Chapter 4
Boardwalk
15:50
The Boardwalk was one of the main tourist destinations in Brockton Bay. It was considered one of the nicest parts of town, and generally considered a safe place to be. There were shops that sold dresses for over a thousand dollars, cafés with ludicrously expensive coffees, and stretches of wooden walkways and beaches where tourists could get a great view of the ocean.
It was with a view on the beach that Taylor got out of the car, an old Toyota SUV and smiled as she smelled salty air. Amy and Victoria disembarked as well, they were talking about where to go. Victoria wanted to go to Fugly Bob's and Amy wanted to go for ice-cream; Taylor had no opinion but she was definitely more hungry than usual because of her intense night in the Crossing.
Taylor placed a hand before her mouth and yawned.
"Tired, Tay?" asked Amy from behind her.
"Yes last night was kind of my official debut. I didn't know you could hurt in such places." Taylor was slowly recovering from the Witchblade's cocoon effect, the one altering and strengthening her body while she trained in the Crossing.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah… what a splash you made."
Taylor poked her side, eliciting a laugh from her. Victoria locked the car, observed the two girls with her and smiled. "Maybe we can patrol together next time?" She said by lowering her voice.
The tall brunette thought about it and pushed her fake glasses up her nose, briefly making them shine. "I'd like that, it might be fun, can Amy come?"
It didn't surprise Taylor that Victoria guessed who she was after the big splash she created and the clues she had given her when they first met. It had taken Amy barely thirty seconds to do the same when she put two and two together.
Amy was startled by this offer and asked, "Why me?"
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
With a frown on her face, the healer said, "I don't get you sometimes, Hebert."
Taylor grinned with a satisfied expression. "My mom doesn't either."
And wasn't that the truth, Taylor's mother had offered her to move to another city, a safer one like New York where the Protectorate was more active and not a joke like the one from Brockton Bay. But Taylor didn't want to leave! Brockton Bay was her home and she would be damned if she left it in the hands of scum, druggies, racists and girl-stealing dragons. Taylor was deeply aware of pretty girls' fates in this city.
Meanwhile, Vicky and Amy pulled Taylor to an ice-cream parlor where they each bought a large cone. After eating they went window shopping, avoiding large throngs of people taking pictures of them from afar. It made Taylor mad that people could be so bold and ignore their privacy. Amy put a hand on the other brunette's shoulder to tell her to not get angry.
"We are used to it, that's the life of an open cape." Amy said as she disposed of the ice-cream wrapper.
"It sucks, I hope it never happens to me." Taylor whispered.
Victoria and Amy noticed how horrified their friend was at the sudden attention the two of them were garnering. Amy hip checked the other brunette and whispered, "Well… seeing your costume, I think you'll attract attention, more than us at least."
Victoria frowned at this, not really understanding what her sister was making allusions about.
Taylor hip checked Amy back. "Hey! I had no choice, my aunt put me into that."
*And it's better than the Witchblade armored chainmail bikini.* Taylor thought in her heart as she blushed.
# # #
Lord Market
16:23
Uber finished preparing the ring, he plugged in the cable linking it to the small power source while Leeta, his girlfriend and boss, was readying the toy lightsabers and the hologram suite. The fact that the ring looked like a mini replica of the Cell-game ring was a complete coincidence.
*At least that's what I'll say to the lawyers.* Uber thought.
The tall man smirked as he thought of the thorny road they had had to take to finally do what they did best: Video game reenactment. They finally had a breakthrough on how to simulate a Star Wars battle by using the sfx and hard and soft holograms; they intended to make sure the public would enjoy participating in their new show. They had gone to Dragon and let her analyze the technology Leeta had come up with and the heroine had come up with ways to retro engineer the prototype that the famous rogue tinker had come up with.
That was how they were so flush with money, Leeta sold her tech to Dragon who analyzed and came up with ideas on how to make it safe. The Protectorate and the PRT were there with them to protect the venue and the mayor had authorized the event because it would bring money and more tourism. If the project panned out, Leeta would be able to create a theater with out-of-this world sounds and realistic high definition; the money was sure to roll in.
The security was taken seriously, the proprietary technology involved made sure of it as it was a local project between City Hall, Dragon and Leeta. Uber looked satisfied by how everyone was doing while he watched the technicians who were helping Leeta run a last diagnostic of her machine. It was crazy how inspired an ex-villain girl could be by an Earth Aleph X-men comic about the danger room that used hard light constructs to help train fictional heroes.
This project was also sponsored by the PRT as Leeta and Dragon had framed the project with how a facility with this technology could help to simulate training in programmed situations with different settings or diverse environments.
