It was a cold night for the mild Winter that had lingered in Brockton Bay, colder than it was used to experiencing. The temperature had dropped from temperate fifty degree weather to an freezing thirty. This was especially daunting as Taylor made her way towards the Downtown area, which was closer to the water. Before Allfather, Marquis, and the Teeth took root this city was a bustling metropolis. Ships from all over used to make port in the Bay but like all good things it all came crashing down.
When the shipping and fishing industry started to weaken companies decided that between the gangs and the violence between them it was best to find safe harbor in more controlled cities, like Boston or New York. This lead to what would eventually become the Boat Graveyard. It was a glorified scrapyard with ships larger than skyscrapers that lay rusted and broken north of the Markets.
Downtown was mostly empty during the weekdays because of three things. The first was the gang presence, Empire Eighty-Eight patrolled the streets in effort to keep the Azn Bad Boys trapped within the Docks. The second was because the high probability of Cape Clashes in Brockton Bay, between the gangs trying to gain territory and the Heroes the chances of becoming a smear on the sidewalk were incredibly high; and the third reason, possibly the most mundane of them all, was that most people had to work the next day.
As soon as the sun fell under the horizon, Taylor had made her way towards this mostly empty part of the city on foot. She had never seen New Wave take the bus, nor did the Wards, she sure as hell wasn't about to expose herself as the hero who was reliant on Public transportation! Sure she could have used the Green but she wouldn't be able to fight crime from within its embrace unless some jackass tried to mutilate a tree. As she wandered through the cold New England night, she wondered how non-mover Capes ever got anything done?
'With their bright colored costumes and attention grabbing looks it's a wonder that criminals don't start fleeing when they spot them miles away.'
…
A brief look at her own costume derailed that line of thought almost instantly. Her costume was rather dark, not a lot of heroes wore dark… unless they were either Shadow Stalker or Alexandria… was she breaking some kind of code by wearing dark colors? While she gladly admitted to adoring Alexandria, she doubted she could keep the dark broody façade as long as the woman did. Then there was Shadow Stalker who embodied that arch type perfectly. And lets not forget the high number of villains who simply adore wearing dark clothes; neither of those were the messages she wanted to convey.
"What message do I want to send?" Taylor asked herself. Her armor was intimidating, which was good, guardians should be respected above all things but maybe adding a bit more color wouldn't necessarily hurt. As it was the only visible colors besides the dark wood were from her green skin and light violet hair. "The right kind of flowers would make me more approachable… while conveying messages depending on the arrangement."
With thoughts of her costume absorbing everything, Taylor wandered aimlessly through the eerie back ways of Brockton Bay oblivious to the world around her.
Time moved at a snails pace as she walked the dark, dimly lit side streets that was until she heard a pained scream that made her pause. It sounded close but not close enough that she could place it. The scream was definitely male in origin… but then again it might been a very masculine brute… powers were weird like that. The next thing she knew the entire area was enveloped in a thick darkness that muffled her senses and drowned the sounds of the city.
It was suffocating. The darkness devoured everything, sound, light, smell, and even the warmth slight warmth from under her skin vanished as this complete and utter blackness became her world
Her fear started to grow as something instinctive told move away from the growing shadow. The faint sound of batwing's sounded in the back of her mind and that was enough for Taylor to retreat back towards the main street. She wasn't sure what prompted this kind of reaction her instincts had helped her survive the past three months at Winslow, so she didn't question it. But before she could get far a large mass smacked right into her, tackling her to the.
Taylor's first instinct had her wrapping her attacker in Wisteria vines, that spouted from the ground with enough force to punch a hole through the concrete, and then slam them against a nearby wall. Turned out that hitting the guy hard enough caused shadows to retreat, allowing the Anthropomorphic Orchid to get a good look at them.
It was a man. He had broad shoulders, bulky, taller than Taylor by a few inches clad in black bickeresk leather suit and helmet with a stylized skull. He was actively trying to escape his binds but couldn't due to the sheer number of Wisteria wrapped around him. His movements were frantic and he wasn't looking at Taylor, which was good indicator that he wasn't trying to get away from her at all. With thought he vines tightened around him stopping his struggle and causing him to grunt in more pain than it should have.
A quick glance at his right leg explained why.
A black sixteen arrow was stuck right above his knee. He was bleeding but Taylor couldn't really tell because of his clothes but it looked bad. In time she was at nature camp they taught her basic first aid but nothing to treat an arrow to the knee… or maybe thigh… it was that part of the leg that was sort of between the two and her power wasn't really useful with non plant based being.
