In Which Taylor Cleans the City
Taylor was quickly growing to love her new phone. Not only did she get to troll the PHO forums and answer the most inane questions while avoiding the serious ones, she also received pings from the local PRT about the city's ongoing reconstruction efforts.
For now they seemed to be focusing on cleaning up the major highways that bisected the city as well as the roads in the docks and near the Boardwalk, basically, all the places that had been hit the hardest during the attack.
She figured that they wanted to clear things out to be able to bring dump trucks and whatnot into the ruined parts of the city. So, with a satisfied smile, she opened the last message from the PRT and sent a reply.
>>Queen_Administrator: Thanks for the information. If I want to assist with the clean up, is there somewhere in particular I should go?
>>PRT_15731: There's a tent set up on Lincoln and Fifth. Agents from the different clean-up and construction crews are coordinating from there. There are also a few local heroes on-site.
>>Queen_Administrator: Thank you! Could you tell them that I'll be there in a few minutes?
>>PRT_15732: Will do, Queen Administrator. On that note, would it be possible if you showed up without Unit Two? Most of those on-site are civilians and they might be spooked by his presence.
>>Queen_Administrator: Can do!
Taylor slid her phone into a pocket and tapped Leviathan on the shoulder twice. "I'll be over there," she said while pointing off towards her destination. The pair had stopped a block away and Leviathan slipped into an alleyway. "Okay, so, stay here for a bit, unless things get hairy, you know?"
{Affirmative: Unit_02 will follow Temporary Directive to remain stationary unless Temporary Directive interferes with Primary Directive.]
"Exactly!" She reached out, then wrapped both arms around Leviathan's leg in a quick hug. When she looked up to him, her face split in a huge grin and her cheeks reddened. "I'll see you in no time at all, okay?"
{Affirmative.}
Walking down the street on her own was a little different. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be all on her own, and yet it had only been a few days since she met Leviathan for the first time. She felt smaller, seeing the streets from the height of a normal person as opposed to on the back of a giant.
It was a heady thought, and she wondered if many capes felt that way or if her situation was unique. Still pondering the question, Taylor arrived on the indicated intersection to find it a chaotic mess of trucks and trailers parked haphazardly across the road. Men in hardhats were milling about, some of them sipping at still-warm coffee while others were trying to undo the mess that was a multi-company construction project.
In the centre of it all was a pavilion tent, something that should have belonged at an outdoor wedding but was now host to a bunch of tables where men were arguing over maps of the Bay. Parts of the tent were obscured by cloth walls but she saw a few more tables behind them when a man shifted one aside to pass.
Taylor gingerly stepped around puddles of water on the street until she noticed that the water would draw away from her path. Humming to herself, she tried to stand tall despite all the looks being shot her way.
"Um, hello?" she said as she entered the tent. A few heads turned her way, but they were busy, and one strange cape in their midst wasn't reason enough to stop the work. Taylor had to resist the urge to pout.
"Don't worry too much," someone said from a little deeper in the tent. "They'll come around in a bit. They just don't like repeating themselves. You are here to help, right?"
She looked deeper in the tent and found herself staring at a young woman in a white cheerleader-ish outfit floating an inch or two off the ground. "Glory Girl?"
The heroine smiled. "The one and only," she said.
"Hey, what am I, chop suey?" Shielder stepped out from behind Glory Girl and looked at Taylor, then his eyes went wide and he searched beyond her and around the tent. "Holy shit, I saw you on PHO. Is he here?"
"He?" Taylor said with a squeak. Not one, but two capes! This was incredible. She wanted to squee and hug the heroine before her and--
{Host-Queen_Administrator: Mental functions indicate outside influence. Enact Primary Directive?}
"Outside influence?" Taylor said aloud brining the two New Wave capes up short. "Wait, you mean I'm being Mastered?"
{Affirmative.}
Glory Girl spun around, scanning the site while Shielder pulled out a phone from somewhere and was halfway through dialing for help when Taylor continued. "Where's it coming from?"
