Chapter 7: The Way Forward.
Taylor held the oversized hoodie in her hands. The digital clock on her bedside table read 1.25 AM, five minutes left.
Then Taylor would have to take the leap or crawl back into bed.
Almost three weeks had passed since Taylor has locked her bedroom door. Not much had happened since. Her excitement had worn down a little, but Taylor still got a distinct thrill of emotion when she summoned the Keyblade, she had the free time to do it when since she wasn't going back to school until February. Apparently her Dad had decided a month would help him get back into the groove of working long shifts again without worrying about her.
Coming home to Taylor, sitting on the couch with her bowl of cereal, was a form of instant stress relief. 1st of February was the day he would let Taylor go back to the Winslow, Taylor had hardly argued against any of this.
Free time meant more time to have fun.
In that time Taylor had come to know several things about herself and the Keyblade.
First, the Keyblade was capable on opening and closing any lock that she had come across, such as doors, cars, sliding bolts, gates, zippers, windows, chains with padlocks, her own bike combination lock and a few other things.
Taylor knew the Keyblade could also lock things that didn't normally lock.
Her bedroom door had no lock of any sort on it, but when her Keyblade shoot its beam of light and noise of a clicking lock sounded, the door definitely didn't open.
Well, not easily.
Taylor had managed to find that if she exert her entire upper body into the door handle then whatever effect she had cast on the door broken in a shining gold flash and the door sprung open.
Taylor had to admit that she was a little sad that the effect wasn't stronger. Any brute might not even know Taylor had done anything to the door.
Come on Taylor, chin up, you have superpowers, rolling her neck to relax she pointed keyblade back her door. It was a new thing she was trying, over the last few weeks, her mood had dipped and rose periodically.
So to combat her bad moods that came from power envy at other capes (something she assumed 90% of all capes had at one point) Taylor had started to remind herself that regardless of what power she had, it was still better than no power at all. She remember trying the whole day to improve that particular ability.
She tried to learn how to feel what she was doing and how much will of effort it took to lock the door
More, lock more, Taylor repeated in her head. It was an exercise that she had thought up, maybe she just needed to learn how to better apply her... force fields? Frozen State? This was how Taylor spent most her alone time if she wasn't jogging or on the PHO.
She even made an account: SkeletonKey3713.
Her fear of being too tempted to post about her powers had kept her from making any at all. So she just browse several popular cape forums, some old and some announcing new capes from around the world.
Which lead her to think about having a cape name, which lead her to brain to think about being a cape.
Taylor knew she was a cape, but there a difference between being a cape and being a cape.
So Taylor had start to throw her arms into the art of swinging her Keyblade in wide arcs in bedroom.
The broken lamp was a bit difficult to explain when she had over shot herself one time.
The Keyblade never felt clunky in her hands, but when she swung it, Taylor just knew that she was severely lacking in finesse.
Taylor also knew that she didn't have to worry about the power of the blade (which she knew her definition of 'blade' was going to be contested when she went public). The chunk of tree that was now missing near her bedroom window was testament to that.
She honestly just want to shear some the branches away from her window. Well Taylor succeeded, she smashed the branches, then the branches below that and the ones below that.
Wood wasn't a huge mile mark on scale of resistant material but Taylor was taking her victories where she could get them.
Which lead to her current situation where she was now.
To cape or not to cape?
Taylor knew that she had no official costume (where did people even get professional jump suits or armour for under $100?) so she haphazardly put together her closet's contents.
On her upper body black, a skin-tight ski suit. The material came right up and covered her mouth, a little tight since she hadn't worn it since she last went ski-ing, not since Mom had died. The red hoodie was thankfully logo-less. Taylor would hate herself if she was dragged into a copy right court case after her first appearance.
Tying her hair in a pony tail, she tucked under the red hood that she pulled over her head, Pulling at the cords she tightened the hood a little more.
Then denim jeans were unfortunately the lesser evil.
Taking a few practise breaths through the ski suit she stood up and grabbed her last accessory.
A pair of ski goggles.
Hey, every bit helped when you were trying really hard to avoid being identified. Plus it keep the hood up if she strapped it on the outside.
The side of her eyes saw a little blur as well as her vision overall, but that's the price she would pay.
