Ablation

Taylor

I come back home and see dad and Chelsea playing uno, talking about something. Dad looks to be in much higher spirits than before. DWU must have gotten a couple new jobs. I wonder if I can do something to help him out with the ferry. I join them and get destroyed. By the end of the game I’m holding half the deck and Chelsea is high-fiving dad. Hey! That’s MY dad! He’s supposed to team up with me!

Once we’re done playing, I clean the living room up and look at Chelsea. Yep. She’s giving me that look. Eyebrows slightly raised, looking up at me, smiling invitingly, ready to listen but not rushing me to talk. I have all the time in the world. I motion her to follow me upstairs with a slight nod and we leave dad to enjoy his pizza. She sits down on the edge of my bed and I sit on my chair, straddling its back.

“Okay. Okay. So, what do you want to know?” I ask. I need a point to start from, or else I’ll start talking about everything.

She ponders for a moment, tapping her chin, looking at the ceiling. “Well. First of all, why did you decide that villainy is the way to go for you?” Oh. I didn’t really give her a choice in it, did I? “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m down for anything. Part of the ship, part of the crew and all. I’m not leaving you out to dry just cause you decided to do some crime.”

I sigh deeply and prepare myself for what I’m about to say. “Remember when I told you how I’m being bullied? Yeah. About a year ago I found out something about one of them.” I look up at her from my slumped position, “One of them is a Ward.”

“Ah. A reasonable crash out.” Chelsea nods and falls silent for a spell. “Wanna do something about it?” Do I? I could go back to Winslow and turn Sophia’s bones to rubber. But I didn't. I didn't have a chance, really. The moment I gained powers I got transferred away to the Wards Central.

“I… don't know. I'm not sure I want to do anything but…” I bark out a laugh, “I actually met Emma today. Man, I wish I punched her in the jaw or broke her nose. Amy told me that she'd blacklist them, you know? Never heal them under any circumstances.”

“You know…” I look up to see Chelsea flashing me a wide grin. “We could really fuck them up. I blast them to slip, they can't run away like that and you come in and… actually, what is your power?” Right, fuck.

“Ughhh! I completely forgot to tell you! Right.” I gather myself and organize what I know about my powers. So I do. I tell her every bit of info I knew and every bit of info I discovered, like higher toughness making people physically stronger on top of making them harder to damage. And that swapping the toughness doesn't swap elasticity. Otherwise swapping a person's Toughness with a rock’s would have been an immediate death sentence. But it does swap their temperature tolerances. Something something heat counting as damage. I might need to look into wolfram.

“Okay, cool. Coo-coo-cool. My turn?” I nod, “I fire beams. They make everything I choose within like one yard of where they hit slippery. I can make the beam a short burst or long spray, I know how everything within that two yard wide sphere sticks together and I thiiink I have some kinda ability to quickly process stuff I feel and make snap decisions. Which is how I can even single out someone’s bits rather than making their everything slippery. Which is a rather handy ability on its own now that I think about it.”

I nod. “And the ice powers?”

“Oh right! The ice! I can bring down the temperature within five feet of anything I touch to like… a couple dozen degrees below its freezing temperature. Which is how I made my costume out of thin air. Literally.”

Oh. Oh! I can feel it! The start of a wonderful team up! “Chelsea. Chelsea!” I grab her by the shoulders, my voice rising an octave or two. “Tell me you just had the same idea!” I start shaking her, myself starting to shake from excitement too.

“I just had the same idea..?” 

“You can freeze fucking… like gases and shit and make them solid! While I can affect solids with my power!” 

Realization dawns on her as she also starts excitedly shaking me. “Oh my god, Taylor! Oh my fucking god, we're so busted!” Our quiet pterodactyl screeches devolve into evil cackles as we start planning our first night out.

Taylor, later that night

We snuck out the window, Chelsea creating a makeshift slide as she descended, and me erasing the evidence as I followed her. Chelsea makes a set of roller blades for both of us and I swap their toughness for metal and rubber, Chelsea also using her power to lubricate the wheels. I feel like we could incorporate those into our costumes as a permanent fixture later on, but we'll have to find some good quality ones preferably in Boston or New York. I could hotwire a car again, maybe even tomorrow. Leave home at 9ish and we'll be back in BB by noon or so.

