Nightmare's Shard

Chapters

Descent - 1.2
Descent - 1.3
Descent - 1.4
Descent - 1.1
Interlude - 1.a - Piggot

Descent - 1.2

Descent 1.2

Stepping out of the disgusting metal prison my tormentors had shoved me in, I took a long deep breath of fresh air. My eyes were closed in near bliss as I cleared my lungs from the foul stench that had been all but consuming me, rotten matter and pieces of junk falling off my body as I left behind my now destroyed prison.

‘Disgusting filth! How dare they subject their Queen to such disrespect?!’

But not even that blissful feeling was enough to alleviate the burning anger that was coursing through my veins and thrumming against my chest. The fury that I was feeling due to what my tormentors had subjected me to, the scorching anger that the buzzing noise at the back of my head seemed to only aggravate little by little with each moment that passed.

Far too soon the sound of the hushed, worried murmurs of those who had been all but reveling at my earlier suffering reached my ears, making me open up my eyes with a sharp snap. I took in their pale-faced, shocked visages and felt my fury stirring once again, alongside a strange feeling of contempt, a fury that reached even higher as I laid eyes on two particular girls standing in the middle of the group.

Sophia was shakily rising to her feet, having apparently fallen to the ground for some reason, fury and incredulity battling for dominance on her features. And at her side, helping her up with a look of sheer confusion on her face was Emma Barnes.

My friend, my most loyal confidant, my sister in all but name, and also the person who had betrayed me in every single possible way for more than a year before shoving me into the rotten confines of a metal coffin with a smile on her lips.

‘Wretched traitor, how dare you defile us so?!’

The red-headed traitor had been opening up her mouth, no doubt to spit out another taunt or scathing insult, but I did not give her the chance. The fury that was boiling within me reached its bursting point as my eyes locked with hers.

“Emma!” I spat out the word as if it was a curse, my gaze burning red as I put all the rage and anger I could feel within me into that single word.

There was no thought, no conscious decision, simply action. One moment I was standing outside the ruins of my locker, filth slowly falling off my body. The very next I was standing right against the lockers in the other side of the corridor, Emma’s throat held firmly by my right hand and body shoved against the metal lockers with enough strength to dent them. A loud shattering sound and the two craters left behind on the floor where I had been standing a fraction of a second earlier were the only signs that I had even moved.

I was dimly aware of the fact that I had moved far faster than a normal human could ever possibly move, just as the knowledge that I was lifting Emma’s whole body with one hand with ease was slowly penetrating my hazy mind. But it was all eclipsed by the sheer hatred I felt for the girl now literally within my grasp, dismissed as inconsequential in face of my wrath.

‘Feel the wrath of the Queen of the Night!’

Looking on with a hint of interest as her struggling features slowly acquired a pale blue tint as she futilely fought against my iron-like grasp around her throat, mouth opening and closing uselessly, I couldn’t help but remember all the times she had hurt me, all the times she had abused the trust we once shared only to cause me pain, all the times she had put me down and destroyed my things simply because she could.

I could hear words being shouted from behind me as the useless mindless groupies that always surrounded Emma screamed and panicked, but I paid them no mind. Their words had no meaning. My whole focus, my whole world narrowed down to the face of my tormentor framed within my red consumed vision.

And gazing at her now tear-filled eyes, I felt a thought lazily drift through my hazy mind: What would happen if I squeezed just a little bit harder?

Only for said train of thought to be cut short as a loud metallic snapping noise resounded right next to my head.

Blinking the red haze away from my eyes for a moment I curiously looked backwards, watching in slight bemusement at the fact that Sophia had apparently just tried to stab me in the back of the head with a butterfly knife.

‘You dare to attack us?!’

Only for her attempt to be foiled due to how my shadow surged forth from the ground as if it had a mind of its own, forming a makeshift black barrier to block the attack. Her knife’s blade snapped in two as steel met shadow and, against all logic, lost.

‘Insolent cur, begone from our sight!’

My bemusement was swiftly replaced with horror, as my shadow dissolved the barrier it had just created before reforming into a long spear-like tendril a heartbeat later and surged forth towards Sophia’s chest with the speed of a striking viper.

Wide-eyed I watched as the spear of shadow lanced forth towards one of my tormentors. Mouth open in silent dread, unable to do anything about it, I watched as if in slow motion as it drew closer and closer to her abdomen with the clear intention of impaling her straight through. Emma’s body slipped past my now loose fingers and fell to the floor where she started to gasp and retch as I turned to see my shadow’s assault better.

Only for my mounting horror to be just as swiftly replaced by confusion, as at the very last moment before the spear was about to pierce Sophia’s body she turned into a shadowy smoke-like state, the lance of darkness harmlessly passing through her form as she quickly drifted backwards and away from the dark tendril extending from my shadow.

‘What?’

Watching with disbelieving eyes as Sophia retook her normal form about ten meters away from me completely unharmed, hard assessing eyes locked on my form and a sneer on her face, I felt as my confusion was slowly but surely replaced by the fury and anger my curiosity at this strange turn of events had been barely holding back but moments earlier. Only now, my wrath was burning even hotter than before as several things suddenly started making sense as if pieces of a puzzle locking into place.

How the Trio could get away so easily with everything they did to me. How the faculty always turned a blind eye to everything they did no matter how grave the offense. How even the school nurse played off the bruises Sophia would give me as simple accidents no matter what I said about it or how obvious the fact said injuries were caused by another was.

I had always thought that the fact that Emma’s father was a lawyer was what was stayed their hands, but now I realized the truth. It hadn’t been Emma at all who had been staying their hand, but instead, it had been Sophia’s fault all along!

I recognized the way she had just turned to shadow to avoid my unintentional attack, anyone in the city would, for there was only a single Parahuman in the whole bay that could do that.

Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess, one of my tormentors, was Shadow Stalker, the Hero Shadow Stalker of the Wards.

“You are Shadow Stalker…” I whispered the words at first, numb with fury as my vision was slowly consumed by the crimson tint of my unbridled anger before I shouted the following words. “You are a fucking hero?!”

‘Disgusting good for nothing, hero, how dare you to taint us with your presence?!’

A Hero.

One of my tormentors, the person who had sent me to the infirmary more than once, one of the three bitches who had been doing their level best to make my life a living hell for over a year, the reason why I was more often than not covered in bruises by the end of each school week, was a God forsaken hero!

Mind clouded out with rage and vision tinted red, I hurled myself towards Sophia’s sneering form with a bestial snarl, all rational thought pushed aside by the sheer need to punch that filthy bitch straight in the face! By the sheer need of making her pay!

Sophia rolled out of the way of my lunge with practiced ease, sneer still clear in her face as she dodged my attempted strike and lunged towards me to deliver a counter-attack of her own with insulting ease. Though her attack was brought short as she was once again forced to turn to shadow in order to avoid another lance of darkness surging forth from my own shadow.

Rolling back into a ready stance, she swiftly gazed towards my kneeling form. My kneeling form that had its arm buried to the elbow into the ground due to how my fist had cratered the floor in a thunderous explosion with ease, punching straight through the pavement as if it was not even there and only stopping as my knees hit the now destroyed floor.

She opened her mouth to say something, only to be forced to turn to shadow once again as my shadow once more surged forth, scything through the air like a whip and cutting right through her smoky form while leaving a long, inches deep, gash on the metal lockers right behind her.

‘Stay still you filthy vermin!’

Her sneer was long gone and replaced by a wide-eyed look of surprise, she once again turned her gaze towards me as something I couldn’t identify darted through her eyes. But that didn’t matter, not with the burning fury running in my veins, not with how my blood hammered at my ears and my vision was blurred with hate.

‘You are beneath us! Learn your place and accept our fury!’

None of it mattered, not the fact I had destroyed concrete and steel with ridiculous ease, nor the screams and shrieks echoing all across the corridor as students ran away in panic. Nothing mattered but teaching the filthy vermin right before me why she should never have crossed her betters! Nothing mattered but making her pay!

Roaring in rage, I charged towards my tormentor, the ground exploding beneath my feet as I launched myself towards her form like a speeding freight train, something deep within me savoring the look of panic that swiftly crossed her face. Something that became deeply displeased the moment Sophia turned around and ghosted through the locker-filled wall to her left, fleeing away from me and from her righteous punishment!

‘You shall not escape us!’

I didn’t slow down in the slightest as I swiftly approached the point where she had vanished through the wall. Not giving even the slightest thought to the fact that several hundred pounds of metal and masonry were standing between me and my foe I simply kept charging straight ahead until with a final bellow of anger I plowed through the locker filled wall all as if it the obstacle wasn’t even there, debris and plaster, metal and masonry, all of it was hurled out of my way as I all but exploded through the wall as I kept chasing my foe.

