Enjoy!
Terror 3.d
For the first time in a very long time, Victoria Dallon wasn't one hundred percent sure of herself.
Being raised into New Wave as an expectant hero had given her a level of certainty that most people didn't possess. She knew that what she had been doing was right and that the villains were evil. Her mother had taught her that at a very young age, even before she got her powers.
She had always known that when she got powers she would use them to help the city against the growing threat of the gangs and make a worthwhile contribution to society. And for a time, she had. She had busted heads and thrown gangsters into prison and stopped parahuman villains from wreaking havoc onto her city. She had been content with the certainty of her place in the universe.
But then Boogeyman came along.
To say that the new parahuman had blind sighted the entire city would have been an understatement. She had come out of nowhere and in less than a few weeks she had reshaped the politics of the city more than any other hero or villain had within the last few years.
Her methods might have been brutal, but one would have had to have been a fool not to recognized the results. The Merchants, a gang that had been a plague on the city since time immemorial were wiped out in the span of a single day. A few independents were trying to snap up the remnants of the gang, but they were few and far between. They were more prone to brawl amongst each other rather than against those that would see them gone. And now…this.
Victoria hit the play button again and allowed her television to replay the death of Kaiser in full HD glory as his chest exploded outwards. It was almost anticlimactic to see a cape that had been active since before she had been born drop over dead without so much as a fight. The reign of the Empire's Kaiser ended not with a mighty bang but with a pathetic whimper.
"How many times are you going to watch that?"
Victoria tore her gaze away from the television to see her younger sister join her lounging on the couch. The brunette slouched against the fabric with a sigh and for a moment Victoria almost wanted to ask if she was sick. A set of heavy bags trailed underneath her eyes, the only sign of how exhausted her sister really was. She tried to hide it from them, but Victoria knew when her sister wasn't feeling well.
These last few days had been hard on her with the influx of injured gang members being sent to the hospital. Boogeyman's attack on their rally and the ABB's subsequent bombing of their holdings had left a lot of people dead or hurt. Amy was working overtime at the hospitals, trying to keep up with the demand. Victoria was almost tempted to tell her to stop and take a break, but her sister could be as stubborn as she was at times, outright refusing to leave while the screams of the dying still haunted her ears.
Victoria knew that it wasn't healthy behavior for his sister, but trying to stop her would be even worse. Her trips to the hospital were one of the only ways that she could feel as if she were contributing to the city aside from healing her family members.
"It's just a little hard to take in. I mean, he's Kaiser," Victoria said as she waved the remote. For as long as she could remember Kaiser had been the face of the Empire, the man who held everything together. She had to admit that he could be charming when he wanted to be, and equally as vicious to his enemies. To know that such a long-lasting member of the Bay Cape community was dead was…unsettling.
It was a stark reminder that there were no guarantees in this business, that anyone could be killed. At the same time, it was a heartening reminder that the gangs that plagued the city weren't undefeatable, they could be killed and removed from power.
They could be beaten. They could be killed.
"It's just weird that I'm going to be able to wake up tomorrow and not have to worry about him," she said as she clicked the television off. The reporter wasn't going over anything she didn't already know. "Did they have you confirm his identity?"
Amy let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah, the leak was right, he was Max Anders."
Victoria couldn't hide a grimace at the confirmation. The PRT didn't tend to release villain identities after they were arrested or killed if only to protect whatever families and friends they had outside of their costume life safe. But a few hours after Kaiser's cold corpse had been hauled back to the PRT's morgue someone had leaked that Max Anders was indeed Kaiser. The revelation had upset more than a few individuals.
Max Anders had presented himself as a pillar of the community, an entrepreneur who hadn't given up on the decaying city of Brockton Bay. Medhall brought hundreds of jobs to the teeming masses of the city and helped keep them from sinking into financial poverty. They provided much-needed medicine and drugs to the overworked hospitals of the city. To know that had all been to ease the public into trusting the man so he could further his illicit goals was disheartening, to say the least.
