There were smirks, a few giggles, and lots of knowing looks.
Emma sat back in her seat, the only question in her mind was how she was going to top this. Or maybe Taylor would finally just die and she'd be clear of her.
Which was when Taylor opened the door and came in.
Mister Gladly started to say something and stopped dead as Taylor made her way to her seat.
"You're... late. And... green?" asked Mister Gladly after his mouth started working again.
"I WAS UNAVOIDABLY... DETAINED," said Taylor in a voice that seemed to echo through the room in a way that voices generally didn't.
"What the fuck?" said one of the other students.
Emma stared. It was Taylor all right, except her skin and hair were green. And she wasn't moving right. Jerky. Like a puppet or something.
"We were just talking about the effects of Leviathan on international shipping," said Mister Gladly.
"MINOR," said Taylor.
"'Minor?!'" asked Mister Gladly.
"DIRECTLY MINOR," qualified Taylor, still speaking in a way that sounded inhuman. "IT WAS THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY REACTING TO LEVIATHAN THAT CAUSED SHIP TRAVEL TO BECOME MORE EXPENSIVE. RESTRICTIONS."
Madison decided to speak up. "Mister Gladly, can Taylor stop talking, she's giving me a headache. WHAT THE HELL?!"
Taylor's head had swiveled around in a manner that a normal human neck wouldn't accomodate. "YOU KILLED ME. WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT YOU?"
"Uhm, Miss Hebert," began Mister Gladly, edging around the room. "Are you a parahuman?"
"NO." Taylor's voice actually seemed even worse now as her head swiveled around again without any motion from the rest of her body.
"But you're green?" asked Mister Gladly, nearly at the door.
"I AM TAYLOR HEBERT. I AM ALSO AN ASPECT OF GAEA. I AM THE SPIRIT OF EARTH. ALL THE EARTHS," said Taylor, her head swiveling around again - this time to fix her gaze upon Emma Barnes. Her color shifted to earth tones, looking as if she were carved from rock. "YOU KILLED THE ME THAT WAS. MERCY IS NO LONGER AN OPTION."
"Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?"
There was a brief silence before Emma realized that had been her voice.
"FINE."
There was a thunderclap of noise and there was suddenly a large boulder where Emma and her desk had been.
"NOW. IF WE ARE DONE WITH INTERRUPTIONS?"
Everyone panicked. Girls swore. Guys fainted. Students bolted towards the door. Someone realized that tripping one of the instigators might give them an extra few seconds to avoid a Carrie re-enactment. Madison went down. Mister Gladly pissed himself and ran over Madison on his way out the door. Madison said some very bad words. As most of the rest of the class then stampeded over her in their haste to leave the classroom, she quickly found herself out of breath and hurting and covered in footprints.
* Emma Barnes *
Everything had gone dark. Very dark. The little bits of light from the dots on her watch were the only light showing.
Naturally, she took her cellphone out and turned it on. She was now able to see that she was completely entombed in rock. Also that she had no signal bars on her phone.
She tried yelling and the echoes were deafening in the enclosed space. She tried to kick her way out of the enclosure, to no result other than a pain in her foot.
She was isolated. Alone. Helpless.
Emma Barnes began hyperventilating as she realized no one could hear her. No one could see her. She had about one foot of clearance between her and the outer shell of the stone. And nobody was coming to her rescue.
She had locked Taylor in her locker and now Taylor had locked her away.
She didn't like the irony. She didn't like it at all.
* Gaia *
It was odd, being the avatar of the Earth in every dimensional phase along this entire strand of Earths. There were other Earths in other strands, but of the 34,732 Earths that were in this multiversal strand - she was the avatar.
She could have reached out, shut every door and window, encased the entire school in a globe of rock and then dropped it to a depth where rock liquified and glowed from the heat.
It wouldn't even take very long.
She could. She didn't.
She stepped over Madison, who really was beneath her attention at the moment.
It was better to do this.
She went outside and raised her hands. Terrakinesis shaped the earth and changed the makeup of the land. The dry dessicated soil went down, while the loosened dirt below that layer was brought up. Hydrokinesis. Water was brought from the aquifer and filtered from the bay to turn the undersoil moist without turning the fields to mud.
Chlorokinesis. Then came the grass, the trees. Encouraged to grow, to spread, to flourish.
Taylor/Gaea raised her hands and the lands exulted around her, growing green and strong.
(THUNK!)
At which point someone put a phased crossbow bolt through her head.
Taylor/Gaea blinked and observed some guy in metal armor getting off a motorcycle and approaching her with a halberd.
