A/N: If any of you were confused by the timeline of the last chapter then do not fret:
Scott and Taylor met with Faultline on a Saturday. This Saturday is our starting point.
2 weeks later, on another Saturday Scott and Taylor go on patrol, nothing happens.
1 week later, February 24th, the Simurgh attacks Canberra.
The previous chapter takes place 9 days after this, on March 7th, Wednesday, and more than a week after Canberra.
So, a little bit more than a month in between the Interlude, and the previous chapter.
A/N 2: Taylor's plan in the chapter is very, and probably needlessly complicated, but she's been waiting for a long time to do something like this. So even if her plan doesn't happen the way she wants, at least she'll get some satisfaction out of it
"You're actually trying to bring Rune to our side aren't you?" Scott asked me.
Classes had ended without further incident, and now we were at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. Thankfully, the only people here weren't in hearing range.
"I think we should at least try. If we have more allies, we have more chance of success." True, Rune was part of the E88, but there was always a chance that she could see a better option, hopefully, us. My insistence on getting Rune to side with us came from the fact that, with her power, we would be able to cover long distances in a shorter amount of time, as she could just lift a slab of concrete big enough to fit the three of us and quickly transport us across the city.
We would gain a powerful ally, and Kaiser would lose one of his main methods of moving a large number of his gangsters around, so all in all, it would be very much worth it.
Scott, however, didn't think so. "Alright, let's say you continue with your efforts to make her defect the Empire. How do you know that she won't just decide to take what information we give her to Kaiser? The Empire has a lot of money, so they probably have enough to afford some powers from the Disconnected. If he makes good use of the info, the number of capes in his ranks would swell. Is that what you want to see?"
I sighed. He did have a good point. But there was a reason why I was taking the very slow approach. "We keep hanging out with her then. I've noticed that while she talks to other students every once in a while, she doesn't have permanent friends. So, if my plan goes along the lines I want it to, then our... friendship with her, coupled with having an actual, tangible way to save the world will bring her over to our side quickly enough." I had kept a normal tone of voice throughout my explanation, but, unbidden, it started becoming more hesitant when it came to saying that we were going to befriend someone just to make sure she defects her existing side and joins ours. It made me feel greasy.
And Scott could see that easily enough, going by the disbelieving stare he sent me.
"That is the plan until I come up with something that doesn't push my moral boundaries beyond their acceptable point." I didn't know what that point was, but I would definitely know what actions were pushing it. Self-awareness was a good thing to have.
"Right... and what about Shadow Stalker?" Fucking dammit Scott. You just had to ask that question.
I said nothing. "Taylor, if we brought her in, we would have eyes in the Wards. She would be able to keep an eye on the Disconnected capes to see if they start acting up. And, as the Wards are based on the PRT building, she might get a chance to get a good look at the Time-splitter when he shows up."
I had gone to the café a few times since I brought Browbeat to my side and noticed that, while the cape did seem to work in the PRT building, it wasn't full time; as in a week he'd gone to work three times. Trying to follow the white Prius when it was leaving quickly became a fruitless endeavor, as once he hit the roads with less traffic, it became impossible to catch-up. We did have the car's plate number, but neither of us knew how to find its owner through it without tipping the Time-splitter off that we were onto him.
Having someone on the inside would neatly sidestep that problem, but we would end up bumping into the 'unwritten rules' of capes, specifically, the 'no-unmasking' part of it. True, we could discover who the Time-splitter was, but then, we would have to be constantly worrying that word of our actions would reach other capes, and if it did, how to avoid as many of the consequences as possible. We would quickly become pariahs in the cape community, and that's only if we aren't hunted down by some of the parahumans who think that we 'took it too far'.
If that wasn't enough, we would be constantly at risk of Sophia spilling the beans to the PRT which, if my suspicions were correct, was infiltrated by capes and normals alike working for the Disconnected beyond the Time-splitter, even if some of them were unknowing. Even if we did our best to illustrate Sophia of all the danger that would be coming our way if she revealed our knowledge, Sophia is rash and impatient, attributes which were made all the more prominent by her Shard. She could be sneaky, all the ambushes Sim-Stalker had done in my simulation came to mind, but when it came to the more delicate aspects of espionage, that I knew absolutely nothing about, I couldn't trust her to keep her cover for long.
And that was ignoring the fact that she is the one who caused my Trigger and left me with all this shit to deal with!
Scott, of course, knew this already but was more willing to take the risk.
I wanted to say that he was being stupid, but I was arguing for a Neo-Nazi, so I wisely kept my mouth shut.
