Chapter Text
Awakening 1.2
Taylor quickly got out of the cage that the enemy thought to trap her in. It was pathetically easy to get out. Were they that arrogant that they thought that would hold her? Taylor let her instincts guide her, quickly finding their main base. She made a fist with her gauntlet, then, with a leap, she slammed into the base. Something popped, but the walls held. Using her armored fingers, she cleaved into the wall. Then she curled her fingers around it and pulled until the piece was ripped free. Then she did it with her other hand. Then again, and again, and again. She continued to do that until she ripped open an entry that she could easily walk through.
Four Saxon guards appeared, but with a swipe of her sword, they were killed. Taylor scowled when she noticed that the swipe missed their leader, but no matter. A shadow guard tried to ambush her, but with one hit of her gauntlets, he fell too. She raised her sword to kill the leader. She needed to do this fast then go and route the others. “No, stop, PLEASE!” Pathetic that he couldn’t even die on his feet.
Before she could swing down, a voice stopped her. “Whoa there, no reason to go medieval on the guy.”
Tilting her head around, Taylor looked at the person who dared to challenge her. Brillant red hair. “Tristan?”
His grin drooped in confusion before he pulled it back up. Something poked her brain.
Tristan never grinned like that.
“Hey, now let’s slow down here, no reason to go so lethal on the guy. He looks roughed up enough.” He shrugged carelessly. Taylor scowled at the disrespect. Something made her turn to face him. Something was wrong.
Tristan never showed this kind of disrespect before. He also wasn’t one for mercy.
“They caged me. Left me to die in that locker, again!” She couldn’t help the growl of her rage. The sheer depravity, the sheer arrogance of it. Blue eyes.
Tristan had brown eyes.
“Locker?” Tristan quickly looked at it before turning to look at her with realization. “Okay, these guys put you into there?”
“Yes, they caged me.” Taylor thundered, annoyance running through her veins.
The Saxons never caged her. They couldn’t even if they tried.
“Okay, okay. Do you mind me asking you something real quick? Do you know where you are?”
“I-.” She had raised her hand to gesture, but then she caught sight of it. Her gauntlet was black. Why was it black? She never wore black armor before. That was more Agravain’s look. The thumping in her head increased. She moved to cradle it, until she saw her sword. It was black. WHY WAS IT BLACK!? She dropped it, it disappeared into motes of golden light before it even hit the ground. That never happened before. “I-I…need to leave.” She looked around. The once near wild battlefield started to fade back into the Boardwalk. “I need to leave.”
Tristian, no, the man, the hero must of saw something in her expression because he quickly stepped away from the exit of the base. “Okay, do you need something?” What did she need? She looked around, then caught the very edge of it. There, that place. She could hide there! She leapt away without another word.
Taylor never knew that Assault sighed in relief as soon as she rocketed toward the docks. “Alright Leet, why don’t we get you into a nice comfy cell huh?” He turned toward the villain pair, only then seeing the other’s condition. “And some hospital time for Uber.”
It was only when she was nearing the abandoned buildings, she remembered something. She shouldn’t have been able to leap like this. That caused her to lose control and crash into it. A flash of gold and she ran out of the rapidly collapsing warehouse. She ran and ran. She ran until she found it.
It looked far more rundown than she remembered. The white paint turned gray and more windows broke, but it was still there. She went inside, stumbling up the rotting steps, from her haste, and from them being far worse than she remembered. She quickly got up to the second floor, found her spot, and nearly collapsed. It still had that old office that was boarded up, and locked. Its walls were still sturdy enough for her to slide down and stare out into the view.
It was a weird warehouse that never really saw much use after the original company abandoned it. It was right between downtown and the docks, a few miles from her house. It was big, wide and very open. The doors had fallen long ago. It had an office on the technical second floor, but it was really its own building inside of it. The office was held up by its own steel supports, so even if the rest of the building collapsed, Taylor always suspected that the office would stay up. It used to have a circle window right across the office, but the glass broke a long time ago. It did have a nice view. She could see all the way out into the bay, even catch sight of the Rig in the right weather.
She used to sneak out here all the time. It was one of her favorite hiding spots if she needed to get away from home. She explored so many abandoned buildings near here. They were her very own adventure tale. Emma had never wanted to come. It was one of the few things that was just her’s. Too bad that it caused a fight with her parents. Dad wanted her to take some protection, but he was alright with her here. It was just a few blocks from her house. Mom did not like it. She absolutely hated it, especially when she almost got into a fight with a homeless man. Her parents fought about it, it was the reason her mom left, a drive to cool off. It was the reason she didn’t pick up when Mom called that night.
Like with no cell phones, Taylor followed that rule. It was the last thing her mother ever told her to do.
Taylor just stared out the broken window. She was upset. She didn’t know why she was here. She hugged her knees, trying to calm down. She didn’t know what was going on, she didn’t feel like this was her. She tried to hold it in. Sunlight reflected off the broken glass. She put her head down and cried.
