Taylor could barely move within the small amount of space she had in the locker, thanks to her 5 foot 10 inches of height being crammed inside with the biological waste. There was no leverage for her to gain or use to her advantage, not that she could have used it anyway. She was locked inside and despite her screams, no one answered her.

That only added to her pain and despair as she desperately tried to thrash around. Her screams for help seemed to go on forever and her voice was barely a whisper when she finally gave up hope... then something snapped inside.

Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements came back to the scene of the crime after first class had ended and started laughing at the locker while other students gathered around. There were no more bangs or pleas for help, which told them that it had worked. They had finally broken their target.

No one noticed the two slightly red dots that started to appear on the front of the locker.

*WNNNNNNNNN!*

Two bright red beams of extremely hot energy burned through the locker and struck Sophia Hess dead center of her chest. She screamed for a second before she changed into her shadow form and the beams hit the wall behind her and stopped.

“Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker!” Someone in the crowd gasped.

“Fuck!” Sophia gasped when she reformed, then she ran down the hallway. She winced at the pain in her chest as she took out her cell phone and dialed the emergency number.

Emma Barnes was too shocked by what just happened to react, except to stare at the two melted holes in the locker door. She never saw the beams lash out again and hit her. They burst her eyeballs and burned through her brain before she could blink.

Madison had just started to scream at her best friend dying when the beams shifted and sliced through her mouth and cut most of her head off. The sound of wrenching metal made everyone in the hallway turn away from the two bodies on the floor to look at the locker, only to see a very pissed off Taylor Hebert step out of the wreckage with all of that filth sliding off of her.

“You are all going to pay!” Taylor spat and her eyes glowed bright red.

The screams of the dying echoed through the hallways.

*

Armsmaster was the first on the scene and the sight on the front lawn sickened him. Broken limbs, split skulls, unidentifiable burns, crushed chests, and he was sure there were either missing body parts or extra parts, because his mental count did not add up at all.

“Thank fuck you're here!” Sophia's voice said from nearby and Armsmaster saw her drop from the closest outbuilding and she changed to shadow form to catch herself just before she hit the ground and then changed back to land. “She's insane and she's killing everyone!”

“Who is?” Armsmaster asked and drew his halberd from his back as he set his armor for combat mode.

“Taylor Hebert!” Sophia exclaimed. “Something happened to her and she gained these weird eye powers and...”

*SMASH!*

“AHHHH!” A skinhead screamed as he flew out through a third story window.

Armsmaster and Sophia watched helplessly as the teenager flailed his arms in a vain attempt to halt his progress through the air, then he slammed face first into the pavement of the parking lot a hundred feet away with a splat and stopped moving.

“Reassessing threat from Blaster rating of 2 to add Shaker 2 and Brute 2.” Armsmaster said as Miss Militia arrived on the scene.

“SOPHIA!” Taylor yelled and Sophia, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia winced at the strength of it.

The three of them looked up just in time to see about fifteen feet of the third floor wall of the school as it exploded outwards and a figure with long curly black hair seemed to float out of the debris and crossed most of the distance to where they stood and she pulled her fist back as if to punch.

*SLAMMMM!*

Taylor landed and her fist impacted the ground and caused a huge burst of ground and dirt to fly towards her target and the two heroes. Armsmaster's armor and visor easily protected him from the spray. Miss Militia had to cover her face with her arms. Sophia went to shadow and had to stay that way until the dirt and debris stopped passing through where she stood.

“Stand down, Hebert!” Armsmaster ordered and prepared to strike.

“Not until I kill that bitch!” Taylor shouted and stood. “She did this to me!”

Sophia reformed. “She's lying! She's a villain I've been tracking and...” She changed back to shadow as Taylor's fist just missed smashing into her face.

“Stay solid so I can end you!” Taylor shouted at her.

“You need to back off!” Armsmaster warned her. “We will investigate this and...”

Taylor swung a backhand at him and he dodged out of the way just enough that only his armor was crushed from the hit and the chest piece was torn away.

“Reassessing Brute rating to 4.” Armsmaster said and finished rolling out of the way.

“We will deal with it if she caused this!” Miss Militia said and formed an assault rifle with her power.

