1st January 2011
Jordan felt like he was still on cloud nine after two months with Taylor. Sure they had their ups and downs, namely The Bitches Three and their antics, but Jordan promised himself that he would always be by Taylors side and not do anything unnecessary for her sake.
Today they were just hanging out at his home, chilling and watching some tv. Every now and then there would be some kisses stolen between them but things never progressed past some light petting between the two, not due to a disinterest on either side.
'I am so lucky, Taylor and mom are the best things that have ever happened for me.' Jordan thought wistfully.
"Jordan, what do you think of me becoming a Cape alongside you?" Taylor asked out of the blue.
The mentioned teen thought for a moment before speaking, "I don't think I'd be comfortable with you being out in the field without some kind of a power, you know, like an equaliser. And sure I could give you some Traced weapons but I still would like an extra layer of reassurance for your safety."
Taylor gave him a little smile and spoke again, "But what if I never got a power?"
Jordan let out a soft sigh as he answered, "Then I would try my best to prepare you with some combat training to offset the lack of a power. I know you well enough that you may end up doing just that Taylor, so I'll just say it right now."
He sat up and looked her in the eyes as he spoke seriously, "If you wish to become a Cape with me, then we will begin training after school tomorrow."
"Thank you Jordan, but why after school tomorrow?" Taylor asked, tilting her head.
"Taylor, it's 7 in the evening, you cannot seriously expect to train at this time." Jordan spoke deadpan at her question.
She at least had the decency to blush as she recognised the truth in his words. Taking a look at the clock hanging above the tv showed that it was indeed 7pm.
"Do you need to be home in a hurry?" Jordan asked, noticing her panicked expression.
"Yeah, dad will be back in 10 minutes and I should have been home before him!" Taylor said quickly, beginning to panic.
'I guess it's time to see if Flash Air allows me to create a displacement in the air between here and Taylors room.' He thought and got up from the couch.
One of the fundamentals of Displacement Magecraft is the requirement of having an image of the place or thing you are moving. So with that in mind he focused on Taylor's room and what he last saw that would serve as a good conduit for the time being.
'Definitely can't use the bed, that would bring that to my location as well, maybe one of her books? Wait… Flash Air… can't I just swap the air in her room with her?' He thought as he focused.
While he was focusing Taylor continued to panic and gather her things, ready to make a mad dash for her home.
"Trace, air." She heard, interrupting her.
In front of her boyfriend (and wasn't that a thought), the air began to shift and a hole opened in space, the edge of the hole having the appearance of a bunch of little squares that constantly shifted between blue and transparent. Staring into the hole showed that it led to her bedroom, lit by the dying light of day peeking through her window.
"Heh, didn't think that would work, though I don't think I can keep this going for long or do it often." Jordan's voice broke her from her wonder.
"You had this the whole time and didn't tell me?" Taylor aske, trying to sound mad.
"Didn't think I could use Displacement like this Taylor, didn't mean to keep it from you." Jordan grinned at her, knowing she wasn't truly mad.
"You stupid, wreckless, handsome boyfriend of mine." She said with a sigh and shook her head.
"Love you too sweetheart!" He laughed at her.
Taylor blushed hearing that, still susceptible to his teasing.
"Now if you don't want to be late I suggest you go, I don't know how long I can hold this. It's draining my reserves by something like 20 units every second so please go." Jordan hurried her along.
Taylor would have said something about him wanting to get rid of her but knew better than to say anything when she saw the bead of sweat on his temple. Instead she walked up to him with all her things and gave him a short peck on the lips before walking through the distortion and entering her own room.
"Goodnight Taylor, see you tomorrow." Jordan said, catching her attention.
"Good night Jordan, love you." She said with a smile.
"Love you too." He also gave her a smile before the distortion closed.
'Jesus H Christ I did not think that would work. What the hell are my reserves at now?'
After a short moment to calculate he found that he was at 40 units out of his total of 850 after these three months. He was finally able to trace a Noble Phantasm for the first time that day too, Taylor had watched as he Traced the Taming Sari, a Malaysian weapon that was said to grant the wielder physical invulnerability. In reality it granted the wielder a limited foresight that allowed them to see incoming attacks and handle them.
He turned his thoughts away from his weapons and instead began to get himself ready for dinner.
"I do not mind the rain sometimes… Cause that's the only way, the roses bloom in my mind~" He began to sing quietly to himself as he went about his tasks.
"When I cry, when I cry~"
"That's the only way the roses bloom~"
Jordan continued to sing to himself as he got the table ready for two and prepared to cook.
