Taylor leapt across the rooftop, not breaking her stride at all when she landed and continued her sprint. In the corner of her vision, Lisa’s face was looking back with some amusement as she watched through the shell’s own eyes.
She had left her original body at Toybox to start preliminary work on the next set of shells, for as fast as the automated processes could manage much of the work, there were things she just couldn’t do without having hands on. That her ability to Tinker still functioned even remotely had several members of Toybox in all kinds of a frenzy. Harry especially was sort of losing his mind over it.
Even Vivian was interested in getting her own shell.
“Reports of a disturbance,” Lisa cut in, no doubt parsing the police and PRT systems. “No Parahuman presence reported, might make for a good shakedown.”
Taylor considered that. The location was already marked on her HUD. It would be good practice for sure, and if a Cape actually showed up, there was a good chance she could either take the fight or flee if outgunned. The Major was largely unknown, even with Number Man creating a trail of reports in the PRT systems, he kept them vague, attributed to staff that were no longer alive, or had since quit their respective positions and were unlikely to corroborate those reports.
Even then, she was listed as a free agent, working alongside heroes and villains alike, but never delving into unsavory acts. A consummate professional, the exact sort of person that Coil would take an interest in hiring. He would dig deeper of course, and find her supposed origins. Major Motoko Kusanagi. Former special forces and refugee of Kyushu, with no surviving family. She was discharged from the military following an incident that exposed her parahuman status. Walking off a bullet to the shoulder wasn’t taken well and she refused to join the PRT after being discharged.
Taylor adjusted course, speeding up as she did so and made her way across the city. The crime reported wasn’t in a good part of town, probably why the police weren’t in a hurry to get involved, that it was close to ABB territory didn’t help matters. A sighting of Hookwolf or Lung would mean it was time to get the fuck out, preferably putting a bullet or three through their eyes on the way out.
Generally, capes tended to frown away from guns, but Brockton had Miss Militia who made it part of her image. If anything, the Major persona would fit in rather nicely. Landing atop a single story pawn shop, she finally got eyes on the situation. A dozen Empire members were having a shoot out with Merchants, not the ABB.
That was peculiar, but still fairly frequent in occurrence based on the records she had access to. Taylor quickly moved her eyes from person to person, zooming in on each and allowing Lisa to get the best view she could have of the conflict. Once she had, her vision returned to normal.
“Empire was patrolling the border when they caught the Merchants trying to rob that pharmacy,” Lisa said, the building highlighting itself as she spoke. “Nothing fancy here though the Merchants did call Skidmark for help.”
“Time limit?” Taylor asked.
“Skidmark appears too high to care,” she answered with her usual smirk. “The Empire capes are active but not in range to intercept, and the Wards are patrolling closer to the Boardwalk.”
Taylor couldn’t help but smirk. “Then I’m engaging.”
“Happy hunting,” Lisa said cheerfully.
Taylor grinned and jumped from the building. She landed in the midst of the Nazis with the grace of a feline and immediately punched the closest asshole’s knee. It caved with a satisfying crunch. Someone began to shout, but Taylor was in motion. Limbs snapped and crumbled under her blows. One man swung a pipe, she blocked it easily, her arm unflinching under the impact.
The moment of surprise cost him, Taylor snapped the arm like a twig, snatched the pipe out of the air, turned and threw the pipe across the street. One of the Merchants yelped as he crumbled on impact and Taylor scooped up one of the guns dropped in the scuffle. She took aim, software assistance kicking in as she snapped off half a dozen shots.
The Merchants were all down in two seconds.
Taylor huffed at how easy the entire fight had been, scowling at the gun in her hand before she snapped off two more rounds, clipping the less crippled of the Empire members and ensuring they wouldn’t be back on the street anytime soon. It wasn’t like Amy would heal them either; she had a policy of refusing to heal those involved with gang violence.
Done with that, Taylor began to check each one of them, Lisa lifting all the credit card numbers from their wallets for Kurt to have fun with and any cash went straight into Taylor’s own pocket. She was just finishing up when movement caught her eye, a shadow falling to the street.
Her gun was up in an instant, only for the shadow to coalesce into a dark form holding her hands up in surrender. Well, Shadow Stalker was one of the few heroes in the city that actually seemed to get things done. She was close enough to an anti-hero that Taylor even expected they could work together if the situation called for it.
