I was talking about the future time when she will be more acquianted with her powers.
Also the lack of Corona makes me think that shard fuckery won't apply to her.
Tornado of Taylor (Worm / One Punch Man)
- Thread starter DoorAlarm
- Start date
- Crossover
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- Tags
- one punch man worm
I was talking about the future time when she will be more acquianted with her powers.
Also the lack of Corona makes me think that shard fuckery won't apply to her.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Instead...
It sounds like she'll have to deal with Tatsumaki fuckery. Whether it just be a personality quirk from her esper powers or an actual piece of Tatsumaki's consciousness... I'm not sure which is worse.
- Location
- United States
Kinda wanna see Amy's reaction to learning she was a bitch to a person who triggered in a shelter from the fight and not a cape that could have done that the entire time and was sitting on their ass
Now I'm imagining Tatsumaki bodychecking a representation of Queen Administrator at the moment Taylor was about to trigger
There's a possibility that Taylor never actually triggered on account of the fact that Amy couldn't find her Coronas. That nightmare Taylor had just before she woke up, the guy in the labcoat... Could Taylor's esper powers be from being experimented on at some point in the past, with her memory of it blocked or outright erased?
Danny: Everyone knows Taylor.
Taylor: *small/quiet* Noooo...
Taylor: *small/quiet* Noooo...
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From the sounds of it and the uncharacteristic shifts in mood, it seems like Tatsumaki is either in there with Taylor or her powers were somehow transferred to Taylor with bits of her personality attached.
Chapter 5
DoorAlarm
Doorsss
- Location
- U.S of A
- Pronouns
- She
After that little revelation, neither her father nor Taylor herself were in any mood to go outside and face what might very well be a rabid crowd. Thus, in an unspoken agreement, the two of them spent the rest of the day relaxing together, doing nothing except to try and return to a semblance of normality.
It was... Surprisingly hard for Taylor. Her encounter with Leviathan and its aftermath, from fleeing her home, to encountering it, triggering, and then subsequently defeating it... It had only lasted for a little over an hour.
Even for someone as young as her, that was nothing. And yet, it felt like that hour had had more impact on her than all of the months she'd spent at home after leaving school, and even now, she still felt jumpy and anxious.
Regardless, Taylor tried her best, and her father did as well. They explored their loaned hotel floor, marveling together at just how decadent it was and making fun of the rich tourists who would willingly pay for something like this, all the while conveniently ignoring how hypocritical it all sounded.
They ooh'ed and aah'ed over the large swimming pool, and then went on to play ping pong together over at the recreation center, doing so for the first time since her mother had passed.
Then, when lunchtime came, Taylor was both surprised and embarrassed when the hotel owner himself, a slightly overweight black man with a friendly smile, personally came over and invited them to dine at the hotel's restaurant, which her father accepted, coaxing her to do the same.
"Come on, Taylor." He encouraged her as they walked down the stairs. "Don't be like that. We might as well take advantage of it while we still can. Just consider this our delayed celebration." He cajoled.
Taylor... Didn't really agree with that line of thinking, but also didn't feel like arguing with her father, especially not when he was so clearly trying his best, something she'd desperately wished he would do for so long now. "I guess..."
And so it was that the two of them found themselves standing alone in the massive dining hall, with the owner having closed it down from the public exactly for this occasion.
"Is... Is this really ok?" Taylor hesitantly asked, looking up from the menu in her hands so she could glance at the hotel owner, who was currently acting as their waiter.
"Of course it is." He reassured, giving her a brilliant smile. "Now, come on. Don't be shy. Anything and everything you want, we will get you." He winked at her.
"Taylor, regardless of anything else, the fact that you ate here alone will boost this place's popularity massively." Her father interrupted. "The cost for a two-person meal is nothing compared to the profits he'll be making."
"Oh," Taylor murmured, glancing at the owner with a curious look.
He just smiled guiltlessly and adopted a very obviously fake innocent expression.
Well... Taylor looked down at the menu, trying very hard not to stare at the three-digit prices on the appetizers.
Surely she could indulge herself just this once. If the owner was so clearly eager to give her free food, then surely there was nothing wrong with taking advantage of the opportunity?
Twenty minutes later, a starry-eyed Taylor looked on as six waiters all brought out different dishes for the two of them to sample, ranging from a rather tame mixed salad all the way to gold-plated gourmet steaks.
Yes, she reaffirmed to herself as she happily dug in. Just this once, surely she was allowed to take advantage of her sudden bout of good luck and indulge herself.
And so, she did.
Taylor groaned, holding her belly as she struggled not to throw up, her face green as she lay sprawled on her far too fancy bed, holding a hand over her eyes as she repeatedly berated herself.
Never again. Why did she ever think this was a good idea? She was so freaking stupid!
Besides her bed, her very unhelpful father just laughed at her predicament. "I did tell you to stop or you would get sick, hmm? Maybe you should listen to me next time?" He suggested teasingly.
Taylor shot him a glare. "Shaddap." She mumbled, letting out another groan as she staggered out of bed. "I'm taking a shower." She proclaimed with all the grace of a drunk koala before proceeding to stagger her way to the bathroom, pointedly ignoring her father's continued laughter.
Thankfully for Taylor, by the time she found herself happily humming as the lukewarm water of the shower cleaned away all the accumulated filth, grime, and sweat that had been plaguing her since Leviathan, she'd already mostly recovered from her ordeal, although the mere thought of eating anything else did make her immediately nauseous.
She sighed. Yeah, suddenly binge-eating enough food to make a competitive eater jealous probably wasn't a good idea, especially so considering she'd been losing weight for quite some time now.
Oh well, Taylor thought as she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, grabbing one of the incredibly fluffy towels and quickly drying herself off. You live and you learn, she thought as she stepped over to the large, person-sized mirror fixed on one of the walls, brush in hand. You live and you-
Taylor stopped, her eyes going wide as she stared at the mirror.
Her hands trembled, and the brush slipped out from her suddenly limp fingers.
For a single moment, it was like time had stopped, and Taylor couldn't breathe anymore.
And then, just as suddenly, the moment passed, and Taylor let out the loudest shriek she'd ever unleashed.
"MY HAIR!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, practically lurching forward to stare closer at the mirror, getting a front-row view of the horrified expression she was making as she grabbed a tuff of her hair and brought it before her eyes, just to confirm what she was seeing.
Green. Her hair was GREEN. Instead of her usual black, her hair was closer to the color of grass.
"Taylor! Taylor, is everything alright?!" Her father's panicked voice echoed out from beyond the locked door. "Taylor?!"
"M-my hair!" Taylor repeated, struggling to hold back her sobs. "It's... It's..." She struggled to say, the words dying in the back of her throat, and after a few seconds, she gave up and instead let out a low, keening noise of pure horror.
"What happened? Do I need to call Panacea? Did the shampoo do something?" Her father quickly asked, schooling his voice to sound firm and steady, although Taylor could feel the worry practically emanating from him. "Talk to me, sweetheart. Please."
It's..." Taylor teared up, but finally managed to choke out the words. "It's GREEN!"
She wasn't sure what she'd expected her father, but whatever it was, it definitely wasn't for him to suddenly go silent for a good half dozen seconds, only for his next words to be a suddenly very awkward, "Ok... And?"
"What? What do you mean 'and'!?" Taylor practically shrieked. "My hair! It's green! Why is it green!"
"W-well, honey, it's..." Her father stammered out, coughing awkwardly. "It's, uh, been like that ever since you... Got your powers..." He trailed off, clearly unsure of what else to say.
Taylor bluescreened. For a good half minute, it was like her mind had just straight-up shut down as she continued to stare at her hair like a deer in the headlights.
Then, when she did finally regain her senses, well...
"WHAT!?"
Taylor was a worm. A bedworm, to be exact, and the sheets were her sand.
"Taylor, I'm sorry."
Taylor plugged her ears as she hid deeper under the sheets. She was a worm. A stupid, blind worm that couldn't stop embarrassing herself no matter what she did.
"Please, honey, don't be like this. Really, I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't know it'd upset you this much."
"Go away." She mumbled, clenching her eyes shut as she tightened her hold on her legs, pulling her knees to her chest as she struggled not to cry.
"I thought you knew, sweetie. How didn't you-" He cut himself off. "Er, I mean, it really doesn't look that bad on you? Um, green goes really well on you?" Her dad lamely finished as he hovered around her bed, looking rather distraught at the unexpected tantrum his daughter was throwing... Over her hair.
Which had been like this for quite some time now, and who apparently just hadn't noticed.
