5.2
When I woke up, it was to the light of day, the grossly incandescent sun shining into my little apartment through the window.
For a while, I just laid there, awake, trying to crawl back into sleep.
I couldn't. Even if my hunger wasn't pulling me awake my all too active mind would have done so. As would the smell.
I needed a shower…
I got up marched towards the night table and pulled open the drawers. Underwear was inside, along with some T-shirts and shorts. The underwear was still in bags, the T-shirts and shorts folded and with the tags still on them. It didn't eliminate the feeling of wearing a strangers clothes. But it still mollified me a bit.
When I finally hit the shower I almost started crying. I hadn't realized just how good a shower could feel.
When I finally got out I marched to the remote, turning on the TV before making my way to the kitchen to cook something.
The refrigerator, as promised, was fully stocked, and the pots and pans were brand new, still with the purchase stickers.
I made myself some french toast, something simple… it reminded me of mom…
When it was done I sat on the bed, dragging the night table in front of me. I ate as I watched the news on the TV.
The news wasn't very helpful. Evidently "two weeks ago" was pretty old in terms of our local cable network. And while they were saying what was going on across the national stage, such as the chief director making some of the nonclassified new policies she was going to implement public knowledge, there was very little that was being covered on the much smaller 'local' stage.
All I could catch really was some small time scandal of Victoria being caught speeding down the highway at over a hundred.
New Wave…
Did they know too?
Did everyone know?
...
Maybe they did…
...
...Dean never could keep a secret from Vicky after all…
I hadn't noticed my hands were clenched til I felt pain in my knuckles.
I blinked the tears away. Standing up, I took my plate and my glass and washed the dishes. I was just about to get to the skillet when I heard the phone ring.
I jumped, startled really. I turned and marched back to the bed.
I didn't recognize the number on the caller ID but there was only one person that could be calling me. I answered.
"Hello."
"Hello, Taylor. Are you sure you're ready for this because you-"
"Just tell me where they are." Was I really expected to just sit around here watching the paint dry?
"...Taylor. Will you promise to keep this non-lethal?"
I pursed my lips. "From everything I've seen Coil has control of the PRT. You send me out to catch these people, you do realize he's just gonna get them out again, right?"
"We don't need them held for long. Just a few days before we're ready to deal with Coil himself. I said I wanted to help you and I meant it. That means that I need to know you won't go shooting yourself in the foot and make yourself a giant target. So promise me you'll keep this to hurting but no killing. You already put the Hero Commander of the Bay's PRT in a coma. If you have blood on your hands, I can't even imagine what they will do to you."
I pulled the phone away from my ear. Staring at it before placing it back. I literally just met this person yesterday. "What's this really about?"
"You think I'm lying."
"No shit genius. You just met me for the first time barely twelve hours ago. And you wanna act like this is all for my benefit. Cut the crap and say why you really don't want these people dead."
"There's nothing, Taylor. Yes, some of them DO deserve to die, but if you go and do it it's gonna hurt you a lot more than it'll hurt Coil. Especially when we don't even need them dead just out of the way. Okay?"
I clung tightly to the phone, if my ash had been around my hand I probably would have crushed the damn thing. "Right."
A sigh on the other end. "Just tell me that you'll work on not killing them Tay. This stands for everyone we need to hit."
"Fine. Just tell me."
...
"...Was hoping for a bit more enthusiasm but I'll take it… I'll text you the address. Now, call this same number when you get to their base, ok?"
"Their base?" I asked but I heard the dial tone as an answer. How the hell? Not even the Protectorate or the other villains knew where the Undersiders base was.
My hackles rose. If this was some kind of trap…
The phone vibrated in my hand as I recieved the text. I looked at it, then input the directions into my phone's map app. How did I ever live without these things?
I glanced around the room, then back to the drawers. Looking in the lowest drawer, I found a folded T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Not my normal ensemble, but it would have to do for now.
When I was done I found a backpack by the same corner where the ash tub was, along with the helmet and skin tight clothes. I took them all, putting on the skin tight pieces and the clothes over it before putting the helmet and as much ash as could fit inside the pack itself. It should be enough for my armor.
For anything else I'd have to burn something.
I got up, pocketed my phone and left the apartment. I locked the door behind me, marched down the dingy stairs, and down the block. I waited on a half destroyed bus stop for all of ten minutes before the number I was looking for drove up.
