My Life as a Teenage Juggernaut... (Worm AU x Marvel)

[Kryslin]

It was morning at the Hebert household. An early morning at that. "You're far too cheery for this hour," Danny commented to Taylor. "Who are you and where did my slow-waking daughter go?"

"Not gonna let something like a lack of sleep stop me," Taylor shot back. "I get the feeling I don't physically need to sleep, but Dr. Yamada says I probably should. It's good for the mind."

"That it is," Danny said. "Recently had one guy at work who didn't sleep for four days due to personal reasons. Had to take him off the job and to the hospital where they sedated him and put him under observation. He'd gotten to the point where he'd forgotten what he'd been doing the day before, and eventually did the same one-time task three times in a row. And he was getting worse by the hour."

"Ouch," Taylor noted. "Probably better that you guys got him taken care of rather than the police."

"Or OSHA," Danny added. "Anyway, that's who I have to deal with today, and why I'm up early. Why are you up early?"

"More follow-up to what happened Tuesday," Taylor grumbled. Balancing a plate on each hand, she brought breakfast over to the table. "At least this time it involves a branch of the government other than OSHA, MSHA or BATF. Had to deal with their interviews yesterday."

"I suspect I know which branch you'll be dealing with," Danny said. "Please be nice to Commander Sciuto. She's trying to find out why a bunch of explosives were buried on a former naval installation."

"That's this afternoon," Taylor said in between bites of her ham and eggs. "I've got to deal with medical and Dr. Yamada this morning before school starts."

"They only want to make sure you're OK beyond the shadow of a doubt," Danny said. "It's not often they've had someone who can be blown across the city and walk it off. Though I think they may be more concerned about your state of mind."

"Somewhat shocked and surprised?" Taylor offered. "It's not often one gets a front row seat to an explosion that large."

"Or an explosion at all. They tend to be one-time experiences."

Taylor paused. "Maybe I should start keeping a journal of explosions and other things. So other people can know what they're like?"

= = = = = = = = = =​

Taylor was soon getting poked and prodded (no instruments or medical professionals were damaged, but they were mighty confused) and then talking with Dr. Yamada, who just needed a few questions answered for her evaluation, and then after an hour at the PRT building, she was back in a covert PRT courtesy van with Missy, who had also had early appointments.

"Bah," the diminutive junior hero grumbled. "Morning is for sleeping."

"Not disagreeing," Taylor answered. "Then again, we were both present at one of the larger industrial explosions on record."

"Ok, that was kind of cool," Missy allowed. "Still, it's kept me at home, which sucks. Hopefully, after today, they let us come back."

"That would be nice," Taylor agreed. "If only to give me some time to do my homework in between my yoga and martial arts training."

Missy nodded. "Yeah, not having you literally punch someone's block off is a good thing."

"MacTaggert Junior High, next stop," the driver announced.

"And that's my stop," Missy said. "See ya this afternoon?"

"Yep."

= = = = = = = = = =​

For the most part, the talk in the halls about Tuesday's incident was muted. Yes, the explosion enthusiasts were all like "Cool!" and "Excellent!" and "<name> loves big booms!", but everyone else was glad it wasn't worse. Mostly that it hadn't happened near them.

Some of the instructors used the incident as a teaching moment, mainly about the history of the Bay area and some of the things that had been done during wartime, although AP Physics did an overview of various types of explosions and their effects.

Lunchtime was different.

"Aww, I'll never get to do that," Vicky whined.

"The intentional building demolition or riding an explosion?" asked Dennis.

"Either. But definitely getting launched by an explosion."

"From what I've heard, it's highly overrated," Taylor shot back. "And unlike Juggernaut, you could fly back."

"At least Vista was there to make sure anyone not Invulnerable didn't get hurt," Dean commented, somehow pronouncing invulnerable in such a way you could hear the capital "I".

"They're estimating around twenty tons of explosives," Chris added. "Based on the footprint of the building."

"People on PHO have way too much time on their hands," Taylor groused.

"Of course they do, that's how it was created."

There was a moment of surprised silence as everyone considered that. "Good point," Vicky noted.

"More surprising is that VoidCowboy has been polite and restrained, at least in the Juggernaut threads," Dennis stated. "He's been threadbanned from a couple others. He got into a fight with that guy who thinks there are lizard capes lurking around every corner." Dennis chuckled as he scrolled through the thread. "It eventually became something like the 'I'm here to have an argument' sketch from Monty Python, just with a lot more cussing." He actually laughed at something. "And someone who's thought to be Skidmark was actually impressed."

