After Sophia left, my mind started going in circles, trying to come up with ways to help her. But everything I could come up with, every solution was limited by the fact that it would either expose her as Powered to her parents, introducing a risk-factor I did not like, or it would require her to leave them behind, which would not fly either. So, I did the only productive thing I could think of and buried my mind in work.

For my plan to take care of the Omegas to work, I needed another chess-piece, a police-officer who was not on the take but willing to play ball with me to dismantle the Omega’s organisation. And it could not simply be a normal officer, I needed someone higher in the chain of command but not so high up that they would not take risks to advance their career. Even with Galatea filtering the personal files we had acquired, it was about as interesting as watching paint dry. Scratch that, most paint had interesting processes during the drying, if you bothered to look closely enough. The files were worse.

After maybe three hours of reading of the interesting exploits of various police-detectives, Galatea sent me an alert. The surveillance on Joy had yielded interesting results, interesting enough for me to link in and listen in real time. She was having brunch at some café with Sandra Ridley, who I strongly suspected to be Voltic. Judging by the sound-quality I was getting, I had to guess that Joy had placed her phone on the table in front of her.

It was interesting listening to their small-talk, even if I had no knowledge about most of the people they were gossiping about. It was a bit like listening to a sitcom, after tuning in somewhere in the middle. But after some time of gabbing, they got to the interesting part. Her date with Heather, even if she was ostensibly seeing someone else. Well, not quite, but it would have been fitting for the sitcom-angle. They did talk about the night, but not in the context of a date.

“San, I need your advice. Last night, Heather and I went dancing together, you know, just chill and… something happened.” She started.

“Oh, something happened you say?” Sandra’s voice asked and I could almost hear the smirk, as if she knew that the two of them were closer than just dancing friends.

“Yes, we bumped into two other girls and joined them for the evening. Later, when I was visiting the bathroom with one of them, she was called Cat, Heather and the other got trapped by a couple of frat boys. You know the type, pushy, arrogant and thoroughly convinced that any woman wants to sleep with them, they just need the right kind of push.” Joy’s explanation was a little rushed, as if she wanted to get to the desired topic as soon as possible.

“Yes, I know the type. What happened then?” Sandra asked, all traces of mirth gone from her voice.

“The second girl, Sophia, she seemed to be bothered by something the whole evening. I mentioned it to her friend and she knew something but wasn’t telling. Anyway. Sophia was stupid enough to take a drink or two from the frat boys and seemed to be completely out of it when we came back. I was about to get the bouncers, it was after all supposed to be an under-eighteen party, when Cat walked into the frat boys, bold as brass, and kissed Sophia, kissed her good I mean. Kinda in an ‘I want to devour you, right now, right here’ kind of way, you know?”

“Interesting way of conflict resolution.” Sandra remarked with a slightly wry tone. “What happened next?”

“That’s the thing. You know, the thing when you get ready to act? When you feel someone is bullying someone and you get ready to launch into them? She looked so very similar, poised to strike, ready for action. The frat boys must have realised it as well and did not push it. Luckily.”

“Sounds like that Cat has some training. That’s not so uncommon, there are plenty of people who have an interest in self-defence and there are tons of courses on self-defense for women.”

“And how many of them carry around some sort of hidden weapons?” Joy broke in.

“What do you mean?” Sandra asked, confusion in her voice.

“We left together, I wanted to make sure that they were fine. Before we got far, another frat boy ran up, only that one was Powered. When he moved, he was faster than he should have been, as if there was a tape going in fast forward, speeding him up.”

“Shit. Was he wearing a costume?” Now, it was Sandra’s turn to break in.

“No? Just ordinary clothes.”

“Shit, shit, shit. Normally, costumed identities are kept separate from powers. Nobody wants to combine the two and go after people out of costume, there would be warfare in the streets. Most Powdered are smart enough to respect that, they don’t try to figure out the identity of the heroes and we return the favour, unless they go off the rails. What did he do?” Sandra’s voice was now on edge.

“Well, he ran up and smacked Cat in the head with some sort of stick. I think she tried to dodge but didn’t manage it but she managed to spray some stuff into his face when he tried to attack again. Pepper spray or something, only that she had no can in her hand. It must have worked, the guy started to cough up a lung, stumbling around at super-speed for a moment before he managed to scurry off.” Joy continued.

“So, you are one of the witnesses for assault using a power, by someone not wearing a costume? Shit. I’ll write a report, add your statement, you can sign it and I’ll pass it on. I hate cases like that. Shit. And of course it’s right now, when I’m not sure about my power. God, why does that shit happens all at once?!” Sandra’s voice was turning frantic.

“What’s wrong with your power?” Joy asked.

“Nothing!” Sandra snapped, but after a second, she apologized. “Sorry, Joy. It’s just that something has happened and now everyone at the League looks at me as if I’m a bomb about to go off. At least BadMouth is on vacation somewhere.”

“What about the girl, Cat?”

“What about her? She has training, that’s not uncommon. Ok, maybe better training than most, but still. And I’ve read an article about a company getting ready to roll out some sort of armlets or wristbands with built-in pepper spray, so girls can have it handy without having it in hand, or something like that. Stupid, catchy slogan. If her ‘rents are in that sort of business, she might have a beta-version. Or she has a minor power, allowing her to manifest pepper spray or something like that, I don’t know. But she has done nothing wrong so there’s that. And if she was some sort of powered villain, you shouldn’t even think about it. They tend to be paranoid to the extreme, Hell, if she was one, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has you under surveillance. If she has: Cat, I promise not to dig deeper.” She implored the open air.

I almost started laughing and was tempted to send her a picture of the fleeing Fleetfoot, taken by a surveillance-camera. Not to Joy, to Sandra, indicating that she herself was under surveillance by me, making good on my promise to keep an eye on her. I was still waiting for her to contact me. But no, short term-fun was not worth courting long-term trouble.

“Seriously?” Joy asked in an incredulous voice. “If you say so. What happens with the report once it’s written?”

“Depends and I have a bad feeling about it. Once it’s written, the tech-heads check for possible surveillance-camera pictures and people check for registered Powered with a fitting power and make a visit. If that scares something up, good, well, not good but you know what I mean. If not, there will be a file made and either a phantom-picture given by you, or one from a surveillance-camera will be distributed. Possibly linked with a particular unregistered, which is why I have a bad feeling.” Sandra explained.

“I never quite understood why people would register if they don’t want to join the League and now it sounds like an annoyance, if you just turn into a suspect. It’s not like anyone can see that someone is powered, right?”

“Well, there are rumours that the League can identify Powered. But if that’s true, they are not sharing. Registration has two large advantages. For unregistered, it is enough to provide a preponderance of evidence that they commited a crime, meaning it’s enough if they were in the vicinity and have the fitting power. So, if I was unregistered and someone was stunned with an electric shock and robbed outside my house, I could be convicted for it. If they ever became aware of me. In addition, I would not only get convicted for robbery and assault, I would get a higher minimum-sentence for being an unregistered Powered. It’s a trade-off.” Sandra said, before switching the topic. “But there is one more thing I want to know about yesterday evening. Why were Heather and you at an under-eighteen party? Were you sneeeaky?”

I snorted, hearing the teasing in her voice. It seemed their conversation had turned back into a gossip-fest. Oh, well, sometimes sitcoms can be fun.