As he breathed in the salty air, Uber walked toward the petite, yet curvy blonde woman in a Samus Aran blue skin-suit and pieces of power armor. Leeta hadn't always been this voluptuous, but thanks to her collaboration with Toybox they had come up with a super soldier serum, inspired yet again by Marvel comics that enhanced her genetic makeup and the proportions and physiology of her body. Uber noticed that everything changed for Leeta when she injected herself with the serum; she was smarter, stronger and learned faster than anyone who wasn't a thinker.
Leeta and him had gone straight and were now independent heroes affiliated with the PRT and Protectorate. With Leeta's technology not sucking anymore and developing support structures and weapons for endbringer attacks, she found herself becoming one of the most liked parahumans on the east coast. Killing Mannequin and Shatterbird with railgun weaponry when they had come for her one year ago had done great things for her reputation. Every Tinker out there respected her.
Uber had taken the exact same serum and had noticed how he could now retain the information of everything he learned. As he passed his arms around his girlfriend's waist, Uber asked himself what the future was going to bring him today.
"Hey, Princess." Uber whispered in her ear.
The blonde woman let herself lean into him. "Hun, everything is almost ready." Leeta said contentedly.
"You know… I can remember a time when we had to lay low at this point in time because we pissed off the empire and we had to avoid the Boardwalk." Uber said as he remembered the villain's life the two of them had led. Their team had to resort to petty theft at first and raid the merchants for their stash of money; then after making their first gear they made a website where everyone could donate to see them reenact video games in real life.
Uber felt Leeta flinch in his arms. "That's from two years ago? After they killed that guy from the DWU? What was his name? Denny? Ah, it was Danny."
The man was desperate to make the city somewhat better for his family and his friends; he had even had a debate with them about everything that was wrong with this city. Destroying the gangs was not the solution, they were just a symptom as actively getting more jobs in Brockton and clearing the boat graveyard would bring more opportunities to everyone, then they could get more funds to the police and PRT to do something about their cape problem.
It had sounded so simple when Uber and Leeta had heard him out; then he went and got himself killed because the Empire wanted to make him an example as he 'protected the animals' like they said he did. Kaiser had to simply decry the action of the one who killed Daniel Hebert, an important man to the DWU. The backlash against the Nazis was still felt to this day as they had to bring their own help to deal with maintenance at their affiliated financial and commercial establishments. Still, this event had broken the DWU and caused a massive exodus from Brockton Bay to Boston.
Uber hummed positively in answer. "Yeah that, he had come to us for that ferry restoration project."
Leeta stepped out of Uber's embrace and turned to him, her face showing a sorrowful expression. "Poor guy, I heard they killed him before his wife and all."
Uber thought that it was a shame too, the guy had had decent plans to help and was the one who shook them up and made them realize that Cape life was hell and filled with too much conflict. So Leeta had decided to help everyone with her support, now the PRT had UNSC army light armor and healing devices in medical camps at endbringer attack staging areas and slowly, with the principles of her technology Dragon had made life comfortable for everyone, the psionic blocking devices deployed into cities made the thinker power moot, rendering the Simurgh blind, now her pattern of attack had changed to become opportunistic.
Things had changed yet again, people were more hopeful, however, people doing shit like the Empire had done to Daniel Hebert was still happening. Uber grunted. "Don't you think that we should move out? I mean, this city is dying…"
Uber wasn't a coward, but he was tired of watching his back, even the fact that the merchants' leadership was dead didn't reassure him at all. "Mom lives here, I don't want to go and now that she is out of her coma and helping us with the base…"
Uber bristled as he remembered his first meeting with mama Leeta, the woman didn't like him much but she appreciated how he had stuck by her daughter. "That woman is so bossy…"
Leeta giggled as she said proudly, "That's mom for you."
She looked at the time on her gauntlet computer and smiled, then lifted her chin. "It's time to start the show!" The blonde woman said as she held her hand before him, fingers spread.
"Showtime!" Uber shouted and high-fived Leeta.
# # #
16:33
"So, that's why you brought me here? The Uber and Leeta exhibition?" Taylor asked as she looked at the twenty square meter ring made of stone built upon a raised platform, it was the size of her living room at home.
People began to mingle and stop around the cordon of benches around the ring. Some were already sitting and pointing at the ring. AC/DC began to play on the sound system around the ring; Taylor looked up as the Witchblade told her that someone was falling from the sky. Her attention switching made her two new friends look up too.
"Well no, I thought we could check out what they were doing." Victoria argued.
