Scarab [Worm/Scion]
- Thread starter FFFX
- Start date
Scarab
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Dawn 1.3
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I ran for most of what remained of the day. I kept my head down, and my hat probably hid my injury well enough that by time someone thought about it I was long gone. I never once stopped to remove the glass, because I was just too frustrated to stop running for anything.
I wasn't going to go home. I had no real reason to. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't tired, and I didn't want my dad to see me with glass shoved in my face.
I really hoped I could heal.
I slowly did begin to stop, but not because I was tired. In fact I was more lost than tired. I did not actually pay attention to where I was going, or why I was going there, or what I was going to do when I got there.
I wandered a bit more before coming to stop when I became aware of exactly how empty the streets were. I needed directions, but a lot of the people I did see looked like they were on drugs or looking to sell themselves for some. Lone exception being an african american girl about my age sitting on a stack of old tires in front of an even older warehouse.
"Hey." I greeted her warily, and she gave me a noncommittal grunt in response. She was more developed than me, but plainly shorter. I would have guessed she'd be a little younger than me, but definitely a teenager. "Mind if I join you."
She gave her some attention and her eyes widened. "Holy fuck, what happened to your face?!"
Yeah, that could have been phrased more elegantly. "I just broke my glasses…" I began, but after a moment more of thought I decided to be a bit more honest instead. To a stranger, I could vent a little. "I got in a punch up with one of the girl's that has been picking on me for two years… don't worry. She got it worse."
The girl whistled. "Well… I don't know any first aid or nothin'…"
I just sat down on some cinder blocks across from her. "It's cool. I'm just going to pull the glass out. Let me know if I miss any, my face is a bit numb right now."
She nodded and watched me pull a few shards out of my skin. They felt bigger than they actually were, which I suppose made a lot of sense. My glasses were fairly durable and really only cut into my face because of how hard Sophia had punched me. They were designed to do minimal damage when they broke, but there was no accounting for that level of violence.
"So how did it feel?" The girl was leaning in, interested.
"Painful." I smiled a bit.
"Smartass. I meant getting back at the bitch." I knew, but she rolled her eyes anyway.
"Honestly? I don't even know." Opportunity knocked. I needed this, to vocalize my thoughts and get them in order. I did not know how I felt about it, and there was no time like the present. "I spent the last three months trying to figure out who I am, what I wanted, who I wanted to be. I tried meditation, aerobic exercises, hitting the books; all to try and understand what it means to be... I decided I wanted to be free, so I chose to transfer schools, and then I did, but it felt so fake. Too easy. Then I had this golden opportunity to send off with the last laugh." I flicked a piece of glass into the brick wall.
"It wasn't that funny…" I mumbled.
"Sucks." She let herself sink slightly into the tire stack.
"What about you?" I asked, dabbing blood off my face with my sleeve. I wasn't bleeding as much as I should be, which was cool.
"My mom has horrible taste. Her boyfriends are terrible people, and so is she. Probably doesn't even realize I'm gone."
"This is a rather bad part of town. Do you live here?" I found myself asking.
"Nah. It's cool though, my brother works around here. It's safe...ish." She grinned at me. "Name's Aisha, by the way."
"Taylor." I replied, taking a moment to run my fingers over the skin around my eye. "Better?"
"Yeah, I don't see any more glass." Aisha leaned back again and stared at the sky. "I'm a runaway, sorta. It never sticks. My brother usually finds me, mostly because I usually wind up near him. He's… safe I guess. Trying really hard to make a place so he can get me out of mom's. I'm just really restless… I kinda can't wait, but he's also trying too hard. He's a bit of a grump."
Aisha sighed. "But at least he cares."
"Sap." I blurted and stuck out my tongue.
Aisha sat up and glared at me. "You started it."
We both started to laugh. I smiled a bit more sincerely this time, and she stared at me for a moment in mute shock. "Those fuckin' teeth! The hell do you whiten them with, bleach?"
"There's a thought." I mused. My teeth were a pet project, good teeth meant people would probably completely forget about the mouth they came in, or at least that was my hope. It helped that I had extra hours to devote to the task with nothing else to do. I was getting the impression that plaque was having a more difficult time growing in my mouth lately too. Side effect of the enhanced health probably. Cleaning was getting me diminishing returns pretty fast, so I answered with the more recent of truths. "I just brush twice a day. Every day."
My teeth were starting to get freakishly shiny though.
"Augh." Aisha fell back again. "Ain't nobody got time for that."
I snorted. "I have too much time. I spent most of it plotting and preparing to fight tooth and nail to get out of the bully situation… now I'm just… lost. I finished the fight in two days of having started it. What am I supposed to even do?"
"I dunno." Aisha shrugged. "That's a question for a smart person. Like my brother, who's right behind you."
"Hi."
I whirled around and saw him for the first time. He was tall, chiseled, and did not quite look very happy. He did, however, look very attractive. He softened his expression when he was looking directly at me in turn. "I hope Aisha wasn't too much trouble."
"None at all." I found myself standing up suddenly and brushing dirt off my jeans.
He was staring at my left eye.
"Um… I'm Taylor." I provided, sounding more helpless than I would have liked.
"Brian." His gaze was rather blank, but also very invasive. I couldn't tell if he was checking me out or sizing me up. I was being appraised.
Aisha sighed. "She's cool bro. She brushes her teeth every day and everything."
I snorted, rather unattractively, trying to suppress a laugh. I should have just let myself giggle, it probably would have been at least slightly cuter, and less horribly embarrassing.
"That's nice." Brian seemed to not even know what to do with the additional information. "Aisha, we're leaving."
"You're not the boss of me!" Aisha declared. "I was just having a very interesting conversation with Tina here."
"Taylor." I reminded her.
"Taylor." Aisha corrected.
Brian rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you only forgot her name because you were so wrapped into the rest of the conversation."
"Shut up!" Aisha crossed her arms.
"It's fine." I smiled. "I need to head home anyway. Do you mind if I tag along for a while? I'm a little lost. Just need to reach a landmark and I'll be good."
Brian slowly nodded. "Yeah that's fine." Then he turned to Aisha a little triumphantly. "There, now you can pick up your conversation and come home."
"Ugh, fine!" She hopped off her rubber throne and dragged her feet just to prolong the inevitable.
I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. Could be… worse." The words came out before I could stop them and immediately I was on edge. No, it was just silly superstitious paranoia.
"Yeah." Aisha agreed, not seeming to pick up on the verbal cues of my apprehension. Brian seemed to though, and raised an eyebrow at me.
We began walking through the Docks, and I felt at least moderately safe. Brian was an imposing figure to be sure. He was tall, broad shouldered, and very fit. I would have been intimidated if Aisha hadn't made him sound like a saint. Though that may have been an exaggeration. She made him sound like a good brother at least, and that was good enough for me.
"So, you were talking about something when I showed up." Brian admitted. "All I heard as Aisha say you should ask me about it. Anything important?"
I laughed. "Just philosophy…"
Aisha preened when Brian turned to look at her. "You were in a discussion about philosophy?"
"I told you it was super interesting!" She managed to look about five times as smug as a triumphant supervillain.
"Well…" I admitted. "It was a bit personal. I was venting because I had a stranger to vent to. Something tells me you two won't be strangers for very long."
"Friends are good confidants too." Brian admitted with a shrug.
"Well… best way to explain it might be this. Aisha told me you were trying to make a place for her so she can get out of her mom's house, right?" Brian gave his sister a bit of a look but nodded. "Well… what are you going to do when you accomplish that? When she's safe, happy, grown up, and bored?"
Aisha snorted. "Sums it up." I heard her mutter.
"I'll probably go traveling." Brian considered. "Learn more martial arts, maybe go competetive. Vale Tudo, MMA, and the like. Everyone's got a hobby they'd like to do for a living right?"
I stopped walking for a few moments. "Oh my god I am so dumb." Stupid in spite of my own burgeoning super-brain, I had not even considered the pursuit of a hobby. Some idle task to keep myself sane on sleepless nights. Some thing to do that did not have a goal or endgame. I could read all I want, but I wasn't super invested in it like my mother was. I needed to do something with my hands. "I need a hobby."
Brian laughed.
Aisha laughed harder. "Oh wow, that sounds like the saddest… um..."
"Epiphany." I offered.
"That." Aisha agreed.
"It kind of is." I admitted, allowing myself a chuckle at my own expense.
I heard the rustling of denim against denim, a deep breath in anticipation, the sound of a rubber sole scraping against concrete, and the tightening of a fist around polished wood.
Two in front, two behind. Four attackers, or potential attackers. I turned to see the ones behind us, following somewhat distantly, but able to close in as soon as we were stopped at the next alley by the other two. Skinheads, Empire Eighty Eight.
Racists, misogynists, white supremacists.
I grabbed Brian's sleeve and gave a light tug. "Things got worse."
Brian turned his head and saw them too. "They're just going to follow us and make us feel afraid. Just keep cool, play scared, and they'll go away."
