Read aloud to me alt Taylor

by Kahlil Johnson

Dnd

13. End

Summary: In which Taylor loses her mind, Queen Administrator decides that bugs aren't very impressive, and everyone discovers that It's hard to escalate more than 'ride an Endbringer into battle.'

This isn't a story, it's a fever dream. Does it read like a crackfic? Yes, yes it does. In fact, you can track how tired I am by the gradual dips in quality. Anyway, hope you all enjoy.

I'm in no way a great writer, so please forgive any foibles and errors I have made and will make in the future.

Comments are appreciated, criticism even more so, and attacks on my person or on anyone else will be reported. I'm here to write pretty words, not babysit a forum.

Onwards!

Fanart:

Le Viathan, by AXCN

Taylor's Notebook Cover, by Squirrelly Sama

Last edited: Nov 20, 2018

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RavensDagger

Sep 30, 2018

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Sep 30, 2018

#3

She waded through water that reached her knees, desperately fighting to push against the swelling tide while, in the back of her mind, knowing that it was futile. The shelters were closed by now, there was nothing she could do.

Taylor choked back a sob as she tripped over something and nearly fell into the pouring waters clogging the street. When she looked down it was to see a man's back, his head bobbing under the flow, one arm pinned between a wrecked car and a streetlight.

She looked away, then pushed on. Her hands came up to clutch at the neck of her hoodie, a desperate attempt to stop the constant rain from plunging down her front and to keep her hands from trembling. Under her breath, the girl was muttering a litany to the waterlogged city. "Almost there, almost there."

An explosion rocked the Bay and she almost paused before thinking better of it. If she stopped for every explosion, for every bright beam of searing light, then she would be rooted in place, and if that happened she would die.

The shelter nearest Winslow was just a little ways away now, maybe a block or two, she couldn't tell through the walls of rain coming down around her. She tried to wipe her eyes clear but it was useless, seconds later her vision was fuzzy once more and her glasses were too wet to really help.

It was supposed to be a good day. Sunday was quiet, a day when she didn't need to go to school, where she could stay at home and relax and forget about everything. She had walked to the groceries, just to pick up a few things, to get out of the house which felt too big and too quiet when her dad wasn't there. A bit of a walk, a couple of bags with bread and fruit and a few essentials; just a nice day with maybe a small drizzle of spring rain.

She had left the bags somewhere behind her, lost in the panic when the sirens had first started to wail.

"Stupid, I'm so stupid," she whispered.

Another explosion, this one so close that she could feel the thrum of it in her chest, then the ground started to rock and shake, the waters around her dropping down until they barely reached her ankles and she almost tripped over the sudden loss of pressure against her legs.

Taylor looked around, wide-eyed as she took in the shops and apartments buildings around her. There were more bodies on the street and piles of detritus that had been carried by the waves.

For a moment she had hope. Maybe the heroes had done something, maybe the battle was over?

A blur of red shot past her, fast and hard enough that she felt her hair and sodden clothes shift at its passing.

There was a thump behind her.

When she turned it was to see a familiar person, crumpled against the side of a building. Velocity hacked and coughed, blood running down his chin. Her back was pressed into the brick side of a shop, a few cracks running out from where he had impacted the wall. His breathing slowed and the hero slumped.

"Velocity Deceased, EM-5," came a crackling voice from the bracelet wrapped around the hero's wrist.

Taylor felt her chest clamping up and her legs shook so hard she nearly fell to her knees. She wanted to scream, to sob and cry and be somewhere else. She was a girl used to fear, used to torment and being shat on. She had survived the locker and the school doing nothing, Emma's betrayal and the almost worse way her father had grown more and more detached. But this was worse in so many ways.

"Oh god," she whimpered.

With a rumbling like a million boulders tumbling down a hill, a wave of water ten feet tall rushed around the nearest intersection.

Taylor couldn't find her voice, couldn't say anything as she saw the monster riding the wave. Four green eyes locked onto her.

It was so fast, so huge, like a train coming off the rails, an unstoppable force of nature that was seconds away from wiping her off the face of the earth.

"Stop!"

The wave split.

Taylor flinched back, watching her oncoming death miss her by inches as the torrent was sliced apart like something out of the old testament.

The waters receded a little, leaving her standing in a circle three paces across, her feet on dry asphalt while water dripped down from her and puddled at her feet. Around her rose a wall of seething, always-moving water, frothing and bubbling as it spun in a tight circle only just out of arm's reach.

Above her, four eyes stared. Taylor looked up, meeting the Endbringer's stare though really, all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and hide.

{New Primary Directive to Unit-02 from Host-Queen_Administrator. Query: Override Primary Directive from Host-High_Priest?}

"What?" she said, her voice lost in the churning of the waters around her.

The Endbringer, Leviathan, shifted, his bulky upper body swaying in time with his too-long arms. The voice returned, though it wasn't a voice, it wasn't something she heard but rather a... noise in her mind. {Unit-02, Local Designation 'Leviathan.' Confirming new Primary Directive from Host-Queen_Administrator. Query: Override Primary Directive from Host-High_Priest?}

Taylor Hebert was many things. She knew that she was not the brightest, she knew that she was ugly, and too tall, and the no one really liked her. But she was not a fool. She had read her mother's books, about Faustian deals and talking to gods, and if there were gods roaming around the unfair world around her, then the creature towering above was one of them.

"W-what's the primary directive?" she asked. There was no shame for the whimper in her voice, or her stutter. This was probably just another prank, a joke that would end with her splattered against some building.

{Host-Queen_Administrator requesting Primary Directive of Host-High_Priest. Directive as follows: 'Challenge me.' Directive interpretation as follows: Use abilities to destabilize local lifeform economy, ecology and social systems. Limit aggression to within survivable levels to local population.}

She shivered once the... once Leviathan finished. "That's horrible."

Leviathan stared and Taylor Hebert spoke with courage born of fear. "Don't do that anymore, please? Just, stop."

{Understood. Primary Directive Override Accepted. New Primary Directive?}

Taylor clutched her hands around her chest, eyes turning down and away from the monster. "I, I don't--"

Beams of white-ish light slammed into Leviathan and the water around him sending great gouts of steam into the air. Taylor threw herself down and back, shielding her head with her arms until the attack subsided only to start again from another angle.

She screamed in the ground, face pressed into the wet asphalt while the world around her exploded again and again until, finally, it stopped for just a few seconds. "Girl, get out of there!" A woman's voice called out to her.

Taylor looked up and there was a woman in an all-black suit hugging a curvy figure accentuated by red lines that ran across her costume. She was flying towards her, eyes wide in panic as she tried to reach the girl within the Endbringer's grasp.

"Grab my hand!" the cape called.

A pillar of water tore out of the sea around Taylor and engulfed the flyer like the hand of a watery god. The water turned red a moment before the pillar was sucked back down into the teaming mass.

"Oh god," Taylor said.

{Unit-02 requesting New Primary Directive.}

Taylor looked at Leviathan, her mouth shaped in a little 'o.' It was too soon to think of all the ramifications. Other capes would come, they would see her talking to him, talking to the enemy. They would hurt her and her dad, blame her for what the Endbringer had done.

That cape had just died trying to save the one person that didn't deserve it.

"Just, leave me alo--" she started but stopped. "No, I mean." She licked lips made salty by ocean water. "Hide. I, I need to think, s-so hide."

{Confirming New Primary Directive for Unit-02 from Host-Queen_Administrator: remain concealed. Return to Host-Queen_Administrator for further Directives. Directive Accepted.}

And just like that Leviathan was gone. She had seen him move, barely, a blur of green and grey that sped off, skimming above the water like the world's biggest water strider. The water around her flowed away, dropping down as it drained down the streets yet still maintained a perfect bubble or dryness around her.

Taylor stood, shivering in the middle of the street while a few capes zipped by. Some spared a glance her way, but she was just an obvious if lucky civilian, or maybe, at worse, a newly triggered parahuman. She wouldn't be the first one left in the Endbringer's wake.

"Oh god," Taylor said.

The camps set up by FEMA and the National Guard were, at the best of times, rather chaotic. The people that had been evacuated from endbringer shelters were funneled towards the nearest camp where men and women in uniform tried to keep track of everyone.

There was this air of relief, that those shambling across the ruined city were those that had survived. Sure, Brockton Bay was in ruins, but it could be rebuilt.

The camp that Taylor found herself in was right next to a crumbling supermarket. She had been assigned to a tent last night along with three dozen other girls of about her age. She never even learned their names before falling asleep on the cot within.

The next morning, she found herself a little hungry, and maybe in need of a shower, but really she couldn't complain. Everyone was still rather quiet after yesterday's attack. The FEMA people said that they were waiting for a delivery from Boston to arrive, that there would be more tents and supplies and things later and that they all just had to be patient.

That morning she had gone to the Wall, a huge poster board where the names of the deceased were being pinned as more bodies were found. Her dad's name hadn't appeared on there, yet.

And so Taylor Hebert found herself standing alone near the camp's exit when the voice returned. {Unit-02 requesting further Directives.}

Taylor nearly jumped out of her skin and a few curious heads turned at the sound of her squeak. She had, until then, hoped that yesterday had been a fever dream, that what she thought had happened really didn't.

"Okay, okay, calm down," she whispered to herself. So, Leviathan was still around, but not attacking, else the sirens would go off again and there would certainly be more people panicking. Which meant that it, he, had listened to her and was probably hiding... hiding inside Brockton Bay.

"Oh shit," she said. Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, she walked out of the camp with brisk steps, her head down and hood up to cover her face. "Um, can you hear me?" she whispered.

{Affirmative. Unit-02 within Host-Queen_Administrator's range.}

"W-where are you?" she said before looking around. She didn't know what her range was, for that matter she wasn't sure what a Queen Administrator was either except that Leviathan, or Unit 02 seemed to refer to her as such.

{Unit-02 is 727 meters east of Host-Queen_Administrator.}

Taylor searched for a few seconds, taking in the street she was on and comparing it to her mental map of the city. East was always the direction the ocean was in, so that was easy enough. Falling into a quick jog, she began to make her closer to the Endbringer. "This is so weird."

Six blocks down and she found herself out of breath, gasping from the short run. "Are you close?"

{Unit-02 is 79 meters north-east of Host-Queen_Administrator.}

Taylor looked around, then found the broken down and waterlogged remains of an underground parking garage. She was closer to the Boardwalk now, or at least where the Boardwalk had been before Leviathan had come around.

The inside of the garage was damp and smelled of mold and rot, but it was quiet save for the gentle lapping of water. There was a ramp leading down to the floor below, but it was filled with brackish water that shone in what little light was pouring in from the entrance behind her.

The water shifted and moved, then a head as tall as she was gently rose until it was even with her. She couldn't stop the little gasp that escaped her, the jolt of fear shooting down her spine as four green eyes took her in. Her entire life the Endbringers had been spoken of in terrified whispers, the city killers, the monsters that had destroyed entire nations and reaped countless lives. And now one of them was staring at her almost... placidly.

She wasn't quite sure how she was associating emotions to Leviathan's emotionless face, but she felt as though he was just... waiting for her to tell him what to do, like a well-trained puppy.

Taylor almost giggled at the mental image of Leviathan as a cute little puppy. A thirty-foot-tall puppy that could summon tsunamis. Maybe she could get him a collar? Would people react if they saw her walking the Endbringer with a leesh?

Shaking her head to clear her mind from the absurd thoughts, Taylor took to inspecting the unmoving Endbringer. Leviathan seemed content to just stand there while she took in his green-grey skin and glowing green eyes.

"So, um, hi?"

{Unit-02 greets Host-Queen_Administrator. Query: New Directives?}

Taylor's mind went blank. Endbringers were the thing heroes fought against. What in the world was she supposed to tell it to do. Maybe she could have it walk over to the PRT and... just let them do whatever to it.

It made sense. If they could dissect Leviathan, they could find out how to get rid of the other Endbringers too... but that just felt so wrong. He hadn't done anything bad. Well, not to her, she reasoned. He was just following directives. Was it a dog's fault that it hurt someone if its master told it to attack?

Instead, Taylor asked a question. "Why, why are you listening to me?"

{Host-Queen_Administrator possesses Administrative Control over Unit-02.}

"How?"

{Host-Queen_Administrator is Host to Queen_Administrator.}

She blinked. Leviathan shifted. "What's a host? Like, like a parahuman?"

{Affirmative.}

"I'm a parahuman?"

{Affirmative.}

"I'm a cape?!" Taylor barked.

{Affirmative.}

Taylor leaned against a nearby pillar, her legs feeling wobbly under her. Of course, in a way it kind of made sense. She knew about triggers, at least a bit from what she'd learned in school. She... couldn't point to when she had gained powers, but that didn't matter, not really. "My parahuman power is to control you?" she squeaked in near-horror.

{Host-Queen_Administrator Administrates All Units within Range. Set Directives. Host-Queen_Administrator can not take direct control.}

"So I can't... master you?" Taylor swallowed. The idea of mastering an Endbringer was a bit much. "But I can tell you what to do?"

{Affirmative.}

"Like a dog?"

{...Affirmative.}

"I always wanted a dog," she said to no one in particular. Her mind was, at that point, swimming through a morass of strange ideas. She slapped herself across the cheek. "Okay, okay. So, uh, you need a new directive, right?"

{Host-Queen_Administrator can assign new Directives.}

"And if I don't?"

{Unit-02 returns to previous Primary Directive.}

"Oh shit," Taylor whispered, imagining the Endbringer attacking the Bay while the city was filled with refugees and blocked roads. It would be a massacre made all the worse because no one was expecting it. Would all the heroes that just left come back? Worse, if she died would he revert again?

Biting her lower lip, Taylor looked up at the creature before her. "You, you have to keep me safe. And, and do that without killing anyone... unless they're trying really kill me." She frowned, thinking back to something she had read a while ago. "Don't hurt anyone unless they're about to hurt me. And you have to listen and do as I say. And... and you have to protect yourself, unless it goes against the other two things."

Leviathan paused for just a moment before replying. {New Primary Directives as follows: Primary One: Unit-02 must secure Host-Queen_Administrator. Unit-02 must follow any secondary Directives from Host-Queen_Administrator. Primary Two: Unit-02 must refrain from causing harm to other Hosts or locals except in the act of completing Primary One. Primary Three: Unit-02 must protect itself from harm unless this violates Primary One or Primary Two.}

"Right," Taylor agreed. It made sense. She could do this. Heck, she had dreamed of being a cape, and now she was. Oh, sure, she didn't have a cool power like Alexandria,or even something practical like most Tinkers, but hers was still pretty good. For a moment she imagined Principal Blackwell telling her that there was nothing that could be done about the bullying while Leviathan stared at her from outside her office window.

She could work with this.

She couldn't join the Protectorate or Wards, they would take her Leviathan away. Taylor frowned and tried to think past the pounding of blood in her head. Yeah, she had to protect her Leviathan, that made sense and it was only fair. He would protect her too.

"I'll need a costume," she whispered, then giggled. "You'll need a costume too," she told Leviathan.

She had the impression that the Endbringer shrugged, though really it only shifted a little in the water. Then her stomach growled and she realised that she was wasting time. "Uh, you'll be safe here, right?"

{Affirmative.}

"Cool, I'll... just go find something to eat, okay?"

{Affirmative.}

With a timid smile, Taylor backed out of the parking garage and into the street. It was rather desolate, with no one in sight. This was one of the streets housing warehouses for all the stores on the Boardwalk, it wasn't as pretty or as accessible as the Boardwalk itself and there wasn't anything really worth looting here. Leviathan had picked a good place to hide.

She stared to walk back towards the camp, hoping that there was something available to eat there, when she heard a loud splashing sound from right behind her and felt a few drops landing on her head.

Turning, Taylor had to look up to the Endbringer standing just a few feet behind her. She blinked up at it, then walked backwards for a half dozen steps. She wondered how something so big had moved so quietly, and quickly.

He took one step towards her, cutting the distance back down. "W-what are you doing?"

{Unit-02 following Primary Directive One.}

"You're following me?" She looked around, making sure that there wasn't anyone else around. "Okay, that... might be bad. Just, uh." Her eyes alighted on a broken down warehouse, one wall crumbling apart to reveal the interior. "I have an idea."

Ten minutes later, Taylor found herself the proud owner of an only-slightly-stolen roll of some sort of industrial canvas. It was a fairly thick material in some off-white colour with some water stains along the bottom but it would serve.

Unrolling it on the ground, Taylor began to try and tear a long piece of the material apart when a clawed hand reached over her shoulder and sliced into the canvas. "Thanks!" she said to Leviathan as she pulled at the roughly square piece of canvas. "Could you cut out another square, about this big?" she asked, making a gesture with her hands about shoulder width apart.

Finally, Taylor had two pieces of rough cloth cut into squares, one about a dozen times bigger than the other. "Okay, so, take that piece," she pointed to the large square and waited until Leviathan grabbed it in one giant clawed hand. "Right, now tie it like this." With a bit of fumbling, Taylor took the smaller piece and wrapped it around her lower face then tied it behind her head. When she was done, she looked up to see that the Endbringer was now wearing his makeshift bandana over the bottom of his face.

She blinked. It looked like it wanted to rob a huge bank. "This is never going to work," she muttered, voice muffled by the halfmask. Still, she figured it would protect her identity, at the very least. And maybe people wouldn't take Leviathan quite as seriously is he was wearing a bandana.

"Okay, so, stay here, okay?"

{Override Primary Directive One? Query: Revert to previous Primary Directive?}

Taylor blanched and any humour at seeing Leviathan with a mask on fled along with all the blood in her face. "Um, no, no, don't do that. Just, try to be subtle? Make it so that people don't notice you, if you can."

{Understood.}

She stared at the unmoving Endbringer, then back along the road she had been heading down. "Okay then." With a deep breath to centre herself. She started down the street, looking over her shoulder every so often to make sure Leviathan was still where she had left him.

Then, she made it around an intersection and calmed down a little when he didn't follow. So far, so good, she thought before speeding up a bit. The streets were rough, with new potholes and craters torn into them where the fighting had passed. More than one building had been torn apart and debris filled the roads, but a passageway had been cleared down the middle at some point, so she stuck to the road.

A few minutes later, when she was only four blocks away from the camp, she heard the rumbling of trucks and had to step aside as a convoy of half a dozen black vans with FEMA and PRT markings on their sides rumbled past. She stared, wide-eyed at the heroes standing atop the moving trucks, recognizing Assault and Battery from the local PRT and Kid Win and Gallant from the Wards program.

Gallant waved at her as they passed, and she waved back shyly. It wasn't every day she got to see heroes in the flesh and she was a little starstruck as the convoy moved past. Then she remembered that she was a cape now too.

With a timid smile, Taylor followed after the convoy but quickly lost them from sight. They were probably bringing supplies to the various camps anyway, so maybe she would get to meet them later.

It was as she walked down the next block that she heard the unmistakable noise of capes fighting. There were explosions and the pat-pat of Tinkertech guns firing.

Taylor paused. She should turn, and hide or go the long way around. But the idea that she could make a difference was weighing on her shoulders. Licking past dry lips, Taylor jogged forwards then slowed down at the next intersection.

Poking her head around the corner, she took in the scene with untrained eyes.

The convoy had stopped in its tracks, and the reason was plain to see. Metal swords were jutting out of the ground in the middle of the road, spikes a dozen feet tall that pointed right at the foremost truck.

In the air stood Rune and Stormtiger, the two of them riding on a cement slab while hundreds of rocks spun around the villainous cape like asteroids around a planet. Stormtiger was slashing the air with his arms and sending long gashes of compressed air out towards cowering PRT agents in full armour.