"Look out!" A deep muffled voice reverberated from behind the skull and Taylor rolled to the side narrowly avoiding an arrow aimed at her center mass. Out from the natural shadows emerged a cloaked figure with expensive looking tactical armor and a hockey mask looking piece of armor protecting her face. There was something different about the armor… like it wasn't exactly like what Taylor remembered seeing when they debuted them as a hero, it looked worn and in very few ways, functional instead of protective.
Now, Taylor had never been much for the cape scene until she managed to get her own powers but even she could recognize a local Ward when she saw one. There was something feral about the way she was moving that put Taylor on edge. Heroes were meant to reassure the public, but as she took aim with her crossbow Taylor didn't feel reassured. No, on the contrary she felt something akin to fear but not that exactly.
When the Arrow released, Taylor responded by sprouting a volley of Wisteria vines as cover. It didn't stop the arrow but it slowed them down enough for her to hit with her bat. Taylor opened her mouth to say something but before she could a shadow wraith darted through her vines and shot at her once again. This time Taylor rolled back to get onto her feet.
She swung her bat at the Heroes arm but it passed harmlessly through her. The wisps then solidified into the Shadow Stalker. Her fist was already sailing for Taylor's exposed chin. The hit staggered her a bit but the kick that followed was what truly disoriented her. The next thing Taylor knew was that she was on her ass and the bat that she had clutched onto so tightly was in the Ward's hand and barreling toward her head.
Once she made note of her weapon, Taylor saw red. It beyond insulting to use her own weapon against her… thus she let Shadow Stalker know that with snap of her fingers. The bat came to life and like snake it turned its head and bit into the Wards neck. The bight was just strong enough to pierce the light armor around neck, break the skin, and inject a mild amount of digitoxin into her system. It wasn't anywhere near the lethal dose but it was enough to induce some of the more uncomfortable symptoms of digitoxin toxicity.
The Hero screamed in surprise more than she did in pain, but it was enough for Taylor to execute another roll and get back on her feet.
Shadow Stalker entered her wrath like state, freeing herself from the snake-bat, and took aim at her once more. But this time Taylor wasn't going to hesitate just because the other teen was a hero, no, she was going to make sure that she couldn't hurt her or her prisoner.
Taylor grabbed one of her mushroom bombs from and dug her thumb into its spongy head and aimed in the Ward's direction. Removing her thumb released flavonoid filled spores. It would have the same effect as chamomile tea… if they had hit. The digitoxin in Shadow Stalker's system was taking longer to affect her than Taylor had predicted for some one of her size.
The arrow was released but it missed by a quarter of an inch and the Hero herself had sidestepped the stream and was moving away from her. Hero crushed the mushroom in her hand while the bat slithered just out of sight, Taylor pursued intent on making Shadow Stalker focus solely on her and not on her masked prisoner,
The Ward loaded another bolt and aimed it once again at Taylor's center mass and once more the bat struck just as Shadow Stalker. The armor was denser around the forearms than it had been around her neck, so the bite did little else than throw off the archer's aim. Taylor continued her charge, but as their bodies were about to slam into each other, the supposed hero shifted into her smoky state.
Turning on her heel, Taylor reached for another mushroom, this time intent on allowing it to detonate. Just as she detached the stem from her belt a wave of absolute Darkness swept through surrounding area blinding her. The drowning sensation returned full force. In a moment of hesitation, she held onto the fungus before loping it in Shadow Stalker's general direction.
Even through the thick darkness Taylor could vaguely sense the soaring fungus. Unlike other that constituted the Green Fungi were an oddity to Taylor. She couldn't sense them as easily and she couldn't grow them as quickly as she did other flora. She had never truly understood were Fungi fell into the vast Green as they were technically facilitators of decay or at least that's how it worked within the boundaries of the natural world. But then again the relationship between The Green and The Rot had always been confusing… and so was their relationship to the Red.
In the part of Taylor's mind that wasn't focusing on the grenade contemplated a new line of inquery spawned by her thoughts on the soon to be exploding fungus: Now that she triggered what was her role within the Red? She wasn't exactly human anymore nor was her blood entirely red either. Her metamorphosis had made her of the Green, so where did that leave her within the Red? The Red, run by their own Parliament, constituted all animal life, including humans.
Taylor guessed that she was to the Red as Fungi were to the Rot.
Not that it mattered much… at least not now while she was in costume fighting an aggressive hero with a crossbow. The only thing that mattered now was that her knock out mushroom did its job.
As such, it was a relief when she felt it hit something but that was quickly forgotten as she was hit square in the chest by something traveling fast enough to knock the wind out of her lungs. Taylor staggered back a step, her hands flew to the center of her chest just as the shock of being hit dissipated and was replaced by pain. In the distance there was a pop, like a when she and Emma used to pop balloons underwater in the former's pool.
