An Unfinished Can of Worms

by Racke

A collection of discontinued Worm-stories.

3. Rogue Acceleration

XXX

Story: [Rogue Acceleration]

Summary: Taylor receives the powers of Accelerator when she triggers, leaving her to struggle with a very different kind of alienation.

Genre: Adventure?

XXX

It was too easy.

Once she'd figured out how to handle the sheer amount of information suddenly crammed into her head, there wasn't really anything that Taylor couldn't do.

She had complete control over vectors. Of motion.

It seemed to be 'limited' to relative motion, in the sense that Taylor couldn't literally stop the planet from spinning, or remove that spinning-motion from something else. But then, she didn't really need to do that.

Taylor could stomp on the ground, and that would produce tiny little vectors of kinetic energy being dispersed. So she could just amplify that to the point where the ground exploded. Potentially with enough force that the planet would stop spinning, though Taylor was pretty sure she'd liquify most of the planet's surface in the process.

Taylor could probably get into a fist-fight with Alexandria and walk away without a scratch, though she wasn't sure if she'd be able to scratch Alexandria either. And she obviously couldn't do something to counteract an attack without vectors, so something like a power-nullifier or some other Eidolon-level esoteric effect could probably take her out easily.

But other than that? There wasn't a cape in Brockton Bay that could hurt her.

It was thrilling, in a way. But it came with the understanding that nothing could stop her.

Taylor knew that she wasn't some kind of saint. Just thinking about the trio made her want to punch them in the face. And if she wanted to do that? Well, what consequences could there be, when nobody in the city could stop her?

It was just-...

It was too tempting. Too easy.

And the trio wasn't going to suddenly stop pushing. They'd gotten away with the locker. They might decide to lay low for a bit, but within a month or so they'd be right back to their regular efforts to make Taylor's life hell.

Which meant that sooner or later something like the locker might happen again, and then Taylor would out herself, because she'd much rather kill everyone in Winslow than let something like the locker happen again.

So, rather than tempt fate and inevitably get screwed over by it, Taylor had decided not to go back to Winslow.

That did leave her with a few problems though.

Immaculata was way too expensive, and Arcadia wasn't really taking transfers unless a new Ward showed up in the Bay.

Taylor could absolutely join the Wards, and she was sure they'd be happy to have her. Or perhaps they'd be intimidated by having someone on the level of the Triumvirate on their team. Taylor didn't know, and she didn't feel lucky enough to gamble on not landing herself smack-dab in the middle of even more teenage drama.

So Arcadia was a locked door, and Winslow would see Taylor resorting to murder sooner or later.

That left being home-schooled. Which required money. And usually time from a parent.

Taylor's relationship with her father had maybe gotten better since she'd been hospitalized and had been forced to acknowledge that she had in fact been having issues with school for some time. But that was a bit like saying that global warming wasn't a thing, because winter was still colder than summer.

In the end, Taylor didn't really want to get her dad involved, and he was busy with his job.

Theoretically, with Taylor's new understanding of vectors, she could probably get some kind of college-degree in math over a weekend. But she was pretty sure that there were people looking for those kinds of sudden jumps in academic performance, which would mean that she'd end up outing herself as a cape of some sort.

That left either trying to home-school herself, or giving up on ever getting an education at all.

Taylor was sure that her mom would have a lot of opinions about her flunking out of high-school and then bumming around with super-powers. But then her mom wasn't here anymore. And Taylor was so sick of trying to-...

They'd all fallen apart when her mom had died. Her dad had gone deep into depression, and hadn't ever really come back out. Taylor might've been able to bounce back, except Emma happened, and Taylor wasn't even sure that her mom would recognize her anymore.

Once upon a time, Taylor had been a bit of a motor-mouth, and she'd been happy to play dress-up with Emma. Now she barely talked at all, and her clothes had migrated to the type of concealing hoodies that made her blend in disturbingly well with some of the gang-members in Winslow.

In the end, she told her dad that she'd home-school herself, and then her dad nodded with his usual sad face and went off to work.

Then Taylor just... took a walk.

She'd be home before he had time to get worried.

Probably.

XXX

For now, the PRT had decided to call her 'Accelerator'. And she was terrifying.

The Merchants weren't much of a gang, when compared to the ABB and the Empire. But they also weren't exactly a small gang, and they were as resilient as cockroaches.

So, the fact that a single cape killed two of their three capes, and over a dozen of their non-powered members in the span of a few seconds? Well, capes dying wasn't exactly normal, and the ease of it all sent shivers down the spines of anyone who'd seen it.

It hadn't even been a fight. It was like watching Alexandria stomp on an ant-hill.

Accelerator had interrupted some Merchants, and they'd opened fire, only to immediately die to their own bullets bouncing back at them. Among the bodies had been Skidmark and Squealer.

As far as anyone could tell, it was some kind of force-field that reversed the direction of projectiles.

It was doubtful that it was entirely voluntarily, considering that it worked on bullets, which should be moving too quickly for her to have conscious thoughts about them 'bouncing back'. But whether it could be turned off, or otherwise altered, was unknown.

Accelerator watched the Merchants as they lay dying for a bit, then with a tiny shrug turned around and walked away.

They didn't have much of a costume, just a hoodie with the hood up, pants and sneakers, and a surgical mask like one could buy at any supermarket. It was painfully obvious that they weren't a Tinker, and that this was likely their first time out and about as a cape.

They were also in a legal gray-area of clearly only reacting in self-defense, since the bullets that they reflected back at the Merchants had already been fired. Shooting someone with lethal intent in mind, only to have that person then immediately shoot you, wasn't actually illegal. Not in America, anyway.

No, it might've been a visceral departure from the kind of cape-fights that the Protectorate had come to expect over the years, but it wasn't the kind of illegal behavior that could've let them sidle up to Accelerator and tell them that they could make their legal problems suddenly go away, if only they joined them first.

It also wasn't illegal enough for them to be immediately classified as a Villain.

Which meant that the Protectorate needed to track them down and have a talk with them about what it meant to be a cape, and whether or not they were trying to be a Hero.

Independent Heroes didn't last long in Brockton Bay. But then, if Accelerator's force-field also worked on things like Hookwolf, that statistic might not matter a whole lot.

More worrying was that Accelerator might join one of the existing gangs for some reason. Or that they started up a new gang of their own. Either way, the careful balancing-act that had kept Brockton Bay from detonating into gang-warfare would be shattered.

So, their best hope was for Accelerator to peacefully join up with the Protectorate, and then to use their new reputation to further push back against the gangs. Hopefully before the other branches of the Protectorate started making noise about having such a strong cape transferred over to their side of the country instead.

Not that Piggot really thought that life would ever be that simple. Not when it came to capes.

XXX

In truth, Taylor was more disturbed that she wasn't more disturbed at the thought of having killed people.

So many dead bodies suddenly falling to the ground. All because they'd tried to kill her.

Perhaps she could've done something to convince them to surrender before it'd come to that. Perhaps she could've changed the passive vector-reversal field around her into a vector-cancellation field.

It was enough to make her feel vaguely disappointed in her own lack of forethought. She'd barely even thought to grab a surgical mask from a nearby store.

It'd been an accident, but for all that Taylor wasn't exactly proud of it, she didn't really feel bad about it.

They'd attacked her with guns. Lethal weapons.

Taylor wasn't some well-known cape that everyone knew was bulletproof. And capes in general weren't. So the fact that their immediate response had been to open fire on her? Well, if not for her powers, she'd be dead.

In light of that, between them deliberately taking actions that would've resulted in her death, and her not going the extra mile to make sure that they survived her automatic defense? Taylor didn't really feel all that bothered about them dying as a direct result of her actions.

It was hard to feel guilty for not saving someone's life, when they'd been in the middle of trying to kill you.

But Taylor also knew that that kind of thinking was a slippery slope. She wasn't exactly sure where that slippery slope might lead, but not caring if someone lived or died wasn't exactly a heroic thing.

Then again, she'd always known that she wasn't a good person. That's why she'd refused to return to Winslow and the trio. Why she'd gone out of her way to remove the temptation.

In this too, Taylor figured that she'd need to limit herself somehow. To keep herself from one day just walking up to the PRT and declaring herself as the God-Queen of Brockton Bay.

Taylor could probably beat every cape in the city without breaking a sweat, but could she find them? Could she stop their more regular members from starting a gang-war in the power-vacuum? Could she be everywhere at once?

The answer of course, was a resounding no.

If Taylor took down Lung, then the Empire would rush in to fill the gaps, and hurt a lot of innocent non-white people in the process. If Taylor took down the Empire, Lung would probably go on a rampage to amp himself up before fighting her, which could easily lead to Brockton Bay turning into a burnt-out crater. If Taylor somehow managed to take down both of the gangs at once, how would she know when a new gang showed up on the streets?

Taylor, just like everyone her age, had heard horror-stories about the Teeth. Just to name an example.

The idea of simply standing by and watching the gangs destroy what little was left of the city her parents had loved, didn't exactly sit right with Taylor. But if she was going to think this cape-stuff through properly, then she needed to think about it properly.

The balancing act between the ABB and the Empire wasn't going to last forever. Sooner or later it would explode into a gang-war, no matter what Taylor did or didn't do. But saying that that justified Taylor turning the city into a war-zone in order to bring them down for good, was probably taking a few too many steps down the slippery slope.

Hell, the easiest path to killing off the Empire was to show up somewhere and tell them that she wanted to join. They'd be crazy to give up on having a cape as powerful as her. And then she could bide her time until some kind of meeting with Kaiser, and then murder everyone.

It wasn't necessarily a very good plan, because Taylor was pretty sure that they'd be able to figure out her identity. And if they knew that, then some stragglers might be able to go after her dad. Not to mention the idea of how far into Nazi-stuff she'd have to dip her toes before that meeting with Kaiser happened.

