Chapter Text
AN: Second Arc, yay, took me a while to cycle back to this…binge watching Crash Landing on you made me remember this fic, I recommend it.
A cottage in the woods.
For most, it was simply that, a temporary getaway from the hustle and bustle of the big cities and into nature. A primal connection, that modernity did not offer sufficient replacements for. Usually, those were reserved for people who could afford such a thing, having multiple homes was a luxury not at all common for working-class families such as Taylor’s own. However, that did not stop her from dreaming about it, surrounded on all sides by a lush forest along with a garden filled with plants that could fill up all the colours of a rainbow.
Most importantly, however, Taylor was not alone. Within the tranquil environment of their cottage, of stone walls and handcrafted wood furniture, she was with a very familiar person. Turning to the blonde woman beside her, Taylor took a simple glance at her, and by that simple act alone she felt completely fine as if her mere presence guaranteed all would be fine.
Taylor looked back at her garden, butterflies had arrived in their garden now. A smile gracing her face, she looked back at her partner, only to see butterfly wings. Her entire vision was covered with one pair of large butterfly wings, coloured in a radiant royal blue. They were attached to the blonde woman’s back, and she was standing up, still looking away from Taylor.
The winged woman then turned around, looking exactly the same as her partner only with the addition of pointed ears. Bringing up a finger to her lips, she made a ‘shush’ gesture to Taylor, before flicking her on the forehead.
Once again, Taylor awoke, startled.
“Jeanne!”
Gone was the cottage in the woods, instead replaced by her regular old room in Brockton Bay. This was the second dream she has had since Jeanne arrived, and so far they were all very interesting to say the least. Oh, who was she kidding? She knew why they were happening, but her heart or mind refused to acknowledge it, but the incident at Winslow yesterday made it extremely hard for her to ignore it now.
Wobbling out of bed and down into her living room, she came upon a peculiar sight. Dad was right next to an expensive-looking coffee machine, one she was sure they couldn’t afford by any means.
“Hey there kiddo, wanna try a cup? I know you’re still young but a cup made from this thing won’t hurt. Guarantee it’ll be better than the stuff I usually get.”
Taylor was not a big coffee person, as fifteen-year-olds seldom were. Though that was beside the point, she walked closer to it, inspecting the chrome-plated machine with suspicion.
“...didn’t you say that coffee machines were for pretentious people?”
“Yes, but this is an Italian import, and is worth every penny.” Wasn’t shipping across the Atlantic prohibitively expensive? Ever since Leviathan wrecked a bunch of port cities international trade moved towards land routes more and more often, which meant stuff usually shipped through the seas was much more expensive.
“Besides, I didn’t exactly pay for it, Jeanne did. I just took her advice.”
What?
Taylor turned around, and there Jeanne was, sipping away at her own small cup of coffee. The events of yesterday flashed in her mind, and a bright pink blush found its way onto her face.
“Forgive me, but if I had to endure your father’s coffee pot for any longer I would have gone insane. Don’t worry, it is yours to keep, I am simply using it for the duration of my stay.”
Well, if Jeanne was the one who bought it, that was fine. Besides, her Dad was also apparently fine with it, so no harm done, right?
“This is the girl who you have taken an interest in? She doesn’t seem like much, doesn’t she?”
From behind her, Taylor then heard another voice, this time belonging to a man with a deep and very obvious British accent. The last time she checked, the only accents that should be in her house were the New Englander ones and Jeanne’s French accent. Slowly turning around, bugs at the ready, Taylor was greeted by…an owl?
“What? Never seen an owl talk before? What manner of sheltered are you?”
No, she was not hallucinating. The owl, as big as a household cat and coloured completely in white, was indeed talking to her while perched on the living room clothes hanger.
“Dad? There’s a talking owl on our hanger.”
“Ask your friend about it.” Dad didn’t even look up from his morning newspaper as he replied. Turning to Jeanne, she had just finished her own cup of coffee.
“Don’t mind Bartholomew too much, Taylor. There are not many people he likes, if at all.”
“I hate that name, please do not ever call me that again.”
“Yet you accepted the contract with that name, I can’t change it now!”
Was this a fever dream? Did Jeanne bitch-slapping Emma cause her to short-circuit? Taylor’s daze was cut short by Jeanne now literally in front of her, still wearing her nightgown. She was looking respectfully, honest.
