18
Chapter Text
WED FEB 9
Sophia was walking home with Emma, talking about the 'outing' they had planned for tonight, when her phone rang. She looked, recognized the number, and cursed.
"Sorry Ems, I've gotta take this." She held up the phone. "Meet you at your place?"
"Sure thing, hero." Emma said with a bright smile, and headed off, already grabbing her own phone to call for a pick-up. She was getting in shape, but still didn't like to work if she didn't have to.
Sophia chuckled, and answered the phone. "What?" She snapped.
"Piggot wants a report on what happened at Winslow." Her handler said without preamble. "To that girl in the locker. Filed by tomorrow, or you'll get punishment duty."
"What the fuck?" Sophia hissed, confused. "Why the hell would Piggy even care?"
"Someone out of town is looking into it, and your report isn't on file."
"Why is it a PRT thing in the first place?"
She heard a sigh from the other line. "Because I pulled rank, when your name came up."
"What?" Sophia deadpanned.
"The police had you as a person of interest, and Dragon's written up programs that scan files for Wards names, and alert the appropriate people. For you, that meant me. So I covered for you."
"I didn't ask you to do that!" She snapped.
A rueful chuckle from the other end. "I know, but they were going to finger you for it, all the evidence was there if they wanted to piece it together."
"Who cares? It's just Hebert. No one cares what happens to her."
"Piggot cares, because she hates you." Her handler sniped venomously. "Just file the damned report, keep your head down, and pray that girl didn't trigger." The line went dead.
Sophia sneered at the phone when she pulled it away. So Hebert was coming back to haunt her? She spent a few minutes plotting out how everything would shake out, depending on what actually came out of this.
This was fine. Predators could roll with the punches, even if they didn't see it coming.
She still needed to pay Hebert back for their last meeting, too.
Sophia smirked, and brought up her contacts to make a call.
"Hey Ems? Change of plans."
---
TUE FEB 15
Hebert had gotten weird. Emma said she'd never been a morning person, which threw their stakeout Thursday morning through a loop when she left right after they showed up. This is why you always show up hours early to a stakeout. They knew Hebert went to Arcadia now, and used bikes to beat her there. Then they took the time and checked the routes she could have taken. She didn't have time to stop anywhere off the path, and Emma knew there wasn't any coffee places or the like along it. They were late to class, but neither cared.
Friday they'd staked out a couple places along the path between Hebert's and Arcadia. The routes were 'safe' enough that sheep like her wouldn't bother varying it up often, so all they had to do was pin it down a bit. Sure enough, she passed by both of them.
The weekend they'd spent planning plans B, C, and D, in case things went wrong. Monday was another stakeout along the route, which came up hits again.
Now though, they'd decided to follow her. They were confident in her path, and had plans to break off every now and then, bracket her on either side along other streets for a bit, then meet up to make it less likely they'd be noticed. Hebert's pace made that hard to manage reasonably, though. They'd only bothered once before things went to shit.
All of a sudden the girl froze and stared at them, like she recognized them. Sophia was pretty good with 'hide your face' disguises, but she had nothing on Emma when it came to cosmetics. By the time she was done with them, Sophia had been confident you'd need to know what you were looking for to tell who they were. The fact that Hebert managed, without even looking right at them until after she'd been spooked?
That stunk of Thinker bullshit, to Sophia's training.
Then the girl moved.
They tried to keep up, but Hebert was gone. The only plus to the situation was that the direction she'd cut down was heading away from Arcadia, which meant she was turning again. So they followed, slowing down so Sophia could watch the ground for signs. Kicked up puddles from last night's rain, bubbles in the damp from pounding feet, scuff marks to indicate a turn... she hadn't found anything until she saw footprints in the grass. She reached down to confirm they were recent, then saw how spaced they were. Running, long legs, high speed. The kind of thing you saw with high level sprinters.
She made her way to the fence the steps led to without deviating. The house was a couple meters away, no way to parkour off those walls without leaving prints, so she checked the barrier itself.
