Gathering Clouds 2.1
Are you sure you're ready to try this?
Taylor pointedly ignored the downright paternal and extremely concerned tone that Legacy had at that moment. She'd been waiting weeks for this summon, weeks of summoning Marion, Alexander, Nova, and the other young heroes, building the defenses surrounding her home, and slowly growing the limits of her power.
You're the one who recommended summoning him in the first place. Taylor shot back. I'm ready.
That was before just summoning Archmage nearly gave you an aneurysm. Vulcan is in a league all of his own.You say that, but what do you mean? Taylor mentally grumbled. It's not something that can be described, only experienced. I'm just afraid that summoning him will hurt you, that's all.The only reason summoning Archmage hurt me was because I'd been straining my power all day. I'm well rested and my abilities have only been getting stronger.You're right I suppose. Legacy admitted reluctantly. And from what I've seen, most powers, parahuman or super, have inbuilt limiters to make sure you don't permanently hurt yourself.
Exactly. Now let's do this.
Standing in the center of her basement with a clear and open area, Taylor focused upon her power and searched for Vulcan. Within the fog she felt names and individuals pass her by before settling on one. She felt the mind of a keen business and craftsman. Gruff, but honest and reliable. She was reminded of her dad and a lot of the dockworkers she knew, they had the same feel about them. Grasping the mind, she brought him to the surfa-
-lor! Taylor!
Taylor sat up with a small groan, blinking blearily around the basement. There was a smoking patch of burnt concrete, but no super. She grimaced as she felt a headache (equal parts power strain and the large growing lump on the back of her head) and a nosebleed. What exactly happened?You managed to summon Vulcan for about two seconds before you blacked out.
He's really that strong?
Under the right circumstances, he could take on an Endbringer solo.Can't you do that too?I can fight one by myself, but beating it or surviving are different matters. I have full faith that Vulcan could survive it and about a fifty/fifty shot of killing it. Again, under the right circumstances.Well it sounds like we need to keep training then.With a small, now almost instinctual flare of her power, Taylor summoned Marion.
"Sup T, what'd you need?" Marion asked cheerfully as he appeared.
"Can you start working on some armor for me? Maybe a weapon too if you have time." Taylor requested.
"Sure, sure, armor ain't a problem. Weapons are another matter though, I'm not very good at that kind of stuff if it isn't stationary turrets or somethin similar." Marion replied affably as he went over to the workbench that he'd been using and began to draw schematics. "I mean, I'm sure I can rig something basic, but it won't be fancy."
"Sounds like a plan. I'm going out, please don't burn anything down."
"No promises T. Oh hey, can you grab me a burger while you're out?" Marion asked while hefting a slab of half constructed material onto the workbench.
Taylor blinked. "You're a projection…"
"Yeah, but I still want a burger. I can still taste and enjoy it." Marion pointed out as tools began to materialize in his grip and he got to work.
Taylor sighed. "Yeah sure. I'll be back later."
She walked out of the house and toward the boardwalk quickly, but stopped and summoned Nova halfway there.
"G'day Taylor." Nova grinned as she appeared. "What's crackin?"
Taylor instinctively returned the smile. Having friends again felt better than she'd thought possible. While she summoned Marion for his tinkering work and his (somewhat) pleasant company, she'd only summoned Nova and Alexander because she liked having people she could talk to again. Deadeye was too reserved, Peyton reminded Taylor too much of Emma, Cassandra had been… intense. Summoning Legacy was like having another dad around which was weird, and the less said about Archmage, the better. Nova and Xander were actually somewhat normal, though Nova still had a tendency to threaten to eat people when she got annoyed and Xander didn't know the meaning of the words 'mental privacy'. They were also just old enough to be past the petty teenage bullshit that Taylor hated, but young enough to not look down on her as a kid.
"Nothing much Nova. I asked Marion to start working on armor, figured I'd go out and about while he's busy and I needed a bodyguard." Taylor summarized. "Shopping?"
"Righto." Nova hooked an arm through Taylor's and began pulling the taller girl along toward the shops that lined the boardwalk. "You bring the cash?"
The money had been an odd occurrence. A briefcase filled with cash and a note apologizing for any inconveniences caused by 'Fortress Construction'. When Taylor had looked up the company, she found a construction firm that had been building Endbringer shelters, but was sold off to various other companies a week before. The owner had cited wanting to retire and enjoy his hard earned fortune. Feeling a bit paranoid about the money, she summoned Isaac and had him use a Thinker power to make sure it was clean. It was surprisingly enough, though it still left Taylor with a lot of questions and confusion.
