Puella Magica Nicola (Worm/PMM)

[Nicola]

Did Glory Girl just punch a somewhat obviously Asian hero who was currently fighting a super powered Nazi?

Click to shrink...

Nicole wasn't fighting Purity. She let Jeanne hold it down. :lol

 

[AramilOniasha]

Nicole wasn't fighting Purity. She let Jeanne hold it down.

Click to shrink...

Or was Glory Girl keeping her busy to prevent her from helping Jeanne?

 

[Nicola]

April 14th 2011

"What are you doing here?" she asked. I knew at any moment she was jump at the chance to tear my spine out.

Her aura started to spill off of her. People cowered in fear and others glared at me with hatred.

"I could say the same for you," I retorted.

"Hey sis," Glory Girl tilted her head to one side, to look at the brown haired girl, "You okay?"

Sis? Wait...Glory Girls sister was being held hostage? Panacea was being held hostage?

The girl, who could be none other than Amy Dallon, Panacea when she was in costume, offered Glory Girl a beaming smile, "I am now."

I turned back glaring at Taylor. "What. The. Fuck Skitter."

She looked at me and then Amy, then me, then Amy. She was just as confused as I was. Glory Girl and Panacea were celebrities. They were extremely famous among the locals. And I had just beat the crap out of one while Taylor held the other one hostage.

This was not going to well.

"Count yourself lucky, bug bitch, that your costume covers your entire body," Panacea murmured to to Taylor, "Or I'd maybe give you a heart attack. Or cancer."

"Shut up Panacea," I snapped at Panacea. Her eyes widened and Glory Girl gritted her teeth. Miss. I can't fix brains, was threatening my friend with cancer. What else could I say?

"Who are you telling my sister to shut up?"

I pretended to think hard. "I am the person who has the friend with the knife to your sisters neck. Is that clear enough?"

".....It seems we have a stalemate," Glory Girl said.

I tilted my head. "How so? We both fought not too long ago. I could've sworn I was the one who knocked you out of the sky."

"And I was the one who made you eat dirt."

I put my hands on my hips dramatically. "Can't eat dirt Glory Hole I have a mask."

Several tense moments passed.

"So are we just going to stand around here until reinforcements arrive for one side or the other, tip the scales in someone's favor?" she asked.

I looked at Amy then back at Glory Girl. "I don't know."

"I helped Aegis out of a jam on my way in, so he's keeping your little friends busy. You should also know that the Protectorate is on their way from a wine and dine with Brockton Bay's finest at the Augustus Country Club. Can't speak for them, but I know I'd be royally pissed if some little snots dragged me away from a chance to have the club's chocolate mousse."

I smirked. "Yeah complain about not being able to have chocolate mousse while people are dying on the streets. This town is fucked and here you are in your ivory tower," I spat.

Panacea made a little laugh, "It is good, isn't it?" then in a lower voice, she whispered to Taylor , "What if I fucked up your taste buds, you little terrorist? You threaten the lives of innocents, I can go that far. I can do anything with your biology. Make everything you eat taste like bile. Or maybe I'll just make you fat. Morbidly, disgustingly fat."

"Panacea if you don't shut the hell up already with your disgusting threats. Its annoying," I snapped. It must've been Glory Girls aura but her voice was becoming more and more annoying. Taylor pushed the blade closer to her throat.

Glory Girl spoke up, "It's not just the Protectorate, either. You just took a member of New Wave hostage, threatened her life. There's a pretty damn good chance my mom, dad, aunt, uncle and cousins will be showing up, too. Brandish, Flashbang, Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream, Shielder… how are you going to manage, then?"

"Your shitty Christmas light knock off family doesn't scare me Glory Girl. I can manage pretty fine against them," I said. I was really sure. Most likely I wouldn't be able to fight all of them and would get taken down pretty easily. But damn if I didn't use every trick in the book to escape.

Glory Girl started to breathe heavily. You could tell she was trying to keep her temper under control. If she attacked me, Panacea might end up having a Glasgow smile across her neck. Taylor wouldn't do it, but they didn't know that.

"Drop the knife and surrender, and I'll make sure you get leniency."

"I've read up on the law enough that I know you don't have the power to make any deals," Taylor said, "No go."

I rose my eyebrow at that. "Skitter can Glory Girl keep me from leaving against my will? Or is that lawful?"

Taylor shook her head. "No she doesn't have any power to do such a thing."

Glory Girl paled.

"Wow you sure as hell screwed the pooch here GG," my tone was accusatory and playful.

Several moments of silence went by.

Glory Girl turned her attention to her sister, "I wanted to go to the mall for lunch, but noooo," Glory Girl said, "You needed to go to the bank."

"It was either going to the bank or wind up broke for that double date you're forcing me into."

"Ames, the guy I'm setting you up with is a sixteen year old millionaire. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to foot the bill for dinner and a movie."

"Amy stop being such a pain in the ass and let him pay. I heard they got this good seafood place on 31st street," I informed. "'Very fancy. I would suggest getting the most expensive stuff to look classy."

I could feel Taylor's glare through her mask. "Could you guys just shut up?"

"Do they have to? It's all very informative," Tattletale joked as she sidled into the room. She hoisted herself up to the edge of one of the teller's stations, then greeted Glory Girl, "Hey Glory Hole."

Glory Girl's face twitched. I gave a knowing smile to Tattletale. She winked. I might get along with her after all.

"What up Tats," I greeted.

"I don't think its a good idea for you both to antagonize Alexandria lite," Taylor groaned.

"Eh. You seem to have things under control. Why not set the bugs on the prom queen?"

"Yeah I can see it" I said imaging Glory Girl being crowned.

"Um," Taylor cut in "First of all, she's invincible. Second, again, bad idea to irritate someone who can swing a school bus like a baseball bat. Third, my hostage here did something to fuck up my powers."

Amy could mess with powers? This is looking shitter by the second.

"That last bit sucks," Tattletale said. Then she took a closer look at Panacea, "Shit. Amy Dallon? Grue is going to kill me, for missing that. You look different than you did when you were showing up in the news. Are you wearing your hair differently?"

"Yeah I think it's the color or maybe the curls? Her picture on PHO was more flattering to say the least. I feel like I've been catfished," I pout.

"Guys," Taylor groaned.

Tattletale glanced at Glory Girl, then frowned, "She's not lying. Let's start with problem three, since you're not looking so hot. Your powers aren't working?"

"Can't control my bugs, got a major headache."

"Think I know why. Let me fix that for you," Tattletale said. She hopped down from the teller's station and started to walk towards Taylor and Panacea. Tattletale was actually pretty cute from what I could tell.

"Don't move," Glory Girl warned.

"Lets not do this whole dialogue Glory Girl. Skitter has a knife to your sister's throat. No matter how fast you think you are, it will be slit before you could smash her head like a watermelon," I pointed at her playfully.

Glory Girl glowered at Tattletale, but she didn't move. Good Girl.

"I think it would be better if you stayed back," Taylor warned her, "She'll touch you and give you a stroke or something."

"Little hospital helper giving someone a stroke? Ha!," I said.

"Try me," Panacea taunted. I had to resist stepping forward and doing exactly that.

"I'd really prefer to avoid tempting fate," Taylor said, carefully.

"Psh whatever," I scoffed.

Tattletale walked over to the branch manager's desk and opened a drawer.

"You pull a gun out of that drawer," Glory Girl threatened, "And I'll fucking break you."

"Enough with the threats you can't follow up on. It's not a gun," Tattletale grinned, raising her hands again. A keychain dangled from her left thumb.

"Keys," Glory Girl said.

"The keys of manager Jeffry Clayton. Type A personality, totally. Control freak. The kind of guy who loves to have absolute control over a meeting."

"First of all, who cares? Second, how do you know this?"

"Come on," Tattletale smiled, folding her arms, "Villain 101. You don't give info to the hero in a gloating monologue. Isn't that right Nicola?"

"Of course.. We learned that back in the robbing banks chapter. In room 203 right?"

She giggled. "Ahh you remembered."

"Right," Glory Girl agreed, "Always worth a try."

"I'll tell you anyways."


I snickered.

Glory Girl raised an eyebrow.

"No reason not to. Actually in my advantage to let you know. I'm psychic. I read his mind when we had him hostage, like I'm reading yours right now," the lie was so smooth I almost believed it.

I wanted to listen in on this. Tattletale always said she was a psychic. I didn't believe it but to be honest she might've had a power pretty close. It was dangerous over all. I caught a flash of red land on Panacea's coat. Damn Tattletale sure had brains.

"Bullshit," Glory Girl said, "The brainpower you'd need to interpret and decode someone's unique neural patterns would need a head five times the usual size to contain it all. True psychics can't exist."

"Ooh, someone's taking Parahumans 101 at the university. Your parents pull some strings, got you into a university course before you were done high school?"

"I think you already know the answer, I'm just not buying that you read my mind to get it."

"Why is it so hard to believe? Legend can shoot lasers from his hands, lasers that turn corners. Clockblocker and Vista can mess with the fundamental forces of space and time. Kaiser can create metal from thin air. Conservation of mass, conservation of energy, basic laws of our universe get broken by capes all the time. All of that is possible, but I can't peek into your brain?"


"She is right. Glory Girl you can lift trucks and cause others to feel how you feel. Your sister can regrow limbs and heal people with just a touch. A warlord in Africa kills people to steal their souls for christ sakes. Why is that so crazy? We draw the limit on reading brains?" I went with it.

"Scholars say you're wrong."

Tattletale grinned, "Scholars want me to be wrong, and their research reflects that. Telepathy scares the everloving crap out of people, especially since the only suspected telepath out there is-"

"The Simurgh," Glory Girl finished for her.

"Right. That winged bitch had a nasty talent for making people want to become suicide bombers. Anything close to resembling an Endbringer gets the Triumvirate thrown on them faster than you can say 'Birdcage Please'," I added.

"Which is why you call yourself Tattletale, I see," Glory Girl was saying, "But you're a retard. We're part of New Wave. We have no secrets. That's the whole fucking point of our team. Heroes with no secret identities, no secrets, full disclosure, total accountability."


"You just insulted someone who likes to feel smart Glory Girl. Maybe you are the retard?"

"Yet here the three of you are, two of you have powers that don't work against either of us. All you've got is a knife, and if you use it, you both die in the most painful way I think I can get away with. Even with that bitch on your side she can barely hold me off. Once my whole family gets here do you really think you are going to escape here?"

"Oh honey, now who's being stupid? I've got the most powerful weapon of all," Tattletale purred, smiling wickedly, "Information."

"This is going to be fun," I created a chair out of crystal and sat down.

----------------
A/N: This chapter has like 40% dialogue from Worm itself. Next chapter Nicole will be the one steering things .

 

[Daimah]

And here I was hoping that Amy wasn't going to get emotionally scarred... silly me.

It's nice to see that Nicole is willing to reciprocate Taylor's friendship even to the point of being labeled a villain. She's probably right about Armsmaster having labeled her like that anyway.

Whatever happens GG and by extension Armsmaster because he "sent" her to make contact, will have to explain how two new capes with heroic tendencies and the capture of one of the Empire's main lieutenants in their resume made a face heel turn after one meeting.

I almost can see it...

In fact, have an omake:

"So let me get this straight." Said Piggot leveling a deadly stare at the capes standing in front of her desk. "You" She pointed to Armsmaster "for some nebulous reason decided to send Glory Girl, an underage independent cape who is definitely not a part of either the Wards or the Protectorate to make contact with a new team of two parahumans, strong enough to face the full roster of the Empire 88, except Kreig and Stormtiger who were captured by one of the two parahumans in a fight of five against one. What the hell were you thinking?"

"My previous attempts to establish a positive rapport..."

"In twenty words or less, Armsmaster!" Interrupted Piggot

"I thought that as a female teenager Glory Girl would connect better with another female teenager."

"But why her? You know she's suspected to be a loose cannon."

"Hey!" Exclaimed Vicky only to wilt when Piggot turned her glare on her.

"And after this morning incidents we can agree that it's pretty much confirmed." The Director continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"She was the best option at the time." Answered Armsmaster "The only other option was Shadow Stalker and even I have noticed that she has a rather abrasive personality. I am sure that you will agree that the incident would have been much worse if I had sent her."

"All right, I'll concede that point." Said Piggot with a sigh before turning her attention to Glory Girl. "And you, what the..." She took a calming breath before continuing "What happened at the Merchant warehouse."

"When I got there there wasn't any warehouse anymore and there were these two capes, one of them was lifting Mush, eew by the way" The blonde scrunched her nose "Anyway, I asked them who they were..."

"Wait," Piggot interrupted her and turned to Armsmaster again. "You didn't tell her who she was meeting there?"

"No. That way the meeting would be more organic bringing the probability of a positive outcome up by zero point seventy eight percent according to..."

"Okay, enough. Glory Girl, continue."

"Yeah, so I asked who they were, told them off for blowing up the warehouse," Vicky missed the incredulous look Piggot was giving her "then they told me to go away and that they were going to clean up so asked them to stay for questioning like he asked me to, they tried to leave, I stopped them and then that crazy bitch attacked me."

"So, just to be clear. Did Armsmaster tell you to keep them there by force?"

"Eh... not exactly?" Said Vicky fidgeting before Piggot's intense stare. "But how else was I going to stop them from leaving?"