Despite the rapidly growing pain, Taylor could sense the concentrated spores floating around Shadow Stalker and some clinging to her clothes and cowl. She could feel tremors caused by her cough as the hero tried to escape the cloud, and the quaking steps as the hero attempted to retreat. Thankfully it wasn't just Shadow Stalker affected by her knock out grenade.
Foxglove's prisoner began his own little coughing fit when the spores reached him but unlike the Hero who had managed to move beyond her senses he wasn't as resistant to them. It was either that or he'd lost a lot blood The complete darkness retread towards him as unconsciousness took hold, not that she noticed with an arrow sticking out of her chest.
She was lucky that her had stopped the bolt from piercing her skin, but Oh, how it stung! It felt like she'd been punched in the chest by Lung!
"Bitch!" She shouted at no one as she tugged at the arrow. The wood armor fought her attempts at removing metal object from her person. In her mounting frustration her attempts became much more violent in nature culminating in her using the vines she had create from the fight to both hold her in place and pull the arrow out.
This was not how she expected her first outing to have gone. She was suppose to stop villains from hurting the people of Brocton Bay not duke it out against a Ward over a... Villain? Vigilante?
"Oh, Fuck." Taylor didn't even know if the guy she was protecting was a wanted criminal! Not that it should have mattered, the rational part of her brain argued, Shadow Stalker was using live ammunition against a wounded target and had attacked her with every intention of ending her life while Taylor only did what she did to protect herself. But that wouldn't matter to the Protectorate, no, the only fact that mattered was that she had fought a Ward and they would twist it so it looked like she'd been the one attacking the Hero.
The arrow finally came loose and made a hollow, clattering sound when it impacted the concrete wall. Taylor wanted to punch life in its face for the sheer unfairness of it all. She had donned the mask to become a hero and now what? She might as well have slammed that door in Armsmaster's face!
She'd failed again!
'No, you didn't.' The rational side of her brain spoke up. 'You saved that man's life because he was in danger, because it was the right thing to do!' Even in her anger and frustration she could see the sense of her own actions.
A few deep breaths later and another few minutes of discharging her emotions into the Green, and Taylor had completely calmed down. This allowed her to think clearly once more. She needed a plan, which meant that she needed to get answers from her prisoner.
Foxglove tilted her head enough so that she could see his unconscious form still trapped to a wall by vines. She needed answers and the only way she was going to get them was if she got him treated, but as she made to stand up she found that her entire body was shaking, The adrenaline that had been coursing through her veins was slowly regulating. For the first time she noticed the loud drumming of coming from within her chest that she had ignored since she had stepped out of her decrepit house and onto the mean streets of Brockton Bay. Her heart was ponding but it slowed as catharsis spread across her brain.
After all she had fought a Hero who had tried to kill her.
A trained cape had tried to kill her.
Her first cape encounter ad the only thing she had to show for it was a bruise beneath her chestplate!
For the first time in a long time Taylor actually giggled… This soon evolved into laughter, and eventually deteriorated into short burst of chortles as she tried to calm herself down once again. Slowly, she moved towards her helmeted captive to more clearly assess his condition and need be save his life.
He was form was almost unmoving, which was extremely worrying, she could vaguely feel his shallow breathing through his binding but with every second that passed it became weaker. Taylor didn't know much of human anatomy, as they had only skimmed it during Biology, but she knew that it didn't take the human body long to die because of blood loss. Judging by the damp patch in the vines, there was enough blood too seep though the Wisteria.
As he was now, she wouldn't be able to figure out exactly what he had done that had a hero gunning for him with so much anger that she had attempted to kill a bystander that had trapped her prey.
He definitely didn't have Kill Order on him, PHO would have exploded with the news. There were very few capes who warranted a Kill Order and most, if not all, were far too dangerous to allow a lone Ward to go after them. Hell, full teams usually shied away from tackling those kinds of threats unless absolutely necessary, so that theory pretty much debunked itself.
From what Taylor had read up and jotted down in her freshly ruined Hero Journal, Wards weren't supposed to patrol or face down parahumans alone. Thy were supposed to work in groups, pairs at least, the fact that the edgy cape was off alone hunting random parahumans did not sit well with Taylor. The fact that she was doing it in Empire Eighty Eight territory just accentuated that something was rotten in Brockton Bay.
