Devyn rubbed her eyes, trying to wrap her head around the annoying antics of Lady Eve. The whole mysterious benefactor schtick was already wearing thin to the impatient journalist. Interviewers always tried to pull 'clever' tricks like this. Whether be an interview to be a nurse, social worker, accountant, construction worker or freelance magical vigilante, smug interviewers were always trying to candid camera their potential employees. For example, Alonso was a spy the whole time, played by Lady Eve's son. Great, Devyn thought, a family business. Those always worked out.
Nonetheless, she was very much interested. A hefty amount of for investigating things and stopping shady secrets nobody wants in their city. Not to mention Devyn's thirst for excitement she didn't want to admit to herself.
Her co-workers seemed...interesting, for sure. The only one getting on her nerves was that little girl, who apparently thought she was independant, and was also giving Devyn some bad vibes. (Most children gave her bad vibes, but Morgan particularly so.) She wanted to get to know the rest of them a little better though because they seemed to be a cast of characters that Devyn wanted to learn more about. If only they could actually begin.
"Okay," She said, exasperated, through the her palms on her face before removing them, "I'm interested. I was always interested. If we're gone playing games, I'd like to move on." The quietly reminded herself that this still was an interview.
"Thanks for having us all here, Mrs. Eve," She continued, changing tones by injecting chipperness into her voice, "I really do want to do this," Devyn said truthfully. She just hoped there wasn't some final stage of the interview, beyond an actual interview.
"You're right, Val, you're right. But would you mind if I went with you? If you wanted to talk about all this, that is." Alice asked, hoping to try and uncover some of the issues plaguing her friend. Her eyes glanced away from Val’s eyes and too her ear, which was becoming that of a cat.
Valora's grey gaze flicked to Alice at her question, then back down the hall. She was back to nervously rubbing her thumb against its opposite palm, careful of the clawed tip. One of the feline ears that had overtaken her twisted and flicked, hearing something in the gym that had her quickly nodding.
"That's, that's fine." She finally responded, a hint of relief in her voice. No doubt at the thought of distancing herself from the cat.
Alice nodded, glancing down both corridors. "Where do you want to go?"
"My room," Was the immediate response, the shapeshifter seeming to cringe at her own abrupt words. She quickly added on, "If that's - that is, if it's all right. We can go somewhere else if you prefer!"
Alice smiled reassuringly."'Course. No problem, sweetheart. Lead the way."
A short nod was the only response Alice got before Valora began to lead the two of them down the corrider, to the elevator. As soon as the heavy doors closed behind them the shapeshifter let out a shuddering sigh of relief and her shoulders slumped. Yet the tension was still obvious, even when the elevator reopened to one of the residential floors. It was only on unlocking her room and inviting Alice inside that Valora relaxed, , with the door firmly closed and locked. The blonde rested her forehead against the cool material of her door, gathering herself, before suddenly jolting upright and turning to her Team Leader.
"Ah, I'm - sorry! Sorry. Can I get you anything?"
”No, thank you, I’m fine.” Alice said trying to reassure her. ”Mind if I sit down?” She asked.
”Please,” Valora responded, gesturing to the maroon garbed living space in her small apartment. She seemed to hesitate a moment, wringing her hands once more before cautiously moving to sit on the end of the couch.
Alice followed suit, thinking about what she should try and say. Onyx was going to be a part of their little team...would Valora just have to avoid him forever? Alice hoped not, but she intended to find out. Valora’s aversion to contact with Onyx was justified somewhat due to the nature of her emphatic powers, but Valora has a deep rooted fear outside of that.
Alice sat and crossed one leg over the other once more. After a brief moment of silence, she thought of something to say.
”You know,” Alice began, ”I used to be afraid of locusts.” She said, recalling a childhood memory. Valora glanced up, having been staring at her hands and the claws that tipped them.
”Unlike with your situations, locusts really were harmless to me. I never saw a big swarm a’ locusts, or got attacked by any, nothin’ like that. The little things just creeped me out.” Alice slightly smiled.