"It's okay I'm not okay~"
"I feel the disarray of yesterday~"
"Oh my~" His voice became a higher pitch just as he remembered in this song, the one song that had been stuck with him since he was born into this world.
Sure there are others that he remembers but this one was his favourite back in his first life. It was a song called Rain, and it is sung by Grandson and Jessie Reyez.
He began to sing through multiple different songs as he cooked for himself and his mother. He had learned how to cook at a young age to help take some weight off his mothers shoulders when he noticed that she would come home haggard after working at her law firm.
"And you know it's a long way down to the deep end~"
"I wont see you there, you won't know where I'm goin'~"
"Watch you run when I creep in~"
"I feel like a soldier now when my gun stays loaded~"
Clapping erupted from behind him as he finished the song, the same time he finished plating up dinner. He turned to see his mother standing there clapping with a smile on her face. She had always enjoyed hearing her son sing, saying that he had an expressive voice when he wanted to use it, as evidenced by her reaction to him finishing another song from his past life, Doubt Me by Josh A.
"I will never get tired of hearing you sing Jordan." His mother said as she stepped towards the dinner table with her food.
"I'm glad you enjoy it mom." Jordan answered with a smile.
"Now, what did you and Taylor get up to today?" She asked with a smile, wanting to know how her son's day was.
"Good, today I managed to trace a Noble Phantasm after so long of training my reserves. I was afraid I would plateau for a while. After that we sat down to watch TV together. Towards the end I noticed that it was time for her to go and she ended up panicking." Jordan explained with a fond smile.
"I assume you helped her get home, yes Jordan?" His mother asked with a serious voice.
"Yeah. I experimented with Displacement since it's all about substitution of one thing with another, so I did that with the air in her room and opened a hole in space that led to her room. That process really left me drained, I thought I was going to crash for a moment." Jordan answered her question.
"Good, at least I know my son is a gentleman unlike his father." His mother smiled at her son.
The pair continued to eat and make conversation before Jordan took their dishes to wash and let his mother unwind. Once he was ready for bed he collapsed right onto the pillow and fell asleep shortly after, dreaming of a mix of Taylor, steel and flames.
2nd January 2011
Jordan woke up the next day feeling like something was going to go wrong, he didn't know what or why and it set him on edge. There wasn't really any noticeable change in the behaviour of others that he could note, not even Taylor seemed to notice, but it was like there was a shift in the air.
"I'll see you in between classes and for lunch okay Taylor." Jordan said to his girlfriend.
"Sure thing Jordan, see you later." She smiled and split from him, heading for her own locker.
Since their lockers were in different places in the godforsaken institute known as Winslow High School, they had to split up and then there was also the fact that they were no longer in the same classes anymore. Jordan was always suspicious about the reasoning behind that, especially when he found out she was with The Bitches Three in every class.
He had tried to go to the principal to request a transfer into her classes but was shut down in record time. He was even told to drop it, unsubtly by the principal herself.
He shook his head after he grabbed his things and went to his first class for the day, mathematics, that bane of both his lives. Like seriously, who was the guy who decided to add letters into something that had to do with numbers?!
'If my powerset involved time travel I would go back and kill the bastard who invented algebra. I don't care if it ruins the future, this shit shouldn't exist!' Jordan thought as he went through the questions.
Part way through the lesson his nose picked up a new scent, this one was hard to describe, but if he tried to put it into words, then it would be the smell you get when you crush some ants. The smell also didn't interfere with his actual smelling capabilities or disgust him like it normally would if he was directly smelling it.
After class was over he got up and put his things away in his locker and grabbed stuff for another class and began walking, incidentally his path would take him past Taylors locker.
'I hope today isn't too hard on her.' He thought as he walked.
The smell of crushed ants was getting closer as he made his way to class, causing the already bad feeling he had this morning to become worse. As he got near Taylors locker he saw a crowd standing around and could hear a muffled banging and sobbing. Speeding up he smelled something so rank that he nearly threw up, but when he found out where it was coming from, he forced it down.
"Really, pushing someone into a locker? Are you really that lacking in new material Sophia?" Jordan asked as he walked up to Taylors locker.
In a surprising show of strength to the average student, he grabbed the lock in one hand and proceeded to bash it with his other, breaking it in one strike.
'All those locksmith videos are paying off.' He thought while tossing the remains away.
Throwing open the door caused Taylor to come tumbling out and crashing to the floor. Normally Jordan would have caught her, but he was shocked to stillness by what was in her locker. Used feminine hygiene products and rotting food were piled into the locker. Tearing his attention away from the locker he instead crouched down next to Taylor and looked her over.
