48

Summary:

Long time. Lots of shit going wrong in my life, lots of writer's block and depression.

Still, been too long. Had to get this out as soon as I could. Now to actually go back and remember everything ELSE that was going on in this story. XD

Chapter Text

FRI MAR 4

'Don't look for me'

I kept staring down at the words as the terror flooded my veins, bringing ice and adrenaline with it. I kept staring until my hands started shaking too much for my eyes to properly resolve the letters. I let the fear flare into rage at how poorly I was handling this, before stomping all of it out and reasserting control.

First, and most obviously, I had to check. 'What's wrong? Are you okay?' I sent back.

Then I called Dinah.

"Taylor? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dinah. Not even a scratch." That thought had me slip one of my tonfa out of my belt. Smacky had definitely seen better days, having taken a deep gouge that split a chunk of her varnished exterior off when Lee's knife proved to be far sturdier, when I'd used it to drag him along by his deathgrip. "My gear's going to need touching up, though. That's not why I'm calling." I took a beat to breathe before I spat it out. "Rune's in trouble. She sent me a sketchy text, and I think the Empire knows the ABB's lost at least one or two capes. Maybe they know we caught all three. My contacts are convinced the Empire's going to be moving in soon, and I'm thinking they've either caught on that Rune's on our side, or she was part of their plans to hit the ABB and didn't show. I told her to run if they had her doing anything too bad, like killing people." I'd told her to go to ground, either at my house, going to Tukson's for help, or maybe even New Wave. Her message left me unsure what she was thinking, however. "I need to see if she's safe."

"Well, my usual chance of injury or fighting questions came back normal..." She offered.

"Which is actually a bit weird, considering what just happened with the ABB." I replied, pacing around the alley a bit, in thought. "It should be higher, if they're going to be moving... can I ask some things?"

"Sure."

"What're the odds that looking for her keeps her safer than not?"

"24%" Hmm. Maybe it'd draw too much attention?

"What're the odds that finding her keeps her safer?"

"63%" Damn.

"Chances we'll find her today, if we don't bother looking for her?"

"88%" I let out a little sigh. Okay, she's on her way to meet up somewhere after all.

"Chances she'll be safe until we do?"

"90%" The rest of the tension flowed away.

"Alright." I sighed out. Then I sucked in another breath and turned my thoughts back to the crisis at hand. "Now on to the Empire. Odds they'll do something today, with the state of the ABB?"

Dinah groaned. "98%"

"That high?" I muttered in surprise. "And it's for them attacking?"

"That's not what you asked." She flatly responded.

Now that I thought about it, that question had been rather open-ended. Even just doing nothing would count, as long as it was an intentionally planned response. "Sorry."

"It's fine, just make sure you actually mean what you say. I can't read minds, and I don't think my power can, either."

I wasn't sure how to feel about new snippy Dinah. On the one hand, it was good to see her feeling confident enough to say those things. On the other, I hated snark when I felt stressed. "Right." Just let her have this, it was good for her. A dressing down could wait for if she started doing it when lives were on the line. "Empire's mobilizing, aren't they? At least some of them are arming up, heading to rallies, or grouping up to protect stockpiles and such?"

She took almost a minute to reply. "92%, 88%, 63%, for some of them today. Lower for the whole gang. I asked about the capes, but they were low, except for an 80% that they were going to be protecting things."

"They... might be scared of an immediate attack, with Legend in town. Turtling up." I mused out loud.

"Legend is here?" She chirped, excitedly.

Sometimes I forgot that Dinah was twelve. "Yeah, he is." I chuckled. "Do you want an autograph? I might be able to ask, here in a bit."

"No, it's fine." She quickly stuttered.

"Is this about people knowing you exist, or not wanting to put me out about it?" I was trying to tease her a little, but the other point was pretty valid. I hushed my voice to a gentler tone. "I'm pretty sure Legend wouldn't put you in any reports if I asked, and he'd probably appreciate knowing a Thinker is avoiding the Wards due to power warnings. People can do things from the top down that they can't from the bottom up, after all."

"I'll... get back to you." She hesitantly replied. "I need to think on it."

I nodded, despite the phone. "Alright. Last question?" She hummed assent, and I continued. "Offense or defense? Should we try to build up and get ready, or strike out and try to keep them off balance?"

"Do we have a way to... strike out?"

I grinned. "I know some people who know some things. I might text you addresses or something to check in a bit, if I can get ahold of anything."

She gave a hum. "Give me a sec." I obliged, quietly listening to the bits of muttering her phone managed to catch. "It should be safe enough, and the numbers skew a little towards going now."

