Ignition

Amy stayed on the phone with her sister for long enough for me to regain some control over myself as I pondered the question of if I liked her enough to ask her out. Amy was a good friend, but I hadn't thought of it like that.

The thought that she might like me that way… I hadn't even considered it. Still, she was funny and nice, not to mention that her new costume looked good.

The new costume was definitely an improvement over the loosely hanging robes Amy had previously. The clean lines and fitted silhouette of the armoured labcoat definitely showed off her status as perhaps the most fit member of her family.

Especially the muscle tone visible in her new pants.

I looked up at her as she finished adjusting the little capelet and hood that made up the armour for her head in cas she needed it.

She looked up at me, "It's getting late, do you want to get something to eat before dropping me off?"

"Sure, what do you want?"

"Umm… that Thai place was nice."

I grinned, "It's a date then."

I chuckled as I watched her face short circuit, only coming to her senses as I princess-carried her out of the window. I laughed as he whacked my chest and pouted, "Really?"

"You weren't exactly being quiet Amy. You could have at least gotten away from the door."

"What?"

"I heard you hit the ground and I thought you got hurt somehow, and well, I'll admit to listening in after I heard you talking about me."

"YOU!" she crossed her arms and pouted at me as we sped through the sky.

I chuckled, "So I figured, let's see how this goes. I'm still not sure if I'm ready for this whole dating thing, but who knows, maybe it will be worth it."

"We're going to that fancy italian place then."

I rolled my eyes and altered my route, "Let's hope they have tables then."

"It's Brockton Bay, they'll have tables."

We continued to chat for a while, even as I took a moment to check in on the Empire members I had tagged, and absently made a note to maybe create a tracking power of sorts. Still, I did manage to discover something interesting. Victor was apparently working on the Empire plans against me, Apparently strategy was his remit.

The plans were a little crude, with a bunch of notes covering my abilities scribbled onto post-it notes as he attempted to make sense of things. Apparently, my efforts to hide my powers had been noticed, though still quite successful. Victor thought that I was a sort of telekinetic that could trade off precision, strength and range in order to make traits better at the cost of other ones, possibly with some sort of Thinker power that helped me do more complex things with my powers. Maybe some sort of Manton tradeoff as well.

Which was… surprisingly insightful really. Entirely incorrect, but in a way that actually gives them some semblance of hope at combating my powers.

They even had an approximate 'range' I could use my powers in, of a few blocks. If I were to give up almost all my strength and precision, at least.

Still, It was nice to know that some of our assumptions were being bourne out. Apparently, Kaiser had noted that Purity would be a last resort - why exactly was beyond me, but It definitely made Purity's 'departure' from the Empire a bit more suspicious.

As we touched down outside Bel Mare, I discovered the most important thing. The timetable for the upcoming attack.

Apparently, They were going to attempt to attack me with chemical weapons next, taking me down with a misted paralytic. They didn't have it on hand at the moment, needing to arrange for it to be delivered from other contacts, which meant that we had a few more days to prepare before they could even consider putting the attack into place.

Still, it meant that there was a hole in our defences that I hadn't really considered. Sure, I wouldn't have any issue with it, and from what I know of Newter's biology, he wouldn't be affected by it at all. The others were still vulnerable.

I'd have to discuss this with Amy to see if there was something we could do without revealing our biotinkering.

Unsurprisingly, Bel Mare, despite being one of the few high-end restaurants in Brockton, was pretty mucch empty. We were allowed to freely walk over and take our seats at one of -the balcony tables, overlooking Alister Boulevard down to the Boardwalk as we looked at the menu.

I ordered the seared mackerel with celeraic puree, while Amy picked a plate of frutti di mare, and some cider to go with it.

"Umm… so…" I paused, "Yeah, uh, I haven't really been on a date before. What am I supposed to do?"

Amy shrugged, "I dunno, I've only really been on double dates with my sister and most of the time it with these fucking spoiled brats or firends with those jerks that Vicky dates whenever she's trying to get back at dean for missing one of their dates or whatever other reason it is that they broke up over that time."

I furrowed m brow, "What's that all about anyways?"

She shakes her head, "So, Vicky's dating Dean, he's from a rich family, but that means he's called out to family dinners and business stuff all the time, and sometimes he gets called out on fairly short notice, so he's flaked on dates and stuff, plus he doesn't arrange any dates himself, so she kinda gets fed up with him all the time."

I stared at her, "Then why the fuck are they dating?"

"He's pretty much the only person who can pay for her shopping addiction." She remarks dryly taking a glass from the waiter as I hung my head in my hands.

"Really?"

"Yep. That's it."