She was in a state of near catatonia, shaking on the floor while tears flowed from her eyes. She was also covered in these feminine hygiene products and dried vomit on her. Her hands were missing their nails and were bleeding heavily as if she had tried to literally claw her way out of the locker, looking at the inside of the door proved this to be true.
One of the teachers called for paramedics while Jordan looked over the destroyed form of his girlfriend, only able to gently hold her hand. He had ended up taking photos of both the locker and Taylor to see if his mother could help out in the future and turned his attention to the crowd, searching for the one person he knew was despicable enough to cause this.
Finding the dark skinned girl smirking almost sent him flying into a rage, but he managed to control it. Instead he settled on hurling an insult her way.
"Dry drown on your fathers cum you cunt." He spat with venom.
It was effective enough to get Emma and their cutesy friend Madison Clements to flinch but it looked like Sophia was going to fly into a rage too. Then all of a sudden she got this smirk on her face as she walked away. Jordan wanted to chase her down and beat the shit out of her but held back and stayed by Taylors side.
When the paramedics arrived he asked to be taken with them because he was the one who had found her and he was worried for her health. They allowed him and after waiting for so long, he was finally allowed to see her in her hospital room. She was laying in the bed dressed in a hospital gown and looked relatively peaceful, except for the bandages wrapped around her fingers completely. He got the impression that they couldn't do much for her because of how underfunded and staffed Brockton Bay is compared to other cities in America.
Reading the chart at the foot of her bed revealed that she was going to be held for at least a week to make sure she isn't in danger from any infections she may have caught. But the most troubling thing was that she would have reduced mobility in her fingers for the rest of her life. Now sure, he or Panacea could heal such injuries, but there was also the psychological trauma there that may cause a mental block reducing the mobility anyway, sort of like a placebo.
Jordan pulled his phone out and dialled his mothers number. It rang out in the deathly quiet room like it was on loudspeaker for three rings before his mother picked up.
"Jordan dear, I'm at work. Why are you calling?" His mother answered the phone with.
"I'm in the hospital with Taylor, can you bring my laptop on your way? I have some…evidence I need to go over." He responded with.
"I'll be right there. Are you and Taylor okay?" His mother asked hurriedly.
"I'm perfectly fine, it's Taylor who is in trouble. She is in a coma right now. According to the chart here, she may well not have much mobility in her hands if Panacea can't help." Jordan relayed.
"I'm on my way, I'll be there soon." His mother said before hanging up the phone.
While Jordan was waiting for his mother, he took notes of what can be used as evidence in a court case that may or may not happen with Sophia. While he was thinking he began to piece things together. The fact that Sophia surfaced around the same time Shadow Stalker appeared in Brockton Bay, their similar attitudes of predator vs prey mentality and that same smoke-like smell he could detect whenever he encountered the two.
He was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard the door open, thinking it was his mother he turned to smile but stopped. A male in full blue ceramic plate armour stood in the doorway, his face was completely covered except for his mouth which was set in a neutral frown. His scent smelled of something odd, it reminded him of copper, so he guessed that it would have something to do with electronics or maybe micro scaled objects.
"Is this the room with Ms. Taylor Hebert?" He asked.
Jordan squinted his eyes at the man, going through what knowledge Taylor had imparted onto him about the PRT and their Wards, remembering that the man in front of him, Armsmaster, was supposedly the leader of the PRT ENE Brockton Bay Wards.
"It is but she is currently indisposed right now." Jordan answered the hero with a frown.
"I see. Is there any way for me to speak to her? It's important." Armsmaster said, ignoring the fact that Jordan wasn't pleased with his presence.
"If you can somehow wake her from a coma then sure go right ahead, otherwise get the fuck out." Jordan said coldly, clearly mad at the man and his behaviour.
Armsmaster just turned around and left the room without saying anything. The entire time he was in the room, Jordan was trying to Structurally Analyse both his weapons and armour but that only resulted in a headache beginning to form.
Normally those types of side effects would only happen when the subject in question is beyond the individuals comprehension, but considering Armsmasters Halberd is a bladed weapon, Jordan found it odd that he couldn't understand its make up. Only that the weapon itself was completely alien to his understanding.
'Maybe it's specific to Armsmaster? I think I heard from Taylor that his whole Tinker thing is the minimisation of objects or something. I will need to find out by observing other Tinkers and seeing if it's the same.' Jordan thought to himself and let out a deep sigh.
As he deflated into the seat the door opened again, Jordan was about to flip his shit if it turned out that it was Armsy again but it wasn't. Turning his head to the door revealed his mother, dressed in what one would expect of a lawyer carrying his laptop bag in one hand and the other on the door.
"Oh, you're here mom." Jordan said with a small smile that looked tired.
"What happened?" She asked her son.
