Photographs Tell No Truths
Chapter5: Pictures of You
Disclaimer: Do You Think if I Owned TF2 I’d be Writing a Worm x Fanfic?
I mean… Probably… I own Absolutely NOTHING.
Story Start:
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Staring at the cheap wooden doors in front of her.
Taylor could only sigh, in a hotel as resplendent and wealthy as The Continental Hotel obviously was there was really only one reason why they’d have such an inexplicably out of place door.
Well they’re was a lot of reasons why. But at a hotel that had such a deep seated sense of lethality, that catered to the kind of people that set her Awareness on edge, and made her want to grind her teeth?
Yeah Taylor wasn’t born yesterday.
Plus it’d totally be in character for her AI Overlord would definitely send her to a lethal ambush.
Checking her weapons and equipment, as well as cursing her Yukata for being an impractical piece of shit to fight in.
Taylor honestly had to remind herself that she was well versed in how to fight in the japanese robe, was it pretty?
Yes.
Did her legs look fantastic in it if she let one slip out?
Also yes.
Was it impossible to move in, without damn near being stripped naked?
Not if you knew what you were doing, and Taylor DID know what she was doing.
Taking a fortifying breath, Taylor rearranged her dress, kicked off her geta, and slipped through the doors, quiet as a ghost.
Noting the tripwire even a child could have seen, Taylor was more than suspicious enough to spot the infrared laser all of which was tied to a directional mine, placed on the ceiling above the door.
Rolling her eyes, Taylor slid down the long hallway on the other side of the door, her Awareness mindful and on a razor’s edge as she noted the discolored floors and walls, and taking notice of how sections of the walls and floors had something just complete amiss about them.
Click
Not hesitating a second, Taylor threw herself into the corner of a wall, and drew her revolver in the process, and was only mildly surprised when one of the walls slid open above her.
“Where is this bitch, Charon better not be stalling about sending her this way.” a cultured and annoyed woman grunted, the click of a pistol’s hammer alerting Taylor that this woman was indeed armed.
‘Fucking fantastic.’
Click
“Door sensors haven’t tripped, so either our mark is pretty good or someone spotted your obvious ass trap Erica.” a male voice stated, as the wall across from her swung open, shit.
Slapping her wrist Taylor barely activated, her invis watch seconds before she would have been visible to the man who just emerged from the wall across from her.
‘Well this is one hell of a pickle you dumb ass. Now you’re invisible, on the floor, and in between two people who probably want you dead.’ Taylor mentally groaned, silently sliding up from her prone position, and began making her way back down the corridor, one eye on the timer for her watch, and her gun trained on the duo in the walls.
Seriously, who were these jokers? The last thing you should be doing if you were going to ambush someone would be to pop open your hiding places and start shooting the shit.
For fucks sake, even Emma and her lackies knew that.
Fucking Teenagers!
Mentally rolling her eyes, it was only thanks to her Awareness screaming at her that Taylor paused, her foot in midair, and a hair's breadth from breaking another infrared beam, this time it wasn’t just one hole in the wall, but dozens.
‘A fucking detection net’ Taylor groaned to herself, her invis watch would be useless against something like this seeing as it worked off bending light, there was no way that her device would let her walk through something like this, one or two? Maybe.
But with how many here Awareness was highlighting for her? No, not in a million years.
Checking her watch again, Taylor wanted to curse when she spotted how little time was left on her cloaking field, and she was way too bloody close to dipshit one and two for her to trust that the decloaking noise her manual warned her about wouldn’t attract their attention.
Closing her eyes, Taylor took a couple of steps back, before rushing the detection grid, letting her Awareness guide her, as she dove through a spot at torso height that something in her screamed was empty.
When tweedle dee and tweedle dumb kept chatting along completely oblivious, Taylor let herself hope a little sprinting down the hall a slave to her instincts as she put hopefully enough distance between herself and the goons that her decloak wouldn’t be audible.
“Well that was squicky.” Taylor grunted to herself, taking the few seconds her invis watch needed to recharge, to peek around the corner of the hallway.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
And found a fucking shooting gallery.
Lasers and auto turrets… EVERYWHERE
‘Like seriously, what the fuck even is this shit?’ Taylor mentally grumbled, sliding back from the corner before one of the auto turrets got lucky and spotted her.
‘Alright, alright… can’t rush in, they’d light me up like a fucking christmas tree. Invis watch definitely doesn’t have enough of a charge to make it through that cluster fuck. My sapper doesn’t have the range to disable all of them, never mind the fact it tends to make whatever it’s used on fucking explode, which will definitely alert those two back there, never mind anyone else further ahead…’
“Fuck it.” Taylor decided, and fucking sprinted around the corner onto incoming fire.
