Chapter 40
Missy
"Here you go." Shirou handed her a bento box with today's lunch.
"Thanks!" Missy cracked it open and peeked inside.
Hmm. Perfectly roasted beef, golden crust glistening with juices. Mashed potatoes, soft and buttery. A side of perfectly seasoned salad. Freshly cooked.
Missy's nose got hit with such mouth-watering aroma, she wanted to dig in right then and there.
No, stop it! You had breakfast not fifteen minutes ago.
But it smelled so good...
Thankfully, the temptation of the steaming meal was cut short by Tanya stepping out of her room. "Alright, I'm done. We can move out."
"Wait." Missy pulled a cotton pad from her bag. Gently taking the shorter girl by the chin, she carefully evened out concealer across her face.
"You used too much. It'll dry into splotches."
"Ah, thank you, Missy," Tanya said, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Happy to help!" Missy handed the domino masks from the bin to the siblings. They would toss them in another bin near one of HQ's concealed exits.
And she really was happy to help. Normally, it felt like Tanya was automatically good at everything, so when the girl asked Missy to show how to apply make-up, she jumped at the opportunity.
Teaching the little Thinker something for a change felt nice.
They left Wards' quarters, and made their way through the HQ.
It had been three days, but the aftermath of Five's rampage was still visible everywhere.
Janitors were scraping webbing off the ceilings and working at stains on the floor. Most of it was coffee and crushed bugs, but every so often there was vomit or even blood. Maintenance staff had wall panels open while they worked on damaged wiring. IT people were replacing components or cleaning bug residue out of computers.
Missy knew that somewhere, Chris and Armsmaster were bug-proofing critical areas.
The villain left her mark on the building, but that was nothing compared to the people.
The field agents looked mostly okay, but the support personnel looked shaken. Judging by the empty desks, some hadn't returned to work yet. Those that did looked twitchy, some clenching their teeth like they expected another wave of insects start trying to get in any moment.
There was a haunted look in their eyes.
Missy bet many would be pale, if not for the red bite marks peppering their skin.
Well, that was mostly the men. Women knew what concealer was for, and were less willing to walk around looking like victims of some chickenpox plague. Even if the make-up only made the bites itch more.
Missy supposed she was lucky in that regard. Tanya's healing had taken care of the swelling and irritation. Her skin still had red spots, but those would fade after another day or two of Tanya using her power. It would have gone faster, but the girl had to split time between the whole team.
At least there was no discomfort left.
"Crazy, isn't it?" Missy commented. "Just a week ago, the Undersiders were small fries. Now they're the team that kicked us out of our own building."
Ever since the Undersiders' grand escape, HQ had dissolved into a blur of emergency meetings. The Wards had not been invited, of course. Typical.
Normally, if you don't count the team-meetings they held between themselves, the Wards' interactions with the brass consisted of Miss M—or rarely, Piggot—coming down to inform them of something. Basically, tell them what to do.
Carlos, Dean and Dennis sometimes got invited to sit on the meetings between the PRT and the Protectorate. Even then, they were expected to sit and listen, but not talk.
Big—strategic—meetings, where actual decisions were made? Yeah, not a chance. Too important to have kids getting in the way.
Ugh. At least it wasn't only her.
But it just wasn't fair. Shouldn't the team have a say in the decisions when they had been unmasked?
Not completely, thankfully. Five had only caught a brief glimpse of their faces. On its own, that was not a total disaster. Names and pictures mattered far more when it came to secret identities. As far as non-public information went, Five now knew the Wards included a Hispanic boy, a black girl, and a redhead. Bad, sure, but not an instant reason to send protective detail to their homes.
Even so, the PRT would have cracked down on that on principle.
Except this time nobody seemed sure how.
They could not exactly unmask Five in retaliation, because she had gotten way ahead of them.
The next obvious move was unmasking Grue, Regent, and Tattletale. Unfortunately, that had to be shelved because of Shadow Stalker.
Yesterday, Sophia had been called to the Director's office and came back looking like she'd seen a ghost.
Turns out the PRT had been worried specifically about her, because Five had been going to the same school. Piggot wanted to know how likely it was the villain had recognized Sophia.
As it happened?
Very.
According to Sophia, Five—or Hebert—was some kind of infamous freak at Winslow, obsessed with Stalker's bestie over some fallout.
"She's a total attention seeker! Got wrong in the head ever since her mom bit it. When Emma finally told that psycho to fuck off, she went completely off the rails!"
'Off the rails,' apparently, included following Emma into Winslow, trying to get her and her friends in trouble, spreading lies, not showering, 'sucking Merchants' cock,' and pulling some absolutely vile stunt involving a locker packed to the brim with used tampons.
Now, Missy had found the story instantly suspicious.
