Foes 03

"Come on dork, you gotta at least move your feet. I'm not Brian and you're not tiny. Walk or I'm gonna stop dragging you."

I had hurt Sophia. I had killed Sophia. I was never supposed to use that part of my power again. I had promised myself after Mr. Spinster. But I had still drained her of all of her essence.

"For fuck's sake, we're less than a block away. You could at least try to shuffle along, Taylor."

Where had Alec even come from? If he had gotten there sooner maybe I wouldn't have slipped. Maybe things would have been different.

No, they wouldn't. That was a fool's thought. Sophia was always going to come after me. Because she was sick, and insane, and horrible.

"Out of order? Seriously? What kind of shit maintenance does this building have? I'm going to bill Lisa for my chiropractic bills after this. Or my massages. Massages, definitely massages. Hey, dork, you went to Winslow right? They had to talk about skeevy massage parlors in that place. What's a good spot I can go to?"

Sophia had threatened Lisa. She was going to kill Lisa if I hadn't killed her. So…it was okay what I had done. Right? It wasn't like with Mr. Spinster. I was protecting someone. That…that made it right.

Right?

"Keys, keys, which pocket would you keep your keys in, Taylor? I don't have a set. Lisa doesn't trust me. She's right about that, by the way. I'm not a good person. I don't know why you like me. One of my moms was like you. She tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt too. My brother killed her when he got bored one day." Alec paused. He pulled the keys to Lisa's apartment out of my pocket and stared at them. "I think that was when I realized that I don't feel things like people should. I would have liked to have mourned Susan."

I sniffled and leaned against him, squeezing my eyes shut tighter, not letting the gold light leak past the edges, not looking at the light shining out of him. Alec wasn't a bad guy. He was funny, and had always been nice to me; even if he was a bit of a jerk, he wasn't mean.

Sophia had been mean. She wasn't anymore. She wasn't anything anymore, nothing except a husk, a shell. Which was really an improvement overall for her.

I bit down on my tongue, trying to chase those thoughts away. It didn't help that I wasn't even able to pierce the muscle anymore.

"We're here." He stopped outside the door to the apartment, pausing again as he stared at the wood. "I don't know if you can really hear me right now. I don't know if I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm actually capable of that. But I want to be. So, Taylor, I'm sorry." He shook his head, letting out a low laugh. "So much for my easy money; guess I'm choosing a side, huh? Alright, let's get you to someone who actually knows how to deal with you."

Reaching forward, he turned the key and led me inside.

Lisa was here. Lisa was alive. Whatever else I had done, whatever monster I had become, whoever I had hurt, she was alive.

That was what mattered.

Lisa had switched the channel to cartoons while Alec fiddled with a handheld game on the other couch. Rachel sat with Angelica and Brutus in the corner. Brian was on a laptop searching through…something.

I was curled against Lisa's side, Judas' head on my lap. Her own laptop was balanced on the couch's armrest.

"Tay, how about here? I can get us to Boston without much trouble. It's close, there's people we can stay with, it would be easy enough to come back and…" she trailed off as I shook my head. My eyes were finally dimming back to their normal color, and with it the glows that illuminated everyone around me. At least that reminder was gone.

"Alright, look, if I'm seriously going to get a cabin in the woods, then it's at least going to have internet and cable. I will drive you crazy if I have to sit and read books all day long, girl, you know I will."

Alec snorted. "Uncultured swine."

"I can't believe I agree with Alec on anything," Brian muttered, "but yeah, I'm with him."

"Traitors! All of you!"

Rachel looked up, glanced at us all, then shrugged and went back to brushing her dogs. Judas just huffed, he calmed down when I began scratching behind his ears again.

"What kind of weather do you like, Tay?"

I shrugged. "I like snow. But not all year. If it's just us, T-shirts or tank tops would be nice every once in a while."

"Hmm, I'm pretty sure I don't own any sundresses, but delivery goes basically anywhere if you're willing to pay enough, so that's fixable."

"Lisa," Brian said, glancing up from his laptop. "You're wasting time. The entirety of PHO is in an uproar. Are you going to call her friends or are you just going to keep looking at new houses?"