"You weren't supposed to, you were there just to ask them to submit for questioning." Armsmaster sounded honestly surprised that he had to clarify that point. "As an independent hero you don't have any authority to detain someone against their will if you don't catch them committing a crime."

"But, they destroyed that warehouse! And what they did at the bank, they are villains!"

"At that time you couldn't have known if they were or not. All you knew was that they destroyed that warehouse in an action as independent heroes against a known criminal organization. Should we arrest you for all the collateral damage you have caused in costume under the same circumstances?" Added Piggot.

"But... but... They attacked me first!" Glory Girl insisted. Piggot kept her stare fixated on her until she caved "Okay, maybe I used a bit of my aura to put a bit of emphasis on my words."

"So, unlawful detainment and assault with a parahuman power. Anything else? No, don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question. Then you began a fight with the parahuman Nicola, right?"

" Yes. "

"And what was this Jeanne doing at that time?" Asked Piggot leaning back in her chair.

"She stayed out of it."

"Even when you got the upper hand?"

"She was a bit busy fending off Purity by then."

"Yes, Purity." Said Piggot leaning forward again. "One of the heavy hitters of the Empire. If I didn't know the history of your family with that particular gang I'd suspect that you were in league with her. What the fuck were you thinking?!" She added slamming both hands on her desk. "Instead of trying to broker a truce with Nicola to take down the bigger known threat you just kept fighting for stupid childish reasons."

"But... but..."

"Purity is a known glass cannon, if the three of you had worked together you could have deprived the Empire of a key asset."

"But they're villains, what happened at the bank..."

"Hadn't happened yet and they have been known to oppose the Empire. In fact from what we know Nicola has an axe to grind with Purity."

"But, the bank..."

"We're not here to go over what happened in the bank again. We just did that in the Wards' debriefing. We're here to make clear to you that you fucked up, both of you." She added looking at Armsmaster too. "Miss Dallon, the only reason I'm not pressing charges against you is out of courtesy for the work your family has done for this city and because it would be a massive headache to deal with your mother and I have enough problems as it is. But don't think you'll get away scott free, you will attend some courses on operational procedure and do some comunity service. If you don't, believe me, I can make things difficult for New Wave. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." The blonde teen answered in a small voice.

"Okay, then, dismissed. Armsmaster and I have to talk about the consequences of his own fuckup."

Glory Girl was out of the door before Piggot finished the sentence.

 

[Nicola]

And here I was hoping that Amy wasn't going to get emotionally scarred... silly me.

It's nice to see that Nicole is willing to reciprocate Taylor's friendship even to the point of being labeled a villain. She's probably right about Armsmaster having labeled her like that anyway.

Whatever happens GG and by extension Armsmaster because he "sent" her to make contact, will have to explain how two new capes with heroic tendencies and the capture of one of the Empire's main lieutenants in their resume made a face heel turn after one meeting.

I almost can see it...

In fact, have an omake:

"So let me get this straight." Said Piggot leveling a deadly stare at the capes standing in front of her desk. "You" She pointed to Armsmaster "for some nebulous reason decided to send Glory Girl, an underage independent cape who is definitely not a part of either the Wards or the Protectorate to make contact with a new team of two parahumans, strong enough to face the full roster of the Empire 88, except Kreig and Stormtiger who were captured by one of the two parahumans in a fight of five against one. What the hell were you thinking?"

"My previous attempts to establish a positive rapport..."

"In twenty words or less, Armsmaster!" Interrupted Piggot

"I thought that as a female teenager Glory Girl would connect better with another female teenager."

"But why her? You know she's suspected to be a loose cannon."

"Hey!" Exclaimed Vicky only to wilt when Piggot turned her glare on her.

"And after this morning incidents we can agree that it's pretty much confirmed." The Director continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"She was the best option at the time." Answered Armsmaster "The only other option was Shadow Stalker and even I have noticed that she has a rather abrasive personality. I am sure that you will agree that the incident would have been much worse if I had sent her."

"All right, I'll concede that point." Said Piggot with a sigh before turning her attention to Glory Girl. "And you, what the..." She took a calming breath before continuing "What happened at the Merchant warehouse."

"When I got there there wasn't any warehouse anymore and there were these two capes, one of them was lifting Mush, eew by the way" The blonde scrunched her nose "Anyway, I asked them who they were..."

"Wait," Piggot interrupted her and turned to Armsmaster again. "You didn't tell her who she was meeting there?"

"No. That way the meeting would be more organic bringing the probability of a positive outcome up by zero point seventy eight percent according to..."

"Okay, enough. Glory Girl, continue."

"Yeah, so I asked who they were, told them off for blowing up the warehouse," Vicky missed the incredulous look Piggot was giving her "then they told me to go away and that they were going to clean up so asked them to stay for questioning like he asked me to, they tried to leave, I stopped them and then that crazy bitch attacked me."

"So, just to be clear. Did Armsmaster tell you to keep them there by force?"

"Eh... not exactly?" Said Vicky fidgeting before Piggot's intense stare. "But how else was I going to stop them from leaving?"

"You weren't supposed to, you were there just to ask them to submit for questioning." Armsmaster sounded honestly surprised that he had to clarify that point. "As an independent hero you don't have any authority to detain someone against their will if you don't catch them committing a crime."

"But, they destroyed that warehouse! And what they did at the bank, they are villains!"

"At that time you couldn't have known if they were or not. All you knew was that they destroyed that warehouse in an action as independent heroes against a known criminal organization. Should we arrest you for all the collateral damage you have caused in costume under the same circumstances?" Added Piggot.

"But... but... They attacked me first!" Glory Girl insisted. Piggot kept her stare fixated on her until she caved "Okay, maybe I used a bit of my aura to put a bit of emphasis on my words."

"So, unlawful detainment and assault with a parahuman power. Anything else? No, don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question. Then you began a fight with the parahuman Nicola, right?"

" Yes. "

"And what was this Jeanne doing at that time?" Asked Piggot leaning back in her chair.

"She stayed out of it."

"Even when you got the upper hand?"

"She was a bit busy fending off Purity by then."

"Yes, Purity." Said Piggot leaning forward again. "One of the heavy hitters of the Empire. If I didn't know the history of your family with that particular gang I'd suspect that you were in league with her. What the fuck were you thinking?!" She added slamming both hands on her desk. "Instead of trying to broker a truce with Nicola to take down the bigger known threat you just kept fighting for stupid childish reasons."

"But... but..."

"Purity is a known glass cannon, if the three of you had worked together you could have deprived the Empire of a key asset."

"But they're villains, what happened at the bank..."

"Hadn't happened yet and they have been known to oppose the Empire. In fact from what we know Nicola has an axe to grind with Purity."

"But, the bank..."

"We're not here to go over what happened in the bank again. We just did that in the Wards' debriefing. We're here to make clear to you that you fucked up, both of you." She added looking at Armsmaster too. "Miss Dallon, the only reason I'm not pressing charges against you is for courtesy for the work your family has done for this city and because it would be a massive headache to deal with your mother and I have enough problems as it is. But don't think you'll get away scott free, you will attend some courses on operational procedure and do some comunity service. If you don't, believe me, I can make things difficult for New Wave. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." The blonde teen answered in a small voice.

"Okay, then, dismissed. Armsmaster and I have to talk about the consequences of his own fuckup."

Glory Girl was out of the door before Piggot finished the sentence.

Click to shrink...

Do you mind if I used this as an Omake on SB too? It's really good

 

[Daimah]

Go ahead I'm glad you liked it.

 

[Nicola]

April 14th 2011

Tattletale had starting spilling basic information at first. Simple stuff that made both Panacea and Glory Girl not blink an eye. Then things slowly became more clear. Panacea's parent's must've been hated if they were so against revealing this secret.

Tattletale gave them an Ultimatum if she were to stop spilling the beans. Glory Girl had to be in the fault. I would layer it with crystal as a preventive measure.

She started to count down from ten. I could feel this was going to turn into a shitty situation.

"Eight seconds."

Panacea abruptly tore out of Taylor's grip.

I ran and pushed Tattletale out of the way of an incoming Glory Girl. She picked me up by the throat and carried me across the length of the lobby room. She slammed me into the wall and slowly placed her fingers around my throat.

I started to claw at her hands but it wasn't enough. I had no leverage to use my strength against her. She was physically stronger and all I had against her was my combat speed.

I could see over Glory Girl's shoulder. Taylor was actually a scrapper. She lengthened her baton and slammed it across Panacea's face. I winced at the scene. Amy stumbled a few steps then fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Unfortunately for Tay, Glory Girl saw it all unfold. This was going to be tragic.

"Nobody fucks with my family!" she shouted. She gripped my neck tighter and threw me like a rag doll. I tried to use my soar talisman but it had no more juice left. I was sent flying like a torpedo. I crashed into Taylor and we both collided into a desk.

I quickly recovered while Taylor was still reeling. I saw Glory Girl floating to us slowly. "If you had just gotten in the fault your sister wouldn't have gotten whacked in the face."

"I will use every option I have to get you sent three sent to the Birdcage. I will owe the PRT so many favors but it will be worth it. To see the looks on your faces once you realize that you screwed up."

In the corner of my eye I could see Tattletale mouthing words to Taylor. I needed to be a distraction.

She continued. "Tattletale won't be able to saying anything that my sister wants to keep secret. You and that crazy nut will be off the streets."

"Wow sounds like someone is very pissed off."

I saw bugs swarm Glory Girl faster than I could react.

"Idiots," Glory Girl's muffled voice came from the midst of the cloud of insects, "I'm invincible."

Tattletale was sitting on a nearby desk smirking. "What did I tell you about calling me stupid," she was tapping her nails on the desk, "and no you aren't invincible."

She raised her hand from her belt and trained a small handgun on Glory Girl. The bullet left the gun faster than the speed of sound. I held my hands over my ears wincing. That really hurt. The movies really made it sound softer than it really was.

Next thing you know Glory Girl dropped just like her sister and started to thrash like a Merchant without his fix. It was kind of funny. I took out my camera and captured a few shots. "This is going to go wild on PHO."

I turned to see Taylor slouched over. I stuck out my hand and she took it. I hefted her up.

"I thought she was invincible?" I asked. There is no way a gun took her down.

Tattletale grinned. "She's not really invincible. That's just an idea she likes to put in people's heads. She has a forcefield around her entire body, but it shorts out whenever she takes a good hit, comes back online a few seconds later. I knew when I saw she had dust on her costume. Dust that her forcefield would keep off her."


"You are one scary smart chick Tats you know that right?"

She flipped her hair of her shoulder playfully. "Of course how could someone smart as me not be?"

It was really amazing to see her attentiveness and quick thinking. Her power did most of the work for her sure, but there are plenty of idiots who didn't use their power to full potential.

Grue stepped out of the darkness near me, holding onto Bitch. He saw me and shot his hands out preparing to shower me with darkness.

"Don't Grue," Taylor stepped in front of me.

I hugged Taylor from behind. "Aw Skitter you care for my well being."
She started to shake. "U-uh,"

Tattletale giggled. "Don't antagonize the girl now."

"You guys took Glory Girl?" Grue asked, incredulous, while Bitch roused herself enough to whistle for her dogs.

"Yeah pumped Glory Hole full of lead and gave a finishing blow using bugs."

Tattletale elbowed me in the side. "She could be coming after us any second," Tattletale informed.

Grue nodded and got on one of the dogs. Before Taylor could get on one I grabbed her arm. "We are so going to talk about this later you know that right?"

She gulped and nodded. I let her go. "Be safe Tay," I whispered. She hefted up and sat the dogs back.

Regent landed on the back of a dog with a skateboard in his hand.

Grue prepared to speak. "You want to get tracked down don't you? Put the skateboard down before I kick your ass," I interrupted. Didn't want him to get Taylor tracked down cause of greed.

"Fuck!" Regent swore. He jammed his taser into the underside of the skateboard like he had with the control panel, then threw it across the street.

I blew Tattletale a kiss and waved goodbye to Taylor. "Goodbye hot stuff," I said playfully to Grue. Could I have a crush on a hero and a villain? That was so taboo. It just might work.

"What about me," Regent tilted his head curiously.

"Bye Regent," I smiled. You could hear the amusement in my voice.

Grue raised his arms, and filled the street with darkness.

One of the dogs bolted. I did so as well keeping up with its pace. We both entered the darkness. The feeling of clarity was all gone. I jumped hard as I could. I was raised about ten meters in the air. I saw Jeanne up ahead.

She face palmed and I was quite confused. I looked up to see that I was heading directly into Aegis. He must've been looking for the Undersiders.


It was too late to move around. My 'Soar' talisman was all out. I crashed directly into him. We both spun out of control and fell onto a nearby roof.

My head was spinning. When I regained my sense of direction I realized where I was. On top of Aegis. Someone kill me. Kill me now. Please. Take my soul gem and deliver it to Siberian.

I was so damn lucky to have my mask on.

Aegis looked at me through his mask. "Uhm. Are you alright,"

My rib was currently poking out my skin. I sent magic coursing through my body rapidly. The rib snapped back into place and the skin was healed over.

"Uh yeah. I am," I crawled off Aegis. My heart was beating so hard it felt like I would pass out. I had to stop breathing in order to calm down.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention," I cleared my throat.

