Chapter Text
Lisa's eyes scanned the man from head to toe as soon as he walked through the door.
Slight soot stains on hands, works with fire.
Nervous, eyes flicking around rapidly. Pursued by law enforcement, wants to join a team for protection.
Oh well. It's not like the rest of them weren’t already wanted, and the team could use a pyrokinetic after Spitfire got away.
She drummed her fingers on the wooden desk as he sat down in the chair across from her. Time to start the questions.
Lisa started with the obvious. "What can you do?"
“I start fires,” he answered calmly, unzipping his jacket. He made it sound as if this was completely ordinary small talk.
Just as she suspected. She waited for her power to fill in the details of his ability.
And waited.
And waited.
“Pyrokinesis?” she asked, injecting as much professionalism into her voice as possible.
“No.”
Umm. Power?
Slight smell of gasoline.
Height and weight roughly matches description of the Brockton Bay Burner, wanted for 17 counts of arson and 4 counts of murder.
Shit.
Does not know you know.
Putting on her best HR voice, Tattletale moved onto the next question, “Why do you want to join the Undersiders?”
He shrugged. “I already liked committing crime, figured I might as well get paid for it. Never work a day, right?”
Loves burning flammable material.
Lisa Wilbourn is composed of flammable material.
Tattletale probably could have figured out that second part by herself, but thanks power. Very reassuring.
“Do you have a lot of fire-starting experience?”
He had a gleam in his eyes after hearing that question.
“More than you can imagine.”
She nodded. “Good, good, we weren’t looking to babysit some rookie.”
Ha. This guy was at least 10 years older than any of the Undersiders.
“I’ll have to talk it over with the rest of the team, but I think you’re in.”
Hearing that gave a smile that, weirdly enough, looked genuinely warm.
Damn, she wished she could smile like that. People always assumed Lisa was plotting something whenever she smiled.
To be fair, she usually was plotting something. It still hurt though.
She placed her left pointer on the piece of paper sitting on the desk, pushing it towards him. At the same time, she grabbed a stainless steel pen from the cup on the desk and held it out to him.
“Now, we’ll just need a phone number to call you back at once we make a final decision, but,” she winked, “between you and me, I really want you on the team.”
He took the pen and messily scrawled a number on the paper, setting the pen down once he was finished.
Didn’t even hand it back to her. Rude.
She gave the nicest smile she could muster up. “Thank you for your time today, you should hear back from us soon.”
Nope, still looked like she was plotting something. She needed more practice.
He had already zipped his jacket and stood back up before responding. “I, uh appreciate you taking time to interview me.”
He walked out, carefully closing the door behind him.
Tattletale didn’t bother asking Skitter to follow him out. There had been at least four flies on him the whole time, and likely more she hadn’t spotted.
She carefully picked the pen up by the tip, slowly rotating to inspect it. Yep, clear fingerprints.
Yanking the top drawer open, she pulled out a clear plastic bag and dropped the pen inside.
She would deliver it to the police later. Maybe they would give her a medal.
Two Weeks Later
Tattletale grabbed a letter opener from her desk and deftly sliced open the small box that had been delivered to her PO box, then gasped.
The box contained two objects. The first, a note, read: “In gratitude to Lisa Wilbourn for exemplary service to her city.”
The second…
Fuck, they actually sent her a medal.
At least it seemed her cover was intact.
Accompanying note personally signed by the mayor.
Now that was some irony. If only he knew.
If she wore it to their next job, would it count as a get out of jail free card?
Probably not, nobody liked the mayor very much. In all reality it would probably make her even more of a target.
She couldn’t wait to see Brian’s face when she walked in wearing it.