Taylor of the Faint Smile
A worm/claymore crossover
AN at the bottom
Prologue
"Mooom, why couldn't I just have stayed with Emma? I really don't want to visit Gram."
"Little Owl, you will be going to highschool. Gram just wanted to see you before you started the next stage of your life. She doesn't see you much so be nice, okay?"
The end of summer break was nearing, and Taylor would rather spent these last days with Emma, her best friend. Her mother on the other hand, wanted to visit Taylor's grandmother, for such visits were few, and far inbetween. Taylor did not want to, but she was still a minor, so it did not matter.
What did matter, was the road they were driving. The wooded hills outside of Brockton were difficult to drive, courtesy of curving asphalt and the walls of pines at the sides of the road.
It had been smooth sailing since they left the suburbs of Brockton, the road empty as normal for an early evening, far from any main road.
As Taylor opened her mouth for another argument, a sixteen wheeled monstrosity barreled around the following turn. The truck was not a normal one, it tinkertech nature evident by the overly large wheels, the enormous exhaust pipes belching thick clouds of black smoke.
Trying to evade the abomination racing towards them, Annette turned the wheel, but even a car can only turn so fast.
With a sickening crunch, the truck plowed through the car, throwing it of the road.
Rolling down the hill, the vehicle came to a stop against a pine tree, splintering bark.
After a few moments of silence, Taylor's voice spoke up, fear breaking through.
"Mom?"
Receiving no answer, she asked again, in denial of truth.
"Mom?"
Not a single sound from her mother, but tears enough from her eyes. Her breathing became hitched, sobbing and crying turning into a high pitched whine.
And then she blacked out.
With a jerk she woke up, disoriented and dazed. Her arms moved with a mind of their own, slowly pulling her out the wreckage of the car.
Finding footing she stood up, her legs shivering and one of her hands searching support by one of the trees.
This is a dream
It was a simple thought, easy for those that did not understood what they saw, or could, would, not accept the reality they found themselves in. It was a coping mechanism, found in every human.
Taylor's concussing held her mind in a tight grip, not leaving much room for rational thought, and so she stumbled away, deeper the woods in, walking away from the wreckage, and the road.
After hours of stumbling through the dark woods, dawn broke, and the sun tried to poke some holes through the canopy. One of those rays fell through an open spot in the woods, its space being taken by a single, old log cabin.
It was an old building, it's thick logs showing signs of wear, and the roof was covered in moss.
She was lucky, finding the single log cabin in the woods. There was a car standing beside it, so she probably would find someone.
The door looked old, and was probably without lock. If there was anyone inside, that person could possibly help. If not, she would find some shelter at least.
The door opened with ease, its hinges oiled and well-maintained. While the outside of the building was old, the inside was all but. Dark grey tiles lined the floor, while the walls were painted white. Taking up the centre of the room was hospital bed, and a bit to the side stood a desk.
It looked like a doctor's practice. And the Doctor was present.
A woman of West-African descent was sitting behind the desk, wearing a lab coat and looking up from the files she was perusing.
Astonishment clear on her face, she started to speak, but she did not address Taylor.
"Doormaker, could you please send Custodian over here? I think we have a situation."
Taylor did not understand what she said, and did not care, for her wounds and fatigue were taking their toll at last. A fleeting feeling of distress raced through her mind, before she fell to the floor. She was out before her head touched the floor.
"Clairvoyant, I thought you were supervising the operational security of the facility I was using to administer one of the vials. Why was a teenaged girl capable of sneaking through?."
It was a simple question. It had a simple answer. Every single one of Cauldrons members that was present knew the answer to that question. It did not mean that they liked the answer.
"Some sort of Stranger rating"
"Evidently. The thing I want to know is which other ratings she has. She only collapsed after a night's march, while wounded, through fairly impassable terrain. We are currently pumping her full of horse-grade muscle relaxants and enough sleeping aids to supply a small elder's home."
