Tales of the First – Wendy’s Secret Part Three
May 4th, 2019 | Published in Tales of the First | 1 Comment
“We’re going to need some sort of scrambler so we can communicate without being monitored,” Martin said as he walked with Sienna and Wendy as they returned to Sienna’s home. “At least if you’re serious.”
“I know,” Wendy said. “I have a couple of ideas for the system but you’ll need to do the coding.” She frowned thoughtfully. “And Sienna will need a costume, as well. Lucy already knows what happened so I think we’ll bring her on board for that.”
“Is that wise?” Sienna asked. “Like you said the more people in a secret–”
“I know,” Wendy interrupted. “But Lucy’s not stupid she knows what happened so she’ll work out who you are pretty quickly and then probably be insulted that you hadn’t let her design and make your costume.”
Sienna began chuckling. “Yeah that’s true.”
“We should probably tell Charlotte as well,” Wendy said. “She’ll work it out as well.”
“Huh, Charlotte’s scared of me,” Sienna said. “I need to talk to her soon and see if she’s better.”
“I’ll do it,” Wendy said. “If she’s scared of you then she might not want to talk to you which would make a conversation difficult. Also we don’t want to do it over the phone for the reasons I mentioned.”
“Wendy is right–” Martin paused. “Is that Lucy’s mother’s car outside your house?”
“Huh?” Sienna stared down the street towards her house and spotted the cherry red Volkswagen sitting outside. “It is! I hope Lucy’s all right.” She sped up a little, hurrying to the front door. Sienna’s mother opened it as they came down the path.
“Welcome back, girls,” she said. She was smiling so it probably wasn’t bad news that brought Lucy’s mother here. “And Martin too. Would you like to stay for dinner? I’m sure Sienna would like that.” Sienna gave a mental groan, she liked Martin well enough as a friend but her mother seemed convinced there was something more there. He’d asked her out once, she’d said no and he’d been fine with it.
“No, thank you, Mrs Munroe,” he said. “I want to get back and check Helen hasn’t let my father back in.”
“Ah! Of course,”
Sienna’s mother said. “Another time.” She looked back at Sienna
and Wendy. “Good news, Lucy is out of hospital and her mother has
brought her over.”
“Lucy!”
Sienna raced past her mother into the sitting room where Lucy sat
along with her own mother. “How are you? Are you better.”
“They
wouldn’t have let her out if she weren’t.” Wendy followed
Sienna in more sedately.
“I’m…
well I’m not fine but I’m much better,” Lucy said. “I don’t
need Oxygen any more and the tests look okay so they let me out but
my chest still feels really tight and even walking short distances
makes me out of breath which is why mum brought me over.” Her face
tightened. “I have an inhaler now as well. I hope the damage isn’t
permanent.”
Lucy’s
mother Irene laid a reassuring hand on Lucy’s arm. “You know what
the doctor’s said, dear. Whatever caused that reaction doesn’t
appear to have done any damage but your lungs have been sensitized
and need time to calm down. You have an appointment with the
specialist to work on your rehabilitation.”
“But
my training…” Lucy trailed off unhappily.
“Will
have to pause just like if you injured your leg,” her mother said
reasonably. “Call your coach in the morning, I’m sure he’ll
have some good ideas for rehabilitation.” She stood up. “Anyway
I’ll leave you to catch up with Sienna and Wendy and pick you up
about nine.”
Lucy
stared at her mother for a moment and then nodded. “Thanks, mum.
It’s just scary not being able to walk to car without gasping for
breath. I’m worried it might never improve to allow me to run
again.”
“I
know,” her mother said. “But worrying will only make it worse.
See you later.” She patted her daughter’s arm again and headed
out the door. Lucy watched her go then looked back at Sienna and
Wendy. “So how are you? I heard you two saw one of the shootings
yesterday. That’s got to be worse than this.”
“We
did,” Sienna said. “And I don’t know about Wendy but I don’t
want to talk about it. Let’s go upstairs until dinner is
ready.”
“Yeah,
I don’t imagine you would.” Lucy said. “And sure, upstairs
sounds good.”
Watching
her usually fit friend climbing the stairs slowly and having to pause
at the top to catch her breath really brought home to Sienna how sick
Lucy still was. When they got into Sienna’s room Lucy immediately
collapsed on to the bed.
“That
was so hard,” she said after a pause. At least she was able to
speak but she was still breathing heavily. “I hate this.”
“I
can imagine.” Wendy said as she shut the door. “But we need to
talk to you.”
“Oh?”
Lucy said. “You mean about Sienna? I saw the videos people took of
what happened yesterday.” She shuddered briefly. “No wonder you
don’t want to talk about it, but it definitely makes me believe you
about Sienna.”
“Good,
because it’ll make this easier.”
