Chapter Thirteen: Clarity Can Be Found Just Around the Corner From...
~~~~~~Wrath~~~~~~
Taylor winced as her leg continued to act strangely as it slowly regenerated, muscles twitching and nerves firing as they formed and grew. Currently, it was hidden from view by a simple cotton blanket as the sight of her stump slowly growing out apparently made everyone present lose their appetites, well except for Alec, who found it fascinating. Even she had to admit it was a bit disgusting; the way everything from the bone on seemed to slowly move forward, filling in like some kind of stop motion photography.
If you took your eyes off of it for more than a few minutes at a time, when you looked back, it was bigger with more veins and other strange and nasty looking growths pushing out from the reddish-pink depths of her stump. To try to take her mind off of the situation, Taylor focused upon the people currently occupying the room with her.
First, there was Lisa. Taylor surreptitiously studied the know it all blonde, who was currently deep in conversation with Brian, their voices too muted to be audible from where she sat. The Parahuman Thinker, whose cape name Taylor now knew to be Tattletale, had an aura full of bright oranges and yellows, shades of the two colors that she'd come to associate with confidence and energy. Certainly Lisa had been energetic so far during the time they'd spent together. Her other strong colors were a similarly bright blue and glowing silver, which Taylor was certain were indicative of integrity and loyalty as well as certain kind of glamour and intellect. Part of that was likely in how she saw herself, while the rest were her actions and interactions with the world around her.
The only negative thing that Taylor saw in Lisa's aura was a faint grayish-green that she knew meant guilt, having seen and alleviated it from her dad. The blonde felt guilty about something that had happened in her life, likely something from her past as she seemed perfectly fine being a villain. Certainly talking about what she'd done hadn't elicited anything resembling guilt.
Oddly, she trusted Lisa, partially because of her aura and partially because of her actions in coming after her in order to help her. The blonde had felt compassion for Taylor when she'd felt so down after discovering the other knew who she was and had been utterly terrified because of that knowledge. Her compassion had been strongly enough felt that she'd overcome her own fear of the vigilante in order to give her a hug.
Whatever else Lisa was, she wasn't a monster. However, she made Taylor doubt herself, at least a little. Because if someone who was a villain would help others, then how much of a villain was she really? How much were others? That kind of doubt could be dangerous when acting as Carnelian, especially considering some of the monsters she'd already confronted.
The same held true for Brian. Taylor stared at him for a moment, then looked away with a faint blush staining her cheeks. The African-American boy with the tall, muscular build and the corn-rowed hair was physically attractive. Very much so. So was his aura.
Brian's aura was orange and purple, yellow and blue, all strong shades that meant he was courageous, and loyal, and filled with vitality. The boy's aura attracted her, nearly as much as his physical assets. Taylor was honestly confused as his aura seemed so at odds with who he was and what he did, being a member of the Undersiders and a thief and a villain. She still couldn't reconcile the two viewpoints or his earlier actions, which weren't those of a villain.
She'd first spotted him dragging a little boy out from under a broken desk, crying and bleeding. At the time, as Carnelian, Taylor hadn't really registered the gentleness he'd show the child, soothing his tears and getting him to a place where he could be helped. Now, thinking back on it, she could see that and so much more in the tenderness he'd shown the child.
That boy's injuries had been relatively superfluous, unlike so many others. Taylor had seen Brian encounter one of those and that bright aura had faded to a dull gray as sadness filled him. After that, she'd been too busy trying to heal children to notice him again.
Until, that is, she'd seen his bright aura, still edged faintly with gray, in the darkness coming to her rescue. Her frantic fear and anger had faded as she'd heard the muted sounds of hand to hand violence. Somehow Lisa had found her and the two of them had likely saved her life. If not from the low life scum who'd momentarily threatened it, then certainly from Lung and Oni Lee, who likely would have eventually shown up, looking for their teammate. She was under no misapprehension about being about to take either of them on while being chained to a glass appendage.
Now she owed her life to a pair of villains, as well as another debt for their aid, without which, she'd have been stuck with no food or place to heal up. It wasn't a situation that she liked as the two of them were criminals. Even if they hadn't physically hurt anyone, at the very least they'd intimidated people, as well as taking police resources away from where they could help people through their actions. It was something that Taylor could not allow herself to forget, no matter the reason. Shaking her head, Taylor went back to her ponderings.
The third member of the Undersiders was Rachel. Bitch. Hellhound. Taylor had read what was available on PHO regarding the dog-based Parahuman several weeks ago. Rachel Lindt had killed someone or so the story had gone. Staring at the mad whirl of emotions the girl felt, she had a feeling that it wasn't that simple. Because while the dog-themed cape had that streak of black, it had been faint as to be almost non-existent.
It seemed unlikely that Rachel had intended to kill anyone, if kill them she had. Her aura was predominantly browns and greens, her emotions earthy and simple. Wrath colored her, but seemingly only as an afterthought. There was a yellow wash to her that spoke of unpredictability, but it was somewhat faint.
