Oh, not it the sense that Loki was ashamed of it. I doubt he really cared at the end of the day. No, it's more humiliating in the sense that it was a major blow to his reputation among the Aesir, who already weren't exactly fond of him to begin with for a number of reasons.
The Taste of Peaches (Worm AU)
- Thread starter Grounders10
- Start date
All this talk about Loki's preferences feels inappropriate and irrelevant to the thread.
Let's suggest theme songs for Corentine instead!
Might I suggest Like Flames?
View: https://youtu.be/WchIB0mGCm4?si=iWrXCi_nTM5E4d_l
Let's suggest theme songs for Corentine instead!
Might I suggest Like Flames?
View: https://youtu.be/WchIB0mGCm4?si=iWrXCi_nTM5E4d_l
- Location
- Georgia
Also, if he ever wandered down to Greece, he might have done Pan =P
Couldn't resist the joke, but will agree that it's gone on long enough that we should redirect. Let's see, canon could give us Circus as an androgynous shapeshifter. While there are certainly plenty of people in BB who, given deity status, would wind up with domains relating to gender, sex, transformation, and mischief, canon gives us very little about named non-parahumans. We've discussed which Domains would suit the various BB parahumans many times, too, so what can we do to keep the thread properly prepped for the Frabjous Day of New Chapter?
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Divine mantles for non-parahumans? Director Piggot had the God of Fire's essence land on her out of nowhere in Queen of Blood. Anyone think she'd be a good choice for divinity here? How about Danny Hebert? Ooh, union negotiating leads him to Loki's Silvertongue aspect!
- Location
- Georgia
Well, let's see how many canon non-parahumans I can remember:
Mr Pitter: Mad Science! The Evil side of medicine. For a more positive Domain, maybe god of the Falsely Accused(since Coil used a fake rape charge to snare his services).
Emily Piggot: The Wounded Warrior. Judgement. Restraint. Order in the face of overwhelming odds.
Renick: The secretary? We don't see much of him beyond comments about him being more reasonable than Piggot.
Alan Barnes covers the seedier aspects of law, Danny Hebert has organized labor and is a champion of the downtrodden, We know very little about Kurt and lacey, nor the families of the Wards(and nothing about BB Protectorate home lives, beyond Armsmaster and MM not really having one), Blackwell is too pedestrian to have a shot at a Domain, Madison is too petty to really expect anything out of her, and while Glenn might qualify for Fashion or Image, I think keeping him baseline is important to the role he plays.
Maybe, if he's a real person and the "Fugly Bob's" is not a chain, he might have a combination of Domains from Bacchus and Hephaestus, food in excess and a gifted cook who is horribly disfigured.
Simply put, we don't know enough about non-parahumans to guess much, and we've already covered all other parahumans canon to BB several times. At least the story is coming, like Winter, only less cold and with fewer deaths. Probably.
So is anyone else looking forward to Taylor fully manifesting her domain of industry/technology?
She already nearly fugued on Armsie's pet scanner so I figure just leave her in a room full of tinkertech and she'll get so offended by the wrongness of it all she will learn how to fix it with a touch… and by fix, I mean un-blackbox and render comprehensible to mortals.
She already nearly fugued on Armsie's pet scanner so I figure just leave her in a room full of tinkertech and she'll get so offended by the wrongness of it all she will learn how to fix it with a touch… and by fix, I mean un-blackbox and render comprehensible to mortals.
Charlotte, who could work with Skitter the Warlord, raise a bunch of orphans and deal with all the shi... Stuff that both entail.
Is there an unflappable domain? Because she's a shoo-in for it.
Is there an unflappable domain? Because she's a shoo-in for it.
nicoo
Malfunctioning neurochemistry, please be kind.
- Location
- Europe
- Pronouns
- They/She/Meow
@Grounders10 and @Gekkou_Yoko, I just wanted to let you know this is a lovely and fluffy fic, which I liked a lot even (or especially?) in the latter, heavier chapters. I wish more fics looked at Emma, Sophia, and others as more than paper cutouts of childish evil.
It's part of what I'm finding all-too-relatable TBH, that it's actually harder when one was hurt by people and can see where it's coming from: it doesn't reduce the harm that occured, nor does it give more agency over the situation (though at least it makes blaming oneself harder, a common maladaptive way of feeling like one has agency) and IME it's more... exhausting/draining to process that, than just hate someone without looking deeper.
I skimmed the discussion a bit, and didn't see that answered:do you have plans to resume writing this? I know the last chapter was 2 years and a half ago, but hope blooms eternal nevermind, I saw on your profile page you plan to continue 💜
Otherwise Still, kitsunes' fic recommendations are always welcome. :3
It's part of what I'm finding all-too-relatable TBH, that it's actually harder when one was hurt by people and can see where it's coming from: it doesn't reduce the harm that occured, nor does it give more agency over the situation (though at least it makes blaming oneself harder, a common maladaptive way of feeling like one has agency) and IME it's more... exhausting/draining to process that, than just hate someone without looking deeper.
I skimmed the discussion a bit, and didn't see that answered:
Last edited:
Gekkou_Yoko
Three-Tailed Kitsune
- Location
- In my dreams, outside my mind.
And this is Gekkou, confirming, yet again, that this is not abandoned.
Grounders and I have been having some medical issues, that we are only just starting to recover from. However there is progress being made on that front, and we are trying to get back into the swing of things, but its slow going, and relapses have occurred a few times. However progress is being made, in various places, and interest for the two of us is not gone from this fic.
Is work stalled here? Not quite, its just been refocused elsewhere, for the time being. Several of our older ideas are being given new life, a few of them even predate my involvement with Grounders.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And this is where I stopped reading.
Nothing else matters here. You two resolve those medical issues to a level you're comfortable with first. Your health is more important than providing those of us here on SV and elsewhere with copious quantities of fluffy tails.
Rest up, I wish y'all well, but I expect to NOT see EITHER of you until you're well enough for it! SUSTAINABLY well enough, not 'enough for a little bit', but for long term!
/Yenta
nicoo
Malfunctioning neurochemistry, please be kind.
- Location
- Europe
- Pronouns
- They/She/Meow
Yes, very much so. I would find it especially interesting if her domain let her understand and un-blackbox tinkertech, but very much didn't provide the kind of "fabrication assist" that some tinkers get:
not only does the end result not (seem to) violate natural laws (in its local dimension) but the manufacturing process does not either; tools only perform at plausible levels (no sharpening things to near-monomolecular edges with basic handtools etc.) and everything could be done by skilled workers without superpowers.
It would still be completely keeping with that domain to have either some innate understanding of the tools and how to use them, and/or be unnaturally quick at picking up those skills.
Beyond the technical aspects though, what excites me even more is how it will let her spread hope: tinkertech is not a solution to societal issues because it is unreproducible and unreliable, despite having capabilities that would be sorely needed. Off the top of my head, a few possibilities:
- Even without going as far as canon's miniature "fusion batteries," industrial-scale aneutronic nuclear fusion could provide very-cheap heating and electricity for entire cities, without creating nuclear waste that needs to be managed for hundreds to thousands of years.
- I'd say to make it free for domestic use, but IDK whether that would be legal in the US here, let alone on Bet.
On the other hand, this would be such incredibly good press for the PRT, they'd likely arrange things even if they aren't directly profiting from it. Realistically, that holds for all my ideas, since Chambers wants to run with "not just government thugs." - Heating isn't just to keep people warm and cozy either: industrial processes need heat, from baking breat and pasteurizing milk to baking ceramics and paint and melting steel. A lot of heat in fact, accounting for 30% of global greenhouse gases emissions as of 2018, as well as a whole lot of other polutants affecting air quality (and thus, public health)
- I'd say to make it free for domestic use, but IDK whether that would be legal in the US here, let alone on Bet.
- While we are at it, solve homelessness... by building homes. Granted, tinkertech is not exactly needed as that's more of a political problem, but making construction faster/cheaper would help, as would making buildings more durable and easier to maintain.
- Brockton Bay does happen to have a lot of abandonned buildings in the Docks, many of which may be owned by an organisation with a lot of soft power in the area, which Taylor would find easy to reach out to: "Dad, could you pass me the salt... and also help me build a whole lot of housing in the Docks?" 🦊
(Would Danny mind if the ferry doesn't get resurrected... because trams are better in BB's case? Not directly a social housing topic, but you can't make me think about urbanism without thoughts on public transport. :3) - That kind of capability would be massively useful for disaster relief as well, which is happening every other month as long as Endbringers are a thing.
- I'm thinking medium-density, mixed-use buildings with space for shops and services on the ground floor, which also open to the surrounding streets. Not only does that provide space for social services (social workers, doctors and therapists, etc.) within a cluster of those buildings, but it can help breathe more life into the surrounding area.
- A mix social and regular housing in the same building would help reintegrate people into society (such as it is)... which means building to a high-enough standard (of quality-of-life, aesthetics, etc.) to be attractive for people who have other choices... which should be done anyway: why build substandard social housing, if better industrial capability makes the cost difference marginal?
(I happen to have a whole lot of opinions on how to make housing that's comfier and helps keep people healthier, but let's maybe not infodump in here) - May as well go all solarpunk, with hydroponics on the exterior walls and roofgardens growing produce for the inhabitants. That could fit nicely with other communal aspects of the design as well... and let Inari cackle when Taylor is the one having migraines about the overlap of Agriculture and Industry, or be disgusted she doesn't have those.
- Brockton Bay does happen to have a lot of abandonned buildings in the Docks, many of which may be owned by an organisation with a lot of soft power in the area, which Taylor would find easy to reach out to: "Dad, could you pass me the salt... and also help me build a whole lot of housing in the Docks?" 🦊
- There's too many life-saving applications to even make a list of what I can see offhand, for instance:
- fast screening for common medical issues
even without tinkertech treatment, early diagnosis vastly improves patient outcomes
getting it down to standing still for a minute of imaging, and having a finger pricked to get a (tiny) blood sample, would make it easy to get most people to come half-yearly to a screening booth or something - minimizing the time before treatment for trauma victims:
- getting EMTs to their patients and back to the ER faster,
- better keeping patients alive (or at least brains oxygenated) in the ambulance,
- maybe doing imaging and other rapid measurements in the vehicle, so the ER team has a preliminary diagnostic and can immediately start treatment when the patient arrives
- improving the safety of motor vehicles (bleh), effectiveness of firefighters, etc.
- fast screening for common medical issues
- None of that solves the deeply fucked-up political and cultural issue, to say nothing of the therapy needed for a significant part of Bet's population... but those might be easier to address once people aren't dying, starving, or desperate for shelter.
If nothing else, it's easier to get vulnerable populations to engage with politics, when survival doesn't occupy their every thought and every last bit of energy. Put another way: material conditions need to improve, for people to even be able to organise and strive for better conditions.
Sorry, I wouldn't have asked if I had found the answer before posting 😓
That's all too relatable, and I'm sorry to hear you are also struggling to get better.
*sends a crate of floofy hugs and warm cocoa, in case that helps.*
I'm sure others will say the same, but it's far more important that you both get better, us viewers can wait if you don't feel like writing, this particular story or others... and we can hope you do get better soonest, as chronic illness sucks. 💜
Last edited:
Chapter Fifteen
Grounders10
Nine-Tailed Kitsune
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada, Mars
-0-0-0-0-0-
A Worm Fanfic
The Taste of Peaches
By: Grounders10
-0-0-0-0-0-
15
-0-0-0-0-0-
A Worm Fanfic
The Taste of Peaches
By: Grounders10
-0-0-0-0-0-
15
-0-0-0-0-0-
Taylor pulled gently on the strap of her tank top, careful to not break it as she adjusted it. The fabric creaked ominously as the breeze in her backyard rustled her hair playfully. It was a nice breeze that failed to do much about the humid summer heat, though the heat didn't particularly bother her for once. She really should have paid more attention to how much clothing she had that fit. Life had been hectic the last few days, but now she was stuck with the consequences of not dealing with laundry promptly.
"You look fine," Inari said reassuringly as the fox floated by upside down in a slow orbit around Taylor. "Nothing to worry about."
Taylor rolled her eyes and let go. It snapped back with a crack. She picked up the light vest she'd borrowed off her dad from the ground. "I look like I'm trying to wear something from five years ago," she complained, pulling at the bottom of the tank top. It pointedly refused to cover the visible strip of skin.
Inari shrugged. "And?" She mimed looking at a watch that didn't exist. "Time to get going if you want to meet Victoria."
Sighing, Taylor pulled the vest on. The weather was too hot for anything more -- and it at least had a few pockets worth a damn -- otherwise she honestly would have worn a raincoat to conceal her tank top.
She pulled her PRT Phone from her pocket and dialled Vicky. Using the phone was a bit odd since it didn't exactly reach her ears anymore. Well, it never had since she'd gotten it after she'd changed but if she had had it before it would have reached them then and…
The fox-eared girl pushed her scatterbrained thoughts out of the way as the phone rang. "Tay! Where are you?" Her friend asked cheerfully.
"In my backyard. I'm about to head out and…" She hesitated. It seemed stupid to worry about it but…
"Aaaand? Something wrong?" Vicky asked.
"Just a bit nervous," she admitted after a moment. Inari floated over and hung off her shoulder. "The only shirt I had left is a tank top from when the PRT first gave me clothes and it's a little…"
"Flattering?"
She palmed her face. "I was going to say 'revealing'," she said.
"Says the girl that decided to cosplay a magical girl for her superhero costume," Vicky deadpanned in reply. Taylor shot Inari a warning look as the fox snickered. "Is that Inari? Hey, fuzzball!"
"It's fluffball, I'm not fuzzy!" Inari called back.
Taylor rolled her eyes again and leaned back, lounging back as though she were in a hammock. Her tails waved slowly in the breeze forming the 'back' of her seat. "Okay so… maybe I'm just blowing this out of proportion, but it's…" She nervously tugged at the shirt, "It's different, alright? Doesn't stop the nerves."
"Mhmm, I get ya," Vicky replied with a sigh of her own, "Why don't we meet up… Hrm… Ah. Do you know Caterwaul Park? A few blocks from the Boardwalk?"
Taylor wracked her brain for a moment. "I… Don't think so…?" She said after a moment.
"Hmmm, well it's this little postage stamp in the middle of a few apartments that never finished. Basically just a grassy field. No one goes there during the day. It's three blocks from the boardwalk. I'll meet you above it? We can fly to the boardwalk together," Vicky said.
Taylor waffled for a moment. "Yeah, that sounds good enough," she finally said, "See you there soon."
"See ya," Vicky said cheerfully before they both hung up. Taylor stood there with her phone in her hands for a long moment before dropping it into a vest pocket woodenly.
"Right… Okay," she let out a breath she hadn't intended to hold. It wasn't just the clothing. It was the people. Everyone was going to recognize her. Everyone. There was no hiding it and this would be the first time she was in public as… her. Not Corentine, but her. Taylor.
"Hey," Inari nudged her with a nose, "It'll be fine. Just take a deep breath, and go for it. Don't overthink."
Taylor nodded, letting out another breath, before shooting into the air and then in the direction of the Boardwalk. Inari continued to hang onto her shoulder. "Shouldn't you be flying on your own?" she asked dryly.
The white fox sniffed imperiously. "Just making sure you don't fall to pieces over a small public appearance," she said.
Down below she caught the flicker-flash of camera lens reflecting the sun as she passed over a collection of familiarish vehicles. Paparazzi. She tried to ignore how her current wardrobe, as terrible as it was, was probably going to end up in the headlines somewhere.
'Corentine's Fashion Disaster Shocks Brockton Bay'.
She barely kept a snort at the thought.
"Hmm?" Inari hummed.
"Nothing important," Taylor replied, shaking her head.
Angling to come to a stop a few blocks short of the boardwalk, Taylor scanned the air for her friend as the buildings grew a few stories taller in the quasi-industrial/commercial area that abutted both her neighbourhood and waterfront.
Finding Vicky wasn't particularly difficult, the blonde foxgirl was the only flying speck larger than a pigeon other than herself.
"Hey! Vick-eek!" She greeted as she got close enough not to need to shout to the entire neighbourhood, only for the other girl to glomp her.
"Tay!" Vicky said, spinning her around for a moment before letting go. The many-tailed foxgirl wobbled in the air, floating unsteadily in the direction of an apartment for several dozen feet before coming to a halt.
"Vicky!" she protested as Inari groaned.
"Whee?" the white fox said weakly.
"Whaaat?" Her friend grinned cheekily, hands on her hips as she floated. Her tail was wagging side to side vigorously.
Taylor grumbled and flicked her tails to the side dismissively. That only made her friend's grin wider before she cocked her head to the side and zipped over.
"Gee, you weren't kidding. How did you even get that on?" she asked, plucking at a strap of Taylor's tank top.
