Furor 3.07

"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine... one hundred."

"Can I stop sitting on your back now?" Alec complained. "Your shell is worse than an old park bench and the towel is not helping with the spikes. Seriously, you've taken all the fun out of sitting on a naked girl."

I rolled my eyes and lowered myself down so Alec could just slide off instead of jumping. I shouldn't be annoyed with him, he'd volunteered to help with my exercise routine, since Rachel was busy. Besides, I'm pretty sure he was joking. I think. His emotions are still scary and wrong.

"You need me for anything else?" Alec asked. "Or can I go back to my game? I killed a guy I'm pretty sure was Leet five times last night and I want to see if I can find him again."

I laughed as I climbed to my feet. "Yeah, you can get going."

Alec tried to leave without a word, but I heard a slight zap and him swear under breath when he got to my door. He'd been getting and giving static shocks a lot lately. I couldn't tell why. Was it the creep mat I had down here? Did creep hold up a static charge? I guess that's something to ask Sarah about the next time I see her. I wasn't getting rid of it. It felt great on my bare feet and something about the creep was comforting.

Besides, Rachel's dogs liked it, once they got used to it.

As he left, I did a few stretches. I'd started an exercise routine the morning after meeting with Dad at the cemetery. We'd all gotten together, the other Undersiders and I, and discussed what to do, and decided that we needed to hit Empire back before they could do something else. We'd discussed different ideas but didn't have anything decided on yet. So then we started training together more often… Well, they did. I could sit in on strategy meetings and contribute there, but… I thought to that Agent whose arm I'd torn off. I could watch and learn holds and strikes, but I wasn't going to risk maiming my new friends practicing them.

Once Alec left I abandoned the towel, then sat down for my sit-ups. Honestly, I'd prefer to be running but I didn't think it was safe to go outside alone right now. At least the routine was something to do, I couldn't just browse the internet all day-some of those articles just pissed me off and the number of people on PHO who went from "burn the witch" to "that poor thing" over Victor's desecration at the cemetery was disgusting, especially since it was just Dad's word about what happened there. The PRT had yet to release a statement.

"...Seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-three," I counted off, "seventy-four, seventy-five-"

"Taylor!" Lisa shouted from up the stairs, "I need to talk to you about something."

"Come on down!" I shouted back up, "seventy-six."

"You know," Lisa said as she came to the bottom of the stairs, "that's not really doing much for you, right?"

"Of course not, seventy-seven," I answered, "I've only been doing it for a few days. Seventy-eight. These things take time, seventy-nine."

"That's not what… Not important," Lisa shook her head. "I've noticed some changes since we've moved in with you."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. She raised a hand and started counting off of her fingers, "Rachel's dogs look different now, and they seem to do what she wants before she gives off her commands to them. Sometimes I've seen them acting without a command at all." She raised her second finger, "Brian's darkness seems… bleaker, or deeper, or I don't even know how to describe it. I mean," she clarified, "it's always been a like being in a void, but now it's like it's far more vast a void." She raised a third finger, "and you've seen how Alec's been shocking the crap out of himself. It's been subtle. I didn't notice Rachel at first since we were a bit pre-occupied at the bank, and I don't think I'd have noticed the change with Brian or put two and two together," she said, "if I hadn't started noticing more things than I normally do. Taylor, I think you're a Trump."

This was happening already? Dad had gotten a power boost, just like Sarah said would happen, though I'm not sure when. Or at least, he'd talked to one of Sarah's friends, so maybe… I smiled.

Lisa took notice. "You knew. You -Holy shit," she said as though she'd hit a sudden revelation, "That… It, it's permanent. It's what your power is really for, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, tell me, have you had any weird dreams lately?"

"No… Should I be on the lookout for that?"

"Yeah," I answered, "let me know if you do-I'm not sure if the others will believe me if I explain before they've seen it themselves."

"Taylor," Lisa asked, "you're not going to tell me that you got your powers from some drug given to you by a conspiracy that's trying to save the world from some threat, are you?"

"One of three," I answered.

"...how worried should I be?"

"Not very. Apparently whatever the threat is is a lower priority that getting my life back together," I answered, "at least that's what Sarah says."

Lisa reacted to Sarah's name. She didn't show it, but I felt an odd mixture of emotions emanate from her.

"Taylor," she said, "I don't like not knowing things. What's going on?"