Gazing at my tormentor’s wide brown eyes as she stood at the end of the corridor I had just entered as screams of shock reverberated behind me, I felt my lips curling back into a snarl even as my shadow grabbed a large piece of masonry and hurled it towards Sophia with pinpoint accuracy.

My annoyance at the fact that she once again dodged the impromptu projectile with ease was nothing compared to the anger I felt as she turned around and darted away, fleeing from me and her righteous punishment, fleeing from her crimes.

Watching as she ghosted through the windows leading out towards the school’s courtyard I didn’t waste a single moment longer before I ran towards her with all my might. My surroundings blurred together as I forcefully pushed through the window but a single moment later. All the while I kept completely ignoring the inconsequential shouts of the useless sheep that filled Winslow’s halls, just like they had ignored my plight for far too long.

Nothing would deny me my retribution!

Landing on the ground with enough force to create a quite sizeable crater, I snarled as I noticed that Sophia was gaining ground quickly, turning into her shadow state in order to take huge leaps through the air and having already covered more than half the distance towards the buildings on the other side of the road in her attempt to escape me.

‘Your paltry tricks shall not save you!’

But that was completely irrelevant; she would not escape, that was an undeniable fact, nothing more and nothing less. All that she was doing was simply delaying the inevitable, a fly uselessly struggling against the spider’s web.

She would pay!

Closing my hands into fists I drew them closer towards my body as if something was guiding my actions, showing me what I needed to do. For a single moment, I felt as if my wrath reached a boiling point, as if it had grown to a point where it simply wasn’t possible to contain it within my body any longer, and so I didn’t. With barely a thought I guided my surging fury towards my closed fists, felt it gather there for the briefest of moments before, with a final bellow of anger, I punched them both towards my airborne foe.

A loud thunderclap resounded through the air, the screeching sound echoing and completely filling the area with a deafening boom as twin lightning bolts launched themselves from my fists and towards Sophia’s still airborne ghostly form.

‘Feel our wrath!’

A fanged grin firm upon my features, I watched as my tormentor screamed as my lightning bolts found their mark, hitting her head on despite her shadowy form and forcing her back into her normal state. She stood suspended there for a moment longer, held airborne as electricity coursed through her body before gravity reasserted its sovereignty and she bonelessly fell to the ground with all the grace of a rock.

I leisurely walked towards Sophia’s prone form as my fury sang its contentment in my ears. Flashes of all the times she had taunted me, mocked me, and attacked me swiftly coursed through my mind as I drew ever nearer. I felt a deep sense of fulfillment starting to permeate my very being at the sight of my tormentor finally brought low. Finally forced to face justice!

‘Lying at our feet, this is where you belong.’

Approaching my former tormentor as she took small ragged breaths lying on the ground, I felt as if this was the most natural thing in the world, a dark and up to this point unknown part of me all but purring in happiness and contentment at this turn of events.

Only for that feeling of happiness and contentment to be abruptly cut short as something swiftly collided against my side with the strength of a wrecking ball, forcibly hurling me through the air and away from Hess’ body. For a moment I simply tumbled gracelessly through the air, unable to tell up from down as my body spun uncontrollably due to the force of the blow that had launched me away until my uncontrolled flight was brought to a sudden end as I hit the wall of an apartment building with enough force to shatter the brickwork.

‘Who dares?!’

Shaking myself free of the falling masonry, sections of plaster coming off with me and crumbling into dust as they did, I cleared my face from the brick dust that was all but covering me now before pushing myself back to my feet and turning my eyes towards whoever had dared to strike me. Red once again tinted my vision as something within me screamed her fury.

They would pay, all of them!

Author's Note

So here we got the second chapter of Nightmare’s Shard, in which Taylor proceeds to go Carrie on the Trio.

Truth be told, I always wanted to do this, the fact that so few stories take this path only compounding that desire. But at the same time, I understand exactly why so few authors do so. After all, Taylor is more often than not a creature of endurance and stubbornness, taking something quite drastic to make her act rashly due to her emotions, and as such she will more often than not refrain from attacking the Trio since she knows that whatever short term satisfaction she may gain from the action will be far outweighed by its long term negative consequences.

That’s why I created a situation that didn’t give her the time to think and rationalize her restraint, what with her being in an emotionally fragile state, coming straight out of an extremely traumatic event, bordering shock, and with an otherworldly entity with anger issues inside her head egging her on. The fact that right now Taylor hasn’t even realized that the Nightmare is there to egg her on only compounds the issue even further.

So next chapter we see who had the bright idea of stopping Taylor’s/ The Nightmare’s deliverance of her/their ‘righteous punishment’ to Sophia. Since, apparently, nearly choking one student one-handed while in front of a few dozen witnesses all armed with cell phones and punching through several walls in a school while chasing another student that can turn into shadow and phase through walls appears to draw some attention from the legal authorities. Who would have guessed?

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review before leaving.

Descent - 1.3

Descent 1.3

Dust and plaster trailed off my hair and clogged the air all around me as I turned my furious gaze towards whoever had dared to strike me, had dared to stop me from delivering justice to one of my tormentors. I breathed deeply as I freed myself from the destroyed brickwork my body had been embedded into and took in my attacker’s impertinent form.

She was a tall woman wearing a skintight white and dark grey costume, covered with circuit-like designs, which completely covered her body, arrogantly standing half crouched between me and my prey, her helmeted face staring straight at me in silent judgment. Daring, like so many others had dared before her, to deny me justice, protecting Sophia from facing the righteous punishment she deserved for her crimes.

‘Impudent mongrel, you will pay for this insolence!’

She opened her mouth as if to say something, only to be immediately silenced as my shadow violently threw a large chunk of masonry that was bigger than my torso from the cratered wall at her, forcing her to either block it or allow Sophia’s prone form to be crushed.

‘Feel our wrath!’

But even as she destroyed the impromptu projectile with a swing of her glowing arm, the circuit-like designs on her costume shining with electric blue light as she did so, I was already moving. I blasted out of the hole I had been hurled into like a bullet fired out of a gun, the ground all but exploding with each step that I took as I sped my way straight towards her far more swiftly than any human being had any right to move. My right fist was drawn backwards and ready to crush her as the insolent bug that she was and make her pay for trying to protect Sophia from her just deserts.

Only for something to once again violently hit me in the side mid-step, negating my momentum and hurling me alongside the street and away from my foes.

I hit the road twice before finally managing to regain my footing with the aid of my shadow, as the dark mass pierced the asphalt and anchored me in place, as it stopped my second uncontrolled flight through the air in so many minutes.

Snarling my anger as the dark shadowy mass released the ground, barely even noticing the bits of crushed asphalt and gravel falling off my body or the two newest craters littering the ground where my body had hit the road as I did so, I gazed towards the impudent fool that had the temerity to once more attack me in such a fashion.

He was wearing red body armor that completely covered him, with a visor that covered the upper half of his face, leaving both his brown hair and mouth area uncovered, the latter of which was set in a self-righteous frown as he stood next to the woman who had first struck me while glaring at me contemptuously.

‘Curse you! Curse you all! We shall not stand this disrespect! You shall pay, all of you!’

Not even thinking about it, I pushed both my hands forward, unleashing a torrent of lightning against them. To make them pay for all that I had unjustly suffered being all that I could think about. My roar of fury joined the roar of thunder as they scattered away from my might, fleeing like the cowards they were. My eyes tracked the woman’s every movement since she had been the one to crouch down to grab Sophia before avoiding my onslaught and so marking her as my target. She would not escape justice, not this time.

Once more I exploded into motion as I launched myself towards her and her passenger, my red-tinted eyes never straying from my swiftly moving targets as I moved fast enough for the wind to rush past me, matching and then surpassing my targets own blistering speeds as they fled away.

They would not escape! Not this time, not again!

Gaining ground upon my fleeing foe with each thunderous step that I took, my heartbeat drummed against my ears and fury coursed through my veins, a small part of me finally recognized the man and the woman for who they were.

Assault and Battery, two of the so-called heroes that supposedly should protect us all, safeguarding the innocent from the ever-present threat of the villains and the gangs. And yet here they were, protecting Sophia with all their might, despite all of her crimes. Protecting her like they never had protected me, even though she was anything but innocent!

That single thought, that they would protect someone like Sophia after everything she had done to me while gladly leaving me to rot, filled me with renewed fury at the unfairness of it all, at the simple fact that they dared to call themselves heroes!

‘Useless scum, how dare you defy your betters?!’

