6.33 Rubicon
20th of May, 2011
Louise has a problem, an issue even!
More specifically, her problem is of the grey skinned, pointy-eared kind, and of roughly the same size as her. Oh, and said problem also sits right next to her in class.
Louise has a problem, a problem named Jacky, and she doesn't quite know what to make of, err, her.
…She's being disingenuous. This whole kerfuffle has nothing to do with Jacky, and everything to do with Louise and the stupid dumb crush she spontaneously developed on her best friend Sunday out of – not quite – nowhere!
And it is a stupid dumb crush!
Her best friend just happens to be the kick-ass cape who took down the Slaughterhouse Nine on Saturday – and Lung on Monday because she didn't feel like having to fight the man once ramped up – an act which has sent the entire net – but mostly PHO – ablaze with bewilderment and power-speculation for the past week.
Her best friend just happens to be the most overpowered Tinker who ever saw the light of the day, with a rating best defined as 'Yes', inventing the medicine that healed her daddy one moment before making a power armor that'd make Armsmaster pale with envy the next.
And her best friend just happens to have become extremely tactile and touchy-feely since the thing Missy and her weren't allowed to talk, which has made Louise realize that maybe her best friend just happens to be quite cute when she's not hiding her true appearance, and she just happens to give very warm and soft hugs, and she just happens to very-maybe-strongly-possibly like girls more than boys–
Louise side-eye the object of her affection as the totally-not-a-dark-elf visibly struggles not to fall asleep during Mr. Wilson's history lesson, admiring how her ears slightly droops, the natural, timid daylight subtly highlighting the roundness of her cheeks and her slender neck, blackened lips contrasting sharply with her pallor and her crimson hair done in her usual high braided ponytail, looking both fluffy and silky all at once–
She feels the heat rise to her cheeks, and avert her eyes while trying to ignore, well, everything.
Louise has a problem, an issue even; she has it very, very bad for her best friend, for Jacky, and she doesn't know the first thing about romance and has no idea how to even begin breaching the topic and–
"Hmm?" Her best friend hums under her breath, prompting Louise to give her another side-eye.
Instantly, her attention sharpens. Jacky's ears aren't drooping anymore and her visible eye is intently narrowed like she's looking very intently at something. Louise knows for a fact that her best friend had been a little distracted since this morning, so seeing her reacting this way is raising all sorts of alarm bells in her mind.
She opens her mouth to whisper something–
"Fuck." Jacky suddenly curses while straightening in her seat, the swear being uttered with just a touch of her melodious, lovely accent and her visible iris flashing with crimson lightning bolts for a moment.
–but her best friend beats her to it, earning Mr. Wilson's attention in passing.
"...Is something the matter, Miss Barnes?" The substitute teacher asks with a frown, his own eyes narrowed as he looks at their table.
Jacky blinks, before nodding as she stands up, her chair scrapping against the floor as she does.
"I just received the news that the PRT has started mobilizing capes all across the country," Louise's best friend answers calmly, "May I be excused?"
In the corner of her eye, Louise catches Mr. Wilson's annoyed frown at that, the man putting his clipboard down as he looks at her friend.
"Now, see here, I only have your word for it–" The teacher starts saying.
"Mis– Vista should have received the same text as I did," Jacky cuts him off, her tone calm, "If you want, we can go together to see what it entails–"
"What could possibly need two Ward-age capes that the Protectorate cannot handle?" The man insists, and it is only now that Louise realizes that the entire class is watching the exchange with batted breath.
"Leviathan." The one-word answer is uttered matter-of-factly, without pause, and Louise almost gives herself whiplash as her head snaps in her best friend's direction to give the other girl a wide-eyed look.
For a moment, Louise swears that you could hear a pin drop in the classroom.
"W-Well," the substitute teacher awkwardly coughs, having turned somewhat greenish at the mention of an Endbringer's name, "Ahem, that is to say…" he trails off, clearly having no clue as to how to handle this situation going forward.
A pause.
"Mr. Wilson, this–" Jacky gestures between the teacher and herself, "–is me being polite. No matter what you say, I am going to exit this classroom, and that is a fact. With that in mind, may I be excused?"
