The streets were quiet, but Taylor Hebert knew better than to assume all was peaceful.
All around her she could feel the metal in everything calling out for her to control it, to shape it. Taylor drew her arms close around her and tried to block out the noise as she tried to focus on activity on the streets. Still nothing, but she couldn't expect to find anything on her first patrol.
She had triggered several weeks ago. A year and a half of bullying culminated in her being shoved into a locker filled with used tampons and pads, and all of her classmates ignoring her panicked screams. Taylor was barely conscious when her power sparked in her mind and was catatonic when the locker opened letting her fall out. The hallway was empty. Eventually she was found by a passing teacher, and an ambulance was called. She spent a week in the hospital, and when she returned the bullying had gotten worse. She grew sick of it and vowed to vent her anger on patrol during the weekend. Unfortunately, however, apparently Brockton Bay's crime underworld had apparently chosen to take a break. There was really nothing happening. Not even a mugging or even some shady characters in an alley.
Her armor was essentially just metal pulled from her surroundings covering her entire body. Aside for a small gap for her eyes, no part of her was visible. Even her hair was covered, and it was a mesmerizing sight when she shook it. She had considered making an emblem or a symbol, but she knew it would be immediately made fun of.
Taylor slowly took in the increased sensory input her power gave her. She could feel all the metal in a block around her but could control it farther if she had sight of it. Everything had a distinct shape in her mind, with cars being massive beasts of complexity with its engine being a hotbed of activity, or building foundations being roots groaning with stress. And then, something highly suspicious appeared on the edge of her range. A large group of guns and knives were loosely moving alongside the street, and she doubted it was any sort of police or military force.
She moved closer, jumping across rooftops using limbs from her armor to help her across. As she got within hearing range she heard an accented voice lecturing the group. "-the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We're getting our fucking money back and teaching them a lesson, hear me?"
Taylor cursed when she realized what the man was saying. She had a general idea of where the men were going, and gasped when she felt a mask on the man leading the group. It was made of porcelain or some other material Taylor couldn't feel, but she could feel the metal highlighting the mask. Lung
This wasn't how she wanted her first patrol to go. Maybe beat up some Merchants, save someone's life. But this was something more now. The men were nearing the building now, and she could hear them casually readying their guns and slipping on masks. Steeling her will, Taylor leaped over the ledge and used her limbs to slow her fall. The men turned, and Taylor felt some regret when Lung moved towards her. His low growl was loud enough to be heard over his entire gang, and Taylor could see that he was beginning to grow taller. "You gonna fight me girl? Gonna try and save some thieves?" She said nothing, and simply raised her fists.
Lung roared and charged her. Behind him, his men took aim and fired, careful to not hit their leader. Taylor pulled metal from parked cars and trash bins and formed a thin wall that just barely caught the bullets and stopped Lung. Well, temporarily. There was another roar, and a large dent appeared in the wall. Taylor integrated the bullets into her shield and tried to think of a way out. She could simply run away now, and hope Lung's targets heard the commotion and got away. But that hinged on a lot of assumptions and she couldn't leave someone's life up to chance. She considered fighting him head-on but was discouraged when she remembered that the entire local Protectorate team had once tried to fight him but limped home after massive destruction to the Docks and the surrounding areas.
There was another roar, and slowly Taylor could feel her wall beginning to heat up. She made a quick decision. She pulled on the steel in her attacker's guns, in the street lights, in everything she could pull on, and pulled it all towards Lung. It formed a featureless thick cocoon and inside she could feel Lung thrashing around. Not today She reformed it's shape again and again and smiled when Lung's trashing grew weaker. Unfortunately, she wasn't lucky. Lung's unpowered gang members wasn't sitting idle. In her focus on keeping Lung contained the group of men approached her and tried their best to attack. This broke her attention as she tried to fend off the men without killing them and was caught off guard when Lung burst from the cocoon easily several feet taller than before. The air around him was now noticeably hotter, and flames began to pool in his hands. His deep gravelly voice was now barely comprehensible, but Taylor made out "I'm going to make you die slow"
Taylor was now panicked. A raging fire dragon was not something she wanted to fight, and she doubted she could do anything to stop him. The unpowered gang members were now moving away from the dragon's path, and she could hear them escaping into the alley. Taylor reached out with her metal sense and pulled any metal leftover that she had missed in her frantic diversion. She turned back to run, and she could hear Lung's heavy footfalls as he followed her.
She sent waves of metal back toward him, all either trying to cut into him or even temporarily slow him. The alleyways became a maze of death: a single misstep would let Lung catch up. She cursed her luck as Lung bellowed behind her and hissed when she nearly slipped on a puddle. Shit! I need to escape or find something to distract Lung with-what the hell was that?
