Nox [AU ; Alt-Power]
- Thread starter Time Paradox
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Really interesting story and glad to see another reader of Solo Leveling.
Reread the chapter. That's what she did immediately after reanimating her mother, and how they discovered this ability to fuse with her shades.
- Location
- Right next to the butcher's shop.
I know, but this is for a brief moment, she gets the shock of her mother vanishing and from there the focus shifts entirely to exposition and powertesting. Feels unnatural.
Shock can have some strange effects on people. Might be Taylor's way of trying to keep control.
You know, one way to get Emma to break out of her disillusion is to have Annette visit her... late at night. Being visited by the ghost of the person you betrayed's dead mother, whom you once cared for, would be pretty major.
Chapter 05 - Second visit to unknown places
This chapter was edited by Punster lv1
Trigger warning attempted rape.
Chapter 05 - Second visit to unknown places
"Seriously Chelsea, I'm just gonna stay until midnight. I have an important exam on Monday, for which I still have to read and analyze eight chapters." I said annoyed. She saluted in response right in front of me.
"Affirmative, Captain Killjoy."
I just rolled my eyes at her antics, before I was dragged along. The closer we got to the building of the fraternity hosting the party, the denser the partying crowd of people got. It was pandemonium near the stage in front of the building. Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the huge green garden surrounding the area, barely anybody was around.
A cluster of far over a hundred people were dancing, drinking, and cheering the live band performing on stage.
Every step towards them was a step in which I regretted not having packed some earplugs. The word loud was utterly insufficient to describe the noise. But worst of all was the music they played. Who in their right mind did love this pop crap that was played all day long on the radios?
Was it too much to ask for something that even resembled actual music like Bach or Mozart? I was already planning on how to get back to our dorm. The most problematic part would be ditching Chelsea without angering her too much in the process. I wasn't interested in a repeat of the shaving foam disaster from last time.
Those were the great disadvantages of sharing your room with somebody. Considering that Chelsa was my roommate I had to wonder were there even any advantages?
I needed to think that over long and hard the next time I had some time on hand.
My musings were interrupted when Chelsea shouted in my ear, in an attempt to drown out the music and make herself heard,
"Let's get something to drink."
Since I wasn't keen on screaming myself hoarse, I just nodded and tagged along. Chelsea went over to a beer stall, which was surrounded by a few smaller groups for the most part consisting of up to five people, mostly talking while drinking. Which could be done here better; a few dozen feet away from the nearest speakers. I was about to reach in my pocket to fish out the twenty dollars I pocketed for such an occasion before she more or less managed to kidnap me.
She must have noticed my intent out of the corner of her eyes. Because she grabbed my hand and just shook her head. She leaned close to my ear and once more raised her voice.
"I really, have to get you out more often. If you don't even know how a girl gets something to drink at a party."
She went over directly to a group of five muscular guys. I followed in her wake. The moment she was right next to one of them, she touched his biceps with her hands and slightly caressed them. At first, he was irritated by the sudden touch from behind. But when he turned and saw Chelsea, a girl roughly a head shorter than him with her long straight brown hair flowing along her body, her cute but distinctive face with her pronounced cheekbones most associate with a chiseled statue of true beauty. A disarming smile playing on her lips did the rest.
The irritation made way towards welcome surprise. I could essentially follow the guy's line of sight checking out Chelsea's body. He didn't even hide the fact that he was mentally undressing her. A few of the less subtle ones let their eyes rest quite a long time on her cleavage, which was impressive given how she used her upper arms to push up her bust. Before they got around to check out the rest of her body, the mini skirt that would be considered underwear at best in most civilized nations and her top with a bare midriff, which didn't leave much to the imagination.
She stepped on her toes to get her mouth closer to his ears and asked, "what must a girl do for something to drink?"
She lowered herself on her soles and held eye contact with the guy while tucking back a loose strand of hair back in the most lascivious way possible, all the while biting her under lip. I could essentially watch how the blood was rerouted from providing his brain with oxygen to other body parts, reducing his mental faculty considerably.
A slow glimpse revealed that the four other guys were affected in the exact same way.
He was about to say something but wasn't able to articulate something comprehensible. He needed a second try after visibly gulping before we were able to understand him.
"Just, Just wait here a moment."
He pressed his half-drunk plastic cup filled with beer in the hands of the guy standing next to him and was about to get beer from the beer stand when Chelsea grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"My friend is thirsty, too. I would be soooo grateful if you would fetch her a drink, too."
While she said that, she softly drew him close and pressed her body close to him as she winked her eyelashes.
"please."
The last remnants of the reason he might have been able to preserve were lost at this moment. He turned and walked in the fastest way possible that didn't descend into running over to the stand and ordered two beers. I knew that there were women, who could twist men around their fingers; seeing it done up close was disconcerting. You might come to suspect she had some kind of super-power.
Chelsea turned her head my way. Winked at me with one eye and soundlessly mouthed the words "That is how it's done", which I had no trouble to lipread.
If I was uncomfortable before, this clinched it for me. It was one thing to get treated to a drink by a guy, but it was something entirely different to play with his expectations like she did. Now I knew what she meant when she countered my argument. When I told her I couldn't afford to go partying with the statement that partying for girls is for free. She was lucky I was oblivious to her practice. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have considered coming here, let alone accompanied her. Chelsea returned her head and her dedication to the remaining guys and started talking to them.
Distracted by my musing and not interested in the way she intended to string them along. I didn't bother to follow their conversation, which would have been made difficult by the noise one way or the other.
A few moments later, the guy returned with two beers he offered us with a big smile exhibiting his perfect white teeth.
"Here you go, Ladies." He said, and like an overeager puppy expecting his praise for a job well done. I thanked him for it, with a nod of my head and forming the words with my lips, not bothering with speaking it out loud, fully aware that he wouldn't have heard me anyway. Whereas Chelsea thanked him by leaning into him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. His stupid grin got wider as a response to her affection.
I somehow felt disgusted at her display of playing up the part of having morals like an alley cat, like my grandma used to say. I felt shame at her conduct, by basically spitting in the face of the women fighting their whole lives for equal rights of women, for us no longer being viewed as a second rate citizen but equals, for no longer being treated as meat, and being sexualized and here she was a step away from whoring herself out for a drink.
She reveled in the attention the five paid to her, enjoying the power she thought she held over them.
I took a big gulp of my beer.
I wondered how many women there were, which were sabotaging the efforts of others? How many were talking about equality, being treated the same, and the very moment an opportunity presented itself, to take advantage of, they did? Turning around and use some old preconception or behavior rule to their gain.
If there was something I hated above all else, it was hypocrites. And every woman, expecting or even allowing guys to hold open the doors for them, allowing men to offer them a chair, was one in my opinion. And that didn't even touch the topic of those ineffable female quotas, affirmative action constituted. Without them, some women would be unable to get a college place or even a job.
But those things were taken for granted without opposition. But god beware if they come in contact with anything, not to their liking or disadvantage; suddenly they become furies screaming discrimination from the rooftops.
How I hated this cherry-picking mentality. The expectations of some to be entitled to the best of both worlds. While my mood darkened, the one guy who looked the least like a football player out of the five of them walked the few feet over to me.
He must have concluded that he was chanceless in being successful in courting Chelsea, with all his friends surrounding her and clinging to her every word. Either way, it meant he thought he had a better chance at her wallflower friend, namely me. Which made me his second choice, or he found something about her he disliked. Somehow I doubted my second theory was the correct one.
Since he placed himself right next to me and faced Chelsea and his friends like I did, but couldn't bring himself to avert his gaze from her for a prolonged time.
"Hi, my name is Richard,"
He yelled next to me and offered me a hand. Despite having lost the desire for making acquaintances, I shook it; no need to be unfriendly.
"Hi, I'm Annette," I yelled back.
"A pleasure."
I returned to my thoughts, ignoring him. Meanwhile, he talked like there was no tomorrow. I pretended to be listening and nodded at certain intervals, while I worked on emptying my cup.
When I finally finished my beer, I told Richard.
"Sorry, to say this, but I have to go. I have to get up early tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."
I didn't wait for his response. Instead, I made my way over to Chelsea, leaning on her shoulder from behind, I told her.
"I'm out of here, see you at home"
She blinked, realizing what I said before she started pouting.
"Come on, Annie you can't just go. The night hasn't even started yet."
Perhaps for you, I thought to myself.
"I told you not to call me that."
"Sorry, that was a spur of the moment thing," she apologized, not meaning a single word of it.
"As you are aware, I have things to do. Have fun."
She showed me a meaningful grin, which I interpreted as her saying; I'm going to. She then returned her attention to the men. I just sighed and was about to leave when I noticed my bladder wasn't too fond of me drinking that beer.
I looked around and found a sign pointing towards the bathroom, knowing I wouldn't be able to hold it in until I was back home. I followed the directions of the signs; leading inside a huge building, clearly a dormitory.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one entering the building with the intent to use the bathroom, because there was a huge line in front of the one for women.
Great, just great; I was about to leave and find alternatives to solve my bladder problem when I overheard two girls in the line behind me saying.
"That's gonna take forever."
"No it doesn't, come with me. My boyfriend lives here, those floors are identical to each other and every floor has its own bathroom, we are just gonna use the one upstairs."
The first one hesitated to follow the other girl.
"Is that allowed? I mean if they wanted us to use them wouldn't there also be a sign pointing towards them."
Noticing that she wasn't followed she look back at her friend.
"I'm sure they would prefer us sneaking upstairs than having to clean up after I have pissed on their floor."
That seemed to sway her friend because she went after her. I considered my options for a moment since I didn't want to stay here all night and the line in front of me didn't move an inch since I arrived. I decided to follow their example. But decided to not go to the second floor like they did, but to the third, if what was said by them was true, there also should be a bathroom, and this way I avoided getting nasty stares from those two, by imitating them.
I went up the stairs to the third floor and found the toilets at the exact same place as they were on the first, with the difference that there was no line of women in front of it.
I made my way inside and used one of the empty stalls. I washed my hands and left the bathroom. I was walking towards the stairs when I saw Richard standing in the hallway, waiting. It wasn't difficult to make out from his countenance that he was displeased.
Did he follow me? I wondered. Well, it didn't matter anyway. I just wanted to get out of here and forget I was ever here, to begin with.
So I tried my best to ignore him, but as I was about to pass him. He put out his right arm and stepped in my way blocking my path.
"What are you doing here?" He practically hissed at me.
"I was just using the bathroom." I defended myself.
He grimaced. "The toilet, sure. You wouldn't happen to be on the way to your boyfriend's room."
He narrowed his eyes at me as he lectured, "If you are telling lies you should make sure to use believable ones."
"What are you even talking about?" I sighed, "forget it, I don't even wanna know. I just want to get home, which you are preventing me from doing."
"Why was your boyfriend not there?"
I stared at him unbelieving, what is wrong with this guy? Did he live in a make-believe world? I could practically sense the approaching headache any further argument with him would cause me.
I took a step backward and tried to walk past him on the other side of the hallway, but he stepped in my way using his outstretched hand to block my path again.
"What are you doing, let me through." I hissed at him.
"You are one of those bitches, aren't you. Those who trick guys like me into thinking you like us, and when you get what you wanted you drop us like trash you think we are."
"I did no such thing."
This time instead of stepping around him, I ducked under his outstretched arm to get past him. He didn't seem to like that at all. Before I even made one stepped past him a strong hand closed painfully around my wrist.
"What are you doing? Let go of me!" I demanded.
I struggled to get free of his grip, but even trying prying him away with my other hand was futile. His grip didn't even budge a millimeter. Worse his hold on me got firmer.
"You are hurting me!" I barked.
Slowly realization came to me in what a situation I was in. Given his superior strength, I didn't hesitate for a moment and kicked him between his legs. I felt my foot making contact, but he didn't even flinch while my foot hurt like I hit a brick wall.
He grinned, and a cold shiver ran down my spine.
"You are going nowhere until you have paid me back in full for the time you wasted."
I opened my mouth to scream when his other shoot out and was put around my mouth, preventing me from opening it; only muffled sounds escaped my mouth. He used this hand to press me against the wall, and no matter how I struggled and contorted myself, his hand didn't slack for a second.
So I went for his eyes, I had no nails to speak of - I never could understand the need to let them grow unpractical as they were - but in order to gauge someone's eyes out they didn't need to be. My nails scrapped over his face, his eyes. He was surprised by my sudden attack, even ducked away from it.
Nonetheless, he managed to keep his hold on me, and when he turned his head to me again his face was unhurt. Where there should be bleeding scratches across his face was unblemished skin. For a moment I wondered if I might have missed it, the pain in my fingers told a different story.
"You are a feisty one, aren't you." The smile he wore took on a predatory trait. "You should try to conserve a little strength you might need it."
He used his body and his hand around my mouth to fixate me against the wall. He then released his hold on my arm and reached for something in his jacket. When he pulled his hand back out from his pocket a piece of cloth was within it. My eyes widened, I renewed my attempts to get free, tried to turn away my head, but his hold was unrelenting like a vice keeping me in place. I couldn't stop him from prying open my mouth and stuffing the cloth into it. He was just too strong;
"Easy, we wouldn't want you to suffocate on this now would we?"
When he was done, he grabbed me with both hands on my upper arms and just lifted me from the floor as if I was nothing more than a little child. I might have believed him able to do that if he was two-meter tall and half as wide, but he wasn't. He was a few inches shorter than me and didn't look as if he worked out.
It should be absolutely impossible for him to lift me, let alone this effortlessly. Shit, he must be a cape. That's why my scratches and hits, even though no small number were on target between his legs showed no effect. He dragged me along the hallway until we reached a door. He set me down and used one of his hands on my upper arms to seize my neck, with the other he fumbled inside his pockets and brought out a wad of keys.
Until this point, I still somehow clung to the hope that I might get away from him that nothing would happen to me, the really bad things only ever happen to the others. A misperception, which if my assumption of what he was planning to do to me was accurate, would be corrected shortly. At this point, there was no doubt in my mind that he intended to rape me.
I was cursing my bad luck if he wasn't a cape, I would have been able to get away. But how could a woman fight not only off a man but a man with powers? I noticed my eyes tearing up.
After he fumbled around for a while, he finally found the right key. The door opened, and I just knew that if I get dragged past the threshold it would be over. Nobody would stumble over us. Something unlikely to happen in the hallway would become an impossibility in his room.
Wasn't it a common practice to silence the victim of rape permanently? My quite substantial fears started to skyrocket at this thought. My thoughts drifted to Chelsea. I told her that I intended to go home, which meant nobody would be searching for me here. Did I kill myself, by saying this? Did I give my would-be murderer a free pass in killing me by my unintended misdirecting, where the police would look for me? Since I was sure, Chelsea didn't notice that I made a detour to the toilets.
He threw his key towards a desk standing in front of a window and returned his attention towards me. He grabbed me once again and threw the roughly 5 feet towards the bed in the corner of the room.
I landed hard on the bed, the realization slowly setting in that it was over. Richard was in a position to do to me whatever he wanted, and my quite vivid imagination provided me with a lot of cruel things it was sure I would be subjected to. I was not sure he could do worse. I hated it to be this powerless, to had no way to defend myself to be nothing but his to do with as he pleased with just because he was a man and had a power.
Immediately I turned his way, during my efforts to get away from his slowly approached form I kicked the soft sheets from the bed. He was relishing in this situation, enjoying seeing me in this state, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop him. Thinking himself to be superior. Hell, he didn't even deem it necessary to tie me up.
But there was one thing I could do. I reached for the cloth in my mouth and yanked it out. I prepared myself to evade the pounce I expected of him, trying to prevent me from regaining my voice.
But it never happened. Instead, Richard's smile just became larger as if I just made his day. He closed the door with one of his feet and took up a remote from a small cupboard.
I took a deep breath and was about to scream for help as loud as I was able to when he pressed a button on the remote. Suddenly, to the noise reaching from outside, another one was added originating from the huge loudspeaker - I only just realized where there - completely drowning out my scream.
He savored my incredulous reaction to what just happened. I just retreated in on the bed towards the corner furthest from him, my heart beating even faster than it did a moment ago. I got the impression that it was on the brink of giving out.
I pulled up my legs and hugged my knees as hard to my torso as I could. Despite being aware that it would at best only delay the inevitable, I did it nonetheless.
He placed the remote back on the cupboard and stalked towards me. When he reached the bed, he resumed his approach on all fours, slowly crawling my way. I could see how salivating this prospect was for him because he had to constantly swallow in anticipation. The closer he got, the more fear seeped into my body; my heart was beating so fast I thought it would give out any moment. As he was just a few inches away, he reached out with one of his hands, and the very moment he touched me, my fear reached its peak
[Destination]
Huh, what was that? Did I just see stars? My eyes refocused to the sight of Richard lying sprawled face down on the bed, only a few inches away and in the process of righting himself up. I could see drool run down the corner of his mouth.
As fascinating as it was to see him momentarily incapacitated, it wasn't the discovery that attracted my attention after this dizzying spell we both seem to have endured, but the fact that he started glowing in a kaleidoscopic light.
Did I hit my head somehow? In the state of panic, I found myself in. It wouldn't surprise me that in my attempt to get as far away from him as possible. I might have hit the back of my head against the wall.
Reaching for the back of my head, I found no injury. Meanwhile, my eyes traced the lines of the colorful aura Richard was clad in, trying to discern what I was seeing.
For a moment, he gave off the impression to be confused until he saw me. He immediately regained his grin and, after he wiped away the drool around the corner of his mouth with the sleeves of his sweatshirt reached for me again. This time he did so using both of his hands.
When he placed them on me, and his disgusting hands trailed my legs, I felt something akin to an electrostatic charge emanating from his touch.
Suddenly he grabbed my wrist and without any effort on his part, forced me to relinquish the hold on my legs and kept them parted.
In an act of desperation, I repeatedly kicked him in the face. He didn't flinch once, and his sole reaction consisted of laughing at my futile attempts to defend myself.
Without warning, he yanked me away from the wall and pressed me down into the mattress. He moved both of my arms over my head overlapped them at their wrist so he could render them useless by just using one of his hands pressing down on them. He swung one of his legs over my torso and knelt above my midsection.
Just as I was about to accept my fate, a single tear escaped my eye and flowed down my cheek, a sign of me conceding defeat in the face of overwhelming power, something stirred inside of me.
A part of me unwilling to go along with it. I closed my eyes. It would be enough to feel it. There was no need for me to burn this sight into my memory too. I closed my eyes.
When his free hand cupped my face, and his thumb wiped away that tear, bile rose in my throat as I heard him chuckling.
Through the prolonged contact he had with my body, I noticed, that there was more to this electrostatic sensation. I concentrated on this sensation and traced it to its source, a shimmering ball in the head of my tormentor. I reached for it and then ripped it out of him.
In the next moment, I was flooded with information. I knew exactly how Richard's power worked, how it enhanced his body. But that wasn't important; important was that he no longer was able to force my limbs where he wanted them to. On the contrary, he wasn't able to budge them even a millimeter. I noticed the glow he had changed; it became pale, barely unrecognizable.
It took him a few seconds to fully grasp that the table had turned. I could watch how his face ran through different expressions; I recognized surprise, horror, and fear.
Now it was time for me to smirk. With both my hands using all my strength I shoved him away from me. He flew through the room like a ragdoll, impacting with the wall on the other side of the room, hard. He slumped down against the wall, trailing behind his head while sliding down the wall was blood.
I walked over to him, not trusting what I saw. Expecting him to get up any moment, continuing his assault. But when I finally reached Richard, and put my hand on his neck. It verified what my eyes already tried to tell me happened as his glow disappeared; shortly after he stopped moving. He was dead. I pushed down the reemerging panic and forced myself to think. It immediately became clear I had to get out of here.
So I didn't waste any time. I ran over to the desk I remembered Richard throwing his keys on to, took them with a handkerchief I had in one of my pockets, and unlocked the door.
Standing on the threshold, I remembered the cloth he gagged me with and picked it up. I put the keys back where I found them and left without turning back.
-----
It was a sunny day a week after this incident, that I ran into a young woman. Perhaps one or two years my senior, full-throated distributing flyers. She wore her long hair into a braid that reached down to her hips and was wearing a white blouse and black cargo-pants. Nothing unusual on the campus of a college, but the same couldn't be said about the glow she emitted.
It was the first time since the incident, which I tried my best to forget, that I witnessed another person glowing like he did.
I had ample time to think about what happened back then, and the conclusion I came to, the only thing that made sense, was that I somehow must have gotten powers while being with him in his room. A quite complicated recherche into how capes get their powers, which wasn't easy because there seems to be some kind of information ban in place, revealed that the consent among capes was that you get your powers on the worst day of your life.
Something I could attest to with all my heart. Considering how I was able to kill him, using a power identical to his, I was quite sure that I was some kind of power thief or copier. My money was on the first one; the way events unfolded could only be explained if he lost his powers at the same time I gained them. For a while, I entertained the idea, that I got a stronger version of the power I copied or that I somehow could neutralize the power I copied. On further thought, that seemed to be unlikely if crossreferenced with known powers of capes.
Ultimately, I had no way to verify either which way without finding another cape willing to play guinea pig. Which made this chance encounter interesting in two different ways.
One obviously was the fact that she was a cape, and I just might be able to test my theories, if I get to know her better. The other one was the fact that the flyers she held piqued my interest.
Stop sexual assault on campus
6 reported incidents this year alone.
with 96% of the victims of sexual assault never reporting the crime this means that roughly 150 women were raped so far this year. Their tormentors are still at large.
Meaning that by the time the year is over approximately 300 women at this college will have been raped. 150 women who have yet to become victims of such an assault, and you, your friends could be one of them.
Help us to make women on campus feel safe again.
On the backside, there were Initials, seemingly of the women who reported being the victims of the rape. Additionally, there was some information on when and where it happened.
I couldn't help but notice that two of those women were assaulted in the same building as me. Which lessened the guilt I felt at ending a human's life quite considerably, even if some woman might be inclined to deny guys like him, the affiliation to the human race.
Something in my expression must have given away the general idea my thoughts drifted to. Because the woman said genuinely worried voice.
"Hey, everything okay?"
"Yes." was my clipped response.
"You are aware, that despite it being pretty much social convention nowadays to answer this question with a yes, it is totally okay to say no." She said with an encouraging smile.
"You are right, I'm not okay," I admitted.
"Wanna talk about it?"
Her offer seemed genuine, and I really needed to talk to someone. Chelsea was no longer an option. It was strange what such an incident could cause. Ever since I got home from the party, I questioned a number of my life choices; one of them was living in the same room together with her, where before I was able to tolerate or even ignore her odd behavior, I now absolutely loathed it.
It was just a matter of time until I would lose my self-control, and we would have a falling out, which I suspected would be unresolvable and force one of us to move out.
I was not really sure what brought that about. I certainly didn't like how Chelsea behaved around men, nor her lascivious style of dressing, or her personality. She was unable to be serious for even a moment, and her world only revolved around guys.
Was I angry at her for her being a slut, because she was different than me, or was there more to it? For as long as I could remember, Someone being different never made me despise a person. Was it the fact that it took me so long, to truly see what she was? Was I projecting the anger I felt for myself for missing this on her, or was it that I unconsciously blamed her for what Richard tried to do to me? Or all of the above combined, I had no definite answer to it.
If she hadn't scrounged those beers from his friend by fluttering her eyes at them, he probably never would have come over and talked to me, would have never felt exploited, which wouldn't have resulted in him stalking me. Therefore, he would have never seen me enter the building. And as a result, he wouldn't have come to the conclusion that I had a boyfriend and was playing with him.
So it was her fault, after all. But wasn't that too easy, being on the verge of victim-blaming. Am I really going so far as to give Chelsea the blame, as just one girl trying to have fun exerting her rights to dress and act like she wanted unless she committed a crime? Wasn't it alone Richards fault?
Neither he nor his friends were forced to be nice to us or buy us anything. It was their decision to do so, Chelsea didn't promise a consideration, and neither did I. He was the one who somehow came to the conclusion that we had to give something in return.
No, that didn't seem right. If he thought that, why was he the one assaulting me, shouldn't it have been his friend following this warped logic. Was this all just an excuse his mind made up, to somehow justify his actions to himself?
Because I was sure if I wouldn't have been the more convenient target the same would have happened to Chelsea, after all, she was the one asking for the beer. But unlike her, I wasn't the center of attention of all his friends. Besides, she wouldn't have been able to get away without bodily harm done to her.
My mind drifted back to the flyer in my hand if it was correct what was written on it, and I assumed that in this building only one rapist was living, then he had done this before. And would have continued after making me one of his victims.
But if that was true, and Richard was, in fact, a serial rapist. Why wasn't he already in prison? A woman who came forward about it and had the worst experience of her life printed on a flyer would have most certainly talked with the police about it.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." I said, "and it would give you ample time to answer a few questions I have regarding your flyer."
She beamed at me with her smile.
"Sure, My name is Simone."
"Annette"
"Let's go over there and get some coffee."
She led me into a small cafe a few dozen meters away. We found a charming little table placed directly under an apple tree. It cast a long shadow and protected us from the hot summer sun.
The air was filled with the smell of apples and a hint of cinnamon.
We barely sat down as a waiter was already at our table. I was pleasantly surprised by this service. I didn't expect it to go this fast, especially not with how busy the cafe was. It wasn't overcrowded, but most of the cafe inside and out was filled up with customers.
What made the fact that a table, like the one we were currently occupying, happened to be free rather strange.
A quick glance at my surroundings and I noticed for only women present in this cafe, be it customers or personal.
"What can I get you and your friend, Simone?"
A young woman wearing a black waiter uniform asked smiling.
Simone returned the smile as she said.
"The usual, Daisy. Thank you"
"I would like a coffee with milk, please."
"Coming right up."
I waited a few seconds to make sure `Daisy´ was out of earshot.
"You come here often? Because that is quite the preferential treatment if I ever saw one," I asked.
"You could say that," she said with a good-natured grin.
I had to look at her questioningly before she added.
"I'm the owner of this establishment. Despite making the best cake and coffee in the whole town, we use it as a sort of base for our movement. Moreover, we use the upper floors as safe houses for women."
"Safehouse?"
"Among other things, we offer the victims of domestic abuse a safe place to stay," she explained.
"I see," I mumbled. I placed the flyer, which was still in my hand, on the table with the backside facing upwards.
"What I don't understand is this."
I pointed at the two incidents which happened at the place Richard attacked me. "There are two incidents listed at the same place a month apart. Are there that many rapists out and about for the place of the crime to be recurrent?"
"That is not the case," she said.
"A friend of mine was assaulted there last weekend." I snapped back harsher than intended.
"You misunderstand, it is not just a repeat of the same crime at the same place but a crime committed by the same person."
I was at a loss for words at hearing her say this.
"Your friend didn't happen to run into a guy named Richard there?"
My silence spoke volumes in on itself. And it didn't elude me how Simone emphasized the word friend, while closely scrutinizing me. "He was the one, who to my knowledge, raped seven girls in those dorm rooms two of which came forward and went to the police. But it came down to he said she said, and there was no further evidence that would substantiate an indictment. All the girls had no obvious wounds that such an assault usually leaves behind, and he didn't have any either, despite all of the victims claiming to have fought back using every means possible, biting scratching you name it. But he never was found to have had a single wound."
She sighed.
"At this point, it even came so far that claiming to have been raped by him alone, would result in a slander charge against the accuser. The police think that those allegations are part of a smear campaign against his family. The millions of dollars his rich father donates to various police funds don't exactly make this any easier. Making the victim into the perpetrator and vice versa."
"You are telling me he got away with that, even though there were several woman unrelated claiming the same thing," I said incredulously.
"Yes," she affirmed. "Not only that, most of the women are currently charged with slander. Without the necessary resources to fight this in court, they will be forced to sign a declaration to cease and desist. He even went so far as to put restraining orders on them, therefore, preventing them from warning away other women. That Annette is our justice system at work. Quite a few who joined us were disillusioned when they were confronted with this bitter reality. The law not only refuses to punish the guilty, it protects them and harasses the victims. We wanted to change things for the better but were unable to. Until you came along."
"What do you mean?" I had to wonder.
At this moment, the waitress came back and placed our orders in front of us. Simone turned her head to her, and instead of thanking her as I would have expected she said.
"Annette meet Daisy, the woman who was the second victim of Richard that came forward."
I turned my head and looked at her. The look on her face by being put that way in the spotlight was unreadable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Simone pointing a finger at one of the crimes written on the flyer lying on the table.
"Daisy meet Annette the last woman Richard meet before his untimely demise."
Without a moment's hesitation, she jumped at me and gave me a bear hug so impetuous that I had trouble staying on my chair.
While in her embrace, she constantly whispered "thank you" over and over in my ear like a litany. She held onto me like this for what felt like an eternity. I was already beginning to wonder if this will ever end when she released me.
She was crying. Her whole face was wet with tears of relief. She wiped away her tears.
With a fragile voice, she said.
"If there is anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to ask: I will do anything."
I was overwhelmed by what just happened. The only thing that I was able to get out was simple.
"Thanks, I will keep that in mind."
I turned back to Simone, who had a predatory grin on her face.
"Seems like someone has an admirer."
I felt my cheeks heating up.
"You know, there are more Richards out there, and if we have learned anything from this than that the law will not help us if we want to bring them to justice. We have to do it ourselves," she stated overflowing with conviction. "And I would like for you to be by my side when we give them their due punishment."
I was considering denying her implications and decline her invitation. But I had the feeling that no matter what I said, I wouldn't be able to get her to reconsider her thoughts on me.
She seems to be sure that I killed Richard, and given what she told me, she must strongly suspect Richard to have been a cape, by the statements of his victims alone, which meant she had to think me to be one, too.
On second thought I had no reason to refuse.
"I'm in need of a place to stay you don't happen to know someone who might be able to help me."
Grinning she said,
"my other name is Lustrum, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our midst."
I smiled back.
-----
I ran up the stairs taking two at once. I still held onto the newspaper containing the very article that elicited my bad mood. I was not sure what emotion I should settle on. I was angry, worried, and disappointed all at the same time for seemingly different reasons. But still attributable to the same cause.
I reached the door of our - No, not any longer - it was her apartment. I still caught myself calling it ours on occasion, even though I moved out quite some time ago. I knocked heavily on the door.
I heard noises from the other side, she was probably scrambling to get to the door, and when I didn't stop knocking, I heard her muffled voice say.
"I'm coming. I'm coming. No need to destroy my door."
Simone opened the door. Before she was able to utter a single word, I pushed the door open and shoved her out of the way to get past her. I walked in the middle of the room towards the couch when I heard her complain.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
I instantly stopped and turned around. She didn't just ask me this. I casually took note of her state of dress. She was wearing loose grey sweatpants and a white sleeveless top and was barefoot with her hair in such disarray that it had more in common with a bird's nest than anything else. I realized I must have woken her. Not that it mattered or I cared.
"What is wrong with me? Are you seriously asking me that? That is my line - What the fuck is wrong with you!" I shouted and held the newspaper up, pointing at the headline on the first page.
She walked over to me and grabbed it, and skimmed over what was written.
"So?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
I had to suppress the urge to hit her.
"So?!? Are you fucking kidding? You castrated an innocent man."
She sternly replied.
"There are no innocent men."
"Oh, is that so? If being a man is a sufficient reason for you to go after them, couldn't they justify their actions in a similar vein like your father did, when he..."
She gave me a hate-filled stare, and I realized that I went too far.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have gone there."
I took a deep breath. I don't know how I could even think of bringing up her father. This would only make it worse to get her to see the error in her ways. "What happened to you? Since when did you stop discriminate your targets?"
Concerned, I added,
"Does this have anything to do with me breaking up with you and getting together with Danny?"
I noticed the slow changes in her demeanor after I met him, at first I blamed it on her just being jealous. But it got a lot worse when we broke up, and I moved out. She got more reckless, ruthless, and violent. I was sure, it was just a phase she went through and sooner or later would return to her former friendly and caring self.
But I thought I had deluded myself into believing that, especially after she started to expand the range of acceptable targets. Going after men who committed more and more petty little crimes. And now this, her newest stunt. I only just realized she was on a very slippery slope, and I was not sure if she and most of the others could still be saved from crashing full speed into what was at the end of it.
"No, it is for the cause," she defended.
I couldn't fight off the impression that she wasn't sincere in her response.
"The cause? And this justifies attacking everybody not having the luck being born a woman?" I dug deeper. "Since when did you become a Nazi."
"I am not a Nazi!" she barked back.
"Perhaps then you should stop and abstain from using their vocabulary. Otherwise, there is the danger of confusion." I angrily retorted.
Before I even realized what I just said, she froze up,
"Out!"
Shit, that came out wrong.
"Wait! Simone, you have to listen to me. This whole mess no longer has anything to do with punishing the rapist and murderers. You no longer follow your own rules. You are just lashing out at anyone with a penis. " I pleaded with her, "you have to stop this before it is too late. There are already talks of putting you in the Birdcage. Please, I don't want anything happening to you."
I could see her hesitating. A little push was all I needed to get through to her. That was when I asked her smiling,
"Who is gonna teach your goddaughter to stay away from boys, when you are no longer around."
"Goddaughter?"
It took her a moment to connect the dots.
"You are pregnant?" I nodded at her question
"Danny is the father?" I nodded again.
"And you want me to be her Godmother?" she asked, "you would still trust me with that responsibility, despite our disagreements."
"Of course, Simone. No matter what, you are my best friend, we might no longer be lovers, but we are still close. I see you as my sister in all but blood." My hands moved unwittingly to my stomach. "Who else would I be able to trust with the care of my baby girl."
She pondered my words for a moment. Non of her facial features hardened, not betraying her thoughts. But they still took on a determined expression, and without any warning, she stepped closer to me and gave me a hug, which I returned despite my surprise at her actions. She stroked my hair and squeezed me softly before she ended the embrace. She then took a step back, her hands moved towards my cheeks and then pulled my face softly towards her, and kissed me.
I lost track of time, and I forgot myself. Her kisses always had that effect on me. Luckily, she stopped before my knees buckled. Still, in a daze, she lead me towards the door and opened it.
"I love you, and I would have loved your girl. You know that right?"
I was still confused but was able to nod at her question. "Then you should know that I don't have a choice. I can't turn back because I'm not only fighting for us, for you, me, and the other girls of our movement but the future. What was it you always said? We should aim to leave the earth a better place than we found it."
She gave me a light push that caused me to stumble past the threshold. "If you have ever loved me, don't try to stop me. Live your life and take care of your daughter."
With those words, she closed the door, with a finality that had me reeling. Only now, Simone's words really registered in my mind. She intended to be a martyr for our case, to allow the next generation to grow up and live in a world without discrimination. With absolute horror, I realized it was my fault. My attempt to change her mind solidified her decision.
I went to the door knocking, scratching, pleading, and crying, all in an attempt to get her to open the door and offer me a second chance to change her mind. But nothing I did had any effect. I didn't know how long I sat in front of her door, but when I finally left, after realizing short of imprisoning her, my attempts would be utterly futile to change her mind the sun had already set a long time ago.
As I stood on the sidewalk in front of the apartment complex, I looked back up to her windows. There I saw her standing, looking back down at me her arms crossed under her breasts, her face hard. A sign of her unwavering determination. I wiped away a lone tear making its way down my face. Mumbling "good luck" under my breath before I turned away and started walking home.
Fighting the bad premonition, this elicited from me. Because it didn't escape my notice that the way she stood there was reminiscent of a captain steering her ship right into a typhoon. I couldn't shake the feeling that this might be the last time I saw her. My eyes began to water again.
Authors Note: Please don't use the subjective views of any of the characters appearing in this chapter as a starting point for a discussion about feminism. (Which, by the way, aren't my, the authors, views on this topic – just for your information) Wouldn't want to draw the attention of the moderators.
DNA profiling was developed in 1984 and was first used in forensic science to convict someone in 1988 in a murder case. Given that Annette was born in 1969. She should have attended college/university somewhere in between the years 1986-1991 (is what I would guess.)
(I'm not a U.S. Citizen, so I had to use google and other sources to get those numbers.)
Since DNA profiling, in the beginning, was mostly used for "major" crimes (because it was an expensive procedure). I highly doubt that even in major residential areas collecting DNA traces was a common practice after a sexual assault of any kind before the late nineties. Furthermore, the divergence point from our earth is May twentieth, 1982 the day Scion arrived.
This might have pushed the development of DNA profiling further back. We are told that because of the existence of Endbringers, Tinker, and the like, the technological advancement of Earth Bet was slower...
Combined with the emergence of a new sort of crime (the superpowered one) it is quite plausible that it took quite a lot longer before this became standard procedure in rape kits in Bet than it did in our world.
For a moment, I was considering having Annette name her daughter after Lustrum (as far as I am aware (haven't read Ward yet) her real name is unknown) and therefore was playing with the idea to either name her Anne or Taylor... what are your thoughts on it?
Trigger warning attempted rape.
Chapter 05 - Second visit to unknown places
"Seriously Chelsea, I'm just gonna stay until midnight. I have an important exam on Monday, for which I still have to read and analyze eight chapters." I said annoyed. She saluted in response right in front of me.
"Affirmative, Captain Killjoy."
I just rolled my eyes at her antics, before I was dragged along. The closer we got to the building of the fraternity hosting the party, the denser the partying crowd of people got. It was pandemonium near the stage in front of the building. Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the huge green garden surrounding the area, barely anybody was around.
A cluster of far over a hundred people were dancing, drinking, and cheering the live band performing on stage.
Every step towards them was a step in which I regretted not having packed some earplugs. The word loud was utterly insufficient to describe the noise. But worst of all was the music they played. Who in their right mind did love this pop crap that was played all day long on the radios?
Was it too much to ask for something that even resembled actual music like Bach or Mozart? I was already planning on how to get back to our dorm. The most problematic part would be ditching Chelsea without angering her too much in the process. I wasn't interested in a repeat of the shaving foam disaster from last time.
Those were the great disadvantages of sharing your room with somebody. Considering that Chelsa was my roommate I had to wonder were there even any advantages?
I needed to think that over long and hard the next time I had some time on hand.
My musings were interrupted when Chelsea shouted in my ear, in an attempt to drown out the music and make herself heard,
"Let's get something to drink."
Since I wasn't keen on screaming myself hoarse, I just nodded and tagged along. Chelsea went over to a beer stall, which was surrounded by a few smaller groups for the most part consisting of up to five people, mostly talking while drinking. Which could be done here better; a few dozen feet away from the nearest speakers. I was about to reach in my pocket to fish out the twenty dollars I pocketed for such an occasion before she more or less managed to kidnap me.
She must have noticed my intent out of the corner of her eyes. Because she grabbed my hand and just shook her head. She leaned close to my ear and once more raised her voice.
"I really, have to get you out more often. If you don't even know how a girl gets something to drink at a party."
She went over directly to a group of five muscular guys. I followed in her wake. The moment she was right next to one of them, she touched his biceps with her hands and slightly caressed them. At first, he was irritated by the sudden touch from behind. But when he turned and saw Chelsea, a girl roughly a head shorter than him with her long straight brown hair flowing along her body, her cute but distinctive face with her pronounced cheekbones most associate with a chiseled statue of true beauty. A disarming smile playing on her lips did the rest.
The irritation made way towards welcome surprise. I could essentially follow the guy's line of sight checking out Chelsea's body. He didn't even hide the fact that he was mentally undressing her. A few of the less subtle ones let their eyes rest quite a long time on her cleavage, which was impressive given how she used her upper arms to push up her bust. Before they got around to check out the rest of her body, the mini skirt that would be considered underwear at best in most civilized nations and her top with a bare midriff, which didn't leave much to the imagination.
She stepped on her toes to get her mouth closer to his ears and asked, "what must a girl do for something to drink?"
She lowered herself on her soles and held eye contact with the guy while tucking back a loose strand of hair back in the most lascivious way possible, all the while biting her under lip. I could essentially watch how the blood was rerouted from providing his brain with oxygen to other body parts, reducing his mental faculty considerably.
A slow glimpse revealed that the four other guys were affected in the exact same way.
He was about to say something but wasn't able to articulate something comprehensible. He needed a second try after visibly gulping before we were able to understand him.
"Just, Just wait here a moment."
He pressed his half-drunk plastic cup filled with beer in the hands of the guy standing next to him and was about to get beer from the beer stand when Chelsea grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"My friend is thirsty, too. I would be soooo grateful if you would fetch her a drink, too."
While she said that, she softly drew him close and pressed her body close to him as she winked her eyelashes.
"please."
The last remnants of the reason he might have been able to preserve were lost at this moment. He turned and walked in the fastest way possible that didn't descend into running over to the stand and ordered two beers. I knew that there were women, who could twist men around their fingers; seeing it done up close was disconcerting. You might come to suspect she had some kind of super-power.
Chelsea turned her head my way. Winked at me with one eye and soundlessly mouthed the words "That is how it's done", which I had no trouble to lipread.
If I was uncomfortable before, this clinched it for me. It was one thing to get treated to a drink by a guy, but it was something entirely different to play with his expectations like she did. Now I knew what she meant when she countered my argument. When I told her I couldn't afford to go partying with the statement that partying for girls is for free. She was lucky I was oblivious to her practice. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have considered coming here, let alone accompanied her. Chelsea returned her head and her dedication to the remaining guys and started talking to them.
Distracted by my musing and not interested in the way she intended to string them along. I didn't bother to follow their conversation, which would have been made difficult by the noise one way or the other.
A few moments later, the guy returned with two beers he offered us with a big smile exhibiting his perfect white teeth.
"Here you go, Ladies." He said, and like an overeager puppy expecting his praise for a job well done. I thanked him for it, with a nod of my head and forming the words with my lips, not bothering with speaking it out loud, fully aware that he wouldn't have heard me anyway. Whereas Chelsea thanked him by leaning into him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. His stupid grin got wider as a response to her affection.
I somehow felt disgusted at her display of playing up the part of having morals like an alley cat, like my grandma used to say. I felt shame at her conduct, by basically spitting in the face of the women fighting their whole lives for equal rights of women, for us no longer being viewed as a second rate citizen but equals, for no longer being treated as meat, and being sexualized and here she was a step away from whoring herself out for a drink.
She reveled in the attention the five paid to her, enjoying the power she thought she held over them.
I took a big gulp of my beer.
I wondered how many women there were, which were sabotaging the efforts of others? How many were talking about equality, being treated the same, and the very moment an opportunity presented itself, to take advantage of, they did? Turning around and use some old preconception or behavior rule to their gain.
If there was something I hated above all else, it was hypocrites. And every woman, expecting or even allowing guys to hold open the doors for them, allowing men to offer them a chair, was one in my opinion. And that didn't even touch the topic of those ineffable female quotas, affirmative action constituted. Without them, some women would be unable to get a college place or even a job.
But those things were taken for granted without opposition. But god beware if they come in contact with anything, not to their liking or disadvantage; suddenly they become furies screaming discrimination from the rooftops.
How I hated this cherry-picking mentality. The expectations of some to be entitled to the best of both worlds. While my mood darkened, the one guy who looked the least like a football player out of the five of them walked the few feet over to me.
He must have concluded that he was chanceless in being successful in courting Chelsea, with all his friends surrounding her and clinging to her every word. Either way, it meant he thought he had a better chance at her wallflower friend, namely me. Which made me his second choice, or he found something about her he disliked. Somehow I doubted my second theory was the correct one.