{Three meters North-North-East from Host-Queen_Administrator's current location.}
She looked around, took in her bearings, then stared at Glory Girl. "Glory Girl is a Master?" she squeaked.
Silence finally fell across the tent. "What?" the heroine said.
Taylor took a quick step back, then she paused. Glory Girl was a well-known and respected hero. If she was really a Master then someone would have done something about it by now. "Uh."
Glory Girl's face twisted in indignation. "Hey, you can't just go and accuse people of anything like that," she said.
"Gee-gee, lower your aura, you don't want to pick a fight with her," Shielder warned his cousin.
"I'm not picking a fight," Glory Girl said. "She's the one accusing me of being a Master. It's not even a Master effect, just a Shaker effect." She waved towards Taylor.
"I'm sorry," Taylor replied, raising both hands in surrender. Her hands wanted to shake like her knees were doing but she held them back, she couldn't let others see her afraid, not again. "I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. Heck, I'm a Master so I'm not going to throw rocks in my glass house, you know? It just my, uh, friend told me that I was under an outside influence and that it was coming from you."
"You're a Master?" Glory Girl said. Taylor couldn't help but notice the way the girl floated back just a bit.
"Yeah, so it's like I said, I'm not accusing you of anything. My friend just warned me is all."
"And where is this friend of yours?" Glory Girl shot back.
"Ah, he's around. I didn't want to scare anyone by having him around."
Shielder lowered his phone, his eyes fixed on the two girls. "Vicky, drop it. I'm sure Queen Administrator's not here to make a fuss--"
"You're the Leviathan girl?" Glory Girl said. "Wait! It told you that I was dangerous?"
"Um, not dangerous, exactly? Taylor said. She really, really didn't want Glory Girl to be angry at her, but the heroine was floating a little higher, her hands balled into fists at her side. "He just warned me is all!" she mumbled.
Glory Girl snorted then came closer. "Oh, so now the bloody Endbringer is more trustworthy than I am?" Her hand reached out as if to poke at Taylor's chest.
The tent shifted. There was a gust of humid air that made a few papers fly off the nearest table and had Taylor's costume fluttering around her. She blinked, then looked at the hand stopped a few inches away from her, then she let her gaze follow up from the hand and to Glory Girl's arm which had a huge claw clamped around it.
Leviathan was on the ground, arm reaching into the tent to grab Glory Girl while all four eyes stared at the girl.
Taylor heard Glory Girl's gulp and saw Shielder going white as a sheet behind her. "Unit Two, that's enough," she said. "I think she knows better than to try and hurt me, she's a hero after all."
{Affirmative.}
Glory Girl tried to yank her arm out of the Endbringer's grip but all she succeeded in doing was to cut herself on his sharp claws. As soon as Leviathan let go she flew back a half dozen meters and hugged her arm to her chest, eyes wide and panicky.
With a put-upon sigh, Taylor reached down and tore out a strip of her costume, then with slow steps, as though approaching a wild animal, she moved closer to Glory Girl and spoke in a near-whisper. "I'm sorry about that. Here, let me look at your arm. I'm not the best at first aid, but we should still wrap that up until your sister can take a look at it, yeah?"
The silence in the tent continued while Taylor wrapped the cloth around the gash in the heroine's arm. It wasn't much of an injury, just a skin-deep cut along her arm. "There, all better," she said before grinning at the hero.
'Yeah, yeah, all better," Glory Girl said as she backed away a little. She was running the thumb of her free hand over the makeshift bandage.
Taylor felt bad for the poor girl. She had clearly been spooked something fierce by Mr. Fish. Maybe she needed a hug? Hugging Leviathan had made her feel much better. She wondered if Glory Girl would like it if she ordered him to hug her--
{Host-Queen_Administrator: Mental functions indicate outside influence. Enact Primary Directive?}
Taylor's head whipped around to stare at Leviathan and that simple motion alone had a bunch of people jumping in startled surprise. "Again?"
