alderwitch

"Gutentag, Herr Danger, I hope you have come prepared," a husky voice spoke up from behind him, her German accent deliberately over the top and her tone only slightly mocking. Bombshell stepped up next to him, her outfit unusually subdued with a pencil slim skirt and jacket both in a dark navy. "For not only have I prepared ze tank below with sharks. I haff also equiped zem with radio controlled explosives!" Her accent fell away until it was simply her posh Brit voice. "Good old Baron von Kreuger. Many ideas but none of them good. Died last year, you know. I sent a card."

Taylor and extended family

Taylor had put off the extended family visit for as long as possible - not because she didn't love her family - but because she just didn't feel up to the insanity that several generations of Chuns created. Still, she couldn't put it off forever, so a few weeks after the baby had been born, Taylor took a rare trip down to the garage to borrow one of the cars. Once the baby was buckled in to his car seat, Taylor slipped around to the driver's side and made the drive to the cheerful suburban home that she'd grown up in. It was already twilight when she left so that the baby would hopefully be more alert and less cranky for the outing. She didn't bother knocking as she let herself in and started trying to juggle the baby and get her shoes off all at the same time. "Mom, Dad, I'm home - oof, Rex, Ace, get down!" Taylor lifted the baby up higher, glad he was still in his bucket seat as she pushed at the muzzles of the ill behaved labs. "Sit. Sit!"

"Someplace that I'd really rather not be returning to," There was that moment of chill nothingness and then they popped out into someplace that looked a little like a monk's ascetic retreat. There were students of the mystic arts as well as their teachers, none of whom seemed to pay the arrival of the two with any sort of heed. Taylor's clothing had bled away into Phantom's costume and she kept a hold of James' hand, guiding him up through the almost Escher-esque monastery with the air of someone well used to the places' tangled layout, leading him up stairs and down corridors, "Did you know, before the Veil, travel between the dimensions was as easy as walking from place to place? Any mage of minor skill would have had no trouble walking to the infernal realms, or the angelic.

The premier thief dropped down next to Moira in an easy crouch, reaching up to gently resettle the grate. She gave the hero a slow and lazy smile, "By all means, we have the time and it really doesn't get much more private. After all, its just us girls here." "I always find that its best to be properly dressed for an occasion, otherwise you'll find you're really missing that accessory that you simply cannot live without. For instance..." She reached into the bodice of her costume and pulled out a slim multi-tool and unsnapped it to re-secure the grate above them, "A screwdriver. Never leave home without it."

"Oh! We should go camping! We could get everyone to truck on out to the woods and make s'mores and do scary stories!" Alex suggested in the same tone she used to share most brilliant ideas. Of course, she was completely not thinking of what a bunch of hormone ridden teenagers would probably do out in the woods. Alex chuckled and pointed out with amusement, "You could still be my personal assistant, but babysitting sounds like fun... why do they need someone with combat reflexes? Is it like The Pacifier? They're secret spies?"

Taylor glanced around as she scooted off the table herself and shook her skirts out with mild curiosity. She knew of Jack's work, of course, but by tacit agreement Jack rarely talked about it and Taylor almost never asked, "No, this isn't our house. It's one of the places Jack works, which means we probably should head to the apartment as it won't be long before someone's back in to see if Jack's been deposed. We'll go back home and I'll scry out the target. I'm going with you, though, to deal with this problem. I'll find someone to watch the baby once I get home, too." Taylor's tone made it clear that she wasn't going to get left behind on this one. She held her hands out for the baby and grinned at Jack, her smile turning playful, "You want me to toss you around the room for a few minutes so that it looks like you struggled to subdue us?"

"Well, yeah, we do. Although its mostly just the truth, but we present ourselves well. Edge is really actually good at just sort of instinctively knowing how to make people listen and we have me to calculate all the different angles, so it's really just a matter of knowing who does what well and letting them play to their strengths." Alex said with a smile, "Geckoman's a bit nuts but he's got a good heart and Wander's probably the fiercest one on the team. I'm glad you like our articles, though. It's really important to most of us to be good role-models and all that too. Hellion and Zephyr less so on that." The last she added with a wry twist to her lips and a dry tone of voice.

"I always have time for you, James. Things can be shuffled and put off, but people really matter the most. I hope you feel a little better, at least. Don't worry, things will turn right in the end. They almost always do, I find," Alex said encouragingly, waving for him to take the soda with him as she stood up as well. "Just give it all some time, I think. You seem really ground down and everything is always bleaker when that's the case. Do something to relax and have a little bit of fun. You've earned it." Alex smiled at him as she walked him over to the door of her office. "And don't be a stranger."