"Skidmark's on PHO?" Carlos asked.

"Allegedly," Dennis replied. "So's Squealer, but she mainly stays in the tinkertech and vehicle discussion areas. Her stuff's ugly, but the account thought to be hers is really knowledgeable about both subjects."

"I find it weird that two accounts thought to be connected to villains are better behaved than what many assume to be a teenaged, male high school student," Amy added.

"And whatever the lizard cape idiot is," quipped Vicky.

"We don't talk about them."

Vicky mimed zipping her lips shut.

"On second thought," Dean said, "Let's not talk about PHO, 'tis a silly place." The fact that he did it with an almost perfect impression of the actor who delivered the line he was paraphrasing cracked nearly everyone up.

"I thought that was my line?" Dennis asked in a faux aggrieved manner that failed mostly because he was still laughing.

Taylor gave him a head pat. "Poor Dennis."

He looked up at the hand that could have palmed his head and stopped laughing. Everyone else began laughing again because his expression was hilarious.

= = = = = = = = = =​

"Vista, Juggernaut, this is Commander Abigail Sciuto, United States Navy, Sea Systems Command," Deputy Director Rennick said, introducing the woman who was dressed in a business suit-like uniform.

"While I'd like to fangirl about meeting two of the ENE department's Wards," the woman said, "this is all about business."

She took a drink from the provided coffee. "Mmm, almost as strong as Navy coffee. Anyway, I'm here to ask a few questions, and tell you what my initial findings are that I'll report to my boss, Vice Admiral McCoy. The first thing I'm to tell you is that neither of you are getting charged with anything. This is clearly an accident, something done a long time ago, which may or may not be entirely the Navy's fault. I'm here to get your statements for our records. Yes, Juggernaut?"

"Again?" Juggernaut asked. "I've given the same statement five times in the last two days."

"Yes, again," Commander Sciuto said. "Despite the fact the law says civilian agencies are to share information with the military under certain circumstances – like accident investigations – it seldom happens for reasons I don't have enough time to explain, for they are legion. And sometimes, for procedural reasons, we ask for statements anyway in the hopes of eliciting additional details. I apologize for the repetition; it's very common with investigations and legal cases."

"Then let's get this over with," Juggernaut grumbled.

- - - - - - - - - -​

Forty-five minutes later, both Juggernaut and Vista were done giving their statements and answering Commander Sciuto's questions. "Thank you, ladies. Everything hangs together.

"Now, as to the promised explanation. Our initial findings indicate that a lot of filler material for naval shells was abandoned in place in June 1943 after it had been contaminated during a summer storm. It had been stored outside the warehouse until 1945, when the Brockton Bay ordnance loading piers were deactivated. It was planned that before then the materials would be put on a barge that was being decommissioned, towed out to sea, and then detonated, consuming the explosives and sinking the remains of the barge in a thousand feet of water.

"For some reason that never happened, and as part of the deactivation the materiel was abandoned in place with only basic precautions. It was carefully transferred one crate at a time, and lowered into a concrete lined vault, sealed with wax, and then sealed and buried under a couple of feet of more concrete. And after that, we have no idea. The Navy owned the land until 1975, when the Naval Sea Systems Command sold the property back to the city, who later sold it to the Dock Workers Association as part of a larger set of properties in the area. There was no indication in either civilian or Navy records of the explosives being there."

"I find that extremely odd," Renick added while the commander took a drink of coffee. "Usually the military keeps records of everything for decades."

"And there's a team of auditors going through the archives again to see if we missed anything the first time. Or at least determine when or how the omission happened, and anything else relevant to the situation."

"A couple of people I know have mentioned a couple of fires in the area," Juggernaut mused. "Including a fire at the Navy yard in Kittery across the bay."

Commander Sciuto arched an eyebrow. "That's interesting. I'm assuming you can't divulge either person's name because of the unwritten rules?" she asked.

"Yes," Taylor answered.

"I understand. I believe I may have talked to one of those people yesterday, although if there's two there could be more who remember." She turned off the little recorder she had and put it in her pocket. "That concludes my official visit. Unofficially, could I get your autographs? My boys are huge Wards fans…"

Within a couple of minutes, pictures were produced and signed, and the meeting came to an end.

= = = = = = = = = =​

"I could take her," Brad muttered from where he sat in Max's office.

Max Anders' palm and face met to have a serious discussion about the lack of working brain cells in his henchman's skull. "No, Brad, you can't take her. The one time you tried, she sent you back here, express delivery. I have no reason to believe she wouldn't do better a second time; that tends to happen with Wards. I'd rather not make a habit of having to replace the windows up here every other week.