“Nice work,” Shadow Stalker said. “I was on my way when I heard the gunshots, I’m assuming that was you?”
Something about her voice seemed familiar, even with the mask filtering it somewhat. Taking that hunch, Shadow Stalker was entered into her recognition software. She could see Lisa grimace in her HUD the moment she set the software running, her power no doubt skipping ahead in some way.
Taylor had to suppress her emotions, venting her anger back with her flesh and blood when the results popped up. Sophia fucking Hess was a goddamn Ward. That fucking cunt was the reason Armsmaster had been so adamant that she had to join.
A hero for a hero. That was the true terms he was demanding, because for everything Taylor could say about Sophia, Stalker was a damn effective hero when she was allowed to work off the books. Fuck, she couldn’t let her own emotions get in the way, she needed to divorce herself from the Major, take a step back and let Taylor bare the brunt of the emotional fallout.
“It was,” the Major said, the gun in her hand unwavering. “I’m new to the city, and these people were proving to be a problem. Are you going to be a problem too?”
Taylor hoped she would be a problem.
“Fuck no,” Shadow Stalker said. “You kicked Nazi ass, that makes you alright in my book. If I was allowed, I'd pat you on the back, buy you a drink and hope you invite me the next time you plan to kick some ass.”
Taylor wanted to retch, but the Major remained calm and stoic as she lowered her gun. “That’s certainly a refreshing attitude, most heroes get all pissy when I put bullets into kneecaps.”
“Most heroes aren’t forced onto probation for fucking up a rapist,” Stalker snarled. “This city likes to punish people for each good deed.”
“Oh this is rich,” Lisa said. “She’s looking at the Major like a potential mentor in how to break people. She’s not lying about being forced into the Wards when they busted her almost killing someone either, nice bit of context that was left off the official reports. What she hasn’t said was how she nearly killed Grue back around New Years, half an inch from his kidney, bled all over Regent’s favorite couch.”
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“Got it, she’s a problem case,” the Major said through her comms while Taylor continued to grind her teeth. “I’ll keep her away from the Undersiders. Doesn’t mean we can’t put her to use elsewhere.”
“You’re playing with fire,” Lisa chided, but the Major had turned her focus back to Shadow Stalker.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the Major said as she ejected the magazine and popped the chambered round before returning the gun to the man she had taken it from. As she did that, it was the work of a second to single out the burner phone on Shadow Stalker’s person and sent a text. “Brockton Bay is certainly more interesting than the other cities I’ve passed through.”
“You carry yourself like a veteran,” Shadow Stalker said. “I wouldn’t mind if you were willing to show me a thing or two out there.”
“First night out, cheating like hell with programmed movements and posture and you have one of the most experienced capes in the city asking for advice,” Lisa said, unable to control her physical laughter even as she used her cybernetics to keep talking. “Just wait until Armsbastard or Miss Milfitia meets you, this is gonna be great.”
The Major rolled her virtual eyes and looked over her battlefield. “I suppose this should be called in. Do you have a direct line? I haven’t been active long enough to have secured the local number.”
“Uh, yeah,” Shadow Stalker said before rattling off a number which was already in her directory. “Could you not mention me? I’m sort of on an off the record patrol here.”
The Major waved a hand. “Sure, I can do that. In exchange, we should meet up sometime and you can help me get up to speed on the cape politics in this city. I’m good at gathering information, but nothing beats hands-on experience.”
“Uh, you talking civvies?” Shadow Stalker asked hesitantly. “I notice you’re not masked and all, but aside from New Wave, we all wear masks usually. Even Hellhound wears one.”
“She’s the dog girl, right?” the Major asked.
Lisa of course, snorted.
“With the Undersiders, probably the most annoying group in the city, and I’m counting Uber and Leet in that.”
“I resent that,” Lisa said, flailing her arms dramatically. “Avenge my honor or some shit for me since I can’t tear her life down on her head.”
That finally got Taylor to at least chuckle, and her girlfriend pouted though she seemed smugly satisfied with herself at the same time.
“Masks are fine, I just don’t wear one,” the Major said, tapping her face. “My civilian identity was blown to hell so I cast it aside.”
All true statements on the off chance a Thinker were to review footage taken from something she hadn’t detected or happened to be listening in. Shadow Stalker nodded, looking at her phone and the message on it. Her head immediately snapped up when she realized the implications of the message.
“Keep that to yourself,” the Major said with a wink. “I like keeping some tricks up my sleeves for when the truly evil fuckers come knocking. Give me a call if you ever decide to go after the Empire off the record, I’ll back you up.”
Shadow Stalker nodded then jumped, turning back to shadow as she did. Taylor let out a breath and let off the forced persona just a touch and turned her focus back on her own call she needed to make and dialed the number. Two rings in, a chipper male voice answered.
“PRT, please state the nature of your emergency.”
“This is the Major, I was passing through and stumbled upon an active conflict. The threat was neutralized with appropriate force.”
Before the dispatch officer could ask questions, she tacked on the address.
“Please explain what you mean by ‘appropriate force’.”
“No fatalities, but multiple broken bones and G.S.W.s, not all inflicted by me as I did interrupt an active firefight.”
“We’ve redirected a Protectorate patrol, will you be remaining on site?”
“Sure,” Taylor chirped. “I need to introduce myself to the locals anyway given I plan to stick around for some time.”
“Looks like Assault and Battery,” Lisa chimed in, syncing the PRT system’s tracking with her own HUD. “Lucky, you get to meet the fun ones.”
It didn’t take the pair long to arrive, well ahead of any police or PRT personnel, not that it was a surprise. Battery glowed briefly, then in a blur, arrived just a dozen feet away. Her first reflex had been to fight, the Major’s hand half reaching towards her gun before she killed the motor function long enough to recover her composure.
Battery’s visor obscured her eyes, but a faint outline was still visible as one eyebrow was raised. Thankfully Assault bounded around the corner a moment later, huffing as if he had just run a marathon. Taylor’s own biometric sensors indicated it was entirely put on, which was amusing in its own way.
“Well, this certainly is one way to make an impression,” Battery said. “With this level of force, I was expecting someone who looked like an edgy villain, not…”
“A stylish twenty-something heading to the local lesbian bar?” Assault added with a grin, all signs of his fake exhaustion gone.
Battery smacked him.
The Major chuckled. “He’s not wrong. Girls do love the boots.”
“Don’t forget the jacket,” Lisa added.
Assault snorted. “We’ll put out a warning to all the local single women then.”
Rolling her eyes, the Major squared her shoulders. “We can banter through the night, but there are several people that if left unattended will actually bleed out.”
And like a switch was flipped, the levity left Assault and he became all business. “Right. Battery dear, triage until the cavalry arrives?”
“That would be prudent,” she answered. “Are you trained in first aid…”
The Major nodded, moving back to one of the nearby men. “I am, and you can call me the Major. It was my rank and I kept it when I was discharged.”
“I noticed the lack of a mask,” Assault said. “No civilian identity then?”
Lisa’s image popped back into her HUD, a smirk on her face. “If you’re curious, the guy running the console is looking into you, trying to find a name.”
“None worth mentioning,” The Major answered. It really was hilarious how little respect to identities was actually given among the heroes, but she had long since grown insensitive to it after everything Armsmaster pulled.
Silence filled the air, well, as much as it could with half a dozen men wailing in pain. More than once the Major had over tightened the bandages of some Nazi just because they were being annoying. Taylor was barely paying attention at that point, instead going over all the technical readouts and telemetry from the fight. In the end, it took thirteen minutes for the PRT van to arrive and even then, it wasn’t enough to deal with the number of people she had taken down.
It did signal an end to the need for her to assist with the triage however, and Battery signaled her over.
“I know this is a bit presumptuous, but Brockton Bay is a dangerous place,” she began. Taylor had to intentionally blank the Major’s face to avoid scrunching it in disgust at yet another recruitment attempt. “If you’re willing, we could bring you back to the PRT building, maybe introduce you to the other members of the Protectorate.”
Taylor did allow herself to shake her head this time. “Miss, as cute as that was, I’m sure you’ll find my records soon enough. I’m a mercenary. I won’t take jobs from the Nazis on principle, but odds are you will see me working for a villain at some point before I hit the road again.”
Assault and Battery both tensed, the latter gaining a faint glow as she did. The Major sighed, turning away from them. “Your boss is always welcome to hire me instead, assuming his budget can afford my services.”
With that parting shot, she jumped up to the nearest rooftop and sprinted off into the night. She had done what she hoped to accomplish, word would spread that the Major had come to Brockton Bay. All she had to do was wait for Coil to order Lisa to make contact and they would have their in with the bastard.
Then the fun would truly begin.