Prey No More 2

1:00 am
Sophia Hess AKA: Shadow Stalker

As much as Sophia loved being a hero, it had its share of downsides. The one she'd call her least favorite was all the sitting around waiting for things to happen. Especially when she had to do her waiting on rooftops or in this case on a fire escape. She had to have been here for nearly five minutes and she still couldn't get comfortable. It used not to bother her, before, when Pavlov had her under sway. Getting fidgety would ruin the "bad ass vigilante" image the girl had tried to make her. Now with freedom came a certain need for comfort. On one hand Sophia loved it, it was a sign she was getting back to normal. A milestone of recovery, as Dr Walker would say. On the other hand though, it was nice not to be bothered by how cold the metal was on her butt.

"Stalker," her radio crackled to life in her ear. "You in position?"

"Yeah, boss," she responded to Aegis. "You need back up?"

"Not quite, Rune managed to make a door for herself. Hornet is herding her towards you get ready."

"Rodger that," she said while standing and getting ready to jump. In moments she could make out a figure in the dim light of the alleyway, riding what appeared to be most of an old dumpster. It was Rune and she seemed to be trying to outrun a rather determined swarm of bees. That'd be Taylor, or Hornet as she was known to the world. It was amazing for someone so new to this sort of thing, Taylor was a quick learner. The swarm managed to cut off any sort of exit, and kept Rune from being able to gain any air, by having the bees be thickest higher up. It was a smart play.

'For a weak little loser,' a voice whispered in her head. Sophia ignored it. It had long stopped sounding like her own thoughts, and now it was easy to hear the words in the voice of Pavlov. Trying to control her, mold her into what she used to be. She tightened her grip around her crossbow. In moments Rune was right underneath her. Taking a deep breath she jumped, landing right beside Rune.

"The fuck?!" The supervillain yelled.

"Hi there," Sophia said, before tackling them both off the dumpster. The two girls landed hard on the ground, Sophia went shadow at the last second, allowing her to recover faster. Clamoring to her feet she stood over the groaning Rune. Not willing to give her a chance to fight back the teen hero quickly aimed with her crossbow and fired a knock out dart into her chest.

"OW!" Rune yelped. "You lousy...little...spook...bitch." She muttered before passing out.

Sophia rolled her eyes at the insult. Ever since the E88 had learned she was black it was always "coon" this "nigger" that. She knew they were Nazis but they really needed to get new insults.

'You need to hurt her more,' Pavlov's voice whispered. 'Teach them not to mess with you.'

Closing her eyes and counting to ten she grabbed the zip ties from her belt and reached down to restrain the unconscious Rune. With her cape pulled back and her hood down it was hard to imagine that the girl was a violent criminal.

'Really cute too,' Sophia's eyes widened at the thought, that was all her. 'Ok ew Sophia, no crushing on the evil Nazi. No matter how nice a butt they have...Ok gonna need a cold shower after this little sting operation.'

"Sh-shadow Stalker here," Sophia radioed, her voice cracking. "I got Rune taken care of."

"Rodger that," Aegis responded. "Hold your position until we send someone to pick her up."

"Right, can do."

XxXXxX

2:00 am
Taylor Hebert AKA: Hornet

Taylor could almost feel a spring in her step as she left the Ward's locker room. These last few weeks had almost felt like a dream to her. Since she had gotten powers it seemed like every shit thing in her life had turned around over night. She had friends, school had even become fun, and she was an honest to god Superhero. Even Sophia was a different person, almost literally. When she found out that Emma was the one responsible for making Sophia do all those terrible things, she almost didn't believe it. If she was being honest she didn't want to believe it. Even after all the things she put her through Taylor didn't want to think that her former friend would be capable of turning someone into a monster. That sort of control over someone, taking away their basic right to be their own person, that was something Taylor always saw as some distant evil, things that Heartbreaker or Jezebel did, not something someone she used to have sleepovers with would do. Now she supposed people would think of Emma in that group too, once her trial was over anyway.

She was pulled from her thoughts by Carlos's voice coming up from behind her. "Hey Taylor got a minute."

"Yeah," she said turning, Carlos was out of costume too, wearing only jeans and a tee-shirt, both of which were smaller than Taylor thought was fair. "What's up?"

"Well, uh, I was talking to Sophia a little bit, and she mentioned that you were in your school's reading club."

"Oh yeah, such as it is anyway." Winslow didn't exactly encourage a love of reading in its students.

"Cool, so I take it you like to read?" He paused as a blush formed on his cheeks. "What I mean is, I like poems and well there's this poetry reading event on Friday."

"You like poems?" Taylor asked, her own cheeks growing warm, she had a feeling where this was going. 'come on brain think of something good to say.'

"Oh yeah all types of poems, though a lot of Victorian era more than anything, they had a lot of really cool subjects, action, tragedy, bravery..."

"Love," she blurted out. 'Well fuck you too brain.'

"Uh, heh, yeah," Carlos mumbled rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. The effect this had on his bicep and the sleeve of his shirt suddenly made it hard for Taylor to think how to talk words good. "What, what I was trying to ask was if you would like to come with me since you're off on Friday too."

"Like a date?"

"Yeah, I mean don't feel like you hav-"

"I'd love to go," She said cutting him off.

"Great," he smiled. "It starts at 8, so I can pick you up at 6 and we can get a bite to eat first?"

"Sounds super," Taylor elected to ignore what she was saying in an effort to not die of embarrassment by Friday.

"Cool see you then."

"Yeah, see you," as Taylor watched Carlos walk away she really really hoped she wasn't about to hear her alarm clock.

XxXXxX

2:30 am
Emma Barnes AKA: Pavlov

It wasn't fair. That was the one thought that Emma had been thinking on repeat since this whole nightmare had started. She hadn't done anything wrong. Not really. Sure she used her powers on people, but that's why people got powers, to use them. It's not like she hurt anyone. She made sure daddy was a better parent, made sure Taylor knew her place, and best of all made sure that traitor Sophia was a better hero. She didn't deserve to be locked in some hole in the ground, having meals dropped down like she was some animal, having to go on trial by two way camera. She was better than this. She didn't even know what time it was. There weren't even any windows in this place.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that it took her a full minute to realize that the meal light was going off. Walking over to the dumbwaiter hatch she slid it open. Instead of the horrible food she was expecting there was an old walkie talkie inside.

Curious she picked it up. As she was looking at it, there was a burst of static and a voice echoed in the little room.

"Good evening miss Barnes," the voice on the other end said. "I was hoping to talk to you before your trial was over."

"Who are you?" She asked.

"My name is Coil, I don't know if you ever heard of me. It's of little consequence if you have. Just know that I am a man of many resources, and as such would like to discuss your future."

"My future?"

"It's not a very bright one right now I'll admit. When you're found guilty the charges against you are quite grave. While not enough to put you in that monstrosity they call the Birdcage it will be more than enough to send you away fro a very very long time. I'd like to prevent that."

"Yeah?" Emma's tried not to sound to eager. Anything had to be better than this.

"Oh yes. All I need from you is an assurance of services, for a little while anyway."

Emma paused thinking. Whoever this Coil guy was he likely wasn't just a nice man trying to help an innocent girl avoid injustice. Saying yes meant joining with a supervillain, and becoming one herself. Still if it meant staying out of prison. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Excellent," he said happily. "Don't worry either, I'm not going to ask you to do anything too outrageous. Just think of it as...pet training."

XxXXxX

So I suddenly realized that despite having this written weeks ago I had totally forgotten to post it. Well here it is, part 2. Tell me what you think.