Turn 24

--- Maya ---

She leapt away from Izzy’s punch, before trying to move in and deliver one of her own.

Of course, Izzy actually having a fair more experience fighting, was able to block and deflect the blow, before grabbing Maya’s arm and throwing her onto the ground.

“Ow…” She groaned.

“You’d think at some point you’d figure out to pullback after a jab.” Izzy critiqued as she laid there.

“You’d think at some point you’d show mercy and quit throwing me.” She argued.

Izzy seemed to think about it for a moment before shaking her head. “Nah, I need the workout throwing you around gives. Got to build those muscles up you know.”

“Screw you.”

---

Seeing how she had a fair amount of time before her bus arrived at the hospital, she pulled out her cell phone and began looking up something she’d been wondering about ever since Decker decimated her with his legal expertise.

(“How do Masks work?”)

It took her a few tries to work through the bs of people explaining how to put on increasingly complicated ‘masks’ before she’d eventually managed to pull up a few pages on what she was actually looking for.

(Alright, let’s see…)

Based on the information she was reading Heroic Masks were still considered something of a legal grey area. The reason for this being said Masks ability to produce evidence and testimony for proper police action after the fact without compromising their own identities.

Due to this, most independent heroes were forced into more of a reactionary role when dealing with crime. Only truly producing viable arrests when saving someone who was themselves willing to produce testimony against their attackers, or in stopping Villainous Masks who were attacking a public location, in which case there was usually a notable amount of witnesses. There was also the rare instance of a criminal having an outstanding warrant, though those seemed to be much rarer than TV would have one believe.

(Meaning if any of the people Decker’s people were forcing to fight, had stayed behind then we might’ve been able to arrest him.) She commented silently, not caring for any stares she may’ve received from the various other bus passengers.

(But then they would’ve had to fend off the various Guild grunts who probably didn’t want them sticking around.) Her inner passion reminded her.

(And in all likelihood any charges they could aid would’ve been against whichever guild member forced them into the fight. Not Decker himself.) Her logic reminded.

(You’re… probably right.) She admitted reluctantly as she fell into a contemplative silence.

(If Masks have so much trouble producing arrests, then how come we always hear about heroes arresting the bad guys?)

(Good question.)

After a bit more reading she found that most of these heroes were either a part of the Hero’s Guild or one of Sanctuary’s Agents. As such they themselves could be used as a witness, due to the Agent’s status as law enforcement officers, and the Guild vouching for their heroes, who had to provide their identity to at least three different heroes and officials within the organization to join.

(Well, since they’re the good guys I wouldn’t mind if they knew who I was.)

(What about Sanctuary, we’re not really considering those assholes are we?)

(No. Besides I think they have an age restriction on anyone joining so that means we couldn’t join them even if we wanted to.) Which meant her actual options were remaining independent, which meant she was stuck reacting to crime rather than actually doing something about it. Or joining the guild… Which while she wasn’t particularly against, meant she’d have to work for someone else, with a chain of command enacted by that.

(Alright… What do we actually know about the hero’s guild?) She asked herself. (Beyond the fact that they fight crime, and the heroes that are in it.)

(Well the guild typically has at least one base in every major city, though smaller cities sometimes share a base. -I think it has something to do with local Deviant to Mask populations.- Oh, and unlike Sanctuary they do have a mentorship program for younger heroes, preferably with people who have similar Deviancies to help them grow. Though regardless of benefits I believe parental consent is required for underaged heroes to join.)

(Lame.) Her inner child booed.

(Agreed. Lame.)

She had no intention of letting her family know she was a Mask. (At least until we’re a successful big-time hero that they have to be proud of.)

“Yeah, until then.” She nodded as the bus pulled up to her stop.

---

Stretching as she walked into her lab, she walked over to her computer and began working on another upgrade for her AI. Given how she could now direct it to do a fair number of tasks, she needed to make sure it had enough power behind it to do what she wanted without her having to provide direct oversight.

After all there was only so much she could actually do with her AI only being able to hack cell phones.

(You know I’m not sure giving the AI more power is necessarily a good idea.) Her inner paranoia warned.

“It’s a simple AI.” She told herself with an eyeroll. “It’s not like the thing can do anything without me giving it specific instructions. Honestly, it’s less dangerous than a first-year script-kiddie.”

(Haven’t we only been doing this hacking thing for a year? And we’ve hacked the government several times already.) Her inner insanity pointed out.

(She does make a fair point…) Her inner reason reluctantly agreed.

“I said less dangerous.” She repeated.

---

“You know, when we decided to explore the hospital some more, I didn’t think we’d choose the creepiest fucking part of it.” She growled, her COMP light passing through another padded room.

(Yes… This may’ve been a miscalculation on our part.)

(May’ve been?) Her inner passion scoffed. (Try definitely was.)

“Look, we’ve just got a few more corridors left and then we can say we made sure this wing was secure.” She told the voices in her head, trying very hard to ignore her own fear. “Which isn’t easy why you guys keep bringing up how scared you are.”

(We are. You brought it up first.)

There was the sound of footsteps running behind her.

“What was that?” She asked turning to the still empty corridor.

(I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.)

(Perhaps, it was our own footsteps echoing?)

“That rapidly?” She whispered, as she began backtracking, her eyes jumping between the numerous shadows around her. “Is it me or was there more light when we came this way?”

(Yeah, we need to bug the fuck out.)

(I’m sure it’s just our imagination playing tricks on us.)

A laugh echoed behind them, causing her to jump and turn once more.

(Creepy laughter, yay!) Her inner insanity laughed just this side of hysterical.

Her eyes darted around the illuminated hallway, before checking the mini map on her headset. “Look, nothing’s pinging on the mini-map so that means were alone down here.”

(Maybe, but our map only detects machines giving off or picking up wi-fi.) Her inner reason -(unhelpfully)- pointed out. (That means, if this person tosses their cell phone, then we’ve no method of actually tracking them right now.)

(Uh-huh, interesting. Different question though, why are we following the creepy noises?) Her inner feeling asked, as she continued through the halls.

“Because we’ve got to make sure this place is clear, especially with how much of our stuff we’ve got here.” She explained, readying a burst of electricity in case anything tried to get the jump on her.

(Really? Because I feel like we’re the dumb idiot that gets killed off for not walking away.)

The laughter returned, only this time it seemed to echo from all around.

“Hey! Who’s there!” She shouted whirling around, trying to find the source of the sound in the dim lighting.

(Okay, why the fuck don’t we have night vision?) Her inner child panicked.

(Because we didn’t think that far ahead.) Her inner logic admitted.

She caught sight of a figure down the hall, her vision quickly locking onto them as the light of her COMP began to dim.

“Who are you?” She called aiming her Hand Cannon at the figure as she inched forward. “If you don’t want any trouble you better stay where you are!”

The laughter returned briefly; the source more readily apparent this time.

(Oh, I don’t like this…)

As she neared close enough to see a smile on the figure’s face, they began to flicker in and out of existence like a TV with poor signal.

(Oh, I really don’t like this…)

A pale woman was inches from her face smiling wide with two glowing green eyes. “whY ShOulD i?!”

The light of her COMP turned off, causing her heart to stop as a cold chill began to pour off of her skin. When the light finally returned, much more of the corridor was lit up than prior, something that did nothing to calm her nerves.

“Okay, votes to leave and never come back to this wing?”

(Aye.)

(Yes. Aye. Sí. Whatever the fuck gets us out of here!)

She pointedly ignored the laughter that followed her until the exact moment she left the mental ward.