On the first day back to school after the Endbringer attack, I couldn't help but think 'How is it the world is basically ending but we only get a few days off from school?'. The world wasn't actually ending right now but when giant apocalypse monsters are picking off every city in the world it's hard to say things were going OK. It was actually pretty sad that one of my earliest memories was hearing Endbringer alarms for one of the attacks taking place. I don't remember for sure which one it was but I'm pretty sure it was one of Behemoth's attacks, because the city being attacked was pretty far inland and the Simurgh hadn't shown up yet.
It was early in the morning and I was waiting on the sidewalk. I looked over to see a crowd of people getting off the bus that had just arrived. Each one I kept getting variations on Vulnerable to fall damage. The front of the neck is vulnerable to applied pressure. Etc. Thankfully I could tune it out quickly after the first two or three people.
When Taylor got off the bus my power flared up at the sight of her. Most minions are vul- I shut it down quickly with a bit more effort. I didn't need tips for fighting my best friend now.
Like most mornings now I met up with Taylor at the bus stop and walked the remaining distance to the school together and chatted. We sometimes even joined each other for morning jogs on the weekends. Today though the topic was something of immense importance, our heroic debut's.
"Any second thoughts about going out today? It's a bit earlier than you wanted."
"Yeah, with the truce ending today the gangs are going to be out in force. Best time to pick off some goons and pump them for info. Besides that plan we had for our debut works best if we go sooner rather than later."
"True. I guess there's not much more we can do to prepare anyways. Are you sure your sister still hasn't caught on? I'm almost certain she recognized me last week." The suggestions my power had for dealing with her would definitely not be the kind of things Taylor would be on board with.
"Crazily enough, no. If she did I would definitely know about it."
"She has been busy the last few days doing extra patrols. Maybe she hasn't gotten around to it?"
"After losing out on $15,000 from the bounty I doubt she'd waste any time telling dad I needed to be grounded forever. And that's if she's feeling nice that day."
"Yeah, I don't know about her but I would definitely hold a grudge over something like that. I can imagine she's very into payback."
"You don't know the half of it. One of her friends from the wards told me that when a couple of them insulted her before a training exercise, she made a point of throwing them down a flight of stairs several times in a row."
"...To think that at one point I thought that threatening to bite off a villain's tongue was an isolated incident. Your sister is certified crazy."
"Yeah every day I thank the universe she's in the Wards. She would probably be on the most wanted list by now if she wasn't supervised. Sam means well though, it's just that if she found out I had powers she wouldn't rest until I was in the wards."
"And then you'll be stuck doing PR events and getting micromanaged every day for the next several years."
"That wouldn't even be the worst part. Sam's fine in small doses but being with her on the wards would just end with us killing each other. It's not like how you and your brother were. She just can't resist irking me every chance she gets these days."
"Yeah Miguel and I didn't fight that often. He was a pretty chill guy, and it never really occurred to me to annoy him on purpose. I found out at one point he actually kept earplugs for when I had my radio on late. I hadn't even realized it was going through the wall but he didn't complain. He was just that kind of guy."
We came up to Winslow, and to the point where we would need to go our separate ways for our morning classes. So our conversation needed to conclude soon before the first bell rang.
"Alright I'll meet you at lunch. We can compare notes on that art project we have coming up." I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds nice. Looking forward to after school."
Our conversation ended there and we went to our morning classes. Up until a few months ago it was hard to imagine that I would become as well versed in capes and parahumans as I was now. But becoming a parahuman sort of made that a necessity.
My parents say I was a pretty nervous child growing up, but honestly when you grow up in a city like Brockton Bay I'd say I had good reason to be nervous. Ironically the parahumans leading the gangs were rarely ever a problem, we were lucky enough to be well away when they started their fights. Instead it was the unpowered gang members and common criminals that were the real issue for my family.
It might not look like it but I was interracial, with my dad being from West Virginia and my mom being from Mexico. She was on the fair skinned side and understood English very well so she could pass at a glance but her accent still remained. If it didn't mark her as an acceptable target for the Empire it wouldn't even be that big of a deal. My brother Miguel was six years older than me and inherited my fathers tall and large frame, so he was able to take care of himself. When me or my mother went out he usually went along to keep anyone from getting ideas.
It was aggravating how much my parents had to put up with despite being pretty decent people. They both worked a lot of overtime at their catering company to support me and my brother growing up. They taught us a lot about right and wrong, the value of hard work, and how to behave growing up when they had the time. Otherwise me and my brother tended to get supervised by my Abuela during her last few years before she passed away a year ago.