He slowly sat up. "It's fine. I should've saw you coming. Were you at the bank?"

"No," I lied.

He stared at me for a few more moments and sighed. "Well I gotta go look for the Undersiders. Are you sure you're fine?" he stuck his hand out.

I took it fire running through my body. This was so embarrassing. He lifted me up with ease. "Yeah. You go uhm what you were doing I am so sorry I got in your way and I am just so stupid-bye!" I blurted it all out at once.

I jumped away to the building over. The moments replaying over and over in my head. I recalled the brief moment of my head laying on his chest.

I am so going to write this in my Diary!

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011 - 7:10 AM.

Taylor sat across from me silent. It was thirty minutes before school started. We were at a park bench not too far off from Winslow.

"So, I am sorry," she mumbled ashamed.

"Sorry thats all? Taylor what if I hadn't been there?"

She frowned. "Tattletale would of took care of it. She took care of Glory Girl didn't she?"

"What if Glory Girl blitzed her cause I wasn't there. What if you accidentally slit Panacea's neck?"

"Stop with all the what if's Nikki! I am fine."

"Taylor you told me you wouldn't be a villain and you robbed a bank the next day," I snapped.

She glared at me. "I am sorry but you helped me. You told me you wouldn't do anything villainous and you did yesterday."

She wasn't wrong. I knew me and her both broke promises yesterday. But no one got hurt fortunately.

"Okay we both fucked up. But why a bank?"

She avoided the question. "I have a surprise," she reached in her bag and took out a wad of cash.

My jaw almost dropped. It looked like it was one thousand bucks in there!

"Take it. You earned it for what you did," Taylor shyly said.

I reached to take the money but stopped. This was dirty money. Stolen money.

"I can't…"

Taylor looked at me. "Please take it Nicole. You told me your mom is having issues. Don't you want to help her?"

I could take it right? Banks had plenty of money. My mom really needs help with the bills. I couldn't afford to be homeless at this point of time. When I make more money I will give it to a charity. Yeah give it to a charity.

I took the money and put it in my pocket. I avoided looking at Taylor's smug face.

"So I saw that picture of you and Aegis?"

Wait what!?
---------------
April 15th 2011 - 11:24AM

Emma glared at me from across the room. I sat next to Taylor. She seemed more confident lately. Emma nor Madison messed with me at all. Sophia had avoided me but whenever I was close to her, she said some smart remark. I had to resist lashing out at her. I couldn't get suspended again.

But they tried to attack Taylor whenever she showed up at school, which was rarely. To be honest I couldn't miss too much school so sometimes I was forced to attend while Taylor just stayed home and did fun stuff with the Undersiders.

"You actually showed up."

Taylor looked up from her textbook to see Emma looming over. She was wearing an expensive dress that had probably been a gift and her red hair was up in the kind of complex braid. My mother could probably pull it off.

"Come Emma this ag-" I stopped as Taylor put her hand up.

Woah, looks like someone grew some balls. I smiled proudly and leaned back in my chair.

Glad the teacher left. It gave me time to be able to watch the show that was going to ensue.

"Funny thing is," Taylor replied, turning my attention back to my notebook, "You're the only person today who seemed to notice I was gone. If you aren't careful, I might actually think you cared."

"Emma do you have nothing better to do with your life than just wait for Taylor to show up at school? It's kind of pathetic that you wait five days a week to see Taylor. All so you can bully her."

Emma clenched her fist. "It's cause she is a nobody, that's why nobody acknowledges her! Her presence stinks up the air and it bothers me."

Taylor looked down at her textbook rolling her eyes.

"Emma you are so attractive but you don't have a boyfriend, are you lezbo for Sophia....or maybe Taylor?" I leaned closer, "if you ditch them maybe I can give you a little bit of entertainment," I whispered wiggling my eyebrows.

She slapped me and the sound bounced of the classrooms walls. It took everything in me to not grab her by her little red hair and-. I had to stay calm. Keep up the act.

"Pretty kinky Emma but lets not do this in school," I purred. You could see the gears in her head moving at high speeds. Trying to figure out what to say. She was speechless.

Taylor smiled still looking down at her textbook. "You are such a perv Nikki."

I shrugged my shoulders. Acting like that managed to knock people off their game a lot. You expect someone to lash out at you and call you every name in the book, not hit on you.

The teacher came back in at that moment and told Emma to go back to her seat. Me and Taylor stuck our tongues out at Emma and Madison.

Who knows how things would've went down in Sophia was there. The whole class was staring at me and Emma the whole time too.
----------------
April 15th 2011 - 4:10PM

Elizabeth looked at me smiling softly. "You had a camera and posted funny moments so I assumed I could do it to," she gave me that innocent look.

Turns out Elizabeth taught Jeanne how to use a camera. Jeanne decided to snap a pic of me and Aegis laying on one another. Elizabeth thought it was cute so she posted it. To make matters worse it was a HQ picture.

Fan fiction of me and him was raging all over PHO. They were either calling us Aega or Nicolis. The internet had apparently had not decided. My name was #2 most searched in Brockton Bay. Aegis at #3. The Undersiders at #1.

My fan thread was booming with theories and shipping fic links. Crazy Aegis fangirls were sending hate PM's while fanboys of mine were most likely sending some to Aegis. I hope he wasn't mad. Ugh this was the worst moment of my life.

This was ridiculous. "Eli will so get you for this."

She bit her lip. "Nicole it was out of ignorance! I didn't know."

I said nothing which drove her more crazy.

She got desperate. "Nikki I love ya," she said with the most cutest voice and hugged me.

I blushed and tried to pry her arms off me. "Get off me!"

We were at the Market. It was fairly cheap. The stalls showcased everything from knick-knacks made by freaks more religious than Jeanne from the most expensive shops on the Boardwalk, marked down to ten or twenty five percent of the usual price. I know I saw a Gucci purse back there for sixty dollars. I wanted it badly. There were ice cream vendors and people selling puppies, there was tourism kitsch and there was a mess of merchandise relating to the local capes. There were racks of clothing, books, computer stuff and food. It was basically the North side of Brockton Bay's mall.

Me and Eli were currently looking over for a few purses. I was wearing a red turtleneck, a black skirt and long black socks under brown leather flats. Eli was dressed up in a white shirt with a blue necktie, a black ripped jeans and leather boots.

My hair was in elaborate curls and had a red bow securing the ponytail. Hers was in it's natural state. I had lip gloss and put a little makeup on my face to enhance my features. Eli hated when I did so but, I actually enjoyed looking good. Her style was more rugged and boyish than mine. My mom always called me confusing.

She let go of me giggling.

I spotted Taylor being pulled by some blonde girl. I didn't know she was coming to the Market today. I rose my hand and jogged towards Taylor. "Tay! Wait up!" I shouted.

Taylor stopped and slowly turned around and saw me. I could see her rub her eyes and double take.

"And who do we have here?" the blonde girl asked. She had freckles, and "bottle-glass green" eyes. She was dressed in a dusky rose dress with gray tights, her hair in a bun with loose strands framing her face.

I recognized that voice easily. "Tattletale," I whispered my face twisted in confused. She smirked knowingly.

She knew who I was too. I really need to get better with this whole secret identity thing.

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011 - 4:13 PM.
"Nikki what are you doing here?" Taylor asked clearly shocked.

Eli was close right behind me. I crossed my arms across my chest. "I could say the same for you."

Tattletale spoke up,"I'm Lisa. Nice to-"

"Cut the crap we both know each other don't we Tattletale?" I asked glaring at her.

She pouted. "You could of atleast played along."

What was Taylor hanging out with her team out of costume. Didn't she know how much a liability that was? So many things could go wrong.

"So you wanna tag along?" Lisa asked.

I looked at Eli. "It's up to you. We have nothing else to do," that was a lie of course. We planned on going to some Merchant territory and trying to find Squealer and Skidmark. But Eli didn't know if they knew we were capes too.

"Okay I'll bite. What are you doing with Taylor anyways?"

"We're updating your wardrobe," Lisa said.

Taylor looked down at her clothes. "There is nothing wrong with my wardrobe Lisa."

I smiled brightly. "I've been trying to get her to change it up for so long!" I clapped cheerfully.

Taylor wore very boring clothes. No color. No wow factor. They were clothes I would wear after a breakup. I knew I would never get her to wear the clothing I wore but that was fine.

"Eli has some good fashion choices as well, she's not as cautious as Tay here," I pointed at Eli who blushed profusely.

She put her hands up in mock-surrender. "N-no I don't I- I am not."

"Brian's cautious," Taylor refuted.

You and Brian are similar, but I wouldn't say he's cautious. He's… pragmatic. You both are. The difference between you two is that he's been doing what he does for three years, now. Two years of experience, before he joined the group. So a lot of what he does is automatic. He doesn't give a second thought to the little things he's done dozens of times already. He takes a lot for granted"
I nodded in agreement even though I didn't know who Brian was. "You overthink stuff. Every little move you make, you try to think three steps ahead. It once took you ten minutes to decide on an ice cream flavor. You don't show any skin or any color,"

"Sorry my legs don't look like a supermodel," she pointed at my skirt.

I huffed. "You have other advantages too. Look at Eli's style. See how badass and casual it is?"

Eli started to shift side to side nervously. Taylor looked her over and nodded in agreement.

The whole talk we had walked to a store and picked out a few items.

"My dad will wonder where I got them," she protested, as Tattletale folded a pair of blouses over one of my arms.

I picked out a jean jacket a a cute yellow top. "You got them from me and Lisa. He won't question it."

"I don't like lying to my dad."

I looked back at her with a 'Really' look. It shut her up pretty quickly.

"Taylor try on the clothes, I will too if you do it," I compromised. Well it wasn't really a compromise. I wanted to try on a few things anyways.

She hurried to pull on the first dress in the pile, then opened the curtain.

"Not that one," she waved at the dress, a plaid number, predominantly red and white.

Eli picked out a turtle neck dress for me. "You want me to die in this heat don't you?"

The look in her eyes made me shiver. "Not. At. All."

Lisa giggled and wrapped her arms around Eli. "I like you."

I snatched the clothing from Eli's hands and walked into the dressing room next to Taylors.

From the other side of the curtain, Lisa explained, "At first I thought your dad was abusing you. But I dropped that line of thinking pretty quick after I heard you bring him up in conversation. It had to be a major part of your life that's sucking."


"To be honest I thought it was her dad too," I added taking off my skirt.
"Though, and if it's not home then it's got to be school. Brian and Alec pretty much agree with my line of thinking."

I froze not saying anything. Well this was tragic.

"You've talked about it with them," I heard Taylor's head thunk against the shaky plywood wall of the change room.

"It came up when we were talking about you joining the group, and we never hundred percent dropped the subject. Sorry. You're new, you're interesting, we talk about you. That's all it is."

"You can't get too upset Taylor. You are new to their team and I would be cautious and curious too," I said.

"Ever think I didn't want them to pry into my private life Nikki?" she finished dressing up and I heard the curtain fly open.

I guess it was my time. I walked out and did a little spin. "How do I look Eli?"

Her eyes went up and down my body a few times. "Amazing!" she gave me a thumbs up. I caught a few men far off looking at me. They looked like E88 goons. My heart turned to ice. No Nicole. Get it together you are strong. Everything is fine. It's good.

Eli, Taylor, and Lisa looked in the direction I was staring at. Lisa looked at me and frowned. "Hey! If you aren't shopping then get the hell out."

The men turned their heads away quickly and I exhaled heavily. "I was fine Lisa," I growled. I snatched the next item out of Eli's hands and stormed back into the dressing room.

Taylor wisely decided to not press me on it and went back to her conversation with Lisa. "What I need is to keep…" she paused briefly , "these two major parts of my life separate."

"The suckish part and the non-suck part."

"Sure, let's go with that." I found a top and a pair of low-rise jeans in the pile of clothes.

"I could help make the suckish parts suck less," she offered.

That would be pretty awesome to see Lisa show up and humiliate the girls. I would totally be down for that. Just seeing their little facades break with a few of her words. I finally took a look at the items in my hands. A crop top and denim shorts. Holy crap, Eli knew my style too well too quick.

"Having me try on clothes is fine," Taylor told her, "But you interfere directly in my problems, and I'm gone."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," I said, "I'm sorry."


I walked out the dressing room. "If she leaves you maybe she can join us?" I said grinning.

Lisa mean mugged me then pouted. ""Fine." She waved a hand in the general direction of Taylor's clothes, "What do you think?"

"Top is cut too low, jeans are too tight."

I took a look at her clothes and was awe struck. It had an abstract design on the right side of the shirt, and the v-neck collar came to a point near where her ribcage ended. It was pretty cute and had a taste of sexy to it.

"Taylor you look good." Eli said. I nodded in agreement Taylor looking at me through the mirror.

"You need to get used to showing some cleavage. Like I said, be bold in your fashion choices." Lisa said.

"I'd be fine with showing some cleavage if I had anything to show," I pointed out.

"You're a late bloomer?" she tried.

"My mom was a B-cup, and not always then, depending on the brand of bra. And that was after she went up a partial size being pregnant with me."

"That's fucking tragic," Lisa and I said at the same time.

"Well my mom is a C-cup and I am just a B so I know how it feels," I offered.

