"Who's your favorite hero, Grampapa?" Little Taylor piped up, eyes wide with curiosity.
"My favorite hero?" Grampapa Hebert smiled, leaning back thoughtfully. "Well now, that'd be Batman."
Taylor scrunched up her nose. "Who's Batman? How strong is he? What's his power? Could he beat Alexandria?"
Grampapa chuckled, ruffling her hair. "Hold your horses, little chatterbox."
Taylor ducked, brushing his hand away. "Well, he can't be that strong if I've never heard of him."
Grampapa's eyes twinkled. "Oh, he's strong, alright. He's taken down people even more powerful than Alexandria."
Taylor's jaw dropped. "What?! Nobody's stronger than Alexandria!"
"Well, there was one hero," he said, leaning in. "Batman once went toe-to-toe with someone who could fly as fast as lightning, had Alexandria's strength, and could shoot lasers from his eyes—like Legend. They called him… Superman."
Taylor's skepticism was written all over her face. "No way. How could anyone beat a guy like that?"
Grampapa's smirk grew a little sly. "With the greatest power of all."
Taylor's brow furrowed. "What power's stronger than Alexandria and Legend combined?"
His grin turned mischievous. "Money."
"Rah!"
Taylor dodged another gout of flames aimed at her.
Shitshitshitshitshit…
This was what she got for fighting Lung of all villains without any prep time.
Earlier that night, she had intended to rob—well, "swipe" was a more palatable term—the earnings from a drug den run by a newly formed villain gang known as the Archer's Bridge Merchants. After multiple stakeouts and extensive planning for her "first" night as a hero, she had felt ready for the mission. She had to keep the operation discreet, though.
The reason? Money. A hero needed resources to fight crime effectively, and supplies didn't come cheap. The fastest way to acquire those supplies was to purchase them, but it was even better to do so using the money of her enemies. After all, fighting for justice shouldn't come at too much of a personal cost. Especially when she was dirt poor and doing this without her father knowing.
"Ahh ohnna 'ill oo!" The dragon man roared.
So why was she currently fighting the most dangerous cape in Brockton's roster?
"Now!"
A piercing whistle echoed through the night, followed by the thud of massive, boney monster dogs leaping onto the roof beside her. With a menacing growl, they lunged toward the living, fiery murder machine below, but not before dropping their riders onto the rooftop.
"Whew. That could've gone badly." The blonde girl in a skintight lavender supersuit flashed a sly, vulpine grin. "Hi! I'm Tattletale."
The Undersiders. They were the reason she got into this mess. She had overheard Lung talking about wanting to kill some kids through her bugs. What kind of monster sees a child and thinks to himself, I'm gonna shoot that toddler in the head. It was utterly incomprehensible. Unfortunately, by the time she realized Lung had been referring to a group of young villains instead of a bunch of barely potty trained toddlers, she'd already ordered her black widows to converge on Lung Jr. and pumped it with enough venom to rot it right off. Her reasoning was that, If he gets off from killing children, what other messed up shit might he do to their corpses? Besides, didn't he have regeneration as his subpower? If a person could just heal on their own from whatever she did, then clearly, she hadn't crossed any real lines. At least, that was what she had heard Sophia say—in the moments right before Sophia's fists found her.
Tattletale nearly missed a step as she walked towards her. If she hadn't been such a social outcast, Taylor might've noticed the way Tattletale's grin stiffened.
Taylor had found and tagged the Undersiders as soon as the battle started, and she had found them planning to… recruit her.
"Wait a minute, Grue. I'll give her the pitch," said Tattletale before they had jumped in.
"Really? I thought—"
"No. We are not splitting any more than we have!" The one who she assumed was Hellhound growled.
"I dunno, Tits. She seems a bit too ballsy." The last member drawled vulgarly.
Tattletale sighed, ignoring the last comment. "Bitch, I'll give you half of my cut from all our jobs until you're convinced she's more useful than a liability. I trust you'll be honest about that, right?"
Hellhound growled some more, but her bugs detected the villain nodding stiffly.