"There are more ahead." I whispered. "We're walking into an ambush. I think they're mad because I'm here. They think I'm with you and they…"
"Don't like interracial relationships." Brian finished for me. "Fuck."
One of them has a weapon. I wanted to say it, but couldn't. I was pretty sure I used a power to find out and didn't want Brian to know I was parahuman.
We came to a stop when the other two stepped out of the alley ahead of us. One of them had a knife, and gestured to the alley with the blade, urging us to walk into a corner where it would be easier for them to harass us out of sight. Not that they would care, they just wanted it to be easier.
Brian took a deep breath. "Look, you guys don't care about her, right?" He tipped his head in my direction. "Let her go and I'll play along."
The guy with the knife walked right up to us. "No. See, I don't have much sympathy for a nigger-lo-" I could think of a hundred things I wanted to do in that instant, my brain spinning up into overdrive, and the only one I actually managed to act on was probably the dumbest.
I punched the man in the teeth hard enough for him to recoil a few steps.
The other men looked surprised. Brian looked at me in equal amounts of shock and horror. I must have ruined his plan.
The man I punched, however, growled in incoherent anger and swung his knife at me. "You bit-!" He was again, cut off, this time by a right hook from Brian. That one sent him sprawling on the ground either unconscious or heavily concussed.
"That was phenomenally dumb." Brian hissed. Likely to me.
"I couldn't help it! He was saying these words that were so… stupid I just… I panicked and bam." I mimed a punch. "Right in the kisser." Oh god who even says that?
Aisha had managed to place herself right next to Brian, clutching the back of his shirt. He gave her a quick pat on the head. "Go sit on the stoop over there." Aisha nodded slowly and stepped away, sitting on the steps of the house right next to us.
The three men were considering exactly how violent they wanted to get after we took out the guy with the knife. I side-stepped a bit until I was back to back with Brian. "I'll take the ugly one?" I offered lamely, the words formed before I even knew what I was saying. Right in the kisser? I'll take the ugly one? What was I, twelve and stupid?
Brian snorted. "Remind me never to introduce you to Alec."
"My words are failing me today." I admitted. I'd blame a frantic internal panic, but I was surprising myself by keeping my cool. Somehow the violence made me less nervous than the talking.
They sure were taking their dear sweet time attacking, probably cautious because of how Brian did manage to floor a guy in a single hit. I mimed a boxer's stance, the more they expected me to fight a certain way the more off guard they would probably be when I broke form. That was how Sophia got me earlier.
The men charged, I let one smash me over the head with his fist, which I realized a little too late was augmented with a knuckleduster. I didn't feel it very much anyway and responded in kind with a kick to the groin. My first attacker hit the ground.
My second assailant pulled a gun on me.
I was fairly certain I wasn't bulletproof. I ducked, grabbing Brian on the way down and pulling him out of the way of the line of fire.
I heard the bang less than an instant later and Brian's opponent hit the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest. "Holy shit." I whispered.
"Motherfucker!" The man with the gun yelled at us and took aim again.
I looked up at him and felt something in me ignite, smoldering, and it felt like I was crying. Even so, he stopped and began shaking like a leaf. He was scared? Of me?
Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I maintained eye contact and snarled at him. "Beat it."
He turned and ran with a whimper, like a whipped dog.
"That was easy." I whispered.
"Fuck you!" Brian yelled. "You nearly got us all killed!"
I didn't have words for that. He was right, in a way. "Well, sorry if I thought it would be a better idea to engage them in the street with the two of us, rather than let them drag you into a back alley and beat you to death and do God knows what to Aisha. There were four of them Brian."
"Stop fighting!" Aisha yelled at us. "You can brood about who almost got us killed later. Me? I want to geek out over how amazingly badass that was! Scary? Fuck yeah. Not anymore though! You creamed those guys!" She kicked the skinhead that had punched me in the head while he was down and I was pretty sure he lost consciousness from that.
"Now what happens if they want revenge?" Brian asked. "They'll hunt us down. They see us once and they'll follow us and do this again. Maybe next time you'll be alone. We need to be careful from now on because somebody thought it would be a good idea to start to a fight."
"I'm sorry." I admitted. "But that would have happened anyway, only you would have been alone."
Silence reigned.
"Unless you had a better idea, some kind of cunning plan you could let me in on."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but stopped himself, considered carefully and sighed. "No… I didn't."
Aisha grabbed both of us in a hug. "There, happy! Now we can go back to being new friends!"
Brian shrugged. "I think we should part ways until I cool off."
I nodded. "Sounds like an idea." I pulled my pencil out of my pocket. I should have thought to use it. Instead I held out my hand to Aisha. "Got any paper?"
She hummed. "I got a couple of ones in my pocket?"
"Close enough." She handed me the change and I wrote down my phone number on a one dollar bill. "Keep in touch."
"With a badass like you? Definitely." Aisha saluted me and Brian waved me off.
So I left: To go home, to explain to my dad why there was blood in my hair, why my face was cut up, where my glasses went, and why it took me over twelve hours to get back.
Fun.
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AN: Sekem? I hardly know 'em!... I'll stop now.
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Dawn 1.3
--
I ran for most of what remained of the day. I kept my head down, and my hat probably hid my injury well enough that by time someone thought about it I was long gone. I never once stopped to remove the glass, because I was just too frustrated to stop running for anything.
I wasn't going to go home. I had no real reason to. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't tired, and I didn't want my dad to see me with glass shoved in my face.
I really hoped I could heal.
I slowly did begin to stop, but not because I was tired. In fact I was more lost than tired. I did not actually pay attention to where I was going, or why I was going there, or what I was going to do when I got there.
I wandered a bit more before coming to stop when I became aware of exactly how empty the streets were. I needed directions, but a lot of the people I did see looked like they were on drugs or looking to sell themselves for some. Lone exception being an african american girl about my age sitting on a stack of old tires in front of an even older warehouse.
"Hey." I greeted her warily, and she gave me a noncommittal grunt in response. She was more developed than me, but plainly shorter. I would have guessed she'd be a little younger than me, but definitely a teenager. "Mind if I join you."
She gave her some attention and her eyes widened. "Holy fuck, what happened to your face?!"
Yeah, that could have been phrased more elegantly. "I just broke my glasses…" I began, but after a moment more of thought I decided to be a bit more honest instead. To a stranger, I could vent a little. "I got in a punch up with one of the girl's that has been picking on me for two years… don't worry. She got it worse."
The girl whistled. "Well… I don't know any first aid or nothin'…"
I just sat down on some cinder blocks across from her. "It's cool. I'm just going to pull the glass out. Let me know if I miss any, my face is a bit numb right now."
She nodded and watched me pull a few shards out of my skin. They felt bigger than they actually were, which I suppose made a lot of sense. My glasses were fairly durable and really only cut into my face because of how hard Sophia had punched me. They were designed to do minimal damage when they broke, but there was no accounting for that level of violence.
"So how did it feel?" The girl was leaning in, interested.
"Painful." I smiled a bit.
"Smartass. I meant getting back at the bitch." I knew, but she rolled her eyes anyway.
"Honestly? I don't even know." Opportunity knocked. I needed this, to vocalize my thoughts and get them in order. I did not know how I felt about it, and there was no time like the present. "I spent the last three months trying to figure out who I am, what I wanted, who I wanted to be. I tried meditation, aerobic exercises, hitting the books; all to try and understand what it means to be... I decided I wanted to be free, so I chose to transfer schools, and then I did, but it felt so fake. Too easy. Then I had this golden opportunity to send off with the last laugh." I flicked a piece of glass into the brick wall.
"It wasn't that funny…" I mumbled.
"Sucks." She let herself sink slightly into the tire stack.
"What about you?" I asked, dabbing blood off my face with my sleeve. I wasn't bleeding as much as I should be, which was cool.
"My mom has horrible taste. Her boyfriends are terrible people, and so is she. Probably doesn't even realize I'm gone."
"This is a rather bad part of town. Do you live here?" I found myself asking.
"Nah. It's cool though, my brother works around here. It's safe...ish." She grinned at me. "Name's Aisha, by the way."
"Taylor." I replied, taking a moment to run my fingers over the skin around my eye. "Better?"
"Yeah, I don't see any more glass." Aisha leaned back again and stared at the sky. "I'm a runaway, sorta. It never sticks. My brother usually finds me, mostly because I usually wind up near him. He's… safe I guess. Trying really hard to make a place so he can get me out of mom's. I'm just really restless… I kinda can't wait, but he's also trying too hard. He's a bit of a grump."
Aisha sighed. "But at least he cares."
"Sap." I blurted and stuck out my tongue.
Aisha sat up and glared at me. "You started it."
We both started to laugh. I smiled a bit more sincerely this time, and she stared at me for a moment in mute shock. "Those fuckin' teeth! The hell do you whiten them with, bleach?"