Kaiser was dodging blows from Assault, ducking and weaving out of the way while sharpened spikes of steel tore out of the ground towards the hero. Battery, meanwhile, was running towards Fenja, one of the giant twins who was even now spinning her spear around in great slicing arcs.

Gallant and Kid Win were closer to the convoy, the knight-like hero firing brilliant blasts from his hands towards a group of thugs in E88 colours. Above him, Kid Win was floating on his hoverboard and firing his twin pistols at Cricket who was narrowly avoiding every shot while running full-tilt towards Gallant.

Hookwolf was laughing as he turned into a gigantic wolf made of spinning blades and began lopping towards the wards.

Taylor took a deep breath, her brow scrunching up as she tried to think as quickly as she could. It was the sight of Gallant turning tail and running away from an enraged Hookwolf that made up her mind.

She ran out from behind cover, pulling up her hood and making sure that her bandanna covered her face as she did so. A few of the PRT people looked her way, but they were a little busy with the Empire capes and thugs to take action against a lone civilian.

Taylor stopped a few dozen meters away from the worse of the fighting and filled her lungs with air. "Stop!" she shouted.

Hookwolf laughed maniacally as he shrugged off Gallant's desperate barrage of bolts. Fenja finally clipped Battery and sent the heroine rolling across the ground while behind the giantess, Kaiser managed to push Assault away thanks to a wall of spikes that sprouted underfoot.

"I said stop! Please."

Rune shot a piece of concrete at the nearest truck, a chunk nearly as tall as Taylor that rammed into the side of the truck and exploded into head-sized bits of shrapnel. One of these bounced on the road, then rocketed off towards where a wide-eyed Taylor stood.

Kid Win, Rune and Stormtiger all watched the piece heading towards the rather unassuming civilian.

There was a meaty smack, and Taylor blinked at the huge hand blocking her vision and, she realized, holding the piece of concrete like she would hold a pebble. "Oh," she said to the Endbringer standing behind her.

The fighting stopped.

Taylor bent down a little to see past Leviathan's hand, then she pressed a hand against it and pushed up. The Endbringer complied and moved his arm out of the way, letting the concrete slab fall down as he did so.

"So, uh, I really, really wanted you guys to stop fighting, please?" Taylor said, her voice dwindling as she saw all the attention being pointed her way.

Assault was the first to react by pointing a finger towards Leviathan. "Is that... Leviathan?"

Taylor looked over her shoulder to confirm that, yes, there was a thirty foot tall Endbringer right there. "Uh, no?" she said. She realized that she might have made a mistake.

Kaiser stepped up, his form covered in interlocking plates of steel with jagged spikes jutting out everywhere. He stood tall and pointed the flat of his hand towards Taylor. "Fool girl, you think you can get away with using such illusions against the Empire? It is in bad taste!"

With a flick of his wrist he send a row of sword-like spikes running across the ground, each one growing closer and closer towards Taylor in a straight path that would, in a few seconds, impale the girl.

A nearby storm-drain exploded into the air, followed by a column of water three feet wide that shot through the ground with enough force that it started to tear through the road around the drain. The water twisted in the air, turning nearly ninety degrees in a blink.

There were a few screams of horror as the jet of water slammed into Kaiser. The villain rammed side-first into the brick facade of a store.

The water splashed onto the ground, no longer manipulated by the Endbringer only for it to form a massive puddle that more than one hero and villain shied away from.

Bits of Kaiser's armour tumbled to the ground.

It was rather quiet until Taylor turned around and pointed at the Endbringer. "No, bad Leviathan, bad!"

{Accomplishing Primary One.} The Endbringer said as it rocked back onto its heels a little.

Taylor patted its knee, which was about as high as she could reach without stretching. "I know, I know, you just wanted to keep me safe, but try not to kill people, even if they're Nazis, okay?"

Leviathan looked down at her, his bandanna rustling with the motion. {Affirmative.}

Taylor nodded, then paused mid-motion as she remembered her audience. "Uh, right, um... surrender, please?" she asked.

-End Part the First-

So, that was a thing. If any of you have any ideas as to where this story should go, please feel free to drop them in the comments below. Any criticism and whatnot would be more than appreciated (as long as we're all civil about it). As I mentioned in the first post, I might continue this if there's enough interest. Mostly, I'm working on an original piece called Glitch (link in the signature-mabob) but crack is more fun to write than Cyberpunk LitRPG...stuff.

Oh, and a hearty thank-you to the peeps on the Cauldron Discord and Chaotic-Sky for idea bouncing.

I hope you enjoy!

Last edited: Nov 13, 2018

1272

RavensDagger

Sep 30, 2018

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Threadmarks In Which Taylor Talks to the Heroes

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 1, 2018

#63

I realize that this story is in third-person Omniscient, which is kind of strange to write in. I don't think I ever really used it other than in some quick experiments or with writing practice, but it seems to work for this story, so I guess I'll keep it up. Anywho; onwards!

"...Uh, right, um... surrender, please?"

About two dozen fearful looks took in the girl standing in the shadow of the monster. She was tall--though her back was hunched over as though trying to make herself small--and clothed in stained jeans and a hoodie that had seen better days. In no way was she intimidating. If anything, the young woman might have inspired pity.

Then she patted the Endbringer on the leg as if it was an obedient puppy.

A few looks were shared, all of them with the same thing: 'you talk to her.'

Finally, in a show of bravery so often associated with heroes, Battery stood up from where she had been pushed by the giantess Fenja and took a small step towards the girl. There were protocols and training for hostage situations. The training didn't cover what to do if you were the hostage. "Can we talk about this? Please?"

Taylor took in the heroine, in her bright blue armour and certain stance, the kind of woman she had looked up to her entire life. "Um, yeah, sure!"

The cape didn't seem to know quite what to do with that response. "Okay, that's good. Look, we're all going to put our weapons down now, alright. No one has to do anything rash."

A few of the Empire capes seemed reluctant to drop their weapons, then the mangled blob of crushed flesh that was Kaiser flopped out of the wall it had been embedded in with a wet splash. Taylor winced, then scratched the back of her head through her hoodie. "Ah, shucks. Sorry about that."

Rune dropped her rocks and Cricket practically threw her scythes down. They were soon followed by the dozen or so bats and chains carried by the Empire thugs and the containment foam launchers the PRT soldiers held.

"See," Battery said, her own hands held at shoulder height. "We're all complying. So, how about we all introduce ourselves?"

"Oh, sure," Taylor said with a quick nod. "Though, uh, I don't have a cape name yet," she said while gripping her right bicep with her left hand. "I guess you can call me Queen Administrator?"

There was an audible gulp from Kid Win, but Battery ignored it. "That's a very... pretty name."

"I thought so too," the newly christened Queen Administrator said. "Um, wasn't there another cape with queen in her name though?"

"You mean the fucking Fairy Queen?" Rune said just loud enough for it to carry. Battery shot her a warning look and Stormtiger grabbed the young cape's shoulder and squeezed.

"That's not the same, so I should be okay, right?" Taylor asked.

Battery nodded. "I can't imagine anyone complaining." Assault snorted, earning himself a death glare from his partner.

"Awesome. I was kind of afraid that it didn't sound very heroic."

"You, you want to be a hero?" Battery said, her voice tinged with the first glimmers of hope.

Taylor nodded. "Yeah. I just learned that I have powers, and I want to use them to help, you know? It, uh, might not be easy though, my powers aren't the nicest."

"That's alright. I'm sure the Protectorate could help you learn how to use your powers. You could join the Wards and we could train you and help you grow into a fine hero." Battery felt a weight lift off her chest. She had participated in a few recruitments before, and had been trained in addressing new capes with an interest in joining the Protectorate. This was familiar ground. In the back of her mind, there was a tiny voice wondering what the bonus was for recruiting a girl who treated an Endbringer like a pet.

"No," Taylor said.

Battery felt the weight returning, only this time it was heavier and a bit angry.

"They might want to hurt..." the young would-be-heroine looked up to her companion. "My friend," she finished rather lamely.

"You mean Leviathan?"

Queen Administrator shook her head violently from side to side, her eyes wide in panic. "No, that's not who he is. Uh... aren't there laws about masks and cape personas?"

Battery nodded slowly, taking in the sudden change in topic. "Yes. There are rules that most capes follow. No unmasking a cape, no attacking them in their civilian identities. You don't have to worry. We won't try to unmask you."

"Right. So you won't try to unmask my friend, uh... Nahtaivel?" she said as though trying to word for the first time. Then she frowned at the bandanna-wearing Endbringer. "Don't you have a better name?"

{Unit-02 Designation: Unit-02 of 20. Local Designation: 'Leviathan,' 'Jormungandr,' 'The Second,' 'The City Killer.'}

"I can't go calling you 'The City Killer,' you'll scare them all," she whispered harshly. Battery, who was near enough to hear, felt the blood draining from her face. Queen Administrator turned to the gathering and nodded decisively. "You can just call him Unit Two of Twenty, but that's a mouthful so just Unit Two, I guess. That's what he calls himself, mostly."

Kid Win started making a high-pitched keening noise until Gallant placed a hand on his shoulder in a show of solidarity.

"I, we," Battery began, then she looked at the Endbringer, taking in the piece of cloth that had slid down to drape around its neck. She fixed a smile on. "S-sure why not? It's a pleasure to meet you, Unit Two... of Twenty. I hope..." she paused, because she wasn't sure exactly what she was hoping for. "Right, anyway. You wanted us to surrender, right? I, I don't want to judge you, but it might not make you look too heroic if you, uh, capture other heroes."

Taylor brightened. "Oh, I didn't mean to do that. No wonder you all look so afraid. No, no, I just wanted you all to stop fighting."

"You just wanted us to stop fighting?" Battery said. She didn't dare let hope kindle again.

"Yeah. I was just on my way to back to the camp and I saw you all fighting, and I wanted to help, you know?" She looked at all the villains and thugs, a few of which had started to sneak away only to freeze as she took them in. "Aren't you guys carrying food and supplies and stuff?" She waved towards the convoy.

"Yes, we're bringing food to the camps," Battery explained with a gesture towards the trucks. "Tents and medical equipment too."

"See, that's great. And then the Empire had to try and stop you, and that's just not nice."

Rune, who was a proper teenage girl, knew how to spot an opportunity to shift blame when she saw it. "Kaiser told us to do it!" she said, pointing at the thing that was previously Kaiser.

Taylor winced. "Ah, man, I'm really sorry about that. Levia-- I mean, Unit Two can be pretty protective."

"I forgive you. Please don't kill me," Rune said before Stormtiger had time to clamp a hand over her mouth.

Taylor turned to Battery. "Shouldn't you, I don't know, arrest them or something?"

That seemed to light a fire under the PRT troopers. Talking to weird capes and Endbringers was a bit beyond them, but arresting thugs they knew how to do. With quick, trained efficiency, they rushed over to the Empire thugs and capes and started restraining them while the Wards kept half an eye on the proceedings.

Taylor, meanwhile, was on tippy-toes trying to straighten out Leviathan's bandanna to little success. Battery approached a little more, cautiously eyeing the Endbringer as she did. "So, Queen Administrator, would you follow us to our temporary headquarters? I'm sure we have plenty of questions for you.

The new cape abandoned her task and turned to face Battery. She looked down, unable to meet the eyes of the heroine. "Uh, could I maybe pass by later? I, um, have a few things I want to do."

"I wouldn't dream of imposing. But, um, maybe tell your... friend to stay back? He's a little imposing."

Taylor shrugged. "Sure, but I have to be careful. I'm pretty sure that if he falls out of my range he'll..." She made a vague gesture with her hand. "You know, go back to how he was before. But it's okay, he's really, really good at hiding. You wouldn't think it, with how big he is, but he can move without making any noise when he wants to. Or maybe he can teleport. I'm not sure."

Battery processed that. Then she processed it some more. "Okay."

"Awesome. I guess I'll pass by tomorrow. It was really cool meeting you all. Uh, I'd ask for an autograph, but, well, I've got nothing to sign." She shrugged again, then waved at them. "I should go."

"Are you, are you sure you don't want to join us? We could give you almost anything," Battery said.

"Do you have anything to eat on you?" Taylor asked, her head tilting to the side a little.

"N-not on me, no."

"Well, then. Come on, Levi-- Unit Two, I'm starving."

With that, the girl began walking away, hardly noticing that everyone gave her a wide berth. Leviathan, for his part, stood stock still for a few long seconds, then, with a hardly a single wasted motion or even so much as a whisper of noise, the Endbringer sped towards an empty alleyway, leaving only a blur where he had once stood. To most, it simply looked as though he had disappeared.

"Oh god," Battery said.

"So, you never told me that your name was Unit Two of Twenty," Taylor said conversationally to the empty street. She would have worried that people thought she was weird, but her mouth was covered still, so it was alright.

{Unit-02 Second Unit of 20.}

"That makes sense, I guess," she said. Her feet carried her towards the entrance and she had to keep quiet or else the Nation Guard men at the gates would have seen her as quite strange. Pulling down her bandanna and shrugging off her hood, Taylor nodded to the men at the gates and made her way in.

It took all of ten minutes for her to discover the bad news.

"But I was only gone for, like, two hours tops," Taylor said.

The woman across from her wore a frown on her severe face and looked up from a stack of reports to meet Taylor's eyes. "I'm sorry, Miss Herbert--"

"Hebert."

"Yes. But we made a full accounting of the people in this camp while you were... otherwise occupied. We only have so many beds and, with the delay over the arrival of supplies, only so much food." She reached across her field desk and pulled over a pad before she began to write something. "There's a small shelter on Hunter and Fifth. It's run by volunteers but it's clean enough. Ask the young person working there if you can stay. Their rather amenable to helping young folk in distress."

Taylor took the paper with the address on it, then looked back up at the bureaucrat who just went right back to work. Did the woman expect her to just walk all the way over on her own? Sure, Taylor knew that she was probably safe, what with Leviathan and all, but what if she wasn't a cape?

She gave the woman a long stare, a pinch of anger boiling in her chest. It didn't help that she looked a little bit like Blackwell. "Fine." With that, Taylor stood and started to make her way out of the camp.

"Well, maybe the people over there will be friendly," she whispered under her breath. Her stomach growled. "And have something to eat."

Hrm, choices choices. Anyway, this sets out intrepid heroine for a meeting with... someone. I mean, it's going to be one of the Undersiders, but whom? Dun-dun-DUN!

I hope you enjoy!

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RavensDagger

Oct 1, 2018

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Threadmarks In Which Attention is Given and Taylor Makes a Buddy

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 2, 2018

#130

In Which Attention is Given and Taylor Makes a Buddy

Two mini-chapters smushed into one. The first is more of a serious chapter. Not as funny, but it kinda shows the flip-side of the coin, as it were. Also, it sets things up for future hikinks.

"Shit," said Director Emily Piggot of the PRT East North East as she summed up the situation.

Thomas Calvert, in his guise as one of the local branch's consultants, could only nod.

Strewn across a stainless steel table in one of the meeting rooms of the PRT ENE headquarters were a series of printouts that painted a grim picture.

Or, perhaps, an opportunity.

He looked up and took in the others in the room. A few more consultants, those that would usually, like him, be left on the wayside in such a delicate matter but who had been pulled in to make up for some of the lost manpower after the Endbringer attack. There were heroes too. The two members of the Protectorate that had been on the scene, as well as an injured Armsmaster and Miss Militia.

Deputy Director Rennick was out, taking care of the newly imprisoned members of the Empire Eighty Eight. And wasn't that a victory for the good guys?

Oh, sure, they had lost Rune during transportation, and someone was going to get a slap on the wrist for improperly restraining the girl, but taking in Stormtiger, Hookwolf, Fenja, Cricket and about two dozen unpower mooks was a unilateral victory. Kaiser's death only made the situation better as far as Coil was concerned. Add that to the deaths of Krieg and Menja the day before and it painted a grim picture for the neonazi gang.

It was like the world's worst game of good-news bad-news.

"We should arrest her," Armsmaster said.

"Sure!" Assault said with a cheerful, if somewhat forced grin. "Um, before that, Director, could I switch to a posting in Nevada? I hear it's dry over there."

"No one is switching to anywhere. If anything we need every last cape we can get our hands on," Piggot said. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. "Let's start from the top. Battery, Assault, are you certain that it wasn't some sort of projection?"

"If it was," Battery began before her husband could say something he would regret. "Then it was exceptionally realistic. It stopped a cement block in mid-flight, and then displayed very precise hydrokinesis."

The Director nodded, and Calvert shifted in his seat. "Director, I think it might be safest to assume that this is the real thing. If it isn't then we will lose face a little, but we can always claim that we were just being overly cautious. If it is the real thing and we don't react appropriately..."

"You're right, of course." Piggot said. "Battery, Assault, what can you tell me about the girl, this... Queen Administrator. God what a horrible name. If we ever convince her to join our side Glenn's going to have a field day with a name like that."

Battery leaned back into her chair and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. "She seemed shy. Almost reserved. Non-confrontational too, though she did jump into the middle of a cape fight to try and stop it."

"She also," Assault butted in. "Scared the ever-loving hell out of me. She acted like Leviathan was just a big dog or something, like a pet. And she apologised after Leviathan killed Kaiser, but it sounded... off. Like a kid who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Yeah, she was sorry, but it was like she didn't understand that what she did was wrong, or that it had consequences."

"We should arrest her," Armsmaster said, adding his two cents.

"Armsmaster, you are forbidden from interacting with this cape unless she has already opened hostilities or under my direct supervision. I won't have you bumbling your way into insulting the girl and have her drop her pet Endbringer on us." Piggot shifted in her seat, a grimace crossed her face for a moment before she schooled herself. "Now, options, the report already says that she's not interested in joining up. Could we change her mind?"

Battery shrugged. "I asked her if she wanted anything and tried to make it pretty clear that we could do a lot for her. She asked me if I had anything to eat. I... don't think she's very materialistic. It's just a hunch, but offering money or the like probably won't go far."

"Her costume was pretty much just normal clothes and a bandanna. She doesn't seem to care much for her image," Assault added. "And for all that she was creepy as hell, she wasn't trying to be intimidating. I mean, the Endbringer was doing plenty of intimidation just standing there completely still and staring at us, but she didn't seem to notice how that was freaking us all out."

"How did she direct it?" Armsmaster asked.

"I didn't see any gestures or the like. She just talked to it. Scolded it for turning Kaiser into a pancake, and it seemed to be listening to her." Battery grimaced at her own choice of words.

A few faces went green at that description.

"Brilliant. We have a horse whisperer, but for apocalyptic death monsters," Assault muttered just loud enough that they could all hear.

"Ignoring that for now," Piggot said while frowning at the irreverent cape. "Any weaknesses we could exploit?"

"She looked like a normal girl. She probably has the same problem all Masters do; she's baseline human," Battery said. "I'd like to add one thing, though. I mentioned it in the report but... well, she mentioned a range to her powers and said that she was afraid that Leviathan would... revert back to its previous behaviour. That, and Leviathan was acting very protectively. I think that if we knock her out we'll either have an angry Endbringer on our hands, or just a... normal one."

"And if we Master her?" the director asked.

There was some shifting in seats. The PRT frowned upon Masters, Heartbreaker and Glaistig Uaine having set a bad precedent. Still, there were some capes that joined that had unfortunate powers. The Protectorate wasn't about to refuse more firepower just because a power wasn't good for PR.

"That depends, would Leviathan see that as an attack on his master and retaliate?" Armsmaster asked.