"And since she can survive a blast from enough explosives to level a city block," he continued, "we have nothing in any of the armories that could even make her blink, and trying would make the government come down on us like a load of bricks. I'm starting to doubt if any of our powers will do anything, either."

"The basic idea when dealing with Juggernaut is to redirect her if at all possible," Victor stated. "Don't get in her way, you'll be trampled. In fact, give her a shove forward. Deflect her to the side. Evade her for as long as possible, cause her to inflict as much collateral damage as possible. Ruin her reputation as a hero, make the PRT keep her on base as much as possible. She's a Ward, so it should be easier than if she were a full Protectorate member with an established reputation."

Max nodded. "Despite her size and power, she still only moves at normal human speeds. Stay out of her reach, or she'll squash you like a single use stress ball. As Victor said, distract her, redirect her. Do anything else but get directly in her way or where she can grab you, and we should be able to deal with the problem she presents.

"Ideally," he continued, "the idea is not to do anything stupid where she can see it and have to act on it. If you can get into the air, do so. As far as we know, she's a ground pounder. And once in the air, get clear. If she can punch Brad a mile, she can easily throw things you may not be able to dodge."

He sat down and looked over the Empire's parahumans. The twins might give the oversized Ward a decent fight for a while, but there was a persistent image of Juggernaut beating one of the twins senseless with the other. Of Hookwolf firmly planted into the wall opposite his office window. Again. Of Rune being tossed like a Frisbee. Of Alabaster repeatedly reforming under an oversized boot. Of…

"Hmm, an idea I just had that we may need to test," Max mused. "We'll have to manage an encounter with Juggernaut and see if Cricket's sonic attacks can disorient her like they do other people. Blast her with them and get clear."

Cricket nodded. "How soon do you want to set this up?"

"Let's wait for the furor to die down from the explosion," Max instructed. "A couple of weeks, maybe a month. Then we'll revisit the subject. We should have a more complete picture of what the girl could do by that point. After all, the girl's a brute, not a trump; most parahumans don't keep pulling out new powers for every occasion."

For some reason, a feeling of dread and inevitability caused a chill to run through the entire parahuman part of the Empire 88.

 

[Kryslin]

The day started off on a bad note. At really early in the morning – in Taylor's opinion as early as you could possibly be in the morning in Brockton Bay – the Endbringer sirens had gone off in the "It's somewhere else, come help" signal for most of the world. For Canberra, Australia, it meant that the city would most likely be a complete loss, and everyone who didn't manage to evacuate in time would be sealed inside and left to eventually die. Or worse.

And, of course, that meant that Taylor had to be in early for an all-hands meeting at the PRT building.

"Do you need a ride in?" her father asked as he poured a cup of coffee.

"There's been nothing about the courtesy van not picking me up, so not yet," Taylor answered, having already gotten herself some juice and cereal and was lifting her spoon to eat. "I'll catch the bus from there to school afterwards."

"I'll probably head into work early, then, and be home early," Danny stated. "I think it's gonna be a bad day for Australia, though."

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "Whenever the Endbringers attack, it's always a bad day." She had a brief but dizzying image of herself in full costume, standing in an apocalyptic wasteland, the sky red with fire and smoke, and the bodies of the Endbringers in a pile before her. And somewhere in her mind she heard a voice cry out "And it would be glorious!" before the rather incongruous sound of a large pan striking someone over the head. "I wonder if I would make a difference?"

"You're just a brute, Taylor. Not every problem can be solved with, ahem, brute force," Danny stated.

"In that case, you're simply not using enough," Taylor shot back as she finished her cereal. "Lemme get my books and jacket, because the courtesy van just showed up."

"See you later today, then," Danny said as his amazonian daughter carefully closed the door behind her. He watched from the front window for a bit as Taylor stopped, looked shocked, shook her head, and then made her way to the van.

- - - - - - - - - -​

While she was walking down to the curb to get into the van, she idly wondered what, if anything, she could do if she set her goal to stopping the Endbringers. At her next step forward, she knew where her goal was located, and what she had to do: Punch Eidolon, as hard as you can. Her jaw dropped in shock and she froze before she shook her head to clear it, and continued walking to her ride as the sky to the east began to lighten with the false dawn.

That was not something she wanted to continue thinking about.

"'Morning," the driver said. "I won't say it's good, though. Hang on, I've got a couple more pickups before we get to the PRT building."

"I'm in," Taylor answered as she buckled her safety belt.

And with that, they were off.