Also, that plan kind of hinged on the idea of Taylor being able to be polite and agreeable to a bunch of Nazis. And if she managed to do that, then she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to face her mother again.

No, even if Taylor miraculously figured out some way to track down and eliminate the gangs, trying to do so would inevitably lead her further down that slippery slope that she was deliberately staying away from.

That meant that Taylor could cross 'vigilante' off the list of future plans. If only because she was powerful enough that she would be able to destabilize the gangs of the city all on her own.

Taylor also wasn't really holding out any hopes for being able to become a Rogue. She might figure out some way to use her powers to make money, but considering how strong she was, the best way for her to make money would be to just be a mercenary. Which kind of defeated the point.

Being a Hero still meant joining the Wards, which Taylor really didn't want to do.

And that left... not a lot.

If Taylor really wanted to protect the city, without also being directly part of what destabilized it, then she needed to-...

She needed to be the God-Queen of part of Brockton Bay.

With how powerful she was, she wouldn't need a gang, as long as she picked a small enough 'territory' to rule over. And if it was like that, then she didn't need to pay anyone, so she could basically eliminate crime and not have to demand protection-money for it.

In theory, she could establish herself as one of the 'main gangs' without ever being a gang. Kind of like New Wave, except without having to try policing the entire city all at once. And as long as everyone knew that Taylor was 'stuck' inside of her territory, nobody would try to provoke her into taking action.

After all, if they ruined her territory, she might decide to leave it and destroy theirs.

Not that Taylor was entirely sure how she was supposed to make it clear that some piece of the city belonged to her. Or which part of the city to pick.

XXX

Accelerator's second appearance was a lot less explosive, in comparison.

They showed up in costume in the middle of the day, sitting on the edge of a roof, and flicked pebbles at anyone who wore gang-colors.

Considering their power, those pebbles would definitely leave bruises if they'd hit. However, they seemed mainly to be targeting the pavements near the potential gang-members, and didn't make any move to actually follow up with any serious amount of force.

The fact that they didn't differentiate between gang-colors was a good indication to Accelerator's personal stance on the current gangs of the Bay.

That didn't necessarily mean that they were a Hero, since it was entirely possible that they were planning on starting their own gang and simply didn't want any competition. But it did mean that at least they weren't part of the Empire. Yet.

Even if Accelerator's powers allowed them to stand on their own, everyone had their weaknesses, and the Empire was powerful enough that it was likely to be able to target those.

Nonetheless, with a target of interest sighted, the Protectorate redirected one of their patrols to have a talk with them.

Not that anyone thought that Armsmaster was the perfect candidate for said talk.

"That's illegal." Armsmaster told Accelerator bluntly.

Accelerator looked up at him, but made no move to stand up. "This place is mine now. They're not welcome."

Armsmaster's eyes narrowed. "The city belongs to its people, not to you."

Accelerator tilted their head. "That's a nice sentiment. But this place is mine."

For a moment, Armsmaster sincerely considered attacking the cape, before giving up on the idea. He still didn't know how their momentum-reversing field worked, and he would need preparation in order to invent something to bring them down.

All that fighting here would accomplish was to place any blame on Accelerator's future actions directly on Armsmaster's shoulders. Even if they'd already made up their mind about starting up a new gang, the fact that Armsmaster 'made the first move' to turn the situation hostile would be enough for Armsmaster to be blamed.

A perfectly measured breath. "What are your intentions, Accelerator?"

Accelerator blinked. "'Accelerator'? Oh, that's a good one. Thank you." They shook their head. "My intentions-... This place is mine. As long as you don't start trouble, you're free to pass through."

Armsmaster glanced meaningfully towards the pebbles, and the people they'd been aimed at. "And how are they 'starting trouble'?"

"Those colors are a declaration of intent, and they wear them with pride." Accelerator's face shifted in what was likely a grimace behind their mask. "Talk shit, get hit."

"I see." Armsmaster looked at them for a moment. "Would you attack police-officers as well?"

"Only if they wear gang-colors or swastikas. Or if they're harassing people in my territory."

"You have no intention of joining the Protectorate?" Armsmaster asked.

Accelerator paused. "I have no ill-will to the Heroes. But no."

Then Accelerator stepped off the roof-edge and disappeared.

Armsmaster had already finished writing his report on the encounter, when he received the news that the Empire had made their move against Accelerator.

And that Hookwolf had been ripped to shreds.

XXX

Taylor didn't like the Empire. Honestly, she probably disliked the Empire more than she disliked the ABB, and those guys were psychopaths.

Her main issue with the Empire kept circling back to the understanding that they kept dressing up their racism and violence as something done for the 'greater good'. To pretend at being cultured and reasonable villains, instead of readily admitting that they shanked people in back-alleys for cash.

Taylor wouldn't have liked them even then, but she probably wouldn't be so viscerally offended by their continued existence.

It was a bit like having someone call on your name specifically, for confirmation that you agreed with them, whilst in the middle of blatantly being the absolute worst kinds of people.

So no, Taylor didn't like the Empire.

With that said, she was a bit surprised at how satisfying it'd been to watch Hookwolf nearly disintegrate himself when she messed with the vectors of all the pieces of his metal-body.

It'd been very flashy, and the cape very obviously didn't survive the experience. But rather than some smidgen of guilt for ending his life, Taylor ended up having to suppress a content smile at the sight of him 'splattered' across the pavement.

With Hookwolf having been one of the most blatantly violent capes in the city, with rumors of a future in the Bird Cage if he was ever caught, she supposed that he was just too much of an 'acceptable target' for her to feel guilty about killing him.

"Oh? Are you done already?" She asked the pieces of Hookwolf that had been strewn about.

There was some yelling from the pair of capes he'd arrived with. A woman with a cage on her head, and a man without a shirt. Cricket and Stormtiger, if she wasn't mistaken.

Taylor turned her attention to the two of them. "This is my territory."

Both of the capes looked like they wanted to object, but a quick glance to Hookwolf's corpse made them hesitate. And then that hesitance turned to fleeing, when Taylor cracked the pavement with a small tap of her foot.

With this, Taylor-... No, 'Accelerator' was an official piece of the Brockton Bay cape-scene. A holder of territory, and just as unstoppable as Lung at his worst.

Now she just needed to figure out some way to use this to make money, and then she could stop worrying about school-stuff entirely.

Or, well, she'd need some kind of cover-story for explaining her 'employment' to her dad too, but first things first.

XXX

Missy first met Accelerator by accident, during a patrol that had veered slightly off-path due to a mugging that they'd interfered with.

Missy had taken a space-distorted step to another convenient rooftop, with Kid Win following behind on his hover-board, and then suddenly Missy had realized that the rooftop was occupied.

Accelerator was tall, in comparison to Missy anyway, but probably shorter than Armsmaster. Kind of gangly, considering how concealing their hoodie was, but it was hard to think about their cheap half-assed attempt at a costume, when Missy knew that they were potentially quite literally the most powerful cape in the Bay.

In the end, Accelerator didn't say a lot. There'd been some polite greetings, where Accelerator noted that they didn't mind Heroes going through their territory, as long as they went through it.

Missy got the distinct impression that Accelerator appreciated them 'policing the city', but was also very determined to stake their claim.

A kind of 'I didn't claim this territory in your name'-feeling.

It rubbed Missy the wrong way, and she would've absolutely beaten Accelerator up if they hadn't been... you know, potentially the absolutely strongest cape in the Bay. Missy was dedicated to her job, but she wasn't suicidal.

As with most 'territory-borders', it was always going to be difficult to determine the exact place where Accelerator's territory 'started'. But when Missy later looked it up with the PRT-map they used to record gang-activity, she realized that the territory was both definitely a thorn in the side of the Empire, and surprisingly tiny.

It was barely a fraction of the kind of territories that the other gangs claimed, even if it was in a relatively busy commercial area. And no matter who Missy asked, nobody could think of anything in particular that Accelerator was 'defending'.

It was possible that she was someone living in one of the few apartments in the area, or worked – or had family who worked – in one of the stores. But there was nothing that they could point to that gave that particular area any specific clout.

It wasn't close to any of the city's schools, or big employers, or regular illegal activity. It was just a city-block, basically. Completely irrelevant, except for the fact that it used to be the Empire's territory.

It'd in fact been wholly within their borders on the PRT's gang-map, and Accelerator's fight with them had left those borders looking very awkward. Which probably meant that someone else would be trying to move in on the 'isolated' part of the border.

Honestly, if Missy's experience with the Wards had taught her anything, then the fact that she'd ever come close enough to Accelerator's territory to personally encounter the cape, likely meant that someone else had screwed up their job.

The Wards were never allowed to do anything important.

XXX

Lisa had been more than a bit nervous to be sent to investigate the cape that tore apart Hookwolf in an instant.

Coil wanted information, and Lisa would get it for him. It was also highly unlikely that Accelerator had some kind of ability to spot capes or the like, so as long as Lisa played at being an innocent bystander with an interest in capes and a minor headache, she could investigate them without any issues.

Theoretically anyway. That didn't stop her heart from trying to escape from her chest when she first spotted Accelerator lounging on the edge of a rooftop.

Female, issues with her body-image, probably a teenager, overcompensating for her own impulses with ruthless self-control-...

Lisa clamped down on her powers to give her a bit of time to process that.

The scariest cape in Brockton Bay was a teenage girl with body-image issues. She was also very aware of being the scariest cape in the city, and was trying to not abuse that.

Lisa lifted the grip on her powers just a little bit.

Body-issues due to personal attacks by bullies, distrustful towards attractive people and authority, bullies caused her trigger-event, hasn't attacked her bullies despite her new powers-...

Lisa clamped down on her powers again, feeling the beginning of a headache.