For a moment when Louise fully back Mr. Wilson's way, she's nearly convinced that the man is going to refuse, his complexion reddening somewhat–
–only to deflate an instant later as the man brings a hand to his face and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"...Consider yourself excused, Miss Barnes," he utters in a slightly hollow, somewhat defeated voice.
"Thank you, Mr. Wilson," Jacky nods back, before leaning down to give Louise a quick hug, quietly muttering "Don't worry, I'll be back." as she does so.
Her words caught in her throat, Louise can only silently and fiercely hug her crush back, the touch lingering just a little longer than usual before she lets go.
Jacky straightens back as soon as she can, and starts making her way out of the classroom, a green-tinged lightshow swallowing her entire body as she does so, cladding her in her badass white-and-red power armor to the not-so-quiet awe of their classmates.
"Miss Barnes." Mr. Wilson calls right as Jacky is about to open the door, making her pause.
"Yes?" The tone is interrogative, if somewhat clipped, hinting at her annoyance.
"Do all of us a favor by coming back alive," the substitute teacher demands, "Consider it your homework of the day."
Another pause, although Louise could swear the winking owl mask looks almost amused by the man's awkward encouragement.
"Will do, Mr. Wilson." Jacky answers, a hint of laughter in her voice as she smiles thinly before crossing the threshold.
The door closing at her back is the only sound Louise can make despite the whispering that starts as soon as her best friend leaves the room, and for a moment, she regrets not telling Jacky how she feels.
Then the next she's super duper embarrassed all over again, and lets out a wordless groan as her head hits her table with a dull thud.
Louise has a problem, an issue even; she's a complete failure at romance!
***
The door closing behind Missy's back sounds almost like a death sentence to her ears, and for a moment, she hesitates.
She has been playing it cool with everyone for the past week, but Somerset had left its scars on her mind. She hasn't had the best sleep since coming back from whatever fuckery happened back then, and it has made it harder to muster the motivation to do her job.
In truth, what had helped Missy the most had been the normalcy of being back to school and messing around with her friends on her birthday, though Jacky being both a cape and present at Somerset too made it easier for her to put all of this aside and enjoy the moment; the other parahuman clearly knew what troubled her, yet was willingly not making a big deal out of it.
And it helped. More than a little.
Yet, all of this doesn't stop Missy from having some second thoughts now that she made a big show of walking out of the classroom after receiving the Endbringer alert on her phone; she didn't need to ask for her parents' permission to participate anymore after having signed the S rank threat response waiver.
In truth, Missy is scared. She knows – like everyone else present at the time – that something went very wrong the last time she answered the summon, and part of her wants to beg off Leviathan's attack–
–while the other is currently too busy hurling insults her way – in a voice that may or may not be similar to the one of an old, extremely bitchy colleague – and calling her a wuss to acknowledge how terrifying going against one of the three monsters plaguing humanity can be.
And for a moment, Missy hesitates, caught in the middle between being a terrified, normal girl her age, or being the hero she's been doing her hardest to become over the past three years.
"Missy," a familiar, lightly accented voice calls out, wrenching the Shaker out of her spiraling thoughts, and she only now registers the very quiet hum coming closer in the background, "Are you going too?"
She blinks at the question before looking up from where she has been drilling a hole in the floor with her eyes alone, her mind kicking into gear as her eyes land on Jacky's armor-clad form, the other girl's high ponytail streaming freely from her half-mask and drifting in the air with a mind of its own.
Missy's eyes dip down toward the other girl's mouth for a moment, and it strikes her as odd to see the Tinker's expression so eerily neutral under the winking owl mask.
"...Yeah," she hears herself answering as the other girl drifts to a stop in front of her, her feet not quite touching the ground, "Yeah, I am."
"...Now isn't that a rather lukewarm answer," Jacky mock-drawls, the corner of her lips quirking up under her mask, "Let me guess, you talked a big game in here–" she jerks her head toward Missy's classroom, "–before having second thoughts now that you're away from the weight of their expectations?"
Missy flushes, and she starts building a full heap of steam at being correctly called out, before losing all her energy the next moment and visibly slumping while remaining silent.
