Outsider Chronicles: Empress of Escalation

Isekai. A Genre I love to bits and one of the few that I would quite happily jump into with both feet. However, I don't care what kind of god killing powers I get out of it, finding myself as Taylor Hebert following a close encounter with the back of a locker is NOT what I had in mind!

And we're back. Now, before we begin, I'd like to point out that I am well aware that in canon, both Marquis and Glaistig Uaine deserved their reputations and place in the Cage, but this world is a bit of an AU. What actually happened with the latter will be revealed at a later date and the former was Caged mostly as a political and Cauldron move due to him being a bit of an issue for their Precogs.

Chapter 10

The aftermath of the Dragonslayers disastrous attack was...honestly kinda depressing. Mags and Dorynja went quietly, if a little mulishly, but Saint had to be sedated before he could be loaded into the vvann to be carted off to the hospital. According to what I'd overheard, there was a good chance that he'd end up in a psych ward, which wasn't all that surprising honestly. I did have to wonder what had pushed him over the edge so suddenly though. I mean, he was obviously a nutter already, not helped by his addiction to Teachers power, but his reaction to the destruction of Ascalon seemed a bit...sudden. I'd have to think on that later.

However, Saints little psychotic break wasn't the only thing I was curious about. Gregs little trick with space was rather interesting, not to mention familiar. It was a lot more brutal and controlled, but it felt a lot like Vista's power. I knew that some Tinkers could replicate other Parahumans powers, people like Bakuda, but I had no idea how Greg had managed it, especially in the way he had.

Of course, there was also the fact that Penny now had a Murakumo unit.

"We really need to stop meeting like this," I said as I approached the Tinker.

"That we do," said Greg, "Thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it," I said, "I am curious about one thing though. How did you do all that with Saint? It looked like Vista's power."

Greg nodded absently as he poked at his tablet.

"It was," he said, "Or rather, my version of it. I made this tablet a while ago, but I couldn't figure out what it did for ages. Seeing you in action gave me the final hint I needed to finish it and Vista was the Only Parahuman who got close enough to my base that I could scan her. Well, there was Kid Win and Armsmaster, but it doesn't really work on Tinkers…"

He trailed off as he looked up and saw me goggling at him.

"What?"

"You can replicate Parahuman powers?!" I spluttered, "HOW!?"

"The same way I can create sentient robot girls and a copy of an Event Weapon," said Greg, "Tinker Bullshit."

I blinked and nodded.

"That makes entirely too much sense," I said, "Still, thats rather impressive. I assume you can do it with any Cape?"

Greg frowned.

"Mostly," he said, "It doesn't work on Tinkers or most Thinkers. I think that the Cape needs to have a power that interacts with the world in some way."

He frowned.

"Hey Ddraig, you don't mind keeping this quiet, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Of course not," I said, "I'm not about to out you as a bullshit Trump, as well as a bullshit Tinker."

Greg smiled slightly and nodded his thanks.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do," he said.

"Nah, I should be going to," I said, "See ya!"

I jumped away as Greg vanished back into his lab.

With my brain now sufficiently reenergized from the unexpected excitement, and something rather interesting to add to it, I headed home and made a beeline for my computer. What Amy had told me about her Mothers journals and her ability to read and interpret runes well enough to help me put together a spell was not normal. There was a world of difference between runes as a language and runes as used in spell matrices and virtually all occult uses of runes I'd found were utterly useless and clearly created by people who had no idea what they were doing.

In short, Amy should not have been able to do what she did, even if her mother was into runes.

With my computer booted up, I went on the hunt for information. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to find about Amys mother, but details about Marquis were easy and made for...interesting reading.

A lot of the information on the man was rather conflicting, with official stories and the media condemning the man as a murderous bastard, not so different than Allfather and the Butcher, but reading between the lines and in some of the old forums on PHO, I quickly came to the conclusion that they might not be so accurate. Oh, the man had a body count, no one was disputing that, but a bit of research started turning up some...interesting reports and testimonials. From what I could tell, every single person Marquis killed had been, to put it bluntly, scum. Unrepentant killers, rapists, kidnappers, peadophiles, people who no one would argue were worthy of being removed from the world.

