Disclaimer: nothing here belongs to me.
Immediately after hanging up Taylor set off, roof hopping and hastily punching another number into the phone.
"Circ? This had better be good, we got problems." Glory Girl said, picking up on the third ring.
"Yeah, I know. Lung attacking the PRT building to break out Lee?"
"Yup. Could really use you here."
"Yeah…about that. Turns out, Bakuda has kidnapped the Undersiders and is taking a shot at minion-ising them. Big problem, I need to stop it."
There was a momentary pause, in which Taylor could hear wind noise- Glory Girl must have been flying.
"I'm gonna be honest, Circ, I don't actually see the problem." She admitted. Taylor sighed, making a psychic assisted leap between two buildings. She was getting closer to Tattletale, but it was going to take a few more minutes.
"Not a problem? Well, imagine the Central Bank debacle happening again. And then replace Regent and Hellhound with suicide bombers and give Grue a tinkertech weapon."
The pause this time was shorter.
"Shit."
"Yeah."
"Yeah, alright I see your point. Could really have used you against Lung though, so try to be quick? Good luck, Circ."
Taylor gave a gentle laugh.
"I'm not the one heading towards Lung, Glory. Good luck yourself." She replied. A brief chuckle was her only reply, before Glory Girl hung up and Taylor could focus on moving. Despite her levity she was concerned now: Glory Girl was tough, but Lung was Lung. He was…unprecedented. Taylor herself would want to avoid anything remotely like a fair fight with him, never mind a full contact physical brawl. Glory Girl didn't lack guts, that was for certain.
'So, do you have any plans before I go rushing in to confront a mad bomber and her inevitable terrified minions?' Taylor mentally asked, deciding that she might as well put up some semblance of planning this time. She didn't have that much experience with the ABB, but she thought that they were quite similar to the Empire in terms of basic thugs. Just with more focus on cheaply made katanas and poorly learned martial arts.
"IF YOU ARE INSISTENT UPON SAVING THE UNDERSIDERS, THEN IT IS BEST TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO FREE THEM ALL IN ONE ATTEMPT. OF ALL OF THEM YOU SHOULD FOCUS UPON THE GIRL, TATTLETALE."
'You think so?'
"YES. HER POWER ALLOWS HER TO STRATEGISE, TO PLAN, TO FIND INFORMATION. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER."
'Guard it well. Tattletale first, then, and Grue if possible. They have the most utility and would make it a lot harder to deal with Bakuda. Although I thought Lung wanted them dead…think there's some power plays going on in the ABB?'
"IT IS POSSIBLE. PERHAPS TATTLETALE WILL KNOW MORE."
'Yeah. I just hope that we can be done before Lung gets back. Fighting him wouldn't end well. Especially not fighting him alone.'
The Emperor grunted agreement: he and Taylor had discussed the possibility of facing Lung, and concluded that the best chance they had at the moment was to do as much damage as possible and run while he regenerated. Lung simply healed too fast for anything she had to put him down without a mind-frying psychic attack, which brought the issue of revealing her full power. Which, of course, she was actively trying to avoid. At least until her power had grown enough that she could handle herself against any hostility. But Bakuda shouldn't require such measures. She would just have to be careful.
Taylor paused when she reached the Trainyard, a section of the Docks opposite the shop-filled Boardwalk. She hadn't been here before: there wasn't much call for her presence, as The Empire rarely ventured here, especially in the kind of force that would attract her attention. Regardless, she knew her way around. Her father was the head of the Dockworkers Association after all, she had gained some knowledge by simple information diffusion.
'Alright. So the building is over in that direction, it's a storehouse. There will be ABB and Bakuda.'
"AND POSSIBLY OTHERS. THE UNDERSIDERS ARE NOT WITHOUT SKILL, BAKUDA MAY HAVE SOME OTHER REINFORCEMENTS.'
'Right. Yeah. Well, there's no point in waiting. We aren't going to find out anything by standing here.'
Taylor moved quickly and quietly, tucking her staff behind her back as she ran, slightly crouched to better hide. It wasn't actually a storehouse that she was looking for: rather, it was a large collection of storage lockers, a mixture of ramshackle sheds and abandoned shipping crates that formed a sort of maze, held behind a battered chain-link fence. Once used as makeshift housing by people down on their luck, an epidemic of crime and the proliferation of drug dens and gangs had left the storage depot a sad and desolate ghost town. A perfect place for the Undersiders to leave a stash, really. Taylor didn't know the exact location of the Undersiders locker, but she knew that Tattletale was somewhere around. Once she was in the approximate area she could locate the villain with her powers: Taylor could already feel people, she just wasn't close enough to identify them yet. It wouldn't take long, and she headed for the largest concentration of minds, planning as she went. If needed she would mount the shacks long enough to deliver a surprise attack and grab Tattletale before running. Pragmatism. And then she sensed a cluster of minds, surrounding one that she recognised as Tattletale, and saw two figures atop a shack. Taylor made a jump, using her power to boost herself to the top of the nearest locker and leaping between the roofs, the thin corrugated iron bending alarmingly under her boots but holding.
'Two on the shack, most dangerous and I'll deal with them last. Drop next to Tattletale and use a shockwave to clear out the goons?'
"A REASONABLE PLAN. JUST BE READY TO ESCAPE IF NEEDED."
'Yeah, I know. Back into action we go.'
Taylor leaped from the last roof, landing next to Tattletale. Her staff slammed down, and a whipping circle of power expanded out around her, the circle not touching Tattletale but slamming into the closing ring of goons. They went everywhere, swept aside by the telekinetic burst, and Taylor raised her head to look at the two figures atop the shack.