I sighed. "We've already discussed this, and we already heard each other's arguments, so let's just agree to disagree and leave it at that. We'll come back to this discussion when we have enough allies and resources to deal with the consequences."
He sighed heavily. "Fine. Now, what's this about Vegas?" Faultline had arranged for a plane to discreetly pick us up in the weekend. She didn't tell me an exact date or location. Damn paranoia, she knows we are dealing with someone who is nearly omniscient, someone like that isn't going to be stopped by all these 'security measures'. This meant that I had to keep some luggage ready at all times, and an excuse for at least two weeks of absence on hand. Initially, she would have said a month, but she was counting on my power to shorten the timespan greatly.
In the end, Scott refused to go. As he couldn't come up with an excuse to justify such a long absence to his parents, who already knew he was a cape. This worried me. Did they know? What did he tell them? Do we have a leak?
Luckily, Scott hadn't told his parents about the Disconnected, but what he had told them, is that he no longer wanted to join the Wards, as he'd found out that one of them had caused a Trigger event and the PRT had no idea. This left his parents very worried about Scott, as they had read up on the statistics of how long independents lasted before being recruited by the PRT, the gangs, or just 'vanishing'.
He had told them that he had partnered up with the newly Triggered student, so to have someone to watch his back when he goes on patrol. This succeeded in calming down his parents, but it also put me in a precarious position.
"They'll... probably want to talk to you soon." He said.
I gave him a brittle smile.
He stared at me. "Sorry... for springing this on you all of a sudden?"
My smile held.
He sighed. "What were you expecting me to do in that situation? They're my parents! I don't want to make them even more worried than they already are."
"I... I just didn't want to put more... more stress on you... I'm sorry."
My 'smile' fell and I closed my eyes.
Fuck.
What am I gonna tell Dad?
"I... I'm not angry. I just... I just wish you had given me a little bit more warning."
We were quiet as we got on the bus that had (finally!) arrived.
As we got further and further away from Winslow Scott started talking.
"So... what are you going to tell your Dad? You're going to Vegas to find a cape, that could take days at least, even with your power."
I didn't turn towards him, a plan slowly coming together in my mind. "I'll come up with something." It would hurt Dad, but... he'll recover, I know he will.
I guess that Sophia will be part of my plans after all.
"Where did you meet these friends of yours exactly?" Dad asked me.
"At the café close to the PRT building, I've been hanging out with them after school every once in a while, and since only Scott is from Winslow, there's no risk of them joining in on the bullying," I said with a relieved expression.
After getting home, I had quickly put my plan into action. When Dad had asked how my day had been, I told him that I had made some 'new friends' the first time I had gone to the cafe next to the PRT building, and, after a few conversations, we'd agreed to meet a few more times. The 'friends' that I got along with the most were: Scott Miller, the only one that attended Winslow, and one of the few students who didn't care about the bullying; and Maria Smith (Faultline), a serious and honest, but loyal person who had put the 'group of friends' together: Newton (Newter), Gregor, Alice (Labyrinth), and Heather (Spitfire). I couldn't tell Dad that I would be going to Vegas with them out of the blue, he would really want to meet with them then.
I had come up with the names and overall plan in a rush, so I was a bit proud of the end result.
Even if it was more complex than was necessary, it would give me a chance to strike back against the Trio.
Dad hugged me and congratulated me.
"You should bring them over one day. I'd like to look see if I should be worried about any of them." He said this with a semi-serious look in his eyes, and wagging eyebrows, so I knew exactly what he was implying.
"Dad! No! It's not like that with any of them!" I said, laughing and giving him a playful swat on the shoulder.
He laughed with me too. A genuine laugh. "Alright, alright, no boyfriends or girlfriends from them. Got it." "Dad!"
He laughed again. "But I would like to meet them. Or at least talk to them. I just..." He sighed. "I..."
I put my hand on his shoulder. "Dad, it's okay, I get it. But except for Scott, they're all going to travel to Vegas for a while this weekend, and Newton, Gregor, and Alice are actually going to stay there, something about their families, and they already have plans for the rest of the week, so when you meet them, it's just going to be Scott, Maria, and Heather." Gregor and Newter were Case 53s, so them meeting my Dad was a no go unless I wished to reveal my cape identity, and I wasn't ready for that. And Labyrinth's power made it hard for her to communicate, so she was out as well. Hopefully, I could forgo the actual meeting and have them talk over the phone. it would make things easier, as I wasn't comfortable with unmasking, and Faultline was a bit too paranoid to allow anyone on her team to do that.
