AN: introducing Taylor's first minion! He's a bit pessimistic at first but don't be too hard on him. He's not had a good few weeks, and really given who he's based on it's a lot more reasonable than his inspirations first major scene. Sorry it's been so long since the last update everyone, I've been juggling a few things here on my end, but I'll try not to let so much time pass between the next updates. Read and review please and thank you!
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My feet pounded down the sidewalk as my mind wandered over the past week. Things at school had mostly calmed down after the gossips stopped obsessing over my brief intervention as Morgana. It had only taken them three days. Other than repeated admonishments from the team and Dad to stop poking the heroes nothing had really changed for me. Hell, the PRT were still doing drive byes during my morning runs like they thought it might convince me to feel guilty and turn myself in.
PHO was still lighting up, though not directly about me anymore. It did still spiral back to me as a discussion point pretty often though. Some mad genius, my throw away account? Noooo, never~, had proposed the question of the morality of capes using powers or presence to stop crimes while technically off the clock.
The debate ran the gamut of some people insisting capes should be considered civilians when out of costume to a number of people who felt that mask or no, they had a moral responsibility to step in if they could. Naturally after one such comment my Morganna account had swooped in to agree that having on a mask or not didn't change my morals. That I'd not stand for child abusers in or out of costume, and that large sums of money were no safer in my presence.
My lips twitched at the memories. All those silly people shouting about how evil I was to admit I'd steal their cash. Still it had the desired effect when people who knew of me mentioned Winslow and started asking how many heroes might have done the same in my shoes. I actually hadn't needed to break out a throw away account for that one. Though it had been a near thing and I was tempted to ask Lisa if it had been her. Regardless it had fanned the flames of an already heated debate. Though credit where it's due the people saying that most capes were limited in how they could act without outing themselves were right.
I might not have an end goal in mind with my little public relations war, but it was a fun distraction from everything else. Really there was just a little thrill of vindictive glee that came from knowing some people liked me more than the heroes.
Besides, my fan club was plenty of proof that being popular could prove rewarding all on its own. Given enough time I very well might pick the creme of the crop and make my own organization. Eventually. If Lisa was right about the boss's intentions I might even be doing so soon.
The sound of another set of footfalls drawing up behind me caused me to glance back. It was the tall Asian teen I saw watching me some mornings when I went for my run. He must have kept in good shape because he pulled even with me pretty quickly, then kept up without any strain. I kept my fire boiling just under my skin. No reason not to be cautious after all.
"Nice weather we're having?" He awkwardly offered.
I shot the boy an incredulous look and he chuckled sheepishly in response. For the next few minutes we ran in silence.
"My Dad had a little sushi joint, right on the edge of ABB territory. The Empire started a fight just down the road…" his voice was quiet and pained. "Then some idiot set off one of Bakuda's bombs. They said the flames burned black. There was nothing left. Just piles of ash that blew away."
I slowed to a jog and the boy matched my speed. If he wanted to talk slowing our pace would make that easier. "...I'm sorry for your loss." And I was. I knew how much it hurt to lose a parent.
"You know I saw that news broadcast Morganna made. At first, I sort of blamed her. If she had stepped in sooner maybe Dad would have made it." He said it so casually. As if it really didn't matter to him at all.
"...Maybe." I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat.
He hummed a note from the back of his throat. "But then I realized it wasn't her job."
I glanced over at him warily.
"She's some teenager, someone my, our, age. And she did what everyone our age was doing. She stayed out of it, because other people were supposed to handle it. And then Bakuda went too far and she stepped up to deal with her." His voice was almost reverent.
"I was at home grieving, and someone my age went out and hunted the bitch down. Just because she couldn't sit back and watch anymore." He shook his head. "That must have taken real guts." He glanced at me.
I blew out a breath. "You are, extraordinarily level headed, for someone who's grieving." I was honestly impressed.
"Lots of time to think I suppose. Still took me a few days to get to this point."
"So, what will you do now?" I was honestly curious.
"The house is paid off." He murmured as he looked up at the sky. "I've got to get the insurance company to honor Dad's policies." He trailed off with a grimace. "After that though… I don't know. I don't want to go into the system, but it's only a matter of time before social services pays me a visit."
I didn't say anything. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I could say.
"But I was sort of hoping I could show you something." The boy said with a rueful grin. "And maybe get some advice?"
"What's that?" I asked, as I brought my flames up within me ready to strike if this went bad.
The boy slowed to a stop and I did as well, turning to face him fully. He closed his eyes and after a moment, it began to rain. A light pitter patter at first but it steadily grew to a good summer shower in intensity, though it only extended maybe forty feet around us. Then he pulled out a pocket knife. A tiny little thing with an inch and a half blade. But water wrapped itself around the blade. Then he flicked his wrist and the water which sheathed the blade shot down to score the concrete with a fine line at least half an inch deep. Then, just as suddenly as the rain came, it faded away.
I stared wide eyed and open mouthed as I dripped. He rubbed self consciously at the back of his neck.
"I know it's not a great power. I mean it's basically a weird mix of Leviathan and Jack Slash so I figure I'm kind of screwed, but I was hoping-"
I cut the idiot of as I grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him towards my house.