I clutched her shirt, doing my best not to sniffle. I didn't have friends in the Wards anymore. They wouldn't want me back, not after what I had done. Not after they knew what I was.

Lisa sighed. "No matter what I say right now, it's not going to help. She needs to calm down first. She's determined to leave the city, so if I can get her out, get her situated - and calm - then I can call her friends and smooth everything over. It's barely been a day. We'll be gone by tonight, setup by tomorrow, I can probably knock her out of her spiral sometime within two or three days after that. By then the PRT should have been able to find enough data from Stalker's body that they won't be gunning quite so hard for her and I can get a full update from Glory Girl and Vista."

"Will it be enough?" Rachel grunted.

"Should be. I'll use the transit time to find a good lawyer too, so anything I miss, he shouldn't."

"I still think you should call before you try to leave."

Lisa shook her head. "Honestly, Brian, I'm worried that if I do, I won't be able to leave. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Coil would get tipped off if I reach out to them too soon. He was too well placed in that meeting and the city is on high alert. They may not have their phones tapped, but he would still hear about it - whether because they deviate from patrols trying to help us, or because he has people watching them, he'd know."

"Yeah, but the boss already knows you want out," Alec shrugged. "You have that van coming to pick you up."

"He knows I want to get Taylor out," Lisa protested. "I convinced him that she's a destabilizing force in the city. He's trying to build something in this city and I made him think that if she stays then the status quo comes tumbling down. I didn't even lie, used right, she could theoretically take out fucking Lung in one shot. I'm talking about as a full fledged rampaging rage dragon here, not as a baseline human."

"I don't want to hurt anyone," I mumbled. "There's a reason that I survived. There has to be. My power shouldn't be used like that."

"I know, Tay, I know." She squeezed me tighter against her and kissed the top of my head.

"Coil's going to let you go?"

"I'm going to buy off the driver. Easy peasy. I have more than enough, even if he sends a full van of mercs for escort, we're good."

Brian frowned. "I know we're not exactly great friends, Lisa. I am still going to miss you though. Take care of yourself. Be careful not to punch above your weight."

"I won't miss you!" Alec commented, the wide grin on his face putting lie to his words. "I will miss the dork though. She could recognize good fashion sense. You are a lost cause and only good for your snark."

"Don't hurt her more," Rachel said while glancing to the side, "She's good with dogs, makes her better than most."

"Thanks guys," Lisa said. She squeezed me again. "I think I'm actually going to miss you guys too."

Judas snuffled, lifting his head just enough to encourage my fingers to keep petting him.

"Lisa, can we get a dog too?"

"Of course we can, Tay. Maybe a…smaller pet too?"

I blinked away the film over my eyes. "I'd…like that."

\/\/~*.' '.*~\/\/

Skip

The sound of the gunshot was still ringing in my ears as Coil sat back down behind his desk. I barely even noticed it. I didn't care about Coil. I only cared about the girl crumpled on the floor in front of me. The girl who had shown me that there were still things worth fighting for, that I was worth fighting for. The girl who had dropped everything because of me. The girl who'd stood by me and defended me even when she had every reason not to.

The girl whose blood was splattered all over me.

I was never going to have people beside me.

I was never going to have friends.

I was alone again.

At some point I had wrapped my arms around my head and squeezed my eyes shut, screaming my pain such that the world was forced to take notice.

And notice it did.

Everything slowed down. Reality split apart around me. My body was burning, everything was burning. I drew on every ounce of power I had.

Either I was going to die, or they would.

One of the Mercenaries reached down to touch Lisa's body.

I screamed louder, a keening wail that blanketed the room and snapped all attention towards me. My well snapped, yawning wide, and all of its stored energy dumped out of it at once, into me.

I didn't have long, I didn't need long.

I knew what the glowing lights were now. I could see the energy flowing in everyone around me now. Eyes closed, eyes opened, it didn't make any difference. I saw their essence, I saw their flame. It was as clear now as when I had been touching Mr. Spinster - as clear as when I'd ripped it from Sophia's body and drew it into my own.

