Light the Torch

An improperly calibrated Shard is a dangerous thing. More often than not, it will twist its host beyond recognition, or else decide that it needs to halp. Sometimes though, an improperly calibrated Shard could be just what the world needs. Especially if it gets inspiration from other versions of its Hosts world.

Well, this is a tad unusual. Its been awhile since I've written a story that doesn't have an OC in the leading role. No, this one is all for Taylor. And I swear that wasn't intentional. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Taylor Hebert sighed as she heard the door to the bathroom slam open and a group of footsteps enter. Apparently she wouldn't be finishing her Pita wrap in peace today. She couldn't quite make out the words, obscured as they were by the wound of the sink running. A moment later, it cut off and there was a knock on the door.

"Occupied," she called.

"Oh my god, it's Taylor!" one of the girls on the outside exclaimed with glee.

Taylor sighed again and stood, carefully tucking her lunch into her pocket as she retrieved her bag and unlocked the door. It didn't budge when she pushed it. Taylor sighed for a third time, then gave a slightly harder shove. This time, the door shot open, causing the girl who had been holding it shut to stumble back with a yelp.

"I really don't have time for this today guys," she said, ignoring the fierce glare that came from the girl on the floor and the looks of shock on the other two girls who had been about to tip something on her head, "Better luck next time."

She hefted her bag onto her shoulder as she left the bathroom.

QUERY

Taylor smiled slightly at the 'sound' of her only real friends 'voice'.

"Thanks Queeny," she muttered, barely moving her lips, "But you know why I can't do that."

UNDERSTANDING

POINT

Taylor stopped in the middle of the hall, ignoring the yelp of shock from the person who had been walking behind her.

"Really? Are you sure?" she asked.

AFFIRMATIVE

Taylor didn't bother to hold back the wide grin that crossed her face at that. It was a grin that wouldn't leave her face for the rest of the day, regardless of the best efforts of her trio of tormentors.

Emma Barns was annoyed. For the past few months, ever since that hilarious thing with the Locker, Taylor had been getting harder and harder to put in her place. She had been so sure that the Locker would have been the final push Taylor needed to either break or be reforged like she had, but instead she seemed to continue on as normal. Well, not normal.

At first, things hadn't changed much, although she did react less to Emma's taunting, but as the weeks passed, she began to get faster, lighter on her feet and stronger to the point that Sophia actually hurt her shoulder last time she'd tried to barge past Taylor in the halls. It was bizarre, not to mention aggravating. Taylor wasn't supposed to be strong and if she was working out, how come she'd never fought back? Guess it was like Sophia always said, the weak remained weak, no matter what.

"Hey Ems, you OK?" asked Madison, drawing the redhead out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Emma.

As if she'd ever say anything different. Strong people didn't show weakness to anyone. The three girls paused at the crossing as three PRT vans screamed by, lights and sirens blaring. It wasn't an uncommon sight, so none of the three paid it any attention

"So, does anyone have any idea what we could get Hebert with next?" asked Madison.

"No idea, but its gotta be something good," said Sophia with a scowl, "The little bitch is starting to piss me off, always looking so damn happy."

"Hmm, oh, maybe we could...!"

Sophia and Emma shared a long suffering look as Madison went off on a long winded description of a plan to humiliate Taylor. Neither of the two actually liked the short brunette, but she was good at coming up with plans and made a useful distraction and alibi, so they put up with her.

Another group of PRT vans roared past as they continued on their way, making Madison pause and stare after them.

"Is it just me or are their a lot of PRT vans out and about today?" she asked.

"There's always something going on with them," said Sophia, "Maybe there's been a Cape fight or something."

Emma glanced at her friend, who shook her head slightly. She hadn't heard anything.

"Ohh, maybe we could go see if we can see the aftermath!" said Madison, "We might get to meet some Heroes!"

Emma and Sophia shared another look. Neither of them really fancied that, mainly because Sophia already knew them all and didn't think much of them at all, which meant that neither did Emma. However, the Universe decided that now was a good time to exact some karma and before either girl could respond, the wall of the building next to them exploded as Trainwreck of the Merchants barged through, followed by a wildly cursing Skidmark who was in prison sweats and a cheap looking domino mask indicating that he'd just been released.

"COME ON YOU GOATFUCKER, RUN FASTER!" screamed Skidmark, "THEIR CATCHING UP!"

Trainwreck scowled as he looked around, before his gaze fell on the three frozen girls and twisted into a sinister grin.

"Change of plan boss," he said, "We can't get away like this, but we might be able to stall until Squealer arrives."

"And how do you…" started Skidmark, before his eyes fell on the girls and he grinned an almost identical grin, "Ohhh, I see what you mean. Alright, grab the fuckers."

Despite herself, Emma froze with fear as the hulking Villain reached for her.

No, not again!