First of all, Sophia having a bestie? Like, an actual friend?
Sophia, the bitch extraordinaire. The predator-and-prey Sophia. The unironic crossbow aficionado Sophia.
That Sophia?
Missy had doubted it loudly enough that Stalker finally got pissed and pulled out proof that blew Missy right out of the water.
It was a selfie of Sophia smiling and having fun with a pretty redhead. An actual real smile, not one of those sharp, cruel little smirks she wore around HQ. She looked happy. Hell, she looked... girly.
Worse, that Emma girl looked like she had never seen the inside of a gym.
The whole thing was so jaw-droppingly surreal that for a brief second Missy had seriously considered calling the Master-Stranger alarm.
But alright. Fine. Apparently there had been a real human being buried somewhere deep inside Sophia all this time. One that, for some reason, had never once managed to make it through HQ's front doors.
The rest of the story, though?
A villain being an awful person in civilian life wasn't exactly shocking. No one thought Brad Meadows became a nice guy the moment he took off the mask and put on a shirt. But locking yourself inside a box filled with used tampons just to frame someone wasn't awful—it was psychotic. Like if instead of killing Scruffy and Lucy, Dad had poisoned himself then blamed it on Mom.
Who the hell does that?
On the other hand, Missy could picture Stalker doing something like that to a creep bullying—and she still couldn't believe this—her friend.
Maybe. A little too far, even for Sophia. But if it was personal?
For all Missy's justified dislike of Shadow Stalker, intellectually, she understood that the older girl didn't really hate the team. Missy knew hate. Hate was poisoning your pets to upset your wife, with no regard what it'd do to your daughter. Hate was constantly talking about how much of a bastard your husband was, and then comparing your daughter to him for every little misstep.
No, Stalker was pure contempt. And if it was so bad on this level, how far would she go if stronger feelings were involved?
Sophia's unimpressed response had been to ask why, if she hated Hebert that much, would she bother digging through enough bathroom trashcans to fill a locker when she could just grab one and 'break Hebert's face with it?'
And didn't it say something that it was actually a pretty good defense?
In the end, the PRT had accepted that Stalker's identity was fully compromised, but for now it had not been plastered all over the Internet, and her house was not buried under a living carpet of bugs.
And if they unmasked the Undersiders, that could change very quickly.
At least, that was how Miss Militia had explained it when she stopped by to deliver the information packet on Taylor Anne Hebert.
It had to be the most complete villain profile Missy had ever seen. Beyond the usual threat rating, power notes and psych profile, it had everything: face, family details, home address, social security number and more.
And why wouldn't it be? Filled out by the girl herself. For all intents and purposes, Taylor Hebert had been a Ward, if only for a single day.
Crazy.
"What's crazy is the depth of incompetence that allowed this disaster to happen in the first place," Tanya replied sharply. "A perpetrator is caught red-handed, cries about being a poor frightened new hero, and someone at the PRT actually buys it. Whoever handled that interrogation should be fired. At best."
Missy shot her friend a sidelong look.
"You kind of misjudged her too," she pointed out.
Tanya scoffed. "I haven't had one conversation with the girl. But I still maintain that the attempts to paint her as some kind of criminal savant are laughable."
That was not how the PRT saw it.
After what happened, the analysts did a full review of the Undersiders, and in hindsight the whole team started looking wrong. Improbable, even, compared to the historical data on similar cases.
Teenage villain teams were nothing new, but they were notoriously unstable. On average they rarely made it past three months before falling apart because of infighting, capture or somebody ending up dead. The Undersiders had been going more than twice that long, and without a single failed job, arrest, or even a reported injury.
According to the PRT playbook, statistical irregularities like that were instant red flags for Thinkers and Masters. Force multipliers and puppeteers pulling strings behind the scene.
Overwatch. Reconnaissance. Intelligence gathering. Timely interventions that went unnoticed. Five's power could do all of that and more. It also raised questions about how much she'd downplayed her power in testimony. The level of coordination the bugs had demonstrated was already a bad sign, but if Hebert lied about the amount of feedback she got from her minions...
Worst case scenario, forget the Wards SI being compromised – the PRT ENE had been compromised in its entirety for God knows how long. It was a security nightmare fuel.
Looking back, the Undersiders might as well have had an invisible army of spies, infiltrators, and saboteurs behind them the whole time. In addition to getting intel straight from the Director's office.
The timeline sort of fit too. Annette Rose Hebert's death had been flagged as a probable trigger event.
As a result, Five landed herself a Master 8, Thinker 4 rating.
Smart and dangerous.
Tanya disagreed.
"The PRT is blowing things out of proportion to save face."
"I don't know..." Missy muttered.
Her fellow blond was super smart. By now, everyone on the team had tacitly accepted Tanya as the smartest person there and usually went along with her suggestions. Even Stalker, for all that she'd rather die than admit it.
