As promised, I counted what people voted on from both FF net and Ao3 and tallied them up. The winner was option 2, so you're all getting to see the hangout with Vicky I promised two chapters ago in the Bank heist! Thank you all who participated and also all who left other review in the meantime (Special shoutout to 'yukicrewger2' for not only being the first to review chapter 10 but also singlehandedly making me change what Dina's alias is going to be).
You might have also already guessed what Dina's costume might look like from the updated cover art. I intend to update it for each new addition to the team until a certain point (there's a contextual sneak-peek for you ;D)
I'll also admit that this chapter took longer than I wanted or promised it to be, so sorry all for that one. I'll just that I feel… mixed on the result. This chapter is primarily all dialogue, and as a dumbass with sub-par social skills, I'm not sure how it came out despite how smoothly it flowed when writing. I'd love to get some feedback for that so don't hold back!
But with that all out the way, I'll let you get to what I promised you all.
"Thirty-five, thirty-five, thirty-five…" Taylor muttered as her gaze switched between a small piece of paper she held and the street numbers that were passing by as she walked. The paper was crumpled and the ink on it was a little smudged – a biproduct of being left in Taylor's jacket pocket for a good few days – but it still held the address that she and Victoria Dallon had agreed upon. The one they had decided to meet at, just after their scuffle of misunderstanding at the bank heist. It was a 'nice and quiet, family-run place' in Victoria's words, a place she semi-frequented as there weren't as many people there to ogle at a hero with a public identity. Or a rather eye-catching alias, in Taylor's case.
Speaking of; whilst the excitement and surprise of seeing a person with a flaming head covered a stylistically modified firefighter's outfit from below the neck had died down, some of that intrigue had been rekindled today. This was largely part due to Taylor wearing one of her more casual outfits, specifically one that Valka had forced into her wardrobe after being affronted by the number of dark hoodies Taylor owned.
Taylor now owned a sufficiently smaller number of hoodies.
And so instead of her previously typical choice of casual dress, Taylor now had a rose-coloured cardigan over a brown and cream striped shirt, a black knee-length skirt, and some thematically dissonant chunky combat boots. A look that four months ago Taylor would have dreaded even thinking about using. But now she could do so without a second thought. Maybe it was that nobody could recognise the flaming-skulled hero with the curly-haired Taylor, or the fact that she now had powers in the first place and that they gave her an untold boost in confidence. Maybe it was just spending three months, day in and day out, with Valka – someone who was not only the poster child of 'I do what I want' but had also been what she had been through before. The first one to go through what Taylor was.
And that effect on Taylor was probably what led the youngest Lazarinthian to an almost hole-in-the-wall venue to meet a famous and publicly known heroine in not a professional manner, but a friendly one.
Taylor opened the door to the venue, causing a bell to chime. The interior was sleek and well-cleaned, with a warm inviting feel to the whole room. The room itself was more like a large hallway, with booths on one side and a counter running down the length of the other. First appearances told Taylor that it was some kind of café, which would be news to her as Victoria had neglected to mention what kind of place they were going to meet outside of it being food-related.
The cushioned chairbacks of the booths were taller than head height, so Taylor had to search each one until she finally spotted a bright blonde-haired girl. Who was apparently chatting with a girl with frizzy brown and curly hair?
"Oh, Hey," was what Taylor greeted with.
Being interrupted, Victoria turned to face Taylor with a camera-practiced smile.
"Styx! Glad you could make it, I thought you weren't going to come for a minute there,"
"Had a bit of trouble getting here, not exactly a famous place." Taylor returned with a grin. Well, what she hoped was something akin to one, she had no idea how it translated to a skull with no bottom jaw. "I see you also brough Panacea." Taylor shifted to face the second girl, "Heya."
"Hi."
That was all Taylor got in return.
"Amy here isn't really a 'people person'," Victoria said.
"Hm. I'll see about that."
Amy glared at Taylor. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I've been told that I've recently developed an amazing personality." Taylor returned with a pretend flick of her currently absent hair.
Amy just rolled her eyes as Victoria covered a giggle.
