Merry Christmas!
I couldn't get Scream 2.3 finished on time for Christmas day, so I decided to just update Scream 2.2 without the new chapter. 2.3 will be coming out around New Years day, so you won't have to wait long for that either. This chapter is also way longer than usual, being around 8000 words instead of the standard 4000. So not only is the chapter updated on Christmas day, it's also double the size. Am I not a generous individual?I didn't change much of the beginning and end of the chapter, but I did rewrite the entire fight scene from scratch, and the new fight is better than the old one by a large margin. Well, it is in my opinion at least.
This chapter was Beta'd by Zaralann. Kudos to him for not only helping me craft this chapter, but also for helping me plan out a fair amount of where With Grace and Elegance's is going to go in the future. He's a pretty great guy.
Disclaimer - I do not own Bleach of Worm. Both belong to Tite Kubo and Wildbow respectively.
Finding The Undersiders was turning out to be a fair bit harder than I thought. When Benihime had given me the general location of The Undersiders, I had foolishly thought that all I would have to do was use Shunpo to traverse the docks, searching every large, conveniently conspicuous warehouse until I found them.
It seemed this was the point where the lucky streak I had been experiencing the past few days decided to die on me. I hadn't been able to find The Undersiders wherever I looked, and at this point I had been searching for hours and hours. The only potential Undersiders hideout that I hadn't checked had been some sort of abandoned brick factory, but at the time there had been a PRT van sitting outside the building. Right now I was trying to avoid the PRT, if just so no one else could pressure me into joining The Wards, a conversation which would be sure to bring my socially awkward self out, in turn tearing down the image of badass female independent that I was trying to build as Regalia.
There was also the fact that meeting up with The Undersiders as I planned to probably wouldn't be approved of by the PRT, and if my amateur deductions from yesterday were actually correct, that meant that this upcoming meeting with the group of villains could very well decide the fate of Dinah Alcott. Showing up with a bunch of PRT soldiers by my side would probably send The Undersiders into immediate combat mode, which wasn't what I wanted.
But with the exception of the broken down factory, everywhere else I had looked through had been completely Undersider-less. It was nearly noon now, and I had been searching the Dock's as Regalia since 8:00 am. Yes, I had ditched school again. And yes, I knew that repeatedly ditching school was just avoiding the problem of The Trio instead of solving it. But even though I was now a sword wielding, reality bending cape, there was a part of me that still had a deep, intrinsic fear of the Trio. When I was getting bullied in Winslow, I wasn't the powerful, confident, indomnitable Regalia, I was the scared, practically mute teenage beanpole Taylor Hebert. The Trio wasn't a problem that I could stab with a sword or blow away with an energy blast, it was a problem that I had to deal with as weak little Taylor. And the very idea of such a confrontation scared me, far more than it probably should.
I tore my thoughts away from the Trio and back to the real world, deciding to halt my rapid Shunpo jumps and come to rest standing tall on a rusted lamp post. It was different here from Downtown, the civilians didn't flock to me like moths to a flame, desperate for a chance to experience even the tiniest tidbit of the cape scene. Certainly, they stared at me, I could even see one teenaged girl hold up a video camera, but for the most part they simply went on with their day, taking note of my existence, but not really paying it any mind, more focused on struggling through their own lives as inhabitants of Brockton Bay's lower class district. It was better for me anyways, I could concentrate on my own thoughts and plans far better than I could've if there had been dozens of people clamouring beneath me.
Not that thinking about my problem would really help much either. I had been searching for hours upon hours, and I knew for a fact that I was fast. Shunpo was practically teleportation, but without the need to plan out every single jump just to avoid suddenly appearing in a wall. I had covered almost all of the colossal monstrosity that was the dock's in a few hours, and still hadn't found them. The only place I hadn't searched was that brick factory, so the chances that they were in there were pretty high. Hopefully, by now the PRT would be gone from the factory, otherwise I would be forced to not only sneak into the factory, but keep the entire confrontation secretive. Not easy, especially when both Senbonzakura and Benihime were very… noticeable.
I disappeared in a hiss of displaced air, heading towards the red brick warehouse.
It was remarkably easy to get into the warehouse. Large, glass windows were lined around the first floor of the building. The windows would have stopped me from entering the building - Shunpo doesn't allow me to go through solid mass - if one of them hadn't been broken, giving me a way in. I used Shunpo to vanish from an adjoining rooftop and appear inside the building, perched atop a girder that sat just below the window. The first floor was littered with old, broken down machines, stripped of their machinery until just the shells remained.
