So, chapter three, the Trigger chapter! Things will really start moving from here! This chapter might also be a little controversial because of how I handle Emma/Sophia, but remember my changed timeline! They've never bullied Taylor in this story, only given her the cold shoulder.
Now, for review replies!
Kknd2: He's not going to be a big bad per se, he's going to be a lot like Cauldron. "I know best, I'm trying to save everyone, and I'll sacrifice literally countless people to do it! LISTEN TO ME, DAMNIT!" Obviously, Taylor isn't going to follow that path, and that could bring them into conflict later.
DschinghisKhan: My friend, multi-pairings are the bread and butter of my stories. Fear not!
Linx007: Welcome to the fandom hahaha. Worm is another one of those things where I infinitely prefer the fanfiction to the original product, to be honest. Too grimdark for me, is Wildbow's work. Very impressively written though!
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Because of the War
Chapter Three
The Curtain Rises
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"…can't fucking believe this shit! Fucking PRT, how is this fucking city going to get any better if they force us to sit around for publicity stunts instead of hunting the gangs down?!" Sophia Hess, the former vigilante and freshly 'recruited' Protectorate Ward Shadow Stalker, grumbled angrily as she paced back and forth, hands flinched into fists.
"We're lucky that we were able to get that much done for you. Dad's not exactly trained for anything besides gouging people -or preventing gouging, as the case may be- in divorces." Emma Barnes said as sympathetically as humanly possible, running a hand through her crimson hair as she watched her savior and friend from where she was perched on her bed. "If they weren't so desperate for capes, you'd be in lockup for some time yet."
Sophia grunted her acknowledgement of the point, as displeased as she was to admit it. The Protectorate had been quick to throw their full weight at her the minute she roughed up a would-be rapist in 'their' territory. They never lifted a finger outside of the rich neighborhoods, but God forbid someone stops crime besides them near the Boardwalk. If she hadn't been there to put a bolt through his shoulder, his victim probably would have been raped and beaten, if not killed outright.
Though she would never tell her companion aloud, she had come to value Emma and the moments of total normality together immensely. Despite how much she enjoyed being Shadow Stalker and doing something to cure this city of its infection, she had forgotten how nice being 'just Sophia' was. It helped that Emma was easy on the eyes without being a useless, self-righteous asshat like the rest of her new 'teammates' of both genders were.
She hated it and them, and she would be damned if she would let them stop her from helping purge the filth out of her home. How long would it take for the so-called 'heroes' to realize that their wishy-washy, cops and robbers style bullshit was causing more suffering than anything else? This was a war, and the PRT failed to acknowledge it as such. Small wonder more heroes died than villains, 'Unwritten Rules' be damned. Hell, the Unwritten Rules were a colossal joke, except for the one about targeting families. The idea of someone hurting her Mom just to get at her terrified her more than she could ever admit.
The sound of the downstairs door opening a little violently had both of them frowning in concern and curiosity, as Emma's parents weren't due for several more hours. Sophia quietly slinked over to her bag and pulled out one of her signature crossbows, already loaded and ready to fire.
"Emma, get your ass down here!" a female voice both girls recognized easily roared up the stairs, and Emma shot to her feet, eyes wide.
"Well, you wanted her to grow a spine and confront you. You wanted her to get the DWA involved in helping this city. Looks like part one is working out quite nicely." Sophia deadpanned in dry amusement, getting a scowl in response, which only amused her further.
"I knew I should have moved that spare key around…" Emma grumbled, heading for the stairs. Eager to watch the impending 'discussion', Sophia secured her bow and followed closely.
"Right, what the hell happened while I was at camp?" Taylor asked bluntly as they entered the room, arms folded over her chest, and Sophia had to put effort into remaining passive when she saw the face of Hebert's companion.
Canary, the Singing Master. Armsmaster and Piggot had sent out bulletins that the pop star had relocated to the Docks, and now a beautiful blonde of similar body type was showing up with the first daughter of the DWA. The question was: why? Was Taylor Mastered, and Canary was after the two of them now?
"What do you mean, Hebert? I grew…" Emma started her scripted spiel, but Taylor cut her off promptly and a little harshly.