Taylor glared at her. “You've done NOTHING for a year and a half! She's supposed to be a WARD! A HERO!” She sneered at the woman that was one of her favorites.

Miss Militia took aim. “I'm sorry, Hebert. If you continue this, I will open fire.”

“Go ahead! Shoot me! Kill me! Finish what Sophia started!” Taylor shouted. “I'm not going to stop until she's DEAD!”

Miss Militia sighed and fired. Taylor flinched when the high speed bullet hit her in the chest and she took a step back, shocked that a Protectorate cape really would fire on her, the victim. She reached for the spot to check for blood just as Miss Militia pulled the trigger again and held it down.

Taylor was peppered with hundreds of bullets and she tried to block them with her hands and stepped back several times. It wasn't the force that was doing it, though. It was the annoyance and she didn't know how to handle it.

When the assault ended, Taylor opened her eyes and she was ten feet away from the two heroes and Sophia, whom had become solid once more. The smug look on Sophia's face enraged her. Taylor sucked in as big of a breath as she could, then she shrieked as hard as she could at her.

Sophia screamed as her eardrums exploded and she dropped to her knees in excruciating pain. Miss Militia also lost her hearing and held in her scream of pain as she tried to come up with a weapon that she could use that was powerful in such close proximity with the target that also wouldn't kill anyone near her.

Armsmaster had ear protection from his helmet and he had still lost most of his hearing. His visor had also shattered in a spiderweb pattern because the safety glass had held together. It was useless to see through, however. He flipped it up and activated his weapon when he saw Taylor approach the heavily bleeding Sophia. He swung at the aggressor with all of his armor-enhanced might.

To Armsmaster's utter shock, Taylor moved instantly and easily redirected his swing. The molecule-thin edge of his electrified blade sliced right through Sophia's arms and chest like it was a hot knife through butter. She couldn't change to shadow to save herself from the deathblow, because of the electricity the blade had discharged into her body.

Taylor looked down at the dissected villain and nodded. She looked at Armsmaster mouthed the words 'thank you' and turned around. Before he could stop her or even ask what she was doing, she ran across the lawn in barely a second and smashed through the school's front doors as if they weren't there.

“Reassessing target! Assigning a Mover rating of 6!” Armsmaster shouted into his recording device, because his hearing was still mostly gone.

Miss Militia slapped him on the arm and pointed at the school before she changed her gun to a riot shotgun and ran after Hebert. Neither of them heard the screams of Principal Blackwell as Taylor burned her hands off and claimed she never needed them because she never raised them against her tormentors. Blackwell was dead a second later when Taylor kicked the heavy oak desk and crushed her against the concrete wall.

*

Amy Dallon had never worked so hard in her life. She had been called out of school and rushed over to the reportedly worst high school in the entire city. The lost lives and devastation she saw would give her nightmares for weeks, until she learned that it wasn't a gang war like she assumed. It was a single teenager that had triggered and took revenge on everyone that had wronged her. That particular nightmare would stay with her for years.

Those that had already died were beyond Amy's ability to help, so she concentrated on healing all of the incidental injuries before she focused on the people that had parts burned or torn off. She hid the fact that she intentionally didn't fully heal the few living gang members, in defiance of her mother's orders to heal everyone.

Amy saw it as doing her part to help fight against the gangs that plagued the city. What they didn't know could actually hurt them, or so she believed. Every little bit helped.

Miss Militia had been the most difficult case of the day for Amy to handle in the makeshift healing area in the parking lot. Her entire arm had been sheared off using a sword created by her own power and it had been stepped on to crush it, which essentially negated her power. It was impossible to create a weapon to use if you didn't have an arm to use it with.

It took Amy nearly an hour to reattach the limb and reformed all of the severed and dead nerves. Miss Militia had lost almost twenty pounds of muscle mass because Amy had to harvest as much as she safely could to restore the arm to full functionality. She didn't ask how the combat veteran had blown her eardrums.

“Thank you, Panacea.” Armsmaster said in a flat tone. His normally stoic demeanor was like a stone statue instead.

Amy glanced at Miss Militia and raised her eyebrows.

“His weapon was used during the fight to murder Shadow Stalker.” Miss Militia whispered.

Yeah, that would do it. Amy thought and nodded slightly in thanks for the explanation.