Taylor silently smiled to herself before speaking again. "Anyway, should I squeeze in there with you, Victoria? Or are you going to move over to Amy's side? I'd sit with her but last time we got near… wasn't pleasant."
"Oh, yeah, I'll swap over. I never did catch what happened there." Victoria said as she shuffled out of the seat and table and moved to the other side of the booth. "Oh, and please, call me Vicky!"
"Well, Vicky, you didn't really ask many questions between beating half my skull in. A bit hard to talk during that." Taylor snarked slyly as she replaced Victoria's previous seat.
"Again, I am so sorry about that." Victoria winced. "I really did think you were tougher."
"Sometimes I am. But I'm still trying to get my powers to start the super-durability by themselves instead of me having to do it manually." Taylor explained.
"Okay, I'm just saying it; Your powers are confusing." Victoria leaned over the table. "You've got to explain them, or I am going to literally explode from not knowing."
"Figuratively, Vicky. You wouldn't literally blow up." Amy corrected. Vicky blew in her face in response, causing the mousy girl to flinch, and therefore, lose.
"Okay, maybe. But first I'd like to circle back a bit," Taylor interrupted the two. "All I know was that Amy…" Taylor paused to push the memory out of her mind and find a different word choice, "…introduced me to her lunch, and then you came bursting in."
Both Vicky and Taylor turned to Amy, expecting an answer. Boxed in, Amy relented somewhat.
"I… I don't really want to explain it." Amy deflected.
"Booooo." Vicky jeered.
"I bet it was food poisoning." Taylor mock-whispered to Vicky. "Ate something she wasn't supposed to."
Amy levelled a stare at Taylor. "If this is how you get people to like you, then I'd suggest getting some new material." She said flatly.
"Well, the day's not over yet." Taylor glanced at Vicky. "And it seems that it's at least working on someone…"
Vicky quickly tried her best to get rid of any evidence of her silent laughter at Taylor's comment towards Amy. Amy, unconvinced by this effort, slapped the back of Vicky's head – which did nothing thanks to the latter activating their forcefield. Taylor, spotting this, had a thought.
"Tell you what, how about we order something, and then I'll trade you two. I tell you about my powers, and you tell me about yours in return." Taylor suggested.
"I like that idea!" Vicky smiled, reaching over Amy and picking up a menu from the stand before sliding it to Taylor.
Soon, the three girls had picked out drinks and a main course. To the waiter's credit, he only spent five seconds staring open-mouthed at Taylor's head before composing himself and taking their orders.
Vicky finished a large slurp of her smoothie before speaking. "Okay, first question, I've just gotta know, just what even are your powers?! I follow PHO, and from what I've read, you have…" she began counting on her fingers, "…super strength, durability, fire control, weapon teleportation and intangibility, and I know firsthand that you also have flight and that weird ghost-arms thing."
"Material astral projection." Taylor corrected. She then proceeded to show off my conjuring one of the astral arms, which did in fact bear a striking resemblance to Vicky's description.
"Yeah, that. That's dipping into at least seven of the twelve power classes, and that's if you aren't hiding any thinker or tinker powers away."
"And what about the others? I might be a scary master or stranger." Taylor joked.
Amy nodded. "True, you could be controlling us right now into thinking you aren't completely unbearable," she said with a completely deadpan expression. Taylor did her best to convey a coy expression.
"Well, that obviously can't be it. Which only leaves…"
It took Vicky a moment, but her eyes lit up in realization when she finally got what Taylor was implying. "A trump! Of course! That's why you've got at least half a dozen new powers every time you fight someone! I'm an idiot."
"None of us will deny that." Amy took a sip of her drink through the straw she had.
Deciding to throw Vicky a little bit of a bone, Taylor picked up the line of thought. "I've also got some natural changer with the whole, y'know," she gestured, "and from what I can tell, the trumping would technically be classified with a bit of brute as well."
"Huh? How?"
Taylor tsked at Vicky. "Uh-uh. I've given you one, so now it's your turn." She leaned over her drink towards Vicky. "What's something that most people don't know about your powers?"