Sighing, she pulled the crossbow bolt out of her head. "ARMSMASTER. IF YOU DON'T MIND, SOMEONE IS BEING ANNOYING."
"Stand down! On your knees, hands behind your head!"
"I'M FIFTEEN, ARE YOU SURE YOU SHOULD BE SAYING SUCH THINGS TO ME?" asked Taylor.
(THUNK!)
"I AM GETTING ANNOYED," said Taylor as she pulled the new crossbow bolt out of her head and tossed it down next to the other one.
"Surrender!" declared Armsmaster. "You're under arrest for a parahuman attack on this facility."
"YOU KNOW, I WAS KILLED TODAY. THAT REALLY SHOULD CUT ME SOME SLACK." Taylor decided to ignore Armsmaster and look around for the person who kept shooting her.
"If you do not surrender, I will be forced to make you surrender," declared Armsmaster.
(THUNK!)
Taylor turned around and yelled up at the roof. "WOULD YOU STOP?!"
(THWACK!)
"Shadow Stalker's crossbow bolts have no effect. Taser shot ineffective," said Armsmaster, twisting a setting on his halberd. "Preparing laser -"
(THUNK!)
"OKAY. THAT'S IT."
Taylor grew. Once she hit a size where the attacks were just something easily ignored, she stepped over Winslow and began moving towards the Bay.
Then someone hit the Endbringer sirens.
Taylor looked in that direction and raised a single fingered salute.
Then she slowly made her way to the Bay, she had concerns to address.
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Director. This may have become a problem."
"May? May become a problem?" Director Piggot looked at the man on the screen. "There is currently a 500ft tall woman sitting out in the Bay glaring at anyone who comes near. She moved that bloody big cargo ship out into deeper water by shoving it. And, by all accounts, the reason she did that was because you escalated a situation when you should have de-escalated."
"I went with the information that was available at that time, the call indicating that there was a parahuman attack on the school, and I attempted to arrest her. I might have been able to do so if Shadow Stalker hadn't kept shooting her." Armsmaster glared in a particular direction. "Who was the one who indicated the girl was a villain and destroying the school and attacking students. I was able to cut the single victim free of an encasement in a foot-thick stone shell. She has been quite forthcoming on details of a bullying campaign leading to the Trigger Event. Her price for full disclosure is that we hide her from her victim."
"Sounds positively karmic," drily commented Director Piggot.
"We are interviewing school personnel. May I at least request that someone turn off the Endbringer sirens as they keep cycling on?"
* Taylor PoV *
I thought about it and released the giant form. While it had some benefits (I could step on Sophia) and temptations (I could step on Sophia) it also had some drawbacks. Mainly that I was a little over 500 feet tall and it was a bit awkward. Also the feeling that my every movement was being scrutinized.
Terrakinesis. The ability to manipulate earth, rock, soil. Making an island in the Bay by forming a column of basalt and then shaping the parts above the waterline into a castle that Disney would have put in a movie. Not nearly so difficult when you were just shaping rock and not trying to add furniture or stuff.
Stone benches and the like weren't difficult either.
With a little effort I could make statues. Woo hoo. Crude at first. When I got better at it, I could maybe make the Terrible Trio and throw rotten produce at them or something.
I was aware of the helicopter from one of the local news agencies circling the area of course.
I was also quite aware of a white-clad missile charging me and trying to bodyslam me.
The human-sized body shattered into chunks of stone and dirt, then reformed while she was freaking out over that.
"SERIOUSLY?" I asked her. "WHY?"
"Uhm, you're under arrest for being a villain?" tried Glory Girl.
I formed shackles. Earth and stone wouldn't hold her, nor would wood or similar natural substances. I tried something a bit more complicated. She shattered them anyway.
"What the hell was that for?" asked Glory Girl.
"HUH. THOUGHT DIAMOND WOULD BE HARDER TO BREAK THAN THAT," I mused aloud.
"Wait," said Glory Girl, picking up a hunk of smoky glass the size of her fist. "This is diamond?!"
"WELL, YES. YOU DID SAY YOU WERE TRYING TO ARREST ME, SO IT WAS ONLY FAIR TO ARREST YOU." I shrugged in my reformed body.
"You can make diamond," said Glory Girl, now looking around at all the little bits and pieces.
"DIAMOND IS JUST CRYSTAL CARBON IN A SPECIFIC LATTICE," I pointed out. "LOTS OF CARBON AROUND."
"Can you, like, talk normally instead of sounding like that?" asked Glory Girl. "You're giving me a headache."
I thought for a moment. I wasn't even speaking by shaping air vibrations. Maybe if I did this and so? "How's this?"
"Sounds like gravel talking but better," decided Glory Girl. "Well, then I..."
