Hit First, Shoot Later

Summary: Who needs fancy and flashy superpowers when causality becomes your bitch?

Northside, Brockton Bay, 9:02 PM, Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

This is a stupid idea. No, wait, ignore that. This is the stupidest idea I've ever had.

Taylor's internal monologue was probably being overly dramatic, or at least she hoped it was, regarding her choice. When it came down to it, she didn't have much choice in this matter. Yeah, she supposed, there were worse ways to debut as a super hero, and there were also loads of safer ways too. She even imagined that nobody would begrudge her retreating instead of facing Hookwolf for her first fight.

But all of that flew out the window when he pinned a young girl underneath one of his metal paws and made it clear that he was going to slowly crush her to death, all because she had tried to save the dogs from his dogfighting ring.

Needless to say, Taylor was absolutely not okay with walking away from that.

So she came running.

She struck his weakpoint .

Taylor sprinted at Hookwolf, who turned around to meet her as soon as he heard her foot hitting the ground. He roared and reared back to strike, then took a small leap forward to crush her outright, but she slipped under his front paws in a slide, ignoring the scraping pavement against her bare skin - her jeans torn off from her leg. She came to a stop just under him, placed both hands behind her shulders and kicked off the ground with one foot while pointing the other upwards, aiming at the spot just in front of his groin. The weaker metal blades there parted as her foot struck them with overwhelming force and she found something fleshy, she struck his weakpoint.

Hookwolf howled in pain, and Taylor had just barely enough time to move her leg out of the way, only getting a few scrapes and cuts instead of having it torn off, as the metal in his body reformed into a protective shell and he leaped off.

Landing on a roll, he turned around and roaring at her, the screech of metal and metal increasing in pitch and tempo, he leaped against her once again.

She struck his weakpoint.

Taylor noticed that he was clearly exepcting her to roll under his paws again - she noticed that he had a mass of whirling blades below him. Instead, she moved to the side, and Hookwolf caught himself on the pavement, getting momentarily stuck as his blades found purchase. Taylor moved against his flank and threw a punch at where his left lung would naturally be - once more, the blades parted and she found something fleshy. Hookwolf howled again as she struck his weakpoint.

This time, however, Hookwolf seemed to understand that he was not going to be hitting her, and seemed to be gearing up to turn tail and run.

Taylor didn't give chase. She knew that it was entirely likely that her next hit would kill Hookwolf. For all that he was a monster, she didn't want to kill him. She would prefer he wind up in the Birdcage, as he should.

Besides, she had more important priorities at the moment. She rushed to the wounded girl. "Hey, hey, are you alright?" she asked, almost frantically checking the butch looking girl over, looking at all the places where Hookwolf's blades had cut her clothes and her. "Fuck, this is why I wanted a cellphone," she muttered, noting that the girl was unconscious. Deciding that the situation merited impoliteness, she began to check the girl's pockets, looking for a cellphone. Soon enough, she found one and called emergency services.

The PRT came in not fifteen minutes later, and Taylor was shocked to learn that the girl she'd saved was Rachel Lindt, a supervillain and murderess herself.

PHQ, Brockton Bay, 11:13 PM, Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Taylor shook hands with Miss Militia.

"If you don't mind me asking," the patriotic heroine began, "I would certainly like to know how you took down Hookwolf. It would help future engagements."

Taylor nodded. "Well, he has a fleshy weakpoint when he goes all metal," she explained. "I'm not sure if it's bigger than I think or if it changes places, because it was near his groin first and the second time it was in place of his left lung," she said, shrugging. "I'd bet on him being able to move it. Anyway, I punched him in those places and hit his weakpoint. If I'd hit much harder, though, I might have accidentally killed him, so you should probably take care when targetting it."

Miss Militia nodded. "How did you manage that, once more, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's got to do with my power," Taylor said. "I... Well, the best way I can put it? I reverse causality."

Blinking, the heroine gestured with her hand for Taylor to elaborate.

"Well, you know how first you shoot the gun, and then you hit your target?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, that is how it works," Miss Militia explained, seeming a little bit confused.

"Well, imagine it happened like this: You hit the target, therefore, you must have shot accurately. The result happens first. I decided that I had struck Hookwolf's weakpoint, didn't even know he had one at the time, therefore, I must have dodged out of the way of his attack and punched hard enough to pierce through his armor in exactly the right spot to hit his weak point."

"If I'm getting this right," Miss Militia began, "what you're saying is that you reverse the order in which actions happen. You strike first, then you throw the punch, and since you've already struck, your punch must be accurate and effective."

"That'd be correct, mostly," Taylor said. "Using it too much in quick succession gives me a migraine, though."

