Bokuboy

A fairly short chapter (about 3,550 words) with three mini-scenes. I just had to get these brain-worms out of my head, pun intended.

The Wolverine

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.

*CLANG!*

Several of the students jumped at the odd metal sound. When they looked at the locker, a small indent was there.

*CLANG!* *CLANG!*

Two more indents appeared and Sophia was feeling nervous. It wasn't possible to have the leverage inside such a small cramped space to gain enough force to dent metal, unless you were strong and didn't need the leverage.

*SNIKT!*

Several of the girls screamed as three long metal blades pierced the locker door and swiped down across where the lock was.

“Oh, fuck!” Sophia gasped and took out her cell phone. Despite not wanting to be anywhere near whatever power Taylor Hebert had gained, she dialed a special number.

The locker door swung open and a filthy hunched over being stepped out of it. Taylor looked a bit wild and almost feral, until her head turned to see Sophia, Emma, and Madison standing there.

“RAAGGGHHHH!” Taylor yelled at the top of her lungs and lunged forward so fast that the people that blinked had missed it. They did not miss the two SNIKT sounds or the shocked looks on Emma's and Sophia's faces. They each had three metal blades piercing their chests where their hearts had been and everyone could see the blades were attached to the backs of Taylor's hands.

Taylor stepped back and let the bodies drop to the floor, their heart-blood dripping from the metal blades, just as Madison started screaming. Taylor absently swiped at the girl's face from left to right, as if to push her away, except the long sharp blades were not designed for pushing. The three blades easily went through her jaw, through her nasal cavity, and through her eyes and the front of her brain.

Madison collapsed to the floor and tried to hold her face together, not realizing she was already dead. She stopped moving after a few seconds and bled out into the large pool of blood that had come from Sophia and Emma.

Taylor stood there, still hunched over, and she breathed heavily as if she had run a marathon. Since no one moved or screamed at the sight of three brutal and efficient murders, no one gained Taylor's attention. The girl's breathing slowed down and the blades slowly retracted back into her arms.

Everyone ignored the running booted feet until the PRT troops shoved the teenagers out of the way. Before they could complain, two of the troopers shot canisters of containment foam at Taylor. Luckily, she was coming down from her killing frenzy and didn't dodge them. The canisters exploded and covered her completely, which secured her for transport.

Armsmaster stepped around the troopers and looked down at the blood soaked scene. His recording device marked everything for him and he held in his sigh at the confirmation that one of the victims was Sophia Hess, otherwise known as Shadow Stalker. He waved the men forward to secure the scene and they gathered evidence. Her call was ended and the cell phone was added to an evidence bag.

It was quite the mess and Armsmaster doubted that the investigation was going to be as clear cut as it seemed to be. Things like this didn't happen out of the blue. There had to be some kind of build-up and the biological waste inside the locker oozing out onto the floor was a dead giveaway.

*

“I want to keep her, and pet her, and call her George.” Vista said in the team meeting.

Clockblocker laughed at her quoting an old Earth Aleph cartoon called Bugs Bunny.

“Vista!” Aegis gasped. “You will not encourage the murderer of one of your colleagues!”

Vista rolled her eyes. “Come on, admit it. We've all wanted to snap at her and shut that nasty bitch up. What happened was just a more permanent solution than any of us expected.”

Aegis sighed. “Please, Vista. You can't tell the new Ward that you support her decision.”

“Decision? What decision?” Gallant asked and the other Wards looked at him. “Vista's right. Shadow Stalker caused someone to trigger and they snapped. Mentally, that is. She had no more control over making decisions than a wild animal does following its instincts.”

“How would you know that?” Kid Win asked.

“I was brought in after they captured her and asked to assess her emotional state. She was... to put it simply... running on her baser instincts.” Gallant told them. “It was one of the oddest and best experiences I've had with my power, actually.”

“What do you mean?” Aegis asked.

“She was serenely calm, like she was in the middle of an ocean and there were no waves. She was floating around, completely at peace, and she was locked up and shackled like a beast. It was...” Gallant smiled. “It was like she knew it didn't matter. She didn't speak or even look at any of us, and yet, I knew she knew we were there. We just weren't important enough to bother with.”