"There's a thought." I mused. My teeth were a pet project, good teeth meant people would probably completely forget about the mouth they came in, or at least that was my hope. It helped that I had extra hours to devote to the task with nothing else to do. I was getting the impression that plaque was having a more difficult time growing in my mouth lately too. Side effect of the enhanced health probably. Cleaning was getting me diminishing returns pretty fast, so I answered with the more recent of truths. "I just brush twice a day. Every day."
My teeth were starting to get freakishly shiny though.
"Augh." Aisha fell back again. "Ain't nobody got time for that."
I snorted. "I have too much time. I spent most of it plotting and preparing to fight tooth and nail to get out of the bully situation… now I'm just… lost. I finished the fight in two days of having started it. What am I supposed to even do?"
"I dunno." Aisha shrugged. "That's a question for a smart person. Like my brother, who's right behind you."
"Hi."
I whirled around and saw him for the first time. He was tall, chiseled, and did not quite look very happy. He did, however, look very attractive. He softened his expression when he was looking directly at me in turn. "I hope Aisha wasn't too much trouble."
"None at all." I found myself standing up suddenly and brushing dirt off my jeans.
He was staring at my left eye.
"Um… I'm Taylor." I provided, sounding more helpless than I would have liked.
"Brian." His gaze was rather blank, but also very invasive. I couldn't tell if he was checking me out or sizing me up. I was being appraised.
Aisha sighed. "She's cool bro. She brushes her teeth every day and everything."
I snorted, rather unattractively, trying to suppress a laugh. I should have just let myself giggle, it probably would have been at least slightly cuter, and less horribly embarrassing.
"That's nice." Brian seemed to not even know what to do with the additional information. "Aisha, we're leaving."
"You're not the boss of me!" Aisha declared. "I was just having a very interesting conversation with Tina here."
"Taylor." I reminded her.
"Taylor." Aisha corrected.
Brian rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you only forgot her name because you were so wrapped into the rest of the conversation."
"Shut up!" Aisha crossed her arms.
"It's fine." I smiled. "I need to head home anyway. Do you mind if I tag along for a while? I'm a little lost. Just need to reach a landmark and I'll be good."
Brian slowly nodded. "Yeah that's fine." Then he turned to Aisha a little triumphantly. "There, now you can pick up your conversation and come home."
"Ugh, fine!" She hopped off her rubber throne and dragged her feet just to prolong the inevitable.
I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. Could be… worse." The words came out before I could stop them and immediately I was on edge. No, it was just silly superstitious paranoia.
"Yeah." Aisha agreed, not seeming to pick up on the verbal cues of my apprehension. Brian seemed to though, and raised an eyebrow at me.
We began walking through the Docks, and I felt at least moderately safe. Brian was an imposing figure to be sure. He was tall, broad shouldered, and very fit. I would have been intimidated if Aisha hadn't made him sound like a saint. Though that may have been an exaggeration. She made him sound like a good brother at least, and that was good enough for me.
"So, you were talking about something when I showed up." Brian admitted. "All I heard as Aisha say you should ask me about it. Anything important?"
I laughed. "Just philosophy…"
Aisha preened when Brian turned to look at her. "You were in a discussion about philosophy?"
"I told you it was super interesting!" She managed to look about five times as smug as a triumphant supervillain.
"Well…" I admitted. "It was a bit personal. I was venting because I had a stranger to vent to. Something tells me you two won't be strangers for very long."
"Friends are good confidants too." Brian admitted with a shrug.
"Well… best way to explain it might be this. Aisha told me you were trying to make a place for her so she can get out of her mom's house, right?" Brian gave his sister a bit of a look but nodded. "Well… what are you going to do when you accomplish that? When she's safe, happy, grown up, and bored?"
Aisha snorted. "Sums it up." I heard her mutter.
"I'll probably go traveling." Brian considered. "Learn more martial arts, maybe go competetive. Vale Tudo, MMA, and the like. Everyone's got a hobby they'd like to do for a living right?"
I stopped walking for a few moments. "Oh my god I am so dumb." Stupid in spite of my own burgeoning super-brain, I had not even considered the pursuit of a hobby. Some idle task to keep myself sane on sleepless nights. Some thing to do that did not have a goal or endgame. I could read all I want, but I wasn't super invested in it like my mother was. I needed to do something with my hands. "I need a hobby."
Brian laughed.
Aisha laughed harder. "Oh wow, that sounds like the saddest… um..."
"Epiphany." I offered.
"That." Aisha agreed.
"It kind of is." I admitted, allowing myself a chuckle at my own expense.
I heard the rustling of denim against denim, a deep breath in anticipation, the sound of a rubber sole scraping against concrete, and the tightening of a fist around polished wood.
Two in front, two behind. Four attackers, or potential attackers. I turned to see the ones behind us, following somewhat distantly, but able to close in as soon as we were stopped at the next alley by the other two. Skinheads, Empire Eighty Eight.
Racists, misogynists, white supremacists.
I grabbed Brian's sleeve and gave a light tug. "Things got worse."
Brian turned his head and saw them too. "They're just going to follow us and make us feel afraid. Just keep cool, play scared, and they'll go away."
"There are more ahead." I whispered. "We're walking into an ambush. I think they're mad because I'm here. They think I'm with you and they…"
"Don't like interracial relationships." Brian finished for me. "Fuck."
One of them has a weapon. I wanted to say it, but couldn't. I was pretty sure I used a power to find out and didn't want Brian to know I was parahuman.
We came to a stop when the other two stepped out of the alley ahead of us. One of them had a knife, and gestured to the alley with the blade, urging us to walk into a corner where it would be easier for them to harass us out of sight. Not that they would care, they just wanted it to be easier.
Brian took a deep breath. "Look, you guys don't care about her, right?" He tipped his head in my direction. "Let her go and I'll play along."
The guy with the knife walked right up to us. "No. See, I don't have much sympathy for a nigger-lo-" I could think of a hundred things I wanted to do in that instant, my brain spinning up into overdrive, and the only one I actually managed to act on was probably the dumbest.
I punched the man in the teeth hard enough for him to recoil a few steps.
The other men looked surprised. Brian looked at me in equal amounts of shock and horror. I must have ruined his plan.
The man I punched, however, growled in incoherent anger and swung his knife at me. "You bit-!" He was again, cut off, this time by a right hook from Brian. That one sent him sprawling on the ground either unconscious or heavily concussed.
"That was phenomenally dumb." Brian hissed. Likely to me.
"I couldn't help it! He was saying these words that were so… stupid I just… I panicked and bam." I mimed a punch. "Right in the kisser." Oh god who even says that?
Aisha had managed to place herself right next to Brian, clutching the back of his shirt. He gave her a quick pat on the head. "Go sit on the stoop over there." Aisha nodded slowly and stepped away, sitting on the steps of the house right next to us.
The three men were considering exactly how violent they wanted to get after we took out the guy with the knife. I side-stepped a bit until I was back to back with Brian. "I'll take the ugly one?" I offered lamely, the words formed before I even knew what I was saying. Right in the kisser? I'll take the ugly one? What was I, twelve and stupid?
Brian snorted. "Remind me never to introduce you to Alec."
"My words are failing me today." I admitted. I'd blame a frantic internal panic, but I was surprising myself by keeping my cool. Somehow the violence made me less nervous than the talking.
They sure were taking their dear sweet time attacking, probably cautious because of how Brian did manage to floor a guy in a single hit. I mimed a boxer's stance, the more they expected me to fight a certain way the more off guard they would probably be when I broke form. That was how Sophia got me earlier.
The men charged, I let one smash me over the head with his fist, which I realized a little too late was augmented with a knuckleduster. I didn't feel it very much anyway and responded in kind with a kick to the groin. My first attacker hit the ground.
My second assailant pulled a gun on me.
I was fairly certain I wasn't bulletproof. I ducked, grabbing Brian on the way down and pulling him out of the way of the line of fire.
I heard the bang less than an instant later and Brian's opponent hit the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest. "Holy shit." I whispered.
"Motherfucker!" The man with the gun yelled at us and took aim again.
I looked up at him and felt something in me ignite, smoldering, and it felt like I was crying. Even so, he stopped and began shaking like a leaf. He was scared? Of me?
Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I maintained eye contact and snarled at him. "Beat it."
He turned and ran with a whimper, like a whipped dog.
"That was easy." I whispered.
"Fuck you!" Brian yelled. "You nearly got us all killed!"
I didn't have words for that. He was right, in a way. "Well, sorry if I thought it would be a better idea to engage them in the street with the two of us, rather than let them drag you into a back alley and beat you to death and do God knows what to Aisha. There were four of them Brian."
"Stop fighting!" Aisha yelled at us. "You can brood about who almost got us killed later. Me? I want to geek out over how amazingly badass that was! Scary? Fuck yeah. Not anymore though! You creamed those guys!" She kicked the skinhead that had punched me in the head while he was down and I was pretty sure he lost consciousness from that.