Vicky took a moment to consider before beginning her answer. "Well, I did say I'd tell you about my powers in return. Okay, okay then." She leaned in close. "I'm not actually a textbook Alexandria package, it's all a forcefield. It's like… oh, how should I describe it? It's… like a hoverboard."
"A… hoverboard?" Taylor echoed with great scepticism.
"Augh, look, I tried. It's like a bodysuit that moves how I want it to, and it… moves better than other things.
"Moves better."
"Yeah, like gravity, other things, that sort of stuff. People."
"…I guess that makes sense?" turning away from the horrific explanation, Taylor looked at Amy. "And what about you?"
Amy was mildly stunned for a moment. "And what about me?"
"What's something most people don't know about your powers?"
Amy furrowed her brow. "I'm not telling you that."
"But that was the deal,"
"No, that was just you and Vicky."
"I said that I'd make a trade with you two. I heard no objections then."
"Fine. But that's unfair. You get two questions for one."
"Alright, I'll cede that." Taylor nodded and gestured to Amy. "Ask away then."
"…No." Amy decided.
"No?"
"I don't want to participate. And if I don't ask a question, you don't get to ask one either."
"Darn, she's good," Taylor said, mock-conspiratorially, to Vicky which elicited a giggle from the girl. "Well, I guess that means it's your turn again if she doesn't want to join in."
"Well, more for me then. Okay, then how about this? How many powers have you got from your trump one? And what are they?"
"Oi, oi, that's two questions," Taylor said in a playful but disappointed tone.
"Fine, what are your powers from you trump one? I'll just count them." Vicky crossed her arms.
"That'll be a surprise," Amy commented from behind her drink. Vicky blew some drink residue from her straw at Amy, making them flinch away.
"Enough you two." Taylor chided with no real authority. "To answer the questions, I'll list my powers in order of getting them. First, we've got some standard brute stuff; strength, durability, reflex."
"Except you forget to 'turn on' the durability, apparently." Amy criticized sarcastically.
"True," Taylor admitted. "But next is a blaster ability, pyrokinesis. Got that one from fighting Lung."
"LUNG? You fought him?! Wait – is that why nobody's heard anything from him for a while?" Vicky exclaimed.
Taylor shrugged. "Probably. I told Armsmaster that I didn't really care if I got credit for capturing him, but I guess they still don't want to publicly admit me for showing them up." Taylor paused. "…What's with the face?"
Vicky was staring open-mouthed at Taylor. Even Amy had both eyebrows raised in surprise.
"I… I thought you just beat him in a fight! Or at the very least piss him off into sulking out of sight for a few days because he couldn't beat you. You're saying you actually got him?!"
"I mean, yeah, but we're getting off track. I'm supposed to be telling you about what powers I had, remember? Now where was I…? Oh yeah!" Taylor continued despite the two Dallons still grappling with the fact that Taylor, or at least her Styx persona, had taken down perhaps the heaviest hitter cape in their city. "So, after that was the weapon teleporting shaker power that I got from saving Miss Militia from some goon. Next was the breaker intangibility from getting stabbed by Crusader's ghost, finally it was the mover flight and brute, or maybe low master, astral projection after you bonked me a bit too hard."
Even when Taylor finished, it took a whole ten seconds for the other two girls to mentally catch up with the conversation. After that, it was a barrage of follow-up questions from Vicky. Taylor did the best she could to answer the rapid-fire interrogation until the other girl had finally settled. And that was only because their food had arrived.
"Wow, this really is good Vicky. I'm glad you chose the place." Taylor commented. Her words were partially obscured by the easily identifiable sound of having food in one's mouth – something that greatly interested Amy. Most likely due to Taylor not having a mouth to speak of (or from) at the current time.
"Okay, how are you doing that." Amy glared at where Taylor's mouth should be with unveiled curiosity.
Taylor paused in her eating. "Doing what?"
"Eating. You shouldn't be able to."
"Why not?"
Amy glowered at her.
"Okay, fine, fine. But if you want to know that you're going to have to answer a question of mine in return. That how this works you know."
