Chapter 8
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A/n: Happy Halloween? I guess?
It's not a very spooky chapter, unfortunately.
Taylor Hebert sat in her room, staring absently at the blank page before her.
The page belonged to the secret journal she'd devoted to her...heroic endeavors. Taylor figured that it probably wasn't the best practice to keep a running notebook that would out her as a cape instantly, but she also knew that if she didn't organize her thoughts somehow, she'd go insane. She hid it well, as well as she could, by stuffing it in a crawlspace in the attic using various spiders, cockroaches, ants, and whatever else was on hand. If she didn't know exactly where it was, and had it marked with the right pheromones with her swarm, she'd have probably never found it herself.
So why was her ultra-secure hero journal blank?
Because, simply put, she felt lost.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? She thought.
She wasn't even really staring at the page, instead she was running through everything that had happened over the past couple days. There'd been the bullying of course, same as it ever was, but compared to everything else it barely even registered.
She'd gone out!
She'd actually gone out as….as...well, she didn't have name, but Taylor had gone out to be a hero!
And...had almost died.
Burningbleedingdyingcoughingchokinggaggingdyinghurtingfadingwheezingdyingdyingdying!
Her throat closed up at the thought, eyes burning at the memory of pain, fingers clenching at the unforgettable whisper of death on her ear.
So close. So close…
Compared to that, what was getting shoved in a locker?
Darkandaloneandcrawlingonheralonealonealoneeverywherecrampedpainandbleedingalonealonealonefadingscreamingnooneherenoonecaresalonealonealone
Taylor shuddered.
Too much… she concluded. Too much.
Forcing her mind back to the present, she tried to think about what she was going to do next.
Which brought her back to the blank page.
Taylor knew she didn't have a great power. Controlling bugs wasn't exactly triumvirate tier. Yet, she'd thought she could do some good. Make a difference if she leveraged her power the right way.
And I almost died for that on my first night out… Taylor couldn't help but note.
What had her power done to Lung? Pissed him off just enough to enjoy killing her slowly.
She hadn't even saved anyone, not like she meant to. Thieves, Lung had called them. Looking it up, Taylor had found out that a group of parahumans had recently made off with a big heist from the Ruby Dreams Casino, a place well known to be a shady front for the ABB. Said group, the Undersiders, was thought to be a collection of teenagers who performed smash and grab heists on targets of opportunity.
Or in other words, villains. She'd saved a bunch of villains.
All so they could rob again another day.
What a hero she was.
To be clear, Taylor didn't want the Undersiders to die. She wouldn't really wish an angry Lung on anyone, except maybe E88...or the Merchants...or the S9...or the tri-
She shook the thought from her head and tried to focus again on what she had done right. She'd prevent Lung from killing a bunch of people. People who'd incurred his wrath through crime, she reminded herself, but she'd still helped somebody.
And...it had only nearly cost her life.
Thescentofburningfleshsmokeintheairbloodinhernoseinherhtoratbleedingburningdyningdyingdying!
Taylor forced the nightmares down again, gritting her teeth and fighting a lump in her throat all the while. How was she supposed to be a hero, somebody who fought crime and made a difference in the world, when she couldn't even fight her own fears?
No, she needed to be better, to bounce back from this. She couldn't let them win, couldn't let this break her.
Alright she thought with renewed vigor, What went wrong?
She walked through the timeline as she remembered it, gingerly stepping around all the pain and fear and bleedingburningchoking- instead trying to focus on the clinical progression of things.
She'd found the gangster, heard them talk about killing kids...which was wrong...so…
Incomplete information. She thought, I only had a basic understanding of what was happening and who Lung was talking about. What if Oni Lee had been nearby? What if he was going to fight the E88?
Taylor shook her angrily before the ideas of how wrong it could have gone got to her.
then jotted it down in her notebook.
What went wrong?
First mistake, incomplete information.
That done, she moved on. Going section by section, line by line, event by event, she tried narrowing down the moment it all went wrong. The more she thought about it, however, the more Taylor was starting to think it wasn't any one singular moment at all.
