Taylor Kills Nazis (aka “Taylor Discovers She Hates Nazis More Than Her Bullies And Does Violence About It”)

[theonewhowas]

11. Exposed

Sophia

X: "Canceling our group project work tonight. Watch the news."​

The fuck? Hebert never canceled patrol before. Had she gone off and done shit without her?

Pfft. Yeah, right. With who? Not like she had friends. She was pretty sure whoever kept texting her during patrols was an informant, or perhaps a supplier, considering the increase in quality in tools and materials she'd been bringing along. And she kept up her loser act full time at school, even pretending to cry once or twice when Emma pulled off some deep cut from when they used to be friends.

Speak of the devil.

Emma: "r u sure u cant come over tonight? daddy set up the firept for smores"​

She sighed. Guess it would be nice to reconnect; she hadn't spent time with her best friend in a while.

Sophia: "fine"

Emma: "o yay!!!"​

Followed by ten excited, babbling messages. Not to give Hebert too much credit, but at least her texts were short and to the point.

Emma did most of the talking, as usual. At least while her parents were around. Sophia would tell her the good shit from her solo patrols later, once it was just the two of them. But Emma knew her well enough to just do as she asked when Sophia wanted to watch the news.

"Oh shit," Emma said quietly. Sophia couldn't help but agree.

Someone had outed the Empire capes. All of them, living and dead.

Goddamn Max Anders? She'd met him at fundraisers. He felt skeevy but no differently than most of the other old rich white guys. Just went to show how well predators could disguise themselves. Hell, Hebert had said they were behind Medhall… she just hadn't guessed how far (or how high) the infestation had gone.

Sophia: "you?"

X: "No. But I was given a heads up."​

"Work? I thought that was your personal phone?"

"Just checking something," Sophia said, and tucked her phone away. Emma gave her a look, but didn't say anything. She'd delete the texts later, like usual. But who had given Hebert a warning? An ABB informant? One of Coil's men? Plausible deniability. She guessed it didn't matter.

Sophia ate s'mores with her friend as the Empire burned in real time. She was over her hours this week, so she knew she wasn't going to get called in, not that they'd let her even if she could. Best she could hope for was some cleanup of the grunts, or waving the Protectorate flag in Empire turf. She'd get more done unofficially, like always.

Kaiser was down to Fenja—Menja had been caught while trying to get healing services in Boston for her severe burns—Krieg, two outsiders on loan from Europe they barely had files on, and one probable new trigger, possibly a Tinker. Nobody said anything about Rune, which meant she'd probably been brought into the fold and would show up rebranded in another department in a month. They always went easier on the minors. It irritated her to think about it, but at least she knew firsthand the shackles the little shit would be stuck with. Alabaster was practically a normie with a gun, and impossible to blend in with civilians. He'd been arrested almost immediately, with the Empire unable to gather enough forces to keep him safe.

Oh shit, they're talking about Sarin. In pretty unflattering terms, obviously; the Protectorate couldn't be shown up by an independent, even if she was doing their job for them. Heh. They kept calling Sarin he.

"Sources suggest that Kaiser has reportedly put a bounty on the supervillain Sarin's head in the tens of thousands."

"Unlikely he'll be able to pay out now, even if someone does bring him in, Sharon."

"Indeed! What's more, a similar bounty has been posted for Bakuda, of the Azn Bad Boyz, for her suspected involvement in the deaths of former Empire lieutenants Cricket and Stormtiger last week."​

Part of her was annoyed the ABB's new Tinker was stealing their thunder. The rest was amused that even the Empire couldn't believe one cape—and her driver—were responsible for dismantling the entire organization piece by piece.

Her phone vibrated, but Sophia didn't check it. Emma was staring at her. "Can you believe this?" Sophia offered vaguely, gesturing at the news.

"It's about time," Emma agreed, turning back to the television. Too fucking right.

"This just in—it appears James Fleischer, the supervillain known as Krieg, was just arrested by members of New Wave, Brockton Bay's own homegrown independent hero team."

"That's right Phil! It seems one of his employees called in a tipline to report Krieg had taken shelter in the man's apartment, alongside his family. Unfortunately he was caught submitting the tip, and the supervillain nearly escaped!"

"It's a good thing New Wave was in the neighborhood and able to lend the Protectorate a helping hand!"​

Damnit. Hebert had let Sophia know about the plan for him, and it would have been juicy. Ah, well. If he couldn't be dead, at least he'd be behind bars. Not like there was enough Empire left to bust him out of holding cells even if they'd tried.

