Chapter 16

Twister stood out in front of a large shipyard, standing among the rusty shipping containers.

Margret would be back from her trip any day now, and according to Trina she had some important developments.

Twister walked slowly around the shipping containers, contemplating her next move.

She and Ana had been training constantly for the past three weeks. Ana wouldn't need to come into contact with her, just make an appearance, like celebrities at charity events, Ana wouldn't really need to DO anything…

Except…

Just having a hero make a big fuss wouldn't be good enough. No one would take Ana seriously if she just declared she was a hero, she might get some credibility by showing off her power but…

Twister had already decided that she and Ana would put on a slight performance to show off her power and amp her up as being more powerful than she is, powerful enough to ward of someone like herself..

Twister wouldn't kid herself. Trina and the others would be after Ana before Zalic could even say anything. Ana was good with her powers but the others were better. Way better.

And they had years' worth of experience, they know they're strengths and weaknesses, they know every in and out of the city. Having a hero learn their abilities in front of the whole world probably wouldn't do much for Ana's confidence…

She thought back to her conversation with Trina and felt her blood boiling.

"You'd love the chance to be at the top wouldn't you."

She has some nerve. Been slithering and social climbing her way to the top for years before she got manipulated by Margret. Twister sneered and kicked a rock along the docks, wincing when the rock clanged against the shipping container. There were a few voices from inside, sending a jolt of panic through the infamous villain.

She used a large gust of wind to launch herself into the air and on top of the shipping container, using her power once more to stabilize herself and have a quiet landing.

She hoped quietly over the tops of the containers, still using her power to give herself a weightless, silent landing each time until she found herself under a burnt-out lamp as opposed to the bright lights she was under earlier. She silently cursed her choice of a bright flashy costume, but then quieted down those thoughts of deprecation as she remembered why it was so bright in the first place, despite Trina's endless nagging and bitching.

Trina. Fuck Trina.

She wanted nothing more than Ana to get strong enough to knock Trina down a peg or two. Twister would do it herself if she wouldn't get reprimanded by Margret for doing so, the less the two saw of each other the better. Twister made it clear very recently that she wanted nothing to do with Margret unless it was important, the sociopath finally got the message and relays messages to her through the others.

Unfortunately, that led to the others getting more confident, thinking that Margret cared about them in the slightest just because she asked them to play messenger.

None of them seemed to like it when Twister pointed out that if she talked to Margret herself, she wouldn't spare the others a second glance. Darcy told her she was getting too cocky, that she should remember that Twisters just as replaceable as the rest of them

Twister felt her mood dampen a bit at the mention of Darcy.

She wanted to save her. Darcy was a good person who didn't deserve the fate that was lined up for her at the moment. Twister wanted to tell Darcy the plan, get her as far away from Margert as possible. Her life was still salvageable, with a few years of therapy she could probably live a happy life far away from all of the horrors she went through here in Maryland.

Twister secretly hoped that would be a future Darcy would let her be a part of.

She shook her head quietly, listening close to the murmurs of the people below working on the docks.

"-Client's getting antsy. Said they need to store this stuff here." Twister heard a voice. She prowled a little closer, trying to get a good view of the people below.

"Why didn't they bother to reseal the box? This things open."

"Beats me, tiny too. No doubt they could've just stored this in an attic somewhere. They were old, old people have attics."

Twister's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she listened to the derailing conversation, hoping to catch any leads.

She was here on a lead from Magnetron, he used to work in shipyards like these, which was how he got his power in the first place; from meddling around in people's storage and coming across something he shouldn't.

He wasn't proud of it and that alone made Twister think he was in some way redeemable. That and the fact that he had no idea where he was half the time…

Twister shook her head again, willing herself to focus. She was looking for any leads on the element, Barium, as it was called- named after the scientist that was killed by it in some sick memorabilia. What she was hearing now sounded promising. An antsy client that wanted something locked up in an area no one would look, even if it wasn't the element, it still made Twister curious.

People like to hide shady and slightly illegal things all the time.

"Dude look at the logo on this thing!" One of them exclaimed, getting Twisters attention.

"Huh- what are you-" There was a beat. "No… no way.. You're messing with me."

"Oh yeah, I just casually put this shit on the side of the box in thirty seconds as a funny ha-ha!" Twister could practically hear the eye-roll in this persons voice. Now she was really curious.

"We should still seal it though… something like this.. I don't wanna be held responsible if they find out what's inside it's missing."

"Mannn, who cares? We aren't getting paid to play mover, we're paid to put this shit in a tanker, if they wanted it sealed they should've sealed it themselves, now hurry up!"

"Damn! Alright!"

