Chapter Text
(I'm cross-posting this from SB. I changed the link, but ao3 readers can otherwise ignore the blurb here at the beginning.)
Hey everyone! I've been told that people have been having trouble finding the sequel thread because the announcement wasn't threadmarked as if it were part of the main story, so here's another link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65279314/chapters/167943193
And here's one last little bit of Tilt, since I'm not gonna let the threadmark up there be a lie:
April 23, 2011
"Movement on main street!"
"Possible hostile?" Battery dropped into a ready squat and began charging her power.
"No..." Miss Militia sounded startled a second ago, but now her voice only carried a sense of bafflement. "I don't think so."
"Already en route," Battery said. "Description?" The scenery around her should have been a blur, but her perceptions slowed down to match her speed. She could read every street sign, address plate, and every word sharpied on every telephone pole without slowing down.
"Small motorcycle. Only caught a glimpse around the corner. Rider wearing..." A crackling pause. "Rider headed North."
Ever since the responsibility of fortifying her communication equipment against her power's electromagnetism had fallen to Kid Win, she'd been getting interference. 'I miss Armsmaster.' But this time, she was pretty sure Miss Militia had actually stuttered. Rare. "Intercepting!"
"Will rendezvous there."
"Copy." Battery started slowing down long before she hit Main Street, still weaving between cars and buses. Going from sixty to zero was easy. She could do it fast too, if she didn't mind ending up in a giant molehill. Keeping the pavement from cracking as her reinforced feet beat at it dozens of times a second was the tricky part.
She spotted the target trundling down the bike lane--a motorized scooter, not a motorcycle--and slid to a stop, excess charge coruscating over her bodysuit.
"Woah!" The rider clutched the brake handles, despite moving at about five miles an hour and having at least forty feet before he'd run into Battery. She stepped aside to make it clear she wasn't trying to detain him here. "Am I in trouble?" he said.
"No," said Battery. 'What the hell had MM so spooked?'
"If I'm not in trouble, can I have an autograph?"
"Sure." Battery pulled a note card from a pouch on her utility belt. Walking up to the scooter, she gave the guy a once-over. His outfit was weird: a green hoodie and sweatpants with dark blue patches sewn around the wrists, across the shoulders, and over the knees. Reflective pink tape highlighted-
'Holy shit, it's a Tilt costume.' Battery's hand froze mid-air, gripping her pen. "Who should I make this out to?" She forced herself to break the awkward pause.
"Um, just your signature would be great. thanks."
At a closer look, Battery was dealing with a teenage boy, and her entrance had clearly intimidated him. If he had a license to ride his scooter, he was at least sixteen, older than Tilt and almost a decade past the age of her core demographic of fans.
"So, why'd you stop me?" he asked.
"Curious about your costume," she improvised.
"Really?" He looked skeptical. "Well, there's a big meet-up on Captain's Hill. That's where I'm headed."
"Not the usual venue for that kind of event." Battery scribbled a note about Tilt next to her standard autograph.
"It's not official or anything, just a bunch of Tilt followers and a few Gallant admirers."
'Just for Tilt?'
The boy continued, "Forums were calling it a 'going away party'."
Battery didn't know what to say to that. She handed over the card.
With his fingers on the paper, in a hushed voice, the boy asked. "Where did they go, anyway?"
Battery took a deep breath, bracing her self to drip out the poison. "I can't say anything about Gallant, but Tilt decided to retire very abruptly."
The boy's eyes widened. "And I can tell people you told me that?"
Battery forced a smile. "You heard it here first." It was true. This was the first time she'd been obliged to deliver the PRT's false explanation for Taylor Hebert's exile. To wash the taste out of her mouth, she changed the subject. "How many people do you think will be at this party of yours?"
"Mine?" The boy laughed. "No idea. I'm just a fake fan who jumped on the bandwagon after her powers were announced. At least I got in before the Rune arrest."
"Right. I won't keep you any longer. Have fun."
"Yeah." He eased up on the brakes, started rolling again. "Awesome to meet you!"
Battery waved as his scooter sputtered down the road. 'Is there a microscopic possibility that Miss Militia, just for a split second, mistook him for the real Tilt?'
Miss Militia caught up a minute later, jogging. 'No way I could ever ask her that,' Battery thought.
"Had a nice chat with a cosplayer," Battery said, "Ready to keep patrolling."
Miss Militia didn't respond, she just walked ahead, showing Battery her tensed back.
"He told me about a so-called 'going away party' for Tilt and Gallant. Should we check it out?"
"Encouraging fan engagement is part of our job."
'But do you want to go?' was what Battery wanted to ask, but the question was a spark. Too risky. She walked up alongside Miss Militia and waited.
"Briefly," she said, "We can drop in briefly."
Again, Battery wanted to respond with something to the effect of an 'aye aye, captain', but Miss Militia had stepped into her role as head of Brockton Bay's Protectorate with so little fanfare that it could only have been intentional. She smiled. "Aegis is on duty too. I'll call him."