"Now what happens if they want revenge?" Brian asked. "They'll hunt us down. They see us once and they'll follow us and do this again. Maybe next time you'll be alone. We need to be careful from now on because somebody thought it would be a good idea to start to a fight."
"I'm sorry." I admitted. "But that would have happened anyway, only you would have been alone."
Silence reigned.
"Unless you had a better idea, some kind of cunning plan you could let me in on."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but stopped himself, considered carefully and sighed. "No… I didn't."
Aisha grabbed both of us in a hug. "There, happy! Now we can go back to being new friends!"
Brian shrugged. "I think we should part ways until I cool off."
I nodded. "Sounds like an idea." I pulled my pencil out of my pocket. I should have thought to use it. Instead I held out my hand to Aisha. "Got any paper?"
She hummed. "I got a couple of ones in my pocket?"
"Close enough." She handed me the change and I wrote down my phone number on a one dollar bill. "Keep in touch."
"With a badass like you? Definitely." Aisha saluted me and Brian waved me off.
So I left: To go home, to explain to my dad why there was blood in my hair, why my face was cut up, where my glasses went, and why it took me over twelve hours to get back.
Fun.
--
AN: Sekem? I hardly know 'em!... I'll stop now.
Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
Thirteen or so, I think? I don't think she's in High School, at least. But she's at least two to three years younger than Brian, IIRC.
sainen
Elder Lich
so imp is 13 or 14 years old.Tangle 6.3 said:
sainen
Elder Lich
so I went digging some more and found this.
so she's 14 at least post Leviathan, the only other information on her age is that there is a 4 year gap between her and brian(18/almost 18).Cast (In Depth) said:
Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
This is almost 7 month's prior to the normal canon leviathan fight (late August). And taking over the city was a month or two more. So she's likely 13 right now.
Brian's probably 17 still, actually.
- Pronouns
- Yes
She is younger, but given her attitude and Taylor's poor social graces I'm not sure either of them would realize that initially.
Scarab
--
Dawn 1.4
--
I stopped in a gas station and slipped into the bathroom to check myself in the mirror. My scalp had barely bled any, probably thanks to the hat preventing the brass knuckles from scraping off the skin, the lump was already mostly gone, and a tiny cut clotted. It probably only bled as much as it did because it was a head injury.
My face was a different story.
The smaller lacerations were gone, leaving only traces of dried blood, but the larger ones had only partially closed. Even so, I looked a lot better if one ignored the blood on my sleeve from earlier. I should have thought of that at the time.
Instead I drew some paper towels from the dispenser by the sink and wet them to start dabbing the blood of my shirt as best I could. Maybe I could make it look less like blood at least.
What story would I tell my dad?
I tripped and broke my glasses? It certainly didn't look like I got into a fight. I ran the towel through my hair at the thought to clean some of the dried blood from my bangs, what little there was anyway. I wasn't healing as fast as some capes could, but I was certainly healing faster than normal.
Tripping made sense.
If I had makeup to put on and was okay with getting it in a cut I could probably have hid the last of my facial injuries and just walked home as if nothing was wrong and be believed. Except I had no reason to do that, and it would sting.
I wasn't sure what was worse. That I was willing and going to lie either way, or that I chose the lie that would make my dad worry because I didn't want a tiny cut to sting. What did that say about me?
I banished the thought, because it didn't matter.
I tossed the paper towel in the bin and left the restroom to browse the gas station's inventory.
Snickers. I wasn't hungry yet. Hadn't been for weeks. Didn't care anymore. Fasting was a stupid idea since I'd have to be teleported to the middle the Sahara desert to actually starve to death after three weeks of constantly running in a direction. Even then the thirst would kill me first.
A small isle of candy, one Snickers bar left. I reached for it, but a second hand slipped around me and nabbed it first. "Yoink!"
I spun around, more in shock than anger. I hadn't noticed him approaching in spite of how good my hearing had been lately. The black haired boy smiled at me a bit, like some kind of self-assured asshole. He had gotten remarkably close to me for a stranger, and he looked to be around my age.
He was unfairly attractive, in a way that Brian wasn't. He looked pretty.
"What? No complaints?" He seemed disappointed.
I grabbed a Milky Way off the shelf. "I would have preferred the peanuts, but I'll do without."
"Boring." He threw the candy bar at me and I reflexively caught it with my left hand.
His eyebrow raised. "Whoah, you ambidextrous?"
"What makes you think that?"
"You've used your right hand to reach for everything else so far, but I doubt anybody else would have caught it with their offhand like that. I didn't even give you any warning. I was trying to be a dick." He admitted.
"Why?" I found myself mumbling, his behavior was reminding me of Sophia... or Emma, or Madison.
"Because it's funny to see people get flustered and angry. Less so with sad and weepy though. Sorry." He shrugged. He didn't seem to be that sorry at all. "That's majorly cool though, the ambidextrous thing."
I sighed. "We're done here." Out of sight out of mind. People like him didn't matter.
"Aw, and you just started being interesting. Oh well… thems the breaks I guess." He shrugged while I walked away. "Name's Alec by the way, if we ever run across each other again."
"Don't plan on it." I growled under my breath, too low for him to hear.
After paying for the chocolate, I spotted him talking to a blonde girl who was just glaring at him. She looked ready to bury her face into her palm, anticipating that Alec would provoke her to do so. I overheard a bit as the boy in question gestured at me. "-and she's really good with her hands."
I felt heat rising in my face and ran.
If I stayed any longer I would probably try to kill him, and I wasn't sure if anybody would be able to stop me.
--
I crossed the threshold of my own home and let out a sigh of relief. It was nice to be on familiar ground. It occurred to me how absurdly long the day was after being a shut in for so long. "I'm home!" I called out, half expecting my father to be in a panic.
I was half right.
He got up immediately from the living room and slowly, hesitantly, began making his way over to me. He looked like he wanted to run, but chose not to, that it would be smothering. "Taylor? Oh thank god. I was so worried!"
I decided to show some backbone and closed the distance for him and wrapped him in a hug. "I'm sorry."
"Where even were you all day?" He held me tighter. I couldn't tell if he was crying or not.
I opened my mouth, closed it again, and truly considered my options.
'Finishing things up at the school,' was a bad lie. The school wasn't open as early as I'd left, and closed hours ago.
'The library,' would have been a good option, if I could even begin to think of what I would do there.
'I met a boy,' technically true, but would give the wrong idea.
'I met a girl,' would hopefully not give him the wrong idea. Didn't want to risk it.
The truth? My mouth moved unbidden. "I went to meet the Wards this morning."
"The Wards?" He whispered. "Whatever for?"
All in. "I'm parahuman."
"Parahuman." He stepped back, releasing me only so he could set both hands on my shoulders and get a good look, as if he expected to see something different. "How? When?"
"Not long… I don't know… maybe sometime last year? I didn't notice until this summer." I scratched at my chin nervously. "I honestly hadn't even given any real thought to it until yesterday."
"So today you…?" My dad seemed scared, for me I could imagine.
"Had a lot to think about. Ran, mostly. Talked to some new people, considered my options. I don't think I'll be a superhero or anything like that." He finally released me and exhaled deeply.
"I need to sit down."
I meandered to the kitchen table and he joined me eagerly. "So…"
"So." Dad managed to compose himself a little. "I thought you wanted to be a superhero, like Alexandria. What happened?"
I wasn't good enough.
I was a coward who let people walk all over her. I was a violent punk who smiled when I finally kicked Sophia in an already bruised rib. I was an impulsive jerk who picked a fight with some skinheads. I was a worthless person unworthy of being a hero for the sake of being like Alexandria.
I didn't deserve it.
All those thoughts crossed my mind in an instant, and I actually had to breathe deeply through my teeth as I forcefully banished them. They weren't constructive, or even true thoughts.
"I don't know. I guess I just don't know what I want." I forced myself to smile. "I mean… my power is pretty useless."
"What's your power?" I could see him hoping of invulnerability.
"I think it just has an underlying theme or holistic well being." I chewed my lip in thought for a simple explanation. "I don't get tired or hungry, and I heal a little faster." I began to wring my hands and stood up. "I'm going to make some tea. Do you want some tea?"
"Tea would be great." My dad nearly whispered, either on the verge of tears or on the verge of a good chuckle. I'd give him time to decide. I had all night to catch up on two years of dishonesty and half-kept secrets, and something told me he was willing to pull an all-nighter.
--
The conversation had gone about as well as it could have. Some of it harrowing, emotionally exhausting, but probably more so for my dad than for me. I was glad when we had to call it quits so he could get some sleep before work. He had to let it sink in, the bullying, the powers, everything.
I sat in the kitchen staring at a blank pad of paper and a half empty cup of tea. Dad had already gone to work after morning came, leaving me alone to watch the house and ponder what kind of hobbies I would try to take up, or just try to see what stuck.
I was drawing a blank but slowly began putting down ideas.
