alderwitch

Post Bombshell's heel face turn, sooo... early June?

Natalya Browning, better known as the incomparable Bombshell, was still wondering how her erstwhile lover managed to talk her into things as she swung out across the city to the late-night meeting. She was still bemused by being on the side of the angels again as the Scarab put it, let alone going and talking to some newer heroes about 'mutual problems'. However, she'd agreed and so, here she was, swinging through the West End and looking for some address. It wasn't, of course, the actual head quarters, just a neutral meeting ground spot. Fortunately, she had a rather large amount of practice for finding buildings while no where near the street, so after a short search, Bombshell released the swing-line to flip through the air and perch on the edge of the roof. She stood up out of her crouch and stretched, stepping down onto the roof top proper.

Taylor nodded and held out a hand for Avenger to take. When her fingers slid through his, she pulled him into the endless black of the Void before popping out near the church, a few blocks down. "See you in a few minutes, honey." She knew he'd vanish and make his way over there. Taylor pulled the hood up over her face a bit better, jammed her hands into her pockets and began the walk over to the church. She tried to keep her head down and her shoulders hunched in to keep her posture different from either her in or out of costume, not only to fool Zealot but also because she really didn't want to be slowed down by some hapless mugger tonight. It would be an unhappy mugger that's for certain, as she simply wasn't in the mood. Five very long minutes later, Taylor pulled open the door of the church and began making her way through the crowd, her teeth gritted slightly against the impulse to phase rather than be jostled as she made her way towards the un-costumed witch hunter.

It took only seconds for a portal to open. There was the brief glimpse behind them of the Freedom City skyline before they both stepped through into their living room. The portal in space closed soundlessly behind them and Taylor glanced around the house, her eyes already glowing white as she reached out to tap the security network of the mansion and extend her own senses through it. "Are you sure you're all alright?" Were her first worried words as she crossed to Stesha and leaned over to check on the sleepy baby as he sucked down a bottle. His little face lit up at the sight of his parents and he woke a bit to open those bright blue eyes and wave his clenched fists around excitedly. Despite her concern, Taylor smiled, "Hi, baby."

"You did indeed, this is Earth Prime. It'll always have a little extra weight as the heavy anchor of the Earth-like dimensions," Taylor mused as she solidified in synch with Prime and glanced around, "Alright, lets try something with a little less natural vegetation and see how you do with those. There's a lot of near Earth's. All I'm going to tell you about the next one is that it's similar to this one but all the super heroes there work for sports teams. I took Jack there the first time we went jaunting about. It's a second or so slower in the time stream so by now they're several months behind Earth Prime. Its winter there. See if you can get us in their Freedom park."

Merging was easier than unwrapping her mind from Edge's. Carefully, Psyche focused on pushing Edge's senses back down to his normal perceptions artificially, making certain that he was well within his normal bounds before severing the different connections one at a time. Thanks to Zoe, she had all the time in the world to close down the connections. When she'd ghosted through and made certain that none of her psyche was left with tendrils in Edge's mind, she retreated back to her own skull and weaved a little bit, her fingertips going to her temples as she slid her own barriers back into place. "Micro mirrors. We'll know more when we get a chance to analyze the data, and we'll track them down before they finalize whatever it is that they're testing. Good job, everyone. Very well done." Psyche spoke up, "Let's regroup here and call it in to the Freedom League. I'm sure that they'll be sending Doc Metropolis in anyways but its always best to hand the scene off."

Taylor watched the screen for a little longer and then nodded as she pushed the angle of what they were watching around a bit to make sure she understood exactly where she was taking him to be jumped. With a gesture, she dismissed the image from the mirror. "I can do that. Now, lets see what I have to wear." It took a bit of digging into her old pre-Ace wardrobe that she'd held onto, but eventually, Taylor had tracked down the faded and ratty jeans with the multiple patches that dated back to her senior year of high school. Matching those with a pair of dusty steel toe boots and a tank top, she dug out a zip up hoodie and quickly braided her thick dark hair back, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up to help conceal her face. Taylor pushed the Eye under the hem of both shirts, zipping the jacket up over it and then touched her wedding bands reluctantly, "Should I take these off too or will I pass?"

AD asked me to toss Ace up on the list

I could see Bombshell fighting Nazis. It is basically an old hobby.