There was a spiral staircase in the corner of the sprawling room, nearly invisible in the cloying darkness that was only broken by the small amount of light that came through the windows.
I Shunpo'ed over to the first step, drawing Benihime sealed form from my inner world and holding it casually by my side. Benihime's sealed state was a long, thin cane made of a dark red wood, topped with a blood red figurine of a woman dressed in a revealing kimono.
After a few seconds of holding the deadly blade in my hand, I re-sealed it, sending the blade back to my inner world where it would still be ready for combat, even without it being in my hand. After all, all I wanted was to know if they truly were funded by Coil, or if they were working independently. I didn't want to walk into this confrontation openly hostile, but I wasn't stupid enough to properly put my weapon away.
As I walked up the stairs they groaned and creaked, practically a blaring alarm alerting The Undersiders to my presence. But that was good - for the most part - I wouldn't be breaking any of the unspoken rules like I might've if I had just used Shunpo to appear on the second floor, entering like this would give the villains plenty of time to conceal their identities.
After a few dozen seconds I reached the top of the stairwell, sealed off by a large, slightly rusted iron door. I waited a few more seconds, both to give The Undersiders some more time to prepare themselves and to calm my own nervousness. I tried to adopt Senbonzakura's appearance, straight-backed with uncaring eyes, but I couldn't be certain how successful I was in the mimicry without some sort of mirror.
I could hear Tattletale yelling through the door, likely to the rest of The Undersiders. Although I couldn't quite make out what she was saying, most likely she was either telling them to hold their horses and not attack me as soon as I walked through the door, or telling them to go crazy and turn me into mincemeat. I readied a Chikasumi no Tate, just in case she decided to for for the second option.
Raising one of my hands, I placed it gently on the surface of the door and pushed. It was was harder to move than I had expected, but by reinforcing my skinny arm with some of the energy that flowed through my body I managed to shove the door open.
The room that I entered was large and open, furnished with a large, stuffed couch and oversized flat screen television that was still on, with cubicle like rooms running along the back wall of the lounge-like living space. To my surprise, the room was only inhabited by Tattletale, somehow fully costumed and masked, even though I had only given her a few seconds to get changed.
"Hullo there Regalia. Nice of you to drop in," snarked Tattletale. "You aren't here to fight, are you? Just want to have a little chat."
Her teammates glanced at her questioningly, but she ignored them in favour of keeping her gaze locked with mine. I absently noted the colour of her eyes, a pretty bottle green that practically sparkled in the dim lighting.
"Aren't much of a talker, huh?" she muttered under her breath.
"Who paid you to rob the bank yesterday?" I questioned, checking her reactions carefully in case they accidentally gave anything away. Tattletale's face twitched slightly with an emotion that I couldn't quite identify, all though I figured that it was most likely shock. The green eyed girl was staring at me so intently I started to wonder if one of the Slaughterhouse nine was standing behind me.
"What makes you think we were paid by someone else to rob the bank?" she questioned in a fashion that I nearly called absent-minded, almost like she was barely paying attention to the conversation.
"It makes sense," I replied stoically, trying not to let a hint of emotion show through either my face or body posture. Tattletale didn't answer, although she did sway in place slightly, holding a hand to her temple as if she was trying to stave off some sort of headache.
The room fell into a silence that I would have called awkward, if not for the subtle tension that filled the air. After all, we had been fighting on the opposite sides only yesterday, but now we were having a moderately polite conversation with each other, it was impossible to not feel slightly anxious.
"Hey, Regalia," said Tattletale. "You want to know who our boss is cause you want to go after him, right?" she questioned, her piercing stare being replaced with her characteristic cocky grin.
I didn't question how she could know such a thing, there was no point when it came to Thinker's, especially ones like Tattletale, who's powers seemed to be some sort of widespread information gathering. "Yes," I replied.
Her grin widened, stretching from ear to ear in a way that made her look like the Cheshire Cat. "Our boss is-
She was cut off by an explosion of wooden splinters and a mountain of exposed muscle and jagged bone spikes. One of Bitches dogs had burst out through an adjacent wall and started barreling towards me, snarling ferally as it stampeded towards me.
I swore internally and drew Benihime's blade in a flash of crimson light as Tattletale yelled "No!", drawing the straight, silvery blade from the cane and intoning the release phrase rapidly. The cane-sword was replaced with a tsuba-less, red tasseled that had no tip in a subtle flare of crimson energy.
"Chikasumi no Tate." The blood red shield appeared in front of me just before the monstrosity attacked, barely halting the beast as it barreled onwards, pushing both me and my shield backwards. I dug my sandalled feet into the ground, carving shallow grooves into the ground as I slid backwards rapidly.