A figure in gold, red and yellow power armor impacted in the middle of the ring in a perfect superhero landing. As the person straightened, they stood up and then the gun in their hand disengaged. The armor started opening and retracting to form some kind of minimal armor. That the new arrival was a woman was made obvious by the feminine silhouette put on display.
Petite but athletically built, she wore some kind of blue undersuit, her hair was blonde, her eyes were blue with a green tinge, and she appeared to be Caucasian. Samus typically wore her blond hair in a modified ponytail with a red hairband, with a lock on either side. Thankfully her full face was hidden by an elaborated mask obscuring half of it.
The woman smiled warmly and opened her arms in welcome. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Leeta and thank you for being here with us today for what I hope to be a recurring event in Brockton for years to come. What is this event you ask? It is of course the mini martial tournament that we have come up with."
"That's Leeta?" Taylor whistled.
Amy glowered at the blonde tinker and spoke under her breath, Taylor couldn't hear very well as everyone began to clap and shout about the impressive landing.
Taylor continued as she continued to check out the blonde. "She's not what I expected, that armor is kickass."
It was at this point that Amy and Victoria realized Taylor liked girls. Victoria grinned at Amy and waggled her eyebrow at her and lifted her arm toward Taylor; Amy, shook her head and pleaded with her eyes at her sister to stop. Since she came out to her sister, the Parahuman girl had been trying to set her up with girls that could interest her; but Amy didn't feel ready to enter into a relationship and was still obsessed with Victoria who didn't realize it.
"Before we get started, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who generously helped us make this event come together to become a success, this event wouldn't happen without the sponsorship of Irons Industries, Dragontech, Cityhall, LucasFilm and the PRT." Curved holographic windows appeared and surrounded Leeta, then unfurled with the logo and ads of the quoted companies. They flew in a 360° formation ten meters in the air over the ring.
Taylor knew about Iron Industries, it was a technology company, their more sought after products were those new non-tinkertech smartphones and tablets that rivaled those sold by Dragontech. They were also internet providers and there was a security company attached to the brand that helped secure banks with nigh inviolable vehicle transport.
The music changed from AC/DC to some other band that Taylor didn't recognise, but it was catchy. "Well, I don't want to take too much of your time, I need to leave some time for my teammate to introduce himself." Leeta became invisible and in her place someone tall and muscular appeared. He wore a brown cloak that billowed at the whim of the winds. The attire was made in shades of brown with a utility belt; he had boots, loose-fitting pants and a cloak.
Taylor noticed the silver cylinder clipped to the man's belt; then she looked at the holographic banner with the LucasFilm logo and smiled wryly. The man seized the silver cylinder on his belt and with an epic 'snap hiss' sound a blade of light emitted from a usually metal hilt. The man exploded into motion and began to practice katas alone, the man ramped up his speed slowly as the katas became more aerobatic. Constructs of lights appeared and shot laser beams at him; they looked like floating turrets. The man deflected the beam with his lightsaber and used the beams to destroy his attackers. Everytime he destroyed one, words formed in the air.
Once he destroyed every light construct, the man stopped and took off his hood. He wore an open mask showing the top half of his face. His eyes showed that he was smiling as he said, "I am Uber and I welcome everyone to the first Star Wars tournament of Brockton Bay!" He disengaged his lightsaber.
With thunderous applause, the spectators whistled and shouted how awesome his exhibition had been.
"Well now, it's time for me to explain what this is all about. This is a mini tournament with a Star Wars themed slant, competitors will be fighting with lightsabers in a series of rounds and exhibitions. We have two categories for them to choose, the one on one matches and the free for all king of the hill style battle." The man looked around. "Some people seem to be skeptical about the event." Uber activated his lightsaber and applied the light blue blade to his arm as if to cut it. "But don't worry about wounding anyone, these are hard light holograms that become soft to contact with human skin." But there was a glowing trace of light where his lightsaber had cut him.
"As you can see, the blade leaves a mark where it has struck the body. To win a round you have either to make a fighter out of bounds or strike three points against your foe. When someone is struck three times, the lightsaber they use is automatically deactivated. Protective gear will be loaned to competitors chosen from amongst you." Uber showed a stand at the ring's side with a lot of gear, PRT agents were protecting it.
Taylor looked excitedly as she was suddenly interested in testing what she had learned in her one year stint in the Crossing. The brunette felt a hand on her arm, it was Victoria who smiled at her. "Want to participate?" Her bright and impish smile was almost blinding.
Taylor nodded. "Sure!"