"Enough with the bullshit, Emma! Something big, something bad happened while I was gone! Something to do with her." She snapped, turning her eyes onto the dark-skinned track star. The cold steel lurking within startled Sophia, given the way Taylor had silently departed when Emma first verbally attacked her. It seemed almost out of character, based on her own experience with the ravenette. "So what is it, Emma? Did she hurt you, threaten you? You don't need to worry about it anymore if she is."
"Oh, and what if I did? What would you do about it, huh?" Sophia scoffed before Emma could say a word, baiting the red-head's former best friend. "Gonna call the cops, huh?"
"No, no, I don't think that would be necessary immediately." Taylor's smile had rather more teeth in it than was entirely polite. Sophia suddenly had the impression of being face to face with someone rather more dangerous that herself. "You think that because I didn't fight with Emma a couple months ago means that you can do as you please? I know her, I love her, and I'm willing to let her actions go."
The implication was clear and had a very definitive edge to it. Sophia had zero importance or value to Taylor as is. If she was a threat, she would be dealt with in one way or another. It was equally clear that Taylor was one of those individuals who cared far more about others than she did herself. Given who worked for her father, Sophia considered that it might be wise to explain the whole of the situation. Rapidly. Before she found the DWA after her head with few scruples for messing with their boss' daughter and said daughter's best friend.
"You never did hesitate to jump into a fight for me." Emma sighed, dropping the 'nasty teen bitch' act entirely with a slight slumping of her shoulders. As those cold, hard green eyes shifted away, and Sophia let out a breath she didn't realize that she had been holding. Taylor, it seemed, could be very scary when she wanted or needed to. "It's a long, fucked up story…"
"We have time. I've put this off for far, far too long. I owed it to our friendship to try and figure out what happened right away, but I didn't" Taylor sounded deeply and genuinely regretful. Emma's face twisted into a scowl at that, and Sophia recalled how angry, and how deeply hurt, Emma had been when Taylor had just walked away and ignored her those past few weeks.
"Yes, you damn well fucking did!" the amateur model bit out harshly, folding her arms and looking away as her jaw worked. "Maybe I didn't handle it the best," a truly massive understatement. "You didn't even try figure out was going on! You just left! Just like you did when Auntie A died!"
Taylor stiffened at the old nickname for her mother, mouth tightening and eyes darkening. Part of her wanted to lash out at the other girl for using such an intimate and affectionate for her mother after a not-insignificant betrayal, but she wasn't really here for a fight. She wanted and needed answers, that was why she had come.
"You were an emotionless wreck, barely existing. Just wandering from one thing to the next aimlessly. You didn't care about anything, no matter what I did to try and get you to laugh, or cry, or even just talk to me, you never did!" the gates had been thrown open, the torrent of emotion unlocked and unfettered now, to flow freely. "You were as dead as your mother was; they just hadn't buried you yet! You were either going to kill yourself or get yourself killed by being in the worst place at the worst time!"
Everyone noticed the way that Taylor flinched guiltily, subconsciously acknowledging the fact that Emma was right. She had been suicidal, at least mildly so. She didn't doubt that she would have steadily grown worse without Paige's interventions, especially this one. Oh no, Emma's fears were not unfounded in the least, she was deeply ashamed to admit. And it was obvious to everyone.
"I was running out of ideas to help you, to force you to wake up and live again. You remember you called me, while you were at summer camp? Remember how the call dropped? Well, that's because the ABB cornered me and Dad. I was going to be an 'initiation present' for a group of them." Paige and Sophia both were given the opportunity to see what an enraged Taylor Hebert looked like with no small amount of concern. It was rapidly become apparent that Hebert had the potential to be quite dangerous if a friend was threatened, and likely quite ruthless as well. What made her so dangerous wasn't her anger (it was perfectly natural, all of them knew Emma meant she was going to be gang-raped and possibly killed or kidnapped for 'continued use') but the fact that she controlled her anger rather than the other way around. Someone blinded by emotion is easily dealt with, but someone who could use controlled emotion to fuel their actions was truly dangerous.
