"Hello Taylor." Being surprised by a voice with no face seemed very Last Testament, and yet walking into a steel box with nothing except a pressed green cot, a table barely large enough for a child with an accompanying chair fused to the ground and hearing an omniscient voice, pulled a very human response.
"Ah! Who, what, where?" I pushed myself back into the door out of surprise and craned my neck to stare at the ceiling for a speaker.
A low mirthless chuckle raised the hairs on my arms. "There's nothing to be afraid of, I'm here to talk, to keep you company." 'Or to keep me occupied.' The sad thought bounced around in my skull.
I stood in my long black shirt and stained grey sweats, I looked like the average skinny teen. My long hair pulled to the side and my trusty box glasses sitting squarely on my nose, I seemed tame, a zero-sum threat. And I felt like it too.
Gone was the gnawing void in my stomach calling for battle, or at least sated beyond compare. I walked into this room with a clear head and sharp senses. The cot was brand new, the linen on it still stiff and abrasive, the chair had seen better days and the table had been power washed not half an hour prior. Minute details that I'd never considered spun the tale of the bureaucracy of my confinement.
"Company requires introductions, and seeing that I'm the guest, it would only be fitting that you introduce yourself." Eyes to the ceiling, a faint outline at the light told me that it was protruding, sound and fresh air coming from the tiny gap between it and the metal roof.
"Where are my manners, of course. I am Dragon." She spoke her words with finality, and a heavy weight pulled against my shoulders and connected my rear to the floor. Dragon, a premier tinker based in Canada, responsible for a hundred technological marvels and a hundred more. Operator of the Birdcage, the maximum-security cape containment facility that nobody had ever escaped from. Dragon, THE Dragon, was my jailer.
"You've hit the big leagues, Taylor." I whispered, drawing a heavy breath to pull myself up and face the challenges ahead.
"I'm Taylor Hebert." Some called me the Hunter, and I didn't correct them, the game of cops and robbers explained by Lisa existed for the reason of personal safety. But I didn't have a lot going for me and even if my dad got a shit show from me, it wasn't my problem anymore. I wouldn't allow myself to wallow in the same pit of despair he had thrown himself into. It was time to throw away the shackles of my past and embrace the future.
"Oh, I know your name. Dragon slayer, Hunter, Destroyer. You've earned titles far faster than most capes, most of them bad and none of them good." Her voice carried a tip of venom, a slinking self-taught candour that beguiled my ears. She sounded like Nergigante. Proud and full of herself.
"I'm Taylor. Nothing more, nothing less." The truth.
"I've gathered as much, Victoria is so adamant that you did nothing wrong, her short-sightedness is a product of youth, yet yours is a product of ignorance. Taylor Hebert, how many people died today? How many lives destroyed? How much can be attributed to you?" I remained silent, these thoughts had filled my head since I got my powers, but I refused to let them control me.
"If it weren't for mitigating circumstances, I'd have been more than glad to put you in chains and forget about you. But, and I want you to remember this, you, Taylor, have more than enough people on your side and you best remember to keep them on your side. Do not make more enemies than you have friends, Taylor." Mitigating circumstance. Lung, the ABB, the Empire. So much blood today, and I only tried to help, and it led to this disaster of a day.
"I've only tried to help. I haven't so much as looked at a protectorate cape funny. I know people died because of me. But people have died from a lot of things others have done, I only wanted to help, to stop the gangs from tearing my home apart. Is that so wrong?" I let my frustration bleed through my words. Angry and sharp.
Dragon didn't say anything, if she listened I didn't know.
Alone, again.
I climbed onto the cot, the shackles that barely had weight, pinched my hands as I placed my head down, the few inklings of sleep I'd get here had to make up for whatever this day was going to result into.
[/]
"You're doing this."Vicky's unconditional demand had a strained and pleading edge to it, an edge Carrol had never heard from her eldest, only biological daughter. Carrol's cardigan already had a tear after Vicky pulled too harshly on it, pulling Carrol closer to the building sitting in front of them
Super lawyer mom didn't like being told what to do by her daughter, but Victoria never demanded anything of the sort and even though she was opposed to the idea, the thought of betraying her daughter's trust, gave her pause
Carrol didn't like people telling her what to do, and definitely not her children, but the stormy look in Victoria's eyes made her pause and consider why Vicky had not let go when she had pulled away first. A girl they had barely known was inside the building and awaiting trial, a trial that might be staged for all Carrol could know.