The entirety of the Medhall Corporation was undergoing a rather thorough investigation from what she heard, with the PRT fighting over the corporation's corpse with the FBI and IRS. She had also heard that the CIA was trying to butt in given the Empire's relationship with the Gesellschaft. Dozens of high-ranking members were probably going to be brought up on charges as there was no way that Kaiser could have supported the Empire without their knowledge. Dozens more of the lower level workers were throwing in their resignations with the knowledge that the company that they had been working for supported a Neo-Nazi gang.
"Who do you think leaked it?" Victoria asked as she shifted her body so that she could get a better look at his sister. There were quite a few people claiming that Boogeyman had been the one to leak the information given what she did to Shadow Stalker. While there was certainly some truth to that, Victoria wasn't so sure. She didn't claim to be an expert on Boogeyman, but she doubted there would be any confusion as to who made the leak if she had been the one behind it.
No, she would have announced it to the heavens with Kaiser's head on a pike, waving it around for all to see. She wouldn't care about the repercussions any more than she did Shadow Stalker's reveal. She wouldn't have tried to hide her name from the leak and let it loose with a series of well-placed whispers. This spoke of someone who wanted to have Boogeyman take the fall for their own actions while remaining anonymous. A new faction seeking to subvert the Empire? Lung wouldn't have bothered with something so subtle and Coil was too small time to risk the wrath of the Empire like that.
"Don't know, don't care," Amy said as she closed her eyes for a moment. Victoria felt a pang of guilt for the state that her little sister was in. The ABB's bombing run on the Empire had left dozens injured, mostly gang members with a few civilians in the mix. The hospitals could barely keep up with the demand and had been requesting Ames more and more lately, particularly when they came across some of the more exotic explosions. Victoria couldn't suppress a full body shiver as the memory of a woman with half of her body turned to glass was etched into her mind. The woman had been lucky to live, but others hadn't been as fortunate.
An image of Amy in the woman's place flashed through her mind like a bad premonition. Victoria could feel her gut churning at the thought of her sister going through the horror that woman had. The seeds of doubt that had been planted by Boogeyman were starting to sprout, fed by the growing conflict in the city.
You only need to lose once.
"So, what are we going to do about the ABB?" Aunt Sarah asked as they settled down into their dinner. Typical New Wave meetings were rather informal compared to the Wards or Protectorate. It wasn't uncommon for them to eat while they were doing it, but Victoria couldn't bring herself to take part. She just rolled her food around with her fork as she listened to the adults.
"We need to put away whatever pet Tinker Lung has in reserve," her mother said. Victoria couldn't help but grimace at the mention of the ABB's new tinker. They were proving to be quite the game changer for the ABB, giving even the lowest of their members the power to take down capes. It significantly shifted the balance of power towards their favor.
"Are we sure we don't want to finish the Empire up first? I know these bombings are bad, but if we give the Empire time to lick their wounds then they might pull back from this," her Uncle Neil said as he settled into his seat. Victoria knew that her uncle was only playing the devil's advocate, but the thought of letting the ABB getting away with these bombing made her want to hit something.
"With the Empire going to ground trying to track them down will be even harder," Mom said with a shake of her head. "If we let the ABB gain ground they'll only become even more powerful, and the more time we give their Tinker to work, the harder it will be to fight them."
Victoria felt a chill go up her spine as she considered what Mom said. She hadn't thought about that. If the ABB's new Tinker could do things like turning people into glass now, what could she do three months from now? For all, they knew she could make a bomb that could wipe out the entire city. "That would be bad," Victoria said as her throat went dry. Perhaps not the most eloquent observation, but it was none the less true.
"Which is why we need to go after the ABB first," Mom said as she cut up her steak.
"That's all well and good, but what about Lung?" her older cousin Crystal asked. Everyone turned to stare at the blonde as she shrugged helplessly. "Look, all I'm pointing out is that if we are serious about taking down the ABB we're going to need to deal with Lung eventually."
Victoria grimaced at the thought, and she could see her fellow family members doing the same. Lung was an absolute pain to fight because time was always on his side. The more he fought the stronger he got until nobody could stand against him. His opponents could be swept aside with as much thought as a hurricane might give an ant. While she had never fought the man at the height of his power she knew that when he had first showed up in the Bay he had utterly thrashed the local Protectorate and New Wave in a display of his strength. She had watched the videos of the fight and they might have well been trying to put a fire out with gasoline for all the good they did.
