Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor
I woke up in the morning feeling great. My circuits were fully healed, I'd slept through the night, and honestly, I'd been having a great week. Over the weekend I'd taken down Lung and saved Armsmaster's life. It was official, I was a proper, full-fledged Superhero. I'd gotten an earful about rushing in recklessly from Dad when we'd gotten home and I'd had to stay home the rest of the weekend, but it was worth it. Lisa had called the next morning, saying she'd seen the news and offering congratulations while Vicky had actually come over and shown me a Youtube video-apparently, someone had gotten footage from a security cam that was on the street and it went viral.
Even going back to school on Monday hadn't been bad. Something had changed: nobody messed with me or even paid the slightest bit of attention to me, except for one nasty look from Sophia on Monday and Greg trying to approach me one day after world issues but I slipped away so I don't know what that was about.
After my morning exercises, a routine of stretching and breathing that Opal had turned me onto a few months ago, saying it was good for my circuits, I took my shower and got ready for school. It was Friday, I was having a good week, I had a weekend of crime fighting ahead of me… Today was gonna be a great day.
I found Opal in the living room. Dad was nowhere to be seen, he'd said something about having to head into work early today.
"Princess," Opal said to me when I caught her attention, "last night, while I was running an errand, I saw one of the cretins from the school-"
"Don't care," I dismissed.
"...You… Don't?" Opal seemed honestly baffled.
"No," I explained, "I mean, I'm a hero now. A full-fledged, official Superhero. I can't obsess over high school bullies, I've got bigger fish to fry. Besides, they seem to be backing off. I mean, the shit they did with my locker was horrific, but that was months ago and it's not like they shoved me in or anything. Obsessing over it when I've got more important things to worry about is just going to hurt me, so I've decided not to let them get me down anymore. I don't care about them anymore." I didn't
Opal hmmed. "I suppose, but this is… Are you sure you don't want to know?"
"I'm sure," I said with a smile. Soon after, Opal was in my hair and we were on our way to school.
The trip was mostly uneventful, with nothing to distract me other than Opal being unusually squirmy today, but she didn't say anything. On the bus ride, I took out a notebook and worked on magical theory. I couldn't quite remember everything about magecraft that I gained when I installed Caster, Lancer, or Assassin but I'd used Caster and Lancer often enough that I was starting to pick some things up. Combining a few runes and characters that I didn't quite understand but knew the mystical effect of with a bit of basic understanding I could half remember from Assassin. I think I was getting decently close to a binding spell I could use without Installing.
I got off at my stop and made my way to the school, head held high for the first time in a long while. It was a little early, with people just starting to head to lockers or to the cafeteria for a cheap, school provided breakfast. I was on my way to my locker when I was grabbed and pulled into a janitor's closet.
The next thing I knew, I was pinned up against the wall with Sophia Hess's face dangerously close to mine. It felt like something awkward was about to happen, and I really hoped it wouldn't because if it turned out that the psychobitch was psycho for that reason, I'd probably become violently ill.
"Fight me, Bitch," was all Sophia said.
"...What?" Honestly, I couldn't even begin to comprehend why she'd go from just abuse to outright picking fights.
"I know you're Princess, Hebert," Sophia explained.
"I don't know what-"
"You don't wear a mask," Sophia interrupted, "I'm not fucking stupid."
God Damn it, Opal. "So, if you know I'm a Cape, then why are trying to pick a fight?" Did she have a death wish or something?
"There are two kinds of people in the world, Hebert," Sophia said. "There's the strong, who fight and do whatever they want to whoever they want, and there are little bitches who are too weak to fight back who just sit there and take what the strong do to them unless they get uppity, then they get broken down and shown their place." She was showing an awful lot of teeth for someone who wasn't smiling. "You've been going around acting like a sick deer in a den of wolves, and then you go out and take down fucking Lung? You must be a fucking fraud because if you were that strong you'd have started fighting back a long time ago." She then punched me in the stomach and started talking again. "And then you spend the next fucking week walking around like you own the fucking place. I don't care what happens next, someone's gotta put you back in your place."
I could actually hear Opal whine a bit. ...No, fuck this. I wasn't going to let Sophia ruin things now that they were finally going well for me.
I pulled my arm from Sophia's grasp. "Look, if I go fight people like Lung, I'm a hero. I pick a fight with you, I go to prison for using my powers to attack a civilian. And you? You're not worth it."
"The fuck you say?"
"I can fly," I said, "and you can't. It's a freedom that a baby psychopath like you will never know, flying like that," I smiled. "And nothing you can do, no blows against me, no harsh words or mean looks, can take the sky from me. I'm not going to risk going somewhere where I won't be able to fly over what? Petty vengeance against a High School bully? Like I said, you're not worth it."
