Dragon's Progeny: Chapter 33

Lisa honestly wasn’t even really sure why the hell she had come to the mall. Especially not on a Saturday of all days.

She grimaced as she slowly but steadily made her way through the massive throng of people walking around her. There was a veritable hoard of bodies filling the mall, dozens of people mingling around her, some of them chatting, some of them staring into a store and debating whether or not they could actually be bothered to go inside, all of them an annoying pain in her ass.

The Thinker did her best not to stare directly into the crowd, keeping her eyes wandering around to different places so that her power didn’t try to focus on the hoard and give her an instant headache from the information overload.

She really should have known better than to come here. Malls were like an all-you-can-eat buffet for people with powers like hers and while Lisa absolutely loved learning about how a guy didn’t know how to tie his shoes by the way he walked or discovering the fact that some chick hadn’t taken an actual shower in a week thanks to the way she was scratching her head, she would have much preferred some actual peace and quiet. That was why she had left the loft in the first place after all, otherwise she would be nice and cozy in her bed right now, browsing PHO or trolling some other forum for fun while she waited for the next set of orders her boss was inevitably going to throw her way with little-to-no explanation at all.

“But I can’t do that, now can I? Not while Alec’s playing whatever gorefest shooter caught his attention this time.” She muttered to herself as she practically pushed through a group of teenagers who somehow still hadn’t learned that standing in the middle of the floor wasn’t proper social etiquette. “For a sociopath, he really enjoys pissing other people off. I should just stop paying the electricity bill or something. Then he’d learn to keep the volume down so that it doesn’t blast through my headphones.”

Almost immediately after she said it, Lisa discarded the idea. Alec probably wouldn’t give a shit either way and even if he did, he’d literally just leave. It wasn’t like there was much keeping him there in the first place. Lisa was not telling Coil that she’d lost a teammate just because she didn’t feel like dealing with random strangers yelling at him through their tv speakers.

“Especially when I’m not even sure how much longer Taylor’s gonna stick around. That girl is so hard to read sometimes. That bank job really rattled her though. ” Lisa muttered to herself as she turned into one of those little alcoves basically all malls had in them, the ones with those three or four stores that practically nobody went into because they weren’t on the main path, “I might have laid it on a little thick with Glory Hole. Pushed some buttons I didn’t know about. I’ll have to make it up to her somehow. Don’t want her to rat us out just because I hit some trauma without even knowing about it.”

It was much less crowded down here, with barely anyone actually standing or walking around outside of the shops, and Lisa breathed a silent sigh of relief as her power stopped trying to tell her about anything and everything around her, before that relief instantly turned to dread at a familiar voice.

She turned towards one of the nearby stores, hoping that she had been mistaken, and wanted to scream in frustration when she was met with none other than Victoria-freaking-Dallon standing just inside the store, holding up a powder blue tee with a cute panda on the front. Putting it against her chest, the blonde hummed in thought as she looked at herself in the mirror, before turning to shout deeper in the store.

“Hey Crystal, do you think this one would look good on me?” The superheroine asked and Lisa’s heart sank even more as another blonde walked into view, looking the shirt over and humming speculatively.

“I’m not really sure, honestly. That color would look really good but it looks kinda small, doesn’t it? The design will probably stretch when you put it on.” Crystal Pelham aka Laserdream told her cousin.

“True. Give me a sec, I’m gonna go try it on.”

Glory Girl turned to head towards the fitting rooms that were probably held just out of sight of the window. She luckily turned around in the opposite direction of said window which meant that she luckily missed Lisa staring straight at her like some sort of stalker. Rolling her eyes, Laserdream followed after her, “You know you’ll have to pay for it if you stretch it out, right?”

“Pfft, since when?”

“Uh, since always?”

The two of them disappeared out of her sight and Lisa immediately did an about-face, heading back towards the crowd behind her. She may hate crowds, but she hated the idea of being seen by the two of them even more. She may call Glory Hole a bimbo, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d definitely recognize Lisa’s voice if she talked to her this soon after the stunt she pulled.

Unfortunately, just as she reached the crowd, Lisa was met with a sight that was confusing and slightly ominous. An Asian girl, walking completely on her own through a crowded, predominantly white mall. In Brockton Bay.

