After her first, disastrous by any definition, attempt to be a hero, Taylor was hardly keen on a repeat experience.
This didn't go down well with her predecessors, who provided her a lot of advice.
"Go to the Teeth."
"If I do it will be to bring them in."
"Go after Blasto."
"Bad idea, people would think she was trying to recruit a Tinker for the Teeth."
"Let the streets run red with the blood of the guilty!"
"Ignore him."
"Grab a proper costume."
"What's wrong with my current one?"
"It's just a bunch of regular clothing thrown together. It isn't what people expect from the Butcher!"
In fairness that last Butcher had a point.
Before she'd been confident in using her powers to avoid taking a hit, but the fight with Quarrel had shown the flaw with that.
She couldn't spend too long out of phase.
And now she was a Brute.
On one hand this meant she could take a hit, on the other her current costume couldn't and it would help make it clear she was, indeed, Butcher XV.
If she abandoned her old concept for a new outfit that could, potentially at least, serve as genuine protection, she could pass herself off as a new Cape who debuted after XV!
If she could just afford it.
The previous Butchers had, she was sure, a certain stockpile of cash that would be perfect (granted it was stolen, but she remembered something in the Wards handbook about independents being permitted to claim the ill-gotten gains of villains they beat so it definitely belonged to her now), but Quarrel had been less than forthcoming about where it was and Amazon either was hopeless at directions or was deliberately messing with her.
It was hard to tell which.
Leaving her to spend Saturday trying to figure out how to get a proper costume together without the PRT suspecting anything.
And then trying to sleep once more.
Being a Noctis Cape was irritating.
{}
Taylor woke screaming.
That dream - no, nightmare. Definitely nightmare.
She'd wanted to see her mother again since the accident, but not like that!
"What is it? What's wrong?"
For a moment Taylor just relaxed into the comforting voice, before remembering it was Butcher VI.
"A nightmare," she managed.
"About your vicious, unprovoked murder of the Butcher," Quarrel suggested, ignoring the fact that she was the one who attacked Taylor without provocation.
"No, it was mum. At first I was just happy to see her again, but then..."
"What a coincidence, I was just remembering our time together," Detonator said in a nostalgic tone.
There was a pause.
"Please don't think about her like that when I'm sleeping," Taylor managed. "Wait, are you still active when I'm sleeping?"
"Of course. Sleep is, at its heart, a biological function, and we don't have to worry about them any more."
"Then why was..." Taylor trailed off, not really wanting to put the matter into words.
"It's all about remembering the good times, how happy we were. Before he came along," VI stated, her tone becoming angry at the end.
"Riiigght," Taylor drew out. "Anyone know the time?"
"Eight. Time to get up."
There was another pause.
"Spotter, how the & # do you know that?"
"She's looking towards the clock."
{}
After dealing with the amusement from her not noticing she was looking at the clock when asking for the time (and of course getting dressed with her eyes closed) Taylor made her way to the PRT canteen for breakfast.
She couldn't quite understand how her predecessors convinced her, but somehow she ended up walking away from the counter with a much wider array of foods (and much fuller plate) than she was used to.
The idea of black pudding as a breakfast food was an odd one, even before placing it on the same plate as some waffles.
With her... unusual selection in hand it was time to find an empty table to eat at.
And of course it didn't take long for Bastion to come over.
The Wards had been the main ones to try and befriend her, with at least one showing up for every meal she ate (except at school. As far as she knew, actually, given the lack of unmasking).
She... tried to be friendly back, but with memories of Emma it... wasn't so easy.
And with what had happened just a couple of days ago, even that was a problem, with the added worry of them somehow realising she was Butcher.
But for Bastion, a member of the Protectorate, to see her...
She felt herself tense.
"There seems to have been a minor oversight in your case," he started without preamble.
That didn't sound good.
"Quick, stab him in the arm and run before he brings out the sedatives."
"We thought the Bay PRT had assigned you a Wards phone and they thought that was our job."
Maybe it wasn't a bad thing after all.
He placed the phone on the table.
"You've even got a message waiting for you already."
Oh, it wasn't good after all.
"Please tell me a member of the Teeth got your number already."
"Just remember not to get your personal and Ward phones confused."
"I don't have a personal phone," she responded automatically.
He frowned. "I'd suggest getting one. They make it a lot easier to contact your friends."
"What friends?"
She could no more have kept herself from her response than she could keep the bitterness out of her tone.
"Yes, nobody to upset when you start leading the Teeth!"
"I'd have gone with 'the Teeth will be your friends' myself."
Bastion frowned at her.
"Kindly avoid exaggerating with me. It would take considerable focused effort to ensure someone had no friends, and what reason could someone have for doing that to you?"
"I have no idea. Why don't you try asking the Wards responsible?"
She grabbed the phone and left, abandoning her remaining breakfast.
"No! My blood..."
