Chapter 9
The first point on the agenda was dropping Tiff and Amy off somewhere safe. As much as Melissa framed this as “come watch me work,” she wasn’t trying to place them in danger and didn’t want them getting in anybody’s way. If there wasn’t something for them to do at the command center, they could quietly hang out with the group of survivors.
As it so happened, the command center was looking for people to do menial chores, like running bottles of water back and forth and hauling equipment for those with more important uses for their hands. A small tent with a large cross told Tiff where all the injured were and she wondered if any doctors had shown up.
…specifically, Dr. Waters.
She shook her head and reminded herself that Irvine was miles away.
As soon as Melissa stepped into the command tent, the room paused. Tiff’s mom usually had that effect on people, and her outfit amplified that effect. It only took a second for everybody to go back to what they were doing, but one of the more important-looking people walked up to them.
“Name?” He asked briskly. He wasn’t being rude, but he clearly had more to manage than he could handle, so he was brief by necessity.
“Brickhouse,” Melissa said. She was on the job, so it was time to use her work name. The man nodded tersely as he punched some information into a tablet. He must have liked what he saw, as he nodded some more.
“Might-based Sidekick? Says you’ve got an S in strength. What’s your upper limit?”
“5 thousand pounds sustained. 6 if we’re talking short bursts, 10 in a one-time pinch, but I’m done after that.”
“Shouldn’t come to that,” the man shook his head, “But we’ve got a need for heavy machinery. The crew the DMA is negotiating with is still several hours out, and we want to start removing the larger chunks of debris so we can start clearing buildings. You up for rubble work?”
“You got it.”
“Then you’ll report to Jim Laso, look for the big guy with a red vest.”
The man paused, looking up at Melissa.
“Well, he’s big to everybody else. He’ll tell you what to do. Ma’am, just in case nobody else says it, thank you for your service.”
Melissa left with a small wave of her hand, while Tiff and Amy stood rooted in confusion. They were unsure of their place and suddenly felt very awkward.
“That your mom?” The man asked them before they could wander away and get themselves in trouble. Tiff nodded silently. The man shook his head gently, not in a condescending kind of way.
“Not too often we see Metas in active service with kids. Heroing is more of a young man’s game.” He chuckled to himself before looking at them seriously. “This isn’t a daycare. You here to help, too?”
“Sure am!” Amy cheered energetically. The man looked at her and pointed.
“Love that attitude. Get yourselves to the volunteer tent. Get a badge, find out where you can best help out, and get going. Oh, and remember to save the paperwork they give you; if you’re using this for school or admission into Young Justice, you can claim today as credit.”
Amy practically dragged Tiff over to the next tent and immediately got them in line to be processed. For a place just hit by a natural disaster, there were many people ready and willing to help. Tiff was surprised so many people were giving up their free time so selflessly…until something popped up and made her realize not everyone here was being altruistic. Several System quests had appeared on her peripheral vision, tantalizing her but not intrusive.
She didn’t have a chance to fully delve into the details, as Amy quickly grabbed her badge and dashed off to follow other instructions. Tiff was about to call out when the guy at the head of the line caught her attention.
“Hey,” he said. Tiff looked up just in time to see him frown. “Kid, are you allowed to be here? Have you even Awakened?”
Tiff blinked. She supposed there should be some rules regarding who could and could not volunteer. As much as she and Amy wanted to help, Tiff wasn’t sure if they could actually be put to work. Pesky child labor.
“Yes, I Awakened this week, actually.”
“Oh,” the man said, his eyes widening. “Congratulations. Look, I’ll be honest, you look a little skinny. You have think you can handle moving boxes? That’s mostly what we have for entry-level volunteers. It’s boring and basic, but that’s what we need.”
“I have a D in Might,” Tiff frowned. “How heavy are these boxes?”
“A D?” The man said, instantly making a cross with his arms over his chest. “Nope, that’s straight out. I’m sorry, kid, but rules are rules. At D, you’re a liability. You have any technical Skills?”
“No,” Tiff shook her head.
“Sorry, then I can’t give you a badge. Look, why don’t you go over to the survivor’s tent? They’ve got some tables and chairs set up, at least there’s a place you can wait.”
