For Taylor the small hop down from her window, a jump that would have brought the risk of broken bones was now done effortlessly. Her movement silent, swift and filled with almost giddy happiness over having a chance to prove herself.

Her armor gleamed faintly from the streetlights. A suit of armor that should have been made of fantastical magic metals, was instead made of reworked steel with some ash added in to dull the shininess, as being highly reflective would have been impressive, it would have also removed any chance of stealth. The steel armor was padded on the inside and felt far more comfortable than any heavy metal armor had the right to be. Instead of clanking and noisy like you would expect, the inhuman workmanship had provided joints that moved so smoothly no noise was made. Only her accidentally hitting herself would have given her away, yet skills she was not even fully aware of made her movement smooth, fast and silent.

The helmet itself covered her whole head, with not even a strand of hair peeking out. A visor made of what used to be aluminum covered the top front half of her helmet and was far stronger than it had any right to be. Fully transparent in only one direction, from the outside the light passed freely allowing her to see with no obstructions, while in the other direction the only thing showing through was the glow of her eyes that seemed to penetrate it easily.

Taylor considered her appearance as heroic as a knight in shining armor. Wholly unaware that her tastes combined with a more functional mindset had made an armor that was dark gray and menacing, with a look meant more for intimidation and stealth. The black shield and the sword on her back not helping that image. A baton was added as an afterthought, attached to the side of her leg. Her equipment was designed for war, something Taylor failed to fully realize.

Options had been considered to make herself look more heroic but the runes meant for this armor that were designed to ease and amplify the light were out of her reach and made improperly they would just hinder her. Though in time that could change, improvised methods for changing metals from something mundane to something magical existed but were time consuming, requiring far more than she was willing to spend in preparation, for her new future was beckoning.

A few quick hops from ground to a lamppost and from there onto the nearest roof, she commenced her patrol.

Despite Brockton Bay being a cesspool of a town filled with crime. The first few hours went quietly with her just traveling around from rooftop to rooftop with leaps no one in heavy armor should have been capable of making.

Finally she heard something out of the ordinary. “Don't do this! Please just let me go!” someone was calling for help. In a few moments Taylor was standing on the edge of the roof looking down at two men dragging a young girl away.

Both of the men were well muscled despite the occasional twitches from drug overuse. Both of them bald and covered in tattoos, neither of them seemed to be bothered by the girls pleading in the least, continuing on as if this was just another regular day.

With not a moment of hesitation Taylor jumped down from the fourth floor roof slamming into the ground with a dull thump, Leaving imprints of her boots in the asphalt.

“Release her!” She barked as an order once she had landed. The steel in her voice leaving the implication of ‘or else’ clear.

“Fuck its a cape! Boss help!” one of the thugs yelled and turned to run. The other one instantly let go of the girl and went to grab his gun.

Taylors reaction was quick. In one smooth motion the baton got pulled and used on the thug that tried to flee.

A quick blow to the side of the head and he was on his way to the ground unconscious. The other one found his hand grabbed before he could even finish getting his gun out. A swift slam to the face by a very solid helmet left him with a broken nose before joining his friend on the ground unconscious.

That was a lot easier than expected. Mused Taylor before looking over at the girl who after a closer look already had several bruises forming on her face. She was struggling to get up. Most likely a concussion. Diagnosed Taylor while offering her hand to help the girl up. “You ok?” Taylor asked.

“Thank you, Thank you. I was sure they were going to kill me for not being able to pay for tonight's hit.” Came the reply from the girl. Who was struggling more from withdrawal than concussion as Taylor had initially thought, and clearly not quite there at the moment.

I need to help her. Was Taylors thought. “You really should stop with the drugs, here let me help.” and without even waiting for a reply Taylors hand reached out, with a golden soothing glow emanating from her hand. In mere moments the young woman's eyes cleared up and the bruises faded. Taylor did not yet truly understand that saying for someone to stop doing something and getting rid of the physical effects was unlikely to change much, but maybe there was hope.

“I need to go.” squeaked the girl, who upon being clear headed decided the best course of action was to turn and run. The action leaving Taylor baffled, as instead of gratitude and happiness upon being healed, was met with an unexpected departure.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Finally remembering the two unconscious thugs. Taylor used a quick burst of healing on both making sure that she had done no permanent damage to either. I need to get something to restrain them for once they wake up... and probably a phone. Were thoughts brought on by her lack of methods to restrain either of them or for calling the police to come and pick them up.

But before she could get to work dragging the two towards the nearest phone booth. The background noise that this far had hidden the sounds of something large moving closer to her, was broken by a unexpected noise, a blow from behind, throwing her clear across the alley onto the street itself where after a momentary roll, during which she managed to twist herself around, pulling out her sword and shield and getting up before skidding to a stop, facing the new threat.

The shield in her hand was covered with a black layer of rubber salvaged and reworked from old tires, attached by metal threaded around the edges hiding any details about the real surface of the shield. And a sword far too thick and solid to be comfortably lifted by humans.

With huge stomping footsteps a giant humanoid creature made of trash came running after her out of the alley.