# # #
20 minutes later
After twenty harrying minutes to register and sign waivers declining the responsibility of the organizers if she was wounded or impaired, Taylor was the first to put a foot on the platform of the ring and enter the arena. Her fifteen years of age placed her against another girl, she was of asian descent and wore the full body protection gear but in blue and white. The two of them looked like knights wearing really light armor made of leather and metal. For some reason, Taylor's was red and white. *I guess it's to make us rather distinct from each other.*
Taylor tested moving in it, it barely weighed anything and gave her full range of movement. She jumped up and down for thirty seconds, taking care to not reveal any footwork techniques that could reveal any of her proficiency. Her adversary watched her like a hawk. Uber came between them and asked, "Are you two ready?"
"Yes." Taylor answered with a nod.
"Hai." The girl before answered.
Taylor's eyes narrowed on her adversary. *Oh, she's Japanese. Either she practices Kenjutsu or Kendo then.*
"Activate your sabers." Uber commanded.
Taylor pushed the activation button and a red glowing blade lazily emitted from the thirty centimeter cylinder in her hands. She had chosen a double bladed lightsaber as she was taught Kenjutsu, Shaolin staff techniques and Dharma sword moves from her teachers Leung Lin Yao and Shiori-Sama. Her fellow competitor had a blue lightsaber. The brunette twirled her saber in her hand taking care to not get cut by the blade of light.
"Begin!" Uber hollered.
At the same instant, Taylor and the other girl entered into a combat stance. The girl before Taylor adopted the textbook Chūdan-no-kamae, the most basic stance, it allowed for a balance between attacking and defense. This showed her adversary's level of skill; as for Taylor she had fallen in a Waki-gamae stance, a side posture involving hiding the sword behind the practitioner's body, exposing only the sword's pommel to the practitioner's opponent.
After watching each other for a brief instant, Taylor's foe attacked first, charging forward and targeting the brunette's head. She simply retreated back, as the blade of light came for her head, Taylor simply deflected it with her own lightsaber. The girl simply ducked, turned and targeted Taylor mid-section, only to be deflected as well with Taylor holding her lightsaber in a reverse grip. With a butterfly kick, Taylor struck the girl's head and scored a point by cutting her left shoulder, leaving a red glowing cut on the blue armor.
Uber placed himself between them and raised a hand. "First point Taylor Hebert!" Large cheers could be heard from the crowd. "Stop, return to position."
The two girls obeyed and returned to their respective sides of the ring. There was no resentiment in the eyes of Taylor's foe, but she could sense a certain level of competitiveness that was mirrored by her own. The girl smirked at the brunette who did the same. Once more they faced each other and Uber gave the signal to begin.
Falling into a Geden-no-kamae stance, Taylor pointed her lightsaber in front of her, pointing at her knee. The girl before her narrowed her eyes and adopted a new stance, keeping her foot in front of her, holding her sword with a single hand. She attacked first attempting a vertical cut, Taylor moved back, avoiding the blade and deflecting it to the side with her own. The girl moved away by jumping back but not before the brunette saw the opening she had created; Taylor lunged forward and with a casual movement of her wrist thrust the weapon into the girl's heart. The hit landed, however her foe also hit her knee with her blue blade.
"Stop! Move away." Uber said as he separated them and made them deactivate their lightsabers.
The girls listened and relaxed. Taylor looked at the large screen that served as a point board. She had two points versus the other girl's single point. Taylor heard Victoria and Amy cheer for her, she waved at them in the little crowd that had suddenly grown bigger.
"One point for Kuzuryu Motoko, two for Taylor Hebert, if Miss Hebert scores in the next round she wins." Uber announced.
Taylor now had the measure of her foe, she was fast and agile; but not patient enough. The brunette felt her thirst for victory, the two of them smiled at each other. When Uber made them activate their lightsabers and shouted, "Begin!" Taylor lunged and initiated a powerful jump, opening more vulnerabilities in her opponent as she was above her.
The brunette used the momentum of her fall to strengthen a two handed swing that brought her blade down on her adversary's shoulder. Motoko sidestepped the strike and brought up her own blade to thrust at Taylor's neck who twirled her lightsaber at the last moment and deflected the blade of light aside, exposing Motoko's flank for a brief second, as she was still in the air she performed a roll as she landed on the ring, crouched, then sprung toward her foe with a rising attack that struck Motoko's jaw from below.
The asian girl widened her eyes as she couldn't believe the move that Taylor had executed. Uber placed himself between them and shouted, "Taylor Hebert wins! 3 to 1!" A holographic window showing Taylor's picture appeared ten meter in the air and showed the number two change to number three; Motoko's picture only showed the number one.
Loud cheers and whistles erupted from the crowd around the ring. Taylor deactivated the lightsaber and walked up to Motoko and slightly bowed. "Shiai o arigatō, anata wa hontōni sainō ga arimasu. (Thank you for the bout, you are really talented.)"
