AN: Next Chapter! I'm happy people like my little project so far! Some more violence, some more talking. Some racism. You know how it is. I experimented a bit with more than just Taylor as a first person view, don't know yet if I am happy about it or not. It feels inconsistent. Will maybe change things next chapter, we will see. If you find mistakes, point them out! I try to fix em, even if I don't reply to the review itself. Edit: I thought my warning about racism was obvious enough, but people pointed out that it maybe isnt, so: RACIAL SLURS IN THIS CHAPTER
Chapter 15
Victoria Dallon
I had known that Taylor was not as harmless as she appeared on first glance. Not that she looked very harmless to begin with, hidden behind her power armor and heavy weapons. A part of me had wanted to consider her talk about intentional killing nothing more than simple bluster.
But I am not stupid.
And my caution was warranted, if PHO was to be believed, then she had already killed both ABB parahumans. I had wanted to befriend her. Both because she was a new cape and because she looked lonely, in a way. And if I could curb her more violent tendencies while doing so, then it would be a win-win-win situation. A new hero, a new friend to tease and Victoria Dallon saving the day!
And only hours later she maimed Empire capes in broad daylight, before killing Lung.
Mom had already judged the situation of course, and was now openly working on getting Taylor sent to the Birdcage. And she was not wrong in what she told us; somebody that kills so easily and quickly is not only a danger in the general sense. Brockton Bay did not need another big gang-war.
The City had had so many of those already – not that I can remember them myself. Luckily.
It would have been so easy to condemn her. But I had met her personally beforehand, and she did not seem like a bad person. Maybe I am too bad at judging people? Biased? But no, that would be something I could accept, if not for the fact that Amy had defender her.
Amy never defended people! And she had not even met Taylor! My sister had become more and more standoffish with Mom (or "Carol", she never called her mom) after the bank robbery, but something had obviously pushed her close to the breaking point.
So now Amy was grounded in her room, Mom was on a warpath, and I was unsure who was in the right and who was in the wrong. And I could not even call Taylor and ask her what the fuck she was doing either! She was obviously not at home, and she told me she had only the landline.
Even if she had bought a phone, I was scared that me calling her while she was of raiding some villains hideouts would distract her. Mom had also forbidden me from contacting her, but it's not like Taylor would attack me through the call or something. I had to talk to her. Maybe I would take Amy with me and visit her in person too, I wanted the full story.
So instead of taking action immediately, I was sort of being a good girl and staying put. I was also looking for hints on PHO if Taylor was on her way home. The last base had been pretty big – I had never imagined that a 5 star place like that was hiding a villains lair beneath?! - so I was confident she would arrive home quite quickly.
And then we would have a much needed talk.
Taylor Hebert
I really hoped I could end this quickly.
They had already hit me multiple times in quick succession and were not letting up at all. I had no idea if they were able to chew through my armor with enough time, but I had no desire to test it.
The most dangerous of the bunch was the girl chucking cars and debris at me, but she was also sadly not stupid. After my first volley on the albino man, she had taken further cover, only showing herself when the others distracted me. I could probably flatten her with some more firepower, but I didn't want to.
Not only would I risk anyone in the buildings close to her, she also seemed quite young, younger than me at least. I had no desire to kill a child. It made me uneasy and the backlash would be immense for sure. Only idiots tried to actually kill the Wards for that very reason. Idiots like Hookwolf.
In theory I would probably be a Ward too if I worked for the government, but I was obviously a bit of a special case. A shockwave that snapped my head back reminded me that stopping to think in a battle was stupid.
First things first: Taking care of Stormtiger and his fucking air-blades and shockwaves. Cricket was too fast for me to reliably hit and she was also not a real danger. The nausea she created was a lot weaker than I imagined it would be. Maybe because of my suit. Stormtiger on the other hand had enough power to move me around, so if he stopped being stupid he could actually hurt me. Before I could take action against him, he moved himself.
Instead of being sensible and using their superior numbers to wear me down, he engaged me into close combat.