The mercenaries were dim fires to my eyes, Coil and Vista were dual, superimposed infernos.

Lisa's blaze was nearly gone. There was just a faint spark that was guttering out as I stared.

"For fucks sake kid, it's just a dead body."

The mercenary reached out for me.

He didn't make it.

My eyes snapped open and my hand darted forward. I latched onto his armor-clad wrist, ignoring his shout. I inhaled, and drew on his essence, tearing it out of him and drinking it. The process was slower because I had to pull through the armor. I knew I didn't need to touch his skin - I had never needed to, it would only take longer. What was important was that my well was refilled. The man had just long enough to shake his hand, trying to knock me off, and scream. Then he dropped to the floor, a marionette with its strings cut.

The second and third mercenaries shouted. One tried to raise his rifle. Coil's eyes widened under his cloth mask as he reached for his gun.

None of them moved fast enough. My well was overflowing. My eyes blazed with golden light and when I leapt from the chair I was moving almost too fast for the human eye to track. The distance was short enough that it was like I was teleporting. One moment I was on the chair, the next I was standing between the two mercenaries, one hand on each side, punched through their armor and latched onto the bare skin underneath. I wasn't going to waste time.

Both were dead before their next heartbeat.

My well grew. The world slowed further.

Coil had managed to raise the gun, but he couldn't squeeze the trigger before I kicked off the ground, leaving a hole in the floor behind me and landing right on his desk, splintering it from the force of the impact. I lashed out, my hand latching on him and slamming his head into the wall. I let the world speed up back to normal so I could hear his screaming as I kept slamming him against the wooden paneling.

By the time I let him go, the cloth near Coil's face was covered in red and he could only limply crawl away from me as I stalked over to him, my eyes glowing bright enough they lit up the entire small room. He whimpered, holding out his hand as if to ward me off, but I just stepped on it, drawing another strangled scream from him. Reaching down, I clenched my hand on his throat and reached for his essence. As soon as I touched it, he went nearly white with horror.

"What are you?!" Coil cried out. My hand squeezed. "Why can't I find a way through-" His pleas abruptly cut off as the remaining color in his visible skin drained away, his scrabbling arms fell limp to the floor, just like the mercenaries before him. Coil's own inferno was entirely gone, the superimposed flame behind Coil losing much of its own brightness.

My well exploded with power. So…much…power…

I stood, twisted, and took a halting step towards Vista's unconscious body. Grazing the younger girl, the golden light surrounding us dimmed slightly as Vista sat up with a gasp.

It worked. I didn't buff people. I shared essence with them. The buffs were side-effects. If…if that was how it worked…

"Wha-What the- Braid! Braid we need to -" Vista cut off, as her eyes widened, her gaze flicking across the destroyed room, the dead bodies, me. "Taylor…what's going on?"

"…I killed them. They killed her and I killed them…I just wanted to leave…" I whispered. I didn't have time to explain. Lisa's spark was almost gone entirely. Turning away, I stumbled, almost fell, and collapsed next to Lisa's body. Finally letting myself sob, I pulled my girlfriend's head into my lap, stroking the sides of her face as I reached for the spark I could barely see. "We were going to leave…"

"Taylor…" Vista's voice cracked. She took a deep breath and murmured, "I'm going to call for backup. Just…just don't move, okay? Oh my god, is that Coil? Is that who tranq'd me? Wait, Lisa? She's - I don't - no, no I need to call for backup." Vista bit down on her lip, her hands locking together as she visibly tried to force down her trembling. "Look, Braid, um, no one blames you for Sophia okay? We saw the video footage. There was a camera in the alley. Armsmaster found it and Dragon was able to get audio from Sophia's phone. We know that she attacked you - please don't go anywhere okay? I just - I'm going to…call for…help."

Vista reached up to her visor and flicked something. I didn't care. Lisa's spark wasn't fading anymore. Instead, as I fed it more and more of my essence the ember grew into a fire, and the fire into an inferno. The glow on the walls dimmed and my well was dropping at an alarming pace. It would be enough, the energy I had gotten from Coil was more than enough. A life for a life.