By then however my older brother Miguel was almost out of college and old enough to chaperone me when we went out. We had to pass through a rough neighborhood to get to some of the bus stops from our home so muggings were always likely. We had actually avoided two muggings in the month leading up to New Years, and each time we had only gotten away because Miguel had noticed the signs that I didn't. Realizing that the person walking a couple dozen meters behind you had a gun ready to rob you was an especially harrowing thing.
When New Years rolled around his friends had invited him to a party at their apartment in the Docks. I had been against going because I had been worried about being out late. I was usually the one who worried the most about getting mugged or assaulted, since alone I was an easy target. Miguel however was adamant on going since a girl he was going steady with was going as well. He had even bought a ring that had been on sale during the holidays with some money he had earned at his side job. He wanted to propose to her once they had graduated from the local community college in the spring.
So I went along anyway, since my parents were busy with the New Year's rush and they didn't want me alone at home ("It'll be a good experience for you. Just promise you won't drink anything with alcohol in it?"). The party had been a gathering of 15-20 people in someone's apartment, chatting and eating delivered pizza, and playing different games as we waited for the new year. Even if I didn't know more than a few other people at the party, it was fun. But then things took a turn when a massive gang battle erupted nearby.
At first we only noticed something was wrong when we started hearing the gunfire, except that we didn't think it was gunfire at first. It was New Years so we had thought someone was just lighting some of their fireworks off early. That was what Miguel thought when he went to the window to see if he could spot these early celebrators. I remember suddenly getting a bad feeling when he was looking out the window, mumbling seeing some people running in the streets. Then another gunshot rang out, followed by the bullet smashing the window, and going right into Miguel.
The party had gone into chaos as Miguel collapsed to the floor, everyone screaming as Miguel's body fell along with the window shards. I must have triggered right around then because my memory blanks right about at this part of the night. When I recovered it was clear that he was dead, the bullet going into his chest. I had to wait in another room as the police arrived to take statements and collect the body for the autopsy.
After that night I could barely function for the next week. Suddenly I felt like I had become a paranoid schizophrenic, where I started getting intrusive thoughts of how to kill everyone around me. My thought process had rewired itself so that keeping myself safe was the overriding priority. When a police officer asked me to give my statement after Miguel's death I could only think about how I could turn his own firearm against him.
My only saving grace was that I got better over time with suppressing the intrusive thoughts. I tried to dismiss it as some kind of trauma from Miguel's death so I didn't think of it as a superpower. I definitely couldn't tell my parents or I could have ended up in a psych ward forever. But the thoughts flared up every time I got into a crowded area to the point I got headaches.
It got to the point that after the first day back at school I started holing up in my room to feel safe again. The only reason my parents didn't realize I had triggered was that they were still grieving themselves, and just thought I was coping by locking myself in my room.
My mom had dragged me out that Saturday when she ran some errands for the funeral so that I could at least get some fresh air ("You've been cooped up in your room almost all week, I know it hurts but having something to do will help take your mind off things."). It was just my bad luck though that when we stopped by the jewelry store to return the ring Miguel had bought it would get robbed.
It was during the robbery where it finally clicked that I had powers. Right before they had burst in I had suddenly gotten a very strong feeling, like a tingling at the back of my neck, that something was wrong. When I saw the costumes the Tigers were wearing and recognized them as capes the other part of my power kicked in, and I was immediately able to assess how dangerous each of them were.
I didn't know how their powers worked but I still got the idea they were physical powerhouses that I shouldn't get hit by (Avoid engaging in close quarters combat. Use long distance attacks…). It didn't do me any good when they singled me out to take me as a hostage, but it was something to distract me from losing my shit at the time. If only these guys were regular muggers I could have actually used some of those suggestions.
I thought I was absolutely fucked when they took me to their getaway van in the alleyway. Even though the driver seemed to be slowing them down with his mistakes, my power was telling me he was somehow the biggest threat in the alley (Do not engage alone. Stay out of their line of sight. Allies required….). The ideas for countering him were very different from the others, so I started to wonder early on why he was so different. I only realized when Manes revealed herself that I was actually analyzing her. But her presence was a cold comfort when the Tigers figured out how to force her out of the driver's body.
But then Taylor came to save me. For some reason my power wasn't set off by the animals so I was just as surprised as everyone else. I wasn't able to make much sense of what was happening at the time, but I only needed to know that the animals were only attacking the villains and that I was safe physically. Emotionally however I was somehow in a worse state than after Miguel died, probably because this had been prolonged and dragged out whereas his death was quick.
