Dragons, Decay, and Too Many Legs 14 (Taylor Interlude) (Patreon)

Taylor did her best to ignore the continued whispers surrounding her as the school day went on. Sophia had vanished, but that didn’t mean that Emma let up on the bullying. The thing that had changed the most was the freshman girl (Kayde, Taylor thought her name was) that seemed to have decided to attach herself to Taylor. Emma tried her usual bullshit on Kayde, but to both Emma and Taylor’s surprise, the would-be target just laughed.

“You think having some brainless idiots eating out of the palm of your hand makes you a big deal?” Kayde had asked, before shaking her head and chuckling the rest of the day.

That, more than Sophia’s disappearance, had taken Emma’s focus off Taylor. Taylor had expected Kayde to laugh off Emma’s bullying, only to break down once the older girl had driven any possible friends or support from her. Only, that’s not what happened.

Somehow, Kayde had seemingly dozens of other students, in all years, watching her back. Attempts at the petty shit that Emma and her cronies had done to Taylor had someone else taking care of it before it reached Kayde, while other girls started retaliatory rumors about Emma and her cronies.

It was the second week of February that Taylor realized what the people backing Kayde all had in common. All of them were asian. Which made Taylor wonder if Kayde was connected to the ABB. It would make sense, given how quickly the asian students moved to support her.

That, more than anything, was what made Taylor reluctant to have anything to do with Kaede. So whenever the other girl sat with her at lunch, Taylor ignored her. Which was every day. But you can only ignore someone for so long before your resolve breaks, and halfway through February Taylor cracked, and had an inconsequential conversation with Kayde over lunch. Taylor wasn’t the most skilled at reading people, but there was a strange energy to her. She seemed… both nervous and happy at the same time? Whatever it was, Taylor wasn’t comfortable just asking the younger girl, so she did her best to ignore it.

Then there was the impromptu sleepover, followed by the gang cape that tried to recruit her when she was still in the hospital carrying her father home. The reveal that the almost feral looking cape lived with the girl that was quite possibly highly connected with the city’s pan-asian gang threw Taylor for a loop. She’d been certain that he’d been trying a soft sell for the Merchants, possibly in an attempt to make a coup against Skidmark, but there’s no way he’d be part of the Merchants if he was living with a woman who was high ranked in the ABB.

Kayde had mentioned that her father had died recently, so her mother being connected was the only thing that made sense. That feral cape (Taylor still didn’t have his name) clearly wasn’t asian, didn’t fit the Empire, so that only left the Merchants.

Ignoring the confusing cape that had tried to recruit her into some gang, there were rumors that she’d overheard at Winslow about the ABB having a sudden surge in cape numbers. The rumors couldn’t agree on what the source was, but the most popular one was that they’d managed to find a cape like Teacher, only one that granted Brute powers instead of Tinker or Thinker ones.

Then, shortly after Kayde invited herself to a sleepover at Taylor’s house, new rumors started speaking of yet another cape in the ABB’s roster. One that had some sort of weaponized shadow powers. There hadn’t been any official announcements (or as close to official as the cape gangs got, anyway), but the rumors were consistent enough that Taylor was inclined to believe them.

It was maybe two weeks after the sleepover, at the end of February, that Emma seemed to give up on Kayde and returned her focus back onto Taylor. The reprieve had been nice, but some part of Taylor had known that it was too good to last.

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“C’mon, get her!” the voice of one of the Winslow jocks shouted, and Taylor lowered her torso to try to pick up more speed.

Emma had somehow talked a group of jocks into chasing her after school, and Taylor was putting the jogging she’d been doing before school each day to work. Unfortunately, jogging for an hour a day for a few weeks doesn’t match up with months of dedicated effort to an athletic pursuit, and whatever Emma had offered was clearly enough to keep them focused on her instead of chasing her a bit then letting her go.

The breath was knocked from Taylor’s lungs as something hard slammed into her back, nearly bowling her over as a pair of arms wrapped around her. She was lifted up into the air, and Taylor swung her arm down, the bony part of her wrist slamming into something soft and squishy, while at the same time her glasses fell from her face. The jock that had grabbed her, for what else could it be, let out a bellow of pain, but the grip around her simply tightened, forcing even more air from her lungs.

