The Light of Brockton Bay

by Alexandra-Revoe

Something went awry during Taylor's trigger, and something else gave her powers instead. Taylor Hebert now has the ability to pull EGO and identities out of the river of human unconsciousness. With this, she can be the light this world so desperately needs.

26. He 3-5

Note: Slightly shorter chapter.

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

- Rachel's POV

The walk with my pack has been peaceful. During my walks, I would normally encounter some problems. A drug addict, a merchant, maybe a stray dog. Most were not serious problems. You can ignore people, and they would mostly ignore you. A stray dog can have different reactions depending on their own personality. When they are against a pack of three large dogs, they are never aggressive. Most are defensive and anxious.

I still see a stray dog every now and then, but the drug addicts and dealers have gone to more hidden places. It was nice for a change. Most of it was because of the outsider staying at the base. I still do not know what to think of Taylor. I was worried that they would be joining the Undersiders and would take a portion of my cut. It was made clear to me that they were not joining, so that got rid of some of my worries.

So far, Taylor has acted submissive. She has not challenged my dominance or any of the Undersiders. She did not question the rules put in place. With that in mind, I do not have problems with her. I have decided to ignore her for now. She has respected our authority, so I see no problem with her staying at the base.

Me, Brutus, Judas, and Angelica are on the last fourth of our walk. We had visited the shelter to help train some of the less socialized dogs. Angelica has caught up with the other two in terms of training, being the newest member of the pack. My thoughts are interrupted by a shift in Angelica's behaviour.

Her ears perk, and her head turns towards a nearby alley. Slowly all three of my pack show signs of nervousness. Their hackles raise slightly, their pace slows; Judas sends a glance to me, waiting for my reaction. They have identified something in the alley that they consider to be a threat. My mind instantly goes to Hookwolf's gang, but I cannot know for sure. "Quiet. Show me."

With my confidence, my pack became less anxious. They start to lead me in the direction of what picked up their attention. As I approach the alley, I hear something moving behind the corner. I am prepared to give the command to attack, but the word dies in my mouth when I see what is around the corner.

Standing in the middle of the alleyway is a person in some kind of wolf costume. They are covered in black fur that covers most of their body, and barbed wire wraps around them loosely. It takes me a moment to notice that it is not just a costume because their human ears are missing, being replaced by wolf ears, and their legs are digitigrade. Finally, I recognize their face. 'Taylor?'

Taylor stands in the middle of the alleyway. Her tail is slightly raised but slowly moving side to side. She stands tall but is relaxed. Her mouth is open, and she is panting lightly. Her ears are slightly turned forward, showing acknowledgement and interest but no anxiety. Finally, she stares directly into my eyes, but it is a relaxed stare.

I know that I commonly mix up the body language of people and dogs, but with all of these signs, it is hard to not think of her like I would a dog. She is showing dominance, but it is a relaxed dominance. The kind a trained dog would show to a puppy that is completely unable to be a threat to its dominance.

I am briefly stunned at how expressive she is, but I am quick to pick up on the power struggle. I hold and harden my eye contact. My posture stiffens automatically, and I move in front of my pack. Taylor slightly tilts her head to the side, and then gives the very human expression of shrugging her shoulders.

Taylor's ears turn from slightly inwards to slightly to the side, and her gaze wanders. She's backing down but isn't submitting. She does not want to challenge my dominance in the pack, but also doesn't want to be seen as submissive. "So you're the one I thought was following me."

I relax in response to her backing down. "I wasn't following you."

Taylor looks at the rest of her pack. "I can see that now." She briefly flicks her eyes towards me before lowering her head and taking a deference stance. "I'm sorry I've seen your face without a mask.

I had not even realized that until she brought it up. I did not care too much about the mask thing. My identity was barely hidden because of my pack. I should be angry at her, but looking at her stance and how her ears are pulled back, it hits a sweet spot that is normally reserved for dogs. "It's okay."

Taylor relaxes at the reassurance. She approaches my pack cautiously. "You never told me their names."

I point to each of them and give their names. "Brutus, Judas, Angelica."

Taylor gets up close and gives them a sniff, and my pack does the same. The tension they felt before bleeding away. Then Taylor did something I would have never expected. She got on all fours, lowered her head, and wiggled as a clear sign of an invitation to play.

Brutus, Judas, and Angelica all looked back at me in confusion. I could not blame them; I was confused too. I give a quick glance at Taylor before turning back to my pack. There are not as many people around anymore, and it is quiet today. "Go."

Angelica lowers her head, and Taylor bolts away. Angelica is the first to chase her, with Brutus and Judas following soon after. The chase continues to the end of the alley. Taylor turns with a surprising amount of dexterity and weaves through my pack back towards my end. Everything, from the way she moves to the way she acts, is very close to how I would expect a dog would.

I cannot help but smile as the four of them pass by me. Taylor slows her pace a little, letting Brutus catch her. The two wrestle on the ground for a bit. I briefly worry about the barbed wire that is around Taylor's coat, but Brutus does not seem to be hurt by it. Taylor breaks off and starts running again. Her speed this time is faster. I can see some faint streaks of electricity trailing behind her.

