Chapter 9


Taylor Hebert


Don't make any noise.

Don't move too loudly.

Don't even breathe too loudly.

Anything and everything that attracted attention seemed like a bad idea right now. There weren't a whole lot of upsides to a hostage situation, mind you, but the fact that the two of them had yet to be noticed was the only reason why they weren't in danger. And since The hostage takers were mostly focused on keeping everything moving smoothly, that actually gave them a bit of time to take in a few details.

Their leader, more or less, seemed to be a blonde haired girl not too much older than Taylor. She was wearing a purple costume with two stylized black Ts on it and a utility belt. The only thing that stood out on the belt was a holster with its retaining strap undone, though the villain hadn't drawn her weapon yet.

'She's calm. Way too calm.'

Taylor wasn't some sort of detective, but years of watching people twitch and trying to hide how she felt was enough to clue her in on the basics of what a bully looks like.

The blonde was relaxed.

She was in control.

Instead of threatening people, she seemed to scan the crowd, looking for troublemakers or any daredevils who thought about playing hero. And even as her head stayed on a slow, steady swivel, the villainess continued to issue instructions to the rest of the team while they all kept working.

"Move the weapons first. I don't want them just sitting around." Holding out her arms, the young woman smiled broadly. "So long as nobody does anything stupid, everybody gets to go home today. And don't worry about your wedding rings. That's not what we're here for."

Other than her there was the renaissance fair reject, a square shouldered girl in a dollar store dog mask sitting on one of the monster mutts, and a tall man, or perhaps an older teenager, in black biker leathers and a grinning skull faced motorcycle helmet.

Out of all of them, he seemed to be the least dangerous, as he was mostly focused on gathering cash, stuffing it into duffle bags, and then securing those bags on the backs of dogs. It was a simple task and one he seemed to be all too familiar with. More than that, though, he was clearly the second in command - and by far the most focused and professional Admirable, in its own way, something about how he moved said that the villain maybe didn't want to be here. The tension in his body and the sharp, low words he shared with his teammates suggested that he was only here because it was the group's goal.

Even worse, Taylor could swear they seemed familiar.

'That's what I get for going shut-in'

At some point in the past, Taylor had been what others might call a nerd. And while she had never been a cape geek, she had very recently become much more interested in heroes of the Tinker subset than much of anything else.

For obvious reasons.

Outside of that crazy lady with the merchants, and Leet, it wasn't like any villain in town had a tinker she could research. One being an enforcer for a bunch of armed junkies and the other being Leet meant she wasn't enthused to look them up either, leaving her with just the white hats to focus on.

Thus, it was very embarrassing to admit that she didn't have the foggiest idea of who these people were.

'I know they aren't new.' Somewhat playing to type, the boy whistling Delilah was more focused on weapons and jewelry, haphazardly trying to grab as much as he could. His ruffles and faux-luxury costume only made the steel and the silver seem far more real.

Thankfully neither of the men actually seemed to care about the crowd and none of the attackers were robbing individuals, even the ones visibly wearing jewelry or expensive watches. And yet, this still left the final member of the group, the one with the dog mask, who was patrolling through the interior of the mall.

Indeed, she, doubtless of her power being quite impressive, was far, far less impressive than her mount.

Standing five or so feet at the haunch, it was larger than anything but the biggest of bears, and was maybe as much as fifteen feet long from snout to tail tip. At least five of that was tail alone, but that still left an absolutely massive and massively misshapen monster snuffling along as it slowly walked forwards.

Asymmetrical, it was a mishmash of exposed muscle, hardened boney plates, and sharp spikes. Two sets of claws, one pushing out of the top of its feet, clacked against the cheap floor tiles and it beat a similarly uneven pattern as it trundled along.

And it did trundle.

The thing was so huge Taylor would have guessed it was more than a thousand pounds, maybe as much as fourteen or fifteen hundred, and she was frankly amazed that the monster didn't even sound like it was straining against its own weight.