"Please, honey just explain it to me. Maybe I can help?" Her father desperately asked, clearly at his wit's end by the nonsensical nature of this particular tantrum.
For a moment, Taylor did nothing, still huddled under the sheets while stubbornly refusing to say anything.
Then... "It's... It's just..." Taylor murmured, her voice so quiet that her father struggled to hear her. "M-my hair, it's... It's... Mom..." She let out another keening noise akin to that of a wounded animal. "M-mom always said my hair was so much like hers, and now it's not!" She outright yelled the last part, her voice almost breaking with how high-pitched her voice went.
"Oh, sweetheart..." Her father said sadly, his chest welling up with pity as he gave up his previous approach, instead stepping forward and scooping up his daughter alongside the blanket for a tight hug. "You don't need to worry, you know. Green or black hair, it doesn't matter. You look so much like your mother regardless."
Taylor made a nonspecific noise at the back of her throat, not returning her father's hug as he cradled her against his chest but also not fighting against it.
"Besides... If it truly bothers you that much, we can always go and get it dyed?" Her father tentatively suggested. "I mean, I'm surely I can find a good saloon near-"
"NO!" Taylor shouted abruptly, wiggling out and away from her father's hold, throwing the blanket off of herself as she scurried away before then throwing a harsh glare at her dad, holding her hair protectively. "No! No dyes!" She practically hissed.
"But-" Danny tried to say, only for Taylor to cut him off yet again.
"No. Dyes." She repeated firmly, practically cradling her hair that only moments earlier she'd been crying over.
Her father's mouth opened and closed repeatedly without saying anything, clearly struggling to make sense of her behavior. It took him a minute to decide that the ways of the teenager's mind were simply beyond him and to give it up as a bad job.
"Right. No dyes." He sighed tiredly, running a hand through his hair. "But... Why not?" He asked.
"Because-" Taylor quickly said, only for her to run into a wall as she realized that not even she knew why the very thought of dying her hair revolted her so much. "Because, um... Because I don't want to." She finally managed to say, her voice petulant as she refused to meet his eyes.
Danny sighed.
The rest of the evening was a relatively quiet affair, one that left Taylor practically cringing with guilt and shame every time she glanced at her father, while he, in turn, tried his best to move on from that little affair.
He asked her if she wanted to watch a boring but nice nature documentary together, something that Taylor eagerly accepted, if only so that she could forget her outburst. Surprisingly enough, though, the movie actually wasn't all that bad, even if it also wasn't particularly interesting.
However, by the time the film was over, the sun outside had already fallen even though it was only seven o'clock, and Taylor couldn't help but feel... Restless.
She'd enjoyed the day. Really, she had. Compared to her previous months of loneliness and monotony, spending the day having fun with her father had been great.
And yet, despite that, she couldn't help but feel anxious and fretful. There was a gnawing sensation in the back of her mind, a slowly building energy that had her legs constantly moving up and down as she sat still, and that had her pacing in circles when she wasn't doing anything else.
It hadn't been so bad before, but over the course of the day, and especially through the movie, it had only intensified. Now, Taylor even found herself absentmindedly chewing on her nails, and she struggled to keep her thoughts from constantly turning toward her new powers.
Don't get her wrong- it wasn't like she wasn't interested or wanted to experiment with them, quite the opposite in fact, but even then, she'd also wanted to unwind. To try and relax, to forget all that had happened, if only for a little while.
But now... Taylor couldn't hold it in anymore. She had to do something, anything, worthwhile with her powers. She wanted to figure out how they worked, to play with them, hell, even just to simply use them!
"Dad." She said seriously as the two of them relaxed on the large and soft couch. "I want- no. I need to go out." She said seriously, staring straight into his eyes as he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Right..." He said slowly, clearly wondering where this had come from this time. "Taylor, it's late. You know it's not safe going out at night." He told her with a straight face.
And, well... Taylor just stared at him with a dull, unimpressed look on her face. "Dad, I don't think I need to be all that concerned about that now." She said in perhaps the driest voice she'd ever managed.
"Uh..." Danny said dumbly, his eyes widening as he realized the stupidity of what he'd just said. "Well, that's not, I didn't-" He stammered, a blush rising to his cheeks as he tried to justify his worry.
Taylor just huffed in amusement at his predicament, earning a long-suffering look from him. "Yes, well, I know you're really powerful now, sweetie," He said, all of his embarrassment abruptly vanishing as he spoke, only to be replaced with... Not sadness, perhaps, but close. "But... Even then, what if, uh, someone catches you off guard?"
She rolled her eyes at his worry, putting her hands on her hips as she stood up. "It's fine, I'll just keep a barrier on me at all times. Dad, I'll be fine, stop being such a worrywart." She told him.
He blinked. "You can do that?" He asked cautiously, frowning slightly.
Now, it was Taylor's turn to blink. "Well, yes, of course I... can?" She trailed off, her statement turning into more of a question as she frowned.
Well, it was easy enough to test out. So, with a mental shrug, Taylor did what came naturally, and willed her desire into existence, and her power responded.
To Danny's eyes, nothing seemed to have happened, but to Taylor's, the skintight barrier around her body couldn't have been more obvious. It was as easy as breathing to keep active, hell, she'd even go as far as to say it was even more instinctive than breathing!
Which was... Weird, to say the least. If it was this easy to do, then why hadn't she known to do it earlier, despite her already knowing how to... do it?
Taylor frowned. Ugh. This was all far too confusing.
Regardless, she refocused on her father, giving him a firm nod. "Yeah, I can. Look." She said, forcing the glow of her barrier to shine just a bit brighter for a moment, causing her father to squint. "As long as I have this on, nothing can hurt me!" She boasted, smiling at him with a confidence that she had no idea where she was getting.
"... Right." Her father said, nodding slowly before looking away and murmuring something to himself.
Taylor blinked as she heard a familiar name. "Legend did what?" She asked, not quite catching what else he was saying.
"Nothing!" Danny quickly deflected. "Um, okay, but even then... How exactly do you plan to go out?" He asked as he gestured toward the curtain-covered window. "Because believe it or not, I'm pretty sure the crowd outside has only grown through today."
Taylor blanched at that particular reminder. Right. No way was she going to confront that particular situation anytime soon. No way in hell.
But then, how else could she go out and-
It was like lightning had suddenly struck her as the realization of how she could indeed go out came to her. "Dad, please, I, I need- She said, her voice almost manic as she rushed toward the door that she knew led to the open-air balcony.
"Wait, Taylor, what are you-" Danny cut himself off as Taylor threw open the door, stepped out into the open air outside, and breathed.
She ignored the flashing lights from below. She ignored the multitude of sounds echoing out from everywhere around her. She ignored everything except for her power.
Gently, guided by instincts so familiar and yet so foreign, Taylor focused her will upon herself, closed her eyes, and called upon her power.
And just as it had every time she had done so, her power answered.
... No, she realized as something began to happen. Her power didn't answer, because there was nothing that needed to answer. There was no power that needed to be called upon, because it simply didn't exist.
It was her, she realized as feelings and sensations impossible to explain passed through her mind. She was the one doing this. In a very real sense, she was her power.
And with that realization, her eyes opened, and she couldn't help but gasp.
She was floating in place above the balcony, held by nothing except for her will.
"Taylor, you... You can fly?" She heard her father ask, his voice stunned.
She turned and looked down at him, practically vibrating in place. "Dad," She said haltingly, her voice containing an almost impossible sense of urgency. "Please, I... I need to go."
Danny stared back at her, examining her for a moment before his eyes then turned away, and had Taylor been paying any real attention, she would have easily noticed the deep sadness within them. "Of... Of course." He murmured, his voice resigned. "Just... Come back safe, okay?"
Taylor nodded quickly, and then, finally, she did as she had always wanted to do.
She flew.
It was everything that she had ever dreamed of and more. She couldn't contain her bright laughter as she exploded upward, higher and higher and higher, feeling the wind on her body as she left behind a trail of green, grinning so widely that her cheeks hurt.
She went up and up until she could touch the clouds. She dived down so fast that the wind should've stripped her skin off from her, and yet her barrier protected her. She flew in every direction as fast as she could, uncaring for any specific destination as long as she was moving.
It was like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. Up here in the sky, nothing else mattered except for the wind upon her skin.
It didn't matter that she was nothing but a lonely girl who had gotten lucky. She wasn't Winslow's punching bag, nor was she the so-called Endripper. Here, she wasn't even Taylor Hebert.
No. Here, she was nothing but a girl enjoying her freedom, something which she did plenty of.