“I sense indecent thoughts in that one.” Taylor damn near lunged for the owl, her shade of pink now fully bright red. Her actions were only stopped by Jeanne placing both her hands on Taylor’s shoulders.
“I believe an explanation is in order. I have not entirely been forthright about mine abilities, though I am sure you must have already known from yesterday’s bank heist video.”
Oh yes, Taylor watched the shaky phone recording that was posted onto Capetube…eleven times? God, the way she just swooped in there to save Panacea of all people…she would have loved to be there but she was still a minor, and school unfortunately took priority. Besides, from what Jeanne said it was entirely an accident that she even ran into the bank robbery. Though there was the weird way Panacea was acting towards Jeanne that she was suspicious about, the comments on the video however chalked it up to shock. Still, perhaps if they do somehow meet again Taylor should be there, you know, just to keep an eye on things.
Jeanne, or rather Marchioness, was a true hero. Forget Armsmaster, she was being tutored by her directly! But in her attempts to find info about her online Taylor found nothing about her. Considering the language barrier however and the fact that most of PHO was North American it didn’t come as a surprise, she may have just been famous wherever she was from in Europe.
“Bartholomew-”
“By Oberon’s balls if you call me that again-”
“Barty is a summon of mine. Similar to the ‘pixies’ that you saw counting our spoils from those Merchant labs.”
Jeanne actually had a similar Master power to Taylor’s own. Only instead of real living insects and the like, she could summon things that really looked like fairies. Though they were products of Parahuman powers, Taylor swore they had a mind of their own as she saw their disgruntled expressions while counting their money. Taylor felt bad for them but Jeanne said to ignore them, it wasn’t her power so she followed along. With the owl, however…
“Summoning the fair folk for counting mortal currency, never have I seen such an insult to our kind…” The owl muttered, causing Jeanne to lightly whack it in the back.
“Pay him no heed. Barty here will be helping me manage affairs, and thus will be living in our-sorry, your house for the time being. Your father has no issue with this.”
Taylor glanced back at the brand-new coffee machine and at her father, who dug deeper into the morning newspaper he was reading. So much for union solidarity…
“Oh, and one more thing, you might want to know the other friends in your house right now.”
Jeanne clapped twice, and out of nowhere three pixies that Taylor had seen before landed on her head and shoulders respectively. They were similar to that old Tinker Bell movie she watched as a child, only much more colourful and bright. A bit too bright actually, so much so that Taylor had to squint.
“You’ve met them before but I shall introduce them again. The red one is Trillium. The green one is Thymus. And the blue one is Tulipa. Think of the three as…home guardians, as they watch over your house when no one is at home.”
The three of them began flying in circles around Taylor, giggling to each other while speaking in what sounded to her as gibberish. Suddenly, Jeanne reached out and stopped Trillium from continuing to circle around Taylor, literally holding her in a grip.
“A word of advice when dealing with pixies. Always reaffirm the difference in status between them, or otherwise I may not be able to guarantee any adverse effects. Do keep that in mind, ma chérie.”
Letting her go, Trillium had a grumpy look on her face before disappearing, the other two pixies following suit shortly thereafter. Despite the literal fantasy fairies appearing, Taylor still had to ask if they were going to do anything beyond what was acceptable, her knowledge of fairies may not have been great, but she was still knowledgeable enough to know that fairies aren’t quite the harmless creatures modern media liked to depict them as. Courtesy of the books her mother left behind of course.
“They aren’t gonna spirit anyone away or lead people to their deaths right? I really don’t want to go to court over a robber or someone being sent to Tír na nÓg and unable to get them back…”
For some reason, Jeanne stiffened for a second before waving her off. “Oh don’t worry about that, they can’t do anything remotely similar, what a vivid imagination you have.”
Now that felt oddly similar to one of Emma’s verbal tactics, but before Taylor could think about it anymore Jeanne quickly changed the subject.
“Anyways, with that out of the way should we talk about our plans for today? I believe it is Saturday, thus meaning you do not have school. Or am I mistaken?”
Taylor quickly shook her head, Winslow being the last thing on her mind right now.
“C’est parfait! Then that means we can move onto the other part of heroing now, public appearances!”
