So! Merry Christmas everybody! What's that, I'm a day early? Damn. Uh... Preemptive merry Christmas? Basically I won't be able to update on Christmas,so I'm updating now. Please note there's an Important Author's note after the chapter.
Thank you all for your continued support, it really means a lot to me. And is kind of ridiculously amazing. I mean, more than two hundred people have expressed interest! The last time two hundred people expressed even vague interest in what I was doing, it was when I was a minor character in a play! And if that wasn't nerve wracking enough, I've read some of the stuff some of you write! And Love it! *Squee*
Oh yeah, I'm not Wildbow. I'm Wob D Liw.
When Taylor woke up with injuries slightly different to the ones she remembered suffering, as well as an injured head, she was concerned. She looked around and was in… some kind of hospital room? No one was really around, although she could see people bustling in the hallways.
Taking a second to examine herself, Taylor got far more concerned. Her arm… was healed, merely although part of her forearm had been torn off. That was bad. Someone could've seen her reset, and if Sophia was nearby, she would be able to tell Taylor was a cape.
What concerned her even more, was that she still had bruised ribs, although not as bad as before, and well as a crushed foot. As well as a shredded hand, lacerated with dozens of cuts. Which most certainly should've been healed. And had been. It was faint, but she could tell easily that these injuries weren't in the same places she'd actually suffered them. Which meant someone had seen her reset, and was particularly malicious, or wanted to hide that she was a cape.
Which really begged the question, of who. If it was a random Paramedic, she doubted they would've given her the injuries again. If it was Sophia, that was a train wreck waiting to happen.
Which actually brought up a good question for her. How the hell had she gotten to hospital? She'd been practically inaccessible given the collapsed hallway. It would've been incredibly difficult to find her, and while she had fully expected to reset from her injuries, she'd hoped she would wake up when she did.
But she hadn't, and someone had apparently found her. Although she wasn't fully sure that was true. She did have some vague recollection of being briefly conscious, but couldn't remember what had happened during the short period, or why she'd become unconscious again. Something about something jabbing her in the side?
Taylor was snapped from her thoughts when a rather familiar face walked through the door, coming straight to her. After all, who wouldn't recognize Panacea? Famous healer of New Wave? Why Taylor was important enough to warrant healing, she didn't know-
Damn, Panacea looked tired. Taylor felt a bit guilty. Panacea was putting on a good mask of being awake, and impersonal professionalism, but from a glance she could tell the girl REALLY needed a nap. And some food. Seriously, she looked malnourished. Panacea looked down at Taylor's almost completely healed arm, raised an eyebrow, and then seemed to no longer care, turning to look Taylor in the eye.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?"
"U-uh, yes," Taylor stuttered. Wow, she was really bad at this whole talking to heroes thing.
Panacea either didn't notice, didn't care, or more likely, was used to it. Instead of reacting, she just reached out and grabbed Taylor's hand. Immediately, her bruising faded, and her crushed foot was restored. Her previously shredded hand, was now usable again. There was still a minor throb in her head though.
"Alright, I'm finished. You have a minor concussion, but there's not much I can do about that. Make sure to eat a bit more than you normally would for the next few days. You're free to go as soon as you or your guardian fills out the hospital release forms."
"Thank you," Taylor began, although before she could finish, Panacea was already out the door, and a normal doctor had walked in. Must be a pretty busy day at the hospital…
A loud explosion in the distance reminded her why. Oh yeah, crazy bomb tinker.
"We couldn't reach you father, so you can leave when you want," The Doctor said. For a moment Taylor panicked, until she remembered he'd probably just been at work. "And given how many injured, we don't have the staff to worry about forms. Stay safe, okay?"
Taylor growled slightly, as another bomb went off in the distance. Eleven days. Eleven days and Bakuda still hadn't been fucking caught. Apparently, she'd also released Lung. And two of the Undersiders had been broken out, although the third… she wasn't sure about. It was like the universe had been conspiring to remove everything she'd accomplished.
She'd tried to help, when she could, but most days her dad didn't really sleep. She'd only been out three times, and the most she'd done was catch a dozen standard members of the ABB, and catch up on information from the Protectorate. And the villains. Who had been surprisingly cooperative, going out of their way to avoid fighting anyone other than the ABB. They'd even put a pause on crimes.
Although, now that Protectorate reinforcements were on their way, that might change. Apparently, there originally weren't going to be any, and Director Piggot had to call in some favors. On top of that, a fair few of the Heroes helping were using their vacation days to do so, and visiting from other cities. Apparently, a preschool had been frozen in time early on, with all of the preschoolers inside. People objected to that.
It was disgusting, and made Taylor glad she hadn't joined the Wards. While the heroes themselves weren't bad, the PRT's policies were horrid. No official help? There were some cities with half a dozen Protectorate members, and a crime rate less than half Brockton Bay's! There were powerful heroes patrolling empty streets, right now!
Hopefully Bakuda would be stopped before her kill count reached the triple digits. And stopped it must be, because apparently they couldn't kill her. There was Intel that Bakuda had a dead man's switch set to blow half the city. And was in the process of building a super bomb.
So despite how weird it was, Taylor was… unsurprised, really, to hear that pretty much every villain's arrest warrant had been put on hold, and that tonight the Protectorate was conducting a raid, which was unofficially going to be a joint raid with the villains. Officially, they were just stumbling across a fight and trying to apprehend the criminals, yet being oddly selective of who to apprehend.
The Protectorate had also 'misplaced' a few radios, strangely broadcasting to the Protectorate channel, which Taylor knew because she had one. Apparently it was official policy to not lend Protectorate equipment to Independents.
Still, as horrifying as it was that official policy would have the PRT continue losing, and civilians continue dying, it was gratifying to know that the Heroes were actually going to step up and do something.