"Vicky, just wait. We can't rush into this." Counter to her stern and hard persona, Carrol softly pulled back on Vicky's arm. Vicky whirled, her jacket's arms wrapping around her from the sudden twist.
"She's there, in jail, as a minor with no legal consul!" She pointed at the black windows covered with dust of the PRT building looming over them "She doesn't know shit about capes past the bare basics and you're telling me we need to slow down. Taylor can be blabbing for all we know, digging her grave without knowing it, and you want me to stop?" Restrained anger flittered beneath the blond's surface.
"Everyone knows how to invoke their Miranda rights." Victoria's glare battered the flimsy excuse away.
"No, you taught them to me, she doesn't. She's my friend, I've barely known her for a month and this is the first time I'm asking you to help me with a friend. Not when Sandy crashed her mom's car after a house party, not when Jason got caught with weed and not even when Derick smuggled his dad's gun to school to show it off." The two had bled together, almost died together. Yes, it was merely three monster hunts, but the bond forged through the shared adrenaline eclipsed most other relationships. Vicky felt it her duty to help the brunette as much as she could.
And so, defeated by her daughter's pleading, Carrol Dallon strutted ahead of her daughter into the PRT building.
The crowd around the front desk calmly waited their turn to talk with the secretaries, they didn't have a choice, not with a dozen guards standing throughout the foyer with their foam cannons and tazers reflecting the pale light coating the front. Even a queue stood at the merchandise booth, which could easily be seen wasn't because of good sales today.
The people range in all shapes and colours, clothing from formal suits to pyjamas occupied the lines indiscriminately, a long blond with her hair in a ponytail, the tips burnt and jagged turned about to look at the two parahumans as they walked through the door.
"Well, this is going to take forever." Muttered Vicky. Carrol's phone already dialling as Vicky 'tched' at her luck.
"Agent Redfield. Yes, good to hear you're okay. I'm at the foyer, I need immediate assistance. I'll see you in five."
"Vicky?" The blond with the ponytail and burnt edges stepped out of the line and called out questioningly to the duo. Vicky didn't recognise her but looked critically at the girl approaching her. Before Vicky could ask who she was or if she knew them the burnt blond interrupted her.
"Taylor! Where is Taylor? Please tell me you know where she is, you're the last one who was with her." To Vicky it was odd, Taylor barely spoke about friends, only the quiet admital that she hadn't had one in years. But she didn't put it past the brunette to forgo more criminal connections, but before she could connect the dots, Carrol interrupted.
"Do you know her, Vicky?" Carrol eyed the approaching girl warily, a coincidence like this might not be a coincidence at all.
"No, -"
"Taylor lives with me. I'm her roommate, or I guess she's mine really. She's been missing since yesterday and I know you two hung out regularly, do you know where she is." Her deliberate choice of 'hung out' seemed civilian but the two capes immediately knew the second meaning, Instantly putting the two on the defensive.
The possible rogue stepped closer and lowered her voice so that only they could hear. "She's here, the guard captain is on edge, he knows where she is. Alexandria and Legend are both here, there isn't a senior cape out in the city right now. She's here and awaiting trial, in-." she looked down at a burnt digital watch and then towards the Guard captain, who nervously looked at the wall-mounted clock above the front desk.
"Fifteen minutes. Please tell me you're here to at least help her not wreck the place?"
"Yes, I'm here to help her." Vicky whispered back.
Two guards and an agent Redfield stepped into their circle before they could continue talking.
"Miss Dallon, I'm happy to see you good and healthy, how can I help."
"Agent Redfield, happy to see you, I'm invoking the right to a lawyer for a minor. Seeing as she hasn't been given one yet." Redfield didn't even flinch at the randomness of the situation, calmly leading the trio to the side.
"For whom?" he heel-turned towards the two after entering a room just off the side of the foyer.
"Taylor Hebert." His right eye twitched and his two escorts nervously shifted.
"Fair enough. And Vicky?"
Carrol interjected before Vicky could respond. "A witness and this is Taylor's current landlord and roommate…"
"Lisa Wilbourne."
"Also a witness." Carrol completed.
"Very well. Please follow me."