Since he placed himself right next to me and faced Chelsea and his friends like I did, but couldn't bring himself to avert his gaze from her for a prolonged time.
"Hi, my name is Richard,"
He yelled next to me and offered me a hand. Despite having lost the desire for making acquaintances, I shook it; no need to be unfriendly.
"Hi, I'm Annette," I yelled back.
"A pleasure."
I returned to my thoughts, ignoring him. Meanwhile, he talked like there was no tomorrow. I pretended to be listening and nodded at certain intervals, while I worked on emptying my cup.
When I finally finished my beer, I told Richard.
"Sorry, to say this, but I have to go. I have to get up early tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."
I didn't wait for his response. Instead, I made my way over to Chelsea, leaning on her shoulder from behind, I told her.
"I'm out of here, see you at home"
She blinked, realizing what I said before she started pouting.
"Come on, Annie you can't just go. The night hasn't even started yet."
Perhaps for you, I thought to myself.
"I told you not to call me that."
"Sorry, that was a spur of the moment thing," she apologized, not meaning a single word of it.
"As you are aware, I have things to do. Have fun."
She showed me a meaningful grin, which I interpreted as her saying; I'm going to. She then returned her attention to the men. I just sighed and was about to leave when I noticed my bladder wasn't too fond of me drinking that beer.
I looked around and found a sign pointing towards the bathroom, knowing I wouldn't be able to hold it in until I was back home. I followed the directions of the signs; leading inside a huge building, clearly a dormitory.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one entering the building with the intent to use the bathroom, because there was a huge line in front of the one for women.
Great, just great; I was about to leave and find alternatives to solve my bladder problem when I overheard two girls in the line behind me saying.
"That's gonna take forever."
"No it doesn't, come with me. My boyfriend lives here, those floors are identical to each other and every floor has its own bathroom, we are just gonna use the one upstairs."
The first one hesitated to follow the other girl.
"Is that allowed? I mean if they wanted us to use them wouldn't there also be a sign pointing towards them."
Noticing that she wasn't followed she look back at her friend.
"I'm sure they would prefer us sneaking upstairs than having to clean up after I have pissed on their floor."
That seemed to sway her friend because she went after her. I considered my options for a moment since I didn't want to stay here all night and the line in front of me didn't move an inch since I arrived. I decided to follow their example. But decided to not go to the second floor like they did, but to the third, if what was said by them was true, there also should be a bathroom, and this way I avoided getting nasty stares from those two, by imitating them.
I went up the stairs to the third floor and found the toilets at the exact same place as they were on the first, with the difference that there was no line of women in front of it.
I made my way inside and used one of the empty stalls. I washed my hands and left the bathroom. I was walking towards the stairs when I saw Richard standing in the hallway, waiting. It wasn't difficult to make out from his countenance that he was displeased.
Did he follow me? I wondered. Well, it didn't matter anyway. I just wanted to get out of here and forget I was ever here, to begin with.
So I tried my best to ignore him, but as I was about to pass him. He put out his right arm and stepped in my way blocking my path.
"What are you doing here?" He practically hissed at me.
"I was just using the bathroom." I defended myself.
He grimaced. "The toilet, sure. You wouldn't happen to be on the way to your boyfriend's room."
He narrowed his eyes at me as he lectured, "If you are telling lies you should make sure to use believable ones."
"What are you even talking about?" I sighed, "forget it, I don't even wanna know. I just want to get home, which you are preventing me from doing."
"Why was your boyfriend not there?"
I stared at him unbelieving, what is wrong with this guy? Did he live in a make-believe world? I could practically sense the approaching headache any further argument with him would cause me.
I took a step backward and tried to walk past him on the other side of the hallway, but he stepped in my way using his outstretched hand to block my path again.
"What are you doing, let me through." I hissed at him.
"You are one of those bitches, aren't you. Those who trick guys like me into thinking you like us, and when you get what you wanted you drop us like trash you think we are."
"I did no such thing."
This time instead of stepping around him, I ducked under his outstretched arm to get past him. He didn't seem to like that at all. Before I even made one stepped past him a strong hand closed painfully around my wrist.
"What are you doing? Let go of me!" I demanded.
I struggled to get free of his grip, but even trying prying him away with my other hand was futile. His grip didn't even budge a millimeter. Worse his hold on me got firmer.
"You are hurting me!" I barked.
Slowly realization came to me in what a situation I was in. Given his superior strength, I didn't hesitate for a moment and kicked him between his legs. I felt my foot making contact, but he didn't even flinch while my foot hurt like I hit a brick wall.
He grinned, and a cold shiver ran down my spine.
"You are going nowhere until you have paid me back in full for the time you wasted."
I opened my mouth to scream when his other shoot out and was put around my mouth, preventing me from opening it; only muffled sounds escaped my mouth. He used this hand to press me against the wall, and no matter how I struggled and contorted myself, his hand didn't slack for a second.
So I went for his eyes, I had no nails to speak of - I never could understand the need to let them grow unpractical as they were - but in order to gauge someone's eyes out they didn't need to be. My nails scrapped over his face, his eyes. He was surprised by my sudden attack, even ducked away from it.
Nonetheless, he managed to keep his hold on me, and when he turned his head to me again his face was unhurt. Where there should be bleeding scratches across his face was unblemished skin. For a moment I wondered if I might have missed it, the pain in my fingers told a different story.
"You are a feisty one, aren't you." The smile he wore took on a predatory trait. "You should try to conserve a little strength you might need it."
He used his body and his hand around my mouth to fixate me against the wall. He then released his hold on my arm and reached for something in his jacket. When he pulled his hand back out from his pocket a piece of cloth was within it. My eyes widened, I renewed my attempts to get free, tried to turn away my head, but his hold was unrelenting like a vice keeping me in place. I couldn't stop him from prying open my mouth and stuffing the cloth into it. He was just too strong;
"Easy, we wouldn't want you to suffocate on this now would we?"
When he was done, he grabbed me with both hands on my upper arms and just lifted me from the floor as if I was nothing more than a little child. I might have believed him able to do that if he was two-meter tall and half as wide, but he wasn't. He was a few inches shorter than me and didn't look as if he worked out.
It should be absolutely impossible for him to lift me, let alone this effortlessly. Shit, he must be a cape. That's why my scratches and hits, even though no small number were on target between his legs showed no effect. He dragged me along the hallway until we reached a door. He set me down and used one of his hands on my upper arms to seize my neck, with the other he fumbled inside his pockets and brought out a wad of keys.
Until this point, I still somehow clung to the hope that I might get away from him that nothing would happen to me, the really bad things only ever happen to the others. A misperception, which if my assumption of what he was planning to do to me was accurate, would be corrected shortly. At this point, there was no doubt in my mind that he intended to rape me.
I was cursing my bad luck if he wasn't a cape, I would have been able to get away. But how could a woman fight not only off a man but a man with powers? I noticed my eyes tearing up.
After he fumbled around for a while, he finally found the right key. The door opened, and I just knew that if I get dragged past the threshold it would be over. Nobody would stumble over us. Something unlikely to happen in the hallway would become an impossibility in his room.
Wasn't it a common practice to silence the victim of rape permanently? My quite substantial fears started to skyrocket at this thought. My thoughts drifted to Chelsea. I told her that I intended to go home, which meant nobody would be searching for me here. Did I kill myself, by saying this? Did I give my would-be murderer a free pass in killing me by my unintended misdirecting, where the police would look for me? Since I was sure, Chelsea didn't notice that I made a detour to the toilets.
He threw his key towards a desk standing in front of a window and returned his attention towards me. He grabbed me once again and threw the roughly 5 feet towards the bed in the corner of the room.
I landed hard on the bed, the realization slowly setting in that it was over. Richard was in a position to do to me whatever he wanted, and my quite vivid imagination provided me with a lot of cruel things it was sure I would be subjected to. I was not sure he could do worse. I hated it to be this powerless, to had no way to defend myself to be nothing but his to do with as he pleased with just because he was a man and had a power.
Immediately I turned his way, during my efforts to get away from his slowly approached form I kicked the soft sheets from the bed. He was relishing in this situation, enjoying seeing me in this state, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop him. Thinking himself to be superior. Hell, he didn't even deem it necessary to tie me up.
But there was one thing I could do. I reached for the cloth in my mouth and yanked it out. I prepared myself to evade the pounce I expected of him, trying to prevent me from regaining my voice.
But it never happened. Instead, Richard's smile just became larger as if I just made his day. He closed the door with one of his feet and took up a remote from a small cupboard.
I took a deep breath and was about to scream for help as loud as I was able to when he pressed a button on the remote. Suddenly, to the noise reaching from outside, another one was added originating from the huge loudspeaker - I only just realized where there - completely drowning out my scream.
He savored my incredulous reaction to what just happened. I just retreated in on the bed towards the corner furthest from him, my heart beating even faster than it did a moment ago. I got the impression that it was on the brink of giving out.
I pulled up my legs and hugged my knees as hard to my torso as I could. Despite being aware that it would at best only delay the inevitable, I did it nonetheless.
He placed the remote back on the cupboard and stalked towards me. When he reached the bed, he resumed his approach on all fours, slowly crawling my way. I could see how salivating this prospect was for him because he had to constantly swallow in anticipation. The closer he got, the more fear seeped into my body; my heart was beating so fast I thought it would give out any moment. As he was just a few inches away, he reached out with one of his hands, and the very moment he touched me, my fear reached its peak
[Destination]
Huh, what was that? Did I just see stars? My eyes refocused to the sight of Richard lying sprawled face down on the bed, only a few inches away and in the process of righting himself up. I could see drool run down the corner of his mouth.
As fascinating as it was to see him momentarily incapacitated, it wasn't the discovery that attracted my attention after this dizzying spell we both seem to have endured, but the fact that he started glowing in a kaleidoscopic light.
Did I hit my head somehow? In the state of panic, I found myself in. It wouldn't surprise me that in my attempt to get as far away from him as possible. I might have hit the back of my head against the wall.
Reaching for the back of my head, I found no injury. Meanwhile, my eyes traced the lines of the colorful aura Richard was clad in, trying to discern what I was seeing.
For a moment, he gave off the impression to be confused until he saw me. He immediately regained his grin and, after he wiped away the drool around the corner of his mouth with the sleeves of his sweatshirt reached for me again. This time he did so using both of his hands.
When he placed them on me, and his disgusting hands trailed my legs, I felt something akin to an electrostatic charge emanating from his touch.
Suddenly he grabbed my wrist and without any effort on his part, forced me to relinquish the hold on my legs and kept them parted.
In an act of desperation, I repeatedly kicked him in the face. He didn't flinch once, and his sole reaction consisted of laughing at my futile attempts to defend myself.
Without warning, he yanked me away from the wall and pressed me down into the mattress. He moved both of my arms over my head overlapped them at their wrist so he could render them useless by just using one of his hands pressing down on them. He swung one of his legs over my torso and knelt above my midsection.
Just as I was about to accept my fate, a single tear escaped my eye and flowed down my cheek, a sign of me conceding defeat in the face of overwhelming power, something stirred inside of me.
A part of me unwilling to go along with it. I closed my eyes. It would be enough to feel it. There was no need for me to burn this sight into my memory too. I closed my eyes.
When his free hand cupped my face, and his thumb wiped away that tear, bile rose in my throat as I heard him chuckling.
Through the prolonged contact he had with my body, I noticed, that there was more to this electrostatic sensation. I concentrated on this sensation and traced it to its source, a shimmering ball in the head of my tormentor. I reached for it and then ripped it out of him.
In the next moment, I was flooded with information. I knew exactly how Richard's power worked, how it enhanced his body. But that wasn't important; important was that he no longer was able to force my limbs where he wanted them to. On the contrary, he wasn't able to budge them even a millimeter. I noticed the glow he had changed; it became pale, barely unrecognizable.
It took him a few seconds to fully grasp that the table had turned. I could watch how his face ran through different expressions; I recognized surprise, horror, and fear.
Now it was time for me to smirk. With both my hands using all my strength I shoved him away from me. He flew through the room like a ragdoll, impacting with the wall on the other side of the room, hard. He slumped down against the wall, trailing behind his head while sliding down the wall was blood.
I walked over to him, not trusting what I saw. Expecting him to get up any moment, continuing his assault. But when I finally reached Richard, and put my hand on his neck. It verified what my eyes already tried to tell me happened as his glow disappeared; shortly after he stopped moving. He was dead. I pushed down the reemerging panic and forced myself to think. It immediately became clear I had to get out of here.
So I didn't waste any time. I ran over to the desk I remembered Richard throwing his keys on to, took them with a handkerchief I had in one of my pockets, and unlocked the door.
Standing on the threshold, I remembered the cloth he gagged me with and picked it up. I put the keys back where I found them and left without turning back.
-----
It was a sunny day a week after this incident, that I ran into a young woman. Perhaps one or two years my senior, full-throated distributing flyers. She wore her long hair into a braid that reached down to her hips and was wearing a white blouse and black cargo-pants. Nothing unusual on the campus of a college, but the same couldn't be said about the glow she emitted.
It was the first time since the incident, which I tried my best to forget, that I witnessed another person glowing like he did.
I had ample time to think about what happened back then, and the conclusion I came to, the only thing that made sense, was that I somehow must have gotten powers while being with him in his room. A quite complicated recherche into how capes get their powers, which wasn't easy because there seems to be some kind of information ban in place, revealed that the consent among capes was that you get your powers on the worst day of your life.
Something I could attest to with all my heart. Considering how I was able to kill him, using a power identical to his, I was quite sure that I was some kind of power thief or copier. My money was on the first one; the way events unfolded could only be explained if he lost his powers at the same time I gained them. For a while, I entertained the idea, that I got a stronger version of the power I copied or that I somehow could neutralize the power I copied. On further thought, that seemed to be unlikely if crossreferenced with known powers of capes.
Ultimately, I had no way to verify either which way without finding another cape willing to play guinea pig. Which made this chance encounter interesting in two different ways.
One obviously was the fact that she was a cape, and I just might be able to test my theories, if I get to know her better. The other one was the fact that the flyers she held piqued my interest.
Stop sexual assault on campus
6 reported incidents this year alone.
with 96% of the victims of sexual assault never reporting the crime this means that roughly 150 women were raped so far this year. Their tormentors are still at large.
Meaning that by the time the year is over approximately 300 women at this college will have been raped. 150 women who have yet to become victims of such an assault, and you, your friends could be one of them.
Help us to make women on campus feel safe again.
On the backside, there were Initials, seemingly of the women who reported being the victims of the rape. Additionally, there was some information on when and where it happened.
I couldn't help but notice that two of those women were assaulted in the same building as me. Which lessened the guilt I felt at ending a human's life quite considerably, even if some woman might be inclined to deny guys like him, the affiliation to the human race.
Something in my expression must have given away the general idea my thoughts drifted to. Because the woman said genuinely worried voice.
"Hey, everything okay?"
"Yes." was my clipped response.
"You are aware, that despite it being pretty much social convention nowadays to answer this question with a yes, it is totally okay to say no." She said with an encouraging smile.
"You are right, I'm not okay," I admitted.
"Wanna talk about it?"
Her offer seemed genuine, and I really needed to talk to someone. Chelsea was no longer an option. It was strange what such an incident could cause. Ever since I got home from the party, I questioned a number of my life choices; one of them was living in the same room together with her, where before I was able to tolerate or even ignore her odd behavior, I now absolutely loathed it.
It was just a matter of time until I would lose my self-control, and we would have a falling out, which I suspected would be unresolvable and force one of us to move out.
I was not really sure what brought that about. I certainly didn't like how Chelsea behaved around men, nor her lascivious style of dressing, or her personality. She was unable to be serious for even a moment, and her world only revolved around guys.
Was I angry at her for her being a slut, because she was different than me, or was there more to it? For as long as I could remember, Someone being different never made me despise a person. Was it the fact that it took me so long, to truly see what she was? Was I projecting the anger I felt for myself for missing this on her, or was it that I unconsciously blamed her for what Richard tried to do to me? Or all of the above combined, I had no definite answer to it.
If she hadn't scrounged those beers from his friend by fluttering her eyes at them, he probably never would have come over and talked to me, would have never felt exploited, which wouldn't have resulted in him stalking me. Therefore, he would have never seen me enter the building. And as a result, he wouldn't have come to the conclusion that I had a boyfriend and was playing with him.
So it was her fault, after all. But wasn't that too easy, being on the verge of victim-blaming. Am I really going so far as to give Chelsea the blame, as just one girl trying to have fun exerting her rights to dress and act like she wanted unless she committed a crime? Wasn't it alone Richards fault?
Neither he nor his friends were forced to be nice to us or buy us anything. It was their decision to do so, Chelsea didn't promise a consideration, and neither did I. He was the one who somehow came to the conclusion that we had to give something in return.
No, that didn't seem right. If he thought that, why was he the one assaulting me, shouldn't it have been his friend following this warped logic. Was this all just an excuse his mind made up, to somehow justify his actions to himself?
Because I was sure if I wouldn't have been the more convenient target the same would have happened to Chelsea, after all, she was the one asking for the beer. But unlike her, I wasn't the center of attention of all his friends. Besides, she wouldn't have been able to get away without bodily harm done to her.
My mind drifted back to the flyer in my hand if it was correct what was written on it, and I assumed that in this building only one rapist was living, then he had done this before. And would have continued after making me one of his victims.
But if that was true, and Richard was, in fact, a serial rapist. Why wasn't he already in prison? A woman who came forward about it and had the worst experience of her life printed on a flyer would have most certainly talked with the police about it.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." I said, "and it would give you ample time to answer a few questions I have regarding your flyer."
She beamed at me with her smile.
"Sure, My name is Simone."
"Annette"
"Let's go over there and get some coffee."
She led me into a small cafe a few dozen meters away. We found a charming little table placed directly under an apple tree. It cast a long shadow and protected us from the hot summer sun.
The air was filled with the smell of apples and a hint of cinnamon.
We barely sat down as a waiter was already at our table. I was pleasantly surprised by this service. I didn't expect it to go this fast, especially not with how busy the cafe was. It wasn't overcrowded, but most of the cafe inside and out was filled up with customers.
What made the fact that a table, like the one we were currently occupying, happened to be free rather strange.
A quick glance at my surroundings and I noticed for only women present in this cafe, be it customers or personal.
"What can I get you and your friend, Simone?"
A young woman wearing a black waiter uniform asked smiling.
Simone returned the smile as she said.
"The usual, Daisy. Thank you"
"I would like a coffee with milk, please."
"Coming right up."
I waited a few seconds to make sure `Daisy´ was out of earshot.
"You come here often? Because that is quite the preferential treatment if I ever saw one," I asked.
"You could say that," she said with a good-natured grin.
I had to look at her questioningly before she added.
"I'm the owner of this establishment. Despite making the best cake and coffee in the whole town, we use it as a sort of base for our movement. Moreover, we use the upper floors as safe houses for women."
"Safehouse?"
"Among other things, we offer the victims of domestic abuse a safe place to stay," she explained.
"I see," I mumbled. I placed the flyer, which was still in my hand, on the table with the backside facing upwards.
"What I don't understand is this."
I pointed at the two incidents which happened at the place Richard attacked me. "There are two incidents listed at the same place a month apart. Are there that many rapists out and about for the place of the crime to be recurrent?"
"That is not the case," she said.
"A friend of mine was assaulted there last weekend." I snapped back harsher than intended.
"You misunderstand, it is not just a repeat of the same crime at the same place but a crime committed by the same person."
I was at a loss for words at hearing her say this.
"Your friend didn't happen to run into a guy named Richard there?"
My silence spoke volumes in on itself. And it didn't elude me how Simone emphasized the word friend, while closely scrutinizing me. "He was the one, who to my knowledge, raped seven girls in those dorm rooms two of which came forward and went to the police. But it came down to he said she said, and there was no further evidence that would substantiate an indictment. All the girls had no obvious wounds that such an assault usually leaves behind, and he didn't have any either, despite all of the victims claiming to have fought back using every means possible, biting scratching you name it. But he never was found to have had a single wound."
She sighed.
"At this point, it even came so far that claiming to have been raped by him alone, would result in a slander charge against the accuser. The police think that those allegations are part of a smear campaign against his family. The millions of dollars his rich father donates to various police funds don't exactly make this any easier. Making the victim into the perpetrator and vice versa."
"You are telling me he got away with that, even though there were several woman unrelated claiming the same thing," I said incredulously.
"Yes," she affirmed. "Not only that, most of the women are currently charged with slander. Without the necessary resources to fight this in court, they will be forced to sign a declaration to cease and desist. He even went so far as to put restraining orders on them, therefore, preventing them from warning away other women. That Annette is our justice system at work. Quite a few who joined us were disillusioned when they were confronted with this bitter reality. The law not only refuses to punish the guilty, it protects them and harasses the victims. We wanted to change things for the better but were unable to. Until you came along."
"What do you mean?" I had to wonder.
At this moment, the waitress came back and placed our orders in front of us. Simone turned her head to her, and instead of thanking her as I would have expected she said.
"Annette meet Daisy, the woman who was the second victim of Richard that came forward."
I turned my head and looked at her. The look on her face by being put that way in the spotlight was unreadable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Simone pointing a finger at one of the crimes written on the flyer lying on the table.
"Daisy meet Annette the last woman Richard meet before his untimely demise."
Without a moment's hesitation, she jumped at me and gave me a bear hug so impetuous that I had trouble staying on my chair.
While in her embrace, she constantly whispered "thank you" over and over in my ear like a litany. She held onto me like this for what felt like an eternity. I was already beginning to wonder if this will ever end when she released me.
She was crying. Her whole face was wet with tears of relief. She wiped away her tears.
With a fragile voice, she said.
"If there is anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to ask: I will do anything."
I was overwhelmed by what just happened. The only thing that I was able to get out was simple.
"Thanks, I will keep that in mind."
I turned back to Simone, who had a predatory grin on her face.
"Seems like someone has an admirer."
I felt my cheeks heating up.
"You know, there are more Richards out there, and if we have learned anything from this than that the law will not help us if we want to bring them to justice. We have to do it ourselves," she stated overflowing with conviction. "And I would like for you to be by my side when we give them their due punishment."
I was considering denying her implications and decline her invitation. But I had the feeling that no matter what I said, I wouldn't be able to get her to reconsider her thoughts on me.
She seems to be sure that I killed Richard, and given what she told me, she must strongly suspect Richard to have been a cape, by the statements of his victims alone, which meant she had to think me to be one, too.
On second thought I had no reason to refuse.
"I'm in need of a place to stay you don't happen to know someone who might be able to help me."
Grinning she said,
"my other name is Lustrum, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our midst."
I smiled back.
-----
I ran up the stairs taking two at once. I still held onto the newspaper containing the very article that elicited my bad mood. I was not sure what emotion I should settle on. I was angry, worried, and disappointed all at the same time for seemingly different reasons. But still attributable to the same cause.
I reached the door of our - No, not any longer - it was her apartment. I still caught myself calling it ours on occasion, even though I moved out quite some time ago. I knocked heavily on the door.
I heard noises from the other side, she was probably scrambling to get to the door, and when I didn't stop knocking, I heard her muffled voice say.
"I'm coming. I'm coming. No need to destroy my door."
Simone opened the door. Before she was able to utter a single word, I pushed the door open and shoved her out of the way to get past her. I walked in the middle of the room towards the couch when I heard her complain.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
I instantly stopped and turned around. She didn't just ask me this. I casually took note of her state of dress. She was wearing loose grey sweatpants and a white sleeveless top and was barefoot with her hair in such disarray that it had more in common with a bird's nest than anything else. I realized I must have woken her. Not that it mattered or I cared.
"What is wrong with me? Are you seriously asking me that? That is my line - What the fuck is wrong with you!" I shouted and held the newspaper up, pointing at the headline on the first page.
She walked over to me and grabbed it, and skimmed over what was written.
"So?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
I had to suppress the urge to hit her.
"So?!? Are you fucking kidding? You castrated an innocent man."
She sternly replied.
"There are no innocent men."
"Oh, is that so? If being a man is a sufficient reason for you to go after them, couldn't they justify their actions in a similar vein like your father did, when he..."
She gave me a hate-filled stare, and I realized that I went too far.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have gone there."
I took a deep breath. I don't know how I could even think of bringing up her father. This would only make it worse to get her to see the error in her ways. "What happened to you? Since when did you stop discriminate your targets?"
Concerned, I added,
"Does this have anything to do with me breaking up with you and getting together with Danny?"
I noticed the slow changes in her demeanor after I met him, at first I blamed it on her just being jealous. But it got a lot worse when we broke up, and I moved out. She got more reckless, ruthless, and violent. I was sure, it was just a phase she went through and sooner or later would return to her former friendly and caring self.
But I thought I had deluded myself into believing that, especially after she started to expand the range of acceptable targets. Going after men who committed more and more petty little crimes. And now this, her newest stunt. I only just realized she was on a very slippery slope, and I was not sure if she and most of the others could still be saved from crashing full speed into what was at the end of it.
"No, it is for the cause," she defended.
I couldn't fight off the impression that she wasn't sincere in her response.
"The cause? And this justifies attacking everybody not having the luck being born a woman?" I dug deeper. "Since when did you become a Nazi."
"I am not a Nazi!" she barked back.
"Perhaps then you should stop and abstain from using their vocabulary. Otherwise, there is the danger of confusion." I angrily retorted.
Before I even realized what I just said, she froze up,
"Out!"
Shit, that came out wrong.
"Wait! Simone, you have to listen to me. This whole mess no longer has anything to do with punishing the rapist and murderers. You no longer follow your own rules. You are just lashing out at anyone with a penis. " I pleaded with her, "you have to stop this before it is too late. There are already talks of putting you in the Birdcage. Please, I don't want anything happening to you."
I could see her hesitating. A little push was all I needed to get through to her. That was when I asked her smiling,
"Who is gonna teach your goddaughter to stay away from boys, when you are no longer around."
"Goddaughter?"
It took her a moment to connect the dots.
"You are pregnant?" I nodded at her question
"Danny is the father?" I nodded again.
"And you want me to be her Godmother?" she asked, "you would still trust me with that responsibility, despite our disagreements."
"Of course, Simone. No matter what, you are my best friend, we might no longer be lovers, but we are still close. I see you as my sister in all but blood." My hands moved unwittingly to my stomach. "Who else would I be able to trust with the care of my baby girl."
She pondered my words for a moment. Non of her facial features hardened, not betraying her thoughts. But they still took on a determined expression, and without any warning, she stepped closer to me and gave me a hug, which I returned despite my surprise at her actions. She stroked my hair and squeezed me softly before she ended the embrace. She then took a step back, her hands moved towards my cheeks and then pulled my face softly towards her, and kissed me.
I lost track of time, and I forgot myself. Her kisses always had that effect on me. Luckily, she stopped before my knees buckled. Still, in a daze, she lead me towards the door and opened it.
"I love you, and I would have loved your girl. You know that right?"
I was still confused but was able to nod at her question. "Then you should know that I don't have a choice. I can't turn back because I'm not only fighting for us, for you, me, and the other girls of our movement but the future. What was it you always said? We should aim to leave the earth a better place than we found it."
She gave me a light push that caused me to stumble past the threshold. "If you have ever loved me, don't try to stop me. Live your life and take care of your daughter."
With those words, she closed the door, with a finality that had me reeling. Only now, Simone's words really registered in my mind. She intended to be a martyr for our case, to allow the next generation to grow up and live in a world without discrimination. With absolute horror, I realized it was my fault. My attempt to change her mind solidified her decision.
I went to the door knocking, scratching, pleading, and crying, all in an attempt to get her to open the door and offer me a second chance to change her mind. But nothing I did had any effect. I didn't know how long I sat in front of her door, but when I finally left, after realizing short of imprisoning her, my attempts would be utterly futile to change her mind the sun had already set a long time ago.
As I stood on the sidewalk in front of the apartment complex, I looked back up to her windows. There I saw her standing, looking back down at me her arms crossed under her breasts, her face hard. A sign of her unwavering determination. I wiped away a lone tear making its way down my face. Mumbling "good luck" under my breath before I turned away and started walking home.
Fighting the bad premonition, this elicited from me. Because it didn't escape my notice that the way she stood there was reminiscent of a captain steering her ship right into a typhoon. I couldn't shake the feeling that this might be the last time I saw her. My eyes began to water again.
Authors Note: Please don't use the subjective views of any of the characters appearing in this chapter as a starting point for a discussion about feminism. (Which, by the way, aren't my, the authors, views on this topic – just for your information) Wouldn't want to draw the attention of the moderators.
DNA profiling was developed in 1984 and was first used in forensic science to convict someone in 1988 in a murder case. Given that Annette was born in 1969. She should have attended college/university somewhere in between the years 1986-1991 (is what I would guess.)
(I'm not a U.S. Citizen, so I had to use google and other sources to get those numbers.)
Since DNA profiling, in the beginning, was mostly used for "major" crimes (because it was an expensive procedure). I highly doubt that even in major residential areas collecting DNA traces was a common practice after a sexual assault of any kind before the late nineties. Furthermore, the divergence point from our earth is May twentieth, 1982 the day Scion arrived.
This might have pushed the development of DNA profiling further back. We are told that because of the existence of Endbringers, Tinker, and the like, the technological advancement of Earth Bet was slower...
Combined with the emergence of a new sort of crime (the superpowered one) it is quite plausible that it took quite a lot longer before this became standard procedure in rape kits in Bet than it did in our world.
For a moment, I was considering having Annette name her daughter after Lustrum (as far as I am aware (haven't read Ward yet) her real name is unknown) and therefore was playing with the idea to either name her Anne or Taylor... what are your thoughts on it?
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Chapter 06 - Parahuman Parents
Chapter 06 - Parahuman Parents
Tuesday 18.08.2009
I stepped through the doors of the hospital main entrance two minutes after the visiting hours officially started. Unlike last time I decided to use the stairs to get to the third floor, in accordance with my intention to get my body into shape.
I was still sore from the wounds my body suffered. Nonetheless, I thought it to be a good idea to start as early as possible with it, and since they didn't substantially impact me, I saw no issue with it. I wouldn't want to break the promise I made to myself, that if I should survive my ordeal, I would become the world's most fit teenager.
And everybody had to start somewhere why not do that by climbing stairs.
I reached room 306 with the door standing open. As I stepped inside, I saw the backside of the doctor from the day before, bent over my Dad. I moved closer and noticed that he was holding a small flashlight and was using it to inspect the opened pupils of my Dad.
Before my mind was able to process what I was seeing, my feet were already in motion and brought me right next to his bed.
"Dad, Dad you are awake."
I happily shouted, barely able to contain my sobs as I was tearing up.
"Woah, you startled me, young lady. You shouldn't do that to the elderly who knows what might happen to their hearts."
He chided smiling. Probably to distract me from realizing, that despite the eyes of my Dad were open. He was apathetic, not reacting to what happened around him. He didn't even blink when I reached for him and held onto his hand. I would have thought him dead if not for the pulse I could feel.
"What is wrong with my Dad?" I couldn't help but wonder.
"To be honest, we don't know." Dr. Grenn told me. "After taking a second look at his symptoms, we reconsidered our approach and decided to stop sedating him."
I interrupted him.
"What, Why? Didn't you say just yesterday that you wanted to keep him sedated until you knew what was wrong with him as to not inflict any more damage on him?"
"Yes, yes, that was our initial assessment." He sighed. "But we revisited his diagnosis and decided we didn't know enough about his condition to risk not waking him up. Since there was a chance, that the MRI examination would come back negative.
We somehow had to narrow it down - there is a large number of possible ailments that fit with the symptoms your father showed so far. But in order to gain any more information, we had to stop sedating him."
"I see," I said crestfallen. "did you have any success so far?"
"Yes, and No, we were able to exclude a number of candidates, but we still don't know what afflicts your father." I said only to add a heartfelt "I'm sorry."
"What can you tell me about his condition?" I wondered.
"Well, as far as we can tell. Your father is awake, but he seems to be in some kind of vegetative state. Contrary to what usually defines this state, your father didn't experience a loss of higher brain function according to our EEG. Quite the opposite is true, they are off the charts, which we concluded was the reason why he had a seizure in the first place."
He took a moment to take a deep breath.
"We don't know what is responsible for his brain to be overloaded, but what we know is, that if whatever affects him doesn't stop in the next 24 hours, we fully expect him to sustain heavy neurological damage. This, unfortunately, would mean should we find no way to help him that his present condition will become permanent."
He made the two steps that separated us and placed his right hand on my shoulder. "Don't lose hope."
He squeezed my shoulder a gave me an encouraging smile and left.
I sorted my thoughts and went to work. Something that was made fairly easy since my father was the only patient in the room. I was quite sure I had Panacea to thank for that. So I only had to check for any kind of surveillance devices in the room after I closed the door. Fusing with mom allowed me to make use of her experiences with this kind of thing.
After checking the room twice, I was satisfied despite knowing that I still might have missed something, and that was without considering the more on the unusual side of things existing means to spy on someone. Hell, for all I knew, there could be a clairvoyant out there watching my every move.
But I was also aware of the futility of pondering something I couldn't affect, so I soothed myself with the knowledge that I did all in my power to prevent being observed.
I stepped through the curtains, I previously closed, hanging from the ceiling around every bed in the room to provide some privacy for the patients. Giving me another layer of protection and most importantly, provide me with the necessary time to send Mom back in the Abyss, should someone chose to enter the room without knocking.
I watched my dad, with the power of my mom at my disposal. It wasn't hard to identify the cause for his state. He had a power, and given the coloration of the aura he was surrounded in, it had to be a strong one. The temptation was huge to touch him, and take it away from him, but I didn't. I promised mom that I wouldn't.
I ended our fusion and summoned her. Once again, the feeling of inadequacy hit me after we parted.
Mom alighted from my shadow, a process, I was not sure I would ever get tired of seeing. I even was tempted to slow it down for this very reason. I noticed that the summoning took less time than it did yesterday, especially if I put my mind to it. It felt like a muscle that got stronger the more it was exercised. Since it already took less than a second, it was just a matter of time until it would be near-instantaneous.
Mom showed me a smile and then focused her attention on Dad, analyzing his power. I knew from what she told me about her power that it might take her a while, to get a basic understanding of it. So I tried to occupy my thoughts while checking that the door was still closed at irregular intervals by cribbing through the curtains.
I wondered about the dream I had, so far, I hadn't had the time to find out if the dream I had on the first night after I created my first three shadows was more than just my imagination running wild. The evidence strongly supported my going theory. My other female shadow was without a doubt the formerly known cape Iron Rain. But if I assumed for a moment, that I really was dreaming about them, their lives, their most intimate and molding moments they went through. Then wouldn't this mean my Mother was in love with Simone? The woman, otherwise known as Lustrum, currently an inmate of the Birdcage, the worst prison ever built, while she was pregnant with me.
And she loved her, of that, I was sure about. After all, I could feel what she felt, and there was no mistaking it, overlaid by regret but love nonetheless, and it was far stronger than everything she felt while talking and thinking about Dad. I couldn't get myself to stop pondering what might have happened between those two for them to break up; they seemed to be destined for each other.
On the other hand, despite having been in Mom's shoes and experiencing it for myself, I couldn't bring myself to endorse this love, because there was still Dad to consider, which led to the question of why mom got together with dad? I asked myself this question over and over; did Mom really love him when they got together or was he just a means to console herself over the break-up? Could I have been the reason that their relationship got as serious as it did, because they were expecting a child, or was I misunderstanding something?
What frightened me was the fact, that before I had this dream I thought my mother incapable of doing something like this.
But now I had to wonder If I even knew the real Annette Hebert.
In the past, she was my paragon, my hero. I always wanted to be like her or Alexandria, depending on the weekday. But mostly her, even though the notion of being able to fly was quite hard to beat. I couldn't suppress a smirk at that thought.
I had to admit that there was only one way to learn the truth, I had to ask her, but did I really want to.
I was weighing my options. Live my life blissfully ignorant, with the constant doubt regarding the nature of the relationship of my parents or getting the truth;
However painful it might be. And it would be the truth; I was certain that as my shade, she couldn't lie to me, no matter how much she wanted to. This train of thought created another problem, because if it was true that mom could talk to me because my power considered her loyal, couldn't me questioning her destroy the trust between us to a point at which my power no longer thought her to be so.
It could mean reducing her to the same state Aku and Kuro were in, and I couldn't be sure there was a way to regain her loyalty. This could mean she could become a husk, a slave in her own body until the end of time. Did my power even allow for my shades to become more loyal, or was the state in which I created them a permanent one?
Boah, this was so frustrating I could tear my hair out. Couldn't I have gotten an easy-to-understand straightforward power and not one, which necessitates a thousand-page user guide, which was forgotten to be delivered with the power?
"I'm done," said Mom in a tone bordering on frustration.
"So you know what his power is," I asked.
"Unfortunately not, I can tell that it is a very strong master power, stronger than I have ever witnessed a power of being before with a significant thinker component. The reason why I didn't get any specifics either means it also has a trump component, or it is broad enough for there to be no specifics. Be that as it may, I'm fairly sure the reason for Danny's condition are his powers."
I was confused.
"How can his power be responsible for this? I mean, it is his power, right? Why should it incapacitate him?"
"I can understand your confusion, Taylor," Mom said. "Unfortunately, it happens sometimes that when people gain powers that something goes wrong. Some of them end up in a similar state as your dad. It has been speculated that the strength of the power directly correlates with the effects it has on the person, from minor changes in their behavior or personality right up to vegetative states that barely allow them to function. A rule of thumb, of sorts which Danny seems to fall under."
"But how does that explain, Eidolon or Scion?" I asked, "aren't they the most powerful capes out there?" My mother gave me her patented `you should know better´ look. Right before she said.
"There are always exceptions to every rule, and I don't think Scion qualifies as an example for your argument on the contrary, because as far as I'm aware, he doesn't even talk."
"What does this mean for Dad?"
"If had to take a guess, given his symptoms, I would say the thinker component of his power is overwhelming him." She elaborated. "He probably is unable to process the data he receives to a point where it is starting to hurt him. Most thinker powers I encountered put a strain on their user most common are headaches, which get worse through continuous use to a point where they can result in an aneurism. What I think was exactly what happened to Danny."
"Okay, now that we know the cause, we can do something for him, right?" I offered hopefully, "Right?" Given her facial expression, she didn't share my enthusiasm.
"Taylor, it is not that easy," she dampened my expectations. "I can see only ways that he could get better. Number one, Danny starts adapting to his power, but since it didn't happen already, I don't think it will. Number two, he starts to control the aspect of his power responsible for his problems, but that isn't something we can help him with, for all we know it might be impossible."
"Can't we just, I don't know, steal his power for good?" I asked desperately.
"As far as I'm aware, there isn't and has never been a known Para-human with an ability like that. I'm probably one of the few who have an ability that comes the closest to a genuine power remover. Of course, there are others like Hatchet Face, but what we all have in common, no matter how our powers achieve that outcome, is that they are temporary." She softly caressed Dad's cheek. "I would love nothing more than to help Taylor, but it is not within my power."
Despite knowing all this, I had hoped that we, I could somehow do something. Mom's words just reaffirmed, that there was a difference between wishful thinking and reality. Nonetheless, I wasn't willing to concede defeat that easily.
"You said, there might be the chance, that the reason for his condition is him being unable to control his power or him lacking the knowledge that it is even possible. Can't we just tell him how to do it, use your power to momentarily steal his, and when he returns to normal explain everything to him before giving it back?" I hopefully looked at Mom after presenting her with my idea.
"Yeah, at least it might give him a chance to overcome this problem on his own. Assuming my second theory is correct." She mused. "I would recommend that we limit the number of news that we present him with as much as possible. For one, I can't be certain of how long I can hold onto his power, and I can't know for sure if I will be affected in a similar way. So we should make use of every second I can provide us with. Add to this that we can't know for sure, that even without his power, he will be responsive and in a state of mind that allows him to comprehend the situation. That is why I think it reasonable to only focus on the matter at hand. Meaning, we shouldn't confront him either with me, his dead wife that mysteriously was resurrected or with the fact, that this was done by your parahuman power."
"Why?" I inquired.
"Because I don't think, even a healthy Danny take well to the news that you became a Parahuman. Stress, of any kind, which this would definitely cause, could be bad in his condition. Taylor, you have to keep in mind, it might also be possible that my first theory is true and there is no way to control his power."
"I understand," I said, trying to sound determined.
"Good, then let's get started."
Mom walked to the head of his bed. Out of his peripheral vision, and placed her hand on his forehead, the moment she did, she froze on the spot. Meanwhile, Dad started to blink and groan. It reminded me of how characters in movies awoke after having drunk too much alcohol. I nearly got a panic attack, because Mom was still standing motionless at the exact same spot, slightly touching his head. I basically could already picture him either seeing Mom through his changing point of view while he was shaking off his dizziness or him noticing the hand on his head. I got so desperate that I was already considering to unsummon Mom and only refrained because I didn't know what this might mean for dad's power mom was holding onto. A power, which I was aware of, was now firmly in her grasp. However, I couldn't help but notice it was still somehow outside of the reach of the Abyss.
I could feel how there was something new connected to Mom, but despite her being my shade, I had no direct access to it. It felt like being burrowed encapsulated inside Mom. Furthermore, I could feel that this power was still loosely tethered somewhere else.
That could only be Dad, and it was in conjunction with how Mom described her power to be working. This must be the rubberband she was talking about. But contrary to what she described, this tether seemed weak and fragile to me, as if it could be severed by the slightest use of force.
That made me think if I could somehow reach the power now buried deep within Mom and let the Abyss touch it would I be able to sever it and let the Abyss try to consume it, to remove this power for good from Dad?
I discarded this thought. Since I wasn't able to reach it in the first place, this train of thought was pointless. Considering the limited control I had over the Abyss when I allowed it to reach out, I doubted I would be able to stop it if it followed along this tether to get to Dad. I wouldn't, no I couldn't, risk it, even if I somehow could get to his power.
Dad repeatedly blinked, dampening his dry eyes, trying to take in his surroundings. Before my worst fears came to pass and I had an act, my Mom came out of her stupor and took a few steps backward traversing through the curtains surrounding us, thereby getting out of sight.
I took a deep breath I only now realized I was holding, being glad that I wasn't forced to unsummon Mom. To be honest, I wasn't sure I would have. So it was good that I didn't have to find out the hard way if I could make such a decision in the spur of the moment.
The good thing of my indecisiveness and it working out in the end, I managed to avoid having to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why a shade of Mom was standing next to his hospital bed. A revelation that could potentially threaten his already frail health. Bullet dodged for now.
"Dad, are you alright?" I asked.
He groaned back
"Taylor, is that you?"
"Yes, Dad, it is me. I'm so glad you are alright."
I had to fight back tears from leaking.
"Why shouldn't I be?" he asked puzzled.
"You don't remember?" I interjected.
"Remember what?" He paused for a moment and then added. "Where are my glasses?"
I reached for them lying on the bed stand and handed them to Dad. He put them on and then took in his surroundings.
"Taylor where are we? I can't remember your Mom ever buying such a disgusting-looking curtain." He joked.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "We are in the hospital. After you had a stroke or what the doctor believed to be one, you were brought here and were unconscious for the last 24 hours."
"What do you mean they believed? Don't they know what is wrong with me?"
"No, they don't. That's the reason I woke you Dad," I told him.
"You woke me, Taylor, what are you talking about? You don't make any sense." He said in response.
