April 22nd, 10:00
///
Taylor wasn't in a great mood. No, that would be an understatement. She's pissed.
The fact that Bakuda is only half the reason only pisses her off even more, because she thought she was finally past the petty high school bullshit that plagued her for so long.
But just yesterday she ran into Emma Barnes at the mall, and as a result of finally hit her former best friend turned tormenter in the face, she got manhandled by a supposed Hero and got in even more trouble at school for 'assault and battery'.
Combine that bullshit with her encounter with Bakuda that she is still feeling as a constant ache in her bones, and yeah, Taylor is pretty pissed and really wants to hit someone.
Luckily for her then, that tonight is going to be all about hurting assholes.
Glancing to her side, she looks over Rachel, or rather Bitch, as she prefers to be known, walking beside her.
Bitch doesn't have much of a costume, or really a secret identity to speak of in the first place, so she's just wearing normal clothes, cargo pants and a shirt jacket combo. The only allowance to capehood she has is a dollar store dog mask, the kind of really cheap ones you might see getting sold in a faire or something.
She's also brought three of her dogs, Brutus, Judas and Angelica. Not that they can really be recognised as dogs now that her power has had enough time to grow them into the scaly, spiky lizard monsters that Taylor first met them as.
Taylor herself is of course dressed in her own Cavatica costume, a form-fitting spider silk bodysuit covered by armour over vital areas. It's all mostly blacks and dark greys, except for the lenses of her mask that are an unintentionally eerie yellow.
She did originally think about leaving the back of her head exposed to let her hair flow freely as her one concession to vanity, but decided against it in the end.
In part it's because she doesn't really want to leave a single inch of her fragile human body exposed if she's going to be fighting parahumans, but there's also the fact that her hair is pretty recognisable, so it just didn't seem like a good idea.
The two of them are walking to the meeting place Tattletale pointed them to in order to meet up with a bunch of Villains so they can attack the ABB together.
The idea is that they will all split up and work with each other instead of just in their own separate gangs so that no one can try anything funny, since everyone is being held hostage by everyone else.
She kind of gets it, but she won't lie and say she prefers this plan over just sticking with The Undersiders. Granted, she only really likes half of her 'team', but still, better the devil you know and all that.
Especially when one of the other devils is a Nazi.
At least Bitch isn't, well, being much of a Bitch right now. They didn't have the best introduction, and while Taylor would like to get on better terms with the butch girl, Bitch doesn't exactly make that easy.
But they've been walking in silence for a bit now, and Bitch seems.. less angry? Maybe? Taylor doesn't feel like she has to worry about a knife in her back so much now at least, so that's got to count for something.
The walk was only a short one, but it was long enough for Bitch's dogs to grow to the size of a van each and for her to collect a swarm of bugs, her biggest one yet.
She made sure to cherry pick a bunch of the best, most useful bugs and cover herself with them. By the time they reach the meeting point, she has over a thousand bugs hidden under her armour, in the hollow spaces between the shoulder pads, under her belt, the elbows, wrist pads, everywhere.
She did learn from her mistakes last time after all, and this time she won't be caught unprepared. She doubts anyone would even notice the bugs hidden away on her body unless she wanted them to.
If she had her hair out she'd have been able to hide even more bugs there too. Actually, on second thought.
It only takes a minor flex of will for a small swarm of centipedes to crawl up her body to her head and she has them all link their limbs together like a chain mesh until she has a long mane of insects imitating hair flowing down to her lower back.
Then she gives her new hair 'depth' by burying a few hundred more bugs underneath it.
Satisfied with her preparations, she turns the final corner to the meeting location with Bitch at her side, and sure enough, there is a group of Villains waiting for them.
Kaiser stood front and foremost, wearing a full suit of ornate metal armour and a crown of blades. She notes with some interest how the fancy armour is a different conflagration as it was during the meeting and wonders if he wears a new design every time he goes out or if he has a few presets.
It doesn't really matter in the end, so she moves on.
Flanking him on either side is Frenja and Menja as always. She has no idea which one is which, but either way they are both turned slightly and glaring at Falcone, who is leaning against a wall within talking distance from them but far enough apart that it's clear neither of them want to talk with the other.
