Chapter Text
Taylor was worried; the school wasn't exactly her favorite place in the world. But, at least, the people were too preoccupied with the Bank heist to notice her.
She shivered, and images of the last day flashed through her mind. People were dragged screaming towards the hole. Apparently, the heroes had some problems as well.
She wanted to call the Lictor to have information about that, but this wasn't the right moment, and besides that, it probably won't answer her.
Her heart started beating faster. How will it work? Would she be held accountable for the things that the creatures do?
She knew that she couldn't control the Tyranids; hell, she didn't even control the Lictor, she could simply order it around, not control it.
Taylor scoffed. Couldn't she hold them responsible for their eventual death, right? Maybe she didn't really care either way.
She could sense her 'bodyguard', it was slightly different, thinner, it seemed to move more rapidly than the other times, too.
The classroom wasn't really cramped, but Madison was strangely nervous and didn't even try to watch Taylor.
Sophia was barely recognizable:
Her breath hard and deep, her body arched, she limped towards her place and barely snarled towards the girl's direction.
And Emma...wasn't there.
'Well, no matter.'
She thought
'She would probably be a bitch like always...'
Taylor noticed something strange: a lot of people were watching her, and voices and rumors spread like wildfire. Something about a punishment? About a curse?
"What the hell...?"
She murmured, something was clearly wrong.
The lesson was boring; she regretted this. She would probably be better off at home, talking to her father.
When the professor was finally gone, she saw Sophia walking towards her, always angry. Madison was behind her.
"It's a horrible idea, you saw Emma, please leave her alone..."
She was whimpering, tugging at the friend's shirt like a scared child.
"Why the fuck are you here?"
Sophia's voice was low; she almost collapsed from a dry cough.
That bitch of Panacea will pay for this; she didn't even heal me.
Taylor felt a bit...different. The girls that tormented her so much, the girl that she wanted to take revenge on...were pathetic.
One couldn't even talk without collapsing, and the other whimpered around, almost crying.
She didn't do anything; she just got up from her seat and sighed.
"You're clearly not in the best shape, Sophia. Leave me alone and think for yourself."
Maybe this new villainy thing helped her; maybe the idea that the hunter was outside the window, ready to kill any possible attacker, made her more confident.
Maybe she was simply tired of being treated like that.
Sophia spattered something between her coughs, but Taylor didn't manage to hear that.
'Better this way, I guess.'
It wasn't even half of the morning, and she was already sick of it.
The empire, the perfect place for the scum of Brockton Bay, a group of monsters in human clothes.
Max Anders sat at the desk. The reports showed an unusual activity:
The ABB was unnaturally silent; a couple of sources told him that they plotted to free Lung, but nothing was certain.
The Merchants, in the end, were noisy as always, but at least they didn't give him problems.
The empire was fighting something...the testimony talked about some sort of monsters, he didn't quite believe them, well, not until the last day.
The descriptions weren't exactly on par, but they corresponded more or less; the creatures that targeted them were the same that aided the Undersiders during the bank heist.
"Mh"
He didn't really know what to do; a direct attack would probably have some complications, and he didn't want to draw too much attention to the empire.
However, he could do one thing: ambush them. The ideal would be to attack only the broodmother. To kill her. But he could easily target, or at least wound, the Undersiders too.
The bio tinker behind the creatures could easily be the best asset for the empire. However, it wasn't that easy.
Using those kinds of monsters would bring too much attention to him; the journalists had shown the video of people being dragged while screaming, of monsters impaling the humans and fighting alone versus two heroes at the same time.
No, using the monsters would only give an excuse to the other group to target the Empire.
A pity. There was a small possibility that she could still be useful. But maybe it wasn't worth it.
Another reality unfolded inside Thomas's mind:
Taylor could be useful as an instrument of terror; her creatures weren't exactly 'subtle' and so weren't good enough for anything but a demonstration of force.
If he played the card right, the city would be under his thumb, and the Undersiders would be acclaimed like the heroes who had saved the city.
In another timeline, he was growing curious about the group and the opinion that they had of Taylor.