"Carefully," she deadpanned, "Pretty sure if I breathe too hard it's going to explode."
Vicky winced. "Right," she said, "Then let's get shopping. We'll start with a new top so you don't have to go around looking like you've just painted a shirt on, alright?"
"Maybe I can…" Taylor muttered as she tried the zipper. It didn't even get close to closing. "Right. Tops first. Um… Suggestions? I have no idea where to even start."
Vicky tapped her lip. "Well…" She trailed off as a high-pitched wail reached their ears. Taylor's ears twitched and she saw Vicky's turn to the side as well. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah," Taylor turned, her eyes scanning the city in the direction of the very human-sounding scream. "C'mon." She dashed off in the direction of the scream. Another followed a moment later.
Finding the source didn't take long. They skimmed the edge of a strip mall's roof as a third scream began, then was cut off sharply. Ears twisted and Taylor increased her speed, leaving Vicky behind as she accelerated across the roof of a grocery store and dived into the alleyway.
Five young men, white with a variety of tattoos that included the occasional swastika, had a trio of girls about Taylor's age backed against the wall. One of them, black wearing a battered leather jacket, was cowering, pressed up against the wall by a dumpster. The second, an asian girl with a knee-length sundress, was gasping for air on her knees, one hand on her throat as she wheezed painfully. A third, who happened to be blonde and caucasian, was being restrained by two of the men as she struggled, flailing in a panic.
"Let me go you assholes," she snarled right as Taylor dropped into the alleyway behind the largest of the five. Whatever they would have said in reply went unspoken as she slammed sparking tails into the three in reach. With disjoint groans, the three twitched and collapsed, small spasms running through their muscles for several moments.
"It's the bitch who brought down Hookwolf!" One of the two holding the girl shouted. The two exchanged looks and then heaved the blonde at Taylor before booking it down the alleyway. They didn't even make it halfway before Vicky dropped from the sky in front of them.
"Going somewhere?" the blonde foxgirl asked as she cheerfully cracked her knuckles.
Both of them threw their hands up. "We surrender," one of them blurted out.
"Smart guys," Taylor said as she pulled small streams of water from the humid air. They wrapped quickly about the wrists of the five suspects before snapping together as they froze. A thought made sure they couldn't lift their hands from the ground.
"Is everyone alright?" Inari asked.
"Fuck no, bitch," one of the electrocuted E88 thugs groaned.
Taylor ignored the Nazi and smiled at the other three girls before blinking. "Don't we share classes?" she asked the blonde girl. She vaguely recalled her from Winslow. She wasn't one of Emma's pack of sycophants so there was that but… What was her name again?
"Y-yeah," the blonde girl said with a shaky grin, "Hey Taylor. Nice timing… ow." She rubbed her side before kneeling down by the girl who was still wheezing. "Can you breathe, Nanase?" she asked.
Nanase nodded. "S-s-sort-a…" she wheezed, her voice sounding like she had gargled rocks.
"Let us go!" One of the shock-treated trio complained, "We ain't done nothing wrong. Just was flirting."
"If you call that flirting, you need psychiatric help," Vicky scoffed.
"Keep an eye on them, Inari. I need to call this in," Taylor sighed as she pulled out her PRT phone. This was just going to delay her shopping trip.
"Oh fuck you Glory hole. Kaiser's going to crush your inhuman-" Anything further was cut off as Taylor plastered a layer of ice over his mouth, taking care to leave his nostrils unobstructed.
"I'm trying to make a call here," she said blandly as her phone rang twice. The other four wisely shut up.
"Discount Morty's Morgue. You bag 'em we slab 'em," Clockblocker's cheerful voice greeted morbidly.
Taylor suppressed the urge to facepalm. "Hey Clock," she said with a sigh that only provoked a cackle, "I've got a… what's the code again… 10-34? Or was it a 10-24?" She hadn't quite memorised the radio codes they used.
"Hey Corentine, ongoing or not?" Clockblocker asked, "Also, aren't you shopping right now? What got bored of skirts and decided to mug a mugger or two?"
"Haven't even gotten to the clothing stores yet Clock, and it's… Not ongoing anymore. Five E88 thugs had cornered a trio of girls from my old school. I've got them tied up at the moment," she said, casually putting her foot down on the back of one of the thugs as he tried to discreetly pull his bracelet off the ground. "Stop that."
"Right, 10-24, Assault… And I've got your location from your phone. I'll get someone to come pick them up," Clockblocker said after a moment.
"Thanks. Talk later, Clock," Taylor said, hanging up, "Clockblocker's sending someone to pick them up."
"Nice. I normally have to call 911," Vicky said over her shoulder as she gently coaxed the nervous black girl out from where she was cowering by the dumpster. "Going shopping with a Ward has its benefits."
"Thanks for the save, Taylor, Glory Girl," the blonde girl said, looking up at them, "I couldn't do anything to stop these creeps and I think they were…" She trailed off as she went pale.
"Hey! We ain't like that," One of the two that had been holding her back said.
Taylor rolled her eyes as she scrolled through her phone's files. Where was it… where… ah, there it was. She cleared her throat. "Right, all five of you have the right to remain silent," she started, which had the remarkable effect of causing two of them to snap their jaws shut abruptly, "Anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…"
As she was finishing reading off the Miranda warning from her phone the whirr of a siren announced the arrival of a BBPD cruiser pulling up in front of the alleyway. Out stepped a familiar heavyset balding man. Though he wasn't wearing body armour this time.
"We meet again," Officer DuPont said as he walked over, "So is it Corentine or Ms. Hebert?"
"Not on the clock, so not Coretine at the moment," Taylor said with a shrug.
"Right then," DuPont looked down at the five, several of whom glared up at him. "Why don't we start with what happened?"
-0-0-0-0-0-
"I really must thank you," said the blonde's mother -- who had introduced herself as Jessabelle O'Fallon -- as she helped her daughter into the car.
"It's fine, really," Taylor said, trying to ignore Vicky fluffing her hair at the praise beside her. Did she have to preen?
"If you hadn't been here…" The middle-aged woman shook her head. "If there's anything I can do at all."
"Excuse me," the blonde girl, whom Taylor had finally recalled was named Mary, spoke up from the car, "But weren't you two going shopping for all of this?"
"I'm still planning on it. I don't really have a choice at the moment," Taylor said, glancing down at her top, "I've basically outgrown everything since I got powers."
The older woman's eyes brightened and she smiled. "Well as it happens," she said, "I happen to own a clothing boutique on the boardwalk. Jessabelle's Closet is the name."
"I thought I recognized you," Vicky blurted out, "I've shopped there a few times."
"I remember those times," the woman said, "If you need a wardrobe, then you can buy anything you need from the store at cost as thanks for saving my daughter."
Taylor blinked, opened her mouth, closed it. She glanced at Vicky. "Is this legal for me to accept?" she asked after a moment.
Vicky shrugged. A whole lot of help that was.
"No strings attached," Mary's mother said quickly, "It's just a discount for saving my daughter after all."
Well… She did only have so much money. Especially since she still needed to pay for all the windows back home…
"It's rude to not accept a gift of thanks," Inari whispered.
"Yeah but is it legal?" Taylor asked in reply, just as quiet as her advisor.
"How should I know? I'm a spirit, not a mortal lawyer."
Taylor rolled her eyes at the fox and noticed the amused and slightly befuddled look on the woman's face. "I'd love to accept," she said finally, "But are you sure? I need a lot of clothes."
"Well, you do still have to like what you're buying and my boutique caters to a range of tastes. You probably won't like everything," the woman said, "If you know where the boutique is, fly on ahead. I left the girls to run the shop and they can help you until I get there."
"Thank you," Taylor said.
"C'mon Tay, let's get you some clothes worth wearing," Vicky said, "See you in a bit Ma'am." She waved as she took off. Taylor mimicked her and picked Inari out of the air to carry her. The fox settled into her arms easily.
"Seriously though, am I even allowed to accept a gift like this?" Taylor asked aloud as they flew toward the boardwalk.
"Is it a gift if you still have to pay for it?" Vicky asked, "But either way, it's a good store to start our shopping spree. "And besides, she still gets something from you for wearing them."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, anyone who asks where you got them gets directed to her shop. Win-win for her," the older girl said.
That was a point… she finally shrugged and decided she could look it up later. Either way, she needed a wardrobe.
The Boardwalk was crowded as it always was during the summer. It sat along the only stretch of good beach in town, not that anyone sane would swim in the bay. With all the sunk vessels it was basically a minefield of sunken vessels after all. Still, it made for a good spot to sunbathe and build sandcastles and it also bordered one of the only functional marinas in the city.
So it was that everyone noticed her and Vicky the moment they floated down to the Boardwalk. A hole appeared around them as they descended. Her ears twitched back and forth with every person who spoke. The number of voices was a bit of a muddle, even for her, but she could make out a few.
"Is that the new Ward?"
"Glory Girl's a furry now?"
"... hot as.."
"Isn't she out of costume?"
"Got to get me…"
"...staring at- oh."
"-ficially jealous."
"Can you sign my notebook? Please Ms. Corentine?"
Taylor blinked as a brunette girl a couple of years younger than herself thrust a teal notebook with a small cartoon cat face on the front into her face. She floundered for a moment before the hurried lessons Glen had drilled her on kicked in and she smiled.
"Of course," she said, taking the notebook and the pen clipped to the front, "Can I get a name?"
"Belle Woods," she chirped, clasping both hands together beneath her chin.
Beside Taylor, Vicky covered her mouth and snerked quietly even as she greeted a few people she recognized. Taylor discreetly smacked her in the side with a tail as she signed the inside of the front cover.
'To Belle Woods, you're the first.
Corentine'
She stumbled a little over her hero name, but returned the notebook to the girl who squealed and babbled something about her mother before darting into the crowd.
"First fan already? I'm jealous. Took me months before someone asked for an autograph," Vicky said with a light teasing tone.
Taylor blushed lightly as they walked up to the door of Jessabelle's Closet. No one else ran up to her like the girl did, but everyone was looking at her. The crowd moved like a singular organism, backing out of her way only to close ranks behind them. It was intimidating having so many eyes on her.
Cameras flashed, both normal and cell phones. Just what she needed, her current mode of dress immortalised on PHO. The whispers and stares followed them through the door, though the whispers of the crowd were cut off by the glass door.
Taylor let out a soft sigh. "That was a little…" she trailed off as she noticed the store also had people in it. A few shoppers were staring at them, as was the girl at the counter.
"You either get used to it, or go a bit crazy," Vicky said, patting her on the shoulder before clamping down with the same hand. "Now, let's get to work."
"Vicky- I can walk by myself!" Taylor protested as she was dragged off into the racks.
"Yeah, but we aren't here to window shop, we're here to get you a new wardrobe," Vicky replied.
The clothing in the store wasn't what Taylor would normally look at. Bright and cheerful as opposed to her usual dark colours. Not that she could get away with dark colours all the time. Glen would have an aneurysm if she tried and she was supposed to be trying to be more than just a shut-in.
Just because she wanted to be more didn't make it easy, however.
Standing a little straighter as she mentally psyched herself up, Taylor walked into the racks of clothing feeling a bit like she was storming a fortress. She picked through the clothes, her tails brushing against the racks as she navigated the narrow spaces. Fashion wasn't her thing. It had been Emma's back before and after… Well her entire closet was shades of grey.
Still, she made an effort to judge the clothing fairly without leaning on someone else, like Vicky. Not that the blonde didn't help, leaning over her shoulder to offer advice or hold up something she thought Taylor would like. Shirts, dresses, a few skirts that were turned down immediately, there was a lot to go through.
They were still slowly picking their way through racks of clothing, pointedly ignoring the constant people peeking through the front window and door of the shop, when Mrs. O'Fallon finally showed. She hurried in from the back of the store having evidently arrived via the alleyway. She quickly spotted Taylor and Vicky before hurrying not to them, but to her clerks. They were far enough away, and the store's merchandise muffled sound fairly well, that she only picked up on snippets of what was said. The meaning of which became clear as one of the clerks hung a sign in the door and quickly shooed people away while another one began to lower the blinds across the boutique's windows.
Thankfully the store was well lit.
Mrs. O'Fallon finally approached the three of them with a smile. "I hope you're not having any issues finding anything?" she asked. Taylor gave her a shy smile.
"I'd need to know what I'm looking for," she said, holding up an orange blouse with small tassels along the hem, "Would this look good on me?"
"Hmm… Perhaps if it was bigger," Mrs. O'Fallon said after a moment. Taylor's right ear twitched at the reminder. "Why don't you step into the back with me for a moment? We can take some measurements and figure out what your sizes are properly, rather than guess?"
Taylor glanced down at Inari who just looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "That's… Probably a good idea," she finally said. "Vicky-"
"Go get measured. I'll keep looking for ideas while you get it done," her friend said, waving a hand absently as she examined a rack of shirts.
"This way," Mrs. O'Fallon said, gesturing to the door she'd entered from. Taylor followed her with a resigned sigh. She pointedly ignored Inari's muffled snickers.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Is Fluffy.
Lisa pointedly ignored the prodding of her power as her gaze passed over Mrs. Nakamura. If there was one thing she'd learned about the Asian woman it was that she had some sort of anti-thinker effect going on. As if the shadows killing people and eating their bodies hadn't been enough to tell her she was a parahuman. Which brought up the question of why she was running a cafe on the boardwalk. Most parahumans were more interested in cape life than running cafes.
"Here's your green tea," Lisa said as she set a ceramic cup down on the table.
"Thanks," the man said distractedly before returning to his conversation.
Doesn't like green tea
Lisa restrained a roll of her eyes as she turned away from the table and walked back around the serving counter of the cafe. She hadn't expected a job offer as a waitress after following Mrs. Nakamura up to her apartment. The only reason she'd accepted had been a lack of places to go. Coil likely had people watching her apartment and it hadn't taken her powers to figure out that it was likely Coil was behind the company that provided security for the boardwalk. Which made it unofficial gang territory in a way.
The perky black-haired girl behind the counter shot Lisa a questioning look as she set the platter down a little too hard.
Think you're being dramatic again. Is a bit concerned. Is also fluffy.
Of course, she did. "I'm fine," she told Matsuri, ignoring the slight wiggling of shadows behind the girl. Matsuri was the daughter of Mrs. Nakamura and depending on when Lisa looked at her she was either fifteen, or one hundred and fifty. She'd likely picked up very similar powers to her mother at some point.
"Hmmm, so you say," Matsuri said before turning to the next customer. "Welcome to the Lovely Fox Cafe, how can I help you?" She chirped with a broad smile. Lisa listened with one ear as she started working on the customer's coffee.
If she was being honest despite the constant bluffing of her power, working for Mrs. Nakamura hadn't been bad over the last week. She got room, board, a safe place the enforcers along the boardwalk seemed to either ignore or just not be able to see at all, and she got paid. Admittedly she couldn't go any further than the back dumpster or the little balcony of the apartment above the store which was likely going to make spending that money difficult. She could likely order something online or maybe get Mrs. Nakamura to accompany her for other things…
The bell over the door rang and Lisa glanced up from filling the coffee and paused a second to look to stare at the two entering. She was pulled out of her distraction by the feeling of hot coffee hitting her hand.
"Shit," Lisa hissed as she quickly stopped pouring more coffee into the overflowing cup that by some miracle didn't tip over as she dropped it onto the counter.
"Lisa, are you okay?" Matsuri asked, darting over from the till.
"Just coffee. I'll be fine," she replied, sticking her hand under the tap to rinse off. Her skin was bright red and sensitive to the touch but didn't seem to be badly hurt.
Light burns. Few days to heal.
Thank you powers. Thank you so much for the obvious.
Behind her, Matsuri wiped up the spilt coffee and poured out some of the overfilled coffee before finishing the drink to the customer's specifics. As she did that Lisa snuck a glance back to the line of customers placing orders. At the back were two people who were getting the attention of the entire cafe.
Why the hell were Glory Girl and Corentine in the cafe?
Bags on arms are full of clothes. Shopped at the boardwalk throughout the morning. Likely hungry. Lunch. Are both fluffy.
Lisa felt her eyebrow twitch as the conclusions flowed easily. She hadn't needed her power for that, but there was something about the Nakamura's and now those two that made it extra chatty. She wiped off her hand and took the completed drink from Matsuri. A glance at the display they used to track orders reminded her it was to go. She slipped a prepared rice ball and a pair of pastries into a paper bag before handing them over to the customer who was looking at her with obvious concern.
"Here's your order, sir," she said, trying to fake the same cheerfulness that Matsuri constantly projected. The man took the bag and the drink.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Just a little coffee," Lisa replied, quashing her power as she felt it stir to provide context. She really didn't need more information.