Just before the creature crushed me against the wall I turned and swung Benihime vertically, producing a writhing arc of crimson energy with the command "Nake, Benihime" that burst through the wall in an explosion of dust and brick shards.
I leapt away from the dog and utilised one of the the technique Benihime had taught me last night, gathering what he had called reishi underneath my feet and using it as a platform to move along. The end result was Bitches monster falling to the rooftop as I stayed in place, standing on air in a casual defiance of physics as I held Benihime by my side loosely.
A sharp whistle pierced through the air and the other two beasts thundered out from the dust, growling at such volume that I felt my own chest vibrate. The first dog leapt at me from above, angling it's jaws downwards as the other assaulted me from the side with the wicked claws that it possessed.
I raised Benihime in preparation for another Nake, but my hand shuddered and twitched, loosening my grip on Benihime enough to make me drop the blade to the rooftop below.
Regent.
I used Shunpo to reappear above the charging beasts, but the sharp stinging pain along my side told me that I hadn't quite been fast enough. My mind flew back to the other technique Benihime had taught me yesterday, the Shakkaho. I held my hands straight in front of me and moved them into a claw-like grip, aiming for the beast nearest to me and sending my energy through my arms to coalesce in the centre of my hands.
"Hado 31 - Shakkaho" I intoned stoically.
A shimmering red orb came into existence before my outstretched hands, practically oozing pure energy, before it shot out at a rapid speed, crashing into the monster's backs and exploding with impressive force.
The dog crashed into it's companion with the sound of smacking flesh, howling in pain at the large, blistering burn that now covered it's back. The beasts fell in a ferocious plummet full of limbs and snapping teeth, bouncing off the lip of the roof and tumbling to the alleyway below, even as they roared in pain and anger.
A scream of unfiltered rage reverberated through the air, accompanied by a loud "NO!" from both Grue and Tattletale. Out from the cloud of dust and debris came a heavyset, auburn haired girl I assumed was bitch, aiming a gun at me.
Oh sh...
6 deafening cracks resounded through the air, signalling the arrival of 6 small balls of lead that could very well be the death of me. I disappeared in a lightning-fast Shunpo that still wasn't fast enough, lances of red-hot hurt lancing through my side. I glanced down panickedly to see blood quickly soaking into my cape outfit, standing out garishly against the monotone colours of my cape outfit.
I summoned Benihime to my waiting hand and used Shunpo to appear in the air in front of the furious villain. I flicked my wrist, cutting Bitches gun neatly into two segments, then brought my elbow into her face, the part of my mind that wasn't concentrated on the fight noticed that the terrible pain of the bullet wound had faded into a mild ache. Adrenaline maybe?
Bitches head barely rocked from my elbow strike, the girl bringing her snarling face into mine for a headbutt. I moved to the side, grabbed her by the back of her sweater and shoving her out of the hole in the wall, taking advantage of the forward momentum she had gained when she attempted to headbutt me. The dog that had been left on the rooftop ran over to her, supporting the villain with it's large body.
I turned to the Undersiders just in time to see a glass coffee table flying at my head. My eyes widened in shock, the unique battle strategy catching me by surprise. I took a step backwards then lashed out with Benihime, the projectile falling to the ground beside me with an explosion of glass and wood.
Both of my legs started to twitch and judder, the erratic movement of my legs destroying my balance and nearly bringing me to my knees. A masked but costumeless Grue dashed at me, grabbing my head between his two hands and bringing it down to meet his knee. I couldn't Shunpo fast enough and my face absorbed the hit, bringing stars and spots to my vision.
I slammed my first into the wound I gave him at the bank robbery, dirty and inelegant, but fist-fights aren't meant to be pretty. The darkness generating Undersider yelled in pain and staggered backwards half a meter, enough for me to Shunpo backwards about 20 metres and ready my next attack.
I held Benihime's blade out by my side horizontally and started to send as much of my energy as I could into the Zanpakuto as quickly as possible. Crimson energy coalesced around the edge rapidly, flickering around the razor sharp edge in a violent dance.
"Watch out!" screamed Tattletale, having realised the danger she and her teammates where in.
"Nake, Benihime." My calm voice rang out across the sky like a death toll, assuring The Undersiders of their defeat at my hands. The blood-red energy surged violently, following the lazy swing of my blade in an bloody arc of pure lethality, screaming through the air towards the Undersiders in a colossal wave of power.
My attack cleaved straight through the 2nd floor of the brick factory, slicing through brick and steel cleanly, although the following collapse of the building was anything but clean, the top half of the previously whole warehouse collapsing in on itself in a colossal cloud of dust and smoke.
