In Which Taylor gets Mugged

This was, Vista realized, a disaster.

She was running down the stairs and blatantly cheating with her power to keep up with Queen Administrator who was flouncing towards the library's exit. Browbeat was hot on her heels the entire time.

"Q-Queen Administrator, wait!" she called after the would-be heroine.

Much to her surprise, the cape stopped by the doorway and blinked back at Vista. She looked like nothing more than a puppy that had heard its name. A puppy with a WMD. "What's up?"

"I, you're just going to go out, like that?" Vista asked.

Queen Administrator looked down at her costume. She pinched the front of her robes, then let it fall back. "I mean, it's not super practical, I know, but it's not that bad, is it?"

"Not your costume," Vista rushed to reply. "I mean, you're going to go out and try to do... something without backup, or without any experience? What if you do something wrong and someone gets hurt?"

That gave the cape pause and Vista felt herself calming down. The report--at least, the very limited, super-censored version that the Wards got--said that Queen Administrator was actually kind of reasonable if you talked to her. She was really hoping that the cape was going to be reasonable now. "Okay, you're probably right. And I shouldn't do cape-y stuff without telling my dad. Or inviting some of my friends along."

Vista almost shuddered with relief. "Exactly."

"So, how about you tell me all about it. You've been one of the Wards since, like, forever, right?"

After the wild emotional swings she'd just been through, finding out that Queen Administrator was something of a fan was hardly a blip on the radar. "Yeah. I can tell you about anything, really. Well, not anything-anything, but about Wards stuff, if you want."

Queen Administrator nodded excitedly. "Brilliant. Tell you what, there's a little ice cream shop just, like, two blocks down. We can go see if they're reopened and talk along the way. How does that sound?"

Vista had to fight to keep in the giggles of relief. "That sounds great."

Turning on the balls of her feet, Queen Administrator led the way outside and to the front lawn of the library where Leviathan was still lounging. The Endbringer looked more like a hyper-detailed statue than a city-destroying machine. The only giveaway was the slow thump-thump of his tail.

Vista was still a little--read: a lot--wary of the Endbringer, but Queen Administrator showed no such concern as she hopped onto his side and stood on what would be the ribs of a normal creature. "Hey, Unit Two, Vista and I are going to head out for ice cream, did you want me to bring you something?" she asked the Endbringer.

Leviathan didn't squeak or even so much as move any more than before, but Queen Administrator nodded all the same. "Cool. I'll grab a sundae or something then." With that cryptic and ominous declaration made, she jumped off the Endbringer's side.

Vista almost squeaked, expecting the girl to come to an untimely demise or at least hurt herself in the fall, but quicker than she could really register, Leviathan caught his mistress by the scruff of her costume and lowered her down gently. She kept on walking as if she hadn't narrowly avoided a fall. "Are you coming?" she shouted back.

With some creative warping of space around the Endbringer, Vista followed after the obviously insane cape. "So, he's just going to stay there?" she asked.

"I guess. He can't exactly fit in some of the smaller streets, what with the wires and all. And, uh, when he does the roof hopping thing it usually ends with him going through the buildings, so that's a no."

Vista shook her head to clear the mental image of Leviathan, stuck up to his armpits in an apartment complex. She couldn't afford to giggle. She was representing the PRT and Wards; she had to be professional. "You wanted to ask about hero stuff?" she prompted the older girl back onto a safe line of discussion.

"Yes! Okay. Okay, so, I know that you're a hero because of all the merchandise and the costume and all that, but that stuff's all just... fluff, you know? What do you guys actually do that's heroic? Like, I know Amy heals people all the time, but we don't all have powers that are that cool. So her sister Vicky goes around stopping robberies and things like that."

Vista hummed in thought when Queen Administrator finally paused for breath. They were past the library now, and had actually just walked past the unmarked PRT van that had dropped them off. Vista was walking on the street-side of the sidewalk, amusing herself by stepping on the very edge of the path while balancing carefully not to fall into the street. She was, of course, cheating the entire time. "It's not fun, at first. There's a lot of PR stuff, and we have to shake babies and kiss hands and all that," she said.

Queen Administrator snorted at the lame joke. "But it's not like that all the time, is it?"

Vista shook her head and refocused. "No, we get a lot of training. How to take someone down without hurting anyone, how to use your power more effectively and all sorts of teamwork drills. Mostly it's about preparing us to be members of the Protectorate. If anything, they're the real heroes and we're just... sidekicks, at best."

They came around a corner onto a street bisected by a few alleyways. At the end of the street it shifted from residential to commercial. She actually recognized the area from her patrols. "We still get to do things. I've been in fights against some nasty people, like Hookwolf. And just a bit ago we got to try and stop a bank robbery. That was kind of awesome."

Missy was about to go on, to tell Queen Administrator that they really did want to make a difference, when there was a sudden scuffle off to her side.

She turned, only to see the cape she'd been talking to be pulled into the dark recesses of an alley.

Queen Administrator was pinned to one dirty wall, a man standing before her in a dirty jacket and dirty pants, a handgun in his off-hand pointed right at the cape's face. "Give-- give me all your money!" he yelled.