The fence was a rickety old thing, meant to give the illusion of enclosure, rather than actually provide the home any defense. The uselessness of the thing affronted Sophia on a personal level, but that wasn't what she was focused on. She took a hand to the worn, weathered wood, and drug a nail over it, leaving a bright, lighter mark in the grain. She checked all along the top of it, but found nothing. Double-checking the tracks in the grass, she could only conclude that Hebert had leapt the damn thing, not even bothering with a handhold.
A white girl with no training having two-meter vertical ups? Not fucking possible.
Hebert was definitely a cape.
"Shit." She muttered.
Emma came up behind, having lagged to catch her breath. "Is she..?"
Sophia tilted her head side-to-side, not really a shake, just a need to move while thinking. "Plan B, I guess." She said after a few seconds.
Ems sucked in a hissed breath, but nodded. "Alright, I'll start getting things ready." She was sad, Sophia could tell, but so was she, at least a little.
The two headed off, separating to handle their own parts of the plan. They didn't lend any thought at all to missing school to do it.
It wasn't like school would matter anymore, anyway.
---
Winslow / FRI FEB 18
She checked her phone for the third time since she got to school. She was hidden away in one of the nooks she'd found Taylor hiding in, once. Better than the bathrooms, everyone wanted in there before class, and better than up on the roof where the druggies were doping up to breeze through the school day in a stupor. The cafeteria was dangerous. She couldn't be seen sitting with Julia, because Stephanie hated her, and couldn't sit with Stephanie because she'd cheated on Darren, who was now dating Caroline, who was the new up-and-comer vying for a spot at the top of the bitch heap, and nobody liked her, except the jocks fucking her. Too dangerous to cross them, yet.
And those were just the factions she knew had a shot at the top. Jessie and Conner had been front-runners last week, until Jessie was pulled from school to have an abortion, and Conner was shot for being gay. Kristie, Valerie and Natalie all had followings big enough they had to be appeased, but not big enough to push for the top yet, Madison thought.
If only Emma would answer her fucking phone.
The bell rang. No way in hell was she messing up her chance for a transfer to Arcadia by letting her grades slip. Even one absence could cost her, now that she wasn't coasting on Taylor's stolen homework. She grabbed her bag and held it in front of her, holding it for comfort, and so her hands would be too busy to check her phone again.
On the way to class, the loud bang of a locker being slammed startled her into stopping and looking behind her. She almost panicked when one of the brutes down the hall's eyes locked on hers. Startle the sheep, pick out the prey. A tactic Sophia'd used more than once. She watched his blue eyes rake down her body, hidden as it was. Saw his blonde hair, bleached even brighter, cut short enough it didn't wave when his head moved. Saw the smirk on his face when his eyes came back to hers. She turned and kept going. Had to run away. Had to get away.
It wasn't just the cliques that were bubbling up in a roiling mess just about to burst.
The gangs were acting up, too.
They knew the social cliques were shifting, the neutrals were faltering, dying out. Up for grabs.
Madison made it to class without any other hassle. She couldn't be seen freaking out. Couldn't let her breath hitch and catch. Deep breaths, slow breaths. Useless to whichever clique took top spot if she was seen to be weak. She just needed to wait until she knew which one was going to win.
She was running out of time.
She sent Emma another text. The girl's family said she was staying with Sophia. Sophia's family said they were staying at Emma's. She didn't know what was going on. She'd checked the hospitals' records, but hadn't found either of them there. Nor in the police records, arrest reports, mental hospitals... She'd checked for transfers, and only found Taylor's. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, she hated it wasn't her that had an easy life at Arcadia now. On the other... at least someone got out. Even if it was the meat she'd had to help beat down to earn her keep at the top.
A place that was crumbling, so much faster than she'd thought possible.
She had to pick a side. It was only a matter of time, of days, before the school forgot she'd been at the top once. She grabbed out her notebook, jotting down the things she knew, the rumors she'd heard since getting here. The seating arrangements in her class. Whatever she could remember of her run to class. Everything could be important, for figuring out what to do next. She didn't have Emma's natural talent for this. She'd have to make due.
