Chapter 2-8

"Ghettoblaster!"

"No."

Coming up with a good, heroic cape name is hard.

"Sonic Ninja!"

"No."

On the one hand, I wanted a name that inspires something that at least resembled respect. Something that others will look up to. As a Ward, I needed to be a symbol and a good name is a big part of that. On the other hand, I don't want a name that give people the impression that I'm something I'm not. I've fretted for months trying to find that perfect balance and failed. Now, I finally had some help from some people with a lot more experience in this.

"Soundmaster!"

"For god's sake, Dennis, please shut up." Kid Win groaned.

In retrospect, asking someone who called himself Clockblocker for help probably wasn't a good idea.

"Oh, c'mon! The girl's a badass. She needs a proper, badass cape name. How about Screamer?"

"Already looked that one up." I finally chimed in. "Former member of the Slaughterhouse Nine."

"See, Dennis?" Chris said. "This is why we can't let you name things. It's actually part of the regs."

"No, it isn't."

"How would you know? You never read them."

"Touché."

Suddenly Carlos cleared his throat. "How about Banshee? An Irish spirit associated with screaming."

I thought about it for a minute. Banshee. It had a nice ring to it. While it wasn't as heroic-sounding as I would have liked, at least it wasn't completely corny. With my powerset being best suited for sneaking around, naming myself after a spirit made sense.

Chris looked the name up on his computer. "Hmm. It's not taken, and I don't think the PR guys will object too much. Taylor?"

Banshee. I smiled. "Sounds good. I like it."

A pair of heavy footfalls came through the door. I turned to the newcomer: a figure clad in black armor and a black cloak. "So, who's the…new…girl…"

My heart froze. That voice. I recognized that voice. But it couldn't be her. There's no way in hell she could be a Ward.

"Oh, there you are." Aegis said. "Shadow Stalker, meet…"

"Taylor Hebert." Shadow Stalker interrupted. She removed her mask and I recognized her immediately. It was Sophia Hess. Shadow Stalker was Sophia Hess. "Is this some sort of joke? Did Piggot put you up to this? Trying to lure me out?!"

"Hold on there, Sophia, what's…" Aegis turned to me and asked: "You two have a history?"

My hands were shaking. Was I angry? Afraid? Disappointed? I didn't know. It was as if all my emotions decided to take a time out, lock themselves in a room and debate on what I should be doing. "She turned my best friend against me. Made the past two years a living hell." The words slowly flowed out of my mouth. There was only a hint on anger in my voice. I don't know how I was able to stay this calm. "She pushed me in a locker filled with rotten tampons and left me to die. I was in a coma for a week."

"You can't prove that!" Sophia yelled. She sounded…defensive. Or was it afraid?

Aegis shook his head. "Sophia, you know I'm not the one to swear in public, but what the fuck were you thinking?!"

How had she even managed to get this close without me noticing? Sophia had a distinct footfall and voice. By now, I should have been able to hear her coming several hallways away. It had saved my ass in school a dozen times by now. How could I have missed this? Then it hit me: I wasn't paying attention. I thought I was safe.

I'd deluded myself into thinking I was safe.

"Oh, you're taking her word over mine?" Sophia angrily growled.

"One: I know you. Two: I'm not a complete retard. Three: If you hadn't done anything wrong, why get so defensive? I'm sorry, but I have to tell Armsmaster and Piggot about this."

By now, I wasn't even paying attention to the conversation anymore. Part of me wanted to hit her. Another part was chastising me for not wearing my armor. Another just wanted to run away, to scream and cry. Even here, I couldn't escape the bullies. That sense of relief and freedom I had was just an illusion. Another joke the universe played on me.

"What, so they can throw me aside for that weak, pissy crybaby over there?!" Suddenly, Clockblocker started laughing. "The fuck's so funny?!"

"He's laughing because you just nominated yourself for a Darwin Award." Kid Win answered. "That 'weak, pissy crybaby' nearly offed Lung on her first night out."

"Bullshit."

Without warning, Armsmaster stomped in the room. He seemed very angry. "Hmm. I'd hoped to catch you two sooner. Aegis, Shadow Stalker. With me. Now." He commanded. The sheer presence of his voice shook me out of my thoughts. "Taylor, I would appreciate it if you didn't do anything rash."

My hands were still shaking. My mind wasn't doing much better. I wanted…I needed to do something, to say anything…but I had nothing to say. I turned around and walked away.

At least I managed to find an empty room before my emotions finally caught up with me. I started sobbing and before long I was weeping, screaming incoherently while pounding my fists against the wall. It wasn't fair. Why should someone like Sophia get powers? Why should she get to be a hero? Why does everything in my life get corrupted by bullies?

Why wouldn't they just leave me alone?

My legs gave way and I collapsed on the ground. My tears were flowing freely. Goddammit, Sophia had been right. I was weak. I should have stood up to her. I shouldn't have run away like I always did. Except I couldn't, because I'm a fucking coward. What was I even thinking? Me, a hero? I couldn't even fight high school bullies.

The door opened and Chris hesitantly stepped through. "Did you know?" I snarled, before chastising myself for it. I was angry at a lot of people, myself included, but not at him. Chris was…alright. Dennis and Carlos too. As much as I wanted to lash out, I couldn't bring myself to be angry at them.

"Your knuckles are bleeding."

"I'm fine."

"There's blood on the wall…"

"Did you know?"

Kid Win finally relented. "That Sophia's a bitch, well, yes. It's kinda obvious. That she'd done something like this, though, no. If I had, I'd have shot her myself. Or told the director."

"Right, and now she'll get a slap on the wrist like she always does."

Chris frowned. "Is that what happened at school?"

"That's what always happens. She has looks, talents, connections. I don't. Director's just going to say that I don't have any evidence and send Sophia on her way. Like hell she's going to take my word over hers."

"You don't know the director."

I laughed mirthlessly. Like it even mattered. Piggot was someone in power. She's no different than all the others. "I can't work with Sophia and if she has to choose between a veteran Ward and me…"

Kid Win chuckled. "Like I said, you don't know the director. I'm not going to pretend that Piggot isn't a cold, ruthless hardass who will do anything to get the job done, but there's one thing she can't stand. She absolutely hates parahumans who think they're better than normals because they happen to have powers. What Sophia did is basically just that. Trust me, her time with the Brockton Bay Wards is pretty much over. She was on thin ice already." I wanted to say something in response, but I couldn't find the words. He wouldn't understand anyway. "Big question is: What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know? How high's the rig?"

He shifted nervously. "Right. What I meant was: Can we still convince you to stay?"

"Why would you even want me to? How am I supposed to fight supervillains if I can't even deal with a bully?"

"Because high school is a living hell compared to the real world." I shot Chris and angry glare. "What, you think you're the only one who's got problems? When I triggered, I wanted to be just like Hero, you know, the first tinker. Problem is, I suck at math, which is really bad when you're a tinker trying to calculate power output levels. I spent my first few months as a Ward trying to writing programs that do my number crunching for me. Even then, it's hard for me to build anything more complex than a laser rifle." I guess he did have problems. Great, and now I feel like a whiny, insensitive bitch. "Wait, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. It's just…none of us are perfect, okay. I know the PRT likes to tell people that we're infallible, shining supermen, but we're not. We're all screwed up in some way, but that doesn't stop us from trying."

I was very quiet for a while. "I want…I just want one thing in my life to go right, for once."

"Then let's work this out. Believe me, Sophia will get what's coming to her. If she isn't thrown in jail or reassigned to Antarctica then, well, let's just say that bullies have few friends when they need them most." I let that sink in for a moment. Chris seemed like he genuinely wanted to help me. Then again, so did Mr. Glady and he was just covering his own ass in the end. I wasn't feeling very trusting right now. Chris' phone rang. "It's the director. She wants to see you."

I nodded and followed.