"What about a bait and switch," Taylor suggested after a moment of consideration, coming to stand next to him and watch the mirror. "He's always reacted to magic before. In my ratty jeans and a hoodie with a bit of hedge magic, I bet he'd come out after me. I mean, it wouldn't take much for me to look like another punk kid hanging outside." Clearly spending this much time with Jack, some of his bad habits had rubbed off on Taylor. Usually she was much more the port in and announce a day of reckoning but this had very little to do with her work as Phantom and a great deal more to do with protecting her infant son from the man who had kidnapped her once from her own bed and done his best to terrify her. In this, all bets were off. This was entirely personal.

After a moment, the ghostly face from earlier - a young woman - peeked above the border of the mirror before floating more into view. She glanced around as if conferring and then shook her head slowly. She held up one finger to show she'd be back in a moment and vanished to go check herself with the graveyard ghosts. In a few moments, she was back in the mirror to shake her head again, this time much more firmly. In her hand, she held a bottle from the fridge and after a moment's hesitation, stuck her hand out from the mirror. It looked like the surface of the water, rippling as one ectoplasmic hand extended outward to offer the baby's bottle and the blanket from the floor.

The same night as So We Meet Again

When Jack came into the library, Taylor was already mostly dressed as her night-time alter ego except the fabric of her mask still hung around her neck and the hood of her cloak had been pushed off. Although she usually wore her dark hair braided up underneath the shadows of the hood, it still flowed loose down her back, vanishing among the heavy folds of the cloak that writhed around her. Some thought that the cloak was a living thing with the way it writhed around the floor as she moved, never managing to trip her or tangle despite the fabric that draped out and down well past her booted toes. Really, it was just an extension of her magic and will the same way that her spells were. She glanced up at Jack as he entered and smiled grimly, "I found him but now I need your expertise." Turning, she glanced up at the mirror above the fireplace and it clouded over for a moment before revealing a dilapidated old church in the Fens. Unfortunately, the church was far from empty as the poor masses came in and out the door for all the various services that the church offered. Inside the church proper, was their quarry, out of his costume for the moment.

Taylor glanced around for a few moments, her normal brown eyes bleeding to glowing white as she used her supernatural senses to quickly verify their location. Her dimples flashed in a quick smile and she nodded, dropping the spell, "Right on the money. This is the same location that we were just in, in what would be Freedom City on another plane of existence. Very good. Now, after you've had a moment to get a sense of this place... can you get home? I know you said that was easier."

Bombshell had never been a morning person. When one spends all night out and about on the prowl, it helps to be able to sleep through the day. So she wasn't up and about to get her newspaper until almost noon. Picking it up from the stoop outside, she carried that and the mail in and set about making up some tea and toast for the morning. She might have lived in the States for near fifty years now but she'd never acquired a taste for coffee. Sitting down, she began perusing the paper idly as she nibbled on the toast and let the tea cool to something that would be less scalding. When her gaze fell on the editorial, her eyebrows arched almost all the way into her hairline. She pursed her lips and put the toast down, reading it through a second time. "Supervillian? Really? I rather thought you had to at least hold a hostage or two or make a bid for world domination. Either standards have seriously slipped during my absence or they've simply decided on 'artistic licence'." Bombshell neatly refolded the paper and finished her tea, continuing to muse aloud as she headed into to take a shower and change. Work clothes early today, it seemed. "Either way, rather not the point. I had best see how Elena's holding up. Her 'side' is always harder on these things, after all."

"You know, even with all of the worlds to dance through, there really isn't any place that I'd rather be right now." Taylor leaned in to press a lingering kiss to his mouth, her arms going around his shoulders once more. She let out a quiet and contented sigh, pushing them slowly upwards but with a lazy sort of drift to their flight path. She pulled away only to nuzzle a path towards his jaw, "So, any other new tricks you've been working on learning that I should know about?"

Dark Star's senses exploded outward, down to seeing the caskets in the freshly dug earth and up to the high rafters of the forgotten recesses in the attic. Movement caught his attention up in the Master bedroom and he tuned in just to see a familiar form pulling his hockey mask over the black ski mask. It had been almost half a year since he'd seen Avenger in the old costume but the masked figure moved with the same lethal grace before vanishing with Jack's usual see-me-now-you-don't. Now, why Jack was skulking around his house when he was supposed to be on a date with his wife was another matter entirely. Satisfied that the living were going to protect the baby, the mirror in the living room faded into a simple mirror once more, the ghost girl vanishing much as she'd appeared. As for Jack Jr., the only noises in the old house were coming from the living room. Upstairs, again, there was a definite lack of scolding apparitions. Even Ms. McNattery hadn't shown up yet to waspishly inform him that he still needed a haircut.

