Taylor
I flipped through the channels. It was getting close, an endbringer attack was approaching. It had been too long since the last one. I watched a show about the protectorate heros fighting against villains. The show had a Gemini on board to help with the special effects, my dad complained about how there used to be an art to special effects before the games.
I didn't have an opinion, I didn't remember a time before the games. The villain of the week were some natural triggers. It was a nice change of pace from the evil Aquarius who gives kids tinker-tech drugs story line. I sighed as I looked at the show, the Pisces had to leave for some reason. I already knew what was going to happen.
There were two ways this would go; either someone would get hurt and the team would learn a lesson about how healers were an important, or if they were going for drama, someone would die and the team would have three days to get the Pisces back in town to bring the dead cape back to life. I frowned, it was going to be the later. I turned off the TV and went into my room.
Mom had the bad luck to have her accident during an endbringer attack. By the time the healers got back, it had been three days. That was the thing about game parahumans, every one knew their limits. If enough of you was intact and the Pisces got to you before the time limit, death was a slap on the wrist. If they were too late? Well too bad.
There was a medical drama called 72 hours that had been running for over five years now. My hands clenched in rage. I took deep breaths until my anger went away. I hated that show, the media went easy on Pisces. If you saw a show and the hero's didn't have a healer, and the bad guy was a Pisces. Well, he wasn't going to remain a bad guy for long. Even in the few shows were they were the bad guys, they were either bad guys against their will or the cool angst-ridden anti-villain.
You could have a Scorp as a straight up bad guy and have cool musical assassin duels, you could have a Cancer bad guy and watch the water and ice attacks. Both of them could heal but it was the Pisces that got the special goddamned treatment.
Yes I'm just a little bit bitter about that. I looked on PHO, every one was speculating about who was next, about which city would be attacked next. The Californian posters were smug as always. I re-watched the clip of the Simurgh's attempt to attack San Francisco. I watched as the city was covered in purple, as the two endbringers faced off.
Simurgh's singing was interrupted with a punch to the face. Neverman blurred as a flurry of punches cracked and wrecked the shell of her skin. I watched her scream as her wings were ripped of one by one. The beating continued, it was vicious, inhuman even, then the Neverman looked at the bleeding terrified angel.
It stared at her, you could hear the crying sounds it was making. Neverman leaned in close and then tossed her in the water. She never attacked a Pact city after that. The other two will try every now and then, but not her, never her.
The Neverman stood at the edge of San Francisco, the sun was setting the lights of San Francisco framed him as he vanished. No one died that day, my eyes went down and looked at the 20 million and rising likes, I added one to it. I lived in a Pact city, it was almost required. I went back to the PHO speculation.
A couple people had been banned for hoping that a Pact city would get hit. It happened around this time of year. I didn't take it personally, we all knew what happened when a non-Pact city got hit. I shivered in the darkness. I hated the game, I hated the effect it had on my family, on the city.
I shut down the computer, and knocked on my dad's room, I opened the door. The computer in his room glowed, but he was nowhere to be found. I shut the door and headed into the basement. My spiders were creating my costume bit by bit.
"Still nowhere near finished."
I sighed.
I wanted to be a hero, I needed it. I needed to prove Emma wrong, Sophia wrong, and goddamned Madison. I had the spiders hide their progress and I went to bed. The next day was Tuesday. The trio were back to form, it was horrible. I did my best to ignore the insults. Only four more days until the weekend.
Greg looked like hell. He always looked like hell, but he looked worse then normal. He had a smile plastered on his face, a grin, that wasn't normal. Greg's eyes always reflected some kind of inner paranoia, it was like looking into the eyes of a hunted animal. But now he was at peace, he even joked with Sparky during the group project.
He won... He must of god damned won. That fucking asshole won the game, or he was very close to it. I put a tracking bug on him, I held my breath. It was against the rules, trying to unmask a cape, prying into the game. There were rules against it, but I also knew it would be easier to have help.
If he was the right class then he would be invaluable to me. If he hadn't picked yet then I could still manipulate him. If he was a Gemini, illusions with my bugs would be an incredible tactical edge. It was a rough day but I kept an eye on him. After school I got on his bus, I kept my head down and sat in the middle.
Greg simply slept with his face against the window snoring, the bus moved into the suburbs and Greg yawned and woke up. I got off on his stop. My hands clenched around a Swiss army knife my mother gave me. I took out the best blade and followed him. He typed in a number at an apartment complex. I cursed as he escaped me.
I then walked and waited at the car exit, he was still with in range. When a car moved in I ran past the metallic door. I was in, I was in his complex. I sneaked up and found his apartment.
"Mom? Dad? Where are you."
Good, no one. He flopped down on the couch and started snoring. The window was not locked. I took out my knife and slowly jimmied it open. He didn't notice as I opened it and stepped into his apartment. It was small, two bedrooms. The apartment was sparse, I walked into Greg's room and noticed the mess.
Dice and source books were everywhere. Manuals, charts, maps and at least five calculators. Posters of famous capes were all over the place. His computer was off.
"Come on, be predictable."
The password is not power... Ugh, I can't get into it. I shut the thing off and looked for other telltale signs.
"Gift cards."
There were three of them, I looked in his closet and smiled, a sword. I pulled it out.
"Steel tree."
The steel had red veins going through it, there was only one place to get one of these. I put it back into its scabbard and crept up to Greg's sleeping form. I took out the blade and gently pressed the tip of it against Greg's neck. I could not show weakness, he had to know that I was in charge.
His eyes opened blurry and then filled with panic.
"Don't scream."
He nodded.
"I know your a parahuman."
His eyes narrowed.
"You can't prove."
"Only one place where you can get this kind of sword Greg."
"Lots of people play the game, winning's a bitch and a half."
I had him.
"But you're willing to do it aren't you? You want it, to win more then anything, then you finally pulled it off, yesterday."
I pressed the blade, not an Ares, he's bleeding, they're tougher than that.
"What class did you chose Greg?"
"Fuck you Taylor."
I slowly pushed the sword along his throat.
"I'm not playing a game with you Greg, what's your fucking class?"
He frowned, not talking. I closed my eyes and summoned some wasps, they did little figure 8s.
"You're a cape."
"Tell me your fucking class Greg."
I took the blade away from his throat and drove my wasps forward. They were stopped by a glowing wall of force.
A fucking Pisces, he had to be a fucking Pisces.