I showed perhaps a few too many teeth at that, hidden by my mask as they were. "Great. Give me a few minutes, I'll try to get some addresses. I'd appreciate questions on whether we'd find actual stockpiles of guns, drugs, money, or... say, five or more gangers we'd capture by showing up? An 'odds for any of those' should do, and might cut down on questions."

"I can do that."

We said our goodbyes and stay safes, and I redialed Sue. It took her a while to answer, and when she did, it was a curt "What?"

"The fight's over." I quickly replied, and the rustling on the other end died down. "But you're right. The Empire's probably going to try something when they find out."

"Terra." She muttered, a sound of realization and relief. "Are you alright? What's the damage?"

"I'm fine, just a few bits of gear damaged doing their jobs. There's two blocks that might be entirely unsalvageable, and another eight with damage along the streets. No hero injuries, all three ABB capes captured. Would have been worse, but Legend's here."

"All... three?" The words were breathy and confused. "You got..." She seemed to shake herself back to her senses. "You're right. The Empire can't let this opportunity go. They'll be looking to expand... maybe hit the PRT, either pre-emptively, or to put Lung down. Maybe both." She was thinking out loud again.

"Hey," I cut in, "I was wondering, you know things about the Empire, right? We're thinking of going on the offensive, keep them backing up and on their toes, so they'll think twice about rushing in. Do you have any locations we could hit? Stockpiles, stashes, rally points?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for several seconds. "We do." Sue hesitantly replied. "It might be out of date, and there might be capes there."

"That's fine, we can deal with a few duds or capes." I quickly answered.

"We?"

"I... was going to ask Glory Girl to come with me?

I was sure the syllables spurted next were some sort of swear, followed by "-at least she's learning."

"Not that bad..." I muttered.

She made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. "But yes, give me a minute to get the books. Do you have something to write with?"

I thought about it for a second. I really should start bringing proper non-fighting kit along with me, shouldn't I? Maybe a nice satchel pouch somewhere on the belt? Thoughts for later. "I can put you on speaker and type them out into a text to the team." Well, to Dinah, but that counted.

It took a bit, but she found her papers. Her reading and me typing took a few minutes, but then I had six addresses to send along. "Thanks for the help."

She hesitated. "Of course, dear."

I didn't really want to spend the time speculating on what that might be about, so I decided to move on. "Well, I should jump on these asap."

A small bark of laughter. "Good hunting, then."

After hanging up, I sent the message off to Dinah. Then I brought up Vicky's number and hit call.

"H'yello." She started, and I could hear some mild chaos in the background.

"Hey, Vicky."

"GG, it's hero time." She shot back.

Right, probably not weird to want to be called by cape names while caping... "Glory Girl, sorry. Hey, you wanna punch some Nazis?"

"Oh hell the fuck yes. When and where?"

"Not sure. Sent a bunch of possible hits off to Shatterpoint, hopefully we'll have some good prospects in a little bit. Just wanted to make sure you knew, and were invited, before I actually got started."

"I dig it." She said, then a moment later let out a shrill noise that had me pulling the phone away from my ear. "Ooh! Do you mind if I invite my cousins along?"

I had to pause to process the quiet but excited request. I pulled the phone closer so I could speak and hear better, again. "Yeah, that should be fine. I guess... we'll avoid talking about the team in the context of you being on it, for now?"

Vicky huffed irritably. "We can probably talk to Aunt Sarah over the weekend, maybe Sunday. All this secrecy crap is stupid, especially with family."

"It's still better to intentionally open dialogue at a good time for it, I don't want this to wind up going badly for you and Amy." I diplomatically broached. Though I had to admit, I was getting a little tired of it, too. After the chaos of today, it kind of felt like we'd been tiptoeing around this stuff for months.

"I know." She groaned. A few seconds later, she added, "I'll meet you... at the intersection, I guess?"

"Sure, see you in a sec." Then I hung up and started walking.

Well, it was already a hell of a Friday. Might as well make the most of it. That thought had me pausing, and grabbing my civilian phone. It only took a few rings for Kara to answer with a chipper greeting. Then I dropped the news. "Hey, don't know if you've heard yet, but there were explosions and a running fight down in gangland, by the slums. I don't think it's safe to run around today, so I'm going to get dad to let me stay home." Oh, fuck. Dad. I needed to send him a text when I was done with this. Problems for later. I took a steadying breath and continued. "So, I'm not going to be able to run the thing, today."

"Well, shit. You're alright, though, right?"

I couldn't help but smile at the concern in her tone. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a really bad feeling about today. It's probably nothing, but I can spare the attendance hit." My record with Arcadia had been pretty spotless, so far.