Mostly Rachel felt like someone who was damaged, although even she couldn't tell exactly how badly. Taylor didn't understand some of what she read from the other's aura, but it was far from normal. It was possible her power had messed her up, but equally possible it was the way she was raised in a series of foster homes.
That left Alec. Regent. The one about whom PHO had almost nothing to say. Taylor herself didn't have the faintest idea what his power was capable of. But since he pranced around wearing nothing but tight trousers, a ruffled shirt, and a mask, it could be anything from bending steel beams with his hands to shooting sugarplums out his butt.
Regardless of his power, there was his aura to consider. Whereas the streaks of black in Rachel's aura had been rudimentary, his was well-established. He'd killed with intention. At sometime in the past. At least that's how Taylor read it.
Then again, so had Sophia. The errant thought popped into Taylor's head, making she shake her head in irritation at the distraction. Returning to her original train of thought, she frowned as she thought about the boy being a killer. Plus his aura was filled with cold blues and whites that spoke of a lack of empathy, of feeling of any kind. To all intents and appearances, he was a nasty little sociopath.
But that handful of colors didn't tell the entire story. Taylor had watched him since in his interactions with his teammates. She'd seen flashes of hues that showed loyalty, ambition, and a kind of integrity. They were muted and intermittent, but maybe, just maybe, they meant he actually was a person. That he could be saved if that were something she even wanted to do. After all, in fairness, his aura was no worse than that of a handful of people Taylor had seen living relatively normal lives when she'd been out and about in the city. Then again, they could have been serial killers when not working or shopping. She wasn't a mind reader to know one way or another.
Taylor shook her head in bemusement. She needed to stop thinking she was some kind of super woman and that she could save everyone. It was likely that Alec didn't want to be 'saved' even assuming that she could. Of course, that's when Lisa sat down next to her and snagged a piece of pizza, joining her in slowly chewing the tasty food. With a grin, she asked, "So figure anything out about us?"
Taylor met Lisa's dancing eyes with a level glance, aware that the other had likely read something from her actions and expressions of the last few minutes. Hedging, she asked, "What do you mean?"
The other girl gestured expansively. "Well, you've been sitting here eating your way through several pizzas and thinking really hard. Plus, you've spent quite a bit of time staring at each of us in turn. I figure that you've been using your power to study us, what makes us tick. So I was wondering if you've come to any conclusions?"
Taylor slowly shook her head. "No, not really. I mean, I can see you. Your aura. It's every color of the rainbow. Everyone's is. But there are certain shades of colors that predominate. Those can tell me a lot about who you are."
The blonde Thinker stared Taylor in the eye, then slowly nodded in acknowledgment. In a challenging voice, she said, "Okay, do me." Lisa's grin dared the other girl to do her worst.
Not willing to allow the blonde to somehow one up her, Taylor decided to meet the challenge directly. In an even tone, she stated, "You're confident and full of energy. You feel loyalty to those who are loyal to you. You have integrity, but only to those things you think matter. Not money and goods, and the ownership thereof, but towards friendship and your teammates. You feel a lingering sense of guilt because you weren't able to help someone in your past, probably before you triggered. How was that?"
Lisa had gone pale with a dangerous suddenness, small circles of color suffusing her cheeks. The more Taylor had spoken, the more frozen her features had become. There was a fragile brittleness in her voice as she said, "Well, I asked for it, didn't I?"
Lisa blew out her breath explosively, then met Taylor's eyes with what was only a shadow of her earlier vivacity. "I now have a pretty good idea how people feel when I do that to them. To answer your last question, that was pretty damn close. I won't tell you just how close, but... close."
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings," Taylor apologized, aware that she might have stepped over a line.
The blonde shook her head, now looking irritated. "I know that. I can do the same thing, you know. The difference is that I have to actively use my power to do it. Thus Thinker migraines. Your power is always on, isn't is? With no side effects."
"Pretty much. Everyone has an aura. It took me a while to figure out what all of the colors meant, but I eventually got there. Now, there's only a few colors I don't know, but sometimes the mixtures confuse me." Taylor wasn't sure she should be telling so much to someone who might still end up being an opponent, but then again, she had the feeling that Lisa wasn't going to be her enemy. Or maybe it was just a hope, she mused. Plus, she didn't think there was any way for someone to fake their aura to their own advantage even if they knew what she was capable of.
The blonde patted her hand. "I feel the same way." To Taylor's chagrined look, she laughed, on the surface completely recovered, only her aura giving lie to that outward impression as it revealed a lingering sadness and shock. In a tone of amusement, Lisa said, "I don't want to be your enemy, Taylor. Besides the fact that you scare the crap out of me when you go all Carnelian, I don't need any more enemies. What I could use is a friend."
She saw the manipulation in both the words and the blonde's aura as Lisa spoke. Still, the words were incredibly powerful, made more so because despite any intended manipulation, they were said with complete sincerity. There was no lie in the blonde's aura as her eyes steadily met Taylor's own. Shaking her head, the vigilante accused, "You're using your power to tell the truth."
