Confrontation II: the Reckoning (Worm fanfic) COMPLETE

Confrontation II: The Reckoning

Part Four: When Right … is Wrong … is Right Again

[A/N: This chapter beta-read, and improved upon, by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Well, this is familiar.

Sophia sat in Principal Blackwell's outer office, under the secretary's watchful eye. Outwardly, she was calm; inside, she was feeling a level of irritation that she was finding hard to explain. I've been in trouble before. Why is this different?

It took her a few moments to figure it out, not helped by the worry that she would get detention and miss the date with Brian. A more distant worry, but just as real, was that if Piggot decided that she had overstepped her very tenuous boundaries, the rug could be pulled out from under her at any moment.

But I was trying to do the right thing, this time!

That gave her the clue; she was feeling honest indignation, not righteous indignation. She had experienced the latter emotion many times, usually over being disciplined for minor infractions. She'd been guilty of them, no doubt, but she had never considered that the crime really merited the punishment.

This time, she had definitely committed the crime, but it had been in a good cause, as opposed to the half-assed justifications she had used to convince herself that she was still a hero. Is this what they call irony? Well, if it is, it sucks. Big time.

The door to the outer office opened, and Kirsten Bright stepped through. The look she sent Sophia didn't make the girl feel any more confident about matters. Walking past her to the desk, Kirsten had a quiet word with the secretary, then came over to where Sophia sat.

Sophia tried to work this out. I didn't call her. “Did Taylor call you?” she asked quietly.

Kirsten looked down at her, lips compressed slightly. “No. The principal did.”

“Ah. Right. Listen, it's not what it looks like.”

“Really?” Kirsten sat down beside her, so that she could lower her voice to a mere whisper. “I nearly lost my job the first time when the Director found out the full extent of what you'd been getting up to before I did. I'm not going to risk that again. So I told Blackwell to call me any time you acted out in the slightest.”

“So you can get on top of things, right?” But the moment the words left her lips, Sophia knew that her guess had been incorrect.

“So that by the time Piggot gets on to me, I have a full accounting of your misdeeds, and a series of recommendations to be carried out. Up to and including having you put on trial as an adult.” The woman's tone was deadly serious, for all that it was barely audible.

“But -” There was something wrong with that setup. For one thing, it implied that -

“Make no mistake, Sophia,” Kirsten stated flatly. “I am not your friend. I am not on your side. I am not going to stick my neck out one sixteenth of an inch to save you from your richly deserved fate. You were supposed to be a reforming vigilante, in the process of becoming a well-regarded Ward, while I was supposed to check in every now and again, and make sure that you were responding well to your new situation. Except that somewhere along the line, the school decided that 'give her leeway as a Ward' meant 'sweep everything under the carpet'. So I never looked too hard at what was going on. Well, more fool me.”

Her lips twisted bitterly. “So I decided to make sure that just one foot out of line meant that you'd get what you deserved. And surprise surprise. You put a foot out of line.”

Sophia shook her head. “Like fuck I did.”

Kirsten's head jolted back, as if Sophia had slapped her. “What do you mean? Principal Blackwell rang me and said you were caught shoving another girl against the wall.”

“Yeah, and I bet she didn't say that Madison was one of the girls who used to help me bully Taylor.”

From the look in Kirsten's eyes, Sophia knew she'd scored a hit.

Still, the woman came back strongly. “That still doesn't excuse you bullying her.”

Sophia rolled her eyes. “Emma and Madison don't know about Taylor being in the Wards. They tried to get me in on a prank. I tried to tell them no, Madison wouldn't back off, so I was in the middle of convincing her that it was a bad idea when Gladly walked around the corner.” She stopped talking, unwilling to give any more details. No need to bring my date with Brian into this.

Kirsten looked confused, then puzzled, then enlightened as the penny finally dropped. “You were trying to stop them from bullying Taylor …?”

“Well, duh. It's not like I can tell them that she's my new best friend without raising a whole lot of new questions about the situation. Like, how and why and where. So I just said no. But Madison wouldn't take that for an answer.”

“You could've told a teacher,” Kirsten countered. “Or the principal. Not taken matters into your own hands.”

For fuck's sake. You do know where we are, right? “This is Winslow. I snitch, it'll be around the school before lunch. And that'll out me harder than anything else. Sophia Hess as a snitch? Everyone and his dog will know that something's up. And there's one other thing.”

“Ms Bright, Miss Hess, Principal Blackwell will see you now,” announced the secretary.

Kirsten turned and held up a finger. “Sixty seconds,” she said, before returning her attention to Sophia. “Talk fast.”

“Emma's pissed at the statement I made,” Sophia said rapidly. “She wants to get Taylor too. She's gonna start connecting the dots pretty soon. Either her and Madison get made to back the fuck off, or the PRT's not gonna like what happens next. Just saying.”

“Is that a threat of some sort?” Kirsten's eyes narrowed.

Your intimidation needs work. “Fuck, no. Just letting you know that unless we do something now, they'll keep trying to get at Taylor. And with her powers, if they really manage to get her mad …” She shuddered at the thought. “I am not taking responsibility for that if it happens. Which means they need to stop or be stopped. For their own good.”

Kirsten grimaced. “Okay, then. Let's go in, and see if we can't sort out some more of your fallout.”

“Hey,” protested Sophia as she got up. “This is not my fucking fault.”

“You started it,” Kirsten said. “If it wasn't for you, would any of this be happening?”

Sophia put as much emphasis into her words as she could without actually raising her voice. “But I'm trying to fix it!”

Her handler's tone was markedly unsympathetic. “That's the only thing saving your ass right now.”

<><>​

Principal Blackwell's tone was chilly. “Sit down.”

Sophia eyed the woman unfavourably as she took a seat. The woman had a hairstyle like Piggot's on a build that was, if anything, skinnier than Taylor's. If anyone can rock the skinny look, it'll be Taylor. Give her a few years and a little more confidence, and she'll have the guys begging for dates. This bitch … not so much.

On a less personal note, Sophia also held Blackwell largely responsible for the current situation. If she'd put her foot down when Emma and me were running roughshod over Taylor, all this shit would never have happened.

Kirsten took the initiative. “Principal Blackwell,” she said, “why am I here?”

I like it. Putting her on the back foot straight away.

Blackwell stared at the woman. “You told me to call you. If Sophia Hess acted out in any way, you said. You repeated it half a dozen times.” She pointed at Sophia, making the girl want to grab the offending digit and snap it. “She acted out. I called you.”

Leaning back in her chair, Kirsten folded her arms. “And what form did this 'acting out' take?”

The principal looked confused. “I told you. She was seen shoving another girl up against the wall. I took action immediately. She was separated from the student body and I called you. Just as you instructed me.”

“And the girl she was shoving around,” Kirsten said. “Did you happen to get her name?”

“Oh, come on,” snapped Blackwell. “You personally gave me a twenty-minute lecture on how it didn't matter who we caught her bullying. Does it matter?”

“Yes, actually, it does matter.” Kirsten was studying her fingernails now. She looked up at Blackwell. “If you'd bothered to do the slightest level of due diligence, or even asked Sophia herself why she was doing it, you would've learned some important facts, and maybe even spared me a trip across town while you were at it.”

“What it God's name does it matter who she was shoving around?” said the principal. “Bullying is bullying! You yelled that at me so many times it's tattooed on my eardrums.”

“Well, for instance,” Kirsten said, “it might matter if the girl in question was one Madison Clements. One of Sophia's former partners in crime. Who, along with Emma Barnes, was attempting to solicit Sophia's aid to continue with her bullying campaign against Taylor Hebert.” She rested her fingertips against her chin and gazed placidly at Blackwell. “Do you think it might matter then?”

Blackwell's eyes flicked from Kirsten to Sophia. “Is this true?” she demanded of the teenager.

“Well, yeah,” Sophia said derisively. You fucking moron.

“Why didn't you tell us then?” Blackwell looked as though she were about to start chewing the scenery.

“I tried. You told me to shut up.” Sophia did her best to keep the indignation out of her voice. It would sound too much like whining.

“Can anyone else back your story up?”

Sophia managed to refrain from laughing in Blackwell's face, but it was a near thing. “They were talking about bullying someone. Not something you casually talk about in the middle of the corridor. No, I've got no witnesses. Except for Madison and Emma. Good luck getting them to incriminate themselves.”

A tiny germ of an idea unfolded in her mind about then. She wasn't sure where it was going, so she let it be.

“Well, unfortunately, if you've got nobody to back up your side of things, then I'm just going to have to treat it as a bullying incident,” Blackwell decided. “Mr Gladly saw you do it, after all.”

“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Sophia snapped. “Why the hell would I attack someone that I helped bully someone else with? It doesn't make sense.”

“It would if you wanted someone to bully, and you didn't care who,” Blackwell pointed out. “And if you don't tone down your language right now, I'll be adding that on top of the rest of it.”

So this is how Blackwell shut Taylor down so often, Sophia realised. And all this time, I thought we were just that good at staying out of trouble. It was Blackwell all the time. She's just that good at not giving a shit who's actually in the wrong, so long as she doesn't have to exert herself.

“I actually find that hard to believe,” Kirsten said bluntly. “Sophia has her issues, but she's never attacked someone she considered a friend.”

The idea opened up fully, and Sophia saw the whole thing. It was a way out, but it would not be without its costs.