Vista froze. She had seen muggings before, she'd done patrols in the worse parts of town and had seen that same sort of desperate person. Still, they usually had the sense not to try and attack a cape. Her mind ran through the possibilities even as she spun around and waited for an opportunity to jump in and shove the man away.

"Are you robbing me?" Queen Administrator asked. She sounded genuinely confused.

What would happen if he shot her, or if the cape died? Would the Endbringers rampage? Both of them? Vista had friends here, her family lived here. Would they survive two Endbringers hitting the Bay at once? And what of Queen Administrator herself? As far as Vista had seen she was a nice if flighty girl who didn't deserve anything bad happening to her.

"Y-yeah, I'm doing that," the man said. Spittle flew out with every word and Queen Administrator turned her face away. "Gimme your money!"

The cape turned to face him, her brows scrunched in a glare under her hood. "No. You're being very rude."

The mugger blinked stupidly at the statement and his arm moved to the side.

Vista jumped. She warped what little space was between Queen Administrator and the mugger until he was facing an empty wall next to her, then ran, her power cutting the distance to nothing.

Her shoulder caught him right in the ribs while her off hand wrapped around his wrist and yanked it up and away. While he reeled back, she brought her elbow up and caught him in the gut hard enough that he exhaled with a violent cough.

As the mugger fell, Vista warped around to behind him, brought his arm up to the middle of his back, and yanked. His hand spasmed open, dropping the handgun on the ground with a clatter.

She kicked it away before hitting him in the back of one knee hard enough that he collapsed face-first into the alley ground. "You, are under arrest," she hissed while pulling out zip-ties from a back pocket.

"That was awesome!"

Missy spun to find Queen Administrator clapping, a wide grin on her face. "You were like, kapah, and pow, and bam, and he was like 'no,' then you were like, 'yeah' and the gun went flying and he couldn't stop you cause you're totally awesome." Queen Administrator babbled while gesturing with vague karate-like motions that Vista was completely certain she hadn't made.

"Um, thanks," Vista said. "Just doing my job?"

The cape nodded, her smile not fading an inch. "You were super cool," she declared.

"Ah, well," Vista replied. She looked down to hide the bit of a blush creeping up her cheeks. "Anyway, we need to call this in." She pressed a finger to the side of her visor and started relaying the details to an attentive console. It only took a few seconds to have them call the police for her.

Queen Administrator studied her the whole time, and there was a spark of something mischievous in her eyes that worried Missy.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"That's it," she said as she removed her finger. "We just have to wait a few minutes and they'll pick him up." She poked at the man's back, stopping his rambling swearing for a few breaths before he resumed.

Everyone ignored him. "That was really well done," Queen Administrator said. "We should go out and find other muggers."

"Uh, maybe after the police arrive?" Vista tried to stall. "Weren't you afraid? He had you at gunpoint."

Queen Administrator shrugged. "Not really. Shooting me would have hurt, so my friends would stop him before he did it."

"Your... friends?" Vista asked. She knew what Queen Administrator was talking about, but the idea just felt off. The man wouldn't shoot her because her Endbringers were supposed to stop her from getting hurt. It made sense, but they weren't around to help, were they?

Vista swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat and slowly looked up. There, sitting on the edge of the roof in what she recognized from Saturday morning cartoons as a Sailor Senshi uniform, was the Simurgh.

The Endbringer waved.

"Oh," Vista said.

"Yup," Queen Administrator said. She looked up too, her head tilting to one side as if listening to something only she could hear. "Simmy says thanks for helping. Well, that's not what she said, but it's close enough. Also, she says that your costume makes you look like a marshmallow."

Vista did not know what to say in response to that.

"It's a compliment, I think," Queen Administrator clarified. "So, can we go yet?"

"N-not yet," Vista said. "We have to wait for the police."

"I could watch him."

Both girls jumped nearly a foot off the ground and they would--had they been asked--both deny being the one that squeaked.

Browbeat stared at the two of them as if they were idiots, then pointed at the mugger still swearing on the ground. "Um, if you want to keep going. I can handle him for a bit."

"When did you get here?" Queen Administrator asked.

Browbeat somehow managed to look contrite even through his mask. "Sorry, I wasn't being very loud. I didn't want to interrupt you guys."

"Wait, you're saying you were there the whole time?" Queen Administrator looked up to the Simurgh. The Endbringer shrugged.

"Yeah?" he said. "I don't like being the centre of attention is all."

Queen Administrator gave him a very dubious look, then turned to Missy as if to confirm it. Missy just shrugged. It was true that he wasn't very loud. "Okay then, so you'll stay here, and we can go on?"

"Sure. I don't really like ice cream anyway."

***

Taylor gasped in mock horror. "You don't like ice cream!" Browbeat shot her a look that she couldn't quite read and she had to suppress another giggle. "I guess that's okay. Hey, Vista, want to stop more muggings on the way to the ice cream parlour?"

Vista snorted. "I don't think we'll be running into any more muggers, Queen Administrator," she said.