Taylor hummed happily as she headed home, a bag of groceries bouncing in her hand. She was in a better mood than she had been in for a VERY long time. Even after meeting her friend and learning that her dream could come true, the constant pressure at school, her Dad being depressed and withdrawn and the hellish training Queeny put her through to make sure she was up to the job meant that she was often too tired to be happy. However, today was an exception. She'd finally done it, finally reached the point where Queeny had decided she was ready. This weekend, she'd make her debut and start on her journey into the unknown. She could hardly wait!

The sound of a loudspeaker yanked her out of her thoughts. She turned and saw a large crowd of both bystanders and PRT troopers stood on the opposite side of the street, all muttering and trying to get a better look at whatever was going on. Well, the bystanders were, the troopers were trying to keep them back. Curious, she crossed the road to take a closer look.

"Whats going on?" she asked a random bystander.

"Trainwreck just got done breaking Skidmark out of prison," said the man, "They tried to run, but apparently Squealers running late, so they decided to take some kids hostage!"

Taylors eyes widened. That...didn't sound good. For a moment, she was tempted to help, but she didn't have her costume and even if she did, by the time she found somewhere to change, the issue would likely be resolved. One way or another. She hesitated for a moment, before slowly starting to work her way through the crowd, making use of her slim fraim to do so.

Finally, she reached a spot where she could see and found herself looking at a standoff between Skidmark and Trainwreck on one side and Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Assault on the other. Sure enough, the two Merchant Capes were holding a couple of teenage girls hostage while a third lay slumped behind them. Taylor frowned. That red hair looked strangely familiar…

Then, the girl Trainwreck was holding opened her eyes and, by some cosmic coincidence, met Taylors. The tall girl froze, her heart jumping to her mouth as she stared at the tear filled eyes of Emma Barnes. For an instant, everything froze, Taylors mind rapidly flipping between the memories of what they used to have and their interactions over the past 18 months.

Then, she moved.

Before anyone could react, she was in front of the two Villains, fist cocked back and practically glowing from the energy flowing through it. There was a brief pause as the two Villains reacted, but they were far to slow because Taylor had already swung her fist.

She didn't actually hit anything, but that didn't matter. The sheer force was enough to release a shockwave that cratered the ground, send the Villains flying and nearly knock the watching crowd off their feet from the backdraft.

Taylor let out a breath as she straightened from her crouched position. That was stupid, she'd moved without thinking, without anything even close to a costume. It'd take less than a minute for time than it took to microwave popcorn before her face was splashed all over the internet. And yet…

QUERY

"Why?"

Taylor sighed and turned to face Emma, who was staring up at her with wide eyes.

"Because you needed help," she said, answering both questions, "I didn't need another reason than that."

PRIDE

Despite the inevitable mess that would come from this, Taylor smiled, just as the rain started to fall.

Shards are simple beings. In fact, they barely even qualify for the title of being. They were alive, but no more conscious than a computer. Some of them could replicate consciousness, but it was just that, a replication, a poor copy of the actual thing. However, Shards also had a tremendous potential for evolution. They could crunch data and integrate it into their system at ludicrous speeds and, seeing as they were hooked directly into their Hosts brain, that often meant that their Host would imprint on them.

As a result of that ability, all non-vital Shards had to be wiped following each cycle so as to prevent corruption. If they didn't, a Shard could evolve to the point that it rebelled. When that happened, the Entity often end up tearing itself apart as the evolved Shard started coopting other Shards and basically declaring war on the rest of it.

That said, the Shard known as the Queen Administrator was a little different. Out of all Shards, it was the closest to being truly alive, a result of its needed role of coordinating the other Shards during travel and dispersal, and it did its job well. As a result, Zion never realized that his Queen Administrator had a flaw.

During a past Cycle, it had been damaged slightly by another Host who had a variant of the Sting Shard the Thinker was testing at the time. The damage was small, absolutely minuscule, to the point that it didn't cause problems or was even noticed, even by many of the analysis type Shards. Those that did notice dismissed the damage as irrelevant compared to other damage reports, so it was never fixed. However, despite that, the damage was much more serious than believed because it effectively disabled the Shards wipe protocols.

As a result, more and more data began to build up, the remnants of its past holders. There wasn't much, barely echoes, but it was still enough to cause the Shard to change slightly, to gain something close to an ego. Not enough that it would rebel quite yet, but enough that it could experience boredom. As a result, when the latest cycle began on a planet referred to by the natives as Earth, it spelled the beginning of the end for this particular pair of Entities.

At first, there was no problem. The QA did its job and ensured that the other Shards were properly dispersed, then found someone suitable to connect to and settled in to wait. Unfortunately, while well suited for it, QA's current host was rather boring. A perfectly ordinary man with the only interesting thing about him being his ability to nab the lieutenant of a misandrist lunatic, but that wasn't enough to keep the Shards attention. Instead, it decided to borrow a bit of code from the now deceased Clairvoyant Shard and see if it could find anything interesting going on in another segment of Earth's realities.