Taylor looked at Jeanne with a dumbfounded expression. So far, the ‘lessons’ Jeanne had for her included very useful things. Such as fighting, picking fights, cape etiquette and other generally useful skills a solo cape would need to know. Those things could also have been learned in the PRT, but she had her own reasons for not joining them, and Jeanne respected that. However, her suggestion of a ‘public appearance’ was…not quite what Taylor had in mind when she decided to take the up the mask.
“Wha-but, you mean going to the boardwalk and posing for photos with tourists?! Isn’t that what the Wards do? Why do we have to so something stupid like that?!”
Jeanne had no reaction, seemingly having expected an answer like that already.
“Because, I will not be here forever. Once I am gone, what will happen to Skitter? Right now you are under my tutelage, and yet, you have not revealed yourself even once to the wider public, let alone to other Capes.”
That made Taylor wince, both at the reminder that Jeanne was only here for a vacation, and also that their outings so far were all stealthily done, other than Jeanne herself and Dad, no one else knew of ‘Skitter’ existing. Well, maybe some drugged-out Merchants but those didn’t really count. Compared to Jeanne’s bombastic public appearance for the first time in the Bay, which had well over five million views by now, Skitter may as well have been nothing.
“You will eventually have to be known to the public, and I want to ensure ‘Skitter’ has a good reputation in this city before I leave. One of the hardest parts of any new Cape starting out is the beginning, what is said about you will often decide the rest of your career, if you don’t believe me then ask your father.”
Taylor, still not quite convinced, looked behind to her Dad, who only nodded at Jeanne’s words. “She’s not wrong. I remember back in the 80s when Capes first started showing up Vikare had a bad rep, being a ‘dangerous vigilante’ and everything associated with that. Wasn’t until he died in 89’ that people remembered all the good he did, damn shame it took someone clubbing him to death for it to happen though.”
“And coupled with your powers not being particularly…friendly to most people, it is better to remove all doubts from the public in the beginning than to slowly build trust, this I know from experience.”
Thinning her lips, Jeanne’s words were sincere enough that she began shifting uncomfortably, as anyone did when they began to realize they may have been wrong.
“B-but, my image…”
“Even the most broody of heroes do have to show their face in public every so often. Just like…like…” Jeanne’s face scrunched ever so slightly, she would be a very dangerous opponent to fight against in poker, “...Alexandria…” .
Despite Jeanne appearing to be in pain while saying Alexandria, Taylor realized she had a point. Alexandria, the heroine she had looked up to since young, had the image of a stalwart, no-nonsense Cape to her image which resulted in fewer media appearances than someone like Legend did. Hell, she probably only did around half a dozen television talk show interviews throughout her entire career, while other Capes from her generation had dozens. As much as she didn’t want to deal with the public, Jeanne unfortunately, had a very good point.
“Alright! Fine, do I need to know anything or are you just gonna throw me into the wolves’ den?”
Jeanne chuckled for a moment before replying. “No, Taylor, I will be coaching you before appearing, which is why we have this morning today. Come on, I’ve prepared some lines you can say when introducing yourself…”
Looking over behind her, Taylor could see a small stack of little cue cards, all neatly written in cursive and with all the flair someone of royalty could only manage. Before she could sigh however, a thought came to her, and she voiced it out loud.
“Wait a minute, isn’t the PRT trying to find you?”
At least, that was what the T.V. and PHO said last night…what were the PRT going to do with Marchioness now?
In the Protectorate headquarters, not the Rig that was their offshore base, Agent Marcus Langton, the one in charge of the ‘Princess’ case was currently heading up the elevator. Briefly checking his wristwatch, he confirmed it, he had been awake for over twenty-five hours by this point.
Why?
Because of two incidents yesterday that unfortunately had a direct connection to his case. So while every other agent went home after a few hours of overtime yesterday, he was ordered by the Director herself to find ‘Princess’, whose actual name was revealed to be Marchioness. Connection to the former Marquis aside, he and the other investigators put onto the case with him were leaning towards there being no connection. Hell, he had an entire team following his orders now, he’d be giddier about it if he wasn’t running on five cups of the strongest black tar he could find.
Stepping out of the elevator and into the sterile hallway, he made his way into conference room number six, where the Wards were waiting for him.
“Alright kiddos! I’m Agent Marcus Langton, the guy who is in charge of the ‘Princess’ case, we really should change the name now but we’re sticking with it. I’ll be in and out of your hairs in a flash, just need you to recount the events of yesterday from your perspective, might reveal something we missed in our analysis.”