”I was walking home from school one day- I was around twelve at the time- and one of them had planted themselves right in front of the door. Just sittin’ there. My parents weren’t home, they never were when I got back, and I couldn’t bring myself to scare it off. Nope. Couldn’t move. Like there was a glass wall or somethin’.” Alice raised an eyebrow knowingly at Valora after she said her little joke that wasn’t much of a joke at all. Still, the girl quirked a small smile at it anyway.
”I tried throwing my lunchbox at it. It didn’t care- just buzzed towards me which ran me off for sure. So I scaled the side fence. I wasn’t...terribly athletic at the time. I used the trash can to climb over the fence, gave myself a cut on the leg for my trouble. I went to the back door- it was locked. I only had the key to the front door. Then- and this is true- it started raining.” Alice laughed quietly, Valora chuckling nervously with her.
”That was when I decided I was tired a’ being scared of some stupid little bug.” Alice continued.
”I read books about ‘em. I learned about ‘em. I looked at ‘em long and hard whenever I saw them, daring myself to get a little closer each time. They were just bugs, you see? They made sense when I learned about ‘em. They weren’t...mythical. Or supernatural.”
”Before I knew it, I had ran up and kicked at one. Sent it buzzin’ off. I’m still nervous around them sometimes- but not enough to let that old fear control me.” She looked up at Valora, briefly pausing, trying to read her emotions.
”It’s okay to be afraid. Fear can keep you alive. But it can also keep you from living.”
For a long moment Valora didn’t say anything, keeping Alice’s gaze with her own one eyed one. Finally however she dropped her head to look back at her hands, once more rubbing her thumb against her palm. Her teeth began to worry at her bottom lip only to stop abruptly feeling the point of fangs, and finally she took a deep, shuddering breath.
”I don’t…” The French woman trailed off for a moment, the feline ears peeling back against her head before she finally continued, her accent heavy. ”I don’t want to live in fear, Alice. No one does, I think. But I am not as brave as you. Everytime - everytime I see so much as a little bird, it makes my chest tighten and my blood freezes, and all I can think of is how dangerous they are … and how dangerous I am around them.”
Valora swallowed heavily, finally stopping her fidgeting to touch the dark black bracers that adorned her wrist.
”Even today, if it weren’t for these, I would’ve been nothing more than a mindless beast due to being so close to that … creature. I have no doubt all of you can defend yourselves, but all it takes is one split second…” A full body shudder coursed through the blond, and Valora reached up to touch the cotton patch that covered her maimed eye. Abruptly she laughed, shaking her head.
”I suppose that is silly, yes? In a room with not only Victory but Phoenix Dawn.”
Alice shook her head. ”It’s not silly that you’re worried about your friends, Val. But it is silly to think you’re not as brave as anyone else ‘round here. You were right there, besides- no, in front of everybody in that fight this morning. That’s courage.“
”But if they were real animals then I would’ve been close to useless! This-” Valora spread one arm to the side, showing the black device that was always strapped to her inner arm. ”Is the only way I can even function on some missions. I do not … I don’t want to be afraid but I don’t even remember a time I wasn’t.”
Valora lapsed into silence, drawing her arms close once more. Her eye focused on the table in front of her, spotting the book she had left there after receiving the call to arms this morning. Her pointed ear flicked, before she almost absently reached out to push it off the edge.
Alice looked at the power dampener strap around her arm. ”We all need our armor, Valora.” She said, trying to be reassuring.
“I will literally eat your face.”
”No, Valora, you won’t. You’ve gotcha armor on. And if something does go wrong, we’ll all be there to help, okay? Because we want too- because you’re our friend.”
There was no response at first as Valora seemed to be considering her words. Finally she shook her head and closed her eye, and after a moment the sharp claws on her fingers recededl. On their disappearance she let out a shuddering breath of relief, lifting her head to catch Alice’s gaze once more. Slowly, hesitantly, she let a small smile cross her face.
”... And even though I am not comfortable with these powers, I will be there to help you all as well.” Valora finally replied. ”Just do not expect me to be comfortable around ‘Onyx’.”