I was just about to answer his question, explain to him that he triggered with powers, which were the reason he was in the hospital, and that he should try to control them when I heard the door handle being turned and fast-paced steps getting closer. I barely had time to unsummon Mom when the curtain was abruptly parted, and a scowling nurse came to a stop right next to me.
I saw her open her mouth, no doubt attempting to chastise me for playing around in a hospital room. When I noticed Dad's eyes roll up in his sockets and before his head could plummet into his pillow, he started to go into a seizure.
I immediately noticed a stream of blood leaking out of his nose, which didn't compare to the first time this happened; because it was so much worse. In seconds, through his wildly thrashing around his whole face was covered in blood. And all I could do was standing there, watching as the nurse call for help and doing her best to hold down my dad.
As I was repeating the same question over and over again in my mind
`oh my god, what have I done?´
I was ripped out of my reverie when I was nearly run over by approaching nurses and doctors flooding the room.
I heard someone shouting to get the kid out of here. I didn't even register how someone must have dragged me out of the room and placed me on a chair in the waiting room.
The next thing I consciously perceived was being softly shaken out of my stupor by two hands on my shoulders.
"Hey Kid, everything alright with you." I heard a familiar voice ask.
It took me a moment to make out the reason, why everything looked blurred. At first, I thought I had misplaced my glasses only to realize I was already wearing them. The wetness trailing down my cheeks gave me the hint, I needed so out of it as I was.
I rubbed the tears away with limited success, my efforts just smeared them all over my face, and with the seemingly never-ending stream of new tears, I got nowhere. I must have been not the only one to notice this because I was offered a handkerchief by the person kneeling in front of me. With it, I was able to make some progress in getting cleaned up.
I was able to get out a meek.
"Thank you."
"No problem Kid."
The bald doctor with glasses from yesterday said to me. Come to think of it. I couldn't keep calling him that in my mind, not after having talked twice with him already. My eyes drift towards his name tag on his white doctor's coat.
"Thank you, Doctor Green," I said with a cracking voice.
"Don't sweat it, kid." He said with a hint of amusement.
"How is my Dad?" I asked.
My question smothered the slight uptick in his mood, I could see at the corner of his mouth. Somber, again, he answered.
"We were able to stabilize him, but we didn't get any closer to solving the mystery surrounding his condition. The only thing we can be certain of is that he gets worse and whatever caused this incident, I don't believe he is gonna survive another one. Sorry that I'm the bearer of bad news."
My thoughts started racing again. This meant even if talking to Dad and telling him about his power could have worked. It was now a path locked, and for all I knew, it was my only and last chance to save him. Damn, how could I have been so stupid and not considered that somebody could interrupt us before I was able to tell him anything?
After all, it was a hospital. Of course, there would be someone looking after him, making rounds in order to check on the patients.
How could I be so stupid? All it would have taken to prevent this from happening would have been to make sure that nobody would have come through that door. Instead of doing that, I was more concerned about somebody seeing me use my powers than my dad's health.
Damn it. I clenched my fist at my sides.
"Hey stop that."
Doctor Green commanded and reached for my hands and unclenched them. "Kid, there was nothing you could have done. Sometimes despite our best efforts, bad things happen even to the ones closest to us."
It would have been so much easier to accept this situation if he wouldn't be so wrong in his assumption. Not only was I the reason that he gained powers in the first place, no I botched it to help him deal with it. It all was my fault, nobody else's. I considered telling him how wrong he was. I couldn't stand his sympathy I didn't deserve, but what difference would it make. It wouldn't allow him to help Dad. It would only serve to make me feel something else than guilt for causing both my parent's deaths.
"How long have you been here kid?" Dr. Green asked.
"Since the start of the visiting hours."
"Of course you were. Did you eat anything in that time?"
I didn't answer his question. My growling stomach did that for me, Dr. Green just smiled at me. "Come on, let's get something to eat, my treat. It won't do us any good if we have to give you the bed next to your father just because you don't take care of yourself, and what kind of hospital would we be if we allowed this to happen."
He gave looked at me in such a way that clearly conveyed that every protest on my part would be useless. Given that I started to really feel hungry, I accepted my fate and followed him down into the cafeteria.
He tried to make some small talk on the way, but for the most part, I did my best to ignore it. He caught on to this fact rather fast and stopped his attempts to cheer me up.
When we arrived in the cafeteria, he already guessed that I wasn't too keen to occupy myself with the question of what to eat. That was why he just asked me.
"You like tuna?" I just nodded along. "Good, they make the best one you will ever eat. How about cheesecake?" I nodded once more. He walked up to the guy manning the register and ordered. "I would like two of the big tuna sandwiches, two large pieces of cheesecake, black tea with honey, and orange juice."
We waited for the young woman to prepare the order, and Doctor Green paid for it. With a tablet in hand, Dr. Green led me to a table next to the window facade, which had a good view outside towards the small park in the back of the hospital.
We sat down opposite each other, and he was about to take a bit out of his sandwich when the speaker activated.
"Doctor Green, please report to the emergency room immediately." After a short pause, the announcement got repeated, "Doctor Green, please report to the emergency room immediately."
"So much for a break," he sighed, "that just means you have to eat my fill too. Don't let good food go to waste you hear me Kid."
He stood up and left me to brood. I halfheartedly bit in my sandwich, and I had to say he was right this sandwich was great as was the tea he originally bought for himself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really enjoy the meal.
Since my thoughts drifted back to my problem at hand, how could I help Dad? My, so far most likely to succeed, approach failed spectacularly, and I deemed it far too risky to try it again.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a girl roughly around my age wearing some strange-looking alabaster-white robe with a red cross on its back sitting down at an empty table next to me. She placed a plate with a piece of cake and a large cup of coffee in front of her.
That had to be Panacea. I vaguely remembered her public introduction as the newest `powered´member of the New Wave. It was televised shortly after Mom's death. For this reason, I didn't remember much about what was said about her and her powers. But I remembered what I overheard yesterday; Apparently, whatever my Dad `has´, it exceeded her abilities to fix.
Under different circumstances, I might have been tempted to talk to her. After all, she was the first cape of which I knew, to actually be one, being this close to me; thanks, mom.
Sure throughout the years, in cape-capital Brockton Bay being one of the cities throughout the country with the largest capes per capita, I had met other capes in the vaguest sense of the word. There were always public events, where the Protectorate and Wards presented themselves, and not to forget the annual Wards visit at schools, but this was the first time the cape in question wasn't surrounded by a huge mass of people with me in it.
Although there were a lot of things my motormouth self would have liked to ask a bonafide superhero, I suppressed the urge. I didn't want to impose and interrupt her surely well-deserved break.
Nowadays it got harder and harder to find this excitable, and without pausing for breath talking Taylor in me.
Most importantly, I had more pressing concerns she was unable to help me. So I decided to focus on my food, at least that was my intention when a nurse approached her table.
"Hello Amy, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the outdoor swimming pool and tempt boys with your curves, instead of wasting your time in here with us old folks, and all the gloomy patients?"
She smiled at that
"You aren't that old Cynthia."
"Not that old, girl I'm thirty-two, my life is essentially over, over I tell ya. My best years are long past and will be forgotten, in short order. There is only work, slow aging, and then dying ahead of me. No more fun and games, no more boys longing for my wrinkled old body, no girls envying my perfect figure, skin, and hair." She dramatically played up her agitation in a mocking good-hearted manner.
Amy looked at her baffled, doing her best to suppress her laughter at the antics of the nurse, but failed miserably and then broke down laughing. In the time it took to regain her bearing and wipe the tears off her eyes the nurse sat down on a chair opposite of Amy.
The playfulness vanished, as she asked.
"Seriously Amy, what are you doing here? You have been here yesterday for hours, and in the week before that, you missed not a single day. You are a child. You shouldn't be here and spend every free minute of your life healing people. You run the risk of forgetting what the meaning of the word fun is. You should start to live your life. You are only young once, you know."
"You know I can't, nobody..."
She was interrupted before she could end her sentence.
"Nobody can do what you do. If you don't heal them, they will die. Yeah yeah, I already heard you say that dozens of times, but what about you? Despite what some of the doctors or others might think, you matter, too. Never forget that. Honestly, there should be laws preventing you from even being here. Those who allow you to be here, thinking it okay to let you shoulder that kind of responsibility, should have their heads examined. For god's sake, you are just a child. I have met people several times your age who broke down under far less."
After her tirade, Cynthia inhaled deeply and forced herself to smile.
"Sorry, you know how I get when I see you here. Seeing how your happiness is slowly sucked out of you."
"It is okay." Amy waved off.
"No, it really isn't. You shouldn't be here, and I shouldn't remind you of that every chance I get." She said. There was a lull in their conversation only the nurse to pick it up again. "So you didn't answer my question, why are you here? Didn't you say your family had something planned for today? I remember you saying, you and your sister even got excused from school."
"Yeah, we were supposed to visit Dad's parents in Boston, his father is celebrating his seventieth birthday," she said.
"How come you aren't with them, then?" Cynthia wondered.
"The PRT called during breakfast, they apprehended a Case 53 cape they found in a freight container coming from Russia and because this cape lacked the ability to control its power" Amy explained.
"They asked you to look into it in the hopes you might be able to help it. So they could get one more little soldier in their cape-army." Cynthia concluded.
"They aren't that bad." Amy defended.
"You keep telling yourself that, honey. But one day you will see the truth, like me. So given that you are here, this must mean you went there and what your family went ahead without you?" Cynthia guessed.
"More or less," the healer admitted, "it would have taken too long to see the cape and still be on time."
"So you were left behind and I'm sure the mighty PRT couldn't wait another day for you to see an imprisoned cape, because reasons." She lifted both her hands to put quotation marks around the word reasons.
"Yeah, they said they would send her to a special facility able to contain her tomorrow. So I only had today, if I wanted to see her because the special accommodations necessary for her transport couldn't be postponed."
Cynthia mockingly rolled her eyes at hearing that. "Wow... special accommodations... their excuses get better and better"
Amy ignored her objection. "You should have seen her. She didn't even have what you would consider a body. She was just a head with tentacles. She had more in common with an octopus than with a human being. The girl was so frightened of herself and what she did. Her own body, not under her conscious control, acting by itself. After I've been told, what she did, what her power did. I just couldn't ignore it."
"Of course you couldn't." Cynthia exhaled slowly. "Am I right to assume that you weren't able to help her?"
The downcast look on Amy's face didn't require a verbal response.
"No."
"So instead of going home and make use of having your home all to yourself, you had to soothe your guilty conscience because you shattered her hopes and came here to make up for it by healing dozens of terminal patients. Amy, what the hell!"
Cynthia stopped herself before she could really take off with her rant when she saw tears leaking from Amy's eyes.
"She was just a little girl, probably a lot younger than me, not remembering anything before she was ripping people apart while being a passenger in her own body. And I was powerless... " Amy sniffed.
Cynthia stood up and embraced Amy.
"Schhhh, It wasn't your fault. You did all you could. We can't help everybody. Sometimes we just can't."
At hearing those words, I grabbed the remaining food in front of me, half of a tuna sandwich, and left the cafeteria. Because I simply wasn't willing to accept failure, not when it was about saving my Dad.
Tuesday 18.08.2009
I stepped through the doors of the hospital main entrance two minutes after the visiting hours officially started. Unlike last time I decided to use the stairs to get to the third floor, in accordance with my intention to get my body into shape.
I was still sore from the wounds my body suffered. Nonetheless, I thought it to be a good idea to start as early as possible with it, and since they didn't substantially impact me, I saw no issue with it. I wouldn't want to break the promise I made to myself, that if I should survive my ordeal, I would become the world's most fit teenager.
And everybody had to start somewhere why not do that by climbing stairs.
I reached room 306 with the door standing open. As I stepped inside, I saw the backside of the doctor from the day before, bent over my Dad. I moved closer and noticed that he was holding a small flashlight and was using it to inspect the opened pupils of my Dad.
Before my mind was able to process what I was seeing, my feet were already in motion and brought me right next to his bed.
"Dad, Dad you are awake."
I happily shouted, barely able to contain my sobs as I was tearing up.
"Woah, you startled me, young lady. You shouldn't do that to the elderly who knows what might happen to their hearts."
He chided smiling. Probably to distract me from realizing, that despite the eyes of my Dad were open. He was apathetic, not reacting to what happened around him. He didn't even blink when I reached for him and held onto his hand. I would have thought him dead if not for the pulse I could feel.
"What is wrong with my Dad?" I couldn't help but wonder.
"To be honest, we don't know." Dr. Grenn told me. "After taking a second look at his symptoms, we reconsidered our approach and decided to stop sedating him."
I interrupted him.
"What, Why? Didn't you say just yesterday that you wanted to keep him sedated until you knew what was wrong with him as to not inflict any more damage on him?"
"Yes, yes, that was our initial assessment." He sighed. "But we revisited his diagnosis and decided we didn't know enough about his condition to risk not waking him up. Since there was a chance, that the MRI examination would come back negative.
We somehow had to narrow it down - there is a large number of possible ailments that fit with the symptoms your father showed so far. But in order to gain any more information, we had to stop sedating him."
"I see," I said crestfallen. "did you have any success so far?"
"Yes, and No, we were able to exclude a number of candidates, but we still don't know what afflicts your father." I said only to add a heartfelt "I'm sorry."
"What can you tell me about his condition?" I wondered.
"Well, as far as we can tell. Your father is awake, but he seems to be in some kind of vegetative state. Contrary to what usually defines this state, your father didn't experience a loss of higher brain function according to our EEG. Quite the opposite is true, they are off the charts, which we concluded was the reason why he had a seizure in the first place."
He took a moment to take a deep breath.
"We don't know what is responsible for his brain to be overloaded, but what we know is, that if whatever affects him doesn't stop in the next 24 hours, we fully expect him to sustain heavy neurological damage. This, unfortunately, would mean should we find no way to help him that his present condition will become permanent."
He made the two steps that separated us and placed his right hand on my shoulder. "Don't lose hope."
He squeezed my shoulder a gave me an encouraging smile and left.
I sorted my thoughts and went to work. Something that was made fairly easy since my father was the only patient in the room. I was quite sure I had Panacea to thank for that. So I only had to check for any kind of surveillance devices in the room after I closed the door. Fusing with mom allowed me to make use of her experiences with this kind of thing.
After checking the room twice, I was satisfied despite knowing that I still might have missed something, and that was without considering the more on the unusual side of things existing means to spy on someone. Hell, for all I knew, there could be a clairvoyant out there watching my every move.
But I was also aware of the futility of pondering something I couldn't affect, so I soothed myself with the knowledge that I did all in my power to prevent being observed.
I stepped through the curtains, I previously closed, hanging from the ceiling around every bed in the room to provide some privacy for the patients. Giving me another layer of protection and most importantly, provide me with the necessary time to send Mom back in the Abyss, should someone chose to enter the room without knocking.
I watched my dad, with the power of my mom at my disposal. It wasn't hard to identify the cause for his state. He had a power, and given the coloration of the aura he was surrounded in, it had to be a strong one. The temptation was huge to touch him, and take it away from him, but I didn't. I promised mom that I wouldn't.
I ended our fusion and summoned her. Once again, the feeling of inadequacy hit me after we parted.
Mom alighted from my shadow, a process, I was not sure I would ever get tired of seeing. I even was tempted to slow it down for this very reason. I noticed that the summoning took less time than it did yesterday, especially if I put my mind to it. It felt like a muscle that got stronger the more it was exercised. Since it already took less than a second, it was just a matter of time until it would be near-instantaneous.
Mom showed me a smile and then focused her attention on Dad, analyzing his power. I knew from what she told me about her power that it might take her a while, to get a basic understanding of it. So I tried to occupy my thoughts while checking that the door was still closed at irregular intervals by cribbing through the curtains.
I wondered about the dream I had, so far, I hadn't had the time to find out if the dream I had on the first night after I created my first three shadows was more than just my imagination running wild. The evidence strongly supported my going theory. My other female shadow was without a doubt the formerly known cape Iron Rain. But if I assumed for a moment, that I really was dreaming about them, their lives, their most intimate and molding moments they went through. Then wouldn't this mean my Mother was in love with Simone? The woman, otherwise known as Lustrum, currently an inmate of the Birdcage, the worst prison ever built, while she was pregnant with me.
And she loved her, of that, I was sure about. After all, I could feel what she felt, and there was no mistaking it, overlaid by regret but love nonetheless, and it was far stronger than everything she felt while talking and thinking about Dad. I couldn't get myself to stop pondering what might have happened between those two for them to break up; they seemed to be destined for each other.
On the other hand, despite having been in Mom's shoes and experiencing it for myself, I couldn't bring myself to endorse this love, because there was still Dad to consider, which led to the question of why mom got together with dad? I asked myself this question over and over; did Mom really love him when they got together or was he just a means to console herself over the break-up? Could I have been the reason that their relationship got as serious as it did, because they were expecting a child, or was I misunderstanding something?
What frightened me was the fact, that before I had this dream I thought my mother incapable of doing something like this.
But now I had to wonder If I even knew the real Annette Hebert.
In the past, she was my paragon, my hero. I always wanted to be like her or Alexandria, depending on the weekday. But mostly her, even though the notion of being able to fly was quite hard to beat. I couldn't suppress a smirk at that thought.
I had to admit that there was only one way to learn the truth, I had to ask her, but did I really want to.
I was weighing my options. Live my life blissfully ignorant, with the constant doubt regarding the nature of the relationship of my parents or getting the truth;
However painful it might be. And it would be the truth; I was certain that as my shade, she couldn't lie to me, no matter how much she wanted to. This train of thought created another problem, because if it was true that mom could talk to me because my power considered her loyal, couldn't me questioning her destroy the trust between us to a point at which my power no longer thought her to be so.
It could mean reducing her to the same state Aku and Kuro were in, and I couldn't be sure there was a way to regain her loyalty. This could mean she could become a husk, a slave in her own body until the end of time. Did my power even allow for my shades to become more loyal, or was the state in which I created them a permanent one?
Boah, this was so frustrating I could tear my hair out. Couldn't I have gotten an easy-to-understand straightforward power and not one, which necessitates a thousand-page user guide, which was forgotten to be delivered with the power?
"I'm done," said Mom in a tone bordering on frustration.
"So you know what his power is," I asked.
"Unfortunately not, I can tell that it is a very strong master power, stronger than I have ever witnessed a power of being before with a significant thinker component. The reason why I didn't get any specifics either means it also has a trump component, or it is broad enough for there to be no specifics. Be that as it may, I'm fairly sure the reason for Danny's condition are his powers."
I was confused.
"How can his power be responsible for this? I mean, it is his power, right? Why should it incapacitate him?"
"I can understand your confusion, Taylor," Mom said. "Unfortunately, it happens sometimes that when people gain powers that something goes wrong. Some of them end up in a similar state as your dad. It has been speculated that the strength of the power directly correlates with the effects it has on the person, from minor changes in their behavior or personality right up to vegetative states that barely allow them to function. A rule of thumb, of sorts which Danny seems to fall under."
"But how does that explain, Eidolon or Scion?" I asked, "aren't they the most powerful capes out there?" My mother gave me her patented `you should know better´ look. Right before she said.
"There are always exceptions to every rule, and I don't think Scion qualifies as an example for your argument on the contrary, because as far as I'm aware, he doesn't even talk."
"What does this mean for Dad?"
"If had to take a guess, given his symptoms, I would say the thinker component of his power is overwhelming him." She elaborated. "He probably is unable to process the data he receives to a point where it is starting to hurt him. Most thinker powers I encountered put a strain on their user most common are headaches, which get worse through continuous use to a point where they can result in an aneurism. What I think was exactly what happened to Danny."
"Okay, now that we know the cause, we can do something for him, right?" I offered hopefully, "Right?" Given her facial expression, she didn't share my enthusiasm.
"Taylor, it is not that easy," she dampened my expectations. "I can see only ways that he could get better. Number one, Danny starts adapting to his power, but since it didn't happen already, I don't think it will. Number two, he starts to control the aspect of his power responsible for his problems, but that isn't something we can help him with, for all we know it might be impossible."
"Can't we just, I don't know, steal his power for good?" I asked desperately.
"As far as I'm aware, there isn't and has never been a known Para-human with an ability like that. I'm probably one of the few who have an ability that comes the closest to a genuine power remover. Of course, there are others like Hatchet Face, but what we all have in common, no matter how our powers achieve that outcome, is that they are temporary." She softly caressed Dad's cheek. "I would love nothing more than to help Taylor, but it is not within my power."
Despite knowing all this, I had hoped that we, I could somehow do something. Mom's words just reaffirmed, that there was a difference between wishful thinking and reality. Nonetheless, I wasn't willing to concede defeat that easily.
"You said, there might be the chance, that the reason for his condition is him being unable to control his power or him lacking the knowledge that it is even possible. Can't we just tell him how to do it, use your power to momentarily steal his, and when he returns to normal explain everything to him before giving it back?" I hopefully looked at Mom after presenting her with my idea.
"Yeah, at least it might give him a chance to overcome this problem on his own. Assuming my second theory is correct." She mused. "I would recommend that we limit the number of news that we present him with as much as possible. For one, I can't be certain of how long I can hold onto his power, and I can't know for sure if I will be affected in a similar way. So we should make use of every second I can provide us with. Add to this that we can't know for sure, that even without his power, he will be responsive and in a state of mind that allows him to comprehend the situation. That is why I think it reasonable to only focus on the matter at hand. Meaning, we shouldn't confront him either with me, his dead wife that mysteriously was resurrected or with the fact, that this was done by your parahuman power."
"Why?" I inquired.
"Because I don't think, even a healthy Danny take well to the news that you became a Parahuman. Stress, of any kind, which this would definitely cause, could be bad in his condition. Taylor, you have to keep in mind, it might also be possible that my first theory is true and there is no way to control his power."
"I understand," I said, trying to sound determined.
"Good, then let's get started."
Mom walked to the head of his bed. Out of his peripheral vision, and placed her hand on his forehead, the moment she did, she froze on the spot. Meanwhile, Dad started to blink and groan. It reminded me of how characters in movies awoke after having drunk too much alcohol. I nearly got a panic attack, because Mom was still standing motionless at the exact same spot, slightly touching his head. I basically could already picture him either seeing Mom through his changing point of view while he was shaking off his dizziness or him noticing the hand on his head. I got so desperate that I was already considering to unsummon Mom and only refrained because I didn't know what this might mean for dad's power mom was holding onto. A power, which I was aware of, was now firmly in her grasp. However, I couldn't help but notice it was still somehow outside of the reach of the Abyss.
I could feel how there was something new connected to Mom, but despite her being my shade, I had no direct access to it. It felt like being burrowed encapsulated inside Mom. Furthermore, I could feel that this power was still loosely tethered somewhere else.
That could only be Dad, and it was in conjunction with how Mom described her power to be working. This must be the rubberband she was talking about. But contrary to what she described, this tether seemed weak and fragile to me, as if it could be severed by the slightest use of force.
That made me think if I could somehow reach the power now buried deep within Mom and let the Abyss touch it would I be able to sever it and let the Abyss try to consume it, to remove this power for good from Dad?
I discarded this thought. Since I wasn't able to reach it in the first place, this train of thought was pointless. Considering the limited control I had over the Abyss when I allowed it to reach out, I doubted I would be able to stop it if it followed along this tether to get to Dad. I wouldn't, no I couldn't, risk it, even if I somehow could get to his power.
Dad repeatedly blinked, dampening his dry eyes, trying to take in his surroundings. Before my worst fears came to pass and I had an act, my Mom came out of her stupor and took a few steps backward traversing through the curtains surrounding us, thereby getting out of sight.
I took a deep breath I only now realized I was holding, being glad that I wasn't forced to unsummon Mom. To be honest, I wasn't sure I would have. So it was good that I didn't have to find out the hard way if I could make such a decision in the spur of the moment.
The good thing of my indecisiveness and it working out in the end, I managed to avoid having to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why a shade of Mom was standing next to his hospital bed. A revelation that could potentially threaten his already frail health. Bullet dodged for now.
"Dad, are you alright?" I asked.
He groaned back
"Taylor, is that you?"
"Yes, Dad, it is me. I'm so glad you are alright."
I had to fight back tears from leaking.
"Why shouldn't I be?" he asked puzzled.
"You don't remember?" I interjected.
"Remember what?" He paused for a moment and then added. "Where are my glasses?"
I reached for them lying on the bed stand and handed them to Dad. He put them on and then took in his surroundings.
"Taylor where are we? I can't remember your Mom ever buying such a disgusting-looking curtain." He joked.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "We are in the hospital. After you had a stroke or what the doctor believed to be one, you were brought here and were unconscious for the last 24 hours."
"What do you mean they believed? Don't they know what is wrong with me?"
"No, they don't. That's the reason I woke you Dad," I told him.
"You woke me, Taylor, what are you talking about? You don't make any sense." He said in response.
I was just about to answer his question, explain to him that he triggered with powers, which were the reason he was in the hospital, and that he should try to control them when I heard the door handle being turned and fast-paced steps getting closer. I barely had time to unsummon Mom when the curtain was abruptly parted, and a scowling nurse came to a stop right next to me.
I saw her open her mouth, no doubt attempting to chastise me for playing around in a hospital room. When I noticed Dad's eyes roll up in his sockets and before his head could plummet into his pillow, he started to go into a seizure.
I immediately noticed a stream of blood leaking out of his nose, which didn't compare to the first time this happened; because it was so much worse. In seconds, through his wildly thrashing around his whole face was covered in blood. And all I could do was standing there, watching as the nurse call for help and doing her best to hold down my dad.
As I was repeating the same question over and over again in my mind
`oh my god, what have I done?´
I was ripped out of my reverie when I was nearly run over by approaching nurses and doctors flooding the room.
I heard someone shouting to get the kid out of here. I didn't even register how someone must have dragged me out of the room and placed me on a chair in the waiting room.
The next thing I consciously perceived was being softly shaken out of my stupor by two hands on my shoulders.
"Hey Kid, everything alright with you." I heard a familiar voice ask.
It took me a moment to make out the reason, why everything looked blurred. At first, I thought I had misplaced my glasses only to realize I was already wearing them. The wetness trailing down my cheeks gave me the hint, I needed so out of it as I was.
I rubbed the tears away with limited success, my efforts just smeared them all over my face, and with the seemingly never-ending stream of new tears, I got nowhere. I must have been not the only one to notice this because I was offered a handkerchief by the person kneeling in front of me. With it, I was able to make some progress in getting cleaned up.
I was able to get out a meek.
"Thank you."
"No problem Kid."
The bald doctor with glasses from yesterday said to me. Come to think of it. I couldn't keep calling him that in my mind, not after having talked twice with him already. My eyes drift towards his name tag on his white doctor's coat.
"Thank you, Doctor Green," I said with a cracking voice.
"Don't sweat it, kid." He said with a hint of amusement.
"How is my Dad?" I asked.
My question smothered the slight uptick in his mood, I could see at the corner of his mouth. Somber, again, he answered.
"We were able to stabilize him, but we didn't get any closer to solving the mystery surrounding his condition. The only thing we can be certain of is that he gets worse and whatever caused this incident, I don't believe he is gonna survive another one. Sorry that I'm the bearer of bad news."
My thoughts started racing again. This meant even if talking to Dad and telling him about his power could have worked. It was now a path locked, and for all I knew, it was my only and last chance to save him. Damn, how could I have been so stupid and not considered that somebody could interrupt us before I was able to tell him anything?
After all, it was a hospital. Of course, there would be someone looking after him, making rounds in order to check on the patients.
How could I be so stupid? All it would have taken to prevent this from happening would have been to make sure that nobody would have come through that door. Instead of doing that, I was more concerned about somebody seeing me use my powers than my dad's health.
Damn it. I clenched my fist at my sides.
"Hey stop that."
Doctor Green commanded and reached for my hands and unclenched them. "Kid, there was nothing you could have done. Sometimes despite our best efforts, bad things happen even to the ones closest to us."
It would have been so much easier to accept this situation if he wouldn't be so wrong in his assumption. Not only was I the reason that he gained powers in the first place, no I botched it to help him deal with it. It all was my fault, nobody else's. I considered telling him how wrong he was. I couldn't stand his sympathy I didn't deserve, but what difference would it make. It wouldn't allow him to help Dad. It would only serve to make me feel something else than guilt for causing both my parent's deaths.
"How long have you been here kid?" Dr. Green asked.
"Since the start of the visiting hours."
"Of course you were. Did you eat anything in that time?"
I didn't answer his question. My growling stomach did that for me, Dr. Green just smiled at me. "Come on, let's get something to eat, my treat. It won't do us any good if we have to give you the bed next to your father just because you don't take care of yourself, and what kind of hospital would we be if we allowed this to happen."
He gave looked at me in such a way that clearly conveyed that every protest on my part would be useless. Given that I started to really feel hungry, I accepted my fate and followed him down into the cafeteria.
He tried to make some small talk on the way, but for the most part, I did my best to ignore it. He caught on to this fact rather fast and stopped his attempts to cheer me up.
When we arrived in the cafeteria, he already guessed that I wasn't too keen to occupy myself with the question of what to eat. That was why he just asked me.
"You like tuna?" I just nodded along. "Good, they make the best one you will ever eat. How about cheesecake?" I nodded once more. He walked up to the guy manning the register and ordered. "I would like two of the big tuna sandwiches, two large pieces of cheesecake, black tea with honey, and orange juice."
We waited for the young woman to prepare the order, and Doctor Green paid for it. With a tablet in hand, Dr. Green led me to a table next to the window facade, which had a good view outside towards the small park in the back of the hospital.
We sat down opposite each other, and he was about to take a bit out of his sandwich when the speaker activated.
"Doctor Green, please report to the emergency room immediately." After a short pause, the announcement got repeated, "Doctor Green, please report to the emergency room immediately."
"So much for a break," he sighed, "that just means you have to eat my fill too. Don't let good food go to waste you hear me Kid."
He stood up and left me to brood. I halfheartedly bit in my sandwich, and I had to say he was right this sandwich was great as was the tea he originally bought for himself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really enjoy the meal.
Since my thoughts drifted back to my problem at hand, how could I help Dad? My, so far most likely to succeed, approach failed spectacularly, and I deemed it far too risky to try it again.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a girl roughly around my age wearing some strange-looking alabaster-white robe with a red cross on its back sitting down at an empty table next to me. She placed a plate with a piece of cake and a large cup of coffee in front of her.
That had to be Panacea. I vaguely remembered her public introduction as the newest `powered´member of the New Wave. It was televised shortly after Mom's death. For this reason, I didn't remember much about what was said about her and her powers. But I remembered what I overheard yesterday; Apparently, whatever my Dad `has´, it exceeded her abilities to fix.
Under different circumstances, I might have been tempted to talk to her. After all, she was the first cape of which I knew, to actually be one, being this close to me; thanks, mom.
Sure throughout the years, in cape-capital Brockton Bay being one of the cities throughout the country with the largest capes per capita, I had met other capes in the vaguest sense of the word. There were always public events, where the Protectorate and Wards presented themselves, and not to forget the annual Wards visit at schools, but this was the first time the cape in question wasn't surrounded by a huge mass of people with me in it.
Although there were a lot of things my motormouth self would have liked to ask a bonafide superhero, I suppressed the urge. I didn't want to impose and interrupt her surely well-deserved break.
Nowadays it got harder and harder to find this excitable, and without pausing for breath talking Taylor in me.
Most importantly, I had more pressing concerns she was unable to help me. So I decided to focus on my food, at least that was my intention when a nurse approached her table.
"Hello Amy, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the outdoor swimming pool and tempt boys with your curves, instead of wasting your time in here with us old folks, and all the gloomy patients?"
She smiled at that
"You aren't that old Cynthia."
"Not that old, girl I'm thirty-two, my life is essentially over, over I tell ya. My best years are long past and will be forgotten, in short order. There is only work, slow aging, and then dying ahead of me. No more fun and games, no more boys longing for my wrinkled old body, no girls envying my perfect figure, skin, and hair." She dramatically played up her agitation in a mocking good-hearted manner.
Amy looked at her baffled, doing her best to suppress her laughter at the antics of the nurse, but failed miserably and then broke down laughing. In the time it took to regain her bearing and wipe the tears off her eyes the nurse sat down on a chair opposite of Amy.
The playfulness vanished, as she asked.
"Seriously Amy, what are you doing here? You have been here yesterday for hours, and in the week before that, you missed not a single day. You are a child. You shouldn't be here and spend every free minute of your life healing people. You run the risk of forgetting what the meaning of the word fun is. You should start to live your life. You are only young once, you know."
"You know I can't, nobody..."
She was interrupted before she could end her sentence.
"Nobody can do what you do. If you don't heal them, they will die. Yeah yeah, I already heard you say that dozens of times, but what about you? Despite what some of the doctors or others might think, you matter, too. Never forget that. Honestly, there should be laws preventing you from even being here. Those who allow you to be here, thinking it okay to let you shoulder that kind of responsibility, should have their heads examined. For god's sake, you are just a child. I have met people several times your age who broke down under far less."
After her tirade, Cynthia inhaled deeply and forced herself to smile.
"Sorry, you know how I get when I see you here. Seeing how your happiness is slowly sucked out of you."
"It is okay." Amy waved off.
"No, it really isn't. You shouldn't be here, and I shouldn't remind you of that every chance I get." She said. There was a lull in their conversation only the nurse to pick it up again. "So you didn't answer my question, why are you here? Didn't you say your family had something planned for today? I remember you saying, you and your sister even got excused from school."
"Yeah, we were supposed to visit Dad's parents in Boston, his father is celebrating his seventieth birthday," she said.
"How come you aren't with them, then?" Cynthia wondered.
"The PRT called during breakfast, they apprehended a Case 53 cape they found in a freight container coming from Russia and because this cape lacked the ability to control its power" Amy explained.
"They asked you to look into it in the hopes you might be able to help it. So they could get one more little soldier in their cape-army." Cynthia concluded.
"They aren't that bad." Amy defended.
"You keep telling yourself that, honey. But one day you will see the truth, like me. So given that you are here, this must mean you went there and what your family went ahead without you?" Cynthia guessed.
"More or less," the healer admitted, "it would have taken too long to see the cape and still be on time."
"So you were left behind and I'm sure the mighty PRT couldn't wait another day for you to see an imprisoned cape, because reasons." She lifted both her hands to put quotation marks around the word reasons.
"Yeah, they said they would send her to a special facility able to contain her tomorrow. So I only had today, if I wanted to see her because the special accommodations necessary for her transport couldn't be postponed."
Cynthia mockingly rolled her eyes at hearing that. "Wow... special accommodations... their excuses get better and better"
Amy ignored her objection. "You should have seen her. She didn't even have what you would consider a body. She was just a head with tentacles. She had more in common with an octopus than with a human being. The girl was so frightened of herself and what she did. Her own body, not under her conscious control, acting by itself. After I've been told, what she did, what her power did. I just couldn't ignore it."
"Of course you couldn't." Cynthia exhaled slowly. "Am I right to assume that you weren't able to help her?"
The downcast look on Amy's face didn't require a verbal response.
"No."
"So instead of going home and make use of having your home all to yourself, you had to soothe your guilty conscience because you shattered her hopes and came here to make up for it by healing dozens of terminal patients. Amy, what the hell!"
Cynthia stopped herself before she could really take off with her rant when she saw tears leaking from Amy's eyes.
"She was just a little girl, probably a lot younger than me, not remembering anything before she was ripping people apart while being a passenger in her own body. And I was powerless... " Amy sniffed.
Cynthia stood up and embraced Amy.
"Schhhh, It wasn't your fault. You did all you could. We can't help everybody. Sometimes we just can't."
At hearing those words, I grabbed the remaining food in front of me, half of a tuna sandwich, and left the cafeteria. Because I simply wasn't willing to accept failure, not when it was about saving my Dad.
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Nox - An Alternate take on things - chapter 01
Authors Note: I will also post some outtakes today (2nd chapter later or tomorrow depends on how far I get...); so to say a different version of this story. With a different original premise. It will be a two-shot since I don't intend to continue it ... but perhaps some of you might like it nonetheless... to see what my first draft of this story amounted to.
You will see the difference are the timeline and a repeat of the locker scene with a slightly different version of the power I envisioned for Taylor to have - After I wrote it out and didn't like the second chapter very much ... I decided to go with the current version, you all reading this thread, know by now.
I'm aware that some of you might like this version better for whatever reason - I don't - so I got no intention to continue this... If on the other hand, somebody else wants to, feel free to do so...
Chapter 01: The first Followers of the Queen:
Monday morning, the first school day after the winter holidays, under normal circumstances, this would be a day that wouldn't be very popular with the students. I would count myself as being part of those who despised this day because it once more meant being cooped up half the day with a bunch of sheep. Instead of being out there punching the ever-living shit out of this thrash, the gangs were made of.
Well at least this school start won't be as boring as usual, with what we have planned. It might make the start of this headache-inducing routine that is school at least a little bit enjoyable. It wasn't exactly breaking the bones of Nazi enjoyable, but as of late, I was satisfied with the small mercies that made school bearable.
I reached the gates of Winslow High School and could already see Emma waiting at the main entrance. I made my way over to her while pushing through the crowd of people lingering about. On my way, I even got the chance to push one of those drug addict merchants from behind. He impacted his buddy holding a steaming cup of coffee in one of those throwaway coffee mugs. By the time I heard them wail of pain I was already past them.
I grinned; What a good way to start the day. Perhaps, someday they would learn their place and move out of the way for their betters.
A few moments later, I came to a stop next to Emma. She noticed my not so subtle approach and greeted me with a grin of her own. Sometimes I wondered how dull and utter torture school would be without her here. She was the sole person able to understand me in this shit-hole called school and even shared my view of the world. The one person I knew possessing the mindset of an apex predator but unfortunately lacked the ability to act on it.
This wasn't the first time I cursed the universe because of this injustice. Wimps like little Vista got powers and tried to fight Nazis, rapists, and other kinds of criminals with the power of love, rainbows, and their cuteness, and predators like Emma get shafted. Unable to become more than a survivor. Even thinking about it I had to suppress my urge to howl.
Damn, there went my good mood.
I leaned on the wall next to Emma, while she was busy texting, probably putting the finishing touches on our little prank we had planned for Hebert this dumb bitch.
We dwelled that way in silence for a few minutes waiting for our prey to make her appearance. Patience a virtue every predator has to embrace to be successful. But unlike on my nightly outings, I didn't have to wait hours on hours for my bait to make itself known or be found.
I heard Emma next to me say
"Julia just texted me that her bus arrived, and she is making her way to the school gates."
My heart rate increased in joyful anticipation, I turned my head Emma way, and she did the same. We ferally grinned at each other.
I grabbed my backpack from the floor between my legs, and Emma did the same. We made our way directly to the locker.
I noticed that standing at several key junctions were girls Emma was familiar with. Apparently, she followed my advice and posted her - What was a good word to describe those hyenas, followers? Yeah, I would go with that, because to more they were no good for. They would never be anything else than scavengers feeding on the leftovers, true predators left behind – at key locations as lookouts.
We wouldn't want for prey to escape her trap now, would we?
They greeted us by nodding their heads when we passed them. After paying their tribute to their betters, they returned to their task keeping their eyes open. Phones, in their hands, primed to notify us of anything noteworthy.
I would hate it if all our elaborate preparation would go to waste. Knowing Emma, she would have made sure for everyone to know that failure would be something not easily forgiven.
I arrive in the hallway with Hebert's locker in it. There is already a crowd present. I scan their faces and note that those are more of Emma's followers. Good.
Emma addresses them.
"Okay, by my estimate Taylor should be here in one or two minutes. Everybody is in position. No teachers are in the vicinity and if everybody does her job by keeping the teachers away from here. Taylor will have the pleasure to experience what her life holds in store for her a little prematurely. So don't screw this up, we don't wanna rob her of this experience, now would we."
I couldn't stress enough how impressed I was with Emma's ability to direct her followers to do her bidding. If I didn't know any better, I might even suspect her to be a master.
Well, time to get ready. I stuck my hands in my pocket and took out the earplugs I bought for this occasion. A good forethought, if I may say so myself, I knew that the pads tampons and the other things would become something nasty in the span of the holidays in her locker. But even I underestimated it. After all, I stood more than twenty feet away from it, an enclosed space with barely any vent in it, and I nearly couldn't breathe because of the stench.
I even had to fight down my breakfast the very first moment my nose was assaulted with this smell, and if looked over the faces of those standing closer to the locker, it became clear they underwent something similar, their green faces were proof enough.
I stuffed those earplugs into my nostrils, handed my backpack over to Emma, and leaned on the locker on the opposite side of the hallway facing Heberts locker.
A few seconds after I was in place, Hebert rounded the corner. She immediately noticed Emma and her followers spread throughout the hallway. I could see the exact moment her feeble mind goes into overdrive. I noticed how fear crept into her body, and her movement became rigid, but she kept going. No doubt telling herself she was imagining it. Although, by now, her instinct should scream at her that she was walking directly to the slaughterhouse. Worthless prey always sensed when their time has come.
I could see how she tried to defy her very nature, to be something she wasn't like the animals who made themselves bigger to look more intimidating, a useless attempt nothing more. A true predator needed one short glance to look past this illusion, and she knew this. She knew we are aware of her bravado, aware that she was nothing but a pretender.
Her frightened eyes darted around the room and met mine, just for a fraction of a second until she averted her gaze, even if her mind refused to accept reality her body did. As a result, she tightened the grip around the strap of her bag and forced herself to continue walking with an unsteady pace to her locker.
The vicious grins on the faces of the people surrounding her set her even more on edge. I could practically feel her increasing apprehension every time she came one step closer to her target.
My body trembled in anticipation of what I hoped to follow. I had to cross my arms to not give it away.
Suddenly she grimaced, must be close enough to smell her present. I noticed how a little of the tension drained out of her frame. I had to suppress laughing. I have seen this dozen of times, prey who was confronted with the unknown reducing their state of alarm the moment they think the world started making sense again, that the threat was something known.
I wondered what she thought we were here for. It Could be she believed we were all here to see her reaction to whatever was in her locker and giving off this smell and was therefore letting her guard down.
It made a certain kind of sense if her suspicion were correct, and that was the reason we were here for. In that case, she indeed would no longer be in danger.
Stupid Pretender, if she would accept her role in life; as sheep, she would know that a sheep could never allow herself to let her guard down in the presence of a predator.
I smirked, something Taylor was unable to see with her back turned my way, inviting me to take advantage of that. She placed her bag on the floor and starting fumbling with her lock while holding her nose with the other one. I doubted that anybody could get close to the locker, otherwise. She was no exception, not yet at least. I wondered if that was still true after this day was over. My smirk took on predatory traits in anticipation of what would follow.
I detached myself from the locker I was leaning against and sneaked behind Taylor. She didn't even notice when I came to a stop standing directly behind her. My fear the barely stifled laughter around her would somehow tip her off turned out to be unfounded. She stayed completely oblivious to my presence.
I waited till she opened her locker ready to pounce on her and shove her inside, when she suddenly bent down and started to puke her soul out of her body, right on top of the skittering bugs and toxic waste that fell out of it. I was startled by her sudden movement, which cost me the opportunity to stuff her inside.
Because it would be near impossible to get her inside while she was leaning forward with one hand on the locker door. The locker just didn't have the depth to allow for that. So I had to wait till she was done losing her breakfast and was in the process to right herself after she wiped her mouth with the hand she had on the locker door. That was the exact moment I made my move, still dizzy with her back turned and her hands close to her body.