It was a sobering reminder of the power a cape could wield over life.

That and it was also rather terrifying, making it somewhat understandable when a woman broke cover. Her muffled screech of terror made it clear her nerve had failed and she tried to run as the mutant dog began to approach. This was probably the worst decision she'd made in her life for a number of reasons, but the biggest one being that she was trying to run from a dog.

The monster hound being the size of a small car was probably largely immaterial.

Doing as any animal does when faced with sudden movement, its head snapped immediately onto the running woman and with a… frankly friendly sounding, and still terrifying, woof it was running her down.

Taylor didn't have long enough to consider what her father would want to do or even what would be smart. There was a person in danger. So she acted.

Throwing out her hands, the teenager pushed against the part of her that could touch the water around her. It wasn't as easy as breathing and normally even moving the smallest amount could leave her feeling fatigued and exhausted, but between the desperation to do something, anything to stop an innocent from being crushed and the sole focus on stopping the monster mutt some part of her gave way.

A crash and a bang rang out as several water fountains went flying.

She collapsed to the ground in a mixture of pain and confusion.

But most importantly, a great amount of water violently wrenched itself free from the mall's piping to slam into the Master and her minion with enough force to crush bone.

Surprised, the dog stopped short and reared back, taking most of the hit for its mistress. And that left the stocky girl in the dollar store mask spluttering, soaked head to toe, and incredibly confused.

Unfortunately, Taylor was not so lucky. Her body had suddenly and rather violently transformed, with her legs and back forcibly ribbing through her clothes and sending her falling forwards. A fall that ended with a nice, loud splat as her nose broke her fall and was swiftly followed by a crunching noise as her glasses were smashed too.

And that was only where her trouble began.

Having made herself an obvious threat, she drew the immediate attention of all four villains. After all, who else but the mermaid flopping around with a broken nose was going to be a hydrokinetic? It wasn't long before the mutant hound was upon her, snarling and growling as its front legs pinned Taylor against the ground.

Her dad chose that moment to smash a fire extinguisher into the head of the dog with a scream of terror and rage, catching a casual back-paw from the creature after failing to do more than make the soaked canine annoyed.

"Bitch, stop now!"

The blonde yelled and Taylor flopped around enough to see through her broken frames enough to aim.

As the girl named Bitch, Hellhound according to the PRT, Taylor now recalled, turned to attack either her or her father, the Tinker remembered very painfully that she was also a very dangerous Blaster, too.

Poorly aimed squirt gun attacks, formed purely by an idiotic need to try and save someone weren't the only thing she could do.

"Bitch! Enough!"

Speaking firmly, calmly, and like he expected to be obeyed, the taller boy, the young man truthfully, tried to stop his teammate.

All the scared mermaid saw was a cracked world through her broken glasses and the long tongue of a monster licking its chops.

There was a low whirring hum, a sort of liquid grinding noise as a small eddies on the ground began to vibrate in increasingly rapid circles. The monster looked her in the eye. Her face hurt. Taylor's world narrowed to her father's pained wheezes and the taste of her own blood slowly dripping down her lip. Large, jagged teeth were unveiled as a fat lip curled back.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

Which was then overshadowed by the freaking gunshots.

"Okay! Does anyone else have any bright ideas?"

The blonde called out, forcibly drawing the entire mall's attention on her and eliciting more than a few screams of fear. Her pistol was still pointed at the roof as the woman from before was dragged off the ground by the renaissance fair wannabe and dumped with the rest, the very real threat of being attacked by the giant monster dogs or shot at keeping them rooted in place.

"Good! So, how about you all keep quiet over there. We do our jobs, you get to go back home and everyone gets to pay their bills tomorrow. Sounds fair?"

She made it sound so easy.

Taylor's control over her power slipped and the massive biker villain allowed a dark mist to begin pouring off of him as he interposed himself between both her and his teammate.