“Tie her up!” the jock holding her shouted, and multiple hands soon had Taylor’s wrists and ankles wrapped in duct tape. “Fucking bitch nearly put out my eye.”

The jocks argued over her, and from her spot on the ground, Taylor felt out the bugs in her range. Once they left, she’d have some of her swarm come and eat the tape holding her and get her glasses. That was her plan, until two key things happened. The first was her bugs sensed someone moving through them to her location, the second was the jock that had caught her reaching down and picking her up by the back of her jeans.

He couldn’t be thinking… Taylor’s fears were realized as her legs were forced under her, even as another jock kept her shoulders pressed against the ground. To hell with waiting, Taylor immediately called her swarm to her, pulling every bug in her range as hard as she could to protect her.

“What the shit?!” the jock who had his foot on Taylor’s legs behind her knees shouted as dozens of flies flew into his face, even as roaches swarmed to her wrists and ankles in order to free her.

“She’s a cape!” another jock shouted as he fell back on his butt and scurried away.

“Y̷o̴u̷ ̷s̸u̸r̴e̴ ̷a̶b̷o̸u̷t̸ ̴t̸h̸a̸t̵?̸” a raspy, almost demonic voice said from the entrance to the alley. Everyone, Taylor included, turned to look. Without her glasses, all Taylor could make out was a blurry shape of whites and reds, while the jocks all seemed to recoil. The shape shifted, and said some gibberish before a beam of black and green light shot from them and slammed into the jock holding down Taylor’s shoulders.

“E̸s̸m̷i̴ ̵a̸g̸h̶a̸r̴,” the strange cape intoned, and another jock immediately took off running, screaming at the top of his lungs. Another beam, and the last of the jocks fled. Taylor pulled at the duct tape, but her cockroaches hadn’t managed to eat enough that she could break them, so as the cape approached her, Taylor formed a wall of bugs between her and them. “S̷o̷r̷r̶y̴ ̴I̶'̸m̴ ̶l̵a̶t̵e̷,̶ ̸I̴ ̵c̷o̴u̴l̵d̴n̸'̷t̶ ̴f̵i̸n̴d̴ ̵m̶y̵ ̴s̴h̶o̴r̴t̷s̵.̵ H̴e̷r̵e̷,̷ ̴l̸e̸t̴ ̶m̴e̸ ̷h̵e̴l̴p̶ ̴y̸o̸u̴ ̶g̵e̴t̶ ̵t̶h̴o̷s̵e̵ ̶o̵f̵f̸.̷”

Taylor blinked as the cape, seemingly unbothered by the mass of bugs, walked through the wall she’d made and began unwrapping the tape around her wrists. In a matter of moments, her hands were free, and Taylor reached down to free her feet as well. Now to find…

“H̴e̷r̵e̷,̷” the cape said as Taylor’s glasses were pressed into her hands. Taylor immediately put them on, and looked upon the cape that had helped her.

Taylor’s eyes widened in shock and horror, and she fell back on her butt as she instinctively recoiled. The cape was wearing a white and red costume with bows, frills, and a skirt, but the body under it was something out of a nightmare. The skin was a pallid gray, their head was offset by a massive mushroom bursting out from where the neck met their shoulder, black, greasy hair dangled limply, half covering their glassy right eye, their limbs were gangly and almost skeletal, and the entire left side of their face were covered in a myriad of different varieties of mushrooms.

“O̷h̴,̷ ̴s̶o̴r̴r̶y̷.̴ ̸I̸ ̸f̵o̶r̴g̶o̸t̴ ̴t̶o̴ ̷l̵e̷t̶ ̴i̸t̶ ̴g̵o̷,” the cape said, before the various horrifying features began fading. Limbs filled out, hair gained a healthy sheen, and the multitude of mushrooms fell off.

“Kayde?” Taylor asked in shock as she recognized the person behind the mask.

The freshman girl that had forced her presence into Taylor’s life smiled, “Like I said, sorry I was late. So your power’s controlling bugs? That’s so useful.”

“Wha? How? You’re a cape?!” Taylor all but babbled, her brain still processing the fact that Kayde had powers.

“Yes, I’m a cape,” Kayde affirmed, before looking around. “This really isn’t the best place for this conversation, come on, let’s get someplace safer to talk. There’s a dive bar not too far that’s neutral territory.”

“Neutral between who?” Taylor couldn’t resist asking, even as Kaede helped the taller girl to her feet.

“The gangs, New Wave, PRT, everyone with even a single cape in their group. It’s where most of the Cowls are hired by different groups. Just be aware that this place isn’t exactly particularly… upscale?”

Taylor raised an eyebrow, but let Kayde lead her to a rundown looking place with the words ‘Somer’s Rock’ in faded bold letters in the windows. As the two of them entered, Kayde whispered to Taylor, “While we’re here, do not use my name. Only call me Senshi, understood?”

Taylor nodded, and the two high school girls entered the bar. The inside was just as depressing as the outside, and Kay…Senshi led them to a closed off corner booth in the back. An annoyed looking waitress came up and handed them a pair of menus before walking away.

“The staff here’s all deaf,” Senshi told Taylor. “So when she comes back, point to what you want, and I don’t recommend getting any food. The drinks are pretty safe though.”

“Thanks,” Taylor said distractedly. She wasn’t planning on ordering food here anyway, not with the amount of cockroaches she was sensing in the kitchen. “So… you’re a cape?”

She nodded, setting down her menu, “For two-three weeks now. I didn’t get them the same way you did, but I’m a lot more limited in the scale of what I can affect.”

“What exactly are your powers?” Taylor asked. “I saw you shooting some sort of energy blast and there was that Changer form you had.”

Senshi took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair before pausing as the waitress returned. The two girls placed their orders, she took them and the menus, before she continued, “The answer’s a bit complicated. I mentioned I didn’t get my powers the same way you did? My powers also follow a different internal logic. I’m more like a witch than a standard parahuman. The one who taught me my powers is the same way, though his powers manifest differently.

“But enough about me, you are a cape. What do you want to do with your powers? From everything I’ve heard, Trigger-Capes can’t avoid using their powers, just having them implants a need to do something with them.”

Taylor leaned back in the booth, picking up her lemonade after the waitress brought it to their table. She knew the answer, but if what she suspected was true, she’d be outing herself to a member of one of the city’s major gangs. But, Senshi already knew she was a cape, had figured out her power, and to be blunt had been the closest thing she’d had to a friend ever since coming back from summer camp after her mother died. “I want to be a hero.”

Senshi nodded, “Okay, do you need help contacting the Wards or…”

“No,” Taylor snapped, more harshly than she intended. “Sorry, no. I don’t want to be brushed aside and brought out for photo ops. I want to make a difference, to make the city safer.”

“Alright,” Senshi easily agreed. “I can ask Ophioc to get in touch with the person who made my costume, and we can have one made for you. While he’s working on that, we can help you get into better shape and learn some parkour and self defense. Your bugs will be your primary avenue of fighting, but knowing how to handle yourself long enough to escape if that fails is important.”

Taylor blinked, “You have that much pull? And you’ll help me even though I don’t want to join?”

“It’s more that Ophioc has the pull, and I know how to talk to him. And why wouldn’t I? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Taylor wanted to snap, to shout, to say that no, they weren’t friends. But she didn’t. She couldn’t, not with the look of genuine confusion on Kayde’s face behind the domino mask. As if her helping Taylor, being friends with the awkward, gangly teen, was as obvious as water being wet and the sky being blue. Taylor swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. How long had it been since someone had been in her corner like that?

“I…” Taylor took a drink of her lemonade to wet her suddenly dry mouth. “Thank you. I… just, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Senshi said with a smile. “I’ll talk to Ophioc about it as soon as he gets back.”

“‘Back’? Back from where?”

“When the siren went off this morning, he volunteered along with the Brute Squad,” Senshi said, her normally ever present peppiness being replaced with worry. “He said that he’d be on Search and Rescue, that his powers weren’t at the level that he can contend with an Endbringer, but I can’t help but worry.”

Feeling awkward, Taylor hesitantly reached across the table and took Senshi’s hand in her own, her thumb rubbing across the back of the younger girl’s palm. The soft, grateful smile sent a flood of butterflies fluttering through her stomach.