Induction 1.4
Induction 1.4
The next day Julianna was driving me back across town to drop me off at my house in the morning. I turned my head away from the window whenever we went past a bus stop lined with kids waiting to go to Winslow, as the last thing I needed was anyone reminding Emma that I still existed.
Not that I thought that she could actually do anything more to me than she had, but these reactions were burned pretty deep in my psyche at this point.
I idly wondered what surprise Julianna had to show me later on this week, but she'd told me not to bug her about it until we got the whole transfer situation covered and that I wasn't to mention it to dad at all.
She'd only hinted that it had something to do with mom and I guess something she hadn't told dad about or had hid from him. She was being as enigmatic as possible and I really didn't enjoy being left in the dark.
I smiled a little at dad when we got home as he looked a little better. His eyes alone let me know he had gotten some sleep finally, though his alertness also seemed to renew the hostile looks he was sending Juli's way.
She leaned down and hugged me, "If anything goes wrong just call and I'll be here," she whispered into my ear, and she squeezed my hand affectionately when I nodded in response.
"Well, take good care of her, Daniel." She said to dad, which I could see dad visibly tense at those words.
He stepped forward and I felt his hand on my shoulder, but his grip was too tense and it felt less like a motion to calm me than to proclaim that I was his child to the woman he was glaring at.
I shrugged away from him, "Bye, Aunt Juli," I said as I grabbed my things and brought them inside hoping to de-escalate this situation.
I didn't hear the door shut behind me and when I turned back I could see the two of them talking, it wasn't a long conversation, maybe a few minutes at most before the two of them separated.
Juli waved back at me as she got into her vehicle, while dad shut the front door a little more forcibly than he probably should have with a wince. Once his eyes fell on me he visibly deflated, as Juli had encouraged me to pick a nice white blouse coupled with a dark skirt that flared a little to give the impression I had more of a figure than I did.
It was also the kind of thing that mom used to wear, and while I knew it probably hurt him a little to see the resemblance between me and mom I couldn't keep hiding myself away to avoid hurting him.
"So," dad began to talk but he trailed off before lamely asking, "Did you have breakfast?"
"Y-yeah," great job Taylor, I thought darkly, way to not make this more awkward.
He sighed, obviously working himself up to acknowledge the elephant in the room, before deciding to avoid the subject, "I called Winslow this morning to arrange a meeting. They wouldn't give me an appointment today, but I've got a meeting with Blackwell tomorrow after classes are out."
I blinked at that, more than a little confused because you would think they would want it dealt with as soon as possible. I mean sure I wasn't physically hurt aside from some scratches, but I somehow doubted that if a student was locked inside a locker for an hour in Arcadia that the school wouldn't be doing everything they could to handle the situation.
"Something feels wrong about this," I murmured to myself, feeling like there was some piece of the puzzle I was missing.
Dad kept going, unaware of my comment, "So Julianna knows, as much as I don't like or even want her help," I swear I could see him visibly swallowing his pride, "I want to make sure you get out of that place and I don't care how we manage it."
I smiled at that, glad to see he wasn't going to change his mind. I'd been worried about that for most of the night, because I didn't see any issues with making Blackwell do what she was supposed to do in the first place.
If she had done her job from the beginning none of this would have happened after all. Hell had she actually stopped the bullying then she wouldn't have had a girl stuffed in her own locker and gaining powers from it.
I suppressed a wince as I felt Julianna finally get out of my range, my power didn't hurt, yet, but it was a matter of time, and severity, at this point.
Sure, she could have stayed in the neighborhood but she was right in that I needed practice with my powered down state. As if I truly couldn't function for long without a connection to another parahuman then I was going to need to choose someone who wasn't Juli and soon.
The woman was amazing and supportive, but it wasn't like she could hang around a school all day and I did know that she had a life, and a villainous career to maintain.
"Before you say anything, I'm coming," I stated firmly, knowing that he was probably going to try to convince me that I didn't need to be there.
"You sure?" his worried voice shifted into one with an angrier edge, "I meant it, Taylor, you never have to go back to that place if you don't want to."
"It's fine, dad, it's just a building and I'm not going to let them control my actions anymore," I fixed him with a steady glare, "I've moved past them."
Dad's expression was hard to read for a few moments before he sighed, "You take way too much after your mother," his voice made that sound equal parts praise and accusation, "but alright I won't try to argue since the other one was already against my idea."
I bent down and started taking out the workout clothes that Julianna had picked out for me. They were way more revealing of my body than I was really comfortable with, but she'd bought them already and I didn't really have other options that I already owned so they'd do for today.
"What are those for?" My dad asked, obviously not expecting his rather sedentary daughter to suddenly show interest in fitness.
"Getting in shape, you never know when I might need to run away from Lung," I joked, though from his expression he didn't find it funny.
***
I groaned in exhaustion as I flopped onto the couch, I'd barely gotten half the distance I'd hoped to during my run and it felt like my heart was going to explode.
I felt myself being nudged by my dad's leg, he really hadn't been on board after my Lung joke, but he'd relented after he went out for a quick trip and returned with a can of pepper spray that he forced into my hand firmly stating, "Be safe."
As much as I wanted to roll my eyes at his worry, even I had to admit that our neighborhood wasn't half as safe as it used to be. When I was a kid some people still left their doors unlocked, I doubted there was a single household that did now.
"Come on, sweaty, get into the shower and stop wrecking the couch."
My jelly legs didn't want to obey at first, but I managed to get them to work after some effort. As I stumbled up to the shower I glanced in the mirror and while I felt the familiar disappointment at my figure but I didn't find my mind lingering on those thoughts as long as I had before I triggered.
I remembered Juli's comments about being a tall, raven haired, beauty, and while I doubted I'd ever be beautiful, maybe I could change my look once I got to Arcadia. There would be no Emma there, no preconceived notions of who I was, and for the first time I realized I might actually be able to have a fresh start.
Maybe I'd go to the mall later this week and try to find a style that was more mine. I didn't have much of an eye for fashion, but as nice as Juli's clothes that she'd gifted me were they were obviously based on her memories of what mom wore when she was younger.
Though her memories of mom were from when she was three years older than I was, when she'd finally grown out of her awkward looks and settled into who she would be until her untimely death.
Which is to say when mom was way more confident than I felt right now.
Plus there was the whole 'women's liberation terrorist cell/sorority' movement she was in, which kind of encouraged some styles I don't think I'd ever be able to wear.
Like almost all of the pants terrified me by how tight they were, and I don't care how many times Julianna insists that 'I have the legs' for them.
As I stepped into the shower it was soothing on my muscles that were obviously unused to physical exertion. Most of my shower routine was swift, but I always lingered and pampered my hair. I wondered if when I went out as a cape I should hide my hair, I knew it was the smart choice but Alexandria left her hair out and I'd always wanted to be the triumvirate cape.
I shook my head of the thought, knowing that I shouldn't start daydreaming about going out until I was in Arcadia and I have my power situation a little more figured out. Sure dad would threaten to send me to the wards, but he wasn't the one with powers.
He couldn't help people the way I could, well would I suppose was the correct tense.
I shut off the water and began drying myself off before padding off to get changed into the clothes I had been wearing this morning.
***
Dad had taken the day off work, though I suspected he was already a mess about it inside. Mom had always joked that dad had two families, us and the union, and when she had died one of those families was far easier for him to deal with.
Still, he had asked where I wanted to go and I'd suggested the boardwalk. Not because of the desire to buy anything, but it was the kind of place we'd have gone to as a family and while I'd been to it a few times since mom died it had always been without him.
The car ride was fairly quiet aside from the radio, though dad changed the station when one of the DJ's began sounding a little too in favor of all the 'benefits' the E88 provided for 'real Americans'.
"Fucking Nazis," I heard mutter under his breath thinking I couldn't hear it. I knew that while the ABB and Merchants were problems the union also dealt with, it was the E88 and their preying on the working class with their ideology that really got to dad.
And he was right because if the city wasn't in such bad shape, if say the Ferry was working again to help provide commerce to the discarded portions of the bay then it would bleed away at the pool of people the E88 recruited from.
They'd even come by the house one day, though dad thought I didn't know. It had been late at night, but I wasn't able to sleep and I had slipped down the hall to the staircase when I heard a knock at the door and then dad's angry voice.
Their pitch had basically been that dad should work for them, if he pushed suitable recruits their way then they were certain they could find plenty of work for dad's people as long as he made sure to get rid of those 'unworthy' of the blessings of america.
I'd never seen my dad throw a punch before in anger, but I'm pretty sure he broke the guy's nose.
They never showed up again, but things started going wrong for the union afterwards. Contracts that had been locked in suddenly were in 'review', members would get assaulted on their way to a job or when they were going home, and junk media personalities like this radio host would rail about how unions, and the dockworkers union would always be the example, were the actual cause of the labor issues in the city.
So I understood why dad fell deeper into his work and away from home, because he was fighting a war on his own to try to protect his job and those who were a second family to him.
It didn't make me feel any better to know he had effectively chosen them over me when I needed his help. Needed him to actually take notice of how I had been slowly ground down week after week from Emma's protracted campaign, but no one had until it was too late.
I pushed my introspective thoughts away and gave dad a smile that I didn't quite feel as we stepped out of the car. One of the armed enforcers glanced my way but relaxed once he spotted dad, apparently viewing an adult with a child during a school day a normal affair compared to a lone teen.
I already had an idea of where I wanted to go, a nice little coffee shop that had a deck with a great view of the bay. I'd always hoped that one day I could sit on it and watch the ferry slowly crossing the bay and feel proud that my dad had achieved the goal he had worked so hard for.
Now though, I was going to make that goal happen. I didn't know how, but I was going to do it.
Dad let himself be dragged to my destination, though he did grumble under his breath about the price of a 'watered down cup of coffee' but he bought it for himself nonetheless. I'd personally gotten some tea and was slowly adding a small trickle of honey to it from the little plastic container I'd grabbed on our way to the table.
We took a few exploratory sips of our drinks, and neither of us were happy with them. I added some more honey to my cup, while dad just scowled and took another drink of his before he started talking.
"I've been thinking about our talk the other day, about the Wards and I realized we were looking at the situation all wrong."
He gave me a look, the same look he would give someone when he was in negotiations for the union, "What about LA?" Dad's sudden question caused me to glance up in confusion, to see him looking completely serious.
He leaned forward, his cup held in his hands as his eyes stayed locked on mine, "If you are right about your," he paused and glanced around to make sure there wasn't anyone near, "gift, then you could go anywhere, Taylor. Do you think they would keep you here in Brockton when they could send you to New York and get a second Legend or to LA and have another Alexandria?"
"You could be safe, and be a hero now. You'd be living your childhood dream." He smiled softly, and his eyes shined with memories of me as a kid pretending to save the day as Alexandria.
My reply left my mouth faster than my brain could catch up, "I don't want to leave you here, dad."
"I could sell the house, move out there. I'd make it work." He said in the same tone of voice he used when he was prepared to single handedly keep the union alive in a particularly rough patch.
And it felt really nice to feel that directed towards me, to see my dad looking a little more like had before mom died. I knew that he was essentially offering to give up the union he'd worked so hard to keep going for my sake, and I loved him for it, but I could never let him do that.
Because he was right, being a hero like Alexandria was the dream I'd had since I was a child.
But I wasn't a child anymore, I'd had all of those dreams burned out of me by my former best friend.
I gazed across the bay and felt a sense of home. I knew that plenty of people considered Brockton a hellhole filled with villains and far too few heroes, but my earliest memories were of the town in ascension before the bottom fell out.
I couldn't leave my home in this state, it would be a betrayal of myself far greater than anything that Emma had ever done.
This was my home, mine, and I wasn't going to run away from it even if it was the harder route to take.
I'd traded my childhood dream for one of rusted ships and broken hearts.
Dad silently cursed when he saw my expression, knowing that this tarnished city had its hooks in me as deeply as they were in him.
"We're both idiots," grumbled dad.
We were stone faced and serious for a few more seconds before we both burst into laughter.
***
We spent an hour or so wandering along the boardwalk, I stopped in and out of a few shops but all we mostly did was windowshop. Though I did split off from dad to go and grab some study materials from a nice, if bland, chain bookstore while he was catching up with one of the enforcers who used to be a union man.
I perused through the shelves, looking for a few academic books that Julianna had pulled from the list that Arcadia recommended to use for their placement tests. If I got in I wasn't going to let my grades from my first year in Winslow stay on my record, sure Arcadia's standards were higher but I knew I could handle it.
School had always been easy for me, if it wasn't for the trio I'd probably be one of the best students in Winslow academically.
The price tag of them was a little higher than I thought they would be, so I used the credit card Julianna had slipped me just in case I needed it. I didn't want to burn through dad's money when I knew Juli wouldn't even notice how much I'd just spent.
Exiting the bookstore with the heavy load in my arms I promised myself I was going to start the strength training that Juli had mentioned as well. My path though was blocked as a blonde, her hair pulled up and away from her face, exited from an electronics shop ahead of me.
Normally I'd just step around her, but by this point I'd been disconnected from Juli for long enough that parahumans, potential and actual, were beginning to glow in my vision though there wasn't any pain to go with my heightened senses yet.
So when I saw the golden aura flickering around her my gait faltered for just a moment..
And I felt my stomach plummet when her gaze swept my way, her eyes taking me in and seeing far, far, too much.
My mind scrambled as I tried to remember what the hell you were supposed to do if you accidentally meet a cape in your civilian identity, do I just walk past her or was I supposed to approach her?
She took the decision from me, walking towards me with an easy confidence and a sway to her hips though that soon went away as a conflicted look flickered across her face. "Shit," she cursed before dropping her voice, "you're a fresh trigger?"
My first instinct was to just deny it, but I'd been going over dossiers of the capes in the city and given how she had figured out I was a parahuman, combined with her build and hair color, I knew this was probably Tattletale.
Exactly the person I didn't want to run into.
I tried to be subtle and check my surroundings for anyone else who could match the other Undersiders, then growled to myself as her mouth quirked up into a smirk as she knew what I was doing.
She leaned in slightly, reading me like I was an open book, "Fresh, but you know who I am? That's interesting."
Your power is bullshit, I cursed in my own head at her.
I knew that interesting and Tattletale together was a bad thing.
Thankfully dad saved me, even though he didn't know it, as he walked up, "Taylor," I winced as he said my name, "want me to carry those books? We've got to get home."
"I've got them," I squeaked out, wanting to keep them so that Tattletale couldn't try to shake my hand as I had no idea if I could stop myself from connecting to someone yet and now didn't seem like a good time to try.
Tattletale glanced from dad to me and I saw a flicker of something that wasn't just smug assuredness, she gave me a smile, a soft, real, smile, before pulling out a piece of paper and scribbling a number on it.
"Well, Taylor," she stressed my name with a wide grin, "I'm Lisa, and it was really nice to meet you today." She slid the paper between the cover and the pages of one of my books, "That has my cell number on it, so if you ever want to meet up just let me know." Her tone was knowing, as if she knew that I'd be calling her as a certainty.
I wanted to blow her off, tell the villainess to go to hell, but at the same time she hadn't done anything to me and Juli had been telling me to think of things longer term.
Tattletale knew my civilian name, she knew who my dad was, and she had already been flagged as potentially dangerous if I tried to keep my power underwraps not to mention the rest of the Undersiders.
So I just gave her a small nod, "It probably won't be until later this week," before following after dad who seemed to just chalk up the tension between us as a result of my poor social skills.
As he started talking about how glad he was that I was making a new friend I glanced over my shoulder. 'Lisa' was still watching me, looking me over like I was some puzzle for her to figure out.
Noticing my gaze she shot a wink my way, before sauntering down the boardwalk towards the docks.
If anyone asked if I was blushing I'd throw them into the bay.
***
The next day was a little bit of a blur for a few reasons.
One, dad realized that he had forgotten to book the day off and so he had to rush down to the docks in the morning to at least find someone to cover for some of his duties that day since he hadn't given anyone notice.
Two, my power was driving me up the wall. When I woke up that morning it was a dull fine, little more than the same kind of dull ache that I had had the day before.
By noon it was an actively painful throbbing that was like a slower, far more painful, secondary heartbeat, but it was still manageable I thought as the ramp up was slow enough that I still had almost another day until I was as at the level of pain that I had woken up to in the hospital.
The problem was that apparently it wasn't a steady increase, when we were less than an hour from our scheduled meeting with Blackwell I got bad and fast. At first I tried to fight through it but soon after I broke down and called Juli, of course I did it with my cell phone so dad was now pissed about that, only to find out that she was across town and would be meeting us at Winslow.
I fumed at the situation, irrationally blaming her for not anticipating that I'd get this bad when I knew she had checked in this morning and I had insisted I was fine. She tried to calm me down by saying she'd get to Winslow early so she could help my condition as long as we could do it without anyone noticing.
Regardless I was not in good looking shape as dad and I drove to Winslow, the pain had sapped most of the color from my face and I knew I looked like I was in shock. My nerves were on edge, leaving me twitchy and my temper was on a hair trigger from the constant pain.
It was like the pain was perfectly designed to frustrate me to do what my power wanted me to do, but not actually hinder me physically.
This had technically been part of Julianna's very stupid plan, saying that if I were to walk in to Blackwell's office looking like I had the night she found me in the hospital that it might make the woman put in the transfer of her own volition.
Because the less power usage in general, the safer the whole process would be for everyone involved.
Of course the fact that I had agreed to all this only for my power to spike me just before the meeting felt far too planned. Could powers plan? No, that's just the pain making you go crazy, Taylor, I muttered mentally.
"Fuck," I growled out as another throbb of pain engulfed my body. Dad shot a look my way but didn't say anything about my language.
He'd learned better after the first time and I'd told him where to shove his opinion.
Yeah, dad, you aren't the only Hebert with a temper.
I wrapped my arms around myself, letting the baggy hoodie I was wearing act as a kind of support blanket of sorts. We'd agreed that I should wear some of my old clothes because a new trigger who just had a traumatic incident doesn't just go off on a shopping spree and change her whole wardrobe.
Well, Glory Girl might, but not Taylor Hebert, habitual wallflower and target of a red haired bitch with a mean streak.
As dad brought the car to a stop I could sense Julianna waiting near the entrance, my cape sense was at the highest it had ever been and I could feel a faint tug in my mind that let me know that was a potential power in that direction.
I'd gotten a few faint tugs on the drive over, but this being Brockton Bay there was a 80/20 chance that the power was connected to some insane and/or murderous gang member.
I practically rushed out of the car, willing to beg her to let me connect to her and make this sensation finally stop, but I soon slowed to a walk when I saw her glowing, golden, form standing there talking with Principal Blackwell who looked rather displeased to have been stopped from leaving the school premises.
Julianna's form in my vision turned towards us though I couldn't see her facial expression due to the glow, before turning back to Blackwell before explaining the present situation, "It was lucky that I showed up early, it seems the Principal here was under the mistaken impression that our meeting wasn't until next week."
I scowled at the woman in question, both because she had blatantly been going to blow us off and because her presence here meant that I had no chance of convincing Juli to let me connect to her power.
I felt like I was rapidly getting worse, and I think it was because I was so close to another parahuman. My head was throbbing, my chest hurt, and above all I was feeling that gaping sensation of being alone again that I had felt in that locker.
I needed to not feel alone, pain I could deal with, but I could almost feel the locker around me and the crushing isolation that came with it if I let myself get even a little distracted.
But I knew that Juli would be really angry if I tried to connect to her in front of people and I couldn't do anything to risk our relationship. So I pushed through the pain and the 'locker' even if I'm sure I looked somewhat manic and on the edge of a breakdown.
Which I suppose was the look we wanted in the first place, I thought as we trudged the short distance to Blackwell's office.
I glared at Blackwell from where I sat once we got to our destination, and she seemed a little put off by my efforts to burn a hole through her skull with just my eyes as she studiously avoided looking at me.
"I understand that this meeting was in regards to a transfer of Taylor?" Blackwell said evenly, trying to sound like she was in control but with just a bit of false sympathy, "I understand the desire but the fact of the matter is Arcadia has a waitlist and we just can't override that due to some personal issues between students."
I heard something shatter before I realized I had just grabbed a mug on her desk and chucked it against the wall behind her, ceramic chips landing on her suit jacket as my voice was in full Hebert rage mode, "Personal issues! You want me to shove you into a locker for an hour or two and see if you think I just have a personal issue with you!"
Juli pulled me back, her voice soft in my ear, "Taylor, are you okay?"
I almost snarled out that I was fine before I stopped myself, forcing myself to breathe before softly admitting, "I don't know, I don't feel really in control right now."
"I think you might want to step outside, I'm sorry that I didn't realize how badly your power would affect you." She sounded genuinely apologetic, but it wasn't like she could know my power would get this bad.
I just nodded, "Yeah, sure, I'll go out to the parking lot." Noting the hint of fear in Blackwell's eyes when she looked at me.
Good, let her be scared of the girl she'd done nothing to help. Maybe next time she heard a report of bullying she'd remember this and do something about it.
I passed dad who looked as angry as I was, he gave my arm a squeeze as I went past and I managed to give him a weak smile. I passed by the empty secretary desk and out the office door to enter the hallway. In my head I went to turn left and out of the school, but instead I went right.
At first I wasn't sure why, but then I could feel the tug and I realized it was close. Another power nearby, I must not have sensed it because I was so close to Juli!
My pace quickened as I moved giddily towards where the gymnasium and the rest of the athletic sections of the schools were. Was the parahuman a student or perhaps one of the teachers, it didn't matter they were so close and I felt my excitement building as I entered the female changing room to reveal a golden form with their back to me.
I made it across the room in a few strides, a smile on my face, the figure spinning in place but my hand managed to grasp their forearm and instantly I felt my power activating in a rush. The figure in my grip went rigid from surprise at the unexpected contact.
This person's power felt so different from Juli's, it was aggressive and pumping that aggression into the cape. Far too much aggression I thought, as I wondered at the long term consequences on the other cape's mental state.
I let out a shuddering gasp of relief as the connection fully snapped into place, it was strong, stronger than any I'd had with Julianna and I wondered why. The gold haze was swiftly draining from my vision as I could feel the new power settling inside of my own and I could only stare in horror at the sight in front of me.
Sophia Hess was a cape, and I had just connected my power to hers.
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