"... Well have a good day," the man said, nodding once before leaving.
"You as well sir," she said before turning back to the display to see the next order Matsuri was ringing up. As she went to start pouring the next cup of coffee a hand fell on her shoulder.
Shadows twitching. Finger's painted and slight. Mrs. Nakamura.
"Are you alright, Lisa?" Mrs. Nakamura asked.
"I'm fine," Lisa replied quickly, only to wince as the older parahuman took her hand in a manicured grip.
"White lies are only those that hurt no one, Lisa," Mrs. Nakamura chided gently with a frown, "Go, sit down. I shall bring burn cream."
"But-"
"Matsuri can handle the orders for a few minutes," Mrs. Nakamura interrupted Lisa's instinctive protest.
Worried for your wellbeing, won't take no for an answer. Fluffy. Tails agitated. Extra fluffy.
Lisa winced again as Mrs. Nakamura's grip tightened ever so slightly over the burned skin. "Yes, ma'am," she said. The older woman promptly released her hand before patting her on the head and giving her a small push toward the tiny table tucked in the corner of the cafe. A small 'staff only' sign indicated its use. The cafe wasn't large enough for a proper breakroom, and using the apartment would make it difficult to help if a sudden rush happened, so Mrs. Nakamura had the week before set out the small sign and table for the use of the two of them.
Lisa settled into the chair and reflexively rubbed the burn only to wince again. "Ow," she muttered and tried to find something to distract herself. Fortunately, two very distracting things had walked in just a few minutes prior. Many of their customers certainly seemed to think so as they used phones and small cameras to snap photos of the two local celebrities. She looked at the two of them and her heart soared a little as her eyes passed over both. God the blonde was kinda cute. A bit like a happy puppy-
Glory Girl is hungry and twitching of ears and tail indicates excitement. Is restraining the urge to fly. Aura-
Right. Lisa gave her head a shake as she tried to focus through the slight aura Victoria Dallon generated even when she was being restrained. She forced her eyes onto the black-haired girl in a red blouse, low blue jeans, and a dark red leather bomber jacket with a white fox draped over her shoulders.
Hungry, annoyed at being photographed. Anxious at the attention. Wishes to be elsewhere.
Huh, a Ward that didn't like attention. How novel.
Skin wrong. Lack of imperfections. Sublayer of gold beneath skin causes reflected light to give the appearance of glowing.
… Sublayer of gold? Actual gold or…?
Pigment unnaturally radiant. Perfect. Fluffy.
Lisa shook her head again as the last word sent a faint tremble of pain across her temples. Yes, she really was fluffy, though that wasn't quite as important as the rest. She risked a glance back at the raven-haired girl with nine tails.
Hair lacks split ends. No lasting damage. Naturally perfect.
Okay, that was unfair. Since when did people get perfect hair as a superpower?
Shadow matches body. Moves in rhythm. Behaviour of tails mirrors Mrs. Nakamura and Matsuri's shadows.
Lisa furrowed her brows.
Conclusion: Mrs. Nakamura is Taylor Hebert's mother.
She gave a disbelieving glance to the older woman as she reentered the front and started toward Lisa. Well, her power could give absurd conclusions at times and there was the issue that Taylor lacked the Asian features she'd expect.
… Taylor Hebert is not related to Mrs. Nakamura. Mrs. Nakamura lacks natural perfection.
Right, she'd probably be better off not listening to her powers for now.
Mrs. Nakamura set a small jar down on the table. "This should help," she said before sitting down at the table.
Not mass manufactured. No label. Homemade. Sealed with a material resembling beeswax.
"Thank you, but I can put it on myself," Lisa said, though she didn't stop the older woman as she pulled Lisa's hand over to her. She winced slightly at the prodding from her nails before Mrs. Nakamura cracked the lid of the jar, letting out a soothing scent.
"I'm sure you can," Mrs. Nakamura said as she scooped a small amount of a smooth red paste from the jar and carefully began to work it into Lisa's hand. Instantly the pain ceased and a soft tingle spread across her skin.
Nerves still functioning. Not nerve damage.
Lisa suppressed a small twitch at her power. Did it have to keep being so loud?
Mrs. Nakamura rubbed the paste into Lisa's hand with her thumb moving in a circular pattern. "You should be more attentive while handling hot liquids," she chided.
Tingling dimming. Burn healing.
What?
Lisa's sarcastic reply about celebrities died on the end of her tongue as she glanced down at her hand. The burn spot had turned spotty with red and clear healthy skin co-mingling.
Paste tinker material?
She quashed the line of thought as her power started speculating about the composition of the material. Tinker. Maybe, possibly. She could believe that given the other parahuman weirdness that was going on.
"That's working quickly," she said softly instead of sticking her foot in her mouth.
"It would be a bad burn cream if it didn't," Mrs. Nakamura said with a small quirk of her lips.
"... Well if that's how you want to play it," Lisa huffed. The older woman hummed and continued to massage away her burn.
"Hmm, you would not believe the truth, child. Few your age would," Mrs. Nakamura after a minute.
"Try me. I think you'll find it harder to lie to me than you think," Lisa replied, her pride prickling at the implication she couldn't tell when even Mrs. Nakamura was lying. Lies were simple. Too many signs for even the best actor to conceal.
Mrs. Nakamura hummed and continued to massage the burn. A moment later there was a flick of Mrs. Nakamura's shadow and the sounds of the cafe changed. Everything became muffled and Lisa shook her head as the older woman paused.
"Perhaps we can test your pride," Mrs. Nakamura said, fixing her eyes on Lisa's. Her words were clear. Lisa swallowed.
Is certain you won't believe the truth. Fluffy.
Thank you power. Thank. You. So much.
"Well, I'm always up for a challenge," Lisa said, shooting a grin she wasn't feeling at the older woman.
Mrs. Nakamura simply smiled. Her thumb continued to massage Lisa's hand as she met her eyes. "The girl who just ordered a platter of pastries. The one with nine tails? She is not human," she said.
Believes this.
"I mean, she's a Parahuman so…" Lisa trailed off as Mrs. Nakamura shook her head.
"She is no Parahuman."
Truth.
Okay… "So what is she?" Lisa asked. If she wasn't human and she wasn't Parahuman that didn't exactly leave much. Unless the Protectorate and PRT started making on-demand Wards?
Lacks signs of biotinkering. Too perfect. No health problems.
Nevermind then.
Mrs. Nakamura smiled. "She is a Goddess," she said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Gods don't exist," Lisa said reflexively even as her power chimed, Truth.
"Hmm, that is the issue with this age. Everyone thinks something strange must have been parahuman," Mrs. Nakamura said, her smile shifting so slightly that Lisa would have missed it without her powers, "Parahumans are human, child. I am not a parahuman."
She is certain of this.
Lisa swallowed. "Then what are you?" she asked.
Mrs. Nakamura's smile widened, showing just the smallest hint of unusually pointy-looking teeth before her shadow moved. It flicked and then much of it pulled away from the ground. Seven black tails flickered behind the woman as something else stood out to Lisa.
No ears on either side of head. Lisa's eyes jerked up to spy the black fuzzy ears on top. Has always had those.
Oh, oh really? Oh… Fluffy? Lisa's eyes darted to Taylor. The girl -- Goddess maybe? -- was sitting by the window enjoying a strawberry jam-filled rice ball while chatting with the other foxgirl.
Fluffy.
Her eyes darted to Matsuri.
Has two.
Thank you power. Lisa turned back to the multi-tailed woman who was still massaging her hand with a raised eyebrow. Lisa opened her mouth to speak-
No one reacting. Room cannot see or hear conversation. Multiple fox tails. Invisible tails. Beautiful woman. Myth of kitsune. Appears to be telling the truth. Possibly Kitsune?
"... Well you definitely believe you aren't," Lisa said hesitantly. She shivered as Mrs. Nakamura let go of Lisa's hand. She glanced down to find it perfectly healed.
"You know better, child," the kitsune across from her said with a shake of her head and Lisa shivered.
It was impossible.
It was true.
Spirits weren't real.
Myths correlate with powers demonstrated. Kitsune?
"Kitsune," Lisa said, the word dropping from her lips involuntarily. Mrs. Nakamura's smile became proud.
"Good girl, Lisa," Mrs. Nakamura said, patting her on the hand, "Take a few minutes to collect yourself. We shall talk more this evening. Then she stood up, suddenly bereft of tails or ears as the sound returned to normal and like nothing had happened she pocketed the suddenly resealed jar before going behind the counter.
Lisa leaned back in her seat, resting her head against the wall with a shuddering breath. What the hell was that?
Kitsune.
Shut up.
She rubbed her head as a sharp pain stabbed through her forehead. God, what had she stumbled into? She-
Being watched.
Her eyes twitched to Taylor Hebert who was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
Heard something. Doesn't recognize the source. Likely sensed thought.
Oh, that was bullshit. She was the one supposed to fake being an omniscient mind reader. Was that girl seriously capable of hearing her- She paused as she recalled what Mrs. Nakamura said, "She is a Goddess."
Goddess.
Thought could be construed as a prayer.
Lisa stood up and swiftly returned to the counter to continue to work, desperately trying to not think about the nine-tailed anomaly eating rice balls and sipping a cup of tea by the window. No matter how much she could feel the girl's eyes on her.
Go- Her. Something. Whatever. What had she gotten into?
-0-0-0-0-0-
It turned out her mother had some level of awareness and giving a shit Sophia hadn't credited her with. She just wished it hadn't manifested in locking her out of the apartment so she could 'get some sun'. So she was taking a walk since her mother wasn't planning on being home for at least two hours. Knowing her it would probably be four.
The streets were busy. It was summer and Brockton Bay's downtown was busy with both the usual weekly crowd and the summer rush of students off of school. The heat of the summer day just added to the swarm of people on the streets. There were children escorted by their parents, teens that roamed between stores in chattering groups, and of course the gangs. Downtown belonged to the E88, though you had to look hard to spot them.
To Sophia, who was feeling slightly buzzed from the shot of wine she'd taken before being forced out of the apartment, it was obnoxious. She didn't want to be out dealing with people let alone the loud enthusiastic people that were so frequent during the summer months. And she hated dealing with downtown. Who wanted to deal with the E88 thugs that would hassle anyone who looked even slightly unlike them?
She was wandering somewhat aimlessly, only paying just enough attention to stay out of the quieter more gang-active areas, with no real destination in mind. She didn't want to be on the street. Didn't want to be baking in the sun. She'd much rather be in her room trying to sort out her thoughts.
Sophia sighed. Not that those were going anywhere but circles.
As she walked along, hands in the pockets of her shorts -- one of which had one and the other the lightsaber she'd picked up -- she tried to ignore the world. It wasn't working. She just couldn't muster the same disdain for everything she could have before. Eventually, she dropped onto a bench in front of a barber shop and immediately dropped her face into her hands, her elbows on her knees. She rubbed her face a few times before leaning back against the bench.
What was she going to do about being Shadow Stalker? Part of her just wanted to toss it all. She'd fucked up enough already, did she need to keep giving herself more opportunities? The other part of her, however, still ached to be the hero she'd always dreamed of. Maybe she could be more than just a thug.
"Ugh. Why is this so hard?" She groaned. A passing woman on the phone glanced at her briefly but kept walking. No one else so much as glanced her way other than a look of annoyance from a short-haired man with the top half of an E88 tattoo sticking out of the collar of a sweat-soaked white tank top. She reflexively flipped him off. The flash of a scowl before the man hurried on got a small chuckle from her.
It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but even the E88 didn't like starting things in public while downtown. Not only was PRT right there, but their public image with the rich folk in the area relied on a certain amount of discretion. It had made busting any E88 operations a matter of luck more than anything, but she'd had better luck when she'd realised they tried to do everything in the dark corners of downtown.
Movement along the awning of a grocery store across the street caught her eye. Something bright teal with four legs and a crooked tail seemed to be running along the awning at a breakneck pace. Little golden sparkles swirled up around it with each step. It looked a little bit like a cat in the brief glimpse she had before something dark and winged dived at it. The cat thing leaped, bouncing off a sign as the other creature's wings attempted to stop it from crashing.
It failed and the cat thing bounced off the awning's end and across and into the next alley. It bounced off the brick wall with a splash of sparkles and disappeared into the alley out of sight as three more of those winged things chased it.
"The fuck…" Sophia muttered, standing up. She slipped through the crowd to the street and glanced either way. By some good luck, there was a large break in the traffic and she hurried across and over to the alleyway. She stopped at the entrance of the alleyway and peered down. The nearby buildings cut off the sun quite well, putting the alley into dim shadows.
Except for the sparkles slowly falling on either side of the alleyway from spots high on the walls. Her first instinct was that going into an alleyway after a strange probably tinker-cat was a bad idea. It was an even worse idea doing so in Downtown.
Which is why she kept going, forcefully giving in to her curiosity.
If her first instinct was to walk the other way then the right thing was probably the opposite. She couldn't trust that her instincts were right after the… yeah…
She ran down the alleyway, the sound of the street fading as she followed the trail of sparkles around a corner into a narrow footpath that ran between the buildings. The trail of sparkles was getting lower to the ground as she hurried after it. Either the cat-thing was getting lower or she was falling further behind.
The alley emptied out onto a basketball court hidden between the buildings. Sophia barely paid attention to the group of older teenagers playing basketball as she followed the trail down one side of the court toward another alleyway that ran straight toward a road. The sound of a basketball smacking into the wall just behind, at about head level, caught her attention. She spared a glance to the group on the basketball court where some sort of argument was breaking out.
She felt a flash of anger. Had some fucker just thrown a basketball at her head? She grit her teeth and kept running. She wasn't in costume so picking a fight with that many assholes when she couldn't use her powers was a bad idea… And she didn't want to listen to the urge to punch someone's face in. It was easier to ignore thanks to the buzz she was still feeling.
With the sound of arguing fading behind her, she followed the trail down the alleyway to another busy street. Only for the trail to disappear in the middle of the sidewalk.
Sophia slowed to a halt as she scanned the area. After a few moments, she sighed. "Well that was pointless," she grumbled, folding her arms behind her head with a huff. The cat-thing and its pursuers were gone without a trace. She glanced to the side and paused as she spotted a sign saying 'Crescent Moon Ice Cream Parlor'. It was advertising a special on cookie dough ice cream cones. She turned to the store which had a wide plate glass window across the front of the store with a golden crescent moon resting in an ice cream cone stencilled on it in gold. The name was written in cursive below it.
It had been a while, but she remembered coming to this ice cream parlour before she'd had her powers. Well, it wasn't like she had anything better to do and ice cream sounded rather nice after that rather pointless chase.
The inside was busy with kids and parents taking up many of the booths and freestanding tables. There was even a line from the door to the counter that wrapped around two of the walls. Filing into line Sophia's mind wandered.
What had those things been? Probably the work of a bio tinker, though she hadn't heard of a bio tinker in Brockton Bay. They had nearly everything else, but bio tinker was the sort of thing the PRT liked to drop on hard. Of course, they could be projections. Well, one of them was probably a projection. Either the teal cat-thing or those… What even were those things? They had reminded Sophia of bats but there was something wrong with them.
"Excuse me, hey anyone in there?" Sophia started as she realised she was at the counter. "Would you like to make an order?" Asked the boy with a grin so forced it looked painful, especially with his braces.
"Why else would I be here?" she snapped before she could stop herself. He flinched slightly at her tone and she winced herself. Damn it. "Sorry," she said, forcing the word out. When was the last time she'd said that to someone? It felt almost like a foreign language. "Rough day," she continued lamely, "I'll um, have the cookie dough. Two scoops. Please."
God, she was fucked up if being polite felt like an arrow out of her leg.
"That'll be… three fifty please," The guy said, giving her a look as he took her money that said he didn't believe a word she'd said. Yeah, she probably hadn't sounded either convincing or sincere. Chalk another up for the thug column.
Once she had her ice cream she took a seat in the back of the parlour at a small table for two with a pair of seats. They both wobbled and one of them even squeaked as she sat down. She used that one to put up her feet as she steadily licked the ice cream cone. It was rather good.
She watched the room without really taking anything in. Her thoughts were too focused on her… Well, bitchiness was probably the most accurate description. She'd snapped at the guy behind the counter because she'd been distracted. If some girl had done that she'd call her a bitch to her face and- And probably punch her. Unless a teacher was nearby.
God damn it.
Sophia massaged her temple. She didn't want to be a thug, but it was like every instinct she had just gravitated to being a bitch. "Fucking powers," she whispered. It had to be her powers. She hadn't been half as much of a bitch before she'd started running around in costume. Maybe it was cape culture? Every cape she knew had a temper of some kind. Every single one could be a total bitch…
Admittedly, most of them were aiming that at her when she did something to piss them off. Maybe it was just her. Or maybe she just needed to leave the costume behind. Shove Shadow Stalker into a closet and move on. Other Parahumans got away with not being violent, so why couldn't she?