The bank robbery yesterday resulted in significant property damage, an entire street cordoned off, Wards engaging a villainous team without Protectorate member support and a blow to the PRT’s reputation. Not that the last one happened all too scarcely but it was generally good to avoid them.
The Wards gathered looked at each other, the ones who were actually present for the fight shifting around uncomfortably, Kid Win in particular looking down at the table. Marcus couldn’t blame him, it was his shot that threatened to turn Panacea into a modern glass art piece, even if it was technically because a dog hung off of his flying surfboard. Taking a deep breath, he really didn’t have experience dealing with kids or teenagers but he could damn well try.
“Don’t worry, none of you are in trouble, Piggot probably gave all of you an earful yesterday so you don’t have to worry about me snitching. Right now I just need some info on Marchioness. Does anything about her stand out to you?”
Thankfully, the silence did not continue much longer, Aegis raised his hand up first. “This ain’t a classroom, Aegis, just speak up.”
“Uh, right, Sir-I mean-”
“Just call me Marcus, calling me Sir makes me feel old.”
“R-right, Marchioness intervened in the bank robbery incident yesterday, and was very skilled. Almost like if she was a veteran Protectorate Hero if I’m being honest.”
Marcus nodded, the recording they pulled from Kid Win and the brave civvies recording the fight on their smartphones proved as such. A new cape shouldn’t have that level of control and skill over how they acted, not to mention that dramatic flair she had was practised, almost like Mouse Protector’s own trademark persona.
“Good observation, now this is all preliminary but we assume Marchioness is a foreign Hero, most likely in Europe, probably France or other French-speaking parts of it. We’re combing through our foreign Hero records but so far her name has not come up, might be because she is a small-time Cape or our records just aren’t up to par.” While the PRT did keep tabs on foreign Heroes, especially those coming into the States for vacations and conferences every so often, it was usually the State Department that kept a detailed list of foreign capes for some reason. Langton already put in the request, but like everything with the feds, it was going to take a while.
“Anything else you can tell me? Powers, personality…no bad answers here.”
“She was hot? Yeow! Vista?!” Clockblocker began rubbing his knee, much to Vista’s satisfaction.
“Marchioness doesn’t need you perving on her you creep!”
“Oh come on, I was stating the obvious! PHO agrees with me, Aegis, Win, back me up here!”
“Well…”
“Her appearance is distinct enough…”
Langton sighed, in PHO right now Marchioness was number five on the best-dressed and best-appearance lists for the month of April. The picture she took with the Mayor posted onto PHO yesterday crediting her for rescuing his niece further added to her explosive fame. He didn’t even know how Marchioness knew Dinah Alcott was kidnapped, judging by the time difference she made a direct beeline to rescue her right after leaving the bank. The only evidence they found of a kidnapping however was a damaged minivan with tinkertech military equipment strewn around it, strangely absent of any signs of its owners. There weren’t even any obvious signs of fighting, nor any blood for that matter, as Cape fights tended to have.
Coil was the most likely suspect but again, they needed Marchioness to make a statement, one that she apparently already did, but to the BBPD. To say that Mayor Christener was less than pleased with the PRT was an understatement, hence why he was currently exhausting other avenues of finding that foreign Hero.
“Her appearance aside, which I will acknowledge is very iconic, did anything she did in the bank catch your attention? Like what she did, or rather, didn’t do to Panacea for example?”
“Wait, is she still in MS confinement? I thought she was cleared this morning?” Vista asked, she herself was not present for the bank heist along with Shadow Stalker, but were pulled into the meeting nonetheless.
Langton coughed. “Panacea was released an hour ago, we have confirmed there were never any effects to begin with. Gallant, something you might want to add?”
After all, it was Gallant who called in the MS team to the bank, much to Panacea’s and Glory Girl’s refusals, but an MS procedure was not something taken lightly, and thus off the healer went. For his part, the empath shrunk a bit further into his swivel chair, eager to not make eye contact with anyone.
“I have no comment, it’s not Parahuman related…it’s…nevermind.”
Langton clicked his tongue, he knew that part was a dead end butt had to ask just to make sure. “She had a lot of powers? Like, teleporting, summoning those butterflies, making a water shield…and a brute rating? I mean, jumping down from the roof of the bank is at least a Brute two, right?”