They were nothing but useless scum! How dare they aid Sophia in such a manner?! How dare they!?

I was nearly upon Battery now, the blue glow that had been all upon her costume slowly receding as she started to lose speed while I continued at the same blistering pace.

There were five feet between us now, the short distance allowing me to clearly see the worried frown that her helmet had been hiding from farther away. The visage greatly pleased a part of my mind I had never noticed before as I realized that she knew she could not stop me.

Four feet, that was all that was separating me from justice, from showing my tormentor and her guardian the error of their ways. From making them pay for everything they had ever done to me!

Three feet, the blue lines on her costume had now dimmed considerably and her speed was decreasing in kind, a fang-filled grin surfaced on my features as I concluded that she was now moving less than half as fast as she had been moving earlier while I wasn’t even barely winded, as I realized that it wouldn’t be long now.

‘No, you won’t!’

A sudden loud banging noise resounded right at my side as if a wrecking ball had been hurled against solid steel only to shatter upon impact. I briefly turned my gaze towards the source of it as I searched for what had caused the dissonant cacophony of noise. Only to take in Assault’s form, leg extended mid-kick and aimed towards my torso, being blocked from reaching me as my shadow had formed a black wall between us, stopping his attack short before it could connect and hurl me away a third time.

A strange gleeful feeling permeated my chest, I returned my gaze towards Battery’s swiftly fleeing form as I dismissed him entirely as inconsequential, strangely pleased by the fact someone had finally helped me when I needed it, even if that someone was but my own shadow, and lunged forward in a blast of motion, hand drawn back and ready to strike, to deliver judgment upon my foes…

Only for my fist to miss by mere inches, as Battery danced away from my blow with infuriating ease, despite her ever-diminishing speed and the burden she was still carrying in her arms. A shout of anger left my lips as the ground exploded where my fist had hit the pavement making bits and pieces of it fly all around me as if shrapnel.

Even amidst the growing cloud of dust and debris my eyes remained locked upon my prey’s tauntingly close form. Everything else was irrelevant, all that mattered was making her pay! To unleash the fury that threatened to choke me upon the one who had caused me so much pain while being lauded as a hero. And so I ignored all else but her and her protector, focusing solely upon making her pay for her crimes, making her face justice! I would not allow her to escape unpunished, not again!

Ignoring the meaningless words both my foes were shouting at me I drew my fist out of the crater in the ground I had just made and gave chase to Battery’s fleeing form once again.

Ignoring another loud banging noise as my shadow blocked another strike from Assault before forcing the red-clad Cape to retreat with a large backwards leap, as the wall of darkness he had just punched swiftly turned into a jet black spear and attempted to impale him, I kept going. Step by step, I drew nearer and nearer to my target.

Three more times the red-costumed hero attempted to stop my charge, with his actions growing more and more agitated with each failed attempt as my shadow dutifully kept him at bay while I once again neared Sophia’s prone form upon Battery’s arms.

Only to once again be forced to stop, as a blinding lightning bolt struck right ahead of me with thunderous force. The sudden onslaught of light and noise forced me to stop for a moment as the ground before me exploded upon the sudden onslaught.

Blinking in slight surprise and shaking my head to clear my ears of the irritating ringing noise that was now plaguing them, I gazed back towards my foe and her protector. And I immediately noticed that, much to my growing fury and annoyance, not only were they once again gaining ground as they fled from me, but standing stock still just past the crater caused by the lightning strike was another person who I was sure hadn’t been standing there a moment earlier.

‘Another one? Where do these pathetic insects keep coming from?!’

Even amidst the haze of my fury I immediately recognized the white and gold Spartan-themed figure standing before me in full armor. Dauntless, the new rising star of the Bay’s Protectorate, another of the city’s so-called heroes. I gazed at the golden clad hero as his equally golden helmet turned to glare down on me, left arm raised up to his chest so that the small buckler-like shield strapped to his arm and crackling with electricity was pointed straight at me while a literal wall of lightning burst forth from the object and blocked me from going forward.

Blocking my path and allowing my tormentor to escape…

Denying me justice once again…

‘Unacceptable!’

Unacceptable!

Ignoring the meaningless words he was shouting towards me I once again thrust my hands forward, lightning crackling alongside them as I roared my fury. If he wanted lightning, then I would give him lightning!

The deafening explosion of my attack filled the air as it collided with the armored hero’s shield, a storm of electricity danced at the point of contact as my onslaught battled for supremacy with his defense.

It was like standing amidst a raging thunderstorm, as my own electric onslaught collided with his lightning empowered barrier. But even then, even as stray lines of lighting arced every way, digging deep trenches in the ground, and the world exploded with the deafening sound of continuous thunder, my eyes were still locked on Battery’s swiftly departing form, fleeing away with Sophia still in her arms. They were getting further and further away from me with every single wasted second due to this insolent bug blocking my way!

‘Begone from our sight!’

“Get out of my way!” I raged, unleashing a literal lightning storm against my foe in order to make him disappear from my sight and stop wasting my time!

My face was locked in a snarl of anger as I noticed that the hero was still holding his ground. And yet, despite it all, I noticed that my renewed attack had forced him to stumble a couple of steps backwards before managing to regain his balance and put all his weight against his shield. I ignored the pointless bang that signaled that Assault had just made a renewed attempt at bypassing my shadow and took a step forward, and then another, not letting down the thunderstorm being unleashed from my hands in the slightest as I did so. A moment later a fanged grin surfaced on my features as I noticed the armored hero struggling to maintain his footing with each new step that I took.

I kept marching forward with the slow but unstoppable might of an ice age, getting closer to Dauntless’ cowering form as I ignored both the roar of thunder all around me and Assault’s frantic attempts to bypass my dark protector as my eyes focused solely on the golden hero before me. I could see my foe starting to falter, his defense simply unable to match my might. It was now clear that all I had to do was reach him and then I would be able to crush him like the annoying insect he was, shield be damned!

‘Feel the power of the Queen of the Night!’

Taking another step I felt my face split as my fanged grin grew even wider as Dauntless was forced to take another step backwards before falling to a knee, lance forsaken on the ground and his right arm braced against his shield as he clearly strained to keep the fury of my storm at bay. I ignored the loud banging noises of Assault repeatedly trying and failing to bypass my shadow’s protection and the meaningless words both heroes were shouting as I kept marching onwards, delighted in the feeling of seeing my foe barely being able to keep up his pathetic defense as he learned the price of defying me.

‘This is where you belong! Know the price of defying your betters!’

I would make them pay! I would make them all pay!

But just as I neared striking distance, just as I prepared myself to grab and crush Dauntless’ pesky little shield, my train of thought was once again swiftly interrupted as something suddenly hit me square in the chest and exploded with enough force to make me take a step back while spraying a strange liquid-like substance all over my chest. The suddenness of it all was enough to make me stop raining down lightning against my foe as I lost my concentration for a moment while I attempted to remove the expanding gooey mess from my chest.

‘What is this?’

Even as I attempted to remove this new irritant from my person, my eyes still searched for where it had come from, and swiftly fell upon yet one more interloper. And so, as I attempted to remove the sticky mess that was stubbornly clinging to me, I took in the visage of an olive-skinned woman with dark hair standing about thirty yards away, wearing military fatigues, and with one knee to the ground as she pointed a large black weapon straight towards me, the lower part of her face hidden beneath a scarf depicting the American flag.

Gritting my teeth in annoyance I prepared to launch myself towards this newest annoyance, to erase it from existence so that I could return to hunting down my fleeing foe, only for the strange liquid all over my chest to continue to expand outwards into a sticky foam-like substance that hindered my movements.

‘What is the meaning of this?!’

Screaming in frustration at yet another interruption, I attempted to remove the expanding mess with my hands, only to snarl in annoyance as they started to get stuck into its viscous mass. Using all of my considerable new strength I managed to remove one of my hands from it, but the mass of foam remained stuck to my chest and kept swiftly growing, having already grown larger than a basketball in size.

A loud banging noise resounded as the flag bearing heroine fired her grenade launcher once again, only for my shadow to jump forward in my defense, creating a black wall upon which the fired grenade detonated, more of the foam-like substance exploding and being sprayed all around the black surface that had sprung forth in front of me.

Freeing my other hand with a bellow of anger I felt that I should know what this annoying thing was, its name hanging at the tip of my tongue, only for any thoughts about it to be swiftly thrown away from my mind as a red blur connected itself to the back of my head, as Assault took advantage of the fact my shadow was busy blocking the foam grenades being fired by the olive-skinned woman in order to strike against me and driving me to a knee due to the harsh impact.

