Disclaimer: I don't own Worm, it belongs to Widbow. I don't make any money from this story. It is written with no commercial aim in mind. It is not for sale or rent.

Into the fire

Prologue 1.1: Kindling

Winswol High school

Brockton Bay

"Mom!" Thirteen year old Taylor Hebert beamed when she saw who came to pick her that afternoon.

Annette forced herself to smile when she saw her daughter. Any other day her expression would have been genuine. Today however took all her willpower to keep the worry and fear she felt off her face. Annette strode past small groups of chatting children and hugged her daughter as if her life depended on it… which it very well might. She opened her mind to the Void and it immediately filled with equations that would have made Earth Bet's greatest thinkers heads spin.

For a moment she staggered as her body was filled with power she hadn't touched what felt like ages. Annette hugged her babbling daughter tighter and cast upon her spells that would hopefully keep her safe. No one in the courtyard had the eyes to see chains of purple letters manifest all around Taylor before fading into her thin frame. All the teen could feel was the warmth of her mother's hug. It made her feel loved, safe. Protected.

The moment passed and Annette released he daughter. She gave her another smile and led her to the waiting car.

"Mom, wasn't dad's day today?" Taylor asked once they were inside.

"Yep. I felt like picking you up. I need to show you something." Annette ruffed her daughter's hair. "It's a secret!" She stage whispered, making Taylor giggle.

Annette drove out into the traffic while keeping a part of her attention on her daughter's excited rambling about her day with Emma. They were halfway to the highway leading out of Brockton Bay, just couple of hours from their destination, when the Void shuddered.

Annette sensed something familiar force its way into this dimension followed by a powerful sensor sweep that felt like wave of a blazing golden light. She hissed a curse so quietly that Taylor couldn't hear it. Equation flashed through her mind, masking spells came to life around the care isolating it from the surrounding world, yet even as the defenses were snapping up, Annette knew it was too little too late.

She couldn't hide herself from the hunter. Taylor on the other hand…

The sensor sweep flashed over the car and Annette was illuminated by it. Her energy signature burned brightly against the golden light. The reaction was like a pillar of flame – a beacon for the hunter to follow. It burned so bright that drowned everything around, saturating it with Annette's signature. It was more than enough to completely mask Taylor's existence from anyone not looking for her.

Annette smiled sadly and drove out of the traffic. She had just a few moments left with her daughter and wanted to make the most of it.

"Mom, why are we stopping?" Taylor asked.

"Hey, Little Owl..." Annette's voice broke when she looked Taylor in the eyes. She released her seat-belt and shifted so she could hug her daughter. "I'll always love you Taylor. I'm sorry..."

"Mom, you're scaring me..." Taylor whispered.

"I'm sorry..." Annette repeated. She removed the silver bracelet she had worn ever since she was little girl and gently placed her on Taylor's left arm. "This will keep you safe, Little Owl." She kissed Taylor's forehead. "Please forgive me..."

Pink light engulfed the whole car. Taylor blinked in confusion. Her head hurt Her whole body hurt.

"Mom?" She whispered.

Her mother was next to her, slumped around the driver's seat which looked wrong. Taylor's mind tried to process what was that red liquid all over her mother, why the other side of the car looked so wrong so… twisted…

"Mom?" Taylor repeated.

The sky outside flashed pink and Taylor knew no more.

Prologue 1.2: Fire

Above Brockton Bay

Annette flew upon crimson wings made of transparent energy locked into eye-watering geometric forms. She was a kilometer above the ground and rising rapidly, flying to intercept the hunter coming for her. She brushed away the tears streaking all over her face and glared at the dot of golden light approaching her from the north.

The dimension space above Earth Bet was a mess that made it impossible to breach it most of the time. It's ebbs and flows were chaotic, unpredictable. The tides aligned in the right manner to allow entrance just a handful of time every few years. That's why she hid here.

That's why she was sure that if she managed to take the hunter down with her, Taylor would be reasonably safe.

There was a part of her that earned to go home. To take her family and run… yet for all she knew there was nothing left waiting for them but ashes. When she fled desperately trying to lose her pursuers, everything she knew and loved was under attack and about to fall.

Annette couldn't risk going back. She could no longer hide.

All she could do was fight and hope.