Between Miguel's death and being taken hostage I was barely holding it together. Even if it had occurred to me to join the wards I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been interested. I couldn't even imagine getting through a PR event, getting fed ways to kill every person I shook hands with by my brain. If Taylor hadn't approached me when I went back to school the next week, I'm not sure what I would have done. I still remember how that conversation went, when the last class had ended and I was walking out of the school to go home.
"Hey, wait up!"
A tall gangly girl jogged up to me. I had seen her around the school a couple of times but I didn't share that many classes with her. I also remembered there were a lot of rumors about her a year ago but I couldn't remember more than a few now. Mostly how she was typical dock trash, which wasn't helped by her appearance. She was wearing a clearly secondhand jacket and ratty jeans right now. She then spoke to me.
"Hello, are you Julia?"
"Yes, what do you want?"
"I was hoping to have a talk with you." She told me. I focused my attention on her and my power began to go to work. The suggestions came in quickly now (Avoidance is highly improbable. Most minions are vulnerable to poison aerosol type attacks. Long range attacks should be used, easily flustered by…). Whoever this was they were clearly a massive threat because my power wouldn't shut up! She must have noticed me getting pale from the suggestions because she suddenly looked more worried. As they kept pouring in it was getting harder to keep my cool.
"Hey are you okay? You're kind of looking a bit sick there." She put her hand out toward me and I reacted.
"Stay away!" I tried to back up but my back met a fence that separated the school and the neighboring lot. I wasn't completely panicking but the suggestions for her kept going (..some minions can be subdued with nets or ropes, drowning is viable for..). The other girl quickly looked around but apparently my shouts hadn't attracted any attention.
"Julia! I just wanted to check on you. I don't want to hurt you." She backed up a bit and put her hands up. I didn't entirely trust her but I couldn't overreact anymore without looking more suspicious. So I forced myself to relax.
"Sorry I've just been dealing with a lot lately. Who are you?" Even though I was panicking on the inside, I knew I couldn't accuse her of being a parahuman.
"My name's Taylor, and I heard something really bad happened to you over the weekend. Bad enough you missed school yesterday. I went through something similar and I can sympathize."
"Really? You're really gonna make me believe anyone in this shithole school actually cares? My old friends stopped hanging out with me last week after my brother died. They say they're giving me space but I can tell they don't want to be around me anymore."
"...For what it's worth my mom died a few years ago. I know dealing with someone dying isn't something you can get over quickly."
"Well why didn't you talk to me last week?"
"I was actually recovering from something else."
"Wait, weren't you the girl all those skinheads got in trouble for almost beating to death? They just disappeared right before some police officers came to the school."
"Oh, you heard about that…"
"Yeah. But…. wait, how are you not in a body cast?"
"I actually got healing from Panacea. I guess I was lucky enough to get beaten up when she was on shift."
"Yeah, lucky." But then a thought occurred to me. "Hey so you weren't here last week right? And I wasn't here yesterday. How did you know something else happened to me over the weekend? I didn't tell anyone today. I could've just had a cold for all you know."
She suddenly realized her slip up and seemed to curse a bit under her breath. I wanted to know what her angle was but I was starting to wonder if I should have called her out like that. I knew whatever power she had meant escape wasn't an option for me. She seemed to think for a second before speaking again.
"Okay Julia, I need you to promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. If I trust you with this, can you trust me?" She seemed very serious about this, so I nodded my head. "Alright, I'm a parahuman."
I had already guessed that with my power. But telling her that would be giving her a pretty big hint I was a parahuman as well. So I played dumb.
"Really? For how long?"
"Since winter break. I… I'd rather not talk about what happened. But when I woke up I had powers."
"Yeah I can understand that. So are you a new ward or something? Because I already told the PRT everything I saw about that new cape an-" I paused, and I put together that Taylor was a new cape, and that a new animal master cape had come to save me. It would explain a lot about the suggestions I was getting for her, and why she was here. Taylor decided to finish my thoughts when she saw the realization on my face.
"Yes, Julia. I'm the one who saved you in the alley. I was just checking on you since I saw that you were pretty shaken up about the whole thing."
I wasn't entirely certain how to feel about that. On one hand she had saved me, not only from being a hostage but from being put at the mercy of whatever ABB trafficker the Tigers would send me too. On the other hand I was currently standing next to a potential biblical plague. I decided going for gratitude was the safe option.
"Oh, Thank you. I…I wish that I could pay you back but I'm not sure what I could give you…"
"It wasn't any big deal. Honestly one of the reasons I came to check on you was that apparently the PRT is freaked out about me. So I wanted to make sure they didn't give you too much trouble."