"You are coming with me right now!" I demanded gleefully. "Not that great my ass. You can make it rain!" I let go of his wrist as I picked up my pace and started to run. "I don't care what social services want's I'm keeping you!"
The boy who had been pulling up alongside me almost tripped at that declaration before catching himself. He shot me a gob smacked look.
"You don't even know my name!" He half shouted.
"I know you don't want to kill me; I know you have a power that's stupidly useful even if you haven't figured it out yet, and I know people who can help you with your legal issues." I rattled off with a grin, savoring his shocked expression. "If the only objection you've got is that I don't know your name? Just hurry up and tell me!" I grinned.
"Err, Yamamoto Takeshi, it's nice to meet you?" He half asked.
"Taylor Hebert, who everyone in the damn city, including you, have figured out to also be Morganna." I said without even bothering to look back. "Honestly I'm starting to think the benefits of such a paper thin secret identity outweigh the cons."
"Umm."
"Shoosh portable, infinite, clean water source. We have a lot to talk about!"
I picked up the speed. I had phone calls to make, plans to refine, and yet another repetition of 'the world is ending we're going to save our sorry hides' speech to give.
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"So just to be clear," Yamamoto said flatly. "You don't care about if I can fight or not, you just want me in case your post apocalyptic survival colony ever suffers a draught."
"Yup!" I replied brightly. "Super powers are bullshit, and they make so many things, so much easier. Everyone is just so obsessed with the combat application that they ignore everything else." I grinned. "To be fair some powers would suck for anything but combat but still."
"What about your powers?"
Fair question, I suppose. "I could whip up an emergency shelter, I can start fires, scare off predators with illusions, scout around for miles looking for resources without moving." I shrugged. "And the list just keeps getting longer the more I understand about my powers."
Yamamoto blinked in surprise as he digested that response. "Oh."
I waved the topic aside. "Look never mind all that. You've got legal issues. Between Tattletale and our mysterious employer those can be handled no problem. The real trick is going to be selling you as a regular part of the team. I don't think the others will go for it."
"Because my power looks like Leviathan meets Jack Slash." Yamamoto grouched.
"No. It's because I doubt they want to make working in the rain a regular thing." I answered absently as I paced back and forth across the kitchen. "In fairness though Tattletale wears spandex and no one wants to see Regent doing a wet t-shirt contest every time we have to fight."
The twit would probably buy fake breasts to wear under his costume just to play it up. Well that or just constantly bitch about how he was going to catch a cold.
"Tattletale will understand what a major win you could be. So will Grue, but that won't make either of them any happier about making you part of the team."
"Do I need to be part of the team?" Yamamoto asked absently.
"Huh?"
"Look. I'm not interested in playing super hero, but I'm not really interested in stealing stuff either. I came to you for advice on the whole cape scene in general." He said sweeping his arm across the room. "Which I definitely got." He mumbled as he rubbed his temples. "I just wasn't expecting… all of that! Society is collapsing, doomsday prep, and possibly world war three?!"
I blew out a breath. "I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to digest." And I probably shouldn't have dropped it all in his lap at once like that.
"My Dad died two weeks ago. I've got powers I never wanted, and if I manage to survive another twenty years, apparently I'm as good as dead anyway!" There was a definite note of hysteria creeping into his voice. "What's the point of even trying?!" He shouted in my face before turning away. But before he did, I saw his eyes, and his expression. He was giving up.
I hated that look on his face. The fire sung in my veins as it reared up inside me, and in that instant I moved. My open palm lashed out and cracked against the taller boy's jaw, staggering him to the side.
"How dare you?" I hissed as I circled him. "I am alive. My Father is alive. My friends are alive. You are alive!" I roared. "We don't need phones, or cars, or video games. We don't need a government of idiots that only hide the truth from us. And we certainly don't need the whole damn world to survive!" I poked him in the chest and he stumbled back a step.
"Humanity endures! We survive everywhere on this damn planet, no matter how inhospitable the location may be. We survive in deserts and tundra's and rainforests! And we do it on diets that sometimes are limited to one type of herd animal, and whatever plants can be foraged for! And we do it when every day is a struggle to find enough to keep us fed!"
I had him backed up all the way to a wall now.
"You are alive damn it all, and you know what's coming." I forced myself to stop shouting and speak like a rational person. "If you got word that an earthquake, or a tsunami, or hell, a fucking Endbringer was coming, what would you do? Give up? Lay down and die? Or would you find someplace safe to run to? Would you grab what you could and fight to stay alive just one more day?"
Yamamoto licked his lips as he looked me in the eye. I could almost see the battle going on inside his head.
"I know this is hard. I know it's huge and terrifying and I know it stings like nothing else to admit there is no way to save everyone." He shuddered and glanced away before meeting my eyes again. "But I'm going to save as many people as I can. If you're willing to help, I can save more, and you can be one of them." I offered him the same hand I had used to slap him, held out between us, all he had to do was take it.
He licked his lips again and this time I noticed the faint trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth I had slapped.