Tiff briefly glanced at Amy’s back, watching as she was being shown how to Tetris small packages onto a pallet. Her sister wasn’t even Awakened yet, and Tiff was pretty sure they didn’t ask! It was a bit unfair, but Tiff honestly couldn’t say how much help she would have been. She made sure she had her phone with her and headed to the largest tent.
Tiff had never been to a circus, but she could imagine this one being used, maybe not as the Big Top, but as a main attraction. As the volunteer director had said, there were many tables and chairs set up, cobbled together from a whole mishmash of styles. Some probably originally belonged to The Walk's outdoor landscaping, while others looked like they might have been salvaged from small break rooms. It was loud, cramped, and there were hardly any free seats, but for some reason, that made it feel very secure. Like anything she did or said couldn’t possibly be locked onto because of all the jumbled conversations carrying on.
Tiff pulled out her phone and dialed a number. There was something she needed to know the second they left the house, and she was curious why her mom hadn’t found out herself.
Where was Victoria?
Was she safe?
Was she alive?!
Tiff didn’t want to entertain that last thought.
As if responding to her thoughts, a familiar ringtone screeched several feet behind her. Tiff whirled around, just in time to see a hand lift up beside the back of Victoria’s head.
“Tiff?” Victoria’s tired voice rang out in her ear and right in front of her.
“Tori?” Tiff asked, her brain still trying to come to terms with running into her sister, completely by accident.
Victoria jumped, experiencing the same phenomenon of hearing her sister’s voice twice. She quickly whirled around, but unlike Tiff, who was frozen to the spot, Victoria smiled widely.
“You okay there, munch?” Victoria asked.
“Yes…I should be asking you that!” Tiff said hotly.
The two stared at each other, Victoria smiling and Tiff in disbelief.
“You can hang up now, Tiff,” Victoria grinned. Tiff jolted, forgetting entirely that she was holding her phone up to her ear even though her sister was only a few feet away. She hastily hung up and put her phone away, just in time for Victoria to sweep her off her feet.
“Tori! Tori! There’s people!”
“You’re not embarrassed by your big sister, are you?” Victoria teased.
“No, but you’re swinging me around! My legs, you might hit someone! I don’t want to become a blunt weapon!”
“Ah, good point,” Victoria said, eventually setting Tiff on her feet. “How about we take a step outside and you can tell me what you’re doing here?”
“Mom brought us,” Tiff explained easily. “She responded to the call for aid, so Amy and I tagged along.”
“Amy’s here too?” Victoria gave a weak smile. “What was Mom thinking? This isn’t a daycare.”
“That’s what the volunteer processor said when he got to me,” Tiff pouted, making Victoria laugh. “But he didn’t say anything to Amy!”
“Well, they’ve only got themselves to blame when she takes over the camp. I’m not too worried about her.”
“Same,” Tiff sighed. “I was worried about you.”
“Aww,” Victoria smiled before swooning dramatically. “My little sister was worried about me! I am so blessed!”
“Don’t be mean,” Tiff pummeled her sister in the abs. It wasn’t effective.
“Relax,” Victoria chuckled as she caught one of Tiff’s fists and started putting her in a headlock. “Did you think something would happen to me?”
“Tori,” Tiff wheezed, “I didn’t know what to think. I also can’t breathe. Let me go.”
Victoria did, but only so she could toss Tiff up in the air before twirling her around again and sitting her on her shoulders. Tiff, long experienced in living around strong people, simply let it happen. Victoria walked them outside and found a nice, secluded area in the shade of a still-standing tree where they could have some privacy.
“So, are you going to tell me?” Tiff asked as she played bongos with Victoria’s head. “What happened? Did you go into the Rift? Was it dangerous? Did you get hurt? What was it like?!”
“Munch,” Victoria laughed, “Are you gonna let me talk? Slow down! Let’s start at the top. The Rift was Small, a classification rather than an indicator of physical size. You see, Rifts can be just about anything inside. Sometimes they’re the size of a building, sometimes they’re as big as a city. I think the largest Rift on record is almost the size of Kentucky.”
“Oh wow,” Tiff sighed, though honestly, she wasn’t exactly sure how big Kentucky was. She only knew it looked slightly like a chicken drumstick, and she only knew that because of a poster she saw inside a KFC.
