Decided to release this early due to comments made over on Spacebattles, where I also post this story. Expect one more chapter in a few days for similar reasons, then the wait between chapters will be much longer. On a related note check out ellfangor8, Lewascan2, and Synopsynthesis over there, they are excellent writers. Lewascan2 and Synopsynthesis both have very good Honkai Impact X worm fics people should check out. They are 'Eating Its Tail' and 'Selene' respectively. Also I changed the first chapter's title to 'Third to Impact' since the original title did give the wrong impression looking back. With that out of the way, on to the chapter.

Chapter 2: Road to Heroism I

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

After handing over her journal to her dad, Taylor returned to her room and took out a spare journal she had and a pencil.

"Alright, what's the plan?" She asked.

'Barely even out of the hospital and you're already ready to go, I can see why we'd be paired together. And remember to talk in your head. It works better and avoids attention.'

Right sorry, god that'll take some getting used to.

'You'll get the hang of it. Now before anything else. You need to work out. No offense but I've seen half dead frogs in better shape than you.'

Taylor winced at that. Couldn't you have put it a little less harsh. Especially since I look more like an up-right frog than a girl. Taylor, through methods to her dying day she will not understand, felt a bonk on her head despite nothing hitting her and no damage actually being done. She then got the mental image of Kiana as a stern looking trainer with her hands on her hips. She even had the uniform for it and everything. This also happened to be the first time she got to see what Kiana looked like. WHY IS SHE HOTTER THAN ME?! Taylor mentally whined. She felt another mental bonk on her head.

'Don't belittle yourself like that. You're 15, you'll grow, trust me.' Kiana ordered. 'Besides, you'll be looking like me in a month or three anyways.'

"What do you?!" She began.

'IN YOUR HEAD!'

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'LL LOOK LIKE YOU?!

'I mean what I said. As time passes, you'll start to look more and more like me, though not an exact copy from what I understand. Anyone who sees a before and after would be able to see signs you are the same person. It's just how this thing we've got set up goes.'

But why? I mean, looking pretty is always nice, but I like my hair the way it is!

'That's just how it is so you'll have to deal with it. Moving on!'

But…

'MOVING ON!'

Taylor mentally sighed. Fine. But can you at least tell me how long it'll take?

'If nothing is done, about a year. However, the harder you train the faster it'll be. I'd say… two to three months is a safe estimate for when the changes will be finished. Now, speaking of training, we'll need to build up your physical and combat abilities before you can go parts hunting. Your powers let you eventually build the equipment I had, which you will need as that little sparkle trick is the most you'll be able to do without it for a while. In the meantime we'll be going over controlling said power you displayed earlier and bringing more of it to bear. It'll be slow, like I said, but trust me when I say the pay-off will be worth it.'

Got it. Taylor replied mentally, writing that all down.

'Also you'll have to tell your father about this eventually.'

Taylor winced at that. Can't I keep this a secret? She felt another mental bonk.

'Keeping secrets got you in that locker. Also as soon as you start really changing you won't be able to hide it from him.'

Taylor frowned at that.

'That being said I can't actually force you. I just recommend you do it before you really start changing, but as I said, it's really up to you.'

Taylor sighed.

"Fine." She muttered.

'In your head.'

Whatever! So when do I start?

'Now.'

Now?!

'NOW!'

But… Bonk I just… Bonk Couldn't I… Bonk Seriously… Bonk WOULD YOU STOP… Bonk. ALRIGHT I'LL GET STARTED!

'Wonderful, now drop and give me twenty.'

But I can't do twenty push ups!

'It doesn't have to be all at once, yet.'

Even still… Bonk. FINE I'LL DO IT!

'Thatta girl.'

Taylor grumbled as she got down to the floor and started doing push ups. She barely got three in before she fell to the ground, her arms already tired.

'We've got a lot of work to do.' Kiana noted.

Taylor groaned. Thus her training began.

Meanwhile…

Danny pulled up to the office building in downtown Brockton Bay. After parking his car and making sure it was secure, he made his way inside. In his hand was a briefcase containing Taylor's diary. After talking to the lady at the front desk, he was allowed further inside. He headed up in the elevator to the floor he needed and made his way through it until he came upon a particular office and knocked on it. A few seconds later the door opened to reveal an older gentleman.

"Danny my boy, it's been ages." The man greeted Danny with a jovial smile.

"Hey Jim, sorry I haven't been in contact. It's… it's been hard." Danny replied with a sigh.

"I'd imagine. Lord knows I'd have trouble going on if Cait passed. But enough of that. Come in, come in." Jim expressed, gesturing Danny inside.

Danny entered the office as Jim closed the door behind him.

"I was surprised to get your call. Whatever you needed to talk about, it sounded important. Luckily I had nothing in particular planned right now." Jim mentioned. "Coffee?"

Danny thought for a bit as he hung up his coat before shrugging.

"Sure." He replied.

With a nod, Jim poured two cups, handing one to Danny. The pleasing aroma of the coffee graced Danny's nostrils, helping him relax slightly. He took a sip and let out a content 'ahhh'.

"Hmph… glad you like it. I make sure to get the best. Now, what is it you need to discuss?" Jim brought up as he took a seat behind his desk.

He gestured for Danny to take the seat in front of him, which he did.

"It's in regards to Taylor. But first, you're still on the school board, right?" Danny asked.

Jim looked at him perplexed.

"Yes… why do you ask?" He inquired.

Danny opened his briefcase and took out Taylor's diary. He handed it to Jim.

"Read this, it'll explain everything." Danny stated.

Jim looked at the diary, then Danny, then back at the diary. He took it, opened it up, and began to read. As he read page after page his face darkened as a deep anger took hold of him. After finishing it he looked up at Danny.

"You're sure this is true Danny?" He asked.

"According to Taylor, all this happened and more. What's worse is the school seems to be actively covering up the bullying." Danny explained. "We also have the malicious emails sent to Taylor, though I thought the diary would be stronger."

Jim nodded.

"I'm surprised you didn't come to me sooner with this." Jim noted.

"I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I didn't really know until recently. Taylor had been keeping this a secret for about a year and a half. I noticed the signs but never acted on it, still too lost in my own grief. The only reason I know now is because of what happened a few days ago." Danny spoke with a hint of shame before it turned to anger.

He curled his hands into a fist.

"My baby girl was shoved in her own damn locker full of rotten old tampons and pads and just left there to rot. Someone let her out after about an hour but she was catatonic and had to be taken to the hospital. Luckily she had no serious injuries or infection from it. The worst was her being unconscious for about a day." Danny explained, struggling to hold back his rage.

Jim's gaze grew hard at that.

"And to make matters worse the school attempted to silence us by offering to pay for the hospital bill in exchange for not pressing charges." Danny added.

"You didn't take it, did you?" Jim asked.

Danny shook his head no.

"Didn't need to, Taylor was only in about two days so we could absorb the cost." Danny explained.

"Good, that means we've got room to work with." Jim stated.

"You'll help us?" Danny exclaimed hopefully.

"Of course. You're a good man Danny, an honest one too. I don't believe you or Taylor would make this up. Still, the diary on its own won't be enough and I doubt the emails will help either. This… locker incident however, raises the weight of all of those. Still we'll need to get records from the hospital and any of the emergency responders. They'll help cement that we aren't making all of this up." Jim explained. "The next school board meeting is tomorrow. If we can get everything together beforehand, I can present it then and hopefully get things rolling. Thankfully I still have some old friends I can call upon to help with that. With any luck we'll get the justice Taylor deserves. In the meantime I can get you in contact with Carol Dallon to hopefully start building your case for a lawsuit if I can't get things done through the school board. Regardless, we should be able to get Taylor out of Winslow. I've got connections to Arcadia I can use and can probably give her a shot to get in, though she'll have to pass some tests."

"You'd do all of that?" Danny questioned with a hint of shock.

"Of course, your father and I were good friends back in the day. How could I not help his boy when he needed it." Jim declared.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks." He muttered.

"Of course, now… before anything else… I'm rather famished, why don't you join me for lunch. We can get started afterwards. My treat." Jim suggested.

Danny shrugged.

"If you're offering, I don't mind. It'll be good to catch up too." He replied.

"Wonderful, let's get going." Jim stated, grabbing his coat.

Danny took back the diary and put it back into his briefcase before grabbing his own coat. The two stepped out of the office and came face to face with a middle aged woman walking up to them.

"Ah… Jane, back from lunch I see. Perfect, I'll be stepping out for lunch myself." Jim explained to his secretary. "I'll also probably be out the rest of the day, something important has come up. I'll need to deal with it sooner rather than later."

"Understood, sir, just be careful. A shootout is going down on eighth street between some E88 goons and ABB thugs." She replied.

Jim blinked in surprise.

"I had actually planned on going there today before Danny called me." He noted. "Good thing you called me."

"Yeah no kidding who knows what'd have happened." Danny replied.

"Let's… not dwell on that and get ourselves some lunch." Jim stated.

"Right." Danny replied with a smile.

He just knew Taylor was going to be happy to hear this.

Later…

"Uhmmm… Taylor… are… are you okay?" Danny asked after explaining everything.

Taylor just looked at him with tired eyes as she struggled to bring a piece of pork up to her mouth to eat.

"I decided to try and get in shape and took it too far." She replied tiredly, before biting into the delicious pork.

She had managed to complete all twenty push ups, thought it took a while with all the breaks she had to take. Even with those breaks, she was exhausted and her arms were burning from over exertion. Not even the good news her father told her was enough to break her out of her exhaustion.

"Are you sure you should be pushing yourself like that? You just got out of the hospital." Danny pointed out.

"The doctors said I was fine. Also I was bored." Taylor explained. "Speaking of, I'm thinking of taking up running in the mornings."

"Oh… well… it might be good for you. But what's with this sudden interest in exercising, if you don't mind me asking?" Danny inquired.

"Well…" Taylor began.

'Tell! HIM! Tell! HIM! Tell! HIM!' Kiana cheered in her head.

She was even dressed in a cheerleading outfit and waving flags saying 'Go Taylor'.

"I just want to get in shape, help me focus on something other than everything at school." Taylor explained.

She was treated to the mental sight of Kiana falling on her back.

"I see… well… I think that's fine. Just try and take it easy." Danny relented.

"I will." Taylor replied.

She relaxed a bit, though she felt a bit of guilt well up from not being fully honest with her dad.

'Listen to the guilty Taylor-chan. LISTEN TO IT!'

She didn't listen.

"Just be careful. You know how this city can be. Be sure to have some way to defend yourself. Even if it's just a can of pepper spray, it's better than nothing." Danny ordered. "I'd insist on joining you just to sooth my own worries if nothing else. However I doubt our schedules will align for a while. Maybe once we get this situation with the school smoothed over I'll join you. Lord knows getting in shape could do me some good."

Taylor wasn't sure how she felt about her father joining her in the future, but nodded along regardless. She'd get to work out like Kiana wanted and that was all that mattered. With nothing left to say, the father daughter duo resumed eating their dinner.

The next day…

Taylor huffed, puffed, and gasped for air as she inched closer and closer to home. She had gone around the block for her first morning run. While she had started out strong, her lack of physical fitness made itself known. Thus she was pushing herself hard just to finish the run. After a bit more running, she finally managed to make it home. She gasped for air taking deep breaths. She was bent over with her hands on her knees. Her legs felt like they were on fire despite the cold weather. She remained by her house for a little while to catch her breath. As she did, her father came out.

"Back from your run I see." He noted.

She just nodded.

"I'll probably be out for most of the day. I'll be talking with Carol about the lawsuit if we end up going through with it, then meeting up with Jim to get everything ironed out before the school board meeting." He explained.

"Cool…" She replied between breaths.

"I might be home late so we'll probably just have leftovers, unless you want to cook something." He added.

"Maybe…" She replied before making her way towards the house. "Have a nice day.

She squeaked when her dad brought her into a hug.

"You too kiddo." He replied before heading to his truck.

Taylor just looked on slightly dazed as her father drove off, waving to her. She unconsciously waved back before heading inside. She closed the door behind her before she finally shook herself out of her daze.

"Alright, next item." She muttered.

She rested a while before moving on to some basic stretches, making sure to stretch out her arms, back and legs, before moving on to do more exercise. So… other than more workouts, what else do you have lined up for me today.

'Uhhhm… other than working on that energy you brought out in the hospital, nothing much.'

Kiana sighed.

'I've been trying to come up with a good schedule for this whole thing, beyond the general outline I laid out before, but organizational skills aren't my strong suit.'

This caused Taylor to stop. Really, but isn't that why you're here?

'Hey! I can teach you how to kickass, bend the very fabric of spacetime to your will, and burn through anything in your path with ease.'

What were those last two?

'But, being super organized and having everything planned out has never been my thing. Sure I can come up with a decent plan of attack for missions and stuff, but not a training program. Even then, most of my other friends and allies were the ones who did all the planning stuff.'

Seriously, what were those last two things you mentioned?

'We'll get to that later, it's related to that energy you brought forth. Anyways…'

But…

'ANYWAYS!'

Taylor grumbled a bit but didn't respond.

'Good, now… as I was about to say, we'll need to figure something out if we want to move forwards more smoothly.'

I'll try and think of something, maybe hop on the computer and look up stuff online.

'That might work, but after your workouts.'

Taylor nodded before resuming her training.

Elsewhere…

Danny made his way through the law firm towards the office of Carol Dallon. Everything he needed for the meeting he carried in his trusty briefcase.

"Danny?" A familiar voice exclaimed in surprise from behind him.

Danny had to grit his teeth and hold back his rage, when he heard the voice. He looked over his shoulder to see his 'friend' Alan Barnes.

"Alan…" He replied coldly.

Alan was taken aback by the coldness with which Danny spoke.

"Woah, you alright Danny?" Alan inquired. "What's gotten you so angry?"

There were a lot of ways Danny could respond to that question. He could rage about the suffering his 'friend's' daughter inflicted on his own. He could get up in his face, shouting and attacking the man. A large part of him wanted to, his legendary temper called for it. Yet he did not yield to temptation, he turned his temper towards a cold determined focus. Not only because it wouldn't help his case; but because, at the end of the day, he wanted to believe that the man who had pulled him out of the depression caused by Annette's passing knew nothing of the monster his daughter had become.

"Something happened to Taylor at school, something bad, it's been happening to her. I just found out about it recently. Did you know she was being bullied at Winslow?" Danny asked.

Alan's eyes went wide in shock.

"Emma hasn't mentioned anything like that. Though I haven't seen her and Taylor hang out at all recently. Are you sure it's happening?" He asked.

"YES!" Danny snapped back.

Alan flinched and Danny took a breath to calm himself slightly.

"Yes, my baby girl ended up in the hospital because of it. It was the only reason I found out." Danny explained as he struggled to hold back his rage.

He took another deep breath to calm down further.

"That's why I'm here today. Old Man Jim recommended me to Carol Dallon to start building a case for a lawsuit, just in case he can't get things done through the school board." He explained.

"I see… makes sense." Alan replied. "It's good to hear Old Man Jim's still kicking. I should see about meeting up with him sometime. He's what? 69 now?"

"70." Danny answered.

"Damn and he's still going strong. And he got you Carol too. She'll be good if it has to go to court." Alan noted.

"Yeah, but I hope it doesn't come to that. I think both Taylor and I would be happy to just leave this all behind us and move on if we were compensated. Some punishment for the girls who made her life hell would be nice, but getting compensated for damages and getting her out of there is the top priority. If we have to fight we will though. It'll be tough, but I'm confident we can win." Danny declared.

"Well I wish you the best of luck." Alan expressed sincerely. "Hey, after you get everything taken care of, we should see about getting together again. It's been ages since we've last really had a get together between our two families. Given Emma and Taylor have drifted apart, this might be a good way to get them back together. They were practically sisters."

Danny's hold on his temper was once again pushed to its limits, and once again he held strong.

"We'll probably be busy for a while with the situation with Winslow and all. Maybe sometime down the road." Danny answered coldly.

Alan flinched at Danny's tone. He was a little confused as to why it seemed directed towards him, but didn't dwell on it.

"We'll have to work something out then I guess. Anyways I need to get back to work. It was nice seeing you Danny. And once again, I wish you luck." Alan stated.

"Yeah… thanks." Danny replied before looking forward.

He marched on his way as Alan went his own way. I really hope it doesn't come to a lawsuit, Alan. Because if it does, you'll be dragged into it. And you're the last person I want to fight. You who forced me to see how I was failing my daughter when Annette died and helped me begin to turn it around. The only reason I'm here fighting is because of you, ironically enough. The last thing I want is to repay that kindness with war. But I will fight for my daughter as you would for yours. Even if you realize the monster she's become, you'd still fight for her. In a way I can't blame you. We are men born of this city, hardened by it. We'll fight for anything we can. Because in the end, it'll be all we truly have. Danny walked up to the secretary, and confirmed his appointment before entering. He came face to face with a stern looking blond woman with short hair in her mid-thirties.

"Ahh… good you're here." The woman greeted him.

She motioned to a chair.

"Have a seat. Jim already gave me the basic rundown on what's going on. Even still we have much to discuss." She stated.

Danny nodded and did as instructed. Though he wished it wouldn't come to it, he still must prepare for war.

And that's all folks. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Stay tune for the next one in a few days. If you want me to be able to produce more content, please consider supporting me on subscribe star. (search zmanxv and the link is on my deviantart page).