We kept talking for a while, about Dad's job, cape gossip, and how I was doing in school. This last part of the conversation lowered the mood a bit, as Sophia had decided to take her frustrations of not fighting the Simurgh out on me.
And her continuing to do so would be crucial.
Eventually, we had run out of things to talk about, so after grabbing all of my saved-up money, and asking for about sixty dollars from Dad, I left the house.
I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled.
Step 1 complete.
To my Dad, I now had 'friends'.
The rest of the plan relied on Emma and Sophia reacting the way I want them to, to the actions I would take tomorrow. Then, it depended on how it would 'affect' me.
I could have just asked him if I could go to Vegas with my friends. But he would say no. In just that single conversation, I had seen a shine in his eyes that he has lacked for a long time. He wants to be a part of my life. So he needs an actual reason to just let me skip school for a week or two and just leave me be.
And even if the plan doesn't work out the way I want it to, I could just ask him on Friday after Winslow and make it very clear that it means a lot to me. I honestly don't know what he would say then, Dad really wants us to be a family again, but he's also very thankful for the fact that I have 'friends' now. And being unaware of the time constraints of this trip, he'll probably suggest we go to Vegas together to see my 'friends' another time.
But I would still be going forward with the plan that even now, I was still refining.
Truth is, I just really wanted to get back at the Trio.
Right now, however, I had to deal with the third-most difficult part of the plan.
Shopping clothes.
The only thing worthy of mention that happened at the mall was that I added Victoria Dallon and Crystal Pelham to the Power-notebook.
Both were Second Generation capes, as evidenced by their lack of locked sections in their powers. [DOMINATION] (Uhm, domination? Seriously?) and [PINPOINT] respectively.
Laserdream's power did exactly as I'd seen on the Internet: Lasers, Shields and Flight; so, nothing new there.
The name is a bit weird but technically true, as she does have the ability to focus her attacks more than most of her family.
Glory Girl, who claims to be 'invincible', on the other hand, had an invisible, but very strong forcefield with a very fast regeneration speed, flight, and her emotional aura.
Just where the aura came from, I have no idea, but it does fit with domination.
After pocketing my notebook, and having picked out two sets of clothing that looked good enough for what I was planning, I returned home and set out to plan the next step of my finished plan.
Me having clothes that looked good (I guess?) and actually showing my fitter form to everyone would make Emma feel as if I'm... reaching beyond my station or whatever, with Sophia thinking along those same lines; after hearing their prattle, the day would go on and nothing would happen beyond the usual. Tomorrow, as Gladly let us know today, we would be working in groups of two, and he also said that 'if you feel your partner isn't doing their part of the work, then just don't write their name down when you hand it in'. I knew that Emma and Sophia would be working together, and normally Madison would be working with one of the assorted sycophants that were always around.
Tomorrow she would be working with me.
And we would be sitting very close to Emma and Sophia, so Madison would get all the incentive she needed to talk with her friends, and not do a single thing on the paper. The rest of the lesson would consist of me working and avoiding any pranks from the Trio, which with my power reading Sophia's, shouldn't be that hard. So when I turn in the paper before the class ends, it will only have my name. Gladly would probably try something like 'uhm, Taylor, I think you forgot to write Madison's name' in order to still be the 'cool teacher', to which I would hesitantly agree after throwing him a glare or two. But by then, the damage would already be done.
Then, I would ask if I could leave the class early as the paper was already turned in, something I've done before, and leave the classroom.
Then came the final step. And the one I was the most nervous about.
As the school day ends, and all the students are descending the entrance stairs in front of Winslow, I would follow Sophia.
And push her.
Nowhere near hard enough qualify as anything more than an accidental shove, but enough to make her fall. I would apologize profusely, of course.
And by then, all the Trio would be out for my blood. And they wouldn't be patient.
The next day, on Friday, the Trio would have something prepared. Probably something to do with a locker, considering their previous 'success' on that front. So I would have to keep an eye on Sophia for any shoving attempts, but there was always the chance that they would try something else, so I needed to be prepared for that eventuality, unlikely as it was.
By then, the plan would already need to be marked as successful.
Then I would play the role of the traumatized victim; I would, with mechanical movements, back away and go look for a teacher. After their empty platitudes were done with, I would go home and wait for Dad to arrive.
When he did, I would tell him what happened at Winslow.
I would tell him that I needed some time alone.
That after I 'called my friends' before he arrived, they said that I could go with them to Vegas, to 'let loose' a little.
And he would agree. I would spend the rest of the day working out the arrangements with my Dad as to where my 'friends' would pick me up, and convincing him that a lawsuit wouldn't take us anywhere.
