Warlord

Chapter 7

Last night ended with Taylor waking me up, as I'd fallen asleep on her, and then me flying her home before crashing into bed. It was the first night in a long time without a night terror! Just a regular ole nightmare. Which meant I woke up as refreshed as sleep could get me, before using my power to do a little health maintenance, reset my age to a day before, all the little book keeping.

Picking out a new outfit, ripped jeans, a punk tee and a black cardigan and some cool warhammer earrings, I set off… only to realize halfway there that I forgot to pick up donuts! I stealthed near a donut shop and duplicated the donuts and the container to save on time. And also save myself from unnecessary conversation.

Landing at the Hebert house, I found Danny's vehicle still home which happened to be a good sign. Finally gonna save Taylor from her bullies. Just gotta handle a conversation with Danny, thankfully last time proved I could be blunt and rude and he didn't care, or fuck he even thanked me for doing it. So I felt confident, and all my feelings to the contrary were biochemically adjusted into nonexistence.

A light knock and Taylor answered. Not just answered, but she even, after a brief hesitation, gave me a quick hug! Fuck, she was adorable. I'd absolutely kill for her if I needed to without hesitation.

Shimmying inside I displayed the box of donuts. I got my faves and her eclairs. Which weren't actually donuts but who cares. I munched, she munched, Danny even munched on some and we all found ourselves in the living room. Food finished and us all being awkward beans.

Taylor did not start the conversation so it fell to me, the adult emotional support friend. "Do you want me to start?" I received a quick nod, and Danny's confusion. "Alright, so Danny, I don't know how much you know but Taylor is being… bullied sounds like its downplaying it, the entire school of Winslow is conspiring to cover up repeated attempted murders, and horrible psychological torture of Taylor on a daily basis."

To say he was shocked and appalled would be putting it mildly. He looked sick to his stomach, as he turned to Taylor beside him who practically wilted before hiding in her swarm. "You said they stopped bullying you." His voice naught but a whisper.

"I—" And she got cut off.

By me. "Your actions left Taylor uncomfortable enough with talking to you she'd rather continue going back to Winslow and face more torture than tell you."

Oof that looked like a gut punch to his soul. Which fair, if I'd ever done that to someone I'd probably kill myself. "When you say torture…"

"I'm not going to make Taylor relive it to explain it to you, but I've got video of an attempted murder, a half confession on the locker and psychological torture of her."

"And you did nothing?!" The man roared practically leaping out of his seat to throttle me.

"Dad!" Placing a hand on him to hold him back she pulled his attention down. "I told her not to, multiple times. She was willing to blow up the school to keep me from going back. I had to talk her down."

"I still want to do it." The look from Taylor helped me calm down. Still I looked vaguely in Danny's direction because eye contact sucked. "Remember when I said, you need to let her be in control? As much as I want to destroy the school and murder everyone who looked the other way for… how long?"

In the smallest of whispers Taylor said, "Two years… but it wasn't that bad at the start."

My fists clenched as I swallowed down my rage. "For fucking two years, first I have a policy of not killing kids, second, she asked me not to and I'm not going to betray her trust. Taylor wouldn't be able to come back from that. Third, the evidence is there so you can hire a lawyer with the money I've given Taylor, and I'll give more if you need it."

For a long moment he steeled himself. Fists balled tight enough his knuckles went white. Face twisted in contempt for the world. A rage that reminded me of my fight with Lung. Then his eyes drifted down to Taylor who cowed beneath his anger. "You wanted this?"

"Y-Yea dad. I decided I didn't want to just run away, but make them… make them face the consequences of their own actions. They don't get to win this." She stared him dead in the eye unflinching.

The man thought some more. "How'd you record this?"

My lips puckered. "No comment."

"If they dismiss it in court…"

"This state is a one party consent state and Taylor consented as did I. That being said… it'd be best to not tell anyone I recorded it."

"They're gonna ask questions." Leveling a gaze at me he seemed to be looking me over with a level of scrutiny that left me feeling naked. "You're a cape." He blinked as if everything came into focus. "You're a cape."

Fuck. "Don't dig, don't unmask me. Forget it. Please fuck. For your sake."

My aura let me perceive his entire body, every internal and external tell… which is how I noticed the exact moment when he figured out who I was. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. "Don't tell anyone."

"I haven't a clue what you're talking about." He sounded disturbingly smooth with his lie to the point Taylor and I both did double takes. "So how much evidence do you have?"

Taylor took over from there. The two days of video, the cellphone copies, but then she said some stuff she never bothered to mention to me, aka several notebooks full of detailed accounts, and death threat emails she saved. Overall an utterly damning amount of evidence.

I was happy to sit back and watch the two fall into discussions of what they wanted, what they could use. Then came a few burning questions, first, he wanted to know the names of the bullies. Which to me felt like, know the names of your enemies generic stuff but then she said Emma Barnes and Danny's whole body reacted vehemently.

Wait no, she mentioned her dad was friends with her dad… maybe? My memory sucked for anything outside of my powers.

That got him halfway towards the shotgun before I reminded him, "She needs to be in control, ask permission." Thankfully he swallowed his anger and listened.

That then diverted into another question that none of us had the answer for. What happened to the police investigation into the locker incident. Into her trigger event. Not that Danny knew, we uh, hadn't talked about cape stuff outside of his accidently unmasking of me. So he was going to look into that along with the lawyer. Apparently the phones couldn't be used as evidence, but he did mention if phones miraculously anonymously got dropped off by a cape, they might be able to use them. The wink wink nudge nudge felt disturbingly subtle.

Taylor got banned from school by her dad which I backed him up on. Only reason she'd be going back would be to tell them all to go to hell before walking away.

And after a father-daughter hug, he got up to start making phone calls.

Which left Taylor and I sitting in the living room of the Hebert house. Running upstairs she got her own laptop and started looking up stuff which I spied happened to be lawyers.

Only while sitting there and summoning another donut to munch on did something occur to me. The guy said a few more days before he'd have my new ID's done. Which meant for the next few days I still didn't legally exist outside of the PRT database with probably some stupid high numbers.

I wonder if I could sneak in again and find those.

Or heck I could walk up to the front door and ask, it wasn't like they could stop me from leaving.

Either way I got up and between calls I tapped Danny on the shoulder. "Hey uhm, I know I'm kinda a little involved in this but I don't… legally exist yet so mentioning me might be a bad idea." That earned an eye roll and he continued his calls.

Then walking back out I told Taylor. "Hey I'm gonna go out for a quick errand, because you know that poor impulse control?" After a moment she nodded. "Well, I got a really bad idea and I'm terrible at making myself not do really bad ideas, so I'ma go do that. Want me to pick you something up on the way back?"

"Aster, what are you about to do?" Oh fuck someone taught Taylor the disapproving parent voice.

"Uhm… I was gonna fly over and walk into the PRT building to ask about my PRT threat rating for bragging rights?" Sheepishly I stood there rocking back and forth on my feet unable to even look at her.

"No."

"No?"

"No," And that sounded pretty final. "That's a bad idea and you're not doing it." Immediately she went back to looking up laws and such.

Well now that I'd been scolded my brain didn't want to do it anymore. All the motivation vanished and I summoned a copy of my favorite plushie and hugged it on the couch a foot away from Taylor. Grabbing the remote I turned on the news. Maybe the Nazis were up to something again.

Sure enough there was a speech on TV, not a live one, of Kaiser talking about the degenerate monster tearing a rampage through the streets publicly executing people outside the court of law. As if his own people didn't routinely lynch minorities and anyone else they deemed impure. It went on and on about protecting the 'good people' of this city, about providing security against 'degenerate monsters' like Bakuda who validated their every racist assumption.

Thank fuck it changed before I flew out in rage to hunt nazis. However as it continued to report on me, with the most horrible bias known to man, it then swapped to a breaking news story. A bank robbery. Apparently a group of teen cape thieves decided to rob a bank today.