I rode along, sitting in a seat, aisle side such as to deter anyone who might have tried to sit next to me. Wasn't hard, the bus wasn't full.
It started drizzling outside a bit. Nothing heavy. I watched the rain, listening to the pitter patter of droplets on the window. It was summer. Eighty three degrees. If it kept up it'd be humid as hell soon.
When I finally got off the rain had fizzled out, and as expected, the humidity was stifling. It was good that it was nearing sun-down.
I took out my phone, looking at the map. Honestly. I had to give the Undersiders credit. They set up shop in the best spot really. Right between E-88 and ABB territory. If they hit either one and ran in the direction of their base either side would assume they were out of reach for being on the other side's territory. Same for their arrival. No one wanted to rock the boat with Lung and Lung probably didn't give enough shits to go through the bother of curb-stomping E-88 for a few punk kids that would most likely escape anyway.
As I walked I got a text message again. I picked up the phone and read it.
'Just got word. Undersiders spotted in E88 territory. They'll be on their way back soon. Hide somewhere outside. If you go in you might tip off Tattletale too early.'
I scoffed, glancing up the block towards the dilapidated building.
Wait for the Undersiders to step into their base? Wait for them to get their home field advantage? Sit on my hands while they got back and managed to get ready inside their base? Or go inside now into this supposedly empty building and see just how much bullshit this one was trying to make me swallow?
I walked through the street, following the map on my phone, and in another two minutes I found the right building...
With a harsh shove of my shoulder I opened the rust ridden door that parted with a squeal of its corroded hinges.
The first floor was a dingy mess, but it was a garage of sorts. Lots of open space, twisted lengths of metal. An old beat up car. I took off my jacket, then the T shirt and the shorts before opening up the backpack. All the ash poured free, covering me from head to toe as I put on my helmet and stuffed the clothes into one of the bag's cleaner pockets.
I looked at the beat-up truck, considering it for a moment before conjuring a fireball in my hand and tossing it through the front windshield. The insides took to the flame like dry tinder. I turned and made my way upstairs, more ash sliding out of the car as it was formed to trail after me.
I moved the door handle, it rattled but didn't open. Locked.
With a step back and a kick, the door was snapped in two, no longer a problem as it literally folded in on itself, tumbling into the hallway in two separate pieces, the hinges clattering to the ground.
I stepped inside.
Unlike downstairs, upstairs was lived in, it smelled like dog. A white couch with an old dried bloodstain sat in front of the TV, the bloodstain was sloppily covered up beneath a cushion. Some gaming console was under the TV, a few movies. I passed through the halls, pushing doors open. I found their bathroom, their rooms.
They didn't keep pictures… smart I suppose. I'd have known their faces then…
With barely a passing thought I used the ash of the burning car itself to smother the flames below me as I stepped into Hellhound's room. Had to be hers. Couldn't think of any of the other Undersiders having three doggy beds.
Then the phone rang.
I reached into my now empty backpack, outside pocket. "What?"
"Did you step inside of their base?"
"What?"
"Did you step inside of their base!? Something just tipped off Tattletale. They're booking it!"
My fury burned in my chest! "Where are they going!?"
"They're headed to the boardwalk! Three blocks east of you! But you'll never ma-"
I hung up the phone. They were not getting away from me!
With a jump, as powerful as I could manage, I lunged straight out of the east side window, crashing with arms and knees into another building before I let myself fall. My feet hit the asphalt like a brick before I was running to the boardwalk.
There was one thing that I could say about Brockton Bay's cape population.
They taught people early on to get the hell out of the way.
If a Cape was running, it was either a villain that was willing to hurt or kill you, or it was a hero trying to catch a villain. Either way, if it was a person in a weird getup running, you got your ass out of the way.
Civilians almost literally dove into walls to avoid me, at the first opportunity I jumped onto a rooftop with a powerful leap and started roof hopping.
I ran through five city blocks before my rational mind imposed itself on my anger, telling me that there was little genuine hope of catching them.
Then there was something of a saving grace.
Hellhound's dogs were not subtle.
Three beasts the size of a pickup truck rushing through the streets tended to cause a lot of chaos.
People who had fallen, cars that had crashed, benches that had been crushed. The Undersiders were leaving a trail a blind man could follow.
