Yay! At long last an actual chapter after a while of clean-ups and updates! I finally get to progress with the story which will now be consistent with previous chapters!
Yeah, so, all of that. Seriously, thanks for sticking with me while I took time to edit the first few chapters and give them some much-needed continuity and solidarity in their narrative structure. I recommend you go back and read them if you haven't since they're better and has things make more sense. And, for a reward for your patience, I've made sure to make this chapter a little longer than usual by just less than 2000 words.
Also, I still have no idea on how to post a fanfic on SV / Spacebattles. It just confuses me.
But now, it's the moment you've all been waiting for: The aftermath of Styx's skirmish with Lung, and the repercussions of slamming him straight into the middle of a street in front of two Wards.
Here we go…
Taylor sauntered into the convenience store whose door made an electronic ding when entered, whilst ignoring all the fish-mouthed stares that had most certainly noticed her crash into the street and instead focusing on what she wanted to get for an evening snack.
Maybe some chips and a soda.
She hummed to herself as she made her way through the aisles and observed their contents. The door's electronic ding went off again as Taylor noticed one of the wards enter skittishly with her masked eyes trained on the flame-headed girl. Or, at least Taylor assumed since she was masked.
"Oh hey, it's you again!" Taylor called out chipperly, watching Shaman startle. "Something that our city's lovely resident enchantress need from myself?" she asked, using what Valka called 'high-impact sass' to throw the young hero off. If the slight blush of embarrassment was anything to go by, it was working.
"Uh, well, y'know…" Shaman began, coming off as a little reserved, "Not every day that you see someone with a flaming skull for a head."
"…I do?" Taylor asked, being very glad she didn't have a face right now that would give away her massive grin. "Oh my god! My head is on fire!?" She shouted in dismay, hands grabbing onto her skull and pretending to freak out.
Shaman panicked immediately. She began scrambling around and trying to figure out what to do to help 'calm' Taylor and even went as far as beginning to pull something out of her iconic, hand-woven satchel.
"Pfffffffhahahaha!" Taylor Laughed, unable to keep her laughter in anymore and to stop Shaman from using her powers. "I'm kidding! Jeez, you are easy to punk." Taylor held out a hand to shake, "I'm Styx. First night out."
Shaman took her hand tentatively. "Shaman, it's, uh, nice to meet you."
Taylor tilted her skull slightly and chuckled. "Hey, don't be so jumpy, I know who you are. I don't think there's a person in Brockton Bay that hasn't. It is nice to meet you 'officially', though."
"Uh, Likewise. It's always a nice change of pace to meet a new cape who doesn't want to hurt you." Shaman smiled.
"Well, unless you have any plans to go villain-ey, then I don't have any to fight ya'." Taylor gave a thumbs up in place of her missing facial expressions. "Or y'know, be an ass."
"Noted..." Shaman slowly nodded; her body language still aimed as far is it could from Taylor. Taylor tilted her head forward in acknowledgement to this, causing Shaman to slump and sigh. "Sorry," she apologized, "I usually try to avoid interacting with people I don't know. The unattached flaming skull doesn't help… sorry. I'm more of the 'stand there and look pretty' sort of cape rather than a social one."
"Well, you're seeming pretty social to me." Taylor pointed out, literally making a pointing movement.
"Yeah, it's just… you seem familiar... It's probably nothing." Shaman dismissed.
"If you say so." Taylor shrugged. Looking out of the window she could see Kid Win having handcuffed Lung and now had him sat down on the bench he and Shaman were sitting on before Taylor arrived. "Had any trouble with sleeping beauty out there?" Taylor nodded out the store window as she finally picked out a drink.
"Ummmmm…"
"Uh, yeah, console? Shaman and I've got a... situation?" Kid Win said into his communicator.
"What kind of problem Kid? Do you need some backup?" And Indian accented girl's voice replied back.
"Not… really, Asura. Someone just piledrove Lung into the middle of the street, he's out cold."
"…"
"Console, are you ther-"
"Sorry just thought I heard you say something incredibly impossible. Could you repeat what you said with a little more sanity?!"
Kid Win sighed. "Asura please, can you just dispatch a transport team out to where we are, please? I'll tell you everything when we get back."
