+++++++++++++++++++Prelude 0.1 - Butterly Wings, and Diverging Paths
#BROCKTON BAY February 2011#
The nice PRT officer left her waiting for around 18 minutes. She was thankful her dad was there with her to make small talk.
The two of them had been spending way more time together since she told him about her powers. She hoped only a small part of that was from his need to keep an eye on her.
" Sorry for the wait miss... Condemnation?" The man asked, reading from his clipboard.
" Coordination. From coordinate. You know, like a captain coordinating their team." She corrected, frowning slightly.
" Oh, yes, sorry - Uhh... I was informed you talked with Armsmaster and he gave you the instructions and the pamphlet?"
" That is right."
" Well... sadly Armsmaster could be here to attend you, but we are happy to receive you. " The man said, smile forced. " If you can tell me of your powers and ambitions as a cape, I could better help you."
Looking at the man, then at the camera on the opposite wall, then at the man again, she understood what was going on. Armsmaster was rumored to have some sort of lie-detection tech. They were passing her through the polígrafo. Check-in If she was really not intending to take over the city or something.
Sighing Taylor let her head fall.
The PRT man said something she did not listen to. It was her father's hand squeezing hers that woke up from a disappointed daze.
She looked deep into her dad's eyes through the cheap plastic mask he was wearing and found nothing but love and support. " Do not do anything you do not feel ok with doing, dear. We can go now If you want." He half whispered to her.
Master powers scared people. That was a fact she would have to get used to... But hell, she wanted to do good for her city, and she would be damned If she allowed Sophia, Julia or social prejudice get on her way
Taking a deep breath she steadied herself. " I have ah... Thinker/Master power, I guess? If someone comes up to 5 meters from me I can put a sort of mental tag on them that lets me see through their eyes and listen through their ears for 12 hours... and well I can also speak into their heads."
The PRT guy kept a surprisingly good poker face. No emotion was betrayed by his features. " I see... and how many people can you tag at once ?"
" I ... never really tested it." She answered, herself getting curious on the possibilities provided by mixing her power a large group operation. " But I am great at multitasking. I can keep more than one conversation at a time quite easily."
nodding the agent started writing down something, before finally saying. " Good, very good. Now, the big guy gave you the usual pitch, but I guess he did not have the time to explain all the benefits."
Taylor stared quietly for a little while. That is it? Being stuck in Master/Stranger cell? Were the guys on PHO exaggerating?
" Miss Coordination? "
" Uhm, I - Yeah I." She started but her father put a hand over her shoulder.
" We would like to see the standard contract fisrt."
To Taylor's head tilt of confusion he continued. " It is pretty typical to talk about the benefits separated from the rest of the contractual obligations and clauses."
Ooooh. For a moment Taylor got surprised at her father's work experience being useful ( and felt a pang of guilt for it.) He knew contracts and Worker-Employer relations
Turning back to the PRT guy, she adjusted her posture, doing her best to look and sound professional and mature. " Yes. That would be for the best." She agreed. " 2 copies, so we can send one to our lawyer." She finished, omitting the fact they had no money for a lawyer and probably would just ask uncle Alam to take a look at the thing.
###
I took 2 months full of testing, ethics lessons, and training with other wards but at 10 April 2011, Taylor Hebert, or better yet " Network" ( luckily a Tinker from California with the same name had retired in 2009, leaving it up for grabs) joined the Brockton Bay wards, officially.
Sure, she publically came out as a Tinker, to hide her real capabilities, but still. She could not really complain, as it got her free power armor, courtesy of Chris.
Emma got crazy over her debut and said she recorded everything. Taylor tried to tell her to relax, and save the excitement to when Network managed to do anything, but the redhead would not desist. Taylor had to keep her first patrol in secret, fearing her friend actually had been serious about wanting to take pictures of her and Aegis hanging out.
Patrols were...boring is not the right word, but something close to it. There was just nothing much to do for such long hours. Taylor, Carlos flew they informed each other of stuff and occasionally exchanged small talk. That was it.
" Hey guys." Dennis's voice came from their coms. " Uber and Leet sighted at 23th cross with Hamilton. Apparently breaking in a KarmaTech owned building before explosion sounds were one else was around. Go see If they need an asskick. "
" Hah, got lucky, Net. Basically, some of the only villains they let us handle"
Crossing the few blocks felt like it took 5 times the time it should. This would be her first villain confrontation, and even if it involved the city's resident clown she was very anxious and eager.
" Network, are you seeing this?" Aegis asked, knowing very well the answer.
Through his eyes Taylor had a bird's eye view perspective of their target location. It was on fire.
" Think the gamers did that?"
" They are crazy, but not usually destructive." Her leader said, slowly circumventing the building in the air in search for a possible entry or exit routes. " Got the feeling something did not go according to their stupid plans this time."