[/]
Four guards matched the short steps I took with the manacles around my legs.
The front security gate station had unorthodoxly a few cape paraphernalia on the desk, someone was a big fan of the locals, I could see the blue boxy form of an Armsmaster figurine alongside a camo Miss Militia on one of Armsmaster's bikes. To be honest, those two were the Local heroes I had the most familiarity with, Militia had been cool since she came to Brockton and Armsmaster had one of the best figurine sale records of all times, a real lineup of toys to market. Yet these weren't toys.
The Armsmaster figure stood half a foot tall and the plastic armour shone with great care and polish, there were no visible ball joints like GI Joes had and the visor held tiny script on it that with the faint light I could see as being legible writing. A real collector's piece rather than a toy.
The Motorcycle the Miss Militia figurine sat on had much the same care and quality to it. The wheels were actual rubber and not hard plastic and had the same minute writing on the sides. As for the figurine riding the bike, the same standard held, no joints and the cloth of her clothes had a very fine amount of detail to it.
But the desk wasn't just populated with those two. A seven-inch tall Legend figurine stood proudly in the corner alongside the late Hero. All of these figurines were of top-tier heroes. And yet a lone statuette stood against the pattern. I wasn't too familiar with all of the heroes of the PRT, and much less so with the wards. But the proud words on the base read Shadow Stalker.
This was the owner's newest model, undoubtedly, it didn't have a smudge of polish or a scratch from cleaning on it, with no fine layer of dust covering it like the rest had started to gather with the last crazy forty-eight hours.
Shadow Stalker had a black and purple coat that reached to her knees, several clasps worked their way up the front and the arms of it. Beneath the coat I could make out black body armour, it was made to be dark and yet the mask stood in direct contrast to the design. The face covering was chalk white and sat with a thin-lipped neutral expression.
"Keep moving." The thick steel doors waited for me to cross as I took a slow step while looking at the assembly of top-quality figurines.
Up two flights of stairs, to the main corridor of the building, across the hall to the elevators.
As we waited for the elevator to grace us with its presence the one next to it opened up and spewed out the tail end of a conversation.
"Yeah, the bitch got a lucky shot in that broke my mask, a nice split right down the middle. Now I have to wear this small thing-" My ears pulled my vision from the unresponsive elevator to see Shadow Stalker walking past, her outfit matching the figurine one for one, her companion had red hair, I couldn't see more than that before the guard broke my line of sight.
From the simple glance I got I could make out dark skin and with these new freak abilities of observation, I measured her height. With a quick deduction, I guess she to be about nose level to me. But then again she had thick soles on her combat boots. Her voice reminded me of darker halls than these and a sharp pain in my ribs.
A circular poke from behind forced me to acknowledge the ding of the elevator and step forward. Only the two front guards moved into the elevator with me, before the jerk of half a G could pull us downwards a low hum filled my ears and with a snap raised my hands to be parallel with the ground. The brute shackles hovered in the air, mild discomfort as the grips at my wrists and knuckles pulled harder than before
Why did the voice seem familiar? I didn't know many girls in my age group. The conundrum kept my mind busy as we acceded the building, my discomfort disappearing as the puzzle filled my mind; the answer was close, I could feel it.
The words began forming on my lips but a forceful shove pushed the thoughts away as the manacles dropped and a very dark corridor invited me.
"Final warning, keep moving." I didn't drag my feet, I kept the steady pace the shackles around my feet allowed and yet the guard kept grumbling for me to keep pace. The corridor had one direction, forward and ended with a grand set of double doors made from oak, its handles had a thin layer of dust but the doors opened with nary a whisper, shining a bright light that forced me to close my eyes, the guard's visor even darkened at the hellish light.
Another shove forward almost sent me stumbling, "Sit." An arm forced me sideways and I bent my knees to plop down on a stiff chair beneath my rump before I could introduce myself to the ground. The hard seat made me bark out a soft 'ouch' more from habit than real pain.
"Miss Hebert, it is not your turn to speak yet." I looked up, blinking the spots out of my sight as an array of black blazers, white collars and hostile glares lined the far wall of the room. The speaker, a Latina woman in her late twenties and one of the few women present caught my eye with her admonishment.
Confusion slid across my face the same way a particularly sour candy would and my head tracked through the room around me. My left held the line of angry faces, in front of me was the aforementioned Latina woman leaning against a large table, behind the table sat a rather rotund woman with hard grey eyes. On my right sat the bush of blond hair that only could be Vicky's.