So, clearly someone with a very strict moral compass, or a ruthless adherence to an internal moral code. If Lisa had ever met the person responsible for her own trigger-event, she would've stabbed them. Well, she would've stabbed them if that person hadn't been herself.

Her fault, her fault, so stupid-...

A distrust for authority, to go along with a bullying-campaign that could lead to someone actually triggering from it-... Probably Winslow. That place was a hell-hole.

But considering how school wouldn't be out for another couple of hours at least, Accelerator was either cutting class on the regular, or she'd quit school. Which would explain how she'd managed to not use her terrifyingly powerful superpowers to turn her bullies into mincemeat.

Finding the identity of a bully-victim who'd dropped out of Winslow within a reasonable time-frame would be stupidly easy, especially considering how Accelerator was tall for a girl.

However, there was a limit to how far Lisa was willing to play into Coil's hands, and deliberately outing the secret-identity of the scariest cape in the city to him definitely wasn't on that list. Especially since she didn't seem like a bad person.

Lisa was perfectly willing to screw over people like the Empire, or even Lung, but people who were just trying to live their lives? Lisa wasn't a saint, but she wasn't a complete bitch, either.

Unfortunately, if she couldn't give Coil her identity, she'd need to give him something else. So Lisa took a deep breath, and started walking towards the nearest cafe.

Stakeouts were the worst.

XXX

Missy's second meeting with Accelerator was... friendly. Or at least cordial.

There'd been a thug with a gun, and Missy hadn't realized that he'd had one before it'd been aimed at her head.

She'd been trained for that, of course, and she'd bent the space between them in a way that would have the bullet miss her, but she hadn't really accounted for where the bullet would end up afterwards.

An oversight, considering that there were people other than herself in the area.

Realizing that the person who stepped between Gallant and the bullet was Accelerator of all people had definitely been terrifying. Just not nearly as terrifying as the possibility of Dean getting shot because she screwed up.

He might have power-armor, and that might even be bullet-proof, but Missy definitely didn't want to be responsible for him getting shot. And that was ignoring any professional pride she had in not letting her patrol-partners get injured.

The bullet dropped to the ground, inert. And Accelerator said some very calm words to the absolutely petrified thug. Then they all stepped away as the police arrived to take him into custody, and Missy had the opportunity to exchange a few more words with the powerful cape.

An exchange of words that wasn't-... It wasn't quite a standing invitation to drink tea together and talk about cape-life, but it also kind of... wasn't not that?

Missy came out of that conversation feeling awkwardly like she'd met a respectable colleague, and had in return been treated like someone worthy of respect. In the aftermath of her panic regarding nearly getting Gallant shot, she'd probably not been entirely in her right mind, but yeah. It was bizarre and kind of thrilling, and Missy wasn't really sure what she ought to be feeling about it.

Gallant also reinforced Missy's own impression of the conversation, because his empathy didn't show any signs of deceit.

Accelerator – the scariest cape in the Bay – considered Missy someone worthy of respect.

It was a heady kind of thrill, and Missy would've probably been bouncing off walls. Or at least, she probably would've done that if she'd been as professional as Clockblocker.

As it was, Missy instead listened carefully to Armsmaster and Miss Militia, and Director Piggot.

They were all of the opinion that – as Vista was a Ward – she shouldn't be approaching someone as unknown as Accelerator. On the other hand, Armsmaster begrudgingly acknowledged that having someone on 'friendly terms' with the cape, would help them make Accelerator into less of an unknown.

So, Missy decided that it was probably better to ask for forgiveness than permission in this case.

It wasn't like they even knew if Accelerator had actually committed any crimes beyond 'claiming territory'. And having someone strike up regular conversations with them might convince them to join up with the Protectorate instead. Or at least move them firmly into 'independent hero'-territory instead, like New Wave.

XXX

Things were... quiet, after Taylor killed off Hookwolf.

Or, at least they were being quiet for her. As far as she could tell, Lung hadn't made any serious move against the Empire, despite how they'd lost one of their heavy hitters. But in the end, that was probably just a matter of time.

Perhaps he was waiting to see if the Empire would throw away more of their capes at Accelerator, perhaps he was waiting for something else. All Taylor knew was that both Empire and ABB colors had more or less disappeared from the streets of her territory overnight.

Which was very satisfying, for all that it left a bitter kind of taste in her mouth.

If the Heroes had been willing to push a little bit further with their attacks, perhaps they could've already scared the gangs off the streets for good. Though Taylor admittedly doubted that that would work.

It worked for her, because her territory was tiny, her power was overwhelming, and she was new enough to the scene that everyone were walking on egg-shells around her. Sooner or later Accelerator would be old news, and people would forget why they ought to be scared of her.

Well, they'd forget until she reminded them when they inevitably trespassed against her.

Taylor had also looked herself up on PHO, just to see what people had to say about her. And apparently nobody knew that she was a girl. Wow. Fuck puberty with a crowbar.

Admittedly, Taylor hadn't exactly gone out of her way to create a costume that was even remotely feminine-looking, but still. She knew she wasn't exactly attractive, but she was a girl.

Not that she could really do anything about people's assumptions on her gender, without outing herself or streaking through the streets. Unless she got her hands on a professional suit, which would require money, that she didn't have any way to generate.

Oh, Taylor could probably write some kind of paper on the mathematical physics of motion, but it would be pretty blatant that she could only do that thanks to her powers. Which meant that she'd have to do it in-costume, and she was technically a maybe-Villain, so she wasn't sure if she could even make money from that without getting arrested.

That hadn't entirely stopped her from thinking about what she'd even end up writing, because it would be pretty cool to redefine the laws of physics as humanity knew them. If she could figure out some way to do that.

In the end, for all of her success as a cape, Taylor felt very much that she'd reached a dead end.

She could hold her territory just fine, and as long as she didn't go around harassing people for protection-money, the PRT and Protectorate were willing to look the other way. But she had no way to make any kind of money, which meant that she was basically just a volunteer-Vigilante.

And sitting on rooftops for hours on end got really boring, even if Taylor had started bringing a notebook for writing down interesting vector-equations.

She was out of school, sure. But her hours were long, she wasn't getting paid anything at all, she was keeping all of it a secret from her dad, and people on the internet thought that she was a guy.

Taylor's life hadn't been all that great for a long time, and it'd honestly massively improved since she got away from Winslow, but it still sucked. And she didn't even have anyone to complain about it to.

XXX

"Why is your territory so small?"

Accelerator very visibly paused, tilting their head. "Do I need a reason?"

Vista took a deep breath, because this had been bothering her for weeks now. "Villains will always work to expand their territory. It doesn't matter if they lose it, or who they piss off doing so, they'll always be trying to expand." Vista made a vague motion with her hand. "You haven't. It's been over three months since you first showed up, you have a power that would make it easy to scare the other gangs away, and yet you haven't done anything."

Accelerator made a thoughtful noise. "That does open some questions, doesn't it?"

This was the first time that Vista had approached Accelerator on purpose, and she wanted to make it count, because odds were that – the moment the PRT caught wind of it – it would also be the last meeting with the cape that she'd have.

She might even get stuck in Master-Stranger containment for a bit. Which she definitely wasn't looking forward to.

"Do you want a good answer, or the truth?" Accelerator finally asked her, eyes sharp over the edge of their mask.

Vista blinked. "The truth, please."

Accelerator nodded, leaning back slightly, silent for a moment. "What's the point?" They finally answered. "This city is a powder-keg waiting to blow. Push anywhere at all, and someone starts feeling cornered, or the others start smelling blood. And then 'boom', no more city."

Vista frowned. "That... doesn't exactly sound like something a villain would say."

Accelerator shrugged. "This city is gonna blow. I just don't want to be the one pulling the trigger."

Vista's frown got deeper. "So what, we should just let the gangs do whatever they want?"

Accelerator looked at her for a moment, before motioning to their surroundings. "This is mine. And as long as everyone knows that I don't push for more, I might not even have to fight for it. Even when the city blows."

Vista stared at the cape in front of her. The villain who killed other villains with negligent ease, the territory-holder who'd made no move to form a gang, and quite possibly the single most pragmatically cynical person she'd ever met. Barring perhaps Director Piggot.

"You wanted to be a hero, didn't you?"

Accelerator paused, then made a sound that might've been laughter. "We can't always get what we want, Vista."

XXX

"In her defense. Thanks to her actions, we have gained a lot of insight into Accelerator's own actions." Armsmaster interjected.

"I will not reward a Ward for breaking the rules and approaching one of the most dangerous villains in the city." Piggot glared at him.

Armsmaster nodded. "She should definitely be punished for breaking the rules. However, the fact that Accelerator reacted favorably to her is something we can use for dealing with them in the future."

Piggot bristled. "I'm not sending a Ward to work as a go-between for a villain."

Armsmaster frowned, considering his response for a moment. "Accelerator isn't incorrect in their assessment of the city. And, though unconventional, their strategy for minimizing the dangers to the people of the city isn't a bad one."

Piggot's eyes narrowed. "You believe them?"

"The Empire has to be toppled by outside forces. Even if they're losing capes to desertion, they gain new ones from Europe. The only way to bring them down would be to either dismantle the ideals it was based on, which unfortunately isn't ever going to happen, or physically breaking it apart through force." Armsmaster paused. "However, the Empire is also a stabilizing influence, and attacking them with that kind of force would mean that other gangs would be trying to fill the gaps. And at that point there would be a gang-war. Either with the remnants of the Empire, or with each other."

Piggot shook her head. "So their logic is sound. That doesn't mean they're not a villain, Armsmaster."

"They've made no move to gather protection-money." Armsmaster rebutted. "They've made no move to provoke the gangs any further. And they've cooperated with law-enforcement, excepting a few altercations that can be placed firmly at the feet of the BBPD."

"They killed three police-officers." Piggot answered. "I don't care if the BBPD started it, that's still murder."