"I brought some." At least she didn't need to worry about allowance anymore. "Oh and Marion wants a burger."
Nova snorted and shook her head. "Yeah, course he does. Let's hit some shops and then Fugly Bob's."
"That's a bit of a walk…"
"Yeah but a Challenger!" Nova grinned. "I've been waiting to try one of them. If it really bothers you, then I can carry ya. Though you won't keep the belly at bay without exercise." Nova suggested cheekily while poking Taylor in the stomach.
She felt a surge of heat flood her cheeks. "Legacy's workout routines keep me in shape thank you very much." Taylor protested with righteous indignation. She'd worked damn hard and even if supers seemed to be able to get into shape faster, she'd still been able to get into what Legacy called 'fighting shape' in record time. Legacy theorized it was the frankly ludicrous amount of energy that ran through her body whenever she used her superpower. Seeing as he was the first super being of his world, basically like Scion… yeah she trusted his word. Plus there weren't any other supers she could compare herself to anymore.
The two girls continued their bantering as they perused the boardwalk. Nova managed to convince Taylor to get some new clothes ("New school, new friends, new outfits!"), but she refused to budge on a cellphone. The only person she even needed to call was dad and she could do that with the landline easily enough. The rest of her friends were living in her head rent-free, literally.
What about new friends though? Legacy asked gently.
I have you guys. That's enough for now.
You can never have enough friends.
Taylor decided to ignore that bit of advice. She'd had a friend she trusted once… And been betrayed so thoroughly that it still hurt to think about. She could trust her supers, they were born of her power and seemed genuine, but other people? Taylor just couldn't bring herself to do it yet. Maybe one day… but not today.
"Feeling nervous about the new school?" Nova asked as they were enroute to Fugly Bob's. "Perfectly natural if you are."
Taylor grimaced, instinctively ducking her head at the mention of school. "I just can't imagine that it will be much better than Winslow. School is still school right?"
Nova let out a scoff. "You would think so, but Winslow was… Frankly it was the worst school I've ever seen. I'm sure there are worse, but that one was up there in terms of just how bad it was. Trust me, Arcadia will be a whole new experience."
"Did you ever have to move between schools?"
"Crikey Taylor, you think someone like me went to school?" Nova laughed, though there was an edge of sadness to it. "I got dropped when my powers first manifested. Spent a lot of my teen years learning to control it. First time I went to a proper school was Legacy's Academy. Got lucky enough to even make some friends."
Again with the friends? "I doubt I'll get so lucky." Taylor muttered.
Nova paused mid-stride and looked Taylor in the eye, "Tay, you're a perfectly ordinary sheila, albeit with some extra baggage. I turn into a bleedin' monstrous beasty that'll eat someone if I don't control its instincts. If I can make friends and even nearly get myself a boyfriend, then so can you. And that was after they saw my transformed state."
As they continued walking Taylor mulled over Nova's words. "How do you 'nearly' get a boyfriend? Did he end up being a jerk or something?"
Nova grinned sadly. "You die before you figure it out. He liked to pretend he was cold and aloof, but he was actually a sweetheart once you got to know him." She pulled open the door to Fugly Bob's and ushered Taylor inside.
Taylor went over the supers she'd summoned so far as they ordered and grabbed some food (normal cheeseburger for herself, one to go for Marion, and a Challenger for Nova) and came to a reasonable conclusion. "You almost dated Deadeye?!"
Nova choked mid-bite and spluttered a bit, sending bits of ground beef and cheese everywhere. "Bloody hell Tay, give a gal some warnin! What makes you think that?"
Taylor gave a little shrug. "He just seems the most aloof."
"Bah, Deadeye isn't aloof, he's just secretive. And I wasn't talking about him." Nova grumbled and took another big bite of Challenger.
Taylor ran another memory check and thought about their conversation a few weeks ago on the boardwalk. "You don't mean Xander do you? He doesn't seem cold or aloof, just really polite."