She made a worried noise, and clicked her tongue. "I'll let everyone know, the Bay's a bad place not to trust your gut. Thanks for letting me know." We said our goodbyes, and then I started on that text.

'Skipping school to hero. I'll be with a good chunk of New Wave today.' I... was sure the Lung thing could wait until I could tell him in person. This was fine. Everything was fine.

After that, most of the way to the intersection, I finally heard back from Dinah. Her powers told her that four of the six places actually had something worth stopping for, and she didn't find a particularly high chance of capes at any of them. It made me wonder if Sue had held back anything important enough that it would warrant capes... but this was better than nothing. The second, shorter half of her message said that she'd given it some thought, and it would be okay if Legend knew a little bit about her.

The three combat-active Young Wave capes were already waiting by the time I got there, and I got the feeling they were being patient with me, since I'd had my phone out for a good chunk of the easily visible trek. I took a steadying breath and stepped up to meet them.

"Uh, hi." Vicky rolled her eyes at me, and Shielder gave a little wave. Laserdream seemed to be the least keen on whatever I had planned, or she had one of 'those' resting faces. I winced and visibly flinched back a bit, stuttering a little over what I was trying to say next. "Um, one last thing, before we go? Is Legend around?"

"Yeah, back that way." Vicky thumbed back over her shoulder. "Why?"

No time like the present, I suppose. I tried to put a bit more steel into my voice. "I was talking with Shatterpoint earlier. I'm supposed to pass something along, if I can."

"Oh, yeah. I'm sure you can flag him down pretty quick." I took that as leave to jog on past them.

"Shatterpoint?" I heard Laserdream quietly ask behind me.

"Thinker." Vicky replied. Oh good, they appeared to be following me. No pressure.

I found him amidst a rather eclectic crowd. It looked like the rubberneckers were starting to flock in, mixing into the recent rescue-ees and circling the shiniest carcass around. ...which was a terrible thing to think about Legend, but it fit the vultures to a T. I waved, and true to Vicky's words, he seemed to catch the motion almost instantly. When I pointed up to a nearby roof for privacy, he inclined his head and started work disentangling himself from the masses.

This meant I was up there first, with the cousins catching up and starting to settle in, by the time he made it. "What do you need? Loose ends to tie up?" He waved over at the situation at hand.

"No, I just..." Deep breath, it's just Legend. "I had a message, that a teammate asked me to pass along. It... might need some context." He nodded, his stance settling into patient attention. "I'm starting a team, but the impetus for doing so was meeting a younger cape, who said that her powers told her she'd be much safer in a team. But when I suggested the Wards..." I took a moment to physically swallow what nerves I could. "She said that her powers thought that would be as bad, or worse, than doing nothing. She didn't feel safe there. I asked, and... she said it was okay to tell you, trust you to be discreet." His mask was just flexible enough that I could see his brow furrowing, as his eyes narrowed. Hastily, I added, "I'm not sure what you can actually do about it, but I thought it was better to know than not? For everyone's safety?"

He crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. Young Wave shared glances behind me, but didn't feel like cutting in. After a few moments, he nodded. "Thank you for telling me. I can look into it. Was there anything else?"

I glanced to the side. "Is... Aren't the Wards supposed to be safe? Why would she feel so sure she'd be kidnapped, if she joined?"

Legend grimaced. "Safe is relative." He held up his hand and shook his head, to forestall immediate inquiries. "Can I trust you to be discreet?" He asked, steel in his eyes and a hint of danger lacing his tone.

On one hand, tit for tat. I could understand a bit of give and take... but on the other, my mind cut back to Amy, insisting I never fuck with the PRT. Even if I did say anything, what would come of it? My meager presence and fame, dwarfed to insignificance by the PR engine backing the government hero organizations. My story would find itself buried, myself not far behind it, likely as a simple matter of routine.

The only valid answer was, "Of course, I won't tell anyone." I imagined the others were thinking along the same lines, when his gaze panned over each of them, and they iterated similar declarations.

He nodded. "The Wards program is, usually, incredibly safe. Most regions manage to keep them to minimal combat, if any... and very few people are willing to cross the Protectorate by directly targeting someone. This... is not the same as saying it doesn't happen, though." I could feel genuine pain in the sigh that followed. "Not counting relatively harmless combat mishaps, or swiftly resolved matters in civilian identities... I believe there were thirteen Wards confirmed to be abducted. I want to say it's a good record given the span of the program, but..." He shook his head. "Several of them by groups that were exterminated for doing so, but the rest were taken by the Fallen. It's... difficult, to target them directly, due to their high number of Human Masters. They're not known to be active in New England, though..." His eyes grew flinty as he looked over us again. "But if any of you find yourselves targeted by them, don't hold back. The only reasons they- and others, like Heartbreaker and the Butcher- aren't given Kill Orders, is because anyone trying to collect on the bounty is far too likely to wind up working with them, which rather defeats the point."

