An ant has no quarrel with a boot, but a bug-themed Nazi (or just a Nazi in general) sure fucking does.


Content Warning: Francis Krouse as POV character. He's less manipulative than other characters I've written but I felt it needed to be said.

Okay, so just to clarify (since I got a few questions about it), the Boardwalk section of last chapter, as well as this chapter, take place the Thursday after the Simurgh fight.


Despite her impressive showing at the Endbringer fight, Taylor was, strictly speaking, in no better a position against the Empire capes (and, potentially, the fourth cape riding on the odd spiky lizards, if she decided to come back) than she was against the Butcher earlier in the week. While she could, theoretically, unleash more energy through runic abilities for longer, that required her to draw in energy over a longer period of time than she'd been afforded, since she wasn't quite in the habit of maintaining her internal pool of energy with external energy around the clock like she had during the fight.

That said, despite not having any technical advantages over the version of her who had pushed the Butcher back, she had a better situation than the past version of her.

First and foremost was that, while still formidable, the trio of Hookwolf, Cricket, and Stormtiger was nowhere near the overwhelming physical threat of the Butcher, Animos, and Hemorrhagia. Even setting aside the massive advantages that were the Butcher's reincarnation and Animos' scream, Stormtiger and Cricket were nowhere as physically durable as Animos and Hemorrhagia, despite Stormtiger's defensive whirlwind that deflected most projectiles.

Furthermore, she was less limited in her energy pool, in that if she got the chance to duck behind cover for long enough, she could return to the fight almost as good as new.

But perhaps the single strongest tactical advantage they had was that, this time, Glory Girl had taken the initiative instead of her.

Aside from the immediate consequences of sending Hookwolf careening back and forcing the other two capes into evasive action, Taylor could feel an odd not-pressure against her head, which she took to mean that the blonde's aura was going full blast. That assumption was borne out by Stormtiger's shaking hands and Cricket's harsher-than-warranted-by-her-dodge breathing.

A further benefit of Glory Girl seizing the initiative was that the eyes of all three capes were primarily trained on her, an advantage that Taylor didn't hesitate to exploit.

The first warning that the two Neo-Nazis got was the chill in the air as the vertical line of isa drew itself in front of her. Stormtiger managed to launch himself up far enough that the ice that formed on the uneven ground of the Boardwalk closed around nothing, but Cricket didn't have aerokinesis augmenting her leap and as such flopped awkwardly to the ground.

To her credit, she reacted quickly, chipping away at her binding with her weapons, and Stormtiger hurled his invisible air blades at Taylor to distract and harry her.

Taylor ignored Stormtiger's attack, letting the mail of her armor turn his attacks aside, and flicked more power into the hovering rune. The ice surrounding Cricket's feet abruptly expanded, catching her weapons in midswing and leaving the woman awkwardly hunched over as it extended up to immobilize her up to her elbow.

"Secure Cricket," snapped Taylor, waiting just long enough for Panacea to nod sharply before she hurled herself into the air under hagalaz's power, flashing gebo and teiwaz to arm herself with a simple spear and become temporarily competent with the weapon.

Despite his being a Nazi, Taylor had to give him credit: even if he wasn't specialized in fighting in midair, especially in melee, he was acquitting himself decently, showing a decent ability to evade or deflect her attacks.

Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near enough to stand up to the combat ability Taylor could call upon.

The neo-Nazi's motion came to an abrupt halt as Taylor turned a desperately dodged thrust into a sweeping strike, shattering the man's knee and concentration both.

Before he could fall more than about three feet, Taylor was there, catching him with the haft of her spear under his arms and slowly lowering him to the floor next to an unconscious Cricket. Panacea's hand whipped out to touch the shirtless Stormtiger's chest, and he, too, was unconscious, letting Taylor release both the spear and the runes she was maintaining.

With that out of the way, Taylor turned towards the pair of Brutes still tussling.

Glory Girl was relying primarily on her enhanced mobility to launch hit-and-run attacks on the Nazi, which was admittedly the right choice despite the limited effects it was having on the more malleable cape.