"I saw them while I was out and got involved…" Sophia added, quite sure that she was being sufficiently vague to conceal her identity, but when Taylor's eyes (now distinctly calculating) locked onto her and Emma winced, she felt a distinct chill spike its way down her spine.
"The only way you could have stopped a group of ABB was if you were a capable fighter, a Cape, or both. ABB initiations never happen in PRT territory, so it wasn't as if you made enough noise to bring them in to save the lot of you. Tall, athletic, African American, highly confrontational. There is, was¸ only one Rogue vigilante that fits that description in Brockton Bay."
"We used to joke that Taylor and her parents could be Thinkers without having powers. They've been leading the DWA for decades, and they really know how to piece things together. Give them enough information and they'll come up with a good guess." Emma commented to her baffled and wide-eyed compatriot. "They've had to, to stay alive and protect their people."
"Hardly a Thinker. It was easy to guess where mom hid the cookies when we were younger. No, we've been keeping an eye out for potential threats or allies and Shadow Stalker crossed our desk." She shrugged almost lazily, as if it was perfectly normal for her to help monitor individuals in the city and their potential. "Anyone else wouldn't have been able to guess quite so easily without the information our people have. You might want to be careful though. It won't be too hard for anyone paying enough attention to gather the information they need to ID you."
"What do you mean, Taylor?" Paige asked, curious about her friend's reasoning. Given the amount of information that the DWA, and presumably the other powers of the city, had that most citizens didn't…well, it didn't make sense that anyone else could figure it out quite so easily.
"With Sophia's basic description and the fact that Emma's father represented Shadow Stalker in her juvenile court hearing (a matter of public record) to keep her out of jail, well that will be more than enough for people like Kaiser to put all the pieces together eventually. Forced recruitment won't be a problem from him for obvious reasons, but…" Taylor let her voice trail off, her meaning clear, and Sophia swore savagely. She hadn't even considered how obvious it was for an athletic black girl to start hanging out nearly 24/7 with the daughter of the man who had kept the only black teen vigilante out of juvie. It was terrifyingly obvious now that it had been pointed out to her.
"Fuck! I can't believe we didn't think of that." She groaned, kneading her forehead as her mind raced across the implications. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I need to talk to Armsmaster, and fast…"
"Better to talk to Miss Militia, tell her that the DWA had it figured out already and that the PRT needs to pull contingencies together to protect you and your family. Otherwise, we might need to take responsibility for their safety." Taylor suggested with a cunning glint and a small smirk. "They'll throw themselves around trying to keep us inside of our safe little box."
"…you scare me, you honestly do. I can't believe I ever told Emma you were a spineless loser." The newest Ward shook her head in disbelief. She had thought that she had the other girl pegged, but that clearly hadn't been the case. In fact, it was quite clear that she had never been more wrong in her life. She would be utterly thrilled if it weren't for the fact that she was really rather confident in her supposition of how Taylor would feel about Sophia's 'Predator versus Prey' mentality.
She wasn't wrong.
"I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or slap you. That is the most insane shit that I have ever heard." Taylor's blunt appraisal had Sophia scowling and Emma flushing. "Look I understand what you're trying to say, that risking your life for people unwilling to stick up for themselves is futile. That you have to perform triage and save those most likely to survive outside of your protection."
She paused and Sophia nodded with a murmured acknowledgment. She had almost died several times for the sake of an utterly cowed victim. Why should she die for someone like Alan Barnes, who didn't even try to fight when his daughter was about to be gang-raped? What was the point in trying to save someone who would just roll over and die the next day? How could she risk dying for such a person, condemning who knows how many people to death because she wasn't there to help save them in their moment of danger?
"That's not being a hero, Sophia, that's anti-heroic at best. Didn't the PRT assign you some sort of therapy after you got arrested? I mean, whatever happened to make to make you Trigger had to be the reason enough. Never mind that you joined because you got arrested!"