Eventually, though, as the minutes ticked by one by one, her euphoria began to fade, although it never truly left. With a warm sigh, Taylor shook her head as she came to a sudden stop, and then looked down.
Brockton Bay looked... Bad. Huge sections of the city were damaged, with the areas near the coast being outright destroyed. Even this late into the night, she could see work crews going around, fixing up damaged electrical lines or doing more manual labor such as getting rid of the plenty of debris that seemed to be everywhere.
Up here, Taylor could have done anything she wanted. She could have continued to fly and enjoy her new favorite activity of all time. Or instead, she could have chosen to return to the hotel so that she could continue to be pampered like a princess by her father and the hotel staff.
But again, in the skies, Taylor felt truly free. Free to do whatever she wanted, free to follow her desires.
And in her heart of hearts, in the core of her very being, there was only one thing that Taylor truly wanted to do, the one thing that she had so desperately wished someone would do for her.
She wanted to help.
It was... Surprisingly hard for Taylor. Her encounter with Leviathan and its aftermath, from fleeing her home, to encountering it, triggering, and then subsequently defeating it... It had only lasted for a little over an hour.
Even for someone as young as her, that was nothing. And yet, it felt like that hour had had more impact on her than all of the months she'd spent at home after leaving school, and even now, she still felt jumpy and anxious.
Regardless, Taylor tried her best, and her father did as well. They explored their loaned hotel floor, marveling together at just how decadent it was and making fun of the rich tourists who would willingly pay for something like this, all the while conveniently ignoring how hypocritical it all sounded.
They ooh'ed and aah'ed over the large swimming pool, and then went on to play ping pong together over at the recreation center, doing so for the first time since her mother had passed.
Then, when lunchtime came, Taylor was both surprised and embarrassed when the hotel owner himself, a slightly overweight black man with a friendly smile, personally came over and invited them to dine at the hotel's restaurant, which her father accepted, coaxing her to do the same.
"Come on, Taylor." He encouraged her as they walked down the stairs. "Don't be like that. We might as well take advantage of it while we still can. Just consider this our delayed celebration." He cajoled.
Taylor... Didn't really agree with that line of thinking, but also didn't feel like arguing with her father, especially not when he was so clearly trying his best, something she'd desperately wished he would do for so long now. "I guess..."
And so it was that the two of them found themselves standing alone in the massive dining hall, with the owner having closed it down from the public exactly for this occasion.
"Is... Is this really ok?" Taylor hesitantly asked, looking up from the menu in her hands so she could glance at the hotel owner, who was currently acting as their waiter.
"Of course it is." He reassured, giving her a brilliant smile. "Now, come on. Don't be shy. Anything and everything you want, we will get you." He winked at her.
"Taylor, regardless of anything else, the fact that you ate here alone will boost this place's popularity massively." Her father interrupted. "The cost for a two-person meal is nothing compared to the profits he'll be making."
"Oh," Taylor murmured, glancing at the owner with a curious look.
He just smiled guiltlessly and adopted a very obviously fake innocent expression.
Well... Taylor looked down at the menu, trying very hard not to stare at the three-digit prices on the appetizers.
Surely she could indulge herself just this once. If the owner was so clearly eager to give her free food, then surely there was nothing wrong with taking advantage of the opportunity?
Twenty minutes later, a starry-eyed Taylor looked on as six waiters all brought out different dishes for the two of them to sample, ranging from a rather tame mixed salad all the way to gold-plated gourmet steaks.
Yes, she reaffirmed to herself as she happily dug in. Just this once, surely she was allowed to take advantage of her sudden bout of good luck and indulge herself.
And so, she did.
Taylor groaned, holding her belly as she struggled not to throw up, her face green as she lay sprawled on her far too fancy bed, holding a hand over her eyes as she repeatedly berated herself.
Never again. Why did she ever think this was a good idea? She was so freaking stupid!
Besides her bed, her very unhelpful father just laughed at her predicament. "I did tell you to stop or you would get sick, hmm? Maybe you should listen to me next time?" He suggested teasingly.
Taylor shot him a glare. "Shaddap." She mumbled, letting out another groan as she staggered out of bed. "I'm taking a shower." She proclaimed with all the grace of a drunk koala before proceeding to stagger her way to the bathroom, pointedly ignoring her father's continued laughter.
Thankfully for Taylor, by the time she found herself happily humming as the lukewarm water of the shower cleaned away all the accumulated filth, grime, and sweat that had been plaguing her since Leviathan, she'd already mostly recovered from her ordeal, although the mere thought of eating anything else did make her immediately nauseous.
She sighed. Yeah, suddenly binge-eating enough food to make a competitive eater jealous probably wasn't a good idea, especially so considering she'd been losing weight for quite some time now.
Oh well, Taylor thought as she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, grabbing one of the incredibly fluffy towels and quickly drying herself off. You live and you learn, she thought as she stepped over to the large, person-sized mirror fixed on one of the walls, brush in hand. You live and you-
Taylor stopped, her eyes going wide as she stared at the mirror.
Her hands trembled, and the brush slipped out from her suddenly limp fingers.
For a single moment, it was like time had stopped, and Taylor couldn't breathe anymore.
And then, just as suddenly, the moment passed, and Taylor let out the loudest shriek she'd ever unleashed.
"MY HAIR!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, practically lurching forward to stare closer at the mirror, getting a front-row view of the horrified expression she was making as she grabbed a tuff of her hair and brought it before her eyes, just to confirm what she was seeing.
Green. Her hair was GREEN. Instead of her usual black, her hair was closer to the color of grass.
"Taylor! Taylor, is everything alright?!" Her father's panicked voice echoed out from beyond the locked door. "Taylor?!"
"M-my hair!" Taylor repeated, struggling to hold back her sobs. "It's... It's..." She struggled to say, the words dying in the back of her throat, and after a few seconds, she gave up and instead let out a low, keening noise of pure horror.
"What happened? Do I need to call Panacea? Did the shampoo do something?" Her father quickly asked, schooling his voice to sound firm and steady, although Taylor could feel the worry practically emanating from him. "Talk to me, sweetheart. Please."
It's..." Taylor teared up, but finally managed to choke out the words. "It's GREEN!"
She wasn't sure what she'd expected her father, but whatever it was, it definitely wasn't for him to suddenly go silent for a good half dozen seconds, only for his next words to be a suddenly very awkward, "Ok... And?"
"What? What do you mean 'and'!?" Taylor practically shrieked. "My hair! It's green! Why is it green!"
"W-well, honey, it's..." Her father stammered out, coughing awkwardly. "It's, uh, been like that ever since you... Got your powers..." He trailed off, clearly unsure of what else to say.
Taylor bluescreened. For a good half minute, it was like her mind had just straight-up shut down as she continued to stare at her hair like a deer in the headlights.
Then, when she did finally regain her senses, well...
"WHAT!?"
Taylor was a worm. A bedworm, to be exact, and the sheets were her sand.
"Taylor, I'm sorry."
Taylor plugged her ears as she hid deeper under the sheets. She was a worm. A stupid, blind worm that couldn't stop embarrassing herself no matter what she did.
"Please, honey, don't be like this. Really, I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't know it'd upset you this much."
"Go away." She mumbled, clenching her eyes shut as she tightened her hold on her legs, pulling her knees to her chest as she struggled not to cry.
"I thought you knew, sweetie. How didn't you-" He cut himself off. "Er, I mean, it really doesn't look that bad on you? Um, green goes really well on you?" Her dad lamely finished as he hovered around her bed, looking rather distraught at the unexpected tantrum his daughter was throwing... Over her hair.
Which had been like this for quite some time now, and who apparently just hadn't noticed.
"Please, honey just explain it to me. Maybe I can help?" Her father desperately asked, clearly at his wit's end by the nonsensical nature of this particular tantrum.
For a moment, Taylor did nothing, still huddled under the sheets while stubbornly refusing to say anything.
Then... "It's... It's just..." Taylor murmured, her voice so quiet that her father struggled to hear her. "M-my hair, it's... It's... Mom..." She let out another keening noise akin to that of a wounded animal. "M-mom always said my hair was so much like hers, and now it's not!" She outright yelled the last part, her voice almost breaking with how high-pitched her voice went.
"Oh, sweetheart..." Her father said sadly, his chest welling up with pity as he gave up his previous approach, instead stepping forward and scooping up his daughter alongside the blanket for a tight hug. "You don't need to worry, you know. Green or black hair, it doesn't matter. You look so much like your mother regardless."