"Howdy." She drawled, sizing them up. The pink and white costumes were a little garish, but sometimes garish did not mean ineffective. One of them was hardly impressive: pudgy and slouched over, he didn't cut an impressive figure. The other, Taylor dispassionately noted, had a physique that was best described a chiselled. Maybe even heroic, but that didn't make him all that dangerous. Parahuman powers were funny like that, for all she knew the big guy had the power to breathe bubbles while the small guy could punch out a mountain. She doubted it though, mainly because she recognised them. Or thought she did, anyway.
"Uber and Leet, right? What are a pair of two-bit bottom-feeders like you doing taking on the Undersiders?" she asked. The indignant way they twitched made her smile. Easy, easy, easy. Too quick to annoy. In fact, she almost felt bad for doing it. Almost.
"That's some big talk from someone who's biggest contribution for far has been getting hospitalised by Oni Lee." Uber replied after a moment. Taylor laughed.
"Oh, that's cute. How long have you been working on that one, genius? Real witty banter there."
"He's been using his power to make him witty, probably." Tattletale supplied from behind her. Taylor grinned behind her mask.
"He definitely hasn't been using it to be fashionable." She replied. She glanced around herself, seeing that a couple of the goons had gotten back up.
"You know, I guess that I should be intimidated. Known villains and all that. But then again, do these two really count? Anyone who's best day involves beating up a streetwalker needs pity more than anything else."
Uber and Leet glared at her, and Taylor eyed their camera from the corner of her eye. She was tempted to destroy it, but ultimately she wanted the whole of their fanbase to see them get beaten. It wouldn't exactly be a new thing: the two ineffectual villains ran a website, streaming their low quality and frequently unsuccessful crimes, but it would be some decent publicity for her.
"Anyway. What say you two go home, and call out Bakuda? I don't have time for the minnows right now."
Leet growled in anger, but Uber put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't. She's provoking you."
"What? Oh, no I'm not. I'm genuinely terrified of the chinless wonder over there. He might flub something so badly he actually hurts me as well as himself." Taylor mocked, taking a leaf from Tattletale. Uber muttered something to Leet, then dropped to the ground, standing a fair distance away from Taylor.
"Alright, Circaetus. You've made your point. But let's see if Brockton Bays latest two-bit vigilante is all talk or not." He said, his rich voice low. He gestured, and the goons- those recovered enough to stand again- advanced. Taylor shifted her stance and grinned to herself.
"Finally. Though I wouldn't rely on your power too much for insults Uber: it isn't exactly sterling quality."
The first goon came in. He was ABB, Taylor could tell, even though he was wearing a bandana that covered his face. Honestly, the katana was a real clue. Taylor rolled her eyes and stepped away from the clumsy swing, flicking her hand at him. A tiny application of power sent a gust of dust into his face, and as he cried out and reached for his eyes she lazily smacked his hand with her staff and took his katana, thumping the back of his head with the hilt. A half turn and a raise of the hand brought her stolen sword up, clashing with another that was directed at her head. Taylor shoved her staff into the man's belly and blew him into a shack with a psychic pulse.
"Two. Two, is that it? Man, henchman standards have gone down. Not that I blame them…I'd be reluctant to attack if I was armed with this shit." She commented, inspecting the blade in her hand. The Emperor didn't like katanas, she knew: they just didn't suit his theme. Or the staff and sword style she favoured, if she was honest. This one was particularly poorly made, but she supposed that beggars can't be choosers.
'What I'd give for a proper Force Sword. I could cut Lung in half with one of those.'
"LEARN TO FORGE AND YOU CAN MAKE YOURSELF ONE."
'Well, maybe.'
Taylor looked around: there were maybe half a dozen goons left. She nodded to herself.
"Hey, guys? I'm going to do you a favour here. You see, I've been working with my powers, and I've worked out that I can do some pretty neat things."
Even as she spoke, Taylor stretched out her power to the dust and debris around her. There were very few large pieces, but more than enough dust for what she planned.
"See, I wanted to copy what Rune did, but then I thought…well, why settle for inferiority? Rune, if you're watching, I just want you to know: I'm definitely the better telekinetic of the two of us. And this should demonstrate just perfectly."
Taylor raised the katana, perpendicular to her body, and swept it down. An instant later she felt the distinctive pressure that indicated her eyes were glowing, and a storm of dust and fragments rose around her, complete with three larger sheets of corrugated iron that she kept low to the ground- Tattletale had backed away and was pressed against a shack wall behind her. Taylor gave a brief mental sweep to ensure that there was nobody near her- she was safe, Bakuda's mind was a way behind Uber and Leet.
"So," she said, raising her voice and registering the sudden increase of fear from Uber, Leet and the goons,
"Who wants it first?"
She didn't even wait for a response, pushing the dust storm ahead of her and lunging at the nearest goon. The ABB member- a tall, heavily built man- cowered, a scream coming from his throat. Taylor laid him flat with a blow from her staff, and moved on through his friends, quickly bringing them down. She turned towards Uber just in time to hear him cry out.
"Leet!"
Taylor shifted her gaze to the Tinker, just in time to see him pull a cartoonish bomb from his backpack and clumsily overhand it towards her. She swung her staff, and one of the larger plates intercepted it, causing a blast of force that billowed her coat and briefly dispersed the dust storm. She let it settle- it would be more a hindrance now that only Uber and Leet were left.
"Well, not bad." She said, in a mock thoughtful tone.
"You didn't blow yourself up, at least."
Uber took a stance opposite her, and Taylor noted it as a swordsman's stance.
