Tansie's pet is Nightwing, a teal-black leapflit from Ryslen!

The sound of welding went on late into the night. Tansie didn't feel like sleeping, so she remained in the lab below her bedroom, trying to fix the suit of armor that she'd designed. It wasn't like she needed to worry about any neighbors complaining, the nearest neighbor was almost a full block away. And it wasn't like her parents cared, they weren't even at home - yet again - because they were on their busy business trips.

She wondered absently how they could possibly have even had the time to bring her into the world. She had known that both her parents were busy evern since she was quite a young child. Nothing seemed to bother her, though. At least, not that she showed.

Tansie's obsession with becoming a vigilante hero though, that was something that did bother her parents. But they - were - busy. They could hardly afford to keep an eye on her, and their maid service wouldn't go near the girl or her room. Not after that one time...

Tansie scratched Nightwing on the neck, and he cooed at her. "How is that looking huh?" She asked. He chirped, and flew to the top of the head piece. "Ooh, you're right, I need a standard to go on there!"

Ms Hagen had been teaching them all about heraldry and stuff, she knew that standard wasn't the right word for the piece on top of the helmet. What was that, again? Device? It didn't much matter. Nightwing made a good one, now that she thought about it. "Stay there. I want to get a picture of this." She said to the flit, who dutifully raised his wings in a triumphant manner, and displayed his teeth in a menacing snarl. The flash went off and dazzled the little dark flit, until he toppled over on the back of the headpiece.

Tansie let a rare laugh out, seeing that. "Oh, Nightwing, you're ever so agile." The flitter chirped at her angrily, and she helped him out of the tangle of leather straps and welded metal.

She was strong enough to wear full metal armor, at least armor that she made from lightweight pieces. Hagen knew that she was working like this, and encouraged it. In fact, Tansie had two courses at once just for this purpose, metal shop and armorsmithy. She'd have to swing some psych course later on, but for now, she was going to become a midnight heroine.

***

The work of the forge was exhausting. Tansie had at least gotten the time to take a shower before coming to school, and had to beg out of her Posing and Weight Training class that day. "Doc, I'm so tired..." She said. "I don't want to miss anything, but really - I'm working on a suit of armor for Hagen's smith class and-"

"You are?" Doc Sanger asked, perking up. The class was doing semi-aggressive postures - the kind of thing that even a little girl (not like Tansie, as she was bulked up pretty well) could intimidate someone on the street. But Tansie's arms and back were already sore, and Sanger took her aside into his Gym office. "I'd like to see it. I've been hearing good things about how you engineer items."

"Teachers are such gossips," Tansie muttered.

"Yes, they are," Sanger laughed. "Especially around me."

"I know, Taylee totally wants to be in your Interrogation class, and not that Borg's." Tansie got a weird look, "Man, I'd like to take that thing apart and see what makes it tick."

"You and me both, sister," Crazy Doc Sanger sighed. "You're excused from class, today. But do something for me, instead. Okay?"

"Depends on what," Tansie said. She didn't much dread it, in fact, she figured that if she could one-on-one like this with a guy like Sanger, she was cut out to be the dark knight type.

"I need to you get a little black book from someone." He said, smiling widely.

"Anything but that," Tansie said.

"It's expected," Sanger said, "I just wound up with no time to get it myself. Cybill needs to get it to me."

"Why can't Ms Qeats get it to you herself?"

"You ask her that in the Virtual labs, when she's all hooked up, she is a little bit 'tied up' at the moment." Sanger said.

"... She's in the Vlab?" Tansie asked. "But she's already got a head set."

"She's getting herself cloned, or something stupid."

"You don't think much of cloning?" Tansie asked, getting up and holding out her hand for a school pass.

"I don't, but only because I've never needed to rely upon it to have more than one of me anywhere at a given time." He said, and though Tansie didn't even remotely know what he meant, she didn't also even remotely care. "It's in her office, and it has my name on it. Not hers - I think hers is rigged to explode or something, if someone else gets it."

"Why don't you people ever act normal?"

"This is normal," Sanger said. "Or so I've been told."

Tansie rolled her eyes and set off across the campus. The Admin building was clear west, but with the note she got she'd be allowed in without any kind of fuss.

Not that she was going to just walk in the front door. Nope. That would be way too easy. If she was ever going to become a street ninja, she'd have to start acting like it. She found a restroom and changed into her ninja clothes. They were actually more than black - they were a kind of image-reflective silver, and made silent, so that it didn't crinkle when she walked. Sometimes when she crouched, though, they tended to bunch up and not look quite so stealthy.

Nightwing would have been handy at this point, but Tansie knew her way around most of the buildings on campus. Since she was in fact a ninja in training, she'd been through the Admin building after hours with Taaj. All of Taaj's MIB training really was helpful. Maybe Taaj and she could be a team or something.

By the time Tansie reached the second floor of the Admin building, and no one had noticed her, she snuck into a room via a slightly open window. Breathing carefully and quietly, she crept through the room and into the hall. Now she just needed to find Qeats' office, and that book.

***

"It's not like it was a 'denyable mission' or something stupid," Tansie said to Dean Luger. "Sanger sent me for his book. I got his book."

"You also rifled through the rest of Cybill's files. That, you remember, is not what he asked you to do."

Tansie nodded, and didn't meet the older man's eyes.

"It's all right, Tansie, I know what you're up to. We can always use another superhero out there." Luger said. Since she hadn't been looking at him, she wasn't sure - had he really said it? Had she seen his lips moving? Or was it something that she just imagined he'd said.

"What?" She asked.

"I said, we can use another super-"

"I just wanted to make sure you said that," she replied, and he smiled. He was a cool old guy after all. "Now can I go? I do have to bring this back to the Doc before the end of class."

"Then go," Luger said, "but next time don't get caught."

She noticed that he didn't say 'don't do something illegal', he said not to get caught at it. Definitely an ally...

NEXT!