Furor 3.06

My heart skipped a beat when the two valkyrie-dressed supermodels addressed Taylor. One with a sword and shield, one with a spear. Fenja and Menja, Kaiser's bodyguards and/or eye candy if I remembered correctly. I couldn't remember off the top of my head which was which. I wasn't quite sure what they expected the six young men with the guns to do to Taylor… Unless they were meant for me? Just in case, I took my hand from the communicator I'd been about to give to Taylor and placed it on my helmet. I'd have to thank Leet later. His "RPG Hero pocket" technology was just so convenient now that he could make more than one container with the stuff.

With my free hand, I made a discrete signal to Uber. I'd had him camp out hidden in the cemetery just for such an occasion as this. With my signal, he should be contacting Kurt, who'll be calling in the rest of the active Raiders. Afterward Uber would be playing overwatch in case this turns violent before backup arrives.

"Is this still about the name thing?" Taylor asked one of the valkyries. "If it's that important then fine, I'll change it." The valkyries and the neo-nazis behind them stood attentively. "From now on," my daughter continued in a tone dripping with sass, "I'm Super-Kaiser."

The woman with the sword gestured and suddenly six automatic rifles were trained on my little girl. The one with the spear began to speak "That's not-"

"No. Super-Kaiser-God-Empress," Taylor interrupted.

I got the impression that the spear-carrier was annoyed. "Look, child, th-"

"Super-Kaiser-God-Empress," Taylor interrupted again, this time with a lot more annoyance and anger.

"Can we just call you Empress for short?" one grunt asked. The valkyrie with the shield and sword turned to glare at him, a young blonde man. While the neo-nazis were distracted, I pulled out my helmet and placed it on.

"Hmmm," Taylor said, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in an obvious parody of deep thought. "Super-Kaiser-God-Empress allows this."

The sword-valkyrie turned her glare to Taylor. "You don't seem to realize just how serious this is."

"It's serious in the first place? Taylor asked mockingly. "I thought it was a grown man throwing a fit over a name? Dad, does that sound like something to take seriously?"

I shook my head… and made a note to ask what all of this was about. This clearly was not the first encounter Taylor had had with the Empire, and that was something to be concerned about.

"Kaiser doesn't throw fits," the sword bearer continued, "though he does have a problem with little upstarts attacking his messengers." When did this happen?

"Who were telling me that Kaiser was throwing a fit over my name," Taylor replied sarcastically. "Besides, they were rude, and it's not like I hurt them." Taylor pointed to the blonde who'd spoken a moment ago. "One of the idiots is right there." The so called idiot proceeded to turn his gun on my daughter and fired off a dozen shots.

The other nazis jumped in time with my heart's beat stopping. The bullets all seemed to bounce off Taylor and she didn't seem at all hurt. More annoyed as she looked down to her own belly.

She slowly looked up to the blonde idiot. "This is a new shirt," she said in reference to the tank top she was wearing. "It was a gift and I've had it for less than a day. You're very lucky that none of those bullets touched it. Now," Taylor asked, "are you trying to get killed, Blondie?"

The blonde man shook his head, then took off running, leaving only five armed youths supporting the valkyries.

"Is he um… slow?" Taylor asked. "Or is he just a product of a Winslow High education?"

One of the valkyries facepalmed. "He's someone's cousin," she said in apparent explanation of why the young man hadn't been kicked out of the gang or killed already. "Now, are you ready to take this seriously?"

"No," Taylor began. I reached for my pistol. I only had rubber bullets and other nonlethal rounds, but I could sense that this was heading towards a fight. "I'm actually a little angry. You see, this is the first time I've had a chance to talk to my father since I triggered. The first time I've been to my Mother's grave for longer still." I noticed that Taylor's posture had changed. She was hunched over, just ever so slightly, her fingers were beginning to curl, and while I couldn't see her entire face from what I could see her teeth-her fangs-were bared. "And now a bunch of nazi-assholes have shown up to ruin it because the crown prince of all nazi-assholes is throwing a fit over my name. So, I'll repeat my response to Kaiser's earlier message: Tell him to go fuck himself."

I suppose had I been in this situation four months ago, I'd have been filled with both fear and pride at Taylor saying this. Fear of the danger she was putting herself and me in, pride at her standing her ground. Considering that she was bulletproof and I was wearing a full set of powered armor, I was currently only experiencing one of those emotions.

"It's a shame that you feel that way," said the spear wielding valkyrie. "But you did just threaten to kill one of us just a moment ago." The sword wielder made a signal with her hand just as her twin finished speaking. A second later my dearly departed Annette's headstone exploded in a flash of white flame.