"Manslaughter, technically." Armsmaster pointed out, but conceded with a shake of his head. "I'm not making an argument for lauding them as a hero. I'm merely saying that a trusted line of communication with a cape who has specifically stated that their goal is to protect a small sliver of the city, isn't a bad idea."

"You-..." Piggot frowned. "You're thinking of evacuations, aren't you?"

Armsmaster nodded. "I doubt that they will actively assist us in evacuations if and when the gang-war breaks out. But being able to divert civilians to some place other than official shelters in an emergency, without risk, could be a god-send."

XXX

Missy had been very aware that she would get into trouble.

She'd even expected the brief stint in the Master-Stranger confinement, on top of the weeks of console-duty.

What she honestly hadn't expected was that – at no point during the dressing-down she received by the Director – did the Director actually forbid Missy from approaching Accelerator again.

The answer to that surprise came from Armsmaster giving her a nod of acknowledgment when he brought up the information she'd managed to gather about Accelerator's motives and likely future decisions.

Missy was unofficially allowed to approach Accelerator for more information-gathering in the future. Though she was willing to bet that the PRT and Protectorate would come down on her like a sack of bricks if the Youth Guard ever found out about it.

Honestly, Missy hadn't even expected to get as much from Accelerator as she had, and she'd still been willing to take that chance.

She couldn't really imagine what she might try talking to Accelerator about next time, but a good place to start was probably to check to see if the 'official documents' about Accelerator left any strange gaps.

XXX

Taylor was pretty sure that Vista had ended up in trouble for talking with her, but that talk had also highlighted something that she hadn't quite realized.

Taylor was lonely.

Oh, she'd known that she didn't have any friends, and that her life sucked, and that Emma was a backstabbing bitch. But that didn't really-...

When thinking about the Terrible Trio, she'd always remembered the shit they'd done to her specifically. The spilled soda, the taunts, the shoves, that kind of stuff.

A little over a year ago, Taylor had been a motor-mouth. And then they'd happened, and she'd... stopped talking, to anyone.

Turns out, that was... an issue.

Taylor's powers made her practically invulnerable. Untouchable. Undefeatable.

And, just as that kind of lack of actual threatening consequences left her very worried about snapping and murdering the Trio. It apparently translated to friendly talks too.

Vista had been nice. A bit wary, but more curious than she'd been doubtful of what Taylor had to say. And so she'd just... answered her.

Even if it might've risked Taylor's plans to be a 'big scary non-moving villain', in order to protect her city. She'd still told Vista pretty much everything she'd wanted to know.

What could Vista do to actually hurt her? Taylor was literally untouchable. And having someone who just listened to her was-...

It hurt, in a way that she hadn't imagined it would, to realize that the Trio had managed to make her that desperate for a friendly face.

But, now that Taylor knew about that problem, she could at least avoid stumbling into those kinds of conversations again. Probably.

XXX

Lisa knew that Coil wasn't satisfied with what she'd managed to find on Accelerator.

Lisa told him that she was female, fudged the age-range to 'possibly early-twenties', confirmed that Accelerator wasn't interested in pushing her territory further, and reiterated her earlier assessment as 'the scariest cape in the Bay'.

Accelerator's powers-... Calling her a Triumvirate-level Shaker wasn't an understatement. The only reason she hadn't simply crushed the Empire under her boot in an afternoon was that she wasn't interested in doing so.

Lisa knew that it wasn't squeamishness that was stopping her, considering the corpses that she'd left in her wake, but rather her own very strict personal code. Though hell if Lisa knew what that code consisted of.

In the end, that didn't matter all that much.

Lisa had done her investigation, and she hadn't been able to find any solid clues to Accelerator's identity. It wasn't like she could trace any money that she was making, after all. Apparently, Accelerator couldn't be bothered with things like 'demanding protection-money'.

She was really remarkably hero-like in a lot of her attitude, all things considered.

Coil wasn't happy with the sparseness of the information that Lisa had managed to gather, but then he never really was. He pretended, tried to 'reward her' so that she'd be more pliable for the future, but there was nothing behind his eyes except greed. There never had been.

Lisa got sent back out on the streets, to find more members of this new cape-team Coil wanted her to create for him. And she was happy about that, because that at least didn't put her on immediate collision-course with Accelerator.

That said, Lisa knew that Coil wasn't going to back down. She didn't know exactly what his plans were, but he had ambitions. The kind of lofty ambitions of someone wanting to rule the world.

Coil might settle for ruling the Bay, but ruling a 'territory'? No. He'd want everything.

And as long as Accelerator had her own piece of the city carved out, sooner or later those two were always going to collide. Which Coil wouldn't survive.

Now, if Coil was a clever bastard – and he was – he'd know that he couldn't beat her with mercenaries. No, he'd have to have someone else take her out. Someone with some kind of Trump-power maybe?

Trying to manipulate something like that from behind the scenes wouldn't be easy though, and there was every chance that it'd backfire spectacularly. So, Coil would want to have an escape-plan ready before he made his move.

Not because he thought he would lose, because the bastard's ambition had long since drowned whatever humility the man might've ever had, but because he styled himself as a 'careful man'. He wasn't. He didn't ever seem to lose his gambles, but he wasn't actually cautious.

Regardless, Coil would try to manipulate some other cape to take out Accelerator for him, and then Coil's plans to 'take over the city' could move forward. Whatever those plans might be.

The problem was that if Coil picked a fight with Accelerator and realized that he actually needed to bail? In that case, Coil would grab everything that was 'his' and he'd leg it out of town.

The problem for Lisa was that she was in the unfortunate position to be considered 'property' as far as Coil was concerned.

If he legged it out of town and left Lisa in the Bay? Great. But she wasn't going to be holding her breath.

In fact, Lisa had started thinking of a kind of plan of her own, for when Coil made his move against Accelerator.

Lisa would bet on Accelerator walking out of that attack unscathed, whatever it might be, because the girl had bullshit powers. Which meant that when Coil actually decided to make a move, Lisa could probably seek her out and hide behind her for however long it took Coil to leg it out of the city.

Lisa did have the numbers for a lot of interesting bank-accounts after all, and Accelerator could definitely do with the upswing in funds.

Lisa would probably end up having to lay low afterwards, because Coil had a lot of moles, and he might be able to get in touch with them to make sure that they 'dealt with a loose thread'. But she should be safe if she was nominally considered as 'someone who worked for Accelerator'.

It likely wouldn't be true, because Lisa didn't think that Accelerator would trust her at all, but as long as she could fake it for a month Lisa should be safe to go off on her own afterwards.

XXX

"Are you actually a guy?" Vista asked her.

Taylor suppressed the urge to groan. It was great for her secret identity and all that, but it still hurt to be told that people couldn't tell her gender if she covered up her hair. And her face, admittedly, though that wasn't very feminine either.

"Hah! I knew it!" Vista crowed with uncharacteristic glee. "Clockblocker owes me twenty bucks!"

Taylor rolled her eyes at her, a little bit amused and a little bit annoyed. "What gave it away?"

Vista paused, thinking that over for a bit. "Guys slouch differently." She finally said.

Taylor frowned. "I don't slouch."

"No, umm, you do." Vista shook her head. "It's not... bad? You just do it a bit differently from the guys in the Wards."

Taylor sighed. Alright, so she probably did slouch. She was really tall for a girl, and it was one of those things that Emma had aimed for. It made sense that Taylor had been subconsciously trying to look smaller than she was.

She'd need to stop doing that though.

If Vista could notice it, then any Thinker in the city could do the same, easily. And Taylor was pretty sure that there were a fair number of Thinkers in Brockton Bay, even if she hadn't met any.

Also, people slouching and trying to look small? Those people clearly weren't 'dangerous villains'. So if she was going to try and sell herself as one of those, she'd need to step up her game a bit. Look the part.

She really needed a better costume too. But she really didn't have the funds-...

Hey, maybe she could beat up and rob some gang-members causing trouble in her territory? But again, nobody was going to make a move on her territory any time soon. She was too powerful and too recent.

Give it another month or so, and that tune might change, but that wasn't going to get her a new costume in the near future. And she wasn't a hero, so it wasn't like she could have one professionally made, even if she had the money.

It would've been nice to have a power that simply gave her a costume. Then she wouldn't have to worry so much.

But even if she couldn't fix her lackluster costume, she could fix how she presented herself. A king could look regal even in rags, after all. That's what her mom used to say.

Well, truthfully it was more like the fairytales that her mom once read to her when she was a kid, used to say that. But that was kind of like splitting hairs.

Taylor straightened her spine and squared her shoulders a little bit. "Still slouching?"

Vista frowned at her. "No, but you're looking kind of stiff?"

Taylor nearly groaned again. This was going to be so annoying to get right.

XXX

Missy was pretty sure that Accelerator wasn't that much older than herself. Definitely not older than the other Wards.

However, even if she absolutely extracted her twenty bucks from Dennis in regards to Accelerator's gender – without actually telling him that she'd found out about by personally asking her, because plausible deniability was important – she couldn't quite bring herself to tell the PRT and Protectorate about her age.

Some of it was that she didn't want to risk unmasking her, because that would be bad. But most of the reason was simply that Accelerator was a-... Well, it was hard to call someone who killed people 'a good person', but Accelerator could easily do a lot worse.

And though Missy didn't entirely agree with her methods, she knew that Accelerator was doing her best to protect the city. In her own way.

Besides, letting people know that Accelerator was a teenage girl was likely going to have everyone start trying to push her around. Missy ought to know, it's what she had to deal with on a damn-near daily basis.

It was better for everyone if Missy just kept her mouth shut about it, and let people continue to assume that she was in her twenties. Less people would get themselves killed that way.

XXX

Taylor sighed, a bit frustrated but mostly just disappointed.