'I'm regretting the posturing with that katana now.' She mentally remarked, remembering that Uber had the power to be good at anything. Not great, maybe, but she was hardly a practiced swordswoman. Well, at least she'd be learning something. Leet was glaring at her.
"Circaetus, be careful. Those bombs are holograms, but they pack a punch." Tattletale said from behind her. Taylor looked over her shoulder long enough to offer a nod, and when she looked back Uber had a sword in his hand. Again, it was rather cartoonish, but it was presumably sharp.
"I'm going to be honest, I don't play video games. So…any chance you'll tell me what that is?" she tried. Uber seemed to like boasting. Maybe he'd talk.
"You don't know…what sort of philistine are you? This, this is the Master Sword, the great weapon of Link! A legendary Hero!"
"And yet you are using it. The sword probably feels ashamed." Taylor deadpanned, subtly pumping power into her katana and staff. Leet usually had issues with building consistent tech, but he could make something great on occasion. Anything called 'The Master Sword'- capital letters, no less- was probably pretty sharp and tough. The piece of crap katana she was using would need reinforcing. Hopefully the stress of her power wouldn't shatter it before she was done.
"Alright then. Disregarding ruminations on the irony of you using the sort of a great Hero, what say we see how good we both are?"
Uber raised his sword to the guard position. Taylor crossed her staff and sword flat before her, and idly wondered how long it would be before one of them cheated. She gave it fifteen seconds. At best. Oh well.
Uber lunged.
Blade met blade, sparks showering as psyker reinforced steel clashed with whatever the Master Sword was made from. Taylor swung for Uber's knee with her staff, but he slid aside, disengaging with a flourish. Low swipe, meeting staff before a katana thrust was dodged with a roll of the head and a spinning step away. Taylor went on the attack. The katana was awkward and poorly balanced but sharp, and Uber was forced back, his hands moving in smooth motions to parry and block and Taylor abruptly found her attack reversed and her desperate defence used sword and staff but she could feel her katana cracking, breaking, unable to withstand the stress of combat alongside the crackling thrum of her power. Time to cheat.
"Hey, Uber!" Taylor panted out as they fought, "You enjoying this? Because I'm having a blast!"
A moment after the word, Taylor hopped back a step and threw her katana into the air, ramming a destructive charge through it. Barely a second after she threw it she threw up a telekinetic shield, and the sword ruptured into spinning metal shards. Uber screamed, staggering away: he was barely hurt, but he was shocked and frightened and Taylor took the moment pause to ram a boot into his stomach, slam the Master Sword from his hand with her staff and shove him away. A moment later she stretched her hand out to him and made a gripping motion, curling a telekinetic fist into his uniform.
"Get over here!" she snarled, yanking him towards her and meeting his stomach with her staff, holding him up for an instant before hurling him at Leet with a burst of power. The Tinker didn't dodge fast enough, and they both fell from the shack roof into a tangled mess of limbs. Taylor smiled.
"Having fun yet, Dynamic Duo?"
Twin groans were her reply, and she gave a brief glance at Tattletale.
"These two really took down all four of you? Did they get the drop or something?"
Tattletale stood, looking a little shaky still.
"Got the drop yeah, but not just them. Didn't I tell you-"
"That they weren't alone?" asked a mechanical, hissing voice.
Taylor looked up at the shack roof once more, having sensed Bakuda long before she arrived. When she saw the ABB cape, however, she did a double-take.
"Oh. Oh my. Bakuda, much as I appreciate the costume, it's a little odd."
The same pink and white garb as Uber and Leet, topped off by a heavy gas-mask with ominous red lenses? Odd. Very odd.
"I mean, I dig the Wolfenstein look, sure. Very intimidating. But given that you're part of an Asian gang in a city that also contains a bunch of Neo-Nazis, I'm not sure the look is quite…Reich."
Tattletale spluttered behind her.
"A…A nazi joke? Really?"
Taylor shrugged.
"I take my cheap shots when I can get them." She admitted, "It was just the most obvious joke."
"Yes, highly amusing." Bakuda hissed, her mask fixed on Taylor with unnerving steadiness.
"Your quips will no doubt be just as amusing after you join the rest of The Undersiders in my ranks."
Taylor blinked at Bakuda, then narrowed her eyes at the villain.
"Alright, Explodigirl. No need to be too hasty. Fact is though, I've got three objections to what you said. One, I'm not an Undersider. Two, if I was to let any villain have their wicked way with me it sure wouldn't be you. And third…fight's not over yet."
Taylor called a storm of shrapnel forth with barely a twitch of her hand, hurling it at Bakuda before sprinting for Tattletale.
"We have to go, right now." She snapped. Tattletale nodded hastily, letting Taylor pull her up.
"I thought you would have stayed." She admitted. Taylor shook her head as she hustled the two of them along.
"Not against a Tinker who's got the ground prepared. Not if I have a choice."
"Good call. She used some kind of grenade against us, from the way Grue and Regent reacted it causes pain. Too much to stand."
"What, really? Wow. That's pretty nasty. Try to avoid her grenades, then?"
"If you can."
Taylor and Tattletale went quiet after the last dry remark by The Undersider, and continued running. As they did so Taylor hoped that the Snitch- the tiny, nigh indestructible floating camera that Uber and Leet employed to record their acts- wasn't following them. If it was, Bakuda might well be able to find them by looking at the Internet Stream. That would be awkward. And then there was an explosion.
"Woah!"
Taylor lurched back several steps, dragging Tattletale with her.
"She's using it to pen us in. Keep us in the area, so her goons can get us." Tattletale panted, a little out of breath from running. Taylor bit her lip, glaring around at the storage shacks.