“All the same,” Blackwell said, “if you've got no proof -”

Fuck it. Let's go for gold. “Actually, I've got something for you,” Sophia interrupted her. “Bring Emma Barnes and Madison Clements in here. We'll sort this out once and for all.”

“I'm not sure -” began Blackwell.

“I am,” Kirsten snapped. “If she says they're involved, then they're involved. And your Mr Gladly, too. So he can verify that they were there.”

“I really don't think -” Blackwell tried again.

Kirsten stood up. “You either do this, or I place a phone call to Director Piggot explaining exactly how obstructive you're being, and we start expediting the transfer of both Wards to Arcadia.”

That hit home, hard. Sophia had known that having a Ward in the school meant extra funding, but she wasn't sure how much. Looking at Blackwell now, she decided that there had to be a few zeroes involved.

“Okay, fine,” the principal huffed. “I'll get it done.”

“Good.” Kirsten sat down again. “No time like the present.”

Blackwell gave her an irritated look. Kirsten didn't seem to notice, or perhaps she just didn't care.

<><>​

Emma was the first to enter the office, followed by Mr Gladly. Madison trailed along behind.

“What's going on here?” Predictably, Emma went on the attack straight away, once she saw Sophia. Especially once she saw Kirsten. That had to have rung all sorts of alarm bells in her head. “Where's my dad?”

“Your father isn't required at this meeting,” Blackwell said wearily. “You aren't being accused of anything.” She glanced at Kirsten. “Is she?”

Sophia shook her head, causing Blackwell's irritated expression to crank itself up a notch. “Nope. I just want to deliver a message. But first; Mr Gladly. Can you confirm that she's the one I was shoving around in the halls, earlier? And that she was there too?” She pointed at Madison and Emma in turn.

Gladly looked at Sophia, then at the principal. Blackwell glowered at the Ward, then reluctantly nodded. “Answer the question.”

“Well, yeah,” he said. “They were both there. Sophia was shoving Madison against the wall pretty hard.”

From the look on the principal's face, she'd been hoping he would deny it. “Thank you, Mr Gladly. You may go.”

With one confused look over his shoulder, the World Affairs teacher let himself out. Sophia had heard that he was easy to distract from what they'd do to Taylor, but right now she kind of wished that he'd been a hardass about the whole thing. If he had, I might not be sitting here right now.

“What's this about?” asked Emma again.

Sophia took a deep breath. “Emma. Everyone here knows that we all used to bully Taylor Hebert. That finishes now. It's over. It's done. It never happens again. Got it?”

Madison's eyes went wide. Emma stared at Sophia, but recovered fast. “I've got no idea what you're talking about.” She looked at Blackwell. “I'd like to go back -”

Fine, hardball it is. “Emma. I'm the one who made the statement to the police about what we used to do to Taylor. The one they're giving you a hard time about. It was me. I was there. I saw everything. I helped you. Now stop playing dumb and understand this. It. Is. Done.”

“What the fuck?” burst out Madison. “You made that statement? Why the fuck did you do that?”

Wow, cute little Madison thinks she can swear. Who knew? Sophia was actually kind of amused at that.

Emma turned on the petite girl. “Mads, shut up,” she hissed. Standing up, she returned her attention to Blackwell. “I'm not going to sit here and be accused unless my dad's here as well.”

“I'm not accusing you of shit,” Sophia snapped. “I know you did it. They know you did it. But everything you did is already in the statement. That's being dealt with. What I'm saying is, quit it. I'm this close to going to juvey as it is.” She held up her hand with thumb and forefinger a hair apart. “And if anything happens to Hebert, it splashes back on me. And if that happens, I'll know who's really to blame.”

“Sophia, we're friends,” Emma said, trying for a sweet tone. “I'm sure you don't mean that. I'd hate for your social worker there to hear some of the rumours that might get out and about …”

“Already told her,” Sophia retorted.

She blinked, taken properly aback for the first time that she'd entered the room. “What? The guy on the roof …?”

Sophia wanted to grimace. Once, not long after she had met Emma, she'd taken the other girl out on patrol. In order to impress Emma, she had tried to pull a move with a Merchants thug that involved dangling him off a roof to get answers. It had gone wrong, spectacularly so.

“She told me,” Kirsten confirmed. “And the rest of it.”

“Wait, what guy on what roof?” asked Madison.

Kirsten and Sophia spoke at the same time. “You don't need to know.” Sophia looked back to Emma. “That's it. It's really simple. Leave Taylor Hebert alone. Got it?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Well, I don't even know what you're going on about. I've never done anything to her anyway, so leaving her alone's gonna be real easy.”

“Good,” Sophia said flatly. “Make sure you remember it.” She was tempted to add I know where you live, but she had a suspicion that both Kirsten and Blackwell might object.

As it was, it looked like Emma already had that in mind; the redhead had paled slightly. “Can we go now?” she asked, not quite meekly, but with far less of the defiance that she'd had when she entered the office.

“You can,” agreed Blackwell. “Go straight back to class.”

Sophia wanted to add and don't tell anyone what happened, but she suspected that this might make them more likely to talk about it. As it was, she figured she had a fifty-fifty chance that they'd stay quiet.

I guess I'm gonna have to live with those odds.

The door closed behind the two girls, and Kirsten looked at Blackwell. “I'm satisfied. Are you?”

Blackwell gave her an irritated look. “If I say yes, will you get out of my office?”

Kirsten wasn't finished. “And Sophia doesn't get in trouble?”

Sophia blinked. Holy shit, she's actually backing me up.

The expression on the principal's face suggested that she'd been sucking on a whole crate full of lemons. “This time. She's free to go.”

And don't you fucking forget it.

The temptation to give Blackwell the finger on the way out the door was very strong, but Sophia managed to resist the impulse.

<><>​

They paused outside the outer office. Kirsten turned to Sophia. “You were in the right this time, but don't -” She stopped as her phone rang. Frowning, she dug it out of her pocket and answered it. “Kirsten Bright here. Oh – hello, Director.”

On the verge of walking off, Sophia stopped and turned. If Piggy's calling Kirsten, then this is some kind of important.

“Yes – yes, the matter was resolved. No, she's not in trouble. She was trying to – oh, you already know? How -? Oh, she called you?”

For a moment, Sophia wondered who 'she' was, until she saw several flies performing an intricate mid-air ballet in front of her face. Taylor. Duh.

It took her a moment to realise that she'd automatically assumed that Taylor would actually defend her and not try to screw her over. For all that she was expecting it, it still gave her a weird feeling. Someone's actually on my side in all this. She wasn't including Kirsten; the 'social worker' had been willing to throw her to the wolves until Sophia got a word in edgewise.

Kirsten finished the call, then put her phone away. “That was … odd.”

“Taylor called your boss?” Sophia grinned; she loved it when she guessed right.

“Well, yes.” Kirsten frowned. “She apparently saw what was happening and made the call. Just to let the Director know that something was going on.”

Sophia would have bet that there was more to it, but she decided not to push it. This time. “So I'm not in trouble?”

“It appears not.” Kirsten's voice was dry. “But let's try not to have a repeat performance any time soon, shall we?”

Sophia gave her a direct look. “You do your job, I'll do mine.”

Now it was Kirsten who looked as though she'd bitten into something sour. “I suppose that's the best I can hope for.”

<><>​

Taylor

“Hey.” As Sophia made room on the bus seat for me, I slid in beside her.

“Hey yourself,” she replied with a crooked grin. “I heard what you did for me.”

“Moi?” I acted surprised. “I didn't do anything. Okay, I might've made a phone call, but that was totally innocent.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Innocent. I guess I had it handled, but yeah, it was appreciated anyway. Just in case someone got the wrong idea.”

“So is it all settled?” I asked, digging in my backpack.

“For now. Hopefully.” She sighed. “I had to tell Emma about the statement so she'd get off your fucking back. I was hoping not to have to go there.”

“Let me guess,” I said, handing her the tracking bracelet. “She said she knew nothing about anything?”

Lifting her foot on to the seat, she pulled up her jeans leg. I leaned forward to make sure nobody saw as she snapped the bracelet on and pulled the jeans down again. “To hear her say it, she was pure as the driven snow. Oh, and then she threatened me with that other shit. Thanks for that, by the way. I was able to look her in the eye and tell her to fuck off.”

I gave her a halfway grin. “That's why it's called damage control. How did Blackwell take it?”

Sophia grimaced. “Didn't want to know about my side of it. Thank fuck I was able to talk Kirsten around.”

I nodded. “That's good. So, you ready to talk some more about our issues?”

She wrinkled her nose. “No. Can I stop you?”

I grinned. “Nope.”

<><>​

I looked at her with concern. "You didn't have to wear the skates, you know."

She continued to struggle along with the roller-blades. "You know me. I don't like to lose. Even if it hurts."

This wasn't an argument I was going to win. “So, on the subject of hurting, did you really enjoy hurting me, or was it something that you told yourself that you should be enjoying?”

I skated in an arc around Sophia while I waited for the answer. The dark-skinned girl, still not all that steady on her own roller-blades, concentrated on staying upright.

“I guess … hurting you wasn't the point, but it was something that happened along the way.” She paused for a moment.

“A means to an end?” I suggested.

“Yeah, something like that,” she said. “The idea was to push you down, make sure you knew where you were supposed to be. If you got hurt because you didn't know your place, tough shit.”

“But why?” I swung around and matched my pace to hers. “Why push me down in the first place? Why pick me?”