The Director nodded and pulled one of the sheets closer to her. Thomas recognized it as a threat profile for a new cape. "I'm giving her the temporary threat rating of Master 12. I'm also adding a provision to recruit her at all costs. If she wants her own mansion we'll bloody well give her one. If she can control other Endbringers, or if one of our trumps can copy her powers, then she's worth her weight in gold."

"Especially if the thing with Leviathan's name is real," Assault added.

There was a long pause, quite a few looking his way. "What thing?" Piggot said, her brow scrunching up.

"Ah, I don't know if that was in the report. But she denied that Leviathan was called Leviathan, uh, though she did call it that by accident. It felt like she was trying to convince us that the Endbringer wasn't an Endbringer. You know, with the mask and all. I don't know who she thought she was fooling bu--"

"Get to the point, Assault.

"Right, right! So, she told us to call it Unit Two. That much makes sense. If they're created by someone, well, it was the second one to show up. Problem is, she called it Unit Two of Twenty, the first time around."

Piggot leaned back into her chair. "That... shit," she said. "The implication that there are seventeen more Endbringers is, in a word, horrifying. Still, this is an opportunity to learn more about them. I'm going to contact Costa-Brown. We need to be ready for her tomorrow."

"And how will you treat her?" Miss Militia asked, talking for the first time since the meeting had started.

"With the kid gloves," Piggot said.

To Thomas Calvert, all problems were opportunities. When the meeting finished he had a long conversation with some of his subordinates.

In Which Taylor Makes a Buddy

"That's a dog shelter," Taylor stated.

{Affirmative.} Leviathan helpfully replied.

She looked at the bit of paper she had been given, then up at the building and to the address painted onto a bit of plywood and placed on a windowsill. They matched. If it wasn't for the chorus of barking dogs she might even have been fooled into thinking this was a shelter for people.

Pressing a hand against her rumbling stomach, Taylor decided to take her chance and walked into the shelter. It smelled faintly of dog, but also of lemony-cleaning stuff and doggie kibble. Within the dimly lit reception were a few people diligently at work, either carrying bags of dog food over their shoulders or talking while pointing at maps of the city.

"Um, hello?" Taylor said, her voice drowned out by the many dogs. Still, a younger woman by the reception desk looked up and took in her rather dishevelled appearance.

"Oh, hello honey, how can I help you?" she asked as she slipped a lock of coarse brown hair behind an ear.

"Ah, um, I was told that there was a shelter here, that I could stay in?" Taylor said.

The girl laughed, but it wasn't unkind. "We're more a shelter for the four-legged then pretty young girls, but we do have a few rooms some of us are staying in." She looked Taylor up and down, taking in how thin she was under the hoodie and the way she hunched over at the attention. "Tell you what, I'll bring you to the boss-lady, and you ask her if you can help out. We won't take anyone that's not willing to work, but it you're ready to give a bit of elbow grease we can keep you fed and warm, at least for a few days."

"That, that would be great!" Taylor said with stars in her eyes.

The young woman grinned. "Brilliant! Come on, I'll show you to the boss. Oh, and I'm Cassie, by the way."

"Please to meet you! I'm Taylor."

Cassie nodded, then picked up a clip-board on the way to the back of the room. "Well, come along Taylor. Oh, and be... patient with the boss. She can be a bit rough but she means well."

Taylor nodded and followed Cassie into the back room of the shelter. Dozens of cages lined the walls, these filled with excited dogs in every condition imaginable. Some looked to be in good health, but more than a few were gaunt or injured and obviously in need of some attention. To be fair, Taylor thought, the people in the shelter were trying their best. She hadn't thought about it, but with the attack many dogs had been displaced and had lost track of their families.

"Hey Rachel," Cassie said as she reached the far end of the room. There was a wide door that lead into a bit of a courtyard in the back, and a tall, butch girl wearing a rough leather coat with a furry neckline was on one knee there, apparently working with a trio of dogs. "I've got someone new. She's looking for work and a place to stay."

The girl, Rachel, looked up and took Taylor in with a glance, then turned to Cassie. "The fuck is this?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "This is Taylor, she just needs a place to stay for a few days. She said she was willing to help."

Rachel's brows furrowed and she looked at Taylor again. Taylor, for her part, shied away from the girl's hard stare. "You good with dogs?"

"I, uh, I'm okay? I kinda adopted one yesterday. sorta, and we get along mostly well," she admitted.

"Where is it?" Rachel asked.

"Uh, I didn't want to bring him here. He might scare the other dogs and, um, he's not trained to be around people yet."

"You left him with food?"

Taylor opened her mouth to reply, then froze. "Oh god, no, I didn't. Oh gosh darn, what if he's hungry?"

Rachel's brow furrowed and she took a small step closer to Taylor. Her dogs walked up behind her, eyeing Taylor too. "You can't do that."

"I, I'm sorry?" Taylor said.

Then her stomach grumbled loud enough that everyone heard and she had to press a hand against her chest and tried to mask a grimace.

Almost instantly, Rachel calmed down. "You have anything to eat?" she asked.

"Not, not since yesterday morning, no," Taylor admitted. "They didn't have anything at the camps and I didn't find anything to eat on my own."

"Stupid," Rachel accused her before turning to Cassie. "Get her something to eat, then something for her dog. She can pick up shit in the back."

"Got it, boss," Cassie said. "I'll be right back."

"Thanks!" Taylor said, her face twisting into a watery smile. "Um, I can help today, but I have somewhere I need to be tomorrow afternoon, is that okay? I can come back right after!" she added the last in a hurry.

"Yeah, whatever. You still here in the morning? Then you can help then and when you come back."

"Thank you so much."

"Go get your dog and bring him here. We'll look at him and see if he's healthy."

Taylor froze, eyes going wide. "I, uh, don't think that's the best idea," she said in a squeak.

"Why not?"

She was saved from answering when Cassie returned with a tupperware box filled with lukewarm noodles mixed with canned meat-sauce. "Here you go, honey. It's not the best but it's what we've got left over from this afternoon. We'll be starting on a proper supper in a bit. Hope this tides you over."

Taylor took the container and a plastic fork that Cassie handed her, then, with speed born of hunger, began shovelling the noodles in her mouth. "Oh god, this is so good," she said through a mouthful.

Cassie laughed and shook her head. "Speaking of, I'll be in the kitchen boss. Food should be ready in an hour or so."

Rachel made a noise of assent and went back to training her dogs, though she kept an eye on Taylor as she did so. Between two bites of what must have been a master chef's magnum opus, Taylor whispered to the air. "So, do you eat?"

{Negative. Unit-20 does not require sustenance.}

Taylor's shoulders drooped in relief. "Oh, thank god."

"Who you talking to?" Rachel asked.

Fork halfway to her mouth, Taylor paused. "Um, I uh, wasn't talking to anyone?"

"Bullshit."

She winced. "Um, I, can talk to my... dog from here?"

Rachel took her in for a long few seconds. "You some sort of parahuman too?"

"I, no, I... too?"

"Yeah. I'm Bitch. I do dogs." She pointed at her dogs who were all sitting in a row, tails wagging behind them.

"That's so cool. I, um, have a sort of dog thing too. But it's not a dog, and I just asked, and he doesn't eat. So that's okay. His name's..." Taylor's mind ran headlong into a brick wall. She hadn't found a civilian identity for Leviathan yet. "Mr. Fish."

"Mr. Fish."

"Yes."

Rachel gave Taylor the blankest look. "Okay. Will he be trouble?"

"No, no, he's really quiet," Taylor assured her.

Rachel Lindt was a simple girl who wanted simple things: she wanted to spend time with her dogs and be left alone, and if this new girl who looked like a kicked puppy wasn't going to cause trouble then she wasn't going to make a fuss about it. "There's a shovel over there. Put the shit in the compost box," she said before walking away, her dogs trailing after her.

-End Part the Third-

People were all like 'haha, Taylor and Levi will take over the world and have everything they want!' And I'm not too keen on that, so she needs to pick up dogshit first. Anyway, two short chapters, mostly to set up a few things in the future. 'Tomorrow' will prove to be a wonderful day for hijinks and the weather should be just right for dogwalking.

Last edited: Oct 3, 2018

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RavensDagger

Oct 2, 2018

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Threadmarks In Which Alexandria is Confused and Taylor Takes her Endbringer Out for Walkies

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 3, 2018

#229

In Which Alexandria is Confused and Taylor Takes her Endbringer Out for Walkies

Rebecca Costa-Brown was a woman used to being blindsided. Every day, new cases passed her desk, either at the Protectorate Headquarters or in her little office within the confines of a Cauldron base. She could remember, in excruciating detail, the first battle against Behemoth, the first appearance of Leviathan and the day the Simurgh tore apart Lausanne.

There was never, truly, a sense that she had 'seen it all.' Sure, she was one of the strongest capes out there, and yes, as Chief Director of the PRT she had seen more than most, but she knew to keep herself grounded and expect the worse.

She pressed a hand to her right cheek, eyes unfocused on the screen before her. The call from Director Piggot--over an emergency line, no less--had been worrying enough. The report she was now reading didn't make things much better.

Taking a deep breath, she refocused and, with a few clicks, cleared her appointments for the rest of the evening and the next morning. She picked up her office phone and pressed a few keys, turning on a few Tinkertech anti-spyware programs. "Legend I need you in my office, as soon as you can get here," she said the moment the line was picked up.

"I'll be there in two," Legend replied, his voice unusually serious. He had picked up on her own tone.

Hanging up, Rebecca walked over to the window taking up half her office's wall and worked it open. Just in time, as a prismatic streak was cutting through Los Angeles skyline. When the hero slipped into her room, she shut the window and turned to him.

"What's wrong, Rebecca?" he asked, his brow knit in worry.

Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, then paused. "I'm not sure where to start, so I guess I'll start from the beginning. Did you notice anything strange during yesterday's battle?"

Legend seemed to consider this for a moment. "It was pretty standard. We got there earlier than usual, had time to set things up. And the city came out of it better than I had hoped or expected. Leviathan left at some point but no one was around to see it happen, at least, no one I spoke to."

Rebecca nodded. "That's because he never left the city." She talked past his surprised expression. "I received a report from Director Piggot from Brockton Bay, two of her capes ran into a young woman who was, and I quote' being followed by Leviathan as though it was her pet poodle.' That's from Assault who was on the scene."

"And it's real?" he asked.

"From what I've gathered, yes. She claims that she's not interested in joining the Wards, but she acted to stop an assault on a supply convoy by the Empire Eighty Eight. Legend, this girl is walking around free with an Endbringer at her beck and call."

He eyed her and she knew what he was going to say next. "'Becca, if she's got any sort of heroic inclination, we can't just... get rid of her. This is an opportunity."

"I know. Trust me, I know. We need this girl on our side. I don't know if her control extends to the others or not, but even if it doesn't, we can't let her just... wander around with that kind of firepower." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to send word to evacuate the city, but for them to do it quietly."

"I want to meet her," he said.

Rebecca paused. On the one hand, he was a member of the Triumvirate. If anyone could get away from a hairy situation it would be him. And he was incredibly charismatic. Chances were good that if he opened a dialogue with this Queen Administrator girl, he would get her talking, and maybe convince her to join up where they could better control her. On the other hand, it was a risk. But then, it was no more dangerous that being deployed to any other Endbringer battle.

"Battery from the Protectorate ENE convinced her to show up tomorrow to talk with the PRT. The girl probably wants to sign up as an independent."

"And we don't want that?" he asked.

Rebecca made a so-so gesture. "We'd rather have her onboard than not. This isn't the kind of thing you can ignore, and we need to keep her safe from the Fallen, the Slaughterhouse Nine or the Yàngbǎn whatever she chooses. Contessa can probably help with that. But I would much rather she be under our thumb."

"'Becca, I'm not going to force a kid to join us. If she wants to be independent then we can help her without taking away her freedom. If we're kind to her she'll probably join us of her own free will."

The chief director shifted on the spot. "Fine, try it your way. If anything it will at least appease her and show that we're taking things seriously." She leaned back onto her desk. "But do be careful."

Legend gave her one of his signature smiles. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"And this, it Mr. Fish!" Taylor said. She was in an excellent mood. Yeah, sure, she had to help at the dog shelter, but it wasn't any worse than doing chores at home and she got to play with the dogs a bit. She just hoped that Leviathan wasn't getting jealous of all the attention she was paying to the dogs.

Rachel took in the alleyway where the blue light of a rising sun was only just bright enough to highlight the shadows and hide the worse of the debris lining the walls. Then she looked up at the tallest shadow, at the four-eyed creature standing thirty feet tall and whose arms had descended onto either side of Taylor in an almost protective fashion.

"That's not a dog."

"Well, no, but he acts like a dog... sometimes." Taylor hugged Leviathan's leg and smiled up at the city-killing monster. "So, uh, you said that you wanted to go on patrol with your dogs. Could I bring Mr. Fish along? See, we're trying to be heroes too."

Rachel looked down from the Endbringer and stared at Taylor. "Will he hurt my dogs?"

"No! Well, not unless they try to hurt me."

She shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Does he need a leash?"

"Do you have one that's big enough?" Taylor asked back a little dubiously. Leviathan's neck was rather on the thick side.

"Yeah." With that, Rachel turned and made her way back towards the dog shelter, her three constant companions at her heels though they were sneaking looks at Leviathan.

The shelter was only just down the block from where Leviathan was hiding, so Taylor didn't have far to go to find her Endbringer. With a few quick motions, she put her bandanna back on and pulled down her hoodie, noting as she did that her clothes were getting a little scruffy.

"Come on!" she called over her shoulder.

{Understood.} Leviathan followed after her, his footsteps making the ground tremble.

Taylor, no, the intrepid heroine Queen Administrator and her plucky sidekick Unit Two, waited in front of the shelter and ignored the panicked screams from just down the road. Yes, Unit Two did look rather scary, but there wasn't much she could do about that... yet.

Rachel came out with a mask held in one hand and a length of chain dangling from the other. "Here," she said as she passed Taylor the chain and began to affix her mask. "We'll go around this block, then head west."

"Cool. Hey, do you think it'd be alright if we take something of a detour? I, uh, want to check on something."

"'S long as it don't take too long." Rachel tapped her dogs on their heads. Taylor watched, fascinated, as the dogs started to grow bigger and taller and boney spikes tore out of their bodies. In a few short minutes the dogs were the size of minivans and Rachel was climbing up the side of the biggest of them.

"Wait, you're going to ride on your patrol?" Taylor asked. She couldn't see the look Rachel was giving her on account of the mask, but it was easy to guess. "Uh, okay, give me a minute."

Turning to Leviathan she gestured at the Endbringer, and when that failed to do anything tried speaking. "Hey, can you dip your head down a bit?"

{Complying.} he said as he lowered his head.

Giving him a smile in gratitude, Taylor looped the chain around his neck, then fastened it into a rough knot. "Hey, do you think I could ride on your shoulder?" she asked.

{Affirmative.}

"Awesome!" Taking a bit of a running leap, Taylor grabbed onto the slick fish-like skin along Leviathan's back and pulled herself up so that she was perched on his shoulder, then she grabbed onto the chain still wrapped around his neck and used it as a handhold. "Okay, okay, now stand up, but slowly."

{Understood.} Gently, Leviathan stood up to his full height and Taylor, perched on his shoulder and looking at the ground far below, giggled in a mixture of joy and vertigo. "Hey, if I fall, you'll catch me, right?"

{Additional Secondary Directive: Prevent Host-Queen_Administrator from suffering from kinetic damage in case of a fall. Directive Accepted.}

"Okay Rachel, lead the way!" she called out to her new buddy.

Rachel looked nonplussed but soldiered on with aplomb. "This way."

The first few steps were a little jarring, but some whispered instructions had Leviathan even out his pace so that he was slinking forwards like a predator stalking prey, rather than a giant in a fragile world. It also made Taylor realize something really important. "I need a sword."

{New Secondary Directive: Acquire 'Sword?'}

"Hrm, no, no, I'll find one on my own. You know, it's almost too bad that you splattered Kaiser, I bet he could make awesome swords. Ohh, and we should get you a costume. Or at least a hat!"

{New Secondary Directive: Acquire 'Hat?'}

"Yes. But later."

The patrol route that Rachel lead Taylor down was fairly simple. First, they cut out towards the Boardwalk where looters and scavengers were even now breaking into shops. Most of these fled as soon saw they saw Rachel's huge dogs. The rest ran screaming when they saw Taylor and Mr. Fish. It made her feel all warm inside, to know that she was helping protect the city, and only a couple of days since deciding to become a cape!

Then, with a few grunted cues, Rachel led her deeper into the city into what was once Empire territory, but was now mostly a wrecked landscape. There were more normal people here, and they tended to shy away from the pair of capes but didn't always run screaming. A few even took out phones to take pictures and film their passing.

Taylor waved shyly at a few of them, but quickly found herself pressing into Leviathan's side to avoid the gazes of their cameras. "Are we going to circle back to the shelter now?" she asked.

"Mmm, not yet. Gonna go see one of my... friends first."

"Okay, cool. And, um, the place I wanted to go was that way. It's not too far, especially since we're moving pretty fast."

Rachel looked in the direction Taylor was pointing. "We could go by rooftop."

"Oh, that sounds so cool!"

"Later," she said before turning her attention back to where her pack was walking. They crossed the entrance to another shelter, this one taking up an entire church and a few community buildings as well as a large parking area that hadn't been too badly hit by the flooding, then Rachel led them off the main roads and through a winding path made up entirely of alleyways and passages through broken fences.

She slowed to a stop, whistling so that her other dogs did the same, just as they were nearing the docks. "It's there," she said, pointing towards a two story building that didn't seem to have been hit too hard by the attack. "Stay here."

There were maybe a dozen people hanging around the entrance from every ethnic group and age, which as far as Taylor knew was a good sign. A desk sat just outside, manned by a gruff older man with a military bearing and a pretty blonde girl.

"Lisa!" Rachel called out as she brought her dogs a little closer.

The blonde looked up and grinned at Rachel. "Heya Bitch, doing your rounds, I see," she said before turning to whisper something to the man next to her. "I'll be with you in a minute." She raced into the shelter.

Taylor, who was until then sneaking a peak around the corner, pulled back on Leviathan's leash and pointed off towards the side. "There," she said and the lumbering Endbringer shifted over to where she had pointed.

This day had been getting better and better. Hanging out with Rachel wasn't quite fun, but she was a nice enough girl and didn't pry much. Taylor wasn't sure if she could trust her yet not after... She shook her head. Anyway, Rachel seemed the same way, which, if anything, made her feel much better about herself. And later they would go by her house, maybe dad... but she'd better not think about that either.

"So, Leviathan, do you know any tricks?"

{Definition Request: 'Tricks.'}

"You know, like, uh, shake hands, play dead, stuff like that."

{Unit-02 capabilities include: Psychological Warfare, Macro Hydrokinesis, Flow Dynamics Manipulation, Ranged Sensing--}

"No, no, none of those are useful," Taylor said with a shake of her head. "I meant stuff you can do, you know, like, um, maybe you could use your Hydrokinesis for fishing, or something."

{Correction Understood. Unit-02 capabilities include: Mass Manipulation of Marine Biology, Promoting Conflict, Genocide, Temperature Manipulation, Weather Manipulation, Landscaping--}

"Oh, oh, could you make ice cream?"

Leviathan paused. That wasn't to say that he had been moving much, but his arms did sway a little and his head was always moving, now he froze on the spot. Half a minute later the Endbringer started moving again. {Affirmative.}

Taylor's grin was vicious. "Perfect. Now, I know people think you're scary, but I'm sure we could go and grab some ingredients and make some killer ice cream, then we can give it to all the kids in the shelters. Maybe start a mini-water park with your hydrokinesis? Yeah, I've got this PR stuff in the bag. Endbringer? Hah, more like... Ice-Cream-Bringer... we can work on that one."