That was... I suppose that made sense. It didn't explain why someone like Heartbreaker wasn't taken out by a sniper, or why they didn't use drones or machines... but they'd probably tried, or had reasons they weren't. "How many Wards are there? For context." I asked, rather than voice my other thoughts.

He chuckled. "I'm not up to date on the hard numbers, but I'd guess just under six hundred? It was 536 last year, and I've been told recruitment is up, but there's also those aging out of the program, and other factors." He gave a broad, proud smile. "More than ten thousand Wards have safely graduated to the Protectorate or independent careers, over the years."

Something about those numbers felt off. Ten thousand heroes? And the implication that there are more, who joined straight to the Protectorate, or skipped straight to independent or corporate. If all these heroes existed, then where the hell are they? They couldn't spare an extra dozen for Brockton Bay? I shook the thought away. It wasn't helpful, and he still seemed honest. That might stop if I kept pressing.

"Thank you." I said, instead. "For the information, and your time."

"And the help!" Vicky chipped in, grinning and tilting her head back at the damage. I suppose that was fair. He didn't have to show up. Didn't need to help. I guess I should be grateful for that, at least. I'm not sure how well I could have handled fighting Lung directly, or how long I'd have managed to run and dodge if I kept chasing Bakuda. His intervention might be the only reason I was still alive, and almost certainly kept me from injury...

"Yes, again, thank you." I added, with a nod that might have been closer to a slight bow, to try and convey sincerity through the mask.

He laughed, a quiet but jubilant sound. "No need, but you're welcome. Was there anything else?"

I wracked my brain, and went back over my conversation with Dinah. "Ah, well..." He nodded, encouragingly. I pushed through the embarrassment. "I... may have promised my teammate an autograph, if I could manage it."

He blinked, barked a short laugh, and dug into his pockets for some small photographs and a marker. "Shatterpoint, right?" I nodded, and he started scribbling. First one, then a second. He moved up to hold them out to me. "Anyone else?"

It was hard to pay attention to the others getting their own, once I was inspecting the pair I'd been given. For Shatterpoint... and Terraform. I stared for a bit at the short but personalized autograph, to my hero persona, from Legend. Words from the man himself brought me back to reality.

"Well, I still need to hash out who's turning in after-action reports to whom, with Armsmaster. He's a good guy, you can trust him." Legend lifted off, and started drifting. "And remember, team leaders have ways of kicking things straight to the top, if they need to." If I needed him, or wanted to pass on more information, I could just tell Armsmaster. "Good luck, and stay safe!" With that, he started accelerating in earnest.

"Sooo..."

Right. I had company. I spun around to face them. "Right! Sorry. I just... wanted to make sure I got that done, before I missed the chance." I gave a little bow, and did my best not to stutter. "So... I'm Terraform."

"Shielder." Eric said, raising a hand in greeting.

"Laserdream." The young woman added with a touch of hesitance in her voice. I guess the situation still had her rattled a bit. The other two seemed to be handling things better, and there were a few reasons that might be. She could have less experience, worse emotional control, more nervous personality, terrible poker face... I didn't want to make assumptions, though.

"You mentioned Nazis?" Vicky chipped in. She seemed excited, but if I had to guess she was also playing it up to cover the uncertainty and stress of what'd just happened.

"Yes." Thank you, Vicky. "I've gotten some tips from reliable sources, and I'm having someone cross-check things now. Should have a few good targets soon." I resisted the urge to pull my phone right then. The thought did get me to stick the pictures in a pocket to free up my hands, though. "Any questions?"

"Where did you get this information?" Crystal asked

"I... know some people, with an ear to the gangs. They don't like them any more than we do, so..." I trailed off, meaningfully.

"You have informants?" She added, sounding confused.

"You have minions." Vicky deadpanned. Her cousins turned to look at her, then me.

"I don't have minions!" I insisted immediately. "Villains have minions!" Then I paused to think about how that sounded. "I mean, heroes have... support personnel." I did my best to keep the inflection from shifting the statement into a question.

They kept staring. "Terra..." Vicky pointedly muttered.

"Not minions..." I whined and sagged. "They don't even work for me."

Vicky broke the staring with a sigh. "Alright, fine. Not minions. You know where these places are?"

I dug out my work phone. "She says four of the places are good." I quickly rattled them off.

