Chapter 07 - A monster in the Bay

By the time I finally reached the cemetery it was early afternoon, and the sun decided to come out from behind the overcast sky. It would have been a nice day, all things considered, with tolerable temperatures for a day in August.

A good day to read a book in the shadow of a tree. I saw a flash of a memory, my mother doing exactly that, while my Dad was playing tag with me.

I winced at that and focused on the task at hand. For me, to get back to a semblance of a happy life, I had to succeed, which, to be honest, was at best a far-fetched hope, but it was all I had.

I knew the chances were infinitesimally small that there was a para-human buried here that could help my Dad, especially if I considered what Mom told me about the existence of a power-nullifier. But that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I knew that my power was able to evolve by adapting aspects of a power my shades possess and make them into something else.

But for one of the Para-human buried to have a power, that if changed through mine would allow me to do something to help Dad.

Of course, even that was wishful thinking. On the other hand, my power had yet to disappoint me, and who knew I might have luck. After all, I went through in the recent past, I deserved it, for something to go my way.

I came to a stop in the middle of the vast gravestones spiked greenery of the cemetery; my mother's supposed last resting place close by. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the darkness of the Abyss.

I was instantly flooded with new sensory impressions. The lingering essence of an incredible amount of people all around me, just a short distance under the earth, popped up in my mind.

But that wasn't all there was, millions more, smaller lights were everywhere around me. I was sure they at one point happened to be bugs, rats, and other creatures who died and were in the process of being returned to the cycle of life one way or another.

I did my best to blank them out of my awareness and instead concentrated on the few essences around me that contained a shard within them. When I was sure to have found them all of I allowed the Abyss to reach out. A moment later, they were ripped away from the loose tether that held them in place and dragged towards the Darkness that is my power.

And I felt twelve shades being added to my arsenal. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings one last time before I left. I didn't intend to return here for a long time.

I walked the short distance to the closest bus stop, it didn't take long for the first bus to arrive. Unfortunately for me, this bus line took the scenic route from near Captain's Hill, where the cemetery was located, along the edges of the Southern parts of the Docks through the Train-Yard. Following that the bus would drive through the Docks and end in the middle of Downtown.

This meant the route didn't go anywhere near home. The next line who did wouldn't arrive for another thirty minutes.

My impatience got the better of me; I needed to know if I gained something useful with the acquisition of those Shades, and I needed the insights only Mom could provide me with. For this reason, I boarded the bus. The bus driver an overweight Caucasian male with blond hair he didn't even dignify my presence or the bus ticket I showed him, and neither did he reciprocate my greeting. For a moment, I was stumped at his lack of normal human decency, on second thought, I realized it was in his best interest that he didn't care.

Because I was a student not in school on a school day and any scrutiny of the authorities with my single remaining guardian in the hospital wouldn't end well for me.

I probably should act with more caution, a reason more to get off before the bus reaches downtown, where the police presence is higher.

Ten minutes later, I got out at a bus stop near some abandoned warehouses right at the edge of the Docks and Downtown.

A location that was within a reasonable walking distance to my home, and to the hospital.

Hopefully, this would give me quite some time to experiment and still be able to get to Dad before the visiting hours were over. But most important of all, it was a block outside of the expanding ABB territory. If the gang tags were to be believed, putting me barely into Empire territory.

Which was good, I wasn't exactly keen on a repeat of the last time I was anywhere near abandoned warehouses, and to my knowledge, the Empire didn't haze or attack caucasian.

Because it would not only conflict with their ideology but would put a mark on their resume as the good guys they try to present themselves as at every opportunity.

I walked through a side road and ended up facing an abandoned warehouse near the water. It had a pier big enough to allow a container ship to moor. There even was a crane on railroads for unloading the containers from moored ships.

I slipped through a slit in the fence surrounding the whole area and made my way to one of the loading docks for trucks. Despite the rundown state of the building, the locks at the doors were still in a good condition.

Contrary to the crane, being rusted to such a degree, you had to wonder why it was still standing, of course, the one thing standing between me and an environment out of sight defied the ravages of time and somehow escaped desperate people in search of something worth selling.

In fact, I didn't think I would be able to break them without a crowbar or an iron rod, which I could misuse as one. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything like this in my immediate vicinity.

To not waste any more precious time, I fused with Iron Rain, and, with her power at my disposal grabbed one of the padlocks; a small exertion of her power dissolved parts of the shackle and allowed me to open the door.

Reaching out with Iron Rain's borrowed metal sensing, I paused, blinking. There was a ... surprisingly large amount of metal on the other side of the door. Most of it was largely mundane; nails tightly packed together in crates, ready to be moved, or the metal of the shelving lined in rows down a section of the space. But no, the much more relevant piece of information I was getting back was the guns. LOTS of guns. Big guns, small guns, guns that will leave holes in the wall big enough to let a draft in. Hidden among the nails were what felt like ammo containers, to my, her, senses.

I pulled the door shut, and with Iron Rains power, still at my disposal, I reconstructed the padlock and put it back in place.

Given the dust on the floor and more distinct on top of the crates, I doubted anybody was in here for at least a few months, and it was highly unlikely for that to change while I was present.

Nonetheless, I didn't want to risk it. I looked around for a few moments trying to spot any surveillance system the warehouse might have, especially cameras that would be a hindrance to what I had planned. Despite my efforts, I couldn't find anything resembling a surveillance system even with Iron Rains power, which, to be honest, struck me as odd.

If those weapons and what else might be in the other crates had been mine, I wouldn't have left it without any kind of protection or warning system informing me of anyone tampering with it.

The only explanations I came up with were that the owner either speculated that the goods being hidden in an abandoned warehouse would be enough for it to not be found or the ones owning it are no longer around.

I found the second option, the one to be more likely, Brockton-Bay had quite a fluctuation concerning the gangs. I mean, at the top of my head, I could come up with the names of five gangs that at one point or another were active in the Bay before driven or wiped out.

I discarded the third option of there being some kind of surveillance system present subtle enough to escape my notice. Simply because this train of thought led to madness, assuming at all times to have missed something despite my best efforts to the contrary, I didn't want to second guess every action, and let paranoia rule me more than it already did.

I ended the fusion with Iron Rain and summoned Mom. She took a look around and asked.

"Taylor, what are we doing here? And where is your Dad?"

Her question caused an acrimonious feeling.

"It didn't work out." I simply stated.

"Why? What happened?" she wondered.

