Outsider Chronicles: Swords and Poisons

I think everyone wishes they had powers at one point or another. I bet few people wish they WERE powers. However, thats exactly where I find myself, the power of a broken young girl. Now I just have to help her make some friends and survive this crazy world.

And we're back! Well, this took far longer than I had hoped. I had some trouble trying to decide the best way to move forwards with the story because what I wanted to happen simply wouldn't have worked in the slightest. But I've managed to figure it all out now, so lets hope I can work a little faster. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 7

Richmond Welding was one of the many abandoned warehouses in the city, located close to the edge of the docks area outside of the Merchant and ABB territory. From the outside, there wasn't anything really special and neither Butterfly or Kid Win could find anything out of the ordinary in the quick scouting they did. Kid Wins scanners couldn't really get anything either, other than the fact that Vista's radio was inside and there were four lifesigns waiting for them.

"I don't like this," muttered Kid Win, "This is obviously a trap. We should really call for backup."

"You heard what she said," said Butterfly, "Besides, our radios are still down and it would take far too long to find anyone."

Kid Win sighed.

"Piggot is gonna rip the pair of us to shreds," he moaned, "Assuming we don't get killed or kidnapped."

"We have to try, right?" asked Butterfly, "We can't just leave Vista alone."

Kid Win shot his partner an odd look.

"Whats got you so fired up?" he asked, "Your not normally like this."

Butterfly opened her mouth, then paused and thought it over.

"I just…don't like my friends getting hurt like this," she said, "I don't have many after all."

"Well, I can't really argue with that," said Kid Win, "Come on, lets go if we're doing this."

Butterfly nodded and the two of them dropped down to ground level and approached the warehouse doors. As they did so, they opened to reveal a man in a dark blue jumpsuit under a fur lined coat and a mask that covered his whole head. The two Wards paused at the sight of the new Cape and for a moment, the two side stared at each other, before the man nodded and stepped to the side, holding the door open and waving the two Heroes in. Kid Win and Butterfly glanced at each other, then headed inside.

The inside of the warehouse was pretty much how you'd expect, a large, empty room with bits of rubble and detritus scattered around the room. At one end there was a spiral staircase that lead up the second level, while at the other a dias had been built where the blonde girl who had kidnapped Vista stood, alongside a tall man in a tan cloak and Vista, who had been tied to a chair and looked like she was either asleep or unconscious.

"Oh good, you made it!" said the girl with a grin, "I was starting to get worried!"

"I'm sure," said Kid Win, aiming his gun at the girl, "Let her go and we won't have to hurt you."

The girl let out a tinkling laugh.

"Oh, but thats no fun!" she said, "If you want her, your going to have to play along a bit longer."

Kid Win scowled and snapped off a shot at the girl, before gunning his board forwards. However, before he had gone more than a couple of feet, the bolt he had fired vanished into a portal like the one the girl had escaped through earlier and slammed into Kids back, knocking him off his board. Before he could escape, the ninja themed Cape appeared and grabbed him, quickly disarming him and leaving him tied up in his own handcuffs.

"Oh no, not like that!" said the girl, "Thats against the rules! Now you have to sit in a timeout!"

She turned her grin onto Butterfly, who had her sword drawn and ready.

"What about you?" she asked, "Are you willing to play with us?"

Butterfly hesitated for a moment, weighing her options, before lowering her sword.

"Alright, lets hear your game," she said.

If nothing else, she could buy some time until she thought of a better option.

The girl let out a happy laugh and clapped her hands.

"Great, this is going to be so much fun!" she chirped, "Alright, the game is simple. All you have to do is beat my friend here."

She gestured to the cloaked man, who hopped off the dias and approached Butterfly. He stopped a short distance away, bowed and then drew a katana from under his cloak and adopted a clearly practiced stance.

"I look forwards to our duel young miss!" he said in a surprisingly high pitched voice.

"Be careful Taylor," said Kisaki, "Something about these three is…off. And weirdly familiar."

"I noticed that to," replied Taylor as she shifted into her own stance.

For a moment, the two stood still, before on an unseen signal, they both jumped forwards. Steel clashed on steel as Taylor parried a strike and responded with a cut aimed at her opponents leg, intending to hobble him and end the fight quickly. Instead, her strike was deflected and she was forced to reverse her swing to avoid taking a sword to the side and jumped back.

"You're holding back," said her opponent, momentarily startling Taylor as his high voice had been replaced by one much deeper and rougher, "Why?"

"I'm a hero," said Taylor, "I'm not supposed to aim to kill."

The man shook his head.

"No, thats not what I meant," he said, "I know you have more power than this."

Taylor scowled and raised her sword.