"That sounds like... two warehouses, a house, and...?" Vicky tried to parse out from the street names. It'd make sense she'd try to know all of them, to make navigating from the air easier.

"Another house, I think. Up past the Market?" I added. "Not entirely sure, we can leave it for last."

"The other house is closer, yeah." Vicky replied, before turning to her cousins. "What do you guys think?"

Laserdream looked up from prodding her phone. "Well, uh. There's the two houses and one of the warehouses are nearby, in the docks. The last one... might be an office building? It's a lot farther south than the rest. It's just..." She chewed at her lip for a moment. "...are we really going to raid houses?"

Vicky and I shared a realizing glance that neither of us had really considered that. Shielder on the other hand, shrugged. "Villains have to live somewhere, and it's not like people are lining up to fill the housing around here. Some of what the gangs do is going to be in normal houses."

"Probably don't belong to any of the capes, either." I added. "I don't think they'd tell me where those were. I'm still pretty sure they didn't even give me any of the dangerous locations."

"Yeah, but..." She muttered.

"Do you really want to let that stop us?" Vicky asked. "Think of the good we could do, getting guns or drugs off the street."

"I just think that's a line we should be worried about crossing. The Rules are a thing for a reason, right?"

Vicky scoffed. "So that villains can hide behind them and get away with what they do."

Laserdream shook her head. "They get violent and destructive when cornered like that, and the Truce-"

"On the off chance an Endbringer attacks somewhere, for most villains. That doesn't make it a free ride for the ones that do help, either!" Vicky shot back, Shielder groaning when her voice started to rise.

"Hey, stop! Stop fighting. It's not helping anything." I called, stepping closer and holding up my hands. "You both have good points, and we can leave off any houses that look like they're just someone's home." I told Laserdream, and got a tired smile. Then I turned to Vicky. "Okay? We can still hit the rest." Vicky huffed, but didn't disagree.

"Is now really the time for this?" Shielder asked in a low tone, catching all our attention and flicking a tiny head-tilt my way. Vicky glanced between Laserdream and myself, then tensed like she was trying not to go into full 'choking on a lemon' mode.

It took me a moment to realize the problem. From their perspective, Vicky was being incredibly candid around an 'outsider'. Laserdream was anxious and frustrated, but still projecting that same strained timid politeness. She didn't think she could argue with Vicky in front of me, and Shielder was near to snapping at his cousin to back up his sister. "Sorry, let's... yeah." Vicky muttered.

"Closest places are the houses, we'll check those first on our way to the southwest building, then swing back for the northeast warehouse." I stated firmly, trying to grab the momentum and run with it. We picked a place to meet up closer to the first target, and split up. Shielder grabbed Vicky's ankle and let the Brute tug him away at several times his flight speed, while Laserdream shot off the other way, and I took a more direct path there on the ground.

I wanted a bit of time to search through the area with my senses before we started, and I found that both places were within my easy range, especially if I drifted a bit out of my way between them before meeting back up with the others. Both had enough people to qualify as a light guard, who may or may not have actually lived there. First I scanned for things that looked like guns; pistol and rifle shapes. Several of both groups were armed, but that didn't prove they were gangers. The second house had a crate full of pistols and bigger guns that seemed after some thought to be shotguns and hunting rifles in the basement, next to a couple cases full of powders and pills. Now that I was fairly certain I new what a large amount of drugs felt like, I found a similar stash in a closet safe in the first house.

Young Wave finished their circuitous approach at about the same time, which had me thinking they must have practiced it. "Hey, slowpokes. I did some scouting while you were on the way." I half-fibbed. "The first house is probably a drug hub, but aside from people looking armed it might as well be a college crash house. I didn't see anything actually incriminating from the windows."

Vicky cursed. "Did you get a look at the other one?"

I nodded. "Mostly the same, but with a couple older guys who don't fit the college scene, and suspicious boxes in the basement."

"How suspicious?" She asked eagerly.

"Who tarps a stack of boxes in their basement? I only got a quick look through one of those foggy daylight windows, but it seems pretty weird to me."

Laserdream looked like she wanted to object again, but Vicky beat her to it. "Sounds good enough for me!" And zipped off into the air.

She groaned instead.

"Uhh... Glory Girl... really likes punching Nazis, huh?" I asked.

In lieu of an answer, Shielder floated over to lay a commiserating hand on my shoulder, which didn't quite match his tone or words. "You're a horrible enabler, and if something goes wrong, it was all your fault."

I pouted at him, complete with a hunch and head tilt to try and convey it through my mask. All I got back was a smirk. Jerk thought he was funny.

"I'll call it in." Laserdream muttered, waving us off.

