Brockton Bay Tactics: What If Taylor Was Evil?
Summary: I got bored so I thought this up. I'm not sorry. Taylor triggered. Then shit got worse and she went full villain.
E.1 It's So Easy When You're Evil
Emma smirked. "Back again, Taylor? I would've thought you would've figured out that nobody wants you here by this point," she taunted, leaning back ever so slightly. She did it to look down on me, or at least present the illusion of doing so. I was, after all, much taller than her. Well, maybe not much taller, but certainly noticeably so.
There was a time when that would've struck me hard. Where that would've made me cower and simply try to hide in my shell while they rained taunts upon me.
"And the smell! Ugh!"
Apparently, they were still talking, going by Madison's comment.
"I'm sick of your shit," I said, finally. "So I'm going to shut you up now."
Emma blinked, seeming confused. "Oh, really? You can't even come up with a witty retort and you want to shut me up?"
"Not with words. I mean I could," I said, raising one hand to scratch just under my ear. It kinda itches. "After all, I know just as many embarrasing things about you as you know about me," I said. "Like what your first wet dream was."
Emma seemed to pale then. "Y-You wouldn't..!"
"Watch it, Hebert," Sophia nearly growled, apparently offended that I'm not laying down and taking it as usual.
"No, you're right, I wouldn't. Because I'm not like you," I said. "But I'm also so thoroughly and completely done with your shit that I've decided, fuck it. I have superpowers, I'm gonna fucking use them."
"You what now-" Emma began.
But before she could say much of anything, a gauntleted hand was holding her by the neck. "This one, Mistress?" a statuesque blonde beauty asked, turning slightly towards me. She had materialized immediately, the moment I'd thought about calling her to my side. Of course, I'd tested my ability to summon her extensively before coming here. No matter where she was, if I called, she would be here instantly, as if by magic.
Sophia burst into motion, but even as she threw a punch towards my face, a mental tug had yet another blond woman appearing to defend me, this one wearing what amounted to a sports bra and those Japanese gym short things that kinda look like they should be underwear. Bloomers? Bloomers. Probably.
The track star was quickly immobilized by my Brute servant.
My Knight was holding Emma by the neck and squeezing. "Should I break her neck?" she asked, placidly.
I can see the hanger ons dispersing, running away in fear. Some would probably call a teacher or lots. Whatever, I don't give a crap anymore.
"Nah, too easy," I said. "This bitch is proud of how pretty she is. D'you think you can disfigure her without killing her?"
"Easily," my Knight said, reaching with one hand towards her belt where her sword was sheathed. She drew it and put it close to Emma's face. "Nothing personal, little girl," she said, "but my Lord's word is law."
Emma screamed as the sword bit into her skin.
I heard a scuffle - Sophia had apparently freed herself and- she turned into black smoke. Interesting. She lunged for me once more, but even as she was about to reach me, I stood impassive, hands clasped behind my back. She smirked, clearly thinking it was her victory.
She never saw the Wave Fist that hit her back, driving the air out of her lungs and stopping her mad dash.
"This thing is a track star," I mused. "Let's ruin that. Stomp on her knees, make sure they're so thoroughly shattered that she'll never walk away, let alone run," I ordered.
"With pleasure, my master," my lovely brute said, as she walked up to Sophia. She had recovered enough to try to stand up, but before she could so much as think to transform, she was struck once more. She avoided the next attack by transforming into shadow or smoke or whatever. She tried to put her hand through my Monk, probably intending to rematerialize with her hand still inside, but Monk was smart and fast enough to dodge, and when Sophia was physical again, a punch to the kidneys had her in too much pain to think of transforming. Shortly after she was thrown to the ground once more, this time much more violently, and my monk then stomped on each of her knees in turn.
Her screeches of agony are... surprisingly pleasant to hear.
Emma was bleeding all over her face, crying and in general blubbering. "Knock her out, she annoys me," I said.
Knight nodded and hit her on the back of the head with the hilt of her sword.
I smiled. She'll never be pretty again, short of a miracle.
