Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Taylor's feet dangled off of the edge of the skyscraper, hanging high above the pavement as she stared off at the silent city before her, deep in thought.

It was strange how much things had changed in such a small amount of time. And yet despite everything, the city still looked the same. It was incredible how no matter what kind of shattering events someone went through, it could have very little effect on the greater world around them.

Taylor's moody thoughts were interrupted by a tinny voice buzzing to life inside of her mask, “Taylor, are you brooding right now?”

Taylor stiffened, her cheeks feeling slightly hot, “I wasn't brooding, Emma!” She denied, “I was just… thinking.”

Her weak defence didn't fool her friend for a single second, “You do realize I can see you right now, right? And I know that when you stare off wistfully like that, you're usually brooding.”

Knowing that Emma wasn't easily fooled, Taylor sighed, giving it up, “Yeah, okay. I was brooding.”

“Well stop it. Only one of us can brood and it's not going to be the one who's not in a wheelchair and has the best view in the whole city.”

Pouting, Taylor crossed her arms, “Yeah? Well what do you have to brood about anyway?”

“You mean besides the wheelchair?”

“Obviously.”

“Well maybe it's because I have an essay due in the morning and a best friend who's out climbing skyscrapers instead of helping me. Oh, and don't forget the fact that I’m honor bound to keep an eye on said best friend when she inevitably almost gets herself killed.”

“Yeah well, uh…” Taylor's mind stalled, “You should have finished it last week when we got it! It's not my fault you like to put things off to the last minute!”

“Bitch, not all of us can be super nerds like you! Some of us actually have to study the topic we're assigned before we can write an eight-hundred word expose on it!”

Taylor silently conceded her point. She probably had a bit of an advantage there, especially since her topic was one she was already pretty knowledgeable on.

“You're right. I'll help you finish it in first period tomorrow.”

“Can you just write it for me? It'll take you like an hour, right?”

“No, because then you'll never learn how to properly procrastinate. It's a very important skill for people our age.”

“You're lame.”

“Maybe. Still not doing your essay for you.”

“Bitch.”

Taylor giggled at Emma's salty attitude, before looking over the city once more and deciding she had taken enough time off. It was time to get back out there.

She slowly stood, stretching her arms up high into the sky as she limbered up. The golden web patterns along her black spandex caught the light of the stars and the streetlights down below, glinting happily as she reached up to her face and pulled down her goggles. She then pulled up her mask and hood, obscuring her identity completely.

Breathing deeply, she looked out at the sprawling city before her, taking in the yellow lights of those who happened to be up this late, before stepping to the edge of the roof, stepping forward until only her heels were left on the solid concrete.

She waited for a single moment, staring down at the several stories between her and the pavement down below, and in that instant, Emma spoke up, her voice shaking slightly with nerves, “Taylor, don't you dare.”

Taylor grinned at her friend's fear, before leaning forward and letting gravity take control. The roof fell out from underneath her feet as she began plummeting downward, picking up speed at an incredible pace.

“Oh my God, Taylor! What the hell!?” Taylor giggled, knowing that the other girl was probably watching though the camera in her goggles. Her giggles continued even as her heart thumped in her chest and the wind rushed past her face, threatening to blow the hood right off of her head. The ground steadily grew closer, cold concrete seemingly reaching out towards her thanks to how fast she was falling, and Taylor wasn't sure she would ever get used to the feeling of a proper free fall. It was just as exhilarating as the first time she had done it.

Just as she crested the buildings, approaching the height where most people would close their eyes and shield their ears to avoid seeing the inevitable, she thrust an arm out, two fingers pressing firmly against her palm while the others splayed outwards.

A white thread emerged from a hidden seam in her costume just underneath her palm, attaching to a nearby building at its thickest point. The line snapped taut and her impossibly fast descent instantly became a swinging arc that left her feet skimming across the tops of the cars parked just below her, before flinging her upwards into the air once more.

Taylor let out a whoop of joy as she flipped in the air, exhilaration filling her like it always did when she came out of a dive at such incredible speeds. Buildings blurred past her and just above the rushing wind she could hear the few people on the street scream in surprise as they realized someone was above them. She gave them a wave, knowing that they probably couldn't even see her, before thrusting another arm out and attaching to another building, swinging into another arc.

As she swung, settling into a steady rhythm of slinging webs from building to building, Emma’s voice came through her earbuds once more, “You need to stop doing that. You’re going to give me a heart attack one day. Or miss the building on the way down.”

“Aww, you care about me!” Taylor said cheekily as she rounded a corner, using a web to fling herself into an alley without losing any speed.

As she ran along the wall, Emma responded, “Of course I do. Who else would listen to me bitch about school other than you? Sophia? We both know that’s not happening.”

Taylor frowned lightly at the mention of the girl but she didn’t say anything about it. Her attention had already been taken by something much more important.

She crouched down on the wall, moving forward slowly while making sure she stuck to the shadows, all the while keeping her eyes on several suspicious-looking men standing just outside the mouth of an alley across the street. They were looking around shiftily, as if they were trying to make sure they weren’t being watched, and that, alongside the fact that they were loudly and proudly sporting the ABB’s colors, drew Taylor’s interest to them.

“Taylor…” Emma spoke softly in her ear, and Taylor’s fists clenched at the trepidation in her voice.

“I know, Ems. I'll be careful.” She said just as softly as she watched the gangsters creep into the alley. She crawled to the edge of the alley, before using a web to zip across the street, landing on the wall of the opposite building in a silent crouch.

She crawled inside of the alley, being very careful to stick to the shadows and trusting that her dark costume would keep her hidden. She looked around, taking note that the alley was completely enclosed, with the entrance she had just come in being the only way out. That was good. Less chance of them getting away.

Her eyes locked onto her targets. There were three of them, each of them huddled around one another as they spoke in quiet tones not meant for anyone else to overhear. Too bad for them, she was here.

Taylor brought a hand to her ear underneath her hood, twisting a small dial on her earpiece and thanking Emma for her work. The hushed whispers of the three men slowly grew louder as the device fed the noise directly into her ear, letting her hear them talk even from her place high above them.

“...o stupid. We should be guarding that safehouse instead of just standing around here.” One of the men said in a heavily accented voice.

“There’s too many people there already. We can't all be there or else people might start getting suspicious.” Another responded, “But yeah, I agree. It's cold as shit out here.”

Ooh, so there was a stash house nearby? Taylor leaned in, listening in interest. Unfortunately, it seemed that they weren't going to expound any more on the topic, switching the topic of the conversation to the weather of all things. Taylor felt her eyes dropping as they began to exchange anecdotes, sounding eerily similar to her dad when his friends happened to visit.

Boring, in other words.

Right, well she wasn't going to learn anything else like this. Time to get in there and do what she did best.

“Excuse me! Don’t you guys know there’s a curfew in effect?” They startled, looking around at the sound of her voice, before one of them actually had the bright idea to look up, locking eyes with her casually lounging on the wall. She gave him a small wave, keeping up her casual demeanor, “I’m gonna have to ask you guys to clear out of here. If you don’t, I’ll have to report you guys to the proper authorities and I’m sure you don’t want that. You should skedaddle while you can.”

Instead of an intelligible response, the men responded with shouted words in a language Taylor didn't understand but was pretty sure was some form of Chinese. They pointed their guns at her angrily and Taylor, having a feeling she knew where this was going, responded in the way that came naturally to her recently.

With the proper amounts of drama and sarcasm.

She gasped theatrically, flinching back as if she couldn't believe what was happening, “Wait, are those real rifles!? Where'd you get those!?”

More shouted words, accompanied by angry posturing and something in the back of Taylor's head tingled powerfully, leading her to leap off of the wall as one of them pulled the trigger. Bullets whizzed by her face and Taylor's heart jumped into her throat as she came inches from becoming swiss cheese. Knowing that it was likely the difference between life and death, Taylor kept her cool as she flipped into the air above their heads, thrusting her hands out.

“I'm very sorry but I'm gonna have to confiscate these!” She yelled as she ripped the weapons from their hands with her webs, “Call it a hunch, but I have the feeling you guys don't have the proper permits to carry fully automatic weapons. You can have them back when you learn how to behave!

They made surprised noises as she relieved them of their guns, flinging them away and deeper into the darkness of the alley where they wouldn't be able to easily reach them. She landed at the mouth of the alley in a crouch, and smiled as ABB gangsters turned to look at her in surprise as they realized they had been disarmed.

She slowly stood, cracking her knuckles loudly and feeling a guilty satisfaction at the flinches the action produced. “So, do you guys want to do this the easy way, or the fun way? I'm feeling nice tonight, so I'll let you guys choose.”

They looked at one another and Taylor was unsure if they even understood what she was saying, before one of them yelled out a war cry and charged towards her. The other two followed suit, and suddenly Taylor had three grown men charging at her with the intent to beat her to death.

Instead of being put out or afraid however, Taylor grinned, lowering her stance a bit, “Fun way it is!”

As the first reached her, she sidestepped his punch, responding with a knee to the gut that immediately took the wind out of his sails. She stepped around him as he fell to his knees and jumped up in the air as the second one approached her.

She put a hand on his shoulder, flipped over him, before turning a sweeping both of his legs out from under him in one fell swoop. He fell into his friend, wrapping his arms around him in an attempt to keep from smashing his head on the ground, and Taylor couldn't help but make a comment.

“Aww, look at that! I didn't think you guys were capable of caring about anyone, much less each other. Way to prove me wrong!” She thrust and arm out, webbing the two of them together before they had the chance to get up, “There, now you can hug it out until the cops get here. I’d go ahead and get comfortable, you'll be there for a while!”

She turned her head as footsteps approached, expecting another attack, only to blink as the third gangster ran right by her, booking it out of the alley and leaving his friends at her mercy.

She watched him go, a little stunned by his actions, before she burst into action, following after him, “Hey! Where are you going? The party's back here!”

He sped up at the sound of her voice, running even faster. She reached out, but before she had a chance to chase him down or pull his legs out from under him, Taylor looked up as a white-clar figure suddenly dropped from the sky into the fleeing man’s path. As he ran into them, he bounced off of their body as if he had run face-first into a brick wall, falling on his ass with a noise of pain.

Taylor grinned as she recognized the person who had just appeared, and Glory Girl looked down at the fallen gangster with a raised eyebrow, “What's the rush, buddy? You seem like you're in a hurry to get somewhere.”

Taylor zipped out of the alley, landing on a nearby light pole. She crouched down just above them, making herself known to the other superheroine, “He must have been in such a rush to get to the police station that he didn't want to wait. I can understand his impatience. Booking times are killer these days.”

Glory Girl looked up at the sound of her voice, grinning massively as her eyes alighted on Taylor sitting on top of the pole, “Spidey! Fancy meeting you here. What are you doing out so late?”

Taylor shrugged as she jumped to the ground, “I couldn't sleep and had nothing better to do so I figured I'd come out here and see what I could find. Evil never sleeps and all that.” She crossed her arms, “And my name's not Spidey, it's Widow.”

“Hmm…” Glory Girl made a thinking face, “Nah, I think I'll just keep calling you Spidey. It's more PR friendly.”

“Why do you care about how PR friendly my name is?”

“We're friends, duh. It's my job to make sure that you keep that public image up. Especially when you don't seem to really care about it.”

“I think my public image is fine, thank you very much! It's just the Protectorate who doesn't like me. Well, Armsmaster specifically.” He really didn't like her for some reason.

“And the ABB.”

Taylor's good mood immediately soured, “They don't matter.”

“Right. I forgot about… that.” Glory Girl looked slightly uncomfortable, before she turned her head down the street, “Speaking of which, you wanna take care of that or should I?”

Taylor looked in that direction to find the gangster who ran into Glory Girl had made a break for it while they were chatting. “Ah. Yeah, I'll take care of it.”

Holding an arm out, she aimed carefully before letting off a thick spray of webs. It wrapped around the fleeing man's legs, sticking them together and tripping him with a yelp.

Glory Girl made a face, as Taylor applied thicker webs, making sure he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, “That's still so gross.”

“You're just jealous I don't have to carry zip ties.” Taylor said as she walked back into the alley.

Glory Girl shrugged, floating alongside her as she began pulling the struggling gangsters out of the alley, “Fair. So what are you gonna do with these guys? Ooh! Are you gonna do that thing?”

“Yep. It's basically my calling card at this point. No point in fixing what's not broken.” Taylor gave her a grin, “Wanna help?”

Glory Girl responded with a smile of her own, “Duh!”

~~~

Taylor hummed to herself as she stood on the edge of the building, watching Glory Girl walk to the cops about the goons currently dangling from the light pole wrapped in a giant cocoon.

“Probably not my best work, truth be told.” She said aloud as she noticed they still had some wiggle room in the cocoon, “I think next time, I'll add some artistic flair or something.”

“What are you talking about now?” Emma asked, apparently done being silent, “Did you take care of those guys?”

She could hear the clinking of silverware in the background, indicating Emma was probably in her kitchen, away from her computer and thus, her camera feed.

“Yeah, I dealt with them. Actually got some pretty good info off of one of them too. One of their stash houses.” Taylor said, looking at the phone she had lifted from one of the gangsters, “It might actually be a lead to Her. I'll have to check it out before I head in for the night.”

She could hear Emma pause in the background, “Be careful Taylor. I know you want to get revenge for what happened to me, but if you get hurt, I'm not sure what I'd do.”

“She paralyzed you, Emma.” Taylor said, clutching onto the phone. The plastic creaked in her grip, “She nearly killed both of us.”

“I know, Taylor. But I'm getting better and he's fine now. We even have powers now because of what happened! You don't have to keep looking for her just for me.”

Taylor breathed deeply, “I’m not just doing this for you, Emma. I'm doing it for me too.”

“...Right. Well still, be careful alright? I'd literally lose my mind if you got killed, and this city doesn't need another villainous Tinker. I'd probably start calling myself the All-Seeing Eye or something stupid like that.”

Taylor smiled, happy for the change of topic, “I've heard worse names.”

“Worse names for what?” Taylor looked over to find Glory Girl floating up to her with a curious expression on her face, “By the way, why don't you ever talk to the cops?”

“Oh, it's her. Guess I better get ready to be ignored for the next thirty minutes. Gives me a chance to eat my cereal, at least.”

The clanking of silverware against a bowl followed by deliberate crunching entered Taylor's ear making her eye twitch. She did her best to ignore it, knowing that Emma was being as obnoxious as possible on purpose.

“I'm just talking with someone about cape names. Nothing too important.” Taylor shrugged as her friend touched down beside her, “As for why I don't talk to cops, I'm usually just gone before they show up. No reason to stick around when I could be helping people somewhere else.”

Glory Girl tilted her head curiously, “So why'd you stick around this time?”

“Because you're here.” Taylor said casually, missing the way that her friend paused at her words, “I also have something I wanna ask you. It's cool if you don't want to, I just figured I should ask.”

“Wow, you're forward, aren't you? Too bad you're dense as a brick.” Emma said in her ear, confusing her.

Glory Girl got a weird look on her face, only adding to her confusion, “Uh…huh. And uh, what is that?”

“I've got to deal with a stash house nearby.” Taylor said, pointing her thumb behind her, “There should be a few of these guys there and they have some info I want. You wanna help out? Could be fun.”

Glory Girl floated in front of her silently for a second, and Taylor could hear Emma sigh in her headset, before the heroine came to life once more. She shook her head as she came out of her daze, giving Taylor an odd smile, “Sure, I'm always down to crack some heads. Especially with my favorite partner in crime.”

Taylor gasped, putting a hand to her chest, “Favorite!? You mean you have other partners!? Are you cheating on me, Glory Girl!?”

“Oh, this poor girl…”

Glory Girl paused again, “I-... Let's just go. Where's this place at, anyway?”

“I've got the general location. Just follow me.” Taylor said, before swinging off into the night, followed by the city’s resident flying brick.

~~~ Later, Inside The Stash House ~~~

Thanks to her power set, dealing with stash houses like this was practically Taylor’s forte at this point. It came naturally to her, like Emma with her tech or Glory Girl with her… being almost bulletproof.

She crept through the halls, sticking to the shadows or simply crawling along the ceiling where nobody would think to look, all the while using stealth and common sense to thin the herd of ABB gangsters one by one. Her costume was dark enough that she practically melted into the shadows, making her almost unseeable unless someone was actively looking for her.

Crouching high above one such member, Taylor eyed the woman below her, looking around to make sure that she was alone. Her nose tingled with the acrid scent of nicotine from the cigarette she was smoking as it drifted up towards the ceiling, but Taylor didn’t let it bother her as she ensured that nobody else was around.

“I’m not detecting any heat signatures nearby. Make it quick.” Emma mumbled in her ear, and Taylor nodded firmly.

Bending backwards on the ceiling, Taylor shot a pair of webs onto the back of the unsuspecting woman below her, pulling her upwards towards the ceiling faster than she had time to yelp. She slammed into the roof with a dull thud, and another flick of Taylor’s wrist alongside a quick application of webs ensured she stayed there.

Taylor slowly crawled towards her, locking eyes with the woman behind her goggles. The woman gave her a shocked look, opening her mouth to scream out, but Taylor reached out and clamped a hand over her mouth, shutting her up before she could say a word.

“Shh… Don't scream. We wouldn't want anyone to come and ruin this little chat we're about to have.” The woman's pupils dilated with fear as they locked onto Taylor's masked face, and Taylor was sure that she could see nothing but the yellow lenses of her goggles peeking through the darkness of her hood.

“Now the only reason I haven't knocked you out is because I need to ask you some questions. I could change that if you don't want to cooperate. There's more than enough people in here that I could question instead.” The woman shook her head quickly, and Taylor grinned, “Wonderful. Now then, I'm looking for someone very specific.” Taylor reached into the belt at her waist, pulling out her phone and holding it up to the woman’s face, “Do you recognize her? Nod if you do.”

To her delight, unlike all of the people she had questioned before, this woman actually nodded. She kept a lid on her excitement, though she did lean in just a bit to keep the intimidating act up, “That's good news. I was worried I might have to go through this whole place just to find someone who had what I was looking for. Now I'm going to let go, and you aren't going to scream. What you are going to do is tell me everything you know about this woman, got it?”

The woman nodded again and Taylor slowly let go, prepared to put her hand back at a moment's notice, “I-I don't know her name, but I seen her hang around some of the Lieutenants! I think she's being trained as one of them, o-or something!”

A Lieutenant? Of course someone like her would be rewarded for her heinous actions. Taylor leaned in even closer, staring into the woman’s scared eyes, “And? Where’d you see her last? Where do the Lieutenants usually congregate?”

“I-I don’t know! I'm just a runner! I don’t know nothing!”

Taylor frowned, moving to demand an answer that she actually wanted to hear, only to freeze as a voice called out from below them both. She looked down and her eyes widened as she was met with a bearded Asian holding a pistol in her direction, clearly unhappy about what she was doing to his comrade.

Yā, min'na! Kotchi ni kite!” The man shouted behind him, jamming his pistol in Taylor’s direction, “Kēpu ga aru yo!”

Taylor didn't have a clue what he was saying but she could get the gist. She flipped back down to the ground, twisting and shooting a web at the man in the same motion. He pulled the trigger of his gun, but nothing happened as her webs did their job of preventing the trigger from actually moving, rendering it useless.

Knowing that she didn’t have long before his friend’s joined the party however, and so she beat a hasty retreat back through the house, bringing one hand up to her mask as she ran.

“Hey Glory Girl! I’m headed your way! Get ready cause you got company!” She spoke, skidding around a corner and listening as several footsteps followed behind her, accompanied by shouts of anger, “Maybe quite a few of them!”

“Okay, Spidey, I’m ready. Just let me at ‘em!”

Taylor rounded the corner of a long hallway, and her eyes immediately locked onto the large window at the end of the hall. Hearing the footsteps behind her draw steadily closer, Taylor shot webs on either side of the walls, pulling back on them with all of her strength. Her webs strained and the walls creaked, threatening to break with the amount of force she was pulling on them with, and just before they gave up, she let go, rocketing herself towards the window at incredible speeds.

She smashed through the window with a loud crash, wincing as she felt some of the glass cut through the arms of her costume. She flailed in the air for a moment before reorienting herself and angling herself towards the nearby buildings, reaching an arm out to gain some semblance of control on her fall.

Only it turned out, she didn’t have to bother. Taylor grunted as she slammed into someone’s body in mid-air, and arms immediately wrapped around her torso, bringing her securely against the person who she had run into.

She looked up and Glory Girl grinned down at her as she adjusted her haphazard hold into something more comfortable for Taylor, “Well hey there. You come here often?”

Taylor wrapped an arm around her friend’s neck as she began to descend, “Eh, only if you’re around. Nice catch, by the way.”

“Thanks. I knew those family practices would be good for something.”

She set Taylor down on the sidewalk just outside the house, and the moment Taylor’s hands unlatched from around her neck, the door burst open and nearly a dozen men and women charged their way into the night, only to freeze as they were met with Taylor and Glory Girl, neither of them looking particularly impressed.

Taylor looked over at her friend who looked oddly eager to throw down, “You wanna take the lead on this one? You look like you’re rarin’ to go.”

“Oh I am. I’ve been looking for something like this all night. My ex is being a pain in my ass and I’ve got some stress to work out.” She grinned widely, and a few of the ABB members flinched backwards at the sight, “And I think I’ll lead on this one.”

Taylor cracked her knuckles loudly, “Sounds good to me. Let's get to it.”

Between the two of them, the gathering of random thugs and ne-er-do-wells didn’t stand a chance. Taylor set them up and Glory Girl knocked them down, following up on the acrobatic cape’s leads as if they had been working together for years, while Taylor made sure that the gangsters didn’t get a bead on her blonde friend and destroy her shield.