"Of course I'm not a hero like the PRT, why would I want to be? What have heroes as a whole really accomplished besides dying young and often? The 'Protectorate' is more inclined to attend press events than to solve problems, and they let the fucking Nazis and the Triad runs around unchecked to 'keep the balance'. They refuse to do anything but break up fights when they feel like it." Sophia spat furiously, voicing her earlier thoughts and fully aware that Taylor agreed with her on some level. The inherent cruelty of Sophia's philosophy aside, the Ward's rant was remarkably similar to the beliefs of the DWA in reference to the uselessness of the authorities. Really, compared to some capes, a glorified triage concept barely registered on the scale of moral outrage, though she certainly wasn't going to let it stand as is. Sophia could be better than this, without a doubt, she just needed a guiding hand.
"As for therapy, no one really gets any, not unless they pay for it themselves. Not enough funding here in The Bay for anything but basic services, and all they really do is make sure we aren't starting to have villainous leanings. The only therapist in the entire state licensed for capes lives here in The Bay. You want to get outed in a minute or less? Walk into her office and match a cape's basic description." At Paige's appalled and shocked look, she sneered. "Oh yeah, the great and glorious PRT doesn't supply therapists to our lovely little shithole! Kids getting superpowers because they were almost raped? Sure, no problem, let's throw them into life or death situations before handing them back to their parents with a pat on the head! Pretty fucking heroic of them, don't you think?"
"I'm gladder than ever that I decided to stay with you and your Dad instead." Paige mumbled softly to Taylor, before sighing and clapping her hands sharply. "Right, enough serious business for today. This is obviously not to be solved by a single conversation. We're going to the mall."
With a display of persuasiveness that belied the need for any sort of Master power on her part, Paige soon had all three of them out the door and on the bus to the mall, located near the center of the city. Given both the extant it had already been covered, and the incredibly public venue, further discussion in regards to the large, complicated situation were put on hold. Instead, they settled for normal, if somewhat stilted, conversation. Utterly unaware of all the eyes on them
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Agent Epsilon, to use his assigned codename, was the current Intelligence specialist tasked by Coil to observe the Person of Interest codenamed 'Tweetybird', and he was rather uncomfortable. Oh, it wasn't, as most would think, due to the hard plastic seats of the bus on which they were seated, but rather the mission he was currently assigned to. He was damn good at his job, and it paid extremely well, but the very idea of stalking girls his own daughters' ages made him deeply unhappy indeed. Still, he knew better than to cross Coil, and he needed the money desperately. Sacrifices made for family were well worth making.
It hadn't been easy getting onto their tails with the handful of minutes warning he had received from his compatriots as they left the Docks. Fortunately, the girls had remained at the Barnes household long enough for him to get there and prepare to tail them further. Shock of shocks, they were now on their way to the mall. Nothing of value had been gleaned from bending an ear to their current conversation, as it consisted of the same mind-numbing stuff he had come to expect from his girls and their friends. Somehow he doubted his boss would care about what celebrities (Earth Aleph and Earth Bet) were considered 'hottest', but he would dutifully report it nonetheless.
Three hours later, when he tiredly seated himself at an empty table in the cafeteria as his marks sat down to eat, he swore to himself that he would try to foist future shopping trips with his daughters off onto his wife. He couldn't comprehend how someone could spend so much time doing something without actually accomplishing anything in the end! They had hardly even bought anything, just tried stuff on and complimented one another! It was maddening!
Damned if he hadn't felt like a total pedophile, though at least he had come up with some ideas of what outfits and brands were 'in' for his own girls. Hopefully, the Boss would understand that the lack of useful information in his report was due to no fault of his own. Hell, maybe the HVT's favorite jeans brand would reveal some sort of deep insight into her methods of thought. Fucking Thinkers could figure important shit out from pointless details all the time.
Fortunately for his blood pressure, he was utterly unaware that one of those fucking Thinkers was staring at him from across the room at that very moment. Blonde and slim with bright blue eyes, she was a stereotypical Nordic beauty with a penchant for sly humor and a hatred for their mutual boss.
'One of Coil's agents, not here to watch us.' Her Thinker power told her coolly. 'Watching that blonde girl and her friends. Paige McAbee, aka Canary. Obvious target for Coil's 'recruitment'.'
'Signs of deference to the green-eyed ravenette next to her, but not lovers…yet. Attraction is there, but not yet acknowledged even by themselves. They trust each other implicitly. Other girl has helped, protected her. Abusive boyfriend? Most likely.'