Writing. Gardening. Sewing. Singing. Dancing. Martial Arts. Learning a second language was something I had always wished I had the time and brainpower to accomplish. Both I now had in spades.
I looked up at the clock. Ten past nine. "Come on time, why are you so slow?" I leaned forward and set my head on the table. Why was I bored? Because I didn't know what to do with myself. Goal accomplished. I was spending more time trying to figure out what to do with my free time than actually doing anything to alleviate the sense of tedium.
I felt like I was waiting for something to come to me on its own.
The phone rang, and I was ever grateful, answering it in a heartbeat. "Hello?"
"Taylor?" The voice was high and sounded more than a little on edge.
"Aisha?"
"Taylor I don't know what to do. I'm in an alley and I think that guy from yesterday saw me. He's coming this way and… oh god. I don't know what to do." Her voice was cracking, she was panicking, and so was I.
"Just stay calm, where are you?"
"I don't fucking know! I wasn't paying attention to the roads or nothin'!" She sounded like she was moving a bit. "I'm downtown, on the edge of the docks, I think I'm next to a laundromat."
"I'm on my way. Whatever you do, don't let him hurt you, don't make him mad, but put it off as long as possible. I'm on my way." I heard her start to beg me to hurry before I hung up and bolted out the door.
Thankfully I knew exactly where she was. I passed by the place on my way to the Wards' Base.
I was never more glad that I couldn't get tired when running, I was able to just push myself constantly and move at top speed. I wasn't phenomenally fast, but I was fairly sure someone could have mistaken me for an athlete at least.
I wasn't moving fast enough, couldn't afford and cab, and sure as hell wasn't waiting for a bus.
I pushed harder until my legs burned in spite of my tireless persistence. I wasn't going much faster.
I almost wanted to hit myself. Why had I even thought I would spontaneously develop superspeed?
Seconds stretched into minutes, and my panic grew with each passing one. The city was big, but I wasn't stopping or resting or even held up by red lights or slow zones. I wouldn't even stop from traffic, and had to vault over a car to avoid getting run over.
I was probably less surprised when I did it than the driver was.
I slid to a stop on the proper street, unaware of how much time had passed.
The alley was completely empty. "Shit."
I turned and surveyed the pedestrian traffic on the road. I spotted him immediately, the skinhead that got away. I chased him down, not even waiting until he was alone, and grabbed him by the back of his shirt and wrenched him down to my level. "The fuck?!"
I spun him in place and pinned him against the wall. "Remember me fucktard?" I reached, feeling that thing from before. I set it on fire inside me and let it ooze from my eyes until it felt as liquid as tears. "What did you do to the girl?"
"W-what girl?"
"Don't you 'what girl' me! Talk! The girl in the alley! Where did she go?!" I could have threatened violence, but I knew nothing was scarier for him right now than simply meeting my gaze.
"I… I didn't see no girl in the alley! I swear to you!" Somehow I got the impression he wasn't lying.
"Fuck." I let go of his shirt and snarled. "If I see your ugly face again you will wish you were dead. Leave."
He ran and I stalked back to the alley, people on the street were staring at me, but only briefly. I didn't overtly seem superhuman, and they would never be able to pin down my powers anyway since not even I knew what I was doing half the time.
The alley. Empty. No sign of Aisha until she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and began to giggle. "That was amazingly badass."
"Thanks… wait…" I turned my head and met her gaze. "The fuck?"
"I got me some superpowers." Aisha grinned. "I am so lucky you showed up though! I didn't know it would still work if I moved or if it was easy to turn on and off or what! I didn't want to drop it until you showed up and then you schooled that guy!" She was talking too fast, I couldn't get so much as a thought in edgewise until she stopped to catch her breath.
"He didn't even remember you." I floundered for words more meaningful than that. Are you alright? What happened? She didn't give me the chance before moving on.
"Huh… cool." Aisha let go of me and began to pace around, I could see it in spite of her current attitude that she had been crying, and her shirt was disheveled, and I couldn't help but find it a little odd that she had bounced back that fast just because she got superpowers out of the deal. "Aw man… I can't believe you're parahuman too! This is too cool! And now I'm parahuman! Icing on the cake!"
I didn't know what to do or how to respond to any of her behavior. It was counter to what she allegedly experienced. The worst day of her life had its capstone set into place mere minutes ago. Unless she had always wanted to be a cape. Unless her lowest moment was followed by her greatest wish fulfilled. I couldn't rule out that she was just as excited now as she had been scared not but moments ago.
I couldn't even remember my own trigger event, so maybe Aegis was just a little spoiled? Aisha had to put up with a horrible home situation every day. I was bullied for two years. Maybe it wasn't as bad if you were already used to bad things.
I took a deep breath and refocused my thoughts on what mattered before going over everything in my head again. Aisha had triggered. She had some kind of freaky memory wiping invisibility thing. She knew I could do my scary glare thing.
"We should call Brian." I decided.
"True that." Aisha agreed, a little too readily.
Then she flipped open her phone and hit one on speed dial.
--
"Can you heal?" Was the first question Brian had asked me.
"A little, why-" Then he punched me in the face and broke my nose.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty? I deserved that and there was no way I could even begin to argue. Everything he had been mad about the day before was completely the case and he was fully justified in his wrath.
"Ow." I whimpered out, less from pain and more because I couldn't breathe out of my nose properly for the first few moments. Then I reached up and started snapping it back into place.
Brian shook his hand, appraising me all over again. My skull must have been harder than it looked.
Could have fooled me.
Aisha, however, tapped her brother on the shoulder. "That wasn't very cool."
He glared at her too. "Don't even start Aisha. I told you to be careful too. Not to go anywhere alone."
"You're not my boss…" She smiled. "Yet."
"No." Brian growled.
"Aw, come on! I'll be good! I promise! You can recruit Taylor too! She's got a really cool power!" Aisha insisted, and suddenly I realized why she was so interested in calling Brian then. Why she dragged me all the way to his apartment. Why he was now suddenly so angry at her for saying it.
"You're a cape too." I whispered.
Brian looked at me and nodded slowly. "Aisha, we're going to have to have a talk about privacy."
"But-!" Aisha cut herself off and I got the impression she knew better than to keep arguing when he was that mad.
"You should join the Wards." I suggested. "I know you're trying to get Aisha out of your mom's place, and the Wards pulled a lot of strings for… some of their members. They could speed things along probably."
Brian, to his credit, actually started to consider it.
"They're good people, mostly." I reached into my back pocket. "I have Clockblocker's number here, I could arrange a meeting for you."
"I don't know… I'll have to… think on it. I mean, the Wards still do dangerous stuff, putting my sister in that isn't…" Brian really looked conflicted. I felt bad for him a bit, always having to worry about Aisha's safety like that. Must have been nice though, for Aisha to have such an awesome big brother.
One who would punch a girl for her if he felt he needed to.
I should have been angrier about that.
"Look, I have your number alright? I'll give you a call when I make a decision." Brian stood up and reached out a hand. "Thanks though, for giving us that option. Sorry I had to punch you, but I wanted to make a point."
"I can take it." I insisted softly and took his hand.
The a siren began to call out, distinct, loud, and by the sound I could tell it was emanating over the entire city from the bay. From the Protectorate base.
Brian breathed quietly, barely above a whisper. "Endbringer."
--
AN: Well, she wanted something to do...
--
Dawn 1.4
--
I stopped in a gas station and slipped into the bathroom to check myself in the mirror. My scalp had barely bled any, probably thanks to the hat preventing the brass knuckles from scraping off the skin, the lump was already mostly gone, and a tiny cut clotted. It probably only bled as much as it did because it was a head injury.
My face was a different story.
The smaller lacerations were gone, leaving only traces of dried blood, but the larger ones had only partially closed. Even so, I looked a lot better if one ignored the blood on my sleeve from earlier. I should have thought of that at the time.
Instead I drew some paper towels from the dispenser by the sink and wet them to start dabbing the blood of my shirt as best I could. Maybe I could make it look less like blood at least.
What story would I tell my dad?
I tripped and broke my glasses? It certainly didn't look like I got into a fight. I ran the towel through my hair at the thought to clean some of the dried blood from my bangs, what little there was anyway. I wasn't healing as fast as some capes could, but I was certainly healing faster than normal.
Tripping made sense.
If I had makeup to put on and was okay with getting it in a cut I could probably have hid the last of my facial injuries and just walked home as if nothing was wrong and be believed. Except I had no reason to do that, and it would sting.
I wasn't sure what was worse. That I was willing and going to lie either way, or that I chose the lie that would make my dad worry because I didn't want a tiny cut to sting. What did that say about me?
I banished the thought, because it didn't matter.
I tossed the paper towel in the bin and left the restroom to browse the gas station's inventory.