"I know. Aren't I bad?"
Taylor returned Lisa's smile with one of her own, which was every bit as genuine as the blonde's. Then the other girl returned to her original line of questioning. "So, what do you think about the rest of the Undersiders?"
Taylor felt her eyes stealing towards the broad back of Brian, who was currently trying to interest Alec in some kind of hand to hand combat training. The blonde's smirk told her that she knew exactly how she felt about the handsome boy. She allowed just a hint of Wrath to touch her from a ring she still wore and her embarrassment fled. Lisa's eyes widened a bit as Taylor quietly said, "Brian is loyal and courageous. His aura is as human as any of the heroes I've met. He feels like a nice boy, which makes me wonder why he's here, being a villain. Because that's just not right."
There, that put a stop to the speculation in Lisa's eyes. Taylor continued, "There's something really wrong with Rachel. I've never seen emotions exactly like hers before on a person. She is... loyal. She also has a kind of earthy simplicity that is actually somewhat refreshing. She's been involved with death, though I'm not sure how much responsibility she bears.″ Taylor stopped there, not wanting to say that she both pitied the cape with the power over dogs and didn't think there was a way to help her. From the look in Lisa's eyes, she already suspected as much.
Now it was time for the clincher. Not sure exactly where to start, she stated his name, ″Alec..." Taylor hesitated, not knowing how it would go down to be deadly honest about the boy who she suspected was a borderline sociopath. And who had killed at least one person if she read him right.
"Yes, what about 'Alec'?" A voice to her right demanded.
Alec had apparently declined to be trained and had sat down on a chair next to the couch Taylor reclined on. He snagged a piece of pizza as he met Taylor's eyes, his own cool and secretive. He needled, "You were so honest about the others, why not about me? You already told me I'm a psycho and beyond redemption."
Taylor winced, not needing to look to know that his smirk had widened. Still, she was who she was and wouldn't back down from any challenge. She met his eyes solidly before asking, "Who have you killed, Alec?" There, she thought in satisfaction, that should provoke a response.
Taylor's words wiped the smirk off of his face, as well as flooding his aura with red. Not gray, she noted. Guilt played no part in how he felt about what had happened. The act, and her words, made him furious, but he felt nothing like regret for the life he'd taken. And wasn't that interesting? As well as more than a little disgusting.
It also ignited a fire inside of Taylor that she was quick to suppress. As seriously fucked up as Alec was, she could ill afford to start something right then. Plus she wasn't sure how much responsibility a barely fifteen-year-old boy played in something that had happened to him in the past. For now she would focus only upon the fact that he was at least as messed as Rachel, if in different ways, although she considered the information on what he'd done fair game in their little exchange.
Alec's angry expression quickly faded and his smirk came back. "Are you afraid I'll kill you?"
He sat back with a frown at whatever he'd seen in her eyes, while Lisa grew very still at her side. Pushing her Wrath aside once again, Taylor reflectively said, "No, I'm really not. Even not knowing what you can do, I'm not afraid of you. Then again, I haven't felt much of anything resembling fear since I obtained my power. Anger, yes. Fury, definitely. Wrath that makes me want to paint this city red with the blood of its villains, absolutely. But fear? Not so much. That answer your question?"
His voice was clipped as he said, "Yes."
"Now answer mine. Who have you killed?"
It almost looked like Alec was going to tell her, if only to taunt her with the details, but then a deep voice stated, "You don't have to answer her, Alec."
Stepping up so that he loomed over where she sat on the couch, Brian stared down at her, his aura flaring with several shades of red and blue. Anger and protectiveness. In a hard voice, he said, "You owe us, Carnelian. We've done you several solids which you've acknowledged. That means no playing head games with my people. Got it?"
She pushed down the physical attraction she felt for the boy and carefully nodded. In a quiet tone, Taylor said, "I understand. But I wasn't playing head games. He can't ever get better unless he confronts what he did. Maybe feels a little regret instead of getting mad that someone brought it up. The question I asked knifed straight to the heart of the matter, but then again, sometimes you have to cut the rot out."
That little gem started several simultaneous conversations.
"What did you mean?"
"Are you fucking kidding me with this psych shit?"
"I don't see how this is meant to help anyone."
Taylor held up an imperious hand, and then pointed a finger at Alec. "The answer is, that I may, or may not, have been wrong about you. You're cold, but hardly unfeeling. You're loyal, at least to your teammates. You have a kind of integrity to you. Whether it extends beyond the most rudimentary sense, I'm not sure. Someone in your past fucked you up. Made you become cold and unfeeling as hell. Maybe I can help you with that. If I thought it would do any good."
Alec seemed to mull Taylor's words over, before saying, in a tone full of contempt, "What makes you think I want your help, bitch? That I need it? I get along just fine the way I am. What I don't need is-"
Taylor interrupted the boy, her tone challenging, "To feel? To be vulnerable? Maybe, maybe not. We both use something to protect ourselves from being hurt. You retreated into nonfeeling. I, on the other hand, have..."
