Humming to herself, Cherie rapped on a nearby door and listened as someone cursed, stumbled and crashed through things as Cherish studied the extensive painting on the door consisting of guns, geometric and fractal shapes, bullets and more guns. Finally it popped open to reveal a head of green-streaked blonde hair that looked up at her with bleary grey eyes.
"Oh, Cherie, did you need something?" Marie LaFayette, known in the Wards as Arsenal, blinked as she shifted the night shirt holding in her own enlarged chest. Cherish honestly wondered if Mister Big aimed for the chest just for laughs or if there was an actual tactical reason?
It wasn't like there was any reports of back problems or anything similar from the thirty women he had hit in his brief spree. Hell, Cherish was staring at Marie's own basketball-sized rack and the girl clearly had no problems except occasionally being unable to see her feet.
"Yeah, I was wondering if that gun you were making me is ready yet?" Cherish smiled as the Shaker/Tinker/Brute across from her nodded.
"Sure, let me just grab it for you." She vanished back into a room packed to the ceiling with guns, ammunition and other firearms-related equipment. Cherish imagined she saw what looked like a rifle that had a minigun for a barrel assembly as she peered through the door, not daring to enter.
Arsenal...Marie may be a sweet girl outside and in costume, but she was more territorial than a pack of wolves. Her fellow wards and not even the Protectorate were exempt from the onslaught of violently screamed Cajun French along with being menaced by a shotgun the size of a fucking telephone pole.
Cherish tried to identify as much as she could see before Marie reappeared with a large pistol in her hands, "Here you go. I'll get a cleaning and repair kit to you soon. Just drop by and I'll give you ammo before you head out into the field."
"Thanks Marie. I'll see you later." Turning away and walking to her room, Cherish finally decided to search the Underground.
Her mind swept across the miles-deep subterranean city that even went underwater thanks to Brockton Bay's aquifer, searching through hobo villages, wandering pockets of rogue Freakshow beasts, a commune of Lilith cultists busy birthing the next generation of 'Succubi' for their idiot plans, and so far nothing, nada, zip.
Frowning slightly as she entered her room, Cherish kept searching, finding nothing but rats, bugs, greasels, karkians, rucks, and even a couple of Shredder swarms.
'Fucking assholes. Never trust Tinkers to make new wildlife.'
Cherish's thoughts were interrupted as she picked up something. She recognised the emotional 'taste' as belonging to Amy Dallon, the healer Panacea, but what was she doing outside her normal volunteer hours with two unknowns?
And why was the overpowering sensation of Glory Girl following them?
Cherish straightened and sat up, her lips curving into a smile.
"Well, this will be interesting."
* * *
Chapter 5: Glory Girl's Spying
Victoria Dallon had a feeling the new girls were trouble the moment she saw them. And now? Following them in casual, dark clothing as they headed towards an abandoned subway entrance with her sister in tow, Victoria had no doubt that something was up as she dipped lower and hid behind a derelict vehicle.
What really got her suspicious was the identity of the new girls. Noriko Ida, heiress of the prestigious Ida Conglomerate who was worth millions of dollars by herself. And the other...Taylor Hebert, the daughter of Professor Annette Hebert. Victoria's research and New Wave credentials turned up reports of the woman's past.
Victoria had met the woman and she couldn't believe that the calm, smiling English Professor was formerly one of Lustrum's most skilled torture technicians. Practically made real the term Lustrum'd in Brockton Bay. Victoria still didn't know how the woman managed to get out of a life-sentence, the reports didn't say anything about that.
Victoria grimaced, "So a corporate princess and a former Lustrum officer's daughter lead my sister into the Underground. I should get backup, maybe..." She glanced down at her phone, already set by instinct to her mother's number on the speed-dial. Looking down at it, she grimaced. If she called her mom, it would just get nasty again.
Victoria still didn't know what had gone wrong; all she knew was that one day she was in the middle of a cold war between Amy and Mom and neither side would explain what was going on. All Victoria knew was that she was always getting pushed and pulled. So she took the best option out of a bunch of bad ones, and just stopped talking with Amy and only interacting with Mom when it didn't involve Amy.