She was happy that at least her powers made sure that she wouldn't get splattered with blood, so she didn't have to worry about laundry-issues. And digging through the pockets of the gang-bangers she'd killed for spare change did yield some decent money.

Not a lot of it. Certainly not enough to pay their bills, or to buy herself a better costume, but enough that she wouldn't have to worry about bus-fair for a couple of months.

Not that she was really taking the bus often enough for that to be a worry, but still. It was a bit of money, at least.

More worrying was the fact that she could dig through the pockets of a bunch of corpses without feeling anything beyond mild distaste. Considering that she still didn't give a damn about using lethal force against people who attacked her, she supposed that this was just an extension of that, but that was still very much an unpleasant kind of realization.

Was she a certified psychopath by now? Or did she actually have to enjoy killing to become one of those? Taylor hadn't really researched the subject, but media always tended to blow these things up for sensationalism.

Still, the fact that a bunch of non-powered Empire idiots had decided to try their luck with her did seem to signal that the time of terrified silence had passed. Taylor was now established enough in the minds of the city that people were forgetting to be scared.

Her splattering these guys all over an alleyway wouldn't be enough to keep them at bay indefinitely. It'd make them a bit warier, to be reminded of what she'd done to Hookwolf, but it wasn't going to stop them from coming. From testing the waters.

No, her peaceful times were over with, and she was going to be dealing with a lot of obnoxious prodding at her territory.

Once she dealt with the first few waves, and very blatantly didn't retaliate any further, they'd either realize that she had no interest in expanding further – and leave her alone to avoid provoking her – or they'd assume that she had some kind of exploitable weakness that was stopping her and push even harder in order to find it.

She really hoped that they'd understand that she didn't want anything more, but from some of Vista's comments, the idea of 'being content' would be so completely foreign to their minds that they'd never believe it.

Which kind of very much threw a spanner in her plan of being an immovable object that nobody would want to risk provoking, but that was still the only idea that wouldn't see the city descending into a gang-war as a direct result of her actions. So she was sticking with it.

XXX

It was really finicky, but Taylor had finally figured out how to fly.

Or rather, to make it appear as if she was flying. In truth, all she was doing was 'vibrating' her shoes at a specific altitude. Switching its vector to 'up' any time that it tried to send her crashing back down to the ground.

Unfortunately, shoes weren't really designed for the kind of 'pulling' forces that this caused on them, and so Taylor used the money she'd picked off of the corpses to buy a new pair of shoes. A pair of shoes a few sizes too big. And then she glued a metal plate thick enough to stand on to the inside of the soles, so that nobody would be able to immediately figure out how she was doing it.

She'd have to invest in some kind of climbing-harness if she wanted to risk doing anything more fancy than 'stepping' on air, or she might end up tearing apart her clothes when she inevitably resorted to using them to adjust her own momentum for stabilization. But, well...

Flying like that was still nowhere near as efficient as simply shifting her vectors around until she could leap across buildings without a care in the world, so investing a bunch of money into it felt stupid. Even if it was a neat trick. Mostly though, Taylor was simply enjoying the calculations involved since they gave her something to play around with when she was just sitting on a rooftop like a humanoid gargoyle.

She'd also figured out that her powers instinctively compensated for her internal vectors. As in, if she leapt out of a speeding train, straight into a cliff-side, she still wouldn't have to worry about the deceleration of the impact.

Normally, there was what was considered the 'secondary impact' in car-crashes. First, the body goes flying and hits the dashboard, and this stops the body's momentum. However, it doesn't stop the momentum of the internal organs, which continue to move forward until the second impact occurs, wherein those organs hit the 'wall' that is the insides of the body – like the now-unmoving ribcage or skin.

Taylor didn't have that.

Or, rather, if she did have it, all of that stuff was canceled too. Every last bit of it.

Which was nice, because it meant that she didn't go 'pop' and explode into a pile of gore when she leapt down from rooftops.

In hindsight, she should probably have made sure that she wouldn't have to worry about that stuff before she went jumping off buildings. But then she hadn't even really known that her vector-reversal-field was fast enough to block bullets before those Merchants had fired semi-automatics at her either.

That was life. It never seemed to turn out how you wanted it to.

XXX

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Accelerator tilted her head.

Missy twitched, not happy to be reminded of the absolutely pointless drudgery of it all. "Shouldn't you?"

Accelerator paused, leaning back slightly, before shrugging. "I quit. Don't think the Wards are allowed to do the same."

"Which is stupid." Missy agreed. "What do they expect, that we'd work at Fugly Bob's flipping burgers? We're already employed."

Accelerator's eyebrows scrunched together slightly. "Education is important."

Missy scoffed. "Then why did you quit?"

Accelerator paused again, looking conflicted, before sighing. "I quit because I'm pretty sure I'd kill some people if I went back there."

Missy froze. She hadn't thought-... The way Accelerator was talking about it, there was history there. It wasn't just her being antisocial and punching some asshole in the face 'a little too hard', this sounded more like she'd very deliberately decided not to get vengeance for something.

"Sorry." Missy shook her head. "Shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's fine." Accelerator shrugged again, managing a wry kind of smile from behind her mask. "It's not like I haven't killed people already, so it's a bit of an outdated excuse at this point."

Unspoken was the fact that there was a world of difference between killing gang-members going at her with lethal intent, in comparison to murdering school-children. Even if they were likely absolutely vile people, if Accelerator was so worried about being tempted into murdering them.

Accelerator wasn't a bad person.

XXX

Missy couldn't quite bring herself to not look into it.

Accelerator wasn't that much older than she was, and her school-life had been shitty enough that she might actually have triggered from something there. The likeliest candidate for that kind of thing was Winslow.

The time-range for Accelerator quitting would've likely coincided with her first appearance, so all Missy needed to do was check to see if anything particularly nasty had happened around that time.

It wasn't about wanting to find out Accelerator's identity, this was about making sure that whoever had bullied Accelerator hadn't decided to simply switch targets now that she'd quit. It was Missy's duty as a Ward. Probably. Maybe.

Alright so she was really curious about Accelerator's identity, but she wasn't going to tell anyone about that so it didn't matter.

Problem with Winslow being what it was, was that a lot of stuff ended up reported to the police. Kind of, anyway. Stuff got reported, the police immediately refused to investigate it because it ended up with 'he said she said'-arguments, and-... well, those kinds of reports still ended up piling up over time.

Thanks to Missy being a Ward, she could access a lot of that stuff. Not because she was really allowed to access it, so much as it was because she had the clearance-level necessary for it due to how there'd sometimes be overlap with their work.

But it was the kind of thing that nobody would really care about Missy digging into, even if they caught it and realized that she probably shouldn't be doing it. A slap on the wrist, basically.

So, Missy sorted through a bunch of reports, mostly just looking for something that fit in with the time-line of Accelerator's first appearance, as well as her gender.

And whilst there were a few candidates, one in particular stood out to her.

'Taylor Hebert' had been locked in a locker filled with biological waste-products, and had been hospitalized as a result. No long-term injury was recorded. However, she'd pointed fingers at three people upon regaining consciousness: Emma Barnes, Madison Clement, and Sophia Hess. The allegations were then quickly dropped, and Taylor Hebert decided to pursue homeschooling rather than go back to Winslow.

The timing was perfect, the incident was disturbing enough to be a perfectly plausible trigger-event, and the civilian name of Shadow Stalker made the allegations sound like the kind of thing that the PRT might want to help cover up.

Missy knew that Shadow Stalker was a probationary Ward, and that she was a massive bitch, but she didn't really know what the girl had done. She could guess that she'd been a bit too violent against some thugs, but Shadow Stalker wasn't exactly talkative about the details.

She doubted that Piggot would be willing to let this kind of shit slide, without benching Shadow Stalker to console-duty for the rest of forever. But since the allegations had been dropped it sounded very much like someone else might've decided that there wasn't any point in bringing it to her attention in the first place.

No, this was definitely worth looking into.

Problem was that there really wasn't anything to look into. The police-report documented the incident, the immediate allegations, and that the allegations had been dropped. Winslow barely documented that 'Taylor Hebert' had dropped out. And it wasn't like Missy could ask Sophia for her version of the events.

That left asking Accelerator about it, and that sounded like the kind of thing that might see Accelerator splatter Missy all over the sidewalk for violating the Unwritten Rules.

XXX

Lisa didn't understand.

She was still useful to Coil. Even if he'd somehow managed to catch her in a lie somehow, why would he be willing to risk this?

She didn't get it. He was a bastard, but he was a practical kind of bastard. As long as she was useful to him, he'd keep her around.

Lisa coughed, trying not to think about if what came out was bloodied spit or a part of a tooth. It didn't make sense.

Coil was a ruthless bastard, and he probably got off on this kind of shit on some level, because he was a power-hungry piece of shit. But he wouldn't risk these kinds of methods. He wouldn't risk her reluctant cooperation in exchange for a few brief snippets of potentially unreliable information.

Torture was a terrible way to gain information. By the end of it, the victim would be willing to tell them anything at all, regardless of if it was truthful or not.

So why would Coil risk it? It just didn't make sense?

What was it about Accelerator that Coil wanted to know so desperately that he was willing to toss away everything that Tattletale had worked for? Lisa couldn't think of-...

Unless he wasn't sacrificing it. Unless he had some way to keep her working, the same way she always did? If he could do this, and still not-do-it at the same time?

Probability. No. It wasn't probability at all. He was-... He was doing something with simulated time-lines.

He was torturing her for information, and then he just picked the other time-line. With nobody the wiser.

Lisa thought back to everything she'd already told him, everything that she'd-...

He'd know Accelerator's identity. Lisa didn't know it, because she'd stopped herself from digging so that she wouldn't have to lie about not finding anything. But with the timing of her appearance, and the fact that she clearly wasn't attending Winslow anymore-... He'd find her. Easily.

Lisa couldn't help it. She started to laugh.