"Well, I think this went pretty well, all things considered," I mused. "Now, I'm willing to bet the police or Protectorate are gonna be here pretty soon," I said, looking at them before smiling and gesturing with my hand, sweeping it wide in front of me. Before me, four more appeared. A young girl in what basically amounts to chainmail bikini. A scantily clad woman holding a longbow. A woman carrying a large bag. Finally, a woman in a strange robe that didn't cover her front at all with a large straw hat perched on her heat.
"Mistress," they said, immediately going to their knees. They were promptly joined by their fellows.
I smiled. It feels really good to finally be treated with some respect. "No killing the Law Enforcement, now. When I've figured out how to get everyone out we'll wage war, but for now, I don't need that kind of attention."
They all nodded. "Yes, mistress!" they chorused.
"Excellent," I said, "Now come on. We'll fight in a battlefield we can control if at all possible."
Unsurprisingly, three PRT vans showed up. The officers set up a perimeter around Winslow, aided by the Police. The Protectorate, surprisingly, showed up in force.
From Archer's vantage point, I can see Miss Militia already setting up on a sniper's nest, hidden from the view of people without her kind of eyes, in a nearby building. On the ground in front of the gates are Armsmaster, halberd ready, and Dauntless, gear deployed and crackling, though that could just be how Archer saw it. Their perception is not identical to mine, not fully, and they see things that I cannot.
Velocity appeared in a blur. Hm. He's apparently trying on some kind of tech-costume, given that it's yellow and seems to have bits of technology, likely Armsmaster's, on its shoulders. Archer can almost see him move, but it's useless to try - he's little more than a blur she catches sometimes. That's probably more than any human alive can see when he's moving, but not enough that she could shoot him, and if I know how his speed works, shooting where he would be doesn't work because he would dodge.
Still, four heroes showing up for little old me. Not bad, really - honestly, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't rate this kind of response. Something must be weird, or maybe they were all close by.
Regardless, Armsmaster is shouting into some sort of device that amplifies his voice. I wonder why he didn't just use a megaphone, but then again, Tinkers gonna Tinker.
"Let the hostages go," he ordered, the only part of his speech I paid attention to.
Everyone was in position.
First, however...
Archer took aim.
The arrow that tore through Miss Militia's arm cracked the sonic barrier, pulped her flesh, nearly disintegrated her bones and took her out of the fight, with very serious and heavy wounds.
Archer left the tree she was perched on and dove through a strategically opened window, quickly rushing into safety. I had expected Velocity to show up - it'd be kinda hard for him not to considering his speed and all. I have a counter prepared.
He chased Archer through the window. I had her stop and simply look at him. I hope against hope that he's not smart enough to look around the room using his super speed and... he isn't. Well, plan A worked, since Monk cuffed him in the back of the head and he dropped. Plan B was a bit more difficult to pull off, and would require that Archer and Monk lure him into a blind corner where Knight would then Speed Break him, hopefully rendering him unable tot outspeed my troops. Supposedly without his super speed he's just a normal guy.
Okay, now that we've got the two main problems out of the way, we'll concentrate on Armsmaster and Dauntless. Velocity was tied up and left in that room. Monk took the time to give him a wedgie just because. I like her initiative.
They rejoined us just in time for Dauntless and Armsmaster to bust through the doors. Idiots, they weren't even locked. Then again, the locks probably don't even work. Whatever. They ran in, clearly looking for traps.
Before them stood Knight, holding her sword and shield at a ready stance, at the far end of the first half they turned. Behind them, once they turned to make sure, was Squire, holding a broadsword with both hands. She was nervous, I can tell. She shouldn't be. This is going better than I expected and she has backup I hadn't accounted for in the plan, she'll be fine.
The heroes predictably split off to engage my troops one at a time. Armsmaster went to engage Knight, Dauntless was seemingly trying to talk Squire out of the fight.
I admit, he would probably have managed to do so. Squire is not very fond of fighting, I've found. Unfortunately for him, I don't need her cooperation, per se, and she can't say no anyway. Knight engaged Armsmaster and let herself be driven back. Armsmaster seemed to be wary of her defensive style, especially since I think he can tell Knight is sandbagging.
