Putting this out a day earlier than normal since I'll be busy Sunday with Easter. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 5: Road to Heroism IV

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Taylor lumbered down the stairs, tired from having to get up early, again. The day before had been fairly productive. They had managed to find the old computer, but not enough of other electronics for Taylor to build the computer she'd need, especially since some of it would have to go towards building her converter. At Danny's suggestion, they decided to wait to hear the result of the school board's investigation in case they get a sudden inflow of cash. "If we have to replace our current computer, might as well get something nice," was the general consensus. Other than that, she managed to finish both her welding gun and soldering gun before her pre-dinner workouts, after which she made dinner. While she did this, she had her father go out and pick up spools of thread so she had it for when her converter was finished. After dinner she did more training with bringing out her honkai energy, which was progressing much more slowly than everything else, before going to bed.

"Morning!" Her father greeted her, already ready to go out. "Looks like I didn't have to wake you up this morning."

She glared at him. He merely chuckled. Then he noticed something.

"Where are your glasses?" He questioned.

She blinked in surprise before feeling up her face. She found she indeed don't have her glasses on. Despite this she could see perfectly fine. In fact it was even better than when she had her glasses on.

"Huh… guess I don't need them anymore." She noted.

"Huh… wonder why?" He questioned.

'Well like I said, I never wore glasses so why would you?'

Makes sense.

"Kiana says she never wore glasses so why would I?" She replied.

"Makes sense." He noted.

Thus their morning run began. Danny got tired around the time he did yesterday, while Taylor went for even longer. Danny was breathing heavily in the living room when Taylor returned, having continued the run long after he was done. She was hardly winded.

"Bullshit, that is bullshit. Your powers are cheating cheaters who cheat." He grumbled.

She just smiled smugly at him. The smugness continued as she did her workout while hardly even breaking a sweat. Her smug smile remained even as her dad left for work, leaving her breakfast on the table. She remained smug even as she sat down to eat her breakfast.

'Since that was so easy I think we can up the ante on your training.'

Taylor's smug expression dropped at the tone in Kiana's voice. She gulped. Why do I get a bad feeling about this?

'That's your survival instincts kicking it.'

W-w-w-what do you mean by that Kiana?

'…'

Kiana?!

'…'

KIANA?! The feeling of dread refused to leave Taylor even as she finished her breakfast and went down into the basement to tinker some more.

Later…

It was little after one that Taylor finished her first, converter. While small, due to a lack of materials, it was still large enough for her current purposes, even if it looked incredibly junky. As the name suggests, it converts things from one material to another in a limited fashion. While not in all cases, it could normally only really convert between material types, such turning one metal into another, and only worked with solids. It also couldn't produce anything inherently dangerous, like radioactive materials. The main limitation was it couldn't do anything special to the materials it produced. Wiping the sweat from her brow she smiled at her handy work.

"And done…" She breathed out.

'Nice job, you've started making progress towards building your first battlesuit.'

Yeah… She checked the time and her eyes went wide.

"Better go make lunch." She muttered.

She got up and headed upstairs, before backtracking and loading a spool of thread into the converter to start the process. Given she couldn't make the best possible one, it'd take a day or two to convert a full spool. After placing a box down to catch the converted threads, she went up to the kitchen and began making lunch.

We still have a lot to build though; the assembler, refiner, fabricator, and, most importantly, the computer. We also still have got a few more small tools to make and upgrade. Once that's all done we can start making a proper battlesuit.

'And on your physical training front, I'd say, WITH the harder training I'll be putting you through…'

Taylor wilted at the reminder.

'You've got another week before we can move on to teaching you how to fight.'

Taylor could feel pride and smugness radiating from Kiana.

'My adorable kouhai is coming along wonderfully.'

Well you've been a surprisingly good instructor Kiana.

'Why thank you, HEY! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SURPRISINGLY GOOD?!'

Well… you don't come off as the teaching type of person. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk.

'I am so to the teaching type! AND CALL ME KIANA-SENPAI!'

Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Bonk. With great struggle, Taylor managed to make her lunch.

Later…

"Okay… what did you do this time?" Danny questioned.