I think...I approached the whole thing wrong.
Taylor blinked, cocking her head as she looked at the list of mistakes.
Incomplete information, sub optimal positioning, lack of control, lack of information, direct confrontation, insufficient offensive power, lack of mobility, lack of options, lack of protection, lack of information…
A lot of those weren't things she could really change much given her powers. The spider-silk suit just couldn't cut it with Lung, and having a swarm of bugs could only do so much.
But information...that might be something she could get a handle on.
In hindsight, it seemed kind of obvious. She had a Master power, after all.
Now Taylor just had to figure out how to optimize her efforts.
Just then, her Swarm alerted her to movement outside. A lot of movement.
She still didn't have a good enough grasp on her swarm to really see and hear very well through it, but she could get the general picture of what was happening if she had enough bugs in the area. Right now, every critter in front of the house was detecting a whole lot of big something heading towards her house. After a moment of effort trying to get a better perspective on the whole thing, she finally realized what was happening.
People.
A bunch of people were making their way to her house. If it was one or two, Taylor would have found it odd, but brushed it off. Over a dozen, however, was cause for concern.
Her stomach dropped and a burst of panic shot through her.
Why are they here? Who are they? Is it because of when I went out? Do they know I'm a cape?
In that moment, Taylor desperately wished that she had a window in her room to the front yard. In lue of a view, she reached out with her Swarm, sending tentative scouts of mosquitoes and flies to inspect the people. In the meantime, she got up and got dressed. Part of her considered putting on her costume, but it would take far too long to slip into her armored bodysuit. Instead, she just grabbed a can of mace, a baseball bat, and a scarf, and hoped against hope that it was just some girl scouts or something.
When her swarm found the first gun, she knew she was wrong.
By the time she found the fifth, her heart was already thundering in her chest.
Is it the ABB? Did they find me? Do they think I killed Lung? Oh god, what if it's the Merchants, or the Empire or-
Taylor threw open the door to her room, almost sprinting to the stairs. Her dad was still home, and was in fact just watching tv in the living room, so he was still in danger of-
Knock knock knock
"Coming!" her dad called.
Taylor's heart leapt into her throat, and she all but flew down the stairs. Her swarm, as meager as it was at the moment, gathered in the shadows of neighboring houses, just waiting to pounce. Part of her wanted to just jump on them, to seize the initiative. But she still didn't have enough information. Maybe it was the ABB, but what if it was the police? Or the PRT? If she just attacked them like this she'd be outed and put on Brockton Bay's most wanted in a heartbeat.
But what if it was the ABB? What could she do? With those guns...she'd done enough research to know that not much in the house could stop a bullet if those things went flying. What if one hit her? Or her dad? What if they got captured, what if-
The door opened.
Taylor stopped at the corner leading to the entrance, took a breath, hid the bat behind her, and peaked around the corner.
"Uh...hello?" Her dad said, with all the intelligence of an overworked man at the end of his shift. In his awkwardness, he shifted, letting her see who was at the door.
Taylor nearly dropped her bat in shock.
It was the woman, the hooded woman who'd saved her. Who'd pulled her from almost certain death. The one who seemed so familiar.
But why on earth was she here? And how had she found Taylor?
"...Oh...Danny…" the hooded woman said in a thick, watery, and strangely familiar voice.
Her dad shifted his bearing, going from awkward, to annoyed. "Yes? Is there something I can help you with?" he said in a no-nonsense voice.
The woman let out a shaky chuckle and said, "Don't you recognize me?"
She pulled quivering hands up, and pulled down her hood.
"It's me, Danny."
This time Taylor did drop the bat.
The wood hit the ground with a loud clatter that rang like thunder through the dumbstruck hall. Her father whirled around at the sound, looking at her with those same shocked eyes he no doubt saw on herself, the action leaving causing him to shift out of the way to provide a better view of…
"Oh," Taylor's long-dead mother said, hand over her mouth in a choked back sob, "Taylor? Little Owl is that-?"