And that was with the Protectorate assisting New Wave. Victoria couldn't even begin to imagine trying to fight a ramped-up Lung without Protectorate back up. But with the way that local public opinion towards the organization was plummeting, they couldn't afford to be associated with them too much. They still kept in contact to coordinate patrols, but they were avoiding fighting alongside the group for the time being. At the very least they wanted to wait until a new Director came in to replace Piggot. There was nothing certain, but there were some rumors on PHO that an internal investigation was commencing on the ENE PRT.
Victoria knew that even if they did decide to get rid of Piggot and her ilk they wouldn't do anything until the crisis had been averted. They wouldn't want to risk sending a new director in in such a turbulent time. Which meant they would have to deal with Lung themselves.
People on PHO often asked why they didn't just deal with Lung before he could ramp up, and while the PRT would give some vaguely specific answer that really didn't tell them anything they kept the truth hidden. The truth was that Lung wasn't stupid. The man knew exactly what his weaknesses were, and went to great lengths to ensure that he wasn't caught off guard. Whenever he joined a fight he was already ramped up enough that unless you were willing to kill him, trying to keep him down proved to be difficult.
"I'm just saying that if we're serious about going after the ABB we'll need some extra firepower against Lung," Crystal said, earning a few nods around the table. It wasn't a truth that any of them really wanted to admit, but it would be absolutely suicidal to not talk about it. None of them had any power that could really hurt Lung enough to force him to submit.
"I can talk to some independents that might be interested," her mother said as she steepled her fingers in thought. Victoria could see her eyebrows furrow as she mentally went through the list of independent heroes that operated in the city. There weren't many, but there were a few. The number of those few that would be willing to fight Lung was an even shorter list. Still, there was one name that popped into Victoria's head that would be willing to do it.
"What about Boogeyman?"
Victoria tried not to squirm underneath the collective gaze of her family as they turned to face her. She knew that her suggestion probably wouldn't be the most popular, but the look that her mother was giving her made her wish that she had kept her mouth shut.
"No. We will not be associating with her," her mother said, her lips drawn back into a thin line.
"Why not? I mean, we need extra firepower and Boogeyman has proven to be more than willing to attack the gangs," Victoria offered as she tried to hide her growing unease at her mother's stare.
"She's also a loose cannon and goes against the very tenants that New Wave stands for. We founded this group with the idea of ensuring that capes could be held accountable for their actions. If we assist Boogeyman in her reign of terror we'll be no better than the criminals," her mother said, her lips twisting in distaste. Victoria felt a knot of guilt twist in her stomach at her mother's words. She knew that she had ignored those ideas more than once to make sure that a criminal got the message. Judging by the stare that she could feel Amy giving her she was thinking the same thing.
"But wouldn't it be better to get the criminals off the streets first? I mean, we could always take down Boogeyman after," Victoria said. She could understand why her mom was so against the idea of ignoring the tenants of the very organization that she had helped found, but if it meant making the streets a safer place…if it meant accomplishing something of note.
"Victoria, I know that you want to stop the fighting, we all do. But what you're suggesting would invalidate everything that New Wave has worked to establish. Our reputations would be ruined if we allowed ourselves to fall down that slippery slope," Aunt Sarah said with a kind expression on her face. Her open warmth was a sharp contrast to the closed off coldness of her own mother. Uncle Neil seemed to be in agreement with Aunt Sarah and her father was too lost in his own little world to care.
Now, I don't want to hear any more talk about this, are we clear?" her mother asked, and for the first time in a long-time Victoria wanted to say no. She had always respected her mother's decisions when it came to heroing (even though she didn't always listen) but now she didn't want to. She wanted to keep arguing about this, to convince them that the best thing that they could do for this city was to team up with Boogeyman, even if it was only temporary.
But as she prepared to open her mouth and push forward she realized something. Whatever she said wouldn't matter. The adults in New Wave had already reached a consensus on the matter and weren't going to consider anything else than what was best for New Wave as a whole. And it was at that realization that she saw the light.