'African-American. Tall, athletic build, uncomfortable in social situations. Cape? Not a member of a gang, so…fuck me, that's Shadow Stalker, and the redhead next to her is a Cape too. Thinker? Insufficient Data to conclude. Redhead defers naturally to Shadow Stalker and Green-Eyes. Awkward tension between green-eyes and red-head. Close friends/sisters, trying to make up after an argument and spat of cold shouldering.'
'Well, well, well.' Lisa Wilbourn, aka the Thinker-class parahuman called Tattletale, mused to herself as she looked at the girl who happened to be Taylor Hebert. 'You have some very interesting companions, but why? You don't have any powers, so you aren't a cape team leader. No signs of control through intimidation, in fact it's just the opposite. Admiration and affection from two of them, and grudging respect tinged with…fear? No, wariness. Shadow Stalker's impression of you has been forcefully proven false, in a way that made her to respect and instinctively tread carefully around you.'
Lisa was fascinated. This situation defied explanation with her current data. Everyone knew just how reluctant Shadow Stalker had been to join The Wards, given that it was more or less literally at gunpoint. The girl just didn't like being bossed around or intimidated, yet here she was willingly spending time with someone who apparently (if subtly) did exactly that. This was a puzzle, one that she had no definitive answer for. It was delightful! She very rarely had situations like this, and she certainly never stumbled across them simply by virtue of going to the mall with her teammates!
"Stop staring, you horny fox. You're going to start drooling in about a minute." Alec, better known to the world as Regent, a Master-class cape and professional asshole, sniped at her from his seat across the table.
"Fuck you, minute man. You're just pouting because I don't think your needle-dick is worth taking pity on. Not my fault you're not worth ogling. Besides, tell me that group doesn't look damn good." She retorted almost absently, glancing briefly at the Undersider's nominal leader, Brian LaBorne, aka the Shaker-class Grue, as he snorted at her riposte.
He, like her, was a deeply reluctant villain, doing crimes only because 'that man' told him that, with the connections 'that man' possessed, getting custody of one Aisha LaBorne would be much, much easier. He, again like her, was basically a good person in a bad situation and struggling to survive despite it. Not to say Alec and Rachel (aka the Master-class Hellhound/Bitch) were bad people, but they were somewhat unusual cases compared to most people. Alec's father, the truly, inhumanly evil Heartbreaker, had…well, mind-fucked was a crude but rather accurate summation, mind-fucked him into Triggering and it had resulted in the French-Canadian youth becoming virtually incapable of emotional attachment. Rachel, by virtue of her power, simply thought more like a canine that she did a human. Obviously, that tended to create difficulties in situations requiring a bit more finesse than a black-and-white view of the world.
"None of them are exactly ugly, no." the darkness-caster agreed, eyes lingering for a moment on green-eyes, before shifting to meet Lisa's own. "I hope you're not going to do anything stupid, Lisa. Might be hard to explain the whole villain thing to a new girlfriend."
"Bah, you have no sense of romance or drama! Live a little, man!" Lisa stuck her tongue out at him, actually relieved for once that Regent was baiting her over her bisexuality. She was…oddly reluctant to share her true thoughts with her companions, especially the sociopathic Master. "Besides which, I'm allowed to have friends outside of you lot without only wanting to get into their pants."
The entire group ignored Alec's dismissive snort. He was incapable of caring for someone emotionally, so approaching strangers of suitable attractiveness for anything but sex (or some other, suitably materialistic desire) was utterly foreign to him. They had long since learned to ignore his opinion about this sort of thing…or anything regarding emotions or morals, really. Lisa glanced over at Coil's agent again with an imperceptible scowl. She would dearly love to introduce herself to this group of puzzles even now, but he would doubtless report someone of her features did so, and she didn't need her power to know that Coil couldn't know about her own interest in them. Thanks to Grue, she didn't even need to come up with an excuse to avoid introducing herself there and now.
