SECOND ARC LETS GOOOOOOOOO
I never thought I'd get this far
But here we are
W
Gosling 2.1
"...care to elaborate on that Regent?"
"No."
"...right. Anyways, a goose? Are we just suppose to-"
"She's telling the truth Grue."
"...no. There's no way. She must be mastered. Powers don't... animals can't trigger!"
"Well, it wouldn't exactly be the strangest thing that's happened."
"Not helping Tattletale. Also how are you so fine with this?"
Tattletale looked over at Grue with a deadpan look in her eyes.
"I'm not. In fact, I'm actively trying not to process it right now but it's the truth according to what she thinks."
"She must be mastered then! There's no wa-"
"She's not mastered either Grue. I can tell."
"...fuck."
"...yea. Fuck."
As Grue looked disbelieving at the ground, Tattletale rose from the couch and started pacing with a hand on her chin while Regent also rose and meandered over to the kitchen area. Which in turn caused Taylor to look disbelieving at him.
The reactions of the other two supervillains were about what she had expected. In fact, they felt good. She wasn't the only one who knew how bullshit this was anymore. She wasn't alone. It was an incredible feeling. Schadenfreude, the germans called it. The only thing that ruined it was... well Regent's complete lack of response to it. That was strange. But the others had reacted in the way that she expected so good enough she supposed.
Even if others had to suffer because of that, again, they were supervillains so she didn't feel too bad. Besides, the goose would have probably continued to attack them regardless of if they knew its true form or not. It was an asshole like that.
"Now you guys know how I feel all the time..."
Tattletale looked over at her.
"Fuck you."
"Harsh."
"Not now, Regent! How are you not more startled by this?"
Taylor couldn't help but agree with the supervillain. Meanwhile, the person in question took a moment to pause foraging through the refrigerator to look back at Tattletale.
"Have you forgotten?"
"...right. That's bullshit by the way."
Regent grabbed a coke from the fridge before making his way over back to the living room. Plopping himself back onto the couch beside Tattletale, he opened the coke before addressing Tattletale again.
"You should try being less emotional Tats. Works wonders for me."
"Fuck you."
"Hey intrepid leader, Tats is swearing again you should stop her."
"...I can't deal with you right now. I need to think."
Grue leaned back against the wall, still clearly in the process of processing Taylor's words.
"Well, your loss I suppose. Hey, since you're a part of the group now, I'll guess its up to me to do orientation because these two are clearly not in the right state of mind to do it."
Taylor looked at the renaissance cosplayer with disbelief still in her eyes at his lack of reaction even as the supervillain pointed at Grue.
"So he's Grue, our fearless leader except he fights with shadows so not really. His skull mask is really cool and well designed which is really unfortunate because no one can see it in his darkness. Probably should have thought better about making his helmet so detailed in my opinion. He usually has a stick up his ass most of time which doesn't help the fact that he's just not very interesting."
Grue let out a noise of annoyance yet didn't respond, still clearly thinking. Meanwhile, Regent pointed at Tattletale, who looked back at his finger with clear frustration in her eyes.
"That's Tats. Or Tattletale for long. She's our resident know it all. She's the type of person to respond to losing an argument with your IP address. She's the opposite of chill. She has to know everything about you and everything about everything else as well. She likes to needle people for no reason. We all find her really annoying even if we don't all say it. Honestly, if I wanted to be psychoanalyzed all the time I would be in a mental ward, not here. Prepare to have no privacy with her. She's like the feds but worse because she throws a tantrum every time she's wrong about something."
Taylor could almost feel Tattletale blowing a gasket. She had stopped pacing and instead was now staring at Regent. Her face turned redder with Regent's every word and she opened her mouth to speak right as Regent cut her off.
"And then we have Bitch."
Taylor couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at that.
Really? Him too?
Taylor couldn't help but think less of the supervillain for that. Grue was included in that as well now that she was thinking about it. Especially because the dog mask villain was their teammate as well. They had basically overridden her opinion in that vote as well.
Taylor felt kind of bad for her despite the whole super-villainy thing. To be insulted by your teammates like that must suck. She would hope that they didn't do anything like that with her but Taylor didn't really want to connect with the group of supervillains further than being mutual allies against a common enemy anyways so she wasn't all too concerned.
"Bitch is really anti social, so you'll have to forgive her for her earlier attitude. Or don't, that's fine too. She controls dogs and makes them big. I'm talking full on transformation bullshit. I probably don't have to explain this to you actually because you saw them earlier so I'll just move on from her power. We tolerate her because she's useful as muscle. Has all the personality of a brick wall though. If a brick wall could growl that is. Don't touch her dogs, look at her dogs, lick her dogs, whatever, and you'll be fine."
Taylor had to take a moment to mentally process that but Regent had already moved on.
"And finally me, Regent, the only fun member of the team. While everyone else does stuff like planning, I actually enjoy my life instead of wasting it like these guys. I can control people's movements for brief moments. It's not all that useful and I do primarily use it to mess with Tats specifically but my vibrant personality more than makes up for it. Unlike some of us who have to rely on their powers as their defining personality trait. Tats, that's you."
"Fuck you."
"...wow. Alright uhh, thanks for the introductions? I guess?"
"You're welcome. And together, the four of us make up the Undersiders. Stupid name if you ask me, but I was outvoted. Well I suppose the five of us now that your a member, if only a temporary one. I would say I hope you enjoy your stay but I don't care if you do and also I know for a fact that you won't."
"...great."
As soon as Regent finally stopped speaking, Tattletale let out a small cough. Taylor looked over to her to see that she had managed to pull herself together, and her skin tone had returned to its normal colour. After coughing, the supervillain smiled, however the smile didn't come anywhere close to reaching her eyes.
"Hey Regent?"
"Yea?"
"You're a dead man."
As Tattletale started to walk over to Regent, probably intent on ending his life, Grue let out a long, heavy sigh and pushed himself off of the wall, seemingly having finished thinking.
"Alright."
Tattletale paused in her march over to the couch while Regent lolled his head back on the couch.
"Alright?"
"Yea. Alright. The situation's insane but there's nothing we can do but accept it. If she is telling the truth, then we need to start preparing. Immediately."
"...I don't disagree with that. I'll get on that... later."
With that she continued to walk over to Regent with a mad glint in her eye. Taylor didn't envy Regent in that moment, though he had really brought this down on himself so she didn't feel all too bad for him.
"You do that Tattletale. As for you."
Grue looked over at Taylor who shrunk back into herself. In the background, she heard cries coming from primarily Tattletale but kept her attention onto the skull mask wearing villain in front of her.
"...yea?"
"We need something to call you. I doubt you're going to give us your name and since you're a parahuman now, your entitled to a cape name."
Taylor didn't know what to feel about that. On one hand, as Grue said, she didn't want to give her real name out to supervillains, but on the other, assigning herself a cape name felt... strange somehow. She was reluctant to do it. Perhaps it was because it would definitively make herself a part of the cape community, which she wanted no part of. Yet, at the same time she was already involved. And would continued to be involved so long as the goose still drew breath.
Acquiring a cape name was the logical move. Yet, Taylor felt like it would draw her further into the goose's chaos. It would be admitting that the goose had influence over her, had sway over her life. Which, yes, it obviously did but it still felt like a concession.
Taylor bit down her pride and accepted it. Nothing would come from dwelling on stuff like that. For the sake of taking down the goose once and for all, she was willing to sacrifice a lot and her pride seemed inconsequential compared to her goal.
"Yea, that's... probably a good idea."
"Do you have any ideas?"
She did not.
"...no, not really."
"...you haven't thought about this?"
"Well I've been focused on the goose ever since I became a parahuman so... no not really."
"I would advise you not to make your cape name related to your power directly. Something too close gives away too much of your power."
Taylor went into deep thought. She hadn't thought about it before and nothing seemed to fit very well. If she was going to have a cape name, she wanted it to be something related to her goal in some way, as it was the only reason she was in the cape game to begin with.
My goal...
Her goal was to take down the goose. That was the only reason she was even here to begin with. So a name that fit that concept would be ideal. Then, it hit her.
"How about... Fowler?"
"Prowler's already taken I think."
"No, no, Fowler."
"Fouler?"
"No, F-O-W-L-E-R."
"...Fowler?"
"Yes. Fowler."
Grue looked confused. Taylor looked over at the others to see their reaction yet only found Tattletale trying her best to suffocate Regent while he was trying his best to push her off. Looking back at Grue, Taylor clarified her name.
"It's an old name for people who hunt birds."
"...right. I suppose that fits...people are going to think your name is Fouler though. And that's a villain's name as well."
Taylor took a moment to consider that before shrugging.
"I'm fine with that."
She honestly couldn't care less.
"Well then, Fowler, I suppose welcome to the Undersiders."
Regent tipped over the couch and slammed onto the floor as Tattletale's attempts to choke him out succeeded in pulling him to the ground. Taylor looked at the scene before looking back at Grue.
"...thanks."
"Anyways, we have a spare bedroom in here so you can crash there for the night."
"...what?"
Grue looked at her confused as Taylor continued speaking.
"I'm not staying. I have to get home."
"...it's midnight. You'll never make it."
Taylor's eyes widened as she walked over to the windows before pulling the blind up to see that it was indeed nighttime.
"Fuck."
She whirled around back to Grue, frantically trying to figure out how to get home.
"I- I need to get home."
"It's the middle of the night in Brockton Bay. Again, you'll never make it. Especially not with the ABB on a warpath. Oh yea, and the merchants as well."
"...shit."
He was right. Taylor knew he was right. But her dad would probably think she got into an accident or something which was... actually true but still. She didn't want to worry him any more. Especially as he had been getting better recently. She hadn't quite forgiven him for his inaction yet but he was making progress. Small progress, sure, but it was better than the nothing she was used to. Yet despite that, it wasn't exactly like she had a choice here. As Grue said, her chances of making it back to her home right safely right now were low. And that wasn't even accounting for the fact that she still had no clue where she was.
Taylor felt that she should have been more concerned about that, but she had run out of energy to be concerned at this point. She would worry about that tomorrow.
Letting out a sigh, she nodded her head.
"Yea, alright. I'll take the extra bed."
Yes she'd be vulnerable sleeping in a house with super villains but they could have killed her already so she figured they wouldn't now, especially as she had established her usefulness in hunting down the goose. So she was safe for the most part. As Grue pointed toward where she would sleep for the day, Taylor gave an absent nod, trying her best not to think about how worried her dad would be, before moving past the still ongoing fight between Tattletale and Regent.
She was rather tired after all. Both physically and mentally. Upon arriving at the doorway to her new bedroom, she noticed that it was rather bare bones, with only a single bed tucked away in the corner with a single pillow and a blanket that looked to be more suitable for a couch than a bed but she accepted it all the same. It wasn't as if she needed anything more after all.
Taking one last glance back into the living room to see Grue trying to pull Tattletale off of Regent, Taylor sighed and closed the door to the bedroom behind her. It would feel strange going to bed without brushing her teeth but that was the least of her concerns.
No, instead it was the goose, as always.
Flopping onto the bed with her legs dangling over the side while looking up at the blank white ceiling, Taylor took a moment to calm down and centre herself. The Undersiders... were something. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about them. Yes, she was technically one of them now but it had been as close to a forced recruitment you could get without it being an actual forced recruitment. They knew her face. They knew she was a parahuman. They knew she was connected to the goose.
If she had rejected their offer, it would be really easy for them to find out who she was and then expose her. And they were supervillains so why wouldn't they?
Thankfully though, or not really because the goose was the only reason she was even here in the first place, they had a common enemy which made them allies. And once the goose was gone, she would return to her normal life, goose free.
Maybe she would even move to a place that didn't have geese when she became an adult as well. Further south seemed like the likeliest option.
And then she would leave all this behind her.
But before any of that, the goose had to go. Somehow.
It wouldn't be an easy task. No, it would be nigh impossible if what she thought was correct. The goose... if the goose was actually invincible then her task may be impossible. She had yet to see it hurt once. Not during the school riot and not in the alleyway either. Every time it got hit, it just stood back up.
There was a chance it could not be killed, and only contained.
And there was only one place Taylor could think of for that.
The Birdcage.
It would be highly ironic to cage the goose there, but it was all the way in Vancouver. Across the entire continent from Brockton Bay. If it could not be killed, she would have to get it there somehow. And convince the Protectorate to let it in all while keeping her status as a parahuman hidden.
That path seemed impossible as well.
That was for later though. The goose had managed to turn all of Brockton Bay against it except for the Empire according to Tattletale, and Taylor had no doubt that the goose would go after them at some point as well. The Protectorate also knew of the goose on top of that and so would be after it as well.
Yet even despite all of that, Taylor couldn't help but feel doubt.
Maybe...maybe even all those organizations together won't be able to kill it...
It was a distinct possibility considering what she had seen of the goose so far.
Though, again, that would be a problem she could deal with tomorrow. Right now, she was tired, exhausted and wanted nothing more than to just sleep.
Even despite the poor conditions of the room, it didn't take long for her to drift off.
A/N:
Another Gooseless chapter, but the end of the last chapter didn't really wrap things up with the Undersiders so I added another chapter about this interaction to flesh it out. I must say though, Regent is by far my favourite character to write. I had a lot of fun writing the first part of this chapter because of him.
Anyways, why is this a new arc you ask? Well because it marks Taylor going from doing everything herself to working with others when trying to take down the goose. (Also the first arc already had nine chapters so I figured I should really move on at this point).
Hope you enjoyed!
