After breaking through the cloud and coming out on the other side, Sonika decelerated to a near standstill. While the view itself was nice, being above the clouds and all, the true reason she stopped was to regain her breath and to see if the strange creature was still giving chase. She waited only a brief moment before deciding to move on with her escape route. No longer in her pocket of air she was able to continue breathing on her own as she flew parallel to the cloud she was above. All the way to the edge, where she could look down and confirm visually that no giant alien monster was on its way.
Whatever that was, or whoever it was, that could be a problem in the future if it can fly. That one will also be on my list...She took her sweet time figuring out exactly where on the ground her factory was. It was difficult to make out specific buildings from miles in the sky, but Sonika was able to get a decent estimate based on mathematical guesswork and her own knowledge of the geography. Her factory lay in a specific part of town, which was next to many of the skyscrapers of downtown. And so she descended upon Denver at a leisurely pace. It took several minutes before she was able to recognize her building's roof by sight, where she then accordingly adjusted course. It was another couple minutes before she touched down in the parking lot, nearby her limousine. Clearly her entourage had arrived while she was occupied. This also meant her clothes were available and she could get out of her Sonika persona. She reached for the handle of the rear passenger door of the vehicle when she finally remembered she was holding a gun. She had forgotten about her grip on the revolver she stole from her hostage. She was far too flustered to realize she never dropped it. It would've been better to do so during her escape, as now she would have to have it disposed of in some way as to not link it back to this location or any of her people. A minor problem, but one that could've been avoided altogether if she had paid more attention to what she was doing.
I have been making mistakes all day today. It has been stressful and I'm getting sloppy. I need to stay calm and think clearly before I make my next moves. I've spent years working towards this and I will not have it all unravel before me on the grounds of pure chance...A few minutes later and Natasha was once again in her business clothes, her Sonika costume hidden safely underneath with her bandana stored in her purse alongside Celia's gun. She marched into the warehouse's parking lot entrance, which lead directly into the warehouse rather than her office, to find that her bodyguards were all taking a smoke break. This would normally be irritating, to be smoking indoors is very rude and unsightly, but Natasha had bigger problems at hand.
"Where is Nicholas?" she demanded immediately, catching their attention and prompting them all to begin putting out their cigarettes almost in unison. Before any could answer there was a shouting response from the open office door several meters away.
"Yes! I am here, Miss Burkova," a middle-aged man responded. He was an average height, noticeably shorter than Natasha in her heels, but his body was built like he had been laboring all his life. He was strong but wasn't exactly
fit, judging by the weight he's surely gained since his youth. His balding hair used to be brown but was beginning to gray, much like his mustache, but his skin didn't seem particularly saggy. One could guess he was in his forties, and they'd be correct.
"Nick. Here is what we are going to do..." Rather than explain right away she walked over to him, or rather past him into her office. It was a small room with a large plexiglass window with blinds looking into the warehouse floor, a single wooden desk with an outdated computer monitor atop, and a single small filing cabinet against the wall behind the desk. A very plain office. Surely not one befitting what Natasha actually does. No, most of
that paperwork and files and money and such are safely stored at her home. Everything in this room was part of her legitimate businesses across Denver. But that didn't matter now because she was about to undergo some illegitimate business.
The tall woman took her seat in the rolling chair behind the desk, leaving Nick to remain standing near the window. She withdrew a notebook from the desk drawers and opened it to a blank page.
"I want you to contact as many of the gangs and syndicates in this city as you can. I am putting a reward up for the girl's capture. Make sure they know what she looks like, so get her picture from the security tapes. Also tell them her name, but do not tell them she is parahuman." The older man nodded.
"It'll take me a bit, but I'm sure the news will spread like wildfire if there is a reward. Everyone looking to make a quick buck would be hunting by nightfall. How much are you going to offer for a reward?" The blonde woman thought on his question briefly, staring down at the blank page on her desk as she finally picked up one of her pens.
"Two hundred million dollars."
"That is my reward offer. It can be wired or in cash, I do not care. We must capture this girl, Nick, and I am willing to make that happen no matter what it costs." Nicholas seemed to be surprised by the high reward. Sure, if the details of this girl's power were known her value would probably be much higher, but the current bounty would be more than sufficient in attracting attention.
"How will you explain spending that much money?" "I will find a way. But that is a lesser problem, and a problem that only I alone will face. There are more important things to worry about. Once that girl is in our hands we can get back to business as usual. But for now I must ask you to leave and close the door on the way out." The older man seemed confused briefly but deduced quickly enough what her intentions were.
"Alright then. I'll do my best to spread the word. Vigilantes and law enforcement will likely also be aware of the bounty by tomorrow if they have good connections, so I'll refrain from giving anything away about us..." As he took his leave and closed the office door, Natasha withdrew her phone from her purse and began dialing numbers. She had several calls to make of her own...
Cassidy Hendricks - Macavity's Bunker
She didn't really intend to fall asleep so quickly. After all she was still basically in a relative stranger's house. A superpowered stranger at that. And the house was really a secret, underground hideout bunker. A collection of reasons to not be so lax yet Cassidy still dozed off faster than she could stop herself. Thankfully her trust in Macavity wasn't misplaced as when the young girl finally awoke there were no signs of any
foul play. Her first thought upon waking was how embarrassing it was to pass out in front of Macavity, but then she remembered how terrible her previous day was and determined it was far from something to be bothered about. There was plenty more bothering her right now but she would keep it to herself the best she could.
