January 1st, 2011.
The inclement conditions prompted Principal Blackwell to cancel school early. Taylor hurried out of Mr. Gladly's classroom, overhearing students in the hallways talking about what they'd be doing once they got out. She glanced out a window, noticing the heavy snowfall and the thick blanket of fluffy whiteness carpeting the ground. At this rate, with snow sticking to the sidewalks and gathering in the fields, Winslow High would be closed for the rest of the week. This was the snowstorm of the century, Taylor thought quietly.
Barely half an hour ago, she'd been in the World Issues classroom, trying to survive as Mr. Gladly interrogated the class, asking everyone to contribute to the discussion. She'd tried making herself as small as possible, hoping the Trio would ignore her. Her plan had failed; they mocked her mercilessly when she'd opened her mouth. The Trio were the three girls who constantly tormented her at school, taking every opportunity to make her life miserable. From their abusive pranks to petty insults, the girls delighted in seeing her suffer. The worse part about it was that the leader of the Trio, Emma, had once been her best friend.
Shaking the memories from her mind, Taylor tried to focus on the present. She opened her locker, preparing to take all her textbooks and school supplies home, so she could have more time to study away from the Trio. This would be a rare chance for her to finish her assignments, without the three of them sabotaging her work. It wouldn't save her floundering grades, but maybe she could avoid failing her classes.
Her ruminations were cut short by the excited voices of several students further down the hall.
"Eww, its Taylor," someone giggled.
"Look, she's all alone," said another girl in a saccharine voice. "Do you think she knows she has no friends?"
"I doubt it," a third girl snickered. "Does she even know what those are?"
It was them. Three high schoolers around her age, the most popular girls in the school, and her perpetual tormentors. Their leader, Emma, was sort of pretty, with a curvy body and scarlet locks. The second girl, Sophia was tall and athletic and dark-skinned. Sophia did everything Emma told her. Third was Madison, who had brown hair and a petite frame; she'd joined in on the bullying not for personal reasons, but because she craved any kind of popularity.
Mentally bracing herself for more insults, Taylor averted her gaze as they approached. She knew by now that any show of defiance would further aggravate the girls, so she quietly faced the wall.
"She's such a loser. She didn't even turn in her art project," Sophia said, scowling. "If she's not trying, then why's she even coming to school? Doesn't she know she's wasting everyone else's space?"
Taylor forced her expression to remain neutral. She continued packing her things while the Trio jostled her around.
"Are you going to cry yourself to sleep?" Emma asked sweetly.
Startled, she glanced over her shoulder, at her former friend and her malicious expression. She stared wordlessly at Emma. How had she remembered that? She tried to banish those memories from her mind, but those moments, the worst in her life, slowly trickled in. Against her will, she felt tears forming in her eyes.
"Look at her! She's crying!" Madison giggled.
Emma said something strange. "Sophia, now's our chance..."
Angrily, she blinked away her tears, but not before Sophia seized her arms. Feeling her balance vanish, the muscular girl shoved her roughly into the metal locker, bruising her limbs as she pushed her inside. She turned to see the three girls staring at her. Both Emma and Sophia looked ecstatic, while Madison looked confused.
"Bye, Taylor! Maybe we'll let you out, maybe we won't!" Emma mocked in a sing-song voice.
The locker door slammed shut, trapping her inside. Taylor was too stunned to react - had the Trio just locked her inside her own locker? She tried pushing the door open, but to no avail. It stayed firmly shut. She slammed her fists against the metal... but nothing happened. She gasped in disbelief. Was she actually stuck? She kicked and rammed her shoulder against the door again, screaming and crying. Someone had to hear her, right? Somebody had to let her out; she couldn't stay in this prison!
Hours later, Taylor have given up any hope of breaking out. The metal door refused to budge, no matter how hard she hammered her fists against it. Why was it so cold in here? Wasn't the school supposed to be heated? Did the Trio mean to freeze her to death, entombing her inside this metal coffin? And... did no one want to help her? Eventually, she shut her eyes, exhausted. Instead of peaceful darkness, Taylor found herself stranded in the middle of cold outer space. She tried looking around, then discovered she lacked even a body. All she could see were thousands of glittering stars, glinting like diamonds.
Then, two gargantuan creatures filled her perception.
Each of them swam elegantly through the void, spiraling in a helical pattern as their bodies folded and unfolded. The creatures seemed to exist beyond three-dimensional space. Their bodies were the size of small planets, and with each revolution they drifted further apart. They shed fragments of energy from their enormous forms, leaving behind a trail of stardust as they continued their enigmatic dance. It was an incomprehensible scene, and it left her mind reeling, her tiny brain struggling to fathom everything. When they became too far away from one another, they sent out a message.
A single phrase: Destination. Agreement. Trajectory. Agreement.
Taylor stepped out of the locker. Her first impression was of the startling snow cover which was layered over what remained of Winslow High. Then, there was the silence. Pure, unbroken silence, accompanied by the falling snow, which caught in her hair and settled on her arms. She glanced around, noticing how empty the school was.
Had... had she done this? She found it hard to believe that a trigger event could cause such a drastic change, but the blinding whiteness and the freezing air said otherwise. Did she have powers now? And was she a cape? If this heavy snow was a part of her powers, then was she to blame for the destruction of her high school? Instead of feeling guilty, Taylor felt strangely apathetic about the whole thing. Snow filtered through the half-collapsed ceiling, and through the gap she caught a glimpse of a dark sky, black and ominous, filled with heavy clouds. Before she had a chance to explore the remnants of Winslow, the sound of shuffling feet and crunching snow caught her attention.
"Do you think we'll find her?" a worried voice asked. "What if she'd dead in her locker? It's so cold out here, we'll probably only find her frozen corpse!"
"Stop talking!" the other speaker demanded.
The anxious voice continued. "What if they figure out we did it? Will the police arrest us? I can't go to jail because of lame and stupid Taylor!"
"Shut up and keep searching," the harsher voice replied.
Taylor recognized the second speaker as none other than Emma, the one who'd probably planned the locker prank in the first place. She tried to conceal her rising panic. Should she run and hide, or confront them?
Taylor fled.
The deep snowbanks slowed her movements, and a part of her wondered why she was running. She had been avoiding the Trio for months, yes, but under the storm, she felt a little braver.
"Hey! You, stop!" a shout rang out behind her.
Taylor turned a corner, then found herself face to face with a snowdrift, piled high enough to block the hallway. In desperation, she opened the door to an empty classroom and dove inside. She spotted the unopened windows past the rows of desks and rushed towards them. Her fingers closed around a cold handle and pushed.
It was frozen shut.
"Wow, Taylor. You're not a giant human popsicle. I was so worried; I couldn't imagine life without favorite runt to torment." Emma's rude remarks accompanied her into the classroom, with the brunette following shortly after.
"She looks fine now," Madison observed. "We should go..."
Emma stepped closer. There was nowhere for Taylor to hide. The other girl must have come to the same conclusion, for she said, elated, "No more running for you, Taylor. The poor prey has cornered herself."
Surprisingly, Madison came to her defense. "I thought you wanted to make sure she survived. It's freezing out here. Can we torment her another time?"
"Another time?" Emma snorted, looking appalled by the suggestion. "Look at Winslow, some freak storm destroyed most of it. This might be the last time we all attend the same school." She stared at Taylor unsympathetically, raw disgust distorting her beautiful features. "I want to see if she'll cry again."
Feeling completely isolated and helpless, Taylor felt her fear turn into liquid energy, power flowing through her veins. The room became even colder. Then the bluish power reached her fingers. Shocked, Taylor watched as frost curled around her fingertips, cool but not unbearably cold. When had she become a cape? And what was this a superpower? Something to do with snow and ice? It seemed as if the molecules of air around her hands were being transfigured into specks of frost.
"Go away," Taylor begged. She leveled her trembling hands towards the bully, wondering if her power – whatever it was - would help her.
Emma stared at the crystals of ice growing on her fingertips. "No way. How- you triggered?!"
"You put me in the locker!" Taylor screamed. "Do you have any idea how long I stayed in there, freezing to death?"
"Then this freakish storm was your fault," she narrowed her eyes. "It's strange how someone so weak created something so powerful."
"I don't care about this stupid crap anymore," Madison said impatiently. "Great, Taylor got some shitty powers. We found her, she'd not dead. It's miserable here; I just wanna go home!"
Emma marched towards Taylor. "You're coming with us." She wrapped her fingers around her wrist and tried to drag her along. "The PRT will want to interrogate you, with all the property damage you've caused to the school."
When she refused to move, Emma cried out, "Madison, help me!"
Madison grudgingly came over, securing Taylor's left arm while Emma grabbed her right. They escorted her to the closest exit, but Taylor managed to wriggle free. With a fierce push, she shoved Emma off the path. The other girl crashed into the thick fluffy snow. Madison blinked, surprised, and Taylor ran.
"Madison? Stop her!" Emma screamed, still lying half sunken in the snowdrift.