“Emma needed to be strong,” she said slowly. “She needed someone to be stronger than.”

I nodded. “Thus the Nazi shit.”

She grimaced. “Yeah, that.” I could tell that she still didn't like being compared to being a Nazi. “So when I saw you, and how you let me push you around, I decided that you were too weak, too wimpy to belong in my world. In Emma's world.”

“Just like that.” My voice was flat.

“Just like that,” she agreed. “Of course, I had no idea what I was fucking talking about. I know that now.”

The aggrieved tone of her voice made me grin. “Let me guess. You've been getting hit in the face by everything you used to do to me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you have no fucking idea. I wish there was a cape who could send people back in time. I'd go back to when I first met you, and I'd kick the shit out of myself. Every time I think I can finally relax, I find out I've sabotaged myself fucking again.”

“That's gotta suck,” I said, almost managing to sound sympathetic. Though it would have been interesting to watch Shadow Stalker from the future beat up her past version.

“Yeah. It does.” She huffed a sigh. “Can we change the fucking subject now please?”

I was impressed. She'd managed to swear and say 'please' in the same statement. “Sure. About Madison. What the fuck's up with her?”

“She's a brown-noser who sucks up to whoever's strongest around her,” Sophia said promptly. “Pretty sure she's got a crush on Emma.”

I blinked. “She's gay?” Not that there was anything wrong about that, but I just hadn't thought it was Madison's style.

Sophia snorted. “Fuck, no. She's just got a crush. That's different – mostly. Though it's still a bit creepy.”

I thought about that for a moment. “ … yeah, I guess that makes a kind of sense.” Then I began to chuckle as something else occurred to me.

She glanced at me warily. “What's so funny?”

“Well, if she sucks up to whoever's strongest … that means she probably had a crush on you, too,” I explained with a grin.

Sophia recoiled so hard she almost fell over. “What? Fuck, no!”

I started to laugh, to the point where I had to grab on to the rail to stay upright. Sophia glared at me, apparently unable to see the funny side of things. “It's not funny!” she insisted. “And it's not true anyway.”

“Really?” I giggled, wiping tears away from my eyes. “So you've never seen her staring wistfully at you, just hoping that you would notice her for herself …” I started laughing again, hanging on to the rail.

“Shut up,” she muttered. “Just shut up.”

“That's not a no,” I teased her.

She glared at me. “Just shut up, okay?”

“Shut up about what?” It was Brian's voice.

We both looked around; he stood there, wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Beside him, Aisha smirked at us both. She was dressed slightly more modestly than the previous time we'd met, but only by a matter of degree. A small matter of degree.

“Nothing.” Sophia answered his question, shooting me a warning look. I answered it with a grin. “Personal stuff. Something that should never see the light of day. Ever.”

“If you say so.” Brian sounded amused. “So, you ready for the date?”

“Wait a minute,” interjected his sister. “I wanna hear more about this stuff that should never see the light of day. This sounds interesting.”

I rolled toward her slightly. “Well, tell you what. If you don't make yourself too much of a pain, I might give you a hint or two.”

Sophia shook her head. “Don't you dare!”

Amused, I looked at her over my glasses. “You've got a date with a hunky guy. I'm keeping Aisha company. Wanna trade?”

She flung up her hands, then grabbed for the rail as her skates threatened to roll from under her. “Fine. You win.”

Aisha grinned at me. “I'll take that deal.”

Brian helped Sophia to a bench, where she began to take her skates off. I heard him stage-whisper to her, “Don't worry. She's never managed to be good for that long before.”

“Always a first time,” sang out Aisha.

Sophia groaned and put her face in her hands.



End of Part Four

Part Five

 

Confrontation II: The Reckoning

Part Five: Bonding Time



[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]



Sophia

The moment Aisha had Sophia's skates on, she slapped Taylor on the shoulder and yelled, “Tag!” Before Taylor could react, the younger girl darted off, cackling gleefully. Sophia watched as Taylor sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had to hand it to Taylor; had it been her, Sophia would've been after Aisha without even thinking about it.

Taylor turned to Sophia and Brian. “Will you two be okay for a moment without me?” she asked. Sophia picked up on the subtext without any problem at all; Taylor was asking if she could be trusted to not make a run for it. Not that Taylor wouldn't have bugs on her already, but it was the thought that counted.

“Sure, go ahead.” Sophia nodded, meeting Taylor's gaze. I'm good, right here. Subtly, she inclined her head toward Brian. Besides, if I screw up now, I don't get to go on any more dates. If she hadn't been certain that the original encounter was an accident, she might've wondered if Taylor had set up the whole 'meeting Brian' thing to convince her to behave more. The ever-present threat of being sent back to juvey was a potent stick, but Brian made one hell of a carrot. So to speak.

“Cool. Back in a second.” With a clatter of wheels on wood, Taylor zipped off in pursuit of the overly-exuberant Aisha. Sophia watched her weaving through the afternoon crowd with mild envy; it wasn't fair that she was so good on them. Beside her, she heard a sigh that seemed to echo her thoughts.

Turning, she tilted her her head up to look at Brian's expression. “What's the matter? And how've you been, anyway?” She wasn't quite sure how to analyse what she felt about Brian. Up until now, her love life had been essentially non-existent. Between tormenting Taylor, hanging with Emma and Madison in and out of school, tormenting Taylor, her track work, tormenting Taylor and her Wards duties, she hadn't had enough time to notice boys socially, let alone do anything about them.

“I'm fine. I've been good.” Unaware of her inner monologue, he pointed with a chuckle as Aisha ducked the wrong way and Taylor tagged her. “It's just nice, you know? To have someone else to help Aisha blow off steam. She's got attention span issues, and … well, problems at home. So I'm glad you brought Taylor along.”

“Oh, really?” she asked sarcastically. “Should I have stayed at home then, and just sent her on her own? Because that's what I'm hearing.” Raising her eyebrows, she stared up at him challengingly.

“Oh, shit.” He sounded a little shocked. “No, no, I didn't mean that at all. It's good to see you. It really is. You look wonderful. I was just saying that, because I can't not bring Aisha along, I'm glad that you let Taylor come with you, so we could have our date without having to worry about my bratty little sister spoiling it for us.” His expression was hopeful as he finished his spiel.

She decided to award him bonus points for trying, though it was darkly amusing that he had zero idea as to who had allowed whom to come along. And she could definitely stand to hear more about how wonderful she looked. Those sort of compliments usually went to Emma, not her. Leaning up, she kissed him on the cheek. “Nice save, big boy,” she murmured. “If you keep it up, I might have to take you seriously.”

He looked a little taken aback, but she wasn't sure whether it was for the kiss or the comment. Either way was good; she decided she like having him off-guard. She got the nicest compliments that way. Linking her arm through his, which elicited another startled look, she nodded toward where Taylor was on her way back toward them, with Aisha in hot pursuit. “So, wanna make a start? From what I've seen of Aisha, they'll be at this for a while.”

He made an amused sound. “Oh, Aisha'll do this all day, until Taylor pulls her up. I think she's needed a friend like Taylor for the longest time. Someone who's willing to be a little bit silly with her, but who'll pull her up short when it's necessary.” Starting off alongside her, he took two steps before looking down at her in concern. “You're limping. Are you okay?”

Silently, Sophia consigned Oni Lee to the darkest depths of the PRT's dungeons. Or secure holdings, whichever worked better. “It's nothing. Just a bit banged up.”

He stopped and turned to face her, his expression and tone full of concern. “If you're limping, it's more than 'a bit banged up'. Are you okay? What happened?”

She tried not to grimace in annoyance. The date had barely started, and she didn't want it to go downhill like this. He was obviously concerned for her welfare, which made her feel good. But he wasn't going to let this go, which made her not so thrilled. Goddamn it, why couldn't he be as oblivious as Clockblocker or Kid Win? “It's nothing, really. I—”

Taylor skidded to a halt next to them, an irrepressible grin on her face and her eyes alight with amusement. “Hey, guys. Everything okay?”

“Sophia's limping,” Brian said without taking his eyes from Sophia's face. “I was just wondering who I was going to have to punch the crap out of for it.”

Oh, man. Now I can't even be pissed with him about this. Why couldn't I have met a guy like this a year ago?

“Oh, that's easy,” Taylor said immediately. “I was getting picked on by this ABB guy and his buddies, and Sophia objected kinda strenuously. You should've seen her. She was badass. I mean, I helped where I could, but she did most of it. Left them wondering what the hell hit them. They got arrested and everything.” She beamed at Sophia, who blinked a few times. Whatever Taylor had been about to say, she hadn't expected that.

“Uh, yeah,” she said, in response to Brian's questioning look. “That's basically what happened.” Except that it was Oni Lee, not some random guys, and he was trying to kill her … huh. The rest of it's basically true. Never knew Taylor could spin a line like that. Her respect for the bug controller went up another couple of notches.

“Holy shit!” crowed Aisha, who'd been trying to sneak up on Taylor and failing. “That's awesome. Sophia, you're now officially allowed to date Brian. High-five, sister!” She held up her palm expectantly.

Feeling bemused, Sophia gave her the expected high-five. “So wait, what's been going on before this point if you're only just now giving permission?”

Aisha lifted her chin and made a throw-away gesture. “Oh, that was just a trial period. You had a certain amount of time to convince me that you're worth letting Bri date you. Otherwise, not a chance in hell.”