{}
The walk back to her room was interrupted when she encountered the other Wards heading to breakfast themselves.
Taylor stepped aside, given that, as a group, it would be harder for them to make space.
Most walked by with little more than a nod or 'thanks', but Roulette paused.
"Are you alright Phase? You don't look too good."
"It's nothing," Taylor brushed her concerns away. "I just haven't been sleeping."
It clearly didn't satisfy Roulette entirely, but was enough for her to move on, letting Taylor continue on her way to her room to check her phone.
{}
The message was, as she'd expected, from Hess. Or rather Shadow Stalker.
What gives? U should be thanking me! Y getting me punished?
The impression she'd got when she entered the Bays Ward common area was right.
For some reason Hess actually expected Taylor to thank her for putting her through hell on earth.
"So it's agreed, we're taking down the Bay PRT."
For once Taylor couldn't bring herself to protest her predecessors suggestion.
{}
Sophia was fuming.
After everything she did for Taylor the brat got her in trouble with Piggy!
Well, that was the last time she was doing something for the friend of a friend.
It was so logical.
People wanted to be Capes.
Taylor was one of these people.
Normally this wouldn't mean anything, but Emma was Sophias friend, and Taylor was Emmas friend, so she needed to help.
It took the most traumatic experience someone could imagine to Trigger as a Cape.
Therefore it was clear what Sophia had to do.
The nicest thing she could do for Taylor was make her a Cape, and so she dedicated her valuable time to traumatising Taylor as badly as possible to make her Trigger.
And all out of the kindness of her heart!
Well no more.
She would wait out the probation Hebert had gotten them, and then she would discover just why it was such a bad idea to piss Sophia off.
Of course, if Emma hadn't convinced her to 'volunteer' for the Wards and had been forced in on probation she'd probably be in juvie like Piggy had threatened rather than just under constant supervision and on all the punishment details, so she'd have to do something nice for Emma.
Just... something that wouldn't backfire on them like Hebert.
{}
"I think the only way we could figure out why this 'SS' acts like this is ask another psychopath," Dodger suggested.
"Fine, I'll bite. Which of you can shed some light on her thought process?"
"VII."
"VII for sure."
"Sev."
There was total agreement between eleven Butchers, the original and Spotter abstaining while VII launched another rant about them all being psychopaths and any except him could tell her.
Or something.
Taylor didn't exactly bother paying any attention. It wasn't like he said anything new.
"While I agree he can probably understand her thought process," she said instead, " I highly doubt we could convince him to explain."
"Agreed."
"So any of you who can understand her thinking and also explain it?"
There was a pause.
"Nope."
She sighed. "You're all just having fun at my expense aren't you?"
" she figured it out."
"Really guys," VI complained. "We get a sane host for the first time in... I don't even know how long and you act like this?"
"Better than you did with VII."
"You're just saying that because you've decided she's your daughter."
"Noooo," VI drew out in an unconvincing denial. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Taylor sighed. "If you're all done mocking each other how about coming up with a useful suggestion for what to do so I can go out as an independent hero without being hunted down immediately?"
"You could try finding a part-time job the PRT won't complain about," Fester suggested. "Or maybe, and this is just a while, completely out there idea. You have... homework due tomorrow."
Taylor froze.
She did indeed have homework she had set aside for Saturday, only for the run in with Quarrel to disrupt those plans.
"Shit."
She dove into her bag, digging out the books she needed.
"Ah, history. Now remember, Cook discovered America in nineteen hundred and..."
Omake: Taylors alternative history
Things weren't going too well for Taylor in her history lesson.
As it turned out her predecessors distractions while doing her homework had affected her work, and she hadn't caught it all.
And now the teacher was reading out her essay to the class.
"And finally Taylor tells us that Franklin built the worlds first mecha to otherthrow the tyranny of Washington!"
He paused.
Taylor braced herself.
"At last someone else who knows the truth, rather than lets themself be deceived by the lies of the mainstream media!"
... This wasn't what Taylor had expected.
"Holy **** this guys nuttier than VII," a Butcher muttered, getting quiet agreement from the other fourteen.
One of Taylors classmates leant over towards her. "How did you know writing something like that would get you a perfect grade from him for the rest of the year? I thought the school was pretty good about hushing the run in between Teach and that Mod Master."
"I didn't. I was tired and had a bunch of idiots messing around distracting me."
AN: Good news people, because of not getting the time to do what I want to instead of working on one of my older stories I'm updating this one again!
... to be clear, I write both of my Worm fics on my phone, so not getting time at home doesn't decrease the time I can spend working on them.
In any case, when I mentioned about everyone trying to do the right thing for Taylor I'm betting nobody thought Psycho Stalker would be one of them! What a twist, am I right?
And to be clear with the omake, the Master is a reference to Mad Mod from Teen Titans. Even if I didn't write that clearly. But then, it's better to make sure the actual chapter is well written than the extra, right?