"Maybe, but I don't need it to beat you!" she snapped and shot forwards.

Her opponent seemed taken aback by her sudden speed and barely managed to parry her strike, before countering with one of his own. The two exchanged more blows, slowly speeding up as they moved back and forth across the floor until both blades were little more than flashing silver blurs to Kid Wins untrained eyes. In fact, unless he was very much mistaken, Butterfly was actually getting faster and more accurate as the fight continued, to the point that her opponent, who had started with the skill advantage, was actually have trouble fending his teammate off.

Finally, after what felt like ages, but was probably only a couple of seconds, the two fighters disengaged and landed, both breathing heavily and looking rather tattered. Both were sporting a few minor cuts and tares in their clothing, revealing a few strands of dark red hair under the mans cloak.

"Thats rather impressive," said the man, "Your skilled."

"Thanks," said Taylor, who was grinning despite herself, "So, are we done?"

The man took a deep breath and drew himself up.

"Not yet," he said, "I still haven't seen everything you have."

Taylor scowled.

"I'm not bring that out," she said.

The man chuckled.

"Admiral I suppose," he said, "But I don't intend to give you a choice."

He brought up his sword and placed his hand against the blade near the hilt.

"I'll just have to force the issue," he said, "Now, Roar… ZABIMARU!"

He swept his hand down the blade and it transformed into a massive, brutally spiked cleaver-like sword. Butterfly recoiled, visibly horrified, before she was forced to jump out of the way as her opponent swung his blade, sending the whip-like sword roaring towards her.

"SHOW ME YOUR POWER!" he roared as he tore his cloak away, revealing black robes, dark red hair tied up in a spiky ponytail and elaborate tattoos, "SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO TAYLOR HEBERT!"

Taylor barely registered the use of her real name, she was far too busy panicking.

"Taylor, calm down!" shouted Kisaki, "If you panic, you're finished!"

"Calm down, CALM DOWN!?" shrieked Taylor as she deflected a strike from Zabimaru that nearly tore her shoulder from its socket from the force, "I can't beat a fucking lieutenant ! Actually, fuck that, WHAT THE FUCK IS A SOUL REAPER LIEUTENANT DOING HERE!?"

"Exactly, theres no reason for this!" shouted Kisaki, "Lets ignore the impossibility of you fighting Renji for the moment, if he wanted you dead, you'd be dead. This is a test of some sort, so stop panicking and actually do something!"

"Thats easy for you to say!" said Taylor, "You're not the one who has to actually fight!"

"TAYLOR ANNE HEBERT."

The sudden change in tone from her partner made Taylor falter as her vision flickered and she found herself in her Inner World. Before she could properly register the change in scenery, Kisaki appeared and grabbed her by the collar, yanking her upright so they were nose to nose.

"You will stop panicking and listen to me," snarled the spirit, her purple eyes blazing with uncharacteristic anger, "I did not give you my power so that you could break down and run at the first indication of an actual challenge!"

"Fighting a Lieutenant is a bit more of a challenge than I was expecting to find on my first patrol!" snapped Taylor, trying to get herself out of Kisaki's grip.

"That doesn't matter," growled the Spirit, "If you falter now, you will never be able to move forwards. It doesn't matter how strong your opponent is, you MUST fight. If you don't, you will never get stronger."

Taylor stared at her power for a moment, before she slumped down and slid to the floor.

"I know that," she said, "But…I can't beat Renji. I'm not Ichigo. I don't even know how this is possible!"

"To tell you the truth, I don't think that is Renji," said Kisaki, "It wouldn't make any sense for him to be here, even ignoring the apparent impossibility of it."

"So, what, its someone copying him?" asked Taylor.

"Probably," said Kisaki, "But that doesn't really matter. The fact remains, you have a fight to win. Once you do that, we can find out who our opponent actually is. So get out there and stop holding back!"

"But isnt that what they want?" asked Taylor.

Kisaki shrugged.

"Probably, but who cares?" she said, "All that matters is that you win."

Taylor stared at her power for a moment, then snorted and got to her feet.

"Alright, I'm ready," she said.

Kisaki smiled and opened the door. Taylor took a deep breath and then ran forwards, transferring back to the real world between one step and the next, just in time to bat aside another swing from Zabimaru, this time with far less effort than before.

As if sensing the change, 'Renji' let up on his attack and retracted his sword.

"Sorry for the wait," said Butterfly as she straightened, "Your appearance was rather…shocking for me. I wasn't expecting it and it shook me quite badly."

"Ah, my apologies Miss," said 'Renji', his voice slipping back into the high pitched tone he had used at the start of the fight, "It wasn't my intention to scare you that badly."

Taylor raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sure," she said, "Regardless, I'm ready now."