= = = = = = = =​

Director Piggot looked less happy to be up and in the PRT Headquarters at oh-dark-thirty in the morning than everyone else, Taylor noted as she stood behind the seated Wards. Her courtesy van had stopped to pick up Chris and Carlos before making its way to the building, and they'd all costumed up for the briefing.

"As of now, the fight is over, and the Simurgh has returned to orbit," the Director said as she read off the tablet in front of her. "Of the Brockton Bay contingent, everyone is still alive, but Dauntless and Velocity were injured early on. They'll be fine, but only because Lady Photon and Manpower brought a very snarky and sarcastic Panacea with them. They're into the search and rescue phase now, and despite whatever the Simurgh was building getting wrecked before it activated, it looks like the city will become another quarantine zone."

She stopped for a moment and took a long drink from her lukewarm coffee. "For those of us who are new, we are now in a truce period until midnight tomorrow, forty-eight hours after the attack began," she lectured. "That means while we're not expecting any trouble out of our local parahuman groups or independent villains, normal crime is still a possibility, though most will not bother to poke law enforcement immediately after an Endbringer attack. Crimes of opportunity, muggings, and nonviolent offences remain likely.

"That means a few 'show the flag patrols' during the day and afternoon," she continued. "It also means that Juggernaut will be making her first official patrol later today." She looked up at the oversize Ward from across the room. "Aegis will have the patrol schedule for you when you come in this afternoon."

Taylor nodded as she had expected as much.

"Wards, you're dismissed. You've got school to attend, and I don't want the Youth Guard on my case," Director Piggot ordered.

They all filed out of the room, and the meeting continued for the Protectorate.

- - - - - - - - - -​

They'd all retired to the Wards area and changed back into street clothes. "We should probably decide who takes which buses," Carlos suggested. "Chris and I usually are on the same bus, Dean usually drives in with Vicky and Amy, and Dennis usually comes in last, living the furthest out. Dean has his car here, Dennis can take a later bus, and Taylor could probably join me and Chris, since we all live in roughly the same area."

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I've been getting a ride in from my dad, but I finally got my 'disability' card from the City, so I can sit up front in the disability seating."

"What, being nearly seven foot tall is a disability?" Dennis asked, incredulous.

"Sorta kinda. I don't fit in the normal seats," Taylor answered. "The one time a driver asked me to sit in a normal seat… I bent the frame of the seats in front of me. And the arms on both sides." She shrugged. "It turned out OK; I offered to pay to replace the seats, and the driver gave me the phone number of someone to talk to. Now, when I get on, I'm supposed to show them my card and sit in one of the disability access seats. As to why I don't just stand? Average ceiling height on Brockton Bay's buses are just a little over six feet, six inches. On a bad bump, my head's going into the ceiling. Possibly through it."

Carlos shook his head. "And even though your secret identity is tissue paper thin, since you're not officially an open cape, we have to try and maintain it."

"Even though I suspect most of the country can guess who I am," Taylor snarked.

Dean nodded. "I know a couple of guys in Boston who play basketball. They have a problem with city buses, too," he stated.

"I stand corrected," Dennis admitted, dramatically.

"I stand as a backup plan," riposted Taylor.

After a beat and the suppressed laughter of the other Wards, Dennis continued. "I'm gonna have to up my game, aren't I? Anyway, I never realized being very tall could be such a problem."

"Any word from Amy?" Carlos asked, changing the subject before Dennis got going.

"Yeah, she'll be back no later than tomorrow morning," Dean said. "Got a message from Vicky while we were in the meeting. She said it wasn't as bad as some..."

"But any Endbringer attack is bad," Carlos finished.

"So what can I expect this afternoon?" Taylor asked.

"A lot of quiet," Missy answered. "While they don't have to, normal gangs and even solo perps kinda keep their heads down during Endbringer truces. The ABB and the Empire definitely honor them, and the Merchants? Mush is currently out there laying low, Skidmark is in the lockup here and Squealer's down at Brockton General's secure ward, undergoing detox."

"And according to rumor, actually being pleasant to everybody," added Dennis.

"Uber and Leet just stick to rather tame demonstrations," Chris added. "They're known to donate their revenue from the day of and after an Endbringer attack to various charities. A lot of rogues and almost-villains do that."

"Since when did villains, even nominal ones, begin to act responsibly?" Taylor asked as the promised breakfast cart showed up, albeit with just donuts, coffee, and juice.

"Since violation of the Endbringer truce usually invites retribution from everyone else," Dennis shot back. "Last time something happened, the Slaughterhouse 9 paid the villain a visit. It went as well as you could imagine."

"So everyone toes the line," Taylor murmured.

