Victoria smiled to herself as she added a significant helping of cream and sugar to her coffee. Amy called it sacrilege, but Victoria couldn't imagine willingly subjecting herself to the bitter drink black.
Taylor may have gotten the best of her during their sparring, but it wasn't exactly her fault that the Queen had a million different powers on top of being indestructible, stupidly fast, and somehow also incredibly coordinated.
It felt like fighting Alexandria, except Taylor laughed and smiled with her afterwards.
She hadn't known what to think in the moment, but Victoria found herself inordinately pleased that Taylor had decided to share a bit more of herself with her. The cold voice from behind the blank mask just wasn't the same.
"Victoria! What were you thinking? Also, no flying in the house."
What did I do now?
Vicky dropped back to the ground and turned to see what her mother was on about this time.
Carol was holding up her work tablet, but Vicky couldn't see what was on the screen.
"You went wandering down the Boardwalk with the Queen Administrator, told everyone that she captured Hookwolf, and fought her above Captain's Hill?"
Okay, that sounded worse than it was.
Victoria held up her free hand as if to wave away the accusation.
"You didn't say anything about not patrolling, and you said you'd withhold judgment. Besides, it wasn't a fight, we were just sparring!" Victoria said.
"Just sparring?" Brandish exclaimed. "I just watched a video of you being punched through a cloud so hard that you left a hole in the sky! In what universe is that safe?"
Vicky rolled her eyes.
"I'm indestructible, remember? Queenie knows not to hit me more than once every few seconds."
"YOU TOLD HER ABOUT YOUR FORCEFIELD?"
So, maybe she should have found a different excuse.
"How else was I supposed to make sure I was safe while we sparred?" Victoria rationalized.
Carol gripped the countertop hard enough that Victoria feared for its safety.
"That… is not the point. The point is that you need to be careful. You can't just automatically trust everyone you meet."
Victoria bristled.
"I don't 'just trust everyone', but I trust Queenie! She's doing her best. She's going to make the city better, I just know it. I'll be careful, but I can't go through life distrusting everyone. Sometimes you have to have a bit of faith," Victoria said.
"You can't know that!" Carol yelled. "Now you'll never know if or when she's going to turn around, break your field, and crush you like she did those villains."
"Taylor wouldn't do that!"
Shit.
"She told you her name?" Carol asked slowly.
Victoria panicked.
"You can't tell anyone! She trusted me with it; I have to trust her too."
Carol shook her head.
"She's manipulating you, Victoria. Mark my words. But you're right, we can't tell anyone. And you need to be more careful about blurting it out like that."
Her mom sighed and leaned back against the counter again.
"We'll talk about this more after school. Just… New Wave can't afford to be associated with her if she turns out to be a villain."
Victoria let out the breath she was holding, although the knot in her stomach didn't go away.
"What if she doesn't, though?" Victoria said quietly. "What if she's the one who finally makes a difference, and we can be there for it? I can be there for it."
Her mom gave her a tired smile.
"I wish I could believe that, Vicky."
Victoria grabbed her coffee to go and quickly fled the kitchen. She knew she wasn't going to get a better answer from her mom than that, and she had managed to escape without any actual punishment. She'd count that as a win.
Now she just had to stress over whether to tell Taylor about her slip up.
…
"Sooooooo…" Amy said as she hopped out of Victoria's arms in front of Arcadia high school.
Vicky rolled her eyes.
"What?" she asked, although she had a feeling she knew the answer.
"You went to hang out with Queen Administrator and didn't tell me?" Amy mock glared at her.
"I was going to!" Vicky protested. "But you were at the hospital and then we decided to go try sparring and-"
"Oh yes, let's go take some hits from a Brute 8, that's a great idea." Amy deadpanned. "Definitely a fun, relaxing afternoon."
"Wait, where did you hear that?" Vicky stopped walking outside the doors.
"I guess you were too busy being 'on patrol' yesterday, but the PRT updated her threat rating and sent New Wave an email just in case."
Victoria thought for a second and then shrugged.
"I guess that makes sense. Nothing I could do put a dent in that Changer form," she said.
"Really?" Amy asked as they started walking again. "That's… kind of scary, actually. I wonder what I would see…"
"I'm sure it would be wild." Vicky laughed. "Her powers… they don't seem to work quite like everyone else's. I'm sure your biosense would go bananas."
"Well, I doubt we'll ever get the opportunity," Amy shrugged.
"I could just ask! I have her number, and I'm sure we're going to hang out again soon anyway," Vicky chirped with a smile.
She missed the more authentic suspicious look that Amy sent her way as they split off to their respective lockers.
…
Arcadia had a Faraday cage built into it to block communications, but PRT issued phones had a direct connection that Victoria gleefully exploited pretty much constantly.
For official hero stuff. Obviously.
Still, she was surprised when her phone rang just after class let out for lunch.
She was especially surprised at the number on the caller ID.
"Queenie! How's it going over there? Wait, shouldn't you be in school?" Victoria asked rapid fire.
"Good morning, Victoria. And no, for multiple reasons. Actually, that's part of the reason I'm calling," Taylor said. "Are you free for a chat? Say, outside the front gates, in two minutes?"
"What?" Victoria squawked. Only a few people looked at her weirdly. Whatever.
"It's a long story, and I'd prefer to tell it in person."
Victoria floundered for a moment.
