Blaze a New Path
Sometimes, all it takes to change ones fate is to make a single choice. Taking ones fate into their own hands can be the hardest thing to do, so some help is always nice, even if it does come from superpowers. All you need to do is make sure you make the choice you won't regret.
Well, this got a better response than I was honestly expected. Lets see if we can do more with this entry. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," said Taylor as she and March left Fugly Bobs Burgers, her friend looking incredibly pleased with herself and the oversized T Shirt she had draped over her arm, "Or that you managed to finish that entire Challenger."
March snickered as she tucked her prize away…somewhere.
"There are a lot of benefits that come with the Path of the Trailblaze," she said, "Being able to eat basically anything and not suffer negative effects is one of them."
Taylor blinked.
"Wait, so you used the blessing of a god to…win an eating contest?" she asked incredulously.
"Yep," said March, "Now come on, theres more to see!"
She grabbed Taylors hand and dragged her further down the Boardwalk, stopping at the railing at the seafront where you could get an amazing view of the Rig framed by the entrance of the bay. March eyed the sight for a moment, then pulled out her camera and took a picture.
"Why are you so interested in seeing everything?" asked Taylor, "Surely you've seen more impressive places?"
"Sure, but that doesn't make this place any less important," said March, "Every world has new sights to see, new memories to make. Thats what it means to be a Trailblazer."
She turned to Taylor and grinned.
"Besides, this world does have one thing that none of the others I've been to has," she said.
"Whats that?" asked Taylor.
March's grin widened and she pointed over Taylors shoulder.
"Superheroes!"
Taylor turned to see Glory Girl with Panacea in her arms fly over the Boardwalk and disappear.
"You've never been to a world with heroes?" asked Taylor as the two of them started moving again.
"Not like this," said March, "I've met heroes of course and powers are downright common, but the masks and secret identity thing? Nah, thats more like something out of one of Mr Yangs cartoons!"
Taylor snorted.
"Unfortunately, real life isn't much like a cartoon," she muttered.
From their, the conversation turned to more cheerful things as the two girls headed towards the Downtown area of the city. While the Boardwalk was set up for the rich and stupid, Downtown was much more reasonable and had a lot of interesting things to see. They spent some time wandering around, with March taking pictures of the historic buildings and statues and Taylor passing on what she knew about local history, mostly learnt from her Father and late Grandfather.
Eventually, the two of them found themselves in a hole in the wall cafe, enjoying a drink and snack as March went back over the pictures she'd taken with a satisfied look on her face.
"This has been a lot of fun Taylor!" she said, "We should bring Dan Heng or Mr Welt next time we come out."
Taylor frowned.
"Would that even be possible?" she asked.
"I don't see why not," said March, "You brought me out, didn't you?"
"I don't even know how I did that," muttered Taylor, looking down and stirring her drink.
March looked up and frowned at the look on her friend's face. She put her camara down and reached across the table, taking Taylors hands in hers.
"What's wrong Taylor?" she asked, "Didn't you have fun today?"
Taylor sighed and shook her head.
"No March, its not that, its…"
She trailed off, her gaze shifting of her friend to the window behind her as she tried to figure out how to tell her friend what was bothering her without sounding like a total bitch. It was pretty obvious at this point that Taylor did, in fact, have powers. Summoning friends from a space train made that rather obvious. She wasn't about to start questioning whether or not the Nameless were actually real or not, they were all far, FAR to animated for them to not be at least based on real people, not to mention the many utterly bonkers stories they'd told Taylor, but as a power it wasn't…exactly the best.
Masters were, after all, one of the most feared and reviled power types around for fairly understandable reasons. Even those who created projections or controlled animals were viewed with a certain level of distrust, which meant that they were severely underrepresented in the Protectorate. Even Game Master, the newest member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, had been viewed with a level of distrust before the aggressive PR campaign that culminated in a Protectorate wide DND live stream led by the new Master had done away with that. And he just had the ability to turn models into animated minions.
Her power on the other hand would set off every alarm bell the Protectorate had.
Even if she could prove that her 'projections' were…well, projections and that she didn't actually have any control over them, there was no way that she'd ever be left alone.
Plus, her powers made the idea of being a Cape basically impossible.
So yeah, how was she supposed to tell March, one of said projections and her best friend (and wasn't that more than a little sad), all of that without coming off as a massive bitch?