"While I was trying to explain to Dad what was going on, a nurse came in, and I ... I unsummoned you. Dad's power bounced back to him, and he..." I had to collect myself before I was able to continue with my explanation. "He had a really strong reaction to it. He suffered another stroke."

I lifted my head and locked eyes with Mom.

"He nearly died, I... I nearly killed him."

Mom made two large steps closing the distance between us, and embraced me in her arms.

"I'm so sorry, little owl. Everything is gonna be okay... everything is gonna be okay."

Yeah, it will be. I softly freed myself from her embrace and summoned all twelve of my new shades.

Within a few moments, my shadow expanded in front of me, and out of it emerged twelve persons, consisting of three men, six women, and three kids, all of them being girls. I never was good at guessing the age of children, but my best estimate would be that one of the girls was roughly ten if she wasn't small or big for her age, one of the other girls I pegged as around two years younger while the other girl was the same amount older than her.

Which when I thought about it, was really strange. So far, my power gave the person I resurrected a body that represented their peak condition regarding age, my mom being prime the example I could be sure of proved it. If memory served correctly, it was scientifically established that humans reached it in their early twenties. Hence seeing three kids younger than me standing before me threw me for a loop.

Until my mind finally caught up with what my eyes saw. They must have died before their bodies reached and surpassed their twenties barring my power from "remembering" their peak bodies. I had to steer myself away from thinking about what could have happened to them, not only allowing them to trigger that young but dying not long after.

A brief look at Mom standing at my side, and the grimace of her face clued me in she drew the same conclusions. I added, looking into what happened to them to my ever-growing to-do list. On the same note, I had to accept that doing that for those other Shades sporting adult bodies in front of me would be a lot harder, for the simple reason any one of them could have been ancient.

For a moment, I regretted not walking up to every single grave, where I could sense essence connected to a shard to write down their names. But discarded this thought nearly instantly, there might have been no small chance that some were aware of the parahuman status of the dead or at least some of them and me walking from each one to all the others might have been highly suspicious for them. After all, what reason could there be to visit the graves of twelve individuals in succession at a graveyard?

Besides, it would have been really hard to be at the cemetery at a time with nobody there able to observe me, considering that even when I was there during lunchtime hours, roughly a dozen other people were on the premises. Well, it didn't matter anyway; if I at one point had to find out their identities, the lack of essence under a gravestone would be enough to find out their names. Sure it might be harder to match them to the shades but certainly not impossible.

I left that train of thought and concentrated on my immediate endeavor, of finding out what powers they all had. I walked to the first of my new Shades, who I had all lined up next to each other facing me.

She was one of the women; it was hard to make out defining characteristics with all of my shadow having obsidian black skin tones and teal eyes, and I couldn't even be sure on how representative the hairstyle was they were wearing now to what they did when they were still alive.

Admittedly, it could have been the hairstyle they wore when they died, it could have been the one they preferred throughout their lives or just the one they had when their bodies were at their peak or really anything in between.

My mother wasn't necessarily a great help to solve this puzzle. Since her hairstyle hadn't changed in a long time. Because of this, I wasn't sure what it meant for the man standing next to her still having a neatly trimmed full beard.

The woman had a beautiful symmetrical facial structure with distinct cheekbones, and my god; did she have a body, never-ending legs, and a bust measurement ninety-nine percent of the female population would die for of having. I had to fight to suppress the semblance of jealousy at seeing her in all her glory. I could call myself lucky if I ever reached a b-cup since my mother barely filled out hers.

I touched her shoulder and absorbed her. I immediately felt as new knowledge was laid bare before my mind including an instinctively understanding of her power, allowing for the increase of my body's density by a considerable margin. It only took me a moment to connect the dots in my head, and I released the fusion.

Something of the discomfort I felt must have slipped and shown on my face because Mom immediately came to me and laid her hand softly on my shoulder to express her concern. There was no reason for her to ask; the facial expression she wore already did it for her.

"It is not an everyday occurrence to meet, let alone be one with a Goddess," I told her. My mother fast as ever with the uptake and said, eying the woman in front of us.

"Freya, she is Freya, the former vice leader of the Empire."

I just nodded with my head and added.

"And the presumed wife of Kaiser."

I recovered my emotional balance and walked to the imposing man with the beard standing next to her when it hit me, where I saw this man. It was in one of my dreams, he was older about two decades at least, but there was no doubt, that this man standing in front of me was Allfather. His height of about 6.7 feet, the way he stood combined with the beard drove it home.

Absent-minded, I wondered if the cemetery happened to be the official graveyard for Nazis.

Despite knowing that Allfather wouldn't be the solution to the problem with Dad, it didn't hurt to know what capabilities they had. Above all, it might help me to find out if their powers somehow modified mine, I touched him, and he became one with me.

My mind was flooded with new information and skills, but what surprised me the most was his power. It didn't work like I thought it did. He is rated as a Brute/Mover combo on PHO, said to be able to go toe to toe with the best of them, but he wasn't a Brute, not even close.

He was a short-range Shaker able to create simplistic items like Armor and Weapons out of thin air. In contrast to Kaiser, he only had a range of about twenty feet centered around him. Moreover, he couldn't change the shape of the items or manipulate the metal they were made of after he conjured them. But inside his Shaker effect, he wielded complete authority over those items. A sphere of dominance so absolute it allowed him to move his creations like a short-range telekinetic to increase their durability to near indestructibility.

He used that aspect of his power through intelligent use to mimic Brute Powers. Instead of moving his body through the use of his muscles, he puppeteered himself through the indestructible armor he wore. Combined with the incredible force he could bring to bear on items created by his power, he could feign incredible strength.

I wondered, could he have flown with his power?

I used his power and created a black metal pipe half a meter long and a few centimeters in diameter in front of my hands, nothing fancy, just something that might allow me to answer this question. I grabbed the levitating pipe with both my hands and then used the shaker effect to generate a telekinetic force and used it to slowly but steadily levitate the pipe higher and higher into the air. A moment later, my arms were stretched to their full length above my head. I didn't stop there and continued levitating the pipe further up, and my body hanging from the pipe followed after it, which resulted in me being lifting me from the floor into the air.

I couldn't help but be delighted at the prospect of being able to fly a state of mind that came to an abrupt end when I reached a height a short distance under the roof Because the pipe refused to ascend any higher.

To say that I was puzzled was an understatement, the bubble around me in which I could manipulate items moved with me, there should be no reason why I shouldn't be able to fly freely, but for some reason, the pipe refused to gain any more altitude. Although, my range extended about twenty feet above me.

I looked down and could feel the edge of the control-sphere was barely touching the ground beneath me, could it be?