"Our reputations would be ruined if we allowed ourselves to fall down that slippery slope" Aunt Sarah's words echoed through her mind as she allowed herself to settle back down in her seat. Because this was the real issue they were having, wasn't it? New Wave had the exact same problem that the Protectorate did, they cared too much about how the public viewed them. They had to of course, given that they didn't possess the huge support network of the PRT. They had to take every scrap of good will they could get in order to maintain their authority. But did it really matter in the end if they didn't do their best to help improve the city? Where they any better than the very Protectorate they had so recently decried?
"Alright," Victoria said as these thoughts stewed in her head. Her mother gave her a sharp nod before continuing the conversation, but by that point, she wasn't paying attention. Her mother's words faded into the background as she considered her revelation. Did she really want to be part of another PR team? Or did she want to make a difference?
Boogeyman didn't care about her PR or what people thought of her. She was brutal and could be cruel at times but she got the job done. The Merchants were gone, the Empire was weaker than they had ever been before. She was pushing the gangs back in a way that hadn't been accomplished for years.
You only need to lose once.
Victoria could feel her resolve build as she made her plans. She was going to make a difference in this city, whether her mother liked it or not.
She wasn't going to lose Amy.
Victoria tried not to shiver as the chilling winds of February railed against her form. Even with her sweater, it was still far too cold for her comfort. The cold weather didn't even have the decency to bring some snow with it to lighten the mood. Instead it the city was covered in a blanket of depression and suffering, a miasma threatening to choke the life out of the citizens. She sincerely hoped that the quickly approaching March would be far warmer for her sake.
Part of her knew that coming here was a bad idea. If she did this then she would be betraying every ideal and tenant that New Wave held dear, the very ideas that she had been raised on as a child. She could have listened to her mother and aunt and stayed away from Boogeyman and carried on as she had been before.
But instead of being wrapped up in a warm blanket, here she was, fighting off the cold and waiting for her to catch Boogeyman's attention.
You only need to lose once.
Boogeyman's words had stuck her with throughout the conversation and clung to her psyche like a bad dream. Victoria knew exactly what she was risking by coming here, by agreeing with Boogeyman's offer. She could destroy the New Wave movement if this got out. But could she really say that she was a hero if she didn't do everything in her power to protect the people of this city? To protect her sister?
The shadows darkened and deepen and the young parahuman could feel another chill sweep over the area. A weight settled down upon the alleyway that made sent chills that had nothing to do with the cold up her spine.
"I didn't expect to see you so soon."
Victoria whirled around, bringing her fists into a fighting position, only to stop short as she caught sight of the speaker. Boogeyman's yellow eyes glowed in the dark as she stared down at the parahuman from her perch on the alleyway's brick wall. She seemed to be almost reclining atop the structure without a care in the world. Victoria could feel her gaze sweep over her form, assessing her, judging her.
"I was expecting another day at least," Boogeyman said with a tone that conveyed some genuine curiosity. Her hands steepled under her chin as she considered the older parahuman, and in that moment Victoria couldn't help but feel like a child. There was just something about the cape that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end.
Victoria gave her a careless shrug to mask her surprise. "I saw what you did on the news."
"Oh?" Boogeyman asked with a raised eye ridge. Victoria would have thought that a lack of eyebrows would look odd, but on Boogeyman, it seemed to work.
Victoria nodded as she rubbed her arms in an effort to stem her nervousness and the biting chill. "You killed the leadership of one of the most powerful gangs in the city."
"I did," she said. There was a flicker of pride in those yellow eyes of hers, but her face remained purposely blank. Victoria would have given anything to know what was going on in that skull of hers. She took a deep breath as she prepared for what she was about to do next. This was the final point where she could turn back and still maintain her deniability. She hadn't said or agreed to anything that could condemn her in the eyes of the public. If she wanted to, she could turn around and go right back to New Wave.
You only need to lose once.
"I want to help you," Victoria said, banishing her doubt away into the dark corners of her mind. If she was going to do this then she couldn't afford any uncertainty, especially not for a choice like this.
"Really? You seemed rather uncertain last we spoke, what changed your mind?"
"You took down Kaiser, whose probably been at this longer than we've been alive. You did in a single day what the Protectorate and New Wave hadn't been able to do for years," Victoria said, her throat feeling somewhat dry as the words came out of her mouth. It was difficult to admit that New Wave had been failing to curb one of the most powerful gangs in the city for years, but denying the problem wouldn't solve anything. Her mother refused to see that, refused to admit that they needed to take a harsher stance against the gangs.