"Can't blame you, to be honest," her friend says, Missy's head snapping upward once again to better throw the redhead a bewildered look, "Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm not exactly jumping with joy either, but I have a job to do, so I'm going to give it my all."
Suddenly remembering an old conversation, Missy feels her hope marginally rise up as she straightens to face the other girl fully.
"...You have a plan, don't you?" She not-quite asks.
"The beginning of one, at the very least," her friend admits with a lazy shrug, "It'll work better if everyone gives me the first shot at the stupid lizard though. And if I don't have to worry about collateral damage."
The last sentence is said in a rather pointed manner, and Missy finds herself at a crossroad. The subtext is easy enough to figure out, her presence would help Jacky pull off what she's been working on for a while.
In the privacy of her mind, time stretches furiously for a moment, and a voice not unlike Sophia's calls her a fake and a coward.
Missy scowls and clenches her fists while giving the disembodied voice a metaphorical kick in the rear as she locks eyes with the winking owl mask.
"Fine, I'm in," she says, her mind finally made up, "I'll come, and I'll give you all the space you need."
"Great!" the other girl happily chirps, and Missy dully notices how her shoulders seem to slacken a little even through her armor, "Then let's go! You work better with some time to set up, right?"
"I mean, yes? My power takes time to sink in the surroundings." She admits while blinking, feeling a little flat-footed at Jacky's sudden bout of optimism.
"Then we should go to Boston directly," her friend declares while starting to drift toward the school's exit, prompting Missy to walk next to her at a good clip, "We should be there in less than five minutes at Mach 1–"
"Wait, you're not using your spooky portals?" She interrupts her.
"...I still haven't tested what happens when someone else goes through those, so I'd rather avoid using you as a guinea pig." The other girl admits a little sheepishly, an armored digit coming to awkwardly scratch at her half-mask.
"...Fair," Missy sighs, before frowning, "But I won't have my costume if we go there directly."
"Bah, don't worry," her friend dismissively waves, before grinning, "I got you covered!"
A green-tinged lightshow later, and she almost misses a step when she suddenly finds herself in her Vista-costume-but-not.
She comes to a halt to take a good look at herself, ignoring her friend as she snaps her fingers, a dark-red aperture cutting through reality next to them and sending Missy's space-sense in a tizzy as usual.
"...It's more armored?" She not-quite asks aloud once she realizes what feels different beyond the fact that she distinctively has the impression of still wearing her Juniper uniform under it.
"Missy, your costume is an affront to the reality of cape fights. You're small and cuddly, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't wear adequate protection," the other girl low-key berates her, complete with finger-wagging as a little hovering UFO crosses the portal before coming to a stop next to the two of us, the portal snapping shut an instant later, "Normally, this wouldn't work if the two of us got separated; Dell is good, but he isn't that good. But by using UFO-chan as a relay, you'll be right as rain!"
"Aaaalright," Missy slowly says after giving the little device a dubious look for a moment, "Let's say I believe you; what happens when I need to run and use my power? It won't be able to follow me."
She can almost feel the blink from the other girl.
Then, if anything, the grin she was sporting before widens even further.
"Don't worry, I have just the thing!"
***
As we zip through the skies toward Boston, I give a princess-carried, pouty Missy an amused look.
"Stop laughing at me!" the girl hisses, her visor locking on my half-mask as she does so, her arms secured around my neck by Dell himself.
"I'm not, I swear!" I defend myself.
The glare she throws my way could very possibly curl paint.
The corner of my lips tremble.
"You are! You find this funny!"
I let out a strangled giggle at my friend's outrage.
"See?! You're totally getting a kick out of this!" She insists.
I don't answer immediately, my eyes drifting back to the little addition to Missy's costume.
Or, more accurately, the makeshift-halo UFO-chan turned into when it fused with her holographically projected headgear.
For a moment, I struggle.
I struggle mightily.
Until I can't handle it anymore.
"Holy Missy, help those in need, give strength to the weak, comfort the sorrowful–" I intone respectfully, giving the moment the full solemnity it requires.
"That's it," the blonde drawls, rather rudely cutting me off as she announces her intent, "I'm going to strangle you."
I explode in laughter.
Missy tries her hardest to do good on her promise.
She obviously fails, as a matter of course.