Chapter 13: 13 Casino Royale

The next day, Vista and I went out for a breath of fresh air. The PRT troopers in the motor pool looked a little odd today with a few scarred faces, missing ears, and one even had three missing fingers on one hand. I didn't pay any attention to that, though. I assumed they were rotated in while I was out of action and given odd shifts during non-busy days to keep them on the payroll.

I went to each and every one of them and shook their hands and introduced myself with both my cape name and my real name. That kind of surprised a few of them and the rest were shocked when their missing parts grew back and their scars and internal injuries disappeared.

“Who's on driving duty today?” I asked and they all put up their hands, even the guy that had new fingers. “We're going to the boardwalk for some sea air and maybe a little mischief.”

“Hell, kid. I'll help you blow up the place for giving me back my testicles!” The man with three new fingers said with a laugh.

I glanced at the other officers and they shrugged. “Just a drive for now, thanks.”

“Anything you want, kid.” The man said and waved at the SUV.

I helped Vista into the backseat and she smiled at me.

“I doubt you'll need to message Director Costa-Brown after that.”

“You mean like this?” I asked and held up my cell phone that sent the video of what I just did.

“Slick.” Vista said and took the phone to put it back into my belt pouch. “I assume you have approval for what we're going to try and do this morning?”

I winked at her and she giggled. “It's a test. I would have done it on my own, except it's a test for how effective we can be when paired together during patrols.”

“Just Armsmaster and Miss Militia?” Vista asked.

“And Dragon.” I said and leaned in close. “By the way, we've rescheduled the Florida trip for your birthday in May.”

Vista glanced at the driver for a moment, then pulled off her helmet and flicked her hair over the side of her face to hide it before she kissed me hard. We stayed like that until the SUV bumped over the edge of the garage door and onto pavement. She put her helmet back on and looked happy at my stunned expression.

We arrived at the boardwalk and since it was Sunday, it was fairly busy with weekend visitors and police officers. I told the guy he could have breakfast on me at Fugly Bob's and handed him twenty bucks.

“Thanks, kid.” He said and watched as we stepped out of the SUV. He knew it would get him a lot closer to watching us than staying in the parking lot would and he appreciated me giving him an excuse.

“It's Vista!” A little girl shouted and pointed at us.

The cameras and cell phones came out and we were suddenly swarmed by a bunch of people. A few of them asked who I was and I explained that I hadn't had my official debut as a Ward yet. I made sure to introduce myself with only my cape name and shook everyone's hand. I took in all of their injuries and damage, too.

I couldn't tell you who had the bunions, who had the yeast infection, or who had their kidney removed. That one was an odd injury to heal out of a group of random adults. The kids were interesting, because one had a slight skull fracture on the back of their head and a well healed broken leg, probably from a bad fall, and another had psoriasis on their scalp.

“My head's not itchy anymore!” A little boy said and ran away.

I looked through the crowd to see him tackle a woman that sat on the park bench near the water. His arms flailed and he pointed at himself and then at me. I kept my eye on them as I talked with the people still asking questions. I didn't tell them what my powers were, though. I didn't want to get caught potentially lying.

Whatever powers I admitted to having now, I would be stuck using in public from now on, even if I gained better ones later. Since I didn't want to do that, I avoided questions about it and said I was here to support Vista as we conducted an experiment.

That set off even more questions and Vista and I answered as best as we could. When they asked if they could watch, we laughed and pointed to the end of the boardwalk and said the front row seats were right there. After a mad scramble by the crowd, the woman and the boy on the bench had twenty other people join them in admiring the view.

“Let's give them something to talk about.” I said and took Vista's hand.

“You better mean the experiment.” Vista said and blushed a little.

“Sure, that's what I meant.” I said with a grin and she giggled.

We walked at a normal pace and didn't stop when we reached the crowd. They parted for us and we stepped over to the railing... and I dropped its height to a inch and we kept walking. Everyone stared as the railing went back to normal and then gasped and shouted when the old decrepit Harbour Lighthouse seemed to zoom towards us. Cameras flashed and phones recorded it all.

Vista nodded to me and we stepped onto the rocks and we let the space return to normal, which returned the lighthouse back to where it was. The shouts continued and the people waved at us, so we waved back and then pointed to the wrecked ship that blocked the harbour.

“Go for it, Vista!” The little girl shouted.

“This is for you!” Vista said and waved to her, then looked at me. “We have to succeed now.”

I chuckled and motioned to the rock we stood on. We compressed the space between it and the ship to leave us a foot away from the right side of it. I talked her through how I had expanded Armsmaster's lab by concentrating on the space in front of the wall and using my powers on it. Vista nodded as I explained and I felt her power flow through me and it was eager to be used so creatively.

“We're reversing the flow and crushing the space instead, like we did to the power training cars.” I said and she nodded again. “Remember, it doesn't matter how big something is that's caught between. We control the space. We tell it what to do.”

“I'm ready.” Vista said.

“I know you are.” I said and put my attention on the space in front of us. I felt her power and mine reach out to grab that space. I concentrated and let that feeling expand, and expand, and spread out. I could feel Vista start to sweat and I lifted our joined hands to keep her attention.

