Orthosilicic 2.1
(Taylor Hebert)
March 4, 2011
Taylor had to admit, Brockton Bay was rather beautiful from above. Ignoring the square that made up the Merchant Wilds, of course. Even with that patch of dimness, the rest of the city looked almost healthy, rain pattering from above, cars streaming down between clean towers of glass and concrete, boats entering and leaving the harbor while Leviathan was in the Pacific, neighborhoods turning dark as sleep took its inhabitants. It was nice seeing the city without gang tags on every corner, which changed as often as the ABB and the Empire shifted territories.
Pulling her legs up from the side of the building she was sitting on the edge of, Taylor stood and stretched as she prepared for her first night helping her city in the best way she could.
Heroing.
She would've been ready to go a month and a half ago, ability-wise, but she wanted her costume to not be a scrounged up mess first. Taylor was glad she had waited, as instead of a green hoodie with a bandana around her neck and face, she had a proper costume, waterproof thankfully. It was a green pullover mask with yellow fins on the top and sides of her head, as well as a yellow mouth that zipped open if necessary. Her body suit was a dark green as well, armored thanks to her father's insistence, with plenty of pockets to hold her gear. She also had black bottomless boots and open, black gloves to finish the suit off.
The joy that went through her as she jumped off the building was almost as good as the second time Taylor had flown above the forest where she and her dad tested her powers.
And testing, they had done.
When she'd come back home from school on that fateful night, her dad had immediately hugged her after the initial interrogation, asking if she wanted him to do anything for her. Danny Hebert had known he'd been a bit detached ever since jobs had started to return, taking longer hours to make sure everyone in the Dockworker's Union had enough money to live off of, but he hadn't known it had gotten bad enough that she had… that… happen to her. Taylor tried to shrug him off, about to shell herself in again, when her dad grabbed her by the shoulders and told her to explain from the beginning.
She couldn't stop talking for the next hour or so about Sophia, Madison, or Emma, only pausing to hold her father down from releasing his rage in Alan Barnes' direction. She told him that it wasn't that big of a deal, but her father had reminded her that he could have done something if she'd told him about it.
And it was true. With his success as the head of the Union, Danny could have easily pulled in a favor or two to transfer her to Arcadia, or even Immaculata if she wanted. Her pride had blinded her, and Taylor had wanted to handle it by herself. But now that her dad knew, he'd be able to transfer her.
She'd been so stupid for not asking for help. None of this would have happened if she'd just… thought it through and focused.
After many phone calls to various people her dad knew directly and knew of, with Taylor nervously knocking her knees together on the couch, Danny had gotten her out of Winslow. Out of hell. With a few phone calls!
And then, with the subject of school and what happened there out of the way, came the topic of her powers.
Talks of staying out of the superheroing life were thrown away immediately with a determined face and her father's comment on its resemblance to her mother's, but the discussion of her safety brought her mind out of the clouds. Her dad didn't want to see her dead, no matter what, and made her promise she'd run if the fighting was too serious. She was just glad someone seemed to care, that is, until he discussed testing her powers.
A weeklong 'camping' trip to the woods was what they took together after Danny had gotten his workers to 'let' him take some time off (they'd sounded overly enthusiastic about him taking any vacation time at all), and it was filled with some of the most grueling and tedious experiments she'd ever taken a part of. She wasn't sure if the Protectorate or the Wards (If she'd ever join them. High school was enough teenage drama for her.) had worse testing than what her dad made her do, but she expected something similar.
Danny had described to Taylor exactly why they were finding all of the facts they could while in a secure location, and it made sense. It was far better to learn new things out in the open instead of in the middle of combat, but she didn't see how finding the pH value of the water she produced would matter. She still didn't know why dad had that old chemistry set in their basement next to the water heater, but he thought it would be needed for their tests.
But seriously…
Her powers were weird.
The primary power, that had gotten her home from school almost instantly, at least from her point of view, was powered by spraying water out of her hands and feet at high velocities, 'rolling' her to whichever destination she pleased. If she focused, she could aim the jets of water where she wanted, and controlling the pressure of the water came instinctively. The lowest pressure being about the speed of the tap water coming out of the sink, with the highest being 'Oh god, I shouldn't have pointed this down. I'm souring through the air. Oh no I hit a bird.'