This wasn’t exactly the racist part of town, but it wasn’t far from it. Most people who weren’t explicitly white knew better than to wander around alone just in case someone decided to pull some shit. Safety in numbers and all that.

This girl though, clearly didn’t give a single shit about any of that. She walked through the crowd like she didn’t have a single care in the world, gently nudging people out of the way and not once breaking her even stride as she continued towards her destination. Her confidence was unshakable, and Lisa couldn’t help but use her power on the girl, wanting to know exactly what made her so fearless, all the while a suspicion tingled in the back of her mind.

Isn’t worried at all about the people around her. Gaze indicates that she is completely focused on her destination.

Clothes are extremely expensive. Walk and steady gaze indicates a confidence in her own abilities to defend herself even in a crowd like this. Shoulders are relaxed, indicating a lack of worry.

Girl is likely an experienced parahuman.

An experienced female Asian parahuman, huh? There had only been two of those in the Bay in the past six months and one of them had shown up on the front steps of the psyche ward a few weeks ago, completely out of her mind. That meant this girl was…

Oh that was just fan-fucking-tastic.

Lisa’s eye twitched as she watched Yosei pass by as she walked deeper into the mall. It looked like she was alone and Lisa couldn’t see anyone who might be affiliated with her following but that didn’t make it any better. Why was she here in the first place!?

‘Me, Glory Girl, Laserdream and now Yosei? Is this bring your cape to the mall day or something!?’ She thought furiously.

Lisa was completely baffled as she watched Yosei disappear into the crowd without a care. She would have thought that a literal gang leader would have better things to do than browse Hot Topic or peruse the local H&M or whatever, but apparently she was wrong.

Biting her lip, Lisa debated whether or not she should just call the trip a bust and head back to the loft and deal with whatever particular brand of bullshit Alec would be on today. There was an emergency exit only a few feet away and it wasn’t like she wouldn’t be able to pay the fine for it. She could just leave.

As always, her curiosity won out, though. Right here was the perfect chance to get a read on one of the most powerful capes in the city, pretty much completely risk free. How could she waste the opportunity?

That was how she found herself tailing the leader of the ABB through the mall as the woman went about her business, just observing in hopes that she could get a read on her next moves in case the Undersiders might happen to be included in them. Lisa had heard rumors about how fanatically loyal the woman had been towards her father and she wanted to know just how big the target on their back was for being the ones technically responsible for getting him put away.

Her investigations were… Not very successful. Not at all really. It turned out that even with her powers, there wasn’t all that much you could extrapolate of a gang boss’s next moves from the way that she sniffed candles from a kiosk outside of the Spencer's shoved in the corner of the mall, go figure. The crowds certainly didn’t help.

That wasn’t to say that her investigations were a complete bust though. Sure, she got basically zilch on anything Yosei might have been up to, but she had found something else to pique her interest. It seemed someone had taken just as much of an interest in Yosei as she had. Though, probably not for the same reasons.

He looked just like every other teenager wandering around the mall looking for something to do. There was something off about his posture though. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and was slightly hunched over as if he wasn’t trying to be noticed. Most curious of all was the fact that he was staring directly at the back of Yosei’s head as if he was trying to burn a hole through it. Even through the massive crowd of people around them, he kept his eyes locked onto her, only looking away as she turned into an art supply store and disappeared from sight.

The moment that she did so, the guy pulled out his phone and dialed a number, saying something into the receiver that she couldn’t hear as he turned to walk away from the store, and it didn’t take a genius or a thinker to figure out who he was probably talking to. Though he may not have been an actual skinhead, her power had him pegged as a member of the Empire from the moment that she had seen him.

Which meant he probably saw a ‘defenseless’ Asian girl walking around the mall and called a couple of his buddies or something to deal with something he saw as an issue. Now, this was a problem in multiple senses, and one of the least concerning was the fact that she had witnessed the beginnings of a hate crime about to happen in broad daylight. What exactly was going to happen if the literal boss of the ABB was attacked by some random Empire mooks? Probably nothing good.