I subtly switched out Benihime for Senbonzakura, the cherry blossom blade was faster and possessed far more agility, better for a high speed chase than the more versatile Benihime.
Three bus sized monsters burst from the cloud, dashing away across the rooftops opposite from my own, The Undersiders desperately grasping onto the dog's backs. I narrowed my eyes, it seemed as though The Undersiders had decided that they would stick to their usual escapism tactics.
I used a particularly powerful Shunpo to appear standing on the back of one of the beasts right next to Grue, who had been gathering darkness around his body for a smoke screen. The villain glanced up at me in shock just in time to receive the flat of Senbonzakura's blade to his throat, the muscular teen tumbling off the dog from his already precarious perch, sliding across the cement that made up the rooftop's floor until his momentum stopped.
The beast's long, prehensile tail lashed out at me, forcing me to disappear in a flicker of Shunpo. I reappeared barely a second later on the next rooftop along, holding Senbonzakura's flawless blade vertically in front of my body.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura." The blade dispersed into the typical beautiful sakura petals and I wasted no time, slashing at the air with a long, sweeping motion. The Petals followed my command as faithfully as they always did, the fine blades gouging deep gashes all over the dogs, rending apart flesh, bone and marrow with ease.
Two of the dog's tumbled head over heels, throwing Grue off his own mount and into the lip of the ceiling, but the third, largest monster had leapt over the majority of the attack, the airborne maneuver eating away at the distance between us at a ridiculous pace until it plummeting through the air directly at me.
I raised my free hand, feeling far more calm than was natural in the face of the terrifying, snarling demented monstrosity that was a scant few metres away from me. "Hado 4 - Byakurai," I declared without moving a singular muscle.
The White lightning flew from my outstretched fingertips, piercing straight through the feral beasts mouth and erupting from it's back with a burst of flesh and bone. I stepped to the side as it's limp body slid across the rooftop limply, lowering my smoking fingers and letting them hang loosely from my side once more.
Bitch had been thrown of her dog at some point, and was now raising herself off the ground using her hands. Her body was shuddering with pure, unrestrained anger, and as her eyes met mine I was taken aback by the sheer loathing etched into her face.
"You Motherfucker!" she screamed wrathfully. "I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" Bitch charged at me while bellowing hatefully, heedless of the fact that there was no possible way she could win a close range confrontation with me.
I moved my head aside her first punch, a vicious jab, then sidestepped the second, a savage hook. She gave up on trying to punch me and simply charged at me, roaring ferociously and throwing all of her body weight behind her mad rush. She stumbled when I disappeared from in front of her, then fell when I struck Senbonzakura's sheath across temple with a violent movement. I re-sealed my Zanpakuto wordlessly, confident that all of my enemies had been defeated, the sakura petals that had been gracefully floating in the air returning to my sword hilt in an elegant stream of pink petals that transformed into the razor-sharp blade that made up Senbonzakura's sealed state.
My form flickered once more, a quiet hum of air announcing my arrival on the other rooftop next to Tattletale. The blonde villain was moaning in pain, likely from the long, dirt-stained road rash that decorated all of her back, from the nape of her neck to the skin on her calves. I flinched slightly, it was easy to forget just how dangerous and lethal cape fights like these could get, even when your powers were far more effective when used with the intent to kill.
Tattletales eyes drifted up slowly, meeting my own through a haze of pain. Her lips tilted up in a slight smirk and her eyes returned to their usual sharp, confident form, although I could still see hints of pain in the crease of her brow. "Our boss," she wheezed slowly, "is Coil. He's got some kinda probability manipulation, 200 tinker-armed mercenaries he pays and the Travelers, who owe him some kind of debt."
I took in the information. I had suspected that he had been some kind of thinker or tinker, seeing as he never entered the action himself, but it was nice to have it confirmed. But what was really a shock was the fact that he had command over The Travellers, if I added them to The Undersiders it meant that he had over 10 capes under his lead, making him far more powerful than I had originally thought he would be. And although it was very useful to know this information, it still didn't explain one thing; why?
"Why tell me this?" I asked, hoping that my confusion wasn't showing on my face. Her growing smirk told me otherwise.
"Let's just say that," her head smacked against the concrete lightly, the blood-loss and shock forcing her into unconsciousness, "Coil isn't a nice…" She trailed of the end of her sentence almost peacefully, falling into the realm of morpheus that it could have been described as real sleep, if not for the horrific wounds that ran all across her back.