"You were right, about the PRT and Protectorate. All they've been doing is trying to contain the damage, they haven't made any moves against the Empire or the ABB. All the people they've caught were because of you," Victoria said, a lump forming in her throat. Even if she had never been a part of the Protectorate, she still looked to them for guidance. They were the heroes that were supposed to be keeping the people safe from the villains. But Boogeyman's words and actions had pierced the veil that had blinded her. There was no proactivity in their planning or patrols. They served to keep the status quo and nothing more. Victoria didn't want that, she wanted to make a difference.
Just like Boogeyman was.
"But you, you've been pushing back the gangs, you've been doing what everyone said was impossible," Victoria said, a slight feeling of awe entering her tone. For years, everyone had been content with the status quo. The people viewed the gangs as much a part of the city was the Protectorate, perhaps even more so. Heck, they even had a tourist industry based around being able to witness a cape fight.
"I haven't been entirely successful," Boogeyman admitted, a foul expression crossing her face. Victoria knew that the woman was most likely talking about the ABB's bombing run. While it was nowhere near as destructive as it could have been in terms of civilian causalities, it was still a reminder that the ABB weren't going anywhere.
"You've done more in a month that the Protectorate has in years," Victoria said, reaffirming her own convictions to her current path.
"And are you ready to do what is needed?" Boogeyman asked, drawing herself up to her full height. Victoria couldn't help but notice how tall the girl was compared to her, it was almost frightening in its own way. The parahuman teen tried to keep herself from biting her lip as she considered the question. Talk was one thing, but to actually take part in what she was discussing?
"I won't force you to do anything, if you'd rather sit on the sidelines," Boogeyman said, the oppressive aura that had been suffocating the alley pulling back a bit. Victoria scowled and drew herself to her full height. And somehow, she still was shorter than Boogeyman.
That so wasn't fair!
"I'm not afraid of what I need to do," she said. There was a slight twitch of amusement on the taller cape's lips at her utterance, but she didn't stop there. "But I'm not going to kill anyone. I—I won't stop you from killing them, but I won't do it myself."
There was an uncomfortable pause as Victoria felt those yellow eyes stare at her as if they were gazing into her very soul. Boogeyman's face was otherwise expressionless, a stone slab that she couldn't read.
"Alright," she said, breaking the silence. "I won't force you to do something you don't want to."
"Another thing," Victoria said, eliciting another twitch around the cape's mouth. Victoria knew she was probably pushing her luck, but she wasn't going to get involved in something that she would regret later. "My family stays out of this. Whatever I do with you, it won't tie back to my family in anyway."
Victoria knew that her family was already in a constant state of danger thanks to their unmasked identities. The rules gave them some protection, but is someone really wanted them dead they had their address in the phone book. There was little they could do to stop an assassination attempt. Drawing unwanted hatred from the gangs and villains onto her family was the last thing she wanted. They already had enough on their plate as it was.
"Your family won't be drawn into this if you don't want them to be," Boogeyman assured her with a slight smile. But Victoria could see a flash of pain behind those cold yellow orbs. It was a brief thing, but it was there. Boogeyman had lost her father to a driving accident, hadn't she? While the news hadn't said anything about Boogeyman's personal identity her mom had looked over the files as a possible case against the PRT and Protectorate. While she hadn't meant to, she had snuck a glance or two at the file.
Victoria decided to keep her mouth shut about that though. Bringing up a dead family member probably wasn't the best idea.
"Though you'll need a new identity," Boogeyman said, drawing Victoria out of her thoughts.
"What?"
"Well, it's not like you can join me as Glory Girl," she said with a raised eye ridge. Victoria flushed in embarrassment with the realization of what the cape was talking about. She hadn't even thought about creating a new cape identity. Boogeyman seemed to find her slip up amusing as a few chuckles wormed their way out of her throat. "Don't worry, I planned ahead."
"I expected more," Victoria said as she made a show of looking around the room.
"Like what?"
"I dunno. It just seems…empty."