My honest bafflement slowed me down until he got an actual hit in, leaving deep furrows in my armor. Snapping out of it, I blocked his second swing, arresting his movement with my gloved hand. Holding his forearm, I gave a quick jerk. His pained gasp and breaking bones could be heard clearly, if only for a moment. Then I let my chainsaw howl. And brought it down.
Stormtiger was not actually a brute. That revelation came as a shock. I had been fully prepared for some sort of healing factor, a stronger body, unbreakable bones. Something similar to what Hookwolf had. Because why else would you fight someone in power-armor, while being bare chested?
Instead he simply… died. There was a bit of resistance around his rib-cage, but it took the same effort as sawing through a weak demon did. It was loud, messy, and over immediately.
Huh. Well, I was not complaining.
Taking another one of Crickets attacks to the back, I swapped my chainsaw to my cannon with an annoyed grunt. She was fast, but I doubted she would be able to dodge a full magazine. Before I could put that theory to the test, another fucking car rammed me.
Snarling, I turned, only to get a face full of white dude. He had discarded his pistols and was instead trying to stab me with a thin knife. His face was not relaxed anymore, instead I got confronted by a hateful snarl. Blowing him up point blank, I tried to get to the car throwing bitch. But only a few moments later, the pale asshole was healthy again and making a nuisance of himself. Again.
I sawed through him. He flickered back to his pristine condition. I ripped his head of. He flickered. I beat him to death with his own fucking arm AND HE. JUST. CAME. BACK.
How do I kill that fucking Nazi?!
No matter the wound, he refused to stay down. He was more of a nuisance than a real threat of course, but my inability to put him down for good still infuriated me. At least he was not as hard to hold as Hookwolf.
Another shower of gore, another flicker that vanished any evidence of injuries.
Instead of just using further brute force, I became more methodical in my approach. I was pissed off, but mindless violence was not making me succeed. So I started testing things. The flicker happened in regular intervals. Always a handful of seconds (4.3 to be exact, as Vega told me). He was also manually activating it, I was pretty sure. If I "missed" him for a few attacks, he did not flicker even after six or seven seconds.
He did also not flicker the moment I wounded him, he used his power the moment he noticed I had hit him.
So not only did he feel no pain – which was obvious – but he could also delay his power as much as he wanted. Could I kill him if he did not use it at all? A pointless thought; he would not make it that easy for me.
Frowning I ripped his head off and dared a quick glance towards the throwing enthusiast (Rune I think?). It had been a while since a car came crashing towards me. Ah, Tattletale was keeping her busy. I had no idea how she had gotten over there, but I was both glad and annoyed by it.
Glad, because she gave me some space this way, annoyed because using heavy weapons was completely out of the question now. Not that blowing up the whole city block would have been a good idea, but I liked having the option to do it, you know?
Swatting away a stiletto trying to punch through my visor, I blew up the albinos stomach in retaliation. He flickered back again, not even hesitating for a moment. So the heart was no weak-point either.
Tattletale was in a rough spot now, being harried by both Cricket and the other cape. She was somehow mostly holding her own, but I still forced Cricket away from her with a sharp burst of bullets. Better safe than sorry. I took a stab to the back for it, but the attack bounced off.
"Maybe you need to lethally hurt him immediately after he resets?" Vega suggested, turning my mind back on track. "I am already killing him as fast as I can.", I answered truthfully. But I still needed at least a second to injure him again. He was fighting back after all.
"Well, how about you just force him to stay in one, continuous attack?" I did not get what he meant at first, but he quickly clarified. Feeling stupid – and unsure if I wanted this to work, because it was a bit too simple – I kicked the albino away from me.
Another quick spray of bullets disrupted Tattletales fight, then I took my chainsaw and brought it down on the white Nazi. He ignored it, of course, still searching for a way to actually damage me. Then he realized that I was not sawing through him. That was the first time he showed another emotion than anger and hate.
Keeping my chainsaw in his chest, I followed his movements as he tried to dislodge me. He flickered once. Wounds closed and got immediately reopened around the roaring blade. His escape attempts became frantic. The villain was trying to get me to carve through his chest sideways by accident. He failed of course.
A second flicker.
A torrent of insults spewed out of his mouth, about my family, my possible love interests, my heritage, my religion (not that I was religious) and on and on. He obviously wanted to piss me off enough so I made him shut up, hopefully freeing him in the process.
