by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings.
High PriestessTaylor triggers when she notices that nobody comes forward. She has been pushed into her locker (thankfully mostly empty) and left there for hours. She remembers that there were many students, in that corridor. Many witnesses. Most have laughed at her predicament, and she can hear new laughter each time she bangs at the door, when she hears people passing by between classes.
She has her bag, thankfully, and has food and water. She can even use the empty bottle to pee – uncomfortable as it is (especially in the cramped place), it's still better than soiling her pants.
But as the day progresses and no one comes to help, she begins to get truly distressed: was she going to be left here… to die? Why couldn't she have people to help her?
As she's frantically banging at the door again, after the last bell, she feels something alien interrupting her thought processes… and latching onto people outside.
Outside are five prospective members of the ABB gang, who stayed hidden after the last bell, in order to put gang tags all over the place. And they hear the banging in the locker and feel compelled to investigate. And cut and remove the lock – they did bring the tools to escape the locked school, afterwards.
Upon seeing someone inside, they fall backwards, hitting their head on the ground or the walls behind.
Taking advantage of their stunned state, Taylor's power lashes out and pushes them to trigger as well, before linking them back to her.
This kind of bond not only brings some new abilities to the girl, but it also ensures their loyalty towards her: from then on, they will help her and defend her when needed. Not that she ask them, of course. In her thoughts, she owes them for her freedom.
The first to trigger is the little gang's leader, Rin – a black-haired teen of sixteen. He's also the first to see her, and the first to give her a name, as he awakens. "Benzaiten…" he whispers reverently, giving the name of the Japanese goddess of wisdom (and everything that flows: water, time, words, speech, eloquence, music, and knowledge). Because, in his mind, their new bond has shone a new light upon his own activities, and a clarity of mind.
His trigger is directed by Taylor's power, as she clearly needs some physical protector. That makes him a Brute as well as a Striker. And the feedback loop brings some Brute power back to Taylor, allowing her to regenerate her few wounds.
With Rin are Mikoto (whose name means "precious"), Soren (luck stone), Kahei (silver), and Hoshiko (child of the stars); respectively his little brother, girlfriend, best friend… and Kahei's twin sister.
Kahei is the second closer to the action, and the second to trigger. Taylor's power directs his trigger so that he could be a Mover for the whole group, with a Tinker ability to create power armours for more of the same. And she got the ability to fly slowly, herself, allowing her to escape the locker without needing to put her feet to the ground.
Hoshiko being right next to her twin, she's the third to trigger. She gains a subset of telekinesis, in relation to water only. It allows her to manipulate water in a large area, including pelting, blinding, and suffocating her enemies with jets of water – which, with enough pressure, can even cut metal. A Blaster effect, then, with also a Brute subset that makes her stronger (and regenerate) when immobile. From that, Taylor gains an increased resistance to all damage the longer she stays immobile.
And then it's Soren's turn to turn, because she has instinctively pulled Mikoto away from the disturbance. As someone who had wanted to become a doctor, at some point, she was granted a Shaker area of healing around her, for her allies, as well as bad luck for the enemies (as well as a Stranger ability to be able to actually find herself near those enemies without being detected). Taylor gains the ability to know her protectors' mental and physical state, and heal them at range.
Mikoto is the last, and his interest in animals is invested upon by Taylor's power, changing him into a Master of animals: he can now perceive through their senses, and control them as a group. He also gets some Thinker power to always know where he is, and how to go anywhere. From this, Taylor gains the ability to locate the five of them.
And now, she floats over them, her long black hair flowing in waves. She is not fully herself, her alien power digging into her memories to find words to say that will seal the bonds between them.
"Rin." she says – their bonds tell Taylor of their name. "Rise and shine." He does. "You are Ursa Major, our protector. Heed your call and take your place."