Biting her lip, Lisa debated leaving it alone and just letting things take their course. It wasn’t like Yosei couldn’t defend herself and interacting with the girl in any capacity was probably a bad idea when one of Lisa’s teammates had technically helped put her beloved father away. Especially considering that, given everything that her power had sussed out on the ABB leader while she was researching her, she was absolutely willing to put heads on platters if it came to that.

But then she had a thought. Yosei had no way of knowing who Lisa actually was. Unless her powers granted her some sort of super intuition on top of all the other bs she was able to do of course but nobody was that lucky. To her, Lisa would just be some random teen shopping around the mall just like everyone else her age; there was nothing strange about that at all.

But if Yosei ever did find out who she was when she inevitably came after the Undersiders like her dear old dad did, then right here might be a way to possibly convince her not to kill them instantly. Lisa was no stranger to sucking up to prevent a bullet in the brain, and giving her possible future killer a little heads up on her stalker situation would probably help smooth things over in the long run. Or at the very least it would be a start.

It was a pretty big stretch admittedly, but it wasn’t like there was a reason for Lisa not to tell her that she was probably gonna be jumped on the way home, or at least give her a bit of a heads up. Nothing too overt of course, just a little suggestion that might set off those instincts that everyone carried that something might be wrong.

She mulled over the decision for a long moment, before mentally shrugging and following the extremely dangerous cape into the art supply store.