The door of the ice cream parlour banged open with the sound of cracking glass. The little bell above the entrance was drowned out as two men in jeans, black shirts, leather jackets, and balaclavas stormed into the parlour waving hunting rifles.
"EVERYONE BACK OF THE ROOM! NOW!" One of them shouted, as he wildly pointed the gun around the room. The other shoved his gun into the face of the boy at the cash register.
"Money! In the bag!" The second guy shouted as he dropped a duffle bag on the counter.
As people screamed Sophia planted her feet on the ground and shoved the last bit of her ice cream cone into her mouth. Were these losers seriously robbing an ice cream parlour?
"Who the fuck robs an ice cream parlour?" Sophia asked as she glared at the robbers. The rest of the patrons were either at the walls or dragging their children with them to the walls. Her gaze slid past the robber to the cashier who was frantically filling the bag. She tisked. If she'd been in costume she could do something… Then again, hostages. Maybe she could go through the roof maybe?
Ugh… No good options without a distraction.
As though hearing her thoughts the plate-glass window shattered as a teal-coloured cat went flying through it followed by a half dozen of the flying creatures from before. A cry somewhere between a shriek and a croak echoed through the room. The cat threw its attacker off and darted between the tables as the two robbers swung their guns toward the creatures.
"What the fuck are those?" The one at the till shouted.
"Tinker bullshit. Shoot 'em!" The second shouted, firing his weapon. People screamed and around the room, people ducked as the guns swung high. A bullet punched through a picture of a beach a foot to Sophia's right.
She flinched away from the spray of glass. A line across her right cheek burned. "Fuck!" She cursed and threw herself out of the chair. One of the flying critters passed her by and she got a much better look at it.
It looked like someone had either taken a bat and tried to make it amphibious, or taken a frog and tried to make it fly. Either way, it looked slimy with far too wide a mouth full of far too many teeth and foot-wide leathery wings on either side.
The cat bounced off a table and caught one of the bat-frog things around the neck with a foreleg. The pair fell out of the air and caught the guy at the till in the face. The pile of man, cat-thing and abomination against nature hit the ground with much screaming from the man.
"Jack!" The second guy shouted, swinging his gun toward his partner. He hesitated trying to find a good shot, only for another bat-frog thing to clip him in the temple. He stumbled but didn't fall.
Seeing an opportunity, Sophia scrambled to her feet and charged. She vaulted one table, slid across another and ended her charge with a sucker punch to the back of the robber's skull. He dropped like a sack of bricks.
The teal cat-thing tossed the badly mauled remains of the bat-frog against the counter. It looked up and for a moment Sophia got a good look at the bright yellow stars on its ears before it leaped off the robber's face and charged back out the window. The swarm of bat-frog things swirled after it.
Sophia kicked the robber's gun away from him before chasing after the cat-thing. "Not getting away this time!" she shouted as she made sure to step hard on his stomach.
Out the window she went, her eyes following the bat-frog things as they banked down the street. She sprinted after them. She had to weave between the crowd of gawkers, many of whom were snapping pictures or pointing at the strange critters. At least it made it easy to track them.
The cat was leaping across parked cars, off of signs, and generally, anything that was conveniently placed for what looked like maximum style points. The cat did not need to do a handstand into a backflip to evade the frog-bat things. That it was doing so anyway said a lot about how dangerous the cat considered them.
She caught sight of the cat bounce off a bakery's hanging sign and sail down an alleyway. She took the corner at a run, kicking off the far wall of the alley to redirect her momentum. The alleyway was occupied. Two men, one skinny with a big scar down his left cheek and the other fat and bald, were visible from around a dumpster.
"What the fuck were those!" Skinny yelled waving a purse at the critters.
"Parahuman bullshit. Let's get going before some protectorate schmuck shows," Fatty said, hefting a baseball bat on his shoulder. Neither of them was looking her way.
Now that Sophia was away from the crowds she could hear crying from somewhere near the two. Sophia scowled. Muggers and probably a victim. She didn't have time for some weak-
"Hero or thug, Sophia?" Taylor's voice rattled the inside of her head from the depths of her memory.
The black girl's teeth clenched. No, she couldn't fall into that habit. Not again. Her shoes pounded the pavement harder as she sped up then jumped, kicking off the wall to get enough height to get over the dumpster quickly.
"Huh?" Skinny turned, right into a sliding kick from Sophia. She felt his nose break as she slid off the dumpster. She rolled as she hit the ground and immediately transitioned into a below-the-belt kick at fatty. He was in the middle of winding up a swing with his bat when her foot slammed into his groin. She smirked as he let out a scream as he fell to his knees. Her rising knee met his descending head with a crack. She winced at the pain of taking his skull straight to her unprotected knee, but it was enough to topple the big guy onto his side whimpering.
Neither of them was doing more than whimpering on the ground as she scooped up the purse and passed it to a wide-eyed woman who had been crying. She wiped the tear streaks from her face as she took it.
"T-thank you," she said, her voice choking.
"Get outta here before they get up again. I need to keep moving," Sophia said as she spun on her heel and sprinted after the cat. Hopefully, she hadn't lost too much time.
"Wait!" The woman shouted. Sophia ignored her as she followed the trail of sparkles the cat had left. Like before the alleyway turned a corner and she took it the same way, kicking off a wall to keep her momentum. The alleyway began to slope downward and soon she reached the end where it turned abruptly into a sheer drop with only a chain link fence to keep people from falling two storeys to the ground.
She slammed into the chainlink fence and stopped. Breathing hard she looked through the fence at the drop. This was where the downtown gave way to the industrial and residential sections that lead into the docks. It was a rather sudden difference as skyscrapers turned into one or two-storey warehouses and offices. A concrete staircase to her right led down to where the alleyway continued below.
"Where is it?" she muttered looking for- There. She spotted the frog-bat things swooping at something that was darting between rooftop services. She glanced down and measured the angle and distance, then glanced behind her. There didn't seem to be any cameras, or anybody for that matter. She took a few steps back then ran at the fence. She jumped right before she hit it and shifted. Her shadowy breaker state slipped through the mesh of the fence as she sailed on. She fell slower, which let her get a bit more distance to land on the rooftop of a warehouse. She only dropped it just before she'd have gone through the roof and went straight into a sprint across the rooftop.
Sophia vaulted an air conditioner, slid under a bit of ducting that was a little too high to vault and took the next gap in her breaker state. She landed easily and kept running.
In the distance, the cat danced around its pursuers. It was a little teal blur jumping and tumbling out of the way as it led them on a chase across the rooftops. Only… Sophia was fairly certain there were more of the bat-frog things than there had been prior. Nearly a dozen of them.
The cat's evasive actions were slowly it down, however, and she was starting to gain on them. She fished the lightsaber from her pocket as she rolled to her feet after a near-miss landing on the next roof. There was a chance she might need it.
Up ahead she watched the cat leap off the roof of the last warehouse in line into the alleyway. She took the next jump then ran to the edge of the roof and looked down. The cat was bouncing between stacks of pallets as it continued to lead the frog-bats on.
Sophia frowned. She could see a couple of security cameras watching the alley from this angle. As much as she wanted to find out what the hell was going on, she didn't want to expose herself as a parahuman. As it was she was really pushing the limits of what she could realistically get away with. She watched the cat practically toy with the frog-bat things in full view of the cameras.
"Is it a parahuman?" she muttered. She was starting to think it was a changer of some kind. It was too smart for a normal cat. Though she supposed it could be a bio tinker creation. Maybe it escaped from the other critter's creator or perhaps it was from a rival tinker. The odds of two bio-tinkers showing up at the same time were extraordinary, but weirder stuff had happened in Brockton Bay.
Like the fact, it was still standing.
Then the wall of the warehouse she was standing on exploded as something large and dark smashed through it. It snagged the cat in mid-air and continued on, smashing through the far wall of the alleyway. Bricks and dust crumbled around the hole. The frog-bat things dove through the hole and their abominable cries rang strangely off the walls.
Sophia leaped off the wall, flowing into shadows until she reached the ground. A frog-bat whipped by her head shrieking. She flinched as she stepped into the opening in the wall. A brick fell beside her and she took another step for safety from debris as her eyes adjusted to the dim interior.
Something large was standing atop a toppled pile of shelves and boxes. Frog-bats flapped around it. Barely visible in its meaty left hand was the cat, mostly visible from the sparks that were fountaining out of the creature's hand as the cat struggled. The large thing, a brute of some sort, spoke. Sophia flinched with pain. The language, if it could be called that, grated her ear drum even as it made the world feel like it was pitching and tossing. The sea in a powerful storm was the best way she could think of to describe it. Only, if the sea was made of razor blades.
To her surprise, a voice emerged from the bundle speaking something that sounded Greek to Sophia. Quite literally.
Her eyes were getting more used to the poor lighting. The thing holding the cat was an amphibian of some sort with smooth slimy-looking dark blue skin that was nearly black. It was taller than her by at least another two feet, with a hunched back, and large and unnaturally long arms that seemed to have two extra joints. It possessed webbed feet at the ends of its legs. Spines of what looked like bone jutted up from its shoulders and down its back in rows. Its head was large and seemed to lack a proper neck as the head was nearly as wide as its shoulders. Hunched forward with an appearance a bit like a frog, its mouth was wide and full of teeth but strangely its eyes seemed to point forward.
Also, it smelled really bad. Like someone had tossed rotten fish with a bag of chicken manure. Sophia had to breathe through her mouth but that meant she could taste it in the air.
The humanoid frog raised its other hand, and with a word that made the air taste purple a serrated trident of bone formed in its right hand. It raised the trident in a reverse grip, with its intent clear.
"No!" Sophia shouted. With a snap-hiss, her sword lit up as she leaped off the pile of rubble. The smell of rotten fish impossibly got worse when her blade seared straight through its left arm. The brute reeled back with a warbling cry of pain.
Two frog-bats dived at her shrieking their ear rending cry. She cut the first in half before phasing through the second. A third had its head cleaved off by Sophia twirled back to the brute. To her shock, the glowing blade stopped dead against the bone tongs of the trident.
The frogman smiled, showing its wall of yellow teeth wider than her head, before it shoved her back. Her footing on the rubble slipped and she tumbled across the ground before finding her footing again in time for it to speak again. Words raked across reality and its severed arm turned into a pile of rotten seaweed and seashells that squirmed and wriggled back to the main body.
Sophia fought the urge to hurl as it writhed its way up to the seared stump and reformed into a fresh arm. Instead, she phased through several frog-bats and cut another out of the air.
Three down.
The cat was lying on the pile of rubble and weakly pulling itself toward a nearby overturned wooden box.
The frogman flexed its new hand and looked at Sophia. It rumbled something and Sophia could swear her eardrums felt like they were being squeezed in a vice. Whatever it was saying, it clearly wasn't meant for anyone sensible to hear.
"What are you?" she asked it as she raised her sword, "Parahuman? Tinker creation?"
It chuckled. "To Vathý," It rumbled as though that explained everything. Or anything at all. At least the words didn't hurt her ears.
"That doesn't tell me anything," she said before phasing through a frog-bat and stepping back. Her blade pierced straight through another one and it fell nearly in two pieces. The warehouse was stinking up even further the more of the creatures she killed.
"To Vathý tha eínai nikitís," It said before lunging at her. She tried to block with her blade, only for the trident to push it back toward her. She jerked to the side and phased out, passing through the strike to her stomach. The brute was too strong for her to meet head-on. She'd have to take it carefully then.
The trident slashed through her form and she came out of phasing as she stepped forward and drove her through the shoulder. A jerk as she stepped back removed the lower muscles of the shoulder and bisected the arm just ahead of the elbow. It hissed as it jumped back away from her follow-up lunge. She phased through a frog-bat and then cut another out of the sky. In the process taking her eye off the frogman for a second.
A meaty fist caught her in the side and with a cry, she was hurled into the stack of boxes. Her ribs, and in fact most of her body, were creaking with pain as she pulled herself out of the box she'd crashed through. Packing peanuts cascaded around her as she retrieved her sword and stood up. Across the way rotting seaweed and other detritus filled in the injury she'd inflicted. It picked up the trident again and snapped its jaws at her.
Sophia grit her teeth to focus through the pain as she cut another frog-bat out of the air. She ducked another and tried to find stable footing. Loose wood, metal and packing peanuts shifted beneath her like the roiling ocean. The frogman didn't seem to have issues as he charged with a warbling cry, not unlike the frog-bats. Her feet sank a few inches and she threw herself aside. She phased through a box and came out the other side rolling to her feet on the top of a much more sturdy crate.
The trident smashed through the boxes where she'd been before being swept toward her. It smashed through metal and wood without slowing down and the mass of debris shifted like a wave towards her. She leaped aside, phasing through the edge of the wave, and stumbled back into physical reality atop the pile of bricks by the hole in the wall. A frog-bat dived at her face and was cut in twain before she slid-stepped another and cut it down too.
Just four of the annoying flying freak shows left.
She twirled her blade and held out her free hand to the frogman, in the process ignoring the creaking pains across her body, and beckoned it toward her with a twitch of her fingers. It chuckled and rather than oblige her it spoke again in that reality-wrecking language. Tones and syllables cracked against reality like the sea against a cliff and something wet dribbled down along the right side of Sophia's neck accompanied by a sharp pain in her ear.
"Would you shut the fuck up already!" she snapped at it as strands of rotten seaweed wriggled up through the packing peanuts and boxes. They grew like they were alive beneath the sea in long wriggling tendrils and as they did the room began to darken. Like they were draining the light to grow.
The frogman chuckled as darkness fell across the room and even the light pouring in through the hole seemed to darken to a faint twilight. Yet between the twilight of the summer sun and her lightsaber, she stood in the only bright spot in the entire warehouse. Everything else was naught but wriggling shadows.
Sophia swallowed nervously and took a step back toward the exit. Her instincts were screaming at her to leave. To run. She was fighting some sort of shaker/brute monstrosity. If it hit her even once more she was going to be down and that would be it. This wasn't a fight she was equipped to win, especially with its regeneration.
It took more willpower than she'd like to admit to reverse her step backward and plant the foot closer to darkness. "Is this it?" She shouted with confidence she wasn't feeling. She was utterly terrified in truth, but she wasn't going to run.
She wasn't going to be that girl again.
The frogman seemed to find her words amusing. Its chuckles echoed strangely through the darkness as though they were underwater. She tried to track it by the sound, but like all noises the thing produced it was too distorted to make sense of. Or perhaps it was just moving around a lot. She could hear crunching and movement.
Her grip tightened around the hilt of her lightsaber. Which direction-
Shadows shifted to her right and she reflexively phased out in time for the trident and the frogman to pass through her like a missile only to vanish into the darkness again. Her eyes scanned the area it vanished into, but nothing stood out.
A warbling shriek announced a frog-bat that dived from the rafters. She stepped back and cut it down before stepping to the right and punching another one out of the air. Her fist ached even as she stomped on the thing's head.
Two left.
"Freaky fucking monsters. What the fuck are you?" she shouted into the darkness. This was starting to remind her of Taylor in the worst way. Taylor when she'd been angry. When she'd forced Sophia to face the truth. Only, this felt twisted. Dark like the bottom of the sea. Honestly, she was starting to wonder if this thing had ever been human. Its very existence seemed to be a spiteful condemnation of reality.
She'd seen a lot of parahumans over the last few years, and this thing acted like none of them. Maybe the Nine, but nothing anyone sane would consider human.
The sound of something flying through the air reached her and she reflexively phased out just in time to avoid a box larger than she was thrown from the opposite direction she was looking in. A heartbeat later, as she was phasing back, the frogman dropped out of the darkness from above. She narrowly leaned aside as the serrated edge of the trident stabbed down slicing a shallow but ragged line from shoulder to hip. She stepped back and phased through the follow up sweep before lunging and taking a leg off at the hip.
A frog-bat lunging out of the darkness prevented her from following up as the frogman rolled into the darkness. She sliced it out of the air.
One left.
She scanned the darkness again and winced as the frogman called its lost limb back to it. There had to be a way to incapacitate the thing, but she was starting to think that only death could put it down for long. The question was, how did you kill something that reformed every time you cut a limb off?
Well, if zombie movies were a guide then she just needed to take its head off, or maybe stab the brain. Worst case scenario maybe she needed to incinerate it somehow. The last one wasn't something she could do, but the other two…
Sophia ground her teeth. Stopping this thing without killing it wasn't feeling possible. Part of her, the Shadow Stalker part, was screaming at her to either kill it or run. The other part of her, the part that she'd been trying to listen to more over the last few days, was reluctant to take that step. She'd pinned a few people to walls with bolts before, but there was a step between leaving a nazi for his friends to help and actually taking a life with her own hands.