'What I wouldn't give for an Iron Halo right now. Should have spent some more time on stealing tech to build my own.'
Regardless of past regrets, she needed to do the best with what she had. And what she had was a pocketful of psyker powers that she had more or less never broken out before. Maybe she should have pretended to be a wizard, actually, like that Cape she had vaguely heard of. Fireballs, lightning, telekinesis, wizard would cover the lot of it. Oh well, regrets were pointless.
"So, do you have a plan?" she asked Tattletale, feigning casualness. The villain seemed shaken, shaking her head.
"No. I- my power doesn't work like that. She's got henchmen all over the place, we can't get away without taking them on. And they're all either ABB or they're being forced to help her by something- bombs in their heads I think. We might have to fight our way out but I don't know if we can."
Taylor normally might have flinched at the thought of facing off against potential innocents who could explode at any given moment. In this case, she merely steeled her resolve and looked directly at Tattletale.
"How vulnerable to tampering are the bombs? Say, if the people were tasered, would there be an explosion?"
Tattletale blinked at her, and then frowned, the expression shifting to one of pain a moment later.
"No. No, I don't think so. But I can't tell for certain."
An echoing roar shook the air after Tattletale spoke, and Taylor gave a worried glance to the PRT headquarters. Lung must be seriously ramped up to make a noise like that.
"Doesn't matter. We'll go the way she wants, smash through and escape. Bakuda might have planned for The Undersiders, but I said it before: I'm not an Undersider."
Tattletale still looked unsure.
"But-"
Taylor looked her in the eyes, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"Buts will get us nowhere, Tattletale. Have faith. Have courage."
The villain sagged for a moment, then let out a weary laugh and straightened.
"You really do believe that. How do you manage it, Hero?"
Taylor didn't even have to think about the answer, it rose from the depths of her soul…and perhaps some of the still foggy memories she shared with The Emperor.
"Doubt is for the dying, Tattletale. Come on. We're alive, so we aren't beaten yet."
Immediately following her words Taylor set off, locating the largest cluster of minds nearby and moving towards them, Tattletale quietly following her. There were only about half a dozen goons there: all in the green and red bandanas of the ABB.
"So, your power giving you anything better?" Taylor asked Tattletale, making conversation as she gathered her power. This would have to be very precise.
"Being tasered won't detonate the bombs. No guarantee that Bakuda won't afterwards, though. So, do you have a Taser?"
Taylor smiled slightly behind her mask, keeping a careful eye on the group as the ABB goons raised their guns: those who had them, at least. Two revolvers, a pistol and a machine-pistol. Not too much.
"A Taser? Well, not as such. Just wait and see."
"Fire!"
Taylor raised her staff, and a triangle of force formed before her, deflecting the bullets with contemptuous ease. Her left hand rose, pointing at the closest ABB goon, and she raised her voice as the shooting died down.
"You ever rubbed your feet on the carpet then given someone a static shock?"
Blank stares were her reply, and Taylor shrugged.
"Try doing it as a full force telekinetic. The results are positively electric."
And lightning arced from her hand.
It was hard to make out Bakuda's expression when they emerged from the storage yard utterly unharmed, but Taylor could feel the emotions boiling off the villain. Rage, disbelief, a taste of fear…Taylor relished it. And the fear coming from the more numerous henchmen she had with her, so much stronger than Bakuda's, suddenly began to shift to Taylor. It was practically exquisite.
"I have to commend you on your plan, Bakuda. It was reasonably well constructed…assuming, of course, that none of your opponents are really combat rated Parahumans. Inflexible, though. What exactly are you going to do now?"
Bakuda began to monologue. Taylor tuned her out, preferring instead to extend psychic tendrils to each member of the ABB and the local conscripts that Bakuda had surrounding her, forging a channel for lightning or easier psyker attacks. She would have increased their fear and tried to make them run, but Bakuda probably had her finger on the bomb trigger. Too much risk. Besides, Taylor had no wish to be splattered in brain matter. She kept her eyes on Bakuda as she ordered some kid- some poor Korean kid, looked like he wasn't even out of school yet- to get a gun, and shoot. Taylor turned her gaze upon him, wondering. Would the kid actually do it? She wouldn't have begrudged him a shot- she was easily able to deflect it. And then she felt defiance flare in the kid and he fired into the sky, and Bakuda's mood turned ugly immediately. There was a faint buzzing noise, and the kid just liquefied. Turned to goop, a human puddle on the ground. Taylor blinked. Tattetale gasped quietly. Bakuda laughed.
"I'd forgotten I'd even made that one!" she crowed, the mechanical translator in her mask making the creepy laughter and tone even creepier. Taylor idly considered the chance of reaching her, punching her skull off and then covering it up. Poor chances: there was a crowd, and that was a lot of bodies to hide. Plus she was fairly sure that Uber and Leets Snitch was still watching. Damn, this little act would be giving their viewers them quite a show.
'Alright. Shock the crowd, flip the jeep, hope Bakuda gets crippled in the action?'
"KEEP ONE HAND FREE, YOU MIGHT NEED IT FOR A SHIELD. SHE'S NOT SHOWING IT ALL THAT MUCH, BUT THERE'S A GRENADE LAUNCHER ON THE SEAT."
'If only there wasn't so many people around, I could really use that. One 'jam' and Bakuda is…well...'
"JAM?"
'Oh, very funny.'
"I CERTAINLY THOUGHT SO."
'You would do.'
The rapid exchange took less than a second, and Taylor kept her gaze on the cackling Bakuda throughout.
"Bakuda." She said, injecting a measure of steel into her voice. The Tinker stopped laughing, the gas mask tilting towards Taylor.