Motoko's eyes shone with pleasure and her expression softened as she smiled. She then mimicked Taylor's bow. "Īe, arigatōgozaimasu, Hebāto-san wa watashidesu. (No, it's me who thanks you, Miss Hebert.)"
"Who taught you Kenjutsu?" Motoko asked in Japanese accented English.
"My sensei is called Shiori Nabushige." Taylor said as she wiped out her phone out of the pocket of her armor and smoothly added. "Watashi to renrakusen jōhō o kōkan suru koto ni dōi shite itadakemasu ka? (Would you be agreeable to exchanging contact information with me?)"
"Mattaku, watashi wa onaji koto o suru tsumorideshita. (Not at all, I planned to do the same.)" Motoko did the same and they began exchanging numbers.
Once done, Taylor said goodbye and left toward the waiting and an exuberant Victoria Dallon who lifted her from the ground and twirled her around. Taylor laughed.
# # #
Organizer's tent
17:45
Leeta was impressed, the event had garnered more attention than she would have thought, the stands were selling Star Wars t-shirts and paraphernalia like hot cakes. Dragontech and Irons Industries products were also selling fast; but what people wanted to see were the fights. People loved fights! With the world on the decline, people needed to be entertained to ignore the bleakness of their lives and the crushing existential threats that surrounded them.
The blonde tinker focused on the screen showing the placements of the two leftover competitors for the mini tournament. It was almost unbelievable that a young girl could go this far with the seeded PRT operators with combat training and experience in the competition. Uber was worried that the Hebert girl was a parahuman, some kind of combat thinker, but the test they had done with their tinkertech scanner hadn't shown any pollentia or gemma from the girl, she was just a sporty brunette with years of martial training. At least that was what Leeta's instruments were telling her.
Leaning into her seat, Leeta hadn't missed that Panacea and Glory Girl were familiar with Miss Hebert. There was something weird going on and the fact that Taylor Hebert was the daughter of the man who had inspired Uber and Leeta into selling out to become independent heroes affiliated with the PRT and Protectorate wasn't just it. Leeta wanted to speak with the girl and introduce herself; after the Hebert patriarch had died, the duo didn't have the courage to offer their condolences to his remaining family and friends.
The blonde tinker had found that it was cowardly of them to not offer that much, maybe it was time to see if she could do anything to help them. She already had an idea of what she would do.
"Dragon, are you here?" Leeta asked out loud.
Dragon was always in contact with people of interest to her, fortunately, the woman respected boundaries. Just as expected, the screen on the right that Leeta kept free for Dragon at all time lit up and showed the 3D rendered face of the Canadian tinker. "I am, Leeta. What can I do for you?"
"Are you having fun watching the fights?" Leeta smiled at Dragon who put a hand on her mouth to hide her own smile.
"Yes, it has been rather… exciting." She answered.
Even Leeta hadn't expected to see skilled martial artists or people who knew how to fight coming to the mini star wars tournament. Sure the PRT and Irons security had seeded fighters in the crowd to make this a success, but people with high level of skills like Miss Hebert and Kuzuryu had been surprises for the blonde tinker.
Leeta tilted her head. "You didn't expect it, I imagine?"
"I plead the fifth." Dragon averted her gaze.
Leeta was aware that she had been against this project and wanted to do something more meaningful. But Leeta had been on the streets and knew what the little people wanted, and what they wanted was to forget their problems and have fun.
The blonde tinker looked smugly at the Canadian. "Ah! No one expects the geek sport to be awesome!"
Dragon snorted. "... That was bad, even for you."
Waving away the comment, Leeta said, "Hmph, no one can understand my humor, anyway... I wanted to ask, do you have anything on that Hebert girl?"
Files appeared on screen, showing Taylor's picture, a less beautiful version of the young woman. Leeta became intrigued. *Did Panacea do some work on her friend? Or is it something else? People don't change like that in only three month.*
Dragon's voice interrupted the blonde tinker's musing. "She's not a parahuman, your handheld scanner didn't detect any of the signs. Her background is clean, but somewhat… tragic. She lost her father in 2008 to the E88 and more recently, her best friend to the Merchants."
Leeta's tech had ceased to break down, it wasn't a malfunction or anything of the sort. Dragon was looking over her shoulders when Leeta tinkered now, giving advice and ideas. Now the blonde trusted her gear. "You know what that sounds like… don't you?"
Dragon made a grave nod. "Trigger event worthy. I agree, but your own scanner didn't detect any active pollentia and gemma."