"Vicky…" Nothing in the world could have stopped my mouth at the surprise of seeing Vicky next to me.
"Miss Hebert!" The stern voice of the Latina woman silenced everything in the room. But I had zero chance to feel embarrassed as the situation remained a bit of a mystery. Unsticking my eyes from Vicky to glance at the other people populating the room I saw two more familiar 'faces'.
Armsmaster stood on the left of the table, almost hiding inside the room. To the right of the table stood Legend, a solemn frown on his face as he refused to meet my eyes. Why were there so many capes here?
"Now, to return to the conversation before being interrupted." A tiny remote in the speaker's hand clicked and the room's collective eyes turned to a picture displayed on a rather absurdly big monitor. With me, in my hallmark red armour and giant hammer, swinging into Alatreon.
"Taylor Hebert, also known as 'The Hunter' or 'Hunter' for short, is engaging the monster that brought destruction to the city of Brockton Bay some two days ago. Now from the reports written by Armsmaster and additional information supplied by the Think Tank, we have determined that Taylor Hebert is in some way in control of these monsters." Slight grumbling filled the poignant silence as several people adjusted themselves in their seats. Vicky grabbed my hand and gave it a slight squeeze as if to reassure me.
"Deputy director Costa Brown, are you accusing my client of intentionally instigating fights with these monsters?" Confusion returned at the voice of Vicky's mother. And I shifted forward just enough to look to the right of Vicky to see her.
What is going on?
"Miss Dallon, please wait until all evidence has been presented." Costa Brown seemed to hold order in the assembly with an iron grip, preventing anyone from speaking to contradict her so-called facts.
"To answer miss Dallon. We can not say that she does it intentionally, from the report provided by Victoria Dallon's debriefing, I quote: 'She needs to fight these monsters.'" Vicky's face paled a bit and her grip on my hand tightened until her knuckles turned white.
Costa Brown's gaze challenged the two Dallons to contradict the ill-handled excerpt, but the two kept their mouth shut, Carol sat with a determined face, a tiny bit of outrage shining through. Vicky averted her gaze from the assembly.
Was this a trial?
A new slide took over with a barely audible click. A hundred or so eyes took in the scene of me fighting Lung, my sword shining through the flames as blood erupted from the wounds I inflicted
"Taylor Hebert, previously classified as a rogue, was spotted fighting Lung before fighting the previous slide's monster. From a report by Dauntless: 'She took off like a maniac as soon as Lung taunted her-'" A few scoffs came from the line of white collars to my general left. Armsmaster's scowl became more pronounced as he shifted just barely, uncomfortable with the manner that the information was presented. Costa Brown continued with her quote.
"-And after I met up with her again, she whispered something along the line of, 'it's too late, another hunt has started.' after which the monster appeared."
I didn't know why she decided to twist the truth into this false narrative, but she continued to the next slide, with Valstrax's dead and glowing body sitting in the centre, a black shadowed blob standing in front of it as several rays of light illuminated my red armour. Another soft click brought the image alive.
The slow death of Valstrax bleeding through the screen as I lowered a gloved hand to the half-torn and blood-doused beak.
"Bravely fought, crimson phoenix, now return to the one who made you, let us grow stronger together."
A flash of purple and red motes collapsed into my skin, I recalled the domination anger of Teostra ebbing away under the steely determination of the Crimson Comet's. A wrinkle of red lightning played across my fingers, the sharp zap when it struck Vicky's hand was only noticed by the two of us.
"After each fight, Taylor Hebert is spotted somehow absorbing the monsters. A quote from Director Piggot's report: 'After her fight with the Silver dragon, the Hunter gained a blaster/mover power matching the intensity and colour of the monster's.'" She took a few seconds to take a sip of water as several voices grumbled out, Vicky's grip didn't lessen even slightly.
"From these reports, we can effectively conclude that, Taylor Hebert, creates these monsters with no regard to public safety, has a lust for the fights she instigates and grows stronger with every passing incident."
Twisting the truth, yes, I had been doing so, but I had been getting better at scheduling the fights, and at the same time, at this very moment I didn't feel the need to start another. The ticking clock, the draining battery, it had simply vanished.
