Blaze a New Path

Sometimes, all it takes to change ones fate is to make a single choice. Taking ones fate into their own hands can be the hardest thing to do, so some help is always nice, even if it does come from superpowers. All you need to do is make sure you make the choice you won't regret.

So this is similar to Wish upon a Crystal Star, only instead of Genshin, its Star Rail. Same basic premise, only now Taylor is absolutely channelling the Trailblazer. Should be fun. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Taylor Hebert slumped against the metal wall of her prison, curling up in a vain attempt to keep some heat in. She had been locked in one of the dumpsters behind Winslow since shortly after the end of school after Sophia apparently took umbrage with her dodging…whatever prank the Trio had planned with that mess in Taylors locker. At first, her predicament wasn't that bad, she was locked in the paper dumpster rather than the canteen dumpster after all, but that had quickly changed as the temperature began to fall. Now, Taylor was starting to feel numb and, although she couldn't see it, her fingers were starting to turn blue.

To make matters worse, she was starting to feel warm, something that her sluggish mind realised meant that she was on the verge of hypothermia. It had to be getting dark now and no one had found her. No doubt her Father had reported her missing, but the chances of anyone looking for her was pretty much nil. She was going to die here, freezing to death in a bin behind her school, lost, forgotten and unmourned by everyone. What a truly pathetic way to go.

Some part of Taylor was happy to finally be done with it all, to no longer have to suffer, but another part of her was absolutely not willing to give up. She didn't want to leave her Dad alone, losing her would utterly destroy him after all, she didn't want to just die and let the Bitches Three win, but more than anything else, she just didn't want to end it all here.

While two years worth of bullying had worn her down to the degree that she was basically a shell of what she once was, her current close proximity to death served to reignite a spark of her old fire. She wanted to do so much more, to see more than just the rotting corpse of a city and she certainly didn't just want to die in such a state where the only person who would cry for her was her Father!

With that in mind, Taylor forced herself to move, pushing forward and slamming her entire body against the side of the dumpster. Nothing happened, but she kept going, pushing past the cold numbness and pain to keep trying.

Unfortunately, as shitty as Winslow was, their dumpsters weren't in quite as bad shape as to allow a teenage girl to break through the side of one and the surge of desperate strength soon abandoned Taylor, leaving her to slump against the side of the dumpster once more, now completely spent and feeling even more helpless than before.

"Please," she whispered through cracked lips, not sure who she was directing the prayer towards, "I just want to live…"

With that thought, the cold darkness claimed her.

Twin stars spiralling through space, shining sparks zipping between them. One of the sparks comes free and falls towards Taylor, carrying with it a sense of warmth, curiosity and a burning heart. For a brief moment, the spark resolves into the front of a train before…

Taylor awoke as the sound of metal scraping filled the dumpster. A moment later, the lid was pulled away and an arm reached inside, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and pulling her out. A moment later, she found herself resting against the dumpster as a rough hand took hold her her chin and forced her to look up. Her vision was blurry, both from fatigue and the loss of her glasses at some point, but she could vaguely make out something red and black hanging over her.

"Hnn, she'll live," said a voice.

Her rescuer let her go and disappeared, to be replaced by a white and black blur, which draped something warm over her body.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" asked a young sounding voice from somewhere above her, "She doesn't look like much."

"Maybe not, but since when has looks told us anything?" asked a more mature female voice, "Regardless, he said we need her, so we shall save her. Have you called an ambulance?"

"Already done," said the young voice, "Are we going to stick around?"

"No, we have more work to do," said the second woman, her blurry form moving away as she stood, "Come on, she'll be alright now."

If anything else was said, Taylor missed it as the darkness claimed her again.

Much later, she wasn't entirely sure if she'd dreamt the whole thing as the only proof was the black and gold jacket that the paramedics had found her shivering under.

Taylor sighed as she turned off the shower and started stripping out of her clothes. She still felt sticky, but she knew from experience that the feeling was in her head. This wasn't the first time she'd got splattered with juice and it likely wouldn't be the last, despite the promises of Blackwell three months ago.

Taylor quickly finished towelling off, then jogged over to her room and promptly face planted onto the bed, drifting off almost before she hit her pillow.

Then, she reopened her eyes and grinned as she found herself looking up at the roof of a train carriage. She sat up and looked around. The train car was luxurious, with shiny grey, black and red marble floors and gleaming, dark metal walls. The seat she was sitting on was a curved sofa, bound in pale red leather with an identical one across the way and a number of small tables and chairs were scattered around the room. Large windows looked out onto a truly breathtaking view of constantly flowing stars and the car was lit up by small, golden lamps and a massive, holographic image of what appeared to be a fish skeleton.

