The Abyss is has taken interest in one Taylor Hebert, will the world survive their combined wrath?
Abyssal Wrath (KC Alt power)
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Welcome and Index post.
Hello,
It's once again that time of year for me to try my hand at writing, and I'll freely admit this is likely a pretty poorly thought out crossover idea that likely will die before it is finished. What this is first and foremost is practice at writing consistently, quality can come later. That being said nitpicks and suggestions are freely welcome. And yes I'm aware my take on Taylor for this fic will likely be very OoC, but I've never really been able to write other people's characters I've come to learn and realize. This is a brain bug that has been bugging me for like half a year and it's something I'm managing to get words out on.
Anyways enjoy the story,
Absolute0
P.S. Please Wait to reply, 4 chapter posts will follow immediately.
It's once again that time of year for me to try my hand at writing, and I'll freely admit this is likely a pretty poorly thought out crossover idea that likely will die before it is finished. What this is first and foremost is practice at writing consistently, quality can come later. That being said nitpicks and suggestions are freely welcome. And yes I'm aware my take on Taylor for this fic will likely be very OoC, but I've never really been able to write other people's characters I've come to learn and realize. This is a brain bug that has been bugging me for like half a year and it's something I'm managing to get words out on.
Anyways enjoy the story,
Absolute0
P.S. Please Wait to reply, 4 chapter posts will follow immediately.
Chapter 1
Abyssal Wrath
Chapter 1
The morning of the incident Taylor couldn't help but feel like there was an aura of doom surrounding Winslow. Everyone seemed to avoid her, even more than usual, each keeping to their own little cliques, even the usual suspects the trio and their lackeys were nowhere to be found.
It didn't take long to make it to her locker in the deep and dark bowels of the hellspawn of the school which in of itself should have been an indication something was up, nobody went out of their ways to make life easy for Taylor in her short but exceptionally miserable high school career.
As she neared her locker a dark and foreboding smell of death, decay, and rotting flesh permeated the air, the smell thick enough she could have sworn she could have dropped her books and it wouldn't have hit the ground for minutes. Taylor could feel herself gaging against the bile rising in her throat, her stomach falling through the floor as she grimly realized that it was her locker the smell was coming from.
As she turned to go find a janitor to clean up this horrible mess she came face to face with the physical aspect of the terrible trio, Sophia. Vaguely she heard someone opening a locker behind her while her tormentor's already evil smile turned positively, sadistically, predatory. Taylor never stood a chance as the track star buried a punch into her solar plexus winding her and shoving her backwards into a locker.
Her locker she realized with horror as someone shoved her feet up and into it, forcing the door shut.
"Oh god!" Taylor panicked as she realized she had been locked into her own locker, panting she finally regained her breath but that blessing was actually a curse noxious fumes of rot and decay filling her nose as she could feel something warm, wet, and sticky soak through her pants.
It was the last straw, Taylor projectile vomited everywhere her head reeling back in disgust hard enough she knocked herself out on one of the locker walls aspirating her own vomit. In many other worlds, this would have been the end of her, doomed to be found a few days later by a janitor who would die from the airborne bacteria and fungus spores released when he opened the locker's door. It would come to be known as a bioterrorism attack which drew much-needed yet unwanted scrutiny to Winslow, its staff, and its administration.
This wasn't that world, Taylor soul instead sank into the abyss of oblivion.
Taylor felt cold, it wasn't the kind of cold you get from a cool spring day or even the cold of the iciest depths of winter. No, this cold was much more conceptual, more penetrating. If she had to describe it, she would have said it was like someone chilled her entire being to absolute 0 and kept going, into the impossible negatives of cold that physics didn't allow.
Of course in a realm of the soul and conceptual ideas, Taylor should have long since dissolved into insanity, but she hadn't she was in the domain of the Abyss and it had plans for her.
"Taylor Anne Hebert" The voice was impossibly deep, like the depths of the ocean, was speaking directly into her being rather than through her ears.
This brought Taylor's soul into focus, she was floating in an endless infinite expanse of nothingness, she looked around panicked, where was she? What happened? Where was her body?
She felt her nonexistent stomach sink, the locker, hitting her head, she was dead, wasn't she?
"Just in body, which fortunately for you is reasonably easy to correct…"
"W-What do you want?" Taylor squeaked out trying and failing to not sound like the terrified little girl she actually was. "I-I know how these kinds of things work, it's never free."
"How… observant and thoughtful… Yesss… this will make coming to an arrangement much easier." The voice somehow managed to sound sinister, excited, and caring all at the same time.
"What's the price?" Taylor would have crossed her arms if she had any already growing impatient of the voice's games but also to try to ward off the cold to some degree.
"In exchange for your revival and continuing immortality you shall serve me as my voice, my priestess, my champion, and my Empress in the world above." As the voice spoke each of the four tasks images flashed in her mind. My Voice was accompanied by the concept of speaking to bring awareness of what the abyss is. My Pristest was accompanied by a woman who looked a lot like Taylor, except airbrushed and perfected speaking to the greatness of the Abyss in a vast grand temple. My Champion showed Taylor, in a combat uniform, ornate sword in hand standing victorious over the corpse of Levithan. And lastly My Empress showed Taylor sitting upon a grand throne, a crown upon her brow, and the masses bowed before her.
It was obvious the voice was trying to embellish it so the costs didn't seem as they were, but what could a poor abused, and bullied girl do? Taylor would have swallowed nervously as she thought it over if she still had a body. On one hand, she would be the servant of the voice and whatever its true motives were, on the other hand, the offer didn't seem entirely one-sided and malicious.
She swallowed dryly and bowed her head defeated and was about to answer when she wondered what the voice's motivations were.
"My motivations are alien to humanity, as I am not human, but that won't stop me from answering to the best of my abilities. I am the Abyss, I am the souls of all life lost at sea made manifest, just a few short decades ago I saw humanity as my enemy and I was preparing a war to remove you from the seas, but in recent times Levithan has killed millions of your kind, and polluted the seas with unjust death and destruction. And due to the strength of a human's soul, they have had an out-sized effect on me considering their relatively small numbers. This has made me stronger than I thought possible, but it also tempered my anger against humanity. Your kind is merely uneducated in the proper balance rather than wholly uncaring. It will be your job, should you accept, to correct the error of these fallacies."
Taylor somehow knew she was going to regret this, but for some reason, she couldn't fathom the voice was unreasonably convincing to her ears, words of what she was supposed to say formed in her head even as her mind moved her nonexistent mouth to say the first syllable, " I, Taylor Anne Hebert, agree to the eternal divine contract with the Abyss in the name of the primordial Gods of the universe as witness."
"Excellent!" The voice of the Abyss sounded positively ecstatic as Taylor's consciousness slowly faded, she was barely aware but still managed to catch the voice exclaiming gleefully, "It's going to be a pleasure working with you!"
Taylor woke several hours after the school closed for the day, her face unglamorously buried in the remains of the tiled floor. She looked around dazed and confused while blinking pieces of flooring from her vision. She was in the hall of Winslow in front of her locker that much was evident by the familiar graffiti barely visible underneath the nearly two inches of ice covering the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Slowly pushing herself up Taylor could now see that she was standing in three concentric rings of jagged spiky ice each larger than the last as they increased in distance from her, the furthest being a full twenty feet away and totally blocking off the hallway in both directions. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and ice crystals instantly formed and lazily drifted to the ice-covered floor, it was cold, impossibly so, but to her, it only felt like the pleasant chill of the Abyss.
A sinking realization settled into the pit of her stomach, Taylor slowly turned around to the shattered ice-encased ruins of her locker. The scene was something straight out of a horror movie, it looked like someone had taken a bomb to her locker, scattering pieces of metal, decayed flesh, and bone everywhere. And in the bowls of the locker, half embedded upon a throne of death and decay sat a corpse.
Taylor screamed like a siren as she watched one of the corpse's decayed frozen eyeballs fall out of it's socket and rolled down the half-decayed body. It bounced off long waver brown locks of hair, rolled down a crease in a tatted old black baggy hood that was once a part of a hoddie, only to bounce down the exposed decayed ribs of the unfortunate soul like a macabre xylophone, and off the throne like a ramp and shatter when it hit the floor like a piece of glass. It was her body she realized in pure unadulterated horror.