"Well, you'll have to wait to chat with her another time, because you're not doing it today. We've got work to do in a few hours. That is what our focus should be on right now." He said, half chastising her, and she sighed theatrically despite her relief and nodded in acceptance. Coil's agent aside, her personal interest in the group certainly couldn't get in the way of the Undersider's continued safety, which was only assured so long as the group was useful to Coil.
"If you insist, oh mighty leader, if you insist. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop staring. With you and Alec as the only other options for scenery, I know which view I'll pick every single time." She agreed, smirking as the two males grumbled at her teasing.
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Taylor and Emma spent the next two weeks re-forging their friendship, both grateful that their separation had been as brief and (relatively) painless as it had been. With only a net length of a couple of months of not having spoken with one another, there was little damage that needed repairing. As Paige had once commented to Emma and Sophia whilst Taylor was out of the room, most friendships had an argument and some cold-shouldering every once in a while. Hell, most families did that!
Emma, likewise, had made it clear how large a debt she felt she owed Paige for not only being there for Taylor, but for creating the confrontation that had brought everything to light, and probably in doing so had saved a treasured relationship. With some logic to balance out Sophia's more…inventive ideas about the world, both the redhead and the Ward had started to stabilize, though not without some reluctance and obstinacy for Sophia's part.
She still held quite tightly onto her ideals, though she had been forced to concede that doing nothing while others suffered right in front of her was as bad, if not worse, than causing said suffering in the first place. She hadn't appreciated hearing that in the least, of course, but she had been forced to concede it none the less. Mostly, she was rather relieved that she had been able to share her story with someone other than Emma. Keeping it locked up inside had hurt and damaged her more than she had thought possible until she began to share it and heal from it. It had, in fact, been nearly identical to Emma's own story, save for the fact that she had been attacked by the Empire 88, and they had gotten much closer than the ABB had to the young Barnes. Oh, she hadn't been raped, but it had been close. She had been naked and restrained when she Triggered, mere moments from having her innocence ripped away.
Tonight, a scant few days before their new school year would begin, Taylor had elected to take Paige out to the movies. Despite living together, she didn't doubt that their time together would grow somewhat tight, as the diva took online courses to maintain her anonymity. Despite Emma's constant teasing and sly comments, Taylor continued to insist to herself that this was not a date, even if they were going to have dinner before the movie. Together. Without her dad or their two friends. There was nothing romantic about her paying for dinner and an Earth Aleph import that Paige desperately wanted to see called Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The Ultimate Directors Cut. It absolutely didn't…
Taylor sighed to herself. It totally felt and sounded like a date, which would bear deeper contemplation at a later da…uh, time. The point was, she wanted her personal hero (arguably savior, to be perfectly honest) to feel neglected or abandoned. Not after how much she had done for Taylor, for Emma. As they walked into the theater together, she happily reflected that her life had really turned around, at long last.
She would later reflect that she was a God-damned fool for tempting Fate so blatantly. Of course, she had no idea how many eyes were on her and Paige, how much Fate had decided to lay at her feet, and in the end it didn't matter. It happened all the same.
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Orders were sent out. Eugene Baker was released without fanfare and sent on his way from California, where he immediately set out for Brockton Bay, Massachusetts with bitter vengeance in his heart for his former girlfriend's 'betrayal'. Coil's agents within the Empire and Azn Bad Boyz coaxed groups of their compatriots towards a conflict site near the theater while a special Anti-Master squad of his mercenaries readied themselves for a capture mission that would take place in the midst of a full-fledged firefight between two major gangs. It wouldn't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the only time for the foreseeable future to fulfill Coil's objectives.
Another group of three two-man sniper teams were sent to ensure that their cover conflict was actually started. A pair of well-timed and well-placed shots would ensure both sides would be out for blood and vengeance against one another. Hopefully his agents within the gangs would survive the battle, but quite frankly it was a side-benefit and nothing more. Unofficial inside agents were easily replaceable.
Three hours later (when the marquee had said "Ultimate Directors Cut", they weren't kidding!) everything was in place and the objectives were moving into the combat zone. 100 ABB and Empire members (fifty each, nice and even for maximum carnage) were snarling away at each other, and the bag team was in place. All that was required was a little push, and so a shot rang out. A bloody hole replaced the ABB group leader's heart, leaving his subordinates starting. Another shot, for all appearances on revenge on the ABB's part, felled the head skinhead present in the same fashion. There was a moment of shocked stillness as both sides processed what had just happened, before they hurled themselves at one another with howls of rage and chattering gunfire.