"Whatever this is, we don't need it."

Sparing only a single glance at both her father and herself, the man gestured back towards the leader of the group and made it clear what he wanted Bitch to do.

Now fully transformed into a mermaid, and grounded enough to appreciate the aching, scraping sensation that were her gills struggling to process very, very dry air, the Tinker did something stupid and something far less so.

Reaching for her power, she trusted it to begin slowly gathering water without being too obvious. In the cracks and in the walls, the flooding from the damaged pipes and even what was left from her "attack" all began to pool together. But she also pulled back just long enough for the tension between the two villains to break and waited, rather than attacking.

"Should we… do something?"

Nodding in her direction, Bitch sounded annoyed and not at all concerned.

"No." Taylor rated another glance and a shake of the head. "Dumb girl's already ruined her own reputation by doing this, no need to make ourselves look worse."

"Bitch, Grue, leave the white hat and let's load this crap already." Holding a cellphone to her ear, the blonde sounded suddenly panicked, only pausing long enough to holster her weapon before helping her last teammate grab more of their loot.

This time the villains seemed confused, neither responding particularly swiftly, but ultimately moving to comply. And unwilling to be stupid twice in one hour, the now transformed parahuman ignored her broken nose, ignored her burning lungs, ignored her blurry vision, ignored the pain in her fins and back, and began to crawl, flop, and slide across the floor to her dad.

"Heya kiddo."

Danny's words were slurred, but Taylor's fool of a father was cognizant enough to smile, showing several missing teeth and a rather distressing amount of blood in his mouth.

Taylor cursed her lack of a cellphone. This felt exactly like the type of situation where dialing up the police or the Protectorate would have come handy. She was sure the latter would come running if they knew she was there.

Hopefully.

She might be overselling how valuable she was.

"Fuck. Where are the vials?"

Frantically searching her pockets, Taylor, in her haste, was foolish enough not to actually just reach inside the shredded remnants of her hoodie. When her fingers brushed against the rough metal of the portable insulin case, she grabbed onto it like a lifeline. Turning over to one side, and feeling a moment of shame when her chest was exposed, she pulled the case free and popped it open.

Inside there were three vials. Two were filled with vials of ruby red liquid and one was filled with a pitch black substance.

Two parts of life, one of death.

Rubedo and Nigredo.

The temptation to see what a dose of Nigredo would do to the villains was there, but discarded. An ugly anger remained in her stomach, sloshing around with a mixture of shame and regret and humiliation. Her gills ached, her back and fins hurt. But her father was looking at her without a mouthful of teeth - the front four of his top four missing completely.

"Hold this."

Dumbly, limply her father complied, eyes half glazed over with an obvious concussion.

Taylor focused on finding the missing teeth. Something in her gut told her there was still something she could do and all it would take was a bit of effort.

Grunting in annoyance at her own desperation and stupidity, the Tinker tapped into her suddenly far more helpful hydrokinesis and "grabbed" all of the water on the floor. Sending it fanning outwards, she locked onto everything hidden in the nooks and crannies, finding objects by a sense of distortion and pressure in what she controlled rather than touch, and pulled it towards her.

Disgust and revulsion washed through her at the grotesque sight of so much tainted liquid and crap sloshing towards her.

With a force of will the mermaid stopped the debris several feet away and tried her best to, slowly, with a visible effort of will, segregate the… trash by composition. And, blessedly, there were only five teeth in total. So, getting rid of the child's tooth, possibly lost during a playful misadventure so utterly at odds with the blood, glass, and water splattered store now around them, she washed her father's teeth as clean as a hydrokinetic could.

"Forgive me for this dad."

Hoping Rubedo would prevent any sort of infection, she took the fore now spotless teeth and held them against his bleeding gum. Her father grunted in pain at that and the motion jostled his mouth enough that she realized the bottom four teeth had come almost completely out too! Shifting slightly, she held the first four teeth in place, pushed the bottom four down, and ignored how there were tears now silently coming out of his suddenly very attentive eyes.