She wasn't entirely sure why she could come here in her sleep, but she'd been able to ever since the Locker incident at the start of the year. She did consider that it could be a power, but being able to visit a magic space train in your sleep didn't really seem like a very useful power. That said, it did come with some perks…

"Taylor, your back!"

Taylor turned at the voice, just in time to get tackled hugged by an excitable, pink haired girl in blue and white. Well used to the girls enthusiasm by this point, Taylor just returned the hug, what little tension from her day putting up with her bullies remaining simply melting away.

"Hey March," she said.

March 7th pulled back from the hug and looked at Taylor with a frown on her face.

"Whats wrong?" she asked, "You look down."

"Its nothing, I'm fine," said Taylor.

March frowned, then seized Taylor by the hands and dragged her out of the lounge car and into the equally lavish buffet car. A few moments later, Taylor found herself with an armful of ice cream and being dragged in the opposite direction to March's room, where she was promptly shoved down onto a beanbag and handed a spoon.

"March, what the hell!?" spluttered Taylor, more than a little taken aback.

"Taylor, we've known each other for long enough now that I can tell when your hiding something," said March, "Now, we are going to eat this ice cream and you are going to tell me whats bothering you. I might not be able to help personally, but just talking about things can help to put them into perspective. Now talk!"

Taylor sighed and dug her spoon into the ice cream.

"Nothings changed," she said, "Its been three months and we're back to business as usual. I nearly died and the school has done NOTHING!"

With the last word, she wrenched a chunk of ice cream out of the tub and shoved it into her mouth.

"And on top of that, Dad is around even less than he was before! I get that he has a new job now and I'm glad hes doing better after what happened at the old Union building, but at least I saw him on occasion then. Now I barely even see him first thing and hes always getting called in!"

She continued to rant as she worked her way through the ice cream with March listening dutifully all the while. Finally, Taylor began to wind down and slumped back into the beanbag, letting March wrap her in a hug.

"Come on Tay, its not all bad," said March, "You've got us, right?"

Taylor gave a slightly strangled laugh.

"Oh sure, dream friends that I'm still not 100% sure are real?" she said, "No offence March, but theres a limit to what you guys can do."

She sighed as she felt her eyelids begin to droop.

"I just wish…I could meet someone like you outside…" she mumbled as she drifted off in March's arms.

Taylors eyes opened again, now looking up at the old, faded Alexandria poster she had pinned to her ceiling and sighed. As usual, the moment she fell asleep, she found herself back in this shitty world, despite the fact that she wanted nothing more than to stay on the Astral Express. She went to sit up, intending to go and find some food, only to find her attempt stymied by an arm around her side.

With a yelp of shock, she shot up and dove across the room, shoving the arm aside and snatching up a baseball bat that was leaning against the wall, turning to face the intruder, only to freeze in utter shock as her unexpected bedmate sat up, her pink hair looking rather dishevelled.

"Hnn, Tay? Whats wrong?" asked March 7th.

"M-March?" stuttered Taylor, "But…how did…"

March blinked, apparently removing the last of the sleep induced fuzz from her mind and looked around. There was a moments pause as she took in Taylors room, before she met Taylors eyes again, a grin crossing her face.

Right, this is shorter than I'm happy with, but honestly, the next bit works best with a new Chapter, so I'll end it here.

Incase its not obvious, I changed Taylors Trigger Event for the memes. Shes the Trailblazer, so she gets to spend the start of her journey in a bin.

Hmmm, I wonder who got her out of the dumpster. As if you can't guess! Still, that does have some rather…interesting implications, no? Should be fun.

To be clear, the jacket Taylor got is the one Stella wears. I suck at trying to describe that, so I'm not going to even try.

Just March being March. I fully intend to have Taylor get a lot more friends before the end of this.

Taylors power is fairly simple. When she goes to sleep, she wakes up on the Astral Express. Whether thats the real Express or a construct of one is up for debate, but it acts as a conduit that allows her to summon anyone whos ever been in contact with the Nameless. In theory, that means she could summon anyone you can interact with in the game, in practice its the Gatcha cast. I'm going to start with just the members of the Express though.

Danny has a new job. I'm sure thats not going to tie into anything at all!

With regards to nothing much getting done, well, Taylors actually even more shit out of luck than normal here. Her attack happened outside of school (barely), outside of school hours and genuinely has no witnesses, so there was even less reason for Blackwell to give a shit. Fortunately, she was in hospital for less time.

And with that, I'm going to wrap this up. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!