I look at our reflection as we pass a mirrored glass wall of an office building. I like our current color scheme. Sky blue and tarnished silver. Kinda messes with the Protectorate colors. Sure, they don't have a specific color scheme across the team but it messes with Armsmaster, it messes with Dauntless and Gallant. That's a solid quarter of them. It would be funny to see them having to rebrand just to avoid association with us.

I lead us to the jewelry stores that I found to be Empire fronts. I touch the front door and swap its Toughness for frozen oxygen’s. The door poofs into nothing, not even leaving dust behind. Could be handy when I want to pretend to be a different cape probably. But my trusty dust is my calling card already. We rush in, Chillax points out every security sensor and I dust all jewelry without setting those off. Chillax slips the cash register’s lock off and starts stuffing the cash into a duffel bag. We didn't bother with backpacks, tonight we're hitting multiple places. I do the same with the safe and we move onto the next store. How nice of them to be so close to each other. Something about establishments of the same kind congregating together to balance the competition or something. Dad told me about it once I asked why there are so many restaurants in one block and then none for two or three blocks over. Most of the lecture flew past my mind but I got the gist!

We empty our third store when things go bad. Which is something we did not account for. When we roll out of the store, we're greeted by an array of capes.

“Well well well,” grouses a shirtless man with a metal wolf mask. “You better hope you two are pale white under that armor or things will get real ugly.”

A man in a red and black jumpsuit speaks up then, “Now, ladies, we can still end this conversation peacefully. But only if you put those duffel bags down and surrender. I guarantee you, Kaiser pays his employees much more than what you stole from us today and he's a very forgiving man.”

I see Chillax wince and grab her face. “Fucking… he's got the same brain damage thing as Codex!” Oh. Right. He's Victor, the skill thief. The girl with a cage on her head is Cricket, the tiger themed guy is the tiger themed guy, and the girl floating above us with two upturned cars and a dumpster is Rune.

I realize that both Victor and Chillax are waiting for my decision, Chelsea looking visibly impatient to do something about our mounting headache. I dust my rollerblades, they’ll only get in the way. My dismissal of them puts some of our opposition on edge but Victor and Hookwolf take it as our sign of surrender. I see Victor’s shoulders relax. Oh, he’s been tense. Word of me engaging Glory Girl must have spread. Maybe they also didn’t expect me to have a teammate. “I’m Durasteal, this is Chillax.” I introduce us, further making them drop their guards. 

“Very well, now if you could-” Chillax sends a beam at him that he hastily tries to dodge, but it hits his thigh and he is sent sliding down the direction he jumped in. Hookwolf starts transforming immediately and Rune sends the two cars flying in our direction. I can see dust swirling around Stormtiger’s hands, forming the shape of claws. Cricket decides to engage Chillax and my vision is obscured by three thousand pounds of car.

I immediately dust everything around me, just in time to see a mass of blades, hooks and chains flying towards me. I brace for impact and Hookwolf slams into me, almost sending me flying. I manage to grab onto his chains to center myself. Feeling his entire structure with my power, I dust all his metal, leaving his fleshy core to drop to the ground. He reverts back to his human form and I send a kick to his jaw with a reinforced boot. My kick doesn’t connect as a dumpster slams into me and continues on its path until it hits a wall.

I dust the dumpster and see another one, this one partially frozen, flying past Chillax and into Victor. Victor managed to somehow use his bullshit skills to stay stable despite almost every surface of his body being zero-friction. He must have cut out a layer of his boots to remove the slippery parts. That didn’t help him much as Chillax sends a beam at his feet, making the road slippery instead. Victor tries to dodge at the same time Chillax’es beam hits the road, and he fails to avoid the dumpster that flew lid-first into him. I rush towards him and kick him back into it once he recovers and starts extricating himself, I slam the lid shut and punch it closed. Deformations make it harder to open and Victor needs some alone time to contemplate his life choices.

I see Chillax struggling against Cricket, her gauntlets not reforming fast enough for her to block all of Cricket’s strikes. I see blood dripping off her costume. My attempt to help her is interrupted by a massive truck flying into me. I lose my footing from the impact and I could feel it rattle my bones. Hookwolf, now recovered, comes barreling through the thin walls of the truck. I growl angrily as I turn his blades into dust again.

