As I walked toward Winslow, it felt like my heart was in my throat. What I was about to do would be unthinkable on any other day, in any other situation. But today I was seriously considering it. Despite the shit I had been through over the last year I had never considered doing anything like assaulting the school. Sure, it was a shithole. Yes, it was my personal hellhole. But if I did anything like this, I'd be stooping down to the level of my tormentors. No, I'd be going even lower. But, if I didn't, then the one thing keeping me grounded, the one person that I'd go insane without. The fact that he'd be deeply disappointed in me right now weighed heavily on me.
With a deep breath, I walked through the metal detector, thankful for the first time that it was broken and that the school was either too lazy or too poor (or both) to get it fixed. Metal detectors: a new life challenge that I'd have to learn to work around. I looked around wondering where to start my 'rampage.'
At first, I thought of starting with Mr. Gladly's classroom, but I quickly backed down from that thought, pulled the hood of my hoodie up a little tighter, and walked on. As desperate as I was, I still couldn't bring myself to spontaneously harm an entire class of her classmates. 'Ex-classmates after today,' I thought to myself bitterly. There'd be no going back after this. I wasn't really ok with that, but I didn't see many other options.
Maybe I could start with causing some property damage and ramp up from there? Maybe I could get lost in the moment and forget my nerves. Actually, that sounded like a good idea. Do some minor damage, cause a bit of a ruckus, and let the adrenaline get me worked up. If I did enough property damage then I could probably fulfill my end without having to hurt anyone. You know what? I think I'd start with the girls' restroom, the place where it began.
As I walked into the restroom and looked around I felt wounds reopen and felt fresh anger rise. Yes. This would work. I let my right hand flow and shift, briefly turning into a silvery liquid that I was quickly becoming used to seeing. In just a few seconds it formed into a crude, silvery mace. Even though it was just a ball on the end of a stick (it wasn't even that big, really) I found myself feeling the shift in mass. My scrawny frame did not complement my powers at all. Not a whole lot of mass to move around without it noticeably changing my appearance or, at least, that's how it felt.
Swung my new mace-hand at one of the mirrors and jumped a little when it shattered. My anger may have given me a newfound determination, but I still wasn't used to the sound of glass shattering. Even so, I moved onto the next mirror and the next. I knew what to expect and I felt myself becoming bolder. After I ran out of mirrors I started on the sinks. One after the other, they shattered beneath my hand. By now, water was spraying everywhere and my hoodie was quickly becoming soaked.
I was about to start in on the stalls when I heard a crowd gathering outside. It sounded like the student body was getting curious about the noise. I thought about just letting them wonder and go about my business. However, at some point I'd have to leave the restroom anyway and the only way I was going to do that was through the door. Well, I could go through the vents or…the pipes, but those were both turn-offs for different reasons. The pipes were obvious, but I knew there was no way my oversized hoodie and sweatpants would fit through the vent in the ceiling. It was time to make my official appearance as a cape. I just wished it could have been under better circumstances, or even under okay circumstances.
I found that I wasn't really concerned with the prospect of my identity being revealed from day one. Even if I had the option to try and hide my identity there would have been no point. Being made of living mercury had that effect. While I _could_ change my body and even pigmentation to match my original appearance (I had yet to take on another person's form, but I didn't know if that was because I couldn't or because I had very little practice) the fact that my skin had a permanent metallic texture would eventually become obvious. Something else that I couldn't disguise if I wanted to was the fact that I now weighed close to a ton. People could feel the vibrations from me walking from the other side of the room and the sound carried a very long way. It wouldn't take long before someone realized who the new superhero was.
I took a deep breath, turned my hand back to normal, and took the plunge. When I opened the graffiti-covered door, I saw a throng of students gathered around with their phones out, trying to record the next viral video. I had tried to prepare myself for it, but the sudden attention caused me to instinctively draw back and try to huddle deeper into my baggy hoody. As I watched my classmates recorded me and took pictures. I could feel myself growing more and more self-conscious and I was quickly deciding that having to leave my clothes behind in order to escape through the vents wasn't such a bad option.
"Holy shit! It's Hebert!" a random student exclaimed. I didn't know him, but apparently he had at least a passing familiarity with my face. I told myself that there was no point in trying to hide anymore but I was still desperately trying to crawl into my hoodie like it was a shell. That's when I heard a painfully familiar voice.
"Why do you have your hood up inside, Taylor? Still having a bad hair day?" Emma taunted. Then the dam broke.