She repeats the words for the others, dubbing Kahei as Auriga (the charioteer), Hoshiko as Hydra, Soren as Vulpecula (the fox), and Mikoto as… Ursa Minor, of course. Collectively, they would be her Paladins – the knights devoted to her protection.
She then motions Kahei forward, and gives him ideas for their armour's design, most of which transmitted through their bond. While Kahei can fly and move fast, even while holding them all, he will make each armour able to do much of the same. They will also be stored in a small package, either as a backpack or a belt, so as to be equipped quickly. It implies that they won't be too cumbersome, though, consisting mostly of a breastplate, boots, gauntlets, and face-concealing helmet with fake long hair "escaping" behind. All in reinforced brass, because it's a material readily available, near his home.
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High TideThankfully, Taylor's Paladins weren't on a mission when they decided to tag the school. It means that their lack of trying isn't discovered by the ABB.
Soren's "bad luck" field is also a boon for Taylor: the very next day, Emma seems put upon to see her come to the school from outside. And Sophia's quite angry. The track star even flies down the entrance stairs to deliver a scathing comment or a blow… not that anyone will know what she intended to do, as she faceplants after missing the last step. She will continue in that vein afterwards, hitting herself when trying to punch Taylor (or anyone else, even without Taylor present, because Soren's Stranger power allowed her to follow Taylor's physical tormentor anywhere).
Madison intends to prank Taylor, as usual, except that a fire-protection sprinkler springs a leak and drips water onto her and her work, in Gladly's class. And a used water breaks over her stall when she goes to the toilets to change. And even if she comes back later, after having taken quite a large number of showers and baths, flies will always follow her.
Emma could have understood something strange was going on, but she can't let go of her grudge and continues to harass Taylor… only to find herself with insects falling (and settling) in her hair. Given how the lice resisted all treatments, she has to get a buzz cut to get rid of the infestation. She won't return to school afterwards, mainly because she's been seen by some classmates while she goes shopping – it doesn't matter that she arranges to go when school is in session, as those classmates happened to be Merchant, off half of the time.
With Soren shadowing Sophia, it quickly comes apparent that Sophia's the Ward known as Shadow Stalker. Taylor was already miffed that the PRT isn't working that hard into making the city liveable, and this information cements her idea not to join them.
Since they are already six, with many powers, she decides to create her own hero-aligned group. The "Paladins" becomes not the name of her protectors, but the name of their whole group. And her power helps, too: after training together in an old warehouse they commandeer, they patrol at night and defeat several villains… and Taylor's power grabs some unpowered Merchants and Empire members, makes them trigger, and binds them to her – since the power is linked to her brain, it knows to only select the "worthy" ones (those there because they had no other choice, and who had not committed any serious crime of their own free will).
Her Trump power can even target other capes, as it demonstrates when they interrupt a Merchant fight and get Whirlygig and Scrub to join. The two get what's called a "second trigger" which refines her existing powers (with a goal deemed compatible with Taylor's activities). The girl acting as a mini-tornado becomes able to create larger ones, and also throw the miniature ones away from her as attacks. The man who had just gotten the power to disintegrate anything becomes able to vary the size of his attack.
The new recruits will have armours, too, as well as a cape identity based on stars and constellations (Whirlygig becomes Antlia, the air pump; Scrub becomes Fornax, the chemical furnace). But to denote the fact that her original protectors have a higher "grade", Taylor and Kahei come up with a change in their appearance. Brass will be for entrance level, and her first Paladins will be clad in something that covers them a bit more, and which looks more like copper.
They also get ideas for further progressions, including partial progression: each armour will have spots able to receive additional decorations to denote achievements. For the brass armours, it will be pearls (in appearance only, of course), and topazes for the copper armours. Aiming for the future, they also imagined sets of silver armours with sapphires, gold armours with rubies, and even platinum armours with diamonds – each one faster and more resistant, of course. And possibly much bigger for the later iterations, with the possibility of changing shape (if the user's body isn't encased in artificial limbs, they can easily remove or reshape them). But not as "dragons" because, between Lung and the Canadian Tinker already named as such, there was already some people having rights for that designation.