So yeah.
She could fly.
With a tiny bit of flailing at first, but she could fly.
Her dad had nearly tackled her when she finally landed safely, checking to make sure she was fine and cringing when he saw the feathers in her hair. It had looked like a raven, so it wasn't much of a loss, but her dad still fretted around her, warning her not to attempt the strongest torrent of water towards the ground again. Or anywhere really, as the hill she'd tried it on now had a crater in the top, full of water.
She'd dreamed of flying as a girl, like every other little girl who'd seen shows about Alexandria, but she hadn't ever expected to be able to. Her dad of course had panicked, as spraying water was the only way for her to get down safely, and when they returned home he bought her an emergency parachute.
"Just in case." He told her adamantly.
She was wearing it though, even if she didn't see the point.
Her other powers were the weird ones, though.
The ability that had given her those white and red boxes and healed her didn't occur at all, no matter how hard she tried, ruining her dad's hopes of her staying in the hospital and healing. He made the guess that she had to be hurt for them to show up, but he really didn't want to try and prove it.
Although the healing power was discarded for now, the one that had given her the wrench had done something new. After describing how she'd killed some bugs to get the orange boxes and the wrench to show up, her dad had given her the go ahead to spray the nearest anthill.
And then her power activated.
She must have killed hundreds, even thousands of ants. And with their deaths came the boxes.
As well as the weapons.
Shotguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, wrenches, and more popped into existence as the ants died, leaving Taylor and her dad in shock as they stared at the still growing pile. Her dad held her back as he approached, only letting her come look when he checked their authenticity.
Neither of them recognized to models, (although that really didn't mean much) but they were real. She felt something in her seem to fill up as she inspected the weapons, but still didn't know exactly what it was, as her thoughts were interrupted by her dad immediately grabbing the shovel they brought and starting to dig
Explaining as the hole grew, Danny described how quickly the gangs would go after her if they knew she could create fully functional weapons from killing bugs, making her promise not to try and kill anything on purpose. She'd said she'd try her best, but they both knew that it would be a challenge if killing a bug still counted.
After burying the mass of weapons and swearing to never try that anywhere near home, they tested her physical changes.
The gills she had gained were in fact fully functional, allowing her to stay in the lake she created for the full four hours they tested without difficulty. While underwater, she discovered that she could see perfectly fine, even in the murky depths, and determined that her powers had changed her eyes somehow as well. However, her dad hadn't noticed any visible changes to her eyes afterwards.
They spent to week trying out anything they thought of, from trying to store stuff where the water came from (which led to plenty of disappearing sticks), to learning to fly without demolishing the ground beneath her (not drenching it was out of the question), all the while growing closer than they had ever been since the jobs started pouring in after the boatyard was destroyed.
It was nice, having a week to relax with her dad.
Then, on the drive back home, they passed a music store, making them both remember what she'd said the night she'd come home with powers.
One guitar later, and they were back on the road, music streaming out of the windows as Taylor played what her heart seemed to want her to play since she got her powers.
The good mood was pleasant for a change.
Everything seemed to change for the better after she left Winslow for the last time.
It's been almost three months since the locker, and she couldn't be happier that she was gone.
She had friends now, Sarah and Lydia being her first and greatest while Tony, Chris, and, Jessica followed close behind. They were a mix of the music and book geeks, Sarah and Lydia were a part of the orchestra while the other three enjoyed music as a hobby, and they were the ones to first bring her out of her shell by asking about the guitar that she still brought everywhere except heroing.
Her grades were much improved as well, leaving the C to failing slump she was in while her tormentors ruined her work. Without the interruptions that her bullies brought, she caught up quickly and was now getting solid As, much to her dad's likings.
But even with the guitar as an excuse, she couldn't talk to her friends about her greatest hobby.
Her heroic hobby.
Which is why, on a Friday night, she was leaping from the top of the tallest building in Brockton Bay in the pouring rain, looking for trouble.
She was overjoyed when she heard that it would be raining on the weekend, as that was the only time that her father agreed let her fly in the open.
She smoothed out her altitude above most of the buildings and started following the roads in E88 territory, trying to find anyone sneaking in the alleys.
She noticed a bright light flying upwards in the north and immediately cut her water, diving towards the nearest rooftop. She stumbled a bit on the landing, but quickly darted behind an air conditioning unit, peeking out once she was completely blocked from view.
It was two figures, one in a golden bodysuit, the glowing one, holding another in a white robe, bridal style.
'Glory Girl and Panacea,' Taylor figured as she noticed the hospital the duo had taken off from.
She briefly contemplated going after them to say hi before rejecting that idea in favor of punching some Nazis.
The smarter choice, if she had any say about it.
She waited a few minutes for them to fly back to the ground, then stood up to prepare to jump back into the air.
Taking off was almost as good as jumping off a high building, but only while on the ground. On a building, her best bet was to start off slow then leave the edge, in order to not make any holes, but sometimes, on the buildings with concrete rooves…
She could really take off.
Luckily, the tower she had hidden on had a concrete edge, good enough for her, and she blasted off into the rainy night sky.
Leaving behind a purple, crystalline man sighing in exasperation as he tried to catch up.
Again.
Taylor's eyes caught something of interest a few minutes later, spinning herself around to see what it was. Landing on a thrift store near her target, which happened to be two men talking adamantly beneath the awning, she snuck closer to try and eavesdrop.
"You promised me five grams you dick!" The shorter, pudgy-looking guy snarled at the gangly man with the backpack. "Not four grams and an order to quit slacking off!"
"Look Jerry, Hook's upset that you used some of your coke and took off what he thought you used. As for slacking off…"
"I didn't use a gram. I just had one line man! Look, can you just give me…"
"As for SLACKING OFF," The tall one angrily yelled into the shorter ones face as he shook his shoulders "Boss says you need to raise your quota. You spend far too much time napping instead of selling."
Taylor had heard enough.
She leaned above the two as they continued to argue about proper working hours and cocaine, and allowed her water to spray them in the chest.
Immediately knocked over, the two attempted to stand as she jumped down on top of the taller one, accidentally landing one foot on his face.
"Oops," She blurted out, crouching down to check his pulse, as the shorter man stumbled to his feet. "Umm… sorry? Not sorry, really, but…"
"What'd you do to Thomas you faggot!" The man was spitting at her in rage, not even recognizing that she was a she, and that she was also currently wearing something special.
He rushed her, yelling and screaming incoherently as he tried to reach her kneeling form, but when she stood up and faced him, he tried to stop and gasped.
"Shit! Cape!" the man screaming out to no one as he turned and ran.
She water blasted him in the back and knelt down to the man she had thankfully knocked out to tie him up.
After she finished zip tying him, she returned her attention to the man that tried to run, who was currently trying to crawl his way through a puddle.
She dashed over to him and kicked him in the chest, grabbing his arms and tying them together behind his back, causing him to jerk in pain and start yelling. Again.
Gags, she had to get gags for next time.
Fishing a phone out of the man's pockets, also finding the bag of coke they were talking about earlier, she called to cops and gave them the location of two drug dealers, suspected Empire goons, and denied being able to stay to talk to the police, simply stating that she went by Fish, then hanging up.
She still had work to do.
She was about to take off again when a 'pop' sounded on the thrift store roof above her.
It was a man, maybe a tall teenager, leaning forward and sighing in relief as he saw her.
"You need… to slow… the fuck… down…" gasped the figure as he 'popped' down in front of her.
She tensed, expecting the worst, when the man, teen, boy, whatever, held up his hands and stopped.
"Whoa, man, not looking for a fight. All I'm doing is looking for a quick talk, and them I'm outta your hair." The guy that also hadn't known she was a girl entered the streetlamp slowly, hands still raised. It was a teenager, as far as she could tell, with purple crystals covering his face and body, angular shapes forming eyebrows and lips. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, with everyday tennis shoes. Not much of a costume in her opinion (maybe he was a changer?).
"I'm not a man," She started off "But we can't talk here, the police will get here soon. Can your teleporting get up a building?"
"Oh, shit sorry. Yeah it can, but it takes some effort the further away it is. Can it be that one there? That's all I can make around here." He was pointing behind her at the skyscraper two blocks away.
"Sure, meet you there." She said, taking off towards the tower, leaving him behind.
"Cool see you there." She heard fade off as she flew.
What could he possibly want with her?