The ghost looked relieved to have got their attention and her spectral form faded out along with the reflection and the mirror shimmered to show them the graveyard where Jack Jr. was and then the mist pouring into a room upstairs. Of course, since Jack Jr. was hiding, all it showed was creepy empty rooms and long twisting hallways before her nervous face reappeared. The ghosts were sensing the baby's mystical signature in two entirely different locations and it was making them all nervous.

She smiled at him, a bright and happy smile and gave him the salute back. It should have looked silly but with all that she'd shown him of herself, it came off as just one more face. Child, mother, soldier... She dropped the slight illusion that kept her powers from being visible to the naked eye and a sparkle-y corona of energy surrounded her. "You too. And don't worry about Tony's. Everything there will be just fine." Then with a thought she propelled herself up into the sky, leaving a glowing trail of power in her wake and for the first time, Erik felt the flutter of her thoughts brush his mind as delicate as moth wings. 'I promise.'

Taylor let out a surprised shriek of laughter as hands closed around her midsection but as Jack had one the point fairly, she didn't immediately go intangible in his hands. She kicked her feet more from surprise than any real attempt to struggle and nearly lost one of them to the street far below. "No matter what, I never seem to dress correctly for this sort of thing. This is why the shoes of my costume go up above my knees." She dimpled at him and twisted in his arms, one raven dark brow arching up in mock challenge, "You caught me this time, Avenger, but can you keep me?"

Bombshell smirked and pushed her glass back to the bartender with one fingertip, "It's been lovely to catch up but I really should be on my way." Over his shoulder, Ace finally realized what was missing in the case of Bombshell's exploits. Unsurprisingly, she'd lifted it clean before ever coming over to speak with him. It was always easier to take something when one wasn't currently being observed. The bulk of the case was entirely intact but from the board with the medals earned by those heroes, Bombshell's - Natalya Browning's - medals were missing from the small board with the titles. "I'll call you."

"My daughter," Alex said simply and then looked up, cocking her head to the side as she smiled reluctantly, "Speaking of which, it looks like my family needs me. It was very nice to meet you. Thank you for the tour of your home." She held out one slender hand, the nails short and unpolished and a bright clutter of cheap bangles around the wrist. She stuck her hand out for him to shake, her grip very light and the bones in it having a birdlike fragility. "I hope you have a very nice night."

Taylor laughed and began zig zagging across the sky, her skirt billowing up around her legs as she dropped to avoid Jack's cloud of mist and then picked up again, "Catch me if you can, then!" Rather than put in a burst of speed to get there as quickly as possible, Taylor never drifted far from the cloud of mist, relying on the fact that she could turn intangible at the drop of a hat to slip out of Jack's proverbial fingertips. After all, the goal wasn't really to get away, but rather to provide an almost frustrating chase for her husband. Plus, it was so rare that she got to fly for the sheer joy of flying these days. With how serious life had been, Taylor couldn't remember when they had just... cut loose.

As Stesha and Derrick were settling in, the bravest of the household's ghostly inhabitants was prodded by the rest of the collective to approach the living. Before she appeared however, both Jack Jr. in the graveyard would see a few white and faintly glowing heads peaking out of tombstones and vanishing quickly back into their tombs. After a few moments the clock that the babysitter from earlier had vanished into began to wind its way backwards, setting the chimes off. When Stesha and Derrick looked over, the face of a young woman appeared in the glass face for a few moments before vanishing only to reappear in the mirror that hung over the fireplace. After a second or two of looking like Alice behind the Looking Glass, she raised one semi transparent hand and tapped politely.

"Flatterer," Toby said with another dimpled grin. She unwound her arms from his neck slowly, "I love you too. And I'm really impressed at how well you're doing with this whole flying thing. When I first started, I used to have trouble with stopping. I'd try to stop suddenly and flip end over end and sail through a building." Jack had seen Taylor make similar mistakes when she was running through the house ephemeral and forgot that she didn't have traction. Usually it was when she was running out of the shower to catch a phone. She'd go skidding through three rooms before backtracking. "How long have you been practicing?" Her grin turned a little wicked, "Enough to catch me, do you think?"