I instantly created another pipe in front of me. It proved to be no problem to move the new pipe anywhere inside my sphere. Even by placing it as an anchor hovering it below me above the ground and the threshold of my power, I couldn't move the other one I was still holding onto any higher. This turned out to be a problem for my aspiration to fly.

I moved the pipe I was hanging onto towards the crates until I was levitating above them. I tried it anew to gain altitude, this time, it worked without a problem. Unfortunately, I couldn't confirm my theory of the power necessitating being in contact with the ground this way for sure, because the warehouse wasn't high enough for me to gain a height more than ten feet above the crates before the ceiling stopped any further ascent. But that didn't mean it was impossible. I just moved the pipe and myself without lowering the altitude back above a part of the floor not occupied by crates.

Suddenly, the very moment the crates left the control-sphere, I found myself in a ten feet free-fall. Despite the fact, that I expected this to happen, it was a scary thing to experience suddenly falling from that height towards a concrete floor. I had a few short moments to ponder the stupidity of my actions. Why did I think doing this by myself was a good idea when I had expendable shades at my disposal. They wouldn't even blink at being used as guinea pigs by me.

I was in free fall until the sphere made contact with the floor and allowed me to reapply the telekinetic effect on the pipe, which stopped my descent cold. But the force, the abrupt stop generated nearly served to rip out my arms from their sockets.

I really should have thought this through.

The worried look on my mother's face drove this point home more than any lecture she could have given me while I descended back onto the ground. I called the other pipe to me and landed them both near one of the crates since Allfather power didn't allow for it to dissolve items created by it. Then I released our fusion and immediately felt something resembling Allfather's power still being there within the Abyss. The feeling strongly reminded me of the one I had, regarding the Abyss variant of Iron Rains power.

I concentrated and sensed this new aspect of the Abyss like it was waiting to be given form. But this time, I got the impression of the Darkness being able to assume not only malleable liquid forms like before what I was granted through Iron Rain, it now felt like it could be made solid on top of it.

Without a second thought, I tried my hand at it. Wisps of Darkness left my body formed a black obsidian curved single-edged dagger lacking a crossguard. It was a work of art, and unlike before, I solidified in this form after I was done molding it into this form.

Unlike what I felt through the usage of Allfather power, I retained the ability to change its form in line with what Iron Rain could do with any metal around her. I tested it by molding the dagger levitating it in front of me into a sphere, which I then also made solid.

I raised my hand and moved the sphere into it, despite it being cold to the touch induced a familiar and secure feeling into me. Similar to holding a puppy or a kitten in your hand nestling in it. I dissolved it, and the wisps of Darkness it fell apart in, were reabsorbed by my body.

I wondered if I could make armor out of it, similar to what Allfather used to wear, as my thoughts came to a halt. I looked at my Shades and an idea formed in my head. I reached for Mom, who returned to my side and focused on her form. As I suspected, with this newly obtained ability, I could make changes to her, not to her body exactly but adding onto it. Things like clothing, armor, or simple tools, and I was quite confident that they would keep them even if I unsummoned them and later resummoned them.

The problem, as it turned out, was that the solidified darkness mimicked metal. Because of this, it was no easy task to create clothing from such unflexible material. I sidestepped the problem by creating clothing similar to chain mail by building it out of little interlinked metal rings. As it turned out, I was able to make them so small that without the help of some optical means, the result looked exactly like normal fabric.

Since I was essentially clueless concerning fashion, I settled for creating a simple pantsuit for Mom.

In order to do that, I closed my eyes to focus on what the suit looked like in my imagination and tried to make it a reality. I reopened my eyes to see my Mom examing the final product of my doing.

"Taylor, that is just... incredible." she praised, wide-eyed, her hands moving along the material to get a feel for it.

"I thought you might appreciate it not being naked all the time," I said in return. As a soft smile played on her lips.

She chuckled, saying "that's true, but it also doesn't hurt that this separates us from the Siberian."

Yeah, where she was right, she was associated with a psychopath like the Siberian was a bad idea, even if only because they both went around nude.

I went over to the third Shade in line, a plain-looking young woman in comparison to Freya. If I had to venture a guess at her age, I would say she was in her late teens, roughly the same height as me, which made her below average height for a grown woman. She had hair reaching below her shoulders with a bang covering one of her eyes. I got the feeling I knew her from somewhere, but I couldn't place where or when.

I shelved those thoughts for later and touched her, and a moment later, we were one.

I felt a new power flooding into me, but this one was different. It didn't allow me to manipulate my surroundings or create items. It was once able to gift others with a series of powers ranging from regeneration to invincibility to flight and Pyrokinesis.

What a versatile and interesting power, I wondered why I never heard of her. A power like this would have been in high demand, and the gangs and the Protectorate would have paraded her, for simply having her in their ranks.

Another thing I added to my to-do list.

Notwithstanding, that her power was not what I was after, the regeneration might be something that could help or at least alleviate the effects of dad's power. Perhaps it would be enough to allow me another shot at talking to him.

But first, I had to test it. I reached for my Mom to give her the flight power when something unforeseen happened. The instant I touched her, an option I hadn't even known was there burst into my mind.

It felt similar to what I already knew to be capable of but different, and since this one didn't come with an explanation like the powers of my Shades so far always had, it could only mean it was an ability my power developed.

After I hesitated for a moment, weighing the options and possible dangers for mom. I decided to go ahead with it. I justified it with the fact that every other power this Shade could grant had beneficial effects. Because of this, I decided to just do it reasoning that everything else this Shade did, helped the target. The same would probably apply here too.

I activated the ability and was expecting, I don't know a new aspect of one this Shades various powers being pushed into Mom perhaps even gifting her a new power. Instead, I felt the Shade I was melded with being pushed into Mom ending the fusion we had.

I instantly panicked, all at once surprised, confused, and then worried at what had happened.

"Mom, mom are you alright?"

She looked at me dazed and was slightly swaying. I grabbed her shoulders. Cold feared seeped through my being that I might have hurt her, that I could lose her again.

"Mom, are you okay?"

She shook her head like I would do to clear away cobwebs.

"Yeah, I'm alright." she finally said, mollifying my worries. "I was just overwhelmed for a second there."

"Overwhelmed by what?" I wanted to know.

"It's difficult to explain." She mused, "Whatever you did, it felt like when I steal someone's power. New impressions being added to me, extending my capabilities. As I told you before, by using my powers, I only gain an understanding of the power that is stolen, and what it can do, nothing else. This, however, is completely different, accompanying the power were other things, knowledge, and skills that must be hers."