"Well, Taylor was locked inside her locker with a bunch of used feminine hygiene products and rotting food for what I can assume is for around an hour. And I believe that she has Triggered." Jordan answered.
"Do you know who put her in there?" His other asked, deathly quiet.
"Sophia Hess and I'm guessing Emma Barnes was in on it." Jordan answered.
"I'm sorry did you say Emma Barnes?" She asked.
"Yep, the one girl Taylor thought of as a sister used all her secrets she shared with the cunt and spread them as rumours then branched out to physically harming her with Hess going the furthest."
His mother fell quiet, handed him his laptop bag and grabbed a chair, pulling it to Taylors bedside. While his mother was having her moment with his girlfriend he instead pulled his laptop out and cracked it open, turning it on he was greeted by a picture of him and Taylor having fun as the background.
Opening the toolkit he had created for his less than legal activities he went ahead and began to interact with Sophia's phone. The story behind how he had gained access to her phone was a short one, he had something distract her for a moment and when her back was turned he grabbed her phone and installed a backdoor into it and deleted all evidence of his tampering.
'Never have I been more glad that my previous jobs hired me to work as a White Hat to find insecurities in their systems. Gave me a lot of experience in knowing what to look for.' He thought to himself.
"I don't think there is any legal way for us to get revenge mom. Like sure, laws on hacking when it comes to gathering evidence in a court case has become more lax than in the past thanks to powers but I don't think we can win a case against the PRT like this." Jordan broke the silence.
"What do you mean Jordan, why would we be going against the PRT in a legal battle?" His mother asked.
"Because Sophia Hess is one Shadow Stalker."
"How do you know this Jordan?" his mother asked hushed, in case anyone was listening in.
"The fact that they both showed up in Brockton at the same time adds up, then there is also both of their predator versus prey mentality, same height and what not. But the thing that tipped me off the most was the scent of smoke just on the edge of my senses when I encountered both of them." He answered clearly.
"Alright, but what if you are wrong?" His mother pointed out.
"Rarely if ever am I wrong mom." Jordan stated, and his mother knew he was being truthful, she had just asked to make doubly sure.
"What do you suggest we do then? I don't think we really have enough power to push this forward by ourselves." His mother asked.
"That is exactly why I sent information on a Bio-Terrorist attack to the FBI and who the suspect is. All we have to do is wait for them to drop the hammer and I'll come after Sophia when she inevitably attempts to escape capture." Jordan confided.
The pair fell into a silent atmosphere and sat around. The only sound being their breathing, the beeping of the hospital equipment and the clacking of a keyboard as Jordan did his thing.
5th January 2011
Jordan found himself dressed as Hephaestus today, overlooking Winslow as the FBI and SWAT pulled up to the school. Today was the day that they decided to act on their intel, so he left Taylor in her hospital bed with his mother and Danny to watch over her while she slept.
'The chances that she makes a run for it are extremely high, she wouldn't dare want to be sent to the Birdcage.' He thought to himself as he waited for the raid to conclude.
Outside of the school there were a bunch of news vans reporting on the incident, and normally he would have someone to relay the live information to him but today he was going solo. Taylor hadn't stirred from her coma just yet though she thankfully had her hands functionality repaired by Panacea, and he had managed to get her number so as to keep in contact with her as he could tell that she overworked herself too far and also seemed to be 'one of his people' in the sense that she had a fucked sense of humor.
"What will you do Sophia…" He mumbled quietly.
After watching for 10 minutes he saw movement near the entrance. Looking closer he could see that there were a bunch of SWAT personnel chasing a figure. Reinforcing his eyes revealed that the figure was none other than Sophia fucking Hess with a handheld crossbow in her hand.
"It's go time."
He got up from his crouched position and began to give chase from the rooftops, hopping from roof fixture to each roof fixture. When he was far enough away from the cameras he held a hand out to his side as he got ready to leap at Sophia.
"I am the bone of my sword." Enforcing his will upon the world to strengthen his connection to the world of blades allowed him an easier time with Tracing weapons of a higher ranking.
In a flash he was holding a black and purple scythe that was used to kill a god turned monster. Harpe, the weapon used to turn Perseus into the hero that killed Medusa, granting him victory over the Gorgon.
Once he had a good grip on the weapon he leapt off of the roof and aimed directly for Sophia, aiming to at least dismember an arm. He must have made some kind of a noticeable noise, because Sophia had moved her body to the side while also going into her breaker state, turning her body into smoke as she reoriented herself.
When she reformed, she came face to face with a figure that wore a red piece of cloth that wrapped around his head and flowed off his right side. She recognised him from the various times that she saw him during her patrols as Shadow Stalker.