"Near water, no problem!" Alex said and turned back around to tap a few more keys and start scanning through apartments on the multiple screens. Pictures whizzed in and out of the frames as she trundled along, "Environmental control is always a special needs niche. My Granpa was telling me just the other day about an aquatic super-hero he helped track down a base. They ended up purchasing an abandoned aquarium and retrofitting it. You just have to think outside the box."

"Well the WHO recommends two years but I don't know if we'll last that long. As for getting him used to the sun..." She glanced over at the baby who had scrunched down behind the shade as much as possible and sighed, "I think that's going to take a long, long time. Oh, well. Anyhow, I don't mean to monopolize the conversation." Taylor glanced over at Stesha with a grin, "So what are you doing for a maid of honor and bridesmaids? And a wedding gown? You have called Ace, haven't you?"

Taylor nodded a little at that and laced her fingertips together, "So, as you're probably aware from the add, there's some additional danger that goes along with the more normal baby sitting duties. With our line of work, we have some enemies but the baby himself is a bit... special needs. So, Mike, how do you feel about your stereotypical movie monsters? You know, witches, mummies, zombies, demons... vampires?" Both her brows lifted at the last question, but she asked it in the same tone of voice that she'd inquired about his experience with children.

"Oh, God, no. He lived but he's, well, a little darker for it." Taylor grimaced at that, and rubbed a hand over her brow, "He was tortured in Hell for a week or so. It changes a person. I'm not saying you should trust us, but when you mentioned you don't share even that sort of information with your team-mates, I know how that can backfire. You can trust us, but I rather doubt you will just yet. That's neither here nor there, however." She sighed and shook her head, letting her hand fall back down to nervously twist the amulet around her neck. "Look, there's a reason we're concerned. Grim did threaten to take Jack out a time or two before and I have no idea how the rest of your team feels about people like us. Say, if this rematch does happen." Because in Taylor's mind, there was some doubt about that happening at all. She could probably keep Jack distracted all weekend if she put her mind to it, right? "In order to really test the defenses of your team, that's a pretty live fire sort of situation going on there. So, if it gets out of hand, who calls it over? What if someone gets hurt, who's going to call an all clear? It's like any sort of training, it needs some boundaries."

Alex smiled, this time brilliant and happy, "I am. I have the very best people who watch out for me and more every day. I mean, I have friends and now you know the truth and if something bad ever comes down the line, you'll raise your voice against it and get your friends to do the same. That, right there, is why I'm doing it. It's worth getting a bit of fruit thrown at me to make that sort of difference." She smiled and touched his arm, "I'm gonna be okay, you know. I really am. I always think, even with all I see, that people are basically good until something scares them into making bad choices. Some aren't but they're a tiny minority by comparison."

"I'll look now," Taylor straightened her skirt from where it had tangled around her thighs and went to get down from the table when she caught the utter horror in Stesha's tone and pivoted, "Oh, yes, That was Zealot. I forgot, you've never seen him." And now she had, while out of costume. Taylor winced and it was her turn to apologize, "Oh, Stesha, I'm so, so sorry. Don't worry, Jack and I are going to make sure he won't come for any of us again. I promise." Taylor didn't mean they were going to KILL him of course. Although, at the moment she was closer to considering that acceptable than she had ever been at any point in her career before. There were lines, however, that heroes did not cross. "Ever."

"I'm sending them to a deluxe whirlwind trip through Europe, the kind they've always talked about taking," Alex said with a smile, lacing her hands together across her stomach, "It'll be like a second honeymoon for them for two months. They're real excited and it'll be nice to give it to them. Mike's folks are going out to the farm for much of the summer, I think. We'll probably go and visit them, he really loves being out there. He's really good with animals and stuff. We'll both be here for the summer. I want to keep an eye on Zoe anyways. What about you? Any plans?"

"He can track magic so he probably noticed something. Either that or my adjusting the cloud cover," Taylor agreed and then looked at Jack to respond to his more distressing questions. The idea of Zealot didn't frighten her the way that the baby had just nipped off to the Void. "Definitely the way I pop out of existence. He was so scared when Zealot picked him and he just shrieked and shrieked and then 'pop!' he vanished. It had that dimensional buzz to it, so I jumped after him. He managed to pop himself right into the Void." Taylor paused and then added now that her brain had caught up to it, "He didn't seem to mind the lack of air in it, either, come to think of it."