"Taylor," came Rachel's voice from around the corner. "Lisa wants to talk at you."

Rachel and her friend, Lisa, came around the corner. The blonde was rolling her eyes at her friend's phrasing, a smug grin on her face. Then she actually looked ahead of her and promptly twitched so hard that she almost landed on her face.

Two wide eyes stared up at Leviathan, then raced up to the girl sitting on his shoulder. "Hi! You must be Lisa. Rachel... well, actually she didn't say anything about you, but that means she didn't say anything bad, right? I'm not very good at introductions am I?" she said. Then, in what might have been a suicidal move for a non-Brute, she shoved herself off the Endbringer and fell towards the ground.

Just a few feet before crashing to the pavement, a tendril of swirling water wrapped around her waist and gently caught her before lowering down to the ground and whipping back from whence it came. She extended a hand towards Lisa. "I'm Taylor, or Queen Administrator in costume. Pleased to meetcha!"

Lisa fainted.

-End Part the Fourth-

So, no chapter tomorrow on account of it being Thursday and that's when I post my weekly chapter of Glitch.

Oh, and there shouldn't be as much, or any, time skip in the next chapter. It'll take off where this one ended. It was just getting to be a on the longer side and this was a good place to snip it. It's really hard to get the tone right in this bit. Taylor's clearly suffering from something (PTSD? Depression? Shock?), but is trying to see the world as bright and cheerful even though it's... well, it's Brockton Bay. It doesn't help that her thought process is so obviously off. In fact, she's pretty similar to Bitch in that one aspect.

Last edited: Nov 13, 2018

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Oct 3, 2018

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RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 5, 2018

#290

In Which Taylor Goes Home

Not super happy with this one, but I'm impatient to move on to the next bit of the story, so have at it.

"She alright?" Taylor asked.

Lisa was on the ground, eyes closed and breathing even while three excited dogs sniffed at her. Rachel let out a high-pitched whistle and called them off the girl. She bent over and shifted Lisa's head to make sure her airway was clear, then pressed a pair of rough fingers against the side of her throat. "She's breathing and her heart's fine," Rachel announced a few seconds later.

"Should we call for an ambulance, or, I guess there's no service. Maybe we should bring her somewhere?"

Then Lisa blinked rapidly before pressed her hands over her eyes. "My head," she groaned.

"Oh darn, did you knock your head? Do you have a concussion?"

Lisa shook her head, then winced as she instantly regretted her answer. "Just a headache. I'm uh, one of Rachel's friends."

Taylor blinked at the non-sequitur. "Okay."

The girl on the floor sighed, then noticed the hand Rachel was holding out for her. "Thanks," she muttered as she got back to her feet. "I'm on Rachel's team. I'm a Thinker. Thinker headache." She waved towards Leviathan and Taylor. "Too much."

Taylor's brow scrunched up in concern and she shifted on the spot, that was until Lisa looked at her and her eyes widened in shock and horror. "What? Are you okay? I mean, no, it's pretty clear that you're not, but, I mean-- oh, maybe Mr. Fish can help?"

"You, you were just thinking about using Leviathan's Hydrokinesis to fix my headache!"

"That's so cool! It's like you can read minds." Taylor clapped. "Do you think it would work?"

Lisa started waving her arms in denial. "No!"

"Oh, okay. Also, that's not Leviathan, it's Mr. Fish."

Lisa fainted again.

A few moments later Lisa groaned, this time clutching at her head with both hands as she twisted and squirmed on the ground. "Scion spinning on a stick, my head hurts."

"Ah, sorry," Taylor said. She turned towards Rachel. "Should we bring her back to the shelter?"

"No!" Lisa said before bolting upright only to sag in Rachel's side. "No, I won't let you just... wander around with your pet Endbringer. I live in this city too, dammit. Rachel, help me onto Judas, I'm following the pair of you."

"Stupid. You're hurt. Go back inside," Rachel said.

"Hell no. Anyway, the boss wants us to keep on eye on her, so that's what we'll do, alright." Lisa wobbled over to one of the smaller dogs and tried to climb up.

"Why'd you tell her, she heard you," Rachel said as she pointed a thumb Taylor's way.

With a heave, Lisa managed to grab onto one of the bigger spikes and fumbled her way onto the dog's back. "It's not spying if she knows you're doing it."

Taylor could only nod and accept that logic as she climbed back onto Leviathan's shoulder with just a bit of help from the Endbringer himself. "Well, if she insists. But if you need to take a break or something don't be afraid to ask, okay?"

Lisa just gave her a thumbs up, then flopped forwards to hug the beast she was riding. She closed her eyes and pressed her face into the dog's back with a groan. Rachel gave her friend one last concerned look before hopping onto the biggest dog. "Where're we going now?" she asked Taylor.

Taylor wasn't sure what to do with or about Lisa. The girl really did seem to be in pain, but she was being very melodramatic about it. Then again, she was a Thinker, and Rachel's friend. Maybe she was just stranger. With a nod, she decided that that must be it. Lisa was just a very strange girl. "That way!" Taylor said while pointing off and away from the docks.

The path home was both familiar and jarring. Sure, she recognized every building on the way, and it wasn't as if the roads had changed places, but the shops were all closed down, some of those familiar buildings bore holes and cracks along their sides, if they weren't torn down completely, and while she was used to not seeing tons of people, there had always been a few folks going about their business. Now the roads were deserted.

Then she turned a corner and saw home. It was still standing, a little rougher than she remembered, and there was trash piled up by the steps and it looked like maybe one of the windows had been broken by a branch but it was home. Taylor pulled on Leviathan's leash and made a gesture for him to stop.

The three dogs did the same behind her, and watched as she clambered down the Endbringer's side. "Hey, Unit-02. You listen to Lisa and Rachel until I return, alright?"

{New Secondary Directive from Host-Queen_Administrator: Obey Host-Inqusitive_Negotiator and Host-Biomass_Sculpter until Host-Queen_Administrator returns to present location. Directive Accepted.}

Taylor tossed the chain towards Lisa who fumbled with it, then stared up at the Endbringer. Leviathan looked at her with what might have been attentive curiosity. She started hyperventilating.

With a halting gait, Taylor started walking home. She paused every dozen or so steps, looking over her shoulder towards Leviathan who was even now staring at a panicking Lisa while Rachel tried to reassure her friend. Maybe she should go back? But no, she had to know.

Biting her lip until it bled, Taylor closed her eyes, balled up her fists, and stomped up the steps. One of them creaked under her weight and that comforting sound was almost enough to set her to crying, but she held firm.

The door was locked, so she fished in her pockets for her keys and fumbled at the lock until they fit in. She needn't have bothered. Almost as soon as she fit the key in the door was torn open from the inside and she found herself face to face with her dad.

Her looked, in a word, like crap. His hair was dishevelled and there was a nasty bruise on one cheek. His button up shirt was missing a few buttons and his jeans had stains all the way up to his knees.

Taylor's vision went blurry with tears and she wrapped equally-dirty arms around her father. His own wrapped around her shoulders and she was pressed up against a chest that smelled of salt water and sweat and home.

"Shh, it's okay, it's okay," her dad whispered into her hair. "You're home, you're safe."

She started sobbing in earnest.

It took an hour, a bath using a bucket of lukewarm water, a change of clothes and two cups of tea for Taylor to really calm down. She was in the living room, aware that time was passing but willing to ignore it for now. Her dad was safe. Her home was still there. Oh, sure, there was no power and the water was cut, but it was still standing.

"Now what?" Taylor asked before taking another sip of Earl Grey, her mom's favourite.

"I don't know, really. I got in touch with a few of the boys from the Union. There's a lot of work to do, clearing up the streets and picking things up. Not to mention rebuilding after. You could help us," he offered.

She smiled, then brought her knees up to her chest. "I, um, I have an appointment later. But after that, I wouldn't mind."

"An appointment?"

She nodded. "With the Protectorate."

Her dad was many things, but a fool he was not. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Okay then. Did you want me to go with you?" He seemed ready to jump off the couch and go right then and there. She smiled at him.

"No, it's okay."

He winced. "The roads aren't safe."

"I can take care of myself, dad."

His return smile was a little watery, a little uncertain. "I guess you can. Your mom would be proud, you know."

Taylor had to swallow hard to keep from crying again. "I hope so." She looked at the wall-mounted clock atop the television. "I should go."

"You'll be back?"

"Promise." She stood up, the effort far outweighing the simplicity of the motion. "Oh, and dad, you remember how you didn't want me to get a dog?"

Danny Hebert might not have been the best father, but he could sense a trap when his daughter laid one. "Yes?"

"About that..."

"Okay! I'm clean, got new-ish clothes and I'm ready to go!" She came upon Lisa scowling up at Leviathan and Rachel lounging against the side of one of her dogs that had laid down to sleep in the middle of the road. "I hope you two weren't too bored?"

"Nah, Lisa tried to make Leviathan kill someone but it wouldn't listen," Rachel said.

"Lisa!" Taylor shouted. "You can't just do that."

With one eye closed and her face scrunched up in pain, the girl turned towards Taylor. "Well, I know that now. Some sort of restriction? Asimov's Three Laws? Damn, there should be a way around that."

{Host-Queen_Administrator has returned. Secondary Directive Accomplished.} Leviathan added.

"Well hello to you too," she shot back. "Lisa, stop trying to get Mr. Fish to do mean things. And now I need to go and visit the Protectorate to register as an independent. You two wanna come with? Maybe they'll be nicer if they see us all together."

"Uh, raincheck on that," Lisa said. "My head hasn't hurt this hard since... in a while. Rachel, would you drop me off at the shelter?" The dog-masked girl gave a grunt of acknowledgement. "Thanks. Oh, and Taylor, you need a costume."

Taylor blinked at the non-sequitur. "I do?"

Lisa nodded. "Look, all this cape stuff, the fighting the patrolling, it's all part of a game, of sorts. The exception are the S-class things. So, when someone sees a parahuman dressed in," she paused, then took in the jeans and hoodie Taylor was wearing. "Normal clothes, it tells them that that cape might not be playing by the rules."

"The rules?"

"The unwritten rules. It's like a code of conduct. If you break them all the others will band against you. Respect the secret identities of other parahumans, try not to use lethal force, no widespread attacks against civilians, and no sexual assault of any kind. It's all common decency stuff. The people who don't follow them are folks like the S9 or Heartbreaker. And they don't go around in costume. So the costume is more than just a way to hide your identity, it's a sign that you'll play fair."

Taylor nodded, taking it all in. "So, if I had a costume I'd look less threatening?"

Lisa snorted and shook her head. "No, there's no way for you to look any less threatening, I'm sorry. But having a costume would tell them that you're willing to play by the rules."

She winced. "I don't have a fixed hour for my appointment, but I don't want to keep them waiting either. Still, that only leaves me with a few hours to get a costume together."

"Ah hah! No worries Taylor, that's where the wonderful and illustrious Tattletale sweeps in to save the day. I happen to know people." She made a 'wait a minute' gesture, then pulled out a receipt from one pocket and a pen from another. In no time she had an address scrawled onto the bit of paper. "Don't tell her I sent you."

Taylor took in the address--not too far from the Boardwalk, or the PRT headquarters, it wouldn't be much of a detour--and the name written beneath it. "Parian?"

"Brockton Bay's own fashionista rogue. Just be polite and try not to scare her too much." Lisa tried a smug grin but it soon faded as her head started pounding again. "Okay, I need to chow down on a handful of Tylenol and sleep for about a week. Rachel, you read to go?"

Rachel nodded, then helped Lisa climb onto one of her dogs. Before jumping onto another, she turned towards Taylor. "You coming back later?"

"To the dog shelter? Um, no, I think I'll stay with my dad. But I might pass by to help." She stepped up to give Rachel a hand, but the girl just brushed her off and hopped onto the back of her biggest dog as though she'd done it a thousand times.

"See you 'round," Rachel said as she started walking off. Lis and her other dog followed after with little fuss, the Thinker bent forwards with her eyes closed the entire time.

"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?" she asked Leviathan.

{Affirmative.} he replied.

Sabah lifted a bolt of cloth that had fallen by one end, then let it fall. It was probably salvagable, the bit that hadn't soaked in murky waters. She sighed and moved towards her workbench nestled at the far end of the room. Her scissors and needles were spread across the floor like a minefield of caltrops. She had to take careful steps to avoid the worst of the damage. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, but it was mostly in the storefront.

The worse was the water, still pooled across the floor at ankle-height. Her shop was recessed a little, while the storefront was on street level, so all the water was pooling in the back. Her stock was going to smell like fetid water for days.

She might have lost a mannequin or two our front, and some completed projects, but those she could replace. Then there was her inventory. Admittedly not too much of it. Being a rogue was finally starting to pay off and her sales had cleared out a good bit of it before the Endbringer hit.

To think that a few days ago her biggest worry was designing fast enough to overcome demand and make enough to cover the power bill. Now there was no power on the entire street and she would be lucky if her insurances covered a fifth of the damages.

She grabbed a dress from where it had been left abandoned on a desk, then balled her hands into a fist, scrunching the cloth up. It was stained, and damaged. Ruined.

With a wordless, whinny yell, she flung it across the room. It didn't even make it halfway.

Sabah found one of the little stools she used when fitting a client, righted it, then flopped down upon it. Her arms wrapped around the frilly lace of her costume and she allowed herself to shiver in the darkness of her shop.

She soon calmed herself. Her mother had raised her better than that. She just had to look at it from a more utilitarian point of view, use the scientific method. She almost snorted as she looked around. Her in-depth research revealed that her dream was fucked.

She jumped to her feet, stool clattering down behind her. If she had to abandon her dream then so be it. She had a family--no, families--to keep safe, and unless a client walked in right then and there, there was little she could do to get her shop back in shape.

"Um, hello?" came a voice from the front. Young, female. "Is anyone in here? Um, the door was open. I'm pretty sure you're not in business right now-now, but I wanted to chat. Maybe?"

Her first thought was that one of the gangs had sent someone to harass her. But she gave up on the idea soon enough. Too innocent, not nearly threatening enough. "We're closed!" she shouted to the front, remembering at the last moment to change her accent to the one she associated with 'Parian.'

"Yeah, I kinda figured. I'm sorry. A friend of mine told me that this was the place to go for costumes and stuff. I guess that won't be happened. Well, dang it all to heck."

Sabah paused. "Dang it all... to heck?" She took a few steps closer to the door leading to the storefront, if only to see the angry twelve-year old waiting there. She paused again when the rest registered. A costume. The girl was a cape.

"Ah, I'm trying not to say bad words. You know. Wouldn't be very hero-like. Uh, not that I'm a hero yet. I'm supposed to go meet them later, but a friend of mine told me not to do that without a costume already or else they'd think I'm threatening."

Sabah took a deep breath, then shook her head and gave in to her curiosity. If anything, the shop was still full of cloth, a million threads each waiting for her to ping them to life. There were few places where she could use her power to its fullest, and this was one of them. "I see, well, welcome to Parian's Boutique," she said as she walked in.

The girl was thin, swimming inside a hoodie that was a few sizes too large. Her jeans were clean, but worn, and not the right cut for someone with such long, thin legs. Her shoes were stained, worn, and one good idea away from being trashed. Her face was hidden, mostly, by a bandanna that Parian would have sworn was made of canvas of all things. All in all, not terribly impressive. She was also, Parian noted, guiltily holding a top hat in both hands.

She tilted her head to one said, a gesture that she had practiced until it conveyed just the right flavour of 'really?' and the girl put the hat back onto the mannequin that had been wearing it. "Ah, hi! I'm Queen Administrator, I'm new-ish."

"Please to meet you... Queen Administrator," Parian said. She revised her estimate of the girl's age. She was too tall to be twelve. Fourteen, maybe a late-blooming fifteen. "How can I help you?"

"I need a costume."

"You need a costume right now?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. I know, kind of last minute. And I don't really have much money. Or any money. But I swear I can pay you back! Cross my heart and everything."

Parian giggled, the sound escaping her before she reigned it in. The gall of her. Still, she wasn't really wasting anyone's time. She would still be sulking out back if it wasn't for the distraction, and she could always return to sulking later. "A custom costume in... how much time, exactly?"

The girl, Queen Administrator, winced. "Ah, about an hour?"

Parian blinked. There were deadlines and then there were deadlines. "That's a bit much, don't you think? And even if I wanted to help you, my shops got a few inches of water all over."

"I can help with that!" Queen Administrator said, standing tall and proud. "Or, well, my friend Unit Two can." She turned and rushed towards the door. "Hey, there's water in her shop, could you... I don't know, take it out?" she asked someone outside.

Parian tensed. Another cape? She was about to question the girl when a noise not so terribly unlike a drain being pulled in a tub sounded out from behind her and a spout of twisting water flew out of the shop, through the store, and over the girl's head to splash harmlessly outside.

"Tada!" Queen Administrator said. Her bandanna had fallen a little, revealing a wide grin.

She took a step back, then peaked into her shop. It was dry. Beyond dry. There wasn't even a hint of humidity in the air, and some of the cloth that had been weighted down by water earlier were now as dry as the desert. She was rather impressed.

"That will certainly save me a few moments of work, thank you," she said. "But I'm really not sure I can help you, Miss Queen Administrator."

The girl pouted and snapped her fingers in consternation, then she brightened. "Wait, what about advertising?"

"Advertising?"

"Yeah, Unit Two is pretty big. I could put an ad for your store on his side?" She pointed over her shoulder with a thumb.

Curious, Parien stepped closer, then followed as the girl walked out into the dusty afternoon. The first thing she noticed was that the the streets were a little emptier than she remembered them being an hour ago. The second thing she noticed was Leviathan.

She would have screamed, or attacked, or ran, but her heart seized up in her chest, a moment of the purest existential horror. To have survived so much only to die right then and there.

Queen Administrator hugged Leviathan's leg.

Sabah's brain crashed.

"Whu?" she said in lieu of an actual sentence. Whatever image of serene grace she had built with Parian was gone in the light of an Endbringer standing in front of her shop.

"Ah, shucks, I keep forgetting how people react to you, big guy," Queen Administrator said to Leviathan. The beast looked down at her. "Now, be nice. Wave at the pretty lady."

Leviathan's four-eyed gaze rose like a tsunami over the horizon, green like the depths of the ocean where horror's lurked took in Sabah's motionless form. He waved.

Sabah rebooted. "That's... what?"

"Right, so like I was saying, you could put an ad on him. Well, not on-him on-him, but maybe on a cape or something? Maybe one of those sandwich boards."

Sabah visualized the panicked screams of her clients as Leviathan stood before her dream shop in New York, a giant sandwich board with her face on it covering his scaly chest. She blinked away the nightmare. "I, I... you control him?"

"Not really. I tell him what to do, and sometimes he does it." She shrugged. "I'm supposed to meet with the Protectorate later, but I don't have a costume. That's why I'm here."

"I see." Costume. She could do costumes. Cloth and colours and styles that hid symbolism. She could understand those things. They were safe. "I can help."

Queen Administrator's eyes lit up. "Really? Awesome!" Quick as a flash, the girl was right up against Sabah and squeezing her in a tight hug.

The Leviathan watched.

"Oh god," Sabah uttered under her breath.

End of Part the Fifth

Damn this bit jumped around a lot. I had a hell of a time writing the scene with Danny, so I decided to change styles a little. I hope it's not too jarring. And that scene with Sabah just got longer and longer. I was going to have a whole bit where they argue over materials and styles and all the rest but I decided to forgo that since it wasn't that entertaining.