When all was said and done, the Taylor and Glory Girl were standing among nearly a dozen groaning bodies. Some of them were unconscious while others were merely tied up, stuck to the ground with an ample amount of webbing that wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Glory Girl dusted her hands off, looking around at their work, “Well that was fun, but I think I’m gonna head in for the night. I’m not even supposed to be out right now but Dean was texting me a bunch of stuff and… Yeah.”

Taylor didn’t really get it but nodded anyway, “Alright. Thanks for the help, Glory Girl. I probably could have done it by myself but it would have taken way longer.”

“No problem. Teaming up with you is always a blast.” Glory Girl gave her a smile which Taylor returned easily.

“Oh, one more thing.” Glory Girl suddenly leaned forward until her lips were right beside Taylor’s head, causing the brunette to freeze. She then whispered a set of numbers into her ear, her warm breath caressing the side of Taylor’s face.

She then leaned back, giving the brunette a grin, “You get that?” Taylor nodded slowly, memorizing the sequence of numbers in an instant, “Good. That’s my number. Do me a favor and call me if you want to do something like this again. It was super fun. Beating up thugs is a much better form of stress relief than venting to Amy.”

Taylor laughed, shaking off her surprise, “Sure thing. Though if we’re turning this into a therapy session, then I should warn you I’m pretty expensive. My time’s very valuable these days.”

“I’m pretty sure I can afford it.” Vicky said, raising above the ground and giving Taylor a small wave, “See ya, Spidey. Don’t be a stranger.”

Glory Girl lifted into the air, blasting away into the night and proving once again that she was one of the fastest flyers in the city. Taylor watched her go, a happy smile on her face as her friend flew behind some buildings and disappeared from sight.

“You’re a real lady-killer, aren’t you?” Emma spoke up, making Taylor remember that her friend was even there.

She blinked as her mind registered what her ears just heard, “I’m sorry?”

“Oh nothing. It’s just that I usually make boys put in a lot more effort before they get my number. Glory Girl must really like you. Good for you. She’s a bit too blonde for my tastes and definitely too heroic, but good for you.”

Taylor blushed crimson as she ran back her and Glory Girl’s interactions. She was just being friendly and bantering like she always did, but now that she thought about it, they did have a bit of a flirting undertone, didn’t they?

“Hey, you should invite her out tomorrow night!” Emma continued to rib Taylor as she began to swing away into the night, “Maybe the two of you could brood on rooftops together or something. Actually, I doubt someone like her is really a fan of brooding. Maybe frolicking through a field of flowers or something?”

“Hey Ems?” Taylor said as she flipped over a building.

“Yeah, Tay?”

“Shut up or you're gonna be on your own with that essay.”

Chapter Text

It was a day like any other when it happened. When Taylor's life changed forever.

She arrived at Emma's house in the early afternoon, ready and somewhat excited for the trip the two of them had planned for the afternoon. Normally Taylor wouldn't be nearly this excited just to go clothes shopping, even for the beginning of the school year, but the prospect of spending time with her best friend far outweighed the tedium of shopping for new outfits.

Though Emma sure was taking her sweet time getting ready…

“I thought you said you were almost ready to leave?” Taylor called out towards the bathroom her friend had been stuck in for the last hour.

“I am! I'm just fixing my mascara!” Emma called back, and Taylor groaned, falling back on the bed. Emma took forever to do her makeup, always needing to fix one thing or another. She'd be here for at least another half-hour.

Sighing, Taylor sat up and grabbed the backpack that was sitting by the bed, reaching into it to grab the thin notebook inside. She always stashed an extra here in case of situations like this, and it had come in handy more than once.

Opening it to the freshest page, Taylor looked over the equations that were written there and was happy to see that they were pretty up to date. Seemed like she used this notebook more recently than she remembered.

Pulling the pencil out of the spine, Taylor began the task of filling in the missing information, writing down equations with practiced ease from memory alone before moving on to the next part.

Emma would definitely criticize her for doing what basically amounted to self-assigned homework right before they were supposed to hang out, but Taylor had been working on those chemical equations for a while now and she was sure she almost had it.

“If I use this compound alongside this one, together they should work as a binding agent and react when the substance meets air.” She muttered to herself as she wrote down equations, “But that would make it harder to keep as a liquid at room temperature. It has to be a liquid or else it's completely useless… Maybe I could-no, that wouldn't work either.”

Taylor looked up from her notebook as the door to Emma's bathroom opened with a click, “Taylor, I can hear you muttering in here. I swear to god if I see that notebook in your hands…” She threatened as she emerged. Taylor immediately tossed the book back inside the bag alongside the pencil, kicking it underneath the bed with a thump that made her wince.

“I heard that!” Emma's eyes were narrowed as she walked out of the bathroom. She put her hands on her hips as she saw Taylor sitting there, looking guilty, “I thought I told you no homework when we hang out!”

“It's not homework!” Taylor protested loudly.

Emma rolled her eyes, “Right, sorry. What I meant was, I thought I told you no college level chemistry when we hang out! Any time you get stuck on something, you space out all freaking day! It's no fun hanging out with you when you're like that.”

“I don't space out!”

Emma just stared at her, “Tay, you nearly got hit by a car last time we went to the mall because you were going over differential equations in your head. If I didn't pull you out of the way, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

“The light was red! I had the right of way!” Taylor protested, her cheeks hot at the memory.

Emma sighed, “I'm not having this argument again. I swear, I don't know why you stayed home from summer camp if you're just going to study. Why I had to have a best friend who's a literal freaking genius, I'll never know. Could have just had a normal group of friends but nooo, I had to make friends with the nerdy looking girl on the first day of elementary school.”

Taylor giggled at her monologue, “You know you love me.”

“Reluctantly.” Sighing again, Emma flipped her hair, “Anyway, how do I look? Is my makeup good? I’m using a new brand and I want to know if it looks okay.”

Taylor wasn't an expert in cosmetology, but she knew Emma looked as good as she always did. Being a junior model, she took much better care of her appearance than even some adult women, and she knew that. She was just fishing for compliments.

“You look great, Emma. Can we leave now?”

Emma’s eye twitched in annoyance, “Thanks Tay, you really know how to make a girl feel special.”

Taylor grinned, hopping off of the bed, “I try.”

“Maybe stop trying, you aren't good at it.” Emma sniffed, “And yeah, we can leave now. Let's go to Sephora first. I think they're having a sale.”

Taylor held back a sigh, already knowing she'd have to spend an hour watching her friend deliberate between shades of similarly colored makeup, “Fine, but we're going to the bookstore on the way back. It said online they just got in the book I wishlisted and I want to pick it up before it's gone. It'll only take a minute.”

“Ugh, you are such a nerd.” Emma said as they made their way downstairs, “Who reads during summer break?”

“People who want to enrich their minds?”

“I'd rather enrich my wardrobe. Do you think I could find a cute pair of pants under forty bucks? Daddy gave me my allowance for the rest of the month but I don't want to spend it all in one place.”

“For forty? At a thrift store maybe.”

Emma made a disgusted face, “Eeugh, don't even say that, Taylor. I'm nowhere near desperate enough to wear someone else's clothes.”

“You wear my clothes all the time!”

“Yeah, but I know you have at least basic hygiene.” Emma sniffed, “Though maybe you could use some better body wash. Your clothes smell like your dad.”

“Just for that, I'm taking my sweet time in the bookstore.” Taylor said, and Emma's eyes widened.

“Uhh, what I meant to say was that your body wash is perfect for you and there's no need to change anything! Yeah, that's it…” She laughed nervously.

Taylor pretended like she didn't hear her as they walked out the front door. “I think they just got a shipment of young adult sci-fi novels.” She mused out loud, deliberately teasing her friend, “It shouldn't take me more than an hour or two to pick out one I really like. You know how I like to read the first few chapters of a book to see if it's actually good.

