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Missy sat inside a pumpkin on top of the PRT building. She’d carved out a little seat in the interior, which was now large enough for her to mope in. Fairy lights hung from the vegetable’s ceiling, providing just enough of a glow to see by.
There was a knock on the door. Missy got up slowly, like the mature person she was. It was a little hard not to rush, but that really wasn’t anything to do with her. She’d been up here for hours; it was about time someone came to check on her!
Pulling the door open required a bit more effort than she’d planned, accompanied by the squishy sound of pumpkin flesh sliding around. She was proud of the hinge; it’d taken forever to get right.
The knocker wasn’t anyone she’d expected. It wasn’t Piggot, ready to reprimand her for her little stunt. Nor was it any of the other Wards, as she’d been both dreading and hoping.
A girl stood there instead. Another blonde, but with ringlets and a cutesy dress. She was younger than Missy – or at least she was shorter, which usually meant younger considering Missy’s height.
“Hello! Can I come in?” she asked, smiling up at Missy. Her teeth contrasted with the night sky, shining so brightly they looked brand new.
“Uh, sure.”
The girl blinked as Missy stepped to one side. Her smile shifted, less teeth and more eyes. “Wow, really? Thanks. People usually get all upset when I try to talk to them.”
“Ugh, I feel that. Older Wards can be the worst. Sorry there’s not many clean spots, I, uh, wasn’t expecting to have company in here. Especially not meeting someone new.”
Thinking for a moment, Missy swept her seat out into a bench, making sure there was enough room for both of them. “So yeah, I’m Vista. What’s your name?”
“You mean you don’t know who I am?” The newcomer paused as Missy sat back down.
“Nope, sorry,” Missy shrugged. “I think I’d remember if we’d met.”
“Well that’s for sure.” The shorter girl snorted, moving closer, staying between Missy and the door. “You really don’t know?”
“What, are you famous or something?”
“I guess you could say that.” She tapped at her lip. “I’ve probably been on TV a few times.”
“That’s cool. I don’t really watch a lot of cape shows, but even if I did it’s not like I’d recognise you without your mask.”
She sat next to Missy, a little closer than was comfortable with a stranger. “Now that is an interesting thing to say. You’re not just playing it cool. Huh. Gimme your hand.”
Missy extended the pinch of space between them just a tiny bit before she replied, “I don’t see how that helps at all?”
“If you really don’t know who I am, you’ll give me your hand. Power thing. Gimme.”
“Fine.” Missy complied, with a roll of her eyes. The newcomer’s grip was stronger than she’d expected, fingers quickly roaming around for her pulse. “So, are you going to tell me your name before we get into power stuff? That’s generally the way people introduce themselves.”
“Mmmmm, nope. More fun this way. Oh wow, you’re barely above resting rate, hardly excited at all!”
Missy sputtered a response, “That’s not true! I mean, I’m a bit tired, but you’ve made more of an impression than most folks I meet.”
She winced internally at her phrasing. She didn’t want to make this kid feel unwelcome, but maybe drawing attention to their eccentric introduction wasn’t the best way of showing it.
“I don’t know…” The newcomer peered down at Missy’s wrist, suspiciously. “Well, maybe, but your heart’s definitely not going as hard as most people who’ve just met me. It’s kind of nice, actually.”
“Get recognised a lot?”
“Uh-huh. Can’t go anywhere, you know? And geez, you’ve got a lot of little cuts on this hand. Hold on a second.”
The girl rummaged through a stitched-on pocket and produced a syringe filled with green bubbles. Missy’s instinctual tug away barely shifted her hand’s position, like the time she’d tried to arm-wrestle Aegis while he was in full steroid mode.
“Uh, I don’t know about this, Ringlets.”
“Ringlets?” The word was repeated almost disbelievingly.
“I need something to call you, if you aren’t going to tell me your name. Your hair stands out. So yeah, Ringlets.”
Ringlets let go of Missy with a giggle, then gestured at the syringe and her toolbelt. “Most people notice other things first. I guess Ringlets will do. Such a shame that you’ll never know the real me though, Vista.”
“Oh hardy ha, laugh it up,” Missy retorted, though she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “It’s only a matter of time before you get pulled in front of all the Wards and properly introduced. Enjoy this while it lasts.”
Ringlets blinked. “And who do you think is going to pull me around?”
“The Director, probably. Maybe one of the Protectorate. They like to have an adult present when we get a new member, in case things get a little crazy.”
“Oh. Ohhhh. So that’s what you think. Things make way more sense now, yep-yep.” She turned to face Missy head-on, leaning in conspiratorially and faux whispering, “But I’m not a Ward.”
“Ah, really? My bad. So why are you here then? Interested in joining up?”
“I’m just up here because I was trying to find Panacea, since we’ve got similar powers and stuff and I think we’d work well together. I want to be on the same team as her.”
“Is that why the, uh…” Missy waved her hand in front of her face. “The no mask thing?”
“Oh, this? It’s just a face, I wouldn’t worry about it. Peels off a bit too easily, I guess, but it’s pretty robust.”
