Kayden Anders
Kayden flew through the air above Brockton Bay, watching clouds of smoke billow from beneath her.
All of downtown. The commercial district. The South Docks. Captain's Hill.
Nothing except for the Docks proper had been spared, a place that Kayden had become more than a little acquainted with over the past year after making the ABB her priority target.
And right now, it was looking like everything she'd done to them was more than justified.
Max wouldn't have done something like this. His Empire was built on promises of safety and security, and this was completely antithetical to that. She knew he'd be leveraging it for all that he could, though.
The Merchants simply had no reason for this. They may have been scum of the lowest order, but they were unambitious scum. They were content in their drug-drowned lifestyle and had shown no desire to grow beyond that.
She was thankful of that, at least.
The ABB, though…
Kayden accelerated, curving towards the heart of the Docks.
The ABB had every reason for this. Means
and motive.
She'd already been combing the Docks the past five days, having taken a seven-day break from work as soon as she'd heard that Lung had been imprisoned, but until now she'd only been able to find small-time members and things not even really worth bothering with, except that she knew every little thing mattered.
It just… wasn't much.
Until now.
It was still more sparse than she expected, but
now there were pockets of green-and-reds that she could send running.
She flew a few hundred feet over the buildings, looking down and searching for a proper target.
The first group she saw was a cluster of five, and she was already charging a shot up to fire at them—not too hard, but a few broken bones certainly wouldn't hurt them—when the flash of green and white lights caught her eye.
She turned, looking a few streets over, and froze on seeing the distinctive line of the black-and-purple PRT vans, along with Armsmaster on his motorcycle at the front.
Had they seen her?
It didn't seem like it, since they were about a quarter-mile ahead of her, so they clearly weren't there for her. Yet it was probably the largest grouping of the PRT she'd ever seen.
Why were they here? And without sirens?
She hovered, letting the charge in her hand dissipate on looking down and seeing the gang members gone. They'd probably seen her and run away.
Biting her lip, she eyed the PRT vehicles. The PRT and Protectorate meant something with parahumans. And if they were in the Docks…
She found herself drifting along, following behind them at an easy pace, but trying to keep herself from being too conspicuous a mile or so behind them.
After about ten minutes of driving, some suddenly turned onto a street and pulled sharply to a stop in front of an apartment complex, a few of the vehicles continuing on to the next block, probably to cover the back.
She moved closer, trying to see what exactly was happening, and the rear doors of the vehicles opened, PRT officers piling out, along with Triumph, Assault, and Battery.
That… was a lot of capes.
They moved together, grouping up and checking weapons. The PRT's usual pistols and assault rifles were visible, along with a few that had tanks of containment foam strapped to their backs.
She drifted closer, high enough that they'd be able to see her, but also allowing her to see
thembetter. They weren't carrying any of the containment-foam nets that had become typical when she'd fought against them as part of the Empire, and she didn't believe they'd try to go after her with how focused and intentional this all seemed.
They noticed her as soon as she was visible, turning around with weapons clenched and suddenly held at the ready.
Armsmaster stared up at her, and then after a moment turned to one of the officers and motioned for the megaphone in the man's hold. Once he had it, he lifted it up and pointed it at her.
"PURITY!"
Kayden tensed in reaction to the name, the desire to find out what was happening, what could draw
this out into the Docks, into the heart of ABB territory, warring with the rational knowledge that she shouldn't get involved and the desire to just go back to what she'd been doing.
"PURITY! Why are you here?"
Moving closer to the edge, and then over it, she floated down so that she was on level with the fourth floor of the complex behind her.
"The bombings. The ABB's responsible for them, isn't it!?" she yelled back.
For a moment they stared at each other, Kayden against what had to be a full third of the PRT, before Armsmaster lowered the megaphone and turned to his right, speaking quietly to one of the few people not kitted up or in a uniform.
After a tense minute, Armsmaster nodded shortly and passed the megaphone to the man, who shielded his eyes when he looked up at her.
"Purity! My name is Deputy Director Renick! Would you be willing to accept a temporary truce?"
She blinked in surprise, and then floated down closer to the ground, still keeping enough space in case conditions suddenly changed.
"Inside the building behind us is Bakuda, a bomb tinker who recently joined the ABB and the source of the attacks today," he said. "Would you be willing to work with us? She's already caused twelve different buildings to collapse and at least a fifty casualties so far."
She knew. She'd been at home in the kitchen, the television on in the background when the first explosions had gone off, had seen the first images shown on the news from a traffic helicopter.
Had witnessed the destruction and suffering this woman had caused.
Was she willing to end this woman's rampage? To deprive the ABB of another cape and weaken it further?
There was only one answer.
"…Yes."
At that, the officers and capes below her relaxed slightly, their weapons lowering.
The Deputy Director nodded. "Good. We've been authorized to resort to lethal force if necessary. However, if the precautions we've taken work right we shouldn't have to. We were planning on a basic assault, working from the ground floor up, but we'll be able to afford a more aggressive approach now."
Kayden nodded in acknowledgment.
"I have to finish preparing, Armsmaster can tell you what we'll need," he said, handing the megaphone back to Armsmaster and turning to walk towards one of the PRT vans. She had to wonder what had made him request her support, was this 'Bakuda' really that bad?"
Coming back to reality, she looked over at Armsmaster, who'd already started speaking.
"—pierce areas of the roof from above, making it dangerous for Bakuda to hide on the upper levels and pushing her down towards us, and also separating her from whatever stockpile she has."
He reached into a compartment in his armor and pulled out a tiny earbud, holding it out. "Communication. It has a tracker in it."
So don't try and take it with you.
He tossed it up to her and she caught it, turning over the small, round object before putting it in her ear. Armsmaster nodded, seeming at least moderately satisfied, if not exactly comfortable. "We'll begin in two minutes."
Already, the officers were doing their final equipment checks, chambering rounds and adjusting settings on the containment foam sprayers.
Kayden ascended in a burst to eighty feet above the street, moving towards the building the PRT and Protectorate were preparing to assault.
Internally, she was a bit off-balance.
This was…
not what she had planned on happening today. Or even close to what she had imagined doing.
But this is what you want, isn't it?
To change the city. To lance the festering wound it had become.
To be something that Aster could be proud of.
And at the same time, she had to wonder how Max was going to react to this.
She had no illusions that he wouldn't like her back. He didn't necessarily show it, he'd act as if he was merely happy that she had made the 'right' choice, but she knew that her departure from his group had stung—likely more than the divorce had—because what he wanted was power, and she had it in spades.
She was sure he was just waiting, waiting for her to give in and go to him, to ask for his help. He'd make some offer that would seem reasonable, but would be just another manipulation to drag her back in and sign herself over to him again.
A deal with the devil.
She could just see it.
She'd do it too. She knew she would. If meant that Aster was safer, she'd do anything.
But now… how was he going to react to her actually
doing something on her own? To see her working with heroes, even if only for ten, fifteen minutes.
She couldn't predict it.
Kayden had made it clear she never wanted to hear from him again, and so far he'd honored that, but would he continue to?
She could imagine a number of things he might do: an email, to discuss Aster with all the
implications that held, that he could take custody of her in a moment. Sending over one of his members to "check" on her, likely one of the ones she'd gotten along with, Justin, probably, slowly drawing her back in through sympathy.
No.
"BAKUDA!" Armsmaster yelled through the megaphone, even louder than when he'd spoken to Kayden. "COME OUT QUIETLY WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
There was a sudden slam and the rattling of glass. "FUCK YOU, ASSMASTER!"
Kayden darted over the edge of the building towards the front, twisting around just in time to see a dark-haired woman dressed in a heavy coat and a red-lensed gas mask lift a large cylinder onto her shoulder and then aim towards the vehicles on the ground.
A small spherical shape shot out of it, impacting short of the Protectorate heroes, but also missing the PRT officers who'd grouped at the entrance to the building.
Tendrils of black exploded out of it, flailing for a moment and then dissolving into mist. Where the tendrils had passed there was nothing left, just streaks of emptiness. They dug deeply into the asphalt, the slashes that had reached the trucks revealing engine blocks and radiators.
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN REMOTE—!"
Kayden fired the charge she'd collected in those few seconds towards the window Bakuda stood in front of, cutting her off. The spirals of light smashed through the wall, leaving only crumbling flakes of the cheap stucco coating drifting towards the ground.
It took a moment for the dust to clear, and Kayden saw the woman had fallen back, but was pointing the launcher directly at her through the hole in the wall.
Kayden shot up just in time for another sphere to shoot out of the launcher, this one traveling significantly farther and over to the other side of the street, bursting into hoarfrost and deadly-looking spikes of ice.
"Can you keep her pinned down?" she heard in her ear. Armsmaster's voice.
"Yes," she replied shortly, already charging another shot from her place fifteen feet above where she'd been and then releasing it at the roof above where the woman had stood, dragging the beams across the roof, the surface breaking apart and collapsing in their path.
There was the sound of shattering glass and then another grenade fired from a different window, this one closer to landing where the heroes had been, except they'd already moved, following the lead of the PRT, who had already stormed the building.
Kayden used her next charge to carve a line perpendicular to her second shot, along the corner above the front windows Bakuda had been firing from, destroying and pushing the fragments of cement into the hall.
She heard cursing that moved further into the building before vanishing, and Kayden rose, her hand curling to hold another charge.
Not too much.
She didn't want to collapse the building with the others inside, but maybe…
Kayden let the energy in her hand grow, sunk down to the level of the fourth floor, cupped her hands together, and then
released, keeping the beam tight as it punched through the building, leaving only a tunnel of destruction in its wake.
There was no sign of Bakuda, and Kayden had to assume that the woman had fled somewhere else, considering the roof was falling inwards and the fourth floor was now two-thirds destroyed at this point.
"I think she's gone down to the third floor."
"Acknowledged," Armsmaster returned.
The sound of an explosion emanated from somewhere within the building, but it was muffled so much that she couldn't pinpoint where. Smoke began drifting out of windows on the third floor and then there were another two explosions. Kayden dove down, looking into the third floor windows, but half were boarded up and the others were dirty and near-impossible to see through.
She heard yelling and a loud roar, the familiar muted cracking of gunfire, another explosion. There was a loud crackle of electricity, and then everything fell silent.
Kayden moved back from the building. The smoke was still pouring out, but less than thirty seconds later PRT officers began exiting the building from the front entrance, a stream of men and women in black fatigues.
Assault and Battery walked out together, both looking slightly scorched. A large PRT officer followed behind them with an unconscious woman slung over his shoulder. Her hands were cuffed behind her back and yellow-white foam was strategically positioned to prevent movement, likely having been applied after the woman had been disabled.
Behind the man was Armsmaster, Bakuda's mask gripped in his hand at his side, torn straps dangling down.
The officer carried Bakuda to one of the black-and-purple trucks, placing her inside easily before joining the other PRT officers. Armsmaster looked up at Kayden, and she slowly descended towards him, taking the radio from her ear.
"…Thank you for your help," he told her once she was less than fifteen feet away.
Kayden had to just float there a moment at the sheer
absurdity that was Armsmaster thanking her for
anything.
After a moment, though, she nodded, the earbud still held in her hand. "I'm not with the Empire anymore, you know. I've broken ties with them."
Armsmaster nodded once. "We suspected, considering your lack of appearance with them when we've fought in the past year, as well as the fact you've only been seen on your own since then. You've also only targeted other gangs since, and not come into conflict with the PRT or Protectorate."
She straightened. They'd noticed?
"I'm trying to help, now. I
want to help. This is my city too."
Armsmaster stared at her, and Kayden twitched.
After a moment, he reached into his armor, a different compartment this time, and pulled out a card, holding it out to her.
Kayden lowered further, taking the card, but still holding the earbud in her right hand.
She looked at it. It had his name, 'Protectorate ENE Leader', and then a phone number and email address.
Kayden looked back up at him. "Why are you doing this?"
Armsmaster shifted his weight, and his grip on the mask in his left hand changed. "Someone… recently reminded me that being a hero means being proactive, not reactive. It requires a certain amount of humility, and sometimes you have to make concessions in order to move forward. You wouldn't be the first to overcome your past, and I'm sure you won't be the last."
He looked over at the backs of the vehicles where the officers were getting in, and the other Protectorate heroes were talking, though Kayden saw Battery had an eye on her.
Armsmaster turned back to her. "It's also how we were able to stop Bakuda so quickly. I suspected that she'd react to Lung's incarceration and spent all week preparing, setting up sensors over the city so that as soon the first bombs went off, we were able to isolate, triangulate, and then block the signal detonating them."
She looked down at the card again and swallowed, her mouth dry. "So… an olive branch."
"An olive branch," he agreed.
It was just a piece of paper, but it felt like so much more.
It felt like proof.
It felt like hope.
She was making a difference and people had
noticed.
"If you're truly invested in remaining in the city, I'd recommend acting as an independent. If you joined the Protectorate you'd be relocated to another city and heavily limited for the first few years. Though you would also gain support with legal matters."
Like Aster. Like custody of her daughter.
But Brockton Bay was her home, and joining them would require revealing her identity, and she knew they'd instantly make the connection from her to Max, and from Max to the others.
And as much as she didn't like the Empire, she couldn't do that to them.
Not when there were other options.
"If you
do stay independent, I'd suggest at least adopting a different alias, seeing as it would be rather difficult for you to change your appearance. Or do you already have one?"
Kayden remembered. Remembered the months after the accident. The months before she'd met Max. The months she'd spent going out before he'd found her, before she'd discovered the first person she met that was like her was the high school baseball player she'd had a crush on when she'd been in middle school, before he'd charmed her and drawn her into his empire, manipulating and molding her while she had no idea just how deep she was getting.
She remembered the name.
The name that had been replaced by the one
he'd given her. "Purity".
It was fitting, really, that she would take the name she'd had before she'd been corrupted by him. That she'd discard the one that had become an irony of the highest order for the one that had marked the beginning of a time she'd imagined herself becoming a hero and helping people.
This was the last thing that connected her to Max, that defined her on
his terms, not hers. A name that had come to symbolize her life with him. Replacing it would mean breaking free of him entirely.
It was an easy decision to make.
"Radiance."
Armsmaster nodded. "I'll make sure it's noted, along with your contributions."
Kayden handed him the earbud and floated up. "Thank you."
He nodded again. "…You're welcome."
And without warning she took off, leaving only a trail of motes of light behind her.
"Did I do well?" Colin asked, momentarily glancing at the small image of the brown-haired woman at the bottom right of his visor.
"Yes, Colin. You handled that very well."
He smiled slightly, watching the small flare of light streak across the sky. "Good."
He'd done better.
A/N: Holy shit Kayden is hard to write. It's so complex because the things she thinks and how she narrates isn't even close to an unbiased view. She's even more of an unreliable narrator than Taylor.
She talks about trying to change the way she thinks and all, except she doesn't put herself into situations that
would push her to do that, instead preferring to just stay within her comfort zone where nothing really changes. She's very much someone who doesn't want to step outside her boundaries and needs confirmation or she gets frustrated and just falls back to her old patterns that are comfortable and 'safe'. Instead of taking responsibility for herself she prefers to shift the blame on others.
She's a screwed up person trying to 'be good' and doing a pretty bad job of it, while convincing herself that she
is changing. Hell, what happened here probably just reinforced that what she's doing is 'right' even while she hasn't really changed her views, and that she doesn't
need to do more.
Anyways. Yeah. Kayden. Radiance. Complex doesn't even begin to describe it.
But yeah! Give me some feedback on this second attempt at Bakuda that I was honestly on the fence about even doing, considering how
terrible the last one was. I think this turned out better, though. I hope.
Also thanks to
@Lyova, who gave me a great deal of good editorial feedback on this chapter.
Next chapter is already at 4.4k and counting~