It didn't hurt that Tanya never shied away from explaining her reasoning. Loved it, really. If you disagreed with her, she'd gladly engage you in discussion and turn it into a learning experience.
Which wasn't the norm, if you believed the email Dean had sent everyone a while back. According to the excerpts from the PRT document, Thinkers absolutely hated being wrong, and challenging them could be a good way to either distract a villain in the field or turn a teammate into a very unpleasant person. The examples attached to the doc included violence, homicidal rage and heroes being sent to containment zones. Some guy in the Seattle Protectorate had even gone to jail for murdering his wife when she proved she hadn't been cheating.
Missy wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Dean was normally such a nice guy, but had Dennis been making fun of his emotion reading again? It felt like the Thinker was trying to make a point.
So yeah, Missy was used to trusting Tanya by now. But in this case, her opinion went directly against the PRT's analysis.
"Credit where it's due, the breakout worked. With Five's range and enough time to build up insects, the sudden assault was highly effective. But that does not make her a criminal mastermind. It means she had the right power, basic tactical sense and a week to prepare."
Highly effective was one way to put it.
One moment Missy had been mentally preparing to put up with a villain on the team. The next, she was in the middle of a living storm of bugs. Having your face stung and bitten was bad enough. Getting the same treatment in other sensitive places fucking sucked.
How do you even fight like that?
The Manton Limit had reared its ugly head again and Missy's power had been effectively shut down by a swarm so dense even Stalker had trouble moving through it. Clock had taken himself out by reflexively freezing the bugs around him. Chris was without his weapon. Tanya only got her forcefield up after she was already crawling with insects. Dean had not even been in the room.
Aegis was the only one who could still fight in conditions like that. Problem was, unless the bugs actively ate his eyes, he was as blind as everyone else. Carlos had recovered faster than anyone else and tried rushing Five's position, but the villain was already gone.
Even Miss M hadn't been of much use. When Tanya asked during the briefing, the woman explained that her taser might have hit Five, but if it had, it hadn't punched through the villain's costume. And with the Wards in the room, she hadn't dared use live rounds in a low-visibility environment.
When Tanya politely asked why she hadn't opened with live rounds in the first place, Miss Militia got a complicated look on her face, then sighed and admitted it had been a mistake. Five had come across as genuine in her desire to be a hero. Miss Militia simply hadn't switched gears in time.
Tanya didn't comment, but it was clear as day she wasn't impressed.
"The PRT needs her to be brilliant, because being outplayed is less egregious than making an unforced error," Tanya continued. "Especially now, when many rich and influential people, including the Mayor, have pointed questions about the massive infestation at Captain's Hill. As such, we have a villain who is a shrewd manipulator, great actress, perfect liar, strong leader and talented tactician. The fact that we are talking about a fifteen-year-old gets conveniently ignored."
When put like that, it did sound possible. But would the PRT really lie like that? It was corrupt as fuck.
Missy did not quite know what to believe anymore.
The PRT leaned toward her being a shadowy mastermind behind the Undersiders' whole streak of successes.
Tanya thought she just got lucky, while not so subtly accusing the PRT of dropping the ball.
Sophia kept insisting that Hebert was a creepy loser.
And no one quite understood why Five had gone into the Wards' quarters at all, when the same results could have been achieved from the other side of the building. Theories ranged from wanting to learn their identities as a deterrent—something Sophia's presence had either complicated or satisfied—to some kind of unhinged need to get even with Tanya face-to-face. Stalker's account of her personality hadn't painted a pretty picture after all. At the very least, Five's psych profile had a mention of suspected narcissistic tendencies.
"Geniuses exist, sister," Shirou casually remarked from the side. The boy was adjusting his pants as he walked, which did all kinds of interesting things to—
Missy shook her head.
"What is this, a shonen?" Tanya asked crankily, giving him a flat look. "Plucky teenagers running circles around government agencies exist only in fiction. In real life, assuming incompetence is almost always the safer bet."
"Hm. Not like you to be so critical of the PRT."
"I am not one to defend blatant failure, brother. Nor do I appreciate ass-covering trickling down into our operational intel. Though naturally, I'll toe the party line for outside actors."
He sniffed. "You really are annoyed Piggot took the sword, aren't you?"
She shot him a warning glare and, notably, did not deny it.
Missy laughed. Tanya really wanted Shirou's sword back. She had even tried pitching the idea of using it to provide free healing for the staff, only to get stonewalled. Something about it still not being cleared.
But really, who would not want a cool sword that let you fly? Missy sure as hell did. Maybe one day Shirou would make something like that for the whole team. Chris wouldn't shut up about how the smaller redhead could outfit the whole team if he wanted.