That little voice inside of me that I liked to call instinct screamed deafeningly, and I turned in time to see a huge, spike rocketing towards me at horrendous speeds, attached to the tail of one of Bitches dogs. The attack took me completely by surprise, my mind having settled down from combat mode, and I didn't react quickly enough to use Shunpo. I raised Senbonzakura's blade in a desperate attempt to block the bone spike. It worked to a certain extent, the serrated edge of the tail sliding along the length of Senbonzakura and digging a large, deep gash along the length of my left arm, blood gushing steadily from the wound and decorating the rooftop with a macabre pattern.
I cringed in pain and then scowled angrily at the dog, reappearing behind the beastly creature with a hiss of displaced air. Blood spurted wildly from the dog's side, a gaping, ruler-straight laceration that reached all the way to the insides of the beast. The monster collapsed, the most-likely fatal wound doing too much damage to the beast for it to attack me once more.I let Senbonzakura disperse into my inner world and held a hand over my wound, folding the loose cloth of my shikkahuso over itself and pressing the black fabric against the gushing wound in an attempt to stop the veritable river of blood that was flowing from my arm.
The surprise attack of the beast must have hit a vein or artery, the amount of blood flowing from my wound was bordering on ridiculous, especially for a moderately shallow, if exceedingly painful, cut. I glanced at the last dog but it didn't seem to be lucid, so I decided to ignore the body in favour of considering the unconscious bodies of The Undersiders.
I looked over to where Grue lay, skin just as torn and shredded as Tattletales was. He wasn't making any movements or producing any smoke, so I assumed that he was unconscious. With a quick shunpo I was examining Regent, who had been pinned under the body of the beast he had been riding. There was no beast anymore, only a dead rottweiler with a gaping hole in the middle of his forehead. Regent was groaning in pain, his mask almost entirely shattered, only covering the top left part of his face. I put Grue down next to him, but kept Tattletale on my back.
The blonde villain was leaking blood, rust coloured liquid seeping into the pure white of my haori and dripping down to the ground, enough so that I was starting to worry slightly about her mortality. She was my only source of information on Coil, as well as a living, breathing human being. Ideally, I would take her to Panacea - and I didn't know where the healing cape was - and get her healed. But that would mean me leaving The Undersiders alone, by themselves, and they had already shown their capabilities for running away, even If I had killed one of their mounts and incapacitated the other two.
I decided to compromise, launching a Byakurai into the sky as a makeshift flare for any PRT vans in the area, hoping that they would see it, investigate the rooftop and lock The Undersiders away, although I wasn't entirely certain that Coil wouldn't just break them out again. I hated to leave the capture of The Undersiders, my first real achievement as a cape, up to chance, but the chance to rescue Dinah was more important to me than my own standing in the cape scene.
My side started to suddenly burn agonisingly, the pain starting of slow but rapidly building into a climax of horrifically painful throbbing, each pulse sending out waves of agony through my midriff. The pain from my bullet wound mixed with the pain from the laceration on my arm, culminating into a wonderful cocktail of misery. Maybe my adrenaline had started to wear of, maybe one of my grab-bag abilities had stopped working. Whatever it was, the almost blinding pain I was feeling and the slight drowsiness I could already feel - a consequence of my blood loss no doubt - finding Panacea had just changed from being the optimal scenario to being a necessary one.
I vanished in the customary blur of Shunpo with Tattletale still on my back, heading towards the Wards headquarters in a desperate attempt to reach some form of healing before I collapsed on a rooftop somewhere.
My attempts were in vain, after only a handful of blocks my body lacked the strength to carry both me and Tattletale any further. My knees collided painfully with the cement as I hit the ground.
The last thing I saw before my world faded into darkness was a figure swathed in white and gold descending from the sky.
"She should have killed them."
"Ya sure bout that flower boy? Way I see it, we wouldn't be anywhere near as close to Taylor if she had been turned into a heartless killer overnight because of her own powers."
"Our power is far weaker in the hands of a wielder who lacks any killing intent. If you hadn't needlessly held back a part of her powers, a part of her very soul, then she would already be one of the most powerful combatants in the city, and that is discluding our Bankai's."
"Don't bullshit me flower boy. You know just as well as I do that powers that affect the mind of the wielder are pretty much taboo here. We've got to release it slowly, make it seem like a natural change, otherwise everyone'll be on her ass faster than you can say Hado."
"... You make a fair point. But if you try and hold Taylor back indefinitely, you will meet my blades."
"Yeah yeah, threaten me all you want. You really think you could beat me if I pulled all the stops?"
"With contemptuous ease."
"Heh. Whatever. Right now, we need to help out our wielder, not bicker pointlessly over things that aren't important."