Of course, they won't jump to platinum level without a lot of research and investment, including a larger powerbase with many more people (and money, too). Meaning, in turn, more power for the High Priestess – whom some had started to call "the Goddess Incarnate". Thankfully, once people know that she could "unlock" their power, she has no shortage of followers. Even if they know that she'll get a part of it, as well as their loyalty.
Cauldron is upset, of course. But Contessa's Paths imply bad things for them if they go after them. Bull-headed, Alexandria wants to make some examples and charges… only to find herself quite stumped after tripping on thin air and ending up with her head lodged in an open manhole. Like Madison Clements, she will have a following of flies for several days after that, and a following of haters on the pages where the pictures will be displayed.
It was just an example of the Paladins' creativity: by now, Soren's bad luck field has been worked into several items, including the staves held by their temple guards – yes, their warehouse has been renamed, and rebuilt. Besides, as a quasi-religious entity, Benzaiten's Paladins are exempt of several taxes. That allows them to expand upon the Merchant and ABB territory, building "chapels" there, and getting more people in.
Even those in small villainous cape gangs find themselves in better company with the new "religion". Such as Über and especially Leet, whom Taylor grants a secondary trigger that removes his pesky drawback. The Undersiders follow suit, with Rachel being offered work with Mikoto and all the animal specialists, and Tattletale with the decision makers – without the migraines. Having felt the winds of change, Coil… disappears from Brockton Bay, to settle elsewhere.
When Taylor and her assistants (including a rebranded Tattletale) deem the moment just to end two of the prostitution-and-drugs gangs, there are seven Paladins who reached silver level: Rin, Soren, Kahei, Hoshiko, Lisa, Über… and Taylor's dad. It wasn't nepotism but a just application of meritocracy, because the man was one of the best to deal with contracts. Especially now that he was empowered for that ("Play to your strengths." he has said).
The silver armours are gleaming, Kahei having finished them the day before – with the help of many other Tinkers, and other armours, remotely controlled to help. At silver level, the armour is thicker and thus taller, covering the whole body and granting an even more impressive presence. It also includes many defensive abilities, including against people able to bend metal to their will. Power-wise, and with the heroes they were made for, they are equal to the best the Protectorate could use against them.
Under those seven are fifty copper-plated heroes, each equal in power to the average middle-tier cape, and each with their own armour – in the Paladin structure, each armour is designed with the user's power in mind, and most of the people there have unique powers.
Below them are three hundred brass-level heroes, either with new powers they aren't completely used to, or with low-tier powers altogether (getting a strong power was a game of chance, even if Taylor smoothed the "getting a useful power you want" angle). It's quite a bit much, and it's thankful that several of them have powers that helped with everyday life, whether it was to construct or reconstruct lodgings, create or prepare food and drinks, and clean.
In total, there are 357 heroes, all devoted to Taylor, all known to her, and with part of their power within her purview.
In comparison, the Merchant have something like seven capes, by now: Skidmark, Squealer, Trainwreck, Mush, and three others thanks to the vials Whirlygig was tasked to hold onto, before joining the Paladins. The ABB has even less, even if one of them is Lung. The problem is with his pet Bomb Tinker, who has inserted bombs into the head of every Asian she could put her hands on.
Thankfully, with the many powers at her fingertips, Taylor has the ability to freeze her in time from afar (as long as she, herself, didn't move), time enough for her troops to find her and deactivate everything remotely.
Meanwhile, another special troop of her tackles Lung. It is not made of those who can ramp up like him, and are invulnerable to fire, and can strike hard and fast… no. They are Trumps that will negate his regeneration power, and his escalation, and his fire manipulation. And then they'll cuff him. The Temple's underground levels are made with cells that are able to nullify parahuman power, along a corridor at the end of which was a workshop for Amy Dallon, whose previous cape identity was Panacea.