"Hephaestus, what brings you here." Sophia asked, already knowing the answer.
"Don't play coy Shadow Stalker, your actions are catching up with you." Hephaestus stated in the quiet of the alley.
Sophia grunted and got herself ready. She tried to read her opponents body language to see if she could find an opening and was shocked, there were countless openings that she could exploit, and in her self assured arrogance, she would take each opening and use them against her opponent.
Hephaestus watched as she saw his openings and then got a certain look in her eye that told him she was going to take the openings for what they were. Behind the wraps around his mouth and hidden in shadow, he let a smirk grow as he readied himself.
Sophia rushed forward with a batton that was given to her when she joined the wards. She knew she wasn't the best with close quarters but in her eyes she was miles better than her current opponent.
When she struck out with a quick swing aimed at the right side of his head. The swing was intercepted by a reinforced left arm, grabbing her wrist while he struck out with Harpe.
The blade of the scythe bit into Sophia's arm, right between the bones in her forearm. The girl let out a bloodcurdling scream as she tried to pull away, causing more damage than when the blade went in.
"Carefull, Panacea won't be able to heal that." Hephaestus said lightly, taking a sadistic delight in hurting his girlfriend's tormentor.
Sophia just continued to scream in pain as the Cape in front of her ripped the blade out of her arm. He then spun the blade in his hand to flick the blood off and then grabbed the long chain that was connected to it, and threw it at her.
The purple chain quickly wrapped around the girl tightly before she could activate her breaker state. While she was still focused on the pain he quickly smacked the flat of Harpe at her head, blunt trauma knocking her out.
"That was just sad." He said, expecting more of a fight.
He grabbed the pouch that was sitting on his waist and pulled out some gauze and a roll of bandages. He placed the gauze over the bleeding wound on her arm and proceeded to wrap the bandage around her arm tightly so as to halt the bleeding and keep the red juice inside her body.
Once he was done he picked her up by the chain and hoisted her onto his shoulder. Taking hold of the remaining chain and the scythe itself and began to make his way back to Winslow via rooftop. He didn't care if the jostling hurt Sophia any further, just so long as she wouldn't wake up before she was in cuffs.
After a few minutes of travel time he returned to where it all started, spotting the small amount of SWAT left behind told him that most of them had rushed away to search for the suspect. He dropped down in front of the street and made his way over to the authorities.
"I have the suspect." He announced it to the cops.
They turned to the voice and saw that he had a figure bound in a purple chain and gripping a black and purple scythe in the other hand. Once He noticed they looked a little wary of the weapon he dispersed it into blue particles and the chain holding the girl was gone too.
"Take her, I don't want to keep this monster in my sight any longer." Hephaestus stated in disgust.
One of the SWAT members came up with Anti-Breaker cuffs and put them on her before carrying her to the van. The other members were radioing the rest of their patrols to come back as they had the suspect. Hephaestus waited for the rest of who came for her to arrive and found that Miss Militia was amongst them but Armsmaster was not.
The green dressed woman came up to Hephaestus when she spotted him.
"Miss Militia." He greeted her with a nod.
"Hephaestus." She also greeted him with a nod.
"Can I ask why Armsmaster isn't out here?"
"He is currently indisposed, a Tinker fugue caught him just before the call went out and we couldn't knock him out of it." Miss Militia answered dutifully.
"Of course, sounds like the perfect excuse to not face his failures." Hephaestus replied lightly.
"Can I ask why you seem to dislike Armsmaster?" Militia asked.
"It's because he cares more about the fame of taking down criminal Capes than he does about civilians. Then there is also this fiasco, Shadow Stalker was a Ward that was under his command and he let this happen."
"Hephaestus, I can understand your anger but he did everything in his power to watch over the Wards." Militia retorted.
"Did he even read the reports from her caseworker? Did he not find it suspicious that her reported behaviour was almost the complete opposite of who she actually is? Also did the Wards complain about her behaviour to him?" Hephaestus shot back.
"Yes, the Wards did complain but they stopped after a while." She answered dutifully.
"Was it because she stopped her shitty behaviour or was it because they saw that nothing was being done and they felt it was useless to continue to try?" He asked, not in an accusing voice.
"The latter, I have also complained to him too and he hasn't done anything about the problem." Miss Militia answered with a tired sounding sigh.
A ding sounded from his earpiece, indicating that he had just received a message, and he knew that the only person who would communicate with him today would be his mother, so he excused himself and turned to leave. Once he was away from prying eyes he pulled out his phone and read the message.
Bestest Mom: Taylor is awake.
He dashed off and prepared himself to meet his girlfriend again.