With spotters feeding them information, the bag team quickly found the two teenaged girls sheltering inside of a small alleyway. A pair of tranquilizer darts had the blond unconscious in seconds. As the ravenette cried out in anger and fear, a pair of well-placed 9mm bullets slammed into her body, one in the shoulder and another in the stomach.
Fatal wounds, but ones that could pass for the average gang-bangers capabilities. Too professional, awkward questions would arise. Too sloppy, and she might survive. A delicate balance only doable by those who actually knew what they were doing.
Leaving her bleeding on the ground to die, they gathered up the package and moved out. Had they stayed a few moments longer, they might have seen the cloak of cobalt-blue energy wrapping around the ravenette as she reached out to the unconscious form they carried.
Taylor Hebert's focus was not on her pain, nor the life-blood seeping from her flesh, nor even her imminent demise, but rather that people had taken Paige from her. They were going to hurt her singer, just like Emma and Sophia had been hurt. Anger swept through her, a raging fury fueled by a desire to protect the innocent, to protect her family, and a craving to punish those who were evil.
Deep within her, the Ethereal-twisted {Queen Administrator} finally achieved [Connection] with its Host, with the dual purposes of [Defend the Innocent] and [Swift Justice to Evil] Like a flower it blossomed, and as it blossomed the world trembled before the shifting tide.
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Klaxons blared, crimson lights strobed and crew shouted to and over one another in the kind of organized chaos only achievable by the military as the Avenger went to Red Alert.
"Get that Skyranger off the deck! Move, damn you!" Central Officer Bradley, second in command of XCOM and captain of the formerly xenos airship Avenger roared from his place on the bridge. "Get me access to satellite, traffic cams, the internet…if it can feed us or The Commander intel, I want it!"
"Central, Firebrand. En-route to mission zone, patching you through to Menace 1-5." The voice of the Skyranger dropship's pilot crackled over the comm., and the central holotank displayed a half dozen grim-faced XCOM elites.
"Menace 1-5, your orders are to secure and stabilize the Commander, eliminate any and all hostiles in the AO, and rescue the VIP I, known as Canary. Sweep and located any injured civilians after pacifying the area and mark with flares for local assistance." He instructed briskly, saluting as their images faded out to be replaced by the demanded feeds.
On the Skyranger, the six women of Menace 1-5 waited to deploy anxiously, fearful that their Commander (their mother, in a very real if bizarre sense, as they were born of her power) would die before they arrived. Influenced by Taylor's subconscious, the squad leader looked remarkably similar to (and was named for) a certain Israeli character in a certain Earth Aleph TV show.
This was Ziva 'Archangel' David, a Sharpshooter who was as lethal with knives and fists as she was with her high-powered, highly modified anti-material sniper rifle. She, and indeed the rest of the squad, were armed and armored in what would appear to be nothing more than slightly more advanced versions of the 'real world's' current-gen gear.
Then there were Alaisia and Alessia Gae, twin grenadiers from Ireland that specialized in softening targets with rotary cannons and grenade launchers. Identical twins with red hair and green eyes, one could easily pass for the other. In suiting with their…explosive personalities and methods of combat, they had elected to go by 'Nitro' and 'Glycerin' when in the field.
Ishtar 'Bloodsong' Inanna, the Turkish Ranger of the squad, named for the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of sex and war. Dark skinned and often silent, she preferred to strike from the shadows with her short sword rather than relying on her shotgun or sidearm.
Frea 'Morphine' Fensalir, a (natural) platinum blond from Norway that served as the squad's combat medic, though she preferred to be called a 'Medical Markswoman', as she toted a sniper rifle and GREMLIN drone into battle along with her nanomedikits.
Finally, there was Kelly 'Whisper' Venoct, a Specialist who was rather gifted with hacking and using her GREMLIN to harass, stun, or even kill enemy targets. When push came to shove, the Boston-born soldier was more than capable with her own assault rifle to defend herself.