How she wished her request to carry Armsmaster's halberd hadn't been denied. Damn regulations. Instead, she'd received an email from Image, proposing horrendously cutesy adjustments to her costume... which admittedly came with a wand. A plastic one, disgusting and girly. But if she could leverage this into Shirou-tech...
Missy was still undecided.
"Careful, Shirou," she teased, not wanting to grapple with that so early in the morning. "You're already in the doghouse. Push more, and Tanya won't talk to you for a whole week."
The tiny girl huffed. "Please. When have I ever been so childish? If anything, I think my brother needs more instruction on priorities and time management. Not to mention subordination."
Judging by Shirou's face, he would have taken a month of silent treatment instead.
When their group made it outside, they were greeted by the rising sun and the faintly chilly morning air. The temperature was steadily improving, but it still wasn't warm enough to ditch layers.
"By the way, you look distinctly uncomfortable, brother. What is it?"
"Nothing."
Missy gave the redhead a closer look. His grumpy face was somehow even grumpier than usual. He also... walked funny. A little stiff, a little off-balance. She'd learned to spot things like that, and right now her instincts were yelling that this would be a perfect time to dump him on his ass.
"I have eyes, Shirou." Tanya rolled her icy blue orbs. "We've been assaulted by a veritable Plague of Egypt, and yet you are the one looking a shove away from toppling over. If you are feeling unwell, we are still close enough to HQ to get you to a medic."
"It's the shoes," he sighed. "They've gotten too tight."
Both she and Tanya looked down.
Shirou's usual rugged loafers: old, worn, and a sharp contrast to Tanya's own shoes, polished bright enough to catch the sun.
Only now the leather was bulging outward, visibly squeezing his feet. Yeah. That looked too tight. Painful, even.
Though honestly, tight might as well have been Shirou's personal brand. His whole outfit looked a size or two too small.
Tanya hummed, eyeing him appraisingly. "You've hit your growth spurt recently. Perhaps a trip to the mall is in order. We can finally get you new clothes."
That was one way to put it. When the siblings had joined the team, Shirou had actually been a little shorter than Missy despite being older. Not small, exactly, but more like one of those guys who'd never make quarterback.
Now? If he kept shooting up at this rate, he'd be built like an OT before long, assuming Armsmaster's height was anything to go by. He was already half a head taller than her.
And Shirou wasn't just growing upward. He was filling out, too. The hoodie hid most of it, but his shirts had gone from look at my bod to borderline skimpy a while back. Borderline, because you had to pay attention to catch how the fabric traced over his abs when he moved.
His skinny jeans weren't actually skinny jeans either.
"Honestly, it is long past time you stopped looking like a vagabond," Tanya said, shaking her head. "You are a productive member of society, brother, and as a government employee—albeit a covert one—certain standards have to be met. Dressing properly at the workplace is the first and easiest step toward improving your career prospects," she gave him a look over. "Come to think of it, you are tall enough for your first suit."
Tanya's usually placid face lit up as she started talking about ties and shirts, but her brother didn't look nearly as enthused.
Shirou's amber eyes swept the street, like he was scanning for threats, making Missy instinctively do the same.
At this hour, Downtown was already alive. People were trudging half-awake to work or school, some queueing at cafés for coffee and breakfast, others tucked into corners to steal a smoke before the day properly started.
No one was paying much attention to anyone but themselves. Which was why no one pointed fingers when, between one step and the next, green lines slithered over Shirou's clothes, making them loosen and settle before vanishing.
Missy's eyes widened.
"...Hair product as well. Have you thought about slicking it back? I think— Did you just use your power?!" Tanya hissed, grabbing his arm. Her head whipped around, scanning the street for witnesses.
"Relax, sister. No one saw anything."
"What were you thinking?" Tanya demanded. "We aren't supposed to use powers in public places. That is the easiest possible way to compromise our SI."
"I know what I'm doing," he said, waving her off. "You would be surprised what you can get away with in the middle of a busy street. Besides, aren't secret identities protected by the Rules?" The last word came out sour.
"That in no way means you should flaunt it! Conventions like these only hold until someone decides they can get away with breaking them. As Five has already demonstrated."
"Well, no use crying over spilled milk. No one saw anything, and now there's no need to waste money."
"Personal appearance is not a waste of money! Why are you still being so miserly with personal expenses? We can afford new clothes for you."
"I'm fine now." He shrugged. "Why don't you go shopping with Missy? You are already learning how to use makeup. All that remains is to buy a few skirts."
"I am quite fine with pants, thank you."
Shirou let out a long-suffering sigh. "How are you ever going to get married with that attitude?"
Tanya practically squawked. "Thankfully, here in America, a woman can be quite happily married to her career. And I'd be very careful with such remarks in this city, if I were you. It has a very zealous feminist community, and it wasn't so long ago when those words could cost you your balls."