"I have to get out of here!" She shrieked as her body respond to her whims and crashed through the ice barricade in the hall with an almighty crash and a blast of icy shrapnel. She continued on through locked security doors like they were wet cardboard to the far side of the building to her favorite bathroom to eat lunch in to avoid the trio. Panting she went to turn on the water and splash water in her face to help clear her racing panicked thoughts when she got a glimpse of herself in the shattered, vandalized mirror.
Taylor wasn't human anymore, that much was obvious devil-like horns and spooky glowing ice blue eyes were definitely outside the norms. And the rest of her wasn't much better, vampire-like teeth, an exquisite crown wrought of an unknown black metal that she knew was as much a part of herself as her hand or foot. Her skin was so white she might as well have been a ghost, while her arms were covered in the same black metal as her crown up to her elbows looking for all the world like fantasy dark elf armor. Her legs had been given the same treatment with knee-high armored boots with a four-inch heel she hadn't even noticed was there, and just like her gloves and crown, she knew they were just as much a part of her as her own hair…
Her hair was just as wavy as she remembered it but that's where the similarities ended, it was a gleaming shiny black as dark as the depths of the Abyss, styled bangs peeking out from under her crown framed her face, while the rest flowed down her back like a tapestry, running her hands through it revealed razorwire, and barbed wire like protrusions throughout hidden under the smooth silky exterior, anyone who dared grab it would be in for a world of pain and suffering.
Taylor allowed her hand to fall to her side as she stared into the depths of the decrepit bathroom mirror. This was her new life now, doomed to never be normal again, she instinctively knew that she wasn't a parahuman, and the thought of being one brought a snarl and disgust to her mind.
"I do realize this is a lot to take in, but staring into a mirror full of self-pity won't get you or me anything we want." The Abyss observed from inside Taylor's mind, its voice sounding like a warm fluffy blanket to Taylor in spite of it feeling like hell froze over.
Taylor bowed her head and nodded with resigned agreement, but what was she going to do now?
"Telling your father might be a good idea, he's worried sick about you." The voice helpfully supplied.
"Oh shit! Dad!" Taylor screeched, forgetting doors are a thing and running through the wall beside it in a shower of shattered brick and mortar.
Chapter 1
The morning of the incident Taylor couldn't help but feel like there was an aura of doom surrounding Winslow. Everyone seemed to avoid her, even more than usual, each keeping to their own little cliques, even the usual suspects the trio and their lackeys were nowhere to be found.
It didn't take long to make it to her locker in the deep and dark bowels of the hellspawn of the school which in of itself should have been an indication something was up, nobody went out of their ways to make life easy for Taylor in her short but exceptionally miserable high school career.
As she neared her locker a dark and foreboding smell of death, decay, and rotting flesh permeated the air, the smell thick enough she could have sworn she could have dropped her books and it wouldn't have hit the ground for minutes. Taylor could feel herself gaging against the bile rising in her throat, her stomach falling through the floor as she grimly realized that it was her locker the smell was coming from.
As she turned to go find a janitor to clean up this horrible mess she came face to face with the physical aspect of the terrible trio, Sophia. Vaguely she heard someone opening a locker behind her while her tormentor's already evil smile turned positively, sadistically, predatory. Taylor never stood a chance as the track star buried a punch into her solar plexus winding her and shoving her backwards into a locker.
Her locker she realized with horror as someone shoved her feet up and into it, forcing the door shut.
"Oh god!" Taylor panicked as she realized she had been locked into her own locker, panting she finally regained her breath but that blessing was actually a curse noxious fumes of rot and decay filling her nose as she could feel something warm, wet, and sticky soak through her pants.
It was the last straw, Taylor projectile vomited everywhere her head reeling back in disgust hard enough she knocked herself out on one of the locker walls aspirating her own vomit. In many other worlds, this would have been the end of her, doomed to be found a few days later by a janitor who would die from the airborne bacteria and fungus spores released when he opened the locker's door. It would come to be known as a bioterrorism attack which drew much-needed yet unwanted scrutiny to Winslow, its staff, and its administration.
This wasn't that world, Taylor soul instead sank into the abyss of oblivion.
Taylor felt cold, it wasn't the kind of cold you get from a cool spring day or even the cold of the iciest depths of winter. No, this cold was much more conceptual, more penetrating. If she had to describe it, she would have said it was like someone chilled her entire being to absolute 0 and kept going, into the impossible negatives of cold that physics didn't allow.
Of course in a realm of the soul and conceptual ideas, Taylor should have long since dissolved into insanity, but she hadn't she was in the domain of the Abyss and it had plans for her.
"Taylor Anne Hebert" The voice was impossibly deep, like the depths of the ocean, was speaking directly into her being rather than through her ears.
This brought Taylor's soul into focus, she was floating in an endless infinite expanse of nothingness, she looked around panicked, where was she? What happened? Where was her body?
She felt her nonexistent stomach sink, the locker, hitting her head, she was dead, wasn't she?
"Just in body, which fortunately for you is reasonably easy to correct…"
"W-What do you want?" Taylor squeaked out trying and failing to not sound like the terrified little girl she actually was. "I-I know how these kinds of things work, it's never free."
"How… observant and thoughtful… Yesss… this will make coming to an arrangement much easier." The voice somehow managed to sound sinister, excited, and caring all at the same time.
"What's the price?" Taylor would have crossed her arms if she had any already growing impatient of the voice's games but also to try to ward off the cold to some degree.
"In exchange for your revival and continuing immortality you shall serve me as my voice, my priestess, my champion, and my Empress in the world above." As the voice spoke each of the four tasks images flashed in her mind. My Voice was accompanied by the concept of speaking to bring awareness of what the abyss is. My Pristest was accompanied by a woman who looked a lot like Taylor, except airbrushed and perfected speaking to the greatness of the Abyss in a vast grand temple. My Champion showed Taylor, in a combat uniform, ornate sword in hand standing victorious over the corpse of Levithan. And lastly My Empress showed Taylor sitting upon a grand throne, a crown upon her brow, and the masses bowed before her.
It was obvious the voice was trying to embellish it so the costs didn't seem as they were, but what could a poor abused, and bullied girl do? Taylor would have swallowed nervously as she thought it over if she still had a body. On one hand, she would be the servant of the voice and whatever its true motives were, on the other hand, the offer didn't seem entirely one-sided and malicious.
She swallowed dryly and bowed her head defeated and was about to answer when she wondered what the voice's motivations were.
"My motivations are alien to humanity, as I am not human, but that won't stop me from answering to the best of my abilities. I am the Abyss, I am the souls of all life lost at sea made manifest, just a few short decades ago I saw humanity as my enemy and I was preparing a war to remove you from the seas, but in recent times Levithan has killed millions of your kind, and polluted the seas with unjust death and destruction. And due to the strength of a human's soul, they have had an out-sized effect on me considering their relatively small numbers. This has made me stronger than I thought possible, but it also tempered my anger against humanity. Your kind is merely uneducated in the proper balance rather than wholly uncaring. It will be your job, should you accept, to correct the error of these fallacies."
Taylor somehow knew she was going to regret this, but for some reason, she couldn't fathom the voice was unreasonably convincing to her ears, words of what she was supposed to say formed in her head even as her mind moved her nonexistent mouth to say the first syllable, " I, Taylor Anne Hebert, agree to the eternal divine contract with the Abyss in the name of the primordial Gods of the universe as witness."
"Excellent!" The voice of the Abyss sounded positively ecstatic as Taylor's consciousness slowly faded, she was barely aware but still managed to catch the voice exclaiming gleefully, "It's going to be a pleasure working with you!"
Taylor woke several hours after the school closed for the day, her face unglamorously buried in the remains of the tiled floor. She looked around dazed and confused while blinking pieces of flooring from her vision. She was in the hall of Winslow in front of her locker that much was evident by the familiar graffiti barely visible underneath the nearly two inches of ice covering the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Slowly pushing herself up Taylor could now see that she was standing in three concentric rings of jagged spiky ice each larger than the last as they increased in distance from her, the furthest being a full twenty feet away and totally blocking off the hallway in both directions. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and ice crystals instantly formed and lazily drifted to the ice-covered floor, it was cold, impossibly so, but to her, it only felt like the pleasant chill of the Abyss.