{Affirmative. Unit-02 ennact Primary Directive?}
"No, we're not going to kill her just because she has a weird aura thing," Taylor said. She turned back to Glory Girl who seemed a little pale. "Is there a way for you to turn it off? Unit Two is really concerned."
{Suggestion: Unit-02 can manipulate the target's biology and remove Host-Aura_Projector's ability to influence Host-Queen_Administrator's mental functions.}
Taylor hummed in thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah, I don't think lobotomizing her until her aura goes away is a good idea," she said. "What if you mess up and she gets hurt?"
Glory Girl went from pale to green in under a second and what had been a few meters of distance almost doubled as she backpedaled. Her cousin stepped up, placing himself between Taylor and the heroine with both arms raised in surrender. "Now now, no need to lobotomize anyone, even if it would finally get her to stop talking about her boyfriend."
"Eric!"
Taylor giggled and nodded. "Yeah, if only lobotomy were an acceptable way of getting out of awkward conversations. That would make life a little easier."
Shielder shared a smile though his was a little shaky, then he looked over his shoulder at Glory Girl then back. "Okay, so her aura is obviously a problem, and probably her attitude too, but we can't do much about that, god knows we've tried. So how about we keep some distance between the two of you. I'm sure once you get to know each other it won't be as big a deal, right?" His smile seemed a little forced on the edges but Taylor chose to ignore that. He was doing his best to keep things peaceful and that was fine in her books.
She taught about it for a moment, but it was a sound compromise. "That works for me."
Someone coughed and Taylor turned to find an older man staring at the lot of them as though they were nothing more than a bunch of jumped up teens. Even the Endbringer standing in the background didn't seem to phase him. "If you lot are done we've got work to do and I'm the unfortunate soul that has to debrief you three."
Taylor nodded and the two New Wave kids did the same. "Good. When I was told we'd get support I was expecting actual support, not three kids, but we'll do what we can with what we have." He pointed to a map of the Bay that was on the table behind him. "To be honest, just about every street needs cleaning. I'm halfway tempted to just give the lot of you some bags and tell you to start picking up, but I hear that some of you can replace some of our bigger machines without the fuss of having to move them on streets that are essentially impassable." He stared at Leviathan with all the passion of a dead sloth.
Taylor raised a hand as if to ask a question, and when the man nodded she went on, "If I understood, you guys are all here to clear off the streets, that's it?"
"There's a bit more to it then just that, missy, but essentially yes. Once the roads are cleared and any buildings that need demolishing are brought down, we can start repaving the main arteries throughout the city. You see those containers," he said while pointing off towards the other end of the street.
Three trucks with massive shipping containers on trailers were waiting there. "We want you to fill them with any junk that's laying on the street. If you have a chunk that's too big, then bring it to the other trucks on Lincoln and Fourth. We'll be moving them throughout the day as we go along."
"And if we have a lot more then that?" Taylor asked. She was starting to have an idea in the back of her mind.
He looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "We're building a landfill just on the exit of the Bay."
"Great, thanks!" Taylor said.
"Hn. Right, well you lot stay out of our way and let us do our work, and maybe you can take a few PR pictures later." With that, the man left, passing between Taylor and Leviathan without even staring at the Endbringer.
"Wow, that was... something," Shielder said.
Glory Girl scoffed. "Bit of an ass," she said. Her eyes turned to Taylor and there was a competitive glean in them. "Hey, Endbringer Girl."
"It's Queen Administrator."
"Right. Are you up for a bit of a challenge?" she said.
"Oh?"
Her smile was almost feral. "The one who picks up the most trash wins. We start as soon as we agree on terms and finish... let's call it by one thirty."
Taylor nodded. She was never terribly competitive, but if it got her and Glory Girl back on the same page then it was definitely worth it. "You're on! Loser has to pay for the winner's lunch?"
