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A frustrated growl escaped Darya's lips as she stared in the mirror and gently tugged her brush through her brown curls. They hung well below her shoulders, and brushing them one-handed was not exactly easy. Thankfully, her powers seemed to have accelerated her healing, according to the doctor, though not by so much that she could pull off film stunts. It still stung like crazy, and reaching up was not allowed yet, nor was any heavy lifting. She had been given enough off time from her uncle's store to do whatever, and amid her protests he had let it slip that he had hired a new worker to replace her. She had nearly broken down, but she understood. Everyone in her family knew that her hero work would be her only focus for a while. Still, the loss of her normal life was almost as bad as the gunshot, another stinging pain, though not physical this time.
She set her brush down, and was reaching for her kohl pencil when her cellular buzzed angrily at her. Her hand switched directions and she glanced warily at the number. It was six thirty in the morning, none of her friends were even
awake yet, so who the hell was this? She certainly didn't recognise the number, but thumbed the answer button and held it up to her ear.
”Good morning, this is Tiamat.”The voice on the other end was recognisable as Agent Reeves, and identified herself as such. Darya sat up straighter. She had been waiting for this call.
“We have a location for the facility. I have been notified you were wounded during your activities.” Darya noticed that she stressed the last word with a degree or irritation. “Are you capable of coming down and doing the stress tests and marksmanship scoring?”
“Yes, of course. Where's it happening?”
She listened intently to the address, then slipped the phone between her shoulder and ear so she could reach over and type it into her browser, staring at the map that popped up.
”I can be there by eight.”“Excellent. You'll be working with a few other metas and a...well. It's a diverse team, any way. Please show up in uniform, and pack for an overnight stay.”
”Pardon? Overnight? I thought this was a day activity?”“Parameters have changed. I'll explain once you get here. See you at eight.”
The call ended with a click as Reeves hung up, Leaving Darya to pull the phone away and stare out of the window.
Something must have happened. Something bad. She saved Reeves' number on her phone, set it down, and typed in a few keywords into the browser. Videos and news reports from a university in Maine popped up. She watched a few seconds before slamming her laptop shut, tears swelling in the corners of her eyes. She stood up, fury and vigor in her step as she made herself ready for the day.
Darya made her way up to what looked like an old, refurbished gym, the type that made all of its money from real athletes instead of New Year's memberships and thus failed miserably at paying it's rent. One bored looking man sat outside, reading a book. At first glance he looked like a normal guy taking advantage of the lack of guards, but three things popped out. The first was his obvious lack of surprise at a hero walking around the corner, where she had come out of the alley. She had had to walk a block through the area behind the buildings and changed back there, between a stinking dumpster and a wall that was already beginning to put off an uncomfortable amount of heat. Thankfully it was too early, and in the Warzone, for her to worry a lot about being spotted.
The second was his build, which through his thin white t-shirt resembled a soldier, or one of those heroes from the films. The buzzed blonde hair didn't detract from that at all. And when she saw his hair, she noticed the earpiece he had in. She definitely had the right place. He waved her over, and she stepped forward, trying to look confident.
“Tiamat, right? You're the first to show. Head on in and you'll see Reeves. I think you're in the pool for the morning.”
Reeves was decked in a pinstriped power suit and sensible shoes, what Darya had imagined was probably standard attire for female agents anyway. She had been too nervous to take in many details last time they had met, but Reeves was maybe five six, carried herself well, and had the air of someone who wanted to get through her day quickly, while getting as much as possible done. Her black hair was pulled back behind her ears. She kept it much shorter than Darya did. Black eyes glittered as she watched Darya approach. She felt somewhat like a cow being measured up for cuts.
“You move pretty well for someone who got shot two days ago. Been through that before?”
”Um. No? Never been shot before, no.”“Well, I'd say let's keep it that way, but this isn't exactly a safe job. Still, good stuff at the bank, though I wish you wouldn't throw yourself into danger
immediately after joining my team.” While Reeves sounded angry, her eyes still held a shine of humour. Even so, Darya didn't feel like pushing her luck.
”Sorry. I'll be more careful in the future.”Reeves looked her up and down once more, then nodded. “Alright. Follow me.”