"Okay, fine then. One moment…" the line went dead for a moment before the girl's voice returned. "Transport Enroute alongside Armsy. You better tell me how this happened when it wasn't me who took him down."
"Really, Asura? If we let you fight Lung the city wouldn't be standing when you two were done."
"I stand by what I said."
"No, not really. How did you knock him out by the way? Lung is usually pretty resilient to that sort of stuff, and that's undercutting it." Shaman asked.
"If you ask me, probably a bad power interaction." Taylor genuinely guessed. The young Eternal had actually been thinking about that ever since she had noticed Lung's shrinkage during her resurrections. She still didn't have a conclusive answer at that moment, so she resolved to propose the question to Valka next she saw her elder.
"Ah yeah, those do tend to happen. Dauntless and my powers don't like one another very much either." Shaman admitted.
"Really? You have some similar powers in a way."
"Yeah, that's why they think our powers aren't compatible, because they're too similar."
"Ahhhh, so like a negative feedback loop."
"Exactly!" Shaman nodded, as Taylor passed some money to the stunned store clerk and took her things. Outside the two girls were met with a squad of black armoured troopers, Kid Win still in his yellow and red armour, and a distinctively recognizable man in blue power armour.
Armsmaster.
"Shaman." The man greeted curtly from the goatee-surrounded mouth. Or at least Taylor believed it was a greeting, Armsmaster was reportedly renowned for lacking social etiquette.
"Hello, sir." Shaman replied. "This is Styx, She's the one who took down Lung."
"I'd like a word alone with her." Armsmaster requested bluntly. Shaman simply nodded, used to her superior's direct method of conversing, and left to join Kid Win. Armsmaster turned back to Taylor. "There are a few protocols I need to go through before we continue."
"Fire away." Taylor nodded to him.
"Firstly, due to your unique form, I must ask if you have any sort of memory loss and tattoo of this shape." Armsmaster held up a piece of paper from his utility belt with the omega symbol on it.
Taylor shook her head. "No. Why?"
"Amnesiac capes with severe physical alterations are what we call 'Case 53s'. Whilst they are not all as tame as your own, there have been cases similar, like the ward Weld." Armsmaster explained. Taylor had heard of Weld before, a Boston Ward. "I assume that your appearance is a changer power then?"
"More like a… side effect to another," Taylor answered. Armsmaster nodded.
"Next of all is your age. Again, your appearance is making it difficult to judge your actual age."
"No, I'm not an adult yet."
Armsmaster nodded once again. "That'd mean you'd only qualify for the Wards if you would choose to join the Protectorate and PRT."
"Thanks for the offer, but I've got my own style of doing things." Taylor dismissed Armsmaster's suggestion.
"Are you sure? The average life expectancy of a solo cape is drastically less than that of one that has a team to back them up." He turned and looked to the PRT transport that he knew Lung was loaded into. "And with a high-profile take-down like this, there may be repercussions."
"Eh, I'll be fine. With a power like mine, you can't really go wrong." Taylor dismissively waved off, having practised this before.
"And what exactly are your powers?" Armsmaster asked the eyebrow raise all but shown.
"Honestly? Pretty good." Taylor smirked. Or, at least, would have smirked.
"Hm," Armsmaster grunted. He didn't convey any distinctive emotion with the grunt, but Taylor felt it was either reluctant acceptance or disgruntled annoyance. "Still," the man in blue continued, "It'd probably be best if you deferred credit of this. Lung has an extensive gang following and two cape subordinates."
"Two? I thought there was only Oni-Lee?"
Armsmaster nodded at Taylor's question. He seemed to be doing a lot of that. "He recently acquired a new parahuman; Bakuda, a bomb tinker. She was involved in the thwarted Cornell Bombing."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that," Taylor said, remembering exactly why Valka had the idea to start using black hole grenades in their training. "Even so, I think I'll be fine taking credit here. Honestly, it's a nice feather in my cap and an even more lovely way to bolster my reputation. I can see the headlines now, 'New cape Styx takes out The Lung first night out." Taylor said, making exaggerated movements as she did so.
"If… you say so." Armsmaster relented, seeing that Taylor was skirting around what he was saying, and had no intention of not taking credit for her achievements. Taylor could sense that he was a bit upset that she chose to do so, it wasn't very concealed in his voice. The two stood there for a few more silent seconds, neither having anything more to say to the other.