Shielder shrugged and floated toward the target when I glanced his way, so I followed and swiftly overtook him. Without breaking out a flashy jet-sprint, it took me almost half a minute to cross the block and a half to the house.

Vicky had busted the lock on one of the second floor windows- just tugging the frame until the weak point snapped- and dove inside through the screen. I didn't think it'd look too odd to a casual glance. I wasn't sure I could replicate a 'clean' entrance like that on the ground floor, which I was guessing she was leaving to us. I couldn't really feel her scouting the upper floor, but the gangers were grouping up in the living room after the noise, pulling knives or guns and most of them watching the stairs.

So I came in the door. The deadbolt was locked, and I was guessing the knob was, too. So I sped up as I got to the porch, hopping into the air and leading with my feet. One landing directly over the deadlock's bar, and the other just below the knob, my momentum carried me through the doorway.

The one guy who'd been watching the door flinched away as the frame splintered inward from the caving locks, giving me time to land a little roughly and roll back to my feet. Then I slapped his gun away with my right hand and dug my left fist into his stomach, lifting him up and throwing him into the two guys huddled closest together. One with a knife, and another with a pistol.

That left three more who were turning their attention my way after my entrance. One had a flip knife in one hand and a baton in the other, neither of which had been opened yet. The other two had grabbed weapons from under the couch; a crowbar and a shotgun.

Shotgun was the obvious threat, so I dove low and to the side as he tried to get a bead on me, left palm slapping the hardwood and the treated pads and fingers of my gloves sticking enough to bleed most of my speed. Then I lunged with my right to grab the barrel, holding it away from everyone while I popped him in the cheek a couple times to slacken his grip and tug it away from him.

I brought the gun up to block the crowbar with the barrel, pointing it up and away just in case. The last guy had flipped his knife open and extended his baton by this point, circling around to try and get a good angle to attack.

They were also shouting, which drew Vicky to finish confirming there was no one upstairs and fly to a stop in the stairwell to assess the fight.

"Two pistols!" I shouted, to draw her attention to the important part. She took half a second to scan the room, and dove on the first gun she saw. The group had just been getting back to their feet, but hadn't started aiming at me yet. It turns out a lot can happen in about fifteen seconds. I pushed crowbar back and thrust out my hand, wind blowing all three of the guys I was fighting back against the far wall.

Shielder flew through the door then, took stock of the room, and floated forward to lock those three against the wall with a blue barrier. I settled the shotgun on the floor and dove in to help Vicky wrestle the first guys into zip cuffs.

"You okay, here?" I asked Shielder a bit louder than I would have liked, while trying to ignore the shouting men. He gave a thumbs-up instead of answering. "Downstairs?" I then asked Vicky.

"Let's check it out, yeah." I let her lead the way, since it was probably a good habit to follow the stronger Brute, even though I knew there was no ambush waiting for us. Vicky had to pop the lock to the basement door, then we headed down the stairs. They felt solid, but still creaked, which seemed a good sign of overuse with heavy loads.

It was dark enough that I raised a hand to spark a flame from a finger, pressing my intent with a slow exhale to magnify it into a bright hissing torch. Vicky glanced back and shook her head with a small smile, then floated into the room to tug a pullstring in the center, followed by a chipper 'ta-da'.

I made it bright enough to easily see the thing, and made a 'mleh' noise to let her know I was sticking my tongue at her behind my mask. She chuckled and turned. Half the basement was taken up by something under a chest-height blue tarp, and Vicky wasted no time yanking it off.

Most of it were stacks of those army surplus metal ammo boxes. I could tell the larger stack were empty, but there were still a couple dozen that were full and crates of cardboard ammo boxes waiting for someone to draw the short straw and get stuck unpacking them. I came over to help Vicky start prying the tops off of wooden crates to reveal their contents. Pistols, shotguns, a few hunting rifles, a crate of grenades... On closer inspection they appeared to be flashbangs. The rest of the space was storage for a few backpacks and smaller duffles full of bags and bottles of drugs, and packaging to keep any of it from tearing or rattling too loudly.

"Is it just me, or is this a lot of stuff?" I wondered out loud.

"They might not be using all of it." Vicky replied. "Could be selling the guns to other gangs inland. ...sure hope they don't think they need this many guns."

"Warehouse works better for shipping, just needs to look like a legit business." I mused. "Maybe just personal surplus, for restocking. You break a lot of guns, right?"

I could tell she was thinking back to the twisted messes she'd left of the pistols upstairs. "I guess so."

With a sigh, I shook my head and waved her to follow me back upstairs. "Doesn't matter why they have them, really. They're losing these ones."