Taylor flicked me off in the mirror. Well I know how she felt about my consolation.

"And my condolences about your mom. I didn't know."

Taylor had told me her mom passed away when I first visited her home. She didn't want to tell me too much about it. I could feel the emotional residue it left over the house. It was like they truly never grieved and got over her death. If my mom died I don't know what I would do.
I gave a quick back rub to Taylor.

"Appreciated." I sighed. "I'm vetoing the shirt."

I playfully shoved her. "My turn," I posed in front of the mirror. Oh I looked good.

"Guys how about we take a selfie. I need a picture to remember this outfit. It's too cute to not take a picture in."

Taylor paled and Lisa thought about it for a moment. "Won't be any harm in it." she said.

Eli quickly fixed her hair up and looked in the mirror. She was sometimes pretty vain.

I took out my cellphone. Lisa got in putting up a peace sign our cheeks touching. Taylor who as the tallest and Eli who was the second tallest was behind us. Taylor didn't look directly at the camera and didn't smile. Eli smiled nervously. I stuck my tongue out and took the picture.

"Let me see," they all asked at once.

"And you guys call me vain," I said. Taylor snatched the phone from my hands and they all crowded and looked at it.

"We look hot," Lisa said.

Taylor blushed. "No I don't at least. You guys look fantastic" Taylor groused.

"You have this bad girl vibe going on it's pretty hot," Eli blurted out.

I smirked and looked at Eli. She groaned and facepalmed herself.

Lisa handed the phone back to me. "By the way Taylor you are so keeping those jeans. They show off your figure."

The figure of a thirteen year old boy," Taylor added.

"You're taller than a thirteen year old boy, don't be silly. Besides, whatever you look like, whatever your body type, there's bound to be someone out there who thinks you're the hottest fucking person they've ever seen."

"Fantastic," she mumbled, "There's a sketchy pedophile out there with my name on him."

Lisa laughed, "Go, try something else on. But throw the jeans over the top. I'm buying them for you, and if you never wear them, I'll have to be content with you feeling guilty about it."

"Find me the same jeans one size larger, and I'll wear them," she negotiated. Then, before she could protest, Taylor added, "They're going to shrink in the wash."

"Point. I'll go look come with me Eli."

When they walked off to find a bigger size of jeans I glanced at Taylor. "You look good Tay. I don't give a shit what those bitches at school told you. Don't let them win," I quickly said.

Things continued in that vein for a little while, with Lisa and I doing a little shopping for ourselves, too. We all stuck to talking about the clothes and boys.

"Yeah I saw you and Aegis picture on PHO are you guys exclusive?"

I blushed and glared at Eli who smirked. "No we arent! It was an accident."

Taylor grinned. "It didn't look like one. The way you were looking him into his eyes like you were his soulmate," she said dreamily.

"Yeah and you called Brian hot at the bank. Do you have a thing for bad boys too?"

Brian was Grue?

"Lisa what about you?"

She laughed nervously. "I really can't get into people. I learn their darkest secrets and the most weirdest stuff about them. It just..yeah."

I backed off the sensitive topic.

When we finished, the woman at the cash totaled it up on a notepad and passed the slip of paper to us. Seven hundred and twenty-five dollars.


I didn't even know I bought that much. I took out my wallet.

Lisa put her hand on mine stopping me from taking it out"My treat," Lisa said.

"Are you sure?" Taylor asked.

"A bribe in exchange for your silence," Lisa winked at Taylor.

"About?"

She glanced at the cashier, "After."

It was only after we'd left the stall well behind, the pair of us laden down with bags, that Lisa elaborated. "Do me a favor and don't go telling the gang how badly I let things slip, as far as Panacea being one of the hostages. If they ask outright, you can say, I won't ask you to lie. But if they don't ask, maybe don't bring it up?"


"Yeah you kind of screwed the pooch there Lisa. How could you not know that there was Glory Girl's sister among the hostages. Seems like a big deal to skip over."

Lisa glared at me. I blew her a kiss.

"This is the silence you're buying?" Taylor asked.

"Please."

"Okay," Taylor answered.

"Well Lisa I want one thing from you and I won't tell the boys."

She raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Say...I am super smart."

Lisa choked. "Wait...what?"

"Say 'Nikki you are very intelligent. It amazes me how smart you are'"

"You have to be kidd-"

"Say it!" I demanded.

She groaned. "Nikki," she breathed, "you are very intelligent. It amazes me how annoying and smart you are."

I shrugged. "I will take it."

She grinned, "Thanks. Between them, I don't think those guys would ever let me live it down."

"Would you let them, if the tables were turned?" Taylor asked

"Hell naw," she laughed.

Thats what I would do. "Petty," I mumbled.

"You know it Nikki."

"But about our earlier conversation… last I'll say on the subject tonight, promise. If you ever decide you do want me to directly interfere in any of your personal stuff, just say the word."

I frowned, ready to be annoyed, but I relented. It was a fair offer, not pushing anything. "Okay. Thank you, but I'm fine."

"Then that's settled. Let's go eat."

Fugly Bobs was fast food of the most shameless kind, sold out of a part-restaurant, part-bar, part-shack at the edge of the Market, overlooking the beach. Anyone who lived in the area had probably eaten there once, at some point. I did a few times even though I am too ashamed to admit it. I wanted one burger and ate three. I couldn't help myself! It was just so tasty. Good thing I could heal my heart. The specialty burger was the Fugly Bob Challenger: if you could finish it, you didn't have to pay for it. It probably went without saying that most people paid. Me and Taylor tried to finish it once and barely ate 1/4th of the burger. We lost forty bucks that night. And some pride.

Eli's phone rang and she stopped and answered it. After a few 'Uh huh's' and 'Okays' she hanged up and told me she had to go. I didn't know what it was about but I didn't question it.

I hugged her goodbye and she told me to save her a burger.

Two boys were already there. They looked at me curiously.

"Who's the cutie?" asked the boy. He more pretty than handsome, though undeniably attractive. Lanky, with European descent and black curly hair. He was wearing quite expensive items. He had good taste.

"Hey Reg," I recognized the voice and the curly hair tipped me off.

Brian and Regent both prepared to bolt.

"Don't worry she is Taylor's bestie. This is Nikki. Her cape persona is the one we meet at the bank."

I waved.

"You are the one that called Brian here hot but left me with nothing but a goodbye," Regent looked me up and down.

Brian cleared his throat. I could tell he was upset about me learning his secret identity. "I am Brian and that's Alec."

Regent grinned. "It's a pleasure to meet you Nikki,"

I put my hand on my hips. "Already trying to woo me Alec. You think I am that easy?"

"Not at all, kind of hard not to suck up to a beauty like you."

I laughed. "You are such a dork."

Taylor shook her head at Alec disappointingly.

Lisa and Taylor agreed to split a bacon cheeseburger, I got a simple chicken sandwhich, Brian ordered a portobello-beef double-decker and Alec matched him with a Hideous Bob – Fugly Bob's interpretation of a Big Mac.


They boys had been sitting outside so they could spot us when we arrived. After a brief debate, we agreed to stick to the table they'd been sitting at. It was by the window, so we could see the TV. I hated eating outside but I would out-voted. Damn you Lisa.

"I don't want to be a nag," Brian said, eyeing the piles of bags, "But I did say you shouldn't spend
so much so soon after a caper. It's the kind of thing cops and capes watch for."


"It's cool," Lisa brushed him off, "It only raises flags with the credit card companies or banks if it's a dramatic change in a given person's spending habits. I buy close to this amount of stuff every week or two."

Holy fuck. This girl spent that much every week or two? How much money was the Undersiders making and could I join? I crushed the thought forming in my head. Me and Jeanne would figure out how to make money on our own.

Brian frowned. "Don't worry Brian the girl has the smarts not too fuck up that badly. Trust in her," I said.

He looked like he wanted to say something in response, but he kept his mouth shut.


"So whats next?" Taylor asked.

"Dinner then dessert" Alec replied.

"Yeah I've heard they had this new sundae with tons of fudge," I said almost drooling.

Alec looked at me. "Are you serious or is this another rumor like their supposed potato wedge fries?"

"No its compl-"

"I meant in terms of our," Taylor lowered her voice, "Illicit activity." A quick double-check showed the college guys at the far end of the patio were still engrossed in the game.


"Something less intense," I decided, "I'm kind of feeling like I jumped into the deep end of the pool without entirely knowing how to swim. I'd prefer to get to know my powers better in the field, figure out how to deal with situations, before I'm up against people like Lung and Glory Girl, who are literally capable of tearing me limb from limb."

"Yeah Taylor why would you jump into something so dangerous so quick. I can understand me doing it. I can heal from receiving a punch by Glory Girl and burned by Lung. You? Not so much," I flipped my hair over my shoulder for dramatic effect.

She elbowed me in the side again.

"Hah. Something easier then."

"If Rachel was here, she'd be calling you a wuss again," Alec commented.


"She is," I said.

"Shut up Nikki," Taylor picked at her burger.

Our food arrived, and we used extra plates to divvy up our individual side orders so we all had a little bit of each. That left each of us a mix of fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings and deep fried zucchini on an individual plate. The sides alone would have been more than enough raw foodstuff for a meal on its own, but there were also the burgers themselves, each large enough to take up nearly an entire plate. Taylor and Lisa cut the bacon cheeseburger in half, and we each took a portion.

I looked at my chicken sandwich. "It looked smaller on the board! I was scammed into paying for a giant burger," I whined.

"Save half for Eli," Taylor pointed out. Oh right..Eli. Well at least I have an excuse for not eating the entire burger.

"I guess you're not the type that gains weight," Lisa eyed Taylor .

"I have to work to put it on."

"Dammit," she grumbled.

"If it's any consolation," I said, after taking a bite and wiping my mouth with a napkin, "This is going to be hell on my skin."

"That does help," she grinned. Taylor and Lisa looked at me for consolation.

"Wait...I am supposed to have something too?" I used to gain weight eating too much like Lisa but after becoming a magical girl well that problem kind of disappeared, "Uh...I feel bloated?"

They both groaned and Lisa waved me off.

Alec rolled his eyes, "Enough with the girl talk."

"Do you want to hear about our sexy slumber parties and lingerie?" I asked.

He nodded enthusiastically and took a bite of his burger. A quick smile formed on Brian's face and just as quickly went away.

"I know it's kind of cliche, but when people with powers get together, isn't it kind of standard to share origin stories?"

Lisa turned away, for once without a smile on her face. Brian and Alec gave me strange looks, not saying anything. I just started to whistle awkwardly.

"What?" Taylor asked. "What did I say?"

Oh Taylor what didn't you say?
----------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Dios Mio! Writing this was a work out. Sure I got some interactions and descriptions from Worm to be a bit more accurate but good lord. Also the spoiler includes some information about how/why people react the way they do towards Nicole.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Spoiler: Spoiler
The Shards recognize the magic Nicole is emitting as Alien and thefore a threat. But since it loves conflict it screws over it's host. Usually people who have heightened aggression due to their shard, become way more aggressive at Nicole than they usually would be. Also people who are apathetic due to their shard start to feel emotions when around Nicole. This benefits Kyubey's grief seed collection and the Shards information collection.

 

[Daimah]

A bit of slice of life after all the action, nice. And the shipping, of course there was going to be shipping, the Shipping Chart cannot be denied

"I know it's kind of cliche, but when people with powers get together, isn't it kind of standard to share origin stories?"

Click to shrink...

Nicola: A creature from another dimension gave me powers after ripping my soul from my body.

Lisa: True *brain melts down*

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011 5:24PM

I honestly didn't know what to say. I wasn't a Parahuman and I truly didn't know what it felt like to get a power. I was offered a way out of a shitty situation by a sly deformed cat. I decided to not let anyone know of that though. I didn't want to get thrown into a loony bin.

"Well Taylor, its uhm," I tried to think of a way to explain this. What was bad about it? How bad did it have to be to trigger?

"Let me put it this way. When you got your powers, were you having a good day?" Alec asked Taylor.

She replied "No," fast.

Taylor never told me what gave her the powers she has today. I always heard all over PHO that it was considered very rude to ask someone how they got their powers. I learned that like two days ago, so I wasn't upset at Taylor making the mistake.

"Would I be really off the mark if I guessed you were having the worst day of your life, when you got your powers?"

"Second worst," I replied quietly, "It's like that for everyone?"

Taylor looked at me and I nodded grimly.

"Just about. The only ones who get off easy are the second generation capes. The kids of people who have powers."

Lisa leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table, "So if you needed another reason to think Glory Girl is a privileged bitch, look no further."

"Why?" Taylor asked, "Why do we go through that?"


"It's called the trigger event," Lisa answered Taylor , "Researchers theorize that for every person with powers out there, there's one to five people with the potential for powers, who haven't met the conditions necessary for a trigger event. You need to be pushed to the edge. Fight or flight responses pushed to their limits, further than the limits, even. Then your powers start to emerge."


I took a quick sip of my drink. "Basically you got to get dealt the 'fuck my life' hand in order to get power."

Alec grinned. "Classy way of breaking it down,"

I smiled.

"Which may help to explain why the villains outnumber the heroes two to one," Lisa pointed out, "Or why third world countries have the highest densities of people with powers. Not capes, but a lot of people with powers."

"But people who have parents with powers?"

