[-/-/2021] EDIT: Extended chapter and made alterations to some of the story. Please read as to not be confused in future chapters.
/
"Another is awaking from a sleepless dream."
A woman's head turned to look at the one who spoke, straight raven black hair shifting around her shoulders as she did so.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
The other nodded their scaled head from the doorway. The woman sighed.
"Which one was she again? Twelfth?"
"Fourteenth." The other corrected.
"Constants..." The woman swore. She recollected herself. "I'll go to them then; you alert the others."
"Okay then, Valka. Good fortune."
"To you as well..."
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
Valka stood atop the tallest building in Brockton Bay, America, Earth Bet. Searching and waiting. She rolled a coin across her fingers to pass the time, and to starve off the growing anxiety that was building within her. She knew that they were here. Whichever man or woman to be cursed like herself was certainly in this city, the gradually converging energies were unable to lie to her.
It was ironic, in some way, Valka thought. A world being essentially being a puppet to a puppeteer of unfathomable being, and here in the very same place the most powerful thing they'd ever seen or will see is being born.
Perhaps, Valka thought, that it was those beings meddling that made the fourteenth birth here. Now that would truly be quite amusing.
A metaphorical hand yanked her out of her thoughts when a wave of power washed over the entirety of the Earth she stood on. It was close now. It was stronger now. She needed to bind it before it makes the threat the beings posed a preferable option.
It was time to find the fourteenth host.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
Taylor had no idea how long she was in there, the metallic storage that those witches turned into a torture device. Minuets? Hours? Probably not days, somebody would have noticed by then.
But, then again, nobody really cared about her. Plain old Taylor Hebert. Nothing special about her. Tall, lanky, needs glasses, wears baggy cloths. Who cares about boring old Taylor hebert?
That's why she was there in the first place, with no way out and toxic waste strewed around her feet. And the bugs. Oh god the bugs.
Tears fell down her face. Was it too much to ask to just go about her day without continues torture? Maybe it was. Maybe the world just hated her a little bit more than everybody else. Her sobs went unheard to all but herself and the skittering bugs.
Taylor simply began to feel tired. Not the kind as if you were sleepy, but just beginning to give up. And that was just what she was doing. Giving up. Taylor wasn't getting out of here. Taylor wasn't going to get a nice life. Taylor wasn't going to be anything special. She would have to put up with this shitty school, in this shitty city, on this shitty planet, forever. Or however long she had left.
Slowly closing her eyes, she wondered it would be like if things were different. If she was special.
'Oh well.' She thought, letting one last tear leave her stinging eyes and finally embracing the comforting dark.
And with that Taylor Hebert was, by official standards, dead. And without a single person to care.
O̵͇͝h̷̟͊ ̸̖̈ḧ̷̫́o̸̠͝ẁ̴ͅ ̶̰̇w̵̲̿ŗ̸́ō̸̰n̷̬̉g̸̺̍ ̸̧͠ṣ̷̚h̸͉̋ë̵̲ ̷̗̉w̴̡̎a̸̻̿s̸͈̔.̴̰̒
.
.
Valka pulled her cruiser motorcycle up outside what appeared to be a mangy and run-down school. The sun was now setting over the hills opposite the eastern bay, and the orange sky hung over the city like a blanket.
Valka sighed as she kicked up the stand to her bike, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her fluffy-necked parka as she strode into the grounds of the school. She scrunched her nose reflectively in disgust at the state of the school's halls. Graffiti, dirt and grime, trash... just some of the things that Valka saw during her walk.
The trail was slowly thinning, which meant one of two things. One: Valka was getting closer, or, two: She was running out of time. She really was hoping it wasn't the second one. Existing would be rather hard for most people otherwise.
Walking down another hallway, she stopped cold when a stench wafted over her from her left, coming from one of the lockers that had something dribbling out of the bottom. If Valka still had a gag reflex she might have coughed something up from her non-existent stomach. Valka was tempted to remove her nose entirely.
Wait a second... They were in there!
Without sparing a second, she dug her hand into the relatively thin metal and ripped the door off the hinges. Out from the locker came spilling used toilet paper and tampons, enough to make anyone physically gag. But along with those came a young girl, someone Valka estimated to be about fourteen to sixteen in age, with brown curly hair, glasses, and rather plain face. Or what was left of it, her first reignition was beginning and it was slowly melting her face off.