Instantly every auto turret locked in on her, their guns blazing to life as Taylor let her Instincts guide her once more, sliding and dashing down the hallway, one hand on her invis watch as she used the walls and recklessly planned slides to avoid the turret fire, which definitely altered the hallway guards.
Halfway to the first line of turrets, Taylor finally, finally activated her invis watch, slowly only slightly to prime her Sapper which she gleefully chucked passed the first line of turrets and disabled the second.
Mindful as she heard the thunder of feet from behind, Taylor grinned maliciously as she passed the first line of turrets, and deactivated her invis watch causing the turrets in front of her to pop back into action.
Dropping into a slide, as Taylor looked back just in time, to watch her pursuers get gunned down in a spray of bullets, as Taylor neatly bypassed the intersecting lines of fire.
Something in Taylor told her that she should probably feel bad about getting two people killed, but with the stains on the walls Taylor had the feeling that they’d have done the same to her. Not to mention the fact that since the turrets were loaded with real ammunition she didn’t have the time to worry about someone else’s death.
Scooping up her Sapper as she slid past, Taylor quickly deactivated the device before it could wreak any havoc on her own devices, thanking every god she could think of as the emp effect of the device prevented the turrets from instantly opening fire on her.
Using the last of her momentum to slide back up to her feet had a few feet of uninterrupted movement before she was forced to begin dancing around rows and rows of lasers. Very sharp, very hot lasers.
Given that the edge of one of her sleeves slipped through one, and now was missing a corner, and was in fact on fire.
“Overlord I swear to All the Gods that I’m going to delete your fucking OS when I get my hands on you!” Taylor growled under her breath fighting a rapidly swelling headache as she struggled to keep track of the intersecting lasers and the turrets currently attempting to pump her full of holes both ahead and behind. Thankfully the laser beams worked to shield her as much as they posed a danger to her.
Reaching the end of the laser maze, Taylor quickly once more activated her invis watch, slipping past the last line of turret, before quickly and quietly slipping to the side of the door and throwing wide open.
Much to Taylor’s expectation… absolutely nothing happened… like at all…
No gun fire… no hail of projectiles… hell not even a shout of “Get Her!”
Slipping through the doorway, Taylor immediately wanted to sigh out loud.
‘A maze… they stuck me in a fucking maze. For fucks sake…’ Taylor mentally moaned, Taylor had never liked mazes, even before the trio fully awakened her Awareness, she’d never had any trouble navigating them.
From mirror mazes, to deathtrap video game mazes, there was always just something in Taylor’s subconsciousness that just… Got it.
It took her five minutes.
It didn’t matter that some of the doors were guarded by turrets, an electric lock, or some hallways were full of cameras that probably activated something unpleasant, or even a combo of the three.
She didn’t even need to use her Invis watch.
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The next room was far more problematic.
It was a ballroom.
A ballroom full of people.
A ballroom full of people and only the guards around the edges of the room.
“Ma’am? Your headpiece.” Charon greeted calmly offering a small headset to her on a tray next to a champagne flute. How he actually knew she was there? Taylor had no idea, but given his lack of focus on where she was actually standing? Taylor assumed that Overlord had something to do with it.
Accepting the earpiece Taylor quickly fitted it in before activating her disguise kit, and set it to make her (now rumbled, bullet hole ridden, and slightly burnt) Kimono a more pristine look, as well as giving her a more generic asian features before disabling her Invis watch.
Not so much as making her look like anyone in particular, but making her look like no one recognizable.
“Thank you Charon.” Taylor stated gracefully, accepting her glass of champagne (and noting how a pair of the closer guards tensed and started attempting to alert their fellows to her locations) before losing herself in the flow of the party.
The partiers for their part highlighted to her Awareness as being completely and totally mundane (well for a stretch of the given word). Oh sure one or two here and there were armed but it appeared to be more of a matter of principle for them, than for any malicious intent.
Unlike the guards who even now were attempting to spot her, combing through the partiers, and making a general nuance of themselves.
“Congratulations Dear Taylor For Making It This Far, Few Can Say The Same.” a voice crackled softly into her ear as her new earbud suddenly activated.
“Overlord,” Taylor subvocalized with a quiet sigh while maintaining a conversation with a rather pretty blonde girl around her own age about her vacation, and how interesting she was finding America. “Or at least the speaker for them, quite the party you set up for me. What do you want?”
“Only To Deliver You The Instructions For The Next Part Of Our Little Soiree. Within This Room There Is A Woman With A Red Envelope, Steal It Without Her Notice And Deliver It Secretly To A Certain Brunette Within This Room. It Should Be Quite Easy For You To Recognize Her Considering The Two Of You Have Met Before.”
‘Well that’s quite easy considering she was currently talking to her, but who was the brunette?’ Taylor wondered quietly, using a moment of closeness with the rather flirtatious blonde to sneak the letter she tucked in her bra, before making good on her escape before she noticed.