A woman with a very nice hat appeared out of a doorway in the air. "Miss Hebert. I need to speak to you now."
"I came here to be alone and I'm getting very little 'alone' right now," I helpfully pointed out.
"Scion is coming here to destroy you because he perceives you as a threat," said the new woman.
"Is he?" I checked. Sure enough, he'd just appeared in the air nearby. And the bulk of me, the Gaia part, said that he was The Threat. Spread across a half-dozen of my worlds, like a cancer that threatened to destroy the whole of me.
The woman in the nice hat and Glory Girl gaped as energy built up in Scion's hands as he prepared to destroy me.
I didn't have any chemotherapy, so I did what you did with cancers when that didn't work. You cut it out. Six parts of me, like a finger tip, ceased to be.
Scion staggered, opened his mouth in a soundless scream, and then popped like a soap bubble.
The nice hat lady stared, looked to me, then the shocked look melted away to so much relief I thought she'd fall to the ground right there. "Thank you."
"You're welcome?" I said, not sure what else to do. At least she had come to warn me about that.
"Door to a really well-stocked bar," mumbled the woman, a doorway appearing in mid-air seeming to answer her. Then she stepped through and was gone.
"What the hell was that?" asked Glory Girl.
"I have no idea and I have quite enough to deal with right now," I told her. "Go home Glory Girl. This day has been entirely too much for me to deal with."
"Yeah. I think... maybe that would be best," answered Glory Girl, flying off a moment later. Still clutching the fist-sized chunk of diamond but who cares as long as she left me alone.
* Cauldron *
"What's going on that you called us all together so quickly?" asked Doctor Mother.
"Scion's dead," announced Contessa, passing glasses out and a bottle of something that looked very old and expensive.
Dead silence followed by everyone else talking at once.
Contessa ignored the shouted questions, just filling each glass with a finger's depth of the amber fluid and setting them out in front of everyone's chair. Then she sat down in her own chair, lifted her own glass to contemplate it, sniffed the fluid within, and sipped at it before giving a contented sigh.
Eventually everyone else settled down but nobody did more than give a curious glance at their own drink.
"There is a new cape in Brockton Bay who is only interested in being left alone. Scion registered her as an active threat and went after her. A final mistake on his part."
"A new parahuman?" asked Doctor Mother.
"Not quite, but I'm not sure what she actually is," said Contessa. "I advise not poking this particular dragon in her cave. Path to a Comfortable Retirement says let's not go there."
"We're going to need details," practically growled Alexandria.
"You're going to want a drink first, and probably afterwards as well," said Contessa.
* Taylor *
Destroying part of your/ourselves was a last resort, but now the threat had been dealt with.
Of the 34,725 Earths in this multiversal strand remaining, they were now safe from the infection that had threatened the whole.
She had merged with Gaia, she was those Earths and she was also Taylor Hebert. Part of her was the child who had grown up on Earth Bet. Part of her was something that was not and had never been human. Part of her was grounded in the now and here. Part of her was vast and concerned with things on a geological and multiversal scale.
The human part, that small part that was both connected and seperate, was having some trouble with the vastness of the other part. She likened it to being on the shores of some vast ocean, too deep and wide to truly grasp with her human frame of reference. She had been needed to frame the references for dealing with a perceived threat to the whole - but remaining after the bulk of that was dealt with.
Like an illness perhaps? An infection cut out but some traces remained? Something like that but not quite? Taylor wasn't sure.
This was why she sought out solitude more than anything else. There was a lot to come to terms with.
Looking around at the four walls and shaped stone furniture, particularly at the lack of a roof, Taylor decided to focus on this until she had a better handle on everything. Maybe...
* Coil *
Scion was dead or at least had been defeated.
Of course he'd been interested and keeping an eye on the situation. First had been the "parahuman threat" at Winslow High School flag to get his interest. Then had been the five hundred foot tall woman made of stone walking away from Winslow to the Bay. That had kept his interest.
She'd played around with the stranded and derelict ships in the Ships Graveyard like toy boats for a little while, then demonstrated enormous strength in moving the grounded freighter at the mouth of the bay. Uses for those sorts of abilities had definitely come to mind.
When the renewed greenery of the area around Winslow had come to his attention, quite a few legal and aboveboard uses for this girl's abilities had come to mind as well.
Scion had showed up and begun an attack and Coil had been ready to dismiss the consideration of the new cape as clearly she wouldn't survive. Except she did. Scion, the world's most powerful parahuman, had been banished from the skies. His interest had been renewed and details were being investigated for levers he could use to get this new cape under his control.