Not only that, but reports from people who had actually worked for the man or lived in his territory made it perfectly clear that they believed they had been in a much better situation than they were now. With Marquis, you knew exactly where you stood, the protection money was almost non-existent and you weren't at risk of getting shanked by some skinhead who thought your skin looked too dark. Not only that, but he often helped people in need. People who couldn't afford medical bills were offered assistance, the homeless provided with shelters and assisted in finding employment and so on.

I also discovered that, for whatever reason, in this timeline there was no doubt that he killed Iron Rain. I couldn't find much information on how, but according to the reports, she'd started taunting him during a battle between the Empire and the March and he'd done...something that had killed her, although exactly what that was I don't know. I couldn't see any injuries on the crazy bitch in any of the pictures taken after that battle, but they weren't exactly HD quality.

The general impression I got from everything I read was that Marquis was a man who was, at his core, trying to make things better in a city where the authorities were utterly incapable of intervening and was basically run by a bunch of crazy murderers.

I also quickly came to the conclusion that the Brockton Bay Brigade was utterly stupid for taking him down when he wasn't even that bad.

However, as interesting as it was to look at Marquis and his many victories, he wasn't what I was interested in. The problem was that there was nearly nothing to be found on Marquis family, which wasn't all that surprising since it was standard practice to keep the names of Birdcage bound Villains out of the news, even if they were unmasked. In the end, I resorted to just Googling Amy's real surname and hoped to get lucky.

I honestly wasn't expecting to get anything useful, which is why I was so surprised when I stumbled on a photograph of the English Department at Brockton Bay University and found myself looking at an older version of Amy sat in the front row with my own mother sat next to her with her arm around her shoulders.

Well thats handy. And more than a little convenient.

I quickly hopped over to the BBU page and managed to track down the woman's page. The University made it a point to maintain pages on staff who died during their tenure as a kind of 'in loving memory' thing. I have no idea why they did it, but it was rather useful, if jarring when I was confronted with an uncomfortably long list that served as a reminder of just how dangerous the city could be.

I quickly shook that off however and went to the womans page, where I was greeted with a large photograph of a drawn, sickly looking woman who, despite her apparent frailty, was still clearly Amy's mother. Her name had been Harmony Lavere, a professor of Languages for around fifteen years before she'd died, which also happened to be around how long Marquis had been active. There was no reference to Marquis, but her Daughter, Amelia, and her Husband, Harrison, were listed as her only family.

I sat back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling, thinking hard. There wasn't really anything in the profile that could indicate any kind of Magical ability or training, which wasn't that surprising, but it was still rather informative. Now that I had a name, it would be a lot easier to track down information on her and the fact that she clearly knew my Mother meant that I might even be able to get some information from Dad and my Aunt, although the latter was a tad unlikely.

Of course, I could see about getting it directly from the source and ask Amy if I could look at her mother's journals, but that seemed...less than optimal. We were friends, but I don't think we were close enough for me to start probing into her only memories of her mother simply to satisfy my curiosity.

I sighed deeply and rubbed my eyes, before reaching across and picking up my Grimoire. I couldn't find out any more right now, but with any luck, I could tease more details out of Amy by asking her for help with future projects. Who knows, she might even have some novel ideas. Now if only I could figure out why her Parents names were bothering me so much…

The sound of the front door opening and Dad calling out to me pulled me out of my thoughts. I sighed and peeled myself off my desk chair and headed downstairs where I found a slightly annoyed looking Dad.

"Whats this I heard about you getting into a fight today?" asked Dad without preamble, "I thought you weren't going out?"

"I wasn't," I said, "But a friend needed help and its not like the Dragonslayers are that much of a threat to anyone who isn't a Tinker. Besides, the fight was well and truly done before I got there. All I did was jump the lookout from behind and she was no where near as dangerous as Trainwreck."

Dads eye twitched slightly at the mention of my tussle with the Merchant Tinker/Brute. He hadn't been very pleased with me for getting into that fight, but that had more to do with the fact I'd been hurt than anything. Honestly, it was rather nice that he cared again after so...no, not going to keep thinking like that.