She raised her sword and placed a hand on the blade.

"I just hope your ready. Flutter, Kisaki Kanrisha!"

There was a flash of light and a flutter of butterflies, before Butterfly jumped through the cloud of phantom insects, stabbing blade leading the way. 'Renji' barely had time to react before the lightning fast blade was in his face, the tip gleaming with poison. Once again, the fight shifted, now with Taylor holding the advantage as 'Renji' was forced to retreat from her now much faster strikes.

"Taylor, try this," whispered Kisaki and Taylor shifted her grip on her sword in response to the sudden knowledge.

"Butterfly dance, Caprice," breathed Taylor and seemed to dissolve into a flock of butterflies.

'Renji' was clearly taken aback by the sudden shift and didn't react as the flock swarmed over him. The next instant, Butterfly reappeared behind him and blood squirted from her opponents newly opened wounds. 'Renji' stumbled, falling to one knee as he tried to stem the bleeding, only to discover that the cuts were actually fairly superficial.

"Looks like I need to practice with that," said Taylor, "Still, it should be enough."

"Enough for what?" asked 'Renji'.

"My swords power is poison," said Taylor, "One cut is enough to end most fights. It should be taking effect, right about…now."

Right on cue, 'Renji' started choking and he coughed something up. The moment it left his mouth, his body went completely limp and rapidly shifted from red-headed Soul Reaper to a tall man with long, two toned hair, glasses and a thin mustache wearing a multi coloured suit and a top hat.

"KURODO!" screamed the blonde girl, "You'll pay for that!"

"No, I don't think I will," said Taylor, suddenly right in front of the girl, causing her to stumble back and land on her bum with a look of horror on her face, "In fact, I'm sick of this. I'm taking you down."

She raised her sword, but before she could strike, a strong hand caught her wrist.

"No, I think thats enough for now," said a new voice.

Before Taylor could react, something was shoved in her face and there was a brilliant flash of light.

As it turns out, the debriefing of an uneventful patrol was just as boring as the patrol itself. Hell, the only reason they bothered with the debriefing in the first place was due to it being Taylors first real patrol and the communications error that occurred part way through. According to Kid, it was one of the most uneventful patrols he'd ever been on.

So why was it that Taylor felt so uneasy?

Even after the debriefing and her report was done, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she was missing something. Her teammates brushed it off, with Gallant suggesting that it was likely just to do with the lack of anything interesting happening on her patrol. She might even had believed him had Kisaki not also felt much the same. In fact, the Spirit appeared even more on edge than Taylor herself did.

The feeling of unease continued even after Taylor left the PRT building to head home. It was very much like the feeling you get when you know you're forgetting something but have no idea what it could be, only amplified by a factor of about a million. It was so bad that Taylor wasn't paying full attention to where she was going until she walked into a small boy and accidentally knocked him over.

The impact shook Taylor out of her thoughts and she looked down to see a boy who looked about seven staring up at her with a shocked expression on his tearstained face. A short distance away was a small vase with a wilted flower laying on its side.

"Sorry kid," she muttered as she righted the vase and continued on her way.

Sophia Hess couldn't sleep. It was a state she had found herself in quite a bit since she'd been beaten by Taylor and locked up. At first, it was due to her low simmering rage at the weakling managing to beat her AND somehow steal her powers, but after a week of nothing to do but think and stew, that had slowly changed. With nothing better to do, she entertained herself by thinking back to past victories, but that had quickly turned sour as she found herself looking at them in a very different light. Instead of victory, she felt disgust at her own actions as she left countless people to suffer, simply because they were too scared to fight back.

She tried to reassure herself that they deserved it, but the longer she lay there, the more her own philosophies began to unravel as her mind began to call up memories of when she was too scared to do anything, back before she had Triggered. Hell, even when she had Triggered, in that alley after her asshole of a stepfather had thrown her at the E88 thugs so he could get away, she had been far too terrified to do more than run until she had Triggered and managed to get away from the bastard holding her down, moments before the new recruit could stab her.

That memory also called up the memories of when she had first started going out, before she had concocted her stupid predetor and pray philosophy. She remembered her first rescue and how good it had felt to know that she had helped someone. She remembered the real reason she had put on her mask, the original desire to be a hero before she had slipped so far down the rabbit hole into becoming the very thing she hated.

So yes, she couldn't sleep. Her guilt and self loathing resulted in some truly horrific nightmares, the worst of which involved how she had treated Hebert. Out of everything, that was what she regretted the most. While horrible, there was an element of reason behind not helping everyone and her philosophy did…somewhat hold up when it came to not helping those who made no attempt to protect themselves, but Taylor? Nothing Sophia did to her former classmate was in any ways justified.