"Aww, call me Queen, and you never know!" Taylor suppressed the urge to smile as she shared what she hoped was a knowing look with the Simurgh. The Endbringer returned a less-than-inconspicuous wink.

They were still in a dirty alleyway right off one of the less popular streets and as far as Taylor knew that just wouldn't do. If she was going to be a hero, then obviously she needed to find something heroic to do. Something like stopping muggers or catching people in the act of littering. Vile things that made the city of Brockton Bay a worse place to live.

"Come on, Vista," Taylor said as she trooped out of the alley. "I'm sure we can find someone doing something vile and evil."

The Ward followed after her, what little she could see of her face half bemused and half terrified.

Taylor paused as she reached the street. "You'll have to show me how to do all the cool kung-fu bits," she admitted. "But I guess we can start by finding someone to practice on first."

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works," Vista pointed out. She sounded very reasonable for a girl that was still a few years younger than Taylor.

The street was, as it had been earlier, rather empty. There were a few people that looked as if they were moving things into an apartment block nearby, a couple of teens sitting on a porch while staring at their phones and not talking to each other, and a single woman with a can of soda tipped back to drink. Taylor eyed them all one by one, searching for something heroic to do.

Then the woman tossed her can off to the side where it clanged against the asphalt.

Eyes wide, Taylor looked both ways and crossed the street. Vista was after her with just a step and the Simurgh floated above, her head cocked to one side as though curious.

"Queen, what are you doing?" Vista asked.

"Didn't you see that woman littering? I'm going to arrest her."

The Ward paused, almost missing a step. "Queen, no."

"Queen, yes!" Taylor replied.

The woman slid into a side road a little ways ahead. She was getting away, but she wasn't fast enough!

Picking up the pace a little, Taylor spun around the corner and found her pinned against a wall, two men pointing knives at her chest. They were dirty, bedraggled people, looking like little more than castoff Merchants. Taylor narrowed her eyes. "You! I'm placing you under arrest!"

The two muggers and the litterer paused mid-mugging to stare at Taylor, then they followed the direction of her finger to the middle of the litterer's chest. "Um, me?" the woman asked.

"Yes! Littering is a crime. And after all the effort we went through to clean this place. You really ought to be more considerate."

"Um, Queen, I think those two were, um, also committing a crime," Vista pointed out.

Taylor narrowed her eyes, her focus shifting onto the two men with knives. "Arrest them all and let the cops sort it out?" she asked.

"I think we could let the lady go if she promises not to throw trash in the streets again," Vista said.

The woman was nodding violently, her eyes shifting from Taylor to Vista, to the Simurgh who was floating above them with an empty can of soda in one hand while her other hand waved from side to side in a 'no-no' gesture. The Endbringer looked very disappointed and Taylor could sympathise. Wasn't the woman aware of what littering did to nature?

Taylor extended a hand to the woman, littlest finger extended. "Will you promise not to litter again?" she asked.

"I-I promise!" the woman squeaked.

"Pinky promise?" Taylor prompted, raising her hand a little.

The woman stared for half a second before joining her pinky to Taylors and they shook. "Can, can I go now?" she asked.

The Simurgh lowered herself to street level, then dropped the soda can only for it to hover to a stop before the woman. She snatched it out of the air, turned on a heel, and ran.

"So, that was fun. Want to zip tie those muggers too and then we can go?" Taylor asked Vista.

"Sure," Vista said. She had started to lose that edge of tension, almost as if she had given up any hope of the rest of her day making any sense and was just flowing with the blows now. Taylor felt pride well up in her chest at a job well done.

"And after that, we can go flying with Simmie and find more crimes!" Taylor announced. That seemed to perk the Ward up a bit.

[Affirmative!] The Simurgh added. [Will Fly with Host-Queen_Administrator and Host-Environmental_Warper!]

"That sounds like fun?" Vista said.

***

Vista was not having fun.

In fact, this was the opposite of fun.

"Then what?" Armsmaster asked.

She was locked in a ten by ten room, only a table and two chairs to accompany her. Across from her sat her nominal leader, Armsmaster, in a reinforced chair that supported his armoured frame.

She had been in M/S rooms like these before; that wasn't too bad. She had never been drilled for six hours straight in one before, though.

"And then," she said for the hundredth time, "Queen Administrator asked the Simurgh for the location of another crime in progress."

Armsmaster looked off into the distance for a moment. "That was the... seventeenth mugging, correct?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I lost count after the first dozen. They just kind of--" She paused, looking for a way to say what she wanted without sounding whiny. "They just kind of blurred together."

The Protectorate hero made a noise that really didn't mean anything. "This was just before you took a... break, yes?"

"Yeah," she said. "I think so. We stopped for ice cream. Which I had to pay for because she had no money. Then we stopped by a hardware store."

"Why?"

Vista resisted the urge to sigh, she really did. One escaped anyway. "I was out of zip-ties."

"I see," he said in a monotone that made her want to rip her hair out. "For clarification, could you start from the beginning one more time?"

Vista's head hit the table.

***