Though the way this thing was going she was starting to wonder which was worse. All-natural human hatred, or the reality-scraping monster in front of her.
More sounds that stabbed at her ears led to the feeling of liquid running down the other side of her neck. She finally reached a hand up to her neck. It came away sticky and she could recognize the red on it.
This thing was literally making her bleed from the ears.
The sounds became further muffled as the frogman stopped speaking. A consequence, she assumed, of having punctured eardrums. She was lucky she could hear anything at all. Maybe they weren't punctured. Maybe it was just blood pooling in her ears. Which… was probably a worse sign honestly.
Distracted as she was she failed to spot a blur in the darkness before a foot long conch shell that had been sharpened to a point slammed into and through her right knee. She couldn't stop the scream of pain as she collapsed. She only barely kept hold of her lightsaber as she grabbed at the wound.
Just barely thinking straight, she used the blade to carve off the excess length of the conch shell on either side of her knee. With tears and feeling agony in her knee she tried to rise to her feet only to fall to one knee. More chuckles reverberated through the warehouse as she failed to completely muffle the scream of pain the action provoked.
"Fucker's… toying with me," she growled. Running away was now impossible. Hell, reacting was going to be a chore with a literal seashell through her fucking knee. The amount of blood dribbling around the wound couldn't be a good sign either.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
She was going to die, wasn't she?
And yet… she glared out at the darkness as her heart thundered and the pain receded. "Well is that all?!" she shouted, "Can't fight me straight fucking up? Just a girl with the power to run away and you can't even fight the courage to fight me face to face? Pathetic. What did you call yourself? Tobo Vati? Too sorry?" Her mouth was running faster than her survival instinct now. "That last one sounds about right. Too sorry. Too fucking pathetic to fight someone as shitty as me."
The chuckles stopped and she grinned through the pain at the silence except for the distant sound of emergency sirens. About fucking time. "What's wrong? Don't like the truth?" She taunted.
The frogman emerged from the darkness, its too-wide mouth drawn into a line of displeasure. Its spear was held in both hands as it approached. It stopped just out of reach of her weapon. Fuck.
They stared at each other for a moment. Her skin began to crawl as she stared into its horizontally slitted eyes. They were far too large for comfort and for some reason, she imagined she could feel malice shining deep within each orb.
"Well? Are you trying to stare me to death? Or are you just waiting for me to bleed out? Smart, but fucking cowardly," she told it, gesturing at it with her lightsaber. Its lips peeled back to reveal the yellowed teeth once again.
A warbling shriek sounded from her right and she panicked and slashed at the last frog-bat. It fell in two with a hiss right as she felt three points of pain enter her side and hauled her off the ground. She screamed as the frogman held her above him. It laughed, its humour grating her bleeding ears as it laughed so hard its eyes closed.
She smiled through the pain and dropped her sword.
The bright white blade caught the frogman in the center of the skull and burned effortlessly through the entire body to clatter to the ground and turn off as the button struck something hard enough to trigger it. The two halves of the frogman fell apart and Sophia hit the debris with a scream of agony.
Lying on her back, with the trident in her side and a conch shell in her knee, she watched as the body of the monster dissolved into rotting seaweed and seashells. With it went the darkness as twilight became midday again and the lights within the warehouse finally pierced the shroud it had raised. Rotting seaweed fell limply across packing peanuts and discarded bits of wooden crates.
"Gotcha," she laughed as it failed to reform. She got it.
She lay there on the debris as a cold feeling inched its way through her body. "... Dying over a cat," she mused, letting out a giggle. It wasn't how she expected to die. Honestly, she'd figured someone like Kaiser would eventually get the drop on her and she'd be buried in an unmarked grave. Well, when she was willing to admit she wasn't immortal anyway. Which wasn't often.
A soft meow caused her to tip her head to the side. The teal cat had pulled itself up the side of the debris pile. Its back legs seemed to be limp. Sophia winced. "Guess we're both not doing well," she told it, "... sorry I wasn't faster."
It meowed again and pulled itself the last inch to let it rest its nose against hers. She stared into the eyes of the teal cat. They were rather expressive and though dimming seemed to have a shine of intelligence in them. Weakly she reached up with her hand and scratched the cat behind the ear.
"Shorry…" she said again, her tongue having trouble forming the word. The cat meowed and though her vision was getting dark at the edges it was like the cat was glowing… She blinked and darkness fell again, only to be blasted away as something warm exploded within her chest. It forced away the cold and she sat up gasping for breath.
She clutched at her heart as it thundered and after a moment the fact she could see again and feel her limbs registered. "What?" she looked about, patting herself down as she stumbled to her feet. She was right where she'd been laid out on the debris pile. There was the rotten seaweed and seashells, and the air still smelled of rotten fish and chicken manure. Her clothes were oddly intact and unbloodied and she was pretty sure she could hear clearly again…
"Where's the cat?" she asked the room as she looked down. There was no sign of the cat. She spun on the spot scanning for it. It had been nearly as badly injured as she was so where was the cat?
"Warn the Queen of the Sea. The To Vathý are free again."
Sophia jumped with shock as a feminine voice echoed from within her own head. She clutched her heart. "Who is this?" she asked aloud with a wavering voice. After a moment no reply came. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Nothing.
Laughing nervously Sophia reached down and plucked her lightsaber from where it lay. She was going to have to clear it when she got home… Hell, she was going to have three showers in a row when she got home. She doubted anything else was going to get rid of the smell.
The wail of sirens, far closer than before, finally registered in her head. "Oh shit," she muttered, glancing down at the seaweed and seashells. No body. No cat. Just her. "Oh fuck me." She edged out of the gap in the wall, listening. Yeah, those sirens were really damned close and if they found her there, without a mask?
Well, she was going to be in a lot of trouble without evidence of what had happened. "Shit, shit shit," she muttered as she looked around and tried to triangulate a path out. After a moment she frowned and looked back up the way she came. The staircase at the end of the alleyway was probably her best bet.
Putting the plan into motion she dropped her lightsaber into her pocket and sprinted back up the alleyway as fast as she could manage praying that it would be fast enough to get away from the PRT.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Taylor faceplanted onto her bed with a happy sigh. She was done with all the attention and fans and shopping. How Vicky loved it so much was beyond her. She was just happy to have some clothes that actually fit her properly now.
"You know you still need to put this stuff away."
"Go 'way Inari," Taylor grumbled into her bed.
The bed shifted as her advisor hopped onto the bed. "Hey, I'm not the one covering the floor with dropped bags," Inari said before nudging her in the side.
"It's not covered. There's like three bags," Taylor replied with a groan. She'd only brought back three bags of clothes because the rest were being tailored. Tailored for Taylor. She groaned and rolled over away from Inari. Admittedly being on her back was more comfortable these days.
Stupid brain and stupid puns.
Her left ear flicked irritably as Inari blocked the view of her ceiling. "I'm not getting up," she told the fox.
"I mean that is your prerogative as a Goddess," Inari said, prompting an eyeroll from Taylor, "But unlike myself when I was a Goddess you don't have servants."
That was a point. But she still didn't want to get up properly… and getting up would also mean she'd have to wash the stuff in the bags. She didn't want to do laundry. Her tails curled around her and she yawned. "Still don't want to."
She rolled onto her side and looked past Inari. Her room had taken all day to clean up after her little… incident, with Emma and Sophia. Everything was back where it was supposed to be, barring a few photos that still needed new frames. Even the windows had been replaced. Turned out, being a public Ward had the advantage of the PRT springing for new windows. From Dragon. The material they were made out of didn't ping her sense of tinker tech, but she'd been assured that they'd take anything short of an artillery shell just fine. Which was a bit excessive because she was pretty sure the walls would have given up a long time before.
She ignored Inari poking her with her paws before rolling over again and capturing the spirit fox in her arms.
"Just relax," she yawned, grinning as Inari squirmed. After a few moments the white fox stopped trying to escape.
"This is humiliating," Inari grumbled.
"This, is what you signed up for," Taylor replied, throwing a couple of tails over the both of them. She yawned again and noted that the sunlight seemed to be just where she wanted it. She felt nice and cosy under her tails…
A loud rapping noise caused her to jerk up, accidentally sending Inari rolling across the bed. Standing in the doorway was her Dad.
"... Huh? What was that for?" Inari yawned, lying on her back.
"Dinner time, Little Owl," her father said with a smile.
Taylor blinked and stretched. Dinner? Already? She yawned. "Did I fall asleep?" she asked as her tails unfurled.
"Seems like it," her dad said, "I've got burgers made."
Burgers sounded good. She stretched one more time before following her Dad downstairs. Floating, because she didn't feel like walking.
She stifled a yawn with one hand. Her ear twitched as she heard Inari tumble off the bed and pad after them.
Dinner, as it turned out, wasn't just a couple of burgers. Her Dad had an entire platter of burger patties waiting for her. She stared at the platter. There had to be twenty of the things. Heck, there was an entire plate of bacon beside it too.
"Not hungry?" her Dad asked as he placed one onto a pre-prepared bun.
"... How much do you think I can eat?" she asked him, feeling her ear twitch.
He took a moment to answer her as he chewed a bite. "Last time I checked? Two challengers," he said, causing a blush to shine on her cheeks.
The nine-tailed girl started to put together a burger of her own. With bacon and lettuce and onion and tomatoes and everything else that was in reach. Because she was rather hungry now that she was staring at food.
Once she had a plate of burgers, about five or so, she sat down at the table with a sigh. "How was your day?" her Dad asked.
"Hmm?" Taylor looked up, her mouth full of a burger. "Hrm… mmmh?"
"Swallow, then talk, Taylor," her Dad chuckled.
"Sorry," she said a few moments later, "It went well? Vicky had a blast and… Well it was fun with her I guess?" Honestly, Vicky had been a breath of fresh air on the whole experience and a source of encouragement… Though she wasn't sure she'd ever have the confidence to wear some of the things Vicky had talked her into getting. She'd bought them though.
They were even colourful.
"I only counted three bags," her Dad said.
Taylor took a bite of her burger and after she swallowed said, "There's like another ten or so with a Tailor… Don't."
Her father raised an eyebrow with a grin.
"Don't. My brain already inflicted that one on me," she grumbled, taking another bite.
He chuckled and continued eating. She ignored how she went through the entire plate by the time he was done with his one burger. Or that by the time she was done there were only a few strips of bacon that somehow failed to make it to the fridge.
She blamed Inari.
"Why don't we watch a movie?" her Dad suggested as they were cleaning up, "Unless you have other plans for tonight?"
Taylor shook her head. "Nope. Just planning on relaxing… and maybe doing some laundry. I need to wash the new clothes," she said. A movie sounded good. Her ears perked up as she considered what they could watch.
A stray piece of lettuce disappeared into her mouth as she thought it over.
Well, whatever they wound up watching it was going to be a good night.
-0-0-0-0-0-
It was going to be a long night for Colin. They'd received reports of strange animals followed by reports of a girl chasing them and that was followed up by reports of some sort of monster nearby. By the time the authorities arrived at the site of the disturbance there had been nothing there.
That wasn't quite right. There had been two wrecked warehouses by the time Colin had arrived on his motorcycle. Strangely, in the rubble had been piles of rotting seaweed, including some that had been seemingly growing through the concrete flooring. Clear signs of parahuman presence.
He'd taken samples. Their state of decomposition seemed to imply an effect that triggered a rapid deterioration of the material. Or that something was, for some reason, creating rotten seaweed. Neither was outside the limit of possibility when dealing with parahumans. The purpose for such a thing was at this point a matter entirely of speculation. As were the reasons for some of it being charred with the appearance of having been sliced apart by something at an extremely high temperature.
The presence of the bodies of several flying amphibians with a distinct resemblance to terrestrial bats served to, in conjunction with recovered images posted online, suggest that whatever had occurred had connections to the reports of unusual animals rampaging through downtown. Including an incident of them breaking up a robbery at an ice cream parlour. The parlour that had functional security cameras.
Between the ice cream parlour and the warehouse's security footage, there was a lot to go through. Though the piece he was most curious about was a six-foot-long trident made of bone.
"Colin."
His suit hadn't been able to cross-reference the type in the field. His equipment in the lab, however, seemed to peg it as belonging to a humpback whale. However, it didn't seem to match any particular bone in the whale's body.
"Colin."
Even accounting for it having likely been shaped, though the material showed no signs of either glues or tool markings, there wasn't anything that could give six feet of straight line bone. Perhaps a jaw bone, or something from the-
"Colin!"
Colin looked up from the results of his analysis to the exasperated expression of Dragon on his monitor. "Sorry, I was distracted," he said.
"I noticed," she said, "I've gone over the footage from the incident you forwarded to me."
"And?" He'd gone over the footage himself before sending it to Dragon. The frogman that had smashed through the warehouse door, killed five men, and then blown through two walls into another warehouse had been strange. As was the fact they hadn't found evidence of either a body or a path of destruction leading away. It suggested intelligence.
"I couldn't spot the identifying marker for a Case 53," she said. He nodded. He hadn't found one either, but the confirmation was good. "Which means they're either a normal case parahuman or some sort of bio-tinker creation."
"The latter would be exceptionally worrisome if true," He grunted, setting the printout down on the table, "Unfortunately, the amphibious bats suggest a particular bent reminiscent of a Tinker's specialty. Amphibious biology perhaps?"
"Possibly. We can't rule it out," Dragon said, "But there are a couple of things you missed."
"Oh?" This was why he'd sent it her way.
Three of his monitors changed to still frames. One appeared to be a distant shot through the hole out into the alleyway from the first warehouse. The second seemed to be from a camera that had been mostly pointing the wrong way in the alleyway. The third also seemed to be from the alleyway… though pointing straight up.
He frowned at the last one. A dark-skinned girl in a t-shirt and shorts was peering over the roof with something in hand. She… looked a touch familiar but the image was quite blurry. Likely due to damage to the camera, or just because the camera wasn't focused properly.
"If we adjust for exposure," Dragon said as the first image darkened until the silhouette of a girl with a blazing white stick of some sort could be seen. "And this bit here is zoomed in…" The second image highlighted a corner and enlarged it. The image was blurry, but it seemed to be a human figure running down the alleyway in the distance… With a shirt that appeared to be the same colour as the first image.
"She looks familiar," he said after a moment.
"That's because she is," Dragon said as a fourth monitor brought up the profile of a dark-skinned girl. Beside her picture was an image of a hockey mask wearing cloaked figure. "Sophia Hess, aka. 'Shadow Stalker'. Vigilante, suspected in five incidents of assault with a deadly weapon against E88 and ABB gangsters. Nothing has been proven properly in court, but she's the only known parahuman in the city to favour a crossbow at this time. Most recently she was involved with some drama a couple of days ago at the Hebert residence. There were some allegations of bullying, but no reported actions that would be considered criminal at this time."
Ah, that was where he recognized her from. The security briefings on the events over the weekend. "What is she doing there out of costume?" he wondered. It was strange behaviour for a cape to engage in. Secret identities were a strong part of cape culture for a reason. For someone to be behaving like this out of costume suggested she had either turned to crime… Or perhaps didn't care about being found out anymore.
"I've a few more frames from the camera in the warehouse," Dragon said, "But nothing that really gives reason to the events of the day."
He nodded. "Have you managed to recover the footage from the second warehouse?" he asked. Something had flooded the second warehouse's recording server with rancid-smelling salt water.
"Some footage from over the previous week, but nothing in the time frame of the incident," Dragon said, shaking her head.
Colin sighed. "Do you believe it's enough to bring Shadow Stalker in for questioning?" he asked. It sounded enough to him, but he'd been known to get that wrong.
"Most definitely," Dragon said.
"I'll see about bringing her in tomorrow morning. We do have her place of residence on record, I believe?" Dragon's reply was simply the scrolling of the monitor showing her profile. "Good. I'll deal with it myself in the morning." he tapped the results of his analysis of the bone trident. "I'm more concerned about this. Especially if there's a possible connection to the other trident we've picked up recently."
"Well, I happen to agree with the analysis. It does appear to be whale bone, but the shape and internal structure…"
-0-0-0-0-0-
Sophia's hand twitched as she mumbled something in her sleep. It squeezed her pillow tightly as she shifted beneath the covers. She'd managed to give the PRT the slip and make it home at around the same time as her mother. Close enough she'd only had time to get a few angry looks for the rotten seafood smell that had clung to her following the fight. It had even gotten her mother to complain about it when she'd let her into the apartment. She honestly couldn't recall a time when that woman had shoved her into the bathroom with a broom before.