"Well," Taylor finally broke the silence, "Better get going. Glad I could help out here, but I think I should keep moving, see what else I can do."
"Of course. Take my card, should you change your mind about the Wards, or just if you need to contact me." Armsmaster passed Taylor a card with his alias' contact info and logo on it.
"Probably won't change my mind but thanks anyway," Taylor said as she took the card from the metal-coated hand. "Well, until next time." And with that she stepped off the sidewalk and into the middle of the road, a short distance away from where some PRT troopers were taking a report of the crater nearby. Taylor waved to Kid Win and Shaman, who returned it awkwardly as they and the surrounding people were wondering what the fire-headed girl was doing. Taylor crouched down, one arm crossed in front of her, the other reared back as if ready to sprint. And then with little warning, a loud boom, and a cracking of asphalt which the troops reared back and shielded themselves from, and the next anyone saw of the young eternal was her soring through the air in a truly impossible leap across the city.
"Wow." Shaman gasped as she squinted to get a sight of the rapidly disappearing Styx. "Now that certainly is a power."
"Must be some kind of high-level brute to jump like that." Kid guessed. "Though maybe it's some kind of shaker effect, otherwise she'd of left another crater instead of just some cracks."
"Well, this is only her first night," Shaman pointed out. "I'm sure we'll find out eventually."
Shaman was only partially right.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
As soon as Tattletale, Lisa Wilbourn, walked through the door to her team's base, she just wanted to fall down on their couch and not get back up again. But if her life thus far was any indicator, she wasn't about to get what she wanted.
"Okay Lis, what the hell happened back there!?" Grue, Brian, shouted at her, waving his skull-faced biker helmet. "Why'd you just go cold as soon as Lung stopped chasing us?!"
"Honestly, I'd like to know just as much as you," Lisa replied, rubbing her forehead.
"Lisa!"
"I'm serious!" Lisa shouted in defence. "As soon as I took one look at the fire-headed guy, my power just decided to make the windows shutdown noise and stopped working! It's only been coming back slowly not too long ago."
"So does this mean your power runs on Windows XP?" Regent, Alec, asked as he stayed true to his unempathetic asshole self.
[Truthful] Lisa's power said, much quieter than usual, and potentially wrong as it had earlier labelled a window as 'door'.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Lisa sighed, not having the time or ability to deal with the little hedonist right now. However, it stopped both the boys in their tracks.
"Holy shit your power really did shut off," Alec commented.
"I'd hit you, but right now I just want to get this day over with." Lisa sighed as she stomped across the floor and into her room within the base, slamming the door behind her.
Her phone rang immediately.
'No, not now you asshole…' Lisa internally groaned as she rooted around in her suit's pocket and retrieved her cellphone from it. Not even bothering to check the caller ID, she hit 'answer' and put the phone up to her ear.
"Report," Coil said.
With her power on the fritz, she had no option other than to be as direct and honest as possible. One wrong step and she was six feet under, there was no safety net this time.
"Things went south." Lisa began slowly, selecting her words carefully. "Oni Lee showed up and began chasing us around for a while before we escaped into an abandoned apartment building. Then Lung showed up."
"And then?" Coil pushed, blatantly not caring for Lisa's wellbeing. Like always.
"And then we ran. Lung was hot on our asses, and then this is where it gets weird. There was some kind of… fire-headed person crossing the road we were running down."
"A new cape?" Coil asked.
"Probably," Lisa answered. "Haven't heard of them before. Nor have I ever heard of someone shutting down a thinker ability just by being observed before either."
"Excuse me?" Now Coil was interested.
"I took one look at them, and my power shut down completely. It's only just started to come, and it's inconsistent in its accuracy." Lisa elaborated.
"Interesting..." Coil drawled in a way that Lisa wasn't sure if it was directed at herself or the new cape.
