Chapter Text
***
“Taylor! Taylor, are you in there?”
Dad? Through the haze filling my brain, the nausea due to all the horrible smells and just the general confusion caused by being shut in a tight, dark space, I thought that my mind was playing tricks on me.
Still, I had nothing more to lose.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me.”
Had my voice always been this weak?
I felt and heard the door rattling for a few moments, but it stayed tightly shut.
“Sir! Sir, who are you and what are you doing here?”
“Danny Hebert! Are you the principal? I need the master key to open this door! Somebody shut my daughter in here!”
“What? Hebert? What has that girl pulled this time?”
“Ma’am, she’s been acting weird all morning. I think she just wanted attention.”
“I see, Miss Barnes.”
“Emma? What are you saying? In any case, it doesn’t matter, let Taylor out this instant! And what is that smell?”
There were a few laughs and remarks at this from the apparently assembled crowd.
“Someone needs a shower.”
“Yeah, Hebert’s always stinking up the place!”
“Didn’t her parents teach her about hygiene?”
I felt a wave of fresh tears gathering from sheer humiliation. The last thing I wanted was for Dad to hear all this crap.
And what was he even doing at Winslow? Now of all times?
“Sir, the janitor is at lunch. I’m sure he’ll let her out as soon as he’s back. This might make for a suitable lesson after all. Your daughter is a troubled girl, always crying wolf about something.”
There was a pause during which Taylor held her breath. Would Dad believe Blackwell and Emma right away or would he take some convincing?
“Taylor. Did you shut yourself in your locker?”
“No! No, it’s them. I just know it’s them!” I started crying, not able to hold myself together anymore. “It was Emma or Sophia, maybe Madison.”
Angry muttering and objections could be heard outside from several voices, including Blackwell, but I ignored them all.
“Dad, please, get me out of here!”
There was a pause and some gasps, then I could see the hall in front of me as the door finally opened somehow.
I tried to step out, but after more than an hour in this place (I’ve heard at least two bells at different times), I couldn’t even stand, so I tipped forward, but was caught in my father’s arms.
“Mr Hebert, I don’t know how you broke the lock, but I’m calling security!”
Dad ignored Blackwell and helped me up, holding my shoulders and looking worried.
“Taylor, is any of the blood yours?”
I sobbed, half from relief and half from shame at my father seeing me like this.
“I don’t know, I don’t think so, all this was inside when I opened the door, it was disgusting! I threw up and then someone pushed me in and shut the door!”
“I see, kiddo. Here, this should help with the smell. I’d clean you up, but we probably need the evidence.”
Suddenly I felt a wave of fresh air. Though my clothes were still covered with bloody gunk, I couldn’t smell any of it. What just happened? Dad continued talking.
“So you aren’t sure who pushed and locked you in? You said it could’ve been Emma, didn’t you?”
Ignoring the indignant shouts from my tormentors, I tried my best to stay objective.
“I didn’t see who it was, but I heard Emma laughing right away, and Sophia Hess too! There she is. I screamed to let me out, but they just taunted me.”
“So they haven’t called a teacher or anyone else to help get you out? Have you been stuck in there all morning? It’s been more than an hour since your first period started.”
“Yeah,” I sobbed out, but took a few breaths to calm myself down, while Dad rubbed my back. “Oh, I also heard Madison laughing, that’s Madison Clements.”
“She’s lying! I didn’t see anything, I wasn’t even here!”
“I see.” Dad shook his head. “It wasn’t the first occasion, Taylor, was it? These girls have been...”
“They’ve been bullying me, yeah. Since the high school started. First Emma and Sophia. She’s done something to Emma, I don’t know, she was different ever since I came back from the camp!”
“Was she? Do you have anything to say for yourself, Emma?”
“She’s lying, just as Maddie here said. Taylor is a huge liar, and you know what, you’re both in so much trouble! All these accusations, I feel attacked and traumatized. I’m calling my father!”
“Here’s this man! Arrest him!”
We raised our heads to see Blackwell pointing me and Dad to two security guards. I almost forgot Winslow had those, and two at the same time? She probably caught them during the shift change. One was likely old enough to be my great-grandfather, while the other looked even thinner than me, and with a bigger gut. They exchanged looks and stepped forward, seemingly not intimidated by taking my dad two on one.
“Bad idea.” I turned back to Dad, only to see his face has gone cold, much colder than I’ve ever seen it before. Usually when he was angry, he made it clear, but this time there was something else, something that made me scared. Not for myself, of course, but for what my father would do.