I picked up the pace.
It was another four blocks before I caught sight of them, and another three after that before I was anywhere 'near' them.
On their own the dogs may have been able to outrun me. With riders though, people of flesh and blood that can get their ribs broken or slip off the unharnessed beasts or poke themselves on one of those protruding bones… it was a whole different story.
I saw Regent turn around and I ducked into the middle of a building's roof, breaking his line of sight. The very last thing I wanted was for him to trip me up at these speeds.
I poked my head as high as I could, looking to see if they turned anywhere but they didn't. The four parahumans kept a breakneck pace in a straight line, almost bull rushing straight towards the boardwalk.
What were they…
The Protectorate!
They were moving to drag our fight to the one place the PRT could respond to the fastest!
No…
I spread my ash out and around me as I ran, my armor now becoming paper thin but not for long, I used only a fraction of my attention to sweep the floor with the ash, picking up trash, bits of paper, dragging them to my hands, lighting them with flames that ate away at whatever was placed in them with unnatural speed to make more ash, exponentially increasing my reserve and allowing me to pick up more, faster and faster and faster.
Even so, we were only three blocks away from the boardwalk when I made my move. With a thought, my ash rose up into the air, a gray haze that cast a shadow over the four of them.
Then it came crashing down right in front of them, forming jagged, sharp spears, high enough that they would have skewered the riders where they sat.
The dogs were yanked to a full stop. They'd jump over it, or around it in another second, but I didn't need another second.
I got to the edge of the roof and lunged for the nearest beast, all the ash that had formed the spears dropping to be as harmless as sand on a beach before re-converging on me, encasing me in inches of armor a second before I slammed into the monstrous dog with my shoulder, grabbing hold of a bone protrusion as the thing yelped in pain, its hind legs giving out under it which sent its rider tumbling back, arms akimbo.
He stopped himself by grabbing onto fur and bone, coming face to face with me for his effort.
Regent.
I hadn't forgotten how annoying this fucker had been at the prison...
My hand released its grip on the bone spike without my consent, but my other hand found purchase on the collar of his coat, leaving us both dangling on the side of the massive animal, which was now moving again.
I place my feet on its hide, grabbing another bone spike with his control vanishing as instantly as it appeared.
Then I ripped him off the beast and tossed him into a metal newspaper bin.
It didn't quite tip over, what with being nailed to the ground, but its legs had buckled beneath the force and weight as the Mardi-gras reject tumbled straight over it, hitting the ground with a groan and writhing in pain.
The dog I was on reached its head around to bite me and my hand lit up, grasping onto the side of the massive snout, the howl of pain as the beast pulled its face away and tried to paw the flames that were far too close to its eye screeched through my ears as I let go of the shaking beast.
Hellhound yelled and the other dog turned on me, Grue and Tattletale mounted on one.
I see Grue's darkness rush out of him and towards me. I jump, trying to get some distance again only for the dark to surge up the side of the building towards me anyway before my feet even touched the ground.
As it was my feet hit the edge of the building for half a second before Hellhound and her dog jumped out of the blackness like some cheap movie monster, its paws crunching into the cement for purchase as its head lunged out and its jaws bit down. Its massive maw crunching on my neck and hips all at once before yanking me back down into the dark formed of Grue's power.
I worked off of memory in the blinding, deafening dark, my one arm inside its mouth ramming straight down its throat to claw at its insides while my other punched and clawed at anything it could reach. Teeth, tongue, nose, the roof of its mouth.
The dog spat me out. I know because I felt the pressure vanish and my body hit the ground.
When I stood, I was still blind and deaf. But I knew where the dog was.
It still had ash in its mouth.
I stood perfectly still for a second trying to process and pinpoint exactly where it was standing by the memory of its proportions.
It decided to try biting me again.
"Fuck off!" I wind my fist back all the way, as strong a punch as I'd ever given. I hit something. Whether it was the jaw, or a tooth or the inside of its mouth or whatever; it hit and the dog was sent smashing into something straight beside me. I know because I felt the ash stop too fast to have been a natural thing from the beast. Probably the side of the building right next to us.
I stood straight and tried to get my bearings as to where the hell Tattletale and Grue were. They must have moved-
Suddenly the darkness vanishes, light and sound come back to me with a sharp sting on both senses before it evens out.