“Just lay the fuck down,” I say, slamming him into the ground, turning sections of his bones to dust so that he can’t move. He says something to me but his jaw is still broken. Fuck him. They keep getting in my way and are trying to gang up on Chillax. I can’t let that continue. I grab a pebble off the ground and put as much Durability as I can into it. My breathing becomes heavy as the hand holding the pebble buckles. I… huh? I move to throw it and my vision goes blurry. I realize my breathing isn't becoming heavier. I was just losing air. I turn to Stormtiger, seeing dust around me flying towards him and fall.

Chelsea

The fight was not going well. Each time she tried to freeze Cricket, Rune would throw something towards her, forcing her to focus her ice on blocking rather than restricting the Thinker/Shaker. Fucking Thinker/Shakers, fucking headaches, Chelsea muttered through gritted teeth. Seeing Cricket smile at that made her anger boil over. Rune was grabbing one of the cars she threw previously, the only one that remained non-dust. Chelsea released a turbid breath and lunged at Cricket, freezing the air around the pit fighter just as the car slammed into her.

Chelsea kept herself standing, but felt like she’ll have a limp for the next week on her left leg. She sent another shot at Rune, trying to make her trip and fall from her flying platform, but she couldn’t aim the beam properly. Stormtiger sent a couple air blasts, trying to free Cricket, but he was busy with Taylor. Chelsea looked over what Taylor was doing and saw her fall, something dropping from her hand and hitting the ground with a thunderous boom. Oh shit!

She gathered her beam for a wide spray and started sprinting towards Stormtiger. One spray behind her and one spray in front, indiscriminate beams flying wide. Rune, again, managed to block her beams using a manhole cover of all things, but Stormtiger wasn’t focused on her and, his entire body suddenly becoming zero-friction, slipped off his air vortex and landed on the ground. 

Still disoriented from losing skin contact with his power, he couldn’t dodge Chelsea as she grabbed his shoulder and created a foot-thick layer of ice around his arms and torso, and another around his feet. She froze parts of his skin for extra security and turned just in time to see Rune throwing the longsuffering, broken down car at her. She only had time to position herself for a softer blow, but couldn’t dodge completely. This time, already facing Rune, she shot her beam at her platform instead of her body, making her slip and fall, the dumpster barely cushioning her fall. That bump though was enough to rattle the lid open, revealing a trash-covered Victor. Hookwolf was recovering too, so Chelsea grabbed Taylor and ran, shooting slippery beams behind her. She could hear PRT sirens just a couple blocks away when Taylor finally came to her senses. Taylor coughed several times and sat down on the bench Chelsea picked to set her on. The Empire capes weren’t following them, obviously concerned for their own injuries. Which… Chelsea did a quick count in her mind and realized that they haven’t hurt them at all, except for Rune and Hookwolf. Stormtiger and Cricket will get frostbite for sure, serves them right. But Victor was basically unharmed aside from the full body bruise he got from hitting the dumpster at 80 miles per hour. She barked out a laugh.

“Fuck!” Taylor said.

“Fuck.” She agreed. Her body was hurting all over. Her hip hurt from bending, her left knee hurt from running. She was bleeding all over her forearms. Not profusely, not deep enough to need stitches. But enough to sting, especially from all the dust kicked up during the fight. Having on-demand ice packs helped a great deal and she made a couple air ice cubes for Taylor, which she readily took and put against her armor, the armor starting to cover in frost and condensate from the contact. Right at that moment we heard a thin hiss as foam exploded around them.

Assault

“This is Assault to console, two villains fleeing the scene packaged and ready for delivery,” He quipped into his earpiece. He heard a groan from Shadow Stalker, probably bemoaning her fate as today’s console duty instead of going out on the field like the entire Wards and Protectorate. 

“Uhh, scratch that, actually,” He said as one of the foam bubbles froze over and started crumbling in thin crystalline sections, while the other just disappeared into dust. The two teenage villains stared at him in apprehension. “Well, young ladies, you know its way past your curfew! Come peacefully with Mr Nice Cop and we’ll sort it out at the PRT, maybe?” he hedged, a smile visible under his visor. The girls’ response was to attack him, duh. They just ran from what seems to be a losing fight, adrenaline pumping at their veins. That’s why Ethan went for the containment foam grenades first, and talking second. 