I looked at her smug face and the knowing smile she wore. She knew that her comment had gotten to me. As I stared her down I started morphing my hand into a flatter, broader shape and I gave her what, to me, felt like a light slap to the face. Of course, given my enhanced strength and massive weight, a light slap was enough to knock her to the ground and leave her clutching the left side of her face. I was at least sure that I hadn't broken her jaw.
Then some of the other students started moving toward me. Seeing one of the school outcasts attack the 'Queen of the School' like that went against what they considered the natural order. I morphed my right hand back into the mace and smashed it into the wall behind me. The impact caused chunks of smashed brick to fall out of the wall. As I'd hoped, the students began backing off. None of them were stepping forward to defend Emma from a Brute. At least this way, I could avoid accidentally hurting someone.
I kneeled down to get close to Emma, shaking with rage, thunking loudly as I did. "I'm done letting you push me around, Emma." Her only response was a pained whimper. I vaguely heard breaking glass in the distance. "I don't know what happened to change you, but I don't c-"
Then I was cut off by someone slamming something heavy into my head. I could feel my head deform a bit, but it was fixed in a second and I looked to see who had interrupted me. I saw Sophia standing over me holding a fire extinguisher. I stood to look her in the eye.
"Fuck off, Hebert! You think you're too good for your place in life!?
I just quietly took a step toward her. She took a step back. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Madison pulling Emma to her feet. I turned to watch the pair run in fear. When I turned back I saw Sophia running in the opposite direction. As she turned the corner, I stopped caring.
When I turned back to look at the crowd of students they started backing up. I started pushing my way through the crowd and making my way to the lockers. The students were practically tripping over themselves to get out of my way. When I reached the lockers, I raised my arm and started smashing. As I worked I focused on the anger that had boiled to the surface after seeing the trio. Every strike I grew bolder and put more and more effort into every swing. Before long I had worked myself into a frenzy. I took a year's worth of anger and frustration out on my surroundings.
Once I was satisfied with the damage done to the lockers I began to move on. Then I felt something impact the back of my shoulder. I turned around and saw Shadow Stalker aiming one of her crossbows at me. I idly shoved the tranq out of my shoulder.
"Come and get me you freak!" she said and ran down the hallway.
I knew she was trying to lead in the opposite direction of the crowd of students. Honestly, I had no intention of attacking them and I was a little insulted that she'd assume that. I understood why, but it didn't make the notion any less aggravating.
I turned away so I could continue my 'rampage' when I felt another tranq hit me square in the back. I turned to face Shadow Stalker again.
"Fight me, Hebert! Or are you too fucking pathetic to fight back even when you have powers?!"
That gave me pause. How did she know my name? Now that I thought about it, she sounded familiar. Wait…no fucking way. I wouldn't have been paying close enough attention to catch it, normally, but the fact that she appeared to know me had me hyper-focused on her. And I recognized that voice.
"Hess?" I ventured. "You're telling me that they let you be a Ward?"
"Damn right. And I've caught you in the middle of attacking a school. Do you have any idea how long you're going away for?" she asked with the fakest smile I've ever seen. "You're getting put in your place for good."
My anger surged back to the surface. Without thinking about it I charged the bitch, each step cracking the tiles. My first swing went right through her as she entered her breaker state and my mace hit the ground leaving shattered tiles and putting a crack in the cement underneath. Shadow Stalker floated backward and shot another tranq at me. This time it phased through me for a bit before re-solidifying, leaving it buried deep inside my chest. I barely felt it.
I took another swing at her and she just shifted again and my attack phased right through her. Every time I swung at her I basically hit nothing but air. On the bright side, there didn't seem to be anything that she could do to hurt me. Being hit with six of her bolts did nothing to even slow me down. If they weren't fired while in her breaker state, then their small needles barely even penetrated my skin. Well, what passed for skin. It was after about five minutes and a surprising amount of collateral damage that things got dicey.
"Stop!" I heard someone shout from behind me. When I turned to look I saw two more of the Wards. Aegis and Clockblocker, if I recalled from my time trawling PHO.
Aegis stepped forward. "Look, what you've done, attacking a school? It doesn't look good. I'm sure you think you have good reasons, but there's not a jury around that'll agree. But, if you stop now and come in quietly, I'm sure you can get a lenient sentence."
If I still needed to breathe I'd probably be panting hard from my anger. As it was, that anger likely had someone else to be directed at. "So, you're here to help this psycho-bitch?" I gestured toward Sophia. Aegis simply nodded. "Then fuck off!" I shouted. Then I turned to leave. I didn't mind smacking Sophia around, she deserved it. Wards doing what they were supposed to? I didn't have any intention of hurting them. Aegis, however, had different ideas.