"What? Some little last words, Hero?"
Taylor ignored the mockery, lifting her staff a little as though deep in thought. And then the realisation hit her.
'The crowd is half civilians! I can't shock them on live tv, the PRT will be on me like lice!'
"YOU MUST DO SOMETHING. BLIND THEM WITH YOUR LIGHTNING?"
'Bloody Tinker bitch!' Taylor mentally raged, but she went through her hastily planned words anyway. She was in too deep to make many changes now.
"Well, I suppose you could say that. Really, it's a simple thing that I want to say, something that you've apparently forgotten: I am not helpless."
The staff slammed down, and an bolt of lightning raced up her staff and burst in a blinding, eye searing display. Taylor herself had closed her eyes and turned away, and so was almost unaffected, but the crowd were blinded and terrified and they quickly dissolved into panicking chaos. Bakuda, at least partially protected by the lenses of her gasmask, howled in incoherent rage. A grenade came hurtling towards Taylor, thrown overhand and spiralling towards a slightly stumbling Tattletale, but Taylor trapped it in an orb of force, hurling it into the air to detonate relatively harmlessly. The orb absorbed most of the shrapnel before failing and letting the fragments fall more or less harmlessly, and Taylor changed her plan. She didn't attack the jeep: instead, she burst the lenses on Bakuda's gasmask with a carefully targeted blast of force. The Tinker screamed and fell over, and Taylor swatted Uber and Leets Snitch away before she grabbed Tattletale and ran, dashing past the crowd and away from the storage yard, running towards the warehouses in the Docks. She paused in the shadow of a large, derelict building.
"Can you see?" she snapped, having half-dragged the villain a short way. Tattletale looked at her, still blinking but focused.
"Yeah. Yeah, just about. Still a little blurry but your lightshow hasn't hurt too much."
"Good. Sorry about that, but I needed something surprising."
Tattletale gave Taylor a dry look.
"I'm guessing that it was a surprise to you too?"
Taylor shrugged.
"Hadn't considered that attacking a bunch of civilians would look real bad for me. Don't want the Protectorate or PRT to have anything to use against me."
"Hmm."
"Did you get anything from Bakuda? We could really use some information right now." Taylor said, looking around them and checking that no ABB were approaching- they had escaped the trap of the storage yard, but that was no guarantee of safety. Tattletale nodded.
"You hurt her. Hurt her badly. She was using toe rings to detonate her bombs, and a system in her gas-mask goggles to select which bombs to blow."
"In her goggles. The goggles that-"
"The goggles that you made explode, yeah. Best guess, she's real pissed. Best case, she's now blind."
"Blind? Please, I have more control than that."
'Probably.'
Honestly, Taylor wouldn't shed a tear over blinding Bakuda. It would be almost poetic justice, if what Tattletale said about the way Bakuda was using her bombs was correct. Tattletale locked an unwavering gaze upon Taylor.
"You should have killed her." She said quietly. Taylor shrugged.
"Maybe."
"She'll get a kill order once the PRT hears about what she's done to those civilians. You wouldn't even get trouble for it." Tattletale added. Taylor frowned. True as all that might be, Tattletale didn't sound like she normally would. Taylor locked eyes with the villain.
"And rest assured that when she receives that kill order, I will be happy to tear her skull off and mount it on my wall." Taylor said, a fraction of her temper breaking through her control.
"But until then, I'm not going to kill to satisfy your need for revenge."
Tattletale maintained eye contact for a few seconds more, then sagged.
"Right. Yeah, sorry. It's just…she's got Grue, Regent and Bitch, and with my boss always looking over me-"
"Tattletale. Focus. We'll get them back, but we need to get away from here first." Taylor interrupted, having successfully reined in her own anger. Tattletale nodded to her.
"Right. Right, okay. We need to get clear. Before she recovers, she might be smart enough to guess where we are."
"You think she's that smart?" Taylor asked doubtfully. The two of them started to walk, carefully staying in the shadows. Tattletale shrugged.
"Smart, yeah. What kind of smart is harder to tell. She'll be after you, though: she's got a fragile ego, and you put a serious dent in it."
Taylor sneered, though she knew Tattletale wouldn't see it through her mask.
"She can come after me all she likes. If it weren't for those hostages I would have buried her." She grumbled. Tattletale shrugged.
"If." She murmured. Taylor glanced aside.
"I want to know how a Tinker specialism in bombs lead to enough surgical expertise to implant bombs in skulls without killing them, or leading to extreme brain damage." She said sourly. Tattletale shrugged again.
"Maybe she had a lot of practice." She observed dourly, and Taylor grimaced at the thought. Practice. More like experiments. Bakuda was becoming more and more annoying, and Taylor was beginning to wonder how hard it would be to implant a suicidal mental command. Just a slip when preparing a bomb, and Bakuda would Tinker no more. There was a kind of elegance in that plan that briefly appealed to her, before she realised how much damage something like that could do and pushed the plan away. She kept it in the back of her mind, however, aware that it might eventually be used.
"Lung's gone quiet." Tattletale observed softly. Taylor darted a glance at her, and then turned on her heel, trying to hear. True to her word, there was no longer any roaring in the background. She hoped that meant that Lung had been defeated, his assault and attempted rescue of Oni Lee foiled, but she didn't trust to that hope. There wasn't anybody around, the ABB milling around near the storage yard. And then an engine roared and the minds of Bakuda and several flunkies moved fast towards them.
"Fuck. They're coming towards us." Tattletale cursed. Taylor rolled her shoulders, taking a better grip on her staff.