”Thanks, Valora.” Alice said, pausing, before continuing. ”Don’t tell the others this, but Onyx doesn’t sit right with me either. I guess we’ll both just have to try and get used to him.”
Valora couldn’t help but laugh at that, brightening a tiny bit at the confession. ”Okay, but you get to deal with him. I have an excuse.” The blonde reached out, laying her hand against Alice’s arm in a mirror of what she had done earlier for her.
”... Thank you, Alice.”
”No problem. We’re all lookin’ out for each other here.” Alice replied. With that said, she stood up, feeling better now that she made someone else feel a little better. It was all anyone could do, right? As she opened the door, preparing to close it behind her, she stuck her head back in. ”I’ll be in the gym if you need me. I’ll try to keep Ricky from levelling the tower.” The door slowly closed behind her.
Valora gave a slight wave, calling out a simple good luck after her Team Lead. Once the door was closed she let out a sigh, retrieving the book from the floor to replace on the table and feeling a little lighter after the encounter. It was good to be reassured, though she made no intention of having it be common place if she could help it. Though, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to stop herself with Onyx...
A small ‘thump’ alerted her to the fact she had absently shoved the book off again.
"Okay, if you say so." Alice responded to Silas, raising an eyebrow. She hadn't been paying too much attention to anything else, which is her face made a half confused, half disgusted look at the sight of a person in a cat suit. But, then, of course, that wasn't true, was it? It was Onyx. Mmmm-mmm. No, that ain't good.
"Valora?" She searched for her communications device to let Valora know not to come-.
Too late. Too, too late. Poor little darling was having a panic attack and that fool cat was all over her!
"You're gonna be all right, Val!" Alice stood from her chair and quickly jogged over to the situation, putting herself between Onyx and Valora. She grabbed Valora by the arm and put a small Hard Light wall between her and Onyx, more for Valora's comfort of having to move slightly closer to her phobia in order to get away from it. Hopefully, with a wall interplaced she could get out of there and be appropriately prepared next time.
"Okay, it's okay. Look at me. You're all right, you're okay. Let's get on out of here, all right? He ain't followin' us, sweetheart." She cooed, attempting to lead her away from the wall and out of the gymnasium. As she whispered, she briefly looked over her shoulder at Onyx, raising her eyebrows as a silent command to stay put. Hopefully, Valora was going along with Alice as the doors to the gymnasium slid open and closed behind her.
Alice whistled appreciatively at the utter insanity currently taking place in the gym room. Adorned in the, loose, baggy jumpsuit of New Horizon and wielding a mighty glass cup of ice, she had slipped inside during the chaos and was sitting with one leg crossed over the other in a high-quality folding chair.
In the loudness of the room, Alice commanded a quaint corner of quiet, sipping ice water and occasionally smiled in a most bewildered fashion. It was no wonder the staff left the heroes to their own devices- for their own sake. It felt like a schoolyard in here, except little Elliot seemed to be sexually harrassing Silas, which Alice tisked at.
"Silas, honey, you all right over there?" She called out to him, straining to see him around Ricardo wrestling with a robot. Alice hoped they weren't picking on him.
Far away from the Towers, a small apartment housed an angry young girl who was currently slightly intoxicated. Wearing tattered, dirty clothes, with dark red hair that almost matched the fire in her eyes, Ciara McGuire was stewing in her room. Tapping a bare foot on one of the few clean place on the beige (previously white) carpet, Ciara was thinking. Loud rock music was playing into her ears from an earbud. At 19 years old, Ciara couldn't begin to tell you all the things she saw wrong with the world.
For one, the ruling class. A bunch of crooked politicans paying crooked cops to make common folks have crooked legs. They beat us down, all the time. I mean, has anyone been paying attention? The public was dumb, thanking faceless suits for taking their money while the 'government' did nothing.
