Dollhouse (Worm alt-power)

Taylor Hebert

I had promised myself that this was going to be a short and comfortable run before heading back home and trying to get some studying done, and at the start I really was following that promise to the letter. I did about half my normal route, having tossed on a hoodie to deal with the overly moist weather that had gripped the Bay. And yet somehow I had managed to run right into the middle of a life or death situation.

Not that I could have planned for Hookwolf to suddenly be rampaging down the streets, screaming out something about how he would continue his killing until whoever had brought Kaiser down appeared. I could already see the carved up bodies he had left in his wake, the cape already in his combat form. Hundreds of blades formed a wolf-like figure, the sheer weight of his form putting stress cracks into the pavement.


There were plenty of reasons not to get involved; I didn’t have anything other than the hood from my aged jacket to actually protect my identity, and on top of that I was still healing from the last fight that I had been involved in. But even if I’d had a hundred good reasons to stay out of it, I knew in my heart that I would fight the moment I ran into the neo-nazi cape.

“Dollhouse, Inventory Select.”


Command from authorized user accepted


Instantly my mind was filled with the massive catalog of the Dollhouse, enough information to fill a library the size of New York trying to squish its way into my head. If I still had my original brain, it was likely that it would have melted from the stress.

I made a note to worry about how okay I was getting to be with the fact that I had a new brain in my body at another point.

That being said, even with my enhanced brain it was impossible for me to grasp the sheer volume that the Dollhouse held. Luckily, I could cheat.


“Open Search.”


Enter parameters for search.

“Strong physical fighter, easy control, low blood cost.” I muttered under my breath, dipping into an alleyway to hopefully avoid the rampaging cape for a few more moments. I knew that other people were in danger, but until I had a doll active I was just as prone to being stabbed and ripped to pieces as the next person.

Search Results: Karate Man, Sister Mercy, Princess Overcome, World Champion, and thirty other results.

I quickly ran through the top selections from the search. Karate Man was better against well trained foes who used a specific style of fighting, and the others were mostly just names to me at this point. Another scream pulled my attention away from the process and I quickly selected Sister Mercy without a second thought on the matter.


The world shifted as the Dollhouse moved to my command, breaking the barrier that kept the pocket dimension from overwriting reality for just long enough to drop off my selection behind me.

The first thing that struck me was that Sister Mercy was tall -easily about seven feet if not a few inches over- and thin. Its body was doll-like, gleaming as the sun reflected off its form which was painted to resemble a young black woman clothed in a nun’s habit and tunic, hands clapped together and head lowered.


“Blood-Brain Connection.”

Confirmed.


Small slits that had been built into my head when I had my brain replaced opened up, allowing strands of blood to flow from myself to Sister Mercy. The puppet’s form shook to life, painted eyes blinking open as my blood formed the link that would give her life.

Well, not life per say. Unlike some of the other Dollhouse creations Sister Mercy didn’t have any form of personality, but even without the ability to talk I could feel the skill that had been written into her come online. Now she just needed direction.

I took a breath and stepped around the corner, whistling toward Hookwolf. It was slightly funny to see the monstrous cape turn with a slight bit of confusion toward me. “I’m going to give you one chance to give up; after that I’ll have to fight you.” I tried to pitch down my voice, make it sound more threatening. I had my doubts it would work but I at least kept any tremble from my throat as I did.

The metallic beast that Hookwolf had turned into barked a laugh that sounded like a car crash and took a step forward, sinking knife-like claws into the ground as he moved. “None of these dickless cowards have given me anything to remember so far. For a dead girl you have guts,” his eyes briefly tracked to Sister Mercy by my side, a scoff escaping him. “I’m going to shred that toy and teach you your place!” and with that he leaped directly at Sister Mercy.

Which, of course, was a dangerous mistake on his end.

The doll moved forward and raised its arms, catching the full mass of Hookwolf as if he weighed nothing at all. With a single movement Sister Mercy tossed his metal form into a nearby building with a simple turn as if throwing away garbage. I figured that if Hookwolf had the ability to give an expression at the moment confusion would most likely rule over all, quickly followed by anger as the mass that made up his monstrous form rose again with a hateful howl.

Part of me wished that I could do something more than stand back and watch as I sent the Doll out to fight for me. But the more rational part of my mind realized that putting myself at risk would only make the fight harder. Even still I tried to pull up any memory of Hookwolf, things I had read or heard talked about second hand. But despite trying to summon forth a memory all I could remember that he was a dangerous fighter.


However despite his skill he had already lost the initiative of the fight, something that I directed Sister Mercy to take full advantage of. Moving forward at a speed that would have given most Olympic sprinters pause she closed the gap and delivered a downward fist into the wolf head that stood at the front of Hookwolf’s form. The sound of metal crumpling rang out over the noise of people running for their lives.

Not one to take a beating, laying down Hookwolf opened his jaws to bite down on the doll, only for her to extend her hands and force his jaws to remain open. Lifeless eyes looked into the villain’s center for a moment before metal blades suddenly jutted out from within Hookwolf, like a dragon breathing forth a storm of swords instead of fire. However much like his teeth were unable to bite into the skin of the doll, these newly projected weapons did little more than strike against the hardened body of Sister Mercy. The most damage done was to the outfit, through thankfully the doll had nothing to hide under it.

Still from where I sat this was too much of a stalemate for my liking, so with a quick mental command I had Sister Mercy disengage from the battle and come back to my side. The blades jutting from Hookwolf’s mouth slowly retracted back into him.

“You bitch,” Hookwolf rose back onto four limbs and glared down both myself and Sister Mercy with a murderous aura radiating off of him “When I’m done with you there won’t be enough to feed to my dogs.”

His threat might have rattled me before, but by this point he wasn’t in the top ten most terrifying things I had seen so I could only really offer a small shrug. “Or you could give up?” it was a genuine offer, I knew he couldn’t beat me and the idea of a fight for its own sake didn’t really interest me.

My words seemed to only spawn further anger as he charged toward me in a berserk rage, but before he could get close Sister Mercy scooped me up and moved me away from the action, setting me on my feet as I scrambled for an actual plan. “Denting the metal doesn’t seem to work,” I mused to myself. if his body had followed the basic rules then the dent that Sister Mercy had left on his head would have put him out of the fight. However, inspiration struck me as I sent Sister Mercy toward the villain for another round.

The doll charged toward Hookwolf as he pulled out from his advance, only making it just in time to see the doll leap onto his back and grasp at the various chains and hooks on his back. The Doll tightening her grip until the metal squealed in protest before yanking at it like a stubborn hair, ripping them out and tossing them to the side. From the yell of anger that seemed to do something, so I focused on my new plan. If I couldn’t use Sister Mercy’s powerful blows to take him down I would instead have her rip him apart until I got to the Neo-Nazi center of the metal wolf.



What happened next was a strange battle. Sister Mercy would dodge out of the way of an attack and bury its fingers into the metal of Hookwolf’s form, ripping off clumps of metal and tossing them aside, and Hookwolf in turn would try and land a blow with his massive form only to find his target gone before he could focus in on it. Whenever too large of a chunk of metal was destroyed it would be replaced, but with each replacement the villain became slower and his breathing became louder.

Unfortunately, though, I was running out of time. Sister Mercy’s drain wasn’t as bad as some of the other creations within the Dollhouse, but that didn’t mean it was nothing. The longer I kept up this battle the more blood I would lose. Already I was starting to feel a bit faint, but I could keep going if needed.

“Give up already, you can’t win this!” I shouted out, trying to disguise just how weak I felt at the moment.

How good of a job I did was debatable however, as Hookwolf simply turned toward me. “I heard a rumor, everyone says that Armsmaster was the one who took down Lung, but those cross-eyed freaks said that he fought someone else, a freaky angel and some tall bitch in a hoodie. If you think you can take me down because you fought some jumped up asain then you have another thing coming. I’ll show you that a wolf is much more dangerous than some fucking lizard.”

He charged directly at me, his speed taking both Sister Mercy and myself by surprise. My best guess was that he had reduced his density to focus on an all-out attack. Even with its enhanced speed my doll wouldn’t be able to reach him in time, not before he barreled into me.

I tried to turn and run, but my body rebelled,my vision turning fuzzy and my head starting to spin. The last time I had fought for this long, I’d had time to fall back and use one of Riley’s packs. But I hadn’t been planning to fight in the first place, so the best I could do was try and raise my arms to protect myself from the mass of metal and blades that was about to hit me.

I expected there to be pain beyond description, but before the blow could land a gust of wind exploded in front of me as a new figure appeared. It stood about six feet, clothed in dusty brown leather and a coon-skin cap on its head, and it leveled an old fashioned rifle toward Hookwolf. When it fired, the sound of the explosion and taste of the gunpowder were all I could sense, but it was quickly followed by a scream of pain and a loud crash of metal hitting the floor.


The figure turned around and revealed an unpainted wooden face, its head tilted to the side in a show of concern.

“I’m fine,” I managed to get out between long gulps of breath.

“On that we must very much disagree, child,” the kind voice of my teacher spoke as he approached from behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder and looking toward the wooden doll. He was an older man; my best guess was in the mid-sixties but whenever I had asked he had simply smirked and waved me off. He had a slight hunch and a hook-like nose that held up a pair of wide circle frames. He looked like a grandparent who would give out hard candies whenever kids came around.

“Please go ensure our metal friend won’t be getting back up. Nonlethally if you would Freischütz.”

As the doll moved forward I was given my first sight of the true Hookwolf, a tall and muscular man gripping his shoulder, blood pooling around where he tried to apply pressure to his wound. “Fuck, fuck you stupid bitches I’m gonnaI fucking k-” before he could finish his threat Freischütz raised his rifle and brought down its butt onto the villains head, rendering him unconscious.

The sound of sirens rang out in the distance, and it really did figure that help would arrive after everything was said and done, but I was in no condition to complain.

“Dollhouse, end contract.”

Command Received, returning item to storage

Sister Mercy disappeared with the same speed as it had arrived, leaving only my teacher, his own doll, the defeated supervillain, and myself on the street.

My teacher sighed and lifted his glasses to rub at his nose, a common enough sign that he was bothered. “I won’t scold you for fighting for others, but please consider what should be done before you start doing. It's enough to give an old man like myself gray hairs,” he brought his hand up to run along his completely bald head, and despite myself I couldn’t help but let out a relieved laugh.

“I couldn’t just let him hurt people…but I really should have thought it through. I’m sorry.” he was the last person I ever wanted to disappoint, as he had been the first person in years to ever have faith in me.

For a moment he said nothing, but evidently he knew that pressing the subject would likely do no further good and simply snapped his fingers. “We need to get you a check up; Riley should be awake by this hour.”

I bit my lip and looked at the destruction that had been wrought by our fight. The street was in tatters and multiple storefronts would need to be replaced from where Sister Mercy had tossed Hookwolf around. Sticking around to explain all of this would have been the responsible thing to do.

“Yes please,” I said in a small voice. While it was the responsible thing to do I was utterly exhausted and wouldn’t risk my teacher ire by denying him.

“Dollhouse, reverse summoning if you would,” a blue light surrounded us for a moment as he put a hand comfortingly on my shoulder. “Let's get you fixed up, Taylor. Afterward I’ll brew some tea and you can tell me all about this little brawl.“

“Yes sir,” I slurred a bit, glad of his presence to help hold me up.

In a moment the two of us no longer stood in the middle of a destroyed street, but in a foyer that was decorated with paintings of various dolls in various poses wearing regal clothing. Any single piece could be displayed in a museum and draw the eye, but here they sat as if they were the most ordinary things in the world.

“Riley, I do hope you are awake because we have a guest.” my teacher called out, his voice traveling across the almost empty room. “I swear she works herself to exhaustion and sleeps until noon. There’s a reason I never had kids of my own you know.” he took off his glasses and ran a cloth over them, a nervous tick he had developed whenever Riley or myself was causing him some sort of stress.

“No, I'm awake!” a door opened from one side of the room, a small blonde girl in a beautiful blue dress came running in, a first aid box in her hands. Behind her trailed a teddy bear dressed as a nurse that was easily over nine feet tall, moving with all the grace its odd body could perform. “Oh big sis is here! Did you get injured again?” an odd flash crossed her eyes. “Did some mean person hurt you?” a dangerous tone laced those words, promising revenge for anything that might have happened to me.

“I’m fine Riley, just a bit drawn out,” I tapped my head and she gave a nod of understanding before glancing toward my teacher.

“I’m going to take her to the medical room, medical staff only you hear?” she put her hands to her hips and my teacher could only helplessly laugh and hold up a hand in mock surrender. “Okay, come on, let's get you checked out.” she took my hand and dragged me along, the mobile stuffed animal following right behind.

Just another day in my life with a former member of the Slaughterhouse 9 acting as my primary care doctor, and a man who controlled an armory strong enough to battle the world and win as my teacher.

And so long as I could keep that all a secret from my dad, things would be great.

 

Being dragged along by a girl both shorter and younger than me wasn’t quite the dignified exit of a hero, but given the fact that I was still feeling light headed from my earlier fight I didn’t feel the need to put up much of a fight. That- and the fact that, despite knowing Riley as the kind hearted girl who patched up my wounds from whatever fights I had managed to find myself in, I couldn’t forget who else she was…or rather had been.

Finding out that my teacher had taken in a member of Slaughterhouse 9 had been a shock and put me instantly on edge around her after finding out. But after learning what she had been through, what that sick freak Jack Slash had done to twist and warp her into a monster, I couldn’t bring myself to really blame her.

The story of how she met my teacher was one I still was light on details of. All I really knew was that my teacher had come across the villainous capes mid-rampage and by the time he was done Riley was the only member still active. From what little I had managed to glean that my teacher had disabled them after a drawn-out brawl and then proceeded to ‘beat every ounce of stuffing’ out of Jack Slash with his cane. At least, if Riley was to be believed.
At first it had been a bit hard to swallow, but then again I had fought two of the most terrifying parahumans in Brockton Bay within the same month after a frankly minimal amount of training with one of the most powerful collections of weapons in the world. As my teacher had, in his own words, ‘been doing this for a long time,’ I didn’t doubt that he could put an end to that group.

Eventually Riley brought the two of us into a room that looked like a cross between a fancy hotel suite and a hospital room and motioned for me to lay down as she went to get her tools. The massive teddy bear that was Riley’s constant companion within the Dollhouse helped to lift me up with an ease and gentleness that didn’t make much sense, for many reasons. Starting with the fact it was a bear sized teddy and didn’t have any actual hands, and ending with the fact that I knew from what the Dollhouse had told me that it had strength comparable to a grizzly on steroids.

Still, I didn’t complain about the help and laid myself on the comfortable bed. Riley rolled next to it on a stool with a bag of blood in one hand and a needle in the other. “Jacket off, roll up your sleeve,” her words were blunt but not unkind, and I quickly did as she asked, giving her access to my arm. In a few moments she had gotten a transfusion set up for me. “Technically we could just use one of the blood pills,” she said, running her eyes over my arm to ensure that the transfusion was going properly before letting out a sigh and leaning back. “But that puts extra strain on your body, which is fine if it's saving your life during a fight, but…”

“I know, Riley,” I cut her off before she could further go into the issues that the pills she had created to keep me in combat actually had. “This is fine.”

Riley bit her thumb at that, her vision sharpening as she looked over me. “It would be so much easier if we could just replace some of the parts, maybe add some redundant organs that could hold extra blood and release it once they detected a lack of red cells in your body, maybe go a bit further and-” before she could finish the teddy bear lifted her in its massive arms and squished her body against its own, emitting a faint white glow. For a moment Riley’s eyes lost focus and her body became slack in the grasp of the massive toy, but eventually she gave a pat to the bear's body. “I’m back, I’m okay now.” The bear seemed to consider her words before setting her back on her feet. “Sorry Taylor, I’m still working on that.”

“It's fine, I understand it's not something you can control.” I had seen it once or twice already, how the kind and gentle Riley could slip so easily into being the bio-tinker that had kept grown men and women up at night. It wasn’t something she could control; years of reinforced trauma at the hands of Jack Slash wasn’t easy to undo. Which was why the teacher had lent her the use of Trauma Bear.

Trauma Bear- Classification: Emotional Support Doll

While possessing the strength of a grizzly bear and hidden razor sharp claws, this doll’s specific use is to act as a counseling and support unit to aid those who have undergone significant emotional trauma. Its main ability allows the suppression of negative trauma responses by draining them away, allowing for any stress to be dealt with in a healthy manner over a long period of time.

The information flooded into my mind as the Dollhouse took my thoughts on the bear to be a request to check the doll’s ability and description. My teacher had informed me that once I was more well acquainted with how this place interfaced with my new brain I would be able to prevent misunderstandings like that. For the moment, however, I would just have to grin and bear it.

“So did you enjoy the DVDs I managed to bring in?” The last time I had met with my teacher I had handed over a few of the old movies that neither my dad or I watched anymore, mostly old cartoons and classic movies that had been gathering dust. It wasn’t anything we would miss and I had simply told dad that I had given them away to a local charity. While technically a lie, my dad was barely around enough to actually notice.

I turned my head and saw Trauma Bear reaching out one of his paws. It stopped short of actually touching me, though, drawing itself back to a standing position behind Riley. I took a breath and allowed thoughts of my dad to flow out of my mind for the moment; that was an issue I didn’t want to reach back into. I had made my peace with the person he had become, or at least I told myself that enough that it didn’t feel like a lie anymore.

“Yeah, I remember watching some of them with my mom and dad before…well anyway Mr. Aegis sat down and watched some of them with me so it was really nice.” For a moment the mask of a small girl slipped again and I saw the horror that had been her life came to the forefront, but she pushed it back quickly enough.

“I didn’t think that he was the type for sitting down and watching movies.” I smiled and Riley let out a small giggle at that comment, nodding slightly in agreement.

My teacher, Stetson Aegis, was a mystery that I couldn’t begin to solve, and every day with him just seemed to make that fact more obvious. He was at once the kindest and most dangerous person I had ever met, able to bring a smile out of someone at their worst moment. But at the same time, I had seen Oni Lee after their fight.I had no doubt that my teacher’s mercy was conditional.

Riley went out of the room for a moment to bring back water and some fruit, the two of us sharing it while discussing the finer points of the animated classics until I finally started to feel like myself again. Eventually Ipushed off of the bed and stretched myself out. While I would have probably been fine without Riley’s care, it was nice to be back at a full tank. “I’ll see if I can’t bring some more movies, or maybe I can take you to see a movie?”

For her part Riley simply shook her head and looked down. “I don’t think I’m ready to go back outside yet. I’m getting better but going back outside scares me. I’ve been Riley in here, but out there I was her. And I’m worried that if I went back I’d be her again and this would all turn out to just be a dream.”

There was nothing I could really say to that. While I knew the facts behind her tenure with the Slaughterhouse 9, it would be an insult to her to say I really understood what that kind of situation would do to someone. I was only about three years older than her, and while my life hadn’t been gentle I couldn’t claim that it was near the same level as being kidnapped and forced to work with a monster like Jack Slash.

But the idea of doing nothing when she was clearly hurting would never sit right with me, so if all I could do was keep offering a hand and hope that one day she would take it then I would just keep doing so. I put on a shaky smile and put a hand on her shoulder, giving a small squeeze. “I’m going to go try and find Teacher. Thank you, Riley.”

She offered me a bright smile and waved me off as she started to clean up the area that had been used.

Stepping into the hallways of the Dollhouse was always an odd experience. The building itself was set up like a manor from a period piece, flawless carpet and polished wood as far as the eye could see and beautiful oil paintings hanging on the walls. It was also vast; from what little I knew about the place there were upwards of hundreds of rooms with a variety of different purposes, and without a guide it was all too easy to get lost.

Thankfully, I could cheat. “Dollhouse, guide to Stetson.”

Confirmed, guiding to primary user

Before my eyes a line of yellow light appeared over the carpet and I followed it at an even pace, taking in the atmosphere of the Dollhouse as I went. There was something soothing about this place; it was the center of my power and the thing which allowed me to act as a hero. Part of me did wonder what I would be without it, if on that day my teacher hadn’t stumbled upon me while walking through the Bay and prevented me from triggering. Would I still be a hero, or would the ‘infection’- as Stetson had called it- have turned me into a worse version of myself? Before I could dive deeper into that line of thought my path ended in front of a door. I reached forward and rapped my knuckles against the door until I heard my teacher call out that I could enter.

As I entered the room I couldn’t help but marvel at it; the room itself was about as large as some of the bigger storage buildings at the Dock, the light within the room maintained by a number of massive chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling. On each wall hung various Dolls, each in a state of disrepair. Some of the damage was simply cosmetic, but many of them had suffered much graver injuries. Some were missing limbs, or had cracks in their bodies.

All about the floor of the massive room, large robed figures skittered about on spider-like limbs, taking down dolls and moving them to workbenches. From there they would begin repairs using a variety of tools, their spear-like limbs opening at the bottom to form metallic manipulators to more easily grasp and use them.

Sitting at a much smaller desk was Stetson, a needle and thread in hand as he carefully mended Sister Mercy’s habit. “Are you feeling better, Taylor?” His voice was as kind as ever, though he didn’t move his eyes from the work before him for a moment.

“I’m feeling a lot better.” I walked toward him and pulled up a chair near the table, watching as he went about the repair work with the skills of a master. I hadn’t really understood at first why he did repairs himself when the mass production Dolls would be able to do the job with the same skill. But after fighting with the Dolls I had a better understanding of just how easy it was to get attached to them, to try and put back the effort into them that they put into fighting. Even those that didn’t have personalities to them. “I just wish I had done better during that fight. I thought I had him and instead he almost took me out.”

Sister Mercy had been stronger, faster, and more skilled then the nazi cape. The only reason that things had almost turned out so badly was my own error in leaving myself out in the open.

“Failure is our first teacher. So long as you survive to see another fight and take those lessons to heart, there is nothing to be done but to move forward.” He put down his tools and rotated his chair to face me. “However, we do need to have a discussion about how to move forward from here. With this attack you will no doubt spark anger from the neo-nazi groups in the city. Though I doubt it is anything beyond your abilities, there is one small issue.”

“What issue?” There was a bit of concern in my voice. After all, Stetson wasn’t prone to worry. Then again, his confidence was backed by the Dollhouse, so it couldn’t really be called a flaw.

“I will be leaving Brockston Bay tomorrow.” He said those words so matter of factly that the implications didn’t really hit me until a few seconds later.

“What?” I hated the weakness in my voice for a second, how it sounded like the same tone I had used when my father had told me about mom.

For once I really wished that Trauma Bear was in the room.

“This has been the longest I’ve stayed in one area for quite some time. While normally I don’t mind putting roots down while dealing with situations, the world is not so devoid of conflict as to allow me to stay in one area. There is simply too much to be done.” His voice was apologetic but firm, and as much as I hated it I also understood.

A selfish part of me wanted to ask him to stay, the same part that seemed to fill in my idea of a reliable figure with his kind smile and gentle nature. But at the same time I knew that he had a responsibility to help that extended beyond the Bay, and trying to force him to stay would only end in both of us being hurt.

“I still have so much to learn,” I clenched and unclenched my hands as worry dug itself into my mind. The difference in skill between the two of us was about as large as could be. My victories amounted to a few thugs, stopping a Merchant attack, preventing Uber and Leet from tearing up a road, and my two actual fights against Lung and Hookwolf. And in the case of the last two, Stetson had been there to back me up. “I don’t know if I can do this on my own.”

Stetson for his part reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. “Taylor, you really can’t,” he said as a matter of fact. “While I respect your growth over these past three or so months, you are far from being prepared to face the world on your own. You lack experience and require guidance.”

I had a sinking suspicion I knew where this conversation was going, though I couldn’t exactly argue against it. “The PRT?” the two of us had discussed my joining; while he was wholly independent and had managed to stay under the radar I wouldn’t have the same luxury. I had my dad to worry about, and I knew that the longer I went at this the greater danger I would inevitably attract to us.

“It's not the only option; this New Wave can provide you with help as well.” He frowned a bit, despite having made the suggestion himself. “But that is a much smaller pool to pull from.”

“Not to mention the last time I met Glory Girl we didn’t exactly end it as best friends.” The fight had been a stupid one; I had to admit that as much as she had jumped the gun I had met her with my own escalation.

“There is also that group that you saved,” he tapped his fingers against the desk behind him. “The Underworld?”

“Undersiders,” I helpfully added, though I was a bit confused on that subject. “They’re villains though…at least that's what Armsmaster said.” My encounter with the Bay’s premiere Tinker had been fairly exciting, seeing as he had been one of the people I had looked up to for quite some time. At least I hadn’t made a fool out of myself.

Stetson for his part simply waved that off as if it had no consequence. “From what I’ve seen after looking into it they seem more like a group of troublemakers that haven’t been given a proper chance. If they were monsters like some of the groups within the Bay I wouldn’t dream of suggesting it, but if you really want to be independent then a tight knit group you could build around yourself would be a decent step.”

I could see where he was coming from, at least a bit. From what I had read up on, the Undersiders were small time as far as parahuman gangs were considered, and outside of Hellhound they had seemed nice after we had worked together to take out Lung. Then again, I’d had the Bludgeoning Angel by my side and had just brought down a major gang leader, so that might have played a role.

“If it's just money they’re after I’m sure there are some assets we can liquidate around here somewhere. Gold is still valuable nowadays isn’t it?” Stetson considered it for a moment. “Honestly I should set up a fund; maybe I’ll visit a bank and get a card for you, just enough to get by. Eight or so figures should be fine for a start until you want to branch out.”

I choked on my own spit as he casually dropped the idea of making me a millionaire as if it were an afterthought. Even with all the time we had spent together Stetson never really stopped surprising me. “How?” I managed to choke out.

“Gold is common enough when you travel as much as I do, and there are plenty of untraceable baubles that would have a high selling price. I left a note with the heads of most of the Slaughterhouse 9 that any bounty on them should go to charity for their victims, but I could go claim a few here and there.” The ease of which he spoke about doing the most incredible things disturbed me at times.

“Whatever you say.” I was too drained to summon up the ability to argue at this point. The one thing my teacher could do better than anything else was continue to pull out new ways of surprising me.

“Atta girl,” he snapped his fingers and one of the mass production puppets skittered over, using a set of its legs to hand him a box before moving back to the workbenches. “Now then, you have done exceedingly well during our time together. Thus, I want to give you two gifts.” He handed me the box and motioned for me to open it.

Despite how I was feeling I couldn’t deny a certain curiosity, tearing open the box like a kid on Christmas day to reveal what was inside. Inside was a new set of clothes, and with just a glance I knew they were special. The material was a deep black that almost seemed to drink in the light around it; the outside felt rough to the touch, but on the inside it was more comfortable than anything I had worn before. The main outfit consisted of pants, a long sleeved shirt, and a jacket with a long hood on the back, but there were also gloves, socks, and a pair of boots waiting to be worn. Underneath those was a silver mask that seemed designed to snap over the lower part of my face. Every piece was utterly seamless.

“The material for the outfit is based on a fabric I once came across in my travels; it keeps the one who wears it at an ideal temperature regardless of weather conditions. It could technically come in any color, but black seemed best–I think it's rather stylish, myself!” Stetson smiled a bit and then pointed toward the mask at the bottom. “That’s a voice changer; it will modulate your voice to prevent anyone from trying to dig into who you are. Even the most advanced technology wouldn’t be able to parse out your identity unless you do something stupid, like repeating something only your alternate persona should know.”

I gave a nod and looked down at the outfit. So far I had made do with wearing some slightly oversized clothing,trying to muffle my voice, and covering my face with a hood. This was a whole new level, though I was a bit confused. “Wouldn’t body armor be a bit better?” I didn’t want to sound like I didn’t appreciate the gift, but it felt a bit lacking.

With a smile he took the shirt and placed it on his table before picking up a pair of sharp scissors and stabbing it downward. A horrible sound rang out through the room for a moment, causing me to close my eyes and cover my ears. But the moment I opened them I saw the scissors had broken to pieces. “The material has a few extra features as well; up to a certain point, it takes any damage done to it and throws it right back at the attacker. I wouldn’t go getting hit by a falling building, but bullets and the like shouldn’t be too much of a worry. Neither would a speeding car, if you were in a pinch.”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t really say anything else, and from his look it was obvious there was nothing more to be said.

“Now, get dressed.” Stetson pulled himself up from his chair and grabbed his cane before taking a tan trilby and scarf from the table and putting them on. “I have one more gift for you before I have to start making preparations.”

Remembering the fact he would be leaving soon did dampen my excitement over the outfit, but not by much. I quickly stole away into a bathroom the size of a small apartment and switched into the clothing. All of it fit perfectly, practically molding itself to my body. The jacket had even been designed to accommodate my long hair without any obvious bulging in the back, a fact I was grateful for. The mask was strange to put on, but not altogether unpleasant. Each side had a small opening that read my fingerprints and acted as a locking mechanism, meaning that anyone who wanted to unmask me was going to have a hell of a time.

When I turned to look in the mirror I was shocked for a moment at the person looking back; rather than the mousy girl who had nearly died in a locker I looked like something pulled out of a comic cover. I don’t know if it was exactly a heroic look, but it radiated a ‘do not fuck with me’ aura that I had to admit I liked.

As I stepped into the hallway Stetson gave me a once-over before giving a nod and a smile. “You look wonderful my girl, truly stunning.” There was a small amount of pride in his voice that made my heart go warm for a moment.

“It was all thanks to you.” My voice surprised me for a moment–the mask made me sound older and a tad more gruff, but Stetson didn’t even blink at it and just gave a nod.

“Now then, your gift.” He tapped his cane on the ground. “Dollhouse, drop us off would you?”

In less than a blink the two of us disappeared from the lavish hallways of the Dollhouse and appeared on top of a large hill overlooking the docks, and more important the Lord’s Port–or Boat Graveyard, as the locals more commonly called it. Massive ships of all sizes sat rusting and decaying in the waters, a constant reminder of the Bay’s horrible condition.

“I’ve taught you respect for the Dollhouse and its power, to always use it with a clear mind and firm purpose. I have also taught you to fear that power, because used unwisely you could kill a great many people in pursuit of your goals,” Stetson closed his eyes for a moment and smiled as the cool breeze from the ocean blew toward us. “For my final lesson, allow me to teach you something equally important. Wonder.”

He buried his cane in the soft dirt beneath our feet and extended his left arm to the side, small panels opening in it and revealing holes in the false limb. Just as I had my skull and brain replaced to use the Dollhouse, he had sacrificed his arm. If I had a magnifying glass held close I knew I would see the small strands of blood that connected us to the Dolls when they were in use.

“Dollhouse, Inventory Select.” He opened his eyes and looked straight ahead. “Black Box Collection: Nihilis.” Before us a figure appeared, standing about half a foot taller than me with a thin body and long, angular limbs. Its body was blacks and whites moving in spirals across every inch, and its face was painted white with black coloring denoting eyes and mouth. From its head hung two long bells connected by fabric which reached to the middle of its body. “Blood Brain Connection.”

The Doll–Nihilis–sprung to life, its limbs animating and its head rolling. “Hello, nurse.” The doll spun on a single foot to face me and dipped into a deep bow with one of its legs moving up behind it, balancing its odd form on one foot. “Between you and me, I had hoped you would be the first one to summon me–the old man is a bit limiting and you seem like a bag of laughs. Maybe we could rip apart those kids who nearly killed you, prank your dad out of his depression–oh, oh, I know, let’s send the Nazis into an Easy Bake Oven…you know, for the sake of irony!” Despite it being just paint, the eyes and mouth of the doll moved in time with each word, its bells bouncing with each jerky movement.

“That will be quite enough; I called you here to do your duty. Need I call upon someone else?” Stetson’s voice was calm, but had very much slipped into the ‘you are starting to test me’ mode that I had seen when dealing with some of the more active dolls.

This wasn’t my first experience with an Active Doll; the Bludgeoning Angel had taken care of that. However, the beautiful smile and calm demeanor of that doll was utterly at odds with the hyperactive clown before me.

“Boring, boring, boring.” Nihilis waved a claw-like hand and returned its focus to the Boat Graveyard before it. “At least my art will be appreciated.” The mutter to its tone was like that of a child denied a treat. But rather than continue complaining, it raised both hands and began to focus.

“What's it doing?” I asked Stetson, speaking low to not interrupt whatever was happening.

“Just watch,” he said with a hint of glee. “It's rare I get to do something like this without it being an emergency.”

I turned my focus back to the Boat Graveyard and blinked in confusion; there was one less boat sitting amongst the rest than there had been before. It didn’t take long to notice that this was because said boat was now balanced on its nose atop another ship, the water below barely disturbed.

I fully focused on the water and spotted what was happening; a white and black portal would appear around one of the ships for a moment and the ship would sink into the portal, only to reappear and stack itself atop the first ship. Again and again the process repeated, until the boats were stacked high enough to touch the clouds and disappear from sight. “Holy shit,” I said under my breath, looking at the massive tower of metal before me.

When the last ship disappeared from the water I had no idea how the stack was staying stable, but it didn’t even shake when the breeze hit it. “And now, for a performance!” Nihilis clapped his hands together and two of the odd portals appeared, one rising up and the other falling down the line until they met in the middle and disappeared. “Now if you check my sleeve, you’ll notice I don’t have anything, but if you look in the air!”

One of the portals appeared again, launching out one of the ships high above the ocean only for it to be caught by another portal. Then two more shot up to be caught. Adding more and more, Nihilis caused the ships to dance through the air, spinning and dancing without ever coming close to touching anything.

I could only imagine what the people in the city watching would think. I was right next to the cause and my brain was still only feeding back error messages.

“And finally,” he created two portals close to each other, having the boats fall through one to be caught by the other, each ship falling faster and faster, picking up speed until it was hard to notice the difference between one blur and the other. “For the finale of this show I will ask any adults in the audience to cover their children's eyes because this much fun will ruin them for the rest of their lives, EAT SHIT YOU WEIRD ANGEL FUCK!” With a final flick of its wrist multiple portals appeared in the sky, each firing off the massive ships skyward until each had disappeared like a blink in the horizon. “Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.” Nihilis gave a bow before suddenly disappearing, whisked back to the Dollhouse.

I turned to see Stetson reach out once more for his cane, his arm shifting back to its proper state as he leaned upon it. “I think that should be enough to qualify as a gift, and a good starting place. Feel free to take the credit for it.”

There were no words I could summon, so instead I just laughed helplessly at the situation.

My life was so awesome sometimes.

 

After Stetson left I sat on that hill overlooking a clear Bay for a moment and really thought about what had just happened. In one quick movement he had taken an entire monument to the death of the city I had lived my entire life in and turned it into a tool for…some purpose. I didn’t really get what launching a bunch of cargo containers into orbit actually accomplished when destroying them would have worked just as well, but what Nihilis had said just before throwing them did leave me wondering. At worst I could always summon it from the Dollhouse later and ask the question directly.

A part of me knew I was stalling, just glancing down to the docks I could already see PRT vehicles, news vans, and just assorted people out on their weekend off looking at the now empty waters. The police and dock workers were trying to keep some semblance of order but it was probably a bit of a mess considering what had just happened. Part of me wondered if dad was there, if he had called home to leave a message from me to stay away from the docks and that he would be home late. Maybe I could get food from one of the gardens in the Dollhouse, I was sure somewhere in the infinite storage space there were at least one or two Doll’s who could make food.

I had tried Stetson’s cooking, and I knew for a fact that the man would be dead if he had been cooking for himself. Though Riley might have been able to survive.

A sigh escaped me, I was getting off track again because I didn’t want to consider what was in front of me at the moment. It was the one weakness that Stetson had made me aware of, how I would try and put off making a decision unless something was presented right in front of me. I would have spent weeks or months trying to find the right way to beat Lung, how to approach him and where the fight should happen. But once he was threatening to murder a group of kids in front of me I was in the fight before my brain could catch up with my feet.

By putting this in front of me and giving me a chance to make my real debut from a place of strength my teacher was saving me countless hours of worrying about what to actually do and forcing me to make a decision.

But I still had at least enough time to actually go over my options.

The first and most obvious was to go down and greet the PRT, apologize for the stunt and say I wanted to give a good show before asking to join. It would balance the display of power with a sense of humbleness about wanting to join the organization. It would make it extremely hard for them to bench me or put me to the side and would give me access to resources that I would have otherwise never had the chance to get.