It certainly looked like a place that Boogeyman would be living at with its deep shadows and almost decrepit nature. The walls and interior of the building seemed to be twisting in a way that reminded her of Vista's spatial warps. But instead of making it feel larger the unnatural nature of the space made if feel like everything was slowly closing in on her. Wooden planks and tarps were set up over what few windows were left. The lack of proper lighting made the entire building seem even more oppressive.
But despite the feeling of dread wandering up her spine as a few of Boogeyman's minions roamed the building, there was nothing really to it. No substance, all appearance. The only personal amenities that she could see was a ratty old chair that should have been thrown into the garbage years ago. Just looking at it made Victoria want to smash it into a thousand pieces with how hideous it looked. The only other thing present that could be considered comfort was the single television that looked like it was from another era. It even had an antenna of all things.
"It's not like I'm entertaining many guests," Boogeyman said as she wandered over to a small pile of boxes.
"So, how is this going to work?" Victoria asked as she watched Boogeyman rummage through the boxes before settling on one.
"Well, if you don't want your family to know that you're working with me you're going to need a new costume," Boogeyman said as she pulled the box open. Victoria could only nod in agreement. Part of her rallied against the idea of surrendering her identity as Glory Girl, but she supposed it wasn't that unusual. Capes rebranded themselves all the time, though playing two identities at once was a far rarer occurrence. Most people could barely handle the stress of one secret identity, much less two.
"Oh, right," Victoria said, tilting her head to the side in thought. She had never really had a secret identity before. She had always been really open about her powers and her identity with the public given her family. But the thought of actually hiding who she was, not just from the public but from here family seemed odd. She knew that it was something that she would need to do to keep her family away from this, but it still was an alien idea to her.
"You won't be able to leave any of your features exposed," Boogeyman explained as she pulled something from out of a box. As the parahuman turned around Victoria could see that it was a set of pitch black clothes. Victoria hummed a bit in distaste, drawing a raised eye ridge from the girl. "You have a problem?" It wasn't, combative, but there was a hint of something else in her voice that Victoria was sure she didn't want directed at her too much.
"I know that black works on you," Victoria said, giving Boogeyman's robes a wave. I did really work out for the girl, she wasn't lying about that. Her ashen skin tone actually made it a good color match all things considered. "But black isn't really my color."
Boogeyman stilled, a brief flash of something in her eyes made Victoria's hairs stand up on end. She had seen that look a lot when her dad was lost in his own thoughts. Did she remind the girl of something?
"Well, this is all I have for now," Boogeyman said, handing the clothing to Victoria. "It wasn't like I could go into a store shop around. I had to get in and out before anyone reported me."
"How did you get these then?" Victoria asked as she took the clothes. They actually felt pretty nice, so she wouldn't have to worry about chafing. But all the same, they weren't the top of the line brands like she was used to. Perhaps a bit petty, but she liked her clothes.
"I found them in the clearance pile at a thrift story. I still had some money saved from…before all this and dropped it off at the cash register," Boogeyman explained, her shoulders hunching in a little at the apparent thought of her life before her trigger event. Victoria bit her lip a little. She knew that her trigger had been positively mild compared to others and she just didn't get the soul-crushing feeling that other capes did when they thought about their own.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Victoria asked as she tried to ignore the chill of fear as Boogeyman's yellow eyes locked onto hers.
"No." The single word was said with such certainty that Victoria couldn't help but flinch a little. She averted her gaze from Boogeyman as she started to move away from her. "Here."
Victoria looked up just in time to see Boogeyman toss something towards her. She caught the object easily and gave it a critical look. It looked like it was an old Halloween mask. A simple skull stared back at her as she tested the material under her fingers. The plastic was cheap, but it wasn't like she had to worry too much about protection with her power. Besides, Miss Militia's mask was a scarf and she didn't even have any Brute powers.
"If you want to get your own you can, I'd just thought you'd like having one now," Boogeyman said, drawing her attention away from the mask. The girl's voice was far softer than it had been before, and her tone far less certain. It reminded her a bit of the shyer girls in school, the ones that didn't do much socializing. It was a far cry from the towers and terrifying presence she had come to associate with Boogeyman.
"Thanks, Taylor," Victoria said with a small smile. Boogeyman froze and slowly turned to face the blonde parahuman. Victoria's smile collapsed a bit as a blank expression overtook Boogeyman's face.