Carlos nodded. "Yeah. The only ones who don't are the Yangban, but they don't come to international Endbringer fights, nor do they allow international assistance for fights on their home soil. So far, Behemoth has demolished and irradiated one major city, and Leviathan has effectively rendered the port of Tianjin useless. And those are the ones we know about.

"Next city bus heading to Arcadia is in twenty minutes," he continued. "We'd better get things picked up so we don't get dinged for leaving a mess."

At Taylor's questioning look, Dean explained. "They sometimes do unannounced inspections of the Wards area," he said. "Usually we keep things pretty tidy in here, but once they decided to inspect after Dennis attempted something in the kitchen and had just gone down to the stores people to get more cleaning supplies. We didn't get dinged because he'd explained why he left the mess he did, and he'd come back to finish cleaning."

"What were you trying to make?" Taylor asked out of morbid curiosity.

"Mac and cheese," Dennis admitted. "Not the baked kind, but the kind you make on the stove top. It somehow exploded on me, butter and pasta and burnt cheese powder everywhere."

"Except him," Chris added.

"Yeah," Dennis continued. "Based on past performance, I treated things like I was working with dangerous, flammable chemicals, so a heavy apron, face shield and gloves. Those were ruined, but I was fine."

Taylor shared a chuckle with her teammates as they cleaned up before heading to school.

- - - - - - - - - -​

The day passed slowly, most classes choosing the day to review information in preparation for midterm exams, coming up in a couple of weeks, instead of starting any new material. Parahuman studies covered previous Simurgh attacks, and how they all subtly differed.

Lunch was also subdued, where the only bit of news was that New Wave's contingent of Manpower, Lady Photon, and Panacea were all home and dead tired. A quick perusal of PHO had shown very little in the way of actual facts about the attack, only that what was left of Canberra would have to be walled up into yet another quarantine zone.

The rest of the day passed in a kind of fog, nothing really clear happening, just vague things in the distance doing vague things. And then Taylor found herself using one of the alternate entrances to the PRT building and heading down to the Wards area to change into her costume. Not that she couldn't change elsewhere, but it was procedure.

"We'll be running two patrols through high visibility areas. Vista and Kid Win, you'll be with Juggernaut on the Boardwalk. Gallant, Clockblocker and I will be in the financial district," Aegis stated once everyone had gotten together. "Juggernaut, if you have any questions, ask Vista or Kid. Please try not to hurt someone too badly if you have to hit them."

"Understood," Juggernaut acknowledged. "Hopefully, all I'll have to do is answer questions and maybe provide assistance."

"Excellent," Aegis continued. "Protectorate Console will be handling communications."

And with that, they were on their way to the mean streets of Brockton Bay.

= = = = = = = = = =​

"Hey, bitch!"

Juggernaut sighed as the skinhead punk took an overhead swing at her with an iron pipe. With a dull thunk, it bent over her shoulder and stuck there. She looked at the skinhead, then the pipe and sighed again. "Are you going to surrender peacefully, or am I going to have to convince you?"

"You can't make me do anything!" the man yelled back, trying to work the pipe loose instead of running, not that he would get far.

"Convince you it is," Juggernaut growled, and poked the man in the shoulder.

The skinhead began howling in pain as the gentle poke had dislocated his shoulder, causing him to let go of the pipe and fall to the ground.

Kid Win sighed as well. "Console, Wards Patrol One. We've got another one, tried to club Juggernaut."

"Police and paramedics are on their way, Kid Win. How bad is it?"

"Looks like a dislocated shoulder," he answered. "Didn't hear anything snap. Most of his buddies backed off when he took the swing, they're keeping out of it. She poked him in the shoulder, gently."

"She appears to be doing pretty good for someone who can tear one of Squealer's monstrosities in two: One broken fist from when the perp punched her, and one unconscious from when she snapped her fingers after they took a bat to her knees."

"That sums it up," Kid Win stated. "Police are here now."

"Console out, don't have too much fun."

Juggernaut grumbled and proceeded to hand off the evidence (the pipe) and give her statement to the police officers, who were trying very hard not to laugh at the idiots who were throwing themselves at the young hero for whatever reason.

The Wards overheard one of the other skinheads telling one of the cops that the perp was "an idiot four ways: Public attack during an Endbringer truce, attacking a cape, attacking a Ward, and attacking her (Juggernaut) specifically." Apparently they'd only intended to ask her for a demonstration by doing something to the pipe, but "someone" was inspired to do more…

Vista looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, we should make sure that the Empire hasn't brought in Idiotenball."