"Yeah. I noticed. Good thing we managed to leave the Snitch behind." She replied. She chewed her lip for a moment, understanding that it would be much harder to escape while Bakuda had the jeep. Vehicular destruction it was, then. The jeep approached, moving fast, and Taylor pushed Tattletale into the wall.
"Stay here." She ordered calmly, extending a psychic tendril to the jeep driver. Time to put Bakuda out of action. At least for the moment.
'This way.' She mentally lured, reeling the driver towards her as she stepped out into the open. This would need timed well, but she could do it. She considered simply ramming the jeep into a wall, but this was better. More dramatic, it would put fear of her into Bakuda and the ABB. The jeep raced into sight, and Taylor heard Bakuda scream out.
"There she is! Run the bitch down!" the Tinker howled, clearly crazed by pain and psychotic ego damage. Taylor gestured with her free hand, and every tyre on the vehicle blew. It skidded towards her, and Taylor rammed a wedge of force directly into the engine, driving downwards and indicating the application with a downward swipe of her staff.
The vehicle flipped.
'Hmm. Close.' Taylor observed, turning just as the vehicle flew over her head and dragging the driver free- not wearing a seatbelt, tut-tut. The ABB member was thrown clear, though he landed hard. To her slight disappointment, Bakuda was also thrown clear, though she had gone before the car was flipped and had landed in a heap about six feet from Taylor.
"Pathetic." Taylor remarked, derision filling her tone. The Tinker was trying to get up, just about getting to her hands and knees, so Taylor replicated her action from the Central Bank robbery, extending a hand and pressing Bakuda down with an easy application of force.
"All that talk and here you are. Beaten, fallen and grovelling at my feet." Taylor continued, stepping closer. The rage and fear was pouring off Bakuda, and some part of Taylor found it intoxicating.
"Maybe I'll just kill you." Taylor mused aloud, and Bakuda's fear increased.
"You can't- you won't! You're a hero, you don't do things like that!" she gasped out. Taylor raised an eyebrow and increased the force, until Bakuda slid from her hands and knees, forced prone by the weight of psychic energy.
"Maybe. Maybe. But after all those civilians, you think you won't get a kill order? I probably won't even be accused of anything. A tragic accident…killed when her driver crashed the jeep you were riding in."
Bakuda finally understood, and her terror overwhelmed her rage. Taylor smiled behind her mask.
"And there it is." She said, letting her voice lull into cold apathy, even though a twisted spike of anger coiled inside her and drove her onwards.
"All that time you spent, getting all worked up over causing terror, and you can't take it yourself. The big, bad Tinker, reduced to a whimpering child crying in the dark. All that ego, all that intelligence, all that power, and you still can't deny what you are: a weakling excuse for a human being. It really would be a mercy to end you here."
Taylor continued walking forwards, holding out her left hand and locking on to something that she had seen fall form the wrecked car: a katana, similar to the one she had wielded earlier. She glanced at it as it settled into her hand.
"Crude. Sloppy workmanship, poorly held edge, steel is probably soft or brittle. Don't worry though: I don't have to use it like it is. It'll be nice and sharp when I swing it."
Taylor again took a leaf from her actions at the bank, wrapping her power around Bakuda and forcing her to her knees, head bowed to expose her neck. The Tinker was struggling, but she was physically weak, not able to match Taylor's power. Decapitating Bakuda maybe wasn't the most easily covered up kill, but there would be plenty of explosives lying around to destroy the evidence once Taylor took her skull and bathed in her bloo-
"I THOUGHT YOU INTENDED TO LEAVE HER ALIVE?"
The booming near-monotone cut through the anger that was swelling in her, bringing her back to her senses.
'Maybe I've changed my mind.'
"THAT IS, OF COURSE, YOUR PREROGATIVE. BUT BE CERTAIN THAT IT IS YOUR CHOICE BEFORE YOU SWING THAT BLADE."
Taylor hesitated, standing quite still with the katana held loosely in her left hand. It would be easy, all she had to do was let her staff float for a moment, take the proper two-handed grip and strike, but she knew there was something wrong with it. For all that Bakuda deserved to die, it wouldn't be Taylor striking that blow. Not entirely, and that made a great deal of difference to her. She shook her head.
"Ah, Bakuda, consider yourself fortunate. It would be far too hard to cover up your body. Besides, I don't want to sully myself with your blood."
Taylor turned around, letting her power press Bakuda prone again before releasing it as she walked back towards Tattletale.
"No. Far better to leave you as you are. Let you crawl back to Lung, beaten and humbled. Maybe this will make you a better person, having known what it is like to be helpless before someone more powerful? Remember this day, Bakuda. Remember it well."
Taylor threw aside the katana. It was tainted, blackened by the memory of the unnatural fury that had come over her. She doubted that she would ever again be able to pick up such a blade without thinking of it. A good thing that The Emperor- and therefore Taylor- preferred European style weapons.
"The Snitch is back. It was watching the whole time." Tattletale informed her quietly, and Taylor resisted the urge to curse. It truly was fortunate that she had resisted her murderous urge: it would have outed across the entire Internet if she had given in.
"So they saw me show mercy." Taylor said, rather than what she was thinking. Tattletale shrugged.
"I suppose that's one way to look at it."
Taylor had reached The Undersider, and was about to ask her how they could get away when a rasping, cracked voice sounded from behind them.
"Learn, you say?"
Taylor turned, a slight frown crossing her face. Bakuda had already been unhinged: she might well have cracked entirely at this point. The Tinker was crouching, head down.
"Learn? Remember this? I'll remember it, yes, I'll remember it well."
Every instinct Taylor had started to scream at her, and she dragged her power to the surface in a sudden rush as Bakuda finished her words, her voice rising to an insane shriek.