She knew that infringing on a cape's identity was severely frowned upon by the community, but it wasn't as if the girl's true identity was a secret. Anyone with half a brain could figure out that she was the girl that had been bullied by Sophia Hess. The PHO moderators had tried to quash the discussions on the boards, but it was pretty much an open secret at this point.
"I-I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to know but—" Victoria started to say, only to be cut off.
"Taylor Hebert is dead."
Victoria didn't say a word as Boogeyman spoke. She didn't sound angry or enraged, but rather as if she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying.
"She died in that locker. I'm just the part of her that didn't stay dead. Her anger and rage and every dark thing that had been bubbling under her surface. I'm all that's left," she said. Victoria was hardly an expert on psychology, but she had done enough independent study to help the best she could with her dad. It almost sounded like that Boogeyman—no Taylor, was trying to dissociate herself from her previous identity.
"I don't think that's true, Taylor," Victoria said, earning a harsh glare from the girl. But this time she didn't flinch as those yellow orbs glared at her in anger. She could see the flashes of pain behind her mask of rage, the part of her that Sophia had hurt and never stopped hurting. "If Taylor Hebert was truly dead then you wouldn't have gone after the gangs. You would have gone after the PRT and the school and burned them all to the ground. Just like you did with the Merchants and what you're doing to the Empire. But you didn't."
"I hurt Sophia. I broke her," she said as if she was trying to convince herself.
"Yeah, but you didn't have to go after the criminals. You could have left them to their own devices while you took revenge on the people that wronged you. Instead, you took the Merchants down first," Victoria said. Taylor said nothing as she stared at the cape, not in anger, but with a blank expression as if she couldn't comprehend what was being said. "I don't think Taylor Hebert is as dead as you're making her out to be. I think that if she was, you wouldn't be doing this right now."
"…You'll need to come up with a new name," Boogeyman said after a long silence. Victoria bit her tongue at the cape moved away from her. She had the feeling that she had pushed as much as she could for the time being. "We're going to need to start working on the ABB soon."
"What are we going to do about Lung?" Victoria asked, frowning as Boogeyman paused.
"I have a plan for Lung," was all she said as she continued towards the pile of boxes.
"You think you can beat him?" Victoria asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew that Boogeyman was powerful, but Lung was Lung. And Endbringer hadn't been enough to put him down, and she didn't think that Boogeyman was capable of matching one of them either. Boogeyman paused what she was doing and considered the question with a tilt of her head.
"If I got him before he could ramp up too much… maybe. But Lung's greatest strength is his fighting prowess, and only a fool would attack where their enemy is strongest," Boogeyman said.
"So, what are we going to do?" Victoria asked.
"We aren't going to fight him," Boogeyman said with a shake of her head.
"What? You're just going to let him go?" Victoria asked angrily. Her face twisted into a scowl at the thought of letting that monster roam free. With the Empire on the backfoot the ABB could expand across the city virtually uncontested by the criminal element. And it wasn't as if the PRT and Protectorate had much success in stopping Lung.
"No," the shadowy cape said with such finality that Victoria couldn't help but flinch. "We aren't going to let the ABB overrun the city. But trying to fight Lung head on will only get people hurt, I think he proved that very well with his arrival to the city."
Victoria winced at the reminder of Lung's victory over the combined forces of virtually every adult hero in the city. She hadn't been allowed to participate in the fight, but she had watched as the towering monster covered in silver scales stronger than steel and wreathed in biting flames that could melt flesh carve through the city without pause.
The fire department had been very busy that day.
"We can't beat Lung in a straight fight so we aren't going to try. I have something else in mind for him. Since you came sooner than I thought you would I actually don't need you for this part," Boogeyman said, earning a frown from Victoria.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Victoria asked with a pout. She didn't want to be benched on the sidelines. Instead of answering her new comrade pulled a slip of paper out from under her cloak and handed it to the blonde parahuman. Victoria frowned at the list of names etched onto the paper. Most she didn't recognize, but she knew one of them worked at the PRT. With a raised eyebrow, she looked back up at Boogeyman. The cape in question smirked.
"Tell me, what do you know of Coil?"
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