The Wards morning briefing barely gave her any information she didn't already know.

The two outsiders likely withdrew, only temporarily on loan from Gesellschaft, who likely considered the American branch a lost cause (which was incredibly fucking satisfying). Kaiser was laying low, barely anyone left under him, the Empire completely gutted.

Of course, it wasn't all good news. It was a dangerous time for Brockton Bay.

The economy was shaken, with Medhall being a major employer of the city—it's not like a company couldn't exist without its CEO, but there would obviously have to be changes, and that scared investors, yadda yadda. The new ABB Tinker was sowing chaos, Coil was apparently making surgical strikes against former Empire holdings, and there were even hints that the Teeth were considering coming back up from Boston to join in on the fun.

And yet, Sophia couldn't help but feel satisfied.

Taylor had told her once that the most dangerous time for an abuse victim was when they tried to leave their abuser. Brockton Bay still faced challenges, but not having Nazis could only be an improvement in the long run.

And they were even going to let the Wards in on a mission to take down Fenja, who had apparently not hidden well enough to avoid tiplines either. It said something about the Empire that people weren't afraid to snitch on their capes anymore. And she'd helped make that happen.

Sophia leaned back in her chair in the meeting room in PHQ, hands tucked behind her head. Some of her teammates looked at her funny, but it took her a second to realize why.

She was smiling.

 

[theonewhowas]

12. Slipping

Taylor

"What the hell are you smiling at, freak?"

Oh. Taylor must have let her mood affect her expression. She was getting sloppy, hadn't expected to see Emma waiting for her outside of the school—that was usually Sophia's tactic. She quickly resumed her normal emotionless neutrality that served as her civilian disguise, hoping Emma would let it slide.

Of course, being Emma, she did anything but.

"Oh no, you're not trying to hide something from me, are you? We go way back. I know you better than that. That's why I know that nothing in your pathetic life should ever make you happy. Not your terrible grades, your complete lack of friends, your sad sack of a father, and your miserable, useless—don't you walk away from me!"

Taylor had turned away from her to check a message, shielding her phone from Emma. It took all her self control to keep from smiling again. But the distraction cost her.

Emma lunged and grabbed her phone.

"Let's see what could possibly… research project? Key figure? Who would ever want to work with you?"

Taylor tried to shove past Emma's flunkies, but unless she wanted to draw attention to herself by starting a physical altercation (much less drawing a knife, and she didn't even consider using her power), all she could do was grapple with them ineffectually. For all that they were clearly unused to violence, there were three of them—god, she couldn't even bother remembering their names—between her and her phone. At least there was nothing identifying or incriminating on the device, and it was eminently replaceable, but—

"I know this number."

Ah, shit.

"Taylor—why the hell is Sophia texting you?"

The gobsmacked expression on Emma's face was almost worth the lapse in infosec.

She could see her scrolling through messages, although there wasn't much to see—she wiped it regularly—but enough to indicate that this was not a one-off situation, and probably to surmise the tone is not hostile at all, if not particularly friendly.

At least Tattletale's messages she always deleted immediately after reading.

"You… I… what did you do to Sophia? Why has she been telling me not to bother with you? Do you have blackmail on her or something? Tell me!"

The desperation in her voice, along with her rather embarrassing attempt at physical intimidation—her grip on Taylor's shirt was weak, her stance off-balance, her attention split—was enough to get her flunkies to let go of her.

She leaned into Emma's grab, viciously stomped on her foot. The redhead—so unused to violence—almost crumbled right there, which only made the knee that Taylor shoved upward into her gut practically fold the girl in half, eliciting a muffled wheeze of pain and shock. The sharp twist brought Taylor's elbow in contact with the side of Emma's face, instinctive, probably overkill.

Emma dropped like a sack of potatoes.

In the stunned and sudden silence, Taylor carefully reached down, plucked her phone from where it landed on the concrete. She texted an affirmative back to Sophia's query, then put the device back in her pocket.

The gaggle of teenage parasites, horrified, did nothing to stop her.

Taylor looked down at the groaning form of something that used to be her friend, and was now merely a hurdle to overcome. She thought of all the things she dreamed of saying, when she dared imagine herself in this position. Taunting her, perhaps. Giving her a taste of her own medicine, losing a friend, being betrayed by those she cared about and trusted.

Maybe telling her that she was the pathetic one, in the end. A worm, writhing on the ground, desperately trying to catch her breath after Taylor knocked it out of her. That Taylor was actually doing things. Important things, things that mattered, that made a difference, more of a difference than Emma's shallow, vapid plans and aspirations could ever dream of doing.