"Look, to be honest, I didn't expect this to happen for a while," I stopped my situps and sat up to reply, "I'll tell you what, if any of the others notice the changes to your powers by next week, or have one of these weird dreams, I'll explain it to everyone at once. If no one noticed after seven days from today, I'll explain it to you and you can tell the others if you want." I debated whether or not I should tell Rachel regardless. She was gruff, but by the amount of time she spent around me compared to the others, I was getting the feeling she liked me for some reason. "Does that sound okay?"

Lisa was silent for a good while. "We're not going to change like you do, are we?"

"You shouldn't, no."

"Are these dream people going to fuck with our heads?"

"Not to my knowledge."

She sighed. "Okay, I trust you, just… Not a week. Three days, because this shit is important."

"Okay," I agreed, "if no one else notices in three days, I'll tell them then."

Lisa nodded and then turned to leave. She was halfway up the stairs when she turned and came running back in. "I almost forgot: Brian is going to be here in about half an hour. I talked with him earlier, we think we've got a plan for our counter-attack against the Empire." She seemed a bit sheepish for a moment. "I came here to tell everyone and then I saw Rachel's dogs acting odd and everything clicked."

"Oh, okay." I clenched my fist. I… Revenge wasn't something I normally thought about. If it was, Emma would have been dead months ago. I wasn't sure if revenge was even the right word for what I wanted, but the thought of Kaiser getting away with his temper-tantrum, for desecrating my Mom's grave… it made me feel sick.

"Calm down Taylor," Lisa said. I'd tried not to let my feelings show, but I'm not good enough to hide them from Lisa. "Just… you were on 92 when you let off."

I sighed. "Thanks, Lisa."

She left, presumably to tell the others about the meeting, and I finished my sit ups. I had half an hour till Brian got here, so I started my squats.

All Hail Empress Taylor

It was odd. Hookwolf was clearly dedicated to the security of his operation here, with the number of armed guards and with Stormtiger and Cricket at his side, but at the same time they were just standing there next to an open loading dock and nobody was bothering to look at the roof of the building across the street from their warehouse. To be fair, Bitch, her dog Brutus, and I were laying down flat, they might not be able to see us from the street, but still.

The others were sneaking around from the back and would burst in after Bitch and I did our thing. We just had to wait for our cue.

I heard a gunshot coming from inside the building. I looked to Bitch, to see if she noticed it too or if I only picked it up with my freaky mutant ears. Then I remembered that she didn't emote the way a human did and I couldn't see her face through her mask, making the endeavor pointless.

I turned back to the warehouse. Cricket had gone into the building. I could hear yelling but I couldn't make out what was being said. About five minutes later Cricket was back, and a few minutes later I noticed movement in an alley to the side of the building. Some blonde kid with a torn and bloody sleeve was dragging a garbage bag out to a dumpster. Brutus started growling, for just a moment before Bitch put a hand on him, and shortly afterward the young man left the warehouse entirely.

I focused on the emotions in the area. Bitch was pissed off, as far as I could tell. Hookwolf and his associates all felt various degrees of bored and frustrated-I made sure to memorize their individual signatures. Grue was going to throw up darkness once we were inside and my job was to kick Hookwolf's ass, I didn't want to lose track of him. I could feel the others moving into position on the other side of the warehouse, there were three bored people that had been sitting up the road for the past hour and… there was a determined presence swiftly approaching.

I strained my hearing just as a large van pulled up to Hookwolf and stopped in front of the gathered super-Nazis.

"You got the cash?" I barely picked the newcomer say in a mild Bostonian accent.

"It's inside," Hookwolf answered, "come on Jake you know the drill, you don't get paid until we check the dogs." And there was my cue! I leaped from the roof and began diving towards the shirtless masked Nazi!

...Then the other shirtless masked Nazi raised his fists, pointed them at me, and then I felt an exploding sensation and landed in the street in a heap.

"You need to be more subtle," Stormtiger said. "We've known you were here for ten minutes, you freak."

I jumped to my feet and charged at the gathered group-the dog seller was about to head back into his van but I'd gotten to him fast enough to grab him. I broke the man's arm and threw him at Cricket.

The female villain easily dodged the man, then drew her kamas and charge at me. Meanwhile Stormtiger did the same with what were presumably more of his invisible air claws. Hookwolf was between then but not charging yet. Bostonian dog seller was crawling away, so I paid him no mind. As the two charging Nazis closed in, I pushed out with my pulse, pushing them towards Hookwolf, and then I leaped forward to push all three of the bastards into the warehouse.