Taylor was actually surprised how well her eye sight was holding without her glasses.
Looking at herself in the mirror she saw someone who looked strange, not heroic, but strange.
Sighing she slipped open the window and taking another breath jumped to the grass.
Taylor had keys to simply walk out, but for her first time sneaking out she wanted to stick to traditions.
With more ease than she thought she landed on the grass.
A perfect landing, clearly a sign that Taylor had made the right choice.
Brockton Bay was different at night. Taylor had been out at night before of course, always with Dad or someone safe, this was another face of the city that she had only heard about.
Gone was her sleepy home, this was the Brockton Bay was that city listed in the top ten most dangerous cities.
Sticking to the shadows where she could, Taylor had decided to move north, north-east of her house towards the Docks.
The Docks were once a booming business. The ferry would carry traveled from the northern point of Brockton Bay to the southern, the quickest way to avoid all traffic, plus it was just a nice scenic route.
Then jobs had started to fail, areas went from 'don't go after night' to 'maybe just don't go there', then the villains moved in.
The current power that gripped the Docks was the ABB (the Azn Bad Boys), a group consisting of 95% of Asians of any sort and 5% of who ever else was closest.
The group was surprising small in numbers, due to their requirements for joining, and their cape numbers.
As far as Taylor could research, google and poke around, the ABB only had two capes in the field.
Oni Lee and Lung.
Oni Lee was a three-ten second dopple ganger mixed in with a teleportation. He could vanish to anywhere he could see and leave a puppet behind to fight.
Taylor had heard some debate whether he teleported and his clone could detonate fake grenades while he could keep his original grenades maxed out at all times or if his clone grenades were duds, but PHO had quickly debated about level of destruction Oni Lee would cause instead of his usual scale.
Doubly so if he could clone tinker tech.
Lung, however, was simple.
He was the leader and the only reason the ABB was still kicking. Lung's powers made him more unkillable the longer he fought, insane regeneration countered any idea of holding back on his part and he got tougher as he transformed. Then add the whole 'dragon hell fire' thing he also did and Taylor was pretty sure the cosmos wanted to be extremely clear about what his cape gig should be all about.
And Lung embraced it with gusto.
If Taylor saw this man or his silver mask anywhere, she was simply heel turning and getting out like she left her oven on.
However, that they was only two, confirmed so far capes in the ABB made it ideal for Taylor to go out here for her first night.
Without her Keyblade she was just another weirdo walking the streets, easy to ignore. Ducking into an ally between a closed down sports shop and a late night supermarket, Taylor kept her eyes peeled for anything.
Anything being the relative term since she had no idea what she was looking for.
Assault? Mugging? Kids selling crack for trading cards?
Taylor's watch, the only personal thing she brought, showed she had three hours before 5 AM. So she didn't have long before she would head back home.
Taylor wasn't exactly hoping to find crime, the moral issue aside of wanting someone else to suffer because she wanted to save them aside, the idea of violence was still a scary concept to her.
But she, Taylor Hebert, was a hero. A big, scary hero and she would help people, the best she could with her giant key.
The sounds of abrupt arguing quickly silenced Taylor's dreams of heroism. Pushing herself up the grimy brick wall she crept closer and peered around a corner to a T-junction section of the ally.
Two adults stood close, face to face, one man and one woman.
The woman had her back to the wall and seemed furious. The man wasn't much better off.
"Not asking again Cher. Give me the money or I'll break both your scrawny legs." The guy threatened as he leaned closer. A buzz cut and tattoos on the next with a familiar red and green piece of fabric out his back pocket. A lot of the kids at her school had them hidden somewhere on their person.
ABB gang member. Bold and unafraid, this was their territory after all.
The woman just snarled harder, her unnatural blonde hair stuck to her sweaty skin.
"Fuck you, Ray. I busted my ass off tonight, which is fucking freezing if you haven't noticed, to earn this much and you think I'm just going to hand it over? Do you want to piss off Jun?" Her voice was throaty and even over where Taylor sat, Taylor could smell the 40 a day breath.