"Like what?" I asked.

"I know how to make and cook Maultaschen, Sauerkraut, Rouladen, Käsespätzle, and I think I can speak german. It's still hazy, but my power or I am almost certainly different, somehow."

"Hearing that, I felt my stomach being filled with dread. For one, there was no way to be sure she gained just knowledge, and not elements of their personality. If it was her power that changed, it could have been for the worst. Worst of all? I might not even be able to take back what I did. That scared me most of all. She could end up an amalgamation of the mind and power of them both. With her original self somewhere in there but twisted into something else that she might consider herself a new person.

"What do you mean? Describe it to me." Without further ado, she complied with my demand.

"It was like... like my normal power is seeing things through a kaleidoscope of input, but suddenly there was an extra lens throwing how everything filters through into a different light."

"It feels like it got extended, like a puzzle to which another piece gets added and as result changed the picture it is supposed to displays to something different.

Yet, in some way retaining its parts, at the same time elevating them over what the individual parts that make up the new whole picture could ever hope to be."

She let her shoulders sag exhaled and then continued saying.

"I don't know. It is hard to explain in words. It's the best I can do to say it like that."

"It is okay Mom," I took half a step towards mom reaching out partway but faltered unsure of how to proceed not only was it always mom in the past who reassured me, but I wasn't sure if it was safe to touch her. So I settled for a smile "I think I get it."

Then I closed my eyes and expanded my senses. I had no problem verifying exactly what she told me. The Shade of the woman, now fused with mom, was really used to augment her, added onto it.

Besides, as it turned out, my fears seemed to be unfounded. I could clearly feel them still being separate, precisely like what I experienced from using my Shades this way. Meaning aside from adding their powers and knowledge and abilities, I was quite sure, well as sure as I could be, that she wasn't influenced in any way. And even if this were the case, I could clearly make out that I could separate them any time I wished.

At a closer look, it was different than when I fused with a shadow. I actively had to keep it in me.

Fighting against a force trying to separate us again, like Mom described her power would work. Not that it was hard to do so, most likely because they were part of me. It felt more like holding onto them, in the case of just one shade. But in this case, nothing was fighting against this union. Quite the opposite. There was an attraction between them, meaning I would have to use force to separate them.

My curiosity awakened; I opened my eyes again and asked.

"Do you have to do something to keep a hold of her and her powers?" I asked.

"You mean like when I steal one?" she clarified "No, I don't."

"Interesting."

She displayed a mischievous grin saying "You think," and then poked my nose with her index finger.

Without warning one of my hand went up in flames, and I tried my hardest to put it out waving around my hand. It took me far longer than it should have to realize there was no pain.

When I settled down I noticed that I could control the flames. It was a limited control. Just enough to create flames and throw them. It was a power on the lower end of the power spectrum.

Still nice though - I gave my mom, who had to suppress a smirk a chiding look, and used my power to pull those two apart again.

In response, I received a soft shoulder check for being such a bad sport. My glare only intensified, the resulting staring contest didn't last long because Mom broke down laughing.

"You looked like a puppy who got her favorite chew toy stolen" she managed to press out in between laughs.

"MOM!" I exclaimed appalled.

"Sorry I couldn't help myself, you make it too easy," she said wiping away a tear.

Sulking I turned away.

"Don't be that way Taylor, I was just kidding." She tried to soothe me. When she rounded she was meet came face to face with me grinning. Eliciting a huff from her for being had.

"Why you little-" my grin only got wider until she joined in.

I needed that, I didn't know how much. Just being able to joke around with Mom, forgetting about all my troubles. If only for a moment made it all so much easier to bear.

Moving on, I looked at the Shade of Frigga and ordered her to come closer. A simple touch and we became one. I reached out for Mom once more and tried to insert the Shade of Freya into her.

But this time, I met considerable resistance forcing them apart. It took me quite some effort to even get them into becoming one, and even after I had achieved it, I had to constantly keep on the pressure. Within a short amount of time, I noticed how it took a toll on me.

Meanwhile, Mom aside from being overwhelmed again by the new impressions didn't seem to be worse for wear. Which gave birth to the theory that I was solely responsible for making it work, without any input from her.

I ended this experiment shortly after I made this discovery and stopped keeping them together. A moment later, they separated again.

"Did this feel any different for you?" I asked.

"No," she answered, "Why are you asking?"

"Because it was for me, I practically had to force this merger, while with her," I pointed at the younger woman, "it was self-sustaining or more akin to attraction."

"You are saying there was a repulsion force, with Freya, but not with her?" I nodded at her question. She got thoughtful at that turning her head sideways and furrowing her brows.

"Perhaps it has something to do with our powers, how they resemble each other. I mean Freya, is a breaker while she and I are Striker/Trumps."

I mused about her words for a moment.

"It could be," I reluctantly conceded, "but I think there is more to it. For example, your power felt like it wants to steal, while her power had a different feeling to it, wanting to gift, to give powers away."

"A combination of those theories is also plausible," I raised my eyebrows in a questioning manner "Think about it, our powers obviously have some overlap but are still substantially different, opposites even. Perhaps your Power realized that and tries to fit puzzle pieces together to get a new whole but to get it to work some similarities are necessary for it to work."

"Possibly," I conceded, "it is as good a theory as any, and it might even be true. But we also could be overlooking something."

"Like it has nothing to do with the powers at all," she said. "As opposed to it being dependant on our personalities or something like that."

"Could be, the only way to be certain is if we experiment further." I paused and then asked her. "Do you want to fuse with her again? Permanently?"

It didn't take her long to come to a decision.

"Yeah, I would like that. I always regretted not being able to do a thing without prior having gotten my hands on a power. Don't get me wrong I love my power. But now, with you being parahuman potentially getting into a dangerous situation, I would want for nothing more than to be able to help, you, and this power might just be the means to it.

Reaching out, while softly placing my face in her hands searching for my eyes "I, by myself, might not be any stronger, but at least I will be able to protect you. That is all that matters, that you are safe..." she insisted.

Loosening her hold, her hands trailed down to my shoulders, coming to a stop loosely lying on top.

I understood her sentiment and without a second thought made it happen and fused her and the unknown cape. I was in the process of getting a grasp on what the implications of all this had for me when the second oldest girl's head spun around and seemed to be alert.

I sensed urgency coming from her combined with [danger] [incoming].

Taking an involuntarily step in her direction brought me out of my mother's grasp. I didn't lose any time and commanded the Shade to become one with me. She dissolved into wisps of Darkness flooding into me in the blink of an eye.