Instead, we can have her costume from the point of view of everyone else next chapter.

Last edited: Oct 5, 2018

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Threadmarks In Which Taylor Makes a Great First Impression

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RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 9, 2018

#383

In Which Taylor Makes a Great First Impression

I think I went a little off-track with this story, so I'll try to pull it back into the here and now. Also, for those of you wondering, Taylor won't be joining any gangs. Unless joining one would be really funny, in which case she might accidentally the ABB or something.

Taylor loved her new costume. Oh, sure, it was going to be a real pain putting it on and taking it off, but it looked awesome for something stitched together in under an hour. She kicked her feet, the tassels of her robes bouncing with every motion.

Next to her, Leviathan's head turned her way and his one eye focused on her for a moment before returning to the road ahead. "You look really good with that hat, Levi," she said, then she adjusted her own headwear.

{Affirmative.}

"Now, onwards!"

To say that the people gathered at the PRT headquarters were tense was something of an understatement.

Legend was used to seeing the men and women of the PRT trying their best, but those were situations where they were either in the thick of the action or at rest. Now, he took in the guards shifting from foot to foot and more than one of them had twitchy fingers that longed to hold a gun or a foam launcher or anything that they could use to protect themselves.

He did his best to comfort them, smiling and patting the armoured shoulders of the troopers he passed and he saw the way they straightened up and stood taller.

That was in the morning.

The afternoon came and went and with it the pressure and tension ramped up. Soon the capes that had volunteered, most of them locals, were pacing back and forth and the troopers were sweating in their armour. The office workers had been sent away except for a few key persons and the buildings around the headquarters had been silently and efficiently evacuated.

"I'm not sure whether I would rather she show up already, or pull a no-show," Emily Piggot said as she walked up next to him.

Legend glanced at her from where he stood on the building's roof and tried a smile. "I know what you mean. But it would be a shame to have flown all the way to your fine city only to spend the day perched on a rooftop."

She snorted. "Fine isn't the word I would use. We'll rebuild what we can, but this place was already dying before Leviathan hit, and if things don't go well with this Queen Administrator girl, well that might put the final nail in the coffin that is Brockton Bay."

He didn't want to give in to the pessimism, but he could see how alluring it was. "Did you see the report from the Think Tank?"

She nodded. Of course she had, she was the director, but he knew to stick to polite pleasantries when they cost him nothing. "What little they had available. 'Possibly suffering from shock.' 'Possible aversion to authorities.' 'Possible passive control over the Endbringer.' It's a lot of possibles and not enough concrete information."

He moved away from the edge of the roof. "They did the best they could with what little they had."

Emily couldn't say much to that. "I know, but I wish we had more. The last thing we need is a directed Endbringer, you can imagine why I'd rather she not be in my city."

"I can. If this were near my home, well, I'd have moved my husband and son out of the city already. I can understand your concern Emily, but wait until we've actually talked to her before jumping to the worse conclusions." He patted her on the shoulder and was about to go one when he felt the tension shift.

The other troopers on the roof shifted. Armsmaster and Miss Militia, both stationed not too far from him, tensed and the heroine's weapon shifted from a knife to a rifle as long as she was tall.

He walked to the edge and looked down and there was Leviathan, the monster slinking forward's with a predator's grace. "Alright everyone, to your places!" he called before backing away and heading towards the roof access. "And good luck."

"We'll need it," Piggot muttered.

Taylor was, surprisingly, rather bored. Oh sure, she was a little nervous about meeting the heroes, but that was still minutes away. So she contented herself with swinging back and forth on Leviathan's shoulder while humming a childish song. "The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out--"

{Secondary Directive: Eliminate all Arachnid lifeforms?}

"What? No! Spiders might be icky but that's no reason to hurt them all. Now... mosquitoes on the other hand." She contemplated that for a few moments, but it would probably mess with the ecosystem and make a mess of things. "Nah, nevermind."

{Affirmative.}

They were almost at the headquarters, a huge white building with the PRT logo on its front and a wide area cleared out around it. It wasn't the prettiest building but it didn't have to be pretty to be a symbol. She pointed at the entrance way. "That's where we're going."

There were surprisingly few people around, and that included the people who worked for the PRT. She waited until Leviathan was in the little parking area in front of the building, then hopped off. The dozens of layers of cloth that made up her costume fluttered around her for a moment before Leviathan's water echo wrapped around her waist and lowered her to the ground. "Thanks! You stay out here unless things go bad, okay?"

{Affirmative.}

With a nod and a deep breath to bolster her confidence, Taylor walked up to the front door.

"Girl!"

Taylor paused, a hand on the door. She turned and took in the shirtless man standing in the middle of the parking lot. He was a bug guy, his chest and arms covered in intricate dragon tattoos and his face hidden by a mask shaped like a dragon's mouth. "You are the one controlling that beast?" he roared, a calloused hand pointing at Leviathan.

"Um, well, yeah," she said.

"I am Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu, and I demand a battle!" he said even as his back started hunching and he grew a few inches.

Taylor shrugged. "Okay, but can it wait, like, ten minutes? I've got some paperwork to fill out."

"Your insolence knows no limits, girl. We will fight now!"

She sighed, then turned to Leviathan. "You wanna spar with him?"

{Unit-02 is combat ready. New Objective" Eliminate Host-Escalation_Engine?}

"No, no, don't kill him. Just, you know, a friendly spar. Don't hurt him or anything, and don't break the buildings. I'll be back in a few. Got it?"

{Affirmative. Allow Host-Escalation_Engine to resolve Conflict upon Unit-02. Secondary: Do not harm Host-Escalation_Engine. Tertiary: Do not destroy local structures.}

"Right, have fun Lung." Taylor stepped into the PRT Headquarters.

Timothy was an intern. Timothy had been working for the PRT for about three months. Timothy probably should have gone home when they told everyone to evacuate the building, but then Deputy Director Rennick had asked for some printouts of some forms and then the troopers had all asked for coffee and then he got to meet Legend and then they needed someone to make sure the conference room on the fourth floor was clean and then he made his way downstairs and started talking to Jessica, the cure girl who worked at the reception desk.

He taught he was on the verge of getting digits when Jessica asked him to watch the desk for just a minute while she went to the little girl's room.

In hindsight, he should have refused. That was probably against protocol.

In fact, he should pick up the phone and call someone. Maybe the Deputy Director. Maybe Legend. Maybe his mom. Instead, he opened his mouth and squeaked.

"Um, I'm here to register as an independent."

She was very tall for someone who sounded so young. Or maybe that was the costume emphasizing her height. It was made of hundreds of pieces of cloth, all draped one over the other in a flowing robe that reached all the way down to her feet. The edges of the cloth looked water-stained, as though they'd been sitting in murky water all day. Her hands were mostly hidden, but they came up to adjust her headpiece, a hood made of the same blue-green material that dipped way down to hide the top half of her face. The top of it was twisted and cut to look like a crown was sitting on her head.

That was fine. One of the reasons Timothy joined was the opportunity to meet capes. It was one of the big draws the PRT had for him. What was less fine was the creature dancing around Lung's wild blows just outside the building.

She tilted her head to one side. "Are you okay, mister?"

The building shook.

Timothy opened his mouth, then closed it. He tried again and this time managed to squeak out a "Yes."

She smiled. "Great! So, do I have to fill out any forms or anything?"

"I, I yes, one moment." He reached out and fumbled with the phone before finally picking it up on his second try. Shaking fingers dialed the Deputy Director's number.

"This is Rennick."

"S-sir. There's a cape at the front."

"Yes, we were expecting her. Were there any complications?"

He swallowed hard. "No? I mean, uh, where do I send her?"

"You send her? Tim, why are you the one talking to her?" the Deputy Director asked, his voice a lot harder that usual.

"I have no idea,' Timothy admitted.

There was a sigh on the line. "Send her, politely, to the conference room on the fourth floor. Politely."

The entire time he had been on the phone the cape was twisting from side to side, the pleats of her robe swirling around her legs with every motion. She was eyeing the gift shop off to the side, though he couldn't tell if it was out of curiosity of longing.

"Um, miss, there's a room for you on the fourth floor. Just, take the elevator there and there should be someone to escort you up."

Her beaming smile returned. "Great! Thanks mister." With that she was off and almost skipping towards the elevators.

Timothy sank into Jessica's seat.

He should have gone home.

"Mister?"

Timothy nearly jumped out of his skin. The cape was still there, standing just across from him. "What?" he squawked.

"Do you think I can visit the gift shop before going upstairs?"

For just a second, a tiny second, Timothy almost told her that no, she couldn't do that. She had to follow their instructions and go upstairs where some very important people were waiting for her. Then Lung, now twenty feet long, fired a beam of fire so thick it looked solid right towards the PRT building only for it to ram against a wall of ice that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "Sure!"

She walked into the gift shop with her head turning left and right as if to take in every little detail. There were new Triumvirate action figures prominently on display next to T-shirts with the logos of local wards and dolls of various popular members of the Protectorate. One wall had a replica Armsmaster halberd above a section filled with Tinker-like gadgets and gizmos apparently endorsed by the local Protectorate leader.

With a huge grin splitting her face, she ran over and started picking through the shirts, then she skipped over to the dolls of the wards which all had oversized heads filled with soft fluff.

She was hugging a Vista doll to her chest when she heard a cough from behind her.

She turned, face going red as she hid the doll in the small of her back, then her eyes locked on Legend, floating an inch above the ground and holding a beige file folder in one hand. She froze.

He looked at her, taking in her rather professional--if strange--costume and the crown-like hood above her. "You must be Queen Administrator," he said, his face twisting into a smile. It was too soon for him to know if her reaction was one of fear or--

"Oh my god, oh my god! You're Legend!" Queen Administrator squeaked.

His smile grew wry. "I take it you recognize me," he said before gesturing at the doorway behind him. "I know you're just here to fill out some things, but I was really hoping we could talk a little. I'm not sure if this is the best place for it."

"Why not?"

"Well, this is a gift shop," he said.

She nodded and waited for him to continue. Her eyes flashed with recognition then pity. "Are you shy because your dolls don't look like you?" she whispered. "Don't worry, you're much handsomer in person."

"No, no that's not it--"

She reached over and pulled a pair of panties off a rack and Legend, who had always thought of himself as somewhat charismatic, spluttered to a stop. His face was on the undergarments, smiling for all the world to see. "I'd be pretty embarrassed too. I mean, uh, that's a pretty bold place to have your face." Her face scrunched up. "Aren't you gay?"

"Yes?"

"Then why have your face on panties, you don't even like girls!"

Legend tried to find the right words to slip out of that particular conversational trap while the back of his mind made a note to call Glenn Chambers about certain marketing choices. He was saved by seeing Lung fly backwards across the parking lot to ram into a PRT van hard enough to send the vehicle skidding sideways.

Queen Administrator jumped at the sound, then looked over to see what was going on outside. "Oh, shucks, I told him not to hurt the buildings but I guess the cars don't count."

Leviathan walked over to Lung a clawed hand reaching into the crumpled can only for a dragon to come tearing out of the vehicle and tackle him back out of sight.

"So, Mister Legend, sir, you had papers for me to sign?" she said before pulling out a stool with a grinning Clockblocker on the seat and plopping herself down. Her star-filled eyes never really left him, though they did wander across the forms tucked under his arm.

Legend licked his lips. Part of him wanted to be out there fighting with Leviathan. Another part told him that it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie. He pulled out another stool and stared at how low it was before sitting down. His knees were almost hitting his chest but it brought him level with Queen Administrator and, he had to admit to himself, it was a rather non threatening stance to take. "I heard from Battery and Assault that you're not interested in joining the Wards?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I didn't think I'd be getting an offer from you though, of all people." He could tell she was resisting the urge to clap and move, the chair barely able to contain her excitement.

His smile only grew. Maybe Rebecca was too pessimistic. All he saw was an excited girl who might have been a little starstruck, but she didn't seem to have a bad bone in her body.

The building shook and a massive dark form moved across the window. He turned in time to see a top-hat move by, then four green eyes were staring into the room from just meters away. His every instinct, honed in half a dozen battles against Leviathan, told him to run, to fight, but he reigned them in.

Leviathan lifted his arm and held up Lung by the scruff of his neck. The dragon's mouth was open and his tongue was lolling out, though he was still breathing.

"Darn it, Unit Two," Queen Administrator huffed. "Now I'll have to apologize to the nice ABB people for hurting their dragon." She turned to Legend and bowed, cheeks reddening the whole time. "I'm so sorry. Would it be okay if I left mister Lung with you guys?"

"It's fine? He's... docile?" he asked. The Leviathan had paused just outside the window and was staring. He had never seen the monster unmoving and it unnerved him to his core.

"Oh, yeah, he's just a big softy," she said.

He taught on that for a second. No one had ever called an Endbringer a big softy in his presence before.

Queen Administrator stood up and walked to the window, then placed a hand on her hip and pointed at Leviathan with the other, like someone about to scold a disobedient child. "Get your dirty claws off mister Lung. You're going to get them all angry at me. I wanted to make a good first impression, not wreck their cars, and hurt mister Lung."

Leviathan leg go of the supervillain and he flopped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. A half second later the building shook again as the Endbringer stepped away.

"I'm so sorry, Mister Legend, sir," she said as she turned around and bowed again, the tassels of her dress flopping around her..

"It's fine," he said. If anything, it at least gave him a more accurate picture of the way she behaved. "Please, sit, there's no need for all that."

She grinned at him and returned to her seat, then began twisting from side to side, the chair squeaking with the motion. "So, I wanted to register as an independent," she began.

"I see. So Battery was right that you're not interested in joining the Wards?"

"Not really, sir."

"Do you mind if I ask you why not? We would give you training and support and would help you make new friends. We can also help you financially, if that's what you need."

She laughed, though it was rather weak. "Ah, no, that's not it. There're two reasons, really. I'm kind of afraid that you'll hurt Unit Two and try to poke at him and stuff. I, I don't want you guys to do that."

He had to admit that the scientific department would probably jump on the opportunity to study a non-aggressive Endbringer. "I see, and the other reason?"

"You guys failed." She stared down at the Vista doll she was still holding onto. Her fingers were absently running across the doll's hair.

There was a long beat of silence in the room. "We failed?"

Queen Administrator nodded, then gestured out of the window. "The gangs, the city. I really love Brockton Bay, it's where my family is, it's my home, but it was getting worse and worse. The gangs kept growing and no one was helping. Then the Endbringer attack happened and I... well, you know. But I can't recall you guys ever doing anything to really help. I know that it's scary to fight the bad guys, but it was supposed to be your job and you never did it. And so things got worse. I don't want to be part of that."

"You want to fight?"

"No, I want things to get better. I have powers and I should be able to use them to help. I have Unit Two, and he's pretty strong. Why can't I just clean the ships out of the bay, or help protect convoys of food, or clean up the streets and make people feel safer? I know you guys are trying, but it's not working." She was staring into the grain of the table in the end, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Legend fell back into his seat. What she said was, probably, true. At least to a civilian girl who didn't see the whole picture. They couldn't take out all the villains, not without huge casualties or without losing a large portion of their support during Endbringer battles. But then, of all the people to use the Endbringers as an excuse, Queen Administrator was maybe the last one it would work on. "I think you're right."

Her head snapped up. "Really?"

He nodded solemnly. "We try our best, we really do, but sometimes it's just not enough. If you think you can do more good as an independent then I won't stop you unless you start hurting innocents or go too far trying to hur--" he stopped mid-sentence as a sound like a thousand pressure hoses firing at once came from outside.

Leviathan was still staring at them, but behind him a dozen tendrils of water, as big around as a man's waist, were picking up the bits of PRT vans that had been tossed around and were ramming them back into place on the frames of the cars. In short order, the Endbringer was fixing the van while standing completely still.

"Oh, that's clever!" Queen Administrator said before she giggled at the Endbringer's antics.

Legend approached the window, then looked down to where a crater was being torn into the parking lot by the jets of water that were even now coming out of the sewers. At the rate the water was coming it would soon turn the PRT headquarters into an island.

"Um."

"Oh, darn, he's making a mess again, isn't he?" she said. "Maybe we should get on with the paper signing and whatnot?"

"I think that might be for the best." He sounded faint.

What followed was ten minutes of Legend trying to guide Queen Administrator through increasingly difficult paperwork while cursing the lack of proper tables in the gift shop. He should have asked one of the aides to stay with him, but he was loath to put a normal person at risk. "And, we need your signature here," he said, finally pointing to the last box on the last page. "You can sign with your cape name, of course."

"Awesome!" she said as she wrote her name with a flourish. She looked up and grinned at him. "So, do I need to do the same for Unit Two?"

"The same?"

"You know," she said, gesturing at the paper, "Sign him up as an independent."

"I think we'll be okay. He already has a file." He stood a across from her, then extended his hand. "Welcome to the light side."

Queen Administrator laughed and stood up before shaking his hand. "Thanks!" She looked past him and to the door, then back. "Hey, uh, you think I could get you to sign one of your action figures?"

Legend blinked. "Sure, I don't see why not."

He saw the way her face turned a deep red and she looked away. "Well, I, uh kindaforgotmywalletathome."

He smiled then crossed the room and took one of the better figures off the wall and started rummaging for a sharpie behind the counter. In no time he handed Queen Administrator a signed figurine that she hugged to her chest. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem."

"Can I keep the panties too?" she said, lifting the underwear.

"Uh."

"Would you sign them?"

"I think the action figure is enough," he said, his smile straining at the edges.

She shrugged then started walking away. "Fair enough! See you around, mister Legend!"

"Bye," he called back. Then the girl was out the door and climbing onto Leviathan's shoulders while a few fearful PRT troopers foamed down Lung's shrinking body. Legend took it all in. "Well, that was something," he told the empty room.

-End Part the Fifth-

God that was a hard chapter to write. Might have to go over it again but I'm tired of writing and rewriting it, so have at it.

1186

RavensDagger

Oct 9, 2018

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 15, 2018

#465

In Which Taylor Does the Internet

Snipped a bit of the chapter off at the end because reasons.

She walked out of her bedroom, the morning sunlight the only thing illuminating the upstairs hallway. Her every step was light and she felt as though she were floating. It was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

She had won. Sorta.

Her meeting with the PRT and especially Legend--and wasn't that exciting?--had gone extraordinarily well. She wasn't sure how things would pan out from there, but she had the impression that Legend, at least, was willing to work with her instead of against her.

Now she just had to get all the others on the same page and things would, finally, improve in Brockton Bay. The ABB and Empire were both headless now, and while that might not spell the end for either gang, it would certainly slow them down and make them think twice. Taylor hadn't planned for things to work out as they did, but she wasn't about to spit on her good fortune.

She wondered if she should spend some time escorting random convoys of food and supplies, if only to warn off any other villains. She nodded to herself. It was worth thinking about.

"Dad!" she called. "I'll be heading out!"

Her dad was somewhere in the kitchen, though he poked his head out as she made it down the stairs. "And where are you heading, exactly?"

"Ah, the PRT headquarters. I'm going to ask them to see where they need help."

He frowned a little, then tried to hide it. "You won't do anything dangerous, right?"

"Nothing I can't handle, trust me," she said, her face twisting into a brilliant grin. With a last wave good-bye, she stepped outside and started making her way down the street. Only a few of their neighbours had moved back in, and this was one of the places that hadn't been hit as hard. Still, it meant that sneaking back to Leviathan was easy.

She found her friend tucked in an alley behind a closed down gas station. He shifted a little as she skipped over to him and wrapped her arms around one truck-like leg. "Did I ever thank you? For just being here?"