Brian frowned, staring at his sister. “Seriously, Aish. As the older brother, I get to vet your dates, not the other way around.”

“Pfft, as if,” Aisha stated dismissively. “You're a guy. Guys got no judgement in stuff like this. There's any number of psycho bitches around Brockton Bay. I'd be, uh, what's the word? Something to do with duty? Not doin' it right?”

“Neglecting?” offered Taylor, her mouth quirking with suppressed laughter.

“Yeah, that's the one. I'd be neglecting my sisterly duty if I didn't check out your dates and make sure they aren't about to rip your heart out and stomp all over it.” Aisha blithely gestured toward Sophia. “But hey, she passes. You can date her. See what a good sister I am?”

Brian shook his head slowly, but Sophia thought she caught the hint of a grin on his face. “Aisha, I can tell that we're gonna need to have a long talk about boundaries sometime. But not right now. Right now, I want to get back to the date.” He held out his arm to Sophia. “Shall we go?”

An unaccustomed grin spread itself over Sophia's face as she took the offered arm. “Let's do this thing.”

<><>​

Taylor

“Fuck those ABB assholes, am I right?” Aisha wasn't dashing around as madly as before; she and I were paralleling Sophia and Brian as they strolled along the Boardwalk. “I heard Oni Lee got taken down yesterday, so they're all out of capes now.”

“Yeah, I heard that too,” I agreed, impressed that Aisha was so well-informed about gang events. “Maybe now the cops can roll up the regular gang members.” I didn't really think that they'd hold out for long in Brockton Bay without Lung and his cape minions to back them up, but a little assistance from the BBPD surely couldn't hurt. “So what did Brian decide to go see this time?”

Aisha shrugged elaborately, then glanced over at where Sophia and Brian were deep in conversation. “I got zero fuckin' idea. But I'm glad Soph didn't get scared off the first time. Bri doesn't get to meet many girls. I can't even remember the last time he went on one date, let alone a second one.”

I stared at her, then over at Brian's tall manly figure. Sophia wasn't short, but next to him she looked positively petite. “You have to be shitting me,” I said slowly. “Why is he not fending off girls with a stick?”

She looked briefly uncomfortable. “Well, he's trynna fix my home situation, and there's the work he's got. I mean, he knows other girls from work, but they aren't his type and he isn't theirs. And outside of work, he's too busy with his other shit.”

“Damn,” I muttered, then looked away from him before he caught me staring. “So, uh, does that mean he's likely to lose interest in her?” I'd asked the question in concern that if he dropped Sophia, I'd have that emotional shit to deal with along with all the rest of it, but a moment later I realised how it sounded. “I mean, is he likely to break her heart?” Truth be told, I wouldn't have minded him paying that sort of attention to me, but not at Sophia's expense.

After a sharp glance at me, Aisha seemed to accept that I was asking the question in genuine concern for Sophia's well-being. “Nah, I can't see it. When Bri takes something up, he does it full-on. Now, if she breaks his heart, I'mma carve her liver out with a rusty spoon. Just saying.” Her tone was totally serious, for all that she looked ludicrously adorable making the threat.

“Don't have to worry about that,” I assured her. “Sophia's very dedicated about things. Even if Brian was a bad idea for her, I'd still have a hell of a time convincing her of that. And just between you and me, I don't think so. I mean, shit, she's smiled more often since she met him than in all the time I've known her.” Smiled in a nice way, I meant. Not in a bitchy way. Of course, her bitchy smile quotient was effectively zero since I'd smacked her upside the head with my baton. Funny how that worked.

Aisha raised her eyebrows at that. “Huh. You really are looking out for her, aren't you? What'd she do, sacrifice herself for you in a previous life or something? Or were you two bumping uglies before she met Brian?”

“No!” I protested. “We're just friends. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but no. That's not us. We're just … we've been through a lot together. It's complicated.” I tried to even visualise me and Sophia in that sort of relationship, and my brain came to a screeching halt. Not just nope, but hell nope. Even if either of us was that way inclined, there was way too much baggage between us to make it work.

“Woo!” she cackled as she sat down on a bench to take off her skates. By way of explanation, she pointed at a side-street that led off the Boardwalk. “The movie place is that way. Shortcut.”

“Oh.” I sat beside her and started unlacing my skates too. “Anyway, 'woo'? What's with that? I didn't say anything weird, did I?”

She grinned at me. “There's something you're not telling me, isn't there? I can tell. I mean, apart from the way you're so goddamn nobly holding back from trynna grab Brian all for yourself. There's some sorta stuff goin' on between you and Soph, isn't there? What is it? You guys exes?”

“You just don't give up, do you?” I sighed. “No, Sophia and I have never been in a relationship. It's different from that. And a lot more complicated than I'm willing to try to explain right now.” Taking my pack off, I started stowing my skates inside.

“I notice you didn't say anything about you and Brian,” she said slyly as she handed me Sophia's skates as well. She didn't say any more, but I got the distinct impression that she was deriving way too much amusement from the situation.

My face started getting hot. “Pretty sure it's not something we should be talking about.”

“What's not something we should be talking about?” It was Brian's voice, sounding amused. Aisha and I turned to watch him approach with Sophia. They were holding hands now, as opposed to just having their arms linked together.

“What Sophia and I were talking about earlier,” I said hastily. “Sophia, wanna take your skates back?” Standing up, I offered them to her.

She wrinkled her nose as she took them. “No, but I guess I should,” she admitted. Letting go of Brian's hand, she shrugged her backpack off and started to shove the skates inside.

“You really don't like rollerblading, do you?” Brian asked her, assisting her by holding the pack open. “I mean, Taylor's pretty good, but you're struggling with it. Why not just give it up? I mean, nobody's gonna think any worse of you for it. You've given it an honest try.”

Sophia glanced briefly at me, and I could see the struggle in her eyes. What he was saying was perfectly logical, but he didn't know about our 'homework' with Mrs Yamada. The problem was, how was she to tell him about the therapy without either exposing the whole deal or digging ourselves deeper into lies?

“It's real simple,” she said as we started down the side-street. “I don't like to lose. Taylor wanted to take up rollerblading, so I took it up too. So what if I am shit at it? That just means I gotta try harder. Just because she's done it before and I haven't doesn't mean I can't learn how. I am gonna get good at it, just so someday I can say 'fuck you' to these skates before I chuck 'em in the ocean or something.”

“Huh.” Brian shook his head. “Well, you're a lot more stubborn than me, I'll say that much.”

Aisha snorted audibly, her expression the picture of sheer disbelief. I looked at her with interest; she rolled her eyes toward her brother, then shook her head.

Having caught the byplay as Aisha had probably intended, Brian turned toward her. “Shush, you.”

She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him. Sophia smirked at her antics, but I wasn't smiling any more. As a matter of course, I had bugs on everyone within a block. Not only was it good practice at using my powers—and figuring out stuff about people from a distance—but it kept me apprised of potential unwelcome surprises. Of which there were several nearby.

I didn't have a huge swarm ready to hit them with, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to tip my hand like that anyway. The flies and other bugs I had on them indicated that they were armed with nothing more lethal than knives and short lengths of pipe. I counted six overall, with two of them significantly shorter and lighter than the others. That, and their clothing, indicated to me that those two were women.

I had useful information, but my trouble was that I didn't know how to warn Sophia without tipping off Brian and Aisha that we were capes. I could've just said that going this way was a bad idea, but if I had no good reason for doing so, it would just look and sound strange. Which left option C: spring the trap, then hold them off long enough for Brian and Aisha to get away. I had no doubt that Sophia and I could disengage afterward, given subtle uses of our powers, but there was no sense in not stacking the deck. Moving casually, I reached into my pocket and palmed my pepper spray canister. I'd been carrying one ever since Dad became concerned at my early-morning runs; it hadn't done me so well against Lung, but these guys weren't Lung.

Sophia eyed me suspiciously, then glanced around, eyes darting from point to point. Our would-be muggers were just drifting into the side-street from alleys and doorways, closing in to surround us. As yet, they weren't showing actual intent, but that was just a facade. Flies sitting on their pulse points were registering increased heart rates, and hands in pockets were clutching weapons. These guys meant business.

“Uh, guys,” Sophia said. “Maybe this isn't the best place—”

She was interrupted by the sound of a switchblade clicking into place. “Actually, yeah, it is.” The speaker was a bit taller than the other muggers, but he looked no less dishevelled. He also had the habit of waving his blade in a lazy figure-eight as he talked.

“Oh, shit.” That was Brian, his voice barely a murmur, as he looked around. The six were well spread out, holding their weapons openly now. “Girls, when I say run, you run, got it?”

Jesus Christ. I barely held back from rolling my eyes. Save me from white knights. I had a lot of respect for Brian, but he was treating us as people who needed to be saved.

“Not fuckin' likely,” Sophia murmured. “We leave you, they'll dogpile you for sure.”

Brian's voice was agonised. “Yeah, but—”

“Stop fuckin' talking!” The leader of the bunch of muggers stomped forward. Aisha and I were on his side; I stepped in front of her, my left shoulder toward him. He grabbed me by the upper arm and yanked at me to get me away from the group. That was fine with me; I brought my right hand up across my body and gave him a dose of pepper-spray in the face from about one foot away. At the same time, a tiny swarm of flies swept between him and me, collecting all the droplets of spray that might otherwise have reached my face. They were there and gone in an instant, too fast for anyone but me to notice.