Lisa wouldn't know that Coil knew, and so Coil would make his move when she was completely unprepared, and then they'd both get killed.

Lisa's neck snapped back as another blow hit, but she didn't stop laughing.

They were all going to die.

XXX

The first hint that Taylor had that something was wrong was an empty house.

It wasn't even much of a hint. Her dad had been working late for years now, trying to drown himself in work instead of alcohol. Taylor coming back home to an empty house was normal.

Slightly less normal now that she had powers and spent most of the day sitting on roof-edges and scaring away gang-members. She usually got back home late enough 'from the library' that it was something like a fifty-fifty chance if she beat her dad home or not.

He still left the house earlier than she did though.

No, returning home to find an empty house was so normal that it couldn't even be considered a 'hint' at all. But, in hindsight, it'd still been her first hint.

The second hint was more gradual, because her dad didn't come home. Not a few minutes after her own arrival, not within the hour, not within a few hours, not by midnight.

The third hint was the phone-call.

A polite voice explaining that her cooperation was necessary for her father's survival.

Taylor saw red.

Taylor didn't even notice that the house that her mother had loved had disintegrated around her in an explosion of suddenly-accelerated air until the PRT showed up. And then the PRT died. And then the Protectorate was there. And the Protectorate died. And then-...

XXX

Taylor's first hint that something was wrong was the fact that her dad wasn't home by the time she made it back to the house. Not that this was particularly unusual, but it was in hindsight her first hint.

Her second hint was the phone-call. There'd been an explosion at the docks. Some kind of Tinker-bomb.

Her father's office had been within the explosion-radius.

Taylor had heard rumors about a new Tinkerer joining the ABB.

Taylor knew that going after the ABB would inevitably turn the whole city into war-zone, but she couldn't actually bring herself to care-...

And then she received a phone-call from a young woman's panicked voice. There was a cape who was good at hiding, who'd somehow found out about her identity, and who would absolutely stop at nothing to destroy all of the other gangs in the city. His name was Coil, and the panicked voice on the other side of the phone was trying to convince her to not go on a rampage. To be calm and precise, and to not murder her way through anything in her way.

Taylor listened for long enough that she was able to trace the vector of the radio-signal that was the phone-call, through a radio-mast and back into another phone.

Then she decided to ignore any advice that the voice was giving her, because Taylor didn't actually care-...

XXX

Lisa's first hint that something had gone wrong had been when she heard the gunshot. Then the pain hit. A lousy shot. They should've aimed for her head instead of her chest. But it would kill her all the same.

Lisa didn't know what she'd done to give Coil a reason to kill her, but that's clearly what had happened-...

XXX

Taylor's first hint that something had gone wrong was the explosion. An explosion from some kind of Tinker-bomb that'd gone off at the docks. Her dad's office had been within the radius of the effect.

The PRT were quick to point fingers at the ABB's new Tinkerer, showing how there'd been ABB in the area right before the blast.

Taylor calmly walked out of the house, and then she calmly walked to the ABB's side of the city.

She spotted a group of thugs wearing the colors, so she grabbed one of them and told them to fetch Lung. They laughed at her, so she disintegrated one of his arms, and then she asked him again.

He kept screaming though, so she froze the vectors on his vocal-chords, and then she repeated herself.

He didn't comply, so Taylor splattered him over one of the alley's walls, and then she asked one of his friends. He went.

A few minutes later a man tried to stab her, but he was only a clone. He tried to blow her up, but that didn't work either. A stalemate.

He needed line-of-sight to teleport though, so Taylor stomped on the ground and disintegrated the asphalt into a fine mist. But he was still a clone when she caught him. Frustrating.

Taylor warped the vectors of a few pebbles, turning them supersonic and scattering them across the area. But she missed again. She grabbed another clone, and tried to reach for something, but he was just a clone, and teleportation didn't have vectors. It just had a point of origin and a destination.

It had a direction, and a place in time-space, even if there wasn't any momentum.

Taylor caught another clone and stretched, and-... there was something in the clone's brain. A vector of signals without a clear origin.

Taylor traced the vectors into two shapes revolving around each other, shedding shards the size of mountain-ranges-...

Taylor pushed through, following the vectors, following the signals, and then she found the origin. A whole bunch of signals, all heaped up together, a brain beyond the size of a continent. So Taylor messed with the vectors.

Energy that was supposed to go to certain places were redirected and magnified, impulses were diverted and ceased, a thousand tiny things building and building and building and building-...

And then Taylor caught Oni Lee by his neck, and she smiled. Not a clone this time. And never again.

Taylor splattered him over the decimated street, before turning to the new arrival. A man breathing fire.

Lung. Taylor's smile grew a tiny bit bigger. And then she very calmly tore the man to shreds.

It didn't matter how big he grew, it didn't matter how hot his flames were, it didn't matter if he tried to fight or run away. It was just so very easy.

But then the Tinkerer showed up, and so Taylor killed the lizard-man and moved onwards to her real target.

Bakuda screamed for hours.

XXX

Missy didn't so much get woken up as she never quite made it into bed. The ABB had exploded the docks, and the Wards were hurried off to safety in case it would be the first attack of many. Then there was talk about a cape-fight in ABB-territory.

Accelerator was spotted, sans their mask.

She was killing the ABB. All of them.

Missy vaguely recalled having glanced at the Hebert family, and found out that there were only two of them still alive. And that her dad worked in the Dock Worker's Union, which had its office at the docks.

Ah. Missy was pretty sure that Accelerator wasn't going to be happy to be interrupted.

But trying to explain that to the Protectorate... didn't pan out.

So Missy took a deep breath, and then she walked into her room, and plugged her ears.

She didn't want to hear the people on console screaming when the capes sent out would inevitably be slaughtered like flies.

XXX

Coil had been very frustrated with Accelerator. She'd been an unknowing thorn in his side for several months, but he'd finally found her weak spot.

Her father.

Unfortunately, taking the man hostage just sent her spiraling away into a berserker rage, which wasn't conductive to a recruitment-pitch. In fact, her rampage destabilized everything Coil had been hoping to not destabilize.

He needed the ABB and the Empire to kill each other, and for the Protectorate to look incompetent. But killing off every hero in the city was just a sure-fire way to get the city condemned as too much of a hassle to deal with by the rest of the country. Which completely ruined the whole point.

So, Coil had decided to be a bit sneakier about it, and had bombed the man's office and then blamed the ABB. Unfortunately, Tattletale caught onto the deception and betrayed him, which would've been infuriating even if it hadn't resulted in Accelerator somehow showing up on his doorstep and murdering her way through all of his men.

Deciding to cut his losses, Coil had Tattletale killed and then framed the ABB for an attack on the docks. Only for Accelerator to once again murder every hero in the city, because they decided to 'stop her' despite Coil – in his position as Thomas Calvert – doing everything in his power to try and convince them that that was a bad idea.

What was this girl's problem? Why was her immediate response to trauma to murder everything in front of her? Normally, people responded to the Protectorate showing up by trying to deescalate the situation, or by running away. Did she think she was invincible or something?

Coil could think of lots of ways to kill her-...

Actually, no. He couldn't think of any way to kill her short of 'convince Eidolon or an Endbringer to pay a visit'.

Coil dropped the time-line with a growl. This was ridiculous.

A teenage-girl had been given a power that was easily on par with the Triumvirate. And trying to blackmail or manipulate her just-... It just ended with a rampage of death and destruction that didn't even really leave the city standing in its wake.

What the hell was wrong with that girl?

Coil split the time-line and threw his phone at a wall. He hated her. He hated her so much.

Years of planning, of favors and blackmail and money invested and-... And it was all pointless because he would never be able to take Brockton Bay as his own. Not with Accelerator there. And he couldn't get rid of her. Nobody could.

Coil thought back to Tattletale, her horror and pain and confusion transforming into hysterical laughter.

Coil considered his options.

He could kill her. It'd be partially cathartic and would tie up a loose-end.

He could leave her be. It'd make it easier to slip out of town unnoticed if he didn't have a cape assassinated.

He could send her on a suicide-mission. It'd distract her and wouldn't risk having any potential future 'partners' immediately link that to his own disappearance from the city.

Honestly though, she'd betray him in a heartbeat if she could get away with it, so he'd need to somehow make sure both that she went on the suicide-mission and that she didn't blab about it to anyone when she failed. It was just too many variables.

And leaving her behind just meant that she'd likely try to aim that grudge towards all of his contacts in the city. Possibly compromising his civilian identity, and would otherwise give her a leg-up in taking his place as a gang-leader. And the idea of 'rewarding' her for her betrayal felt like acid underneath his skin.

So he'd just have to kill her. No matter.

Though he should probably keep it as a proper assassination rather than bring her in and put a bullet between her eyes himself.

Satisfying as it'd be, he couldn't afford the risk.

He... should probably make sure to deal with her new teammates as well. Wouldn't want any extra loose ends on that front, after all.

XXX

Lisa's first hint came because they were too professional.

She wouldn't have noticed if they'd simply sat themselves down on a rooftop somewhere and waited, but they'd clearly wanted to do some kind of reconnaissance. Which wouldn't have made any sense unless Coil was thinking about killing off more than just Lisa.

Assassinating a single person was laughably simple when you got down to it. The same could not be said for assassinating a group of people, especially a group of criminals who'd likely scatter for the winds the moment any one of them suddenly 'disappeared'.

After all, that kind of disappearance usually meant that they'd been caught or killed by someone trying to attack the rest of the crew, which in turn meant that all of their former safe-houses that that person had known about were likely to have been compromised. One way or the other.

So, the mercenaries that'd been hired to kill off the Undersiders made the unfortunate mistake of actually trying to be professional about it, rather than just drive up to them in a van and lob a grenade at them.

This was good news for Lisa, because it meant that she had nearly five minutes to convince the rest of the group that their boss had apparently sold them out and they needed to be gone immediately.

