AN: That chapter took a lot from me. Hope you'll find it interesting. And I am very grateful for correcting these mistakes of mine. Enjoy!
Empire 88 territory.
Yu Chen never thought about the meaning of life. And not because he didn't want to.
Perhaps, if things were different, he would have been destined to become a writer or philosopher. But fate simply left him no choice. Kyushu refugee, who had decided to stay in Brockton Bay. From the very beginning, he was doomed to one fate. Perhaps he would have had a chance to get out of the vicious circle in which he was born, but he did not find enough willpower, money, and intelligence to enter university. That was the only way to have some perspectives in life. That's why he ended up among the Azn Bad Boys.
The work, if it could be called work, was monotonous and could be characterized by the phrase "Do as you're told" And Chen did. Not because he wanted to. There were many things that he particularly didn't like to do in his assignments. He did because of fear. And he had something to be afraid of.
Capes.
People who for some reason got superpowers and decided to use them according to their beliefs. For good... Or for evil. You didn't want to think about the realities of the behind-the-scenes world of capes, rightly believing that the farther he stayed away from them, the less trouble he would have in life. The ones he had now were quite enough for him. Lung and Oni Lee were leaders and at the same time the main scarecrow for the whole gang, for no one wanted to appear before Lung's eyes when he was in a bad mood. There were rumors that a few particularly unlucky gang members had half of their skin burned when Lung was very angry about something. And there was no reason not to believe in them. Oni Lee... They tried not to talk about him at all. And if they did, it was whispering behind closed doors. A sociopathic terrorist with a clear desire for pyromaniacs with suicide clone - teleporting ability, who only listened to Lung. He was a boogeyman for everyone. Even for ABB members.
Yu would never have willingly trespassed the Empire border, but he had no choice. Oni Lee needed a distraction, something to cover up his operation in the Docks, and it was decided to send some members to the Empire territory. Yu was unfortunate enough to be among them.
They needed to make a fuss, so each one of them had a gun. Yu didn't know a thing about shooting, but the theory was kind of simple.
But today luck was clearly not on Chen's side. They had been moving through the Empire territory for twenty minutes when their self-proclaimed commander started to give up his nerves. Li Wen had already held his hand in the pocket of a baggy jacket for a couple of minutes. Yu knew that Wen had a Glock in that pocket. Fully loaded one.
Therefore, when at the end of the fortieth minute of their forced march through enemy territory, they heard someone's furious roar, they lost their nerves at the same time at all. They pointed their guns in voice direction, so that in the next moment they would instantly pale, identifying their opponent.
A big man, wearing only blue jeans, hairy, with long, greasy blond hair, an "E88" tattoo on one bicep, and a wolf superimposed on a swastika on the other.
Hookwolf.
At that very moment, Chen decided that it was time to stop being an atheist.
-Linebreak-
PRT was looking for her. Sophia wasn't stupid not to understand the consequences that came up with Hebert's trigger. Frankly speaking, Sophia just didn't have sufficient imagination to come up with an insult that would suit Taylor more than who she was.
And that's why Hess chose the most unobvious place she could think of as a hiding place. Namely, a block controlled by 88 Empire. Nazis were racist bastards, but they were bastards with principles. And that's why finding someone whose skin color was totally different from white was nonsense here. And nobody will ever start to find her there
She spent her days in the attic of one of those typical smalltown houses, where she managed to find a more or less decent bed with a minimum number of bedbugs. At night, she went out on a hunt for supplies. She stole some food from one of the minimarkets, somewhere down the street. There was no CCTV in this place, so she had nothing to worry about. Now she had some food and water.
However, Sofia realized that she couldn't last long. She felt an acute sense of injustice. Why Hebert is now resting in a hospital, when she, Shadow Stalker, is forced to live in a shithole!
But whatever her feelings were, the predator's instincts told her that it was extremely dangerous to approach Hebert now. And Hess tended to trust her feelings. But she also knew that she needed to get her life back on track, at least by returning some things to their old places.
She came up with a plan. A simple one. But very effective in her opinion. She's at the Empire territory now. Alone. No one had even guessed her presence here, and she could hardly imagine that anyone would even think that the Ward would be in a place like this. And this gave her one wonderful opportunity:
She could track down Empire. To find out who, where and how worked. How they operated. Where did they store their goods, money, drugs? What are they planning, what they are talking about? After all, she was a Shadow Stalker, and the shadows are everywhere.
And therefore, as soon as she heard the shooting through her morning sleep, her route today was determined. Entering her Breaker state, she slipped through the wall, climbing out to the neighborhood roof, and then rushed in direction where the sounds of firing and metal grinding were.
Perhaps today she will finally be lucky.
-Linebreak-
That was the first time Taylor came to her senses, and there was no one around her. No gods, no monsters, no doctors, no capes. She was alone.
And Taylor couldn't admit that she wasn't happy with the outcome.
It was her first awakening when she did not feel pain in her whole body and could see with both of her eyes. Realizing that she was really alone, Taylor was able to get close to what might be called "relaxation".
But she was very, very far away from a true state of relaxation. Thoughts in her head, no longer subject to censorship of the need to think about a particular situation, were swarming in a flock of angry bees, stinging her consciousness with fragments of facts that lined up for her in a fragile, with dozens of missing fragments, but very unsightly picture.
She survived. Somehow incredible and completely incomprehensible to her way she survived after... after what the Trio had done to her. She was in a coma for about a month… and during that time her life went downhill. And then... then she triggered.
Even now, looking into herself, Taylor felt the [Gate] inside her mind. And there was something behind this Gate. Or someone. Perhaps her strange dreams about talking to strange voices were not dreams at all. In any case, she knew that she still had to understand what she had become. [Personas] were… different. She could not describe how they were different or what exactly they were.
But from somewhere in the depths of her consciousness came the understanding that whatever the [Persona] was - it was incredibly powerful
In any case, her trigger did not go unnoticed. Taylor had no idea what had happened in that hospital, but she could have guessed that something bad had happened... bad enough to get several capes into her room at once.
And then... Then there was Panacea.
Once the image of the famous cape appeared in her head, the girl felt a herd of goosebumps running down her back and a cold, sticky sweat on her forehead.
Taylor was afraid. She was afraid and didn't understand why.
She knew with her mind that Panacea would never hurt her, but her mind was one thing, and everything else in her head was completely different. She wouldn't let Panacea touch her, but Isis cured her and then did... something else, after which Taylor passed out.
She knew she was healthy. She felt it. She could get out of bed at any time and try to get out of the room.
But…
Consciousness has hit Taylor as hard as a hammer.
She had nowhere else to go.
There is no father. There is no home. There are no friends. There are no allies.
Taylor looked at her hospital pajamas. She didn't even possess any clothes.
And a choice. There is no choice either.
Escape?
Taylor even looked at the thick metal door that separated her room from the hallway and smiled. Even if she could get out, she had nowhere to go.
No, of course, she could become a vigilante or go villain. But to become the first one she needed resources. S plenty of them. And she had none. Not even clothes. Only pajamas and her own power. Not the best starter kit in her opinion.
Second option...
Taylor smiled sadly.
Become a villain. Somehow it seemed easy to her. Too easy. After all, in fact, there is nothing to hold her, nothing to stop her. No strings attached, no bonds tying her with her common life. She no longer had to worry about her father and school.
She didn't understand but felt that if she wanted to, [Persona] would open all the doors and locks for her, whatever they were. Any chains and restrictions - all this will be torn down when she throws off the limits that she has set for herself…
She went up off the bed and looked at her arm. Her skin was smooth and healthy, and there was no sign of what had happened in the last month.
She felt it. Her boiling rage, sadness, grief, her own insanity. All of those feelings, that she somehow kept underneath her consciousness. They blend together, mixing with her newly acquired power. It was a dangerous, volatile mixture. And it sought out. She held up her hand, letting… this to come out. Something hot for a moment seemed to flow through her veins, and a second later she saw a fire in her palm.
Taylor could call it "fireball". If it weren't for the feeling of total incorrectness of the name. This ... energy ball was capable of much more than just leaving burns. The energy created to destroy, split into atoms and disintegrate matter. Embodied Chaos, collected in a dense sphere, ready to fall off her hand in a single moment, turning idyllic into a flaming hell…
"Megido", her lips whispered that name... Like she knew it before but long forgot, and now the memories slowly resurfaced in her head.
She looked at how energy was pulsating in her hand, in unison with her heartbeat.
At the same time, she felt herself balancing on a rope in the middle of a precipice.
One wish. One message. One solution.
That would solve everything.
No one knows how the wheel of history would have turned, and what the consequences would have been if Jessica Yamada had entered her room a dozen seconds later.
-Linebreak-
Emily Piggot
Emily issued search warrants for Armsmaster for the homes of the Winslow incident participants. Police was not particularly keen to facilitate PRT and did not want to reopen an already closed case. But Emily managed to press the chief of police by talking to Mayor Roy. But even so, detectives were not particularly keen to help, and therefore Piggot had to take risky, somewhat illegal, measures.
Armsmaster searched Clements's house yesterday before the briefing, but right now she was writing a report to the prosecutor, trying to keep the letter of the law. PRT had enormous credentials when things went south. But after that… well, she had a ton of paperwork. But the paperwork was the least problem she had for now. Keeping under wraps whole Hebert incident - that was clearly another level. She managed to put on a Quarantine on those who were healed by Isis, but that was only a temporary measure. Journalists already smelled the blood.
With her last signature, Emily put aside a stack of paper, taking a look at her computer screen. Two o'clock in the afternoon. A little more than twelve hours before she had to send her report to the headquarters. And after that...
Well, Piggott survived Ellisburg. Whatever will happen, it's unlikely to be much worse than what happened there. Although Nilbog's creatures were nothing compared to the office rats working on PRT.
"That foolish Hess be damned" Emily whispered under her nose, an inner fire of her own for her carelessness in choosing a curator. This snotty Greengrass girl, who was put in charge of Hess, was naive and simple enough to believe the mentee and the Winslow releases about her behavior without verifying all the information, especially after the incident with Hebert. Of course, you can't turn a blind eye to what she did. She already signed the dismissal order.
Suddenly, Piggot's intercom revived the voice of her secretary:
"Ma'am, a call from the headquarters."
" I told you, that I am busy. Answer it yourself."
"Ma'am, they say it's only in your competence."
"What do they want?"
"They say it's something to do with Armsmaster's inventions."
Emily sighed. Colin often fulfilled the orders of his Protectorate colleagues, but according to the regulations, each of these things had to go through it personally.
"Okay. Put it through."
Emily picked up the phone and got ready for another formal conversation about things she didn't understand much about. And all the more shocking for her was the voice of Rebecca Costa-Brown, sounding from the other end of the wire.
"Hello, Emily. Maybe you can explain why I have to use such tricks to communicate with you. And what the hell is going on at your Brockton Bay?"
At that moment, Emily Piggot saw her entire successful career flying before her eyes. But it was already too late.
She had no time.
"Ma'am... the situation is difficult."
-Linebreak-
Hookwolf was pleased to consider a bunch of unconscious members of the ABB. He did not kill them but taught them a good lesson, so there was enough blood. He wondered, what these scumbags were doing in Empire's territory, but he was glad to demonstrate to them why Empire is superior to any other gang in Brockton Bay.
Frankly speaking, he did not understand what these guys were hoping for when they wandered here. ABB should have known that the guns were simply not working against him, especially when he was in his Changer state. Though perhaps, he just overestimated the narrow-eyed, and he caught real jerks.
Anyway, shots didn't hurt him at all. That's not to say about a transformer on a wall a couple of tens of meters away from it. Whether it was a stray bullet or a ricochet, it was not particularly interesting. Now, this thing was smoking and sparkled a little.
It was at this point that Hookwolf caught the call from the Kaiser. It turned out that Oni Lee and a dozen ordinary gang members attacked the weapons warehouse, which the Empire was going to sell next week. And now, they needed him there.
After looking back at the site of the massacre, he, having cursed dirty, hurried towards the warehouse districts. He didn't want to keep his boss waiting.
-Linebreak-
The sizzle of the opening door was too much of a surprise for Taylor. Frightened by the sudden sound, she jumped up on the bed, and the Megido went out by itself, disappearing without a trace.
A few seconds later, a young black-haired woman with Asian facial features, about thirty years old, entered the room. Having caught Taylor's eye, the woman smiled a little and asked:
"Can I come in?"
Winslow.
Taylor didn't know what to say. She was calm if that's what you'd call it, and she was in a state of oblivion. Her heart knocked as if she was threatening to jump out of her chest, and her body was as if it were frozen.
She was afraid of this woman. She did not know why.
"I think you've already entered... " Taylor tried to keep her voice as calm as possible, but apparently she didn't do well.
The woman clearly heard the tearful notes in her voice and therefore raised her hands and tried to calm her down
"There's no need to worry, Miss Ebert. I won't hurt you. I'm not even a cape. Just a psychologist."
"A psychologist?" Taylor understood that she was far from okay, but still she did not understand the motives of sending a psychologist to her...
The woman nodded.
"Yes. My name is Jessica Yamada. And I'm here to help you."
When Did Sin Become a Virtue and Intent Become a Plan?
That voice... that voice Taylor has heard before. Then, in the hospital, before she fell asleep, she heard that voice. Incredibly beautiful and as if enticing…
Only this time it wasn't in her head.
Now there were three people in the room. Except for Yamada and Taylor herself, who had been unnoticed by anyone, or maybe a millisecond earlier, was a man.
But it was only by looking at him that Taylor wanted to take it back. This man's face... It was too innocent, too beautiful, and too charming to belong to any one of the human race. It was as if a child had just come into this world without knowing all his bitterness, but immediately found an adult body - this celestial man looked so innocent and beautiful.
Taylor was never interested in guys, being more focused on surviving in a hell of a place like Winslow, but even she recognized the beauty that a man's body could possess. And now she has seen for herself an unattainable ideal to which the mere men of the human race could aspire. It was a body that could not be described and imagined, but at the same time, once seen, it froze forever in the consciousness on the pedestal of the unattainable.
But most surprising were his eyes. Innocent and beautiful, the gaze of the blue eyes of the celestial man was full of infinite wisdom, clear mind and some completely inhuman feeling of regret with which he looked at the world.
That was him.
But only for a second, before he looked back at his listeners with a barely noticeable movement of his eyes, after which... it was as if he had gone out.
Taylor couldn't describe what he had done. But it felt as if the switch had been pulled out of the sun, and it went out.
The celestial man looked at Taylor before he said it again:
Daughter of Eve, This Presence Of Mine Was Too Bright For Thou.
Taylor could only nod back. For some reason, she felt a little more confident when he got here.
- Who are you? - It took Jessica a great deal of effort to maintain her composure when this stranger suddenly showed up. But his impact on her... Jessica will remember these few seconds for a long time to come.
By Depriving Faith, Divesting Blood, Bereaving Home, Mankind Again Called up Upon a Fate of Babylon.
Eve's Daughter Called - So There Am I
- And yet you didn't answer my question - Yamada had to make some effort to find the strength to talk to this projection.
The celestial man looked almost surprised.
I Am the Bringer Of the Dawn.
But Not For Me, You Are Here.
"Damn it. He's right. The girl is still here." Jessica said to herself. She turned to Taylor again.
"So we were distracted. As I said, I'm here to help you. We were able to figure out your circumstances..." Jessica stopped for a second trying to assess Taylor's reaction. The girl got tense, but Jessica thought it wasn't beyond the norm, because even the most adequate capes didn't feel so good about mentioning their trigger, -
"... of your trigger event."
"And... what?" - Taylor's voice had a note of hope in it. It seemed to her for a second that in the middle of this endless space, the light at the end of the tunnel, out of horror and darkness, was shining. Will there come a day and this hell will come to an end?
Yamada didn't show it, but inside it was relieved to exhale. Contact was established. That was the basis on which she could already build further conversation and possible help.
"The investigation is not over yet, but all the perpetrators will be identified in the near future."
How Beautiful Is the Lace of Words Weaved From Truthfulness of Lies. Indeed, Mankind Have Learned My Lesson.
There was a subtle mockery in the Nephilim's voice that none of those present could yet understand. Yamada was about to continue, but he spoke again:
Ask Her, Daughter Of Eve. That Question That Thou Desire To Ask.
Taylor didn't know how he was doing it, but she knew exactly what [Persona] was talking about. And the thought of them was the only thing that poured ice down her spine.
"The Trio…" - Her voice was husky, but she didn't pay attention to it.
"You arrested them, didn't you?"
For Jessica, the conversation immediately took an unpleasant turn. It was very, very thin ice. Chambers strongly advised against opening up the Ghost Stalker's identity to the undertaker.
"You mean Madison Clements, Emma Barnes, and Sophia Hess?" - rhetorically asked her patient, Yamada.
Waiting for a gloomy nod, she exhaled to gather her thoughts and make the wording as soft as possible:
"Miss Clements is in custody. Miss Barnes... Her father is a good enough lawyer to get her house arrest…"
Jessica stopped talking, thinking about answering. But Hebert smelled something wrong.
"What about Sophia?" - her voice almost disappeared from shiver and doubt.
Jessica was good at reading people's emotions, and apparently, Ebert was in a state prior to anger. And one thing was already dangerous.
"I'm afraid that Miss Hess is on the run…" - that was the vaguest and, at the same time, a truthful formulation that Jessica could have given without risking revealing Hess' identity as a cape.
Indeed, the Truth Is the Best of My Creations. However, Know This, Spawn Of Mankind, You Cannot Lie to Father Of It.
"What? But I am not lying!" - Yamada was outraged to be interrupted by the smile that appeared on the face of the projection.
Truly so, Spawn Of Mankind, Only the Difference Between Truth and Verity is the difference between the severity of sin and repentance.
"What are you talking about, Helel?" - this name came to Taylor's mind with an undeniable knowledge imprinted on its essence. She had to name herself and the knowledge was available to her. Helel, Lucifer, Star Of Dawn, Father Of Lies, Devourer Of Souls. He held many titles. But there were all names for the same thing. Only now was she beginning to understand his speeches, his addresses. But she didn't have time for that. She wanted to know.
Daughter Of Eve, Do You Desire the Verity That is Hidden From You by the Truth?
"I am."
Amen