It was nearly effortlessly; a short shove while she was distracted, and she lost her balance pretty much stumbling inside. She was so surprised she didn't even have time to fight back, not that I would have given her the chance to do try.
She fit in perfectly and before her mind fully realized what happened and she was able to shake off the dizziness from when she hit her head, I had already closed the locker door behind her and locked it.
There was a moment of complete silence in the hallway until the minds of Emma and her followers were done processing what just took place right before their eyes. Followed by utter Pandemonium, in which they all started to laugh like crazy.
They were nearly loud enough to drown out the pathetic pleading crying, and begging of Hebert. I could even hear her retching and puking. Disgusting, what an utter waste of space.
I hit the locker a few times to get her attention.
"That's what you get, for not knowing your place in life. Consider this a lesson to get yourself accustomed to your equals, you maggot. We will come by throughout the day to check if you have learned your lesson. See ya, Hebert."
I turned around to Emma grinning like a Chesire cat.
"That went even better than in my wildest imagination."
She took Taylor's bag and held it up for inspection, and said with her sweet voice, she usually only used to play up her act of innocent maiden. "I wonder what we should do with this. Perhaps we should search for the owner. There is no way poor little Taylor owns something nice like this. If we are in luck, he or she won't even press charges."
Some of the girls who inched closer to us at the last minute snickered at her words.
"Sometimes I wonder what would become of Taylor without friends like us," she added. I had to give it to her; she was a master of her art. I doubted there was anyone who excelled at this like she did.
We enjoyed the simpering sounds emanating from the locker until the first ring of the bell heralding that classes were about to start. On the way to the classroom, we come across our locker, and Emma decided to stash Taylor's bag in hers, to give her more time to think of a fitting way to dispose of it.
We parted ways and went to our respective classes. Nearing the door to my class my mood already started to plummet, because it meant two hours of listening to boring history, yeah.
I made my way to my seat next to the window ignoring my classmates, even those gratulating me to a "prank" well done. I sat down and took out a pen, my notes, and my phone. At least texting with Emma during the lesson might help in enduring Gonzales's lessons and prevent me from going crazy.
Winslow being the shit hole it is, it is to be expected for their teachers to fit right in. But that shouldn't be an excuse for the school to let Gonzales students suffer through hours and hours of his incoherent babbling. Fucking drunks. He was even more pathetic than Hebert; a weak-ass addict.
After half an hour of mind-numbing background noises and a lot of texting with Emma. The ground rumbled slightly, immediately followed by a loud bang. Not a second later, my other phone vibrated. I lost not a second of time tipped in my pin and scanned my thumbprint. The message displayed showed a code blue, and with that, I was sure there was a God. Without delay, I stood up and moved towards the door while I said.
"Mr. Gonzales, I have to go to the bathroom"
I didn't wait for his permission, let alone a response. Leaving the classroom, I started running towards the janitor's storage room, where a costume and equipment was hidden inside the wall.
I brought my PRT issued phone to my ear and called the console. I needed to know what was going on.
"Shadow Stalker here ID-Code Sulu Sulu 4178"
"Acknowledged," was the immediate response I received. "There is a
Parahuman alteration between the Incredibles, and various E88 capes near Winslow High. The Protectorate is trying to contain the fight but the nearest member is at least five minutes out. Meaning you are on your own for the moment. The school is informed of the situation as we speak and the principal will notify the school shortly of the impending danger."
"They are told to evacuate the school through the West entrance." The voice I didn't recognize went on to explain. "This places them on the opposite side of their approach vector with the school buildings between them. You are to take the Overwatch position. If the fight gets within a hundred meters of Winslow High you are authorized to engage. Your priority is the safekeeping of the civilians. You are hereby ordered, to try to lure them away. Should that prove to be not a feasible option, you need to keep them occupied and stall them long enough for the Protectorate to arrive. Keep in mind that above all else, you are to prevent them from reaching the civilians. Do not under any circumstances initiate a confrontation outside of these parameters."
Yeah, yeah, I know. Do everything but those things that are fun.
My response was brief.
"Understood -"
I put my phone away, and a short use of my power later, my clothes fell to the floor around me, and I was standing in nothing but my underwear. I grabbed my costume and put it on as fast as I could. When I was done, I activated the radio embedded in the mask and connected to the console, not that it will do me much good for quite some time with me being alone here, but at least I would know when Halbbeard was arriving.
I used the fact that I was nearly weightless in my breaker state and jumped upwards. Shortly after I left the ground, I went shadow and glided through the ceiling. I repeated this two more times and found myself on the roof near a corner of the building, with a great panoptic view east.
I didn't even have to search for the fight. A blind and deaf idiot could have found it, like those too dumb to breathe idiots who called themselves the Incredibles. Seriously, who in his right mind uses a grenade launcher during a car chase.
They turned into Lincoln, which led directly to Winslow's parking place, meanwhile firing grenades from on top of the pick-up truck. They hit everywhere, and everything save the intended target, which turned out to be Hookwolf in his wolf-form giving chase.
Didn't expect that, to be honest. I knew from the briefings that those Incredible guys are group wandering capes and not by choice. After seeing this, I was not surprised. I couldn't believe it when their modus operandi was mentioned, go somewhere piss off the local gangs in a stupid attempt to make some cash, and flee before they are found and crucified in the most painful way possible. If they acted this way everywhere they went, how were those idiots still alive? It had to be luck, plain and simple. There was just no other explanation.
Well, at least the few other cars on the road were quick on the uptake and moved themselves out of the line of fire.
It seemed their luck was running out since Hookwolf wasn't the only one following them. Behind him, two SUVs fully maned with guys were shooting at the pick-up truck, and they must have hit one of the tires. Because the truck started to slow down, and the driver was having problems controlling it.
They drove right through the small flower bed and straight through the bushes surrounding the parking area, and crashed right into one of the parked cars there. A few seconds later, they rushed out of the car, as far as I could tell uninjured. But now with, the E88 breathing down their necks and coming closer, they panicked.
At least what they did before had a resemblance of sanity. Turned headless chicken, they shouted at each other and started blindly shooting grenades behind themselves, not bothering to aim, let alone look.
Given their state, I was surprised to see them dragging along a few duffle bags. Idiots, this would only slow them down.
This stupidity was only surpassed by the fact that they were running right towards the school. Every cape except for the absolute nutcases would think twice before bringing a war within a school because that was the express train towards a kill order.
Well, if they wanted to die. I was more than happy to help them along, and if this had the side-effect to permanently remove them from the gen-pool, who am I to complain.
I readied my crossbow and took aim.
"Shadow Stalker here, the Incredibles have breached the Perimeter of the school. They are in the possession of heavy ordnance and are using it, to little effect against their pursuers. Which are lead by Hookwolf with at least half a dozen armed Nazi in tow. So far, I haven't seen any other E88 capes. I have a clear shot at the Incredibles and Hookwolf, but my window of opportunity is closing fast. I have no anti-brute ammunition on hand, and everything short off phased bolts will not even stop them for a second. What are my orders?"
"Armsmaster here, you are authorized to use phased bolts, but you are to refrain from shooting at vital areas, incapacitating shots aimed towards extremities only."
"Acknowledged"
Let the fun begin.
My first bolt swayed slightly to the left due to the mild wind and only graced the guy calling himself Werewolf.
I compensated for the wind in my second shot and nailed this guy's right in his knee. He fell to the ground with a piercing scream while firing a grenade. The grenade bounced on the pavement and hit a car in between us, and exploded. The car and one on either side went up in dark flames, which took away my sight. Damn.
I had to relocate to a different position. I started running towards the ledge, jumped, and went shadow.
With the speed, I had gathered, and the wind I caught with my cape, it was easy to glide over to the adjacent building.
I rolled off my momentum on the roof sprinted towards the ledge. If I was fast enough, they should still be below. I was hoping that they didn't reach the building in that short amount of time; Shooting on something from an above angle was a pain. Before I even had to tackle this potential problem, I lost my footing and was thrown to the ground from the shaking building and the shockwave that hit me.
I had barely enough time to realize that they returned my fire. The grenade hit the building just below the roof, no doubt taking out a good chunk of the building. I was still reeling as another shake went through it.
They must have fired again. This time the explosion was nowhere near me; they must have fired at the ground floor. Why?
I stood up and made my way to the ledge. I saw a glimpse of Hookwolf as he went inside the building through a hole a grenade must have punched in the wall. Not far behind, following his lead were Crusader and Stormtiger together with a bunch of gangbangers
I grabbed my crossbow switched the ammunition from lethal back to tranquilizer and started shooting. I didn't get a clear shot at any of the two capes, but that didn't matter anyway, because a strong gust of wind deflected my bolts. My failed attempt brought me Crusader's notice. He didn't hesitate and summoned a few ghosts and sent them my way.
I took a few steps back from the ledge to break the line of sight and phased through the floor. I was flirting with the idea to walk to the window and shoot at them again. But I doubted this would get any results with Stormtiger there, I wouldn't even be able to pin them down, let alone take them down. He would just keep deflecting my bolts until my ammunition would run out.
And melee was out, Crusader with his ghost was far too dangerous for me to confront. Not only didn't I have a clue if my shadow state would protect me from them. Then there were their numbers, given how numerous they were, not just Crusaders Ghost, I could get surrounded, and since I couldn't stay in my breaker state indefinitely. I'd rather not risk it, especially with Stormtiger there, too.
He was probably the worst match-up for me there is in the Bay, short of Grue. Because in my breaker state. I would be no different from a leaf in his wind.
So I had to find another way to take them on. I decided to try for an ambush. I walked through the wall behind me and away from the windows. In the next room, I phased through the floors until I arrived on the ground level.
During that time, I called to mind the layout of this building in search of a good vantage point granting cover. That was when I realized that I was in the building with the lockers. The lockers we put Hebert inside, and they happened to be located in the same hallway, they entered the building.
Fuck – This dumb Bitch was only trouble. If she didn't die in the crossfire, I was killing her myself. After this was all over and I could make sure that nothing was pointing in my direction. For now, I had damage control to do.
I couldn't even finish the thought when I heard gunfire and the sound of metal being dragged along the pavement.
I located the sounds and was confident that they were fighting behind the wall I was standing in front of. If I phased through this wall, I would emerge with lockers to my back. If I wasn't wrong Hebert's locker should be around 40 feet to the right from my entry point. Another few dozen feet away from that on the other side of the hallway should be the hole the grenade blew in the wall.
Going by the muffled sounds I heard from the other side of the wall, the fight had to take place a dozen feet to my left. This meant that I would emerge right in their midst or near them. If I was fast, I was convinced that I could take a few of them out before they even noticed I was there. And by the time they did, I would have stepped back through the wall.
I took a moment with my tinker-tech lenses to make sure there was no power line in the wall before phased through, my crossbow ready to fire. As I emerged still intangible, I had the of fraction of a second to get my bearings.
The gangbanger had taken positions at the hole in the wall. Taking potshots at Incredibles, which were tangled up in close-quarter combat against Hookwolf, and as I suspected, it didn't go well for them.
They didn't have the powers to be a threat to Hookwolf. Sure they were all Brute or Changer with Brute sub ratings but not on a level that would allow them to win. All they could do was stall and hope to survive long enough until the situation somehow changed.
What it did, dozens of crusaders ghost phased through the wall opposite of me a few meters to my right. I was also able to make out Stormtiger standing by the gangers. I didn't bother trying to hit them; firing down the hallway towards an Aerokinetic would be futile.
As a result, I shifted my at the ready crossbow and decided to try my luck with Crusader, I couldn't see him, but since all of his ghosts came through the wall, at roughly the same spot, I guessed at his position and fired away. Lethal Bolts at knee height went through the wall.
The scream I heard after my third bolt could only mean that I must have hit something. A second later, all his ghosts vanished into thin air. Unfortunately, not before this guy resembling an upright walking Werewolf with one of my bolts sticking out of his knee fired a grenade at them.
The grenade bounced off the wall and flew towards Stormtiger, my eyes followed the grenade path, and for the first time, I noticed that the lockers on my side of the hallway all looked like they went through a blender. I got a glimpse of Hebert's fingers wiggling out from a slash splitting the metal on her locker. I wasn't given the time to ponder about the implications this had as the grenade was redirected my way. I managed to give off a shot at Stormtiger, hoping he would slip up somehow, fully intending to phase back through the wall before the grenade could hit the wall in my immediate surrounding me when the grenade exploded in my face.
I just saw a bright flash and heard a loud bang. Something tugged at me, and I felt like being ripped apart. Then there was darkness.
I came back to my senses only to feel pain like I never did before. My whole body was aching, and I had trouble breathing. It took me a felt eternity until my lungs finally filled with oxygen again, and I no longer was suffocating like a fish on dry land.
I didn't even notice the constant beeping in my ears until I was able to breathe again, it hurt like hell, but I preferred pain over death.
I took in my surroundings. I needed a moment for my eyes to blink out dark spots and for me to recognize and comprehend where I ended up. I was back behind the wall I phased through for my attack. The premature detonation must have launched me through the wall, given the state I was in that probably saved my life. I was so not doing something like that again. My eyes found my crossbow lying on the floor a few feet away from me. It looked as if it weathered my mishaps much better than I did myself.
I waited till my breathing had normalized itself before I tried to stand up. It took me nearly all my concentration to fight of the dizzying spell and not to fall on my ass. Woah, why was the room spinning? I stumbled my way to the nearest wall and used my arms to support myself. I kept leaning against the wall, waiting for the world to stop somersaulting around me.
While I did that, the beeping in my ears subsided, and everything I could hear was the fire alarm and gunfire, judging by its volume it didn't come from the other side of the wall. Speaking of which it needed a serious paint job and a mason. It didn't get destroyed but it bent my way a malformed mess of brick and metal rods.
Shit, what was wrong with me? Why was I staring at a wall? When did I get so pathetic, there were fucking nazis on the other side, and I got a score to settle. No one messed with Shadow Stalker, no one, least of all some Nazi fucks.
I slowly walked over to my crossbow, while doing my best to keep the vertigo in check. I bent down to pick it up and felt a sharp pain in my chest. I stopped mid-movement hissing and waited until the pain faded. Slowly I resumed my movement and carefully rearmed myself. The moment I laid my hands on it, a drop fell on my crossbow. Huh, where came that from?
I righted myself and touched my head. My hand came back with my gloves smeared in dark red liquid. Blood, this must be the reason I had trouble standing, must have a concussion, and severely battered or broken ribs no wonder I had a hard time breathing. This discovery not only reinforced my desire to make them bleed, but my anger started to flare. I checked my crossbow, something that became second nature to me. Good, it was still working; time for some serious payback.
I walk back to the wall, crossbow at ready, and phased through it, fully expecting to find the fight still in progress. To my surprise, the fight was already over.
Most of the lockers were ripped from the walls and spread throughout the hallway. What little there was left of some and their contents decorated the vicinity as if a bomb went off. What it did, if I remembered right. Damn Concussion, it was difficult to form a coherent thought.
I took my time to look around, wouldn't want to be taken by surprise, and with parts of the corridor looking like someone played Jenga with the lockers, it seemed to be a good idea to be cautious. I slowly walked towards the breach in the wall along the corridor, carefully maneuvering around the flames flickering on some flammable objects throughout the hallway.
I smelled it long before I saw it. I walked around the locker, fallen over on top of another one obstructing my view. I remembered this smell of death and decay. It was not the first time I came across it intermingled with something else, a retching smell, there was some part of me that recognized it, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Rounding the locker, I came across a horrifying scene. Two of those Incredible guys ripped apart, having more in common with mincemeat than a human being, were stuffed in the few lockers still standing upright like some kind of grotesque monument.
It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to identify the work of Hookwolf, but there was something else. There, in front of the third incredible, if I remembered right, the biggest one of them, at least while the others didn't transform in their werewolf and werebear forms, was lying motionless on the floor.
He was around 6,8 feet tall and nearly half as broad shaped as a bodybuilder, but that was not what disturbed me. I have seen my fair share of corpses some results of my action. No, it was the figure bent over him, over his upper body panicked doing something to him.
This figure, I refused to call it a human, was clad in grim stuff. Blood, entrails, viscera interspersed with moving little creatures - were those bugs? It looked like something straight out from those Earth-Aleph Horror Movies Emma liked and made me watch with her all the time.
I slowly sneaked closer. I was perhaps five feet apart from that creature when suddenly there was a sound coming from under my foot. I looked down, and I saw bugs crawling on the floor, must have stepped on some and crushed it. When I looked up again I stared into the eyes, of a person on verge of insanity. She, yes it was a she, stared back at me, examined me from head to toe, and without warning started laughing. It was the most hysteric laugh I had ever heard in my life. I was dumbfounded, completely taken off-guard by her reaction then I heard her say
"Of course, that's why the school never did anything. One of my fucking Tormentors is a Ward, a fucking Hero. Isn't that right Sophia." She spat the last word.
That's when my brain seemed to start working again, and I recognized her. Hebert, that was why there were bugs all around us skittering on the floor. Wasn't she the reason I originally came here? At this revelation, a lot of questions started coursing through my head. How the fuck was she not dead? At ground zero of this slaughterhouse.
Short of being a brute, she shouldn't have gotten out of her locker. Suddenly her actions made sense, her torso slightly bopping up and down trying to reanimate this guy. Who even does something like that in her situation?
That was the moment my thoughts came to a screeching halt. she called my Sophia, not Shadow Stalker. How did she know that I was wearing a mask, aren't I?
Alarmed my right-hand moved to my face and touched my skin, instead of the ceramic fiber my mask was made out of. Where is my mask? That's when I noticed that it was missing and my Hoodie was down.
I started to panic adrenaline was pumped into my system. I must have lost in the explosion, most likely ripped from my face myself when I thought to be suffocating. I stopped myself from furthering this thought.
It didn't matter, how I lost it. All that mattered was that out of all people Hebert knew who I was. She wouldn't keep quiet about it, fuck it wasn't enough that this prank could be construed as attempted murder, no I was on probation. I couldn't let her talk. I wouldn't go into prison not now not ever.
Sorry Hebert, but I couldn't allow a worthless creature like you to stand in my way. You should be thankful I would do you a favor and end your miserable life.
I slung my crossbow over my shoulder and skimmed my vicinity. I couldn't kill her with my bolts nor use my powers, that was too distinguishable. Going by the declining noise, the fight outside was winding down, so I didn't have the time to conceal using my power.
There, a mostly loose piece of metal, barely hanging onto the locker door it was once a part of.
It was shaped like a blade, that had to suffice. I grabbed it, and with a strong yank, freed it.
I didn't know what gave it away, but when I turned back to Taylor, her eyes under her fractured glasses had gone wide as saucers. She tried to stand, to get distance between us as fast as possible. But in her panic riddled state, she slipped on the blood on the floor. She fell on top of the guy, she tried to help. That was when I reached her. I grabbed her hair and yanked her away from the corpse, and threw her against a locker.
I suppressed a wince, damn ribs. Luckily, Hebert ran into it face first and hit her head. She seemed to be dazed - Good – I went down on my knee and grabbed her hair with my free hand, holding her in place. My other hand reapplied the grip on the handle of the makeshift knife and readied itself to plunge it in her heart. I waited a moment for the dizziness to fade and her eyes to clear. I wanted to relish the moment she realizes the situation she was in, the hopelessness of it. I wanted to see it when she broke. I wanted her to die with the knowledge that it was me that broke her, that all her struggling she did over the years has been futile, and that I was the one to kill her.
Grinning I said to her,
"A fitting end for a maggot like yourself to die surrounded by thrash."
[Destination]
Huh, what was that? Did I blackout? Oh, right, I was on top of Hebert. I needed to hurry up and kill her before Armsmaster got here.
My eyes refocused, and I stared in eyes lacking a shred of resignation in them. On the contrary, what I saw was the furthest from what I was expecting unwavering determination. A cold feeling spread throughout my body. I could was getting goosebumps. I recognized the feeling responsible, it was fear. I pushed it down. My mind was rejecting the very idea. There was no way that the sheep Hebert could elicit that feeling in anybody, least of all in me. But my instincts served me well in the past. For this reason, I heeded them. After all, it was better to be safe than sorry.
I stabbed at her. Meanwhile, a part of me was regretting not to get to see her squirm beg and break.
Suddenly my whole body froze up. My hand stopped mid-motion, barely a few centimeters away from Hebert's throat. I didn't even have enough time to ask myself, what was happening to me when I felt an indescribable cold spreading from my stomach. It took all my willpower just to move my eyes a bit to look down, to see a black dagger made out of shadow sticking out of it. Buried to the hilt just under my ribcage held in Hebert's right hand. The dagger was undoubtedly the source of this cold feeling, black shadowy liquid flowing out of it spreading across my body. Every part that was encompassed by was lost to my senses as if it no longer was part of my body.
I tried to struggle. I tried to use my powers to phase away. But nothing was working. I was degraded to a spectator of my own slow antagonizing death. That was when my eyes darted back up and I once again look backed into Hebert's eyes. All I saw in them was curiosity. The cold making its way to my head, no longer could I feel my extremities, that was the moment when I was hit with the realization I was going to die.
But I didn't want to die. My eyes began to moist. Unable to speak, my eyes started pleading at Hebert to let me live, to spare me. The only response I got shortly before I lost my sight to the shadow I could see a new expression on her face, one I was familiar with because I wore every time I successfully had hurt her; Satisfaction.
You will see the difference are the timeline and a repeat of the locker scene with a slightly different version of the power I envisioned for Taylor to have - After I wrote it out and didn't like the second chapter very much ... I decided to go with the current version, you all reading this thread, know by now.
I'm aware that some of you might like this version better for whatever reason - I don't - so I got no intention to continue this... If on the other hand, somebody else wants to, feel free to do so...
Chapter 01: The first Followers of the Queen:
Monday morning, the first school day after the winter holidays, under normal circumstances, this would be a day that wouldn't be very popular with the students. I would count myself as being part of those who despised this day because it once more meant being cooped up half the day with a bunch of sheep. Instead of being out there punching the ever-living shit out of this thrash, the gangs were made of.
Well at least this school start won't be as boring as usual, with what we have planned. It might make the start of this headache-inducing routine that is school at least a little bit enjoyable. It wasn't exactly breaking the bones of Nazi enjoyable, but as of late, I was satisfied with the small mercies that made school bearable.
I reached the gates of Winslow High School and could already see Emma waiting at the main entrance. I made my way over to her while pushing through the crowd of people lingering about. On my way, I even got the chance to push one of those drug addict merchants from behind. He impacted his buddy holding a steaming cup of coffee in one of those throwaway coffee mugs. By the time I heard them wail of pain I was already past them.
I grinned; What a good way to start the day. Perhaps, someday they would learn their place and move out of the way for their betters.
A few moments later, I came to a stop next to Emma. She noticed my not so subtle approach and greeted me with a grin of her own. Sometimes I wondered how dull and utter torture school would be without her here. She was the sole person able to understand me in this shit-hole called school and even shared my view of the world. The one person I knew possessing the mindset of an apex predator but unfortunately lacked the ability to act on it.
This wasn't the first time I cursed the universe because of this injustice. Wimps like little Vista got powers and tried to fight Nazis, rapists, and other kinds of criminals with the power of love, rainbows, and their cuteness, and predators like Emma get shafted. Unable to become more than a survivor. Even thinking about it I had to suppress my urge to howl.
Damn, there went my good mood.
I leaned on the wall next to Emma, while she was busy texting, probably putting the finishing touches on our little prank we had planned for Hebert this dumb bitch.
We dwelled that way in silence for a few minutes waiting for our prey to make her appearance. Patience a virtue every predator has to embrace to be successful. But unlike on my nightly outings, I didn't have to wait hours on hours for my bait to make itself known or be found.
I heard Emma next to me say
"Julia just texted me that her bus arrived, and she is making her way to the school gates."
My heart rate increased in joyful anticipation, I turned my head Emma way, and she did the same. We ferally grinned at each other.
I grabbed my backpack from the floor between my legs, and Emma did the same. We made our way directly to the locker.
I noticed that standing at several key junctions were girls Emma was familiar with. Apparently, she followed my advice and posted her - What was a good word to describe those hyenas, followers? Yeah, I would go with that, because to more they were no good for. They would never be anything else than scavengers feeding on the leftovers, true predators left behind – at key locations as lookouts.
We wouldn't want for prey to escape her trap now, would we?
They greeted us by nodding their heads when we passed them. After paying their tribute to their betters, they returned to their task keeping their eyes open. Phones, in their hands, primed to notify us of anything noteworthy.
I would hate it if all our elaborate preparation would go to waste. Knowing Emma, she would have made sure for everyone to know that failure would be something not easily forgiven.
I arrive in the hallway with Hebert's locker in it. There is already a crowd present. I scan their faces and note that those are more of Emma's followers. Good.
Emma addresses them.
"Okay, by my estimate Taylor should be here in one or two minutes. Everybody is in position. No teachers are in the vicinity and if everybody does her job by keeping the teachers away from here. Taylor will have the pleasure to experience what her life holds in store for her a little prematurely. So don't screw this up, we don't wanna rob her of this experience, now would we."
I couldn't stress enough how impressed I was with Emma's ability to direct her followers to do her bidding. If I didn't know any better, I might even suspect her to be a master.
Well, time to get ready. I stuck my hands in my pocket and took out the earplugs I bought for this occasion. A good forethought, if I may say so myself, I knew that the pads tampons and the other things would become something nasty in the span of the holidays in her locker. But even I underestimated it. After all, I stood more than twenty feet away from it, an enclosed space with barely any vent in it, and I nearly couldn't breathe because of the stench.
I even had to fight down my breakfast the very first moment my nose was assaulted with this smell, and if looked over the faces of those standing closer to the locker, it became clear they underwent something similar, their green faces were proof enough.
I stuffed those earplugs into my nostrils, handed my backpack over to Emma, and leaned on the locker on the opposite side of the hallway facing Heberts locker.
A few seconds after I was in place, Hebert rounded the corner. She immediately noticed Emma and her followers spread throughout the hallway. I could see the exact moment her feeble mind goes into overdrive. I noticed how fear crept into her body, and her movement became rigid, but she kept going. No doubt telling herself she was imagining it. Although, by now, her instinct should scream at her that she was walking directly to the slaughterhouse. Worthless prey always sensed when their time has come.
I could see how she tried to defy her very nature, to be something she wasn't like the animals who made themselves bigger to look more intimidating, a useless attempt nothing more. A true predator needed one short glance to look past this illusion, and she knew this. She knew we are aware of her bravado, aware that she was nothing but a pretender.
Her frightened eyes darted around the room and met mine, just for a fraction of a second until she averted her gaze, even if her mind refused to accept reality her body did. As a result, she tightened the grip around the strap of her bag and forced herself to continue walking with an unsteady pace to her locker.
The vicious grins on the faces of the people surrounding her set her even more on edge. I could practically feel her increasing apprehension every time she came one step closer to her target.
My body trembled in anticipation of what I hoped to follow. I had to cross my arms to not give it away.
Suddenly she grimaced, must be close enough to smell her present. I noticed how a little of the tension drained out of her frame. I had to suppress laughing. I have seen this dozen of times, prey who was confronted with the unknown reducing their state of alarm the moment they think the world started making sense again, that the threat was something known.
I wondered what she thought we were here for. It Could be she believed we were all here to see her reaction to whatever was in her locker and giving off this smell and was therefore letting her guard down.
It made a certain kind of sense if her suspicion were correct, and that was the reason we were here for. In that case, she indeed would no longer be in danger.
Stupid Pretender, if she would accept her role in life; as sheep, she would know that a sheep could never allow herself to let her guard down in the presence of a predator.
I smirked, something Taylor was unable to see with her back turned my way, inviting me to take advantage of that. She placed her bag on the floor and starting fumbling with her lock while holding her nose with the other one. I doubted that anybody could get close to the locker, otherwise. She was no exception, not yet at least. I wondered if that was still true after this day was over. My smirk took on predatory traits in anticipation of what would follow.
I detached myself from the locker I was leaning against and sneaked behind Taylor. She didn't even notice when I came to a stop standing directly behind her. My fear the barely stifled laughter around her would somehow tip her off turned out to be unfounded. She stayed completely oblivious to my presence.
I waited till she opened her locker ready to pounce on her and shove her inside, when she suddenly bent down and started to puke her soul out of her body, right on top of the skittering bugs and toxic waste that fell out of it. I was startled by her sudden movement, which cost me the opportunity to stuff her inside.
Because it would be near impossible to get her inside while she was leaning forward with one hand on the locker door. The locker just didn't have the depth to allow for that. So I had to wait till she was done losing her breakfast and was in the process to right herself after she wiped her mouth with the hand she had on the locker door. That was the exact moment I made my move, still dizzy with her back turned and her hands close to her body.
It was nearly effortlessly; a short shove while she was distracted, and she lost her balance pretty much stumbling inside. She was so surprised she didn't even have time to fight back, not that I would have given her the chance to do try.
She fit in perfectly and before her mind fully realized what happened and she was able to shake off the dizziness from when she hit her head, I had already closed the locker door behind her and locked it.
There was a moment of complete silence in the hallway until the minds of Emma and her followers were done processing what just took place right before their eyes. Followed by utter Pandemonium, in which they all started to laugh like crazy.
They were nearly loud enough to drown out the pathetic pleading crying, and begging of Hebert. I could even hear her retching and puking. Disgusting, what an utter waste of space.
I hit the locker a few times to get her attention.
"That's what you get, for not knowing your place in life. Consider this a lesson to get yourself accustomed to your equals, you maggot. We will come by throughout the day to check if you have learned your lesson. See ya, Hebert."
I turned around to Emma grinning like a Chesire cat.
"That went even better than in my wildest imagination."
She took Taylor's bag and held it up for inspection, and said with her sweet voice, she usually only used to play up her act of innocent maiden. "I wonder what we should do with this. Perhaps we should search for the owner. There is no way poor little Taylor owns something nice like this. If we are in luck, he or she won't even press charges."
Some of the girls who inched closer to us at the last minute snickered at her words.
"Sometimes I wonder what would become of Taylor without friends like us," she added. I had to give it to her; she was a master of her art. I doubted there was anyone who excelled at this like she did.
We enjoyed the simpering sounds emanating from the locker until the first ring of the bell heralding that classes were about to start. On the way to the classroom, we come across our locker, and Emma decided to stash Taylor's bag in hers, to give her more time to think of a fitting way to dispose of it.
We parted ways and went to our respective classes. Nearing the door to my class my mood already started to plummet, because it meant two hours of listening to boring history, yeah.
I made my way to my seat next to the window ignoring my classmates, even those gratulating me to a "prank" well done. I sat down and took out a pen, my notes, and my phone. At least texting with Emma during the lesson might help in enduring Gonzales's lessons and prevent me from going crazy.
Winslow being the shit hole it is, it is to be expected for their teachers to fit right in. But that shouldn't be an excuse for the school to let Gonzales students suffer through hours and hours of his incoherent babbling. Fucking drunks. He was even more pathetic than Hebert; a weak-ass addict.
After half an hour of mind-numbing background noises and a lot of texting with Emma. The ground rumbled slightly, immediately followed by a loud bang. Not a second later, my other phone vibrated. I lost not a second of time tipped in my pin and scanned my thumbprint. The message displayed showed a code blue, and with that, I was sure there was a God. Without delay, I stood up and moved towards the door while I said.
"Mr. Gonzales, I have to go to the bathroom"
I didn't wait for his permission, let alone a response. Leaving the classroom, I started running towards the janitor's storage room, where a costume and equipment was hidden inside the wall.
I brought my PRT issued phone to my ear and called the console. I needed to know what was going on.
"Shadow Stalker here ID-Code Sulu Sulu 4178"
"Acknowledged," was the immediate response I received. "There is a
Parahuman alteration between the Incredibles, and various E88 capes near Winslow High. The Protectorate is trying to contain the fight but the nearest member is at least five minutes out. Meaning you are on your own for the moment. The school is informed of the situation as we speak and the principal will notify the school shortly of the impending danger."
"They are told to evacuate the school through the West entrance." The voice I didn't recognize went on to explain. "This places them on the opposite side of their approach vector with the school buildings between them. You are to take the Overwatch position. If the fight gets within a hundred meters of Winslow High you are authorized to engage. Your priority is the safekeeping of the civilians. You are hereby ordered, to try to lure them away. Should that prove to be not a feasible option, you need to keep them occupied and stall them long enough for the Protectorate to arrive. Keep in mind that above all else, you are to prevent them from reaching the civilians. Do not under any circumstances initiate a confrontation outside of these parameters."
Yeah, yeah, I know. Do everything but those things that are fun.
My response was brief.
"Understood -"
I put my phone away, and a short use of my power later, my clothes fell to the floor around me, and I was standing in nothing but my underwear. I grabbed my costume and put it on as fast as I could. When I was done, I activated the radio embedded in the mask and connected to the console, not that it will do me much good for quite some time with me being alone here, but at least I would know when Halbbeard was arriving.
I used the fact that I was nearly weightless in my breaker state and jumped upwards. Shortly after I left the ground, I went shadow and glided through the ceiling. I repeated this two more times and found myself on the roof near a corner of the building, with a great panoptic view east.
I didn't even have to search for the fight. A blind and deaf idiot could have found it, like those too dumb to breathe idiots who called themselves the Incredibles. Seriously, who in his right mind uses a grenade launcher during a car chase.
They turned into Lincoln, which led directly to Winslow's parking place, meanwhile firing grenades from on top of the pick-up truck. They hit everywhere, and everything save the intended target, which turned out to be Hookwolf in his wolf-form giving chase.
Didn't expect that, to be honest. I knew from the briefings that those Incredible guys are group wandering capes and not by choice. After seeing this, I was not surprised. I couldn't believe it when their modus operandi was mentioned, go somewhere piss off the local gangs in a stupid attempt to make some cash, and flee before they are found and crucified in the most painful way possible. If they acted this way everywhere they went, how were those idiots still alive? It had to be luck, plain and simple. There was just no other explanation.
Well, at least the few other cars on the road were quick on the uptake and moved themselves out of the line of fire.
It seemed their luck was running out since Hookwolf wasn't the only one following them. Behind him, two SUVs fully maned with guys were shooting at the pick-up truck, and they must have hit one of the tires. Because the truck started to slow down, and the driver was having problems controlling it.
They drove right through the small flower bed and straight through the bushes surrounding the parking area, and crashed right into one of the parked cars there. A few seconds later, they rushed out of the car, as far as I could tell uninjured. But now with, the E88 breathing down their necks and coming closer, they panicked.
At least what they did before had a resemblance of sanity. Turned headless chicken, they shouted at each other and started blindly shooting grenades behind themselves, not bothering to aim, let alone look.
Given their state, I was surprised to see them dragging along a few duffle bags. Idiots, this would only slow them down.
This stupidity was only surpassed by the fact that they were running right towards the school. Every cape except for the absolute nutcases would think twice before bringing a war within a school because that was the express train towards a kill order.
Well, if they wanted to die. I was more than happy to help them along, and if this had the side-effect to permanently remove them from the gen-pool, who am I to complain.
I readied my crossbow and took aim.
"Shadow Stalker here, the Incredibles have breached the Perimeter of the school. They are in the possession of heavy ordnance and are using it, to little effect against their pursuers. Which are lead by Hookwolf with at least half a dozen armed Nazi in tow. So far, I haven't seen any other E88 capes. I have a clear shot at the Incredibles and Hookwolf, but my window of opportunity is closing fast. I have no anti-brute ammunition on hand, and everything short off phased bolts will not even stop them for a second. What are my orders?"
"Armsmaster here, you are authorized to use phased bolts, but you are to refrain from shooting at vital areas, incapacitating shots aimed towards extremities only."
"Acknowledged"
Let the fun begin.
My first bolt swayed slightly to the left due to the mild wind and only graced the guy calling himself Werewolf.
I compensated for the wind in my second shot and nailed this guy's right in his knee. He fell to the ground with a piercing scream while firing a grenade. The grenade bounced on the pavement and hit a car in between us, and exploded. The car and one on either side went up in dark flames, which took away my sight. Damn.
I had to relocate to a different position. I started running towards the ledge, jumped, and went shadow.
With the speed, I had gathered, and the wind I caught with my cape, it was easy to glide over to the adjacent building.
I rolled off my momentum on the roof sprinted towards the ledge. If I was fast enough, they should still be below. I was hoping that they didn't reach the building in that short amount of time; Shooting on something from an above angle was a pain. Before I even had to tackle this potential problem, I lost my footing and was thrown to the ground from the shaking building and the shockwave that hit me.
I had barely enough time to realize that they returned my fire. The grenade hit the building just below the roof, no doubt taking out a good chunk of the building. I was still reeling as another shake went through it.
They must have fired again. This time the explosion was nowhere near me; they must have fired at the ground floor. Why?
I stood up and made my way to the ledge. I saw a glimpse of Hookwolf as he went inside the building through a hole a grenade must have punched in the wall. Not far behind, following his lead were Crusader and Stormtiger together with a bunch of gangbangers
I grabbed my crossbow switched the ammunition from lethal back to tranquilizer and started shooting. I didn't get a clear shot at any of the two capes, but that didn't matter anyway, because a strong gust of wind deflected my bolts. My failed attempt brought me Crusader's notice. He didn't hesitate and summoned a few ghosts and sent them my way.
I took a few steps back from the ledge to break the line of sight and phased through the floor. I was flirting with the idea to walk to the window and shoot at them again. But I doubted this would get any results with Stormtiger there, I wouldn't even be able to pin them down, let alone take them down. He would just keep deflecting my bolts until my ammunition would run out.
And melee was out, Crusader with his ghost was far too dangerous for me to confront. Not only didn't I have a clue if my shadow state would protect me from them. Then there were their numbers, given how numerous they were, not just Crusaders Ghost, I could get surrounded, and since I couldn't stay in my breaker state indefinitely. I'd rather not risk it, especially with Stormtiger there, too.
He was probably the worst match-up for me there is in the Bay, short of Grue. Because in my breaker state. I would be no different from a leaf in his wind.
So I had to find another way to take them on. I decided to try for an ambush. I walked through the wall behind me and away from the windows. In the next room, I phased through the floors until I arrived on the ground level.
During that time, I called to mind the layout of this building in search of a good vantage point granting cover. That was when I realized that I was in the building with the lockers. The lockers we put Hebert inside, and they happened to be located in the same hallway, they entered the building.
Fuck – This dumb Bitch was only trouble. If she didn't die in the crossfire, I was killing her myself. After this was all over and I could make sure that nothing was pointing in my direction. For now, I had damage control to do.
I couldn't even finish the thought when I heard gunfire and the sound of metal being dragged along the pavement.
I located the sounds and was confident that they were fighting behind the wall I was standing in front of. If I phased through this wall, I would emerge with lockers to my back. If I wasn't wrong Hebert's locker should be around 40 feet to the right from my entry point. Another few dozen feet away from that on the other side of the hallway should be the hole the grenade blew in the wall.
Going by the muffled sounds I heard from the other side of the wall, the fight had to take place a dozen feet to my left. This meant that I would emerge right in their midst or near them. If I was fast, I was convinced that I could take a few of them out before they even noticed I was there. And by the time they did, I would have stepped back through the wall.
I took a moment with my tinker-tech lenses to make sure there was no power line in the wall before phased through, my crossbow ready to fire. As I emerged still intangible, I had the of fraction of a second to get my bearings.
The gangbanger had taken positions at the hole in the wall. Taking potshots at Incredibles, which were tangled up in close-quarter combat against Hookwolf, and as I suspected, it didn't go well for them.
They didn't have the powers to be a threat to Hookwolf. Sure they were all Brute or Changer with Brute sub ratings but not on a level that would allow them to win. All they could do was stall and hope to survive long enough until the situation somehow changed.
What it did, dozens of crusaders ghost phased through the wall opposite of me a few meters to my right. I was also able to make out Stormtiger standing by the gangers. I didn't bother trying to hit them; firing down the hallway towards an Aerokinetic would be futile.
As a result, I shifted my at the ready crossbow and decided to try my luck with Crusader, I couldn't see him, but since all of his ghosts came through the wall, at roughly the same spot, I guessed at his position and fired away. Lethal Bolts at knee height went through the wall.
The scream I heard after my third bolt could only mean that I must have hit something. A second later, all his ghosts vanished into thin air. Unfortunately, not before this guy resembling an upright walking Werewolf with one of my bolts sticking out of his knee fired a grenade at them.
The grenade bounced off the wall and flew towards Stormtiger, my eyes followed the grenade path, and for the first time, I noticed that the lockers on my side of the hallway all looked like they went through a blender. I got a glimpse of Hebert's fingers wiggling out from a slash splitting the metal on her locker. I wasn't given the time to ponder about the implications this had as the grenade was redirected my way. I managed to give off a shot at Stormtiger, hoping he would slip up somehow, fully intending to phase back through the wall before the grenade could hit the wall in my immediate surrounding me when the grenade exploded in my face.
I just saw a bright flash and heard a loud bang. Something tugged at me, and I felt like being ripped apart. Then there was darkness.
I came back to my senses only to feel pain like I never did before. My whole body was aching, and I had trouble breathing. It took me a felt eternity until my lungs finally filled with oxygen again, and I no longer was suffocating like a fish on dry land.
I didn't even notice the constant beeping in my ears until I was able to breathe again, it hurt like hell, but I preferred pain over death.
I took in my surroundings. I needed a moment for my eyes to blink out dark spots and for me to recognize and comprehend where I ended up. I was back behind the wall I phased through for my attack. The premature detonation must have launched me through the wall, given the state I was in that probably saved my life. I was so not doing something like that again. My eyes found my crossbow lying on the floor a few feet away from me. It looked as if it weathered my mishaps much better than I did myself.
I waited till my breathing had normalized itself before I tried to stand up. It took me nearly all my concentration to fight of the dizzying spell and not to fall on my ass. Woah, why was the room spinning? I stumbled my way to the nearest wall and used my arms to support myself. I kept leaning against the wall, waiting for the world to stop somersaulting around me.
While I did that, the beeping in my ears subsided, and everything I could hear was the fire alarm and gunfire, judging by its volume it didn't come from the other side of the wall. Speaking of which it needed a serious paint job and a mason. It didn't get destroyed but it bent my way a malformed mess of brick and metal rods.
Shit, what was wrong with me? Why was I staring at a wall? When did I get so pathetic, there were fucking nazis on the other side, and I got a score to settle. No one messed with Shadow Stalker, no one, least of all some Nazi fucks.
I slowly walked over to my crossbow, while doing my best to keep the vertigo in check. I bent down to pick it up and felt a sharp pain in my chest. I stopped mid-movement hissing and waited until the pain faded. Slowly I resumed my movement and carefully rearmed myself. The moment I laid my hands on it, a drop fell on my crossbow. Huh, where came that from?
I righted myself and touched my head. My hand came back with my gloves smeared in dark red liquid. Blood, this must be the reason I had trouble standing, must have a concussion, and severely battered or broken ribs no wonder I had a hard time breathing. This discovery not only reinforced my desire to make them bleed, but my anger started to flare. I checked my crossbow, something that became second nature to me. Good, it was still working; time for some serious payback.
I walk back to the wall, crossbow at ready, and phased through it, fully expecting to find the fight still in progress. To my surprise, the fight was already over.