This...this can't be happening Taylor thought to herself. Mom...she's dead, she's been dead, it...it has to be some kind of master or stranger or or
"Taylor, I, wha-" Her dad stopped himself, shook his head, clenched his fists, and turned back to her mother. "I…" He stopped, took a deep breath, as if stealing himself for something, some kind of deep pain, then continued.
"I don't know who you are, but if you think you can come into my house, wearing my dead wife's face-" He growled at her, and Taylor could hear the very real rage simmering beneath it.
And that's what it had to be, right? It had to be someone impersonating her mother. Doing it to get to them, to get to her.
Oh god, she'd accidentally gotten her father pulled into some powerful Stranger's plot, hadn't she? That's who that woman who'd "saved" her had been? Had this whole thing just been a plot to lead up to this?
Oh god, Taylor thought, that's all this is, isn't it? Some kind of Master/Stranger plot to...to…drag me into her gang. And I lead her right to dad, didn't I?
Because that's what had to be happening right? Her mother was dead, had to be, had to be. Plus, why would some random cape turn up with over a dozen armed thugs at her back? It even explained other things, like the fight with Lung. What kind of hero would just have someone killed like that? Even one someone like Lung?
"Wait, what?" her mom-That Stranger, recoiled in genuine-Feigned shock. "Danny, I!"
But Taylor's father was already working himself up into a true boiling rage.
"Shut it! I already lost her once. I'm not going to have you puppeting her corpse like a damn-!" He started, fury boiling over at the heartless desecration of his wife's memory.
And then another voice cut him off.
"I'm...going to step in here before we get too much drama." Said a half stern, half awkward, yet also strangely familiar voice from behind her mother-Her.
The owner of the voice put a hand on her mother-Her shoulder, pulling her back and revealing…
"Miss Militia?" Her dad said, anger bleeding out into shock. He looked between the hometown Protectorate hero, and her mother-Her, and couldn't seem to resolve the two. "I...I don't…"
Behind Miss Milita, Taylor could sense more figures shifting around, many armed with guns. After getting glimpses of them from around Miss Militia and Her, Taylor realized that they were PRT troopers.
The people who had rolled up on her house was that Woman, who was escorted by Miss Milita and a small army of PRT troopers. A Stranger couldn't just fake that, right? Not all that. So it had to be real, but the PRT also wouldn't just lead a Stranger into their house either, right? They'd run tests, they'd make sure it wasn't a stranger, wasn't a trick.
But...Taylor thought to herself, almost desperately clinging to the old world she'd grown accustomed too, but that's impossible right? I mean...she...she has to be dead.
Mom can't just come back, right?
"Mr. Hebert" Miss Militia began "I'm sure you have many questions about all this, but at the Chief Director's request, we've spent the past two days running every test we could think of to verify her identity. Even Watchdog was weighing in on this."
"By all possible measures known to us, and by the PRT's best judgement, Mr Hebert, this." Miss Milita gestured to her mother-Her deaddeaddeadmother, who seemed to be on the verge of tears, "is your wife."
Miss Milita glanced between the two again, with Annette Hebert offering Danny and Taylor a watery smile.
"I-I'm sorry I'm late."
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A few minutes later they were all sitting around the living room. A space that had gone unused in the Hebert household for so long, Taylor couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in it.
Of course, that could also be the result of the presence of her dead mother just sitting there, drinking a cup of tea. Or perhaps Miss Militia sitting on a stool on one side of the room. It could also be the small army of PRT troopers awkwardly standing around, trying not to look threatening. Taylor also considered if the presence of Hector and Veronica, two of those who'd helped her mother save her life from Lung, looming around her mother could factor in.
Then again, maybe it was just one of those nights.
"So…" Miss Militia began from her somewhat awkward position on her side of the room. "I'm sure you have a few questions about all this, Mr. Hebert."
Taylor's father just hummed and stared at his coffee. After the earlier chaos, rage, and denial, all the energy had seemed to drain out of him, like he couldn't keep up with the emotional whiplash.