In a moment of curiosity, I try to feel Taylor with my power. I can usually sense dogs using it. Taylor comes up but feels strange. I can feel that she is there, but I can tell I am unable to use it on her. It is like my power is even confused by what is happening. Taylor stops by my side and stands up on her hind legs before stretching. "Phew, that was actually quite fun."

I give her a nod. "You look like you enjoyed yourself." I pause and move my hand up and down in front of her, gesturing. "When did... this happen?"

Taylor looked confused for a moment but then understood my question. "Ah, I had a new identity I wanted to test out. Li... Tattletale gave me a location to test them. I was testing this one when I smelled that you were close by. I thought you were following me. Sorry about that again."

"I told you it was fine." I grunted in response. "Should we head back together?"

Taylor is about to respond, but her ears suddenly raise, and her head snaps in a direction. "Empire thugs, a couple hundred feet that way."

I don't even have time to respond before she books off in the direction she was looking. I should just continue back to base. But I really hate Empire 88, and quite frankly, I'm enjoying having a person that I understand. "Follow."

-The Light of Brockton Bay-

- Taylor's POV

It was nice interacting with Bitch's pack. I hadn't even realized how fun it was playing with dogs. I had momentarily thought about having a battle for dominance but decided against it. I didn't really care about being the leader of Bitch's pack, so I backed down. Although I am certain that I would've won the fight.

Now I'm on the prowl towards the sounds of a group of Empire 88 gangers harassing someone. At least I think they're Empire 88. They could just be regular racists, for all I know. I can feel my heart racing from the previous running and the fact that I have an actual hunt coming up. I'm about to turn left towards the sounds, but a jolt of electricity tells me to go straight.

I found out when playing with Bitch's pack that my electricity gives me a faint combat precognition. When I finally arrive at the location, I'm greeted by a small group of Empire thugs. All of them are facing away from me; if I had taken that first left, I would have arrived in front of them.

They're in front of a Black man on the ground who's beaten and bloody. I've heard that they sometimes kill someone as a kind of initiation. I feel rage bubbling inside of me. They claim to be against the "scourge" of society when in reality they themselves are the scourge. I can feel my pride being attacked. They dare claim to be the apex of the human race? I'll have to show them who's the real apex predator here.

I dash towards them, aided by the electricity flowing within me. My claws connect with their back and gouge into their flesh. My prey screams before dropping to the ground, spasming from the volts sent through their body. The rest try to turn, but they're too slow.

My claws slice through another's forearm, rending their hand and a portion of their arm off. The barbs on my tail scrape against the body of the person behind. Already I can smell the blood flowing in the air.

Panic quickly sets in as the group. Their scrambling only excites me more, causing me to further speed up. A thug tries to block my blow and succeeds, albeit slightly. His arm and several other bones snap from my strike. I turn and pounce—'Jolt.'

I instantly stop the pounce and snap my body backward, my hand arcing from underneath. A bullet flies right where I was, but I'm already gone. My claws embed themselves in the gunner's gut from underneath. He coughs before spitting up blood. My other claw strikes his face, cutting through his eyes, leaving him blind.

I kick off of him, sending him backward, and I fly into another victim. He tries to use his hands to keep me off, but the barbed wire cuts into it. I grab onto his sides, allowing him to get a good punch into my face. I don't even flinch and grin while staring into his eyes. I let the electricity flow through him and feel pure glee watching his contorting expression.

The last two try to run away. I can smell the fear coming off of them. I briefly scowl at the thought of them escaping. I turn around and take a deep breath in. I release an ear-splitting howl; electricity jumps from me and strikes them two dozen feet away. They drop like flies, and the street is now quiet.

I look at all of the unconscious bodies. The thrill of the hunt dying down. They're still prey, but there just isn't any fun in maiming prey that's asleep. I turn to the Black guy laying on the ground. He's unconscious but looks a lot less harmed than the people around him. While I would love to leave and let the Nazis fend for themselves, I can't leave this guy here.

I switch to my Seven Association identity. I can feel the more animalistic thoughts leave my mind, but not completely. I look back towards the people I just brutalized. I don't feel bad about what I did. My Seven Association identity alone has killed dozens of people. I might've felt bad before, thinking that something like this wasn't heroic. But that's been shattered.

I do, however, feel incredibly embarrassed. I won't lie, it was incredibly fun playing with Bitch's dogs. But I was barely acting like a human. I was playing with the dogs like an actual dog would. 'Well, at least only Bitch knows.'

I take out my phone and dial the PRT. It takes a moment, but someone picks up. Before they can speak, I announce the street I'm on and that there's almost ten people unconscious bleeding out. Whoever is on the other side of the line only gets to say, "Now wait," before I hang up and turn away.

I see Bitch and her dogs are just now making it to the scene. She briefly looks over the bodies. I switch back to the wolf identity; Bitch likes it more. It can also move fast without expending my saved up time like my T Corp identity would. "Let's go before the PRT gets here."