Most of the lockers were ripped from the walls and spread throughout the hallway. What little there was left of some and their contents decorated the vicinity as if a bomb went off. What it did, if I remembered right. Damn Concussion, it was difficult to form a coherent thought.
I took my time to look around, wouldn't want to be taken by surprise, and with parts of the corridor looking like someone played Jenga with the lockers, it seemed to be a good idea to be cautious. I slowly walked towards the breach in the wall along the corridor, carefully maneuvering around the flames flickering on some flammable objects throughout the hallway.
I smelled it long before I saw it. I walked around the locker, fallen over on top of another one obstructing my view. I remembered this smell of death and decay. It was not the first time I came across it intermingled with something else, a retching smell, there was some part of me that recognized it, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Rounding the locker, I came across a horrifying scene. Two of those Incredible guys ripped apart, having more in common with mincemeat than a human being, were stuffed in the few lockers still standing upright like some kind of grotesque monument.
It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to identify the work of Hookwolf, but there was something else. There, in front of the third incredible, if I remembered right, the biggest one of them, at least while the others didn't transform in their werewolf and werebear forms, was lying motionless on the floor.
He was around 6,8 feet tall and nearly half as broad shaped as a bodybuilder, but that was not what disturbed me. I have seen my fair share of corpses some results of my action. No, it was the figure bent over him, over his upper body panicked doing something to him.
This figure, I refused to call it a human, was clad in grim stuff. Blood, entrails, viscera interspersed with moving little creatures - were those bugs? It looked like something straight out from those Earth-Aleph Horror Movies Emma liked and made me watch with her all the time.
I slowly sneaked closer. I was perhaps five feet apart from that creature when suddenly there was a sound coming from under my foot. I looked down, and I saw bugs crawling on the floor, must have stepped on some and crushed it. When I looked up again I stared into the eyes, of a person on verge of insanity. She, yes it was a she, stared back at me, examined me from head to toe, and without warning started laughing. It was the most hysteric laugh I had ever heard in my life. I was dumbfounded, completely taken off-guard by her reaction then I heard her say
"Of course, that's why the school never did anything. One of my fucking Tormentors is a Ward, a fucking Hero. Isn't that right Sophia." She spat the last word.
That's when my brain seemed to start working again, and I recognized her. Hebert, that was why there were bugs all around us skittering on the floor. Wasn't she the reason I originally came here? At this revelation, a lot of questions started coursing through my head. How the fuck was she not dead? At ground zero of this slaughterhouse.
Short of being a brute, she shouldn't have gotten out of her locker. Suddenly her actions made sense, her torso slightly bopping up and down trying to reanimate this guy. Who even does something like that in her situation?
That was the moment my thoughts came to a screeching halt. she called my Sophia, not Shadow Stalker. How did she know that I was wearing a mask, aren't I?
Alarmed my right-hand moved to my face and touched my skin, instead of the ceramic fiber my mask was made out of. Where is my mask? That's when I noticed that it was missing and my Hoodie was down.
I started to panic adrenaline was pumped into my system. I must have lost in the explosion, most likely ripped from my face myself when I thought to be suffocating. I stopped myself from furthering this thought.
It didn't matter, how I lost it. All that mattered was that out of all people Hebert knew who I was. She wouldn't keep quiet about it, fuck it wasn't enough that this prank could be construed as attempted murder, no I was on probation. I couldn't let her talk. I wouldn't go into prison not now not ever.
Sorry Hebert, but I couldn't allow a worthless creature like you to stand in my way. You should be thankful I would do you a favor and end your miserable life.
I slung my crossbow over my shoulder and skimmed my vicinity. I couldn't kill her with my bolts nor use my powers, that was too distinguishable. Going by the declining noise, the fight outside was winding down, so I didn't have the time to conceal using my power.
There, a mostly loose piece of metal, barely hanging onto the locker door it was once a part of.
It was shaped like a blade, that had to suffice. I grabbed it, and with a strong yank, freed it.
I didn't know what gave it away, but when I turned back to Taylor, her eyes under her fractured glasses had gone wide as saucers. She tried to stand, to get distance between us as fast as possible. But in her panic riddled state, she slipped on the blood on the floor. She fell on top of the guy, she tried to help. That was when I reached her. I grabbed her hair and yanked her away from the corpse, and threw her against a locker.
I suppressed a wince, damn ribs. Luckily, Hebert ran into it face first and hit her head. She seemed to be dazed - Good – I went down on my knee and grabbed her hair with my free hand, holding her in place. My other hand reapplied the grip on the handle of the makeshift knife and readied itself to plunge it in her heart. I waited a moment for the dizziness to fade and her eyes to clear. I wanted to relish the moment she realizes the situation she was in, the hopelessness of it. I wanted to see it when she broke. I wanted her to die with the knowledge that it was me that broke her, that all her struggling she did over the years has been futile, and that I was the one to kill her.
Grinning I said to her,
"A fitting end for a maggot like yourself to die surrounded by thrash."
[Destination]
Huh, what was that? Did I blackout? Oh, right, I was on top of Hebert. I needed to hurry up and kill her before Armsmaster got here.
My eyes refocused, and I stared in eyes lacking a shred of resignation in them. On the contrary, what I saw was the furthest from what I was expecting unwavering determination. A cold feeling spread throughout my body. I could was getting goosebumps. I recognized the feeling responsible, it was fear. I pushed it down. My mind was rejecting the very idea. There was no way that the sheep Hebert could elicit that feeling in anybody, least of all in me. But my instincts served me well in the past. For this reason, I heeded them. After all, it was better to be safe than sorry.
I stabbed at her. Meanwhile, a part of me was regretting not to get to see her squirm beg and break.
Suddenly my whole body froze up. My hand stopped mid-motion, barely a few centimeters away from Hebert's throat. I didn't even have enough time to ask myself, what was happening to me when I felt an indescribable cold spreading from my stomach. It took all my willpower just to move my eyes a bit to look down, to see a black dagger made out of shadow sticking out of it. Buried to the hilt just under my ribcage held in Hebert's right hand. The dagger was undoubtedly the source of this cold feeling, black shadowy liquid flowing out of it spreading across my body. Every part that was encompassed by was lost to my senses as if it no longer was part of my body.
I tried to struggle. I tried to use my powers to phase away. But nothing was working. I was degraded to a spectator of my own slow antagonizing death. That was when my eyes darted back up and I once again look backed into Hebert's eyes. All I saw in them was curiosity. The cold making its way to my head, no longer could I feel my extremities, that was the moment when I was hit with the realization I was going to die.
But I didn't want to die. My eyes began to moist. Unable to speak, my eyes started pleading at Hebert to let me live, to spare me. The only response I got shortly before I lost my sight to the shadow I could see a new expression on her face, one I was familiar with because I wore every time I successfully had hurt her; Satisfaction.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
ladies
agitation
nurse
seventieth
send
a head
-script-
- Location
- Right next to the butcher's shop.
Truly, he was a great artist. After all, he wrote 'Lick me in my ass', a true classic.
The guy was just a pop star really, and one who thought fart jokes were the funniest thing in the world at that.
That's probably not fair to her. After being together, it's normal for passion to fade. Doesn't mean you don't love each other, or once had that passion.
Someone you had an intense relationship with and then lost keeps that ember burning, which is just how humans tend to work.
It's also what 1.5 triggers like Taylor's are meant for, readjusting if things go wrong. It's probably an Eden shard or something odd is happening.
Or fatal. The Butcher and the Fairy Queen can both permanently move powers, it just requires the current user to die.
What kind of magical cafeteria is this? I've eaten in several hospitals and other cafeterias, and while some were decent they were never 'the best' at anything, if only because the cooks vary.
Nox - An Alternate take on things - chapter 02
Chapter 02 - Friend?
I watched her die. I watched as her body was swallowed by shadow, by my shadow. No, that was not right. I killed her. I killed a human being. I could hear a small part of me trying to justify my actions, telling me it was in self-defense and I was within my right to defend my life even at the cost of another. But a greater part of me knew this wasn't true. I not only killed her; I did it in cold blood.
Sure she tried to kill me and was only inches away from succeeding until I saw something, I was sure of it, but the harder I tried to grasp the memory, the more it eluded me. The next moment I saw how Sophia, no Shadow Stalker was slumped over me, trying to get back her bearings.
I knew that I didn't stand a chance against her. I didn't while she was just the school track star and I certainly didn't against her the superhero. I hoped to get away, but she faster; she was always faster. She constantly caught me whenever I tried to run, to evade their torment. And now it seemed like she was about to catch me for the last time.
I wondered for a second if she somehow saw something too, and that was the reason she out of it until reality caught up, and I realized she was in the process of ending my life. That was when I wished for something, anything to make her stop. If I just had a weapon, I might even manage to do it myself. The next moment my desire was given form, in the shape of a dagger I was suddenly holding in my hand.
I instinctively knew, I somehow created it, this work of Art. I didn't have the time to admire its black shadowy, curved single-edged form without a crossguard, because Shadows Stalker's slack grip tightened once again on my scalp, and I just followed my instincts and rammed the blade in her gut up to the hilt. I expected there to be some kind of resistance, but there was nothing. The blade went in her as if she was made out of air. For a moment, I feared she somehow evaded the attack by becoming intangible.
Until I saw her stop frozen mid-motion, I was barely able to preempt her, the shrapnel in her hand only inches away from tearing into my throat. I could feel how my power was channeled through my dagger into Shadow Stalker. I could feel it restricting her not just her movement but her power as well. I could feel my power invading her, trying to consume, absorb her into myself.
I fought this instinctual behavior of my power displayed and slowed the process down. I needed time to think, to figure out what was going on and what I should do. My mind drifted back to who it was I had at my mercy. Sophia fucking Hess, Shadow Stalker the alleged Hero one of the Bitches three, the person who tried to kill me twice today.
I slightly loosened the grip I had on her, not enough for her to wiggle with her pinky or to use her power just enough to allow her to move her eyeballs. I wanted her to see what she forced me to do. I wanted her to feel what I felt, the fear, the helplessness. I wanted her to experience, how it was like to be at the mercy of somebody else; to be at the mercy of me.
Her eyes darted from my blade back to my face, and I could see that she felt all of this and more, the tears forming in her eyes were proof of this. Satisfied with this outcome, I no longer fought against my power, against the inevitable, and let her be consumed.
I could justify my actions in hundreds of different ways, could argue she deserved worse alone for stashing me in the locker, for ignoring a person in need. I could blame the fact that I witnessed Hookwolf torture three other parahumans to death right in front of me for my actions. The impotence I felt as I had to watch this, their life and death struggle, their pleading for help for, mercy both of which I wasn't able to provide, while I was fighting for my life.
Hold prisoner in a metal cage no six feet away, together with a countless number of bugs. They used the rips in the metal the confrontation inflicted upon my prison to flee towards freedom. All the while, I was forced to watch through the same slashes.
Oh my God, if I hadn't already emptied my stomach five times over, I would do it again at the memory of what he did. But nothing came out, not even bile.
I could justify this as a momentary lapse of judgment, craziness, there were so many ways to shift blame, but I didn't.
I knew exactly why I did it. There was no need to sugarcoat it, to lie to myself. It was pure unadulterated revenge, born out of the anger and hate I kept under control for a year and half that moments ago saw the daylight for the very first time.
I tried to better than them. I wanted to keep the moral high ground, let them come, I thought. They could shove me, they could belittle me, they could destroy my property, but they couldn't defeat or break me.
I was wrong because, in the end, they did. They made me lash out, and as a result, I killed one of them. I hope you have ample time to enjoy your win. I said to myself, staring at the spot Sophia vanished.
Despite what I went through, nearly dying a dozen times over in the span of one morning, my would-be murderer would never hurt anybody ever again; I made sure of that.
Still, this, what some would deem a victory of sorts, felt more shallow than the worst defeat. Perhaps this had something to do with the poor state my body was in.
But this whole ordeal helped me realize something; you had to fight for yourself. You couldn't just hope to be saved by others. You had to do it yourself, and with this, I took my first step in that direction. No more being walked over by everyone.
I tried to stand up. It took me three tries to succeed. My legs are barely able to support my weight, my whole body hurt, even my hair.
I took a careful step forward towards the dead big African American guy still lying there. I managed one step before I stumbled. I didn't know if I slipped on something lying on the floor, or if my legs weren't as strong as I thought them to be. I fully expected to fall on my ass, when I felt strong arms wrap around my midsection and steadying me.
I had a thank you on my lips, which died in my throat the moment I saw the bare underarm of the person holding me around my waist. It was black, not the skin color black, no the absence of light black like the dagger I was somehow still holding in my hand.
I steadied myself and turned around, and nearly got a heart attack.
Standing right next to me was a nude darker than night exact copy of Sophia Hess. She was emitting subtle wisps of this black shadow and essentially stood at attention before me.
What the Hell. I backtracked the events. I remembered feeling a surge of energy as Shadow Stalker was swallowed by my shadows.
Was her somehow becoming part of me the source of this feeling, some kind of bodily reward like eating chocolate?
I shuddered at the thought of having a power that lets me feel elevated by - what exactly did it reward? Was it the killing, or was it absorbing people? - Despite this dampener to my powers, I had to find out what is going on.
I opened my mind to the constant tugging I noticed since I killed Sophia. Immediately, I was flooded with impressions of Shadow Stalker, or what once was her. I noticed that she was barely sentient, not dumb exactly, more like lacking an agency but dumber nonetheless, not that it was a big loss. Sophia never was what you would call smart, but now it was more akin to perhaps a smart dog, no more similar to a wolf, if it was to be believed, what I read about them.
There was more; mostly her feelings. She was made up of hate and anger, so much anger, what, on the other hand, surprised me was that the largest part was unwavering Loyalty towards me. Made sense, even though Shadow Stalker was the origin of this shadow, all things considered, she was a creature of my making.
I dived deeper, and without expending any effort, I was in full control, of her body and her senses; everything was mine to do with as I pleased. I retreat without a moment's notice and recognized regret at this action from her, my shadow, but it was just too disturbing to see myself covered from head to toe in blood grime, dead bugs, and remnants of female hygiene products sticking to parts of my clothes.
I handed my shadow dagger over to Shadow Sophia, which I started duping as Assassin in my head to prevent confusing myself, at least for the moment, this had to suffice. Until I came up with something better. Naming was never my strong suit, but given what I know of Shadow Stalker and Sophia. It was a far more apt description of her than the name she duped herself with ever could be.
There was something else I discovered while I opened myself to my power. I could sense various; I think light would be an apt description around me in varying sizes. The position of the largest three coincided with the location of the dead capes while the small ones were for the most part located inside my locker. Curious about this, I made the last step towards the corpse of the big guy I was unable to save. I knelt down next to him and looked one last time at him, repressing the memories of watching his insides being stuffed with metal Hookwolf excreted when he noticed he was unable to do any damage to him before I finally touched him.
I could feel my power establishing a connection to this light I sensed. My power slowly but steadily enveloped and absorbed it, and the next thing I knew. The light changed color from a yellow to the pitch-black of my shadow as it became a part of me, like Sophia before him. Meanwhile, my eyes saw the corpse being swallowed by shadow like it happened with Sophia.
I concentrated on this new part of me and, with a slight push, in front of me materialized a naked version of the corpse. No, the word materializing would do the process, I witnessed no justice. He alighted from the shadows on the floor as if his body was slowly formed out of it. He basically grew out of the shadow. I was so distracted by this sight, that I nearly missed the feeling of elevation I experienced, the moment the light became part of me.
I was given no time to admire the sight because the sounds of the fight outside started to ebb. Which meant my time was running out. I hurried over to what was left of the other two parahumans and repeated this process, this time, I didn't prolong this process in an attempt to gain a sliver of understanding. When I was done with them, I thought of my next course of action.
I didn't think being found out to be a cape in the first five minutes of becoming one, was a good idea. Not that I had the slightest clue on how to prevent it. After all, I was standing in a hallway together with four naked people made out of shadows.
I couldn't even finish that thought when suddenly all of them melted into shadows on the floor and made their way towards mine and hid in it. I examined my shadow very closely, but I couldn't see any difference. If I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that they were there.
Good, that took care of one of my immediate problems, but I was still standing in this hallway. Clothed in blood and toxic waste, not exactly inconspicuous. Even if I could somehow prevent myself from being seen while leaving here, I would create an easy to follow trail. As a result, it would only be a matter of time for someone to find me and ask questions at best delay the inevitable; someone making a connection to 4 capes disappearing and myself.
Since I sure as hell didn't want to be part of an organization Sophia Hess was part of; For all, I knew they enabled her.
What brought me to my next point of concern, wouldn't they suspect the girl tortured by Sophia as the most likely culprit behind her disappearance? Shit.
I looked around, hoping to find something that could help me, and for once, it seemed luck was on my side, where I spotted a bandolier half full with cylindrical objects. I have watched enough movies to identify them as grenades. Perfect with the small fires spread around, it shouldn't be too suspicious if the grenades left behind by those parahumans were to explode.
And if they had to dig through tons of rubble to find anything, all the better. A plan was forming in my head; on how to place the grenades evenly spread throughout the corridor to maximize destruction. Before I could set my plan in motion, I heard footsteps from someone running, and they were getting closer. Damn.
I didn't have any time to curse my bad luck. The newcomer turning the corner didn't need to look for me, as I was standing in plain sight right in the middle of the hallway; It was impossible not to see me.
The girl I came face to face with, was of Asian descent around my age. She wore slim black jeans enunciating her legs and a black long-sleeved top. She had black straight shoulder-length loose hair, which was accentuated with silver streaks in it getting more numerous the further away they were from her head. It somehow looked like her hair was aging along its length, and gave her some kind of exotic vibe. I couldn't help but be reminded of a vampire when looking at her, her dark eyelashes pale skin and dark lipstick only reinforced this impression.
"Hi, you must be Taylor right," she said in a strangely melodic voice. Before she could continue her mind seemed to catch up with her mouth. "Oh my god, what happened to you?"
She didn't give me time to answer, and frankly, I was not sure my voice was in any condition to, having screamed myself hoarse the first few minutes in the locker. I doubted I would be able to get out
anything coherent. The pervasive taste of vomit in my mouth didn't exactly encourage me to even think about using my voice or mouth for anything, really. It was hard enough as it was to blank out those sensations.
"Not important," she changed the topic with some urgency. "We have to get out of here. Crusader is fighting directly outside of the building against the police. We need to move. Come on."
She grabbed my arm, clearly suppressing her discomfort at touching me, not something I could blame her for, given the state I was in. Honestly, I was more than a little surprised that this total stranger was willing to do that at all.
She dragged me away from the hallway, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure she didn't go too fast, and I could keep up with her.
I sidelined the questions I had regarding the behavior and willingness of this girl to help me the Pariah of this school and dedicated my thoughts to my immediate problem; Erasing all traces of what happened in the hallway and my involvement in it.
I couldn't go back there without raising any suspicion with this girl, but I somehow had to. Otherwise, I would be found out. But did I have to? I now had powers. I could just send some of my shadows to do the deed.
I waited until this girl was dragging me around another corner and was facing forward when I sent Assassin as a shadow out of my shadow to trail back to where we came from.
I immersed myself in her senses and steered her back. It was quite interesting to get her sensory input while she was a two-dimensional construct. The way she perceived the world in that state was alien.
It took Assassin mere seconds to reach the Bandolier lying in the Hallway. I fully materialized her body had her grab those grenades. Under my instructions, she then proceeded to loosen them from the Bandolier and carefully placed them near those small fires throughout the hallway.
She used the paper from a notepad, she found in the midst of this destruction to make a makeshift slow match leading from the fire to the grenades.
Hopefully, this would be enough to get them to explode and do enough damage that my presence would be erased; or at least muddle the traces enough for them to not outright lead to me. At worst, I hoped that it would buy me time.
I was about to place the last grenade when Assassin saw a white flash, and I felt the whole building shake. The Grenades, some of them must have exploded prematurely. Creating a chain reaction in which all of them exploded, and Assassin was right next to it. Did I kill her? No, there was still something there. I could still feel the tether that connected me to her, but she was fragmented.
I tried to draw those fragments back to me and to put them back together. It seemed possible, but there was something else. The way those fragments were trying to get something from me. It was hard to describe, but I was reasonably sure they were somehow asking for permission. I was at a loss for what they were exactly asking for, but I saw no reason to deny their request.
In the next moment, I felt like somebody kicked me in my gut with all their strength. Suddenly I felt drained of a substantial part of my remaining energy. I was already weakened and had trouble just walking straight after my ordeal despite the good absorbing those capes did. But now I even lost that. I was completely sapped of my strength, barely able to even move let alone to walk.
I stumbled, lacking the strength to lift my foot off the ground, getting caught in my other foot. I nearly fell to my knees, only bracing myself against the wall prevented worse. Something that didn't go unnoticed. The girl dragging me along got a worrying look on her face.
"Is everything alright?" she asked concerned "Can you keep going we have to get as far away as possible from whatever this was?"
The glances she cast back at irregular intervals made it clear she was frightened. The explosion I caused only heightened her fears.
I nodded at her, which didn't stop her from examining me for a moment, and then added.
"Are you sure? We can take a break and hide here somewhere until you are feeling?"
I shook my head. She accepted my denial and lead me towards the gym. This time at a more sedate pace.
I didn't question her. I was too occupied with what I learned about my power. Apparently, I was able to regenerate my shadows to full health should they ever be destroyed, but it was something that weakened me considerably. Good to know. I ordered the two-dimensional form of Assassin to return to me. She dissolved under the debris that once was the Hallway, and spawned in my shadow.
This also cost me dearly, not nearly the same amount it took me to regenerate her.
But it added up, with the weakened state my body left in after I was finally able to free myself from the locker. I was on my very last leg. I had to be careful or I would pass out. The girl brought me to the gym and literally dragged me inside a shower stall.
"You don't happen to have a locker with some clothes and other stuff around here?"
I shook my head at her inquiry. Since my late mother's flute, one of the last mementos I possessed of her went missing from inside my locker. As a result, I no longer trusted school lockers with any of my stuff and avoided using them as much as possible. Since then I only ever stashed easy to replace things in them and then only for short periods of time. Funny how that turned out, instead of damaging the things I left in the locker, they... no, I was not going there.
"Okay, nothing we can't handle. You should get cleaned up. While you do that, I'll see what I can scavenge," she said. "I should have a fresh towel here somewhere, and I might be able to find something for you to wear."
She paused a moment looking me over.
"I hope you weren't too attached to those clothes because I don't think they will be good for anything else than fuel for a fire. Considering how abyssal they smell we really should burn them to prevent a disease outbreak. For the same reason, you should hurry to get out of those clothes and clean yourself as thoroughly as possible. Leave the rest to me. There has to at least be a tracksuit in your size around here somewhere since I sincerely doubt mine will fit you. We will leave that as a last resort."
With those words, she closed the stall doors behind me and left for her scavenger hunt.
For a moment, I pondered what to do and was wondering if this could be the next stage in Emma's prank. It would be easy to humiliate me further while being naked in the shower with no clothes left but discarded that thought near instantly. I didn't doubt that they were able to come up with something like this, but that they somehow found someone who would be willing to walk into or close to a cape fight to initiate this stage of their plan that I couldn't believe for a second. And so far, this girl whose name I still didn't know seemed trustworthy.
I decided to still keep my guard up around her, it wouldn't be the first time that someone approached me intending to befriend me only to stab me in the back in the cruelest way possible a few weeks later for shit's and giggles, all on the behalf of Emma.
Back then, I decided, to never let myself get deceived like that again, and I intended to uphold that silent vow I gave myself.
I started the shower and tried to get out of my clothes, an undertaking that was far more difficult than it sounded. With my vomit, grime, blood, and other fluids, I didn't want to even think about soaking my clothes, they stuck to my body as if glued to it. It took me considerable effort to get them off me. I even had to literally rip some parts of my skin.
When I finally got rid of them, I was so exhausted I barely could keep standing. I leaned against the stall and just enjoyed the warm water pouring over my body. I didn't know how long I stood there, eyes closed, allowing the water to wash away not only the dirt but also my worries. I was not only physically near the end of the rope but also mentally and emotionally drained. The day hadn't even really started yet, and I was ready to go to bed and sleep for a month straight. Thus I would just gonna stay put for a little while longer...
I didn't even notice that I was drifting into sleep until the voice speaking to me brought me back from twilight state.
"Here, a fresh towel, and I even found shower gel, don't hold back with it, use as much as you need to really get clean. So you can feel like a human once more."
She laid the towel on top of the stall and held the shower gel over it, waiting for me to take it. I pushed myself from the ground and had to fight off a dizzying spell to grab it and then followed her suggestions.
I scrubbed myself clean, like never before in my life, I was certain I lost the few layers of skin left by peeling the clothes from my skin in the process. The most time-intensive thing to get clean was my hair if you could still call it that after I was done with it because there were things entangled within it in ways that made it necessary to rip it out in no small amount.
This was probably the one thing that happened to me on this day that I regretted the most. I always loved my black curly beautiful hair, the one redeeming feature in my looks that saved me from being ugly. The one thing I cultivated in memory of dead mother, who wore her hair the same.
If I had any tears still left in me on this day, I would shed them until there were none left. But burned out as I was, I just took notice that I had to regrow them.
After what felt like an eternity being in the shower, I deemed myself cleaned and no longer felt the urge to start scrubbing myself over and over again. I took the towel and dried myself, and left my discarded clothes in the corner of the stall. I had to return for them at some point, but I didn't want to get near them or even touch them with my bare skin if I could help it.
I grabbed everything that wasn't a lost cause I had on consisting of my glasses, my wallet, and my keys, and stepped out into the changing room, with a towel coiled around my body, prepared for the worst-case scenario. Emma and friends being there waiting for me.
What I encountered instead was the girl. She had an assortment of clothes, a first aid kit, and a bottle of water, which she offered to me. I tried to thank her and suspected only a croak left my mouth. Instead of the thank you, I intended even I had trouble identifying it as such.
I took a sip of water and only realized how much I needed that as it ran down my throat. I nearly emptied the bottle without a break just to still my thirst.
The girl prompted me to sit down on one of the benches.
"We have to take care of your wounds, clean them to prevent an infection. We also have to make sure you aren't seriously hurt."
She opened the First aid kit, and after examing my wounds, consisting of a laundry list of things, lacerations, bug bites, bruises in different shades, she started to clean and disinfect them. I forgot how much it stung to get a wound disinfected. It didn't help that most cuts were on my hands, where the nerves were the most sensitive. After she finished bandaging me, I felt and looked like a mummy.
My hands and arms were wrapped up to my elbows. I had a bruise on the back-off my head from where Shadow Stalker threw me against a locker. There were a lot of other bruises, too. Mostly on my torso from when the locker was caught in the explosion, which gave the girl the excuse to wrap bandages around my midsection also. I was able to dissuade her from doing the same to my head.
When she was satisfied with playing doctor, she shifted her attention to the pile of clothes. At certain intervals, she held some piece of cloth in the air in front of me, to more often than not discard it with unintelligible mumbling. The more time elapsed, the smaller the pile in front of her got, until only a tracksuit boxershorts t-shirt, and a pair of socks were left.
"I'm really sorry, but it seems like you have to make do with this. As it seemed, I obviously only have the locker combination from girls a lot shorter than you."
Is she really telling me she got those clothes by stealing from lockers? I looked at her incredulously. She returned my look without a completely straight face that gave nothing away. She held my gaze for ten seconds until cracks appeared in her countenance, a twitch here and there till she broke down laughing.
It took her quite some time to get back her bearings, and while she was wiping away tears she said.
"You are hilarious, you know. You really thought I stole those clothes, did you? Don't worry those things belong to friends of mine. We shared our gym locker combinations with each other after one of us forgot to bring some essentials, and since we don't share P.E. with one another we thought it was a good idea, at least better than the alternative. They won't mind."
She then took the clothes and held them out to me. And in the most dramatic way possible she said.
"You, my friend get to choose, the towel of barely contained modesty or the tracksuit of bad fashion sense; the choice is yours."
Meanwhile, she did her best to suppress the grin, which was threatening to destroy the deadpan stare she sent my way. It was hard not to get infected by her antics, no matter how much I would have loved to join in, trust no longer came easy for me, and with everything else I had on my plate, I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
I took the clothes from her and motioned for her to turn around. What prompted her to pout, but still followed my request.
I dressed myself, and I had to concede she knew her way around clothes. They fit, barely, but I was not in a situation to be picky. I touched her shoulder to let her know that I finished.
She turned around with a smile on her face.
"And the curse was lifted from the mummy princess, and she became human once more."
Seriously, what is wrong with this girl. I took the towel and made my way back to the shower stall I was in before. I used the towel to grab my ruined clothes without making contact with them and wrapped it around them. I didn't fail to notice that the water must have washed most of the stink away because the desire to lose my non-existent stomach contents was absent. The girl seeing what I did provided me with a bag I stashed the towel with its contents into.
"So, since I doubt they are gonna carry on with school as usual. And in order to fulfill my responsibility as the hero toward the damsel in distress, may I take you home. "
I was not sure what part of her statement elicited the most distaste or what grimace my face turned into that made her clear up and reconsider her words.
"Sorry if that came out wrong, I just – you are still quite banged up, you stumbled more than walked your way here, and I was afraid of you losing consciousness on more than one occasion. I just don't think you should go home alone. So what do you say to reassure my fears, you allow me to bring you home. "
I couldn't make out any kind of deception in her statement, and it would save me a lot of trouble if she were to bring me home. So I decided to take her up on her offer and nodded. Which caused her to beam with a smile.
She took my free hand and dragged me along once more. While we made our way to one of the side entrances she made a call on her mobile phone. I didn't understand a word she said because she spoke in Japanese. I suspected it had something to do with her getting me home.
A suspicion, which was confirmed shortly after we left the building and a car stopped in front of us. The driver opened the door on the nearside.
"Jasmin, where did you run off to. We waited for you to go home together."
The now-named girl answered slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry Chuck, but I forgot something and went back inside when I ran into Taylor. And you know me, one thing leads to another"
"Oh no, not you, too. Seriously can you just not use that nickname."
the guy shot back nearly pleading.
"But it is funny."
Jasmin said, opened the backdoor for me prompted me to get in. While I did that I could hear his mumbled response.
"Yeah, yeah, funny my ass."
And I got my first good look at him. He has a slim and muscular with dark black wild hair, which I was sure hadn't made the acquaintance with a comb for quite some time.
Jasmin got in too and started to muss up the hair of Chuck.
"Is poor little Daisuke afraid that we are gonna forget his real name?"
He slapped her hand away.
"Stop that. You know exactly why I dislike it."
Or quietly thought to myself, it could be common practice to muck up his hairstyle. Grinning, Jasmin said.
"Yep, and that makes it even more fun to stick you with something like that."
He mumbled under his breath barely audible from where I sat.
"I really shouldn't have bragged and demonstrated my roundhouse kick."
"No, you really shouldn't have," she said and without warning started laughing like a maniac.
Recognizing when he lost an argument Daisuke or Chuck tried to switch the topic.
"So Taylor, right. How do you know this crazy one? I hope you weren't infected with her brand of crazy."
"Hey, I resent the implication." Jasmin defended herself with mock outrage.
I tried to answer his question using the hoarse sounds my vocal cords produced before I even brought out more than a word. Jasmin half-turned her head my way and interrupted me.
"You shouldn't talk just yet, Taylor. Your voice is still suffering from your cold. You shouldn't overwork it, otherwise it will take forever to get better. "
After she turned her head back towards the front she continued.
"Taylor and I are old friends. She needed a lift home, and in my boundless generosity I offered up your services, Chuck."
With a groan, Chuck started driving.
" Where to?" he wanted to know.
Jasmin took a pen and a post-it block and gave it to me. I wrote down my address and handed it back to her.
"Ahh, I know where this is." she happily proclaimed.
Jasmin then started to direct Chuck on how to get there. When we had to stop at a red light, Chuck handed something to Jasmin with the words.
"You know you shouldn't leave the house, without wearing this, it could get you in trouble."
She wordlessly took it from him, what turned out to be a bracelet, and put it on. What set me on alarm were the colors the bracelet sported. Red and Green. The colors of the Azn Bad Boys, one of the greatest gang in the Bay. Consisting exclusively of people of Asian descent.
My thought started raising a mile a minute. How could I have not seen that earlier? Jasmin was Asian, her friend, brother, or whatever Chuck was, was, too. In addition, he was wearing a green and red sweatshirt. How could I be so stupid and not notice this earlier? Was I too exhausted or was I deliberately lured into a false sense of security.
This was the only reason I could come up with why she didn't wear them. I wasn't that out of it when we met to disregard this survival instinct every resident of the bay has adapted to, when meeting new faces, check for gang affiliation. I remembered checking, because from what I understood, be it Empire 88, the gang of Nazi, the ABB, or the drug addicts of the Merchants gang colors were something to be proud of, something to be showcased. So why didn't she?
How could I have missed Chucks? Did I, despite my efforts to be careful around Jasmin, subconsciously label her safe and by association did the same with her friend. Could this be how kidnappers operated? I always thought you have to be stupid to get in such a situation, and now I was sitting in a car owned by a member of a gang, which had a reputation of forced prostitution, and I even got in willingly, stupid stupid stupid.
I kept myself calm, no need to tip my would-be kidnappers off. In this situation, I needed to keep a cool head and decide what the best course of action was. Damn, They now knew where I lived, I knew their faces and if the names I was given weren't fake I knew theirs too. They couldn't let me live even if I should manage to escape. What alternatives were there, should I kill them?
That was fast, how did I get from trying to flee to kill my would-be kidnappers shouldn't there be some other ideas in between to be discarded and discarded before arriving at cold-blooded murder.
Exhaustion alone shouldn't have such an effect on my judgment, my powers - I stopped my train of thought. That was ridiculous.
There had to be another explanation - if you have a hammer all problems started to like nails.
I mean, I got powers, which made it awfully easy to end a life, not even considering what my shades are capable of.
But wasn't I getting a little ahead of myself here; who said they are even attempting to kidnap me? Maybe, just maybe she genuinely cared about me and my wellbeing. Sure she might be a gang member but weren't most going to Winslow. There had to be a totally reasonable explanation why she, why they were members of the ABB.
Yeah, right who was I kidding. That would mean a day where Lady Luck for once wasn't shitting on me. I must have been a child molester or a nazi in my previous life to accumulate that much bad karma.
No matter, how much time I used to contemplate. I didn't come up with a reason why they would get close to me, for a moment I considered if this whole thing might be connected to my Dad, I mean he was the Head of Hiring for DWU and had a certain cloud with them, but I discarded this idea pretty fast. The DWU was a nonentity after pretty much all shipping stopped with the emergence of Leviathan, which meant the main reason for a drug peddling gang to approach someone from the Dockworkers didn't exist.
"And here we are," she said. I was ripped out from my thoughts.
I didn't even notice when we stopped at my front porch. Jasmin exited the car together with me and escorted me to the door. I stopped in front of it. And did my best to get out some words in a way that they were recognizable as such.
"I won't be joining the ABB," I managed to press out in a croaking whisper. Her response consisted of looking strangely at me.
"That's why you are here isn't it? To recruit me, guess the only Asian thing, isn't true. What other reason could there be for you to approach me?"
She looked at me bewildered, probably surprised that I figured out her plan.
"Taylor, what are you talking about?" she wondered nonplussed.
"You can drop your act. I don't buy it." I hissed at her and regretted it immediately as pain blossomed in my throat despite it, I pressed on, "tell me why me, was it the fact that I'm a pariah that I have no friends, an easy target, or was there something more to why I was deemed worthy of being recruited? Well, it doesn't really matter. I won't join your gang, not now, not ever, so stay away from me and tell your friends from the ABB to do the same."
She stood there unmoving for a few moments, probably still processing what happened until she said.
"Interesting way to say thank you. Goodbye, Taylor."
She turned around and left. For a moment, I thought to have seen her eyes moisten, but that couldn't be right must have been the light.
I opened the door and stepped inside, dropped my bag slipped out of my shoes. Without making a detour, I walked to my room and went to bed.
Authors Note: Well if I would consider actually continuing this story, I most likely would have given the last part another look. Taylor jumped to those conclusions a little bit fast, and I'm not sure her being dead tired and going through the events of the day would solely justify her lashing out in that way.
As you can probably guess, the idea would have been after Taylor had time to think this all over, to have her realize that she screwed. Apologize and, after a little back and forth enter a friendship with her. From there, she would slowly but surely come into contact with the Asian culture of the Bay... their living arrangements... their worries.
Allowing her to see another face of the people there. Coming to realize that for most joining the ABB was a matter of survival either because of the money it provided them with, protection... or in Jasmin's case not to end up in one of their farms.
Jasmin eventually would have gotten into hot water with one of the higher-ups of the ABB on behalf of Taylor and it would have spiraled out of control from there...
I watched her die. I watched as her body was swallowed by shadow, by my shadow. No, that was not right. I killed her. I killed a human being. I could hear a small part of me trying to justify my actions, telling me it was in self-defense and I was within my right to defend my life even at the cost of another. But a greater part of me knew this wasn't true. I not only killed her; I did it in cold blood.
Sure she tried to kill me and was only inches away from succeeding until I saw something, I was sure of it, but the harder I tried to grasp the memory, the more it eluded me. The next moment I saw how Sophia, no Shadow Stalker was slumped over me, trying to get back her bearings.
I knew that I didn't stand a chance against her. I didn't while she was just the school track star and I certainly didn't against her the superhero. I hoped to get away, but she faster; she was always faster. She constantly caught me whenever I tried to run, to evade their torment. And now it seemed like she was about to catch me for the last time.
I wondered for a second if she somehow saw something too, and that was the reason she out of it until reality caught up, and I realized she was in the process of ending my life. That was when I wished for something, anything to make her stop. If I just had a weapon, I might even manage to do it myself. The next moment my desire was given form, in the shape of a dagger I was suddenly holding in my hand.
I instinctively knew, I somehow created it, this work of Art. I didn't have the time to admire its black shadowy, curved single-edged form without a crossguard, because Shadows Stalker's slack grip tightened once again on my scalp, and I just followed my instincts and rammed the blade in her gut up to the hilt. I expected there to be some kind of resistance, but there was nothing. The blade went in her as if she was made out of air. For a moment, I feared she somehow evaded the attack by becoming intangible.
Until I saw her stop frozen mid-motion, I was barely able to preempt her, the shrapnel in her hand only inches away from tearing into my throat. I could feel how my power was channeled through my dagger into Shadow Stalker. I could feel it restricting her not just her movement but her power as well. I could feel my power invading her, trying to consume, absorb her into myself.
I fought this instinctual behavior of my power displayed and slowed the process down. I needed time to think, to figure out what was going on and what I should do. My mind drifted back to who it was I had at my mercy. Sophia fucking Hess, Shadow Stalker the alleged Hero one of the Bitches three, the person who tried to kill me twice today.
I slightly loosened the grip I had on her, not enough for her to wiggle with her pinky or to use her power just enough to allow her to move her eyeballs. I wanted her to see what she forced me to do. I wanted her to feel what I felt, the fear, the helplessness. I wanted her to experience, how it was like to be at the mercy of somebody else; to be at the mercy of me.
Her eyes darted from my blade back to my face, and I could see that she felt all of this and more, the tears forming in her eyes were proof of this. Satisfied with this outcome, I no longer fought against my power, against the inevitable, and let her be consumed.
I could justify my actions in hundreds of different ways, could argue she deserved worse alone for stashing me in the locker, for ignoring a person in need. I could blame the fact that I witnessed Hookwolf torture three other parahumans to death right in front of me for my actions. The impotence I felt as I had to watch this, their life and death struggle, their pleading for help for, mercy both of which I wasn't able to provide, while I was fighting for my life.
Hold prisoner in a metal cage no six feet away, together with a countless number of bugs. They used the rips in the metal the confrontation inflicted upon my prison to flee towards freedom. All the while, I was forced to watch through the same slashes.
Oh my God, if I hadn't already emptied my stomach five times over, I would do it again at the memory of what he did. But nothing came out, not even bile.
I could justify this as a momentary lapse of judgment, craziness, there were so many ways to shift blame, but I didn't.
I knew exactly why I did it. There was no need to sugarcoat it, to lie to myself. It was pure unadulterated revenge, born out of the anger and hate I kept under control for a year and half that moments ago saw the daylight for the very first time.
I tried to better than them. I wanted to keep the moral high ground, let them come, I thought. They could shove me, they could belittle me, they could destroy my property, but they couldn't defeat or break me.
I was wrong because, in the end, they did. They made me lash out, and as a result, I killed one of them. I hope you have ample time to enjoy your win. I said to myself, staring at the spot Sophia vanished.
Despite what I went through, nearly dying a dozen times over in the span of one morning, my would-be murderer would never hurt anybody ever again; I made sure of that.
Still, this, what some would deem a victory of sorts, felt more shallow than the worst defeat. Perhaps this had something to do with the poor state my body was in.
But this whole ordeal helped me realize something; you had to fight for yourself. You couldn't just hope to be saved by others. You had to do it yourself, and with this, I took my first step in that direction. No more being walked over by everyone.
I tried to stand up. It took me three tries to succeed. My legs are barely able to support my weight, my whole body hurt, even my hair.
I took a careful step forward towards the dead big African American guy still lying there. I managed one step before I stumbled. I didn't know if I slipped on something lying on the floor, or if my legs weren't as strong as I thought them to be. I fully expected to fall on my ass, when I felt strong arms wrap around my midsection and steadying me.
I had a thank you on my lips, which died in my throat the moment I saw the bare underarm of the person holding me around my waist. It was black, not the skin color black, no the absence of light black like the dagger I was somehow still holding in my hand.
I steadied myself and turned around, and nearly got a heart attack.
Standing right next to me was a nude darker than night exact copy of Sophia Hess. She was emitting subtle wisps of this black shadow and essentially stood at attention before me.
What the Hell. I backtracked the events. I remembered feeling a surge of energy as Shadow Stalker was swallowed by my shadows.
Was her somehow becoming part of me the source of this feeling, some kind of bodily reward like eating chocolate?
I shuddered at the thought of having a power that lets me feel elevated by - what exactly did it reward? Was it the killing, or was it absorbing people? - Despite this dampener to my powers, I had to find out what is going on.
I opened my mind to the constant tugging I noticed since I killed Sophia. Immediately, I was flooded with impressions of Shadow Stalker, or what once was her. I noticed that she was barely sentient, not dumb exactly, more like lacking an agency but dumber nonetheless, not that it was a big loss. Sophia never was what you would call smart, but now it was more akin to perhaps a smart dog, no more similar to a wolf, if it was to be believed, what I read about them.
There was more; mostly her feelings. She was made up of hate and anger, so much anger, what, on the other hand, surprised me was that the largest part was unwavering Loyalty towards me. Made sense, even though Shadow Stalker was the origin of this shadow, all things considered, she was a creature of my making.
I dived deeper, and without expending any effort, I was in full control, of her body and her senses; everything was mine to do with as I pleased. I retreat without a moment's notice and recognized regret at this action from her, my shadow, but it was just too disturbing to see myself covered from head to toe in blood grime, dead bugs, and remnants of female hygiene products sticking to parts of my clothes.
I handed my shadow dagger over to Shadow Sophia, which I started duping as Assassin in my head to prevent confusing myself, at least for the moment, this had to suffice. Until I came up with something better. Naming was never my strong suit, but given what I know of Shadow Stalker and Sophia. It was a far more apt description of her than the name she duped herself with ever could be.