Missy snickered. Watching these two argue was always fun. The constant back-and-forth, the needling, the sniping, the little flare-ups over nothing and even the bigger disagreements underneath them.
It felt painfully familiar.
It felt delightfully alien.
Tanya liked giving her brother a hard time, but it never felt mean. There was always care under the irritation. Shirou, in turn, took it with the kind of fond exasperation that only worked when you knew the other person loved you no matter what.
These two really cared about each other.
That made Missy feel warm.
And it made something inside her ache.
Families argued. That was what parents always said, anyway. Back when things were still good at home, when Mom and Dad still loved each other, that had been the explanation for everything.
Raised voices. Slammed doors. The cold silences.
But spending time with Tanya and Shirou—listening to them bicker like an old married couple, watching how naturally they circled back to each other afterward—had made Missy realize something ugly.
Things at home had never been good.
She had not just lost something over time. She had never really had it to begin with.
Standing between Shirou and Tanya felt like being wrapped in a blanket. Old, warm, and belonging to someone else.
Missy had always tried to spend as much time as possible away from Mom's and Dad's houses. But now she stayed at HQ because Tanya and Shirou were there. Not just because she had finally found cape friends her own age, but because they were a loving family, and being around them made her feel—if only for a moment—like she belonged inside that warmth too.
***
The flavor hit her tongue so hard she almost moaned.
The meat was browned and cooked to perfection. The gravy coating her tongue was rich, and spicy and just... so... good!
She swallowed and immediately stabbed another piece.
Simple roast beef had no business tasting like this. Sophia had once commented that a power making someone a combat monster and a housewife was stupid, but Tanya had assured them that Shirou had always been like that. Powers only allowed him to work faster and make his own industrial grade equipment.
Come to think of it, the Wards' kitchen was unrecognizable now. It was so stuffed with appliances that it started looking like a second lab to Missy. Partially because anything more advanced than a microwave might as well be tinkertech to her, but she had also seen Chris scanning some of the devices and scratching his head.
Was she eating tinkertech food?
Don't care, it's delicious!
"Girl, it's not even lunchtime!" Sammy laughed from the next desk over. "What are you doing, pigging out this early?"
"Get off my back," Missy mumbled through a full mouth. "I'm hungry."
She had tried being patient. She really had. Then first period ended and so did her patience.
Didn't matter anyways. Missy was burning a ton of calories these days, so an early lunch was hardly a crime. Sure, it meant she would have nothing left for actual lunch, but Shirou always packed a little extra for her. They had already gone through this enough times for it to become a system.
"Leave her alone." Linda drifted up behind her with a mischievous grin. "The girl's bulking up. Look at these muscles!" She squeezed Missy's bicep.
Missy smacked the hand away and sent her an irritated glare. "I'm not."
"Joking, joking! I'd eat like that too if a hottie made my meals."
A long-suffering groan escaped her even as she wolfed down another bite. "Can we not for just one day? I keep telling you, it's not like that. He's just the son of my boss."
Former boss, technically, but whatever. The Wards had to listen to Armsmaster before and they still had to now.
Sammy wiggled her eyebrows. "I mean, it is one way to get a raise..."
"Naughty, naughty∼"
"Stop that!"
The girls laughed.
It was like that almost every goddamned day. Every conversation with her female classmates somehow circled back to Shirou. Missy buried her irritation under another mouthful of succulent meat and refused to give their teasing the dignity of a real response.
"I heard Sarah asked him out the other day."
Linda gasped. "No way! Did he say yes?"
"No, he made her cry. Derek punched him over it."
"Seriously?!"
"Well, he tried to punch him and hit a wall instead," Sammy said, scratching the back of her head. "I don't think Danvers even realized what was going on, he looked kinda confused. Then Derek started crying too and ran off."
Ughhhhhh!
Linda shook her head. "Poor Sarah. But honestly, she had it coming. It's so obvious he and Missy are a thing. She should just date Derek. He's... alright."
"We are not a thing!" Missy swallowed and hissed it a little louder than she meant to. A few heads turned. Girls giggled or looked jealous. The guys looked jealous too, grinding teeth and cursing under their breaths.
She would have liked to pretend that was because all the boys in class had crushes on her. Instead, half the girls in school were openly drooling over Shirou, which turned the boys radioactive with envy. Some, like Derek, hated her teammate's guts because their crush liked him instead of them.
It was all so unbelievably stupid.
Sammy gave her a skeptical look. "Uh-huh. I too have guy friends who make me home-cooked meals every day."
"He just likes cooking!"
"You also walk to school together almost every day."
"Mom's house is on their way here."
"I caught you checking out his ass."
"His jeans are too tight— I mean, I don't fucking do that!"