Another click brought us to that afternoon's fight above the shopping mall. And a second click showed the floating form of the two Wards, Aegis and Kid Win and past them, myself. Her final click brought the picture to life, blue light poured out from my faceplate and the two Wards dived away from a tremendous thunderbolt. The camera operator shook in surprise for half a second before righting to zoom in on me holding my hand out and shooting two balls of crimson at the just-out-of-shot helicopter.
A second later I sped off, the camera tracking me flying over the helicopter that had begun diving towards the ground.
Costa Brown didn't wait for the video to stop and with the muted whine of my crimson-powered rockets in the background, started talking again.
"From this video, we can see that Taylor Hebert is clearly anti-PRT and doesn't intend to work quietly with us, thus we've put her in befitting brute shackles." Not that I had tested the construction of the manacles around my hands, I guessed they were big and sturdy enough to hold quite a few brutes.
But that wasn't the only part of her spiel, her next sentence brought the audience to life.
"With the increasing scale of destruction brought by Taylor Hebert's monsters and her general disregard for Protectorate heroes and PRT personnel. I suggest immediate enrollment into the PRT Los Angeles Ward program to effectively handle her growing powers and limit the damage she is capable of."
Half the assembly exploded. It felt like minutes until people calmed down.
"Thank you Deputy Director. Miss Dallon, your defence?" The voice came over the speakers, and I matched it to the man taking the centre of the screen.
"Seeing as the case has just started, I am hardly prepared to counter the arguments presented, I request that we be given a week to formalise a defence for Taylor Herbert."
"Denied on the acknowledgement that Taylor Hebert's powers are time bound. Your defence, miss Dallon." Carrol calmly scrambled to get a presentable defence statement. But the sheer scale of the accusations directed at me left her fighting a mountain.
"Taylor Hebert has been in contact with my daughter for several weeks now, and as much as I distrust the relationship as her mother I have to give the defence over to her and her roommate Lisa Wilbourn."
Wait, Lisa is here? I twisted in the seat, I hadn't seen Lisa in days, and I needed to know if she was healthy.
"Denied, on the basis that they are minors and not legal representatives."
Holy shit they were setting me up, wasn't the agreement that they leave me alone as long as I didn't hunt the monsters close to town… Okay, shit. But why didn't I want to join the wards?
Hadn't it been clear at one point, but something else diverted my mind from the reasons, a name.
Enunciating, the words had sat on my lips before I got shoved out of the elevator.
Shouldn't it have been easy to remember, a name is a simple thing.
So close, the word, the reason, the name.
"Hess…" The voice, the height, the hair. Every tiny bit lined up a bit more comfortably as my mind combed over it.
I stood up, anger starting to boil within me as the truth began to unfurl in my mind.
"Then I must leave the defence to Taylor."
"I… I can't believe you let her do all of that… Months, months of bruised ribs, twisted ankles, stolen homework."
"I'm sorry miss Hebert, we're not following. Who?"
"Sophia Hess. Shadowstalker, the girl who pushed me down a flight of stairs, the girl who kicked my leg while doing PT and twisted my ankle so bad I couldn't walk for a week. The girl who almost made me repeat a year by destroying my homework." I reigned my anger in, as the assemble began to mutter amongst themselves, baffled by my unusual angle of attack.
"The girl who gave me these cruel powers. I didn't want this, to have to fight monsters because my very body is dying and to not fight them would lead to my death."
"What are you saying? Do you want to be free? Do you want help controlling your powers? The PRT Ward's Program can help you." The man on the screen asked with scrutiny.
"I'm saying that while you're presenting the carrot, you had let the stick beat me so close to death that I'm in this position right now. I do not want anything to do with the PRT, I don't want anything to do with the Wards. I want to be left alone, I want to get to know my friends better, since the last one I had decided to help Sophia in killing the innocent Taylor."
"We can not let you leave, the destruction you caused was second only to Endbringer fights." Costa Brown championed her side.
"I can not work with you. And the minute you put me in jail is the minute another monster destroys another city. You can let me leave, see me at the Endbringer fights. Or you can shackle me and see a fourth one appear, because the monsters have been getting stronger, and the next one won't die to Alexandria like Alatreon did."
"She even names the monsters! It's clear that she creates them to get more powerful. Director, we have to control her, or else she'll eventually do more harm than good. We can't let another S-class develop if we can stop it right now." Costa Brown shouted.