The cloud of black is moving, rushing away, still towards the Boardwalk.
I start to move… then I stop.
I hear sirens.
I turn, finding Hellhound picking herself up off the ground where she'd tumbled off her mount. The beast itself was also moving to stand back up.
I march straight over, back ramrod straight. Hellhound only just gets her bearings in time to catch sight of me before I'm grabbing her by the scruff of her jacket and slamming her into the wall. I hear her grunt in pain, the back of her head smacking against the brick in a 'light' thud.
"Your friends have anywhere in mind? Another bolt hole for your asses to hide in?" I growl. Her eyes through her mask looked back at me, she almost seemed as angry as I was. Almost.
"Fuck… you…"
I grab her by the hair, she struggles, kicking and clawing at the ash, it does nothing, and soon enough I'm dragging her behind me like an unruly child. Her legs and backside dragging across the ground.
Like the file at PRT said. Just a normal girl. Her dogs were the strength.
"Maybe you'll bark like a good dog if we go to the top of that building. That sound good doggy?" I remarked, and the thought of whether or not I would actually toss her barely even registered across my conscious mind before I hear a voice.
"Alright stop!"
The voice startled me. Made me turn my head to the other corner just behind me and across the street.
I found no one. But when it called again I knew it was definitely coming from that direction.
The sirens are closer now.
"See." The voice, female. Had to be Tattletale. It seemed familiar... "I told Grue to run to try and draw you away. But that's just not necessary really. Way I see it now, you've got two ways out of this. You walk out. Or it's the Birdcage for your sorry ass. Hear those sirens? That gives you about a minute before the cops show up. Thirty seconds for Legend to fly his pretty little ass down here and give you an old school beat down. You don't want that. I don't want that. What say we all just move along and go home… well… we'll go home and you'll go to a friend's or something if you didn't burn those bridges because your living situation must be beyond fucked up right now"
I felt the vibration of my phone. I pulled it out.
PRT on its way. Legend gonna get there first. Get your ass outta there!
My hand twisted over Hellhound's hair, I opened my mouth to speak when I was cut off.
Not by Tattletale this time.
"She got a few things wrong."
My head snapped straight up, and slowly lowering from the sky was the blue clad Hero.
Legend.
The man descended from above feet first, hands held open and down. It didn't do much to appease me. This particular Blaster could have his hands behind his back and still hit someone in virtually any direction.
His mouth was in a frown, sombre and sad. Same for how he was looking at me. Looking through me. Into me…
No...
Another lie...
"Ashburn… I would rather not fight you. Believe me. Everything that's happened has just been one mistake after another. I am imploring you. Come with me and I can explain. We can start to make this right. Let's talk this over…"
'Oh I'm sure.'
I snarled. Listening to him as my eyes panned around, searching. For an opening, an exit, an escape.
"Ashburn..." He ventured as I held my silence. "Will you come with me?" He held out his hand. "Please?"
I look up. "Go to hell!"
I let go of Hellhound, my free hand lighting up in a fireball before I pitch it straight at my target.
The fire-hydrant.
Steel warped and melted, superheated with the force of my emotion fueled flames and the water that burst from it steamed and sizzled with the heat, rocketing into the air like a geyser. Legend was suddenly hit with a shower of near boiling hot water.
I heard him shout as I turned and ran. If it was in surprise or in pain I didn't bother to find out.
I bolted down the street, ash powered leaps carrying me to the rooftops in seconds as I rushed to put as much distance between myself and the Triumvirate Hero as inhumanly possible. I'd leave the Undersiders to the mercy of those silver tongued snakes.
I barely made it two jumps before I heard his voice again.
"Ashburn!"
My head swiveled back around, over my shoulder and found the man gaining on me at alarming speed!
Can't take to the rooftops straight away, his speed would trump mine. Was it him or Alexandria that was faster in flying? I always forgot.
I made it to a ledge and jumped straight down, slamming into the asphalt between the two buildings and continuing on my run. Maybe he'd be slower in the maze of alley-
I pulled to a dead stop as a beam of energy lanced down on the ground, a whole ten feet in front of me. I looked up and the man was hovering directly above.
"You can't outrun me. Just, hear me out please." I saw his hand rise to his earpiece, listening to someone else on the line. Piggot. "Let's just calm down and breathe."