The brunette just stared at her dumbly. Taylor barely took a few steps before her foot struck a slippery patch of ice, and her legs collapsed from underneath. Wonderful, she thought, her power made snow and frost, but she couldn't walk across a tiny section of it without falling. As she struggled to stand, someone grabbed her – Madison, who clamped both her petite hands on her arm.
"Good, now hold on to her while I teach her a lesson," Emma said. She rose, dusting snow off her clothes, then gazed at Taylor with murder in her eyes. "This child... she thinks she can run from me?!"
Emma slapped her once, forcing her to blink away her tears. Raising her other hand, she struck her again, hard, and she felt her lower lip splitting. Taylor tasted warm blood. Emma had gone completely mental, she realized. Strands of her scarlet hair clung to her face, and she had a wild, unhinged look in her eyes. Her existence offended the other girl so much, to the point where Emma was willing to physically hurt her.
"Tell me you're sorry!" Emma screeched, sounding utterly deranged. "For wasting years of my childhood, of my life!"
She tried to wriggle free, but Madison kept her hands locked around her wrists. Taylor felt the icy power infusing her limbs, rushing through her veins and extinguishing the sensation of warmth from her flesh. Emma landed another blow, but still, she refused to give in to the other girl's demands.
"Tell me! Say something to me, you miserable wretch!"
Taylor pushed away her pain and her feelings of cowardice. "I won't apologize for your foolishness. You chose to waste years of your own life."
When she tugged against Madison's grip once more, Taylor offensively released the collected blueish energy, pouring it into her aggressor. Her power, which had so far been without an outlet, eagerly rushed through her arm into the other girl's hand. In a fraction of a second, Madison was replaced by an ice sculpture – a crystalline, life-sized replica of the girl.
Emma, who'd witnessed the entire exchange, let out a shrill shriek, her raised hand falling limply to her side. Her expression looked caught halfway between rage and alarm, like she was shocked by Taylor's display of icy power but remembered she was also supposed to be angry.
Without Madison restraining her, Taylor stood, staring down at her tormentor. There was a sharp, wicked icicle in her hand, and she wasn't sure when she'd picked it up. Her power, sensing her distress, must have created a weapon for her. Emma's fury slowly faded as she lifted the icicle. Swinging her arm, she stabbed Emma in her thigh, and hot sticky blood soaked through her jeans.
Emma howled. Her face contorted into one of pain and fear, her eyes flicking around wildly.
"You made me like this," Taylor hissed. "You spent years bullying me, desperately trying to prove that you were stronger, but now who's the strongest?"
Emma's distressed gaze landed on Madison's frozen body, then the coat of glittering frost wreathing up Taylor's arm. Taylor removed the embedded icicle, and Emma screamed again, staring in disbelief at the crimson blood flowing from her wound.
"Now, you have two choices," she said, feeling rather distant and cold. "You can try to prove your 'strength,' greatly embarrass yourself and die, or you can run away."
Glaring at her with hate-filled eyes, Emma promptly fled.
Indifferent, Taylor let her escape. Her mind was still trying to process everything. She was a cape! She had a real, working superpower!
A short-ranged Striker ability, which could turn matter directly into ice. She'd transmuted Madison into an ice statue, and she'd created a pointed icicle from nothing. A small, distant part of her told her that she should feel guilty for killing her tormentor, but all Taylor could do was think of her newfound powers. Her adrenaline-fueled shock gradually turned to excitement. Reaching towards a snow-covered desk, she wiped off the snow, then placed her hand on the cool surface. She willed it to become ice, to freeze like Madison's flesh.
Nothing happened.
She tried again, willing the plastic to transform into solid ice. Again, the desk stubbornly kept its original form. How had she first activated her power against Madison? She remembered drawing a liquid power from a metaphorical well, then channeling the power before it could fully dissipate.
Once more, Taylor reached inwards. She gasped. There was an icy reserve deep within her mind, tinted a dazzling shade of vivid blue. It felt immense, nearly infinite. Gently, she collected a sliver of power and held it in her palm. The freezing cold energy chilled her hand, but not in an unpleasant way. Before it trickled out of her grasp, she pushed the wintery energy into the desk. A glacial ripple flowed across the table, freezing it completely.
Taylor grinned, overjoyed. Her power was easy enough to use, she realized, once she understood the fundamentals... except for the snowstorm. If she'd triggered as some sort of ice cape, then the raging storm outside her school was somehow her fault. Until she could shut off the storm, she'd need to continue studying her powers.
A/N: Instead of controlling bugs, Taylor triggers with winter themed powers. After reading so many Worm fanfics, this is my attempt to create an AU where capes with 'noble' powers play a more prominent role in the story. Feedback and suggestions are welcome, and of course, Worm belongs to Wildbow.