"Disengage!" snapped Taylor, sowilo already charging up above her right hand, and without hesitation Glory Girl did so.

Hookwolf turned his bulk to glare at Taylor just in time to recognize the rune as some sort of attack, lunge at her to try and preempt it, and fail as a small orb of plasma shot forth, zigzagging to melt all four of his legs off.

The metallic form of Hookwolf shrunk as he rearranged his mass to recreate his limbs, only for the orb to return on its earlier trajectory, once again dismembering Hookwolf on its way back to Taylor.

A little warier, Hookwolf panned his head around, assessing the situation. The cape he had been chasing was well out of sight, and in between himself and his unconscious allies stood Panacea, whose death or even maiming would be just the excuse needed in order to unite the entire city, heroic or otherwise, against the Empire in a way that would almost certainly result in its fall, tenuous alliance with the Teeth or not. Staying to fight wasn't likely to work, between Volur (who had very nearly, according to Othala, killed the Simurgh) and Glory Girl he'd be tossed around like a ragdoll until they got bored or just blasted apart until he stopped fighting, one way or another, and so there was really only one option to take here.

"Tch," scoffed Glory Girl, watching the vaguely canid form of Hookwolf turn tail and flee, "I thought these Nazi assholes were supposed to be all 'fight to ze last, mein herren' and all that jazz."

Taylor laughed. "They have two Thinkers who are almost certainly specialized in tactics or strategy, between Victor and Clausewitz. If they were smart, or brave, they'd have taken over the damn city, and I give thanks every day that the Nazi species is naturally inclined towards cowardice, especially in the face of both dragons and Americans."

"Hear, hear," called Panacea, jolting the two as they'd forgot that she was there. "Now let's lock these assholes up and throw away the key already! I'm missing out on all the wonderful unproductive healing to counteract the effects of the gangs I could be doing," she grumped.

While they were waiting for the PRT to mobilize and collect Stormtiger and Cricket, Glory Girl turned to Taylor and frowned. "How are you so goddamn good at this? Like, it took me years to understand fighting in the way that I do, but here you are just breezing your way through combat like it's a fucking dance, and your tactical sense is incredible."

"I believe," said Odin, "that it's partially memory bleedover and partially Taylor taking on a divine aspect as the figurative god of capes, which makes Taylor supernaturally good at whatever things are associated with 'things that capes do' in the minds of the general public."

"GAH JESUS FUCK," shouted Glory Girl, starting violently enough to crack the concrete as she leapt into the air. "Who the fuck- is that fucking Odin?"

Taylor blinked. "Wait, you can see him now?" she asked.

"Hand," said Panacea, making grabby hands at her sister, who obliged and offered her hand to be an inspection point for Panacea's abilities.

"What do you mean, 'now'? Has this old man been hanging around you all the time and just been sort of invisible?"

"Uh… kinda? Your sister could see him too, if that helps," said Taylor.

"Not particularly," said Glory Girl. "I mean, what's changed with me that I can see him now?"

Panacea's other hand rose and poked Taylor in the cheek. "I mean, it could be gradual exposure, or some sort of long-term effect of him changing, or maybe even a shared hallucination, or-"

"Congratulations, Vicky," interrupted Panacea drolly, hands falling to her sides, "you're also a god. Given what you've described about your dreams and the changes to your behavior and costume, plus what Revel said… you've inherited Freyja's mantle, probably."

"What." Taylor wasn't sure who said it: her, Odin, or Glory Girl.

"Yeah, Revel was in touch with me and let me know this might be happening. You're still… I think the term Revel used was 'internalizing the divine mantle of your predecessor' which basically means that your body's getting used to the power before you get conscious access to it. I think the both of you are still going through it, since you didn't drink your god via Shard connection, but that's just conjecture based on what I know from my own experience and Revel's cryptic-ass bullshit." Panacea shrugged. "Eventually, you're going to have access to like actual godly power as well as your parahuman abilities, in Taylor's case in addition to whatever the Runes are doing, but what exactly it's going to be is anybody's guess."