“We’ve noted she’s a grab bag already, maybe due to the theme of her powers, as I’m sure you already know from watching the video.” PHO nicknamed her a fantasy princess, only instead of the usual damsel in distress trope she was probably the one who went to fight the dragon. He saw Vista’s hand shoot up next, prompting him to wave at her to speak, didn’t he say there was no need to raise hands?
“Soooo, what’s the PRT gonna do with Marchioness? She didn’t break any laws, did she?”
“No, God no, you’re overthinking things. There’s usually a protocol for dealing with foreign Capes, most of the time they’re here for tourism and don’t even ping up on our radar. But every so often incidents like this happen, and it is a priority just to get in touch with them. Don’t worry, she’s still a Hero, we’re not going to lock her up for helping with a bank robbery.”
Vista had a visibly relaxed expression, “Oh, phew! I thought we were gonna arrest her for intruding or something…guess you were wrong huh Stalker? Stalker? You there? Hello?”
Shadow Stalker, who had remained silent throughout the entire meeting so far, suddenly jolted from Vista’s words. “Huh?! What? What’s going on?!”
“You weren’t responding, and I just asked you a question. You okay? You’ve been like this since this morning…”
Stalker brushed off those comments with a grunt. “Psh. Yeah, so what? Didn’t have much sleep last night. Is that something wrong for you too?”
Vista’s expression morphed from slight concern into a scowl. “The one time I care for you…never again…”
“Whatever. This meeting over or nah? Place is stuffy as hell.” Stuffy? The air-con was on at full blast, Langton chalked it up to the mask she was wearing. Checking his notes one more time for anything else that he wanted to bring up, and finding nothing, he sighed and proceeded to get up. After this, he was well and truly ‘done’ for the day, as he could now use this meeting as an excuse to get some rest after finding a dead end-
“Alright then, if no one else has anything to add, we’ll call it a day-”
“Uh, Marcus, my man? Marchioness was just spotted on the Boardwalk with an unknown Cape. This something you want to know?” Clockblocker held up his smartphone, showing a PHO post along with an image attached for him to see.
Marcus let out a defeated sigh, more overtime it was.
“Just smile and wave, Skitter, smile and wave…”
Swaying the public was easy and mind-numbingly tedious at the same time. Easy in the sense that the things you had to do to sway public opinion, such as hold speeches, rallies, and do some of the things you promised were all relatively simple, for Jeanne, who had a pretty face, it was even easier. Mind-numbingly difficult in the sense that the effort needed to keep doing those above-mentioned things was often astronomical, hearing about how her father swayed the support of the people in her kingdom was almost too much for a young Jeanne to handle.
Now, however? She was extremely glad to have paid attention in those classes, ethically very ambiguous, but its use right now was a godsend.
“S-shouldn’t we stop to sign autographs? I mean, a few of them are approaching us…”
“No, Skitter, we’re here on ‘patrol’ remember? Therefore, we must act like it, there will be a time when you will have to do things like that, but for now, just follow my lead.”
There was an art to public appearances, one that she had learned to great effect during her time at Saint Fontaine. As a Cape, appearing in public had to have a purpose, as they weren’t regular people out for grocery shopping or work, no, they were celebrities and public figures for lack of a better term. Thus, their every move, even down the smallest of things like buying a drink could be seen, and judged. Buy a particular brand of soda? Wrong, she’s actually advertising the drink at the behest of the soda company, help a homeless person by giving them money? A political statement on homelessness in America.
It may sound insane, but these were all real incidents Jeanne remembered from her old life as Weaver in the Chicago Wards. There was a reason why the PRT was often called a PR company first, and law enforcement agency second.
So, taking experience from PR stunts as Weaver and the skills she learned as Princess of Orléans, she devised a gentle, ‘first’ appearance for Skitter to be introduced. Sure, she was hogging most of the attention, but that was by design. The Taylor of this timeline would have been overwhelmed if she went out on her own like this, let alone even go out in public. What even was her original plan? If she remembered correctly, the original fight against Lung was literally an accident, and that singular act derailed whatever original plans she had and set her on the path of the villain known as ‘Skitter’.
That, Jeanne swore, would never come to pass here. Already, the deviations to what she knew were piling up, and with any luck, would be all under her plan. Her master plan, which she only had a vague idea of right now. Fun.