Look at all the crime. Right? All this crime, all over. The police are all fat and lazy and expect these fuckin' chumps in their ivory tower, sellin' merch and makin' cash, to somehow come down here and actually help us. Like, just today, the Zookeeper. Dime a dozen super villain with robot animals. Yeah, whatever, take care of 'em. But what about the rest of the time, hmm? Where's Phoenix Dawn when the gas station gets robbed? No where. And yet, somehow, we have to rely of them for help. We have to rely on others to save us. We gotta call the lazy cops, and if we get hurt because of their incompetence, who has to pay? The victim! That's right, here, you get charged for gettin' hurt. What the fuck? We can't defend ourselves and we can't get hurt?
And and and and, we gotta pay? Okay, we gotta pay to work. Yeah, that's right, all the jobs that aren't taken' by the bots need you to go to some scam of a 'college' where you empty your pockets just for the chance to get bent over the barrel and start working. Fuck that, man.
So, what? What was she going to do about it? Was she just gonna sit there and complain? No. She had a power, from wherever the fuck those came from, and she was gonna use it. It was a damn good power, too. She could take on at least three guys at once- she already had.
She had to stake out a lot. Staying up late at night with a police scanner and an ear out. She went to known trouble spots in her town and stuff, tried to look for crimes. One of her top priorities was increasing the effectiveness of her crime fighting. She wanted to be there before the police and teach a real lesson to these scumbags. If she could get there before the police could, than that would also prove she could fight crime better. All she needed was time and effort and her dream of a self-reliant community would come true. No more being under the thumb of these crooked cops and politicians.
In reality, it was a far off pipe dream, but Ciara wanted to make a difference- and a big one. Her dream? A group of people who went around, a phone call away. Your neighbor, a shop owner, your fuckin' dog. Everyone looks out for each other, ya know? Back up. There are no innocent bystanders if everyone steps in to help. You protect yourself and then the back up comes, friendly folks who will help you up and fix you up- for free. She had a few working titles- but the best one she had come up with so far was Maverick.
Ciara was agitated, thinking about the biggest crime she ever stopped.
She got lucky- she was standing on a rooftop next to a gas station late at night. Three shifty lookin' guys, all in masks, looked like they wanted to make a move. Recently, this group of villains had come to her attention; The Jack Winstons. Usually dressed in dark green and black colors, they've made moves in her area recently. Apparently some prick named Jack Winston had gotten this stuff started, but right now she was just focus on keeping them out of her neighborhood.
A few days ago, she saw three of them- like she said. They had their devices and were ready to hijack some funds, grow their little empire. One woman and two me with camoflague balaclavas- their signature outfit. One had a crowbar, one had a bat, and the woman had a pistol. The guy with the bat had the device to 'extract funds' from the place of business.
Well, not on her watch. She remembered thinking she had to take out the gun girl first. If she got her, the other two would be easy.
It was chilly, that night. She had her dark red hoodie on, hood up, but with the sleeves cut off so she could move better. She had form fitting leggings on to allow maximum leg movement. It wasn't much of a costume but it was something.
She wanted to teach these Jack Winstons a lesson. They were on the opposite side of the street, the bat guy crouched, placing his device to the ATM. Crowbar and gun girl were standing watch, but they weren't looking up. On a three storey building across the way, Maverick was prone on her belly, pysching herself up.
"You ain't Ciara, you're Maverick. Maverick is brave. Maverick can kick their asses- no problem. Just be careful. On the count o' three, ok? One...two...three."
And with that, her fingers twitched and a small spark appeared from where they were touching the concrete of the roof. She focused, and essentially began to move through the air. She wasn't flying, or jumping, she didn't even push herself off. It looked like her whole body was being pulled by something. She oriented herself feet first and shot out her arms and legs- causing her to get another bump in altitude.
The man with the bat saw her. "What the Hell!?" He said, right when Maverick's dark silhouette was above the gun girl. She looked up, and Maverick can still remember the dumbfounded look in her face to see Maverick landing on her. Only her eyes and her mouth were visible- her eyes were wide as saucers and her mouth made an 'O' shape. Then, she was flat on her back in the concrete and got knocked the fuck out. Maverick had transitioned all of her kinetic energy from her landing into the armed crook. The bat guy yelped and raise his bat to strike. Maverick was crouched down over the unconscious crook, low down. He was in an advantageous position- a normal person would take the hit and probably go down.
