Sidekick

Chapter One

"Oh my God, is she actually wearing that?"

"Gross, she looks like she got dressed in a dumpster."

"Maybe she did. It would explain the smell."

Laughter. Taylor ignored it. She'd gone through it all before. Just never deliberately.

She glanced up despite herself, scanning the mob of cretins. Madison. Julia. Emma. Where was Sophia? The one time Taylor wanted her here, and she was gone.

The fact that she reacted at all only encouraged them. "It's like she's not trying at all."

"I know. She's depressing just to look at. I wish she would just drop out already if she's not even going to try."

Come on, just get it over with already. She wanted to run. She usually did, rushing from one class to another, never staying in the hallway longer than she had to. Never staying out in the open, never making herself a target, never using herself as ...

Bait.

Something hooked around her ankle, sweeping her legs out from under her, and she fell to the floor before she knew what was happening. Her glasses nearly fell off her face as she banged her elbow against the tiles, but there it was. Finally.

"Watch it, loser."

She didn't need to look up to know Sophia Hess was standing over her. She knew that voice. Hell, she was half convinced that if she had to, she could identify some of her bullies by smell. But she was done now. She picked herself up, kept her head down, and hurried to the nearest bathroom.

She heard more jeers behind her as she left. She ignored them. What they said didn't matter. They didn't matter.

She focused on not touching anyone, avoiding brushing against them in the crowded hallway if she could help it. How many people did she bump into a day? Ten? A hundred? Just touching one could ruin her experiment, and she'd have to do it all over again.

She found a bathroom stall and waited. The bell rang, and two girls she didn't know kept talking for another five minutes into first period. She was going to be late for Mrs. Knott's class, which sucked, but she knew the woman wouldn't make a big deal about it as long as Taylor didn't fall behind.

And this was important. Finally the two girls left, and Taylor peeked outside her stall. Empty. She checked under the other two stalls. Empty. She ... she was trembling. If she was right ... oh, God.

Just get this over with.

She took a deep breath ... and faded. Her body felt lighter, even as it turned black and vaporous. She looked down at her hand and could see the outline of her own bones even as she made a fist.

Just like Shadow Stalker.

This had happened to her a few times before. Never in the mornings and never on the weekends. She hadn't understood at first why her powers only worked sporadically, or why they resembled Shadow Stalker's as closely as they did. It had taken her forever to understand the pattern, to hide in the bathroom between classes to see if her powers were working or not, to keep track of who, if anyone, had touched her that day.

And now she knew. If she touched Sophie Hess, she got Shadow Stalker's powers. It was a breakthrough, the first one she'd had and the first step to taking control of her life. Halle-freakin'-lujah.

Sophia Hess is ...

She wanted to throw up. She wanted to hit something. She wanted to scream.

So she did. She solidified, feeling nauseous that some part of Sophia was inside of her now, and punched and kicked at the stall door, screaming incoherently, until it fell off its hinges.

It didn't take long. The whole school was falling apart, like ... well, she didn't care to draw any parallels. She forced the anger down like she always did, pretended that everything was fine, that nothing bothered her, and she went to her next class.

This is good, she told herself as she sat down. Mrs. Knott glanced at her as she came in and jotted something down, but that was it. I found out something bad, but that itself is good. She had powers, and now she knew how they worked. If she touched someone, she got their powers for the rest of the day. She had spent months wondering why some days she could fade into mist, but never on the weekends and only sometimes after school, and now she could finally move forward. She could be a hero. All she had to do was bump into Sophia Hess once a day and begin her life as ... Shadow Stalker Junior.

No. No. There wasn't any goddamn point of a second life if it was built off of Hess. It wasn't just the bullying. Emma's betrayal, the way she had turned into a stranger after meeting her, the way she ... no. Taylor wouldn't even copy Shadow Stalker's power again if she could help it.

But in that case she needed another source. Her mind raced, going through the heroes, rogues, and yes, even the villains of Brockton Bay, but the only group that was even close to accessible was the Wards.