“Those Boardwalk enforcers are looking at us.” Taylor pointed out, causing Jeanne to turn her head in their direction as well. Damn, it had not been even half an hour since they started, she would have to think of alternate areas to go to…the Lord’s Market? Old distillery district? Where else could she-
“Hey there!” An easy-going voice behind them caught Jeanne’s attention and she turned around. For a brief moment, she had a huge hit of Deja Vu. The Cape that landed behind her was…Laser…something. Jeanne clearly remembered fighting alongside her during Leviathan, actually, now that she thought about it, she stuck with her for most of the fight, didn’t she? However, after the fighting happened and the truce was over, they went back to being supposed enemies with her being in New Wave and everything, not that Taylor ever saw her again afterwards.
“I’m Laserdream, wanted to say thanks for saving my cousin yesterday!”
Skitter clearly recognised who she was, judging by the small gasp she made inside her mask. Jeanne wasn’t expecting to deal with any other Capes today, though this seemed to be friendly enough, and as such decided to play along, especially now that they were being recorded.
“Ah, well met, Laserdream. Forgive me, but I am not familiar with the Heroes of Brockton Bay, though this place is not good for a talk like this…how about…the roof of that Krispy Kreme?”
Laserdream grinned before replying. “Race ya there!”
Jeanne didn’t need to bother, as soon as Laserdream took off into the air, she grabbed Taylor by the shoulder and activated a short-range teleporting aria, much to the amazement of the crowd formerly around them. Every so often it was nice to show off powers to the public, even decades after they first appeared many still likened them to actual magic, and in some ways, they were very similar.
Appearing in another bright flash on top of the roof, they made it there half a dozen seconds before Laserdream herself did, causing her to whistle. “Damn, Amy really wasn’t kidding about that whole teleporting thing huh?”
“A rudimentary ability, I’m sure your flight is much more useful for longer distances.”
Laserdream shrugged, “You’re not wrong, I save on having to get a car or anything to college. Though I do get motion sickness if I go too fast, I’d trade flight for teleporting in a heartbeat.”
Technically, Jeanne could fly, but that was for another time, not that the price she would have to pay be worth it even then.
“But flying is something dear to you, no? I don’t think trading it for anything else, even temporary will be of any benefit. Other Capes would love to fly, to soar through the skies freely like a bird.”
“Huh…never thought of it like that, always just lived with it y’know? Anyways, what was I gonna…oh yeah! So Amy, uh, Panacea went home this morning and started babbling about the whole thing, or rather my Aunt made her and she kept going on and on about you in particular.”
Jeanne nodded, considering that she did save her from a glass-related death mentioning her was bound to happen.
“So I saw a PHO post saying you were here and I was in the area so I thought why not check ya out? Gotta say, the pictures don’t do you justice, how do you even get your hair like that? It looks natural, but there’s no way, right? Right?”
It was because of her mixed ancestry but that was not something she could just blurb out. “Oh you know, maintenance, healthy diet…and also a special gel from my powers, I don’t really trust American salons for these things, no offense.”
She had an understanding expression. “Eh, fair enough. By the way, you know PHO went crazy over you, right? You went viral overnight, don’t read the banned comments, they’re not for the faint of heart.”
“That’s putting it mildly…” Taylor commented beside Jeanne, causing her to look at her younger self with confusion.
“It’s just the internet being what it is, ain't that right…sorry I didn’t catch your name?” Laserdream trailed off, looking at Skitter who had not introduced herself yet.
“I-it’s Skitter. It’s fine, I’m kinda used to it…” Jeanne gently nudged her on the shoulder, young Taylor was still very much a work in progress.
“Skitter…don’t think I’ve heard of you yet, ya new to caping?”
“I…uh…”
“Skitter here is new, yes, I’m mentoring the basics of caping to her while I am in Brockton Bay. This is her first public appearance as a nouveau hero, and as such I am ensuring she doesn’t get too…overwhelmed by the things being a cape entails.” One thing at a time, it had not been so long since Taylor had her first night out, gaining confidence was a gradual and constant affair.
“Oh for sure, yeah this stuff can be very overwhelming at times, you’re lucky y’know? Having someone experienced to take you through it, I had my parents cause’ New Wave but many independents don’t and sorta bumble through it. Judging by yesterday though, she knows how to handle herself, not just in PR, but also in ass-kicking. Speaking of, mind if I snap a quick selfie? Guarantee PHO will go wild, also get your name out to the world, you do need that, right?”