I kept stroking Lisa's hair, crying, and murmuring something too soft for even myself to hear. The inferno raging inside Lisa abruptly shifted. The tendrils of the fire split, racing down her limbs even as a significant portion of it surged up to the wound on her skull from the bullet.

My well was still partially overflowing when Lisa rocketed upright, coughing and spluttering, nearly colliding with my own head in the process.

"Jesus fuck!" Vista cursed, falling backward as she jumped all of the way back to the wall, barely managing to avoid cracking her head on the concrete walls. I just stared at Lisa, my tears not slowing, as a fragile grin spread across my face.

I had been right.

"Lisa? Are you…Did I…Are you real? Did it work?"

"Holy shit…Tay." She paused as more coughs wracked her frame. "Did...did you just Night of the Living Dead me?"

"Nerd," I murmured.

"Yeah, you win, I'm a nerd. Oh god, I am not mentally prepared for this." Lisa looked around the remains of the room, running her hand through her hair. Her eyes widened as her hand caught on the gore present there and she swallowed hard, her breath hitching and her hand shaking. "Vista? Are you alright?"

"You were dead." Vista's voice was trembling.

"Believe me, I…I am well aware of that," Lisa's voice didn't sound much more stable. But she was alive. That was what mattered. Her inferno sputtered. I frowned, reaching out to her and fed more essence into it even as she started coughing and wheezing.

The blaze stabilized and I drew back, her cough subsiding. "Better?"

"Yes. I don't want to ask, but I need to: is this - Taylor, is this permanent?" Lisa's eyes were wide as saucers and her hands were clinging tight to the remnants of the desk as she leaned against it for support.

"…It feels like you…should stabilize…soon?"

"Okay. Okay, we're in uncharted territory. Okay, whatever, I can be Lazarus. Oh boy. Alright, uh, Tay, can you sit back down? We should sit and wait for the PRT."

"Yes. Waiting for the PRT is good," Vista commented, not moving from her position on the wall. "Taylor, please sit down."

I started to move towards them before shouting sounded outside the door accompanied by banging. Vista's finger was shaking as she raised it to point towards the noise. "Who's outside?"

"We're in Coil's base. He's got a lot of mercs here, and the Travelers. Most are on-site right now, except for Sundancer," Lisa said, breathing deep. "I can try to tell them that their boss is dead. A lot of them might just leave."

"Why would any of them listen to you?" Vista asked, her back still plastered against the wall.

"Because I was dead and now I'm not?" Lisa asked. "Also, I'm Tattletale. Former Villain, now free agent. Resurrections, they're freeing, am I right! Granted I was splitting from my asshole boss before he killed me, but hell of a severance package, right?"

"What?" Vista asked, not moving.

"Hi. I'm Tattletale. The mercs might listen to me if I tell them they're not being paid and the Protectorate will scare off the Travelers. Taylor, please just…sit down." Lisa's voice was definitely trembling now. She was scared.

That wasn't acceptable.

I turned to the door, my fists clenched. "No."

"Taylor?" Vista whimpered.

I needed more essence if I was going to make sure that Lisa stayed alive. Not to mention that I needed to stay…strong afterwards. I needed to be able to protect the people I cared about. This could never happen again. If I was strong, I could get Vista out of this base. If I was strong, I'd be able to protect Lisa. If I was strong, I could get us out of the city myself. We could just…walk away.

These people were monsters, they deserved this.

Lisa tried to push herself to her feet, but had to catch herself on the desk as she almost fell back down. "Tay, whatever you're thinking, stop. Just, just stop. You don't have to be the biggest, baddest bitch around right now. You don't have to run. You don't have to leave Brockton. We can stay here, we can find your dad, make sure he's okay. I'm almost sure that Coil didn't get him. I promise, everything is going to be alright. Just please, sit down. Please."

"I just wanted to leave…Why won't they let me leave?" I whispered.

"Taylor please sit down."

"They deserve this."

"Taylor, you should listen to her," Vista whispered.