“That’s
right,” Wendy said. “Can you watch the door, Sienna?”
“Oh,
very cloak and dagger,” Lucy said. “What’s so secret?”
Lucy
listened in silence as Wendy told her what she wanted to do while
Sienna listened for anyone coming up the stairs. When Wendy has
finished Lucy started chuckling but it soon segued into a fit of
racking coughs and they had to recover her breath before she could
speak.
“I’m
sorry,” she said. “I know I shouldn’t laugh but only you could
think that’s a good idea, Wendy.” She sagged backwards onto the
bed. “Though suspect you’re right that Sienna will have to fight
back against these gunmen at some point and she can’t do it as
herself. Not safely anyway.”
“Or
by herself,” Wendy said. “Will you design and make her a
costume?”
“Of
course I will,” Lucy said. “Who else would you ask.” She sat up
again and grabbed some paper and a pencil from Sienna’s computer
desk and began sketching. “Okay, one thing I am not going to do is
make you dress like an acrobat. That’s the big problem with female
superheroes in comics. They’re dressed like acrobats. So are the
dudes for that matter but that’s not quite as bad – except who
fights crime in costumes designed for performance artists?”
“I
thought the trouble with female superhero costumes was that they
sexed them up,” Sienna said.
“Yes,
but that’s because they’re dressed like acrobats as much as
anything,” Lucy said. “And having said that it does need to be
distinctive and practical move in. A pretty problem” She hummed to
herself. “And we don’t want to expose any skin or hair at
all.”
“Why
not?” Wendy said.
“Forensics,”
Lucy said simply.
“Of
course!” Wendy hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Damn!
I should have thought of that. I’m going to have to make some
modifications to my armour as well.”
“Sienna
do you have some coloured pencils?” Lucy asked. “I need to show
the colours I have in mind.”
“I
think so,” Sienna said. She went to the cupboard began to search
through a box of her old toys from when she was a child. “Ah here
they are. They’re just cheap kids ones and I haven’t used them in
years.” She tossed them to Lucy.
“They’ll
do,” Lucy said. She pulled out a blue one and started shading.
“Wendy, if you’re really going to do this could you design some
sort of visor display thing for Sienna?”
“A
Heads Up Display? Of course I can. My suit already has one I
designed.”
“Great!
I’ll make that part of the costume then.” Lucy sketched for
another few minutes before passing the pad to Sienna. “What do you
think?”
Sienna
stared at the sketch. It was obviously quickly done but showed a girl
of about Sienna’s build wearing a
dark grey and blue jumpsuit along with
black boots and long gloves. The lower half of her face was covered
by a blue cloth mask while her eyes and the upper half of her face
were concealed by what looked like ski goggles. The girl in the
picture also had bobbed blue hair quite unlike Sienna’s.
“I
thought you weren’t going to dress me as a performance artist,”
she said. “Though it does look easy to move in.”
“It
will be,” Lucy said. “And yes it is dramatic, but for what you
intend to do it needs to be.”
“What’s
with the hair?” Wendy asked. “I thought you were going to cover
it?”
“It
is covered,” Lucy replied. “That’s a wig.” She frowned
thoughtfully. “But so far nothing about this conceals Sienna’s
build.” She chewed on her lips. “A minimiser bra and shoulder
pads maybe?”
“That’s
not a bad idea,” Wendy said. “Though Sienna’s figure is
reasonably average.”
“Hey!”
Sienna said.
“I
didn’t mean that badly,” Wendy said. “I just mean it’s not
distinctive enough to identify you from. Subtle changes should
actually throw people.”
“Just
don’t make me wear a fat suit,” Sienna said.
“No
fat suits,” Lucy said. “Far too hot to run in. No high heels
either.” She hummed to herself. “You need to think of a
name.”
“I
thought you thought this was a bad idea,” Sienna said.
“I
do,” Lucy said. “But it’s also so much fun I can’t help
getting into it. Now name.”
Sienna
put her hand over her eyes and shook her head. “I’m surrounded by
crazy people,” she muttered. “I really don’t know.”
“What
about Push,” Wendy said.
“Boring,”
Lucy said. “I think something like Psychic Avenger would be
cool.”
“Ugh,
no,” Sienna said. “That’s tacky.” She stared at the picture.
“What about Sapphire?”
“It’s
the wrong shade of blue,” Lucy said. “At least to what I imagine
– I just used the closest pencil. I’m thinking more of an indigo
colour.”
“Ooh!
It’s indigo and grey!”
Wendy said. “Indigo Shadow would be a good name.”
Sienna
considered this and then nodded. “I like that. Descriptive of the
costume and not tacky.”
“Indigo Shadow it is then,”
Wendy said.
This is funny but it so looks like it is going to lead to trouble.