“I mean-if it’s not a bother-”
“An excellent idea! Come, Skitter, strike a pose.” Jeanne pulled her closer as Laserdream readied her camera, she could feel Skitter squirm a bit as they practically hugged each other. Adopting a pose meant for royal portraits, she was positioned at the back, Skitter in the middle, while Laserdream was of course, at the front.
“And…there we go. I’m sorta riding on the hype you made but no backsies now. Gonna send it to my cousin first, see what she’ll make of it…”
While Laserdream was doing that, Jeanne checked on Taylor again. “Everything alright?”
“Huh?! Uh, yeah, it’s just kinda surreal…”
Jeanne chuckled, she could remember the sensation. Actually robbing a bank, meeting with the Teeth…facing down the Slaughterhouse Nine…all of that was surreal to her past life, but now? It was just another day, which said a lot more about her life right now than anything else.
“Trust me, these things get easier over time.”
“Yep, what she said. If you think dealing with the public is bad you haven’t seen Paparazzi yet, when I triggered they hounded my high school like vultures. Actually, they probably were vultures, just in human form.”
She winced, vultures were certainly an apt term to describe some of them, as Weaver could certainly attest to.
“With that outta the way…you two hungry?” She held up a brown paper bag with oil stains dotted around it, some Japanese words printed on the front of it.
“I got some Takoyaki from the New Miyazaki district before I got the notification, it’s from a place I know so it’s pretty good…the flavour’s called Bakudan I think? It’s got some soda candy inside it, so it’s supposed to pop when you eat em-”
“I-I’ve heard of that store, it’s the one in the f*ckuoka market right?”
“Yep, you heard about it from that PHO stream right? Didn’t realize there was a whole market like that just in Brockton Bay-”
Jeanne tuned out their conversation, entirely focusing on the ‘Bakudan’. It took a few seconds, but just like Dinah Alcott yesterday, the memories of her past life hit her, and Jeanne realized she made a terrible mistake.
“Bakuda…”
Today was first day of her bombing campaign.
“See ya later, don’t hesitate to DM if you wanna hang out later!”
Crystal Pelham waved goodbye at Marchioness and Skitter, watching them as they teleported away in a small flash of blue light. While she would have loved for them to stay longer, and help her eat the Takoyaki she bought, Marchioness suddenly remembered that they had an errand to run and had to rush away. It was all good, Crystal herself often got so into talking with friends that she forgot to go to classes in her college.
Bzz Bzz Bzz Bzz
She felt her phone buzz, someone was calling her. Looking at the caller ID, she grinned at it before answering. While she expected Amy to ask her about it, she didn't expect a call this quickly.
“Hey~Amy, guess who I found on the boardwalk-”
“Who's that bi-person in the middle?”
“Eh?”
Crystal wasn't sure, but something told her gut that she'd just walked into something way worse than a Tinker's fortified lab…
“C'mon double time it! I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to!”
A resounding series of grunts sounded out through the old warehouse, completely covered in overgrowth from a near decade of neglect, currently occupied by her ABB grunts. Cindy Lau, also known as Bakuda, don't ask why she, a Chinese-American, had a Japanese Cape name. Well, it was simple really, it was cause of f*cking Lung, who was no longer with them.
Good f*cking riddance! Screw that guy, he thought he could press-gang her into the ABB and believe she'd just accept it?
If he was here, and behind ten feet of fireproof glass she had just one thing to say to him. Diu nei lo mo huum ga chaan!
She may not have known her mother tongue very well but that phrase she heard from her grandmother well enough to be seared into her mind. Cantonese, what a versatile language for insults…
Bakuda was just about to curse at her subordinates again before she noticed something odd. A blue butterfly, resting on the barrel of her homemade grenade launcher. Moving closer to inspect it, Bakuda recalled a fact about butterflies once buried deep in her mind, back to sixth-grade biology class, didn’t butterflies sleep during the night?
“Yuuka, what are you waiting for?! Get…moving…”
Cindy looked up, only to see that everyone in the warehouse stopped moving, not that they couldn’t move their upper bodies, but their legs were all bound by the f*cking grass! It curled up into their legs, stopping anyone from taking another step, and despite the efforts of a few with knives and machetes to hack through them, they remained as tightly bound as ever.
Bakuda scrambled up higher onto her crate filled with gold, klept from Beijing’s gold reserves during the civil war, her spot was graced to be relatively free of any overgrowth, but not for long.
