Chapter 5-5

Nevada was doing her patrol around the docks. Ever since Tagg's charge the docks have kinda become their territory especially since Lung did not contest it and the merchants were shown the door a few days ago.

Some spies were seen and barely managed to escape, from Georgia's reports those were likely to be Coil's agents.

A ping is heard on the radio.

Nevada sighs expecting the destroyers to have done something stupid again.

"You Got it York?" Nevada asks

"Yeah sure," New York responds

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USS Knight was helping the dock workers unload some of the heavy crates. Shipping had started coming in again. Though the very first shipment to come in was for Georgia Beryl.

"I wonder what these are?" a dock worker asks

Knight nods.

"We could open it, Georgia wouldn't mind," Knight says

"Yeah, why not. JEFF! GET THE CROWBAR!"

"WHAAATTT!!!" Jeff shouts back

"The CROW BAR! GET THE CROW BAR!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOA-2nffob8

The crate burst open with dozens of 5-inch shells roaring as the small sunami of death hit the ground and bounced, rolling across the concrete pier.

Knight immediately jumps off the pier followed by Jeff. Johnny was crying in a fetal position surrounded by the armament.

Knight sticks her head over the pier looking at all the shells sufficiently spooked.

"None of them went off?" Knight asks

Johnny stops crying taking note of his situation.

"No, I guess not," Johnny says standing up and wiping the dust off his pants and shirt.

A few seconds later a soaked Jeff climbs out of the bay.

"That's johnny for you, Mr. I retired from Merryweather, I can handle myself. PMC is the same as the military my ass." Jeff says in joking sarcasm.

"What kind of shells are these?" Knight asks not recognizing them.

"No clue?" Jeff says

Knight nods, "Aight, I'm going to send out a ping then."

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A Young woman with pale blue eyes and long black hair crawled out of the manhole.

"A few more spots to go," She says covering the spot with the cover.

Checking to make sure her utility belt was still in place she take a breath.

"If I had known that lung was gonna pussy out when i suggested this I would have never joined the ABB."

The sound of a truck coming down the road alerts the girl to the people approaching, and Quickly ducks into an alleyway between two warehouses. A truck full of men in camouflage goes by all of the guys holding rifles.

"That should be the last bomb for the Dock I can't stick around much longer the patrols are becoming more frequent." The girl mutters

With USS Enterprise being here for dry docking the Naval and Marine presence was visible, heavily so. The merchants had been forced out overnight and Skidmark shot for the infraction. He was still alive and in hiding, however, it really fucked with the power dynamics. Especially with the rumors of a base being built which would claim the docks and the train yard. She couldn't stand for the territory being taken from her gang. They may have questioned her intelligence when it came to her plan however, it would work. She would prove that it would work.

SHE WOULD PROVE THEM ALL WRONG.

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April 14th.

Taylor woke up to her alarm clock going off.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and on days like this…. Taylor looked into the mirror.

She was several inches shorter than she should have been.

"What happened… You know what. I'm not going to question this and go for my usual morning jog." Taylor says to herself.

Taylor walks down to the kitchen half expecting to see her father.

He would be shocked that the 5 foot 10-inch girl was now roughly 5ft tall. Luckily for Taylor, he was down at the docs handling the transport of a 500-ton rod of tungsten. It had been delivered with a metric shit ton of containment foam shells.

Taylor started her jog. The start was always rocky until she got up to steam. Within minutes she was out of her neighborhood and heading downtown.

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Over at a quiet house in Captain's Hill.

"If I go downtown, what are the chances the bad person won't get me?" Dinah asks

The air is silent.

"53%"

"That's better than 10," Dinah says slinging her school backpack around her shoulder, marching towards her door.

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Taylor was making great steam as she was running down the sidewalk.

She was relieved to be out of her neighborhood and out of gang territory. The dock workers' housing area was always gang territory however they all knew not to mess around in it. The last time the capes had a fight over there was in a cul de sac, just down the road from Taylor's house. Said fight had a shocking result with the Dockworkers retaliating. Homemade depth charges wreaked havoc on the merchant drug submarines. The E88 grunts found automatic gunfire; their base wouldn't be known until later when Georgia let it leak to Kurt. The Dock workers are finally planning a retaliatory strike.

Taylor suddenly feels a soft object hit her.

*whomp*

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Dinah had made it out of captain's hill and was walking round downtown.

A black van was trailing her about a block behind. Dinah knew it was following her. It was what was going to hurt her, the numbers told her so.

"What are the chances of finding my solution if I go left?" Dinah says holding her head.

"12% Right it is then," Dinah says taking a right turn and immediately running into a jogger.

"Ow," Taylor mutters having fallen tumbling over Dinah.

"What are the chances that you are my hero," Dinah says out loud confusing Taylor.

Dinah holds her head letting out a tear as her power doesn't give her a number. "Is ship YES?" Dinah mutters looking up at the teen.

"Help me, those bad people in the van are trying to hurt me!" Dinah shouts.

Taylor looks up to see a black van just in front of her with the side door open and several men jumping out.

The Queen of escalation immediately stands up helping up the girl simultaneously protectively shielding Dinah with her body.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Taylor asks gathering a small swarm.

"We just want the girl, you don't have to get involved, You wouldn't if you knew what was good for you." The first guy says.

Unseen by the guys dozens of insects crawl out of the storm drain and up his leg.

A second later Mr. Extortion is screaming and shaking his leg.

Taylor grabs Dinah by the arm and starts running.

"We need to get to the docks, the destroyers want some violence anyways," Taylor says

"Y-you're so fast!" Dinah shouts as Taylor drags her.

"Faster?" Taylor shouts having not really heard Dinah.

A glance behind her showed Taylor that Dinah was long out of breath and barely keeping up. In some type of instinct, Taylor stopped and piggybacked the smaller girl before running at full tilt.

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The van was struggling to keep up with the girl they were supposed to capture.

"We are going 40 Miles Per Hour! How are we only keeping on pace with her."

"Jon radio it in."

"Sure thing boss!" Jon says

"Sir we are chasing the girl, we might need to call in reinforcements she ran into another cape."

The radio barks to life. "I don't care get her!... Keep me updated."

The radio picks up a mutter a few seconds later not that anyone hears it. "A throwaway timeline it is then. Let's learn what we can."

"Van 3 and Car 4 cut them off at Jefferson and King Street we'll force them into a battle."

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Taylor was approaching the intersection at Jefferson and King Street. It would be a right-hand turn then the entrance to the docks would just be 5 blocks down.

Dinah was hanging on to Taylor's back for dear life as the wind swept past them at incredible speeds. Taylor meanwhile didn't have time to question where her speed came from.

Tires squeal as several non-descript black vans and cars blocked each exit at the intersection of King and Jefferson.

Taylor nearly drifted a right turn her shoes scraping the ground as she forcefully turned.

"Hang on tight," Taylor shouts

The raven-haired girl body-slammed a Camry launching the vehicle several feet into the air before it started tumbling away and rolling onto its roof upon landing clearing the path toward the docks.

"STOP! OR We'll shoot!" Is shouted by several of the group which seemed to be military.

"Girl, run towards the docks I got it," Taylor says

"Dinah, I'm Dinah. Thank you, Chances that you survive this encounter?" Dinah asks out loud

"100 ErroR," Dinah says flinching grabbing her head.

"I'm Taylor, Now Stop being in pain and run!" Taylor shouts turning around to face the men.

Dinah runs towards the docks knowing safety is there.

"Who are you? Why did you interfere?" A man wearing a gas mask asks

"My friends, my family would be upset if I let evil happen and did nothing about it. After all the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." Taylor says with a smile

"That's nice now it's time to die, any last words?" The man says standing in the middle of the intersection on top of the manhole.

The villain cocks his gun leveling it at Taylor.

"NO YOU!" Taylor shouts with a hand flourish.

The ground rumbles as the manhole cover in the middle of the intersection is lifted into the air by thousands upon thousands of insects poured out of the sewers as the swarm has been summoned.

The leader was swept off his feet falling into the middle of the swarm of insects.

A massive black mass of insects crashes upon the mercenaries like a wave. The well-trained men panic and open up on it with their assault rifles and tinker tech laser guns.

"You all wanted this! You should've left well enough alone!" Taylor shouts as masses of insects start to crawl out of the storm drain while the manhole was still having a considerable stream coming out from it.

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Jacob Patterson and Alex Mason were guarding the gates to the DWU offices and the Docks as a whole.

"Do you really give much credit to the talk of a base being built here?" Mason asks

"Nah, it's got to be some sort of psychological warfare to fuck with the gangs," Jacob says

Gunshots start going off in the distance.

"Is that a browning?" Mason asks

"It's pretty heavy weaponry whatever the fuck it is," Jacob says with a frown.

Mason looks in the direction of the gunfire to see a little girl limping towards them clearly exhausted.

"Jacob!" Mason shouts running up to the girl.

Jacob takes his gun off of safety and starts watching the surroundings with a critical eye.

"Y-y-you have to help her! T-Taylor is back there!" Dinah shouts hysterically pointing toward where the gunfire is coming from.

"Patterson! Call it in get all of the reinforcements!" Mason shouts in a commanding tone.

"Yes SIR." Patterson says thumbing the radio at his shoulder.

Mason picks up the girl and carries her inside the safety of the compound.

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Inside the DWU office.

Danny Hebert was battling the ultimate enemy of mankind.

Paperwork when his usual silence was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Danny asks

"Mr. Hebert you need to come with us it's your daughter."

Not a second later Danny had his jacket in hand telling his guide to run.

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A truck sped into the lot by a medical tent that was set up near CV-65.

The tent was surrounded by the destroyer flotilla, the girls all dead serious standing at attention. The sight honestly made the rock, on which the DWU stood nervous.

The flap opens and Danny walks in.

His daughter is there sitting in a cot. Completely unharmed. She was shorter than she should be and wearing a jacket over her clothes.

Doing a double take Danny could see that Taylor's jogging outfit was riddled with bullet holes yet his daughter was fine.

"H-Hey, dad… Did you know I was bulletproof? I kinda wish I had." Taylor asks in self-deprecating humor.

"I had a theory, but, now I'm certain," Danny says sitting down on the cot across from his daughter relieved yet nervous.