Taylor made a nonspecific noise at the back of her throat, not returning her father's hug as he cradled her against his chest but also not fighting against it.
"Besides... If it truly bothers you that much, we can always go and get it dyed?" Her father tentatively suggested. "I mean, I'm surely I can find a good saloon near-"
"NO!" Taylor shouted abruptly, wiggling out and away from her father's hold, throwing the blanket off of herself as she scurried away before then throwing a harsh glare at her dad, holding her hair protectively. "No! No dyes!" She practically hissed.
"But-" Danny tried to say, only for Taylor to cut him off yet again.
"No. Dyes." She repeated firmly, practically cradling her hair that only moments earlier she'd been crying over.
Her father's mouth opened and closed repeatedly without saying anything, clearly struggling to make sense of her behavior. It took him a minute to decide that the ways of the teenager's mind were simply beyond him and to give it up as a bad job.
"Right. No dyes." He sighed tiredly, running a hand through his hair. "But... Why not?" He asked.
"Because-" Taylor quickly said, only for her to run into a wall as she realized that not even she knew why the very thought of dying her hair revolted her so much. "Because, um... Because I don't want to." She finally managed to say, her voice petulant as she refused to meet his eyes.
Danny sighed.
The rest of the evening was a relatively quiet affair, one that left Taylor practically cringing with guilt and shame every time she glanced at her father, while he, in turn, tried his best to move on from that little affair.
He asked her if she wanted to watch a boring but nice nature documentary together, something that Taylor eagerly accepted, if only so that she could forget her outburst. Surprisingly enough, though, the movie actually wasn't all that bad, even if it also wasn't particularly interesting.
However, by the time the film was over, the sun outside had already fallen even though it was only seven o'clock, and Taylor couldn't help but feel... Restless.
She'd enjoyed the day. Really, she had. Compared to her previous months of loneliness and monotony, spending the day having fun with her father had been great.
And yet, despite that, she couldn't help but feel anxious and fretful. There was a gnawing sensation in the back of her mind, a slowly building energy that had her legs constantly moving up and down as she sat still, and that had her pacing in circles when she wasn't doing anything else.
It hadn't been so bad before, but over the course of the day, and especially through the movie, it had only intensified. Now, Taylor even found herself absentmindedly chewing on her nails, and she struggled to keep her thoughts from constantly turning toward her new powers.
Don't get her wrong- it wasn't like she wasn't interested or wanted to experiment with them, quite the opposite in fact, but even then, she'd also wanted to unwind. To try and relax, to forget all that had happened, if only for a little while.
But now... Taylor couldn't hold it in anymore. She had to do something, anything, worthwhile with her powers. She wanted to figure out how they worked, to play with them, hell, even just to simply use them!
"Dad." She said seriously as the two of them relaxed on the large and soft couch. "I want- no. I need to go out." She said seriously, staring straight into his eyes as he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Right..." He said slowly, clearly wondering where this had come from this time. "Taylor, it's late. You know it's not safe going out at night." He told her with a straight face.
And, well... Taylor just stared at him with a dull, unimpressed look on her face. "Dad, I don't think I need to be all that concerned about that now." She said in perhaps the driest voice she'd ever managed.
"Uh..." Danny said dumbly, his eyes widening as he realized the stupidity of what he'd just said. "Well, that's not, I didn't-" He stammered, a blush rising to his cheeks as he tried to justify his worry.
Taylor just huffed in amusement at his predicament, earning a long-suffering look from him. "Yes, well, I know you're really powerful now, sweetie," He said, all of his embarrassment abruptly vanishing as he spoke, only to be replaced with... Not sadness, perhaps, but close. "But... Even then, what if, uh, someone catches you off guard?"
She rolled her eyes at his worry, putting her hands on her hips as she stood up. "It's fine, I'll just keep a barrier on me at all times. Dad, I'll be fine, stop being such a worrywart." She told him.
He blinked. "You can do that?" He asked cautiously, frowning slightly.
Now, it was Taylor's turn to blink. "Well, yes, of course I... can?" She trailed off, her statement turning into more of a question as she frowned.
Well, it was easy enough to test out. So, with a mental shrug, Taylor did what came naturally, and willed her desire into existence, and her power responded.
To Danny's eyes, nothing seemed to have happened, but to Taylor's, the skintight barrier around her body couldn't have been more obvious. It was as easy as breathing to keep active, hell, she'd even go as far as to say it was even more instinctive than breathing!
Which was... Weird, to say the least. If it was this easy to do, then why hadn't she known to do it earlier, despite her already knowing how to... do it?
Taylor frowned. Ugh. This was all far too confusing.
Regardless, she refocused on her father, giving him a firm nod. "Yeah, I can. Look." She said, forcing the glow of her barrier to shine just a bit brighter for a moment, causing her father to squint. "As long as I have this on, nothing can hurt me!" She boasted, smiling at him with a confidence that she had no idea where she was getting.
"... Right." Her father said, nodding slowly before looking away and murmuring something to himself.
Taylor blinked as she heard a familiar name. "Legend did what?" She asked, not quite catching what else he was saying.
"Nothing!" Danny quickly deflected. "Um, okay, but even then... How exactly do you plan to go out?" He asked as he gestured toward the curtain-covered window. "Because believe it or not, I'm pretty sure the crowd outside has only grown through today."
Taylor blanched at that particular reminder. Right. No way was she going to confront that particular situation anytime soon. No way in hell.
But then, how else could she go out and-
It was like lightning had suddenly struck her as the realization of how she could indeed go out came to her. "Dad, please, I, I need- She said, her voice almost manic as she rushed toward the door that she knew led to the open-air balcony.
"Wait, Taylor, what are you-" Danny cut himself off as Taylor threw open the door, stepped out into the open air outside, and breathed.
She ignored the flashing lights from below. She ignored the multitude of sounds echoing out from everywhere around her. She ignored everything except for her power.
Gently, guided by instincts so familiar and yet so foreign, Taylor focused her will upon herself, closed her eyes, and called upon her power.
And just as it had every time she had done so, her power answered.
... No, she realized as something began to happen. Her power didn't answer, because there was nothing that needed to answer. There was no power that needed to be called upon, because it simply didn't exist.
It was her, she realized as feelings and sensations impossible to explain passed through her mind. She was the one doing this. In a very real sense, she was her power.
And with that realization, her eyes opened, and she couldn't help but gasp.
She was floating in place above the balcony, held by nothing except for her will.
"Taylor, you... You can fly?" She heard her father ask, his voice stunned.
She turned and looked down at him, practically vibrating in place. "Dad," She said haltingly, her voice containing an almost impossible sense of urgency. "Please, I... I need to go."
Danny stared back at her, examining her for a moment before his eyes then turned away, and had Taylor been paying any real attention, she would have easily noticed the deep sadness within them. "Of... Of course." He murmured, his voice resigned. "Just... Come back safe, okay?"
Taylor nodded quickly, and then, finally, she did as she had always wanted to do.
She flew.
It was everything that she had ever dreamed of and more. She couldn't contain her bright laughter as she exploded upward, higher and higher and higher, feeling the wind on her body as she left behind a trail of green, grinning so widely that her cheeks hurt.
She went up and up until she could touch the clouds. She dived down so fast that the wind should've stripped her skin off from her, and yet her barrier protected her. She flew in every direction as fast as she could, uncaring for any specific destination as long as she was moving.
It was like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. Up here in the sky, nothing else mattered except for the wind upon her skin.
It didn't matter that she was nothing but a lonely girl who had gotten lucky. She wasn't Winslow's punching bag, nor was she the so-called Endripper. Here, she wasn't even Taylor Hebert.
No. Here, she was nothing but a girl enjoying her freedom, something which she did plenty of.
Eventually, though, as the minutes ticked by one by one, her euphoria began to fade, although it never truly left. With a warm sigh, Taylor shook her head as she came to a sudden stop, and then looked down.
Brockton Bay looked... Bad. Huge sections of the city were damaged, with the areas near the coast being outright destroyed. Even this late into the night, she could see work crews going around, fixing up damaged electrical lines or doing more manual labor such as getting rid of the plenty of debris that seemed to be everywhere.
Up here, Taylor could have done anything she wanted. She could have continued to fly and enjoy her new favorite activity of all time. Or instead, she could have chosen to return to the hotel so that she could continue to be pampered like a princess by her father and the hotel staff.
But again, in the skies, Taylor felt truly free. Free to do whatever she wanted, free to follow her desires.