Everything was so much easier online. She didn't have to worry about who anyone was, or what they could do, or what they were thinking. She didn't have to honestly consider being some Empire thug's bedwarmer just to stay out of the Merchant's drug dens, or the ABB's brothels...
She checked her phone again.
She missed when the world made sense.
She missed when she felt safe.
God help her, she was even starting to miss Taylor.
---
FRI FEB 18
Vicky and I managed to beat Carol home, despite how late we were getting in. Mark was in the basement doing his thing, and Vicky immediately charged up to the bathroom to claim it for a shower. I shook my head and smiled at her antics, before heading upstairs to read until she was done.
Partway through a particularly lurid chapter, my phone dinged. I checked my phone, finding a new message from Kara on PHO.
Neon_Rainbow (9:38PM): I fucked up.
I sighed. I could just see her moping at her computer. So I got up, started mine from sleep mode, and clicked through to the chat.
CarmillaCantEven (9:40PM): It *is* Friday, huh?
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Oh that cuts deep.
Neon_Rainbow (9:40PM): Not even pretending and asking what happened.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): You made Taylor cry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Was pretty fucking obvious.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I'm sorry.
CarmillaCantEven (9:41PM): Tell Taylor.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): I did.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): She just shut down. Not sure she heard me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:41PM): Don't want to bother her tonight about it.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Also don't have her PHO handle.
CarmillaCantEven (9:42PM): Pretty sure she doesn't have one.
Note to self. Help Taylor get her 'Terraform' account and verify it. A quick check showed it was taken, but the user hadn't been active in over a year. I'd need to brush up on the rules for claiming dead accounts if you've got a valid claim to the name. With the revolving door to the morgue some cities were for young indies, there were a lot of dead accounts lying around. I turned my attention back to the chat.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): Really?
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): That seems weird to me.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): But yeah, didn't want to ruin her night trying to say sorry again.
Neon_Rainbow (9:42PM): It can wait until tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (9:43PM): Or Monday.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): You sure she'd want to hear it?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): No idea. I hope so.
CarmillaCantEven (9:44PM): What even happened?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I don't know.
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): I didn't tell her I could fight, so she jumped to thinking I was using her to teach the girls?
Neon_Rainbow (9:44PM): It didn't seem like a big deal, so I told her I wasn't sorry...
I groaned, rubbing my face with both hands, trying to comprehend how badly Taylor would actually take that.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): Ran right under a brick sack full of trust issues I didn't know was there.
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): And now I don't know if I can fix it.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe stop trying to *fix* people?
Neon_Rainbow (9:45PM): I just want to help...
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): You're a whole barrel too much for most people, let alone the ones with actual problems.
CarmillaCantEven (9:45PM): Maybe lay the fuck off?
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Are you saying I'm a tall drink of water, or calling me fat? D':
CarmillaCantEven (9:46PM): Yes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): :<
Neon_Rainbow (9:46PM): Anyway, I already told her I'd stop with the flirting.
CarmillaCantEven (9:47PM): Good. *Please* tell me you didn't do anything to make it worse? Say anything else? You know you get intense sometimes.
Neon_Rainbow (9:47PM): Shit, yeah. Mentioned the empire fucks. Said they'd shoot me if I tried to manage solo.
I took a deep breath, got up from my chair, and went downstairs to steal some of Carol's aspirin. It was looking to be one of those kinds of nights.
Neon_Rainbow (9:49PM): Amy?
Neon_Rainbow (9:50PM): You there?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Shut the fuck up, I'm medicating.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You have no idea how bad you fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:52PM): Explain, please?
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): Taylor has a hero complex.
CarmillaCantEven (9:52PM): You just told her you need saving, after making her hate you.
After a couple minutes of no replies, I imagined she was stewing pretty poorly.
CarmillaCantEven (9:54PM): You fucked up.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): I fucked up.