With a loud huff she worked up the effort to sit upright on the bed, and with another loud huff she was on her feet. First she wondered what time it was, then she wondered where Macavity was. Unless she missed something this was the only bed and she had been occupying it. Surely it had to be night, or perhaps even morning by now. Cassidy didn't immediately see a clock and there was no windows to give her any hints. All she knew was that she was finally rested, though she was hungry and thirsty again. With Macavity not present it seemed as good a time as any to raid his place for food. Surely he had something better than those MREs, perhaps in a fridge somewhere. Then again if this place was supposed to be a hideout then he wouldn't be wasting his time doing grocery runs to keep a place that isn't his personal home stocked. Thus she decided not to tear the place up and instead settle for another one of the packaged military surplus meals.
Just as she was finishing her breakfast, or dinner depending on what time it was, her savior of yesterday finally arrived from the crazy secret entrance. And, to her surprise, he was bringing a lot of goodies with him. While she had asked him to help her get a costume she didn't expect him to be so quick to get started. With how much fabrics and such he seemed to have he must've started gathering hours ago.
How long was I out? An unimportant thought, now that Cassidy could get to working with Macavity on preparing to take on a role as a vigilante. Well, not exactly a vigilante. But certainly not a criminal. Cassidy had no idea how she should describe her plans.
"Wow, you work pretty quick. I figured we'd get started tomorrow, or later today. I'm not sure. Not so soon, for sure..." She had no idea how skilled Macavity was as a tailor, but she at least knew how to sew patches so surely that would be a transferable skill to making a costume. It couldn't be that hard making one, right?
"Okay, so I've thought about my costume a bit. I know the real reason to use it is to protect my identity, but since I'll probably be doing this for a little while it may as well be something I like. Ya know? Anyways, I hope you got some red because we're gonna use a lot of it... whatever material they make costumes out of. What do they make costumes out of? Like silk cloth or what? What kind of stuff did you... Nevermind, I don't even care. As long as it fits, looks good, and keeps people from knowing who I am at a glance it will do." With her energy regained and her body rested, it seemed that she had much more energy than she did yesterday. Whether that would amuse or bother Macavity, she didn't even consider before she began her barrage of words.
"I know my sizes so I can help out on that front. I've never really sewn anything before, I've only patched a hole in jeans one time, but it wasn't too bad so I can also help for doing any stitching work if you need it. Are you gonna, like, hire someone to do this or do it yourself? Did you have someone make your costume? Do capes usually make their own costumes? I dunno, I'm kinda new to the scene so I have no idea what everyone else is doing but I think we should do whatever everyone else is doing because it seems to be working for them. Anyways, I said I want it to be red but not like all red because then it'd look kinda goofy. But like red and white, so it looks nicer. I could go red and black but that's a darker color and I don't want to look emo or brooding or something. Red and white is safer, yes. Also I want it to be light... like its weight. And..."She paused, finally, to consider a few other details.
"Hmmm... Let's make the pants really short. I like running, I've always been a runner, and it's way easier to run without any pant legs in the way. But I don't wanna have, like, no legs at all on the costume. I don't want to look like some kind of slut showing off her legs... But at the same time if I have to run for my life I kinda want to be able to run for my life. Then again I probably won't ever really need to run for my life... Oh! I don't think I ever told you what I can do." Cassidy took another breather, before holding up her hand to get Macavity's attention. She wanted to make sure his eyes were on her.
"So I'm a runner. I've been training for cross-country, but I can sprint really well. I'm quite fast. My mile is four minutes and thirty-seven seconds exact. But my power has nothing to do with that. I can stop people's perception of time temporarily, kinda freezing them in place for a bit. It's a bit confusing and hard to explain. My brother was able to explain it better than me, but let me just show you instead."Without any warning she activated her power, leaving Macavity in place. Cassidy then walked over to the other side of the room and faced him again, waiting a couple seconds for his perception to catch up as her power deactivated. From his point of view she basically teleported across the room, even changing her posture and positioning, all far faster than the blink of an eye.
"So yeah, I guess it isn't the strongest superpower out there. I won't be flying around or lifting cars or anything... But I can use this to my advantage. Thugs without any powers can be taken care of, I hope. Just gotta... kick 'em in the balls or something while they're frozen. I mean, I could try punching people but..." She raised her right hand and placed her palm on the top of her head, before lifting it several inches upwards in a gesture to indicate a height difference. Cassidy wasn't delusional about her stature. She was barely a teenager, a girl, and short. The only people she was going to beat in a fistfight would be children and the handicapped.
"So yeah, that's why I wanna be able to run if I have to, ya know? Play to my strengths and all that. If I can't do anything to someone I wanna at least make sure they can't do anything to me... Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot one thing. My power is kinda limited. I can only freeze people for so long a day. So I can't just use it whenever I feel like because then I'll wear myself out and won't be able to use it again in an emergency."Only now did Cassidy realize that she had been bombarding Macavity since he arrived, barely allowing any moments of silence. Worrying that she might be bothering the man trying to help her, she decided to take a much longer pause this time and simply keep her mouth shut. The last thing she wanted was to irritate him, not just because he's been nice to her but also because he could kick her out of the bunker whenever he wanted and she'd be in for a very rough time with no costume or disguise to hide herself from the bad guys.