And were actively in the process of doing it.

It warmed my heart that there were villains in this city who understood robbing from the rich was a lot more fun and ethical than anything the gangs or heroes did. Vanishing my plushie I got up and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Uhm… I wanted to say hi to the bank robbers because they seem cool?" Please don't scold me. Please don't scold me.

"They're robbing a bank!"

"And banks are both insured, and owned by the rich as a tool for exploiting the masses through loan debt to help line their pockets. The only people who'll lose money are the rich and the rich exploited the labor of the common worker to accumulate their wealth, so its ethical."

Taylor groaned. "They have hostages."

"Well I can keep the hostages safe, while they rob the bank and the heroes try and stop them. Perfectly ethical and good." And with a few more steps I turned invisible, walked out the door and flew away. Costume donned mid-flight.

Upon arrival several of the wards noticed me (Vista and… Clockblocker?), as I flew sneakily into the bank. Several teenage girls were in the middle of a hostage situation with one threatening to kill the others. Also someone broke the skylight and judging by Glory Girl floating at the center of the rubble, she damaged the bank, not the supposed villains. She also issued death threats that weren't just trying to get the other party to back off.

My opinion of Glory Girl promptly hit rock bottom when I got close enough to feel an attempt on my emotions, which I dismissed. Not just on me, but also on Tattletale who suddenly stopped looking pale. Also was that… Circus? She wasn't an Undersider unless PHO missed something recently.

Also wait, was that Panacea as the hostage threatening cancer on everyone?

I was so lost.

Either way I felt a few minor injuries from the rubble, which I healed up. Negated the master effect from the cheerleader and then sort of stood off to the side and revealed myself with a little wave. "Hey! Don't mind me, I'm just gonna protect the civvies. You girls have fun with uh…whatever it is you're all doing."

"I thought you're supposed to be a hero!" Glory shouted.

"Oh but didn't the PRT label her a villain? Cover up how she single handedly stopped Bakuda, and are wafting on a kill order?" Singing my praises, Tattletale gave me a vulpine grin. "Am I wrong?"

I tapped my chin in idle thought while extending invincibility to her and Circus. "That is true. I am kinda miffed that Armsbastard covered up me discovering Bakuda's scheme and single handedly saving everyone. And now I've shown up to protect the civilians and healed a few of their injuries from whatever villain destroyed the roof and caused the debris to hit them."

Then I glared at Glory Girl, "I also didn't appreciate that you tried to master me. Luckily I'm immune but you didn't know that, did you?" Oh wow Panacea seemed to be hating my guts violently. Judging by her death glare. Kind of a bitch move, considering I was shielding her from the mastering too, and gave her invincibility, not that I'd tell her that.

"I'm not a master!"

Tattletale eagerly pounced on that. "Oh right, because you got it declared a shaker effect, because that's so very accurate for manipulating the emotions of everyone around you. Like your classmates who only like you because they get that regular dose of awe, or your family that treats you as the golden child unlike poor little Panpan."

Glory Girl looked sick to her stomach. "You're lying!"

"Am I? Isn't it a bit suspicious how quickly you gained new friends after you got your powers?"

"Shut up, shut up!" And she flew directly at Tattletale who shot her with a gun while side stepping.

With a flicker of my power, the bullet vanished midair, and the flying teen crashed into the villainess who remained unphased as the collision did nothing to her. On the flip side, her attacker fell to the ground as gravity suddenly reasserted itself.

"Can you all stop using lethal force?" It seemed weird coming from me, like I was the one known for mass murder but somehow I was the only one against teen murder. Not a good look on the heroes part but I'd somehow hoped that New Wave was better than the Protectorate. They let me down.

"They're criminals!" roared Glory girl who punched her foe over and over finding her completely moved. "What the hell?"

"I'm not letting anyone here get injured or die as this room has a refreshing lack of nazis. Stop using lethal force!" I wanted to throttle their parents for allowing them all to be here, but they were also capes so I'd likely want to throttle their parents for other reasons.

"The bullet would have only knocked her forcefield out, I didn't use lethal force." Hmm that was true, Glory was a brute and the crash into an immovable object seemed to merely turn it off.

Panacea knowing she was safe leapt into action leaping at the villains only to… she just tried to use her power on them offensively? Huh, didn't know she could do that. Welp luckily I blocked that too. "What the fuck, stop protecting them!"

"I'm protecting you too."

A moment later Grue and Bitch came in, and Regent popped out of the back and the darkness blocked my sight of all the wards. Outside of the new wave duo, they looked ready to leave. Though worryingly, Bitch and Regent stood far enough away I couldn't protect them.

Didn't matter as the brute struggled against Tattletale to no avail. "I'm not letting you get away!"

"Oh? So you'd rather me tell your sister the words that'll break your family forever?" Rambling on she sank psychological claws into them with mere words. God she was good at that, but the stuff she was saying felt kinda concerning.

Amy's will broke as the words got to her, stuff about her dad, who was a villain and her thinking that him being evil would make her evil.

I had to call bullshit on that. "That's not how genetics work, you can't inherit evil like that. Good people have shitty parents all the time."

"Can we leave?" Dog girl seemed to be really done with this, and honestly so was I.

Clapping my hands to draw attention I added. "How about Panacea and Glory Girl rescue the hostages, and you all escape while they do that. Win-win for everyone. Because then I can leave and not feel worried about you people killing each other."

That idea went over very poorly, from the arguing.

Tattletale had the closest thing to a workable solution. "Pretty please if your protection of them, I promise no killing or maiming. We'll owe you, hell I'll tell you where every last nazi in the city is too."

"Deal." And I dropped the invincibility. A moment later the Undersiders pounced on the girls, knocking them out as promised.

And then they started fleeing. What the f- "I'll message you on PHO with the deets, miss anarchist." Okay fine.

I waited a minute as they escaped in darkness before I healed the sisters. Then I spun on my heels and faced the hostages. "I'ma be honest you all could have left the moment I showed up. That being said you're all free to go if that's not clear." They slowly wearily got up and shuffled out. I called out to one of them as he reached the doors. "Maybe get that swastika tattoo removed, I hear its good for your health." He rushed out a little faster.

"You helped them escape!" The brute shouted flying up in my face.

"And you injured the hostages, destroyed the building, mastered everyone, and tried to murder a teenager. You really don't have the fucking moral high ground here." A punch harmlessly stopped an inch from my face.

"Are you forgetting the part where they threatened to murder me and everyone else?" Okay maybe Panacea made a decent point.

"Was the gun put to your head before or after your sister damaged the building, and injured innocents?" Because that absolutely would change the morality of the whole thing. Luckily glancing between their unmasked faces it was after Glory Girl arrived and probably threatened them.

"After but that doesn't change the fact they did. That they showed up here to rob a bank. You're a fucking villain." Panacea tried to touch me and her hand stopped short. A moment later she huffed and walked out flipping me the bird.

Turning in midair Glory girl flew after her, but not before throwing in, "I can't wait for the kill order."

It took a deep breath and a minute to collect myself to get over the hostility from those two. Armsmaster and Miss Militia weren't that bad, and the latter found me standing over two corpses I very much intentionally made. I tried to run through things from their perspective because that helped with the whole low empathy thing.

Panacea was in the bank for… some reason. Got taken hostage, wards showed up, lost, and Glory Girl loves her sister because that's what functional families are like and dove in to rescue her from 'bad guys'. That resulted in her seeing someone put a gun to her sister’s head and then a thinker saying shit that cut deep…

Okay maybe they were rightfully angry with me.

Also some PRT agents walked into the bank while I pondered but paused when they saw me. They clearly didn't know what to do. One used their radio.

I merely sighed. "I'll leave, have fun with the clean-up." With my stealth barrier up, I flew up and out that hole Glory Girl was kind enough to leave for me.

My last thought before leaving was simple, I really really hoped Tattletale would follow through.