Stupid Sammy!
It wasn't like Missy had failed to notice Shirou was handsome. You would have to be blind not to. Intense hawkish eyes, sharp jaw, muscles in all the unfair places. That new streak of white in his hair only made him look more exotic.
A little grumpy, sure, but very nice underneath it. Helping Chris, never failing to cook for everyone, paying special attention to Missy. The contrast between grumbling and caring attitude somehow made everything even more charming.
Could stand to be less caring, actually. A boy her age asking for her dirty laundry had been weird. Almost as weird as Sophia casually dropping hers—underwear included—into his hands and going about her business.
He also gave absolutely zero fucks about hitting girls during training, which, Missy liked. Being respected as an actual threat felt good, even if the punches themselves sucked ass. Shirou always made a point of going after her whenever her power became too much.
Still, overall? Great guy. She could see exactly what the fuss was about. Even with how little anyone really knew about him, Shirou had that odd pull to him, a quiet magnetism that made girls lose their minds.
It was just... Missy was already in love with Dean. Thinking about another boy like that made her feel slutty.
Didn't matter though. Shirou was just confusing her with being nice and his stupid tight pants. Or maybe it was how much he and Dean had in common.
Missy liked older boys. Mature boys.
Although Shirou was older too, if only by a year. And very mature. And now taller than her, which—
Noooo! Stop it!
"Eh, not so tight anymore," Sammy complained. "I saw him before class, and now it's all baggy. Did you tell him to do that?"
"Tanya did," Missy lied.
"Damn. Shame. I liked my eye candy in the mornings."
Linda raised an eyebrow. "You seriously check him out every morning?"
"You know it!" Sammy did finger guns.
"Hm. I wait until lunch. Food and a show." Linda leaned on the desk. "You can always try dating him, you know. Since Missy here keeps insisting he's free."
She looked at Missy for a reaction.
There was none.
"Nah," Sammy said. "Don't want the heartbreak. I know the type. All driven and intense. With guys like that, you're never the first priority. They leave. They always leave." Sammy's delivery was full of profound wisdom. Missy knew for a fact the girl had never dated anyone.
"Pfff, you say that like you already want to get married. Live a little. Heartbreak or not, it'll be great while it lasts. You know, like a true romance. Sorrow and joy..." Linda sighed dreamily. God, that girl needed to lay off trashy novels.
"Why don't you sluts leave me alone and go try your chances?" Missy snapped. Not like Shirou would actually say yes to either of them. "Or better yet, go talk to his sister. Tanya needs friends."
Fuck. She shouldn't have called them sluts. They were close enough friends that it wasn't a huge deal, but Missy had developed a bit of a reputation for having a filthy mouth. She was working on it, but try spending hours on end with Shadow Stalker and not start swearing!
Linda laughed awkwardly. "Ah, no offence, Missy, but that girl is weird."
"Tanya's great!"
"Not bad weird. It's just..." Linda made a helpless little gesture. "Talking to her feels like listening to my dad on the phone with business partners. Worse, actually. She's so small it's creepy."
Damn it.
Missy kind of knew what they meant. Tanya was very pretty, but she also had Shirou's intense eyes, and since she wasn't a handsome boy, other girls didn't appreciate that the same way. She was also very smart, but the way she talked...
Not only was it very different from kids her age, or Missy's age, but she also didn't seem to be able to hold a conversation about normal topics. Music, boys, movies. The tiny girl always made it circle back to history, economics, politics and—
Yeah.
She hadn't made any friends.
But it wasn't Tanya's fault! She couldn't help it. Thinker bullshit. Her head was so crammed full of knowledge it leaked out all over the place. Useful knowledge, too, but that didn't mean civvies appreciated it.
One girl in her year, Gertrude, had even started being nasty to her. Missy had overheard comments about Tanya's mom and stepped in to tear the little bitch a new one. Which had, naturally, landed Missy in the principal's office instead.
What made it worse was Tanya getting called in after and insisting it had all been a misunderstanding. Later she explained that Gertrude's father was some big pharmacy-chain CEO and went on about the importance of staying on good terms with rich and influential people. Connections and whatnot.
Missy didn't really get it. Tanya was a Ward. If some prissy bitch went crying to her CEO daddy, the PRT would have her back.
But Tanya hadn't wanted to push it.
So Missy went to Dean.
His dad was a huge shot in the city, so if anyone knew how to handle another rich kid, it would be him.
As expected, Dean was immediately worried about someone bullying Tanya. He asked for Gertrude's last name, and promised he'd take care of it. Use his father's connections if necessary.
And that was why Missy loved Dean.
Always so caring.
Ever since then, Gertrude had been staying away from Tanya.
Missy hadn't expected things to work out quite like that, but, well... in a roundabout way, Tanya had been right. It paid to have rich and influential friends.
