Amelia, Ch 187
The 'kids' and the tinkers were distracting Vicky with all kinds of questions and plans. Which left us 'adults', minus Crystal and Rey, to compare notes.
"We can't keep her," Lisa said the moment were were sure we were out of earshot.
AgreementRelief. I gave an unhappy glance at Taylor. SheepishConcerned. And then locked my eyes back on Lisa. "Why the fuck not? She already knows the thing we need to be most afraid of getting out. That's how Emma got a pass. Or are you saying my own sister is less acceptable than Emma?"
Lisa smiled a lopsided grin. "Really? I think there's one more secret she has yet to ferret out. I also think it's the biggest one on the list, or I think Victoria will think that it is."
RealizationDread. "Yeah, that's the one," Lisa confirmed. "She has a cool power, sure. One that'd make her top tier on most teams. But it's not one we can really augment wih our tech, and it's not good enough to be valid against Endbringers on its own. We can't use her, and she might decide to kill us someday."
I sighed. "Fuck," I muttered. Taylor put her hand on my shoulder. "We can't just tell her no," I argued. "You don't know my sister. She needs to be a hero. She'll fall apart without it. And that's without considering the whole Passenger mind fuckery."
"Then let her join the Protectorate," Lisa countered. "She's only got a few more months before she's eighteen, she can probably skip being a Ward entirely. They'd cry with joy to have her in New York or Chicago, even if the Teeth have been eliminated and the Adepts are nominally on their side now. Your dad's moving to Philadelphia, right? She can go with him. She's not good enough to be valid in the kind of wars that we fight, I don't care if she's basically Clarice on steroids, she's not good enough for this team."
I looked at Taylor. ConcernDread. "Taylor, please, she's my sister and she needs this."
"She's a security risk," Taylor said softly. "Plus she'll be an even bigger discipline nightmare than Lily. She hates me, she hates Lisa more. Maybe. She now has a thinker power and we all know how much of a pain in the ass thinkers can be when they think they're right. She remembers how you two use to be, and that means she may love you, but she sure as hell doesn't respect you. If we're lucky, she'll listen to Crystal. If we're lucky.
I sighed. "You're right," I admitted. ReliefSupport. "She's not going to be that effective. Plus, well, we don't do a lot of the kind of superhero stuff she likes. She's smarter than she pretends she is, but she's not what one would call a 'planner' in the field. We're all about spending days or weeks planning, and then a few minutes of fighting. I doubt she'd be happy with how we do things."
"Guys!" Riley spoke up through my com. "Vicky's power is awesome!"
ExasperationConcern. "Okay, what did you find out?" Taylor spoke
"She's a regenerative shapeshifter," she informed us. "Like Crawler, without all the icky bits. She's not quite on Crawler's level, but it makes her really really hard to kill. "
"And, more importantly," Emma added. "Her thinker power is 'easiest way to kill things', which is even more cool than it sounds since it applies to our bioconstructs. Seriously, she's pointing out so many weaknesses in our gear to be fixed. Especially since we also have Barghest to worry about. Proper reinforcement might make us better equipped for unit survival against it, and other Endbringers."
"And she can do the living battery thing, like Crystal," Riley interrupted. "Apparently she got my electrical attack mods, and they don't drain her batteries. But I can think of so many things we can use her for. You can totally put her on my team. Pleasepleaseplease." AnnoyanceResignation.
"No promises," I responded. I looked at the other two. "So... I don't think they're gonna give us much choice, are they?"
"Probably not," Lisa admitted. "Zach's hard to read, and Missy has finally started getting used to the idea of being more than just a child soldier. They both like Vicky a lot. Riley wouldn't push the issue, but Theo might, if prompted by the others. We know Crystal's going to argue on their side."
"Lily and Sabah are going to want to hear the reason we don't take her," Taylor added. "We could have used the discipline issue. I know they can spot how much Vicky doesn't like me, although I have to wonder if they wouldn't agree with her. After finding out about Bonesaw and Coil, well... we're going to have a hard enough time selling them on the Nilbog plan. And you know we don't have a choice but to tell them. If it were just the two of them, and if we could claim that Victoria's power wasn't good enough for us to use, we could get away with it. But strong power and we have enough members to break us up into teams and keep her away from our direct command."
"We really should consider creating dedicated teams," I agreed.
"So what do we do about your, uh, secret?" Taylor asked.
"Nothing, for now," Lisa sighed. "I think Taylia interferes with Vicky's new power. Maybe not the 'how to kill it' part, but the emotion reading side effect. She wasn't cold reading the two of you, she was reading me. Although that might have been to prove she could, quote, beat me at my own game, I'm not certain. If she starts to suspect anything, well, we can improvise. Keep it a secret as long as possible, then tell her about how her aura fucked everything up. After that, she'll probably pretend nothing is wrong and never touch the subject again. The way she's doing for both of her trigger events."
That's right, I realized. She just had a trigger, with all the trauma that comes with it.
"Fuck," Taylor muttered. "She might be even better at compartmentalizing than I am."
When you live with my family, you kinda have to be. I didn't say anything.
....
"So, you girls have fun talking about me?" Vicky asked when we walked back in. "I know I'm not quite on par with the Endslayers or the Triumvirate or anything, but put me in the field and I can beat pretty much anything else."
"Yeah," I sighed. "Kinda talking about what team to put you on. You're probably going to be with Atropos and Clotho most of the time. You don't mind taking orders from Crystal, do you?"
"Hey, wait a second," Crystal responded. "When did I agree to be a team leader? Also, when did we start creating teams?"
"I thought I'd be on the team with Zach and Missy and the rest," Vicky argued.
"Clarice has about the same powers that you do," Taylor pointed out. "It would be redundant. And given their history, there's no way in hell we can put them on the same squad together. Having a thinker that can help make our blasters more effective on the field is incredibly valuable. Plus, you're the third member on the team that has a power that can let you double as a healer. Not nearly on Riley's level, but better than most."
"I don't have blaster powers," Vicky argued. "I can't even fly."
"Armor will take care of that," I pointed out. "You'll have a custom set pretty soon, I'm sure. Right, Riley?"
"I have sooo many ideas!" Riley practically sang. "We can give you a set of Radiant's weapons, but since you don't use a forcefield and have combat intuition, we can use that space to improve your speed and stealth features. I bet if I talk to Defiant I could find a way to miniaturize the shunt tech a little, and you could have two shunt drives for quick cross dimensional attacks. Maybe include a few extra melee features. We could use more up close fighters."
"Why can't I work with my friends?" she pouted.
Because that's why, I thought. "We have to plan for effectiveness. I'm sure there will be plenty of missions where we put you together with one or more of your friends, but they can already do everything you can do. You're stronger with Crystal's team."
"When did I get a team?" Crystal asked again. "I thought Lisa was suppose to handle those two."
"Since we started getting more recruits," Lisa answered. "We have too many people to coordinate as a single unit. So now we have three. Four, if you include our tech team. We have the thinker group that stays back and coordinates. Then we have the blaster group. Then we have the frontline group. With a few people, like Riley and Taylor who do double or triple duty."
"And I get stuck with the group that can't be trusted to take care of themselves?" Crystal complained.
"Would you prefer to be the one in charge of the neurotic college kids, or the one in charge of the neurotic highschoolers?" Lisa asked.
"I'd rather not have to deal with being in charge at all," Crystal countered.
"It's cool, cuz," Vicky insisted. "You can let me handle everything and just say you're in charge. How's that sound?"
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A/N- Vicky: I'm halping!
Everyone else: know what? Fuck it. We don't even care anymore.