Miss Militia nodded. "Miss Hebert, what do you think about the Wards..."

The Docks, Brockton Bay, 12:44 AM, Monday, February 14th, 2011

"Truestrike, do you copy?"

Taylor, AKA Truestrike, smiled to herself. "Copy," she confirmed, "Target in sight. Requesting permission to engage."

Console took a moment to respond. "Permission denied," she heard the voice of Chris, Kid Win, warn in her ear. "Reinforcements inbound - wait for Assault and Battery."

Sighing, Taylor crept to the edge of the rooftop she was in. Opposite her, on the other side, was her partner for this patrol, Shadow Stalker. Below them, a large scale drug trade, as the ABB sold off the pure stuff to a group of lowlives who would cut it, fill it with garbage and resell it. Overseeing it all was Oni Lee, clearly there more as an enforcer than anything else.

Despite her shit attitude, Shadow Stalker was very effective and good at her job. She was also the only one of the Wards that did not know her secret identity, nor did Taylor know hers. Apparently, she was to be kept masked and everyone had to be masked around her, as she was on probation and was not to be trusted with anything actually important. She almost felt bad for the former vigilante.

Almost being the keyword here, as Shadow Stalker did not earn herself any friends. In fact, Taylor was pretty certain nobody in the entire organization liked her, and the only people that wanted her to stay there were those who recognized just how terribly shortstaffed the Protectorate ENE was.

"Truestrike to Shadow Stalker," she began, "Are you in position?"

"Five seconds," Shadow Stalker replied.

Console blared in both their ears. "Inbound A&B," Kid Win stated, "Prepare to engage."

As soon as Battery crashed the party, Taylor grabbed one of her darts, loaded with Tranquilizer, and didn't even bother taking aim.

After all, she had already hit.

PHQ, Brockton Bay, 6:23 PM, Monday, February 14th, 2011

"Hot damn," Shadow Stalker said, "you've got some bullshit power there," she said.

Taylor laughed. "It's kinda fun to use, too," she admitted. "Sometimes I try to get creative on how I throw things just to see how far I can push it."

And she did - she had found out that no matter how she threw it, the world would twist itself just so that it hit the target. She had seen Oni Lee trying to block one of the darts, only for it to literally dodge his swipes just so it could properly hit the vein she had decided it would hit. She had lobbed throws, she had just let them drop, she had even actually taken aim at other things and still hit her original target.

Of course, her power also worked with a bunch of other things. Like for instance...

She landed safely after a wicked backflip.

"Wanna see something cool?" Taylor asked, "I can also use it to do stuff like this," she said, jumping and performing a perfectly executed backflip, landing on her feet and bending her knees slightly to bleed off momentum, so she landed safely after a wicked backflip. "I also use it for roof to roof leaping. It's awesome."

"It really is," Shadow Stalker admitted. "They're hella lucky you don't kill."

"They really are," Taylor admitted. "People don't like killers."

"Believe me," Shadow Stalker said, "I fucking know."

Unknown Place, Canberra?, Unknown time, Friday, February 25th, 2011

Taylor groaned.

"Whoa there," someone said, "you alright?"

Taylor blinked. She couldn't see well, but she groped around and someone put her glasses on her face. She adjusted them and was able to see. In front of her stood a medical professional. "Everything hurts."

"I'm not shocked," the man said, "the Simurgh hit you with a chunk of building."

Groaning again, Taylor remembered. Right. She was in Canberra. She had been, anyway. "Where am I?"

"It's a medical tent right outside of the Canberra quarantine zone. You got lucky," the man said, "you got pulled out right before your exposure to her screaming became too much."

Taylor nodded. "Did we win?" she asked.

"Did we?" the doctor said. "Young lady, you do not remember?" he asked.

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking," Taylor replied crossly. "So did we?"

"Yes," the man said. "I should warn you, however - you'll likely have a hard time once you recover and have to get out of this tent so someone else can use it."

Taylor groaned. "What for? What did I do? Did I get controlled and hurt someone?"

The doctor shook his head. "Well, you did hurt someone, and, well, she hurt you back."

"Everything hurts, and my head is swimming, just give it to me straight, doc, what happened?" Taylor demanded, feeling more than a bit cross over the dancing.

"The Simurgh, well, took revenge on you for shooting off one of her eyes," the doctor said. "We don't know what consequences it'll have, but..." he seemed to grab a mirror from a nightstand and pointing it at her face. Taylor fainted when she saw her reflection.

One of her eyes was normal. The other was the same solid gray orb that the Simurgh sported.

The Rig, Brockton Bay, 4:02 PM, Sunday, February 27th, 2011

"The Simurgh has one of my eyes," Taylor said, "and from that, we can assume that she has my power as well."