Ignoring the amusing reaction of the woman who qualified as her mother, Sophia had taken long enough in the shower to have had two of them back to back. By that point, the only thing she could smell was her mother's lavender shampoo. After that she'd had a late dinner, three shots of wine to try and forget the monstrosity she'd fought, and promptly passed out in bed.
A rap rap rap on the door did little more than get a mumble about rabbits running away. The louder series that followed just caused her to roll over and bury her head under her pillow with a grumble. The loud bang of a fist hitting the door was accompanied by, "SOPHIA GET UP!"
Sophia jerked awake. "Eh? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT BITCH?" She shouted back at her mother after spitting out some hair that got into her mouth. She stretched like a cat, pushing her pillows toward the headboard with both hands. She yawned. Fuck she felt good. That was some of the best sleep she'd ever had.
"SOMEONE TO SEE YOU! GET DRESSED AND OUT HERE! NOW! AND SHOW SOME DAMNED RESPECT!" Her mother shouted through the door. Sophia stared daggers at the door. She'd show respect when the bitch started acting like a mother.
She shook her head and felt her hair sway against her neck. Had her hair tie come undone while she was sleeping? Ugh, it would explain the hair in her mouth. Her head felt heavy as she rolled out of bed and walked across to her stash of wine bottles. Some bumped her leg as she retrieved the shot glass from the night before and poured herself a glass.
The burn was nice and she closed her eyes as the feeling of mellowness settled over her… though oddly it didn't feel like it had mellowed her all that much. Not that she wasn't feeling mellow, but more… More like she hadn't needed it as much. Odd… Then again, she'd had three right before bed. There was probably still some in her system. She phased the cork back into place and slipped the bottle behind the low bookshelf.
Stretching again Sophia bent backwards with a yawn. Yeah, that had been a really good night's sleep…
Why was the world upside down?
She blinked. Had she just bent over far enough that she was basically upside down without even noticing? Last time she'd tried something like that she'd nearly pulled a muscle. She was a track star, not a gymnast.
"Weird," She muttered before righting herself only for something oddly teal in colour to fall across her vision. "What the fuck ar- Hair?" Her voice trailed off as she brushed what seemed to be her own hair out of her eyes. She pulled a bit in front of her. It seemed to be the same bright shade of teal as the cat had been…
Two things on top of her head seemed to lay down and she hurried to her closet. The sliding mirror that made up the inner door had to be practically excavated as she kicked loose junk out of her closet. She stared at her reflection in disbelief.
She had teal hair. Not just teal hair, but voluminous teal hair like someone had lit her up with hair spray in her sleep. It was nearly down to her butt! Even more worryingly than that was the two triangular things pointing out of her hair. Animal ears. They twitched and moved and were the same shade of teal as the rest of her hair except for small yellow stars just visible on the inside of each of them.
Both hands reached up and she flinched at the strange sensation of something touching her very sensitive cat ears. "What the fuck did that cat do to me?" she whispered with a hint of panic.
Something teal flickered erratically in and out of sight along her waist. Hands flew down and grabbed at something behind her. She winced as they not only found something, but pulled it. It seemed to be connected to her tail bone which, given that it seemed to be a yellow star-tipped teal cat tail, made sense.
"What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck?" Sophia repeated as she stared at her reflection. Was it just her or were her clothes a little tighter too? Maybe? Yes? no? She stared at her reflection daring it to change.
The damned coward that it was, it refused.
Hyperventilating, Sophia stumbled backward and tripped over something only to fall halfway onto her bed.
She was dreaming.
She had to be dreaming.
This was all just a dream caused by drinking three shots of some strange wine she'd taken from Taylor. Oh god, she'd taken from Taylor. Who knew what was in this stuff and odds were the other girl was going to be angry that she'd taken something else! She didn't want to get struck by lightning!
A loud bang on the door made her let out a slight, "Eep!" of shock.
"SOPHIA! OUT! NOW!" Her mother barked.
Her panic abated just slightly. Right. "Not a dream," she whispered before shouting, "GIVE ME A MOMENT TO GET DRESSED!"
"YOU HAD A MOMENT! HURRY UP!"
Oh god, what was she going to wear? She couldn't go out looking like- like- She looked like some cartoon character! She got her feet under her while trying to ignore the things she was very much aware of now.
Right… Skirt? She didn't have anything long enough to hide a tail. Pants? She could hide it down a pant leg… She didn't have any pants except sweatpants… Which might actually be baggy enough.
As she rapidly dug out a pair of sweatpants and started dressing she tried to think of how to hide her hair. A hat? Did she even have a hat that could fit this much hair under it? A baseball cap wasn't going to be good enough!
"SOPHIA!" her mother roared.
"I'M MOVING! GIVE ME A MOMENT DAMN IT!" she shouted back as she tried to find something that could fit her head. There had to be something that could hide cat ears and thirty gallons of hair, right?
Her door popped open and her mother entered looking annoyed as hell. "I have given you fifteen fucking minutes! I'm going to be late for my date…" Her mother trailed off as Sophia stared at her feeling very much like a deer in the headlights.
"I can explain," Sophia blurted out before her brain could catch up to her tongue.
The woman who could generously be called her mother stared at her. "Would this have anything to do with why Armsmaster is waiting for you in the living room?" The woman asked, having seemingly been shocked out of her anger.
… Who?
"Who?"
"Armsmaster."
Sophia stared at the woman who was claiming a protectorate hero was in their living room. "As in the hero?"
"Yes. Here. Now. Delaying me getting to my date," The woman said, hissing the last bit.
Sophia's mouth flapped for a couple seconds before her brain registered what this meant. She slammed her face into her palms with a barely restrained scream. She didn't need this as well! First the cat, then the monster, then this and now a fucking hero? Fuck. The PRT must have gotten her off a camera or something.
"Well, Sophia?" her mother demanded with the tone she used when she was one step away from grounding her.
"Yes, no… maybe? I don't know," Sophia hastily replied. Her mother huffed.
"Then stop wasting time and get out there," her mother barked and immediately turned on her heel and walked back to the living room.
"Fuuuuuuck," Sophia cursed before reaching back and pulling the tail out of her pant leg. If she was going to walk out looking like a cartoon character she might as well be comfortable. At least as much as she could be. She glanced at the mirror to check her appearance in dread, and paused. Were her… oh no. "Why are my eyes star-shaped?" She whispered as she leaned closer to the mirror.
No matter how she twisted and turned they didn't change. Her irises weren't shaped like a circle anymore, but a five-pointed star just like the marks on her ears and the tip of her tail.
Tail.
Ears.
Eyes.
"Is this your revenge for everything, Hebert?" she whispered with a slight whimper. It was very effective if it was… though… she ran a hand through her hair. It clung to her fingers but the teal colour was very similar to that cat from the day before. She could vaguely recall it glowing before she woke up alright.
She better not be turning into a cat.
"Sophia!"
"Coming!" she shouted back. Right, well, time to get arrested. She hurried out of the room. She rounded the corner into the living room to find a halberd pointed at her nose. She swallowed nervously as she followed the weapon back to its power-armoured wielder. The hum of electricity around the blade made it obvious that Armsmaster knew about her power's weakness.
She couldn't tell which of them was more surprised with his vizor in the way. "I surrender?" she said after fighting off the weak urge to bolt out the nearby window. Ignoring the height, which wouldn't be a problem with her powers, running away from a hero would be about the opposite of the change she was trying to embrace.
"... Armsmaster to console, the situation has changed. Prepare two master/stranger tanks," Armsmaster said, sounding just as serious as he had the last time she'd crossed paths with him.
And was he seriously suggesting she was impersonating herself?
Fuck her luck this morning.
-0-0-0-0-0-
On entering the PRT Building that morning Taylor hadn't expected to be ambushed by Glenn Chambers the moment she stepped off the elevator on the Wards level. She would have liked to know to expect him because even knowing the man it was hard to prepare for his eclectic wardrobe choices without prior warning.
"Here, you'll probably want this," the fluorescent green pineapple-patterned Hawaiian shirt-wearing man said as he shoved two packages into her hands.
Taylor looked down at brown paper-wrapped bundles, then back up at him. "Good morning, Mr. Chambers?" she said hesitantly.
He coughed awkwardly. "Ah, right. Good morning Taylor. That is a spare costume with several adjustments made," he said, putting a hand on her back and guiding her toward the Wards front entrance. Chuffing laughter emanated from around her feet. Evidently, Inari found this amusing. Great.
"Such as?" she asked cautiously.
"Bigger pockets for one. We also heard you were having issues with the standard communications equipment so we've attempted to integrate it into your headband. Dragon wrote a quick how-to guide that should be in the package with it. Let us know how it works," Glenn said before glancing at his watch, "And I need to be at a meeting in five minutes so have fun. Enjoy the Q&A."
"I'll try?" Taylor offered, getting a pat on the back.
"That's the spirit," Glenn chuckled before hurrying off.
She looked down at the package, then down at the laughing Inari. "Quiet you," she said as she used her security pass to buzz them into the Ward's rooms. They emerged from the access hallway to find the common room empty. "Guess it can't be busy all the time."
Inari hopped up onto the back of a chair and peered at the corkboard used to post the schedules. "Says here that Gallant, and Triumph are on a PR thing up at Captain's Hill," the spirit said.
Taylor walked up beside her and peered at the schedules. "And Clock's on console duty. Nothing on Aegis, Kid Win, or Vista for today so maybe they'll be by at some point," she said before taking a seat on the couch. She set her packages down on the table before she rummaged through the pile of things on the side table for the remote.
Today was the day of the PHO Q&A. She didn't know what to expect from it. Glenn seemed to think it was something she could enjoy, or should try to either way. She wasn't so sure, but it was something every Ward apparently went through. Even Vista had done so, though she'd only done it a few years after she'd first joined the Wards.
She had some time before she was supposed to meet whoever would be helping her with the Q&A, and they were supposed to find her in the Ward's area anyway, so she flicked on the TV as she curled her tails around her feet.
She wasn't expecting it to start blaring a wrestling match at max volume. Her ears slammed down flat across her ears as she leaned on the lower volume button. A small crack formed in the plastic casing from the force.
"Ow," she whimpered once the volume was lower. Her ears were ringing a bit from the volume.
"Ow," Inari echoed right before she jumped up onto the couch.
"Ow," said Missy from just behind the couch.
Taylor jumped off the couch with a squeak, sending several throw pillows flying, rapidly ascending until she hit the ceiling. She floated upside down against the ceiling as she stared down at the younger girl with wide eyes and ears standing straight up. "Where did you come from?" she demanded. Down below Inari's tail was visible under a fallen pillow that wobbled precariously atop her.
"... My room?" Missy said, as though it should have been obvious, "And I see Clock left the volume on 'pain' again. Ass." She grumbled before flopping down on one of the other chairs.
Taylor slowly floated back down as her heart rate dropped closer to normal. "He's done that before?" she asked with a frown.
"A few times. He thinks it's 'funny'," Missy grumbled as she reached out a hand. The air around her hand distorted oddly and there was a click from the mini fridge before she was suddenly holding a can of cola. "Remind me to swap his calzones with Aegis'."
Taylor's mind briefly conjured the memory of Inari catching fire briefly. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked, though she'd admit her ringing ears demanded vengeance of some kind.
"Well yeah. I warned him last time he did this that if I got caught in it I'd do that," Missy replied after taking a sip. Her eyes flicked to the side as Taylor's tails were wrapped about her feet again.
Ah, that was different. "Yeah, I can do that… Any idea who's coming to do the Q&A?" Taylor asked as she started flicking through channels.
"No idea. It's someone different each time. How are you not overheating?" Missy asked, pointing at the tails.
Taylor glanced down at the bundle of fur that covered most of her. "What do you mean?" She asked. She felt nice and cozy all wrapped in her tails and the leather jacket she'd picked out at Jessabelle's Closet.
"The A/C is out for maintenance in here and it's like a hundred outside. How are you not sweating into a puddle right now?" Missy demanded. Who, Taylor realised, seemed to be sweating rather heavily for now comfy it felt to the foxgirl. Come to think of it, had she been overly hot or cold since she got her powers?
"Goooddess~" Inari sang from under the pillow. Taylor's tails went up and came down on the white fox. "Censorship!"
"Stop trying to get me into a mental asylum," Taylor sighed, giving a giggling Missy a look, "I'm really hoping she's not tied to my subconscious." She didn't think the fox was, but she couldn't exactly prove that since doing that would probably require somehow proving that she was a Goddess and doing that would probably just prove that the giggling fox was projecting her subconscious to be viewed as a divine being. A desire she didn't have. Stupid Catch-22s.
Missy just giggled.
A loud DING rang through the room and Missy jumped out of her chair. She abruptly vanished in a spatial distortion as the words 'Masks Warning!' appeared as a red overlay over the TV screen. Taylor just shrugged and kept flipping the channel. She didn't have to worry about being recognized by someone unauthorised.
A few moments later Missy was back in her seat wearing her Vista helmet.
Ten seconds or so later the door swung open to admit Carlos in full Aegis costume, Battery, and a frumpy-looking brown-haired woman in a pinstripe suit with a briefcase in hand. "Hey Vista, Taylor," Aegis said, waving a stack of booklets. The one on top seemed to read 'PRT Warding For The Average Ward'.
Had he brought self-help books?
"Hey Aegis," Taylor said, waving a hand in greeting, "Good morning Battery…" She trailed off as she looked to the unknown woman.
Taylor's right ear twitched toward Missy as the younger girl muttered, "Oh god it's her." That wasn't a good sign.
Battery cleared her throat. "Taylor, this is Mrs. Marinette Rouber, a representative of the local Youth Guard. They've insisted that after the unusual start of your Wards career, they be on hand to ensure this Q&A doesn't go into any details considered… too personal."
"A fact we are aware is more difficult to accomplish given the… circumvention of normal identity protections," Mrs. Rouber said, "Which is another matter we would like to discuss with you and your father at a later point."
Taylor frowned. She didn't like the sound of that. Sure being publicly a parahuman was less than ideal, but they'd gone into it knowing the issues. There was also the fact her tone sounded wrong for the image of concern the woman seemed to be trying to project. "I'm sure you can arrange something with Mrs. Dallon," she said.
The woman nodded curtly and her lips twitched slightly into a frown. Taylor ignored her in favour of Aegis. "So why do you have a self-help book?" she asked, her eyes dipping towards his abs for a moment before snapping back up with a slight blush.
Aegis looked at the books with some confusion. "Self-help? No, these aren't self-help books. These are a bunch of books on Wards-related activities. They're optional courses you can take for different things. Triumph asked me to give them to you since he was drafted for that PR event up on the hill," he said, handing the booklets over the back of the couch.
Taylor glanced them over. She'd have to go over them later. "So, where are we doing this Q&A?" she asked Battery once she put the books with her packages on the coffee table.
"Right here," Battery said a moment before the alarm for the door sounded again, "Ah, that's likely the technicians right now. Make some room on the couch."
The next few minutes were an awkward scramble to rearrange things as technicians set the TV up to be the monitor of a computer. A keyboard was handed to Taylor after the side table was cleared off for use as a mousepad. Missy somehow ended up sharing the end of the couch with Taylor's tails and Inari when Mrs. Rouber displaced her from the chair. Battery leaned against the back of the couch while Aegis wandered over to the kitchenette to make snacks.
Taylor glanced over at Missy as the smaller girl seemed to be having an inner war with herself over Taylor's tails. She kept moving them around as though she was trying to find a way to not obviously be hugging one while also not being too hot. So far it seemed to be a futile endeavour. Once they were certain the system was functional the technicians left through the same way they entered.
Mrs. Rouber cracked open the briefcase in her lap and removed a bundle of papers held together with a paperclip. "I have here a list of questions pulled from your thread on PHO that the Youth Guard believes are appropriate to answer," she said, holding out for Taylor. Before she could take it, Missy yoinked the entire stack from the other end of the couch.
Missy flipped from the papers. "These are all boring questions," she said.
"They are safe questions," Mrs. Rouber replied with a huff as Taylor leaned over and snagged the papers from Missy.
"Hey! I wasn't done reading that," Missy said, pouting.
"Well I need to read it if I'm going to answer any of them at all," Taylor replied. She resettled the keyboard in her lap along with the pile of papers. She glanced at the first page. "How long does it take to brush those tails?" she read out, "Really?"
"Cosmetic questions are popular, especially with Wards who have unconventional features for an ordinary human," Mrs. Reuber said, getting a nod of agreement from Battery.
Battery checked her phone. "While it isn't quite time to start, why don't you take us over to Corentine's thread on PHO, Taylor?" she asked.
"Sure…" It had been a few weeks since Taylor had last been on the website but she knew it quite well. A few clicks was all it took to find 'Corentine's' thread. She paused as she saw the page count.
"Is that over four hundred pages already?" Missy blurted out. Taylor could hear the jealousy in her voice and winced.
