Nice chapter! Love to see the obvious cracks forming in the team due to Taylor being there. Her weaponizing PHO to further inconvenience the BB Wards is hilarious.
And if that's not a call to post this, I don't know what is. This is an Omake that has been tumbling around my head since shortly after the story started, and it's only now that I finally broke down and put word to virtual paper.
Special thanks to
FirstSelector for answering some questions I had for specific details, and for making some suggestions that helped make the Omake better.
Do please lemme know what you lot think of the Omake, and without further ado.
A Friend In Me
=][=
Alex did what he could not to stare at the new girl.
Objectively, other than shampoo commercial worthy hair, she wasn't much to look at. A late transfer from a dumpster fire city, there was a small amount of talk about her, some even wondered if maybe she was a Ward transferring in from said city.
Her…acerbic personality had put those rumors down quickly and painfully.
Anyone that so much as smiled at the girl got her hackles up and her claws out. Compliments and well meaning questions were met with sneers and open hostility. On the reverse, if she was left alone she was more than content enough to ignore and be ignored.
No, there certainly wasn't much there to look at, not until one paid attention to the details.
She was tall for a girl, five eight at least, but walked with her back bent and her shoulders hunched, as if trying to shrink into herself or readying herself for a blow. She wore oversized hoodies and jeans exclusively, her clothes large enough to completely swallow her figure; they were also cheap, not bargain-bin ratty, but not far from it, easy to replace.
She did not use makeup, granted Alex was utterly ignorant of the arcana that was makeup and its application, he knew only that it was a bunch of different powders and it could take a girl from a six all the way to an eight through its eldritch, indefatigable application.
From what little he had seen of Taylor, she was a solid five, fix her posture, add in her hair falling in a dark curly waterfall, a confident strut to her walk, a better wardrobe, and a smile, and she could easily be a seven, maybe an eight depending on the figure she kept hidden.
Unfortunately Taylor seemed to only have two expressions, 'unfeeling automaton' and 'sneer.'
All things combined to a person that was, on the surface, very hateful.
The thing being, Alex had seen some very similar symptoms before. Except that when it happened to his sister, he had been more than happy to kick teeth in until those bullying her learned that she was off limits.
Was this how Anna might have ended up if he hadn't been around to help? He could picture it, and the mental image made him angry, his sister was a little cinnamon bun that brightened any room she walked into, maybe this girl had been the same.
So Alex decided this girl needed a friend. And he had nothing better to do. But he wouldn't do it stupid.
Information was the name of the game.
He spent two days gathering intel, through that information gathering, he learned two things, the first, Taylor liked to read, the second, she had complete immunity to Lily's weapon's grade pout. This made her a formidable foe, Lily was the darling of the writing club, out of everyone, the only one who'd had the heart to properly critique her capefic had been Alex, and that only because her pout had nothing on Anna's.
If Taylor could withstand it and keep an emotionless face? This might well be more difficult than he'd first expected. Still, not impossible. Lily's utterly failed attempt did, however, inform him how to go about his own, and just like getting an abused dog to allow you to touch it, the first step was to make her comfortable with his presence.
So, on Wednesday January the 19th, Alex launched his Master Plan. He walked to the table the new girl sat at, plopped down his food on the opposite side from her at the opposite corner of the table, pulled out
Only in Death, and read as he ate. He could feel Taylor's glare on him and briefly wondered if she was a Parahuman with laser eyes.
He ignored her, reading and eating, and after a good forty interminable seconds, he felt her glare vanish. He continued to read and eat as if he hadn't noticed but kept her in his peripheral vision.
The very instant the girl was finished eating, she stood up and left, Alex said nothing, didn't so much as look up from his book. One of the best conversations he never had, eight out of ten.
When he left school that day, he had the happy surprise of seeing that they shared a route for part of his walk home. He repeated his strategy from lunch, merely walking in the same general area as the girl as he made his way to the bus stop. Her shoulders were hunched, and he caught her glancing at him over her shoulder a few times, but when the bus stop came along, he stopped there and pulled his book whereas she kept power walking.
He shared two classes with the girl, and thankfully the school did not have enforced seating. So he switched things up and sat within three chairs of Taylor, then repeated his strategy of the last day with the same results.
On Friday however, things changed.
He sat at the same spot on the cafeteria, but she did not glare, she merely ignored him. On the walk to the bus stop, she still threw him a glance or two, but did not quicken her step, rather she merely kept an eye on him.
So, come Monday, he sat within two chairs of Taylor in their two classes, and come lunch he sat a little closer to her in the cafeteria. She gave him another look, but this one only lasted twenty seconds. And on the way to the bus stop he walked a little closer to her, not arms length, but still closer. She still gave him looks, and he continued to ignore them.
By the time Thursday came about, Alex had managed to sneak seven entire inches closer to her at the cafeteria, though he still judged it too soon to sit next to her during class.
On the way to the bus stop he was almost within speaking distance of Taylor, perhaps next week he'd be able to walk side by side to her. But that's when it happened, Weld and Reynard were walking on the other side of the street, and Taylor froze.
To stop now might well doom his entire effort, so he walked around her and kept on his way, risking a quick look over his shoulder at her.
Alex had been right; she really had a very expressive face.
She was smiling, but it was not a nice smile. It was angry, vindictive, devious and self satisfied. It was the smile of the cat that got the canary. Alex honestly could not fathom why she would have that smile toward the two apprentice heroes.
Yeah, Reynard's costume was kinda meh. But for that smile to come about?
Alex could not spend much time thinking about this, and as such he continued on his way to the bus stop.
Friday Taylor was in decidedly good spirits. Every now and then, when she forgot to keep her emotionless mask on, a self-satisfied little smirk quirked her lips. It was kinda cute, but most people weren't looking anymore so just about everyone missed it.
Alex decided to keep on steady rather than try to ride the coattails of her good mood, she was still wary around him, and if he pushed, she may well bolt like a particularly skittish horse and he'd lose all progress.
She seemed stuck in her own little world, looking at a long document on her phone, she didn't even glare at him she was so distracted.
The next week went by much the same, Alex was able to get almost a whole foot closer on the table, and he had migrated to sitting next to Taylor in their two classes. But there was something up, she was fidgety, full of nervous energy, though nonetheless happy, happier than he'd seen her so far, which considering it was Taylor, this amounted to being close to neutral, who knows, in another month she might migrate to good, and a year after that, graduate to copacetic.
Alex woke up Friday feeling pretty great, he'd decided that today would be the day that he finally spoke to her. Taylor had been in a good mood the entire week. This would be the closest thing he had to a first impression with the girl, so he prepared his outfit accordingly, he seesawed between his usual cargo pants and a pair of jeans, and ultimately decided on his dark blue cargo pants. He picked his short sleeved maroon shirt, and his usual steel toe boots.
He took the time to check himself out in the bathroom mirror, after all, it would not do to mess up his first impression. He was taller than most boys, standing at an even six foot and burly with it, dark brown hair cropped short, his eyes were a dark brown and he had some bags because he didn't like going to bed on time. He checked his jaw and saw that he should probably shave, he wasn't yet at the point where he could grow a badass beard, and he didn't like the look of the patchy whiskers on his neck and cheeks.
His nose was a little crooked from that time he got in a fight with a couple jocks, taught those assholes not to talk shit about nerdy pastimes.
He flexed at the mirror, the sleeves of his shirt biting slightly into his biceps, drawing attention to them. Spending three evenings a week on the gym ensured he was in good enough shape, though he did have a little bit of a belly that he kept promising to himself he'd get rid of eventually.
He grinned at himself in the mirror, the smile was a little awkward, and his teeth were just a tad crooked, but not enough to need bracers. Alex smacked his lips, feeling they were a little dry and cracked, and realized he forgot to use that lip balm his mother had gotten him, again.
One of these days he'd be a responsible adult and remember to use his lip balm, but that day had clearly not been yesterday, it would probably be today, though he'd not make a promise on that.
He had breakfast with his mom and sister.
"Mornin' dork." Said his sister.
"Mornin' welp." He said to her.
"Morning my spawn." Said their mom.
"Morning broodmother." They said back in eerie unison.
Breakfast was good.
He put on his jacket to make his way to school, his mom berated him that he needed a heavier coat, but he was a big burly guy, and the code of burliness stated that he had to go with a jacket too thin to really deal with the snow outside.
Really, everything was looking up, first period was not as boring as it could have been, he walked to his first class of the day with his latest personal project, and froze the moment he saw her.
Something had gone wrong. Her little smirk was nowhere to be found, she was as fidgety as she'd ever been, but what little expression she'd had gained in the last week was all gone, replaced by a barely hidden glare.
Alex sat on the seat next to her, but did not attempt to strike up a conversation. This was going to set him back, the question was, for how long?
When lunch came about, Alex purposely dithered about, it was important to be consistent, but he had a feeling that Taylor was looking for an excuse to explode at someone, and he didn't wanna ruin his chances.
Just then, he saw Lily move towards Taylor's (and lately Alex's) usual table, oh, this is not the time to try Lily. Alex wondered if he should warn the girl off, but things happened before he came to a decision.
"Hey Taylor." Lily said with a bit of a strained smile.
"Fuck you, Lily." Taylor all but spat in the girl's face, her tone venomous enough to kill at ten paces.
Alex decided that this called for a tactical withdrawal, and advanced in a direction opposite to the one Lily had so valiantly traveled in to be rebuffed at the walls of fort Taylor.
Alex spent the rest of the day paying minimum attention to his teachers, and headed straight home, went up to his room, and sprawled on his bed, his bloody homework could wait. He stared long and hard at the ceiling of his room, but it jealousy guarded the secrets to the universe, and as such, Alex cursed it and its entire bloodline.
Though that was probably a bad thing to do, he spent a not insignificant amount of time under that ceiling, having it drip curses on him would probably be bad. His mom came about some time to inform him he was going to be going on a tour of the Protectorate building with his sister come Tuesday.
Because that was the best thing to do with his Tuesday afternoon; waste a whole two hours to stare for two minutes at a bunch of violent superpowered teenagers like they're animals at the Zoo, only significantly more dangerous.
When Monday came about, he still had no clue as to what he was going to do, Taylor still didn't look as happy as she had during the last week (bar Friday), but she also didn't have that 'I'm going to explode at the first person that greets me' air. So Alex continued with his plan to get her acclimated to his presence, still saying nothing, just reading in her presence while getting physically closer a half inch at a time.
Tuesday went much the same, though he had to eat lunch with what used to be his usual group from the writing club. Lily had decided to make another attempt at sitting with Taylor, but she continued to do it dumb, not giving the poor girl a chance to acclimate to her presence, to stop seeing her as a threat, before speaking to her.
The rest of the school day went as usual, Taylor no longer hunched up when he walked near her on the way to the bus stop, not even if he happened to be at arm's length. So…progress.
He went home, got started on his homework, then went out for their tour forty minutes before they had to leave because Anna was way too excited about getting to see the 'heroes'. To Alex's immense chagrin, a car crash en route to the Protectorate building added forty minutes to their commute, making Anna entirely too smug about her 'foresight.'
This wasn't Alex's first tour so he didn't really pay much attention to what their tour guide was saying, Anna lapped it up though, her dark blonde hair whipping back and forth as she turned to look at everything the guide spoke about, her brown eyes shining with excitement.
Man, maybe Alex was growing jaded in his old age, but Capes just didn't do anything for him, then again Capes had killed his dad, so fuck the lot of them.
The tour made it to the Wards room. "And this is the Wards common area!" The tour Guide said in his obnoxiously professionally excited voice. "The Wards relax here when they're not off learning to be heroes, and we even have a few of them here today!"
Weld stepped up, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders, it was always a surprise for Alex to realize he was taller than the Wards captain. "Hello, and welcome to the Boston Protectorate," Weld said, flashing his pearl—well his teeth weren't actually pearly…or white for that matter. "I'm Weld, the current captain of the Wards, and I'd like to introduce you to my team."
Somehow, the guy managed not to sound intimidating, but if one thought about it even a little, if Weld decided to kill everyone in the room, what in shit would stop him? The guy was made of literal metal.
"You probably know Flechette, Hunch, and Valve already," he continued. "Our newest member here is Phase, though we haven't yet introduced her officially."
Alex turned to look, and almost broke into a coughing fit.
Hunched posture, ratty bargain bin jeans and hoodie, brown curly waterfall worthy of a shampoo commercial, bright green eyes staring at her homework like it held the secret to immortality and eternal youth, and a 'fuck off' aura worn like battle armor.
It had to be some other girl with amazing hair, green eyes, a wide expressive mouth and a formidable 'fuck off' aura.
This couldn't be Taylor.
A blonde girl with green eyes and freckles was staring at Taylor, then stepped forward, speaking in an obnoxiously preppy tone. "So, Phase, what's your power?"
This had the unfortunate side effect of making every eye in the room zero in on the girl, something she didn't seem to notice, her head was tilted a little to the side and she seemed to be thinking hard about something.
"Phase?" Weld said in an attempt to get the girl's attention.
Taylor started and looked at the Wards leader. "Huh?"
Weld gave her a concerned look. "You were asked about your powers."
Taylor looked at Flechette, who now that Alex thought about it, also looked kinda familiar, and the other Ward gave a small, easy to miss shrug. Taylor turned back to the crowd. "I, um, can't say yet. It's a secret until my reveal."
The girl that had asked widened her grin. "Makes sense."
"So, how often do you guys go out and fight bad guys!?" Anna asked, bouncing in place.
Flechette chuckled and answered in Lily's voice. "We go on patrol fairly often, though it's rare for the Wards to go into combat. We're supposed to call it in, and keep people safe while we wait for the authorities. Every now and then things happen and we have to step in, but those are the exception rather than the rule."
Anna and a few of the kids (and teenagers, and adults that should have known better) asked more excited questions, but any question that was about 'Phase' was fielded by Lil-
Flechette or by the Tour Guide, giving Taylor no opportunity to answer any of the questions directed at her. Not that she looked like she wanted to answer, she was too busy giving everyone furtive glances.
The rest of the tour was a blur. Alex's thoughts were a jumbled mess, he let Anna's excited babbling wash over him as he tried to work through the conundrum.
Taylor was a Cape.
But, somehow, through some great cosmic joke, she was also a beaten down bullying victim.
Lily was probably a cape.
Taylor had some beef with her, and judging by the vindictive smile she'd had that one time they'd run into Weld and Reynard, she had a beef with
all the Wards.
What had the tour guide called Taylor? Phase?
She had been at the school for a month, why hadn't the Protectorate done its usual shindig? If Tayl–
Phase was a new Ward, then this was the most anemic Ward reveal ever, she'd had no costume, hell, if anything, she'd put actual effort into looking
worse than she did at school.
Where were the rumors to build up hype? The 'leaks' of work in progress concept art? Where was the big press conference with highly curated 'Journalists' to throw softball questions with prewritten politically correct bullshit for answers?
No, something was
off.
Doing what little research he could did not shine a light on the issue either. There was
nothing on 'Phase', nothing official anyways. The Boston Protectorate official PHO account, as well as the accounts of every 'Hero' and Ward were all unusually silent, even when people pinged them directly.
There was an 'Unannounced Ward' thread sitting at forty pages of mostly obvious PRT shills talking shit, along with a plague of locked threads with plenty of deleted posts, thread and multi-day bans. It took two hours before Alex was able to find a new thread about Phase. The original post mentioned that she'd exploded on an earlier tour, talking shit about the Protectorate and Wards, and about how the Protectorate hid malfeasance, about how she'd been forced to join the Wards against her will.
Two minutes later the thread was locked and the original post was deleted.
Alex sat back and thought.
Taylor was a Cape. She seemingly didn't want to
be a cape, or at least, not a cape for the Protectorate.
She was a Ward, but held herself away from the Wards and was actively hostile to other Wards.
Taylor was a Cape.
But she was also a lonely, hurt girl that would sit in the corner and read
The Princess Bride rather than risk talking to people.
Taylor was a Cape, but people didn't really get a choice about getting superpowers, as far as Alex knew. She couldn't be blamed for that, especially when she was a Cape against her will.
But she was still a Cape.
Alex's resolve to stop trying to become Taylor's friend lasted until the next day, when he saw that she'd gotten her little smirk back, a little smirk strangely laced with anxiety.
It looked so much like Anna's little smirk whenever she got one over him, and he hated seeing it tainted with fear. She should have a smile that brightened the whole room. Maybe be a motormouth that didn't know when to shut up about the latest thing that struck her fancy.
She shouldn't be this angry, awful shrew pushing people away.
"Anger is merely pain wearing a disguise." His dad's voice said in the back of his mind, and Alex could not help the long suffering sigh that passed through his lips.
He took his seat next to Taylor, and sat a half inch closer to being in front of her at lunch. She'd get curious and say something to him eventually. And when she did, maybe they could have a chat about why the Earth Bet version of the Princess Bride was the clearly superior one.