Odin nodded. "As she says, your bodies are… growing, to be more capable of hosting a god's might. I believe Victoria was faster to adapt because Taylor here was… much diminished by the act of inheriting my power, whereas Victoria wasn't."

Taylor opened her mouth to cut in, but her bugs noticed something that changed her mind. "Let's table this conversation for later, and in private. PRT's incoming."

"Mark that as arrived," said the red blur that resolved itself into Velocity. Then, he surveyed the situation and sighed before pressing his finger to his ear. "Console, Velocity responding to the disturbance on the Boardwalk. Glory Girl and Panacea, in civvies, talking to Volur, with a subdued Stormtiger and Cricket and signs of Hookwolf."

Then, under his breath, he muttered "Always five minutes before my shift is over."


"What are we going to do, Krouse? Accord's probably not going to be mollified by just you running Cody off, and even if he is it's only a matter of time until someone else screws up and provokes Noelle into a rampage." Sundancer was visibly shaken, and no wonder- she'd been the one to interact with Accord, more than not, and the man was terrifying even when his rage was pointed at someone else.

He sighed, regretting the necessity of the lie that he'd run Cody off instead of letting the man sell him to the Yangban, but at least he could answer Mars' question.

"Well, Accord has seen fit to give us a… shall I say, a severance package. Namely, he handed us off to an affiliate of his named Coil in Brockton Bay."

Luke frowned. "What's Coil gonna do for us? We're already working with the best Thinker in the US and he can't help us, either with Noelle or with getting home," he asked.

"There's two particular reasons we'd want to go for Brockton Bay," said Krouse, allowing a pause for the purposes of suspense.

"Well?" asked Jess, understandably a little frustrated. She'd always been more sympathetic to Cody than him, and given the content of what he was about to say he couldn't fault her impatience. "Spit it out!"

"Brockton Bay is the home of two of the most powerful healers in the world," he said, fingers itching for a cigarette. "Those being Panacea and Volur. Coil has promised us access to both of them if we work out well enough for his particular goals, and hopefully we'd be able to use one of their powers to heal Noelle from… her condition."

Oliver and Jess exchanged a look.

"I think they should be able to heal at least Jess' legs as well, but I'm not sure how it'd interact with Oliver's power…" said Krouse.

With the spark of hope in Jess' eyes, hurriedly being buried under resignation, he knew he had another person on board with the move to Brockton Bay.

The boy in question just sighed. "As long as it helps Noelle," he said, the same kind of weary resignation in his eyes.

With the three of them on board, if not enthusiastically, Luke and Mars would at least fall in line, as long as it was for Noelle. This was something he'd leaned on a couple of times throughout the year and change they'd been in this strange new world, and he'd have to exploit it at least a few more times before the ride was done, he was sure.

In the Earth's orbit, the Simurgh didn't shift, even as she assessed the impact on her plans. Ultimately, without further data on the behavior of the-host-that-would-have-been-Khepri, she wasn't sure what the outcome of the Travelers' visit would have been, but she was more than willing to sacrifice these particular pawns on the altar of knowledge. The Eye didn't have her versatility, and she could count on other tools to unveil Cauldron if she needed to, but data on the anomaly that had obstructed Queen Administrator's host was priceless.

To that end, she turned her attention to her fellow Conflict Engines, the ones still dormant. It was a possibility, no matter how remote, that she could salvage the plan to create Khepri and destroy the Warrior Hub in accordance with High Priest's orders, but that required a certain level of forging of the host in question, and she already had the solution in mind.

She started the boot-up sequence for the Conflict Engines she had in mind, then performed what would have been an approving nod, to a human, in Shardspace. [Tower] and [Magician] would be an excellent test of Queen Administrator's host, and if she failed… well, QA could be seeded again, if need be.


And that's that!

Taylor continues to be oblivious to romantic intent, as one does.

Simmy, stop. You're making a mistake.

Me: I'm gonna finish the next chapter of There Is No Death! :D

Me, two new WIPs that I'm tabling for after this fic, probably, and a week and a half later: I didn't lie, I just failed. D:

That's about it, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!