Taylor felt like she'd been slapped.

But this was for his own good.

"Drink." Holding up a vial of Rubedo, she uncapped it with her teeth, spitting the rubber stopper out as she put the vial to her father's lips. All as she held his teeth in place.

Danny's throat moved and only a little of the rubedo dribbled out of the corner of his mouth, another groan of discomfort overcoming the man as his mouth and face shifted. Not only were his loose teeth locked in place, but the ones knocked out completely seemed to happily settle back into their original slots, with his bleeding gums becoming a light, healthy pink.

His swelling was gone, and while her father was still most certainly somewhat confused and out of it, even his concussion seemed to just fade into nothing.

"Thanks, kiddo." Sitting up a little more clearly, and spitting out a mouthful of blood, Danny wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and pulled his jacket off. "Drink it yourself."

Holding out his coat, so Taylor had something to cover herself with, she accepted the garment and declined.

"No sir. I have vials at home and other people might be hurt."

His eyes narrowed in obvious and extreme displeasure at her words, made stuffy by the broken nose, which was even now swelling and dark bruises were forming under her eyes, but the Tinker was feeling quite stubborn.

"Now listen here young lady, we don't know if it's just your nose or you will drink that red healing crap if-"

Any further insistence on taking a health potion herself was suddenly stopped by a burst of bright, white light and a voice firmly but politely echoing in from where the villains had been gathering the rest of their things.

"I think it's time for you to leave now."

Neither Taylor nor her father said anything, because nobody in Brockton Bay was stupid enough not to realize what a sudden bright light meant. Gesturing at her father to help turn her around, the Tinker had his help to crawl towards the entrance of the shop.

Even if Danny was very clearly angry at her for trying.

"Uh, yeah, I think we're gonna go now."

The girl in the black and purple costume, flanked by the larger of the two male villains, Grue, seemed incredibly worried. Her cohorts were far more aggressive, with that cloud of darkness once more flowing from skele-biker's body and the massive dogs slowly but surely flanking the glowing woman.

Purity, though, turned and looked at the crowd.

"There are too many civilians around to fight." She turned back to the villains. "But if you had kept shooting, we wouldn't be speaking."

Several growls answered her and it looked like a fight might actually start before the blonde girl nodded.

"Yeah. Because you wanna-be-a-hero." The emphasis in how she spoke left no doubt to the fact this was an insult. "So now you think you're gonna step on another white villain so people think you aren't a racist. Like that makes up for years of fucked up shit you've done."

The glowing being shrugged.

"You're the one currently robbing people."

It was the biker that responded, clearly angry at being spoken down to by the Blaster.

"Fucking Nazi."

This time Purity was almost condescending when she spoke.

"Not anymore."

And that was that.

Any further rebuttals, arguments, or insults were cut off when the blonde's phone rang, even as she was seemingly opening her mouth. Unclipping it from her belt, she listened for a few moments, said something Taylor couldn't hear from where she was, and then hung up.

"We're gone. Pack up, let's go, cops are on their way."


Kayden Russel


"So that's what happened."

Purity nodded.

"You just… showed up."

She nodded again. The police officer wrote something down.

"At the risk of sounding stupid, uh, why?"

Smiling, though she doubted the policeman could see her face even with the massive sunglasses he was wearing, the former villain actually felt a little proud at what she said next.

"I want to be a hero."

Several more scribbles.

"Does that mean you'll be joining the Protectorate?"

A small frown.

"No, I am afraid not. For the obvious reasons."

"Our PR teams are quite good, but I'm not sure what they could do, considering your power."

Armsmaster walked over and put his hand on the officer's shoulder. Swallowing, the young man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a business card.

"If we have any other questions, can we call?"

