February 15th, 2011 - Tuesday
Late Morning
Taylor woke up to her work phone ringing. She blearily stared at the offending device, seeing Webweaver's name on its screen. She grudgingly picked it up.
"Web? That's earlier than your usual calls..."
"We've got a situation. Urgent meeting, I'm picking you up in thirty."
"Did Coil pull something?" Taylor asked, stumbling out of bed.
"I'm fairly certain he's not involved, as much as one can be certain of anything when dealing with Thinkers. Just get ready, it's urgent, but nothing's on fire. Yet."
She hung up on that encouraging note. Taylor grumbled and grabbed her clothes.
~o~o~o~
February 15th, 2011 - Tuesday
Noon
When Taylor and Jennifer pulled over next to the warehouse, they ran into Cameron, Martin and Lim getting out of the car they'd arrived in. Martin's arm was still in a sling, which explained why he'd hitched a ride. On the way up the stairs, Jennifer started explaining.
"Remember when I told you guys to research local villains, see if anyone links to Coil? That was mostly so you guys would study up on the local capes, actually. If there was good intel to be found, the PRT would have had it. I got my hands on it yesterday, and decided to check on Taylor's dad on the way back."
Taylor froze, her mind starting to picture worst-case scenarios.
"Calm down, he's unharmed. He was, however, being spied on... by Shadow Stalker."
"The Ward, right? The edgy one?" Cameron asked while Jennifer unlocked the office door. They filed in.
"So I'd thought at first. But when I got back, I went through the files." Jen held up a manilla folder and opened it, near the end. She started reading from it.
"Shadow Stalker was implicated in the Winslow trigger on 2011-01-03. The journal recovered from the house of the triggered parahuman, Taylor Hebert (cape name 'Eris') named her civilian identity as one of the primary perpetrators of an ongoing bullying campaign which resulted in the trigger. Shadow Stalker fled before she could be questioned." Raising her eyes from the paper, she turned to face Taylor. "I presume you can guess who that is? The journal itself wasn't in the files at hand and her civilian identity was secured better than what I could get my hands on at such short notice, but there's only so many possibilities."
Taylor's blood boiled. So this is why they got away with everything? Blackwell covering for her precious Ward? And the other heroes, did they know about her? And I was just an acceptable price to pay?
Taylor's train of thought was interrupted by the looks on everyone's faces. Apparently, her internal rant had become an external one at some point.
"I don't think they knew about you, Taylor, even if they probably figured her for a troublemaker. This could just be incompetence on their part."
"And that excuses it?" Taylor snapped back.
"Not at all. 'Better deal with a villain than a fool, for villains sometimes rest,'" Jennifer quoted.
"Said the career supervillain," Lim and Cameron responded almost simultaneously.
The exchange distracted Taylor from her anger enough that after a few deep breaths, she didn't feel like she's about to snap at someone. She spoke again.
"Yes, I know who she is. So after what she's done to me, she's now, what, stalking my father?"
"You'd know her better than I do, Taylor. Though if I were to guess, she's actually keeping an eye out for you. Either way, this presents us with a problem."
You're goddamn right it is a 'problem'.
"So what do we do? Sophia's a psychopath - if she gets frustrated enough about not finding me, she might take it out on Dad... you did warn him, didn't you?"
Taylor noticed Martin tense up while she spoke. Jennifer shrugged.
"Good way to tip her off. And I agree that this has to be resolved fast. She wants to find you? I say we grant her wish."
~o~o~o~
February 15th, 2011 - Tuesday
Late Evening
Taylor walked towards her home, doing her best to keep her trepidation out of her body language, trying not to look towards the bundle of anger on a nearby rooftop. She wasn't in costume, only in civilian clothes and a scarf wrapped high enough to hide her face below her nose. It wouldn't disguise her from someone who knew her and had a decent view, but that was the point. As she stepped into the streetlight's cone next to the house and lowered her scarf to reveal her face, she felt the anger spike further. Apparently, angry is her natural state. A few steps from the door, the earbud crackled to life.
"She recognized you, I think. She's moving in for a closer look."
Taylor could tell that just fine with her own power, but she'd rather know too much about what Sophia's doing than not enough. She knocked on the door, and heard footsteps on the other side a few seconds later. The door flung open. Her dad looked at her, face unable to settle on an expression. Confused, surprised, concerned. Eventually he settled on "happy."
"Taylor! I wasn't expecting you to show up - you could have told me. Come in, come in..."
She did, looking around as they headed to the living room. The kitchen didn't have beer cans this time, and the place looked at least a little tidier. Outside...
"She's trying to sneak up to the house. Planning to eavesdrop, by the looks of it. Keep talking, I'll sneak the widows in."
"I'm glad to see you too, Dad. It's been... an eventful few days, as you've probably heard."
Danny gave a half-hearted smile at that.
"Yes, I heard some of the boys saying that the heroes got their asses kicked by someone new for a change. Did you really use Assault as a weapon?"
...And Sophia apparently got an infinitesimal fraction less angry in her hiding spot between fence and bush. Guess she didn't like the heroes any more than she likes anyone else. Figures.