[Directed at the ̸̡͖̤̜̲̩̩̎ͅX̵̝̆̑̏͘͝İ̵̪͎̖͓V̵̡͓̱̲͚̥͒́̋̓̉̍̇͜ ̸̣̰͉̂̍͜a̸̡͐̒͆è̴̲̳̙̟̙̖̪̪̐̂́͛̚̚t̶̡̘̪̬̠̟̠̃͆̃̀̈́͐ͅe̵͈̹̎̆̀́͒̅̐r̴̡͈̘͕̦͕̝̿̀̋̃̔͆͝ͅn̶̛̰̜͓͙̭͉͛͐̊͌̕u̷̲͖̰̻͗̏̂͜s̷͙̹̥͍͍̀̅͘ ̷̗̠̳̙̂͊͑͝L̴̬͎͙͚͊̊͐̂̏a̸̪̍́̑͐͘z̵̛͍̑̾̽͗̽́͠ă̶͎͉r̷̦̝͑̈́̔u̷̻̯̟͗m̴͎͙̤̼̫̄́] her power supplied, garbling nonsense at the end.
'Yeah, thanks power.' Lisa thought, not trusting if it was right or wrong in the slightest. And also worrying about what it had said.
"Stay low for the time. We can't have this cape interfering with any operations right now." Coil decided. "Try and find any information on the cape that you can in the meantime, at the very least it will serve to see if their power is indirectly effective."
'Well thanks, I've been promoted from 'disposable' to 'Guinea' pig.' Lisa commented mentally.
"You may await further orders." And with that Lisa was left with the droning dial-tone from Coil hanging up. Putting her phone down Lisa sighed, slumped down her bed, and buried her face in her hands.
She couldn't for the life of her decide if this was to be a blessing or a curse.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
*CLANG!*
Mikey looked up from the game of cards he was playing with Todd and Ben. Actually, all three men looked up from their short stools and makeshift table.
*CLANG!*
All three men glanced at one another, none wanting to get up since they knew damn well that the other two would look at their cards. However, a short rock, paper, scissors later and it was Ben who was reluctantly getting up to check the door.
*CLANG!*
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming you impatient asshole." Ben groaned as he approached the door to slide the peephole open. "Just give me a-"
*KRANG!*
Ben stopped and his friends stared as an axe head burst through the thick steel door, splaying the metal like an ugly flower and missing Ben by less than an inch. The axe retreated back through the new hole, making way for a gloved hand to sneak through and begin grabbing towards where it thought the door handle was. The three guys were too stunned at the events to even try and stop the limb. Not that it mattered either, since the handle was locked from the inside too.
The hand found this out shortly when it finally clasped around the knob and jiggled it slightly, alerting the arm to the handle's locked state. The arm let go for a moment and made a gesture as if it were tightly clasping a baseball or similar object. What happened next shook the men out of their stupor since the hand was engulfed in a searing hot flame. Grabbing the handle again the metal object melted like heated marshmallows. And then the door was kicked down.
"Sorry for the intrusion." The blazing demon said as it stepped unimpeded through the threshold. "But the door was open, and I just had to invite myself in and meet the neighbours."
It flexed its hands and fire ran up their arms around their ironically worn firefighter uniform.
"Nice to meet you. You may call me Styx."
The men bolted.
Ben, unfortunately, closest to the devil, made a break for the shotgun they had mounted on the wall for such an occasion as a break-in. He didn't even make it halfway before this 'Styx' almost teleported forward, crouched down and arm back that subsequently extended forward and caught him in the stomach, causing the wind to fly out of him along with a good bit of saliva. Styx then, with her fist still buried in his gut, grabbed Ben's shoulder and threw his head down to meet their shin, clocking him in the face and causing him to black out.
Todd dashed to the base's alarm. He, luckily, made it to the alarm and shattered the glass covering with his own fist and slammed down the lever. A loud, shrill ringing started shouting all across the base, no doubt alerting every single last person there to the recent intrusion. Todd didn't last much longer though, as Styx bounced off of the ground and landed the soles of her boots into his face and rode the rest of his body down until it collided with the floor. It bashed and bruised the man so badly, he couldn't get up.
Mikey… ran away. With the valiant sacrifices of his two mates, it bought him enough time to make it to the end of the hallway and around the corner and out of Styx's sightline. Even more, luckily, three of his armed coworkers passed him in the opposite direction, armed with AKs. Whilst not being any trained armymen, Mikey still knew the ones toting the guns each had a decent aim and within the tight corridor, the cape had very little chance of escaping.