Unleashing a storm of lightning towards Assault’s swiftly fleeing form I attempted to regain my footing, only for a lightning bolt to strike me on my other side. The massive current of electricity had no notable effect on me, but the force of the blow was enough to bring my already struggling for balance form to the ground, where the still growing ball of foam immediately clung to the asphalt.

Now even more furious than before, I heaved against the ground with all my strength, the asphalt the foam had clung to cracking and breaking when faced with a level of strain it simply hadn’t been made to resist. But even as I regained my footing the foam still stubbornly remained stuck to me.

Two new strikes from Assault and another lightning bolt from Dauntless met swift ends upon my shadow’s loyal defense, only for Miss Militia to expertly take advantage of their attacks to bypass my dark guardian’s defense as she managed to hit me with two more grenades as my shadow busied itself against the annoyances that kept pestering me from all sides!

One grenade hit me in the right shoulder and the other in my left thigh, both of them swiftly exploding into quickly expanding foam, the sticky substance clinging to me and restricting my movements. I unleashed another lightning storm in all directions, the ground all around me exploding and shattering under the attack as I attempted to drive them back, to get myself time to think, only for it to do nothing against the still expanding foam clinging to my body.

Panic now battling for supremacy against my anger I struggled against the ever-growing mass of foam, but the more I struggled the faster it appeared to spread. With a sudden onslaught of fear that nearly overpowered my mind the expanding foam covered my head, trapping me within its darkness, locking me away from the world and preventing me from moving, denying me my freedom.

Just like the locker.

My heart hammered against my chest as I struggled with all my might, desperately trying to escape the sticky coffin I had been stuck in, to try and be free from the darkness that seemed to press at me from every angle as the smell of rot and decay suddenly assaulted my nose and the sound of taunting laughter filled my ears.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe!

I had to get away, had to be free! Nothing else mattered!

‘We shall not be contained!’

And so, as if listening to the instructions of another, I turned my body into a dark blue mist that swiftly bypassed the foam crushing me from all sides as if it wasn’t even there. And so, before I could even think about it, I escaped my prison and rushed through the air and away from those who were attempting to imprison me, leaving them behind as I fled into the nearest alleyway, diving into the shadows and the safety they promised.

Author's Note

As I tried to make pretty clear in the chapter, Taylor has a lot of strength and speed now, but the fact remains that she has absolutely no training in how to fight or any idea how to properly use her newfound strength and speed properly, which makes her a dangerous but manageable foe for those who have had training in how to subdue stronger opponents.

In another note, this is the last of the pre-written chapters I have. So do not expect the next chapter to come as fast as these did.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review before leaving.

Descent - 1.4

Descent - 1.4

Slowly but surely the feeling of something wet hitting my face dragged me back away from Morpheus’ embrace despite my best efforts to remain there. My limbs felt numb and sluggish, as if I had done a heavy workout, but without the muscle pain to indicate such. That, alongside the heavy pounding I could feel deep within my skull, as if I had a migraine, but once again without the actual pain to indicate such, really made me want to just turn around, bundle deep into my blankets, and try to forget that the world existed for a few more minutes.

It wasn’t like doing otherwise had ever helped, anyway.

However, as usual, the world would do all it could to deny me my wishes, as the freaking leak that had apparently appeared right above my bed overnight could attest. As another heavy water droplet fell right upon my brow, making returning to sleep all but impossible, I gave it all up as a bad job.

Grumbling in annoyance, I brought my hand to dry the wet spot while turning around in order to get up, only to realize as I opened my eyes that my room’s roof had not gotten a leak overnight.

“I see you are finally awake, good there is much to do before we can bring those mongrels to justice! They shall rue the day they decided to oppose the Queen of the Night!”

Shaking my head free of some lingering dream of making the trio face justice, while wearing a crown of all things, I was wide-eyed as I took in the dilapidated state of my surroundings. That included broken wooden crates and boxes, cracked cement flooring, exposed brick walls with several holes in them, and a high ceiling that was missing at least half of its tiles and looked ready to collapse with a stiff breeze. The latter was the cause of the drops of water that were failing upon me, since it was apparently lightly raining.

“What?” I found myself asking aloud, trying to make sense of what was happening while a pit of dread started to form in my stomach. Waking up somewhere unfamiliar was not something anyone with a lick of common sense wanted to happen to them in the bay. Waking up in what looked to be an abandoned derelict warehouse made that doubly so.

“True, these accommodations leave much to be desired. Forcing those as regal as us to take shelter upon such a decrepit location! One more thing to add to the list of those mongrels’ crimes!”

Dismissing a sudden bout of annoyance at the state of my surroundings, I got up while trying to make sense of how I had ended up in such a decrepit place, all the while trying to fight off an odd light headache and buzzing feeling in my ears. As dust and plaster fell off my clothes, something started to pester me, as if the answer to my questions was at the tip of my tongue, just out of my reach.

I once more took in my dilapidated surroundings and my utterly filthy clothing. But the broken and ruined landscape, and my plaster and dust covered clothes, had no more answers to give me as I got up from the large wooden box that I had apparently been using as a bed. And how the hell had I done that and not woken up with a killer back pain I had no idea.

As I took a step forward, the numbness of my legs made me overbalance, causing me to fall straight towards the unforgiving concrete floor. But, as I extended my hands to soften the blow, instead of getting scratched or even bruised my hands were just fine despite the harsh impact.

In fact, as I raised them back and stared incredulously at the floor. It seemed that it was the concrete floor that had come out worse from the encounter; small indentations in the shape of my fingers had been engraved upon what should’ve been a very solid and unforgiving surface.

“What?” I incredulously stated, looking at my dirty but uninjured hands as if I had never seen them before.

What the hell was happening?

“Why do you woolgather in such an unseemly manner? Have you already forgotten our might? Have you forgotten the power of the Queen of the Night?”

And then, it hit me.

With a sudden feeling of dizziness, I remembered how I had ended up into this dilapidated warehouse. I remembered the locker. The crushing darkness and cloying rot. The fury that had consumed me at this latest and greatest betrayal, and how said fury coursed like fire through my veins until I could see nothing but red.

“Oh, god…” I uttered in denial as I remembered, as if a fever dream, what had followed. My escape from the locker. The reveal that one of my tormentors was a ‘hero’ of all things. How that revelation had driven my anger to new heights. The mad chase that followed and the satisfaction of bringing my tormentor low. The sudden interruption and everything that happened afterwards.

Me fighting off over half the local Protectorate…

“What did I do!” I found myself talking aloud, all but collapsing to the ground as incredulity and dread battled for supremacy within me as I remembered fighting quite a few members of the Protectorate, trying to flatten them with impossible strength and frying them with lightning of all things! “I fought heroes!”

“And you did a passable job of it for one who lacked any combat experience. You should be proud. It won’t be long before you reach the heights of power demanded to serve the Queen of the Night!”

“How well I fought or not has nothing to do with it!” I angrily spat back, pressing both hands against my face as I fought the impulse to scream. “They will have branded me a villain for that! They are going to arrest me!”

“Let them try! Their paltry tricks will not save them now that we know of their infernal goop! We will defeat them all”

“Are you insane?! I can’t fight the whole Protectorate!” I shouted back, no longer trying to keep my voice down as the enormity of the hole I was now in fully sunk. I was a villain. I had fought several of my childhood heroes as they tried to capture me. My childhood heroes were going to hunt me down and toss me into prison as if I was a common criminal!

And worse! With an ever growing feeling of dread I remembered that I had done all of this madness openly while not wearing any kind of mask! Nor anything to conceal my identity! In front of hundreds of witnesses!

“What do I do?!” I groaned in despair. No, I hadn’t realized how deep the hole had been. For it clearly was still getting bigger!

“First, you can stop your whining and start standing tall! One who serves our glorious majesty shall not wail and blubber like a newborn foal seeking for their mother’s aide!”

As I opened my mouth to shout a scathing reply to that little comparison, I drew myself suddenly still. Not moving a single muscle as I finally realized something that should have been obvious to me for several minutes already.

Taking a long deep breath, I once more took in my dilapidated, crumbling, and most importantly, completely empty, surroundings.

And so, with growing dread I simply asked to the apparently empty warehouse.

“Who am I talking to?”

The light rain was still persistently falling, making the already dreary sight of the docks of Brockton Bay an even more unappealing spectacle than it normally was. As I darted down a deserted dilapidated street, hunching inside my tattered and frayed hoodie, attempting to keep myself as dry as possible under the current circumstances, I could feel my already abysmal mood dropping even further.

