Taylor drummed her fingers along the table as she looked off to the side of the break room. She could see Hannah out of the corner of her eye, which was already too much of the woman for her taste. The woman was glaring at her, no doubt a dozen different thoughts racing through her mind following what had to be a complete shattering of her worldview.
Frankly, if she didn’t have a use in the coming plans, Taylor wouldn’t even bother with her. It would have been easier handing her over to Legend after Cranial did some work on the woman and wash her hands of it all. Unfortunately, there was an opportunity to really rub it in Armsmaster’s face that he fucked up and she wasn’t going to let that go.
Armsmaster and Coil were working hand in hand, often with the support of the Nazis to further their own goals. Learning that Brockton Bay was an experiment really pissed her off, especially when it was clear that Legend all but begged to clean out the Nazis only to be shut down by someone Jacob only referred to as the Boogieman.
Speaking of Jacob, they were waiting on him to bring someone in, but he was being incredibly close-lipped about it. Melissa seemed to have an idea, but just chuckled when Taylor tried to pry. So, all she could do was grit her teeth and deal with it.
At least Motoko and Lisa were keeping busy with their own projects and the steady stream of cat videos from Lisa were certainly appreciated. Motoko was working with Riley on their secondary project, which was going to employ the only backup remote control device she had on hand.
Even after a few days to mull things over, Taylor wasn’t sure how she felt about the Nine, or about her upcoming session with Jacob where they would talk about things. She couldn’t even be upset that they kept it from her, she was told upfront there were shadier sides to Toybox, and Melissa, who had two of her mom’s former girlfriends in her head, was very blunt about keeping her out of things.
She looked to the Butcher as someone she could trust and confide in; that was a rather sobering thought. Taylor’s entire world was turned on its head, and she wasn’t sure how to handle that. Regardless, they were all in agreement that the situation needed to be dealt with, yet they were letting her take point on it.
Well, she and Motoko both.
That confused the hell out of her that a top secret black ops team would let her plan things. Jacob and Kurt were both from the original team formed in the eighties. They had nearly thirty years in the game, what did she have that could compare? Sure, Jacob was offering suggestions here and there when ideas were floated, but he wasn’t pressuring her to take things in certain directions.
Unlike Riley who was actively pushing for maximum chaos.
The Nine were monsters and that reputation needed to be maintained, but the media was easy enough to manipulate. Once all objectives were clear, the story could be exaggerated well enough, and the actual strikes they completed would serve to bolster them. Hundreds were likely to be killed in the plan, most of which would be Nazis, but no doubt there would be collateral.
And just because Surgeon would be available to heal people after didn’t mean there were never casualties. More than once Riley had released a plague to cover their retreats. Sure, she felt bad about it, but protecting her family always came first.
The door opened and Taylor looked up. Two women stepped inside, looking around. Neither were in costume, dressed in business casual. One had blonde hair cut just above shoulder-length and brown eyes. The other had light brown hair that flowed down to their hips and gray-blue eyes.
“Never thought I’d see the day ‘ol rules and regs got read in on this enterprise,” the brunette said scornfully to Hannah before her eyes flicked to Taylor and widened. “Annette?”
“Taylor, actually,” she said, rubbing the back of her head. “Annette was my mom.”
“Oh shit,” the blonde said. “We heard you were dead.”
Taylor smiled softly. “Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. My girlfriend made sure of it.”
“Yeah, she’s Annette’s daughter all right,” the brunette said. “Oh, manners! This is my best friend Kat and—”
The blonde threw an arm over her shoulder, cutting the introduction short. “And this pain in the ass is Maeve.”
“Beautiful name,” Taylor said with a grin that was quickly returned. “I’m assuming Jacob sent you?”
“Ah right, he did say everyone in this room would know all about things,” Maeve said, casting Hannah a sidelong glance. “Damn, just what the hell happened in Brockton Bay to warrant all this cloak and dagger shit?”
“Clearly the blue vibrator did something stupid,” Kat said. “Given we’re now sharing the room with two dead girls, it’s safe to assume, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Fair enough,” Maeve said. “Hannah, you’re being awfully quiet there.”
“Just… Taking it all in,” she said. “A week ago I thought there was corruption in my command. That was horrible to learn, but I could handle it. Learning that the Nine are sanctioned?”
“It’s a bit much,” Maeve said softly.
“How did the two of you learn?” Hannah asked.
Maeve rubbed the back of her head. “Well, I did know Arwen and Kimmie, who became Butchers. They reached out to some people from the movement shortly after Winter took the mantle, to let us know that we could call them if we ever needed help.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“And of course this idiot got drunk one night and mentioned talking to Arwen,” Kat said with a grin. “So guess who had to do a mountain of paperwork?”
“I said I was sorry,” Maeve grumbled.
“Still a dick move,” Kat said with an absent wave. “Seriously, don’t go drinking with her. Clive’s read in on all sorts of shit and because Maeve here has high clearance, he vents to her all the time.”
“Why are you blaming that on me?”
