Small Steps 1.2

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Taylor had plenty to worry about through the evening. Once Brian changed into spare clothes and got his wounds bandaged, he looked…not what most people would consider okay, what with the bruises, stitches, and the fact that he moved stiffly, but considering all that Brian and the other Undersiders had been through, she suspected that he would be fine. One potential worry was out of the way...probably.

In theory, the Undersiders should have scared the White Fang off for some time. Taylor didn't dare hope that they were gone for good, but they should need at least a few days to regroup. Should. But even if the Undersiders never saw the White Fang again, they would need to deal with basic necessities like food and water, plan out their next moves, and try and turn this warehouse into a home for eight that wasn't absolutely miserable. And then they would have to handle the inevitable complications.

Lily, Aisha, and Lisa went out to get some food for dinner, while the rest of them started preparing the warehouse for habitation. The Undersiders had turned more run-down and barren placed into headquarters before, but at the time they had significant financial backing, whereas right now they had a bit less than fifteen hundred lien, which Lisa had guessed were about a dime each. Roughly. In any case, while it would suffice for food for a little while, it wasn't going to let them buy furniture, let alone pay for any renovations.

Luckily, the White Fang had a crude base set up in the warehouse. Near as they could tell, they were mainly using it as a place to put stuff in the city that they couldn't or wouldn't put elsewhere, and probably as a meeting hall at times. The White Fang hadn't had much furniture, and between Rachel's dog, Brian's brawl, and the general effects of having a small but panicked mob, some of it got damaged. Still, with what furniture they had, and both using the warehouse's few internal walls and modifying some pre-existing box walls, the Undersiders could set up several bedrooms and a sort of dining/living room. None of them had actual beds, but Sabah turned a crate of White Fang uniforms into several hammocks, so they at least wouldn't be sleeping on the ground.

The others returned with dinner. Fast food, or the Valean equivalent. Valic? Valish? That was one of many things they would have to learn. A lack of common knowledge would risk giving them away, and it wasn't like they didn't already stand out. Lisa had pointed out a while ago that the faces and bodies of the Remnant humans were a bit different than those of humans from either Earth. There were no blatant differences—the Undersiders barely noticed until Lisa pointed it out—but the differences were still there. Just another thing to be paranoid about, in case they didn't have enough stress.

The Undersiders discussed their plans over dinner. Their first priority, aside from survival, would be to prepare for the inevitable White Fang counter-attack. That evening, Rachel and Taylor were supposed to find more of their creatures—stray dogs and bugs, respectively. The next morning, the two of them and Lily would be staying at the warehouse, Taylor raising a swarm if and when the White Fang threatened to try and recover the warehouse (or if anyone else suspicious decided to take a look), Rachel training the dogs and getting them used to being transformed, and Lily as muscle for if things went wrong. Brian would also be staying behind, to rest. The other four Undersiders would be going out to try and get some kind of job, or at least earn money in some way; Taylor, Brian, Lily, and Rachel would join them when they didn't need to sit around the warehouse all day. Most of the Undersiders lacked marketable skills, due to having levels of education ranging from none to G.E.D. Sabah was the exception; she had completed high school and started college, developing a useful skill which complimented her power.

Having hashed out basic plans, the conversation drifted to Remnant. Brian mentioned that he couldn't copy the superpower of the Brute he fought.

"Unfortunate," Lisa muttered. "But at least we know Semblances aren't powers. Maybe they won't expect what we can do, and that'll give us an edge?"

The conversation drifted away from the warehouse before devolving into an argument over what the adjective for "from Vale" was. When it got too heated, Brian stepped in and ended it. More small talk, then setting up watches and going to bed. Everyone was able-bodied, so we had four watches of two people each. Taylor had second watch, with Sabah.

After getting a couple hours of sleep, Taylor was awoken by Alec. "Your turn. Night."

Taylor decided to see if there were any books in any of the crates. It had been a while since she had read much of anything. She didn't have the time as an Undersider, and there weren't many books in the places she had been in Remnant. At least, not many available. Most families in Meadow-Creek had one or two, but Taylor didn't think they'd be willing to lend them out; Oak was willing, but most of his books were about geography or natural philosophy (basically science). Not bad, but she only got a little enjoyment out of them, and since Oak focused on larger animals, Taylor didn't learn nearly as much about the local insects as she would like. There was a book on Grimm that she read, and a few other volumes that she skimmed, but nothing on bugs.