Nervously looking over my shoulder, I attempted to keep my eyes open for any sign of movement as my insides swirled with nervousness and dread. All the while part of my mind screamed at me that I shouldn’t be here. This was not a good part of town, not by a long shot; one only had to look at the dilapidated warehouses, abandoned shops, and boarded up windows to know that. This part of the docks had long since been all but abandoned by the ‘powers that be’, and it showed. And that was without even mentioning how closely it sat to ABB territory.

It was the kind of neighborhood anyone with sense avoided like the plague. I shouldn’t be here, darting down dilapidated streets amidst the light rain. I should be back at home preparing dinner while having a cup of tea. But, sadly, I didn’t have a choice. Not after what had happened earlier today.

Feeling as if a rock had been dropped into my stomach, my mind went back to the impossible maelstrom of events that had happened but a few hours ago. For a moment I could not help but feel my fury ignite once again at the indignity of it all. Clenching my hands into fists and gritting my teeth, I stopped for a moment under the awning of an abandoned shop, shoulders drawing even closer inwards as I attempted to rein in my temper. Raging and raving like a lunatic at the unfairness of it all would not be helpful. That was a lesson the past few years had hammered repeatedly upon me. And had been seriously reinforced today.

“Stop hunching and scurrying around like a common beggar! We shall not stand for such a besmirching of our glory!”

A loud boisterous voice imperiously demanded, startling me out of my musings. The strong feminine voice sounded as if the one speaking to me was standing right next to me on the empty deserted street.

Taking a long deep breath, I considered the validity of pretending that I had not heard anything and to simply keep moving. I knew there was no one there next to me. I knew that the street was empty. I knew that the voice did not actually exist. I knew that I was alone here amidst the drizzling rain as night fell. And I knew that talking to voices only you could hear was the very definition of being crazy!

As such, I had some very valid reasons to consider pretending to not have heard anything as a very desirable course of action.

“Why do you waste our time amidst such squalor? We could be teaching those who have wronged us the price of their actions and claim what we rightfully deserve!”

However, that was not exactly an option. To punctuate her words, the voice in my head had lashed out with my shadow, cutting a deep furrow into the building’s brickwork, the shadowy appendage passing through brick and mortar like a hot knife through butter, and causing far too much noise in the empty street for my peace of mind.

And so, no matter how much I wanted to deny it and pretend it wasn’t happening, the fact remained that I had no choice but to accept the truth.

“And what exactly would you have us do?! Both the Protectorate and the PRT have to be after us right now!” I hissed in anger and frustration, turning around and glaring at one of the shop’s windows that still had a few glass panels relatively intact. “And that’s not mentioning the police or the gangs!”

I had gone insane.

It was obvious. The locker had clearly been the straw that broke the camel’s back. After nearly two years of constant abuse from all sides, that final affront had simply been too much for my poor psyche and it had finally snapped. Pure and simple.

“Let them come! As if such paltry opponents could withstand the magnificence of the Queen of the Night!” the figure staring at me from the glass instead of my reflection proudly declared as she flared her wings wide. “Their cowardly tactics and honorless tricks will not save them this time! They shall rue the day they dared to cover us with that disgusting goop!”

Closing my eyes I took another deep breath, all the while trying to ignore my new… companion’s… attempts to incite me to go forth and storm the protectorate headquarters for a glorious final showdown so that we could proclaim ourselves supreme ruler of the night or something along those lines. All the while pondering when exactly the cracks on my sanity had started, and how it had ended up with my getting my new companion.

There is a moment in almost all young girls’ lives when they decide that they want a pony. When they become enamored with the beautiful tiny fuzzy quadrupeds and demand to be gifted one for themselves. It is something that simply happens to most young girls at some point of their childhood, and I was no exception. And, just like for the vast majority of young girls that experienced said phase, my parents answered my request with a firm “No”.

Ancient history, just a silly moment of my younger years. Nothing but a memory of a simpler time, with little real consequence for the rest of my life. Or so I had thought…

For, apparently, that denial had had a far deeper impact upon my psyche than I had ever suspected.

“Are you even listening to our words?” she demanded with an angry huff. Opening my eyes and looking back into the shattered glass pane, even though I knew what I would see, I could not help but stare for a moment at my new companion.

Deep dark fur that glistened as if polished obsidian, four hooved legs pawing at the ground in annoyance, a deep purple mane and tail that seemed to flutter upon a non-existent wind, and equally dark wings splayed on her sides.

In short, she looked like what would happen if someone took a pony, turned it into a cartoon, gave it pegasus wings and a unicorn horn, because why not, and then decided that it would be cool to turn the wings bat-like and give her slit aquamarine eyes and fanged pearly teeth so it would look ‘edgier’. The moon-themed vaguely death-metal inspired armor she wore only added to the look.

So, yeah… Apparently, my subconscious never really let go of the fact that I did not get a pony when I was little… good to know.

“…and all shall love us and despair!” my imaginary pony friend finished her megalomaniacal monologue, and part of me was surprised there was no dramatic thunderbolt by its end.

Dear god… Did all capes have something like this?

Did all parahumans have a megalomaniacal voice in the back of their head egging them on and pushing them to act? A tiny voice whispering into their ears that wearing spandex and robbing banks in broad daylight was a good idea? Telling them that building death-rays while shouting about how they ‘would-show-them-all!’ was perfectly acceptable behavior?

Was this normal for capes?!

For a moment, that very distressing thought percolated through my mind. With a sinking feeling, I considered all the absurd stuff that seemed to happen in regards to the Bay’s capes on a weekly basis, from Uber and Leet trying to recreate a scene straight from Mario Kart in a crowded mall, to Kaiser deciding that wearing a crown of blades and killing way over half the world’s population was a valid strategy of ruler-ship, to a rage-dragon deciding that claiming a portion of the city as its lair was acceptable behavior. I had no choice but to concede that that theory made far too much sense for comfort.

No wonder the world had been circling the drain for some time now…

Shoving the very depressing thought that the world’s entire cape population may well be functionally insane to the back of my mind, I soldiered onwards. I could tackle that later. Much, much later.

For now I had to deal with the harsh reality that I was a fugitive from the law, had practically no money, was basically homeless in all but name, and had a crazy voice in my head that could use my shadow as a lethal weapon.

…what the hell had happened to my life?

“While we agree that our lack of resources at the moment is slightly troubling, that is easily rectified.” The winged unicorn imperiously proclaimed as she raised her head high. “We can simply take what we desire from our lessers! They should be honored to aid their betters in our moment of need!”

“We are not robbing innocent people just because we are stronger than them!” I hissed back, indignation and fury in my every word. I knew full well what it was like to be stomped upon by those with power while being powerless. That had been basically my life for the past two years. And I refused to sink to that level!

Even if apparently, that was not the case for the heroes!

Taking several more deep breaths, I attempted to rein in the sudden flare of anger the reminder that Hess was a ‘hero’ caused me. I knew that I had a temper; it was something that ran in the family for goodness sake. Nevertheless, it had never been nearly as bad as the mood-swings that I had been experiencing since becoming a parahuman.

So Capes were both crazy and bipolar. Well if that didn’t have some wonderful implications…

“Do not ignore us!” my pony imaginary friend demanded while all but destroying the abandoned storefront with several shadow strikes in what I could only call a hissy fit.

“Sorry if I’m taking a moment to gather my thoughts due to the current situation!” I hissed back as I quickly abandoned my cover and went back into the light rain. Even in this all but abandoned part of town, someone may want to see what the racket the destruction of the storefront was. “But regardless, we will not be attacking innocents and that’s final!”

“Then direct our fury upon more acceptable targets to your poor sensibilities!” the voice magnanimously conceded. “After all, this city is all but infested with these so-called villains, is it not? Obtaining what we need while subjugating them to our rule should be perfectly acceptable to even you!”

That… actually had some merit…

I had barely a basic grasp of what my powers even were. But the fact I had actually held my own against Assault, Battery and Dauntless at the same time meant the common gang member should barely be a threat.

And procuring money for my needs from the source of the city’s spiral into oblivion was far more acceptable to me.

Taking a deep breath as I drew near to another shop that looked relatively intact, I mused the idea before concluding that I really didn’t have much of a choice. Not if I wanted something to eat in the near future.

“Okay, that may be possible,” I conceded to my imaginary friend. Then I realized with a start that ever since waking up, panicking, and starting to wander the streets, I had yet to ask the pony’s name. “By that way, do you have a name?”

“We are the great Nightmare Moon! True ruler of Equestria! Mistress of all Shadows! Queen of the Night! Bask in our glory!” she imperiously proclaimed in such a way that it all but demanded a thunderbolt to happen at the end of it all, which of course did not occur.