Instead, Maverick charged her right hand with dampening energy. The baseball bat, swung full force by a 250 pound man, collided with the young woman's fist as if he had swung into foam. Incredibly unsatisfying- there was not even an impact sound. It just slipped off her hand.
His eyebrows were invisible, but she could tell that he raised one eyebrow in confusion. Then, Maverick charged her fist a bit, lept off the unconsious crook and lunged with an uppercut. The man reacted quickly and ducked out of the way, preparing for a counter attack. He was most likely expecting Maverick to have halt her momentum or follow through with the punch, but that didn't happen. Instead her forward momentum was converted into downward momentum. She went really low to the ground as the confused bat swung high over her head- at the same time she swept his legs out from under him. Normally, someone her size couldn't hope to knock out someone his size's legs. But her leg was charged, and sparked slightly with yellow-white energy. It looked like someone had attatched his leg to a truc the way he hit the sidewalk with a thud and a grunt.
The crowbar man had taken notice, and went to swing. They were all stupid, Ciara knew. They had no idea that you couldn't fight her like you could fight other people. She totally had them. Like second nature, the crowbar missed as Maverick simply moved out of the way. She didn't 'dodge' or 'leap' or 'sidestep'. Her crouching form simply moved like a bad animation. The man tracked her movement with baffled eyes as he stumbled forward from his strong swing. He moved his hand to stop her punch but he was too slow- a kinetically charged fist punched into his belly and he doubled over, gasping. The man with the bat was climbing quickly to his feet, but Maverick intercepted him with a kick to the forehead, which sent him sleeping to the ground. The woman had woken up, her eyes fluttering open. Maverick quickly made her way over, yanked her pistol apart and kicked her in the head, closing her eyes again. She wanted to talk the crowbar guy.
He coughed, on all fours, startling with Maverick put a hand on his shoulder. She willed him to be flung towards the wall as if there was a bungie cord pulling him towards it- and it happened. He was flung towards the brick wall and hit his head. He clutched in painfully. Maverick put a hand to his chest, and he slid up the brick wall until she was holding him up.
"You don't fucking steal from us? Okay?" Maverick said, glaring at him with two overshadowed, angry eyes.
"Man- fuck you!" He said, angry and confused at his defeat. Suddenly, Maverick's hand on his chest felt like it weighed 100 pounds.
"No, fuck you, man!" She yelled back, making this up as she went along. "You don't get to come in here- to come in here and take what's ours! You tell your little friends here that when they woke up, it was a- a Maverick that kicked their ass, and it'll be a Maverick that kicks their sorry asses again if they try some more shit! You got that!? You understand!?"
The man, turning beet red from the pressure, nodded. He gasped for air when Maverick released her death grip. Placing a sneakered foot on his hacking device, it was ground into the dust like someone dropped a hundred pound weight on it. The man looked in astonishment as she leapt into the air and bounced off the brick wall, scaling upwards one jump at a time like she was a mosquito.
That was where Ciara's memory ended, but the man was very confused at the time. He looked at his two unconscious friends and decided he's rather not wait around for the skinny girl with the high pitched, irish accented voice to come back and beat the shit out of him again, scrambled off into the night.
Ciara was giddy at the thought of it. Angry-giddy though. All she wanted was to do more. It was frustrating now knowing where the crime was going down. That's why she was looking at the useless web search results for 'Jack Winston'. He wasn't on the web, of course. Just some chump in the hood making trouble for good folks. She shoulda interogated that guy. Shit. She shoulda made sure the other two had woken up so they all knew what was up, too. Damn it! Ugh. Maybe next time she wouldn't screw it up so bad.