A sinking realization settled into the pit of her stomach, Taylor slowly turned around to the shattered ice-encased ruins of her locker. The scene was something straight out of a horror movie, it looked like someone had taken a bomb to her locker, scattering pieces of metal, decayed flesh, and bone everywhere. And in the bowls of the locker, half embedded upon a throne of death and decay sat a corpse.
Taylor screamed like a siren as she watched one of the corpse's decayed frozen eyeballs fall out of it's socket and rolled down the half-decayed body. It bounced off long waver brown locks of hair, rolled down a crease in a tatted old black baggy hood that was once a part of a hoddie, only to bounce down the exposed decayed ribs of the unfortunate soul like a macabre xylophone, and off the throne like a ramp and shatter when it hit the floor like a piece of glass. It was her body she realized in pure unadulterated horror.
"I have to get out of here!" She shrieked as her body respond to her whims and crashed through the ice barricade in the hall with an almighty crash and a blast of icy shrapnel. She continued on through locked security doors like they were wet cardboard to the far side of the building to her favorite bathroom to eat lunch in to avoid the trio. Panting she went to turn on the water and splash water in her face to help clear her racing panicked thoughts when she got a glimpse of herself in the shattered, vandalized mirror.
Taylor wasn't human anymore, that much was obvious devil-like horns and spooky glowing ice blue eyes were definitely outside the norms. And the rest of her wasn't much better, vampire-like teeth, an exquisite crown wrought of an unknown black metal that she knew was as much a part of herself as her hand or foot. Her skin was so white she might as well have been a ghost, while her arms were covered in the same black metal as her crown up to her elbows looking for all the world like fantasy dark elf armor. Her legs had been given the same treatment with knee-high armored boots with a four-inch heel she hadn't even noticed was there, and just like her gloves and crown, she knew they were just as much a part of her as her own hair…
Her hair was just as wavy as she remembered it but that's where the similarities ended, it was a gleaming shiny black as dark as the depths of the Abyss, styled bangs peeking out from under her crown framed her face, while the rest flowed down her back like a tapestry, running her hands through it revealed razorwire, and barbed wire like protrusions throughout hidden under the smooth silky exterior, anyone who dared grab it would be in for a world of pain and suffering.
Taylor allowed her hand to fall to her side as she stared into the depths of the decrepit bathroom mirror. This was her new life now, doomed to never be normal again, she instinctively knew that she wasn't a parahuman, and the thought of being one brought a snarl and disgust to her mind.
"I do realize this is a lot to take in, but staring into a mirror full of self-pity won't get you or me anything we want." The Abyss observed from inside Taylor's mind, its voice sounding like a warm fluffy blanket to Taylor in spite of it feeling like hell froze over.
Taylor bowed her head and nodded with resigned agreement, but what was she going to do now?
"Telling your father might be a good idea, he's worried sick about you." The voice helpfully supplied.
"Oh shit! Dad!" Taylor screeched, forgetting doors are a thing and running through the wall beside it in a shower of shattered brick and mortar.
Last edited:
Chapter 2
Abyssal Wrath
Chapter 2
Taylor slowed down not long after exiting school via a new hole in the wall realizing that while going there as the crow flies might be the fastest, it would draw some rather unwanted attention and did an about-face back into the school looking for the lost and found. Moments later she was swearing as of course there wasn't anything good in a god-forsaken place like Winslow, poor enterprising kids being poor enterprising kids kept anything of value they found.
Taylor stood there dumbfounded wondering what to do to conceal herself on her trek home, currently, she was so blatantly and obviously not normal all the gangs and PRT would be crawling over her the moment she took a short stroll through town and she definitely didn't want that sort of attention, not yet anyways. With a resigned sigh, she started tearing locker doors off their hinges one at a time.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor had unsurprisingly found a small mountain of drugs, another small mountain of knives and improvised weapons, and other more elicit stuff she wished she could scrub from her memories. Thought it wasn't all for naught she managed to snag an unusually nice double-breasted jacket from one of the preppy girl's lockers, and a sleek pair of gold-finished sunglasses which when she checked in the mirror actually hid her glowing eyes. She actually had what she needed but curiosity drove her to keep tearing the wretched place apart and see what else she could find.
Finding nothing else interesting Taylor grabbed her favorite folding knife out of the ones she found sliding it into her acquired jacket's pocket and headed back outside just as the morning sun was rising and the frost coming out with the temperature change. The cool air felt muted to her like it was beneath her notice like it was still room temperature.
"Hey what about my horns and crown?" Taylor wondered to herself as she stood outside of the school, her new jacket definitely wouldn't hide that.
"Why are they a problem they are a sign of your status as the chosen of the Abyss." The Abyss sounded genuinely offended and confused that its gifts could be considered a problem.
"Because I woke up half an hour ago and I need time before I know what I'm doing, you don't need your new chosen one getting blasted into pieces by some cape just because I went down the wrong street now do you?" Taylor explained somewhat aggressively.
"I… guess I can see that…" The voice admitted reluctantly, and just like that Taylor felt her crown and horns dissolve into nothingness, intrinsically knowing they were still there and just a thought away, just out of sight.
Satisfied the Taylor began her long walk home sticking to the shadows and safer parts as much as she could but she wasn't entirely successful. On her way, through one of the seedier parts of Empire territory she picked up a tail, crossing the street didn't help, and neither did jumping fences, cutting corners, and jumping over cars.
Slowly she was being cornered, and neither she nor the Abyss liked that one bit, recognizing she wasn't going to get out of this without a fight she chose her battleground discretely breaking the lock on a warehouse and heading inside, setting her coat and sunglasses to the side she kneeled on a crate and closed her eyes and waited for her pursuers.
It didn't take long for Taylor to feel the cold blade of a knife at her throat as she felt the Abyss reassure her something so mundane couldn't even scratch her.
"Look girly, my pals and I want to have some fun…" He never got to finish his words as Taylor opened her eyes illuminating the warehouse as her horns and crown appeared on her head.
"Holy fuck! Cape!" A woman screamed bloody murder as Taylor felt the knife slide across her skin failing to even mark it.
Taking in the scene, there was the utterly confused man who had just tried to slit her throat and was looking at his knife dumbly not comprehending it didn't work, a second man two feet away with a wet spot in his crotch having pissed himself a crowbar falling out of his hands with a soft clang on the floor. The woman who had identified her as a cape was armed with the only decent weapon of the bunch, a short-barreled and completely illegal pump-action shotgun.
"They defy your greatness! Kill them!" The Abyss ordered as Taylor felt a sword hilt form in her hands, it was wrought of the same black metal as her gauntlets, boots, and crown that was a part of her but the blade was conspicuously missing until she instinctively willed it into existence.
The gangers took a step back as the sword blade appeared into existence, the power of the Abyss made manifest it was more accurately a blade-shaped void in reality that spelled doom for all which it touched. Not in full control of herself, her actions guided by the Abyss Taylor gracefully with skills that were not her own decapitated the man who had attempted to slit her throat.
His head had barely begun to fall from his neck as Taylor flashed forward and taking the head of the second ganger the esoteric blade erasing the flesh and blood of the ganger's head. Moments later the top of his head slid off, his eyeballs cut perfectly in half. The woman with the shotgun barely had time to recognize what was happening as Taylor still guided by the abyss threw the sword through the woman's neck, deleting a perfect blade-shaped cross-section from it.
Taylor instinctively pulled her sword back to her it disappearing out of the woman's neck and back in her hand, its cold heavy weight feeling strangely comforting. Like it was a warden against the hazards she would undoubtedly face in the future. It disappeared in a cloud of dark void mist, ready for its master's call.
With that, the Abyss released its presence from Taylor's mind, the teen collapsing to the floor and retching up nothing as her new body had never eaten. "Holy shit!" She uttered breathlessly, as what had just happened sank in looking around at the three corpses on the ground.
"Calm yourself."
"Calm? Calm! How can I be calm! You just controlled my body and killed three people! Which means people will think I killed three people!" Taylor shouted at the Abyss, "It's really hard to go around spreading your word when the very first thing I do is kill three people! And no it doesn't matter it was self-defense! In the court of public opinion, I have murdered three people and that's going to taint their perception of you and myself forever!"
"I will admit it might not have been the greatest of idea's in hindsight, but I wasn't about to let my new chosen one die or be taken advantage of." The Abyss tried its best to explain and sound a bit sheepish, "Now someone will probably miss these three idiots sooner rather than later so you should make yourself scarce."