"Who's that?" Juggernaut asked.

"Gesellschaft cape," Vista answered. "He's a blaster whose projected balls make you temporarily lose intelligence."

"Truly a power to be feared," Kid Win intoned.

"Seriously?" Juggernaut queried.

"Seriously."

The young heroes shared a chuckle and continued on their patrol.

 

[Kryslin]

Taylor stood in front of the door, unsure whether or not she should actually be reporting this. She sighed, and decided she wasn't going to let a little thing like nerves stop her. Carefully, she knocked on the door to Miss Militia's office when she was present in the PRT building.

"Enter," Miss Militia's voice announced.

Taylor opened the door, entered, closed it, and sat down.

The only complaint was from the chair.

"What can I help you with, Taylor?" Miss Militia asked. "Isn't it time for you to be getting out of here?"

"Yes, it is, but after thinking about this all day, I figured I should make an official report of this," Taylor said.

"Go on," the heroine prompted, turning on a little voice recorder. "For the record, this is a record of a discussion between Miss Militia of the ENE Protectorate and Juggernaut of the ENE Wards, on February 25th​ at 1850 EST."

"When I was called in this morning, I jokingly set my goal to stop the Endbringers," Taylor began in a nervous voice. "I immediately knew where I had to go, what I had to do and that nothing would stop me once I started."

"Continue," Miss Militia made some notes on a notepad.

"My power allows me to identify and track my destination unerringly," Taylor said. "When I set the goal, my destination was 16,494,167 meters southwest of my location at the time. It's 3,053,891 meters south-southwest of where I am now."

"Can I ask who or what your target is?" Miss Militia inquired.

"It's Eidolon," Taylor stated. "When I get to his location, I'm to punch him as hard as I can. Multiple times if needed."

"Interesting," Miss Militia commented. "You were picked up around 0430, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct," Taylor answered. "I set myself that goal about three minutes before the van started moving, as I was walking up to it."

"Very interesting. Anything else?"

"No, that's all I had," Taylor said.

"I'll pass this along to Armsmaster and Dragon," Miss Militia said. "They spend a lot of time going over footage from Endbringer fights, analyzing it for any information they can get." She shrugged before continuing. "I don't have all the details yet, but I have heard that near the end of the battle, Eidolon got distracted by something which got him hit fairly hard by the Simurgh.

"The fight ended shortly thereafter, so I'm told, with the Simurgh leaving or being driven off," she finished. "I'll make sure that they leave your name out of it. Wouldn't want the world's most powerful cape to take exception to that statement and try to bury you in libel and slander complaints."

"Eidolon would do that?" Taylor asked. "Seems kind of petty."

"The man can be difficult to work with," Miss Militia admitted. "You should be going, if you want to catch the bus for your neighborhood."

"Oops," Taylor stated as she got up. "Thanks for your time." She turned around and opened the door.

"Not a problem, Taylor."

- - - - - - - - - -​

Armsmaster was, as predicted, going over the data from the last Endbringer battle with Dragon. The security system to his lab announced the presence of Miss Militia at the door. "Yes?"

"I've got some interesting data for your Endbringer database," she stated. The door slid open silently and she walked in, the door closing silently behind her. Sitting down in the chair he reserved for guests, she handed him the brief report. "And hello, Dragon."

"Hello, Hannah," Dragon replied, her avatar smiling in a friendly fashion.

"Are you sure about this," Armsmaster asked.

"I've verified the times from the reports and logs filed by the driver of the van," Hannah answered. "At 0927 UTC, Juggernaut stumbled briefly on the sidewalk in front of her residence, looking surprised. This lines up with the time she said she made it her goal to stop the Endbringers."

"At 09:27:06 UTC, approximately six seconds later, Eidolon was visibly distracted in his fight with Ziz," Dragon reported. "He reported after he was recovered that he had a feeling that someone was watching him, despite not having any thinker powers in his power set. At 23:33:06 he was physically slapped by Ziz, and was ejected from the combat area, impacting a building nearly three kilometers away."

"This implies that Eidolon has a connection to the Endbringers," Colin said in disbelief. "I can't see how."

"She also gave the approximate bearing and exact distance in meters to Eidolon at the time she set her goal and when she was in my office," Hannah added.

"Did she say what her end goal was?" Dragon asked, curious.

"To punch him as hard as she could," Hannah recited from memory. "Multiple times if need be." She shrugged where she sat. "I don't think I need to remind either of you that the level she was tested to was not her maximum, which is still undetermined."

Dragon chuckled. "So in essence, find Eidolon and beat the stupid out of him?"

"I wouldn't have put it that way," Hannah admitted. "There's not even a suggestion of why punching Eidolon would do anything to the Endbringers."

"If Juggernaut did that," Armsmaster muttered, "and Eidolon wasn't ready for it in a number of ways… her documented capacity of 10 meganewtons would be enough to accelerate a 1 kilogram mass she hit to 10,000 kilometers per second within an instant. For a normal person, assuming they didn't aerosol and their body held together, they'd be accelerated to 100 kilometers per second and would probably be leaving the planet.

"Eidolon being struck like that would be... not good," he finished. "And the damage to the area would be extensive."

"That's grossly understating things," Dragon added. "The expected shock waves would level buildings within 500 meters. And those velocities through the atmosphere are what causes bolides."

"I sincerely hope that Juggernaut does not engage Lung," Armsmaster stated. "I don't think the city could take it."

= = = = = = = = = =​

The next day dawned bright and sunny, as if untroubled by the goings on of the previous day. It was a bit early in the year for birds to be singing, though there were a few making the attempt. There were no overt signs that any criminal activity was taking place, though that would change as the Endbringer truce period came to a close.

Taylor, as she rode the bus, reviewed the messages on her Wards phone, trying to look like just another texting teen. The investigation was still ongoing into the explosion out in the Docks. Wards were due for patrolling in the afternoon. She'd gotten an information payout for her report. She'd check the amount in private later.

The bus was subdued, people quietly discussing the Endbringer attack, and how this would affect prices of everything from chocolate bars to tea from China (even though Leviathan hadn't attacked any ships at sea, and had barely affected international trade). A few students discussing homework assignments (some of whom she shared classes with), talking about who was cute, which bands were popular, and what various capes had gotten up to of late.

By the time she reached the last of her messages, the bus had arrived outside of Arcadia, and she was getting off with the other students and heading for the front door.

"Dean, Vicky," Taylor greeted.

"Good morning, Taylor," Dean replied.

"Hey Taylor," Vicky added.

"No Amy today?" Taylor inquired.

"She's worn out after Canberra," Vicky explained. "She should be in after lunch, though. What a mess."

"Yeah, they'll be domeing the city," Dean added as they walked into the building. "I heard a couple of Brockton Bay's capes will be laid up for a while until Amy can get to them."

"Anyone we know?" another student asked as they entered.

"Velocity and Dauntless," Dean said after checking his personal phone. "Both injured during search and rescue."

"Well, I'm off to my locker," Taylor said, "I'll see you guys at lunch."

- - - - - - - - - -​

The morning classes, lunch passed, and Amy arrived without incident, though Taylor had the feeling someone was watching her throughout the day. Nothing definite, and no one in particular. Of course, with her stature, eyes were usually on her anyway, since she was literally head and shoulders above the student body, with the exception of a couple of the senior boys; one on the football team and the other a wrestler. Neither came past her nose.

And no one had asked her if she wanted to join any of the athletics teams in the last couple of weeks. Her PE classes were more involved in improving her flexibility, so it was mainly yoga exercises along with Vicky, who was pretty much banned from competitive athletics due to her being parahuman.

"You're coming along pretty good, Tay," Vicky complimented.

"Thanks," she answered, and moved onto the next set of stretches, as did Vicky. "So, any plans for the weekend?" she asked as some of her joints popped. "Oh, that felt good."

"Eh, the usual," Vicky replied. "Date with Dean, patrol with New Wave, guard Amy while she's at the hospital on Saturday."

"And not damage anything at the hospital?" Amy snarked from where she was doing her own exercises.

"You wound me, sister," Vicky shot back in a melodramatic fashion. Which was interesting due to the position she was in.

"But I can heal you up, and no one would know," Amy retorted in a somewhat sinister and overdone fashion. "Mu ha ha."

"At least she's not asking me to arm wrestle again," Taylor commented.

"Nope, not going to do that again. Torsion fractures suck," Vicky stated with surety. "And I did not know you could do that to yourself."

"Shouldn't you be more careful about things like that?" Amy asked. "I mean, you're not an open cape."

"She should be, yes," the PE teacher said. "However, there are only two teenagers over six and a half feet tall, and Mr. Atwell won't be getting any taller, and only one of them is a girl…"

"Yeah, I get it," Taylor answered. "I should be more careful."

"Not like we're gonna say anything," one of the other girls in their group said. "If you're not in costume, you're Taylor. Also, you can't be Juggernaut, you don't have red hair."

There were murmurs of agreement amongst the other half dozen normal girls participating.

"Dodged a bullet there, Taylor," Amy whispered to her.

"I suspect I'm going to have to endure another class with Ms. Vasche about things," Taylor grumbled.

- - - - - - - - - -​

Eventually, Taylor found herself at the PRT building, getting ready for her afternoon of walking the mean streets of Brockton Bay. After half a day being careful about what she said – and really, the whole discussion about the arm wrestling had been both her and Vicky's fault – she'd made it to the PRT building via the bus and down to the Wards area to get ready.

A quick check of her phone revealed that she did have a scheduled appointment with Brockton Bay's director of PR and Image tomorrow morning. She had a patrol today that she was here for, and another tomorrow afternoon, but had Sunday open.

"Hey Taylor," Carlos greeted her as he came into the Wards area from the back entrance along with Dean and Chris. Dennis and Missy had the day off to go spend time with his dad at the hospital or attend court ordered family counseling, respectively.

"Hey," she responded. "Anything special today?"

"We were thinking about starting a pool about how many idiots would be trying to knock you out with various blunt weapons," Chris said, "but Dennis thought it'd be tempting fate and we'd be the ones getting clubbed and beaten instead of you."

Taylor looked somewhat croggled at that one. "Dennis was the sensible one?" she responded. "I think I need to look up how to call master/stranger protocols on someone. Besides, it won't be just blunt weapons. They'll escalate to using things that will get everyone in one shot. I'm pretty sure I can take anything that's out there on the street right now, but I think I'd be the only one left standing."

"Maybe someone could talk to PR about staging a demonstration so everyone can see that kind of thing doesn't work?"

"Would that discourage them or encourage them?"

Chris' mouth opened and closed a few times as he thought. "I don't know?"

 

[YuffieK]

"Maybe someone could talk to PR about staging a demonstration so everyone can see that kind of thing doesn't work?"

Click to shrink...

"Good afternoon Brockton Bay. I'm sure most of you recognize me, but if you don't, I'm Juggernaut, the newest member oif the ENE Wards. A few days ago, it was jokingly commented that I needed to give some sort of a public demonstration to... discourage certain individuals from doing things that are foolishly self-destructive."

"I personally think all of this is a bit silly, but Mister Chambers here seems to think that this makes for an excellent Public Service Announcement. Miss Militia, if you would?"

The flag wearing heroine walked over with a clear box made of thick plastic, a hole in one side big enough for someone to almost put their head into... or for Taylor to put her fist into. Suspended by a ring within was a recognizable small green metal sphere.

"This is a M67 fragmentation grenade, the standard one used by the United States military. It is not a mockup or training device, it is LIVE."

At the last word Taylor reached into the box before the gathered news media could begin to panic, gripped the grenade in her fist and squeezed.

There was a flash and a muffled pop from the box as it filled with smoke. Taylor opened her hand so everyone could see the crumpled splinters of red-hot metal fall to the bottom of the box before pulling her clearly unmarred limb back out.

Taylor turned to Glenn. "Are we done?"

 

[Assembler Maniac]

Taylor turned to Glenn. "Are we done?"

Click to shrink...

Glen pipes up, "No, you're not done yet."

Glen calmly continues, "Miss Militia, you have ALL the guns, correct?"

"Yes?, Although I'm not sure where you're going with this."

"Juggernaut, please walk back to that large target against the rear wall and stand facing us. Miss Militia, are we at a safe enough distance for an Armor Piercing Incendiary RPG round? Something on the order of a tank buster?"

"Yes, I can do that. And since I know she's already survived considerably more explosive power than that, it shouldn't be a problem for her. You ready Juggernaut?"

"Ready. This should be fun, I haven't been hit by one of those yet."

"Firing in 3...2...1...Now!"

After a considerably loud whoomph, followed by quite a bit of shrapnel and smoke, Juggernaut stands casually amidst the minor destruction around her.

Glen grins at the performance Taylor is giving, and politely says "Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with munitions, that particular round would have, at minimum, caused a fair amount of damage to even the heaviest armored tank, moved it a bit, even if it only caused it to rock in place, and caused massive concussive trauma to anyone in the vehicle. Juggernaut didn't move an iota, has no visible damage, and is showing no concussive damage either."

Glen's smile changes to a sobering, feral, grin as he states "If you have the temerity to even begin thinking about shooting her with bullets, or even rail gun slugs, consider that beating your head on a concrete block wall is more likely to cause damage to the wall than whatever you plan to shoot her with."

"Juggernaut. Now, you're done."


edit: fixed the RPG type to be something a bit more damaging.

Also, thx Kryslin for the sidestory designation.