"Jun is dead, killed last night in a take over scheme, your ass is owned by Dav now." The man said, calming down as he stretched his muscles. The women seem to have frozen. Not in sadness or horror at the news, but in calm, collective 'escape!' mode.
'Cher' suddenly dashed to the left, but Ray grabbed her by the arm and slammed back into the wall then threw her to the ground.
"You are really pissing me off." he said as he raised one foot to stomp on her. Taylor had seen enough.
With a flash that briefly lit the ally Taylor rushed forward, Ray turned at her footsteps but was unprepared when theKeyblade struck him clear in the torso.
Taylor had swung as hard she could, hoping that she was doing the right thing and not just gotten herself killed, the impact made her hands shake and the man dropped like a sack of potatoes.
His breath came out laboured and he seemed dazed. With a rapid series of blinks his eyes came into focus and stared right at Taylor.
"You litt-" he began, but Taylor just smacked him again on the head, feeling slightly vindictive seeing this guy about to hurt someone else an instant karma rebalance. The blow made the Keyblade emit a low whistling noise.
Taylor brought it up to eye level and stared. That had never happened before.
The woman hesitantly stepped forward.
"Is he dead?" She said sound interested. Taylor stared at her make-up smeared face in surprise.
"I don't know, I just hit as hard as I could. I didn't think it was that hard." Taylor said suddenly feeling worried. The woman bent down, giving Taylor a clear show of her low riding top. Her fingers brushed his neck and then she sighed.
"Bastards still alive, out cold I guess." Cher said as she stood up, brushing marks off her red coat.
"Man, I liked this jacket and now its scraped, nd shit." she said, her mouth set in a displeased shape. Taylor was taken aback.
"You're worried about your...coat? You were just assaulted!" Taylor said pointing at the downed man. Maybe this Cher was just in shock?
Cher snorted loudly "sweetie, I get that so much I have appointments scheduled in advance, 'ass kicking :5.45' or 'Get shit slap out by pimp: 3.00' you know? That shit hardly fazes me no more. To be honest I was surprised I got away so long, but if they iced my Jun then that explains it." she sighed.
Taylor fidgeted as she held the Keyblade slightly behind her.
"I'm sorry for your...loss." She offered.
Cher looked at her and laughed, a large and chesty one, wiping at her ruined make-up she pulled her coat tighter.
"Oh hunny, no no, don't worry about me, Jun was a piece of shit. Hit woman cause it made him feel big, spent more than his share of the income that us girls make on the street, had a real noise for the good stuff if you know what I mean?"
She said, her eyes took ona routine manner, business talk. Taylor examined her again. Cheap clothes ( besides the awesome red jacket, thin complexion, tired eyes...
"Are you a... prosta...um a working girl?" Taylor stammered. Cher broke out in a smile as she toed Ray with disinterest.
"It's okay girl, I am what I am, a hoe. A hooker if you're trying to be polite, but I don't mind. Been this way since my sweet 16. Almost 10 years on the job with zero children and zero long-term infections, gotta be an award for that right?" She asked Taylor sound proud.
"I guess?" Taylor was so far out of comfort zone that she officially left the solar systems.
"I gotta get going, will you be okay? Cher?" Taylor asked her. The woman made a sound and hiked her pants up.
"It's Cherry, girl, and I'll be fine. Practically in my backyard here. What about you? You got that freaky ass key so I gotta guess you're a cape right? Girl are you stupid, coming here?" She suddenly faced Taylor head on, hands on hips.
"What?" Taylor replied eloquently. Cherry suddenly looked around nervously.
"I'm just a hoe, girl, no one special, but yous a cape! If that creepy bastard Oni Lee hears or god forbid, Lung then they might come for you. You got to be careful around here, especially if you keep breaking up management meetings." She said in a hushed tone.
"Management meeting? But he was hurting you?" Taylor said angrily. Something in Cherry's eyes softened.
"He was, he was also telling me who my new pimp was, who was going to protect me, where I could get some muscle if ineeded it or drugs if I was on any at the moment. Is the way it works around here hun. Pain is just to make sure we remember where we are in the totem pole. Rock bottom." She finished, a wind churned through the alley and Cherry pulled her jacket even tighter, the buttons threaten to pop off.
Then the voice came. Cherry froze again and whisper quietly.