Before the guards could take another step, he raised his hand, and both men collapsed like puppets with strings cut. I gasped and so did most of the crowd. Blackwell’s mouth started opening and closing silently until she covered it with her hands.
“Cape!” Somebody shouted.
I stared at my dad in wonder, not believing what I just saw. Was Dad actually a cape? Was he a hero or a villain? Why did he never tell me?
As if understanding my turmoil, he touched my cheek and smiled a little.
“It’s gonna be alright, honey. Don’t worry about anything.”
Then he turned to the side and raised his hand again. This time Sophia Hess floated over to us, cursing and struggling all the while.
Most of the crowd already dissipated, sensibly choosing to run away from a possible parahuman attack. Only Emma was still here, stuck in place, holding her phone and looking wide-eyed at her captured enforcer. I could also see Madison’s face peeking around the corner, as if the girl wanted to escape, but also had to see what happened next.
“Who were you trying to call, Sophia? This looks like a PRT issue phone. Let me see.”
Ignoring my bully’s protests, he plucked the device right out of her hands.
“Shadow Stalker, huh? That explains some things, but raises even more questions.”
The girl’s reaction shocked me even more than his words, as she turned into grey smoke which floated back a few feet, until Dad squeezed his fist and the air started sparkling, making Sophia reappear with a cry of pain and drop to the floor.
My knees felt weak again. What? Shadow Stalker? Wasn’t she a local hero? I’m pretty sure I saw her in the news late last year, being accepted into the Wards.
Was I being tormented by a hero? Why? What did I do to deserve it?
Dad shook his head and looked at me.
“Taylor, listen. Don’t be scared. I’ll explain everything, but first we need to deal with all this, before it escalates even further.”
I nodded.
“Okay. I’m not scared, Dad. Not of you. But... are we in trouble now? With the heroes?”
“No. Don’t worry about it. In fact let’s go and get some answers from the people likely responsible for this mess.”
With those words Sophia, Emma, Blackwell and even Madison were pulled towards us by an invisible force. Then there was a flash of green light and the Winslow hall disappeared, replaced by a large conference room which could’ve belonged to any office building in town.
My impression of a random office was shattered right away as alarms started blaring and a number of armed guards barged in, pointing strange-looking weapons at us.
***
Emily surveyed the room and its assortment of occupants. Half of the people assembled did not belong in her building in any shape or form. She would’ve liked nothing more than to remove them, or better yet, throw them somewhere quiet to cool off and then question one by one until she got to the bottom of this mess.
Alas, she lost the full control of the situation as soon as her emergency response troopers were disabled and the man – the cape – who attacked them introduced himself. Armsmaster, who was fortunately present at the PRT building, confirmed Daniel Hebert’s identity with Dragon and Legend both. Emily reluctantly contacted her superiors as well, who, after some scrambling around, made their orders quite clear.
So now here she was, waiting at the head of a table for the meeting to start. At her side was Armsmaster in his power armor, and a couple of troopers, who would be less than useless if any further confrontation occurred. On the opposite end sat Mr Hebert, holding his daughter’s hand. At some point he teleported the girl home, as he claimed, and returned her in twenty minutes, cleaned up and holding a stack of notebooks. Emily had no choice but to allow that, though she had to admit, the initial smell had been… overpowering.
Shadow Stalker in her civilian identity was sulking in a corner, restrained with electrified cuffs. Her two civilian associates were sitting nearby, one quietly sobbing, the other angrily clenching her fists. Each of the girls had their parents contacted, but Emily wasn’t about to let them escape so easily, not until she got to the bottom of this. And finally, Carrie Blackwell, the principal of Winslow High, who finally had the good sense to shut up and stop accusing the Heberts of every crime imaginable.
Emily heard the door opening and turned to see agent Davis, Stalker’s handler, being led in. The woman opened her mouth, but quickly shut it under her glare. Even if Emily wanted to get Davis’s version of events first, it was too late for that now. They had to perform this spectacle until the truth was clear one way or another.
Finally, a big screen behind her lit up and she nodded at the person there. Rebecca Costa-Brown stared at her and then around the room, her gaze unreadable. Quite against the protocol, the head of PRT addressed Hebert first.
“Hello, David. I would like some explanation for the stunt you pulled today. That’s quite unlike you.”
“Rebecca. It’s Daniel now, or Danny, if you want. And I could say the same to you. I’d very much like to hear an explanation from you, or Director Piggot here. Why exactly did you think it was a good idea to let your Ward attack my daughter?”