A nest of hornets - Part 2

Caitlyn cursed the fact that she could only float fast, again. Reaching the nearest roof, she dropped to the surface and began running, her eyes flickering between the flying super and the way ahead. She wasn't even certain what she was doing, only that she had been given these powers, this suit, and she had a duty to use it. She reached the edge of the building, jumped and used the parapet to launch herself through the air.

Even while training with Trooper Jane, she had always held, in the back of her mind, that she only played the part. Sure, she had now fought three people and come out as a winner, but that was more luck than judgment. Those guys had battered her and bruised her and even with the suit, somehow, healing her at an incredible rate, she still had suffered every hit. Not to mention one of those fights was only a test. She wasn't certain she was cut out for this.

The super, Vezzpa, still flew up ahead, heading to the riverside and the wharf district, but Caitlyn was losing ground. Flying was better than running and jumping, and certainly faster than floating. Even with the aid of the suit, giving her a telescopic view of Vezzpa, the villain had almost flown out of sight. She redoubled her efforts, leaping as far as she could, as fast as she could, and watched as Vezzpa flew down toward the warren of warehouses, cargo containers and ships.

Landing on a tall crane, Caitlyn looked around, watching the bustle of activity below as dockworkers went about their working day. She could feel the crane shifting below her as she crouched, moving a large container along the length of its arm toward a nearby ship. She had lost the super-villain, which was about on par for what she expected. She wasn't a hero. A hero wouldn't have let Vezzpa get away.

About to leap to the nearest warehouse, to perform a floating sweep along the maze-like streets of the wharf district, she felt a sensation that someone was watching her. Then a buzzing sound reached her ears and she made an instinctive leap. Tumbling in the air, she began to float, turning around and calling for the baseball bat-type weapon she had started to prefer during her combat training.

Something struck the crane where she had crouched. Some kind of energy that crackled and sparked along the length of the crane's superstructure. Vezzpa. Somehow the super-villain had seen Caitlyn, or Blood Obsidian, as she should call herself while doing the whole superhero thing. Vezzpa hovered before Caitlyn, insect-like wings flapping so fast they were only a blur, and Caitlyn had a good look at her enemy.

A woman, that was clear. The yellow and black body suit, or armour, clung to every curve, so tight that Caitlyn could see pretty much everything. It left nothing to the imagination and almost made Caitlyn blush for the villain. A harness strapped around Vezzpa's shoulders and waist, holding the wings to her back and the 'stinger' tail, too. A tail that now pointed toward Caitlyn. With no other option available to her, Caitlyn dropped, turning off her floating ability as the energy from Vezzpa's stinger tail crackled through the air where Caitlyn had floated.

"You're new." Vezzpa buzzed and flitted to and fro, never staying in one place for long, goggles, that looked like large compound eyes, looked down toward Caitlyn. "I haven't zztudied you."

"Yeah. I could say the same, buzzy." That was a lame come-back and she knew it. Part of Trooper Jane's training involved identifying villains. Vezzpa was not among them. "What say we swap trading cards? I'll know your abilities, I'll lie about mine. It'll be fun."

"Or I could juzzt kill you." Without warning, Vezzpa fired her stinger again, causing Caitlyn to leap backward from where she had landed. "Agile. My targeting computer will zzort that out."

"I think you should 'zzort' out your terrible lisp." Avoiding another sting-blast, Caitlyn continued to prove her phys-ed teacher wrong. She totally could have reached the Olympics. "There are some great programs online that ..."

The sting-blast caught her hip and the pain felt like every muscle and blood vessel had ruptured. Mid-tumble, she crashed and rolled, head-over-heels, toward a stack of containers. She hadn't expected that to hurt as much as it had. Her hand fell to her side, touching the suit, that had already started repairing itself, and felt little bubbles, as though the suit had melted. She had no time to worry about that, however, as the buzzing of Vezzpa's wings were coming closer.

Curling her legs under her, Caitlyn had to time this for the right moment and, as Vezzpa swooped down toward her, stinger-tail ready to fire again, Caitlyn leapt forward and upward, crashing into Vezzpa with her arms covering her head. They both tumbled from the air, their arms and legs entangled, and Caitlyn fought to get on top, holding Vezzpa's arms to the ground. She wasn't super-strong and, Caitlyn thought, that was a bonus, at least.

"You think you can hold Vezzpa?" Beneath the compound-eye goggles, Vezzpa's lips curled, painted with thick, yellow lipstick. She looked behind Caitlyn. "You heroezz care more about livezz than we villainzz. That'zz your weak zzpot."

"What do you ...?" She needn't have even started to ask.

Vezzpa's stinger-tail curled from beneath her and fired. Caitlyn tensed, ready to keep a grip on Vezzpa no matter how badly the sting hurt, but the sting-blast didn't hit her. She twisted her head, looking behind her to see the blast strike the cables on the huge crane, causing one to snap and the container below to swing and begin to fall. And, below the container, workers unaware of the danger.

-+-

Parkside High - That very same moment ...

Alaina drank from the juice box that she knew darned well she was too old to be drinking from and didn't care. It was the most orangey orange drink in the entire world and she loved it. What she did care about was the fact that Rayna Alden had decided to sit alone for her break and Alaina took that as a personal insult. Challenge. A personal challenge. She always mixed up those two.

The girl sat, back hunched, head drooping, reading a book. In her break! That was wrong on, like, a billion levels and Alaina had to rectify it. It seemed obvious that Rayna didn't want company and that was, of course, nonsense. Everyone wanted Alaina's company. Especially those who didn't. She dropped down beside the billionaire's daughter and leaned in to stare at the book pages. Writing. Lots and lots of really tiny words and Alaina needed to find a new word to describe this new level of boring.

"Watcha reading?" She slurped the last dregs of juice from the box and sucked for a little longer anyway. Rayna ignored her. That was a personal insult. Not the other thing. "Rayna Alden. Cool. My best, best, very, very best friend, plus a thousand, is interning at your dad's work. She's called ..."

"Caitlyn Carter. I know." Rayna closed the book on her finger, keeping her place, and gave Alaina an impassive look. That was wrong. People always smiled at Alaina. Not this emotionless stuff. "I'm not here to make friends. I'm here because my father thinks I need to see what 'real people' are like. To see what 'exceptional' people born into more 'trying circumstances' have to teach me. Believe me, I know all about Caitlyn Carter. My father doesn't stop talking about how brilliant she is and ..."

Rayna blinked and looked away, pursing her lips and blowing exasperated air from her nose. Caitlyn had that affect on people. Others didn't appreciate her brilliance, not like Alaina did, but then, Alaina appreciated everyone's brilliance. Caitlyn's more, obviously. A strained silence fell and Alaina's fingers drummed a staccato beat upon her thighs as Rayna reopened her book. She probably shouldn't do this. Should probably leave the girl alone to wallow in her misery.

"Do you want to stay over at my place? I promise, I'm not a sexual predator. Probably. But, you know, it'd get you away from your dad saying how awesome Caitlyn is." She continued, even though Rayna had begun to stare at her as though she could shoot beams from her eyes. "I have a punchbag. Well, a body pillow, but you can punch it if you want. We could pretend we're, like, six, on a sleepover. No?"

"No." Rayna stared at Alaina for a little longer than she really needed to before opening her book once again and dipping her head.

Understanding full well that Rayna had dismissed her, silently, Alaina stayed right where she was. Rayna had won this battle, but Alaina would win the war. In fact, it had ended far better than Alaina had expected. At least she didn't need to visit the ER. This time. Caitlyn still apologised for that incident to this very day. Well, maybe not this very day. Recently.

Without asking, Alaina lifted the cover of the book in Rayna's hand and read the title. Why anyone would want to read "Fluctuations in quantum scale barriers and their applications to nano-technology" for fun, Alaina would never know. She smiled at Rayna's murderous scowl and allowed the book to fall back to her hand.

She was going to be a difficult nut to crack, but crack it she would. Alaina never left an anti-social loner behind. Everybody needed a little love and attention and Alaina had more than enough to go around. That was her super-power.