"Do you really think we can do this? Can we really make it work?" He asked. I could just make out the faintest trace of hope in his voice.
"I don't know." I admitted frankly. "There's a hell of a lot that can go wrong, and it won't all come together overnight. But we won't be doing this alone, and I won't give up. Especially not without trying." I declared as I stared him in the eye.
Yamamoto took a deep breath before blowing it out slowly through his teeth. He reached up and grabbed my hand.
"Ok. Ok I'm in." He took another deep breath. "So, what do we do first?"
"First, we get your legal stuff squared away." I smiled warmly. "Everything else can wait a few weeks."
Yamamoto slumped against the wall and nodded as I stepped back to give him some room.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're really intense?"
"Heh. No, but you probably won't be the last." I smirked and stepped away to get a glass of water.
"... I don't really think I'll make a very good thief." He said after a minute.
I took a moment to sip my drink and think. He was probably right. The last thing we needed was for people to notice our arrival based on sudden rainstorms.
"Don't worry about that just yet. I murmured. "Like I said we've got a few weeks." I hesitated. I could lie, but honesty would likely serve me better long term. "And I might be getting out of the heist business pretty soon anyway."
"What do you mean?" The question was sharp and there was a hint of something intense in the boy's eyes…
"Tattletale believes our employer is setting the groundwork for me to start and lead a gang. There's a power vacuum in the city right now and she thinks the boss would prefer it be filled by someone local who's at least nominally under their control. Between you and all the normals ready to follow me…" I shrugged.
"You want to start a gang? In order to save people?" Yamamoto asked incredulously.
"The Merchants and Empire are already pushing for more territory. The Protectorate and Police are barely slowing them down, and there are reports of both Accord and the Teeth sniffing around. Not enough for it to be a push from either group, but they smell blood in the water and they're starting to circle."
Yamamoto blinked and his stance relaxed before interrupting me. "So, if a new gang is going to show up anyway… why not yours."
I gave the boy a little grin. "Someone is going to be making that money, might as well be us. And I know I'd be better to the people than most of the alternatives." I waved a hand out towards the city. "I also know I've got people willing to follow me ready and waiting."
"So why haven't you already started a gang then?" He asked, narrow eyed with suspicion.
"The biggest reason is the Empire would come down on any new gang hard before they could get established. They're in no mood to tolerate upstarts right now. The other is I've been trying to decide what is and isn't an acceptable form of income."
Yamamoto grunted something casually inquisitorial so I shrugged and expanded on the point.
"I'd just shoot any human trafficker, but if the girls are willing, I'm not going to get up in arms over prostitutes working the streets." Yamamoto actually blushed scarlet. "The Merchants push drugs on kids and forcibly addict people sometimes, for which I hope to one day see them gutted. But if grown adults don't have the good sense to not throw away their money on poison… I'm a less inclined to feel bad for them."
"Ahh, I, uhh, never really thought about it like that." He admitted awkwardly.
I hummed agreeably. "Most people don't. But if I'm going to lead a gang I have to or the whole thing will just implode."
"So… what would I have to do?" Yamamoto asked clearly worried about how I might answer.
That question actually brought me up short. The idea of having lieutenants and minions to carry out some of the work so I wasn't perpetually buried made sense... but I had never really considered how I would assign them jobs before. And just going by the look Yamamoto was giving me if I gave him an answer he didn't like, he very well might walk out the door and never look back.
Inconvenient as that would be, as great a potential loss as it represented… I had to respect him for it. And that just made me want him involved with whatever I was building all the more.
"I can honestly say I have no idea." I cheerfully admitted. I savored Yamamoto's poleaxed expression.
"I don't know what you're good at, or what you're ok with." I shrugged. "If you want to sit behind a desk most of the time and organize shipments and production and whatever else gangs deal with? You'd have to have a head for that stuff. If you want to play bodyguard for me? Well I don't need one, but it would be a good status symbol. Or you could be in charge of recruiting impressionable new talent. Hell, if you wanted to play knight in shining armor keeping the working girls safe and enjoying their grateful attention, I wouldn't stop you." I gave the boy a toothy smirk as he turned bright red. "You're getting in on the ground floor. It's less what I want you to do, and more what kind of space can you find and fill for me?"
He coughed into his fist as he tried and failed to get his blush under control.
"I'll get back to you on that." He murmured eyes still a little glazed.
I smirked to myself. I had him. He might not have realized it yet, but he was mine now. I'd take care of him and in exchange he would take care of me. We exchanged a few more words but Yamamoto quickly excused himself. As soon as the door shut behind him I was already dialing.
"What's up, Tay." Lisa asked before a jaw cracking yawn echoed over the line.
"Hey, Lisa. Need you to get in touch with the boss, and maybe work some of your magic."
"Oh?" The girls voice noticeably perked up. "What for?"
"In exchange for a bit of legal work, I've just secured the Bay's newest cape for myself." I gloated over the line.
Lisa's surprised squawk and immediate demand for details only set me to cackling. Let the Empire strut and snarl, let the out of town vultures circle. I was going to start building out of sight and mind. When the dust finally settled I would to be the one on top.