“A Rift’s size is determined by how many monsters need to be culled before it’s cleared. Once it’s clear, it stops spawning. Small Rifts usually only have one to two dozen monsters inside.”
“Only?” Tiff asked. “Are they all the size of that pillbug? We saw it on tv!”
“No, not always,” Victoria sighed. “But usually, Rift monsters are pretty big. In this case, there were two Boss monsters like that bug. The one you saw escaped the Rift the moment it unsealed, and we went in and killed the other. There were more, but most were the size of a large suv, not a building.”
“Were they all…bugs?” Tiff asked.
“Yes,” Victoria sighed again. “They were pretty gross.”
“I’m glad I didn’t go in,” Tiff mumbled, “Or more didn’t get out. Oh, speaking of…I was really worried. We heard on the radio that there were multiple deaths, and I feared….”
“Thanks, Tiff,” Victoria patted her sister’s leg. “But I can handle myself in a Rift.”
“Can you, though?” Tiff asked. Not because she doubted her sister’s skills, but she simply didn’t know what Victoria could do. “You fight with your fists. What can you do against big bugs?”
“You find ways to be helpful,” Victoria shrugged, eventually putting Tiff down. “I admit, I’m better suited for combat with people, not monsters. I don’t know how much help I’d be in a Large Rift.”
“Did you at least get anything cool out of the Rift?” Tiff asked. Victoria gave her a strange look and Tiff pouted.
“What? We both know Rifts have loot!”
“True,” Victoria chuckled. “But normally that’s something Amy would say.”
“Right?” Tiff laughed. “But seriously. What’s it like inside?”
“Eh, every Rift is different. This one was an overgrown jungle. There were a couple of clearings we used as arenas, but the borders of the Rifts were gigantic trees growing so tightly together you couldn’t squeeze in between. Sometimes there’s no hard border; it’s just an invisible barrier you can’t pass through. I’m not sure if this one is worth anything; there weren’t any obvious deposits of resources. I suppose if somebody needs lots of wood, they can cut down the giant trees, but I’m not a [Surveyor]. I have no clue what’s valuable and what isn’t.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they took a seat on a pile of rubble. Tiff nearly stumbled and Victoria pulled her in close.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Tiff sighed as she leaned into her sister.
“Mmm,” was all Victoria replied.
Eventually, several workers began excavating a ruined store across the plaza from them. Tiff watched in amusement as they tagged various chunks of fallen building, and then people with super strength would come and haul them away. Once or twice, they even saw Melissa move through, picking up clumps of concrete the size of a small car and walking away like she'd just scored a sweet bargain at the thrift store.
However, not everyone assigned to the area was working on moving debris, and unlike Tiff and Victoria, not everyone milling about had a good reason to do so. Tiff watched one person, who had been helping point out the difference between load-bearing junk and trash that was ready to move, bend down, sift through the mess on the floor, and pocket something.
Movement in her System screen reminded her that she had quests she was ignoring.
“Tori,” Tiff said in a low voice. “Remember when you were telling me about Affinity quests? The example you gave about corrupt cops?”
“Yeah?”
“I thought you said the System always gives you the option to steer your Affinity one way or the other. Become a good cop or a bad cop.”
“Sure,” Victoria shrugged. “It usually does.”
“Well, the System offered me several quests, but none of them have more than one option. I’ll let you guess what side of the scale it falls on.”
“Let me see,” Victoria sighed with a smirk. “This should be interesting.”
Tiff made the motions and swiveled her screen around. Victoria’s eyebrows rose as she scanned the text, rising the further she read. Eventually, she couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
Quest: A Minor Score
Loot the surroundings. Retrieve at least $5000 worth of goods for your dungeon’s coffers.
Reward: +1 notoriety.
“Yeah, Tiff, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Maybe don’t go looting through a disaster zone.”
“Some people seem to think so,” Tiff grumbled.
“What do you mean?” Victoria chuckled. “Looting in a crisis is a crime. I mean, obviously, stealing is a crime, but taking advantage of the chaos brings extra punishments if you get caught. Why do you think there are so many police loitering around?”