Alec's dark eyes were filled with cynical anger and a desire to strike back as he asked, "You have what? Gone postal?"
Taylor laughed out loud. It was a gallows laugh, but present nonetheless. "Pretty much. I use Wrath to protect myself from feeling empathy when I break the bones of thugs and villains. When I maim, cripple, and kill them."
Taylor faced towards the boy directly, grimacing at the faint pang it sent through her still healing leg. "I'd still rather feel what I do than feel nothing. I think I can help you."
There was intense cynicism present in his eyes as Alec asked, "Why would you want to?"
Taylor slowly smiled, the first genuine smile that had graced her features since she'd been outed by Lisa. Reflectively, she mused aloud, "Because with what I'm currently doing, I'm walking a fine line between being a hero and being a monster. I've gone out of my way to save people because I feel that if I don't, all I'll ever be is another thug who destroys." She met Alec's eyes directly, smiling anew at the disbelief there. "Look, I get that you don't believe me. However, if you let me help you, I will. Because that's what a hero does. And more than anything else in the world, I want to be a hero. That's something you can depend on."
Alec got to his feet. He turned to Taylor and with a sneer, said, "Fuck you, bitch." To his teammates, he stated, "Her future help had better be worth putting up with shit like this. I got enough of this kind of manipulative crap from before."
He then strode off towards his room, his face an indifferent mask, but he couldn't hide his aura from her. And weren't the colors in it so very interesting, she thought. Meeting first Lisa's eyes, which held a look of surprised calculation, then Brian's, who looked slightly confused, although his aura showed him to be at least emotionally ambivalent about what she'd said, Taylor wasn't sure about her next step with Alec. Maybe if she confided to him that she was pretty sure she'd killed Krieg, he'd open up. Then again, just as likely not.
Taylor flexed her leg slightly, biting back a curse at the pain still present. Still, she could tell her leg was significantly longer than before. Then her questing fingers dug futilely for another piece of pizza which was not present. Picking up the empty box and shaking it, she asked, "So who's going to get me another five pizzas.″ To the befuddled glances sent her way, she added, ″Please?"
~~~~~~Wrath~~~~~~
Danny drove through the streets, Kurt in the passenger seat. He'd been looking for Taylor for hours. Lacey was back at his house, waiting by the phone, in case his daughter called or showed up back there. But with darkness having fallen hours before, he was beginning to lose hope.
After all, there were so many dead. So many casualties of this latest cape fight. It made him sick to think of the many things that could have happened to his fifteen-year-old daughter in this disaster of a city, even if she hadn't been hurt or... Danny's mind shied away from even thinking of what might have happened to Taylor if she'd been too close to one of those bombs.
After all, one had gone off not that far from the Boardwalk where she'd been shopping. It had taken out a preschool, killing twenty-three people, seventeen of them children, and injuring another nineteen. The rest of the city was still reporting casualties, which had already reached more than thirty-one hundred killed and wounded. Danny's thoughts were interrupted by another report coming in over the radio.
"This is a News Channel Six Exclusive Report. It has been established that the source of the explosions that rocked Brockton Bay earlier today was the Parahuman Tinker, Bakuda, a member of the Asian Bad Boys. It was apparently directed towards creating a diversion so that the ABB's leader, Lung, could escape the custody of the PRT while he was being moved to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Facility. That escape attempt was successful. However-"
"Wait! I have just been handed a breaking news report. The PRT has stated that the Parahuman Tinker Bakuda is dead, an apparent victim of her own bombs. Her location is still being kept under wraps by the PRT, but they have indicated that it is definitely her body that has been discovered frozen in a time loop similar to the one she used to devastating effect upon several dozen pedestrians at the corner of Loop One and Central. Whether this was caused by a malfunction, which would be, frankly, poetic justice, or something else, we do not know at this time."
"To repeat-"
There was blessed silence as Kurt reached over and turned off the radio. In a careful voice, he said, "Danny, maybe you should go home. I mean, we've got over a dozen guys out right now looking for Taylor. You could man the fort-"
"No." The negative was emphatic and sharp, and Danny tried to force a smile onto his lips as he met the other's eyes briefly. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kurt. I know that you mean only the best, but I can't go home. Not... If I knew, maybe, but not knowing? I can't do it."
Danny felt Kurt's hand on his shoulder, then the other man squeezed down hard. Against all odds, he felt heartened. Plus he still didn't feel the slightest fatigue. So with a strong, if worried, heart, and steady hands and eyes, Danny Hebert continued to drive through the night. Searching for any sign of his daughter, Taylor.
~~~~~~Wrath~~~~~~
Brian sat, nominally watching the silently flickering screen in front of him, but actually deep in thought. His teammates had retreated to their rooms, the last less than an hour ago. But he stayed here, on watch, although truthfully, he wasn't sure if there was anything he could do even if Carnelian broke their truce.