The next thing I knew, I was pushing myself back up from the ground and trying to figure out where the exploding shot had come from. I saw a blonde man in red with black Armor, Victor of Empire Eighty-Eight, kneeling at the very far end of the cemetery holding a long rifle. He hadn't been there earlier, he must have jumped the fence around the time the other nazis came in. I noticed that he had what at this distance seemed to be a shaft or stick sticking from his left knee while he was clutching at his right shoulder. Running at him from his left was a tall and broad shouldered man in the uniform of one of my Raiders and holding a composite bow. That'd be Uber. He must have shot an arrow in Victor's knee. As I finished climbing to my feet, I turned, just slightly, to the left to see what appeared to be a young blonde girl in a black and lavender body suit, a pistol in her hand. That must be Tattletale, one of Taylor's new teammates. I wasn't the only one who'd set a lookout, so it seems.

I turned back to see Taylor staring at the shattered remains of her mother's memorial. She was shaking. The five remaining nazi grunts had their guns trained on her and the valkyrie twins had grown to each be about eight feet tall. The one with the sword and shield raised her blade and brought it down on Taylor. My little girl moved with great speed and caught the giant blade. Without letting go, Taylor turned to the giant woman and I could see that her eyes were glowing-the whites glowed blue and her irises a deep purple. It was somewhat off-putting when combined with the rage on her face as she brought her fist-enshrouded in what I assumed to be a psionic aura-into contact with the sword at high speed. Space distorted as the psionic energy erupted in a wave of telekinetic force and shattered the blade. As the giantess stumbled, Taylor leaped at her, fangs bared and claws out, with an animalistic scream of rage.

Bullets wouldn't harm her, but they could pose a distraction. I dropped my trenchcoat to the ground and shot a rubber bullet at the hip of one nazi grunt. He collapsed in pain and the other four turned their automatic rifles on me. My armor might not be perfect, but it provided adequate protection against the storm of hot lead as I backed away, drawing the attention and fire away from Taylor… I'd have to talk to her about managing pent up anger later, at a more opportune time. Frankly, the way she was moving and the ferocity with which she was clawing at the twin giants brought to mind more a particularly sadistic cat than the young girl I'd raised.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Victor struggling to defend himself in a two-front battle with two other Thinkers. A busted knee and gunshot wound to the shoulder will do that to you, I suppose.

The four thugs on their feet had managed to run out of ammunition and apparently did not bring extra clips. The fifth was pushing himself up, however, so I took a shot at the knee of the thug closest to him, causing the standing thug to tumble over and fall upon his prone companion. The remaining three looked to each other and to their downed cohorts before turning back to me, and in their confusion, I charged at them.

One young man turned and fled, but the two who remained standing braced themselves and each tried to strike me as I collided with them and knocked them to the ground. I wasn't too far from where Taylor and the two giants were fighting. The twins were each twelve or thirteen feet by now, and Taylor had a nasty gash in her leg that she seemed to be paying no mind to. She just kept jumping and clawing and cursing at the twin giants. The spear-carrying valkyrie's weapon had a chip missing. Menja and Fenja didn't just get bigger, they became tougher and more durable at the same time. My futuristic pistol with futuristic rubber bullets would be like a fly landing on them and then flying off. Nothing I could do to help my daughter with her fight directly. The thugs I'd knocked over didn't seem keen on getting back up. I looked over and saw that victor was still struggling to fight Tattletale and Uber. Victor was a skill-thief. Apparently, he'd never stolen the skills needed to fight off a psychic and a man with perfect martial arts technique while injured.

I became aware of a presence coming in fast. I turned just in time to see what I assumed to be a muscular young man dressed head to toe in bike leathers, his head obscured by a helmet and what appeared to be the image of a floating skull. Smoke blacker than ink was pouring from his body and trailing behind him, and when he came up upon me it exploded out and everything went dark.

That would have been Grue. The leader of the Undersiders. I'd done my research after I'd found out that Taylor had joined them. His power was supposed to be darkness generation, but this was something else entirely. I couldn't hear the sounds of the fight that was a few yards from me at most. Nor could I hear the ambient sounds of the graveyard, and I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face. I tried to adjust the sensors in my helmet to compensate but even with them all on their highest settings, I might as well have been blind and deaf.

I hated this. I was quite literally alone in the dark while my little girl was fighting literal giants. I'm sure that Grue wouldn't have blinded everyone for no reason… Taylor was psychic. I'd seen her do something telekinetic to shatter the blade. Maybe she's clairvoyant or telepathic? The end result is the same, she can sense the valkyries but the twins are as blind as I am.

So I waited. And waited, and waited. After what felt like a minute I felt something moving up against my leg, so I kicked it. I figured it was a nazi trying to get back up, and I'd rather they not get away. After a few more moments of waiting the darkness began to clear and I could see again.

The very first thing I did was look to see how Taylor was doing. She was standing about ten feet from where I last saw her, hunched over and breathing heavily, and facing a single retreating Giant. I caught a glimpse, as she stepped over the fence, of the giant carrying her normal sized twin, who was, in turn, clutching a bleeding wound, as though she were a baby doll. Then I noticed the fragments of metal on the ground and that Taylor's hands were covered in blood from the tips of her talons up past her wrists. The gash on her leg was mending before my eyes. I sighed and turned to see how Uber and the Undersiders' Thinker were handling Victor. I found Uber dragging Victor by his feet and the purple Thinker following along a short distance behind. Neither of them seemed to be in much of a hurry, and with the generic thugs not seeming to be in any mood to get up and run for it, I walked over to Taylor.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

She didn't answer right away. After a few moments, just as I was about to ask again, she mumbled "M'fine."

"Taylor?"

"I'm fine," she repeated.

She wasn't. I could tell she wasn't and I hated it. I couldn't help her if she wouldn't open up… Who was I kidding, I couldn't help her at all, could I? This whole thing was supposed to be her and I getting back in touch. Me letting her know that she was still loved and that I was still trying to bring her home. Instead, we get attacked by Empire Eighty-Eight and the Nazi bastards desecrated my late wife's grave.

"They're not going to get away with this," I said in an attempt to comfort her. I meant it. The boys and I had already taken out one gang.

"I know," she answered in the same tone as her earlier replies. She was staring at her blood covered hands.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," came a masculine voice from behind us. Taylor snapped to attention and we both turned to Grue. "I need to have a word with my teammate." Taylor looked back down at the ground. "Empress, the next time people from a rival gang threaten you, I'd appreciate it if you tell me yourself instead of letting a panicking Tattletale try and explain it to me."

"I'm sorry," Taylor said. "If you want me to leave the team so that Empire won't-"

"No," Grue interrupted. "You're not going anywhere. You're a member of our team. Even if I wanted you gone-Which I don't" The young criminal emphasized, "After the way you reacted to Glory Girl breaking Bitch's back, anyone with half a brain knows to come after us to find you." Taylor didn't seem as reassured as Grue seemed to hope. "We're gonna make them regret messing with you."

"Thank you," Taylor said quietly. "Now how did-"

The sound of dragging interrupted Taylor. Uber had arrived with Victor, the neo-nazi with a clearly broken and bleeding nose. "We might have to call an ambulance. I did the best I could for his shoulder once he was out cold, but I don't exactly have the tools to treat a gunshot wound" He turned to glare at the blonde following behind him.

"He was going to shoot my friend in the head with a white phosphorus-based anti-armor sniper round," Tattletale said in reply. "I will not apologize." I began debating the merits of kicking the downed Empire soldier in the crotch a few times as the lavender covered villainess addressed my daughter. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Taylor said again. "So..."

"After we got back to the base," the blonde began, "I went to talk to Grue about the pair of messages you got this afternoon. After discussing it for a bit, I googled your civ name, found out where your Mom was buried, and we snuck in and hid out here just in case something like this happened." she gestured to Uber. "Turns out we weren't the only ones to plan for this meeting going south."

Taylor didn't respond. She was looking at her hands again. Then she opened her mouth and slowly stuck out her tongue. It was Gene Simmons like in length and the tip was formed at a sharper angle than a normal human tongue. It was also a bluish-purple color, but that wasn't so odd considering that she was blue on the outside. The fact that she was lapping the blood from her hands, however, was.

"Taylor that's disgusting." Her teammates didn't seem all that shocked at what she was doing.

"They taste greasy," Taylor said between licks. "Lung was savory and filling, like pasta-grains, cheese, meat, and vegetables all blended together in a proper meal." She licked the underside of one of her claws. "Glory Girl's blood was far too sweet and with little substance. Like cake frosting. Fenja's and Meja's blood tastes greasy, like a bacon cheeseburger without a bun. Good, but greasy."

My daughter was apparently a vampire now. That was… I've already accepted that she's not human anymore, I've already accepted that she's trying to recreate the zerg. "Drinks blood" isn't that big of a deal anymore. She is my daughter and I love her.

"I mean, don't get me wrong: Blood tastes like blood. But when I take someone's essence into myself like this I get this… feeling about it. I can't quite explain it."

"You absorb DNA from things you eat," Tattletale interjected. "It might be your power trying to help you tell good genes from bad ones?" Taylor shrugged, and then the blonde continued. "But I'm pretty sure that your Dad called in backup when the fight started, and between the explosion, the fight, the giant Nazi fleeing the cemetery, and the large number of armed dockworkers heading this way, well, the PRT or even the Protectorate is gonna be swarming this place any minute now. So," she finished with a smile, "those of us with felony charges pending against them need to get the Hell out of Dodge."

Without a word, Taylor and her two teammates began heading towards the back of the cemetery. "Wait," I called out, and then went for my coat. They stopped and Taylor turned back to face me. I pulled out the communicator I'd meant to give to Taylor earlier, then walked back to hand it to her.

"This runs on a private com-channel," I explained. "You just turn it on," I gestured to the switch, "and I'll know you're trying to talk to me. Please keep in touch."

Taylor took the communicator and then hugged me. I hugged my daughter back, for what might be the last time in a long while. Then I watched her and her teammates-her friends? Walk to the far end of the cemetery, hop the fence, and disappear into the night.

Uber hadn't left. His Raider uniform covered his face, and I'd bet good money that Kurt and the others would get here before the PRT did. He was in no danger. I turned to him.

"So, why exactly did you bring a bow?"