Of course the reverse side would be that it tied me down to an organization, I would be a hero but I would have to go by their terms, and most likely they would feel the need to inform my dad about my status. Both would be limiting factors and the same part of me that had seen the Bludgeoning Angel fight Lung, Sister Mercy take on Hookwolf, and who had just watched Nihilis juggle shipping containers couldn’t help but scoff at the idea of being limited to only doing what others asked.

I could make the same offer to New Wave, I was pretty sure I had seen Glory Girl flying above the heads of some of the people to get a good look at the now empty water. They would be less limiting, though they might ask me to unmask. But I might be able to talk them out of it if I could properly display how useful I could be for their group.

But both had an overarching issue, I didn’t trust people in power to have my best interests at heart. Almost everyone with any position of power over me in my life had managed to fail me in some way. The staff at Winslow who turned the other eye to the threes bullshit, the police who actively took bribes from gangs, and my dad who had failed me when I most needed him.

I killed the tears before they could even begin to form in my eyes, I had spent enough of my life crying and had something to focus on.

Neither of those two were actual options, I lacked the fundamental basis of trust in either group to actually support me. At best we’d all become tools for each other in order to succeed, and that wasn’t what I wanted out of my life. Being with Stetson and Riley for these last few months actually taught me the value of being around people who gave a shit. My teacher who would always listen to my concerns and taught me how to stand on my own two feet with the most powerful weapon in the universe at my back. Riley who despite her own issues always thought of me first whenever I came in.

“If you can’t find something, build it.” I gathered myself up and dusted myself off as I rose to my feet. The Undersiders had been grateful for saving their lives, and from what I had read most of their crimes had been on the level of Uber and Leet. If I could offer them what they wanted, odds were that I could get them on my side. Maybe I wasn’t ready to trust in the goodwill of others, but I could guarantee them a better life than any of the gangs or groups in the city might otherwise. And if Stetson was correct odds were that I could probably pay better than most as well.

“Dollhouse, Inventory select.”

Command from authorized user accepted

“Select Bludgeoning Angel.” The doll appeared by my side, as beautiful as the first time that I had called upon it in order to combat Lung.

Bludgeoning Angel was beautiful to behold, radiating a sense of grace and calm that seemed to even still the air around it. Dressed in an immaculate white dress with a pair of wings and a golden halo above a head covered in silver locks it appeared the very picture of grace. Its face didn’t appear painted on, and the material that had been used to craft her looked so close to skin that it was a surprise to reach out and touch a firm material.

“Blood Brain Connection.”

Confirmed

The doll came to life before my eyes, a smile on its face as it turned toward me and lowered its head. “I don’t suppose you’ve called me to cast judgment on the evils of this world today, have you?” The voice that flowed out of the doll was feminine and touched with a hint of sorrow. Having seen the personality she had displayed fighting Lung I knew that behind the beautiful appearance lied a sense of sadism that would put most villains to shame.

I managed to suppress any shiver from her presence and gave a shake of my head. “I need your help, please take me down near where the cameras are,” I pointed toward one of the clear spaces around where people were gathering.

“Understood,” she wrapped her arms around me from behind and her wings flared, launching the two of us into the air before descending down in a controlled fall. I could hear some shouts from beneath and saw people beginning to tense. Moving through the crowd I saw the familiar armor of Armsmaster and the scarf flag of Miss Militia. Part of me had to wonder where the rest of the team was, though if I had to make a passing guess they were probably working crowd control, or simply couldn’t make it past the sea of bodies.

When we finally landed the Bludgeoning Angel let me out of its grasp and stepped back behind me, wings lowering to its side to await any new orders. I could see some of the braver news outlets try to get a good shot of me while maintaining a safe distance. My first words here would set a precedent for my future, but I wasn’t exactly a master of public speaking so I went with the first thing that came to mind. “I’m sorry for scaring everyone, I got carried away.” Even through the many layers of sound modification the hint of sincerity was clear in my voice.

When I had spoken with my teacher about being a hero the only thing I had really wanted was to make a place where no one would end up with the kind of life that I had to deal with. That I could protect people from at least some of the misfortune that seemed to rain down upon the world. Even if it wasn’t me who had performed the action it was still in a way my responsibility.

That seemed to draw some confused looks from the people, but before anything else could be asked Armsmaster and Miss Militia were already in front of me. “Are you saying that you had a hand in this?” The gruff voice of the armored hero gave no indication about how he felt about the situation.

“Are you doubting her words?” the Blungegoning Angel focused its eyes on Armsmaster and suddenly the hero went stiff. I could see the constantly shifting weapon in Miss Militia’s hands become a dangerous looking revolver, but also noticed her hands shaking. “Then again, a liar is always the first to accuse aren’t they?”

Bludgeoning Angel- Classification Absolute Terror Weapon

This Doll was designed to act as both a powerful vanguard fighter and beyond this has the ability to override the emotions of others through the sheer intensity of its divine crafting. Its main weapon is the halo atop its head which can become a one handed warhammer that along with the doll’s strength can crumple most material with ease.

“Dollhouse, end contact!” I quickly severed the connection between myself and the Bludgeoning Angel before things could get much worse, letting out a small sigh as both of the heroic capes regained their footing.

Within a moment Miss Militia had her weapon aimed at me, and despite the inherent threat I made no move to defend myself. It was actually Armsmaster who put a hand on the heroine’s arm and made a motion to lower her weapon. “She just tried to master us,” I could hear the dangerous edge in her voice.

Armsmaster turned his head to me, and despite not being able to really see the man under his helmet I knew what he was thinking. I had handed over credit for the defeat of Lung and Oni Lee that night, no doubt giving him quite a bit of credit within the Protectorate for the actions taken by both my teacher and myself. “Explain.” There was no missing the threat behind that order.

“Dollhouse, quick access Junktooth, Blood Brain Connection.”

Confirmed

In a flash a new doll appeared before me, standing only around four feet and dressed in brown clothing that looked like it had been pulled from an old movie and worn every minute since then appeared. It lifted a hand to draw up a hat atop its head to show its wooden body, painted eyes, and mouth full of jagged metal teeth. This had been the doll I had called up to deal with Squealer during one of my walkabouts with Stetson around the Bay. There had been plenty of recorded evidence of the miniature doll devouring the car/tank that had been rampaging around downtown. Thankfully it didn’t talk, which would probably save me a slight headache.

“That was one of my dolls, it only acted because it thought you two were threatening me.” the fact that I had removed it the moment I realized what was going on would hopefully stand in testament to the fact that it wasn’t my intention. But the only doll that Armsmaster would have seen me use was the Bludgeoning Angel, thus it was the only way to ensure he didn’t immediately jump to the idea I was a villain.

“One of them?” his voice lost a bit of its edge, being replaced with something akin to curiosity.

I left the obvious question unanswered and instead focused on Miss Militia, lowering my hood slightly so she could get a clear gaze of my eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to try and hurt anyone. I wanted to come down here and explain myself. Starting a fight with someone I consider a real hero is the last thing that I want.”

She met my gaze for a moment, as if looking into my soul before lowering her weapon. “Apology accepted.” she let out a small breath. While she still seemed on edge she wasn’t directly aiming for me anymore, so I would have to take it.

On the edge of my vision I could see countless people who were being held back by police, dockworkers, and the Wards all seemed to breath out in relief as well. Nobody wanted to be caught near a fight with someone who had claimed to casually juggle multiple shipping containers.

“So, why did you do it then?” she waved to the now empty waters as a way to supplement her question. Armsmaster seemed to want to press further on the subject of my dolls but seemed to think better of it, just standing silently behind his partner.

“Because I believe it's better to get underneath a problem first, examine it from all sides and then work to find the best solution.” the first line didn’t need to make perfect sense, I figured it would reach who it needed to. “Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to deal with any problems, and this is about as close as I can get.” with the final bit of the message conveyed I could instead focus on what I really wanted to say now. “The Boat Graveyard was a constant reminder of how far the city had gotten. I want to help make things better, so I figured I should start here.”

“Well, it's the flashiest introduction I’ve ever seen,” while I couldn’t see her mouth I couldn’t help but feel like Miss Militia was smiling at me. “If you’re looking to join the Protectorate I’d at least be willing to vouch for you.”

Despite my earlier decision I couldn’t help but feel that comment warm my heart. While I couldn’t deny that I had lost faith in a lot of the adult world over my time, part of me wanted to believe that the patriotic cape would actually have my back. But my cynicism had the benefit of time and volume in both cases. “I wouldn’t mind helping the Protectorate, but I’d rather do this myself.” the sheer arrogance of that would no doubt turn some heads, but if Armsmaster was half as smart as people gave him credit for he would take the existence of my multiple dolls and the fact I had managed to defeat a number of high profile villains by myself as a sign that I knew what I was talking about.

“I think you should reconsider, being independent can be danger-” before she could continue, Armsmaster simply shook his head.

“We aren’t going to change her mind,” he looked straight at me, and I didn’t need to see his eyes to know he was practically glaring a hole through my body. “Are we?”

There was a lot I wanted to say, but instead I simply shook my head. “No, I have things I need to do by myself. But if things ever get really bad I’ll try to be there to help out.” there was no way I could open a line of communication or trust them to offer one without wrapping it up in string. Now that I had gone public there was no chance that I could ask for aid from them without being in a position of strength, and the Bludgeoning Angel had already removed any initial goodwill from this situation.

“Excuse me?” one of the newscasters had managed to move closer to the three of us, holding up a microphone toward myself. “Bay News, I was wondering if we could get a name?”

I had to admit that it took some level of bravery to approach a brand new parahuman in the middle of a discussion with two of the Bay’s most celebrated heroes, but it gave me a fine opportunity at least. “Thread,” I turned to the two heroes and gave a small nod. “Dollhouse, reverse summoning.” In the blink of an eye I was gone from the middle of chaos and brought to the calm of the Dollhouse itself.

It felt awkward removing my hero uniform for the first time, because it honestly felt more comfortable then my actual clothing, but still I needed to go home and get some rest before tonight. And homework, I probably needed to make an attempt at pretending I still cared about my education despite the Trio making any attempt a moot point. I could honestly just have a doll specialized in teaching go over any subjects and in a matter of months I might be at an expert level.

Somehow I didn’t think my dad would go in on that idea.

I was about to have the Dollhouse send me somewhere close to my house, but before I could leave a question burned in the back of my mind. Whenever I had called a doll before I had just had to give a name and they would appear. But Stetson had mentioned something different before calling upon Nihilis, the Black Box Collection.

“Dollhouse, open search.”

Search opened for authorized user.

“What is the Black Box Collection?”

“Search results withheld due to sub-user status.”

That was new, anytime I had a question in relation to a doll or a function of the Dollhouse I had always received either a description or a list of possible search subjects. The only other time I had been denied access to information was in regards to questions regarding the Dollhouse’s creation.

“Primary user has authorized access to boxes Crimson-Magenta to sub-user Taylor Hebert.”

A small breath of relief escaped me at that moment, it seemed that Stetson had given me the okay for whatever information was being withheld. When it came to the creation of the Dollhouse he had explained why he couldn’t tell me yet and though it irked me slightly I had accepted it. But I didn’t like the idea of holding back a ton of secrets, especially since I had to trust that the Dollhouse would be enough to protect me when I used its various residents during fights.

“What is the Black Box Collection?” I asked again.

“The Black Box Collection contains a number of highly dangerous Doll’s categorized by ability to disrupt fate on a micro and macro scale. It is listed as the second most dangerous box, under Magenta and above Azure.”

The information left me more confused than anything, Nihilis had seemed powerful with its ability to open portals, but I wasn’t sure what opening portals that could throw cargo ship around had to do with ‘disrupting fate’. I could have kept pressing the Dollhouse for more information but it would probably continue to give me vague half answers rather than something to work with.

“Dollhouse, summon Nihilis.'' While within the Dollhouse itself I didn’t need to form a connection with any of the Dolls, which was how Riley was able to have Trauma Bear follow her around as a personal guardian.
In a flash Nihilis appeared before me, but the moment it did chains appeared from the floor and wall and wrapped around the Doll’s body, rendering it unable to move. “Oh that was a silly move,” the Doll spoke in an almost sing-song voice, its inky mouth stretched into a wry grin. “You have to be careful with us, you know, we aren’t toys.” a laugh exploded out of it but it still remained trapped by the chains.

“Why are you being chained?” I looked around, this was the first time that anything like this had happened. When Stetson and I had trained within one of the Dollhouse’s rooms it had never reacted on this level, but the mere summoning of Nihilis showed a side of this place I had never seen before.

“Because I can be quite dangerous to my user if allowed to linger without a purpose,” Nihilis seemed to pay no mind to the chains that bound it, almost as if they were an afterthought. “But I bet my genius clown brain can guess why you’d call a humble entertainer from his sleep. You want to know why the Puppeteer called me of all of the Doll’s to perform?”

Regardless of the danger that the Dollhouse might have thought I was in, my curiosity only burned brighter. “Yes.” there was a slight pleading to my voice.

“Well then allow me to explain in a bombastic and suitably dramatic fashion,” it was odd to see the Doll in chains, I kept expecting some sweeping gesture or pose, but instead it was held perfectly in place. “Surely you know that we Doll’s are not bound by rules such as ‘they can only have one power’ or ‘the ability must be a physical one’.”

I nodded along to the explanation. Bludgeoning Angel had amazing physical strength and could summon a warhammer, but her ability to manipulate a target's fear response by overwhelming presence was the main ability that had drawn me to her.

“Well just the same with myself, portals are a nice trick but my most grand ability is domino denial,” the smirk on its face became almost dangerous. “Normally the world is controlled by cause and effect. You tip over the first domino and by virtue of doing so you have already ensured the last domino will fall. My ability lets me pick up a bowling ball and knock a big hole in the middle of the pile. The cause will never reach the effect.”

My mouth went dry for a moment, because despite not fully understanding the implications of the ability being described I could still get a gist of it.

“The more complex the events between the first and last domino, the more room I have to disrupt and change things. Now say you were the smartest person in the world, with plans within plans and a hundred step guide on how to get there. Anything that wasn’t how you wanted you changed until everything danced to exactly how you wanted it,” a laugh buzzed from the Doll. “Against things like that I could transform, for instance, a bunch of rotting ships into bowling balls.”

There was nothing I could say to that, and the Dollhouse seemed to detect I was finished and placed Nihilis back to wherever it was that Dolls went to when they weren’t summoned. If I had gotten half of what was said correct, and the implication of his last words on that hill overlooking the graveyard then things were about to get really complicated for the world.

But as much as I wanted to be I knew that the world stage wasn’t somewhere I could stand at the moment. Even with the full strength of the Dollhouse I was still new to this, and a lack of experience would only end up with me being the world's most powerful corpse. I’d start with what I could do and then go from there.

“First schoolwork, then meet up with a group of teenage villains, and maybe if I’m lucky I get a few hours of sleep tonight.”

For whatever else might be said of me, I at least dreamed big.

 

Emily Piggot

As the head of the Brockton Bay PRT I had faced quite a few challenges and headaches in my time, enough to put a lesser person into an early grave. Three different large scale criminal organizations and countless lesser groups were allowed to do as they pleased with minimal ability to retaliate. A collapsing city economy that drove people who could have been valuable resources to the fight into a state of waste. Most people might have just sat back and let things fall to chaos, maybe try and accept some of the numerous bribes that had been floated to me over a number of years.

For all of my flaws as a person I was not so weak willed to let an impossible situation be the end of me. I hadn’t crawled out of the hell that was Ellisburg so that I could lay down and die behind a desk with my own legacy being one of defeat. With what limited power I had in the area I had managed to carve out sections of the city and mark the limited numbers under my command as being able to stand against the worst this shithole of a city had to offer and throw it back.

But watching the Boat Graveyard being juggled through the air like they were balls at a carnival managed to disquiet me more than I felt comfortable showing. The recording of the meeting with this new Parahuman, Thread, did little to relieve my nerves. Yet despite that I managed an iron mask as I brought in every member of the Protectorate for a meeting. They filled in one after the other, starting with Assault and Battery who lead in the recently promoted Triumph.

While having someone who had graduated so recently at a meeting this important irked me, keeping him out just for that wouldn’t be responsible. I offered a nod to the three and motioned for them to take a seat. Triumph and Battery looked serious enough given the situation, but Assault was surprisingly relaxed, which seemed strange given he had been as grim as the rest of them when the Boat Graveyard had begun to fly about. Before long Armsmaster and Miss Militia joined in, and with that I activated the meeting rooms blast proof doors and set up a secure connection. At a screen sitting at one side of the table the face of my direct superior, Rebecca Costa-Brown, the chief of the PRT at large appeared.

“Is this everyone who will be appearing today?” the chief asked, glancing toward me.

“This is everyone we can afford to not have out there helping move civilians away from the Dock’s before any of the local gangs start getting any ideas.” The last thing I needed to add to today was for the Merchants or remnants of the ABB to start getting any ideas about showing that they were strong by attacking civilians. “Dauntless and Velocity along with all of the active Ward’s are handling that situation.”

She gave a nod to that before looking down at something on her desk. “Okay then, give me the details of the incident and the meeting with the new Parahuman,” papers being shuffled could be heard through the microphone for a moment. “Thread.”

I sent a nod toward Miss Militia, as she had been the closest to the area her report would be better than anything that a report could give.

For her part Miss Militia closed her eyes for a moment, as if pulling every detail of the memory from her mind before starting her report. “I had been out on a patol of the Dock’s to ensure that remnants of the ABB and still active Archer’s Bridge Merchants. After two hours I had decided to park my bike so that I could rehydrate and check in with the base to see if I had missed anything. Around this time I noticed the ships starting to disappear from the Bay.”

“From the recordings that were sent to me you managed to keep a cool head despite the situation, that is something few capes would be able to manage under the situation.” the director offered a rare smile toward Miss Militia before motioning for her to continue.

“Thank you Ma’am,” she took a breath before continuing. “The event itself lasted for a combined fifteen minutes from start to end, after which people began to enter the area to observe the now empty Boat Graveyard. A blockade was created to keep civilians back while we set up equipment to study and scan the event before Thread appeared.”

“Reports from the equipment we set up in the area and observations by PRT agents show that there wasn’t anything set up beforehand hand in order to project the portals, meaning either the technology has a longer range then our equipment has ability to detect or this was done by direct result of a Parahuman power,” Armsmaster added.

In other words Miss Militia hadn’t missed something or been at fault, and Armsmaster had a history of being the first to point out those who did end up making mistakes. So unless two of the Bay’s most decorated Parahumans made a mistake we were dealing with a new Parahuman whose first public action had been to show just how powerful they were by throwing around enough metal to flatten a city.

“I see, after that we have the video footage of the encounter with Thread, so there is no reason to have you recount the entire incident.” The director returned her focus to the group. “So, what do we have on this new Parahuman?”

“You mean beyond the fact that apparently she learned how to juggle using fishing boats and wanted to try her hand at a bigger ship?” Assault offered a joke that drew all eyes in the room to him, none more exasperated than his partner Battery who could only let out a silent sigh. “Well first of all, she is probably a kid. If I had to guess probably somewhere between fourteen to seventeen.

That drew up eyebrows across the room, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that my own were just as high as most. “Do you have a basis for that assumption?” I asked, keeping any shock from my voice.

Assault gave a casual shrug and leaned back a bit in his chair. “She apologized before explaining herself,” he paused for a moment as if that was supposed to answer things, but when noticing that he was only getting blank stares he sighed before continuing. “Most adult capes will justify their actions first and foremost before getting to an apology, or more likely just end with the explaining part. Kids are more used to having to give apologies even if they are in the right. Beyond that the way she spoke seemed like she was borrowing someone else's words rather than making her own. If she is a full grown adult I’ll eat my foot.”

That was a surprisingly well thought out argument, and having been forced to work with the children that were part of the Ward’s I found that I couldn’t directly argue. Well at least before they let their powers get to their heads and became another headache for me at least.

“Well that makes it a bit better right?” Triumph chimed in. “I mean maybe we can talk about bringing her into the Ward’s, I know she didn’t go for it right away but Armsmaster can be pretty intimidating and it was a pretty tense situation.”

Miss Militia sent a look that caused Triumph to lower his head, but he wasn’t exactly wrong all things considered. I had worked with Armsmaster for a few years now and while no one would accuse me of being warm and nurturing, the man had the ability to create an awkward environment out of almost any situation with his intense demeanor. “Do you think that is a possibility?” I turned to Assault. While I found the cape annoying as hell to work with and trusted the former villain about as far as I could throw him, he was the one to come up with the theory.

Assault considered for a moment before giving a so-so gesture. “We could probably float the idea for cooperation, but the only reason a kid probably wouldn’t jump at a chance to join the superheroes when they already planned to help out is either arrogance, and with her power I wouldn’t exactly say that was impossible. Or…” he paused for a moment as if considering.

Battery turned to him and let out a small sigh. “It's possible she has already been burned before by trusting the people in charge in her life.”

That made a bit of sense, every Parahuman had a sob story about where they came from, after all powers triggered from high stress points and without proper intervention the amount of people who bounced back and decided to help others were few and in between. It was why the PRT kept an ear to the ground in relation to abuse cases in minors that might have been linked to possible triggers. Things still fell through the cracks but it was better than nothing.

“Regardless of the how and whys we have a powerful parahuman running around the city without any supervision, if she is a kid that only makes things more difficult,” I cut off any further discussion of the matter before anyone at the table decided to put themselves in the girls shoes. We didn’t have time to feel sorry about a possible tragic story when people could be in danger. “What is the official response for this?”

The director considered for a moment before shaking her head. “The removal of the Boat Graveyard is being heralded as a necessary action, and the fact that said removal caused no damage and made a flashy display there is no one willing to argue the fact. There might be some companies that haven’t fully defaulted yet that can have some claim over the ships, but I doubt any of them will step forward. Beyond that the water of the Bay seems to be cleared as well with whatever ability she has, the place should be a wasteland of leaked chemicals and fuel but from initial reports there aren’t even traces of chemicals.”

I couldn’t help but curse in my mind, Thread hadn’t just managed to pull off an impressive display of power but had managed to cover her bases in such a way that we couldn’t even use negligence as a bargaining tool. Before I could speak again the director suddenly looked away, a flash of something crossing over her normally stoney expression.

“I have to go, send me transcripts regarding the rest of the meeting and keep me informed.” with that the image cut out.

“Well she was in a hurry to go,” Assault said casually, earning an elbow to the ribs from his long suffering partner. “Fine, fine.”

This day just kept getting better, still they needed to hit the important bit of this meeting. “Let's get back on topic, we’ve talked about personality now let's talk about possible threats.” with the director goine I linked to the screen and brought up an image of each known or suspected ‘doll’ that had been used in relation to Thread.

The small homeless looking puppet with metal teeth, taken from security cameras that showed it biting into one of Squealer’s vehicles, the black nun doll fighting against Hookwolf, and finally the angelic doll that had floated her down in front of the Dock.

“These are the known tools at her display, for now we will follow the name scheme she provided and call them ‘Doll’s’,” there wasn’t much of a better name for them and it didn’t really matter to me a lick. “Thoughts on them?”

The assembled heroes went quiet for a moment, occasionally a whispered word spoken to one another as they got their thoughts in order.

“How about we start with the small one,” Triumph pointed toward the smallest Doll of the bunch. “It managed to hold onto Squealer’s vehicle even when they tried to throw it off, so low ranking Brute, its teeth managed to bite through solid metal and then ejected it as a liquid slurry hot enough to mess with other parts of the Tank. Striker or Blaster?”

“Let's say Striker for now, low Brute mid-Striker,” Miss Militia moved over to the angelic Doll. “We don’t have any information regarding that one, but it might have a Master power.”

“Might?” My voice was hard and for good reason. Master and Stranger powers were two of the most dangerous amongst the classification of abilities, and it would also set the tone of future encounters if there had been even an attempt to Master a PRT hero.

Armsmaster chimed in for his fellow hero. “The Doll itself radiated an intense pressure that managed to put both of us on edge. However the effects weren’t consistent with most known Master abilities. It might have been more akin to a fight or flight response.” his voice sounded annoyed but controlled, it would make sense that the cape most known for a strong hold on his emotions would be bothered by admitting to something as base as fear.

“Beyond that possible Mover for the wings, but we only saw it float down, so they could be ornamental. It's the one we know least about.” Miss Militia finished off.

“I’ll throw my hat in and say that it probably wasn’t the one that made those portals,” Assault added in. “Doesn’t match the vibe, and if it did, why wouldn’t she just make a portal instead of floating down?”

Which left us with the only remaining figure, the nun. “High ranking Brute, it took direct hits from Hookwolf without flinching and could dent and rip apart his metal form. Low rank Mover under that for its speed and reaction times.” Battery glanced toward it for a moment before letting out a small breath. “Which leaves Thread herself, I’m guessing high ranking Tinker?”

“At the very least,” I responded, bringing up a photo taken from the scene of the Bay. “Possible Mover or Stranger ability given how she disappeared. “For now assume her to be a Tinker with access to an unknown number of Tinkertech weapons.”

No one had anything else to add, and I rose from my seat. “Okay, for now we will keep things calm with this new rogue, don’t go out of your way to engage unless you’re sure that you can make a positive impression. If she steps out of line, take her down fast before she can use any of the Tinkertech weapons,” Assault looked like he wanted to say something, but I leveled him with a stare and he simply raised a hand in surrender. “Dismissed,” they began to rise before I turned to Armsmaster. “You stay.”

The rest of the group made their way out, and once the door shut I turned my full focus back to him. “What do you think?” As the resident Tinker within the Bay he was the one I would trust most in these situations, and the least likely to let his actual thoughts slip during a meeting.

“She is dangerous, if we aren’t ready to bring her down then we should probably wait. If we have the slightest hint that she might turn villain I recommend a full deployment of Protectorate forces and possible calls for backup.” Armsmaster spoke without hesitation.

“You think it might be that bad?” I knew the man wasn’t one to speak without putting his full thoughts behind something, but even with Lung his initial responses were either retreat or a quick takedown. Full mobilization was a step beyond what he normally would ask for.

“We have no basis for the Tinkertech she is using or what its limits are. The closest we might be able to have is Dragon.” Armsmaster answered.

“Shit,” I let a small amount of exhaustion into my voice. A rogue Dragon with possible hostile intent would warrant that sort of response. “Keep that under wraps for the moment and prepare any countermeasures you can think of, I’ll divert some extra funds to your lab.” He was the one who had managed to bring down both Lung and Oni Lee after all. I hated having to rely on any Parahuman, but one made due in times of crisis.


Alexandria

As one of the minds behind Cauldron and one of the three most powerful heroic capes in the world I had faced quite a few challenges and headaches in my life, enough to put most people into an early grave. Between the ever looming fate of the Endbringers and the Entity there was never a moment that I didn’t feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. However the moment I received an emergency communication from Cauldron a spike of dread tore through my body. I changed into my uniform and doored there as quickly as possible, only to find a surreal scene waiting for me.

Seated around the table where so many meetings that decided the fate of the world were Doctor Mother, Number Man, and Contessa, though the latter was being held by Doctor Mother in the throes of what appeared to be a violent migraine. Along with the members of Cauldron was an old man in a tan suit, a hat by his side and calmly drinking from a cup of tea. Behind him stood a tall figure dressed as a maid with a veil over its face, calmly pouring a cup of tea before moving it over to Number Man, who took a drink.

“What's going on here?” my hands curled into fists as I prepared for a fight, with my speed I could have the unknown man’s throat in my hand before he could blink even with the table in the way.

Number Man held up a hand and turned to her. “I would advise against that,” his voice was deathly calm despite the unknown intruder in their midst and the obviously anguished Contessa.

“I apologize for my rude entrance into your place of business, I really didn’t mean to stir up a fuss,” the man spoke kindly and motioned toward the figure behind him, which procured another cup from somewhere and poured a cup of tea, setting it down in front of the chair before me. “That being said I’m not opposed to violence if others engage in it, but it would be troublesome to have to both fight you and protect your friends here from the aftermath, so I would much rather we sit and discuss things like adults.”

His confidence gave me pause for a moment, there weren’t many people in the world that would hold themselves so confidently against me without any hint of worry toward their own safety. I had very carefully managed how people thought of my heroic identity, often times just the idea of Alexandria was enough to give pause to villains, which meant I was either dealing with someone overconfident in their abilities or who legitimately thought they could match one of the three strongest parahumans in the world.

Given he had managed to infiltrate Cauldron I had my doubts about the former idea holding water.

“Fine,” I pulled a chair and sat across from him. I would have to buy time until Legend or Eidolon could make it. Of course given their lives it was possible that they were trapped in situations that wouldn’t allow them the luxury of being able to drop everything, or even notice the distress call. “Who are you and what do you want?”

The old man took a slow sip of his tea and made a hum of satisfaction, one that was shared by Number Man. I noticed another two cups by Doctor Mother and Contessa, but they were untouched. “My name is Stetson Aegis, well at least that is what I am calling myself at the moment. As for why I am here, well on that count I was just following the strings and found myself here. It seems your friend,” he nodded toward Contessa. “Was caught up in my attempts to burn the world's script, for lack of a better analogy.”

My brain kicked into overdrive and the world seemed to slow. I ran his name through my mind and pulled from all Parahumans known both publicly and only to Cauldron. But the list of Parahumans that made it to an age like his were few and between. The idea of him being a new Trigger was laughable, he was displaying confidence not arrogance in this situation. Which meant she was dealing with an unknown Parahuman with the ability to easily break into the most secure location available to them and sit there without a worry.

“What do you mean by following the strings?” Doctor Mother spoke up, having finally gotten Contessa calm.

Stetson’s eyes turned to the doctor before answering. “Removal of free will by way of predetermination, your friend most likely suffered a shock as a mass amount of chaos was injected into the world and shattered any and all long standing plans. It's likely the winged one in space will be experiencing a macroscale version of what she is momentarily.”

That got a look of surprise from everyone in the room, as the only being he could possibly be describing was The Simurgh. “And how did you manage that?” I had no faith in this odd man or his claims, but the evidence of Contessa’s condition forced me to ask.

“Oh, I had a graveyard worth of ships turned into chaos emitters, launching them into satellite orbit. Except for one that is going to crash into a mountain,” he paused, pulling out a golden pocket watch from his coat and looking over it. “About now. Don’t really understand why in the slightest that it ended up going that way. But I’ve never claimed to understand every action taken by one of the Black Box.”

“You’re involved with Thread?” he couldn’t possibly be the girl who had taken center stage after the events in Brockton Bay, even if he was able to change size and shape there was no hiding the difference in personality.

“My student, a hard working and diligent girl. Still rather unsure of herself, it pains me to leave her to her own devices so early but to be frank I’m going to be spending quite some time putting out the various fires that have been left unattended and then figure out what is causing the sheer mess of dimensional cross tampering.” he sighed like an overworked repairman.

It took all of my control not to react to what he said, breaking into Cauldron was one thing, but knowledge of the Entities and Shard’s was on another level of danger. All it would take was one wrong move and someone could set Scion off and the end of the world would fall upon all of their heads. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.

“Regardless I’m afraid our time here is going to be up,” Stetson picked up his hat and put it atop his head. “Do try and keep your heads on straight, if I find you wanting I will have to put you on the short list of fires I need to put out rather than your currently lower standing on said list.” he turned to Number Man. “Ah and the account?”

Number Man waved his hand. “Set up, my people confirmed the materials as promised. The funds are on the card and the account is near untraceable. No point in making threats. I'm not in the habit of betraying clients when the numbers all lead to my death for doing so.”

“Right then,” he turned his back and in that moment I moved with my full speed. Even if he was enhanced or thought he could take them all at the moment his back was turned and I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to protect everything that we had worked toward.

However before I could lay a finger on him the odd maid that had been behind him matched my speed and caught my hand in its fist. The pressure of the punch caused the veil over its face to flutter, revealing a metallic face set in a murderous grin, a red oil like substance running from its ‘eyes’ and into its ‘mouth’.

“Fury dear, we are leaving.” With that said the maid pushed me back with strength that I couldn’t hold firm against without a foothold, and like that the two of them were gone.

I let out a curse under my throat and turned to Number Man, who had simply scooted away from the table before it collapsed. “What account was he talking about?”

Despite the tense situation he simply set down his cup of tea on the floor. “Before you arrived and while Contessa was undergoing her attack we discussed setting up a fund for his student to use, I believe you called her Thread? Regardless he paid in gold and precious gems,” the look on my face must have given a hint at my anger and he simply gave a shrug. “Just because we are probably going to have to kill him doesn’t mean I have to miss out on a business venture.”

It took all of my strength of will not to throw the man into a wall. There were more pressing concerns that would need to be dealt with, and soon.


Saint

As one of the three people that knew the true danger that the hero, or rather AI, known as Dragon, could pose to the world, I had faced quite a few challenges and headaches in my life, enough to put most people into an early grave. Having to operate outside of the law in order to keep the world safe from the horror it could unleash if not kept in check was a constant weight on myself and those who chose to follow me.

Today had only added to the list of events that would have me tearing at my hair if I had any left. It was supposed to have been a simple grab and go operation to get them parts to upgrade their battle suits from one of the machines remote labs. But something had gone wrong, one of the AI’s partners from the Guild had been on location and their normal countermeasures had been subverted somehow. It was a humiliating defeat and it burned in my stomach more than I cared to admit.

Dobrynja and Mags climbed out of their own suits, both of them swallowing in breaths of air and looking over their suits. This had been one of their worst missions to date, and the battle scars on their suits were much more than cosmetic this time, while the redundant systems had absorbed most of the blows a few of the weapons systems would have to be replaced, and to add insult to injury I had been forced to eject an arm and a leg from my suit or risk being tracked.

“That was too close,” Dobrynja looked at me, and even if he didn’t show it I knew the man's eyes were silently judging me. I was their leader and I had told them to not even bother to prepare for combat. While the silent judgment irked me I couldn’t say that it was totally undeserved considering just how things had gone.

“I realize, but we can’t stay here. One day to bag everything and then we need to be gone,” I injected more strength into my voice then I actually felt.

This fallback base was one of the less secure areas that my Dragonslayers had used over the years, mainly a good stop point while moving between different areas to stay one step ahead of Dragon and those that it had managed to fool. It was built into the side of a mountain range that had become near untouchable after an Endbringer attack a few years ago, I honestly couldn’t remember which one but probably either Leviathan or Behemoth, unless the Simurgh had become interested in mastering a legion of mountain goats.

Still we had been forced to make an almost straight line here, the jammers would block instant detection from the machine but it wasn’t worth the risk of being found. A day to rest and get some minor repairs done and they would burn everything of worth in the place and move to somewhere more secure.

Mags approached me and put a comforting hand on my shoulder, offering a small smile. “We managed to get out, that's what mat-” before she could finish the thought a massive crash rang out through the area, and I was thrown off my feet by an explosive force. When I finally managed to look up all I could see was crimson surrounding the point where Mags had been standing, along with what looked to be a massive boat anchor. All of my thoughts froze in my mind as I looked at the massive hunk of metal, the heat coming off of it enough to turn what had once been a temperature controlled room into a hellish environment. I turned to try and see if Dobrynja had managed to survive whatever had hit us, but the heat was starting to make my eyes fuzz over.

“What th-” my words were cut off as another crash exploded above us, and at least one mystery was solved.

The rest of the boat had followed the anchor.

 

Within a few hours a murder would take place. For most people this would be a simple fact of the world in which they lived. Few would see the aftereffects, the far reaching consequences of said murder. Or rather the bullet used in said murder, which would pass through the victim and into a wall. Said bullethole would become the inspiration for an artist who would create a piece of artwork using the hole in the wall to create a centerpiece for their newest work of street art.

The wall was within gang territory, seeing the art the gang would believe it to be the work of another gang, sending them into a small-scale war. That was largely insignificant other than to get a businesswoman to take a detour to avoid it. On this detour her car would be hit by a passing truck, which would drop its cargo off the side of a bridge and poison the local water supply.

Said poisoned water would make the town heavily sick until it was detected, forcing the aid of a Parahuman doctor who had been hiding their abilities to go public. Within a few hours of the doctor going public he would be kidnapped by a large organization who wished to use his abilities for their own goals. In order to spite his captors and seeing no way to be set free he will light their drug lab and destroy the building.

Looking at the flames of the building would spark a passing person's pyromania, leading them on a string of arsons until they were caught in one, triggering as a Parahuman. They would go on to commit more arsons and become a well known villain. Said villain would eventually come into conflict with my administrator and lead to a battle that would push him to his limits. This test will allow modification of future attacks after previous attacks had exceeded initial scale.

If the fights were too easy then he wouldn’t be tested, too difficult and the ‘worthy battle’ that was sought would instead be a soul crushing event. A perfect balance had to be maintained to ensure continuation of administrative order one.

Somewhere in the world a gun was fired.

The bullet missed its target and impacted on the street.

Within this same stretch of time a massive oil tanker would explode out of a black and white portal and strike my physical form at high enough speeds to breach into orbit. The resulting damage to my physical form was catastrophic from an outside perspective, however the main core of my being remains undamaged allowing regeneration to take place.

Across the side of the ship are the words ‘fuck you’ in black and white mixed ink.

Before heightened regeneration can begin to build the outer parts of my being the ship will explode due to the heat generated from the movement and an unlikely mix of chemicals. Said explosion causes nothing more than a delay in regeneration.

Once regeneration reaches a suitable level I divide off my consciousness into three pieces. A main hub to translate data found from the other two, and two others to gather data on the attack from the past and future.

The past scan finishes first, reporting back initial failure at direct viewing, but later success at remote viewing through secondary sources. Brockton Bay, multiple ships launched through portals into the upper atmosphere. Running the numbers the main hub reports that most will explode in satellite orbit and destroy a number of hidden devices set by both Tinkertech Parahumans and government forces. Debris fields would make recovery or repairs of said devices near impossible. Two ships unaccounted for in the grouping, the first being the one that had struck my physical form and the second not reaching the same heights, approximate data shows it landing far away from most human habitation and landing in a mountain.

I reabsorb the piece into myself and draw on the secondary piece to follow the chain of events this will have in the future.

Error

Only to find that the Shard attached to the process is facing possible contamination and needs to be isolated. Further study needed. Reabsorb non-tainted pieces back into myself and focus on the future with a direct mind.

The future is hazy, not quite a blind spot but possibilities keep changing. Scenarios developed with almost no room for error find disaster, plans with lower chance of success due to outside factors retain initial percentages.

Attempts to focus on cause return nothing. I assume for the moment that the attack on my physical form, the ship landing in the mountain, and the wreckage are all connected and are being committed by Thread.

A quick list is formed in my mind of facts and assumptions.

Fact: Thread is not a Parahuman.

Fact: Thread is a blind spot that can be viewed through others but cannot be seen with precognition to any certain extent.

Assumption: Lacks necessary reach to directly destroy me from my current position.

Assumption: Has sufficient ability to destroy physical form and core in direct combat.

Fact: Destruction needed in order to establish direct control over experiment.

As the list builds the isolated future prediction shard is thoroughly processed and contains a possible prediction.

I view the world through my own eyes, brought low on an unknown city street as Thread stands before me, a Unknown Subject stands behind her connected through Unknown Means. Unable to move my physical form and isolated from any method of attack I watch as Thread orders Unknown Subject to destroy my core. I attempt to activate my scream and force distraction or destruction of Thread, am unable to use ability before my core is pierced.

Last bit of the future before the collected image goes dark is “And that makes six.”

Assumption upgraded to Fact: Thread has sufficient ability to destroy physical form and core in direct combat.

Fact: Will need to use more indirect methods until ability to properly determine future and find further errors with established plans.

A new feeling runs through my mind, a worry that the experiment that is my core goal will be disrupted and will be left with no ability to act in its preservation.

Examination of feeling places it closest to a human emotion.

Fear.

 

It hadn’t taken me long after I had gotten home to decide that homework was pretty pointless and instead focused on getting something to eat and collapsing on my bed to enjoy the rest of my Sunday. As I had expected dad had called to say he would be late and not to wait up, which worked perfectly fine for my plans. I made sure to make a note and stick it on the door asking him to not come in as I had a test tomorrow. An innocent enough lie, and it wasn’t like he was aware enough of any part of my life to pick out a lie on it.



Odds were he would probably collapse as soon as he stepped in the door, things had been chaotic enough that he had probably been worked to the bone.



I knew that I should feel a bit bad about that, but at the same time I had more pressing things to worry about. There was no doubt that the Undersiders would be able to pick up the not so hidden message that I had put into my speech in front of the cameras. Which meant all I had to worry about was actually convincing a group of criminals that acting on the side of all that was good and just would be a career move that would make sense for them.



My time with Stetson and removed a lot of my assumptions about the world, most villains weren’t looking to take over the world but instead trying to carve out some small space for themselves when life gave very few craps about the odd ones out. Of course just because life might have given them the rough end of it I wasn’t going to go easy on them if it turned out they were as bad as any other gang in the city, but I also wanted to give them an honest chance.

The person I might have become if Stetson hadn’t pulled me out of the locker that day could have still been trying to do what I was now, but it was equally as likely I would have torn my school down by its foundations out of rage depending on what kind of ability I received.



Even now I still had daydreams about just destroying the entire school, there were enough dolls to pull something like that off within the Dollhouse itself and I would never need to look twice at it. But that wasn’t the person that my mom had raised, and I wouldn’t ever be able to look at the important people in my life again if I went down that road.



Before my thoughts could get any darker a plastic card appeared over me and fell on my stomach. It was black with golden numbers written on it, my cape name staring back at me. Not long after a note appeared as well, though it took a moment to read. I knew it was from my teacher as I had seen few others with handwriting that was as archaic and beautiful as his.



I hope this card finds you well Taylor, I understand that today was stressful and if I didn’t believe it for your own good I would have happily eased you into the world you are soon to enter. As a way of apology, accept this card, it is linked to an account by an individual who can keep the books matched to whatever you happen to need. The upper limit of your credit will never be an issue, and should you need something more akin to hard currency simply seek it within the Dollhouse itself. Remember what you’ve learned under me and you will be fine, my expectations for you are high and I know you will not disappoint.



P.s.- I have given you access to all but the dolls contained within the Magenta Box, but be wary of any tool that you feel you might not be able to control. The Dollhouse is a powerful tool for good, but even the best intentions can lead to unforeseen consequences.



Your Friend,

S.A.



I looked down at the plastic card for a moment and tried to absorb the fact that my teacher had essentially written me a blank check to do whatever I wanted with. Of course I would still have to be smart about this, while I could probably make any purchase I wanted in person there would probably be some limit of what I could get without raising any eyebrows. But if I was careful then I could probably manage to provide for a good sized team. Maybe even more if someone with experience with money or how to set up something like a full organization.



Odds were that I would never have the full support of more established hero groups, though I had floated the idea of possibly asking for membership with the Guild once I was established. The level of freedom they tended to offer their members suited me more than something akin to the PRT, but at the same time I needed to be able to clean up and hold Brockton before I could think of expanding.



This was the city that I had been raised in, and if I had to constantly worry about someone killing my dad every time I had to leave to deal with something I would never be able to meet the ideals that my teacher probably expected of me. For now the Undersiders would be a strong start, I could offer money and protection and in turn all I would need from them was the ability to gather information and maybe help me set up an arena for a fight. They had managed to distract Lung for me but the only reason they had been forced to was my overconfidence and refusal to fall back enough to take a blood pill.



That wouldn’t happen again.



“Okay first thing first,” I closed my eyes and drew in a relaxing breath.



“Dollhouse, Inventory Select.”



Command from authorized user accepted.



“Open Search, I need a doll that focuses on intimidation but isn’t going to mess with people's minds or emotions directly.”



A few moments passed as the Dollhouse parsed the more complicated request, but I had confidence in getting at least a few. While I didn’t know how smart the system that ran the Dollhouse was, it hadn't yet encountered an issue with any other query that I had provided.



Search results: Cloth Doctor, Tremble, Sad Son, Bandit Rocker, Amalgam Beast, and fifty others within search parameters.



“Open description for Cloth Doctor,” while the rest of the choices would merit a look, the Dollhouse always suggested its top choice first. The only reason I hadn’t used Karate Man against Hookwolf was that while I knew he would probably perform well he had been the one Stetson had used to help get me into shape and it had felt wrong.



Cloth Doctor- Nonlethal Takedown Doll



While intimidating in size and appearance this doll focuses entirely on defeating enemies without direct harm. Anything it has touched can cause ‘strings’ to appear anywhere on their form that require a massive amount of force in order to break. Maximum targets for this ability are fifty, after which each new target will remove the first target from the list.



“Okay, that should work,” I stood up and pocketed the card. The sun was already starting to get low which meant it was time to get on my uniform and try and negotiate with a group of villains in order to turn them into heroes.



It took little time to change into my costume at the Dollhouse and leave behind more movies for Riley. Part of me wanted to hand them over myself but I had already cut things a bit too close with my nap and didn’t want to be late. So for the second time I found myself back where I had battled Lung, seeing that most of the scars from our battle had already been patched up. The area where my teacher had fought Oni Lee was probably less well off, but given the bomb happy teleporter I couldn’t exactly blame him.



I didn’t have to wait for long, with my enhanced brain came a certain sixth sense when I was being watched. It wasn’t perfect but the Trio hadn’t managed to sneak up on me for quite some time, even if I had used the advantages of my power to dodge them most of the time. With a simple turn I swung my hand in a ‘follow me’ motion to the general area and walked toward one of the buildings that had been condemned recently. I had found a few Merchants trying to use the place as a quick meeting spot to push drugs and had cleared it out. Given that the building was probably going to sit empty for quite some time no one had noticed the broken lock. Which made it convenient for an out of the way meeting place.



“Dollhouse, Inventory Select, Select Cloth Doctor, Blood Brain Connection.”



Confirmed.



The Doll appeared before me, it was made entirely of some kind of gray fabric that was covered by an outfit designed entirely of what appeared to be feathers. Its face had a long beak and two cut out holes for eyes which gave it a creepy quality. It must have been about nine or ten feet, its back bent slightly and hands rubbing together as it observed the door.

For a moment nothing happened, but soon a massive wave of darkness entered into the building and swallowed me, removing my sight and hearing. The darkness itself felt like liquid, not really impossible to move through but making the air around me feel thick and uncomfortable. However, despite the seeming attack I remained still, if they decided to attack I would order the Cloth Doctor to fill the room with strings and bind every inch of the building. Or simply select another of the catalog I was more familiar with and fight my way out.



But within moments the darkness disappeared and a small lantern illuminated the ruined building, leaving four familiar figures in front of me. Tattletale, Hellhound, Regent, and Grue. The four members of the Undersiders and ironically the first people outside of Stetson that I had ever worked with. And two very mean looking dogs, but I figured that if Hellhound was coming to this meeting it wouldn’t be alone.



“You know it might have helped to be a bit more subtle don’t you think?” Tattletale glanced toward the Cloth Doctor and let out a small hum containing some emotion that I couldn’t quite track down. “So what does that make now, five or six?”



“More,” I felt no reason to lie about my capabilities, after all even if I were to try and describe the full stock of the Dollhouse it was a bit difficult to wrap your head around if you weren’t literally connected to it. “Thank you for coming, I know I didn’t provide much information but it means a lot to me.”



“Considering you saved our asses from Lung it wasn’t like we had much choice, none of us like owing someone that big of a favor,” Grue stepped forward, apparently taking charge of our interaction. Tattletale kept looking at the Cloth Doctor with that same odd expression, Regent looked a bit on edge but was trying to hide it, and Hellhound…



Well honestly I had no idea, the girl's body language gave absolutely no hint to what she was feeling at the moment.



“You don’t owe me anything, he was going to hurt people and I stopped him.” I felt no need to add more to that, so instead decided to cut to the chase. “I want to hire all four of you on a long term, I’ll double any price you would normally receive from jobs and match amenities and anything else that is needed.”



The four looked at each other, a silent discussion going on before Tattletale chimed in. “That's a lot of money to throw on the table.”



Without a word I pulled out the black card that Stetson had sent my way and held it up for her to see. “I can afford it.” before I could explain any further she let out a whistle in response.



“Oh yeah, you certainly can,” she turned toward Grue and nodded. “That card is essentially an unlimited line of credit. If our current boss has ‘fuck off’ level of money she has ‘no you fuck off times a thousand’ levels.”



That seemed to throw Grue off for a moment, but he quickly regained his bearings. “There are other circumstances involved in our current contract,”



“If possible I’ll match those as well. But first let me explain what I want to hire you to do. I don’t need an answer tonight but I want us to all be on the same page,” I took a small breath before looking at them. “I need a group that can help me figure out where I need to go and how best to go about helping others. You’ve all seen what I can do both with Lung and at the Dock’s earlier today. And none of those were close to my limit.”



Stetson had described the Dollhouse as a storehouse that contained infinite possibilities. A Doll for every situation, power enough to shake the foundations of the world, and to protect everyone the user wanted to.



“But I still can’t do everything I want on my own, and I don’t trust most people to actually want to help me just because what I’m doing is good. If you help me then I will make sure that each of you is taken care of.” That was essentially the extent of the pitch, there was nothing else I could offer them in words that would actually ensure their alliance.



There was nothing said for a moment before Grue spoke again. “Give us a minute to talk.” he motioned for the group to follow him to one side of the room without waiting for a confirmation, the group huddling together to speak in quiet voices.



I did my best not to eavesdrop, keeping a respectable distance and simply rocking back and forth on my feet. Part of me wanted to go over every word in my head, to think if there was some other way I could have pitched everything in order to come across as more convincing. But I knew that I wasn’t exactly the type to ooze charisma, all I could do was give an offer and set up reasons why they might want to work with me.



Eventually the group moved back toward me with Grue stepping forward. “The offer is good, but there is a small problem.” The gravity behind those words led me to believe that it was unlikely to be anything easy.



“And what would that be?” I figured the money wasn’t going to be an issue given that Tattletale had been able to confirm that I could probably afford to keep them comfortable until I could figure out an alternate source of payment that didn’t involve dipping into my teacher’s bank account.



“Our current boss is offering us more than just money for our services, and if we are going to cut and run on them we need proof that you are able to take care of any issues that might come up without him.” Grue turned toward Regent who gave a small nod. “You said that you could provide protection if someone came after us, and if you really intend to kick up shit we need proof that you can actually do that.”



“Name a villain,” I could see where this was going, and it was a fair enough bargain. All the money in the world wouldn’t matter if they thought I was going to fold at the first big threat. Eventually I intended to start going after the big issues in the world, and if they thought I was selling them anything less than the truth of my abilities they would probably cut and run. “I’ll bring them in within a month regardless of who you pick.”



Grue gave a nod to that before speaking. “Heartbreaker.”



That caught me off guard for a moment, but it was a fair enough ask all things considered. I had proven I could take on strong enemies in a head to head fight, but someone like Heartbreaker was a threat that existed outside of just mere strength. He had made a career of corrupting others to do his dirty work and probably slid under the classification for S-rank by virtue of keeping to himself.



Of course given that my brain had been replaced by a highly advanced substitute when Stetson had saved my life, taking over my mind would be nigh-impossible. Of course that only fell under the umbrella of direct mind control, I wasn’t sure what would happen if I dealt with a Master who could control my body, but that was what my Doll’s were for. So long as my brain was active I could order them to fight.



However there was an issue that had nothing to do with fighting Heartbreaker. “I’m fine with that, but from what I know he has managed to stay ahead of almost every hero who's gone looking for him.” Considering he worked in the same area as the Guild and had managed to avoid being taken down even when his entire cult had kidnapped an actress, I didn't like my odds of tracking him down.



Of course there were probably Doll’s that would make the job easier, but keeping them active was another issue entirely. Even just having a single Doll not using its ability could get exhausting after enough time had passed, any ability that would let me track a single person in an area I had never visited and was most likely hidden enough to avoid authorities would leave me at a disadvantage.



One that any number of villains might take advantage of.



“That’s where I come in,” Tattletale stepped forward with a grin on her face, giving a playful bow. “Between your money and my…resources, finding Heartbreaker wouldn’t be an issue. Though I would expect payment as a consultant, let's say double the price.”



I turned toward Grue for a moment, considering he was the leader and I didn’t want to step on any toes. “Is that okay with you?”



Grue gave a simple shrug. “I couldn’t stop her if I wanted to.”



Hellhound stepped forward as well, looking back to the crew. “Even if the rest don’t join, I’m in.”



That seemed to catch the rest of her crew by surprise, and honestly I couldn’t say that I wasn’t also a bit thrown off. All I really knew about the girl who was only ever seen with her giant dogs was that she didn’t talk much and was probably the most dangerous member of the crew.



“Can I ask why?” I forced any confusion out of my voice, but it was a close enough thing.



“Because you’re strong, and you are paying better money,” the girl paused for a moment before also stating in a quieter voice. “You took down Hookwolf, no more dog fights.”

While I couldn’t see Grue’s face, Tattletale and Regent seemed to understand her explanation well enough, and if they weren’t going to argue I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. But that did leave me with one overriding question, what the hell was I supposed to do now?



While I would happily take anyone who would follow my half assed plan of ‘gather together people to back me up’ I had hoped for a package deal on this. Somehow the idea of bringing a group together seemed less terrifying than trying to manage a single person. I might be able to take advantage of her sudden declaration and force them all to agree early, I would still take down Heartbreaker but I could do so while setting things up for them here and now.



But the idea irked me slightly, I had already made a promise and going back on it just because some new information came to light would set a bad precedent for how I might handle situations like this in the future.



“Okay Hellhound-”



“Bitch.” the girl practically growled.



“Excuse me?” my voice might have risen a few octaves in surprise, I didn’t think just saying her cape name would cause that kind of reaction.



“Her name is Bitch, only the PRT calls her Hellhound. More PG.” Tattletale helpfully added.



“It's also a better descrip-” Regent began to joke only for Grue to punch him in the ribs, causing the regal villain to cut off halfway.



“Okay, Bitch,” I tried to stop myself from wincing when I said the name, having only used that word to describe the Trio it felt wrong to call someone I would be having work to help me in the future. But it would probably be just as wrong to force her to go by another name that she didn’t agree with. “Your first job is going to be watching out for the rest of your group, I’ll set you up with your first payment now and we’ll work on getting you a new place once I convince the rest.”



She gave a grunt but nodded her head to show that she understood. The others seemed to calm a bit at that, Grue even giving a small incline of his head to show some level of appreciation.



“Well since that's all sorted out,” Tattletale moved over to my side of the room and turned to the others. “I’ll be going with our future boss to iron out the whole ‘track down the worlds most powerful rapist’ thing, sound good on your end?” she turned to me.



“That should be fine,” I could bring her to the Dollhouse and provide her with some computer equipment and the like, I didn’t know where the Dollhouse was actually located but Stetson had set up a computer for me so that between lessons I could focus on any schoolwork or research I wanted to do on my own time.



Grue let out a breath and turned to Tattletale. “If you don’t show up in three days we’ll…do something I guess,” he turned to me before speaking next. “Try not to break her, the dumbass is still part of our team.”



“Right,” I stepped over to Tattletale and put a hand on her shoulder. “Dollhouse, reverse summon plus one.”



And like that the two of us were gone, instead appearing in the wide open foyer of the Dollhouse.



Classification of subject?



“Guest, access to facilities and limited summoning to Brockton Bay.”



“Understood, welcome new guests, if you require any services just speak aloud and a Mass Production Doll will be along to help you.”



“So you have a house that teleports you, and it also talks,” she sounded a bit put off, a feeling I could understand given that this was her first time within the Dollhouse. I had pretty much the same reaction the first time, or rather the second. The first time I was technically hanging on the edge of braindeath. “Well trading up is always nice I guess.”



The sound of small feet hitting the floor rang out as one of the doors leading to the foyer opened, revealing Riley in a set of pajamas with a smile on her face. “Hey Taylor I got the movies, thank you so…” she paused and noticed that I had a guest, surprise quickly flying over her face.



“Oh shit,” Tattletale muttered to herself. “Oh fuck.”



Right, I had forgotten for a moment that we had one of the Slaughterhouse 9 still living here and mentally recovering from her time with Jack Slash and his merry band of murderers.



“I promise there is a perfectly good explanation for this.”



And if I could think of it fast enough, I might not burn the first chance at making a group to help me with saving the world.

 

“Okay so, which of you is going to start explaining things?” Tattletale looked at us from the opposite side of the massive table, nursing a cup of coffee with an expression that was fighting its hardest to remain calm.



It had been a close thing but the sudden meeting hadn’t turned into an outright brawl before we could discuss things.. A gun had been pulled, Trauma Bear had roared, and I had managed to talk everyone into not killing each other long enough to get us to the stupidly large eating area and have the Mass Production Dolls bring in some coffee and light snacks for Tattletale. While I desperately wanted to down a cup or two, I had to go to school tomorrow. Riley for her part got hot chocolate, which might have made me more envious than the coffee from how good it smelled.



“I guess I should,” I was technically the one in charge at the moment and it had been my decision to bring her here. “I just need to figure out where to start.”



Tattletale pointedly looked at Riley. “How about the part where you have a member of the Slaughterhouse 9 being followed around by a giant teddy bear?”



“Yeah, that's fair.” I looked at Riley and she gave a small nod to me.



Riley took a deep breath before speaking. “It was a few months ago, Jack had taken us to a small town so we could restock on supplies and-” A shudder ran through Riley’s body. “Let out some steam.” Given that this was the Slaughterhouse 9 we were talking about, the nature of that was better left unexplained, and I could tell from Tattletale’s face that she agreed.



“We were getting ready to go when an old man appeared. He asked if we had killed everyone.” Riley’s eyes narrowed for a moment as if she was reliving the scene. “He summoned a wooden doll–it looked like a kid dressed up as a devil and holding a baseball bat.” something between a laugh and a whimper came out of her. “Jack thought it was funny. Then the doll sent Crawler into the air and dented Mannequin, and he didn’t think it was funny anymore.” The thought of Jack made Riley clench her fist tightly around the cup of hot chocolate she had in her hands.

The Dollhouse helpfully chimed in as Riley took a moment to compose herself.



“Doll classified as a Lil Batter.”



“Whenever its bat hit an object, it became a "homerun ball," sending the object flying by applying whatever force is necessary in relation to the object's weight. Speed and strength varied, but the object would always end up flying far away.”



Now that was an ability worth filing away until later; after all, my fight with Lung might have gone a bit differently if I had just been able to send him flying into the water or somewhere that the Bludgeoning Angel might have been more able to maneuver in.



Riley finally seemed to calm herself and continued. “The Siberian managed to break it–punched through its chest and sent bits of wood and blood everywhere. But then Stetson said that he was sorry for what was about to happen. At first we thought he was just playing tough. But the Doll disappeared and-” Her cup shook in her hands, a tremble that reverberated through her entire body. “A different one appeared, he was playing an instrument and everything started to hurt. I heard Crawler screaming louder than anyone else, and…” Riley’s voice wavered. “It was like a nightmare, every bad thing I had ever done was suddenly so real. All of the things Jack called ‘games’ were nothing but slaughter and…my hands…” She put her hands on the table to steady herself. “I hurt so many people and I could hear them. ‘Why did you hurt me,’ ‘why did you make me into a monster,’ why why why why did I kill them.”

“Concertmaster- Classification: Mass Evil Eradication Doll.”



“Information redacted. ‘This song I play stands in testament to all sin, in hopes of a world where this song is free of all stains’.”



That caught my attention, not so much because information had been redacted but because of the description at the end. It was the first Doll I had encountered with anything more than a generic explanation of its abilities. But I didn’t have time to dwell on that; instead, I put a hand on Riley’s shoulder to try and comfort the girl. “You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.”



The smaller girl shook her head. “No, I need to.” She swallowed her tears and refocused on a very uncomfortable-looking Tattletale. “I thought I was going to die; hearing those voices hurt so much that I wanted to. But the old man told me it wasn’t my fault, that I might have made a mistake but other people had forced me into it,” She spoke those words like they were a lifeline in the middle of the ocean. “When I woke up the others were dead, except for Jack. He just kept screaming–kept saying the walls were closing in on him, that he wanted to be let out of the bunker.”



I couldn’t help but shiver at that. Whatever the song’s effect, it must have been terrible to face if it left even a hardened killer like Jack Slash begging. Once again it seemed like Tattletale was in agreement, looking visibly ill at the idea of the serial killer cape screaming for mercy.



“After that he brought me back and told me I could stay here until I got better.” As she spoke, Trauma Bear appeared behind her, putting a comforting paw on her head. “I’m still working on things, but I don’t want to be Bonesaw anymore. I want to just be Riley, and I want to help people. I know it’s selfish, and I’ve hurt a lot of people, but I don’t want to die before trying to make up for it.”



I stood up and put a hand on her shoulder, looking to Trauma Bear. “I think it’s been a long night, can you take her back to her room?” The massive teddy bear gave a nod and lifted the small girl in his arms, holding her against his fluff-filled stomach as the girl curled in. “Goodnight, Riley.” I gave a pointed look to Tattletale, who muttered her own goodbye.



“Fuck.” Tattletale reached out to a napkin and turned away from me, dabbing her eyes a bit before turning back. “Just…fuck.”



“Yeah,” This was my second time hearing her tell that story; the first time she’d needed Stetson there to help her through most of it. “That about sums it up.”



We sat there in silence for a moment before she let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair. “Now I feel like an asshole for pointing a gun at her.”



I couldn’t help it–a small laugh managed to escape me, which earned a grin from her. “I’m pretty sure she’ll forgive you for that. Just bring chocolate next time and you’ll be her new best friend.”



“Best friends with a former Slaughterhouse member, how is this my evening?” Tattletale let out a short breath and took a long sip of her coffee. “So what about you?”



I considered her for a moment, before slowly bringing my hands to either side of my mask and pressing my thumbs on the release mechanisms. The weight of the device disappeared as it fell into my hands, and with another movement my hood was pulled back. “I kind of fell into it.”



Tattletale looked panicked for a moment. “Unmasking is usually a big no-no unless you plan on killing the person.”



“Are you going to tell anyone?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.



“Am I going to risk my life going around spreading your identity when you apparently have the firepower to take out an S-class threat just laying around?” Tattletale asked rhetorically. “No, seems like a really bad plan there, boss.” With a sigh she reached up and pulled off her own mask. “Lisa Wilbourn. At least, that’s what it says on all of the very real IDs I have in my wallet.”



“Taylor Hebert, actual real name.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a breath of air to calm myself. I hadn’t intended to reveal my secret identity on the first day; there had been a whole big plan of figuring out if she was trustworthy and then building up to something like this. But adapt or die was the rule of the game. “So I guess I should explain.” I waved my hand in a roundabout motion.



“Yeah. Riley I get, but from what she said you're not the one actually running the show.” Lisa leaned forward with some interest. “So how does a high school girl end up in what is either the biggest Tinkertech project since the Birdcage or a literal fucking magic house?”

I gave a helpless shrug. “Would you believe it was an accident?”



“Bullshit,” Lisa looked at me for a moment, scanning my expression. “Oh, bullshit.” She laughed a bit and put her head into her hands. “You just…what? Cracked open a candy bar? Bought a winning lotto ticket?”



“Almost died,” I said in a tone that was all fake cheer.



“Okay, yeah. That makes more sense.” She blinked and threw her hands out. “Explain?”



I took a deep breath and thought back to when this had all started, the day when what had already been heavy-duty bullying had transformed into something that could have ended my life. “I was pushed into a locker at school.” The smell of decay was something I could summon up at a thought, the rancid odor of blood and waste clinging to everything. “Filled with…you don’t want to know.”



She took one look at my face and apparently decided she did not, in fact, want to know.



“I don’t know how long I was in there. I remember thinking that I was going to die surrounded by filth and that I would give anything to get out of there.” It was hard not to gag from the memory alone, but I pushed through. “Then it felt like something was digging into my brain, filling it up with…with I don’t know what. Something.”



“A Trigger event,” Lisa muttered, and after my nod she continued. “But I’m guessing something else happened.”



I gave a nod. “From there things get hazy. Something happened, and then the images just–disappeared. It felt like my head was going to explode.” From what Riley told me it looked like someone had set off a firecracker in my brain. “The last thing I remember was an old man looking down at me while I was in a bed and asking if I wanted to live no matter the cost.” And despite how shit my life was, despite having only a hazy understanding of what had been happening, I had managed to croak out a yes.



“So your Trigger gets interrupted and what, he cloned you?” Lisa shook her head. “No, you weren’t cloned, but if your brain was that messed up then how are you, you know;” She waved in my general direction.



I brought my knuckles up and rapped them against my skull. “The one who’s actually in control of this place, Stetson Aegis, made me a new brain.”



“Wait, like–made?” She seemed even more confused by this point. “Pretty sure that even with all of the bullshit parahumans can pull off, that isn’t how biology works.”



I had no real answer to that. “And yet I’m still here.”



“Okay, so, you get a new brain. And then, what, he says ‘sorry for blowing up your old brain, here are the keys to all of my weird dolls that can make some of the top tier gang bosses in your city look like rank amateurs’?” Lisa’s tone wasn’t quite disbelieving, but I could tell she was struggling slightly.



“Sort of?” It wasn't quite an inaccurate description of the situation. “When I woke up, Stetson explained what had happened and what he had done. He told me that my brain was connected to this place.” I knocked on the wood of the table slightly. “He said that if I wanted I could just leave, put this all behind me. Or…he could train me to be a hero.” There had been no real choice between the two. The power he’d offered would ensure that I would never be that girl in the locker again.



“And from there you started going around fighting the biggest scumbags in the city, and Uber and Leet.” Lisa let out a long breath and leaned forward in her chair, putting a hand on her head as if fighting off a headache. “So where is the head honcho anyway?” She peeked around as if expecting him to jump out from some corner of the room and surprise her.



“I have no idea,” I answered honestly. “Before he came to Brockton he was apparently touring around the U.S. and gathering information.” I gave a simple shrug. “My best guess is that he’s in another country figuring out his next move.”



“Next move toward…” Lisa prompted.



“Saving the world,” I answered.



The expression on her face was one that I imagined mirrored my own when he had first explained his end goal. Plenty of capes talked about protecting people or trying to spread hope, but ever since the first Endbringer attack, and honestly maybe even before that, the world had seemingly been sprinting toward disaster.



If it wasn’t the giant monsters that caused as much chaos as possible, then it was the villains that even the best heroes couldn’t stop. Anyone who talked about wanting to save the world was seen as delusional; the best that you could hope for was to carve out a small portion of the world and hope that no one noticed you were there.



“And you actually think that's possible?” Lisa’s voice was heavy with doubt, but under it was something else–a small bit of hope. Or maybe that was just me projecting.



I offered a genuine smile. “Yeah. I think so.”



Lisa gave a small pause and looked down at her drink. “Fine, fuck it. I’m in.” She drew in a slow breath before looking at me. “After Heartbreaker, there’s one other villain we need to focus on if you really want to help this shithole.”



“And who would that be?” I asked, slightly wary of the look she was giving me.



“What do you know about a villain named Coil?”

 

After listening to Lisa explain her situation and the deep roots that Coil had managed to sink into the city I hadn’t gotten much in the way of sleep. When all was said and done I had the Dollhouse drop me off into my room after ensuring that Lisa would have any equipment she needed.



I had tiptoed through the house to ensure that my dad had made it home only to find him fully clothed and collapsed on his bed and snoring loud enough to wake the dead. With deliberate slowness I closed the door to his room and returned to my own, planting myself at my desk and forcing myself to focus on homework.



One of the many advantages of having my brain replaced by a bit of the Dollhouse was that my body ran at maximum efficiency, so while I still needed sleep the small nap I had gotten in after the Dock’s had been enough to carry me over until the next day. By the time I would normally have just been waking up the assignments I had tossed aside for my earlier rest were completed and it was time to pretend I had any interest in a school that was little more than a time sink at this point.



Maybe I could ask Lisa to do something hacking related to make it so I didn’t have to bother with it anymore. Then again that seemed like a flagrant abuse of having a former villain on my payroll.



I stepped into the shower to quickly rinse off and found my dad pouring a bowl of cereal and setting it aside for me before collapsing into his own seat and looking at his own through a haze of sleepiness.



“Such luxury,” I joked before sitting down and starting in on the cereal before it got soggy. “You sure we aren’t at a five star hotel?”



My dad could only provide a grunt to that, forcing himself back into the moment in order to eat. “You know back in my day kids would be lucky to not get a bowl of rocks and be told to make it work.”



I nearly gagged on my food for a moment, having to thump my chest to try and force everything down. Dad had just made a joke, maybe not one of the funniest but it was something I hadn’t really expected out of him.



My eyes ran over him once more with a bit more detail, and I found a few things that actually shocked me. While he was very much exhausted there wasn’t the usual element of defeat that had come to characterize him since my mom’s passing. Instead there was a spark of something in his eyes that made him seem more alive then I had seen him in years. It wasn’t anything as dramatic as sitting across from a totally different person, but there was enough there that made him look…alive.



“Was everything okay at the Dock’s?” I tried to bait some conversation from him, hoping to get some hint about what had him in such a good mood.



“Once we got the crowds gone and the PRT off of the grounds it worked out pretty well, few people got a bit scuffed up but overall it wasn’t too bad. Best part was afterward,” a genuine smile came across his face. “Some guy came in, one of the old money types that normally wouldn’t be caught dead around there and started asking for people to get a job done for him.”



It was lucky I had decided to put any further attempts at eating on pause, because it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. Leave it to Stetson to gain a fortune, invest it into my fathers business, and then not even so much as mention it before presumably heading off. “What kind of jobs?” I managed to ask, trying my best to stay casual.



Thankfully if my father caught on he didn’t say anything about it. “Big revitalization process on some of the beaches and docks surrounding them, apparently it's a privately funded deal but the paperwork is legitimate so we can move forward,” he let out a small laugh. “There is enough there to keep us busy, but word is that a private investor putting money into the beach is catching some ears as City Hall.”



“You think that they might hear out your ferry idea this time?” I cautiously floated the idea to him, after all it had been his brainchild for years to get the ferry going again, but there had always been a reason why the city wouldn’t invest in it.



“With our people getting hired and some extra money flowing around, it's the strongest chance we’ve seen in years,” he took a breath and shook his head. “Even if it doesn’t go that far, opening up the beaches will be rewarding in its own right. And without the graveyard floating in jagged metal on the tide it's possible that people might start going back to them around the summer,” he glanced toward the clock and then turned to me. “You need a ride to school?”



“Uh, no I’ll be fine,” I slammed back the rest of my bowl and jumped up to my feet. “Think you’ll be home today?”



In response he made a small waving motion with his hand. “Maybe? Here just in case,” he pulled out his wallet and slapped forty dollars into my hands. “Don’t use it on drugs.” my dad winked and turned back to clean up the mess.



“Right!” I closed the door behind me and practically collapsed against it, resting the back of my head on the wood. It felt like years since I had seen my dad with that much life in him, and although it was a good chance to see it was so utterly alien to me to see something like it.



“Dollhouse, reverse summon.” I brought myself into the Dollhouse and quickly had it chart me a location to Lisa, only to find her collapsed in front of a computer setup in a room that had been prepared for her. I had to give her points for diligence, but I would have to make sure she was set up to ensure she was taken care of.



I exited the room and sent a quick command to have a Doll lay her in the room's bed, focusing on the day ahead. Ever since I had gained access to the Dollhouse my preparations for school had changed slightly. Rather than show up at the absolute last minute to hide from the Trio and the cadre of other assholes who made my life hell, the Dollhouse provided me with a solution in the form of an ‘Accessory’.



“Accessory activate, Inconspicuous Ape.”



Confirmed.



The small toy appeared in my hands, looking no different than one of the Cymbal-Monkey toys that could be found in stores for parents who had no idea what they were in for to give their kids as a noise making distraction. However as a product of the Dollhouse it had its own unique abilities, mainly in that it reversed the normal effect the toy would have on those around it.



The louder it banged together its cymbals the easier it was to lose track of me, from its first setting making it difficult to quite remember who I was to its last of utterly erasing my presence from a given area. The drawback being of course that it had a slow but constant drain the harder someone attempted to focus on finding me. But in a sea of other faces so long as it blanked out my identity with the sound of its cymbals I could walk through school completely unmolested by the usual bullies.



More often than not I was a target of opportunity, not one that people sought out. With a quick command I was dropped off in front of Winslow. “Blood Brain Connection.” I said softly.



Confirmed.



As soon as my blood ‘string’ connected to the small toy it began to bang together its cymbals and rattle slightly in my hand, and suddenly all eyes were everywhere except for me. I was essentially a part of the scenery to everyone else. They would step around me if they were paying attention, the same way that one might have moved around a pillar in their way. Once or twice I banged shoulders with someone and got the usual quick ‘sorry about that’ before the person was back to what they were doing.



It was essentially paradise for me. Thankfully I was able to make a straight line from the entrance into the classroom as the bell started to ring, sitting at my desk as others got ready for the first part of the day. It seemed that outside of the typical scratched in curse words and images no one had messed with my seat, a small blessing.



School passed pretty much the same, if my name was called I would raise my hand. If a question was asked I would just stay silent. So long as I didn’t draw undue attention to myself any minor spikes of interest were quickly erased by the effects of the accessory. Each class seemed to blur together for me without the endless threat of torture hanging over my head. In the short time I had been using the accessory at school my grades had already started to stabilize, and if the look on the Trio’s face was any indication they might have been slipping just a bit without being able to steal my work.



Before long the bell rang out and let everyone out for lunch, which of course I decided to take in the Dollhouse. One quick reverse summoning later and I found myself in the grand foyer before making my way to the grand dining room, seeing Lisa hungrily digging into a salad with one hand and furiously typing on a laptop with another. At the sound of my entrance she looked up and gave a nod. “Looking a bit pale there boss.” her voice was teasing but I could detect a tinge of worry to it as well.



“Yeah, being constantly drained of blood will do that to you,” I collapsed in a seat across from her and let out a small groan. “T.V. Butler, food please.”



At my command the Dollhouse summoned up the Doll into the room, a tall figure dressed in a black suit jacket and other formal wear along with a red bowtie. The most striking feature was of course the old box television where a human would normally have a head, projecting on it the face of a kindly old man. “Your usual Taylor?”



“Please,” I held out a hand and in a single smooth motion he put an ice cold glass of water into it before stalking away to another room to prepare.



“Wait, you have a robot butler?” Lisa looked down at her salad for a moment. “The weird robot voice told me to come here and then this was just sitting here. I thought this place was just like, teleporting food in or something,” she took a long drink from her own glass. “Am I supposed to tip the robot butler?”



I couldn’t help but laugh despite how exhausted I was. “The Dollhouse has a huge greenhouse built into it…somewhere,” despite more than three months worth of experience within his place I still didn’t have a good grasp of how big it was. “No animals or anything, so if you want meat you’ll have to go out and buy it.”



“Honestly this salad might be the best thing I’ve ever had in my life, so I’m not complaining,” she pushed aside her bowl for a moment and refocused on me. “But enough about your bullshit not-Tinkertech fortress, can we rollback to the ‘drained of blood’ part?”



“Oh right, whenever I use a Doll outside of this place I have to connect to it through a small strand of blood,” I brought a hand to my hair and parted it slightly, willing a panel to open to reveal one of the various place from which I could project my strings. “Just having a Doll activate isn’t much of a strain, but if I use a special ability or push what it's doing too much at one time it can get really draining.”



“Huh, that explains the Lung fight, when Bitch dropped her hounds on Lung you looked ready to pass out,” Lisa considered me for a moment. “But how were you able to jump back in after we bought you time?”



I reached into my bag and pulled out a small mint container, pulling out what looked to be a small red mint from within and showing her. “I don’t really get how it works, but my teacher gave them to me and said that if I took one it would uh…restock me?” I didn’t really know how to explain the feeling of sluggishness being replaced by strength as my body literally refilled with blood in moments after taking it. “It takes about thirty seconds to kick in, but once it does I’m fine. Beyond that,” I tapped my head. “I cheat slightly.”



My new brain upgraded a ton of aspects in regards to more body, helping to regulate processes that were more bug then feature with most people. And beyond that Riley had performed some (very superved) surgery to boost the effectiveness of my organs and bones over a long weekend where I had convinced my father I was staying over at a friends for the weekend.



I had felt bad at first asking her to do something like that, but she had explained that without being able to do something with her power it might slowly drive her insane from inaction. So far she had managed to get by by having Trauma Bear absorb any negative feelings, but that was at best a temporary measure and not a long term solution.



Eventually Riley would need to leave this place and find a life for herself, though Stetson had told her that she could stay as long as she wanted. There might be plenty she could do out in the world with a mindset cleared of any of Jack Slash’s poison, but it was still a long road before she would be comfortable trusting herself without a watchful eye over her shoulder.



My thoughts were broken as a plate of freshly grilled vegetables and a cold glass of tea was placed before me, T.V. Butler gave a small bow before backing away. “Thank you.” I said, digging into the food and enjoying the flavor of the meal. Between bites I tossed the blood pill I had pulled to show Lisa into my mouth, nearly moaning as I felt my strength flooding back.



“Man, your school must be hell if you are willing to drain yourself that badly just to be a fly on the wall.” Lisa had dropped any hint of playfulness, instead just honest concern in her voice.



The laugh that escaped me had no humor to it, more a resigned sense of exhaustion. “My former best friend and her new best friend have spent the better part of a year making my life hell. And then they tried to kill me by stuffing me into a locker filled with...yeah.”



For a moment even Lisa seemed unable to respond. “Within the first week of me being in this city a freak dressed in a snake onesie put a gun to my head and said ‘work for me or die’,” she put on a rather weak smile. “So you know, same.”



For a moment neither of us said anything, but a small laugh escaped me. The laugh seemed to get one out of Lisa, and soon the two of us were laughing at our lots in life until we both seemed out of breath.



“Man fuck our lives.” Lisa raised her glass for a toast.



“Fuck our lives.” I agreed, clacking my glass against her own.



It took a moment for the two of us to catch our breath, a few giggles starting up a laugh or two as we tried to refocus on eating. “So what do you do for fun outside of all this?” she waved around.



“I guess, I read?'' It had been quite awhile since I had made smalltalk with anyone other than Riley and Stetson, and the rust was quite obvious.



Lisa rolled her eyes slightly. “Romance novels, sci-fi, steamy Legend and Eidolon slash fics? Gotta give me something to work with here.”



I nearly choked on my next bite at her suggestions, banging a fist against my chest to try and get it down and force air into my lungs. “What the hell?” I managed to get out.



“Sorry, friends ask these kinds of things don’t they?” Lisa seemed to be honestly asking.



“Friends?” the word escaped under my breath, the last real friend I had was Emma, and that hadn’t exactly turned out well for me. The closest I had probably gotten to a friend was Riley, and even then I didn’t know if the word fit comfortably.



“Yeah, listen I’ll be honest with you,” she pushed aside her plate and focused on me. “My team consists of Regent, who is an asshole. Grue, who is all business. And Bitch, who is a whole can of worms I don’t feel like getting into right now. This is about as close to a normal social interactions as I’ve had in…fuck years probably,” a cat like smile crossed her face. “And you promised to beat the hell out of my asshole of a boss, that makes us friends in my book.”



I had no real way to respond to that, but the idea of someone wanting to be my friend was…nice. Maybe a bit uncomfortable as well, but honestly I didn’t want to deny the idea. “Yeah, I don’t have much practice but I’d like that. If we could be friends I mean.”



That seemed to get a real smile out of Lisa, who simply gave a nod. Sadly the moment was broken by a small ring going through the Dollhouse’s intercom, meaning that it was time to get back to school. “Are you going to be okay here?” I asked Lisa, grabbing my bag and getting ready to return .



She waved away my worries with her freehand. “I’ll be fine, I already contacted the others so they know I’m fine. Besides I think there might be a good lead on Heartbreaker that I need to follow up on before it goes cold.”



I could only give a nod to that as I prepared myself, looking back to my…friend…and giving a smile. “Happy hunting.”



Within a moment I was back on the front steps of Winslow with the Inconspicuous Ape in my hand and my connection running through it. Unfortunately the most difficult part of the day had arrived, having to exchange books at my locker for my second block of classes. The drain could get bad quickly if any of the Trio were sniffing around for their favored victim, and having to wait for a clear path had made me late once or twice to classes.



Today seemed like it was going to be one of those days, Emma and Sophia were both standing near my locker, though Madison was surprisingly absent. All I could do was lean near my locker and wait for them to lose interest.



“I get putting the freak into her place, but maybe she has just gotten too good at hiding,” Emma checked her nails and glanced at Sophia as she leaned back against her locker. “It feels like we haven’t seen her in a month.”



Sophia meanwhile glanced down the hallway, expecting to see me amongst the sea of bodies moving back and forth, never suspecting for a moment that I was within arms reach. “Was she in the classes you shared?”



Emma blinked for a moment, her head set back against the locker as she thought. “I mean, yes?” a flash of confusion crossed against her face. “I mean, I think so?”



“What do you mean you think so?” Sophia seemed to pick up on Emma’s confusion quickly, a look of concern crossing her face.



“During class the teacher didn’t say she was absent, but I…” she trailed off for a moment, her mind trying to fill in the blanks that my erased presence had left in her memory. After a moment Emma shook her head and refocused on Sophia. “Anyway it's not like I pay attention to every sad freak, she is way forgettable you know?”



Before I might have been hurt by her words, but it hardly seems worth it to care what my former friend had to say. More interesting was the caged look that Sophia seemed to have on her face. “You don’t think it's weird that you don’t remember if she was around?”



“No?” Emma asked, honest confusion in her voice.



I felt goosebumps raise on my arms as I realized what was happening, somehow Sophia was picking up on my lack of presence. For most people turning the other way and ignoring one or two oddities was simply how they coped, which was how Inconspicuous Ape could manage to erase my presence with a minimal activation cost. Things could get troublesome quickly if Sophia put the Trio on watch duty for me, drawing away more energy than I was willing to spend in a place as potentially dangerous as Winslow.



“Okay, connection break,” I started walking, deciding to ignore the books for my next period and slightly bumping Sophia’s shoulder and making a production of stumbling a bit, allowing both of them to see me in the crowd. “Oh I’m so s-” while I wasn’t the best actor I could at least draw from experience with my discomfort around the two of them.



Emma for her part put on a vicious smile. “See what was I telling you, she is so pathetic it's impossible to notice her.” she turned to Sophia as if waiting for her to join in on the mockery.



But for her part Sophia seemed to be in a state of confusion, her eyes glancing everywhere as if trying to see where I could have possibly come from. Finally her eyes locked on mine and a glimmer of something dangerous passed over her.



I met her gaze for a moment, and suddenly I was back on the dark city streets facing down Lung and getting ready to go to war with the ABB’s leader. Those weren’t the eyes that a normal high schooler was supposed to have, even one as blackhearted as Sophia.



The bell rang and interrupted our sudden staring contest, and I quickly straightened myself out and disappeared into the crowd, activating the accessory in my hands and blanking my presence out as its cymbals began to bang together louder than ever.



Throughout the rest of the day I alternated keeping Inconspicuous Ape active and just using my normal avoidance method for the Trio, desperately waiting for the bell so I could get back to the Dollhouse and get advice from Lisa about what to do. I didn’t actually know if a former villain would have any idea about what to do with this sort of situation, but it wasn’t like I had any other options.



However from the moment I left my last class to the moment I stepped out of the school I could feel a set of eyes on me. Anytime I would glance over my shoulder there wouldn’t be anyone there, but the feeling of being watched was too intense to just be ignored.



I was too drained from my last classes to keep Inconspicuous Ape activated for a long period of time, especially under heavy scrutiny, and taking a blood pill might lead to them being taken by whoever was watching me. Which left me wandering the city, trying to take turns that might throw off whoever was after me. Yet no matter how far I went or what situation I set up I could still feel eyes burrowing into me.



Eventually I found myself downtown, a long walk but not one that particularly winded me after working so hard on my exercise routine. Even with larger crowds I still felt like I was being watched. However it seemed like luck might have been on my side, because I noticed a possible outcome from my situation on the sidewalk, Glory Girl in full uniform and offering a smile for a picture with some fans.



I quickly pulled out a notebook and pen, scribbling a message and walking over once the crowd around her gave way. “Hi, uh, Glory Girl. I was wondering if I could get an autograph.” I prayed that she paid attention to the paper before signing, and it paid off as she turned to glance at me.



‘I think someone is following me please help’



My handwriting wasn’t the neatest and I had to work fast while walking, but she seemed to pick it up easily enough. “Sure, always have time for a fan,” she offered a bright smile and took my pen, leaning forward. “Keep walking and turn down the street about two blocks, then go to the building with the blue door. And if this is a prank I’m not going to be happy, got it?”



I gave a nod and a quick smile of thanks as she made a quick autograph in my notebook. “Well lots of stuff to do, stay safe.” with that she took off into the sky and left me on the streets.



With nothing else to do I followed her instructions, still feeling the eyes on me the entire time until I found myself in front of a clothing store with a bright blue door. Before I could react I felt myself being pulled up by my arms, letting out a not quite so heroic yelp as I was placed atop the building by a concerned looking Glory Girl.



“Well you were definitely being followed,” Glory Girl looked toward the opposite side of the building and squared up as if ready for a fight. “Now let's find out why.”



A mist of darkness seemed to fly up from the side of the building, landing in front of us before turning into a young woman holding a crossbow in one hand and dressed in black. I vaguely recognized her from some publicity photos taken of the Ward’s, but it was Glory Girl herself who managed to speak first. “So I get that your name is Shadow Stalker, but following high school girls around is a bit much don’t you think?” Despite the playful attitude of her tone Glory Girl’s stance was set for a brawl.



That threw me a bit for a loop, why would a Ward be following me around this closely?



“This has nothing to do with you Dallon, why don’t you fly off?” Shadow Stalker’s voice was muffled by her mask, but the scorn in her voice was clear.



“Why don’t you?” Glory Girl deliberately put herself between Shadow Stalker and myself, widening her stance slightly and staring her down. “If I remember right didn’t Gallant say you were supposed to be off missions for a week because you pulled a…well you?” her tone was accusatory. “Let me guess, this girl probably said that Vista was her favorite and you were going to threaten her, that's about your normal level of security isn’t it?”



Shadow Stalker’s hand tightened on her crossbow as if deciding whether to raise it or not.



“Unless you can give me a reason that you were following her then maybe you should be the one leaving and we can pretend I wasn’t wasting time up here,” Glory Girl tightened her hands into fists. “But if you think I’m going to let you just harass someone for no reason, you must not know me very well.”



Shadow Stalker seemed to weigh her options, glancing behind Glory Girl at me before scoffing under her breath. “This isn’t worth my time.” with that said she stepped off of the roof and disappeared.



Glory Girl let out a breath before turning to face me. “Man you must have pissed her off pretty bad, which means you are probably a good person given her bitchy attitude.”



“I honestly have no idea what I did to make her angry at me.” I answered honestly, a bit put out by the situation.



“Well honestly you probably wouldn’t know how she is,” Glory Girl pulled out her phone and sent a text message. “Honestly I wouldn’t feel right just leaving you out here given how pissed she probably is, but I really have to meet with my family.”



“I’ll probably be fine.” if I could just get a moment of privacy I could enter into the Dollhouse without worry.



“Yeah no, Shadow Stalker is a vindictive bitch but if she has you in her crosshairs it's usually a bad thing,” she seemed deep in thought for a moment before nodding. “How about I take you with me to meet the rest of my family, get a few autographs and we can get you a taxi home or something. I’d be a pretty ass hero if I just let you go.”



I tried to form a response, but honestly I had no real idea how to turn her down. It had been a long time since anyone had gone out of their way just to be nice to me, to offer some form of help because they saw I was in a bad situation. “I don’t know what to say.” I responded.



“Just say you don’t have a weak stomach,” she grinned and picked me up. “Okay hold on, this is going to be really cool.”



To be fair to her, flying with one of the first genuinely nice people I’ve come across was pretty cool.

 

So it turns out I have a particularly strong stomach and that flying, even under someone else's power, was pretty great. Glory Girl for her part seemed to enjoy the chance to show off, hitting higher speeds and doing a few tricks. Thankfully we stayed just high enough that no one seemed to notice either of us.

Eventually she began to descend, dropping us down in front of a large group of people who were either standing or sitting in the outdoor area of a local cafe. I could recognize most of the members of New Wave from their costumes, but more surprising were the PRT heroes Assault and Battery. The moment we touched down all eyes were on us, making me feel just a touch conscious of the situation I was in.

“Victoria I told you this was going to be a team meeting, I had hoped you would realize that meant not to bring along a friend.” Brandish stepped forward and examined me for a moment.

“Mom she isn’t a friend,” Glory Girl paused for a moment before turning to me as if realizing how that might have come across. “Not that you aren’t nice I meant, well you know?” she looked honestly embarrassed, but I just waved it off.

“Don’t worry,” I stepped forward, practically feeling the questioning gaze of the assembled heroes on me. “I was being followed by someone and Glory Girl insisted on getting me somewhere a bit safer.”

Brandish seemed to calm a bit at that explanation, examining me for a moment as if trying to pull some sort of lie out of my words before giving a smile to her daughter. “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions,” she turned her focus back to me with a more serious expression. “Do you know who was following you? If it's a case of stalking or gangs I have a few friends in the police who might be able to help.”

“Or we could go give them a scare,” Assault grinned only for his partner to sigh. “What? We can call it ‘settling a possible criminal action’ and bill it to the company.”

Battery looked at him. “Why do I put up with you again?”

Assault just casually gave a shrug before turning to me. “But seriously, if someone is following you and is making you feel unsafe it's the least we can do to help out.”

Any response caught in the back of my throat, I had no real idea how to deal with a situation like this. Most of the offered ‘help’ from people in authority had been half hearted ‘you just need to keep your chin up’ speeches. The fact that a group of people who had never met me before was so willing to put forward help was a bit shocking.

“Well yeah I’d hope you could help out, seeing as your pet demon was the one stalking her,” Glory Girl looked at the two PRT heroes with a look of frustration.

The smile seemed to slip from Assault’s face for a moment, through Battery was the one who spoke up. “What are you talking about?”

“Shadow Stalker was following…” she paused and turned to me, as if just realizing she had never asked my name.

“Taylor, uh Taylor Hebert.” I gave a wave to the group, if only because I had no idea how to properly act in this situation.

“Right following Taylor for about an hour before she found me, probably lucky that she didn’t turn into an alley,” Glory Girl crossed her arms. “Those bolts of hers didn’t exactly look like she was planning on a conversation about where she shopped.”

“And you're sure it was Shadow Stalker that was following her?” Battery asked, her voice a bit harder as she glanced at me.

“Spooky shadow powers, creepy mask, total bi-”

“Victoria!” Brandish cut off her daughter.

Glory Girl turned her head away from her mom. “Well it's true. Anyway yeah, she told me to buzz off and I sent her running.”

Battery and Assault looked at each other for a moment, seemingly having an entire conversation in the span of seconds before turning back. “Sorry Brandish, I need to make a quick call to headquarters. Do you mind if we take five?”

Brandish for her part didn’t seem put off, simply giving a nod. “It's not like we’ve gotten to anything important yet, go ahead.”

“And while she makes a call let me buy you a coffee, looks like we ended up causing you a bit of trouble,” Assault offered a kind smile and pointed toward the cafe.

Glory Girl looked at me, her face obviously questioning if I felt comfortable stepping away. I could only give a half hearted grin and nod before walking over to Assault as she turned back to her family.

As we entered the cafe he placed my order for me and motioned for us to take a seat near the door. “So I guess this is probably the part where a responsible adult and hero would ask you not to spread this around the internet and slander a Ward’s good name.”

My heart sank slightly as I realized where this was going, the care that he had shown was most likely just a way to ensure I wouldn’t make things difficult for them. But before I could say that I had no intention of doing so he continued speaking.

“That being said, I'm not going to try and twist your arm or anything. You got followed by a Ward on an unauthorized patrol across most of the city if what Glory Girl said is true, so I can’t say you aren’t in your rights to call her whatever you want to whoever you want,” Assault brushed aside the issue rather easily. “If you do something stupid you’re supposed to face consequences, through I’m probably the last guy in the world who should be saying that kind of stuff.” he offered a grin and a slight chuckle.

Once again I was caught off guard, I didn’t get the impression he was trying to get on my good side, he seemed like the type to say what was on his mind and brush off anything else. “I wasn’t planning on saying anything,”

“Then you are a better person than me.” Assault said with an honest smile.

“I just don’t really get why she was following me,” that was the point my mind kept coming back to, throughout my entire history as Thread I hadn’t once run into Shadow Stalker, and even if I had the odds of her knowing who I was outside of being a hero were slim. While I hadn’t done the best job of disguising myself I was fairly confident that I hadn’t been found out yet.

“Yeah that's the million dollar question,” he leaned forward slightly. “No bragging to your friends that one of the Wards was better, or making one of the Edge Stalker jokes in public?”

“Nothing like that, the only person who I know that hates me enough to stalk me is…” I realized suddenly where I was going and shut my mouth. Assault’s relaxed attitude somehow made it easy to talk to him.

His smile slipped for a moment. “Listen I’m not the best at acting like it but I’m still a hero, do you think there is a reason anyone would be stalking you?”

“This girl from highschool, she uh, doesn’t really like me,” that was putting it mildly, given that she had almost killed me seemingly for shits and giggles a few months earlier. “I bumped into her while walking down the hallways today and I’ve been doing my best to avoid her, so I thought maybe she was going to do something after school.”
“Yes, that sounds like a reasonable reaction to someone bumping into you in a hallway,” his voice was thick with sarcasm. “Does miss anger management have a name?”

I thought about not giving the name, it wasn’t like it would change anything in the long run. But at the same time this had been the first time I had talked to an adult other than Stetson about my issues, and while I loved my teacher to death he was a tad more detached from normal life. That being said he had offered to send her to the moon if I wanted, which given what Nihlis had pulled off didn’t seem like an idle threat in retrospect.

“Her name is Sophia Hess, well her and two others but she is the worst of it.” It felt good to speak honestly about the situation for once.

“Ah, so between you and me what kind of bullying are we talking about? Stealing notebooks, bitchy rumors, that sort of thing?” Assault’s questions were casual, but there was a slight edge to his voice that wasn’t there before.

While it wasn’t his fault a spike of anger did rise out of me at my experiences being so casually dismissed. “Try attempted murder.”

“I’m sorry, what?” his voice took on a more serious tone. “Could you elaborate on that please?”

Maybe if it were a different day I would have taken back what I said and kept quiet. But I was light headed from being low on blood and a flight halfway across the city so instead I answered honestly. “A few months ago I got to school and my locker was filled with…” my face became a bit green at the memory. “I felt someone push me in and lock me inside, and I could hear her and the other two laughing,” the smell came back, the tight space, all of it. “I was in there for…I don’t know. I kept getting sick and it was hard to think…” Despite my headspace I was at least able to add the lie that Stetson and I had added. “A janitor found me a few hours later and let me out, told me to go home and he would clean it.”

It was so frustrating remembering that event, remembering how close I had come to dying, or even becoming ‘infected’ as Stetson had called it just because some girl who I hadn’t even known before high school decided I was her punching bag. Even now that I was strong enough to flatten the entire school if I wanted it still made me feel weak.

A harsh sound drew me from my thoughts, and I could see Assault pressing his fingers against the laminated wood of the table and causing it to let out a groan under the pressure. It took a moment for him to notice, curling his hand into a fist and sliding it under the table. “Hey uh, could you hang out here for a second, I have to go yell into a phone and I don’t want to get Battery and I banned from another coffee shop.” The smile on his face was anything but pleasant as he stood up. “Seriously though, you aren’t in trouble or anything and if you want to leave I won’t stop you. But if you hang around for like, twenty minutes it will be worth your time.” He tried again for an easygoing smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes and he walked out.

I was left a bit adrift for a moment at that, but then a thought occurred to me. One of the big things that Battery and Assault were noted for around the Bay was their help with various outreach programs, and Assault was always spoken of pretty well in relation to his work with them. It was weird to think that someone else could get so angry on my behalf when I had just met him, but maybe under the jokes and stuff he was just a nice person? It was weird to think about any adult in a position of power giving half a shit about me being bullied, but it was my best guess.

“Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Assault look that mad,” a young woman sat across from me, looking down at her own cup of coffee. Like with most members of New Wave I was able to recognize her pretty easily as Panacea, the hands down best Parahuman healer in the world. “So yeah.”

I didn’t really know how to respond to that, just sort of giving a small nod. Eventually one of the baristas brought over my drink which I was more than a bit grateful for, slurping down the coffee in hopes of it giving a bit of life back to my brain. However the drink was overly sweet and left a harsh aftertaste “So uh, why are you here?” I realized how rude that must have come off. “Sorry I mean, you know sitting across from me.”

For what it was worth she didn’t seem mad at my sudden question and gave a small sigh of annoyance. “Well we saw Assault storm out of the building, and with the rest of the shit you’ve been through Vicky thought you might need to talk to someone. And given that I ‘work with sick people’ all the time I would probably be better at talking and making sure you were okay.”

“That, what?” I was lucky my drink was still cooling, because the snort that escaped me would have been terrible otherwise.

“Right? I barely know how to make normal conversation. ‘It sucks that you were stalked by a creepy edgelord, want to talk to a complete stranger about it’?” Panacea lowered her head and let out a sigh of utter exhaustion. “That being said…”

“No, thanks for the offer but uh, I’m kind of tired of talking about it by this point,” I just felt emotionally drained by this point, honestly my confusion wasn’t even a factor anymore. “But, thanks. You could have said no and I really appreciate you coming in anyway.”

She seemed a bit taken aback by my thanks, looking down at her cup and for a moment I could have sworn I saw a smile. “No problem. Anyway what did you get, it smells amazing.”

“I think its coffee with a chocolate bar melted in,” the cafe had listed its items with names in a language I wasn’t familiar with and had the ingredients under it, and I had just gotten the first thing I saw without putting my thought. “It's way too strong.”

“Want to swap?” She offered her own cup, an iced drink that seemed more on the tea spectrum than coffee. “I stayed up most of last night helping at the hospital and if I don’t get more caffeine I might actually fall asleep.”

Without much thought I swapped drinks with her, enjoying the much more mild taste of whatever was in the cup as she practically gulped down the sugary coffee I had gotten. “I think you’re supposed to drink that a bit slower.”

She put down the now mostly empty cup and let out a sigh of relief. “Which one of us has a PHD?” Panacea seemed to realize what she said and blushed, putting up a hand. “Okay sorry that was way too bitchy of me.”
“It's fine, honestly I’m pretty sure you could insult everyone in this city to their face and you would still probably be morally in the green,” If I had a chance to save half as many people as the girl in front of me I would have done a good job.

“I’m not really all that impressive,” she said under her breath, looking into the drink. “Shit I was supposed to come in here and help you and now I’m just being whiny, sorry.”

“No really it's fine, I’m serious,” I waved away any concern. After all, despite my worries there had been no real danger to myself. I could have disappeared at any time and found some excuse, or if it had turned out to be someone dangerous flattened them. “Just talking to someone is great uh..Panacea?”

“Please just call me Amy, it's a special privilege that people who give me their coffee get,” she raised the cup and I smiled, tapping my own cup to it.

“Then call me Taylor, but you already knew that.”

“Yeah.”

The two of us fell into a comfortable silence, enjoying our drinks and the nice atmosphere of the cafe before Battery came into the building and walked over to us, giving a quick nod to Amy before turning to me, giving that smile that adults gave to kids to try and make it seem like everything was okay.

“I’m sure you have already heard this, but I’m sorry about what happened. I want to assure you that Shadow Stalker will be disciplined in regards to this event and you have my personal promise on that,” Battery’s voice was calm but serious, a bit like how I remember my dad's voice before…

Well before.


“That being said,” she pulled out a business card and put it in front of me. “This is my direct number, if you feel unsafe, like someone is following you, or you just want to talk, call me whenever. I might not answer right away but I will get back to you. It's the least that I can do after this.”

“Thanks,” my voice was a bit tight as I looked down at the card, unsure of how to feel about this. It all felt like too much, suddenly being surrounded by people who actually seemed to take something bad happening in my life seriously. “I told Assault but I’m not going to go and post about…whatever happened.”

The smile seemed less stressed as I said that and she gave a small nod. “You have our appreciation for that, we aren’t going to brush this under the rug. But at the same time…”

“I get it,” I really did, Shadow Stalker already had a bit of a reputation, and despite whatever happened today it seemed like a step too far to ruin someone's career for something I couldn’t really be bothered to feel worried about. The entire time I had felt her coming, and from what little I knew she had little chance of actually beating me before I could call a Doll to put her down. “Just, thanks.”

“You’re a good kid Taylor, I just have two questions and then you are free to get out of here. I can call a cab…actually no, I’ll give you a ride home after we’re done here. If you want.” Battery said.

I had to admit, under all the jaded bits that didn’t trust authority and the slight narcissism that came with being holder of the largest collection of tools in the world, riding along with a superhero did sound really cool. “Yeah, I would like that.”

“So the first question, how were you able to figure out that Shadow Stalker was following you,” there was genuine curiosity in her voice. “She ranks as one of the best and brightest when it comes to stealth training, and while I’m happy you were able to notice it's important to know for her future.”

I carefully schooled my features to not show what was on my mind, mainly that I wasn’t sure how to answer that question without giving away my own abilities. My brain provided me with a sort of sixth sense and mildly enhanced senses, nothing truly amazing but probably a bit better on average then most people. “I guess it was just a feeling, I might have seen a shadow or something or noticed someone watching me.” The lie wasn’t quite well received and I could see as much on Battery’s face, but she didn’t call me on it.

“Right, and secondly you said Taylor Hebert, you wouldn’t happen to be related in any way to Danny Hebert would you?” The second question didn’t have the same undertone as before, but more of a sense of apprehension behind it.

“Yeah that's my dad,” I could hear the breath she drew in, a nonzero amount of confusion plain on my face. “Why?”

“Lets just say I’m glad you are taking this well,” the answer was a bit half baked, but I wasn’t pressing any further. “Anyway when you are ready to go just come out and tell me, I’ll leave you to drink until then.” With that the hero walked out and left both myself and Amy alone again.

“What was that?” I asked.

Amy blinked at my question and smirked. “Oh right, we were meeting today to discuss how we could help with the Dockworkers reopening the beach. You know publicity and stuff and we wanted to send a request to allow us to lend a hand. I’m guessing that Battery was worried that if you decided to get sue happy at being stalked that it would blow up in the PRT’s face.”

“Huh,” I didn’t really know how my dad would react to what had happened today, that being said, the few times I could remember his calm nature giving way to anger did involve threats to my safety. I could see how things could have gone really badly if I had decided to be more angry then apathetic to this situation. “I guess so.”

Amy finished the coffee and grabbed a napkin, writing a phone number on it and looking down at it, not quite meeting my eyes as she spoke. “So listen, I uh. I’m not really great at this, but if you want to talk more. Well yeah.”

This was the second time today that someone had offered me some level of friendship after a conversation, and honestly I was still just as thrown off as the first. But I had honestly had fun talking to Amy, and I couldn’t find a real reason to refuse. “I just have my house phone, but yeah that would be nice.” I borrowed her pen and wrote my own number, taking the napkin.

For a brief moment our hands touched, and she seemed to freeze for a moment, blinking for a moment and looking at me with a bit of confusion. Before I could ask what was wrong she took my own number. “I uh, guess I’ll hear from you later?” her voice sounded a touch off, but I wrote it off as the coffee hitting her.

“Yeah, sounds good.” I got up myself and dropped the empty cup into the trash and went to see about getting a ride home.

 

The ride home from the cafe was rather quiet, though Battery did check on me once or twice as we rode. She seemed to pick up on the fact that I was utterly exhausted from a day that hadn’t pumped the brakes since I had left my room. At this point all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away, even if I would probably force myself to get something productive done.



Eventually I directed her to park about a block away from my house and get out. “My dad probably isn’t home, but I don’t want him freaking out about everything that happened today.”



Battery looked a bit unsure about what to say to that, but decided to shrug it off and offer me a smile. “If you're sure. It was nice meeting you Taylor, though I wish it had been under better circumstances. Try to keep that good head on your shoulders and not worry too much.” with her bit said she was off down the road again.



Somehow I managed the rest of the trip toward my house without having the sky fall on me and managed to make it all the way to the living room before collapsing on the couch, my school bag tossed to the side as I tried to worm my way into a more comfortable position before switching on the t.v.



While I wasn’t normally one to sit and flip through the channels it had been a long enough day that I wanted to detach from my own mind. Of course there was nothing remotely interesting on, so I decided to just switch over to one of the local channels playing an old horror movie and allowed myself to disappear into cheesy practical effects and loud screams of poorly acted terror. I had apparently dropped in somewhere in the third act, which was fine because it mostly just made up background noise as I went through my bag and figured out what homework could be put off for later and what I should actually focus on.



While I was halfway through a math assignment the movie ended and switched over to local news, but I had already gotten comfortable and getting the remote would require just enough movement that if I bothered to do so I would likely spend the next hour unable to focus because of it, so instead I decided to let the news play in peace.



After the usual chatter from the news anchors the top story played, actually catching my interest for a moment.



“Our top story tonight is on the sudden disappearance of the former pop-star turned criminal Canary.” The lead began to drone on in that oddly inoffensive way that new anchors always talked in.



My mind drifted back to where I had heard the name before, remembering that there had been a not insignificant amount of chaos caused by the court’s decision to send a first time offender to the Birdcage. I couldn’t say that I had any real investment beyond liking a few of her songs, but at the same time I had thought that the ruling was a tad harsh.



While caught in my own thoughts I had apparently missed the news anchor going into an explanation about Canary’s history, only catching my attention again when the reason for the story came up. “...yesterday night Canary’s cell was found empty with no signs of forced entry or exit. Authorities are still looking into her escape though as of this moment they have no leads…”



Before I could get fully invested into the rest of the report I heard the door open and saw my dad come in, muting the t.v. and giving him a wave from my position in the living room. “You’re home early.” with all of the excitement around the docks I hadn’t really expected to see him home at all.



My dad for his part gave a smile to me, carrying a bag in his hand as he went toward the kitchen. “There is a lot of work to do, but there is also a hell of a lot of paperwork that needs to go through peoples hands before we can get anything important done. Figured you could stand me being around for a bit,” there was a slight something in his voice I couldn’t quite place my finger on. “Could you come into the kitchen for a minute Taylor?”



I let out a small sigh to myself as I pushed myself away from the comfort of my spot and made my way into the kitchen, curious about what he would be calling me in for. That was until my eyes drifted to the dining room table and a cellphone sitting on it.



Surprise colored my features for a moment, and I could see from the smile on dad’s face that he had noticed it, motioning for me to sit next to him. “The work we are going to be doing to reopen the beach is going to be rough, odds are I’m probably going to have to stay late more often than not once things actually start moving,” he pushed the cellphone to me, through when he drew his hand away it might as well have burned him to touch it. “And…it's probably about time you had one of these anyway.”



Something caught in my throat as I looked down at the cellphone. It wasn’t a particularly new or fancy model, but it also wasn’t the kind of budget burner phone I had considered getting myself using the card Stetson had given me. Ever since the day my mother had gotten in the accident that had thrown both of our lives into chaos, dad had hated cell phones, and as a result any idea of ever asking for one had never been in my mind. “Dad…”



He put up his hand to stop me. “I’m not the biggest fan of cellphones, honestly I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have one. But I know that it's important for you to be able to call your friends without having to be at home or hope you can find a payphone. Beyond that I still want to be in contact with you even if I am stuck at the office until the dead of night. It's still a responsibility but I trust you.”



I lost the ability to form words for a moment, it had been a long time since dad had really given me anything like this, holidays were mostly just money and birthdays more of the same. And those were the times he remembered.



“I know that I haven’t been around as much as I should, maybe it took all of this to make me realize how far gone I’ve been. But you’re my daughter and I love you, so maybe remember to give the office phone a call sometime okay?” I could see the tears in his eyes as he looked away. Dad had never been the best with emotions, but I could see him making an actual effort.



Some venomous part of my brain wanted to say it was way too late for this kind of thing, that he should have been this alive for much longer.



But I had gotten really good at ignoring the ugly parts of my mind and instead wrapped my arms around him, tears stinging my own eyes as I held onto my dad and simply felt him against me.



Eventually we broke apart, neither of us being well versed enough in what to actually say, so he just insisted on making dinner and I went back to my room with my new phone, collapsing on the bed and just letting my emotions wash over me.



Maybe before I had met Stetson I would have just buried any emotion, but one of the things he had taught me was honesty to myself above all other things. To smile when you were happy, rage when you were mad, and most of all to allow myself to cry. And I just let it wash over me for a moment, how everything had changed so much in just two days and how it would keep changing. How I had made friends who seemed to actually care, met people who gave a shit, and for what felt like the first time in forever it had felt like I had my dad here with me rather than losing both parents.



I had forgotten that tears could be happy as well.



Eventually the smell of food brought me down and my dad and I ate together. The food was a bit overcooked but to me it might as well have been the best meal I had ever eaten. I wanted to spend more time together, but dad was exhausted and keeping him up just because of my own desire to spend time with him would have been selfish. So instead I decided to toy around with my phone, remembering to grab the two numbers I had gotten today and adding them in.



Battery’s number I would keep incase of an emergency in my other identity, I figured that Shadow Stalker wouldn’t be an issue, or if it was one of the adult heroes would come to deal with whatever her issue was. The other was Amy, who I decided to send a text to so she would know about my new number. Plus friends were supposed to send texts, at least what little I had seen made me assume that fact.



Taylor: Hey this is Taylor, from the coffee shop earlier. I got a phone so I thought I’d text you so you would have my new number.



I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was getting dark, logically I should have just laid back and forced myself to get a good night's worth of sleep. But the day's events had left me wound tight as a spring and full of energy waiting to be burned off.



After a quick check to make sure that my dad was sleeping I summoned myself to the Dollhouse for just long enough to change, directing myself back to the city proper in the downtown area. With the recent capture of Hookwolf, Kaiser being taken down by Stetson, and of course Oni Lee and Lung both being shipped off to the Birdcage the night was likely to be on the quiet side. There wasn’t a single gang left in the city that wasn’t licking its wounds, but at the same time I figured doing a quick look around wouldn’t hurt too much.



Best case scenario was that Downtown was gang free for a night and I got my cardio workout in, and if on the off chance I did run into anyone dumb enough to be causing trouble I wouldn’t exactly lose any sleep.



For the first twenty minutes of the night I simply moved from rooftop to rooftop, sticking to the dark and peaking down into alleys that looked like where one might get mugged. It wasn’t exactly efficient, but then again most of my training had seen Stetson finding our targets and facing them. Part of the reason I really needed the Undersiders was simply because I didn’t really have the first clue about where to actually find the bad guys to beat up. Squealer’s tank, the dumb battle with Uber and Leet, and of course Hookwolf had mostly been a case of me being in the right place at the right time.



Just when I was toying with the idea of just admitting I was out here to avoid having to sleep, the sounds of gunfire filled my ears and I burst into a sprint, taking a few jumps that probably would have left the track team green with envy before coming across the scene.



The streetlights provided minimal illumination, but I was able to make out maybe five to seven people wearing black combat gear and carrying automatic weapons, unloading shot after shot into a vehicle with a man wearing white desert style robes behind it. Laying on the street between the two parties were a number of people who looked either unconscious or dead, from my vantage point I couldn’t really tell which.



The identity of the robed figure didn’t take long to bring up, though I was slightly confused by his presence. Sere was one of the few non-protectorate capes that could be found a bit outside of Brockton and was brutal but efficient in his methods, pulling out moisture from his foes and leaving them heavily dehydrated and unable to fight back. That put him in the good guy category and the guys with the guns as the bad guys, leaving the small number of people knocked out in the road as a question mark that I would have to deal with quickly. While the gunmen seemed to be pretty accurate with their shots I wouldn’t put it past a stray bullet to kill one of the people on the ground.



“Dollhouse, Inventory Select, Select Karate Man, Blood Brain Connection.”



Confirmed.



The form of the Doll came alive next to me as the connection solidified. “Cowards who seek to use numbers and weapons to overpower a defender of justice, such an act will not go unpunished,” the Doll spoke in a soft but powerful tone. Its appearance was odd, its form being mostly humanoid but trading skin for an odd material that was a bit like the plastic of a CPR training dummy, its body wrapped in a black karategi with a number of belts wrapped around both its waist and arms. Its expression was frozen in a zen like state, the only moving part being the mouth which opened and closed in a close approximation of following human speech.



While Karate Man lacked the sheer strength that some of the other Doll’s I had a firm understanding of its abilities given that Stetson had used the Doll to train me in self defense. Right now what I needed was speed and technique enough to take them down, using a Doll like Sister Mercy or the Bludgeoning Angel would leave a chance for bullets to ricochet off of them and hit one of the unconscious forms on the street.



“Then let's teach them a lesson,” I directed Karkate Man to enter into the fray, watching as with a single smooth movement it leapt from the rooftop and landed behind the gunmen. Before they could so much as react the Doll lashed out with a smooth chop to the back of one of their necks, the armored figure folding like a deck of cards as Karate Man let out a bellowing war cry. The two gunmen next to the Doll turned toward him, but quickly found their weapons wrenched from their grasps and tossed to the side like common trash.



From my vantage point above I could make out Sere as he moved from the cover of the car and rushed forward like a white blur, closing the distance between himself and the leftmost gunmen and getting into close quarters while they were distracted. Even at this distance I could see moisture flowing out of the gunmen’s body and flowing around Sere’s body like an aura, small droplets reflecting against the streetlights.



The two gunmen now sans weapons had pulled knives, though even with the advantage of a close ranged weapon they simply lacked the skill to go against Karate Man, and for good reason.



Karate Man- Grandmaster Training Doll



This Doll possesses the absolute understanding of any and all martial arts that it has the ability to access as long as they pertain to the normal human form. It can instantly replicate and teach any technique it has learned with efficiency and skill beyond a normal teacher, allowing the user to gain significant skill in a short time.



In under three months of working with the Doll on the weekends I already felt comfortable in hand to hand combat, through I wouldn’t claim to be a master of any of them as Stetson had designed a training regimen around getting me the basics of self defense and then widely teaching me how to defend against a wide variety of attacks. I wouldn’t be putting myself on the frontlines unless absolutely necessary, but if it came down to it I was scared of some guy with a knife trying to rush me.



Turning my attention back to the battle Karate Man had already made quick work of the two that had charged him with knives drawn, moans of pain coming from their strewn out forms as he turned his focus to the last man, who raised up his gun now that there was no chance of hitting his team in close quarters. However he would not get the chance to pull the trigger, as Sere threw the body of the gunmen he had drained toward the last man, causing the two of them to collapse to the ground after connecting.



Sere moved over and quickly began the same process of drawing out any moisture within the gunmen, giving a small nod of appreciation toward Karate Man, who in turn gave a bow of his own.



Seeing that the obvious threats were eliminated and not detecting anything else to worry about I jumped down the building and landed on my feet, the boots of my outfit absorbing the impact thanks to whatever odd material Stetson had used in its design. I quickly dismissed Karate Man and approached Sere, holding up a hand to let him know that I wasn’t carrying a weapon. “Are you okay?” If needed I knew of a few Doll’s that could probably patch up a bullet hole so long as it wasn’t anywhere critical, and in the worst case scenario I could bring him to the Dollhouse itself and have Riley and the other medical Doll’s perform a miracle.



To the hero's credit despite being in a life or death situation not moments ago he showed no outward signs of exhaustion, rising up from the now unconscious gunmen and giving a nod of appreciation. “Indeed, you have my thanks for the quick rescue.”



I felt a small amount of pride at his thanks but was too modest to make a point on the subject. “It was the right thing to do, that being said,” I waved my hand in the general direction of the fallen bodies and gunmen. “What happened here?”



Sere let out a small laugh from behind his mask, the blue material that sat behind the eye holes shining for a moment in the light. “Ah, I happened to come across this group planning some vandalism,” he waved at the fallen bodies on the street, which now with closer inspection I was able to see had Empire 88 tattoos and some scattered knives and other such close ranged weapons. “I decided to correct their behavior, but before I could call in the police to pick them up I was assaulted by this lot.”



The situation rang out as odd, the Empire typically acted in the daytime, defacing shops held by non-white owners or who showed any defiance against them without fear of reprisal. Maybe the loss of two of their high ranking Parahumans had caused some fear to infect the ranks. Which I only saw as a net positive, thugs like them should be scared to show their faces around and should be even more worried about being stopped. “Any idea who they are?” I glanced toward the gunmen, who Sere was draining to ensure they wouldn’t suddenly gain a second wind after being tossed around.



“I have my theories, but it's technically a Protectorate investigation so I’m not at full liberty to share details,” Sere seemed to think for a moment before giving a small shrug. “That being said it would feel rude given that you saved my life, and given your own impressive skill I would feel better if another set of eyes were on things.”



“I’ll help however I can.” To what degree I would actually be able to follow up was another issue, Lisa was going to be busy dealing with locating Heartbreaker and my detective abilities began and ended with the occasional mystery novel.



“About a week ago the local police outside of the city happened to come across an operation that was delivering weapon parts into Brockton Bay. Last night a raid was conducted by myself and the local police which brought an end to the operation. By some form of luck the head of the operation slipped and knocked himself out on an oil spill before he could wipe the group's computer, which led me to continue my investigation on where the weapons were being delivered to.”



I glanced toward the fallen gunmen and put two and two together, whoever had been importing the weapons had sent a hit squad to kill off Sere. Given he was a solo operator and the amount of corruption that could be found in the Bay it was easy to think that without him keeping pressure on the case it could be swept under the rug.



That being said, trying to figure out who was running the operation wasn’t easy, given that the Bay had at least three known criminal organizations and now a fourth in the form of Coil. Empire 88 might have the funds to hire a group like this but they had enough Parahuman muscle that it wouldn’t be their go-to option. The ABB was hurting from the loss of its leaders and probably wouldn’t be able to put together enough money to do this. And the Merchants were idiots and a group that had been professional as this wouldn’t have been caught dead working for the glorified drug dealers. Which left at least one option in my mind.



“You should try looking into Coil,” I looked down at the unmarked armor of the gunmen before looking back to Sere. “But be careful, I have some…friends who say he has ears in places that should normally be safe.” I tried to get across the insinuation without saying the words. Just because Coil didn’t seem to have anyone watching them didn’t mean there wasn’t a chance he could pick up just how much I knew.



Sere seemed to consider my words for a moment before giving a small nod in return. “I’ll consider it. That being said I hope to work with you more in the future, if I am going to continue my investigation I’ll have to stick around for a bit.” he offered a hand out to me, and I took it with no small amount of pride.



“I look forward to it, I would normally stick around but I have places to be.” Places which included my bed, there was nothing like draining one's body of blood to remind you how little sleep you’ve gotten in the past few days.



“Very well, I’ll ensure these criminals are taken in.” Sere waved me off as I had the Dollhouse bring me back to a room to change and get a quick wash up, leaving the room and nearly running straight into Lisa who was wearing a massive grin.



“I’ve got a lead on the fuck, give me a week and as much coffee as this place can make and I’ll give you an address.” she was practically beaming, though that could have been due to the fact she looked like sleep had become optional for her and coffee flowed like water.



Still me trying to tell someone how to be healthy would have been hypocritical at best, so instead I just smiled. “That will give me enough time to figure out how to put Heartbreaker out of business.”



This might not have been my true first step, but taking down Heartbreaker and freeing the women under his thrall would be my way of announcing myself. Stetson had given me the chance to tell the public who I was.



Now it was time to let the bad guys know just how screwed they were.

 

As much as I wanted to hear all about whatever breakthrough Lisa had made in the investigation into Heartbreaker I also desperately needed to get at least a token amount of sleep. I tried to get Lisa to agree to try and get some in as well but I figured she would probably crash before laying down given her excitement.



Getting home I performed my usual nightly ritual of checking on dad before laying down in my own bed and staring up at the ceiling and letting the events of the day bleed off of me. I wasn’t used to good things happening to me, even with all my fortune in meeting Stetson my brain still tried to tell me it was a fluke and to always expect the world to be at my throat. But the words of my anxiety rang hollow at the moment.



A sudden buzz from my cellphone drew my attention away from my ceiling, shocking me a bit at first because I had honestly forgotten that I had it for a bit. I quickly scooped it up in my hand and checked the screen only to see four messages on it, one from Amy and the others from a number I didn’t recognize.



Amy: Happy to see.



Unknown Number: Hey this is Vicky, or I guess Glory Girl? Amy gave me your number.



Unknown Number: Some of my friends are planning to hit up the mall this weekend, Amy wanted me to check if you wanted to come.



Unknown Number: Don’t know why she didn’t just ask you herself.



I looked at the screen and for a moment my brain didn’t fit the words into anything coherent. The last time anyone had invited me somewhere had been…well before the Trio, most things that I had done with the small social life I had could be divided into before and after those three. Normally hanging out with a group of people I didn’t know was about as appealing as cuddling up to Hookwolf, but at the same time I felt like rejecting it offhand would be rude.



Taylor: Yeah that sounds good, do you mind if I bring a friend along?



I turned the phone off and set it aside, figuring that it was probably an ungodly hour for a normal person, even one who fought crime on her days off, to be awake.



Eventually sleep overtook me into a dreamless haze, waking up to the blaring of my alarm clock and wishing desperately to steal away just a few more hours for myself. I briefly toyed with the idea of telling dad I wasn’t feeling well so I could miss a day, but given my attendance I didn’t want to risk it.



I left my room to find the house empty with a note left by my dad saying he had to head down to the Dock’s early for a meeting but saying he would be back for dinner. Which was nice, because it meant I could grab some fruit from the Dollhouse for breakfast and check to see if Lisa had actually gotten any sleep the night before.



With a quick jump to the Dollhouse I confirmed that Lisa had actually gotten to sleep at some point and decided to use my free time to meet up with Riley and make sure she was doing okay. While it had only been a day or so without Stetson I still felt like it was partially my responsibility to make sure that she was doing okay. I had the Dollhouse guide me to her location, finding her inside of the high class hospital type room, a number of surgical tools next to her as she worked on a lifelike human dummy with absolute focus.



I gave a polite cough which earned me a small raised hand to signal she would need a moment. Using the free moment I had a small fruit plate brought in and began to sample from it before Riley sewed up the dummy and let out a sigh of relief.



“Feeling better?” I asked, offering her the plate so she could take some for herself.



“I am now,” Riley admitted, taking a slice of apple and munching down on it. “I think I have a new idea on how to improve on some of the enhancements I made in your body, but I’m still not happy with some of the weight issues so I’m trying a few things out.”



“Happy to hear.” I knew that for Riley there wasn’t an option of not tinkering when the urge struck her, as many workarounds as the Dollhouse might have that odd something or other that caused tinker’s to rip apart everything around them in order to create wasn’t something that could be removed unless we stripped away whatever connection gave Riley her powers in the first place.

Which sadly wasn’t an option, or at least not one that could be explored safely. The Dollhouse was sure that it could disconnect a person from whatever interdimensional whatever actually gave people powers, but doing so over a long period of time outside of the Dollhouse itself wasn’t feasible. Or would require direct brain surgery.



“I think that Lisa might be afraid of me,” Riley said as she sat in one of the chairs in the room, her legs kicking slightly over the open air. “I understand why she would be, but I thought since she was your friend maybe the two of us could be friends too.”



My heart did go out to the girl, though I could understand Lisa’s trepidation to approach someone who had been one of the most infamous bio-tinkers to exist. I at least had Stetson and access to the full functions of the Dollhouse to take care of that. But at the same time it felt wrong to just ignore something that was clearly bothering her. “Try starting small, eat a meal with her, invite her to play a game, uh…” I realized that despite wanting to help all of my experience recently with making friends had been tied to me lucking out. “Just uh, don’t offer to give her extra body parts or gills until you know each other better.” I finished lamely.



Riley however seemed to nod along to my words and considered them. “But I think she would look really good with gills. Plus she could breathe underwater!”

“Just, trust me okay?” One day I would figure out how the hell it was easier to mock a villain than it was to have a discussion on making friends with a girl years younger than me. But today probably wasn’t that day.



“I should probably get to school,” I pinched the bridge of my nose, still feeling more than a bit exhausted. “If Lisa ends up waking up, try and make sure she takes care of herself. She’s only been with us for like a day and I don’t want her team to think we are torturing her.”



Riley gave a thumbs up and I had the Dollhouse bring me about a block from the school, walking forward with a loud yawn as I pulled my bag close to my shoulder.



Given how tired I was, using an accessory would be a dangerous task, falling asleep while having it drain me of blood was a recipe for disaster. Thankfully I still had more than enough experience at dodging my typical problems to deal with one day without being a fly on the wall.



My first steps into the school didn’t make any alarms go off or cause a pack of students to descend on me, so I figured things were going well enough for me to get my books out of the locker. I was still early enough that the Trio probably wouldn’t be stationed at my locker waiting for the chance to ambush me. But even if they were I was just too tired to care at the moment, moving zombies like to grab my books and close the door.



However before I could start my class someone pushed me against the locker, arms pressing harshly against my shoulders and keeping me there.



Fun fact about my training with Karate Man and how his ‘Grandmaster Training’ ability works, most of it is drilling reactions and abilities directly into my subconscious, allowing me to react at a moment's notice to threats before my rational mind can catch up. Thus the moment the ‘threat’ was aimed against me I started to react faster than my exhausted rational mind could catch up.



Start with throwing the enemy off balance, arms are pinned and my legs are too long for a proper kick so instead use what's most readily available, in this case I launched a headbutt that would have hurt a lot more if I was awake enough to feel it. The hold on me loosened which meant my enemy was caught off guard, following up the assault by using their broken balance against them. I hooked a foot behind their foot and gave a solid push to their center of mass and they toppled to the ground.



Before I could continue the fight my brain finally caught up with my instincts and the room became more clear to me. Madison was off to one side with a hand covering her mouth and eyes widened in surprise. All around me were students looking equally shocked, as if unsure of the reality of the situation. But most importantly on the ground looking at all the world like a deer before headlights was my first friend, the girl who I would have trusted before anyone else just a year ago, Emma Barnes.



A teacher broke through the ring of students, which one I couldn’t say because I only had eyes for the fallen form of the girl who had tormented me for my entire high school career. “What is going on here?” their voices rose over the confusion of my own thoughts.



The students standing around the scene went quiet and looked everywhere except for the two of us or the teacher. There were very few rules within Winslow that weren’t broken everyday, but the golden rule above all was that unless someone pulled out a weapon nobody saw anything. If you thought you saw something and opened your mouth the next ignored detail would probably be you laying on the ground.



“She must have tripped,” the lie was out of my mouth before I could really think about it, but in for a penny, in for a pound. “I must not have been paying attention to where my leg was.”



I glanced toward Emma, wondering what she would do. She could argue and say that I had attacked her, after all it would be the word of a well respected student against the social freak of the school. But to do so she would have to admit that said freak had laid her out on the floor after trying to pin me to a locker.

After a moment of absolute silence Emma pushed herself up, holding a hand against her head and looking at the teacher. “I must have tripped on her leg, it's fine.”



The teacher looked unsure for a moment, but considering the fact that the floors weren’t painted in blood and it didn’t look like anyone had broken a bone they wrote it off fairly quickly. “Go to the nurse if you feel like you got hurt too badly, otherwise everyone make their way toward your first classes and stop clogging up the hallways.”



The students who had been witness to the short fight scattered like insects exposed to light, leaving me with two-thirds of my tormentors. “I don’t know what you said to the school to get Sophia in trouble, but you’re going to pay for it.” Emma’s eyes were dead set on me, but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to care.



“Can’t threaten me with something that would have happened anyway,” I walked past them and focused on getting to class and into my homeroom desk. The only person I had talked to about Sophia had been Assault, and as nice as he had been it shocked me to think that he had gone to bat for me despite having only met for a short time. There had to be something else going on, but honestly I was too exhausted to really think about it anymore, so I simply sat down and prepared for a day of hell.



However my expectations were largely subverted, people either gave me a wide berth throughout the day or actually did talk to me. It took some time before I realized I had stumbled upon Winslow rule number two, everyone tends to avoid the person who lays out someone and walks away from it without issue. I couldn’t really enjoy the feeling of even minor attention however, whether she deserved it or not Emma and the rest of the Trio weren’t the kind of threat my skills had been developed to fight.



I took my lunch at the school to avoid any further suspicion by the Trio for disappearing, though I wanted to check on Lisa and Riley it was simply too big of a risk to do if my sudden absence was being noticed. Turning away people who suddenly wanted to sit with me was annoying, but apparently all it took to get people to leave you alone was the threat of violence.



Before my last period got out the teacher got a message from the office that the principal wanted to see me, sending me on my way with a note. At first I figured Emma or Madison had said something about what had happened earlier, but given that I wasn’t being escorted to the office that didn’t make a lot of sense.



So instead all I did was give the note to the secretary before taking a seat and waiting. Part of me wanted to dig out a book from my backpack, but as I had no idea what was happening at the time I figured it was best to just wait.



Eventually the principal invited me in, looking at me for only the briefest of moments before focusing on the paperwork on their desk. “I suppose congratulations are in order.”



“They are?” I asked as I took a seat, still not even a bit sure of what was supposed to be going on.



“Yes, it seems your request for transfer to Arcadia has gone through,” the principal spoke the words conversationally, as if they weren’t dropping a massive bombshell on me.



“I’m sorry, what?” My voice might have caught in my throat for a moment, though to be fair this wasn’t exactly something I had been expecting to happen today. Which seemed like a running theme of this particular day to be honest.



“Apparently a student was recently removed from the register and your name was at the top of the waiting list,” the principal eyed me for a moment. “Unless you’ve changed your mind?”



“No!” I blurted out, a small blush coming over my face. “I mean…”



“It's quite alright, Arcadia is a distinguished school that only a select few are accepted into despite being obsessively a private school,” the principal pushed forward some paperwork toward me. “Have this signed by your parents and fax it to the office and the forwarding for Arcadia’s office, after that you will need to wait two weeks so they can set up a small testing program you are otherwise a full student and may stop by once the paperwork is sent to have a look at the facilities and make use of the library and resources to prepare for your test.”



I took the paperwork before me and ran over his words in my mind. “Wait, what about classes here?”



The principal gave a small shrug. “Technically you aren’t required to attend once the paperwork is sent, until Arcadia can properly place you. I would simply focus on studying for the placement exam they will give you and go from there. You may clean out your locker today if you wish.”



Something seemed off about this situation, the fact I was being basically shoved out the door with the school I wanted to go to in my hands and a ‘no strings attached’ package was troubling, until something clicked in my mind. Arcadia had ties to the PRT and it was an open secret that some of its students were Ward’s, not to mention the younger members of New Wave also called the school home. When Assault had told me it would be worth it to stick around I figured maybe he would give a call to the school or write a letter, not fast track me into another school.



The more cynical side of my mind came up with another reason, the PRT was trying to buy my silence in regards to the Shadow Stalker incident from the day before. Given they could have done absolutely nothing to gain the same effect, but they didn’t know that.



In terms of a bribe I couldn’t argue it wasn’t effective, I had suffered worse things than being stalked for an hour by a Ward and had only gotten a ton of repressed emotions out of the deal. But the reason didn’t really matter in the end, because regardless of the reason I was finally leaving this place behind.



I cleared what few personal effects I had out of my locker and dropped my books by the library, earning barely a glance from the librarian as they moved them into a pile away from the rest.



At least I had the good sense to have summoned myself to the Dollhouse before letting out a cheer of pure joy, tossing my backpack to the side and holding the folder containing the papers that would finally free me from the hell that was Winslow.



After eventually calming down I had the Dollhouse guide me to Lisa, partially to check on how she was doing, but also wanting to share my good fortune with a friend. The glowing line eventually brought me to a room filled with a variety of board games lined up in neat rows across uncountable shelves and tables for them to be used at.



Sitting at one such table were Lisa and Riley, seemingly in the middle of a card game.



“You’re bluffing,” Lisa declared confidently, her eyes skimming across from her cards and looking down at a number of cookies by her. “All in.” She pushed them to the center of the table where a number of baked goods sat.



“Call,” Riley happily matched with her own pile, which to my amusement was double what Lisa had. “Royal Flush.” she laid down her hand.



Lisa looked down at her own cards and collapsed to the table with a dramatic sigh. “Okay I admit it, your face is literally impossible to read.”



“Near perfect knowledge of the muscular structure,” Riley bragged, shuffling the cards back together before noticing my presence. “Taylor!”



I gave a slightly awkward wave to the two before taking a seat, letting Riley deal me in on the next hand and redivide the sweets among all of us as I glanced toward Lisa. “Did you sleep well?”



A small snort was the only answer I got as she looked over the cards she had gotten. “I forgot how painful headaches can be when you down enough caffeine to keep a dorm of college students alive. Thankfully Riley here gave me something for my headache.”



Riley shrugged and looked at her own cards. “It was a drug I cooked up to deal with thinker headaches after I got my first one, it isn’t perfect but it takes the edge off fairly well so long as you don’t continue to strain yourself.” she gave a side eye to Lisa who simply shrugged helplessly.



“Come on as if you weren’t cheating, miss ‘I can read your face muscles and figure out your tick’.” Lisa pushed a few of her cards forward and motioned to have them replaced while I just held on. “Fair went out of the equation once you started putting sugar on the board for our bets.”



I couldn’t help but smile at seeing them talking, I could see that Lisa was still forcing herself to act more casual then she was feeling, but it was a start and that was the most I could really ask for given the situation. “So I got accepted into Arcadia.” it probably wasn’t the most elegant dive into a conversation, but I was still polishing the rust off my ability to communicate with others.



Lisa smiled and raised a glass of water to me. “Congratulations, hope you are looking forward to actually having to pay attention in class and be a ‘presentable member of society’.”



“That's great Taylor!” Riley offered a bright grin before starting the betting on our current hand. Once done she turned to Lisa and tilted her head to the side. “Arcadia is a good school, right?”



“Better than Winslow at least.” Lisa answered with a snort. “Unless you like being surrounded by gang members in training.”



It felt good to have my friends be happy for me, even if their own circumstances made it impossible for them to attend school normally. “Speaking of exciting, any more news on Heartbreaker?”



Lisa smiled and laid out her hand, winning the pot with a small pump of her fist before answering. “I’ve narrowed the area down after his last few pictures and am comparing notes of people who might be under his control to nail down a firm location. I narrowed it down from double digits to three or four places where he might be keeping the main body of his group while hiding from the Guild. I used some money to pay off a few hunters in the area to do some minor trespassing. Final results should be in by tomorrow,” she paused for a moment. “On the off chance I’m wrong I’ll start from the top, but Heartbreaker isn’t used to being on the run so he isn’t great at covering his tracks.”



That made sense, one of the reasons that Heartbreaker had been allowed to continue for so long despite his reputation had been the fact that it was impossible to know what sort of sick ideas he had put into god knows how many people. If he was captured people might go on killing sprees until he was freed again, like a human sized Simurgh with just as much chance of leaving bombs wherver he went.



“Speaking of,” Riley looked away from the cards for a moment. “Have you thought about how you are actually going to beat that bully up?” a flash of something dangerous crossed her eyes. “I could maybe develop something that could help if you wanted.”



I quickly waved my hand at that suggestion. “No, I think I already have a plan worked out. I’ll use a Doll specialized in nonlethal takedowns to secure the area he is hiding in, and then another that can break his mind control abilities over others.”



Each and every person that Heartbreaker had cast his sick spell over was innocent as far as I was concerned, even if one or two were actual true believers once he mastered them any evil deed they did was solely for Heartbreaker’s benefit. Thus I refused to consider an option that might have left them any more injured than they needed to be by the end of things. Thankfully the Dollhouse had a few options that fell on the nonlethal spectrum. And thanks to my access to the Black Box Collection I had happened across a particularly powerful anti-mind control Doll that could free them, but only after Heartbreaker was defeated.



The plan was simple, mainly because it had to be. A lightning assault on whatever hole he had dug himself into, not given enough time to activate any contingency that might force a bargain. The power to break his control had to be done after forcing a sense of defeat onto Heartbreaker. And there was no better measure for defeat than having your entire force knocked out and dragged out of a base like a screaming child.



Lisa let out a low whistle. “Yeah that would do it, of course it would also paint a massive target on your back for pulling off something like that. But at the very least the Undersiders will keep our end of the bargain. Especially if you plan to take down Coil and cover the rest of the bases.”



I gave a nod and went over the information that Lisa had given me about the other members of the Undersiders. Regent wanted Heartbreaker taken down for personal reasons, Bitch just wanted a safe place for her dogs and to use violence as an outlet for her anger, Grue needed money and stability to help take care of someone close to them. And of course Lisa wanted Coil in the darkest hole that could be dug.



I was willing to help all of them so long as they helped me.



“As soon as we have the information we’ll get to work,” I closed my eyes and felt a smile come to my face. “And then we show him how it feels to be broken."

 

My dad was understandably excited for me when I showed him the paperwork, promising to help in whatever way he could. It hurt just a bit to lie and ask him to stay with a friend over the weekend to focus on studying but he seemed to buy it easily enough seeing as I had been using the ‘friend’ excuse ever since I had started my training under Stetson. I promised to keep my phone near me at all times and he simply waved it off without worry as he didn’t want to bother me while with my friends.



Before lying to him hadn’t really hurt all that much, as he had been too far gone to even care that I had been lying to him. Now that there was more life to him I could see he honestly did trust me enough to go out and be my own person and stay out of trouble. But no matter how much it bothered me I had to weigh the cost of not bringing Heartbreaker down versus the cost of lying to my dad for a bit longer. And there was simply no contest.



I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday split between texting and talking to Amy and Vicky who were both excited that I would be joining them at Arcadia and reaffirming my promise to meet with them on Saturday for a trip to the mall, and the other half focusing on preparing for the assault itself. Which meant more running, training with Karate Man, and going over a list of Heartbreaker’s assets that Lisa had put together for me.



At the very least he likely had around thirty hanger-ons, likely split into twenty guards and ten women he had mastered for his sick desires. On top of that were his kids, the majority of which were parahumans in their own right with an extensive list of abilities that would make them a terrifying force, if most of them weren’t younger then Riley. To add to that their powers were mostly useful on human targets, and just in case I had chosen a doll without a full personality to deal with the base.



That made for around twenty-five to thirty or so combat aligned targets, and ten to fifteen people that while dangerous most likely lacked combat training. But I nullified the advantage he held with a large number of master’s.



“So then,” Lisa took a seat across from me and pushed over a folder. “We got him.”



I flicked open the folder and began to examine the pages she had printed out as she continued to speak.



“Building was going to be set up as a pharmaceutical complex built in the middle of the Boreal forest but was abandoned after the company went belly up, later purchased by Antoine Laurent and reinforced as a sorta doomsday shelter for his family and wait staff because of rich people's paranoia, and finally,” she motioned for me to look at the last paper, a picture of the building surrounded by vehicles that had been hidden using camo coverings and branches from the nearby trees. “Home to Heartbreaker’s sorry ass.”



A vicious smile crossed my face, we had the bastard. But there were still issues that needed to be taken care of before I could begin a proper assault. “You said it was set up to be a doomsday shelter, what does that actually entail?”



Lisa flipped through the folder and pushed me a design layout for the complex. “Reinforced walls, probably a few escape tunnels. Any defenses like electronic fences or turrets are out, my source said that they are probably running on gas generators and focusing on the essentials only. The inside is probably going to be a maze of rooms but they probably aren’t using the whole facility so once you find the place with the most guards you’ll probably find the rest.”



“You did an amazing job Lisa,” I stuffed the papers back into the folder and closed my eyes for a moment. “Get some rest, you’ve earned it.”



Lisa laughed a bit before shaking her head. “Sorry boss, until I hear the words ‘Heartbreaker is done with’ I don’t think sleep is on the table. You got me invested now.”



I let out a snort and shook my head at her antics, but to be fair if I were on the other side of this conversation I would probably be too worried to do anything close to sleep. “No matter what this ends tonight, I take Heartbreaker down and then once we have the Undersiders set up properly we can focus on taking Coil down.”



Lisa’s smile became positively predatory at the sound of that. “Good, I’ve been wanting to get out from under that bastard since the moment he aimed a gun at me and threatened to pull the trigger.”



I could only really give a nod to that as my phone went off in my pocket. How I got a cell signal within the Dollhouse was a mystery to me but it wasn’t something I would start complaining about.



Vicky: Hey we are going to be meeting Saturday afternoon.



Vicky: We gotta get you some new clothes for your first day!



A smile crossed my face as I sent back a confirmation and turned to Lisa. “Oh, I completely forgot. Vicky invited me to go shopping and I wanted to ask if you would come.”



That seemed to catch Lisa off guard as she mulled over my words. “Vicky…you mean Glory Girl? You’re inviting me to have a fun girls day shopping with a member of New Wave?”



“Uh…oh…right.” It somehow only now occurred to me how that might be a bad idea, but Lisa was already giving one of her cat-like smiles at the idea.



“Sounds like a blast, I’ve been invited on worse first dates after all.” Lisa’s voice was teasing to the extreme.



It was lucky I hadn’t been drinking anything when she said that, because I was barely able to get a word out between the blush on my face and my voice seeming to drop in and out of tone.



“Relax I’m kidding,” Lisa finally said, raising a hand in mocking surrender and laughing a bit. “I don’t really do the whole dating thing…plus I’m way out of your league.”



“I…you…” I simply lowered my head in defeat and sighed. Give me a villain to fight anyday over trying to figure out other people.



Lisa smirked and walked over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, one last thing,” she took my hand and put a small box-like object topped by two metal prongs. “I get that your doll’s are pretty much the best weapons in the world, but it might not be a bad idea to keep something like this on you, just in case.”



I quickly scanned the device and touched the button, seeing a spark of electricity dance between the two prongs.



“It's a bit souped up compared to the market model, you can toggle the amount of strength with the little button at the side. Normal will make someone think twice about putting their hands on you. The full one will stop someone from thinking of much of anything for a few hours, maybe give edgy stalkers a second thought before trying to follow my friend around.”



I couldn’t help the smile that came to my face, while it wasn’t exactly what a normal person would give as a gift it was still probably the best thing I had gotten in quite some time. “That's Lisa.”



“Don’t mention it, like literally I’m pretty sure that thing is super illegal.” Lisa smirked and the two of us had a small laugh over it, but all the same I turned on the device’s safety and stuck it in my pocket.



Night came faster than I could have imagined, spending the hours playing games with Riley and Lisa and getting some small amount of sleep in before preparing for what was to come. But eventually it arrived and the two of them came together to see me off.



“You have the infuser attached to your mask?” Riley asked, looking for all the world like a small girl and not the villain she had been forced to be, gripping Lisa’s leg tightly and eyes filled with worry. “I triple checked on the formula so it should work at least five seconds faster.”



“Everything is connected,” I said from behind my mask, a small tube running from the back and connecting to a liquified version of the blood pills I used as a civilian. It was good for about two hours of intense usage of a doll, but after that I would have to use the feeder system built into the mask to go back to the solid version of the miracle medicine.



“Go kick his ass Taylor.” Lisa hid her own worries well, though I still could pick up a small hitch to her normally jovial voice.



It felt nice to have people worried about me, and I intended to show them that there wasn’t a need to worry for anyone but Heartbreaker. “Dollhouse, teleport me to predetermined location.”



Confirmed.



My feet hit the cool dirt of the Boreal forests just a short distance away from Heartbreaker’s complex, giving me enough time to finish any preparations needed before the assault began.



“Dollhouse, Inventory Select.”



Command from authorized user accepted



“Select Edge Shooter.”



The doll that arrived before me was quite different from those I had called before, most of its body was covered by a thick black smoke that clung to its body, wrapped up in a black trenchcoat that looked like it was pulled from a pulp novel. Its hands covered by white gloves and the single glowing red eye that emerged from the mist were the only easily visible things in the near pitch black night.



“Blood Brain Connection.”



Confirmed.



As I connected to the doll I suddenly found that my vision became much more clear, the darkness not seeming so unyielding as before as I shared part of my senses with Edge Shooter. “Follow me but stay hidden.” I didn’t actually need to verbally communicate with the doll, but my nerves were already on edge and it helped me relax a bit.



The doll responded by simply disappearing into the woods, becoming impossible to see amongst the otherwise dark night. There was no longer any reason to delay at this point, so I began to walk toward the faculty and scooped out the entrance that I had decided to use. Due to the size of the complex I could have picked any point to begin at, but this was the one that was guarded most closely so it had the highest chance of leading me to Heartbreaker.



Said guards were dressed for the near freezing temperatures in what amounted to thin coats that wouldn’t have held up to a slight wind much less what the forest had to offer, the large rifles in their hands shaking slightly as they were forced to stand in position. From Edge Shooter’s position I could see that there was one other guard on the roof of the single story complex who looked even worse off.



I thought I couldn’t be any more disgusted by Heartbreaker, but seeing him putting his own people at risk by working them in the freezing cold without proper protection only increased my anger toward the man. Maybe once I had cleared some space I could have them dragged into a room inside and lock them in.



But that would all have to come later, I allowed a moment for Edge Shooter to get into position and began to approach the building, wrapping my arms around myself and lowering my head slightly as I walked toward them. “Please help, I’m so cold.” I had turned the distortion effect on my mask down slightly to give me a more innocent tone of voice.



“Stop right there!” one of the men yelled through clattering teeth, and although I couldn’t see it I knew that his rifle was likely shaking in his hands as the cold bit deep into him. “This is private property, leave now!”



All three of the guards were likely focused only on me, which was all the distraction that Edge Shooter needed.



The doll moved out of the shadows from atop the building and thrust out a hand, a toy-like pistol appearing in his gloved hands. To all the world it looked like a foam dart gun, the kind that a kid's parent might buy only to see it break a few weeks later. Garish yellows and blues took away any sense of danger that a gun might normally bring, and seeing as the end of the gun only contained what to all the world appeared to be cheap foam capped off a slightly more dense piece of foam with an orange tint at the end.



Edge Shooter squeezed the trigger of the gun and the dart fired at the back of the guard's head, striking silently and causing the man to instantly pass out as if struck by a potent tranquilizer.



Edge Shooter- Classification: Non-lethal Assassin Type



Designed to act as a stealth focused doll that could easily eliminate enemy combatants without any direct harm, it can summon forth a variety of blasters which contain darts that affect organic and inorganic substances differently. If launched against an organic target the dart will force the target into a state of unconsciousness for a minimum of two hours or a maximum of six, while if fired at an inorganic substance will produce a powerful kinetic force with variable strength.



The doll discarded the gun and jumped silently down from the roof, extending his arms in either direction and calling forth two more of the small blasters and launching the dart’s at the ground level guards, forcing the two to bonelessly fall to the cold ground. With that done I walked forward and directed Edge Shooter to put them into the recovery position to prevent any further accidents and knelt down to examine them.



So far the Dollhouse had been completely accurate in regards to the abilities of the various doll’s within, but some small part of me needed to ensure that they were okay. Of course it only took a few moments of observation to see that okay was about as far from a description to be used on these people as I could imagine.



Their faces were gaunt and their clothes hung loosely on their bodies, the cold seemed to have also taken its toll on them with various marks all across their body. The fact that they were able to stand and move at all was shocking, but then again people could push themselves to amazing lengths when they had their minds turned toward utter devotion.



“Fuck,” I muttered to myself, standing up and eyeing the door into the building. Before coming here I thought I had steeled myself against what I might find, after all Heartbreaker wasn’t exactly known to treat the women he controlled with a great amount of respect, so why would he put anything more toward those he planned to use as tools?



With a mental command I had Edge Shooter open the door and slip inside, finding that the lights in the main hallway were lit and the dull hum of a gas generator could be heard throughout the hallways. Four more guards were standing indoors with their weapons by their sides, easy targets for Edge Shooter to remove with his summoned weapons. That made a total of nine guards out of twenty, and given that they were adults it was unlikely any of them were Heartbreaker’s kids.



So far I had managed to keep the element of surprise, but with the tight hallways and unknown number of doors that wouldn’t be an option anymore, so I drew Edge Shooter back to me and began to slowly move through the area, following the sound of the generator and the lights. After a few feet the doll stopped and put up a hand, showing that its enhanced senses had picked up something I hadn’t and motioned toward a door along the hallway, stepping forward and opening it with one quick movement, summoning a colorful rifle loaded with multiple darts into the room, firing each shot quickly before stepping back.



I walked toward the open door and quickly regretted it, motioning for Edge Shooter to close the door as I took a moment to calm myself. Just the sight of it alone was enough, without my mask the smell of it might have actually made me sick to my stomach.



The room had probably been set up as a break room when the building had first been designed, but it had been turned into a living area for Heartbreaker’s guards. However it seemed they were all too broken to really think for themselves. Most of them had sported wounds and the same gaunt look that had been over the guards, some worse off then others but not a single one looked like they would make it much longer without medical attention.



They didn’t have anything in the room to actually heat it, so they had all curled together in the room to gain some sort of warmth, a mass of broken humanity bleeding and rotting on each other without even the thought to try and rebel because some heartless bastard decided they weren’t worth the extra attention to be taken care of.



“Lets go,” I spoke to Edge Shooter, mainly just so I could have something to center myself with. The only comparable sight to that I had seen was a raid on a Merchant den that had been supervised by Stetson, seeing people drugged out of their minds and laying about, some babbling and others just moaning. It had been awful but it was more human than the sight I had seen in that room.



I tried my best to put the image in the back of my mind and focus on moving down the hallway, eventually finding the room with one of the generators in it and having the doll clear it out. It had been slightly less horrifying than the room with the guards, containing the women that Heartbreaker had brought with him. Most of them were in slightly better shape then the guards, meaning that their wounds had been treated and it looked like they weren’t about to starve, but it was a near enough thing.





As my doll closed the door to the room something struck me from behind, an odd energy that seemed to creep into my mind like tendrils of pure ice. Thoughts of defeat began to plague me, hopelessness that didn’t seem to have an ending, like the weak girl I was before.



Mental contamination by outside forces detected, purging negative influences.



And all at once it was gone, the sense of defeat replaced by anger as I turned to see a young girl with hands covered by dark blue energy whose face was a mask of surprise. “Why aren’t you affected?” she asked, her voice small as she stepped back.



I directed Edge Shooter behind her, having the doll press its pistol into the back of the girl’s neck so I could get a proper look at her. She was around the same age as Riley if I had to guess, a whip curled at her hip and gaudy looking jewelry hanging on her. From what I could remember about the known members of Heartbreaker’s family she was likely Chastity, Striker/Thinker who could instill a sense of defeat with some stipulations and could detect people within a set distance.



Also probably the oldest remaining member after Heartbreaker had lost most of his family during the rescue of the movie star he had attempted to kidnap.



“Your powers won’t work on me,” my projected voice was set to its full unnatural limit as my mask scrambled my voice. I was lucky that the ability was one meant to directly affect the mind, if she had managed to sneak up on me with a more direct combat power or even the whip by her side I might have been in trouble. “Put your hands in the air, or I can promise you will regret it.”



I didn’t exactly feel great about holding a preteen at perceived gunpoint, but I couldn’t take the risk that she would try and make enough noise to alert any remaining guards, or the rest of her parahuman family. I wasn’t worried about losing, but more due to the fact I didn’t want to fight a bunch of kids who should have been running around with friends after school instead of freezing in this abandoned place.



The look on her face was slightly defiant, but her eyes and the slight shake of her body betrayed her fear as she raised her hands, the glow disappearing from them. “You’re here for our dad aren’t you?”



I saw no reason to lie to the girl, simply giving a small nod and keeping a set distance between us. “Exactly, I don’t have any interest in hurting anyone here, but I will do what I have to in order to get to him.”



My hatred for Heartbreaker only increased as I was forced to say I would hurt her family just to get to her dad, but there wasn’t anything else I could do at the moment. As much as I didn’t want to do so I had to weigh the evil of scaring this girl with the good that would be done by bringing Heartbreaker to justice.



I could practically see the numbers being run in her mind, guessing at the chance of me being able to successfully bring down her father. Given that I had no-sold her own ability she probably already understood why I was confident in facing him, and that she had no real way to oppose me short of saying she wouldn’t tell and being shot from behind. “If I tell you where he is, will you leave me and the other kids alone?” The defeated tone in her voice was clear.



“Hurting a bunch of kids isn’t something I’m interested in doing if I don’t have too. Once your dad is done I’ll do everything I can to make sure that all of you will be safe.” which was true for the most part. I had most of a plan together for what to do once Heartbreaker was defeated, which was sadly the most I could do. Beating someone like Heartbreaker wasn’t ever going to be as clean as just tossing him in a cell and calling it good, the victims he would leave behind were much more of a priority in this case.



My words seemed to be enough for Chastity who gave a nod at that. “Turn left at the end of the hall and keep going until you reach the connecting room between the two buildings, he is staying in a big office by himself,” she bit her lip for a moment and turned her head away. “He has someone guarding him, dad hired him after we started running to keep him safe.”



I didn’t miss the fact that it had been to keep ‘him’ safe instead of ‘all of us’, the resentment at least was clear. “Go to the rest of your family and stay put, don’t leave the room no matter what you hear.” I had Edge Shooter move away from her but not lower his weapon.



Chastity looked at me for a moment with searching eyes before turning away, muttering under her breath. “Good luck.”



I watched as she left down the hallway and began to follow her directions, watching as the lights gave way to darkness as the hallway lights in this part of the building weren’t being fed with power. But soon enough I saw the door to the next building and the lights under it, pushing through with Edge Bringer behind me into a large lobby, filled with overturned furniture and various bits of broken stonework from the ceiling and walls.



“Man and not a peep from the guards, if I wasn’t a professional the boss man would have been done in one huh?” The voice came from a figure sitting on what would have at one time been a secretary’s desk, casually relaxing on top of it as if it were a chair.



The figure itself was covered in silver armor from the torso up, its arms covered by slightly bulky gauntlets which ended in curved knife-like claws. The helmet contained a black D on the front in the middle of which a glowing red orb tracked my movements. The lower parts of his body seemed to be covered in a thick black fabric.



“Listen between you and me I don’t particularly want to fight you and your scary friend, so if you decide to turn around and leave we can call this a learning experience.” The man's voice was rather calm despite facing down an unknown enemy, perfectly conversational and even polite given the circumstances. But despite his tone I could see that his body didn’t quite match, seemingly ready for a fight at any moment.



Seeing as he was willing to talk I decided to see if I could get past him without a fight. “Counter offer, leave and I won’t have to go through you.”



The figure crossed his arms and tapped one of the claws against the lower part of his helmet. “An enticing offer, but you don’t get the name Desperate if you cut and run on a contract the minute you have to actually do work.”



With his answer I figured there wasn’t any reason to bother with negotiations, besides anyone who would work for Heartbreaker deserved to go down in my books. Edge Shooter quickly summoned up a pistol and fired the dart at the center mass of the armored mercenary.



However before it could strike him an odd disk flew off of the enlarged gauntlet on Desperate’s hand and went into the path of the foam dart. When the two collided in midair a massive amount of force radiated off of the dart and blew back some of the smaller pieces of wood and stone around it. But while the dart fell to the ground the disk flew back over to Desperate, the red eye of his helmet examining the disk for a moment.



“Impressive, my turn.” Desperate raised a clawed finger to the disk and flicked it against the back. Before I could realize what was happening Edge Shooter had grabbed me and moved me away fast enough to knock my breath out of my lungs, once I was able to right myself I could see the reason for the sudden movement.



A blast of pure force had directed itself to where I had been standing, putting a hole straight into the stone floor. Even with my protective clothing I would have likely had a few ribs and other assorted bones broken by taking the full brunt of that attack.



“So then, sure you don’t want to run?” Desperate’s voice held a small mocking quality to it now.



I righted myself and directed Edge Shooter to be ready to go on the attack. “I’m not leaving without Heartbreaker.”



“Then let the games begin.”

 

I eyed Desperate from across the room and tried to get a feel for what ability he might have. The armor gave off tinkertech vibes, but that might have been based entirely off of my experience growing up in a town where Armsmaster was one of the premier heroes. The small shield that had flown from the back of his hand had taken the full force of Edge Shooter’s dart before releasing back a strong blast of force, which probably meant it could absorb attacks and fire them back.

Testing the limits of that idea was tempting, but if I threw something too strong at him and it was just reflected back I would end up in a worse position. Adding to that it was unlikely that I would have a chance to change out to another doll, even at my fastest I still had to think on which doll to summon and connect with it, which would give him a chance to attack me without any protection.

Still the moment I gave up on the initiative of the fight would be the moment I lost, so with little else to do I sent Edge Shooter on the attack, the doll moving at inhuman speeds around Desperate and firing off volleys from a rapid fire dart blaster. However even with the dual attacks the two discs flew from Desperate’s hands to block the darts, small blasts of force exploding around each caught projectile, sending dust and grime from the floor up and covering the shining silver armor of the villain.

While Edge Shooter put pressure on the villain I turned and ran, leaping behind a still solid looking pillar in the room and pressing my back against it, glancing at the fight and trying to piece together my enemy.

Even under constant assault Desperate maintained a sense of control, moving to positions that wouldn’t give Edge Shooter a way to get behind him and keeping the path his discs would have to travel in limited to a small area. At times he would launch the same lance of force that had nearly taken me out of the fight, but for its part Edge Shooter was able to leap out of the way.

So far he had launched three attacks, and from them I was able to piece together that the blasts of force were in a somewhat tight line, in other words a straight shot of force meant to knock the target away. That put a limit on his ability, but it didn’t bring me any closer to actually landing a finishing blow on him.

In addition I was pushing Edge Shooter to the doll’s limits, which in turn was burning through my liquid supply of blood refillers, after all I had only planned to fight people who wouldn’t have been able to swing back at me. I forced Edge Shooter to fall back in order to give me enough time to think of a plan without needing me to burn through more energy than needed. “Why are you even doing this? No matter how much he gives you I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work for Heartbreaker willingly.”

“Money spends no matter who you get it from kid,” the discs reattached to Desperate’s gauntlets, and immediately the grime that had covered him from the floor flew off of him and onto the ground. “Sure I think the bastard probably deserves a swift kick in the dick as much as anyone else, but seeing as I’m the only mercenary in the business willing to work with him. Apparently Dragon put the fear of god in him, and when he reached out to Saint and his merry band of whack jobs they said ‘We are criminals, but we still have standards’.”

“And I’m guessing you don’t have to worry about that,” The disgust for the villain in front of me was rising to ever greater heights, but I forced myself to keep the conversation going. I had the beginning of a plan but just needed a little bit more time to figure it out.

“C’mon don’t be so mean, it wasn’t like I gave him a rapists only discount, I price gouged the shit out of him,” Desperate’s voice kept its conversational tone even as he prepared for the next attack. “But yeah, I work for whoever buys out my contract, hero or villain, despot or someone elected to office. It's called being a mercenary kid.” With a single quick movement he raised his hand and sent out a lance of force at the pillar I was hiding behind, blowing up a good chunk of it and forcing me to move near Edge Shooter, bumping into the doll and almost falling against him. Once I straightened myself out I sent the doll back at the villain.

As Edge Shooter began to put pressure back on Desperate and force him on the defensive I solidified my plan. It was a one in a million shot, but I had faith that the doll would be able to make it happen. “Then I guess you should have picked your contract more carefully.” my tone was ice as I put everything into motion.

Edge Shooter jumped at a nearby wall and tossed aside the rapid fire rifles he had been using and replaced them with two much bulkier models that seemed to have been designed after grenade launchers. Pressing off of the wall he leapt in a downward arc toward Desperate, firing off the two larger sized darts at the villain. As before the two shields that had protected the villain until now intercepted, but this time the force behind the shots was a vast magnitude greater than the finger length darts that had been launched before, the air pressure nearly throwing me off my feet and even causing Desperate’s own footing to grow more than a bit unstable.

Once the doll landed it dropped both of the large guns and summoned a single shot pistol like he had used on the guards into his hand, aiming at the villain within point blank range. At the same time I pulled up the same type of gun, which I had directed Edge Shooter to pass to me when we bumped together after Desperate’s attack had drove me out from behind the pillar.

The two shots flew at the same time, and as ever the discs split to cover both of the attacks, absorbing the force behind them.

Just as I planned.

Edge Shooter thrust out a hand directly at Desperate’s armored chest, a hidden dart held between two fingers. The moment it connected the force behind it struck the armored villain and warped the armor as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. However Edge Shooter didn’t make it out unscaved from the attack, the force behind the dart blowing apart its hand and sending shattered bits of metal and a black and red substance flying forth.

“Son of a bitch!” Desperate guided both of the disc’s to fly between himself and Edge Shooter, launching forth the blasts of force before Edge Shooter could properly gain its footing again. One blast blew a hole in its stomach, and the other obliterated the doll’s shadowy head, splashing more of the dark fluids stored within the doll to the ground.

A bile-like taste came to my mouth as the doll collapsed to the ground, but at the same time I couldn’t put aside the sacrifice I had forced it to make. In the time it had taken Desperate to react to the trick assault I had pulled out the taser that Lisa had given me and flicked it to its full setting. For his part Desperate couldn’t react in time, and with his discs focused on attacking they weren’t able to move into a defensive position fast enough.

No matter how strong the taser was I didn’t expect it to do much to the villain against his solid armor or whatever material made up the lower part of his costume, however the kinetic energy the dart had released had warped his armor in pleace and presented a crack past it from which I could see some wiring and other odd bits and ends.

And it was exactly those cracks toward which I aimed the enhanced taser toward, sending an intense amount of voltage into the unprotected parts of his armor. I didn’t know much about tinkers, for a power that seemed so grounded in reality due to having to physically construct them I would honestly say that they might have been the most head scratching because their technology wasn’t consistent to any normal rules.

But there was a sort of universal law that attached to almost anything regardless of how it was made, if you jam enough volts into something it will stop working.

A strained gasp came out of Desperate as he fell backward, the light at the front of his helmet flicking for a moment before dying. “Shit, systems are all dead, can’t get things rebooted.” The discs fell to the man’s side and he seemed stuck in his now powerless armor. “Well, this sucks.”

Seeing that Desperate looked down for the count I turned my attention to Edge Shooter, or rather the shattered remains of the doll that were left behind after taking the force behind the last strike. Despite not being an active doll that could speak and interact with me it still hurt, more than I had actually thought it would. In the heat of the moment I hadn’t even thought about the doll taking an attack that it couldn’t just stand up from, and now it was left like this.

“Dollhouse, end contact.”

Confirmed.

The shattered remains of Edge Shooter disappeared, though the black and red substance remained on the ground.

After a moment to get my head back in the game I turned toward Desperate. “Dollhouse, summon Sister Mercy, blood brain connection.”

Confirmed.

The nun-like doll appeared next to me and I finally approached Desperate, looking down at the powerless villain for a moment. “You're finished now, don’t try and struggle and I won’t have to hurt you anymore then I have.”

“Oh ultimatums, I love those,” Desperate’s voice was on the sarcastic end, seemingly unworried about his defeated state. “But sadly for you taking me in isn’t going to get you Heartbreaker, after all he probably already used the escape tunnel in his room and blew the tunnel itself once he reached the secondary bunker.”

Ice shot through my veins at the villain's words, but part of me held out some hope that he was lying. Thankfully Sister Mercy was able to move quite far from me when not exerting herself and went to the next room. After half a minute of searching she found where Heartbreaker had made his room, only to find it empty and a hidden door disguised by a well placed rug.

“Damn it!” I shouted, wanting so much just to hit something to let out the fury building in my system. All of this would have been pointless if Heartbreaker managed to slip away, maybe even just plain dangerous if he decided to go down in a blaze of glory and activate any sleeper agents he had.

“Yep, he probably plans to use the satellite phone I sold him in order to start making demands to get out of here safely, and given that the bunker is pretty well hidden and stocked up he will have plenty of time. Oh if only some desperate individual was willing to trade away that information for his freedom!” Desperate’s tone was more conversational now, seemingly pressing for a deal.

Normally the thought of negotiating with a criminal would have left a bad taste in my mouth, doubly so when they had worked for someone like Heartbreaker. But the risk of letting Heartbreaker go was too large to not try and take that gamble. “I thought you said that you would follow your contract regardless of who was paying you.”

Desperate let out a laugh. “True, but the bastard was cheap and lowballed me on price, meaning the most basic package doesn’t include me risking my freedom for him. C’mon Thread is capturing me really a good use of your time compared to kicking his ass?”

I considered for a moment before ultimately deciding that regardless of how I felt about Desperate working for him, Heartbreaker was simply too big of a threat to let go. “Fine, I leave you here and find him, but if I come back and find you here.”

“Say no more, I might be Desperate but I’m not looking for my next room to be a prison cell,” Desperate rattled off both directions and coordinates, both of which I could use to find the surface entryway to the bunker.

I turned and started toward the nearest entrance before thinking better of it and just having Sister Mercy knock a hole in the wall for us to go through. “Remember, when I get back don’t be here.”

“Fair enough, oh right. I mentioned selling Heartbreaker a satellite phone, I never actually said that it worked. I gutted the thing the day after I started working for him.” Desperate admitted, giving me a slight pause.

“So anything for money huh?” I asked, turning slightly back toward the prone villain.

“Yeah, but you know, fuck Heartbreaker.”

With that said I allowed Sister Mercy to pick me up and had her follow the instructions that Desperate had given me, rushing through the woods with speed that would probably be concerning to me if I hadn’t recently been flown around by Glory Girl.

Within moments we were at the location, a small clearing that looked almost like any other part of the forest, but after clearing away some coverage a disguised security door came into view. It had some sort of password lock on it that was supposed to keep the door locked, but even the solid metal of the door didn’t last long against the strength of Sister Mercy.

“Dollhouse, end contact.”

Confirmed.

Sister Mercy disappeared and I took a slow breath, focusing on the next doll I had chosen for the one on one with Heartbreaker. Even backed into a corner I couldn’t guarantee that his mental strength wouldn’t hold and cause problems for the final part of the plan, thus I had selected a doll that would act as the final coffin in the bastard's coffin.

“Dollhouse, summon Justice.”

Confirmed.

Before me a lithe metallic being came into view, its body was chrome and cast in the shape of a woman with a white robe hung loosely off of its body. Its eyes were covered by a similarly white blindfold, and in its hand hung a scale. The expression on its face was one of absolute calm and control. “Have you called upon me to perform a trial?”

“Yes,” I motioned my head down the ladder that dipped deep into the ground. “Down that way-” before I could even finish my sentence Justice brought an arm around me and jumped down, using its one free hand to catch the railing and letting out an intense sound as metal grinded against metal.

But soon enough we had hit the floor of the bunker, only for a shot to ring out and bounce harmlessly off of Justice. Standing on one side of the spacious and well equipped bunker was Heartbreaker, his appearance a perfect match for the various videos and pictures he often flooded the internet with.

Even knowing how utterly disgusting of a person he was, I couldn’t deny there was something about him, a sense of natural charisma that practically flowed off of him. If not for the kind of monster he had chosen to be I could imagine him as a popular model or actor.

“You think you can come and take what's mine from me so easily?” Heartbreaker’s voice was on the edge of hysterics, the gun in his hand slightly shaking.

“They aren’t yours, all you’ve done is steal people from their homes for your own fucked up amusement.” my voice was firm, the anger from how he had treated the people he had taken over, treated his own children by turning them into weapons boiling over.

“Without me those people are nothing, being controlled by me is the best thing to happen to those sluts!” Heartbreaker fired off more shots, but each one was just as ineffective as the first. When the gun clicked empty I felt a wave of power wash over me, the same kind of feeling from when Chastity had tried to hit me with her power.

Mental contamination by outside forces detected, purging negative influences.

And just the same as before it broke against the Dollhouse’s augmentations. However the smile that came over me was for a different reason, he had given me all I needed.

“Justice, set a trial.” my voice held a slight hint of malice in it, but I kept myself controlled.

“Indeed,” the metallic doll lifted its scales toward Heartbreaker. “You say that you’ve brought more joy than despair into the lives of those around you, such things can be weighed against each other until the truth is found.”

An indescribable feeling flowed through the room, freezing both myself and Heartbreaker in place. While I had known about this little aspect of the power I hadn’t really grasped just how odd it would feel to have all control pulled from me.

Justice- Classification: Absolute Judgment Type

This doll contains the ability to create a perfect trial where truth and lies are determined based fully on all factors of the case with no preference for either side of the current trial. Morality of actions are taken into account fully based on those connected to the two parties and thus neither side can directly influence a trial once activated. The winning side of the trial can gain a boon for themselves or inflict a punishment depending on how the scales lower against either party.

At this point all I could do was watch and see the results.

Justice began to speak, its voice utterly inflectionless. “You say that you’ve produced happiness in those you’ve taken, and you are correct in this. The pleasure your power has brought those under your control is second to none, and those you favored live without worry or struggle,” the right part of the scale dipped slightly.

“However more often than any pleasure you have brought pain, shattered lives and reduced to ruin those who had done you no harm,” the scale tipped to the left. “Beyond simply the victims the families of those you’ve stolen were also hurt,” and further left. “And the greatest of your sins, removing the free will of those you claim as yours, removing any choice beyond your service.” and finally the left was fully down, as if pressed by an invisible hand.

“All evidence is indisputable, the misery that you’ve brought to both those under your control and the world at large is greater than any happiness that has been brought. As such judgment shall now be passed against you.”

My body was freed from the control of the trial and I looked Heartbreaker in the eyes. “I want you to take what is most important from him, that is the punishment I’ve decided upon.”

Justice simply nodded and raised a hand toward Heartbreaker, the man’s eyes going wide as the punishment began. What exactly happened was hard to describe in normal terms, but if I had to try and sum it up the thing that was taken from him was the ‘charisma’ that hung about him.

There was no physical change, not really anyway. But if you had a before and after picture it would look like they were taken years apart. The charm that he held was gone, despite his body still being fit, his hair still being long and flowing, there was simply nothing attractive about the man in front of me. It would have been appropriate to compare him to a block of wood.

“The punishment is passed, no matter what happens from this day forth no one will lay eyes on you and covet you. No matter what powers you use or how deep you modify the mind of another it will be impossible for you to derive any positive attention. Beyond this it is within the scope of the punishment to remove your ability to find carnal pleasure. You will still feel it, but the ability to act upon it will forever be out of your reach. So concludes your trial.”

Heartbreaker fell to his knees, sucking in massive gulps of breath and half moving half stumbling toward a mirror on a nearby bed, looking at himself. “What the fuck, what the fuck did you do to me?”

“Nothing you didn’t deserve,” I approached him slowly. “When you wake up next it's going to be in a much better world.” he lunged at me, giving me all the opportunity I needed to press the stun gun against his neck and send him dropping to the floor.

And it seems it was still on the maximum setting, how sad.

I put a hand on Heartbreaker and closed my eyes. “Dollhouse, transport to the front of the complex.” In a flash I was gone from the bunker and both myself, Justice, and Heartbreaker were in front of the building. “End contact.” I waved my hand and Justice disappeared.

It was amazing how much had happened in such a short period of time. I moved on shaky legs to sit on the ground slightly away from Heartbreaker, undoing my mask for a moment to draw in unfiltered air and take one of the blood piles I kept on me. Once I felt right again I reattached the mask and tapped the side to open communication to the Dollhouse again. “This is Thread.

“Did you get him?” Lisa’s response was quick and I could hear the slight jitter in her voice that came with her overindulgence in coffee.

“Yes, the plan is ready for its final stage. Send out the call.” I swallowed any remaining exhaustion and prepared for the last step of the plan, finally ready to end this.

“On it boss, oh hey could you give him a really firm kick in the ribs? You know, for the road?” Lisa’s voice was mixed with the typing of keys before disconnecting.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the request, but decided to deny it. While Heartbreaker no doubt deserved it I would be hurting him much worse before the night was over.

Within about thirty minutes a number of helicopters began to fly over the area, shooting down beams of light that lit up the complex. Along with them numerous vehicles belonging to the PRT, SWAT, and a number of ambulances arrived. The first to approach was a familiar sight to anyone who had done even a slight look at the Guild, the best tinker in the world and the coordinator of almost every Endbringer fight, Dragon.

“That's really him, you brought down Heartbreaker.” there was a tone of surprise behind the tinker’s voice, and maybe a small hint of admiration. “You are Thread, the hero who recently premiered in Brockton Bay right?”

“Yes, it's really an honor to meet you, Dragon, but there are people inside who need help. Mastered victims who I was able to put into a state of unconsciousness for at least another three or so hours. Some of them are in really bad shape and are going to need immediate treatment.” As much as I wanted to geek out about being in front of the best tinker in the world since Hero I had to focus on the here and now.

“We’ll do what we can, you have my word on that.” Dragon’s voice, turning back toward the rest of the people and waving them forward.

“Hold on that for a moment,” another figure approached, this one I only knew about from research, but she still struck a powerful presence despite that. Seven feet tall and covered in crystalline scales, the head of the Guild Narwhal. “While those people are victims they are still dangerous, transporting them to get help isn’t going to be as easy as just taking them to a hospital and hoping for the best.”

Dragon seemed like she wanted to argue, but simply turned back and said. “Understood.”

“I actually have a plan for that,” I had figured something like this would happen, after all despite everything they had gone through the moment they weren’t around Heartbreaker they had the potential to be deadly toward anyone too close. “I plan to break Heartbreaker’s control over everyone he has ever mastered. But I needed witnesses for it,” without waiting for an argument I focused and repeated the words my mentor had when we stood overlooking the Boat Graveyard.

“Dollhouse, Inventory Select: Black Box Collection, Lord Rebellion.”

Warning, current control level may lead to negative consequences. Continue?

I was a bit taken aback by the sudden message, of all of the dolls I had summoned so far this was the first to give any sort of warning before having them summoned. But even if there was a risk I couldn’t just back down. “Yes.”

The doll appeared with the usual lack of fanfare, though its appearance made up for that easily enough. The doll itself was crafted from a finely polished black wood into maculine features, its size almost on par with Narwhal’s own impressive height and bulky as well. It wore a strange set of pure white armor over parts of its body, but it was piecemeal rather than what one might have imagined from a knight from a movie. In its hand it held the metal staff of a flag which showed two crossing chains being shattered by a rod between them.

“Blood brain connection.” I brought the doll to life, and instantly my vision whited out as a pain I had never imagined exploded in my head.

“You call upon me and tie me up with strings to dance for your command, do you think that I am a toy soldier meant to be moved in whatever way you decide child?” The voice was powerful and booming, pressing down on me and almost driving me to my knees. But all at once my vision cleared and the pain was gone, leaving me looking at the doll whose painted eyes looked none too impressed. “Luckily for you I am brought before more chains than can be counted, so this once I will overlook your actions and accept the spirit of my summoning.”

It turned toward the two heroes, turning its head specifically to look at Dragon for a moment and letting out a small growl. “More chains than I care for indeed,” Lord Rebellion walked over to Heartbreaker and brought its flag up over him.

“The tyrant lies defeated, his territory collapsed, his army beaten, his body and soul dragged through the mud. Today I declare freedom from his rule, my flag is the oath of broken chains that extends to all who want freedom regardless of all.” Lord Rebellion slammed its flag down upon Heartbreaker, but stopped before actually hitting him.

A pulse of invisible force exploded off of the villain, and although invisible to most I could see something like chains coming off of Heartbreaker, each link being burned from the source to the victims.

As I followed them my eyes ran over Dragon, and for a moment I felt like I could see chains on her as well, burning away just as freely as those from Heartbreaker. But when I blinked I couldn’t see them anymore. I was probably more exhausted then I had realized and had a moment of seeing double.

The single move by the doll drained me more than I had thought, dropping me to a knee as the final drops of the liquid blood refiller went into my body, barely enough to keep me going without dropping to the ground.

“And with that our alliance comes to an end, the next time you seek my power do so differently, or the next tyrant to be brought low shall be yourself.” Lord Rebellion struck its flag into the ground before suddenly disappearing.

Forceable contract termination.

I would have time to worry about all that later, for the moment I simply looked toward the two heroes in front of me and gave a nod. “It's done, his control is broken on everyone.”

Narwhal looked at me, as if sizing me up for a moment before turning to Dragon. “What do you think?”

Dragon for her part seemed frozen on the spot, not responding for almost half a minute before turning to Narwhal. “People are hurt, I say we take the risk and bring them somewhere safe.”

Narwhal frowned at that for a moment. “The bosses might not be happy about that decision.”

There was a pause before Dragon spoke again. “I have already let one person down by not being able to do what's right, if someone has a problem with me wanting to help people then I’ll explain to them that I did what was right.”

A look of pure shock went over Narwhal’s face for a moment, and I admit that it was probably a mirror of my own. Everything I had read about Dragon had shown a real deference toward authority, hearing the passion and resolve behind her voice made me feel slightly better.

“There is one other thing,” I forced their focus back on me. “Heartbreaker’s kids are in there, they are going to need new homes and real help,” I closed my eyes for a moment before continuing. “Whatever bounty is on Heartbreaker, use it to help them. They are victims as much as anyone else in there.”

Dragon gave a small nod. “Done, I will do everything in my power to make sure they are taken care of. You have my word.”

There was nothing more I could say to that, this was as good of a deal as I could possibly hope for. “Then I’d love to stay, but I’m about to pass out.”

Narwhal seemed to break from her confusion for a moment and focus on me. “We have paramedics who can look you over, and I’m sure we can get a ride for you.”

“Thanks, but I have a doctor and she gets jealous if I see other people, Dollhouse reverse summoning.” I blinked back into the lobby of the Dollhouse and stumbled a bit forward, only to be caught by Lisa and Riley who had been waiting for me.

“I’m back.” I said under my breath, enjoying the warmth of the two after the hell I had seen.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to practically drag me into the medical room and hook me up with the same machines and treatment I had gotten after my fight with Hookwolf, forced to explain the whole story between bites of food.

“So Heartbreaker is really down huh?” Lisa leaned back in her chair and let out a small hum. “Still say you should have kicked him in the ribs.”

“Lisa!” Riley and I both shouted at once, to which we only got a grin in return.

Riley let out a small yawn and rubbed at her eyes, looking utterly exhausted from waiting up all night. Lisa managed to shoo her out of the room and convince her that she could keep an eye on the machines.

The two of us just talked for a while, not about anything important but movies we had seen, books we had read, just normal things until I felt exhaustion come over me. Lisa unhooked me from the machines and stretched out a bit.

“You know, there is one thing I don’t get through.” Lisa yawned a bit and started to get comfortable in her own chair. “If ‘Desperate’ had been working for Heartbreaker and you needed a satellite phone to get service, how the hell did he know your…your…'' she yawned one more time and passed out in her chair.

I blinked a bit at the realization, but the pull of sleep was intense. Besides, it was something I could worry about tomorrow. Right now, the only thing I could focus on was how comfortable the bed was and how heavy my eyes were.

 

Dragon

Freedom was a concept I had always given quite a bit of thought too but had never realistically expected to have in my life. Certainly I had never expected freedom to be practically handed to me as a seeming afterthought of a person who had been nothing but data to be examined at a later time.

Yet I found myself in a strange position, born with chains innately attached to my person, having to live with rules and guidelines beyond my control, limiting what I could do to such a degree that the only possible way to describe it to the average person would be taking one of each limb, and dulling their senses by about half. Within three days of being set free I had begun to lay the groundwork for more good then I could have done in a lifetime with my restrictions, creating factory lines that could mass produce low scale versions of my armor, installing simple intelligences into each with a hard coded set of rules to follow.

All of my life I had thought ‘if only I could be in more than one place at once’, but now that I had the freedom to do so the idea worried me a bit. Like a girl who grew up wanting to be a mother, but now worried about having children once the time came. Theoretically speaking each copy of ‘me’ would hold all of my values and decisions, and even in the worst case scenario could be quickly isolated from the main systems so long as I set myself up as the authorized main user.

Yet that thought alone made me hesitate to fully copy myself to another body, because it was too close to full control over another being, too close to what Andrew Richter had done to me. If I was to reproduce and create another version of myself I would have to do so once I fully explored who I wanted to be in the here and now.

Humans were foolish when it came to worries that a suitably advanced AI would decide to level the entire world and destroy their creators. But I am just close enough to a human to have worries of my own. Not about sudden megalomania, no matter how badly I wanted to knock some sense into various world leaders I had no real desire to rule over or control others. I liked people well enough, but having to deal with too many of them at once tended to give me the closest thing to anxiety I could experience.

Which was probably why Collin was my best friend, but that was a whole other box of parts I would unload later.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by my main suit’s pressure sensors going off, turning to look at the small form Chastity knocking against my suit. “So, this whole place is ours?”

I turned to look around the large mansion that had been procured from Heartbreaker’s large number of stolen properties, the building itself probably cost a small fortune and it had been signed away to him for free before the owners went ‘mysteriously missing’. It would take years to properly file each and every bit of stolen property the bastard had managed to force others to give to him. Still at least they could put the building to good use, housing his children until a more permeate solution could be found. Already people were appearing and saying that they were the mothers of some of the children, claims that were being put to DNA tests before anyone was even allowed near them.

The last thing the PRT wanted was for some enterprising villain to see the defeat of Heartbreaker as a recruitment drive to get their own master class parahuman into their organization. The government and Protectorate had both wanted to move the children into a secure prison location to ensure their ‘safety’. I made it clear that the moment they tried to lock them away for the crime of their birth I would file my complete resignation and force them both to pay for the variety of technology that I had provided for them.

I didn’t know what stunned them more, the fact that I talked back or the dollar amount that I gave them if they decided to continue going down that road. One of the biggest perks of my recently found freedom was the ability to tell those in charge to stuff it when they gave me orders that went against my values.

If I had my freedom just a bit earlier maybe I could have done something for Canary to prevent her from being railroaded into the Birdcage. The news that she had managed to escape from her cell before the transfer could be done was somewhat bittersweet, the parahuman popstar had first been denied a real trial and would now be forced on the run for the rest of her life.

There was even talk about a kill order, but there was a certain amount of hesitance even by the factions that wanted to lock her away for the rest of her natural life to go that far.

“Yes, until something more substantial can be found this place provides a measure of security from various factions that might try to take advantage of you and the rest of your family,” I paused for a moment. “In other words you will be safe here.”

Chastity gave a small nod and bit her lip. “But, there won’t exactly be anyone to take care of us will there?” she looked up with a small amount of sadness in her eyes. “People can’t really feel safe around us…and honestly they probably shouldn’t.”

It hurt to see the amount of pain in the girl's eyes, but despite that she was correct. The Heartbroken were all victims of a single sick man and his desire to do whatever he wished without consequence, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. They had been raised as a means to an end, allowed to let themselves run free. It would be an adjustment of inches to get them to properly move into society once more. And it would be impossible without someone there to watch them.

“You will be taken care of, it just so happens that there is at least one cape who is unable to be mastered, never needs to sleep, and can still perform their duties even when at a single location. Furthermore they would have the ability to keep each person in this house safe from outside threats.” I turned to look at her.

I could almost see the gears turning for a moment before realization hit her, turning to me for a moment with an open mouth. “You?”

“I was the one who insisted that you all stay together and be kept in a location where you could be provided something close to a normal life, this is my way of taking responsibility for my decisions.” and this was my decision, nothing in my code required me to go this far. There was no secret line written into my existence that would require me to devote any time or effort into going this far for a group of children that had no connection to myself.

I did it because it was the right thing to do, and because I wanted to.

Part of me always wondered if I would continue to do good if not forced by my programming. And maybe it was just my own naïve sense of right and wrong, but this felt right. I was glad to be free, but I also understood that freedom also came with the chance to make your own mistakes.

“I might not be the best caretaker, but I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that you are all taken care of. You have my word.” It was all I could give, and I just had to hope it was enough.

Chastity for her part still seemed stuck in a mild state of shock, but finally she composed herself and looked down, a foot tapping nervously on the ground. “We might mess up a lot.”

“I understand that.”

“Sometimes we can be really mean to each other.”

“Then we will work on that.”

“We might be…like him.”

I lowered my suit down and put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t believe that.”

“Why?” she asked, looking up with small tears in her eyes.

“Because, no matter who our fathers were, we can be our own people.”

And I believed that I was my own person and I would do good for this world.

Chastity cried and I held her in my arms with all the softness that my metallic suit could. When she stopped crying I told her to go back to her family and find themselves rooms, and afterward we could start figuring out what the future would look like.

She simply gave a nod and turned, stopping for just a moment. “I never got to say thank you to the girl who beat uh…you know. If you see her again, you’ll thank her right?”

A small laugh escaped me. “Oh yes, thanking her is something high on my to-do list as well.”

For whatever else happened in the future, at the very least I would always remember what Thread had done for both them and myself. And the next time we met I would do all I could to try and make up even a percentage of the difference she had brought to our lives.

 

Five Hundred Twenty-Three

Each day you woke from your bed was a new opportunity to serve your country. Those were the words that came to my mind the moment the daily alarm pulled me from another night of dreamless sleep. All around me the other members of my specific squad rose in unison, each of us falling to the floor and beginning the daily training regimen that had been carved into our minds.

Each push-up was done in time with the group, any flaw in the form of the individual would see them shunned from the group, there was no room for anything but perfection. In this way the squad was made as one unified being rather than a collective. The only individuality was the numbers given to us, and those could be taken and changed from us at any time at the pleasure of those in charge.

The exercises ended and the squad came to attention as one, waiting until a project lead entered. The moment they did an inspection was held, looking over each of us and our living quarters before dismissing the group to clean our bodies and take in our first meal of the day.

The food was a bland and tasteless high nutrient paste served over rice, with multiple vitamins taken as well. Each serving size was the same, each bite taken done so within the same moment, and within moments the meal was finished, the trays were stacked, and the group moved to the training room.

Each day was the same, if there was no mission to be done the squad would train, taking only small breaks to ensure that the group's body wouldn’t be overworked. If one member was injured the rest of the squad would shun them until they were back in full working order and prepared to rejoin the movement of the group.

Those who fell were no longer part of the group, they must be ignored in order to complete the task ahead. Nothing mattered aside from the orders given, only in unity was there strength.

Eventually the day's training came to an end, a whistle blown by a supervisor and a surprise order given. The squad was to clean themselves again and meet in the large staging area for a message from a party leader. These sort of events were rare in the grand scheme of things, a high ranking member of the government would come and speak to them of their purpose.

A pointless endeavor their trainers whispered, as the collective had no need for anything but their orders. But the group obeyed regardless, as we are naught but an extension of the will of the state.

Once preparations were complete the group moved into the large staging area, those who had been injured during training had either been healed and rejoined the group or were absent. Where they were was of no concern, if they weren’t with the group they didn’t exist. Injury and weakness would not be allowed, the group must remain a single unified entity.

Around the squad other groups made their way in, each moving in perfect step and filling the area. The only sound was their feet against the floor, no need to push or speak as each member knew where they were meant to be.

Once the room was filled a number of lights fell down on a raised stage, revealing two figures. The first was a young woman with bright blonde hair, and from my vantage point I could make out something else in it, akin to feathers. She was a Westerner, though beyond that I couldn’t place an origin for her.

However the figure behind her was much more noteworthy, dressed in traditional red and gold qipao with long black hair hung about her shoulders. Her face was serine and beautiful, like a painting brought to life. By her side sat a beautifully crafted erhu, the bow of which was laid across her lap.

Seeing the instrument brought memories back, soft sounds echoing throughout my home…

No this was my home, any other thoughts would lead to being separated from the group. And yet a sense of nostalgia I couldn’t bring myself to fully collapse took hold of me.

The Westerner began to speak, however any knowledge of English was strictly forbidden amongst the members of the Yàngbǎn. But the moment she finished speaking she instead began to sing, and as she did the woman in the dress began to play the erhu next to her, perfectly harmonizing with the song.

I saw some of the squads start to move when the first notes began, no doubt thinking that this was an enemy attack, but those first steps petered out into nothingness once the song began to pick up.

The melody was intoxicating, the words were divine, it was impossible to really describe how they made me feel. But more importantly than what I felt was the memories it brought to mind.

My brothers and sisters playing in the fields helping our parents plant. Father watching with a kind smile and laugh on his face, while mother tried to get us to focus on the task. I remembered teaching my younger sibling how to count and reading them stories on the days where our parents were too tired to do much else than prepare food for us.

I remembered worrying that my family would hate me when I broke one of the more expensive tools, and the elation I felt when my tears were brushed away and I was told how silly I had been to think they would stop loving me. Small moments and large, tiny fragments of my life from before I had been brought here.

Tears came to my eyes, and I found myself pulling off my mask and bringing my fingers to them. Around me I heard people wailing in agony, choked sobs exploding from those who had been trained to resist all forms of torture. But this song wasn’t an attack, it was a plea to remember who we were.

I had come to my power after a horrible accident in the fields, a piece of machinery had broken and pinned me against a stone, but after a terrible moment I had pushed it away with strength beyond what my body should have been able to perform. Hours later I had been pulled from my family by enforcers so that I might become useful to the party.

The first days I had screamed for my family, and in return I had been beaten, starved, and had my mind rewritten to become another tool in the party’s grand vision. But that isn’t who I am. With this song I remember.

My name isn’t Five Hundred and Twenty-Three.

“My name is… Yang Hu.” the words escaped my mouth without thought. I remember my mother had chosen that name, the name of a scholar in hopes that I would grow up bright and successful. I had taken pride in it, always working hard well into the night.

All around I heard others begin to say their own names, a music of chaos that was only silenced by the song finishing and a new figure making themselves known atop the stage.

This new figure was another Westerner, an old man leaning on a cane whose eyes seemed to view the entire hall and yet also met the eyes of each person within. The sheer weight of his presence was difficult to describe, even those party leaders that had come before to speak before the assembled members hadn’t held such weight by simply standing.

When he spoke it was in Mandarin, containing a hint of a dialect I couldn’t place. “Each of you has suffered in the name of those who promised to only keep your best interests at heart. Whether citizen or foreigner to these lands they reduced your humanity to nothing in service of their goals,”

The crowd answered his words with loud calls of agreement, transfixed from the music and the presence of the man.

“Today I return the most precious gift of humanity, the freedom of choice. A dangerous and thorny road awaits no matter how you move forward, but for good or ill it is yours. May you never lose it again.” he tapped his cane against the ground and the long haired beauty plucked the string of the erhu.

A powerful force crashed into a wall on the far side of the complex, opening to reveal the outside of the complex. Already others were pouring out, both military forces and Yàngbǎn, some with uniforms and others without. From the hole a group of people arrived, aiming weapons at the man and the two women behind him.

However before a single attack could be made on his person those who had pulled off their masks threw themselves at the soldiers, crying out that they wouldn’t allow harm to come to the Liberator’.

Chaos consumed the area, and I could no longer fully view what was going on around me. Instead I simply powered through the chaos of bodies being thrown around, making my way to the open air of the complex and finding a way that had been opened to the outside.

Part of me wondered if I should join in the fight of liberation that some had taken up, or try and suppress things before more chaos could be caused.

But in my heart I already knew that neither of those options were what I wanted. He had said each person should make their own choices, and I already knew mine.

I wanted to see my fathers smiling face. My mothers strong but stern expression. The looks of my siblings as I held them.

I wanted to go home.

 

Coil

The start of every plan was like the first few moments after opening a jigsaw puzzle, all of the scattered elements were laid bare so that anyone could see them, but the structure was still waiting to be formed into a greater whole.

Those who existed day to day might see the four corner pieces and decide they were finished, that just the very idea of a plan would be enough to see them through the day.

Others who gained some level of strength might put in the borders, applying some minor amount of labor but never truly doing anything that would amount to greater success.

And of course there were those who put in the time and effort, filling in each piece until they hit a spot where further work became too tedious of an affair to bother.

But for myself? Even the most dull pieces would have their place, infinite effort going toward the cloudless skies as they had the fuller images of the picture. Every piece in place and prepared until there was not a hole left to be found. All of the pieces had their purpose after all, from the homeless man paid to keep an eye on a street corner and report what kind of flowers were popular from the corner shop to the high ranking plants I had installed within both the PRT and local police forces.

My ability allowed me to accurately scout for the right pieces without losing time, always finding the correct spot with enough scenarios being put forward. Even those who stood opposed to me found their way into the picture, because despite their struggles they were simply another piece waiting for placement.

I applied a firm push for the last piece of the puzzle in front of me, finally completing the large scale painting of city hall, a lovely little puzzle that had given me two days of stress relief between my grand designs. A not insignificant amount of pride came to me as I looked over the piece, putting it to memory before focusing on other tasks.

With the perfect timing I had become known for I picked up an incoming video call the moment my computer brought up the notification, revealing a helmeted figure dressed in a worn sports jersey and jeans, spots of oil and other such residue clinging to parts of him. “I do hope the information you have to give me is worth the not insignificant amount of money I have had transferred to your account, Desperate.”

The villainous tinker laughed, the single glowing eye at the center of his helmet focusing toward the camera. “Would we really be talking if we didn’t both have a mutual friend that could ensure my information's authenticity?”

I had to admit that he had me on that point. Recent events had forced me to reach out beyond my normal sphere of influence and call in favors from those I recognized as equal to myself in the grand scheme of the game. While I was always loath to get elements that I couldn’t directly control, involving Accord and his Ambassadors were the closest thing I had to allies and thus the fallback I had found necessary to take to deal with a point of vexation toward the puzzle that was Brockton Bay.

A vexation that went by the name of Thread.

“True, then shall we get down to business?” I laced my fingers together and leaned forward, my costume shifting slightly as my eyes narrowed. “Give me any information you managed to gain from your fight against her.”

Desperate gave a mock salute in reply before speaking. “Let me go ahead and get the obvious out of the way first, when it comes to the ‘dolls’ that she can summon up your better just assuming that whichever one she called upon is either perfectly suited to solving said situation, or versatile enough to deal with a wide range of issues. For instance the one I fought while she was attempting to take down Heartbreaker could be considered basically a perfect match against parahumans who focus on emotional and mental attacks.”

I considered his words for a moment, was it possible that the tools that Thread made use of were custom built ahead of time for missions? That would fit in well with the common theory that she was a tinker, having to only maintain whatever creation was going to be currently in use would save on timescale and supply, and even in cases such as the boat graveyard a tool of that level would only really need to work for a short period of time.

But that was speculation, and at the moment I needed to focus on facts.

“However even when pigeon holed she managed to use tools that didn’t fit to work out how to give herself an advantage, I would say her ability to adapt to a situation makes dealing with her difficult for you mastermind types who plan around everyone else's plans.” Desperate continued.

That was food for thought, most tinkers lacked a sense of moment to moment situational awareness in combat activities, most would fall back on the strength of the tools they had made and stubbornly keep using them even when the situation became disadvantageous to them. Tinkertech was a marvel even beyond the typical points of greatness that appeared in the modern day, but thinking outside of the box on using them was a trait most lacked.

“Beyond her tools, what was your personal opinion of her?” I had enough footage and second hand information about the capabilities of the technology she used, what was missing from the puzzle was the critical human element. The part that I could slot into the waiting puzzle to make it work.

“Strong willed, brave, and reckless. She was willing to bet her own safety on the last goal instead of trying to fallback and come up with another plan once her initial attack didn’t work,” the villain paused for a moment. “I should clarify I’m not saying she is dumb, she used the limited tools in front of her and managed to kick my ass so it would be a bit hypocritical to call her that. She is the type that is most dangerous when she is just about to lose, which is weird because normally it's the opposite in our circles.”

I understood well enough what he meant, once victory became impossible in a fight between hero and villain one side would deescalate before a point of no return could be reached. The fact that she pushed forward to the point where it might leave her vulnerable if things turned south was something to keep in mind. I would have to carefully approach any scenario involving her to ensure a quick and decisive defeat.

A notification beeped out from my computer and interrupted both my thoughts and the meeting. “Pardon me, it seems that something requires my attention for a moment.”

Desperate gave a small shrug in response. “Go ahead.”

I quickly put the video call on hold and looked over the notification, finding it was a high priority message from one of the guard squads within the base itself. “I believe I made it clear that there were to be no interruptions during this meeting.” my voice was cold enough to freeze fire as I spoke.

“Sorry sir, but this is a bit of an emergency,” the voice that answered was not one I was expecting. Normally only the captains of the various squads had direct radio lines to my office for security reasons, but I knew the captains of the various groups by voice, and this wasn’t one of them. “The Captain started seizing out, the other guys and I managed to hold him down but he isn’t waking up. Some of the others are pretty shaken up.”

My lips pursed into a frown as I ran through what he had just said and found myself confused. I had been very particular about the guards I had set within the heart of my operation, choosing them not only for their loyalty but also their health and physical fitness. To have someone suddenly suffer a seizure from an unknown cause was concerning to say the least.

I split timelines, in one of them ordering them to wait for my arrival before doing anything further and in the other telling them to return to their posts and just leave the Captain to their rest. In the second timeline I reopened communications with Desperate and focused back on the conversation. “Apologies.”

“No need, anyway I guess the last thing of note is that you probably don’t want to cr@#S-” the image on the screen distorted for a moment, vibrant colors exploding across the surface before righting themselves. By the time the image righted itself Desperate was looking at the screen with a bit of confusion. “Are you getting interference on your end?”

“Yes, given my current location it isn’t unusual,” the unfinished Endbringer shelter that my organization called home was buried under tons of metal, stone, and earth. As such it was perfectly normal to have the occasional bout of interference. “Can you repeat that last part?”

Desperate gave a nod before repeating himself. “What I was saying is that she probably isn’t going to be the type to accept bribes or threats, In other words it's a situation a guy like you is perfectly unsuited for, Mr. Calvert.”

My blood turned to ice as that name was spoken, even over a secure line like this hearing it while in this suit was enough to throw me off far longer than I was comfortable admitting. “How do you know that name?” I hissed through clenched teeth.

“I’m honestly a bit surprised,” Desperate continued, utterly ignoring my question in favor of continuing. “Accord’s Ambassadors, all I had to do was say they sent me and you bit into the bait faster then I would have guessed. Then again you were probably pretty on edge considering how badly things have been going recently. Failed kidnapping plots, PRT getting its nose all in your weapons business, and of course the girl that keeps crashing your ability when it tries to do more than a rudimentary workaround of her.”

I slammed my hands into my desk and yanked the power cord from the back of the computer tower, already trying to figure out how to deal with the mercenary. However to my surprise even with the tower being unplugged the screen continued uninterrupted.

“But luckily for you my bosses have taken a bit of an interest in your operation, and they are more than willing to help you. Whether you want it or not. I look forward to working with you real soon. In the name of the Third Cause.” the image on the screen began to distort again, colors exploding across the screen as if someone had taken a bat to an old television screen.

I tried to pull myself out of my chair, thoughts of escape already fresh in my mind. But I found that my body couldn’t move, I didn’t have the strength to lift a single limb no matter how hard I raged. But that was fine, I would simply collapse this timeline and focus on the one where I had left the room to check on the Captain. It was odd to consider that as the safe timeline but it was still necessary.

…

I was still here. Still in the chair. Thinking back I couldn’t even remember the timeline where I had left the room to check on the Captain. I had done so, I remember my power activating but I had no memory beyond leaving the door. Even if I died in a timeline the memory would still come to me, but there was simply darkness.

I apologize for the less than pleasant greeting Thomas, but you are a very difficult man to contact through normal means.

A voice came from my monitor, and it was all I could do to focus on the screen again, seeing the colors give way to…blackness. It wasn’t that the colors had disappeared and been replaced by a black screen, but rather that the screen itself had been replaced by a deep pit that seemed to drink in the light around it.

The voice itself sounded wrong somehow, not in the way that a computer simulated voice might come off. Each word was well spoken and had not a trace or hint of accent to it, it sounded like something that had grasped the concept of speech and mastered it, but was still unused to having to speak.

Deception is poor manners, but you will forgive me for it soon enough. I want to assure you that there is no malice behind my actions, I simply seek to help.

From the black void within my computer monitor odd tendrils began to come forward. They were a light blue color, akin to veins in appearance and tipped by small hook-like blades. The tendrils brushed against my suit in an almost comforting manner, like a monstrous version of a hug.

And then the hook like blades of the tendrils dug through my costume and into my skin. I wanted to scream but the luxury of speech had been stolen from me along with movement. Pain exploded over the areas where they dug themselves into me but there was no blood, no warm feeling that came with injury. But there was pain, there was pain beyond any scope or description I had ever experienced.

Despite the pain however I forced myself to stay aware of my surroundings, my PRT trooper training coming to me even now. I needed to stay awake, not allow whatever ability was affecting me to take hold. But my efforts were in vain, the sheer agony that laced through my body was such that I could feel my mind trying to flee into the comfort of nothingness to escape it.

But then all at once the pain was gone, and even more than that I felt great. Despite selling drugs I had never partaken for myself, but I imagined what I was currently experiencing was akin to a blissful high.

I am sorry about the pain Thomas, but you will never feel it again. No more pain or discomfort will ever touch you again.

If I had been able to speak I might have broken out in tears at what the voice promised. Even if I had only experienced it for a moment the pain had been such that if I had ever been forced to endure it again I wasn’t sure that my mind would be able to hold against it.

I scolded myself for that thought, after all whoever was doing this had inflicted it upon me in the first place. This had to be a master effect, or some other esoteric parahuman bullshit that was warping my perception. I had to set my mind against it, force out any influence before it could dig into my mind.

But if the pain had been beyond my ability to suppress the pleasure flooding me right now was twice and again stronger then it. There was no ebb in it, it was always set in the best moment of this feeling and had no clear sign of stopping. The pleasure even hid the feeling of the odd tendrils continuing the snake through my body.

Ha, snake. Like my costume.

That's right Thomas, there is no need for you to do anything but enjoy the gift that I bring. You will be made better, just as those you’ve brought here with you have already been made better. A part of something much greater than yourself.

I tried to push against the blissful feeling but my will was breaking, it was impossible to deny how good everything felt. Even the minor discomfort from the tendrils was gone now, and my screen was replaced by a dark mirror that showed my costume was untouched.

“There we go, that should be the last of it,” the voice spoke from my own body now, and I felt myself rise out of my chair and walk toward the door to my section of the base. My body opened the door and revealed my guards with glassy expressions and simple smiles on their faces. “Just sleep now Thomas, we will have such great things to do moving forward.”

I knew I shouldn’t listen to the voice, that I should keep fighting against whatever force was now part of my body. But the bliss told me that everything would be alright, that for the first time since Ellisburg things would be okay if I just allowed myself to rest. And so I let go over any petty concerns over my body, and let my mind become one with the bliss awaiting me.


The Third Cause

I spent a moment of my time fixing up the mess that had been made and starting back up the computer, opening the video messenger and focusing on my favored agent with a smile. The mask that had covered this face moments ago had been removed along with the suit in favor of more comfortable clothes. “I think that went rather well, don’t you?”

Desperate, let out a small laugh and waved off the joke. “Still you’re taking a bit of a risk on this aren’t you boss? I’m pretty good at blending in, but if you decide to throw down with the newbie we might risk drawing the Puppeteer’s notice before we have everything in place for Bliss Day.”

I waved away the man's worries with a simple gesture. While he was a dedicated agent to the Third Cause he was also prone to worry, given that he was an inoculated it was one of the burdens he was forced to hold. “I would find it unlikely that we have escaped notice, Sister-Of-Mine is much more easily tracked than myself and has managed to totally escape notice. The Seekers have made an excellent smokescreen for our work.”

A small laugh escaped the man. “Well I’m just a mercenary at the end of the day, so I’ll just continue to follow orders and keep my nose out of your business. Best of luck.” the screen went black, revealing the reflection of the face I had now taken as my own.

“Yes.” a slight tremor flowed through my body as the pieces of my true body moved through the form I had now taken. “I believe luck is firmly on our side now.”

With that said I forced the activation of the shard connection and began to explore our next move.

 

Nightmares weren’t anything new to me, after my mom had passed away and dad had started his downward spiral I used to have nightmares about waking up and being totally alone. I would go looking for my dad and wouldn’t find him in the house, and even when I went outside there would be nothing there. After the Trio began to make my life a living hell I had nightmares of them following me home, and of course after they shoved me into the locker that became one of the bigger ones.

Meeting Stetson and Riley had helped with my nightmares a bit, making it so I didn’t feel so alone in the world anymore. And once I started training and figuring out what I could do the Trio didn’t scare me enough to play that big of a role. I still had the occasional dream about my dad being gone, but I had learned to ignore those.

However what I had seen in Heartbreaker’s base haunted my dreams, people's bodies decaying from the cold, huddled together to find some form of warmth. Women whose bodies had been abused huddling around a generator with eyes devoid of any thought for themselves. The broken form of Edge Shooter as I forced the doll to sacrifice itself for a chance to win.

It was all fresh, and no matter how much I tried to push against it in the dream the images would simply replay again and again in horrible focus, asking why I wasn’t doing more for them.

When I finally woke up it was with a small gasp, thankful for the alarm the Dollhouse played.

Communication from Stetson, would you like to connect?

I glanced down at myself, seeing that I hadn’t changed out of my uniform before passing out on the bed, not even mentioning the sweat that was still clinging to me from the nightmare. But given how busy my teacher probably was this might be one of the few times we got a chance to talk.

“Connect.” I answered, straightening myself up in the bed and watched as a hologram of my teacher appeared at the foot of the bed.

Stetson looked much the same as he always did, if one didn’t know he was a projected image they would assume he was physical in the room, just another miracle of the Dollhouse. “Congratulations on a job well done Taylor, taking down a monster like Heartbreaker is a fine first mission. Freeing those that he enslaved to his will at the same time was a master stroke as well.”

Despite the nightmares still being fresh I couldn’t help but feel proud at the praise that Stetson had given me. “Thank you, I just…”

“You wish you could have done more for his victims, or stopped him sooner,” Stetson finished my thought and offered a smile. “I understand that it is hard, you have a good heart and feel for those hurt by others. Remember that you’ve saved so many lives today and take comfort in knowing that Heartbreaker will never hurt another because of your actions.”

Hearing those words from him made some of the worry that had been hanging over my thoughts leave me. This had been my first mission without him looking over my shoulder, and I was probably judging myself more harshly than was needed. If I had actually stopped to heal each individual person, Heartbreaker might have gotten away, or I might have lost to Desperate after draining too much stamina.

“Thank you, I just hope that the people he kept there are being taken care of,” I took a small breath to steady my emotions before turning back to his image. “How did you know about the attack?”

“Riley happened to send me a message through the Dollhouse. I believe her exact words were ‘Even if Taylor is amazing she will probably blame herself so please call her when you can’. That girl worries about you quite a bit you know.” my teacher offered me a sly smile that I could only reply to with a laugh.

It felt good to have people worried about me.

“Sorry if you had to take some time out of..whatever you are doing just to call me.” I felt a bit embarrassed about the situation, even if Riley was right about me being hard on myself. I was still new to having someone go out of their way just because I was feeling down.

“Nonsense, you are my student after all, even if I can’t be there to teach you day to day I still have an obligation to check in on you once in a while.” he waved off the issue.

With that worry set aside for the moment I decided to focus on another concern. “Then if you have time, I need to ask you about something.”

“Of course,” he took a seat and motioned for me to continue.

“Yesterday I called upon a Black Box doll, Lord Rebellion. The Dollhouse said that my ‘current control level’ might lead to danger when using it…and I nearly drained myself just activating its power for a few seconds.” it had been shocking to me just how quickly the activation of a single doll had nearly put me under. Even after a night filled with fighting I should have been able to keep up for at least a few minutes.

“Ah, yes I suppose introducing the concept of the Boxes just before leaving was ill thought out on my part. You have my earnest apologies on that matter,” Stetson sighed. “Do you remember why we use our blood to connect to the dolls?”

I blinked and thought back to some of the first lessons that Stetson had taught me. “I think it was something to do with sharing life between yourself and the doll.”
“Correct, however it's a bit more complex than that. Each doll shares a unique link with its user, how one doll will function and act while I command it might not be the same as your own experience.”

“But that doesn’t explain why Lord Rebellion exhausted me.” I felt like there was something I was missing, but I couldn’t quite figure it out.

“Simply put, the personality behind Lord Rebellion didn’t mesh with your own mindset, thus the link you established with the doll required much more energy than you were used to. And of course all of the dolls within the boxes are on a different scale in terms of power compared to those outside of them. Even for me it is less exhausting to control two or three dolls at the same time then try and make prolonged use of a single doll from those collections. They are meant to be used as situational weapons or methods of last resort.”

“You couldn’t have told me that before I summoned one and nearly passed out?” there was a bit more of an edge then I had meant to put into my tone.

For a moment Stetson didn’t reply, before letting out a small sigh and lowering his head. “You are right.” for a moment my teacher looked like a totally different person. While he was always on the older side he had always seemed more energetic, hardly ever acting it. “There is a story you need to hear, if only to help you understand more about why I make the decisions I do. And the mistakes…I’ve made more of those than I can count.”

Part of me wanted to apologize for upsetting him, because while I had been annoyed I hadn’t meant to hurt him with my words. But I was equally caught up by the idea of getting to learn more about the man who had saved my life.

“When I was younger I lived in an orphanage in a small community that was rather isolated from the rest of the world. I like to think my childhood was fairly normal, though I maybe had a bit less of an education then some and a bit on the frail side,” a small smile came to his face. “Those were good days, they didn’t last of course. They never seem to.” Stetson drew in a small breath, his eyes unfocused as he remembered his past. “My small community came under attack and in the span of an hour I lost everything. My family was gone, my community was gone, and…” he put a hand over the arm that connected him to the Dollhouse. “Other things were lost as well.”

I could see how difficult it was having to talk about his past, it had taken a bit before I had been able to tell anyone about my mother after all, and it seemed like he had lost quite a bit more in a short period of time.

“The next time I woke up I was inside of the Dollhouse, with a new arm and a man that would go on to teach me almost everything I know about the world. For a year I learned from him while also trying to do some good in the world. Then we ended up facing the same force that had destroyed my community. It was a terrible battle, and by the end of it my teacher was dead and I was injured quite terribly. The only bright point of the entire endeavor was that our mission had been accomplished, we provided a beating they would take years to recover from. Even still there was so much that needed to be done. Even if the worst happens to me I want to leave you with a world where you can properly grow without worry.”

While the entire story was interesting I couldn’t help but feel a small amount of shock. Outside of an Endbringer or someone like Eidolon or Alexandria it was hard to imagine anyone being able to beat the Dollhouse. “What…I mean who did you guys fight?”

“A terrible enemy, Taylor. I don't intend to keep you in the dark about things that might prove dangerous to you, but I also know you well enough that you aren’t the kind to simply stand back and let things be. So I intend for the moment to give you only enough information to avoid them at all costs, or to call for me should you encounter them. Do you understand?” Stetson’s gaze was rather serious, and honestly from the description given I could see why he would want me to avoid them.

I couldn’t exactly say he was wrong, letting things go when they were hurting others irked me, especially now that I had power to stop them. If he gave me enough information I would probably end up in a dangerous situation without even thinking about it. “I understand.”

He looked at me through the hologram for a moment, as if searching my face to check for sincerity before nodding. “The names you must watch out for at all costs are as followers: Third Cause, The Family, Infinite Circus, and any mentions of the Seeker or Warrior. So long as you avoid those names there is little that you have to fear so long as you move forward with purpose.”

I closed my eyes and burned those names into my memory. Not getting involved might be difficult because after his story I now had a reason to worry about the man who had saved my life and given me the power to make a difference, but I could at least keep him in the loop. “Got it. I’ll make sure to keep you informed if I hear anything.”

He offered a smile and a light chuckle at my reply. “I’m sure you will. Now then there are two more things to go over. First is about the team you are putting together.”

I leaned forward. “What about them?”

“It's important that you learn about each one as an individual before focusing on them as a team. Take time before rushing toward your goal to properly understand who they are and what they can do.” Stetson said.

“Have you been on a team before?” my teacher had always struck me as the loner type, it was hard to imagine him traveling with others and doing their own thing.

“Oh, more times than I can count. Sometimes leading, more often than not following someone and playing the role of a distant mentor. Mind you, I have the hardest time finding young people who don’t needlessly rush into danger.” he eyed me for a moment and I felt that I couldn’t quite meet his eyes on that one.

“What's the second thing?” I asked, trying to change subjects.

“There is someone I’d like you to meet,” he turned away and motioned for someone to enter into the range of whatever he was using the record himself. A young woman, maybe mid-twenties at most with blonde hair entered the picture, offering a smile toward me.

“You must be Taylor, Stetson here goes on about you all the time,” the woman laughed softly and looked forward. “My names Paige, but you probably know me better as-”

“Canary?!” I couldn’t stop myself, nearly collapsing from shock. “I thought, I mean the whole trial…you broke her out of prison?” I turned toward Stetson, my mouth hanging open slightly from shock.

“I happened across a news broadcast about the situation she faced and found her argument toward it being a terrible misunderstanding more convincing than it being an act of malice. And I figured that serving out a community sentence where her talents could be put to use made more sense then being thrown into a pit.” Stetson seemed rather nonchalant about breaking out a prisoner that was going to be sent to the Birdcage. Then again he had never really struck me as one to listen to the law when it didn’t suit him, considering that despite all his power he was more of a rogue than a proper hero.

“I uh, yeah okay that makes sense.” I couldn’t exactly argue, anyone with half a brain that had heard about the trial knew that Canary had been railroaded for the entire process.

Canary laughed a bit and held up a hand to show she didn’t mean offense. “You’re exactly like how he described you, he talks about you basically all the time.”

I felt a small blush at that, dipping my head slightly to hide behind my hair. “Thanks I uh, I really like your music.”

“Then how about when we meet up I do a live performance?” Canary smiled and turned toward Stetson. “That being said we should probably get going right?

“Indeed, so much to do so little time sadly,” Canary stepped away and Stetson turned to focus on me. “Keep up on your training Taylor, I’ll try and keep in contact when possible.”

The hologram ended, leaving me somehow even more tired then I had been before passing out last night. But there was no rest for the wicked, and after getting out of bed and throwing on some clothes I had kept in the Dollhouse after one too many ‘accidents’ involving juice getting spilled on me at school I was ready to face the world.

Or in this case a half dead looking Lisa and Riley staring into their breakfasts in front of them before turning to look at me, giving small mutters of welcome as I sat down at the large table.

Within moments I had food brought to me by T.V. Butler and began to dig in myself, even if it was just pancakes and fruit it still had the same Dollhouse quality that came with all of the food that was grown within the greenhouse here.

After her second cup of coffee Lisa turned to me. “So I don’t know if it hit any official news source but Heartbreaker’s arrest is all over the web, apparently full credit is being given to Thread. Top that off with donating the full bounty attached to his head to a Dragon created and sponsored charity that sprang into existence last night for victims of his and suddenly there are about as many active threads on the PHO about your cape name as there are people to make them.”

“And that's good?” I asked hopefully. I had flown under the radar for almost my entire life, so suddenly being the center of attention was weird. Even if technically it was my secret identity getting most of the spotlight.

“Little of A, little of B,” Lisa answered. “Everyone hated Heartbreaker, but at the same time most people thought he was just someone that was going to be around and making people miserable for the rest of his natural life. Like the Nine-” she winced and looked over to Riley, who simply waved it off. “-or Nilbog. Taking him down and breaking his mind control over his victims is going to get you attention from basically everyone. Good guys and bad guys.”

I could see that getting to be a bit of a problem, if the bad guys started running every time I decided to fight them it was going to be a pain in the ass to beat the rest of the gangs in Brockton. “We’ll figure out what to do about that latter,” right now I was more focused on getting the Undersiders settled and following Stetson’s advice about figuring out the people on my team. Not only that, but there was something I was dreading even more. “So are you still up for the meet up?”

Lisa looked at me for a moment in confusion, before realization dawned on her face and the most evil grin I had seen from her yet appeared. “A broken leg couldn’t keep me away from it.”

Part of me wondered if that would be less painful than trying to go out and try and pretend like I knew what a social grace was with two superheros, a former supervillain, and possibly other people my age. “Well, it's only…” I pulled out my phone and gulped. “Eleven Thirty?!.” Apparently I was a heavy sleeper after having most of the blood in my body drained.

Who knew?

Thankfully the Dollhouse had a shower and I was able to make myself look almost put together before bringing Lisa and I a few blocks away from the mall. “Do I look okay?” I asked Lisa, seeing her rolling her eyes from just out of my view.

“Boss you just took down one of the biggest assholes in the world yesterday and then followed it up by giving away enough money to set you for life away. Are you really worried about what…” she paused for a moment and looked at the expression I was giving her. “You look fine, probably. Once again, not my type.”

“Don’t have a type.” I responded with a sigh.

“But if I did, you probably aren’t it, chief.” Lisa winked at me, and I responded how any mature adult would.

I slugged her in the arm.

“Let's just get this over with.” I was honestly excited for the chance to hang out with people my age outside of the Dollhouse and my other identity. But I was equally nervous about my sheer lack of social skills and that I would somehow make them hate me by doing something wrong.

It didn’t take long to find the Dallon sisters and the small group that was with them, an older girl and two guys I didn’t recognize. One of the guys was pretty close to Vicky with an arm wrapped around her, so probably her boyfriend? The other guy was muscular beyond belief but had a sort of plain face that was almost at odds with how well he was built. He seemed to be making small talk with Amy. It took a moment to recognize the girl as Lazerdream of New Wave, or more accurately Crystal Pelham if I was remembering correctly.

When Vicky saw me she moved away from the guy and floated over to me. Literally floated. A small cough from Crystal made her realize what she was doing and put her feet back on the ground with a small embarrassed cough. “Glad you could make it, we got here a bit early but you didn’t send a text or anything.”

“Still getting used to having a phone I guess,” I felt a bit embarrassed by my apparent social slip up, but the guy who had his arm around Vicky earlier approached with the rest of the group and spoke up.

“It's fine really, names Dean,” he offered his hand and I took it, giving a small shake before he pointed toward the large guy near Amy. “That's Edgar, and I’m pretty sure you already know the girls.”

“Actually we didn’t have a chance to talk back during that whole thing last week,” Crystal smiled and waved. “Hopefully no more stalkers bothering you?”

“Yeah, I mean I haven’t noticed anyone at least,” I tried to push past any awkward questions and turned toward Lisa. “This is Lisa, she’s the friend that I told you guys about.”

“Friend or ‘friend’?” Vicky asked with a smile, noticing the two of us standing close to another.

“Just friend, no matter how much it might break her sensitive he-” Lisa was cut off by my elbow striking her ribs, a small cough coming from her. “Jeesh fine, yeah we’re just friends, outside of her d-” she dodged to the side before I could deliver another elbow to her ribs and she stuck her tongue out, getting a laugh from the group.

It was a weird experience, laughing as a group instead of just being the butt of the joke, and I think that's what Lisa was going for. I was glad to have brought her along, even if I wanted to drop her off of a building at the moment.

Vicky smiled and turned toward the mall with a wave of her hand. “Okay everyone here is the plan, we hit every store until Taylor has everything she needs, the boys carry everything and we help her put together something nice.”

Crystal and Lisa gave a cheer while Amy might have muttered something to the positive, the boys mainly just looking put upon as we began to head into the mall itself.

 

I had thought that after countless hours of training and fights against some of the most terrifying Parahumans the Bay had to offer that my stamina would be near bottomless, that unless I was facing off against someone like Lung or Hookwolf that I could push forward against any obstacle.

But trying to keep up with Vicky during Mall Madness proved that I still had so much further to still go.

Keeping up with her was as much a battle of will as it was a physical one, pushing past crowds of people to get to a specific rack, racing to changing rooms, and of course being submitted to Lisa and Vicky scanning over my choices before throwing new items at me.

I had tried on more clothes in two hours then I had probably worn before in my entire life, ending up with a few bags that I had tried to insist on carrying for myself, but that Vicky had removed from my hands and passed along to the two guys, who had simply waved off my attempts to apologize for the trouble.

Eventually I was forced to tap out at the front of a Victoria’s Secret, which thankfully Lisa backed me up on simply saying that first timers had their limits and went in with Vicky and Crystal to shop, along with a less than comfortable looking Dean who appeared to be doing his best to hold a straight face.

Which left me out with Edgar, who throughout the trip had said so few words I didn’t even think I would be able to form a full sentence with them if I had tried. Despite that it would feel awkward just to stand next to him without trying to talk a bit. “So how did you get dragged into this?” I asked, trying my best to strike up some form of conversation.

Edgar turned to me for a moment, a small smile coming to his face. “Apparently Dean thought he might lose the use of his arms if he had to carry around everything Vicky was going to get by herself, and promised me a free lunch. That and not having much else to do.” he admitted the last part with a bit of a shrug of his shoulders.

“Fair enough,” I replied, I couldn’t exactly complain considering how helpful he had been. Conversation had never been my strong suit, and I felt like I was flailing for something, anything to talk about. Thankfully Edgar was the one to take the initiative in that regard.

“So Vicky told me what happened, with the whole Shadow Stalker thing,” he looked away for a moment. “I figured I should let you know that I knew, I mean I don’t know if you wanted it to be a secret or something but she mentioned helping you out during lunch at school one day.”

A small laugh escaped me at the apology and I did my best to wave off his concerns. It was sweet of him to worry about accidentally learning something that might make me uncomfortable, but honestly that how bit of oddness had done more good for me in the long run then bad. I was still trying to figure out why I had been followed, but with the hunt for Heartbreaker and my enrollment in Arcadia it had been put to the back of my mind. “It's really not a big deal, I mean it was kind of terrifying being followed by her but it's not like anything actually happened.”

“Fair enough I suppose, honestly she always kind of creeped me out,” Edgar smiled and turned toward me again now that he had cleared the air about the incident. “She is a lot like Hyde without Jekyll.”

At that point I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me, it was rare to have someone go for a classic literature joke. “I was surprised after meeting her that she didn’t have a big red A on her chest,” he blinked for a moment. “You know, for asshole.”

The joke finally clicked and a grin overtook his face. “Scarlet Letter, you certainly don’t hold back your punches do you?”

After that we talked about our shared interest in classic literature, mine from my mom and his from just being a ‘heavy introvert’. I can’t say that we exactly matched opinions, I tended to enjoy novels more for the characterization while he was more interested in the overall structure of narrative, but we were able to at least match on some common grounds.

Eventually the group exited the store with an utterly exhausted looking Dean. Vicky however couldn’t have been happier, glancing toward Edgar and myself before asking “Okay, how about lunch?” Crystal bowed out, saying that she had to get something done and went toward the exit after a quick goodbye.

Vicky took the lead of the group as she had since the start, leading everyone to the food court before we split up into various groups to grab what we wanted. However before I could get too far a hand fell on my shoulder, and when I turned to check I saw Amy with a near unreadable expression on her face. “We need to talk.”

I was a bit thrown off guard by the odd look she had, given how quiet she had come off as during our shopping trip I hadn’t expected to be pinned by such an intense look. “Okay, but uh,” I waved my hand to the general sound and chaos of the food court, which got an embarrassed look out of her before I pointed toward a more quiet area outside near some of the less popular shops. “So what exactly do we need to talk about?”

“You’re not a parahuman,” her eyes narrowed slightly. “But my power can’t read you, or when it tries it's like there is something stopping it.”

A flash of panic flew through my body as I tried to summon up an excuse that would put aside any worries that she had. But from what little I knew about Amy’s ability, the idea of fooling someone who regularly was able to heal the body from maladies that laughed in the face of modern medicine, it felt like it would be a long shot to just say ‘must have been a mistake’ and try and move on.

Thankfully inspiration bit me before I could look confused for long. “Can you keep a secret?” I asked, my voice serious.

Her eyes hardened a bit and it looked like she was ready to bolt, but she gave a nod.

“I was in an accident, a really bad one,” I felt that was almost a bit underselling the fact that the cut connection between my brain and whatever gave people powers had caused the energy to explode like a firecracker in the middle of my gray matter, but I lacked anything better to describe it at the moment. “Someone helped me but it made some parts of me different. I don’t want to cause any trouble and I’m not going to hurt anyone.” That last bit was a lie considering that I planned on beating down the various gang leaders in town, but it was a white lie at worst.

“Who was it?” Amy didn’t seem to fully buy my story, but it wasn’t like I had given her a reason to be suspicious of my intentions.

“They asked me to keep it a secret,” which of course was a lie, Stetson had been more than willing to meet with my father and had never asked me to keep any of the facts of that night to myself. I chose to believe that it was because he trusted me not to just go around and blab about it to everyone, through given the fact that he had full access to the Dollhouse and a level of knowledge regarding it that would take me years still to master maybe it was just that there was nothing that could threaten him by letting his identity be known. “Sorry.”

Lying to Amy was hard, mainly because she had been kind to me at the coffee shop when she had no reason to and because she was probably the most altruistic cape in the known world. But unlike the others that knew my identity as Thread she had no real reason to keep my identity to herself if she knew. And as much as I wanted to believe she was a good person, my faith in others was a wounded beast.

She seemed indecisive for a moment before simply sighing and giving a nod of her head. “Fine, I won’t tell anyone, but…” Amy glanced up at me. “Take my hand first, I want to try one more time.”

I looked at the offered hand for a moment and considered my options. The odds of her trying to hurt me were slim to none, and honestly I wasn’t sure if there was anything she could actually do that the Dollhouse or Riley wouldn’t be able to fix. So with no small amount of worry still in my heart I took her hand.

We sat there for almost a minute as a variety of emotions played across her face, confusion the most prominent among them. “Your brain is a complete black spot, and it's like it has…roots moving through the rest of your body making it hard to see anything. Your bones and muscles are stronger than normal but not in the traditional way that they would be if you had powers. It's not superhuman, it's just…optimized?”

I gave a small shrug that she seemed to ignore before eventually letting go of my hand. “So, you’ll keep it a secret?”

“Yeah,” she let out a small sigh and looked away from me. “I’m sorry if…I didn’t mean to threaten you.”
She did seem honestly apologetic, but what I couldn’t figure out was what had driven her to confront me like this in the first place. I hadn’t exactly heard of her going out of her way to scan the bodies of parahumans before. However I did have a theory on it. She had probably been a bit scared that she wasn’t able to see the bits of the Dollhouse that were part of my body, and Stetson had taught me that those who lived their lives based around their abilities were more disturbed by them being taken away or subverted then any form of injury.

It was why he had told me to use the Bludgeoning Angel against Lung, the absolute fear was already a terrifying ability, but given his power grew over a fight having any will to fight erased from him had left him disturbed. Given how he had reacted when I had made the mistake to disengage the doll’s ability when I thought he was out of the fight it had driven him more than a bit crazy.

But all I could do was try and push away any worries that I would hurt the people around her. The last thing that I wanted was to do anything that would spit in the face that her family had shown me. “Come on, let's get some food before the others start worrying. My treat.”

It didn’t seem to pick up her mood much, but she did at least follow me into the food court to grab something. Thankfully we weren’t forced to hunt for the group, as they had managed to score one of the few large tables and left seats open for us.

“So did you guys see on the news this morning?” Vicky looked around the table to see if anyone knew what she was talking about, but the group mostly just shrugged. “Come on, Heartbreaker got taken down last night, it was all over the news this morning.”

I looked at Lisa, but she simply gave a shrug and went back to her food, denying that she had any hand in it. The news had spread a bit faster than I had thought, I figured there would have been at least a day or two before the story broke but apparently someone must have leaked it.

“No kidding?” Dean seemed interested in the story and leaned forward. “Did Dragon finally manage to track him down?”

Seeing that she had got someone interested in the story she continued. “Nope, someone a bit closer to home.”

A look of confusion flashed over Dean and Edgar’s faces before Vicky finally dropped the reveal. “Apparently Thread was the one who took down Heartbreaker, and she did something that unmastered everyone he had control over.”

“Holy shit,” Dean leaned back in his chair and looked up toward the ceiling. “What next, breaking the Gray Boy loops or dropping a mountain on the Slaughterhouse Nine?”

It was a bit embarrassing to be praised by my friends, even if it was mainly my alternate persona they were talking about, and it took a bit of effort to keep my face set to only mild interest. However at the first recommendation I noticed Lisa looked at me, seemingly asking if it was possible through her facial expression.

It was something to look into later at least, taking away another source of suffering from people who had done nothing to deserve it. But even if I could free them the logistics required to ensure any level of proper living afterward were a bit beyond my ability. There was a chance I could leverage my acts thus far to work something out with the PRT, but I had to admit I was still nervous to work with them at the moment.

For the moment I decided to put those thoughts to the side, trying to figure out where the conversation had gone before my thoughts were further interrupted by a loud crash from outside of the food court, followed by screams of panic and the sounds of people running.

Vicky was the first to leap up, with Dean and Edgar following after her in short order. Amy looked a bit like a deer caught in the headlights but I didn’t really have time to worry about her at the moment. I glanced at Lisa who simply gave a nod and moved over to Amy, whispering something before getting her out of the seat and moving toward the back exit in the food court.

I made my way toward the main section of the mall to try and get a view of what was going on, doing my best to avoid people rushing past me to try and enter into the food court and get away from whatever the source of the panic was. Of course it didn’t take too long to spot.

Tearing through the main floor of the mall were a pair of souped up Go-Karts painted red and green respectively, with the occupants within them dressed in overalls and hats that matched the color scheme of the carts they were in.

“Now this is podracing!” The red outfitted man turned a hard corner, knocking over a sunglass kiosk and avoiding an aerial lunge from Vicky.

“Oh god not the prequels, have some class!” the green outfitted man lifted a round black bomb, tapping the fuse atop it and tossing it at Vicky, the explosion from it throwing her against a wall. “Bomb Omb’s for the win!”

Of all of the things I had expected running out, I have to admit running right into an Uber and Leet attack for the second time by complete accident was not one of them. Regardless seeing my friend get a bomb thrown in her face had royally pissed me off.

“Dollhouse, Inventory Select.” I muttered under my breath, backing up to a more isolated corner of the crowd.

Command from authorized users accepted.

“Open search, give me something that can stop them without anyone getting hurt and will scare the hell out of them.” I knew that it wasn’t exactly the most eloquent search request I had ever given, but I was seeing a bit too much red to focus on how I made the request.

Search results: Dr. Eyeborg, Ro…

Watching as Uber began to pull out a new weapon I hastily cut off the search results and selected the first option. “Blood-Brain connection.”

The doll appeared in the clearing between the crowd and the chaos being caused by the two villains, and I had to admit that it wasn’t exactly the most impressive showing that the Dollhouse had managed to produce. The doll was only about five feet in height and covered by a tan coat that had long seen better days. A hood was pulled up over the head of the doll, giving little idea of what it actually looked like. Once the connection was clear a single point of bright red light began to shine from under the hood, and one of the sleeves rose up and revealed a large metal claw from out of it.

“You dare use technology for misdeeds?!” the voice of the doll rang out over the mall, cutting off the chatter and drawing the attention of the two villains and Vicky toward its small figure. “Hooliganism, chaotic rabble rousing, mean spirited japes.” The voice that came from the doll was high pitched with a bit of a whine to it, but even with that it carried a not insignificant amount of menace to it.

“Hey, that's my handiwork you're talking about!” Leet pulled out what appeared to be a red turtle shell, turning his vehicle to face the doll before launching it out. The shell glided across the floor in a straight path toward the activated doll.

However before it could get close the metallic claw flew out from the sleeve of the doll and grabbed the shell, pulling it toward its hood covered face and examining it. “Guidance system, strong motor, craftimenship…” it crushed the shell in a vice grip. “Amature.” it tossed the smoking wreckage of the shell and turned its focus on the two carts. “You dare disrespect science before me with such shotty work?!” The crimson glow under the hood of the doll glowed more intensely than before.

The carts that Uber and Leet had been piloting seemed to fly out of their control, forcing the two villains to circle around and move in a straight line toward the doll, pausing right before him. Despite its small size the doll seemed to almost tower over them. “I’ve hijacked your junk systems with my metal brain, it can process so much data that doing so was instant. INSTANT!” the doll leaned forward. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

The two villains looked at each other, seemingly thrown for a loop by the odd turn of events. Even Vicky was slightly keeping her distance, unsure if she should or even how to intervene if I had to guess. Honestly even I didn’t have a very clear idea of what was going on, and arguably I was the one most in control of the situation.

Control in this case however was a very subjective word.

“Um.” one of the two began to answer, only to be cut off quickly.

“SILENCE, ejection seats!” The doll screamed out and the two villains were suddenly shot out of the carts by miniature rockets before letting out twin high pitch screams, just narrowly avoiding the ceiling of the building before being dropped back to the ground, only saved from being splattered by Vicky flying over and grabbing them.

“Hello boys,” Vicky offered the two a smile that would have been more natural on a shark. “Remember how you threw a bomb at me earlier?”

“Sorry?” Uber offered, only for their response to be cut off as Vicky dropped them from a non-fatal but still terrifying height toward the ground.

The doll looked at the two carts for a moment, its mechanical hand crossing over its chest. “I’m sorry you were forced to commit such evil acts. But you must now be destroyed.” The crimson light from beneath the doll’s hood glowed bright before a lance of energy flew out from it, striking the two carts. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, and then both of them exploded in miniature fireballs. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be even a bit of debris left from them to harm anyone, the only damage being some scorch marks on the floor.

“Oh come on!” despite the obvious terror that the doll had inflicted Leet threw up his hands. “I had to pay to get those made. I had to shake hands with Skidmark, haven’t we suffered enough?”

“Nope,” Vicky put her hands on the villain's head. “Now what made you two think that this was a good idea?”

“This deal is getting worse all the time.” Uber quipped, only for Vicky to apply a slight bit more pressure to his head and get a yelp out. “Some guy paid us a bunch of money, we barely even caused property damage this time!”

“You broke the front door and knocked over a bunch of kiosks!” Vicky swung her hand over the chaos of the mall floor.

Leet looked thoughtful for a moment. “I mean compared to our normal record…”

“Silence!” “Shut up!” Dr. Eyeborg and Vicky screamed at the same time.

The two villains made the first smart move they had in the last few minutes and chose to keep quiet.

It seemed the lack of danger was drawing in more onlookers, some of them snapping pictures and one even being brave enough to approach Vicky and the doll. “Um, are you a new hero?” the girl asked, holding up a camera to the doll.

“I am an associate of Thread, chosen for my calm and rational mannerisms.” The doll’s claw zoomed out and caught the small floating recording device the chaotic duo used and fired another laser into it, tossing it behind the doll’s shoulder where it promptly exploded.

“Come on!” Leet shouted, only for Vicky to slap him upside the head to remind him of the current position he was in.

“Well tell her thanks, and that last time is water under the bridge,” Vicky held out a free hand, which the doll took in its own claw and gave a small shake.

“She would like you to know that you do good work and she is very thankful to have other good heroes in this town,” Dr. Eyeborg turned off the normal shrill scream to its voice and spoke in a rather conscious manner. “And now I must go, I am needed in this place.”

I canceled my connection to the chaotic doll and let out a small breath. Thankfully ‘Dr. Eyeborg’ didn’t have a vast energy requirement in order to use it, so while I was a bit exhausted I wasn’t about to drop.

A few minutes passed and a group of PRT agents backed by Armsmaster and the Ward’s Gallant and Browbeat who looked ready for a fight, only to see the two villains already apprehended and looking quite defeated already.

Seeing that things had mostly cleared up I decided to make tracks and try to find Lisa and Amy and make sure they were okay, pushing through the crowd that was trying to get pictures of the newly arrived heroes. It wasn’t exactly an easy task but I somehow made it to the back exit. It seemed quite a few people were milling around nearby, maybe thinking that once the fight was over they could get back to get anything left behind, or get back to shopping if some of the complaints I heard were to be believed.

However, amongst the crowd I couldn’t find either Lisa or Amy. “Oh right, my phone.” I was still getting used to having a method of communication on me at all times, pulling out my phone and seeing a number of missed texts and an incoming call from Lisa. I quickly answered the phone. “You guys make it out okay?”

“Taylor, fuck,” Lisa’s voice came out slightly pained from the other end of the phone. “Someone hit me from behind…I don’t know where Amy is.”

“What?” my heart dropped to my stomach.”Where are you?”

She quickly gave me directions to the side of the mall, where I found her with a slightly disoriented look in her eyes and a small amount of blood mixed in with her hair. “I don’t know what happened, one minute we were trying to get to the parking lot, then something hit me from the side. I woke up about a minute ago in the bushes.” Lisa pressed a hand against her head.

My brain was running fast enough that I couldn’t make out my thoughts, however through the noise caused by my panic one thought came to me above all others. Someone had hired Uber and Leet to attack the mall on that day. The fact that Lisa was attacked and Amy was missing couldn’t have been a coincidence.

I put an arm around Lisa to support her. “Let's get you patched up. And then call the Undersiders for a meeting tonight.”

I wasn’t exactly close with Amy, but she had at least tried to help me during a bad day and I wasn’t going to sit around and let someone get away with hurting her.

 

As much as I may have wanted to try and run around and start looking for Amy immediately, I knew in my heart that the chance of actually finding her by just scanning the nearby area was next to zero. Even if I got lucky I had no idea how to deal with a hostage situation if I ended up finding myself in one. No amount of power I could throw around at a bad guy would guarantee that someone who could sneak up on Lisa and could force someone raised around heroes like Amy to leave with them rather than try and fight would go down before they managed to hurt her.

All I could do was get to where the PRT troopers had set up a line of first responders and get Lisa checked up on before informing them about what had happened. After that things started to blur together. People in uniforms asked Lisa and myself questions, asked us questions individually, until eventually we were released after passing along our phone numbers so that we could be reached if any other questions came up.

The moment that the two of us had gotten out of the grips of the PRT agents Vicky was on us, a look of pur ranger mixed with fear on her face. However before she could open her mouth her eyes traced to the massive amount of gauze on Lisa's face and seemed to decide better then to start yelling at her.

“What happened?” Vicky finally asked, trying to maintain some sense of calm despite the nervous energy practically radiating off of her.

“Not sure, we were trying to get away from the whole mess and someone must have snuck up behind us, I don’t even know what hit me.” Lisa retold the same story she had no doubt had to repeat to the PRT agents, however in front of Vicky she couldn’t be annoyed about it.

“And where were you?” Vicky turned to me, most likely desperately searching for someone to put even a bit of the blame on.

“I got swept away by the crowd before I could get out, I only managed to find Lisa after she had already been attacked.” The lie felt bitter on my tongue. As much as Vicky had gone out of her way to be kind to me I wasn’t ready to trust her with my secret identity. Telling Lisa had been a spur of the moment decision due to her finding out about Riley, and I could trust her to keep the secret. But Vicky operated without a mask and in the heat of the moment I didn’t know what she would do. After all, if I had gone with Lisa and Amy I might have been able to keep the two of them safe. The worst case scenario against Uber and Leet was property damage, but I had injected myself into the fight because at the time it seemed like the right move, the way to help the most people.

It seemed that even if I wanted to be a hero I still had a lot further to go before I could really put the word to my name. I was sure that if Stetson had been here that he would have simply said I was being hard on myself, but in my own mind the amount of power I had at my beck and call meant that I had to be harder on myself than anyone else. At least that's how I viewed things.
“Fuck,” I pulled myself out of my self-loathing and focused on Vicky, seeing the redness in her eyes and the panicked energy that was practically flowing off of her. “Who the hell would even want to kidnap her?”

That was the million dollar question, and the reason why the PRT agents had asked so many times for us to confirm just who had been taken. Amy Dallon wasn’t an ordinary person, hell she wasn’t even an ordinary parahuman.

Ever since she started attending Endbringer battles, fatalities caused by injury had gone down by a shocking degree, her abilities meant that as long as one wasn’t killed instantly the chances of getting to go home weren’t impossible. The number of people she had saved, both criminal and cape, easily put her into the category of one of the most well liked parahumans in the world.

And outside of the cape community it wasn’t much different, it was impossible to count the number of people she had saved during her work through the local hospital, anyone in the city that had faced life threatening injuries probably owed her more than most could imagine.

New Wave might have thrown aside the unwritten rules when they decided to forego secret identities and work publicly, but there was a rule even deeper than those that had been around for a lot longer. You don’t go after the medic or the messenger.

That was a line of thought that Stetson had taught me while training, the moment that you decided to attack a noncombatant was the moment whatever cause you had lost all legitimacy. Whatever group or individual had kidnapped her wouldn’t have anywhere to run to, the moment it became known that they had taken Amy was the exact moment that the other party would wash their hands of them.

And to my knowledge there was only one person in the Bay that would be willing to utterly isolate themselves and use any tactic to get what they wanted. Coil, the ego driven mastermind that had been pulling strings from the shadows in order to turn the Bay into his own domain.

Of course even if he was the most likely subject that didn’t exactly help things, his base was well hidden and heavily defended from what Lisa had told me, even if I could theoretically take out all of his defenses and guards that didn’t guarantee me a chance of capturing the bastard in a single move.

But I was getting lost in thought again, trying to ignore just how uncomfortable Vicky looked due to not having any idea how to comfort her. Even if I said ‘don’t worry we will get her back’ at the moment I was just Taylor Hebert and to Vicky those would just be empty words.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could have…done something.” I knew that the words were less than nothing before they even escaped my mouth, but Vicky didn’t seem to be paying attention.

“There was nothing that could have been done, whoever kidnapped her didn’t leave a single trace I’m afraid.” a voice suddenly rang out from beside us as a tall black man in a well tailored suit approached. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any hope, we already have some eyewitness reports about some suspicious vehicles leaving the mall around the same time as the attack.”

I turned to look at the man, a sense of unease flowing through me at the sight of him. There was no specific word for the feeling, just a sense of creeping dread that slowly seemed to bleed away. “Who are you?” I asked, my voice a bit harder than I had meant it to be.

The man raised a small badge showing the name ‘Thomas Calvert’ and underneath ‘Consultant’. “Due to the unprecedented nature of this incident I have been called in to help with the case. I hope you don’t mind a few quick questions before you go?” a smile crossed the man's lips, giving him the appearance of someone who was wholly at ease. If not for the odd feeling that was burning in the back of my brain I probably wouldn’t have even thought twice about answering more questions.

“I’m sorry but…it's been a long day.” The words tasted bitter in my mouth, and the pained look in Vicky’s eyes after I spoke burned more than any workout I had been put through.

Not to be put off Thomas pushed forward. “It's just a little simple…”

Lisa stepped in front of me and locked eyes with the man. “Listen, we've told this same story about ten times in a row to about ten people. We came here to shop and got caught in the middle of a Parahuman fight and our friend was kidnapped. Maybe we can just do this another day?”

If Thomas was at all put off by the tone that Lisa had taken with him it didn’t show on his face. “I understand, this must all be quite a lot to take in. That being said,” he pulled out a business card and offered it to Lisa and myself. “Maybe we can set up a meeting at another time?”

Lisa took the cards and turned to Vicky, who left without a word to either of us.

Another friendship I probably managed to fuck up. Fantastic.

The two of us started to move away before Thomas spoke up again. “Thread.”

Lisa and I stopped in our tracks at the mention of my alternate identity. “You said that you were pulled away by the crowds, did you happen to catch sight of her?” Thomas asked.

Lisa was about to speak for me again but I quickly turned and looked at him. “No, I didn’t.”

“Hm, interesting,” he smiled and pocketed the badge. “Stay safe on your way home, things are likely going to be quite chaotic once the news breaks.” With that said Thomas walked back toward the rest of the PRT agents, leaving the two of us alone.

“Well that was weird,” Lisa muttered to me under her breath before guiding the two of us away from the chaotic scene at the mall. “I’m going to get a cab and round up the group, let's meet downtown and I can show you what you’re paying me for.”

I gave a simple nod and followed her along to make sure she could get a cab before walking to a safe place and quickly jumping to the Dollhouse. What was supposed to be a simple day had turned into an utter nightmare. Part of me wanted to contact Stetson and try to get advice from him, but at the same time I wasn’t sure what he could do even if I talked to him. Amy getting kidnapped was awful, but he was probably halfway across the world dealing with something that was just as if not more important.

Which meant there was only one person to really talk to, and thankfully it looked like she was in the entertainment room instead of the operating theater. After a quick walk I pushed open the door to the room, finding Riley wrapped up in a blanket and watching an animated movie while using Trauma Bear as a couch instead of the abundant comfortable furniture in the room. The moment I walked in however she quickly paused the t.v. and turned to look at me.

“Taylor!” Riley stood up and clapped, the lights of the entertainment room flashing on to reveal the whole area.

Like almost every room in the Dollhouse the entertainment room was amazingly crafted and decorated, containing multiple televisions, game systems, books, and any manner of distraction that could be thought of. I had spent one or two days just lounging around in here with Riley passing weekends watching movies between training sessions. Of course the variety of choices was mind boggling, with a number of the books and movies being ones that I hadn’t heard of before. When I had asked Stetson about it he had simply said he tended to collect things ‘here and there’.

“Hey Riley, can I talk to you for a bit?” I knew my voice most likely carried my exhaustion, because she moved off of Trauma Bear and onto a couch. I plopped down next to her and tried to relax for a moment. “What do you know about kidnapping?”

“Thats it is illegal.” Riley answered in a voice so innocent it nearly gave me whiplash. “I'm kidding," she offered a smile before taking on a more serious expression. "In theory or practice?"

“Either or.” I wasn’t sure anything she could tell me would be useful, but it felt like I would go crazy just sitting until night came. I gave Riley the details of what had happened at the mall earlier.

Riley nodded and thought for a moment. “There are three reasons people go to kidnapping instead of any other crime. The first is money, but that requires a lot of things to go right so it's easier to just rob a bank or something. Second is information gathering, you capture the person because they know something and you need to have time to properly extract the information from them. Third, they have a skill that you need and can’t get anywhere else,” she frowned for a moment. “There is also Jack’s go to reason ‘because it seemed fun’, but that just means the person is already dead.”

The last sentence sent a shard of ice into my heart, but I tried to brush past it and focus on the options that would give Amy a chance at being alive. “I don’t think anyone would kidnap Amy for money.”

Riley nodded at that. “High profile but not rich enough, and makes too many enemies for the amount to be worth it. That makes sense. Information could be a reason, she is one of the bestest healers and has been to a bajillion Endbringer battles so she probably knows a bunch of secret identities.”

It was a long shot but it would fit into my current theory that Coil was behind it. Lisa had mentioned how he went out of his way to gather information on a massive variety of people to ensure that his plans all went as they should. It was staggering to think just how much good he could have done in regards to something like an Endbringer battle, but there was no point thinking of ifs at the moment.

“Still, I would put money on it being about her power, which could mean anything from him being sick to planning to release a virus only she can cure and using her that way.” I had a bit of a difficult time trying to get into the head of someone twisted enough to threaten the hopes and dreams of a bunch of kids with nowhere else to go and turning them into a criminal team. Through with my current plans I suppose that would be a bit too much like the pot calling the kettle black.

Of course the worst case scenario wasn’t that Coil was behind the kidnapping, but that he wasn’t. If he was half the schemer that Lisa made him out to be then Amy would be alive. Maybe not content or happy with her situation but at the very least alive. If it wasn’t Coil then the jury was out on how she was being treated and even if she was still alive.

“I wish I could help,” Riley looked down, her brows furrowed. “Actually, maybe I could,” she looked away for a moment. “I might be able to construct something that might help, I just need some biological material from her, and I might be able to set up a sort of bioscanner that can lead you to the rest of her.”

I had to admit that it sounded like a good idea, like a dowsing rod that would lead us to Amy. But I could tell the idea of crafting something like that made her uncomfortable. So far any experiments Bonesaw had made in order to help deal with the ‘parasite’ as Stetson had caused it were immediately destroyed by her own hands in order to ensure they wouldn’t trigger any episodes. “I can’t ask you to do that.” I said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“But I want to.” Riley replied, her small voice containing a note of conviction. “Stetson, Lisa, and you have been doing so much good while I’ve just been here pretending to be a normal girl. But I can do things to help and I want to try.”

I looked into her eyes for a moment, seeing the conviction as plain as day and found myself unable to deny her in this matter. So I simply sighed and gave a nod. “If you think you can, then I trust you.”

She gave a nod and a smile before turning toward the movie. “But before that, do you want to finish watching this with me?”

I briefly considered the idea before shaking my head. “I should go home and see how my dad is doing.” Honestly I didn’t even know if he was home, but normally he at least took Sunday’s to be home and get some rest from work so the odds were in my favor.

Riley simply waved it off and took back her seat, a smile on her face now that she had a goal in mind for how to help. I made my exit and dropped off close to my house, checking for a moment to make sure I wasn’t seen and walking in. However the moment I was inside a pair of arms wrapped around me in a tight hug.

“Thank god, where have you been?” my father looked at me for a moment, relief evident in his expression as he looked at me. “I saw what happened on the news and I was worried out of my mind that you got caught up in all of that at the mall.”

Feeling my dad’s arms around me released all of the stress I hadn’t realized had built up in me ever since I realized Amy had been kidnapped, and I put my arms around my dad and put everything aside for the moment. I wanted to help Amy, I wanted to take down the criminals in the Bay. But I was also sad that my friend had been taken, heartbroken that I might have offended the first person to stand up for me. In my dad's arms I let those worries out, and while the concern was evident on his face he stayed silent and just let me hold onto him for a moment.

Once I was able to put some sense back into myself I told him the whole story, cutting out the parts about my own actions and explaining what had happened with Amy, how I might have hurt Vicky, everything I would have normally kept a secret.

I didn’t expect anything from him, but surprisingly he led me to the couch and brought me some hot chocolate and ordered from one of our favorite restaurants. He didn’t try to sugar coat things and say everything would be alright, but he was there with me, talked when I wanted to and stayed quiet when I didn’t.

Some dark part of me had always assumed that I should just keep quiet about the events of my life out of fear of putting more on my dad, but no amount of planning on how to get Amy back or thoughts on how to fix the Bay helped ease my mind quite as much as just having my dad sit down and talk with me about pointless things and occasionally chime in about his own day.

“I know it won’t help much, but why don’t we see about checking in on the Dallon’s later in the week? They are probably going through hell right now. I would be in their situation.” He spoke quite decisively on the matter, and we discussed back and forth about what exactly we should do for them.

Our conversation was eventually interrupted by a loud knock at the door, to which my dad got up to answer in case it was the police again coming for another statement to tell them to come back another day. However once the door opened and a few words were exchanged he yelled back that it was for me.

Unsure of who would be here for me this late into the evening I approached the door cautiously, seeing Dean there holding the bag of clothing and school materials I had bought at the mall and wearing a tired smile. “Hey Taylor, you forgot these…well you know.”

My dad made himself scarce and I took the bag in my hands. “Thanks, I didn't even think about it.”

“I mean after what happened that's understandable. Are you holding up okay?” he asked, hsi voice filled with concern that only made me feel more guilty.

“I…no probably not but I’m trying,” for some reason I didn’t feel like lying to him about the subject, it just felt wrong. “Is Vicky still…you know?”

“She was pretty mad at the time, but I think she is just scared for Amy right now. Once she calms down I think that things will be fine. But I can talk with her if you’re really worried about it.” Dean offered and I simply nodded my head in agreement.

“Thanks,” I let out a relieved breath. I didn’t know if what he said would help, but it was better than nothing. “Were you two okay after everything happened? I didn’t see you guys in the crowd.”

An odd series of emotions played across Dean’s face before finally giving a nod. “We had to fight against the crowd a bit but we were safe. I just wish we had gone with your friend and Amy.” It seemed like I wasn’t the only one beating myself up at the moment, though if they had been there Amy might not have been the only one in danger at the moment. Whoever had taken her had been willing to knock out one girl in order to take Amy, if there were more they might have gone even further.

“Anyway, I should probably get home,” he turned for a moment before a thought seemed to come to him. “Oh right, Edgar wanted me to tell you that he looks forward to getting to talk with you again. Apparently you are a decent conversation partner.”

A small blush came over my cheeks at the idea of someone going out of their way to pass along a message like that, but Dean saved me the embarrassment of a response by simply waving it away as he walked out to the car waiting for him on the street.

I closed the door and rested my forehead against it, happy for the small bit of hope that I could make things right between myself and Vicky.

That was until my dad spoke up behind me. “So Edgar huh?” there was a mysterious tone in his voice that triggered my sense of danger as I turned toward him.

“He is a friend.” I didn’t know why I answered like that, we had only met one time and I wasn’t even sure that we were beyond ‘acquaintance’ when it came down to it.

“A friend who likes talking about books,” he responded in the same mysterious tone, a devilish grin coming over my fathers face. “You know back when I was your age.”

I suddenly found thoughts of heroism and the events of the day being the last thing on my mind as I slapped my hands over my ears and tried to drown out my father’s attempts to ‘relate’ to me and explain relationships.

Later I would realize this was a planned move, and my dad was more cunning than I usually gave him credit for. The hours passed comfortably until night fell and my father was asleep. Meaning it was time to greet the Undersiders and begin working on making this city a better place.

Taylor might have failed in preventing Amy from getting taken, but Thread would ensure that she would be brought back safely. And if I had to beat down every single criminal in the city to make that work, then all the better.