Nova blushed a bit and refused to meet Taylor's eyes. "He wasn't always like that. When we all first became a team, we were a right mess. Marion had a need to prove himself, Peyton had a major superiority complex, Deadeye wouldn't even tell us his name, Cassandra was a hardass who only thought about fighting, I tried to eat people… And Xander was so convinced people would betray him that he kept on reading everyone's minds. Eventually our mentor, Sorceress, had us do a psychic mind-link to try and help us understand each other better and work out our issues. It worked a little too well. Xander and I saw each other's childhoods and by the end of it, we had this psychic bond thingy going. We uh… well, nothing ever came of it, because the world was ending, but when you can literally feel someone's emotions… I dunno…" Nova set her burger down and stared off into the distance. "A lot of things went unresolved when the world ended, Taylor. A lot of regrets."
Taylor felt a wash of guilt that she'd brought the topic up. "Damn, I'm sorry Nova. I didn't mean to… I'm sorry."
Nova blinked and shook her head, reaching out and patting Taylor's hand. "Don't worry 'bout it, Taylor. You asked, I answered. Just… When you do find friends, don't let'm go. You never know if or when you'll lose them."
Taylor swallowed thickly, feeling like a heavy weight was on her chest. "I feel like I already found some again. And I really can't lose you guys."
Nova stared for a moment, then grinned. "Well we ain't going anywhere."
Taylor grinned back weakly for a moment, then stood up. "Grabbing a refill, hang tight for a minute."
She walked away and looked around to make sure no one was looking, before focusing her power. She'd been practicing precision summoning for a while, hopefully she could pull this off…
Taylor? Xander's mental voice reached out to her. Why did you just summon me in an absolutely filthy bathroom?
Because you and Nova are going to have a date while I take Marion his food. She replied tiredly. Have fun.Please don't do that. There was an edge of panic in his voice. Marion doesn't deserve food!Yeah, but you guys deserve some time to yourselves. I can't call you my friends if I don't treat you like actual people! Taylor felt herself grimace as she realized how 'loud' she'd gotten.
…I am honored you consider us to be your friends, Ms. Hebert. Very well. But if you need us on the way back home-
Then I'll summon Deadeye or Dryad. Seriously, it's fine.Taylor walked out before he could argue anymore and started the trek back to her house. A light dusting of snow drifted down from the gray clouds overhead. She smiled softly as she walked, alone, but no longer feeling lonely. Even if they were just projections… Taylor still felt like she could call them her friends. She was so caught up in her head, that she failed to notice the brunette carrying coffee until she'd run directly into her.
Hot coffee went everywhere, a bunch of the scalding liquid landing on Taylor's stomach and legs, causing her to hiss in pain. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, thanks to the jacket and heavy pants she'd worn due to cold weather, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. The brunette girl on the other hand let out a curse and rubbed her butt where she'd landed on the sidewalk.
"Fucking hell, did no one ever teach you to watch where you're going!" She snapped out. "Goddamnit, now I gotta go back and get more."
Taylor felt herself blush from embarrassment. "I'm so sorry," she offered a hand up, "I just got a lot on my mind, again I'm really sorry."
The (familiar?) brunette accepted the hand with a grunt as she pulled herself to her feet. Then she frowned, staring down at Taylor's hand. "Oh, you're the locker girl."
Taylor felt a spike of panic. No one else was supposed to know about the locker! Who the hell-
"Oh uh, geeze calm down." The brunette said quickly, dropping the hand. "I could feel your heart rate spike, don't worry, that new hero, Legacy, he said you'd been in biohazardous waste when he brought you to the hospital and there was a news article about a locker at Winslow filled with- Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to scare you, patient confidentiality and all that."
"Ah, no problem." Taylor replied, still feeling nervous. "Are you a nurse at the hospital or something?"
The brunette let out a little chortle of laughter. "Or something. Sorry for snapping at you, I guess I should've been looking out too."
"No, no you were carrying the coffee. Can I uh… Can I follow you back to the shop and buy you some more? Looked like you were bringing enough for a group." Taylor offered sheepishly.
"Sure, that'd be great. I could use a hand too if you got the time, balancing that many cups was a pain in the ass."
"Least I could do. Oh, I'm Taylor by the way." She offered a hand.
The brunette squinted at her for a moment before accepting the hand. "Claire."
The two girls walked swiftly back to the shop that Claire had come from and ordered a frankly ludicrous amount of coffee (Claire had to check her phone to make sure all the orders were correct) and together the two walked back to Fugly Bob's balancing several cups between them. Inside a new group of teenagers had taken over a booth, five of them to be precise.
"There you are Ames!" A stunningly gorgeous blonde called out before floating across the floor and all the way to them shouted. She grabbed a cup out of Claire's (Ames?) hand and took a long swig. "Did you get lost or something?"