"They don't need nearly as intense an event to make their powers show up. Glory Girl got her powers by getting fouled while playing basketball in gym class. She mentioned it in a few interviews she gave."

I had to resist snorting. "She acts like she is so tough when her worst moment of her life was losing a basketball game. Like don't get me wrong, shes super cute but her attitude is just ugh."

Lisa smirked. "Her sister is the one that got me. Who knew a healer would have such a morbid imagination?"

I could see Taylor shivering from across the table. The threats Panacea made coming back to her.


"So you basically asked us to share the details on the worst moments of our lives," Alec said, before taking another bite of his burger.

"Sorry," Taylor replied.

"It's okay," Brian reassured her, "It's one of those things you only really hear about from other capes, and you only know us. Maybe you'd hear more about trigger events if you took a university class in parahuman studies, but I doubt you'd get the full picture there. Kind of have to go through it yourself."


I patted her back. "I only learned about this two days ago so don't get all worked up. I could've been in your shoes right now," she smiled, "but fortunately I am not." she frowned and pinched me.

"Lisa said you guys were talking about me, talking about how you thought I was having a hard time, speculating on what it was," Taylor managed to say, "I dunno, I think a part of me wants to talk about it so you aren't coming to the wrong conclusions. Talk about when I got my powers. But I don't know that I can get into it without ruining the mood."

"You already ruined the mood, dork." This from Alec. I kicked him in his shins from under the table and Brian punched him in the arm. He yelped and glared at Brian. Alec grudgingly added, "Which means there's no reason not to, I guess."


"Should we really be sharing this with someone who is not even on our team?" Brian asked.

I tilted my head. "You already revealed your civilian identities to someone with an eidetic memory. Plus you are Taylor's friends and I won't do anything to threaten you because that would in turn threaten me and Taylor."

Alec looked at me. "Why won't you join?"

"Cause I don't want to be apart of a team of villains. I have goals that contradict yours,"

"What if we cross paths," Alec asked staring me in the eyes.

I stared back unblinking. "Then I won't hesitate to kick all of your asses including Taylors. Then I will take her back home and wash the evil away," I said. I had already came to the conclusion that if the Undersiders got in my way I would carefully and gently, squash them. Of course Taylor will only get a slight beating. I don't think I had it in me to seriously hurt her.

Alec looked at me for a few more seconds. "Washing the evil away you sa-"

Brian punched him in the arm again. "I am going to get a bruise now," Alec whined.

"Go for it," Lisa prodded Taylor.

"It's not an amazing story," She said, "But I need to say something before I start. I already said it to Lisa. The people I'm talking about… I don't want you to take revenge on them on my behalf or anything. I need to be sure you won't."

"You want to get revenge yourself?" Alec asked.

Taylor would never. She wanted to move on from the bullies and I knew that myself too.

"I don't really know. I think… I guess I feel that if you guys jumped in and beat them up or humiliated them or made them tearfully apologize, I wouldn't feel like I'd dealt with things myself. There wouldn't be any closure."


And there would also be full retaliation for attacking innocent teenage girls with a Parahuman power.

"So whatever we hear, we don't act on it," Brian clarified.

"Please."

"It's your prerogative," he said, taking a deep-fried zucchini off of Lisa's plate and biting it in half. She pushed her plate closer to him.

"Whatever," Alec said.


I gripped Alec's hand tightly. I knew that tone. I heard it a million times from myself. Whenever my father gave me an order I was going to defy anyways. Regardless of the consequences.

I glared at him, "Alec. She means it. Do. Not. Do. It," I emphasized.

He snatched his hands from mines. "Okay for fucks sake," he mumbled.

Everyone at the table was looking at me and him for a few moments. I nodded to Taylor and leaned back on my seat.

"There's three girls at school that had… have been making my life pretty goddamn miserable. Doing pretty much everything they could think of to make school suck, humiliate me, hurt me. Each of the three had their individual approach, and for a good while, it was like they were trying to outdo each other in how creative or mean they could get."


Sophia, Emma, and Madison. Those bitches were candidates in my mind. They are sick.

"It went on for almost a year and a half before things quieted down. Last year, around November, they… I dunno. It was like they got bored. The pranks got tamer, then stopped altogether. The taunts stopped, and so did most of the hate mail. They ignored me, left me alone."

"I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I made a friend, one of the girls who had sometimes joined in on the taunting came to me and apologized. Not one of the major bullies, more like a friend of a friend of the bullies, I guess. She asked me if I wanted to hang out. I was too gun-shy, told her no, but it got so we were talking before and after classes and eating lunch together. Her approaching me and befriending me was one of the big reasons I could think the harassment was ending. I never really let my guard down around her, but she was pretty cool about it.

"And for most of November and the two weeks of classes before Christmas break, nothing. They were leaving me alone. I was able to relax."

I sighed, "That ended the day I came back from the winter break. I knew, instinctively, that they were playing me, that they were waiting before they pulled their next stunt, so it had more impact. I didn't think they'd be so patient about it. I went to my locker, and well, they'd obviously raided the bins from the girls bathrooms or something, because they'd piled used pads and tampons into my locker. Almost filled it."




"Ew," Alec interjected, putting down his food, "I was eating here."

"Alec I swear to god," I glared at him. He frowned.

"Finish now," Brian ordered Taylor. He glared at Alec.

"It was pretty obvious that they had done it before the school closed for Christmas, by the smell alone. I bent over to throw up, right there in a crowded hallway, everyone watching. Before I could recover or stop losing my breakfast, someone grabbed me by the hair, hard enough it hurt, and shoved me into the locker."

I was glad I had finished half of my burger by the time she said that. Cold icy rage started to flood me. I gripped the edge of the table. Those disgusting bitches. They were psychotic. I knew Sophia was bonafide crazy. But to want to do something like that to another human being for fun? I was going to tear them apart and-

Taylor saw the look on my face and she placed her hand over mine. "Nikki I know what you are thinking. You will get expelled if you try anything with them again."

Taylor let go of my hand one I visibly calmed down. "They shut the locker and put the lock on it. I was trapped in there, with this rancid smell and puke, barely able to move, it was so full. All I could think was that someone had been willing to get their hands that dirty to fuck with me, but of all the students that had seen me get shoved in the locker, nobody was getting a janitor or teacher to let me out."

I knew that place was crooked the moment I walked in. If I hadn't fought Sophia that could've been me.

"I panicked, freaked out. My mind went someplace else, and it found the bugs there. Not that I knew what they were, at that point. I didn't have a sense of proportion, and with all the info my power was giving me then, my brain didn't know how to process it all. As far as I knew, all around me, in the walls of the school, in the corners, and crawling around the filthy interior of the locker, there were thousands of these twitchy, alien, distorted things that were each shoving every tiny detail about their bodies and their fucked up biology into my head."

Taylor sighed. "It's hard to explain what it's like, having a new sense open up, but you can't understand it all. Every sound that they heard was bounced back to me at a hundred times the volume, with the pitch and everything else all screwed up as if they wanted to make it as unpleasant and painful to listen to as possible. Even what they were seeing, it's like having my eyes open after being in the dark for a long time, but the eyes weren't attached to my body, and what they were seeing was like looking into a really dingy, grimy kaleidoscope. Thousands of them. And I didn't know how to turn any of it off."


"Damn," Lisa said.

"When someone finally let me out, I came out fighting. Biting, scratching, kicking. Screaming incoherently. Probably putting on a good show for all the kids that had come out of their classrooms to watch. The teachers tried to deal with the situation, paramedics eventually came and I don't remember much after that."

"I figured out what my power was at the hospital, while they observed me, which helped ground me, make me feel sane again. Bugs are a lot easier to wrap your head around, when you realize they're bugs. After a week, maybe, I was able to shut some of it out. My dad got some money from the school. Enough to pay the bills for the hospital stay and a little extra. He was talking about suing the bullies, but no witnesses were really talking and the lawyer said it wasn't going to be successful without hard evidence to identify the responsible. We didn't have the money for it, if it wasn't going to be a sure thing. I never wound up telling my dad about the main group of bullies. Maybe I should have, I dunno."


"I'm sorry," Lisa put her hand on her shoulder. I grabbed Taylor's hand reassuringly. I didn't think there was anything I could say to make her feel better about the situation.

"Wait, this thing with those girls is still going on?" Alec asked her.

Taylor glanced at me then at her tray. "Well at first yeah. They didn't let up even after my episode. But," she looked at me and I nodded, "Nikki came to my school. She defended me and lately they left me alone while she is around."

I winced at hearing the words. I knew they were still bullying Taylor. I couldn't be around her 24/7 and when I wasn't they used that to go after her. I heard some of the things people said about her.

"Why don't you use your power?" Alec asked, "It doesn't even have to be that big. A bug in their lunch, maybe a bee sting on the tip of their nose or on their lips."

"I'm not going to use my power on them."

"But they're making you miserable!" Alec protested.


I kind of agreed. With my power there was no subtlety to attack them with. Taylor however could do so.

I frowned, "All the more reason not to. It wouldn't be hard to guess who was doing it if someone started using powers to mess with them."

"Seriously?" Alec leaned back in his seat, folding his arms, "Look, you and I haven't talked all that much, maybe we don't know each other all that well, but, um, you're not stupid. Are you honestly telling me you're incapable of finding a subtle way to get back at them?"

Taylor looked to Lisa and Brian, feeling a little backed into a corner, "A little help?"

Lisa smiled, but said nothing. Brian shrugged and considered for a few moments before telling her, "I'm kind of inclined to agree with Alec."


She looked at me pleadingly. "That bitch bashed my face in. What do you think I want?"

"Okay, fine," she admitted, "It's crossed my mind. I've considered doing something that couldn't be traced to me, like giving them lice. But you guys remember how I went off on Bitch after she set her dogs on me."

"A bit of repressed anger," Lisa said, still smiling.

"It's the same with these guys. You know what happens if I do something like give them crabs? They wind up miserable, annoyed, and they take it out on me when Nikki isn't around."

"Oh man," Alec laughed, "Crabs. You need to do that every time we go up against another cape. Can you imagine?"


"They suddenly start itching and screaming 'The bitch gave us crabs!'" I giggled. Alec laughter heightened an octave.

"I'd rather not," Taylor made a face at me.

I smirked. "It's all good Taylor that would be a bad idea. Don't mind Alec he is just a little...special."

Alec fake gasped. "Are you calling me crazy?"

I pretended to gasp as well. "I would never!"

Taylor continued, "While I'm controlling them, I see everything my bugs see, feel everything they feel, pretty much. I don't want to make a regular thing of having my bugs crawl all over sweaty crotches."

"Awww."

"The point I'm trying to make, if you'll stop changing the subject, is that these girls would probably take their misery out on me, even if they didn't know I was doing it. I don't trust myself to keep from retaliating, upping the ante. You saw what happened with me and Rachel, the first time we met. Things would escalate, I'd take things too far eventually. Secret identity blown, or getting someone seriously hurt, like Lung was, only without the regeneration"
"I don't get how you can sit there and take it," Alec said, "Get revenge, or get one of us to get revenge for you. Go to someone for help."

"None of those things is an option," Taylor said. "There's too much chance for things to go out of control if I take things into my own hands or have you guys do it for me. As far as going to someone for help, I don't trust the system. Not after the court case, not after talking to some of my teachers. If it was that easy, I would have dealt with it already."


Lisa leaned forward, "Tell me it wouldn't be awesome if we kidnapped their leader, pulled a hood over her head, dragged her into a van and dropped her off in the woods at midnight, ten miles out of town, with nothing but her skivvies."


I leaned forward to. "Better yet how about we dump blood and honey on them, then drop them off in the woods."

"You are sick and twisted Nikki," Alec commented, "I love it."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. It's going too far." Taylor said.

"They shoved you into the grossest locker ever and locked the door!" Alec looked at Taylor like she had a goat for a head

"Leaving her in the middle of nowhere without any clothes on is practically inviting her to be molested by the first trucker to see her," Taylor pointed out.

"Fine," Alec rolled his eyes, "So we tone it down some. Drop her off with no shoes, no cell phone, no wallet, no spare change, nothing she could use to negotiate her way home. Make her hike it."

"That would still be risking getting her assaulted," Taylor sighed, "Pretty girl walking down the side of the road at night?"

I kind of was seeing how Alec was. Kind of amoral and willing to hurt people greatly in vengeance. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened to him, his tormentors would end up mysteriously in a coma.

"They've assaulted you!"

"It's a little different."

"The only difference I see is that they deserve it and you didn't. I mean, I'm not smart like you guys are, so maybe I'm missing something."

Taylor shook her head, "You're not missing anything, Alec. We're looking at this from two very different perspectives. I don't really believe in that whole 'eye for an eye' business."

"Then why the fuck are you a supervillain?"

I turned my head to give Taylor a look. Seriously why was she?

"Escape." The word left Taylor's mouth.

Lisa was watching the dialogue, a small smile on her face, her chin resting on her palm. Brian arms were folded in front of him, no real expression on his face.

Escape? The reason sounded valid but why the Undersiders.

"I can deal with real life, if I can leave it behind for this. Kicking ass, making a name for myself, hanging out with friends. Having fun."

Well that makes sense. I had to fight to survive but fighting was addicting. I love the thrill of it. Being able to be badass Nicola at night and smart mouth Nikki by day was kind of awesome.