This inflamed Taylor like nothing else. The possibility that an organization she had looked up to when she was child was marred with corruption! It shouldn't have surprised her, all things considered, Winslow had been in the word of Old Ben Kenobi "A wretched hive of scum and villainy" why wouldn't the PRT and the Protectorate be any different. Maybe someone had sent her to recruit this guy and when he refused she shot him! That would explain the low survivability rate of independent cape!
"Tinfoil hat warning, Taylor." She mumbled to herself. Though there was little doubt that something was wrong with the organization, there was no evidence to support her rather absurd theory. Which meant that maybe this guy knew something that they wanted hushed up.
'No.' She thought to he self with a slight shake of her head. 'No ones that brutal unless they are personally invested.' Shadow Stalker wasn't going after him because it was the right thing to do, she was doing it because she wanted to. Shadow Stalker was one of the more controversial Wards, according to the PHO, she had made a name for herself as an independent before joining the Wards, many claimed that she had been responsible for a number of brutal beating that plagued the gangs but most of that was considered slander by the larger community but there were still some that believed the rumors and claims.
After tonight Taylor wondered if there was more to them than she had initially given them credit for. With a sigh she admitted that she needed to better research the local cape scene, by limiting her focus to local villains she had left herself unprepared for an encounter with a hero. She shuddered to think what would have happened if instead of a crazy Ward she was face with a veteran Protectorate member like Dauntless or Assault.
Why couldn't she be a cape nerd like the rest of the world? No, she had like computer!
"You're heavy for someone who's lost a bunch of blood." Was her only remark as she slung her captive over her shoulder. He didn't respond, which didn't surprise her in the least… he was unconscious after all.
No one ever appreciated her attempts at humor.
Now… what was she supposed to do? Shops were closed and Taylor doubted that anyone would lend her a phone and payphones were out of the question cause she neither had the money to use them… and most, if not all of them, were broken. It became rather apparent that she needed a cellphone… and maybe a coin pouch.
Just another oversight that she needed to fix when she got back home.
Closing her eyes, Taylor closed her eyes and searched for the largest patch of Green in which she could port to Brockton General. 'Would that even work with him?" From what she glimmered in biology animals couldn't survive exceedingly high levels of Oxygen, which there was a very large amount of within the Green. The choice was a rather simple one: Let him bleed out or possibly poison him… either she tried to save him or she let him die?
With a grunt, she began to maker way towards the park and hopefully drop him off at Brockton General before Shadow Stalker smeared her none existent reputation.
XxX
Adam's Park was almost as empty as the rest of Downtown, with the exception of a few homeless people sleeping on the park benches. Taylor could smell the Rot consuming a few of them from within. Drugs did horrible things to people, it was why out of all the gangs that plagued the Bay she hated the Merchants the most. Drugs were perversion of Green that aided the Black into twisting creatures to do it biding, but even before her trigger, drugs made her anxious. Being around someone that was high made her skin itch.
But as uncomfortable as she felt, she pushed those feelings away as she traversed the darkness of the park. Her prisoner was both fully human and much wider than Taylor, which meant that she needed to find the biggest, oldest, and sturdiest tree to travel to the oak they had beside Brockton General… which with the way he was leaking meant that she needed to hurry.
Within the dark, unlit park there were many old trees that seemed to flourish with Taylor's presence, it was within places like this that she felt powerful enough to ward of Winter's icy grip on her heart but not by much. The gloom still lingered and would likely continue to linger until true Spring finally thawed New England free. While she searched she felt a disturbance in the Green. The office plants sang from their perch
Several men, at least twenty or so, had entered Adam's park. From the way they moved Taylor could feel that they were giving a larger human, at the center of their pack a wide berth. Through the Green, she could feel how they moved as if crouched as if they had guns, and how they expected to surprise her before the one in the middle stepped in.
To Taylor the reason why they had come after her was a rather obvious one. She hadn't been stealthy as she made her to the park and anyone could see her luging the black clad cape on her back… or followed the trail of blood. Like Shadow Stalker they were after her prisoner, but unlike the hero Taylor was out of patience and on a deadline.
She crouched behind a Quaking Aspen and released her prisoner from his position on her back. She kept the leg elevated before closing her eyes and focusing on the flora around her. The local Green was receptive of its Guardian and nearly jumped in her defense but she urged them to wait, she needed to see who was so intent on killing her prisoner that they would try to ambush Foxglove in her domain.
Taylor could not see true color through the Green. It did not process color the same way that human's could comprehend, it didn't need to see color to measure the threat, all it needed to do was understand was the shape of it. Lung was a distinctive shape, one that the Green had been observing since Taylor first made up her mind to become a hero. In his normal form he was formidable looking human but as he was now, with patches of triangular metal, he was doubly so.