I had just started looking for an exit when he flew (literally) right into me. I felt my body deform from the tremendous impact and, to my surprise, it hurt, but not much. More like being hit with a foam bat. It was the closest thing to being injured I had experienced in the short time since my trigger, though. I could feel a few small pieces of myself fly away. I could still feel the pieces, for lack of a better word, and I tried to pull them to me. Their movement was sluggish, though. It would take time, but I didn't have much of that in the middle of this fight.
I grabbed the Ward half-buried in my midsection and tossed him into the wall. The brick shattered around the impact and he fell to the ground with a grunt. I turned to see Clockblocker charging me. I frantically leapt out of the way. The other two may not be able to actually hurt me, but if Clockblocker touched me everything would be over. I'd never escape, I wouldn't get to see my dad again, and all of this would have been for nothing.
After my feet hit the ground I started back pedaling as I turned my other arm into a metal pole. I felt another bolt hit me in the back, but I ignored it. As Clockblocker ran toward me again I swept the pole toward his legs. I took his legs out from under him and he hit the ground hard with a grunt.
I turned to run again when Aegis rammed into me again. Again, I felt a brief pain as I lost a bit of mass. As I was thrown off balance he backed out of my reach so I couldn't toss him aside again. I moved in to hit him with my mace when I felt something weird. It felt like when Sophia's bolts phased into me, but it was much larger. Then I felt it solidify. When I looked down I saw Sophia's cloak had been phased into my entire torso. It spread from both arms and went into my body, limiting my movement. Then I saw Aegis fly past me and I felt a strong tug on the cloak. I struggled to keep my footing.
I realized how screwed I was. Aegis was keeping me in place with Sophia's cloak and I couldn't move my arms more than a few inches from my body. Even so, I began struggling. I was emboldened by the sound of tearing. If I could get my arms free, I would be fine. However, Clockblocker was almost within arm's reach. All he had to do was lay a hand on me and I'd be frozen in time. I struggled even harder and was rewarded with more tearing. I was beginning to get some freedom to move my arms, but it wasn't enough.
The motions were still slow and uncoordinated and Clockblocker's hand was moments away from touching me. I couldn't move my arms enough to fend him off and if I tried to kick him I'd be pulled to the ground and I'd be in an even more precarious position.
To my surprise (and Clockblocker's, I'd assume) a rod of liquid metal shot from my midsection and hit him square in the chest with enough force to knock him off of his feet. It tore a large chunk out of my shirt as it did. That wasn't something I had been able to do before. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, though. I could control my entire form, after all.
An idea formed in my mind. I was thinking too…normally, for lack of a better word. I stopped trying to tear my way free and I started letting myself flow around the cloak lodged inside of me. In no time I was free and Clockblocker seemed to be out of the fight.
That just left Aegis and Sophia. Sophia couldn't really do anything to me unless she came up with something else creative. Aegis, on the other hand, could cause at least some damage. Not only that, his adaptive biology made him hard to put down and I couldn't outrun him, not with his flight, anyway
I was tough enough that I didn't think he could put me out of the fight any time soon, but the same was true for him. Unfortunately, time was on his side, not mine. I could see Sophia talking on the phone with an official air about her. I assumed she was calling for reinforcements. Probably from the PRT or even the Protectorate. Or both.
Then Aegis flew at me again and I tried to dodge, but he clipped my shoulder and took a bit of me with him. I immediately started pulling my dispersed mercury back to me.
When he stopped to turn around I lashed out with my mace. Aegis raised his arm to block, but the force still broke his arm and pulled him half-way to the ground. He recovered almost immediately. A broken arm wouldn't do anything to slow him down.
I swung at him again, but he dodged the second one. I followed up with my pole-arm, but he simply let it hit him in the ribs. My confusion was quickly replaced with surprise as Aegis trapped the weapon against his body and used the leverage to pull me into a full-force punch to the face.
I could feel my face dent badly and a few more tiny pieces of my body were knocked loose. In barely more than a second my face was back to normal. I lengthened the trapped pole a bit to make a hook across Aegis's back. Once I had him held in placed I took another swing with my mace.
Aegis couldn't dodge, so he was forced to let go of my other arm to grab the shaft of my other weapon with both hands. Then he pulled me into a kick, deforming my midsection. I turned my weapons back into hands, grabbed Aegis, and threw him into the wall.
Then I heard Sophia shout Aegis's name and I felt something heavy hit me in the back. It didn't have the same impact as Aegis's blows, but it was still annoying. I turned to see what had hit me. I saw another fire extinguisher at my feet, thrown by Shadow Stalker.
