Sidestory: Queen of Winslow

Sorry for the Delay this week--lots of stuff sort of went sideways. So we're starting with a short side story, before I get the main body running again hopefully by Saturday!

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Sidestory: Queen of Winslow.

“They will be waiting after school,” the senior said.

Reina nodded. “Good. The excuse?”

“Done.” The tall ABB ganger bowed briefly.

Reina narrowed her eyes. “Not here.”

“Sorry.”

I am not Lung.  Lung didn’t care about his civilian identity, nor did Lee. But Reina had to—and yet, some in the school had  to know her actual identity, so that they would know to obey.

Lung had not told  her this. He’d left it for her to learn. He would tolerate nothing less than excellence, as was only proper in his subordinates.

Their new administration kept the school more tranquil than she remembered. But he had limits. His legal authority ended at the school boundaries and many knew it. It didn’t help to call the police if the officer arriving was in the pay of the E88, though…

Orb Weaver had reduced their number, and those who remained were more circumspect. But there were still… some.

The last bell rang and Reina received a few reports, slips of paper that were written on and put in a box, the people doing so not realizing that she could feel the ink and graphite on them, reading the words as she passed.

Learning Lung’s secret had helped her learn the one truth. Those who were satisfied with what their power first gave them would always be lesser.

Control paper? What was that compared to the might of Alexandria? But now many people forgot they had paper in their pockets, in their wallets? How many homes were free of it? And so it was normally weak—her power could infuse it with the strength of steel and the sharpness of well… paper.

She had experimented. A tornado that could flense flesh to bone in seconds. Animals formed from paper like living origami, even a glider, though that was a work in progress, as her still sore leg attested.

It would also let her cheat by reading the test keys,  if she wanted, but Reina would never do that.

Cheating was lazy.

She went outside, and then once out of sight of the others, and away from any cameras, Reina opened her bookbag and  a storm of paper came flying out. She could generate some, it was true, but naturally existing paper was stronger, easier to use. She put her clothes to the side, feeling the paper as it folded around her, flexible and yet strong, responding to her will.

Which was another thing she had learned. Lung’s training before he’d let her use the power had paid dividends. She was no martial artist, but she could fight—and fight with the strength granted by her control over her suit.

She lept over buildings, ribbons playing in the wind behind her, paper pulled along with her, and ready to be turned into weapons at a moment’s notice.

There was the place. She jumped up and went through the open skylight of the little abandoned building… as a whirlwind of paper obscured the sight of those within, making it hard to decide if Reina had jumped in… or if she had merely appeared, being a spirit instead of a person. She let the paper flutter away, revealing her scarlet suit, sigils and fragments of Asian writing on it, a dozen different languages.

After all the ABB was a union of all Asian peoples… in theory, at least.

“Kanshi,” the senior nodded respectfully and turned to reveal the two E88 Winslow seniors, both bound and on their knees.

“Kaiser is going to fuck you for this!” one shouted, even though he couldn’t quite meet her gaze over her mask.

“Will he?”  Reina gestured and one of the ABB members dropped a bundle in front of the two seniors. A flick of a paper strip and the bundle was revealed. A gun, a bundle of small baggies.

“Your mighty empire has been running into so many issues lately.” Reina hopped onto a throne made of paper, looking down at them.

They were afraid. They didn’t know what she could do. Good.

“I have to wonder if Kaiser would be thankful for yet another issue to land on his desk.” She tilted her head, looking down at the two. “I’m not kidnapping you, I merely felt we should talk before I decide what to do with this.”

“Fuck yo—“

“What do you want?” the smarter one asked.

“Do any of us benefit from antagonizing the new order? Blackwell did not care, but she is gone. Before you could have told the teachers that you just found it, and they would believe you. Now? If not for me, you would be in a cell. And yet, his wrath will fall on both the Empire and ABB affiliates in school.”

“So…”

“The Empire ceases to bring anything like this to school. I will do the same with the ABB. We declare a Truce. Students coming to school and returning home, on foot or by bus, do so unmolested.”

“You expect us to trust the ABB?”

“In this? Yes. I serve lung, and I am a cape. Whatever he may say in private? Disavowing an agreement I make is disrespect to Lung.” She glanced at one of her fellows. “Yeong , tell me, would you like to explain a failure to uphold his honor to Lung?”

Yeong actually shivered. “No, Kanshi.”

“You don’t seem like much of a fucking cap—“ the stupid one said, his companion hissing at him.

Reina said nothing, but paper spun, forming a blade, obedient to her will as she gripped it and stabbed it into the concrete right next to his thigh, the blade sinking deep in to the material.

He shrieked.

“Fucking moron…” his companion said. “Yeah, uh, it’s a good deal.”

“You can convey it to your leaders.” Reina tilted her head. “And your goods.” She nudged the packet. “After all, I would not take your property.”

“Uh…right,” he said as her companions undid his bonds.

“Oh,” Reina said, as he turned to leave, the idiot blessedly silent for once. “Tell your leaders that I will not speak of our arrangement if the E88 wishes to take credit for it.”

“Uh—okay.”

When they were gone, one of the ABB members turned. “Why are we letting them claim this?”

Reina glanced at him. “We did kidnap two Empire affiliated teens, yes?  We let the Empire know we won’t make them look weak so that they don’t feel the need to retaliate.”

“Then why did we take them?”

“To remind them that right now? They are weak. Make certain that the message spreads, I am not kidding that any who break this agreement will answer to Lung.”

“Y-yes.”

And then she was away. She would walk back home with Maria and some of her friends.  She had ordered that the ABB cease harassing any non-Asians at school. Get to know them.

The Empire desired to make it plain none were wanted save their particular type.They never considered how many people that made their enemies, people who might normally not care. And it had led them to attempt to murder a girl who was now one of the more powerful Wards in the Bay. It had led them to antagonize Orb Weaver.

Your mighty Empire, when it shakes off its current misfortune, will find that it will have more misfortune.

Asian, Mexican, African-American… Whites who did not enjoy wearing the Empire’s particular brand of ideology on their sleeves.

She remembered something once said…

Upon this Rock will I build my church.

Lung had forged the Asian’s of the Bay into a powerful force that could stand off the E88. Reina, starting with Winslow, would forge the rest of them into a power that would defeat the E88… presuming their current misfortune got no worse.

After all, there was always the hope someone would do it for her.