Dad took a deep breath and dropped onto the sofa with a sigh.

"Your right," he said, "Sorry Taylor."

I blinked.

"Wait, what?" I asked, "What are you sorry for?"

Dad sighed again and looked down at his hands.

"I made a promise that I wouldn't react to utterly failing to be a Father by overcorrecting and doing something stupid like trying to keep you locked up and completely safe," he said, "Your strong enough and smart enough to know not to get into a fight you can't win. Plus, I just can't...I guess I can't really understand what it means to have powers. The thought of you fighting Hookwolf is...well, its not pleasant to put it bluntly, even if I know intellectually that you would likely be completely fine."

He looked up at me sharply.

"Thats not a suggestion by the way," he said, "I don't think my heart could take hearing about that on the news or PHO."

I snorted and sat down next to him.

"Don't worry Dad, I get it," I said, "I don't think any responsible parent would be happy with this situation, but it means a lot that your willing to trust me. And don't worry, I have no intention of picking a fight with Hookwolf unless I really need to."

Dad smiled and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I let out a soft oof as he pulled me close and my ribs hit something hard under his jacket.

"Ow," I muttered.

"Oh, sorry Taylor," said Dad, "I'd forgotten about that."

I stared as he pulled off his jacket to reveal a rather large gun in a shoulder holster hidden underneath.

"Dad…"

"Things have been getting messy down at the Docks," said Dad, "With the Merchant Capes being arrested, the other gangs are starting to make moves on there territory and the junkies are starting to fight amongst themselves. We had an...understanding with the Merchants, but we don't know for sure if the other gangs will hold to that. I don't particularly like it, but my Dad taught me that its better to be safe than sorry, hence this."

I frowned.

"That...doesn't sound good," I said, "But how come I haven't heard anything about this?"

"Because nothing obvious has happened yet," said Dad, "However, some of the boys have spotted goons from the other two gangs hanging around and we know enough about the ebb and flow of the gang lines to know whats coming."

"That sounds really dangerous," I said, "Are you sure you'll be OK?"

He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'll be fine Taylor," he said, "Trust me, the Union has been around for a VERY long time and we know what we're doing."

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. He was trusting me, the least I could do was trust him. Still, I made a mental note to keep an eye on things in the Docks. If the gangs decided to attack seriously, the Union likely wouldn't stand a chance, regardless of how well armed or trained its members are.

"Hey, what do you guys want for dinner?" shouted Aunt Debbie from the kitchen, "I'm thinking Chinese."

Dad and I shared a look, then both shrugged and went to help Debbie decide what to get for dinner.

A few days after the Dragonslayer incident, I received a rather unexpected and very annoying distraction when I arrived home from school to find Alan Barnes' car in the driveway. I paused at the sight of it and frowned, before brushing it off and continuing inside. Dad and Alan were still friends, even if their relationship had taken a bit of a hit from the whole Trio debacle, so I shouldn't be surprised that he'd come over to see Dad.

"I'm home!" I called as I kicked my shoes off in the hall.

"In here Taylor!" called Dad from the living room.

I followed his voice and found him and a rather ragged looking Alan sat together. The lawyer smiled a little wanly as I entered.

"Hey Taylor, your looking well," he said.

"Hello Mr Barnes," I said, "You look…"

Alan snorted as I trailed off.

"Oh, I know how I look," he said, "Things have been...hard lately."

"I hope you don't expect me to apologize for that," I said a little curtly.

"Oh god no," said Alan, "If anything, its my fault. If I'd have just got Emma…"

He sighed and rubbed his face as he trailed off.

"Emma's sick," he said instead, "I won't go into detail, but its not good, bad enough that theres an argument to be made for leniency based on her not being in her right mind."

"My heart bleeds," I said coldly.

Alan flinched, then sighed.

"I guess I can't expect anything else," he said, "On the up side, she seems to be responding well to therapy."

He smiled hesitantly, which quickly faded as my stony expression didn't change. He sighed again.