"Hey, do you hear that?" Sammy suddenly asked, turning toward the windows.
Missy listened. It sounded like... tires?
Lots of screeching tires.
They got to the windows just in time to see dozens of men lined up in front of vans outside the school grounds.
Wait...
She squinted.
Are those... Grenade launchers?!
Just as she thought that the first barrage arced up toward the school.
Old Missy would have frozen. Old Missy would have made a mistake. Old Missy hadn't been sharpened through weeks of brutal combat drills.
With a snap, her power anchored itself to the wall. Moving the building away in time was a lost cause, but she could at least shut the windows on this side...
Shattered glass exploded outward as a massive flood of swords tore into the air, so wide and so dense, that for a moment you couldn't see the sky beyond the wall of sharp steel.
Not for long, because the next second the sky lit up in every color at once.
Purple fire. Black crystals. Sickly green globs. Golden lightning. Ominous red fractures. Even the space was twisting in a very familiar way.
It looked hauntingly beautiful. Glowing nebulas and dying constellations treading curves and spirals of bent space. Majestic fireworks lighting up the day in an psychedelic display of pure destruction.
It lasted one heartbeat.
Then all was sucked into a roaring black hole.
Everything went dead silent. No one dared make a sound. Sammy had gone pale and rigid beside her, while Linda had both hands over her mouth, looking ready to faint. The rest of the classroom was no better.
Even the attackers seemed stunned by the sheer amount of power they unleashed.
The stillness broke when a lone figure launched himself out of a window one floor above. No mask. No armor. Not even a sword. Shirou hit the ground in a roll and ran straight for the vans.
Sammy gasped. "Is that...?"
Without looking, Missy's thumb found the distress button on the Wards phone and drove it down.
Gunfire rang through the air, and the classroom exploded into screams. Down below, bullets rang off the huge medieval shield materializing in Shirou's hands. The thing looked heavy, visibly slowing him down, but the boy kept stubbornly charging straight across the school grounds.
"Get away from the windows!" the teacher roared. "Move into the hall and prepare for evacuation!"
It was the right call. The school didn't have outer walls, so they weren't trapped exactly. But getting everyone away from danger would take time.
Too much time.
Shrinking the windows no longer mattered. Concrete walls were not going to save anyone from black holes. Any one of those blasts could rip a chunk out of the school. Thickening them? Maybe. It would pull some of the halls out of the blast radius at least. But...
Something wasn't right.
"Missy, what are you doing?" Sammy grabbed her shoulder. "Move!"
"Go."
"What?"
"NOW!" There had to be something in her face, because Sammy went pale, nodded shakily, and ran.
Missy's eyes snapped back to Shirou. Why is he so slow? It was a long distance, but he still should have been much farther by now.
Wait.
A cold feeling crept up her spine.
All powers had drawbacks. Shirou's Blaster power had several. There was a noticeable delay before materialization and launching. He also couldn't really aim.
But worst of all, it burned him out fast.
Tanya had wanted to do a bombardment simulation once and they had to cut the training short because he'd run dry almost immediately.
That was the biggest drawback of the siblings' powers. They were limited.
And just now Shirou had flooded the sky with swords, making sure every bomb got hit through sheer volume.
No Brute power and no armor meant Shirou was probably conserving energy, but then...
Missy's heart leapt straight into her throat when the grenade launchers took aim at the approaching boy.
Focusing, she pushed her power as far as she could anchor it. It had not reached the firing line, but close enough. The ground started bulging upward. If she could just raise a barrier...
A man dropped, hit by a blue beam from a floor below her.
The shooters dove for cover. Missy had to duck too when bullets ripped into the windowsills, shattering glass and trashing the classroom behind her. Thankfully everyone was already out.
Her brain was racing through the options. A barrier would cover Shirou, but would be an obstacle for him in turn. A barrier to shield the school? Too slow to make high enough, and would momentarily shield the grenadiers from Tanya's suppressing fire. They could just lob shots over it and into the building. Moving the whole building would take even longer. Dammit, if she just had enough time to spread her grip on space!
No. Wrong answer. They needed this ended fast. Every extra second made disaster more likely.
Low on power or not, the moment Shirou reached the enemy position, it would be over. He would not be charging a firing line headfirst without an ace up his sleeve.
Decision made, Missy peeked over the edge to set another anchor and started tugging. Slowly at first, then harder, faster, until the distance between Shirou and the vans began to shrink.
Suddenly, a score of men burst out of cover and rushed to intercept Shirou, propelled forward by her own power.
Won't work, Missy thought, lips pulling into a grim little smirk. Armiger can take on a full team of Wards. A bunch of thugs won't even slow him down.
Tanya clearly shared her thought. Her laser fire never once let up on the grenade launchers.