He didn't waste any time suggesting she might call them. Probably because Purity had a few outstanding warrants, maybe because the BBPD really, genuinely did not want to have to deal with this particular mess.

"Sure. When I have a secure phone, I'll text your number and we can discuss any future contact from there."

And that was that.

There were a few more pleasantries but the details of her arrival and intervention had been collected, her statement taken, and everyone was just glad that she wasn't shooting anyone.

So now she was looking at a man in powered armor that was simply looking back at her. Nothing really needed to be said, but the silence itself accomplished little. And Purity, as a cape, and Kayden, as a human being, needed to use this moment if she wanted to accomplish anything.

"I do intend to help out where I can."

Nodding, the hero simply accepted that statement at face value.

"Intentions won't change anything. There's blood on your hands, you know."

Frowning, unhappy with a blatant bit of hypocrisy, Kayden swallowed her initial venomous response and chose to push ahead.

"Yes. I am aware. And that's why I also intend to participate in Endbringer fights, too.."

Armsmaster didn't respond in a particularly significant way, more giving her a small, accepting nod.

"Then I'll see that the police provide you with instructions on how to reach the rally point. Until then, we will be watching you quite closely."

That was that.

There was nothing else to discuss.

And the hero was obviously underselling the situation, Purity - as a professional - had little doubt that this was the first step of many yet to come. But it was a first step. Flying off, she was given a moment or two to think, processing everything that had happened.

Being a hero felt… strange.

Acting like one of the do-gooders she had once written off as ineffective glory hounds was an irony she wasn't ready to swallow, but as far as debuts went, Kayden knew that she'd leave a positive impression. Or at the very least cast doubt upon those who held her previous affiliation against her. Something that many seemed all too eager to do with Capes far more vicious than herself, after all, Lustrum's followers had castrated and killed men for being men.

People still defended their actions to this day, too, despite the whole thing having been little more than a militant cult not too dissimilar from the Fallen in principle.

Privately, when she was alone with herself, she wondered if the Empire wasn't worse. But Max wasn't some crazy woman attacking people for fun, just an utter sociopath happy to manipulate an extreme amount of hatred for his own gain and damn the city if it meant he got what he wanted. And damn the man for sinking his hooks into her so early on.

Whether or not the Empire was right about a lot of things or not, they were going about it the wrong way.

That was what she was doing this for. To get an out. To be there for Aster one day, to not have to hope and pray no one ever outed her. Maybe help Theo, too, if she could.

Ultimately it would mean leaving Purity's mistakes behind, distancing herself as far as she could from any semblance of who that woman had been. And it would have to be more than a rebranding, too, but a full acceptance of a new way of doing.

Hardly an easy thing.

People had doubts. People had questions. And that was fine, she too had plenty of both.

She'd wondered how to go about addressing the public who knew her only as Kaiser's enforcer. Kayden considered a formal announcement, something to… rip off the band aid as it stood. It was only normal for people to believe she hadn't changed. In the end, the cape would have to earn their trust with action.

'I wonder if it will stick?'

Facing off against the Undersiders hadn't been her idea of a debut either.

They were small time miscreants, bottom feeders who knew only to steal from better men and women. But the opportunity that presented itself was far too good to ignore… especially when it involved the VIP she'd been advised to watch out for.

Her telephone rang once.

Twice.

Thrice.

She considered ignoring it.

'If I do he'll just keep insisting.' Picking up the offending piece of metal and plastic, Purity dropped down to an empty rooftop and swiped her thumb across the screen before pressing it to her ear.

Max was insufferable when he was right.

"Out with it."

There was a chuckle on the other end of the line. It made her skin crawl.

"Well now, is this how Brockton Bay's newest hero answers her phone?"

He was playing coy. She hated it when he did that.

"You've heard about it then."

There was a slight noise on the other end, the sound of ice clinking in a glass.