And in her heart of hearts, in the core of her very being, there was only one thing that Taylor truly wanted to do, the one thing that she had so desperately wished someone would do for her.
She wanted to help.
Ah yes, the "Halping!" begins.
- Location
- UK
Wait...if Taylor is starting to take on Tatsumakis traits...does that mean she's going to stop growing? Because Taylor is tall for her age, but Tatsumaki is not. I dont know if that's a result of her childhood or not, but her height deficiency is a defining character trait for the pint sized terror.
- Location
- Missouri
The height distribution for a fully grown woman is less than an inch different at the lower-5%, median, and upper-95% markers compared to someone who is nearly 16.
The upper 95% marker for grown women also just happens to be 5'8", aka Taylor's height at the start of Worm.
In short: Taylor isn't just tall for her age, she's just straight up tall.
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It would be funny if Taylor suddenly started to shrink. Not sure if she'd mind, though, since I think she kind of had a complex about how tall she was.
I did actually do some research a while back and just looked it up again, but most girls reach their full adult height around 14-15. I have some female family members who all stopped growing around that age and it bugged me that girls in media continued to grow until they were 18 or even early 20s, so I looked it up. Men don't stop growing until they're 21 and rarely beyond that, so it makes me wonder if the discrepancy is from male authors writing female characters without looking it up.
- Location
- new york
Only result will be modern art.
Taylor is already tall at the start of Worm. Maybe she should get Fubuki's figure instead. lol
Chapter 6
DoorAlarm
Doorsss
- Location
- U.S of A
- Pronouns
- She
Huge thanks to all of the amazing people who volunteered to proofread this chapter. Your help was invaluable, and I'm incredibly thankful. Special thanks to Craftsman for his contributions.
It is said that to be kind is to be divine. However, everybody also conveniently forgot to mention that sometimes kindness is a difficult thing to give.
Or, in simpler words, Taylor had no freaking idea what to do.
Here she was, all pumped up after finally being able to achieve her childhood dream of flying and with the full intention of going out and being a hero... Only to get stumped on the first step.
Taylor sighed as she continued to hover mid-air, feeling somewhat silly as she looked down at the city of her birth, trying and failing to spot anything or anyone that might need her help.
The problem was that Taylor was sort of really high up in the sky, and while Panacea's healing of her eyes did help a lot, it wasn't enough to let her see the finer points of what was happening below, and without an obvious rampaging kaiju to go around, Taylor wasn't sure where she could actually help.
She hummed to herself as she squinted her eyes while peering all around. She could sort of see the crews slaving away to clear away the damaged sections of the city, could see the huge number of trucks streaming in and out of the city through a variety of roads and highways, and worst of all, could see the many, many camps where those who had lost everything now temporarily resided.
It was a sobering sight to say the least, and also a reminder that Taylor could have easily been amongst them had things turned out differently.
Regardless, Taylor wasn't sure what she should do, hell, what she even could do. Sure, she could rip an Endbringer in half, but that didn't suddenly allow her the capability to give people back their homes, livelihoods, friends, and families. All she could do was crush things, and sure she could do that very well but-
She blinked as her train of thought was cut off. She could crush things, couldn't she?
That realization was enough to cause her head to whip to the side, and although she had to squint, it wasn't hard for her to catch a good glimpse of the distant bay.
And she just so happened to know one thing that would make people happy if it was gone.
Now knowing what she had to do, Taylor took off. It didn't even take her half a minute to reach her destination despite crossing who knows how many miles and flying nowhere near her limit.
It was a heady feeling, and even now, after the initial high had faded, Taylor still couldn't help but revel in the feeling of the wind against her face, and of the sheer freedom that was now afforded to her.
Shaking her head and pushing her thoughts away, Taylor came to a stop almost directly on top of her destination: The famed boat graveyard.
In her heart, this place held a... special position. Having grown up with a dockworker for a father, her views on the whole situation around here were complex, to say the least.
Her father had always insisted that the protestors who had caused this had good intentions. Things had been bad back then, he would say. Bad enough that violence had seemed the only solution.
But in the same breath that he would say things like this, he would also lament their actions. The sinking of the container ships at the end of the riots had been the death knell for the shipping industry. Partially because it made accessing the docks much harder for ships, but also because investors just saw it as a lost cause and decided to look elsewhere.
Taylor's lips tightened as she stared intently at the container ship in question before her eyes then traveled to the many, many other boats that had once littered the coast, but now instead were mostly smashed against the city itself, having been uprooted by Leviathan's waves.
Her mother had been... Quite a bit less forgiving in her opinion of the situation. She'd called the rioters a bunch of idiotic troublemakers who'd taken advantage of a bad situation to make it worse, and she'd held firm in her belief even while she and Danny argued ferociously despite basically agreeing on almost everything else.
Those had been good times, Taylor thought fondly. Even at their worst, her parents had never gotten truly personal in their arguments. They'd loved each other too much for them to do that.
With newfound determination, Taylor decided that right here and now, she would bring her parent's longtime argument to an end.
Taking a deep breath, she floated down, trying and failing to keep herself from feeling too jittery as she gently landed on the roof of one of the cleaner-looking warehouses that would still allow her to clearly see the boat graveyard.
Then, Taylor closed her eyes and focused.
When she opened them once again, her eyes had begun glowing bright green as she channeled her will, and with a single motion of hands to focus it, Taylor got to work.
The effect was instantaneous. All across her line of sight, over fifty ships, some of them larger than skyscrapers, abruptly began to glow a subtle green, one that matched the shine of her eyes perfectly. Then, without wasting a moment, Taylor lifted her hands up.
The boats answered, and with a great rumble of shifting metal that was audible even to Taylor, they all floated up into the air simultaneously.
From the smaller recreational boats that had been abandoned by their owners to the long-rusted commercial fishing ships, all the way to the impossibly large container ship, none of them were spared from Taylor's will. Water rushed in like the tide itself to fill in the missing space left behind by the sudden absence, creating massive waves that Taylor easily quelled with a quick wave of her hand.
The sun had gone down rather recently, but that didn't mean the city was left in darkness. What this meant was that as the glowing boats flew higher and higher into the sky, and the water flooding out of them was redirected into a neat floating little stream that smoothly rejoined the rest of the water in the bay, people noticed.
Slowly, one after another, high-powered spotlights were lit up all throughout the city, lighting up the twilight sky and further illuminating the boats hovering above the bay. Taylor spared them a quirky-browed glance of curiosity before refocusing on the task at hand as she noticed the water within the boats had all been finally removed.
With a single quick clap from her, the boats all abruptly lurched, moving far quicker than they had just a moment earlier. With a clang loud enough to be audible for miles around, the boats slammed together so quickly that the metal making them up practically melted and fused, joining together into a cluster that was then crushed into a very rough ball of metal and rust.
Taylor exhaled, not really out of any sense of tiredness- really, compared to fighting Leviathan, this was nothing- but more so that she could center herself.
She looked up and stared directly at the floating ball of metal high in the sky, briefly wondering just how much it weighed. A hundred tons? A thousand? A million? She just didn't know, and neither did she particularly care.
She held her fist out in front of her, and with a small smirk, she clenched it.
Metal screeched and warped as it was crushed inward by forces beyond human comprehension, compressing it without mercy. It went from once being so large that it had cast a shadow over dozens of different city blocks down to the size of a skyscraper.
And she was just getting started.
Taylor couldn't help but show a faint smirk, crossing her arms under her chest as the ball continued being crushed. Within moments, it went from being the size of a large skyscraper down to that of a regular house, then a car, and then, with a green flash that briefly lit the sky, it was crushed into nothingness.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, Taylor let out a breath and unclenched her fist, allowing herself to show a small smile as she peered up at the spot where the ships had vanished, trying not to puff up like a peacock as she felt a warm, proud feeling grow within her chest.
She was however somewhat confused as to why she could hear sirens going off in the distance, but before she could ponder on that particular mystery, she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat right behind her.
No matter what anyone claimed, Taylor did not let out a startled eep and jump back, her heart pounding in her chest as she stared at the person behind her.
Lies and slander, all of it.
A man in white and gold armor stared back at her with a half-amused smile on his face, holding a lance seemingly made out of lightning in one of his hands while the other rested behind his back. "Hello there." The man, Dauntless, Taylor quickly recognized, said. "Mind telling me what you were doing?"
Taylor just sort of stared at him for a moment with a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face as she tried to figure out where exactly he'd come from.
Dauntless was a figure Taylor was passingly familiar with. While she wasn't particularly up to date on the cape scene, even she had heard of him. He was somewhat of a town hero due to people claiming that given time, he could eventually reach Triumvirate level, something that had turned him into something of a rising star, or at least so they'd been claiming the last time Taylor had checked.