She cried because she didn’t know what was going on. She cried because she was trapped in metal again. She cried because she was back here. She cried because her hair was changing. She cried because of the dreams. She cried because she missed her mom. She cried because she was frustrated with everything going on. She cried to cry.
It could have been days, hours, minutes or even seconds, but Taylor didn’t care. She cried. When her tears weakened, she heard a squeak. It was Addy, waving one of her legs. “H-hey Addy,” Taylor pawed at her cheeks, wiping away her tears. “Do you know what is going on?” Addy bowed. Taylor blinked, surprised. “Y-y-you do?”
A string of golden light from where Addy’s would be encircled Taylor from the neck down, completely covering her. The string flashed, and she was in an armored dress again.
It was an old European styled dress with silver armor. It had a breastplate, two stripes of armor down the sides of the skirt, gauntlets and greaves with a dark blue loincloth attached to the dress. The dress was white under dress with a blue over gown.
Even though she only wore it for a moment, this felt far better than the black armor. The black armor was heavy, almost irritating with how uncomfortable it was. This, this was like wearing her favorite, comfortable pajamas. It was familiar, and the way it felt was just natural.
A car backfired, jolting Taylor and nearly causing Addy to topple over. Taylor shook her head, then looked back to her little spider friend. “W-well this is good and everything, but could you…um…get me something that could blend in? I think I want to head home.” Addy bowed again. The clothes flashed again, transforming them.
They turned into a black sweater dress with white sleeves, a grey cloak and a black should-wrap with a white fur collar over it. She tilted her head a little, quickly realizing the grey hood was up. Taylor took a moment to look over her new dress. Then she looked back to her little friend. “Okay…what does this do? Most people don’t wear cloaks anymore, Addy.” The spider simple bowed toward her right hip. Taylor grabbed it before she even thought about it.
As soon as she touched it, she knew the dagger.
[Carnwennan]: The Dagger of the King. Once claimed to be a miracle passed to mortals from a fae, it has powers beyond what most mortals could ever craft. It had two abilities. One was the blending of shadows. With it, the user could be unperceivable in shadows or darkness.
Taylor quickly unsheathed it, smiling happily at her friend. “Thank you, Addy.” The spider squeaked happily back, before scurrying back to her hair. Taylor quickly ran back to her home, sticking to the shadows. She was confident in the dagger’s ability, and she didn’t even care when she was seen hopping between shadows. Something told her it was fine. She would not be seen. It was a quick run to her house, filled with the confidence of the unseen.
When she made it home, she barely acknowledged that her dad must still be at work. She went straight to her room. With a sigh of relief, the outfit, and Carnwennan disappeared in golden motes. With them gone, Taylor felt a wave of exhaustion hit her. Stumbling to her bed, Taylor barely got out a “Goodnight Addy,” before passing out. Addy squeaked, then hastily moved her hair into a sleeping braid. She laid there until her worried father shook her awake. She was just conscious enough to change into sleeping clothes before falling back to sleep for the rest of the day and night.
In the middle of the night, with moonlight shining through her window, Taylor felt a presence. She stayed asleep even when this presence started to whisper to her.
“Rest, sleep, dream, and listen.” Addy woke with an annoyed squeak at it. It chuckled before it made the spider fall back to sleep. Taylor’s left eye twitched.
“Did you know that some of the oldest gods were trees? Gods to have many similarities to trees. They needed some good soil, a base of power to take root, and then were watered to grow from that with prayers.”
“Anyone then could be counted as a god if they were worshipped enough. Like you did. People all over the world loved you, worshipped you, and many religions have followed you. They had watered you with their prayers.”
“Normally that wouldn’t be too bad, but now you are too big to be in a physical vessel anymore. Even if you had the body of when you were taken to Avalon, you would not be able to handle this new strain. So, I, as a wonderful magus, took inspiration from others of the same profession.”
“I broke your power up into seven classes. Each one was of different lives that you had walked. Still, that won’t last forever. Soon, those walls I made to restrain your power will be broken. Your power will eventually mix, allowing you to access it all eventually. Still, keep them separated for now, until you can handle them all, my little student.”
“I hope with seven different lives that you can find happiness this time.”
“So come, King of Knights, show me who you will lead.
So come, Queen of Escalation, show me who you will defeat.
So come, Lion King, show me who you will save.
So come, King of Storms, show me who you will trample.
So come, Nameless King, show me who you will protect.
So come, King of Graveyards, show me who you will put to rest.
So come, Dark-Tainted Tyrant, show me who you will slay.”
Taylor rolled over with a muttered curse, “Stupid mage. I’ll do what I want.”
The presence paused, then laughed as it faded away.
Across the city, a meeting was taking place. Protectorate ENE Headquarters was different than many people expected, or at least how they operated. Many thought that Protectorate was out and about with the Wards, keeping a close eye on them like a shadow guardian. That was not the truth. Only one member of the Protectorate was out near the wards. One was patrolling as normal. Every other member stayed at headquarters or was on console duty, during their shift.