Taylor just looked at him with tired eyes as she struggled to bring a bit of beef up to her mouth.

"My training was getting too easy so Kiana mentally bonked me until I upped the intensity." Taylor explained. "I'll be pushing myself a lot harder now."

"Well, that'll be good since you really want to get stronger to go out and be a hero." Danny pointed out with a hint of amusement.

Taylor weakly glared at him.

"Stupid Kiana, making me work harder. Stupid dad, going along with it" Taylor grumbled.

'I'm just doing what's best for you.'

I take back what I said, you're a horrible teacher. Bonk. NOT CHANGING IT! She felt Kiana pout in her mind.

"You know, you should really get better at hiding your mind talk tells." Danny pointed out.

"My what?" She questioned.

"When I presume you're talking to Kiana you have this look that almost screams your having a mental conversation." He pointed out.

"Huh… Really?" She questioned.

Danny nodded.

"Most people would probably just brush it off as you thinking extra hard. Heck, I did that before you told me everything." He added. "Even still, stopping those tells and others like it can only help you in the long run. When making deals and negotiating stuff, keeping the otherside from knowing what's going through your head gives you a major advantage. I'd assume a fight would be the same."

'He's definitely not wrong.'

Taylor nodded.

"Good point. Don't know how I'll work on that but I'll think of something." She replied.

"I can probably help a bit with that, when I have time." Danny brought up. "I Might not be the best, but I've learned what to look for through experience."

"Best I'll probably get." She noted.

The two finished their dinner before Danny went to watch some T.V while Taylor went up to her room to practice using her honkai energy.

The next day…

Taylor got up bright and early, again, to do her morning runs. While the intensity of the run wasn't increased, it being treated as more of a warm up, her other workouts were, leading to her feeling more exhausted than before. After resting for a bit she went down to the basement to build her assembler. Once she got to the workbench, she began in earnest, working deftly in a trance-like state. She went about welding and soldering what she needed to and using all the other tools at her disposal for anything else. Despite having no prior experience in this, the knowledge and skill needed seemed to flow into her. After a few hours, she ran into a problem that broke her out of her trance, causing the knowledge and skill to leave her, she had no more materials. She sighed as she raised up her makeshift face shield and placed down her welding gun.

"I was afraid this would happen." She muttered.

'Can't be helped, there just wasn't as much metal as we thought.'

Let's call it quits for today. I'd rather talk to dad to see if there's an option other than scavenging for parts. I'd like some protection if I end up having to go out. She got up and made her way upstairs to make lunch.

'You could always buy what you need.'

We aren't exactly swimming in cash at the moment. I'd rather do things cheaply if I can help it. She replied as she brought out some bread.

'Makes sense.'

Taylor made her way over to the fridge and got out some bacon and cheese to make herself a bacon grilled cheese sandwich. So any suggestions on what to do? Because I've got nothing other than honkai energy training and I don't want to exhaust myself doing it early, again.

'Well, I do have something you could do that I thought of recently.'

Oh… what's that? Taylor replied as she moved to sit down, having finished her sandwich. After letting it cool, she began to eat.

'Researching the scene in your city. You need a good idea of who's who and what they can do.'

Taylor paused mid-bit. That's… a good point. I know the basics but not much beyond that. She resumed eating. I can see what I find online before doing my evening workouts and making some dinner. If nothing else it'll give me something to do. She finished eating before heading upstairs to hop onto the computer. There, she started at the only place she knew would have some sort of information, Parahumans Online, or PHO for short. While she kind of knew the online messaging board wouldn't always have the most accurate information, it'd be bound to have some. It would also serve as a good jumping off point. Thus her search began, combing through the various boards and threads, to find the information she needed. Luckily, she quickly found her way to the parahumans wiki where she figured she'd get the best info.