The sirens were getting closer.
The walls of their little trap closing in on me.
Alright Taylor, think. Think!
(X)
Here she is. After two weeks. Taylor Hebert. Ashburn.
He'd honestly known that their first meeting would go down like this. He'd hoped, and he'd prayed, but it was a fool's hope. He knew that from the very beginning.
The think tank had reached a consensus. There was some Master influence involved here. To what exact extent they didn't agree. But what they had agreed on was that anything that was done was something Taylor herself had wanted. The Master influence, however it was working, was triggered by convincing Taylor herself that they, the PRT and Protectorate, were her enemies, her targets, or her betrayers.
After hearing the reports from Piggot, Rebecca, and Yamada, he could guess as to what had happened.
With the information being used by Coil or whomever was in his employ, it wasn't much of a stretch to see them place an already bad situation into something completely apocryphal, and paint the PRT in the worst light imaginable in her eyes.
So yes. He'd known something like this would consist his first meeting with Hebert. Regrettable as it was.
But he wished so much for it to be different. He wished at the very least his reputation would have gotten her to sit still for a second to listen.
But he must seem like the pack leader of a den of wolves and snakes to her. The poster boy, or the mouthpiece for the liars and cheats.
He took a breath.
It didn't matter. He would get to speak with her, explain things. Make things right. Too much tragedy had already come of this horrible situation. To add to it now by not doing right by her, or at the very least trying to would be an injustice for everyone involved.
The girl's head snapped to the side, and it was his reflexes that failed him as she bull rushed a door before he could react.
His instincts told him to fire the freeze ray he currently had in his hand, bend it into the doorway, hit her square in the back to hold her. But he hesitated a second too long, not wanting to provoke any more hostility than what already existed. He dove down to ground level, darting into the open doorway and around another corner where he caught sight of her running down the hallway through a room full of laundromats, civilians startling and diving out of the way towards the main avenue where cars and pedestrians were milling about.
I'm sorry, Taylor.
This time he fired the freeze ray.
To his surprise, Taylor stopped dead in her tracks as the blast closed around half the distance, gripping a wheeled laundry basket she tossed it right at the beam without ever having turned around. In an instant the basket was frozen, smashing back down into the ground with a crack of ice.
"What?"
Clairvoyance? Danger Sense? That wasn't in her file! A new ability? Or one she held back? Or was it the Master influence?
She crashed through the front window and rushed down the road.
He'd faced that kind of danger sense before, many times. The Butcher had made him intimately familiar with it.
Was Taylor willing to go as far as the Butcher? Put civilians in the path of the blast like she had the basket?
God, he truly hoped she wasn't that far gone.
He flew down the length of the hall, soaring like a bullet straight through the shattered window and closing the distance with Taylor's back.
She stopped and jumped straight into the air just as he was about to reach her. She rose up, up far higher than what should have been necessary for her jump.
Perfect. No way to dodge.
He fired.
The beam passed straight through.
Legend's eyes went wide.
What?
The body dissolved into ash in the wind. Did she turn into ash?!
His mind whirled. Rushing through possibilities, thoughts, going over every bit of the recent fight.
She couldn't turn into ash. They'd tested that already. Second Trigger? Another newly discovered aspect of her power? What could...
He blinked.
His head swiveled back towards the laundromat.
He shot down towards the rear entrance.
…
There he found her empty backpack.
He reached down, grasped it, ash stains still lingered inside, the helmet she'd used too.
While his eyes had been on the silhouette of ash… she'd just gone and changed back into civilian clothes three feet away from him. Ducked behind a Laundromat and blended in with the fleeing civilians.
It hadn't been a sixth sense or a danger sense. She'd literally seen the attack coming straight for her construct and just had it move and toss accordingly...
That's why it had jumped so high.
No way for her to judge the height of the other building from in here...
He clutched at the bag in his hands. Wasted chance. Stupid of him. He'd underestimated her.
The police finally pulled up.
…
…
Heh… with all his power and experience… he'd still just been outsmarted by a fifteen year old…
Legend chuckled wryly, shaking his head and rubbing his forehead.
She'd make an unbelievable hero one day.
She could already make a frightening villain…
He wasn't religious, but he could think of a verse that seemed fitting enough.
"Woe unto he who builds his house with lies and his upper rooms with injustice."