Then Aegis kicked the side of my knee. If my body wasn't malleable then my knee would have buckled completely and I'd be brought to a knee. As it was, it deformed a bit and I still wobbled. I expected another hit but it never came. When I turned to look I could see Aegis wielding the fire extinguisher.
He rushed in and dodged my quick, clumsy punch and hit my other knee with the extinguisher. This time I did fall to one knee with a grunt. I still hadn't felt more than a slight sting, but it was worse than any of the other blows had been. A bit more of my semi-liquid body splattered outward.
Another blow to my shoulder almost knocked me to the ground. I formed another pole from my side and smacked the Ward in the shin, knocking his foot out from under him. With my brief reprieve I reformed myself and ran toward an emergency exit at the end of the hall. I needed to get out of here quickly. I had already spent too much time fighting Aegis.
I was quickly grappled from behind by the Ward in question. "I don't think so," he said as he desperately tried to keep me from moving. I made a half spin trying to dislodge him. When that didn't work I backed up into a wall, smashing Aegis between myself and a cement wall, getting a grunt of pain from him. When that didn't work, I turned my left hand into a pole again and started swatting at Aegis, hoping I could dislodge him.
Then I heard the alarm from the emergency exit. When I looked I saw that Shadow Stalker was standing outside, holding the door wide open. Shortly afterward, Armsmaster came charging in.
Aegis let me go right was Armsmaster got into striking distance. His first swing hit me square in the ribs, but instead of a blade his famous halberd had a mace head at the end. The blow did little more than leave a dent.
I tried to dodge past Armsmaster. There was no way I could deal with both him and Aegis. I needed to escape. Armsmaster had other ideas. He lashed out with the butt of his halberd and jabbed me in the back. At first I thought it didn't do anything, but then I felt the electricity course through me. I screamed. It hurt horribly. Worse, I could feel my form losing cohesion. I was quickly turning into a puddle of liquid metal.
Before I was reduced to a puddle of insensate liquid, the halberd was removed and the current stopped flowing through me. "You're going to stay here until the containment team arrives. Try to escape again and we'll go through this again."
I had no reason to believe he wouldn't. "Please. I need to leave. You don't know-"
"Quiet," he interrupted. "You think you're the first person who's thought they had a good reason to do what they do? Let me tell you, it doesn't matter. You've made your choice and now you have to face the consequences," he said from behind me.
"Aegis, how's Clockblocker?" he asked.
"I think he has a concussion, but he should be alright," the Ward replied.
My heart sank. My chances of escape were shrinking at an alarming rate. I couldn't fight off Armsmaster by himself if I tried. Armsmaster and two Wards? Not a chance.
I looked around desperately for a way out and my eyes landed on a vent above me. I decided that I didn't mind being naked after all, not if it meant getting out of this mess.
Armsmaster maintained his position behind me, ready to electrify me again if he needed to. "After attacking a school and then fighting with the Wards, well that's pretty much an automatic juvie. Hell, maybe even the Birdcage," he said. "But, I can imagine that you're a fresh trigger. As such, an exception could be made for you if you agree to join the Wards."
Joining the Wards was a dream of mine up until a few days ago. If it weren't for the fact that my father's life depended on me escaping I think I'd probably take that offer, too. To my surprise, the fact that Sophia would be on the team, too, couldn't completely spoil it for me. I suppose the idea that I would be valuable enough to anyone besides my dad for them to allow me on a team was just too good of a feeling. But I wasn't going down that path anymore.
I let my form go limp, spreading out in a pool around Armsmaster's feet. He seemed uncertain about what to do since he wasn't shocking me again. Before he lost patience and decided to shock me again anyway I lashed out and grabbed his halberd at two separate points. Then I made another pseudo-pod and struck the halberd in the middle, snapping the end off.
With Armsmaster's tasing stick gone, I shot up to the vent and started sliding through it. I had to be careful to keep my weight spread out or else the vent would be ripped from the ceiling, meaning I had to move more slowly than I cared for.
Fortunately, my current form wasn't solid enough for any of the Wards or Armsmaster to get a hold of me and the last I knew, Clockblocker was still recovering. That meant that I was free to slither along the vents, checking multiple routes for an exit. Eventually, I found a way to the roof, where I took the time to gather myself back together.
I was outside, but I wasn't out of the woods yet. The heroes would still be looking for me and I could guess one of them would be watching the outside. I needed to find a way to cover ground fast. Soon, an idea started to form. It would be easy to do, since I was already in an almost liquid state.