“Taaaay!”

~~~

A few hours of boring yet somehow intense shopping later, Taylor and Emma slowly but steadily made their way home, arms laden with bags full of clothing and one book. It was getting late, the orange and yellow sunset having long been replaced with the cool blue of the slowly darkening sky, and both of them were there but satisfied with their haul.

Taylor's feet hurt from walking all day but she wasn't really focused on that as she chatted happily with her friend.

“So what do you think Winslow's gonna be like?” Taylor asked, wondering about the upcoming school year, “I heard that place is really rough. Like, gangs and stuff. You should have tried to get into Immaculata since you couldn't make Arcadia.”

“I wanted to. Daddy wouldn't let me, remember?” Emma responded, “He and Mom got into a big fight about it.”

Taylor made an ‘ah’ sound, “Oh yeah, I remember that. Didn't Anne get involved too?”

“Yeah. She didn't want me to go to Winslow either, but Dad insisted it was a good school and I should go. I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to lay the admission and transportation fee for Immaculata. Not to mention the uniforms, though I think I dodged a bullet with that one.”

Taylor shrugged, “I think they're kind of cute. In a Catholic school girl sort of way.”

“Of course you do.” Emma rolled her eyes, “Taylor, remind me never to come to you for fashion advice.”

Taylor gave her friend an annoyed look, “You remind yourself of that any time I bring up my clothes.”

“That's because your entire wardrobe is a disaster. I literally almost threw up last time I looked in your closet”

Taylor huffed, “I don't get it! What's wrong with my clothes?”

Emma sniffed, “There's not enough time in the day. I'll write you a list and mail it to you. You're paying the shipping fee though, I think it costs more to mail stuff over a few pounds and that's a lot of paper.”

“...You're mean.”

“It's called tough love, Tay. If I didn't bully you, how would you grow thick enough skin to survive high school?”

“By having a mean best friend to verbally tear down whoever tries to bully me?” Taylor said sarcastically as they took a shortcut through an alley, “If you're like this with me, imagine how mean be to someone you actually didn't like.”

Emma hummed thoughtfully, “That's true. I guess you should be glad I like you then.”

“I'm absolutely glowing with joy.” Taylor said in the dryest voice imaginable, making Emma giggle.

This happy atmosphere came to a screeching halt as someone stepped into their path, blocking their path before they could leave the alley.

“Howdy there, neighbors!” A woman suddenly stepped out of the shadows, and both teens immediately tensed at the sight of her and the colors she was openly sporting.

Red and green were on prominent display. From the jacket she was wearing to her shoes and the bracelets on her wrists, those two colors remained constant. Taylor had lived in Brockton Bay all her life and knew what that likely meant. This woman was a member of the ABB.

And yet, that wasn't even the most intimidating thing about her, nor was the too-innocent look on her face. No, what was most unsettling about her, was the scars. They practically covered her face, from her forehead to her neck, the amount of scarred tissue far outweighed the smooth skin on display.

She was wearing a surgical mask, but both of the girls could clearly see the thick, jagged pink scars peeking out from underneath the mask, sliding along her face and jaw, and instantly knew that it was there for a reason.

The woman tilted her head, and Taylor instinctively stepped closer to Emma as she spoke, “And where are you two cuties heading off this time of night? Aren't you a little too young to be out by yourselves?”

Both girls tensed at the word usage, reminded all at once of the trade the ABB was most infamously known for. Sex-trafficking.

They turned around at a noise behind them, and Taylor felt her heart sink into her stomach as two men walked into the alley as well, effectively blocking them in with the woman.

“Taylor…” Emma whispered, and Taylor just nodded, stepping closer to her friend as the scarred woman stepped forward.

“No need to leave so soon. You should know better than to wander the streets at night. Especially in this part of town.” The woman grinned sickly as she looked them both up and down, obviously leering at them in a disgusting fashion, “Two pretty, young girls like you… someone might just snatch you up!”

“Especially the redhead! I wouldn't mind having a go at her myself!” One of the men behind them laughs, and Taylor's fists clenched as Emma shivered in equal parts horror and disgust.

“No using the merchandise before the customer. Virgins pay a premium. We could probably get at least double out of these two.”

Taylor looked at Emma, wondering what they should do. They couldn't run without being caught, but if both of them knew what would happen if they stayed. Their eyes met, and unspoken words passed through their gazes, before Emma's expression suddenly tightened.

Taking a deep breath, the redhead squared her shoulders and walked forward. Shocked by her actions, Taylor reached out to her friend, “Emma, what are you doing?”

Emma ignored her, stepping right up to the scarred woman full of false bravado, “You won't touch us.” She declared.

The woman raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Where's this confidence coming from all of the sudden?”

“It's coming from the fact that we're in public, and it's nowhere near late enough that nobody will hear us.” As if to prove her point, a car drove by on the street behind them, the headlights sliding through the alley and casting long shadows on the wall.

Despite this, the scarred woman looked utterly unconcerned by Emma's words, “You're a brave one, ain't ya? Or maybe you just don't realize what's going on here.”

Something inside of Taylor balked at her tone, and Emma opened her mouth, but in a sudden blur of movement, the masked woman punched her in the stomach. She fell to her knees, clutching her abdomen as the air was forced out of her lungs in one fell swoop.

“Emma!? Taylor screamed as she saw her friend go down. She tried to run to her aid, but the two men behind her grabbed her arms, keeping her restrained. She jerked against their arms fruitlessly, tearing up at the sight of her friend in pain, “Let me go – EMMA!”

The masked woman ignored her screams as she stepped towards the downed redhead, “I love the brave ones. They always think they're hot shit until they get hit, then they're pussies just like everyone else. Now then, let me get you up to speed on how exactly this is going to go down. Here's a hint, nobody's coming to help you.”

Emma attempted to rise, but the woman kicked her in the side, sending her down again, “Ah ah ah, stay down, Red. This'll be much harder if you fight back. Trust me.”

Emma shook but didn't try to rise again as the woman stepped over her, putting on leg on either side of her pitifully shivering body. She reached into her pocket as she knelt down, and Taylor's heart stopped as she pulled out a short metal object. There was a click, and a gleaming blade was unveiled to those present, moments before it was out to Emma's throat.

Emma went stock-still at the feeling of the cold steel pressed against her throat, and the woman grinned, enjoying her fear, “I saw you staring at my scars earlier. Don't you know it's rude to look at people like that? It's okay though, I know you're just curious. Why don't I tell you how I got them?”

Emma whimpered and Taylor grit her teeth pulling against the men holding her even harder. The woman spared her a glance, before turning back to Emma, “I was like you once. Young, stupid, pretty. Well, maybe not as pretty as you. This hair is such a beautiful shade of red. Maybe I should take some for myself.”

She ran her blade along the side of Emma's head and the girl whimpered, “No… After what I'm about to do to you, you'll need it. Girls like you are a luxury these days. Did you know that less than three percent of people are born with red hair? Our clients will pay a lot for a natural redhead. No matter how fucked up your face is.”

The woman shook her head, “Anyway, enough of that. I was about to tell you a story, wasn't I? Let's see… I think it was around two years ago now. I was on the way back home from a friend's house. Figured that even though it was late, I was old enough to make the journey alone, just like you two. And then I was caught, just like you two.”

The woman stared off into the distance, reminiscing, “I wasn't stupid enough to try to fight back, or maybe I was just too scared. Maybe I thought that if I went with what he said, I'd get out alive. It's all a blur by now, except for what he did next.”

She caressed Emma's face with the knife, making her whimper, “The man who caught me climbed on top of me… pinning me to the ground. I thought he was going to rape me right there in that dingy little alley, but what he did instead wasn't nearly as bad as that, and yet so, so much worse. He pulled out a knife, much bigger than this tiny little thing and asked me a simple question.”

Reaching up to her face, the woman pulled her mask down and Taylor wanted to throw up at the grisly sight that was revealed.

The scars on the edges of the woman's face didn't end just there. Her mouth was a mess of jagged flesh and torn muscle. Scars crisscrosses what little was left of her lips, like a chef had used her mouth as a whetstone to sharpen their knife. A good portion of her teeth were exposed, leaving her with a perpetual smile/grimace as if she were in constant pain.

It was absolutely horrific, and the sight was only made even worse as the woman grinned widely, “Eyes, ears, mouth, or nose?”

The question hung in the air like a noose, and the woman pulled her mask up again, “I'm sure you can tell which one I chose. But I wonder, someone as pretty as you… will your choice be the same?” Her eyes crinkled with her sadistic smile, “Why don't we find out?”

The woman brought the knife closer to Emma's skin, and Taylor screamed, “STOP! Let her go! Please! Y-you can hurt me instead, just let her go!”

“Oh don't worry, you're next. Keep her still, boys.” The woman didn't even look back at Taylor as she begged, “Make sure she sees this. Don't let her look away. She should know what she's in for.”

She leaned in, "I know I said we shouldn't damage the merchandise, but we can always put a bag over your head. Most of that shit's done in the dark anyway. Besides, some of those freaks are into it.”

Taylor's struggles renewed as the woman brought the knife down towards her best friend's eye, “Times up, Red. I chose for you. Do me a favor and grit your teeth. This is gonna hurt like a bitch. Trust me.”

Emma met Taylor's eyes, and Taylor could see her silently pleading with her, asking her not to let this happen. Begging her to help her somehow, and something inside Taylor snapped like a frayed rope and everything went black.

Destination…
Agreement

Her vision returned like she had simply blinked, and yet Taylor could tell that she had been out for far longer. One of the men holding her limp body up was slapping her on the face, trying to wake her, and the woman who was about to mutilate her friend was looking at them with annoyance as she said something Taylor couldn't make out over the buzzing in her head.

Glancing down, Taylor met Emma's eyes again. Saw the fear still present there, and all at once her cognizance returned. She didn't care what had just happened to her. Emma was still in danger.

Taylor jerked her arms, hoping that the element of surprise would let her break free and do… something, to help Emma. Only, instead of her slipping from their limp fingers as she took advantage of their surprise, something much stranger happened.

As Taylor pulled her arms back to jerk them forward again, her forearms slammed into both of the men's chests. There was a loud crack, like someone splitting a log of wood in two, and the men went flying several feet away with shouts of pain, falling to the ground and clutching their broken ribs.

There was a long pause as everyone present registered what just happened, and even Taylor was left staring at the downed ABB members in stark surprise, before she slowly looked down at her hands, wondering what in the world had just happened.

“Well… shit. Never thought I'd see that happen in person.” The woman holding Emma down slowly stood up and Taylor's head snapped upwards, and her eyes narrowed.

She squared her shoulders putting as much confidence into her voice as she could despite her confusion, “Let Emma go. Now.”

“Alright, alright. Here, I'm backing away, see?” The woman tossed the knife on the ground, kicking it away, “And I'm unarmed, aren't I nice? I don't want any trouble.”

Taylor's fists clenched, “You don't want trouble!? You were about to carve my friend's face up just because she talked back to you.”

To her immense anger, the woman just shrugged, “Eh, call it a crime of passion. She made me mad and I overreacted, but I'm cool now. Friends?”

Blazing anger pulsed in Taylor’s chest at the woman's no serious demeanor and she slowly walked forward. The woman held her hands up, actually looking slightly afraid, “Woah, woah! Come on! No need to do something rash!”

Taylor ignored her stepping up to Emma as the woman edged around her along the alley walls. She only had eyes for her friend as she reached down, holding her hand out for Emma to take. “Are you okay, Em?” She asked softly.

Emma stared at her with wide eyes, before she slowly shook her head, placing her hand in Taylor's, “No. I'm… I'm really not.”

Taylor pulled her up, placing a steadying hand on her shoulders as the redhead's legs nearly buckled beneath her, “It's okay. I got you...”

Suddenly, something in the back of Taylor's head screamed at her. It was like the fight-or-flight reaction you would get to bring jump scared time one thousand, and it urged her to move to the side. She found herself obeying automatically, stepping to the left, moment before a deafening bang rang through the alley.

Everything went still all at once, and horror slowly trickled into Taylor's veins as the acrid smell of gunpowder tickled her nose, moments before Emma fell to the ground in a heap, a deep crimson stain blossoming on the stomach of her baby blue shirt.

A second later, time resumed once more, and Taylor stared down at her friend numbly, before her eyes widened in absolute horror.

“EMMA!” She screamed in despair as she stared at her wounded friend. Someone clicked their tongue behind her and Taylor slowly turned around to see the scarred woman pointing a gun in her direction, looking oddly dissatisfied.

“Well aren't you lucky? First you get powers, then you dodge a bullet without even looking.” She adjusted her aim, “Or maybe I just have shit luck. Why don't we try again, eh friend?”

Her finger squeezed the trigger and Taylor's head rang like a bell. Her body tensed as her instincts screamed at her once more, but she didn't need to worry. Just before the woman could fully pull the trigger, a small arrow shot from the darkness above them, finding its home deeply inside of her wrist.

“Fuck!” The woman dropped the gun, clutching at her new wound as blood gushed around the shaft of the arrow. Together, she and Taylor looked towards its origin, and were met with a sight that both infuriated the former and brought a semblance of relief to the latter.

Sitting on the lip of the alley and highlighted by the glow of the rising moon, was a figure clad in dark colors with a stark white hockey mask on her face. She was holding a crossbow between their legs, reloading the weapon with a bolt gathered from her quiver, and Taylor's mind, full of information gathered from cape forums and sub threads, automatically supplied her with the figure’s identity. Shadow Stalker. A hero.

“Oh goddamnit! You dumb clam-jamming bitch!” It seemed the scarred woman recognized her too, as the moment her eyes locked onto the kneeling figure she cursed loudly. Finished reloading Shadow Stalker pointed her crossbow at the woman who cursed again, “Fuck you!”

The woman shot up at Shadow Stalker who shifted states, momentarily becoming a gaseous mass of shadowy vapor which the bullets passed through without an iota of resistance. As she turned back to normal, it was to find that the woman had turned and ran, booming it out of the alley and leaving both of her men to their fates as she rushed to save her own skin.

There was a thwack and the twang of an elastic band releasing its held tension, and a bolt slammed into the ground mere centimeters behind the woman's heel, sinking deep into the concrete like it was made of warm butter. She didn't slow or stop running as the cape above them cursed at her missed shot, disappearing out of the alley and into the night beyond.

Taylor didn't care about any of that though. A whimper sounded through the alley, and she was suddenly reminded of her friend who was lying on the cold, hard ground and possibly bleeding out right this minute.

Taylor rushed to Emma's side and kneeled down, ignoring the way that her knees dug into the concrete below her as she hovered over her best friend with stark concern. Adrenaline pumped through her body and her hands shook as she stared into Emma's eyes, before they trailed down to her wound.

There was so much blood. It had long since ruined Emma's shirt and was making good headway into soaking her pants as well, and Taylor's hands hovered nervously over the wound, unsure of what she should do.

Shadow Stalker landed on the ground behind her with a thud, but Taylor barely spared her a glance as she put pressure on the wound. Emma gasped in agony, lurching upwards as more tears rolled down her face, and Taylor felt herself tear up as Emma's head turned towards her, eyes blown wide with fear

“Tay, I-I can't…” Emma's face was pale and her pupils were dilated. Taylor had never seen her friend so terrified in her life. She put more pressure on her wound, panic setting in as her friend tried to speak, “I can't-”

“Shhhh, it's okay, Emma. I- I’ll use your phone and call an ambulance! Everythings gonna be fine!” Taylor's voice shook, but she tried to keep a brave face in spite of her worry.

Emma shook her head and her eyes filled with even more tears. She gripped Taylor's bicep hard enough to bruise, and spoke six words that shook the brunette to her core

“Taylor, I can't feel my legs!”

Chapter Text

Taylor walked through the sterile white walls of Brockton Bay General Hospital, easily finding her way through the maze-like hallways by herself as her memories told her exactly where to go.

She passed several open rooms, some of them occupied and some of them not, and it was in one of these occupied rooms that someone spotted her walking by and called out to her.

“Taylor, hello honey!” Taylor smiled as she looked over and saw a kindly old woman laying in her bed, “Are you off to visit your friend again?”

Taylor nodded, “Yep. Emma gets bored just sitting around so I like to keep her company.”

Mrs. Jones, a nice older lady who Taylor had talked to once or twice during her visits, gave her a gentle smile, “You’re such a nice young lady. Your parents raised you right. Why, if one of my grandchildren brought me flowers as pretty as those, I might just break down right there!”

Taylor glanced at the bouquet in her hand, taking the bright assorted colors of the flowers within. The flowers were actually an inside joke between her and Emma, though she didn’t tell Mrs. Jones that. When they were kids, watching TV, they had always joked about how many flowers the hospitals had to throw away after they died in patients' rooms. Their childish imagination always went wild with images of flora-filled dumpsters and colorful landfills nursing with assorted bouquets.

Taylor figured it would be fun to reenact those scenes that they always saw in those movies and had been bringing Emma flowers every day she visited her in the hospital. The nurses wouldn’t let her keep them of course, but it was still something fun to dTo during her friend’s extended hospital stay, and Emma could really use the cheering up.

“I’m sure they’ll bring you something soon, Mrs. Jones.” Taylor reassured the woman.

“Oh I doubt that.” Mrs. Jones said, though she didn’t seem too sad about that, “Anway, don’t let me keep you, sweetie. Go visit your friend and make sure to give her my love. Lord knows I’ve got plenty of it without the grandkids.”

Taylor giggled, “Sure thing.”

Taylor continued on her way to her friend’s hospital room. She didn’t have to walk far as both Emma and Mrs Jones were on the same floor and almost in the same hallway.

Emma's room smelled like alcohol wipes, and Taylor's nose wrinkled as she opened the door. “Hey, Ems! How're you doing?”

Emma was lying in her bed in the middle of the room, an IV sitting next to her that wasn't actually feeding her anything. She looked away from the TV hanging on the wall as Taylor entered, and her bored expression immediately lifted.

“Tay!” Emma smiled widely as Taylor walked over to her. She sat up a bit in her bed, having a bit of trouble moving her body without the use of her legs. Taylor's smile became a bit forced as she watched her friend struggle.

Emma's injury in the alley hadn't been something temporary. In fact, if they hadn't gotten her to a hospital as quickly as they had, she might have been paralyzed for life. It was a good thing that they had been close to the hospital in the first place. A very good thing.

Another good thing was that after her emergency surgery, Emma had been put on really strong painkillers and had pretty much completely forgotten about her injuries. That had been a fun day and Taylor had gotten a lot of blackmail material from her friend's hijinks. At least until the doctor walked in and told Emma's dad that while the surgery had been a success, it would be a while until her friend could walk again. Months, even. And even then she probably wouldn't ever be back to full strength.

That had somewhat killed the mood.

Walking up, Taylor placed the bouquet on the table beside her bed, right next to the other two, “Still no word on Panacea?”

Emma rolled her eyes, “Please, we both know she’s not coming. I already had my surgery and I’m ‘on the road to recovery’. There’s no reason for her to show up now.”

Taylor frowned, “I guess. I just thought that your dad might have been able to work something out. Doesn't Brandish work at the same law firm as him?”

“She doesn't do favors. It's like a known thing around the office. She doesn't want people overrunning her daughter with requests or something.” Emma said, “Besides, our insurance paid for everything and she probably knew that. No reason to get the magic healer involved when I'm gonna be able to walk like normal in only a few years.”

Shaking her head, Emma looked at Taylor, putting a bright, fake smile on display, “Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. Let's talk about something more interesting, like your powers!”

Taylor knew Emma was changing the subject, but she didn't say anything. She gave her friend an amused look, “You really like asking about them, don't you? You know if anyone hears us, I'll be outed before I even have a cape identity to out.”

“Nobody can hear us in here, the walls are thick enough that I can't even hear that guy next door screaming half the time.” Emma waved her off with ease, “And of course I want to know about your powers! We've been dreaming about getting powers since we were kids and now you've got them! I wanna know everything!”

“Alright, alright.” Taylor laughed “If you wanted to live vicariously through me, all you had to do was say so. What do you want to know?”

“Well, lets start with that tingle you were talking about yesterday. The one you felt in… in the alley.” Emma paused as she mentioned the event that had put her in the hospital in the first place, “Did you manage to figure out what it is?”

Taylor nodded, pretending not to notice the pause, “I think it's some kind of danger sense, I'm pretty sure. It's kind of hard to test it, but I'm almost positive that's what it is. Anytime I'm about to be hurt or something bad is going to happen, my power warns me.”

“Sort of like an alarm?”

“Sort of? It’s more like… someone’s tickling the inside of my skull, I guess. I don’t really know how to put it. It’s just tingly and makes my body want to move out of the way.” Taylor glanced away, blushing lightly, “It actually happened on the way here. I was working in my notebook and almost walked into a pole, but it warned me just in time.”

Just as she suspected, Emma groaned at her near-miss, “Are you serious? Do you have like, any survival instinct at all?”

“Only when you’re around, apparently.” Taylor muttered.

“It doesn’t count if I’m the one stopping you from dying accidentally.” Emma sighed, “You’re like a guinea pig.”

Taylor blinked, “I’m sorry?”

“A guinea pig.” Emma repeated, “We’ve domesticated them so much that they literally can’t survive in the wild. You drop one in the park or out in a field somewhere and they’ll starve to death because they can’t forage or get eaten because they don’t know they have to hide. If I’m not around to stop you, you run into polls or traffic. You’re a guinea pig.”

“...That might be the most creative way you’ve ever insulted me.” Taylor said, absolutely in awe of what she had just heard, “Where did you even learn about that?”

Emma shrugged, “I don’t really have a lot to do in here and the TV is always on. I’ve been watching Animal Planet for three days straight.”

“And you call me a nerd.”

“Anyways, that could be really useful.” Emma said, “And what about your super strength? How’s practicing with that going?”

“Well, I haven't found anything that I'm not able to lift yet, so I’d say it's pretty awesome. I even managed to lift up dad's truck yesterday!” Taylor said excitedly, “I had to put it down before anyone saw, but it wasn't even that hard! I'm pretty sure that if I tried, I could get it over my head!”

Emma's eyes widened at her friend's words, and Taylor understood. Apart from a few select Brutes, most capes weren't actually that physically strong. Sure, some of them could take a hit, but Taylor could count on one hand the amount of people who could lift an actual car above their heads, much less one as heavy as her dad's work truck.

“Oh my God, Tay, do you know what this means!” Emma said excitedly, and Taylor nodded, “Super strength like that with danger sense could make you one of the strongest capes in the city. I mean, if someone like Shadow Stalker can do it, you’d have no trouble at all beating down bad guys.”

Taylor smiled widely, happy to see her friend so excited, “Well if you think that’s cool, then check this out!”

Taylor jumped up, clearing the distance between herself and the high ceiling with just the barest of effort. As she reached it, she held a hand up, placing it on the tile panels running across the roof of the room and stuck there as if she had been welded.

She dangled from the ceiling like a ripe fruit, looking down at her friend and grinning at her surprised expression, “I found out about this one yesterday. I can stick to practically anything with any part of my body, not just my hands.”

To demonstrate, Taylor bent upwards, attaching her legs to the ceiling as well. She crawled around, proving just how securely she was stuck, before leaning backwards and hanging from the ceiling just by her knees. She spread her arms out as her hair dangled hast her face “See? Pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Emma nodded, staring at her with wide eyes, “Jeez. You really won the lottery on this one. Danger sense, super strength, wall crawling, you’re like some sort of super powered spider. Don’t tell me you can shoot webs too.”

Taylor smiled secretly, “Not yet. I might have a fix for that, though it's gonna take a lot of experimenting and stress testing before it's ready.”

“Just try not to kill yourself while I’m not around to save you, alright?”

“No promises.” Taylor grinned unrepentantly.

Emma rolled her eyes, “Right. I guess I was asking too much with that one. So what’s the plan? Are you gonna go out and be a hero?”

“Well I sort of have to, don’t I?” Taylor said, “I have powers and I could help a lot of people with them. I can’t just… not do that. It wouldn’t be right.”

Taylor’s parents had instilled a deep sense of right and wrong in her from the time she was a kid. As head of the Dockworker’s Union, her dad was used to sticking up for the little man and making sure that the people under him got a fair shake in all of their deals, while her mom had been an activist in Lustrum’s group before they all went crazy with the misandry.

Their experiences had taught them that those who had the power to change things, had the responsibility to make sure that change was for the better. They passed those values down to her as well, and Taylor knew in her bones that being anything but the best hero she could be just wasn’t in the cards.

“You’re a better person than me. I’d probably just be a thief or something. If I could climb like that, nobody could keep me out of places that I shouldn’t be.” Emma said with a grin, before she looked down and it disappeared, “Though I guess there’s not really much of a chance of that, huh?”

Emma's voice was undercut by a sense of deep melancholy, sucking any cheer out of the situation. Taylor frowned, dropping back to the floor in front of her friend.

“Are you alright, Emma?” She asked gently and Emma laughed meanly.

“My fucking legs don't work, Taylor. No, I'm not alright.” Emma exhaled shakily, the strong front she had been putting up all this time crumbling in an instant“I can't move my legs or even most of my lower body. I can wiggle my toes and that's literally it. Until I start physical therapy, I'm not allowed to get out of bed without a wheelchair and the doctor says I have months before I’m gonna be able to walk again. I feel so… powerless.”

Taylor’s heart clenched at her friend’s heartbroken tone and she leaned down, placing a hand on Emma’s shoulder in silent solidarity, “You’ll get through this, Emma.” She said comfortingly, “I’m here for you and so is everything else. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Thanks, Tay.” Emma sniffed, wiping her eyes before tears had the chance to fall, “So what’s in the backpack? You don’t usually bring one with you when you come visit.”

Taylor glanced at her back, slightly startled. She had honestly forgotten that was even there, “Oh, it’s just some sketches that I wanted your opinion on.”

Emma looked curious as her friend pulled the bag of her back, “Sketches?”

Taylor nodded, “Yeah, for costumes. If I’m gonna be a hero, I need to look like one. I figured I’d ask your opinion on what I’ve got so far.”

Now Emma was definitely intrigued. Taylor making outfits? That wasn’t something you saw every day. If she had it her way, she’d probably leave the house in a hoodie and sweatpants, “Sounds cool. Let me see it.”

Pulling a notebook out of her bag, Taylor handed it over, “The bookmarked page is the best one, I think, but I'd like your opinion on all of them if that's alright.”

Curious, Emma opened the book to the page Taylor had indicated, and her face immediately fell as her worst fears were realized, “Oh no, Taylor.” She said, flipping to the next illustration. It was even worse, “Oh no, Taylor.”

“What?” Taylor asked, startled by her words, “What is it?’

“It's awful is what it is!” Emma stared at the page like it had offended her, “What's with these colors? You are so not a baby blue. And a cape and a bike helmet? Do you want people to make fun of you? Because this is how you get people to talk about you like you're Uber and Leet.”

“I like the cape!” Taylor defended, “And the helmet will keep me safe if I ever fall.”

“You can stick to walls and dodge bullets. You don't need a helmet.” Emma said, utterly disgusted by the travesty of fashion that she was being forced to witness. She flipped through the notebook, looking for an idea that was at least salvageable. She wasn't going to let her best friend go out superheroing while looking like a clown.

Unfortunately, if there was one thing that Taylor inherited from her dad apart from his height, it was his fashion sense. Every single one of the sketches she had drawn up were worse than the last, and it took several pages turns for Emma to find anything that was even slightly possible to work with.

Emma looked over the sketch with a critical eye, taking in her friend's idea with a mind born of years of experience. Apart from the atrocious color, it actually looked pretty good. It would need some work, but Emma could definitely see an actual hero wearing it.

“This one's probably the best.” She said turning the notebook back over to Taylor, “But seriously, Tay, you need to work on your fashion sense. I could barely look at most of those.”

“You're rude.” Taylor pouted as she took it back, “I tried really hard on these sketches.”

“The sketches look fine. You draw better than I can. The costumes are terrible, though.” Emma leaned back on as Taylor sat on the edge of the bed, “It's not like it really matters anyway. Neither of us can make clothes and definitely not using spandex. We couldn't even make most of those costumes.”

“I know. I was just really eager about this and wanted to start writing some ideas.” Taylor said, pulling out another notebook, “I actually wanted to see if you'd like to help. I had a feeling if anyone would know how to make a good looking costume, it'd be you.”

Emma perked up as Taylor held out the notebook and held up a box of colored pencils, “So how about it? You wanna help me think of something I won't look like an idiot in?” She asked, rattling the box with a smile.

And really, how could Emma say no to that? She couldn’t have her best friend looking like a fool while saving damsels from house fires, now could she?

They spent the rest of the time Taylor had left to visit working on possible costumes for the brunette. As they worked, Taylor watched as Emma's mood lifted considerably and the light came back into her eyes as she slowly turned into the best friend that she had come to know. By the end of it, she was forcing her smiles less and talking to Taylor just like the Emma she always knew.

It wasn't a complete turn around, but it was an improvement and that was what was most important. What happened to Emma, to both of them, was awful, but they'd get through it. Taylor was sure of it.

Chapter Text

Danny yawned loudly as he passed by Taylor sitting on the couch. He glanced down at his daughter who had yet to take notice of him, and smiled softly as he saw what she was writing in her notebook. As usual, he couldn’t make heads or tales of it, but it was clear that it was some type of math problem.

“Excited for your first day of highschool tomorrow, Taylor?” He asked, finally catching her attention. She nodded, not taking her eyes off of her notebook.

“Yeah, I am. Especially since Emma was finally released yesterday so we can start together.” She scribbled down an answer to the equation she was working on before writing a whole new one, “I was worried that I’d have to start school without her.”

Danny frowned. He still couldn't believe that Alan's little girl had gone through something so horrific. Nor could he believe that his had nearly suffered through the same thing. If it wasn't for that hero showing up, he wasn't sure where they'd be right now. One thing was for sure, he was grateful to Shadow Stalker for what she had done, though…

“I can't believe one of them managed to get away. I thought that Ward would have been able to catch one more thug before she escaped.”

Taylor’s grip on her pencil tightened noticeably, “Yeah. Neither can I.”

Danny noticed her reaction and frowned. He reached out, putting a hand softly on her shoulder as he spoke in his most reassuring voice, “Don't worry, Taylor. The heroes’ll find them. Just give them some time.”

Taylor didn't say anything, but some of the tension in her shoulders went away, which Danny took as a good sign. He smiled, before his mouth cracked open in a loud yawn, “I think I'm gonna head to bed. You should too; you have school in the morning.”

“Can I finish practicing first? It'll only take a couple minutes.”

Danny smiles, “Alright, Little Owl, but try not to stay up too late. I don't want you to be late for the bus.”

Taylor finally turned to look at him, smiling brightly, “I won’t. Thanks Dad!”

Danny ruffled her hair before turning and disappearing up the nearby stairs. Taylor watched him go, her smile slowly fading as it was replaced with a tingling feeling of guilt. She felt bad for lying to him, but she knew that she couldn't tell him the truth. That she had no intention of going to bed anytime soon.

She turned back to her notebook. At the very least, she wasn't lying about wanting to practice some more. She spent the next hour and a half writing and solving random equations, waiting for her dad to well and truly fall asleep. She couldn't be sure when he was actually asleep but she could make an extension based on how often he got up to go to the bathroom.

Once she stopped hearing the telltale sound of the toilet flushing, she waited another thirty minutes or so before putting her notebook and pencil on the table, turning off the nearby lamp, and slowly creeping her way down into the basement.

In the back of the basement, past boxes of old clothes and random memorabilia and folded on top of even more boxes, was a bundle of clothes that was the result of several days worth of work with Emma. Her costume.

Well, she calls it a costume, but it was really just a hoodie and some track pants, along with a cheap face mask that you could pick up at pretty much any pharmacy. The only expensive thing was a pair of reflective snow goggles that Taylor had found in her dad's closet. They were brand new and had clearly never been used, so she had a feeling he wouldn't need them.

On top of the pile were two, wrist-band shaped pieces of metal, under which small, finger-sized cylinders had been messily welded to the base. Taylor picked them up, inspecting the half-rusted metal. It wasn't pretty, but it would work, or at least she hoped.

“Guess we're going to find out.” She muttered as she clipped them to her wrists. The cool metal pressed up against her skin and she shivered, before moving to pull the rest of her outfit on. She only had a few hours to do this so she had to be quick.

~~~

Taylor stared out at the rolling waves of the bay in front of her. She took in the water – so dark it was black at this time of night – and mused to herself that this was a lot easier than she had thought it would be.”

“Emma was right. These powers really are a good way of getting places I shouldn't be.”

She was standing on top of one of the warehouses in the docks, only a few yards away from her dad's actual office. Since it was so late, not even the late workers were present to see her nor was anyone around to alert the authorities of her presence, which was good. She wouldn't want anyone to see her fail if this went wrong.

As for what this was, well…

Taylor looked down at the water, several dozen feet below, before turning her gaze up towards the large crane hanging high above it. It was one of those cranes that people used to move shipping containers onto the ship itself, and though it was rusted from disuse and practically falling apart, it would be more than enough to hold her weight. Probably. She just had to hope her web fluid was up to the task

Taylor glanced down at the bracelets attached to her wrists and the small vial of clear liquid that peeked out the back of them. It was a substance that she had been theory crafting for a while now, though she never intended for it to be used like this. As a matter of fact, she never imagined she'd be able to complete it in the first place. It was mostly a passion project, something to challenge herself with and challenge her it did. Roadblock after roadblock had almost caused her to give up. For the first time in a long time, she was completely stumped. She couldn't think of any way to make it work.

But once she got her powers, something changed. The roadblocks disappeared, and it was like the rest of the formula had simply opened up to her. What she imagined would take months was completed in just a few days.

In the beginning, when she still had any hope of actually completing the formula, she had been hoping to pitch it to the PRT as an alternate, more economical form of containment foam. Something that could restrain weaker villains and wouldn't make much of a mess like the foam itself. If she had managed it, she probably would've gotten a full scholarship straight through the college of her choice. Heck, maybe she would have even gotten a nice job at their R&D department or something; weirder things had happened.

Now though, it looked like that research would have a different purpose, but maybe one that would be just as helpful. Though, there was nothing saying that she couldn't still give her research to the PRT as a hero. She just had to test it first. Which was why she was out here in the first place. Her creation has already run through a battery of tests, from tensile strength to flexibility to even fire resistance. That last one went about as expected. Taylor wasn't sure she'd ever be able to wear those clothes again after how much smoke they'd absorbed.

Now there was just one more thing to test. Emma's words in the hospital the other week gave Taylor an idea, one that she hadn't been able to get out of her head. She just had to try it out.

Which was why she was standing on the roof of a warehouse by the docks in the middle of the night. Now she just had to hope all of her calculations were done right, or she was in for the quickest and coldest salt-water bath of her life.

Taylor adjusted her goggles to make sure that they were properly secure. The entire world was tinted yellow while wearing these things, but she was just able to see enough to point her hand toward the crane. Her fingers curled like she was about to grab it from all the way over here, before her index and pinkie fingers stretched outwards, and the others pressed a small switch on the palm of her hand. There was a soft hiss, like the sound you get when you spread spray cheese on a cracker, before a thin line of white thread shot out of the wrist-mounted device hard enough to push her hand backwards. She might have compressed it a bit too much,

It flew with enough force to easily clear the distance between her and the crane in an instant, attaching to the metal with a loud ding and sticking there. Taylor tested the line, pulling on it hard enough that she began to slide off of the roof to make sure that it wasn’t going to immediately break, before taking a deep breath.

“Do or die time… Well, more like do or take the coldest bath of my life.” She muttered, looking down at the freezing water below her. She sighed, this was such a bad idea.

Before she had a chance to talk herself out of it, Taylor stepped forward and off the roof, putting all of her faith into the thin web that she was tightly holding with both hands. Gravity took over for a split second, making her heart fall into her stomach, a millisecond before her web went taught, and she swung like a pendulum across the water. The wind whipped through her hair as her hood fell down around her neck and her heart was beating a mile a minute as her web carried her to the other side, holding her weight just as she had hoped it would.