Just as she was starting to get her thoughts together, her idly wondering gaze landed on a woman with purple hair on the other side of the street. As if sensing Taylors gaze, the woman paused and looked over, meeting Taylors gaze dead on. Taylor froze as the woman smirked, winked and pressed a finger to her lips, before turning with a flick of the jacket she was wearing over her shoulders, revealing the black spider like pattern on the back. The same pattern that had been on a business card Taylor had found in the pocket of the jacket she'd been found under after she'd been saved from the dumpster.
Without thinking, Taylor jumped to her feet, ignoring March's startled yelp, and sprinted out of the cafe after the woman, a confused March on her heels.
In the far corner of the cafe, a newspaper dropped, revealing a young blonde woman who looked decidedly confused and not a little bit like she'd just seen a ghost. When the two new girls had entered the cafe, Lisa Wilborne hadn't thought much of it, just another couple of College girls looking for their caffeine fix.
That was until she had idly turned her power on them and nearly ruined the upholstery of her favourite armchair.
Instead of the standard response from her power, probably something about repressed sexual fantasies or possibly a hint about the girls proclivities involving questionable chemicals, Lisa's power had instead briefly hiccupped, before throwing back something she had never seen before.
A girl who once slumbered in eternal ice and knows nothing about her past. To find out the truth about her origins, she decided to travel with the Astral Express. As of right now, she has prepared about 67 different versions of her life story for herself.
She had no idea what any of that meant, but it was pretty fucking clear that that girl was no ordinary collage student and some kind of Cape, although she had never got a result like THAT from a Cape before either. The fact that her power had seemingly gone right back to normal afterwards was even more confusing, even overshadowing the fact that the girl was apparently really as nice as she appeared.
Confused and curious, Lisa turned her power on the other girl and got…
A girl who boarded the Astral Express. She seeks others to fill the hole in her heart and bears the touch of the Trailblaze.
More nonsense, followed by some perfectly normal results that, under other circumstances, would probably have hit every one of Lisa's heartstrings and had her approach the taller girl herself, but her confusion and trepidation at the unexpected and unexplained power interaction held her back. Instead, she stayed put and just watched the two, gathering what intel she could.
Plus, this would help later when Coil inevitably pointed her at the new Capes in town.
Now, as the two ran out of the cafe, Lisa got to her feet, folded her newspaper and tucked it into her bag, and left after them, making sure to stay well back as the two of them sprinted across the road and down another street.
However, before she could follow the two of them, an arm shot out of an alley and grabbed her, yanking her into the shadows. A gloved hand clapped over her mouth before she could scream and a sultry voice sounded in her ear, heavy with power.
"Ah, none of that now," the voice purred, "Don't scream."
Lisa felt her tongue freeze and her stomach dropped. Shit, a new Master was in town? This was bad!
"Good girl," said the voice, "Don't worry though, I have no intention of turning you into my puppet, I just need a quiet word with you."
Lisa swallowed as she tried to aim her power at the person behind her to get some idea of how to get out of this situation.
"I don't have any money," she said, "And I…"
She was cut off as her power responded and provided its answer.
A member of the Stellaron Hunters. A dashing, collected, and professional beauty. Used the enchantment of Spirit Whisper to set up Trailblazer to absorb the Stellaron. Her hobby is shopping for and organizing her collection of coats.
Oh hell, not another one!
"Yes, I'm sure," said the woman, "Fortunately, I'm not interested in money. No, I need you to carry a little tale to that slippery boss of yours."
Lisa's stomach dropped even further, if that was even possible. That was really, REALLY bad! For someone to do something like this, it meant that they cared even less about the Unwritten Rules that Coil did. At least he put up a front that he gave a shit! This woman had grabbed her out of costume! There weren't many people who would do that and all of them were either insanely powerful, completely insane or both. Neither one of those boded well for Lisa or the rest of the Bay.
"Oh, calm down Miss Wilborne," said the woman, "I have no intention of messing up your little game. All I need you to do is carry a message to your boss and that will be the end of it."
"Why not just Master me to do it?" hissed Lisa.
The woman huffed.
"Because asking is so much easier," said the woman, "Of course, there are other ways to deliver it, but I don't think we've reached that point yet. Better to just have one of his…employees to let him know. I'll even pay you for the trouble."
A white clad arm came into Lisa's view, holding a bundle of cash. Lisa ground her teeth for a moment, weighing her options, before she let out an explosive breath.