Taylor was about ten or fifteen minutes into the search when Sabah came over to her. "Um, Taylor? I know you can watch with bugs, but…"

"You want a bit of company?"

"If you don't mind."

"Alright." Taylor followed Sabah to her vantage point on the roof.

"By the way, those hammocks are good. They're...comfortable."

"Thanks."

The two of them watched the nighttime city. As much as it reminded Taylor of Brockton Bay, there was no way one could mistake Vale for it, or for any Terran city. Most of the buildings were maybe four to six stories tall, with each building flowing seamlessly into the next, leaving only a few alleys in between. Towers or spires reached high out of the sea of buildings every few blocks. Taylor thought most cities would have the skyscrapers next to each other, but not Vale; here, they were more spread out, though surrounded by blocks where the buildings were higher than normal, giving the skyline an organic, flowing appearance. A few parks found places in between the massive buildings, and cars' headlights dotted the street below.

And there were almost no bugs. On Earth, you could find flies in every house, roaches in every wall and floor, spiders in every closet, and so forth. There were insects everywhere, outnumbering the human inhabitants of the city massively in all but the cleanest of buildings…and that was before Brockton Bay was turned into a disaster area. Here, the walls were solid stone, brick, or concrete, the floors and some internal walls were solid wood, and the entire city seemed…sterile, almost. It was eerie, almost as disorienting as if it had been in black and white.

Sabah didn't notice the lack of bugs, just the skyline. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's a bit like home, and yet…the skyline is so…"

"…Exotic?"

"I was thinking more 'unusual,' maybe 'alien'."

"…I suppose they're opposite sides of the same coin."

"Yeah."

More time passed.

"How do you think this will work?" Sabah asked. "Us living here, on this...alien world?"

"I don't know. This isn't like what we were doing in Brockton Bay. There, we had money, resources, reputation. Here, we're nobodies. We have nothing, know no one, and don't really know how to change that."

"We have our powers. They're pretty good ones."

"Yeah. I guess that helps. Especially for you. You could actually get a decent job."

"I'm sure the rest of you can, too."

"I'm not. I'm a high school dropout, Alec and Rachel never went to school, period, and none of us except you know how to do anything most people can't."

"You beat the Slaughterhouse Nine, didn't you?"

"For a certain definition of 'beat,' yes."

"And Dragon, and Coil. You fought Noelle and Leviathan, too, most people wouldn't do that."

"Recklessness isn't a marketable skill."

"I don't think you're reckless, Taylor. You're brave, and…no matter what you think about yourself, you're a good person at heart. You're trying to make the world a better place, even if you have to do bad things to do it. That's a lot better than most people even try to do. And you manage to pull through with doing what you think is right, even when it gets hard. I envy you, for that."

"Thanks…You're a good person, too, even if you're not strong or stupid enough to fight the worst monsters on the planet."

"I appreciate it."

The two girls watched the lights of the city.

"I was thinking of trying to make some spider silk cloth for you to use, once I got enough spiders. What kind of patterns or shapes would you find useful?"

~0~

After an uneventful watch, Taylor woke Aisha up and went to bed. The next morning, before the last watch was really over, she woke up and went with Brian to pick up breakfast.

"I'm pretty sure Aisha can handle herself for half an hour," Taylor said. "Besides, it would be a pleasant surprise for the others, don't you think?"

Brian shrugged, but he went with, and didn't seem annoyed.

"It's been a while since we've had time together," Brian said.

"Yeah. Things have been…weird."

"Understatement, since…yeah."

They were up earlier than most people would be, but there were still some cars and pedestrians around. Enough that they could easily be heard, not enough to get drowned out. They'd have to watch what they said.

Small talk wasn't Taylor's favorite pastime, but she could enjoy it with the right company. She and Brian went to a grocery store to get food. The warehouse didn't have a kitchen, but they had found some dishes, and there was a small refrigerator that had held what looked like beer, meaning they could refrigerate food. After some consideration, they got a gallon of milk, a box of cereal, and—on an impulse—a box with four donuts. It wasn't the healthiest breakfast, but it was cheap and relatively familiar.

