Chapter 10: The Journey Begins
Chap 10 guys! The hype is building so much that even I'm getting withdraws from lack of new chapters, and I'm the author. So without further ado…
Beta Note: Sorry it took so long peeps. Real life decided I needed some lemons.
Author note: I think Major Session has out done himself and we should all thank him.
Taylor's eyes followed the floating debris as it orbited randomly about the girl on the hovering platform.
"Fuck, fuck!" Shadow Stalker spat as she pulled out a cell-phone. With deft fingers she pushed a couple of buttons and shoved the phone back in her pocket. An exhale of breath hissed through her black mask through an unseen grill. Taylor wasn't sure if it was nervousness or excitement.
"Okay, you know what we're dealing with?" the Ward said under her breath to Taylor.
We? Taylor didn't know exactly when they had become allies, in fact, she thought they were still enemies. However, looking at the dirty, white tiger mask wasn't exactly filling her with feelings of friendship. So, if a cape fight was about to break out and Taylor couldn't claim neutrality she'd… damn it. She'd rather have the psychotic Ward at her back than a member of… Well, than a probable Villain at her back.
Still, Taylor didn't actually want to fight. She just wanted to save that homele… Okay, he was a Merchant. So maybe less save him and more hand him over to the PRT. Still, what she really wanted was for people to not fight right in front of Sabah's home. Not… Not when it was the one place she felt safe.
"I'm guessing they're not nice people." Taylor said as the tiger-masked man leaned over to whisper to the cowl wearing girl, his army jacket slid open to show a chest covered in scars whilst the girl just shrugged.
Shadow Stalker scoffed.
"Apart from being fucking Nazi's? They're great, we go bowling on Sundays." The other girl spat, her crossbow creaking as she gripped her gripped it hard.
Taylor rolled her eyes behind her goggles. Sure Shadow Stalker was no Nazi, but the Ward who tortures people going bowling with a group infamous for hate crimes? She could see it. Anyway, if the two new capes were Nazi's Taylor realized that meant they were members of…
Shadow Stalker started speaking, cutting off Taylor's thought. "The girl is Rune, a telekinetic limited to objects she touched, but she can throw a ton about like its nothing. The catman is Stormtiger, aerokinetic, controls air in a short distance around himself. He's also got enhanced senses, sound, smell, fuckers probably listening to us. Both members of the Empire 88."
Then with a single jerk, she fired an arrow straight at Stormtiger.
The arrow was within an arm's length of the pair when it suddenly veered off course, flying wide. Stormtiger turned his head towards them and Taylor saw his shoulders rise and fall quickly.
He was laughing at them. Shadow Stalker growled and dropped her crossbow. The girl withdrew two arrows and held them like daggers.
"Stormtiger is mine. Keep Rune occupied." Shadow Stalker ordered before she became just another shadow in the darkness. Taylor blinked at the empty space where Shadow Stalker used to be, her mouth hanging open. The two E88 capes stared down at her.
"You heard Stalker, Rune. The new cape is yours, I'll go play with the Ward." Stormtiger chuckled as he grabbed the edge of Rune's platform and dropped to ground, walking casually in the direction of the alley where Taylor had spotted Shadow Stalker first.
"I hate it when he tells me what to do. 'Rune, go here', 'Rune, crush that guy', 'Rune, I'm too lazy to walk, carry me.'" The robed girl said loudly. There was a sound grating steel from the alley and Rune sighed.
"Subtly of a truck, not that I can talk, right?" Rune called out as she flung a chunk of road at Taylor.
Taylor, not expecting the sudden attack by the other cape, hastily rolled away. Taylor's ended up 15 feet back from the spot she was in as the concrete smashed into the asphalt, causing a cloud of dust to spread outwards, covering her escape.
"Holy crap, you can move." Rune said as the dust settled. Taylor gritted her teeth and brought her Keyblade up into a guard. Rune was floating 15 or so feet off the ground, unless Taylor could convince E88 cape to get off her platform then Taylor wasn't really sure how she was going to reach her.
Wait, did she even need to reach her? Taylor wasn't here to fight, rather to stop other people fighting. Shadow Stalker had been attacking someone practically on Sa-Parian's door step. She was supposed to be making the fighting stop, not escalating it.
Taking a deep breath to calm her rising anger, Taylor looked up at Rune.
"I don't want to fight you. Look, do whatever you want with Shadow Stalker, just not here. This is neutral grou…" Taylor began, only to be cut off by Rune.
"Heh. Of course you don't want to fight me, dyke. And neutral ground? It's Empire territory, you dig?" Rune said, her voice grating on Taylor's nerves. The girl was mocking her!
Gritting her teeth Taylor tried again to be diplomatic; the night had already seen enough violence. "Look, I work for Parian, you want the territory? Fine. It's yours. You want to fight? Fine. Kick Shadow Stalker's ass. Just. Not. Here. I don't want you throwing a truck through the wall of the Doll House!"
Rune paused at that. "You live around here? Huh. Still, you don't want to fight? Too bad because I do!"
Taylor was forced to dodge again, rolling to her left and ending up on the other side of the street as the chunk of concrete that had smashed into the street earlier, shot out of its crater towards where she had been. Looking back made Taylor wince at the hole left in the wall by Rune's attack. If that had hit her or anyone else…
It appeared Taylor didn't have a choice. She'd have to fight before Parian or Mog got hurt. After all, Parian was a rogue. She wouldn't fight and she'd get hurt. Taylor couldn't allow that, not after everything Parian… Sabah had done for her.
Raising her Keyblade, Taylor waited for the next attack, rolling three times in a row as rocks tried to crush her. She knew she couldn't keep dodging, that either Rune would get lucky and hit her or someone else would get killed by a missed shot. Collateral damage was a thing after all. But how could she reach Rune to hurt her when the other girl was at least 15 feet in the air?
An idea sprang from a memory as it flashed past in her head. Taylor smiled as she reached back with one hand and then flung the Keyblade, sending it spinning end over end towards Rune. Taylor prayed that it would distract the Empire girl long enough, as she started forwards as soon at the Keyblade left her hand and nearly tripped in surprise when the Keyblade practically flew towards the other girl.
The Keyblade spun with far more force and power than Taylor had intended, or hoped even. Her weapon making a mixture of quick musical notes, almost like a scale, as it travelled through the air. Quickly, Rune swung her platform out of the way and even then lost a corner as the keyblade sliced through the concrete. Rune's head whipped round, staring at the Keyblade as it carried on.
"What the hell was that?" The floating girl said; her attention entirely on the whistling blade. Rune was so focused that she didn't see Taylor hop on top of the car she'd been running towards.
Not far above Taylor was the floating piece of road Rune was riding upon. It floated with its flat surface facing upwards and a misshapen bulb of concrete below. Taylor leaped for it, her fingers out stretched trying to grab it… Which proved entirely unnecessary as Taylor jumped a few feethigher than the platform. Landing on floating piece of road upon hands and knee, Taylor grunted loudly.
Since when could she do that? How could she jump over eight-feet straight up?
The noise of her landing snapped Rune's attention back to her. The Empire cape flung her hand wide and the platform the girl shared with Taylor suddenly jerked side to side.
Gripping the edge of the platform, Taylor held on for dear life. Then she heard something in the distance. A whistling sound that was coming closer.
A musical sound.
So did Rune apparently, as she stopped trying peel Taylor off, instead turning to try and see what was... and was promptly knocked off her platform as the Keyblade smashed through and heading straight for Taylor. She reached up, half protecting her face, half some forgotten instinct, and caught the Keyblade perfectly by the handle, the impact stinging her palm. This… was a strange night.
All the floating chunks of road began to fall as Rune's attention was thrown off with her body as well. Taylor felt her own floating land begin to dip, so she jumped to the ground, grinning as the drop caused no pain. Landing Taylor gripped the Keyblade with both hands, facing the rose headed blade away from Rune and in position for a full swing just in case she needed to strike quickly.
Rune groaned as pulled herself up using a nearby wall for balance.
"That really hurt." The other girl moaned, more to herself than to Taylor really. With her hand still on the wall, the telekinetic stared at Taylor. A black balaclava under the black hooded robe showed. It gave a faceless effect that chilled Taylor but…
It… was actually pretty cool, when she thought about it. Maybe she could use that herself?
Examining the other cape more while they rested Taylor noted Rune's entire appearance was some mystical wizard gone dark. A robe covered most of her body, with red highlight and black boots. Her hands were gloved, again in black, with the exception of silvery metal plated knuckles.
Taylor guessed if it came down to it, Rune would just punch her.
"You got lucky. I just wasn't really paying any attention to you, 'cause you look like a joke." Rune said as she started to walk forward, the wall behind began to crack and then a part of the brick wall just pulled itself out, leaving behind naked plaster and mortar. The brick chunk began to orbit Rune as she stopped.
"But now? Now I'm pissed off and you and your... Keysword? Whatever. Now you're going to go splat." Rune explained in perfectly normal voice that wasn't suited to killing someone. Where was the growl or meanicing chill? Still, keysword?
Taylor looked down at her hands, a scowl crossing her face.
"It's a Keyblade." She snapped, for the lack of a better response. Rune, who had been about to fling her hand dramatically paused and tilted her head.
"I'll remember that. Make a nice note on your tombstone."
Then there was a giant wall flying at her and Taylor realized if she dodged, then Parian's hiding place would be hit. Parian had been letting Taylor take care of this so far and Taylor didn't blame her. If Parian was seen helping Taylor then that would spell the end of her rare neutrality. So out of time and options Taylot swung the Keyblade down with everything she had.
The rose head glinted in the street light as it sunk into the hard projectile, the blade whistling louder than ever.
The impact made Taylor's arms ache, but the wall split cleanly into two, the halves falling with a crash to either side of her, most of the momentum lost. Taylor stared, eyes wide, at the gleaming Keyblade. It looked fine, undamaged, as pristine as when she first summoned it.
Taylor had guessed the edges were sharper than they looked, because it could cut would when it looked blunt… but this? She had never imaginedthis. She had been planning to take a trip to the boat graveyard sometime to test exactly how sharp the Keyblade was, what it could cut. However, Taylor guessed live combat was almost as good, if somewhat more dangerous.
There was a rumble and Taylor rolled forward, landing in the the middle of the street, causing Rune's next volley to miss and smash into the ground where she had been. However, Taylor noticed that the brick wall Rune had used remained still; the other girl didn't retain control over the wall the Keyblade had cut in two. That… could be useful.
Jumping back with greater distance than she'd ever managed in gym class, Taylor skidded to a stop as several jagged pieces of earth embedded themselves where she had just been. Rune quickly swiped her hand across the ground and more cracks began to appears, more ammunition for the wizard girl pulling itself free of the street.
The pieces that had attacked her before sluggishly started to pull out of the ground as well. Interestingly though Taylor noted that each piece floating in the air had now started moving just a bit slower.
A problem caused by multi-tasking? A limit on Rune's power, perhaps with speed and number of objects? Maybe fatigue setting in? Taylor would take any advantage she could get.
Then all the pieces crumpled themselves together with a horrible grinding sound. A very loose ball shape hung above Rune, still grinding and churning, creating a painful grating noise totally unlike her Keyblade's music, more akin to nails on a chalk board.
The girl let loose a giggle.
"It's been a while since I had to try this hard, to use this trick, but if you keep dodging, then Stormtiger's going to tell the others that I had trouble with a fresh Cape when he's done scraping Shadow Stalker off the walls. Can you imagine? Crusader would laugh his ass off." Rune said, sounding appalled. Taylor stared up at the turning ball. At this size, several buildings around them were in danger of having a few layers scraped off.
If she threw the Keyblade, she could nail the girl, which could cause Rune to either drop the ball on herself, killing Rune or throw it at Taylor and leave her without any form of defense. Taylor felt trapped with no good options. She couldn't kill Rune, that wasn't what Heroes did and even if she tried she'd be left defenseless. What… what was she supposed to do?
"If you throw that, you could hit the houses. They're could be kids inside." Taylor said, trying to appeal to the girl's sense of humanity when she could think of nothing else. Rune took a second to look around and shook her head.
"You think I'd care? Besides, you need to pay attention. With this much noise and this being Brockton Bay, 90% of those will be empty. They either evacuated like smart people or this is an empty street mostly. Either way, you're boned." The Empire cape said brightly. Then she threw the giant ball of road, pipes and a chunk of car.
Taylor couldn't go up, down, or around. She couldn't dodge at all because that would leave Parian unprotected. Taylor wouldn't allow that. So once again she braced herself, raising the Keyblade above her head, mentally screaming at herself to do something. The boulder hit the road and slowed for a moment before Rune pushed it onwards, grinding away the asphalt. Taylor jumped and tried to bring the Keyblade down with everything she had. The Keyblade sunk into the ball, which stopped it spinning, but Rune pushed the collapsing heap onwards. At this rate Taylor was going to crash into the buildings behind her and be crushed. The Keyblade was still sinking through the ball, but as the seconds went on, Taylor began to panic.
What if they Keyblade couldn't cut through in time? What if she couldn't stop it? Parian and Mog would die. Her Dad would never see her again. Boco would… The Keyblade suddenly stopped piercing through and got stuck in a metal water pipe that Rune had ripped up from the road. Taylor yanked at it, but the Keyblade barely budged.
Taylor's eyes widened before she closed them as the building loomed over her shoulder.
She'd failed.
Then everything suddenly stopped moving with a jerk.
Taylor yelped as something grabbed her around the waist and yanked backwards and up, where she came face to face with a giant… gorilla?
What.
"Seriously, of all the stupid things you could have done, you did a reverse Indiana Jones?" Parian's voice came from the side of the gorilla's head, where she sat perched like a tiny doll.
Taylor stared at Parian, then at the Gorilla. It was easily 10 feet tall and huge and where the heck had it come from?!
Taylor began to flail in its grip so the gorilla put back down, lowering her to the ground.
"Stop fidgeting, I have hard enough time moving this much with any finesse." Parian said, sounding upset. Taylor looked up at her.
"What are you doing here? You have to stay out of this to remain neutral or the gangs will come after you." Taylor said, quickly looking down the road where Rune, one again perched on a floating platform, was moving slowly towards them. Parian leaned forward, her shoulder's tense.
"I have to? I have to do whatever I want Ta- Key, I told you to run if you saw anything weird and not even five minutes later you're sparking off a fight with three different capes, so forgive me when I have to bail you out from becoming a smear on my home. People run from deadly boulders, Key, not try and punch them… Well, cut them. Think about that." Parian said angrily as the gorilla stomped forward towards Rune.
"Parian, the fashion cape. Don't tell me you're getting involved? I actually like your stuff..." Rune said as she crossed her arms. Parian nodded in greeting as she approached. Her voice called out, mellow, the previous anger hidden under honey.
"Thank you, it's always nice to meet an admirer, but no, I'm only involved so far as that ball of yours was heading towards my building, and the girl you were attacking ismy new security detail, tonight is her trial shift. So it was mostly self-interest that I stopped the attack. I was just here to see how Key performed and who threw the first punch, which I have footage of by the way." Parian stated calmly to the floating girl.
Rune shifted awkwardly, her body language visible despite her robe. Clearly this was not something she was expecting Parian to say. Taylor blinked at the sudden attitude change in the wizard girl. Parian tried had tried to explain on how territories worked around the city. Taylor hadn't really got it but she understood that, if one cape, who was part of a gang, was to encroach on another gangs area then they had two choices.
Declare invasion and war or try to leave as quickly as possible before their boss found out they were causing tension. Taylor just didn't think at the time that Parian had any territory. Sure, she'd tried to claim this was neutral ground as Parian lived here but if it actually was and not just her taking liberties…
"Well I didn't know that exactly did I? She didn't say it belonged to you, just that it was neutral or whatever. Plus she was with Stalker." Rune said defensive. Parian nodded at this, accepting the information but also noting the lie. Taylor may not have said it was Parian's territory, but she hadclaimed to work for her.
"Shadow Stalker was also uninvited, my new employee was testing her mettle against her, first proper action and such, you understand." Parian said in a 'just us girls' tone, which Rune hesitantly nodded back to.
"Stormtiger... he's ordered me to fight with her and I'm sure I can't stand down until he says so, this is technically E88 territory. He can be… insistent." Rune said as her platform came closer. Taylor watched as Parian's hand, hidden behind her back where she could see, but not Rune, began to clench.
"I can see that being a pain." The doll girl said as her gorilla deflated some. Parian nodded slowly and sighed. Rune shrugged and sudden reached forward and smacked Parian's gorilla. Parian's creature took a few steps back before it very slowly began to lift off the ground.
"Sorry about this, if you don't struggle too much, I can just keep you out of the way while me and Key-girl finish up." Rune said, sounding genuinely apologetic. Before the Empire girl could turn back to Taylor, Parian's gorilla suddenly crashed back down the earth, cracking the road beneath it.
Rune floated back in shock. "How the hell did you break my control?"
Parian took the time to readjust her wig, which had become a little lop-sided.
"That was interesting. You have a lot of power, but I guess when it comes down to it, I just have more control." Parian said, sounding a little breathless. Rune was about to retort, with words or wreckage, Taylor didn't know, but Rune's hood suddenly hoisted her off the platform like an invisible hand had reached down and grabbed her before Rune was dropped on her ass. Parian waved her hand and the hood sealed itself up, preventing the cape from seeing anything.
The gorilla sudden lowered its hand and Parian yelled down to her.
"Hurry, I can only slow her powers down, the robe is touching too much of her skin." She yelled, which urged Taylor to break into a run, unsure of Parian's plan. Still, she got the general idea and ran towards the lowered hand that was waiting for her. When she hit the gorilla's palm now moving at a dead sprint, it flung her up and Taylor flipped, spinning herself in midair as she flew up and over the buildings. Now coming down feet first onto the floating platform where Rune had just ripped her hood apart, revealing the balaclava beneath, a blone pony tail poking out what must have been a hole cut in the back. Raising the Keyblade above her head, Taylor prepared to land and strike the other go and end this madness.
That was when Shadow Stalker was roughly thrown into her, smacking into Taylor before she could even land. Crashing into the ground together, Shadow Stalker landed on top of Taylor winding her. Looking over the shoulder of the other Ward as she struggled for breath, Taylor saw Stormtiger jump down from the roof and land on Rune's platform, he seemed a little dirtier, his coat baring a few scuff marks but otherwise unharmed.
As Taylor regained her breath and pushed Shadow Stalker off, she saw a thin cut along her side, the fabric surrounding was damp and the wet patch was spreading. Shadow Stalker groaned as she rolled to her feet, one hand grasped over the wound.
"Fucker. He can control his blades after he fires them." Shadow Stalker growled. She limped forward a step, heavily favoring her injured side, whilst Taylor struggled to sit up, her ribs protesting from Shadow Stalker landing on her.
Then Stormtiger leaned down over the edge of the platform.
"If you can't predict that anyone you fight has a trick or two kept hidden then you need to come back after you finish school, Ward. I've fought better opponents with no powers, people who actuallyinjured me. You didn't even make me try. That's just sad, eh, Rune?" He said over his shoulder to the girl who was busy hastily putting her robe back into a respectable state.
"Yeah, whatever. We leaving? Cause we've got incoming." Rune snapped, her attention on something in the distance, over the roof tops where Taylor couldn't see. Stormtiger turned his head, cocking it sideways as he heard something no one else could yet.
"That's a lot of sirens. I guess we've earned our keep tonight." Stormtiger grunted as he stood, an idle hand flicked a few blades of wind towards Taylor. The ground in front of her shattered and Taylor had to bite her lip to stop herself screaming when rock chips slashed her arms and stomach, her own costume becoming wet with blood. The explosion also kicked up a lot dust obscuring her vision even worse than her watering eyes. Several more quick blasts reached Taylor's ears as she struggled to her feet, feeling dizzy from the pain. Looking about slowly the dust settled, she found the Empire 88 capes had vanished, the platform they had used, gone with them.
Looking around Taylor saw that the entire street was destroyed. The road torn up, windows smashed and walls cracked and broken. She'd… She'd failed and…
A hand landed on Taylor's shoulder, breaking her from her downward spiral. She looked up to see Parian looking at her before shaking dust from her now ash grey wig, getting them both only more dusty.
"Well, that was messy, but at least they took off. I guess us, plus the PRT was pushing it for just the two of them. And even if they got away, at least Kaiser isn't going to be happy." Parian said, sounding as exhausted as Taylor felt. So Taylor nodded, to spent to do much else, her eyes watering from a combination of dust, pain, and exhaustion. Who knew Cape fights could be so tiring?
"I was worried that I have to deal with both of them, my… my h-hands are still s-shaking." Taylor said, her body suddenly unable to stop her limbs from trembling.
Shadow Stalker who'd for some reason remained quite suddenly sat down, out of frustration or pain, Taylor couldn't tell.
"Once again, the backup is too late to do shit." The black garbed cape said, more to herself than Taylor or Parian as several vans turned the corner, sirens blazing as they screeched to a stop. Shadow Stalker gently lay down on her back, her mask's stern visage showing none of tiredness her body obviously felt.
"You both might want to sit down and look small as possible, I said two capes were attacking me and their itchy trigger fingers won't wait for someone to ask questions first." Shadow Stalker said quietly.
Taylor looked at her then at Parian who nodded.
"She's not wrong. PRT like to secure things before they do anything else. I say let them, I think we both need a chance to catch our breath." Parian said as she flopped backwards into her gorilla. Taylor hesitated before she sank down next to the other girl, leaning aginst the gorilla too. It was comfortable but she could feel Parian shaking just as badly as herself. Taylor leaned in just a little, trying to offer a comforting presence to Pari-... to Sabah.
The other girl froze up before she lean back a little as well. It was… nice.
"So, then Storm and Rune ran with their respective tails, yeah?" The orange visor clouded his eyes just enough to hide his identity, but Assault still seemed to give the impression of grinning with his eyes, even if his mouth only twitched.
Taylor liked him. He just approached her so casually and just leaned on the ambulance door where a paramedic had banadgaed her wounds and ordered her to not do anything strenuous for a few days as she had bruised ribs. Then Assault started talking to her. His personality reminded Taylor of a cartoon fox that she use to watch when she was quite young, the fox was always friendly, but he wasn't opposed to general chaos either.
Assault seem to run with the same mindset.
"Well I think they floated away, but I couldn't see them due to the dust." Taylor said shyly.
Even after Shadow Stalker, the memory of her torturing a homeless man still made Taylor feel hollow, meeting a Hero made her feel more like her younger self, when her cape fascination was strong and she believed heroes always saved the day. She… she knew better now. Heroes didn't sdave the day and Shadow Stalker proved they weren't good… However, Assault seemed nice and he also appeared to have noticed how his jokes were making Taylor feel better. Still, he didn't say anything, just let his grin grow wider.
"Then it's a damn good job on your part kiddo, people usually don't fair to well against Rune, she's difficult to fight and powerful. Girl's even flattened whole neighborhoods when she goes all out." Assault said, his words reminding Taylor of her dad, who also liked to call her that.
"Well she defiantly had fun trying." Taylor muttered, feeling a little sour that she had failed to take Rune out when she'd had her. It was only Stormtiger's interference that had saved her.
Assault patted her on the head.
"You win some, you lose some. Comes with the gig." He offered as he stood and stretched, muscles shifting beneath his suit. She supposed it was nice but… Hmm. She supposed it was more a holdover from… Emma. When they'd been younger and talked about boys. Whilst Taylor appreciated it, she didn't overly like too much muscle.
"Well if you ever want to try the hero thing, numbers on the website, but just walk in to the HQ, it be funnier." Assault chuckled beginning to walk off, but stopped before he got too far.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot. You got a name kiddo? Need if for the paper-work." He asked, a tad more interested than he had been the whole conversation. Taylor stood, placing the shock blanket back into the ambulance. Slowly raising her hand and carefully pointed away from anyone. A thought later and she summoned her Keyblade. Assault stiffened.
"My name is Portunes." She declared loudly and a little proudly, her two days in school hadn't been a total waste. She'd stumbled across the Roman god of keys and doors when trying to find a good Cape name. Whilst the name subtly referred to her ability to lock and unlock, well, anything she'd tried to so far, it was also a gret reference to the Keyblade. It was perfect!
The people around her stared and she slowly lowered the Keyblade as no one said anything. Taylor flushed, embarrassed. Maybe she had been too pretentious? Too obscure?
Assault leaned forward as the Keyblade vanished again.
"Huh, that's a cool trick. A little Miss Militia in the making are we?" He joked, Taylor was about to respond when Parian suddenly slid up out of nowhere and began herding her towards the end of the street. Confused, but not fighting her urging, she waved over her shoulder.
"Bye, and remember it's Po..." Taylor's voice was drowned out by the various people in the crowd as Assault waved good naturally at the fading pair. As he was left with his thoughts the cape looked down at his hand and noticed somewhere along the interview the recorder had died.
"Crap." he said to no one.
The next day, Sabah had to comfort a distraught Taylor in the third floor of the Doll House, unable to slip back in to Sabah's studio without being seen, they had stayed the night in the shop. Sabah had also gotten the morning newspaper with the screaming headline.
"New cape: Keynote, defends against E88!"
Under the title was a picture of a very sheepish Assault with a frowning Battery.
"I think she called herself something different, but… I forgot." He'd said to the journalists.
"Noooooooo!" Taylor quietly wailed. Sabah smiled as the other girl sunk down and hugged herself. While mentally upset, Taylor looked physically fine, even slightly cute with an almost pout.
Sabah understood about the name, she'd had to be really firm with the PRT when she'd chosen her name as they'd tried to name her Patchwork in their press release. Honestly, what was with them and forcing names on Capes they didn't choose or announce on live television. She honestly felt sorry for Taylor, even if it was a little funny and she was having the most adorable reaction.
Still, Sabah thanked whoever was listening for letting them both escaped last night alive and mostly unscathed. Still, she knew that things were going to get far more complicated in the near future; but for now, they had time to relax before consequences would rear their ugly heads.
Kaiser would want his due.
Still, hopefully Shadow Stalker was now being detained for to her actions. Really, torturing some Merchant peddler for information on Boco. Ridiculous.
And for good or ill, Taylor had taken her first step into the cruel, dark world of Parahumans Sabah had tried herself to stay out of.
Sabah, gave another prayer to above, whoever may be listening. She prayed for strength that she might keep her friends safe. Because with who would be coming for them?
She'd need it.
A week later, the Simurgh removed a small Russian facility from the frozen Tundra wasteland. The heroes on the scene claimed she displayed telekinesis not seen before.
32 scientists were dead on arrival. Zero capes were KIA.
It was a new record for an Endbringer battle, but no one felt reassured.