"Lisa, I'm going to stop them. I'm going to fix you. And then we're going to leave." My voice broke on the last word. And then I let the world speed up as I rushed to the door, once again moving too fast to see.

"Fuck! I'm empty!" Biff shouted, reaching behind him.

"Extra battery!" his partner Lenny yelled, slamming a new power pack into his hand. "Where is this guy?! I didn't sign up to be living in a damn horror movie! I can't even see him, he's moving so fucking fast!"

A shadow-flicker of movement crossed the balcony above them. "There!" Biff swung his rifle, shooting the tinker-tech beam through the grate.

Even as the grate lit up with blue light, the wall beside him indented and he was bathed in a golden glow. Biff tried to swing his rifle back down, not lifting his finger from the trigger. He had the briefest glimpse of the blood-soaked, dark-haired demon, as one of the demon's claws splayed across the back of Lenny. Then Lenny was falling to the ground, the demon was gone, and Biff's rifle was being torn out of his hands, taking one of his fingers with it.

Biff screamed, his voice hoarse and echoing back from the walls as the demon closed in on him. No. That wasn't a wall. The demon was directly in front of him, her hand thrusting towards him!

He tried to stumble back, but there was no time. In the span it took him to recognize that she was right there and the time to send the impulse to move, her hand had already smashed through his helmet's visor and covered his face.

Then everything went dark and Biff knew no more.

The gunshots were moving closer and closer to her cell. Francis obviously thought that she was stupid and deaf - or that the blast doors were going to stop the sounds from reaching them. Of course the vault wouldn't do anything. It all but helped her to hear things better. The vibrations through the material rattled through her horrific lower body and reverberated in her skull. The monster that had invaded was almost here.

Good.

Coil was probably dead already. She was never going to be healed. She'd fight whoever had taken her chance away, but if this person could frighten trained mercenaries like this, she didn't have much hope of surviving.

That was good too. Revenge was nice, but either way, the nightmare that had become her existence ever since that accursed vial was going to end. Either she would devour the entire city, and make the Triumvirate destroy her, or Coil's murderer would do it first.

Either way would be a relief.

I finished off the last of the smaller flames, glancing back towards Coil's office as the last mercenary fell at my feet. I could easily see the two twin blazes of Vista and Lisa. Lisa's fire was sputtering again, but it looked like I had at least another two or three minutes before I had to top her off again. The intervals had been growing longer as I finished off the men surrounding us. I'd have to be careful to keep my well overflowing for a few days at the rate that she was stabilizing, but it was doable.

There were always the dredges in Brockton, their sacrifice would be worth it.

Idly, I brushed against a plant as I walked towards the vault holding the last of the essence concentrations.

The plant died under my touch. The essence gain was minimal, but it was something. And that was important. I wouldn't necessarily have to kill anyone after today. Not unless they threatened my loved ones.

No, I would just have to start a garden. I liked gardening. Gardening was nice. Gardening was meditative.

The steel of the vault door crumpled like paper as I punched it. Reaching into the hole, I tore it wide, stretching the new doorway wide enough to fit myself through. Pieces of debris slammed into me, hard enough to rock me backwards a few inches, but not hard enough to even leave a bruise.

Scowling, I stopped fucking with widening my hole and just kicked the section in, the weakened part giving way entirely and flying off to embed into the wall across the way. As I ran into a new room, an eight foot tall gorilla tried to swipe at me. It missed by a mile.

I hissed at the gorilla projection. It wasn't alive, there was no essence in it, just a small thread linking back to…a red-headed girl slumped over in a wheelchair.

For a horrible second, it was Emma in that chair; and I froze.

Then I moved.

I knew it wasn't her. It couldn't be her. She didn't even look like Emma.

Sidestepping a punch from the gorilla, I caved in its chest with a jab of my own. It started dissolving almost before my fist left it.

More debris peppered my back. Turning, I caught sight of the man who was throwing things at me, his power accelerating them hard enough that I could feel them, even with my enhanced durability. He was desperately grabbing for more things from his pocket to throw at me. I wasn't going to let him hit me again. Just because it didn't hurt didn't mean I had time to deal with him.