They walked back to the warehouse, talking, trying to work out plans without sounding suspicious to passers-by. They didn't get much of anywhere, but their reception at the warehouse was warm.

Lisa was, of course, the first to notice. "Breakfast's here."

They started getting the dishes and such almost immediately. Alec glanced at the box and announced, "Hey, Mom and Dad brought donuts!"

"Awesome!" Aisha shouted back.

Brian sighed. "Ha ha. We only got four, so everyone gets half of one. That's half a Remnant donut, though, so it's probably not that stingy."

Lily took the cereal. "Um, 'Pumpkin Pete's Choc-O-Lots'?"

"We only got it because it was on sale," Taylor said.

The Undersiders began eating once the cereal was poured and the half-donuts distributed. "So," Lily asked, "if you're the mom and dad of the group, what's Lisa?"

"Don't encourage them," Brian said.

"I'm the cool aunt," Lisa answered, ignoring Brian.

"I wonder what Rachel would be?" Aisha said, glancing at Alec.

Alec smirked. "I'm thinking…uncool aunt?"

"Maybe you shouldn't provoke either aunt," suggested Lily.

"Maybe we shouldn't play along with the 'kids'" delusions," Brian suggested. "It doesn't help."

"Come on, Brian," Aisha whined. "Can't we pretend to be a normal family for once?"

Brian sighed. "Raise your hand if you have ever had a normal family."

Sabah, Taylor, and Lisa raised their hands. The others did not.

"Never mind," Aisha muttered.

The rest of breakfast conversation was in a similar vein, but breakfast was over quickly. The half of the group that was going out left; the others stayed behind, cleaning up.

It certainly wasn't the worst day Taylor could have had, but it wasn't pleasant. She was constantly on edge; if Taylor wasn't listening to the sounds of one of Rachel's dogs struggling against chains—massive, powerful, and aching to tear out a throat—she was jumping at every person approaching the warehouse; if she wasn't worrying about the Undersiders out in the city, alone and foreign, she was worrying about Brian's wounds becoming infected, or about their lack of long-term planning. In case all these worries weren't enough, once they cleaned up from breakfast, Taylor had little to busy herself with. She helped Rachel find stray dogs (which, like bugs, were rarer in Vale than they were in Brockton Bay) and helped search the crates, but there was ultimately not much she could do.

The day passed, and the others returned, with varying results. Sabah had absolutely no luck finding work; no tailors, clothiers, weavers, or what-have-you were hiring. "Most of them were just one person, anyways. If I had a shop, I could probably start something, but I don't think that a warehouse taken from the White Fang is a good place for one."

Alec didn't have much luck either, although he had managed to find a shop owner who paid him a hundred lien to help him rearrange his inventory for an hour. He also swiped a few Dust crystals. Aisha's "work" was mainly picking pockets, which she was quite good at; she got two smartphone-like devices called scrolls, several hundred lien, and assorted personal effects, most notably including a knife with two compartments for Dust. The Dust was removed by Lisa, since it was probably more valuable sold than used in combat.

Lisa brought what was arguably the best news. "I've been casing the Vale underworld, figuring out who does what, who I could work with. I've heard of a guy called Junior, who runs a little criminal group out of a nightclub. Mostly a broker—information, goods, and otherwise. Worst case scenario, we can probably sell him some White Fang stuff. Ideally, I could become a business partner."

Sabah was troubled by this. "Between Alec and Aisha stealing things, and now this...I'm not sure I'm comfortable with how much crime we're doing..."

"We're pretty well-off," Brian said, "so no more stealing. As for Junior...don't do anything illegal, okay?"

Lisa shrugged. "No problem."

There was a pause; Brian ended it. "I'm going to be going out tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"I feel fine, if that's what you're asking. And I'm capable enough that I should be able to get a job at the docks, or something. At least one of us needs to get a steady job, if we don't want be forced back to supervillainy."

Go back to supervillainy? It wasn't something Taylor particularly wanted to do, but...Taylor's dad worked for the docks, as a union representative. If Vale was like Brockton Bay, dock work didn't pay much, and there would be a lot of people competing for the jobs. But even that was probably a better chance at legal epmloyment than any of the others had. If the Undersiders didn't get lucky, supervillainy might be their only option.