The Parahuman in question was asleep, still propped almost upright upon the couch pillows, her leg propped up before her on a pillow on top of one of the wooden kitchen chairs. Tayl- no, dammit! Carnelian made a odd little snorting noise, not quite a snore, but not exactly something that added to her fearsome image. Staring at her, now, in the uncertain light, her relaxed features made her look sweet and young, nothing like the monster he knew her to be.
Brian ran a hand over his cornrows, shuddering slightly as he remembered what the tall and slender young girl had done to Lung and Empire 88 just a short time ago. What he and Lisa had witnessed, crouched upon that dark roof, binoculars glued to their eyes as she had torn apart the best that the Nazis had to offer. Then she had gone toe to toe with Lung, only allowing him to live because of the presence of members of the Protectorate at the scene.
It had been a humbling experience. Oh sure, he'd always known that on any larger scale, he and the Undersiders were small fry. But observing that vicious battle had beaten it into his head in a way that none of the small confrontations that they had escaped from ever had. Even crippled, there wasn't the slightest doubt in his mind that if she decided to do so, she could take on and kill all of them.
Depending upon the good will, although perhaps restraint might be a better word, of someone else left a bitter taste in Brian's mouth. It spoke of weakness that he'd tried his best to leave behind a long time ago. When he'd triggered.
Brian had deliberately chosen a fearsome image to show to the world. By doing so, he'd put a lid upon his own fears. Now he knew that those fears were still there. Fear for his friends and teammates. Fear for his sister. Fear for his own survival. Fear for-
A quiet voice broke his train of thought. "Penny for them?"
Tay- Carnelian was looking at him, her expressive brown eyes shadowed in the dimly lit room. Her wide mouth was pursed in what he might have described as a pout upon anyone else. In answer, he merely shook his head.
But the girl wasn't deterred. In a deliberately chipper tone, she said, "Not worth it, huh? I get that. Sometimes, I don't believe my own thoughts. I-"
This time it was Brian who interrupted her. "We're not friends. I want you to understand that right now."
Taylo- Carnelian's eyes looked immensely sad as she lay there. She turned them away from him, staring at the silently flickering TV screen. Suddenly feeling guilty, Brian muttered, "Look, I'm not trying to be a dick. But you're dangerous. You have enemies that are just as dangerous. Even helping you this much makes us a target. If anyone were to find out-"
"They won't." Taylor turned her eyes back to him, all emotion wiped from them, as she cradled a slick gray stone ball in one hand. The sudden change in her emotional state was strange and almost alien. She continued, "I'll be gone as soon as my leg's healed. Lisa thinks that by five or six o'clock in the morning it will be completely healed. Then I'll leave."
Feeling suddenly unsure, Brian asked, "What did you just do? I mean, you were sad, then all of a sudden you're... that."
Now it was Carnelian who looked unsure. Placing the ball onto her armor where it seemed to meld into it, she said, "It's one of the things I can do. I take strong emotions and put them into things. It usually changes the item. This time I just put my... uh... emotion into something I had already made."
Brian silently whistled. He could definitely see how that would help in a fight if you could get rid of fear or doubt, or any of a dozen other crippling emotions that might prevent you from getting the job done. It also seemed like a really sad way to live your life, not allowing yourself to feel. It was only after he saw the look of growing fury on the face of the girl in front of him that Brian realized he'd just said that last part aloud.
Carnelian, rage suffusing her face, hissed, "You think you know enough about me to judge me? Me? You know nothing!"
Brian felt the blood draining from his face at the danger before him. Even crippled, Carnelian was terrifying. The look in her eyes was one of fury beyond comprehension as she snarled at him. Then with a cry of frustration, she clutched her hand. A look of sheer determination came over her face and it was like she was forcing something from her. Then with a faint sigh, Carnelian was gone and only Taylor remained.
Brian was genuinely concerned for the other's stability as he asked, "Are you okay? I didn't mean to..."
Taylor looked slightly sad as she met his eyes, but this time she didn't get rid of it. Instead she just shook her head. "It's not your fault. I should have taken this off earlier." With that said, she removed a ring from her hand and placed it upon her armor where it seemed to disappear. At Brian's curious look, she explained, "Ring of Wrath. Gives me a really kick ass ability. But there is an apparent side effect."
Brian wasn't surprised that she didn't explain the 'kick ass ability' further as they weren't exactly teammates. As to the side effect, he had an idea of what that might be. "Let me guess. It makes you quick to anger?"
A smile of faint amusement crept over Taylor's mouth. It looked good there, Brian decided. She answered his question a second later. "Yeah. Plus it's less anger, than full on volcanic rage. My most powerful weapons are based upon anger. I call it Wrath because it's not just anger. There's an element of judgment there."
"Knowledge?"
"More like old Testament. I 'judge' the people I fight. I would say I can't help it, but the truth is it's what I do. What I want to do. To make them as afraid as they've made so many others."