Everyone seemed to stiffen and salute at the same time when a pudgy woman walked into the triage area. The short blonde woman glared around at all of the cots and the people resting on them before she walked over to Armsmaster.

“Report.” Emily Piggot ordered.

Armsmaster did. He also replayed the audio recording he made of the encounter.

Emily frowned. “A probationary Ward caused her to trigger? Have you investigated...”

“There's no one left to question.” Armsmaster interrupted her.

Emily motioned at the hurt people.

“Incidentals. Miss Hebert decided to take care of the gang presence while she took care of her own problems.” Armsmaster said. “In fairness, they did attack her first to try and recruit her.”

“Are you telling me that...”

“Yes, director. Everyone you do not see inside this tent are dead.” Armsmaster replied.

Emily let out a curse and walked away a few feet, then walked back. “Where is she?”

“Unknown.” Armsmaster responded. “However, we suspect she went home.”

“Did you send a PRT unit?” Emily asked.

“I was emotionally incapacitated at the time and could not trust my command decisions. After interviewing a few of the survivors, I deemed it unsafe to send anyone that couldn't handle the new cape's powers.” Armsmaster said and his voice dropped to a whisper. “We did not need more senseless deaths today.”

Emily had to agree. “Do we have any idea of the total?”

Armsmaster handed her a school registry list for the returning students after the Christmas holidays. A few of the names were marked as absent and the ones still alive were circled. It was a surprisingly small list of survivors that also included only half of the teachers.

“This... this is... probably going to be out of my hands.” Emily said. The death toll alone is an automatic Kill Order, trigger event or not.

“We have already contacted her father about this incident. He is currently in PRT custody and has signed over parental rights.” Armsmaster said. “I believe he claimed he failed her and didn't know what to do with a cape for a daughter that had such uncontrollable powers.”

Emily thought over the verbal report he had given. I think she has more control over her powers than you assume she does.

“What do we do now, director?” Miss Militia asked from her cot.

“You stay there until we can get you transferred to the Rig. You need to rest and recover.” Emily said and Miss Militia nodded and closed her eyes.

“She needs to eat a lot and exercise, too. I had to use a lot of her stored fats and a good portion of her muscle mass.” Amy informed them. “Extensive healing doesn't come cheap.”

“Understood.” Emily said and took out her cell phone. “Excuse me. I have a Chief Director to brief.”

Amy and Armsmaster watched as Emily left them at a fast walk and dialed the number to a woman she openly loathed and the woman loathed her right back.

“Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown.” A smooth woman's voice said from the phone.

“It's PRT ENE Director Emily Piggot.” Emily said as she left the tent. “We have a situation.”

“I'm listening.” Rebecca responded.

*

Taylor hadn't gone home. After her complete freak out and... and killing... no, murdering... nearly everyone in the whole school, she had run to the docks that was her home away from home and cried and cried. She gazed out at the multitude of wrecked ships there that had been left after an attack by Leviathan years ago. They had choked the bay and the businesses that depended on it and now it was all but dead.

She looked up at the slightly cloudy sky just as the clouds parted. A single ray of bright sunlight hit her face and her tears slowed down and stopped. She felt... relief. Strong. Powerful. As if nothing could touch her. She closed her eyes and embraced that feeling. It made her feel lighter than a feather.

All of her tormentors were gone. All of the people that had encouraged them were gone. All of the teachers that had turned a blind eye were gone. The principal was gone, too. They were all gone.

When Taylor opened her eyes, she was a mile up in the air above the bay. She didn't panic, though. She was no longer the nervous and scared girl that let people pick on her to make themselves feel superior. No, she was the superior one now. She had the power and no one was going to take that away from her.

Taylor's body propelled itself higher to breach the cloud cover several miles up and her smile was as bright as the sun itself when she broke through the clouds and was engulfed in sunlight. She stayed there for hours upon hours and soaked in the all encompassing warmth that brought life to the planet and gave everything on it a reason to live.

When the sun eventually set, Taylor let out a sigh, because it was over. It took her a moment before she remembered where she was and looked around in a circle. She let out a girlish giggle because she realized she was flying in the upper atmosphere and took off flying towards the setting sun.

Just because it had set in Brockton Bay, that didn't mean she had to stay there and wait until the morning for it to come back.