"I mean, assuming that we are frien-"

"If you finish that sentence," Lisa warned Taylor, "I'm going to slap you across the head."

"Yes, Taylor, we're friends," Brian said, "And we appreciate, or at least, I appreciate that you trusted us enough to share your story."

Alec shook his head and stretched his arms above his head before resting them on his full stomach, his silence answer enough.

Lisa, for her part, grinned and said, "Sorry. I like you guys, but I'm going to need a few drinks before I share that particular tidbit, and I'm not legal to drink for a few years yet."

"Doesn't seem fair that Taylor's the only one sharing," Brian pointed out.

"I- I didn't tell my story because I expected you guys to reciprocate," She added, "Really, it's fine."


I groaned. Taylor trusted me enough to tell her story. I couldn't tell her mnes not yet. But I could get close to it.

"I can't tell you guys mine..completely but I suppose I volunteer as tribute," I raised my hand mockingly. Ignoring Taylors cries of protest.

"I am going to make it quick Tattletale will tell you if I am lying or not."

I cleared my throat. "I need to fight to live. If I stop fighting I die. I don't fight for the thrill or because I am angry. I don't fight for revenge nor do I fight for a cause. Unlike you guys, I can't go into hiding and live a regular life of no Parahuman fuckery. This is it for me, forever. I haven't really accepted what it means to fight forever. Due to my abilities I may in fact be immortal. The longest I ever went without fighting was a month and I was near comatose,"

I bit my lip. "At first it was light nothing to bad but it got worse as time went on. Way worse. That feeling was excruciating. I wanted to hurt random Parahumans just to get a fix. I could barely get out of bed or even eat. My body rejecting everything including water. I saw double all the time. I couldn't even sleep. I heard whispers of my fath-of someone I used to know tormenting me. I wanted to kill myself to end it all. Thankfully I didn't, fighting clears me up."

" You guys will eventually wither away from old age, but I will still be some young teenager fighting Parahumans until one of them gets lucky and kill me. Or I end it myself." I blurted out.

I let Everyone sink in. Well this was going to be awkward. Thinking that just made it more awkward. Screw you brain.
------------------------------------------
A/N: Nicoles darker inner thoughts~. Managed to push out one more chapter before taking my few days break.

 

[Nicola]

. Over the next 4 - 7 days I am going to rewrite and edit up on past chapters. Patch up plot holes, continuity issues, and grammar mistakes If you'd like to help PM/Ask me.

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011 5:33PM

"So that's me. Well a bit about me," I shrugged trying to hide the pain behind my voice.

Taylor looked down at our plates. "I didn't know I am sorry."

I blinked a few times. "For what?"

"For saying I fought for escape. I was so worried about living a different life where as you have to fight or you die. Fighting is apart of your life now. I feel so stupid."

"No don't be!" I reassured her, "At least now I can protect people and fight the people that actually need fighting."

I didn't want her to feel bad for my sake. It wasn't that bad kicking ass. I could probably fight once a month if need be. Everything would be fine.

"I am going to share mine, don't want you two to be the only one to share," Brian said.

We paid our bill and left. Brian was gracious enough to carry some of our bags.

"Why can't you be like that Alec?" I pouted. "He is so nice and caring."

"Look at him, he is built like a bull," he protested.

The Market itself had mostly emptied, with the various merchants and shoppers having left.

"For background, I guess it's important to mention that my parents split up when I was thirteen," Brian told us, "I went with my father and my sister Aisha went with my mom. Aisha and I kind of stayed in touch, but there's four years difference in our ages, our interests were completely different, so there wasn't a lot to say. I'd send her a text message about how my day at school had been painfully dull, and a few days later, she'd send me an email about a cartoon she liked. Or she'd ask me for advice on what to do when she got an F on a spelling test.

"We weren't close. It wasn't really possible, since I was living at the south end of the city and she was up here. But one night, I got a text from her. Two words: 'Help me'. I called, but the line was busy. To this day, I don't know why I took it so seriously, but I got over to my mom's place as fast as was humanly possible. Ran out the front door, sprinted two blocks to Lord Street, downtown, and grabbed a cab. Left the cab driver shouting for his money as I charged through the front door of my mom's place and found my sister.

"She'd been crying, but she wasn't saying what was wrong. I didn't bother asking a second time. I gave her a hug, picked her up and started to leave. A man I didn't recognize got in my way. My mom's new boyfriend."

"I knew he was the reason she had texted me for help, from the moment I saw her reaction. Maybe I'd suspected there was something going on even before that, from the way her emails and texts had changed in tone. It would explain that gut feeling I'd had that made me get over there as fast as I did. I saw her shrink back, I felt her hold me tighter, and I went cold inside."

He paused a second, just walking in silence. I almost thought that he was done, somehow, until he suddenly turned to Taylor. "I think I mentioned, Taylor, that my father had been a boxer, while he was in the service?"


She nodded.

"Well my father is a hard man. Not the kind of man that's meant to raise a son alone. I wouldn't say he was abusive, but there's never been any warmth to him, no charming anecdotes, no fatherly wisdom, no throwing baseballs in the backyard. The extent of our bonding was in the gym, him holding the punching bag in position while shouting at me that I was doing something wrong, staying grimly quiet if my form, my timing, the raw power of my hits were all flawless. Or we'd be in the ring, with boxing helmets and gloves on, a thirty five year old man in peak physical condition barely holding back against his fifteen year old son. He just expected me to keep up or take the hits, and I didn't have much choice in the matter."

I wished my father was like that. Even though he would still be a terrible father he'd be better. I would have two people to look up to. My father instead of teaching me to respect him, taught me to hate authority. Instead of helping me hit a punching bag, he used my mother and I as one. We were treated like nothing more than a burden. A sick part of him enjoyed it, I knew it did deep down. He craved power and used us to fill that craving.

"So even if I was only fifteen, I was tall for my age, I was fit, and I knew how to throw a punch. I didn't say a word, didn't make a sound. I put my sister down and beat my mother's boyfriend within an inch of his life, my mother screaming and wailing the entire time. When I was done, I picked my sister up and returned to the cab. We went to my father's that night, and we went to the police station in the morning."

"When you throw a punch barehanded, it doesn't leave your hands pristine. A few good swings, you connect solidly with someone's face, someone's teeth, and it tears the fuck out of your knuckles. It was at my father's place that night, washing and cleaning my hands, when I saw it. It wasn't just blood leaking out of my torn up knuckles, but there was the darkness too, like wisps of really black smoke. You hear about the trigger event, you might think it's all about rage or fear. But I'm a testament that it can be just the opposite. I didn't feel a fucking thing."

I imagined beat my father to a near inch of his life. Repaying him for all the hits he inflicted on me and my mother.. For every lie he told the PRT. For every lie the CPS believed. For every lie he gave the teachers when they asked about my bruises. For every lie he used to relocate us making me abandon my friends. For every lie my mother had to tell me to keep her dignity.

"Nikki! Earth to Nikki!" Taylor called out shaking me slightly. I snapped out of it and looked at the faces of shocked Undersiders. I looked around and saw that the grass around our feet died off and dead bugs nearby.

"I-I am sorry Tay. Just a little...close to home."

Taylor nodded and decided to change the topic.

"Um, I can't think of a nice way to put this, but why aren't you in jail, after thrashing that guy?"

Brian sighed, "It was a close call, but the guy I beat up had violated the terms of his probation by not going to his narcotics anonymous meetings and Aisha backed me up as far as us saying, well, it was well deserved. He came across as the bad guy more than I did. He got six months in jail, I got three months of community service."

"And you've been as good as gold ever since, haven't you?" Lisa grinned.


Brian smiled at that. "These guys know already, but I don't think I mentioned it to you," he said to Taylor, "I got into this for Aisha. My mother lost custody of her after child services stepped in, so Aisha's living with my father now. Problem is, he's not an ideal parent. It's been nearly three years, and he still doesn't know what to do with a daughter, so they mostly ignore each other. But she's acting out, getting into trouble, and she needs someone watching over her that isn't him and isn't our mother. I turn eighteen in June, and when I do, I plan to get my mother and father's parental rights terminated and apply to become Aisha's guardian. To do that, I'm going to need money."

"Thus his current, rather lucrative, form of employment," Lisa pointed out.

Brian stuck his hands into his pockets, "My father has given me his blessing as far as my taking custody of my hellion of a sister. My mother made it clear she's going to fight it every step of the way. That means legal fees. It means paying a private investigator to get proof that my mother hasn't kicked her habits as far as the drugs and the fucked up boyfriends. I'll need an apartment that's going to pass inspection, with a space ready and set aside for Aisha. More than anything, I've got to present myself as someone that's financially secure and responsible enough to make up for the fact that the other option is Aisha's own mother."

"The boss is helping on that last bit," Lisa said, "The allowance and a share of the other income Brian is getting is coming back to him in the form of a paycheck from a legitimate company, and the manager of said company is both willing and able to provide a glowing recommendation on his behalf."

"Which I'm less than thrilled about," Brian admitted, "It's… convenient, I don't know how else I'd manage it, but I don't like being so reliant on someone I don't know at all. He could walk away with that forty thousand dollars, I'd deal. But if he fucked me on this…"

"You said it earlier," Lisa assured him, "He has no reason to."

"True. It doesn't make me feel much better."

"I think what you're doing is very noble," Taylor said.

"Yeah totally badass. You fit the tall, dark, and handsome bad boy role perfectly," I added.

"T-thanks," Brian said with a quick smile. Brian turned to Taylor. "I'm just doing what I have to. She's family, you know?"

"Yeah," I said, "I know."

Family was probably one of the reasons each of us were standing here right now.

We fell silent for a minute or two, only partially because some mothers with oversize strollers had turned a corner and were walking in front of us, putting them easily in earshot. The other reason was that there hadn't been too much more to add to the conversation.


"Well thanks guys for the meal and all," I took a my bags out of Brian's hands. "I have to get going."

Alec frowned, "Already?"

Lisa gave me a quick wave. "It was nice of you to hang out with us. You really made Taylor loosen up."

She squeaked. "I don't need loosening up!"

"I know I tend to have that effect on people," I said with dramatic flair.

"It was really nice meeting you Nikki," Brian said.

"It was nice meeting you all," I looked at Alec, "except for you dork."

"Hey!" he cried out.
---------------------------------
April 15th 2011 - 6:30PM


Me and Jeanne stood on the roofs together. "So how did it go?" She asked.

"A little no very awkward. But overall not that bad. Also I saved Elizabeth a burger."

The wind whipped through my pigtails. We were currently looking over Merchant territory. Squealer and Skidmark were like nomads. They didn't have a usually place or piece of territory where the resided.

It's like each time they got whiff of us they decided to book it. It was hard to go undetected. I had been working on certain talismans and they were showing good results. They just didn't last as long. I didn't want to have to push half a day's worth of magic for one talisman so it can last more than a minute.

I heard the classic roar of one of Squealers hideously made vehicles. Finally we managed to find her. Jeanne and I didn't make any sudden movements.

"Maybe one day we should...hang out."

I stood silent for a few moments. "You want to?"

"Yes. Even though Elizabeth and I share the same memories, I want to make some of my own. However, don't think I like all the girly wicked stuff you two do together," she said looking away from me.

I shrugged pretending indifference when I was smiling like a kid with ice cream behind my mask. "Okay," I said trying to keep the happiness out of my voice, "we can do something."

"Anyways let's focus on this battle Squealer should be-"

That was the last thing I heard before a loud white explosion erupted from behind us. I was thrown off the roof by the force of it the explosion. I landed on the ground with a loud thump.

When I was coming to my senses, I could feel the tears and broken bones in my body. Car alarms were going off, I could see flames in the distance. Dark spots clouded my vision.

I started to send the magic through my body to heal up. This was going to take up a lot of energy. A figure blinked into my sight. It seemed to be a tall figure. A black bodysuit with belt and bandolier of knives and grenades on it, and a demonic mask with leering, fanged, ear-to-ear grin. It looked to be of Japanese origin liked the ones at the festivals my mother brought me too.

The man I was looking at was Oni Lee.

 

[Nicola]

She looked over the town while floating in the air. No one could even see her. She knew where she wanted to start. She need everything to go according to plan. It would take time a lot of time.

She knew that and was willing to invest the time. There was so much to focus on but there was no need to overburden herself now. First she needed somewhere to stay.

She dropped from twenty meters in the air. Soaring to the ground like a rocket. Her jet black cloak was whipped violently by the wind.

Gravity had no hold on people like her. She was more than an average mortal, or than a Parahuman. Her purpose was more than that.

She landed on the sidewalk softly. The clicking of her heels attracted the looks of a few dozen druggies. She walked onto the steps of the old and abandoned Brockton Bay Hospital. The building was accidentally attacked by a triggering Parahuman. He by the name of 'NukeM'. He filled this place with radiation.

Thanks to Parahuman help most of the radiation was rid off. However the city deemed it too unsafe to use for civilians. It was soon taken over by druggies, the Merchants owned this territory long ago but, even they knew this place was completely unprofitable.

The hospital was relatively small. About five stories tall and a parking lot only able to fit at the most 100 cars. The pavement was cracked and she could see the hospital was in horrible condition. This would be perfect.