Snickers. I wasn't hungry yet. Hadn't been for weeks. Didn't care anymore. Fasting was a stupid idea since I'd have to be teleported to the middle the Sahara desert to actually starve to death after three weeks of constantly running in a direction. Even then the thirst would kill me first.
A small isle of candy, one Snickers bar left. I reached for it, but a second hand slipped around me and nabbed it first. "Yoink!"
I spun around, more in shock than anger. I hadn't noticed him approaching in spite of how good my hearing had been lately. The black haired boy smiled at me a bit, like some kind of self-assured asshole. He had gotten remarkably close to me for a stranger, and he looked to be around my age.
He was unfairly attractive, in a way that Brian wasn't. He looked pretty.
"What? No complaints?" He seemed disappointed.
I grabbed a Milky Way off the shelf. "I would have preferred the peanuts, but I'll do without."
"Boring." He threw the candy bar at me and I reflexively caught it with my left hand.
His eyebrow raised. "Whoah, you ambidextrous?"
"What makes you think that?"
"You've used your right hand to reach for everything else so far, but I doubt anybody else would have caught it with their offhand like that. I didn't even give you any warning. I was trying to be a dick." He admitted.
"Why?" I found myself mumbling, his behavior was reminding me of Sophia... or Emma, or Madison.
"Because it's funny to see people get flustered and angry. Less so with sad and weepy though. Sorry." He shrugged. He didn't seem to be that sorry at all. "That's majorly cool though, the ambidextrous thing."
I sighed. "We're done here." Out of sight out of mind. People like him didn't matter.
"Aw, and you just started being interesting. Oh well… thems the breaks I guess." He shrugged while I walked away. "Name's Alec by the way, if we ever run across each other again."
"Don't plan on it." I growled under my breath, too low for him to hear.
After paying for the chocolate, I spotted him talking to a blonde girl who was just glaring at him. She looked ready to bury her face into her palm, anticipating that Alec would provoke her to do so. I overheard a bit as the boy in question gestured at me. "-and she's really good with her hands."
I felt heat rising in my face and ran.
If I stayed any longer I would probably try to kill him, and I wasn't sure if anybody would be able to stop me.
--
I crossed the threshold of my own home and let out a sigh of relief. It was nice to be on familiar ground. It occurred to me how absurdly long the day was after being a shut in for so long. "I'm home!" I called out, half expecting my father to be in a panic.
I was half right.
He got up immediately from the living room and slowly, hesitantly, began making his way over to me. He looked like he wanted to run, but chose not to, that it would be smothering. "Taylor? Oh thank god. I was so worried!"
I decided to show some backbone and closed the distance for him and wrapped him in a hug. "I'm sorry."
"Where even were you all day?" He held me tighter. I couldn't tell if he was crying or not.
I opened my mouth, closed it again, and truly considered my options.
'Finishing things up at the school,' was a bad lie. The school wasn't open as early as I'd left, and closed hours ago.
'The library,' would have been a good option, if I could even begin to think of what I would do there.
'I met a boy,' technically true, but would give the wrong idea.
'I met a girl,' would hopefully not give him the wrong idea. Didn't want to risk it.
The truth? My mouth moved unbidden. "I went to meet the Wards this morning."
"The Wards?" He whispered. "Whatever for?"
All in. "I'm parahuman."
"Parahuman." He stepped back, releasing me only so he could set both hands on my shoulders and get a good look, as if he expected to see something different. "How? When?"
"Not long… I don't know… maybe sometime last year? I didn't notice until this summer." I scratched at my chin nervously. "I honestly hadn't even given any real thought to it until yesterday."
"So today you…?" My dad seemed scared, for me I could imagine.
"Had a lot to think about. Ran, mostly. Talked to some new people, considered my options. I don't think I'll be a superhero or anything like that." He finally released me and exhaled deeply.
"I need to sit down."
I meandered to the kitchen table and he joined me eagerly. "So…"
"So." Dad managed to compose himself a little. "I thought you wanted to be a superhero, like Alexandria. What happened?"
I wasn't good enough.
I was a coward who let people walk all over her. I was a violent punk who smiled when I finally kicked Sophia in an already bruised rib. I was an impulsive jerk who picked a fight with some skinheads. I was a worthless person unworthy of being a hero for the sake of being like Alexandria.
I didn't deserve it.
All those thoughts crossed my mind in an instant, and I actually had to breathe deeply through my teeth as I forcefully banished them. They weren't constructive, or even true thoughts.
"I don't know. I guess I just don't know what I want." I forced myself to smile. "I mean… my power is pretty useless."
"What's your power?" I could see him hoping of invulnerability.
"I think it just has an underlying theme or holistic well being." I chewed my lip in thought for a simple explanation. "I don't get tired or hungry, and I heal a little faster." I began to wring my hands and stood up. "I'm going to make some tea. Do you want some tea?"
"Tea would be great." My dad nearly whispered, either on the verge of tears or on the verge of a good chuckle. I'd give him time to decide. I had all night to catch up on two years of dishonesty and half-kept secrets, and something told me he was willing to pull an all-nighter.
--
The conversation had gone about as well as it could have. Some of it harrowing, emotionally exhausting, but probably more so for my dad than for me. I was glad when we had to call it quits so he could get some sleep before work. He had to let it sink in, the bullying, the powers, everything.
I sat in the kitchen staring at a blank pad of paper and a half empty cup of tea. Dad had already gone to work after morning came, leaving me alone to watch the house and ponder what kind of hobbies I would try to take up, or just try to see what stuck.
I was drawing a blank but slowly began putting down ideas.
Writing. Gardening. Sewing. Singing. Dancing. Martial Arts. Learning a second language was something I had always wished I had the time and brainpower to accomplish. Both I now had in spades.
I looked up at the clock. Ten past nine. "Come on time, why are you so slow?" I leaned forward and set my head on the table. Why was I bored? Because I didn't know what to do with myself. Goal accomplished. I was spending more time trying to figure out what to do with my free time than actually doing anything to alleviate the sense of tedium.
I felt like I was waiting for something to come to me on its own.
The phone rang, and I was ever grateful, answering it in a heartbeat. "Hello?"
"Taylor?" The voice was high and sounded more than a little on edge.
"Aisha?"
"Taylor I don't know what to do. I'm in an alley and I think that guy from yesterday saw me. He's coming this way and… oh god. I don't know what to do." Her voice was cracking, she was panicking, and so was I.
"Just stay calm, where are you?"
"I don't fucking know! I wasn't paying attention to the roads or nothin'!" She sounded like she was moving a bit. "I'm downtown, on the edge of the docks, I think I'm next to a laundromat."
"I'm on my way. Whatever you do, don't let him hurt you, don't make him mad, but put it off as long as possible. I'm on my way." I heard her start to beg me to hurry before I hung up and bolted out the door.
Thankfully I knew exactly where she was. I passed by the place on my way to the Wards' Base.
I was never more glad that I couldn't get tired when running, I was able to just push myself constantly and move at top speed. I wasn't phenomenally fast, but I was fairly sure someone could have mistaken me for an athlete at least.
I wasn't moving fast enough, couldn't afford and cab, and sure as hell wasn't waiting for a bus.
I pushed harder until my legs burned in spite of my tireless persistence. I wasn't going much faster.
I almost wanted to hit myself. Why had I even thought I would spontaneously develop superspeed?
Seconds stretched into minutes, and my panic grew with each passing one. The city was big, but I wasn't stopping or resting or even held up by red lights or slow zones. I wouldn't even stop from traffic, and had to vault over a car to avoid getting run over.
I was probably less surprised when I did it than the driver was.
I slid to a stop on the proper street, unaware of how much time had passed.
The alley was completely empty. "Shit."
I turned and surveyed the pedestrian traffic on the road. I spotted him immediately, the skinhead that got away. I chased him down, not even waiting until he was alone, and grabbed him by the back of his shirt and wrenched him down to my level. "The fuck?!"
I spun him in place and pinned him against the wall. "Remember me fucktard?" I reached, feeling that thing from before. I set it on fire inside me and let it ooze from my eyes until it felt as liquid as tears. "What did you do to the girl?"
"W-what girl?"
"Don't you 'what girl' me! Talk! The girl in the alley! Where did she go?!" I could have threatened violence, but I knew nothing was scarier for him right now than simply meeting my gaze.
"I… I didn't see no girl in the alley! I swear to you!" Somehow I got the impression he wasn't lying.
"Fuck." I let go of his shirt and snarled. "If I see your ugly face again you will wish you were dead. Leave."
He ran and I stalked back to the alley, people on the street were staring at me, but only briefly. I didn't overtly seem superhuman, and they would never be able to pin down my powers anyway since not even I knew what I was doing half the time.
The alley. Empty. No sign of Aisha until she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and began to giggle. "That was amazingly badass."
"Thanks… wait…" I turned my head and met her gaze. "The fuck?"