I managed to twist around and get behind her. "If you want to fight me so bad, come back when you're a wanted felon. Knowing you, it won't be long."
And then I left the closet and continued on my way, while Sophia screamed in impotent rage. It drew some stares, but I paid them no mind.
The day went on from there as normal. Well, no, not normal. Normal was awful, this was just bland, which was infinitely better than normal. For the most part, I was left alone and that was perfect.
Until lunch. After a week of nothing bad happening and my new resolution to not let the bitches bring me down, I decided to try eating lunch in the actual cafeteria.
And then I was grabbed, yet again, and dragged into an empty classroom. There was Sophia again. I didn't even give her the chance to say or do anything, I just pulled myself loose from her grip, used my foot to push one of her own legs out from under her, and then hurried from the room.
Seconds later, something ghosted through the wall. I was engulfed and surpassed by a dark, shadowy figure with bones visible beneath translucent shadow skin. The wraith solidified into Sophia, who decked me in the face and knocked me to the floor.
"Gonna fight me now, Princess?" Sophia was Shadow Stalker. And she'd just outed us both in the middle of a hallway full of students. "...FUCK!" Sophia glared at me, as though it were somehow my fault.
Opal had fallen out of my hair and was now floating just off the ground, just to my right. "...This is what I was trying to tell you this morning, Princess."
I could hear other students starting to chatter. "Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker?" "Did she just say that Hebert was Princess?" "That kind of looks like Princess' scepter thing." "I am so getting unbanned from PHO after this."
I grabbed Opal and muttered "trance," instantly shifting into my transformed state. There was no point in preserving my identity at this point anyway. I then grabbed my backpack and took off flying down the hall, above students' heads. If Sophia wanted a fight this bad, then there was no way that I was going to talk the psychopath down. That meant I had to either get away from her or at least get out of the school and away from kids who could be caught in the crossfire-Winslow's students and staff were a bunch of worthless fucks and I'm pretty sure a third of them are in the gangs, but that doesn't mean I could put them in danger by fighting the bitch here.
"Get your ass back here, you pussy!" Sophia was hot on my trail. In the corner of my eye, I could see her trailing me, using her shadow form to glide over or through students that were in her way.
My first instinct was to head for the front door, but there were too many students in the way, I wouldn't be able to make a clean exit and trying to force my way through would just open me up for an attack. So I made a sharp turn down another hall. I think there was a back access, and if not well, if I was lucky I could get up a stairwell with roof access.
I noticed some students were actually following Sophia and I, one with a phone out, which was just, just perfect, really. I tried not to let them distract me and… damn, too many kids in front of the stairwell. Okay, okay, that just meant I had to-Dodge left because Sophia had thrown someone's textbook at me. Keep going, keep going… The gym!
The gym had plenty of space to move around in and there weren't any gym classes being taught during the lunch periods. I made a sudden stop and then strafed right to avoid Sophia trying to tackle me and turned back around the other way and back up the hall, then dived down a side hall.
I managed to make my way into the gymnasium without too much hassle. The high ceilings and open space gave me plenty of room to fly out of Sophia's range. This was good because Sophia phased in through the walls just as I got up near the ceiling.
The girl solidified and shouted obscenities at me, but I paid her no attention. Stupid kids were filling in behind her, cellphones out, recording the encounter. I briefly questioned why I was going out of my way to avoid collateral damage.
...Because I was a hero, and heroes never allowed for needless casualties or excessive bloodshed. Which brought me back to Sophia. I'd have to do something about her. I thought back to the binding spell I'd been working on earlier this morning… It wasn't finished yet, But Opal had said that I only had to imagine to get things to work, so…
I aimed Opal dead at Sophia and muttered "Fáisc and shibaru," words from Lancer and Caster's magic that I think meant bind. A small ball of unusually sparkly white and prismatic magic flew from Opal to Sophia. She tried to avoid it by going shadow, but instead of the ball phasing through her, she was forced back into human form and her arms and legs were locked to her sides by bands of opal-colored light. She fell to the floor and started to writhe, but she seemed secure.
I landed and checked on her. She seemed fine-on closer inspection, the bands of mana seemed to be writing-the same Irish runes and Japanese characters repeating ad nauseum. Other than being restrained and pissed off, Sophia didn't seem to be hurt.
"Okay, now what?" I honestly didn't know what to do now.
"Well, Princess," Opal said, "I started recording as soon as she dragged you into the closet and again just as she was starting to attack you. Since it's undeniable that she's the one causing problems, perhaps maybe we should just submit our acquired evidence against her and the other two cretins?"
"I suppose-"
"You!" I heard someone shout. I turned to the entrance to the gym and saw Principal Blackwell forcing her way past the crowd of students. "You all get to class," she said to the kids around her, "and you! My office. Now."
I shrugged, picked up the still bound Sophia like a sack of potatoes over my shoulder, and floated out the gym door.
"By the way, Principal Blackwell, you might want to call Emma Barnes and Madison Clemmits down to your office, too. They're involved in this."
Blackwell grumbled while I carried a struggling psycho to the principal's office.
F/KLPT
"Taylor," my Dad said as he walked into the office… "What are you doing?"
"Right now, my homework." I had an assignment due next week and nothing to do until everyone got here, so I'd floated up out of everyone's reach and made a couple of magical platforms to set my backpack on and use as a desk.
"...Uh, ah, eh, oh Okay," he said after a second. "I grabbed the journals from your room like you asked." He handed them over.
"Thank you," I said, taking them and setting them on my makeshift desk.
"So," he said, looking at the rooms other occupants, "What's going on, again?"
In addition to a still bound Sophia who was still glaring at me with impotent rage, her mouth apparently also bound, there was Madison who was sitting there, wide-eyed and actually shaking a little bit, and Emma, just sitting there looking perfectly calm. Madison's parents had been the first to arrive and they were just sitting there quietly with their daughter. Now that Dad was here, we were just waiting for Alan and Sophia's guardian. And for Blackwell to get back. She'd vanished after everyone had been called down.
"The magically restrained psycho found out my secret identity and got pissy when I wouldn't fight her, so she outed me in front of everyone. And herself, because she's a cape too," I sighed. "And she… She's one of the main people who was bullying me. I figured since we're gonna be here anyway, might as well take care of that, too."
"The..." Dad looked to Emma. "Emma is one of the girls that's been bullying you?"
"...Yeah." I wasn't sad. I had no more tears to shed over her.
Dad stared at Emma. "...You've slept over at our house more times than I can count."
Emma just smiled. "I don't know what Taylor is talking about, Mr. Hebert. You know, she's really been out of it since Mrs. Hebert passed." My stomach clenched. "But I'm sure that we'll get this misunderstanding sorted out once my dad gets here." Damn it, Taylor, you don't care about this anymore.
Speak of the devil, Mr. Barnes came in. Alan was a big man, tall, broad-shouldered, and rotund around the middle. The only thing he had in common with Emma was their shared red hair. "Okay, what's going on he-Taylor?"
"Yeah, I'm a cape, News at 11," I really just wanted to get this over with. "Everything'll be explained once everyone gets here."
"She went crazy, picked a fight with Sophia, exposing both of their Secret Identities, and now she's saying that Madison and I were involved." Emma's statement made Alan glare at me.
"I said, it'd all be-"
And then Blackwell came in.
With Assault and two PRT agents behind her.
"And here they are. I'm sick and tired of this one," she gestured to Sophia, "causing trouble. I keep telling her handler about her getting caught with knives and getting into fights but nothing ever happens. And this one," she pointed to me, "I didn't even know about. And now they're getting into Cape Fights in the halls. I'm done. Arrest them, take them away, just, just get them out of my school."
God damn it. Apparently, Blackwell had Emma and Madison dragged here and had them call their parents just to humor me and keep my docile while she… Well, no, I'm not gonna stand for that.
"Opal, do the thing."
"Yes, my Princess," Opal had initially objected to my choice of code for 'project Sophia's bullshit onto the wall,' but she'd come around when I said it was about the presentation.
My wand moved from her perch, wrapped around my arm, and entered projector form, showing Sophia dragging me into the closet, our conversation, my leaving, and her unprovoked attack against me hours later on the way to the cafeteria, leading to our identities being exposed, the chase, and my binding her.
Oh, the look of pure, murderous rage in Sophia's eyes was almost funny. Emma's own eyes widened for a second, but she composed herself quickly enough.
"As you can see," I said as the footage stopped rolling, "Sophia was the sole aggressor. She assaulted me without provocation, compromising her identity and my own in the process," I explained calmly. "I attempted to escape, and when that proved unfeasible I ended the conflict by harmlessly incapacitating the aggressor. A bunch of kids were recording the chase on their phones, so there's plenty of corroborating footage just waiting to be uploaded to Youtube. There's no cause for you to arrest me."
Assault shrugged. "Yeah, some of that phone footage is already uploaded on the 'Net, we've seen some of it. Between that and what you've got here… Yeah, this is good enough for me. Not like I was going to actually arrest you anyway." He gave a cheesy smile. " Uh… I'm not sure how to cuff Stalker when she's stuck like that."
"The spell keeps her paralyzed for a couple of hours, tops," I said, "So you can take her as is, but after what she did today, I'm not letting her loose. She'll just fly off the handle again."
"Oh, okay I guess." The two Agents looked at each other. "Can we get a copy of that footage?"
"That footage isn't admissible in court," Alan interrupted. "It was obtained without her knowledge or consent."
"Okay, Alan?" I asked, "one… This is a public school. There's no expectation of privacy here. Two, whether it's admissible in court or not isn't relevant: I'm not pressing charges. Not against Sophia for today, not against the other two for the shit they've done." I looked to the Agents who, at Assaults instruction, were now awkwardly trying to pick up a Sophia who was trying to scream through her bound lips. "I'll try to get the footage to the PRT ASAP."
"If it's of any value," Opal added, "last night I was exploring the town and running a few errands when I saw Shadow Stalker mutilating a corpse and tagging a gang sign above it." she sounded almost clinical and now I was wishing I'd listened to her earlier. "After I caught her, I recorded what I could before retreating with the intent of turning the footage over at my earliest convenience."
Assault went quiet for a solid minute. "...Yeah, we're gonna need that too. Is there uh, Anything else you want to tell us." I was curious about that too.
"Nothing that comes to mind," Opal said with the magic wand/video projector equivalent of a shrug.
Sophia, screaming even louder, was then hauled out by two men carrying her awkwardly into the hall.
"Before I leave," Assault said as he turned to me… "we did see a bit of this from the phone footage before coming down, I've been authorized to tell you that the PRT is willing and able to provide assistance with a guard or helping you move to a new city with new names." He paused for a second. "I've also been authorized to offer you a place in the Wards with the knowledge that the PRT will be able to more easily get authorization for funds to help keep you and your family safe if you join."
Did, are… Of course, they are. "I'll talk about it with my Dad later." No, I wouldn't. Honestly, I trusted my own safety precautions to protect me more than anything I'd have to give up my freedom to get.
Assault left, and I turned to Blackwell, who was grimacing uncomfortably. "That was a dirty trick, calling everyone down here and pulling my Dad, Mister Barnes, and Mister and Mrs. Clements down here without any intent to talk about what happened… Okay, actually, I do have to thank you," I said, changing gears, "if you'd gotten your way you'd have wasted everyone's time, but it did make dealing with Sophia easier than it had any right to be."
"If we could talk about the accusations you leveled against Emma and the others a short while ago," Alan interrupted.
"Opal?"
Opal started playing more things she recorded. Every mean look, every harsh word, every bit of stolen homework… Apparently, it was Madison who'd got me with the rancid peanut butter. Opal finished with the confrontation between myself and Emma and Sophia in the bathroom a while back.
When Opal finished, I picked up my journals. "These are records I've kept of every time they did something to me in the past year. It has all of what Opal just showed you all, as well as several events that happened before Opal and I met. I also have multiple school Email Addresses which, coming from the school, the administration should be able to access, that are all full of hundreds of threatening Emails, each, from accounts that purport to belong to Emma, Madison, Sophia, and several others. Direct video evidence of the last three and a half or so months worth should be enough to prove the validity of these records."
Emma was just staring at me now. Alan opened his mouth. "None of that will hold up in-"
"Mr. Barnes, please pay attention," I interrupted, "I already said I wasn't pressing charges."
"Taylor," Dad said, "are you sure about that?"
"Yeah," I answered. "A week ago, when I kicked Lung's ass with my awesome magical powers… It kind of put things in perspective. I'm a Superhero now. The Trio… Well, now the Duo, they can't hurt me anymore. When I realized that, they just stopped being important." I tried to think of the best way to phrase it. "It's like I've outgrown them, and their pathetic attempts to tear me down." I did. I'd completely outgrown them and probably wouldn't spare them another thought the second we were done here.
It was then that I noticed that Madison had practically retreated into the cushioning of her seat and that her parents seemed rather mad at her. I paid it no mind because a second later I could have sworn that I heard Emma growling.
"Anyway," I continued, "at this point taking it beyond the school would just be a waste of time and energy. I wouldn't have even gone this far if Sophia hadn't snapped."
"So," Blackwell said, "what is it that you want to school to do? Expel them?"
I shrugged. "Nothing, really. Like I said, I really don't care anymore. It'd be nice if they'd leave me alone from now on or if the school did something if they start bullying somebody else, but right now all I want to do is get home so I can reinforce the bounded field and double up on the runic security matrix before Rune tracks down my house and tosses a car through my bedroom window."
"Fine," Blackwell said. "You… You're dismissed."
I put my assignment away, dismissed my makeshift desk, and landed next to Dad, backpack in hand, while Opal returned to wand form and wrapped herself around my bicep.
As we walked out of the school, Dad turned to me. "Taylor… Are you going to be okay?"
I smiled. "Yeah. All things considered, I think I'm gonna be just fine."