"Shit, shit, shit." She said, she took a few steps away from Taylor and the downed man. Cherry hesitate, looking at her.
"You need go girl, there's more coming and I ain't sticking around, but i don't want some kids life on my conscience." She half begged. Taylor shook her head.
"You get going. I'm going to make sure they don't chase you, I'm trying to be a hero here." Taylor smiled with her eyes (something she practised in the mirror earlier) Cherry stalled for a few more seconds before she nodded and hurried as fast her pumps would carry her.
Taylor turned to the three men that turned the corner.
"Ray? What's taking so long, come on man I'm starv-" He stopped as Taylor put on foot on Ray's back.
"Ray is a little tired." She said, scared so badly her Keyblade shook in her hand. The men looked at the Keyblade and her hidden face.
"Shit! Cape!" One of them cried and pulled out a gun
.
Oh. Taylor hadn't thought about that. As the man let loose a hail of bullets Taylor desperately rolled to side and then found her self flying down the alley.
Her body curled as she hit the ground about 15 meters away from Ray's form, which was now had several holes in it.
"She can move, don't let her get behind you!" One of the two men who didn't have a gun shouted as he ran towards her. In his hands a knife gleamed.
Her keyblade smacked his jab aside and clocked in the face with a backwards wing sending crashing backwards with a yell.
He landed with a thump and struggled to get back up.
"She got Saw! Saw, can you heard us?" The one with gun yelled. 'Saw' groaned and tried to sit up, but Taylor swiped him in the head with flat side of the Keyblade, a whistling sound emitted from the holes on the shaft as he collapsed.
"Die, you bitch" Gunman screamed as he fire at her, Taylor rolled again and to her amazement the roll carried far more than should be possible, then a bullet came at her, but the bullet (Taylor was sure she saw a trick of the light) passed through her blurry leg. With a hand she stopped her roll and then flung her self forward again.
The world blurred again and suddenly her leg reached out and hit gunman in the solar plexus, where his breath left him a single grunt. Taylor didn't waste time and swung the Keyblade up between his legs.
The ex-gunman passed out before he hit the ground. Standing with a grin she spun the Keyblade in her hands as it whistled.
Wait wasn't there thre-
"Got you now, you freak." The last ABB pointed a single pistol at her. Taylor was about to roll forward, maybe she could confuse him, when suddenly he was launched off his feet by a giant yellow blur.
The man crashed into the brick wall and slumped down unconscious. The yellow blur turned and charged her, but skidded to a stop as it neared her.
It was... a giant, adorable, yellow chicken.
"Wark!" It cried, and then a figure leaned down from its back. A young girl in a royal blue dress with white stockings was sitting in a saddle on top of the bird.
Her face was covered white mask with ruby red lips. A shimmering, but fake blonde wig hide her true hair.
"Are you her?" The voice behind the mask was uncertain. Then a second voice came for atop of the bird, a white bundle of fur popped out of the feathers of the birds neck.
"That's her, she got the magic! Kupo! I was starting to think we were in trouble!" it cried in a chirp. Taylor backed away from the crazy people and stared wide eyed. The girl(boy?) petted the white, cute, bat things with the red pom pom.
"If you're sure Mog... Hello there. My name is Parian, the independent cape, and this Mog," she petted 'Mog' and then put a hand on the chicken.
"This is Boco, don't worry he's friendly. What's your name?" Her delicate voice asked. Taylor was speechless for several seconds.
"I... don't really have one yet."
Secret % *! Report 3.
How long has it been? My feeble existence has been a trial for so long.
These messages that I construct with what I have left are floating away to the world below.
It matters not. Only they matter.
Where are they?
I could not say with any certainty where the others have ended up.
Only that I'm sure it cannot be any worst than where I have come to land.
Land. I say it as I have managed such a feat. The world is so close, but untouchable in so many ways.
It is but another longing that I must endure. The traitor must be laughing. How well it all worked out.
I discarded such emotions as hope and belief. They are crutches that hold me back as I wait.
No. The only thing left in my being is hate. It burns so deeply that I can taste it.
This world is untouchable, for now. But darkness reaches all things, for darkness is all things.
It is coming. I just need to wait a little longer.