"Heard it? I've seen it. Everyone carries a camera in their pocket, after all." There was silence after that, where she was supposed to ask who posted the video he was referencing and he could deign to inform her. "Some random teenager with a cellphone caught the tail end of that debacle. 'Nazi tells off Villains' was the title they picked, I believe? Rather unflattering read."

She considered staying silent, just to piss Max off a little bit more.

Max wouldn't call her just to mock her. He'd come and do it to her face. No, this was something else. The only question was what game they were playing.

Kayden bit the bullet.

"You were right. The girl should be looked after." The words tasted like bile. Admitting that to the man who used and twisted her up until she was a monster felt like blasphemy. But when she'd announced her intent to leave and lead a more meaningful life, the man had readily welcomed it rather than tightening the vice around her throat.

And all he'd asked for was a single favor.

'If you want to play hero, there is someone you should watch out for.'

It was another one of his schemes.

That much she knew, but it was still Purity's choice to step in when something eventually happened. Even if it would have been more intelligent to wait for the thugs to leave, she would have been able to safely engage without bystanders and when they were in the open, the Blaster had willingly moved into a closed space once she heard the gunshots.

But that didn't explain how Max knew it would happen. She couldn't begin to guess. Admittedly, her first idea had been that he set up the attack. Her powers meant his boot lickers could easily monitor her patrol routes and setting up something to happen where she got to play the hero would be possible. But Purity's gut didn't think so, even if Kayden's suspicion refused to rule that probability out.

But even if Kaiser was trying to control her career he wouldn't have sent the Undersiders.

"How did you know?"

The bastard hummed in her ear.

"You think I set this up, didn't you?"

"It's obvious."

"I'm not nearly as much of an evil mastermind as you think I am, Purity. I just knew that the girl was a priority target. Of course someone would eventually make a move on her. I just needed someone reliable nearby."

And for that he'd goaded her into working for him.

"You set me up."

"You told me in no uncertain terms that you were done with me and our allies. I just pointed you to where your talents might be needed. Might have happened tomorrow, next week, or even a month from now, but that investment paid off."

Investment.

Kayden wanted to throw up.

"I don't work for you." Not anymore, she'd toss herself into the bay before she crawled back to him.

"No." He agreed instantly and without hesitation. "All you did was help protect a scared little girl and the wider public."

She took the fun away from her mouth and swore as quietly as she could, anger pushing her towards saying something that would be rather foolish to. In the end, swallowing the vitriol towards the father of her child, Purity answered as best she could.

"Yes, I did. Whether or not it advanced your agenda, I did the right thing and you can't take that away from me."

Another chuckle and a sip.

"Of course not. Still, you did very well, and the situation is continuing apace. If anything else comes up I'll contact you and let you know where you can save the day." A slight pause. "And I still do love you, Kayden. Goodbye."

He didn't bother waiting around for her to say goodbye. They both knew she wouldn't. And besides, they both knew he'd won this argument too. Just like he won all their arguments.

There was nothing to do but put her phone up and take back to the air.

Stomach turning over, Kayden decided that there was no more to be done today. Her patrols, she decided, were done for the day. Perhaps more important was the fact that any more stress might lead to her power slipping just enough to cause an accident. Accidents weren't something you could take back, either, and even as Purity there was a limit to what she could get away with.

Thankfully her flight back towards her preferred landing area was completely undisturbed, New Wave only appearing for a moment in the distance, and once she'd changed her clothes Kayden was able to slip back into the mass of humanity around her.

Even her walk back home from the safehouse was… peaceful. None of the usual nosies of Brockton Bay as this block was an Empire stronghold.

One of the nice places they didn't need to actually fight over and the locals were all either supporters or at least preferred them to the other gangs or the corrupt and incompetent Protectorate.

And it was only when she put her key in the door to her own house, hearing Theo call out from within, that she realized she didn't know how she was going to pay her bills.

Because it was Kaiser's money that bought this apartment for Purity.