As he screamed and let my arm go to claw at his face, I slipped the pack off my shoulder and swung it at arms' length; the weight of my skates slammed into the middle of his chest, knocking him off balance and on to his ass. The muggers stared and a couple stepped back, but the others came forward, raising their weapons. As a continuation of my action, I sent a stream of pepper-spray at the next closest one, who backpedalled hastily. He didn't get as concentrated a dose as the first one had, but it was enough to make him cough and choke and rub at his eyes.

Which was what I wanted. “Aisha!” I snapped. “Go! Get help!” With my free hand, I pointed down the side-street, through the gap I'd just opened up. Needing no more urging than that, she took off down the street like a greyhound out of the gate. I doubted very much that she could bring back help in time to affect the fight but that had never been my intention. Getting her out of the middle of the fight was the best thing for everyone; now we could concentrate on kicking ass.

Behind me, Brian slipped a knife slash and kicked one of his opponents viciously under the kneecap. Sophia was up against a guy with a pipe and a girl with a knife; even without being able to access her powers, she was able to duck aside from a swing with the pipe and shove that guy into the girl. I reached into a side pocket of the pack and pulled out the same extendible baton that I'd smacked Sophia upside the head with, once upon a time. Dropping the pack, I flicked the baton out and moved to intercept Brian's other opponent from coming up behind him. At the same time, I kept track of where Aisha was.

Mentally, I swore. The second guy I'd gotten had decided to go after her; while his eyes were obviously troubling him, I hadn't sprayed him hard enough to put him down. I gathered the bunch of bees I'd been able to gather and sent them arrowing down after him. Raising my arm, I brought the baton down on the shoulder of Brian's second opponent. I was pretty sure I hadn't broken anything major, but she let out a screech of pain and dropped her knife. For good measure, I kicked her behind the knee to put her on the ground.

And just in time, too; Sophia's two opponents were bigger than her and had greater reach, and she wasn't moving as lithely as normal, due to the injuries Oni Lee had inflicted on her. “I got this one!” I yelled at Brian, stomping on the hand of the woman I'd just put down. Moving up alongside Brian, I confronted the guy he'd kicked under the kneecap, who was limping forward and pointing a knife at me. Aisha had stopped momentarily to look back before realising that the guy was still after her; now she was running again, but he'd closed the lead considerably.

I had to save her in a way that looked natural. When Aisha ran past a bunch of garbage cans, I hoped that she'd push one over to get in his way, but she didn't. However, that gave me an idea. As he came level with the same cans, I brought two swarms into action. One was a bunch of cockroaches, racing out from the cans and across the alley in front of him. He didn't see them, but then, he didn't have to. His foot landed right in the middle of the flat, slippery chitinous bodies, and he skidded, flailing. One arm hit a can, knocking the lid off of it. That was all I needed.

The guy on Sophia had dropped his pipe and grabbed her from behind, while the girl came from in front with obviously murderous intent. Brian ignored the guy that I was facing off to go save Sophia, which was my intent. Sophia managed to fend her off once with a kick, but her injured leg wasn't able to strike as high or with as much force, and the girl realised that quickly. But by the time she did realise it, Brian was there.

I feinted with a kick, then brought the baton down on the guy's knife hand as hard as I could. I was pretty sure that I heard bone crack, and he let out a howl of pain. Even as the knife hit the ground, I was stepping in to hit him again, around the collarbone region. This time, I did hear bone crack, and the asshole lurched backward away from me. Around about the same time, I heard the impact as Brian pile-drove the girl threatening Sophia into the ground.

As Aisha fled from her attacker, help was already on the way. The bees I'd brought in swooped down along the wall of the building, then up between the garbage cans, as if they'd been disturbed by the guy. He was halfway to his feet when the first one stung him, and he promptly forgot all about chasing Aisha. She had the presence of mind to dart to one side and hide behind a dumpster as he ran past with the angry bees chasing him; his pained yelps faded into the distance.

I moved up alongside Brian, baton at the ready. The guy holding Sophia backed up, eyeing us both, holding an arm across Sophia's neck. I could see her seething, just itching to use her power and fade out of his grasp, but unwilling to do it with witnesses.

“Let her go and we might not break too many bones,” Brian offered, his entire bearing suggesting that he was willing to break a great many bones if Sophia was hurt. His fists were clenched and he was demonstrating a really good skill at looming.

“Back off!” gasped the guy holding her. “Back off or I'll—ah! Bitch!”

His pained shout came from the fact that Sophia had apparently gotten her second wind; a stamp on the guy's foot coincided with an elbow in the ribs. She twisted in his grip, almost getting free. That 'almost' in this case was enough of an opening for Brian; he stepped in, his fist launching forward like a freight train. Sophia saw it coming and at the last moment she tilted her head sideways, giving his fist just enough room to skim past her neck and impact the guy solidly in the chops.

Her captor staggered back, his grip loosening, and she pulled all the way free. Her elbow smashed back into his throat and put him on the ground for good; he lay there, feebly clutching at his neck and making rasping noises. But he was breathing, so I guessed that would be good enough.

Brian looked around, shaking out his hands and moving from foot to foot, ready to continue the fight. But the fight seemed to be over. In fact, the only ones left were the guy I'd sprayed first and the one Sophia had elbowed. “You okay?” Brian asked Sophia, a little belatedly.

She didn't seem to mind. “Sure. Good hit there. Thanks.”

“Hey, not a problem.” He reached out and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear. Then he looked around, eyes widening. “Shit! Aisha!”

“Not to worry,” I said, pointing. “She's fine.” And sure enough, Aisha was making her way back toward us, looking rather pleased with herself.

“Oh, thank God.” He turned toward me as I retrieved my pack and slid the baton back into the side pocket. “That was pretty quick thinking there. You came prepared, I guess.”

I gave him a half-shrug, pleased at the compliment. “Hey, I live in Brockton Bay.”

“And that about says it all. Should we call the cops on 'em?” Sophia's question had several layers to it. I could tell that she didn't want to disrupt the date by securing the muggers and waiting for law enforcement. Nor did she want to have to worry about filling out incident forms once we got back to base. Even talking to the cops in our civilian identities would eventually get back to Director Piggot and Deputy Director Renick, and if we hadn't crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's, they'd be asking us why.

The bottom line was that if we called the cops, the date was a total loss. If we didn't … well, these guys had learned the hard way not to mug people in side streets. And after Sophia had saved my life, I didn't want to pull that shit on her.

“Dunno,” I mused as Aisha came up to us. “What do you think, Brian?”

He looked down at the battered and beaten muggers. “Well, given that they're not really gonna give us any more trouble, is there any real reason to bother the cops?”

Sophia shrugged. “I can't see one.” She looked at him appraisingly. “You handled yourself pretty well there. Sure you aren't one of the Wards in disguise? Aegis, maybe?”

“Hah, you can't talk,” he replied in good humour as we continued on our way. “You and Taylor were pretty badass there yourself. Sure you aren't a superhero, Taylor?”

Aisha began to giggle as I posed, flexing what little muscle I had. “Sure,” I proclaimed in as deep a voice as I could manage. “I'm Armsmaster, can't you tell.” Hamming it up, I looked from side to side suspiciously. “Where's my halberd? Have you seen my halberd?”

As Aisha began to laugh out loud, Brian looked at Sophia. “And I suppose you're Alexandria?”

Grinning, Sophia rolled her eyes. “Well, duh,” she said with heavy sarcasm. “Who else has a body like this one?” She flexed as well. Unlike me, she had curves and muscles both; I looked on with a certain amount of envy. Brian was also looking, but I was pretty sure it wasn't out of envy. Aisha broke off from her cackling to add a wolf-whistle, which started me laughing in turn.

“Which reminds me,” Sophia said, stepping right up to Brian. Reaching out, she took hold of his lower jaw between thumb and forefinger. “Next time we're faced with shit like this, you might want to consider that you're not the only one who can kick ass and take names. Got it?”

Brian just stared at her for a long moment; I suspected that Sophia was the first person who'd ever called him out like that. “I, uh, yeah,” he agreed. “Sure. Any time.”

“Good boy,” she purred, a rather predatory smile spreading over her face. Hooking a finger into the front of his shirt, she pulled him down to her level and planted a firm kiss on his lips. “Maybe you can learn after all.”

The look of stunned surprise on his face as she let him go was utterly priceless. Aisha seemed to think so too, because she burst out laughing. I was grinning all over my face as I gave Sophia a high-five.

“Okay,” I smirked, “now that that's over, shall we go see that movie?”

Aisha pumped her fist in the air. “Fuckin' A.”



End of Part Five

Part Six

 

Confrontation II: the Reckoning

Part Six: At Long Last

[A/N: this chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Boardwalk

“Well, that was fun,” declared Aisha as we exited the movie theatre. “When are we doing it again?”

I hesitated and shared a glance with Sophia. “Uh, when we can get the time, I guess,” I hedged. Deputy Director Renick had given us permission to go to the movies on this particular occasion, and we’d all had a good time—despite the fact that Aisha plus a bucket of popcorn was a disaster in the making—but there was no guarantee that he’d be equally accommodating in future.

“No, not the movie,” Aisha corrected impudently. “Beating up muggers. That was hella fun.”

Brian facepalmed with the realisation of what she was talking about. “Aisha, you didn’t beat up any of the muggers. You ran away, like we told you to.”