“What?”
“Geez, you need to learn to pay attention. Like I said, I was trying to find Panacea. But then I saw this big honking pumpkin, right on top of a building, and I couldn’t just pass by! It’s a giant pumpkin for crying out loud!" She swung her feet up and down, gesturing wildly. "And I mean a huge pampkonahongala, as uncle Ned would say. A real ginormous pipkindellydoonarooni! You know how it is, can’t ignore those. Soon as I saw it, I knew I had to check it out, and I’m glad I did. Why is it here, anyway?”
“It’s, um, well I’m kind of protesting something. There’s been… Nah, it seems stupid now. And you’re not even a Ward, so it’s like… I probably shouldn’t tell you.”
“I won’t tell anyone! Promise!”
Missy sighed. “It’s not like it’s that important anyway. It’s just… They haven’t been letting me do as much work as the rest of the team even though we’ve been needing more manhours ever since Leviathan hit. We’ve been getting all these new Wards transferring in, but then they leave, and then we get some new ones again. They treat me like a kid even though I was here when it happened and they weren’t – and they all get to do solo patrols just because they’re older, even if they got their powers like a week ago.”
“That’s awful!” Ringlets interjected, “My team gets a lot of rotating members too, but at least they learn to be nice to me pretty quick.”
“And apparently some extra nasty crime scenes have started popping up recently, so now they’re talking about maybe putting the Wards on a curfew. And I bet if they do then they’ll just use that to stop me from doing the tiny amounts I’m actually allowed to do! It’s stupid.”
“Curfews suck,” Ringlets said, nodding sagely. “They really restrict infectivity – and fun is the most infectious thing of all! But anyway… All of that suckiness still doesn’t explain the pumpkin.”
“Oh that, well, it’s just because it’s Halloween and all.” Missy tried not to look too embarrassed as she admitted it. It seemed childish, in hindsight.
“Oh shoot! Halloween! I knew I forgot something.” Ringlets jumped to her feet, brought one hand to her temple, and waved the syringe around with the other. She started to stomp around the pumpkin’s interior, whining under her breath – “Fudgenuggets, Manny’s going to be so upset. Hecking shnookerdookies!”
“Are you okay?” Missy asked, interrupting the stream of euphemisms.
“Am I okay? Okay? Do I look okay to you?” Ringlets spun around to glare at Missy.
“Um. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–”
“I said, do I look okay.” The interruption was spat out, as intense as the face behind it.
“… No?”
“No. No, I’m not okay. We spent so long coming to Brockton Bay. Jack’s been going on and on about coming here, but we kept getting delayed, and now we’ve basically missed Halloween! That’s terrible!” She emphasised her outrage by stabbing the syringe into the pumpkin wall. The area around the puncture quickly turned green.
“Do you have any idea how much I had planned?” she continued, stalking back over towards Missy. “The hours I put in. The research I did. Not easy research, mind you, I had to find some pretty flibbing exotic materials and most of the others didn’t even help me with it. They’re supposed to be my family and they didn’t care!”
Like a flip had been switched, Ringlets’ expression turned from anger to concern in an instant as she sat back down on the bench. “Do you not get along with your family? You were all alone up here instead of being with them.”
Missy took a second to process the change before responding, hesitantly, “Uh… My family’s not the best. Part of why I want to do more with the Wards, I guess. Trying to be the heart of the team and stuff, because at least some of them care about me more than screaming at each other.”
“Oh neat, I haven’t thought about teams that way before. For mine, Jack’d be the brain, and Ned would be the stomach. Or maybe the spleen? Liver? I’ll have to think more about that. Ooh, I wonder who the skin is… But I’m probably the heart of my team too. You and I are a pretty good match, don’t you think?”
“Ha, right, I guess so… I’ve been wondering, did you get permission to come up here from the Director?” Missy asked, attempting to redirect the conversation.
“Well I passed a couple of people and nobody tried to – oh wait, that’s not true. But nobody stopped me from coming up. I don’t know if any of them were the Director though.”
“Ah, so long as someone let you through, you’re probably okay then. The Director’s hard to miss. Pretty, uh, big, you know?” Missy said, before inflating her cheeks and holding her hands out in an imitation of the woman’s bulk.
“Nope, nobody like that. Just some PRT troopers and men in suits.”
“Officers,” Missy corrected.
“Huh?”
“PRT officers, not troopers. That’s what we’re supposed to call them. Personally, I think they just hate being called troopers because it sounds like poopers.”
Missy felt a bit of regret as soon as the joke left her lips, but Ringlets enjoyed it. The girl let out a small titter than turned into a full-on laugh, and a long one at that. She was soon doubled over, tears in her eyes and a hand fruitlessly covering her mouth. Just when she started to get it under control, she whispered to herself, “Poopers,” and fell right back into cracking up. The resurgence set Missy off as well; the Ward soon found herself wheezing for breath even as Ringlets’ laughter went on and on without end.
“Oh no, I’ve been calling them troopers forever! I’m so embarrassed I could die.”