*

“Team six reporting in. Still no sign of the target.” One of Coil's mercenaries whispered over the radio at ten o'clock that night.

“Team three confirms. No sightings.” Another mercenary said over the radio.

“The unmarked PRT van is still there.” Someone said over the radio.

“And your call sign is?” Someone else asked.

“Oh, sorry. Team Fuck You reporting in.” He responded and the radio was flooded with a bunch of chuckles and soft laughter.

“Can the chatter and get back to work.” Another voice said, sternly. “Team Suck It reports the same.”

That set them all off to laughing again. They wasted the rest of the night quietly chatting and waiting as they watched for someone that wouldn't be back until the next day.

*

Taylor had followed the sun all the way around the planet and had seen things she never would have seen firsthand. The Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Kremlin, the Hoover Dam, and even the Grand Canyon.

She came in for a landing near her home, her spirits soaring, then Taylor heard various people talking about seeing her and capturing her. Her heat vision lashed out and burned all of the vehicles to the ground and made them all explode. Her safety assured, she safely landed and relaxed, because no one within a mile of her had anything bad to say about her.

Taylor entered her home and she could tell that her father wasn't home. By the clock on the wall that said it was around ten in the morning, she assumed he had already gone to work and she went up the stairs to shower and clean herself up. She had meant to do it hours ago and forgot about it, because she had been having too much fun flying around and enjoying the sights.

After a great shower, Taylor chucked her soiled clothing into the trash and went to her bedroom. She grabbed a pair of panties, her favorite jogging pants, a hoodie, and forwent a bra. A second later, she was dressed and laid back to rest and relax on her bed. It had been a very long day for her and she chose to take a nap.

Taylor's hearing was so acute that she would know in plenty of time if her dad decided to come home early, or if anyone unwanted showed up, and she drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.

*

“We've lost contact with our surveillance team assigned to the Hebert household.” Assault said over the dedicated signal to the Protectorate heroes that were on patrol during the day shift.

“Why was there a normal team assigned? I specifically warned against doing that.” Armsmaster said.

“I don't have access to those orders.” Assault answered. “I'm just reporting what the screens told me.”

Armsmaster was quiet for a moment. “Do not, I repeat, DO NOT approach the Hebert household. All Protectorate and PRT personnel are ordered to stay away from the area.”

“If someone's done something to the surveillance team, we need to go in there and...” Dauntless started to say.

“Do you want to die?” Armsmaster interrupted him and Dauntless stopped talking. “I hope you have all read the report filed on Miss Militia's condition. If you haven't, review it immediately. It includes the threat value of the unnamed cape that confronted us at Winslow High School.”

The communications system was extraordinarily quiet for almost fifteen minutes.

“Please tell us that Alexandria is being assigned to handle this.” Battery said after she read the report.

“The Director has expressed that concern to the Chief Director.” Armsmaster responded.

“Then all we can do is wait.” Triumph said and everyone agreed.

*

Alexandria was in quite the pickle, as the Earth Aleph saying went. She had a very powerful freshly triggered cape that would be an enormous asset in the fight against the end of the world, and that cape had also killed nearly two hundred people after she triggered. It wouldn't have been much of a problem to cover up if circumstances hadn't worked against them.

Unfortunately, the normal police had seen the commotion and investigated. Since the local Protectorate members hadn't confirmed or denied that a cape was responsible, in order to keep the involvement of Sophia Hess out of the public eye or besmirch the Wards Program, the Brockton Bay Police Department had stayed on the scene to get the full story.

The information about the incident leaked almost immediately to the news stations and everyone was calling for the girl's head. A mass murder couldn't be allowed to roam around to do whatever they wanted, despite the evidence to the contrary. The Slaughterhouse Nine were doing exactly that and no one could do anything about it.

That was why Alexandria felt trepidation that afternoon as she flew to the address that Danny Hebert had provided. She didn't really need the information, however. Several burned out vehicle husks scattered around the neighbourhood, in an almost perfect circle, pretty much pinpointed where she had to go.

Alexandria called it in and confirmed Armsmaster's expressed warnings about not sending any personnel there. Someone else could worry about who the extra vehicles and bodies belonged to, although the tinkertech laser weapons were a dead giveaway for it being Coil, because he was the only crime boss that employed mercenaries and provided them with those weapons.