It hurt, but Victoria hoped that Amy would understand and go make new friends.
She just didn't think Amy would go for such a pair of sketchy characters to be new friends. Amy would never go criminal, but Victoria knew that there was a difference between being a criminal and just hanging with the wrong crowd.
The line was pretty thin for that as well. Putting away her phone, Victoria quickly flitted into the subway entrance and followed the signs of three teenage girls moving through the dust and dirt into the disused train tunnels. She didn't need to try very hard to follow the trio; the sound of their conversation and laughter echoed easily down the tunnels so Victoria was able to find the entrance to the Underground that they were using.
As Victoria entered the Underground she recognised the style of the architecture in the sprawling subterranean cityscape, "Okay, so I'm in Waterfall. Must have a lab or base nearby in the inverted buildings."
She floated off the platform and began looking for any signs of the trio when Victoria spotted a set of shapes heading along a walkway and smiled,
"There you are." She picked up speed, weaving through the hanging walkways and hiding behind columns and towers to avoid being spotted as the girls in the distance approached one of the inverted buildings.
Victoria spared a glance for the rest of the Underground. It was one of the big things that a Shaker calling himself Dungeon Master had done; he had gone into local government offices and offered to create underground cities that could withstand any natural disaster or an attack by those Apex bastards.
Victoria passed an inverted statue of the man himself; dressed in stereotypical fantasy robes, Dungeon Master was a normal human apart from him powers but he had, and still was, building underground cities across the world. The guy had massive ego though, always touting his underground cities as invulnerable to harm.
Victoria stopped behind a waterfall column, watching as the trio of girls with her sister in the centre entered one of the inverted buildings. Carefully peeking out of her hiding spot, Victoria spotted a good position on another nearby building that would get her close enough to hopefully sneak in and listen to what was going on inside.
Zipping across the intervening space, Victoria found an open window and carefully clambered through before floating along the floor to avoid making any noise. In the silence of the building it was a lot easier to hear her sister and her new 'friends' as they chatted between themselves about typically teen stuff: boys, clothes, plans for the summer, all the usual things.
Thankfully, they were so engrossed in their conversation that Victoria was able to find the place they had stopped, an inverted atrium, with a ready-made hiding spot in the ceiling as she looked down at what was in the atrium.
Machinery, computers, racks of strange equipment, canisters and tanks of marked chemicals along with various scientific equipment. Sitting in a corner under some drop cloths were some squat shapes but Victoria made out the lengths of cannon barrels and what looked like missile launchers.
'Too small for a crew, unless they use one-person cockpits like some of Squealer's stuff for her gang. Definitely a Tinker with a Trump rating, the equipment is too broad in scope to be anything else.'
Rolling her shoulders, Victoria positioned herself in case she needed to intervene as the girls entered and she heard the conversation being held.
"And here it is! Our little home base." The Ida girl presented the atrium with a flourish as Victoria watched Hebert snort.
"I'm still annoyed that you used your basement instead of this place you know."
Ida shrugged, "It wasn't going to be a permanent thing. The equipment shipment I was expecting was late, so I had to improvise."
"You tested it with garden sprayers."
Victoria watched as Amy rolled her eyes as Ida laughed before replying, "At least they were put to use. My parents don't do the whole gardening thing anyway."
Amy studied the atrium, "So why am I here? I mean, I get that you two are starting a team, but I've already got New Wave and the hospital..."
Ida held up a hand as Victoria focused her attention on getting every detail, "That's true. Frankly, if you joined us of your own free will that would be great, but you're here for a job offer. I'd like to pay you to be an on-call medic. Mostly things like patching up serious injuries or re-attaching an arm. You'll be paid sixty-grand per job plus twenty-eight grand a week as a retainer."
Victoria's jaw dropped. That was more than the Wards made in a month!
Apparently, Amy thought the same way, "W-w-what! I can't accept that! It's not right!"
"What isn't right is you not getting compensated for what could be several minutes to several hours of not volunteering at the hospital." Ida replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Do you actually intend on relying on charity when you reach your majority and graduate? Can you seriously tell me that you have no plans for your future beyond being stuck in a hospital when you could be contributing to medical science advances?"
"B-but I'm a hero! It's what I do!"
"You're also stressed, burning out, and constantly in the public eye. Frankly, I'm surprised the hospital is still letting you volunteer, it's not like they're hard up for healers or advanced medical systems." Ida shrugged as she walked over to one of the benches, "This is a good deal, you know that, you're not being asked to join and you're getting paid to basically keep doing what you've been doing, with extra for helping us out. Win-Win in my opinion."
"But what if people ask questions?" Amy asked, looking around the obvious hideout, "I can't just say I'm helping another team, I'm in enough hot water with my mother already!"
Ida shrugged, "So tell them you're interning for the Ida Conglomerate. It's basically true anyway. Regardless, we just wanted to show you our hangout and I've made my job offer, so..."
Ida pointed at a massive entertainment set-up in the corner, "How about we unwind with some games?"
Victoria stifled a groan as she settled down. Pulling out her phone and putting it onto silent vibrate, she watched the group start playing games. Her sister was having fun, but she'd be happier when she was out of here so she could have a talk with her. Apart from that, Victoria was happy for Amy.
Why did it feel like she had forgotten something though?
Shrugging, Victoria settled down and started checking her messages as the sound of three girls playing games filled the air. There was a message or two from Mom, but Victoria simply settled the messages with saying that Amy had gone to be with some friends and that she didn't know where she was.
Victoria also got a message from Dean, asking if she was on her way to their date. That stupid make-up date that he organised. Why the hell couldn't Dean get it through his head that Victoria didn't care about him any more?
It was getting to become a pattern as well; she'd break up with Dean because he didn't get social cues even with emotion reading, Dean would sulk, then Dean would get a pep-talk from one of the Wards and he'd try to get back into her good graces, she'd go on a pity date with him, and then they'd be back together and the whole mess would restart.
It would be so tempting to just leave him for good, strike out and make her own way, and why not do the same with New Wave? Hero-ing wasn't about brands after all and so far New Wave was turning into a brand name that was being slapped on merchandise and un-masked capes.
And maybe...if she left, then Amy would follow? It'd be good for things to go back to the way they used to between the two of them. After a while, time flowed together and Victoria had a few cat-naps, waking up to check on Amy and her new friends.
So far they just played games until Victoria heard Amy's watch beep loudly, "Oh! Um, sorry guys, I gotta go."
"Meh, no big deal. Listen, that job offer's always open for you, and you're free to hang out with us whenever you want." Ida waved a hand lazily, "Also, kind of convenient that you got a call just as you were losing."
"Hah, you wish. I'll see you guys later."
Amy jogged out of the building and Victoria was about to slink out when Ida turned to Hebert, "She's probably not going to join up. Too loyal to her family, her sister in particular."
Hebert shrugged as Victoria's eyes narrowed, "Your experience tell you that, or your Thinker power?"
Ida laughed, "Hey, just because I literally think like a super-computer now doesn't mean I can't tell these things. And yeah, I've been in that kind of place before...well, before I met you."
Hebert hugged the Ida heiress before she started to strip in front of Victoria's widening eyes, "Well, since she's gone we might as well get to work. There's a huge swarm of Shredder Beetles that I want to get under my control, and I'm probably going to need the range boost."
"No probably about it. Damn things are skittish when they're not hunting." Ida responded as Hebert finished stripping out of her clothing; while one girl padded over to an area marked with warning tape, the other headed to one of the benched and grabbed an injector gun along with a large feed-bottle, "I've tweaked the formula in my spare time. Direct vascular injection this time, more potent and faster-acting. You should transform within seconds and manifest all secondary mutations a few seconds after the main transformation."
Hebert nodded, taking off her glasses to hand them over, "So long as you don't spray me again." As Ida clicked the feed-bottle into the injector gun, Hebert looked curious, "Hey, Nori, what do you think would happen if this was injected into a Brute? Or an Apex-package?"
Ida paused, "That's a good question actually. Problem is, my simulations can't give me anything accurate. If I had a Brute or Apex-package volunteer to take the serum and transform I could give you an answer but unlike with you I can only give out my best possible guess as to the effects."