CarmillaCantEven (9:55PM): You also told her you were painting a target on her back, with the empire stuff.
Neon_Rainbow (9:55PM): Oh, bullshit. She's your best friend. An *outed hero*'s best friend. I remember the rules. She's untouchable.
CarmillaCantEven (9:56PM): Tell that to my aunt.
Not aunt Sarah, of course.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Shit. Sorry.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): Bad night.
Neon_Rainbow (9:57PM): You know what I mean though? It's family rules. No one wants another example made of them for breaking that.
CarmillaCantEven (9:58PM): Please tell me you told *Taylor* that?
I waited, imagining her slamming her head into the wall next to her desk. It was oddly cathartic, now that the pills were taking the edge off my growing headache.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Fix your shit, Campbell.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Full disclosure.
CarmillaCantEven (9:59PM): Tomorrow.
Neon_Rainbow (10:00PM): Kill me?
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): Ask Taylor.
CarmillaCantEven (10:00PM): I'm done with you, tonight.
I closed the chat window, rose from my desk chair, and flopped down onto my bed. There were no new notifications from my phone as I let the stress drain out over the course of several minutes. This was broken by a knock at my door, to which I grunted. It opened, and I turned my head to see Vicky- clad only in a towel and a healthy blush from the hot water, another wrapped around her hair- standing in the door.
"Hey Ames, shower's free." And with that, she floated away toward her room.
Oh yeah, I knew what I was doing in the shower tonight. I deserved it, after Kara's bullshit.
In the end, mine almost lasted longer than Vicky's had.
---
TUE FEB 22
I sighed as I slid down into 'my' chair in the hospital's upstairs break room. A pleasantly squooshy thing set in one of the far corners of the room, I hadn't found anyone else using it after the first month or so after getting my powers and starting to heal here. There was another in the other corner, but this one was mine. I groaned as I lifted myself back up into something vaguely approximating proper posture. There was the table in the center, with standard meeting room chairs around it. A few pictures lined the walls, and a few fake potted plants dotted the floor. Part of why I liked this break room so much was its lack of windows. Past the rest was the entrance door to one side, and the fat extension to the 'L' shape of the room on the other. A countertop lined the entire far wall from where I sat, continuing into a little kitchenette where the overnighters could make their own food when the cafes and kitchens closed for the night, or whatever other reason. I stared at the line of coffee pots, wondering if it'd be worth it to get back up to get some, but dismissed the thought.
I was comfy, dammit.
With a herculean effort, I grabbed my phone instead of drifting off to sleep. If someone caught me sleeping, they might send me home early, and I'd have to deal with Carol being 'disappointed' again. I fully intended to stay as long as they let me, and then collapse into bed as soon as I got home. An entirely different sort of disappointment from Carol, but thankfully one that was tomorrow Amy's problem, unlike all the other options.
I dismissed a few messages, until I found one from Kara, from half an hour ago.
'You okay? You looked like shit, at lunch.'
I snorted, and tapped out a reply. "Didn't sleep. Kissed Taylor. Found out she's straight." I muttered out loud. Send. Let her choke on that for a hot second.
'No she isn't.' Popped up shortly thereafter. 'She's hurt, not straight.'
I frowned, and asked her how she knew that.
'SECRET! Don't give up! You can bag that hot set of legs if you give her some time and help her realize she's still bi.'
"Is she drunk again?" I muttered, then put words to text to ask.
'Do these look like the words of a sloshed woman? Your. Girl. Is. Not. Straight. Never give up. Never lose hope. I'd bet your virginity on it.'
I snorted, but couldn't help the smile, or the heat in my cheeks. My alarm going off distracted me from my thoughts, and I dragged myself to my feet. Then I trudged over to the coffee machines, pulled a thermos out of the cupboard underneath, and poured myself four cups worth of caffeine sludge, before capping it and pouring a fifth into a proper cup. I pulled a quarter of it and hissed as the heat and bitterness hit me.