The plants were hungry, they hadn't been properly fed all winter, and if they had their way they would dissolve the nutrients from the Lung and his ABB.
'That's not heroic, Taylor.' A voice in her head reasoned. 'That's murder!'
'But they're hungry and it would be self defense !' Another part argued. ' They haven't been fed in months!'
Flashes of her mother's disappointed face filled her consciousness causing the sopelings's determination to waver.
"Fine! Hurt them, but don't kill them." She transmitted that intent through the Green with a huff.
And then one of those bastard purposefully stepped on an out of the way pansy… the gloves were off.
The first wave of her attack was less obvious but very effective. She influenced the flora to release as much pollen as they could possibly produce, making it difficult to breathe. The ABB gangbangers slowed as it stated to irritate their eyes and impair their breathing. The second wave… now, that was much more violent. Roots erupted from the ground with chunks of ice and stone latched onto them. They move through the darkness like clubs, smacking into their targets with enough force that they splintered bone. They opened fire in the dark hoping to hit something but it was useless, the Green was an extension of her will and she asked only for decimation.
Lung shot fire trying to burn the roots but the frost protected them well enough that they were able to wrap themselves around the Dragon of Kyushu's hand and coiled. In his early stages Lung metal crumpled like pipe under the constant pressure. He roared but as he did he left himself open to an onslaught. From her hiding spot, Foxglove threw mushroom bombs with toxic spores
From what she had read on PHO, healing types could shrug off poison and recover from wounds, so she laid down as much punishment as her ability allowed. Distaste filled her as she directed her bat to bite into his more vulnerable areas.
Lung was bad news, and she needed him out of action as soon as possible.
That meant delivering the hurt
Part of her felt horror at the complete apathy as she tore into Lung. Quieted this mounting feeling by reminding herself of all the terrible things the monster in front of her had caused to her city.
Poison and pain was what he deserved and Guardian it was her duty to deliver this punishment. Lung exploded with a ball of fire but by then it was too late. Taylor could feel the spores within his body, he wouldn't be moving for much longer. He ripped the roots off of him as quickly as they latched onto him the more he struggled he faster they circulated through his system.
The screams of the ABB members had died though Lung continued to roar like a beast.
"Muh… Motherfucker!" She heard him cry in his heavy accent. Roots and vines dug into his burning flesh like hooks dragging him into the earth. His knees buckled under the growing pressure. The dragon of Kyushu kneeled to the might of the Green.
But soon that was not enough.
The beast that had been Lung grew larger and its fire grew even hotter.
Stepping out from her cover, Taylor stood as the avatar to the Green's wrath. Her normally white sclera was as black as the Rot itself. She no longer cared if this monster, who had intruded in her domain lived through the night, she felt only apathy towards Lung.
The Battle for Adam's Park had just begun!
…
Or so she thought as three monstrous beasts, the size of full grown Rhinos charged at Lung.
She turned in time to see that there were two girls, and a fancily dressed guy. One of the girls approached her. She wore skintight black and lavender bodysuit. It was primarily lavender but she had black stripes. Taylor barely the stylized 'Tt' but her keen eyes and the Green had made note of it through threat assessment. She was blonde and wore a lavender mask that along with her shiny blonde hair covered most of her face except her shining blue eye.
She was grinning at a force nature… that made Taylor very uncomfortable.
"Hi, I'm Tattletale." She was way too cheery for someone standing a few yards away from a seven foot burning man being pelted by plants and torn apart by rhino-dog things. "And we're going to be best friends, Foxy!"
Somehow Taylor doubted that.
XxX
A/N: That's a wrap for chapter two of Foxglove! This chapter gave me a bit more trouble than the other two to Shadow Stalker's little intervention. You see, I knew that Sophia wouldn't take Taylor attitude laying down, she needed to lash out but she couldn't exactly do that with Madison filming the confrontation, so she goes after her Nemesis. This happens as the Undersiders are fighting off Oni Lee. Like a predator Shadow Stalker goes after Grue, wounding him, and isolating him fro the team. A chase ensues and they eventually run into a contemplating Foxglove looking for trouble.
As for Taylor not opening the can of Whoop-ass she's currently unleashing on Lung on Shadow Stalker is simple and two fold. She has restraint, she knows she could overwhelm her opponent but her opponent is a Hero and Ward, she can't exactly kill her without the PRT labeling her as a Villain. This is a major factor… along with the fact that she's fighting in an alley. While with Lung, she doesn't have those problems, he's a terror and so are his ABB. As they inhabit the Docks I imagine that they cause some trouble for the Dockworker's Union so they aren't going to be on Taylor's goodside.
Nights not over yet!