She already knew of the three major villainous factions; the Empire Eighty Eight, the Azn Bad Boys, and the Archer's Bridge Merchants. The Empire was a gang of neo-nazis who boasted the largest line up of capes in the city. The ABB were the local pan-Asian gang led by the infamous Lung, a villain powerful enough to take on teams of heroes. It was through his reputation and power that the ABB were a force to be reckoned with, despite only having one other cape besides him. He was also one of the villains she was not looking forward to facing no matter how much Kiana claimed she would be able to take him on eventually. Lastly there were the Merchants. They were the smallest of the three and dealt mainly in drug dealing. Still a problem but not on par with the other two. On top of this were some small-time villains like Uber and Leet, though she didn't know much about them beyond their online videos she'd watch occasionally.

On the hero side of the coin she knew of the Protectorate and New Wave. The Protectorate was a government sponsored hero organization. New Wave was a family of heroes who opted not to hide their identities. On top of this she knew of one rogue, which was Parian.

She started her research with the villains, putting knowing what she was up against as her top priority. She started her search on the main three in the area before branching out from there at Kiana's insistence. Beyond the big three there was Faultline's Crew, who were really just mercenaries, a group called the Undersiders, which she couldn't find too much on save for a few members, and a villain called Coil who was actually a somewhat major player who employed mercenaries armed with tinkertech rifles. There were also several other small-time villains whom she could find next to no information on, likely due to them staying low to avoid attention from the heroes and other villains. She recorded all the key details she picked out in a new notebook.

After a few hours of research she stopped to do her workouts for a bit before preparing dinner. Given they had beef last night, she started preparing chicken. By the time her dad had come home, she was still preparing everything. It would be about another hour before dinner was ready. The father daughter duo was about to sit down to eat when someone knocked on the door. They both looked towards the front door.

"I'll check." He stated.

He got up, walked to the door. He opened the door and was surprised to see who it was standing outside his door.

"Jim? What are you doing here?" Danny questioned.

Jim stood in the cold winter air with a confident smile on his face. The cold hardly seemed to affect him.

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by. I've got some good news on the school board's investigation and wanted to tell you in person." Jim answered.

"Seriously?!" Danny exclaimed.

"Come now, did you doubt that Old Jimmy would pull through?" Jim questioned.

"Hahaha… as if, once Old Man Jim sets out to do something, he'll get it done. One way or another." Danny noted.

"Hmph… right you are?" Jim replied.

Danny chuckled.

"Why, don't come in." He suggested as he stepped away from the door.

Jim obliged and entered inside, closing the door behind him. He took off his jacket then hat.

"Taylor and I were just about to have dinner. You're welcome to join us if you'd like. There's plenty." Danny offered.

"Oh I don't want to impose." Jim returned.

"It's fine. I insist." Danny stated firmly.

"Well… if you insist." He replied as he hung up his jacket and hat on the coat hanger.

He followed Danny into the kitchen, where Taylor was already getting another plate and silverware out.

"Taylor, this Jim Jones. He's been helping us with the school situation, not sure if you remember him?" Danny brought up.

"Vaguely." Taylor answered.

"Well I hardly recognize you. You were just a tiny little thing last I saw you." He noted.

He turned towards Danny.

"You'll have a hell of time keeping the boys off of her in the near future." He noted jokingly, lightly elbowing Danny in the chest.

Danny just rolled his eyes as he sat back down. Taylor, blushing lightly from Jim's comment, sat back in her seat and Jim sat in the chair that had been pulled up for him.

"Though I never took you as one to dye your hair. You always loved it as it was." He noted.

Taylor looked at him confused.

"I didn't dye my hair." She replied.

"Well you're a little young to be graying, especially since you don't have a history of it in your family." Jim noted.

Taylor's eyes went wide when she realized her blunder.

"W-w-w-well… ahh… I… ahh… i-i-i-it's ahh… m-m-Marie Antoinette Syndrome. T-t-the thing with the locker caused me a lot of distress. A-a-a-and now my hair's whitening." She explained.

"I don't think…" He began, trailing off when he caught Danny out of the corner of his eye furiously motioning and mouthing to not look into it.

While nothing was said, he was able to put enough things together to get the general idea as to what's going on.

"Y-y-you know… Now that I think about it, I've heard about stuff like this happening before." He finished quickly.

Taylor breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Though I'd recommend dyeing it all the way white as soon as you can." He began.

"But I don't want to dye my hair. It's bad for it." Taylor interrupted.

Jim rolled his eyes.

"One time isn't going to kill it. At the very least do something so people think you're dyeing it. Don't want people to make the wrong assumption." He added.

"Oh… Ahh… r-r-r-right… don't want that to happen." She replied.

"Indeed." Jim noted with a hint of amusement.

"Well enough of this. Let's eat." Danny directed.

He and Taylor dug into their meal while Jim folded his hands, closed his eyes, and bowed his head to pray. He peaked out a bit to see that Taylor and Danny were in fact eating before closing his eyes once more to offer a silent prayer before eating himself.

"Mmm… this is good. You've done well." Jim exclaimed, looking at Taylor.

Taylor smiled bashfully.

"Thanks, I've had a lot of practice." Taylor replied.

"I'd imagine, lord knows this one can only cook if it involves a grill." He stated, jabbing his thumb back at Danny.

Taylor giggled at that.

"Hey I've gotten better!" Danny shouted.

"Oh I'm sure you have." Jim replied sarcastically. "Making food instead of rocks is better. whether it tastes good is a different story."

Taylor began to laugh hysterically.

"One time! ONE TIME! And I swear there was something wrong with that oven." Danny shot back.

"Oh yes, I'm sure it was the oven." Jim retorted.

Danny groaned as Taylor continued to laugh.

"Hey, quit laughing, it wasn't that funny." He expressed.

Taylor's laughter died down slightly.

"I disagree." She replied, before continuing to eat.

Danny sighed.

"So… you said you had good news on the school board's investigation." He brought up.

"Yes but that can wait until after dinner. We have a bit to discuss." He replied.

"Fair enough." Danny replied.

With that the three continued to eat their dinner, engaging in some small talk as they did, mainly Danny and Jim catching up. Eventually dinner was finished. Taylor and Danny went to put away the dishes before sitting back down.

"Now then, I'm happy to inform you two that, on top of everything else, those three little devils are getting their comeuppance." He declared with a predatory smirk.

"Seriously?!" Taylor exclaimed in shock. "They're actually getting punished!"

"Oh yes, though probably not as harshly as they deserve." Jim explained. "Alan managed to keep his daughter safe from the brunt of it, though she'll be getting some much needed counseling. Miss. Clement was able to claim plausible deniability in not knowing about Miss. Hess' intent to shove you into the locker. She still was expelled from Winslow and got mandatory community service. And for Miss. Hess… well… let's just say for some, a cage, no matter how gilded, is a terrible punishment."

Taylor sighed.

"Of course they'd get off somewhat easily." She muttered.

"Now, now, they're still getting punished and you'll be getting compensated for all your troubles, if you accept it." Jim pointed out.

"What kind of compensation are they offering?" Danny asked.

"Complete covering of your hospital bills plus a large sum of cash still being determined for any damages you've incurred. On top of this you'll be fast tracked into Arcadia come February along with the necessary materials for homeschooling until then." Jim explained. "You can expect an official settlement offer sometime this week. Regardless, you won't be going back to Winslow."

Danny and Taylor looked at each other.

"Depending on the money, we might just take it." Danny stated.

"Understandable, though I do suggest you get a good squeeze out of this, there… is another party that has an interest in this all staying quiet. I've still got my connection to get you fast tracked to Arcadia without the deal." He noted.

"Are you sure you should be saying that, aren't you on the school board." Danny pointed out.

"I've already got this other party willing to pay a fair share of the costs. The school will only cover so much and they have cash to spare." Jim replied. "That being said, if you see a deal you like, take it. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

"I'll keep that in mind." Danny returned.

"Who is this other party you keep mentioning?" Taylor asked.

"Can't say for legal reasons. Just know they were a stubborn bunch who'd take me breaking silence very seriously. Hmph… still, they were no match for me." He answered.

"Hahahahaha… Old Man Jim strikes again." Danny noted.

"Ahahahaha… well… I can't take all the credit this time. If not for Taylor's friend's testimony we'd have struggled a bit to get things through and might have had to resort to litigation." Jim explained.

Taylor blinked in confusion.

"Friend?" She questioned.

Jim looked at her puzzled.

"Yes… I believe that's what she was described as." He answered. "We were told she had apparently befriended you during the time the bullying had let up."

"Oh her… yeah… I guess we're kind of friends. Not close, but friends. Never really hung out except at school." Taylor explained. "So she told on the three bitches."

"Apt name for those three. And yes, her father was friends with one of the school board members. He had gone to see if she knew anything and that was when she spilled." Jim explained.

"Huh… I guess she really meant it when she said she felt guilty. Just wish I knew why she didn't do it sooner." Taylor muttered.

"Well you could ask her yourself." Jim brought up, bringing out a folded piece of paper. "She apparently wants to get in touch with you and I was asked to pass this along."

He handed it to Taylor who took it and unfolded it. Inside was a phone number.

"I suggest getting in touch. Having a few friends can go a long way in life, and you're severely short on them." He noted.

"Geeh… I wonder why that's the case." She expressed sarcastically.

"Who could know." Jim replied sarcastically. "All I know is they won't be a problem any more."

Taylor smiled at that, taking solace in the fact that her tormentors were finally getting there just desserts, at least somewhat.

"Now… I believe I should get going. This was slightly impromptu and I don't want to keep the misses waiting too long." He noted, rising to his feet.

"Glad you stopped by Jim. And thanks for all you've done." Danny expressed, standing up as well.

"Yeah, thanks. I was starting to think those bitches would never get in trouble. Hate it took getting shoved into that damn locker for it to happen, but glad it did." Taylor added.

"It's nothing, just doing what's right." Jim waved off. "Though, if you do need any help Taylor, don't hesitate to ask. Given what I'm sure you'll be getting up to, I'm sure you'll need it."

He winked at her. It took Taylor a few seconds to realize what he was implying.

"Oh ah… sure…" Taylor muttered.

She heard Kiana clear her throat in her head. She then felt as though Kiana was grabbing a large megaphone and began to get worried. Kiana what are you…

'ASK HIM FOR HELP WITH EVERYTHING THAT'S COME UP RECENTLY!'

She couldn't stop herself from flinching. Danny chuckled, having put together what happened, while Jim just looked confused.

"Soooo… now that I think about it, there are a few things you could help me with." She brought up.

"Oh… like what?" Jim asked.

"Well… ahm…" She began.

"There's learning to hide those visual tells that I brought up." Danny pointed out. "If anyone would be good to teach you, it'd be Jim."

"Oh… right… those… so I can ah… handle my opposition better, in a… disagreement…" She noted.

"Yes… I can see that being a useful skill." Jim replied.

"I also need a good place to get materials and stuff. Without drawing unwanted attention. Don't want people thinking I'm a tinker because of my new hobby." She added.

"Well Cait has been nagging me to get rid of some of the old junk that's accumulated in the garage. Either I can bring them over or have Danny stop by instead of having you go out where it's dangerous." He replied.

"Speaking of dangerous, I bet you know stuff about the local scene that might be hard to find online. Maybe I can talk to you about it sometime." She continued.

"That'd be good. Knowing what to look out for in the city is always good. Maybe see about you coming over. Cait hasn't seen you since before Annette's passing and I'm sure she'd love to catch up with you." He replied.

"That sounds good. We'll have to figure something out later then." She finished.

"Indeed, now I'd best get going. Take care you two. We'll be in touch." He replied.

"See ya Jim, and thanks again, for everything." Danny returned.

"Yeah, thanks for all your help." Taylor added.

Jim smiled and nodded.

"You're quite welcome. Now have a good night." He stated before seeing himself out of the house.

Taylor and Danny watched as he left.

"He is really good." Taylor noted.

Danny chuckled.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it." He replied.

And That's all folks. Just a FYI to avoid any confusion, the friend mentioned here is not Julia but and OC I made. Since it's ambiguous rather it was Julia who befriended Taylor before the Locker Incident in worm canon, I decided to make an OC since some of the Julia's actions, from what I remember, put me off from using her. Anyways, hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Till next time. 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).