Dragon's Progeny: Chapter 69

Tammi yawned as she walked into the sitting room, tired from the day’s ordeals. Two people were already present as she entered, lounging on one of the couches with just each other as company. The masks on the table made her think they had just gotten back 

Ava and Alex were together as always. The latter was napping, arms spread widely around the back of the couch as his head tilted backwards, snoring softly. Ava was stretched out along its length with her head resting on one end and her feet on her brother's lap. 

She was engrossed in her phone and barely even spared Tammi a glance as she entered, “Yo.” 

Tammi nodded a greeting as she took her own seat, sliding onto the other couch and pulling out her phone. She had to tell Hiashi about Ophelia's decision so he could let the PRT know. She had been bluffing when she said that the transport was already ready but it could be in just a couple days. Then Ophelia wouldn't be their problem anymore.

Tammi sighed as she sent off the text and tossed her phone on the table, trading it for the TV remote instead. She needed something mindless right now.

Cable wasn't really much of a thing anymore in Brockton Bay, even in their house, but some of the older channels still worked for some reason. Tammi blamed Yuko's insane cable package. She  flipped through dozens of screens of static and boring infomercials before settling on a black and white show that didn't look completely dull. 

Sighing, Tammi leaned her head back on the couch and rubbed her face with her hands as the poorly mixed audio of some sixties show filled the room.

“So what are you doing down here?” Tammi lifted her head at the question and found Ava watching her curiously.

She frowned, unsure of the question, “What do you mean?”

“I mean everything I see you, you're glued to our dear leader's side. Yosei's just upstairs, so what gives? You two have a lover's spat or something?” She asked with an impish grin.

Personally, Tammi didn't really care for Ava all that much, at least when compared to her brother. She reminded her of a mix between Tattletale and a younger version of her, back before she quit the Empire. She was rude and often borderline caustic to anyone who wasn't her twin, especially if he wasn't around, and she had a habit of running her mouth when she probably shouldn't. 

It made sense, of course. They had basically been pressganged into joining the ABB and the girl was clearly unhappy about it, but she knew it was better than the alternative. If all she did was bitch at people and just be generally unpleasant, then Tammi would count it as a win. They needed all the help they could get right now anyway.

“It's nothing like that.” Tammi answered her question, “Yuko's napping right now and I don't want to wake her up.”

“That’s stupid.” The remark made Tammi twitch, watching as Ava returned to tapping on her phone, “Why don't you just go nap with her?”

Tammi debated just ignoring her but sighed and explained, “Yuko's hearing is sensitive and she's a light sleeper. Just opening the door will get her out of bed and she needs rest right now.”

“Light sleeper, huh?” Ava glanced down the couch at her brother. His snores had progressively gotten louder, to the point that they could easily be heard over the TV, “Some of us aren't so lucky.”

Alex responded with a noisy snort that made Ava’s eye twitch in irritation. Rearing a leg back, the girl kicked him in the ribs with a sock-covered foot, making him lurch to full wakefulness as Tammi watched in shock.

Alex coughed, cradling his side where his sister had kicked him as he looked around in panic. Ava's voice was sugary sweet as she watched her brother flail, “Good morning, sleepyhead~ Did you sleep well?”

Alex’s response was a harsh glare as he recognized that she was responsible for his current pain. He flicked a hand out and a bright blue bolt of energy smacked Ava in the center of the forehead, making her hiss loudly and slap the area which was already turning red, “Oi!”

She retaliated by sending a stream of purple light at her brother, shooting him in the ribs. Alex jumped off of the couch, rubbing his side with an irritated expression, “What’s your problem?”

“You were snoring.” Ava said as if that explained everything.

“So!?”

“So I don't like it and I made you stop. You know how much that shit gets on my nerves.”

Alex grit his teeth, seeming supremely annoyed at the girl's attitude, or maybe just that his nap had been interrupted in such an unjust manner, “Okay? Do you just want me to stop breathing or something?” He asked caustically.

Ava returned his glare, “If it makes you stop snorting, then go for it.”

Tammi felt the argument brewing and decided to stop it before it got out of hand, using the opportunity to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while, “Hey, so how do your powers work?”

The siblings looked at her, taking their ire off of each other for the moment to digest her question. Tammi continued, “You guys are linked in some way, right? Because you're a cluster?”

“Cluster?” Ava repeated, looking confused. It dawned on Tammi that they didn't know what the term meant, so she decided to explain.

“It's a term for when people trigger right after each other.” She said, “They usually get similar powers and some… other stuff to go along with it.” Tammi didn't really have any desire to explain the whole Kill/Kiss dynamic to a pair of twins that were at each other's throats half the time and oddly close the other half.

As Ava pulled her legs back underneath her, Alex shook his head, “That doesn’t really fit us. We didn't trigger one after the other; we triggered at the exact same time.”

“Same time, same place, same circumstances… same reasons.” Ava said the words quietly, glancing at her brother who nodded solemnly, “If anything, we’re more like a twin trigger. If that’s even a thing.”

Tammi nodded slowly, “I don’t think it’s an official term, but I used to work with a pair of twins who had the same power. I never asked them about how they triggered but they’re statues now though so I don’t think I’ll ever get the chance to.”

Fenja and Menja were practically stapled to Kaiser anytime they all met up so she didn’t really have a lot of chances to talk one-on-one with either twin, but from everything she’d seen, their powers were exactly the same, down to how long it took them to grow and how big they could get. They didn’t have any issue being away from each other though, which made Tammi curious.

“How exactly do your powers work?”