With no other reason to delay, Alexandria floated down to softly land on the front lawn. She walked over to the front steps and her foot went right through a rotted step as soon as she touched it. A curse almost escaped her mouth, because she had loudly announced that she was there. Keeping a step like that was a fairly smart early warning system in a potentially dangerous neighbourhood.

Before Alexandria could knock on the front door, it opened. Her eyes instantly took in the girl's slovenly appearance with loose clothing and sleepy eyes. The completely relaxed pose also made her worry a little, because everyone she ever met had been nervous when they met her. She was Alexandria, the head of the Triumverate and the country's Protectorate. If they weren't nervous, then something was wrong.

“You woke me from my nap.” Taylor said and covered her mouth as she yawned.

Alexandria was taken aback slightly at the statement, because that was not what she expected to hear.

“What do you want?” Taylor asked.

Those were the words. Alexandria thought. “I am afraid that your actions have caused an incident that can't be covered up.”

“So what?” Taylor asked.

Alexandria paused as she regarded the girl's nonchalant attitude. Did she not realize that everyone thought she was a villain?

“Well?” Taylor regarded her right back and didn't look impressed. “Tell me why I should care what other people think.”

That was not the response Alexandria expected... or wanted, for that matter. How do you convince someone that doesn't care about other's opinions that those opinions mattered? That everyone hating you was not good for your own peace of mind?

“You can't think of anything either, huh?” Taylor said and softly chuckled. “Why are you really here?”

Alexandria held in her sigh at not controlling the conversation. She was much smarter than a teenage girl and she should be the one dictating how things went.

Taylor's smile disappeared and she narrowed her eyes slightly. “You just tensed up. Are you going to attack me in my own home and continue breaking the Unwritten Rules that your presence on my doorstep in full view of the entire neighbourhood has violated?”

Alexandria did sigh this time. “I didn't want it to come down to this.”

“That's a lie.” Taylor spat at her and Alexandria's sole working eye widened behind her visor. “You wanted to test yourself against me, didn't you? It's the only reason to come here in costume and not civilian clothes to confront me.” She said and took half a step back to brace herself. “You don't care about the Unwritten Rules at all.”

Alexandria didn't admit that she didn't. “I don't want to fight you here.”

“Another lie.” Taylor said and made her hands into fists. “You want to destroy my only home so I have nowhere to go.”

Alexandria had the perfect response to that in order to shake the girl's confidence. “This isn't your home anymore. Your father signed you over to the Wards program yesterday after he learned you killed all those people.”

Taylor went as still as a statue before she spoke in a low voice. “The coward abandoned me physically after abandoning me emotionally two years ago? Was he crying fake tears, too?”

Alexandria was quite worried now. This was not how she thought the girl would react.

“If he had paid me any attention at all after my mother died, I would have told him about the bullying Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements did to me since I started high school.” Taylor told her. “Maybe he could have stopped it, pulled me from the school, or transferred me out like I wanted.”

She's not going to listen to me now. Alexandria thought as her worry spiked.

“Principal Blackwell destroyed my transfer papers to Arcadia right in front of me. She said they don't accept troublemakers at the premiere school in the city.” Taylor took a breath and let it out. “Did you know that the Wards send all of their members there except for two of them? Can you guess who?”

Dammit. Alexandria thought and braced for impact.

“The one too young to attend high school and the troublemaker named Shadow Stalker. It sure was a surprise to learn that the school gets a nice hefty bribe to have a Ward attend and keep them out of trouble...” Taylor paused when she saw Alexandria twitch a little. “Oh, sorry. I meant payoff.”

Alexandria didn't bother trying to tell the girl differently.

“I'll be visiting Sophia's handler as soon as I find a costume. She is as responsible for covering everything up as much as Blackwell was.” Taylor said.

“You just admitted to a potential crime.” Alexandria said. “I have to insist that you come with me.”

“Are you going to place me under arrest, Alexandria?” Taylor asked and smiled. “Do you have the authority to do that? No, you don't. Only the PRT does, because they are officers of the law.”

Alexandria set her face to look stern. “Don't make me do this, Taylor.”