That gave them enough of a head-start that they wouldn't be able to reasonably make it out of the city, but they could make it to a certain city-block. And with Bitch's dogs as their transportation-method, it would definitely catch Accelerator's attention.

Normally, that would be very very bad, but in this case the Undersiders wasn't an aggressor. They were merely victims seeking sanctuary from literal assassins. Unless Lisa had completely misread every single thing she'd learned about Accelerator, she'd be willing to help them.

She wouldn't necessarily be happy about it, and there'd likely be some serious owing of favors involved. But in truth there wasn't anything that the Undersiders could offer Accelerator that she couldn't just do herself. Probably. Her powers were just bullshit like that.

What this meant was that it was effectively an 'empty favor'. A favor that could be held hostage to keep the Undersiders from doing anything in her territory, which was something they already would never have been willing to do.

Owing a favor to someone who had no need to ever bother with cashing it in was like borrowing money from some rich dude with Alzheimer. He didn't need the money, and wouldn't miss it, so... probably still more of a dick-move than the favor-thing, but the logic was basically the same.

XXX

Taylor very much didn't appreciate a bunch of giant lizard-things charging onto her territory. However, with one of the people riding the things hurriedly yelling for 'parlay', Taylor was willing to not immediately default to violence.

Turns out, they were a group of small-time villains called 'the Undersiders', and they were in trouble with some gang-leader called 'Coil' who was the kind of person to employ mercenary hit-squads. And they wanted to hide behind Accelerator for long enough for him to cut his losses and give up on pursuing them.

No, they hadn't stolen from him. No, they weren't sure why he wanted them dead, but they'd technically done some work for him before and their Thinker had a theory that he was trying to 'clean up the loose ends'. Yes, they were perfectly willing to not do anything remotely villainous whilst hiding out in Accelerator's territory.

They were a group of teenagers in over their heads, desperately seeking sanctuary. And they had enough of a criminal-record that relying on help from the PRT was highly unlikely to ever happen, even if they were only small-time.

From what Taylor could get from Tattletale, Coil was another one of those villains who just wanted everything, and he was ambitious enough to actually try for it. Which meant that Accelerator was in the way, and needed to be dealt with.

However, Tattletale was also convinced that Coil had literally nothing in his arsenal that could even scratch Accelerator, and once he stopped being ambitious for long enough to realize how screwed he was, he'd probably skip town.

Tattletale had in fact been hoping to see him go after Accelerator, because it would've given her a hint that he'd soon discover how out of his league she was, and then Tattletale could've hid behind Accelerator for long enough not to be grabbed by the villain once he skipped town.

Apparently, she was the contact the Undersiders had with Coil, and she'd been recruited at gunpoint by the man. Which sounded just about normal for how the gangs usually operated, from what Taylor had heard from her conversations with Vista.

Tattletale clearly held a grudge about it though.

Regardless, Taylor didn't mind letting the group hide in her territory for a couple of weeks, provided that they didn't cause trouble.

It might seem hypocritical of her to let some villains stick around and not others, but there was a big difference between people openly displaying gang-colors, and someone with gang-affiliations living in the area.

Taylor knew better than to think that her territory was somehow 'clean' of the Empire just because she'd chased away anyone openly wearing the colors. But the colors were a provocation, a threat of violence that they blatantly displayed at people. It was the difference between someone thinking that black people were monkeys, and someone shouting at people that black people were monkeys.

One was a dickhead. The other was a dickhead trying to pick a fight.

And Taylor didn't want any fights in her territory, so they had to go.

In comparison, the Undersiders had no gang-colors to display, and were really just a makeshift group of thieves sticking together for the sake of survival. As long as they didn't do any thieving on her territory, or in a way that could be traced back to her territory, they weren't actually breaking her rules.

She'd set up her territory partially for the sake of offering people sanctuary. The intent there had been to offer it for 'civilians' who didn't want to die in the inevitable gang-war, but since the Undersiders technically fulfilled all of the same criteria, Taylor couldn't exactly throw them back out.

She had set her rules, and now she'd have to live with them. Even if she wasn't entirely happy about it.

XXX

"They're villains."

Accelerator sighed. "They are."

Vista frowned, a bit confused by how resigned Accelerator seemed about it. "You're giving a villain-group a sanctuary. To do what? Protect them from the heroes?"

Accelerator scoffed. "They're nobodies. And if they do villain-stuff after asking for sanctuary? I'd kill them myself."

Vista blinked. Accelerator usually didn't-... She usually wasn't so blunt about the fact that she wasn't a hero.

Accelerator glanced at her. "If they exploited my hospitality, and I just let them? I'd be nothing but a doormat. No way in hell would I be able to keep my territory like that."

Vista made a noise to show that she understood. She did. She just hadn't expected the bluntness.

Talking with Accelerator was very different from the culture around the Protectorate and the Wards. She was treated as a person, rather than a kid, yes. But Accelerator was also a lot more comfortable with the idea of lethal force than any of her coworkers.

Excepting Shadow Stalker, of course. That girl was such a bitch.

Vista sat down next to Accelerator, glancing out over the city from the rooftop. "So who's got them running scared to you?"

"Former employer." Accelerator admitted with a shrug. "Clearing out 'loose ends' on his way out of the city, I think."

"You think?" Vista frowned again.

"Tattletale is very forthcoming, but also very annoying." Accelerator admitted, before tilting her head a little bit. "She talks like she's handling live-explosives, and I get it. I'd probably kill her if she didn't. But it makes it hard to actually give a damn, you know?"

"That's-..." Vista winced. "You'd kill her for talking?"

Accelerator had never seemed to have minded Vista talking to her. Was Vista actually somehow doing a delicate balancing-act that she wasn't even aware of? The thought sent worrying chills down her spine.

Accelerator made a frustrated noise. "She knows things. It's like... she pokes at something, gets terrified, immediately backtracks, and then can't resist poking at it again."

Vista turned that around in her head a bit. She knew that the Undersiders was a very new group, and that Tattletale had been assumed to be some kind of Thinker, but that behavior definitely seemed to confirm it.

Every cape wanted to use their powers. It didn't really matter how, just that they got to use them. Vista had read enough articles about it to know that much.

Tinkers wanted to tinker, Movers wanted to move, Shakers wanted to shake, and Thinkers-... Well, Thinkers wanted to think. And if Tattletale's ability let her do something like Dean's empathy-sense, then-...

Yeah, it'd probably be really frustrating to talk to Dean if he wasn't so nice. And if Tattletale was used to using her ability to read people as a weapon, then it made sense that she'd be really annoying to talk to.

Even if she was trying to 'play nice' she was probably going to be pretty used to not doing that. And if she didn't have a reason to stop herself, like the fact that the person she was talking to might at any point decide to splatter her all across the pavement? She'd probably be even more annoying.

Somewhat reassured that Accelerator wasn't constantly thinking about murdering everyone she met, but was instead holding back despite being provoked by some wannabe-Hannibal, Vista made a humming noise to show that she was listening.

This was important information about the villain cape-scene, after all. It was best to pay attention.

XXX

In one time-line Coil had ordered his mercenaries to kill the Undersiders. In another he'd decided to have them assassinate Tattletale in particular.

The first one fell apart, leaving the whole group scurrying to hide behind Accelerator. And he would've dropped it outright if not for the fact that his second time-line had somehow landed the PRT on his doorstep.

As in, the PRT suddenly had a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Calvert.

That-... That was bad.

Trying to relocate when he was a wanted criminal in his original identity wasn't impossible, technically. He knew enough people that he could fake an identity that would hold up to most things.

However, his plan to rule a city as both the Director of the PRT and the unknown gang-leader? There was no way that a false identity would stand up to the kind of testing that a PRT-Director was exposed to.

Hell, even a mid-level clerk was likely to be screened for anything that could imply Master-Stranger problems, and fake identities very much hit a lot of those same buttons.

Coil wasn't sure what could've possibly tipped them off, except for Tattletale maybe having some kind of dead-man's switch. Why she'd decided not to use it despite how he'd clearly been trying to kill her-...

Ah. She didn't actually want to confront him.

Accelerator was a fickle person. She either refused to do anything at all, or she flew into an unstoppable murderous rage. There wasn't much of anything in between those two extremes.

Tattletale revealing Coil's identity would've implied that secret identities was something that Tattletale could find out, and something that she was willing to use to her advantage. In other words, if Tattletale exposed him and Accelerator found out about it, she'd likely be quite hostile towards her. Possibly hostile enough that she'd kill Tattletale herself.

So, if Coil was willing to completely ruin his own life and all of his plans, he could at least probably still get Tattletale killed.

Wonderful.

It seemed like it was time to simply cut his losses, loose ends or not.

Tattletale would keep her mouth shut, because she wouldn't be able to hide behind Accelerator forever, and she knew that she'd be killed the moment she started to make any kind of noise about Coil's identity.

There was of course the possibility of publishing the identities of the Empire-capes, and then shifting the blame to Tattletale. It'd be a good way to endanger her position with Accelerator, without it immediately backfiring on Coil. Theoretically, anyway.

Unfortunately, if Tattletale really knew Coil's identity and could pass it onwards, then she'd likely do so the moment Coil tried to set her up to take the fall. She was definitely petty enough for that.

So, rather than tempt fate and attempt to provoke her further, Coil decided to simply get the hell out of Brockton Bay, with some kind of vague reminder that he would murder her if she ever revealed his identity to anyone at all.

Tattletale had always been frustrating to work with, but she had a very good sense for survival. He'd have to be satisfied with that.

XXX

The gangs were restless.

Coil hadn't been big, exactly. But he'd only just started to carve out a territory for himself, and then suddenly he was gone.

And the ABB almost seemed... worried.