"Really? You're going to make me have to answer a question for that." Amy said disdainfully. Taylor shrugged.
"Has to do with my powers."
"Then pass."
"Oh, c'mon Amy, join in!" Vicky pleaded.
"Not for explaining how she's eating without a mouth I won't." Amy defied.
Taylor smiled at the two sisters, clearly seeing the relationship between the two. But even then, something seemed… off to Taylor when she looked between the two. But with the lack of certain thinker-like abilities that Valka had mentioned, she wasn't able to specifically determine just what the skewed feeling of the two was.
"Perhaps a question to ask…" Taylor thought.
"So going by the game, it's my turn now." Taylor reminded.
"Oh yeah, right!" Vicky put her utensils down to focus on whatever Taylor was going to ask her. "Go for it."
"Hmm… is that aura thing of yours really a shaker effect, or is it actually a master one?"
Vicky froze.
She had expected a number of questions to be asked, but that was certainly not one of them. She was ready to answer questions about her late aunt, about her horrible 'Collateral Damage Barbie' nickname, and more beyond that - but this was a complete curveball for the Dallon girl.
"I… uh…" Vicky worked her mouth, trying to make words beyond one syllable come out of it.
Taylor scratched the back of her skull awkwardly. "Okay, a bit of a loaded question I realize. I can ask something else if you-"
"No! No… no it's fine. I… I just didn't expect it. The only thing I always just hear about it is 'Victoria! Control your aura!', and nothing else about it." Vicky inhaled slowly. "But yeah. The PRT has officially classified it as a shaker power."
"And unofficially?"
"…we think they're just trying to keep good relations."
Taylor nodded. Only a tangential answer, but one that she could understand Vicky using instead of outright telling her. Master abilities were a scary thing to the general populace – people like Heartbreaker Nilbog prime examples to support such fears. And to find out that one of the most well-known teen superheroes was counted among their number, even if only by technicality, would have significant ramifications.
"Well then, I think I owe you an equally significant answer in return. So please, go ahead." Taylor nodded, sensing it'd be best to move the conversation away from the topic.
"Um, okay then. Then… how do you get your new powers?" Vicky asked.
"I die."
Taylor took a bite of her food.
Vicky and Amy stared at her.
Taylor took another bite of her food.
Vicky smacked her cheeks and Amy continued to stare.
"Sorry, I think I missed that. What did you say?"
"I die."
"Hm. Yeah, yeah, I thought so but just wanted to check. Hey Styx?"
"Yeah?"
"What in hell do you mean by that?!" Vicky half stood up as she raised her voice.
Taylor was having too much fun with this and continued to play around with her new friend. "There isn't much else to mean by it. I die, I come back, and then I've got a new power."
"If you- but that means- I, wait… does that mean, I KILLED YOU?!"
"…Yes? Didn't you notice at the time?"
"I saw you get up! I thought you were just taking a moment! Not that you were dead!"
"You were going pretty strong there, so I kinda died yeah. But hey, I'm fine now so no harm no foul yeah? Are you sure you didn't notice how hard you were going?"
Vicky cradled her head in her hands. "No! I… the whole thing was just like this one big fuzzy spot. All I remember was being really angry and just thinking 'Fight! Fight! Fight'…" she dragged her hands down over her face. "I'd never felt like that before, come to think of it."
"Vicky, you've been angry before." Amy pointed out. It was obvious she was trying to find something to ground herself with after Taylor's casual statement, the shake in her voice betraying her otherwise stoic expression.
"But…! I…! Ugh…" Vicky tried and failed to articulate.
"But never like this before?" Taylor still interpreted. Vicky nodded weakly at Taylor's complete guess. Subtly glancing at Amy (the task was extremely easy with no eyeballs to telegraph the motion), Taylor wondered if the girl had a similarly described experience when she made skin contact with herself. Actually…
"Could you describe touching me in a similar way, Amy? If you tried to heal someone who couldn't die, then I could only guess the sensation." Taylor asked.