Not hesitating, Valka knelt down and began pushing her own raw power into the girl. The girl's body began convulsing as if being electrocuted, limbs spasming aimlessly. A bright light erupted from her mouth and eyes, showing her that it was working, and she was stabilizing the girl. Drawing her arm away, the girl's features had reformed back to their original look. Valka shook her head in dismay as she looked intently at the teen.
"I am so sorry this had to happen to you." She hugged the girl.
- - - - - Lazarus - - - - -
The sound of a motorcycle's engine roaring was what caused Taylor to stir back to the real of consciousness. There were arms reaching around her shoulders, a helmet on her head and someone sitting behind her. Wind lashed at her face, and without her glasses on she had to squint.
When Taylor fully came to, she involuntarily jolted in shock. The bike swerved to the side for a moment, the person driving obviously surprised by her sudden awakening.
This didn't help Taylor however who lost her own balance on the bike and fell off, screaming. Her right leg slipped under the bike, the bone inside crunching as the wheel rode over it. The following tumbling didn't feel any better as Taylor felt more of her bones break, skin torn off, and a left arm get bent the wrong way. Taylor screamed out in pain when she finally came to a stop.
"Shit." The motorcycle's driver swore as they swerved the bike into a stop as quickly as the could, kicking out the stand and dismounting. They dashed over to a weeping Taylor, who's tears weren't doing anything to help her see.
"Ah, ooh, I, ahh..." The woman, Taylor realized, winced as she looked down at the broken teen on the deserted rode. "Yeah, that's not good. You're still squishy."
"please..." Taylor coughed out in a gurgle, feeling the blood that had pooled in her throat. "please... help..."
"Yeah, yeah, kid, I got ya." The woman said as a jian sword appeared before her which she quickly snatched out of the air. She then raised it over her head, intent on bringing it down onto Taylor's neck. "Don't worry, this'll only hurt for a moment. And then you'll probably forget about it."
Taylor panicked. She started trying to use her hurting but unbroken arm to crawl away. The woman just rolled her eyes.
"Oh calm down, you'll live. Or, at the very least won't die I guess. Yes those are different things."
She then brought the sword down.
Darkness
Light
Movement
Darkness
Heat
Movement
Light
Warmth
Fire
FIRE
FIRE
F̴̞̪̉͋Ȉ̶̡̮R̸͚͂ͅE̵͖̅̉
Taylor gasped awake, shooting off of the side of the motorcycle she had been leaning on in her unconsciousness.
"Twelve minuets!" The voice from earlier remarked. "That's a new record! For you, that is! Ha!" They then laughed like they had made some joke Taylor wasn't aware of.
"Who... who are you? What's happening?" Taylor asked, scruntching her eyes as she rubbed her throbbing head. "Am... Am I dead?"
"Pff!" The woman hunched over as she tried desperately not to laugh. Eventually, she composed herself and took a deep breath. "No. No. You aren't dead. Far from it actually. Like pretty much the polar opposite." She then scratched her chin. "Though... technically you did die. Twice."
"I whAT?!" Taylor screamed, scrambling to her feet and staring at the lady. Doing this, Taylor was able to get a better look at the woman. Soft features, straight raven black hair that reached her upper back, deep red lipstick and an odd-looking cigarette held just away from her mouth.
"Hey, calm down Kid. You're fine now." The woman dismissed. "And it's why I'm here after all, to explain all this to you. From how I take it, most of this world's superpeople don't get this."
"Wait, wait, wait," Taylor motioned for the woman to stop. "Are you saying that I'm a parahuman?!"
"Huh? Oh. No. You're an Eternal." The woman answered.
"I'm a... huh?"
The woman sighed, tossing her cigarette to the ground and grinding it with her foot. She then turned to face her full body at Taylor.
"Okay, I think I should start from the top. My name is Valka." Valka motioned to herself. "I'm part of a group of previously thirteen people who have contracted a transdimensional bacterium called malaise which causes a condition that has been colloquially dubbed as 'Lazarus Syndrome'.
"This bacterium completely rewrites their host's personal dimensional structure, rendering them completely immune to any forms premature ceasing as to preserve the host and in turn themselves. This typically manifest as the ability to come back from the dead, as you have twice. Once from toxic waste poisoning, and once by decapitation which I'm sorry about by the way." Valka gave an apologetic look. "But this isn't the end of your new abilities, however.