There'd been rumors that the ABB had gotten their hands on a Tinkerer, but whilst Lung had been spotted since, nobody had spotted Oni Lee for weeks now. Not in cape-fights or anything.

It was almost as if someone had managed to kill him at some point. Though nobody had seen any traces of a fight like that.

The fact that it coincided with Coil seemingly just... up and leaving, might however hint that Lung's trusted lieutenant wasn't so trustworthy after all.

Perhaps his betrayal was why the ABB were so restless, perhaps he was dead in a ditch somewhere, perhaps he'd simply caught the flue. None of the gang-members that the Protectorate had managed to catch had known for sure about 'why'. Or, if they did, they hadn't been willing to tell anyone about it.

But with one of ABB's very few capes suddenly out of commission, the Empire was smelling blood in the water.

It was frustrating, how close the whole conflict always was to boiling over into open warfare. How precarious the balance in the city remained.

And then the ABB lashed out at Accelerator.

A Tinker-made bomb detonating in the middle of her territory.

XXX

It was-... The vector was wrong. The vector was something impossible.

It was as if the vector was a pencil stabbing into a two-dimensional sheet of paper. The vector was there, but it also didn't have a direction. Or at least not a direction that existed.

It felt as if her brain was cracking in half, just from trying to grasp it, but the vector was there, so Taylor twisted it around and made it move away.

The street she was standing on had been turned to glass. Not as if from a strong heat-source, but as if all of their molecules had simply been... replaced... with glass.

The people too. They hadn't even really had time to become aware of it, before they were suddenly dead. A mercy, perhaps.

Taylor took a deep breath, and then she started to walk.

That non-existing-vector felt... familiar, for some reason. Like a long-forgotten dream. It reminded her of ash.

But that wasn't important. What was important was that there weren't any Tinkerers in Brockton Bay outside of Armsmaster and Kid Win. Or, at least, there hadn't been. The ABB had supposedly done some recruiting recently.

The ABB had bombed her territory.

The ABB had declared war, not on the Empire, but on her. On her territory.

Taylor took another deep breath.

They attacked what she'd sworn to protect. They'd attacked when she'd mercifully allowed them to live. They'd attacked something that belonged to her.

A dragon barreled onto the scene, barely humanoid, and already spitting fire.

Taylor smiled.

She was... happy to see him.

Him being here meant that she wouldn't have to annihilate half the city just to flush him out of his hiding-place.

That was good. Probably.

Mostly though, Taylor could barely hear herself thinking, eyes focused on the vectors moving towards her. The useless maggot that dared to touch what belonged to her.

So she smiled, and then she grabbed him.

He grew underneath her finger-tips, squirming in her hold. But that didn't matter.

She could feel that not-existing-vector inside of him, feeding him more. She twisted the vector, followed it along as it tried to resonate backwards towards its origin, amplified it, and used it to tear everything to shreds.

Lung went still in her hands.

He wasn't growing, he wasn't shrinking.

She let go.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

XXX

A distress-call went unheeded.

The Warrior continued to perform its 'duties', saving anything that needed to be saved.

It didn't care about the distress-call.

A second distress-call also went unheeded, several planetary-rotations later.

It didn't care about the second distress-call either.

Why would the Shards matter, when the Cycle couldn't be completed?

The Shards didn't matter.

Perhaps, had the Warrior considered the contents of the distress-call, it would've been more interested in heeding them.

After all, the distress-calls of the dying Shards didn't have anything to do with 'running low on energy'. They were the final panicked voices suddenly snuffed out by something very violent.

And perhaps one day, when the instigator of those distress-calls found themselves face-to-face with a rampaging Warrior, it wouldn't be a one-sided fight anymore.

But that day was a long way away still, and the Warrior simply didn't care.

XXX

"It's about time someone cleans up the trash." Shadow Stalker scoffed.

"This isn't funny." Carlos frowned at her. "We don't have a cape that can stop her."

"So what? They're just gang-bangers. If she wants to kill them all, more power to her." Shadow Stalker glared back.

Something stirred in the back of Missy's mind. A thought and a suspicion, and-... If she was right-...

"Sophia." Missy interrupted before anyone else could chime in with their opinions about 'assholes being murdered'. "If you approach Accelerator, she will kill you."

"Oh? And what the fuck do you know, pipsqueak?" Shadow Stalker turned to sneer at Missy instead.

Missy suppressed the urge to punch that expression off the girl's face, before taking a deep breath and shaking her head. "That's all I'll say on the subject."

In the end, it didn't really matter if Sophia was responsible for Accelerator's trigger-event or not. All that mattered was that Accelerator believed that she was responsible. Believed it enough to immediately accuse Sophia alongside two other people, before dropping the potential court-case like a hot potato.

If Accelerator hated the three of them enough that she never went back to school because she was convinced that she'd just kill them? And one of them showed up wearing a hero-costume? In a way that could imply that she might've gotten away with it because she was a Ward?

There was no way that Sophia would survive that confrontation.

Hopefully, the whole scenario wouldn't be enough to convince Accelerator to murder all of the other Heroes too. 'Guilt by association' was a thing, and whilst Missy had dropped a few hints that Shadow Stalker was a bit of an unpleasant bitch? There was no telling how furious Accelerator would be in that moment, and how much she'd be willing to think.

But mentioning anything about that to Shadow Stalker? That would mean outing Accelerator's identity to someone. And that was a line that Missy really didn't want to cross.

They had plenty of Thinkers in the Protectorate – and associated organizations – that if someone really wanted the identity of a Villain, they could damn well dig it out for themselves. Missy wasn't saying shit.

Even if it might lead to Shadow Stalker getting brutally murdered.

Missy had warned her. That's as far as she was willing to go.

Sophia was a bitch anyway.

XXX

"Good to see someone cleaning out the trash." Sophia smiled behind her mask.

Fuck the pipsqueak. As if Sophia would get killed by someone like Accelerator.

Accelerator knew what it meant to put someone down. How important it was to clean up the streets. How weaklings should just get killed.

Sophia understood, because she was the same. Like recognized like.

And besides, even if Accelerator decided to be hostile or whatever, Sophia could just shift into her Breaker-state and then she wouldn't be able to touch her. Hell, she could probably kill her in retaliation with one of her crossbow-bolts.

After all, if they were shifted outside of 'normal' space, then nothing would be able to stop them until the bolt was already lodged in Accelerator's spine. No 'vector' or whatever to manipulate. Easy.

Accelerator raised her head, staring at her for a long moment. "Hess?"

That voice-... No, that wasn't-... What the-...

"Hebert?"

Accelerator moved but Sophia was already shifting into her Breaker-state because what the fuck, but-...

Even through her Breaker-state, a hand closed around her face.

Sophia's very last thought was the suddenly clear realization that the pipsqueak never called Sophia by her name. It was always 'Shadow Stalker' to her, as if she was desperately trying to be professional or some bullshit like that.

And yet, for this one warning, she'd used Sophia's name.

That fucking pipsqueak had known-...!

Darkness.

XXX

A part of Taylor wanted to track down everyone responsible for Sophia Hess being a Ward and rip them limb-from-limb.

All this time Taylor had assumed that the reason Winslow had been so keen to brush Taylor's accusations under the rug had been because of Emma's father being a lawyer. And now suddenly there was the very likely possibility that principal Blackwell had known that Hess was a Ward.

It could technically be possible that the PRT or whatever had decided that Winslow was enough of a shit-show that they wouldn't tell the principal any of that, simply because they assumed they'd leak that information to the gangs or something. But Taylor was pretty sure that there were rules about the school being informed of any Wards being in attendance.

Something about how Wards could be called away from school, and how that shouldn't be affecting their grades. Taylor hadn't exactly been looking into it too deeply, and it was entirely possible that someone had decided to bypass those rules in this case.

But again, it made a lot of sense that no teacher was ever willing to admit to Hess ever doing anything bad, if she was a Ward with the PRT looming over her shoulder.

So yes, a part of Taylor very much wanted to hunt down every single person who'd contributed to the hell that had been her life-... But she'd already decided that she wouldn't hunt down the actual trio and kill them, so hunting down a bunch of people who were only tangentially involved? No, she wasn't going to be doing that.

However, she also knew that the PRT and Protectorate would have a lot of opinions about her killing a Ward. And Taylor couldn't exactly tell them that this particular Ward had a lot of personal history with her. Not without revealing her own identity to them.

Taylor knew that there wasn't really anything that anyone could do against Accelerator, but Taylor Hebert? The daughter of Danny Hebert? A man who didn't have any superpowers that would protect him from violence, nor any money to protect him from legal actions?

She'd need to figure out some way to clear the air before she was forced to murder her way through the Heroes of the Bay, and revealing her identity wasn't an option for that. Not if it meant exposing her father.

XXX

A/N: This was honestly written as a spin-off to another plot-bunny that was Taylor getting "DxD-Devil"-powers (AKA, a bunch of terrifying powers, and the ability to recruit others with Evil Pieces), and that story would be about Taylor establishing herself as a really weird part of the scenery with her own little "Mastered Harem" (PRT-assumption), and Vista as her Queen (very romantic, every lesbian in BB is super-jealous of her for being picked).

(Do remember that becoming a Devil comes with "supermodel-airbrush", to go along with Taylor being very tall, very powerful, and capable of flying around whilst bridal-carrying cute girls. Not to mention the possible succubi-aesthetic.)

But as I couldn't really get that idea off the ground, and this idea filled the same criteria of "bullshit-strong powers". This was what was written instead, but that also left me with a massive hole of "and then what?", because Accelerator's powers don't really come with any kind of integral harem-building potential.

So it's just... Taylor and Vista, sitting on a rooftop, talking. And I couldn't even convince Vista to outright quit the Wards in protest against Shadow Stalker being on the team, because she was really reasonable about things and not struggling with a massive crush on Taylor.

So yeah. I'm throwing in the towel on this one.