A third flicker.
His energy seemed to bleed out abruptly. It was quite shocking, to be honest. Sluggish and weak, he desperately tried to dislodge me. Then he stilled.
There was no fourth flicker. Alabaster was no more.
I ripped my weapon out of his body with a satisfied grunt and nearly sawed Tattletale in half. Surprised I mustered her, after I looked over her shoulder to where she had fought the other capes.
They were gone.
"You look like shit." I told her bluntly. I was not exaggerating either. Her borderline swagger was nowhere to be found. The vulpine grin replaced by a grim, pained smile. Her skintight outfit had rips and tears, and a long gash on her leg, bleeding slowly. She had a limp too. "I feel like it too.", she replied. No playfulness at all in her tone. I did not like seeing Lisa like this, I realized.
"Well, at least you are not dead, right?" My attempt to cheer her up sounded stupid the moment it left my mouth. I was no good at this, so instead I immediately turned to business again. "What happened? I was distracted for a moment." Lisa nodded, having expected as much.
"It got dicey at the end, so I tried to take Rune hostage. Her being there was the only reason Cricket did not murder me in seconds. Then she noticed what you were doing to Alabaster." My sorta-friend frowned. "I think she wanted to help, but got orders to flee. She did not seem happy at all. So she stabbed me and they flew off." That sounded a bit weird.
"You had Rune at gunpoint and she stabbed you anyways?" A terse nod. "She was banking on me not willing to kill a young girl in cold blood, I am pretty sure. At least not as long as she didn't go for a lethal attack on me.", she explained.
"Well, they may have a headstart, but I am fed up with the Empire randomly attacking me." It was bad enough that Dad had to stay at the Fortress, alone with only Vega as some kind-of company. I wanted to get to the point where he could live his life again, to be honest.
If I had to wipe out everyone that would disrupt that idea, then so be it.
"What about Coil?" Tattletale pulled me out of my thoughts. "Wasn't he your priority?" On one hand, she had a point. But on the other hand, Coil lost most of his power base already. He was no big threat right now. The Empire still had more than enough Capes overrun the rest of the City, especially after I took out their competition. Not that they seemed happy with me.
"Yeah, and he is still a target. But we have his civilian identity, which he doesn't know. And we broke his power base. The Empire is a more direct threat." She obviously disagreed. "Exactly because he is so weak right now and we have the advantage is why we should deal with him now. Before he recovers or goes silent." Her vehemence surprised me.
"How much of that is your actual reasoning? I feel like you have some ulterior motives here." She rolled her eyes behind the mask. "Of course I have an ulterior motive, I hate the bastard and I am afraid that this is going to become an endless chase. I will better only after we put a bullet in his head. Or a dozen."
I understood her sentiment, I really did, but I really doubted the Empire would take the losses of two more capes lying down. "If we stumble over where Coil is hiding, we can make a detour to take care of him. But otherwise the Empire is the target for now, until they back off." Lisa was not happy about my decision, but she didn't argue further.
Maybe this was a bit damaging to our relationship, but friends fighting sometimes was normal, right? It had been a while. And I would not allow someone to just walk over me. Never again. "Good. Then let us hunt some Nazis."
Emily Piggot
"She did what?!" With an angry snarl, the heavyset woman slammed her fists down on her desk. Enough was enough. She had stopped her men from interfering in the public destruction of a villains hideouts with some difficulty. Especially after Hookwolf was confirmed dead. And now that stupid, stupid girl had killed two more capes in broad daylight.
Capes that were members of the biggest gang in the city! They had to act now! Not only would the Empire probably start a war over this, the population was quite confused why the new girl in power armor had seemingly some sort of immunity.
Both the cape and normal population at that.
No, this would stop now. Open warfare in her city? Over her dead body. No, not even then! "Bring me Armsmaster!" Fuck Costa-Browns orders! If she didn't do something, there would be no city in a week!