The other girl shrugged a bit. "Ran into Taylor here and dropped the first batch. She graciously bought me more and helped me carry it here."
The blonde girl eyed Taylor for a moment before seeming to reach a conclusion. "Thanks! I'm Vicky, wanna come sit with us?"
Vicky. Victoria. Blonde that can fly. Oh hell I ran into Panacea and knocked her onto her ass and now I'm talking to Glory Girl.
"I uh, really wouldn't want to intrude-" Taylor tried to decline, but Vicky beat her to it.
"You aren't, it'd be nice to have another girl around." Vicky declared brightly. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to everyone." She started dragging Taylor to the booth while Amy Dallon followed behind with a brief sigh.
Xander! Nova! Help!
No can do T. Nova giggled back mentally.
Traitor!
"Sorry I fibbed." Amy muttered to Taylor. "Claire's my middle name. Didn't want you to freak out."
Taylor just gave her a flat look before she was unceremoniously pushed into a booth seat.
"Alright, intro time guys! This is Taylor, she helped Amy bring the coffee." Vicky introduced as she dragged over a chair.
Taylor blinked at the group, head spinning. She'd found herself seated next to a grinning redhead and a brunette boy, across from a blond guy that screamed 'rich' and a handsome latino. Vicky squeezed into the booth next to the rich boy and Amy took the end seat without complaint. Taylor wished she'd gotten that seat, instead of shoved next to a stranger. The amused look on Amy's face told her that her feelings were easily visible.
This is hell. I'm in hell.
"Nice to meet you all." Taylor greeted them as neutrally as possible. She didn't want to seem too friendly or overeager, like a cape groupie or something. "Taylor Hebert."
"Good to make your acquaintance, my name's Dean." The rich kid introduced himself with a friendly smile. The look in his eyes was weird, as if he could see more about Taylor than anyone else. It made her more than a little uncomfortable.
"Carlos." The latino guy greeted her, offering a small smile. He lightly kicked the fidgeting brunette boy who was scribbling something in a notebook.
"Oh, I'm Chris." The boy said quickly. "Sorry, I gotta get these notes down before I forget the lecture." He went back to the notebook with laser focus.
"And saving the best for last, I am the illustrious Dennis." The redhead greeted her with a wide grin. It reminded her too much of Marion to put her at ease. "So how exactly did you run into our fair angel of the hospital?"
Amy snorted and flicked a french fry at Dennis. "We literally ran into each other. Spilled all my coffee."
"Ah…" Dennis squinted suspiciously at Taylor. "You weren't just trying to get close to Pan-Pan were you?"
"No no, I didn't even recognize her til a minute ago. I just felt bad for spilling her coffee and-" Taylor began to protest, feeling her heart rate rise again.
Dennis laughed and waved a hand. "I'm just messing with you. Thanks for the coffee though, you have no idea how much I needed some." He punctuated his statement by taking a long drink from his cup.
"Ignoring the class idiot," "Hey I resemble that!" "What school are you from?" Carlos asked curiously.
"I was going to Winslow, but I'm starting at Arcadia next week." Taylor explained. "Are you all…?"
"We're all from Arcadia, yes." Dean answered. "Is Winslow really as bad as they say?"
Taylor scowled. "Worse."
Dennis let out a chuckle. "They found a locker filled with all kinds of gross stuff and the media says it looks like someone was shoved in there, of course it's bad." Amy began making a quick cut-off motion, but the redhead kept going. "I mean hell, if that's their idea of a prank, I'd hate to see what those kids would do to someone they didn't like."
Taylor felt a cold spark ignite in her chest. "A prank? Is that what they're calling it?" She asked blankly.
Dean shot Dennis a look this time, but was ignored. "That's what my sources tell me. Big overblown prank. Gross I guess, but it couldn't have been that ba-"
"Dennis, shut up now!" Vicky hissed. At the edges of her mental defenses, Taylor could feel a bit of pressure. "Can you not read the room?!"
Taylor turned a glacial stare onto Dennis. "So it's just a prank when your locker gets filled with all kinds of disgusting shit, then you get shoved in, locked in, and left like that for hours? While you're screaming and begging to be let out, breaking your nails as you try to claw your way out, bruising your hands as you bang away at the door, your head throbbing from where you hit it on the way in? Thats all just a fucking prank?!" She hissed. She stood up. "Sorry for bumping into you, Amy. Thanks for healing me the other week."
