Chapter 16

Lisa watched Jaya's face in amusement, as the older girl's expression wavered between embarrassed and irritated.

"So... I may have slightly overestimated my abilities here." 

"Uh huh."

"Come on! I've copied something like this before, and it worked just fine!"

"Jaya, you're comparing wet concrete to an area offrozen time."

The shorter girl huffed, turning away from Lisa to stare vacantly at the wall. Lisa stifled a laugh, knowing that her friend was actually examining Bakuda's handiwork, located nearly two blocks, and a PRT cordon, away. 

Hookwolf and Alabaster's shared fate was plastered all over the news this morning, and Jaya, being both careless and arrogant, insisted on visiting the site in question, so that she could 'copy that crazy bitch's bullshit.'

It hadn't gone well thus far.

The pair were hunkered down in an abandoned building to avoid attention, while Jaya tried to parse the insanity that was Bakuda's tinker-tech, with only the occasional curse and angry grunt breaking the silence of the morning. Lisa knew that they were nearly at the limit of her friend's range, and only Lisa's staunch refusal to antagonize the PRT kept Jaya from charging into the contained area while ranting about cover-ups and freedom of the press. It was far too early for a stupid fight, and Lisa had yet to recover from her power usage last night at the Hebert's residence.

"I don't know what half of this shit even is!" Jaya muttered furiously, her eyes flickering rapidly back and forth, perceiving the world in a way Lisa knew was utterly incomprehensible. 

"Well, most tinkers don't know how their tech works either." Lisa replied idly, mentally reviewing what little she understood about tinker-tech, "Also, I thought you didn't need to understand something to copy it? Those were your exact words I believe." She didn't just believe it, she recalled it perfectly, because had anyone but Jaya made such a claim, she would've had them committed.

"Yeah well, turns out manipulating time is a bit more complicated than that." Jaya admitted uncomfortably, "I can copy the field, like, pop a new one into existence, but I have no idea what that would do." The older girl frowned in thought, searching for the right words, "My power doesn't label things." she explained slowly, "I've had to work out what pretty much everything is by poking it with my power and watching the result. The problem here is, something has to be anchoring this bubble to our relative space-"

"Oh fuck me." Lisa whispered in horror, as her power gleefully informed her of all the ways she might die in this situation, "If the anchor gets disrupted..."

"Yeah." Jaya nodded in agreement, "I have no clue what might happen. Maybe without an anchor, the whole bubble collapses. Maybe the anchor automatically latches onto something new. Worst case scenario, it grabs onto some random point in empty space, and rips its way through the planet."

"That's... unlikely," Lisa posited hesitantly, the added I hope, going unsaid, "But just in case, let's not fuck with the scary time field."

"There's good news though," Jaya added cheerfully, "The whole mess is kept online with an energy source poking through the walls of this dimension, same as any power, meaning I can unplug it if need be. Like if we need a spare Nazi for whatever reason."

"Uh." There were times, not often, but times, where Lisa simply had no words. It was a state that seemed to occur far more often in Jaya's presence.

"Actually, I was hoping to examine Hookwolf's changer power at some point. It'd be pretty useful to copy, I think," Jaya continued, rubbing her chin in contemplation, "Just the biological metal bits I mean, not the actual, uh, horrifying aberrant wolf part. So, it's good to know he isn't going anywhere till I need to dissect him."

Lisa took a deep breath, quietly suppressing her urge to vomit, or flee, or some combination of both. It wouldn't do to ruin her clothes, and Jaya would probably just chase after her in concern.

"Okay," she said after a moment, "Moving on. Are we done here?" Please say yes.

Jaya crossed her arms, drumming her fingers on bare skin, her face twisted into a reluctant frown, "Yes, fine. I'll come back later, once the PRT has lost interest." she glanced to Lisa, concern briefly flitting across her face, "Is your head okay?"

Lisa grunted in affirmation. She wasn't okay, her brain actually felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, but there was literally nothing to be done about it so why complain? Thinker headaches were an unfortunate fact of life at this point.

Jaya must have missed that memo though, because she simply stared skeptically at Lisa's bloodshot eyes.

"I'll be fine soon enough," Lisa answered reassuringly, "Seriously, this is totally normal."

Jaya stared for a moment longer, before giving a careless shrug. The pair left the run-down building together, heading towards the nearest bus stop, and home.

---

Coffee is truly mankind's greatest invention. Lisa sighed happily into her cup as sweet, sweet energy flowed into her veins. She could already feel her headache faltering under the raw power of caffeine. The giggling from across the room was ignored with practiced care. Lisa drained her cup and smiled contentedly. All was right with the world.

"So, uh, you~ enjoying yourself there?"

Lisa left Nirvana just long enough to murmur, "Shut it."