Taylor Hebert
Tracking the fleeing capes was a lot less difficult than I thought it would be. To be fair, their method of transportation – an upturned, flying car – was not very inconspicuous. They left a trail of curious people in their wake, even though it had started raining a few minutes ago. By simply shouting "Where did they go?" we got a lot of fingers pointed in the correct direction. And yet we did not catch them.
Why?
Well, they had a decent speed, but that was not the problem. Lisa had slowed us down at first, before I simply carried her piggyback, ignoring her offended squawking. No, our speed was fine. The problem was the heavy motorcycle appearing on our left, which cut us off from further pursuit. Armsmaster, his blue power armor glinting readied his halberd and barked a single command at us.
"You are under arrest!"
I can't say I was surprised, I had been wondering where there heroes had disappeared to. Especially after Miss Militia had given me such a clear warning the first time we met. The timing was awful though, I had no desire to stop and lose the trail of the Nazis. It did not look like he would take "no" for an answer, unfortunatly. Would I attack a hero, simply because they were in my way?
Before I could decide either way, the odds rapidly worsened. Two black vans stopped with screeching tires, emptying their cargo into the street. A man in red body armor, a woman in a dark grey costume, decorated with blue power lines, a man with a golden lion helm and finally a man in white and gold armor, spear and shield in hand. A familiar face with a green revolver in her hand was the last to appear.
Assault and Battery, Triumph, Dauntless, Miss Militia and Armsmaster of course. Wasn't I special?
"Stand down please, Taylor." Miss Militia requested. "I am afraid your recent actions make it necessary for us to bring you in." What was this day? First getting jumped by the Empire, not getting jumped by the Protectorate, who comes next? The Triumvirate? Yeah, no, fuck this.
They had feigned a mostly relaxed and calm air, but the moment my heavy cannon appeared in my hands, they all tensed in barely a fraction of a moment. Those were professionals, and the heavy hitters to boot. "Please do not force us to escalate Taylor. You will not win this, you know that!" For trying to be such a hardass to me in my own home, Miss Militia sounded really pleading there.
"So this is how it is? You don't lift a finger when I am the one being ambushed, but the moment I try to take matters into my own hand, you send six heroes to stop me?!" Well, they had not stopped me from blowing up Coils bases, but I was still very unhappy with them.
"You keep murdering people in broad daylight and expect us to just sit back and do nothing?" Triumph bit out, the Lion emphasizing his angry snarl even more. "I am happy that we finally get to bring you in!"
"Yeah, because the gangs doing the murdering at night is so much better?!" I spit back, just as angry. No that was a lie, I could feel my temper already surging far beyond what most would consider reasonable. I had not been truly challenged in a while, I was itching to make this delusional snob shut up.
It was so typical, the high and mighty never gave a single shit about you, until you were making waves. And then you were the bad guy they had to put back in their place. Just like Blackwell had done to me, no like Emma had done to me; Blackwell just enabled her. Stupid righteous, arrogant-
Tattletales hand suddenly resting on my arm stopped me from simply charging in like I desperately wanted to.
"Think about the consequences that doing this would mean Taylor.", she told me softly. "Do not act too hasty here." I turned to her, hands balled to fists.
"You think I can't take them?!" I had seen her afraid of me before, and her eyes betrayed her nervousness. But she stood firm.
"You may be able to, I have not seen you go all out yet. But you took down Lung, who took down the Protectorate, so maybe. But that is not what I am talking about." She gestured at the heroes, that had used the time to surround us and were obviously listening in. "Even if you take them down, you just strengthen the gangs this way."
"And? We are hunting the gangs either way."
She massaged her temples and gave a tired shake of her head. "Yeah, but if you do this, the next group of heroes coming to stop you will be the Triumvirate. That alone would make you public enemy number one. And I have no idea who else would take offense." She gave me a pointed look.
Contessa. Right, she may be even more dangerous than the Triumvirate. Going over my options like this, in a calm and rational manner soothed my temper without me being aware of it. I would still not go with them without a fight, but being the aggressor always looks bad.
Before the standoff could be solved in any way though, a shockwave nearly knocked me on my ass.
My first thought was that the heroes were fed up with waiting, but they were in similar disarray. The dull boom of another explosion going off in the rain cut off the confused questions by everyone. And another. And another.