"Aren't important?"
"You get what I mean."
"I still do not believe that you, or any others that deem themselves necessary, are needed for my wielder's eventual victory over him."
"We'll see about that, flower boy, we'll see about that."
"Irritating woman."
"I do try."
When I woke up, I was dressed in a hospital gown, surrounded by stark white walls and lights. The bed I was lying on was soft and downy, layered with thin white bed sheets that matched the walls and ceilings perfectly. There was a small table next to the bed, made of some sort of metallic material, but it had nothing on it, just a blank expanse of steely metal.
Wait. If I was in a hospital gown, did that mean my rescuer had seen my face? I panicked and clutched at my neck in desperation, relaxing when I felt the soft silk of my scarf still around my neck. Thank god for small mercies, I suppose.
I raised myself from my horizontal position slowly, trying not to aggravate my wounds. My body rose without any resistance or pain, I felt completely healthy, now what I would've expected after the injuries I had sustained. After all, I was pretty sure that the one thing I couldn't do with my powers was self regeneration. The only real difference I could feel between then and now was a slight weariness in my body and an extremely light headache.
Throwing off my covers, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up in one smooth motion. Or, at least, it had been smooth until the world decided to start spinning lopsidedly, the white room tilting until my entire perspective was completely askew. It was only now that I noticed the IV bag propped up next to my bed, a blood red wire leading into my wrist. Had my miraculous healing not extended to my blood loss?
I grit my teeth and held a hand to my forehead in a vain attempt to stop the dizziness. My body swayed from one side to the other, so I summoned Benihime's sealed form, planting the cane between my feet to try and stabilise my swaying world. I fell back on the bed after a few seconds anyway, but I kept Benihime in my hand, the part of me that wasn't struggling with intense dizziness wary of the fact that I appeared to be in completely unfamiliar territory.
A door opened from behind me, it would have been inaudible if not for the footsteps that accompanied it. I straightened my posture as much as I could, resting both my hands loosely on Benihime's dark wood as I turned my head slightly, examining the newcomers out of the corner of my eye.
The first into the room was Panacea, the white sleeves of her robes coated in a faint layer of blood. She was frowning in a slightly concerned manner at something, and it took me a few seconds to realise she was worried about me. Me. The last time anyone had actually cared about me apart from dad and my Zanpakuto was when Emma and I had still been friends. And that had not only been years ago, but was now well and thoroughly tainted by the Trio's existence, and Emma's important role in my torture. The Healer strode quickly over to my bedside, grabbing my wrist and closing her eyes, presumedly to check my health.
The second through the door was Miss Militia, a prominent Protectorate hero that was often seen accompanying Armsmaster. She was wearing a moderately tight military style uniform, with a stars and striped scarf hiding her face in a manner similar to my own. What was visible of her face possessed a dark middle-eastern skin tone, she had warm brown eyes and held her black hair back in a short ponytail in A dull green Grenade Launcher was held at her side with a strap, if I was remembering correctly, her power had to do with the creation and utilisation of gun's. Her expression was impossible to read - partly due to her scarf, partly due to my lack of social skills - but her body posture lacked any form of hostility.
The last to come in was Glory Girl. She was dressed as she had been at the Bank Robbery, replesendent in a white dress and cape, highlighting her pure white outfit with golden sandals and headpiece. She reminded me of Emma slightly, in both appearance and in the way they held themselves. Victoria Dallon was beautiful, with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. But she held herself in a very confident manner, bordering on arrogance. She leaned against a wall, crossing her arms then staring straight at me. I had read somewhere that her flying brick powers were accompanied by some sort of emotional aura, one that either made you run in fear or bow down in awe. She didn't seem to be using it, as I couldn't feel any alien emotions within me.
Panacea spoke up from my side, startling me slightly. "Your wounds are completely healed. The only thing I couldn't fix was your blood loss, but I did just boost your blood production, so it shouldn't be much of a problem," she said softly.
"When I fell unconscious, I was transporting Tattletale personally. Where is she now?" I questioned, for now aiming to maintain the noble, elegant manner of speaking I used when in combat. I'd already let my act drop in front of Panacea, but I didn't really want to let down my sole social barrier in front of both Miss Militia and Glory Girl, neither of whom I felt entirely comfortable with. That wasn't to say that Panacea was much better, but we had at least interacted before.
Miss Militia spoke up from behind Panacea. "Tattletale is being held in one of our detainment facilities. Don't worry, we'll credit both her capture and the defeat of The Undersiders to you." Her voice was kindly, but was layered with strength and strong will.