“Do you really need to force yourself to believe you are in the right to attack me after setting this whole conversation up?” Taylor asked her. “How many other young and impressionable people have you railroaded into doing what you wanted to give you justification for your moral high ground?”

“You have already admitted to several crimes and...” Alexandria tried to explain.

“Shall I save you the trouble?” Taylor interrupted. “I am going to rip off PRT Special Agent Carmichael's head, spit down her neck, and then burn her office, car, and home to the ground. No one will profit from my attempted murder. NO. ONE.”

Alexandria accepted Taylor's explicit threat as enough reason to attack and dove forward at her best speed from a standing position to tackle the girl. It was just too bad that she didn't know that Taylor's assigned Mover rating of 6 was set much too low.

A fist harder than steel smashed through Alexandria's helmet and impacted her face. It snapped her neck backwards and her own momentum doubled the force of the blow. Before it could carry her more than a foot away, Taylor grabbed her ankle and swung her like a baseball bat and slammed her down into the floor. It disintegrated from the blow and they dropped down into the basement.

When they landed, Taylor took the opportunity to kick Alexandria in the gut.

“UGH!” Alexandria grunted and flew into the solid cement wall. Her body pulverized a good portion of it as she embedded into it and partially into the dirt behind it.

“I don't even feel bad about doing this. Isn't that funny?” Taylor asked her and slammed her fist into Alexandria's fake eye. It dislodged it from the metal braces just enough for Taylor to activate her heat vision and she concentrated on the eye socket.

It melted instantly and Alexandria screamed as molten steel filled the wound that hadn't healed. A quick breath of cold air hardened the metal to secure it in place to cause constant pain and Taylor grabbed her by her neck.

“Will you be afraid of me now like you fear The Siberian?” Taylor asked her and then pounded her face twenty times in a second to rattle Alexandria's brain and knocked the woman out.

Taylor pulled her out of the wall and held her by her neck as she floated up through the destroyed floor. A quick look around didn't give Taylor the 'at home' feeling that she expected. There had been too many times that she retreated into herself and hadn't enjoyed being home in a long time. With her decision made, she tucked Alexandria under her arm and instantly flew at supersonic speed up through the second floor and out of the roof.

The quaint little house below Taylor exploded from the pressure wave and debris was scattered all over several of the nearby houses. If she wasn't allowed to live there anymore, no one would.

Taylor changed directions and flew across the city to search for what she wanted. She found Parian's clothing shop and came in for a landing. She used a piece of Alexandria's cape to make a temporary mask for herself and went inside. The woman behind the counter gasped at the sight.

“I don't care that you're a construct or a puppet. I need a costume and I need it fast.” Taylor said.

“The cost of my pieces are...” The woman started to say.

“Don't call the police. I'll be right back.” Taylor said and dropped Alexandria to the floor.

Before the woman could respond, Taylor was gone. The puppet reached under the counter and hit the silent alarm. She had to do what she could to help Alexandria and approached the unconscious woman to apply a mask to her face.

Taylor entered the store with a large bundle of money in her hands. “Is this enough?”

The woman didn't speak and simply nodded. She would humor the girl until the Protectorate and PRT arrived and accepted the obviously stolen money. It would be returned to the police and they could give it back to whatever bank the girl had robbed.

“I want a lot of exposed skin, kind of like Glory Girl's costume, except I don't want the frills or skirt. Maybe an armless tight top and short shorts? I definitely want nice boots with a three inch heel and fingerless gloves.” Taylor told the woman and she did up a quick sketch. “I think blue for the main color would be nice, with red accents. Maybe yellow trim down the sides?”

“Anything for the chest?” The woman asked.

Taylor looked down at Alexandria's chest and saw the Rook symbol, which was actually the Tower of Alexandria. “I need a name, too.”

“Do you have anything in mind?” The woman asked.

“I... I've broken all of the chains holding me down. For the first time in my life, I feel free. I think...” Taylor paused talking and took the pencil from the woman's hand and drew a circle, She drew a smaller circle inside of it, wrote sun on it, and drew lines from it to symbolize the rays. “Red background, yellow for the sun and rays. Red for the gloves and boots with yellow trim on the edges.”

“And the name?” The woman asked.

“Freedom.” Taylor said and smiled. “My cape name is Freedom.”