Jaya, lounging on Lisa's very expensive couch with her muddy boots on, barked out a laugh, "Well, whenever you're done, I need you to look into some things."

"Unngghhh," Lisa replied eloquently, allowing herself to collapse onto the nearest chair. Her reply was wavering somewhere between 'okay fine', and 'go die in a fire'.

"Good." Jaya continued mercilessly, "I want to know what Kaiser plans to do now that the PRT has utterly stomped down on his public appeal plan. We've still got a few moles in the Empire right? And how many capes did they lose anyway?"

"Rune, Cricket, and Victor captured, Hookwolf, Alabaster, and Stormtiger killed," Lisa rattled off, "And they still have enough capes to be a threat." she massaged her brow wearily, "Kaiser has to make a big play now that his passive approach failed so spectacularly. I don't think he expected the PRT to break the status quo so... enthusiastically, and he definitely didn't expect Lung to be smart enough to take advantage of the fights."

Jaya snorted disdainfully, "You're giving the heroes too much credit. Six capes down for the Empire, and the Protectorate was only responsible for two of them. That's rather pathetic, all told."

"Oni Lee interfered in several fights," Lisa pointed out, "Armsmaster, specifically, would have probably won his fight. Might have even saved his career."

"Eh, not a problem." Jaya gave a dismissive wave of her hand, "With any luck they'll send him to some backwater dump and we can poach him. A month or two of no crimes to stop and he'll be desperate for the opportunity."

Lisa felt her jaw drop as she tried to reconcile Jaya's statement with her past actions, "Wha- Don't you hate Armsmaster?"

Jaya blinked in confusion, "No... Why on Earth would you think that?"

"You- Jaya! You literally complain about him every time the Protectorate gets brought up! Arrogant glory hound? Ring a bell?" Lisa shrieked, painfully aware of just how shrill her voice had become.

Jaya winced, briefly, before adopting an innocent facade, "Lisa, I don't hate him, I just thought he needed a lesson in humility. I was planning on knocking him around a bit, maybe embarrass him on camera or something, but getting fired will probably do the trick as well. Just give him some time to cool off with Dragon, and then we'll scoop him up."

Lisa bit back her reply, and took a moderated breath. She had so many questions, yet had a strong suspicion that she really didn't want to know. "Right." she said, reaching deep, deep into her well of self-control, "So, Kaiser. He's lost something like half his roster, currently looks like the weakest game in town despite sharing a city with someone named Skidmark, and is in desperate need of a win for morale purposes. Also, he's managed to pigeonhole himself into nonlethal measures when fighting heroes because of the whole 'righteous stand' angle he's trying to work."

Jaya nodded along with her summary, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, she frowned in consideration, "So ABB then? Honestly, they still have enough manpower to charge into ABB territory and try to mount a prison break for their captured capes."

"Seems probable." Lisa contributed dryly, "Lung will have to react to that little incursion, and of course the Merchants, being fucking idiots, will probably try for a piece of the pie as well. Hooray, gang war."

"I see it as an opportunity," Jaya said with a smile, "It'll be good for Taylor to practice her powers, toughen her up a bit."

"A lot of people are going to die." Lisa stated evenly.

"A lot of gang members are going to die." Jaya agreed, "Forgive me if I don't weep for them."

Lisa didn't respond, choosing to merely close her eyes and think. The biggest problem with Jaya's mindset, was how easy, how simple it would be for her to slip and fall into a kill-order. A single misstep, a stray bullet into one of the few people she cared about, and the city would burn. Truthfully, Lisa didn't particularly care about the impending violence, past the minor threat it might pose to her person, but the idea of Jaya running around on the streets was terrifying, even with Taylor there to chaperone. The sight of an immense firestorm played out in her mind, the intense fear that she felt when she realized just what her friend was capable of, and how few people were capable of moderating her...

"Lisa?" Jaya peered at her in concern, "Everything okay?"

Lisa sighed heavily. She chose this responsibility, decided to act as a safety on a nuclear weapon, so there was no point in moping. She cracked open an eye and smiled grimly, "Yeah, everything's fine Jaya. Just... pointlessly worrying." 

"Oh, okay then." Jaya replied happily. "You don't have to worry about a thing, you know? I'll be there for you, after all."

She would, Lisa knew. Jaya would move mountains, quite literally, for her and Taylor, and nobody else. That was precisely the problem.

They would just have to work on it, Lisa promised herself. Together, her and Taylor, they could, would, bring out the best of Jaya. Taylor's naive dream, a dream of a city at peace, was entirely within the capabilities of the mad girl beside her. 

Lisa would not abandon her friends, would not allow fear to control her life. Never again. She was free, free from Coil, free from her parents, free from all those who would try to use her.

She chose this.

She chose this.

Everything would be fine.