But Emma just didn't fucking matter enough to talk to.

And besides, interpreting the code in Sophia's message, she wanted to hunt down Kaiser before he could skip town. How could Taylor say no?

So she stepped over Emma and moved on with her life.

 

[theonewhowas]

13. Revelations

Sophia

Things were going smoothly. A casual, slow drive around various neighborhoods, checking possible safe-house locations off the list. Hebert taking notes. Comfortable. Familiar. A different kind of excitement than her solo patrols, the physical thrill of using her power to enact righteous violence on the deserving, but still anticipatory, eager.

Hebert normally only spoke to give directions, or occasionally describe a murder in great detail. So she was surprised when she said, out of the blue, "I ran into Emma today."

Well that could only end one of two ways. "...Yeah?"

"Instep, solar plexus, elbow to the temple. Went down like a chump."

Despite herself, Sophia let out a little snort of amusement. Yeah, Emma was her best friend, for all that they hadn't spent that much time together anymore, but the girl was a little obsessed, and she couldn't say she hadn't considered slapping the crazy out of her before herself. And hey, clearly Taylor had been paying attention to her combat lessons.

"Nice."

She looked satisfied with herself.

Sophia would probably be catching an earful about it later. Or maybe she already had, her civilian phone was on silent, like her work phone, while she was patrolling. At a stoplight she reached in her pocket for her cell—

"Something is wrong—"

Sophia looked up at a sudden crack to see the empty street in front of her suddenly had two costumed figures, a crackle of lightning tracing over them. She recognized motherfucking Kaiser immediately; the other one was in a tech harness, blonde, visor, a Tinker, the new trigger. Sophia was already unbuckling her seatbelt when spikes of metal erupted inside the cabin, aiming for her face. She dove out of the way, yanking the car door open and tucking into a roll, reaching for her knife. Kaiser was there, heavily spiked gauntlet reaching for her, and she didn't phase immediately, she was out of costume—

Her hesitation probably saved her life. Lightning crackled all around them, a pulling sensation in her gut, blinding lights.

She was suddenly in a warehouse, strewn with junk, half-disassembled heavy machinery, the humming bones of some Tinkertech framework circling the four of them. Kaiser released the front of her jacket and shoved, and she stumbled back, still stunned by the abrupt teleportation. She shook her head, trying to get the spots out of her eyes, bumped into Taylor.

"Excellent work, Auxiliary."

As her vision gradually returned, Sophia could see the blonde boy nod. He was aiming some sort of ray gun at them both. She tried to memorize the details—he wore a harness, metal and black tubing, unpainted, clearly Baby's First Tinkering. Unidentifiable boxes, pieces of glass, tubing, LEDs, it all made Kid Win's lab look organized by comparison.

"Thank you, my Kaiser."

And he was either a serious fanboy or actually had a German accent. She'd heard enough bad fake ones to think he was the latter.

"What do you want with us?" Hebert's voice was mostly calm, only an undercurrent of tension betraying her stress.

"Don't try to pretend, Sarin." Well, shit. "You may not respect the rules of being a cape, but I know a rat when I see one. Auxiliary, disarm them. Be thorough. This pathetic saboteur relies on tricks and traps."

"As you say."

The cape moved the ray gun onto his shoulder, where it snapped onto a piece of tubing. The barrel focused on Taylor, even as he moved towards her, gestured for her to raise her hands. She did so, but her eyes were on Kaiser.

"What makes you think I'm Sarin?"

"Oh, I've been watching you for some time, you ambitious little fool." Auxiliary patted her down, but she ignored him, even as he pulled out two phones, three knives, a lighter, pepper spray, another rape alarm, several small plastic bags of unidentifiable powders from various hidden pockets… it was almost funny, honestly.

Meanwhile Sophia reached into her own pocket—

"Hands clear, mongrel." The ray gun on Auxiliary's shoulder was aimed at her, now. He was stock still, hands still grasping Taylor's calves, halfway through removing a fourth knife. "No sudden moves."

She squeezed the phone, pulled it out slowly. "Just trying to avoid getting groped, Hans. The fuck are you doing here with Kaiser, anyway?"

"Be silent, filth." Kaiser sounded like he was sneering at her behind his spiked helmet. "I'll deal with you after I've executed this race traitor."

Sophia was going to bark something back—she'd been wanting to mouth off to this loser for years—but Hebert made a gesture with one hand, still raised above her head in surrender. Fingers together, palm out towards her. Stop. Then curled one finger downward. Towards Auxiliary.