Taylor marched off doing her best to hide the hot tears that started streaking down her face, doing her best to ignore the sudden onslaught of thoughts coming from Nova and Xander, dismissing them quickly. She walked off and onto the pier, leaning against the railing, staring off at the ocean. She had actually been starting to like that little group, they'd seemed nice and she'd been feeling that little tingle of nervousness fade away, but then they'd brought up her trigger like it was all a damned joke and-
"Taylor!"
She flinched as Victoria landed next to her and proceeded to glomp her. "I'm so fucking sorry about Dennis, he's an idiot sometimes, but I swear, he only said that stuff because a hot girl he likes from Winslow said that, we made sure he knew that he was being stupid." Vicky babbled out rapidly in one breath. "And that girl was a bitch anyway, he really shouldn't have believed her. Amy told me that she healed you and how bad it was. Can you come back? Please? Dennis wants to apologize and I don't want you thinking we're all a bunch of aholes."
Taylor blinked and then looked away. "I didn't mean to get so pissy. It was just… what happened was close to the worst day of my life. And then he made fun of it and I lost it. Why would you still even want me around after that?"
Vicky sheepishly mumbled something under her breath before clearing her throat and trying again. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem like you need friends and so does my sister. You're the only person I've seen in a while who wasn't starstruck when you met us. I'd like it if we could hang out some more." She grinned brightly. "Give us another chance? Please?!"
Again, a tickle at her mental defense. "Sorry Vicky, I just… I need to go home for today. I'll see you at Arcadia though."
Vicky looked disappointed, but nodded her head. "Alright. Just… if you wanna hang out again, just find us at school. See ya around." She gave Taylor another swift hug and then jetted off into the air and back towards the restaurant.
Taylor let out another sigh and began to trek back home.
Friends… if only.
"You'll never have friends if you don't take a chance and let them in."
Taylor jumped about a foot in the air as Legacy suddenly spoke to her. Spinning around she found him dressed in civilian clothes, giving her a soft smile. "Hello Taylor."
"How the hell-?"
"Your power thought you could use some company. Call me Aaron while I'm out of costume." He reminded her, tapping his face to show off the lack of mask. "Come on, I'll walk you home and we can talk for a minute."
"Why do I need friends? Why should I just give people more of a chance to hurt me?" Taylor asked bitterly as they walked. "You guys are-"
"Not going to be around forever." Aaron said gently. "Nothing lasts indefinitely and while we will be here for you as long as we can, we aren't alive. Not anymore at least. You still need normal friends, as normal of a life as you can get, maybe even a special someone eh?" He said teasingly while bumping her shoulder slightly. "I get it. I really do. My best friend became the deadliest threat to our world for a time and killed so many innocents. I felt betrayed. Lost. For a while I tried to just throw myself into the job, didn't let anyone else in… it didn't work. Relationships with people are what anchor us, Taylor. Without them, we lose sight of who we are and what our goals are. But that means risking that we'll be hurt again." His eyes closed and he seemed lost in a memory for a moment. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to form those connections. People can be stupid without being malicious. I don't think those young folks meant to hurt you, they were just…"
"Unobservant?"
"Yeah, that sums it up nicely. I know you want to be a hero and you will when you're ready, but please… don't do it alone." Aaron pleaded.
Taylor glanced away, lost in her own thoughts and stayed there until they reached her home. Legacy placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, before rocketing off into the sky, his normal clothing reshaping into his costume.
Taylor sighed and walked down into the basement, finding Marion still working on his project.
"Oh hey T. You bring me my burger?" He asked with a distracted wave of greeting. "Cause a man has gotta eat to keep up his strength and-" He blinked and sat up, actually looking at Taylor. "You ok?"
Taylor clenched a fist and shook her head. "No. No I'm not."
"...Anything I can do?"
She was sick of sitting around. Of feeling useless. Oh sure, she had her supers, but other than defending her, they hadn't helped the Bay at all yet. Maybe that was her own fear or maybe it was something else. But no more. She had these powers now. Time to make use of them. She didn't want to just sit around and feel sorry for herself anymore.
"I need you to build something else for me. I can summon some other tinkers if you need me too."
So she described what she wanted and her plan to Marion. The tinker listened intently, and then gave a massive grin and a hoot of laughter. "T, now you're speaking my language! I'll get to work."
Taylor nodded in thanks and then left to actually get Marion his burger (though not Fugly Bob's). It was time to start being a hero for real.