“Victoria sweetheart, it has been a wonderful experience talking with you! And should time permit me, I will certainly visit this Arcadian of yours for that flight you promised me.” Taylor purred, before giving the blonde a kiss on the cheek before allowing the partiers to once more sweep her away, and them apart.
It took more than a few rotations around the ballroom before Taylor spotted her, hiding in a corner of the room next to a rather disgruntled looking guard whom she’d evidently evicted from their post.
It was Amy! What the hell was Amy Dellon doing here?! Was she a part of it? Or was Overlord just playing another joke on her? If she was Taylor was definitely going to erase the cheeky AI’s OS, having to seduce Madison was bad enough. Involving the healer to whom she most probably owed her life was a step too far!
“Why hello Ms. Dallon what is a beauty like you doing here in such a drab corner?” Taylor asked with a seductive purr, marching up to the duo (swiping an extra pair of the white silk gloves the serving staff wore and slipping them on) with confidence. Before turning to the guard affecting a tone of command, that of a rich and important heiress, someone used to get what they wanted, no questions asked, and expected their commands to the letter. “Leave us.”
“Ma’ams.” The guard snapped standing straighter before wandering off with a minor eye roll when he thought she couldn’t see him.
Amy for her part only sighed and shrunk further into herself before flatly stating, “No I have no interest in other employment, traveling around half the planet to heal any sick family members, or take bribes to achieve any of the former, any publicity stunts or donations can be coordinated through New Wave, or brought to me on any of the days I am working at any of the given hospitals located in Brockton Bay.” Amy sighed, grumbling out her lines like she was reading them off a card.
“A common… aah… insistence I gather?” Taylor giggled, bringing a hand to her mouth, “Well let me put those warranted fears of those of yours to rest for I am here for none of those things.”
Which prompted a further flump from Amy, this time of relief and a quiet sigh of, “oh thank god.”
“For I dear Amelia have simply come to inquire as to why a delectably golden eye goddess such as yourself have been relegated to such a drab corner?” Taylor asked, again purring seductively to the brunette before the start of a new song from the unseen band caused her to change her plans. “Come dance with me! One such as you should be in the limelight, not sequestered in darkness!” Taylor said cheerfully before snagging one of the healer’s hands and dragging her onto the dance floor.
“Trying to avoid the people who tend to demand those, as you put it “Requests”. Most people who see someone standing grumpily in a corner tend to get the memo.” Amy grunted though nevertheless began to dance the slow waltz with her. She wasn’t very good, not like Taylor was, but then most people weren’t forced to learn under the ominous threat of the unknown which turned out to in fact be death via nuclear fire. “What with the gloves anyway? You weren’t wearing them earlier when talking to my sister.” Amy accused eyes narrowing slightly, observant, terrifyingly, not especially since one of the guards who were actively searching for her hadn’t recognized her.
‘Shit that was GloryGirl,”
“Purely for your comfort my dear, a biokinetic of your magnitude simply can’t feel comfortable having to feel everything that makes whoever you’re touching tick with every moment of contact.” Taylor hummed, turning her into a gentle spin, a part of her mind not focused on avoiding detection doing its best to make Amy look incredible along with her on the dance floor, adding more spins and twirls as Amy got more comfortable dancing with her and the song began winding down.
“Hmm… while your concern is appreciated it doesn’t bother me in the slightest,” Amy asked with a small bite to her lip before acting far more confident than she expected and slipping one hand up out of her glove and onto Taylor’s arm. Instantly Taylor saw recognition and concern flash in the healer’s eyes.
Not knowing what else to do, Taylor did the only thing she could think of in that moment and swept the healer into a long bowing kiss, taking the opportunity to slip her little red letter into the scarlet sash she wore around her pure white dress, before melting away into the crowd, leaving Amy with a stunned look, and her face slowly burning hot with embarrassment, and tried desperately to ignore the sudden feeling of liquid firm burning through her veins and across parts of her back.
Hopefully whatever Amy had just hit her with was just painful rather than anything lethal. She at least deserved the former.
“Congratulations Taylor, A Job Well Done. Though Panacea Most Probably Recognized You.”
“I doubt it. I think I did a pretty good job of melting her brains out her ears with that little play. And even if she did… Well I can deal with that.” Taylor subvocalized, making her way towards and out the exit doors to the ballroom that had suddenly opened for her, finding Charon on the other side waiting for her.
“True. Follow Charon We Have Much To Discuss Yet.”
“Roger” Taylor said aloud before slipping the earpiece out and placing it on the tray the Major Domo carried with him.
“Follow me Ma’am,” Charon stated solemnly with a satisfied smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
“Of course Sir Charon, hopefully the rest of this journey shall not be as poetic as your name implies.”
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Chapter End