"I'm not reformed!" She called after Freedom Angel but sighed as she was ignored. It probably didn't help that she was suffering from ennui about her current career path at the moment as it was heavily curtailed. Bombshell pivoted slowly to watch the woman circling her on one heel and gave a lazy grin, "Same things an off-duty hero does, and I should know. I happen to be well acquainted with one or two of those, as a matter of fact. Very well acquainted." She smirked and went back to the air vent, pausing to add, "I did have the outfit with me, as I do like to be prepared, but no, I don't wander around in this by and large. I save it for work and special requests. Yesterday, I caught a matinée with Scarab and today, I was taking in the sights of the museum below. Why, do you wander around in costume all the time. I imagine our feathered friend does... but you seem like a more sensible sort of girl." Bombshell flashed another sharp edged smile and then politely held the grate open for Divine, "Ladies first?"

"It's okay," Taylor said, trying to get emotions back under control as she automatically went to patting the baby's back while he wound down from his fussing. Her eyes were wide in a face that was almost as pale as Stesha's for completely different reasons. "You were really great. If the baby hadn't just vanished like that, we would have had him. I can find him again. There's no place he's safe from me, now. We'll find him." Taylor's gaze went dark and stormy for a moment as she relaxed into Jack's arms and finally turned the baby over for him to check out as well, while she gave an abbreviated but at least more coherent version of the story, "We went to the park for a picnic and I guess he noticed us. Or at least, me. He dove out of the shadows and just snatched the baby up, shouting about how he was going to save our sacrifice or some sort nonsense. Stesha restrained him and then the baby just popped out of existence. Scared me half to death. I followed the baby and Stesha followed me into the Void."

"Well, its not like I'm going to rescind the offer or anything," Alex said cheerfully, reaching out to pat her best friend's shoulder, "If that's the way you feel, you're making the right choice but if you ever feel you need a look around at what 'normal' really looks like from the inside, all you have to do is ask." She flopped back down on the cushions with a happy sigh, "It's a good life, by and large, you just have look at the half full part and not think half empty, I think. Although, a lot of folks have trouble with that." Alex's sigh was soft but heartfelt as she thought of all the counseling she'd been doing lately. "Especially right now."

"Have you ever taken care of an infant before?" Taylor asked politely, her eyes crinkling at the corners and she slanted a look to Jack before lying through her teeth. Might as try and make up for some of her earlier laughter over vampireman.... nananana.... Smiling she said simply, "He was checking to see if there was a power outlet. My cell phone was running out of power and its the number we give the babysitter." Taylor had a terrible poker face but Mike wasn't so great at telling if someone was telling the truth, so maybe that would balance out. More or less.

After the last vampire had fled the room, Taylor narrowed her eyes and double checked that there wasn't a lurker in any of the corners with all of her mystical senses before she uncurled around the baby to check on him. Jack Jr. was still making those plaintive noises although he'd stopped the "I'm so terrified" shrieking that had just about broken Taylor's heart. He blinked at the bright lights and made another mewling noise of complaint, tiny fists opening and closing as they grasped at air. This time it was her son that Taylor used those mystical senses on and she managed a shaky, "He's fine. Just fine." It was only then that Taylor's eyes started to fill with tears. In their entire relationship, Jack could probably count on one hand the number of times he'd seen Taylor with tears tracing down her cheeks as she managed, hiccuping, "He just vanished into the Void, Jack! I didn't even know he could DO that! I'm going to toss that crazy monster such a beating when I get my hands on him! Him and that stupid, stupid whip!"

Taking 20 on my physical sciences check nets Psyche a 36 which should, I think, be plenty to guide Mark through breaking the mirrors down into harmless components.

"I think you're making an awful lot of assumptions for Erin rather than doing some fact finding that would probably help a lot. So, here's an easy suggestion. Just, be her friend. That's what you miss the most right now, I think, and if more comes of that someday, that'd be awesome for both of you. I bet she'd really like a male point of view on things. It'll prolly hurt a bit but you'll feel better for knowing what's really going on than just guessing in the end," Alex said with a small smile and pulled the invitation out of her pile, floating it over to James. "And come to prom. That's an order, by the way, from Young Freedom's assistant field leader." Alex teased, "There's good things about growing up too, you know. Some of those are your friends starting to catch up and be able to help with things."

Taylor blinked and realized quite what a plight her erstwhile passenger was in from the squeaking and the death grip on her. Wrapping her body around the baby, she reached her hand out to hook fingertips into the Veil again and yank open another hole, her aim only vague at best. The three of them tumbled out onto a darkly polished table in the center of some sort of meeting. Taylor had really aimed for Jack but a quick glance out the window showed that the sun had set at some point while they were in the void and they were certainly not in the apartment. Fortunately, Taylor had the baby turned into her shoulder to try and soothe the hiccup-y sobs, her shaking hands still protectively curled around the infant. She landed on her knees, hard, with Stesha still clinging to her shoulders and her cheerful sun-dress twisted up around her legs. She blinked, more than a little disoriented, especially as her sixth sense was still jangling. It was about then that she realized that Jack was in the middle of some sort of meeting.