"...Wait, why would I be in trouble?"
"Oh ummm, well I might have overheard that they might think you're the new animal controlling cape since you were there when I saved you. But since you're a regular person I'm sure that they'll realize that soon enough. Worst case scenario they make you get an MRI or something."
Oh. Oh no. No no no no no no no. This can not be happening. If I get an MRI they'd know for sure I was a parahuman. And I couldn't disprove I wasn't controlling the animals cause I just have a stupid thinker power that just comes up with ways to kill people. They'd never believe me if I went to them now!
"Hey Julia, is something wrong? You're getting pale again."
"Yeah, you could say that. The thing that's wrong is that I'm fucked."
"Why do you say that?" Taylor looked bewildered that her reassurance had backfired so hard.
"Because I am a parahuman!" That declaration definitely took Taylor off guard cause she seemed to do the mental equivalent to a blue screen as I tried to contain this wave of new panic. "I'm stuck with a stupid thinker power, but if they think I'm a master they'll never believe me. I'm fucked. Damn it!"
I crouched down to the ground and felt completely overwhelmed by the situation. My life was pretty fucked already. Why not just throw in potentially being arrested as a master if the PRT thought Taylor did anything wrong? Even if they eventually figured out I was a thinker it would take weeks to get there. Long enough to ruin my school record. And what would my parents thi-
Suddenly I felt an arm rest on my shoulders. I looked over to see Taylor crouching down with me.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know. For what it's worth I don't think you have to worry about the PRT arresting you though. But if I'm wrong and if you need me to come forward to prove you're not the master cape I'll do it."
"...Really?"
"Yeah, I would. The only reason I didn't want to join the wards was because of some… personal reasons. I wanted to try and be an independent hero for a while to prove myself. But that's not worth it if it gets you in trouble."
"You don't need to do that."
"No, but I was already planning on laying low for a while to figure out my powers a bit better. The only reason I used all those animals like that is that I barely have any fine control with a lot of animals. So since I'll be training it wouldn't be a big burden for me to wait a while to go out again."
"...Thank you. Not just for saving me in the alley. It's just hard for me to stop spiraling anymore ever since my brother died."
"Well if you ever need a therapy dog I'm already collecting some animals to use for my cape career. I've already picked up a pair of dogs, and they look pretty cute once I gave them a bath and got rid of their fleas."
"Yeah, that would be nice."
After that me and Taylor basically became best friends. At first I just spent time with her to make sure she wasn't going to break her promise about going out and grabbing attention, but she turned out to be a really good friend. I sort of drifted away from my old friends over the next few weeks. It was hard to really have common ground with them when they were worried about trivial stuff like the latest fashion trends and I was worried about my power giving me another migraine.
After spending a little time together Taylor managed to win me over to becoming a cape along with her. While stats for independent capes looked bad, they got a lot better if they were partnered with another cape. So not only did I get peace of mind, I was probably a lot safer physically with her as well. Plus being able to actually make a difference against the criminal scum of the bay actually sounded really appealing after what I had been through. Taylor mentioned wanting to focus on the empire first, which I was completely fine with.
Both me and Taylor got better with our powers over the next few weeks. She improved her control and worked out new ways to use her animals (The crow speaking trick took over a week to crack), and I got better about tuning out my murder thoughts. I also improved how I used my danger sense, with Taylor using her birds to get my reaction time down to like a second so I could dodge them with ease (At the cost of a couple dozen pigeons smacking into me). I also learned some kata's from a mishmash of different martial arts over the internet, though Bruce Lee's favored style of Jeet Kune Do appealed the most since it seemed the most practical to me.
I did figure out her sister was a ward on my own about two weeks after we became friends. She had been taking a nap during one weekend when I first saw her and I nearly freaked out when I realized who she was. Turns out my powers suggestions are nearly identical if you're in your civilian guise and asleep. And she wasn't just any ward, she was Manes, the ward that had saved me. I was a bit miffed about being left in the dark like that ("So when you said personal reasons were why you weren't in the wards, you conveniently forgot to mention that you meant your sister is one").
But Taylor made it clear it wasn't her secret to tell, and that it was extra illegal for her to tell me, so I decided to concede the point. What was more concerning was that I was going to have to lie to a ward about her sister's secret identity ("Taylor, the only reason I'm not telling her the truth is that she'd probably think I was just lying and she'd arrest me for it"). It was one thing to keep things secret from family, but lying to someone who could make you punch yourself in the face was a bit more daunting. But I also knew if Taylor had to come clean to her family, I'd have to come clean to mine and I was not ready for that.