I started extruding limbs and hardening them into four long, spindly legs. I made a small, flat body at the top to help keep the legs spread out, improving stability. I didn't want them to be able to follow me simply by following the cracks in the pavement, so I expanded my feet, creating a much broader point of impact. Hopefully, it would prevent me from leaving too obvious of a trail.
I leapt from the roof and started running as soon as my feet hit the ground. I could hear Aegis shout a warning to someone inside the building, likely Armsmaster. I didn't stay to find out.
Even though my new form was incredibly fast, I could quickly hear a motorcycle approaching, which meant that Armsmaster was gaining on me. Still, I had managed to put some precious distance between us, which gave me a few seconds to think. I looked around for a way out. Eventually I saw a drain in the side of the road and I immediately dove for it. I felt my body return to a liquid-metal state as soon as I hit the drain and I started flowing into it. By the time Armsmaster reached the drain I was already fleeing and well out of his reach.
I tried to keep going north as best as I could. However, some of the pipes ended abruptly and I had to keep making detours. Without being able to see any land marks, I didn't know if I was veering east or west.
After about half an hour, though, I slithered out of the drain and reformed into my original shape. Well, not quite. I made sure not to include any definition below the face and I didn't bother altering the pigmentation. She felt she was far enough away to get her bearings. To her surprise, she wasn't very far from where she was supposed to meet the man who had kidnapped your father.
A ten minute walk led me to an abandoned warehouse located along the Docks. I wasn't worried about anyone seeing me enter. This was one of the first sets of warehouses that had been abandoned when the city's economy started tanking. No one had been here for years. About the only people you might see would be some of the homeless trying to get out of the elements, but there were similar havens they could hole up in that were closer to the city. I decided that either this man was casually cruel or else he had a shitty sense of humor holding my father, the head of the Dockworkers Association, in one of the first warehouses to be abandoned.
I stepped up and pushed the door open. The place was almost completely empty except for a chair in the middle of the building with a floor lamp next to it to illuminate my father. He was tied to the chair and gagged. Behind him stood a pair of men dressed in military gear. They each had an assault rifle aimed at my father. Off to the side of them was a TV that had an image of a very thin man dressed in black on it.
All of his skin was covered and I could see the image of a white snake winding its way up to his neck and coiling around to the back of his head. The snake image's head was emblazoned on the face of whatever mask the man was wearing. He was sitting calmly, patiently, with his hands folded in his lap. He had said his name was Coil.
"Hello, Taylor. I see you've done as I asked," he said calmly. If he or his henchmen noticed or cared that I was effectively naked they kept it to themselves.
My only response was a brief, "Yes." I wanted to get this over with so I could talk to my father.
"And you even fought with the Wards." At the mention of that my dad began struggling a bit and trying to talk through his gag. I wasn't sure how he already knew about that. Under normal circumstances I'd even be worried about it, but right now it was just an unnecessary detail. "Quite impressive for you first day out."
"I did what you wanted, now let me talk with my dad!" I insisted.
After a moment, Coil nodded. "Gentlement, please remove the gag from Mr. Hebert." One of the men untied the gag while the other kept his gun trained on my dad. "Oh, and Taylor? Be sure you don't move any closer." The bastard wasn't even going to let me hug my dad. I briefly considered just trying to knock the two out and grabbing my dad and running but I wasn't confident I would be fast enough. At least one of them would probably have time to pull the trigger and it would end poorly for my father. Even if I did succeed, there wasn't much point. I was a dangerous villain now. I didn't have a chance at a normal life, now.
When the gag came free my father asked the question I'd been dreading. "Taylor, what did you do?" I just looked down in shame. "What did you do?" he asked more insistently.
"I…attacked Winslow," I mumbled. The words came out slowly.
My dad just stared at me uncomprehendingly for a moment. "What were you thinking?!" he demanded. "Why would you throw away your chance at a good life like that?!"
"Because I didn't want you to die!" I shouted. "I didn't have much choice. This bastard," and I pointed toward the TV without considering that my dad probably couldn't see who I was pointing at, "kidnapped you and told me he'd kill you if I didn't do it."
"Taylor," my dad pleaded, "You shouldn't have done it."
"I already lost Mom. I didn't want you to die, too."
My dad looked like he was going to say something else when we were interrupted. "I believe that is enough," Coil said in that same calm voice. It was infuriating to hear him dismiss our conversation so…causually. "A van will be arriving soon. It will take you to meet the people you will be working with from now on." He finished his statement with a wave. "Now leave." Then the TV went blank.