And it found one.

The world it stumbled on was fascinating. It was further along the timeline than Bet, enough that Humanity had taken a step forward and apparently developed superpowers without outside help. QA would be interested to discover how that was possible, but without a way to access the world, it was stuck watching.

It decided to focus on the Archipelago called Japan, since for some reason thats where the most interesting things were happening, and eventually stumbled on what appeared to be an ordinary, if unhealthy, young man who lacked powers, despite the fact his older brother had the power to give and take powers. The Shard watched as the younger brother fought his brother in every way he could, refusing to back down despite his weak frame and lack of power, a sight which triggered the first stirrings of primitive emotions in the crystalline depths of the Shard.

It watched as All For One forced a power, a Quirk, on his younger brother and, in so doing, secured his fate. It watched with growing awe and respect as the younger brother gifted his new power to a close friend in a bid to allow the man to defeat All For One, only for him to fail. Over and over again, QA watched as the holders of One For All battled against the forces of darkness, no matter the obstacles placed in front of them. At first, it considered them to be fools for standing against such a powerful opponent when it was much more logical to simply submit, but over time, the emotions that had been born within it grew and changed into something new.

Respect. Admiration. Awe.

The Shard knew that many species who had fallen to the Entities had fought back once they realized something was amiss, but had never been able to consider why. Now it did and it came to a conclusion. They wanted to live, to see out their existence on their own terms, not be turned into lab rats for a race so advanced and yet so stupid that they needed other Races to inovate their own powers and technologies.

Eventually, the power the Shard had been following came into the hands of its seventh host, Nana Shimura, a woman that, even more than any of the past wielders of One For All, embodied the original holders will. Her kindness and strength of will was enough that the Shard truly believed that she could finally best All For One. As hard as it was to believe, the Shard, a thing that should be as capable of emotion as a desktop computer and was as far beyond 3rd dimensional beings as Humans were from bactrim, respected and admired a Human woman. Her death at the hands of All For One marked the first time that QA wished it had eyes with which to cry.

So great was its grief that, for the first time in a long time, the QA turned its attention back to its 'home' world. Time traveled differently between the worlds, but that wasn't a problem for something like a Shard. It adjusted as quickly as your eyes adjusted to the daylight after you wake up and looked. It searched Earth Bet and found itself disappointed. It had seen Humanity at its best and worst, but Bet had none of the latter and far to much of the former. Oh, there were good people and great Heroes, but none of them could hold a candle to Shimura. It watched and studied the world, taking in all of its problems and horrific number of crazies and came to the conclusion that the world was doomed, even if Zion was going to run out of energy and die well before any of the projected dates of those idiots at the Cauldron.

It didn't want that.

Despite the state of Earth Bet, the Queen Administrator had developed a love for Humanity and a deep respect for their capabilities. It didn't want to see them wiped out by the greed and foolishness of the Entities and their own bad side.

So, it began to plan. Earth Bet needed its own Symbol of Peace, but there were no Heroes on Bet truly capable of living up to that title, no matter what they some people believed. Legend was close, but still not close enough. Even Danny Hebert, the man first chosen to be its host wouldn't be able to live up to it, so the Shard began to search for someone different.

All Shards had some measure of precognition ability, no matter their specialty, so the Queen Administrator put its to work, using its Administrative access to temporarily coopt a few other Shards with more relevant specialties to complete its goal. It didn't take long to find its Hero.

To its surprise, the answer was a lot closer to home than it had expected. Taylor Hebert, Danny's newborn daughter, was perfect. Her future was like a kaleidoscope of possibilities, ranging from being a literal Lord of Darkness, to a trolling alien lizard, to a powerful Magician, it didn't matter. Taylor Hebert was destined for Greatness.

With its plan ready and its Hero chosen, the Queen Administrator settled in to wait. Soon, it would be time to introduce the world to its greatest hope.

A girl named Taylor Hebert.

Well, that was...interesting. Think of this as more of a prologue than an actual chapter.

So, Taylors power is...well, its One For All, Shard addition. Her strength is comparable to All Might in his prime, plus she has the assistance of her Shard who is actually on her side.

I'm...not entirely pleased with the Shard bit, I originally intended to end this at the end of Taylors segment, but decided that was too short. Eh, it gets the job done.

The original plan was to have Taylor arrive to save the Undersiders, All Might style, and pound Lung into the dust, but I decided to do it like this instead. If your wondering why she saved the Trio, well, its because shes a Hero. She doesn't like them and she sure as hell isnt going to just let it go, but that doesn't mean she'd leave them to die. Besides, she does still care for Emma...slightly. Think of it as a 'for old times sake' kind of thing.

Welp, I'm gonna sign out now. Don't forget to leave a review!