Taylor grit her teeth as she stared at her computer screen. How much had they been involved? When the teachers saw the bullying and looked away, when they swept it under the rug and ignored it time and time again, how much of that was because the PRT didn't want one of their heroes serving detention instead of signing autographs?

A pencil snapped in her hand. The boy sitting next to her glanced over, but said nothing. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on her computer assignment. Class was already half over and she hadn't even started. Spreadsheets. Interest equations. Principal, rate, time. Breath.

She wasn't going to solve this in a day. She wasn't going to solve it at all while her head was spinning. But there was one thing she knew for certain. She was going to become a hero, one way or another, and that way was never going to have anything to do with the Wards.

WWW

"Alright, is everyone ready? The tour of the Wards HQ will now begin."

This didn't count. Plenty of civilians toured their HQ. It didn't mean Taylor was going to join them. This was just the easiest way to get within touch of another cape. All it took was a background check, which she didn't mind because she had nothing to hide, yet, and a fifty dollar ticket. Fifty dollars, for a fifteen minute tour of where the city's junior heroes said hi to tourists.

Oh, and all proceeds went to fund Brockton Bay's fight against villainy. Whoopie.

She followed the crowd into the elevator. It was big enough to hold all ten of them, as well as the four humorless PRT troopers who accompanied them. Taylor tried not to make eye contact. She was the only teenager in the group, everyone else being small children and their parents, and she stood out enough already.

It's okay, I'm just a ... a what? A fangirl. Sure. I'm hoping for Gallant's autograph.

She tried to relax as the tour guide rattled off facts about how the elevator was "Tinkertech adjacent," while trying not to feel like she was descending into the belly of the beast. All she had to do was touch one of the two Wards meeting them, and leave. Neither of them were Shadow Stalker—she had checked the schedule—and even if they were just like Hess, they would need to at least act like good little heroes while in front of a crowd.

The elevator opened up to a massive compound that could have passed for the set of Star Trek, and the tour guide went on her spiel. Taylor tried to listen to her professionally cheery voice. At any other time she would have been interested, and there was even the vague chance that the woman might say something important, but all she could think of was Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess.

God, the whole reason she wanted to be a superhero was to get away from that part of her life, not dive into it!. Focus on the tour. She was going to meet other heroes with other powers. Better powers. She had it all worked out.

First she'd borrow Gallant's powers. He was on tonight, and then she could build a suit of power armor for herself. A costume. She wasn't sure what one night's worth of Tinkering could get her, but surely enough to go after purse thieves and common crooks. Enough to establish herself as an independent hero. Then she could have an excuse to rub shoulders with the heroes—the other heroes, and borrow their powers. Kid Win to put together some ray guns. Armsmaster for better efficiency. Anything else that she had for a day? An upgrade, but it cost too much to maintain or something. Yeah.

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony, she thought.

The doors whooshed open, and the tour reached its final stop. Children cheered as Gallant and the other hero they were meeting, Clockblocker, stood before them, and Taylor took a deep breath. Smile, she told herself. Look excited. You're just an ordinary fangirl meeting her heroes for the first time. How did that phrase go? Never meet your heroes.

"So, who wants a power demonstration?" Clockblocker asked. He spoke with relaxed enthusiasm, neither nervous nor condescending. Was he like that naturally, or did he have to practice that? At this point, Taylor wasn't ready to trust anything the heroes did at face value. The children cheered. He produced a set of bean bag balls and juggled a few of them, then froze one and let it hang in midair. "Okay, try to move it."

One of the older kids ran forward and grabbed at the ball, and ended up hanging from it as the others laughed. Clockblocker added a few more frozen balls into the mix, and the kids began climbing on them like it was a playground.

It was hard to take someone with a name like that seriously, but Clockblocker was one of the strongest capes in the city. Not only did his power lend itself to nonlethal captures, but he could immobilize someone like Lung or Hookwolf as easily as a purse thief.