“Yeah, but that was because I knew you needed the practice,” she said with a cheeky grin. “I didn’t want to scare ‘em away before you had the chance to get at them.”

I was left blinking and shaking my head at the sheer effrontery of the girl. “That’s just … I honestly don’t know what to say to that.”

“That’s ‘cause I’m just too damn awesome for words,” Aisha boasted.

“You’re too something for words,” muttered Brian, fumbling with his shirt collar. “I swear, I’ve still got popcorn down my neck.”

“Wow, that was careless of you, big bro.” Aisha turned guileless eyes toward us. “Aren’t you supposed to eat popcorn, not shove it down your collar? I think Brian’s been doing it wrong all this time.”

I started to chuckle helplessly. Sophia grabbed Aisha around the neck—gently—and applied her knuckles to the top of the younger girl’s head in a noogie. As Aisha shrieked and giggled and flailed, I met Brian’s eyes. My grin was mirrored on his face. I got the impression that he was having as much fun as I was, and that he had as much trouble achieving this state as I did.

Sophia was an entirely unexpected ally in this, but definitely not unwelcome. The personality clash between her and Aisha could’ve been serious, but she’d chosen to forego her usual hard-charging attitude and it had paid off in spades. It was nice hanging around Brian, and Aisha made sure life was never boring. The friendship I was rebuilding with Sophia in consequence was different to what we’d had before, but still rewarding.

And of course there was the budding romance between Brian and Sophia. Part of me wanted to be jealous, but Brian only had eyes for Sophia, so I didn’t really have a chance. He was friendly enough to me, but more in a big-brother way rather than a potential-boyfriend way. As serious as he was, I was pretty sure he didn’t have a wandering eye.

In a very real way, I was actually pleased about this. Brian was a good guy. He cared about Aisha; the quality of his clothing indicated a well-paying job; he was well-educated, good-looking and (ahem) very athletic. In short, he was a keeper. Sophia hadn’t had many chances for happiness in her life, and I didn’t want her to lose out on this one.

Aisha eventually escaped from the noogie, eyes bright through the curtain of disarranged hair hanging over her face. Her tactic of tickling Sophia, who was nearly prostrate with laughter herself, may have had something to do with her success in wriggling out of the headlock. “Free!” Aisha proclaimed dramatically, then stuck out her tongue at Sophia. “No walls can hold me in! Iron bars are merely an amusing suggestion!”

“You’re an amusing suggestion,” I retorted. “Seriously, I swear you threw more popcorn than you ate.”

“So what if I did?” she asked cheekily as Sophia put her arm through Brian’s. He’d gotten his phone out and was in the process of turning it on, which reminded me to do the same. It was doubtful in the extreme that a citywide emergency had arisen in the time that we’d been in the movie, but there was no sense in taking chances.

“So it’s rude and a waste of popcorn,” I said as both Sophia and I followed Brian’s example. She took longer than me, mainly because she didn’t want to let go Brian’s arm. I noted that she was turning on her personal phone rather than the PRT one I knew she also carried. That wasn’t a problem; if I did get an alert, I’d just let her know that we had to go. I didn’t have a private cell-phone as yet, but my PRT one looked normal enough.

Nothing urgent popped up, though I did get a couple of low-level messages about trivial matters. Nobody had pinged us regarding the alley mugging, which had been my major concern. I stuck the phone back in my pocket and ran my hands through my hair, incidentally dislodging a couple of pieces of random popcorn. Aisha had gotten indiscriminate there, toward the end of the movie. “So who wants to do some more rollerblading?” I asked.

I was only expecting to get a positive response from one person—Sophia was holding on to Brian’s arm like a lifeline—and I wasn’t disappointed. “Woo, yeah!” whooped Aisha. “Let’s go show these slowpokes how it’s done!”

As she took Sophia’s backpack to retrieve the rollerblades, I looked at Brian. “Maybe you two could get skates of your own sometime and we could make a day of it down here,” I suggested slyly. Getting Sophia on to rollerblades would be much easier, I suspected, if Brian was already on them.

Sophia shot me a dirty look, but Brian nodded his head. “Actually, that sounds like a fun idea,” he said. “Aisha’s definitely having a ball, and I want to encourage the attitude that I’m not here to spoil all her fun.”

“Only most of it,” Aisha retorted, seated on the curb as she pulled the skates on. “Let’s face it, big bro. You’re a wet blanket and a killjoy.”

Brian was about to answer that when his phone rang. He grimaced as he looked at it. “Crap,” he muttered. For a moment, it seemed as though he was going to decline the call, then his expression tightened and he answered it. “Hey, Lisa,” he said resignedly.

My attention sharpened at that. Was Lisa an ex? Sophia seemed to think that as well; an expression came across her face that I hadn’t seen in some time. If this Lisa thought she could come between Sophia and Brian, I pitied her.

“No, I’m busy. I’m out with friends. Yes, friends. People I don’t work with.” His tone was one of strained patience, then his grimace deepened. “The boss wants us to come in now? Tell him I can’t make it. I—” He paused, listening. “How much overtime?”

Well, it seemed that Lisa was a work colleague rather than a rival to Sophia for Brian’s attentions. Which was lucky for Lisa, to be honest. However, it also seemed that Brian was losing the argument, which was unlucky for Sophia.

He let out an aggravated sigh then said, “Fine. Give me half an hour.” With an expression of pain on his face he turned to Sophia. “Look, I’m really sorry, but work’s a bitch at times.”

“So’s this Lisa, by the sound of it,” snarked Sophia. In a demonstration of self-control that impressed me, she took a deep breath and patted Brian on the arm. “Go. We’ll make another date. I had fun.”

“Aww, man,” complained Aisha. “I just got the fuckin’ rollerblades on and all!” She gave Brian a hopeful look. “Can I go skating with them?”

He turned to Sophia. “Would you mind? I mean, you don’t have to feel like you’re obliged to. I can just take her home if you’ve got other things to do.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Sophia told him with a rare smile; not so rare, when he was around. “We’ve got no problem with hanging out with Aisha. Right, Taylor?”

“Definitely,” I agreed. Sophia and I had the evening shift with the Wards, but that was a couple of hours away. There were worse ways to pass the time than messing around on the Boardwalk, and Aisha was always fun to be around. “We’ll get her on the bus when we have to take off.”

“Whoo!” The grin on Aisha’s face was somewhat infectious. “See you at home, Bri!” Jumping to her feet, she started skating in circles, trying some footwork that I probably would’ve twisted my ankle to attempt.

Brian nodded to her, then gave us both a smile. “Thanks. I really appreciate this. Aisha doesn’t get to go out much, and I know I can trust you two to keep her in line. I owe you both for this.”

“I know.” Sophia flowed into his personal space, then hooked her finger into his collar to bring his face down to her level. For a moment I thought she was going to kiss him again, and prepared to look away to give them privacy. But instead she spoke softly into his ear. “Which means you’d better be prepared to show me one hell of a date next time to make up for ditching us this time.”

He blushed about three shades darker, which I found pretty impressive for someone with his skin tone. “I’ll do my best,” he promised. I noted that he didn’t attempt to excuse his departure by protesting that it wasn’t his idea.

“You do that.” Sophia gave him a brilliant smile, then let him go. “Now get going. Don’t want you to be late for work or something.”

“Yeah.” He sighed, obviously reluctant to go. “It’s a pain, being on call.”

“Sounds like it,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. It was, after all, the situation Sophia and I were in with the Wards, but he certainly didn’t need to know that particular aspect.

We waved goodbye as he got into the cab, then set about enjoying ourselves on the Boardwalk. Aisha needed no encouragement; soon, she was zipping up and down in a way that made Sophia covertly grin and shake her head. I alternated between trying to catch her (not always successfully) and meandering alongside Sophia as she strolled down the Boardwalk. Aisha didn’t even try to ditch us, though she had no way of knowing her clothes were tagged with several bugs. It was pretty obvious that she was on what passed for her best behaviour, so that she’d get to come out and do this again.

I had to wonder what her home life was like. Brian had dropped a few comments about their father being ex-military and extremely strict (which both Sophia and I had both mentally compared with Aisha's attitudes and come up with a mutual nope). Their mother, as hard as it might be to comprehend, had a home life that was even worse for her. Brian’s account had been sparing with the details, but their mother apparently had a drug problem and a boyfriend with wandering hands. Aisha had called Brian for help one night and after beating the living snot out of the boyfriend, he’d taken her to live with their father.

This, among other things, was why Sophia and I had so much time for Aisha, and why Sophia was willing to be so forgiving when Brian was called away. While our association had done a lot to wean her of the toxic strong-vs-weak ideology—not to mention, I called her on it every time I caught her backsliding—we both firmly admired someone who would step up and protect family like that.

After an hour, during which time Aisha put more wear and tear on the rollerblades than Sophia had in the entire time she’d been using them, Sophia caught my eye. It was time to get to the PRT building and begin our shift. We’d both been having almost as much fun as Aisha (though not as much as Sophia would’ve had with Brian still there) so it was with some regret that I signalled to Aisha to come back to us.

“Yeah, what’s up?” she asked briskly as she came up to us. “Not getting tired already, are you?”

I sighed and nodded. “Sorry. We’ve got to get going. Dad’s expecting me.”

“And I’ve got a project to finish off,” Sophia chimed in, using another of our practised excuses. Not that we really needed them, but every little bit helped.

Aisha wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, shit happens,” she said, her voice unhappy but resigned. “Thanks for staying back. I haven’t had so much fun in fuckin’ forever.”