That was as bald a statement as any Brian had ever heard. Even his father hadn't been quite so blunt, even if the starkness in Taylor's voice was so similar to that which he'd heard so many times from the man who'd raised him with a heavy hand.
"Where does that leave us? We're not that bad, but we aren't exactly good. What will you do to us?"
As Brian spoke, he stared directly into the eyes of the girl in front of him, waiting for an answer to his very direct question. Because of that, he saw the faint dilation of Taylor's pupil's as she met his eyes. He was trying to figure out exactly what that meant when she answered him.
"The answer is, I don't know. I wish I could say that I'll never go after you, but you have to know that so long as you choose this path, there are no guarantees. Things happen. Escalation. Mistakes. Eventually, someone is likely going to get hurt during one of your burglaries or robberies. If that happens, I'll have to deal with you."
Brian slowly nodded. That was a more fair and honest answer than he'd expected. Taylor was different than he'd expected the mad woman who'd charged straight at Lung to be. Still frightening with the way her emotions seemed to be all over the place, but clearly not crazy. He tried to be honest as well, but some secrets weren't his to tell. "I understand. Look, we're just trying to make our way. I know that you can tell if someone lies, so let me just say this: None of us want to hurt anyone. Not Alec, not Rachel, and certainly not me. We just want to get by."
Taylor's smile grew crooked. "There are other ways."
"Really? What ways are those? Act as independent vigilantes and fight the gangs?″ Brian shook his head. ″Sounds like a death sentence to me. Join the Wards? None of us are Wards material. I mean, that psycho Shadow Stalker can kiss my ass if she thinks I'd ever join a group like hers. After what she did-"
Taylor suddenly interrupted him, her expression intent, as she asked, "What do you mean? About Shadow Stalker? Why call her a psycho?"
Brian hemmed and hawed a moment, but in the end saw nothing that could be used against him. He explained, "Shadow Stalker shot me with a real bolt earlier this year. I still have the scar. It pissed off Alec because I got blood all over our last couch, which was white." In a musing tone, Brian murmured, ″He really liked that couch.″
"Why would she do that?"
Taylor looked more than curious. Something dangerous was stirring behind her eyes. Brian almost decided to stop talking at what appeared another sign of emotional instability, but in the end, he found he was still pissed off enough about what had been done to him by someone who was supposed to be a hero to not care if she knew. Hell, maybe Carnelian would kicked Shadow Bitch's ass.
He shrugged before explaining, "Something to do with the way our powers interact. My darkness messes with her abilities. Drives her crazy. She calls me her nemesis. I thought it was just her being ridiculous until she shot me in the side with a barbed hunting bolt a couple of months ago. So I guess she actually was that upset about it. That was well after she'd already joined the Wards and was supposedly 'reformed'."
The eyes of the girl in front of him grew colder and more stormy the longer he spoke. Looking like she might explode, the slim brunette took a deep breath, then slowly released it. She did the same thing a couple more times, although she didn't look any calmer for having done it in the first place. Taylor finally grated, "She is a psycho. Shadow Stalker is why I wouldn't recommend anyone joining the Wards. She..."
As the brunette's words trailed off, her teeth gritted together tightly enough to bite through nails, Brian felt his interest rise. Even more curious now than he'd been before, he gently prodded the brunette, "Hey, I told you mine, now tell me yours. It's only fair."
For a second, he got the impression that Taylor was in the middle of a major fight or flight emotional crisis. Fortunately, she neither attacked him nor tried to run. Finally, after a long pause, she gave a jerky nod and in a strained voice, explained, "Shadow Stalker is the girl who bullied me so badly in school that I had to leave to be home schooled. Her and a couple of others. They made the first year and a half of high school completely unbearable. They... they're responsible for my triggering."
Holy shit, he thought. Shadow Stalker was the cause of Taylor triggering? Talk about messed- Brian's thoughts ground to a halt as a sudden realization occurred. He blurted out, "You know who Shadow Stalker is, don't you? You have to know. How on earth..."
Taylor vaguely waved into the air. "I saw my bully getting off a bus near downtown. I was spending the day at the public library down there so I could do some cape research. This was after I left school. She was heading off into downtown and I followed her. I lost her in a group of buildings there. After checking, I saw that it was the PRT headquarters."
"That's hardly conclusive. Maybe Lisa could make that jump, but you're not a Thinker, right?"
"Because I saw her in costume jumping over a gap in the buildings overhead. It was So- her. Dressed in her costume. Dressed as Shadow Stalker. That's how I know."
Mulling over the information for a moment, Brian finally saw the flaw in Taylor's story. It was significant, something she would have realized if she had been a Thinker. Still, he didn't want to antagonize the other, especially considering how she'd been reacting, so he kept his tone calm and nonjudgmental when he said, "But you couldn't know that was the girl who bullied you. She was in costume with her identity hidden. The only way that you would be able to tell if this girl was Shadow Stalker would be if you..."