There was a massive roar, but it was interrupted by what sounded like a car crash. Taylor reached out with her senses, and gasped when she felt a large twisted hunk of very complicated metal in front of Lung, and what felt like a man in some sort of suit stepping off it. Then she recognized the mask and turned her head towards him. Armsmaster. She debated leaving. A professional hero was now on the scene and she could run away now. But then she felt a swipe slam Armsmaster into a wall, and she could practically hear his entire body groan under the pressure. She ironed her resolve and began to run back. She could hear grunting and massive destruction and winced when she felt Armsmaster's bike get crushed. She called any available metal and began to form a spear. She was fairly sure she could launch it, but she hadn't gotten much practice; and that practice was only launching small balls of metal. But now Armsmaster was slowly being overpowered by Lung. She rounded the corner and was unnoticed by both the fighters. Taylor took careful aim; if she hit Armsmaster then she could very likely take a limb off. This was her plan. Hopefully the loss of a limb could shock Lung long enough for Armsmaster to either escape or come up with some sort of solution.
She took aim and launched the metal with all the strength she could muster. It blurred, flitting through the air faster than she could see. She knew that Lung had no idea that catastrophic damage was heading his way. When it hit, there wasn't even a noise. One moment Lung was bearing down on Armsmaster, looking as if he was some sort of demonic frost giant, the next he was flat on the ground with a stump where his leg was. Taylor could see on the other side of the street Lung's leg was pinned to the opposite building, and it appeared Armsmaster was stunned by the quick turn of events. Taylor ran up to him, tugged on his arm, and said "C'mon, we need to get out before he regenerates his leg"
Armsmaster shrugged her off, before appraising her makeshift armor. His mouth set into a thin line, and Taylor could see gears turning in his head. She could tell he immediately connected her with Lung being temporarily decapitated, but he clutched his halberd closer and moved towards Lung. Taylor was helpless and tried her best to pull him back but resigned herself to simply watching as Armsmaster moved towards Lung. This gave Taylor an idea. If she wrapped metal around Lung's stump would it regenerate? She tried it and was pleased to see that the limb did not regenerate any further.
Armsmaster pressed something on his halberd, and then took a few swipes at Lung's prone form. Taylor could see that the blade was secreting something but couldn't guess as to what. When Lung's struggling slowly grew weaker, she guessed it was some sort of tranquilizer. Seeing that his work was almost done, Armsmaster turned to face Taylor. He appraised her stance, and Taylor could see he was deliberating. Finally, he questioned "So. You Empire 88?"
Taylor was floored but could see why he would ask. With Hookwolf and Kaiser making up the sole metal controllers in Brockton Bay it was easy to draw parallels with her and the Nazis. Combine that with some of her skin being visible from the visor in some areas it would immediately point to her being part of the gang. She quickly shook her head, and unsteadily replied "First night out, nothing to do with the Empire at all I swear"
Armsmaster moved over to Lung and motioned for her to help restrain him. He pulled out a string of handcuffs and was momentarily surprised when Taylor used her power to mold them into something large enough to completely restrain Lung. He looked up and asked "Are you going to join the Wards?"
Taylor had given this some thought and had ultimately decided that joining the Wards program would bog her down with too many procedures to operate efficiently. When she told Armsmaster this, he grimaced but said "I know what it feels like to lose efficiency because of some badly written rules, but with proper support and protocol we could help you grow into a better hero. That brings us to the other issue."
Taylor tensed slightly, but relaxed when she remembered that she couldn't really get in trouble for decapitating Lung. Worst comes to worst she would have to make a quick escape and try to steer clear of heroes for a little while. Armsmaster continued with "The capture of Lung is going to send waves all across Brockton Bay. While this isn't the first time that Lung has been captured, with the ABB starting to make aggressive expansions into the Docks the other gangs may try to strike while they're spread thin and without their trump. This will put an immediate target on whoever took him down. I won't lie. The credit for taking Lung down is really attractive to me but alienating a new parahuman flies in the face of various restrictions and my own morals. How do you want to play this?"
Taylor was floored. Popular opinion, (And PHO), called Armsmaster socially inept, often making direct statements and being utterly useless in emotional situations. But then something struck her odd on the way Armsmaster spoke. Thinking on it, Taylor recognized the slow pace he spoke with and called Armsmaster out. "Are you reading a teleprompter?"
A little chagrined, Armsmaster slowly replied "Well... I may have asked Dragon for help with interacting with other people"
Taylor was flabbergasted. She couldn't tell whether she should feel sorry for the man or be outraged. He made a program specifically for interacting with other people? What the hell? Her thoughts must have showed on her face, for Armsmaster quickly followed up by saying "It's still in its preliminary stages, it's mostly just Dragon sending me cues."
Taylor had nothing to say to that and tried to remember what the question was before. She hesitantly said "I-I'm not really sure what to do. It was really a joint effort."
Armsmaster let some of the tension seep out of his shoulders and gave her a small smile that would have made headlines if people were around to see it. He assured her "I have to make sure somebody arrives for pickup for Lung and see what scraps of my motorcycle survived. You sure about not joining the Wards? We could give a tour first"
Taylor shook her head and began to move away. Armsmaster noticed and simply said "I've got this under control. You can go if you want"
Taylor was thankful and made her retreat. Her mind spun with possibilities, but when she was halfway home, she let out a loud curse. "Fuck! I didn't tell him my name!"