"The second most prominent effect Lazarus Syndrome causes is to generate powers in relation of how you died. Death by sword? Maybe you can disconnect your body parts, or perhaps become very good a swordplay. Death by crushing? Perhaps your body will become super-dense or allow you to become intangible. You never really get to choose, but it'll always be related to how you die. The more you know how you died, or will die, the more you can narrow down what power will manifest."
"So," Valka finally finished, "Any questions."
Taylor did not answer, on the account that her head was spinning at just how much completely absurd information was just dropped on her as ceremoniously as a pallet of bricks.
"I-is this real?" Taylor asked, her mind finally catching up and freaking out. "This doesn't feel real. Maybe I'm still in the locker and this is all some horrifying fever dream. O-or maybe I really am dead! And this is some kind of fucked up punishment from hell!"
Valka winced at Taylor's reaction. "Look, Kid, I'm just trying to be as straight with you as I can. Be glad you didn't get Rouge, she'd be trying to explain the entire theory of perceptive reality at this point." Valka run a hand through her hair, letting out a sigh. "Which… I will need to give you a version of. Shit." She shook her head. "Look, just calm down, and ask me questions. I'll try my best to answer them for you."
Taylor did her best to calm down, which wasn't very much, and thought over what Valka had just told her.
"I-isn't Lazarus the person Jesus revived in the new testament?" Taylor asked.
Valka shrugged. "Probably. Can't say which name came first though, relative time is weird."
Taylor thought for some more before asking her second question. "What did you mean by 'previously' thirteen individuals?"
"Well, I thought that one would be obvious," Valka chuckled. "You're number fourteen."
"Oh." Taylor nodded, still slightly out of it. "Uh, you aren't from this world, are you?"
"Got it in one Kid!" Valka grinned. "And before you ask, I'm not from what you lot have called 'Earth Aleph' either. I'm actually from a variant earth that is completely disconnected from this dimensional series."
Taylor opened her mouth to ask what she meant by that, but thought it better to not and closed it again. Instead, she chose to fall back onto the motorcycle and lean on that, letting out a long exasperated breath.
"God this still feels like a dream, my head is just... spinning."
"Ah, yeah. Your body probably tried to make you faint at one point due to low blood pressure, but since your brain can still work without it, it's throwing your body into a biological feedback loop." Valka explained, leaning on the bike next to Taylor. "Again, I'm sorry for dropping all of this on you at once, but this is essential for you to know considering what you are now."
Taylor sat silently for a while without responding to Valka, running everything though her head. Despite everything she was just told, one thought permeated her mind greater than anything else.
"Could I be a hero?" Taylor asked softly, feeling a sense of embarrassment when asking it.
"Eh?" Valka raised an eyebrow.
"Could I be a hero?" Taylor asked louder, with more conviction in her voice.
Valka stared at Taylor, her face emotionless and unreadable. Her gaze then shifted to the ground, the streetlamps' light not reaching her face and making her all the more imposing. And then…
"AHAHAHAHAHAH!" Valka threw her head back and laughed a loud, bellowing laugh. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"…" Taylor blinked at the outburst of emotion. "So is that a…"
"Of course you can, Kid!" Valka whipped a grin to Taylor. "You never had to wait around for superpowers to be a hero! Admittedly, they do make the job easier… and you've got me to be a super cool mentor…" Valka scratched her chin in thought. "But I digress. I guess the only real answer I can give you is another question. What is your definition of a hero? Is a job to apply to? Is a label to brand yourself with? Is it a title to strive to?"
Valka shook her head with a smile. "But whatever it is, I think that you put the effort in, you can make any difference that you want, Kid." Valka told Taylor as she prodded her chest. "Just gotta have heart if you want it to be a good difference."
Taylor nodded at the older woman's words, understand what she meant by them. Then her head whipped around to face Valka.
"Wait you're going to train me?!" Taylor exclaimed in shock.
Valka grinned. "Of course! I'll at least give you the basics of how to handle your powers and some rudimentary combat training."
"I, uh, how, uh… Thank you." Taylor finally settled on after all her stammering.
"No sweat Kid." Valka rubbed Taylor's slightly curled hair. "Tell you what, I'll give you a lift home, help explain all this to your folks, and then pick you up again tomorrow for something less akin to a crash course. How does that sound?"
"Yeah… yeah that sounds good."
"Awesome. Put these on and let's get going then." Valka tossed a helmet and a pair of goggles at Taylor, which she caught and put on. She then got on the bike behind Valka, who had put on her own helmet and goggles, as she revved the engine and took off. It was only then that Taylor realized something.
She was going to have to explain all this to her father.
Shit.