A nest of hornets - Part 3
The wharf district, Riverside ...
"Yeah. No kiddin'. That new hero? Looks a little like Black Staff? Yeah, you know, that guy. They dropped down, right under the container, right? And I thought I was a goner, you know? That was it. Splattered, 'cos those things? Heavier than they look. So, anyways, that joker with the wings has already flown away but that new hero? They thought we were more important. That's good, you know, 'cos, some of those guys, they don't care none about the little people. I seen people caught in the middle of these supers fighting before and do they care? Forget about it. This guy? He cares, you know. Heard him almost screaming' when he caught that container. Still held it up 'til every last one'a my guys got out of the way. That's a hero in my book. So, uh, what was the question again?"
"I asked ... you know what, never mind. Go get checked up by the EMT's." Chief Watson had heard practically the same story from everyone interviewed. He gave a wave to his sergeant. "Get as many formal statements as you can but I don't think there's anything we can do here. It's an insurance matter now. No casualties, not our problem. Say, Suarez, what do you think about this new one? Friend or foe?"
"Couldn't say, Chief." Suarez looked up to the cables above, still swinging to and fro. "I think they want to be on the side of the angels, but that's not our problem either. 'This city does not condone vigilantes'. Your words."
That was exactly what Chief Watson didn't need to hear, his own words repeated back to him, but it was true. Strictly speaking, vigilantes were not welcome. The members of Bastion were a different matter, but these kinds of heroes, the street level capes? Too often they caused more trouble than they fixed. Little did any of Watson's colleagues know, but he and Black Staff had had an arrangement and, since Black Staff's death, crime had risen. Sharply.
What Watson needed was something he could aim. An ally, like Black Staff, that he could call upon in times of dire need. This new villain, Vezzpa, was only the latest and wouldn't be the last. New Hastings city teetered on the edge of chaos and Watson needed a weight to tip the balance the other way.
-+-
Meanwhile, high above ...
Caitlyn hunkered down on a warehouse roof not far from where Chief Watson stood, surveying the damage from her terrible battle with Vezzpa. She had made a complete mess of everything, acting contrary to everything Trooper Jane had taught her. She had ignored the enemy for civilians, allowing Vezzpa to escape and cause untold damage and misery in the future. She couldn't do it, though. People could have died.
She rubbed her shoulder, still feeling the pain from where the container had landed as she, like a dumbass, caught it. Caught a falling shipping container! That was insane, but it had saved lives. She had saved lives and that felt good. No, scratch that, it felt amazing. It was different this time from her other encounters, more substantial.
Before, she had fought in self-defence, or for Aunt Mary. This time she had fought for selfless reasons. Not for cameras, not for praise, just for the knowledge that she had the ability to help and had. Even as the survivors had raced to her, after putting the container down, clapping and cheering, she had leapt away. It wasn't about her. It should never be about her and she would make certain it would never be about her. Let the big guns in Bastion get all the press and the praise. That was her praise, down there. People alive that could easily be dead.
A thought ran through her mind and the suit dissolved away from the pocket on her clothes, her real clothes, where she had put her cell phone. A quick look at the time and she groaned, tilting her masked head back until it hit the brick parapet. She had missed classes and lunch. Alaina was probably having kittens by now, though she hadn't left any messages. A quick text and she returned the phone to her pocket, the suit filling in the gap once again.
There was nothing else she could do here. Vezzpa had disappeared among the maze of warehouses in the district and Caitlyn doubted she would return anytime soon. These super-villains had lairs hidden away all over the city. She had heard speculation that some even shared lairs. The fact was that, apart from saving precious lives, her first real job as a hero had come up a bust. Her first real super-villain had run rings around her.
Instead of floating back to Parkside High, she took to the rooftops instead, staying out of sight, not wanting to call attention to herself. If only she could have recovered some of the stolen money, even if she couldn't capture Vezzpa. Something that didn't make her feel like a failure. Something tickled the back of her mind as she thought back on the fight, but she couldn't think what it was that bothered her.
It could wait, for now. She had to get back to school and reassure Alaina that she hadn't died and also to tell her what it felt like. Knowing Alaina, she'd probably already called the cops and half the hospitals in the city by now.
-+-
"You ... forgot? Like, forgot that I was out there fighting a super-villain? Like, totally forgot that your best friend was putting her life on the line? I ..." Caitlyn turned away, pacing, taking deep breaths, calming herself before she turned back, leaning in to her best friend. "You forgot?"
"You were fine. I had every confidence in your abilities." Alaina waved away Caitlyn's concerns as though dismissing someone thanking her for holding a door open. She didn't whisper, as Caitlyn had. "The big news is that I think Rayna Alden may be this close to cracking and accepting the fact that she now has a new friend. Well, two new friends when you're not ... you know."
Alaina made a whooshing sound holding out her arm as pictures of Principle showed that he sometimes held his arm while flying. Fingers straight, like knives, cutting through the air. She completely missed Caitlyn spinning around to see if anyone was watching. Caitlyn didn't doubt that Alaina would keep her secret, but she did have tendency to intimate things as subtly as a metaphor wrapped with barbed wire around a baseball bat.
"Whatever, just ..." She paused as she stopped Alaina from pretending to fly around her. "Just try not to talk about ... it in public. Anyway, did I miss anything?"
"Nothing much. Oh, you're on your period, by the way. Really bad pains. Awful, bathroom dwelling period pains. I know it's not for a week or so, but you can say it's stress brought it on early. The best thing is, they can't question it because it'd be discriminatory, personal and a little misogynistic if they did." She rubbed her belly and made a pained look as she did so. Caitlyn, however, wasn't so certain that the school couldn't question her imaginary period pains. "I have class notes! Oh, but they're on my tablet and my tablet is in my bag in my locker. I'll e-mail them to you."
Bag. That word caught Caitlyn's attention and she didn't know why. She appreciated Alaina covering for her, but she couldn't do that every time Caitlyn had to go out to do the super-hero thing. She needed a better excuse. Something that didn't involve Alaina lying for her. If Caitlyn got into trouble, that was her problem, her responsibility. She couldn't let her best friend get into trouble too. That wasn't what friends were for.
As they made their way to the next class, they stopped by the temporary lockers for Alaina to collect her bag and that thought still bothered Caitlyn. Not getting Alaina in trouble, but something about the bag that Alaina had put away while she did other things. Screwing up her forehead in thought, she almost missed Rayna Alden racing toward a stretch limo waiting for her, Principle Wolfman at her side.
"I wonder what that's about?" Though the principle looked concerned, Rayna looked more annoyed than anything. "Wait. You talked to Rayna Alden? What the hell?"
"She looked like she needed a friend. And I'm the King of Friends." She was, too. Alaina could make friends with a barbarian horde out for blood. "She's in a hurry, too. I wonder where she dumped her bag?"
"Probably left it with ..." It hit Caitlyn like a ton of bricks.
Her bag! Rayna didn't have her bag with her and, Caitlyn's mind fast-rewound back to the fight with Vezzpa. When the villain had left the bank, she carried a number of bags, filled with cash she had stolen, Caitlyn suspected. She had had those bags all the way across the city until she disappeared somewhere in the wharf district. But, when she had attacked Caitlyn, she didn't have the bags. Vezzpa had dumped them somewhere and Caitlyn doubted the villain would have left bags of money in some filthy dockside alley.
A lair. It had to be. And, if Caitlyn remembered where Vezzpa had disappeared from sight and where she reappeared, she could reduce the number of places where that lair could be. Later, after school, she would return to the wharf district and turn the place upside down looking for Vezzpa. She wasn't going to let her first real super-villain fight end like it had, in failure.
"Hey! Eugene! What happened with the new chick?" Almost at random, Alaina caught the arm of a fellow student rushing to their next class. "Is it her period? I hear it's catching."
"You can catch periods?" The boy, a year below Alaina and Caitlyn looked shocked that two girls were acknowledging he existed. He wasn't stupid, though, he saw Alaina's eye-roll. "Ha, very, ha ha. I don't know. Something about her dad being ill? Hospital, maybe? I can't believe you know my ..."
"Yeah, yeah. Get out of here, kid." Alaina let Eugene's arm go and turned to Caitlyn, a scowl crossing her face. "If Old Man Alden dies, does that mean you lose your internship?"
Lack of compassion aside, Alaina had a point. Alden hadn't looked ill when she had met him. At least, not the kind of ill not caused by a super-hero and a villain exploding hear him. If Alden did die, what could that mean for getting to work at Ald-Tech?