Doctor Mother's frustrations were audible through her words, suppressing the rest of cauldron into silence.
A few moments passed, before someone gathered enough courage to speak up.
"She must either have a Brute or a Mover rating. Possibly both. 60 km through forested terrain is no joke, even in top condition."
Silence fell again, with most members looking down or up, but not one of them wanted to meet the Doctor's eyes.
So much power, and yet so little.
With no-one willing to take point, the good Doctor opened her mouth.
"How do we deal with this? With her Stranger ability and her Brute rating, it is a matter of time before she breaks out. We need to act before she is able to compromise our entire operation.
The question is, how do we remove her from the equation? She is not monstrous enough to use Case 53, so Eidolon? Alexandria? Are you willing to do what it takes?"
She expected no objection, for both heroes had done far worse things than kill an innocent girl for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, all they did was for the greater good.
I merely have to wait, the silence is enough pressure to make one of them volunteer.
To her surprise, it was not one of the triumvirate that answered, but Contessa.
"I can use her."
Eyebrows rose around the table with that statement. Continuing, Contessa convinced Cauldron.
"My power rates her as fairly capable, and she feels like a thinking multi-tool, to be used at any step of the path. She can be of use to influence the cape scene from another angle or carry out a mission we otherwise would have to spend favors on, if we can ensure her loyalty. And that is something I can do."
Looking around the table, Doctor Mother searched for opposition towards Contessa's plan.
"It seems no-one is opposed, so this will be our course of action. Contessa, you are responsible for our newest member. Her loyalty, training, missions and everything else, is your job. You can send her on missions as you like, as long as you warn the others about her objective, and as long she is capable of executing missions for Cauldron."
A single nod of Contessa was all the assurance she needed.
"Then this meeting has ended. You are dismissed."
The beeping of the heart monitor was the first thing she noticed.
The clean, hospital smell of antiseptic came second.
Third was the suited woman at her side.
As she turned her head to get a better look, the woman started to speak.
"Finally awake. You'll probably have a lot of questions, but let me tell my story and I'll promise most of them will be answered. Afterwards, you can ask anything that hasn't come up yet. Okay?"
Taylor' slow nod was the only answer Contessa needed.
"You had an accident. You triggered. You almost died. We saved your life. You woke up here. You have been out of it for a few days. Anything else?"
Taylor's eyes narrowed, not being satisfied with the information provided.
"There is something you aren't telling me. What happened to mom?"
In the moment before any spoken answer came, Taylor already knew the truth. It laid in the noticeable swallow, the movement of the woman's hands, her entire body language.
Nothing good
"She died in the car crash. Your father, learning of your mother's demise and your disappearance into the wilds, has taken his own life. My condolences."
The silence that fell was strangely lacking. Lacking tears, sobs or even emotion. The room lacked any reaction from Taylor.
So Contessa waited.
And she waited.
And she waited.
Nothing came, so Contessa broke the silence.
"The organisation I work for would like to employ your talents. We work out the public view to ensure the survival of the human race."
No reaction.
"We liason between the major parahuman factions on earth. We push the Protectorate to organise the Endbringer battles"
No reaction.
"Amongst our members, we can count the likes of Eidolon and Alexandria. We create parahumans to keep the Heroes' roster big enough to battle major threats."
No reaction. Oh well, better drop every bomb in a single conversation.
"When, and When, not If, Scion goes mad, it will mean the Apocalypse and possibly the end of the Human Race."
That got a reaction.
"What?"
AN:
To the people who just read the 1500 word prologue, thank you for reading. Please leave your criticisms in a review. I'll read them all, but I can't promise I'll answer them all.
Before you write anything I would like to offer you some information. English isn't my first language, nor my second, so any differences between American and British English just go above my head. You should also feel free to correct any error find.
Once again, thank you for reading.
Wunwun
EDIT: v1.01, minor spelling mistakes rectified, some formatting cleaned up