Taylor didn't dignify the voice with a reply, picking up and dusting off her jacket and sunglasses before she put them back on while willing her crown and horns away. She snuck out a different door to the warehouse than the one she entered in case someone was watching for anyone leaving the building. It wasn't long before she was back into a relatively safe area of Brockton Bay and she could relax some.
All in all, it was a relatively nice winter morning, a bit of a friendly cold bite to the air, the streets clear of traffic in the sleepy suburb she was sneaking through peeking out of an ally Taylor thought she could see a young blond teen with green eyes and her hair pulled into a braid in the light of the morning sun before she disappeared just as quickly. Dismissing it as a teenager trying to sneak home after a late night out doing something stupid before her parents woke up Taylor paid her no mind.
Not long after Taylor found herself in more familiar grounds slowly and steadily working her way home, a ball of dread formed in the pit of her stomach as the thought of telling her dad what had happened almost brought her to tears. Only the comforting words of the Abyss and some lent nerves of steel kept her from collapsing into a quivering balling wreck.
Not having a key she had no choice but to knock and pray her father would answer the door. It wasn't the option Taylor would have preferred but she didn't have a choice in the matter. She stood there for a moment at the threshold, her nerves getting the better of her until a gentle push from the Abyss prompted her to knock on the door being mindful to not send her knuckles through the wooden front door like it wasn't even there.
The door opened before her third knock made contact, Taylor immediately taking a step back in shock as the soreful state of her father, he was hunched over like he does when he falls asleep in his chair in front of the TV, he smelled like beer and death warmed over, and his disheveled work clothes he was wearing had clearly been slept in, yellowish sweat stains in his armpits.
"Dad?" Taylor's voice was meek and hesitant as if she was on some nature show and terrified of scaring off some rare and exotic never before seen animal.
"Taylor?!?" Danny's face went through a mix of joy, confusion, rage, disappointment, before settling on confusion, "Taylor where were you, and what in god's name are you wearing?"
"I think it's best I explain inside," Taylor answered leaning heavily on Abyss lent inner strength to keep herself from panicking.
Her father didn't answer but stepped aside, not even offering a hug as Taylor passed into the living room and settling down in her usual spot noted the small pile of beer cans by her father's chair with a grimace.
Danny took his seat with a grim look and stared Taylor down for a second, "Who are you and what did you do with my daughter."
Chapter 2
Taylor slowed down not long after exiting school via a new hole in the wall realizing that while going there as the crow flies might be the fastest, it would draw some rather unwanted attention and did an about-face back into the school looking for the lost and found. Moments later she was swearing as of course there wasn't anything good in a god-forsaken place like Winslow, poor enterprising kids being poor enterprising kids kept anything of value they found.
Taylor stood there dumbfounded wondering what to do to conceal herself on her trek home, currently, she was so blatantly and obviously not normal all the gangs and PRT would be crawling over her the moment she took a short stroll through town and she definitely didn't want that sort of attention, not yet anyways. With a resigned sigh, she started tearing locker doors off their hinges one at a time.
Fifteen minutes later Taylor had unsurprisingly found a small mountain of drugs, another small mountain of knives and improvised weapons, and other more elicit stuff she wished she could scrub from her memories. Thought it wasn't all for naught she managed to snag an unusually nice double-breasted jacket from one of the preppy girl's lockers, and a sleek pair of gold-finished sunglasses which when she checked in the mirror actually hid her glowing eyes. She actually had what she needed but curiosity drove her to keep tearing the wretched place apart and see what else she could find.
Finding nothing else interesting Taylor grabbed her favorite folding knife out of the ones she found sliding it into her acquired jacket's pocket and headed back outside just as the morning sun was rising and the frost coming out with the temperature change. The cool air felt muted to her like it was beneath her notice like it was still room temperature.
"Hey what about my horns and crown?" Taylor wondered to herself as she stood outside of the school, her new jacket definitely wouldn't hide that.
"Why are they a problem they are a sign of your status as the chosen of the Abyss." The Abyss sounded genuinely offended and confused that its gifts could be considered a problem.
"Because I woke up half an hour ago and I need time before I know what I'm doing, you don't need your new chosen one getting blasted into pieces by some cape just because I went down the wrong street now do you?" Taylor explained somewhat aggressively.
"I… guess I can see that…" The voice admitted reluctantly, and just like that Taylor felt her crown and horns dissolve into nothingness, intrinsically knowing they were still there and just a thought away, just out of sight.
Satisfied the Taylor began her long walk home sticking to the shadows and safer parts as much as she could but she wasn't entirely successful. On her way, through one of the seedier parts of Empire territory she picked up a tail, crossing the street didn't help, and neither did jumping fences, cutting corners, and jumping over cars.
Slowly she was being cornered, and neither she nor the Abyss liked that one bit, recognizing she wasn't going to get out of this without a fight she chose her battleground discretely breaking the lock on a warehouse and heading inside, setting her coat and sunglasses to the side she kneeled on a crate and closed her eyes and waited for her pursuers.
It didn't take long for Taylor to feel the cold blade of a knife at her throat as she felt the Abyss reassure her something so mundane couldn't even scratch her.
"Look girly, my pals and I want to have some fun…" He never got to finish his words as Taylor opened her eyes illuminating the warehouse as her horns and crown appeared on her head.
"Holy fuck! Cape!" A woman screamed bloody murder as Taylor felt the knife slide across her skin failing to even mark it.
Taking in the scene, there was the utterly confused man who had just tried to slit her throat and was looking at his knife dumbly not comprehending it didn't work, a second man two feet away with a wet spot in his crotch having pissed himself a crowbar falling out of his hands with a soft clang on the floor. The woman who had identified her as a cape was armed with the only decent weapon of the bunch, a short-barreled and completely illegal pump-action shotgun.
"They defy your greatness! Kill them!" The Abyss ordered as Taylor felt a sword hilt form in her hands, it was wrought of the same black metal as her gauntlets, boots, and crown that was a part of her but the blade was conspicuously missing until she instinctively willed it into existence.
The gangers took a step back as the sword blade appeared into existence, the power of the Abyss made manifest it was more accurately a blade-shaped void in reality that spelled doom for all which it touched. Not in full control of herself, her actions guided by the Abyss Taylor gracefully with skills that were not her own decapitated the man who had attempted to slit her throat.
His head had barely begun to fall from his neck as Taylor flashed forward and taking the head of the second ganger the esoteric blade erasing the flesh and blood of the ganger's head. Moments later the top of his head slid off, his eyeballs cut perfectly in half. The woman with the shotgun barely had time to recognize what was happening as Taylor still guided by the abyss threw the sword through the woman's neck, deleting a perfect blade-shaped cross-section from it.
Taylor instinctively pulled her sword back to her it disappearing out of the woman's neck and back in her hand, its cold heavy weight feeling strangely comforting. Like it was a warden against the hazards she would undoubtedly face in the future. It disappeared in a cloud of dark void mist, ready for its master's call.
With that, the Abyss released its presence from Taylor's mind, the teen collapsing to the floor and retching up nothing as her new body had never eaten. "Holy shit!" She uttered breathlessly, as what had just happened sank in looking around at the three corpses on the ground.
"Calm yourself."
"Calm? Calm! How can I be calm! You just controlled my body and killed three people! Which means people will think I killed three people!" Taylor shouted at the Abyss, "It's really hard to go around spreading your word when the very first thing I do is kill three people! And no it doesn't matter it was self-defense! In the court of public opinion, I have murdered three people and that's going to taint their perception of you and myself forever!"
"I will admit it might not have been the greatest of idea's in hindsight, but I wasn't about to let my new chosen one die or be taken advantage of." The Abyss tried its best to explain and sound a bit sheepish, "Now someone will probably miss these three idiots sooner rather than later so you should make yourself scarce."
Taylor didn't dignify the voice with a reply, picking up and dusting off her jacket and sunglasses before she put them back on while willing her crown and horns away. She snuck out a different door to the warehouse than the one she entered in case someone was watching for anyone leaving the building. It wasn't long before she was back into a relatively safe area of Brockton Bay and she could relax some.
All in all, it was a relatively nice winter morning, a bit of a friendly cold bite to the air, the streets clear of traffic in the sleepy suburb she was sneaking through peeking out of an ally Taylor thought she could see a young blond teen with green eyes and her hair pulled into a braid in the light of the morning sun before she disappeared just as quickly. Dismissing it as a teenager trying to sneak home after a late night out doing something stupid before her parents woke up Taylor paid her no mind.
