually it goes through instead of coming out of our paychecks. This one's just... materials we might need for events, or things that make us look good, or more 'normal' or 'human', you know? If a kid drops his ice cream and I bought him a new one, I could probably get that signed off to the PR budget." He hummed, trying to think. I frowned behind my mask. That seemed... it made the little bits of heroism feel a little cheaper. I didn't like it. "I dunno, it's always just been markers. Maybe getting pictures printed or something else, for something to sign and hand out on patrols? The big events cover that stuff anyway."

I wanted to change the subject. I didn't want heroes being nice to start feeling dirty, so I grasped at something else he'd said. "Patrols are PR things? So, if... I've heard Glory Girl sometimes goes along for those. If an independent wanted to tag along, that'd be fine?"

He seemed a bit flat-footed, frowning and tensing up as he thought. "It's... usually a case-by-case thing. In bigger cities, they have protocols for it, smaller cities don't have as many capes period to ask, and most cities our size don't chew through indies as fast as Brockton does." He shook his head to give himself another second. "It's really just GG, or people like me or Win who were thinking of joining up, and then do." He thumbed a hand at the Tinker, who nodded along. "I don't think there'd be any problems if you wanted to, though?"

"Any requests?" Kid Win piped in, causing us to glance his way. "For like, who or when?"

Aegis gave him a warning look, while I looked away to give the question a bit of actual thought. "Maybe Vista?" They turned back my way, Kid feeling disappointed, while Aegis had a flare of protective worry among other angrier emotions I couldn't pin down. "She's been a Ward the longest, right? She must know a lot about being a hero, especially a female hero."

That had his emotions shuffling, as he considered it. "I think Militia or Battery would be better for that, but... I can ask, at least." Aegis shrugged. "I certainly don't have any say over their schedules... Later this week fine?"

I took a moment to debate telling them I was busy Tuesday and Friday. I didn't think they'd schedule something during school, or in the mornings when I'd been meeting Dinah lately... everything else coming up I could reschedule around the patrol. "Sure. I can let you know if I'm busy. Do you need my number, or can you get it from the call center? I know my cape phone's on file with the PRT."

He shrugged and grabbed a pad and pen. "Might as well, saves me a call later." I gave my number, and he scribbled it down. "So, what's your plan now?"

Operation: Stalking Villains was still go, Regent looking at bedsheets now for some reason, after stopping in at one of the bath shops. I wasn't going to tell them about that, though. "Another round of signing, then heading home. Dinner, homework, maybe start on a new book if I'm caught up already." I shrugged, standing up and thumbing back at the quay. "Did you want to stick around for that? I'm supposed to give it half an hour, tops, and then head out."

They glanced at each other, Aegis unsure until he saw Win nodding excitedly. "Yeah, I can clock an extra half hour."

"Got an alarm set." Kid added cheerfully. Must've been a tinker thing, in the visor maybe? I shrugged and motioned, before leading the way back across the platform. When we were halfway there, I stopped to thrust my fist upward, raising a set of stairs out of the ice and silt. It was a simple matter of walking up and hopping down over the railing, Kid Win following, while Aegis just floated up and over. A simple motion and the entire platform's ice turned liquid again, slowly lowering itself into the bay until only the slight murk from the silt atop it remained to slowly fade as it sank.

I was starting to get better at this, I felt. I managed almost four dozen autographs in the span of that half hour. Regent had left the Boardwalk about ten minutes into it, and was heading through some of the less opulent areas in the Docks, between the coast and the residential sprawl. I didn't know where he was heading, but it wouldn't take any time to catch up. I thanked the boys for their time, and they headed off flying to the southwest, where the PRT building was. Instead of trying to press through the remaining crowd or leap over them to the rooftops, I absconded into the Bay, formed a board of ice, and sped northward.

Less than a minute later I vaulted from the bay onto the pier for the north ferry station, heading up onto the rooftops from there to head inland a bit, before swinging south. Regent made for a fairly unique sight, striding confidently down the street laden with shopping bags. I dropped into an alleyway just before he passed in front of it, and called; "Regent."

He stopped, tensing for a moment before his head lolled in my direction. His brow quirked at the sight of me, and he sighed. I felt it then, a slight tingle along my arms and legs, starting in my fingers and toes. It felt a bit like Sabah's power, only slower and much deeper. "I knew I should've just stolen the damned car..." He muttered, then turned and headed into the alley, stopping just inside to set down his bags. "Well, it's not every day I find myself with a new stalker. So then, your place or mine?"

I was so focused on the feeling of his power trying to take hold, I blanked on his words. "...what?" I hissed.

Regent rolled his eyes. "You obviously want something, and far be it for a gentleman to turn a lady down. I mean, we could do it here," He made a show of glancing around at the trash and grime lining the space. "-but it's a little dirty, don't you think?"

The growl tore itself out before I could stop it. No, he was wary and amused, and nothing else. It took me longer than I liked to figure out that he was just riling me up. The tingles continued to creep up my arms, but so long as it didn't try to affect my brain or spine, I could put him down easily enough. If I let on I could detect his power, I had no idea what he'd do with it. "I'm not here for sex." I snarled. He started on some quip, but I cut him off. "You know Tattletale."

"I do." He drawled. Ugh, this was such a bad idea. First I wanted to make sure I was right, then maybe see if he could tell Tattletale to hurry up and call already, so that I could start planning what to do with them. I'd gotten impatient, then frustrated. "You know, she's probably at the loft, if you want to say hi." He pointed a thumb off generally westward.

"Your... base? Home?" I asked, and he nodded. "...why would you lead me there?"

He rolled his eyes again, and gave me a disdainful, nearly disgusted look. "You obviously have some way to track me. Your little show was still going on when I left. And since I'm not ditching my new shit," He waved at the bags. "-and going shopping again tomorrow just to maybe throw you off, you're going to find it anyway. So, why should I care?" He finished with an exaggerated shrug.

Well, when he put it that way, it made a lazy sort of sense. "I'm sorry, about that."

"No, you're not." He stated with a smirk.

I hummed, and clicked my tongue. "No, I'm not." I acceded. "Would you mind letting her know, and reminding her to call me?"

"Ooooh..." He grinned. "Hot date with a limp fish?" I just tilted my head and let my mask stare imperiously. "Tough crowd. Fiiine, I'll let your girlfriend know she's in the dog house." He snickered to himself, then raised his arm in front of him, showing off a sparkly new-looking watch. "Now, was that everything? I'm due at the club in an hour."

"Yes." I stated, forcing my voice to stay neutral. "That was, in fact, everything."

He gave a jaunty wave, picked up his bags, and wandered off, whistling a chipper tune. I watched him go, listened to the sound fade away, all while staring out of the alleyway. "I don't think I like him." I muttered to myself, then heaved a sigh. I raised a fist, unclenching and reclenching the fingers. The tingling from his power was taking longer to fade than I liked, but I was able to focus and help my body along purging the influence. After that, I wall-hopped to the roof, headed back to pick up my bag, and went home.

I did follow him back to his home base with my senses, though. Because he was right. I was really never not going to figure out where that was.