Taylor found she couldn't really blame him, given she was in a similar boat. If she was honest, she wasn't even sure how she felt. Not entirely.
I guess...I guess I feel like I'm in a dream… She admitted to herself.
And how could she not? Not three days ago she'd gone out for her first night as a cape, and had nearly been slowly beaten and burned to death by the most dangerous single parahuman in the bay. Only to be rescued by a new cape running a team of experience heroes who worked together like clockwork to kill Lung, of all things, at which point she healed Taylor from near certain agonizing death. Then she got to meet Armsmaster and Miss Militia and New Wave, and then it was over. Except it wasn't because, surprise surprise, the woman who saved her life turned out to be her dead mother come back from beyond the grave.
Given that, Taylor felt understandably emotionally drained.
"Ok," Miss Milita said after a moment in the awkward silence, "Well...to clarify, Lady Hebert-"
"It's just Annette," Her mother insisted in a painfully familiar tone of exasperation.
Something that Taylor swore got a smile out of Miss Militia, small as it was.
"Lady Hebert," She repeated, and Taylor could just hear the smirk, "Is working with the government to create a diplomatic agreement between the Order of Heroes and the United States."
At that, her father looked up at the two of them with a befuddled look on his face, as if he couldn't comprehend what any of this had to do with each other, and why his dead-alive wife was involved.
"Lady Hebert," Miss Militia explained, getting a tired sigh from Taylor's mother, "Is the leader of the Order of Heroes, which itself is…" She turned to regard her mother.
"It's basically like a multiversal NATO." She shrugged, "But...I guess where every member kingdom is from a different fantasy world."
"Well," Hector chimed in, "Not every kingdom is from a different world, there's-"
"Yeah yeah yeah," She waved him off, "But it's close enough, right?"
"It's inaccurate." Veronica commented in a flat voice.
Her mother just sighed.
"Ah…" was all her father said before he went back to staring at his coffee.
Miss Milita shared a number of uncomfortable glances with the room, while her dead-alive mother seemed to deflate a bit.
"Well...are there any pressing questions you have for us?" Miss Milita asked, gingerly prodding the ice over her father to see whether he'd thaw or shatter. "I know this is probably quite sudden, but we're doing whatever we can to help...smooth out any wrinkles during this time, as it were. So, anything we can do to help Mr. Hebert?"
For a moment, Taylor's father didn't really seem to react. He just starred at his steaming cup of coffee, watching as the dark mixture slowly swirled around. Eventually, though, he took a sip.
When he was done, he opened his mouth, stopped, and opened it again. He went through half-starts what felt like a half-dozen times, and the entire room was hanging on his every breath, just waiting for him to take that first step.
"So…" Taylor's father finally began.
The words were so awkward and forced that Taylor couldn't help but wince. She wasn't alone, if the wrinkle in Miss Milita's bandanna was any indication, though the sheer awkwardness of it did force a pitying snort from her mother's lips.
"So…" her mother smiled, though Taylor could still see the red rimming her eyes.
"So...what...uh…" Her father fumbled with his own mug of coffee.
He still couldn't just talk to her. The thought lit a bit of anger in Taylor, that even now he could make that step forward, how even with mom back he was still so empty and withdrawn.
Why can't he just ask-!
"What happened?" Taylor muttered.
For a moment, her heart stopped.
Did I say that too loud? Did that sound too angry? She panicked. Hell, on one level she thought it might be better if no one heard it.
"Ah…"
No such luck.
"That…" her mother sighed. "Is a good question."
"And a long story."
For a moment, her mother just sat there, frowning into her cup of tea as she tried to pull her thoughts together.
"...When...when the...accident happened…" She started slowly, each word forced from her lips like each was its own ordeal. "I...I almost died. I would have, should have...but…"
She trailed off again. She sighed, hunched over her cup like the magnitude of her story and everything it meant was weighing down on her.