The girl had built a castle in the bay and he'd watched a local news channel as the material had shifted, becoming smoky quartz that glittered in the sunlight.
When a boat had darted out from an area on the Docks and circled around the castle, shooting cannon at the structure to absolutely no effect, an idea had come to him. Not for the first time.
Which was simply that quite frequently it seemed like Brockton Bay was a kingdom of idiots and if he conquered it, was it really going to be worth this much effort?
* Heartbreaker *
The women surrounding him knew better than to get between him and the TV screen that dominated the wall. After all, when you can get the biggest and best highest definition TV screen why would you settle for anything less?
Seeing some young slip of a girl, for all that she was bigger than most buildings, make herself a castle and then shrink to fit it. Intriguing. Then the girl had apparently driven off Scion. Also very interesting indeed.
Pity she had no figure.
Still, having that sort of power in his stable would mean he'd never have to actually hide. Who could threaten him if he bent that power to his own will?
On the other hand, if she turned out to be one of those rare parahumans who could resist his power - he'd get squished like a bug.
Yes, perhaps he'd just keep an eye on this 'Giantess' for now. He liked the way his life was going right now and taking the risk of it coming to a messy end was less appealing.
For now.
* Skidmark *
When even drug-addled henchmen of a supervillain were questioning the wisdom of attacking a stronghold, one should possibly reconsider.
That wouldn't stop Skidmark though.
"Skiddy? My cannon ain't doin' shit."
"Let me just enhance that one, lay some tracks. Try it now!"
(BONGGGGGG!)
"What the hells that made of?!"
"Look out! Rocks ahead!"
"Rocks? Ain't no rocks in... THOSE ARE FINGERS YOU IDJIT!"
Skidmark tried to figure out how to use his power to fend off a hand that was big enough that his Squealer-enhanced boat was entirely within a section of its palm. "STEALTH! Turn the stealth back on!"
The boat faded out even as it was lifted into the air, the water around it sluicing off back into the bay.
Then the girl was there, even larger than when she'd waded out to where she'd raised her castle. Looking down on him as if he were a speck in the palm of her hand.
Which was apparently accurate, Skidmark realized. She was literally mountain-sized right now.
"You better put us down now, bitch! I claim that castle as property of the Merchants!"
For a moment, the huge sculpture didn't move, then it turned and began moving away from the bay. After a few minutes of travel it put the boat down.
"Ships belong in water you dumb cunt!"
The giant regarded them for a moment, then just seemed to melt into the ground.
"Damnit. Where the hell are we?"
"Boston Protectorate roof if I'm guessing from all the guys readying guns."
"Well... shit."
* Medhall *
"We can probably use this," said Krieg.
Kaiser considered his subordinate and wondered if he'd been sampling product. "Explain."
"We're putting together video," explained Krieg. "New cape is named Taylor Hebert, student of Winslow. Black youth befriends young model, turns her against her best friend, the two spend time destroying that best friend and end up locking her in a locker they've stuffed with fermented used tampons and sanitary pads."
"Use the giant's trigger event as a rallying call? That plan has a single large problem." Kaiser made a gesture towards the bay. "What if she doesn't like that?"
"We claim we're trying to make sure others don't suffer as she did," pointed out Krieg.
"Again, the only problem I have with that is that someone who is bigger than Menja and Fenja at full size if you stacked them might not like it. I'd really like to have a good idea of how she's going to react before I go there."
Krieg frowned and thought about it. "Let me run it past the PR department and they can try coming up with a psych profile."
* Dragon *
"Yes, Colin?"
"I may have made an error in judgement."
"Yes, Colin."
"You're not arguing."
"No, Colin."
"What data was I missing?"
Dragon let out a very human-seeming sigh. "Colin. You were certain of your data when you didn't have much hard data. Assumptions."
"Shadow Stalker used a 'unknown parahuman attacking' emergency code."
"Colin. When you arrived the parahuman in question was standing outside the school, not attacking anything. She was making trees and grass grow. While you were demanding compliance from the parahuman, Shadow Stalker kept shooting her and her response was to complain about it being annoying. That would have been a good time to de-escalate."
"I see."
"The best thing to come out of this so far is that we have some basic data from her own recorded statements, that she's apparently very calm unless directly attacked, and that she considers most threats to be something easily ignored."
Colin was silent as he watched the video of the Merchant encounter. "Ratings?"
"Shaker: Yes." Dragon made a thoughtful sound and displayed several still pictures taken from video. "She can literally be anywhere on the planet she wants to be. She exhibits terrakinesis, hydrokinesis, aerokinesis, and dynakinesis."
Colin considered things for a few moments. "Odds we can get the Endbringers to attack her?"