A beam hit the ground under him, and as he felt friction dissipate, he sent a counteracting force to prevent slipping. That was when the punch came. Ethan will admit, they had a solid plan, if not too simple. One would imbalance the enemy and the other would go for a disabling strike. It would work on any Brute but him and maybe Krieg from Empire. But the moment the metal armored girl’s fist connected to his chin, he was already redirecting all that force back to her. And golly, was it a lot of force. The metal armored girl didn’t move to dodge and was sent flying right at the ice armored one and they dropped in a heap of limbs. She’s probably used to thinking that she can take anything anyone can dish out, the recent trigger Brute mentality going strong in her still.

“So, you’re Durasteal and Chillax? Thinking of starting a comedy career? Well look no further, god’s funniest little guy is right there!” That got no audible response from either girl aside from a cough from Chillax. “Huh, you’re one tough crowd, aren’t ya.” Their short introduction was uploaded to PHO by some bystander that had no fear for his life, walking around downtown at dead of night. Their names were clearly intended to be a joke, maybe a small-time petty thief duo of some sorts. That’s how they even got wind of the cape fight. That, and the enormous cloud of dust that got kicked up a couple minutes ago. 

“Well, we can fix that too! All you gotta do to get the seasoned tutelage in tomfoolery is just join the Wards! The kids have a nice stipend and a college fund, let alone the merch, oh the merch!” He knew telling them about the monetary benefits was the most likely thing to work, considering they got into that fight over two bags of money. “Now, I know you could earn more by doing crime, but can you even spend that money? You know, how many establishments would accept gang money? No sports cars, no mansions. No nothing.” 

“Wh- you don’t own any of those either!” Chillax spoke up as the girls scrambled up and went for a different approach. Oh finally, he could speak to a wall and get more engagement than from these ladies. They’d make great proteges for Battery, Ethan mused as Durasteal smacked the ground and he suddenly felt weightless as the road beneath him turned to dust. Chillax then rushed up to him and tried to seal the hole with ice. Again, nice plan, but Ethan has ample experience with fighting Faultline. Despite her rarely operating in town, he had several years to rack up encounters with her group. This was one of the oldest tricks in the book for her team: Faultline creates a hole and Gregor the Snail covers it with glue. Ethan learned to always be ready to haul ass in case the ground under him disappears.

“True, but you don’t know that.” He grins, flicking the ground and redirecting his fall upward just as the ice covered the hole. “What if I’m secretly the Mayor’s neighbor? Hm? Pinatas with my face sell real well. And you’d never know unless you joined us!”

Chillax lunges for him again but Ethan taps her outstretched hand, sending her flying at the same speed back at Durasteal. He shakes his frost covered hand and watches them scramble up again. God he loves fighting Strikers. It’s always a flip of a coin if one of them trumps the other and who tags who first. He’s still apprehensive of Durasteal, but so far it’s more likely that she’s truly Manton Limited to inorganic solids, than that she’s holding back.They just fought a losing battle with five Empire capes and yet none of them are a pile of dust on the road, from what MM and Armsy are reporting, they’re actually surprisingly unhurt, other than very visible frostbite marks on two of them.

“Well,” Durasteal finally spoke up, “Do you suppose you could let us go? We promise to be nice and not commit any, any crimes for a whole month if you do?” Ooh, she does quip! He must have caught them in a low moment for them to be so silent for so long.

“Oh wow, now that’s a heavy bargain! I’m afraid I won’t settle for anything short of ‘I’ll turn over a new leaf and never hurt a fly’” Ethan put his hands together in a pious prayer.

“Is that what Shadow Stalker did?” Durasteel asks, her voice suddenly eager.

“Oh sure did! You could meet her in person if you’re interested! I’m sure she has many insights to share!” Yes! Do it! Shadow, don’t fail me!

“Aw, I don’t know. Considering she caused my trigger a year after joining the Wards, it’s kind of hard to imagine her ‘never hurting a fly’” Durasteel bites out and turns into an alleyway, Chillax hot on her heels.

“Wuh- hey! Wait just a second there young lady!” Argh! A shock tactic! She got Ethan good, he almost believed her. He moved to follow them but felt like his legs were stuck. Looking down, he saw the culprit - a foot-thick layer of ice covered him from just above the ankles and into the ground. Smacking the ice a couple times also proved to be futile as it didn’t budge an inch from his punches. “Uh. Assault to console. Requesting help?” He said sheepishly, which caused Shadow Stalker to cackle. He still was not sure how to process Durasteal’s admission. Trigger events were no joke, especially talking about them so openly. “Battery to Assault, I’m ETA five minutes. What’s the situation?”