I spaced out for just a second but I came back to my senses when the sensation of biting into something bloody and fleshy and full of sharp metal pointy bits. During the struggle I'd taken a bite out of Hookwolf. I could see his muscles, infused with blades and hooks, in the open bicep wound. I was suddenly very aware of the fact that no one was moving to attack me, and everyone was staring at me with various combinations of fear, disgust, and confusion.

"What the fuck?" the Nazi I ate part of asked. "Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Rather than answer, I chewed once, swallowed, and stood up. I, I honestly didn't know what to do next. Luckily, mere moments later Brutus, boosted up to the size of a horse, leaped into the warehouse and suddenly all of the nonpowered Neo-Nazi's turned their guns on Brutus and me.

For one brief moment I felt like Alexandria with the bullets bouncing from me, as they didn't even tickle anymore, but then it started to get annoying again soon after. I took a moment to note that Brutus didn't seem particularly bothered by the gunfire either. He had a few armored plates on him that he didn't have at the bank, and seemed more purple than he was then.

While the storm of hot led continued, I took in the rest of the warehouse-there were some cages against a far wall. There was some blood on the floor in front of one of them, but all but one cage was empty.

The shooting stopped-some of the guns clicked with empty magazines-and within an instant Hookwolf was off the floor and a mass of whirling blades was upon me. I jumped to the left and managed to narrowly dodge Hookwolf's charge. Just as I turned around, I saw a door on the far end of the building burst open and a cloud of darkness billowed out and began flowing into the room, engulfing several of the Empire grunts.

Cricket came to her feet and ran head-first into the growing void, and I heard Bitch shouting "Brutus, sic!" from out on the street just before the big dog jumped at Stormtiger, leaving me practically alone with a whirling ball of sharp Nazi death.

The Empire soldier in question had assumed the form of a massive wolf made of hooks and blades and then jumped at me. Rather than dodge, I met the man-turned-beast head on and punched him-knocking a few blades loose from the metallic monster and pushing him about a foot away from me.

Undaunted by the damage he'd taken, Hookwolf assumed a serpentine form and circled around me. I turned around to head off an attack from the rear, and in doing so caught sight of Regent emerging from Grue's darkness and tasering one of the few thugs who hadn't been engulfed with his scepter. I was unable to observe further because I had to dodge-Hookwolf shifted his mass as he slithered past me and a spiraling growth of blades jutted from his side towards mine.

The mass of blades collapsed on the ground and then, with speed I didn't expect, changed directions and flew back at me. I tried to jump over him, but Hookwolf was too fast and too sudden and the impact hit my legs and flipped me over the other cape and sent me face first into the floor.

I tried to push myself up but Hookwolf managed to get around me and grab my right arm. I could feel the blades trying to cut through my scales and carapace, but the Zerg in my system made them hold firm. I tried to pull my arm from the whirling ball of Empire-brute, but Hookwolf managed to hold on tight.

As I struggled with Hookwolf, I heard Tattletale yell "Bitch, down!" the sound of a body hit the floor, and a high pitched whine combined with a wet stabbing sound. Then I felt the first clear bit of emotion I've ever gotten from Bitch: Unadulterated rage.

"Brutus! Kill!" With that declaration, and a mighty roar, the monstrous dog charged toward what felt like Stormtiger, who for a brief moment radiated pure terror. Meanwhile, I continued struggling with Hookwolf. I was pulled to my feet and the two of us performed a deadly waltz around the visible parts of the warehouse, where I saw Empire grunts running around like chickens with their heads cut off, Regent tasering those who got close to him and making the rest trip and stumble, Tattletale with a briefcase she didn't have when we got here, and Grue's cloud of darkness.

I managed to get some momentum going and swung Hookwolf over my head and into the ground, but still the other cape held on. He managed to pull me to the ground with him, and we rolled on the floor until I found myself pinned to the ground by the wrist. I felt his grip tighten, and then something got under my scales. I felt the strange sensation of a scale being torn off, and then redoubled my efforts to pull my hand away-but that only made Hookwolf's grip tighter still. I felt my hearts racing as more of my scales came loose and something started digging into my flesh and with a mighty pull I finally freed my arm from his grip. My heart beats ceased for a moment as I saw the small nub of metal and crystal pocking from the bleeding stump where my hand had once been. I screamed, and the next thing I knew, Hookwolf was crashing into the ceiling of the warehouse with the force of my telekinetic pulse.

Suddenly everything stopped. The sound of a body hitting the floor met my ears, and I could see Grue's dark void clearing up, but soon there was nothing but silence… and then the sirens. I hadn't noticed them before, but they were loud, so the were close, and then before I knew it I could sense that the warehouse was surrounded.