I felt her power wane a little and then I felt her kiss my earlobe. A thrill went through me and our powers leapt out the last bit of distance and finished covering the empty oil tanker.

“NOW!” We shouted together and flexed our power.

*CRAAAAAANNNNGGGG!*

Old rusted metal slammed together as the space in front of us compressed to only a foot thick. The entire side of the ship could still be seen, because we had crushed it from side to side.

“I really, really love you.” Vista said and our power moved easily and we crushed it from bow to stern.

All that was left was to crush it from top to bottom and it was downright easy compared to trying to comprehend and measure the space in the first place. We finished crushing the thing into a one foot square cube and then dropped it at our feet. The compressed space was slowly released so that there were no major water splashes or waves from the massive spacial distortion we had created.

The cheers reached us all the way in the harbour and we reversed our trip to put the rock shelf we stood on back by the lighthouse and used it to go back to the boardwalk. The railing dropped and we shifted the metal cube to the front of the park bench and stepped across ourselves to meet and be swarmed by the tremendously happy fans.

Half an hour later, no one was surprised when the mayor himself showed up with reporters and made a speech about a new era starting as a heavy crane moved the metal cube into the back of a dump truck. The dockworkers were glad to have the work and the Dockworkers Union were ecstatic to have the monstrosity out of the way from the mouth of the bay, because it meant more work was coming.

One of the reporters asked a pertinent question. “When can the other wrecks be handled in a similar manner?”

I answered that one before Vista tried to say we could do it right now. “We need time to recover before we can try and do another one next weekend. This was an untested experiment and it took a lot out of us to manipulate that huge of an area. If it wasn't for Vista's ingenuity and pushing herself past her limits, we wouldn't have succeeded.”

“Way to go, Vista!” The little girl said and the crowd cheered.

Vista waved and blushed. I could tell that she was both embarrassed and proud from the praise.

We stayed there for another hour for the impromptu press conference and then climbed into the SUV.

“You really know how to make a scene, kid.” The driver said to me. “Where to now?”

“We really do need to relax after that, so take the scenic route back to the Rig.” I said and he pulled out of the parking lot. He kept our speed slow and he did exactly as I asked.

I should have been a bit more specific, because he drove us through the main part of the city first and through Empire 88 territory. We didn't see any crime this early in the day, so that was a relief. When we went through the Merchants drug dealing territory, Vista grit her teeth at the blatant small time dealers on every second street corner.

I took her hand and she gave me a sad and angry look. “We'll get them cleaned out eventually.”

“We should be doing it right now.” Vista said.

I nodded and sighed. “We can't provoke the capes into attacking the police in retaliation. The cold war peace has been in place for too long to upset it for a few petty criminals.”

“You sound like Director Piggot.” Vista said.

I couldn't deny that. “She's right. It's better for everyone to maintain the balance for now. Maybe when I can gain some better powers, we can take a few chances and deal a blow or two against the biggest capes.”

Vista gave me a searching look. “You think we can scare them into keeping the peace if we capture someone like Oni Lee or Hookwolf?”

I reached over and lightly touched the spot on her side where the old wound was that she had sewn up herself. “I'd crush him in a second if I didn't think you'd hate me for it.”

“It was my own fault. I underestimated him and left myself open.” Vista said.

“You also didn't tell anyone you were hurt.” I said and gave her hand a squeeze. “You were brave and stupid to do that.”

Vista glared at me. “I'm not a child, Alex. I'm a seasoned cape and...”

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I chuckled. “You're preaching to the choir, Vista. I would be out here every night taking down criminals if I was allowed by both regulations and our superior officers.”

“You're both twelve.” The driver said. “Even if you somehow accelerated your Wards training, you're not allowed to become an official Protectorate cape until you're eighteen.”

Vista and I sighed and he chuckled.

“Windows up, we're entering ABB territory.” The driver said.

Vista reached for the button and the window slowly rolled up, then she froze. “Oh, no. What do I do?”

“What is it?” I asked and looked out the window. “Stop the car!”

The SUV came to a stop and Vista and I saw three monster-sized dogs and two people wearing street clothes, one wearing black motorcycle gear from head to toe, and a girl wearing a plastic doggie mask.

“The Unwritten Rules don't count if the villains are together with their civilian identities. Let's go.” I said and Vista opened the back door. We hopped out and crushed the space between us and half of the length of the street as we stepped close and let the space return to normal.

“SHIT!” The blonde girl gasped and stepped back from us. “Vista, you can't break the rules like this!”

“Costume or no, you're currently with the Undersiders.” I said and tossed her one of the folding domino masks that all Wards and Proctectorate heroes had to carry to protect people's identities.

The teenager caught it as she turned her head to look at me. Her eyes widened as she applied the mask and her mouth fell open.

I tapped my temple. “Sorry, Tattletale. Mental trump.”

Tattletale looked at Vista and sighed. “We are so fucked.”

“Grue! Give us cover!” The civilian guy shouted and started to climb up onto one of the dogs.