There was something else I discovered while I opened myself to my power. I could sense various; I think light would be an apt description around me in varying sizes. The position of the largest three coincided with the location of the dead capes while the small ones were for the most part located inside my locker. Curious about this, I made the last step towards the corpse of the big guy I was unable to save. I knelt down next to him and looked one last time at him, repressing the memories of watching his insides being stuffed with metal Hookwolf excreted when he noticed he was unable to do any damage to him before I finally touched him.
I could feel my power establishing a connection to this light I sensed. My power slowly but steadily enveloped and absorbed it, and the next thing I knew. The light changed color from a yellow to the pitch-black of my shadow as it became a part of me, like Sophia before him. Meanwhile, my eyes saw the corpse being swallowed by shadow like it happened with Sophia.
I concentrated on this new part of me and, with a slight push, in front of me materialized a naked version of the corpse. No, the word materializing would do the process, I witnessed no justice. He alighted from the shadows on the floor as if his body was slowly formed out of it. He basically grew out of the shadow. I was so distracted by this sight, that I nearly missed the feeling of elevation I experienced, the moment the light became part of me.
I was given no time to admire the sight because the sounds of the fight outside started to ebb. Which meant my time was running out. I hurried over to what was left of the other two parahumans and repeated this process, this time, I didn't prolong this process in an attempt to gain a sliver of understanding. When I was done with them, I thought of my next course of action.
I didn't think being found out to be a cape in the first five minutes of becoming one, was a good idea. Not that I had the slightest clue on how to prevent it. After all, I was standing in a hallway together with four naked people made out of shadows.
I couldn't even finish that thought when suddenly all of them melted into shadows on the floor and made their way towards mine and hid in it. I examined my shadow very closely, but I couldn't see any difference. If I didn't know any better, I would never have guessed that they were there.
Good, that took care of one of my immediate problems, but I was still standing in this hallway. Clothed in blood and toxic waste, not exactly inconspicuous. Even if I could somehow prevent myself from being seen while leaving here, I would create an easy to follow trail. As a result, it would only be a matter of time for someone to find me and ask questions at best delay the inevitable; someone making a connection to 4 capes disappearing and myself.
Since I sure as hell didn't want to be part of an organization Sophia Hess was part of; For all, I knew they enabled her.
What brought me to my next point of concern, wouldn't they suspect the girl tortured by Sophia as the most likely culprit behind her disappearance? Shit.
I looked around, hoping to find something that could help me, and for once, it seemed luck was on my side, where I spotted a bandolier half full with cylindrical objects. I have watched enough movies to identify them as grenades. Perfect with the small fires spread around, it shouldn't be too suspicious if the grenades left behind by those parahumans were to explode.
And if they had to dig through tons of rubble to find anything, all the better. A plan was forming in my head; on how to place the grenades evenly spread throughout the corridor to maximize destruction. Before I could set my plan in motion, I heard footsteps from someone running, and they were getting closer. Damn.
I didn't have any time to curse my bad luck. The newcomer turning the corner didn't need to look for me, as I was standing in plain sight right in the middle of the hallway; It was impossible not to see me.
The girl I came face to face with, was of Asian descent around my age. She wore slim black jeans enunciating her legs and a black long-sleeved top. She had black straight shoulder-length loose hair, which was accentuated with silver streaks in it getting more numerous the further away they were from her head. It somehow looked like her hair was aging along its length, and gave her some kind of exotic vibe. I couldn't help but be reminded of a vampire when looking at her, her dark eyelashes pale skin and dark lipstick only reinforced this impression.
"Hi, you must be Taylor right," she said in a strangely melodic voice. Before she could continue her mind seemed to catch up with her mouth. "Oh my god, what happened to you?"
She didn't give me time to answer, and frankly, I was not sure my voice was in any condition to, having screamed myself hoarse the first few minutes in the locker. I doubted I would be able to get out
anything coherent. The pervasive taste of vomit in my mouth didn't exactly encourage me to even think about using my voice or mouth for anything, really. It was hard enough as it was to blank out those sensations.
"Not important," she changed the topic with some urgency. "We have to get out of here. Crusader is fighting directly outside of the building against the police. We need to move. Come on."
She grabbed my arm, clearly suppressing her discomfort at touching me, not something I could blame her for, given the state I was in. Honestly, I was more than a little surprised that this total stranger was willing to do that at all.
She dragged me away from the hallway, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure she didn't go too fast, and I could keep up with her.
I sidelined the questions I had regarding the behavior and willingness of this girl to help me the Pariah of this school and dedicated my thoughts to my immediate problem; Erasing all traces of what happened in the hallway and my involvement in it.
I couldn't go back there without raising any suspicion with this girl, but I somehow had to. Otherwise, I would be found out. But did I have to? I now had powers. I could just send some of my shadows to do the deed.
I waited until this girl was dragging me around another corner and was facing forward when I sent Assassin as a shadow out of my shadow to trail back to where we came from.
I immersed myself in her senses and steered her back. It was quite interesting to get her sensory input while she was a two-dimensional construct. The way she perceived the world in that state was alien.
It took Assassin mere seconds to reach the Bandolier lying in the Hallway. I fully materialized her body had her grab those grenades. Under my instructions, she then proceeded to loosen them from the Bandolier and carefully placed them near those small fires throughout the hallway.
She used the paper from a notepad, she found in the midst of this destruction to make a makeshift slow match leading from the fire to the grenades.
Hopefully, this would be enough to get them to explode and do enough damage that my presence would be erased; or at least muddle the traces enough for them to not outright lead to me. At worst, I hoped that it would buy me time.
I was about to place the last grenade when Assassin saw a white flash, and I felt the whole building shake. The Grenades, some of them must have exploded prematurely. Creating a chain reaction in which all of them exploded, and Assassin was right next to it. Did I kill her? No, there was still something there. I could still feel the tether that connected me to her, but she was fragmented.
I tried to draw those fragments back to me and to put them back together. It seemed possible, but there was something else. The way those fragments were trying to get something from me. It was hard to describe, but I was reasonably sure they were somehow asking for permission. I was at a loss for what they were exactly asking for, but I saw no reason to deny their request.
In the next moment, I felt like somebody kicked me in my gut with all their strength. Suddenly I felt drained of a substantial part of my remaining energy. I was already weakened and had trouble just walking straight after my ordeal despite the good absorbing those capes did. But now I even lost that. I was completely sapped of my strength, barely able to even move let alone to walk.
I stumbled, lacking the strength to lift my foot off the ground, getting caught in my other foot. I nearly fell to my knees, only bracing myself against the wall prevented worse. Something that didn't go unnoticed. The girl dragging me along got a worrying look on her face.
"Is everything alright?" she asked concerned "Can you keep going we have to get as far away as possible from whatever this was?"
The glances she cast back at irregular intervals made it clear she was frightened. The explosion I caused only heightened her fears.
I nodded at her, which didn't stop her from examining me for a moment, and then added.
"Are you sure? We can take a break and hide here somewhere until you are feeling?"
I shook my head. She accepted my denial and lead me towards the gym. This time at a more sedate pace.
I didn't question her. I was too occupied with what I learned about my power. Apparently, I was able to regenerate my shadows to full health should they ever be destroyed, but it was something that weakened me considerably. Good to know. I ordered the two-dimensional form of Assassin to return to me. She dissolved under the debris that once was the Hallway, and spawned in my shadow.
This also cost me dearly, not nearly the same amount it took me to regenerate her.
But it added up, with the weakened state my body left in after I was finally able to free myself from the locker. I was on my very last leg. I had to be careful or I would pass out. The girl brought me to the gym and literally dragged me inside a shower stall.
"You don't happen to have a locker with some clothes and other stuff around here?"
I shook my head at her inquiry. Since my late mother's flute, one of the last mementos I possessed of her went missing from inside my locker. As a result, I no longer trusted school lockers with any of my stuff and avoided using them as much as possible. Since then I only ever stashed easy to replace things in them and then only for short periods of time. Funny how that turned out, instead of damaging the things I left in the locker, they... no, I was not going there.
"Okay, nothing we can't handle. You should get cleaned up. While you do that, I'll see what I can scavenge," she said. "I should have a fresh towel here somewhere, and I might be able to find something for you to wear."
She paused a moment looking me over.
"I hope you weren't too attached to those clothes because I don't think they will be good for anything else than fuel for a fire. Considering how abyssal they smell we really should burn them to prevent a disease outbreak. For the same reason, you should hurry to get out of those clothes and clean yourself as thoroughly as possible. Leave the rest to me. There has to at least be a tracksuit in your size around here somewhere since I sincerely doubt mine will fit you. We will leave that as a last resort."
With those words, she closed the stall doors behind me and left for her scavenger hunt.
For a moment, I pondered what to do and was wondering if this could be the next stage in Emma's prank. It would be easy to humiliate me further while being naked in the shower with no clothes left but discarded that thought near instantly. I didn't doubt that they were able to come up with something like this, but that they somehow found someone who would be willing to walk into or close to a cape fight to initiate this stage of their plan that I couldn't believe for a second. And so far, this girl whose name I still didn't know seemed trustworthy.
I decided to still keep my guard up around her, it wouldn't be the first time that someone approached me intending to befriend me only to stab me in the back in the cruelest way possible a few weeks later for shit's and giggles, all on the behalf of Emma.
Back then, I decided, to never let myself get deceived like that again, and I intended to uphold that silent vow I gave myself.
I started the shower and tried to get out of my clothes, an undertaking that was far more difficult than it sounded. With my vomit, grime, blood, and other fluids, I didn't want to even think about soaking my clothes, they stuck to my body as if glued to it. It took me considerable effort to get them off me. I even had to literally rip some parts of my skin.
When I finally got rid of them, I was so exhausted I barely could keep standing. I leaned against the stall and just enjoyed the warm water pouring over my body. I didn't know how long I stood there, eyes closed, allowing the water to wash away not only the dirt but also my worries. I was not only physically near the end of the rope but also mentally and emotionally drained. The day hadn't even really started yet, and I was ready to go to bed and sleep for a month straight. Thus I would just gonna stay put for a little while longer...
I didn't even notice that I was drifting into sleep until the voice speaking to me brought me back from twilight state.
"Here, a fresh towel, and I even found shower gel, don't hold back with it, use as much as you need to really get clean. So you can feel like a human once more."
She laid the towel on top of the stall and held the shower gel over it, waiting for me to take it. I pushed myself from the ground and had to fight off a dizzying spell to grab it and then followed her suggestions.
I scrubbed myself clean, like never before in my life, I was certain I lost the few layers of skin left by peeling the clothes from my skin in the process. The most time-intensive thing to get clean was my hair if you could still call it that after I was done with it because there were things entangled within it in ways that made it necessary to rip it out in no small amount.
This was probably the one thing that happened to me on this day that I regretted the most. I always loved my black curly beautiful hair, the one redeeming feature in my looks that saved me from being ugly. The one thing I cultivated in memory of dead mother, who wore her hair the same.
If I had any tears still left in me on this day, I would shed them until there were none left. But burned out as I was, I just took notice that I had to regrow them.
After what felt like an eternity being in the shower, I deemed myself cleaned and no longer felt the urge to start scrubbing myself over and over again. I took the towel and dried myself, and left my discarded clothes in the corner of the stall. I had to return for them at some point, but I didn't want to get near them or even touch them with my bare skin if I could help it.
I grabbed everything that wasn't a lost cause I had on consisting of my glasses, my wallet, and my keys, and stepped out into the changing room, with a towel coiled around my body, prepared for the worst-case scenario. Emma and friends being there waiting for me.
What I encountered instead was the girl. She had an assortment of clothes, a first aid kit, and a bottle of water, which she offered to me. I tried to thank her and suspected only a croak left my mouth. Instead of the thank you, I intended even I had trouble identifying it as such.
I took a sip of water and only realized how much I needed that as it ran down my throat. I nearly emptied the bottle without a break just to still my thirst.
The girl prompted me to sit down on one of the benches.
"We have to take care of your wounds, clean them to prevent an infection. We also have to make sure you aren't seriously hurt."
She opened the First aid kit, and after examing my wounds, consisting of a laundry list of things, lacerations, bug bites, bruises in different shades, she started to clean and disinfect them. I forgot how much it stung to get a wound disinfected. It didn't help that most cuts were on my hands, where the nerves were the most sensitive. After she finished bandaging me, I felt and looked like a mummy.
My hands and arms were wrapped up to my elbows. I had a bruise on the back-off my head from where Shadow Stalker threw me against a locker. There were a lot of other bruises, too. Mostly on my torso from when the locker was caught in the explosion, which gave the girl the excuse to wrap bandages around my midsection also. I was able to dissuade her from doing the same to my head.
When she was satisfied with playing doctor, she shifted her attention to the pile of clothes. At certain intervals, she held some piece of cloth in the air in front of me, to more often than not discard it with unintelligible mumbling. The more time elapsed, the smaller the pile in front of her got, until only a tracksuit boxershorts t-shirt, and a pair of socks were left.
"I'm really sorry, but it seems like you have to make do with this. As it seemed, I obviously only have the locker combination from girls a lot shorter than you."
Is she really telling me she got those clothes by stealing from lockers? I looked at her incredulously. She returned my look without a completely straight face that gave nothing away. She held my gaze for ten seconds until cracks appeared in her countenance, a twitch here and there till she broke down laughing.
It took her quite some time to get back her bearings, and while she was wiping away tears she said.
"You are hilarious, you know. You really thought I stole those clothes, did you? Don't worry those things belong to friends of mine. We shared our gym locker combinations with each other after one of us forgot to bring some essentials, and since we don't share P.E. with one another we thought it was a good idea, at least better than the alternative. They won't mind."
She then took the clothes and held them out to me. And in the most dramatic way possible she said.
"You, my friend get to choose, the towel of barely contained modesty or the tracksuit of bad fashion sense; the choice is yours."
Meanwhile, she did her best to suppress the grin, which was threatening to destroy the deadpan stare she sent my way. It was hard not to get infected by her antics, no matter how much I would have loved to join in, trust no longer came easy for me, and with everything else I had on my plate, I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
I took the clothes from her and motioned for her to turn around. What prompted her to pout, but still followed my request.
I dressed myself, and I had to concede she knew her way around clothes. They fit, barely, but I was not in a situation to be picky. I touched her shoulder to let her know that I finished.
She turned around with a smile on her face.
"And the curse was lifted from the mummy princess, and she became human once more."
Seriously, what is wrong with this girl. I took the towel and made my way back to the shower stall I was in before. I used the towel to grab my ruined clothes without making contact with them and wrapped it around them. I didn't fail to notice that the water must have washed most of the stink away because the desire to lose my non-existent stomach contents was absent. The girl seeing what I did provided me with a bag I stashed the towel with its contents into.
"So, since I doubt they are gonna carry on with school as usual. And in order to fulfill my responsibility as the hero toward the damsel in distress, may I take you home. "
I was not sure what part of her statement elicited the most distaste or what grimace my face turned into that made her clear up and reconsider her words.
"Sorry if that came out wrong, I just – you are still quite banged up, you stumbled more than walked your way here, and I was afraid of you losing consciousness on more than one occasion. I just don't think you should go home alone. So what do you say to reassure my fears, you allow me to bring you home. "
I couldn't make out any kind of deception in her statement, and it would save me a lot of trouble if she were to bring me home. So I decided to take her up on her offer and nodded. Which caused her to beam with a smile.
She took my free hand and dragged me along once more. While we made our way to one of the side entrances she made a call on her mobile phone. I didn't understand a word she said because she spoke in Japanese. I suspected it had something to do with her getting me home.
A suspicion, which was confirmed shortly after we left the building and a car stopped in front of us. The driver opened the door on the nearside.
"Jasmin, where did you run off to. We waited for you to go home together."
The now-named girl answered slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry Chuck, but I forgot something and went back inside when I ran into Taylor. And you know me, one thing leads to another"
"Oh no, not you, too. Seriously can you just not use that nickname."
the guy shot back nearly pleading.
"But it is funny."
Jasmin said, opened the backdoor for me prompted me to get in. While I did that I could hear his mumbled response.
"Yeah, yeah, funny my ass."
And I got my first good look at him. He has a slim and muscular with dark black wild hair, which I was sure hadn't made the acquaintance with a comb for quite some time.
Jasmin got in too and started to muss up the hair of Chuck.
"Is poor little Daisuke afraid that we are gonna forget his real name?"
He slapped her hand away.
"Stop that. You know exactly why I dislike it."
Or quietly thought to myself, it could be common practice to muck up his hairstyle. Grinning, Jasmin said.
"Yep, and that makes it even more fun to stick you with something like that."
He mumbled under his breath barely audible from where I sat.
"I really shouldn't have bragged and demonstrated my roundhouse kick."
"No, you really shouldn't have," she said and without warning started laughing like a maniac.
Recognizing when he lost an argument Daisuke or Chuck tried to switch the topic.
"So Taylor, right. How do you know this crazy one? I hope you weren't infected with her brand of crazy."
"Hey, I resent the implication." Jasmin defended herself with mock outrage.
I tried to answer his question using the hoarse sounds my vocal cords produced before I even brought out more than a word. Jasmin half-turned her head my way and interrupted me.
"You shouldn't talk just yet, Taylor. Your voice is still suffering from your cold. You shouldn't overwork it, otherwise it will take forever to get better. "
After she turned her head back towards the front she continued.
"Taylor and I are old friends. She needed a lift home, and in my boundless generosity I offered up your services, Chuck."
With a groan, Chuck started driving.
" Where to?" he wanted to know.
Jasmin took a pen and a post-it block and gave it to me. I wrote down my address and handed it back to her.
"Ahh, I know where this is." she happily proclaimed.
Jasmin then started to direct Chuck on how to get there. When we had to stop at a red light, Chuck handed something to Jasmin with the words.
"You know you shouldn't leave the house, without wearing this, it could get you in trouble."
She wordlessly took it from him, what turned out to be a bracelet, and put it on. What set me on alarm were the colors the bracelet sported. Red and Green. The colors of the Azn Bad Boys, one of the greatest gang in the Bay. Consisting exclusively of people of Asian descent.
My thought started raising a mile a minute. How could I have not seen that earlier? Jasmin was Asian, her friend, brother, or whatever Chuck was, was, too. In addition, he was wearing a green and red sweatshirt. How could I be so stupid and not notice this earlier? Was I too exhausted or was I deliberately lured into a false sense of security.
This was the only reason I could come up with why she didn't wear them. I wasn't that out of it when we met to disregard this survival instinct every resident of the bay has adapted to, when meeting new faces, check for gang affiliation. I remembered checking, because from what I understood, be it Empire 88, the gang of Nazi, the ABB, or the drug addicts of the Merchants gang colors were something to be proud of, something to be showcased. So why didn't she?
How could I have missed Chucks? Did I, despite my efforts to be careful around Jasmin, subconsciously label her safe and by association did the same with her friend. Could this be how kidnappers operated? I always thought you have to be stupid to get in such a situation, and now I was sitting in a car owned by a member of a gang, which had a reputation of forced prostitution, and I even got in willingly, stupid stupid stupid.
I kept myself calm, no need to tip my would-be kidnappers off. In this situation, I needed to keep a cool head and decide what the best course of action was. Damn, They now knew where I lived, I knew their faces and if the names I was given weren't fake I knew theirs too. They couldn't let me live even if I should manage to escape. What alternatives were there, should I kill them?
That was fast, how did I get from trying to flee to kill my would-be kidnappers shouldn't there be some other ideas in between to be discarded and discarded before arriving at cold-blooded murder.
Exhaustion alone shouldn't have such an effect on my judgment, my powers - I stopped my train of thought. That was ridiculous.
There had to be another explanation - if you have a hammer all problems started to like nails.
I mean, I got powers, which made it awfully easy to end a life, not even considering what my shades are capable of.
But wasn't I getting a little ahead of myself here; who said they are even attempting to kidnap me? Maybe, just maybe she genuinely cared about me and my wellbeing. Sure she might be a gang member but weren't most going to Winslow. There had to be a totally reasonable explanation why she, why they were members of the ABB.
Yeah, right who was I kidding. That would mean a day where Lady Luck for once wasn't shitting on me. I must have been a child molester or a nazi in my previous life to accumulate that much bad karma.
No matter, how much time I used to contemplate. I didn't come up with a reason why they would get close to me, for a moment I considered if this whole thing might be connected to my Dad, I mean he was the Head of Hiring for DWU and had a certain cloud with them, but I discarded this idea pretty fast. The DWU was a nonentity after pretty much all shipping stopped with the emergence of Leviathan, which meant the main reason for a drug peddling gang to approach someone from the Dockworkers didn't exist.
"And here we are," she said. I was ripped out from my thoughts.
I didn't even notice when we stopped at my front porch. Jasmin exited the car together with me and escorted me to the door. I stopped in front of it. And did my best to get out some words in a way that they were recognizable as such.
"I won't be joining the ABB," I managed to press out in a croaking whisper. Her response consisted of looking strangely at me.
"That's why you are here isn't it? To recruit me, guess the only Asian thing, isn't true. What other reason could there be for you to approach me?"
She looked at me bewildered, probably surprised that I figured out her plan.
"Taylor, what are you talking about?" she wondered nonplussed.
"You can drop your act. I don't buy it." I hissed at her and regretted it immediately as pain blossomed in my throat despite it, I pressed on, "tell me why me, was it the fact that I'm a pariah that I have no friends, an easy target, or was there something more to why I was deemed worthy of being recruited? Well, it doesn't really matter. I won't join your gang, not now, not ever, so stay away from me and tell your friends from the ABB to do the same."
She stood there unmoving for a few moments, probably still processing what happened until she said.
"Interesting way to say thank you. Goodbye, Taylor."
She turned around and left. For a moment, I thought to have seen her eyes moisten, but that couldn't be right must have been the light.
I opened the door and stepped inside, dropped my bag slipped out of my shoes. Without making a detour, I walked to my room and went to bed.
Authors Note: Well if I would consider actually continuing this story, I most likely would have given the last part another look. Taylor jumped to those conclusions a little bit fast, and I'm not sure her being dead tired and going through the events of the day would solely justify her lashing out in that way.
As you can probably guess, the idea would have been after Taylor had time to think this all over, to have her realize that she screwed. Apologize and, after a little back and forth enter a friendship with her. From there, she would slowly but surely come into contact with the Asian culture of the Bay... their living arrangements... their worries.
Allowing her to see another face of the people there. Coming to realize that for most joining the ABB was a matter of survival either because of the money it provided them with, protection... or in Jasmin's case not to end up in one of their farms.
Jasmin eventually would have gotten into hot water with one of the higher-ups of the ABB on behalf of Taylor and it would have spiraled out of control from there...
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First of all sorry - I had no intention to ignore you ... I read all your comments on my phone and then sort of forgot to answer ...
Some of the questions asked will be answered in chapter 7 which I hopefully should get done this Sunday ... so I will forego answering them.
Thanks a lot - I really appreciate you doing this.
Hmm - Just reread the chapter -
After Annette disappeared what I think might have been really shocking after being reunited with her, they broach the obvious question of what happened, and from there the focus shifts to Annette what was the last thing she remembered. -> Dying ... Taylor screaming for her mother etc
And then we have another session of sobbing and crying ...
Taylor blaming herself for what happened to her mother. Annette then tries to distract her from those memories by talking about her power ...
As a mother, I think we can give her the benefit of the doubt to be able to do that with her child.
I give you that I could have expanded that a bit ... (If I remember right around that time I edited that chapter I wrote Samsara chapter 7 - which is just thousands of words of fluff ... so that might be the reason it came a bit short here)
To your other point, they end up talking about Danny - by the time they had a first look at what Taylor's power can do... the conversations then drifts back to him and the elation of Taylor to have her Mom back is overshadowed by his condition.
The reason there wasn't a longer talk about Annette and how she got her power has less to do with Taylor not being curious but the fact that most of it got explained in the next chapter - Which you obviously couldn't have read by the time you wrote that - and I didn't want to have huge sections that I repeat two consecutive chapters.
I think given Taylors day - it wouldn't be too strange if her curiosity with the emotional and certainly draining rollercoaster she went through.
If you still think the chapter was off - I'll give it another thorough look ... this weekend. (and get myself another opinion) I can't promise changes though.
Either way thanks for bringing that to attention.
Some of the questions asked will be answered in chapter 7 which I hopefully should get done this Sunday ... so I will forego answering them.
Thanks a lot - I really appreciate you doing this.
Hmm - Just reread the chapter -
After Annette disappeared what I think might have been really shocking after being reunited with her, they broach the obvious question of what happened, and from there the focus shifts to Annette what was the last thing she remembered. -> Dying ... Taylor screaming for her mother etc
And then we have another session of sobbing and crying ...
Taylor blaming herself for what happened to her mother. Annette then tries to distract her from those memories by talking about her power ...
As a mother, I think we can give her the benefit of the doubt to be able to do that with her child.
I give you that I could have expanded that a bit ... (If I remember right around that time I edited that chapter I wrote Samsara chapter 7 - which is just thousands of words of fluff ... so that might be the reason it came a bit short here)
To your other point, they end up talking about Danny - by the time they had a first look at what Taylor's power can do... the conversations then drifts back to him and the elation of Taylor to have her Mom back is overshadowed by his condition.
The reason there wasn't a longer talk about Annette and how she got her power has less to do with Taylor not being curious but the fact that most of it got explained in the next chapter - Which you obviously couldn't have read by the time you wrote that - and I didn't want to have huge sections that I repeat two consecutive chapters.
I think given Taylors day - it wouldn't be too strange if her curiosity with the emotional and certainly draining rollercoaster she went through.
If you still think the chapter was off - I'll give it another thorough look ... this weekend. (and get myself another opinion) I can't promise changes though.
Either way thanks for bringing that to attention.
Unsure about making Anette love lustrum more than dany, feels... Cheap somehow, as if bisexual persons would mainly be in straight cupelings due to wanting to having children, but don't actually feel like they are equally attracted to both sexes.
Making her love them equally might be abit to stereotypical, but she clearly loved Danny enough to split with lustrum to marry and have a child with him. Having that happen while she is more in love with her ex... Feels bad.
So yeah, having her still have feelings for her is fine (exes can be complicated) , but once again, not to the point of loving her more than her huspand and father of her child without cheapening her sexuality.
Making her love them equally might be abit to stereotypical, but she clearly loved Danny enough to split with lustrum to marry and have a child with him. Having that happen while she is more in love with her ex... Feels bad.
So yeah, having her still have feelings for her is fine (exes can be complicated) , but once again, not to the point of loving her more than her huspand and father of her child without cheapening her sexuality.
SirNagsALot
He Who Nags
Yo wait you post here?
Good to know, now i can spill my string theories to an even larger audience.
Good to know, now i can spill my string theories to an even larger audience.
Chapter 07 - A monster in the Bay
This chapter was edited by bms111 and Punster lv1
Chapter 07 - A monster in the Bay
By the time I finally reached the cemetery it was early afternoon, and the sun decided to come out from behind the overcast sky. It would have been a nice day, all things considered, with tolerable temperatures for a day in August.
A good day to read a book in the shadow of a tree. I saw a flash of a memory, my mother doing exactly that, while my Dad was playing tag with me.
I winced at that and focused on the task at hand. For me, to get back to a semblance of a happy life, I had to succeed, which, to be honest, was at best a far-fetched hope, but it was all I had.
I knew the chances were infinitesimally small that there was a para-human buried here that could help my Dad, especially if I considered what Mom told me about the existence of a power-nullifier. But that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I knew that my power was able to evolve by adapting aspects of a power my shades possess and make them into something else.
But for one of the Para-human buried to have a power, that if changed through mine would allow me to do something to help Dad.
Of course, even that was wishful thinking. On the other hand, my power had yet to disappoint me, and who knew I might be lucky. After all, I went through in the recent past, I deserved it, for something to go my way.
I came to a stop in the middle of the vast gravestones spiked greenery of the cemetery; my mother's supposed last resting place close by. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the darkness of the Abyss.
I was instantly flooded with new sensory impressions. The lingering essence of an incredible amount of people all around me, just a short distance under the earth, popped up in my mind.
But that wasn't all there was, millions more, smaller lights were everywhere around me. I was sure they at one point happened to be bugs, rats, and other creatures who died and were in the process of being returned to the cycle of life one way or another.
I did my best to blank them out of my awareness and instead concentrated on the few essences around me that contained a shard within them. When I was sure to have found them all of I allowed the Abyss to reach out. A moment later, they were ripped away from the loose tether that held them in place and dragged towards the Darkness that is my power.
And I felt twelve shades being added to my arsenal. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings one last time before I left. I didn't intend to return here for a long time.
I walked the short distance to the closest bus stop, it didn't take long for the first bus to arrive. Unfortunately for me, this bus line took the scenic route from near Captain's Hill, where the cemetery was located, along the edges of the Southern parts of the Docks through the Train-Yard. Following that the bus would drive through the Docks and end in the middle of Downtown.
This meant the route didn't go anywhere near home. The next line which did wouldn't arrive for another thirty minutes.
My impatience got the better of me; I needed to know if I gained something useful with the acquisition of those Shades, and I needed the insights only Mom could provide me with. For this reason, I boarded the bus. The bus driver an overweight Caucasian male with blond hair didn't even dignify my presence with a reaction or the bus ticket I showed him, and neither did he reciprocate my greeting. For a moment, I was stumped at his lack of normal human decency, on second thought, I realized it was in his best interest that he didn't care.
Because I was a student not in school on a school day and any scrutiny of the authorities with my single remaining guardian in the hospital wouldn't end well for me.
I probably should act with more caution, a reason more to get off before the bus reaches downtown, where the police presence is higher.
Ten minutes later, I got out at a bus stop near some abandoned warehouses right at the edge of the Docks and Downtown.
A location that was within a reasonable walking distance to my home, and to the hospital.
Hopefully, this would give me quite some time to experiment and still be able to get to Dad before the visiting hours were over. But most important of all, it was a block outside of the expanding ABB territory. If the gang tags were to be believed, putting me barely into Empire territory.
Which was good, I wasn't exactly keen on a repeat of the last time I was anywhere near abandoned warehouses, and to my knowledge, the Empire didn't haze or attack caucasian.
Because it would not only conflict with their ideology but would put a mark on their resume as the good guys they try to present themselves as at every opportunity.
I walked through a side road and ended up facing an abandoned warehouse near the water. It had a pier big enough to allow a container ship to moor. There even was a crane on railroads for unloading the containers from moored ships.
I slipped through a slit in the fence surrounding the whole area and made my way to one of the loading docks for trucks. Despite the rundown state of the building, the locks at the doors were still in a good condition.
Contrary to the crane, being rusted to such a degree, you had to wonder why it was still standing, of course, the one thing standing between me and an environment out of sight defied the ravages of time and somehow escaped desperate people in search of something worth selling.
In fact, I didn't think I would be able to break them without a crowbar or an iron rod, which I could misuse as one. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything like this in my immediate vicinity.
To not waste any more precious time, I fused with Iron Rain, and, with her power at my disposal grabbed one of the padlocks; a small exertion of her power dissolved parts of the shackle and allowed me to open the door.
Reaching out with Iron Rain's borrowed metal sensing, I paused, blinking. There was a ... surprisingly large amount of metal on the other side of the door. Most of it was largely mundane; nails tightly packed together in crates, ready to be moved, or the metal of the shelving lined in rows down a section of the space. But no, the much more relevant piece of information I was getting back was the guns. LOTS of guns. Big guns, small guns, guns that will leave holes in the wall big enough to let a draft in. Hidden among the nails were what felt like ammo containers, to my, her, senses.
I pulled the door shut, and with Iron Rain's power, still at my disposal, I reconstructed the padlock and put it back in place.
Given the dust on the floor and more distinct on top of the crates, I doubted anybody was in here for at least a few months, and it was highly unlikely for that to change while I was present.
Nonetheless, I didn't want to risk it. I looked around for a few moments trying to spot any surveillance system the warehouse might have, especially cameras that would be a hindrance to what I had planned. Despite my efforts, I couldn't find anything resembling a surveillance system even with Iron Rain's power, which, to be honest, struck me as odd.
If those weapons and what else might be in the other crates had been mine, I wouldn't have left it without any kind of protection or warning system informing me of anyone tampering with it.
The only explanations I came up with were that the owner either speculated that the goods being hidden in an abandoned warehouse would be enough for it to not be found or the ones owning it are no longer around.
I found the second option, the one to be more likely, Brockton-Bay had quite a fluctuation concerning the gangs. I mean, at the top of my head, I could come up with the names of five gangs that at one point or another were active in the Bay before driven or wiped out.
I discarded the third option of there being some kind of surveillance system present subtle enough to escape my notice. Simply because this train of thought led to madness, assuming at all times to have missed something despite my best efforts to the contrary, I didn't want to second guess every action, and let paranoia rule me more than it already did.
I ended the fusion with Iron Rain and summoned Mom. She took a look around and asked.
"Taylor, what are we doing here? And where is your Dad?"
Her question caused an acrimonious feeling.
"It didn't work out." I simply stated.
"Why? What happened?" she wondered.
"While I was trying to explain to Dad what was going on, a nurse came in, and I ... I unsummoned you. Dad's power bounced back to him, and he..." I had to collect myself before I was able to continue with my explanation. "He had a really strong reaction to it. He suffered another stroke."
I lifted my head and locked eyes with Mom.
"He nearly died, I... I nearly killed him."
Mom made two large steps closing the distance between us, and embraced me in her arms.
"I'm so sorry, little owl. Everything is gonna be okay... everything is gonna be okay."
Yeah, it will be. I softly freed myself from her embrace and summoned all twelve of my new shades.
Within a few moments, my shadow expanded in front of me, and out of it emerged twelve persons, consisting of three men, six women, and three kids, all of them being girls. I never was good at guessing the age of children, but my best estimate would be that one of the girls was roughly ten if she wasn't small or big for her age, one of the other girls I pegged as around two years younger while the other girl was the same amount older than her.
Which when I thought about it, was really strange. So far, my power gave the person I resurrected a body that represented their peak condition regarding age, my mom being prime the example I could be sure of proved it. If memory served correctly, it was scientifically established that humans reached it in their early twenties. Hence seeing three kids younger than me standing before me threw me for a loop.
Until my mind finally caught up with what my eyes saw. They must have died before their bodies reached and surpassed their twenties barring my power from "remembering" their peak bodies. I had to steer myself away from thinking about what could have happened to them, not only allowing them to trigger that young but dying not long after.
A brief look at Mom standing at my side, and the grimace of her face clued me in she drew the same conclusions. I added, looking into what happened to them to my ever-growing to-do list. On the same note, I had to accept that doing that for those other Shades sporting adult bodies in front of me would be a lot harder, for the simple reason any one of them could have been ancient.
For a moment, I regretted not walking up to every single grave, where I could sense essence connected to a shard to write down their names. But discarded this thought nearly instantly, there might have been no small chance that some were aware of the parahuman status of the dead or at least some of them and me walking from each one to all the others might have been highly suspicious for them. After all, what reason could there be to visit the graves of twelve individuals in succession at a graveyard?
Besides, it would have been really hard to be at the cemetery at a time with nobody there able to observe me, considering that even when I was there during lunchtime hours, roughly a dozen other people were on the premises. Well, it didn't matter anyway; if I at one point had to find out their identities, the lack of essence under a gravestone would be enough to find out their names. Sure it might be harder to match them to the shades but certainly not impossible.
I left that train of thought and concentrated on my immediate endeavor, of finding out what powers they all had. I walked to the first of my new Shades, who I had all lined up next to each other facing me.
She was one of the women; it was hard to make out defining characteristics with all of my shadow having obsidian black skin tones and teal eyes, and I couldn't even be sure on how representative the hairstyle was they were wearing now to what they did when they were still alive.
Admittedly, it could have been the hairstyle they wore when they died, it could have been the one they preferred throughout their lives or just the one they had when their bodies were at their peak or really anything in between.
My mother wasn't necessarily a great help to solve this puzzle. Since her hairstyle hadn't changed in a long time. Because of this, I wasn't sure what it meant for the man standing next to her still having a neatly trimmed full beard.
The woman had a beautiful symmetrical facial structure with distinct cheekbones, and my god; did she have a body, never-ending legs, and a bust measurement ninety-nine percent of the female population would kill to have. I had to fight to suppress the semblance of jealousy at seeing her in all her glory. I could call myself lucky if I ever reached a b-cup since my mother barely filled out hers.
I touched her shoulder and absorbed her. I immediately felt overwhelmed as new knowledge was laid bare before my mind including an instinctive understanding of her power, allowing for the increase of my body's density by a considerable margin. It only took me a moment to connect the dots in my head, and I released the fusion.
Something of the discomfort I felt must have slipped and shown on my face because Mom immediately came to me and laid her hand softly on my shoulder to express her concern. There was no reason for her to ask; the facial expression she wore already did it for her.
"It is not an everyday occurrence to meet, let alone be one with a Goddess," I told her. My mother fast as ever with the uptake and said, eying the woman in front of us.
"Freya, she is Freya, the former vice leader of the Empire."
I just nodded with my head and added.
"And the presumed wife of Kaiser."
I recovered my emotional balance and walked to the imposing man with the beard standing next to her when it hit me, where I saw this man. It was in one of my dreams, he was older about two decades at least, but there was no doubt, that this man standing in front of me was Allfather. His height of about 6.7 feet, the way he stood combined with the beard drove it home.
Absent-minded, I wondered if the cemetery happened to be the official graveyard for Nazis.
Despite knowing that Allfather wouldn't be the solution to the problem with Dad, it didn't hurt to know what capabilities they had. Above all, it might help me to find out if their powers somehow modified mine, I touched him, and he became one with me.
My mind was flooded with new information and skills, but what surprised me the most was his power. It didn't work like I thought it did. He is rated as a Brute/Mover combo on PHO, said to be able to go toe to toe with the best of them, but he wasn't a Brute, not even close.
He was a short-range Shaker able to create simplistic items like Armor and Weapons out of thin air. In contrast to Kaiser, he only had a range of about twenty feet centered around him. Moreover, he couldn't change the shape of the items or manipulate the metal they were made of after he conjured them. But inside his Shaker effect, he wielded complete authority over those items. A sphere of dominance so absolute it allowed him to move his creations like a short-range telekinetic to increase their durability to near indestructibility.
He used that aspect of his power through intelligent use to mimic Brute Powers. Instead of moving his body through the use of his muscles, he puppeteered himself through the indestructible armor he wore. Combined with the incredible force he could bring to bear on items created by his power, he could feign incredible strength.
I wondered, could he have flown with his power?
I used his power and created a black metal pipe half a meter long and a few centimeters in diameter in front of my hands, nothing fancy, just something that might allow me to answer this question. I grabbed the levitating pipe with both my hands and then used the shaker effect to generate a telekinetic force and used it to slowly but steadily levitate the pipe higher and higher into the air. A moment later, my arms were stretched to their full length above my head. I didn't stop there and continued levitating the pipe further up, and my body hanging from the pipe followed after it, which resulted in me being lifted into the air.
I couldn't help but be delighted at the prospect of being able to fly a state of mind that came to an abrupt end when I reached a height a short distance under the roof Because the pipe refused to ascend any higher.
To say that I was puzzled was an understatement, the bubble around me in which I could manipulate items moved with me, there should be no reason why I shouldn't be able to fly freely, but for some reason, the pipe refused to gain any more altitude. Although, my range extended about twenty feet above me.
I looked down and could feel the edge of the control-sphere was barely touching the ground beneath me, could it be?
I instantly created another pipe in front of me. It proved to be no problem to move the new pipe anywhere inside my sphere. Even by placing it as an anchor hovering it below me above the ground and the threshold of my power, I couldn't move the other one I was still holding onto any higher. This turned out to be a problem for my aspiration to fly.
I moved the pipe I was hanging onto towards the crates until I was levitating above them. I tried it anew to gain altitude, this time, it worked without a problem. Unfortunately, I couldn't confirm my theory of the power necessitating being in contact with the ground this way for sure, because the warehouse wasn't high enough for me to gain a height more than ten feet above the crates before the ceiling stopped any further ascent. But that didn't mean it was impossible. I just moved the pipe and myself without lowering the altitude back above a part of the floor not occupied by crates.
Suddenly, the very moment the crates left the control-sphere, I found myself in a ten feet free-fall. Although I expected this to happen, it was a scary thing to experience suddenly falling from that height towards a concrete floor. I had a few short moments to ponder the stupidity of my actions. Why did I think doing this by myself was a good idea when I had expendable shades at my disposal. They wouldn't even blink at being used as guinea pigs by me.
I was in free fall until the sphere made contact with the floor and allowed me to reapply the telekinetic effect on the pipe, which stopped my descent cold. But the force, the abrupt stop generated nearly served to rip out my arms from their sockets.
I really should have thought this through.
The worried look on my mother's face drove this point home more than any lecture she could have given me while I descended back onto the ground. I called the other pipe to me and landed them both near one of the crates since Allfather power didn't allow for it to dissolve items created by it. Then I released our fusion and immediately felt something resembling Allfather's power still being there within the Abyss. The feeling strongly reminded me of the one I had, regarding the Abyss variant of Iron Rains power.
I concentrated and sensed this new aspect of the Abyss like it was waiting to be given form. But this time, I got the impression of the Darkness being able to assume not only malleable liquid forms like before what I was granted through Iron Rain, it now felt like it could be made solid on top of it.
Without a second thought, I tried my hand at it. Wisps of Darkness left my body and formed a black obsidian curved single-edged dagger lacking a crossguard. It was a work of art, and unlike before, after I was done molding it into this form I solidified it.
Unlike what I felt through the usage of Allfather power, I retained the ability to change its form in line with what Iron Rain could do with any metal around her. I tested it by molding the dagger levitating it in front of me into a sphere, which I then also made solid.
I raised my hand and moved the sphere into it, despite it being cold to the touch induced a familiar and secure feeling into me. Similar to holding a puppy or a kitten in your hand nestling in it. I dissolved it, and the wisps of Darkness it fell apart in, were reabsorbed by my body.
I wondered if I could make armor out of it, similar to what Allfather used to wear, as my thoughts came to a halt. I looked at my Shades and an idea formed in my head. I reached for Mom, who returned to my side and focused on her form. As I suspected, with this newly obtained ability, I could make changes to her, not to her body exactly but adding onto it. Things like clothing, armor, or simple tools, and I was quite confident that they would keep them even if I unsummoned them and later resummoned them.
The problem, as it turned out, was that the solidified darkness mimicked metal. Because of this, it was no easy task to create clothing from such unflexible material. I sidestepped the problem by creating clothing similar to chain mail by building it out of little interlinked metal rings. As it turned out, I was able to make them so small that without the help of some optical means, the result looked exactly like normal fabric.
Since I was essentially clueless concerning fashion, I settled for creating a simple pantsuit for Mom.
In order to do that, I closed my eyes to focus on what the suit looked like in my imagination and tried to make it a reality. I reopened my eyes to see my Mom examing the final product of my doing.
"Taylor, that is just... incredible." she praised, wide-eyed, her hands moving along the material to get a feel for it.
"I thought you might appreciate it not being naked all the time," I said in return. As a soft smile played on her lips.
She chuckled, saying "that's true, but it also doesn't hurt that this separates us from the Siberian."