This time I was thrown for a loop for what felt like an eternity. The power was vastly different from the others. Sure there were some of granting its user an additional sense, but getting a sense you are familiar with pretty much since you are born and then get this sense turned up to eleven was something else.

And that probably was the understatement of the century. I was used to hearing things when the origin of the sound was in my immediate vicinity or further away in case the produced sound was rather loud.

But being able to hear the heartbeat of a mouse more than a mile away was quite simply frightening. All things considered, that wasn't even the worst of it. Since sound was propagated by air and by matter and whenever it hit an object the sound wave changed. It got reflected scattered, and if you were able to identify and differentiate those changes you could use it to maneuver the world.

It would be a sense vastly superior to sight in some instances while inferior in others, but no less useful. As of five seconds ago I had access to such a sense, and it gave the pronoun `my eyes were opened´ a vastly different but nonetheless accurate meaning.

I was quite certain, that without the experience in using this ability I gained from the girl I could fall back on, that I would have incapacitated myself through sensory overload by now. This gave me a slight taste of what my father more than likely had to contest with. Thinker powers were scary in this aspect, on the other hand, also really marvelous.

After I got a handle on it and knew what I had to do to focus my new sense, which in essence was echolocation but so much more, to my immediate surroundings. It was relatively easy to determine what exactly had spooked her, and rightfully so.

I could hear for a lack of a better word to describe it, how four large trucks and two SUV entered the premises of the warehouse. They came to a stop in front of the loading docks. And all in all, sixteen people left the cars.

As if this wasn't bad enough, one of them clearly was a cape, easily identifiable by the skintight costume he wore. Unfortunately, such costumes were quite common nowadays, and with no way to perceive its colors through hearing, I couldn't be sure about who it was.

I unsummoned all of my Shades except for Mom. She, at this point, picked up that something wasn't right and asked.

"Taylor, what's wrong?"

"A moment ago, trucks and sixteen guys arrived outside the warehouse, and it looks like they intend to come in here."

My thoughts started racing, this warehouse was abandoned, or at least it looked like it. Then begged the question of why are there people here, but most importantly, why were they here now? My sense allowed me to `watch´ them leave their vehicles.

I considered my options, sixteen guys, one of them a cape. It shouldn't be that hard to overcome them. I was confident that my Shades would have no problem fighting their way out of here. Especially with someone like Iron Rain amongst them, she alone should be enough to take care of them.

After all, there weren't many capes in the Bay, neither in the past nor present who would be able to put up a fight against her. Well, with the sole exception of Lung, but last I heard, he didn't wear a skintight costume.

The problem was that it would put me on the map. The gangs would know about a new cape with considerable strength. Depending on what I had to reveal, of my capabilities, the scale would range from bad to utterly catastrophic. So, I decided, it would better if they didn't know I was even here to begin with.

I frantically looked around, hoping to find a way to get out of here without them seeing me. Unfortunately, the only exits without resorting to breaking down walls were all on the same side on which the newcomer arrived just now. Great, just great, what else could I do? I could try to hide for the duration of their stay.

I didn't expect to have enough time to get into one of the crates before they made their way in here. Besides, that could go wrong in so many ways that I discarded the idea moments after it found its way in my thoughts, which just left me with the metal walkway alongside the interior of the warehouse.

I was in luck because the railing consisting of only three horizontal metal pipes had a small section on the opposite side of the loading docks, where it consisted of corrugated iron sheets, wide enough to offer sufficient protection for me and Mom of not being spotted.

I motioned my mother to be silent and follow me. We then hurried to get there as fast as possible. All the while, I listened to what happened in the front of the building.

"Seriously, what is so important for us to be here in the middle of the day? Couldn't it have waited until tonight? I'm still wasted from yesterday night and if it weren't for your, call I would still lie in my bunk for at least another 4 hours." One of them complained just to yawn to emphasize his point.

"Oh just shut up. I'm so tired of your whining, Steve. Nobody told you to go and waste yourself after the fights." A guy with a rough-sounding voice complained.

"Of course not, but Schadenfreude demanded it," Steve answered smugly. "I just couldn't resist the temptation to rub their defeat in their faces."

"Hell, I will never know what got into you to think it would be a good idea to bet your whole money on a poodle, but for this little fucker barely as big as the head of the Doberman he fought against to win. To say it was a longshot would be as saying Endbringers are mildly dangerous comparable to a kitten." Another one chimed in, his voice softer than their counterparts.

I heard laughter emerging from the guys directly around the speaker, close enough to hear his comment. A few moments, later they all converged in front of one of the loading docks when one of them asked with a deep baritone voice.

"Why are we even here?" another one asked with a thick German accent.

The cape was the one to respond to the question.

"Someone tripped the alarm. So be careful, might be the chinks."

I heard a key being inserted in the padlock, a short twist of the key later, the padlock was removed. Four guys positioned themselves next to the door, two on each side, while the cape stood in front of it. They all drew their weapons and prepared to storm into the warehouse. One positioned himself behind the cape and held up three fingers with one hand, and lowered them in turn. When his last finger went down, he patted the cape back, who then proceeded to kick the door open and stormed, inside flanked by the four guys the others followed shortly after.

Two of them stayed behind guarding the door. The others split apart and searched the room. I could already tell that the majority of them didn't take it seriously, with the complete lack of any evidence that somebody broke in before their arrival.

Of course, my presence disturbed the dust covering the floor, but whatever tracks I might have left behind were destroyed by their forceful entry.

After the guys who flooded the room had ample time to look around, they gathered back at the entrance.

Meanwhile, I was keeping my head low and my breathing as flat as I could, doing my best to prevent them from hearing me.

"Has anybody found anything?" the cape demanded to know, irritation coloring his voice.

All his people denied his question in unison.

"Strange, something must have tripped the alarm." Steve mused.

"It could have just been a rat." the rough-sounding guy offered as an explanation.

"Might be," the cape conceded, "but doesn't really matter. Kaiser wants us to get everything out of here. The risk of the chinks finding it by dumb luck is too high, and this false alarm is as good as any excuse to finally get it done."

"Probably a good idea, after Lung has finally consolidated his power over these sub-human scum, chances are good he pushes for more territory, and they might stumble over it by accident." the soft voice theorized.

I registered some of them nodding.

"I want the four of you to keep a lookout outside the warehouse."

The cape said as he randomly pointed at four guys in the corner of his little gathering. "The rest of you gets all those crates into the trucks."

When Nobody moved; he waited a few seconds until he followed up his order barking.