"But…"
The words seemed to be too much now. Too much to say, and no way to say it. What had happened to her mother? What had happened in that live beyond death, one that had turned her into...this?
The tension in the room was rising, all eager to hear what would happen next. All hanging off her every word. Yet, it seemed as if Taylor might never hear her mother's story, such was the burden they placed upon her.
Fortunately, she had friends.
"Askr performed a holy summoning ritual so ancient no one was quite sure what it would do, other than hopefully bring forth the divine hero Kiran." Veronica broke the ice with a deadpan voice. "Instead, it summoned your half-dead mother."
It was enough to shake her mother out of her reveries, and get her to halfheartedly whine "Hey…"
Her father stared at them blankly for a moment. Frankly, he wasn't alone.
"...what?"
Seeing the conversation dying again, Hector seized the initiative.
"And then she unlocked the power of the ancient relic, Breidablik! And with it, she opened the gateways and forged many an unbreakable bond with the greatest Heroes from across the outrealms!" Hector chimed in with his bellowing voice.
"Which she used to fight an alternate misguided me." Veronica added.
"Well...I wouldn't phrase it that way, but…" Her mother protested with more energy.
"Then the multiverse was on fire! And the dead rose to consume the living! And Nightmares walked the land! So Kiran picked up her kaleidoscope gun, and led an army of heroes, legends, and myths to put the uppity gods all in their place!"
"What?!" Her mother almost shrieked, suddenly bursting with indignant energy. "It didn't happen like that!"
"It did."
"Veronica!"
"And after forging multi-versal alliance to challenge the very heavens, she gathered us all together in a massive army of the greatest Heroes across all time and space to lay siege to the cruel gods above! Marching on the malicious machinations of the divine for daring stand in her way and manipulate the people in their cruel games!"
"Hector!"
"And after breaking the All-father's will with nothing but her wit and a knife-!"
"Oh Grima kill me now."
"-She was finally able to force the gods to allow her to return home!" Hector finished triumphantly.
For a moment, there was a stunned beat, during which her mother hung her head in her hands and looked very much like she'd rather the ground just swallow her up.
"...what?"
Taylor wasn't sure who said it, but it seemed to be the general sentiment going around the room.
"...ok, most of that didn't happen." Her mother shot a glare at Hector, one which bounced off the polished shine of his smile. "But...generally...a similar series of events did take place."
"...I see…" her father said, staring into his mug as he slowly, almost hypnotically, stirred it. For a moment, the silence hung over them, waiting like a guillotine to bring the ice once more. Would they return to the uncomfortable tenseness of before? Just when Taylor feared they would return to it, her father spoke once more.
"...So...you fight gods now?"
There was a beat...
And then her mother groaned miserably.
But, despite that, Taylor saw the barest hint of a smile creeping up upon both their lips.
And Taylor, despite herself, couldn't help but have one of her own.
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A/n:
Alright, the chapters actually done.
Not gonna lie, the end kinda snuck up on me. I wasn't sure how I was going to end it and then I got to "You fight gods now?" and I was like, "Oh, that's how this ends."
Like...it just clicked.
Oh, so good.
That said, not 1000% sure how well I did on the emotions here. As I've not been in anything even resembling Danny's position, there's only so much I can really put myself in his shoes and write from his perspective. Plus different people have different reactions to grief, which would probably translate to reverse grief. I'm also not entirely sure I did Taylor right, as it's been a while since I've read Worm proper and there's about a thousand different variations of her in the fandom. Plus people always seem to raise a fuss about "TINO", so that's a worry.
That said, while I'm not perfectly confident in all the emotional reactions in this chapter, I'm happy enough, and I'd rather not let Perfect become the enemy of Good Enough. To that end, I'd rather end the chapter on a high note than an angsty cliffhanger. While I would say that the Hebert family dynamic is far from being in anything resembling a happy and healthy state, it has taken it's first step on the road to recovery.
And I decided not to make that step drawn out angst.
I've got enough angsty dramatic stories, and 2020 is shitty enough, I'd like to write about happy shit for once.