Still, as I went back to the grind of mending thankless assholes because I'd be a monster not to, I never lost that little smile.
---
TUE FEB 22
Not for the first time today, Cassandra Herren wondered why the everloving fuck the Merchants decided now was the perfect time to get their dank panties in a twist. She was high in the air, and her costume was only so water resistant. She was cold and miserable, and oh yeah.
There was a fucking Endbringer due any day now!
Kaiser never failed to drag at least half their capes to deal with them. Not the fights, never the fights, thank God, but she'd seen what each of them could do. This would be her first time back at the same Endbringer's mess, since she was too new to the group for the first one since she joined. That was still three too many dead cities she'd never unvisit.
She shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts. No sense dwelling on it. It'd happen when it happened, and she'd be border guard with the rest of the fliers anyway. Safe in the air, watching to make sure none of the poor fucks caught in the Smurf's way managed to get out before they could put up the fences. The heroes could handle guarding that until the proper walls were up.
It was times like these she was sad she'd had to quit smoking. First her uncle tried to make her quit because 'you can't run while you're hacking up a lung', then having to hide it around the family because they took a dim view to smoke damage and burn marks, and now living with Kathy 'I will fucking whip you if you stink up my house with that shit' Herren...
She sighed. That wasn't fair to Katherine. Cass knew she was just lashing out from feeling stressed and cranky. Kathy was a sweetheart, she just had ideas about her white-picket-home and cigarettes had no place in it.
So, here she was. Floating up around the ABB / Merchant borders, watching the fights on Kaiser's orders. She couldn't even use her phone to pass the time and just keep an ear out, with the rain. Just barely wet enough that she might slip and drop the thing. Sure she could use her power to hold it, but that did weird things to touch-screens if she didn't manage to tag the right part of the case, and only that part. She was sure Kaiser knew, and that's why she got the shiny cutting-edge one after last time, instead of the durable waterproof one she wanted.
Fucking asshole, throwing money in her face just to watch her choke on it.
It wasn't like there was anything to see, either. She wasn't supposed to care about anything but cape fights, and none of either gang's capes had been seen since the weekend. It was about when she thought that, that she heard a crash that couldn't have come from anything mundane.
She listened for the crashes or explosions that would've followed a mundane crash that loud, just in case.
Not hearing anything for a while, she waited until there was another crash, and followed it. Two more crashes later, and she was floating high above the Trainyard, pulling her binoculars up from where they hung around her neck. It took another crash, but she found it. Some cape was... crushing shipping containers?
It took a second for her to recognize the powers, and her blood ran cold.
Terraform.
Taylor.
She still wasn't sure what to think of that dorky girl that kept trying to be friendly with her. Half of her was sure the girl knew she was Rune, and was trying to make her go straight. The rest just thought she was an idiot with no social skills. Some lost puppy that had no idea how the world worked.
Cass was a gangster. Rune was a supervillain. Taylor was a gawky nobody. Terraform was a hero.
There should have been no point of friendly interaction between them, but...
The idiot was just so fucking endearing. Like a little kid you wanted to lie to about how the world was, just so they wouldn't cry. Or get themselves killed. ...or both. Taylor just kept trying to be friendly, and push her way into Cass' life, or now pull Cass into hers, with that stupid martial arts crap.
Cass could brawl, and that was good enough.
If only the part that wanted to go would just shut up!
She wasn't allowed to have friends. She had contacts. Acquaintances. Patsies. Everyone either hated her, tolerated her, or wanted to use her to get ahead in their gang. People weren't allowed to just... like spending time with her.
It was so fucking confusing.
Cass didn't care about the Empire. They were just some big money her family were sucking up to. It was her family that she'd never be able to get away from. They were great now, but she could see the writing on the walls. Soon enough she'd be older, and the family would want more connections, and she'd get married off.
The best she could see right now being Theo. At least she could train that doormat.