Laserdream and Shielder were standing guard over the group, all of them having been zip-cuffed at this point. After twenty seconds of trying to make conversation over the enraged screaming, I dug through the kitchen's utility drawer for a roll of duct tape to slap over their mouths. A few minutes after that the police arrived.

Well, a police cruiser and a PRT van. Laserdream and I went out to meet them. "What've we got?" The first officer asked.

"Stockpile, weapons and drugs. Also half a dozen guys tied up." I stated through mild jitters, trying to keep my tone professional.

"Huh." He muttered, eyeing the house. "Well, let's take a look."

We led them down through the room with the guys, who'd clammed up now that actual law enforcement was here. A couple peeled off to stay with them as we continued on. "I'll call a truck." The PRT trooper with us stated, after they'd looked over the stash.

"Wait, it's not going with the police?" I asked.

"Safer with us." He aswered. "The Empire isn't going to hit the PRT building just for materiel, but they might be tempted with a police station."

The cop grunted, clearly unhappy with the statement, but didn't speak up to contradict him. "Well, uhh... we've got other places to hit, before they can dig in after today." I half-muttered.

"Wait. You should let us send backup with you."

Part of me wanted to jump straight to denial, but I hesitated. Trying to consider it. Then Laserdream muttered, "It's a good idea." which broke what resistance I had to the idea.

"What would that entail?" I asked instead.

"You tell us where to meet you, and we case whatever location after you go in. Clearing rooms, securing suspects, providing fire support if needed."

I gave it some thought, chewing my lip behind my mask. "Well, if it's more like this... we could probably split up if we had backup..." I thought out loud, then shook my head. "Let's talk with Glory and Shielder."

The trooper nodded, making his call to dispatch while we headed back upstairs. Then we talked options with all of us present. Glory Girl and Shielder were in favor of splitting up, with Vicky deciding she was going with me. After that it was a matter of giving the locations over to the troopers, who relayed them back to their operators. A couple minutes later we had several suggested locations to meet with our backup.

While the Protectorate and emergency services were spread pretty thin by the altercation with Lung and the ABB, that was mostly handled by police, fire, ambulances... The PRT still had reserves to tap for opportunities like this. We left the office to Shielder and Laserdream, and made our way to the meetup near the warehouse. It was only a few minute's wait once we'd gotten there. Then we went over the plan again, and were off busting through the main doors.

It was a mostly normal warehouse. It housed goods to be shipped elsewhere, by some company or other. It was still in use, still in business, not abandoned or derelict at all. It was what actually came to mind whenever I thought of smuggling operations. Just hide a few things among all the legitimate business going on in the rest of the building. A few more boxes of guns, ammo, and drugs, nestled among crates of clothes, furniture kits, and novelty items. Some of that was probably also contraband, but didn't look it to my untrained eye. It wasn't like neo-Nazis put embossed swastikas on everything that interested them and their other bigoted peers.

The fighting was short and anticlimactic. Four guys- two guards and two manager types, one of the latter who didn't seem involved at all from his reactions. We cuffed them all, sat them to the side, looked through the goods and found the stash, then continued upstairs.

Toopers were already loading crates into their wagon while we were heading up. The second floor was just as wide open as the rest of the place, with its own office space that on the surface seemed owned by an entirely different company. That sort of thing happened sometimes. The thing that was off about it? The actual locked main room was filled to the brim with rows and rows of tables stacked high with little green bushes. Grow lamps glared down from the ceiling, and little misting pipes stuck out now and then in the middle of the table rows.

Not the most impressive drug bust, weed was hardly the sort of addictive killer that rotted cities from the bottom on up... but that was still a lot of sales the Empire wasn't going to be making now. At least assuming they could take it away before said gang came calling. They quickly scanned the place with body cameras, took a few pictures, then started ripping up and bagging the product for disposal. They even called in more transports and gear to do so, once they'd realized the scale of the operation.

There wasn't much for Vicky and I to do, now that we'd subdued everyone and confirmed there were no enemy capes around. We stuck around until our backup's backup showed up, and the first vans full of drugs and illicit materiel left. Neither of us felt like handling drugs, or helping to photograph and document things in the office spaces, so we were at a loss. The office building with Shielder and Laserdream had gone about as well, but was taking longer to check. She decided to head that way, just in case. I stuck around a little longer.

It was checking my phone again that got me feeling antsy. Messages reminding me of my conversations earlier. I checked in with Tracy and Dinah, and was told in no uncertain terms to go rest. I felt... mostly okay, but they were probably right that I'd had kind of a day. The adrenaline was wearing out and I had gone from alert, to jumpy, and was starting to feel the crash.

