"Ida?" Ned asked tentatively. She sat sullenly next to him as he drew, staring at nothing in particular and keeping one hand on the bag she always had by her waist. It had her phone and other stuff in it, but she hadn't taken anything out of it for the past couple days.
It had been two days since Darius shut down Odin and removed the kill switch from Sawyer's heart. Sawyer was still recovering, but he was relieved to be free of one of Odin's manipulations at least. Darius had apparently also snuck out and done the same thing to Sawyer's father so Odin couldn't use him as a hostage.
Ned was relieved that Odin had been stopped. He couldn't hurt any of them anymore. Courtney was free to operate without issues, and Cleo had helped her capture a few petty criminals in the past couple days. The Legion was moving more openly too, and Courtney had apparently been in discussions with Sergeant Barron about joining the military's anti-Miracle unit to help take the Legion out.
And yet, Ida seemed to know that Odin had been effectively taken out. She was crankier than usual, and Ned was the only one she'd talk to anymore. If anyone else tried, she'd cuss them out and stomp away.
There was also a tension in the air as they prepared to take out Team Chaos. Darius was carefully preparing a drone to do the job, but Team Chaos itself had been lying relatively low ever since the attack on the Top.
It felt like the calm before the storm.
"Ida?" Ned asked again, waving a hand in front of Ida's face. She glared at him and slapped his hand away.
"What? I thought you were working on concept drawings."
"You look upset."
"No shit."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ida snorted and rolled her eyes.
"Not really. Nothing I'd subject you to anyway."
She turned away from him and pulled her knees to her chest, moving her bag on top of them.
"You sure?"
"Fine. Rip out that moron Darius's brain for me."
Ned chuckled awkwardly.
"I don't think that'll make anything better, Ida. Odin would just come back with a vengeance, wouldn't he?"
She didn't respond.
With a sigh, Ned gave up and returned to his drawings. Something about them felt emptier today, but he'd keep going. Hopefully some day he'd see Ida smile again in that sarcastic, almost half-condescending way of hers as she told him he 'wasn't half-bad'.
Until then, he could only leave the crazy Miracle stuff to his brother and the others.
"Finally!" Twin groaned, pushing his chair away from the computer and spinning to face Ferry.
"Got it?" she asked nonchalantly, flipping through a magazine on her tablet.
"Yes. Schematics for an entire map of what's under the Subways. Based on how everything's made, there can't be much difference between what we have here and what's actually down there, even if the plans are as old as the city. You can teleport in wherever you want and we can do anything there. Everything's there, Elisa. Everything. Even the main generator that powers the city."
"I thought the city was powered by the solar panels on the Top?" Ferry asked, showing barely any interest in just how big this was.
"I thought that too, but there's a nuclear generator in this Underwing place. That's what generates enough energy to keep the whole place running. If we could shut it down, we could take the entire city hostage until they do what we want!"
"Do you have any idea how to shut down a whatever-it's-called?"
"There has to be a simple switch, doesn't there? And if there isn't, we broadcast where we are and threaten to destroy it."
"What even is a nuclear generator?"
"It makes energy by smashing atoms together."
"The heck? That's weird."
"Yeah, well that's just how it works. Just think, Elisa! We can take out that annoying Legion, the military, and anyone else we want to all at the same time. I'm calling the rest of the team and we're making a plan."
"Do we think our collaborator will invade too?"
"I'll call her right now. This is too big for any one person to keep to themselves."
"How big you thinking the attack will be?" Ferry put the tablet down and sat up straight, looking at Twin with that mischievous gleam in her eye.
"As big as we can. There have been a few arrests this week. Shall we open up the prison for them?"
"I'm in. Pick locations throughout the city and I'll teleport them there to cause trouble. Then once these freaks are out of the Underwing, we send in the main team to take over the generator?"
"You read my mind." Twin grinned as he reached for the burner phone he used to contact the Angel. If they'd cracked it, that would be that. He'd suggest that they pool their resources so they could both get what they wanted.
And if her team hadn't, well, that just gave him more leverage over her organization. Cold Snap was almost ready to be back in action. She'd already asked to be put back in the field with Paris and Corrosion, but after that last incident at the Top, Twin and Paris had agreed to lay low until the big attack. There was also no way he'd ever let anyone go anywhere without Ferry.
Today was Wednesday...
Perhaps Friday would be a good day to strike. That would give them two days to prepare. If that timeline was too tight for Angel, he could just leave her and her people be.
Finally his dream was ready to come true.
Darius ran through the drone's route one more time. He'd talked it over with Courtney, and they'd launch it on Sunday. He'd be piloting it the entire time, with projectiles designed to inject a sleeping drug into their targets. One shot per target would put them to sleep without killing them. And if they defeated the drone, there would be no major losses to their side.
Even so, Darius was determined to succeed. This drone's movements were jerky and difficult to control precisely, but it also had the best armour of any of the ones he had ready access to. With practice, he'd be ready to do everything. This much energy to this wheel for a slight turn, and this much to turn on a dime. The turret took quite a bit to move as well, but Darius was up to it.
The biggest thing was running system checks on the drone. It hadn't been powered up in decades, and parts of it were in desperate need of replacement. Was it only age that had worn this poor drone down?
No. Memories filtered in, though they weren't his own. They were the drone's. It had been used two hundred and fifty-nine years ago in a military strike to take down a serial killer. The criminal in question had gotten their hands on an automatic gun somehow, despite such weapons being banned in the city. This drone had gone to take them out, and been severely damaged in the process.
It had been repaired and kept as a reminder of that time, and as an insurance policy in case anything that drastic was ever needed again. Back then, it had shot to kill, but now it would shoot to incapacitate. Altering the system to fire tranquilizing bullets was harder than Darius had thought it would be.
On top of that, it definitely hadn't been maintained since Darius was born. Parts of the armour needed to be replaced. He didn't think he could have it ready before Sunday when he considered all his other duties too.
He still had to take care of Ida. She was mad at him for what he'd done to Odin, and when he tried to explain to her that this was best for everyone, she'd screamed at him to stop treating her like a preschooler and run off. Since then, she hadn't even looked at him.
Someday she'd understand. Courtney had reassured him that Ida was still young. She had lots of time to grow and realize just what kind of person her father was.
For now, though, he'd continue to quietly watch over her and make all of her favourite foods.