Not long after Taylor found herself in more familiar grounds slowly and steadily working her way home, a ball of dread formed in the pit of her stomach as the thought of telling her dad what had happened almost brought her to tears. Only the comforting words of the Abyss and some lent nerves of steel kept her from collapsing into a quivering balling wreck.
Not having a key she had no choice but to knock and pray her father would answer the door. It wasn't the option Taylor would have preferred but she didn't have a choice in the matter. She stood there for a moment at the threshold, her nerves getting the better of her until a gentle push from the Abyss prompted her to knock on the door being mindful to not send her knuckles through the wooden front door like it wasn't even there.
The door opened before her third knock made contact, Taylor immediately taking a step back in shock as the soreful state of her father, he was hunched over like he does when he falls asleep in his chair in front of the TV, he smelled like beer and death warmed over, and his disheveled work clothes he was wearing had clearly been slept in, yellowish sweat stains in his armpits.
"Dad?" Taylor's voice was meek and hesitant as if she was on some nature show and terrified of scaring off some rare and exotic never before seen animal.
"Taylor?!?" Danny's face went through a mix of joy, confusion, rage, disappointment, before settling on confusion, "Taylor where were you, and what in god's name are you wearing?"
"I think it's best I explain inside," Taylor answered leaning heavily on Abyss lent inner strength to keep herself from panicking.
Her father didn't answer but stepped aside, not even offering a hug as Taylor passed into the living room and settling down in her usual spot noted the small pile of beer cans by her father's chair with a grimace.
Danny took his seat with a grim look and stared Taylor down for a second, "Who are you and what did you do with my daughter."
Chapter 3
Abyssal Wrath
Chapter 3
Taylor stared at her father flabbergasted, "I am Taylor."
"Bullshit!" Danny roared jumping up from his chair in a flash and in a stunning display of his famed temper pointed a finger at his reincarnated daughter. "My daughter wouldn't be caught dead wearing what you're wearing right now! She wouldn't have disappeared for two days without anyone knowing! She wouldn't have left me alone!"
"I died!" Taylor bellowed in an ear-splitting scream, "I was locked in my locker and was left for dead! And it worked! My god-forsaken, rotting frozen corpse is still in my locker embedded upon a throne of stuff best described as a bioweapon!"
This stunned Danny into a stupified silence as he stumbled back into his chair weeping, cupping his face in his hands. After a while, his weeping slowed as Taylor watched concerned, slowly he looked back up at his daughter, "So you're a cape."
Taylor had to resist correcting him, but this wasn't the time or place for that conversation so she merely shrugged her shoulders noncommittally and evasively said, "I guess that's what PHO would call me now."
Taylor watched as her father sat there in contemplative silence for several minutes before a dark cloud of realization came over his face, "You said your frozen rotting corpse is in your locker upon a throne of unspeakable trash?"
She nodded gravely, "I came back but it came at a price."
Taylor stood shrugging off her pilfered coat, setting her sunglasses to the side, and allowing her crown and horns to manifest, sword hilt appearing on her hip. She spun in place like a fashion model would showing off the changes to her father.
"I am the will and voice of the Abyss made manifest." Taylor explained, "I am its champion, priestess, and its chose Empress in this mortal world."
"So you sold your soul." Danny's words were scathing and brutal to her ears, but she couldn't really fault him.
"Now that's just rude!" The Abyss shouted in Taylor's mind making her wince, "I play chess with the Devil every Thursday and I do not rule lawyer my contracts into my advantage like that! He's a…"
Taylor winced as the Abyss continued its rant about being compared to the devil, insulting everything the Devil stood for, its mother, father, future children, and extended family amongst other things. "The Abyss would prefer it if you didn't compare it to the Devil."
"So you can speak with it?" Danny observed with some concern.
"I'd make a pretty poor voice of the Abyss if I didn't." Taylor countered suddenly self-conscious of how insane she must sound right now.
"Judging by the look on your face I take it didn't say so in such polite terms?" Her dad pointed out knowingly.
Taylor just nodded numbly as the Abyss continued on its triade, having run out of English words and had now moved onto Swahili with no signs of stopping anytime soon. How Taylor now knew it was Swahili and understood it she didn't know and wasn't sure she wanted to know as it transitioned into ancient Latian. "It's so far run out of insults in three different languages with no signs of stopping."
"So to move onto another topic what is the Abyss." Danny asked rubbing his temples to stave off a migraine whispering, "I'm too sober for this."
Taylor pretended like she didn't hear that part and started to explain the essence of the Abyss, "The Abyss isn't so much a single thing as the shards of every collective soul to have died in the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes. It is their collective will and it has recently become powerful enough to exert its will on the world thanks to Leviathan. The tens of millions of dead people and the quality and power of all those souls ended before their times, basically strapping rocket boosters onto its relative power compared to the strength of reality allowing it to influence things in our world like it hasn't been possible since the creation of our universe."
"And it chose you to influence reality as it desires?" Danny sounded like this was all way over his head.
Taylor nodded in confirmation, "What it wants has changed in recent times, humanity has poisoned and polluted its domain for thousands of years now. It was bad enough it wanted us dead! Were it not for Levithan it likely would have begun a crusade to eradicate humanity from existence! When Levithian sunk Kyushu and Newfoundland it didn't just become more powerful it also was significantly influenced by the mass influx of strong, young human souls. This taught it we aren't beyond saving but we require education in how to keep a healthy balance with our world."
Danny started crying again, hand reaching for the phone, "Taylor, you need help, I'm calling the PRT, hopefully, they got someone who can talk some sense into you."
Taylor stood there in stunned silence for a moment, uncomprehending of what was happening.
"I got enough government and PRT agents that are a part of me to know you don't want to have anything to do with them." The Abyss advised stopping its angry rant about being compared to the Devil. "Stop him!"
Taylor hesitated for a moment before the Abyss once again lent mental strength and confidence pushing her past her mental hang-ups as her sword appeared in her hand, blade active. "I can't let you do that Father."
Danny turned ghost white as the phone slipped from his hands, shattering into pieces on the floor, "Taylor?"
"I won't be locked in a cell like someone's lab rat." Taylor growled like a cornered predatory animal, "You honestly think they'll bother to help me? They are underfunded and overworked and with what I'm saying they'll lock me up in the Parahuman asylum, the Birdcage. or straight up kill me."
"But Taylor!" Her dad was now on his knees pleading. "As your father, I order you to put that sword down and listen to reason!"
It wasn't a very good or convincing pleading demand, and honestly, Taylor honestly found it offensively bad and pitiful.
"Your mother wouldn't want you to do this!" He was once again weeping at this point, but Taylor could only feel rage boil up inside her.
"My mother wouldn't have wanted me to be bullied for a year and a half by my former best friend Emma and her cohort to the point they fucking succeeded in murdering me!" Taylor shrieked which was immediately followed by stunned silence. "You have no right to be my father for missing that!"
To her the horrified and hurt look on her father's face was both shameful and priceless as he finally realized the lack of a parental he had been since her mother died. Taylor stood there for a moment chest heaving as she caught her breath as he father sat there incapable of saying anything.
Disappointed that her father couldn't even compose himself to apologize or attempt to make a defense Taylor dismissed her sword, crown, and horns while quickly slipping on her Jacket and sunglasses as she made her way to the door leaving a broken man that had once been her father in her wake.
Stepping outside Taylor gently closed the door behind her, not sure where she was going to go, but the obvious answer was anywhere but there. She barely made it halfway down the street before a muffled bang of a gunshot echoed from her former home. It took all her willpower to not rush back home and see what undoubtedly happened, her last memories of her father being a broken old man were bad enough she didn't need or want to see his corpse.
Unconsciously borrowing strength from the Abyss she found herself wandering over to the library where she discreetly took a computer in the back corner and punched in her login information automatically and brought up PHO local events page for Brockton Bay.
'Well that's unfortunate." The Abyss piped up as she stared at the top news story for the day.
It was Winslow, which in hindsight wasn't much of a surprise, she had kinda wrecked the place, and her corpse was still in her ruined locker upon its throne of decay, plus a couple holes in some walls and those ice rings around her locker. Unsurprisingly the PRT had locked down the entire building and wouldn't be allowing any entry until their investigation and subsequent clean-up had been completed. Armsmaster had been on record saying it was an unfortunate case of vandalism, but the speculation on the forum was much graver as everyone on site was either wearing a respirator or were decked out in all-out hazmat gear.