“The villains fled and I’m so getting frostbite.”

Chelsea

She wanted to comfort Taylor. Tell her something that would lift her spirits. She didn’t know how. Chelsea has never comforted anyone before, and wasn’t comforted by anyone herself. Not because of some sad past, but because she’s never had a reason to. Chelsea felt like her life so far was smooth sailing, that every hardship bore some fruit, sooner or later. And that was enough for her. She eyed their duffel bags, filled with ill-gotten gains. Were they worth almost losing their lives and/or freedom?

She took a furtive glance at Taylor. She was also lost in thought, brows furrowed, and clenching some kind of metal contraption, a trail of dust falling from her hands. That could potentially give Taylor away if she’s doing it subconsciously. Where did she even get that lump of metal?

“It wasn’t half bad for our first fight, yeah?” Chelsea decided to say. “Like, it was five against two. And we still have both of our arms and legs!” Yeah. Some positivity wouldn’t hurt, right?

Taylor stops in her already slow walk and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Yeah, it wasn’t too terrible. Just… not good either. I- I don’t feel…” She falls silent for a spell. “I was actually hoping to fight them. It's why we hit multiple stores. I… I wanted to punch someone after today. And- ugh.” Her voice breaks, “I think I- is my power enough to be a gang boss?” Oh. Oh man.

“Well. I feel like we need to do a bit more than petty theft to be considered a real gang. And have more members than just the two of us. And hold territory. And-”

“Okay, okay, I get it. We aren’t a gang yet.” Taylor huffs.

“Yeah. So don’t hold yourself to those standards.” Chelsea says with a shrug. “You gotta have a gang before you can say you’re a bad gang boss.”

“But I couldn’t even handle you!” Taylor shouts. “I took you to your first night and decided to start shit without asking for your opinion! And when it came to blows, I went down like a wet sack! And you were left there to handle the shit I put us into!”

Chelsea looked around the street. It’s empty for now. Their shouts are either something regular for the neighbors or Brocktonites invest in some real good soundproofing. Grabbing Taylor by the hem of her hoodie, Chelsea sits her down on a bench and wraps one arm around her back. Taylor is not exactly hyperventilating or showing other signs of having a panic attack, but Chelsea feels like there is some emotional crisis ongoing. She wasn’t equipped for this kind of situation. 

“I mean… it went well, I think? My opinion of you as a person, or as a cape, or as a leader didn’t get worse.”

“Cause it was bad to begin with,” Taylor finishes for Chelsea.

“Wuh- where did that come from?!”

“Cause I treated you like crap! I went to Boston to recruit some no-name cape cause I thought you’d have no other choice but to join me! Cause I was so desperate to start my gang creation that I went for someone who couldn’t possibly refuse me, like- like grabbing a low-hanging fruit! I was even ready to use intimidation to get you to comply! And then I do a complete 180 when I find out it's you!”

“Taylor. You do realize I was absolutely not a low-hanging fruit?” Chelsea reached for Taylor’s face, grabbing it with both hands. “Recruiting me wasn’t a safe no-cost thing at all! You literally put yourself in Accord’s shit list for me! You know how famous he is for holding grudges? Very! Some cape didn’t put a toilet lid down when visiting him and Accord put a hit on him! Over a drop of piss on a toilet lid! I literally shat on his lawn… uh, not myself, I made his second in command shit herself! That’s worse! On camera! That’s much worse! In front of what is publicly known as his more legitimate business! And let’s not forget that you DID change your treatment of me when you found out! You could have totally just strung me along and pretended not to know me and I’d be none the wiser! And I did feel greatly indebted to you! Despite how I felt about the nature of my recruitment, you still pulled me out of hot water! And then it turns out you’re my long-time friend? I was happy to meet you, Taylor!” Chelsea pulled her into a tight hug, or a hug as tight as she could give someone who was now as tough as a diamond. Chelsea chose to let her coat soak up the tears instead of making them slip off. Chelsea released a breath she was holding and Taylor choked a silent sob. Chelsea wasn’t sure what she’s supposed to do now. They could stay like that for longer, but they were two teenage girls with two very conspicuous duffel bags in the middle of the night. But Taylor needed some time to center herself. And if it came to blows again, Chelsea thought that lethal retaliation was a very viable option if it meant they would be left alone. She supposed they could stay like that for just a bit longer.