"Looks like it," she replied, a touch stunned herself. She'd heard it was growing quickly, but this was a little ridiculous. She shook it off and glanced back down at the pages of questions. Some were what she'd normally expect about a new parahuman. Questions about powers, another question about liver and tofu -- what was with those? -- and some more about her tails.
There were several from a cape in Germany asking about things like 'How many times has your shower been clogged because of the tail fur?' and 'Have you ever accidentally closed a door on your tails?' They did seem to be fairly safe questions, though a touch embarrassing since she had closed the door on her tails twice. It hadn't hurt much but it was the principle. Still, a little bit of humanising her probably wasn't a bad thing.
"Answer these first, you think?" She asked Inari, showing her the entries for 'Blutige_Füchsin'. The poster's avatar was curious as well, a redheaded girl with eight equally red tails carrying a rifle of some sort. The 'Verified Parahuman' tag made her wonder if it was a real photo.
"Safe ones to start with," Inari agreed, getting a huff from Missy who crossed her arms… conveniently around one of Taylor's tails.
She set the page aside and continued sorting through it as they waited for the start time of the Q&A. She mixed it up with a bit of reading through the thread itself and made note of a few extra questions to Mrs. Rouber's clear displeasure. Something about the woman sat wrong with her. In a way, it was worse than with Director Piggot. With that woman, she simply got a quiet feeling of dislike. With Mrs. Rouber, it felt like patronising contempt married to a general distaste. It was possible that she was just imagining things. Then again, it was possible she wasn't.
A bowl of Cheetos being waved in front of her face interrupted her thoughts. She glanced up at Aegis who grinned. "Snacks help make these sorts of things more bearable," he said. She took it with a smile.
"Thanks, Aegis," she said before settling it between her and Missy amongst her tails. Hopefully, it wouldn't spill otherwise she might need to ask a question of her own. How did you get Cheetos dust out of fur?
-0-0-0-0-0-
Master/Stranger containment was rather boring. You got stuffed in a fifteen by fifteen-foot box with three blank white walls, a white tile floor, and a tinkertech forcefield that turned everything slightly blue when you looked through it as the fourth wall. You couldn't even see another cell from the doorway so there went any chance of interpersonal interactions other than the Wardens. Who didn't seem to come by at all as an automated system delivered food and entertainment.
It was boring, and lonely, and you could only do so much with the sudoku puzzle book that came with lunch before you went mad from dealing with math. At least, that's how Sophia Hess felt. They hadn't even given her a clock so who knew how long she'd been in there.
Sophia batted at her new tail with a hand as it swung into sight. Yes, it was very catlike behaviour, but she was bloody bored out of her mind. All she had was a bed, a table, a stool and a book of madness that called itself entertainment.
"You people know this is boring, right?" she called out to the empty room as she caught her tail again. She rubbed the yellow star at the tip between her fingers and shivered at the foreign sensation as it went up her spine.
There was no reply. Not that she had expected one. They hadn't replied to her earlier questions. Was this what it was like in solitary confinement?
She rolled over and buried her face in the thin pillow of the slide-out bed. Her ears twitched irritably. That was just too strange of a sensation. "Stupid cat," she grumbled half-heartedly. This had to be its fault, but at the same time, she had a sneaking suspicion that she was about a half-second from death when it had done whatever had led to this. It made it hard to stay angry. Didn't stop her from being grumpy though.
Her tail flickered back and forth distractingly. Her ears twitched at every slight sound, which was usually just the A/C since the forcefield seemed to block most noises. The movement of her new body parts was strange and distracting.
"Stupid tail, stupid ears," she grumbled before sighing and rolling onto her side to stare out through the forcefield. She sat up upon seeing Armsmaster standing outside the forcefield with a quartet of PRT Troopers. The older hero seemed to be looking right at her though his opaque visor made it difficult to say for sure.
He raised a hand and the forcefield disappeared with a crackle. "Ms. Hess," he said, "I need you to come with me."
She rose from the bed. "So you're finally letting me out?" she asked hopefully.
"No. We have questions," he said as she crossed the threshold. The forcefield hissed back on as her tail cleared the gap. "This way." He turned and walked down the hallway just fast enough that she had to push herself to keep up without jogging. The PRT Troopers marched behind them.
So she wasn't getting released, but at least they hadn't handcuffed her? "What kind of questions?" she asked.
"The kind that requires the presence of an adult," he replied. Which meant her mother. Lovely. The bitch was going to bitch at her for ruining her date. Assuming today was the same day. She really couldn't tell.
They passed a dozen more cells like hers before they reached an elevator. There was enough space that you could have fit a sedan into with extra room, but two of the troopers took up spots just off her elbows. A glance confirmed that both of them seemed to be holding stun guns.
Great.
The ride up the elevator was done in silence. The only indication of where they were when they came to a stop was the B2 on the side of the elevator frame. They hadn't even gone up to the surface apparently. The hallway they walked down had plain concrete walls, harsh overhead lighting, and a grey linoleum floor. A door labelled with the words 'Interrogation Room 3' was held open for her by Armsmaster.
Reluctantly, Sophia followed him in. Waiting inside the well-lit but claustrophobic room was a table for four, a one-way mirror, and an older man in a brown suit with a large bald spot on top of his head. He stood up as they entered. "Ah, Armsmaster, I see you've brought her," he said, "Can I have a few minutes with my client?"
Client? Had her mother hired a Lawyer rather than show up herself? It was almost insulting if not for the fact she'd rather not deal with the woman's selfishness.
"Of course. Knock on the door when you're ready," Armsmaster said, stepping outside and closing the door. Sophia glanced back his way then back to the strange man. She crossed her arms under her chest.
"So, you're my Lawyer?" she guessed.
"That I am. Jack Sheerwater, criminal defence attorney," he said, holding out his hand across the table. She shook it and took a seat beside him after he gestured to it.
"Are they charging me with something?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of, but as your Mother is currently pending a psychiatric assessment both you and-"
"She's what?" Sophia blurted out, staring at the man. She tried to clean out her right ear, only to find the smooth skin along the side of her head.
"Undergoing a psychiatric assessment on top of the Master/Stranger protocols," Mr Sheerwater said, "I'm told she handled being dragged away from her date for master/stranger containment… Rather poorly. Your sister is currently being looked after by social services. Until she is released or a decision is reached the state has asked me to represent you in her place." He set his briefcase on the table and unlocked it before pulling out several sheets of paper. "Here, the court order."
Sophia leaned over. It looked legitimate and the fact they were in the depths of the PRT building having this conversation suggested it was probably true. "Right, so… what's going on then?" She felt her ears lay flat atop her head. She hadn't expected this. "What does the PRT want with me?"
Damn it, she could use a drink.
"As far as I'm aware, they want to ask some questions about an incident yesterday," Mr. Sheerwater said, "Ms. Hess, you wouldn't happen to know which incident they're referring to?"
"Yeah… probably the same incident that gave me these," she said, gesturing to her ears, "And the hair colour."
"As your lawyer, it would be best for me to know anything you do about the likely incident. It'll make it easier for me to give advice," he said, resting both hands on his lap.
Well… she probably hadn't done anything illegal? Sophia chewed her lip. Part of her wanted to tell him to fuck off. A large part. Like, she was the most sober she'd been in days and she could feel her temper flaring up again. After a few moments of wrestling with the urge to tell him to fuck off, she sighed. "Yeah, sure… It started yesterday when I got locked out for the day…"
She told him pretty much everything. The ice cream parlour, the mugging, the cat and even the freaky creatures she'd fought. He took notes as she went through it and seemed suitably impressed and horrified as she described her fight with the monster.
"Then I woke up this morning I guess and…" she waved at her hair, "Teal. Then I got arrested." She sat back in the chair, thankful that her lone tail was small enough to easily fit through the gap.
Mr. Sheerwater continued to make notes. "Hrm… I can see why they'd want to ask questions… I don't believe anything you've told me would get you in trouble with current vigilante rules for independent heroes. The only sticking point would be the ice cream parlour when you ran off after the crime occurred, but even that shouldn't be a real issue," he said, making a note, "So long as that is the incident they're speaking of then I advise cooperating."
Yeah, like she couldn't have figured that bit out herself. She bit back the words before they could come out. Fuck she was feeling sober… though she was honestly feeling calmer than normal for her 'sober'. Maybe she'd gotten lucky and the wine had a permanent inebriation effect? She could only hope.
Once Mr. Sheerwater was done with his notes he stood. "I'll let them know we're ready to talk," He said.
Sophia leaned back in her seat as Mr. Sheerwater opened the door and invited Armsmaster in alongside a uniformed, though helmetless, brown-haired PRT Trooper. The trooper took a seat at the table across from them while Armsmaster stood behind him.
"Good evening, Ms. Hess, Mr. Sheerwater," the trooper said as he arranged a notebook and some papers that Sophia couldn't read upside down, "I'm Sergeant Richard Howle. Armsmaster shall be recording this interview via his suit. I'd like to start by saying that at this time we are not looking at Ms. Hess as a criminal. However, we believe you were witness to a series of events that are still mostly a mystery to us. Specifically, those that began at the 'Crescent Moon Ice Cream Parlor' and ended at Ridgewater Auto Parts fifteen minutes later. We were hoping you might be able to fill in details as to what occurred. Especially since five people were found dead in the warehouse behind Ridgewater Auto Parts."
Sophia blinked. "Five people dead?" she said incredulously. How had she missed that?
"Yes, five people dead," Sergeant Howle said. He folded his hands together on the table before him. "I realise that you weren't expecting to be talking to us today, especially considering the events of the weekend."
Sophia flinched. Of course, they knew about that. She'd been comatose for the latter half though she had to wonder just how much Taylor had told them? Did they know about the portals? Perhaps she should- she squashed that line of thought. She didn't need to prove the foxgirl right again.
"No, I wasn't," she said. Even if she probably should have. She'd thought she'd gotten away cleanly from the scuffle at the warehouse. She'd been doubly wrong about that.
The Sergeant nodded. "Why don't we start from the beginning with the ice cream parlour?" he asked.
"Actually, it started a bit earlier than that," Sophia said as she leaned back in her chair again. "I was taking a break on a bench when…"
The story took about as long to tell the second time. "... No mask, an absolutely wrecked warehouse, and no bodies to prove I wasn't nuts? I ran," she said with a shrug, "My mother let me into the apartment and I went for a shower. Took over an hour to get the smell out with soap. After that I had dinner and promptly went to bed after…" she trailed off. Fuck.
"After?" The Sergeant prompted. She sighed.
"After I had three shots of wine to try and forget about that thing I'd been fighting," she admitted through gritted teeth. She hadn't meant to bring that detail up.
Howle made a note on his pad. "Under the circumstances, I think we have more important things to deal with than a little underage drinking. Especially given what you went through," he said, "I do have a few questions, however. You said the cat disappeared afterwards. Do you have any idea how long you were unconscious? Is there a chance it walked away?"
Sophia shook her head. "Not a chance. It was barely crawling when it came over to me. Pretty sure its spine was broken and there was the glowing too… And the hair," she said, winding a bit of teal hair around a finger, "I… Kinda think it did something to me. People don't just get teal hair overnight and I've noticed I'm a lot more flexible than before." There was a reason she'd done track and not gymnastics or something. It wasn't just 'cause sprinting was useful for running criminals down.
The Sergeant made a note. Behind him, Armsmaster was standing stiff as a board, basically just a living statue. So when the tinker leaned forward and asked, "And the trident? You said it summoned it?" Sophia jumped slightly.
"Or made it. The frog guy started doing that freaky language that made my ears bleed and suddenly it just grew from nothing in his hand. Not like out of his hand, but from the air. It formed and dropped right into it," Sophia replied once her heart rate went back down. A pity it hadn't stopped her tail from tripling in volume.
Fucking teal pipe cleaner.
Armsmaster just nodded and leaned back. There was more scribbling of notes by the sergeant. A few minor clarifying questions were asked about certain events. Like when she'd kicked the mugger in the nuts, or what the frogman had called itself. She answered them, but she could feel her temper getting worse the more minor the questions. She bit her lip and kept her temper in check as best as she could. She wasn't a thug… Or at least, she was trying to not be one.
Again.
"I believe that's everything," Sergeant Howle said at last, "Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Hess."
"No problem," She said with a nonchalant shrug, "So what happens to me now?"
"Yes, what are the plans for Ms. Hess? With her mother undergoing a psychiatric assessment her home life is… disrupted for lack of a better term," Mr. Sheerwater said, leaning forward, "And given her recently developed distinctive features…"
Sophia's right ear twitched. 'Distinctive features'. Yeah, she stood out in a crowd about as much as Taylor did now. She'd be lucky to hide from anyone with a grudge…
Hide. Really, that was all she'd been doing. Hit a group of thugs, run away. Get spotted by a cape, run away. See a mother and daughter getting mugged? Run away.
"Flee like a little coward because she isn't what you thought? Such bravery." Sophia closed her eyes as she recalled Taylor's words again. Run away. Yeah, because that was what her power was good at.
"I'm afraid I don't know," Sergeant Howle said, "Under the circumstances she might be handed off to CPS like her sister or perhaps housed in a PRT housing facility until other arrangements can be made. It likely won't be more than a couple of days before her mother's psychological assessment is complete."
"Psychological assessments can take months or longer at times," Mr. Sheerwater said, "Ms. Hess, I have to ask, does your mother attend any sort of therapy?"
Sophia's ears twitched upward at being addressed. "Uh, fuck no. She hates the very idea," she said, opting to not mention some of the language her mother had used to describe people who went to therapy.
"That makes this more likely to take months than mere days. Arrangement will need to be made. Immediately," Mr. Sheerwater said firmly.
Sergeant Howle sighed. "Yes, you have a point. I'll pass it up the chain and we'll have someone come down to escort Ms. Hess to some temporary accommodations for the moment," he said, "I can't speak to what will be decided by those with more authority on the matter later, however."
"So long as she doesn't wind up being dumped on the street or sent home to no one," Mr. Sheerwater said firmly.
"She won't be. I promise you that," Sergeant Howle said. He folded up his paperwork then stood up. "I think that concludes this interview. It'll be a few minutes before-"
"Hey, question," Sophia said abruptly, her mouth moving before her thoughts, "What would happen to someone in this sort of situation who happened to be a Ward?" That prompted surprised looks from both Mr. Sheerwater and the Sergeant. Armsmaster was as inscrutable as ever.
"They'd be able to stay in their Wards quarters until it was resolved," the Sergeant said after a moment, "We take good care of our Wards. Why the question?" There was a knowing tone. Yeah, he'd probably been in this situation before.
Fuck it. She wanted to make a change. To be an actual hero rather than a thug. "What if I became a Ward?" she blurted out, "What then?"
"Ms. Hess," Mr. Sheerwater began, "That's a rather… large commitment."
"So? I've got teal hair, my mother's probably going to fail that assessment, and I think I'm part cat now," Sophia said, her tail swishing back and forth with her irritation despite her desire to keep it under control. "And… after the weekend…" She hesitated. Saying it aloud to someone else would be an admission.
That she'd failed.
Her pride warred with her sense and after a moment she finished, "After the weekend… I'd like to be done with being just another… Another thug. I want to be a hero. Yeah…" She folded her arms across her chest and her tail hugged her leg. There, she'd said it.
Fuck she'd said it.
Out loud.
Mr. Sheerwater was looking at her with a neutral expression before he sighed. "Joining the Wards at this point would be… complicated," he said, "And if your mother chose she could pull you out. Assuming she passes the psychiatric assessment or otherwise retains custody."
She snorted. "I doubt she'd bother," she said, ear twitching toward the lawyer, "But even if she would she won't do it if it reflects badly on her. Publicly." Because that was the thing, her mother was a terrible person who could smile and charm her way through respectable society. Unrespectable society really, but they couldn't show it in public.
"Ms. Hess…" Mr. Sheerwater hesitated, "I believe I know what you're speaking of, but just because nothing bad has happened to Ms. Hebert since her debut doesn't mean that nothing will."
He was perceptive, she'd give him that. "And? If I'm doing this, I'm doing it fucking right," she said, her temper bleeding through, "I've been doing it fucking wrong this entire time so I might as well get it fucking right for once." And she was swearing again. Shit.
She pinched her nose as the three men looked at her.
"I believe Ms. Hess would be a great help in the Wards," Armsmaster said after a moment, "There are possible interpersonal considerations that will need to be taken."
Yeah, like the fact she and Taylor didn't exactly get along. Fuck, was that an understatement but… "Yeah, I know," she sighed, "but this is doing the right thing." The right thing was currently feeling like liquid ice in her veins even as her heart was pounding. Was she panicking?
Shit.
What the fuck was wrong with her that admitting she was a fuck up did this to her nerves? She'd thought she was stronger than this… Well, she'd been wrong about that, hadn't she? Wrong, wrong, wrong…
"I can get the paperwork for you if you'd like," Sergeant Howle said, interrupting her thoughts, "I'm sure better arrangements at the least would be available for a Wards' applicant."
Sophia nodded, her tongue refusing to work suddenly.
God, she'd just done it. She'd made a change.
Why did she feel so goddamned scared now?
-0-0-0-0-0-
"Temperature should be a scorching ninety-nine today though those fluffy clouds should help take the edge off." Emma gazed out the window of her bedroom vacantly as the radio host rambled on. She wasn't really listening. It wasn't important.
Model. Decent grades. Good friends. She'd had everything a couple of years ago. Now?
Now she was crazy.
Taylor didn't want her. Why would she? After the last year, Emma didn't want herself. Why should someone so much stronger want her? Especially after she'd… she'd…
Emma blinked and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Tears again.
Sophia… she didn't know what to think of the girl who saved her. Her parents said she couldn't be near her anymore. Said that she'd broken Emma. Maybe she had. Maybe she hadn't.
Maybe Emma had broken Emma.
Emma was crazy.
Not because of what she'd done. No, that was stupid, hurtful and… okay maybe a bit crazy. How could she have thought doing that to Taylor was…? Mother had been really unhappy. Her sister basically refused to look at her now and her Daddy…
Well her Mother wasn't letting him make decisions anymore. Not for Emma.
Tears again. Regret?
Maybe.
She sighed and let them fall.
"All this crying is so unbecoming, you know that?" There it was. The reason she was certain she was mad.
"Don't just ignore me girl! A mortal child like you should be happy that one such as myself would even deign to speak with you!"
She'd done unforgivable things to Taylor and this was her punishment. Madness.
As though she'd been sane. She laughed.
"Ugh, that disturbing sound again. Why are you so touched in the head, girl?"
She heard voices.
A voice. Female, British, and snooty. Like she thought she was a god slumming it with a particularly dim mortal girl.
Well, it wasn't like she was wrong. Emma was a dim mortal girl. A crazy one.
Emma's eyes drifted to the mirror where her reflection revealed the jade comb nestled in her hair holding together her hair bun. It was all the comb's fault. The voice, not her madness. Emma was mad on her own. Though she could blame the ABB for the start, the rest was her. Yes, she was sure of that.
All her.
But she didn't hear voices on her own.
A voice. Hear a voice.
The comb did that.
"Are you going to look at me? Or are you just going to gaze vacantly off into the infinite?" The British woman's voice demanded.
Emma's eyes slide further to a woman in a scandalously short skirt and a tight corset sitting at the end of Emma's bed. She was beautiful. Impossibly so with perfect skin, gemlike eyes, and a body that would have made Emma jealous a week before.
Funny how strange you could realise the world was in a week.
"Ah, there we go. Some attention at last. How a dimwitted fool like you got ahold of my comb is beyond me. Mortal idiots shouldn't be able to get into the Celestial Realm," the woman said, throwing her hands up in the air.
No one else could see her. The alarmed look her parents had given her when she'd asked about the 'corset woman' had told her that.
No, Emma was mad. She saw people, a person, who didn't exist. Who lived in the comb in her hair and yelled at her for being incompetent. The comb no one else seemed to notice she was wearing anymore.
The comb that came back to her side table when she'd tossed it out the window at a passing cat. The poor cat didn't like that.
Neither had the comb lady.
"Hello? Is your brain on at all?" the woman snapped her fingers in front of Emma's nose, getting a small flinch from her. "Lovely, a reaction. You might be substandard material, but I suppose you shall have to do. A demigoddess would have been preferable as a vessel, but I shall have to make do with a mortal… Assuming you have enough brains and will to learn."
Emma's eyes narrowed and she frowned. What was the comb woman talking about?
"Ah, actual emotion! Progress." The woman clapped cheerily before pointing a finger straight at Emma's nose. "You, my dear dimwitted mortal, shall have an education the likes of which no mortal has had in a thousand years! By the time I am done a hundred gods shall kneel at our feet proclaiming our beauty."
"Why?" Emma's voice croaked.
The woman looked puzzled. "Why what?" she demanded.
"Why should I listen to you? I already made things worse," Emma said, her voice wavering unsteadily.
The comb woman tutted and reached out. Her hand patted Emma on the cheek as she gave a condescending smile. Emma knew it was condescending. She'd done it all the time to Madison… To Taylor.
"Girl, who said I was giving you a choice? Besides, magic can do many things… Even mend bridges between friends," The woman said knowingly.
Emma froze. Mend… Mend…
To fix.
Taylor.
Her hands squeezed the blankets around her knees.
Taylor. Fix.
Emma licked her lips. Could they…? "Do you think I can be her friend again?" She asked the woman who smiled indulgently.
"Of course dear. Anyone would love to be your friend," the comb woman said with a smile, "I'm sure everything between you can be made right with just a little bit of magic."
Emma stared at her.
Emma was mad.
Very mad.
Extremely mad.
Emma was worried she couldn't stop herself from becoming more mad.
"How?" Emma asked. She needed to fix herself.
She needed to fix Sophia.
She needed to fix her friendship with Taylor.
Emma…
Emma needed to fix everything.
Maybe she could?
-0-0-0-0-0-
It was rare that Max had reason to visit a subordinate in person. Doing so three times in a week was nearly unheard of. Yet, here he was stepping out of his car along with Nessa and Jessica intending to personally visit Victor, again.
The dim twilight was lit up by a singular light above the door of Victor and Othala's three-storey townhouse. It flickered as a couple of moths fluttered about it. He closed the door behind him and glanced at his driver. Unlike the last visit, he felt it best to let someone else drive. This wasn't Medhall after all.
"Keep the engine running," he told the man before walking to the door. Nessa and Jessica fell in at either side, their eyes scanning the area as he rang the bell. Almost as soon as his hand came off the button the door swung open.
Othala stared at him with worried eyes. "Thank god, Max," she said, stepping aside to let them in.
"You said he's locked himself in his office?" Max asked as they entered the entry hall. It was a small cramped space with just enough room for a closet and a spot to put your shoes before it transitioned into narrow stairs up and down. Both Jessica and Nessa doffed their high heels the moment the door was shut, but he kept his shoes on.
"Yes. He's been there since yesterday. If it wasn't for the strange noises I wouldn't even know he was still alive," Othala said with fear in her voice, "I know I haven't known him for long yet, but this isn't normal for my husband, is it?" She wrung her hand nervously.
"No. Not at all," he said before descending the stairs. He knew where Victor's office was from prior experience. As he moved he pulled on his power, growing a suit of armour from the band of his watch, the buckles of his shoes and belt, and the fake but fashionable set of glasses he wore; out of small blades.
Victor had been lucid when Max had last seen him in the hospital. Strangely energetic as well for a man who looked an inch from death. Without a clear reason to keep him, beyond being skeletal and inexplicably healthy at the same time, he had been released into the care of his recently married wife. Perhaps they should have kept him in confinement as they ran more tests. Maybes and what-ifs wouldn't solve the question as to why one of his most loyal men had locked himself in his office for over a day. If this ever happened again, as unlikely as that was, he would have to take different measures more than likely.
It was with an armoured fist that Max knocked on the door of Victor's office. "Victor, it's Max. Open up," he said with authority. He knocked again after a few moments. "Victor! Open. The. Door." He was about to tell Nessa to kick the door down when the lock clicked.
Jessica reached for the handle, but he waved her off. Without growing in size they were just as squishy as a normal woman. He was wearing armour.
The door swung open with a creak to reveal a darker-than-normal room. During previous visits, Victor had kept the lights on. The desk that was normally tidy was crowded with papers and books and a single candle partly obscured by a robed figure. The flickering candle was the only light in the room and it sent strange shadows across the walls.
Max reached for the lightswitch. "Don't," Victor said, raising a gaunt hand that somehow looked even more skeletal than before in the dim light, "You will ruin the experiment, Kaiser."
Max lowered his hand and stepped further into the room. Behind him, Nessa and Jessica hesitantly followed. "You've scared your poor wife," He said, glancing back to see Othala peering into the room with a stricken look.
"I've done quite a bit more than that, Kaiser," Victor said absently. His hands were moving about the candle.
"I fail to see how when you've been locked in your office for over a day," Max said, walking toward Victor.
"Power and wisdom require sacrifice," Victor said, his tone turning strangely whimsical.
Max stopped at the desk and glanced down on the papers and books. Strange sigils, nordic-looking runes and page after page of barely comprehensible notes were spread out before him. Not a single sheet of paper was spared. "What is this?" he demanded.
This reminded him of occultism. The most banal and useless trapping of national socialism. As much as he aped their traditions to rise in power and appeal to their less rational supporters the occult had never not earned his derision. He had stamped out the small occultist group that his father and sister had maintained. They were a pointless waste of money, time, and manpower that was better spent securing their grip on Brockton Bay.
"Power in its most basic form," Victor said, his tone absent minded as he bent down to stare into the fire with a frown. "You picked a choice time to arrive, Kaiser. I've nearly gotten a grasp of my proof."
Max's lips compressed into a thin line. He was starting to suspect that while Victor had been left physically healthy, his mind was less stable. "Proof of what?" he asked, humouring the gaunt man.
Victor's head turned to him and Max nearly took a step back as his eyes met the bloodshot orbs within the gaunt face. "Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, call it what you will," Victor said as he stood straight. "I know you doubt that such things exist. We live in a world of rationality despite the often eccentric expressions of power parahumans wield. There are no gremlins or fairies or kobolds lurking in the shadows waiting to cause you trouble."
"Then you know what happened to the last group of men who peddled occult nonsense in my empire," Max said. He raised a fist and a blade grew from a sconce on the wall to stab the papers on the table.
Victor nodded. "That I do, which is why I intended to come with proof of what I stole," he said.
Max paused. Stole? "Your power worked on her?" he asked, only to take a step back as Victor laughed. His voice, though strong, took on a wild tone.
"No, not at all. My power did naught for me when I tried to plunder her mind. Nothing but let me see for an instant what was behind the curtain," Victor said once he stopped laughing, "That girl is no girl at all. No. I saw her true form for but an instant and in that instant I saw how it all works. All of it. The knowledge seared itself into my mind." He grabbed his head as his tone grew frantic. "There was so much and it was hungry and wrathful. It feasted on me, burned by flesh from within and nearly erased the man within. There was so much pain… but I survived it and within me now is that knowledge. A spark of fire taken from a god."
"A god? Victor, that was a girl. A child with a strange power. Odd interactions happen all the time," Max said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. To his surprise, Victor's gaunt arm easily brushed him aside.
"Not a child. Perhaps once, but not now. This, Taylor Hebert is something more than mortal. More than you or I," Victor said with fervour pacing the room. Both Nessa and Jessica stepped back toward the door, catching Othala as she came through.
"Stop this. Please, you aren't making any sense," Othala said, tears in her eyes.
Victor turned to her and in the darkness his expression was lost to Max. "I am making more sense than any man in a thousand years. I saw, my dear. I saw the truth. We face a goddess and unless she is removed, if that is even possible for mortals like us, our cause will die with us," he said, his voice growing faint with worry, "We require more than mortal might. More than these meagre powers we've gained."
"Victor, whatever you saw, it was a nightmare," Max said as he catalogued the options for ending the man's life. He wasn't quite there yet, but if he couldn't calm him down… Well. It would be a tragedy. He'd have to find a way to soothe Othala as well.
"It was no nightmare! This! This is why I did not want to come to you! Not yet! Not. Without. Proof!" Victor declared, waving his hands at them all, "But I have it." He thrust a hand toward the candle. "BRUNI!"
The candle burned. It flared high enough to lick the ceiling before simply shattering and dozens of small flames flew through the air past Max and into the darkness at the far end of the room. Othala screamed and ducked as they whipped by her head. Several dozen candles, laid out in rows across a table and perked on any open spot on a bookshelf, caught fire as the flames settled into new homes.
Victor stumbled and fell back against a bookcase. He chuckled as Max stared at the merrily burning candles. "That… that is what I was trying to do," he said, his voice heavily with exhaustion, "Not a simple thing to do… commanding fire. Yet, it is but one possibility I have divined from the secrets I glimpsed… Others… others are far more… demanding in their… requirements."
There were rumours that Max had heard of. A theory about 'second triggers' as though going through two equally terrible moments in your life was some achievement. Had Victor's powers changed to let him steal more than just knowledge? But he hadn't encountered anyone who wielded fire. He would have heard if Lung had somehow crossed paths with Victor.
He eyed Victor warily. This was something new. Either a new power of Victor's, or… no, the very thought was foolish. But still… perhaps a delusion similar to Myrddin's? If it was so then perhaps it would be best to humour him.
"You can do more?" he asked.
"Not yet… this, was the first," Victor replied, "But I believe I can with time and practice and preparation do much much more."
"What sort of preparation?" Max asked, striding to Victor's side as though he was unworried at the display.
"Materials… tools… assistants… students perhaps," Victor said, tapping a thin lip with a long boney finger.
"Like a tinker," Max said.
Victor chuckled tiredly. "If that is how you prefer to think of this… then yes, like a tinker, though don't expect me to make you laser rifles," he said with a small laugh.
Moments passed before Max finally nodded. "I expect better behaviour from someone as high placed as you. No need to worry your wife by locking yourself in without food, Victor" he said.
The gaunt man nodded. "Yes… that would be… a smarter path I suppose," he said before his tired expression changed, growing more sharp, "However, I do believe a name as simple as Victor for me is no longer sufficient."
"Oh?" Max frowned behind his helmet.
"Yes. Call me, Prometheus, for I have stolen fire from the gods for the benefit of all mankind," he said with a dark chuckle that sent a shiver down Max's spine.
Hopefully he wasn't making a mistake leaving Vic- 'Prometheus', alive.
-0-0-0-0-0-
*peers from the bushes* … I think it's clear? It's been quiet for a while. *nudges the SV thread* yeah looks dead. *shakes off camouflage and starts setting up party streamers*
Ello~ Sorry it's been so long. My muse was apparently taking an extended vacation when it came to TTP… Also I've been typo corrected twice so far by my editor while writing this.
Gekkou_Yoko: It was almost three times.
Grounders10: Shush you. *boops Gekkou*
Gekkou_yoko: *is booped*
Grounders10: We're happy to finally start arc 2 of TTP. From here on out things will get a bit more serious, but- That was a valid contraction!
Gekkou_Yoko: Only for weak willed people.
Grounders10: *grumpy kitsune stare* As I was saying before I was rudely edited mid- Again! *stares* Right. Things'll be getting more serious but I'm going to try and keep the comedy and general spirit of positivity. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter~ More will come SoonTM. … Again with the live edits. *grumps*
Gekkou_Yoko: If I left you to do it, you would never fix them. *smugs*
Grounders10: … *grumbles dramatically*
Thanks for the chapter.
PEACHES LIVES!
*STOMP STOMP STOMP*
*STOMP STOMP STOMP*
Well now it's Peach Pulp, I hope you are happy.
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Ah, it's finally here! (Not really, only came out... Three days ago on Patreon?)
Anyway, loved the chapter and I'm particularly amused by our new Magical Girl. I'm sure she isn't going to make everyone to suffer many outbreaks of confusion and hysteria.
Anyway, loved the chapter and I'm particularly amused by our new Magical Girl. I'm sure she isn't going to make everyone to suffer many outbreaks of confusion and hysteria.
- Pronouns
- you
Aight, time to re-read this, I guess.
Welcome back amongst the living!
Welcome back amongst the living!
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
Hmmm... What is that familiar flavor? It has been long since I have feasted on it.
Ah yes, tis the Taste of Peaches!
And fuck the Nazis and them getting magic.
Ah yes, tis the Taste of Peaches!
And fuck the Nazis and them getting magic.
- Location
- USA
Yes! this updated! I was really enjoying Sophia's perspective, and I really like that you've given an actual threat in 'prometheus' and the amphibian people. I Always love every chapter that gets out out for this.
gatewaewanderer
Wandering Fool
- Location
- East Coast, USA
Same. And is it just me, or...
Is another supernatural force taking a more subtle approach to the problem of Taylor and grooming Emma to be another weapon against her?
...
...
...
That joke was an accident. It was an awful, awful pun. But, being an awful, awful person. I'm gonna stick with it it. Think I'm nailing it, y'see. 💅🖌️🪮
Edit: very sad there's no comb emoji.
Edit 2: There was a comb emoji... but it was listed under hair. I is puzzled.
Last edited:
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
They might have magic but they don't know how to use it safely/what not to poke with said magic. I suspect something Victor does is going to end up backfiring hard in the near future.
Other possibility is that the entity in the comb is simply using Emma for its/her own gain.