"I'll remember! But you won't!"
At the howled last word the insane Tinker threw out her arms, and a half-dozen grenades sailed towards Taylor and Tattletale. Taylor had only an instant to react.
A hand snapped up, and three of the bombs were flung into the sky. The staff pointed, one more bomb being sent hurtling towards the sea, and Taylor simply flung her staff at another before realising there was one last bomb and she didn't have time and she turned to Tattletale, mind racing. A gesture, and the warehouse wall tore and splintered and dragged itself around them and Taylor wrapped her arms around Tattletale and smothered the pair of them in a psychic shield that would act almost like a barrier before the grenades exploded and a despairing shriek from Bakuda was the last thing Taylor heard, the world turning into heat and light and buffeting force.
Taylor stood slowly. Her ears rang and bright spots sometimes flickered across her vision but she was unhurt, no real pain. She turned her head to Tattletale- the Undersider lacked the slightly enhanced toughness that Taylor possessed, and her body was wracked with slight shivers as she clung closely to Taylor. Taylor quickly glanced over her, checking that there were no obvious injuries, and then carefully put a hand to Tattletale's face, gently turning her head to face her. The Undersider blinked once she looked at Taylor, and her mouth moved, her voice faint but just about recognisable.
"I…I'm alright."
Taylor nodded slowly.
"Are you sure?"
Tattletale nodded, but when Taylor tried to put her on her feet her legs gave way. Tattletale looked faintly surprised, but Taylor noted that she was shaking still- that was the reason she couldn't stand. She sighed, but lifted the villain again, carrying her bridal style- with a little psyker strength enhancement, of course. Tattletale wasn't that much smaller than she was, and Taylor wasn't natively that strong.
"A conventional bomb. We got lucky." Tattletale observed, as Taylor stepped out of the relatively untouched patch of ground beneath their shielded cocoon and onto ash-seared concrete.
"I'd rather be lucky than good." Taylor quietly replied, scanning the area and noting where the other bombs had gone. One of the ones she had sent skywards had not gone far enough, and the roof of a warehouse was now glimmering glass. Looking to the sea, Taylor saw a circular patch of ice, melting but clearly there, and shivered. She briefly looked around, and then carefully laid Tattletale down on the ground.
"Sorry. Most comfortable place I could find."
Tattletale shrugged.
"I'll be alright soon. Can you see Bakuda?"
Taylor shook her head, noticing that a slight pain was starting there. A minor headache for now, but any more use of her powers would quickly cause it to build, especially without the comforting buffer of her staff.
"I'm going to look for her now." She said quietly, turning to where she felt Bakuda, the Tinker lying in agony. Taylor carefully walked towards her, placing her feet gently in case the ground had become unstable.
Bakuda was a grisly sight.
The Tinker was lying on one side, one hand weakly clawing at the ground as she tried to crawl. Her formerly white and pink uniform was scorched, seared away in some places, and her exposed flesh was cracked, at least reddened and at worst black and crimson, awfully burned. Her right arm hung limp, and Taylor could see white bone in several places where the flame had charred away the flesh. Her right leg was less ruined, but still burned. Her left side was better off, but not by much, and sobs and rasping gasps came from the barely intact gas mask.
"IT WOULD BE A MERCY TO KILL HER." The Emperor intoned. Taylor grimaced, an unwelcome feeling of pity worming its way into her stomach.
'Maybe.' She replied, strangely unwilling to finish the woman off. In the end, she shook her head.
'You're right. It would be a mercy, and remove her from here. Take away her pain and one of our threats.'
Taylor considered how best to do it, and then sighed. Affecting people was harder than objects, but she was almost within touching distance and Bakuda was in no shape to fight. A simple psychic squeeze of the heart, and Bakuda would appear to have died of heart failure. Not too surprising in this case, and Taylor couldn't see the Snitch anywhere. No witnesses. She stepped closer, steeling herself, and then a shout came from the storage lockers. She didn't recognise the language, but the volley of bullets that followed it were quite eloquent.
'Fuck!' Taylor mentally bawled, throwing up both hands to bring her shield into place. Normally she would have no problem, but with the loss of her staff it was harder and with the heavy recent use of her powers a headache was starting to build.
'Could really use my staff right now.' She noted, wincing as bullets thudded into her barrier and she backed away. The Emperor didn't immediately reply, but she sensed him casting about for something while she focused.
"YOU HAVE NOT LOST IT. IT MUST HAVE BEEN THROWN AWAY BY THE EXPLOSION, CAN YOU NOT FEEL IT?"
Taylor gritted her teeth, pushing her shield outwards so it would hold for a moment without her and diving behind a piece of fallen warehouse. Her headache spiked abominably, but she managed to push through the pain to locate a niggling sensation in the back of her mind, a short way behind her.
"YOU HAVE MADE HEAVY USE OF THIS STAFF IN THE SHORT TIME YOU HAVE HELD IT. IT WOULD APPEAR IT HAS BECOME SOMEWHAT ATTUNED TO YOUR POWER, ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN LOCATE IT."
Taylor stretched out a hand, trusting and pulling with her power and her staff, blackened and smelling of charred wood but still intact, thumped into her hand. Her headache eased a fraction, and she could have wept with relief.
'I almost thought that losing a staff was going to become some kind of running gag.' She remarked, smiling even as bullets continued to thump around her. She located Tattletale, also in cover but being ignored, and closed her eyes in frustration for a moment.
'We can't get to Bakuda now.'
"NO, UBER AND LEET ARE APPROACHING. EVEN SUCH HALF COMPETENT FOES WILL BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU IN YOUR CURRENT STATE."
