Chapter Twenty-Three - Melaton

A little bit later and they were on the corner of Main and 6th, a rather busy street with tight roads that probably predated the idea of cars and were rather cramped. A little terraced cafe sat on the corner, as Melanie had told her.

“This it, Boss?” Teddy asked as she eyed the cafe.

“We’re supposed to go behind it,” Emily said. “I think, um, maybe this way?”

A bit of exploring later and she found a tight little alleyway that led towards the back of the cafe. That was the second time she went into an alley in a week, probably in the last few years in fact.

The shadows cast by the buildings above them turned the already chill air much colder, and the stench of old leftovers warred with the buzz of flies to make the area rather unpleasant. Emily wondered what the people who saw them moving into the alley thought of them just moving in like that.

“Hey kids.”

Emily gasped while Teddy spun around and moved to place herself between Emily and the voice.

There was another alley nearby, a sort of t-junction in the passages lit only by a rusty old light hanging off the wall. Standing just on the edge of that light was the... rather short form of a woman with familiar frizzy hair.

The height, hair, and voice were enough to identify her, which was good because the rest of the woman was covered in a complex costume that fit her form closely. It was made of some sort of red leather-like material with bumps where armoured plates stood out under the cloth.

Her boots--which reached up to her knees--were covered in metal plates, the same as her gauntlets, though those only covered the tops of her hands. The bump of her palms and her fingers were left free.

There wasn’t anything on Melanie that wasn’t covered except for her mouth and chin, but even that was only exposed because her lower mask was undone and dangling to the side from a strap. There had to be a hole somewhere at the back too because her black hair was loose over her back and shoulders.

“Me-Melanie?” Emily squeaked.

She eyed the woman, the hero, and backed up just a step. Teddy stepped up between her and the woman in red, though what she could do against her was questionable. Melanie had a handgun strapped to one thigh and a large knife on the other.

The heroine crossed her arms. “I thought I told you to come in costume,” she said.

Emily froze. “Um,” she said before looking for words. “You... didn’t?”

She had the impression Melanie was frowning, though there was no way to tell with most of her face hidden behind a visor. She reached down and Emily tensed until she reached into a small pocket sewn just below her holster and pulled out a phone.

The light from the cell illuminated the alley for a bit and reflected off the opaque lens covering Melanie’s face. “Huh. I didn’t. My bad.”

“Oh, okay,” Emily said.

“You a big-shot hero?” Teddy asked.

Melanie snorted. “I guess so. I go by Melaton.”

That name was familiar. Emily wracked her brain for more information on the heroine, but all she could remember were some commercials for sportswear and a controversy when Melaton knocked out a crowd of reporters.

“Uh,” Emily said.

Melaton sighed. “Alright kid, I figured you might be of some help. Handshake said you were alright, for the most part. And we’re both after the same jerkwad.”

“You mean going after Homie?” Emily asked.

“Pretty much,” Melaton said. “Tell me right now, you in or not?”

“I... I don’t know what you’re planning on doing,” Emily said.

The hero grumbled under her breath then nodded. “Yeah, okay, fair. I have a plan.”

The silence after that lasted a few long beats until Teddy decided to fill it. “Yeah, what is it?” she asked.

“I’m going to find Homie, and then I’m going to give him some nightmares.”

“That’s... your plan?” Emily asked.

“Got a problem with it?”

That was not, in her opinion, a plan. It was barely an outline! She put more planning into buying cereal--she didn’t want the cashier to think she was too childish buying the tasty kinds, or too much of a prude if she bought the sort of cereal that was too healthy. “N-no, no problem,” Emily lied.

“If you want to come along, I could use a bit of help, especially powered help.”

Emily considered it for a moment. “What will we do if we find the hard-drive?”

Melaton shrugged a shoulder. “We can give it to Handshake for some cash.”

“It has a lot of... bad things on it.”

“I’d be all for giving it to the fat pigs in charge, but there’s some information on there about me, you know?” Melaton said.

“I, yeah,” Emily said. “I think maybe, if you don’t mind, we could destroy it?”

The heroine’s jaw twisted one way then the other. “Yeah, we could do that. We’ll see. You coming?”

What were the chances that Melaton would just remove the things about herself on the drive then give it to her bosses? And then the fact that she was a villain would be out in the open. She didn’t have much of a choice. At least being with Melaton would allow her to maybe make... maybe not friends--that was going too far--but become the acquaintance of a heroine.

“We’re coming,” Emily said.

“Good. You got a costume? Because looking like a civie is great if you’re a nobody, but it’s hardly intimidating,” Melaton said.

“I do,” Emily said. “But, ah, I need a place to change?”

Melaton looked around. “No one here,” she said.

“The Boss doesn’t like it when people see her naked,” Teddy said.

Emily considered if she could turn around and run away from the mortification, especially when Melaton started to laugh. “And you don’t mind, kid?” she asked.

“I get naked in front of people all the time,” Teddy said.

Emily slapped a hand over her face. It was... kind of technically true. Her grizzly form wasn’t wearing anything but it’s fur, but that didn’t count!

Melaton choked on her laughter. “What?”

“Is there a place we could change?” Emily asked.

The heroine nodded and gestured behind her. “There’s a little booth back there. It’s for changing in and out of costume.”

“There are booths?” Emily asked.

Melaton nodded. “Yeah. Bit of a trade secret? You don’t want some overzealous fan camping out in front of a booth. The creeps might put up a camera or something and then I’d need to find and knock them out.”

Emily tilted her head to the side a little, expecting to see a little booth, like a phone booth but hopefully with blacked-out walls, but other than a few dumpsters there was nothing of note. “Um.”

The heroine sighed and spun around to head deeper into the alley. “It’s camouflage,” she said before stopping next to a dumpster. A Tug upwards on a bar at the front, then a yank to the side and part of the garbage container’s side slid into it revealing a small white room with a bench along one side and some windows on the walls that Emily couldn’t see from the outside.

“Oh, wow,” she said.

“Have fun, I’ll be over there.” Melaton pointed off to the end of the alley.

“R-right.”

Emily ducked into the booth first, with Teddy waiting for her just outside. She undressed herself in a hurry, shoved everything in her bag, then got dressed with only some reluctance into her costume. Looking like a gangster from the 20s in front of a hero was sounding like an increasingly dumb idea, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

“I’m done,” she said as she reopened the door. The window set into it allowed her to see Teddy picking at her nose as if she was right there. The girl yanked her finger back and scurried in to change herself.

Melaton looked back, then moved her head up and down as if inspecting Emily. She squirmed a little under the gaze but didn’t move.

“Nice costume,” Melaton said. “You able to take a hit?”

“Um... no?” Emily said.

“That doesn’t look armoured at all,” Melaton added.

“It... isn’t,” Emily confirmed.

Melaton sighed. “Well, you’d better be good at dodging then.”

“Right,” Emily agreed. “So, once Teddy’s done we head out?”

The hero nodded. “Yup. Will this be your first outing in-costume?” At Emily’s nod, she went on. “Oh, in that case, I might as well show you the ropes.”