Either way, he chased her as she retreated, fighting all the way.
Meanwhile, the troopers outside were in formation and were being given indications by their field leader, I think. Well, don't say I don't accept gifts graciously.
Wizard, sitting on the school rooftop, looks down on them and I smiled when she raised her jewelled rod, chanting almost in tune with the man barking orders. "Thundara," she said and then brought her rod down. I could almost smell the ozone. A lightning bolt descends from the cloudless blue sky and leaves them with quite the shocking impression of my powers, I'd say. Shut up, bad puns are okay when you're a bad guy, and I have no delusions about that anymore.
Since she's exposed, I have her pull back and begin walking back towards my position. It's possible she might get sniped, so I have her take off her hat and crouch down when there's any window she could potentially be seen from.
Soon enough, Dauntless and Armsmaster are both isolated, their PRT support has been taken out, Miss Militia requires medical attention stat, and Velocity is still tied up.
Everything's working better than expected.
Time to save Squire from the beating Dauntless is giving her. She's defending herself quite well, but the Hero has more experience and better gear. That'll have to be rectified at some point, I suppose. Still... She turns tail and runs. He predictably gives chase. She rounds a corner, he follows and gets a facefull of monk fist.
Seriously, this is amateur stuff and it's depressing that I'm catching them with this kind of trick. I swear I've had harder games of Mouse Protector Trap. Then again, they're probably severely underestimating me, and don't even know how many hostiles there are in the building.
Knight has stopped sandbagging, and is now fighting Armsmaster all out. He is... surprisingly able to keep up. It might be his superior gear bridging the gap between their physical abilities, raw skill in handling of his weapon, the fact that a halberd is such a good weapon in general - good choice from him there, I guess - or simply because Knight actually fatigued herself a little and now isn't performing fully.
Maybe it's the fact that I said no killing so she can't just go for killshots while he's used to working non-lethally.
It's probably that last one.
Either way, Armsmaster is the last Hero standing, but not for much longer. Knight stands her ground well enough until reinforcements arrive. He does a heroic last stand type of thing. It doesn't go too well for him. He did injure Knight rather noticeably. I actually loved his expression when he saw Chemist distribute her potions, proving that all that they'd done, tiring out and injuring my troops, meant absolutely nothing - they're back to full strength.
I now feel less bad about robbing so many people to get her the materials she needed. It was that satisfying.
It doesn't take long for Archer to stealthily retrieve Miss Militia's soon-to-be corpse. Fortunately, she was brought in quick enough that a few forcefully fed potions restored her arm fully. Chemist assured me that she'd have full use of her arm. I guess I shouldn't care that much, but Miss Militia had been a symbol of girl power for a while to me, and, well, sentimentality is sentimentality.
I had my physically stronger summons, Knight and Monk, gather the Protectorate heroes. They were tied up, Armsmaster had several pieces of his armor broken, and brought together.
Chemist fed them the cure to sleep. She slapped each of them in turn. She's got a hell of a pimp hand, apparently.
"It's funny," I said, "no Protectorate heroes showed up when Lung burned down my house, but four, and I count them, four, showed up the very instant someone lay a finger on those bitches," I spoke. "Maybe I should just kill you here. You're all worthless as heroes anyway."
"You won't get away with this," Armsmaster spoke, as the leader, I imagine.
"Of course I won't, I knew that when I decided the world can go fuck itself," I explained.
"Miss Hebert," Miss Militia began, "it doesn't have to be this way," she said. "Just give yourself up - you'll receive a fair trial and-"
Dauntless interrupted. "Militia, stop," he said.
She looked at him, or tried anyway - she can't crane her neck enough to her right.
Armsmaster nodded. "You clearly want something, or else you wouldn't have captured us like this. Where are Miss Hess and Miss Barnes?"
"I put them in an embarrasing position and had her," I said, gestuing towards Chemist, "make sure they wouldn't die from their injuries."
"You tortured them?" he asked, his tone cold.
"Kinda, yeah," I admitted, freely. "It's not revenge unless you, you know, actually take revenge."