{Negative.} Leviathan said in her mind.

"Well, thanks," she said before squeezing him tight, not that it did much. "Is my costume still here?" she asked and was answered when he shifted to the side and revealed a cardboard box left against one wall. She might have feared the costume getting wet overnight, but she had a Leviathan. "No peeking!" she admonished as she started to change. Soon, she was no longer Taylor Hebert and was, instead, the Queen Administrator. She tossed Leviathan his top hat and he shifted it carefully with the tips of his clawed fingers. "Up!" she said.

With swift motion, Leviathan let a few hundred gallons pour out of his skin and used it to carry Taylor up and onto his shoulder. "Okay big guy, to the PRT Headquarters!" She paused. "Wait, no, let's go to the Rig!"

As they started to move she wondered what the next phase of her 'take over the world and/or save Brockton Bay' plan would be. She had established herself as a counter to the ABB and E88, so maybe poking at the Merchants was next? If she could find them. Then she had to have more presence with the civilian populations. That was easy enough. Maybe she could open a water park, or serve ice cream to kids? That sounded like an excellent idea.

The Endbringer kept walking in what was, for it, a slow and steady pace, but when you were thirty feet tall, Taylor reasoned, you had a decent stride. In no time at all, they were where the Boardwalk had been. Now there were only jutting wooden peers that led out into the open ocean.

There, standing in all of its slightly-wrecked glory, was the Rig. An oil rig that had been moved into the Bay some years ago to serve as a base of operations for the local Protectorate. It was big, it was flashy, and it was probably a logistics nightmare.

"You know, I never did ask you if you'd be able to swim with me on your shoulder," she said. "I just kind of assumed."

{Unit 02 is capable of traversing liquid bodies.}

"Yeah, I kinda got that. It's sorta your theme, you know, but can you do it without getting me wet?"

{Affirmative.}

"Well then, let's go pay our buddies a visit!"

Dragon was always glad to help, especially when those she was helping were such close friends. That's why, when both Legend and Armsmaster had called her to request aid in Brockton-Bay, she was eager to send one of her newly-repaired drones over.

It didn't take long to see that that might have been a mistake.

The Queen Administrator, one of the few capes out there that was probably going to earn the infamous 'The' title, was the newest and scariest resident of the Bay. Her powers were terrifying in both scale and in what they implied and the girl herself had analysts across the world tearing at their hair with every word uttered.

The footage of her asking Leviathan to go easy on Lung was going viral within certain circles.

In all honesty, Dragon didn't know what she could do. Attacking the Endbringer was out. It might hurt the girl and most Thinkers agreed that Leviathan would return to business as usual. Talking to her was, as Legend could testify, an exercise in lateral thinking. Trying to force her to do anything was... probably a bad idea.

Dragon decided that the best course of action was probably to just encourage The Queen Administrator to play nice.

So, when at precisely 09:56 EST Leviathan was spotted walking on water as though out for a nice stroll with The Queen Administrator on his shoulder, she spiffed up her social routines, made sure her drone took a non-threatening posture on the part of the Rig nearest the two visitors, and she aimed a very precise microphone towards the pair just as they reached the shields surrounding the Rig.

"Maybe we should knock? Yeah. Try knocking on the shield thing, Unit Two. I don't wanna touch it in case I get zapped," The Queen Administrator said. Dragon wasn't sure if she actually had to talk to Leviathan or if it was just an affectation, but the creature seemed to listen either way. Also, if her caution around Tinkertech was any indication, then the girl clearly still had a decent amount of common sense.

"What do you mean, you don't know what knocking is?"

Or, maybe she was, in fact, mad.

"Just hit it with your knuckles hard enough to wake the people inside up," The Queen Administrator said.

Dragon immediately sent orders to the shield generators to power down, but she was milliseconds too late. The Endbringer brought is fist around and smashed it into the barrier. For just a second it held, then the generators started to whine in protest before something failed and the entire system shut down.

Dragon watched as the shimmering haze that was meant to protect the base failed and disappeared. PRT Troopers across the base started shouting and she had to quickly shut down some of the alarms before they spooked anyone.

The Queen Administrator was pressing her face into her hands. "Not that hard, Unit Two!"

If she could sigh, Dragon would have by now. Instead, she focused on her drone and moved it closer to the edge of the Rig until she was overlooking the oncoming cape. This was going to be one of those days.

Taylor saw lots of movement on the Rig but decided to focus on more important matters for now. Notably, what she was going to say about the shield she had just brought down. It was a genuine mistake, but could be construed as an attack on the Protectorate. Better to nip those ideas in the bud. "Can you get us onto the Rig without hurting anyone?"

{Affirmative.}

"Alright, cool." As soon as the words were out, she felt the world shift around her as a water spout thirty feet across exploded under Leviathan's feet and sent them hurtling towards the base. The Endbringer shifted in the air and she found herself hugging his neck to stay on his shoulder before he landed with a resounding boom on the deck of the Protectorate Headquarters.

"That works," she said before pushing herself off Leviathan's shoulder. He caught her in mid-air again and lowered her to the deck. "Thank you."

Troopers were running all over the place, though more than one of them froze at the sight of Leviathan standing tall in their midst. That just wouldn't do, Taylor thought. She had to get them to see her friend as a non-threat. That's what the hat was for.

"Hello, Queen Administrator," came an accented voice from just a bit behind her.

Taylor turned and came face to face with a metallic behemoth almost as big as Leviathan. The machine was looking down at her through two mechanical eyes set in a face that looked like a dragon's. She made the connection. "Oh my god, you're Dragon!"

"Yes, I am. It's a pleasure to meet you, Queen Administrator," Dragon's dragon said.

Taylor rushed over to the gigantic suit and wrapped her arms around it. "Oh, you're so cute!"

"Um, thank you?" Dragon said. "This is my newest Dragonsuit, Azazel. It's meant to be intimidating..."

'Oh, please, as if this little cutie could scare anyone," Taylor said with a shake of her head. She bent down and patted the foot-long claws that had started gouging holes in the steel platform. It shyly moved back, the canons on its shoulders pointing away as if it was afraid to hurt Taylor. It was the most adorkablest mechanized death dragon Taylor had ever seen. "Oh, shucks," she said before standing up again. "I'm so sorry, I didn't introduce myself properly. I'm Queen Administrator, and this is my friend, Unit Two."

"Yes, I had gathered as much," Dragon replied. "Would you mind if I asked you why you're here?"

"I wouldn't."

Dragon snorted. "Why are you here?"

Taylor grinned at the exchange and stepped back over to Leviathan. The Dragonsuit followed her, the head moving thanks to a long, serpentine neck. It was an impressive piece of work. "The big guy and I wanted to help. I figured it'd be bet to ask the Protectorate where we'd do the most good."

"That's commendable. I'm certain they could use your friend's... abilities in clearing up the rubble and fixing some of the rougher parts of town." Dragon shifted her gaze up to Leviathan then back down to Taylor. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your power? It might help to know where you would be best situated."

Taylor nodded. Dragon was very clever. "Go ahead!"

"Thank you. Oh, and before I forget." With a dramatic hiss, a panel popped open on one of the Azazel's shoulders and the suit's head turned and reached into it. Dragon bent down before Taylor and dropped a small black box that was a hand's length long and half as wide. "Here, that's for you."

With a curious humm, Taylor picked up the box and read the inscription on the side. DragonTech Smart Global Communication Device. Ever more curious, Taylor fiddled with the tin case until the lid opened on a pair of hinges to reveal a smartphone nestled in foam padding. "A cell phone?"

"Yes. One of my own designs. We give PRT phones to most independents that will take one so that we can contact them in case of an emergency. That's just the newest model."

"Wow, that's a lot of newest, first the newest Dragonsuit, then a new model of phone," Taylor said while she decided how to react to the phone. It was probably able to track her. On the other hand, she wasn't really hiding.

Dragon laughed and her suit's head dipped down with the sound. "I'm a Tinker."

Grinning up at the Tinker, Taylor pulled the phone out of its protective padding and poked at the only button on the entire thing. A dragon flew across the screen, then it was on the home page without any more loading. "This thing is sweet!" she said. "Did you get one for Unit Two as well?"

The suit froze. "Should I have?"

"Well, no, he couldn't really use it, I don't think, but it's the thought that counts, right?" She pressed on the phone icon and the screen was instantly ready. "Wow, it's fast. Hey, can this thing go on PHO?"

"I'll bring him one next time I stop by," Dragon said, her voice hiding some mirth. "And yes, it can. Some heroes prefer texting or using forums to communicate, and PHO is by far the most popular for that."

Taylor nodded along. "Hey, do you know how to get one of those verified accounts?"

"I do indeed. Did you want one? I happen to know a mod or two. It could save you the hassle of going through the verification process."

"You'd do that for me?" Taylor clutched the phone to her chest and bounced on her toes.

Dragon laughed and nodded her suit's head. "Sure. Just give me a few moments... And done! Try logging on."

Taylor giggled and looked at the phone only to see that it was already on the PHO main page without her having to do anything. That more than confirmed her suspicions about Dragon having some control over the device. She saw that the username field already had Queen_Administrator entered and there was a box under it asking for her to enter a password, then reenter it to confirm.

She typed 'Endmama' twice and wondered what conclusions the tinker would draw from that.

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"So, Queen Administrator, back on topic, I wanted to know exactly how you went about directing Unit Two. Is it mostly by speaking?"

"Hrm? Yeah, more or less. He doesn't really talk-talk to me though. I just kind of hear him in my mind. He sounds a bit like a computer. And I don't mean beep-boop noises. I don't need Unit Two in my head to hear those."

Taylor distracted herself by finding the threads about Brockton Bay, then reading through the list.

Topic: Leviathan Sighted!

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

Topic: Kaiser Dead. Is Empire Eighty Eight Over/

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

Topic: Brockton Bay post-endbringer reconstruction

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

Topic: Search: Looking for loved ones? Come here

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

Topic: PRT / Protectorate response: Kaiser deceased New Hero: Queen Administrator

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

Dragon's head shifting drew her attention away from the screen. She stared at Leviathan for a bit. "Are you saying that the End-- that Unit Two is a construct?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe he just thinks that way? But it sounds very... logical. Like he has directives and priority lists and all that. Like one of those smart computers in movies."

"Like an artificial intelligence."

Taylor nodded. "Something like that, yeah."

Topic: PRT / Protectorate response: Kaiser deceased New Hero: Queen Administrator

In: Boards Boards Places America Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)

(Showing page 01 of 146)

Dep.Director_Renick (Original Poster) (PRT ENE)

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Hello everyone,

This is an official statement from the Brockton Bay branch of the Parahuman Response Team and the local Protectorate East-North-East. If you have any questions feel free to ask them and we will try to reply as quickly as we can. We understand that these are trying times, and want to do everything in our power to make things easier for everyone. We hope you are all patient with us as we are still running an investigation on certain matters and the situation in the Bay is complicates these procedures.

To begin, some good news. The following members of the Empire Eighty Eight are currently in PRT custody:

-Hookwolf

-Stormtiger

-Cricket

-Fenja

We would also like to inform everyone that Kaiser, the leader of the Empire, died on May 16th after a short battle with a new cape. The Empire capes were captured during an attempt to steal from a supply convoy. More details will be released during an official press conference next week. Date to be determined.

This brings us to our next piece of news, there is a new independent hero in the bay; Queen Administrator. Images of Queen Administrator in costume are available here: [LINK]

Note that Queen Administrator has been friendly and cooperative with both the PRT and Protectorate but has not expressed any interest in joining the Wards at this time. Her power is a Master ability that allows her to control a creature similar in appearance to the Endbringer Leviathan named Unit Two. We encourage anyone that sees Unit Two to remain calm and cool. He is docile and under Queen Administrator's control.

Thank you,

Deputy Director Rennick

PRT ENE

StigmaLord

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Ding Dong the Nazi's dead!

Does anyone know who done it?

Lurking_In_The_Light

Posted on May 17, 2011:

'a creature similar in appearance to the Endbringer '

Bullshit.

That thing was at the PRT HQ. There's another thread about it [Here] It took down Lung. It has Hydrokinesis. It's fast as fuck. It's tough as hell. It's Leviathan. If it looks like an endbringer, swims like an endbringer and quacks like an endbringer...

Now what in the hell are we going to do about the Endbringer in our midst?

Jedi-Fish

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Nothing about additional relief and supplies? Not all of us care about the cape scene.

LoliZerg

Posted on May 17, 2011:

@-Stigmalord

I heard from a friend of a friend that it was Queen Administrator. She basically told the nazis to stop and they did. Then Kaiser tried to skewer her. Not-Leviathan crushed him against a wall via super-sonic-sewer water.

Bagrat (The Guy in the Know)

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Cross-Posting from my own thread [Here] because I know some folks stick to official threads only and my job (not that I get paid for this) is to keep you all informed.

So, first thing's first: The E88 has pretty much kicked the bucket. There might be a new group based around Purity, but it's sketchy at best. We'll see. Also, Rune was captured along with the rest, but she managed to break out before even seeing the inside of a cell. Good job, PRT!

Now, onto Kaiser. He's dead. Very dead. I got my hands onto a copy of the autopsy report. Every blood vessel in his body burst. Then he was slammed into a wall hard enough to go through it. If it wasn't for his armour he might have exploded. Yeah.

On that note, the person that put an end to Brockton Bay's own nazi king was none other than The Queen Administrator. He tried to attack her. She sicced an Endbringer on him. Kaiser lost.

Yes, let's talk about The Queen Administrator. First, the 'the' is practically obligatory. I have a friend, that friend forwarded me a copy of her threat report. It seems that it's circulating around to all the PRT bigwigs. I'm posting the report summary below:

Name: Queen Administrator

Classification : Master 12

Danger: A-Class (Pending S-Class)

Disposition: Independent Hero

Location: Brockton Bay

General information:

Young female between the ages of 14-16. Costume is made of strips of blue and green cloth woven into a hooded robe. Wears a cloth domino mask beneath hood. Open to conversation and generally polite. Her Mastered subject ('Unit Two,' Leviathan: Brute/Mover/Shaker 10) acts with incredible violence against any perceived threat.

Personality:

Friendly with all PRT and Protectorate personnel so far. Occasionally speaks to 'Unit Two.' Possibly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or shock. She was noted to have talked openly with certain villainous elements without any aggressive behaviour.

Powers:

Controls the Endbringer Leviathan. Control possibly extends to other Endbringers.

Recommended Strategies :

Do Not Engage. Do Not Antagonize. If Subject demonstrates aggressive behaviour prepare city for wide-scale evacuation.

I also got reports of Queen Administrator riding on Leviathan (Unit Two) 's shoulder while patrolling with the super villain Hellhound before the villainess returned to her current base of operations unharmed and alone.

If you're unable to translate that, I'll do it for you: Brockton Bay has a teenaged girl who can control Endbringers and she likes taking it out for walkies.

What does this mean for the rest of us? I've no idea, but I'll be over here, not in Brockton Bay, watching and praying for all of you.

XXFanX

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Wait, does that confirm that Unit Two is actually Leviathan? What's with the fake name?

PlasticMarine

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Here come the Fallen. Will they worship or be angry?

SideEgg

Posted on May 17, 2011:

@-XXFanX it could be a psychological thing. She's trying to either tell herself it's not an Endbringer, or trying to trick others into thinking it's just a really convincing projection.

Winged_One

Posted on May 17, 2011:

Oh my, I was thinking of visiting the Bay, Is there anything in particular I need, or should I just wait for a more opportune moment?

FluffyMaud

Posted on May 17, 2011:

@-Winged_One Just stay home, sweetheart.

"Queen Administrator?" Dragon repeated and Taylor jumped.

"I'm so sorry, I was reading and... well, they're talking about me, you know?

The Dragonsuit bobbed its head. "I know what that's like, don't worry. So, we were talking about Unit Two and the methods you use to communicate? I just want to be sure you can give him complex instructions."

"Of course I can. But he can think for himself too. Like, if I told him to move the Rig from here, to over there." She pointed off towards the city. "Then he'd figure out how to do it on his own. He's like one of those AI things, but one of the good ones, like Skynet."

"Skynet?"

"Yeah, he just wants to do his own thing, which is following orders. Before I met him his orders were pretty much 'genocide every few months' but now he listens to my orders instead. He's pretty happy just doing that, you know? Like, Skynet just wanted to be left alone to play with her robot buddies, that's all."

Dragon was quiet for a long time. Probably googling the Terminator series or something inside her awesome suit. Taylor shrugged and leaned her back against Leviathan's flank as she brought her new phone back up. The battery was still at 100%. This thing was great.

It didn't take her long to find a thread about herself. She skipped the first post by Bagrat which was pretty much just another copy of her threat report and started skimming through the messages. She hummed as she started typing.

Topic: Queen Administrator

In: Boards Boards Places America Capes

(Showing Page 21 of 21)

Thumpz

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Yeah, so she shows up, THEN Lung shows up, then Leviathan wipes the floor with him. That's the order of events and I'm sticking to it.

DoctorSomebody

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Y'all don't get it. She left right after. Like, a minute after Levi beat Lung up. That means that either her conversation with the PRT peeps only lasted a minute, or it took the entire time and she wasn't focused on Leviathan doing his thing, and considering how much he was holding back, that's kind of scary.

Olmen

Posted on May 18, 2011:

@-DoctorSomebody

You're trying to say that she's not a direct master, more of a 'do this' and walk away master?

BAJay

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Anybody able to confirm the rumour that Legend is in town? If so, was he here because of QA or for something else?

Aquarius

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Whelp, I'm moving out of the Bay. See you, Brockton Bay. Won't really miss you!

Storm_Walker

Posted on May 18, 2011:

This really sucks for the Asian community. They've had to deal with the Empire for a long time, and say what you will about Lung, but he was at least able to keep his turf clean.

Tom_Mikoto

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Get bent. Lung needed to be put down. Same as Kaiser. At this rate there won't be gangs in the Bay no more, and I, for one, am willing to live with the nice Endbringer if that means not worrying about the rage dragon or the nazis.

Now, if someone could taje care of the Merchants that'd be awesome. They've been moving into old E88 territory for the past few days and have made a mess of thngs. I don't know if you're too high to fear the new Queen of the bay or if they think they're too small to get noticed, but they've still been hitting some of the shelters and peddling their shit to everyone.

KommanderGoliath

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Damn, to be a bug on that wall. I wonder what Legend and Queenie talked about?

Queen_Administrator (Verified Cape)

Posted on May 18, 2011:

@-KommanderGoliath

Mostly we signed paperwork and I got him to autograph a (collector's edition) Legend action figure (squee!). Oh, and I tried to get him to sign some panties but he said no. I think it's cause he's gay though. Think I should bring boxers next time?

Winged_One

Posted on May 18, 2011:

Oh wow! A response by the cape of the hour. Hey, when I get to Brockton Bay, would you mind so much if I stop by to see you?

Dragon seemed to wake up because she looked around with her mech and then focused on Taylor. "I see," she finally said. "Anyway. I sent a few messaged on your phone. Those are the dates and times that construction crews will be showing up across the city. Mostly they need more manpower on the scene. It's grunt work, but that's what's needed right now. Also, there's a list of convoys heading towards the city. Most have cape support, but they're still a prime target for attacks by villains."

"Awesome!" I said. "Thanks Dragon. If you send me your number, we could keep in touch, if you want," I said.

"That would be nice. I'll add myself to your contacts. Feel free to text me at any time. I don't really need to sleep. Oh, and do tell me next time you want to visit the Rig, or better yet, tell the PRT so that they can lower the shields."