But the fact that they already had Tattletale imprisoned was worrying for me. I needed to interrogate her more on Coil and his operations, and I couldn't do with the Protectorate looking over my shoulder. This operation with Coil had to be private, I didn't quite trust the Protectorate enough to assist me with it, especially when the life of a little girl could be on the line. There was no real logic behind my distrust, but my life had repeatedly drilled two things into my head. Authority and higher powers were simply untrustworthy, and as much as I would have liked to disclude the Protectorate from that rule, I had been tortured for over a year because of 'the systems' uselessness. The second? If you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself.
Panacea stood up then, bringing me out of my thoughts. "Miss Militia wants to talk to you a bit more," she said. "And Regalia…" she met my eyes, dull hazel meeting dull brown. "Thank you."
My eyes fluttered in surprise, caught off guard by the earnest gratitude Panacea was giving me. A few seconds of a slightly awkward silence passed, before I nodded my head to her in acceptance. The white-swathed healer took that as her sign to leave the room, Glory Girl opening the door for her sister while Panacea walked through.
Glory Girl turned to me before leaving the room, hesitating in an awkward manner that seemed extremely out of character for the New Wave heroine. "Thanks, I guess." She said, meeting my eyes as she finished the sentence.
"For what?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I already knew what this was about.
She shrugged. "You more or less saved my sister at the bank robbery so… thanks. For being there, for saving my sister when I couldn't." She left the room before I could respond, closing the door behind her with a neat click.
I turned my head slightly to meet Miss Militia's eyes. "Well?" I said, then swore internally. That had come out a bit more hostile than I would have liked.
Miss Militia seemed to catch my mistake anyway, for her eyes crinkled in an amused way, eyes still as warm as ever. The gun-toting heroine turned and grabbed a chair that was sitting by the wall, scraping it over the floor and bringing it to rest by my bedside, sitting down on the chair and resting her hands on her legs.
"You encountered Armsmaster a few weeks ago, right?" She questioned. Her voice was kindly, but was layered with strength, and strong will.
"Yes," I replied. "Our confrontation was… an interesting experience."
Miss Militia chuckled ruefully for a few seconds, then settled down and rubbed her eyes. "Armsmaster can be a bit difficult to deal with at times, but he didn't mean to alienate you in any way. People skills aren't quite his strong suit." Her gun shifted then, dispersing into a black and green cloud of energy before forming into some sort of assault rifle, leaning against her chair instead of being held by a strap. Some kind of nervous tick maybe?
I stayed quiet for a few seconds to try and formulate my response in a way that wouldn't give offend either Miss Militia or Armsmaster. "As long as Armsmaster does not let our past issues taint any form of working relationship we partake in, I am willing to forgive." But not forget I finished in my head.
Miss Militia nodded her head. "I know that you've already refused to join the Ward's, but could you please listen to what I have to say?"
I hesitated for a second, but nodded slowly in agreement after the momentary pause.
"Independent heroes have a far higher death rate than Protectorate heroes do, with the exception of Endbringer attacks. You've already experienced this yourself, you came out of your fight with Oni Lee heavily wounded, and if Glory Girl hadn't brought you here, you could very well have bled out on that rooftop."
I hummed in acceptance. She was completely correct, almost all of my cape fights had ended up with me heavily wounded, even if I came out more or less on top most of the time.
Miss Militia met my eyes, and I was struck by the sheer worry and anxiety that was drawn all across her face. "If you were killed because you didn't feel like joining the Wards was an option, I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night. Brockton Bay is swarming with horrible people, humans who wouldn't hesitate to kill thousands if it meant getting closer to their eventual goals. If you join the Ward's, you won't just be safe, your family will be safe, and we can try and solve whatever problem it was that led you to trigger."
I suddenly decided that I truly liked Miss Militia. She genuinely cared about my own well-being, she genuinely cared that I was throwing myself at my enemies without heed or caution. This, I thought, is what a hero should be. Someone who cared about the people they fought for, who cared more about protecting others than capturing villains and fighting Endbringers. Someone who actually gave a shit about the people they fought for.
And the chance to finally exact my own vengeance on the trio for their years of torment was a wonderfully fulfilling idea. I couldn't even begin to image the satisfaction I would feel when Madison, Emma and Sophia were punished, but I didn't doubt it would be one of the best feelings I would ever feel in my life.
"I'll… consider it." My confirmation was a lie. Although the offer certainly seemed wonderful, I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't be joining the Wards. Not only was I uncertain what they would think and do about my exceedingly lethal powerset, but I felt like it would limit my potential. If I was a Ward, I would most likely be tied down by rules and regulations, constantly working to improve PR and pose for merchandise. But It wasn't only my personal thoughts on the matter that were discouraging me, but what I was feeling from my Zanpakuto.