"How much does she buy?"

"Vicky's a bit of a clothes horse, which, part of it is she wrecks her costumes and clothes in fights sure, but shes's also a bit careless, and well, she likes the sorts of clothes that tear easily."

"How unexpected." I remarked dryly, taking a sip of cider - it was pretty good, sweet, but still refreshingly sour.

Amy giggled, "Carol gets pissed off at her every single time, you know?"

"Let me guess, something about taking better care of her stuff?"

"It's just about the only time she yells at Vicky." She noted bitterly.

I frowned reaching out and troked her arm, "I'm here for you, you know that right?"

She smiled a little wanly, "It's not that bad, I've gotten better at ignoring her."

I nodded, "Let's get away from that for now. I had a thought coming here. Your I don't get sick thing, does it work on sleeping gas and stuff?"

She blinked, "Um, no, or at least, pepper spray and stuff still works on me. Why?"

"I was thinking of other holes in our defences that might be easier for the Empire to use other than tinker-tech lasers, and I figure they could get their hands on some riot gas."

Amy blinks, "Fuck they could, couldn't they?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of doing facemasks for everyone, but sealing it well enough to beat CS gas or even pepper spray is going to be difficult."

She bobbled her head, and I nodded letting the waiter put down our plates in front of us, before putting back the barriers to prevent us from being overheard.

"Well, we could do a sort of a thing with the N95s they do for the respiratory division. I've never used them before, but I bet we can find out how they work online."

"I was actually thinking of doing an active transport membrane, kind of like the inside of a lung maybe? And have something similar to get CO2 out of there."

She shook her head, "If we're doing that, we might as well just do a closed loop with some sort of algae or whatever to get the air oxygenated again."

I nodded thoughtfully, "We would need some sort of energy source though."

"We could do a chemical source, it wouldn't even be that hard."

"It would get hot though, and it's not the best for an emergency case."

'What were you planning on then? She asked, hey eyes alight with interest. We slowly worked though our meal, discussing various options.

By the end of it, we had hashed out a fairly decent design, one that would manage most things, even if it wasn't the best option overall. Honestly, it wasn't terrible, the only downside being the need for lighting. Though it had been set up with the ability to hold a charge to keep a person breathing for and hour or so of protection even in the dark though.

Nothing like the oxygen generators Armsmaster had in his suit, but it would work well enough for what we needed.

We finished dinner and ordered some desert as they cleared the table, I moved our chairs closer together as we looked out over the cityscape.

"You know, even if it's basically a lawless hellhole disguising itself as an actual city, this looks pretty good."

"That's how it gets you!" I said with faux paranoia, and Amy laughed, "It sucks you in with this… this illusion of decency."

She laughed, "Then it sucks you down into it's cesspools of filth?"

"With tentacles." I say faux-sagely, "Strange tentacles wider than a man, belonging to eldritch creatures unlike any seen before by man."

She thook her head, "I didn't know you believed in those."

I shrug, "I don't, not really, but my dad used to tell me stories like that when I was a kid. Apparently, his dad was a captain for one of those big cargo ships that used to come around like a hundred years ago, and he used to spend a lot of time around sailors and stuff during the summers since his dad was always at sea."

I sent my card with the bill and we picked up the affogatos as slowly started eating, looking out over the streets, "So, how long do you think it's going to be before the Empire attacks?"

I considered it… "At the rate we've been getting things ready, my bet is that we'll be ready for a counter attack first, and we'll force them to respond, so… six… no five days?"

She chook her head, "Nah, they won't be that patient. I mean, Kaiser and all will be, but I bet Hookwolf or like… Alabaster shows up and tries to take revenge or something before that."

I blinked, "Could that happen?"

She shrugged, "I'm going off what Vicky and the others tell me, but from what I hear, there's some serious beef between Victor and Hookwolf. Not exactly sure why, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hookwolf tries to strike out on his own, or something."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, "He can't be that stupid."

"He's a Nazi." She deadpanned.

I laughed, putting down my glass as she finished hers, the company card floating from the table over to my pocket. I picked Amy up and took to the skies again, "Where do you want to go?"

She looked out at the stars, and sighed, "It's getting late, and this date was kind of last minute, if I show up late, Mom's going to be pissed off."

"Doesn't Vicky know about this date?"

"Would you trust Vicky to remember to tell mom that I might be home late?"

"Well it's not like she's careless or anything." I said sarcastically even as I changed my route.

Amy giggled and snuggled in closer to me, "Thanks again for taking me out, it's been a really good time".

I laughed, and was about to leave before I heard a voice, "So you're Halcyon are you?"