"I got me some superpowers." Aisha grinned. "I am so lucky you showed up though! I didn't know it would still work if I moved or if it was easy to turn on and off or what! I didn't want to drop it until you showed up and then you schooled that guy!" She was talking too fast, I couldn't get so much as a thought in edgewise until she stopped to catch her breath.
"He didn't even remember you." I floundered for words more meaningful than that. Are you alright? What happened? She didn't give me the chance before moving on.
"Huh… cool." Aisha let go of me and began to pace around, I could see it in spite of her current attitude that she had been crying, and her shirt was disheveled, and I couldn't help but find it a little odd that she had bounced back that fast just because she got superpowers out of the deal. "Aw man… I can't believe you're parahuman too! This is too cool! And now I'm parahuman! Icing on the cake!"
I didn't know what to do or how to respond to any of her behavior. It was counter to what she allegedly experienced. The worst day of her life had its capstone set into place mere minutes ago. Unless she had always wanted to be a cape. Unless her lowest moment was followed by her greatest wish fulfilled. I couldn't rule out that she was just as excited now as she had been scared not but moments ago.
I couldn't even remember my own trigger event, so maybe Aegis was just a little spoiled? Aisha had to put up with a horrible home situation every day. I was bullied for two years. Maybe it wasn't as bad if you were already used to bad things.
I took a deep breath and refocused my thoughts on what mattered before going over everything in my head again. Aisha had triggered. She had some kind of freaky memory wiping invisibility thing. She knew I could do my scary glare thing.
"We should call Brian." I decided.
"True that." Aisha agreed, a little too readily.
Then she flipped open her phone and hit one on speed dial.
--
"Can you heal?" Was the first question Brian had asked me.
"A little, why-" Then he punched me in the face and broke my nose.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty? I deserved that and there was no way I could even begin to argue. Everything he had been mad about the day before was completely the case and he was fully justified in his wrath.
"Ow." I whimpered out, less from pain and more because I couldn't breathe out of my nose properly for the first few moments. Then I reached up and started snapping it back into place.
Brian shook his hand, appraising me all over again. My skull must have been harder than it looked.
Could have fooled me.
Aisha, however, tapped her brother on the shoulder. "That wasn't very cool."
He glared at her too. "Don't even start Aisha. I told you to be careful too. Not to go anywhere alone."
"You're not my boss…" She smiled. "Yet."
"No." Brian growled.
"Aw, come on! I'll be good! I promise! You can recruit Taylor too! She's got a really cool power!" Aisha insisted, and suddenly I realized why she was so interested in calling Brian then. Why she dragged me all the way to his apartment. Why he was now suddenly so angry at her for saying it.
"You're a cape too." I whispered.
Brian looked at me and nodded slowly. "Aisha, we're going to have to have a talk about privacy."
"But-!" Aisha cut herself off and I got the impression she knew better than to keep arguing when he was that mad.
"You should join the Wards." I suggested. "I know you're trying to get Aisha out of your mom's place, and the Wards pulled a lot of strings for… some of their members. They could speed things along probably."
Brian, to his credit, actually started to consider it.
"They're good people, mostly." I reached into my back pocket. "I have Clockblocker's number here, I could arrange a meeting for you."
"I don't know… I'll have to… think on it. I mean, the Wards still do dangerous stuff, putting my sister in that isn't…" Brian really looked conflicted. I felt bad for him a bit, always having to worry about Aisha's safety like that. Must have been nice though, for Aisha to have such an awesome big brother.
One who would punch a girl for her if he felt he needed to.
I should have been angrier about that.
"Look, I have your number alright? I'll give you a call when I make a decision." Brian stood up and reached out a hand. "Thanks though, for giving us that option. Sorry I had to punch you, but I wanted to make a point."
"I can take it." I insisted softly and took his hand.
The a siren began to call out, distinct, loud, and by the sound I could tell it was emanating over the entire city from the bay. From the Protectorate base.
Brian breathed quietly, barely above a whisper. "Endbringer."
--
AN: Well, she wanted something to do...
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- Pronouns
- Yes
I'm pretty sure this argument was made before and you didn't agree with it then, so just consider this "for the record":
Taylor describing her powers to her father as "I never get tired" seems very weird, especially as her initial description to the wards was, besides being actually accurate also more concise.
I really liked Brian and Taylor's interaction here, hope we get to see more of it.
Taylor describing her powers to her father as "I never get tired" seems very weird, especially as her initial description to the wards was, besides being actually accurate also more concise.
I really liked Brian and Taylor's interaction here, hope we get to see more of it.
This was probably the chapter that was remembered when people discussed it from 1.2 a while back. I don't think it's that strange, personally, but I could easily edit it a bit if people think she'd go into more detail with her dad.
- Pronouns
- Yes
It's not so much the more detail as the fact that her first thought when talking to the Wards was to describe her power as:
"I think my power is mostly about holistic well being."
"Try ultra-healthy."
Which are more accurate descriptions, and ones she's used before. Given that she just broke her fast I'd expect that to be what she mentioned if she only mentioned one power, as opposed to the more accurate name she gave the Wards.
I also think she would go into more detail, but if after her initial description Danny clearly wasn't listening her skipping any more details would be understandable.
A fair and pretty accurate assessment. I will edit as soon as I get back from work.
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
A revision of the Scarabing? Does this mean that more Scarabing is soon coming?
Indeed. I have plans. Hopefully it will be ready shortly after I finish revising.
ThatGazzer
Minds Eye Bind
- Location
- PNW
- Pronouns
- They/Them
We still gonna get Baron Sammy? 
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
...Wow...cutting right to the meat grinder, aren't we?
Honestly, I think Grue may have overracted in punching Taylor. Yes, she made a mistake by preempting the E88 goons, but she ALSO went out of her way to rescue Aisha as soon as she got the call.
He did overreact. People tend to do that. Parahumans even more so. Perhaps if Taylor was a parahuman in that situation she would have silently felt bitter and eventually they would be enemies as one petty sleight after another and "can never catch a break" drew them down a path of conflict. Or, a Taylor traumatized badly enough to trigger would probably have given up outright and lost her will to live, not only believing she was at fault, but also that she deserved worse.
I'll tell you a secret:
In the original outline, Aisha's interlude still happened, but there was no Baron Sammy to save her. She died. And she stayed dead. Then the story I was building turned out to be... more positive. So I changed it. It was part of the reason why the Aisha interlude took so long.
Fixed the part TheUnicorn pointed out. Even if it was a small thing, thanks for helping to improve the story! Every little bit that makes a story better matters. Devil's in the details and all that.
--
Scarab
--
Dawn Interlude 1.a: Dennis
--
I nearly screamed when the alarm sounded, and I was pretty sure nobody would have blamed me if I had. The room went super silent and Missy started to look pretty pale faced. I worked my jaw in parallel to my courage to find something to say.
Carlos beat me to it.
"Anybody need to sit this one out?"
It was a legitimate question, but technically speaking all of us probably should have. We were just kids by all rights, it would be better for everyone if we survived to adulthood. More experience, more little tricks with our powers.
Only Chris raised his hand, and he didn't even want to. "My mom made me promise."
We all nodded, and Carlos put a hand on his shoulder. "Go to her, before she gets lost in the crowd."
Chris nodded and took off, hesitating at the door for a moment longer in silent apology.
Carlos kept his voice as level as he could. "Suit up and head out."
My room: where I kept my costume, the stuff I didn't have room for at home, and the stuff I wanted when I was on duty. Naturally, it was at once messier and more organized than my room at home. Less stuff, but less oversight from my mom to put it away.
I was halfway through tearing off my shirt when my cell phone rang.
Who the hell would call me now?
I finished taking off my shirt and threw it on the floor before answering. "Hello?"
"Um… hi."
"Taylor?" Taylor had called me. Of all the people. "Listen, now isn't a good time. I-."
"I know. I need you to bring me a mask or something. I want to help but I don't have anything. Just something for my face, I guess." She planned to fight an Endbringer? With her power set?
"You don't have to fight you know." It was the most feeble attempt to get her to back down. I knew that, but I had to at least try once.
"Neither do you." Touché, little water lily, touché.
"Fair. Got any preference?"
"Nothing that covers my hair, or gives me a distinct look that people expect me to keep."
"Also fair. We have bunches of generic domino masks for emergencies. They're not quite one-size-fits-all, so I'll bring a few." I heard someone pound on my door.
"Clockblocker, you ready yet?" Of course it was Shadow Stalker.
I was falling behind. "Alright, meet us near the Wards Base; there'll be pamphlets and stuff. Emergency plans. Wait outside the yellow tape and I'll hand off the mask in an alley or something. I gotta go."
I hung up before she could thank me or anything. Not that she should.
"I'm coming!" I yelled. I just hoped Taylor wasn't going to get herself killed in her first heroic act.
That would suck.
--
Dawn Interlude 1.b: Brian
--
Regent was the first one I spotted when I got to the parking lot the Protectorate had managed to rally all the capes to. He sauntered, for there is no better word for how he walks, over to me and gave as grim a nod as he could. Not even Regent was one to joke about Endbringers it seemed. "So… you ready for this?"