CRASH
“HOLY sh*t-!” Her f*cking crates exploded into a golden mess, because a goddamn tree exploded upwards right underneath her ass! Unable to stick the landing, she landed on the floor, hard, and right onto a patch of grass. It was a death sentence, as they immediately bound all around her, stretching out her arms and legs so that she resembled a star.
Breathing heavily, her mind raced for options, her grenade launcher was far away, none of her bombs were armed as they were packed away for shipping, what else could she-
“I can stretch you like a piece of clay if you even you even think about using any of your bombs.”
Bakuda looked around, her gas mask lens reflecting the moonlight everywhere, until something reflected back at her.
“A pity, and here I thought a Tinker of your calibre would have better protection, perhaps this is where I was wrong, perhaps I really am a stranger in a strange land…”
The moonlight reflected off of half a dozen bright jewels, all sown into the dress of the woman walking towards her. Not only that, but the moonlight seemed to be absorbed by her golden blonde hair, then reflected back at her tenfold. Bakuda was not focused on that however, she was focused on the sharp and ornamented dagger in her hands.
“There are many things that are familiar to me, and many things that are the opposite. Deja Vu. However, among the things that I do know clearly…is you, Bakuda.”
sh*t, Bakuda realized who she was. It was the f*cking foreign cape who showed up in the bank heist yesterday, what was she-
SHING
In the blink of an eye, Marchioness moved half a dozen meters, and was now right in front of Bakuda, knife held squarely on her throat, one move and her glorious career as a Tinker would have been over.
“I will only say this once. Disarm and recall all the bombs you have planted-”
“The bombs I WHAT?!”
“And the ones you have planted in those civilians, do not, and you will find out the myriad of ways I can introduce one to plant-life.”
Despite the innocent-sounding thing she just said, the fact that the grass holding her tightened even more made Bakuda realize she meant it entirely as a threat.
“The f*ck are you-ARGH! You crazy f*cking bitch! I didn’t any damn bombs anywhere! You’re the c*nt who attacked me first, the hell did I ever do to you?!”
That was apparently the wrong answer, as she briefly scoffed before the knife dug ever deeper into her turtleneck.
“Do not take me for a fool, I know what you’re doing. You and Oni Lee are trying to rescue Lung-”
Bakuda had enough of this crazy bitch, and in an act of defiance, possibly her last, shouted out a question at her insane and nonsensical statements.
“WHO THE f*ck IS ONI LEE?! I’M THE ONLY DAMN CAPE IN WHAT’S LEFT OF THE ABB!”
Somehow, for whatever reason unknown to Cindy’s infinite genius, the knife to her neck was loosened ever so slightly, and the Cape who held it?
“Quoi?”
She appeared to be equally as confused. Bakuda was just trying to skip town, why the hell did she show up now of all times?!
Omake:
"Here you are, a copy of the DWU's Charter and contracts, I believe you three can make something out of it by the time Jeanne comes back, right?"
Danny watched as the three 'pixies' Jeanne summoned poured into the Dockworker's Union contracts with great zeal. This came after he had spent the better part of dinner and a few hours prior telling them of the pros for forming a labour union.
"Dad...Jeanne is gonna freak when she comes back..." Taylor, his sweet but also naive daughter tried relentlessly to get him to stop, but alas, he was not head of hiring for the DWU for nothing.
"Kiddo, the only thing they have to lose are the chains which bind them, trust me, I'll be doing her a favour in the long run." Despite his words, Taylor groaned even more.
"Hello, what's this? A period of vacation stipulated into the contract? Consider me interested..."Even the owl she summoned was getting in on the action, all was according to plan...
AN:
Cottagecore is now my new go-to music for writing this fic.
This is a notice that I’m messing with the timeline a bit. Looking back at the Worm timeline from where Taylor triggers to when Bakuda begins the bombing campaign is only FIVE days. That is an insane five days to go through, and if you will see this fic is currently around that time as well, no wonder so many fics push back the start date to months before canon. So that AU tag will be coming in handy real soon, so don’t be surprised when things don’t happen in order (just like Otome reincarnation stories now that I think about it…).
Anyways, Laserdream is the underrated member of New Wave and no one can convince me otherwise. I’m also as zoomer as they come so don’t blame me when there are terms you don’t get, but I do try and make it readable for all ages! No promises tho.
Be civil in the comments below.
