chapter 5

Taylor Hebert

The Lair

April 26, 2011 Noon

"I want to do more."

She's been wanting to say it for the last week and she finally said it.

In front of the mirror.

She slumped after she looked at herself in the middle and saw how small she looked.

"Help, my ass," she grumbled even as she continued to stare. She'd just taken a hot bath in Alan's large tub and dried herself out. In that time, the fog created by the steaming bath had dissipated and left her alone with herself in the mirror.

She prepared herself, straightening her back and looking at the mirror squarely, and spoke up again. "Alan, I want to do more!" she said loudly and firmly.

Then she blushed as she realized that, depending on the context, she may sound like a hussy trying to get more of his d-d-d-dick. "Argh," she uttered unwomanly. "Why is this so hard?!"

She took a deep breath in and then let it out slowly. She left the bathroom shortly after, and dressed herself with the clothes she bought using Alan's money.

She was never a big spender, but Alan had insisted that she bought things for herself. While saying this, he'd also gifted her with his own selection of clothes for her.

Taylor found his gifts to be too provocative. Most of them were too skin tight or showed too much of everything. On top of that, she wasn't a model like stupid Emma was, so she knew that they wouldn't look good on her.

So she asked for money instead, and got it. With it, she went out and bought clothes that weren't … as baggy as hers were before.

Dressed in straight jeans, a green and blue t-shirt, and simple ponytail, Taylor smiled to herself before leaving their bedroom.

And then ran into Lisa, who's been waiting for her.

"What took you so long?" the much prettier woman asked her.

For a second, Taylor felt the sting of jealousy while looking at Lisa before squashing it down. Alan brought Lisa into their relationship and it had stung. She thought that Alan had grown bored of her after less than a week.

It was why she stopped him when he intended to thoroughly fuck Lisa into submission, not that that's how a girl's heart worked, but that's what he intended.

So she intervened if only to confirm if Alan had grown tired of her.

But when she called, Alan looked to her in the eyes possessively.

And when she asked, he didn't argue about how he wanted to fuck Lisa but how he wanted to punish her. When she insisted, he just told her to spread herself and she did.

Then he fucked, even going so far as to "let the new girl off easy" so that he could "mold" Taylor's pussy to his shape. It made her happy to know that Alan hadn't grown tired of her, and she had the best sex yet, ending up taking Alan for three more rounds as she begged him to give her more.

Yet still, Taylor had felt petty, jealous, and small when she compared herself to Lisa.

But Lisa helped soothe that over between them. Just like Taylor herself, Lisa found herself in a bad situation and took the choice that was disgusting and distasteful, but Lisa owned up to her choice like Taylor did. There was no rest of either of them with Alan's insatiable lust driving them to mind boggling ecstasy each night.

There was a sense of comradery, actually. They were both Alan's girls now, and Lisa confirmed that both of them were pregnant. It didn't show yet because it was way too early for anything to be shown but Lisa was a Thinker; it was her to thing to know things.

While Taylor wasn't out going as Lisa, Lisa dragged her out of her shell and routine constantly. It made her feel … normal.

And Taylor couldn't be thankful enough for that, even with these tiny stings of jealousy.

"Sorry!" she smiled widely. "Let's go then!"

-VB-

Taylor shuddered as she felt the sugary mango smoothie run down her throat. She licked her lips and smiled. This was her first time drinking a mango smoothie, and she rather liked it.

It just sucked that the only place serving what Lisa called "passable" mango smoothie was in the Downtown and cost her six dollars for sixteen ounces.

It was too expensive, and products like it was the reason why Taylor never really came to Downtown before. But Lisa had expensive taste that only the Downtown could satisfy.

So here they were after two hours of shopping, eager on Lisa's part and reluctant on her part, enjoying a cool drink after their hectic activity.

Taylor knew that shopping could be exhausting and tiring from the earliest memories of the good Emma she had, but it was one thing to remember and another to feel it.

She looked up and saw Lisa just happily lounging on the chair across from her on the small table they occupied at the corner of the store, far away from the rest of the customers that this cafe served.

Lisa noticed her look and met her stare, and Taylor couldn't help but wonder how Lisa got involved with Alan.

"So…" she started out. "How did you get involved with Alan?" she asked. She knew that Lisa was involved in stealing something from Alan, and he had been very adamant about punishing Lisa for it or at least punishing her for the four people's worth that Lisa took on for the sake of her team.

Lisa frowned lightly before sighing. "It's complicated."

Taylor wanted to stop right there but she also wanted to know.

"You really want to know, huh?"

Jolting in her seat, Taylor looked up to see Lisa's resigned yet fox-like grin.

"Uh… uh, yes?" Was she that easy to read?

"You are that easy to read." Argh. "I am - no, was - a member of the Undersiders, a villain group of teenage capes," she began quietly. "I was not the leader but I was the Thinker of the group and we had a secret boss that only I got to contact."

"A secret boss?"

"Yup. Coil."

Taylor frowned. "I don't remember them."

"You wouldn't. Coil is like a snake; he likes to keep himself low profile. No one's even sure he has powers. No one outside of myself, anyway."

"And?"

"Well, before you got involved with Alan, Coil wanted the Undersiders to steal from Wyrm. To gauge his reaction, so to speak."

Taylor looked at her incredulously. "You… stole from him."

"Yes. It was stupid. I thought I had it all figured out. Found out all of the guards' shifts, shift change, and everything."

"Except you weren't."

"Nope. And we barely got away and that's because Alan stopped… to talk to you."

Taylor felt her stomach drop. "... You were the ones that Alan was chasing?" she asked hoarsely. "I-I thought he was going to kill children."

Lisa looked apologetic. "We didn't know you were there. We were just trying to get out of the Docks as soon as possible. I'm sorry."

Taylor looked down.

It hurt to know that the second person she was getting used to hang out with was also the cause of Taylor's own situation with Alan.

She took a deep breath in and let it out. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She closed her mouth and her lips quivered.

Lisa quickly came around the table and hugged her.

"I'm sorry. I really didn't know you were there."

She wanted to cry.

It felt like she was facing Emma all over again, but at least Lisa was apologizing. Maybe that's what made it worse? Like, she was fated to be stabbed in the back again and again?

She pushed Lisa aside, and saw the hurt on the blonde's face. "I… I need some time alone," she said as she stood up, grabbing her bags.

Lisa gulped, looking sad but resigned. "I'm sorry," she repeated.

"I guess," Taylor said as she walked out of the cafe.

She walked and walked.

The implication that Lisa and her former team was responsible for her first night's failure, the subsequent loss of her virginity to a stranger, and her current situation rocked Taylor's mind. What little common ground she had found with Lisa was tainted by the fact that LISA WAS RESPONSIBLE.

The pain, the fear, and the loss of her freedom was THEIR FAULT!

Tears gathered at the edge of her vision and she gritted her teeth.

She didn't know what to think, she didn't know what to feel, and that only made her angrier and angrier.

"Taylor!"

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. Lisa was running to her without any of the shopping bags. Taylor waited, hoping that she had something to say that would make her feel less shitty about … everything. That it wasn't another sorry like her dad.

"What?" she spat out harsher than she meant.

Lisa looked winded.

"Lisa, that wasn't even half a mile," she deadpanned.

Lisa glared at her. "Shut it, you marathon junkie," she wheezed, using her Thinker power to mention Taylor's running exercise (an exercise that was being put to the side because Taylor was too goddamn sore and tired from being used all night).

And Taylor felt her lips quirk.

Lisa gathered herself - and Taylor noted through her bugs that there were two distinct groups of people following them in vans, one group was the Dragonteeth soldiers - she liked to call them dragonling in her head - Alan assigned them and the other was unknown - and straightened herself. Only, when Lisa saw her, her face paled.

"We have to go."

"What?"

Lisa grabbed her by the wrist and ran towards the direction of the dragonling. Then she used her free hand to pull out her cellphone and call. "This is Lisa! Coil is onto us!"

And just like that, Taylor saw the second group speed towards them.

Coil.

The cause for the Undersiders attacking Wyrm, which led to her loss of freedom.

Taylor's eyes narrowed.

'He's the cause of everything,' she thought angrily. Without much more thought into it, she gathered all of the insects in the area and swarmed them down upon the second van speeding towards them.

Lisa looked over her shoulder at her, and grinned. "Good job. That should delay them," she said as she gasped for breath. Just then, another van came around the corner at full speed. This van had the dragonling. They came to a stop less than a hundred yards from them, and the side doors opened.

"Get in!" one of the dragonling shouted as another stepped out with an assault rifle. The bystanders saw them and screamed, running away.

While this happened, the other van fought against the bugs swarming into the car, splattering on the windows, and clogging up the engine and finer machineries.

As she and Lisa got into the van and the assault weapon bearing dragonling fired a few shots into the swerving and screeching van of the unknowns before jumping into the assistant's seat, she found herself staring at the now closed door in shock.

"-lor, Taylor!"

She jolted out of her shock and stared at worried Lisa, who had been shaking her.

"W-What just happened?" she asked hoarsely.

"That was Coil's mercenaries," Lisa spat. "Son of a bitch."

Taylor sat there with wide eyes.

"H-He goes after people in their civilian identity…?" she asked hoarsely.

"It wouldn't be the first time he did it," her friend replied.

"W-We have to stop him. My dad-!"

"We have to ask Alan."

Both of them gulped. "Y-Yeah," Taylor finally said. "He'll take it. He'll take care of Coil for us."

They stayed quiet until they were back in the Lair, safe and sound. That night, they told Alan what happened.

They never saw him so quiet yet everyone in the Lair, from the two of them to the security guards who'd seen them come in shaken from a van with holes in them, knew that a shitstorm was about to hit the bay.

-VB-

Director Emily Piggot

PRT ENE Headquarters, Downtown, Brockton Bay

April 27, 2011 Morning

"Director, we have a call from a man claiming to represent the Dragonteeth. He says it's urgent."

She'd been doing paperwork when the call came. She was half tempted to not take the call, but there was no need to antagonize Wyrm's little pet project.

Not when there was a pressure from the mayor's office to help him legitimize the dubiously law breaking organization.

"Alright, patch them through to me on 2," she said before picking up her office phone. Within seconds, she heard a voice on the other side.

"Is this Director Piggot of PRT ENE?"

"It is."

"Greetings. My name is Bao, and I am Lord Wyrm's Steward."

"You mean you are a criminal."

"If you mean that I am a criminal in the same sense as one is a criminal in China fighting for the freedom of his people, then yes. I fight against the unjust laws discriminating parahumans in the USA. But I didn't call to argue with you regarding the stupidity of legislator catering to the fears of the common man incapable of looking beyond the immediate."

"Then?" she asked testily.

"Yesterday, parahuman known as Coil struck out against capes that are a part of our organization. Capes who had been walking around in their civilian identity. Capes who carry our lord's future children."

… God. FUCKING. Dammit.

"So I am here to deliver a warning not just to you but the federal government in general. Parahuman known as Coil was once a member of the PRT under the name of Thomas Calvert-"

She should have shot the bastard at Ellisburg. "- and elements of the federal government, specifically the PRT and the Protectorate, have known about his existence as a parahuman for some time. However, that neutrality can no longer be kept because Coil has assaulted Lord Wyrm's families. Lord Wyrm intends to put an end to Coil today. I suppose he will be striking at Downtown, which is where Coil's hidden base is, according to my lord."

"Are you threatening the government, Mr. Bao?"

"A threat implies future action. Lord Wyrm is already acting."

Emily growled. "He won't get away with this!"

"No. He won't. The question comes whether or not you and the government can afford antagonizing my lord. Good day."

She slammed the phone down, ending the call. Then she picked it back up while dialing the emergency number to Armsmaster.

"We have an emergency. Wyrm's gone on a rampage over Coil breaking the Unwritten Rule. I need all of the Protectorate out into the Downtown!" Then she called her offices within the PRT ENE for a Master/Stranger protocol on Thomas Calvert if he was within the building in his usual role as consultant.

There was an explosion deep within the Downtown, and Emily saw an eight story building collapse.

Finally, she called the office of the Chief Director of PRT to report Wyrm's rampage.