She's still not entirely sure what to think about Falcone being here. On the one hand, just a couple days ago Falcone basically admitted that the PRT was useless and that the Villains could do better for the city, but on the other hand, it's not like Taylor has the greatest experience with authority in the first place, so she's finding herself leaning more towards believing Falcone than wanting to defend the Heroes.
The whole reason she didn't want to join the Wards in the first place was because she wanted to avoid petty high school drama, and while the Wards would theoretically be above such things, Falcone's words have made her think that she made the right choice in holding off on that decision.
But she'd still like to talk to the older woman about the PRT, to see if it really is as bad as school when it comes to blatant corruption, or if they are truly the bastion of morality that the media portrays them as.
She's pretty sure she knows the answer already, but she wants to hear it said.
And that's all without even getting into the fact that Falcone is the only one she's told about infiltrating The Undersiders. She cannot allow Lisa anywhere near Falcone, or she'll probably figure it out and then she's screwed.
Not far from Falcone but still not close enough to be friendly, she recognises Labyrinth leaning against the same wall, with Newter hanging above her off of the wall by his fingers and toes.
Lastly is a pair of Coil's mercenaries, each wearing kevlar, balaclavas and carrying a rifle of some description with them and X, or Ten, who she almost ignored entirely because he looks like he's just another homeless man sitting against the wall in a ratty suit.
It's only really the fact that she's pretty sure there aren't any homeless people in the city who would willingly be within a hundred feet of Kaiser that really made her look twice, and see the giant red X tattooed over his face.
Lisa, aka Tattletale the Thinker extraordinaire, told her that Ten is one of the most dangerous people in the bay, more so than Kaiser or any of the Empire and that she shouldn't underestimate him just because he doesn't look the part.
She's finding it really hard not to underestimate him. He doesn't look like a dangerous Villain at all. Then again, she doesn't feel like a dangerous Villain, but apparently looks can be deceiving.
Lisa gave her a rundown of all the capes in the city and their powers that she could, but all she said about Ten was that she doesn't know his powers but that he's some bigshot in a gang she didn't realise went beyond Brockton, and that she should avoid fighting him if at all possible.
Not that they should end up fighting each other today in the first place, but still.
Falcone seems to be the first to notice their approach with a welcoming nod, prompting the twins to turn their way and one of them to whisper something into Kaiser's ear.
"Arrived with less than a minute to spare, Undersiders," Kaiser comments, his voice almost purring. "Watches out, everyone."
His words cause her to pause. She doesn't have a watch. Belatedly, she remembers her new phone and fishes it out of her pocket, her bugs moving out of the way of her hand as if trying to present it to her, actually making it easier to get a grip on it.
"Set time to four-forty in three, two, one… set. The attack is scheduled to start in five minutes. We'll use the time to get there, get in position and decide our method of attack."
She notices that neither Falcone nor Ten moved to pull out a phone or watch of any kind. Kaiser seems fit to ignore it, so she doesn't mention it.
"Move out," Kaiser then orders them.
Ten groans as he gets to his feet, and Bitch turns her attention to Brutus who makes a different kind of groaning noise as splits appear in his skin and his body grows a solid two or three feet taller at the shoulder, large bone spikes erupting from his exterior.
Brutus stretches and then violently shakes himself clean, spraying all of them with the bloody aftermath of his sudden growth. With the exception of herself, Bitch, Labyrinth and Falcone, everyone jumps from the sudden assault of gore.
Surprisingly, Kaiser is among those who startled, only seeming to calm once he realises that Brutus isn't going to attack, and she can't help but smile at that.
Bitch has a certain swagger to her steps as she walks up to Brutus, grabs one of the new spikes of bone and hauls herself up on top of his back.
It was intentional, if a little bit immature. But making Kaiser flinch like that, right after he assumed control over them all probably made a better statement than any words ever could.
As if to drive the point home, Bitch kicks at Brutus and spurs him forward in the direction Kaiser indicated, and Taylor follows after her teammate without looking back.
///
Maryam
///
Swiping her skirt with the back of her hand, Mary watches as bits of blood and dog meat splatter the floor in front of her.
Yuck.
Powers can be gross sometimes.
Still...
Her head turns to the departing duo of teenagers, and more importantly, to the three mutant dogs walking away.
She can't deny that there is something fascinating about watching Bitch's power take effect.
It's actually kind of like watching one of those time lapse things with flowers blooming in a few seconds, just with a lot more blood and gore.
Mary recovers from the sudden shower quicker than the others and simply shrugs to herself before following after the two girls. As she does so, she mimes punching at Kaiser twice and gives him an impish grin.
"That's two for flinching, puuuuussy~."
She obviously can't see his face, but she can see enough of the twins' faces and that's enough for her to start snickering to herself.
Honestly, she doesn't get why anyone would be upset about living in the Nazi capitol of America. As far as she is concerned, it just means there's no limit of acceptable targets.
Still, as much as she might mock him, Kaiser isn't actually stupid enough to pick a fight here, so she just ignores him to catch up with Taylor, oh, sorry, Cavatica.
It would definitely not be good if she accidentally let slip that she knows Taylor's identity. That would really fuck up her plans.
Speaking of plans, Taylor seemed pretty pissed off to her, which means right now is probably the best time to get her even more pissed off. It will certainly make the day easier for them both.
Cavatica and Bitch both notice her approach and she gives a wave as she falls in line with them next to one of the dogs.
"Hey, do you mind if I pet your dogs?" She asks Bitch, making sure to keep her eyes on the bridge of the girl's nose and to keep her smile from showing any teeth.
Bitch stares at her for a long moment before nodding once. "You hurt them, I'll hurt you back," she says, only making Mary grin wider.
"Good," is all she says before she starts giving the nearest dog a nice rough scratch on the neck. "Their names?"
"Brutus," she pats the one she's riding, "Angelica," she nods to the one on her right, "Judas," she finishes by jutting her chin at the one Mary's petting.
"Judas huh?" Mary finds herself muttering, a somewhat bitter smile on her face. "Ironic."
She keeps petting the animal for a while, pretending not to notice how she never leaves Cavatica's mask's line of sight. Eventually though, Taylor loses her nerve and slows her steps until they are walking near shoulder to shoulder.
"Hey."
Weak greeting, half marks.
"Heya Cav, long time no see."
"It's not been that long."
"It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage."
"Did you just quote Raiders of the Lost Ark?"
The incredulity in Cavatica's tone finally drags Mary's eyes away from Judas so she can give her a grin and put on her best gruff impression. "Anything could happen. It's a long way to Delhi."
She can't even remember if that's the same movie or not.
Either way, she gets the impression that her words caused some tension to leave Cav, and that's what she was going for. She wants Taylor pissed, but she doesn't want Taylor pissed at her.
"Do you really think the Villains can do more for the city than the Heroes?" She eventually quietly asks after a few steps in silence thinking about how to word her question and apparently just deciding on bluntness.
"Right now? Yeah. Yeah I do." She answers and lets Taylor absorb her words for a few moments before continuing. "The Protectorate is an organisation that means well, or at least, it's full of people that mean well. It's just that it is wholly incapable of fulfilling it's purpose properly."
Now that she has the girl's attention, it's time to shatter her world view right when she doesn't have the time to process it in any way but the coming violence.
"You're aware of how people get their powers, yeah?" It's an obvious question but not one that needs a verbal answer. The slight shudder is answer enough. "Right, well, I'm sure you've put two and two together and realised that the reason the Heroes are so outnumbered by Villains is because people don't tend to be in the right mindset to be making good life choices when they've just triggered."
Mary glances around really quickly just to make sure that no one else is within hearing distance before continuing in an even softer voice, prompting Taylor to step closer to hear her clearly.
"Now, with the NEPEA-5 bill not helping matters by shafting any parahumans who want to just make money with their power, the vast majority of fresh triggers end up turning to Villainy. This is obviously not something that The Protectorate could accept, but then the question lies, how do they convince fresh triggers to join the angels? Well, as it turns out, it doesn't matter, because triggering isn't actually the only way you can get powers."
"What?" Taylor interjects out of shock, but Mary continues as if she heard nothing.
"It's mostly considered an urban legend by people who've heard it, but it is actually possible to buy powers. I couldn't tell you where from or who's selling them, but I know it's true, if exorbitantly expensive, like, hundreds of millions of dollars expensive. That said, I hear most people just pay in favours instead anyway."
She gives Taylor a bit of time to absorb her words before picking up again without letting any questions get asked.
"Now, being so vastly outnumbered at all times, The Protectorate is naturally desperate to sink their claws into any parahuman they can, and buying a superpower isn't nearly as traumatic as triggering, which makes these pay to play parahumans perfect Hero material. The point I'm getting at, is that The Protectorate is corrupt at best and useless at worst."
Taylor looks like she wants to say something, but Mary keeps talking.
"All said, probably about a third of The Protectorate capes never actually triggered and instead just bought their powers either through privilege or by owing favours to whoever is selling powers. But even with that, the Heroes are still outnumbered, so they'll take anyone they can get, even if they're colossal assholes or rebranded Villains like me."
"Like you?"
"Yes, like me." Mary turns enough to give Taylor a serious side eye. "Cavatica, I have killed a lot of people. In an ideal world, I should have been thrown away in a cell for the rest of my life for my crimes. But I am a parahuman, so The Protectorate didn't hesitate to pardon me if it meant padding out their numbers, and I'm hardly the only asshole among the local Heroes."
And now comes the hammer blow. Taylor's world view has been shattered with the revelation of powers in a bottle, leaving her as close to mentally defenceless as she's going to get, which is the best time to guide someone's thoughts.
All she has to do, is give little Taylor a tiny little push.
"I mean, Assault was a Villain like me back in the day, though he didn't kill anyone, 'cuz he's actually a pretty stand up guy. Then you just get assholes like Shadow Stalker who's just a little touched in the head. She's got this whole predator prey mindset going on where she thinks she's some super predator and everyone else is prey so she can do whatever she wants to them, it's kinda fucked up to be honest."
And the bait has been cast, now all she has to do is wait for the bite.
"Hess," Taylor intensely whispers so quietly that even with enhanced hearing, Mary wouldn't have heard her if she wasn't listening out for it.
She very carefully does not grin viciously.
Hook, line and sinker. "What was that?" She asks instead.
"Shadow Stalker," Taylor says as if that's an answer, her voice tight with an incredibly intense focus, like a flood held back by a brittle dam. "Sofia Hess is Shadow Stalker."
Mary briefly sends a wholly insincere prayer Hess' way. She doesn't really have any plan in mind for Hess beyond encouraging Taylor, but she can go out on a limb and assume the future isn't great for her.
Still, gotta play the part. "Eh?" She turns to Taylor, mouth open in 'surprise'. "You know her?"
Really, the better thing to say would have been "I didn't say that", because it's ambiguous enough to be a confirmation without breaking the unwritten rules.
But Taylor is definitely not in the right mind to be nit-picking details, so she figured it would be best here to make sure there's no room for doubt in Taylor's mind.
"Yes," she tensely answers through gritted teeth and clenched fists. "I know her."
The street around them is suddenly filled with a very faint, but certainly noticeable buzz, and it takes a monumental effort for Mary not to grin.
Thinking about Coil is a good way to keep herself from grinning, because she still hasn't figured out how she's going to deal with him and she's kind of running out of time, it's a pain in the ass.
But whatever, every good play has at least a few scenes of improvisation, it'll probably all work out in the end.
Taylor obviously wants to say something, but just as planned she never gets the chance to as Newter's tail abruptly coils in front of her and pushes her back and behind a car.
"What." Taylor immediately snaps at Newter, who recoils from the very, very blatant anger she is radiating. Poor guy.
Newter puts a finger to his lips in answer, pointing down the street at a group of three in ABB colours, while everyone takes cover.
Two of the three look like typical gangsters, but the teenager trailing behind them seems much more nervous to be out and about, so he's probably one of the new 'conscripts', while the other two were likely in the gang before the recent chaos.
When the patrol steps out of sight, Newter turns back to the group. "They've got patrols, and they've tagged the building. That'll be our target, today." He checks his watch, "Two minutes until it's time to move."