Tense silence ticked by slowly as everyone held their breath. Lisa had appeared next to me, her hair burnt in places and ashen dirt still caked her fingernails. Vicky looked up at me, her hand clenched in my own as she silently pleaded with me not to do something reckless.
"No." The director started, breaking the curse of silence.
"We can not let you roam freely. We can not put you in the Bauhman Containment facility, we are forced to put you into the Ward program, as the powers invested in me by the United States government, any parahuman under the age of eighteen may be forced to join the wards program if they or their powers are deemed unfit to be left without supervision."
"No." I countered.
"I am not some weak little thing. I am Taylor Hebert, I am known as the Hunter. I started weak and I clawed my way out from the pit I had been left in, dropped there and kept there by an unjust system. The same system that now demands me to drop to a knee and submit to a fake trial."
"And I have finally decided that I do not fit in this mould, it's disrespectful to the person I have become. I am free because I will never be bound to anyone. And your justice won't touch me with its corrupt and fearful claws."
Costa Brown must have pushed a button as a second later Alexandria burst through the ceiling, clearly intent on keeping me detained, but I broke through her guard with a twist and a shove of gale force winds and broke the brute manacles with ease. The window stood even less of a chance as I blasted it open with a crimson bolt and sped off towards the northern coast.
Cruising at near sonic speeds left little of the scenery of the northeast coast to enjoy. A single tall tree loomed over the horizon only to be replaced with another as I sped past. Too quickly to be registered past a blur on the horizon. Trees turned to flats then to a solitary road, pasty white beach and then deep blue Atlantic waters.
The water refused to show my reflection just a black line of smoke twirling behind me. I sped past the shallows then the blacker sea crept up on me with abandon. Ever racing outwards over the sea, a slight incline to the northeast kept the coast within sight, but only barely. Following my blur of black and red was half of the capes capable of keeping up with me out of Brockton.
Turning over unto my back to easier look behind me I saw four capes following behind. Alexandria comfortably sat centre of the pack, keeping pace with me without the need to leave a smoking trail. Dragon took second place with a shining red and gold fighter-esque suit.
Legend took the other side of Alexandria, and just behind him was Victoria, who wore the same casual clothes that she had been in, in the faux courtroom. She wasn't here as Glory Girl, no, she was here as Victoria Dallon and forgoing the usual splendour of being a hero and replacing it with concern about a friend. I was the friend, the one leading two-thirds of the triumvirate around on a wild goose chase up the eastern seaboard.
Was I a bad friend? Running away from my problems one after another, ditching school after it got too tiring, blowing up at my dad, only to have monsters physically try to kill me at my lowest points. Did these monsters really signify the collapse of my mind and the world around me not caring?
But now the world cared, or at least those in charge of it. And they didn't want me to be free to come to terms with it on my own. Did dirty laundry warrant this reaction, of running away from my problems when it came to the worst? Didn't people face their monsters every day?
Didn't they overcome them with determination and good people? I had good people or at least people who seemed to care. So to what end did I fly away?
Did they deserve to have a friend in their life just… disappear?
I faltered in my flight, slowing down and down as these questions kept repeating themselves in my mind. Somewhere over the Atlantic, with the sky growing dark and the sun disappearing over the land barely visible over the horizon.
Hovering in the air, waiting for the world to calm down even a fraction as I took a deep breath for what felt like the first time in my life. Bruised hands gripping my arm softly as victoria slowly got me to turn my head towards her, dry tears marking her cheeks as she kept silent but apparent in her support of me.
We kept still, listening to the wind howl as darkness rapidly approached.
"Taylor? I know you're upset, but you can't bottle up these feelings! Don't give them an easy reason to take you down." Vicky pleaded. I listened, swallowed my pride and anger, and turned to face the music.
"I don't have many friends. In fact, I haven't had one in years, not until a few weeks ago when Vicky came into my life kicking and screaming." A shy smile crept onto the blond's face. I turned to face Alexandria directly.
"I've had a tough life, my mom died a few years ago, it feels like yesterday. I clammed up, kept telling myself it was my fault, I called her on her phone while she was driving." My fingers ached from how hard I clenched my fist, but I took a long breath and let it go.