"ETA 10 seconds. 80 estimated hostiles in plainclothes with a total of twelve firearms. The rest are armed with baseball bats or other blunt instruments. Weapons are free, no Rules of Engagement. Wipe them all out." Archangel informed her squad solemnly, putting on her tactical visor and gesturing for them to do the same. "Synch HUDS, sound off when ready."
One by one the squad announced their preparedness, bolts cycled and HUDs online as the Skyranger came in to a hover and the rear hatch opened, ropes falling from their coils to dangle over the emptiness. Taking a running start, they leapt, gripped, and slid down the dangling cords, landing around their Commander and drawing their weapons smoothly. As Freya knelt beside the bleeding form of Taylor, Ziva made for the nearest roof and Ishtar melted into the shadows.
"Ready to make some noise, sister mine?" Alaisa queried, grinning broadly at her twin and racking her cannon in favor of her grenade launcher.
"Sister, how could you ask a question with such an obvious answer? Of course I am! I'll go first then, shall I?" Alessai snorted in response, before striding out of the alleyway and pumping out two grenades in rapid succession. Explosions tore half-a-dozen men apart as she and her comrades advanced. Their enemies were dead; their hearts simply hadn't stopped beating yet.
With Archangel on the rooftops picking off runners or gunners, Bloodsong was free to hunt down the VIP's kidnappers. A Flashbang had them reeling, and she darted in, shotgun blasts killing two before she drove her blade through the heart of the third. Plucking the VIP from his grip as he fell, she holstered her shotgun at the small of her back, her sword across her shoulder blades, and settled the blonde into a bridal carry.
"Bloodsong to Central, VIP secure, all kidnappers dead. Moving to the RV point."
"Confirmed. The Commander has been stabilized. After dropping the VIP off, you're on SAR with Morphine. Mark injured or trapped civilians with red flares for local law enforcement."
"Understood, Central, Bloodsong out."
Setting off at a brisk walk, the Ranger headed back the way she came, screams and gunshots and explosions echoing around her as her comrades annihilated the enemy.
A new power had come to the Bay.
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Another chapter done! I gotta say, there are quite a few things that annoyed me about canon, not the least of which is that NO ONE noticed (or at least it wasn't mentioned in the story if they did) that someone matching Shadow Stalker's description started hanging out with the daughter of the lawyer that kept her out of juvie and got her into the Wards. I mean, c'mon!
I also pity Sophia rather than hating her. She is delusional, but she genuinely believed that her philosophy was the best way to live in Brockton Bay, and I can't say that she is wrong. I mean, it's utterly immoral and appalling, but that's the whole point of Worm, isn't it? People doing terrible things for theoretically good reasons?
Of course, in canon she and Emma have gone from being just damaged people in need of help to outright evil, villainous psychos, but that isn't the case in this story because of the adjusted time frame. I do truly believe they wanted to help Taylor in the beginning, but gave up on her when she didn't react as planned and just decided to torture her instead.
If it wasn't clear, I am not a huge fan of the PRT. I realize that, in Brockton Bay specifically, they are being deliberately crippled by Cauldron as a testing ground for cape feudalism, but still. There are ways to provide at the very least basic stuff like counseling for literal teenaged soldiers.
As another note, Menace 1-5 is made up of the 6 woman squad I use in the game, with of course the 7th and 8th members not being introduced yet because Taylor doesn't have those upgrades. Starting with six rather than four for the sake of story and, well, balance. Let's just assume Asaru gave Taylor some upgrades with the base game, as it were :P
In reference to some of their names, Ziva David is obviously from NCIS, Alaisiagae was a twin female deity(ies) of war in Celtic lore. Two goddesses that went by a single name, basically. Alessia is predominantly from The Elder Scrolls. Ishtar and Inanna were the Babylonian and Sumerian goddesses of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, combat, and political power. Basically the same deity, just different name for the two different regions. Finally, Frea is another name for Frigg, the Norse goddess of war, death, and (sometimes) healing, with Fensalir being the name of Frigg's hall in Valhalla.