Annette gathered her power and smiled when a corona of pink light surrounded her. The approaching hunter slowed down and the golden blaze around them lit up like the rising sun. When she pointed at the enemy, her mind sang with equations and the buzz of the Void.

"Blaze." Annette muttered. A thousand pink dots manifested around her wings. "Lock on. Luminous barrage." A thousand energy beams raced at the hunter, each potent enough to gut a main battle tank.

A hexagonal shield appeared in front of the assassin a moment before he vanished within an expanding cloud of dazzling explosions.

"Barrier." Annette whispered. An opaque silver shield enveloped her a moment before a thick beam of golden energy slammed into her. She was pushed a few meters back from the impact before she could stabilize her flight.

An even dozen spears of blinding light surrounded the hunter and flew at Annette under his control.

"Proton Lance." She retaliated with a cascade of orange energy that swallowed the incoming attacks and continued to race at her tormentor.

A crescent of pure light slashed through the Proton Lance and the energy attack separated into two beams that barely missed their target before continuing on their way. Annette flew above it and glared at the hunter. He was merely two kilometers away now and fast approaching. An ever increasing number of sparkling golden moths began surrounding him and the power levels she could sense around him were increasing with the appearance of every new light.

Annette sighed. He already manifested more power than she could safely wield. Ever since she was wounded during her flight from home, she had been unable to utilize her gifts properly. Annette was locked into her own mind and that simple fact doomed her.

It was obvious that the hunter's skills were at the very least equal to her own and she was certain he had much more experience. She could feel it. Annette knew the outcome was a foregone conclusion since the start, yet she had to try. For Taylor's and Danny's sake if not her own.

Well, there was nothing to it. Annette opened herself to the Void. She shattered all the restrictions in place to protect her from the fury of the higher dimensions. Her implants blazed with more power than they were even meant to channel, much less contain and she raced to meet the hunter. Thousands of golden spears stabbed at Annette and shattered upon a sickly purple shield that she formed with a mere thought. More and more strikes rained upon her lithe form until she could no longer keep the Void shield up and it vanished with an unearthly screech.

A dozen golden spears pierced Annette's body a moment before she struck the hunter and shattered his shield. He tried to fade away, yet all the power emanating from her ruined body disrupted his magic. Her bloodstained lips formed a manic smile as the Void ravaged her mind. The equations controlling Annette's magic became strings of meaningless gibberish. Her implants burned, consuming themselves in pyres that ate at her brain.

Annette laughed.

"Come, burn with me!" She shouted.

The hunter tried to get away. Hundreds of light spears formed around him just to shatter in golden rain as his magic was disrupted again and again. He snarled and his armored suit sent enough energy into Annette to turn an ordinary human into ash.

She laughed.

The Void roared at Annette's last command and a new star was born above Brockton Bay. The hunter screamed as his armor melted and ran away like water upon the wind. Annette was replaced by a human shaped form of plasma as the hungering Void consumed them both, scattering their remains in a dimension where only energy could exist.

The second sun above Brockton Bay blazed with purple light before being consumed by a hungering void. A thunderclap that broke every single window in the city slammed into the Bay before a stifling silence fell upon the stunned city.

Prologue 1.3: Into the furnace

Arcturus station

Fortress System Reach

Outer Rim Nexus

Thorgin Meinkraft stood upon the bridge of the Assault Vector Dauntless and surveyed the forces under his command. Three whole fleets were gathered into the system. By anyone's reckoning that was a powerful force, one that no one could take lightly or ignore. Nevertheless, all the ships and stationary defenses at Reach were a mere shadow of the armada that once protected the Outer Rim.

It could be no other way, considering that the thousands of systems spread through hundreds of dimensions that made the outer colonies had shrunk to a couple of dozen worlds that now could be reached only from Reach. There were two more fleets spread out and locked into the task of escorting thousands of transports which were frantically attempting to evacuate as many people as they could.

The enemy was coming, launching one last offensive in this sector meant to bind Meinkraft's forces in place. He knew very well that the attack he was meant to stop was a mere diversion, however one he had to meet headlong or write off billons. The Empress orders were clear – hold the Nexus as long as possible and fall back only when the evacuation was complete or the remaining convoys were hopelessly cut off. Only then he was to take out the Nexus and retreat towards the Core Worlds.

Meinkraft closed his eyes, though that didn't stop his flagships tactical AI's from feeding information into his implants and from there into the partition of his brain overseeing the tactical situation. He knew his duty. To the Empire and its people. The Empress' choice was the right one – as much such a thing mattered in the kind of war they were fighting. Yet, all he wanted was to be back by his daughter's side when she was preparing to meet the main enemy offensive which was meant to win the war. A goal that might very well be achieved by the enemy.

The war had went for too long. The Empire was cracking. How could it not be when the war began with a sneak attack and a coup attempt that crippled the armed forces?! The Empire's armies and navies were depleted, tired. The enemy wasn't in much better state, yet the brainwashed bastards would gladly die to the last if it meant victory.

"Multiple dimensional incursions. They're here." Livia, Dauntless primary AI and the Assault Vector's XO, announced.

Raw tactical information was fed into Meinkraft's implants and it took him a moment to make a sense of it. There were breaches opening all over the system. Many were already coming under fire by nearby weapon platforms or battle groups. Yet, there were too few defenders to engage them all.

Breaches which wouldn't be possible if not for the traitors even now fighting for the other side.

Despite the expected enemy numerical superiority in space, it wasn't their navy that Meinkraft feared. It was planet-side where things got truly ugly. The enemy had the capacity to open rifts in the atmosphere and simply ignore the navy and any orbital defenses. That's how they almost won the war twenty years earlier – rifts opened upon a thousand unsuspecting worlds and whole armies more often than not backed up by Continental Siege Units came through before anyone knew they were under attack.

He couldn't keep an ugly snarl from appearing on his face when he saw the same happening on Valencia – Reach's primary populated world. There were still billions of people waiting for free transports to evacuate them to the Core. The two army groups deployed planet-side were going to be hard pressed to hold the line, if they could pull it off in the first place.

Multiple angry red dots blossomed all over Valencia's image in Meinkraft's mind as he watched the enemy make planet-fall.

"Multiple CSUs detected." An AI reported. Seven large red triangles appeared heading towards the primary evacuation centers. Four green ones moved in to intercept them and Meinkraft knew it wasn't going to be enough.

"Tell admiral Lind that she has tactical command of the fleets. The Empress' orders stand – we hold our ground until the evacuation is complete or no longer possible. I'm deploying planet-side." Meinkraft didn't wait for acknowledgment. He accessed his power - a crimson circle surrounded him and deposed him in Dauntless' primary hangar, right in front of a cradle containing his tactical armor.

Meinkraft stepped on the crystal platform and raised his hands. The VI controlling the cradle scanned him and hundreds of codes were exchanged until it was satisfied. A few seconds later, Meinkraft was engulfed by soothing blue light and he felt warm liquid flow over him from his feet up. The smart metal molded in the form of his armor and then melted into him binding itself to his flesh thanks to the nanites infesting every single cell of his body. Meinkraft felt familiar tingle as his skin was replaced with alloy that could absorb incredible amounts of punishment. He grit his teeth as his internal organs were rearranged and changed into something no one would be able to mistake for mere flesh and blood.

When the process reached his mind, the world dimmed. The partitions her ran merged into one. Meinkraft shivered when he was temporarily cut off from the network and was alone in his mind for a brief moment that felt like an eternity. The constant buzz that were the thought of his subordinates, the instances of his own personality he tended to run as a matter of course in order to properly multitask – they were all silent.

Then the change was complete and he got a new status update. A profound sense of relief washed over him once he was no longer alone. Multiple mental partitions came to life and Meinkraft reconnected to the network. The song of the datastream calmed his mind and he sighed in relief.

"Valiant, status?" Meinkraft asked his armor's controlling intelligence.

"Nominal. All systems green, Thorgin. We're ready to deploy."

"Just in time too, old friend."

The imperial CSU's on Valencia were already fully engaged. The ground commander was throwing two whole corps against another one in a desperate bid to slow it down, yet the other two were advancing towards a pair of separate evacuation zones. Wing after wing of aerospace fighters were throwing everything they could at those CSUs, yet they weren't even slowed down.

"Admiral Meinkraft, we just detected an Omega signal. It was weak, with a lot interference, though we managed to get a vector and a relative dimensional coordinates." Livia reported.

"An Omega?" Thorgin muttered. Only members of the Royal family had the implants to release one upon their death.

"I'm sorry sir, it was Lady Annette's." The AI sounded apologetic. "Orders?"

"Send the coordinates to the Empress, priority Black. Send multiple dispatch boats as well." Thorgin grit his teeth. "There are no other orders for the fleets." He hissed. "Valiant, initiate transfer. Put us above Intruder Three."

"Initiating. I'm sorry Thorgin."

"I know my friend. I know." Meinkraft muttered and called upon the Void.

He had believed his younger daughter dead for more than twenty years. Made peace with it a long time ago. Yet, that didn't stop him from hoping for a miracle even if he knew it was pointless. Receiving a confirmation after all this time… it hit him hard. The possibility that Annette had been alive all this time and lost… It used to give him hope on the worst days and there were too many of those to contemplate. Thorgin grit his teeth.

"Sir, are you sure?" Valiant asked.

"Transfer us." Meinkraft snapped.

He would mourn later.

The hangar vanished in a swirl of blue particles and was replaced by burning skies. Thorgin deployed his wings and three sets of ethereal energy constructs unfolded behind his back. They caught his fall and propelled him forward. Valiant accessed the tactical network and displayed their target – a kilometer long monstrosity built to intimidate and destroy. It looked like a twisted living thing with too many fanged slobbering mouths and unsettling angry eyes looking in all directions. It flew upon thick leather wings that could in no way shape or form support its weight, yet they apparently did – if one didn't knew better.

Thorgin smiled mirthlessly. Meinkraft brought his armor's weapons online and released them under Valiant's control while his mid filled with equations and the cold kiss of the Void.

The CSU noticed them and released a psychic scream which would have driven an un-enchanced man insane.

Meinkraft flew straight at the behemoth and the Void itself came with him.

Chapter 1: Spark

Spark 1.1

Highrise drive

Brockton Bay

Taylor Hebert knew she shouldn't be there. This part of Brockton Bay wasn't safe – it hadn't been ever since the ABB moved in last year. However, today she didn't really care.

Two years ago, this day her mother died here. Somehow Taylor got away from the crash unscratched and unable to remember what happened. The doctors said it was a shock induced amnesia and that she might eventually remember.

She hasn't. Taylor seldom experienced dreams of her mother smiling sadly, leaning to kiss her forehead and then she was looking at her mom's bloody face and the sky was burning. She knew there was something important she was forgetting. At times it was at the tip of her tongue, the memory felt like it was just over there, waiting for her to reach for it, then it was gone and Taylor was left angry and frustrated.

It's been two years since her mom died and she couldn't help it but think that it was somehow her fault. Taylor's mom wanted to show her some kind of surprise. That's why she was driving up this street.

Why did she have to die?! It wasn't fair!

An ear piercing screech of tires came from behind making Taylor cringe and turn around. A large engine roared nearby then a minivan driving down the street simply crumbled around something invisible that struck it in the back like a giant hammer. Taylor stood frozen in place and all she could do was numbly watch as the smashed vehicle flew out of control and headed straight at her.

Taylor don't want to die! That thought flashed through her brain before she instinctively closed her eyes and waited for the van to hit her.

"Barrier!" A chirpy voice announced. Her mother's bracelet grew warmer just before the world ended with the deafening scream of tearing metal and a bang like that of a giant gong that made her head spin.

She shook in fright. Was she dead? Taylor didn't felt the van running her over, yet she certainly heard it.

"Master?" That voice again.

Huh. She didn't feel anything. Taylor dared open her eyes and… She simply stared at a pink force-field that surrounded her. It was made of overlapping hexagons small enough to comfortably fit in the palm of her hand.

"What?" Tailor whispered in disbelief. She could see the van – what was left of it at any rate, warped around the force-field. There had to be a hero nearby, the one who just saved her.

"Fuck it, Squealer, can't you drive straight? Why did you run into that cock-sucking cunt?!" Someone roared from the other side of the wrecked van.

"Uh, Skids!" A woman tried to interrupt the litany of curses.

"Fucking cock..."

"SKIDS!" The same voice shouted.

"WHAT?! Don't you see I'm busy fuck it?!"

"Look behind you. I think that's a new cape!"

"Huh. A shield. It looks like one of those New Wave bitches… Hey! Come over here! Papa Skidmark has something for you!"

Uh, oh. Were they talking about her?! Taylor's eyes widened and her brain finally rebooted. Fuck! Those were Skidmark and Squealer, had to be! She shuddered in revulsion at the implications and stumbled back. Taylor had to get away from them! What were Merchant Capes of all people doing here?!

"Master, are you all right? My sensors show you're quite agitated!" That eery chirpy voice again. Was she going insane? Did she hit her head or something?

Taylor scrambled away from the twisted remains of the van until her back hit a hard surface. She looked for a way out and her eyes fell upon the van's cabin. The windshield was simply gone and… and… There was so much blood… Was that gray thing bone or brain?

The next thing Taylor knew, she was on her knees and she was barfing her breakfast and what felt like every meal she ever had.

"Heh. We've got fresh meat over here, Squealer!" A very smug voice announced from nearby. "Bring me some of the good stuff. Damn, you're a skinny bitch, ain't ya? Ugh. Are those sticks or legs?"

Taylor tried to get away and scrambled back from the voice. She looked wildly around and saw a not particularly tall man wearing dirty jeans, a leather jacked and black blouse that had seen much better times. His face was mostly obscured by a skewed domino mask that did nothing to hide his leer.

"Don't worry bitch, Papa Skids will make it everything all right! We've got the best stuff!" He nodded with a self assured grin.

"Stay away!"

"Tsk. That's not the way to treat your new best friend, bitch." Skidmark shook his head. "Never mind. You'll learn."

"Master, I can help you if you listen to me! Please!"

Taylor was too shaken to pay proper attention to that voice. She had heard what the Merchants did to people. Saw their members at school every day. She didn't want anything to do with that!

Skidmark walked towards her and Taylor did her best to scramble back, making him laugh at her. Her back hit the wall and she screamed when he stood above her and grabbed her hair.

The world froze and her awareness expanded.

Taylor was drifting in a dark void surrounded by countless sparkling stars. Two huge shapes twisted in the distance, dancing around each other and occasionally touching which produced clouds of gleaming shards that fell towards her.

Destination…

What?! Dimensional intrusion detected… No, you won't touch my master! Initiating countermeasures…

Countless crystalline forms fell all around her. They glowed brightly with inner light making them look like a shower of falling stars.

Trajectory…

User designated Taylor Hebert compromised… Countermeasures ineffective…

The shards were beautiful. One shone brighter than the other and Taylor knew it was heading straight at her.

Emergency override in effect… Activating Blackwatch protocols… Dimension pocked reached… Accessing storage space… Shifting mass… Deploying nanites… Warsong system emergency activation… Accessing higher dimensional space… Void link established...

Agree… Error…

Taylor's mind shattered. There was no other way she could describe what happened at that moment. There were jagged pieces of her awareness that were separate yet parts of a greater whole. There were ten different Taylor's freaking out… Or was there only one losing her mind in then different parts of her own mind?!

A wave of frost washed over her. Suddenly Taylor's emotions took a backstage. She could still sense them or at least an echo. She knew that they were all shunted into one of the jagged broken pieces of her mind so she could actually think. Taylor blinked in confusion at that thought. It made no sense, yet she knew it to be true.

Somehow she looked around, saw all the pieces of her mind that were looking back at her. The part that contained her emotions blanched at that and become ever less coherent, yet Taylor herself was non-pulsed. Her attention was taken by twisting void that somehow didn't exist in the middle of her awareness yet she could see it. Perceive that it was right there in front of her eyes and it was the source of the cold wave that pushed her emotions away.

It was weird. A pulsing patch of nothingness that seemingly absorbed the light. Nevertheless, Taylor could see it.

No, that wasn't the correct term. She was aware of that Void. She could feel it as if it was a part of herself, however Taylor couldn't really see it with her eyes because there was simply nothing to see.

She was simultaneously proud of herself because of that realization and disturbed because while she knew it to be true it simply didn't feel right. Yet at the same time that patch of nothingness felt right. As it always should have had a place in her mind – something that made absolutely no amount of sense.

Taylor screamed when a large formless shape made of a single crystal that she simply couldn't comprehend, slammed into the ten shards that made up her awareness. It paused, then flew at the closest one and slammed into it and tried to occupy the same space. Taylor had the vague impression of something being surprised of a great entity looking at her before moving away. The crystal felt like a parasite that was trying to infect her. It was already sending tentacles of something her mind was unable to process into the shard it latched to.

Taylor wanted that thing to go away and the Void responded. The patch of non-existence contracted, it pulsed and suddenly expanded until all she could perceive was a cold emptiness. It was a mere instant that felt like an eternity. Or was it an eternity that felt like a mere moment?

The crystal shard was gone along with that jagged piece of herself. Taylor could still sense them if she tried. They were in the Void, tucked safely away. Somehow she knew that they couldn't hurt her at least not immediately.

"Master!" The chirpy voice called again. This time Taylor recognized it as female.

She blinked in confusion. Was she getting insane? Did that villain, Skidmark drug her?!

"Master, I'm glad you're all right!" There was an echo of emotion in those words that Taylor could feel clear as a day. They felt warm, genuine.

"Who are you?" Taylor dared ask. There was some nagging feeling in one of her shards telling her that this wasn't a drug induced hallucination, nor simple madness.

As if she would know if it was the latter…

"I'm me, Master! Radiant Star!"

"Hi?"

"Oh… Oops? Just a moment, Master! You aren't supposed to be able to do this yet. And you made a mess of things..." The mysterious voice huffed.

Taylor frowned. She felt something weird – like soft fingers caressing her mind if that made any sense, then her awareness shifted. It expanded a bit then shrunk and then there were eight Taylors in her mind and one in the Void. She blinked in confusion and suddenly there were only three.

"That's better, Master! You shouldn't be running multiple virtual instances of yourself just after you got basic implants! It's not good for you!"

"What?" Taylor blinked in confusion. She could sense the other shard of herself, where all her emotions were going practically insane and she was grateful that right then and there she could experience a mere echo from that madness.

"Foreign presence contained. Firewalls online, quarantining partition… Ah, done! Now we can talk freely, my Master!"

The part of Taylor in the Void vanished behind multiple walls of… was that code formed like thorny vines… The hell?!

Spark 1.2

Taylor Hebert's mind

"Who are you?" Taylor warily asked.

"I'm Radiant Star, Master! Nice to officially meet you!"

"Where are you?"

"I'm right here!" Radiant chirped.

"Where?"

Moths of green light materialized in front of Taylor's face and soon she was staring open mouthed at a tiny form that was proudly beaming at her. It was a pixie no taller than her palm wearing a skintight suit made of…

Taylor blinked a few times until her mind finally processed what she was seeing. The pixie was made of light with lines of code framing her face and going down her neck until they disappeared under a skintight suit protecting her modesty – though it was really a part of her. It. Whatever…

The pixie toyed with a strand of her bright green shoulder length hair and waded at Taylor. Her emerald eyes sparkled with glee as she examined the confused teenager.

Under different circumstances, Taylor would have been hard pressed to contain herself and not squee loudly. The pixie was so cute! However, all she really got right then was a mere echo of those emotions.

"Radiant Star." Taylor nodded to herself. Her voice sounded much more calm than she felt. "Care to explain?"

"It's a long story..." The pixie pouted, which made her look even more cute if that was ever possible. A part of Taylor wanted to hug her. "And we don't have the time. Your mind is running under overclock and it can't handle much more right now."

Taylor opened her mouth to protest before her perspective changed. She was back on the street and all she could see was Skidmark towering above her. He had a hand fisted into her hair and was very sluggishly dragging her up.

"Sorry Master, but we're running out of time!" Radiant Star pleaded.

Taylor knew that she should be freaking out right now. Ah. She was sure that the part of her where her emotions were contained right now was doing just that. This was weird…

"Any ideas, Radiant?" Taylor asked.

Get away, get to safety and then figure out what the hell was happening. That sounded like a good plan. However there were a few technical difficulties…

"How much do you know about magic, Master? What about Void manipulation?" Radiant Star asked.

"Magic? Really?" Taylor asked flatly. "This isn't the time for jokes, Radiant!"