"My best and only real friend became a hateful belittling monster after I went to a summer camp. And no amount of pleading or asking changed the fact that she had decided to make the remaining years we had in school together a waking nightmare." My neck boiled in anger and my face became a furnace due to rage.
"The only reason that it happened was from her new 'friend'. Sophia Hess, who just by chance is an exact match to Shadowstalker! A Ward!" Breath, in and out, in and out.
"I spent a year! Five days a week, seven hours a day slammed into lockers, tripped downstairs! Have my homework stolen and then also made into a pariah by a Ward!" Breath Taylor. I shouldn't get worked up like this.
"Can you understand why I can't even stand the thought to work for you? If one rotten person can so cruelly shape a life, how much further and worse will you shape the world with your negligence?" Heart hammering and blood pounding in my ears, I felt a weight lift off me as I shouted my grief into the wind.
Alexandria moved first, arms crossed and body stiff as she floated closer. "We can't let you just leave, Taylor. What happens when another monster of yours appears? What happens when it rampages through a city like New York? The loss of life will be unimaginable!" She looked over her shoulder towards Legend and with no response from the man, returned to peer down at me.
"Like it or not, Taylor. You have no choice but to become a Ward and work with us to reign in your powers."
"I am no puppet!" The air exploded around me, lightning and wind twisting around to throw the ocean into a maelstrom.
"You were my Hero!" I shouted at her as we drifted apart from the winds battering us. Vicky wrestled with the wind as she tried to stick close to me.
"Taylor!" One arm reaching out towards me, Vicky shouted against the wind as a strong gust pulled her away.
I hardly notice her, so consumed by my ire at the faux hero in front of me.
"But you're no Hero, your a hypocrite and a cheat. I won't become a tool for you or the PRT. I will stay free!"
I twisted out of the way a fraction before Legend's red lance could spear me in the side, the next moment I deflected Alexandria with a foot to her stomach. A rocket from Dragon exploded after I backhanded it in the tumbling dive I found myself in.
"Stop fighting her!" Vicky's voice barely registered as I twisted with a gust of wind out of a right hook from Alexandria and countered with a kick to her back, using the leverage of the kick to the woman who refused to budge from the strong blow I dodged another of Legend's beams. Which abruptly turned about and charged back at me before I could register the fact, scoring a hit to my right shoulder.
"Give up, you're outmatched." Still falling towards the ocean, Alexandria swooped in and grabbed me around my waist, forcing us into a suicide dive. I struggled to get out of her grip, but with the water rapidly approaching I needed to escape or risk going unconscious from the sheer impact against the waves.
Alexandria was rumoured to be indestructible, but still human. I summoned a bolt of lightning, willing it as close as possible without hitting us and directly behind me to get it directly into her eyes. The flash blinded me as well but only from the harsh white light and not the searing pain on my eyeballs like Alexandria would receive.
At exactly the same moment I shifted out of my armour and forced a gust of wind to grab my feet and pull. My narrowed bulk and the split second I stunned her and I slipped out of her arms.
Not a second too soon as the woman dove headfirst into the ocean at above-sonic speeds. I couldn't do much besides gawk for a second at the madness of the woman.
A red flash caught my eye and I reverted to my armoured self to tank another beam to the gut, and narrowly dodge another twisting mockery of light. I retaliated- I knew I shouldn't have, I only needed to escape… somehow- forming a razor wind behind him and with an unneeded pull from my arm pulled it towards me, the schlick that came from that move would stick in my mind forever.
At least the lasers stopped hounding me, giving me just enough time to notice the whistling of a dozen tiny rockets with pulsing blue jets speed towards me, each promising the same amount of pain that a blast from Leged would deliver.
A billow of flame met the tiny rockets and soundly blew them up. But the pause to unleash the fire inside gave me one last problem I didn't think I would find again so soon.
Alexandria.
Unaffected by the brutality of hitting the ocean at mach two, shot out of the water and connected her fist with my spine, most definitely cracking a rib or two, and sending me flying across the ocean.
When I recovered all four of the capes floated before me again, Legend was being supported by Vicky as a massive gash on his chest leaked blood.
"And outnumbered." Alexandria smugly said as she carefully floated closer to me.
"But not outgunned!" I felt my powers spring to life, the same triggering sensation of a hunt flashing through my mind as the ocean trembled, surged and broke behind me as a tower of grey rocky skin emerged in an explosion of steam and seawater.