So, I started for home. The general area, at least. I still had a secret identity to keep, somehow. I wouldn't if I kept coming and going in costume, but today was an emergency. I just had to hope emergencies let up for a while. It felt like a hollow wish.

I hadn't felt the need to deviate from my 'home-ish' off-course to throw off any tails or watchers when home itself came close enough to resolve properly. I stopped, focused, frowned, sighed, and smiled. Then I grabbed my phone and called Dad.

"You okay? You weren't home when I got up." He stated. I winced at his flat tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Bit of an emergency. Couldn't wait... listen, can you come home early today? You could probably use the time off, anyway, and there's something I wanted to talk about."

"You want me to call your grandmother?"

I grimaced, imagining it. "Nnnoo... I think that might go poorly. I'll call her later tonight."

He seemed to think for a bit. "Alright. I can do that. You're not hurt? This isn't about anything today?"

"No. It isn't. I'm okay."

"Alright, I'll see you soon."

I hung up, dashed through several neighborhoods to lose anyone who'd been watching me on the phone, then started picking my way carefully home. It was early afternoon, so most people going to work were already there. Lunch traffic didn't usually hit the suburbs very hard, so it was possible to make my way avoiding line of sight and keeping an eye to the sky.

Eventually I made it, hopping the fence to my own backyard. The girl sitting on the back stoop jumped, glared, and sagged.

"Finally. About time you got here." Cassie muttered disparagingly. She put away the new cheap phone she'd been messing with, and stood to dust herself off.

"You didn't give me many details to go on." I shot back, more amused with her than anything. She was clearly anxious and scared, not to mention jumpy. It was hard to stay angry with her, given her state.

"And leave a trail in your phone? They might check it, talk to you, try to find me, whatever. I said exactly as much as I needed to." She made a broad gesture at my backyard. "And you didn't need to look for me, did you?"

I snorted and shook my head. Worrying for nothing. I strode up and past, to unlock the door. She grabbed the couple duffle bags sitting nearby and followed. "Dad should be home, soon. Let me go change, we can stick your stuff... in my room, I guess. We don't have blackout curtains for the guest room." Still needed to put that bunker in. Maybe behind the coal chute? Might be able to add a couple doors in, that way. Thoughts for later.

"Cooool, cool cool." She mumbled, eyeing my home as we went. She started again when we got to the stairs. "So, uhh... before that. You mind if I smoke?"

I paused. "Uhh... not really? Inside, sure. Can't have that indoors. Why?"

"Mostly just wondering what you had in your stash. Cigs, weed, whatever. Been too long since I could smoke anything, living with... ugh."

I froze, turning woodenly back to her. Staring through the impassive blank mask I still hadn't removed. "...what?"

She stepped back, nearly unbalancing on the stairs. "Well, girl as high-strung as you, you've got to do something to take the edge off. Don't worry, I won't tell your dad."

And this naturally meant I did drugs? "No. No, I do not. I don't do drugs. I don't smoke. I don't drink."

Cass stared. "Wow. You don't get laid, don't take a hit now and then, don't do anything fun... you're going to explode, you know that, right?"

Just like a pretty girl to remind me I couldn't find a boyfriend. I took a deep breath, slowly easing out of my rigid tension. No, I shouldn't explode at her for this. That'd just prove her point. I refused to do drugs, or be some easy slut. I had fun. I had fun!

...sometimes.

I sighed and sagged. "Shut up." I muttered. She nodded. I continued to my room. The only times I had fun... were with friends, really. I liked reading, but it wasn't the same. Spending time with Amy, Vicky, even Cassie and Tracy... spending time with cute girls. I grit my teeth and acknowledged the thought, while stripping down. I had a shirt, I just needed to throw on some pants once my costume was off.

The truck pulled into the driveway. "Come on, Dad's here." I led her back down, and we met him on his way in. "Dad? This is Cassie. We talked about her, before. Cass, this is dad."

"Ah. Your... friend. Who needed a place to stay." Dad was apprehensive, but also felt relieved. Maybe he still thought there was something bad from today until now? He certainly wasn't happy she was here, but... it didn't seem like it would be a problem. "So, uhh. Tour, then?"

"Sure. I'll get started on lunch." We showed her the kitchen first, and I split off from them to start on something simple. Sandwiches would do. A bunch of them. Maybe with soup? I'd skipped breakfast, and was actually pretty hungry...

"You don't smoke either, do you?" I caught the somewhat frustrated words from the other room.

"...I do not." Was the flat, slightly incredulous reply.

I couldn't help but scream, inside.

This would certainly be... interesting.