Chapter 15

Shimmering lines of water twisted through the air, each tendril splitting into thinner and thinner strands, all orbiting above the wooden kitchen table. Slowly, each strand rejoined, molding together to form a rotating orb of clear water. Then, without sound or signal, the water shifted, briefly billowing out into gaseous mist, before some unseen force pulled it back into a loose sphere. The sphere slowly shrank, the cloudy vapour quickly becoming opaque, before suddenly collapsing in on itself with a pop, forming a dense icy ball, and clanking down onto the table.

Lisa suppressed a snort at the flabbergasted look on Danny Hebert's face. He had asked Jaya for a demonstration, and of course the belligerent girl had to pick water as her tool. Apparently nobody told her that parallels to Leviathan were rarely comforting. Technically, informing Jaya when she was being an idiot was Lisa's job, but she had given up on reigning in the boisterous girl within a day of meeting her. 

Jaya would be Jaya, and Lisa could but limit the damage. It was a challenging role, to be certain. You could only do so much for someone to whom consequences were a foreign concept.

Despite her thankless task, Lisa was in a far better position than she was a week ago. She was rich, safe, comfortable, and able to leave at any time. She'd managed to keep the majority of Coil's spy network in place, so she had access to more information than she could ever want or use. 

Oh, and she had a megalomaniacal person of mass destruction regularly ask her for advice.

It was a little flattering, to have someone so utterly self-confident come to her for help.

Lisa wouldn't fool herself; Jaya did not need her assistance. The girl was too vain to ever really rely on another person, but she seemed to genuinely enjoyed Lisa's company and input. A strange state of affairs, to be sure, considering her normal attitude of complete dismissal. It was surreal to watch Jaya while she walked through the streets, her eyes blank and uncaring as they roamed over and past the crowds. Like they were all just atoms in her eyes. Things that could be scattered with a touch and a whim. Lisa could understand the older girl's attitude, even if it sometimes frightened her. Powers change people, for better or worse. What she couldn't understand, failed, even now, to comprehend, was Jaya's spontaneous empathy around certain people. It was like Rachel with her dogs, but instead of an entire species, it was completely, infuriatingly arbitrary.

Lisa hated arbitrary data. There was absolutely no pattern, no warning, no reason for why Jaya would suddenly start to care, and it drove Lisa insane. She couldn't just ask either, because she felt like Jaya expected Lisa to figure it out by herself, and Lisa, for some fucking reason, really didn't want to disappoint her crazy companion.

She hadn't meant to start caring. How did that even happen? Lisa was perfectly happy with her original plan, to rob Coil and go her separate way. Jaya was an interesting mystery, but not nearly worth staying in the shithole that was Brockton Bay for. 

Yet, as she sat in that dusty concrete warehouse and listened to Jaya calmly reveal all of Coil's secrets, she found herself willing to linger. At first, she stayed because she wanted to know, to understand how Jaya knew the things she knew. Her power was helpful on that front, though far less so than usual. Lisa could only get so far with body language alone, and she wasn't about to needle the girl for information. She had faith that Jaya wouldn't hurt her, that Jaya truly, honestly cared about her, but she wasn't about to test that faith. 

No, that would be very, very stupid.

Regardless, Lisa told herself that she would stick around until the mystery was solved. Why not? Tattletale was gone, after all, her skintight outfit gleefully burnt to a crisp shortly after Coil died, and with Jaya close by, what was there to fear? Nobody cared about Lisa Wilbourne. She was just another young woman lost in the crowd. So Lisa stayed, determined to watch Jaya, to uncover her deepest secrets.

And then Taylor happened. When Lisa first laid eyes on Taylor, the younger girl's insecurities screamed out like a physical force, like the perfect storm of sadness and self-loathing. The poor girl had almost zero self-esteem, despite Jaya's crude efforts, and an almost desperate need for friendship that tugged on Lisa's heart. Honestly, Taylor could really use a therapist, but if a friend was all she was looking for, then Lisa could provide. How could she not, when the alternative was leaving Taylor alone in Jaya's not so tender care? 

The gawky teen was practically welded to Jaya's hip at this point, seeing the older girl as some sort of Messiah of True Friendship. Lisa was... concerned. Jaya, despite her apparently altruistic intentions, wasn't really capable of compassion. She felt it, could process the emotion and understand what was causing it, but her responses were always off, always dismissive, never comforting, as if any tragedy life threw at her would simply bounce off. Between Jaya's tendency to bulldoze over problems, and Taylor's dire need to be heard, the pair were heading straight towards a one-sided, tremendously unhappy friendship. Lisa found that outcome unacceptable.

Yes, Lisa was truly a Saint. She was in no way influenced by the dearth of people she could trust, people she could rely upon to help her when the world went to shit. It's not like she'd been in a state of constant paranoia ever since she joined the Undersiders. No, her actions were completely selfless, fueled only by the desire to help a girl in an awful situation.

Yes.

If there was anything to complain about in the whole arrangement, it was Jaya's knowing smile, when she introduced Lisa to Taylor. It made Lisa's brain itch. Jaya knew Lisa would take to the younger girl, knew that Taylor would hit every single target on Lisa's wall of sympathy, and had the gall to sit there and be smug about it!

Damn cheater.

Now, Lisa was well and truly stuck. She had to go and get attached to people, rather than grabbing a few truck-loads of cash and fleeing the state like an intelligent villain. Well, former villain, reluctant hero.

So! This was her life now; a pair of reliable friends, an overflowing piggy bank, reasonable safety, and a dying, deadly city. All told, not too shabby. She could work with this.

Lisa let her focus fall back into the present, idly examining Danny Hebert as he fought for an excuse, any excuse, to keep his daughter off the streets. It wouldn't work. Lisa was certain that, one way or another, Taylor would find her way into a costume. That being said, nowhere was it written that she had to sacrifice her home life for her hero one. Taylor wanted the best of both worlds, a supportive parent, a strong team, a clean city. Jaya could give her the latter two in time, but, here and now, Lisa could solve the former.

She rolled her shoulders, straightening out the kinks she'd accumulated from sitting in the Hebert's rickety chair, and leaned forward towards Danny. 

"Mr. Hebert," Lisa said quietly, drawing the older man's attention, "I believe I can help put your worries to rest." She smiled at him, and released the reigns on her power.