She knew her power wasn't great. It was strong, but had its tiers. Usually her power was overkill, a bad impact at the wrong place? She'd killed at least a dozen people by now, all of them accidents. She had fights she was fine with, but then the threats immediately shot right past what she could handle. The narrow band where she was useful just didn't pop up often. Ironically enough, Terraform fell right into it.
Cass was sure that time she'd beaned her would have killed a squishy normal.
She barked out a sad laugh. What, was she planning on playing rivals with the same girl she was friends with while the masks were off? That'd be fucking retarded. Good for a laugh, though.
...so why was she crying?
She sniffled and floated away. There was no way she could drop down there and talk. Either she'd get attacked for being a Nazi, or... what? They'd just be chummy for no reason? Oh! She knew! She'd just tell Taylor who she was! There was no way that could end poorly!
...goddamn did she miss having peers. Everyone at school was either beneath her or hated her, all the normals in the E88 were either scared or brown-nosing, all the capes thought she was just a kid that was only good for a ride once in a while...
...she missed having boyfriends.
The only people stupid enough to touch her were the idiots who didn't remember what happened to the last guy Derek caught her with. All the good ways to blow off steam weren't allowed. No cigs, no drugs, no sex... They were supposed to be fucking supervillains! What was even the point if she wasn't allowed to have fun!?
She made it to the warehouse where she was keeping her stuff this week. She didn't care what Kaiser thought, she was taking the rest of the day off. She stripped out of her wet costume, shoving it into a bag and toweling off before putting on something dry. A nice waterproof coat on top of it, and she started the walk home.
...home. Kathy's house. Her and Derek. They were nice enough. Kathy was a sweetheart homemaker who just wanted to be a mom, Derek was an asshole with the stolen skills to pretend not to be unless you had to live with him, and her? She was stuck. The Empire just owned too much of the city. They had the cops, Medhall had the Mayor and administration in their pockets, they were the biggest cape group in the city, had the most money and manpower...
She didn't care about the Empire.
But she hated being trapped.
It took her years to see it, but this gang? This city? Her family?
It was just a bigger cell. Pretty gilded cages. Fake freedom full of chains.
Her power let her fly.
She just wanted to be free.
...she just wanted a choice.
She made it home, stuck her damp coat on the rack, tossed her bag of soggy robes into the laundry room, and slumped her way into the living room. She could hear Kathy puttering away in the kitchen, and knew Derek was busy wrangling the rest of the Herren boys today. She didn't want to watch TV, didn't want to read... she pulled out her phone, and checked through her messages. Suckups, fake friends, PHO threads she couldn't give a damn about... she clicked back through her texts, and her scanning stopped when she found Taylor's.
Just a girl, who wanted to be her friend.
'I'm here for you.'
She wiped her eyes again. Maybe she would drop by to their stupid fucking martial arts thing. She had no idea what the colorsquad would think of her, though. Probably try to push her away from Taylor, convince her she was just another Aryan breeder. Cass didn't care what they thought. Despite herself, she found she did care what Taylor thought, though. How to get her point across without burning too many bridges?
An idea struck her. Oh, Derek was going to hate it. He'd twig on it almost immediately, but he wasn't allowed to beat her, and if she made it into a bonding thing with Kathy? Half the girly things Cass did were because she didn't care one way or the other, and the rest because they made her cousin happy.
She hopped up and went to the kitchen. Kathy was working a rolling pin on some dough, baking pies or something. Absolutely covered in flour, and loving every second of it. She glanced over when she heard Cass come in, and the girl cringed a little inwardly. Kathy was still wearing that stupid eyepatch with the same rune on it that she wore in her Othala costume. Her hair was up to keep it out of the flour, and it usually covered the patch itself... but how that woman had the audacity to walk around the city with that thing on, Cass had no idea.
She cleared her throat to hide her feelings on the matter. "Hey, Kath?"
"Yeah?" The homemaker asked, setting her things aside and rubbing her hands on her apron, accomplishing precisely nothing with the action, as covered as both were.
"Do you... would you mind helping me dye my hair?"