"Not even a little." Regent practically whimpered. "I mean, I know we talked about this, but seriously? What the everloving fuck am I supposed to do to an Endbringer?"
"Search and rescue, help people dodge if you get an opportunity." I shrugged. "Whatever you can."
Regent sniffed. "I should have gone with Rachel…"
I couldn't find a reason to argue with him.
"Hey." Tattletale approached us, rather somberly.
"And that makes four."
The only thing I could do was get angry. Aisha had followed me. I had told her to go to the shelter but she had followed me. "A- you, no."
"Imp." Aisha insisted, wearing some dollar store devil mask. I hoped she wasn't dumb enough to have paid for it, but hoped she wasn't so eager to be a villain she was stealing already. "Don't be such a dick, Grue. I want to join the Undersiders. I want to help."
"You told her?" Regent whispered too loudly. He wanted Aisha to hear him.
"You triggered?" Tattletale asked Aisha, Imp, directly.
"Only like, a couple hours ago." Aisha admitted.
"No." I repeated myself. "You will not fight an Endbringer. Not when you aren't even sure how your powers work or if they'll even do anything."
"You can't tell me what to do." Aisha crossed her arms. "I'm helping and you can't stop me." She made a noise like she was sticking out her tongue, but stopped and gagged when she licked the inside of her mask on accident.
It only made me angrier.
"Imp-!"
Who was I talking about? Or to?
Whatever. It couldn't have been that important. I just wish I knew what I was suddenly so afraid of. Scared enough to make my powers itch.
"You okay Grue? You're getting leaky." Regent observed.
"I don't know. Tense I guess. Endbringers will do that." I turned to Tattletale. She was staring at me, frowning, eyes a little unfocused.
"What?"
"Probably nothing…" Tattletale admitted.
"Well, let's just hope this is a good day and all of us make it out alive." I put a hand on each of their shoulders. "We may not have been working together that long, but I'd hate to have to start over; you guys have grown on me." I spared Regent a glance. "Well, some more than others."
Regent snorted. "Thanks, bossman."
--
AN: Aisha really wants to hang with the big kids.
--
Scarab
--
Dawn Interlude 1.a: Dennis
--
I nearly screamed when the alarm sounded, and I was pretty sure nobody would have blamed me if I had. The room went super silent and Missy started to look pretty pale faced. I worked my jaw in parallel to my courage to find something to say.
Carlos beat me to it.
"Anybody need to sit this one out?"
It was a legitimate question, but technically speaking all of us probably should have. We were just kids by all rights, it would be better for everyone if we survived to adulthood. More experience, more little tricks with our powers.
Only Chris raised his hand, and he didn't even want to. "My mom made me promise."
We all nodded, and Carlos put a hand on his shoulder. "Go to her, before she gets lost in the crowd."
Chris nodded and took off, hesitating at the door for a moment longer in silent apology.
Carlos kept his voice as level as he could. "Suit up and head out."
My room: where I kept my costume, the stuff I didn't have room for at home, and the stuff I wanted when I was on duty. Naturally, it was at once messier and more organized than my room at home. Less stuff, but less oversight from my mom to put it away.
I was halfway through tearing off my shirt when my cell phone rang.
Who the hell would call me now?
I finished taking off my shirt and threw it on the floor before answering. "Hello?"
"Um… hi."
"Taylor?" Taylor had called me. Of all the people. "Listen, now isn't a good time. I-."
"I know. I need you to bring me a mask or something. I want to help but I don't have anything. Just something for my face, I guess." She planned to fight an Endbringer? With her power set?
"You don't have to fight you know." It was the most feeble attempt to get her to back down. I knew that, but I had to at least try once.
"Neither do you." Touché, little water lily, touché.
"Fair. Got any preference?"
"Nothing that covers my hair, or gives me a distinct look that people expect me to keep."
"Also fair. We have bunches of generic domino masks for emergencies. They're not quite one-size-fits-all, so I'll bring a few." I heard someone pound on my door.
"Clockblocker, you ready yet?" Of course it was Shadow Stalker.
I was falling behind. "Alright, meet us near the Wards Base; there'll be pamphlets and stuff. Emergency plans. Wait outside the yellow tape and I'll hand off the mask in an alley or something. I gotta go."
I hung up before she could thank me or anything. Not that she should.
"I'm coming!" I yelled. I just hoped Taylor wasn't going to get herself killed in her first heroic act.
That would suck.
--
Dawn Interlude 1.b: Brian
--
Regent was the first one I spotted when I got to the parking lot the Protectorate had managed to rally all the capes to. He sauntered, for there is no better word for how he walks, over to me and gave as grim a nod as he could. Not even Regent was one to joke about Endbringers it seemed. "So… you ready for this?"
"Not even a little." Regent practically whimpered. "I mean, I know we talked about this, but seriously? What the everloving fuck am I supposed to do to an Endbringer?"
"Search and rescue, help people dodge if you get an opportunity." I shrugged. "Whatever you can."
Regent sniffed. "I should have gone with Rachel…"
I couldn't find a reason to argue with him.
"Hey." Tattletale approached us, rather somberly.
"And that makes four."
The only thing I could do was get angry. Aisha had followed me. I had told her to go to the shelter but she had followed me. "A- you, no."
"Imp." Aisha insisted, wearing some dollar store devil mask. I hoped she wasn't dumb enough to have paid for it, but hoped she wasn't so eager to be a villain she was stealing already. "Don't be such a dick, Grue. I want to join the Undersiders. I want to help."
"You told her?" Regent whispered too loudly. He wanted Aisha to hear him.
"You triggered?" Tattletale asked Aisha, Imp, directly.
"Only like, a couple hours ago." Aisha admitted.
"No." I repeated myself. "You will not fight an Endbringer. Not when you aren't even sure how your powers work or if they'll even do anything."
"You can't tell me what to do." Aisha crossed her arms. "I'm helping and you can't stop me." She made a noise like she was sticking out her tongue, but stopped and gagged when she licked the inside of her mask on accident.
It only made me angrier.
"Imp-!"
Who was I talking about? Or to?
Whatever. It couldn't have been that important. I just wish I knew what I was suddenly so afraid of. Scared enough to make my powers itch.
"You okay Grue? You're getting leaky." Regent observed.
"I don't know. Tense I guess. Endbringers will do that." I turned to Tattletale. She was staring at me, frowning, eyes a little unfocused.
"What?"
"Probably nothing…" Tattletale admitted.
"Well, let's just hope this is a good day and all of us make it out alive." I put a hand on each of their shoulders. "We may not have been working together that long, but I'd hate to have to start over; you guys have grown on me." I spared Regent a glance. "Well, some more than others."
Regent snorted. "Thanks, bossman."
--
AN: Aisha really wants to hang with the big kids.
Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
Hmm. That was a bit different. I think in canon they all met at a warehouse rallying point where the Triumvirate gave their 'not so feel good' speech.
I remember looking into that. I was actually at the Ward's base. They met outside and then moved into an auditorium or something. "Inside" I think. It's been a while since I did my research for this chapter though, so I could be slightly wrong about the specifics, but I do know the location is correct.
Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
The Wards 'base' is the PRT Headquarters on a dome at the top of the building. Which is a lot more armored than that.
And the rally point is nearly on the beach, which the PRT Building isn't, being downtown in a large building, IIRC.
Worm 8.1 said:
So I think it's actually another building. Not once here does he mention PRT Headquarters/Wards Base that I could see.
The PRT/Protectorate HQ is different from the Wards Base until after Leviathan. The Wards Base is a renovated police station with tourist traps on the first floor and living space on the upper ones. Much like the Wards themselves, it's a set-piece, armored only enough to make them feel sorta safe, and equipped only well enough to make the Wards feel important. Nothing important is held within, and anybody stupid enough to attack the Wards directly breaks certain unwritten and unspoken rules involving murdering children off duty.
It's armored against idiots by concrete and steel. It's armored against brilliant individuals with social, political, and military consequences.
Nobody wants to be the guy that provoked Eidolon to randomly show up in Brockton Bay to clean house because the gangs got too uppity.
Alexandria: "Eidolon, I understand you just finished wrestling a typhoon and saving thousands of lives, but some assholes decided to murder a bunch of our Wards. Met out some justice and set an example. We can't have anybody thinking that's a good idea."
Eidolon: "... Give me a city, and give me a name. They'll be in your office in an hou- nevermind I can teleport. Give me ten minutes."
EDIT: That said, you are correct based on the description it does not seem to be the exact building, but the location sounded about right enough that Clockblocker would tell her to meet him there. They also have a lot less warning than canon, so probably had to make due with less prep time to set up a location. I might make some edits in 2.1, but for this interlude it is correct enough.
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Arthur Hansen
Author of no Authority.
- Location
- Utah, behind the Zion Curtain.
Interlude 3.x said: