I finally finished final exams.

Summer break, LES GOOOOOOOO

I am on vacation now though which is why I haven't updates in two weeks.

Gosling 2.2

When Taylor woke up, it was in an unfamiliar bed. It felt off, different somehow, and the added confusion and dizziness that suddenly assaulted her upon waking up didn't help.

Pushing herself up to a sitting position on the bed, she blearily opened her eyes, blinking as her eyes started to unblur and focus before she let out an involuntary yawn that escaped her mouth. Raising a hand to her eyes, she rubbed them, wiping away the moisture that had accumulated there over the course of the night.

Then, the events of yesterday hit her like a train.

"...fuck."

The urge to just lie back down on the bed and go back to sleep were overwhelming. To forget what was going on and to just ignore it all.

She was a villain now after all. Well, not really but she was associated with villains now.

Taylor wondered for a moment what the Taylor of a month ago would have thought about all this. She would have probably been shocked, outraged, afraid even.

The Taylor of a month ago didn't know the goose though so that made her thoughts invalid.

With a sigh, the now supervillain accomplice stood up from the bed and meandered over to the door before pulling it open.

Beyond it, two familiar figures occupied the main space of the house, each already with their masks on. Sitting on the dining table, Tattletale was typing away at a computer while Grue was standing behind her with his arms crossed, looking down at what Tattletale was doing.

As Taylor exited her room, both the supervillains turned to her before Tattletale turned back to her computer. On the other hand, Grue stepped away from the dining table and walked over. With his skull mask on, the supervillain cut an intimidating figure. Now that they weren't in what amounted to a hostage situation, talking to the Undersiders felt... different. More normal. Which also meant that she felt the urge to shrink into herself in response to anyone approaching her, however Taylor pushed the urge down. After everything that had happened to her, social situations just didn't feel that... well dangerous anymore.

Hard to feel scared over a conversation when you had been involved in life threatening situations after all. The urge to shrink in and avoid everyone was still there, but it was less intense now. More manageable.

"Fowler. Sleep well?"

Taylor looked at him, taking a moment to consider her response before giving the supervillain a shrug.

"No. Did you?"

"...I can't say I have."

"The goose?"

"The goose."

"Figures. It's kept me up at night plenty of times as well..."

"You've been staying up at night to plan how to take the goose down? You're commitment is impressive."

"What? N- I mean uh!- thank you."

Grue looked at her confused while Taylor was suddenly far more awake.

"...alright well Tattletale has been up most of the night trying to work a way around the problem. I would advise not speaking to her, she's on several energy drinks and multiple coffees."

Taylor looked over to Tattletale, who did looked a bit out of it before looking back at Grue.

"Has she found a solution yet?"

"Well, you've been on this longer than we have. What do you think?"

"The Birdcage. That's the only solution I've thought of so far."

"We've had that thought as well. Tattletale has had a few more ideas though. Most of them involve trapping the goose in other places it can't escape from but we've ruled many of them out. If the goose truly is invulnerable to harm, then most places aren't going to work."

Taylor nodded. She was already well familiar with that.

"I'll tell you guys if I get any more ideas myself. Anyways, where's the rest of you guys?"

"Regent is still sleeping. Bitch is out."

"...right. By the way, why do you guys call her bitch? It feels kind of... demeaning."

While Taylor wouldn't have dared asking that before, now she was somewhat a part of this team which gave her more confidence to ask the question. While she didn't care much for the going ons of the Undersiders, the dog mask wearing villain's name had been a source of curiosity for her since she had met them.

"Oh, right, we never explained that to you. She wants to be called that."

Taylor registered that comment right before her tired brain promptly shut down.

"...you know what forget I asked."

From across the other end of the room, Tattletale spoke for the first time since Taylor had seen her that morning with a tired tone that almost seemed to infect the air around her with a haze of exhaustion.

"Grue, phrasing."

"What do you- oh."

For the first time since Taylor had met the supervillain, he looked unsure. Flustered even. While the mask did cover most of it up, his tone was unmistakable. Though, in this case Taylor felt that it was appropriate considering what he had just revealed. Still, it did confirm to her that trying to get closer with the Undersiders in any way was a bad idea. Just now there were both moral and... other reasons why that wasn't a good idea.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, she likes Bitch as a cape name more than the one the PRT assigned to her."

"...oh. The PRT assigns cape names?"

That was news to her. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been. It did make sense in a way.

"If you don't declare your name to the world quickly, then the PRT will choose a name and give it to the media. They're usually quite bad, because they want to encourage new capes to join the Protectorate, and once the media gets a hold of your PRT assigned name, it's basically over. Bitch got assigned the name Hellhound because the PRT didn't think a swear was appropriate for a cape name, and she... doesn't like it very much."

"...ah."

"Yea."

Grue coughed into his fist, recomposing himself before continuing to speak.

"So, you mentioned having to go home yesterday."

"...shit."

Taylor turned away to look over at the nearest window. It was very clearly the morning with the sun high in the sky. Her dad was probably worried sick. Yet at the same time, going back now would mean giving a reason why she hadn't come home yesterday. Which she really did not want to do.

Because there was no way that she could tell him the truth.

But at the same time, putting it off would only make things worse.

The only solace she had was that Brockton Bay's Police Department was so overworked that they likely wouldn't have the time to track her down if her dad had called them.

The entire situation almost made her wish that she had asked one of the Undersiders if they could have taken her home yesterday. The key word being almost as letting supervillains know where you lived was several degrees worse than deciding to work with said supervillains. At least in her opinion.

Her dad might think differently though.

It was a dilemma to be sure. The longer she was away from home the more her dad would worry but she would also have to explain her absence as soon as she came back.

"You might want to hold off on that actually."

Taylor glanced over at Tattletale, who was still clicking and clacking on her computer even as she spoke.

"Why?"

The supervillain let out a tired sigh and looked over at Taylor, tired eyes straying away from her computer to meet the taller girl's gaze.

"The city's been a mess since you went to sleep. The merchants tried to blow up the docks, and though the Protectorate put a stop to that, that left the ABB open to start a city wide manhunt. For us. And for the goose as well, though they're mostly focused on us because they can't find the goose. Not that they know it's a fucking goose they're after."

"…does anyone know where the goose is?"

"No. It's been missing ever since it set one of the ABB's warehouses on fire last night."

That was concerning. Very concerning.

"Fuck. So, I'm assuming the city's too dangerous to navigate right now?"

"Well, the Protectorate has locked down downtown and the Boardwalk but aside from that, the whole city's gone to shit. New Wave's deployed to try and stop the chaos a few hours ago but they ran into Lung and now they're not deployed anymore. Empire's been sighted making moves into the docks as well, so basically the whole situation is becoming more unsalvageable by the minute. Our boss hasn't been responding to my calls either, so basically we're fucked, the city's fucked and all signs are pointing to a city wide war by next week. So yes, the city's a bit unnavigable right now."

Taylor blinked as Tattletale looked back at her computer with dead eyes. Taylor almost considered asking how she was feeling before remembering that she was a supervillain that had helped kidnap her. Even if she hadn't actually been there, she was still guilty by association. So instead, she focused on what was important.

"Are you going to be able to keep planning like that?"

"You think she looks bad now? This is nothing. You should have seen her after you went to sleep yesterday. Don't think I've seen her that frustrated in a while, which is a shame considering we ran out of popcorn a week ago."

Regent stepped into the room while speaking, with surprisingly normal clothes on, yet he still had his mask on, which covered his face. Raising a hand in mock greeting, he gave a little bow to the room with a small flourish before falling onto the couch with his hands behind his back.

Tattletale let out a small sigh at his entrance but didn't respond to either Taylor nor Regent, so Taylor turned back to Grue.

"Take me to the Boardwalk. From there I can find my way back home on my own."

Grue considered it for a moment before nodding his head.

"That sounds about as safe as is possible at the moment."

"Thanks."

"Before you go, take this with you."

"Wha-Ah!"

Taylor flinched as something solid and metallic hit her shoulder, though thankfully it hadn't been thrown too hard. Whatever it was, the object let out a thud as it fell onto the floor beside her.

"What the fuck!"

"Just look down."

Looking down, Taylor noticed a solid metal shape on the ground. Reaching down to grab it, she felt it in her hand before realizing what it was. Her anger at Tattletale didn't really change after the reveal but she took a deep breath and pushed it away anyways. Getting into an argument with the thinker wasn't worth it.

"A phone?"

"A burner phone yea. You can use it to call us."

Taylor felt a surge of conflicting emotions. On one hand, her dad has disallowed phones in their household for a reason. Even if she didn't necessarily agree with his rule, she still followed it because it would hurt her dad if she didn't. Yet at the same time she would need it to contact the Undersiders for when they were on the goose's trail.

In the end, she pocketed it and decided to ignore the fact that Tattletale had literally thrown the phone at her. It was clear the supervillain was exhausted so arguing with her seemed an exercise in futility. Especially considering how versed the villain seemed at navigating social situations.

The fact that she reminded her of a certain someone also brought up bad memories that Taylor wanted to avoid. So instead she turned to Grue.

"Let's go."

"Hold on, you'll need a mask first if we're going to be travelling together. I doubt you want to be seen with a supervillain."

Taylor nodded in agreement as Grue looked over at Regent.

"I'm taking one of your spare masks."

"Hmm? Really Grue, theft? You should be ashamed."

Grue didn't bother to respond to that as he went into Regent's room. Moments later he returned with a jester's mask in hand.

"Here."

Taylor accepted the mask before putting it on. It was surprisingly not as uncomfortable as she had assumed it would be.

Grue opened the door, leaving first before Taylor followed. As they left, Regent left one last parting comment right as they shut the door.

"Hey, can you go get some more popcorn when you come ba-"

The click of the door closing cut the supervillain off as Grue looked out at the street causing Taylor to look as well.

It was a normal neighbourhood. Taylor wasn't sure why she expected anything different but aside from the fact that some of the houses looked run down, which wasn't all too uncommon for the city, it was alarmingly normal.

That was aside from the smoke pillars rising into the air in the distance. Grue must have noticed her looking up because he turned to her.

"That's where the merchants burned down a few houses around an hour ago. Now come on, with the ABB on the move, we need to move quickly."

"Can you tell me which part of the city we're in at least?"

"The docks. Fairly close to the merchants. Or even in their territory depending on who you ask."

After a second Taylor nodded.

"Thanks."

"You're one of us now. Even if only temporarily. As sudden as this partnership was, I figure we should show some trust at least."

As Grue started walking, Taylor couldn't help but feel a strange mix of something inside her. Even if she had been semi forced to join, it had been a long time since she felt she had belonged to anything. It was a strange new experience, but not altogether a bad one. One that she didn't know what to feel about because again, supervillains.

Still, there was no time to dwell on that right now so she quickly followed Grue as he got off the main street and entered the back alleys of the city.

As it was still somewhat early in the morning, they didn't see many people and those they did see, they avoided. Grue did have to stop for Taylor a few times, causing her to curse her lack of fitness, but aside from that they moved quickly through the city. It was clear that Grue was familiar with the area, taking side paths and climbing past fences to avoid the more populated areas of the city and Taylor followed in his wake.

Or followed as best she could anyways. A few times she had to rely on his help to get over a fence or through a certain area.

"We're almost there. A few more turns and we should be in the boardwalk."

"Got it."

Grue stopped at a corner, holding a hand out to signal for her to wait as he looked around the corner, just as he had done a few times now.

Then, just as quickly he withdrew his head and looked over at her.

"We need to go around."

"Wh-"

BANG

Taylor flinched back as a gunshot echoed across the back alleys.

Holy shit.

"AH!"

A shout of shock and pain quickly followed after the gunshot, before a heavy thud rang out.

Grue moved back, shepherding her away from the alleyway out of sight as further gunshots rang out followed by more cries of pain and surprise.

Taylor quickly moved back, trying to create as much distance between herself and the alleyway where the gunshots had come from as possible while in front of her, Grue did much the same.

Her heart started pounding in her chest as she tried to calm myself down to prevent myself from making a sound.

"It's going to be really dark in a second but don't panic, it's just my power."

Taylor barely had the time to come to terms with what Grue had just said before he grabbed her arm as a blanket of darkness fell down upon them.

She couldn't see or hear anything. Not even her own breathing. For a moment she started to panic before she felt Grue's arm jerk her to the side, where she was pressed up against a solid wall, presumably one of the walls of the alleyway.

It was in this position that she froze, trying to push herself against the wall as much as possible. Even in the darkness, bullets could still come from any direction and even if the chances of being hit from a blind shot were low, Taylor wasn't about to take that chance.

Seconds passed. Grue's hand remained firmly around her arm as they waited in place. Eventually, the arm started dragging her forward and Taylor briefly resisted the pull before he tugged harder and she eventually relented. As much as she didn't want to move, Grue was more experienced than her by far and likely knew what to do. So she had to trust him.

Trust a supervillain.

What has my life come to…

Then, suddenly, the cloud of darkness fell. And Taylor could see and hear again.

She shut her eyes as the sudden change from pitch darkness to sunlit skies caused her to see nothing but white, but before long her eyes had adjusted to the light.

"It's over."

Taylor blinked away the spots in her eyes as she looked at Grue's back.

"What's over?"

"Come take a look for yourself."

Taylor paused for a moment, reluctant to look into the alleyway where gunfire had come from, before she took a deep breath and passed Grue to look around the corner.

The scene was that of a massacre.

People in full military gear were sprawled out across the alleyway, all unmoving. One of them was against one of the walls of the alleyway with their head lolling down to the ground.

There were also guns on the ground everywhere.

Pistols, assault rifles, even a shotgun. Taylor had never seen so much military equipment before in her life. Which wasn't a very high bar but still.

"Holy shit."

"Yea. That's about right..."

"Do you know who they are?"

"Unfortunately. Those are Coil's men."

Taylor paused as she remembered hearing that name before. Then she remembered exactly where she had heard it from.

"Wait isn't he your-"

"Boss? Yes. Which is why this is really bad. I need to call this in. Do you mind waiting for a few seconds?"

"Oh, sure."

Taylor waited patiently to the side while Grue took out a phone, similar to the one that Tattletale had given her, before he called someone.

"Boss. Your me-oh. Wha- alright. Will do."

Grue took the phone off of his ear and looked back at Taylor.

"The boardwalk is pretty close to here. I'll get you there first."

Taylor didn't even have time to respond before Grue grabbed her arm again and started all but dragging her to the other end of the alleyway. Taylor let him, however as they crossed the field of bodies, she noticed something white among the scattered guns.

"Wait."

Grue stopped and looked over at her.

"We need to move quickly, whatever did this could still be in the area."

"I know that, just wait for one second."

Grue looked to be considering her words before he let out a resigned sigh.

"Fine. But make it quick."

As Grue let go of her arm, Taylor crouched down to the ground before reaching out and grabbing the white thing that she had noticed. Raising it to her face, she looked at it closer.

It was a feather. A single white feather.

"What are you looking at?"

Taylor turned to Grue and raised the feather to his mask.

"Can you see this?"

Even with his mask on, Grue looked confused.

"See what?"

Taylor looked back at the feather.

"I think I know who was responsible for this. I'm holding a white feather by the way."

Taylor had to give Grue props as it didn't take long for him to catch on.

"Fuck."

Taylor nodded in agreement.

"Fuck."

A/N:

Just missed it

Next chapter will be a Coil Interlude.

Tbh no clue if this chapter is good or not because its been a hot few weeks since I last wrote a chapter but oh well.

No clue if the next chapter will be on time either cuz im still on vacation.