“Hey, we’ll come out again,” I said as I sat down and began to take off my rollerblades, then indicated Sophia with a tilt of my head and a sly grin. “Unless she’s already tired of Brian, that is.”

“Bite your tongue,” muttered Sophia, eliciting a snort of amusement from Aisha.

A few minutes later, we put Aisha on the bus, extracting a promise that she’d go straight home and stay there. Checking the schedule, I figured out that we’d be waiting more than half an hour for our own bus, so I called the PRT building and arranged a covert van to pick us up for our shift. Then it was just a matter of waiting until it turned up.

Or rather, it would have been, if the cape fight hadn’t gotten there first.

<><>​

Apparently, it was all my fault. For a given definition of ‘fault’, of course.

I learned, much later, that the simmering tensions brought about by the capture of Lung and Oni Lee and the disappearance of Bakuda (all of which I’d been involved in) had been building over the last week or so. While the Empire felt that their status as the largest gang in the city gave them the natural right to the now-vacant ABB turf, others were not in agreement with them. Nor was this opposition posed only by the criminal capes of the city, who naturally wanted the area divided up semi-fairly between them. Simply put, the Asian population of Brockton Bay had tended to gravitate into ABB-run territory, and not a few of them were involved indirectly in the gang’s activities while not actually being part of the ABB proper. As such, they had a vested interest in keeping the Empire from taking over their under-the-table profits.

The upshot of all this was that shortly after our movie let out, the gangs of the city were holding a meeting in a seedy run-down bar that enjoyed the unlikely name of Somers Rock. The meeting had been called to ease tensions and to extract a promise from Kaiser that he wouldn’t unilaterally claim all the territory without giving anyone else a chance to carve off their share.

Kaiser had laughed in their faces.

The Empire Eighty-Eight, he’d reminded them, held twice as many capes as any other gang in the city. With the continued incarceration of the rage dragon and the serial suicide bomber (and the absence of the bomb Tinker from the field of play) it also held the undisputed title of most powerful gang. He would allow the other criminal types to keep their own territory, but (with Hookwolf to his left hand and Krieg to his right) they simply didn’t have the wherewithal to prevent him from taking up the suddenly-vacated turf. Any who thought otherwise, he suggested, was welcome to try their luck once the meeting was over.

Nobody was quite stupid enough to take up the challenge, though Skidmark apparently muttered dire and profane threats under his breath. But once Kaiser and his retinue left, the rest of the capes remained. Rag-tag second and third raters though they were (and, in the case of Über and Leet, somewhere south of that), they nonetheless decided that if Kaiser wanted a fight, he was going to get a fight. Under the chairmanship of a cadaverous man called Coil who went with a snake motif, they agreed to a non-aggression policy between themselves, and to cooperate with each other until the Empire was brought to heel. Well, almost everyone agreed to fight. Faultline, the leader of the eponymous Crew, opted to remain neutral as she possessed no territorial ambitions.

Shortly after that, the meeting broke up. Everything stayed quiet and under the PRT’s radar until the first fighting broke out, practically on top of us.

<><>​

Boardwalk
One Minute Prior to Shit Encountering Fan

“It was a good movie, wasn't it?” I commented idly, fishing out my phone to check the time. Sophia and I weren't alone at the bus stop, so we couldn't talk shop freely. However, there was plenty of other stuff we could chat about. And while we weren't quite as comfortable with each other as we had been before the catastrophic unmasking, we were definitely getting better at communicating.

“Yeah,” said Sophia vaguely. “I liked it when that thing happened.”

I stared at her. Sophia had her faults, but waffling like that was totally unlike her. Normally, she was very precise in her speech, or at least extremely blunt. But the moment I got a good look at her face, all became clear. The dreamy expression she wore was as uncharacteristic as the words she'd uttered.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool when that flying castle exploded, wasn't it?” I asked mischievously. There hadn't been any castles in the movie, exploding or flying, which was why I had to hide a grin as I awaited her response.

“Yeah, it—wait, what?” Jolted back to the here and now, Sophia gave me an irritated glare. “What goddamn castle? When did that happen?”

I smirked at her. “Well, if you'd been paying as much attention to watching the movie as you were to sitting in Brian's lap, you'd know." In all fairness, she hadn’t actually been sitting in Brian’s lap, but on the other hand she hadn’t noticed when Aisha leaned forward and tipped the remains of a bucket of popcorn over her head.

“He’s different,okay?” Her expression dared me to say otherwise. “I mean, you can see it, right? He’s not like other guys, all wishy-washy. He’s the kind of guy I can respect. Anyone can respect. The kind of guy who’s willing to go the distance. He doesn’t ask permission before he gets shit done. And he can definitely handle himself.” Which was basically her way of saying he was ‘strong’, but in a way I wouldn’t object to.

“Hey, I’m not saying he’s not any of that,” I pointed out. “I just think it’s funny. If any of the guys could see this, they’d be going full-on Mike Sierra on your ass.” I didn’t actually think anyone would think it necessary to call for Master/Stranger procedures after seeing Sophia cuddling up to Brian like that, but Dennis might do it anyway for shits and giggles (well, he would’ve, before he ended up as team leader. These days he was more responsible). Chris, on the other hand, might need therapy.

“I’d like to see ‘em try,” she grumbled. “They gave us enough weird looks when you and me got to be friends. What’s wrong with me having a normal relationship, anyway?”

“Maybe because you kept pushing people away?” I suggested as diplomatically as I could. “I mean, you can be kind of prickly at times. And you’ve got a bit of a temper.”

She gave me a dirty look, but didn’t dispute having a temper. Which was kind of a good thing because teasing her about Brian was fun, but I didn’t want to be mean about it. It was just a way to pass the time while we waited for our ride.

“Yeah, well, I—” she began, but I held up a hand to hush her. Something weird was happening just down the street and around the corner. I didn’t have a huge swarm up, but the bugs in that vicinity were experiencing weird conditions. “What?” she said, obviously picking something up from my expression.

“Something,” I said. “Not sure what.” I got up from the bus stop seat and slung my backpack over my shoulder, then started along the pavement in the direction of the disturbance. Sophia followed me, eyes intent. I began to pull in all the bugs I could muster, converging in smaller swarms here and there.

“Cape something?” she murmured, once we were away from the people at the bus stop. “Got your baton?”

“Probably, and yes. I can mask us up whenever you’re ready. Just say the word.” I could usually get away without using a mask in an emergency situation, just by standing off and pretending I had no idea why all the bugs were flying around like that. But I had another trick I’d worked up with Sophia. We’d practised it a few times and while she always complained, we both knew it could be useful in a pinch.

“Ew. Yeah, okay.” Each of us carried a collapsible baton wherever we went. This was Brockton Bay, after all. Wards or no, we were still teenage girls, and there were more dangers out there than just capes. Supervillains, after all, wore costumes to show who they were. More subtle human predators did no such thing.

In the next moment, one of the giant bone-encrusted Undersider dogs came hurtling around the corner sideways, trailing a streamer of darkness. A car appeared next, flying backward through the air. It was followed by a second one, this time with a robed figure standing on top of it. Rune.

It looked to me as though the Empire cape had used the first car to smack the dog that Grue was riding, which explained their abrupt entrance. Because it was definitely Grue; nobody else could pull off a skull helmet and black biker leathers like he could. He was also athletic as hell, bailing off the dog just before it would’ve rolled over the top of him, and getting out of the way.

Everyone else was staring at the ongoing fight, which allowed me to bring the swarm in. All the nearby security cameras also got a blanket of insects just before I covered us both in them. Sophia got all dark-coloured insects, as small as I could find. Whenever she went to shadow, her power brought along anything that was closely connected to her, which meant smaller bugs had a better chance of staying on her than bigger ones. She claimed to be creeped out by having that many bugs crawling on her, but I noticed she never refused the offer. In truth, I suspected she knew how badass she looked and secretly enjoyed the effect. Almost as much as she enjoyed bitching about basically anything.

I got the more colourful bugs, arranged in a symmetrical fashion on me so as to break up my features and prevent incidental footage from capturing my face. Not that I’d be dashing into combat, but nobody and nothing was going to prevent me from backing up Sophia to the best of my ability. We were partners, damn it.

Dropping my backpack, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my baton, then flicked it out in a practised move. Beside me, I heard Sophia’s own baton make its click-click-click noise. More and more bugs were arriving every second, and I started forming ghosts of us in the swirl of bugs, nothing corporeal but definitely a suggestion that someone was there. I felt Sophia’s cheeks clench in a grin under the feet of my bugs.

“You take Rune, I’ll take Grue,” I said firmly, making sure my bugs transmitted my voice to her ears. I knew just how much she disliked the leader of the Undersiders, and I didn’t want this to go sideways because she wanted to indulge her mad-on.

Her head flicked around toward me and she opened her mouth as if to protest, then she paused. “Don’t let him get away,” she snapped, then headed across the street toward the ongoing fight.

While we’d been preparing, the villains had not been standing around idle. The monster lizard-dog-thing had rolled to its feet, and Grue had regained his seat astride it. Rune sent the unoccupied car swooping at him again, but the dog obviously didn’t want to get caught like that again. Whether it was due to a command from Grue or on its own initiative, it leaped up and started climbing the building beside it. Darkness billowed out from Grue, cloaking him but not totally covering his location. The evasive manoeuvre was what saved them; despite a course correction by Rune, the car missed them by scant inches and ploughed into the building frontage. Glass smashed, metal crunched against concrete and one of the tyres was torn from the car and bounced down the street, but Grue and the dog were unscathed.