One druggie slowly got up and stumbled in her direction. "Do you have some money you bitch!" he slurred.

"No I do not. Now if you would leave me be,"

The druggie interrupted her, "I am not going to ask a-again you cun-"

He walked right into a choke hold. With her superhuman strength she lifted the man who was twice her size. "Somnum," raw magical power seeped off her words. The man began to slack and stop struggling.

She tossed his limp body into a pile of trash where he belonged. A few others watched with fear and others so high they didn't even care.

"None of you shall ever come back here. If I spot you here, you will suffer consequences worst than death I assure you."

She smirked as the ones who had sense ran. Others knocked out or too high were to spared temporarily. She would give them a twenty four hours. She considered herself a merciful person.

She walked up to the rusted gate. It was in desperate need of repair. She took out her dagger and infused magic within it. When she became a magical girl, she was given a more in depth knowledge of magic. The way other girls wielded magic like a shotgun when in fact it should be used like a sniper.

The dagger began to glow and she began carving a rune into the gate.

The hospital was hers now.

⛧⛧⛧

It had been three days since she had taken control of the hospital and things were coming along. She finally decided on which name she wanted, 'Minerva.'

Minerva glanced at her soul gem which was finally becoming dark. She theorized her soul gem didn't get tainted through the use of magic. She need conflict and conflict it would get.

The Wards were on patrol tonight. Thankfully it meshed with an agenda she needed to push.

She stood on the roof and found the four of them together. Shadow Stalker, Aegis, Vista, and Clockblocker.

Tonight was the night she would test herself. She wasn't a brute fighter like the other magical girls. She needed magic to make up for that. Which she had a copious amounts of.

She jumped off the roof top and slowly floated in front of the Wards. The hood of her cloak covered her face with darkness.

"What the-" before Aegis could even start giving orders Minerva waved her hand. The air rippled and slammed directly into Aegis.

His ribs shattered and he was lifted off his feet and went crashing through a nearby window. Vista decreased the space between Minerva and Clockblocker.

Minerva mumbled the words "Ασπίδα."

Clockblockers hands reached out and impacted an invisible wall. Minerva opened her palm and black swirling magic circle appeared in front of it. A beam shot out slamming into Vista's stomach. She was thrown back and slammed into the side of a car.

Minerva took ahold of the magical energy of the air and created a dense fog. She slipped behind Clockblocker. With a few quick words touching his costume. Clockblocker faded away into ambient light and reformed twenty feet into the air. He froze himself mid-air to prevent colliding with cement.

Minerva saw shadow stalker up ahead phasing up to the roof tops to get a clear view. Minerva concentrated and teleported herself up to the roof tops. She faded back into existence behind Shadow Stalker. Shadow Stalker turned around with her crossbow pointed at her.

"Who the fuck are you?"

She didn't answer which didn't bode well with Shadow Stalker. She shot a crossbow and with the reflexes given to her she caught it mid air and snapped it in half. Sophia growled and prepared to launch another one. Most likely a shadow one.

She took off her cloak and let her red hair fall from its bindings.

"Don't you remember a friend Sophia?" she asked innocently.

Shadow Stalker stumbled back almost falling off the roof. "E...Emma?"

Emma grinned madly. "The one and only."

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011

Oni Lee, the sociopathic killer of the ABB. The guy that has been unofficially responsible for a multitude of deaths. I played dead and stopped breathing. He looked down at me for a few moments.

He took out another bomb and my heart would've stopped if it already wasn't beating. His form crumbled into carbon ash. Jeanne's spear was a second too late as it ripped through the ash and embedded itself into the wall above me.

I could feel the waves of another explosion. Jeannae cried out. I slowly got up and took out a talisman. The ABB were attacking me but, why? It made no sense for them to attack me.

Lung's defeat flashed into my mind. But no one was there for it, was there? I didn't intervene with Taylor's fight until most of the thugs cleared the area. Maybe on of them saw me from a distance. No it was too dark...wasn't it?

I saw a bomb roll underneath my feet. I jumped quicker than I ever have before. I was about a dozen or so feet in the air. It wasn't enough. The explosion was enough to catch me by the feet and send me off course into a neon sign.

Glass sliced my back and legs. While sparks scorched small patches of my skin.

I fell to the ground weakly. It was just chaos. Focusing my hearing I could heard continuous explosions all over. They weren't just attacking me, they were attacking the city. But why sick one of their most mobile capes in the city to go after me and Jeanne.

I ignored the pain in my scorched legs and lacerated back. I witnessed Jeanne being thrown around by each explosion. This guy was just too agile for me or Jeanne to catch. Eventually he would kill us with these bombs.

I took out the 'Mirage' talisman. Three duplicates of me appeared. They all ran in opposite directions. Oni Lee didn't hesitate as he sent bombs after bombs at them. One ran into an awaiting knife of Oni Lee, another had stumbled upon a bomb.

I got up slowly and sprinted across the street. I avoided a neck slash from a newly spawned Oni Lee and kicked a bomb away just before it exploded.

The ABB was bombing the entire city. What would be the purpose of that? Now they would have one of the largest targets on their back. It was like whoever was in charge was a complete maniac.

A crystal pillar grew beneath me rapidly. I kicked off of it heading for the roof. An Oni Lee appeared in front of me. I created a kunai and threw it at him before he could even unclip a bomb. The figure faded into ash.

My foot caught the ledge of the roof and I tumbled onto the ground. With a quick thought twin jet black swords formed in my hands. I swiped out slashing a sneaking Oni Lee in the torso. The figure faded into ash.

This was starting to get annoying. The bastard was slippery. The moment you thought you had him, it was just a clone.

I took out a talisman full of power. 'Ryūjin Roar'.

I slapped it down to the ground. Fire began to swirl around me slowly then started to grow. A tornado made of flames grew around me with bloodthirst. The tornado spread 20 meters burning down Merchant territory. I could hear the flames roar. A few seconds later the tornado began to die.

Looking around I spotted a scorched Oni Lee dozens of meters away. He held his arm and I could feel his stare beneath his mask. I pointed my sword up at him prepared for another attack.

He crumbled to ash. I braced myself for an attack. Several moments went by. Nothing happened. I started to relax until I heard a crunch of gravel behind me. I tensed up and prepared to throw my sword at him.

"Calm down Nicola. He is gone," Jeanne said.

I exhaled loudly and sat down on an AC unit. I looked at Jeanne it was the first time I've seen her injured.

He right arm was mangled. It had third degree burns all over.

"What the fuck is going on Jeanne?" I asked looking at the city. Smoke was rising up from buildings. I could see fires starting to build upon the city. Sirens were wailing all over. It was a giant ball of chaos.

This was a shit show. A giant shit show.

"I have no idea. It seems as if the blessed have decided to start a war."

I looked at my sprained ankle and winced. "Give me a second, we need to heal," I breathed softly. My magic reserves lately have been increasing lately so have my physical abilities. But I didn't have indefinite energy.
We both finally recovered and decided to get going. First we needed to go to the PRT building and see if they know what the hell is going on. Then we find the Undersiders so I can see if Taylor hasn't became chunky bits.

Thank god, Hana and my mom went out of town to go to their favorite restaurant. They were safely out of harm.

Me and Jeanne jumped building to building. Things were looking more and more shitty. ABB thugs were fighting other gang members. We made it to the PRT building and what I saw made my jaw drop.

The top half of the building had been turned into glass. I skidded to a stop. Jeanne landed gently next to me.

"It must that demon, Bakuda," Jeanne explained.

Bakuda was the new cape the ABB has supposedly picked up. She was a bomb tinker from what I heard. A strong one at that. I really hoped no one was in the upper floors when the bomb went off. But that was wishful thinking.

"Nicola," I heard a masculine voice say.

I turned and saw Armsmaster. I grimaced. This jack ass was the reason me and Glory Girl had to fight. Well one of the reasons.

"Hello Armsmaster," I said politely. I didn't want this guy on my case at a time like this.

He looked at Jeanne. "From reports given, you go by the name Jeanne."

She nodded not saying a word.

"What the hell happened here?" I asked.

He looked at the building then us. "You had nothing to do with it?"

"What the fu-, no!"

He waited a few seconds. "Truth," he mumbled. What the fuck was that even about.

"Oni Lee had bombed Lung's holding facility and let him go free," he informed.

I started to rub the sides of my head. "So Lung is free," I rhetorically asked.

Armsmaster nodded.

He then continued. "Did you have anything to do with the Undersiders assistance at the bank?"

I was kind of shell shocked at the comment. This guy clearly didn't have a fucking clue about the situation at hand. The ABB were bombing the city and he was focused on a bank robbery that already happened.

"Are you scared I might expose you and Glory Girl's little plan to keep me illegally apprehended?"

Armsmaster shuffled at that. "Answer the question Nicola."

"No," I lied easily.

"...Lie. Nicola I need you to come in for questi-" as he reached his hand out Jeanne stepped in front of me.

"I get what you are trying to accomplish but this is not the time or place while these demons wreck the city," Jeanne's voice was solid as steel. Unyielding.

Armsmaster obviously didn't get a clue. "I am sorry Jeanne but she must be apprehended. In situations like this we need order quickly as possible. Allowing her to run free would disrupt that order."

Why was he so focused on apprehending me? It was starting to piss me off.

"Listen here Masterbator," I said quickly illicitng a growl from him, "you need to screw off. We just wanted to see if anyone here was in trouble. Everything looks fine. Just let me go see if my friends are alright."

He stood tall. "Are those friends the Undersiders?"

"It's none of your damn business so if you would politely fuck off," my voice was starting to raise. Jeanne looked at him questioningly.

"You are a minor, I can't-"

Jeanne eyes widened and she pushed my out the way quickly. Something white caught her in the chest. I fell to the ground and looked up to see containment foam spreading across Jeanne's armor. She gritted her teeth in frustration

I turned to see a man in a lion themed costume, with a gold lion helm, shoulder pads and belt, and skintight suit. Behind him was a PRT looking scared shitless. He was the one holding the containment foam gun. It looked like a flame thrower.

The foam was beginning to grow across Jeanne's chest further.

The man I decided to dub as Lion directed the PRT officer at me. The foam shot out but I had already pulled together a magic shield. The foam attached to the shield and started to expand.

I willed away the shield and the foam fell splat to the ground. I was surrounded by Armsmaster, a cape, and a PRT officer with a trigger finger.

I needed range or protection from the foam.

I created a shield with within my right hand. In my left hand I wielded an enormous broadsword. It was about five feet long, with a single-edged large blade approximately one foot wide. It was jet black. My subconscious had created decorations and carvings on the sword and shield. Despite the size of the sword I wielded it like a matchstick.

"Jeanne, the man with the fursuit is yours. Armsmaster here is mine," I ordered.

Jeanne filled her spear with magic and jammed it into the containment foam. She furrowed her brows in concentration. The magic spread the containment foam and it began to slowly break apart.

I could see the shocked face of the PRT officer. It was no time for me to mind him.

I rushed at Armsmaster. He responded by bringing up his plasma halberd. My sword collided with his. Thankfully it didn't break but it didn't make him budge either.

I filled the sword with a tiny bit of magic. Armsmaster shot out his grappling hook. I easily lifted my shield to deflect it. I responded by swinging the sword at him. He backed out of its path. I didn't give up then. I kept swinging left and right not letting him get the upperhand. My sword chipped nearby brick and cement.

He was just allowing me to attack. Something was wrong but I didn't focus on that. I had to get this guy off my back. I didn't have time to start investing in conspiracy theories.

I swiped left and he rolled below it and almost managed to deal a blow with his halberd. I jumped above the swipe and kicked off his chest. He flew back a few feet and I went soar into the air.

I filled the sword with magical energy and threw it at Armsmaster. He used his grappling hook avoiding his impending defeat. The sword collided with the concrete creating my signature explosion.

I landed on top of a truck. I looked at Armsmaster from afar. "Now do you mind letting us go," I asked.

He didn't even answer. I looked at the direction he was looking in. Jeanne was fending off a man wearing a white and gold costume with a golden helmet in a Greek or Spartan style. In his left hand he wielded a spear that looks as if it is made of white lightning. In his right there was a shield, fixed to his left forearm, was a metal disc about the size of a dinner plate, surrounded by rings of the same energy that made up the spear.

He extended his spear with near surprising speed but Jeanne deflected it using her enhanced reaction time. The lion man opened his mouth causing Jeanne to be slammed into a cement pillar. The pillar cracked on impact. She was holding her own but she these capes seemed to be trained.

I lifted my shield up in time to avoid another blast of containment foam by the PRT officer.

I growled in frustration and threw the shield at the man. It hit him in the throat causing him to fall to the ground. Unconscious most likely.

Armsmaster was back on me again. I realized too late that I'd been to focused on Jeanne that I left myself defenseless. The plasma halberd slammed into my stomach knocking the wind out of me. I flew off the car and skidded across the asphalt.

I slowly got up holding my stomach. I created a halberd glaring back at him. "To can play at that game you fucker," I mumbled.

I rushed towards him and came for an upward swing. He avoided it with ease. I went for a side kick which he caught. He gripped onto my leg and slammed me onto a car window.

"I know your every move. I was able to put together a simulation of your fighting patterns against the E88. I applied some of the moves you used now. Just surrender,"

I heard Jeanne grunt. I turned around briefly to see half her body in containment foam. Other PRT officers had showed up.