That was what Mikey thought before Styx came into view, knees first into a gunman's neck and embers trailing behind them. Without skipping a beat, Styx chained the attack by bouncing around the wall and into the next gunman, even after the remaining two had already opened fire. The tackle sent the man to the ground and the rifle scattering. Styx quickly acted before the man could and jabbed their hand into his scapula, causing the man to gasp and fall unconscious. Unable to capitalize one Styx's momentarily slow due to an empty gun, the last gunman fumbled as they drew a fresh mag trying desperately to slot it in. He never got the chance before Styx did a bicycle kick and knocked the bulletless gun into the air and away. Watching the AK-47 rather than Styx proved a fatal mistake as they swept his legs, making the man fall forward and slam against the concrete floor.
Styx paused to check that all the gunners were still breathing and unmaimed. Once she was sure they were, looking back up she found Mikey finishing pulling a heavy door closed, once again creating a fortunate barrier between himself and the flaming skulled cape. Stumbling back, Mikey found himself amidst most of the remaining building personnel. All armed with either handguns or rifles, all of varying make and type. Mikey was safe at last. Right up until a tiny, tiny, ember bounced on the ground in front of his face. Ever so slowly turning his head, Mikey's heart froze when he saw the soft yellow glow as it made a circle in the door, cutting a new entrance out of the old through temperature alone.
Mikey's sense of safety dropped like concrete in water, the man propelling himself forward and away from the oncoming nightmare. He mentally apologized to all the men in the hallway as he scampered further away.
The cut door finally was removed, it wasn't even kicked in, down, or away. No, instead the monster decided to grab the middle like crumpled paper, pick it up with one hand and use it as a fucking shield. Their other hand already clasped around the bottom of their axe's handle. Angling it slightly so that Styx's hollow eye sockets could see over the door, they smacked it twice with the axe like a Viking would when entering battle. And yet despite the giant slab of metal being lifted with as much effort as a paper plate, everyone in the hallway opened fire at her with reckless abandonment. The bullets pinged off of the makeshift shield, falling crumpled to the ground as Styx moved menacingly forward with their speed increasing.
Before anyone really knew what hit them, Styx literally hit them with the door. Ramming them all and piling the shooters on top of each other as they hit and bruised one-another. Mikey at the very end willed his legs to run faster. Willed them with every might he had in his body.
Willed them not enough when the flat, slightly warm, metal collided with the back of his head and caused it all to go black. Mikey was pretty sure he heard the devil laughing, but that could also have been his oncoming concussion.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
"Well, that was fun," Taylor said to herself as she dumped the last E88 goon, restrained and gagged, outside. "Valka was right, CQC is much more fun with superpowers."
Taylor sat down on the steps leading up to the E88 warehouse that practically had been turned into an armoury and waited for the police she had called to arrive. Seriously, it was ridiculous how many guns they had in that building. They did however have a lot less ammo now that Taylor had finished rampaging through their 'safe'house. And also a 100% loss of guns, that happened too. And also a bunch of drugs that were in there for some reason. And a ton of cash that Taylor had decided to keep some for herself. The Vigilante law existed, after all, and the E88 didn't seem like they needed it.
Her thoughts weren't left alone for much longer, as the sound of sirens started to draw nearer and signified the police's imminent arrival. Pushing off the stone steps leading to the destroyed front door, Taylor stood up with exaggerated movement and settled her hands into her pockets as the black and white cars pulled up. And also, surprisingly, a motorcycle with a tactically dressed rider wearing a rather iconic American bandana.
"Jesus..." the first officer commented when he stood out of his car and saw Taylor and her handiwork.
"No actually, it's Styx." Taylor corrected. One of the best advantages of not having a face was that nobody knew when you were deadpanning or not, which made it funnier.
"It's okay everyone," Miss Militia spoke to the officers. She then turned to Taylor. "When Armsmaster, Kid Win and Shaman reported a 'new hero with a burning skull head', I wasn't inclined to believe them."
"And now?" Taylor asked with a hint of mirth in her voice.
"More so." Miss Militia answered, her smile not visible but her cheekbones betraying her mask. "So what's the story here?" she nodded to the battered, bruised, and barely conscious E88 thugs.
"Oh you know," Taylor tilted her head, casting a gaze in E88's direction, "Meeting the neighbours. They play a little rough, so I played rougher. Hope you don't mind."
"Not at all. They aren't very considerate, 'playmates'." Miss Militia agreed. The two shared a small laugh and then stood awkwardly, neither knowing what to say next.