They made their way through what had once been the main gym, now converted into what looked to be a medical office. She saw a lot of fitness testing machines, ones that she had used only yesterday at her doctor's office to check her mobility. Reeves talked as they approached the back wall.
“Since you went to the hospital in costume, and your doctor's as well, he just snagged the data from there. We'll need a few other things, but for the most part you'll get a pass, both because of your martial arts background and your injury. Today's going to be about powers and guns.”
Reeves opened a back door, one of the steel types that Darya would normally assume was an exterior, but it led into a hallway branching off to her left and right. Reeves pointed her to the left, and they made their way down for some ways. Darya smelled some sort of chemical mixture and realised they must be approaching the pool the front door guy had mentioned. Reeves paused at another steel door in the same wall, looked at the hero, and grinned.
“Today, we'll see how much you can do, I think.”
The door swung open to reveal an
enormous body of water. Easily a hundred metres long and fifty wide, with a deep end on the opposite side of the door that looked to hit at least twenty feet. That end also held diving boards. Reeves stepped beside her as the door swung closed, and Darya realised she had stopped moving. She had never seen this much clear, clean water at once. Her community pool was barely a quarter of this size at
best, and her family had been adamant that they not swim in the river.
“New thing, huh? We figured as much from your entrance exam talk.”
Darya glanced at the woman through her goggles, mind whirring.
”But...This ceiling is twice what the building is from the outside!”“Hahaha! That would be courtesy of some things above your very
low pay grade. Rest assured, it doesn't come cheap. And, between you and me, getting authorisation for it is a
bitch. But we got it, and not for long, so we'd best make use of it.” She held out her hand for Darya's bag.
“I'll stow this in a locker in the main room. I believe you remember Agent Davis.”
The gym shorts man who had worked with her before was walking over from the side of the pool as Reeves moved past him. She was heading for a door on the other side, it seemed. Her...what, trainer? Examiner? This was a weird new world, but whatever. Davis approached and shook her good hand.
“Good to see you again, Timid,” he said with a wink. “I'll take it easy on you for today, owing your injury, but I'm still gonna put you through your paces. Your pal Broadway said you could take it.”
”Broadway? You've talked to her?”“Yep. Had to do the same with her, though in a much different setting. Getting a feel for your powers when you're not sure of them was going to be a pain, but I know you've worked with them before. So let's get started, yeah? Jump on in.”
The girl hesitated for barely a second before leaping into the water, trying and failing to contain a yelp of joy. As soon as she hit the water, the exam faded from her mind for a second and the pure joy of being in her element took over. The water that had splashed up suddenly dropped back into the pool, and she formed a vortex as she rocketed through the water like a torpedo. She already knew, through her own experiments, that she couldn't breathe underwater yet, though it felt
possible somehow, but she
could stay under for much longer than most. She did so, pushing herself to go faster. In the community pool, she hadn't been able to do this, and had only been there once since her powers came in anyway. Even if she had felt rebellious, there were too many people. But here, she had all this to herself, and took shameless advantage. Finally, after almost ten minutes, she came back up, sitting five feet off of the surface of the pool in a swirling column, right where she had gone in.
Davis had a few pieces of equipment next to him now, and was clicking a stopwatch and staring at her. “Damn, girly, that was a treat to watch. Can you breathe down there or something?”
She shook her head, and he clicked his tongue. “Well, you might as well have been. Twelve minutes and twenty-six seconds. And you move like a missile.”
She cocked her head to her side, and he waved at what looked to be a modded radar gun cops used. “I clocked you at over forty at one point on a straight shot. That as fast as you can go?”
”I don't know, really. First time I have been able to cut loose.”Alright, well, we'll stress that in a bit. Right now, I want you to lift and move as much of this as you can.”
Darya spun in her little column, which clung to her waist, thinking about what might be the most effective way to do this. She had made a huge wave in the Rio, once, to stop a kidnapper from escaping, but that was in open air. Then she realised she should just build on what she had.
She moved her 'chair' out into the middle of the pool, and lifted herself up to the ceiling, thirty feet above her. When her raised hand brushed the rafters, she began drawing everything up into a funnel. Not caring about form for the moment, she simply swirled as much as she could into her column. It grew rapidly in diameter. Five, then ten feet. Fifteen. The water level in the pool changed visibly, and the shallow end was almost empty by the time she hit a thirty foot column. The roar of swirling water drowned out all other noise. Once she had hit forty feet in diameter, she wanted to see how much control she could manage, so she suddenly stopped the swirling.