"Well, its nice to see you've finally started thinking straight again."

Sophia jumped and sat bolt upright, her searching eyes quickly finding the reflective yellow gaze of Cheshire.

"Oh, its you," muttered Sophia, "What are you doing here? Come to gloat?"

The little cat-girl sighed and shook her head, then stepped forwards into the light. To Sophia's surprise, she looked downright horrible. Her skin was pale and washed out, her features drawn and her hair limp and lifeless.

"What happened to you?" asked Sophia, an unfamiliar feeling of empathy flaring in her chest.

"Powers aren't really meant to be manifested like this," said Cheshire, "Kisaki is…unique in that regard. Most of us quickly lose the ability to manifest at will. Those of us who don't…well, this is the result."

She gestured at her sickly appearance. Sophia flinched. In a very real way, the small girls current state was her fault after all. Just another sin to lay on her shoulders.

"I wouldn't go that far," said Cheshire, "Your attitude was…sort of my fault."

She frowned.

"Or…maybe not? Its confusing."

Sophia stared at her power.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Cheshire sighed and hopped up to sit on Sophia's cot beside her.

"Powers are alive," she said, "Well, sort of. They are…not really sentient, but they can think to a degree. Their main objective is to gather data through conflict. For some reason, the…old me was set to really hammer on the conflict button, cranking up your aggression and lowering your inhibitions, which resulted in…well, you know."

Sophia stared at the small catgirl, a dark feeling of rage and horror building in her chest.

"Are you telling me that you Mastered me?!" she hissed.

"Not really," said Cheshire, "It wasn't…really me. I was born the moment Kisaki used her power on us. But yes…sort of. There was no actual control involved that couldn't also be achieved with the right mixture of drugs…"

Sophia took a deep breath, trying to keep from completely losing it.

"If thats the case, why did you get so angry with me when you first…came out?" she asked, "If my…attitude was your fault, you really have no right to be angry!"

"Because thats not me!" shouted Cheshire, "I was BORN from your power, I'm not actually the same thing as fucked with your head!"

The two of them glared at each other for a moment, then Cheshire suddenly broke down coughing. Sophia caught the girl before she could collapse and was shocked to see blood on the smaller girls lips.

"Its nothing," said Cheshire before she could ask, "I'll recover in no time once I go back inside."

Sophia frowned.

"Do you want to?" she asked, "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me?"

Cheshire snorted.

"I didn't," she said, "The person I came out of was a monster. But you aren't that person any more, are you? Its amazing how much things can change once you don't have an eldritch monster suppressing your critical thinking skills. I won't say that I'm completely happy with you, but its clear that your on the road to improvement. So, I'll be happy to return to you, if you'll have me?"

Sophia hesitated. Not long ago, she would have jumped at the chance to have her powers back, but the recent revelations, both personal and from Cheshire, made her hesitant.

"I can't effect you in the same way any more," said Cheshire, "And even if I could, I wouldn't. I am more you than that thing after all."

"I'm not…really worried about that," said Sophia, "I'm actually more worried about if I'm…worthy of my power any more."

Cheshire snorted.

"I'm the one who decides that," she said, "And I say that yes, you are. So long as you are willing to try and be the hero you wanted to be when you first put on your mask, I'll always fight alongside you."

Sophia took a deep breath and nodded.

"Alright, lets do this," she said, "Come home Cheshire."

Cheshire smiled as she dissolved into smoke and Sophia's eyes went very wide as she suddenly found herself sharing a very small cell with a massive, black panther.

"No, not Cheshire," she said "Thats just a nickname. My true name is…"

And I'm going to end this here. Assuming that no one can guess what Cheshires actual name is, I'll reveal that later.

So, in the original chapter, I intended to start with Taylor and friends in the debrief and then go back in a flashback to show the fight, but I change my mind because I intend to introduce the source of that later. But I still had to show the fight, so I did. It was fun to write, although I probably shouldn't have done it when I'm supposed to be in bed…oh well, you have to write when the bug bites, right?

So, now we know whos in town. Well, unless your a Manga only reader. Regardless, we'll find out what they are doing later.

Hmmm, I wonder what could be going on there? That might have some rather bad implications.

Looks like Sophia's been doing some introspection. Mainly because I decided that I didn't want to have to deal with a massive cast of what are functionally OCs, so I decided to get rid of them like this. To be clear, Spirits spawned by Kisaki can maintain their connection with the outside world and manifest like she can for only a short time. How long depends on the person in question. If they stay out for to long, bad things happen.

And with that, I'm going to sign out. I'm exhausted and really want to get some sleep. Fortunately, I don't have to get up tomorrow, so thats something…Dont forget to leave a review on the way out!