That was how it all led to this moment. Before Taylor could even dismiss whatever the villain was about to say, Tattletale hurled something at her—something green. Taylor caught the thick bundle of cash and rolled it between her fingers.
"This is two thousand seventy-one bucks," she said, her voice sounding almost incredulous.
Tattletale raised an eyebrow, surprised by how quickly Taylor had counted it.
"Uh, bitch—lowercase 'b', Rache—I'm no salaryman, but aren't you supposed to get her to say yes before handing over the money?" The crowned boy in white pointed.
"Quiet, Regent. I know what I'm doing." She looked back at her. "Take that as thanks for saving our butts. No strings attached."
On the one hand, this was dirty money. On the other, she was taking this from villains. It put Taylor in quite the conundrum.
"But," added Tattletale. "We're currently open for a spot on the team. I'm sure you've heard of us. Thieves and escape artists extraordinaire! If you think two kay's a lot, that's just chump change compared to what we usually get from each job. I can guarantee you we'll split our shares evenly; no unpaid intern bullshit."
Taylor's head swam. Two thousand dollars, chump change? What if… No. No! Why was she even considering this? She was a hero, for Pete's sake! The rumble of a vehicle jolted her to reality.
"Ah, that must be the heroes—most likely Armsmaster," the blonde explained. "Let's move."
Hellhound whistled, and it suddenly hit Taylor that they had been ignoring Lung throughout the entire conversation. She glanced down to see him no longer resembling a fearsome dragon, but instead looking like a worn-out chew toy, battered and barely intact.
"Hey!" Taylor swerved back and saw Tattletale already on a monster dog, hand extended towards her. "Come on! We'll talk more elsewhere."
Seeing her still hesitating, Tattletale added, "I heard Armsmaster's got a lot of sensors in that visor of his. If you plan on staying, try not to say anything incriminating."
Oh no! What if he had a lie detection program or something? That seemed like the kind of tech a typical Tinker would have, let alone a high-tier Tinker like him! She might be a hero, but she doubted going out with the intention of stealing money—even if it was just from criminals—was very heroic.
"Fuck." She sighed.
Taylor grabbed her hand.
"So, what do you think?" Tattletale leaned back on the railing.
They stood on Captain's Hill, looking over the city. The stars in the sky above glittered like gold—a whole treasure trove she never noticed until now, clouded by the bleakness that hung over the Bay.
"The view's nice. Makes me feel small, though."
"Huh? Oh, that. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I should come here more often. But anyway, I was talking about the job offering."
She turned her eyes back to the blonde villain, whose smirk was back and as foxy as ever. She'd thought it over on her ride here. She could just steal their money instead. Yeah, that didn't seem that bad of an idea. She'd just need to gain their trust to figure out where they stashed their cash. Probably somewhere in their evil lair or something.
Taylor was a bit wary about Tattletale. All she knew about her was that she was supposedly a self-proclaimed psychic, which was utter bullshite. The girl was most likely a Thinker of some kind. She should be wary, but…
She can't be that good. I mean, if she could mistake a hero like me for a villain, then that power of hers can't be that reliable.
That was the thought process of Taylor—the same girl who was masked and clad in dark, menacing armor, ready to rob people that very night, and who was currently making deals with villains. This was our protagonist.
There was something she was forgetting, but what was—Oh! Right! She needed to bring them in after taking them for all they had. What kind of hero would just let villains go, especially when they were unarmed, unprepared, and out of costume? That would be absolutely insane. Well, that was for later. Right now, the money.
"Sure, why not?"
"Great!" They shook hands. "Come on! We'll show you our villainous, no good, evil lair. Then we'll ride you home."
"...Ride?" She looked over the monster dogs currently getting scritches by Hell—Bitch.
Tattletale laughed, a sound that reminded Taylor of holiday bells. It was light and cheerful, and despite herself, Taylor found it hard not to smile.
"Don't worry, we have a van." She waved off her worries. "Oh, and before I forget, I'm gonna have to call the boss. Time is money, as he always says."
Her bugs picked up on Regent tilting his head. "He actually says tha—?"
Tattletale interrupted him smoothly. "You know how those rich types are."
Wait.
Boss?
…Rich?