"You have one of hers, or at least one that looks like it," Armsmaster replied. "Do you have her power?"

"After a fashion," Taylor explained. "My power has improved, in a way - I can see the entire situation play out, not just the result, when I use my power. I think it's actually a quirk of having both PostCog and PreCog at the same time. I can't use it on its own, though, so I can't just look into the future - if I do it, I'll commit to a course of action I might not want to take."

Armsmaster nodded and wrote something on a notepad. "We shall do what we can to hide this."

Taylor Hebert's House, Brockton Bay, 12:01 AM, Sunday, March 6th, 2011

"Hello there, Miss Hebert," a woman in a rather dapper suit and hat combination said, as she tipped her hat in Taylor's direction.

Taylor blinked, swallowed the tea still in her mouth and put the cup down. "Hi," she replied. "Who are you and why are you in my house?"

"My name is Contessa," the woman said, "Though you may call me Fortuna if you wish," she added. "I work for an organization dedicated to preventing the destruction of not only this world, but many others. I am here to offer you the ability to save trillions of lives."

Taylor blinked. She had an energy bar in hand. "Are you crazy?" Taylor asked. "You can't seriously expect me to believe you."

"I have a power of my own," Contessa explained, "it is called the Path to Victory. It allows me to choose a course of action that will lead me to achieving my objectives and perform each and every step perfectly," she said. "Naturally, I am using it now to engage in negotiations with you."

Taylor frowned. "So you already know how to convince me, then. Why even tell me this much?"

"Because, Miss Hebert, I already know how to convince you," she said, her tone almost mocking. "And while honeyed words and veiled threats work for some, I have found that the best course of action regarding you is, surprisingly, honesty. I will, therefore, be fully honest. I am part of an organization named Cauldron. We have been working for a very long time to ensure that the End of the World is averted. Case 53 capes are our creations, failures."

"Wait, wait," Taylor said, "If you've got the power to succeed at everything always, how come you can have failures at all?"

"I can't pay attention to every thing at once," Contessa admitted freely, "and some things slip through the cracks. My power is limited by the fact that I am merely human, that I cannot be in two places at once and that I can only focus on a certain amount of objectives at a time. Powers, in general, were not designed with human use in mind, and mine even more so - it was never meant to be distributed with the rest, you could say it was stolen from its original owner. Accidents happen when I cannot oversee a project to ensure its completion."

"Why do you want me? I would imagine that if you set your power to 'Stop the End of the World', you'd be able to-" then she blinked. "Oh, your power is telling you to recruit me, right?"

"Indeed, Miss Hebert," Contessa said. "My power is telling me you are very much vital to ending the life of the entity known as Zion and saving the world from him."

"Explain," Taylor said, "because you said something crazier than everything else."

Cauldron Headquarters, Unknown Time, Unknown Day, Unknown Month, Unknown Year

"We're not in Kansas anymore," Taylor muttered, before turning to the older ward who had accompanied her. "Flechette, right? I think we met in Canberra."

"Yeah, I was part of the ranged division with you. Uhm, I- the shot you got the Simurgh in the eye with? That was really freaking cool," Flechette said, "Sorry, I-" she began.

Taylor shook her head. "Don't worry," she said. "The only thing I'm really worried about is that the Simurgh might have my power with the eye she took from me, since I have a bit of hers with the eye she gave me in return," she said, moving her hair to show the solid gray orb in place of her left eye. It was weird to think her field of view had expanded immensely with it, and that it had depth perception without the requirement of another eye. She could even see through the eyepatch she normally wore.

"So you were recruited by Alexandria too?" Flechette asked. "When she showed up at my house I think I squeed a bit."

Taylor shook her head. "No, I wasn't recruited by Alexandria. I was recruited by who I think might be running the show here..."

"No, you'd be wrong," someone said, as a rather mousy looking woman walked in, "because I'm the boss here," she said. "I am Doctor, or Doctor Mother if you prefer adding something to my title, and you two are going to kill the Endbringers for us."

Cauldron Headquarters, Unknown Time, Unknown Day, Unknown Month, 2011

Flechette looked at Truestrike.

Truestrike looked at Flechette.

"I wish you were a lesbian right now," Flechette said. "I want you badly."

"Sorry," Truestrike said. "If it makes you feel better, if I were a lesbian, I'd be totally into you."

Doctor Mother cleared her throat. "Moving on, we have a final target. Get ready to kill Zion."

Meanwhile, in the corner, Alexandria, Eidolon and Legend were moping.

After all, they had been replaced as the most famous, well known and powerful heroes in the world by a pair of teenaged girls.

Contessa smiled enigmatically. Maybe this would teach Eidolon not to beat her at checkers.