Brian's voice trailed off as the girl in front of him gave him a scornful look, rolling her eyes in the way only a teenage girl could. Not liking where this was going, he stated, "You can see right through a cape's costume somehow. How-"
Taylor shook her head in denial. "I can't. But I can see their auras, costume or not. Auras are like fingerprints, no two the same. When I've seen one more than once, it's easily recognizable. So, yes, I recognized the girl who bullied me as Shadow Stalker by her aura. Everything was the same. All of those red tones I'd seen before. The same black streaks. I recognized everything about the bitch."
He was still trying to come to grips with just how important this was. Then he realized that as a relatively new cape, she probably didn't know just how potentially explosive the situation could become. Brian's tone was quietly urgent as he stated, "Taylor, you can't let people know you can do this. By that, I mean you can't out anyone. I mean it. If anyone, heroes, villains, anyone in between finds out that you can recognize them easily in their civilian identities, and are willing to use it against them to launch an attack upon them while out of costume, there is a good chance they'll come after you. You'd never be truly safe again. That's assuming that you survived the initial assault."
Brian was staring straight into Taylor's eyes, trying to force the girl to understand just how important this was. She slowly nodded, sending a sensation of relief through him, although why he should be so worried about a dangerous vigilante was beyond him.
Then they both jumped nearly out of their skin as a quiet voice spoke from the shadows, "He's right, you know."
Both Brian and Taylor turned to stare at the girl who took the opportunity to walk over and sit on the couch next to Taylor. Lisa's face was completely lacking her usual disturbing smile, which he counted as a blessing, as she looked back and forth between the two of them in careful consideration. She continued, "The one thing that heroes and villains would be able to agree upon besides the Endbringer truce would be how to deal with a Parahuman who has both the ability and the willingness to so easily break the unwritten rules like that. Those rules are also there to protect the families of capes. That goes for you as well, Taylor. The rules protect your dad from being attacked because of the things you do. Violate them and they might go after him. The Protectorate tends to react on the side of law, but capes considered too dangerous or unstable always seem to end up in the Birdcage and never in regular Parahuman jails. Do a search for Canary. Paige Macabee."
Lisa shrugged, then added, "Look just keep your knowledge to yourself. Do that, and it's just another ability that you can use as a back up if things get really dicey."
Surprisingly, Taylor didn't look frightened at all, her expression appearing rather more contemplative than anything else. In a tone of idle curiosity, she asked, "What are the unwritten rules?"
It was Lisa who answered that. "Villains and heroes don't escalate to killing each other. No rape. Don't try to find out each others civilian identities. Even if you do know their civilian identity, don't go after them there. Leave a cape's families alone. That sort of stuff. It keeps the whole thing relatively civilized. More like a game of cops and robbers than constant warfare."
Brian spoke when he saw from her expression that Taylor wasn't buying it, at least not completely, "Look, some of the crazies, the Slaughterhouse Nine, Nilbog, Bakuda, and a few others, they don't adhere to this. Then again, that's how you get a kill order put on your head. Otherwise, it's just business as usual."
There was a strange note in Taylor's voice as she asked, "What about the regular people?"
Brian and Lisa exchanged a cautious glance, before she tentatively asked, "What do you mean?"
There was something borderline dangerous in the brunette's voice as she asked, "Just where do regular people fit into this 'cop and robbers' scenario? Because I know that the ABB is involved in human trafficking. That the Merchants abduct kids and addict them to their drugs to increase their customer base. And Empire 88 beats and terrorizes anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definition of a person. I wouldn't call any of that 'civilized'."
Brian let Lisa take that one as he agreed with Taylor. The blonde nodded. ″I agree with you. It's not civilized. Not really. The thing is, civilized is just a word here. And it mostly refers to cape on cape violence, not anything aimed at civilians. But Taylor, if capes go at it hammer and tongs, civilians will suffer badly in the fall out. Battles like that have too much collateral damage. So take your pick, slow, relatively minor damage now, or more and far much worse damage later.″
The brunette gave her a skeptical glance. ″I'll take the more and worse. It's what I have been doing. Plus, if you take them out right away, there's no 'more and worse.' If the damn PRT could have handled Lung's security, he'd be in the Birdcage right now. Now, I'll have to take care of him as soon as I'm back on my feet.″
Brian didn't understand the look of consternation on Lisa's face as they listened to Taylor's words. But he knew that something was going on when he heard her say, ″But you'll take care of that other villain first, right? The one we talked about?″
He tried to catch Lisa's eye, but she ignored him, utterly focused on the girl in front of them, leaning forward as if to force an answer from the other through sheer will. Taylor's eyes were cool as they met Lisa's and something passed between them, something that Brian didn't understand. Finally, after a moment, the brunette gave a sharp nod. There was visible relief on Lisa's face as she slumped back against the back of the couch. Relief which she hid a moment later behind another grin.
It was clear that he was going to have to have another talk with Lisa. Something was going on. Something that she had set up with Tay- Carnelian. He blinked twice, rapidly.