Sighing heavily, Leeta said, "I will keep an eye on that… you know, beside impromptu competitors, I am just happy that we didn't have any nazi or ABB problems so far in the crowd and fights."
"Do you think Kaiser or Lung would allow such problems to happen?" Dragon asked as she took on a thoughtful expression.
"They didn't know that we would organize something, I kept it on the down low, that's why the two of them may not have had the time to place people to disturb the event." Leeta surmised.
Both of the female tinkers kept silent for a moment before Dragon broke it. "I will keep an eye on the crowd." The Canadian tinker said.
Leeta felt reassured to not be the only one doing that now. "Thanks in advance, if there's any problems... I've got a cold plasma gun to test."
Dragon flinched and put on a worried expression. "I thought we had spoken about your exotic weapons…"
Leeta pouted and crossed her arms under her breastplate. "Aww not you too!"
# # #
18:01
This was the final, then she would be able to go home and tell her mom about the awesome day she had. Taylor heard people cheer for her, the more vocal seemed to be people from her new school who had recognized her or come to see the mini tournament after videos had been dropped on youtube.
As she finished the chocolate bar that Amy had so graciously offered her, Taylor placed the wrapper in her pocket and took on a thoughtful mien. The brunette hadn't expected to go this far, she had battled three other fighters with different levels of proficiencies in martial arts. But none of them had the level required to stop her; she had made the one she fought after Motoko go out of bounds with a reverse roundhouse kick after luring and herding him to the ring's edge, the second hadn't been ready for her to be on the attack from the get go. The third had been more challenging, Taylor had felt that he was at least a journeyman in Kendo; but Kendo was a sport and Kenjutsu was for killing, so she went for strikes that would have been lethal.
When a Dark haired, olive skinned and green eyed middle aged woman in blue protective gear stepped onto the ring, Taylor immediately became wary. She moved with a fluid and predatory grace that Taylor had only seen Shiori and Leung Lin Yao do. Taylor now understood that she was going to need to give everything she had.
Uber walked between them and looked at each of them, particularly at Taylor who he gave an expression showing pity. The brunette scowled at him, pretty sure that the man already knew the skill level of the woman before her.
"Taylor Hebert versus Hanna Washington!" Uber shouted as he raised his right hand. "Activate your lightsabers!" He commanded.
Taylor's red blade activated when she pushed the on button. Her eyes never left Hanna, whose light blade was colored green and curved, it reminded Taylor of a scimitar, more accurately a 'shamshir', a type of Persian/Iranian sword with a radical curve. Taylor doubted the Nabushige Kenjutsu style would help her and smoothly switched to the more relaxed form of the Shaolin Dharma Sword technique that Leung Lin Yao had beat into her, she had had only one year of instruction in that style and her sifu had warned her that she was still an apprentice; however, she had been using Kenjutsu for all of her bouts so far.
It was smart to assume that the skilled fighter before her had watched how she fought and analyzed her moves. So, she switched and placed her sword behind her and placed her left hand before her face in prayer and closed her eyes. Five seconds later, Uber shouted, "Begin!"
Opening her eyes, Taylor moved at the same time as Hanna who created an obvious opening by slashing with an oblique strike of her sword that the brunette ignored as she ducked and slid on the ground and slashed at Hanna's thigh and agilely sprung up from the ground, away from Hanna.
"Point to Taylor Hebert! Return to position."
The cheers of the public around the ring were deafening. Hanna looked at Taylor and put on a serious expression; she nodded at the teenage girl who did the same as they returned into position. Then everything changed when Hanna took another curved silver cylinder out of her pocket, twirled it in her hand and put herself in a guarding stance that Taylor couldn't guess the style it belonged to.
"Activate lightsabers."
The younger and older women did so at the same time; and when Uber shouted to 'begin,' Taylor saw the dark haired woman flow toward her. It was all Taylor could do to parry the sudden onslaught of strikes. Just like Taylor, Hanna was trained to kill and had much more experience as a fighter than her and targeted her midsection, her neck and legs. Taylor valiantly defended but focused too much on the blade and got tripped on the ground by a sweep of the leg from Hanna who then stabbed her abdomen with her curved lightsaber.
"Point to Hanna Washington!" Uber declared.
Sound of 'no, Tay!' or 'Don't lose' could be heard around them.
The women deactivated their lightsabers, Hanna held her hand toward Taylor, who looked at it, took it and was then lifted up by the older woman. The two nodded at each other and went back into position. They started again and this time Taylor calmed herself down and focused on Hanna's body. Everything went silent around Taylor. This time she saw Hanna come and sidestepped the thrust intended to stab her kidney and deflected the other blade coming for her neck. Taylor retreated by jumping back, when her feet touched the ground, she burst into speed and swept the blade across Hanna's arm who deflected her red blade with her green one. Taylor ducked but found herself having to avoid a sweep of green blade by jumping and realized that she was going to get hit.
Before she could even bring her guard to defend herself from the next lightsaber blade sweep, Hanna slashed her neck.
"Point to Hanna Washington!"
Taylor held onto her neck, and then looked at Hanna; just like her she was hyper focused on the fight. The woman wasn't faster than her, but had more skill and Taylor was sure now that she had killed before; her movements were too sharp and there was no hesitation in attacking lethally. Hanna Washington wasn't giving everything she had.
The Witchblade stayed thankfully silent, however, the red jewel glowed softly and a gorgeous asian woman in a pink and gold kimono with golden-orange floral patterns ghosted out of Taylor's body, she was followed by another asian woman of similar beauty in green armor and a red cape. Both of them placed themselves at Taylor's side. Taylor was about to panic when she felt the hand of Shiori, the woman in Kimono, on her shoulder. They cannot see us, only you can. Calm down. Be at peace.
Taylor relaxed, breathed in and out. She walked toward the blue side of the ring, turned around and faced Hanna.
Sifu Leung Lin Yao whispered into her ear, You are being done in by a superior opponent who knows how you move and fight. She's fighting you with the intent of killing you thanks to the non-lethal setting of this competition. Adapt or die. Her impression of the mini tournament was lower than expected.
Taylor understood her, there were only two people with enough skill to give her a workout.
"Yes." Taylor nodded.
With calm and distinct words, Shiori-sensei said, Now, I want you to fight as if you were fighting us; Lin Yao and I. Your opponent isn't as fast as us, or powerful, move like the wind.
Be as ferocious as a Dragon. Taylor's sifu told her harshly.
"Activate Lightsaber!"
It was Taylor's turn to show off as she lit first one blade, then the other. Everything went even more silent. Hanna's left eyebrow rose, showing a surprised expression, at least as much as she could. Uber, who looked perplexed, announced, "Begin!"
*Move like the wind, strike like a dragon.* Taylor said in her heart.
Then she blurred toward Hanna, targeting the dark haired woman's right leg, only to find it blocked, with a flick of her wrist the teenage girl then began to aim for her vital points. A deadly dance started on the ring, the two women weren't shy about exchanging punches or kicks as they struck at each other with their weapons. Taylor's movements flowed between defense and offense as if they were the same to her. Hanna began to sweat as she defended against the flurry of strikes.
The older woman understood that the girl was trying to wear her down. She saw an opening that she quickly exploited and launched a thrust kick at Taylor who backed away and slashed the offending limb.
"Point to Taylor Hebert!" Uber shouted.
Taylor's people in the crowd cheered, others who were there for Hanna were in disarray. The public was in ebullition. On the point board, the two competitors had the same number of points, this was the last round and it would decide who would be the victor. The two women went back in position with deactivated blades and then looked at each other with wariness; an undercurrent of excitement flowed through Taylor as she activated her blade again at the signal of Uber, her opponent smiled at her.
"Begin!"
Taylor lunged at Hanna and hacked at her, the dark haired woman deflected and brought her other blade to stab the teen in the stomach. The brunette sidestepped and brought her lower blade up to take out Hanna's arm, but the older woman changed its course and raised her leg for a kick that Taylor saw coming and blocked it with her own lower leg. The two of them jumped away and then looked at each other's body, Taylor twirled her double bladed lightsaber.
They circled around each other, waiting for an opening. They found some deliberate ones, but opening a hole in your defense to lure in the opponents was basic textbook stuff and neither of them fell for it. Taylor was patient, she reminded herself that her sifu and sensei had told her that when the foe was more cunning than her, that she should let go of her doubts. The brunette relaxed and breathed in, and returned to only one blade with her weapon. Hanna chose that exact moment to attack.
Lifting up her lightsaber, Taylor blocked the first strike coming for her waist and ducked the second one aiming for her head, she activated her second blade and struck Hanna's midsection. A glowing redline appeared on the blue armor.
"TAYLOR HEBERT WINS!" Uber announced loudly.
The cacophony of the crowd's cheer reached a new height and almost made Taylor stumble. The brunette stood straight and lifted a fist into the air, the crowd cheering anew. She deactivated her double bladed lightsaber and turned to Hanna who looked at her in disbelief; the older woman composed herself and walked toward her and held her hand before her. "Great fight."
Taylor took Hanna's hand and tightened her grip on it. "You were awesome, thank you."