Tiff took another look at the building and, as Victoria said, there were a handful of officers watching over the recovery efforts. Not just them either, but several flashy-looking heroes in colorful costumes had shown up since the Rift stabilized, and they, too, looked like they were loitering at first glance.
“So then are all those people just waiting for people to steal stuff?” Tiff asked. She didn’t know how she felt about this. Was this really what heroing was all about?
“Or other shady things,” Victoria nodded. “Disasters bring out both sides, the best and worst, in people. There’s a lot of chaos and it’s easy to take advantage of things in the confusion.”
“Huh,” Tiff nodded, glancing at one of her quests again. “Kind of like that person.”
Tiff pointed out the supervisor in the building across the way who’d pocketed some merchandise. Victoria stared at them with a curious tilt of her head.
“I guess it would be hard to tell if somebody slipped something small into a pocket or a coat jacket. But why would that guy want to? He’s a supervisor. He should know the rules and he stands to lose so much.”
“Maybe he thinks he’s invincible?” Tiff guessed. “That nobody would ever think he’d do something?”
“How would they prove it?” Victoria shrugged. “I mean, I guess they could ask him to empty his pockets, but what if he just claimed he brought something from home?”
Victoria chuckled and glanced down at Tiff.
“Why are we picking on that guy anyway?”
“Because he’s stealing,” Tiff said. “I watched him pick something up. Here, take a look.”
Tiff brought up a second quest, this one even dodgier than the first.
Quest: Direct Supervision
The presence of a Supervillain bolsters and empowers lesser criminals within line of sight. Use your aura to facilitate small crimes.
Progress: 1 /10
-successful looting
Reward: +5 notoriety
Victoria stared at the quest, and her smile slowly turned into a frown as she realized what she was looking at.
“Wait,” she said as it clicked. “That guy actually stole something? And he got away with it? What an asshole! In plain sight, too, I didn’t see a thing!”
Victoria took a step forward and Tiff instantly latched onto her elbow.
“Tori! Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna go turn him in!” Victoria said hotly. “Or at least give those cops a piece of my mind! What, are they standing around with their thumbs up their asses? They’re on the city’s dime, they get paid extra for Rift response!”
“Tori, Tori,” Tiff begged. “You can’t go turn him in!”
“Why not?”
“Because then you’d have to turn me in!”
Victoria stopped in her tracks and stared at her sister dangling from her arm. Her gears started turning and Tiff took that moment to hastily explain.
“Look, like you said, there’s no way to prove it, right? And the only way we know in the first place is because of my quest. But if we show the police my quest, they’ll realize that I’m a…you know. On top of that, just by being one, I’m helping somebody else break the law. This isn’t fair!”
Victoria didn’t try to drag Tiff to the police; instead, she pulled her into a hug.
“Life rarely is, munch. It rarely is. So what do you want to do about it?”
“There isn’t anything we can do, is there?” Tiff complained.
“It’s all up to you. If you really want to, we can walk over there and confront the guy. He’s supposed to be supervising, not looting. We can also do nothing. It doesn’t matter if, somehow, you being who you are is helping somebody else break the law. They’re breaking the law, not you. The only way the cops are going to find out is if you tell them…because I’m sure as heck not going to.”
“But what if that guy finds out I…am who I am?”
“Threaten to beat him up,” Victoria said with a shrug. Tiff stared up at her sister blankly. “What? Victoria asked. “Villains aren’t nice to other Villains. I’d guess it’s worse than Mercenaries, which is a pretty lawless section on the Greyscale. And besides, I’m your [Bodyguard]. If he said anything, not only would he incriminate himself, he’d be threatening you. Who’s to say a little justifiable self-defense-by-proxy wouldn’t be called for?”
“Tori,” Tiff stated flatly. “You can’t just beat up people you don’t like.”
“I’m not the Hero,” Victoria grinned, “Mom is. Speaking of which, I should call her.”
“Why?”
“To tell her I’ve got you and we’re leaving.”
“We are? But I just got here?”
“Option three: we leave. You don’t do anything about whatever it is that guy has going on, and you remove yourself from the situation before you can become a problem.”
Tiff nodded. If she were honest with herself, she liked the sound of that best. She was already regretting coming along because, who would have guessed it, there wasn’t much for a teenager who wasn’t aspiring to join Young Justice to do. The Rift wasn’t exciting because they wouldn’t let her get near it, which was for the best. And looking around at the devastation just made her feel bad. She only had one question.
“What about the Rift? Never mind me, can you actually leave? Don’t you need to close it?”
“Close?” Victoria repeated. “Nobody can close a Rift. All we can do is stabilize it, which we already did. We did it long before you got here: did you really think Mom would take you and Amy into the middle of an active Unstable Rift?”
“Well, honestly…kind of?” Tiff mumbled. “I honestly didn’t think about it until we were on the drive over, but by then it was too late to say anything.”
“Squirt, Mom probably knew the Rift was stable before the EAS. She’s a registered Sidekick; she gets those kinds of updates.”
“But,” Tiff complained with a frown, looking over Victoria’s shoulder. There, above the buildings, the swirling vortex could still be seen. “How is it safe when that’s still floating in the middle of the quad?”
“It’s like I said. Nobody can close a Rift. We can try to keep it open longer through measures that go way above my head, but if we don’t, it’ll dissolve naturally. Might be a few days, might be a week. This was a small one, so it shouldn’t be too long.”
“Oh,” Tiff nodded. “And you don’t need to help with cleanup?”
“Tiff, I already busted my ass inside. Ain’t no way I’m spending the next few hours picking up rocks. Leave that to Mom; she’s weird like that. Besides, I believe I owe you ice cream.”
Tiff knew Victoria didn’t technically owe her anything, but she also knew that Villains lived and died by technicalities. If she was going to be a Supervillain, she needed to get used to exploiting them. That was why, with zero shame, Tiff ordered two scoops of chocolate with extra sprinkles in a dipped waffle bowl.
Yes, perhaps it was good to have minions.
Victoria watched her balance a bright red cherry on the top with her tongue to keep it from rolling away, and shook her head. Tiff decided to cut her losses and ate the thing before it could fall onto the floor.
“You didn’t get any loot,” Tiff began as they sat in a secluded booth in the ice cream parlor and stared at the calm, midafternoon traffic outside. “Did you get any quests when you went inside the Rift?”
Tiff’s burning curiosity was commonplace for a 16-year-old, and Victoria understood this. But wanting to impress her little sister didn’t change the past.
“No,” she said as she took a sucking slurp from a milkshake. “Not this time. There’s no rhyme or reason for how the System hands out quests. Some days, like today in your case, for instance, you might see a whole series of quests. Others, you might not see a single one. I’ll admit, it’s a bit strange I didn’t get one inside of the Rift, since I almost always get at least one, to ‘help close the Rift.’ But maybe it’s because I completed a quest yesterday by becoming your [Bodyguard] and I leveled up? Who knows.”
“Aren’t you being a little…I don’t know the right word…careless? Carefree? With your quests?”
“How so?”
“I mean, they affect your advancement, right? How are we supposed to plan ahead if we don’t know when or how the System is going to give the next quest?”
“Haha, Tiff, we’re young. You just turned 16, and I’m not even 20. We’ve got time. Besides, I think you’re putting too much stock in quests and advancement. They’re not nearly as big a deal as you might think. Some of the most powerful people in the world barely have a handful of levels. Just learn to go with the flow. You’ll learn about this stuff in school, and besides, if you don’t plan to use your class, it might not matter much in the end. Don’t accept any quest you don’t want to, and don’t let the System guilt you into being somebody you aren’t. You’re Indomitable, don’t let it bully you.”
Tiff let out a deep sigh. Today was so long; it felt like a month since yesterday, when they went down to the Union and got her Assessed. As always, her sister was right. She didn’t need to worry. Not about Rifts, not about Heroes, not about the System trying to nudge her into a specific Affinity. On Monday, she could go back to being a normal, everyday teenager, fussing over zits and forgotten homework. Sadly, Tiff thought, the classic excuse of my dog ate my homework wouldn’t work for her anymore. Not that it ever worked in the first place, but the VanDyne’s didn’t have a dog and Tiff couldn’t lie.
“Though now that I’ve said all that,” Victoria stated with a sly smile, making Tiff freeze with her spoon halfway to her mouth. “Maybe you should start planning ahead. That’s totally something a Supervillain does.”
Victoria laughed as she earned herself a kick to the shin.