Once again, Alice Jefferson was in her room. There was a large window letting in the afternoon sun, filling the room with a comforting beig light. The whole room was various soothing colors of soft carpets, curtains and wallpapers of beautiful if minimalistic patterns. A far cry from the often stark and sharp architecture of the rest of the tower, Alice made certain her place was clean and nice to look up. Lifting her shirt up, she was applying ice to a purple bruise on her dark skin tone. She had taken her pain killers, yadda yadda, walk around the room sometimes, cough when you need too but blah blah blah. Whatever. She could handle this...she had had way worse in her youth. It wasn't even broken.
She had to end up comforting Valora to how upset she was, that she 'let' her get hurt during the battle. Silly girl was a sweet old blubberin' mess right after the fight. That Zookeeper certainly is an unpleasant fellow. Luckily Silas did what Silas does and gave him something to really think about in his time behind bars. Villains like him were dime a dozen- always trying to make a move and somehow take over the city. I mean, witout New Horizon? They might be able to do it. But luckily, NH did exist, and were there to stop them. Even if some of them wear their heart on their sleeve like Valora who came over to comfort Alice but ended up needing a little soothing herself. She smiled at the thought, but frowned at recalling the preceding events right after.
A rabble rouser, freelancer, 'vigilante' or what have you, was spotted. Apparently he helped them out...this time. Often these vigilantes end up hurting someone because of their good intentions. Alice knew what they said about the path to Heck, but apparently they did not. It's only a matter of time before these troublemakers made too much trouble for their own good. If she hadn't been hurt, she mighta been able to drop a dome on that guy, bring him in and shape him up.
She sighed. Oh well. Now that the painkillers and the ice had numbed the pain, it was time to take care of this wound. Alice closed her eyes and concentrated, and beneath the purple bruise a golden light pulsed. The discoloration slowly began to fade to her normal medium skin tone. With a wince, Alice opened her eyes and looked at the bruise in the mirror. Much better. She poured out the half melted back of ice and sat down on the couch with a cup of orange juice and went back to watching her programs.
"No," Devyn whispered back with a smile, "But that's exactly what the mole would say, so watch out."
Apparently, Devyn thought as she listened to Elizabeth talk, the mole is Alonzo. Thinking again on it, she supposed it could be him, but still, she felt like everyone was being convinced by Erin's spell. Devyn coould make a pencil spin around and point at Alonzo and claim that it was her magic spell doing it. Make some flashy lights and act like she was all knowing...that was the issue with 'diviniation'. It was almost impossible to prove until physical evidence or logical reasoning confirmed it.
Then Alonzo pulled a real power move.
Devyn flinched when he talked to her through her mind. Jesus! This guy's no joke. Telekinetic trickery, that was a real-enough looking brain he just pulled from literally thin air, and she heard his voice in her head. That lended some credibility to his magic, but again...how could she tell? Perhaps he could only speak to minds, not read them? There is such a thing as one-way communication, and microphones aren't on all the time.
He accused Erin and Mallaidh, and (probably for show) asked if he should kill them. So, naturally, him accusing Erin made him more guilty, even though Erin accused him in the first place. So, if he says he didn't do it, he's guilty, but if he admits it then he's obviously guilty. Sounds like a witch hunt where the accused can do nothing right. This wasn't investigative at all- Erin would make a great yellow journalist.
"We can't just making fancy lights and throw out entirely baseless accusations. Diviniation spells are worthless without rational thinking to back it up. We might as well be taking a lie detector test for how useless this 'evidence' is." She essentially announced to the room.
She continued her speech, and began counting reasons on her fingers.
"So, Alonzo could be guilty because Erin's vial pointed at him," She pursed her lips and made a dismissive face.
"Mallaidh could be the mole because she's too nervous," Her tone of voice wasn't particularly convinced.
"Or Erin could be it, because Alonzo's secondary brain said so. Oh, yeah, and the two of them are more guilty because they accused each other. That's all we have so far- which is essentially nothing at all." She rose her hands high in an expasperated gesture, and let them fall against her jeans with a slap.
"So...Elizabeth," Her eyes snapped to the Irish woman. "You think it's Alonzo and you don't have any magic bodily fluid to back you up. Why?"
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