It was the first time I had ever felt the two of them together agree on something, the first time I had proof that they actually knew of the existence of one another. And the two of them were radiating such intense feelings of disapproval and warning that it actually shocked me. I had no Idea why they were acting the way they were, but I trusted both of them completely, far more so than Miss Militia, even though the middle eastern heroine did seem trustworthy.
But I lied to Miss Militia about this for one simple reason: Tattletale. I wanted to talk to the heroine more but I needed more information on Coil, especially seeing how powerful Tattletale had made him out to be. If I gave a potential affirmative of my joining of The Wards then that gave me the chance to check out my surroundings, get a feeling of where I was. Then, hopefully, I would find a way to communicate with Tattletale without The Protectorate knowing about it.
"Would you like to meet them?" I was brought out of my internal ponderings by Miss Militia's question. I met her eyes again, taking in the way her eyes were crinkling in the corners. Was she smiling? "The Wards. They're waiting for you."
I blinked in surprise. That meant that I was probably in the Protectorate headquarters. I had expected it, practically planned for it, but still, to have it confirmed was a bit of a shock. Every child wished that they could enter the Protectorate HQ as a hero, to meet the Wards and the Heroes, and to have that childish dream suddenly brought true was an odd feeling.
"Of course," I said.
Miss Militia's eyes crinkled again, which I took to mean that she was smiling at me. "We've got your costume in the next room along, so if you could just follow me…" She pushed her chair back and stood up holding her hand out to me in assistance.
I smirked beneath my mask, then stood up from the bed without aid. Raising the caned form of Benihime, I struck it against the ground with an echoing thud and let my energy swirl around my skin. My costume appeared around my body in a display of bright crimson, flame like energy, the haori and shikkahuso as immaculately clean as ever. I brushed some imaginary dirt of the front of my haori, then raised my eyes to Miss Militia's face.
I had to refrain from cackling like Benihime when I saw her shocked expression, her eyes rapidly fluttering like a dog who had just had its nose poked.
"Well then? I don't know my way around the Protectorate headquarters, you're going to have to show me the way Miss." I snarked, welcoming the opportunity to feel like I was the dominant participant in a conversation for once.
"Oh! Yes, Regalia, please just follow me." She walked through the doorway, holding it open for me lik Glory Girl had done for Panacea.
I inhaled and exhaled deeply to try and calm my nerves. It didn't work, I could feel my heart beating just a little bit faster than it usually did, feel the flicker of nerves and anxiety dancing through my body.
Time to do what I hate most.
Talk.
There's a few quick things I'd like to mention before you all go off and enjoy the rest of you Christmas day.
Just in case it wasn't clear in the actual chapter, I'm going to quickly go over how the fight actually started. When Taylor came in, only Tattletale was actually there, Bitch was walking her dog's and Grue was accompanying her, Regent going along with because he wanted to buy something (I'm not gonna bother coming up with what he was trying to buy.) They were walking back when Bitches dogs smelt an 'intruder' in the house, which was Taylor talking with Tattletale. Grue ordered Bitch to ramp up her dogs immediately and telling her to attack the 'intruder'. This was when the dog burst through the wall. Bitch, Grue and Regent then rode the second and third dogs up through the hole the first dog had made, grabbing their masks but nothing else. After that, the fight started up properly and The Undersiders had their asses handed to them.
The only reason I had Taylor get wounded a second time by the dogs was because one single bullet wound probably wouldn't drive her into unconsciousness. This would force me to rewrite all of the final scene, which is somewhere around 2,000 words long. I wanted to update something for Christmas, so I had the dog surprise attack Taylor and wound her in a way that would cause plenty of blood-loss. Hopefully it doesn't seem cheap, but I likened it to the way that Nnoitra took out Grimmjow after the pussy cat's fight with Ichigo, he would have been able to dodge the attack usually if not for the fact that he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings. It's the same here, but instead of anger polluting her combat senses, it's Taylor's own inexperience in combat, she let her guard down when her enemies weren't confirmed to be either unconscious or dead.
That lethality thing I was hinting at in Benihime's and Senbonzakura's conversation? That's actually pretty big plot point, so go read over it again if you just skimmed over it the first time. I kept the hostility between the two of them going strong while giving them an actual subject matter to talk about, unlike the old version in which they just argued over whose fault it was that Taylor had her ass kicked (again).
I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Or Hannukah. Or just a generally good winter break. Whatever float's your boat.