But Gallant was her target. Maybe he wasn't in the same league as Armsmaster, but he had a similar suit of power armor. She didn't understand his empathic blasts that well, but Tinkertech could last. Copy his power. Build some armor. Become a hero. Then she could ...

Hold on, was he looking at her? It was hard to tell with his helmet, but ... no, he was just facing the crowd of tourists. Right? And if he was, it was probably because she was staring at him while everyone else was focused on Clockblocker. She did her best to tone down the creepy fangirl stalker vibes she was probably giving off and turned to focus on Clockblocker's antiques.

One of the balls fell out of the air, and the child holding onto it fell with it. "Hey, you won!" Clockblocker said, helping the boy to his feet. "Congratulations!"

"I won? Yeah! What did I win?"

Clockblocker shrugged. "How about a picture? Get over here, Gallant." They gathered together, Clockblocker with his arms around the shoulder of the winner, and two others still hanging in the air as their parents took some pictures.

Taylor considered joining them. It would be a way to get close enough to touch one of them, but she didn't have a camera. It might look out of place.

After that, though, the tour was over, and the two capes waved them goodbye as the tour guide led them back toward the elevator. Taylor grit her teeth, and stepped forward.

"Hey, Gallant?" She didn't need to make herself sound nervous. She didn't approach anyone if she could help it, let alone cape celebrities. She offered him her open notebook. "Could ... could I get your autograph?"

"Sure thing." Gallant looked like some kind of sci-fi medieval knight, and Taylor always expected him to sound like a machine, but his voice was warm and friendly. "Who can I make this out to?"

"Uh ..." A name, a name. Should she make something up? Could she? She had needed to fill out a bunch of forms before being allowed down here, and if her name didn't match what she had written down, it would look ... and now she looked like she was so star struck at meeting her hero she had forgotten what her name was. "Taylor!" she said, more loudly than necessary. Oh, God, was she blushing?

He chuckled. Bastard. Wait, would her power even work through his power armor? She thought about all the times she had borrowed Shadow Stalker's power. It hadn't always gone by skin contact. Sophia might shoulder check her in the hall or something, and that would be enough. But that was a sweatshirt or a pair of jeans, not a mechanized steel gauntlet.

Well, there was only one thing to do about it. When he handed her notebook back (with a very stylized signature on it and a note she'd read later), she deliberately brushed her hand against his fingers. After all, she already looked and sounded like a creepy fangirl, so it wouldn't ...

Lights. Colors. A psychedelic rainbow acid trip, swirling around Galant's head. What the hell? Clockblocker's too. And ... and something else, too. Something inside of her. She felt like she could take all those colors, gather them in her hand, and ... and ...

"Hey, Clock," Gallant said. "Do you have the time?"

This ... this was all wrong. Was this his power? Shadow Stalker's power felt like a lump in her chest that she could activate by clenching it, barely noticeable if she wasn't looking for it. This was hard drugs and ...

And the tour group had left her behind, alone with two capes.

"Sure, Gal," Clockblocker said, strolling casually toward them. Only it wasn't casual. That was a lie! The colors, the lights, they told her the truth. They cracked his mind open and smeared his heart across her eyes. He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's—"

She flinched back, but it wasn't enough.

WWW

A/n And that's chapter one! This story was commissioned by one of my Patrons, Ryan Cosly, who came up with the idea. You'll get the finer details of how her powers work in the next chapter, but this seemed like a nice enough stopping point.

As usual, I would like to thank my most generous Patrons, Exiled, Prime 2.0, Sphinxes, Hubris Prime, Janember, Yotam Bonneh, Lord of Edges, LordXamon, Victoria Carey, Kurkistan, Christopher Harris, Luminant, Jan, Jamie Hayes, Ian, Ryan Cosly, and Elayda for all their help in bringing this story to you. And, of course, I would like to thank you, the reader. Thank you, and see you next time.