"Ah, it heartens me to see two opponents being capable of such sportsmanship." A female voice said from behind them.
Taylor turned, and saw that it was Leeta in full armor; she had appeared like a ghost, startling the two competitors. She had a large metal chest into her arms and she put it delicately at Taylor's feet. "Put your hands on the chest's lid, Miss Hebert."
Taylor obeyed, crouched and put her hands on the lid. With a flash of blue light reminding the brunette of the effect of a photocopier, Taylor looked at the lid that showed her face and some letters and numbers scrolling down.
"This is your prize, inside you'll find a $1500 check, a tinkertech shock baton mimicking the double bladed lightsaber that was lent to you, a new generation Dragontech computer, an Irons Electronics Smartphone with a six months subscription to Irons Network and some Star Wars goods. I hope you had fun."
"It was awesome, I'll totally participate again if there's another mini tournament like this." Taylor motor mouthed.
Leeta nodded. "I am happy that you liked the event, we will of course contact you if we start another event such as this one."
Then Taylor tilted her head, remembering that Leeta had made some pretty bad videos once with bad games. "If it's not too outrageous, count me in."
"You are right to be wary, Miss Hebert." Hanna said from behind Taylor.
Taylor turned to her, she was smiling patronizingly. Uber appeared behind her and came with another smaller chest that he put at Hanna's feet. "And this one is for you, Miss Washington."
And that was it, the event broke out, Taylor gave back all the protective gear and the double bladed lightsaber and returned to her friends. She was surprised to find Motoko there with Amy and Victoria. The brunette high-fived each of them and then they left, Victoria had the large metal chest under an arm and was guarding it for her new friend. Motoko invited Taylor to her father's dojo next weekend, which the brunette accepted.
It was thirty minutes later when Taylor was brought back to her home by her two friends who left with promises to text her. Taylor's stomach grumbled for sustenance, she took her key and entered her home, pulling the metal chest behind her and leaving it in the house's entrance. Only to see that she wasn't alone, her mom and aunt were waiting for her in the connected living room. Betsy was in a red dress and Annette was in a black cardigan, white top and jeans, they were sitting on the sofa, they looked at Taylor with sharp and disappointed eyes.
Taylor's eyes widened as she looked from Betsy to Annette. "Oops, sorry I forgot."
# # #
Docks South
Casa del Hebert
19:01
The older brunette heard Taylor's bedroom-door close and sighed. Her best friend Betsy served her tea that Annette took with thanks. Her daughter had finished telling them what she had been up to as she was late for the team meeting.
Taylor's mother had been worried that her daughter had been in trouble, after all powered people were trouble magnets, but no, she had to discover that her daughter was with new friends and participating in some kind of star wars event organized by an ex-villain turned independent hero.
Taylor was becoming harder and harder to herd, Annette wanted her to be safe, but it seemed that the fates wanted to turn her into a woman of action. Annette had raised her to be an independent, smart and powerful woman. She was now seeing what problems she had caused her parents at Taylor's age; being on the other side of the fence made her want to ask her mother for forgiveness.
"She should have called me." Annette grumped.
Betsy smiled. "She should, but maybe she didn't have the time?" She put the tea cup's edge to her mouth and sipped the black tea inside.
Annette shook her head. "No, I think she let herself be swept up by the events; remember that I had told her to avoid Victoria Dallon."
Annette didn't like the older teen, there were unflattering and dangerous rumors circulating about her; that she employed excessive force too much...
Betsy put her tea cup on its saucer and said, "From what I know of the Dallon girl, it's hard to tell her no."
"Very well, I won't stop her from getting along with her, but I will be watching." Annette said still not giving up. Betsy and her had a network of contacts that still kept them in the loop about the happenings in Brockton and beyond. Most of Lustrum's gang who didn't end up in prison had moved on with their lives, continued university and taken new jobs and took care of their loved ones. Her friends in the police had reported those strange cases to her. Annette hoped that Taylor knew what she was doing; there were some things that weren't worth meddling in.
Betsy knocked on the table, bringing Annette out of her musings. "Still onboard for the plan?" The seamstress asked.
Annette nodded. "Yes, I see that Taylor needs help. I will join her on patrol, but before that… she needs training and to know the players in the city."
Betsy's silver eyes shone with mirth. "Preparations, preparations! That's how we are going to help, we are a team, but we aren't going to be enough... I think it's finally time to rally the old gang. The PRT, the ABB and the E88, all have a support structure. We need one too." Betsy pointed her finger at Annette. "We aren't going to make mistakes like all those freshly triggered capes, we have been in the business before."
Annette took her smartphone that laid near her on the table and said, "Time to gather the gang."