"My girls and I will circle around," Kaiser states from the cover of the alleyway, "Attack from another direction."
"What. No." Taylor immediately replies, her tone biting. Oops. "That's not the deal. We're in groups like this for a reason, and that reason flies out the window if we split up like that."
"I didn't ask your permission," Kaiser answers, his voice cool and without waiting for a response, he turns to leave, Fenja and Menja following him.
Typically Taylor would have probably left them be, but she's not in a great mood right now, so Mary has to quickly put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from lashing out.
"We're just gonna let them go?" Taylor all but demands
"It's not worth it, and we're low on time." Mary shakes her head, "Besides, flanking worked out well enough for Hannibal at Cannae, it'll work fine for us."
"Bitch, call Grue and Tattletale, let them know." I asked. "They can take measures if they need to."
There's a noticeable change to Taylor's tone from five minutes ago, and Bitch clearly notices it, but she doesn't comment and just nods and takes out her phone.
As she does so, Newter gestures for them to huddle up, which they do without complaint. "Let's talk plan of attack. Cavatica, Bitch, you two have the most experience dealing with these guys, so start us off."
Taylor doesn't make any kind of gesture, but she does start talking. "Bakuda likes to set traps, and if this place is important enough to patrol, it's important enough to have some traps. I will send my bugs in first. I will get the lay of the land, and the bugs will also confuse and distract anyone inside, which will make things easier on you guys."
Newter nods, "Okay. That's step one. Bitch, can you and your dogs hit the ground floor? I'll go in the second floor window."
Bitch gives him a curt nod in response.
"The bugs won't bite her?" Newter follows up.
"No."
"They couldn't if they tried," Newter answers with a somewhat strained smile that would probably look good on him if he didn't look like an alien.
"Falcone, could you follow up with Bitch, let her dogs take the focus while you clean the edges?" Newter asks her, and she gives a friendly nod.
"Sure. I've got good reactions, so listen out for my voice in case I need to shout out a warning for a bomb or something."
Newter nods again and turns to Ten, who doesn't look like he's been paying attention at all. Frankly, he just looks like he's going for a walk and decided to follow them out of curiosity.
"Ten- Or Ex, which do you prefer?"
"Huh? Oh, uh I don't really care, my name's Wash, you can just call me that if ya want."
"Erm," Newter blusters, clearly not knowing how to respond to someone blatantly giving away their secret identity without a concern. Not that Wash is wearing a mask in the first place. "Right, well, what can you do, Ten?"
"I can cheer you on from the side-lines," Wash says with a shrug at Newter's unimpressed expression. "I'll get involved if the situation gets desperate, but I'd rather not."
"Right. Then, stay back with Labyrinth. You two will cover our retreat or step in if things get to that point." Newter says before turning to the two mercenaries, "You two, can you-"
"We're taking a position on this rooftop, here," the shorter of the two men interrupts, pointing up to the two story duplex next to them. "We'll support you with cover fire."
"Uh, right. Try not to kill anyone." Newter glances at his watch again. "Ten seconds. Cavatica? Can you start us off?"
Without a word, the street is engulfed in a swarm of black that rushes into every opening of the building ahead like one big liquid.
"Holy shit," Mary can't help but mutter at the sight, because damn that looks so fucking cool.
She was about to ask what her bugs are seeing, if she can even see through her bugs, she assumes there's at least some kind of proprioception involved, when the side of the building abruptly explodes with enough outside force to blow a chunk out of the exterior of the building next to them.
And as the sounds of screams, explosions and panicked gunshots sound out, Mary lets her mask slip for just a moment to allow for a satisfactory grin.
Let the games begin.
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
My fucking god it's so fucking hot right now I have an ice pack and it's not even helping and I'm just in my pants fucking kill me.
It's so fucking difficult to write anything while I feel like a radiator. I nearly fucking missed today's deadline because of it, and this chapter is probably dogshit because it's so fucking hot I can't think. I'm pretty sure this chapter is fucking with the pacing I already decided upon, but I could also be wrong, i'm just too hot to be ale to figure it out, idk if this chap is full of inconsistencies or not, but I tried my best