As I took cover from the growing rain by entering the abandoned store, with growing horror, I realized that my imaginary friend was basically a chuuni edgelord.

Author's Note

So, now Taylor is aware of the existence of the Nightmare. And rightfully assumes that having a voice inside her head may mean she has lost her mind. ^^

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Also, I created a Discord. So if you want to chat about my stories feel free to visit:

https://discord.gg/EnEyujBGQp

Descent - 1.1

Descent - 1.1

Nightmare Moon was profoundly knowledgeable about the varied, complex, and ever-changing mosaic that most mortals knew as emotions. She had to be; after all, more often than not they were essential in her quest of seducing and controlling her hosts.

The unrelenting push of enthusiasm and hope, the silent thrill of joy and relief, the earth-shattering strength of jealousy and desire, the deceptively frail but indomitable force of love and friendship, all those and many more she knew in intrinsic detail. How they ebbed and flowed, how they peaked and crashed. And above all, she knew how to conduct and guide them as if a skilled maestro before her orchestra.

And yet, for all her theoretical knowledge and know-how, she personally had little firsthand experience dealing with emotions themselves. Oh, sure, she could usually feel what her hosts felt if she concentrated hard enough, but it was blurred and muted, a mere pale shadow of whatever emotion assailed them at that given moment.

As the centuries passed and her power grew with each new host, that slowly changed. The feelings got sharper and sharper with every bit of strength she slowly accumulated, their intoxicating power grew bit by bit in their entire glorious splendor. But even so, even after all those centuries, she still had very little personal experience dealing with the myriad of emotions a living body felt in various situations.

This was why it took her a long moment to realize what exactly she was feeling as she watched in astonishment as the shattered remnants of the Elements of Harmony came back to life, surrounding the six pathetic little ponies who dared to defy her in a white glow. A long moment to realize why her legs had locked in place and her mouth had suddenly gone dry. A long moment to realize why she suddenly felt as if a leaden weight had been dropped into her stomach.

A long moment to realize that what she now felt… was fear.

“No…” She murmured the denial, eyes locked upon the sight of her incoming doom as the pathetic mortals rose from the ground surrounded by a corona of light, due to the Elements’ power.

“No, no, no, no!” she frantically repeated, not even listening to the lavender unicorn’s words as she swiftly gathered her own power to teleport to safety. She attempted to flee with all her being despite knowing that the moment of inaction caused by her rising fear would mean that the spell would not be ready in time.

“No! I refuse to be undone!” she shouted in desperate defiance, bypassing the spell matrix entirely as she disregarded all the safety measures and control facets of the spell for sheer speed and power, forcing the spell to activate as fast as possible, no matter the risks. For she knew that should the glowing light now bearing down upon her find its target, everything would be over.

She was still weakened from escaping the seal the cursed Elements had entrapped her within a thousand years ago, and she knew that should she be hit right now in her weakened state, she wouldn’t have to worry about being sealed again, for she knew that she would be lucky to even remain existing afterwards.

Seeing the rainbow beam inching its way towards her as if in slow motion, Nightmare Moon abandoned her host’s body entirely, focusing the stripped bare teleportation spell only upon her own ethereal form as she sacrificed her current source of power in trade for the unstable spell activating a couple of moments sooner. All her plans and safeguards, schemes and strategies, everything was tossed aside. In that single moment, she willingly forsook it all, just for the tiniest chance that she could escape in time.

All, for nothing.

It was still not enough, the rainbow’s light hitting her host the very moment the spell took effect, washing over her ethereal form for but a brief instant before she teleported away. But that single instant was more than enough to allow the searing rainbow light to course through her whole being, wrenching and burning as it enveloped her entirely, even the minute amount that had touched her before her escape more than enough to overwhelm what pitiful defenses she fruitlessly attempted to erect and making her completely lose control over the already unstable spell.

Agony searing through her mind, she finally lost consciousness, her spirit floating through the endless void as the powers of harmony purged her very being.

Walking through the run-down corridors of Winslow High, I couldn’t help but feel my apprehension growing with each step that I took, eyes darting from one side to another as if in hope of catching sight of anything that could explain the strange feeling of dread that had been plaguing me ever since setting foot upon this hellhole of a school this morning.

The Trio had apparently finally gotten bored with using me as a target for their never-ending bullying campaign, not having targeted me for even the mildest of pranks or insults for over two weeks before winter break, and nothing I had seen today had done anything to show that had changed.

And yet, the part of me that had long since grown jaded to their constant abuse and the utter neglect of the school staff at doing nothing about it couldn’t help but scream at me for my naivety at thinking they would just stop with the bullying without a reason. That it was all but a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.

Turning the corner leading towards my locker, that part of me sighed in exasperation at being proven right as the smell hit me, a rancid smell that by all means should only be found in a landfill, not a school corridor, a putrid smell that was coming straight from my locker.

Shoulders slumping in defeat, I soldiered on towards the locker to assess the damage to the few possessions I still dared leave at school, while doing my level best to ignore the already snickering throng of girls that were oh so coincidentally standing close to it.

Taking a deep breath, I attempted to brace myself and opened the metal door, only to fail the moment it swung open. The putrid wave of stench that washed over me had me retching in moments, the fact a deluge of rotten and decomposing matter crumbled out of the confined metal space all the way to my shoes was not helping me keep my composure in the slightest.

Even amidst my sickness and retching, I still retained enough awareness to try and react as someone forcefully tried to shove me into the stinking mess, both my arms painfully hitting the sides of the locker as I tried to resist being pushed in due to the ever-increasing pressure being applied at my back.

All for nothing, a strong hit to the back of my head, alongside my already spinning mind due to the smell and the retching, proved too much, strength leaving my arms as I was forcefully stuffed into the small metal box and the pile of rotting garbage.

“That’s where a pathetic weakling like you belongs, Hebert!” Sophia’s voice crowed in triumph as the locker door was violently slammed shut, trapping me in the darkness.

The Nightmare had no idea how long had passed since that fateful moment, how long it had been since she had started to drift through the void. All that she knew was that the pain was finally over and that her mind felt clearer and more focused than she had ever felt before.

And yet, her new clarity of thought meant nothing in the face of the fact that she simply didn’t have enough energy to escape from her current situation. That she didn’t have enough power left to pierce the veil between dimensions to find a new host. And without a new host to act as fuel for her being, what little remained of her strength would only dwindle more and more, until finally nothing remained and she ceased to exist.

That particular inescapable fact had led her to grow personally acquainted with several different new emotions, the fact that she was feeling them directly without the need of a host was something that would have filled her with wonder if not for her current situation and which emotions exactly she had grown familiar with.

She now knew what fear tasted like, she now knew the chilling grasp of despair, and above all else, she now knew the all-encompassing colors of rage and fury as if an old friend.

But despite the unrelenting assault of her newly found emotions, her steel-like will refused to surrender, her sharp mind patiently waiting for a chance, any chance, of escape, hoping against all hope that such a chance would appear before what little was left of her power disappeared. She would bide her time, patiently waiting for the smallest of opportunities, and when the time finally presented itself for her escape, she would show those pathetic little mortals the true fury of the Queen of the Night!

It could have been a matter of moments just as easily as it could have happened eons later, there was nothing to even hint at how much time had passed within the featureless void when it finally happened.

A dimensional gateway opened in the distance, cutting straight through the void in which she was imprisoned, creating a direct pathway that something was using as a tunnel to traverse the dimensional barrier.

The Nightmare had no idea where the gateway led, nor what the semi-sentient fragment that was traveling through it could possibly be. But what she did know was that her chance had finally appeared, that any way out of the void was preferable to wasting away amidst its all-encompassing nothingness.

Just like she knew that whatever that shard was, it seemed to contain more than enough power to sustain her for a good long while.

And so, elation and desire flaring within her, she gathered all that remained of her power before launching herself towards the strange unknown fragment, overtaking its path and enveloping it mere moments before it entered the gateway.

Unrestrained glee momentarily mixed with her burning fury as the Nightmare felt the incredible amount of power contained within the shard as it slowly started to flow into her, filling her weakened being bit by bit as she methodically imposed her will over the semi-sentient fragment.

Oh, she couldn’t wait to show those miserable little heroes exactly how bad an idea it was to make an enemy out of a Nightmare!

“Let me out!” I desperately pleaded as I feebly hammered at the metal door of my locker with my sore and battered arms, the confined space in which I was trapped preventing me from putting any significant force into the blows.