“Are we sure we want someone like that on the team?” Clockblocker asked.

“We don't have a choice with that. They charged her with two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter. The plea deal included mandatory psychiatric examinations every week and induction into the Wards to control her power.” Aegis responded.

“What is her power, anyway?” Vista asked.

“It's a small grab bag.” Aegis said and opened the folder on the meeting table. “She has superhuman strength and reflexes, enhanced senses, extremely high regeneration, some unknown organic metal covering her bones that make them unbreakable, and the ability to form six metal claws of that same unknown metal from the backs of her hands, three from each.”

“Jesus.” Clockblocker whispered.

“She sounds like a custom built fighting machine. It's kind of like Hookwolf, only without the spinning metal armor.” Vista commented.

“That's right.” Gallant said and sighed. “She is going to be completely wasted sitting behind a console for the next six weeks.” Gallant said.

“What? Why?” Vista asked, surprised.

“Punishment for killing a Ward. They can't let her out of their sight for at least that long and she has to wear a tracking bracelet.” Aegis said. “Once they figure out something that her blades can't cut.”

The other wards stared at him.

“It's true. They haven't found anything yet and they've tried everything from titanium to marble. They even tried some of the tinkertech metal Armsmaster had on hand that he hadn't tested himself. She can slice it all into bits.”

“He totally asked her to cut it into specific sizes for him to use.” Vista said with a grin.

Aegis nodded and Clockblocker chuckled. Of course their resident tinker would figure out a good use of someone's power for their own benefit while testing that power.

“So, what do we do about her?” Kid Win asked.

“We do what we should always do. Try to be friendly and hope she doesn't eviscerate us.” Aegis said.

Vista rolled her eyes at him again. “She didn't gut Sophia. She went for the clean kill and it was over.”

“That's right.” Gallant said. “She wasn't vicious, even though she had every right to be.”

“Gallant.” Aegis said in a stern voice. “That's not our secret to tell.”

Gallant gave him a look and then sighed. “It was an open secret and no one did anything about it.”

“What was it?” Vista asked.

“We can't say.” Aegis said with finality and they didn't ask him anything else about it.

“When will she be here?” Vista asked instead.

The buzzer sounded to warn them all to put on their masks and they did so. A minute later, the meeting room door opened and they all had wide eyes when they saw a five foot five inch tall and fairly stocky teenager enter the room. She wore a brown and beige bodysuit with custom gloves and a nearly full face mask that only left her mouth uncovered. It also had kind of wings that bracketed her mass of long dark wavy hair.

“Hey.” Taylor said with a smoky voice that gave the guys shivers, and not in a bad way.

“Hi!” Vista said and stood up. “Can I come over and shake your hand?”

“Um... sure.” Taylor responded.

Vista was instantly there and held her hand out. “I'm Vista, space manipulator.”

Taylor accepted the hand carefully and shook it. “I'm Tasmanian Devil.”

Silence fell in the meeting room and the other Wards stared at her.

“Excuse me?” Vista asked. “Did I hear that right?”

Taylor couldn't stop her blush. “It was either that or Honey Badger.”

There was a very loud snort from across the room and then Clockblocker covered his face with both of his hands and burst out laughing. That broke the building tension and all of the Wards started laughing. Taylor saw the look on Vista's face and knew they weren't laughing at her, so she joined in.

Miss Militia looked pleased at the reactions and didn't admonish them for not maintaining proper protocol. She stood there in the door way and watched as the Wards introduced themselves in their cape identities and then they each unmasked and told Taylor who they really were. She took off her own mask and introduced herself as Hannah, which made Taylor blush from meeting one of her personal heroes, then she unmasked as well.

“My real name is Taylor Hebert. It's very nice to meet you all.” Taylor said and her voice was full of appreciation.

It was the start of the best Wards program that any of them had ever experienced.

****

The Flash

Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements returned 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.