"Alright, fine," she said, "What's the message?"
"See, wasn't that easy?" said the woman, "The message is 'stay away from the Trailblazer and her friends'."
Lisa blinked.
"You mean that girl and her pink haired friend?" she asked.
"Exactly."
For a moment, Lisa was tempted to ask what their deal was, but she decided against it. Instead, she said:
"You know thats not going to keep him from going after them, right?"
"Oh, almost certainly," said the woman as she let Lisa go, tucking the cash into Lisa's pocket as she did, "But the warning must be given, as is in the script."
Lisa swallowed as she stumbled slightly before regaining her balance. The moment she had, she whipped around, drawing her gun from under her jacket as she did and aiming it at the purple haired woman who had grabbed her. Despite the fact that she now had a gun pointed at her head, the womans smug smile didn't shift.
"Alright, now that things are a bit more even, who the fuck are you?" snarled Lisa as she aimed her power at the other woman.
Fortunately, this time it worked.
Completely calm, not showing any indications of fear. Knew that I would do this, already prepared. Knows how this encounter would go down. Everything already planned out.
That was scary enough, but then her power went on with more utter nonsense.
Follower of Destiny's Slave, on the path of Nihility. No fear response at all. Psychology indicates origin on Pteruges-V.
Lisa's grip on her gun slacked in confusion at the competely unfamiliar terms that came from apparently nowhere. She had never experienced anything like this before where her power spat up things the outright couldn't' understand. She sometimes had to parse odd phrasing, but it was never this bad! The woman just chuckled as she unfolded her arms, revealing that she was holding a clip. The clip that had come from Lisa's gun as it happened.
"You should really try to be less predictable, Miss Wilborne," said the woman, "But I'll play along, as is fair. I am Kafka of the Stellaron Hunters. I'm sure we'll be great friends in the future~."
With that, she placed the clip on the ground and walked away.
"Bye bye Miss Wilborne, see if you can surprise me next time."
Lisa watched as Kafka vanished around the corner, before her legs gave way and she collapsed. She swallowed as she desperately tried to keep her lunch down. Somehow, despite the fact that she'd never threatened her once, that entire encounter was far more terrifying than any Cape fight she had ever been in.
It took a short while before she could stop shaking enough to operate her phone, but when she could, she immediately called Brian.
"Hey Brian," she said after the other Undersider picked up.
"Are you alright?" asked the Undersiders leader, "You sound shaken."
Lisa let out a slightly hysterical laugh.
"I've just had an encounter with one of the scariest people I have ever met," she said, "No, I'm not alright. Could you come and pick me up? We need to talk. All of us."
"Alright, but is this going to affect the job?" asked Brian.
Lisa hesitated.
"I don't think so," she said, "We'll see what the boss says."
"Great, that'll go down well," said Brain, "Alright, I'll be there in a few."
He hung up. Lisa let out a sigh and settled back against the all of the alley, utterly spent from the entire interaction. After a moment, she started to laugh as she imagined what would happen once Coil inevitably ended up poking Kafka and her mysterious group. She could hardly wait to see it.
You know, I originally planned for this chapter to have a fight, but this is a perfect place to end it. We'll save the Nameless making their grand entrance for next time I guess.
Mostly just bonding with March here, but Taylor really needs a friend, so thats fine. Also, a look into Taylors head, which is always a dangerous place to tread.
Game Master is a recent recruit into the Protectorate and has been a part of it for about 3 months. He has the power to animate and control models, turning them into full sized versions of themselves, complete with any abilities they might have. Yes, I did get the idea from Constellations, so all props to UnwelcomeStorm for the idea. The difference is, instead of military toys, he instead leans more towards DnD as a theme. He also runs a monthly Protectorate DND game that gets streamed and is remarkably popular among nerds for obvious reasons.
Oh my, Kafkas in town and has an interest in Taylor. I see no way THAT won't end badly.
And to make matters worse, theres something funky affecting Thinker powers. I'm sure THAT won't cause any problems for anyone.
Who wants to bet that Coil will actually heed that warning? Anyone? Didn't think so.
And with that, I'm going to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!
EDIT: Added a bit with Lisa experiencing some odd results with her power. This is not her power pulling the info out of nowhere either. I wonder what that indicates? Hehe, I'm just going to put this Chekovs cannon down over here...