It did pay off handsomely when Sam apparently decided to lay the most obvious bait in the world when she formally introduced herself and mentioned the bounty money. Me and Taylor actually debated whether the risk was worth it but we decided we could make it work with the crows. I'm still shocked the PRT actually went along with the whole thing.
It made me suspect they weren't aware of what Sam told us, and that she was actually trying to link me to being Zookeeper. Otherwise why else would they make it so easy for me to give myself an alibi when the pickup happened? It certainly made me feel less guilty hiding Taylor's secret. However even if the PRT didn't believe my alibi for that night my story had enough plausible deniability that it couldn't be used against me.
After that we budgeted a lot of the money for animal feed. Up until then Taylor had to make her animals scavenge and hunt for food to keep her small collection fed. We also invested in a small wagon since carrying around a few heavy sacks of bird seed and dog food was not happening. We made sure to transport the food with the dogs pulling the wagon while we were a block away so that nobody connected it to us after we left the store. The rest went to help finish our costumes.
Taylor had been making silk bodysuits for the both of us from spider silk. Even if it was unnerving how many spiders she controlled I still had to admit it was very good quality craftsmanship. She opted for making her own body plates while I decided to use my dads old mining clothes and gear for outerwear, since it was durable and the headlight on the helmet was convenient. If it misled others about my powers that was their problem. After buying a few elbow and knee pads with a first aid kit for the both of us, we had burned through a quarter of the bounty money in a month.
I was disappointed when we were forced to abandon our 1st hideout when Taylor's sister and Vista showed up the day after the Endbringer attack. That old pet shop building was in a sweet spot where both me and Taylor were able to reach it quickly from our homes by bus. It might have been a one off incident of nosy wards, but I was starting to feel worried that if we made one wrong move we'd be under some serious scrutiny from the PRT.
For our 2nd hideout we did find a decent condemned house nearby that nobody was using. The second story was pretty damaged and not much use to us except that it made a good roosting place for Taylor's birds. The basement was where she kept her vast spider collection to finish the remaining pieces of her costume, and the first floor was where the rest of the animals stayed. This probably wouldn't be a permanent base but it was serviceable for what we needed.
Now we had finished our classes for the day and made our way to the new hideout to change. As far as our parents knew we were going to the library to get some studying done, which meant we had several hours to make our move. We had found several locations where the Empire operated from, and we noticed three were bunched relatively close together. Taylors range was big enough to reach all three from the right location. So we decided that a show of force like that would be a good way to start building a reputation.
We retrieved our costumes from the hideout and found a nice deserted alleyway to change in, with us taking turns watching for passersby. I would be playing bodyguard while Taylor focused on her animal minions. We then got into place and we conferred one last time.
"Alright, what's the headcount at each of the locations?"
"The first place with the drug stash has about three people hanging out, the second has five, and the pub they're using as a hangout and money laundering front has about twelve. I'm pretty sure Victor and Crusader are hanging out in the pub, they must be the on duty capes."
"Animal count look good?"
"Pretty great, lots of bugs showing up for spring now. Wish I had some apex predators though. Would feel a lot better having a lion around if more empire capes showed up."
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find something suitably scary eventually. In the meantime I think it's time we get started."
Taylor grinned widely, "Yep, you feeling ready?"
I matched her grin, "Born ready."
A/N
-Envisioning Julia as a character she starts out as someone who felt really insecure and feeling very vulnerable to the crime that's rampant in Brockton Bay. So when her brother died she suddenly felt extra vulnerable and paranoid with the addition of her new power. She's sort of forced to find new ways to feel secure and people who can provide security, in this case Taylor. She's good at putting up a front but if she feels threatened she can spiral quickly.
-Julia's power is a combination of Danger sense (like Spidey Sense) as well as the ability to detect and suggest how to exploit the vulnerabilities in other people. Unfortunately for Julia it actively needs to be suppressed and it's biased towards very violent approaches. Her thinker headaches usually occur if she spends any length of time in a crowd. She can only get through school by focusing on either a teacher or another student. For various reasons she'll be advertising the first ability (like with her cape name) and keeping quiet about the second.
-I'm thinking of putting in some Taylor POV chapters in the upcoming arcs since I want to reserve the interludes for other characters who I haven't already covered yet. So Sam will still be the primary POV character, but we'll be kept in the loop of what Taylor is doing.
-Please leave feedback. I'm always looking to improve.