So, with all of that being said, it would have been nice to make a first impression on him, if only because Taylor couldn't help but hate the thought of someone like him looking down on her for whichever reason. So, with that in mind, it was only natural for her to open her mouth and dumbly ask, "When did you get here?"
Taylor erupted into a nuclear blush as Dauntless raised an eyebrow which was only barely visible through his T-shaped helmet. "A minute or so ago, around when you were still pulling up the ships into the sky." He nonetheless explained patiently. "Although, admittedly, I was trying to get your attention for a little while before that, but... Well, let's just say you're pretty fast." He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his neck.
"Oh," Taylor murmured, her embarrassment only growing. "Um, sorry?"
"Hm? Oh, it's fine, don't worry about it." Dauntless quickly reassured her. Then, after a moment's pause, he deliberately turned in the now empty graveyard's direction and broadly gestured toward it. "Soo... What brought this on? Not that I'm not impressed, mind you- I just about browned my pants when I saw that thing in the sky." He theatrically shuddered. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who felt like that. You scared a lot of people, you know."
Taylor stared at him for a moment, brows furrowed. She didn't know why, but the way he was acting was pissing her off.
He was trying way too hard, and it didn't feel genuine at all. She didn't know what his true feelings were, but whatever they happened to be, they were not the ones he was showing her, and she hated it. It all reminded her of... of... of Emma... And of something else that she couldn't quite place.
Still, one part of his speech did at least rouse her interest. "Scared?" She asked tentatively. "But... Why? Why would anyone be scared?" She asked, genuinely confused.
Dauntless, in turn, stared at her in pure befuddlement. "Uh... Well..." He waffled, evidently trying to find the right words. "I mean... Did you see the size of that thing?" He asked right back. "What if you'd lost control of it and it'd fallen on the city?"
Taylor couldn't help but let out an offended noise. "I wouldn't have!" She quickly defended herself. "It was so easy I could have done this in my sleep. There's no way I would have let anything fall."
"That's... worrying..." Dauntless trailed off, and muttered something to himself, too low for Taylor to hear. "God damn it, Armsmaster, what am I supposed to even say to that?"
After another moment's pause, Dauntless put on a smile as he faced Taylor once again. "Right, that may be so, but even then, your actions worried a lot of people." He tried to reason. "Regardless of everything else, doing something this big without warning anyone caused quite a public upset."
Taylor wanted to argue, to shoot back that what other people felt wasn't her problem, but... Well, that wasn't really true, was it?
She'd come out here with the explicit intention of helping, not that of harming people, whether intentionally or accidentally. And whether she liked it or not, Dauntless did have a point, even if she couldn't help but feel like he was making it out to be a bigger deal than was warranted.
She deflated like a balloon, tearing her eyes away to stare at the floor guiltily. "Sorry." She mumbled out.
"Ah, it's fine, it's fine." Dauntless quickly waved her off, giving her a smile that looked just a tad bit more genuine than before. He did wince for some reason though, although he quickly recovered as he continued speaking. "Ok, well, it's not completely fine. Please don't do something like that again without warning us, ok?" Taylor nodded quickly, although she did make a bit of a face at the 'us' comment.
Her feelings toward the Protectorate were... mixed. Had anyone asked her what she thought of them right after the revelation that Sohpia was a Ward, Taylor knew she would have immediately and truthfully said that she despised the Protectorate. That they were nothing but false icons pretending to be heroes.
However, time and distance had cooled her feelings, and admittedly, seeing the Triumvirate standing against Leviathan for a city they probably didn't even know the name of had done a lot to reignite a spark of her faith in the institution.
She still despised the Wards though, as well as the PRT as a whole. It wasn't the Protectorate's job to monitor the Wards- She would know considering she'd checked rather thoroughly.
The local Wards might nominally be under Armsmaster, but she knew that they rarely interacted with the adult Protectorate and were instead monitored by the PRT itself. So, in her mind, that was who truly was at fault.
"With that all being said, though..." Dauntless smiled warmly, and this time, Taylor could tell it was genuine. "Good job, kid. It's not going to save the city on its own, but clearing out those boats helped a lot, I think." He winked. "They also looked ass-ugly, if you ask me. Hell, maybe I can even go and take a dip at the beach now that those things are gone."
Despite herself, his words managed to tear out a reluctant giggle from Taylor, and she gave him a hesitant smile as she fidgeted in place. "Um, well, I don't think that's a good idea." She shyly said, trying not to nervously fiddle with her hands as she sneaked glances toward him. "The water's kind of dirty..."
"It is, isn't it?" Dauntless chuckled, "Oh well, there goes that particular dream." He said faux-sadly.
Taylor's smile slowly lost its awkwardness. She didn't know how she could tell, but she knew that Dauntless was being, if not completely, then at least mostly genuine now compared to how he'd been when he'd first approached her. Did it make sense? Not really. She could barely tell a difference in how he was acting, and yet, it somehow felt entirely different.
"Right. With that said, I do need to-" Dauntless abruptly cut himself off, going quiet for a moment as he stared off into nothingness. Then, after a few seconds, his eyes widened. "Shit."
Taylor blinked. "Dauntless?" She hesitantly asked, curious as to what was going on.
The hero in question glanced at her, his expression a strange mixture of surprise, anger, confusion, and resignation. "Just one moment please, Ms. Hebert." He said, using her name for the first time in the conversation as he turned away, bringing up his hand to poke at the side of his helmet.
Taylor's stomach briefly fell at the confirmation that people knew her name, only to immediately feel a bit stupid. No shit they knew her name, she wasn't even wearing a mask, much less an actual costume.
"Are you sure, boss?" Dauntless asked before going silent for a few seconds, his lips twitching down. "I... I can try, but I don't think I'll convince her." He said, and whatever response he received must have been swift, because it only took him a second to shoot back an "I know, damn it."
Touching his helmet again, Dauntless turned back to a now very curious Taylor. "Sorry about that, was just talking to Armsmaster." He explained, causing Taylor to nod. It hadn't been all that hard to figure out, after all.
"So, uh, if you wouldn't mind, how would you feel about a visit to the HQ?" He offered quickly, a bit too quickly. "We can give you a tour and everything. Uh, we can skip the Wards section, of course." He said, quickly adding that last part upon seeing Taylor's expression.
"... Why?" Taylor eventually asked after a moment, peering at him suspiciously. What was going on?
Just then, as if to prove that coincidences didn't exist, Taylor heard a loud explosion coming from fairly close by, and her head swiveled around.
Dauntless grimaced, his mouth opening as if to say something, but Taylor had already moved. With a single flex of her will, she flew straight sideways, reaching the edge of the building they had been standing on in a split second so that she could peer down and see what was going on.
And what she saw was a massive abomination that would have had car enthusiasts around the world screaming in horror. Looking like an eldritch fusion of an eighteen-wheeler and a tank, the abomination had evidently just fired one of its many, many guns, the subsequent explosion reducing a nearby car to molten slag.
Worse yet, as the vehicle got closer and closer, Taylor couldn't help but wince as she noticed the fact that the abomination had, for some reason, dozens of loudspeakers crudely attached to it and blaring at maximum volume.
"To the bitch that thinks she's hot shit!" Taylor could distantly hear, and her disbelief couldn't help but grow even further. "Fuck off you moldy ass moptop! This is Merchant turf you chucklefuck, you think you can just come here and disturb our parties?! Suck my fucking dick!"
"Is... Is this real?" Taylor couldn't help but ask, staring in genuine amazement at the scene below. "Am I dreaming? Did I actually die against Leviathan, and this is all just my final hallucinations?"
With a soft thump, she heard Dauntless land beside her, and she didn't need to look to know that he was currently looking rather constipated as he put his face in his hands.
"Fucking Merchants." He softly cursed, letting out the most defeated sigh she'd ever heard. And considering who her father was, that was quite the achievement.
Taylor had no idea who or what the 'Merchants' even were, but for some reason, even she couldn't but agree with the sentiment.
It is said that to be kind is to be divine. However, everybody also conveniently forgot to mention that sometimes kindness is a difficult thing to give.
Or, in simpler words, Taylor had no freaking idea what to do.
Here she was, all pumped up after finally being able to achieve her childhood dream of flying and with the full intention of going out and being a hero... Only to get stumped on the first step.
Taylor sighed as she continued to hover mid-air, feeling somewhat silly as she looked down at the city of her birth, trying and failing to spot anything or anyone that might need her help.