Yeah, where she was right, she was right. Being associated with a psychopath like the Siberian was a bad idea, even if only because they both went around nude.
I went over to the third Shade in line, a plain-looking young woman in comparison to Freya. If I had to venture a guess at her age, I would say she was in her late teens, roughly the same height as me, which made her below average height for a grown woman. She had hair reaching below her shoulders with a bang covering one of her eyes. I got the feeling I knew her from somewhere, but I couldn't place where or when.
I shelved those thoughts for later and touched her, and a moment later, we were one.
I felt a new power flooding into me, but this one was different. It didn't allow me to manipulate my surroundings or create items. It was once able to gift others with a series of powers ranging from regeneration to invincibility to flight and Pyrokinesis.
What a versatile and interesting power, I wondered why I never heard of her. A power like this would have been in high demand, and the gangs and the Protectorate would have paraded her, for simply having her in their ranks.
Another thing I added to my to-do list.
Notwithstanding, that her power was not what I was after, the regeneration might be something that could help or at least alleviate the effects of dad's power. Perhaps it would be enough to allow me another shot at talking to him.
But first, I had to test it. I reached for my Mom to give her the flight power when something unforeseen happened. The instant I touched her, an option I hadn't even known was there burst into my mind.
It felt similar to what I already knew to be capable of but different, and since this one didn't come with an explanation like the powers of my Shades so far always had, it could only mean it was an ability my power developed.
After I hesitated for a moment, weighing the options and possible dangers for mom. I decided to go ahead with it. I justified it with the fact that every other power this Shade could grant had beneficial effects. The same would probably apply here too.
I activated the ability and was expecting, I don't know a new aspect of one this Shades various powers being pushed into Mom perhaps even gifting her a new power. Instead, I felt the Shade I was melded with being pushed into Mom ending the fusion we had.
I instantly panicked, all at once surprised, confused, and then worried at what had happened.
"Mom, mom are you alright?"
She looked at me dazed and was slightly swaying. I grabbed her shoulders. Cold fear seeped through my being that I might have hurt her, that I could lose her again.
"Mom, are you okay?"
She shook her head like I would do to clear away cobwebs.
"Yeah, I'm alright." she finally said, mollifying my worries. "I was just overwhelmed for a second there."
"Overwhelmed by what?" I wanted to know.
"It's difficult to explain." She mused, "Whatever you did, it felt like when I steal someone's power. New impressions being added to me, extending my capabilities. As I told you before, by using my powers, I only gain an understanding of the power that is stolen, and what it can do, nothing else. This, however, is completely different, accompanying the power were other things, knowledge, and skills that must be hers."
"Like what?" I asked.
"I know how to make and cook Maultaschen, Sauerkraut, Rouladen, Käsespätzle, and I think I can speak german. It's still hazy, but my power or I am almost certainly different, somehow."
"Hearing that, I felt my stomach being filled with dread. For one, there was no way to be sure she gained just knowledge, and not elements of their personality. If it was her power that changed, it could have been for the worst. Worst of all? I might not even be able to take back what I did. That scared me most of all. She could end up an amalgamation of the mind and power of them both. With her original self somewhere in there but twisted into something else that she might consider herself a new person.
"What do you mean? Describe it to me." Without further ado, she complied with my demand.
"It was like.... like my normal power is seeing things through a kaleidoscope of input, but suddenly there was an extra lens throwing how everything filters through into a different light."
"It feels like it got extended, like a puzzle to which another piece gets added and as result changed the picture it is supposed to displays to something different.
Yet, in some way retaining its parts, at the same time elevating them over what the individual parts that make up the new whole picture could ever hope to be."
She let her shoulders sag exhaled and then continued speaking.
"I don't know. It is hard to explain in words. It's the best I can do to say it like that."
"It is okay Mom," I took half a step towards mom reaching out partway but faltered unsure of how to proceed not only was it always mom in the past who reassured me, but I wasn't sure if it was safe to touch her. So I settled for a smile "I think I get it."
Then I closed my eyes and expanded my senses. I had no problem verifying exactly what she told me. The Shade of the woman, now fused with mom, was really used to augment her, added onto it.
Besides, as it turned out, my fears seemed to be unfounded. I could clearly feel them still being separate, precisely like what I experienced from using my Shades this way. Meaning aside from adding their powers and knowledge and abilities, I was quite sure, well as sure as I could be, that she wasn't influenced in any way. And even if this were the case, I could clearly make out that I could separate them any time I wished.
At a closer look, it was different than when I fused with a shadow. I actively had to keep it in me.
Fighting against a force trying to separate us again, like Mom described her power would work. Not that it was hard to do so, most likely because they were part of me. It felt more like holding onto them, in the case of just one shade. But in this case, nothing was fighting against this union. Quite the opposite. There was an attraction between them, meaning I would have to use force to separate them.
My curiosity awakened; I opened my eyes again and asked.
"Do you have to do something to keep a hold of her and her powers?" I asked.
"You mean like when I steal one?" she clarified "No, I don't."
"Interesting."
She displayed a mischievous grin saying "You think," and then poked my nose with her index finger.
Without warning one of my hand went up in flames, and I tried my hardest to put it out waving around my hand. It took me far longer than it should have to realize there was no pain.
When I settled down I noticed that I could control the flames. It was a limited control. Just enough to create flames and throw them. It was a power on the lower end of the power spectrum.
Still nice though - I gave my mom, who had to suppress a smirk a chiding look, and used my power to pull those two apart again.
In response, I received a soft shoulder check for being such a bad sport. My glare only intensified, the resulting staring contest didn't last long because Mom broke down laughing.
"You looked like a puppy who got her favorite chew toy stolen" she managed to press out in between laughs.
"MOM!" I exclaimed appalled.
"Sorry I couldn't help myself, you make it too easy," she said wiping away a tear.
Sulking I turned away.
"Don't be that way Taylor, I was just kidding." She tried to soothe me. When she walked around me seeking eye contact she came face to face with me grinning. Eliciting a huff from her for being had.
"Why you little-" my grin only got wider until she joined in.
I needed that, I didn't know how much. Just being able to joke around with Mom, forgetting about all my troubles. If only for a moment made it all so much easier to bear.
Moving on, I looked at the Shade of Frigga and ordered her to come closer. A simple touch and we became one. I reached out for Mom once more and tried to insert the Shade of Freya into her.
But this time, I met considerable resistance forcing them apart. It took me quite some effort to even get them into becoming one, and even after I had achieved it, I had to constantly keep on the pressure. Within a short amount of time, I noticed how it took a toll on me.
Meanwhile, Mom aside from being overwhelmed again by the new impressions didn't seem to be worse for wear. Which gave birth to the theory that I was solely responsible for making it work, without any input from her.
I ended this experiment shortly after I made this discovery and stopped keeping them together. A moment later, they separated again.
"Did this feel any different for you?" I asked.
"No," she answered, "Why are you asking?"
"Because it was for me, I practically had to force this merger, while with her," I pointed at the younger woman, "it was self-sustaining or more akin to attraction."
"You are saying there was a repulsion force, with Freya, but not with her?" I nodded at her question. She got thoughtful at that turning her head sideways and furrowing her brows.
"Perhaps it has something to do with our powers, how they resemble each other. I mean Freya, is a breaker while she and I are Striker/Trumps."
I mused about her words for a moment.
"It could be," I reluctantly conceded, "but I think there is more to it. For example, your power felt like it wants to steal, while her power had a different feeling to it, wanting to gift, to give powers away."
"A combination of those theories is also plausible," I raised my eyebrows in a questioning manner "Think about it, our powers obviously have some overlap but are still substantially different, opposites even. Perhaps your Power realized that and tries to fit puzzle pieces together to get a new whole but to get it to work some similarities are necessary."
"Possibly," I conceded, "it is as good a theory as any, and it might even be true. But we also could be overlooking something."
"Like it has nothing to do with the powers at all," she said. "As opposed to it being dependant on our personalities or something like that."
"Could be, the only way to be certain is if we experiment further." I paused and then asked her. "Do you want to fuse with her again? Permanently?"
It didn't take her long to come to a decision.
"Yeah, I would like that. I always regretted not being able to do a thing without having gotten my hands on a power beforehand. Don't get me wrong I love my power. But now, with you being parahuman potentially getting into a dangerous situation, I would want for nothing more than to be able to help you, and this power might just be the means to it.
Reaching out, while softly placing my face in her hands searching for my eyes "I, by myself, might not be any stronger, but at least I will be able to protect you. That is all that matters, that you are safe..." she insisted.
Loosening her hold, her hands trailed down to my shoulders, coming to a stop loosely lying on top.
I understood her sentiment and without a second thought made it happen and fused her and the unknown cape. I was in the process of getting a grasp on what the implications of all this had for me when the second oldest girl's head spun around and seemed to be alert.
I sensed urgency coming from her combined with [danger] [incoming].
Taking an involuntarily step in her direction brought me out of my mother's grasp. I didn't lose any time and commanded the Shade to become one with me. She dissolved into wisps of Darkness flooding into me in the blink of an eye.
This time I was thrown for a loop for what felt like an eternity. The power was vastly different from the others. Sure there were some of granting its user an additional sense, but getting a sense you are familiar with pretty much since you are born and then get this sense turned up to eleven was something else.
And that probably was the understatement of the century. I was used to hearing things when the origin of the sound was in my immediate vicinity or further away in case the produced sound was rather loud.
But being able to hear the heartbeat of a mouse more than a mile away was quite simply frightening. All things considered, that wasn't even the worst of it. Since sound was propagated by air and by matter and whenever it hit an object the sound wave changed. It got reflected scattered, and if you were able to identify and differentiate those changes you could use it to maneuver the world.
It would be a sense vastly superior to sight in some instances while inferior in others, but no less useful. As of five seconds ago I had access to such a sense, and it gave the idiom `my eyes were opened´ a vastly different but nonetheless accurate meaning.
I was quite certain, that without the experience in using this ability I gained from the girl I could fall back on, that I would have incapacitated myself through sensory overload by now. This gave me a slight taste of what my father more than likely had to contest with. Thinker powers were scary in this aspect, on the other hand, also really marvelous.
After I got a handle on it and knew what I had to do to focus my new sense, which in essence was echolocation but so much more, to my immediate surroundings. It was relatively easy to determine what exactly had spooked her, and rightfully so.
I could hear for a lack of a better word to describe it, how four large trucks and two SUV entered the premises of the warehouse. They came to a stop in front of the loading docks. And all in all, sixteen people left the cars.
As if this wasn't bad enough, one of them clearly was a cape, easily identifiable by the skintight costume he wore. Unfortunately, such costumes were quite common nowadays, and with no way to perceive its colors through hearing, I couldn't be sure about who it was.
I unsummoned all of my Shades except for Mom. She, at this point, picked up that something wasn't right and asked.
"Taylor, what's wrong?"
"A moment ago, trucks and sixteen guys arrived outside the warehouse, and it looks like they intend to come in here."
My thoughts started racing, this warehouse was abandoned, or at least it looked like it. Which then begged the question of why are there people here, but most importantly, why were they here now? My sense allowed me to `watch´ them leave their vehicles.
I considered my options, sixteen guys, one of them a cape. It shouldn't be that hard to overcome them. I was confident that my Shades would have no problem fighting their way out of here. Especially with someone like Iron Rain amongst them, she alone should be enough to take care of them.
After all, there weren't many capes in the Bay, neither in the past nor present who would be able to put up a fight against her. Well, with the sole exception of Lung, but last I heard, he didn't wear a skintight costume.
The problem was that it would put me on the map. The gangs would know about a new cape with considerable strength. Depending on what I had to reveal, of my capabilities, the scale would range from bad to utterly catastrophic. So, I decided, it would better if they didn't know I was even here to begin with.
I frantically looked around, hoping to find a way to get out of here without them seeing me. Unfortunately, the only exits without resorting to breaking down walls were all on the same side on which the newcomer arrived just now. Great, just great, what else could I do? I could try to hide for the duration of their stay.
I didn't expect to have enough time to get into one of the crates before they made their way in here. Besides, that could go wrong in so many ways that I discarded the idea moments after it found its way in my thoughts, which just left me with the metal walkway alongside the interior of the warehouse.
I was in luck because the railing consisting of only three horizontal metal pipes had a small section on the opposite side of the loading docks, where it consisted of corrugated iron sheets, wide enough for me and mom to hide behind.
I motioned my mother to be silent and follow me. We then hurried to get there as fast as possible. All the while, I listened to what happened in the front of the building.
"Seriously, what is so important for us to be here in the middle of the day? Couldn't it have waited until tonight? I'm still wasted from yesterday night and if it weren't for your, call I would still lie in my bunk for at least another 4 hours." One of them complained just to yawn to emphasize his point.
"Oh just shut up. I'm so tired of your whining, Steve. Nobody told you to go and waste yourself after the fights." A guy with a rough-sounding voice complained.
"Of course not, but Schadenfreude demanded it," Steve answered smugly. "I just couldn't resist the temptation to rub their defeat in their faces."
"Hell, I will never know what got into you to think it would be a good idea to bet your whole money on a poodle, but for this little fucker barely as big as the head of the Doberman he fought against to win. To say it was a longshot would be as saying Endbringers are mildly dangerous comparable to a kitten." Another one chimed in, his voice softer than their counterparts.
I heard laughter emerging from the guys directly around the speaker, close enough to hear his comment. A few moments, later they all converged in front of one of the loading docks when one of them asked with a deep baritone voice.
"Why are we even here?" another one asked with a thick German accent.
The cape was the one to respond to the question.
"Someone tripped the alarm. So be careful, might be the chinks."
I heard a key being inserted in the padlock, a short twist of the key later, the padlock was removed. Four guys positioned themselves next to the door, two on each side, while the cape stood in front of it. They all drew their weapons and prepared to storm into the warehouse. One positioned himself behind the cape and held up three fingers with one hand, and lowered them in turn. When his last finger went down, he patted the cape back, who then proceeded to kick the door open and stormed, inside flanked by the four guys the others followed shortly after.
Two of them stayed behind guarding the door. The others split apart and searched the room. I could already tell that the majority of them didn't take it seriously, with the complete lack of any evidence that somebody broke in before their arrival.
Of course, my presence disturbed the dust covering the floor, but whatever tracks I might have left behind were destroyed by their forceful entry.
After the guys who flooded the room had ample time to look around, they gathered back at the entrance.
Meanwhile, I was keeping my head low and my breathing as flat as I could, doing my best to prevent them from hearing me.
"Has anybody found anything?" the cape demanded to know, irritation coloring his voice.
All his people denied his question in unison.
"Strange, something must have tripped the alarm." Steve mused.
"It could have just been a rat." the rough-sounding guy offered as an explanation.
"Might be," the cape conceded, "but doesn't really matter. Kaiser wants us to get everything out of here. The risk of the chinks finding it by dumb luck is too high, and this false alarm is as good as any excuse to finally get it done."
"Probably a good idea, after Lung has finally consolidated his power over these sub-human scum, chances are good he pushes for more territory, and they might stumble over it by accident." the soft voice theorized.
I registered some of them nodding.
"I want the four of you to keep a lookout outside the warehouse."
The cape said as he randomly pointed at four guys in the corner of his little gathering. "The rest of you gets all those crates into the trucks."
When Nobody moved; he waited a few seconds until he followed up his order barking.
"What are you waiting for, get to work! " which was enough to spur them into doing it.
I, on the other hand, was angry at myself for the mistakes I made. I didn't plan on wasting my time hiding away from E88 goons in some warehouse.
But I had no one else to blame for this situation other than myself. Discarding the idea that there might be some kind of surveillance I couldn't detect was a testament to my arrogance and stupidity. After all, if the gangs in the Bay were this incompetent, they would have posed no problem for the law enforcement forces, and they would have been removed and imprisoned ages ago.
Well, at least this whole fiasco could be considered a learning experience and drove the point home that just because I might have a strong power didn't make me smart, nor should I underestimate the gangs. If it weren't for my luck in getting my hands on a Shade with enhanced senses, I wouldn't even have noticed them, until they were standing right behind me with drawn weapons. I could have died or worse, for the second time within this week, and we were only a short few days in it. I seriously have to step up my game if I ever wanted to reach my twenties, especially should I ever intended to go out as a cape.
The four assigned as guards made their way outside and took position around the perimeter. Meanwhile, the others started loading the crates in the trucks.
They didn't come far when my new sense detected something disturbing the water surface on a direct course towards our location. It was difficult to clear up the blurry image I received the shade of the girl never got any real experience, in using her power on water, and sound behaved differently underwater. The only thing I could tell was the creature was huge and fast.
I didn't get enough time to adjust my sight, to identify what I was seeing when the creature made landfall. Not far from the rusty crane and the creature wasn't subtle in the least. It was instantly spotted after its landing shattered the concrete beneath it.
"What the Fuck." one of the guards shouted the moment he laid eyes on it.
"Shoot this Motherfucker." said the next guard before he completed his turn to fully look at the creature and brought his weapon to bear.
A second later, gunfire was the predominant sound to be heard in the vicinity. I had to fight to keep my body from flinching whenever I heard a shot being fired.
I tried to distract myself from it by taking my time to examine the creature. It closely resembled a lizard, if they ordinarily had six legs were fifteen feet long, not counting its tail. Moreover, it had eyes arranged in a circular fashion around its head in such a way that it looked like a diadem granting it near 360 degrees of vision and would sprout eight tentacles around twenty-five feet in length on their backs.
Given that it looked more like a creature you would expect to see in a horror movie, I could completely understand the reaction of the guards witnessing it. Since it had the same effect on me and had to stifle my outcry at its horrendous form.
It took mere moments for the gang members left in the warehouse to draw their weapons and make their way to their comrades, but by the time they reached the frame of the loading dock, it was already too late.
I watched how this creature tanked the bullets shot at it as if they were pellets of paper, and jumped over sixty feet, landing directly in the middle of them. Their loose trapezial positioning didn't help them. On the contrary, the tentacles on its back took one swipe at them, and the next moment they lay bisected and dead around it.
It took the creature no effort. There was no hesitation. It just ended their lives, in the same way, I would swat away a fly.
It was clear that the others didn't stand a chance either. They would die too. No one, not even Nazis deserved to die like that.
I tried to stand up to get my head over the corrugated iron railing to warn them. But before I got the chance to do that, Mom grabbed my arm and pulled me down again. I was about to protest vocally, but the hand she placed over my mouth prevented me from doing that, too.
She signaled me to keep quiet. It took me a moment to realize she was right. If I went out there, it would jeopardize my life, my secret identity, and Dad. I just couldn't risk it, and my intervention might not even make a difference.
By the time I focused back on the sense to `see´ what happened, the Nazis were down to the cape and one other person firing with an assault rifle on the creature from well outside the range of its tentacles.
The others, or more accurately, their ripped apart bodies, were strewn around the floor. The creature didn't even give them enough time to scream. I noticed an acrid and disgusting smell scattering through the building. When it reached me in its entirety, I couldn't keep myself from gaging, and it took me a lot of effort not to vomit.
Not a moment later, the head of the creature turned my way and then bull-rushed the man shooting at it. He was squashed in between the creature and a crate into a bloodied mess of viscera. The sound his organs or what was left of it made when they hit the floor in a wet squelch would haunt me in my dreams, no doubt about it.
Then again, despite the lethal wounds inflicted on the cape the fight wasn't over because he stood up after being split in two at the hip as if it was nothing to write home about. He just regenerated his lower half. Not only was I surprised by witnessing this, the creature was too. It looked the capes way and stood still a few seconds in indecisive contemplation. In the meantime, the cape scrambled to his feet and tried to reach one of the crates, he didn't even make it halfway there before the creature, was done thinking, and the eight tentacles reached for him and grabbed him. They lifted him from the ground without any semblance of effort.
Four of them entangled his limbs while the other four were ramed like spears into his body and wiggled through his innards. It looked like somebody was in the process of ripping out the stuffing of a plushie.
The whole horrifying scene was accompanied by the most disturbing screams of pain I heard in my life.
With all the distractions, in the form of gunmen, out of the way, the creature focused solely on the cape, despite the anathema done to him he just didn't die. He screamed and screamed and just didn't stop. I couldn't endure listening to this any longer.
I ended the fusion with the shade. At least this way covering my ears had any effect, even if it only muffled the screams. Mom sensed my despair and embraced me, holding me close. I just wanted it all to be over.
Suddenly all the screaming stopped. It was silent from one moment to the next, too silent. I was about to re-fuse with the Shade to `see´ what was up when I heard the sound of metal shatter right next to me.
The creature embedded itself a few of his feet into the wall five feet away from me and had shredded through the metal railing and walkway. Mom immediately pushed me behind her.
"Run, Taylor, run!"
She screamed while facing the creature. I did exactly what I was told. I scrambled to my legs and started to run. Adrenalin was running through my veins, my heart started racing like never before, pushing my body above its limits, just to get me out of here.
Somewhere in my mind, there was a small part not corrupted by fear, still able to think, and this part wondered why I wasn't already dead ripped apart from the tentacles I was definitely within their range. I was just about to celebrate the fact that it didn't already happen and started believing I could escape it, that survival could be possible when the creature landed directly in front of me, shattering this nascent hope in thousands of splinters.
I skidded to a halt in front of it and slipped. I landed hard on my butt, immediately I turned around and scrambled on all fours, trying my best to get up and to get away from it. Before I even got the chance to stand upright, I felt something on my hip.
An instant later, I was buried in concrete, pressed in the human-shaped hole me being thrown against the wall created. I felt more tentacles joining the one on my hip, and they started to squeeze more and more tightly.
I barely noticed a woman's voice screaming my name over and over while all this occurred. Then the realization hit me, so that was how I was going to die. I was about to accept the inevitable when my awareness returned to a sense I kept suppressed for so long that I had trouble remembering I had it in the first place while not intentionally evoking it.
And this sense told me that there was its essence in direct contact with my body; essence in possession of a shard. I acted on instinct before my mind could even grasp the situation and unleashed the Abyss and dragged it into its endless depth.
The tentacles holding me in place vanished, at the same time, the essence was consumed, and I sensed another shade being added to my arsenal. I fell forward onto my knees. I had trouble processing what just happened when I found myself in the arms of my mother.
"Taylor, Taylor are you alright? Say something!" she demanded panicked from me.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I don't know how but I'm okay." I admitted surprised that I didn't share the fate of the squashed Nazi when I was flung against the wall.
"Good, it worked." she said "I already thought I lost you."
I was confused.
"What worked?"
"You didn't think I just embraced you to make you feel better. I did it to gift you with invincibility," she said smugly.
"I did tell you it is a mother's job to protect their child."
I couldn't help but look at her dumbfounded. Her response consisted of laughing at me. After I overcame the shock, I joined in. We both laughed, lying in each other's arms until we cried tears of joy.
We would have done that for quite some time if it weren't for a rude interruption.
"Hey, hey, I don't want to come across as rude or ungrateful. But would you mind getting me the fuck down from here?"
Our joyousness came to a halt immediately. We both moved apart and tried to locate the source of those words. It didn't take long to find it in the Empire Cape. He was impaled to the wall with parts of the railing. The creature must have done this shortly after it jumped up here and before he went after me.
We both stood up and walked over to him. When I got closer, I could clearly see how the metal pipes were rammed deep into his limbs fixating him there. I also recognized the Empire cape through the pathetic remnants of the costume he was wearing. Not that it would be necessary since his white skin and his power gave him away some time ago; Alabaster of the Empire 88.
He was said to be able to restore himself after taking damage as if nothing ever happened to him near instantly. No wonder he survived all of what was done to him by the creature.
The Empire uses him as a meat shield and distraction to hamper their opponents in fights. Since a cape simply couldn't be ignored it made him perfect to draw the attention of whomever he fights, and with him apparently unable to die, he can hold their attention.
"Sure, give me a moment." I didn't think I could get the pipes out of him and the wall by myself, given how deep they were rammed into the concrete. Thus, I summoned Iron Rain. I was about to give her the command to get him out when a hand was placed on my shoulder.
"Wait, Taylor. Let's think about it for a moment." Mom stopped me.
"What are you talking about Bitch, get me down now. Or you'll come to regret it." Alabaster threatened.
I turned back to him at hearing him insulting Mom, hot anger lacing my veins. Iron Rain acted upon it. She created a ball of black liquid metal that splashed against his mouth, sealing it shut. The recognition in his expression at seeing this power didn't escape me.
Mom stepped in front of me, gaining my attention.
"Taylor, I don't think we should let him get away. The risk it possesses for yours and Danny's safety is just too great." She pleaded.
"I don't understand," I mumbled, she couldn't mean...
"Oh, but I think you do," she said with emphasis.
"I know you saw his reaction to Iron Rain. He saw you kill this creature, which he and his goons couldn't do anything against it. Dammit, Taylor, he saw your face and heard your name!"
I winced at her outburst. She paused and ran her hand through her hair to calm herself.
"There is no way that the Empire after they hear from him what took place here, won't act on it. I'm sure in the beginning they will try to recruit you, smooth talk you into it. But failing that, when it becomes clear you won't join their cause, they will try to eliminate you. You are simply far too dangerous to ignore. That is why we have to kill him to keep you safe; there is just no other way."
"No, I won't do it," I screamed at her. "I'm not a killer." I followed up my outburst.
Realizing as I said it that it wasn't true I already killed; in self-defense. But that didn't change the fact that I had blood on my hands and denying it wouldn't help.
"Taylor" mom tried to get my attention but I just ignored her and tried to turn away. That was when she grabbed my shoulder and sternly urged me to listen to what she had to say.
"Taylor! This is no time to let your emotions control you. You aren't a kid, so stop acting like one, focus, and use your brain, think about it. What is the most likely scenario to happen, if you let him go."
I thought about what she said, and no matter how much I hated it, she was right. Believing that the Empire wouldn't act one way or the other with the information they learned about me should I let him go was just wishful thinking on my part, and I wasn't just endangering myself but also Dad. I couldn't allow them or anybody else to hurt him, not for things I did.
I balled my fingers into a fist. I knew I had to do it, but why was it so hard to accept it. Damn, I turned around my decision made and walked up to him. Given what I `saw´ him survive, I doubted there was anything short of the Abyss capable to put him down for good. I raised my hand with every inch it got closer to him, Alabaster wriggling against his restraints became more frantic. I was about to touch him when my mother softly touched my wrist.
"Let me try something first," she said, "if it doesn't work out the way I expect it to, you can go ahead."
I hesitated for a moment but ultimately relented.
Following this, she stepped forward and touched him. Within seconds there was a notable change in his bearing. If he was fearful before, I didn't know what to call it he was feeling now.
Meanwhile, Mom was just standing there thinking, no concentrating. Whatever she was doing, indicated by her lips forming a small smirk she was successful. She turned around and touched me. Her touch was completely different from than previous one. It was accompanied by a strange feeling of something invading me by opening myself to the Abyss. I couldn't help but notice that there was now a shard within me.
Two tethers were connected to it, both leading to Mom. The stronger one of them both ended there, and the weaker one lead to an essence.
This tether was barely even there, which made a certain amount of sense. If this was the representation of who had access to a power, then it being stolen meant it must be tethered more strongly to the thief for him to subvert the power and subsequently be able to use it.
Besides, since mom's power didn't allow for a permanent theft, it makes it necessary to suppress or weaken the connection to the original owner of the power, thereby prioritizing the connection she generated. Until now, I couldn't reach for the shard when she stole one, too deeply embedded in her unreachable for the Abyss, but apparently, something had changed.
She gifted me with the power. The only way I could see for that to be possible was that by combining her with the other cape she gained the ability to transfer stolen powers to others.
It had to mean exactly that. How else could it be explained what just happened otherwise? This represented a chance I didn't think possible. If the connection of the shard to its original owner was weakened, for it to be barely existent, I might be able to sever it and only absorb the shard and not the essence connected to it. This might be exactly what I needed to save Dad.
I allowed the Abyss to reach for the Shard connected to me. It greedily reached out for it, embraced it. I could sense how a wisp of it was following along both tethers. I focused on the thin strand leading to Alabaster and tried to keep it in check, doing my very best in getting it to abandon following it to its source.
The Abyss fought against my will, lusting for more. I increased my efforts, my focus not willing to budge to compromise. The Abyss is mine to command and not the opposite!
Suddenly the tether tore apart, and the connection was severed. The shard was free and was consumed without any further attachment by the Abyss. It was absorbed, leaving the essence of Alabaster untouched.
"It worked," I exclaimed with overflowing happiness.
Mom smiled at me.
"That's great Taylor."
"Yeah, it is thanks, Mom. I never would have noticed this being possible without you." I praised.
"Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you would have, given time. You are my daughter, after all."
She said, smiling.
I couldn't help but feel joy at the prospect of being able to help Dad. It outweighed every other emotion I felt in the last few minutes. But that wasn't all the good that stemmed from this. It also had the side effect of there being a body of Alabaster. It wasn't the ideal outcome, but better than the alternative with no corpse of the cape indicating some kind of foul play or kidnapping. Sure I could convert the dead, including what was left of Alabaster into Shades. Eliminating their bodies in the process, but that would still have left all the battle scars and would have garnered this incident even more attention than it is bound to get.
A short mental order to Iron Rain and parts of the railing pierced through Alabaster's torso, and head killing him instantly. I wasn't willing to see him die a prolonged death. I then took my time to destroy what was left of him thoroughly. Perhaps by nearly destroying his body making his identification by mundane means near impossible, it might serve to obfuscate the cause of death for those finding this scene.
They might conclude that he was just damaged above the threshold his power could manage to bring him back from and died this way, instead of outright suspecting a trump at work.
Iron Rain removed the metal she used to gag him and encircled my waist like a belt with it. She then levitated the metal and me over all the blood and corpses outside of the warehouse.
This way I wouldn't leave any evidence of my presence like footprints behind. I landed safely outside and unsummoned Iron Rain and Mom.
I didn't want to waste any more time and started to run. There was a patient awaiting my visit.
Authors Note:
The cemetery Taylor visited to reanimate her new Shades is the biggest cemetery of Brockton Bay (not the only one). She only got 12 capes out of it for a few reasons, number one she needs the original bodies to be intact to a certain degree, (decomposition in a coffin doesn't allow the bodies to degrade below the threshold for her power to be applicable) but other rituals to lay the bodies of the dead to rest do.
The predominant ritual to that effect being cremation. Then there are a few other factors to consider, namely killing a cape is a violation of the Unwritten rules, therefore most guilty of this transgression try to obfuscate this fact. Especially the Empire wanting to be seen as the Enforcer of those rules. That is why they, of course, have to abide by them, at least in the eye of the public. Meaning most gangs make sure after they killed a cape for there to be no remains to be found, especially not allowing it to be linked to them.
(so far, in the story, Iron Rain – would be a good example of a cape vanishing without her being buried in a graveyard... there are others, a whole lot of others, who shared the same fate)
This makes some of the statistics regarding cape-death and the survival rate of independent capes rather inconclusive in a way because the PRT assumes every cape without a team not being seen or heard from longer than six months is presumed dead.
The Power of Heith Anders aka Freya (wife of Kaiser and mother of Theo) was altered for this fiction. I'm aware that canonically she possessed a power similar to that of Menja and Fenja them being closely related and all (the shard budding...). But their powers seem to be next to exact copies of each other even New Wave had more variety than theirs, which is the reason I changed it. Some other reasons played part in this decision, which will get revealed later on in the story... but this chapter already hinted quite hard at what it might be. I'm confident most of you will draw the right conclusion – I won't either confirm, nor deny any theories at this point though
As you could already see in this chapter, some powers can evolve the Abyss to incorporate certain criteria in itself but not all – the reason that not all powers are able to do that is simply owed to my apparent lack of imagination -
I have some limiting conditions for what those "enhancements" are allowed to do. Mostly, I want to preserve Taylor as Master with a sidedish of Darkness/Shadow control, which means the evolution should somehow be applied to her minions.
Unfortunately, for most powers, doing this and following the rules I set is not an easy feat without them being near-exact knock-offs of their progenitor power, which is something I try to avoid as much as possible. This simply means if I can't come up with something that fits those criteria regarding a power she got her hands on, it won't evolve the Abyss.
I'm inclined, should I come up with something that fit a power Taylor already made her own at a later date, to include it in the story.
In which way I'm not sure, it could be either she just discovers it later for some reason, or I might even go back and retcon parts of the story since the second option can be quite complicated and intensive work I would rather not do it. The best way to avoid it would be if you (the readers) would share some ideas regarding what powers could evolve the Abyss in the confines of those rules, it would solve this problem before it even becomes one. Oh, and if you have some ideas regarding Para-human powers, I would be interested to hear them, I can't promise anything, but there is a chance some of those might make it into the story.
The in the chapter mentioned surveillance system responsible for the E88 to appear is, for now, an undefined Para-human power, if you were wondering.
The creature who attacked was Crawler. He partook in an Endbringer fight that occurred somewhere adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean (there isn't a complete list of all the Endbringer attacks... and I don't want to be specific at this point, of exactly where the attack took place... probably won't even matter for the story...), he might or might not have been blasted into the sea by the Endbringer after he just wouldn't stay down and then decided (after it was over and he was prevented by said Endbringer from rejoining the fight) to swim all the way back home to reunite with the S9.
Where he just so happened to run into Taylor... since he constantly evolves and comes directly from an Endbringer fight, in which he took considerable damage, resulting in a greatly changed appearance neither Taylor nor her mother were able to identify him. (Furthermore, it is doubtful the PRT/Protectorate go out of their way to publicize up-to-date pictures of them. Because the continued existence of such a group is a constant reminder of their incompetence in eliminating this threat). Annette might have a suspicion since she got a (short) look at his aura... but she, at this point, isn't certain about it.
Since I'm sure there are gonna be questions regarding this – here a few obscure answers to Crawler's participation in an Endbringer attack (at the moment, I don't wanna get more concrete). The S9 was in a major city with a Protectorate presence, when the Endbringer alarms were sounded. (at this point, they didn't make their presence known)
Since this was a rare chance for participating in an Endbringer fight
Crawler, who at that particular moment wasn't with the others of the S9 decided to go for it. He made his way to the rallying point, and since the truce was in effect and no one present was keen on breaking it or interested in trying their hands in killing him, Strider took him there with all the other Defenders... with probably more than one hoping he wouldn't return...
Chapter 07 - A monster in the Bay
By the time I finally reached the cemetery it was early afternoon, and the sun decided to come out from behind the overcast sky. It would have been a nice day, all things considered, with tolerable temperatures for a day in August.
A good day to read a book in the shadow of a tree. I saw a flash of a memory, my mother doing exactly that, while my Dad was playing tag with me.
I winced at that and focused on the task at hand. For me, to get back to a semblance of a happy life, I had to succeed, which, to be honest, was at best a far-fetched hope, but it was all I had.
I knew the chances were infinitesimally small that there was a para-human buried here that could help my Dad, especially if I considered what Mom told me about the existence of a power-nullifier. But that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I knew that my power was able to evolve by adapting aspects of a power my shades possess and make them into something else.
But for one of the Para-human buried to have a power, that if changed through mine would allow me to do something to help Dad.
Of course, even that was wishful thinking. On the other hand, my power had yet to disappoint me, and who knew I might be lucky. After all, I went through in the recent past, I deserved it, for something to go my way.
I came to a stop in the middle of the vast gravestones spiked greenery of the cemetery; my mother's supposed last resting place close by. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the darkness of the Abyss.
I was instantly flooded with new sensory impressions. The lingering essence of an incredible amount of people all around me, just a short distance under the earth, popped up in my mind.
But that wasn't all there was, millions more, smaller lights were everywhere around me. I was sure they at one point happened to be bugs, rats, and other creatures who died and were in the process of being returned to the cycle of life one way or another.
I did my best to blank them out of my awareness and instead concentrated on the few essences around me that contained a shard within them. When I was sure to have found them all of I allowed the Abyss to reach out. A moment later, they were ripped away from the loose tether that held them in place and dragged towards the Darkness that is my power.
And I felt twelve shades being added to my arsenal. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings one last time before I left. I didn't intend to return here for a long time.
I walked the short distance to the closest bus stop, it didn't take long for the first bus to arrive. Unfortunately for me, this bus line took the scenic route from near Captain's Hill, where the cemetery was located, along the edges of the Southern parts of the Docks through the Train-Yard. Following that the bus would drive through the Docks and end in the middle of Downtown.
This meant the route didn't go anywhere near home. The next line which did wouldn't arrive for another thirty minutes.
My impatience got the better of me; I needed to know if I gained something useful with the acquisition of those Shades, and I needed the insights only Mom could provide me with. For this reason, I boarded the bus. The bus driver an overweight Caucasian male with blond hair didn't even dignify my presence with a reaction or the bus ticket I showed him, and neither did he reciprocate my greeting. For a moment, I was stumped at his lack of normal human decency, on second thought, I realized it was in his best interest that he didn't care.
Because I was a student not in school on a school day and any scrutiny of the authorities with my single remaining guardian in the hospital wouldn't end well for me.
I probably should act with more caution, a reason more to get off before the bus reaches downtown, where the police presence is higher.
Ten minutes later, I got out at a bus stop near some abandoned warehouses right at the edge of the Docks and Downtown.
A location that was within a reasonable walking distance to my home, and to the hospital.
Hopefully, this would give me quite some time to experiment and still be able to get to Dad before the visiting hours were over. But most important of all, it was a block outside of the expanding ABB territory. If the gang tags were to be believed, putting me barely into Empire territory.
Which was good, I wasn't exactly keen on a repeat of the last time I was anywhere near abandoned warehouses, and to my knowledge, the Empire didn't haze or attack caucasian.
Because it would not only conflict with their ideology but would put a mark on their resume as the good guys they try to present themselves as at every opportunity.
I walked through a side road and ended up facing an abandoned warehouse near the water. It had a pier big enough to allow a container ship to moor. There even was a crane on railroads for unloading the containers from moored ships.
I slipped through a slit in the fence surrounding the whole area and made my way to one of the loading docks for trucks. Despite the rundown state of the building, the locks at the doors were still in a good condition.
Contrary to the crane, being rusted to such a degree, you had to wonder why it was still standing, of course, the one thing standing between me and an environment out of sight defied the ravages of time and somehow escaped desperate people in search of something worth selling.
In fact, I didn't think I would be able to break them without a crowbar or an iron rod, which I could misuse as one. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything like this in my immediate vicinity.
To not waste any more precious time, I fused with Iron Rain, and, with her power at my disposal grabbed one of the padlocks; a small exertion of her power dissolved parts of the shackle and allowed me to open the door.
Reaching out with Iron Rain's borrowed metal sensing, I paused, blinking. There was a ... surprisingly large amount of metal on the other side of the door. Most of it was largely mundane; nails tightly packed together in crates, ready to be moved, or the metal of the shelving lined in rows down a section of the space. But no, the much more relevant piece of information I was getting back was the guns. LOTS of guns. Big guns, small guns, guns that will leave holes in the wall big enough to let a draft in. Hidden among the nails were what felt like ammo containers, to my, her, senses.
I pulled the door shut, and with Iron Rain's power, still at my disposal, I reconstructed the padlock and put it back in place.
Given the dust on the floor and more distinct on top of the crates, I doubted anybody was in here for at least a few months, and it was highly unlikely for that to change while I was present.
Nonetheless, I didn't want to risk it. I looked around for a few moments trying to spot any surveillance system the warehouse might have, especially cameras that would be a hindrance to what I had planned. Despite my efforts, I couldn't find anything resembling a surveillance system even with Iron Rain's power, which, to be honest, struck me as odd.
If those weapons and what else might be in the other crates had been mine, I wouldn't have left it without any kind of protection or warning system informing me of anyone tampering with it.
The only explanations I came up with were that the owner either speculated that the goods being hidden in an abandoned warehouse would be enough for it to not be found or the ones owning it are no longer around.
I found the second option, the one to be more likely, Brockton-Bay had quite a fluctuation concerning the gangs. I mean, at the top of my head, I could come up with the names of five gangs that at one point or another were active in the Bay before driven or wiped out.
I discarded the third option of there being some kind of surveillance system present subtle enough to escape my notice. Simply because this train of thought led to madness, assuming at all times to have missed something despite my best efforts to the contrary, I didn't want to second guess every action, and let paranoia rule me more than it already did.
I ended the fusion with Iron Rain and summoned Mom. She took a look around and asked.
"Taylor, what are we doing here? And where is your Dad?"
Her question caused an acrimonious feeling.
"It didn't work out." I simply stated.
"Why? What happened?" she wondered.
"While I was trying to explain to Dad what was going on, a nurse came in, and I ... I unsummoned you. Dad's power bounced back to him, and he..." I had to collect myself before I was able to continue with my explanation. "He had a really strong reaction to it. He suffered another stroke."
I lifted my head and locked eyes with Mom.
"He nearly died, I... I nearly killed him."
Mom made two large steps closing the distance between us, and embraced me in her arms.
"I'm so sorry, little owl. Everything is gonna be okay... everything is gonna be okay."
Yeah, it will be. I softly freed myself from her embrace and summoned all twelve of my new shades.
Within a few moments, my shadow expanded in front of me, and out of it emerged twelve persons, consisting of three men, six women, and three kids, all of them being girls. I never was good at guessing the age of children, but my best estimate would be that one of the girls was roughly ten if she wasn't small or big for her age, one of the other girls I pegged as around two years younger while the other girl was the same amount older than her.
Which when I thought about it, was really strange. So far, my power gave the person I resurrected a body that represented their peak condition regarding age, my mom being prime the example I could be sure of proved it. If memory served correctly, it was scientifically established that humans reached it in their early twenties. Hence seeing three kids younger than me standing before me threw me for a loop.
Until my mind finally caught up with what my eyes saw. They must have died before their bodies reached and surpassed their twenties barring my power from "remembering" their peak bodies. I had to steer myself away from thinking about what could have happened to them, not only allowing them to trigger that young but dying not long after.
A brief look at Mom standing at my side, and the grimace of her face clued me in she drew the same conclusions. I added, looking into what happened to them to my ever-growing to-do list. On the same note, I had to accept that doing that for those other Shades sporting adult bodies in front of me would be a lot harder, for the simple reason any one of them could have been ancient.
For a moment, I regretted not walking up to every single grave, where I could sense essence connected to a shard to write down their names. But discarded this thought nearly instantly, there might have been no small chance that some were aware of the parahuman status of the dead or at least some of them and me walking from each one to all the others might have been highly suspicious for them. After all, what reason could there be to visit the graves of twelve individuals in succession at a graveyard?
Besides, it would have been really hard to be at the cemetery at a time with nobody there able to observe me, considering that even when I was there during lunchtime hours, roughly a dozen other people were on the premises. Well, it didn't matter anyway; if I at one point had to find out their identities, the lack of essence under a gravestone would be enough to find out their names. Sure it might be harder to match them to the shades but certainly not impossible.
I left that train of thought and concentrated on my immediate endeavor, of finding out what powers they all had. I walked to the first of my new Shades, who I had all lined up next to each other facing me.
She was one of the women; it was hard to make out defining characteristics with all of my shadow having obsidian black skin tones and teal eyes, and I couldn't even be sure on how representative the hairstyle was they were wearing now to what they did when they were still alive.
Admittedly, it could have been the hairstyle they wore when they died, it could have been the one they preferred throughout their lives or just the one they had when their bodies were at their peak or really anything in between.
My mother wasn't necessarily a great help to solve this puzzle. Since her hairstyle hadn't changed in a long time. Because of this, I wasn't sure what it meant for the man standing next to her still having a neatly trimmed full beard.