And yet even with how incredibly terrifying this should have been, especially with Taylor’s fear of things like roller coasters and heights, a strange exhilaration filled her body, so much so that by the time she landed on the roof of the warehouse on the other side of the water, she was smiling from ear to ear.

“That… was so freaking awesome!” She cheered as she let go of her web, looking down at her web shooters. She had half expected the thin line to snap and for herself to be sent into the water, but it didn’t even fray! She probably couldn’t snap them if she tried!

Taylor looked up, catching sight of another crane sitting only a few yards away, this time situated over the cold, hard concrete. And maybe it was the adrenaline from her first swing, but Taylor didn’t even hesitate to reach a hand out and attach a web to this one too, leaping from the roof and swinging across the concrete at a speed and height that would do much more than just scrape her knee if she fell.

But she didn't fall. And she didn't stop. It was like some hidden instinct inside of her bloomed forth the moment her hands touched the webs, and soon enough, Taylor wasn't even stopping to land on the ground before starting her next swing, just moving from crane to crane to even building as her swings took her away from the docks and into the city itself as her confidence grew.

She swung through the night, a massive smile splitting her face underneath her mask as her arm pumped and her chest heaved. It was like some sort of hidden instinct had taken her over, and soon enough it was as if she had been doing this all of her life.

Was this another part of her power? It had to be, right? She used to get scared getting up on the roof of her house when her dad had to clean the gutters, how does that translate to being able to do something like this?

Actually, it didn’t matter. An explanation was the furthest thing from Taylor’s mind. All she was concerned about right now was the wind rushing through her hair and clothes as she swung through the empty streets of the city she called home. She flew across Brocton Bay like a bullet, just barely holding herself back from screaming with joy as she picked up speed. She flew around corners and even ran along walls as whatever part of her power told her how to swing from webs did its work, allowing her to do things she never would have even thought of.

As she swung, she made sure to keep careful track of how much fluid was left in her web shooters, knowing that if she ran out in the wrong place it was likely game over. Still, she was extremely glad that her webs dissolved after a couple hours, because at the rate she was going, she didn’t doubt that she had left her mark from the Docks all the way up to Captain’s Hill.

Alas, all good things had to come to an end. And it was as she was heading back to the Docks, tracing a path along the outer line of buildings along the coast, that that end came.

As Taylor swung up to the top of a billboard to catch her breath, the telltale screeching of tires on asphalt caught her attention. She looked down, and her eyes widened as she was met with two cars nearly colliding on the high bridge just below her. The first was clearly out of its lane, crossing the double yellow line as it drifted into the other’s path, while the second was aware of this and was doing its best to correct its course without being run off of the road. The first car realized what was happening just in time, and swerved out of the way at the last second preventing a head on collision.

The second car continued down the road, the driver no doubt yelling expletives in the cabin of their car, but something was wrong with the first. They weren’t driving normally, and from her position on high, Taylor saw what was about to happen long before it actually did.

The car swerved to one side, overcorrecting for the earlier near miss, and then they swerved to the other. They lost control of their car as it fishtailed and spun out, screeching a path straight towards the crumbling concrete guardrail that was the only thing blocking them from a deep plunge into the icy abyss below.

Taylor watched with horror as the car slammed into the barrier at full force and the concrete finished years-long task of crumbling into chunks of rock and debris. It did its job somewhat, slowing the car down enough that instead of simply flying over the side, it was perched precariously off of the edge, but Taylor could tell even from her perch that that wasn’t going to last for long. The front wheels were well off of the road, as was half of the car itself, and it would take only the slightest breeze to push it the rest of the way.

The world froze for a single moment, moving so slowly that Taylor was sure she could feel each and every beat of her hammering heart in her chest, before the car’s rear wheels rose off of the ground and it slowly began to tilt forward.

She acted before she could even think about it, jumping off of the billboard and shooting two webs out and slingshotting herself towards the falling car. She landed just short of it, and sprinted the rest of the way, using every muscle available to her to get to the car before any hope of catching it was lost. She just barely managed it, and mere seconds before the car took the plunge, she managed to get her hands underneath the rear bumper and stop its descent just as the rear wheels slipped over the edge as well and gravity took over.

Taylor grunted as she went from being empty-handed to holding several hundred pounds of plastic and steel from falling off of the edge of the bridge. It wasn’t like when she had picked up her dad’s truck, there she had the luxury of finding the right leverage and actually preparing herself for the act. Here, it was only dumb luck and panic that managed to get her fingers under that bumper. Her shoes slid against the concrete as they failed to find purchase, before they caught on the small lip made by the broken barrier and refused to move any further.

Now that she actually had the leverage needed, Taylor could focus on the task at hand. She took a deep breath, tightening her grip on the metal to the point that it practically crumpled in her grip, before beginning to pull. The teenager’s muscles bulged as she began to lift, urged on by the sound of a crying child coming from the back seat. She couldn’t hear the driver so she had to assume they were unconscious, or at the very least out of commission. That meant that she was on her own. She pulled harder, using her super strength to its fullest extent even as her sweaty palms threatened to undo all of her work, and just as the rear wheels met concrete once more and she was sure she was going to make it, something horrific happened. The bumper, which she had been holding onto like a lifeline, was ripped from the car.

“NO!” Taylor shrieked as the car began to fall off of the edge once more. Both of her arms shot out as she pressed the buttons on her wrists hard enough to make her fingers hurt. Her webs shot out, clinging to the space the bumper had once occupied, as well as the roof of the car, and Taylor pulled with all of her strength, gritting her teeth so hard that her dentist probably felt it.

“Come on, come on!” she hissed as she began to slowly walk backwards, pulling the car with her and praying to god that it stayed intact this time.

Luckily he seemed to be listening, and she managed to pull the car back up onto the bridge. The back wheels touched the ground, then the front. Taylor dragged the car fully onto the bridge and kept pulling until she was positive that there was no chance of the car falling off again.

The car’s hazard lights flashed in her goggles as she let go of her webs, letting them fall to the ground. Taylors hand stung and she was breathing heavily both from adrenaline, as well as the effort required to pull the car back up. Ignoring it, she jogged up to the driver’s side door, cupping her hands around her mouth to be heard better, “Are you alright in there?”

There was no response. Taylor leaned forward, looking into the window, only to freeze as she saw the woman in the driver’s seat slumped over the steering wheel, seemingly unconscious. Or worse.

“Oh no.” Taylor breathed, “No no nonono!”

She pulled at the door handle fervently but the door was locked. She couldn’t get in. As she backed away, Taylor's hand shook as she realized how serious this was, and her breath quickened as her mind took the current situation to its natural conclusion. A dark-haired woman, struck dead in a car crash and a young girl left behind to mourn.

She needed to get in there. She needed to get in there now!

She hurriedly glanced over the surface of the car, looking for a way inside. She could break the window? No, that might hurt the woman inside. If she was even-no, don't think like that. Taylor grit her teeth, glancing down the length of a car as an idea came to her. Yeah, that might work.

Muttering an apology to the woman inside, Taylor reached out and dug her fingers into the cracks of the door, before pulling with all of her strength. Metal bent like butter underneath her fingers but she pressed forward, tightening her grip and pulling harder and harder. The car tilted on its side, threatening to topple over, and the child inside wailed even louder. Taylor ignored them, focusing all of her attention on her task until eventually, something gave and the entire door came off of its hinges.

Stumbling back, Taylor ripped her fingers out of the indents they had made in the door and rushed to check on the woman. She was hunched over her steering wheel and blood was leaking from her hairline, but to Taylor's eternal relief, she was breathing.

Reaching out, Taylor gently pulled the woman from the car, doing her best to avoid cutting her on the sharp pieces of metal that had been left after she ripped the door off. She paused as the woman's leg hit something on the way out, and her lips thinned as several beer cans tumbled to the concrete just outside the car.

“Are you kidding me?” She hissed as she realized exactly how the crash had happened. The woman groaned in her arms, and Taylor had been around Kurt and the rest of her dad's friends to recognize the sound. This woman was totally sloshed.

Disgusting. Any pity Taylor was feeling immediately disappeared as she realized that the woman's current state was her own fault, only for it to immediately come back as the child began wailing again. Gently placing the woman on the ground, she crawled into the mangled car and manually undid the lock to the back door, before stepping out again and opening it up so that she could get to the child.

It was a little boy, maybe two or three years old and clearly far too scared to understand what was going on. He was thankfully uninjured, with the only actual damage coming in the form of a red mark on his chin and neck from where he had probably slammed into the seatbelt. At least the mother was smart enough to do that.

Taylor pulled him from the wreck, clutching him to her chest and cooing softly in his ear, “It’s okay… It’s okay. You’re gonna be alright.” She whispered, bouncing him up and down and rubbing his back gently. She had held a baby once or twice in her life, but that was always with adults around. Faced with a child this inconsolably scared, she wasn’t really sure what to do.

‘For starters, I guess I should probably call the cops so that they can send an ambulance.’ The teen thought to herself as she navigated her way over to where the woman was lying. She could see the indent of a phone in the woman’s pocket, so she reached down and pulled it out without any ceremony. It was thankfully unlocked, though Taylor was pretty sure that didn’t matter for what she was about to do.

She dialed a number and transitioned the sobbing child to her hip, still whispering soothingly in an attempt to calm him down. The phone rang twice before her call was picked up.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“Hi, this is… Uh.” Taylor’s mind blanked as she realized she didn’t actually have a name to call herself. This was supposed to be a test run. She wasn’t supposed to go out and do any actual heroing. Faced with this conundrum, she made something up on the spot, “T-This is Widow. I’m an independent hero and I just stopped a car from falling off the side of the bridge between Kirkland and Fifth by the docks. The driver’s unconscious and I have her kid here with me so I need you to send someone to help. Please.”

The operator’s tone shifted dramatically after she gave that information, “Is there anyone else present? Any other people hurt? Are either of them in critical condition?”

Taylor glanced down “Not as far as I can tell. The baby has a seatbelt burn and the woman might have hit the steering wheel, but I’m pretty sure she was drunk so she’s probably fine.”

She remembered hearing that drunk drivers had a much better chance of surviving car crashes because of the way their bodies’ didn’t tense up during the impact. It had been a bad day to learn that little piece of trivia.

As she relayed information to the operator, Taylor walked over to the portion of the barrier that was still intact and sat down to wait. Her entire body buzzed with adrenaline as she continued to bounce the much calmer toddler in her lap, but the operator’s smooth voice on the line told her weary mind everything that she needed to know.

Everything was going to be alright.

~~~

Later that morning, Taylor was lying in bed but sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. She was wide awake, staring at the shadows of the moon drifting across her wall as her mind refused to quiet down.

Tonight had not gone how she had imagined at all. She had expected to stay out for an hour or two testing her web fluid and maybe even working on her web shooters if they hadn’t worked properly. She hadn’t been planning to go out on patrol or make her debut as a hero before her gadgets and costume were one hundred percent ready.

But that wasn’t how it went, and now not only had she made her first appearance on the cape scene, with a name she hadn’t put more than a modicum of thought into no less, but she had been seen by no less than twenty people. The officers who had shown up alongside the paramedics, as well as nosy onlookers who happened to be passing by had definitely seen her. And from her experience with the online cape scene, she was sure at least one or two of them had taken pictures. She had unintentionally made her foray into heroism, well before she felt like she was ready.

And now school was in less than three hours. She was going to be dead tired for her first day of High School no matter if she went to sleep now or not. And yet, as she remembered the tragedy that she had prevented, as well as the feeling of relief that had filled her when she learned that both the child and mom were going to be okay, she felt no regret at all.

‘Heh. I can’t wait to tell Emma about this.’

Chapter Text

“I just can't believe it.”

“Shh!” Taylor shushes her friend as she wheeled her up the ramp to a pair of doors on the side of their new high school. Apparently Winslow didn't believe in convenience for the handicapable, which didn't really bode well for the institution as a whole.

Emma turned in her chair to give her a dirty look, “No I will not shush! I can't believe you went out without telling me first! Do you have any idea what could have happened? Something like sixty percent of vigilantes die on the first night, you know!”

Taylor tilted her head, “I’m like… eighty percent sure that isn't true. You might be getting the statistics mixed up.”

“Statistics don't matter!” Emma huffed, “What matters is that my best friend decided to go out and maybe get shot and didn't even have the decency to tell me about it!”

Taylor winced, “I didn't mean to. I was just out testing some stuff and it all just kind of happened. I couldn't just do nothing. I had to help.”

“And I and that woman's baby are glad that you did, but I would have liked to see you put on your costume for the first time at least! I worked hard making it look good with those two halves of jack and shit you have in your closet.”

Taylor rolled her eyes as she pressed a buzzer on the door, “I have plenty in my closet. You're just picky.”

“Duh.” Emma said like it was obvious, “If you put a little more effort into what you wore, you'd be a solid eight out of ten! Heck, you could probably join me in the modeling industry.”

Taylor stared at her, “I literally couldn't imagine a worse fate.”

“Baby.”

The door opened suddenly and a elderly blond woman popped her head out. She smiled as she caught sight of Emma, “You must be Emma.” She looked up at Taylor,b And you must be Taylor! It's nice to meet the two of you. I'm Mrs. Knott, the computer science teacher here at Winslow. Come with me and I'll take you both to the main office so we can get you sorted.”

She held the door open and Taylor gave the woman a thankful smile as she wheeled Emma over the lip in the door and into the… kitchen?

Both Taylor and Emma looked around in confusion, taking in the cookware and bustling lunch ladies wandering around..Mrs. Knott noticed this and gave them both an apologetic smile.

“I'm very sorry that you both had to come all the way over here just to get inside the building, but our main handicap accessible entrance isn't very accessible at the moment. This entrance is usually used to help deliver lunch supplies.” She explained as they made their way out of the kitchen and into the cafeteria proper.

Taylor shared a look with her friend. It probably wasn’t a good sign when a school only had one handicap ramp. Especially when that ramp wasn’t even a handicap ramp in the first place.

“I better not have any classes on the second floor.” Emma muttered as they left the cafeteria behind.

~~~

One visit to the main office later, Taylor was once again accompanying her friend through the school, this time on their way to their shared homeroom. The students crowding the hall gave them a wide berth as they passed them by, and Taylor was a bit put out by all the stares pointing their way.

“Not sure how to feel about all this staring.” She said just loud enough for Emma to hear. She met the eyes of a short girl with dyed hair, and only then did she look away, though Taylor could tell that she was just waiting for Taylor to turn her back to continue staring. It was like they’d never seen a girl in a wheelchair before or something.

Emma looked up at her, “Well you should probably get used to it. You’re gonna have to deal with it for another month or two at least. Maybe even longer depending on how long I’m stuck in this thing.”

Taylor sighed, “At least we have the same classes so I can keep wheeling you around and not some stranger. I wonder if they did that on purpose.”

Emma scoffed, “Are you kidding? Of course they did. I mean, they gave me computer science and I can barely type a paragraph on a keyboard. I’m not a nerd like you.”

“Yeah? Well you better watch what you say or this nerd is going to leave you sitting in the middle of the hallway with your wheels locked.” As she spoke, Taylor turned to look at the room numbers they were passing, unhappy to see that they were still nowhere near their assigned classroom.

Emma snorted at her threat, “You’re too nice to abandon your best friend. One teary-eyed look and you’d come racing back with apologies and flowers, ready to do my every bidding.”

“I don’t know about that last part… but yeah, you’re right.” Taylor smirked, “Guess I’ll have to leave being queen bitch to the one who’s best at it.”

Emma’s eyes widened in outrage and Taylor giggled as she turned around with a rebuttal, before jerking forward in her seat as Taylor suddenly stopped walking. Gripping her armrests, she gave her friend an annoyed look, “What the hell, Tay?” She asked, confused about the sudden stop.

But Taylor wasn’t paying attention to her right now. She only had eyes for the person who had stepped directly into their path, blocking their way forward. Her eyes narrowed as she took the girl in, dark skin and straight black hair, alongside a smirk as if she knew something that they didn’t know. She was tall but not quite as tall as Taylor, but was easily just as athletic judging by the muscles in her legs, peeking out from underneath her shorts.

Taylor looked down at Emma who was just as wary as she was, “Uh, can we help you?”

Instead of answering, the girl openly looked Taylor up and down, as if she was checking her out. In any other situation, it would have been pleasant or at least not that concerning, but something about this girl set off that tingle in the back of Taylor’s mind. She wasn’t dangerous, at least not yet, but something told her that could change easily.
.
The hallway was slowly emptying, students leaving their lockers and friends behind to get to their first class of the day. They gave Taylor’s group a wide berth alongside some weird looks as they were forced to walk around the weirdos standing in the middle of the hallway on the first day of school, and Taylor could hear Emma beginning to tap on her thighs. A sign of her impatience.

Ignoring all of this, The girl met Taylor’s eyes again, and that lazy smirk on her face widened, as if she knew something that she didn’t, “I’ll admit, I honestly didn’t think we’d ever see each other again.”

Taylor stared at her. What in the world was this girl talking about? “What are you talking about? We don’t know you.”

“Yes you do. Just not like this.” The girl walked closer, and Taylor immediately pulled Emma to the side, interposing herself between the girl and her friend. She stepped up to the girl, standing a head taller than her, and did her best to look intimidating. The girl looked up at her, and Taylor was a bit surprised to find her smiling, “Looks like I wasn’t wrong about you. That’s good. I was worried you’d be like the rest of them.”

“Back up.” Taylor ordered, a hint of steel in her voice. The girl raised her hands, doing as she was told, still with that same smile on her face.

“Chill out. I’m not looking for any trouble. Just saw you in the hall and got a little excited is all.” She shoved her hands in her pockets, showing that she didn’t mean any harm, “I”m Sophia. It’s nice to officially meet a fellow Survivor.”

She put an odd amount of emphasis on the word, as if it was a title rather than a description. Taylor stared at her, unsure of what to even say to that, when she was thankfully saved by the sound of a bell ringing through the hall. Sophia glanced up, an annoyed expression crossing her face, before she turned away.

“We can continue this later and I can answer some of your questions. If I'm right, we're gonna be seeing each other again real soon.” With those cryptic words, Sophia walked down the hall, presumably going to her next class. Taylor stared after her, left utterly baffled by that entire exchange.

“What just happened?” She said quietly, watching as Sophia rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

“Soooo, was it just me, or was she literally ignoring me that entire time.” Emma looked annoyed as Taylor took up her place behind her and began pushing again, “She didn't even say a word to me. It was like I wasn't even here.”

“That entire exchange was messed up.” Taylor commented, still shaking off the weirdness, “I'm not sure she's right in the head. Did you see the way she was looking at me?”

“Who cares about that!?” Emma huffed, “Taylor, that nutcase made us late for class on the first day! Let's get a move on so we don't get marked absent, and the next time you see her, I want you to put that super strength to use.”

Taylor gave her friend a bemused look, “What? Like beat her up?”

“Or give her a swirly or something, I don't know! She can't get away with this “

“Emma, it is literally the first day of school.”

“So?”

~~~

Later that night and extremely early into the next morning, the two teenagers were gathered in Taylor's bedroom. Taylor had managed to convince her dad to let Emma sleep over under the guise of wanting to go over the syllabus for the upcoming year. Though honestly she probably didn't even need to make an excuse. Her dad always loved it when Emma came over, even after the incident.

Taylor zipped up her jacket and smoothed out her clothes, making sure that the sleeves didn't get in the way of her web launchers. Satisfied that there was still enough space underneath the hem, she reached up to her head and pulled her goggles down, slipping them on and tinting the world a vibrant orange, before turning to her friend for her opinion.

“Well?” Taylor spread her arms out wide, “How do I look?”

Emma was sitting on her bed, legs dangling over the edge as she stared at her friend. She hummed, looking her up and down before twirling her fingers in a gesture to make her friend turn around. Taylor followed the instruction, turning around under Emma's scrutinizing gaze, and the redhead hummed again.

“It looks good, just like I knew it would, but I feel like there's something missing.” She said as Taylor stopped twirling, “There's too much empty space on the jacket. I shouldn't have gone with solid colors. The empty space in the middle of the back is really screaming at me.”

“Do you think we should draw something there? Like an emblem or a design or something? I’ve got some markers around here somewhere.” Taylor said, turning her head to try and get a look at her back. Emma shook her head, immediately dismissing the idea.

“That would look super tacky. Please leave the fashion ideas to me, okay.” Emma tilted her head, staring at the spot, “An emblem though… that's not a bad idea. We'll need someone who can see or you'll have to learn because I am not treating my fingers like that.”

Taylor snorted, pulling her hood up, “Poor Emma and her delicate model fingers. I'm sure your future agent will appreciate your perfect cuticles.”

“I know they will.” Emma sniffed, watching as Taylor walked to the nearby window, “Are you leaving through there? Why not just take the front door? Your dad sleeps like a log.”

Taylor unlatched her window with two clicks, before sliding it up. The night air swept into the room and Emma shivered as her friend turned to give her a cheeky grin “I could. But this way's more fun.”

Emma watched as Taylor pulled up her mask, a hint of worry slithering its way into her gut, “Be careful, Tay. I don't want to be alone on my second day of school because you got hurt.”

“I'm just going to swing around, Emma. It'll be fine!” Placing her hands on the top of the window, Taylor thrust her legs through and jumped to the side, sticking to the outside of her house. She reached up to close it, “Besides, this is me we're talking about.”

The window clicked shut, cutting off the wind as well as the ambient noise just outside. Emma watched as Taylor gave her a cheeky salute, before flipping off of her house and thrusting a hand out, swinging out of view.

“That's what I'm worried about…” Emma said softly as her friend zipped away. She stared out at the night just beyond the glass, before any semblance of her earlier cheer disappeared and she sighed. She looked around at the empty room, “Guess I'll just go to bed now. Hopefully she'll be back before uncle Danny gets up.”

With some difficulty, Emma crawled up the bed, sliding underneath the covers with only her arms to help her along. She rolled over, reaching over to turn off the light on the bedside table, before pulling her phone off of the nearby charger.

She powered it on, squinting as her bright screensaver blinded her, before her eyes locked on to a new message that had come in while she and Taylor were talking. She tapped on it, reading over it quickly.

It was from her physical therapist, reminding her to keep up with her exercises. The man had been really nice in the hospital and that niceness leaked through his texts, but even so, Emma was the furthest thing from happy to see them any time they popped up on her phone. She got on here to escape reality, to delude herself into believing everything was still all right, not to remind herself that it wasn't.

Underneath the covers, Emma slowly ran on and along her leg, feeling the empty space where healthy muscle used to be. Unbidden, her eyes slid away from her phone and to the side of the bed, finding the wheelchair sitting there. Her wheelchair.

Emma had never thought she'd need a wheelchair in her life. Could never imagine being forced to have a separate contraption just to get around. One that she wasn't even strong enough to push by herself. It was like a physical manifestation of her weakness. A glaring reminder of what happened that night in the alley. The night where she had puffed up her chest with false bravado to keep her best friend safe, only to have her legs kicked out from under her. Literally.

And now that friend was out in the city, acting like a real superhero and saving people while she was here, staring blankly at the instructions her physical therapist had given her so she could one day walk like a normal person.

Emma knew she may seem bitter, but she really was happy for Taylor. She was so happy that her best friend was on her way to becoming one of the heroes that they had idolized as kids. She deserved it! But it just…

It just wasn't fair. Taylor was out there swinging from buildings, having the time of her life, and Emma couldn't even get up to use the bathroom without a freaking wheelchair.

Emma turned off her phone and rolled over, sighing miserably as tears pricked her eyes and the knot in her throat grew in size preparing to fall into a restless slumber.

At least Taylor was having a good time.

Chapter Text

Taylor was having a really good time right now.

The brunette’s heart thumped in her chest as she swung from her webs, racing through her city faster and with more maneuverability than any car could ever hope to match. The buildings around her were her anchor points, keeping her high in the air as she used her webs to hold herself aloft and swing through the air like Tarzan swinging from a vine.

She let go of the web in her hand, using the momentum that carried her through the apex of her arc to flip herself in the air. Once, twice, three times she flipped, before shooting a web at the nearest building and swinging low, gaining even more momentum as she entered another deep arc that almost left her scraping the street below her.

Taylor had long since gone from normal swinging to actually having fun with it, testing the limits of her power. As she swung, she practiced flips and tricks, doing things that she would have thought were absolutely insane just a few days ago. Her body guided her through it naturally, and her danger sense helped her gauge when and how she needed to perform her next swing. It took a little bit of practice to actually get the hang of it, but she had more or less gotten it down by this point.

As she approached the edge of the block, Taylor took a turn so sharp that her body was practically parallel with the ground, slingshotting herself down another street with a whoop of exhilaration. The wind in her ears was deafening yet her danger sense let her know that she didn’t have anything to fear. She strayed close to a building, running along the glass surface to slow her momentum, before leaping off and onto the roof of a nearby hotel.

She rolled with her landing like she had done it a thousand times before, before kipping up to her feet and jogging the rest of the length of the roof to bleed off her remaining speed. As she slowed to a stop, her chest was heaving with her breaths and her skin was flushed with exhilaration, but she had never felt so alive.

“Guess I know why adrenaline junkies keep trying to keep themselves killed.” She said, not able to smooth the smile off of her face as she jumped up and onto the glowing neon sign above the hotel. The lights burning the other direction would make her practically invisible in tis darkness, so Taylor felt no hesitation to take off her mask and hood to let the cool air brush against her hot face. Her goggles would keep her face hidden enough if anyone saw her anyway.

She ran a hand through her hair, gently untangling the beginnings of knots forming in the dark strands, before reaching into her jacket and pulling out a small notebook. Opening it to the most recent page revealed a list of observations she had made about her power since she had gotten it. She pulled the small pencil out of the spine and put it to the page, continuing where she had left off.

“So far, all signs point to a minor Thinker power involving swinging and possibly acrobatics as well.” She muttered to herself, “Alongside my super strength and danger sense, I think I’m beginning to sense a theme. Not to mention the sudden brain blast I had making my web fluid. I was getting nowhere with that and the day I got my powers, I suddenly knew exactly how to make things fit together? I’m calling shenanigans.”

And that wasn’t even mentioning that other thing…

Pausing, Taylor reached down and pulled up her jacket, looking at the defined abs that were bulging from her stomach. Since she had gotten her powers, she had noticed that she was gradually becoming more and more muscular. She wasn’t exactly body-builder levels of built, but she was definitely a lot more toned than most of the track students at school. It was almost like she had been exercising and dieting regularly for the past few months, but she hadn’t done anything apart from web swinging. And as a matter of fact, she’d been eating even more than usual to keep up with the rapid gains.

It was pretty sweet, and Emma had been absolutely jealous when Taylor had told her about it. In her words, it was absolutely unfair that someone like Taylor, who had no interest in modeling whatsoever, just happened to get a power that would have made her any manager’s dream. In her own words it was, ‘a bigger waste of potential than someone with Taylor’s build refusing to run track’, which was made even funnier now that Taylor could probably dominate the sport with little effort.

Giggling to herself, Taylor finished her notes and stowed her notebook away for now. Slipping it back into her jacket, she sat there and took in the sight in front of her. By pure chance, she had landed on one of the few hotels around here with an actual view, and now she was in the perfect position to overlook the curling waters of the ocean just off the coast, softly illuminated by the moon glowing high above.

“I wonder how Emma’s doing right now.” She muttered as she stared off into space.

Taylor wasn’t blind to how her best friend had been feeling these past few weeks. She hid it well, but Taylor knew her. She could tell that not being able to use her legs was absolutely devastating to Emma. She could see it in the way that she stared at her lap when she thought Taylor wasn’t looking. She could hear it in her speech whenever the topic was brought up, and she hated it. She hated seeing Emma so despondent. So… not Emma.

Taylor’s thoughts went back to that day in the alley, recalling the smiling visage of the scarred woman, burned into her mind like she had seen it just last night. Her fists clenched angrily.

The police had kept Emma’s family updated on the progress with putting the scarred woman behind bars. They said progress, but in actuality, all they have given so far was that they were ‘looking into it’, which Taylor’s dad had confided in her actually meant that they had all but given up on actually finding her, much less bringing her to justice.

The idea that that woman could possibly get away with what she had done to Emma boiled Taylor’s blood. She’d normally consider herself a rational person, but to hear that the police, the people who were supposed to protect them from people like her and bring those very same people to justice, had completely given up on even finding her, made her angry like nothing else.

That was part of the reason why she was even out here in the first place, though she’d never actually tell herself that. Some part of her hoped that she might catch sight of some shady ABB dealings going on while she was out swinging around. Something that might lead her to where the scarred woman was. She was probably the most visually distinctive person that Taylor had ever seen, so they had to know something, right?

If she could figure out where she was or eve name, the Taylor could give that information to the cops under the guise of Widow or something and get her arrested. Or better yet, she could do it herself. Someone like that didn't deserve to be on the streets anyway, and Taylor would be more than happy to risk her life just to bring her in.

But she'd have to find a lead first. And looking for one woman, no matter how distinct, in a city with a criminal underworld as expansive and Brockton Bay's, was a task easier said than done.

Taylor sighed, shaking her head, only to pause as a noise broke her out of her thoughts. It sounded like… yelling?

Looking in the direction of the commotion, Taylor froze at what she saw taking place in the parking lot down below, right underneath her nose.

She had apparently been thinking more deeply than she originally thought, because right there in front of her a man in a ratty hoodie had another person pinned in between two cars, using his body and the wall behind her to keep her from escaping. He loomed over her in a threatening manner, speaking too low for Taylor to hear, but it was easy to tell that whatever was going on wasn't good.

Taylor stared at the scene for only a moment before deciding that there was no way she was going to just stand by and let this happen right in front of her. She stood up, keeping an eye on the two of them as she pulled up her hood and stuffed her hair into the back of the jacket to keep it out of her face. Pulling on her mask, she crouched down and leapt off of the sign, jumping nearly the full length of the parking lot towards a light pole near the pair.

She landed on it almost with a thud that shook the entire pole. Luckily the man below was talking too loudly to hear her or pay attention to the innocuous pole a couple feet behind him. Though as Taylor listened, the words he was spewing left much to be desired.

Taylor crouched down, observing the situation before her. The man had cornered the woman in between the cars and was forcing her against one of them with his presence. He had one hand in his hoodie pocket and something inside was tenting the fabric. Likely a gun or at the very least a threat of one. Best to assume the former in this case.

She turned her eyes to the woman. She had dark skin and long, straight hair. Her clothes were well made and clearly expensive, explaining why she had been singled out like this. Judging by her words and the look of fear in her eye as she shied away from the man however, she wasn't carrying any cash on her, which made sense for someone wandering around this time of night.

Thebman didn't believe her and was quickly growing more violent. He jammed whatever was in his hoodie in her direction with more force, making her flinch, and Taylor decided that she had seen more than enough. It was time to take action.

Taking in all of the present conditions, Taylor's mind rapidly formulated a plan. One that would give the man the least chance of fighting back as possible. And as he moved forward another inch, only a centimeter away from actually jamming his gin against the woman's skin, she put it into action.

She tensing her legs, Taylor leapt from the light pole and interrupted the mugging by literally jumping on top of the man tackling him from the side and sending him sprawling to the ground. As she tackled him, she made sure to shove his arm out of line with the woman he was threatening, just in case the gun went off in the fall she wouldn't get hurt.

“Oh my God!” The woman yelled, flinching backwards as Taylor made her sudden appearance. The man let out a wheeze as the breath was knocked out of his lungs, and Taylor rolled off of him as he reflexively tried to get up.

Jumping to her feet, Taylor kept with her plan. She turned around and extended an arm as the man shook himself out of his daze, turning towards her with furious eyes, “Who-!”

He barely got the word out before there was a clump of webs stuck to his face, blocking his vision. He shouted, trying to rip the webs off with his hands, but he only succeeded in spreading them around.

Stalking forward a leg back while he was distracted, Taylor kicked him in the jaw. She made sure to hold back, knowing that her full strength would be more than enough to put him in a grave instead of a jail cell, but what little she used was still more than enough to do the job. His head jerked to the side and his eyes rolled back in his head as he went limp, slumping over right where he was sitting.

Putting her foot down, Taylor eyed him, making sure that he wasn't going to suddenly wake up and more importantly, that he was actually still breathing. The slow rise and fall of his shoulders let her know that he still was, and she slowly relaxed, before turning to the woman she had just rescued.

“Are you alright?” She asked. The woman just stared at her, before her eyes went wide and Taylor's danger sense exploded to life in the back of her head. Acting on instinct, Taylor whipped around, her arm already in motion and extended in front of her before she had even completed her turn.

There was a hiss and her web attached to the hand of the man she had somehow completely missed, covering his gun and keeping him from pulling the trigger. He made a startled noise, clearly not having expected his sneak attack to have failed so spectacularly, and Taylor capitalized on that surprise by jerking the gUn out of his hand, sending it skittering underneath one of the nearby cars.

She stared at the man who had appeared. Just like the other one, he looked like he had seen better days. This one though, was also clearly on something judging by his bloodshot eyes, sallow skin, and the tremors in his hands.

“Another one?” She said aloud as she eyed the man, “Why didn't I see you before? Were you hiding under one of the cars or something?”

“I'll kill you!” The man roared, running at her like a rushing bull high on opiates.

“Well that didn't answer my question at all!” She shot a web towards his feet, hoping to make him fall on his face, but he showed a surprising amount of mental acumen and actually jumped over her web. Her eyes widened under her giggles, “Uh oh.” She said, bringing her hands up as he reached her.

Luckily, whatever was in his system didn't make him a very good fighter. Taylor ducked underneath his flailing punch and responded with one of her own. It was fumbling and she nearly lost her balance as one of her feet tried to slip out from under her, but she managed to catch him solidly in the stomach.

He lurched, doubling over in pain from her hit and Taylor kicked him in the leg, doing the same move move that she had seen in all those action movies she used to watch with her dad as a kid.

Instead of just shouting in pain and falling over though, something in the man's leg gave with a sickening crunch, before it bent in the entirely wrong direction. He let out a shrill screech and fell, clutching the broken limb with both hands as Taylor watched, stunned.

“Ah!” He cried, “My leg! You broke my leg!”

Taylor just stared at him for a moment, realizing that she had forgotten to hold back her strength, and in that moment, the man let go of his leg and shoved a hand into his coat, pulling out a gleaming object and pointing it at her with rage driven by pain.

Her danger sense spured her into action and Taylor ducked a millisecond before the gun went off with a loud bang. She flinched minutely at the sharp zip of the bullet passing by her face before shooting a web towards the hand holding the gun and webbing it to the man's chest.

“You had another gun?” She asked, stunned as she watched him try to free himself, “What the heck, man? Are you overcompensating or what?”

She added another layer of webs to the weapon for good measure, before moving to web up the mah himself. Her heart was beating fast in her chest as she realized that she was nearly shot, but the adrenaline coursing through her didn't let her feel any fear, letting her focus on the task at hand.

“I'm putting you in time out!” She called as she began to web the man up. A few webs on his body and legs to keep him still and stop him from making the broken limb worse, as well as one on his mouth to keep him shut, and Taylor was left staring at a white cocoon with a dark head of hair sticking out of the top, wiggling periodically as the man trapped inside tried to break himself free.

He looked kind of like a caterpillar actually, and Taylor giggled at the mental image, before putting her hands on her hips, giving the mugger a stern look, “Now you sit there and think about what you did. When you can learn to play nice and treat people with respect, I'll let you out, okay?” She paused, “Or I guess the cops will when they get here. Either or.”

Shrugging and ignoring the man's muffled shouts, Taylor turned to the woman she saved, only to find her staring at her like she had lost her mind.

Right. She had sort of been messing with them that whole time, hadn't she? She probably thought Taylor wasn't taking this seriously.

Taylor flushed, clearing her throat in embarrassment, “Sorry, I uh, I can't stop talking when I'm nervous. Or scared. Or happy.” Taylor blinked, “I talk a lot, now that I think about it.”

The woman continued staring at her before slowly turning to where the man was struggling in his binds. She pointed at him, “He's not going to suffocate in there, is he?”

Happy for the subject change, Taylor glanced back at the struggling criminal, “Nah, he'll be fine. My webs are breathable as long as they aren't layered too thickly in one spot. It'd take at least five or six layers to actually suffocate someone.”

She shook her head, “Anyway, that doesn't matter. Are you alright? Did they hurt you before I got here?”

“No, but they made plenty of threats. Enough to get a good picture of what they wanted to do to me.” The woman glared at the pair, “I was just on my way home from a late night at work and they cornered me in this parking lot. Money wasn't the only thing they were after.”

“Well you're safe now. They won't do anything to you.” Taylor said firmly, and the woman gave her a thankful look.

“No they won't.” She said, “I'm Sabah. Thank you for saving me.”

Taylor returned her smile, “I’m Widow, and you're welcome. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing while you were attacked.”

Taylor hadn't planned on stopping a mugging/rape tonight, but as she said it wasn't like she was just going to let it happen if she could stop it. That wasn't who she was.

‘Man, I've only been out for two nights, and both times I saved someone from almost dying.’ she mused to herself as the silence stretched, ‘I wonder if that's normal… Eh, probably.’

“Ahem.” Taylor broke out of her thoughts to find Sabah staring at her bemusedly. She gestured to the captive men, “You should probably call the police unless you plan to leave them here and let them catch hypothermia. I personally think that a bit of frostbite would be good for them, but you're a hero so I imagine you'd disagree.”

“Not as much as you'd think.” Taylor answered cheekily, reaching into her pocket, before freezing as she realized that she didn't carry or in fact own a phone at all.

She looked at Sabah guiltily, “You wouldn't happen to have a phone, would you? I… left mine at home.”

Sabah gave her an odd look but complied, pulling out her phone and holding it out. Taylor took it thankfully and dialed the police, informing them of the situation and their location, before handing it back.

“Thanks. They said they're sending a squad car out.” She glanced at the trussed up men, before looking back at Sabah as she stored the device back in her purse, “So do you live nearby? I could make sure you get home safe and come back to take care of this. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon.”

Sabah shook her head, “I appreciate the offer, but no. I live less than a block away. It was only bad luck that caused me to get mugged so close to my apartment. This area is usually better about that.”

“It's Brockton Bay. No area is that safe anymore.” Taylor joked. Sabah smiled, though there wasn't much humor in it.

“Fair enough. Here.” Taylor blinked as something else was held right in front of her face. A small, black card with gold embossment.

“Take that as a thank you.” Sabah said as Taylor gently took it from her fingers, reading over it carefully. It was a business card, complete with the address, number, and name of the business. Taylor stared at the name, the word tingling something familiar in the back of her head.

Parian’s Dollhouse
Tailoring and Entertainment

“Go there and mention me by name. I know the owner, and she should be able to get you a halfway decent costume at a reasonable price.” Sabah said, shouldering her purse. She glanced at Taylor, “Oh, and make sure you wear your… costume. That'll really help get you a good deal. Trust me.”

Taylor was sure all the discounts in the world couldn't let her afford whatever prices someone with this kind of business card put up, but she stored the card away anyway. Just in case. “An actual costume does sound nice. Thank you.”

“Really, it's the least I could do..” Sabah smiled one last time as she turned to walk away, “Have a nice night, Widow.”

“Bye Sabah! Get home safe!”

As Sabah disappeared, Taylor turned back to the would-be-muggers. The one that she had knocked out was conscious again, staring at her dazedly. He probably had a concussion. Taylor felt no sympathy for him.

“Now then,” She said, slowly stalking towards them, “What to do with you? I can't just wait around waiting for the cops to show up, but I also can't leave you sitting here where some poor innocent bystander might come by and decide to take pity on you. You might try to mug them too!”

Taylor made a thinking face and as she did so her eyes strayed up to the light pole. And just like that, a metaphorical light bulb flashed to life above her head as an idea came to her.

It wouldn't be easy, but it sure would be funny as heck and sufficiently humiliating for these two lowlifes.

~~~

A couple of minutes later, Taylor put the finishing touches on her work. She patted the sack full of squirming idiot firmly, making sure that her webs weren't in danger of fraying.

“Yep. That ain't going anywhere.” She said, before jumping off of the lamp post she was hanging from and stepping back to admire her work.

To make it a bit easier on the cops, Taylor had strung up the two muggers like her namesake, suspending them from the light pole by her webs. They were covered in webs, dangling from the high metal pole and illuminated by the bright light so that they were impossible to miss. They were also, as you could imagine, not very happy with the arrangement.

Unfortunately for them, they couldn't do anything about it. Their weapons were webbed to the ground nearby and unless they had a really sharp knife hidden up their sleeves, they weren't getting out of there any time soon.

She tilted her head, watching them swing back and forth in the wind, “You know, for a first attempt at making human wind-chimes, I’d say I did pretty good.”

She then called up to the men dangling upside down, “Hope you guys are comfy in there. Those cops haven't shown up yet, and it takes quite a while for my webs to dissolve without the reagent. You might be in for a long wait.”

Muffled shouting was all she got back in response, and Taylor glanced at her wrist, “Yeah I know. And I'm really sorry to leave you hanging like this but I've gotta get home and get some sleep for school tomorrow. If I don't get good grades, I might flunk out and end up strung up to a pole after trying to mug some poor woman. Imagine being that kind of lowlife.“

The men's struggles renewed and Taylor gave them a cheeky wave, “Have a nice night, you two.”

Just before she could leave however, Taylor's danger sense burst to life in the back of her mind. Tensing, she looked around the empty parking lot wondering if she had missed another one of them, only for someone to clear their throat directly above her.

Looking up, Taylor's caution died in her throat, replaced by awe as she witnessed a blonde teenager in pure white and gold attire float down from the night sky. Her dress and golden cape fluttered in the wind as she stared down at Taylor with a curious expression on her face, and Taylor was struck silent at the sight.

People had always said that heroes seemed larger on the TV than they did in real life, but Taylor realized that that couldn't be further from the truth. Because she had seen Glory Girl on the news dozens of times and she had always seemed like a normal teenager, albeit one with superpowers. But now, as she watched the girl descend upon her like an angel from on high, she was forced to take her words back.

This was the kind of hero she wanted to be? She had her work cut out for her.

“It's a little early to be decorating for Christmas, don't you think?” The costumed blonde stopped just in front of Taylor's home-made wind-chime, staring down at her with curiosity tinged with vague hostility, “What's with the ornaments?”

Chapter Text

Taylor stared at Glory Girl blankly, her mind not even registering the statement thanks to the intense swirl of thoughts that had already consumed her consciousness. The white-clad heroine didn’t take very kindly to her lack of response, and narrowed her eyes as she floated closer, “Well? Are you planning to answer me?”

“I… huh?” She asked eloquently, and Glory Girl narrowed her eyes.

“What are you doing with these guys? Why are you hanging them up like that?” She repeated in a tone that suggested that Taylor better answer quickly.

Taylor looked at Glory Girl blankly for a moment, before snapping out of her funk, “Oh! I guess this looks really bad, doesn't it? I promise it's not what it looks like. Well, it is, but I have a really good explanation for it.”

Glory Girl crossed her arms, eyeing her suspiciously, “I'm listening.”

Taylor gestured up at the wiggling web sack, “These guys were trying to mug some poor woman. I just happened to be passing by and took care of them. I hung them up there so the cops can find them easily when they get here. It shouldn’t be too hard to cut them down and even if they can’t, my webs dissolve in a couple hours so they won’t be stuck up there all night even if they deserve it.”

“So you’re a hero?” Vicky asked, curiosity replacing the stern hostility she had been speaking with moments ago as she flew closer, “I've never seen you befo-wait!” She squinted, scrutinizing Taylor intently and the girl in question tried not to squirm too much as the heroine stared at her. After a moment, Glory Girl pointed at her, her eyes flashing with recognition, “I know you! You’re the cape who stopped that car from falling off the bridge the other night!”

Taylor blinked in surprise, “Uh, yeah I am. I didn’t think anyone would know about that though. Except for the people who were already there.

“Are you kidding? You’re all over Parahumans Online.” Glory Girl said, all of the previous tension leaving her body as a wide smile broke out on her face. She floated closer, pulling a phone out from under her skirt and tapping on it, “Here, look.” She said, holding the device out for Taylor to view.

Taylor watched the video curiously. It was taken from an odd angle and the actual incident itself was barely even in the shot. Even so, the footage was actually pretty clear even though it was only in black and white and Taylor had a bit of an out of body experience as she watched herself save the woman and her toddler by keeping the car from falling off of the bridge.

“Someone heard about the incident I guess and managed to get ahold of the CCTV footage.” Glory Girl explained as Taylor watched herself haul the car back up and onto the bridge, “It was pretty cool to watch. One second the car is about to fall off of the bridge and the next you’re there, holding it up. It’s blowing up on the forums and there’s a couple pictures too, though they’re all super fuzzy. You’re pretty famous now! You know, by newbie standards. You’re gonna be the talk of the town for the next few days.”

“Not really how I imagined my debut going, if I'm being honest.” Taylor said as the phone was taken away, “I thought I'd at least have my costume put together before I went out to do any heroing.”

Glory Girl snorted, “Good luck with that. I don't know of a single person who had an actual costume before their first appearance. I didn't even have one and I'm from a cape family.”

She grinned down at Taylor, “Anyway, glad to see there's another girl hero in the city. It's been a while since we've had a new one. The last one was Shadow Stalker and she's a real piece of work. Not in the fun way either.”

Taylor recalled her own experience with the heroine, “So I've heard.”

Glory Girl nodded, “So are you planning to be an independent or join the Wards? They could use another girl. Vista's been asking for a transfer for ages according to Gallant.”

Taylor shook her head, “Sorry but no. I'm not planning to join the PRT. I'm better off on my own. I can help people much better if I don't have to ask for permission to pull someone out of a burning building.”

“That's fair. I don't think I could stand just waiting for permission like that either “ Glory Girl floated up to the webbed up criminals, staring at the webs with a curious and slightly perturbed expression. She poked the webs, grimacing as they stuck to her fingers, “What is this stuff anyway? You don't like, make it with your body, do you?”

Taylor giggled, shaking her head, “No, I shoot it with these, see?” Taylor rolled her sleeves down, showing off her web shooters. Glory Girl examined their rough construction and shaky welds.

“So you're not a Tinker, got it.” She said as she stared at the messy contraptions.

“Hey, I take offense to that.” Taylor sniffed, “I'm as much a Tinker as you are a thinker.”

Glory Girl stared at her, “So not at all?”

“Hey, you shouldn't insult yourself like that. I'm sure you're very intelligent.”

“What are you-?” Glory Girl's eyes widened and Taylor grinned as the girl facepalmed, “You mean a thinker with a lowercase t. That's so lame.”

Taylor grinned unrepentantly, “If you want to get better at it, you could always play me in scrabble. I’ve been told that I totally don't make my friend want to throw the little pieces at me when we play.”

Rolling her eyes, Glory Girl went to answer but paused as her phone buzzed on her hand. She looked down, reading the text she had just received, and frowned.

“i'll have to take a raincheck on that. There's been a break-in at a nearby business just a few blocks from here. Some electronics store apparently. I should probably go take care of that.”

Taylor tilted her head, “You get police alerts in text?”

“If I'm in the area. It's something most affiliates have access to.” Glory Girl put her phone away, floating higher in the air, before she suddenly stopped and looked down at Taylor “Actually, do you wanna come with? I'm always down to show a rookie the ropes. You could learn a thing or two from a pro like me.”

Taylor thought for a moment before shrugging, “Sure. I was planning to go home and sleep but I guess the old saying has some merit to it.”

Glory Girl giggled, “Yep. Evil never sleeps and neither will you. Come on, I'll race you!”

She shot off in a random direction without another word, leaving Taylor staring after her, completely baffled. She burst into action quickly enough, taking a running leap and swinging after the flying blonde who had left her in the dust.

“Hey! You didn't tell me where we're going!”

~~~

After being absolutely smoked in a race that was totally fair and legitimate according to Glory Girl, Taylor and the aforementioned blonde had stopped on a roof near the building that the call had come from, watching it from across the street.

The building in question was a large electronics store, one of the ones that could be more accurately described as a pawn shop for the quality of the items that they sell. Taylor had passed it by once or twice with Emma, and her friend had always remarked that the place looked like it was the front for some sort of money laundering business. Taylor had never given it any thought but now that she was actually looking at it… Yeah, she could see it.

Currently, one of the store’s front windows had been blatantly smashed in and a loud alarm was blaring through the street, letting anyone and everyone know what was going on inside. Whoever was responsible for the break-in clearly didn’t mind the attention though, as Taylor could see shadows moving inside the store, illuminated by flashing red lights that accompanied the alarm.

“So how do you want to do this?” Glory Girl asked as they eyed the building. Taylor gave her a confused look.

“Shouldn’t you be the one making the plan? You’re the ‘pro’, aren't you?” Taylor said, putting deliberate air quotes around the word.

Glory Girl shrugged, “My plans amount to running in there with my aura on full blast and beating the crap out of whoever’s in there. But you’re squishy, and doing that wouldn’t be a good idea since you can’t dodge bullets or tank them like I can.” The blonde not-so-subtly boasted

“I mean, I sort of can dodge bullets.” Taylor said dryly, surprising the girl.

“Really?” Taylor nodded, “Huh. Well either way, sort of isn’t the same as can, so let's stick to a plan that doesn’t have you getting shot at.”

“The plan that I’m supposed to come up with?”

Glory Girl nodded, “Yep. If you’re gonna be an independent then you need to learn how to think before you act. You can’t just jump in and hope not to get shot at, you gotta have an actual plan. And since I’m here backing you up, you can use this as the perfect chance to practice.”

Even though she wanted to, Taylor couldn’t argue with that logic. Though her danger sense and enhanced reflexes gave her some semblance of bullet dodging prowess, she’d rather not take any chances when it came to getting a bullet lodged in her vital areas. And not just because Emma would literally chew her ear off if that happened, though that was definitely a big factor.

“Uh, Spidey?” Glory Girl waved a hand in front of Taylor’s face, snapping her out of her thoughts, “This is still a robbery in progress. If we don’t hurry, it’s gonna go from in-progress to already progressed, so maybe we should step on it a bit?”

Taylor nodded slowly, though her brain got caught on a particular part of that sentence, “Spidey?”

“You didn’t give anyone your name so I made my own.” Glory Girl explained simply, “Now come on, what’s the plan? We’re running out of time.”

There were several things wrong with that statement, the fact that Taylor was pretty sure that she absolutely had given those officers her name the other night, but Glory Girl was right. This wasn’t the time.

Saving the topic for later, Taylor looked over the building holding the burglars, tuning out the sound of the alarm as she wracked her brain for the best way to take out however many probably armed crooks were inside without getting shot at.

The store was one of those buildings that had clearly belonged to another business beforehand. The outside was refurbished yet she could still clearly see the signs of another sign having been in the same place that the current one was. There was also a seemingly unused second floor just above it, and Taylor’s eyes singled out a sliding glass window that led to a room full of darkness.

“There.” She pointed at the window, drawing attention to it, “I can sneak in through there. It probably leads down below, so I can take them by surprise by being in the building already instead of walking in through the front. I’ll take some of them down–hopefully unnoticed–and once you hear shouting or anything like that, you can bust in and do your thing.”

It was a simple plan and one that had a lot of room for something to go wrong, but it was better than just running in and hoping for the best. Glory Girl didn’t seem to agree though, and she gave Taylor a look, “Are you sure you’ll be able to do that? There might be more than just a couple of them in there. You can’t handle that many at once, can you?”

Taylor stood up, looking at her wrists to make sure she wasn’t nearly out of web fluid. All good. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Listen for my signal, I’ll try and make it loud enough to hear over the alarm but if not… just keep an eye out.”

“Alright, I guess. Good luck.” Taylor gave the other girl a short salute before jumping off of the roof, zipping across the street with her webs.

She landed on the side of the building just above the electronic shop and slowly crawled her way to the window she has spied out. Using her sticky fingers, she slid the window open without any issue, happy to find that it wasn't locked. She gave Glory Girl a thumbs up, before slipping into the darkness beyond.

The moment she landed on the floor inside, Taylor could literally feel the dust in the air slide against her clothes. There was so much of it hanging in the air that it almost weighed her down, and hated to imagine what it would be like if she wasn't wearing her mask and goggles.

“I guess it's a good thing I'm basically dressed like a fumigator.” She muttered aloud, “This stuff can not be good for my lungs.”

Looking around, Taylor spied the outline of a door haloed by light just behind the inky blackness. That was her way inside the store.

She felt her way through the darkness with her arms outstretched, groping blindly to keep herself from running into anything she can't see. She nearly tripped over several items as she walked. Several boxes and what felt like wooden boards had been strung haphazardly across the floor without any rhyme or reason, but she managed to avoid completely wiping out and reached the door without much issues.

And then she tried the doorknob and cursed as it wiggled but didn't do much else. Locked.

“Fantastic.” She muttered, trying it again like the result would change just because she wanted it to. It didn't of course, and she sighed as she let go of the knob.

Now how was she going to get in? Her whole plan hinged on being able to get inside without being seen. She couldn’t do that if she just walked in through the front door like she was coming to join the party.

“Hey guys! How’re we doing tonight? Oh, we’re robbing this place? Awesome, let me just go get my ski mask and duffle bag!” She mocked quietly before sighing, “Focus, Taylor. Save the jokes for later. Let’s figure this out first. I'd really rather not tell Glory Girl a door of all things managed to stop me. That'd just be embarrassing.”

Taylor placed her hand against the frame of the door, running her fingers along the rough wooden surface. It felt old, like the door to her house’s basement. Maybe it was just as flimsy? Taylor stared at the door through the darkness, debating with herself, before shrugging. That alarm was pretty loud. They might not hear it.

Stepping back, Taylor lifted a leg and slammed her foot into the door, right beside the doorknob. There was a sharp crack before the door flew inwards as the frame broke around the lock.

Taylor paused, waiting for any sign that her intrusion had been heard, and smiling as she didn't hear a thing. Looked like the coast was clear.

She carefully made her way down the staircase just past the door, crawling along the wall to avoid the old and no-doubt creaky steps. As she reached the ground floor, she froze as she heard a racket coming from just beyond the doorway, and slowly peeked around to see what was going on.

There was a man in the room just beyond. He was luckily facing away from her, but hilariously, he was actually wearing a ski mask and shoveling electronics and phone cases into a duffel bag. Taylor had just been joking, but apparently she hit the nail on the head this time.

Since he was completely unaware of her presence and clearly up to no good, Taylor decided to put a stop to his nefarious deeds. She crept up behind him, staying low to the ground and out of his field of view, before reaching out and grabbing his ankles.

“Wha-” He didn't get another syllable out before Taylor pulled his legs out from under him. His head slammed into the counter with a thud before he slumped to the ground with a low groan and Taylor webbed him up

Curiously, unlike the rest of the people she had webbed so far, the man didn't panic at all once he was restrained. A cursory inspection via lifting his head up revealed that the impact had knocked him unconscious. He was still breathing, but she doubted he'd be waking up any time soon. She webbed his mouth just to be sure.

“I'm getting pretty good at this.” She said to herself as she stared at the unconscious criminal, “That was like something out of a movie. Now if only I could figure out how to do it on purpose…”

Moving on, Taylor jumped up to the ceiling before crawling out of the back room and onto the main floor, surveying it from above as she took in the happenings down below.

There were three more men, each of them similarly dressed and each of them carrying duffle bags they were shoving electronics into. Two of them were relatively close together near the front of the shop, while the other was pretty much directly below her and out of their line of sight. He was first.

With a thought, Taylor detached herself from the ceiling, flipping herself upright and landing behind the man in a crouch. Her landing was practically silent in comparison to the sirens ringing through the store and the man didn’t even budge even as she walked up behind him and rose up, wrapping one hand around his mouth and the other around his middle which she used to drag him back into the room she had just come from

Her superior strength rendered his struggles completely ineffective. Her arms wrapped around him like steel bands as she dragged him away from the main floor. Once they were alone, she swept his legs out from under him with her own, and webbed him to the floor as he landed with a thud. One more web on his mouth made sure that he wouldn’t be screaming out for help any time soon.

“Shh…” Taylor put a finger to her mask, shushing him as he tried to scream through her webs, “Just hang out here for a bit, yeah? I need you to keep your buddy company so he isn’t lonely when he wakes up.” The man tried to squirm out of his bindings and Taylor nodded, “Thanks. I’ll bring you two some more company in just a second so sit tight.”

Taylor jumped back up to the ceiling, crawling out the door to take care of the last two robbers. They were still on the main floor and even better, they had no idea that two of their friends were missing, far too preoccupied with violently throwing everything in sight into the duffel bags they were carrying.

As she crawled, Taylor idly wondered if they realized that they were probably breaking every single thing they were putting in those bags. She had seen one of them literally throw a laptop in there with the kind of anger that would get a delivery driver fired for breaking someone’s brand new TV the moment it got on their porch. At this point, they might as well just buy them broken for super cheap instead of risking prison time for it.

Oh well, nobody ever said criminals were smart.

Taylor stopped right above another burglar, staring down at him from above as she eyed him carefully, This one was too far away from cover for her to be able to take him down and move him out of sight without behind seen, and the last one was a bit too close for comfort, standing only a few feet away as he rooted through a tote on the floor. How was she going to do this quietly and without being seen?

As she stared at the man, an idea slowly came to her. If she wasn't able to get him out of sight by shoving him in another room, maybe she could just have him join her up here. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to do it, but she was strong enough to lift a car above her head; one man should be nothing.

Leaning back, Taylor aimed her web slinger at the unaware man just below her. Taking a moment to make sure she was on target, she depressed the triggers, sending two thick lines of webbing towards his back.

The moment her line made contact, Taylor jerked them upwards, yanking the man off of his feet with enough force that the bag in his hand slipped out of his grip and fell to the ground below. He landed on the ceiling right in front of her, but from there things went sideways.

Taylor wasn't expecting just how quickly he'd reach her, nor how much time she had before he fell back down to the ground. As such, she was just a second too late in actually webbing him to the ceiling and he managed to get a noise out before she silenced him. A loud scream echoed through the shop, audible over the loud alarms, and Taylor cringed as she covered his mouth with webbing, knowing that it was already too late.

She looked at the last burglar just in time to meet his eyes as he turned to face the noise he had heard. His eyes widened as he was met with Taylor kneeling on the ceiling right beside his bound and gagged friend, dropping the duffel bag in his hand.

“Adam!” The man shouted as he saw what happened to his friend. He looked around for help and his eyes went wide as he realized he was alone now, “Where the hell did everyone go!?”

Taylor opened her mouth to deliver a properly sarcastic answer, but before she could, the man pulled up his shirt and raised a revolver in her direction, making her words die in her throat and her body spring into action as her danger sense went wild.

Shooting an arm out, Taylor slung a web to the floor right behind the man and pulled herself in faster than he could blink. Extending her other arm, Taylor clotheslined him right in the chest, making sure to aim for his sternum so that she didn't break a rib.

He flew off his feet like a car had just slammed into him, and Taylor flinched lightly as his gun went off, firing a round into the ceiling right above them. She turned around, extending another hand at the man who was gasping for the air that had been knocked out of his lungs and webbing him to the ground where he had landed.

She leaned down, slipping the gun out of his fingers and inspecting it, “This is like the fourth gun I've taken tonight. Does everyone in this city pack heat or is it just the criminals?”

“Fuck… you…” He gasped, clearly having trouble getting his breath back after taking her arm full force across his chest.

“Eloquent.” Taylor commented dryly, turning the safety on and placing the gun on a nearby table that had been divested of its former inhabitants, “If you won't answer that, then would you at least mind telling me what you're doing with all this tech? I don't think you guys are gonna make a lot of money off of some broken phones stolen from a second hand shop.”

“We're not… stealing it to sell…. biitch.” He gasped crassly, confusing Taylor greatly. Before she could tell him to elaborate however, Glory Girl floated through the broken window.

“That was pretty damn impressive, Spidey.” She said looking around at the mess the group had made and what Taylor had done to them in response. “I saw that takedown from outside. I was gonna come in and help, but by the time I crossed the street, you already had it taken care of.”

The burglar on the floor glared at Glory Girl and opened his mouth, no doubt to say something else that was just as vitriolic, so Taylor webbed his mouth up before the words could come out, “Thanks. I had a bit of trouble getting in but from there it wasn't too hard. I'm starting to realize that my powers lend themselves more to stealthy takedowns rather than head on fights.”

“Good for you. Most people don't figure out their niche until later, if at all.” Glory Girl looked around the busted up shop, “Is this all of them? Also, why is that one stuck to the ceiling?”

“He was being naughty so I put him in time out.” Taylor joked, eliciting a startled laugh from her partner in heroism, “And no, there's two more. Come on, help me bring them outside before the police get here.”

“Sure thing. But uh, do you have anything to carry them with? I don't really want to touch those webs.”

“Wimp.”

~~~

Together, the two of them dragged the culprits outside to await their transport. None of them were very happy with the way they were being treated – that is, like sacks of luggage instead of people, but neither heroine cared in the slightest as they left them on the concrete for the police that were already on their way.

However, only a few minutes later, Taylor was surprised to hear the roar of a motorcycle making its way in their direction instead of the telltale screech of police sirens.

Beside her, Glory Girl sighed as she realized something that Taylor didn't, “Oh great, it's him. Just when I was having a good night too.”

Taylor gave her a confused look, “Who is it? Is it a villain?”

Glory Girl laughed, shaking her head, “No, it's not. Though sometimes I wish he was. Then I wouldn't feel bad about knocking him around a bit.”

Well that didn't bode well. Taylor looked down the street as glaring headlights made their way towards the pair. Whoever was driving clearly didn't understand the meaning of road safety or even the word speed limit, because it felt like the moment that the headlights rounded the corner they had already crossed the dozens of yards between them.

Taylor stared as the bike came to a screeching stop in front of them, leaving s black mark on the sidewalk that would doubtlessly last for generations. Glory Girl crossed her arms, her expression just short of a scowl as she stared at the person on the back of the bike, “Armsmaster. I'm so glad you could make it. I'm pretty sure I called the regular cops though.”

“Glory Girl.” Armsmaster nodded at the heroine as he stepped off of his bike, and Taylor tried not to stare in awe at one of her favorite heroes standing before her, “It's standard procedure to let Protectorate personnel be the first responders to scenes involving unknown parahumans. The police forwarded your call to me.”

Unknown parahumans? Were they talking about her? Taylor looked at Glory Girl in confusion, but she wasn't paying attention to her now, scowling at Armsmaster, “I already told them she was a hero. She's not gonna attack them just because she can.”

“Standard procedure doesn't change because you give your word, Glory Girl. I can't change the rules.” Armsmaster said gruffly as he inspected the bound burglars. As the heroine huffed angrily, he crouched down, examining the webs keeping them stuck.

“Hmm…” He looked at Taylor, who stiffened in surprise, “This material isn't normal. Did you synthesize it?”

“Uh, yeah.” Taylor nodded, “I was actually going to pitch it to you guys originally as an alternative to containment foam but then I got powers and figured I'd test it out myself first.”

Glory Girl gaped, “You made that stuff before you got powers?”

“Mostly. I finished it after I got powers.” Taylor said nonchalantly, oblivious to the stare Glory Girl was giving her.

“Interesting. It is amateurish, but I could see some use for it.” Armsmaster retrieved his halberd, cutting a small strip of the webs from the man's body. He brought it up to his visor, staring at it intently, before putting it in his pouch and standing up.

Taylor watched him as he walked right past them without a glance, stepping into the business without another word. Glory Girl watched him go with an unimpressed look, “Yep. That's Armsmaster all right. Douchey as ever.”

“Is he normally… like that?” Taylor asked, unsure how to feel about what she had just experience.

Glory Girl just snorted, “Normally he's worse. I can't remember the amount of times he's read me the riot act over not doing something perfectly according to the book. We're lucky he didn't get on your case for using ‘untested tinkertech’ on civilians or whatever.”

“Huh. Well that's… huh.” Was all Taylor said as she stared after the man.

Was this what they meant when they said don't meet your heroes? Taylor could practically feel her desire for Armsmaster merch draining out of her body. She'd have to get rid of those panties in the back of her dresser now, wouldn't she?

Shaking herself out of it, Taylor looked up, taking in the way the moon had drifted on the horizon. “Anyway, I need to get home so I can get some sleep in time for school tomorrow so I'm gonna peace out.”

“Good idea. You should probably get out before he comes back and gives you the Wards pitch. That's not fun.” Glory Girl held out a fist and Taylor gladly bumped it, “We should do this again sometime. It's been a while since I've had another girl to go on patrol with. Crystal's too busy with college these days.”

Taylor smiled as she took a step back, raising an arm towards the nearby light pole, “Definitely. This was pretty fun. Even if you made me do all the work.”

“Hey! I was just letting you practice!” Glory Girl called after her as she zipped up and jumped off the pole to begin her first swing of many that would carry her home, and Taylor giggled at her words as she swung away.

Tonight had been a pretty productive night once again. She'd saved a woman from being mugged, teamed up with another hero, stopped a burglary, and met Armsmaster. Maybe she should stop going out with the intent to not do any heroing.

….Nah. There was no way she'd be able to stop now. Not after all the good she'd been doing so far.

Taylor zipped through the chill night air, a warm happiness filling her chest at all she had managed to accomplish in a few short hours. As she made her way back to her house however, she completely missed the figure watching her from a rooftop just a short distance away, her stark white mask shadowed by the darkness she called home.

Chapter Text

Even though the school year had basically just started, Taylor already had preferences when it came to her classes. She didn’t have any that she disliked so far, but she definitely had a few that she preferred above the others. Chief among these was the computer science class that Emma had bad-mouthed just a few days ago.

Mrs. Knott had proven to be just the kind of teacher that Taylor liked to have, and she was sure the woman's class would become her favorite in no time. The woman had a very hands off teaching approach when she felt it was appropriate, allowing her students to work at their own place and leaving them to their own devices once they finished their work, so long as they weren't disruptive of course.

For someone like Taylor, who often finished well before her classmates and was forced to sit in boredom the rest of class, it was a godsend. Especially since Emma wasn’t here today, having gone to physical therapy this morning and thus, been forced to miss the first several periods. Her absence was definitely felt, but since Taylor had the entire internet at her fingertips, she had plenty to keep her mind off that.

Currently, she was using that internet access to browse the premiere website for updates on all things hero and villain, Parahumans Online or PHO as it was known to people without the time to say the whole name. Glory Girl’s words last night had piqued her interest, and she wanted to see for herself if she was telling the truth.

She started by searching up her cape name, Widow, but the only results she got for that was some villain in New Jersey who was locked up a couple of years ago. Changing up her search to just Brockton Bay in general yielded much better results, and it only took a second or two of scrolling before the first relevant post came up.

It was simply titled ‘New Cape in Brockton?’ and had a dark picture of Taylor in costume swinging through the streets in the middle of the night. The picture itself was blurry and you could barely make out any details thanks to the odd angle, but it was clearly Taylor in the photo. Trying to contain her excitement, Taylor immediately clicked on it, her eyes widening at the dozens of pages worth of conversation that spread out in front of her.

She scrolled through it. The thread was the standard fare for new capes in the city, buzzing with all types of speculation about her, from her power to even her name. So far nobody had a definitive read on her because she had barely done anything, and Taylor was starting to think that she probably should have corrected Glory Girl when she had the chance, because the names she was seeing right now were so much worse than what the blonde had come up with.

Though not all of them were bad. In fact, Taylor actually saw a few she liked. As she browsed through the conversation she wondered if it was too late for a rebrand. A lot of these were much more creative than Widow.

‘Would it really be a rebrand if nobody even knows my name yet?’ She mused as she scrolled past a few people arguing over whether or not her webs came from her body or were artificial.

This was so much more attention than she ever thought she'd get. It was honestly kind of overwhelming, and her excitement quickly turned to light anxiety. Was this what every hero had to go through when they debuted? What would it be like when she went out during the day? Would people swarm her for pictures or ask her all sorts of questions and stuff like that?

‘It's like being a celebrity or something. Though I guess that's what capes are anyway.’

“You’re making it pretty damn obvious, you know?” Taylor jumped in her seat at the voice, turning around to find Sophia leaning over her chair, watching her browse PHO.

“Huh?” Taylor asked, confused by her sudden appearance, “What are you talking about?”

The girl just gave her a knowing look, nodding to the screen, “You’re making it too obvious. If you’re gonna do this in public, you need to wait a week or two for the hype to die down. People connect the dots faster than you think if you’re not careful.”

Taylor stared at Sophia blankly, before her entire body went tense as she read between the lines of the girl’s words. Was she… no, there was no way right? She could count the amount of interactions she’d had with Sophia on one hand. Barring that first day, they barely exchanged more than a couple of words. There was no way that Sophia had managed to connect dots that weren’t even there.

“I’m sorry? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” She feigned ignorance, turning back to the screen and clicking to a new tab.

Sophia chuckled, “Sure, sure. Just trying to give you some friendly advice. I'll talk to you later, Taylor.”

Sophia stood and continued past Taylor's desk, leaving the girl staring after her thanks to her abrupt exit. She walked up to Mrs. Knott, asked the woman for permission to use the restroom, and disappeared out the door without another word on the matter.

Taylor stared after her, a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach at what had just happened.

~~~

“It’s good to see that no matter how awful the school is, the food stays the same horrible quality. I’m glad daddy bought me food before bringing me back here.” Emma commented as she watched Taylor bite into a chicken nugget. The girl’s voice was extremely tired and combined with the slump in her shoulders, it was easy to tell that she was exhausted.

Taylor swallowed the gross facsimile of chicken in her mouth, “Why’d you come back anyway? You could have just spent the rest of the day at home and ate the food there.”

“Are you kidding?” Emma snorted, “Missing a day of school in the first week isn’t a good look even in Winslow. The teachers would probably just think I’m skipping or something. Besides, I can’t go to the mall by myself so I’d literally just be sitting around all day waiting for you to get done here so we can hang out.”

Taylor grinned as she dipped her nugget in some barbeque sauce, “Aww, you like spending time with me? Does my presence make your day so much brighter that you’d willingly come back here just to bask in it?”

Emma scoffed in the face of her friend’s teasing, “More like I would be so bored out of my mind without you that physical therapy would be preferable. We’ve barely been apart since I got put in this damn wheelchair so it just makes sense that I’d start suffering from nerd withdrawals the moment you weren’t there to yap my ear off.”

“You enjoy my yapping.” Taylor said smugly.

“It’s practically replaced my internal monologue at this point so I better.” Emma said, before sighing, “Damn, I need more friends. There is no way my social life has been rendered to just hanging out with you every day. I used to be popular!”

“Rude.” Taylor sipped her drink, looking away from her brooding best friend to scan the cafeteria. Their table wasn’t the only empty one. Several other tables were practically abandoned except for the few students who were filling them and Taylor wondered if this lunch block was just emptier than usual or if people were eating somewhere else.

As Taylor scanned the room, her gaze caught on a specific table and her brow furrowed.

Sophia was sitting by herself a few tables away, facing away from them as she ate her lunch. Taylor frowned as she recalled the odd conversation that she had with the other girl just a few hours ago, and the red flags that had been raised because of it.

“Is something wrong, Tay?” Emma asked, noticing the odd look on her friend’s face. She saw Taylor staring at something and followed her gaze, and she blinked as she saw Sophia, recognizing her as the weird girl who had stopped them in the middle of the hallway for seemingly no reason a few days ago, “Her? What, do you have a crush on her or something?”

Taylor’s head snapped to her friend as she sputtered, “W-what? No! Why would you even think that?”

Emma shrugged, reaching over and stealing a grape from Taylor’s tray, “I don’t know, you were staring at her pretty hard and you definitely strike me as the type to get a crush on someone in the first week of school.”

“I don’t have a crush on her!” Taylor hissed, her face flaming at the very idea, “I’m worried she might know my secret identity!”

The last part was said in a whisper, but Emma heard her loud and clear. Her eyes widened, and she stared at Taylor in shock, “What? But it's only been a few days! How did you manage to screw up already?”

“Okay, first of all I didn't screw anything up. She just came up to me while I was looking at PHO and started saying a bunch of stuff. “ Taylor bit her lip, staring at the back of Sophia's head, “I'm not even sure she actually knows, but the things she was saying… It wouldn't make sense for her to say those things if she didn't at least have an idea.”

“Well you need to find out!” Emma said like she was an idiot, “If she knows then you need to make sure she doesn’t tell anyone else. What if she starts spreading your identity around and gets us both in trouble? You need to make sure she keeps her mouth shut.”

“How?”

“Taylor, I swear to god.” Emma groaned, “You have superpowers! I’m sure you can manage to keep one high school athlete from spilling the beans on the one thing that you have to keep secret.”

“I’m not gonna beat her up just to get her to keep quiet!” Taylor hissed, realizing what her friend was implying, “Besides, what if she doesn't even know anything?”

Emma sighed at her friend’s obstinance. She loved Taylor, she really did, but she could be so stubborn when it came to doing things she didn’t morally agree with.

The redhead was prevented from explaining just how bad this could be as Sophia suddenly stood up, gathering her trash and making her way to the trash cans by the door to the cafeteria. Emma pointed at her as she passed them by, “There, follow her and go find out what she knows. You were sneaking around a bunch of armed burglars yesterday, I’m sure following one teenage girl won’t be a challenge.”

“But-”

“Go, go! Hurry up before she gets away.” Emma shooed Taylor out of her seat and urged her to follow Sophia, “I can get to my next class on my own. Get your ass over there and protect literally the only thing that’ll let you keep being a cape.”
.
Knowing that Emma wouldn't give up until she did as she asked and that if she didn't, she'd be hearing about it all day and possibly all week, Taylor sighed and got up, “Fine, but if this goes south and I get expelled, I'm going to Arcadia without you and getting a new best friend.”

“You wouldn't survive a day without me, Taylor.” Emma sniffed, “Now hurry up before she gets away.”

“I'm going, I'm going.”

Since class was in session, the hallways were completely empty as Taylor followed Sophia out of the cafeteria and through the school. She made sure to hang back a good distance so that she wasn't noticed darting into the small alcoves holding classroom doors any time she thought the other girl was going to turn around.

Luckily she was never seen, and Taylor went completely unnoticed as Sophia made her way all the way across the school and up the stairs at the end of the main hallway. Once on the second floor, she walked all the way to the end of the hall, well past any of the used classrooms near the beginning, and darted into the bathroom held there.

Taylor was confused by her choice but followed nevertheless, wondering why she had chosen such an out of the way location to use the bathroom. She had passed at least four different bathrooms on the way here and none of them had been what you would call busy. There was no reason for her to walk across the building just to get to this one.

Unless… She knew that she was being followed. Taylor's eyes narrowed as the possibility crossed her mind. If Sophia knew that she was being followed up here, then this could be a ploy to get them alone in a place where nobody would bother them.

Did that change anything? No, not really. As a matter of fact, Taylor preferred it this way. This way, nobody would accidentally walk in on this very serious conversation that the two of them were about to have.

Steeling herself as she reached the bathroom, Taylor opened the door, ready for anything that might be on the other side, or so she thought. Because once the door was open and Taylor stepped inside, it was to be met with a completely sterile, empty bathroom with nobody inside. The stalls were all wide open and she couldn't see or hear any sign that someone had been in here recently.

She stepped further inside, letting the door shut behind her as she looked around in confusion. Where was Sophia? There wasn't anywhere in this bathroom to hide that Taylor wouldn't immediately see, so where had she gone?

The hair on the back of Taylor's neck suddenly stood on end as something breezed past her, and there was the loud click of a locking door as she whirled around.

Sophia was standing beside the door, hand on the lock as she smirked at Taylor.

“I didn't actually expect you to follow me all the way up here.” She said, confirming Taylor's suspicions, “You're pretty persistent. What if I just wanted to take a piss away from everyone else?”

Taylor watched as Sophia walked away from the door, “You don't strike me as the shy type. Besides, I had a feeling you knew I was following you.”

“Sharp.” Sophia nodded, “Yeah, I knew you were following me. I was counting on it actually.”

“Yeah? Why is that?”

“You have some questions for me, right?” Sophia took a relaxed stance, crossing her arms over her chest, “I know I got your attention when we talked in Knott’s class.”

“Was that something else you were counting on?” Taylor asked, turning to face the girl fully, “You said a lot of things down there, and I want to know why. You know, just to make sure that we’re on the same page here. I wouldn’t want any misunderstandings.”

Sophia snorted, “Misunderstandings? Is that your way of telling me you'll beat my ass if I let your secret slip?” Taylor didn't say anything and Sophia’s smirk slowly fell, “Yeah, that's fair. I guess I'd do the same thing in your position.”

Sophia straightened, abandoning her loose posture and walking forward a bit. Taylor tensed at her actions but her danger sense didn't activate so she didn't take action just yet, watching Sophia warily.

The girl saw this but didn't comment, spreading her arms out like she was presenting something, “Alright, since you don't want any ‘misunderstandings’, why don't we talk on even ground?”

Taylor was confused by her words, but that confusion turned to shock as Sophia's body suddenly shifted, becoming an inky black mass of swirling shadows that floated in place, like an ink blot staining the very air itself. The transformation lasted for only a second, but that was more than enough for Taylor to get the memo.

Taylor gaped at Sophia as the girl turned back to normal, stepping back to lean on the sink, “You're Shadow Stalker.” She said, utterly stunned at the revelation. Her eyes widened as she recalled their first interaction, remembering what she had said in the hallway on the first day of school, “That’s what you meant when you said you knew me. You were talking about that day in the alley.”

“Got it in one.” Sophia nodded, “I recognized you and your friend the day you two walked in the school and wanted to get a read on how you were doing after what happened. I also wanted to see if you’d recognize me out of costume but you didn’t.”

That explained how she knew Taylor's identity. If she was there the day that Taylor got her powers, it wouldn’t be too hard to connect the dots. Still, that left one question unanswered.

“But wait, why tell me?” Taylor asked, still reeling from the reveal, “I was just here to check whether or not you knew my secret identity. You could have just pretended not to know.”

“If I did that, you wouldn’t have considered my offer.” Sophia replied, confusing Taylor.

“Offer?” She parotted, “What offer?”

“To work together.” Sophia said, stunning her, “I was gonna ask when you first triggered but I figured that’d be like talking to a brick wall with the way you were crying over that redhead. I wanted to work together and maybe mentor you a bit in how all this cape shit works, but you figured that out already. I saw some of the shit you did the other night. That was some pretty good stuff.”

So not only did Sophia know who she was, but she was apparently stalking her cape persona as well. More and more red flags were being raised, and Taylor was starting to think that her danger sense might be onto something.

“So what? You want to be partners?” Taylor asked warily.

“Nah, I don’t want a partner. It’s not my style to hang around someone else like that.” Sophia shook her head, “I just figured I’d help you get the hang of things. Show you the hottest spots around the city and what to look out for when on patrol. Maybe we could bust up a drug den or two if you’re ready.”

Taylor thought over the offer carefully, and almost immediately threw it out the window. Even barring the fact that pretty much everything about Sophia rang alarm bells in her head, Shadow Stalker didn’t have the best reputation for… not maiming people she came across. Taylor wasn’t sure she was down for working with someone who had a habit of stabbing people from across the room using a hunting crossbow. Heck, there were even rumors that the PRT was on her tail for some of the stuff she had done and Taylor doubted she’d manage to evade them for long if that was true.

Honestly this entire encounter had gone completely off the rails. She had walked in here with no plan outside of making sure Sophia didn’t reveal her identity. She hadn’t expected any of this.

As Taylor wondered how she was going to turn down Sophia's offer kindly enough that this wouldn't end with both of them turning the bathroom into the aftermath of a rage room, the girl said something that broke through her thoughts like someone had taken a pickaxe to her skull and she froze, looking at the girl with wide eyes, “What did you just say?”

“I said that I might have a lead on that scarred bitch that got away that night. She’s pretty damn illusive, but I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to track her down.”

She said it nonchalantly, completely oblivious to Taylor's wide eyes and dropped jaw.

“You managed to do what the police have been trying and failing to do for weeks?” Taylor asked, completely shocked.

“I’m not a cop. They have to deal with mountains of red tape and ‘procedure’ anytime they want to get shit done. I just go out and do it, the way it should be done.” Sophia replied casually, “I’ve been on her tail for a week and a half and I’m closing in. I just figured you might want to get in on the action when I finally move in to bag her. Between the two of us, there’s not a chance in hell she’ll be able to get away this time.”

“So if you know where she is, then why do you want me to help you?”

“I don't think you get it. I want to help you.” Sophia said. She gave Taylor an oddly intense look, “This is just another target for me but it’s personal for you. I’m not gonna take the kill from you like that without giving you the chance to get in on the action. If someone did that to me, I would've been pissed.”

Taylor wasn't sure how to respond to that, and it took her nearly a full minute to finally come up with an answer, if you could even call it that.

“I’ll… think about it.” She finally said. Even though her heart almost leapt for joy at the prospect of putting away the person responsible for her and Emma’s torment, she wasn’t going to just leap into an agreement like this without thinking it over and running it by Emma first.

Sophia raised an eyebrow at her non-committal answer. “You sure?” She asked, “I’m planning on taking her down tomorrow night. Doesn’t really give you much time to write down a list of pros and cons.”

“I said I’ll think about it.” Taylor said firmly, unwilling to change her mind. Sophia shrugged.

“Alright, but I’m not gonna wait for you if you decide not to come. I’m making a move tomorrow night with or without you.” She said, pushing past Taylor and unlocking the door, “If you decide to nut up and join me, meet me on the roof of that old sushi restaurant by the docks tomorrow night. I’ll let you in on the details there.”

“Wait!” Taylor said before she could leave, remembering the entire reason that she had even come here in the first place. Sophia paused and she swallowed nervously, “You’re not gonna tell anybody about... you know?”

Sophia snorted, “I’m not an idiot. Giving anyone that sort of info would put me in as much shit as you. Besides, you haven’t pissed me off nearly enough for me to out you and if you did, I’d just take you down before that.”

The way she said it made Taylor think that the take-down would be more permanent than her words would imply, so she just nodded, watching Sophia walk away.

Just then, the bell rang, punctuating the end to the encounter which had apparently taken much longer than Taylor had thought.

“Great. I hope Emma wasn’t lying when she said she could make it to our next class on her own.” She sighed as she began the long trek to her class on the other side of school.

Chapter Text

Taylor's web shooters fit snugly against her wrists as she clipped them on. She examined them, making sure that everything was in order, and hummed slightly as she saw the rust and shaky welds that she had made.

She really needed to start earning some money so that she could make some better equipment. There was no telling how long these would last in their current state. Unfortunately, between heroing and school, there was no way she was gonna be able to hold down even a part-time job so she wasn't really sure how she was going to do that.

She turned to the side, “Hey Emma, is it stealing if I only take money from criminals? I mean, it’s not like they’ll need it in jail and it's probably stolen anyway, so it’s fair game right?”

The response that came was swift and succinct, “Don’t talk to me.”

Taylor sighed, looking at Emma who was faced away from her on her bed, typing furiously on her laptop as she ignored Taylor’s presence, “Are you still mad at me, Ems?”

“What did I literally just say?”

Taylor frowned. It was hard to talk to Emma when she was like this. This being the stubborn refusal to even look at Taylor that had stemmed from their recent argument. Emma didn’t agree with Taylor’s decision to go after the scarred woman with the help of Sophia, and no matter how much Taylor argued that she would be fine and that this was necessary, she refused to see any sort of reason.

Taylor didn’t realize it, but the incident in the alley had left her friend with more scars than what was just apparent on the surface. She felt horrible for not realizing that Emma likely had some form of PTSD stemming from that day, but Emma had always been good at hiding things from her.

It was one of the first times in a long time that they had actually had an argument, if you could even really call it that, and it had basically ended with Emma throwing her arms up in the air and yelling at Taylor that she could do whatever she wanted. She was the one with super powers and working legs.

Taylor felt awful, especially after that comment, but after a full day of thinking it over, she knew that there was no way she was going to let this opportunity go to waste. Here was a chance to put away the woman responsible for putting Emma in that wheelchair before she had a chance to hurt anyone else.

If she just let it go, what would happen if Sophia didn't manage to catch her alone? Taylor might have been indirectly responsible for causing some other girls to go through what she and Emma went through and most likely much worse. She couldn't let that happen.

Pulling on her mask, Taylor walked over to the bed and grabbed her goggles. As she reached out, a hand latched on to her wrist, making her pause and look over to Emma who was still staunchly looking away from her.

“Emma?” She questioned, watching as the girl finally looked at her. She was shocked to see tears on Emma's face, but her eyes didn't look sad. They were angry.

“I’m still mad at you.” Emma said as her hand tightened on Taylor's wrist, “But if you're going to do this no matter what I say, then at least promise me you won't risk your life to get that bitch. I hate her with every fiber of my being, but if letting her get away means you come back, then do it, okay?”

“I'll be okay, Emma.” Taylor said, gently pulling her hand out of the girl's grip, or tried to at least. Emma’s hand tightened on her wrist to the point that Taylor wondered if she was the one who had gotten super strength instead of her. She leaned in really close, staring Taylor in the eyes with a deep intensity.

“No, Taylor, I need you to promise me.” She said, and Taylor’s eyes widened at the slight tremor in her voice, “I can handle it if she gets away but if you get hurt, then I won’t ever be able to forgive myself.”

Taylor’s heart squeezed at her tone and she knelt down, wrapping an arm around Emma’s shoulder and bringing her in for a hug, “I promise that nothing bad is going to happen to me. I’ve already taken down a ton of people just like her, there’s no way I’ll let her get the drop on me.

“But if she does-”

“If she does then I won’t take any chances. I’ll run away even if I have to leave Sophia behind to do it.” She said, squeezing harder. She wasn’t actually going to do that. Even if Sophia would probably be more than fine with it, she wouldn’t just abandon the girl no matter how much she weirded her out.

Emma didn’t need to know that though, and her words had the intended effect of calming the girl down as the tension in her shoulders went away and they sagged slightly. She returned Taylor’s hug, pressing her head into her taller friend’s shoulder as Taylor did the best to make her worry disappear.

They stayed like that for a long moment before the moment was broken by the redhead herself. “Alright, this is getting gay. Get off.” Emma said, pushing Taylor away. Her nose wrinkled, “Ew, you got your dad’s body wash all over me. Now people are gonna think we did something.”

Taylor wasn’t offended by the gesture and she stepped back, pulling on her goggles as Emma reached towards her nightstand, “And what’s wrong with that? Don’t you want to be gay with your best friend?”

“And live up to every stereotype ever? No thank you.” Emma sniffed as she pulled out a small bottle of perfume “Falling in love with your best friend who saved your life and waits on you hand and foot only happens in cheesy romance novels or hallmark movies. I’m afraid you’re staying firmly in the friend zone.”

She smirked, and Taylor was glad to see the usual spark had returned to her eyes, “Besides, I could never be with someone taller than me. Don’t you know what that would do to my self image?”

“Well considering you’re short in the first place, as well as the whole wheelchair thing, I’d say you’re gonna have a tough job finding anybody shorter than you for a while, Ems.” Taylor shot back, giggling as her friend’s jaw dropped.

“You… I can’t even believe you just said that.” Emma’s face was ablaze with mock outrage, and she jabbed a finger at the open window nearby, “Get out of my house, Taylor Hebert. And don’t come back.”

“I’ll see you when I get back, then.” Taylor said cheekily, ducking the plastic bottle of perfume that was flung at her head as she practically danced towards the open window. She stepped out, shivering at the cold and once again thanking Emma’s design skills for providing her with a hoodie during the coldest time of the year.

Emma’s face sobered as her friend prepared to leave, “Be careful, Taylor.” She called after her, and Taylor gave her a salute, closing the window behind her and swinging off into the night.

~~~

The conversation with Emma was still lingering in Taylor's head as she swung through the city several minutes later. She was filled with a strange mix of anticipation and dread as she approached the restaurant that Sophia had asked her to meet at.

Attaching a web to a nearby sign, Taylor swung down to the roof, landing in a crouch on the gravel surface. She stood, looking around for the other heroine who had asked her to meet, but she didn't need to bother.

“I'm glad you could make it.” Sophia said as she stood up and walked out of the shadows obscuring her. She was in full Shadow Stalker get-up, and her mask gleamed in the moonlight, glaring at Taylor silently as the girl approached, “I knew I was right about you.”

“I almost didn't make it.” Taylor said as the other girl walked up to her, “Emma didn't want me to come.”

“Why should that matter? She your girlfriend or something?” She asked and Taylor shook her head, not letting the girl get under her skin.

“No, but she is my best friend and her opinion is important to me.” Taylor followed Stalker to the edge of the building, speaking quietly, “She didn't want me to come because she thought I'd get hurt, but this is the only way I can get justice for what happened to her.”

“You don't have to explain anything to me.” Stalker said, “I know why you're here.”

Taylor gave her a look behind her goggles, “And that would be?”

“You're a predator, like me.” She responded, making Taylor pause, “You aren't gonna let someone like her get away with what she did because it's not in your nature. Just like letting someone get away from me isn't mine.”

There were several things that Taylor wanted to say in response to that, and her mouth opened almost automatically as the words fought to get out.

“Okay, first of all, don't ever call me a predator again.” She said, “I don't want to end up on a list in the PRT records room.”

Shadow Stalker frowned at what Taylor was insinuating, That's not-”

“Second,” Taylor held a finger up, “I'm here because my friend got shot in the stomach and the woman who did it hasn't been buried below the jail yet. The police aren’t helping, you said that you know where she is and since I’m a hero now, I can put her away myself. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to go ahead and do that before she gets away.”

“Fair enough.” Shadow Stalker shrugged, stepping to the edge of the roof, “Follow me then. It isn’t too far away from here.”

She stepped off of the roof, activating her power and floating away on the breeze to land gently on the one next door. Taylor jumped after her and together, the two of them made their way away from the docks and towards a long row of abandoned warehouses that were within sight of where they had originally been.

“I didn’t know the ABB operated this close to the docks.” Taylor said with a slight frown as Shadow Stalker stopped on one of the roofs, “I thought they were closer to downtown.”

“Territories shift all the time. Comes with the trade or whatever. I think they just moved into this one recently because they don’t have shit set up in there.” Shadow Stalker said, kneeling down on the edge of the warehouse and propping her crossbow beside her. She pointed at a building across the street, one with around five or so people mingling around it conspicuously, “That’s the one we want. I’ve been following that woman’s trail for a while and she’s been working here every night the past week.”

“We'll get in through the windows up there.” Stalker pointed at the windows lining the top of the building, “I checked and they're loose and unlocked. Since you can climb walls or whatever, it should be easy to get in. Once we're inside, we'll take down that scarred bitch and anyone else in there.”

“Do we have a number?” Taylor asked, watching the men down below carefully

“Not too many. Yesterday it was practically empty.”

That was good Taylor didn't want to make this any more of an incident than it was already gonna be. She'd rather get in and out as quickly as possible so that nobody got hurt..

She took a deep breath, adjusting her goggles before glaring down at the warehouse, "Alright, let's do this then.”

“Follow my lead.”

Shadow Stalker had been right when she said that she and Taylor made a good team. Their shared propensity towards stealth made it extremely easy to take out all five guards without raising the alarm. Taylor webbed the last one to the wall, hanging him up and out of sight of anyone who might pass by. Shadow Stalker was standing below, examining her work with her hands on her hips.

“That's pretty useful. Usually I just have to nail them up there.” She said as Taylor finished hitching the men up.

“No nailing while I'm around please. It isn't very heroic.” Taylor said as she crawled further up the wall towards the window, "I'm already not really sure how this is gonna work out. Don't give me another reason to worry.”

As Taylor unlatched the window, Shadow Stalker shook her head, “These guys don't deserve mercy. You'll learn that eventually.”

“Does that have something to do with your… predator thing?”

“Nah, they're just scum. Roughing them up a bit is the least they deserve. If you ask me, they should just be thrown in a ditch and left to rot.”

Though this little team up with Shadow Stalker hadn't lasted for more than an hour, Taylor was already beginning to build a mental image of what the girl was all about. Needless to say, she was already second guessing this partnership.

“Ooh, mass graves. Classy.” She said as she pulled open the window, “I think the Empire has those patented right now so if you want to try your hand at grave keeping, you might want to try their youth group. I think they're accepting new members. Window's open, by the way”

Shadow Stalker snorted, “Sure, I'll get right on that.”

Bending down, the teen jumped upwards, shifting states in midair and becoming a gaseous mass of shadows that carried her momentum, bringing her up towards the open window. She grabbed onto the lip as she returned to human form, hauling herself up and inside the building as Taylor followed close behind.

Inside, the two heroes dropped down onto a catwalk running along the outer edge of the building. It was dark inside, and the noise coming from down below masked their entrance as they ducked into the shadows around them to observe.

“Wow. That's a lot of bad guys.” Taylor whispered as she saw what was going on down below.

Stalker was wrong when she said there wouldn't be that many people inside. At least two dozen ABB goons were running around down below doing random things. She saw around five carrying boxes from a truck into a nearby room, another sorting through a box full of white bricks, and even more just messing with guns

She slowly turned to give Shadow Stalker a glare, and the girl actually had the decency to seem embarrassed, “I guess they were just having a slow day, yesterday. That's a lot more than I remember.”

“I’ve had goldfish with better memory. And counting skills.” Taylor huffed as she turned back to the floor, “Should we call for reinforcements? We could leave and report this to the PRT and get some help.”

Stalker immediately shook her head, “No, we can still do this. We just need to be careful and pick them off one by one. I've done it before.’

Taylor doubted the veracity of that statement. She was almost certain that they wouldn't be able to take care of an entire building full of armed men by themselves, but as she went to tell the other girl just how stupid and borderline insane that sounded, her eyes caught on a figure standing near the truck being unloaded, and all thoughts of leaving fled her mind.

Because standing right there, having a heated conversation with a man in a bright green jacket, was the same scarred face covered by a cheap mask. The sounds of the hustling warehouse were drowned out as every iota of Taylor's attention was focused on the woman she had come here for.

Her argument with the man in the jacket was becoming more heated and drawing the eyes of everyone in the warehouse. Men stopped what they were doing and put down their boxes to watch as she yelled at the man who had caught her ire, and as her voice grew loud enough that even Taylor could hear it, she listened in on what was being said.

“-nd I can't believe you're so fucking stupid! We could have made at least forty k off of that bitch if you and your buddies didn't fuck everything up!” She screamed, getting into the man's face, “That shit comes out of my pay! You're fucking with my money here, not the ABB's!”

The man flinched back, “I didn't know! My buddy had his eye on her for a while and I figured since we were friends you know, I'd give him a discount!”

“Oh, he was your friend? I'm sorry, I didn't realize.” The woman's demeanor did a one-eighty and suddenly she was all smiles, “Well if he was your friend, then I guess there's no problem with it, right?”

The man was confused by the sudden shift in personality, but he nodded hesitantly. Quicker than anybody could react to, the woman pulled a gun from under her shirt and jabbed it at the man with enthusiasm.

*BANG*

Taylor and everyone else flinched at the gunshot that boomed in their ears. The man the scarred woman was arguing with fell backwards, clutching his leg as blood poured out of his shattered kneecap.

“NO, DIPSHIT! WE DON'T GIVE DISCOUNTS ON VIRGINS TO ANYBODY!” She screamed at the writhing man as she loomed over him, “If you and your buddies want to fuck around with one of the used girls then fine, but you don't get to fuck with my cut because you can't keep it in your goddamn pants!”

The man wasn't even listening, too busy clutching himself and rocking back and forth as he tried to stem the bleeding. His wailing annoyed the woman who aimed at him again, “Stop fucking whining!”

She pulled the trigger, but nothing came out. Everyone in the warehouse stared at her as she slowly brought her gun up to her face, taking in the thick webbing that had spread across the barrel.

Taylor looked down at her hand and the fingers depressing the button on her web shooters. She didn't even realize she moved.

Staring down at her webbed up hand, the scarred woman slowly turned around and looked up, locking on to where Taylor was crouched on the railing of the catwalk up above. There was a beat as their eyes met, before a wide smile spread across her face underneath her mask.

“Well would you look at this!” She said, gesturing at Taylor and drawing the eyes of everyone in the building to her position, “I didn’t realize we’d have guests tonight!”

As dozens of eyes and weapons turned towards her and Shadow Stalker sighed in the darkness behind her, Taylor realized that she may have jumped the gun just a bit.

Chapter Text

Taylor's realization came with an expression of recognition from the scarred woman down below. She gestured widely, stepping over the groaning man she shot as she moved closer to the two of them up above, “I didn't realize that I extended invites to little miss spider and she-who-stalks-dark-alleys! If I had known some real, bonafide heroes would show up, I would have put out some refreshments to liven up this little party!”

“Don't worry about any of that, we aren't here to party anyway, so you can keep the refreshments to yourself.” Taylor said, watching with narrowed eyes as the scarred woman tossed her gun to the side and pulled another out of the pocket of the man she shot, “We're here to take you down.”

The woman snorted as she racked the slide, “You think you're the first bitch with a chip on her shoulder to come after me? I've been in the business a long time girl, long enough to-”

Taylor's web shooter hissed as she shot a clump of webs at the woman mid sentence. She missed her mark as her target saw it coming and pivoted on her heel, twisting out of the way in one smooth motion and coming to a stop with the pistol pointed in Taylor's direction, causing the girl to freeze.

She smirked at Taylor's shock, “Like I said, you aren't the first one to try and get me booked, and you sure as hell won't be the last.” Not taking her weapon off Taylor, she gladed at the men around her, "Especially if you limp dicked assholes would fucking shoot her already! Why the hell are you just standing around!?”

Her words spurred the entire warehouse into motion, Taylor included. Shadow Stalker burst into smoke and flew backwards through the wall, and Taylor wasn't given a second to yell at the girl for abandoning her as bullets screamed in her direction.

Bending her knees, she leapt off the catwalk hard enough to bend the metal underneath her feet. Flipping through the air, she attached a web to the ceiling and swung across the warehouse in a fraction of a second.

The scarred woman let out a whistle, slowly lowering her gun as she watched the superheroine move through the warehouse, twisting and turning as she dodged in midair, “Damn. That bitch is nimble.”

Taylor landed on top of the truck, denting the roof under her weight. Her powers told her she didn't have any time to stay immobile though, and she immediately flipped off as soon as she had enough purchase to do so. Bullets streaked by her face, but she didn't flinch, instinctively knowing that any unnecessary movements would spell her doom.

By chance, she landed on top of one of the men shooting at her. She forced him to the ground, rolling off of him and delivering a quick spray of webs to his body to keep him immobilized, before jumping to her feet as her danger sense yelled at her to stay mobile.

She whirled around, ducking low to dodge the bullet that whizzed by her face before sweeping the man's legs out from under him.

Taylor's heart and mind were moving a mile a minute as she was spurred into action by her power. She didn't have a moment to think or even consider what she was doing, acting on complete instinct as she leapt up and over the truck again as a few men moved to get a better angle on her.

“You're a slippery bitch, little miss spider!” The scarred woman called out as she watched Taylor take down her men, “Hey! Whoever gets a good hit on her gets to do whatever they want with the bitch when we capture her! Just make sure you let me watch.”

While Taylor’s face wrinkled in disgust at the woman’s words, she didn’t have any time to focus on her as she ducked underneath a knife and sunk her fist into the abdomen of the man who tried to stab her. He fell to the ground clutching his stomach and Taylor’s senses immediately warned her again, prompting her to lean to the side.

An arrow passed through the space she just occupied, slamming home into the knee of a man who had been trying to sneak up on her. Taylor glanced at where it came from and smiled as she saw Shadow Stalker reloading her crossbow. The two of them exchanged nods before Taylor returned to the fight as two men with knives charged at her.

It looked like she was wrong when she assumed that the other girl had abandoned her. She was just fighting from the shadows. Like Taylor probably should have tried doing before drawing the attention of literally everyone in the warehouse.

Oh well, it was too late now. She ducked underneath a knife and threw her assailant over her shoulder. He hit the side of the truck hard enough to dent it and slumped over with a groan. As he passed out, Taylor bent backwards to dodge a bullet and pivoted on her heel, sending a web line out to snatch the gun away from the man who had shot it. Throwing it away, she shot another web and dragged him towards her, clotheslining him and sending him to the ground with a painful sounding thud.

Her danger sense suddenly screamed at her louder than ever before, and Taylor’s eyes widened as she jumped backwards, narrowly dodging the blade that sliced through the air where she had just been standing. The scarred woman stared at her as she jumped away, a disappointed look on her face as she realized that her sneak attack had been unsuccessful, “Damn, I thought I had you.”

Taylor’s expression hardened as she was now face-to-face with the reason she had come out here in the first place. Her jump carried her all the way to the nearby truck, and instead of just landing on it and sticking, her legs acted like a spring, storing her momentum before releasing it all in an explosive launch that nearly pushed the truck onto its side.

Taylor tackled the scarred woman around her middle in a classic spear, knocking the wind out of her and sending them both to the ground several feet away.

Taylor rolled to her feet, glaring at the scarred woman who had already done the same as well. She watched as the woman reached down and pulled her gun from its holster, brandishing it alongside her knife as she prepared to fight the spider-themed heroine one-on-one, “You know, you should be thanking me.” She said as the clamor of Shadow Stalker taking down the remaining men in the warehouse faded into the background.

Taylor was taken aback by the statement, “Thanking you?”

“Yeah!” The scarred woman grinned widely, gesturing at the girl, “Look at you! A little bit of trauma, watching your little friend get shot, and you've become a real threat!"

So she did know who she was. Taylor had been wondering if she had made the connection between her identity, but it seemed like she didn’t have to worry after all. Taylor’s eyes narrowed behind her mask and her fists clenched at her nonchalant attitude, “Do you think this is some sort of game?”

“Honey, life’s a game. The meaning of life is to enjoy it as much as you possibly can, even if it comes at the cost of another person’s happiness!” The woman ran towards Taylor with a manic smile on her face, brandishing her knife high in the air, “Hurting people makes me happy and fills my pockets so I’m gonna carve you up with a smile on my face because I know I’ll enjoy it! That’s just how life is!”

Taylor stepped back as a knife slipped through the air where she was just standing, “You’re crazy!” She said, stepping forward to punch the woman in the face.

“Aww, that’s not a nice thing to say!” Her opponent ducked underneath her fist and brought up her gun, firing twice. Taylor danced out of the way, but her movement brought her right into the path of the woman’s knife. It scored a hit along her forearm, slicing through her jacket and biting into her arm just deep enough to get through the skin and draw blood, “Ha! First blood goes to me!”

Taylor growled at the pain, slinging a web at the woman's foot and yanking it from under her. As she went to the ground, Taylor jumped, stomping down on her leg to break it and immobilize her but her sneakers only struck concrete as the woman rolled out of the way. She pivoted into a kick but that was dodged too, and Taylor watched in disbelief as the woman stepped back, panting from the effort but still smiling from ear to ear.

“You say I'm slippery! What the heck was that!?” Taylor asked angrily, unsure how she hadn’t hit the woman a single time, “Do you have powers?”

“Nah, you're just predictable as shit.” The scarred woman laughed, pointing her gun at Taylor, “You're better than you were in the alley, but not by much.”

She tilted her head, thinking audibly, “I’d bet that little redhead isn't nearly as nimble as you though, is she? Especially after I put her in that wheelchair. Maybe I should pay her a visit! I'm sure she misses me just as much as I miss her!”

Taylor growled at the threat, slinging a web that the woman dodged, “You won’t touch her! I’m taking you down here and now!”

The web Taylor had shot at the woman landed on a pile of large crates behind her instead. Taylor gripped the thread as hard as she could and yanked, dislodging one of the crates and sending it flying at the back of the woman’s head. The scarred woman cottoned on to what she was doing and rolled out of the way, but Taylor was already in motion once again. She ran forward, slamming her fist into the woman’s hard enough to really do some damage.

She crumbled around Taylor's fist, falling to her knees as she let go of both of her weapons. She wheezed as Taylor stepped back, watching with satisfaction as she suffered.

“Holy shit, bitch!” The scarred woman coughed, wincing at the pain in her abdomen, “You hit like a goddamn truck!”

“It’s less than you deserve.” Taylor muttered angrily, getting a laugh.

“Oh definitely! I would have just ripped my head off and been done with it! You clearly got the mitts on you to do that.”

As she went to web the woman up, boots on the concrete made Taylor turn around with a tense expression. She relaxed as she saw it was just Stalker, walking up after dealing with the rest of the men in the warehouse.

“Hey.” The girl nodded, “Good work out there, that was pretty cool. Next time though, try not to blow out the cover just to save some asshole who's about to get what's coming to him.”

“I wasn't just going to let her kill him!” Taylor defended.

“She's a real hero, this one.” The scarred woman wheezed. She looked up at Stalker with a smirk, "She's not like you, dark and gloomy. She's got morals~”

“Shut up.” Sophia said, aiming her crossbow at the woman. Taylor raised her hand to tell her to stop but just as she did, the woman suddenly moved.

She surged up and as she did so, Stalker flinched. The heroine's finger twitched and an arrow slammed into the concrete by the scarred woman's feet as she jumped forward, slamming something into Stalker's stomach who instinctively tried to switch to her Breaker state.

It sounded like a bug zapper being pressed into a chain link fence. Arcs of electricity spread from the flickering cloud of darkness as Shadow Stalker let out a garbled, distorted scream and fell to the ground in a twitching heap.

“Stalker!” Taylor moved to help, but the scarred woman pulled another, smaller pistol from under her shirt and pointed it at the downed heroine's head.

“I don't think so.” She said, grinning as Taylor froze, “You stay right there or she gets a led injection. And you can ask your friend just how much that shit hurts.”

Stalker groaned, curling into a smoking ball and the woman glanced at her, “Oh yeah, I bet that hurt too. This baby hits with more power than a car battery. Didn't think it'd put you on your ass that hard but hey, even I get lucky sometimes.”

Stalker just whimpered, twitching slightly as electricity burned through her nerves. The scarred woman chuckled as she turned back to Taylor who was staring at the girl anxiously, “So here's how things are gonna work. You're gonna stay right there while I walk away and get the fuck out of here, or I'm gonna blow her brains all over the cold concrete, got it?”

Taylor breathed deeply through her nose, “You won't get away with this. I'm going to catch you. Even if you get away today, I'm going to find you. There's nowhere in the city you can hide from me.”

“Spooky!” The scarred woman said as she began backing away, “But I doubt it. I'm pretty damn good at hiding when I want to.”

As she edged towards the door, Taylor's fingers twitched. She was far enough away now that she probably wouldn't be able to actually hit Stalker, but Taylor didn't want to take the chance. Just a little bit farther, and she would be able to-

“Oh, by the way.” The woman pulled the trigger. Taylor's heart dropped, but the only thing that came from the gun was a dull click, “The gun’s empty. I picked it up earlier!”

The woman's laughter rang in Taylor's ears as the girl watched, completely flabbergasted as she cleared the last few feet and ripped open the door.

“This was fun, spider, but I’m afraid I’ve got to cut and run. Things to do, people to kill, all that jazz. I’ll be seeing you soon though, so don’t miss me too much!”

She disappeared into the night before Taylor could register her statement, and the girl stared after the woman with a conflicted expression, unsure what to do with Shadow Stalker convulsing on the ground right in front of her.

Luckily, the decision was taken from her as Shadow Stalker reached up and grabbed her forearm in an iron grip, “Don’t l-let her get away! Go… after her!” She wheezed, “I'll be… fine!”

Taylor's face hardened and she nodded, standing up, “I'll catch her.” She said, sprinting after the scarred woman. She didn't like leaving the other hero like that but Stalker was right, the scarred woman was more important.

She ran into the alley and immediately zipped up to the rooftops, getting a bird’s eye view on the whole area. She ran to the edge of the building, pulling off her goggles so that she could see better in the dim light as she searched for the scarred woman in the alleys and streets nearby. Building by building, she combed the area as thoroughly as she possibly could. She jumped and swung across gaps, checking allies, looking for open doors and shifted dumpsters, searching for anywhere that the woman could be hiding.

There was nothing. Everywhere she looked was completely barren of life, and as the minutes wore on and Taylor was met with nothing but trash and empty streets, her heart sank into her stomach as she realized that she had failed.

The scarred woman got away.