At the very least, what she was doing might prevent the inevitable blood bath that would occur thanks to the idiots who decided to fuck with one of the strongest capes on the east coast.

~~~

Only a few minutes later, Lisa almost stood corrected. Almost.

“At least the mall won’t be a bloodbath.” Lisa corrected herself emptily as she stared out of the side of the massive hole that had been blown into the side of the parking garage. Around her, around a dozen other people who didn’t have the good sense to run away when they heard the massive, fuckoff crash that had happened just a few minutes ago.

The air around them all was frigid enough that she could see her breath in front of her face and she shivered lightly, regretting not wearing a jacket despite the fact that it wasn’t even supposed to be that cold out today.

As she stared out into the street just outside the mall, Lisa cursed herself for her lack of perception. If she had known that it was a fucking cape that was after Yosei and not just some random idiots without a brain to share between them, she would have worded her warning a little bit differently!

At least they took it outside. Lisa looked down at the rim of the hole, staring at the fist-sized shards of ice that littered the ground. Moving her gaze upwards, she could see a clear trail of ice and damaged concrete that led away from the mall and down the street. It looked like some sort of wild animal had wandered through an ice storm. Claw marks littered the street and surrounding buildings, windows were broken and light poles had been sliced clean in half as the trail progressed down the street disappearing into the bank of fog that was hanging around the block and only growing thicker by the moment.

Leaning down, Lisa picked up one of the chunks of ice, only to immediately drop it to the ground with a hiss as it practically burned her hand on contact, “Fuck! That’s cold!”

“Yeah, no shit.” Someone said behind her, and she turned to give the guy a glare, only to stumble as the very ground underneath her began to rumble.

Screams of panic resounded from the crowd around her as the entire parking garage seemed to shift underneath them. Concrete cracked and car alarms wailed just as loud as the people around her, nd for a heartstopping moment, Lisa thought that the damage was far worse than what they were seeing right now and that it was actually going to collapse. She fell on the ground, bracing her hands on the floor to stabilize herself while trying not to touch any of the ice littering the ground as she did her as her heart raced with adrenaline.

Luckily, the floor didn’t collapse beneath them all and soon the shaking actually stopped. After a moment of making sure that it was over, Lisa breathed a sigh of relief, slowly getting to her feet alongside a few others, before pausing as she heard several gasps come from behind her. Worried someone had fallen out of the hole or something, she turned around, only for her eyes to widen at what she was met with outside.

Only a few blocks away, a massive spire of gleaming ice jutted high above the buildings around it, revealing just what it was that had caused all of that shaking earlier. It was sharp and jagged, yet almost chrome in just how brightly it shone in the light. It was also clearly just as cold as all of the other ice that was littering the ground outside of the mall as the very moment that it appeared, a dense fog began to waft off of it, slowly drifting towards the ground as the very air condensed around it due to the sheer difference in temperature.

While the rest of the crowd oohed and awed at the site, some of them even going so far as to pull their phones out so that they could take a picture, Lisa turned her full attention towards the spire and let her power take over as she tried to gauge exactly what was going on aside from the obvious.

Yosei is still fighting unknown empire cape. Likely multiple capes given that the conflict hasn’t ended yet. Placement of the spire indicates that the battle is taking place in the nearby park. 

Spire is deliberately overt and shines much more brightly than the other ice. A signal to other capes in the area? No, a signal to everyone.

Trail indicates that the battle was deliberately led there. Spire was made to keep people away from the area. Yosei is trying to minimize civilian casualties.

‘Well that’s good at least. Maybe it won’t be a bloodbath then.’ Lisa thought to herself as she slowly backed out of the crowd and away from the giant hole in the wall. She’d done her good samaritan act for the day. She didn’t want anything to do with whatever idiot decided to poke the sleeping bear.

Unfortunately, Lisa made it exactly three steps away from the ongoing observation before her phone began buzzing in her pocket. Her heart sinking, Lisa pulled it out, somehow already knowing exactly who was on the other side before she even answered it.

“Hello, Tattletale. I have a job I need you to do.” The slimy voice of Coil swam into her ear, filling her with disgust and dread in equal measure.

“Right, got it.” She said, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice, “I’m out shopping right now so give me a second to head back to the loft. You can fill me in on the way.”

Her heart sank even more as a chuckle rang out from the other line, “Oh, you don’t need to do that. As a matter of fact, I think you’re in the perfect place to perform this task as it is. I take it you are within view of the fight just outside the mall?”

So he was spying on her. Of fucking course he was. Knowing it was better than to lie, Lisa swallowed her fear and spoke shallowly, “Yeah, I can see it.”

“Wonderful. I need you to get into a position with a good view of the fight. This is the perfect opportunity for some data collection on your end.”

Lisa’s expression went blank, “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. Because I know you did not just ask me to get within view of the same person who fried Hookwolf like a goddamn egg. I don’t even have my costume!”

“You won’t need it. I merely require your assistance in trying to figure out any weaknesses in Yosei’s power that we could possibly exploit. You don’t even need to be seen.” He said, utterly unconcerned by her extremely valid concerns.

Lisa’s eye twitched, “Weaknesses? That bitch has more powers than I have fingers at this point. What makes you think there even are any weaknesses? And even if she did, do you really think it's a good idea to put me in the same place as her and whoever’s lasting long enough against her to actually be a problem?” Lisa really didn't want to go out there. She had run from Lung, why would she hang around his daughter who was arguably just as strong?

Unfortunately, like always, her ‘boss’ didn't give her much of a choice, “That was an order, Tattletale. I expect you to contact me with the results by the end of the day.” The asshole said in a tone that clearly indicated he wasn’t willing to argue about this.

Still, Lisa opened her mouth to try, “But I don’t even-”

Her words died in her throat as the dial tone rang in her ear. Lisa stared blankly at the wall before slowly lowering the phone, doing her very best not to chuck it straight at one of the many breakable windshields around her as she came to terms with the fact that she was going to have to head straight towards the carnage instead of away from it like usual.

“This is it. This is how I die.” She said as she stared down at the phone she was clenching in her hand. Eventually she sighed and loosened her grip, shoving it into her pocket, “Fucking Coil.”

Turning around at the sound of even more gasps and excited chattering, Lisa almost felt like crying as she caught sight of Glory Girl soaring her way towards the ongoing battle followed quickly by both Laserdream and Shielder who were close behind their cousin. She hadn’t even known that Shielder was even in the mall but she guessed it made sense. That family was always doing everything together. At least the adults weren’t here. Yet.

She groaned as she headed towards the stairs to get out of the parking garage. The leader of the ABB fighting one or more Empire capes, New Wave was about to get involved and she would bet this month’s rent that both the Protectorate and the rest of the ABB were going to hear about it soon enough. Even if the heat from this battle died down, it was definitely going to have ramifications on the politics in the Bay no matter how it went.

“This is going to be a fucking mess.”

Maybe she should call Rachel or Brian. At least then she’d have a little bit of protection against the goddamn force of nature she was supposed to be spying on.