Fuck, I had to do something. I took out a talisman that I hadn't used since my fight with Purity. It was one of the last talisman I had on me.

I activated 'Fujin Tears'. This one had a whole day's worth of charge on it. The sky darkened instantly and it rained so hard it was like Leviathan was up in the clouds himself. Lighting cracked down between the PRT and Jeanne. It struck so hard concrete beneath the blow cracked and uprooted itself. While Armsmaster was busy focusing on them. I threw a strong magical blast at him. It caught him square in the chest and the explosions sent him flying dozens of meters away.

I ran to Jeanne. Half of the containment foam had been melted from the lightings heat. It was becoming gooey. She looked at me weakly. I picked her up bridal style and booked it.

 

[Tisaku]

He right arm

Click to shrink...

Her

To can play at

Click to shrink...

Two

 

[Nicola]

April 15th 2011

We eventually made it Elizabeth's apartment. I laid her down on the couch. The foam on her was slowly starting to melt off. She was using her limited amount of magic to heal her body and get rid of the foam. I put a hand on her shoulder.

"I will get the foam off you just focus on healing up," I said.

She nodded and I heard a bone snap back into place. I rummaged around Elizabeth's apartment looking for a talisman. There weren't any. We were in deep shit.

I sat down exhausted. "What do we do now?" Jeanne asked.

I looked outside through the window. Fires were spreading, smoke filled the air, and I could hear screams. "I don't know," I clenched my fist, "all I know is that Bakuda is going to fucking pay."

The bitch was crazy. She had no regard for how things were done here. You don't bomb a city just because your leader gets jailed. Even if Lung escapes there is no way he can protect her from the backlash this will have. I bet the girl thinks that she will be all fine and dandy after all of this.

"Jeanne you stay here. Let Elizabeth rest for a minute," I touched the foam and sent pulses of magic through it. It began to slowly deteriorate.

She grunted. "No I won't stay here while you go out there and risk your life."

"Jeanne you are too weak right now. Your magic reserves are low. If you were to be this injured again you'd be out the fight and I might not be able to save you."

After most of the foam was gone I sat up. "The rest should fall off when you transform back to Elizabeth. I need to go check on Taylor," I walked to the door.

"Wait!" she called out. The first time I heard Jeanne sound so desperate.

She frowned. "If…if anything happens then just call me or...something. Okay?"

I nodded and headed out.
-
I needed to find Taylor and fast. Lung had to somehow relay who got him put in that cell or one of his thugs seen us take him down. She would definitely be a target. Taylor wasn't as durable as I was nor could she heal. If a bomb got her…

No she would be fine. Taylor was smart and resourceful. She would find some way to prevent getting blown to chunks.
Focusing my sight I spotted a giant gathering of ABB members. Then an explosion, alot of them. Suicide bombers. This bitch could not go any lower. This was a start.

I got closer and Grue's infamous darkness spread. Damn it, at least I know they were there. I jumped off the roof and landed in the alley way softly. Taylor suddenly landed next to me. "What the fuck are you doing here Nik-Nicola?" she asked.

"Well the Protectorate decided to jump me oh and Oni Lee tried to kill me with tinker made explosives. Such a nice day," my voice soaked with sarcasm.

Lisa landed next to Taylor. "Long day huh?"

I shrugged. "Yeah you could say that."

There were three ABB gang members standing at one end of the alley we'd just entered, and a fourth, lone member on the other. Both groups were looking the wrong way, and were standing still, which was as good an indication as any that they hadn't noticed us.

"What the fuck? How many people was that?" Taylor asked.

Grue was apparently thinking along the same lines. "The ABB shouldn't have that many members."

"They do now," Tattletale glanced over her shoulder at the ABB members behind us, then back to the lone one in front who still hadn't reacted to our approach, "Trap! Down!"

She practically shoved Taylor to the ground, then took cover herself. I extended my hand and created a shield in front of us.

The lone figure in front of us shimmered, then disappeared. In his place, for just a fraction of a second, there was a cylindrical object. The force of the explosion was strong enough shatter my shield and take me off my feet. We all went flying.

I was thrown against the ground violently. I felt the dull sense of pain ache through my body. The four or five storage lockers that had been closest to the canister had been reduced to chunks of flaming brick. Other lockers near those had doors, walls and roofs blown away. More than one locker had been actually used, because the blast had emptied them of its contents. Pieces of furniture, boxes of books, clothing, bundles of newspaper and boxes of papers filled the alley.

"What the fuck was they packing?" I groaned climbing to my feet. My heart was racing and I could feel every sense in my body telling me to run. She wasn't pulling punches with her bombs. That could've killed us and she knew that.

"Ow. I'm burnt. Fuck! She was expecting us," Tattletale groaned. However bad her burns were, they weren't severe enough to be seen through the smoke and dust. "Set traps, had her people waiting. Shit, we were only a half hour later than we planned. How?"

I had a few burns myself but I was healing them with magic. "We need to get the fuck out of here before we end up like those guys," I said.

"I already found you," Bakuda called out in a monotone, rhythmless hiss. She emerged from the smoke that billowed from the explosion site; her hood was pulled back and her straight black hair was blowing in the wind. The lenses of her dark red goggles were almost the exact same color as the sky above her. There were five or six thugs just a step or two behind her, a middle aged guy that didn't look like a gang member, and a skinny boy who was probably younger than me. None of them had guns, but they were all armed with weapons of some sort.

"Damn this chick is creepy," I mumbled.

"Not that you were hard to find," Bakuda continued, sweeping her arms out to gesture at the devastation all around her. "And if you think this only gets ten times harde-"

At that moment Grue shot his darkness at the same time I threw a magic blast. We all started to book it to the other end of the alley. We were only halfway down the length of the alley when there was a sound behind us, like the crack of a whip. Wait...isn't sound muted in his darkness? All at once, it was like we were running against a powerful whirlwind. Except this didn't feel like wind it more like a force pulling at us. Grue's darkness started to shrink.

I created a two pick axes and embedded them in a nearby locker. "What the fuck is this," I bellowed.

Grue gave orders for everyone to hold onto something which I had already done. The force had laid me flat againt the locker. I could feel the locker slowly giving away. I didn't let go gripping on tightly.

I looked to my left and saw Taylor's knife loose grip in the door. I reached out "Taylor!" I shouted. She gripped onto my forearm clinging tightly. Her nails were digging into my skin drawing blood. I didn't even care. The one pickaxe I was holding onto tore through the locker. I could feel the force of whatever the hell it was dragging us to the epicenter. I created another pickaxe and slammed it into the ground. It was already starting to give away. I could feel the pressure more now. If we lost grip again it would be all over.

All at once, the effect stopped. My body collapsed to the ground at the base of the locker, and I let go of the pickaxe breathing heavily. All up and down the street, massive clouds of dust rolled towards the point her device had gone off. The parts of the lockers that had been set on fire had been extinguished, but were still smouldering enough to send columns of dark smoke into the air.
My body ached like hell. Taylor pried her stiff fingers from her arms and got up shakily.

Regent had found a grip on the edge of a locker's roof. Tattletale and Grue had apparently gotten a door of a locker open, because they exited as a pair, Grue limping slightly. I got up feeling disoriented. My hands felt raw from holding onto the pickaxe so tight.

What the fuck was that?" Taylor panted, "A miniature black hole?"

Tattletale chuckled, "Guess so. That was brac-"

From the other side of the storage lockers, a canister arced through the air, clinked off the metal roof of a storage locker and landed in the middle of our group. Oh god damn it.

Grue was on it in a heartbeat, using his foot to slide it across the ground and into the locker he and Tattletale had just left. Without stopping, he opened his arms wide and ushered us all away as he ran away from it.

I shoved past him and created another shield in front of the group.

Even with brick,shield,metal and concrete in the way, the blast knocked us off our feet. As the initial blast passed, the remainder of the explosion seemed to happen in slow motion. Shattered chunks of the brick shack drifted through the air so slowly you could barely tell they were moving. What the hell was going on now?

"Hurry!" Taylor shouted, at the same moment that Tattletale yelled, "Go!"

I didn't even argue. I started sprinting away. However I wasnt going as fast as I was used to. It was as if I was starting to go in slow motion myself. Then it dawned on me. We were getting Gray Boy'ed. I started to panic pushing myself to go faster.

We broke through the area of effect and the air felt so much lighter. I was prepared to start ranting again but Bakuda was already waiting for us , launching another salvo – three projectiles that arced high into the air, plumes of purple smoke trailing behind them. How many bombs did this bitch have?

Grue shot out his darkness and gasped, "Over the lockers!"

I was the first to jump over the lockers using my strength. Taylor and Regent were next, then Tattletale. On my own I helped Grue get over. Again, on each end of the alleyway, there were members of the ABB.

"It's like they just don't quit. I had enough almost dying for the day. We have been lucky the past few times. But this time we might just get offed. We need to get the fuck out this maze." I whined.

"Over," Taylor panted. We crossed the alley again and climbed on top of the next row of lockers.

We found ourselves staring down at a half dozen armed members of the ABB. Except they weren't your typical gang members. One of them was an elderly Chinese man, holding a hunting rifle. There was an girl who couldn't have been much older than twelve, holding a knife, who might have been his granddaughter. Of the eleven or twelve of them, only three had the thuggish look to them that really marked them as members of the gang. Bakuda was using innocent people to do their dirty work.

The old man trained his gun on us, hesitated. I could see him looking at me in the eyes through my mask. He was terrified.

A thug with a tattoo on his neck spat out something in an Eastern language I couldn't place, the phrase ending with a very English, "Shoot!"

We were down off the other side of the lockers before he could make up his mind. Grue created a cloud of darkness over the top of the lockers, to discourage them from following.

"She is making innocents try to murder us too," I growled. Tattletale nodded in agreement.

"They're scared, not loyal," Tattletale spoke, not as out of breath as Regent, but still definitely feeling the effect of the last few minutes of running and climbing, "She's forcing them to serve as her soldiers. Threatening them or their families, probably."

"We need to find a way past them. Once we do we can possibly escape," I decided.

There was another explosion. We staggered into the front wall of the storage locker we'd just climbed down from, collapsing in a heap. My ears were ringing loudly. How did it hurt so bad if we werent even that close.

One of the storage lockers across from us had been leveled.

"She's going around," Taylor said, grabbing at my wrist, "We can't go over the wall."


"We gotta keep running," Regent panted. I was having trouble hearing him.

"No," Grue stopped him, "That's what she wants. She's herding us into the next trap."

"Where do we go, then?" Regent asked, impatient, "Fight her head on? Catch her by surprise? If I can see her, I can mess with her aim."

"No. She's got enough raw firepower to kill us even if she misses," Grue shook his head, "We don't have many options. We go over this wall again, we won't just have to deal with the thugs and the old man. We go down either end of this alley, we're walking face first into a bomb. So we have to backtrack. No choice."

"So we go back to where we started and increase our chance of getting screwed?" I asked.

Grue nodded. "I wish there were some other option but from how things are looking it is our only option."

We headed for the gap that Bakuda's latest explosion had created in the lockers, and Grue filled the alley we were leaving with darkness, to help cover our escape. The little road was empty, except for the still figures at either end.

As we started to climb over the next row of lockers, we felt a series of explosions rip through the area behind us. Bakuda was bombarding the cloud of darkness with a series of explosives. Sight wasn't much of an issue if you could just nuke the whole area anyways.

There were three still figures at one end of the alley, doubtlessly a concealed bomb, and the destruction caused by the explosions and the miniature black hole in a can on the other. If we went over we would risk getting killed by the mob. Sure I had enough magic to deliver a nice magical arrow but that would kill innocents. I could spot a few children in the mob as well.


We headed towards the end of the alley where the hologram-bomb had gone off, where plumes of dust were still settling.

We were greeted by the sound of guns being cocked.


"Are you fucking serious?" I stomped my foot on the ground.

Twenty or so members of the ABB had guns of various sorts trained on us. Kneeling, sitting and crouching in front of the two groups, so they were out of the way of the guns and out of sight, were thirty or so other people Bakuda had 'recruited'. Among them were everyday people.

Every one of them held a weapon of some sort. There were kitchen knives, baseball bats, pipes, shovels, two-by-fours, chains, and crowbars. One girl even held a spiked mace ball on a chain. They could get creative when their lives were on the line. There was a look of grim resignation on their faces, circles under their eyes that spoke of exhaustion, as they watched us. Waiting for one of us to make a move. Was I fast enough to get past them? Yes. Was I fast enough to get pass them and dodge any bombs Bakuda might throw? Possibly. Was I fast enough to do all of that with Taylor? Hell no.

Behind their assembled group, standing astride the Jeep, one foot resting on her modified jeep-mounted mortar launcher, an altered grenade launcher dangling from one strap around her shoulders, was Bakuda. All around her were boxes of her specialized grenades and mortar rounds, bolted onto the back of the Jeep, blinking with various colored LEDs.

She put her hands on her grenade launcher as she tilted her head to one side. Her robotic voice crackled through the still air.

"Checkmate."

They always said Asians were good at chess. Unfortunately I wasn't one of those Asians.

"I would rather play checkers," I grumbled.
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A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I will be out of town for like the next week or two so updates may be a little slow.