The problem was that Taylor was sort of really high up in the sky, and while Panacea's healing of her eyes did help a lot, it wasn't enough to let her see the finer points of what was happening below, and without an obvious rampaging kaiju to go around, Taylor wasn't sure where she could actually help.
She hummed to herself as she squinted her eyes while peering all around. She could sort of see the crews slaving away to clear away the damaged sections of the city, could see the huge number of trucks streaming in and out of the city through a variety of roads and highways, and worst of all, could see the many, many camps where those who had lost everything now temporarily resided.
It was a sobering sight to say the least, and also a reminder that Taylor could have easily been amongst them had things turned out differently.
Regardless, Taylor wasn't sure what she should do, hell, what she even could do. Sure, she could rip an Endbringer in half, but that didn't suddenly allow her the capability to give people back their homes, livelihoods, friends, and families. All she could do was crush things, and sure she could do that very well but-
She blinked as her train of thought was cut off. She could crush things, couldn't she?
That realization was enough to cause her head to whip to the side, and although she had to squint, it wasn't hard for her to catch a good glimpse of the distant bay.
And she just so happened to know one thing that would make people happy if it was gone.
Now knowing what she had to do, Taylor took off. It didn't even take her half a minute to reach her destination despite crossing who knows how many miles and flying nowhere near her limit.
It was a heady feeling, and even now, after the initial high had faded, Taylor still couldn't help but revel in the feeling of the wind against her face, and of the sheer freedom that was now afforded to her.
Shaking her head and pushing her thoughts away, Taylor came to a stop almost directly on top of her destination: The famed boat graveyard.
In her heart, this place held a... special position. Having grown up with a dockworker for a father, her views on the whole situation around here were complex, to say the least.
Her father had always insisted that the protestors who had caused this had good intentions. Things had been bad back then, he would say. Bad enough that violence had seemed the only solution.
But in the same breath that he would say things like this, he would also lament their actions. The sinking of the container ships at the end of the riots had been the death knell for the shipping industry. Partially because it made accessing the docks much harder for ships, but also because investors just saw it as a lost cause and decided to look elsewhere.
Taylor's lips tightened as she stared intently at the container ship in question before her eyes then traveled to the many, many other boats that had once littered the coast, but now instead were mostly smashed against the city itself, having been uprooted by Leviathan's waves.
Her mother had been... Quite a bit less forgiving in her opinion of the situation. She'd called the rioters a bunch of idiotic troublemakers who'd taken advantage of a bad situation to make it worse, and she'd held firm in her belief even while she and Danny argued ferociously despite basically agreeing on almost everything else.
Those had been good times, Taylor thought fondly. Even at their worst, her parents had never gotten truly personal in their arguments. They'd loved each other too much for them to do that.
With newfound determination, Taylor decided that right here and now, she would bring her parent's longtime argument to an end.
Taking a deep breath, she floated down, trying and failing to keep herself from feeling too jittery as she gently landed on the roof of one of the cleaner-looking warehouses that would still allow her to clearly see the boat graveyard.
Then, Taylor closed her eyes and focused.
When she opened them once again, her eyes had begun glowing bright green as she channeled her will, and with a single motion of hands to focus it, Taylor got to work.
The effect was instantaneous. All across her line of sight, over fifty ships, some of them larger than skyscrapers, abruptly began to glow a subtle green, one that matched the shine of her eyes perfectly. Then, without wasting a moment, Taylor lifted her hands up.
The boats answered, and with a great rumble of shifting metal that was audible even to Taylor, they all floated up into the air simultaneously.
From the smaller recreational boats that had been abandoned by their owners to the long-rusted commercial fishing ships, all the way to the impossibly large container ship, none of them were spared from Taylor's will. Water rushed in like the tide itself to fill in the missing space left behind by the sudden absence, creating massive waves that Taylor easily quelled with a quick wave of her hand.
The sun had gone down rather recently, but that didn't mean the city was left in darkness. What this meant was that as the glowing boats flew higher and higher into the sky, and the water flooding out of them was redirected into a neat floating little stream that smoothly rejoined the rest of the water in the bay, people noticed.
Slowly, one after another, high-powered spotlights were lit up all throughout the city, lighting up the twilight sky and further illuminating the boats hovering above the bay. Taylor spared them a quirky-browed glance of curiosity before refocusing on the task at hand as she noticed the water within the boats had all been finally removed.
With a single quick clap from her, the boats all abruptly lurched, moving far quicker than they had just a moment earlier. With a clang loud enough to be audible for miles around, the boats slammed together so quickly that the metal making them up practically melted and fused, joining together into a cluster that was then crushed into a very rough ball of metal and rust.
Taylor exhaled, not really out of any sense of tiredness- really, compared to fighting Leviathan, this was nothing- but more so that she could center herself.
She looked up and stared directly at the floating ball of metal high in the sky, briefly wondering just how much it weighed. A hundred tons? A thousand? A million? She just didn't know, and neither did she particularly care.
She held her fist out in front of her, and with a small smirk, she clenched it.
Metal screeched and warped as it was crushed inward by forces beyond human comprehension, compressing it without mercy. It went from once being so large that it had cast a shadow over dozens of different city blocks down to the size of a skyscraper.
And she was just getting started.
Taylor couldn't help but show a faint smirk, crossing her arms under her chest as the ball continued being crushed. Within moments, it went from being the size of a large skyscraper down to that of a regular house, then a car, and then, with a green flash that briefly lit the sky, it was crushed into nothingness.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, Taylor let out a breath and unclenched her fist, allowing herself to show a small smile as she peered up at the spot where the ships had vanished, trying not to puff up like a peacock as she felt a warm, proud feeling grow within her chest.
She was however somewhat confused as to why she could hear sirens going off in the distance, but before she could ponder on that particular mystery, she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat right behind her.
No matter what anyone claimed, Taylor did not let out a startled eep and jump back, her heart pounding in her chest as she stared at the person behind her.
Lies and slander, all of it.
A man in white and gold armor stared back at her with a half-amused smile on his face, holding a lance seemingly made out of lightning in one of his hands while the other rested behind his back. "Hello there." The man, Dauntless, Taylor quickly recognized, said. "Mind telling me what you were doing?"
Taylor just sort of stared at him for a moment with a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face as she tried to figure out where exactly he'd come from.
Dauntless was a figure Taylor was passingly familiar with. While she wasn't particularly up to date on the cape scene, even she had heard of him. He was somewhat of a town hero due to people claiming that given time, he could eventually reach Triumvirate level, something that had turned him into something of a rising star, or at least so they'd been claiming the last time Taylor had checked.
So, with all of that being said, it would have been nice to make a first impression on him, if only because Taylor couldn't help but hate the thought of someone like him looking down on her for whichever reason. So, with that in mind, it was only natural for her to open her mouth and dumbly ask, "When did you get here?"
Taylor erupted into a nuclear blush as Dauntless raised an eyebrow which was only barely visible through his T-shaped helmet. "A minute or so ago, around when you were still pulling up the ships into the sky." He nonetheless explained patiently. "Although, admittedly, I was trying to get your attention for a little while before that, but... Well, let's just say you're pretty fast." He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his neck.
"Oh," Taylor murmured, her embarrassment only growing. "Um, sorry?"
"Hm? Oh, it's fine, don't worry about it." Dauntless quickly reassured her. Then, after a moment's pause, he deliberately turned in the now empty graveyard's direction and broadly gestured toward it. "Soo... What brought this on? Not that I'm not impressed, mind you- I just about browned my pants when I saw that thing in the sky." He theatrically shuddered. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who felt like that. You scared a lot of people, you know."
Taylor stared at him for a moment, brows furrowed. She didn't know why, but the way he was acting was pissing her off.
He was trying way too hard, and it didn't feel genuine at all. She didn't know what his true feelings were, but whatever they happened to be, they were not the ones he was showing her, and she hated it. It all reminded her of... of... of Emma... And of something else that she couldn't quite place.
Still, one part of his speech did at least rouse her interest. "Scared?" She asked tentatively. "But... Why? Why would anyone be scared?" She asked, genuinely confused.
Dauntless, in turn, stared at her in pure befuddlement. "Uh... Well..." He waffled, evidently trying to find the right words. "I mean... Did you see the size of that thing?" He asked right back. "What if you'd lost control of it and it'd fallen on the city?"
Taylor couldn't help but let out an offended noise. "I wouldn't have!" She quickly defended herself. "It was so easy I could have done this in my sleep. There's no way I would have let anything fall."