Taylor laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that! Anywho, I'll be off. People to help, breakfast to eat. Keep in touch! Oh, will you be staying around the Bay for a long time?"

"For a few days, at least," Dragon said.

Taylor gave her a thumbs up. "Cool. Maybe we can help people together." With that, she motioned Leviathan closer, then climbed onto his shoulder. "C'mon boy, I want me some breakfast."

The two of them jumped off the edge of the Rig, leaving a very confused Dragon behind.

It's rather short, I know, but it was such a pain to write. I love PHO sections in stories, but damn are they ever annoying. Anywho. Next time, on the Adventure of Taylor and her Doggo Leviathan: Shopping for Merchant-dise.

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RavensDagger

Oct 15, 2018

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 22, 2018

#536

In Which Taylor Cleans the City

Taylor was quickly growing to love her new phone. Not only did she get to troll the PHO forums and answer the most inane questions while avoiding the serious ones, she also received pings from the local PRT about the city's ongoing reconstruction efforts.

For now they seemed to be focusing on cleaning up the major highways that bisected the city as well as the roads in the docks and near the Boardwalk, basically, all the places that had been hit the hardest during the attack.

She figured that they wanted to clear things out to be able to bring dump trucks and whatnot into the ruined parts of the city. So, with a satisfied smile, she opened the last message from the PRT and sent a reply.

Queen_Administrator: Thanks for the information. If I want to assist with the clean up, is there somewhere in particular I should go?

PRT_15731: There's a tent set up on Lincoln and Fifth. Agents from the different clean-up and construction crews are coordinating from there. There are also a few local heroes on-site.

Queen_Administrator: Thank you! Could you tell them that I'll be there in a few minutes?

PRT_15732: Will do, Queen Administrator. On that note, would it be possible if you showed up without Unit Two? Most of those on-site are civilians and they might be spooked by his presence.

Queen_Administrator: Can do!

Taylor slid her phone into a pocket and tapped Leviathan on the shoulder twice. "I'll be over there," she said while pointing off towards her destination. The pair had stopped a block away and Leviathan slipped into an alleyway. "Okay, so, stay here for a bit, unless things get hairy, you know?"

{Affirmative: Unit_02 will follow Temporary Directive to remain stationary unless Temporary Directive interferes with Primary Directive.]

"Exactly!" She reached out, then wrapped both arms around Leviathan's leg in a quick hug. When she looked up to him, her face split in a huge grin and her cheeks reddened. "I'll see you in no time at all, okay?"

{Affirmative.}

Walking down the street on her own was a little different. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be all on her own, and yet it had only been a few days since she met Leviathan for the first time. She felt smaller, seeing the streets from the height of a normal person as opposed to on the back of a giant.

It was a heady thought, and she wondered if many capes felt that way or if her situation was unique. Still pondering the question, Taylor arrived on the indicated intersection to find it a chaotic mess of trucks and trailers parked haphazardly across the road. Men in hardhats were milling about, some of them sipping at still-warm coffee while others were trying to undo the mess that was a multi-company construction project.

In the centre of it all was a pavilion tent, something that should have belonged at an outdoor wedding but was now host to a bunch of tables where men were arguing over maps of the Bay. Parts of the tent were obscured by cloth walls but she saw a few more tables behind them when a man shifted one aside to pass.

Taylor gingerly stepped around puddles of water on the street until she noticed that the water would draw away from her path. Humming to herself, she tried to stand tall despite all the looks being shot her way.

"Um, hello?" she said as she entered the tent. A few heads turned her way, but they were busy, and one strange cape in their midst wasn't reason enough to stop the work. Taylor had to resist the urge to pout.

"Don't worry too much," someone said from a little deeper in the tent. "They'll come around in a bit. They just don't like repeating themselves. You are here to help, right?"

She looked deeper in the tent and found herself staring at a young woman in a white cheerleader-ish outfit floating an inch or two off the ground. "Glory Girl?"

The heroine smiled. "The one and only," she said.

"Hey, what am I, chop suey?" Shielder stepped out from behind Glory Girl and looked at Taylor, then his eyes went wide and he searched beyond her and around the tent. "Holy shit, I saw you on PHO. Is he here?"

"He?" Taylor said with a squeak. Not one, but two capes! This was incredible. She wanted to squee and hug the heroine before her and--

{Host-Queen_Administrator: Mental functions indicate outside influence. Enact Primary Directive?}

"Outside influence?" Taylor said aloud brining the two New Wave capes up short. "Wait, you mean I'm being Mastered?"

{Affirmative.}

Glory Girl spun around, scanning the site while Shielder pulled out a phone from somewhere and was halfway through dialing for help when Taylor continued. "Where's it coming from?"

{Three meters North-North-East from Host-Queen_Administrator's current location.}

She looked around, took in her bearings, then stared at Glory Girl. "Glory Girl is a Master?" she squeaked.

Silence finally fell across the tent. "What?" the heroine said.

Taylor took a quick step back, then she paused. Glory Girl was a well-known and respected hero. If she was really a Master then someone would have done something about it by now. "Uh."

Glory Girl's face twisted in indignation. "Hey, you can't just go and accuse people of anything like that," she said.

"Gee-gee, lower your aura, you don't want to pick a fight with her," Shielder warned his cousin.

"I'm not picking a fight," Glory Girl said. "She's the one accusing me of being a Master. It's not even a Master effect, just a Shaker effect." She waved towards Taylor.

"I'm sorry," Taylor replied, raising both hands in surrender. Her hands wanted to shake like her knees were doing but she held them back, she couldn't let others see her afraid, not again. "I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. Heck, I'm a Master so I'm not going to throw rocks in my glass house, you know? It just my, uh, friend told me that I was under an outside influence and that it was coming from you."

"You're a Master?" Glory Girl said. Taylor couldn't help but notice the way the girl floated back just a bit.

"Yeah, so it's like I said, I'm not accusing you of anything. My friend just warned me is all."

"And where is this friend of yours?" Glory Girl shot back.

"Ah, he's around. I didn't want to scare anyone by having him around."

Shielder lowered his phone, his eyes fixed on the two girls. "Vicky, drop it. I'm sure Queen Administrator's not here to make a fuss--"

"You're the Leviathan girl?" Glory Girl said. "Wait! It told you that I was dangerous?"

"Um, not dangerous, exactly? Taylor said. She really, really didn't want Glory Girl to be angry at her, but the heroine was floating a little higher, her hands balled into fists at her side. "He just warned me is all!" she mumbled.

Glory Girl snorted then came closer. "Oh, so now the bloody Endbringer is more trustworthy than I am?" Her hand reached out as if to poke at Taylor's chest.

The tent shifted. There was a gust of humid air that made a few papers fly off the nearest table and had Taylor's costume fluttering around her. She blinked, then looked at the hand stopped a few inches away from her, then she let her gaze follow up from the hand and to Glory Girl's arm which had a huge claw clamped around it.

Leviathan was on the ground, arm reaching into the tent to grab Glory Girl while all four eyes stared at the girl.

Taylor heard Glory Girl's gulp and saw Shielder going white as a sheet behind her. "Unit Two, that's enough," she said. "I think she knows better than to try and hurt me, she's a hero after all."

{Affirmative.}

Glory Girl tried to yank her arm out of the Endbringer's grip but all she succeeded in doing was to cut herself on his sharp claws. As soon as Leviathan let go she flew back a half dozen meters and hugged her arm to her chest, eyes wide and panicky.

With a put-upon sigh, Taylor reached down and tore out a strip of her costume, then with slow steps, as though approaching a wild animal, she moved closer to Glory Girl and spoke in a near-whisper. "I'm sorry about that. Here, let me look at your arm. I'm not the best at first aid, but we should still wrap that up until your sister can take a look at it, yeah?"

The silence in the tent continued while Taylor wrapped the cloth around the gash in the heroine's arm. It wasn't much of an injury, just a skin-deep cut along her arm. "There, all better," she said before grinning at the hero.

'Yeah, yeah, all better," Glory Girl said as she backed away a little. She was running the thumb of her free hand over the makeshift bandage.

Taylor felt bad for the poor girl. She had clearly been spooked something fierce by Mr. Fish. Maybe she needed a hug? Hugging Leviathan had made her feel much better. She wondered if Glory Girl would like it if she ordered him to hug her--

{Host-Queen_Administrator: Mental functions indicate outside influence. Enact Primary Directive?}

Taylor's head whipped around to stare at Leviathan and that simple motion alone had a bunch of people jumping in startled surprise. "Again?"

{Affirmative. Unit-02 ennact Primary Directive?}

"No, we're not going to kill her just because she has a weird aura thing," Taylor said. She turned back to Glory Girl who seemed a little pale. "Is there a way for you to turn it off? Unit Two is really concerned."

{Suggestion: Unit-02 can manipulate the target's biology and remove Host-Aura_Projector's ability to influence Host-Queen_Administrator's mental functions.}

Taylor hummed in thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah, I don't think lobotomizing her until her aura goes away is a good idea," she said. "What if you mess up and she gets hurt?"

Glory Girl went from pale to green in under a second and what had been a few meters of distance almost doubled as she backpedaled. Her cousin stepped up, placing himself between Taylor and the heroine with both arms raised in surrender. "Now now, no need to lobotomize anyone, even if it would finally get her to stop talking about her boyfriend."

"Eric!"

Taylor giggled and nodded. "Yeah, if only lobotomy were an acceptable way of getting out of awkward conversations. That would make life a little easier."

Shielder shared a smile though his was a little shaky, then he looked over his shoulder at Glory Girl then back. "Okay, so her aura is obviously a problem, and probably her attitude too, but we can't do much about that, god knows we've tried. So how about we keep some distance between the two of you. I'm sure once you get to know each other it won't be as big a deal, right?" His smile seemed a little forced on the edges but Taylor chose to ignore that. He was doing his best to keep things peaceful and that was fine in her books.

She taught about it for a moment, but it was a sound compromise. "That works for me."

Someone coughed and Taylor turned to find an older man staring at the lot of them as though they were nothing more than a bunch of jumped up teens. Even the Endbringer standing in the background didn't seem to phase him. "If you lot are done we've got work to do and I'm the unfortunate soul that has to debrief you three."

Taylor nodded and the two New Wave kids did the same. "Good. When I was told we'd get support I was expecting actual support, not three kids, but we'll do what we can with what we have." He pointed to a map of the Bay that was on the table behind him. "To be honest, just about every street needs cleaning. I'm halfway tempted to just give the lot of you some bags and tell you to start picking up, but I hear that some of you can replace some of our bigger machines without the fuss of having to move them on streets that are essentially impassable." He stared at Leviathan with all the passion of a dead sloth.

Taylor raised a hand as if to ask a question, and when the man nodded she went on, "If I understood, you guys are all here to clear off the streets, that's it?"

"There's a bit more to it then just that, missy, but essentially yes. Once the roads are cleared and any buildings that need demolishing are brought down, we can start repaving the main arteries throughout the city. You see those containers," he said while pointing off towards the other end of the street.

Three trucks with massive shipping containers on trailers were waiting there. "We want you to fill them with any junk that's laying on the street. If you have a chunk that's too big, then bring it to the other trucks on Lincoln and Fourth. We'll be moving them throughout the day as we go along."

"And if we have a lot more then that?" Taylor asked. She was starting to have an idea in the back of her mind.

He looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "We're building a landfill just on the exit of the Bay."

"Great, thanks!" Taylor said.

"Hn. Right, well you lot stay out of our way and let us do our work, and maybe you can take a few PR pictures later." With that, the man left, passing between Taylor and Leviathan without even staring at the Endbringer.

"Wow, that was... something," Shielder said.

Glory Girl scoffed. "Bit of an ass," she said. Her eyes turned to Taylor and there was a competitive glean in them. "Hey, Endbringer Girl."

"It's Queen Administrator."

"Right. Are you up for a bit of a challenge?" she said.

"Oh?"

Her smile was almost feral. "The one who picks up the most trash wins. We start as soon as we agree on terms and finish... let's call it by one thirty."

Taylor nodded. She was never terribly competitive, but if it got her and Glory Girl back on the same page then it was definitely worth it. "You're on! Loser has to pay for the winner's lunch?"

"I'm down for that," Glory Girl said her face twisting into a wry grin. She glanced at Leviathan but seemed to have put her fear aside for the moment. "I'd shake but," she said, gesturing at the space between them.

Shielder shook his head. "A minute ago and you were at her throat and now you're gambling with her?"

"Hey, a girl's gotta eat, and food tastes best when it's free... speaking of!" With that, Glory Girl shot off like a bullet towards the next street over. She avoided all the foot traffic by the simple expedient of flying over them all.

"Sorry about her," Shielder began.

Taylor waved him off. "It's okay. Mostly a misunderstanding, I think. No one was really hurt, so it's alright." That said, she turned to Leviathan. "I want that free lunch, big guy. So, could you clean all the streets in the Bay?"

{Affirmative.}

"Without killing anyone or destroying any buildings and while dumping all the junk where the old man said?" Taylor asked.

{...Affirmative.}

She wondered for a moment which part of that gave him pause, but didn't care enough to ask. "Awesome! This'll really help the city, I think, and it'll make people think we're less scary too," she said.

Shielder took her in, then the rather docile, top-hatted Endbringer by her side. "That's really important to you, isn't it?"

"Hm? You mean looking less scary?"

"Yeah. I mean, we do a lot of PR stuff for New Wave, but it's not so much about making people be less afraid of us and more about encouraging people to talk."

Taylor nodded. "I understand, yeah. It's just that the big guy and I have different problems. My power isn't as... non-threatening as any of yours. People are afraid of Unit Two, and they're afraid of me too. If I want the city to be a better place, then I need to be able to help, and no one will want my help if they're more afraid of me than they are of their problems." She gestured across the worksite where the men had slowed down to stare at the Endbringer in their midst. It didn't matter that Leviathan wasn't moving, he was still huge and imposing.

"If you want our help looking less... scary, then give us a call. We do a lot of stuff like this, especially since there're so many projects going on at once. If you're seen with us it might help your image." Shielder gestured at her, then pointed over his shoulder more or less where Glory Girl had gone.

She beamed at him. "Thanks. But, for now, I have a lunch to win." That being said, she waved goodbye to the young cape and stepped out of the tent, aware that he was following her with his gaze. "Okay, Mr. Fish, I don't know how much you heard back there, but this is the plan: I want you to clean up the streets. Can you do it?"

{Task parameters?}

"Hrm, mostly make sure you don't hurt anyone and dump the junk either in those trailers over there or in that landfill the old guy mentioned."

{Scope of Task?}

Her brows furrowed as she taught for a moment. "Brockton Bay, I guess."

{Understood. Beginning Task.} Leviathan said, then he quickly proceeded to do nothing.

Taylor waited, shifting on the spot for a few long seconds before looking around and shrugging. "Okay. I'll be inside looking for a snack, you, uh, do your thing."

It didn't take long after she re-entered the tent for her to find that there was a table covered in boxes of doughnuts and coffee machines. She was picking her way through these when she heard a distant rumbling sound, like a huge truck driving by. Probably, she figured, one of the construction vehicles moving around.

Taylor almost jumped out of her skin when her pocket vibrated. She froze, then realized what was going on. Dropping her sprinkle-covered honey glazed doughnut on a plastic plate, she fumbled around until she pulled out her phone and accepted the call. "Queen Administrator here, how can I help you?"

"Hello Queen Administrator, it's Dragon," came a very, very calm voice from across the line. "There's a bit of an emergency, and I was hoping you could help us."

Taylor straightened, doughnut forgotten. "What is it?"

"There are a series of underwater surveillance systems all across the East coast and deep into the Atlantic, they monitor ship traffic and water levels across the ocean in order to help predict the weather and Endbringer movements. I'm looking at a few hundred reports that the water levels in the Eastern part of the Atlantic are dropping by an average of a quarter inch and there's a massive wave of turbulence heading towards the East coast of the United States."

"Uh, so there's a wave coming this way?"

There was a pause. "That would be accurate, yes. But it's less of a wave and more of a--" Dragon's voice grew distant and garbled for a moment before static filled the line.

She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a moment, then she heard the rumbled form outside growing steadily louder. There was screaming too, men's voices rose into panicked shouts.

Stepping outside she found that people were running all over the place, the noise of it nearly covered by the all-consuming rumble. It was easy to follow the gazes of the workers and see why they were afraid.

A wall of water was raising up in the ocean.

The top of it was so high it was visible over the two and three storey buildings nearby, a frothing wall of churning water tinted such a dark blue it was almost black.

Taylor walked over to Leviathan and stood in the gap between his arms. "Are you the one doing that?"

{Affirmative.}

Her shoulders slumped. "Alright, but make sure you don't hurt anyone."

{Affirmative.}

The world around them grew darker by the second. The sky that was moments ago only filled with a few sparse clouds was enveloped by an all-consuming blanket of water. There had to be millions of gallons, Taylor realised as she looked up. The wall was so high above that the nearest clouds where pushed away in its wake.

Then it came crashing down.

The screams were swallowed up in what had to be the loudest sound she ever heard. Like a waterfall but a million time bigger.

The ground shook and Taylor had to grab onto Leviathan to keep steady as the noise grew ever louder.

Around the nearest corner came a rushing wave as tall as the tallest buildings in the Bay, a veritable wall of water that rushed towards them at the speed of an oncoming train. Even Taylor shut her eyes when the wall hit, then she blinked them open as she felt little more than a few stray droplets hitting her face.

The wall was splitting around them.

Before she could even take it all in it was over. The water receded deeper into the city, rushing towards the coast like a huge claw being pulling towards the ocean. She watched it leave, the world around her brightening as the sky reappeared and in a brighter blue then she had ever seen it.

"-Minitstator! Queen Administrator!" a tinny voice said.

Taylor pulled her phone back to her ear. "Yes?"

"Are you alright?" Dragon asked.

"Oh, I'm just dandy. Unit Two cleaned the streets for us," she said and as she looked around it was clear that she was telling the truth.

The road where the wave had passed looked as though it had been pressure washed clean. The walls of every building were almost shining and whatever little pile of junk had been left to rot along the roadside was long gone.

The only places that weren't perfectly clean were the spots with people in them. Most of the workers were on the ground, shaking and shivering. A few looked as though they were crying and more were just staring off into the distance without moving. But they didn't look injured or anything, so they were probably alright, she reasoned.

"...Cleaned the streets?" Dragon said. She sounded a little faint.

"Mm-hmm," she said as she stepped out from Leviathan's shadow. He had done a very good job cleaning things up. The city ever smelled nicer, like salt water. "So, uh, did you need me for anything else?"

"No?" Dragon said.

"Awesome. So, I've got a bet to win. See you around, alright?"

"Uh, goodbye?" the Tinker said before the line went dead.

Taylor was grinning in self-satisfaction when she walked up to the mean old man that had given her instructions earlier. He was staring at all the others as if waiting for them to get together and get back to work. "We did a fair bit, but Unit Two didn't touch any place where there were people."

He stared at her for a long moment, then pulled a pack of cigarettes from within his jacket. "Well, can't say I didn't ask for it," he muttered. "Thank girl. Now piss off, you're scaring my boys."

Taylor held back a huff and just nodded before walking back towards Leviathan. She was just in time as Glory Girl and Shielder were flying back at a rather sedate pace. With a burgeoning grin she ran over to the pair. "So, where're you taking me out to eat?" she asked.

-End Part the Seventh-

Autocorrect keeps changing LEviathan (when I don't remove my finger from Shift fast enough) to Le viathan. Now I want to write a French version of Leviathan. With a beret. And a baguette. "Hon hon hon, I'm going to drown you!"