Bitch gives me a glance before nodding in response. "Brutus, Judas, Angelica. Move."

I turn to Bitch. "You will not be telling the Undersiders about me playing with your pack." Bitch takes a moment, but eventually understands what I'm saying. I can see it grates her slightly that I'm giving a command, but she gives me a nod in agreement.

I smile without showing my teeth, and we all start running back to the Undersiders base. As we're on our way, I start thinking about what to call this identity. "Electric Wolf" doesn't roll off the tongue. It had a telephone pole sticking out of it in the dream. 'Telepole?' It was catchy, fast to say, and sounded good. I think Telepole is a good name.

It took us a little under ten minutes to make it to the Undersiders lair. Bitch can run for quite a while. I can see the sweat forming on her brow after almost ten minutes of running. She still made it without stopping.

We make our way up the spiral staircase and are greeted by Lisa and Regent sitting on the couch. "Hey guys, I'm back."

Lisa's eyes narrow, and she sends the both of us a look. "Bitch, you aren't wearing your mask."

Bitch shrugged her shoulders. "She bumped into me on my walk."

"Does this mean you're both dog people?" I almost laugh at the comment by Regent. I equip Seven Association and go to sit on the couch. Lisa is still staring at me and Bitch hard. I can practically see the thoughts bouncing around her head. I'm not sure what her power's telling her, but she eventually looks more... upbeat? She's smiling now, and it's an excited smile. What's it for? I have no idea.

Lisa's looks at Bitch and quickly turns that frown upside down. "You shouldn't have fought without a mask."

Bitch shakes her head. "Only Taylor fought. The fight was done when I arrived." She then proceeds to walk to the kitchen.

With her hand pinching her nose, Lisa sighs. "Just... No more fighting today."

I put my hands out. "Okay, okay. No more fighting. Besides, I don't have much reason to go out for the next little bit. I got practice with my unused identities. On an unrelated note, do you know what your boss is planning to do with me? I'm thankful that you've all taken me in for the time being, but I'd like to know what he plans to do next. I don't think he wants me to stay here forever."

"I'll get back to you on that." Lisa tells me with a hint of worry in her tone as I go to my room.

I sit on my bed and take out my phone and go to Victoria's contact. "You there?"

It takes a minute for her to respond. "Yeah I just got out of school"

"Are you still hurt?" I had hurt her pretty badly during the fight.

"Nah Ames fixed me up" Victoria then adds, "She also healed the other heroes if you were wondering"

I'm relieved that Victoria's okay. I had hurt her eye pretty badly. Speaking of Amy, though. "Is Amy still mad at me?"

It takes her a little longer to respond at first, but she gives me a couple messages. "She is" "But listen" "Give me a few days and im sure I can get her to forgive you" "Shes always been a little protective of me" "But she also gets you werent thinking straight"

I really hope she's right. "You sure?"

"Ive known her for years" "She might seem grouchy but I know on the inside shes a softie" "Ive got some other stuff to do" "I will try to get her to meet up with you in person" "Just give it a few days"

Fuck, this is hard to deal with. "Thank you."

I give a knock on my door and wait a minute before coming out. I need something to distract me right now. Bitch and her dogs are eating while Regent and Lisa watch TV. Lisa looks over to me. "You okay?"

I let out a sigh and sit down. "I need a distraction."

Regent points at the screen. "We got 'guess that cape' on."

Not the worst show, to be honest. It's a cape-themed gameshow that gets its name from one of its minigames. You have to guess a cape from an assortment of facts that they give out one by one. The first person to guess correctly gets the point for that round. They have a lot more minigames than that one, but when the show started, it only had that one.

"Moonsong." Lisa answers after only the second fact.

Regent turns to her with a mock annoyed expression. "You're cheating with your power."

Even with her face turned away from me, I can still tell she has that smug look she's well known for. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Regent grumbles at a low volume. "Do we have any pop left?"

Lisa shakes her head. "We ran out."

Now here's something I can help with. "You want a milkshake?"

He looks at me questioningly. "Uh, sure?"

This will always be a great party trick. "What kind?"

Regent takes a moment before answering, "chocolate."

I prepare the ingredients in my head. With barely any effort on my part, light coalesces in my hand. The process of making a milkshake only takes half the amount of time than when I did it last. I make a second one for me as well.

Regent looks at me, mouth agape. It isn't one of the mock ones he would normally give. "You're a milkshake dispenser?"

He turns to Lisa. "Is the boss really sure that they don't want her on the team?"

Lisa's eyeing the milkshake in his hand. "Unfortunately yes."

I turn to Bitch. "You want one?"

Bitch shakes her head in refusal, but Lisa asks me for a vanilla.

After a short wait, Lisa has a milkshake in her hand, and we all sit in silence watching TV.

I tune out the show and start thinking to myself. With my identities explored, I want to train Angela for the next few days. I'll try and budget about half my daily light generation towards time being a beholder. If the amount I got from yesterday holds steady, I should be able to have a few hours a day just training. As long as nothing crazy happens.