She kept reading, but there wasn't any solid public information at this time, and there wouldn't be for a while knowing how investigations and clean-ups like that usually went. Further down Taylor found a minor sub threat about someone finding three dead gangers in a warehouse, it didn't take much reading to determine it was her messy leftovers from that morning, and the PRT hadn't commented on it yet besides the usual empty promise to bring whoever did it to justice.
Taylor was about to move on when someone coughed behind her, she minimized the PHO page she was on and turned around slowly, expecting someone wanting their turn at the computer only for her jaw to drop as she stared up at Miss Militia.
"Oh for crying out loud quit gawking and say something already." The Abyss helpfully pointed out sounding a little bit annoyed.
"C-can I help you?" Taylor offered, feeling the cooling calm of the Abyss wash over her and calm her nerves.
"I would like to know why you're using a dead teens login in a public library." Miss Malitia was blunt and to the point her cold eyes that had seen far, far too much boring into Taylor's soul.
Taylor stared back through her sunglasses, "Because I am that dead teen."
Chapter 3
Taylor stared at her father flabbergasted, "I am Taylor."
"Bullshit!" Danny roared jumping up from his chair in a flash and in a stunning display of his famed temper pointed a finger at his reincarnated daughter. "My daughter wouldn't be caught dead wearing what you're wearing right now! She wouldn't have disappeared for two days without anyone knowing! She wouldn't have left me alone!"
"I died!" Taylor bellowed in an ear-splitting scream, "I was locked in my locker and was left for dead! And it worked! My god-forsaken, rotting frozen corpse is still in my locker embedded upon a throne of stuff best described as a bioweapon!"
This stunned Danny into a stupified silence as he stumbled back into his chair weeping, cupping his face in his hands. After a while, his weeping slowed as Taylor watched concerned, slowly he looked back up at his daughter, "So you're a cape."
Taylor had to resist correcting him, but this wasn't the time or place for that conversation so she merely shrugged her shoulders noncommittally and evasively said, "I guess that's what PHO would call me now."
Taylor watched as her father sat there in contemplative silence for several minutes before a dark cloud of realization came over his face, "You said your frozen rotting corpse is in your locker upon a throne of unspeakable trash?"
She nodded gravely, "I came back but it came at a price."
Taylor stood shrugging off her pilfered coat, setting her sunglasses to the side, and allowing her crown and horns to manifest, sword hilt appearing on her hip. She spun in place like a fashion model would showing off the changes to her father.
"I am the will and voice of the Abyss made manifest." Taylor explained, "I am its champion, priestess, and its chose Empress in this mortal world."
"So you sold your soul." Danny's words were scathing and brutal to her ears, but she couldn't really fault him.
"Now that's just rude!" The Abyss shouted in Taylor's mind making her wince, "I play chess with the Devil every Thursday and I do not rule lawyer my contracts into my advantage like that! He's a…"
Taylor winced as the Abyss continued its rant about being compared to the devil, insulting everything the Devil stood for, its mother, father, future children, and extended family amongst other things. "The Abyss would prefer it if you didn't compare it to the Devil."
"So you can speak with it?" Danny observed with some concern.
"I'd make a pretty poor voice of the Abyss if I didn't." Taylor countered suddenly self-conscious of how insane she must sound right now.
"Judging by the look on your face I take it didn't say so in such polite terms?" Her dad pointed out knowingly.
Taylor just nodded numbly as the Abyss continued on its triade, having run out of English words and had now moved onto Swahili with no signs of stopping anytime soon. How Taylor now knew it was Swahili and understood it she didn't know and wasn't sure she wanted to know as it transitioned into ancient Latian. "It's so far run out of insults in three different languages with no signs of stopping."
"So to move onto another topic what is the Abyss." Danny asked rubbing his temples to stave off a migraine whispering, "I'm too sober for this."
Taylor pretended like she didn't hear that part and started to explain the essence of the Abyss, "The Abyss isn't so much a single thing as the shards of every collective soul to have died in the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes. It is their collective will and it has recently become powerful enough to exert its will on the world thanks to Leviathan. The tens of millions of dead people and the quality and power of all those souls ended before their times, basically strapping rocket boosters onto its relative power compared to the strength of reality allowing it to influence things in our world like it hasn't been possible since the creation of our universe."
"And it chose you to influence reality as it desires?" Danny sounded like this was all way over his head.
Taylor nodded in confirmation, "What it wants has changed in recent times, humanity has poisoned and polluted its domain for thousands of years now. It was bad enough it wanted us dead! Were it not for Levithan it likely would have begun a crusade to eradicate humanity from existence! When Levithian sunk Kyushu and Newfoundland it didn't just become more powerful it also was significantly influenced by the mass influx of strong, young human souls. This taught it we aren't beyond saving but we require education in how to keep a healthy balance with our world."
Danny started crying again, hand reaching for the phone, "Taylor, you need help, I'm calling the PRT, hopefully, they got someone who can talk some sense into you."
Taylor stood there in stunned silence for a moment, uncomprehending of what was happening.
"I got enough government and PRT agents that are a part of me to know you don't want to have anything to do with them." The Abyss advised stopping its angry rant about being compared to the Devil. "Stop him!"
Taylor hesitated for a moment before the Abyss once again lent mental strength and confidence pushing her past her mental hang-ups as her sword appeared in her hand, blade active. "I can't let you do that Father."
Danny turned ghost white as the phone slipped from his hands, shattering into pieces on the floor, "Taylor?"
"I won't be locked in a cell like someone's lab rat." Taylor growled like a cornered predatory animal, "You honestly think they'll bother to help me? They are underfunded and overworked and with what I'm saying they'll lock me up in the Parahuman asylum, the Birdcage. or straight up kill me."
"But Taylor!" Her dad was now on his knees pleading. "As your father, I order you to put that sword down and listen to reason!"
It wasn't a very good or convincing pleading demand, and honestly, Taylor honestly found it offensively bad and pitiful.
"Your mother wouldn't want you to do this!" He was once again weeping at this point, but Taylor could only feel rage boil up inside her.
"My mother wouldn't have wanted me to be bullied for a year and a half by my former best friend Emma and her cohort to the point they fucking succeeded in murdering me!" Taylor shrieked which was immediately followed by stunned silence. "You have no right to be my father for missing that!"
To her the horrified and hurt look on her father's face was both shameful and priceless as he finally realized the lack of a parental he had been since her mother died. Taylor stood there for a moment chest heaving as she caught her breath as he father sat there incapable of saying anything.
Disappointed that her father couldn't even compose himself to apologize or attempt to make a defense Taylor dismissed her sword, crown, and horns while quickly slipping on her Jacket and sunglasses as she made her way to the door leaving a broken man that had once been her father in her wake.
Stepping outside Taylor gently closed the door behind her, not sure where she was going to go, but the obvious answer was anywhere but there. She barely made it halfway down the street before a muffled bang of a gunshot echoed from her former home. It took all her willpower to not rush back home and see what undoubtedly happened, her last memories of her father being a broken old man were bad enough she didn't need or want to see his corpse.
Unconsciously borrowing strength from the Abyss she found herself wandering over to the library where she discreetly took a computer in the back corner and punched in her login information automatically and brought up PHO local events page for Brockton Bay.
'Well that's unfortunate." The Abyss piped up as she stared at the top news story for the day.
It was Winslow, which in hindsight wasn't much of a surprise, she had kinda wrecked the place, and her corpse was still in her ruined locker upon its throne of decay, plus a couple holes in some walls and those ice rings around her locker. Unsurprisingly the PRT had locked down the entire building and wouldn't be allowing any entry until their investigation and subsequent clean-up had been completed. Armsmaster had been on record saying it was an unfortunate case of vandalism, but the speculation on the forum was much graver as everyone on site was either wearing a respirator or were decked out in all-out hazmat gear.
She kept reading, but there wasn't any solid public information at this time, and there wouldn't be for a while knowing how investigations and clean-ups like that usually went. Further down Taylor found a minor sub threat about someone finding three dead gangers in a warehouse, it didn't take much reading to determine it was her messy leftovers from that morning, and the PRT hadn't commented on it yet besides the usual empty promise to bring whoever did it to justice.