"...No, I did not use him or anybody else as weapons that time. He was actually a pain to fight, Dynamic's arm is still in a sling. We pulled through, in the end."
Dad winced. Maybe reminding him how dangerous my job is isn't the best idea... but depending on how this goes down, he might have to find out anyway.
"And... how do you feel about it, Taylor? They're heroes. You used to look up to them."
Taylor bit down on the "used to" she wanted to snap with at first. After a breath to calm down, she answered.
"I'm not happy about it, I hope I'll never be, but it's either this, jail, or a life on the run. I can live with fighting them, and I don't plan to go too far against heroes." Those who deserve the name, anyway.
"The bugs are in position. Ready?"
Taylor walked up to the window and partially opened it, pretending to take in fresh air. Sophia ducked lower to the ground, where she would not be seen... and would take a fraction of a second longer to get to her feet.
"I'll admit it, Dad. I'm not here to chat." Taylor raised her hand and poked a beetle hidden in her hair three times, raising the scarf back to cover her mouth again with the other. "I'm here because you were in danger," she finished, though she wasn't sure if her dad heard her - Sophia's furious scream drowned her voice out. She opened the window all the way and jumped through, coming face to face with her tormentor.
The crossbow's broadhead bolt glinted with reflected lamplight, and Taylor leapt to the side. It sailed past her and embedded itself in the wall next to the window. Danny took that as his cue to get back from the window. Taylor pulled out a stun gun, one of Lim's backups she'd borrowed for this. Learning about the weakness to electricity from Sophia's file was going to come in handy for this. Sophia started running, phasing straight through a fence, and Taylor gave chase, leaping over it a second later. Sophia looked back and realized that Taylor was faster than her now. She ran straight to the nearest house and phased into the wall, dodging Taylor's jab with the stun gun by mere inches.
"Fuck!" Taylor swore loudly. She noticed the houses' tenants looking at her through one of the windows. The father had his phone out - probably calling the PRT. She sensed Sophia in the middle of the house, probably trying to figure out which direction to escape in.
"Circle to the left. If she goes right and tries to escape to the sewers here, we have her."
When Taylor turned left and passed one of the windows, Sophia dashed out the opposite side and headed to the street. She ran right over the manhole cover without trying to phase down. So much for that plan. Taylor ran after her again. After turning a couple of corners, Sophia slowed down. A spike of anger was enough warning to leap back, another crossbow bolt piercing the air where Taylor would have stood had she kept running. The chase continued, but Sophia didn't quite pick up her previous speed. About half a block later, the earbud crackled again.
"You're outrunning me. Out of my range in twenty at this rate."
Sophia tried to shake Taylor off by phasing through another two buildings and taking another shot inbetween, but she was getting tired and the spider bites were kicking in. Sophia finally phased through the street and went into the sewers. Taylor found the nearest manhole cover and climbed down, stopping before coming in sight of where Sophia had stopped. She didn't know how many bolts the psycho carried, but "at least one more" seemed like a safe guess. After a few breaths' concentration, she leapt out of cover, jumping to the opposite wall, and a crossbow bolt flew by uselessly. Taylor ran up to Sophia and jabbed her with the stun gun, the ex-Ward's crossbows clattering to the floor next to her.
"Godddamn.. cheater... couldn't handle me on your own, could you?" Sophia spat out. Taylor couldn't believe her gall.
"You're one to talk. You were never on your own on Winslow either. Emma, Madison. Their cronies. The teachers. And now I find out it was the PRT too?"
"Heh. So you found it out, Hebert. What are you going to do now? You don't have the spine to kill me, you never did. Are you going to hand me to the heroes, like you did the Merchants? Running with villains that can't even deal with their own... enemies?" Sophia slurred the last bit, the widows' bites doing their work.
"The Merchants weren't enemies, Sophia. They were just a problem to be solved, and that was the best way to do it. But the PRT screwed up with you twice already. I don't want to find out they did so a third time by finding out you murdered my father to get at me."
Whatever answer Sophia would've had for that went unspoken, as the ketamine finally put her to sleep. Taylor started dragging her towards where Webweaver should be coming from. She left Sophia at the bottom of the ladder and climbed out, the crackle of the earbud confirming she had a signal again. Some bugs were gathering near her.
"I see you caught her, then. If you're having second thoughts..."
"No," Taylor lied. She wasn't okay with what was about to happen, but she wouldn't let anyone be a danger to her dad.
"Good, because I used a lethal dose back at your father's house. I'll have bugs dispose of the body, but that'll take a couple of hours. I'd advise against going home right after that commotion. Get moving and make sure you lose any tails, I'll call you when it's done."
Taylor did so, wandering the streets and avoiding people for a couple of hours until Jennifer called and picked her up. They didn't say a word to each other for the entire drive, and after crawling into bed Taylor took a long time to fall asleep despite being more tired than she ever remembered being.
She woke up more than a few times that night, seeing blood and dead eyes before her. Sometimes Sophia's. Once Madison's. But most often, her father's.