So Taylor waited, in full 'costume', for her dad to fall asleep so she could sneak out via her window. Tonight… she was genuinely looking forward to the raid. She was one of the few capes who didn't have to worry about most of Bakuda's bombs, which had made it all the more painful she'd had to sit out. Of course, she wouldn't voluntarily get hit by them, but she could also actually pursue the Tinker if needed.
Plus, she was probably the only cape who could actually fight Lung. Even if he ramped up, that would just ramp her up in turn. Armsmaster was the only other Hero she knew who could take him, and that was because of bullshit, regeneration nullifying tranquilizers. Fucking Tinkers.
Her father's breathing finally began to steady, so Taylor nimbly leapt out her window and landed, feeling her ankle twist underneath her. She sighed lightly and stabbed her throat. Couldn't have an injured ankle slowing her down, and she hadn't quite gotten the hang of landing properly just yet. But she'd had just enough money to buy an actual knife, rather than the blunt kitchen ones, so it wasn't too much trouble.
She'd originally wanted a gun, but not only were they expensive, but they were also far easier to accidentally kill with. As long as she stuck with certain spots, she could reliably kill herself anyway, so it was really unnecessary. Even the knife was only useful when she had no charge, because she could use a tiny fragment of charge to crack her skull on pretty much anything.
As Taylor caught sight of a few villains and a pair of Heroes waiting for her, she snapped out of her thoughts, and assumed her cape persona instead. Now wasn't the time to ponder how best to kill herself to avoid minor injury. And wow, that was another messed up thing she made a note to never say aloud.
A few of the capes gave her a nod of acknowledgement, as well as one of Coil's mercenaries, who made up the majority of their numbers. There were a good dozen soldiers to five capes. Apparently the Protectorate group had PRT soldiers instead, but it was roughly the same. The only main difference was the loadouts, containment foam versus bullets and Tinker Tech lasers.
And while they were useful, to be honest, the whole group probably equated to about one cape in terms of usefulness. But still, an extra one cape per group was good, definitely better than not having them.
Taylor turned to look at the Heroes. One of them she vaguely recognized as a brute from out of town who'd been on the news recently, though she couldn't for the life of her remember his name. The other was a small time local independent, blaster three. Not sure how much use they'd be, but it was still good to see they were trying. She also caught sight of another Hero in the background… was that Shadow Stalker?
She hadn't thought the Wards were being involved in the actual raid, last she'd heard they were supposed to be patrolling the some of the safer areas so the Protectorate had more maneuverability. It was probably another one of those unofficial things that would be 'punished' after this was over.
The villains, unlike the heroes, looked a bit worse for wear, likely from some of the raids that'd happened a few days ago. Apparently three of the Empire's capes and Skidmark had died, so it had been a pretty big mess up. But on the other hand, Oni Lee had also died, so… while Taylor couldn't really consider it a win, it was still a success.
Sure, the casualties on their side were Nazi's and someone who made the Nazi's look like fine, moral and upstanding citizens in comparison. However, while they might belong in jail, there was a reason they hadn't had a kill order on them, and she had no doubt they would've made things easier had they survived.
Even after losing some members, the Empire was still the main force in the raid, right there with the Protectorate. The groups had been mixed and matched so no one could really betray each other, but every single group had at least two Empire capes. For Taylor's, they were Stormtiger and Cricket, which kind of made sense.
Rune was transporting Othalla for when people got hurt, Kaiser, Fenja and Menja were used to working with each other, and their group had two brutes already, so Hookwolf and Alabaster were best suited elsewhere. Krieg, Crusader and Fog had all died to some of Bakuda's traps, and Purity would be best suited to fly-by artillery strikes when they were needed.
And rounding out their group was Tattletale, for Intel, and Taylor mentally held back from seething. Sure, it was great and all that the Undersiders were helping, but it reminded her that what little she'd accomplished so far had all been thrown out the window. Hopefully, she'd get a chance to at least put Lung back behind bars, and she had no illusions that Bakuda wouldn't follow him.
Every single cape in the city was gunning for her, after all. And now with her building a mega bomb, they were gunning for her not only harder, but strategically. Everyone realized, at least subconsciously, that if Bakuda finished that bomb, the ABB would become untouchable. The entire city would be lost to them, and anyone who wanted to run a successful gang would have to relocate.
And the capes liked Brockton Bay, damn it! Sure it was a shithole, but it was THEIR shithole. And it's where they keep their stuff.
"Well, time for us to head out. Don't wanna be late," The Brute called out, lowering his watch and leading the way. The capes begrudgingly followed, and Taylor could tell they didn't like that an out of towner was made leader of their group. Which was fair enough. She didn't like it either, it was a pretty horrible tactical decision, but luckily they seemed to know where they were going.
Were they a Brute/Thinker combo or something? Hopefully. Taylor REALLY didn't want to have to rely on Tattletale for information during the fight. While she doubted the villain would screw her over, especially considering she was basically invincible AND new her face, she also had no doubt that Tattletale would mess with her. Not in a particularly malicious way, but still.
She'd had enough being messed with for one lifetime during school hours, and didn't really want to have to cope with it while being a cape, too.
*IMPORTANT*
The story is going to be on Hiatus for like, a fortnight. I'm escaping the Simurgh Quarantine zone around Canberra, to visit some relatives for a few days. If I were to use a computer, the authorities would track me down.
Now a lot of you are probably thinking, 'Won't the PRT stop you leaving?'
But HAH! Australia has no PRT, and no capes are on duty! That's right, the police force who are Quarantined inside, are the ones enforcing the Quarantine! Irony!
In other news, I apologize that this chapter was a bit lackluster. I was planning to establish the stuff above faster, but there were a lot of things I had to address for set up purposes.
As always, any questions and comments are welcome.