Taylor was about to move on when someone coughed behind her, she minimized the PHO page she was on and turned around slowly, expecting someone wanting their turn at the computer only for her jaw to drop as she stared up at Miss Militia.
"Oh for crying out loud quit gawking and say something already." The Abyss helpfully pointed out sounding a little bit annoyed.
"C-can I help you?" Taylor offered, feeling the cooling calm of the Abyss wash over her and calm her nerves.
"I would like to know why you're using a dead teens login in a public library." Miss Malitia was blunt and to the point her cold eyes that had seen far, far too much boring into Taylor's soul.
Taylor stared back through her sunglasses, "Because I am that dead teen."
Chapter 4
Abyssal Wrath
Chapter 4
Miss Malitia took a step back as if slapped in the face. "Then how are you sitting in front of me now?" The heroine asked incredulously.
"New body." Taylor shrugged, "Though I can see how that could be seen as problematic, hell there's probably been some murderer who's tried to pull that trick once or twice."
"You would be surprised." She stated seriously, "Most aren't that dumb."
"Huh." The chosen of the Abyss observed, "I suppose you want to take me down for questioning anyways."
A silent nod and a grim look in Miss Militia's eyes was the only answer needed.
"Well at least let me log out," Taylor said as she turned around quickly shutting down the computer before the protectorate hero had a chance to respond.
"Follow me." Miss Malitia ordered, clearly sounding mildly annoyed over this situation.
Taylor wordlessly followed the heroine out the front door and realized with a sinking feeling there might be a slight hiccup in the whole affair. "So you usually want a guardian present for these kinds of things right?"
"Correct."
"Well, I'm 99% sure my father is dead," Taylor explained rather casually causing Miss Militia to stop dead in her tracks and do an about-face to the teen.
"What did you do?" The heroine asked bitterly, hand hovering over her power at her hip which was currently a rather large and terrifying combat knife.
"I didn't kill him if that's what you're insinuating, I merely told him he was a terrible father, I heard a loud bang while I was walking down the street and figured he did himself in," Taylor explained unnaturally calmly as the Abyss was still tempering her emotional responses with its cool embrace.
Miss Militia didn't respond, rather she pulled out a smartphone and began typing furiously on it before putting it away. It wasn't long after they were guided into the back of a PRT van and locked in, warning stickers on the inside that the inside of the passenger bay was tamper sealed when the lights were red and any attempt to escape would result in the compartment being filled with containment foam.
The lights were red, that was enough for Taylor to tell her that the PRT didn't trust her even with a veteran hero sitting across from her. With a sigh she settled in for the ride hopefully everything went ok and she would be out in a few hours after some questioning. Maybe she could nab a bite to eat somewhere after this whole mess was finished, she wasn't sure how she was going to pay for it but that was future Taylor's problem.
With a slight lurch the van's doors opened with the light turning green, Taylor was greeted by a pair of PRT troopers in full gear, who wordlessly gestured for her to exit the van, with Miss Militia behind her to ensure she didn't do anything funny. She was guided to a conference room that was clearly designed for dealing with capes, obviously armored doors, walls, with no windows to speak of and the furniture bolted to the floor ensuring nothing could be used as cover or weapons unless the cape in question was a significant brute. The two troopers wordlessly stood at the far end of the conference room containment foam sprayers at the ready as she patiently waited for someone to show up.
About fifteen minutes later two more troopers entered the room escorting a middle-aged man in a PRT office uniform, a young woman in a black skirt suit, and an old man in a very boring and grey suit.
The middle-aged man began, "Hello Taylor, I'm Deputy Director, Mr. Williams is your appointed lawyer, and Ms. Cocksford here is your state-appointed social worker." He gestured to each person respectively before continuing, "As you know you are here at our request due to your unfortunate involvement with the events at Winslow. You are not under arrest at this time, but due to current circumstances, it has been decided that you are to be made a temporary ward of the state until such time as your future can be decided. I would like to extend my condolences on behalf of the PRT…"
"While the thought is appreciated Director, my Dad was a failure of a father." Taylor cut him off before he finished explaining the last bit as she took my sunglasses off to rub my eyes in frustration. "It's been a long day, and I just want to get this over with."
She looked across the table at everyone who just looked at her like she grew a second head, "What?" Taylor asked concerned before looking at the gold-plated sunglasses in her hands. "Oh, yeah… I got powers." She scratched her head sheepishly while transitioning back to her natural form.
Taylor's hand crept for the sword hilt at her side when the troopers in the room raised their containment foam sprayers.
"Stand down!" The Deputy Director ordered frantically, momentarily losing his composure, "I would prefer to not have an incident inside the building if we can at all avoid it."
"So does this change anything?" Taylor asked coolly.
"Unfortunately it does." If you would be willing to stay the night as our guest, "We may reconvene tomorrow with an adjusted plan in light of current events."
"Great…" The avatar of the Abyss groaned, "Yet more song and dance…"
"I would like to point out you signed up for a lot of "Song and Dance" when you agreed to my boons." The Abyss was all too happy to point out.
"Yeah at but at least I will have to do that because you saved me, the PRT has done jack shit for me." Taylor snapped in her mind at the Abyss.
"Taylor if you would turn over your weapon and follow the troopers to your assigned lodgings," Renick asked, trying to remain cordial.
"Slight problem… My sword is just as much part of me as my arm, and you can't keep it from me." Taylor explained she didn't know how she knew that but she did, as instinctively as she knew where her arm was in relation to her body.
"Ah…" Renick acknowledged, "Perhaps you turn it over anyways as a show of trust, after all if you can summon it to yourself, it's no skin off your back to part with it."
Taylor hesitated for a moment before slowly grabbing the hilt off her side and setting it on the table with a solid thunk, frost already forming on the table around it. "There happy?"
Renick nodded and gestured towards the troopers, Taylor begrudgingly followed them through the PRT building to her temporary abode. She was rather disappointed once she arrived to see that it was plain and barren with only a bed, washroom facilities, and a small desk with a keyboard built into its surface and a monitor built into the wall behind a piece of bullet-proof glass.
Taylor was disappointed there wasn't even so much as an "Enjoy your stay at Hotel de PRT." from the troopers as they locked the door behind her. "Some hotel." She muttered under her breath as she gave the wall a kick in frustration before plopping onto the bed.
"Well this is less than ideal." The Abyss spoke rather cheekily.
"No shit sherlock." Taylor thought back.
"More seriously I think we're in a bit of a pickle." The Abyss gravely stated, "The memories from people in the know indicate that there's…
"Just spit it out already," Taylor demanded annoyed at the Abyss's pausing mid-sentence.
"The PRT has the legal power to basically conscript any wards of the state who possess powers.
"And while I'm not one yet, because of my father committing suicide I'll very likely be a ward of the state in short order." Taylor finished for the Abyss filling in the obvious, "And as a result that will give the PRT jurisdiction to force me into the Wards whether I like it or not."
"Precisely." The voice in her head agreed.
"And let me guess I'll probably be railroaded like a Despot's arch-nemesis." Taylor guessed glumly.
The Abyss seemed to groan in annoyance, "Most likely, it will either be wards or a cell."
"And if I refuse and try to fight my way out it will probably mean a kill order."
"You got it in one."
Taylor seemed to collapse in on herself as she twiddled her thumbs. "Well so much for re-educating everyone to do the right thing."
There was a soft clack as a meal slot was opened by a PRT trooper and a hot fresh meal was shoved through the slot, shortly after another soft clack indicated the meal slot had been closed again.
"Well that's at least something…" Taylor admitted to herself and the Abyss jumping off the bed where she had been sitting and grabbed the meal, not even bothering to sit down before she took her first bite… It was heaven, it tasted amazing even though she already intrinsically knew that it possessed no nutritional value for her. She kept eating, enjoying the first really normal thing that had happened all day, even if she was doing so while locked in a cell, likely who knows how far below ground.
"So any ideas?" The Abyss asked, the tone in its voice making it sound genuinely desperate.
"You said you want to reeducate people right?" Taylor stated, not waiting for a response as she continued, "Heroes are held up on a pedestal above the masses, what better way to start than to start at the top and either knock them off or use their positions in the limelight as tools."
If the PRT who were undoubtedly watching them could have listened in on the Abyss's crazed maniacal laughter they would have had a severe brown pants moment.