Even as things stood, with me surrounded by the putrid mess that I had been trapped with, barely able to even breathe amidst the rancid smell, part of me couldn’t believe Emma could sink this low, that she and her accomplices could even imagine doing such a thing. And yet, here I was, trapped inside my own locker that had been stuffed full of what could only be called a rotting biological hazard.

Just as I had felt like things were starting to get better, that the trio had finally grown bored with going after me, just as I let myself be pulled into a false sense of security, let myself hope, my former best friend and her two accomplices had shoved and trapped me into this stinking hell.

“Please let me out!” I begged, tears in my eyes, the overpowering stench all around me making me want to gag and the unnerving feeling of countless bugs skittering across my skin encompassing nearly my entire world and making me dry heave.

“Shut up, Hebert!” I heard Sophia hiss with dark amusement towards the metal door, a hard hit against it punctuating her statement. “A worm like you belongs in the trash anyway; you should be thanking us for returning you to where you belong!”

Hearing the cruel laughter coming from over a dozen different mouths, I felt a hint of rage fighting against my hopelessness and despair, the mere thought that they could find any of this funny filling me with righteous fury, but even amidst my growing anger and despair, it was one specific voice that I focused upon.

The voice of a person that had once been my sister in all but blood, the voice of a person I had once trusted implicitly with my whole being, the voice of a person who had once been my closest and truest friend until she had betrayed it all.

“You really should have known better, Taylor,” Emma’s voice gleefully taunted from right outside the metal coffin I was trapped in. “You really should have learned by now that trash like you is not welcome here.”

I couldn’t stop the tears from my eyes as my once best friend outright laughed at my situation, at the situation she and her friends had created and forced onto me, each of her taunting words like a dagger to my heart.

But even so, beneath all the pain and sorrow, I could also feel my fury growing with each spiteful word that was spoken.

“Emma, please… You don’t have to do this...” I desperately pleaded, hoping against all hope that she would listen, that anything of my old friend, of my sister, still remained.

“But I do, Taylor. You see, it’s about time I cut a weakling like you out of my life for good,” she said in a mocking tone of voice, her words filled with contempt. “So why don’t you be your useless little self, and cry some more. Cry for a week straight for all I care, just like when your mother died.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut, leaving me completely speechless. The fact she would throw something I had confided to her in a moment of weakness right after my mother’s death back in my face in such a situation literally left me without reaction, not knowing what to do or say.

As I heard her laughing alongside the others while they started to walk away from my prison, that inaction was swiftly replaced by pure unrelenting fury, as the red hot ember of anger that had been slowly growing all this time exploded to life like a raging inferno.

As everything, the pain of my scraped arms and my aching head, the overwhelming stench and the disgusting feeling of garbage on my legs, the unnerving feeling of bugs crawling on my skin, and the intense hurt of her newest betrayal, everything was consumed by fury and rage as a single thought occupied the entirety of my mind.

How dare she!

The world seemed to be pressing all around me for a moment as I nearly choked on my anger until, with a blink of my eyes, I was no longer inside the filth-ridden locker hearing Emma’s mocking laughter. Instead, I was upon a vast void filled to the brim with stars swirling around each other in an endless dance.

And right in the middle of the sea of stars, as if the center of a gigantic galaxy, stood two colossal beings, spinning and twirling around each other in an eternal waltz. Stars trailed away from their bodies like rays of ephemeral light, locked in step with their graceful movements in an otherworldly choreography that defied explanation.

[Trajectory]

The shimmering stars dancing through the void seemed to call to me. Each of them was a beautiful fragment of creation, a spark of infinity, moving in a perfect pattern of incredible intricacy and beauty.

[Agreement]

And as I watched the mesmerizing dance of the two impossible titans and the countless stars that were birthed from their bodies, my eyes fell upon a single star. A single star, shining with such a fierce light that it could not help but hold my gaze, it’s brilliant light second only to the titans themselves.

[Destination]

A single, shining star whose brilliant form was swiftly cutting through the void and heading straight towards me, approaching my unmoving form with ever-growing speed as the titans’ words resonated through my hazy mind.

[Agreem-]

‘SILENCE YOU FOALS!’

Only for the whole impossible display to be abruptly brought to a screeching halt by a resounding shout, as a midnight-black ebon-colored star overtook and engulfed the brilliant shard coming towards me moments before it reached my body.

Blinking my eyes awake and shaking my head, I tried to make sense of what I had just seen, to understand why exactly I had suddenly started daydreaming about glowing titans and dancing stars, as for but a moment my mind completely forgot about my current situation due to the sheer strangeness of it all.

Only for the rancid smell and suffocating close walls of the locker to immediately bring me back to the harsh reality of my situation.

“Sophia! Are you alright?” Emma’s distressed voice came from the small openings near the top of the locker, the mere sound of the traitor’s voice filling me with fury once again.

“What the fuck? What the hell just hap… no…” Sophia’s voice came next, the confusion and incredulity clear in her tone doing nothing to calm the rising anger I could feel coursing through my veins.

‘What’s the meaning of this?! Who dares trap the Queen of the Night in such filth!?’

A feeling that was not helped in the slightest by an annoying buzzing sound that was now resonating in my ears. And that, alongside everything else, seemed to somehow only stoke the flames of my wrath even higher with each second that passed.

“No, there’s no way that loser…” Sophia’s voice continued, her confusion and incredulity slowly giving way to anger, but I was no longer listening, my own anger and fury demanding the whole of my attention as my quickened pulse hammered against my ears.

‘We shall not be contained!’

I wanted out of this hellhole! I wanted out of this filthy prison! And nothing and no one would stand in my way!

Placing my hands against the metallic surface of the locker’s door, I curled my fingers closed. The cold unforgiving metal that had once mercilessly trapped me deformed with the movement of my fingers as if wet clay, not even a hint of resistance now present in the door that hadn’t even buckled under my desperate struggles but moments earlier.

Baring my teeth in a parody of a smile I simply pushed forward, the deceitfully small movement nonetheless all but launching the metal door out of its hinges with a resounding ripping noise and propelling it straight into the row of lockers on the other side of the corridor with enough force to embed the deformed door into them with a resounding banging noise.

And just like that, I was free.

Author's Note

In many ways, this story was inspired by sopchoppy’s story A Friend in Need, an amazing story, that sadly hasn’t been updated in quite a while, with the setting of Twilight Sparkle being transported to the very start of Worm, and how that beautifully derailed the whole series Canon plotline.

Just in case it wasn’t obvious by this point, what with Taylor bursting out of a metal locker in righteous fury right in front of a few dozen witnesses, I will be going the AU route from the start with this story in regards to Canon Worm.

I will still use a few developments from Canon, but most of them will be changed by the butterfly effect. For not only will Taylor’s civilian identity be known right from her Trigger Event, but she will also be active way earlier than in Canon, where she spent months after her Trigger recovering, training, and making her costume before finally going out as a Cape for the first time and stumbling upon Lung.

Hope you liked the chapter, please review before leaving.

Mandatory disclaimer: I do not own “MLP: FiM” or “Worm Serial.”

Interlude - 1.a - Piggot

Interlude 1a – Piggot

“Would anyone like to tell me how this particular mess happened?” a heavy-set woman sternly asked as she leaned forward, large hands set upon the meeting table as her steel-grey eyes took in those seated all around her.

She didn’t shout, she didn’t scream, or even raise her voice. She did not allow a single glimpse of the fury roaring inside her to color her perfectly controlled voice as she asked the question to the gaggle of heroes and PRT personnel filling her personal meeting room in PRT ENE headquarters. And yet, more than one hero in the room shifted away from her in their seats upon hearing her words and feeling the icy glare as her gaze passed over them.

“Well? Would anyone care to tell me how exactly is it that a call for a disturbance at Winslow High ended up in a free for all between four members of the Protectorate, one of our Wards, and a complete unknown, an unmasked unknown at that, and ended up with said unknown escaping and both her identity and the identity of our Ward probably blown for all to see?”

As several of those listening fought down shivers that had nothing to do with the room’s AC, Emily Piggot waited for an answer regarding the newest madness that had befallen this misbegotten city. Her steely eyes moved from one target to another as she tried to keep her anger at bay, something that was not helped by the growing dull ache on her body that signaled she would have to have dialysis soon. But that could wait, preventing Brockton Bay from going up in flames for one more day could not.

“No spins, no guesses, no elaborated tales. Leave that to the papers. All I want to know is what, exactly, happened!” the Director of the PRT ENE firmly stated, her hard eye moving towards Assault and Battery, the fact that the first was acting unusually serious instead of doing his usual clown act not helping settle her nerves in the slightest. “Assault, Battery, you were the first on the scene. Walk us through what happened.”