Kat snorted. “Hey, you married the man.”
“You what?”
Everyone turned to Hannah, whose teeth were grinding as she glared daggers at Maeve. Taylor wasn’t sure what that was about, but it seemed enough to send Kat into a fit of giggles. Hannah started to say something further, but Kat vanished only to reappear behind Hannah and pop her across the back of her head playfully.
“Oh lay off her, the two of you split five years before they had their first date.” Kat again vanished and reappeared at Maeve’s side. “Never did understand what either of you saw in the man, but hey, I never liked them big and muscly.”
Maeve shuddered slightly. “I’ve seen the men you take home, Kat. No, thank you.”
“What? I like them small and flexible. Nothing like them not having to—”
“I feel like I’m too young to be hearing this,” Taylor interjected, her cheeks burning. “Can we get back on topic before Hannah shoots one of you and I have to call Amy and Riley?”
Maeve and Kat glared at one another for a moment before both shrugged in unison. Kat ended up picking up the conversation from there. “Alright, I’m assuming the Nine are about to hit Brockton Bay in the near term. Is that a safe assumption?”
“It is,” Taylor said. “We’ve learned that the Director moonlights as a Parahuman villain that goes by the name of Coil. He recruited my girlfriend at gunpoint using a series of intermediaries pretending to be him. He kept them separate enough that all of our tech and Thinker resources missed it until it was too late. My father was killed in one incident, I was gunned down in the same and Lisa got double tapped by a high-powered rifle.”
“Fucking hell,” Maeve said. “No offense, but how is your father the only casualty in this?”
“I was almost the second casualty,” Hannah interjected. “I was a loose end, someone he couldn’t control so he convinced me I was going to replace Armsmaster as the leader of the ENE Protectorate when he was disciplined. He tried to have me killed alongside them, but I managed to head off his strike team only for Armsmaster to arrive to finish the deed. Thankfully he didn’t know my power was versatile enough to create an impromptu bandage to stem the worst of the bleeding.”
“It still failed when you lost consciousness,” Taylor said. “The Major found her in the PRT medical bay, already pronounced dead, while she still had life signs. They intended to let her die rather than risk her talking.”
“Okay, no,” Maeve said. “We’re killing the Cú Chulainn knock off.”
“The Director too,” Kat added. “How can we help?”
Taylor smiled, glad for the support. “Well, given all that’s happened, Hannah could use a friend right now, I’d start there. I think I was only here to help you get up to speed on things quicker.”
“And to meet someone else tied to your mother,” Melissa said from the doorway. “Come on, you’ve got somewhere to be and they could use their privacy.”
Taylor raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and joined her mentor, but before leaving, she turned back to Hannah. “You know, I never did disapprove of Dad dating you.”
“You had a funny way of showing it,” Hannah muttered.
Taylor shook her head. “No, I disapproved of the recruitment attempts. That’s what pissed me off. I actually congratulated him on getting back into the dating scene. Whatever that all started as, you did make him happy for the short time the two of you were together, so thank you. I’ll see you at the next briefing.”
On that note, Taylor left the room before anyone could continue the conversation. She still didn’t care for the woman, her morals were too rigid, but she was getting better. Maybe in a few years she could even look at her without feeling a well of disgust. For now, she just had to hope that was enough to get her to go along with their plans. Without Hannah, things would be a bit less believable, but allowing herself to become a Bonesaw project probably wouldn’t sit well no matter the promises to reverse it.
Sighing, she caught up to Melissa and walked in stride beside her. “What’s this about?”
“Jacob wants to talk with you and Motoko about some things,” Melissa said. “Nothing major.”
Taylor snorted. “Ha. Ha.”
“Hey, I’m clever sometimes,” she protested.
“Mhmm, sure you are,” Taylor said, chuckling. “Which one came up with that one? I’m guessing Kimmie?”
Melissa rubbed the back of her head. “Actually… It was Heith. Skadi.”
Taylor stopped, staring at Melissa with wide eyes. “Wait, the Nazi? Holy shit.”
Melissa held up her hands placatingly. “Hey, between Kimmie in the collective and Arwen killing her, she had nothing but time to learn the error of their ways.”
“Something tells me it wasn’t just talking,” Taylor said slowly.
At that, Melissa barked out a laugh. “Goddess no. There was a ton of yelling, then crying and eventually screaming. Be aware should you ever inherit. Your headmates will be able to screw around in the very literal sense.”
Vivid scenes flashed through Taylor’s mind and she tried to push them away with some of her software readouts, to no avail. Motoko’s face popped into her HUD, an eyebrow raised, and the lurid thoughts only grew worse.
“Taylor, please find a distraction,” Motoko said with a groan. “We’re getting a bit soupy and I don’t need your fantasies bleeding over, especially those.”
“Sorry,” Taylor muttered. “Melissa mentioned something about her headmates and it’s causing some very intrusive thoughts.”
“Ah,” she said, grimacing. “Maybe Jacob can help with that. He’s just waiting on you to start the session.”
“Be there soon.”