He was working for Coil. He deserved this. As I jumped forward again, I suddenly found myself leaping into the wall of the vault instead of towards the man. Growling, I twisted, fully accelerating myself again. I had wanted to save as much essence as I could.

No more.

These 'Travelers' worked for Coil, and they wanted to fight. They were just as bad as him. They were just as bad as Sophia.

I spotted the debris thrower back where I had been standing as the world slowed to a crawl. Kicking off the ground and leaving dust in my wake, I bounded to him. One grab, and I tore the essence from his, drinking it in. His scream echoed just long enough that I could hear the distorted noise.

That's what you get for trying to shoot me. I jumped to the side to throw off the teleporter as I scanned the rest of the room. Besides the red-head, there was also a man who looked like a stylized magician, and a giant monster-thing. The monster-thing was agitated, gaping mouth yawning wide, tentacles waving for food to pull back to their maws.

I went for the teleporter first. He was the annoying one. As I latched onto his face, I slammed him into the ground, ripping the essence from him in one maneuver.

The red-head still hadn't resummoned her projection. If she stayed out of the fight from here, stayed unconscious, I might be able to let her live. If she tried to summon anything else though…I was getting Vista and Lisa out. I couldn't allow a threat to remain here until they were safe.

Stepping back, I looked fully at the monster-thing. The double blaze for this cape was different from the others. The others had a raging inferno, superimposed over another, deeper, brighter, inferno. This cape…her fire was not superimposed. It was almost two separate circulations; one through the human torso, one through the monster part.

Part of me didn't care about the difference. The other part, the far larger, far louder part, yelled that this was how we would keep a large enough reserve to watch over Lisa for a few days - without hurting anyone else or draining a forest dry.

Flickering forward, I laid my hand on the lower half, pulling on its essence.

The body bucked, quickly enough that I could feel it despite the dilation. There was a distorted scream of rage or pain from the human half, that I ignored. The monster portion was the threat, and the part that I needed. The tentacle-tongues tried to reach for me, but they couldn't keep up with my speed as I jumped over them, never letting my hand leave the main body of the thing. Only one got close enough to touch me, and I ripped it out of its mouth before it could coil itself around my waist. The creature bucked again, leaping to the side, and I jumped with it, never losing my contact.

The inferno dimmed, and dimmed, and dimmed. The tentacle-tongues died, none even having the strength to reach for me anymore. The monster section started to turn ashen and crumbled away. And still, the inferno was not dry.

The thing jumped one last time, sending us spinning around to face towards the back of the room. Its effort was futile. I needed its power and leaving it alive would be a threat to the people I cared about.

The final bounce had put the red-head back in my sights. She was awake now, her eyes wide as she stared at us. Mr. Spinster's cage was clutched in her lap, the hamster himself on the top.

He was still looking at me with approval.

The last of the inferno died, the girl attached to the monster falling at my feet, gasping for air. I reached down, pausing even as my hand clenched on her arm.

My well was already filled to bursting and she was…not a threat.

Slowing back to normal time, I leaned over the girl, my mouth inches from her face. "Did you attack my friend?"

"I don't know," the girl whispered. "I don't always know what the monster did. Thank you."

That wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to thank me.

"If you're going to finish us, finish us," the red-head whimpered. "We only ever wanted to help Noelle and get home. You helped her, even if you didn't mean to. The two you killed were the ones who kidnapped Vista, if that's who you're talking about. Please let us go."

"I'm taking my friends away from here," I snarled, my head snapping to her.

"We won't be a problem for you."

I glanced up, searching back the way I had come, unfocusing my eyes just enough to be able to find Lisa's blaze.

It was sputtering again. I didn't have any more time.

"If I see you again, you'll end up the same as them," I hissed, jerking my head towards the other two in the room. Before either could respond, I ran from the room and back to my girlfriend.

I had more than enough essence now to make sure she stabilized. More than enough to protect Vista until the PRT arrived, and then to get Lisa to safety.

I just needed to get her to safety. Then…then I could think about…everything…