It was time to be clear, Brian decided, on who exactly he was dealing with. Despite the girl being... he wasn't sure attractive was the right way to put it, but there was something about her that he liked. However, despite either that or the moments of seeming vulnerability displayed, she was still supremely dangerous. Her moments of emotional instability aside, he could not think of her as anything less than the person who had killed Hookwolf. To do otherwise could potentially put him and his team into a precarious position.
Getting up, he said his good nights, then headed for his room. Brian was at least satisfied that the girl wouldn't kill them in their sleep. Whatever else she would or wouldn't do, he was not so sure of. So he would get the favors he'd done her returned, then consider cutting ties with the vigilante. The relationship was a dangerous one and Brian frankly wasn't sure the protection she might afford outweighed the enemies she brought with her. Or the fact of who and what she was. He couldn't justify too many risks right now when he was so close to making things a reality with Aisha.
Still, if that were true, why was he having such a hard time maintaining his equanimity when it came to the girl in the other room?
~~~~~~Wrath~~~~~~
Taylor shook her head at the blonde sitting next to her. ″You know that Brian suspects something now, right? You should have been more careful.″
There was a surprising amount of bitterness in Lisa's voice as she said, ″Well, pardon me for not taking the idea of ending up a drug-addled drone whose only purpose for existence is to be brought out to Think about someone else's issues, then stuck back in a dark hole, completely calmly.″
The two girls looked at one another until Taylor finally gave a grudging nod. In a clipped tone, she said, ″Fine.″
Lisa ran nervous fingers through her hair, looking the least self-possessed she had done since first finding out about Taylor's identity. She blurted out, ″Look, I'm sorry. I'm just freaking out. I'm terrified about going against Coil. I'm afraid that even you won't be able to beat him. That he'll still be out there, ready to put me in a cage.″
″He won't win.″
″But if he gets away-″
″Will it really matter if his base is in ruins, his army broken and routed, and everything he holds precious destroyed?″ As she spoke, the words seemed to fill the room with a sensation of roaring trumpets and burning fields.
Taylor decided she had allowed a bit too much Wrath to fill her while speaking as she took in the pale features of the girl beside her. She decided to give the other girl some of what she had given her. Taylor reached over and took Lisa's cold fingers in her own. Gently squeezing the girl's hand, she said in a reassuring tone, ″It's going to be fine, Lisa. I'll protect you. Just focus on finding out what the deal is with Coil's power. It might or might not be important, but information is never wasted.″
The blonde's aura lost most of its pale blue color as Taylor spoke. Slowly her brilliant oranges and other colors came back. Taylor deliberately hugged Lisa, squeezing her firmly, although she carefully avoided using her Brute abilities granted by the Might Bracer.
When she finally leaned back, Lisa looked much calmer, her aura almost back to normal. She also had a vaguely suspicious look on her face as she asked, ″Did you just manage me?″
Taylor shrugged. ″More like I helped you with your emotional health. You needed some reassurance and a hug. You did it for me earlier. I was just returning the favor.″
She almost missed the muttered, ″Yeah, that's exactly how it feels.″
The words drew a reluctant grin from Taylor as she remembered how Lisa had manipulated her in the store on the Boardwalk. It was a good feeling to be on the other side of that exchange.
Lisa suddenly sat up and exclaimed, ″Shit! I forgot to ask how your leg's doing. Is it better?″
Taylor flexed the muscles in her lower leg, marveling at the response from a limb that less than twenty-four hours ago had been missing from the knee down. In an almost clinical tone, she said, ″It's mostly grown back, but the muscle tone is still lacking. I think it will fill out completely, but we'll see. Even if I have to build it back up with running, it'll be fine.″
Lisa looked torn, then finally asked in a hesitant tone, ″Do you think you'll be able to do something about Coil soon?″
Taylor smiled, aware that even before her lips creased that it wasn't a nice one. Meeting the green eyes of her new ally, she asked, ″Is tomorrow night soon enough for you?″
At Lisa's jerky nod, Taylor said, ″Good. Now, tell me everything you know about the man named Coil. Where his base is. What his assets are. Who he might go to for support and aid. Everything.″
With her eyes closed, Taylor listened carefully to every word out of the blonde's mouth. After several minutes, she held up a hand. Yes, she decided, it shouldn't be too hard to deal with Coil. A minor villain at best, his removal wouldn't affect Brockton Bay's crime statistics that much. But it would cement Lisa's loyalty to her, even if she wasn't one hundred percent sure that was something she wanted. Plus, there would be one less villain on the street. That could only be a good thing.
So tomorrow night, although she realized as she stared at the clock on the wall showing that it was around 4:00 AM, it was more like tonight, Taylor would deal with Coil. She would crush him and his base. End his threat to her city and to her... friend.
Anything else was unacceptable.
~~~~~~Wrath~~~~~~
AN: Next chapter, Coil. And the Travelers, plus...