Someone was trying to bomb Brockton Bay into a crater!
Cricket
"What do you mean pull back?! The stupid bitch killed three of our own and you just roll over like a fucking pussy?!" She knew challenging Kaiser like this was not the smart thing to do, but she was furious. Their plan had been shit; nobody told her that the stupid power-armor made the girl nearly impossible to hurt for them!
What was the point of having a big, fanned out hunt for a cape, if nobody hunting could actually threaten the target?! Hookwolf failing was a pretty big red flag, in hindsight.
"We are not giving up on our revenge. The girl will pay. But this time we will make sure that she stays down. The ABB is being a good smokescreen for us right now, pull back and regroup.", came the cold voice over the phone. "I will forgive your outburst because of the situation, but that will be your only warning." he added.
"You better fucking deliver this time or I am going to ask someone else for help!", the former pit fighter spat back. "Maybe Purity would be a more competent leader now that you somehow got her back!"
The call disconnected. With an angry scream, Cricket stomped on the flying hunk of metal, making Rune curse. If this didn't work, she would ditch Kaiser and his fucking Empire and do it solo!
Taylor
"What do you mean I am under house arrest?!", I asked incredulous. "Are you really just stopping me from helping and wasting your time on this bullshit instead of stopping whoever is doing this?"
Armsmaster was unmoved. "We cannot trust you to act responsibly in this situation. Return to your home and stay there, we will address these issues afterwards." Yeah no, I would not sit idly by while someone was playing terrorist. Especially not because someone that wants to arrest me told me to!
"Yeah no, I will help the people, fuck this." I turned to Tattletale. "Can I drop you off somewhere and you use your powers to help from there?" Armsmaster stepping forwards interrupted her reply. He was trying to threaten me into submission.
"If you do not listen, we will have to stop you.", he warned. "Please be reasonable." I pointed at the others. To their credit they looked unsure about that, but they were still not helping civilians. "Are you really going to use most of your firepower to stop me from helping? Instead of helping yourself? How would that look, huh?"
"You could be working together with the bomber.", he argued back weakly. The moment he said it I was sure he realized how far-fetched that sounded. Ignoring him, I let Lisa climb on my back again and just walked outside of the loose circle the heroes had made, daring them to stop me. Daring them to waste their time on me instead of helping.
They didn't.
Picking up speed, I followed Lisa's directions to her apartment, sometimes stopping to help people being stuck in debris, the remains of cars or similar. My solutions were quick and dirty – I simply ripped the offending objects away with brute force – but just continuing without lifting a finger was not an option.
The scenery was that of a depressing movie. A scene like the aftermath of an artillery strike. The grey facade of the city, drenched in rain and rubble. Accompanied by further dull booms in the distance. The culprit was spacing out the explosions, so that every moment something went up in flames.
And not only flames too. A few of the remains looked quite different from the usual craters. Colorful fire was still gnawing on some of the remains. Metal spikes were stuck into the ground, like a giant rain of arrows had fallen. Bodies burned and broken, or charred and liquefied. I had done similar things to the demons of course, it had been fun too, but the fact that those disgusting remains had been human only a short time ago?
That was not something I liked. At all.
I was happy when Lisa told me her apartment was just around the corner, because my rage was growing higher and higher. I nearly made her legs bruise in my grip without noticing. Things just kept piling up, up up UP!
Her apartment was a nice, cozy place, but I did not have the eyes for that. "You are going to work together with my associate Vega. Keep me posted. I want to know who is doing this and where I have to look for them.", I gave curt orders, watching Tattletale scrambling for a laptop.
I waited a few seconds until Vega confirmed that he had established a connection somehow, then I left hastily. While I was waiting for information I could still help some poor civilians.
And as soon as I knew where to go? Whoever the sick fuck behind this was, they would regret it.
Kaiser
The meeting had been called in record time. In all his time on the scene – both serving under is father and being the leader himself – never had the different groups of the bay reacted that quickly.
It had been only a couple of hours since the first bombs had hit, and already every major group had heeded the call for a major gathering. The Empire, Coil, the Merchants, Faultline – everyone with good firepower was here. Well, not that Coil had much left. And not like the Merchants were accepted as a Major gang either… Nonetheless, they were still fourteen capes in attendance.