"I'm down for that," Glory Girl said her face twisting into a wry grin. She glanced at Leviathan but seemed to have put her fear aside for the moment. "I'd shake but," she said, gesturing at the space between them.
Shielder shook his head. "A minute ago and you were at her throat and now you're gambling with her?"
"Hey, a girl's gotta eat, and food tastes best when it's free... speaking of!" With that, Glory Girl shot off like a bullet towards the next street over. She avoided all the foot traffic by the simple expedient of flying over them all.
"Sorry about her," Shielder began.
Taylor waved him off. "It's okay. Mostly a misunderstanding, I think. No one was really hurt, so it's alright." That said, she turned to Leviathan. "I want that free lunch, big guy. So, could you clean all the streets in the Bay?"
{Affirmative.}
"Without killing anyone or destroying any buildings and while dumping all the junk where the old man said?" Taylor asked.
{...Affirmative.}
She wondered for a moment which part of that gave him pause, but didn't care enough to ask. "Awesome! This'll really help the city, I think, and it'll make people think we're less scary too," she said.
Shielder took her in, then the rather docile, top-hatted Endbringer by her side. "That's really important to you, isn't it?"
"Hm? You mean looking less scary?"
"Yeah. I mean, we do a lot of PR stuff for New Wave, but it's not so much about making people be less afraid of us and more about encouraging people to talk."
Taylor nodded. "I understand, yeah. It's just that the big guy and I have different problems. My power isn't as... non-threatening as any of yours. People are afraid of Unit Two, and they're afraid of me too. If I want the city to be a better place, then I need to be able to help, and no one will want my help if they're more afraid of me than they are of their problems." She gestured across the worksite where the men had slowed down to stare at the Endbringer in their midst. It didn't matter that Leviathan wasn't moving, he was still huge and imposing.
"If you want our help looking less... scary, then give us a call. We do a lot of stuff like this, especially since there're so many projects going on at once. If you're seen with us it might help your image." Shielder gestured at her, then pointed over his shoulder more or less where Glory Girl had gone.
She beamed at him. "Thanks. But, for now, I have a lunch to win." That being said, she waved goodbye to the young cape and stepped out of the tent, aware that he was following her with his gaze. "Okay, Mr. Fish, I don't know how much you heard back there, but this is the plan: I want you to clean up the streets. Can you do it?"
{Task parameters?}
"Hrm, mostly make sure you don't hurt anyone and dump the junk either in those trailers over there or in that landfill the old guy mentioned."
{Scope of Task?}
Her brows furrowed as she taught for a moment. "Brockton Bay, I guess."
{Understood. Beginning Task.} Leviathan said, then he quickly proceeded to do nothing.
Taylor waited, shifting on the spot for a few long seconds before looking around and shrugging. "Okay. I'll be inside looking for a snack, you, uh, do your thing."
It didn't take long after she re-entered the tent for her to find that there was a table covered in boxes of doughnuts and coffee machines. She was picking her way through these when she heard a distant rumbling sound, like a huge truck driving by. Probably, she figured, one of the construction vehicles moving around.
Taylor almost jumped out of her skin when her pocket vibrated. She froze, then realized what was going on. Dropping her sprinkle-covered honey glazed doughnut on a plastic plate, she fumbled around until she pulled out her phone and accepted the call. "Queen Administrator here, how can I help you?"
"Hello Queen Administrator, it's Dragon," came a very, very calm voice from across the line. "There's a bit of an emergency, and I was hoping you could help us."
Taylor straightened, doughnut forgotten. "What is it?"
"There are a series of underwater surveillance systems all across the East coast and deep into the Atlantic, they monitor ship traffic and water levels across the ocean in order to help predict the weather and Endbringer movements. I'm looking at a few hundred reports that the water levels in the Eastern part of the Atlantic are dropping by an average of a quarter inch and there's a massive wave of turbulence heading towards the East coast of the United States."
"Uh, so there's a wave coming this way?"
There was a pause. "That would be accurate, yes. But it's less of a wave and more of a--" Dragon's voice grew distant and garbled for a moment before static filled the line.
She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a moment, then she heard the rumbled form outside growing steadily louder. There was screaming too, men's voices rose into panicked shouts.
Stepping outside she found that people were running all over the place, the noise of it nearly covered by the all-consuming rumble. It was easy to follow the gazes of the workers and see why they were afraid.
A wall of water was raising up in the ocean.
The top of it was so high it was visible over the two and three storey buildings nearby, a frothing wall of churning water tinted such a dark blue it was almost black.
Taylor walked over to Leviathan and stood in the gap between his arms. "Are you the one doing that?"
{Affirmative.}
Her shoulders slumped. "Alright, but make sure you don't hurt anyone."
{Affirmative.}
The world around them grew darker by the second. The sky that was moments ago only filled with a few sparse clouds was enveloped by an all-consuming blanket of water. There had to be millions of gallons, Taylor realised as she looked up. The wall was so high above that the nearest clouds where pushed away in its wake.
Then it came crashing down.
The screams were swallowed up in what had to be the loudest sound she ever heard. Like a waterfall but a million time bigger.
The ground shook and Taylor had to grab onto Leviathan to keep steady as the noise grew ever louder.
Around the nearest corner came a rushing wave as tall as the tallest buildings in the Bay, a veritable wall of water that rushed towards them at the speed of an oncoming train. Even Taylor shut her eyes when the wall hit, then she blinked them open as she felt little more than a few stray droplets hitting her face.
The wall was splitting around them.
Before she could even take it all in it was over. The water receded deeper into the city, rushing towards the coast like a huge claw being pulling towards the ocean. She watched it leave, the world around her brightening as the sky reappeared and in a brighter blue then she had ever seen it.
"-Minitstator! Queen Administrator!" a tinny voice said.
Taylor pulled her phone back to her ear. "Yes?"
"Are you alright?" Dragon asked.
"Oh, I'm just dandy. Unit Two cleaned the streets for us," she said and as she looked around it was clear that she was telling the truth.
The road where the wave had passed looked as though it had been pressure washed clean. The walls of every building were almost shining and whatever little pile of junk had been left to rot along the roadside was long gone.
The only places that weren't perfectly clean were the spots with people in them. Most of the workers were on the ground, shaking and shivering. A few looked as though they were crying and more were just staring off into the distance without moving. But they didn't look injured or anything, so they were probably alright, she reasoned.
"...Cleaned the streets?" Dragon said. She sounded a little faint.
"Mm-hmm," she said as she stepped out from Leviathan's shadow. He had done a very good job cleaning things up. The city ever smelled nicer, like salt water. "So, uh, did you need me for anything else?"
"No?" Dragon said.
"Awesome. So, I've got a bet to win. See you around, alright?"
"Uh, goodbye?" the Tinker said before the line went dead.
Taylor was grinning in self-satisfaction when she walked up to the mean old man that had given her instructions earlier. He was staring at all the others as if waiting for them to get together and get back to work. "We did a fair bit, but Unit Two didn't touch any place where there were people."
He stared at her for a long moment, then pulled a pack of cigarettes from within his jacket. "Well, can't say I didn't ask for it," he muttered. "Thank girl. Now piss off, you're scaring my boys."
Taylor held back a huff and just nodded before walking back towards Leviathan. She was just in time as Glory Girl and Shielder were flying back at a rather sedate pace. With a burgeoning grin she ran over to the pair. "So, where're you taking me out to eat?" she asked.
-End Part the Seventh-
***
Autocorrect keeps changing LEviathan (when I don't remove my finger from Shift fast enough) to Le viathan. Now I want to write a French version of Leviathan. With a beret. And a baguette. "Hon hon hon, I'm going to drown you!"
Anyway, ended up cutting the chapter in half because of reasons.