Ugh. Fine.

The Tinker finally finished with Hebert, then moved to her, taking the phone out of her hand and putting it on his belt with the others, including her civilian phone. He did not seem impressed with her hidden weapons, after the collection he'd gathered from Hebert. Only two knives, one at her back, one strapped to her ankle.

"Go and keep watch, Auxiliary. Keep up the good work."

"Jawohl."

As soon as he left the room, Hebert said, "Let her go. She's just my driver. I'm the one you want."

"How very noble of you. I'll consider it."

Hebert lowered her hands.

Looked Kaiser straight in the fucking eye.

And said, "It was the itching powder, wasn't it?"

Sophia heard a sound that might have been Kaiser's teeth grinding.

She slowly turned to look at Taylor.

"You didn't react to me ruining your expensive whiskey. Or bleaching your expensive suits. You just bought more. I don't think you gave a shit about your ex-wife. So I thought I'd get more personal."

Kaiser took a menacing step forward. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces."

Taylor didn't even blink. "I thought the minoxidil and the tadalafil would counteract each other nicely, but you really can't stop the former abruptly. It can lead to sudden hair loss."

"You bitch!"

Kaiser lunged at her. She didn't move, even as he grabbed her, stomping forward until he slammed her into the wall. She just made a small oof sound.

Sophia tensed, bending her knees, ready to move. She glanced behind her, found a small chunk of metal on one shelf, Tinkering supplies probably, and palmed it. Kaiser wasn't paying her any attention, and he wouldn't live to regret it.

But Taylor made that gesture again. Wait.

"You know the hard part about keeping my power a secret all this time, Kaiser?"

He shifted one of his hands til it was on her neck, and began to squeeze. "I suppose we'll never know."

And then from the fucking walls hissed a voice made of harsh buzzing, hissing and clicking noises. It was inhuman, barely understandable, but the words chilled Sophia to the bone, echoing and nightmarish.

"I never got to eat a Nazi alive."

And then Assault came crashing through a high window into the warehouse, a blur of red and shattered glass that stopped on a dime.

Kaiser immediately spun to put Taylor between him and the hero, freezing the latter in place. He and Assault shouted something at each other at the same time, Sophia couldn't tell what. There were muffled bangs and shouting coming from the other room, where other heroes were likely taking down Auxiliary, responding to the distress beacon she'd set off earlier.

No one was paying attention to her in the chaos.

She hurled the chunk of metal, using her power so that it unphased halfway through Kaiser's neck.

 

[theonewhowas]

14. Aftermath

Taylor

Once again Taylor found herself returning to school after a week's absence. This time there were fewer doctors, at least. She just got time off, ostensibly to process the trauma of being kidnapped and nearly killed. They'd treated her with kid gloves, treating her like a frightened teenager. She wondered if that was Sophia's doing.

Speak of the devil.

Sophia turned to look at her, following Emma's gaze. The latter was gritting her teeth, fists clenched, but she just turned and stomped away. Sophia gestured upwards with her head, and Taylor nodded.

They met on the roof.

Taylor wasn't sure how this conversation would go. She imagined Sophia would have questions. Maybe she'd demand answers, try to bully them out of her for old time's sake. Taylor had held the information advantage for so long, perhaps it was unfair for her to withhold the truth from her friend.

"You doing alright, Hebert?"

Taylor shrugged. "Empire's gone. Not sure what to do with myself now, really. Suppose I could—"

Sophia shook her head, rolled her eyes. "Are you okay, dumbass."

She let out a small sigh of amusement through her nose. "I'm fine."

"'I'm fine,' she says." Sophia scoffed. "Tougher than you look."

A week of rest had taken care of the deep bruising around her neck, the remnants of the concussion from being slammed into the wall. She was more stir-crazy than anything else. But it beat being arrested by the Protectorate.

Which was also probably Sophia's doing.

There was a long pause that didn't feel particularly uncomfortable.

"Hell of a lucky throw you made," Taylor offered. The thinnest pretext, a veneer of plausible deniability.

Sophia took it. "Crazy how many bugs end up in abandoned warehouses," she returned back.

They eyed each other. Nodded.

A shared understanding.

And then Sophia immediately cracked it. "You know, they did ask me if you were a supervillain?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I said no. I mean, what kind of supervillain only targets Nazis?"

Taylor actually laughed.

Sophia seemed as surprised as she was… but then she was laughing, too.

END