Ringlets’ claim rang true when her small blush started to deepen. Missy laughed again when she saw the mortification fill Ringlets’ cheeks. But the blush didn’t stop. It continued to grow, spreading over the preteen’s face and down her shoulders.
“Everything alright?” Missy asked, still giggling, when she noticed that Ringlets’ fingers were turning red.
Ringlets nodded through her laughter and her skin suddenly shifted hue, returning to its normal white state. “Yep, it’s just a vascular system thing. Still working out a few kinks.”
“Wow, that was kind of cool. Can you do anything else like that?”
“I’ve got a few tricks,” Ringlets said with a smile, laughter cutting off as though it had never started. “Oh right, I was going to give you one of them, on your hand with the cuts. This really is embarrassing, sorry, I promise I’m not usually this muddled up.”
Ringlets pulled another two syringes out, one yellow and murky, the other containing a vibrant black tar. She eyed them thoughtfully, before turning back to Missy. “Got any allergies?”
“Um. No?”
“Good answer!” She put the tar away, and grabbed at Missy’s arm, running her hand down towards the wrist.
“It’s fine, you really don’t have to–”
“Nonsense! It’s a spot of good luck I ran into someone like you, you know? Someone who doesn’t know me. It’s a nice fresh start. I’d feel so silly if I wasted the opportunity.” She nodded as though that was the end of the discussion, feeling for a vein.
“Wait, you have gotten these approved, ri– Ow!” Missy hissed as the yellow liquid started to flow into her bloodstream.
“I actually had a couple things planned to help with everyone recognising me, but this is good too. Try not to have too strong of an opinion of me before all the juice goes in you, okay? Could be side effects if you do.”
“Why does that hurt so much? I’m normally – gah – normally good with needles. Ow! Let go!”
“Don’t worry about it. Worrying will just make it worse, okay? Think about something else.”
Missy tried to concentrate on the wall. Her vision was going blurry but she could still see that the green blotch had spread further, with pockets of the recoloured pumpkin flesh falling off in dehydrated chunks.
Ringlets waved a hand in front of her face, disrupting her thoughts. “Hey, hey, are you listening? Talk to me. That person you mentioned, the Director. What’s she like?”
“Director Piggot sucks. We call her Piggy when she’s not around.”
“That’s so rude!” Ringlets gasped.
“Deserves it. Could be called… Way worse things.”
Ringlets waved a finger, reprimanding, as her other hand continued to slowly push down on the plunger. “Nuh-uh. For all you know she might have a medical condition for her weight, I see those all the time. And it’s not nice to insult people for things outside of their control. That’d be like insulting someone’s birthday, or making fun of you for being my friend.”
Missy felt a thrill go through her, vision restoring as her whole system perked back up. “Aww, thanks, that’s nice of you to say! But I mean, it’s not exactly the same, right, like we both get to decide if we’re friends or not.”
Ringlets didn’t respond right away, fidgeting with the now-empty syringe as she reached for a reply. “Sure. I guess there’s still choice involved. But let’s say you’re, like… predisposed to being my friend right now.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean anything bad by it! I do want to be friendth – uh, friends with you.”
“I know,” Ringlets grinned, patting her on the shoulder.
Missy looked down at her hands. “Didn’t do anything to my cutth. Or ith it delayed?”
“Oh yeah, it wouldn’t. I probably have something that could clear those up if you want.”
“What?”
“What?”
“Then what wath that thyringe for? Thyringe. Tharinge. Thaaa–” Missy cut herself off, shaking her head to clear it. “Ith my tongue thuppothed to tathte like thtrawberrieth?”
“Strawberries? Not watermelon?”
Missy shook her head again. It didn’t help as much as the first time.
“Hmm, that’s weird. I know watermelon would be fine. Strawberries will probably pass but let me check some things.”
Ringlets pulled out a scalpel. Missy didn’t see where it came from – it was harder to track things now that her eyes were out of sync.
“What’th that for?”
“Turn around for me, I need to make an incision. You trust me, right?”
Missy thought about that for a second. It made her feel fuzzy. “I guetth tho."
She felt a twinge in the base of her neck, quickly followed by something watery flowing down her back.
“Son of a bitch,” someone said. Probably Ringlets. Ringlets was nice.
“Regulaythunth thay call her Hellhun. Hellohond. Helloooooooo.”
An arm slid around Missy’s back, lifting her to her feet. It stayed in place as she swooned, supporting her.
“Can you walk? I need to get you somewhere I can treat this.”
“Boddum floor. Medcul bee.”
“No, that won’t do. They probably won’t have a compatible tongue lying around.”
“A wha?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got some ideas; you’ll make it through.”
Ringlets moved around under one of Missy’s shoulder, letting the Ward put weight on her. Missy liked it – it was kind of like they were hugging.
“Thankth.”
Ringlets smiled up at her as they crossed the pumpkin’s floor. “I’ve made a couple friends recently, but something tells me you’ll be the best one yet.”
Best friends. Missy returned the smile, her swollen tongue forcing her teeth apart.
She let the pumpkin shrink as they exited. Its rotting remains, entirely green, would be found two hours later.