"Alright, I'll just come out and say it," he said, "Emma's therapist suggested that it would be helpful if you…"

"No," I said, "I'm sorry Mr Barnes, but I can't face Emma right now. I'm glad shes getting help if she needs it and hope she recovers, but I'm not sure I can be in the same room as her without punching her."

Alan flinched and sighed again, slumping in his chair and seeming to age another couple of years.

"I understand," he said, "I knew it wasn't likely, but I had to ask."

He smiled sadly.

"Your a lot like your Mother Taylor, almost far too much."

"Thank you," I said, "I'm going to my room."

"Dinner at six," said Dad, who had been silently watching the whole exchange.

I nodded and headed upstairs, dropping my bag just inside my room before flopping down face first onto the bed and closing my eyes.

"You know, running away from your problems isn't healthy," said Issei as I opened my eyes again in my Soulscape.

"Neither is punching them in the face," I said shortly as I dropped onto one of the empty pews.

"Oh, I don't know, I find that quite cathartic," rumbled Ddraig, "Eating them also works quite well."

"Thats not even remotely helpful you overgrown iguana," said Issei.

Ddraig just let out a huff and settled back down to go to sleep. Issei sighed and sat down next to me. He didn't say anything, just sat there.

"I can't forgive her," I said eventually.

"No ones asking you to," said Issei, "But getting closure and moving on isn't the same as forgiveness."

Silence fell again.

"I can't face her," I said, "Not yet."

"Then don't," said Issei, "Speaking from experience, while moving on is important, its also impossible to force someone to do so if they don't want to. The only thing I can do is give advice."

I snorted.

"Is this where you tell me that keeping hold of all this anger is a bad idea?" I muttered.

"No, because you seem to be well aware of that already," said Issei, "But I will say that you shouldn't let those stupid girls keep a hold of your heart. If you do, you'll never reach past them and spread your wings to fly on your own."

I frowned and glanced at the older Red Dragon, not entirely sure what he was getting at. I mean, I wasn't entirely over the whole Trio debacle and I knew it, but I wasn't letting them affect me any more, not really. I had friends and I wasn't letting their old taunts stick with me. However, before I could ask what he was talking about, Issei stood and stretched.

"Alright, thats enough mushy stuff, lets get to fighting," he said.

Then, I couldn't think of anything much as I dodged the punch that obliterated the pew we'd been sitting on.

Teacher scowled as he waved away his student who had just delivered the bad news. The fact that Saint had been captured was annoying, but not a complete loss. His plans to gain control over the Birdcage and escape weren't completely lost, but they would be slowed considerably without outside help.

He sighed and leant his elbows on his desk, rubbing his eyes in irritation. As much as he loved his little puppet shows and plans, sometimes the stress of them could become too much, even for him. He stood and moved over to a small cabinet attached to the wall of his cell and removed a bottle of whisky that one of his students had managed to make and poured a few fingers into a cup.

"Things not going well?"

Teacher nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected voice and whipped around to see the Fairy Bitch floating in his doorway. He scowled, annoyed, but not surprised that the other Cell Block leader had managed to get past his guards somehow. He wasn't sure how, but she was rather good at getting around the prison undetected. It was one of the many things he loathed about Glaistig Uaine.

"What do you want?" growled Teacher as he took a gulp of the alcohol.

He'd definitely need it if he was going to have to talk to this crazy bitch. Glaistig Uaine ignored the question as she floated into the room and lent over his desk. Teacher scowled.

"If you don't want anything, ge…"

"Do you know what the worst part of my gift is?" she asked suddenly, cutting of Teacher.

The large man faulted, a little confused at the unexpected question.

"I...what?" he asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Its knowing that, no matter what, I can't stop whats coming," said Glaistig Uaine, "Do you know how frustrating it is to know that the future will see your loved ones go through agonizing pain and yet be unable to prevent it?"

"I can't say that I do," said Teacher.

Its not like he had any loved ones after all.

"No, of course you don't," said Glaistig Uaine as she straightened up and reached into the veluminous sleave of her modified prison sweats, "Fortunately, it also means that I can know when things change so I can take action. For what its worth, I'm not sorry."

