In Which Taylor Makes a New Friend

"Hello, Queen Administrator. I had something of a proposition for you," the man said.

"Eww!" Taylor said, her face twisting in disgust. "Aren't you like, my dad's age? That's probably illegal."

There was a long beat of silence in the park, filled only with Skidmark's harsh panting and the sound Rune's hand made when it met her face.

He laughed. "Oh, I knew you'd be fun," he said. "No no, nothing like that, I assure you. See, I'm part of this wonderful little group of friends. Strong people that are often... misunderstood by the powers that be. So we stick together, like a family of--."

Then Taylor's phone rang in her pocket. She sighed and motioned with one finger to Jack, the universal 'wait a second' gesture.

"We're a family that looks out for each other, and I think you would be a wonderfu--"

"Shhh!" Taylor said to him as she pulled out her phone and pressed it to her ear. "Queen Administrator here, how can I help?"

"Taylor! You need to get out of there, now!" came Dragon's tinny voice. She sounded panicked, terrified even.

"What? Why? And since when do you know my name?" Taylor asked.

"There's no time for that, I'll explain later. Jack Slash and the Slaughterhouse Nine were seen entering the Bay this morning. You need to get to the PRT HQ as soon as you can."

Taylor looked up from the phone and towards the man that had been talking at her. He looked a little sheepish at being told to wait. "Hey, is your name Mister Slash?"

"Why yes, yes it is," Jack Slash said before bowing at the waist. "A pleasure to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you too!" Taylor replied with a grin. "I'm Queen Administrator, but you already knew that, I think."

"I did indeed!"

"Taylor!" Dragon's voice over the phone was loud enough to grab her attention again. "You need to get out of there, now!"

"Why? Mister Slash has been really polite so far," Taylor said.

"He's a supervillain! No, he's worse than that, he's one of the most vile men around. You need to get out of there Taylor. Please."

{From Unit-02 to Host-Queen_Adminstrator. Permission to eliminate Host-Broadcast_Manipulator in order to carry out Primary Directive?}

Taylor sighed. All she wanted was to have a nice picnic on the hill and maybe talk to her new friend. Why did things always need to get complicated? "Hey, Mister Slash, Dragon says that you're a really, really bad person, is that true?"

His smile grew wry. "I've been called worse."

"Huh," she said before pressing the phone back to her ear. "He said that he's been called that before."

"Of course he has. He's killed thousands. Taylor, no matter what you do, don't listen to him, he'll try to manipulate you, to trick you. Please, just run."

She looked up at the man standing next to a frothing Skidmark. "Dragon said that you'll try to manipulate me. Is that true?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking. All conversations are social manipulations. But I don't have any sort of Master ability, if that's what you're trying to ask," he said. His lips were still quirked upwards and he sounded as though he was holding back some mirth.

Taylor nodded and spoke into her phone again. "He said that--"

"I could hear him, Taylor. You can't trust what he says."

With a deep breath, Taylor looked at the phone, then at Jack. "Okay, I'm putting you on speaker phone because I'm tired of repeating everything to everyone, alright?" She leaned over the phone over the sound of Dragon's protests and pressed the biggest button on the screen hoping it was the right one.

The line went dead.

"Crud."

Jack shrugged. "It's alright. I'm sure she'll call you back."

"It was still really rude," she argued to which he nodded.

"Yes, but you can apologise. It was an honest mistake," he said. "Now, as I was saying, I'm part of a social club of sorts, and we wanted to ask you to join us. There's a bit of a test, but nothing that you'd have a hard time with, I'm sure."

Taylor was about to go on, but Rune slid down from the air between herself and Jack. "Okay, this has gone on long enough," she said, her face twisted in a glare that did little to hide her fear. "You are not going to recruit my friend into your fucked up band of fuck ups." She flung her arm forwards and a rock the size of Taylor's head tore out of the ground where they'd been sitting a few minutes ago and shot out towards Jack.

His eyes narrowed at the girl floating on her luggage above him, then a white and black blur ran out of the treeline and slapped the rock out of the air.

Jack bent down and around, his hand now holding a folding knife that he flicked across his chest.

With a hiss, Rune fell back, blood spraying out of her chest and neck in an arc that had it splashing across their picnic spot. She gasped and fell backwards off her luggage, tumbling head-first towards the ground.

"Levi!" Taylor screamed.

The Endbringer jumped forwards, claws outstretched and filling with water to catch the girl with a gentle splash. Cass was saved from the fall, but not from the naked woman that shot into the air towards the Endbringer.

He lifted his other arm up to block the woman only for her hand to swipe through his arm at the wrist and tear it off. It was enough that he had time to move Cass back and away from her though.

"No!" Taylor screamed even as Leviathan hopped back, cradling the injured Rune to his chest. He landed with a thump right next to her.

"Now now," Jack said. "Siberian, dear, please, none of that." He motioned with his hands--his knife having disappeared at some point-- with both palms open in a gesture of peace. "I'm terribly sorry. The Siberian can be a little protective you see? She just wanted to make sure I was safe after your friend attacked me."

