The only thing right about the day had been the sky; an endless pattern of dark gray broken up by darker gray laying across the DC Metroplex like a blanket hiding them from the sun and the moon and the stars beyond. Even on the slanted roof of cheap shingle the breeze had a cold bite to it, and there was starting to be the lightest drops of rain as the light of the sky dimmed. It was a point of fixation, a tool to increase mental focus not unlike meditation. But what Flux forced her mind into wasn't meditation. It wasn't restorative, nor was it entirely exhaustive.
It was simply another state of being. She called it, "living on The Wire." On The Wire she felt and heard and saw things others simply couldn't. Electro-magnetic fields became symphonies of sound and light that soaked into her mind with an intuition that always proved to Flux that she was just as superpowered as Vought claimed that she was. Electric signals were shooting stars she could "reach out" with her power and take into her mind as easily as she used to reach out and cup dragonflies into her hands in the front yard with her parents. And in her hands...something as close to magic as she could imagine happened.
That intuition gave her access to the noise and the color and the straying blurs of energy. Usually that meant turning off a light, overloading a system, or blocking a signal. Tonight that had become finding the signals of those around their little safehouse. There was no fluttering lightning bug glowing with warm light within those signals. There were only snakes awaiting in the darkness to strike. That she would float down and barely notice the window ledge spoke to the distraction and haze of coming back down from The Wire itself. Like going out into the sun after a long cinema watch.
The light of the outside slowly poured into the darker interior, more than her eyes simply adjusting as she saw the figure walking into the empty door frame. Danny didn't smile, and she didn't blame him. He could try but he wasn't nearly as good at lying as he thought he was, she thought. At least not to her. She was past smiles and flirtations, and she couldn't yet tell him why. A tight clutch on his shirt with her nails as she walked past to tug him along was all she would allow, and if he was as attuned to her as he once claimed, his heart would quicken and that heavy feeling would begin to descend over the whole of his mind.
Some serious shit was about to go down.
Her emotions were as exposed as a live wire. She knew he'd read it all: there was no humor, there was only a sense of dread and a fight or flight switch that was well and surely jammed into the "fight" position. Brown eyes were hard and dark, unflinching, brown hair tied up high and back out of her face. For a first mission there was a suspicious lack of costuming for a superhero team, Flux hadn't been able to help but mention to him. Instead it was dark jeans, black tank top, denim jacket matching the jeans, simple white Reebok's. Even the very gait in which she moved had purpose.
"We're going to smash these fuckers. Nice to finally see you, Flux. How about next time you show up when called or get left behind?"
Armory was a moron, but even Flux couldn't think too harshly. Armory had no fucking clue the kind of danger they were in. Her dark eyes flicked up into the sky but for a heartbeat, before washing right past Armory. "I forgot you were bulletproof and didn't need magnetic shielding. No? Oh, okay." Nocturn straightened up like she was ready for a fight--a bitch fight, not a real fight, Flux knew. At Nocturn she truly stopped and focused, "I know your secret shtick is Insecure Girl, but right now we have much larger problems."
Thermite wasn't smart enough to pick up the scent of fear, but he was smart enough to know that if Flux and Cortex seemed worried..."What problems?"
Nocturn was focused on Flux for the wrong reasons, and Armory brooded darkly just behind her, probably having some violent fantasy or another. "We're being watched, and while there's an obvious element to that, it's worth noting that the people watching us aren't Vought. But they're clearly working with someone at Vought or Vought itself, hard to say yet. Apparently they're going with us but we're not supposed to know they'll be around us..."
It took a hard swing of her eyes to each one of them before the beating of her heart quickened to the point of irritation, even if the soft tone and quiet voice gave no hint at the frustration. "This isn't a normal mission. Do we even know what we're really after?"
Armory scoffed, cocksure and dismissive. "Doesn't matter. We've trained so hard, if you do your fucking job we'll be fine. I'll lead us, because that's what I do on the field, where it matters. Not any of this backroom gossip female shit."
"...what the fuck are we going for, Armory?"
Anger rose like flame in Armory's steel blue eyes. Sparks of fire were literally visible just off Thermite's eyes. He'd never go up to bat for her, but he was now concerned enough to at least want an answer. "A Chinese knockoff technology the US isn't going to allow the Chinese to just steal and get away with. We're protection. So no wonder there's extra security around us. Flux is just a paranoid cunt, Thermite. Get your head out of her ass, or are you fucking her to?"
Thermite snickered, flicker of flame gone from auburn eyes under a short mane of dark red hair. "Right, dude, but what does that mean? Chinese technology?"
"What the fuck does it matter? Are we going to tell Vought no? They'll have Homelander ripping our spines out within the hour, and I don't share the Static Queen's desire to be fucking dead. Maybe," Nocturn whipped her head at Flux and emphasized the word, "that's what got your parents killed."
The lights in the room flickered, as Flux felt a surge of anger so deep all she could do was blink.
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