“I shall get to work.” The woman said and started to do so. Or pretended to.

Taylor reached out and grabbed her arm. “I told you not to call the police.”

“I didn't call them.” The woman denied.

Taylor narrowed her eyes at her. “I know the real you is in the back room, Parian.”

“It was a silent alarm.” The woman admitted with a sigh.

Taylor let her arm go and disappeared, as did the front door in a shower of splinters. There were several screams and crashing sounds before Taylor walked back in through the doorway and dragged Assault and Battery behind her. Before the woman could ask her what she was doing, Taylor picked the both of them up by their heads.

“Their deaths are on your conscience.” Taylor said and slowly pushed the man's and woman's heads together as if they were kissing... then she kept pushing.

Their noses snapped and then their cheeks. Blood flowed out as their faces were crushed and their eyes popped. Their brains were soon pulped and Taylor finished with her hands together. The two bodies dropped to the floor and there was a sound of throwing up from the back room.

Taylor waited for it to stop before she spoke. “My costume, please.” She ordered and the woman puppet nodded and went to work.

*

Director Emily Piggot of the PRT ENE Division of Brockton Bay, had no idea that anything was wrong until Alexandria smashed through the roof of her office and slammed into, and through, her desk. The pudgy woman stared as a costumed teenager floated down through the ceiling and softly landed on top of the still unconscious Alexandria.

“Good evening, director. My cape name is Freedom.” Taylor said.

Emily cursed in her mind at the display of power and outwardly only raised her eyebrows.

“I'm here to kill Agent Carmichael for aiding and abetting Sophia Hess in her crimes against an innocent girl and human decency.” Taylor informed her.

“I'm sorry, I can't allow that.” Emily said and hit the panic button.

“I wasn't asking for your permission.” Taylor said and turned around in a circle. She stopped at about a third of an arc away from Emily's ruined desk as two bright red beams shot out of her eyes and cut down through the floor at an angle.

The door to the office burst open and Armsmaster saw Taylor and skidded to a stop. Dauntless was right behind him and ran into the man's armor. The clang of metal on metal was loud in the small office and the two men fell to the floor in a heap.

“All done.” Taylor said and ended her heat vision as she turned to look at the two armored men on the floor.

“You're under arrest!” Dauntless exclaimed and quickly stood up. He took out his gun and then hissed when it nearly instantly became overheated. He flung it away before the metal melted all over his gloved hands and it just missed Armsmaster's face.

“Protectorate capes do not have the authority to arrest anyone.” Taylor said and tilted her head slightly as she observed him. “You were a police officer before you triggered, weren't you? Does that negate your authority or do you still carry a civilian badge despite that being illegal?”

Dauntless stared at the girl and didn't know how to answer that. He wasn't a lawyer.

“It doesn't really matter.” Taylor said and turned back to face Emily. “Are there forms and things I need to fill out for me to register my cape name?”

“You are a villain and can't sign up with the PRT as an affiliate or a rogue.” Emily told her.

Taylor gave her a huge smile. “What are you talking about? My father signed over responsibility for me to the Protectorate. I'm a member of the Wards.”

The color drained from Emily's face when she realized the huge mistake they had made.

“I'll just go downstairs and figure things out for myself.” Taylor said and made sure to step on Alexandria's face before she walked over to Armsmaster, whom had stood to face the threat. “It's going to be so nice working alongside someone as honorable as you.”

Armsmaster didn't respond as Taylor walked by him and Dauntless.

“Are we really going to allow...” Dauntless started to protest.

“She's right. We accepted full responsibility for her and her actions.” Emily said with as much venom as she could, which was a lot, because both Armsmaster and Dauntless winced. “Armsmaster, escort Freedom to make sure she doesn't kill anyone along the way to the lobby.”

“You know I can't stop her.” Armsmaster reminded her, needlessly.

“It's just for show, as she very well knows.” Emily said and looked down at Alexandria. “You should also assign someone to clean and seal up Agent Carmichael's office. After that, get Freedom settled in one of the long term rooms and have Vista give her the tour.”

“Yes, ma'am.” Armsmaster said, braced to attention briefly, and walked after the newest Ward. He knew that things were going to be... interesting... from now on. The old adage of 'may you live in interesting times' really was a curse.