Teacher opened his mouth to ask what in the world the crazy brat was babbling about now, but before he could, there was a flash of light and he choked on the blood now pouring from the deep gash in his throat. He clutched at the gaping wound as he fell to his knees, but he could already tell that it was pointless. Unless he could get help right this instant, he'd bleed out in seconds. Plus, even if he did get help, it wouldn't do much. Its not like the Fairy Queen actually needed to slit his throat to kill him.

A pair of cool hands cupped his cheeks and forced him to look up into the misty blue eyes of the Fairy Queen. He dearly wished he could curse at her, but all he could make was a faint bubbling sound.

"Rest now, oh lost Soul," she whispered in a voice even more eerie than her normal one, "Do not linger in this world and pass on without regret. I know not what awaits you, but all Dead deserve to move on unhindered, regardless of who they were in life."

A fingertip pressed against Teachers brow and he quickly slipped away into darkness.

Glaistig Uaine sat back on her heels with a soft sigh, a surprisingly sad expression on her face for a Villain with her reputation.

"I thought you couldn't act on your visions," said a voice from the door.

"If that were the case, there would be no point in them," said the Fairy Queen as she stood, "The trick is figuring out which visions I can actually act on and which I cannot. He was a threat who would have caused no end of suffering for many people. Before, acting on the vision would have resulted in a far grimmer future, but things have changed recently and now his death is a good thing."

The man known simply as Marquis sighed and stepped further into the room, wrapping his arm around his old friends shoulders as she lent into him. Despite her reputation, he was well aware of her dislike of killing, although that certainly wouldn't stop her if needed.

"You can do something as well," said the Fairy Queen after a moment, "If you want to help make the best future for Amelia, you need to send her that."

Marquis twitched slightly.

"And how do you propose I do that?" he asked, "Its not like we can leave."

Glastig Uaine pulled away and fixed her old friend with a glare.

"You know as well as I do that we could leave whenever we wanted," she said, "But thats not what I meant. He will come if you call."

Marquis flinched and turned away.

"Why would he do that?" he muttered, "Theres no way he'd agree to answer the call of someone like me, not after what I've done…"

The Fairy Queen sighed.

"You need to stop killing yourself over that," she said, "Regardless of what those morons said, you did the right thing. Its not evil to burn away the darkness and your actions saved far more lives than they took."

Marquis didn't say anything as he turned to leave.

"Please Marquis," said Glastig Uaine, "Just try."

The bone manipulator ignored her Fairy Queen and left her stood alone in Teachers cell. The small blonde sighed and shook her head.

"I really hope you pull your head out of your ass soon Harry," she muttered, "Otherwise, theres a very good chance Ameila will die."

She flicked her wrist and vanished with a pop as Teachers body burst into smokeless flame.

And there we go, done. Its a bit shorter and I didn't have a chance to do a couple of the scenes I had planned, but they can wait. Don't worry, next time will have some good old fashioned action. Or at least, it should. Theres really no telling with my muse.

So yeah, Gregs power. Its not actually what it appears. Nor is it really that OP. He can copy Parahuman abilities, but he can only use one at a time and each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses, plus, he needs his tablet to do anything with them. We'll see more of that in the future.

So yeah, kinda obvious who Amy's Parents are now, right? Don't worry though, the only characters from that particular story that will appear already have and their role won't be large. Plus, they are actually from the same world as Ddraig, so I've technically not added anything. How that works will be revealed soon enough.

I'm sure you're wondering why I intend to make Amy a Witch, right? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. Reason one, I like the idea. Reason two, it provides an alternative to her Parahuman power. She won't be losing that, but I wanted to do something different than the usual stuff that happens with Amy accepting her powers and starting to use them like she was never shit scared of them. Plus, it saves me from having to mess around with figuring out interesting ways she can use them without outing herself as a Biokinetic. The third reason is that this gives Taylor a study partner for Magic and a way to learn some more skills from some people who use Magic as their primary weapon.

I really hope I'm doing a good job of showing Taylors buried issues. Knowing my luck, I'm probably not and will get a load of flack when it comes to a head...eh, I'll deal.

Anyway, I'm done so I'm gonna sign out. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!