PRT Agents and police officers began flooding into the building just as Hookwolf got unstuck from the ceiling and crashed to the floor. As my friends, judging from their emotions, took a combat ready stance, Armsmaster and Miss Militia stepped into the warehouse. The patriotic heroine raised her ever-present green weapon towards me and it took the form of-there was a sharp and loud, like a cat hissing into a megaphone, and I jumped back, quickly, and landed on all fours. I stumbled due to my missing hand. Bitch whistled and Brutus was next to me in a second, growling at the heroes. People-cops, agents, even my friends-were staring at me, and it was only then that I realized that the hissing sound had come from me.

"Alright," Armsmaster said as though nothing had happened, "You're all under arrest. If you come quietly and behave yourselves," he said in clear reference to my friends and I, "then you some of you might be granted leniency." He then walked to Hookwolf, who'd returned to human form, and checked him over before cuffing the downed villain.

"Counter-offer," Tattletale declared, "we're going to leave, we're going to take that van full of dogs outside, and this briefcase with the couple thousand dollars Hookwolf was going to pay for the dogs with," and some other things, if Tattletale had stuck with the plan. I couldn't see her face, but I got the impression that Tattletale was giving her trademark grin. "And you're just going to let us."

"And why would we do that?" Miss Militia asked in response. She was aiming that contemptible device, the launcher for those fucking grenades, at my friend now.

"In no particular order," Tattletale began, "half the people you brought with you are normal cops. Normal cops armed with Tinker-tech that Empress's father has been providing." When Tattletale said that, I noticed that each cop was carrying a gun like the one Dad had in the cemetery. "Even assuming that none of them think that Empress is innocent of the initial charges you made against her-which the officer behind you is, Miss Militia-do you honestly think that any of them want to piss off their golden goose?" I noted that the police officers and one of the PRT Agents all seemed a bit less sure of themselves than they had been before. "One of your agents thinks she's innocent too."

"The officer's are just doing their jobs," Armsmaster replied. "I haven't had much contact with Bastion, but he didn't seem petty enough to deny services to the police that could save their lives or the lives of the people they interact with just because a few officers brought in a wanted criminal."

"Okay then, how about the fact that you're not supposed to fuck with us if we're not actively committing crimes?" Yeah, that's right. Lisa had said that the PRT wouldn't do anything to us. That's how we were able to have our girl's day out. "All we did was fuck up some villains. Maybe we've decided to go hero?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Miss Militia denied. "Besides, you've all got charges pending against you. Even if you have decided to turn over a new leaf, you'd have to submit yourselves to justice anyway if you want any sense of legitimacy."

Armsmaster crouched down, next to Hookwolf, and retrieved a set of tongs and an evidence bag. "I can think of another reason for you to come with us" He picked up my severed hand and bagged it. "Unless you're harboring the Slaughterhouse Nine, I doubt you have access to either the skill or the resources needed to reattach a human hand, let alone the hand of an organism as advanced as Empress." My skin crawled at the way he used the word 'organism.' "The PRT, on the other hand… Well, surrendering to us is Empress's best bet if she doesn't want to be crippled for life."

I panicked. I couldn't do that. I couldn't let them get me. "It'll grow back!" I half-bluffed. Oh dear god I hope it'll grow back.

"Really now?" The armored hero replied. "So you wouldn't mind if I took this back to my lab and ran some tests on it?"

"Not at all," I said through a forced grin.

"Alright then," the hero said. "Well if you change your mind, you've already been told how to get it back." He turned to Lisa, "anything else?"

"Yeah, there is," Tattletale picked up before Armsmaster or Miss Militia could respond, "do you really want to go to the effort of fighting us? Or do you just want to arrest the..." Tattletale started counting tasered or unconscious thugs. "Arrest the fourteen gangsters, three supervillains, and that animal smuggler you've got handcuffed outside? Letting us go guarantees eighteen arrests, getting a lot of Empire soldiers and three of their most violent capes off the streets with practically no effort on your part." Tattletale was smiling again, I could feel it. "If you fight us, you could add five villains to that total… Or you could catch none of us, get badly hurt, possibly bad enough that you can't take in the people already down, and have wasted time and effort for nothing. Bird in the hand, heroes, letting us go is more efficient."

"Don't patronize me," Armsmaster replied. "All taking the easy way out, arresting villains we didn't defeat without even trying to arrest the villains who did, all that does is make us look like your cleanup crew."

"I suppose so," my friend said, "but what's more important: Looking good, or taking these dangerous thugs," she gestured Hookwolf, and Stormtiger, and Cricket, "off the streets when you've got the chance?"