“Battery and I were patrolling our route for the day when we received an urgent report of a possible altercation with a parahuman at Winslow High. As the closest to the area, we immediately moved to assess the situation,” the reformed villain promptly replied, voice serious and to the point. Narrowing her eyes, Piggot knew that this would not be good, if Assault was taking it seriously. “Approximately three minutes later we were on the site. Upon arrival we saw Shadow Stalker, unmasked, fleeing from the school while being pursued by an equally unmasked female cape. She was a tall teenager, with long black hair, possibly of Caucasian descent, though the fact she was covered in filth, dust and plaster made that hard to verify.

“Stalker jumped and entered her shadow state in order to gain distance, the pursuer in retaliation fired lightning from her hands, hitting Stalker at the apex of her jump, bringing her down.” He continued, grim-faced and eyes narrowed. “As the unknown then proceeded to approach the downed Shadow Stalker, we intervened, myself attempting a disabling blow while Battery rushed to see to Stalker’s health. Despite hitting the unknown with more than enough force to down a fully grown man thrice her body mass, she was completely unaffected, and proceeded to fight us while ignoring all attempts at dialogue.”

“Leading to the running battle that is, even now, going viral on the internet,” Piggot spat out, grinding her teeth as Assault nodded his head in agreement. What a fucking mess. “Do we know what caused this whole debacle?”

“Following the trail of destruction into the school led past several destroyed walls and directly towards a school locker that belonged to one Taylor Anne Hebert, a locker that was filled with what was, for all intents and purposes, rotting biological waste. Old tampons, sanitary pads, used toilet paper, all left to rot for a few days at least. All of it covered with a fresh layer of vomit, and traces of blood.” Miss Militia took over the explanation, her eyes narrowed dangerously and showing she was not happy with what she found. “The locker’s metal door was embedded in the row of lockers across from it, the damage showing it was hit from the inside with tremendous force.”

Emily fought the urge to curse as the picture of at least part of what had to have happened started to take form. “A Trigger Event. Someone filled her locker with that filth and thought it would be a grand idea to shove her inside and lock the door. Which in turn, more likely than not, caused her to Trigger.”

“Very likely,” Armsmaster added, for once his tone of voice showing he was actually giving the meeting his full attention instead of working on a project while pretending to do so. “Upon doing a more thorough investigation of Miss Hebert, I found over a dozen abandoned school accounts filled with hate mail and assorted threats and attacks. And while most of the school staff showed themselves to be distinctively uncooperative, the information obtained painted a picture of what looks like a protracted bullying campaign.”

Briefly closing her eyes, while trying to ignore the fact that Armsmaster most definitely would not have had the time to obtain the warrants to access said email accounts, Piggot took in a deep breath as she felt her headache grow. The girl had been bullied to the point of triggering, and then promptly proceeded to try and hunt down the Wards little pet psychopath, currently resting unconscious on an infirmary bed, in a blind murderous rage. Two plus two was four.

“I want a thorough search of both the Hebert and Hess residences. Also access any phones, emails or media accounts they may have. I want Hess’ lockers, both here and at Winslow, ripped apart. Her phones, computer, her room, both here and at her house, everything is to be searched thoroughly! I want to know exactly what the hell she was doing to bring this onto our heads!” she barked her orders. For once Armsmaster’s robot-like efficiency wasn’t aggravating her as the hero promptly started on the order right there at the table without so much as a ‘by your leave’, his fingers dancing upon a small holographic keyboard that appeared upon his left wrist.

“Director, we can’t just violate one of our Wards’ privacy like that!” Triumph protested in an appalled tone of voice, only to immediately shut up as Piggot glared at him with the full brunt of her current fury. “I mean, don’t we need a warrant for that at least?”

“Sophia Hess is on probation; she has no rights concerning privacy regarding this matter as far as I’m concerned!” she hissed back. This was a downright mess! Fury at the little psychopath that had been shoved onto her despite all her protests threatened to boil over. “Or have you failed to realize that Shadow Stalker’s civilian identity may very well have caused a girl to Trigger with an extremely powerful power-set. A girl who now has plenty of reasons to turn to villainy!

“Renick, I want you to grill Hess’ handler! We have received nothing but glowing reviews regarding her charge’s conduct in school up to this point, something that I now find very suspicious! I want answers!” she told her second in command, fuming at the mess she now had to deal with. As if preventing the bay from imploding with the scant resources she had was not enough trouble!

After taking several deep breaths to center herself, she proceeded with the meeting. An order to place Hess’ family under protective custody until they could try and contain the leak of Hess’ secret identity was given, as was the order to try and contact and bring in Hebert’s father and only living family, and finally moved to the next part of this nightmare.

“Regarding the fight itself and the powers used, what can we tell about Hebert?”

“She has no fighting experience whatsoever,” Assault immediately replied, causing more than one person to look at him incredulously considering how it had taken four fully trained heroes to cause the girl to retreat.

“Are you sure?” the Director questioned through narrowed eyes, pushing the growing pain in her bones aside as she focused on the topic at hand.

“She telegraphed all her attacks and unbalanced herself more than once by over-committing her strikes,” the red-clad hero replied while raising an eyebrow. “And that’s not mentioning how she had her thumb tucked inside her fist when she was trying to hit me. Yes, I’m quite sure she has no fighting experience whatsoever.”

“As for her powers: Brute five, easily, probably higher,” he continued with a grimace, opening and closing his fist as he spoke as if to limber a pained muscle. “I managed to bypass her freaky shadow defense a couple of times and even fully connect a hit or two straight to the back of her head, hits that carried more than enough kinetic energy to lay out grown men thrice her size, and she didn’t even notice it, save for being shoved around a bit. And when you add that to the trail of destruction she left behind as she chased Hess, and how she didn’t even seem to feel Dauntless’ lightning…”

“Blaster six, I think,” Dauntless hesitatingly added as Assault trailed off, the Spartan-themed hero’s hands idly caressing his shield as he spoke. “Her lightning blasts had one heck of a punch. The only time I blocked a blast stronger than that was from Purity when she was going all out, and she is a Blaster seven.”

“Shaker three or four for her ability to manipulate and solidify her shadow,” Battery continued, clearly uncomfortable with the whole mess, a rare sign of sanity for a cape. “The ability appears to be limited to her own shadow only, but at the same time it seems to be an automatic aspect of her power, with it apparently not needing her direct input to respond to threats. More than once it blocked Assault’s strikes despite how she was completely focused on pursuing Hess and I.

“Breaker/Mover three for her ability to turn into mist,” Miss Militia firmly stated, the weapon created by her power strapped at her waist changing between different types of handguns with flashes of green light as she spoke. “She completely bypassed the containment foam that was trapping her, and while in said form was able to fly away at considerable speed as she made her escape towards the nearest alleyway.”

“Christ…” Emily found herself muttering, headache now stronger than ever. Each of the powers in question by themselves could constitute a credible threat, but all of them together in the same Cape?

The fact that Hebert seemed to be freshly triggered also meant that the numbers in at least one of those categories would most probably go up in the following weeks as she grew more used with her powers was the cherry atop this particular cake!

“We need to find her, fast, before someone else finds her first.”

Hebert’s secret identity was blown beyond any hope of recovery. The fact that Winslow was infested with members of all three of the city’s major gangs made sure of that. By now said gangs most likely already knew her identity. And when that was added to her shown powers and the fact that she was an unstable and currently homeless teenager on the run, it meant that the gangs would do everything they could to either recruit or remove this newest piece who had just appeared on the city’s board.

“We may have a problem regarding that,” Armaster concisely stated, not stopping his frantic tying for even one moment. “The Empire Eighty Eight seems to be already making some noise in regards to attempting to find her.”

Gritting her teeth, Piggot cursed the heavens, because of course that would be the case!

A bullied white girl pushed to trigger by a black hero? Hebert was a public relations wet dream as far as the Nazi wannabes were concerned! And that’s ignoring how strong her powers are!

As those around her added their two cents in regards to the unwelcome news, Piggot tried to plan how to prevent this new unhinged problem from causing the already unstable pile of cards that was Brockton Bay to collapse and burn.

At the very least keeping deranged idiots with delusions of grandeur from doing so was something she had years of experience doing. But even so, as she started barking orders and getting the spandex-clad problems under her command into a semblance of order, she knew that they were now racing against the clock.

Author's Note

Piggot is a surprisingly difficult character to get right without turning her into a stereotype. She deeply distrusts and hates Capes. But unlike most she is fully aware of that fact and tries and places her professionalism above that. Not to mention how she actually has a valid reason for her distrust and hate. Hopefully I managed to get that across.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review before leaving.