"So, how-"
"Get your hands off of me pig!" a now fully conscious E88-er shouted as he pushed away from an officer who was leading him to the police cruiser. What was worse, he was able to grab the officer's pistol, waving it around with his bound hands and a finger finding its way to the trigger.
"Piss!" Taylor swore as she broke away from Miss Militia, whose own power was now also a handgun that she was raising to meet the E88 member.
Taylor quickly surveyed the situation. She didn't have enough time to accelerate without decimating the pavement and potentially injuring someone else. Miss Militia would be able to take out or at least disarm the guy herself since she had a ranged weapon and Taylor didn't. What really presented itself as a problem, was that the man would still be able to get a shot off before anyone would be able to stop him.
'Well, good thing that at least one of us have immortality...' Taylor thought as she deviated from her path slightly and instead leapt in front of the gangster and the officer that had been escorting him. A gunshot rang out, then a flood of pain, followed by another gunshot and pained screaming.
"Miss Styx! Are you okay?!" Taylor heard Miss Militia yell to her as the other hero ran over.
"Yep… all fine." Taylor lied in a grunt as she smoothed over her NCT jacket to fix the bullet hole. "Gonna take more than… a single bullet to get me down."
Miss Militia's brow furrowed. "Look, you don't have to preten…"
"No, really I'm fine." Taylor stood up, hands on hips, "See? Right as rain." She even stretched a little to sell the act, which did hurt like a bitch when done with a bullet wound through the chest.
Miss Militia didn't seem entirely convinced, worry playing in her eyes and body ready to move if needed. But that didn't really matter to Taylor, since she only needed to get out of there before she bled out, and then the senior hero would be convinced the next time Taylor was strolling about as Styx.
"Now, if you've got this all handled, I think I may as well get out of your way and take my leave." Taylor gave a nod and began walking stiffly. Miss Militia stared at the young eternal until she disappeared around a stone brick corner. Shaking her head, Militia sighed deeply.
"She's not going to last a week like this…"
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
Taylor was now making her way through her own neighbourhood, head like a normal human's, costume packed away, and a fatal bullet wound disposed of in a back alley not very long after leaving Militia and the police.
One Lung and fourteen E88 arrested, a warehouse of guns reclaimed, a sack of money acquired, and a handy duffel bag that came with it to store her things. Like her old, melted clothes that she replaced with some from a late-running clothes store. Taylor chuckled at the memory of the clerk's face when she walked in there. In fact, everyone's reactions were rather amusing when they first meet Styx.
Trotting up her home's front garden footpath, she subconsciously stepped over the previously broken front step that Valka had fixed for them. Taylor began reaching for her key but then sighed in annoyance that she had it on her when Lung tried and make roast meat out of her. She'd have to ask her dad for a new one. Or maybe, Valka could restore her old one. Regardless, this time Taylor had to make a trip back to the front garden and pick up one of the plant pots to reveal the dulled silver gleam of the spare key. Putting the pot down, Taylor walked back up to the door and unlocked it, only opening a small creak to put her duffel bag in so that she didn't get locked out again when she was returning the key.
Once that was all finally said and done, and Taylor was back inside, she heard the faint noise of the TV playing. Placing her bag down in the front hallway, Taylor moved into the living room and found her father passed out on an armchair, the TV playing faintly in the background. A scene that she had seen before, if not with a little more alcohol involved and a little more depressing. Pleasantly, there were no bottles laying around Taylor's father this time. Giving a smile, Taylor took a nearby blanket that they always kept in the living room and lay it over her father, kissing his forehead before leaving into the kitchen. There, there was a plate covered in aluminium foil with a large lump in the centre and a note on top of it.
'Great work kid!' it read, in Valka's handwriting. Taylor felt a swell of pride from the confidence that her mentor had in her. Taking off the foil, it revealed a slice of steak along with some roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes. Likely also a courtesy of Valka.
Reaching for the cutlery draw for something to eat with, Taylor paused halfway. An idea forming in her head as a devilish smile spread across her face, Taylor moved back to her meal. Sure, her idea wasn't going to be the most practical, but it surely was going to at least be a bit fun.
Holding out her hand, and with a small bit of energy pushed forth, a knife appeared in her hand. Ready to eat her dinner with.
Taylor smiled. She knew this was where the fun began.