Threat Assessment 10.4, Summary.
* * *
Lei Zi and Riptide didn’t even get directly involved, which was all to the good; Lei Zi could have stunned dozens, she was that good with her control, and Riptide brought his own water-cannons to the fight, but both would have been hard on the crowd.
I found Artemis with Dane and the Bees. Annabeth sat on the bricks, shaken but looking okay, while Julie washed the blood off her knees. Squatting beside her, Dane sported bleeding knuckles and the battle-light of his raiding, slaving, Viking ancestors in his eyes. Megan’s open baton lay ignored a few feet away—she wasn’t stupid enough to claim possession of an illegal concealed weapon in the middle of a police action. A couple of construction guys gave statements to an officer while others stood around.
I nodded to Artemis and kept going. I had an excuse; at the command center, I could hear Lei Zi yelling at Captain Verres.
“Why didn’t anybody tell us about the Paladins?” I’d never seen her seriously angry, and she had good volume.
“Ma’am,” Verres replied politely. “We had no idea they were in town.”
Now I wanted Shelly back for the virtual memory she provided. I vaguely remembered seeing a report on some anti-cape militia groups. They met on weekends to train and prepare, waiting for the day when all of us capes decided it was time to openly take over the government and the country and grind norms beneath our heels. No, really.
“And how could you people miss rocket launchers?”
“Ma’am, the team on the kiosk held cameras until they fired. Newsfeed timestamps show they didn’t fire until the Chicago News helicopter spotted your pair on the Newberry Tower. We think their intent was to lure your girl in, then pot her.”
“Brilliant conclusion, captain.” She made his rank sound like a swearword.
“They’d have probably settled for any flying cape,” I said, stepping up. I made sure my voice was strong and I stood straight. “Captain Verres. It’s good it was me—someone like Red Robin would have been… Well, yuck.”
“Astra.” Taking my offered hand, he returned a firm shake. He looked like his voice, completely bald, bull-neck, solid and competent, and he gave me a quick scan. Under the dust and scorch I must have looked alright, because he chuckled.
“Glad it was you, then. Hate to have a hero go down on my watch.”
“Do you know anything about them, yet?”
“Only that they’re locals.” He rubbed his head. “The DSA hasn’t warned us about any local chapters, but both are in our database for public disturbances. My guess is they’ve just been talk till now, and Shankman’s campaign pushed them into action.”
So now we had a team of supervillains and homicidally paranoid normals with bad intentions. We were never coming off of Def-1. Lei Zi must have read something in my face, because she exhaled and deliberately relaxed.
“I apologize for my outburst, captain,” she said. Then, quietly, “Astra, I’d like you to return to the Dome; we left no one on watch.”
I looked back at the cleanup, nodded. “Thanks, boss. Captain.” He flipped me a salute as I took off.
* * *
Dr. Beth actually sighed when I walked into the infirmary. It hurt to peel out of my costume bodysuit (pretty much a loss, miracle-weave or not) and my breath hitched when I raised my arms. He took one look at my scans and ordered me off patrol duty for at least three days. And no workouts.
“Watch” is a joke; it’s not like the TV shows, where a superteam has a monitor room and they spend all their time watching the news feeds and listening to emergency-channel chatter and waiting for Things To Happen. Dispatch plugged right into the Chicago Emergency Dispatch System along with police and emergency services; we got our calls when a situation met a determined set of circumstances. So being on watch just meant waiting—and training, studying, eating, sleeping, or catching up on paperwork while waiting. In my case, catching up on schoolwork for the classes I wasn’t attending right now.
So I carefully showered and changed into a fresh costume, with one eye to Chicago News’ live coverage of the mess. Willis brought me a sandwich and, in my room and mask off, I filed my after-action report, called Mom (I didn’t call the Bees; the way I felt now, we’d have words), and then called the hospital to check on Chakra and had to reassure Blackstone I was fine. Apparently Chicago News got a beautiful