The world-renowned healer had one fight too many with her mother, and one not-quite-lovers' spat too many with her sister. She joined recently and is already a copper armour with all the gems, soon to be silver. Victoria wanted to join too, but her loyalty to her family is too strong… for the moment.
Purity has joined, instead, granting the group a flying artillery. Taylor's second trigger allowed her some Brute-level resistance to damage and regeneration, and a reshaped blast – it was now a cone of variable width, with a corresponding loss in damage the wider it went.
But back to Amy. Her second trigger removed all her restraints about brains, and the ability to store in her memory a snapshot of her target's brain status. If things went awry, she could always return the brain to its original state. And with her experience increasing, she experienced less and less mishaps. She could now remove the brain structures known as the Gemma (if people were unsatisfied by their powers and wanted others) and the Corona Pollentia (for those villains who couldn't be redeemed).
To help her in her everyday chores, there are several capes dedicated to healing – it is a power that was quite rare, and needed, and Taylor's ability to choose powers (after training her own so that she would make the decisions) is a godsend for that.
There are even several of her Paladins who can bring somebody back from beyond death! One of them can "rewind" people he touches, a few minutes, so if they are dead in that time period, they can be brought back to a point at which they are alive and can be healed. Another can bring back a spirit and store it in a body, possibly not the spirit's own, if unavailable. And a third can store the current state of a number of individuals (a number that grows every day), so that he'll restore that state later.
There are also several capes dedicated to moving people quickly. One is, like Strider, able to teleport people in an area to another place, but his jump distance is limited, and he has to touch the ground each time. Another is able to collect parts of people he wants to teleport (hair's enough, generally) and brings them to him. A third can move anywhere in the world, but without passengers, something that meshes well with the fourth who can teleport, with one passenger, everywhere where his blood has been spilt. The last one Tinkers portals that open into Earths from other dimensions… but only on the same place.
With all those, Endbringer fights go much more smoothly. Including when Leviathan attacks the city.
That's when Eidolon defects, by the way. Noticing how the Paladins coordinate attack and defence, pull the dead and wounded for healing, and generally push the monster back while keeping the city mostly intact… it is eye-opening. It was the first time hundreds of parahumans trained together to the point of being able to act together – instead of a collection of individuals with differing agendas. Like the Yangban, but without the brainwashing (even if the loyalty component can be seen as such).
Taylor accepts his plea and grant him his "second trigger" – even though Cauldron capes never have one, normally. With it comes a better understanding of his own powers, as well as his condition: he has cancerous tumours slowly growing in his brain, pushing against his Corona Pollentia and Gemma… and other brain structures, too. That's why he was so stand-offish for so long. And losing power.
After his brain is healed, he notices that his wanton and uneducated use of powers had unleashed the Endbringers on the world. And he uses the codes to have them return to dormancy.
With Eidolon on her side, it doesn't take long for Taylor to reach out to the other capes from Cauldron, most notably Clairvoyant and Doormaker. With some exchanges in good faith, the two capes gain a bit more autonomy, while Taylor gains knowledge allowing her to find Scion's real body. And attack it en masse… sort of: true to her way of doing things in a hierarchical manner, Taylor's most powerful Paladins borrow energy and power from their own underlings in order to deal massive damage with their own attacks.
They notice, doing that, that their senses expand, allowing them to perceive the various dimensions said body inhabited. As if that astronomical energy necessitated one to open their senses to the whole cosmos and its various dimensional variants.
Immobile, its spirit not yet awakened from its slumbering ways, the enemy doesn't stand a chance.
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To be continued… ?Disclaimer: I don't own any Saint, Seiya or whatever. I also don't own any metallic dragon (from D&D). Yes, those were the inspirational bits behind the above ficlet, another one with too little dialog, as well as a test of writing in the unwieldy present tense.