"What are you waiting for, get to work! " which was enough to spur them into doing it.

I, on the other hand, was angry at myself for the mistakes I made. I didn't plan on wasting my time hiding away from E88 goons in some warehouse.

But I had no one else to blame for this situation other than myself. Discarding the idea that there might be some kind of surveillance I couldn't detect was a testament to my arrogance and stupidity. After all, if the gangs in the Bay were this incompetent, they would have posed no problem for the law enforcement forces, and they would have been removed and imprisoned ages ago.

Well, at least this whole fiasco could be considered a learning experience and drove the point home that just because I might have a strong power didn't make me smart, nor should I underestimate the gangs. If it weren't for my luck in getting my hands on a Shade with enhanced senses, I wouldn't even have noticed them, until they were standing right behind me with drawn weapons. I could have died or worse, for the second time within this week, and we were only a short few days in it. I seriously have to step up my game if I ever wanted to reach my twenties, especially should I ever intended to go out as a cape.

The four assigned as guards made their way outside and took position around the perimeter. Meanwhile, the others started loading the crates in the trucks.

They didn't come far when my new sense detected something disturbing the water surface on a direct course towards our location. It was difficult to clear up the blurry image I received the shade of the girl never got any real experience, in using her power on water, and sound behaved differently underwater. The only thing I could tell was the creature was huge and fast.

I didn't get enough time to adjust my sight, to identify what I was seeing when the creature made landfall. Not far from the rusty crane and the creature wasn't subtle in the least. It was instantly spotted after its landing shattered the concrete beneath it.

"What the Fuck." one of the guards shouted the moment he laid eyes on it.

"Shoot this Motherfucker." said the next guard before he completed his turn to fully look at the creature and brought his weapon to bear.

A second later, gunfire was the predominant sound to be heard in the vicinity. I had to fight to keep my body from flinching whenever I heard a shot being fired.

I tried to distract myself from it by taking my time to examine the creature. It closely resembled a lizard, if they ordinarily had six legs were fifteen feet long, not counting its tail. Moreover, it had eyes arranged in a circular fashion around its head in such a way that it looked like a diadem granting it near 360 degrees of vision and would sprout eight tentacles around twenty-five feet in length on their backs.

Given that it looked more like a creature you would expect to see in a horror movie, I could completely understand the reaction of the guards witnessing it. Since it had the same effect on me and had to stifle my outcry at its horrendous form.

It took mere moments for the gang members left in the warehouse to draw their weapons and making their way to their comrades, but by the time they reached the frame of the loading dock, it was already too late.

I watched how this creature tanked the bullets shot at it as if they were pellets of paper, and jumped over sixty feet, landing directly in the middle of them. Their loose trapezial positioning didn't help them. On the contrary, the tentacles on its back took one swipe at them, and the next moment they lay bisected and dead around it.

It took the creature no effort. There was no hesitation. It just ended their lives, in the same way, I would swat away a fly.

It was clear that the others didn't stand a chance either. They would die too. No one, not even Nazis deserved to die like that.

I tried to stand up to get my head over the corrugated iron railing to warn them. But before I got the chance to do that, Mom grabbed my arm and pulled me down again. I was about to protest vocally, but the hand she placed over my mouth prevented me from doing that, too.

She signaled me to keep quiet. It took me a moment to realize she was right. If I went out there, it would jeopardize my life, my secret identity, and Dad. I just couldn't risk it, and my intervention might not even make a difference.

By the time I focused back on the sense to `see´ what happened, the Nazis were down to the cape and one other person firing with an assault rifle on the creature from well outside the range of its tentacles.

The others, or more accurately, their ripped apart bodies, were strewn around the floor. The creature didn't even give them enough time to scream. I noticed an acrid and disgusting smell scattering through the building. When it reached me in its entirety, I couldn't keep myself from gaging, and it took me a lot of effort not to vomit.

Not a moment later, the head of the creature turned my way and then bull-rushed the man shooting at it. He was squashed in between the creature and a crate into a bloodied mess of viscera. The sound his organs or what was left of it made when they hit the floor in a wet squelch would haunt me in my dreams, no doubt about it.

Then again, despite the lethal wounds inflicted on the cape the fight wasn't over because he stood up after being split in two at the hip as if it was nothing to write home about. He just regenerated his lower half. Not only was I surprised by witnessing this, the creature was too. It looked the capes way and stood still a few seconds in indecisive contemplation. In the meantime, the cape scrambled to his feet and tried to reach one of the crates, he didn't even make it halfway there before the creature, was done thinking, and the eight tentacles reached for him and grabbed him. They lifted him from the ground without any semblance of effort.

Four of them entangled his limbs while the other four were ramed like spears into his body and wiggled through his innards. It looked like somebody was in the process of ripping out the stuffing of a plushier.

The whole horrifying scene was accompanied by the most disturbing screams of pain I heard in my life.

With all the distractions, in the form of gunmen, out of the way the creature focused solely on the cape, despite the anathema done to him, he just didn't die. He screamed and screamed and just didn't stop. I couldn't endure listening to this any longer.

I ended the fusion with the shade. At least this way covering my ears had any effect, even if it only muffled the screams. Mom sensed my despair and embraced me, holding me close. I just wanted it all to be over.

Suddenly all the screaming stopped. It was silent from one moment to the next, too silent. I was about to re-fuse with the Shade to `see´ what was up when I heard the sound of metal shatter right next to me.

The creature embedded itself a few of his feet into the wall five feet away from me and had shredded through the metal railing and walkway. Mom immediately pushed me behind her.

"Run, Taylor, run!"

She screamed while facing the creature. I did exactly, what I was told. I scrambled to my legs and started to run. Adrenalin was running through my veins, my heart started racing like never before, pushing my body above its limits, just to get me out of here.

Somewhere in my mind, there was a small part not corrupted by fear, still able to think, and this part wondered why I wasn't already dead ripped apart from the tentacles I was definitely within their range. I was just about to celebrate the fact that it didn't already happen and started believing I could escape it, that survival could be possible when the creature landed directly in front of me, shattering this nascent hope in thousands of splinters.

I skidded to a halt in front of it and slipped. I landed hard on my butt, immediately I turned around and scrambled on all fours, trying my best to get up and to get away from it. Before I even got the chance to stand upright, I felt something on my hip.

An instant later, I was buried in concrete, pressed in the human-shaped hole me being thrown against the wall created. I felt more tentacles joining the one on my hip, and they started to squeeze more and more tightly.