A loud metal tearing noise rang over the street. Following it Aegis found a garage door shredded to pieces and a man on a ragged robotic costume running away from an overturned jeep.
" Network. Villain on the west exit. Intercept!" Carlos ordered and Taylor could not have run faster.
She managed sight the guy just a second before Aegis came flying from above yelling. " Protectorate! Freeze!"
From all the reactions she expected from a villain finding themselves pinched between 2 heroes, crying out: " Oh, thank god! " Was not among them.
The guy in the robotic costume almost fell on his knees, body language telling he was tired and genuinely relieved.
Trying to take control of the weird situation Taylor yelled: " Identify yourself!" In the very same way, Armsmaster did when they first met.
" I was supposed to be Zer0 from Botherlands, but at this point fuck this shit and call for reinforcements. Like, fast!"
Carlos and she exchanged looks and she did not need see his face to know he was almost as lost as her.
" Leet... what is going on? What you and Uber did?"
The villain seemed to fumble with his words a bit before setting on, " We were trying to steal a piece of intel for a contractor when the girl and the monster appeared. They fucked my equipment and I think they got Uber!"
" The girl and the monster?" Taylor asked into Aegis's mind, hoping her leader had a better idea of what the weird villain was babbling about.
" If that is true we have no time to lose on nonsense. Explain it already what happened! Who you fought with?"
" The crystal monster Trump and the girl on the bue hood, goddammit!"
" Leet," Aegis voice became weirdly tense, " are you telling me that Hunger and Holmes are on that building?"
Taylor stretched her memory to bring what she could about this two, sadly coming with very little. She had been briefed on all the known capes on Brockton, but the problem of the duo, is that no one quite knew much about them.
" Oh, wards. Isn't that a rare sight?" The vulpine voice came from behind. Aegis and Network turned around already in battle positions. Leet yelped.
Holmes was just like her file's picture. a white girl in simple jeans, t-shirt and bulletproof vest, the only cape-y things about her were the weird indigo cloak-cape she wore and the domino mask covering her under the hood that already obscured her face a lot. Dennis had a betting pool for what her power was, Missy and Carlos had betted Tinker, based on the gadgets she sometimes was seen with, but Chris insisted she was a Thinker.
" Really desperate enough to call the kids patrol on us Leety? I thought you at least liked to pretend to have some self-respect?"
" Fuck you ! And fuck your monster too! I couldn't move for a whole day last time!"
" Oh come on, it was 5 hours and you know it." The girl battered casually as the wards weren't even there.
Focusing, Taylor tagged the villain with her power, a new set of senses being added to her "network".
" Uuuuh, the new girl is Thinker them?" Holmes said, freezing Taylor at the spot. " How charming. Are all Thinkers of the wards going to be pretending to be Tinkers from now on? Kind of insulting for the category, don't you think?"
Damn, she knew about Gallant too? But how? Thinker or Trump? She could feel Taylors power over her. Her tags were supposed to be unperceivable unless Taylor starts mentally talking with the tagged person.
Out of nowhere, something big and colorful landed on the street not 10 feet from her.
Hunger, almost the opposite his partner was one very unique-looking cape. His power included some kind of Changer form that worked on transforming slowly but eventually turned him into a bizarre-looking monster of Eldritch crystals. (The eldritch was one of Dennis's addition to the description) . The crystals were multicolored and seem to change colors and collapse upon themselves like some sort of psychedelic toy. Aside from the fact, his body became a very disproportionate monster thing with crystal tentacles coming from his back and one of his arms morphed into a tentacle.
His appearance though was not what terrified Taylor. Neither was the fact he was holding Uber in one deformed hand like the Gamer was a shopping bag. No. What terrified Taylor was the fact that, as soon as he appeared her powers stopped working.
" Uber! You son of a-"
" Chill, Mário, Luigi there is going to be alright by tomorrow." Holmes interrupted approaching her partner. " As for us ... "
The girl seemed to nod to the monstrous being, prompting him to let Uber fall to the ground.
" We are not interested in fighting kids. Have fun with your journey to make the world a better place, dear."
Aegis got of the ground as to charge at the villains, but in less than a second, the duo disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Surprisingly enough the first to recover was the nerdy villain. " Fuck! That is my tech! The hack doesn't just steal my powers, but my damn tech!? That is it I -" Was what the angry Leet got to say before Aegis twisted his skinny arm around his back in a classical police hold.
Taylor, for her part, did not help, to distracted by the fact her Extra senses had returned. Her dad, Aegis, Velocity, Dauntless, Miss Militia and - most importantly- Holmes.
" Oah there big guy. Breath. Got remember to breathe." The villainess said, slowly hovering over her partner. Gone was the mischievous persona and in the privacy of what looked like a Tinker workshop, Holmes gently reassured Hunger as the crystal monster collapsed upon himself.