The noise abruptly died off. The column was as still as a calm pond. Slowly, she moved tendrils, maybe two feet wide, out of it. One, then three. A dozen. Finally stopping only when she had about a hundred going at once, because it was beginning to make her very dizzy, even with them still. She dropped it down to fifty and began lashing them around in very basic, whip-like motions, extending them out to about a hundred feet and then hauling them back in. She noticed as she did so that her column lost it's neat shape, more so than they should have distorted it, and that she was ten feet lower. She kept it up for as long as she could and then slowly let everything sink back into a normal, not physics defying shape, then gently pushed herself along until she could climb out next to Davis.
“Alright,” he said quietly. “I take back what I said the other day. You are certainly not on the weak side. You okay?”
”Bit dizzy.”“Probably from not pushing it like this before. Anything else major you can show me? I know you can freeze it, how about that?”
Darya glanced at the pool. She had actually been practising this a lot. The ice formed fast, and spread across the surface even faster as she concentrated. It hit the opposite edge within two minutes.
”IIt's about two inches thick right now. I can tell you exactly how thick any given expanse of ice is. Dunno how far that goes, though. Actually, I could give you real time numbers for all of this.”She waved her hand, more for effect than anything else. She had been practising this as well. The ice melted off. And then steam began to rise off of the surface.
“That should be around a hundred and ten. At least on the surface. It would take ages to heat the whole thing.”Davis stared out over the pool. “Huh,” he said. He repeated it twice, then nodded to himself suddenly. “Alright, Tiamat, looks like you are damn well capable. We'll get back to you in a bit. I got a couple more I need to check out in the pool solo, and then some group stuff for those that don't have anything like this. Head through that door over there and find Reeves. She'll take you to the range.”
She had met far too many people in the past day. Aside from Reeves and Davis, there was one other FBI member, Special Agent Zimmerman, an obvious war veteran who worked on the range right now. He had not liked her right up until she started shooting, and then warmed up immensely. Much like Davis, she was sure he was less about heroing and more about making sure any of the heroes didn't accidentally shoot someone in the line of...Well, she couldn't call it duty.
And of the heroes, there were five of them here today. A gun-toting guy who called himself Dragon, though she wasn't sure where his name came from. One who was piloting some sort of suit like Iron Knight's. A speed demon kid who hadn't bothered with a concealed identity, redheaded and she suspected very much a minor. He also acted like a total asshole, almost fighter pilot like. A girl who could teleport and hear almost anything near her, Darya thought. And a guy who was super strong.
On top of all of these were a variety of DHS and ATF agents, a handful of police, and a few vets. The non-powered people who had volunteered. She couldn't remember all these names. Reeves assured her that was normal during lunch.
“Everyone's here for the same thing, but no one's gonna learn everyone's name in just a few hours. It usually takes a day or two. And then there's wherever you'll be working, too.”
”I thought we'd be working here in New Mexico, or near by?”“What?” Reeves looked at her incredulously, then shook her head. “No way. There haven't been any credible moves made by our target here. Everyone's going to be split up, linked with whoever else the high strategists think will make effective teams, and then sent to hotspots.”
”Hotspots?”“Yeah. Places in-country where they've been particularly active. Los Haven, where that university attack yesterday was, or Pacific Point. New Orleans, New York. Areas with high threat risks, as well.” Reeves leaned in conspiratorially over the shitty Chinese food they had all ordered for lunch.
“Personally, I hope to be put on the main team, the ones who'll be tracking movements and will hit the main base of operations when we find it.”
”You really want these guys, huh?”“Don't you?”
That conversation kept replaying in the girl's head for the rest of the afternoon as they paired off and sparred with one another. She was exempted from this due to her injury, but helped with the pool obstacles for group assessment. What
did she want out of this? She knew she should be doing something, helping against these monstrous people. But she wasn't bent on blood as much as most everyone else was. She hadn't lost family and friends,
thank Allah's mercy, but even with information about losses, she couldn't really understand the need for revenge.