"You'll pay for this," Velocity said. "They were innocent girls, you'll-"
"Oh, cut the shit," I said, "Those two bitches are the reason I have superpowers at all," I said.
"... Fuck," Dauntless chorused. "They made you trigger?"
"The hell's that?" I asked, genuinelly curious.
"It's the event that gives you superpowers," Miss Militia helpfully provided. "But... why this? Why do this!? You could've gone to the police, to the PRT, you could've gone to the Protectorate, so why-"
"I did," I said, closing my eyes, "I did go to the police. I did go to the PRT. I did go to the Protectorate. The police dropped their investigation. The PRT told me to fuck off. The Protectorate helpline told me to contact the police. I gave up then," I said. "And that would've been that... except that there was a fight between the Empire and the ABB. In my neighborhood. As a result of that, I no longer have anyone whose opinion of myself I care about. Funny, I harbor less hatred for the man who murdered my father than the people who should've prevented it but were busy sitting with their thumbs up their asses while the public that they swear they protect and serve BURNS ALONE IN THEIR FUCKING HOUSES!"
I couldn't prevent myself from doing it.
I'm fairly sure I knocked one of Miss Militia's teeth out with the kick that came out from the very core of my being, the expression of mounted frustration far stronger than anything I could hold in.
I think I might've broken one of my toes, it hurts like shit. "Potion, now," I ordered. Soon enough, the ache on my foot was gone.
Armsmaster seemed to be quiet at that point. "That...," he said. "I ordered the Protectorate to pull back, to wait and attempt to deescalate the situation instead of engaging Lung. It would have caused him to grow further. I took a decision, I made a call, and I defend it as the right and rational choice," he said. "The fatalities we contemplated if Lung continued to grow were significantly higher. You're throwing a tantrum-"
"A tantrum?" I asked, glaring at him. "I can't believe I used to be a fan, you're a fucking asshole," I said. "I'm glad my pa- er, paraphernalia," I quickly covered, I don't need to tell him that I owned panties with his logo on them, "burned down with my house. Because that fucking happened because of you!"
Dauntless, Velocity and Miss Militia were silent.
Armsmaster was fuming. "You-" then he stopped.
Miss Militia spat some blood and what appeared to be a piece of one of her teeth and turned towards me. "Miss Hebert. I understand that you are angry. You have every right to be angry. You went through an extremely traumatic experience only to be followed up by yet another one. It is for this reason, and only this reason, that I am not myself furious right now. Make no mistake. I am angry. But I understand that you are not thinking rationally, and that-"
"Oh, you're gonna play the good cop now? Make me think you're all nice and understanding, then throw me in a jail cell. Probably will even claim I 'resisted arrest'," I spat.
"I assure you," Miss Militia said, "those are not my intentions."
Dauntless, who had been looking at the floor, suddenly turned to Knight. "Are you serving her willingly?"
"Of course," Knight said. "I will do as my mistress commands because I desire to do as mistress commands," she said, haughtily. "And my fellows are the same."
"Seriously," I said, rolling my eyes. "They're my power. You're not going to get them to betray me nimrod."
"Worth a try," Dauntless admitted.
I smirked.
Velocity looked at me. "Do you think this makes you strong? That this makes you powerful?"
"Oh, you're going to go the psychological break route?" I asked. "It's not gonna work. I'm not doing this to feel strong or anything. I disfigured Emma and broke Sophia's knees because I really, really hate them. I had originally thought to just beat the crap out of the response that showed up and leave them tied up with Emma and Sophia, but then the Protectorate decided to come in force to save those bitches, and you know, it just reminds me of the unfairness of it all. Everything always seems to go their way. And I'm sick of tolerating it. So I'm responding."
"What did they do to you? What made you think that disfiguring a young girl and rendering another into a cripple was okay!?" he continued, agitated.