" Aegis I got a tag on them !"
The ward already had Uber over his shoulder like a potato sack and Leet on handcuffs. " Great. Good job Network, remember to register everything that might be useful and focus on info that might help us find them. "
Without breaking the unwritten rules, was implicit. In her months of training, Taylor had been educated on the quote on quote "Legal" way to spy on villains. Sadly the duo had moved to a place without Windows or other forms of identification via terrain. She would have to keep watching and hope they got out to take some sun or something.
Holmes , by her part, was giving a metallic water bottle to a now fully human Hunger, who was sitting on the ground. " You are getting better at this. For real, I see a lot of progress on your self-control." She patted his back as he shakily drank. He looked... weird. Not sick, or afraid, but more like... almost as If he was high on something and trying to calm down.
The villain looked up and for the first time, she got a good look at Hunger's face. He had dark brunette hair and almost black eyes, whose pupils were as small as it goes. Maybe he goes to do villain work while on drugs ? More noticeable though, were the luminescent multicolored dots covering his body like small freckles. It was hard to tell, but Taylor guessed she was seeing the same kind of crystal he covered himself while in his changer form.
Hunger chuckled mirthlessly " Well, I did not attack the wards. So I would say yeah, It was an improvement."
Taylor felt a chill running down her spine at that. How close they were of attacking exactly? And has the villain some sort of problem of self-control? Something with his power? Or just his messed-up head?
" Yeah, and it wouldn't be a good trade too. I mean, for Vista's power or maybe Dauntless, but not those two."
" Did you manage to get a read on what the new one's power was anyway?"
" Only sort of. She has a Thinker power, and something strong, but aside from that and the fact she was focusing it on me, ain't got much else."
" Hmn... I have enough thinker power I guess. Unless you got Accord around here I don't think I would go for it without, you know, a good month or so hungry."
Taylor could not help the " Holy Shit!" That escaped her lips.
" What? What happened, Network?"
" Uhm, th-the - crystal one, Hunger. Does he have, power stealing ?"
The widening of his eyes was all the answer she needed.
Ok, alright. This is good, I managed to give the good guys something useful. Now we can prepare for the next time we face the guy.
" Speaking about Accord, did the files mention him?"
while they spoke, Holmes had seated on a weird computer station and started browsing through the content of some thumb-drive she had taken out of her utility belt. Taylor could not understand much of the content, as the girl passed through it all too fast. "Some Thinker thing or just skimming?"
"Nah, It seems to be pretty scarce on the clients themselves and much more focused on the products... Hey from one to ten, how many millions do you bet a rich asshole is willing to pay for their kids to have super-powers? " She asked, eyes not leaving the computers.
What? Pay for powers?
"I never will get rich people. I mean, any idiot can see powers get your life more complicated, not less. If we were in Africa or South America where you only got social standing by having capes on your corner, maybe it would make sense, but here... what is up with these people?"
"I used to be rich, you know?"
the man chuckled. "Yeah, and my point stands!"
Holmes gave her partner a lighthearted punch on the shoulder, before turning back at her work. " Nothing on Clavert here too." She mumbled disappointedly. " We may have lost the fucking night."
Clavert... the name was familiar. Taylor wrote it down
"Hey, I got Uber's power and an extra month of satiety. That is something."
Rubbing her temples and turning away from the scream the villainess groaned. " I am just to fucking tired of the damn Snake." She got up, surprisingly enough, going to a mini-fridge. "Slipping at every turn. Shooting us in the ass-" "Us?" " -I feel your pain- the point is: this has been going on to long! we are not going to be able to run and hide forever. And If he points the PRT on us we are screwed!"
Snake? They were running from someone? Someone with ties with the PRT?
Hunger approached offering a the girl bottle opener "We could always go with the nuclear option."
Holmes reached for the opener but stopped her hand upon hearing what he said. They seemed to gaze at each others expressions for half a minute, before she finally took it, opened he bear and walked away. " I would rather move to Arkansas and die of boredom." She finally said, sitting down, and Taylor could hear all sorts of different emotions from that voice.
"Network, the vans will be here in 5 minutes!" Aegis called her, almost making her yelp.
I can be at 50 places at a time but still get distracted with an emotional scene... really got to watch myself better.
"Anyway..." Hunger continued, pushing a chair to seat next to his working partner. " Anything there we can actually use?"
Holmes eyes moved faster than anyone aside from Velocity as she skimmed through all the intel they stole. " Well... Maybe one thing."
With a few clicks, she opened a file with a picture of an Irish looking woman. "Cauldron lost one of their little projects." From the reflection on the monitors, Taylor could see both villains were smiling. "Up for a trip to Vegas?"
Clavert. Cauldron. Case 53. Vegas... What the hell did I stumble into ?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
You thought this was Taylor Ward fic... But it was me, OC plot with multiple POVs! ! !