Twister rolled her eyes, waiting for the remaining workers to leave the area before she snooped around. When she heard the bickering fade and the shipyard grow quiet, Twister ran back to the spot where the two people were talking earlier, slipping in between the large gaps between the tankers and stealthily walking around to the front side of the tanker the workers had just closed.

She held her hands on the padlock, sending a force of vibrations so strong into the thing that it busted apart, flying in all directions.

Twister hummed quietly as she stared at the damage.

Guess she wasn't putting that back.

She unlatched the door and pulled open the large door just a creak and slipping inside. She pulled a small flashlight out of her boots inner pocket and began searching around for the box. It didn't take long to find it, the little black box was sitting on top of a dusty filing cabinet. She looked around on the outside of the box for this offensive logo and felt a small jolt of surprise as she saw Zalic's logo on the side.

Twister's brow furrowed further.

Who owned this tanker? Twister racked her brain for any memory of Margret making any deals with anyone to keep amplifiers locked up in a storage container somewhere, but only came up with blanks.

She supposed there were some repercussions to trying to cut off ties with the woman.

Caution be damned, Twister opened up the box, unimpressed by the amount of packing peanuts and Styrofoam. She fumbled around in the box, growing frustrating as she found nothing of interest. Twister dumped the box over, shining her light on the spilled contents, shuffling around for anything noteworthy.

Twister was still mindlessly fumbling through the peanuts when a thought struck her. She dropped her hands and shook her head.

"Of course."

Twister put her hands on the ground, inhaling deeply until she felt a familiar head rush, like someone was squeezing her head like a sponge. After a few moments she opened up her eyes, frustrated.

Another dead end.

Twister created a small torpedo to gather all the spilled Styrofoam and put it back in the box within seconds. Perhaps those workers were right, whoever wanted this box locked away was in such a rush they didn't even bother checking the contents.

Idiots.

'But this isn't a satisfying enough conclusion.' Twister thought to herself, frustrated. She sat on the floor crossed legged, resting her chin on her hands as she began to think.

'First,' She thought. 'I need to find out who owns this tanker before I note them off as a dead end. They might not have any leads to the element but knowing who could have any ties to Zalic would be useful blackmail in the future.' Nobody really like to be publicly associated with Zalic but the public knew she had ties that run deep.

'Second, there's no wat, if those workers conversation is to be believed, (Twister saw no reason for why it shouldn't) the owners of this tanker were either hiding something for or from Zalic, and Twister suspected it was the first one. Zalic had plenty of access to making people tell the truth, there was no way anyone was hiding something from her.. But what would they be hiding for her?'

Twister jolted at the sound of voices, she was supposed to be alone.

Quickly Twister put the box back where it belonged and quickly stuck her head out of the opened tanker door, listening.

"-can't believe you left your keys in there, what were you even doing with those out?"

"I was emptying my pockets to see if I had everything! I just I got distracted and forgot to put something back!"

It was the workers from earlier. Twister quickly looked up to the lamppost above the tanker she was in, reaching her hand up to create a strong wind current. Slowly but surely, she managed to create enough pressure to lightly unscrew the lightbulb in a few seconds flat.

She thanked the fact that she had to do this more times than she'll admit for things she legally can't admit.

Twister slipped out of the shipping container and shuffled along the side, crouching down into the dark of the atmosphere.

"Now that's just creepy." She heard one of them mutter.

"C'mon man, don't be such a baby! Just go get your keys!"

"If you're so tough you do it!"

"I'm not the one that's lost their keys!"

Twister rolled her eyes, silently praying that these idiots would hurry up, she didn't wanna be here all night.

"Hey…" She heard one of them mutter. "Did we.. leave this open?"

Twister felt her heart beat pick up.

"No.." The other one trailed off. They walked closer until they must've stepped on something, silently swearing and slipping if Twister was correct.

"Hey look at this!"

"What?"

"Padlocks been busted. Someone was here."

There was a beat of silence. Twister held her breath.

"Who do you think..?" The one closest to the door trailed off in a whisper.

"Doesn't matter, we need to report this. There's spares in that shed over there, we can't just leave this open."

"Do you think we should.. get the box?"

"Hell no! I'm not getting arrested for stealing! Whoever was here was already here and whatever's missing's missing! We see it, we repot it, and we do our best to relock it. Done and done. Keeps a hold of our plausible deniability

She heard the other mumble an agreement before they walked into the tanker, and after a few minutes grabbed their keys, walking with the other person to what Twister guessed was a shed to find something to relock this with.

She took this as her chance to flee, slipping into the dark atmosphere and travelling quietly through the night, her efforts once again, unsuccessful. .