Anyone who knew anything about Brockton Bay knew that one of the number one places that fresh capes went to train their fledgling powers in the city was the Boat Graveyard. It was a place on the northern edge of the bay where boats from across the area had washed up due to a Leviathan attack on Newfoundland, and the large rusting husks both on the shoreline and further out in the water were the perfect way for people with new powers to test their mettle. It was also the perfect place to draw the attention of the big three gangs.

That was why, instead of heading down to the Boat Graveyard to let off my steam by attacking a bunch of rusting boats, I was sitting on a bench on top of the hill that overlooked it all munching on a now half cold burger and soggy fries. I didn't care so much about the food anymore, my anger was pushing everything else out of the way.

My Dad infuriated me. Before Mom died he had been the most caring and most loving man in the world, and I got why he wasn't now. It made sense, he had lost someone who had meant a lot to him, his work had dried up because of the boat graveyard and leviathan attacks across the world stymying ocean trade. He had a lot to be depressed about. But he also had a daughter going through the exact same crap that he had to look out for. Was I being so selfish as to expect him to step up, just a little? I didn't think so.

I had thought my becoming a cape would be the straw that broke the camels back, the thing that finally got him to take a stand against things like the bullies at school, the thing that would finally get him to start caring again. But even all of that hadn't been enough, he'd just seemed to recede in on himself even further. It was vexing. I'd tried being nice, I'd tried being distant, and now I'd tried being angry. Nothing had brought my Dad back to me. Was I just going to have to give up on him?

The thought made my stomach lurch, and I put my half-eaten burger down to the side. That was a thought that I didn't want to understand. I still loved my Dad, and I was never going to give up on him, I just needed some time to cool off. To settle into the new dynamic that my life had taken on, then I'd apologise to him again and not go off on a tirade if he didn't react how I was hoping he would.

A scream filtered up from the Boat Graveyard, piercing and shrill. I stood up in an instant, my food and my thoughts were forgotten in a split second. I hadn't been planning on doing any hero work. I just wanted to get out of the house, to get some distance so I could cool off, but what kind of hero would I be if I let a scream like that go unanswered.

My deck box was in my hand, and I was taking out the first card before the thought had even crossed my mind.

"Stand up, The Vanguard!"

A flash of light consumed my base form and…

xXx

…I was somewhere else entirely. The view before me felt familiar somehow as if I'd seen it somewhere in a dream. The sky stretched on forever, bright and blue, speckled with streaks of pure white cloud. My breath caught on the frigid fresh morning air, floating above the atmosphere of whatever world I was on were numerous moons, and dominating the visage, a large ringed planet.

I had been here before, hadn't I? Some distant memory, hazy like a dream, I had seen this exact scene before me and forgotten it. What did it mean?

I was stood in a valley of some kind, but my body was hazy and immaterial as if it wasn't really there. In the distance, two men in similar armour were fighting with swords that would have put anything Armsmaster built to shame. One armoured figure was dressed in blue and white, while the other was dressed in purple and black. Their armours looked near-identical, large spikes came off the shoulders and flared around their waists like some kind of battle skirt. Out of their helmets were glowing red gems, that flickered ominously as they circled one another. The white armoured figure wielded a sword that was thin and elegant, while the one in black armour used something much chunkier that tapered off into two distinct points. One looked geared toward elegant combat, the other to kill without mercy

The two burst toward each other in a flurry of movement. They moved too fast for my eye to track, swords crashing into one another in magnificent bursts of sparks. Each time the two figures intersected parts of the landscape were brutally cut away in explosions generated purely by the force of the wind that their strikes produced.

Then, with a lurch in my heart, the figure in white armour tumbled. He skid across the landscape until he came to a stop just shy of where I was standing. The figure in black armour stalked toward his prey, now that he was down it was as if he no longer felt the need to rush with all his power. The smirk on his face, he was going to enjoy what came next.

For the first time, it seemed as if the figure in white had noticed me. Our eyes met, and his widened in what looked like shocked recognition. I felt that if I could just reach out to grasp his now outstretched hand I could somehow change the outcome of this battle.

His lips moved, and I could just barely make out some of the words…

"My Avatar…"

I looked up at the one dressed in purple and black armour, he had noticed me too. Our eyes met, and his smile became even wider. The figure started to run.

xXx

I had been worried that considering my Wingal Brave form didn't have any shoes, my paws would get cold on the frigid, snowy, ground. Luckily it was something I didn't have to worry about, if anything the snow actually felt quite nice. I rolled my shoulders, gripped the blade between my teeth a little tighter, and dashed off down the side of the hill toward the commotion.

Now that I was in my breaker state my hearing had been greatly enhanced, and I was able to pinpoint exactly where my enemies were and what they were up to. There were five of them, all men, and two women. I wasn't surprised by the disgusting things they were saying they had lined up for the girls, but my stomach did roil in disgust all the same. This was going to be different from the fight with Dragon's mech suit. They would most likely be armed with lethal weapons, any one of them could be a cape, and they wouldn't be holding back in the slightest. Not only that, I'd have to be careful not to do any lasting damage to them. If I could slice through whatever hardened metal Dragon had used for her drones and mech suit, the idea of what I would be able to do to normal human flesh was not something I wanted to try out.

I bounded down the side of the hill and came to a skidding stop. They weren't even trying to be subtle about it. Five men, covered in Empire tattoos and gear, holding two women against a wall right on the side of the street. I let a deep guttural growl rip out of my chest. The reaction was immediate, the men were on edge straight away.

"Did you hear that?" One of them muttered.

"Sounded like one of Bitch's dogs," another said, must have been the name of another cape in the area.

"I thought she only attacked Hookwolf's fighting rings?" A third weighed in. I chose that time to let another growl out, and slowly stalked toward my prey.

"Well, it sounds like one of Bitch's dogs, and I'm not sticking around to find out," the first speaker spoke up again, followed by the sudden clatter of footsteps… right toward me.

I pounced as he passed by me and used my weight to shove him down to the ground. He landed with a yelp, and I realised then that I had no way to tie him up or keep him quiet. I checked out my hand, there were 2 other grade 0's, a grade 1 in the form of Little Sage, Marron, and then 2 grade 3's in the form of Solitary Knight, Gancelot and Soul Saver Dragon.

I silently summoned Flogal and had the pink dog sit soundly on the gangster's chest. That didn't stop him from crying out about his situation.

"The dogs are over here!" He called out before Flogal silenced him with a paw on the face.

There was silence from the rest of the gangsters, they didn't seem eager to help their friend out. Their silence wouldn't help them, my nose was more than good enough to pick up the scent of their fear.

I broke out into a run and barrelled straight into the group of gangsters. They stood even less of a chance against me than Dragon's drones had, even if I was forcing myself to play it safe so that none of them got hurt. I didn't want any of them to try suing me for brutal conduct or anything like that. Time slowed as I rounded a car, all four of them were there. One of them was dialling on his phone and had just started to pull the device up to his ear, while the other three were all readying their weapons. One knife, two pistols. I didn't know if I was bulletproof, and I didn't really want to find out, so they would be the first to go.

I lept off the ground, leaving small hairline fractures in my wake, and whipped my tail around. It struck the chest of both gangsters with a resounding thud and sent them both tumbling to the ground. I took my own blade and sliced their weapons cleanly in two, they wouldn't be shooting anyone tonight.

I heard the gangster with the knife charge toward me, yelling a wordless battle cry as he did. I met his downward strike with a parry of my own blade. I twisted to the right and the mundane knife skittered away across the ground. One pounce and he was down too. I summoned my other Grade 0, this one was Future Knight, Llew. He was the first human character I had ever summoned, I wondered if he would have the power of speech.

The boy manifested in the familiar white glow I had come to associate with my power, next to him stood a lithe red and grey metallic hound. If he did have the ability to speak he didn't say anything. He simply pulled out a long strand of rope and tied the hands of one of the gangsters, while his dog kept watch on the other two. I decided then that they could handle themselves, and began my pursuit of the final gangster.

"We need backup damn it," the gangster wheezed as he ran, "This demented dog came out of nowhere and took everyone out, it was over in a flash."

I was gaining on him, his two human legs had no chance against my four.

"Down by the Boat Graveya-" I had caught up with him and pounced on him from behind. His head bounced off the pavement with a heavy thud, and I could only hope that he didn't have some kind of permanent injury from the attack.

"Derrick?" A voice from the phone crackled out, "Are you there?"

"Not anymore," I growled around my knife. "These streets are protected. Don't return." I brought a paw down on the phone and it cracked apart in an instant.

With no hands, I had to settle on dragging the unconscious gangster back to the others by one leg. When I got back I could see that Llew had finished tying up the three gangsters I'd left him with, and had even gone to grab Flogal so he could tie up the fourth. He had then settled down against the tire of a car with his arms behind his head so he could simply look at the stars, his red and white mecha dog curled up next to him.

"Which one of you has a phone?" I snarled, allowing my gaze to pass over all four of them.

"There's one in my back pocket, if you didn't break it that is," one of them spat, I recognised him as the first gangster I had taken down.

"Llew, please relieve him of his phone," I said with a toothy grin, allowing my blade to hang loosely from the side of my mouth.

Llew stood with a huff and sauntered over to the captured gangster, he seemed to have an attitude on him when the commands weren't to do with fighting, thankfully the phone was easy to find. I talked the Knight through how to open up the call interface and had him enter the number I remembered to be the PRT's switchboard.

"PRT Headquarters, how may I help you?" A tinny woman's voice came from the speakers.

"This is Vanguard, you have me down as Codename Tile," I said, trying to keep the natural growl out of my voice. There was a moment's silence.

"Ah yes, here we are, your file says to transfer your call to Director Piggot or Deputy Director Renick."

"That won't be necessary," I cut her off. "I've apprehended five Empire 88 gang members, is this the appropriate channel to go through to get them picked up?"

"Oh… I see…" The woman seemed taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation topic. "Yes, I'll get a squad sent your way right now!"

I nodded to Llew and he hung the phone up before throwing it back onto the lap of the captured gangster, and then settled back down in his former position.

I wasn't so ready to relax. That gangster had managed to get a call off to someone else in the Empire, and that meant that there was probably some form of reinforcements incoming. The Empire couldn't let someone walk all over their guys like this, it was bad for their reputation, and a hit to their reputation was a hit to their business. They wouldn't stand for it. Whether they'd send in more armed normals or a cape was something I had no way of knowing, so I wasn't going to rest on my laurels just yet.

Ten minutes later and my paranoia was proven correct. At first, it was just the scent of metal on the breeze, but then I heard two heavy boots hit the ground, alongside the heavy clank of metal on metal. I turned and was faced with a tall man wearing medieval-style armour and carrying an even taller spear. So, they'd sent one of their capes.

"Come out, come out wherever you are Bitch," The cape called out. "Hookwolf doesn't want me to kill you, he wants to do that himself, but I'm allowed to rough you up a bit first."

I rolled the shoulders of my front legs and prepared to leap up onto one of the cars. I was about to engage in my first ever real cape fight, and the excitement outweighed any level of fear.

AUTHORS NOTE

OH NO A CLIFF HANGER! I don't usually like to throw cliffhangers into the mix, they feel cheap, but I also know that if I write this fight in this chapter it'll balloon to like 6000 words, and I'm trying to keep to a certain length with every chapter I release so I can keep these coming out smoothly every weekend, which means you're going to have to wait until tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion to this arc! Points to whoever knows what underutilized cape Taylor's going to be facing off against in her first fight!