"That's... worrying..." Dauntless trailed off, and muttered something to himself, too low for Taylor to hear. "God damn it, Armsmaster, what am I supposed to even say to that?"
After another moment's pause, Dauntless put on a smile as he faced Taylor once again. "Right, that may be so, but even then, your actions worried a lot of people." He tried to reason. "Regardless of everything else, doing something this big without warning anyone caused quite a public upset."
Taylor wanted to argue, to shoot back that what other people felt wasn't her problem, but... Well, that wasn't really true, was it?
She'd come out here with the explicit intention of helping, not that of harming people, whether intentionally or accidentally. And whether she liked it or not, Dauntless did have a point, even if she couldn't help but feel like he was making it out to be a bigger deal than was warranted.
She deflated like a balloon, tearing her eyes away to stare at the floor guiltily. "Sorry." She mumbled out.
"Ah, it's fine, it's fine." Dauntless quickly waved her off, giving her a smile that looked just a tad bit more genuine than before. He did wince for some reason though, although he quickly recovered as he continued speaking. "Ok, well, it's not completely fine. Please don't do something like that again without warning us, ok?" Taylor nodded quickly, although she did make a bit of a face at the 'us' comment.
Her feelings toward the Protectorate were... mixed. Had anyone asked her what she thought of them right after the revelation that Sohpia was a Ward, Taylor knew she would have immediately and truthfully said that she despised the Protectorate. That they were nothing but false icons pretending to be heroes.
However, time and distance had cooled her feelings, and admittedly, seeing the Triumvirate standing against Leviathan for a city they probably didn't even know the name of had done a lot to reignite a spark of her faith in the institution.
She still despised the Wards though, as well as the PRT as a whole. It wasn't the Protectorate's job to monitor the Wards- She would know considering she'd checked rather thoroughly.
The local Wards might nominally be under Armsmaster, but she knew that they rarely interacted with the adult Protectorate and were instead monitored by the PRT itself. So, in her mind, that was who truly was at fault.
"With that all being said, though..." Dauntless smiled warmly, and this time, Taylor could tell it was genuine. "Good job, kid. It's not going to save the city on its own, but clearing out those boats helped a lot, I think." He winked. "They also looked ass-ugly, if you ask me. Hell, maybe I can even go and take a dip at the beach now that those things are gone."
Despite herself, his words managed to tear out a reluctant giggle from Taylor, and she gave him a hesitant smile as she fidgeted in place. "Um, well, I don't think that's a good idea." She shyly said, trying not to nervously fiddle with her hands as she sneaked glances toward him. "The water's kind of dirty..."
"It is, isn't it?" Dauntless chuckled, "Oh well, there goes that particular dream." He said faux-sadly.
Taylor's smile slowly lost its awkwardness. She didn't know how she could tell, but she knew that Dauntless was being, if not completely, then at least mostly genuine now compared to how he'd been when he'd first approached her. Did it make sense? Not really. She could barely tell a difference in how he was acting, and yet, it somehow felt entirely different.
"Right. With that said, I do need to-" Dauntless abruptly cut himself off, going quiet for a moment as he stared off into nothingness. Then, after a few seconds, his eyes widened. "Shit."
Taylor blinked. "Dauntless?" She hesitantly asked, curious as to what was going on.
The hero in question glanced at her, his expression a strange mixture of surprise, anger, confusion, and resignation. "Just one moment please, Ms. Hebert." He said, using her name for the first time in the conversation as he turned away, bringing up his hand to poke at the side of his helmet.
Taylor's stomach briefly fell at the confirmation that people knew her name, only to immediately feel a bit stupid. No shit they knew her name, she wasn't even wearing a mask, much less an actual costume.
"Are you sure, boss?" Dauntless asked before going silent for a few seconds, his lips twitching down. "I... I can try, but I don't think I'll convince her." He said, and whatever response he received must have been swift, because it only took him a second to shoot back an "I know, damn it."
Touching his helmet again, Dauntless turned back to a now very curious Taylor. "Sorry about that, was just talking to Armsmaster." He explained, causing Taylor to nod. It hadn't been all that hard to figure out, after all.
"So, uh, if you wouldn't mind, how would you feel about a visit to the HQ?" He offered quickly, a bit too quickly. "We can give you a tour and everything. Uh, we can skip the Wards section, of course." He said, quickly adding that last part upon seeing Taylor's expression.
"... Why?" Taylor eventually asked after a moment, peering at him suspiciously. What was going on?
Just then, as if to prove that coincidences didn't exist, Taylor heard a loud explosion coming from fairly close by, and her head swiveled around.
Dauntless grimaced, his mouth opening as if to say something, but Taylor had already moved. With a single flex of her will, she flew straight sideways, reaching the edge of the building they had been standing on in a split second so that she could peer down and see what was going on.
And what she saw was a massive abomination that would have had car enthusiasts around the world screaming in horror. Looking like an eldritch fusion of an eighteen-wheeler and a tank, the abomination had evidently just fired one of its many, many guns, the subsequent explosion reducing a nearby car to molten slag.
Worse yet, as the vehicle got closer and closer, Taylor couldn't help but wince as she noticed the fact that the abomination had, for some reason, dozens of loudspeakers crudely attached to it and blaring at maximum volume.
"To the bitch that thinks she's hot shit!" Taylor could distantly hear, and her disbelief couldn't help but grow even further. "Fuck off you moldy ass moptop! This is Merchant turf you chucklefuck, you think you can just come here and disturb our parties?! Suck my fucking dick!"
"Is... Is this real?" Taylor couldn't help but ask, staring in genuine amazement at the scene below. "Am I dreaming? Did I actually die against Leviathan, and this is all just my final hallucinations?"
With a soft thump, she heard Dauntless land beside her, and she didn't need to look to know that he was currently looking rather constipated as he put his face in his hands.
"Fucking Merchants." He softly cursed, letting out the most defeated sigh she'd ever heard. And considering who her father was, that was quite the achievement.
Taylor had no idea who or what the 'Merchants' even were, but for some reason, even she couldn't but agree with the sentiment.
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"To guard and defend, CRUSH THEM"
Really liked the way the boats were cursed and compressed, the became nothing was weird but in a good way.
Really liked the way the boats were cursed and compressed, the became nothing was weird but in a good way.
DoorAlarm
Doorsss
- Location
- U.S of A
- Pronouns
- She
If I did that, I'm pretty sure I'd be banned on SB, and I'd rather that not happen, so Taylor will have to remain as she is- flat as a board.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Nah, Fubuki wore her dress conservatively. It doesn't show any skin at all, only wearing it a bit tight to show her curve. I'm pretty sure SB is ok with that. She even wears her pants under that dress.
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Unlike a certain short woman-child...
Jupiteresse
The bard of blood
- Pronouns
- They/Them
There's always qq if you really really wanna *wiggles eyebrows*
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
How did she crush the boats into nothing? Did she somehow telekinetically overcome the strong nuclear force and rend them into subatomic particles?
Because if you just keep crushing something with an unstoppable force, you'd brute force nuclear fusion, and that'd be a bit more than a brief flash of light if a portion of that mass was converted into energy.
I was actually expecting her to chuck the metal sphere into space or into the sun (or place it somewhere it could be scrapped) not outright annihilate it.
- Location
- West Coast
I mean if she just straight up crushed it until it formed a singularity said singularity would have so little mass it's lifetime would be barely measurable before it evaporated via Hawking Radiation. That being said unless she someone managed to contain all radiation she just killed herself and everyone in Brockton Bay.
Soooo... in Earth Bet standards, just another bad tuesday.
AzureShogun
Tanks are better than Mechs
- Location
- United Kingdom
Did she teleport it away or something? That's not really how crushing things works, they don't really become 'nothing' no matter how hard you crush.
Yep, forget killing everyone with radiation, she would have made enough radiation to flash fry the entire earth: black holes perform a mass to energy conversion via hawking radiation, and a hundred tons worth of steel being turned into energy isn't good for anyone.
- Location
- Missouri
A hundred?
A single bog standard Panamax class cargo ship can have a total displacement as high as 80,000 tons, and transatlantic freighters that don't have to fit through the Panama Canal can more than triple that.
If the big chungus was sunk loaded, it could easily pass 250,000 tons by itself. That and a few 50,000 tonners would put the total closer to a million tons than a thousand, with over forty other vessels left to add their own mass.
I'd have to do math to be sure, and I'm in bed on my phone so I don't want to, but I'm thinking overcoming the planet's gravitational binding energy might be on the table.
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