'I know. I know, damn! But I can't just run, I'll need a distraction. Good luck that that warehouse is pretty compromised by the glass bomb, isn't it?'
Taylor extended her power to the unsteady warehouse and wrenched. The heavily damage structure wobbled, creaking and groaning before there was the splintering crack of breaking glass and the whole wall began to fall. Cries of alarm overtook the bullets as shooters were distracted, and Taylor made a sprint for Tattletale. Sliding down next to the purple clad villain, Taylor checked the area was clear, careful not to raise her head.
"Can you walk yet?" she asked. Blunt, but they really didn't have time to dance around the topic. Tattletale gave a hasty nod.
"Just about, but not very well." She said. Taylor bit her lip, then bent towards her.
"Hold my staff." She ordered, thrusting the weapon towards Tattletale before scooping the villain into her arms and beginning to move, as fast as she could while still staying low. Tattletale let out a quiet laugh.
"It's a good thing you aren't a guy. That last phrase could really be misconstrued."
Taylor let out a soft noise of amusement.
"Dream all you like, Tattletale. Makes no difference to me." Taylor responded easily. They were not being pursued, but she still took the time to bring her weakening powers to bear and take them to the rooftops. It was much safer there, and she was able to pause again, setting Tattletale down once more and sliding into a sitting position against a vent.
"Hmm." Tattletale murmured. "You do realise that you've been caught on live stream, carrying me around? The shippers on PHO will be frothing at the mouth with excitement."
Taylor leaned her head against the cold metal, closing her eyes and waiting for her headache to abate somewhat.
"They can join it to the bunch that are shipping me with Glory."
"You don't seem too bothered by it."
Taylor managed a quiet chuckle.
"Have you seen Glory in that costume? I'm not complaining."
Tattletale gazed at her in silence for a few moments, then let out a rueful laugh.
"I honestly can't tell if you're joking or not." She admitted. Taylor shrugged one shoulder.
"There'd be no fun in it if you could." She said. Slowly she opened her eyes, smiling as her headache receded to a tolerable level. She stood, careful not to move too fast, and held out a hand to Tattletale.
"Come on. We'll get further away before I leave and see what's happening at the PRT HQ."
Tattletale nodded, taking the offered hand and hauling herself up.
"You think we should split up?" she asked. Taylor nodded.
"I think we should if we can. I don't really like leaving you without protection, but I don't trust the PRT enough to turn up with a known villain in tow. Piggot's a vinegar faced bitch who despises Parahumans, and I wouldn't put it past her to try and arrest us both."
"You really don't like her, huh?"
"Honestly, no. She was hurt by one Parahuman one time, so she despises all of us. She's basically a racist, and the PRT was stupid to put her in command. She isn't even so competent that she makes up for it." Taylor replied, helping Tattletale down from the building. The ABB had left, taking Bakuda with them, so they were safe enough.
"I've got a safehouse I can go to, but-"
Taylor nodded to Tattletale.
"I'll stay with you until we're away from the Docks and out of danger enough. Seeing as it's all gone quiet at the PRT HQ, I daresay I don't need to be too quick."
"Thank you."
Taylor left Tattletale once they got away from the Docks and into a safer part of the city, trusting that the Undersider could keep herself safe at least for a short time. That done, Taylor began moving towards the PRT HQ as quickly as possible, grimacing.
'I feel like I've strained my brain. Bloody hurts.'
"YES. YOU HAVE USED YOUR POWER A GREAT DEAL TODAY, HOWEVER, AND YOU ARE NOT YET SO POWERFUL AS TO WIELD IT WITH IMPUNITY. THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT IT, HOWEVER…I WOULD NEED TO EXAMINE YOUR BRAIN TO SEE THE ISSUE, UNFORTUNATELY."
'Maybe we can get Panacea to take a look. I know we're more or less immortal at this point, but I don't fancy having a stroke mid battle.'
"A STRONG POINT."
Taylor drifted across one final building, letting herself fall smoothly to the ground and approaching the PRT HQ on foot, being careful not to alarm anyone. The building was clearly damaged: the facing was scorched, and part of the entryway appeared to have collapsed. PRT troopers and Heroes milled around, a line of armoured Troopers holding back a crowd of journalists and civilians. They let her through without protest, and Taylor felt a cold tingle slowly drift up her spine. Something wasn't right.
The Wards were clustered together in a tight group, looking concerned, and Taylor hurried across to them.
"Vista? What happened- where's Glory and Gallant?" she asked. The youngest Ward turned to her, face pale beneath her visor.
"The ABB attacked us, blew a hole in the building and freed Oni Lee." She said, her voice bearing a weariness that belied her years. She looked up at Taylor.
"Gallant was badly hurt by Lee as he escaped. Lung…lung got away as well, but not alone."
The cold tingle turned to an icy wash, countered by a slowly stirring fury in the pit of her stomach.
"Circaetus…Lung got away with a hostage. He managed to take Glory Girl."
And yet another chapter. This one went on for longer than I expected: my apologies for it being mostly action, but that was the way it turned out. I'll try to get the next out fairly quickly, but I can't make any promises.
Regarding chapters, however, I'd like to know how many of you would like a PHO Interlude. I'm not certain of my ability to write one, but if enough people would be interested I would certainly try.
On another note: Taylor being able to kill people with her mind. She can, but it would be something akin to an Eldar Farseer Mind War, involving a battle of wills. While Taylor and The Emperor could doubtless win, being stood around fighting a mental battle might not be the best option in a lot of situations. Once she gets stronger, of course, she can brute force it. At that point it becomes a lot more effective.
As always, reviews are appreciated and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter.