Present day – March 13, 2012
Taylor typed a frustrated reply full of derision and hit Enter with as much venom as she could muster. Although she was careful to keep her keyboard intact. The idiots were so gullible it physically pained her; unwavering in their naivety and not possessing an iota of critical thinking. They all believed in the parahuman hoax like true sheep, discounting all evidence to the contrary.
She got up and stepped away from the screen. A sigh escaped her lips, perhaps a dose of bright and crisp sunlight would improve her mood this Sunday morning. She settled on the window ledge.
Immediately a knock on the door startled her. Annette Hebert walked in soon after. "Honey," her mother said, looking at her keenly. She anticipated a reaction, it seemed. "You have guests."
"…Who?"
"Why don't we go downstairs first? You'll see for yourself." Annette said with a smile. "Remember, they're here to talk."
Taylor narrowed her eyes, jumped on the carpet, and followed the other woman out. Halfway down the stairs, she saw who was waiting for her in the foyer.
"Fuck no." She declared, and promptly turned back.
"Taylor!" Her mother snapped, "Behave, please..."
Taylor replied, in a lower voice than before, "I'm not talking to these charlatans, mom." She gave the two costumed 'capes' a scathing glare, "Spent enough of the morning arguing with idiots already."
"You will go and sit, and you will talk. Only then you're getting out of this." Anette gave her edict sternly, voice still low.
Below, the two con artists shifted uncomfortably on their feet. Legend and Alexandria—chief contributors in the parahuman hoax—waiting to talk to her. No doubt because she was on to them. Let's see them try to intimidate her, she already had a couple of top lawyers on retainer in her mother's name.
These two would have a piece of her mind today.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
One month ago
Taylor ran forward, after successfully sneaking past the PRT cordon, she didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. Today she could expose everything, she could make people aware of the massive hoax the deep state had been running for decades.
The distant sounds of destruction had died down in the last minute, overtaken by the slaps of her running feet on the ground before subsiding completely, but the smoke and a faint burning smell in the air persisted, growing thicker by the second. She slowed down, not wanting to trip with visibility so hampered.
Her camera was still filming. No belief without evidence; that was her new motto and she would be loath to ask anyone to believe her claims in the absence of proof. Not any longer at least, that was the old Taylor.
Soon, a silhouette started to emerge from among the smoke and shadows, illuminated by the full moon.
Her heartbeat quickened. An errant thought flashed through her mind unbidden; what if Endbringers really did exist, what if she had been wrong. Involuntarily, her other hand tightened around the baseball bat.
No, she had seen enough evidence to the contrary, this would be the same.
As she cut through the smoke, breaths coming heavily now, she came right up against the Endbringer model. Fifty feet away from her, it was inert. Just as she had suspected, before running all the way here, before the sirens had begun to blare throughout Brockton Bay.
It just stood there, with no visible external support, but definitely propped up somehow. After all, they called this one 'Behemoth'. Undoubtedly a sick joke played on the public because of its height.
She had hoped the stories weren't right, that the footage of Endbringer attacks was filmed with miniature models, but no, the model was built to scale.
No way the government hadn't wasted a plethora of resources to not only bring this contraption here, but also arrange for all the actors in their cape costumes she could see nearby. There wasn't anyone playing dead in her immediate vicinity but she spotted a few of them standing around in the distance, one appeared to be approaching her.
"Stop!" She heard him say, and ignored him.
Taylor moved ahead and captured everything in her camera, snapping a few pictures too while filming, thanks to the latest functions. She had tried using the supposed 'tinker cameras'; junk which never worked as advertised. Actually, it never worked, period.
She made sure to document the true tragedy which was the very real destruction of residential buildings. People had lost their homes here. Not to mention the newly-built oil refinery in the distance. It was up in flames from her vantage point, as well as the string of local businesses that had sprouted because of the booming economy, all gone now.
A couple of minutes later, touching the giant model, she found out it wasn't made from shoddy material at all. The 'Endbringer' was sturdy, with spiky ridges on the outside. It meant the PRT and the government hadn't spared any expenses. What a way to fool the public. Perhaps an independent lab could test what material was used here, it might give a better idea of the costs involved in this whole façade, after all there were two other kaiju models too.
She put the camera on the ground and lightly struck the Endbringer with the baseball bat, not wanting to cause too much noise. Some bits of its skin and body broke off, she collected them in a pouch and put it in her pocket.
A sudden inspiration led her to find a sharp stone, and with it she dug into the model's body, a deep cut got her some of the internal material as well which she added to her collection. More evidence of government crimes.
Satisfied, she picked her camera and moved on to document the destruction of the new oil refinery. Taking care to avoid being seen by anyone else on the set. So far no one had stopped her, she didn't know why, but she wanted to keep that going.
It was just a waste. She didn't doubt people would continue believing in this sham performance with monster models and a set full of actors.
Nonetheless, she would do her part.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Browbeat had been hit hard. Not by Behemoth, but by a piece of wall that had randomly exploded when he was trying to rescue an injured cape. That was all his parents had allowed him to do today. Fighting Behemoth directly was beyond him; stronger capes had that job.
It seemed he'd been unconscious for a few minutes because everything was different now, the scene in front of him had him staring in amazement as the Endbringer was frozen where it stood.
It looked like the work of his teammate, Den— no, Clockblocker. But how did he get close enough to freeze Behemoth? Browbeat was wondering when he suddenly noticed a civilian girl run onto the battlefield, directly towards Behemoth, with a… camera? And a baseball bat in her hand? What the hell was she doing?
"Hey!" He tried to say but only coughed dust. He somehow got up, trying and then failing to reinforce his body, what was that about? He attempted to use his other power, telekinesis, to bring a spring to his step, but failed again.
"What the hell is going on?" He muttered in panic, heart beating rapidly. The Endbringer wasn't too far away, having closed the distance when Browbeat was unconscious. The silence and the static shadows let him know Behemoth was still frozen, but he knew from experience that could change any time.
Then he noticed the girl moving closer to the Endbringer. What kind of suicidal paparazzi was she? The best use of her baseball bat when Behemoth awakened would be to somehow kill herself with it instead of burning alive from the inside.
"Stop!" He successfully managed to say. The girl gave him an utterly disdainful look, waved her bat at him threateningly and walked on.
He stood there, dumbfounded. His powers weren't working; it seemed no one else's were either. That's why he saw no fliers, just as it had been randomly happening throughout the city for several months — the glitch in powers. An Endbringer was frozen, the capes weren't doing anything, and a civilian girl was taking pictures of Behemoth within the kill aura range.
What the fuck was going on?
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Three months ago
Emma's eyes had gone wide open, eyebrows arched. Taylor didn't like it. A reaction like that only heralded further disbelief. She sighed softly in disappointment and prepared to move the conversation to another topic for their remaining commute. Seven minutes, a glance at the wrist watch told her, until Dr. Harper's office.
Her friend, though, surprised her, "Well that's a lot. Thanks for sharing." Taylor's heart skipped a beat.
Walking in step, Emma linked her arm with hers, and squeezed it gently.
"So, you believe me?" Taylor asked.
". . . Well. I wouldn't say that."
"Come on, I've never seen a single so-called 'cape' do anything extraordinary. Except in video footage which is easily, and always, fake."
"Look, I'm no cape nerd, and while I do think something happened recently," Emma waved at a passing child, then looked at Taylor in the eyes, "Parahumans are real, they exist."
"No such thing," Taylor shot back. "Only humans."
"I've seen them for myself."
"I've also seen magicians do parlor tricks."
Emma looked at her flatly, "I'm not doubting your experience, okay? As I said, something's happened, I see fewer capes than before. But please don't doubt what I have seen too." She didn't budge.
Taylor couldn't agree with that line of thought. Anyone could don a costume and masquerade as a cape. But for the past several months, as her interest in the subject had grown, she had not seen any evidence suggesting capes had special abilities like they pretended to, other than maybe supreme lying.
After a brief silence, they discussed other things for a few minutes before Emma bid her goodbye, and Taylor entered Dr. Amelia Harper's office for her weekly venting session.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"And this is something I'll never understand," Taylor said, exasperated. "What is up with these people? They believe in nonsense conspiracy theories like flat earth and bigfoot but when it's the parahuman hoax, it's crickets."
Dr. Harper observed her for a few seconds. "Are you looking for support? Or acknowledgement?" She twirled a pen in her fingers but didn't make a note.
"Well, first comes one, then the other, isn't it?"
"People don't engage with your theories?"
"I mean … I can see a lot of them do read, but very few reply, and not in a nice way."
"Last time we talked, you said you haven't told your friends or family about your findings." Amelia, as she had told Taylor she preferred to be called, asked. "Has that changed?"
"Um, recently, I talked to my friend about it on the way here." Taylor looked away as she said that, not wanting to replay the conversation in her head, she instead focused on the carved ivory showpiece in one corner of the room, it looked like a swan had a serpent around its neck. Why have something like this in a therapist's office?
The doctor held the silence, waiting for her to restart the discussion.
After a minute, Taylor spoke again. "At least she didn't say I was lying—I liked that." The fleeting smile disappeared from her face. "Everyone on the internet who bothers to reply just dismisses me as a conspiracy theorist."
"I'm your therapist, so believe me when I say that's an excellent development. Your friend did a good thing." She made a note, "Will you discuss more with her?"
"What else is there?" Taylor crossed her arms, "I guess… I can probably go and confront a cape with her. When she sees they are just like us, she might come around. Unless they have magic tricks up their sleeve to woo her."
"Is it important? That your friends and family believe you? Whether or not anyone else does?"
"Honestly? No. When everyone sees the truth, they will too." Taylor said with a raised chin. "I'm right and I know it, no matter what anyone says."
Another long bout of silence.
"Do you feel this is impacting your life negatively?"
"No… I am doing well at school. Mom got a promotion so we went out on Thursday, and Dad is excited about a project. He hasn't told us what it is yet."
Amelia asked, "How does it make you feel when you think about your family life?"
"…Good, I guess. Yes, happy."
"I want you to keep reminding yourself of that when you feel ridiculed. The people in your life love you. The very first friend you opened up to, she listened with empathy. Would you agree?"
"Yes, but I don't come here to talk about how happy my life is. You're right, I am happy and privileged in that sense. But how do I make them all see the biggest hoax in the history of hoaxes?" Taylor stood up, suddenly feeling anxious. It felt like Amelia was skirting around the subject Taylor was here to discuss.
But an idea popped into her head, she really could confront capes and film them. That way she'd have unassailable proof against these imposters. Let's see anyone talk shit to her then.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Six months ago
"Sir, I've evacuated three from this trail, I'm moving on to the next." Velocity spoke to Armsmaster on his radio and looked ahead. Battery had said earlier that some people were hiding among the stalls in the next street. He'd help them evacuate.
The fight between ABB and apparently Faultline's crew had suddenly erupted and now it threatened to engulf multiple city blocks, the entire Lord Street Market, and he'd heard some mentions of fighting in the boat graveyard too.
He activated his power and time slowed down for him, also shrinking distances to a fraction. He could see the stalls now, which civilians had been afraid to leave, as clashes took place in the distance on either side of them.
Abruptly, he stumbled. The world sped up again as he fell and rolled on the ground before coming to a stop, body aching in several places. Had someone attacked him? He looked around wildly to identify the threat and tried to enter his breaker state again. He couldn't.
What?
He realized the sounds of fighting had stopped too, an eerie silence hung over the entire area.
He tried to power up again, and couldn't. With a sinking feeling, he turned his comms device on.
"This is Velocity, I'm not sure what's happened but I've lost my powers…"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Two, three, then five heroes and Wards reported being unable to use their powers. Armsmaster didn't know what to do. His injury had kept him from joining the fray this time so he was overseeing the entire operation from the headquarters, but this was beyond comprehension.
"Miss Militia, figure out what's going on out there and report." He heard the acknowledgement and tried to find if there were any surveillance cameras near Lord Street and if they were accessible. Simultaneously, he left orders for the PRT troopers to move in en masse.
His phone rang. That would be the Director, he picked up.
"My office, now!" Piggot said and hung up.
Armsmaster clenched his jaw in annoyance and stood up from his desk, it was a long shot anyway, trying to find cameras in an area that was effectively out of town.
He limped out of his lab, giving instructions to a senior PRT officer still in the HQ on his phone; he wanted all containment foam guns on the scene asap. Two minutes later, he knocked on the Director's office door and entered.
Emily Piggot didn't let him sit, "What am I hearing, Colin? Our capes can't use their powers?" She asked with eyes narrowed, he could tell from experience she was on the verge of blowing up.
He sat. "That's not all, we have reports of infighting among the villain capes and their own grunts. And before you ask, it's only capes who are affected, civilians seem to be okay against whatever this is. PRT squads have already apprehended several villains, and other than the red zone where Labyrinth and Bakuda seemed to be fighting, no civilian casualties are reported."
Piggot thought briefly. "What do you think is the cause?"
"A Trump?" Armsmaster said, not quite believing his own thought, "That's the only explanation I can think of, or some kind of tinker device would be another, a glitch in the powers in that area?" He spread his hands, "We'd need to investigate."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Door." Contessa said.
Space ripped open, revealing a spacious alley. She crossed the portal's threshold and the scenery changed from stark white walls to a gloomy late afternoon in Brockton Bay.
The new trigger had disturbed many of her paths and long-term plans in this region. She had come to investigate and put a stop to that since it wasn't a blindspot. The passenger agreed.
She stepped forward and started a new path to approach her target, Path to securely—
Her thoughts vanished. The world became strange; she felt unbalanced, a dove's cooing and a sudden gust of wind rushing past her ears threatened to overwhelm her. What was she doing here? Yes… she had come to meet someone.
Oh… Comprehension dawned. She remembered.
"Nope!" She exclaimed and retraced her steps.
Suddenly everything was back. The paths were all there, she felt centered.
Contessa pivoted on her heel and took long strides away just to be safe, "Non, non, non!" She slipped into French.
"Door!" She said.
Managing this cape would be best done from a distance.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Twenty-seven years ago
The Entity was slowly dying. These insects who were worth nothing, dug into it, abused it, stole its treasures and it was helpless to do anything about them.
For years it had held on to the waning sanity, even deep into this slumber, but now that was coming to an end. Now they would extract from it the last critical shard and condemn it to death.
It had no contact with any of its shards, no precognition, no access to the future, but it did hold on to the second gift, the shard that the third Entity had shared, if only because that one hadn't been stolen yet.
It mustered as much willpower as it could, as much coherence as it had and formed a path, then released control of the unknown shard for its partner. The Warrior entity was still out there, it wished the Warrior would get the shard and use it to refine and continue the cycle.
The Thinker died in hope.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Fifty-nine years ago
Concern.
Confident.
The Entity could understand the communication between the other pair.
Wait, Prolong. It told the one known as the Thinker, and shared one more shard, a very young one, from a strong world, barely a few cycles old.
Then the Entity moved on, full of shards—fresh ones and those nearly perfected, all secured from the Thinker, ripe for further experimentation.
It sensed the Thinker flounder and waver but kept its thoughts close, and didn't alter its course.
After several galaxies of travel, with the distance between them approaching a million dimensions, the Entity did a victory twirl.
The arrogant pair had been sabotaged by someone they called 'Lesser'. The combined pair of shards it had shared with them would soon be their downfall.
It had seen in advance, and thus, it had altered its course to approach them and set its plan in motion. In a few hundred years, it would go back, perhaps after the next cycle, and reap the rewards of its ingenuity.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Twenty-five minutes ago
"Are you set?" Alexandria asked Weld.
The boy nodded.
She tapped the driver's seat and their car moved forward. Weld sat between her and Legend, he was meant to convince the girl that capes were indeed real.
She had been causing havoc; in the city with her presence and on the internet with her thoughts. Just the Behemoth video had hundreds of millions of views. Even when online activity on her crazy conspiracies had been throttled by Dragon, support for them still existed which only made life harder for everyone in the long run.
She checked where they were and braced for the loss of her powers, the girl's range was around a kilometer. They were nearing it.
"Have you met her before?" Weld asked and looked at both of them in inquiry.
She began to reply but at that exact moment her powers left her. Normally that wouldn't preclude her from answering but her mouth hung open at what she was seeing.
Weld had transformed into a regular human teenager with a normal body.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Present day
"Thank you for your time and hospitality," Legend said after he and Alexandria had some tea.
"I guess there is no easy way to say this," he turned towards Annette, but also kept glancing at Taylor, "Your daughter is a parahuman."
A coughing fit took over Taylor. She sprayed tea all over Alexandria, who, even from behind her mask, looked miserable. Good, Taylor would never spit on someone intentionally, but this she would take.
Legend arched his eyebrows in surprise before moving on, "More specifically, Taylor here, is the strongest Trump we know of, so strong that the strongest capes, and even the Endbringers, all lose their powers in her range."
"What?" Taylor shrieked, "You think you can buy my silence with these stories?"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Legend was lost for words. He looked between Annette and Taylor rapidly, trying to find what to say. This was unprecedented.
"Listen young girl," Alexandria began sharply, "We don't like to be without powers, so the fact that we are here means how important you— your ability is. It can be put to good use…"
But the girl had a crazed expression on her face, she didn't let Alexandria continue, "You're just saying things." She gesticulated wildly, "No evidence, no proof," and triumphantly looked at her mother who appeared troubled.
Legend honestly didn't know how to convince this kid, the plan with Weld was supposed to be their trump card. "Look, we're not asking you to believe," He tried, "Our only request is this; please notify the PRT when you are going somewhere. It is safer for everyone that way."
"Excuse me?" The mother objected this time. "You can't expect us to inform the government of a minor's whereabouts at all times."
"Madam, our fliers have suffered grave injuries, falling from height because they came into Ms. Hebert's range." Alexandria told them. "That must not happen again."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Taylor couldn't stay silent at such blatant lies and manipulation, "Get better at wire work then. Or find better stunt people."
"Oh my god," Alexandria muttered, "What do we need to do to make you believe, girl?"
Legend spoke again, "Our second request was getting Taylor into the Wards program."
"No!" Taylor said, "this is what I meant, they are trying to buy me off mom." She waved furiously at her mother.
"Just consider it," Legend ignored her and told Annette, "how it'd work with her power still remains to be seen but any such development depends on your," he glanced at Taylor with a sigh, "Both of your approval. So please consider it."
"Wards, capes, all lies," Taylor said. "You can't even show me your powers, no one can, and now you're making shit up again."
"Language." Annette chided.
"It's not safe having a powerful cape who doesn't even know their power," Legend said and stood up. "The sooner you realize the responsibility that lies on your shoulders the better."
Taylor stared daggers at them from the entrance as they left.
"I'm not joining junior acting school." She pronounced, slamming the door shut.