Chapter 4
Miss Malitia took a step back as if slapped in the face. "Then how are you sitting in front of me now?" The heroine asked incredulously.
"New body." Taylor shrugged, "Though I can see how that could be seen as problematic, hell there's probably been some murderer who's tried to pull that trick once or twice."
"You would be surprised." She stated seriously, "Most aren't that dumb."
"Huh." The chosen of the Abyss observed, "I suppose you want to take me down for questioning anyways."
A silent nod and a grim look in Miss Militia's eyes was the only answer needed.
"Well at least let me log out," Taylor said as she turned around quickly shutting down the computer before the protectorate hero had a chance to respond.
"Follow me." Miss Malitia ordered, clearly sounding mildly annoyed over this situation.
Taylor wordlessly followed the heroine out the front door and realized with a sinking feeling there might be a slight hiccup in the whole affair. "So you usually want a guardian present for these kinds of things right?"
"Correct."
"Well, I'm 99% sure my father is dead," Taylor explained rather casually causing Miss Militia to stop dead in her tracks and do an about-face to the teen.
"What did you do?" The heroine asked bitterly, hand hovering over her power at her hip which was currently a rather large and terrifying combat knife.
"I didn't kill him if that's what you're insinuating, I merely told him he was a terrible father, I heard a loud bang while I was walking down the street and figured he did himself in," Taylor explained unnaturally calmly as the Abyss was still tempering her emotional responses with its cool embrace.
Miss Militia didn't respond, rather she pulled out a smartphone and began typing furiously on it before putting it away. It wasn't long after they were guided into the back of a PRT van and locked in, warning stickers on the inside that the inside of the passenger bay was tamper sealed when the lights were red and any attempt to escape would result in the compartment being filled with containment foam.
The lights were red, that was enough for Taylor to tell her that the PRT didn't trust her even with a veteran hero sitting across from her. With a sigh she settled in for the ride hopefully everything went ok and she would be out in a few hours after some questioning. Maybe she could nab a bite to eat somewhere after this whole mess was finished, she wasn't sure how she was going to pay for it but that was future Taylor's problem.
With a slight lurch the van's doors opened with the light turning green, Taylor was greeted by a pair of PRT troopers in full gear, who wordlessly gestured for her to exit the van, with Miss Militia behind her to ensure she didn't do anything funny. She was guided to a conference room that was clearly designed for dealing with capes, obviously armored doors, walls, with no windows to speak of and the furniture bolted to the floor ensuring nothing could be used as cover or weapons unless the cape in question was a significant brute. The two troopers wordlessly stood at the far end of the conference room containment foam sprayers at the ready as she patiently waited for someone to show up.
About fifteen minutes later two more troopers entered the room escorting a middle-aged man in a PRT office uniform, a young woman in a black skirt suit, and an old man in a very boring and grey suit.
The middle-aged man began, "Hello Taylor, I'm Deputy Director, Mr. Williams is your appointed lawyer, and Ms. Cocksford here is your state-appointed social worker." He gestured to each person respectively before continuing, "As you know you are here at our request due to your unfortunate involvement with the events at Winslow. You are not under arrest at this time, but due to current circumstances, it has been decided that you are to be made a temporary ward of the state until such time as your future can be decided. I would like to extend my condolences on behalf of the PRT…"
"While the thought is appreciated Director, my Dad was a failure of a father." Taylor cut him off before he finished explaining the last bit as she took my sunglasses off to rub my eyes in frustration. "It's been a long day, and I just want to get this over with."
She looked across the table at everyone who just looked at her like she grew a second head, "What?" Taylor asked concerned before looking at the gold-plated sunglasses in her hands. "Oh, yeah… I got powers." She scratched her head sheepishly while transitioning back to her natural form.
Taylor's hand crept for the sword hilt at her side when the troopers in the room raised their containment foam sprayers.
"Stand down!" The Deputy Director ordered frantically, momentarily losing his composure, "I would prefer to not have an incident inside the building if we can at all avoid it."
"So does this change anything?" Taylor asked coolly.
"Unfortunately it does." If you would be willing to stay the night as our guest, "We may reconvene tomorrow with an adjusted plan in light of current events."
"Great…" The avatar of the Abyss groaned, "Yet more song and dance…"
"I would like to point out you signed up for a lot of "Song and Dance" when you agreed to my boons." The Abyss was all too happy to point out.
"Yeah at but at least I will have to do that because you saved me, the PRT has done jack shit for me." Taylor snapped in her mind at the Abyss.
"Taylor if you would turn over your weapon and follow the troopers to your assigned lodgings," Renick asked, trying to remain cordial.
"Slight problem… My sword is just as much part of me as my arm, and you can't keep it from me." Taylor explained she didn't know how she knew that but she did, as instinctively as she knew where her arm was in relation to her body.
"Ah…" Renick acknowledged, "Perhaps you turn it over anyways as a show of trust, after all if you can summon it to yourself, it's no skin off your back to part with it."
Taylor hesitated for a moment before slowly grabbing the hilt off her side and setting it on the table with a solid thunk, frost already forming on the table around it. "There happy?"
Renick nodded and gestured towards the troopers, Taylor begrudgingly followed them through the PRT building to her temporary abode. She was rather disappointed once she arrived to see that it was plain and barren with only a bed, washroom facilities, and a small desk with a keyboard built into its surface and a monitor built into the wall behind a piece of bullet-proof glass.
Taylor was disappointed there wasn't even so much as an "Enjoy your stay at Hotel de PRT." from the troopers as they locked the door behind her. "Some hotel." She muttered under her breath as she gave the wall a kick in frustration before plopping onto the bed.
"Well this is less than ideal." The Abyss spoke rather cheekily.
"No shit sherlock." Taylor thought back.
"More seriously I think we're in a bit of a pickle." The Abyss gravely stated, "The memories from people in the know indicate that there's…
"Just spit it out already," Taylor demanded annoyed at the Abyss's pausing mid-sentence.
"The PRT has the legal power to basically conscript any wards of the state who possess powers.
"And while I'm not one yet, because of my father committing suicide I'll very likely be a ward of the state in short order." Taylor finished for the Abyss filling in the obvious, "And as a result that will give the PRT jurisdiction to force me into the Wards whether I like it or not."
"Precisely." The voice in her head agreed.
"And let me guess I'll probably be railroaded like a Despot's arch-nemesis." Taylor guessed glumly.
The Abyss seemed to groan in annoyance, "Most likely, it will either be wards or a cell."
"And if I refuse and try to fight my way out it will probably mean a kill order."
"You got it in one."
Taylor seemed to collapse in on herself as she twiddled her thumbs. "Well so much for re-educating everyone to do the right thing."
There was a soft clack as a meal slot was opened by a PRT trooper and a hot fresh meal was shoved through the slot, shortly after another soft clack indicated the meal slot had been closed again.
"Well that's at least something…" Taylor admitted to herself and the Abyss jumping off the bed where she had been sitting and grabbed the meal, not even bothering to sit down before she took her first bite… It was heaven, it tasted amazing even though she already intrinsically knew that it possessed no nutritional value for her. She kept eating, enjoying the first really normal thing that had happened all day, even if she was doing so while locked in a cell, likely who knows how far below ground.
"So any ideas?" The Abyss asked, the tone in its voice making it sound genuinely desperate.
"You said you want to reeducate people right?" Taylor stated, not waiting for a response as she continued, "Heroes are held up on a pedestal above the masses, what better way to start than to start at the top and either knock them off or use their positions in the limelight as tools."
If the PRT who were undoubtedly watching them could have listened in on the Abyss's crazed maniacal laughter they would have had a severe brown pants moment.
- Location
- Home
This is interesting, but I think you do need a beta. There's a lot of small mistakes that add up, and some parts of the story feel a bit rushed or unrealistic. One thing being her corpse deteriorating so quickly, though that could be chalked up to the Abyss.
Thanks, yea I do need a beta, yes it is rushed, but the point of this is more to get writing done rather than be good at this point in time I need to learn consistency in doing before I learn consistency in quality. And the eye/corpse thing was deliberate and basically was a combination of the abyss, insects, super bacteria, fungi, and some accelerated decomposition from the strain on her body from her soul being sustained during her conversation with the abyss.
- Location
- Home
Yeah, fair enough. Good luck with your writing, I'll be waiting for the future uploads!
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
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State
Sherlock
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