Amy frowned. "I said I'm not-" she stopped when Taylor held up a hand. Quickly catching on Amy nodded. "Okay, fine, not part of the game. But… okay. I guess you could call it a similar experience. Not I didn't feel any anger, I just… yeah it was indescribable."
"In a good way, I hope." Taylor rested her skull in a cupped hand she was propping up on her elbow.
"In an interesting way."
"Interesting is good."
"Debatably."
"Okay, okay, you're both very pretty." Vicky interrupted, following Amy's lead and trying to get herself back to proverbially solid ground. The fact that she technically murdered someone, despite exactly how functionally immortal the person in question was, weighed heavily on her conscience and Vicky was in need of levity. And such need was not only identified by Taylor, but gave her and idea…
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
ROUGHLY 1 HOUR LATER…
"Bookie, Gloria Girl. Vicky, Bookie." Taylor introduced Dina's brand-new alter ego. Said alter ego was currently standing next to Taylor and in front of Vicky, all three of them having changed into costume (Amy had gone elsewhere since here powers weren't suited for 'out and about', as the girl put it). Dina, currently known as Bookie after a lengthy brainstorming session, had the costume that was drawing the most curiosity from the public going about their day.
Surprisingly her outfit wasn't all that flashy like Vicky's or obviously themed like Taylor's. It was a forest green velvet vest skirt matched with an even darker green skirt and an equally dark bowtie. She concealed her identity with a smiling mannequin mask that had two dots of red mimicking a blush. To complete the look, she had a Panama hat in yet another type of green, topped off with an exotic bird feather that nobody near the group of three girls could identify. But many could agree that it was quite a snazzy costume.
It was a quickly thrown-together design and soon subsequent gift from Valka, something Taylor mock-complained about having not also being treated to, right before the woman decapitated her. That had both traumatized and desensitized Dina to the two Lazarinthians' mortality-disregarding shenanigans.
"She's… A little young?" Present-day Vicky remarked with a head tilt.
"Twelve." Dina softly clarified.
"Jesus," Vicky swore.
Taylor nodded in solum agreement. "Yeah, but she's in a bad place. From what I've heard…" Taylor leaned closer to Vicky, speaking softly so that Dina didn't hear. "Both parents dead, and someone's after her."
"Holy shit," Vicky covered her mouth.
"Yeah, so I'm looking after her after my so-called 'mentor' dumped her on me. I mean, free sidekick I guess."
"And you're sure it's okay for her to come with us?"
Taylor nodded confidently and looked towards Dina, who seemed to grow a little in confidence in return. "I think so," the older girl said. "So long as we keep an eye on her, she can handle the rest with her power."
"Oh? And what is it anyway?"
Taylor gestured to Dina to answer, which after a little hesitation, she did. "I can predict how likely something is to happen, with percentages. And I can also make the outcome of other people's actions have a higher or lower chance of happening." She said softly.
Vicky's eyebrows had shot straight up. "Holy… a precog? And you can change things too?"
"Only a little bit… And only nearby…"
"Still...!" Vicky ran a hand through her long golden locks. "I can see why-" she quickly cut off when spotting Taylor giving her a look. "Yeah. Really good power."
"…Thanks…" Dina scuffed at the ground with her shoe.
"Now come on, let's go and look around, maybe wave to a few people. Have some fun." Taylor jumped back into the conversation, intent on starting the second half of their fun and getting away from the depressing and sensitive topic of Dina's recent past.
Vicky seemed to agree.
"Want to go by air?" She suggested.
"Nah. Dina can't fly yet, and it's more fun to freak people out by just walking along."
Vicky giggled – so did Dina, which was good. "I guess that is a positive." Vicky grinned. She then turned on her heel and began leading the way. "C'mon! Don't fall behind!" She then called back.
Taylor was about to start following but was interrupted by a tug on her jacket's sleeve. Looking down, she was met with the smiling porcelain-like face of Dina's mask looking back up at her.
"What do you mean that I can't fly yet?" she asked.
"I'm sure we can pester Valka into teaching you," Taylor replied.
Dina lowered her head, looking towards where Vicky was already being stopped by some fans. "…I'd like to do that."
Taylor smiled, and yet nobody would know.