I followed after Sophia, generating more swarm ghosts as I went. These moved in various directions, but most were on a beeline toward either Grue or Rune. For her part, Rune was launching chunks of concrete toward Grue and the dog. Already, they were at a height where a fall could kill, so I decided to intervene directly.

“Bugpocalypse,” I had my insects buzz in Sophia’s ears, then a chunk of the swarm converged around Rune. She wore robes, which had the benefit of being loose-fitting and easy to move in. The fact that bugs could easily find their way past to the person underneath was less of a benefit to her, though probably not something she’d considered when designing her costume.

Even if I hadn’t been aware of it through my connection to the bugs, I would’ve known almost to the second when the bites and stings—though going easy on the venom, as I didn’t want to risk her going into anaphylactic shock—began to register on her. Both cars began to wobble back and forth, losing altitude all the time. I moved up alongside Sophia and bent down slightly, lacing my fingers together and cupping my hands.

Up above, Grue wasn’t escaping my attention. I had the swarm cover him as well, clustering around the dog’s eyes and ears, and coating the helmet faceplate so that neither could see. I couldn’t mess with his hearing, but now he couldn’t give the dog any verbal commands. Neither was I going to interfere with his ability to hang on, and I was ensuring that Rune could launch no more of the deadly missiles in his direction. Our job here was to keep casualties to a minimum, and bring the fight to an end as soon as possible.

Sophia divined my intention at once, and put her foot into my cupped hands. Regular exercise alongside Sophia hadn’t brought me up to her level of fitness, nor would it do that any time soon. But I was stronger than I had been before all this happened, able to give her a boost upward as she kicked off. The instant her foot left my hand, she went to shadow along with her cloaking bugs. I lost contact with them, except for a vague sense that they were there somewhere. As had happened before, I knew they’d be carrying out my last command to them, which was to stick close to her and not impede her mouth or eyes.

Her shadow form shot upward, almost divorced from gravity. A mass of my bugs flew upward with her in the real world, each of their tiny bodies lending her a little forward momentum so that she went farther and faster than the jump normally would’ve taken her. As they guided her toward Rune, I ran toward where Grue’s dog was cautiously negotiating the downward climb, unable to hear or see anything. A growing cloud of blackness accompanied it, blotting out all sight for yards around. I didn’t slow down at all as I entered the cloud, despite the fact that I couldn’t see a damn thing … at least with my eyes. With the swarm acting as effective sonar, I was aware of every object more than an inch across within the cloud of blackness.

The two cars were about four yards off the pavement when Sophia landed on the one holding Rune. Between the swarm buzzing in her face and the stings happening all over her body, the villain was entirely unaware of her new passenger until Sophia hauled her around and punched her out. It seemed Rune hadn’t been getting any tutoring on taking a hit from her ex-cage fighting cape comrades. Or, if she had, the lessons hadn’t stuck. Her knees went out from under her and she collapsed on top of the car. A second later, both vehicles struck the ground with a tremendous crash that bespoke a wrecker’s yard in their near future.

The monster dog Grue was riding reached the ground, still moving cautiously. It kept shaking its head in an attempt to dislodge its unwelcome passengers, to no avail. Now that he was on ground level, Grue swiped his hand across his faceplate to clear his vision. The bugs came back, but he’d gotten a snapshot of what was going on, and I figured he didn’t like it in the least. Kicking the dog in the ribs, he started it moving away from me, but more slowly than he probably wanted it to go.

Definitely slower than me; as I reached the dog, I mapped its side with the bugs. It was big, but the bony plates and spikes gave me an abundance of handholds to grab. Sticking my baton between my teeth and trying not to grimace from the taste of oil, I leaped up and clambered on to the back of the beast. Grue must have heard or felt something, because he began to turn, just as I snatched the baton from my mouth and swung it hard at his helmet. I felt safe in doing that, because helmets were designed to weather hits, but with any luck I might disorient him enough to land a proper body blow.

The weighted tip of the baton struck the faceplate. A small chunk broke away, leaving the majority intact but badly cracked. His head flew back from the impact, and he half-fell, half-slid off of the dog. This was probably the smartest move he could’ve made, given that if he’d stayed on the dog, I had free rein to attack him from behind.

However, while he was almost certainly used to hiding in the darkness and taking out his foes from concealment, that tactic was wasted on me. I couldn’t see a thing, but my bugs told me where they were. And when they were on him, they showed me where he was. Also, with access to his bare skin at last—motorcycle leathers were a pain, like that—I started pouring bugs in through the hole in the faceplate. I didn’t have them sting or bite him immediately, but they stared clustering around his eyes again, rendering him as blind as any normal person would be in the choking black fog.

Leaping off the dog, I grunted heavily as I landed and rolled. I wasn’t as graceful at regaining my feet as either Grue or Sophia would be, but they couldn’t command ten million bugs as easily as they opened and closed their hands, so I refused to feel inadequate. In any case, I was still fast enough to catch up to Grue and tackle him from behind. “Surrender!” I yelled at him, buzzing the word at the same time with my bugs. He stumbled, then went down heavily, but rolled over and threw me off almost immediately.

He started to get to his feet, a lot quicker than me (once again) … but the fight had distracted him and the cloud of darkness had drifted away. Sophia came in like an avenging thunderbolt and smashed a kick into his ribs from the side. Taken by surprise, he went down again, his helmet bouncing off the pavement with a hollow clonk. That, at least, seemed to rattle his cage.

Teeth bared with atavistic glee, Sophia straddled his back and pulled the baton across his throat from behind. He was a far better combatant than me, and probably at least Sophia’s equal, so I kept up the distraction of bugs over his face … which was when I made the unwelcome discovery.

“Shadow Stalker!” I yelled. “Stop!” He was barely resisting now anyway.

“Not damn likely,” she gritted, pulling harder.

“You’ll kill him!” I insisted, grabbing her arm.

She sent me a blazing look that reminded me far too much of the Sophia from before. “Walk away, Buzz. This is between me and him.”

“No, don’t!” I hadn’t wanted to say this before for several reasons, but there was no other way to get through to her. “It’s Brian!”

For a moment, I thought she hadn’t heard me, then her grip slackened. “ … the fuck?” she said blankly. “Brian? It can’t be.”

“My bugs don’t lie,” I said as steadily as I could. “It’s him.” I hadn’t wanted to believe it either, but I knew the shape of Brian’s face by now, and my bugs had faithfully shown me what lay beneath the faceplate.

In the moment of silence that followed, we both heard the gruff voice from beneath us. Grue’s voice normally echoed because of his helmet (and, I suspected, his darkness) but this close it was unmistakeable. “ … Taylor? Sophia?”

Sophia’s eyes met mine and widened, the bugs on her face scrambling out of the way. We both got up and backed off. Brian—because now that we knew it, there could be nobody else in those bike leathers—got to his feet, swaying slightly. He stared at us both. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said slowly.

Abruptly, Sophia turned and ran. I followed, pausing only to scoop up our backpacks and start the swarm dissipating. Grue would escape, but right now that didn’t bother me. What Sophia intended to do next did concern me. I had no idea how she was going to react. For that matter, I had no idea how I was going to react, once I had time to settle down and think things through.

I almost lost her three times, but my bugs picked her up again. We covered block after block, and then I detected her climbing a fire escape. Oh, shit. There were two ways this could go, both bad. She could be intending to travel farther and faster over the rooftops than I could follow, or …

I didn’t want to think about the or.

Panting heavily, I arrived at the building. She was still on top of the roof as I laboured my way up the fire escape in my turn. As I climbed on to the roof proper, I saw her sitting with her back up against the parapet. The late afternoon sun gleamed on tears running down her cheeks.

“What the fuck, Taylor?” she asked. “What the absolute fuck has my life come to that I just tried to kill the only guy I ever kissed? What the fuck sort of monster am I?”

I dropped the backpacks and walked over to her. There really was nothing I could say to that. I didn’t want to mention the fact that she’d been ready to commit murder and if it hadn’t been Brian under that helmet, I would’ve had to fight her to stop her. Slowly, carefully, I sat down beside her.

“I know,” she said, as if I’d answered her. Anguish coloured every syllable. “If you hadn’t said it … I would’ve ... and I'd never have known … FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!” Her sudden scream sent birds scattering into the early evening sky. Fists clenched, she pounded on the obdurate rooftop over and over.

I didn’t want her hurting herself, any more than I’d wanted her to hurt Brian. Reaching out, I wrapped my arms around her, trapping her arms next to her. She struggled, but not as hard as she could have. Neither did she turn to shadow to slip out of my grasp. Slowly, her head came down on to my shoulder, and I could feel her heaving with silent sobs. Moisture—her tears—wet my cheek.

“Taylor …” Her voice was soft, desolate. “I’m broken. There’s something wrong with me.”

I held her more tightly and rocked her back and forth. Tears of my own trickled down my face. For how could I face my friend’s sorrow without sharing in it?

Finally, her voice whispered two more words. Two words that the old Sophia would never have used.

“Help me.”

I buried my face in her hair. “I will,” I replied, just as softly. “I promise.”

We sat like that until the PRT driver called my cell-phone to ask me where we’d gotten to.


End of Part Six