"See, that's where you're wrong. Since my last fight, everything has changed. My powers are my own, and at every narrow edge of defeat, every gaping abyss of failure, it has shown itself to me, forced me to change, to grow." The mountain that was the largest monster I had summoned thus far steadily grew taller and taller as the walking volcano started to stand upright.
"Holy shit…" Vicky was the first- and only one- to speak.
"Now. Let! Me! Go!" Zorah Magdaros' eyes levelled with us and at my last exclamation opened its mouth and roared. The sound would echo for miles up and down the east coast, but here and now it sent the four capes flying, head over heel.
I turned to the lumbering mountain, took in a deep breath and accepted that I would have to kill the monster now.
A truly massive piece of steel formed in my hands, a sword so massive it could only be considered a greatsword. I wrapped both hands around the handle and hefted it above my shoulder.
I floated up, two hundred feet above the passive monster and willed all my might into the hunk of iron.
And then I descended, I spent every ounce of my power on diving as fast as I could and at the very last second, spun head over heel, arching red and blue flames behind the sword as I used every single power I had to truly lock in the magnitude of the attack on the monster's cranium.
Stone, flesh, bone, and then brain; everything exploded around me as I killed the monster.
The explosion sent me across the rigid back of the monster, and I fought to keep my eyes open.
Zorah's corpse began dissolving into uncountable motes of light as varied as the rainbow, every single speck of light floating outwards and outwards as the monster lost piece by piece of itself far slower than the monsters I had slain before this twisted day.
A floating light caught my eye as it seemed to be coming from a whole different source and I looked down to my hand still gripping the shaft of the greatsword, as a single mote of light emerged from beneath my gauntlet, followed by another and another after that. Before I could even attempt to formulate a reason for the lights leaving me instead of joining me, a spiritual gate opened and a tearing hole opened in my chest, not a real wound but a gaping corner of my soul unleashing these motes of light.
Red left first, the fire of the volcano, the dry heat of the desert. They formed into a spectre of Teostra standing before me. Blue followed red, the crushing heat of primal anger and rage stood next to the first monster I killed, Lunastra stared with passivity at my emancipating body.
Electric blue floated proudly out of me, glad to be free as the horse its shape emulated.
Kushala escaped as the sequence continued, the frozen wind buffeting the other elders' forms.
Dark, crimson, virulent red seeped from my palms as the wound kept expanding over my body. The whistling of the Crimson Comet howled as it revelled in its freedom.
Snow white specks floated off softly as Velkhana curled itself around me.
The black-grey form of Nergigante shoved the others around until it stood proudly in front of me, and befitting the first to speak to me, spoke again to me.
"We knew this day would come, the when doesn't matter only that it came to be."
I gasped in pain as several seams in my body burst into ethereal white as the monsters kept their place around me.
"You are the gateway, from our world to yours, we refused to bow down to the ones who consumed our world, hiding away our combined essence in the tiny speck of omniscience, right beneath the Consumer's nose."
The last monster, Alatreon, had yet to form itself out of lights. But it seemed the gnarled monster in front of me knew this and continued to speak.
"The dark one will remain with you. His power will be your new spine and the future of your world might depend on him. For us, this is the last point of contact."
The whole ordeal, the past months of running from the world only to finally embrace the new me; and then have the world show its true ugly face against me. It was for nothing. Against my better knowledge, I curled my hands and with a slow soft breath, I pulled the seams of my ruptured soul back together. I half expected the monsters to begin returning to me but they stood firm in their ghostly positions.
"And as the gateway, you will be the harbinger of a new age onto your world. But you must fight against the craven Consumer. Bring the strengths of our world together and save everyone. You are no longer the gateway, you are now the Way piece, no longer a hunter, you are now the Uniter, a warrior. A general. A saviour."
The corpse of Zorah had sublimated into so many tiny stars that the only remaining piece of its body was the forty feet circle I and the monsters stood upon.
"Good luck Taylor." With his last words spoken Nergigante roared into the night and with each breath and howl to the night, another of my victims joined in his savage cry. Until Teostra broke the world around me by igniting every speck of light into a rapture.
I drifted off, the caring hands of the afterlife lifting me above the grave until they set me down beneath a glittering palm tree on the shores of an untouched land.