"That," I began, "is none of your business. They did it, they laughed, and now they're going to cry," I said. "I want to make one thing exceedingly clear. I could have killed all of you here. I chose not to. I could have unmasked all of you and learned your identities. I chose not to. I know my identity is shot to hell, but let me make one thing painfully and absolutely clear. You have no idea what I'm capable of, or willing to do. I chose to let it end here. I want to make it clear that you lived through this by my mercy, and I want you to know how worthless you so called heroes really are. Defeated by an untrained teenaged girl. If you come after me, I will not be so nice next time."
It's not that surprising that I wound up with the Empire.
My very public beating and disfiguring of a Race Traitor, as they called Emma, as well as me crippling Sophia Hess, also known as 'that nigger' to the Racist fuckwads that surrounded me, put me in a very positive standing with them.
I'm not sure I like being surrounded by racist assholes so often. Or the fact that more than one skinhead has made a pass at me. But Kaiser has a fuckton of money and he's perfectly willing to keep me content by giving me food, entertainment, a place to stay and stuff for Chemist to work with. Apparently, she can develop new and exciting concoctions, she just needs to have a proper lab to do so. Medhall has lots of such labs for her to use. And who'da thunk it? Kaiser of the Empire is Max Anders, CEO of Medhall Pharmaceutics Inc.
He's a smooth talker, but apparently likes the fact that I'm straight and clear with my wants and needs. I told him straight out that I won't embrace his ideology, and he told me that it's not uncommon. So long as I did my thing and remained loyal to the Empire, what I believed in the privacy of my head and what I did in the privacy of the apartment he gave me was my business. He's also made no secret of the fact that he intends to convert me to his way of thinking. Apparently he likes a straightforward approach.
It's been nearly a week now, and after a skirmish with the ABB, I feel ready to summon yet again. It seems that being in combat increases the rate at which my power... grows, for lack of a better term.
The blonde in a minidress with a hood that answers my call is just as beautiful as the rest, and with her fair skin, blue eyes and blond hair, the ideal for a gang of nazis. She's a Priest, apparently. When I introduced her as such, Hookwolf made an offhand comment about wanting to join her church, which elicited a few guffaws from Stormtiger. They're jerks.
Othala seems to be afraid that I'll usurp her spot as the Empire's healer. I will. Kaiser says that frees her up to grant Invincibility to Victor so he can use his stolen combat skills to greater effect. That seems to perk her up. I'm not surprised Kaiser's good with controlling his minions.
Purity met with me in private. Apparently the rumor that she's not Empire anymore are kinda sorta true and kinda sorta not really. She's still friends with a great deal of people in the Empire, so she doesn't attack them, but she doesn't participate in their stuff either. She's also way more of a believer in this stuff than I am.
She warned me away from Kaiser, telling me he was a snake.
I knew already - he was the kind who reminded me of the more interesting and compelling depictions of the devil. Big offers, big prices. I explained as such. She seemed surprised that I was still with the Empire after I told her I don't believe in the Nazi ideology. The answer was simple.
I need to eat and feed my troops. Kaiser gave me the means to do so, and all I had to do in turn was have them put in some work.
Of course, I didn't tell Purity that I intend to leave the Empire as soon as I've got a large enough squad to establish myself as a power in the city.
But for now? For now I would simply have a symbiotic relationship with the Empire. I'll stick to the rules I told Kaiser when I first joined up. I won't kill for him, I won't participate in hate crimes for him and I won't prostitute my troops for him. I also refuse to let him command any of them. He seems to be okay with trying to twist me to his whim through manipulation, rather than force. He's probably that kind of guy. He's almost certainly good at it, too. Those twins of him seem to be devoted, almost as much if not perhaps even more so than my guys were devoted to me.
Impressive, to say the least.
Purity stayed only for tea and then left. Apparently, she was satisfied to know that the Empire's powerful new cape wasn't even a Nazi.
Either way, life's looking up. It's sad that I had to hit rock bottom to finally realize that I need to stop worrying about what others would think in order to be happy, and I'm pretty pissed off at myself about what had to happen for me to finally hear the wake up call. But I'm glad I did.
Because this city... this is my city.
This is dad's city.
No hero can save it. But I can.
I will. If it's the last thing I do, dad, I'll save this city, even if I have to burn it to the fucking ground to do so.