Capítulo 2544: 6
Trump Card
Part 6
It was the next afternoon. I sat in Fugly Bob's, wearing an ugly sweatshirt I never normally dug out of the closet, the largest sunglasses I could find, and an old Brockton Bay Boomers baseball cap.
After I finally got a message back from Uber and L33t (and yes, I had been corrected on the spelling) we had established that I wanted to join their team, and had thrashed out a meeting place. My last message had read, Will be in Fugly Bob's, wearing Boomers cap. I'll know if it's not you.
I'd been sitting there for half an hour, wondering if I should get another basket of fries, when two new powersets impinged upon my consciousness. I say 'new' because I was already tracking two parahumans in Fugly Bob's. Fortunately, neither of them seemed to be there as part of a sting operation for yours truly.
The first was a mousy woman in her late twenties, accompanied by a teenage boy and an infant child. I didn't recognise her from what I'd read of the Parahumans Online wiki, but she had some serious power, based around flight and blasting. For a moment, I thought she might be Lady Photon, but she looked too young, and her hair was the wrong colour. Besides, there was the baby; I wasn't an avid cape-follower like some, but I was fairly certain that Photon Mom didn't have a third child.
Anyway, she wasn't there for me, and that was good enough for the moment.
The other one was a red-headed teenager with an older couple, who I presumed to be his parents. The man looked unwell, and his wife and son treated him with careful solicitude. The powerset I recognised at once; the teenager was Clockblocker, from the Wards.
Again, I was fairly certain that he wasn't there to trap me. But I felt kind of embarrassed, knowing who he was, while he didn't have a clue about me.
When the two new powersets showed up, I immediately shifted the light-spot to the nearest one. Immediately, I felt that I knew how to do virtually everything, and that what I didn't know how to do, I soon would.
That felt like Uber to me; I shifted the spot to his companion.
This was L33t all right; the light-spot started whispering to me the techniques to construct virtually anything I could imagine. But it was weird; whereas with most powersets, the 'voice' was calm and emotionless, if one could imagine a voice without sound or tone to possess emotions, the description of L33t's powerset seemed to be almost ... pleading? Almost as if it were saying, I am here, all this potential. Please use me.
I couldn't figure that out, but it wasn't really my problem. Uber and L33t had showed up to the meeting. Now all they had to do was notice me.
It actually took them a little while. They conferred, and split up. Uber checked the other half of the restaurant, while L33t came my way. I watched him from behind my sunglasses, while keeping track of Uber with the light-spot. In the meantime, just to see how Uber's powers worked, I learned how to do counter-surveillance and parkour. It was child's play. Everything was child's play.
L33t walked straight past my booth twice, his eyes skating over me each time. I couldn't believe it. Did he need glasses? There I was, sitting there, bold as brass, looking directly at him, and he wasn't seeing me. It got so I began to wonder if Uber had some kind of Stranger power that I'd accidentally activated.
They came together again, not far from me, and conferred again.
"Any luck?" asked L33t.
"No sign of him," Uber replied. "No-one wearing a Boomers cap at all. How about your side?"
"Haven't seen him either," grumbled L33t. "I think this is a bust. Maybe someone's watching us and the whole thing's a troll."
"Hey, wait a minute. There's someone wearing a Boomers cap over there."
L33t looked around. "Where? Oh, yeah. No, that's a girl."
Uber frowned. "Oh, okay." He paused. "But still ..,"
L33t shook his head. "A chick, calling herself Hax? A dude would call himself Hax. A gamer chick would be something like Princess Fairy Unicorn Sunflower or something."
"Wow, showing your prejudices much?" chuckled Uber. "I got pwned the other week in Space Opera by this chick calling herself Meteor Strike. Only way I knew it was a chick, we were on voice chat. She handed me my ass, bro. And that chick over there's wearing a Boomers cap."
L33t sighed. "Fine, go ask her. Serve you right if she pepper-sprays your ass."
"Fine. I will."
I watched Uber approach the booth. He was tall, muscular, graceful. More than one set of feminine eyes followed him over; I had to admit, I didn't mind the view either.
Leaning into the booth, he cleared his throat. "Excuse me, miss?" he began.
His voice was firm, resonant, deep. The sort of voice suited to an action hero. I began to wonder why he hadn't made a fortune already in the acting industry; he would be able to set his own price.
I nodded. "Yes."
"I was just wondering if ... I was supposed to meet someone and ..."
"I said 'yes', you idiot," I hissed. "I'm Hax. Get L33t over here and sit down before people start staring."
He blinked. "You're Hax? Really?"
To his credit, he turned and gestured L33t over before I even answered. They sat down opposite me in the booth.
"Really," I answered Uber's question. "I'm Hax."
"Wait, what?" blurted L33t. "You're him? I mean, he's you? I mean ..."
"Yes, she's me," I told him tartly. "I'm a girl. That last bit you're going to have to take on faith, because I'm not showing you any body parts to prove it."
It was becoming clear to me now. They had thought Hax was going to be a guy. Which was why L33t had looked past me several times.
"Okay, you're a girl," Uber agreed. "That's fine. You want to join the team? Let's see what you've got to offer."
I gave them a half-grin. "You know that old song that goes 'anything you can do, I can do better'?"
"What is this, some sort of feminist crap?" asked L33t, still obviously put out by the whole 'Hax is a girl' misunderstanding.
"Nope," I told him. "It's my power. I'm a Trump. I can copy your powers and use all the tricks you've ever figured out to use with them, and add my own variations on top."
"Copy, or steal?" asked Uber carefully.
"Copy only," I assured him. "You don't lose your powers, just because I'm borrowing them."
"So wait," interjected L33t, "you can copy all of our powers at once? That's bullshit."
I grinned and shook my head. "No, just one powerset at a time. Yours, his, or whoever else happens to be around at the time."
"So whose powers are you copying at the moment?" asked Uber curiously.
"Yours, actually," I told him.
He blinked. "I can't feel anything different."
"Believe me, I can. To quote an old movie I saw one time, I know kung fu."
"Well, that's definitely hax, right there," he allowed. "Just being able to pick and choose between whatever set of powers you wanted ..."
" … between the guy who can build anything, and the guy who can learn any skill, you mean?" I added.
"Hey," L33t wanted to know, "can you build stuff that I can't? Like, I've already built?"
I shrugged. "We'd have to see, wouldn't we?" Privately, I was fairly sure that I could. His powers had been begging to be used.
They looked at each other. "So, bro, what do you say?" asked Uber.
L33t shrugged. "Can't hurt to give her a try-out. Even if she is a girl," he couldn't help adding.
I raised an eyebrow at that, but made no comment. Girls apparently didn't factor very much into L33t's worldview. That was fine; he didn't factor very much into mine.
"Okay, then," Uber agreed. "You're in. Welcome to the team."
I grinned at them. "Player three has entered the game."
End of Part 6
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