Green lines crawled over Shirou's body and he surged forward. Missy had been right then. He was conserving energy.
Judging by the way he braced his shoulders, Shirou's plan was to shield-smash straight through them.
A heartbeat before impact, the men detonated.
Missy watched in horror as a lone body flew back out of the dust cloud. It hit the school grounds once, twice, three times, before finally tumbling to a stop in a pile of limbs.
Shirou didn't get up.
A furious screech tore across the battlefield, and a second, smaller figure shot out of the window like a bullet. In two hops, Tanya reached her brother and snapped a forcefield into place just in time to intercept a hail of bullets.
She can't shoot and block at the same time!
The tiny girl grabbed Shirou by the shoulders and started hauling him back. The gunfire had scattered the dust enough for Missy to see the grenadiers already recovering, falling back into position while more suicide bombers came sprinting in, firing as they ran.
Panic hit hard.
Her own safety forgotten, Missy jumped to her feet, yanking the flow of her power the other way, stretching the distance between the siblings and certain death. Space warped and perspective twisted as new anchors started pulling reality sideways in different directions.
There.
Working multiple angles at once was hell, but if she held it together just a little longer, the bullets would start slipping past Tanya instead of into her. A little more time, and she might even be able to loop the space all the way back toward the vans.
Missy bit down on her lip and begged her power to work faster.
Without warning, the enemy split.
Two groups of grenadiers peeled off in opposite directions, flanking Tanya and Shirou. They must have seen the world twisting and decided they had no interest in getting caught in their own blast radius. Vista's power was hardly a secret.
Good, because right then it still would not have diverted the bombs far enough away from the building or siblings.
Bad, because now Missy's attention was being torn three ways.
Left group. Right group. The suicide bombers up front.
She simply couldn't seize space fast enough. The bastards were moving too quickly, sprinting around the spread of her power. Missy had to frantically start planting new anchors between them and the siblings.
And it was just a bluff.
There was no time to properly twist space, only to warp perspective enough for it to show. The distorted patches didn't even overlap yet. In reality, nothing stopped the men from taking the shot. Nothing stopped them from just charging through.
She was too slow.
Too fucking slow!
Her power was at its best when she had time to let it spread. Back in January, what she was doing right now would have felt as impossibly far away as leading the Wards. Weeks of relentless training had made her faster that she had ever been.
But trying to work multiple angles at this speed was murder.
Too many things to track. Too little time for anchors to spread her influence. Not enough breathing room to actually do anything!
The space in front of the suicide bombers had to be kept in motion to keep them from advancing, and their bullets diverted to free Tanya. Each time she set up an anchor in front of one flanking group, the other threatened to overtake the distortion.
Tears ran down her face. She wasn't fast enough.
She needed something.
Anything.
Please.
Tanya dropped the forcefield and started snapping shots into the left group, firing between the anchors. Without cover, they started dropping one by one.
Yes! The training had paid off! Tanya was familiar with Missy's power enough that she could eyeball the edges of the Shaker effect. The moment bullets stopped hitting her, the girl was free to act!
With one group of flankers being dealt with, Missy shifted her full attention to the other, halting their advance and steadily angling the space in front of them away from the school grounds.
A motorbike engine screamed through the air, so loud it swallowed the gunfire whole. Armsmaster's bike tore around the corner some distance behind the men his daughter was shooting at and raced toward them.
It was almost over!
Tanya kept firing.
Six left.
Three.
One.
One.
The golden-haired girl stood over her brother's body, simply pointing a finger at the last enemy as he crossed the edge of the distortion.
Don't tell me...!
Missy's throat locked up as the bomb went sailing through the air.
She wanted to scream, but couldn't. Every scrap of focus she had left was already going into throwing anchors into its path, one after another, desperately trying to divert it, slow it, do anything—
Too slow.
"DAMN YOU, BEING X!"
With a mighty heave, Tanya hurled her brother away with an effort that looked too much even for her Brute rating.
Shirou's body hit the ground away from her.
The bomb struck the ground right in front of Tanya.
Nothing.
Nothing happened.
Missy nearly fainted from sheer relief.
A dud? A hysterical laugh burst from her lips.
Armsmaster's bike rolled right over the bastard who had nearly killed Tanya and kept going without slowing, heading straight for the other group.
Missy didn't care what happened to him either.
She simply kept working the space around the remaining monsters. Let's get this over wi—
Metal screamed as Armsmaster's bike crashed into seemingly empty space.
Tanya didn't even turn her head.
She just stood there while Armsmaster got back up and tore through the remaining enemies.
She just stood there while the PRT rolled in and started sealing off the area.
She just stood there while some agent grabbed Missy by the shoulder and dragged her away from the window.
She just stood there.
Frozen.
A/N
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