The woman had a beautiful symmetrical facial structure with distinct cheekbones, and my god; did she have a body, never-ending legs, and a bust measurement ninety-nine percent of the female population would kill to have. I had to fight to suppress the semblance of jealousy at seeing her in all her glory. I could call myself lucky if I ever reached a b-cup since my mother barely filled out hers.
I touched her shoulder and absorbed her. I immediately felt overwhelmed as new knowledge was laid bare before my mind including an instinctive understanding of her power, allowing for the increase of my body's density by a considerable margin. It only took me a moment to connect the dots in my head, and I released the fusion.
Something of the discomfort I felt must have slipped and shown on my face because Mom immediately came to me and laid her hand softly on my shoulder to express her concern. There was no reason for her to ask; the facial expression she wore already did it for her.
"It is not an everyday occurrence to meet, let alone be one with a Goddess," I told her. My mother fast as ever with the uptake and said, eying the woman in front of us.
"Freya, she is Freya, the former vice leader of the Empire."
I just nodded with my head and added.
"And the presumed wife of Kaiser."
I recovered my emotional balance and walked to the imposing man with the beard standing next to her when it hit me, where I saw this man. It was in one of my dreams, he was older about two decades at least, but there was no doubt, that this man standing in front of me was Allfather. His height of about 6.7 feet, the way he stood combined with the beard drove it home.
Absent-minded, I wondered if the cemetery happened to be the official graveyard for Nazis.
Despite knowing that Allfather wouldn't be the solution to the problem with Dad, it didn't hurt to know what capabilities they had. Above all, it might help me to find out if their powers somehow modified mine, I touched him, and he became one with me.
My mind was flooded with new information and skills, but what surprised me the most was his power. It didn't work like I thought it did. He is rated as a Brute/Mover combo on PHO, said to be able to go toe to toe with the best of them, but he wasn't a Brute, not even close.
He was a short-range Shaker able to create simplistic items like Armor and Weapons out of thin air. In contrast to Kaiser, he only had a range of about twenty feet centered around him. Moreover, he couldn't change the shape of the items or manipulate the metal they were made of after he conjured them. But inside his Shaker effect, he wielded complete authority over those items. A sphere of dominance so absolute it allowed him to move his creations like a short-range telekinetic to increase their durability to near indestructibility.
He used that aspect of his power through intelligent use to mimic Brute Powers. Instead of moving his body through the use of his muscles, he puppeteered himself through the indestructible armor he wore. Combined with the incredible force he could bring to bear on items created by his power, he could feign incredible strength.
I wondered, could he have flown with his power?
I used his power and created a black metal pipe half a meter long and a few centimeters in diameter in front of my hands, nothing fancy, just something that might allow me to answer this question. I grabbed the levitating pipe with both my hands and then used the shaker effect to generate a telekinetic force and used it to slowly but steadily levitate the pipe higher and higher into the air. A moment later, my arms were stretched to their full length above my head. I didn't stop there and continued levitating the pipe further up, and my body hanging from the pipe followed after it, which resulted in me being lifted into the air.
I couldn't help but be delighted at the prospect of being able to fly a state of mind that came to an abrupt end when I reached a height a short distance under the roof Because the pipe refused to ascend any higher.
To say that I was puzzled was an understatement, the bubble around me in which I could manipulate items moved with me, there should be no reason why I shouldn't be able to fly freely, but for some reason, the pipe refused to gain any more altitude. Although, my range extended about twenty feet above me.
I looked down and could feel the edge of the control-sphere was barely touching the ground beneath me, could it be?
I instantly created another pipe in front of me. It proved to be no problem to move the new pipe anywhere inside my sphere. Even by placing it as an anchor hovering it below me above the ground and the threshold of my power, I couldn't move the other one I was still holding onto any higher. This turned out to be a problem for my aspiration to fly.
I moved the pipe I was hanging onto towards the crates until I was levitating above them. I tried it anew to gain altitude, this time, it worked without a problem. Unfortunately, I couldn't confirm my theory of the power necessitating being in contact with the ground this way for sure, because the warehouse wasn't high enough for me to gain a height more than ten feet above the crates before the ceiling stopped any further ascent. But that didn't mean it was impossible. I just moved the pipe and myself without lowering the altitude back above a part of the floor not occupied by crates.
Suddenly, the very moment the crates left the control-sphere, I found myself in a ten feet free-fall. Although I expected this to happen, it was a scary thing to experience suddenly falling from that height towards a concrete floor. I had a few short moments to ponder the stupidity of my actions. Why did I think doing this by myself was a good idea when I had expendable shades at my disposal. They wouldn't even blink at being used as guinea pigs by me.
I was in free fall until the sphere made contact with the floor and allowed me to reapply the telekinetic effect on the pipe, which stopped my descent cold. But the force, the abrupt stop generated nearly served to rip out my arms from their sockets.
I really should have thought this through.
The worried look on my mother's face drove this point home more than any lecture she could have given me while I descended back onto the ground. I called the other pipe to me and landed them both near one of the crates since Allfather power didn't allow for it to dissolve items created by it. Then I released our fusion and immediately felt something resembling Allfather's power still being there within the Abyss. The feeling strongly reminded me of the one I had, regarding the Abyss variant of Iron Rains power.
I concentrated and sensed this new aspect of the Abyss like it was waiting to be given form. But this time, I got the impression of the Darkness being able to assume not only malleable liquid forms like before what I was granted through Iron Rain, it now felt like it could be made solid on top of it.
Without a second thought, I tried my hand at it. Wisps of Darkness left my body and formed a black obsidian curved single-edged dagger lacking a crossguard. It was a work of art, and unlike before, after I was done molding it into this form I solidified it.
Unlike what I felt through the usage of Allfather power, I retained the ability to change its form in line with what Iron Rain could do with any metal around her. I tested it by molding the dagger levitating it in front of me into a sphere, which I then also made solid.
I raised my hand and moved the sphere into it, despite it being cold to the touch induced a familiar and secure feeling into me. Similar to holding a puppy or a kitten in your hand nestling in it. I dissolved it, and the wisps of Darkness it fell apart in, were reabsorbed by my body.
I wondered if I could make armor out of it, similar to what Allfather used to wear, as my thoughts came to a halt. I looked at my Shades and an idea formed in my head. I reached for Mom, who returned to my side and focused on her form. As I suspected, with this newly obtained ability, I could make changes to her, not to her body exactly but adding onto it. Things like clothing, armor, or simple tools, and I was quite confident that they would keep them even if I unsummoned them and later resummoned them.
The problem, as it turned out, was that the solidified darkness mimicked metal. Because of this, it was no easy task to create clothing from such unflexible material. I sidestepped the problem by creating clothing similar to chain mail by building it out of little interlinked metal rings. As it turned out, I was able to make them so small that without the help of some optical means, the result looked exactly like normal fabric.
Since I was essentially clueless concerning fashion, I settled for creating a simple pantsuit for Mom.
In order to do that, I closed my eyes to focus on what the suit looked like in my imagination and tried to make it a reality. I reopened my eyes to see my Mom examing the final product of my doing.
"Taylor, that is just... incredible." she praised, wide-eyed, her hands moving along the material to get a feel for it.
"I thought you might appreciate it not being naked all the time," I said in return. As a soft smile played on her lips.
She chuckled, saying "that's true, but it also doesn't hurt that this separates us from the Siberian."
Yeah, where she was right, she was right. Being associated with a psychopath like the Siberian was a bad idea, even if only because they both went around nude.
I went over to the third Shade in line, a plain-looking young woman in comparison to Freya. If I had to venture a guess at her age, I would say she was in her late teens, roughly the same height as me, which made her below average height for a grown woman. She had hair reaching below her shoulders with a bang covering one of her eyes. I got the feeling I knew her from somewhere, but I couldn't place where or when.
I shelved those thoughts for later and touched her, and a moment later, we were one.
I felt a new power flooding into me, but this one was different. It didn't allow me to manipulate my surroundings or create items. It was once able to gift others with a series of powers ranging from regeneration to invincibility to flight and Pyrokinesis.
What a versatile and interesting power, I wondered why I never heard of her. A power like this would have been in high demand, and the gangs and the Protectorate would have paraded her, for simply having her in their ranks.
Another thing I added to my to-do list.
Notwithstanding, that her power was not what I was after, the regeneration might be something that could help or at least alleviate the effects of dad's power. Perhaps it would be enough to allow me another shot at talking to him.
But first, I had to test it. I reached for my Mom to give her the flight power when something unforeseen happened. The instant I touched her, an option I hadn't even known was there burst into my mind.
It felt similar to what I already knew to be capable of but different, and since this one didn't come with an explanation like the powers of my Shades so far always had, it could only mean it was an ability my power developed.
After I hesitated for a moment, weighing the options and possible dangers for mom. I decided to go ahead with it. I justified it with the fact that every other power this Shade could grant had beneficial effects. The same would probably apply here too.
I activated the ability and was expecting, I don't know a new aspect of one this Shades various powers being pushed into Mom perhaps even gifting her a new power. Instead, I felt the Shade I was melded with being pushed into Mom ending the fusion we had.
I instantly panicked, all at once surprised, confused, and then worried at what had happened.
"Mom, mom are you alright?"
She looked at me dazed and was slightly swaying. I grabbed her shoulders. Cold fear seeped through my being that I might have hurt her, that I could lose her again.
"Mom, are you okay?"
She shook her head like I would do to clear away cobwebs.
"Yeah, I'm alright." she finally said, mollifying my worries. "I was just overwhelmed for a second there."
"Overwhelmed by what?" I wanted to know.
"It's difficult to explain." She mused, "Whatever you did, it felt like when I steal someone's power. New impressions being added to me, extending my capabilities. As I told you before, by using my powers, I only gain an understanding of the power that is stolen, and what it can do, nothing else. This, however, is completely different, accompanying the power were other things, knowledge, and skills that must be hers."
"Like what?" I asked.
"I know how to make and cook Maultaschen, Sauerkraut, Rouladen, Käsespätzle, and I think I can speak german. It's still hazy, but my power or I am almost certainly different, somehow."
"Hearing that, I felt my stomach being filled with dread. For one, there was no way to be sure she gained just knowledge, and not elements of their personality. If it was her power that changed, it could have been for the worst. Worst of all? I might not even be able to take back what I did. That scared me most of all. She could end up an amalgamation of the mind and power of them both. With her original self somewhere in there but twisted into something else that she might consider herself a new person.
"What do you mean? Describe it to me." Without further ado, she complied with my demand.
"It was like.... like my normal power is seeing things through a kaleidoscope of input, but suddenly there was an extra lens throwing how everything filters through into a different light."
"It feels like it got extended, like a puzzle to which another piece gets added and as result changed the picture it is supposed to displays to something different.
Yet, in some way retaining its parts, at the same time elevating them over what the individual parts that make up the new whole picture could ever hope to be."
She let her shoulders sag exhaled and then continued speaking.
"I don't know. It is hard to explain in words. It's the best I can do to say it like that."
"It is okay Mom," I took half a step towards mom reaching out partway but faltered unsure of how to proceed not only was it always mom in the past who reassured me, but I wasn't sure if it was safe to touch her. So I settled for a smile "I think I get it."
Then I closed my eyes and expanded my senses. I had no problem verifying exactly what she told me. The Shade of the woman, now fused with mom, was really used to augment her, added onto it.
Besides, as it turned out, my fears seemed to be unfounded. I could clearly feel them still being separate, precisely like what I experienced from using my Shades this way. Meaning aside from adding their powers and knowledge and abilities, I was quite sure, well as sure as I could be, that she wasn't influenced in any way. And even if this were the case, I could clearly make out that I could separate them any time I wished.
At a closer look, it was different than when I fused with a shadow. I actively had to keep it in me.
Fighting against a force trying to separate us again, like Mom described her power would work. Not that it was hard to do so, most likely because they were part of me. It felt more like holding onto them, in the case of just one shade. But in this case, nothing was fighting against this union. Quite the opposite. There was an attraction between them, meaning I would have to use force to separate them.
My curiosity awakened; I opened my eyes again and asked.
"Do you have to do something to keep a hold of her and her powers?" I asked.
"You mean like when I steal one?" she clarified "No, I don't."
"Interesting."
She displayed a mischievous grin saying "You think," and then poked my nose with her index finger.
Without warning one of my hand went up in flames, and I tried my hardest to put it out waving around my hand. It took me far longer than it should have to realize there was no pain.
When I settled down I noticed that I could control the flames. It was a limited control. Just enough to create flames and throw them. It was a power on the lower end of the power spectrum.
Still nice though - I gave my mom, who had to suppress a smirk a chiding look, and used my power to pull those two apart again.
In response, I received a soft shoulder check for being such a bad sport. My glare only intensified, the resulting staring contest didn't last long because Mom broke down laughing.
"You looked like a puppy who got her favorite chew toy stolen" she managed to press out in between laughs.
"MOM!" I exclaimed appalled.
"Sorry I couldn't help myself, you make it too easy," she said wiping away a tear.
Sulking I turned away.
"Don't be that way Taylor, I was just kidding." She tried to soothe me. When she walked around me seeking eye contact she came face to face with me grinning. Eliciting a huff from her for being had.
"Why you little-" my grin only got wider until she joined in.
I needed that, I didn't know how much. Just being able to joke around with Mom, forgetting about all my troubles. If only for a moment made it all so much easier to bear.
Moving on, I looked at the Shade of Frigga and ordered her to come closer. A simple touch and we became one. I reached out for Mom once more and tried to insert the Shade of Freya into her.
But this time, I met considerable resistance forcing them apart. It took me quite some effort to even get them into becoming one, and even after I had achieved it, I had to constantly keep on the pressure. Within a short amount of time, I noticed how it took a toll on me.
Meanwhile, Mom aside from being overwhelmed again by the new impressions didn't seem to be worse for wear. Which gave birth to the theory that I was solely responsible for making it work, without any input from her.
I ended this experiment shortly after I made this discovery and stopped keeping them together. A moment later, they separated again.
"Did this feel any different for you?" I asked.
"No," she answered, "Why are you asking?"
"Because it was for me, I practically had to force this merger, while with her," I pointed at the younger woman, "it was self-sustaining or more akin to attraction."
"You are saying there was a repulsion force, with Freya, but not with her?" I nodded at her question. She got thoughtful at that turning her head sideways and furrowing her brows.
"Perhaps it has something to do with our powers, how they resemble each other. I mean Freya, is a breaker while she and I are Striker/Trumps."
I mused about her words for a moment.
"It could be," I reluctantly conceded, "but I think there is more to it. For example, your power felt like it wants to steal, while her power had a different feeling to it, wanting to gift, to give powers away."
"A combination of those theories is also plausible," I raised my eyebrows in a questioning manner "Think about it, our powers obviously have some overlap but are still substantially different, opposites even. Perhaps your Power realized that and tries to fit puzzle pieces together to get a new whole but to get it to work some similarities are necessary."
"Possibly," I conceded, "it is as good a theory as any, and it might even be true. But we also could be overlooking something."
"Like it has nothing to do with the powers at all," she said. "As opposed to it being dependant on our personalities or something like that."
"Could be, the only way to be certain is if we experiment further." I paused and then asked her. "Do you want to fuse with her again? Permanently?"
It didn't take her long to come to a decision.
"Yeah, I would like that. I always regretted not being able to do a thing without having gotten my hands on a power beforehand. Don't get me wrong I love my power. But now, with you being parahuman potentially getting into a dangerous situation, I would want for nothing more than to be able to help you, and this power might just be the means to it.
Reaching out, while softly placing my face in her hands searching for my eyes "I, by myself, might not be any stronger, but at least I will be able to protect you. That is all that matters, that you are safe..." she insisted.
Loosening her hold, her hands trailed down to my shoulders, coming to a stop loosely lying on top.
I understood her sentiment and without a second thought made it happen and fused her and the unknown cape. I was in the process of getting a grasp on what the implications of all this had for me when the second oldest girl's head spun around and seemed to be alert.
I sensed urgency coming from her combined with [danger] [incoming].
Taking an involuntarily step in her direction brought me out of my mother's grasp. I didn't lose any time and commanded the Shade to become one with me. She dissolved into wisps of Darkness flooding into me in the blink of an eye.
This time I was thrown for a loop for what felt like an eternity. The power was vastly different from the others. Sure there were some of granting its user an additional sense, but getting a sense you are familiar with pretty much since you are born and then get this sense turned up to eleven was something else.
And that probably was the understatement of the century. I was used to hearing things when the origin of the sound was in my immediate vicinity or further away in case the produced sound was rather loud.
But being able to hear the heartbeat of a mouse more than a mile away was quite simply frightening. All things considered, that wasn't even the worst of it. Since sound was propagated by air and by matter and whenever it hit an object the sound wave changed. It got reflected scattered, and if you were able to identify and differentiate those changes you could use it to maneuver the world.
It would be a sense vastly superior to sight in some instances while inferior in others, but no less useful. As of five seconds ago I had access to such a sense, and it gave the idiom `my eyes were opened´ a vastly different but nonetheless accurate meaning.
I was quite certain, that without the experience in using this ability I gained from the girl I could fall back on, that I would have incapacitated myself through sensory overload by now. This gave me a slight taste of what my father more than likely had to contest with. Thinker powers were scary in this aspect, on the other hand, also really marvelous.
After I got a handle on it and knew what I had to do to focus my new sense, which in essence was echolocation but so much more, to my immediate surroundings. It was relatively easy to determine what exactly had spooked her, and rightfully so.
I could hear for a lack of a better word to describe it, how four large trucks and two SUV entered the premises of the warehouse. They came to a stop in front of the loading docks. And all in all, sixteen people left the cars.
As if this wasn't bad enough, one of them clearly was a cape, easily identifiable by the skintight costume he wore. Unfortunately, such costumes were quite common nowadays, and with no way to perceive its colors through hearing, I couldn't be sure about who it was.
I unsummoned all of my Shades except for Mom. She, at this point, picked up that something wasn't right and asked.
"Taylor, what's wrong?"
"A moment ago, trucks and sixteen guys arrived outside the warehouse, and it looks like they intend to come in here."
My thoughts started racing, this warehouse was abandoned, or at least it looked like it. Which then begged the question of why are there people here, but most importantly, why were they here now? My sense allowed me to `watch´ them leave their vehicles.
I considered my options, sixteen guys, one of them a cape. It shouldn't be that hard to overcome them. I was confident that my Shades would have no problem fighting their way out of here. Especially with someone like Iron Rain amongst them, she alone should be enough to take care of them.
After all, there weren't many capes in the Bay, neither in the past nor present who would be able to put up a fight against her. Well, with the sole exception of Lung, but last I heard, he didn't wear a skintight costume.
The problem was that it would put me on the map. The gangs would know about a new cape with considerable strength. Depending on what I had to reveal, of my capabilities, the scale would range from bad to utterly catastrophic. So, I decided, it would better if they didn't know I was even here to begin with.
I frantically looked around, hoping to find a way to get out of here without them seeing me. Unfortunately, the only exits without resorting to breaking down walls were all on the same side on which the newcomer arrived just now. Great, just great, what else could I do? I could try to hide for the duration of their stay.
I didn't expect to have enough time to get into one of the crates before they made their way in here. Besides, that could go wrong in so many ways that I discarded the idea moments after it found its way in my thoughts, which just left me with the metal walkway alongside the interior of the warehouse.
I was in luck because the railing consisting of only three horizontal metal pipes had a small section on the opposite side of the loading docks, where it consisted of corrugated iron sheets, wide enough for me and mom to hide behind.
I motioned my mother to be silent and follow me. We then hurried to get there as fast as possible. All the while, I listened to what happened in the front of the building.
"Seriously, what is so important for us to be here in the middle of the day? Couldn't it have waited until tonight? I'm still wasted from yesterday night and if it weren't for your, call I would still lie in my bunk for at least another 4 hours." One of them complained just to yawn to emphasize his point.
"Oh just shut up. I'm so tired of your whining, Steve. Nobody told you to go and waste yourself after the fights." A guy with a rough-sounding voice complained.
"Of course not, but Schadenfreude demanded it," Steve answered smugly. "I just couldn't resist the temptation to rub their defeat in their faces."
"Hell, I will never know what got into you to think it would be a good idea to bet your whole money on a poodle, but for this little fucker barely as big as the head of the Doberman he fought against to win. To say it was a longshot would be as saying Endbringers are mildly dangerous comparable to a kitten." Another one chimed in, his voice softer than their counterparts.
I heard laughter emerging from the guys directly around the speaker, close enough to hear his comment. A few moments, later they all converged in front of one of the loading docks when one of them asked with a deep baritone voice.
"Why are we even here?" another one asked with a thick German accent.
The cape was the one to respond to the question.
"Someone tripped the alarm. So be careful, might be the chinks."
I heard a key being inserted in the padlock, a short twist of the key later, the padlock was removed. Four guys positioned themselves next to the door, two on each side, while the cape stood in front of it. They all drew their weapons and prepared to storm into the warehouse. One positioned himself behind the cape and held up three fingers with one hand, and lowered them in turn. When his last finger went down, he patted the cape back, who then proceeded to kick the door open and stormed, inside flanked by the four guys the others followed shortly after.
Two of them stayed behind guarding the door. The others split apart and searched the room. I could already tell that the majority of them didn't take it seriously, with the complete lack of any evidence that somebody broke in before their arrival.
Of course, my presence disturbed the dust covering the floor, but whatever tracks I might have left behind were destroyed by their forceful entry.
After the guys who flooded the room had ample time to look around, they gathered back at the entrance.
Meanwhile, I was keeping my head low and my breathing as flat as I could, doing my best to prevent them from hearing me.
"Has anybody found anything?" the cape demanded to know, irritation coloring his voice.
All his people denied his question in unison.
"Strange, something must have tripped the alarm." Steve mused.
"It could have just been a rat." the rough-sounding guy offered as an explanation.
"Might be," the cape conceded, "but doesn't really matter. Kaiser wants us to get everything out of here. The risk of the chinks finding it by dumb luck is too high, and this false alarm is as good as any excuse to finally get it done."
"Probably a good idea, after Lung has finally consolidated his power over these sub-human scum, chances are good he pushes for more territory, and they might stumble over it by accident." the soft voice theorized.
I registered some of them nodding.
"I want the four of you to keep a lookout outside the warehouse."
The cape said as he randomly pointed at four guys in the corner of his little gathering. "The rest of you gets all those crates into the trucks."
When Nobody moved; he waited a few seconds until he followed up his order barking.
"What are you waiting for, get to work! " which was enough to spur them into doing it.
I, on the other hand, was angry at myself for the mistakes I made. I didn't plan on wasting my time hiding away from E88 goons in some warehouse.
But I had no one else to blame for this situation other than myself. Discarding the idea that there might be some kind of surveillance I couldn't detect was a testament to my arrogance and stupidity. After all, if the gangs in the Bay were this incompetent, they would have posed no problem for the law enforcement forces, and they would have been removed and imprisoned ages ago.
Well, at least this whole fiasco could be considered a learning experience and drove the point home that just because I might have a strong power didn't make me smart, nor should I underestimate the gangs. If it weren't for my luck in getting my hands on a Shade with enhanced senses, I wouldn't even have noticed them, until they were standing right behind me with drawn weapons. I could have died or worse, for the second time within this week, and we were only a short few days in it. I seriously have to step up my game if I ever wanted to reach my twenties, especially should I ever intended to go out as a cape.
The four assigned as guards made their way outside and took position around the perimeter. Meanwhile, the others started loading the crates in the trucks.
They didn't come far when my new sense detected something disturbing the water surface on a direct course towards our location. It was difficult to clear up the blurry image I received the shade of the girl never got any real experience, in using her power on water, and sound behaved differently underwater. The only thing I could tell was the creature was huge and fast.
I didn't get enough time to adjust my sight, to identify what I was seeing when the creature made landfall. Not far from the rusty crane and the creature wasn't subtle in the least. It was instantly spotted after its landing shattered the concrete beneath it.
"What the Fuck." one of the guards shouted the moment he laid eyes on it.
"Shoot this Motherfucker." said the next guard before he completed his turn to fully look at the creature and brought his weapon to bear.
A second later, gunfire was the predominant sound to be heard in the vicinity. I had to fight to keep my body from flinching whenever I heard a shot being fired.
I tried to distract myself from it by taking my time to examine the creature. It closely resembled a lizard, if they ordinarily had six legs were fifteen feet long, not counting its tail. Moreover, it had eyes arranged in a circular fashion around its head in such a way that it looked like a diadem granting it near 360 degrees of vision and would sprout eight tentacles around twenty-five feet in length on their backs.
Given that it looked more like a creature you would expect to see in a horror movie, I could completely understand the reaction of the guards witnessing it. Since it had the same effect on me and had to stifle my outcry at its horrendous form.
It took mere moments for the gang members left in the warehouse to draw their weapons and make their way to their comrades, but by the time they reached the frame of the loading dock, it was already too late.
I watched how this creature tanked the bullets shot at it as if they were pellets of paper, and jumped over sixty feet, landing directly in the middle of them. Their loose trapezial positioning didn't help them. On the contrary, the tentacles on its back took one swipe at them, and the next moment they lay bisected and dead around it.
It took the creature no effort. There was no hesitation. It just ended their lives, in the same way, I would swat away a fly.
It was clear that the others didn't stand a chance either. They would die too. No one, not even Nazis deserved to die like that.
I tried to stand up to get my head over the corrugated iron railing to warn them. But before I got the chance to do that, Mom grabbed my arm and pulled me down again. I was about to protest vocally, but the hand she placed over my mouth prevented me from doing that, too.
She signaled me to keep quiet. It took me a moment to realize she was right. If I went out there, it would jeopardize my life, my secret identity, and Dad. I just couldn't risk it, and my intervention might not even make a difference.
By the time I focused back on the sense to `see´ what happened, the Nazis were down to the cape and one other person firing with an assault rifle on the creature from well outside the range of its tentacles.
The others, or more accurately, their ripped apart bodies, were strewn around the floor. The creature didn't even give them enough time to scream. I noticed an acrid and disgusting smell scattering through the building. When it reached me in its entirety, I couldn't keep myself from gaging, and it took me a lot of effort not to vomit.
Not a moment later, the head of the creature turned my way and then bull-rushed the man shooting at it. He was squashed in between the creature and a crate into a bloodied mess of viscera. The sound his organs or what was left of it made when they hit the floor in a wet squelch would haunt me in my dreams, no doubt about it.
Then again, despite the lethal wounds inflicted on the cape the fight wasn't over because he stood up after being split in two at the hip as if it was nothing to write home about. He just regenerated his lower half. Not only was I surprised by witnessing this, the creature was too. It looked the capes way and stood still a few seconds in indecisive contemplation. In the meantime, the cape scrambled to his feet and tried to reach one of the crates, he didn't even make it halfway there before the creature, was done thinking, and the eight tentacles reached for him and grabbed him. They lifted him from the ground without any semblance of effort.
Four of them entangled his limbs while the other four were ramed like spears into his body and wiggled through his innards. It looked like somebody was in the process of ripping out the stuffing of a plushie.
The whole horrifying scene was accompanied by the most disturbing screams of pain I heard in my life.
With all the distractions, in the form of gunmen, out of the way, the creature focused solely on the cape, despite the anathema done to him he just didn't die. He screamed and screamed and just didn't stop. I couldn't endure listening to this any longer.
I ended the fusion with the shade. At least this way covering my ears had any effect, even if it only muffled the screams. Mom sensed my despair and embraced me, holding me close. I just wanted it all to be over.
Suddenly all the screaming stopped. It was silent from one moment to the next, too silent. I was about to re-fuse with the Shade to `see´ what was up when I heard the sound of metal shatter right next to me.
The creature embedded itself a few of his feet into the wall five feet away from me and had shredded through the metal railing and walkway. Mom immediately pushed me behind her.
"Run, Taylor, run!"
She screamed while facing the creature. I did exactly what I was told. I scrambled to my legs and started to run. Adrenalin was running through my veins, my heart started racing like never before, pushing my body above its limits, just to get me out of here.
Somewhere in my mind, there was a small part not corrupted by fear, still able to think, and this part wondered why I wasn't already dead ripped apart from the tentacles I was definitely within their range. I was just about to celebrate the fact that it didn't already happen and started believing I could escape it, that survival could be possible when the creature landed directly in front of me, shattering this nascent hope in thousands of splinters.
I skidded to a halt in front of it and slipped. I landed hard on my butt, immediately I turned around and scrambled on all fours, trying my best to get up and to get away from it. Before I even got the chance to stand upright, I felt something on my hip.
An instant later, I was buried in concrete, pressed in the human-shaped hole me being thrown against the wall created. I felt more tentacles joining the one on my hip, and they started to squeeze more and more tightly.
I barely noticed a woman's voice screaming my name over and over while all this occurred. Then the realization hit me, so that was how I was going to die. I was about to accept the inevitable when my awareness returned to a sense I kept suppressed for so long that I had trouble remembering I had it in the first place while not intentionally evoking it.
And this sense told me that there was its essence in direct contact with my body; essence in possession of a shard. I acted on instinct before my mind could even grasp the situation and unleashed the Abyss and dragged it into its endless depth.
The tentacles holding me in place vanished, at the same time, the essence was consumed, and I sensed another shade being added to my arsenal. I fell forward onto my knees. I had trouble processing what just happened when I found myself in the arms of my mother.
"Taylor, Taylor are you alright? Say something!" she demanded panicked from me.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I don't know how but I'm okay." I admitted surprised that I didn't share the fate of the squashed Nazi when I was flung against the wall.
"Good, it worked." she said "I already thought I lost you."
I was confused.
"What worked?"
"You didn't think I just embraced you to make you feel better. I did it to gift you with invincibility," she said smugly.
"I did tell you it is a mother's job to protect their child."
I couldn't help but look at her dumbfounded. Her response consisted of laughing at me. After I overcame the shock, I joined in. We both laughed, lying in each other's arms until we cried tears of joy.
We would have done that for quite some time if it weren't for a rude interruption.
"Hey, hey, I don't want to come across as rude or ungrateful. But would you mind getting me the fuck down from here?"
Our joyousness came to a halt immediately. We both moved apart and tried to locate the source of those words. It didn't take long to find it in the Empire Cape. He was impaled to the wall with parts of the railing. The creature must have done this shortly after it jumped up here and before he went after me.
We both stood up and walked over to him. When I got closer, I could clearly see how the metal pipes were rammed deep into his limbs fixating him there. I also recognized the Empire cape through the pathetic remnants of the costume he was wearing. Not that it would be necessary since his white skin and his power gave him away some time ago; Alabaster of the Empire 88.
He was said to be able to restore himself after taking damage as if nothing ever happened to him near instantly. No wonder he survived all of what was done to him by the creature.
The Empire uses him as a meat shield and distraction to hamper their opponents in fights. Since a cape simply couldn't be ignored it made him perfect to draw the attention of whomever he fights, and with him apparently unable to die, he can hold their attention.
"Sure, give me a moment." I didn't think I could get the pipes out of him and the wall by myself, given how deep they were rammed into the concrete. Thus, I summoned Iron Rain. I was about to give her the command to get him out when a hand was placed on my shoulder.
"Wait, Taylor. Let's think about it for a moment." Mom stopped me.
"What are you talking about Bitch, get me down now. Or you'll come to regret it." Alabaster threatened.
I turned back to him at hearing him insulting Mom, hot anger lacing my veins. Iron Rain acted upon it. She created a ball of black liquid metal that splashed against his mouth, sealing it shut. The recognition in his expression at seeing this power didn't escape me.
Mom stepped in front of me, gaining my attention.
"Taylor, I don't think we should let him get away. The risk it possesses for yours and Danny's safety is just too great." She pleaded.
"I don't understand," I mumbled, she couldn't mean...
"Oh, but I think you do," she said with emphasis.
"I know you saw his reaction to Iron Rain. He saw you kill this creature, which he and his goons couldn't do anything against it. Dammit, Taylor, he saw your face and heard your name!"
I winced at her outburst. She paused and ran her hand through her hair to calm herself.
"There is no way that the Empire after they hear from him what took place here, won't act on it. I'm sure in the beginning they will try to recruit you, smooth talk you into it. But failing that, when it becomes clear you won't join their cause, they will try to eliminate you. You are simply far too dangerous to ignore. That is why we have to kill him to keep you safe; there is just no other way."
"No, I won't do it," I screamed at her. "I'm not a killer." I followed up my outburst.
Realizing as I said it that it wasn't true I already killed; in self-defense. But that didn't change the fact that I had blood on my hands and denying it wouldn't help.
"Taylor" mom tried to get my attention but I just ignored her and tried to turn away. That was when she grabbed my shoulder and sternly urged me to listen to what she had to say.
"Taylor! This is no time to let your emotions control you. You aren't a kid, so stop acting like one, focus, and use your brain, think about it. What is the most likely scenario to happen, if you let him go."
I thought about what she said, and no matter how much I hated it, she was right. Believing that the Empire wouldn't act one way or the other with the information they learned about me should I let him go was just wishful thinking on my part, and I wasn't just endangering myself but also Dad. I couldn't allow them or anybody else to hurt him, not for things I did.
I balled my fingers into a fist. I knew I had to do it, but why was it so hard to accept it. Damn, I turned around my decision made and walked up to him. Given what I `saw´ him survive, I doubted there was anything short of the Abyss capable to put him down for good. I raised my hand with every inch it got closer to him, Alabaster wriggling against his restraints became more frantic. I was about to touch him when my mother softly touched my wrist.
"Let me try something first," she said, "if it doesn't work out the way I expect it to, you can go ahead."
I hesitated for a moment but ultimately relented.
Following this, she stepped forward and touched him. Within seconds there was a notable change in his bearing. If he was fearful before, I didn't know what to call it he was feeling now.
Meanwhile, Mom was just standing there thinking, no concentrating. Whatever she was doing, indicated by her lips forming a small smirk she was successful. She turned around and touched me. Her touch was completely different from than previous one. It was accompanied by a strange feeling of something invading me by opening myself to the Abyss. I couldn't help but notice that there was now a shard within me.
Two tethers were connected to it, both leading to Mom. The stronger one of them both ended there, and the weaker one lead to an essence.
This tether was barely even there, which made a certain amount of sense. If this was the representation of who had access to a power, then it being stolen meant it must be tethered more strongly to the thief for him to subvert the power and subsequently be able to use it.
Besides, since mom's power didn't allow for a permanent theft, it makes it necessary to suppress or weaken the connection to the original owner of the power, thereby prioritizing the connection she generated. Until now, I couldn't reach for the shard when she stole one, too deeply embedded in her unreachable for the Abyss, but apparently, something had changed.
She gifted me with the power. The only way I could see for that to be possible was that by combining her with the other cape she gained the ability to transfer stolen powers to others.
It had to mean exactly that. How else could it be explained what just happened otherwise? This represented a chance I didn't think possible. If the connection of the shard to its original owner was weakened, for it to be barely existent, I might be able to sever it and only absorb the shard and not the essence connected to it. This might be exactly what I needed to save Dad.
I allowed the Abyss to reach for the Shard connected to me. It greedily reached out for it, embraced it. I could sense how a wisp of it was following along both tethers. I focused on the thin strand leading to Alabaster and tried to keep it in check, doing my very best in getting it to abandon following it to its source.
The Abyss fought against my will, lusting for more. I increased my efforts, my focus not willing to budge to compromise. The Abyss is mine to command and not the opposite!
Suddenly the tether tore apart, and the connection was severed. The shard was free and was consumed without any further attachment by the Abyss. It was absorbed, leaving the essence of Alabaster untouched.
"It worked," I exclaimed with overflowing happiness.
Mom smiled at me.
"That's great Taylor."
"Yeah, it is thanks, Mom. I never would have noticed this being possible without you." I praised.
"Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you would have, given time. You are my daughter, after all."
She said, smiling.
I couldn't help but feel joy at the prospect of being able to help Dad. It outweighed every other emotion I felt in the last few minutes. But that wasn't all the good that stemmed from this. It also had the side effect of there being a body of Alabaster. It wasn't the ideal outcome, but better than the alternative with no corpse of the cape indicating some kind of foul play or kidnapping. Sure I could convert the dead, including what was left of Alabaster into Shades. Eliminating their bodies in the process, but that would still have left all the battle scars and would have garnered this incident even more attention than it is bound to get.
A short mental order to Iron Rain and parts of the railing pierced through Alabaster's torso, and head killing him instantly. I wasn't willing to see him die a prolonged death. I then took my time to destroy what was left of him thoroughly. Perhaps by nearly destroying his body making his identification by mundane means near impossible, it might serve to obfuscate the cause of death for those finding this scene.
They might conclude that he was just damaged above the threshold his power could manage to bring him back from and died this way, instead of outright suspecting a trump at work.
Iron Rain removed the metal she used to gag him and encircled my waist like a belt with it. She then levitated the metal and me over all the blood and corpses outside of the warehouse.
This way I wouldn't leave any evidence of my presence like footprints behind. I landed safely outside and unsummoned Iron Rain and Mom.
I didn't want to waste any more time and started to run. There was a patient awaiting my visit.
Authors Note:
The cemetery Taylor visited to reanimate her new Shades is the biggest cemetery of Brockton Bay (not the only one). She only got 12 capes out of it for a few reasons, number one she needs the original bodies to be intact to a certain degree, (decomposition in a coffin doesn't allow the bodies to degrade below the threshold for her power to be applicable) but other rituals to lay the bodies of the dead to rest do.
The predominant ritual to that effect being cremation. Then there are a few other factors to consider, namely killing a cape is a violation of the Unwritten rules, therefore most guilty of this transgression try to obfuscate this fact. Especially the Empire wanting to be seen as the Enforcer of those rules. That is why they, of course, have to abide by them, at least in the eye of the public. Meaning most gangs make sure after they killed a cape for there to be no remains to be found, especially not allowing it to be linked to them.
(so far, in the story, Iron Rain – would be a good example of a cape vanishing without her being buried in a graveyard... there are others, a whole lot of others, who shared the same fate)
This makes some of the statistics regarding cape-death and the survival rate of independent capes rather inconclusive in a way because the PRT assumes every cape without a team not being seen or heard from longer than six months is presumed dead.
The Power of Heith Anders aka Freya (wife of Kaiser and mother of Theo) was altered for this fiction. I'm aware that canonically she possessed a power similar to that of Menja and Fenja them being closely related and all (the shard budding...). But their powers seem to be next to exact copies of each other even New Wave had more variety than theirs, which is the reason I changed it. Some other reasons played part in this decision, which will get revealed later on in the story... but this chapter already hinted quite hard at what it might be. I'm confident most of you will draw the right conclusion – I won't either confirm, nor deny any theories at this point though
As you could already see in this chapter, some powers can evolve the Abyss to incorporate certain criteria in itself but not all – the reason that not all powers are able to do that is simply owed to my apparent lack of imagination -
I have some limiting conditions for what those "enhancements" are allowed to do. Mostly, I want to preserve Taylor as Master with a sidedish of Darkness/Shadow control, which means the evolution should somehow be applied to her minions.
Unfortunately, for most powers, doing this and following the rules I set is not an easy feat without them being near-exact knock-offs of their progenitor power, which is something I try to avoid as much as possible. This simply means if I can't come up with something that fits those criteria regarding a power she got her hands on, it won't evolve the Abyss.
I'm inclined, should I come up with something that fit a power Taylor already made her own at a later date, to include it in the story.
In which way I'm not sure, it could be either she just discovers it later for some reason, or I might even go back and retcon parts of the story since the second option can be quite complicated and intensive work I would rather not do it. The best way to avoid it would be if you (the readers) would share some ideas regarding what powers could evolve the Abyss in the confines of those rules, it would solve this problem before it even becomes one. Oh, and if you have some ideas regarding Para-human powers, I would be interested to hear them, I can't promise anything, but there is a chance some of those might make it into the story.
The in the chapter mentioned surveillance system responsible for the E88 to appear is, for now, an undefined Para-human power, if you were wondering.
The creature who attacked was Crawler. He partook in an Endbringer fight that occurred somewhere adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean (there isn't a complete list of all the Endbringer attacks... and I don't want to be specific at this point, of exactly where the attack took place... probably won't even matter for the story...), he might or might not have been blasted into the sea by the Endbringer after he just wouldn't stay down and then decided (after it was over and he was prevented by said Endbringer from rejoining the fight) to swim all the way back home to reunite with the S9.
Where he just so happened to run into Taylor... since he constantly evolves and comes directly from an Endbringer fight, in which he took considerable damage, resulting in a greatly changed appearance neither Taylor nor her mother were able to identify him. (Furthermore, it is doubtful the PRT/Protectorate go out of their way to publicize up-to-date pictures of them. Because the continued existence of such a group is a constant reminder of their incompetence in eliminating this threat). Annette might have a suspicion since she got a (short) look at his aura... but she, at this point, isn't certain about it.
Since I'm sure there are gonna be questions regarding this – here a few obscure answers to Crawler's participation in an Endbringer attack (at the moment, I don't wanna get more concrete). The S9 was in a major city with a Protectorate presence, when the Endbringer alarms were sounded. (at this point, they didn't make their presence known)
Since this was a rare chance for participating in an Endbringer fight
Crawler, who at that particular moment wasn't with the others of the S9 decided to go for it. He made his way to the rallying point, and since the truce was in effect and no one present was keen on breaking it or interested in trying their hands in killing him, Strider took him there with all the other Defenders... with probably more than one hoping he wouldn't return...
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Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
Rain's
Rain's
kill to have
fear
speaking
-?-
plushie
I know it will be some ways yet before Taylor's abilities, or rather her visible abilities, becomes known to the public, but I look forward to when the PRT and Kaiser learns about her. The obvious first impression will be that she's somehow related to Allfather (granddaughter?). Alternately I'm curious how Crawler and Alabaster's shards will affect her appearance, if they do. You could also consider a PRT interlude where are discussing what know of the new cape once they learn of her. That would be at minimum several chapters away still of course.
Overall, I'm always happy to see another chapter of this fic. Thanks for the latest one.
Overall, I'm always happy to see another chapter of this fic. Thanks for the latest one.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I love that discription. Makes it sound like crawler is a dog who smelled a nearby cook out and just wandered off.
Thank you very much - I really appreciate, you finding and pointing out the mistakes that slipped through.
- Location
- britain
im really curious about the other para shades powers and their identities, i'm hoping at least two of them are tinkers, so we can see if they combine specialties or something, also is lisa part of e88 or something, because schadenfreude sounds like a name she would have. Also i can't wait for the next chapter, i love this story
The identities as far as they are known to Taylor and Annette will be revealed in chapter 09 - so you will have to be patient for a while longer. What I probably can say is that there are no Tinkers present within her current roster of Shades and they probably will be sparse going forward (I'm not the greatest fan of how Tinker powers in Worm work - despite their utility, especially in Taylor's hands).
Yeah, Schadenfreude really could be a name Lisa might choose for herself as an E88 member. The thing is we are roughly 18 months before the worm canon start - Meaning Sarah Livsey (Lisa) hasn't triggered yet. And if she does, chances are she won't play a role in this fic. I try to do different things in my stories - so with Lisa already having a major role in Samsara it won't happen here... Sorry, but that, unfortunately, means no smugbug.
Ah, and here is where we learn that her shades aren't really who they appear to be, but rather just very good copies mimicing them. Already they're pushing her to kill.