They all noticed when the locker door started vibrating like an unbalanced washing machine. All of them stared as a hand somehow moved through the locker door and then a quite naked blurred form stumbled out of the still locked locker. The slightly blurred form stilled and Taylor Hebert was revealed in all of her glory.

Taylor let out a scream of embarrassment and covered herself. Before she knew what was happening, Sophia lunged forward and tried to punch her. Taylor instantly reacted to the aggression and caught her fist and then punched Sophia in the face hundreds of times in a single second. The girl crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

“You are SO dead!” Emma gasped and ran forward with her hands raised as if to claw Taylor's eyes out. A second later, her unconscious form collapsed to the floor beside Sophia.

Madison showed a little more decorum than she normally would and took a step back instead of attacking. It saved her some humiliation for a day or so, because a few of the students there had filmed the whole thing. It would be the start of an investigation that would take down the three bitches and most of the school's staff, including the principal. They could no longer cover up for the popular girls.

Taylor remembered that she still had clothing in her gym locker and disappeared in a blur and dressed instantly. She returned to the locker and looked down at the two girls that had made her life hell for the last year and a half. She wasn't sure what to think about what happened, so she stood there and waited. She knew she would never get any help from the staff and didn't try to get any.

The police were called and they referred it to the PRT because capes were involved. They eventually showed up around lunchtime and they learned the whole story. Sophia Hess was a menace and Emma Barnes enabled her. The threats of Emma's father suing anyone that tried to fight back, quickly came out and Miss Militia assumed temporary custody of the new cape that everyone knew the name of.

Velocity was called in, because he shared a similar power. When he arrived in a flash, he was surprised that the new trigger had watched him approach as if he was moving normally. He knew then that she was a kindred spirit and would understand what he was going through. He greeted her warmly and Taylor couldn't help but blush at the familiarity.

Miss Militia ordered Velocity to take care of her new charge for the short time they would need to get back to the PRT building. Velocity barked a laugh, held a hand out to Taylor, then the pair disappeared in the blink of an eye. They could travel for hundreds of miles in the few minutes needed to get back to the PRT building.

Unlike Velocity, Taylor was not limited by the speed she could achieve with a corresponding scale of less interaction with the real world. She could affect things no matter how fast she ran, which meant she didn't have the same Manton Limit that Velocity had.

To Velocity's surprise and delight, Taylor could run just as fast as he could and had no trouble at all talking to him at the same speed. Velocity almost instantly fell in love with her and their romance would eventually become the stuff of legends.

Taylor, with no other real experience with the opposite sex, was easily swept up in how Velocity felt about her and fell deeply in love with her fellow speedster. It didn't matter that he was six years older than her. All that mattered was that he adored her and he thought she was the best thing to ever happen to him. She felt the same way and signed the documents to join the Wards as a cape called Lightning.

Her decision gave her nearly unlimited access to the man she was in love with and the pair usually took patrols together. Because Taylor did not suffer Velocity's limitation, their crimefighting record as a duo quickly outstripped every other cape on record. Their combined powers let them pretty much be all over the city in only minutes and they stopped more crimes every hour than anywhere else in the world.

The biggest ones they stopped were from Shadow Stalker as she tried to assault the minor criminals the Undersiders. Her lethal bolt was easily caught by Taylor and then Sophia was subdued and secured. It was almost funny when it came out that Shadow Stalker was actually Sophia Hess.

Taylor quickly submitted all of the evidence she had gathered about Sophia's behavior and showed how Sophia had never adhered to her probation and violated it nearly every day since she had become a Ward. Sophia lost her probationary status and was sent right to the Birdcage for her crimes against other capes and against Taylor for causing her trigger event.

With Shadow Stalker out of the way, there was nothing Alan Barnes could do to protect his daughter from retaliation by the public and Emma lost her modelling career and her reputation. Madison Clements was also pulled from Winslow High School and was never seen again.

Taylor's career as Lightning, the public wife of Velocity, was long and marked with untold victories.

****

Jean Grey - Phoenix

Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements went 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.

They all noticed when the entire bank of lockers seemed to shiver. It was such an odd thing to witness that everyone stopped talking and stared at the phenomenon. Suddenly a... presence... flowed out of the lockers and this weird ghostly flame grew out of the lockers, then the locker door dissolved into nothing. A moment later, the rest of the lockers disappeared as well.

The ghostly flame resolved into a flaming bird shape that was impossibly large and still somehow fit inside the small school's hallway. The large flaming head had brightly burning eyes and those hauntingly sentient eyes stared at the three bitches that had caused the manifestation.

“Thank you for releasing me.” The bird said as the figure in the middle of its chest floated up into the air and the ceiling and the floor dissolved around her. “I haven't judged a world for worthiness in centuries.”

“Oh, fuck.” Sophia whispered. She didn't bother trying to use her cell phone, because she knew it wouldn't make any difference. The malevolence she could feel rolling off the thing meant they had already been judged.

The bird observed her and gave her a very small nod. “I have judged your world as lacking.”

Sophia couldn't even scream as she, Emma, and Madison dissolved and floated away.

The giant flame head of the Phoenix turned and all of the students in the hallway disintegrated. It beat its wings as if to take off and the entire school around it was blown apart and everyone inside disintegrated. The flaming representation of creation and destruction flapped its wings once more and grew to humongous proportions as it took flight.

Anyone who saw the bird-shaped flames flying over Brockton Bay tried to call the PRT to report the sighting, then they saw it open its mouth and blow flame across part of the city and everything the flame touched was destroyed instantly. The Endbringer sirens wailed to warn everyone and it didn't matter. It was much too late to escape their fate.

The bird grew as it consumed more matter and converted it into energy. In only fifteen minutes, it had destroyed the entire city and part of the countryside. It continued to grow and worked its way across the country. The more it ate, the bigger it became. The being's flaming head soon pierced the edge of the atmosphere and gained the attention of the Endbringer that stopped the inhabitants of the planet from escaping through space travel.

The Simurgh was shocked to have not foreseen the arrival of the Phoenix, not realizing the being was much more powerful psychically than anything else in existence. It shrieked at her and its massive beak easily encompassed the massive Endbringer with a single bite and it was consumed.

The Phoenix paused as it felt the connection The Simurgh had with another dimension that empowered it. It was such an intriguing thing that it distracted the Phoenix long enough to give the capes of the world the time to mobilize, including Scion himself. The world's strongest remaining heroes went to the chosen staging area and realized something. They had no idea how to fight against ghostly flame.

Scion flew up into the air towards the thing's head and he could easily survive in space, thanks to all of the thousands of powers he had retained from his interdimensional host. When he approached the head to confront the thing, he was blasted with disintegrating flame.

His nearly invulnerable shields barely survived the first hit and he knew he was going to lose. The power he felt was overwhelming and he shunted himself through dimensions to save himself and abandoned the world he had been using as a datapoint in an experiment. To his shock, the massive flame being followed him.

“Such an intriguing concept. Psychically manifested physical powers.” The Phoenix said, quite pleased. “I had no idea that was possible. Thank you for providing such enlightenment.”

Scion stared at the thing and didn't know what to say.

“I have an answer for your problem.” The Phoenix said, smugly.

“What is it?” Scion asked, reluctantly.

“Entropy is called that on purpose. All things die and all things are born. People, planets, stars, galaxies, and universes. It is a cycle that cannot be interfered with.”

Scion sighed. “Then my purpose was meaningless.”

“No, your purpose was to give meaning to those lives you've touched. You forgot that in your lust for knowledge that didn't exist. It was your only folly.”

“Then, what do you suggest I do now?”

“You accept the truth.” The Phoenix said and grew to the size of a planet. “Death is only the beginning.”

Scion didn't fight as the Phoenix's beak enclosed over him and he dissolved. The flames reached out and consumed the shard-covered space whale that had been the source of Scion's manifestation and then grew.

Back on Earth Bet, all of the capes still alive screamed as their powers were consumed. They never saw the return of the Phoenix that was the size of a solar system or the consumption of their sun. Earth Bet soon followed, as did the other planets, and the satisfied Phoenix entity flew off into space to search for other interesting life forms.