An insane amount of firepower for something that wasn't an Endbringer fight or other S-Class threat.
That Coil was actually here in person, and not a body double, just showed how desperate the man was. Especially because he had capes posturing for him that had not been confirmed as being under his command beforehand. The smoke-generator, the circus freak and a man in power-armor.
Kaiser snorted in amusement; even greatly diminished Coil still had more capes than the Merchants did. Not that those helped him in any way to defend himself from getting kicked out of his base. The leader of the Empire himself had only his two Valkyries standing guard behind him, the Empire had no need to bring more firepower. It was a statement that even with their losses they were still the strongest.
"I have called this meeting for a very specific reason, one that concerns us all, even if you may not realize that.", Kaiser started, and got immediately interrupted by the leader of the Merchants.
"Why should we care that the Asian cunts are blowing up some shit? They haven't hit us yet.", the black man sneered, fouled teeth on display. His sort-of girlfriend Squealer nodded in agreement. Her expression was supposed to look serious, but she gave the impression of a retarded and sky-high chipmunk instead. Not that she realized that.
"And because of your stupidity and disgusting manners your… organization will never be more than a drugged up shithole. I was not talking about the ABB's disruptive behavior. To the contrary, their actions are to our benefit right now." That last statement may have been a bit too much, he realized. Faultline's Crew and Coils capes did obviously disagree with the sentiment of calling a terrorist bombing "beneficial." Well, too late now.
At least Coil himself seemed to agree, which was expected.
"You are talking about the newest cape on the scene, the girl in power-armor that does not care about her civilian identity. Taylor Hebert." The thin man said with a nod. "Am I correct in the assumption that you wish for us to work together to stop her?"
Before Kaiser could agree, the three Merchants gave a disgusting holler of enjoyment. "You are just butt-hurt that she came in and assfucked both of you! And you call yourself better than us! worthless losers!" Skidmark gave a nasty mix of a snort and a laugh.
"Do you really think she will stop with the Empire? You will be the next to be 'assfucked', I can assure you. Stopping her now just makes common sense.", the white supremacist pointed out, suppressing his desire to smash that niggers face in. He needed them, even just as cannon fodder. He had no intention of losing more Empire capes.
"The last and only time the villains in Brockton Bay closed ranks was against the Slaughterhouse Nine. Are you really comparing a teenager to that group? Putting them on the same level?" Faultline asked with a lazy smile. "That is just sad."
Coil turned towards the mercenaries. "She will become a problem to you too in time. She is unhinged and dangerous, has no care for rules or unspoken lines. Not stopping her as quickly as possible would be foolish." The snake-man was usually a lot more composed, it looked like the attacks on him had left him more rattled than he was admitting.
"Nah, not interested. We do not take jobs in our home-city if we can avoid it. You know that. Not our problem.", the gun for hire replied.
"I double your usual rates." Coil offered. Seeing that she was not impressed, he pushed further. "Triple. Quadruple. Name your price."
"That sounds real tempting and all.", Faultline mused. "And that would probably be a good deal, to be fair. But how stupid do you think we are? You are broke. You could offer a hundred times the money; its pointless if you can't pay up anyways. I am just here to keep up to date." Kaiser did not miss the quick glances Circus and Chariot gave their employer. Seems like they were not aware of how hard Coil had been hit.
Grue on the other hand was not surprised at all.
"I would pay you five times your rate for this.", the Nazi offered. But Faultline had never once taken a job from the Empire, so he doubted it would work this time. Just as expected she shook her head. "We are professionals, so we do not interfere with your people. But I refuse to be paid by a Nazi like that, apologies."
"That bitch seems to be hot shit if the big guys are pushing so hard to get her fucked up.", Skidmark commented. "We are willing to help. For a price." His black teeth made a smug smile. "I am sure you will be generous, right?" Kaiser gnashed his teeth, but nodded. This was too important. I hope you disgusting vermin are the first to die.
There was always a silver lining.
AN: Next time Taylor will meet some more capes! Friendly and not so friendly ones... Until then!