Twice a week, at random, they hold an hour-long meeting for every member of the Protectorate and the Wards’ leader. Challenger was getting transferred out because of her wounds from Lung acting up, which put her on console duty until the end of the month. Triumph was patrolling with his former team, giving him some time to recoup from his recent promotion. That left Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Velocity, Dauntless and Aegis available for the meeting.
“With Cricket and Mush out for at least a month, that should give us some breathing room.” Armsmaster reported, getting certain acknowledgements from his team. “There is just one last thing that needs to be covered.” The Protectorate leader glanced at Assault, who was uncharacteristically quiet for the meeting. “Your encounter with the new villain that attacked Uber and Leet. Why haven’t you filed a report yet?”
He seemed to get out of his rut because he gave a smirk. “Before I do that, Puppy, could you do me a favor?” Battery groaned. Assault continued as if that was an agreement. “I know that you saw that…person too. Could you give me a description?” The man asked vaguely.
Now all members were giving him a look of confusion. “Yeah? They were armored in black.”
Assault nodded, “Yeah, anything else? Like what do you think their gender was? What hair color, what kind of mask, how they were armored?”
“Of course, they maybe were a…” Battery paused. “There hair color was…They had…The armor was…” She started to answer then trailed off, becoming more confused with each unanswered question. Now the rest of the group was giving her alarmed expressions.
Assault nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said with a sigh. “When I asked Leet about them, he had that same problem, same with me when I tried to start my report. I can’t remember a description about them other than black armored.”
That was interesting. Armsmaster glanced at the pair, “A stranger effect?”
Assault wiggled his hand. “If it is, it’s a weak one. Leet knew who attacked him, he just couldn’t give any details. Even the video we have could be used to identify them if they went out again. It would just be useless if they don’t go in that whole armor get up.” He shifted uncomfortably. He sighed in obvious reluctance. “I also don’t know how to file the encounter.”
“File it?” Even Miss Militia seemed confused with that. There were only so few ways to file a fight between parahumans.
Assault glanced at everyone before he gave his answer. “Between defense, or a Marquis defense.” Everyone tensed. Marquis Defense was an unofficial policy to label a fight. A Defense Fight, was if the parahuman acted to defend someone in costume, either themselves or others. A Marquis Defense, named after New Wave’s arrest of Marquis, was one when a fight skirted the Unwritten Rules of Parahumans.
Assault rushed to explain, as if he was defending himself. “During the fight, Armor-.” He paused to glance at Armsmaster, as if questioning the name. He nodded back; it would do for now. “-didn’t seem to know what was going on. They called the metal thing a cage, a locker.” Armsmaster looked at the pictures of the metal contraption. It did not look like a locker. “They also called me a personal name, as if they knew me. The more I talked to them, the more they seemed to get it together. I think that getting trapped in that thing caused a flashback.” A flashback of what was unsaid. All parahumans had one universal trauma that could cause them to lash out.
Armsmaster grimaced. That put the whole thing into a new perspective, one that he didn’t like. Even experienced heroes lashed out if their trigger event was relived. Considering that it was the first time they had seen this parahuman, and with Assault’s testimony, that would put this under a Marquis Defense. “Let’s table the filing for now, what can you tell us?” This kind of thing happened before, if the parahuman in question couldn’t stabilize, they could harm civilians.
Assault looked relieved, he was obviously worried he might have stepped out of line. “Other than a stranger rating of one or two, I can tell you they are a brute. A strong one too. As soon as they started to actually try to get out, they ripped the thing apart with maybe three hits.” A brute four, maybe five. “They hit Squealer’s tank like it was made of rubber. Popped the tires in the first hit. Then they ripped it apart like cardboard.” Definity a high brute rating. Armsmaster himself had a rough time stopping some of Squealer’s vehicles lately. “A takeoff/rocket mover, maybe a three or four. They literally rocketed away. I found an abandoned warehouse that they hit, but I don’t know if that was because they couldn’t avoid it, or they didn’t care.”
Assault paused, seemingly just to realize all the powers he just listed. He continued, “The stranger effect. They also had a sword that they could call on. It just appeared and disappeared as soon as they let it go.” The man squinted in remembrance. “I think that it could also extend its reach. They moved so fast, Leet couldn’t tell me one way or another.” He shook his head. “Leet did tell me that they were in civilian clothes before they came out of that pod armored, so I don’t know if the armor was brute or a changer power.”
“That is some list,” Dauntless whistled. Armsmaster had to agree, but they could group them together to whittle it down. Mover and brute together, maybe even take off the changer altogether. The stranger had to stay on, but maybe get the striker moved to possible. Still, that gave them at least an eleven/twelve if they weren’t generous.
Armsmaster nodded and gave out orders, “Report as soon as you see them, they might be unstable. Don’t engage unless necessary. Call in for back up as soon as you can. Dismissed.” He had to think of ways to contain them if they proved to be troublesome.
“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Aegis muttered, leaving. It was his job to brief the Wards on the meeting if he felt it necessary. The others all left too. Armsmaster quickly retreated to his lab. Dragon said she would be busy for a few days, so he had some time to start thinking about containing this new valuable before he could ask for her help.