"You have one more chance to convince me that we should let you go on to commit more crimes," Armsmaster said with certainty. "Any further attempts, and I'll assume you intend to resist arrest and we'll react accordingly." Miss Militia punctuated her cohort's statement by gesturing to each of us with that damned launcher.

"Alright then," Tattletale began, "I lied about not going in any special order, I saved this one for last: You're afraid."

"Excuse me?" The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate and his associate asked simultaneously.

"Empress is badly hurt, curled up on the ground, and scared out of her wits of you," wow, thanks Lisa, "but you're not moving to apprehend her even though your boss went on the TV news and called her a dangerous psychopath. It's because you're afraid," Tattletale took a more relaxed stance, "you know what she's capable of. You know that if you fail, then anything you've used against her will have made her stronger, and thus, that much harder to take down next time." Tattletale laughed. "Miss Militia might be able to take Empress down, though the collateral damage of a weapon strong enough would kill us all, herself and Empress included, and destroy the building at bare minimum. She'd never risk it." It was then that I noticed that Miss Militia's anger was slightly spicier and a touch more bitter than anger normally was. For a brief moment, I wondered if I shouldn't catalog the different flavors and sensations of emotions, if only to keep my mind off of that fucking weapon of hers.

"As for you, Armsmaster," Tattletale continued, "you don't have a single gadget that you're sure won't make Empress stronger, at least not yet. You're working on it, but it's nowhere near ready." Lisa touched two fingers to her right temple. "You don't think you can beat her, even now, and you don't want to risk her destroying your tech, or hurting you, or Miss Militia, or any of the agents or officers with you." She laughed again. "You're more afraid of Empress than she is of you-All of you are. I know, because I'm psychic, and so is she." Tattletale turned to me, "you can feel it too, can't you Empress?" At her prompting, I took a deep breath, tried to calm down, and reached out with my senses. Armsmaster… I couldn't read him. There was some kind of interference. Miss Militia was frightened but determined, and the people with them… Fucking terrified! Especially that one agent who kept trying to rub his shoulder.

I swallowed my fear and gave the biggest, most feral grin I could muster. "Yeah! I can practically taste their terror. It's delicious!" The terror of the grunts shot up like a rocket with that.

"So I'll ask, how willing are the two of you to risk your own lives for such a small reward?" Tattletale sounded her most smug. "Are you willing to risk the people with you? I mean, we don't exactly want to hurt you all, but we will if you make us. So, just take the easy arrests and let us go."

The heroes were silent for a moment. Armsmaster turned to look at the cops and Agents with him "Alright," Armsmaster declared as he turned back to us. "Now get out of here before I change my mind, and know that this is your one and only free pass." Miss Militia didn't feel too happy about that, but the scary foam weapon became a knife so I guess she was going along with it.

"Bitch," Tattletale said, "Grue, Regent, and I are going to leave first-I don't trust that Armsy will keep his word once Empress is gone. After we're gone, take Empress back to the base first-she's not going to be able to help with certain things until after she's treated her wound. Once she's dropped off, come meet us at the rendezvous point."

The rendezvous point was Rachel's dog-shelter. Bitch came over to Brutus and I, and climbed up onto her dog. Then she offered me her hand, which I took, and soon I was riding bitch behind Bitch atop Brutus.

As cops and PRT agents cleared a path, Tattletale started making some last minute announcements. "You're going to need to get Stormtiger to a hospital in the next half-hour if you don't want him to die-it's a stroke of luck he isn't already dead and he's probably going to lose that leg unless Panacea is feeling charitable." She turned back to me as Grue left the building and out of my line of sight-towards where I could sense the dog smuggler from earlier. I guess to get the van keys? "Empress," she gestured to Brutus, "I think this counts for that thing we talked about earlier." I looked to the armored plates, extra spikes, and purplish color of Brutus. It was undeniable that Bitch's power had been altered. I nodded, and Tattletale, Grue, and Regent loaded into the van and drove off.

Shortly after, Rachel tapped Brutus and we tore off into the night, heading in a different direction than the van. I couldn't sense anyone tailing us, so I let myself relax and held onto Bitch.

"Are-are you okay?" she asked me.

"...Yeah," I said. "Getting my hand cut off wasn't anywhere near as painful as you'd think. It was mostly just the shock of it all."

"Good."

"Besides," I continued, "it'll grow back." I was going to make sure of it. I didn't want to do it, but I was going to have to create The Cocoon.