I barely noticed a woman's voice screaming my name over and over while all this occurred. Then the realization hit me, so that was how I was going to die. I was about to accept the inevitable when my awareness returned to a sense I kept suppressed for so long that I had trouble remembering I had it in the first place while not intentionally evoking it.

And this sense told me that there was its essence in direct contact with my body; essence in possession of a shard. I acted on instinct before my mind could even grasp the situation and unleashed the Abyss and dragged it into its endless depth.

The tentacles holding me in place vanished, at the same time, the essence was consumed, and I sensed another shade being added to my arsenal. I fell forward onto my knees. I had trouble processing what just happened when I found myself in the arms of my mother.

"Taylor, Taylor are you alright? Say something!" she demanded panicked from me.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I don't know how but I'm okay." I admitted surprised that I didn't share the fate of the squashed Nazi when I was flung against the wall.

"Good, it worked." she said "I already thought I lost you."

I was confused. "What worked?"

"You didn't think I just embraced you to make you feel better. I did it to gift you with invincibility," she said smugly.

"I did tell you it is a mother's job to protect their child."

I couldn't help but look at her dumbfounded. Her response consisted of laughing at me. After I overcame the shock, I joined in. We both laughed, lying in each other's arms until we cried tears of joy.

We would have done that for quite some time if it weren't for a rude interruption.

"Hey, hey, I don't want to come across as rude or ungrateful. But would you mind getting me the fuck down from here?"

Our joyousness came to a halt immediately. We both moved apart and tried to locate the source of those words. It didn't take long to find it in the Empire Cape. He was impaled to the wall with parts of the railing. The creature must have done this shortly after it jumped up here and before he went after me.

We both stood up and walked over to him. When I got closer, I could clearly see how the metal pipes were rammed deep into his limbs fixating him there. I also recognized the Empire cape through the pathetic remnants of the costume he was wearing. Not that it would be necessary since his white skin and his power gave him away some time ago; Alabaster of the Empire 88.

He was said to be able to restore himself after taking damage as if nothing ever happened to him near instantly. No wonder he survived all of what was done to him by the creature.

The Empire uses him as a meat shield and distraction to hamper their opponents in fights. Since a cape simply couldn't be ignored it made him perfect to draw the attention of whomever he fights, and with him apparently unable to die, he can hold their attention.

"Sure, give me a moment." I didn't think I could get the pipes out of him and the wall by myself, given how deep they were rammed into the concrete. Thus, I summoned Iron Rain. I was about to give her the command to get him out when a hand was placed on my shoulder.

"Wait, Taylor. Let's think about it for a moment." Mom stopped me.

"What are you talking about Bitch, get me down now. Or you'll come to regret it." Alabaster threatened.

I turned back to him at hearing him insulting Mom, hot anger lacing my veins. Iron Rain acted upon it. She created a ball of black liquid metal that splashed against his mouth, sealing it shut. The recognition in his expression at seeing this power didn't escape me.

Mom stepped in front of me, gaining my attention.

"Taylor, I don't think we should let him get away. The risk it possesses for yours and Danny's safety is just too great." She pleaded.

"I don't understand," I mumbled, she couldn't mean...

"Oh, but I think you do," she said with emphasis.

"I know you saw his reaction to Iron Rain. He saw you kill this creature, which he and his goons couldn't do anything against it. Dammit, Taylor, he saw your face and heard your name!"

I winced at her outburst. She paused and ran her hand through her hair to calm herself.

"There is no way that the Empire after they hear from him what took place here, won't act on it. I'm sure in the beginning they will try to recruit you, smooth talk you into it. But failing that, when it becomes clear you won't join their cause, they will try to eliminate you. You are simply far too dangerous to ignore. That is why we have to kill him to keep you safe; there is just no other way."

"No, I won't do it," I screamed at her. "I'm not a killer." I followed up my outburst.

Realizing as I said it that it wasn't true I already killed; in self-defense. But that didn't change the fact that I had blood on my hands and denying it wouldn't help.

"Taylor" mom tried to get my attention but I just ignored her and tried to turn away. That was when she grabbed my shoulder and sternly urged me to listen to what she had to say.

"Taylor! This is no time to let your emotions control you. You aren't a kid, so stop acting like one, focus, and use your brain, think about it. What is the most likely scenario to happen, if you let him go."

I thought about what she said, and no matter how much I hated it, she was right. Believing that the Empire wouldn't act one way or the other with the information they learned about me should I let him go was just wishful thinking on my part, and I wasn't just endangering myself but also Dad. I couldn't allow them or anybody else to hurt him, not for things I did.

I balled my fingers into a fist. I knew I had to do it, but why was it so hard to accept it. Damn, I turned around my decision made and walked up to him. Given what I `saw´ him survive, I doubted there was anything short of the Abyss capable to put him down for good. I raised my hand with every inch it got closer to him, Alabaster wriggling against his restraints became more frantic. I was about to touch him when my mother softly touched my wrist.

"Let me try something first," she said, "if it doesn't work out the way I expect it to, you can go ahead."

I hesitated for a moment but ultimately relented.

Following this, she stepped forward and touched him. Within seconds there was a notable change in his bearing. If he was fearful before, I didn't know what to call it he was feeling now.

Meanwhile, Mom was just standing there thinking, no concentrating. Whatever she was doing, indicated by her lips forming a small smirk she was successful. She turned around and touched me. Her touch was completely different from than previous one. It was accompanied by a strange feeling of something invading me by opening myself to the Abyss. I couldn't help but notice that there was now a shard within me.

Two tethers were connected to it, both leading to Mom. The stronger one of them both ended there, and the weaker one lead to an essence.

This tether was barely even there, which made a certain amount of sense. If this was the representation of who had access to a power, then it being stolen meant it must be tethered more strongly to the thief for him to subvert the power and subsequently be able to use it.

Besides, since mom's power didn't allow for a permanent theft, it makes it necessary to suppress or weaken the connection to the original owner of the power, thereby prioritizing the connection she generated. Until now, I couldn't reach for the shard when she stole one, too deeply embedded in her unreachable for the Abyss, but apparently, something had changed.

She gifted me with the power. The only way I could see for that to be possible was that by combining her with the other cape she gained the ability to transfer stolen powers to others.

It had to mean exactly that. How else could it be explained what just happened otherwise? This represented a chance I didn't think possible. If the connection of the shard to its original owner was weakened, for it to be barely existent, I might be able to sever it and only absorb the shard and not the essence connected to it. This might be exactly what I needed to save Dad.

I allowed the Abyss to reach for the Shard connected to me. It greedily reached out for it, embraced it. I could sense how a wisp of it was following along both tethers. I focused on the thin strand leading to Alabaster and tried to keep it in check, doing my very best in getting it to abandon following it to its source.

The Abyss fought against my will, lusting for more. I increased my efforts, my focus not willing to budge to compromise. The Abyss is mine to command and not the opposite!

Suddenly the tether tore apart, and the connection was severed. The shard was free and was consumed without any further attachment by the Abyss. It was absorbed, leaving the essence of Alabaster untouched.

"It worked," I exclaimed with overflowing happiness.

Mom smiled at me.

"That's great Taylor."

"Yeah, it is thanks, Mom. I never would have noticed this being possible without you." I praised.

"Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you would have, given time. You are my daughter, after all."

She said, smiling.

I couldn't help but feel joy at the prospect of being able to help Dad. It outweighed every other emotion I felt in the last few minutes. But that wasn't all the goodthat stemmed from this. It also had the side effect of there being a body of Alabaster. It wasn't the ideal outcome, but better than the alternative with no corpse of the cape indicating some kind of foul play or kidnapping. Sure I could convert the dead, including what was left of Alabaster into Shades. Eliminating their bodies in the process, but that would still have left all the battle scars and would have garnered this incident even more attention than it is bound to get.

A short mental order to Iron Rain and parts of the railing pierced through Alabaster's torso, and head killing him instantly. I wasn't willing to see him die a prolonged death. I then took my time to destroy what was left of him thoroughly. Perhaps by nearly destroying his body making his identification by mundane means near impossible, it might serve to obfuscate the cause of death for those finding this scene.

They might conclude that he was just damaged above the threshold his power could manage to bring him back from and died this way, instead of outright suspecting a trump at work.

Iron Rain removed the metal she used to gag him and encircled my waist like a belt with it. She then levitated the metal and me over all the blood and corpses outside of the warehouse.

This way I wouldn't leave any evidence of my presence like footprints behind. I landed safely outside and unsummoned Iron Rain and Mom.

I didn't want to waste any more time and started to run. There was a patient awaiting my visit.

Authors Note:

The cemetery Taylor visited to reanimate her new Shades is the biggest cemetery of Brockton Bay (not the only one). She only got 12 capes out of it for a few reasons, number one she needs the original bodies to be intact to a certain degree, (decomposition in a coffin doesn't allow the bodies to degrade below the threshold for her power to be applicable) but other rituals to lay the bodies of the dead to rest do.

The predominant ritual to that effect being cremation. Then there are a few other factors to consider, namely killing a cape is a violation of the Unwritten rules, therefore most guilty of this transgression try to obfuscate this fact. Especially the Empire wanting to be seen as the Enforcer of those rules. That is why they, of course, have to abide by them, at least in the eye of the public. Meaning most gangs make sure after they killed a cape for there to be no remains to be found, especially not allowing it to be linked to them.

(so far, in the story, Iron Rain – would be a good example of a cape vanishing without her being buried in a graveyard... there are others, a whole lot of others, who shared the same fate)

This makes some of the statistics regarding cape-death and the survival rate of independent capes rather inconclusive in a way because the PRT assumes every cape without a team not being seen or heard from longer than six months is presumed dead.

The Power of Heith Anders aka Freya (wife of Kaiser and mother of Theo) was altered for this fiction. I'm aware that canonically she possessed a power similar to that of Menja and Fenja them being closely related and all (the shard budding...). But their powers seem to be next to exact copies of each other even New Wave had more variety than theirs, which is the reason I changed it. Some other reasons played part in this decision, which will get revealed later on in the story... but this chapter already hinted quite hard at what it might be. I'm confident most of you will draw the right conclusion – I won't either confirm, nor deny any theories at this point though :)

As you could already see in this chapter, some powers can evolve the Abyss to incorporate certain criteria in itself but not all – the reason that not all powers are able to do that is simply owed to my apparent lack of imagination -

I have some limiting conditions for what those "enhancements" are allowed to do. Mostly, I want to preserve Taylor as Master with a sidedish of Darkness/Shadow control, which means the evolution should somehow be applied to her minions.

Unfortunately, for most powers, doing this and following the rules I set is not an easy feat without them being near-exact knock-offs of their progenitor power, which is something I try to avoid as much as possible. This simply means if I can't come up with something that fits those criteria regarding a power she got her hands on, it won't evolve the Abyss.

I'm inclined, should I come up with something that fit a power Taylor already made her own at a later date, to include it in the story.

In which way I'm not sure, it could be either she just discovers it later for some reason, or I might even go back and retcon parts of the story since the second option can be quite complicated and intensive work I would rather not do it. The best way to avoid it would be if you (the readers) would share some ideas regarding what powers could evolve the Abyss in the confines of those rules, it would solve this problem before it even becomes one. Oh, and if you have some ideas regarding Para-human powers, I would be interested to hear them, I can't promise anything, but there is a chance some of those might make it into the story.

The in the chapter mentioned surveillance system responsible for the E88 to appear is, for now, an undefined Para-human power, if you were wondering.

The creature who attacked was Crawler. He partook in an Endbringer fight that occurred somewhere adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean (there isn't a complete list of all the Endbringer attacks... and I don't want to be specific at this point, of exactly where the attack took place... probably won't even matter for the story...), he might or might not have been blasted into the sea by the Endbringer after he just wouldn't stay down and then decided (after it was over and he was prevented by said Endbringer from rejoining the fight) to swim all the way back home to reunite with the S9.

Where he just so happened to run into Taylor... since he constantly evolves and comes directly from an Endbringer fight, in which he took considerable damage, resulting in a greatly changed appearance neither Taylor nor her mother were able to identify him. (Furthermore, it is doubtful the PRT/Protectorate go out of their way to publicize up-to-date pictures of them. Because the continued existence of such a group is a constant reminder of their incompetence in eliminating this threat). Annette might have a suspicion since she got a (short) look at his aura... but she, at this point, isn't certain about it.

Since I'm sure there are gonna be questions regarding this – here a few obscure answers to Crawler's participation in an Endbringer attack (at the moment, I don't wanna get more concrete). The S9 was in a major city with a Protectorate presence, when the Endbringer alarms were sounded. (at this point, they didn't make their presence known)

Since this was a rare chance for participating in an Endbringer fight

Crawler, who at that particular moment wasn't with the others of the S9 decided to go for it. He made his way to the rallying point, and since the truce was in effect and no one present was keen on breaking it or interested in trying their hands in killing him, Strider took him there with all the other Defenders... with probably more than one hoping he wouldn't return...