"She's...interesting, my powers don't work quite well on her, I think that's because of her bodyguard, but I dunno."
The conversation played inside his head.
"Alec found her cool, loved the entrance of the creatures."
His attention shifted for a second to the camera inside the school. Taylor wasn't in the classroom.
He cycled through the others and finally found her, on the roof, probably eating her lunch.
"Brian...he's more worried, I understand him, the creatures killed a lot of people, and I think that's a huge step, but I think that he grew affectionate for Taylor, a couple of days was enough apparently."
The camera didn't help much; he knew that the 'bodyguard' was there, but he couldn't see it.
"And for Rachel, I dunno, she didn't say much, only wanted to know if the dogs are safe, for what we know they are."
He sighed. It was a pity. The girl could bring a lot of firepower to his team. But the moles inside the PRT already told him that they were all scared of Broodmothers.
For now, the topside blocked Piggot's attempt to put her inside the priority list. But he couldn't risk attracting so much attention.
And besides, she could still be useful for a couple of things.
Coil turned his head again, watching the school's cameras.
Taylor was approached by a girl; he couldn't see her face, but she was limping, barely capable of standing still.
"What do you want, Sophia?"
Taylor asked, her voice firm and cold. The other girl glared at her while hissing sheer pain through her teeth.
"Hebert...why the fuck are you here? Why the fuck won't you toss outside a window?"
Taylor this time wasn't angry; her tormentor was there, burning with fever, alone, hurt...
Why was she hurt? Taylor had a puzzled look on her face. She didn't think about that, but now.
Her gaze was now fixed on Sophia's side, her hand pressed against the shirt, and a red stain could be seen through it.
"You're bleeding, Sophia. Treat your wounds and leave me alone."
Sophia clenched her jaw. The temptation to push her off the roof was very vivid. Taylor was there, standing still, with her horrible body, with her shitty face, with her fucking life...
She grit her teeth even more and turned back towards the stairs, opening a cellphone.
"Yeah, don't care, I'll leave this shitty school now."
Taylor remained alone once again. The day was really beautiful; maybe this time the trio would leave her alone.
Emma's face came to her mind; she let herself slide towards the parapet and simply sat there.
"I miss her..."
The traitor? Why Queen?
The girl tilted her head to the side, laying it on her shoulder.
The hunter was invisible, almost imperceptible, and yet she could see it clearly as the day. She shrugged her shoulders.
"Dunno, I hate her but...I don't know, I simply miss her, I guess."
She could swear to have seen it nodding. Maybe she was going crazy, talking to the wind.
"I'm really stupid, I should probably leave vengeance aside and move on..."
Taylor chuckled while getting up Just another class, and the day would be finished, the evening would reveal her fate on the team.
It wasn't fair, she had finally found some friends, yes, they weren't the best people around, but at least it was fun around them...
She tilted her head towards the Lictor. A lot of thoughts filled her mind. Lots of questions without answers, maybe she could try her luck again. Maybe this time she would know why so many people were kidnapped by the Hive.
She already knew the answer; some knowledge was...' blocked off' by something else, a huge and cold void that encompassed the mind of the hunter.
"Better this way, I probably didn't want to hear the answer anyway."
She murmured before turning towards the stairs. The hunter stood for a moment and then resumed its patrol for the Queen's safety.
She hated this job, as the director of the PRT, she was overloaded with work and papers. This city was already horrible enough.
During the bank heist, almost all of the field members end up hurt. Shadow stalker still didn't recover from that poison.
Vista was put in an induced coma to avoid her useless sufferings; Gallant had a nasty wound but nothing serious, and so had Browbeat; Armsmaster had destroyed another armor, and a lot of people ended up 'dispersed.'
Yeah, 'dispersed' because 'kidnapped by a strange monster never seen before' was too long.
And, like icing on the cake, there was movement by both the ABB and the Empire...
She wanted to smoke; the cigarettes won't do much more than this stress anyway.
The only possibility was to locate the base of those things and bomb the hell out of it. She would probably call in the nukes if she were sure to kill those monsters.
She scratched her neck; a reddish rash had appeared a couple of days before, and she wasn't sure if it had appeared because she was scratching it or if she was scratching that place because of the rash.