"I'm obviously not in costume, and I don't really have time to go grab my spare…"
"That's okay, neither am I," Taylor laughed.
"I'm sorry, what?" Vicky said incredulously. "That's… insanely risky. You know that, right?"
"It's part of the story, don't worry. So, you coming?"
Vicky glanced over at the usual group she ate lunch with, catching Amy's eye as her sister stared questioningly in her direction.
She shrugged helplessly at her sister and said, "Yeah, sure, fine. Um. I'll see you in… a minute thirty?"
"Perfect. See you in a sec, Glory Girl," Taylor said.
The line went dead.
Victoria stood still for a moment longer as she tried to process the strange conversation. When no answers immediately presented themselves, she turned, walked through the side doors, and took off into the sky.
…
Victoria spotted the familiar head of black curls and dove down to land a few yards in front of her.
Part of her wanted to stay floating since she still didn't like being short, but that seemed too suspicious. Or something. Even though she had just flown down in a very obvious manner. Whatever.
"Hey Qu- Taylor!" Victoria said, glancing over Taylor's jeans and old hoodie.
"Hey, Victoria," Taylor said with a smile. It really lit up her face. It was nice to see, and a significant improvement over the cold tone she used when she was cycling her emotions with her power.
"Taylor, I…" Vicky didn't want to admit it, but she felt like she had to get it out of the way before they got sidetracked by anything else. "I accidentally told my mom your name. I'm so, so sorry, we were just arguing and she doesn't think I can trust you and it slipped out."
Taylor looked mildly stunned for a moment before she broke down cackling maniacally, literally bracing her hand against the brick wall next to her as she laughed.
"Okay…" Victoria said after a moment. "I think I'm missing the joke."
Taylor's smile widened as she straightened up again.
"The PRT already knows my identity. Miss Militia came to my house this morning."
"WHAT?" Victoria shouted quite a bit louder than she meant to.
"Even weirder, she came in civies and introduced herself by her real name."
Victoria just stared at her apparently insane friend.
"And what did you do?" She asked, although she had a vague feeling she already knew the answer.
"I may or may not have called her out on it to her face, told her about my power sensing ability, and demanded that she and the rest of the PRT stay the hell out of my way," Taylor said, as if she was describing the kind of cereal she had for breakfast.
Victoria almost smashed her head into the brick wall involuntarily, before she remembered the bills for property damage.
"Just… why? Taylor, what the hell? Why was she even there out of costume?" She said helplessly.
"Well, I assume that it's because the PRT found out that Shadow Stalker tried to kill me in my civilian identity and subsequently caused me to trigger, but I can't actually be sure. We got a bit off topic," Taylor said with a grin.
"You triggered because Shadow Stalker tried to kill you?" Victoria gasped.
This was… way too much to process in one conversation. Every sentence out of Taylor's mouth was like a wrecking ball hitting her train of thought.
"Yes, it was… terrible, and I don't want to talk about it. It's not really relevant to the main thing I wanted to check in with you about anyway," Taylor said with an uncomfortable look.
Victoria leaned against the brick wall next to her and tried not to think too hard about any of this.
"I want your help, Victoria," Taylor said seriously, standing straight and meeting her eyes.
"What…" Vicky wasn't sure what to make of that. "What are you thinking?"
"I want to take down the gangs," Taylor said. "All of them."
Victoria stood straight again to face her friend, still annoyed at the height difference despite everything.
"I mean, I do too, but…" Vicky wasn't sure where Taylor was going with this.
"Tonight, and every night until we're done, I want you to fly me in a grid over the city while I use my powers to look for stash houses, weapons caches, meeting locations, drug dens, brothels, and villain capes. When we find them, I want you to drop me on them and pick me up when I'm done. I want to tear them apart piece… by… piece." Taylor finished with a predatory smile.
Victoria was stunned for a moment.
Her first thought was to laugh, but she had a sickening feeling that Taylor was deadly serious.
"That's… I can't… I mean, that's an insane plan, Taylor! You have to know that. It won't…" Vicky was at a loss for where to even begin. "Okay, the obvious issues here. The Empire still has twelve capes including Kaiser, and the ABB has Lung. Are you seriously…"
Victoria saw Taylor's raised eyebrow.
"Of course you're going to fight them," Victoria said a bit hysterically. "I don't know what I was thinking. Obviously, we should just drop you on Lung like a falling anvil out of a cartoon. Silly me."
Taylor sighed but gave her a small smile.
"I'm going to fight them, with or without you, Victoria," Taylor said softly. "And you don't even have to fight. Hell, I don't want you anywhere near Lung while I'm dealing with him; it would just increase the risk."
Victoria wasn't sure if she was insulted by that or relieved.
"It would save time and property damage if I don't have to jump from place to place and risk crushing rooftops along the way," Taylor continued. "Honestly, I just… I want you there with me, that's all."
Now it was Victoria's turn to sigh.
"You're completely serious about this, aren't you?" She asked.
"Deadly."
Shit.
"Alright," Victoria looked at the sky helplessly for a moment before she met Taylor's eyes again. "I'm in, Queenie. You let me know when and where, and we'll go out in a flame of glory."
Taylor's smile widened.
"Don't worry, Glory Girl. This is only the beginning," she said.
"That's not exactly comforting, Taylor," Vicky deadpanned as her insane friend turned to walk away. "So I'll see you tonight?"
Taylor grinned over her shoulder at her.
"It's a date."