As she was sitting there, pondering it yet again, one of the ATF agents walked over to where she sat leaning against a wall. They were apparently nearly done for the day. This woman was at least two inches taller than Reeves, and unlike Reeves and herself was not a willowy sort at all. She looked like she power lifted. Her dark red hair was kept in a ponytail today, but during the sparring Darya had noticed she kept it pinned even further so as to not present a target or distraction. She held out a hand to the seated heroine.
“I'm Rollins. You're Tiamat, right?”
Darya gingerly took the offered hand and was hauled up to her feet as well as getting a handshake. She nodded.
”Yes, that is me.”“Heard you weren't a bad shot from Zimmerman, and saw you on the pool stuff. You're gonna be really useful in the shit, arentcha?”
Darya didn't really know how to respond to that, but thankfully the larger woman didn't seem to want to give her a chance to.
“C'mon, they're gonna start the briefing soon.” She clapped a hand on the girl's back to get her moving and walked along side her out of the pool area where they had been waiting for the undisguised people to come back from changing.
“So how long you been doin' this hero thing, Tiamat?”
”N-not long? Perhaps six months officially, and this is really the first thing I have done with an official capacity. I worked with the USHA....Wait, the UHO. For a few jobs before this, but it was more like a...a junior invitee, or something.”“Haw haw!” The woman had a genuine, if rather abrasive, laugh. She was reminded of caricatures in literature about stupid southerners and other 'non-intellectuals'. “You were a probie with Broadway, huh? That's great!”
”How is it that everyone I meet today knows Broadway somehow?”“Well, I don't know about anyone else, but me and her dated in high school for a bit.”
Darya was taken aback. She hadn't been aware Broadway was gay. Then again, they
did tend to try and keep their personal lives to themselves when heroing for obvious reasons. She was about to ask more when they walked into the 'main room', which was more a combination meeting room and locker area than a lounge like Darya had been expecting. The folding tables from lunch had been stacked away, and all the chairs were now facing a tall, thin man in the 'standard goon' suit. His grey hair was also of the standard set, close cropped and neat. He held his hands behind his back and waited for everyone to be seated, then cleared his throat and began speaking in a slow, deep voice.
“Good afternoon. I am Deputy Director George Boothe. As many of you have no doubt heard, yesterday we suffered yet another assault on national security, at a university.”
A chorus of growls answered this. Boothe held up his hands.
“I know. I feel the same. Which is why, with how
many attacks have occurred there, we are putting together an emergency team. I need volunteers.”
All hands immediately went up.
“You have no idea how good that sight makes me feel. Hands down. We have a short list we want on this. Reeves, Rollins, Hallows, Phillips, and Faulkner. For metas, Dragon, Tiamat, Naia, and Doc Holliday and Broadway will meet you out there.”
There were some grumbles, but Darya paid them no mind as she stood with the rest. Naia, she knew, did some sort of magic. Her grandmother would be very pleased to hear about that later on. She wasn't really sure what qualified that tiny little blonde girl or Dragon as metas, but she could figure it out later. Boothe was still talking.
“You eight will rest up this evening. Jet will take you out tonight, and you'll hit tarmac at 0600 tomorrow morning and link up with the field office there. Tiamat, you and Broadway will be trying to link up with any other heroes in the area, since you two are currently the most recognisable. Reeves, you'll help 'em. Everyone else is on response and research.
“The rest of you will be waiting until I get orders, but you'll probably be hitting New York. Rebound,” he pointed at the speedster, “I
know I'm sending you to LA. I'll need to discuss that with you later.
“Now look,” he said louder, addressing the whole room again. “We all want these bastards. I know
I do. But we do this by the books. If any of them are arrested, I want to make
damn sure there's no mistrials or dismissals. Any of these assholes we catch, we
keep. And,” Darya saw his fists whiten with tension. “If any of them happen to resist arrest or threaten our lives, well. I'm not gonna complain.”
He looked over the room one more time, then nodded. “Dismissed.”
While excited, Darya was also a little anxious. This would be the first time she had ever been away from her family. Reeves let her know to go grab whatever she needed from her house and be back here by seven. Her weekend was looking more exciting by the minute.
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