The naked woman, the Siberian, paused. She looked between Jack and Rune, then slowly stepped back with the grace of a hunting cat. When she was next to Jack he patted her on the shoulder before turning his attention back to Taylor.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Taylor was shivering, her whole body shaking as her eyes locked onto the stump that had been Leviathan's hand, then at Rune who was grimacing and trying to bottle in the pain. In the few weeks since she had met Leviathan she had never really felt any visceral fear. She wasn't unhurtable, but he was always there to keep her safe. Sure, she knew that she wasn't the best socially and that kind of scared her, but not in the same way, not with the same intensity as the fear that slammed into her mind when she saw her best friend get hurt trying to save someone for her.

"I'm sorry Mister Jack, but I'm going to have to go."

{Unit-02 suggests retreating in order to maintain the Primary Directive. Optional and Suggested Secondary Objective: Eliminate threat.}

"No, no let's just go," she whispered.

"Ah, ah!" Jack said as he waved a finger at her like she was a naughty girl. "We really want you on our team, Queen Administrator. But first, we need to see how you are, not your big friend."

"For fuck's sake," Rune said. "Move!"

Taylor moved. She jumped up towards Leviathan, the Endbringer lowering his arm just enough that she could step on and wrap herself around it before he spun on one heel and swung his tail out behind him.

A whip of water shot out behind the Endbringer. The Siberian, who had started to move towards them, spun around to grab Jack and Skidmark by the shoulders a split second before the whip smashed into them.

Claws digging into the ground, Leviathan flew off the top of the hill and towards the deeper part of the city. "The PRT HQ!" Taylor shouted as she grabbed on for all she was worth.

Leviathan landed on one of the main roads, then spun around and ducked low to the ground. Taylor had to snap her eyes closed as something roared above them and exploded against an office building.

Blinking, she took in the mechanical monstrosity straddling the middle of the road. A huge six-wheeled truck, each wheel on its own axel linked to a chassis covered in steel plates. There were no doors or windows, only a pair of guns large enough that Taylor could have stuck her closed fist into them with room to spare. That, and a head attached the the very front of the car, the face covered by a pair of welder goggles that almost hid the pipes leading back into the makeshift tank.

"You! You're the bitch! You're the one that had your fucking pet 'clean' the city. He took my cars. He took all my projects away!"

"That Squealer?" Rune muttered, her voice growing weak. Taylor leaned over the girl, then touched her chest only to have her hand come back red.

"Unit Two, we need to move."

{Enacting Primary Directive.} Leviathan said.

The Endbringer jumped up just as a supersonic pile of trash blasted under him and rammed into a drugstore. When Leviathan landed, it was to unleash a waterfall that poured out from all over his body. The water shot down the road and towards the cackling Squealertank who fired her cannons again.

Watery tendrils snapped up and batted two rounds out of midair, letting them smash into the roadway with a resounding boom. Then the water rushed onwards and wrapped itself around the tank. "You fuck! You fucking fu--" Squealer's rant was cut short as the water looping around her crushed her tank.

The supervillain's eyes bulged as the tank was tossed aside.

"No. Bad fuck. My cunt shit!" Skirmark screamed as he rushed towards Leviathan, riding on trash piled over glowing marks on the ground.

Leviathan looked at the man.

He exploded.

Taylor flinched back. There was a little voice in the back of her head, one that was usually pretty quiet, that reminded her that humans were mostly water. Leviathan pulled her closer to his chest then started running again. Already his hand was regrowing out of the stump, fleshy grey skin expanding out like a sponge being filled with water, but more bloody and nasty.

They rounded a corner, Leviathan pushing against a building with one foot to dispel some of his momentum before he jumped over a van and towards the middle of the road.

Taylor was hanging on for all she was worth when she felt a coil of water wrapping around her face. She almost screamed as it tore off her glasses and flung them aside, then she heard a high-pitched keening noise, like a million fingers running on the edges of crystal goblets.

Every window in the street burst apart, sending cascades of glass towards the ground. Taylor tried to bury her face against Leviathan's side but she couldn't take her attention away from the glass as it spun around and formed a wall that cut them off from the end of the street.

Leviathan stopped, claws digging trenches into the asphalt as he spun around and aimed for one of the shorter buildings.

A blur of white and black slid before them. The Siberian grinned up at the Endbringer, eyes crazed as she took in the two girl's in his grasp.

The wall of glass exploded outwards, rushing towards Leviathan and the girls.

Taylor shut her eyes and hugged Leviathan close. "I'm sorry," she told her best friend.

There was a scream, not Shatterbird's glass-shattering yell, but a screeching call that burrowed into the back of Taylor's head and had her shivering.

A white form crashed down from on high, coming down feet-first like a diver aiming for deep waters. It crashed into the van parked on the corner, crumpling and burying the vehicle into the crater that formed around it.

The Siberian popped like a soap-bubble.

The creature that had flattened the van stood tall, wings expanding around it and catching the light of the sun overhead in such a way that, in Taylor's blurry vision, it looked as though a halo surrounded it.

[Unit-03 responding to Unit-02 request: Additional Friends. Friendship protocols activating!]