The most difficult part of the plan would be manipulating my Dad's feelings in such a way. Just thinking about it made me feel sick. But Shamrock was the only lead we had on the Disconnected. The only lead we had to save the world from the Endbringers, and later on, the Warrior.
And even if it fails, it isn't likely that Dad will tell me 'no' anyway.
But I still want to mess with the Trio for a bit. Even if they feel like they won by the end of it.
I could just barely hide my smile of satisfaction behind a blank, almost lost expression, as I, and some of the students who were around me, looked at the roadkilled-cat hanging by a coat-hanger inside my locker.
Have they always been this predictable? I thought, as I headed towards Gladly, who was looking at the commotion with a sickened look on his face. Mostly at the cat, as he cared too much for being the 'cool guy' and his paycheck to care about one student.
A call for the janitor later, I was in Blackwell's office trying to get her to do something about my bullying. While I already knew it was a lost cause, I still tried, but the 'lack of evidence' was still an issue.
That, however, brought me to a halt.
But, what if I had?
...Maybe another day.
Shaking my head, and getting on the bus, I took out my phone and looked at the time.
9:30 am
Scott's probably still in class by now.
I sent him a text message explaining my plan and my disbelief at it actually working, before calling up Faultline.
"What was the only thing in the hospital besides you and a desk?"
I sighed. "My patient file. How many people were in the office without counting me and my associates." I asked my own question. She had definitely grilled me about forgetting it the other day after I returned from the mall, and called for the usual check-in.
"Three. Is there a change of plans?"
"No, I was just saying that my excuse should be ready in a bit," I said, letting the satisfaction I had been feeling for the last few hours coat my words.
"Do I want to know?" She asked in a somewhat amused tone of voice.
I hummed. "I'll tell you about it later. My excuse is not a sure thing yet, but I would be surprised if the outcome doesn't favor me." I said in a mockingly serious and dramatic tone of voice.
"Hmph, kids." I rolled my eyes. "Sunday at ten in the morning." Before I could ask for the location, she hung up.
She'll probably send the location by text later.
She did. They would be picking me up in a grey van in front of Fosberg Gallery. By the time the text arrived, I was already at home and had called Dad through the landline about what happened, with stammering and heavy breathing included as well as my call to my 'friends', so he was hurrying back. Scott had also sent a text that probably failed to convey how incredulous he was at my plan's complexity, at the Trio being that predictable, and at me for actually going through with a plan that I only half-expected to work.
As I heard the screech of the tires of Dad's car getting closer at speeds that couldn't be legal in an urban area I felt something heavy settling on my chest that I quickly identified as guilt. It only grew exponentially worse as I saw Dad's car run over an unoccupied tricycle and almost crash into the neighbor's mini-van, before parking the car in a position that would give a driving instructor a conniption. This was followed by him almost flying out of the car and driving his foot into the rotten step with such force that I was sure the crack of the step breaking in half must have been heard all over the city, which was quickly followed by my Dad showing a mastery over curses and expletives that could make quite a few sailors feel inadequate, before the sound of jingling keys was followed by the door being slammed open.
"Taylor!" Before I knew what was happening, he was hugging me and crying.
And I was too.
Barely two days ago, the man known to the world as Daniel Hebert had been happy. He was spending time with his daughter and mending their relationship as a family.
Now?
Now his daughter was using his feelings to further her own goals without a care for the depressed, broken man that she was leaving behind.
My father agreed to let me go to Vegas for a week or two. "I need... some... some time. Please... I..." I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
My plan had gone off without a hitch.
Well, Taylor? You got what you wanted.
You bitch.
A/N: If you feel that Taylor's plan is unnecessarily complex, then you'd be right, it was.
But it was the only way that I could think of that would get Danny to let Taylor go with her 'new friends' to Vegas without him tagging along, and Taylor wasn't going to let that happen.
If you feel that Taylor not thinking too much about Danny's feelings until he's hugging her is strange then you'd be right too.
That's the point. Taylor is out to save the world but is slowly realizing that she might not be able to carry out the 'no matter the cost' from a few chapters earlier.
If you think there was a better way to have accomplished Taylor's main objective without the plan then, you're probably right.
But this advances the plot that I have in mind. There probably was a better solution. But I couldn't find it. And I like what the consequences of Taylor's scheme bring for both hers and Danny's character development.
Don't expect the next update to be quick, I have some serious stuff to do this week, I may be able to squeeze some writing time in, but it won't be much.
See you all next time! (Around a week. Maybe.)