The twins glanced at one another, an unspoken conversation passing between their eyes in an instant, before Alex ultimately shrugged, “We have the exact same power; they aren’t just similar. You’ve seen what we can do.”

Tammi nodded, “Yeah. You shoot light that burns stuff.”

“That’s probably the simplest way to put it.” Ava huffed as she tilted her head back, “It’s more like raw energy that we can shape how we want. It starts in our bodies and we can choose what we want it to do. We can make it as weak as a flashlight or turn it into a concussive blast like that glowing chick had before she got got. We can even paralyze people or give them frostbite.”

Here, she rubbed her forehead, running a finger over the red mark between her eyes. Tammi watched her, mulling over what she had been told.

“You guys are like a mini Legend, huh?” She said aloud. Ava snorted.

“Sure, if Legend’s power went away if he was more than a couple yards away from someone else.” She scoffed, “Our powers are linked. We have to be close to each other or we’re basically reduced to human sparklers.”

“When we touch, we can shoot beams hot enough to melt through steel or fire blasts strong enough to level buildings in a few shots.” Alex clenched his fist. Indigo light danced over his knuckles before sputtering out, “But if we’re far away from each other, we can barely do anything.”

“Plus it makes us sick to our stomachs.” Ava added, “Like eating a whole bowl of day old clam chowder with laxatives for sprinkles.”

While the analogy was strange, it definitely explained a few things. Namely, why the two of them were almost always touching or at least near each other. Tammi couldn’t imagine how much it must suck to have to constantly be close to someone else no matter how you felt about it. No wonder the twins were at each other’s throats one minute and hugging it out the next. They literally had no other choice.

Ava stretched out on the couch again, putting her legs back in her brother’s lap despite their argument. Alex gave her a dirty look but didn’t comment, continuing the conversation with Tammi, “We can also vaguely feel each other’s emotions. It isn’t mind-reading, thank Christ, but if Ava is anxious, that feeling stretches across the link to me as well. We also get a general idea of where each other are; sort of like a compass.”

“Useful if you’re trying to avoid friendly fire.” Ava said, closing her eyes, “Not so useful if you want a couple minutes without someone else’s emotions in your head. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been woken up right as I fall asleep by a spike of anxiety or fear or something? He worries about fucking everything.”

“I have a lot to worry about, don't I? I live with you.”

“The hell's that supposed to mean?”

Before another argument could start, Tammi's phone suddenly started wailing on the table in front of them. She held a hand up, pausing the impending argument for at least a little while as she glanced at the caller id. Yuko.

‘Who the hell woke her up?’ Tammi frowned as she picked up, “Hey babe, what's up?”

“Nothing good, Tammi.” Yuko's voice was tired but grave. This was clearly important.

Tammi's frown deepened, worry curling in her gut, “What's wrong?

“I just received a priority report from Hiashi. Some people flaunting Empire colors are causing a ruckus near the clinic on Coolridge. I need you to go check it out and if need be, take care of it.”

Tammi sat up straighter at her girlfriend's words. The Empire? “They're back?”

“That’s what I’ve been told. The call came in around fifteen minutes ago. I don’t think I need to tell you that things aren’t in an optimal position for the remnants of Kaiser’s clique to start making issues.”

Tammi’s voice was low and fraught with emotion as she spoke, “No, you don’t.”

Yuko detected the odd quality to her voice, even as tired as she was. Her own voice became softer in understanding, “You don’t have to lead the assault if you don’t want to, but I would still like you to be there. I can send Spook and some men alongside you if you need–”

“I can handle it.” Tammi interrupted, narrowing her eyes, “If these guys are actually Empire, then I need to deal with them.”

She took a deep breath, glancing towards Ava and Alex who were watching her intently, “I'll need some backup though. Glitz and Glam are already here so I'll take them and maybe a couple men with me.”

“You're free to take whoever you need, Tammi. I'm sorry to ask this of you.”

“Don't be. You took care of most of them, but I've still got a few scores to settle too.” Tammi said, “Like I said, I'll take care of it. Love you, Yuko. Go back to sleep.”

“No easy feat when I'm worrying about you. Good luck, Tammi. Stay safe.”

“Will do.”

As she hung up, Ava spoke, her voice none too happy, “So did you just volunteer us for something we didn't agree to? Cause I feel like that's what just happened.”

“Yeah, I did.” Tammi stood, shoving her phone back in her pocket as she looked to them seriously, “Suit up. Some of my old buddies are causing issues and we're gonna deal with them.”

Her words weren't met with the trepidation she expected them to be. Instead of being surprised, the twins actually seemed somewhat excited by the prospect of fighting the Empire.

“We’re fighting Nazi's?” Ava grinned, hopping off the couch, “Nevermind then, I’m totally down for wiping out some scumbags.”

“It’ll be nice to finally knock it off the bucket list." Alex agreed. Tammi glanced at them oddly.

“You two never fought the Empire?”

“Why the hell would we do that? That's just asking to die. Or well,” Ava gestured at Tammi, “Before you guys came around and killed them all. Only idiots messed with the big gangs and we didn't have anyone watching out back ‘cept each other.”

Getting in over your head and messing with one of the bigger gangs was like a right of passage for new capes. Hitting random thugs and not getting shit on for it usually gave newbies a big head and made them think they could hit above their weight. Guess these two had more common sense than most.

“Well I guess now you'll get your chance.” Tammi said, “You're ABB now, so get your licks in however you want. Just let me do the talking.”

The twins grinned, teeth flashing in mirrors of dangerous anticipation, “We can do that.”