Anyway, ended up cutting the chapter in half because of reasons.

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RavensDagger

Oct 22, 2018

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Threadmarks In Which Taylor's Picnic Gets Slaughtered

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RavensDagger

RavensDagger

I got 99 stories but I'll finish... some

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

Oct 29, 2018

#632

In Which Taylor's Picnic Gets Slaughtered

Small warning about language in this chapter.

Taylor slouched on her bed, back bent at an odd angle so that her head was upside down over the edge while her feet kicked against her mattress with a constant thump-thump-thump. She held her new-ish phone, acquired all of a week ago, and now an inseparable part of her body. The phone's display light illuminated her face and the letter discarded on the floor next to her bed.

PHO and most of the other national news sites not blocked by a paywall were still going on about the 'Great Brockton Bay Tsunami.' It seemed as though unleashing the biggest wave this side of the ice-age on a single city might have been a bit much for some people.

It had already been a week and the PRT was still 'advising' her to stay home and not order Unit Two to 'manipulate enough water to create tiny shifts in the planet's rotation.'

She figured they were all over-reacting. It was only water and no one got hurt. In fact, the entire city was a lot cleaner now. They should have called it the Great Brockton Bay... Spring Cleaning Waterfall of Happiness... Taylor huffed and pouted at her room. She wasn't very good at names.

Her eyes drifted up to the floor and towards the letter. She stopped kicking her legs long enough to turn herself over onto her stomach. It allowed her better read the letter and skip the address lines and get to the meat of it.

Dear Miss Taylor Herbert,

We, the staff of Winslow are happy to announce that the school will be reopening on Monday the 30th of May, 2011. All non-essential classes will be cancelled until the beginning of the spring 2011 term.

Please note that there will be additional security on-campus and that for the coming weeks the school day will be shortened from 8am to 1pm to accommodate the situation happening in Brockton Bay at the moment. No weapons will be allowed on-campus.

Thank you,

Susan Blackwell

Principal

That was tomorrow. Emma would probably be there, as would the rest of them. She shut her eyes and took in a deep breath. "I need to get out."

{Host-Queen_Administrator requires extraction?} A familiar and comforting voice spoke in her mind.

"Yeah," she said to the room. "But not the sort you can provide, big boy, I need a distraction."

{Unit-02 is capable of providing a distraction. Start Genocide protocols?}

Taylor giggled and flipped over and around. "No, no, it's alright," she said as she got to her feet. "Tell you what though, I think I've been stuck at home for long enough." She whipped out her phone and, with a few expert swipes of her thumb, opened the messenger app while her other hand opened a drawer and searched for a clean pair of jeans.

Queen_Adminstrator: Hey, Dragon, I'm going out in a bit.

Dragon: You mean in-costume, with Unit Two?

Taylor loved the way Dragon answered almost as soon as she hit send. She hadn't dared talk to the Tinker too much over the last week, what with her probably doing important Tinker-y stuff up in Canada, but she still felt a thrill every time she talked to the woman.

She pulled on a sweater over her shirt, then returned her attention to her phone.

Queen_Administrator: Yeah! In-costume. I can't stand being at home anymore and Unit Two hasn't gone for a walk in forever. I think he might be getting bored, you know?

Dragon: I can't tell you what to do, Queen Administrator, but I strongly suggest that you stay indoors. I believe the PRT would advise the same. What were you planning on doing anyway?

Taylor hummed to herself as she opened the door and made her way downstairs. It wasn't noon yet and she'd kinda skipped breakfast. Maybe she could go out for lunch? But she'd need money for that, and most restaurants were closed anway. Oh! She had an idea.

Queen_Administrator: I was thinking of preparing a picnic and going to the park with Unit Two.

Dragon: You do know that it's raining right now. It's hardly the kind of weather you'd want to have a picnic in.

Taylor blinked then looked outside. Dragon was, as usual, quite right. A light smattering of rain was coming down and covering the--very clean--streets in her neighbourhood. She shrugged and made her way to the kitchen.

Queen_Administrator: That's no big deal.

Dragon: Please don't ask Unit Two to change the weather again.

Queen_Administrator: You worry too much.

Slipping her phone into her pocket, Taylor scanned her kitchen, then started preparing sandwiches and shoving cans of pop into a cooler. Ten minutes later she had enough food to feed an army as long as that army had no more than three people in it.

Nodding to herself, Taylor grabbed her cooler, slipped on a raincoat, and went outside.

The air still smelled of saltwater even a week after Leviathan's little cleaning wave, though it was better than the smell of trash and whatnot that had been stinking the place up before that.

The Endbringer in question was in his hiding spot next to a gas station a few blocks down. "Hey!" Taylor said as she slipped into the alley.

{Unit-02 greets Host-Queen_Administrator.}

"How have you been, big guy?" she asked as she dropped her cooler next to the box that hid her costume. "Oh, and turn around. No peeking while a girl changes."

The Endbringer shifted until his four-eyed gaze was firmly locked onto the entrance of the alley, anyone trying to peek on her would have to get by him first. {Unit-02 is combat ready.}

"You're always combat ready, I wanted to know how you were," Taylor said as she slid out of her coat. A few droplets of rain slid down her neck and she shivered. "Oh, and can you make it not rain around us. Just around here though, Dragon doesn't want us messing the weather too much."

{Complying,} Unit Two said a moment before the rain shifted and started falling everywhere but where the two of them were standing. {Unit-02 is performing at standard operating levels.}

"Good!" Taylor said as she adjusted her costume and brought her hood up. "So, I'm going for a picnic at the park. Wanna come?"

{Unit-02's capability to carry out the Primary Directive will be facilitated by nearness to Host-Queen_Administrator.}

"Awesome!" Taylor cheered before making grabby motions at Levithan's shoulder. The Endbringer lowered himself until she was able to climb up. "Oh, and could you grab the cooler? Since you're so big and strong?" she teased. Leviathan's hand wrapped around the cooler, sharp claws biting into the off-white plastic. "Okay, so, I was thinking the park near Lincoln Ave. Any objections?"

{Negative.}

"Well then, off we go!" Taylor said. She watched the dreary, wet world around them for a few blocks, noting the way cars swerved around whenever they caught sight of her and Leviathan making their way along the sidewalk while ducking under power lines. After a bit though, she got bored and pulled her phone out again.

Dragon: Queen Administrator, could you wait a moment before leaving with Unit Two? I'm sure we could find something less disruptive to do.

Dragon: Queen Administrator? The PRT would really appreciate it if you allowed them to escort you to the park.

Dragon: Hello?

Dragon: Queen Administrator?

Queen_Administrator: Hey, Dragon, Unit Two and I are heading out for that picnic I mentioned, want to join us? I made ham and cheese sandwiches!

Dragon: I really can't. But I'm sure someone from the local Protectorate would love to join you!

Queen_Administrator: Nah, it's okay. I'll find someone interesting on my own. You don't need to get anyone to come with me.

Taylor shifted on Levithan's shoulder. She had really just extended the invitation to Dragon to be nice, she didn't actually expect the Tinker to be able to accept from all the way in Canada.

Did Dragon really have to send someone from the Protectorate over? It was like having someone set up a playdate. She couldn't quite pin down what she felt about that, but it was something close to embarrassment, like when someone brought their parents to school and they tried to act cool and help them make friends. She didn't want the other capes to think that she couldn't make friends on her own!

The problem was, she realized, that she didn't know how to make friends on her own. "Hey, Unit Two, how do you make friends?"

{Unit-02 is currently allied to Unit-01 of 20 and Unit-03 of 20 as well as all currently inactive Units. This alliance was created on the basis that all Units would share Primary Directives. Initial Primary Directives were installed at time of Creation.}

"Wait, you have two friends," Taylor said. An Endbringer had more friends than her. She huffed and drew herself up a little. "Okay, new objective, make some friends."

{New Objective added.}

"Cool. So, uh, I guess I'd need to actually meet someone. It's a good thing I brought extra sandwiches," she muttered before casting her gaze across the street in search of potential friend materials, but that was silly, she wasn't just going to spot someone who would become her friend. Not unless... "Hey, Unit Two, could you find someone interesting for me?"

{Unit-02 is capable of actively scanning the environment for any organic lifeform.}

"Could you find someone interesting? Preferably between here and the park, and on their own? You know, someone my own age and kinda like me, I guess."

{Affirmative. Scanning.} Leviathan paused a bit, and when they approached the next intersection he turned left instead of keeping straight like she thought he would.

She was about to ask him where he was heading when she noticed a girl standing on a sidewalk a little ways ahead. They were in what had been Empire territory only a while ago, a more upscale part of town where the streets were lined with italian and greek restaurants and the apartment buildings had little gardens out front.

{Target 'Interesting Human matching approximate characteristics of Host-Queen_Administrator' found.}

Taylor watched the girl as Leviathan came to a stop half a dozen meters away. She didn't cower or shake or run away, she just stared at Taylor with an expression she couldn't quite decipher. It was something between terror and, if Taylor wasn't misjudging the girl, panic. Awe, maybe.

She waved almost shyly from her perch and watched the girl's eyes go wide. Something was almost familiar about her but Taylor couldn't put her finger on it. "Hello there!" she called down.

Taylor noticed that she had been pulling a wheeled luggage bag behind her. "Um, hey?"

"Are you alright?" Taylor asked.

"I'm fine, super, awesome, fan-fucking-tastic," the girl said, her voice rising in pitch with every word.

"You sure?" Taylor pushed while tilting her head to one side.

"Yup," the girl said. Her eyes snapped from Taylor to Leviathan then back. "Uh, have a nice day?"

"Thanks!" Taylor said. She wanted to kick herself. She wasn't this bad when she was talking to Legend the other day, or with Dragon, why was it so much harder to talk to someone her own age. She said the first thing that came to mind and hoped that she didn't sound too weird. "Hey, do you want a sandwich?"

The girl opened her mouth, then closed it. "What?"

"It's ham and cheese,"Taylor said weakly. She wondered if Leviathan could dig a big hole that she could bury herself in.

"I... if I say no will you kill me?" she asked.

Taylor scoffed. "Don't be silly. I wouldn't kill anyone over a ham and cheese sandwich." She cringed at her own words. It seemed as if she had only grown more awkward since school had closed down. "I meant, do you want to go to a picnic, with me? Um, unless you're busy. You're busy aren't you? Damn. I'm sorry."

She saw the girl take a deep breath and look down for a few long seconds. "I, thanks for the invite, but I'm not hungry. Uh, I'll just..." She pointed off down the street. "Be on my way, okay?"

"Okay, bye!" Taylor said as she waved again. "C'mon Unit Two, we should go."

She slumped against his side. That had been a mess and a half. Maybe she could ask Dragon for help? But no, she doubted Dragon of all people needed help talking to people. Dragon was just awesome like that. Maybe she could find a book about it?

Just as the Endbringer started moving again, she heard the girl muttering to herself. "Fuck, she even looks like the fucking Fairy Queen now."

A jolt of recognition shot through Taylor and a half-buried memory came back. "Rune?"

The girl, who might have been Rune, tripped over nothing and stumbled a few steps before stopping. "I'm sorry, what'd you say?"

Taylor stood up on Leviathan's shoulder and spun towards the girl. "You're Rune, aren't you? From the Empire. Hey, didn't I get you arrested?"

"No, nope, that wasn't me. I have no idea what you're talking about." The Girl-Who-Might-Be-Rune shook her head violently from side to side, her knuckles went white over the handle of her luggage.

Taylor looked down with narrowing eyes, the girl fidgeting under her speculative look. "You know, if you were Rune, not that I'm saying you are, then maybe I might be willing to forgive you if you came with me to the park and had a proper picnic."

"You want to hold me hostage, in a park? To have a picnic?" Maybe-Rune said as if testing the waters of Taylor's sanity.

"Well, when you put it like that it sounds kinda weird," Taylor said. "Uh, nevermind. This was a bad idea."

Maybe-Rune stared up at her for a long time, so long that Taylor began fidgeting on the spot under her scrutinizing gaze. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"About what?"

"The picnic thing. You really want to have a picnic with me. Just ham and cheese sandwiches, in the rain, at the park, because why not?"

"Well, I was talking to Dragon, and I realized that eating at the park all on my own would be kind of boring."

Maybe-Rune's face shifted from confused to incredulous. "So what, you just asked the first person you saw to go with you, while riding on Levithan's shoulder?"

"No! I didn't ask just anyone. I had Unit Two look for someone... like me, I guess." Taylor hunched into herself. Wow, admitting that made her look like such a dweeb.

"Fuck it." Maybe-Rune turned around and slapped the extendable handle of her suitcase down until it was flush with the luggage. She then pressed a hand against the side of case and let it go, only for the case to float up into the air and hover at about head-height. With a grunt of effort, Definately-Rune jumped onto the box and made herself comfortable on her makeshift chair. "Lead the way, Endbringer girl."

"Really?" Taylor asked.

Rune shot her a strange look. "Look, I've got about a million reasons to say no and bugger the fuck off and maybe like, three to say yes. Let's just go out there, eat some sandwiches, then I can get the hell out of this shithole city."

With a tap on his shoulder, Leviathan started walking again while Rune floated just off his shoulder. "You're leaving Brockton Bay? Why?"

Rune sighed and pressed her face into her hands. "Your trigger must have really messed you up, I swear," she muttered. "Okay, so let me list it out for you all simple like: The E88's fucked. My family's fucked. My home's fucked. There was a giant fucking tsunami last week that scared me shitless. There's an Endbringer living in the city, which happens to be fucked." She sighed. "I'm just getting out of here while the going is good. Hell, I'm surprised you're not trying to leave."

Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. Brockton Bay is just home. And I don't think most places would be very accepting of, well, me."

Rune snorted. "Yeah, no shit." She glanced over at Taylor as if to see her in a new light. "You got it rough, huh?"

"A bit, I guess. The PRT don't want me to do anything so I'm pretty much stuck at home all the time. I got bored with that though, that's why I'm here. Just a picnic, you know, something to get out of the house."

"Just a picnic and a bit of kidnapping?"

Taylor laughed and looked away. "Ah, that wasn't part of the plan. Sorry?"

"Uh huh." Rune might have been something of a risk taker, and maybe she wasn't the wisest as far as teenaged girls went, but she knew how to weasel like the best of them. "Tell you what, you don't try to arrest me anymore, and I won't comment on the whole kidnapping thing on PHO."

"You use PHO?"

Rune snorted. "Yeah, I use PHO. And I know that you use it, they won't shut up about you on there."

Taylor smiled and looked down, focusing on the road as it passed below her. "It's kind of nice and most people are more honest on PHO then in real life, you know?"

"You mean they're bigger assholes?" Rune barked a laugh. "Yeah, I get you."

"What's your name?" Taylor asked suddenly. "Not that you have to tell me or anything, I just--"

"Cass."

"I'm Taylor," Taylor replied. She beamed over at the other teen who just rolled her eyes but the corners of her lips were twitching up. "Ah, there's the park!" Taylor said as they arrived next to a deserted playground. There was a sandpit off to one side with brightly coloured jungle gyms installed through while the rest of the little park was dominated by a hill surrounded by trees. "Get us on the hill," she told Leviathan.

Moments later Taylor landed on soggy grass and looked around her. The view from here wasn't great, but they could still see a good ways into the city, enough to see the dozens of cranes poking out of the cityscape and the cargo ships waiting out in the Bay.

"Urg, this is really shit weather for this, you know," Cass said as she landed next to Taylor and her sneakers sunk into the ground.

"Oh, right," Taylor said. "Hey, Unit Two, could you dry the top of the hill for us?"

{Affirmative.}

The grass rustled as a layer of water lifted from the ground and floated a few inches in the air, then it shot out in every direction, scattering downhill. "Tada!" Taylor flopped to the ground and ran her fingers through now-dry but still soft grass. "Hey, toss the cooler over," she told the Endbringer and squeaked when he did just that.

She caught the plastic bin with an oomph and fell onto her back. Then she started giggling while hugging the box. "Oops."

"Christ, he took that literally huh," Cass said. She eyed the Endbringer warily as she sat down cross legged near Taylor. "You okay?"

Taylor let her laughter die down and sat up straighter. "I'm fine," she said before placing the cooler next to her and opening it. A few minutes later and the two girls were munching down on ham and cheese while staring at everything but each other.

She knew that she had to break the ice, but she didn't know how to actually do that without being too strange. So, she did the next best thing and just asked the first thing that came to mind. "So, how's school?"

Cass choked on her ham. "Seriously? 'How's school.' What are you, my mom?"

"Sorry," Taylor said.

"Nah it's... okay, school is lame as shit, but it's closed down so who gives half a fuck? You know?

Taylor nodded. "Yeah. I'm really, really not looking forwards to going back."

"Then don't. Just... say fuck it and do your own thing. You've got the Endbringer to do shit for you, so I doubt you'll be aiming for a steady job in the future. And I'm pretty sure you could just go to whatever university or college or whatever you want as long as you're masked. Seriously, who's gonna stop you? Eidolon and his happy buddies?"

"But if I don't go back they'll win," Taylor said with a tiny voice.

Cass chewed on her sandwich for a bit, her attention on Taylor before it drifted away. "You know, you're pretty strong right now. Might not last forever. If I were in your shoes I'd use that power for everything it's worth."

"Imagine letting Unit Two sit on the school's front lawn while classes are in session," Taylor said and she couldn't stop herself from giggling at the mental image. It helped when Cass laughed along with her.

A scaly hand wrapped itself around Taylor's waist and before she could ask what was going on she was torn aside, claws digging into her sides hard enough to knock the breath out of her.

Looking up, she saw that Leviathan was holding her close to his chest, all four eyes focused on the hill she had been sitting on only seconds before.

A noise, like a bag of trash being pelted at a wall, drew her attention back to where she had been. Cass was now floating a dozen feet off the ground, eyes wide and panicked as she too took in the mess that their picnic had turned into.

Trash was strewn all over the hill, empty bottles next to tin cans and rotting food, all scattered with the spot she'd been sitting in as the epicentre. "What?" Taylor asked.

There was movement near the treeline, then a man shambled out from between the trees. His face was twisted in a rictus of laughter while his eyes twitched from where Taylor now was to where she'd been. "Shit. You little knob-licker sure move fast. Much fucking fast. No hit but trash like you trash fuck."

He stumbled forwards another step, his long trench coat, covered in grime and dirt, dragging along the ground. "Shit piss. Not going to miss, no!" he screamed. Raising a hand, the man made grabbing motions and all the trash on the hill peeled itself off the ground and rushed back to him, coating his arm and torso before it all glowed a bright blue.

Leviathan moved again, his arm shooting out to bat a ball of junk out of midair.

"Holy crap, that's Skidmark!' Cass said.

The man, Skidmark, screeched a single long, incoherent note. The ground around him started to glow with bands of bluish purple while all the trash rushed back to him and splattered onto his body.

There was a single clap from nearby and Skidmark paused, his scream cutting off with a gurgle. Another man stepped out of the treeline, this one wearing a simple rain coat and smiling as if he was about to greet a neighbour and wasn't just barging into the start of a cape fight. "My my, what a hideous specimen. Bonesaw tried to clean up his vocabulary but I think she might have made it worse. It was something of a patch job, you see?" His smile grew and he turned his full attention Taylor. "Hello, Queen Administrator. I had something of a proposition for you."

-End Part the Eight-

So, bit of a weird set-up in this one. I realised that we don't have much action in this story so I figured it was time to make things interesting again. Cue Mister Slash and friends visiting the Bay for a happy old romp.

Last edited: Oct 29, 2018

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RavensDagger

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