The woman scoffed and got up from the desk. They couldn't afford to remain passive, especially not because those monsters were able to dig around the city and strike from virtually any place.
"Maybe I should send a team inside the hole and blow the hell up of these bastards."
Her legs ached in response, sending a team there was like executing them, and she knew that.
No, the best thing was to wait, contact Dragon, and see if she could send a couple of suits to help them. The team needed to rest, and if she used the other healthy capes to attack, the city would be left open to the ABB and the Empire.
The director conceded and took a cigarette out of her desk and then started walking towards the nearest exit.
The sun was up in the sky, and a pleasant warmth washed over her skin. It was strange; in a couple of days, she felt completely changed.
The street was pretty empty, all the people already in their homes, preparing their lunches.
Her house wasn't that distant, just a block over, and she'll be home. She was pretty anxious about all this, about the team, the idea that she would be forced to leave them.
And in the meantime, she would have to talk to her father; she didn't even know what to tell him. That she had powers? That she had a strange alien butler that could easily kill Glory Girl?
She scoffed and kicked a small rock out of her way.
Maybe she simply had to talk about her problems, about the bullying, about Emma's betrayal...
She shook her head and continued walking; she didn't have to tell him everything.
Just that she had a couple of bad days, and that now she had new friends.
"At least for now..."
A sad smile appeared on her face. If the group pushes her away, what would she do? She heard of the rogues, people who weren't exactly villains but weren't associated with the PRT.
Maybe she could become a mercenary; the Lictor was good enough to hold his own, able to camouflage perfectly and reach almost every place.
She arrived at the house not much later. A couple of knocks at the door, she didn't want to take the keys from the bag.
The door opened, and Danny smiled widely. He wanted to hug her; he missed his daughter so much.
But he knew that she wouldn't like it, so he simply smiled and made space for her to enter the house.
"Taylor! I was afraid that you wouldn't come."
His voice was warm and pleasant to listen to. The fire on the stove trembled slightly when he placed the pan on it.
The girl smiled and waved her hand before walking towards her room to place the bag on the bed.
He didn't have too much time to cook something, a couple of steaks with a side of potatoes.
"Yeah, sorry for not calling, but I was pretty busy."
She answered from her room. Her body darted towards the living room.
Danny nodded again. She seemed happy, and yet some ripples could be seen under that calm surface.
He walked towards the sofa and patted it. His heart was beating fast, but a promise was a promise; he had to talk to her. Their relationship was troubled, always on the verge of collapsing.
"It seems that these new friends are pretty fun, uh?"
Taylor's shoulders tensed for a moment.
"Mh-hm, they're...strange, but pretty fun, I just hope to go out with them again..."
The father raised an eyebrow but didn't inquire further.
"I'm sure you will, and I'm happy that you're making new friends."
He took a deep breath; this was probably the best moment that he could have.
"In the last days...mh, I saw you a bit distant, Taylor, please watch me in the eyes."
He pleaded while slowly placing a hand on her knee, but she didn't move and, after a couple of seconds, tilted her head to comply with her dad's desire.
"Is everything ok at school? Or there are still..."
He trailed off, a wrong word and all could crumble
"...problems?"
The girl smiled a bit, a sad smile, her head tilted to the side.
"I'm ok, maybe not in my best shape, but I'm ok."
The father nodded and gently squeezed her knee.
"I trust you. If something's wrong, please talk to me about it."
The girl smiled again, more warmly, a bit happier.
A succulent scent of meat was coming from the kitchen. Taylor didn't know exactly if she was happy, and yet the thoughts of seeing Sophia that way were...refreshing, pleasant.
Taylor's smile grew wider while thinking about the situation.
Her bully was a train wreck, a temporary condition obviously, but in that moment, Sophia was suffering, she was hurt, and this was enough for her.
Author notes:
Ok, I'll be honest, I've reworked this part countless times. Not only this chapter but the entire part after this. So...There could be some incongruences that I had left. I hope that the chapter will be enjoyable anyway.
Other than that I hope that everyone will have a good continuation of the day!