Corey Mills ducked behind a large dumpster, hissing in pain as he clutched his broken arm.
It was humiliating to have to hide, but what else could he do?
The other firefighters who had been on duty with him lay scattered around the area, unconscious or dead. Some of them had been beaten to death, stabbed or worse.
Corey had to choke down a scream at the sight of poor Rex, who had had his throat slashed open and was lying on the street with glassy eyes. The two of them had never gotten along, but damn it, Rex hadn't deserved this.
The people responsible for the carnage milled around the firefighter's station, a bunch of Neo-Nazi thugs, skinheads with their stupid-fucking tattoos, carrying guns and knives, laughing and jeering.
And above them all towered the leaders of this attack, Fenja and Menja.
The Empire Eighty-Eight's resident bruisers, who could grow into literal giants, clad in silver armour and brandishing spears longer than Cory was tall.
Corey and his team had tried everything they could do to stop them, but they had failed miserably. Fire hoses harmlessly splashed off them, and only got flipped trucks for their trouble.
Now, all he could do was watch as the twins smashed the station to bits, ripping chunks out of the building and tossing firetrucks around like they were toys. There were still other firefighters inside the station, but god knows what those two and their minions would do to them if - when - they got a hold of them.
Damn it, where was the Protectorate? Or New Wave?
Why hadn't anyone shown up to help them?
Let someone come to save them, Corey prayed. Anyone.
And his prayers were answered.
A red-gold blur appeared out of the sky, descending and smashing straight into the twins like a bullet train as Corey watched, open-mouthed.
Taylor's heart simmered with rage as she floated down to the ground, after having tossed the twin Nazis away from the firefighter's station.
She still remembered all those poor people in the cages, beaten and battered and starved. Treated like slaves.
Taylor had always known Nazis were bad. Every school child did.
But it was only when she had looked upon those people the Empire had intended to
sell for
money that it had truly sunk in.
That sort of evil couldn't be truly comprehended unless you saw it.
Her anger only intensified as she saw the mangled corpses scattered around the street, the lightning in her veins crackling more furiously than ever before. People had been stabbed to death, some had been shot, others violently beaten to death. There were many more badly injured, and Taylor desperately wished she could help them, but she didn't know how.
Even to her amateur eyes, Taylor could tell that the people who had done this killing had enjoyed it.
The Nazi skinheads roaming around seemed absolutely shocked to see her, but they drew their weapons firing at her.
But even as the bullets flew at her, they might as well have been crawling through the air to Taylor. She was almost tempted to just let them hit her, but the possibility that they might ricochet and hit one of the victims was too high.
So instead she simply reached out and leisurely plucked the bullets from the air one by one, gathering them in one hand.
Once she was done, Taylor let them fall from her fingers to the ground, clattering uselessly on the concrete.
The skinheads stared at her for one moment in absolute horror, before they turned to run.
They were too slow. Knocking them out was a simple matter, and in a matter of moments, Taylor had piled their unconscious bodies on the sidewalk.
She intended to try to help the injured people however she could next, if only by calling an ambulance, but she was interrupted.
Because the twins had returned.
They were sprinting towards her side by side down the road, their enormous strides letting them cover a lot of distance very quickly.
They were more durable than Taylor had expected. She had figured they would be knocked out by how hard she had thrown them. Or maybe it was the silver armour and helms they wore, designed to evoke the image of a Valkyrie.
It was affected by their powers to some extent given it had grown to giant size alongside them, maybe it added to their durability as well? Some kind of Tinkertech?
In the end, all that mattered was that they could take more punishment than Taylor had thought.
Good.
"You," One of the twins hissed, as they paused a short distance away from her, glowering down, trying to use their size to intimidate her. Taylor had thought they would attack immediately, but apparently she had thrown them hard enough to make them at least a little wary.
Which one had spoken? Fenja? Menja? Taylor didn't know, and after a moment, she dismissed it. It didn't matter.
"You're making a big mistake by making an enemy of the Empire."
Taylor laughed, short, harsh and humourless. "No, I don't think I am."
Then she moved.
The Nazi opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came from her mouth except a pained gasp as Taylor buried her fist in her stomach, cracking her silver armour apart. The woman staggered back, clutching at her stomach as her broken armour fell off her in shards.
Her twin struck in retaliation, slamming her gigantic fist straight into Taylor's entire body.
But it didn't even make Taylor move.
"I almost felt that," Taylor said flatly.
The fake Valkyrie only had a moment to scream before Taylor grabbed her hand and then hurled her into the air.
Taylor was almost tempted to test just how hard she could throw the Nazi, but the disapproving faces of the Wizard, Tawny, and Lady Photon flashed through her mind.
Instead, she only applied a little strength and watched dispassionately as the screaming woman hurtled into the air, her spear and helmet falling to the ground, shrinking back to normal size, just before their wielder started dropping back down as well.
After seeing what the twins had done, Taylor had thought she'd be so angry that she'd go berserk.
And she was angry, but…it gave her a strange kind of clarity she'd never felt before. She wanted and needed to make Fenja and Menja pay, but at the same time, she felt almost detached as she watched the Nazis fall.
It felt good.
Taylor shot up to catch Fenja before she could hit anything important. She expected the gigantic woman to be heavier, but she just…wasn't. Dragging her back down to earth was no more difficult than picking up a glass of eater.
The Strength of Hercules was as incredible as the myths said.
Just as they landed, the other twin, who had recovered, revealed herself. She had grown even larger, large enough to hold an adult man in one palm. She lashed out with all her strength to impale Taylor on her spear.
It shattered against Taylor's skin, breaking into a hundred little pieces
For a long moment, there was silence as the two of them stared at each other.
Then, Taylor threw her twin at the one who had just attacked her, sending them both crashing to the ground.
They wheezed in pain but didn't seem out for the count yet. They could reduce the amount of damage they took, Taylor recalled.
Fine, then.
She flew forward, grabbing them both by the ankle. Even now, she braced herself to carry something heavy, but they just weren't.
She flew them high into the sky, ignoring their squirming and thrashing.
"Let us go!" One of them screamed at her.
Taylor looked down at her, almost tempted to grant her request as she remembered the mangled corpses of the firefighters, but she restrained herself.
"I don't think you want me to do that," She said casually, deciding they were high enough.
Both twins immediately went green as they looked down at the distant lights of Brockton Bay below.
"What are you going to do to us?" One of them asked fearfully.
"Not much," Taylor said coldly. "The oxygen here is thin, thin enough that you two should pass out soon. After that, I'll take you to the PRT and they'll decide what to do with you."
"You can't do this, the Empire-"
"The Empire?" Taylor repeated mockingly. "What are they going to do? I beat Hookwolf. I beat you two. If the Empire thinks they can do better, let them come."
The twins might have argued further, but the cold and lack of oxygen were clearly getting to them because they instead just wheezed and moaned in pain.
It was just as Taylor was getting impatient and wondering if she should fly even higher than the two Nazis passed out.
"Finally," Taylor muttered in annoyance, flying back downwards, straight for the Protectorate ENE Headquarters. Hopefully, this wouldn't take long, and she could head back to the scene of the crime to help the victims.
Taylor landed in front of the roadway leading straight to the Protectorate's base. She could have landed straight on the refitted oil rig itself, but that would probably have been rude.
There was a small station next to the roadway, where a pair of wide-eyed PRT troopers watched her land.
"I have Fenja and Menja," She told them, roughly dropping the aforementioned twins to the ground. "I arrested them after they destroyed a firefighter station. Can you call someone to take them in?"
"Uh, yeah," One of the guards said, a woman with short brown hair said lamely. "Just give me a second. I'll call someone to get containment foam. If you could, um, keep an eye on them?"
Taylor inclined her head, crossing her arms as she stood above the fallen twins.
She didn't have to wait long, as a PRT truck came down the roadway from the headquarters not ten minutes later, with a squad of troopers who quickly sprayed down the twins with containment foam.
But with the knowledge of the people who were waiting for her help gnawing at her, every second felt like an eternity.
It was just as they were being put away in the truck and Taylor was about to fly off that there was the sound of an engine, and down the road came Armsmaster on his motorcycle.
"Captain!" He shouted. "Wait a moment!"
He stopped his bike in front of them, surveying the scene. Taylor couldn't see his upper face behind his visor, but his mouth twisted in a way that made her think he was surprised.
"Captain," He greeted her as he got off his motorcycle. "You arrested these two?"
Taylor nodded, curtly. "I did. But I have to go now, the place where they hit needs help-"
"Don't worry," Armsmaster cut her off. "I was actually on my way to deal with them myself, but I was too slow. However, I was there just now, and I called 911 after giving them some rudimentary treatment." He patted his halberd, the device opening slightly to show a syringe popping out.
In a flash, it snapped back in place, "There are paramedics and police on the scene already."
Taylor's anger and fear drained away at his words, relief settling in her stomach.
He scowled at the twins. "We knew they were going to hit somewhere, but we didn't know where."
"You did?" Taylor asked, surprised.
Armsmaster nodded. "We had intelligence that the Empire intended to break Hookwolf out on his way to the Birdcage, as had been done in the past. Fenja and Menja were tasked with creating a distraction that was supposed to draw my team away, making it easy for them to take him back. Part of my team laid a trap for them, and Hookwolf didn't escape. The rest of us were on patrol throughout Brockton, and all the police stations were on alert," Armsmaster's scowled angrily. "Someone must have leaked it to the Empire, because they didn't go after any of the targets we were expecting. A fire station is outside their usual behavior, too high a chance of damaging their reputation."
"Oh," Taylor said. For a moment, she was almost angry again. The Protectorate should have tried harder. They should have found a way to figure out where Fenja and Menja would strike. They should have found a way to keep the information contained, and not let it leak.
They should have saved all those people who died.
Then, reality reasserted itself. The Protectorate weren't gods. They didn't have divine powers they could use to save everyone.
But Taylor did.
Or rather, Captain Marvel did.
Taylor Hebert couldn't have saved those people. But if she'd been Captain Marvel at the time, patrolling the city instead of sitting at home watching TV…
"Captain?"
Armsmaster's voice pulled her from her thoughts. The older hero was watching her with a faintly concerned expression, and Taylor did her best to smile.
"I'm sorry. I just got distracted," She said. "Hookwolf didn't escape, you said?"
"He didn't," Armsmaster confirmed. "We captured a few other Empire villains too, though none of them are due for the Birdcage. We expect more break out attempts for Hookwolf, he's a valuable asset to the organization."
He sounded annoyed.
"What about Fenja and Menja?" Taylor said the words before she even realized she'd spoken. "Will they go to the Birdcage too?"
"Possibly," Armsmaster answered, his scowl becoming slightly less pronounced. "But it depends on the courts and my superiors. I can't say for sure. I talked to some survivors of the attack, sent several ambulances their way. It's not a good look for them, too extreme. I would say it's likely, however. Those thugs you left lying there are likely to face harsh sentences as well"
Taylor coughed slightly in embarrassment. She had been so focused on the twins she hadn't thought to deal with the skinheads. "Did any of them escape? I didn't have time to tie them up or anything"
"No, they were all still unconscious when I arrived," Armsmaster assured her. "Though many will be hospitalized for a time. Unconsciousness doesn't work like the movies, but I doubt anything life-threatening is a concern."
"That's good," Taylor nodded. It was a relief, to know that the Nazis wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else and that she hadn't gone too far it seemed.
But it didn't bring back the people who had died or erase the injuries of the people who had been hurt.
She should have done more. She should have been able to do more, she had divine powers, she had magic-
Magic. That was the answer.
Healing spells had to be a thing, right? Ways to fix injuries, help people.
"Thanks for the talk, gotta-go!" She blurted out at Armsmaster, before flying away from the surprised hero.
Magic could be used to help people beyond just throwing fists, Taylor was certain of it.
And if there was anyone who knew how to use magic for that purpose, it was the Wizard.
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