Just as the darkness started to flow out of the guy dressed all in black with the motorcycle helmet, I zoomed over to him and smashed my hand through his helmet and knocked him out. Before he collapsed, I had his hands and ankles zip-tied.

“I told you.” Tattletale said and held her hands up in surrender.

“He's a speedster like Velocity!” The guy said and kicked the dog's side to get it moving. “Let's get out of here!”

“Cowards!” The dog masked girl shouted and pointed at me. “Atta-ugh!” She dropped to the ground with Vista's knee buried into her gut.

I zoomed over to her and pressed down on the artery in her neck. She fell unconscious and her powers stopped working on her dogs. The guy riding to his freedom shouted in surprise when the dog he was on deflated and he flew off its back and rolled on the pavement.

Vista brought him over to us and I did the same neck press thing as the guy struggled.

“Why... isn't my... power working?” He asked me.

I put a domino mask on him. “Your power is mental, dumbass. I'm a mental trump.”

The shocked look on his face stayed as he feel unconscious.

I let out a whistle and the dog he rode whined a little as it walked over to us with a slight hobble. It also had a missing eye and a damaged ear. “I'm sorry you're hurt.” I said and held a hand out to it.

It looked wary as it sniffed me and judged me fairly before it stepped close to let me rub its head and pet it. It let out a slight whine and then barked when its eye returned and it could see me.

“Your ear's back, too.” I said and rubbed it to let it feel it. “Don't worry, though. We won't let your owner go to jail for long.”

The other two dogs came over to me and I touched them, too. Their scars and old injuries disappeared and they wanted to be petted.

“I thought you were a speedster.” Tattletale commented and looked at Grue. “Wait, how did you do that? Did you break the Manton limit on your power?”

I chuckled. “No, I just figured out how to use it with the limitation.”

“But... but, how?” Tattletale asked as Vista put zip-ties on her wrists. “Everyone knows that as Velocity's speed increases, the less he can interact with the world around him.”

“Yeah, that's why he never causes sonic booms when he runs or causes vacuums to form in his wake or causes wind turbulence in front and to the sides as he passes.” I said.

“Then how?” Tattletale asked and waved at Grue's split helmet.

“I stopped using speed for an instant.” I said and she looked shocked as her mouth dropped open.

“It's a simple solution, isn't it?” Vista asked and waved over the driver. “Velocity was so used to doing things a certain way because of his speed and now he has to relearn how to do everything using Myriad's trick.”

The driver pulled up and parked. “Nice work, you two.”

“Thanks.” I said and picked up both guys. “Open the back.”

He did so and I loaded the secured prisoners into the cargo area.

“You three, too.” I said and the dogs hopped up into the back. “We'll stop at a pet store to grab you something to eat.”

They barked happily and wagged their restored tails.

“We are not keeping them until Hellhound is released.” Vista warned me.

“Who? Me?” I asked, innocently. “That's a great idea!”

Tattletale shook her head. “I'm way out of my depth here and I don't know what's going on.”

“That's perfect.” I said and put a hand on her back. “Please step into my office and we can discuss your future career as an intelligence agent working for the Wards.”

Tattletale gave me an incredulous look. “Are you insane? My boss will have us out by tonight.”

“No, I don't think so.” I said and helped her into the backseat. “I'm going to stay right beside you until you tell us why you were here in this area at this time of the day. Until then, you aren't going to be entered into the computers as being arrested.”

“But, you are arresting us.” Tattletale said.

I climbed in and sat beside her. “Nope! You're being detained for suspicion of a crime. We can hold you for two days before telling anyone where you are or what we're doing with you.”

Tattletale stared at me and didn't say anything in response.

“If it makes you feel safer about this, we can change who you are and re-brand you before anyone can figure out who you were.” I said, encouragingly.

“It's true.” Vista said as the driver put the dog mask girl into the seat beside me. She climbed into the front seat and looked back at Tattletale. “Before we drive away from here, what were you doing?”

Tattletale stared at her. “You're trying to make yourself look better by getting the information from me and to keep me away from your boyfriend.”

Vista blushed and didn't deny it.

“I admit that he's pretty handsome and muscular for someone so young.” Tattletale said. “Is he that good of a kisser?”

Vista turned her head to glare at me. “Don't you dare try to prove it to her.”

I shrunk the seat down to the floor and leaned forward. “Why not?” I asked and kissed Vista.

It was quiet in the SUV as I gave Tattletale the proof she wanted. I broke the kiss and returned the seat to its proper height. Vista's blush and satisfied look made me pretty happy. We both looked at Tattletale's face and she had a blush, too.

“We robbed one of Lung's casinos and stashed the cash in a storage locker in the old bus station down the street.” Tattletale said.

“Driver.” I said and he pulled away from the curb and drove us there. It didn't take us long to recover the stolen money and I split it up between Vista, myself, and Tattletale.

“What are you doing?” Tattletale asked as she stared at the stacks of money on her lap.

“Heroes are allowed to claim and split the ill-gotten gains from villain capes.” I said and handed a stack worth a thousand dollars to the driver. “To the pet store for food and then the bank.”

The driver laughed and pocketed the money and stepped on the gas. “You've got style, kid.”

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