"Master..." Radiant huffed. "I'm not joking! I would never do that to you!"

"Right then. Magic?" Taylor sighed.

"Just do as I say, Master!"

"It's not like I have a choice." Taylor glared at the villain manhandling her at slow motion. At least she didn't feel pain from being pulled up by her hair.

As if that thought was some kind of trigger, Taylor suddenly felt the pain and grunted.

Thank you, brain! She grumbled. "Radiant, any time now!" Taylor hissed. The pain wasn't going away and - instead it was actually increasing and being pulled up by the hair was no fun at all.

"Right, Master! Concentrate on the Void. Pull it and shape you to your will!" Radiant exclaimed.

"Okay..." Taylor trailed off. "How do I do that?" She asked after processing the explanation.

"With your mind, duh!"

"Goddamn it, Radiant!" Taylor snapped. "I need more than that!"

"Uhh… That's pretty much it. You need to… Ah… You don't know how to meditate, or how to access your implants, much less use them as a second nature, do you?" Radiant chuckled nervously.

"What implants?" Taylor narrowed her eyes. She glared at Skidmark who had almost dragged her to her feet.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" Taylor could hear Radiant's pout in her voice. "All right! I have an idea!"

"Do I dare ask?" Taylor muttered.

"Shoot them!" Radiant exclaimed.

"With what?" Taylor groaned. Even if she had a gun, she had never used one before. On the other hand, it wasn't like she could miss from this range.

"Shoot me!" Radiant ordered. "Point me at him and think about shooting me!"

"Goddamn it, Radiant!" Taylor felt like face palming. "Where are you? How do I do that?"

"I'm on your left arm, dummy! Now stop arguing and shoot me!" Radiant ordered.

Taylor's eyes went to her left arm where her mother's bracelet was growing warmer. That… The pain in her scalp increased. The world was beginning to move faster and she now could hear Skidmark's distorted voice. Taylor raised her left hand and noted that it was moving at normal speed unlike the sluggish villain. She pointed at the cape and frowned.

Shoot, Taylor thought and nothing happened.

"Shoot me!" Radiant chirped.

"Radiant, shoot!" Taylor ordered.

Nothing happened.

"Shoot Radiant!" She snapped.

Nada.

"Shoot, damn it!"

Nope.

"What are you playing at, bitch?" The world subtly shifted and she could clearly hear Skidmark.

Taylor was out of time. Even with her emotions shunted into that other part of her, she began to panic.

"Radiantstarshoothim!" Taylor screamed.

The world went pink and the fist pulling her hair went away. Taylor blinked in confusion.

"Warning, mental strain exceeding safe limits. Shutting down secondary partition..." Radiant announced just as Taylor's vision cleared and she saw that Skidmark had a huge smoking hole in the center of his torso.

Her emotions came back with a vengeance and she screamed. Taylor's mind blanked and she began drowning in terror, revulsion and horror.

"Master! Master!" She heard Radiant's distant voice but couldn't think about it, about anything really.

"Skids… Nooo! You bitch, you'll pay for this!" A furious female voice washed over Taylor who was catatonic by now.

"Warning, targeting sensors detected… Master!" Radiant shouted.

Primary user mentally compromised… Initiating Combat Protocols..." Radiant Star announced in monotone. "Multiple threats detected. Target One, designation Skidmark, deceased. Target Two, designation Squealer, locked on. Firing."

A purple orb formed next to the shaking form of Taylor Hebert. It pulsed once and shout out forming a beam that sliced through the mangled van as if it was made of butter and burned through Squealer's chest, evaporating her heart.

"Target Two neutralized. Target three, designation APC, locked on. Firing."

This time two dozen purple balls appeared around Taylor before shooting at Squealer's latest creation. Lances of iridescent energy bored through tinker-tech metal and expended their fury deep withing the vehicle, turning it into a burning inferno.

"Targets neutralized. No imminent threats detected. Combat Protocols standing down. Barrier." Radiant Star finished her monotone and a shield formed around her master. "Master, are you all right? Master?" Radiant asked with a growing concern. "Master? Mater, speak to me? Taylor… Please..."

Radiant manifested her holographic avatar in front of her Master's face and tried to get her attention that way, yet Taylor continued to rock where she had sat on the ground hugging her knees.