AN: So obviously it has obviously been a long while since I wrote anything for this. But it's been a little since I did fanfiction writing for any of my stories. While I do have ideas for some of the others, it is long past time that I resumed writing Storm Queen, particularly when it is still very much an unfinished story.

The previous segment was given edits to the HimiTay/High Score ambush and expanded. Feel free to let me know what you think. The end result is still the same, but I fleshed it out more.

As always please leave your thoughts and reviews; good, bad, and strange.

The sounds of swarms of bugs, a veritable plague surged in the air around me as I sucked air into my lungs desperately. My connection to the land was tenuous at best. I had barely dedicated my dominion of it yet with the moons. But the magic was there, however weak, barely a trickle of a stream. But a trickling stream was enough for this purpose.

Grunting I stood, my hand tightly gripping the metal railing of the bleachers. I should see that it was so tight that my knuckles were pale with the force I exerted on the metal. With the magic trickling into me, surging through my body beneath the limits of my skin, I had enough strength to hear the metal groaning against the force I applied against it. When I moved my hand farther along the railing I glanced back. There, just barely was an indentation where I had gripped the metal. A grimace not born of the agony I was still in twisted at my lips.

Holding back the whimpers I forced myself to walk down the balcony, ducking low beneath the bugs that were completely avoiding me. What parahuman was responsible for them I knew not, likely someone else in the stadium. But that was a matter for later. I let myself fall onto the ground at the edge of the beaches and a gasp of relief escaped me as my bloody hands made contact with the grass and dirt. The flow of magic of the land as it recognized me increased. I pulled more, calling on the land to rejuvenate its ruler and sovereign, and the city obeyed.

Seconds passed as I could feel my wounds closing and healing. The lingering damage the foul tinker tech weapon had done to me was at last undone and I rose on feet that were steady and sure once more. My eyes scanned the crowds around me, taking everything in, looking over those that panicked at the tragedy befalling the student-athletes. My gaze turned to flicker to the booth that even now the biblical plague was still eclipsing. High Score was beyond my reach. I dare not invade his mind and rip the secrets from it when there was another dealing with him. I would need to deal with Uber and Leet on my own without High Score's insights.

Still, I had some way to guess where the two man-children were. They were capable of seeing the field, to direct the athletes about for their 'game'. If they were doing that, they had to be able to see it. I glanced up at my sky where my wrath rolled overhead, lightning flashing, again and again, illuminating the city as my fury was on display for all to see it. With magic flooding my body so fully, my connection to the land opened wide I could make out a tiny shape darting through the sky. Something small, metallic, zipping back and forth in every direction, following the course of the game and never leaving the limits of the field.

My hand clenched into a fist and the sky responded. A bolt of lightning descended with all the fury the peasants who had given me worship befitting a goddess had been in fear of. My lips twisted into a sadistic smile as I could hear Leet screaming in anger, cursing to the air through the speaker system. His profanity wasn't from the game. Whatever that piece of metal in my sky had been, it had been important to him.

Stepping forward I forced my way through the crowd of panicking parents and spectators. There was total chaos around me. NO one seemed in agreement in course of action. There was no unity here. All panicked and so their course impeded the others around them. I took advantage to move forward as they came, ducking and dodging limbs from those who meant me no harm but would still trample me beneath their feet with no concern for themselves and their children.

I could feel the need for order all around me. These people needed me. They needed my protection to safeguard them against the monsters who preyed upon their children. But they also needed my hand directing their lives, giving them purpose and guidance as they carried out my will as their sovereign.

The edge of the field was an oasis from the frenzy of the crowds. But I could not just step out. It was not simply that there were people watching, and my face was no longer covered. No there was a barrier, a forcefield, the same glowing blue as the eyes of High Score's helmet even though he had been dealt with. I could not breach it, pressing it, even pushing magic into it produced no yield in the energy that barred my path. The panic was still pressing at my back, I could not retreat, so instead, I forced my way along the side around the edge of the field.

Players moved on the field, not with the eagerness of student-athletes playing a sport they loved, nor did they have the panicked movements of hostages. There was a roboticness to their movements as if something was guiding them or controlling them, individually as if they were robots. I doubted this was the work of a Master parahuman, instead, it was far more likely that this was some of High Score or Leet's tinker tech at work. If I could find and destroy it, I could free the players and end the villain's amusements before dealing with them properly.

I needed to make an example of them as a warning to others...

I had a stroke of fortune when I was approaching the player benches near the midpoint of the field. I could finally see one of the villains standing near the players holding something that might have been a computer laptop in his hand. He was staring at it intently. He wasn't looking back. The forcefield still blocked me just as it blocked everyone else from stepping onto the field. But I could still strike at him the whole field and all who stood on it might as well be in the palm of my hand when my wrath filled the sky.

I brought my judgment down on him, lightning striking with the fury of the ancients down onto the monster in human flesh that preyed upon the children and innocents of the world, using them to play out a sick game. His body scream but none could hear it as thunder eclipsed his agony sending everyone around me cowering and flinching from the light and the noise of my anger. I brought another bolt of lightning down again, striking him once more, and another followed after, and more still. Seven bolts struck at him before the lightning began to strike directly at the forcefield around the edges of the field. I let myself be pulled back by a random stranger in the crowd. The villain, whichever one that had been having suffered the penalty for harming the people of my land. I would seek out the other in due time, let him stew in his fear of me. For now, I let the storm strike down over and over again at the forcefield wall.

It was as I was being pulled through the wall though that my attention was torn away as I realized it wasn't some stranger who had grabbed me and was pulling me backward through the crush of the crowd to safety, but Dad. Behind me, something exploded and Dad pulled me down to the ground, covering me partially with his body, shielding me from my wrath as if I was in any danger. I wasn't, but he had no way of knowing that. I looked at him and paused for a moment as the thing I expected to see the most in his gaze was absent.

There was no panic... no fear... He looked at me with a gaze that reminded me of my own when I looked in the mirror... When had he gained the steadiness to remain calm as chaos swirled around us in a cacophony of sound and frenzy? He turned to look away. Not looking at the chaos around us, only pulling me through the crowd. Enthralled by the mystery of his surety I let him pull me along. I had neutered the villain, visiting upon them my judgment. I could deal with the third later and display the body for the city to find. For now, Dad monopolized my attention and focus.

Breaking free of the turmoil at the edge of the parking lot he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and was hurrying me along to where he had parked the car back when we had arrived. I let him lead me, still shielding me as much as he could with his body. We reached the vehicle and he opened the passenger getting me inside and closing the door safely after me. There was a moment as my storm illuminated his face and his rain-soaked features were grim with a purpose I did not know. I watched him circle around the truck and reach the door on the driver's side, entering and at last finding shelter from my storm as the wrath of the sky still displayed my fury for the city to feel.

He said nothing, his hand moving the key into the ignition and starting the engine before putting the car in gear and slowly rolling forward trying to get us out and away from all of it. Red brake lights surrounded us as the windshield wipers furiously tried and failed to keep the rain off the glass. I turned my head looking out at the window, at the rain beating down relentlessly. Perhaps I should let my rage subside a little if only so Dad and everyone else could actually get out of the parking lot.

In the space of the next minute or two, the rain had lessened and I could see past the car in front of us. In the distance, the flashing lights of the police, or emergency services, perhaps even the PRT were approaching. I let the rain continue to slowly disperse and lessen as Dad slowly inched the truck towards the exit of the parking lot.

It took a moment of patience to wait for the PRT vans to fully move out of the way of the parking lot but at last, we were finally out of the parking lot and rolling down the street. I turned back, looking out of the cab's rear window at the lights flashing, and the diminishing shape of Winslow's buildings as we left the school behind us.

"How long have you been a parahuman Taylor?"

My eyes jumped to Dad. He was still facing forward, looking at the road, where he was driving. His eyes never even glanced at me, just looking ahead. My gaze dropped to his hands. He was gripping the wheel tightly, his knuckles white with the force.

"Was it on the island?"

He finally glanced at me for a moment, looking at me, studying me. I met his gaze squarely, not flinching. He looked away, not surrendering, just looking back to the road, continuing to drive.

"You are covered in blood but don't have injuries. You were attacked, badly, and yet you are now fine... You can heal. Was it the island?"

His gaze shifted back to me once more, his eyes questioning me as he quietly interrogated me as we rode in the truck together.

"Is that why you don't have the scar on your belly you told Aisha you had to cauterize?"

I was silent, saying nothing to Dad as he continued to probe.

"You're different now Taylor. Not just because you were gone. That's understandable. But this is something more. Sometimes I feel like you're not you anymore."

He glanced back at me, still seeking answers to questions I wasn't prepared to tell him, wasn't prepared to tell anyone. But I needed to tell him something. In the quiet of my mind, I mentally apologized to him. And then for the first time, I reached into his mind and listened.

A spike of pain with the force of the lightning I had brought down on the monsters I had cast my judgment on lanced into my brain as I was overwhelmed by sheer noise and force. I think I screamed but I couldn't even be sure. When I could hear my own thoughts again I realized we weren't moving. Dad had stopped the truck, even turning off the engine as we were parked along the side of the road.

"Taylor... what did you do."

This was not a pain that magic could heal. It was like I had been struck by lightning but this was not a wound or bruise magic could heal. Somehow, something in Dad was greater than even me! I had never felt, never seen, or even heard of anything like it.

"You're so loud Dad... how are you so loud?"

I hadn't meant to say it. I wasn't even aware I was saying it. It was like someone else with my voice was speaking. But a dim pain-filled part of my mind knew I had whispered things that should not be whispered.

"Taylor... what did you do... What did you hear?"

Grimacing against the worst skull-splitting migraine, a pain that rivaled centuries of un-life and agony I looked at him weakly out of the corner of my eye.

"Too much... far too much... Dad... how are you so loud?"

The pain was getting worse even though I wasn't trying to listen to my father's thoughts, the pain spreading through my brain. I felt something wet on my hand. Weakly I looked down and saw a drop of blood on my hand. Another joined it, and then another still. Oh! I had a bloody nose. Why did I have a bloody nose? Why was dad's mind so loud? So much... So...

Blackness crept into the edges of my vision. Instinct tried to push magic into me, and I could feel it trying to push back the pain but it was too little too late. My last thoughts and sights were of Dad's hands reaching for me.

"TAYLOR!"