Momentary uncertainty flowed through Taylor has her instincts told her to use her sword yet her upbringing and morals screamed at her to swap to the baton. With the pace that the monster made of trash was approaching, sheathing the sword would have been too slow, so Taylor just slammed it into the asphalt driving it half way into the ground using it as an anchor for the incoming blow, and lifted her shield in the way of the oncoming fist. The impact thudded across the street as a giant fist met a small girl with a shield.

The blow had been massive, driving her towards the ground while her whole body compressed downwards absorbing the impact, in a moment the force of the blow was spent and Taylor forced her shield upwards throwing the arm away from her.

Being weaponless she improvised and used her shield as one. A blow from the padded shield met a body made of trash, and despite the massive difference in weight between the two combatants the monster went flying.

Before the monster could recover Taylor took the initiative and moved in to attack. The blows from the moving mass of trash were easily avoided or skillfully deflected with a shield, yet the blows from Taylor did little else besides throw the monster around.

The battle was at a stalemate. Any trash that was blown off the monster was quickly absorbed back.

As the fight dragged on Taylor found herself unsure of what to do as her instincts guided her to retreat back to her sword to rearm herself and cleave the entity apart, or to use the offensive spells and have holy fire cleanse the world of this monster. Not having the time to consider in depth how to defeat the enemy without killing it, she was at a loss. She outclassed him by far yet had no way to defeat him that would be acceptable for her.

The endless battle was interrupted by a third person joining in. A young woman with platinum blonde hair and a white dress with a golden tiara.

The woman in question was was Victoria Dallon also known as Glory Girl. Someone whos powerset fully fit under the flying brick category, invulnerability, flying and super strength with the only aspect outside of that category being her emotional aura making people either fear her or be in awe of her, depending on her emotions.

And Glory Girl joined the battle in the most unexpected of ways. Flying at full tilt past Taylor and smashing fists first into the monster. While she flew past Taylor, with her sensitive hearing could pick up grumbling from Glory Girl “Ugh, I'm going to need two showers after this.”

The impact smashed a massive amount of trash loose sending an almost human sized shape flying into the distance.

Once the monster was for the moment out of the melee. Glory Girl quickly floated over to Taylor. “Hi, are you a hero or do I need to smash you as well?” came the perky and happy sounding question from Glory Girl.

The question baffled Taylor for a moment. She sounds like she really wants to get a chance to fight more. Thought Taylor before she responded. “Hero, or at least trying to be, and I think it just escaped into the sewers”

“Dammit” came from Glory Girl as she quickly flew down the street to the open manhole cover that the monster had vanished into. After a momentary cursing session she seemed to remember Taylor.

“Did he manage to hurt you? As I can’t tell through all that armor. I can call Amy to come and help if your hurt.“ asked Glory Girl now looking all worried.

Taylor on the other hand was wishing she could pull off as heroic of an appearance as Glory Girl, who was just floating there with her long blond hair gently flowing in the wind and looking suitably majestic and heroic, at least as far as Taylor was concerned. And Taylor on the other hand was covered in all kind of unmentionable liquids that had gone flying from the trash each time she punched the creature. Once Glory Girls question reached her conscious mind she replied. “I'm fine nothing he could do could actually hurt me. I was just unsure how to actually take him out.”

“It's cool to have another female hero in the town, we have waaay to few.” continued Glory Girl and after a few moments adding “Even if your a tinkerer, with scary looking power armor.”

“It's just armor.” was Taylor's reply, not for even a moment considering what kind of advantage she would gain if everyone thought her powers were tinkerer equipment not abilities.

“Cool, Im Glory Girl what's your name?” was Glory Girls further on questions. A question that Taylor had no good answer to, as thinking of a name for her hero persona had not even occurred to her in her rush to fight crime.

“I'm Ta...” Taylor managed to only get the first letters of her name out before she realized what she almost did. “I have not had time to really think of a name yet.” she confessed a moment later.

“You really need to figure out a name yourself otherwise the public will stick you with one and you won't ever get rid of it.” came the admonishment from Glory Girl. Followed by more questions.

“Have you called in cops to come pick those two up yet?” asked Glory Girl pointing at the two unconscious thugs in the alley.

“I don't actually have a phone.” confessed Taylor. Gaining some more comments from Glory Girl about having to be prepared especially as a tinkerer. Glory Girl spent the next twenty minutes telling Taylor all the tips she could think of while waiting for the cops. Also pointing out that, as the victim had run away, all the cops would be able to do was lock them up for the night, mark them up as gang members and if there were no prior crimes on the list probably free them by morning.

Though the worry about criminals quickly being let free was soothed by the fact that there were a lot of escaped prisoners in Brockton Bay due to police being unable to stop Villains from breaking their henchmen out of prison. At least that was true for the ones that spent too long in the local police prison.

Seeing the sun rising over the horizon prompted Taylor to start rushing home putting Glory Girls phone number in a little storage compartment on her armor, and promising to be more prepared next time.

Despite the embarrassment from finding herself unprepared despite all her preparations. Overall Taylor felt exhilarated from the activities of this night.

Getting to meet Glory Girl was cool, and she promised that I could call her for advice and help once I have a phone. Were the final thoughts from Taylor as she laid down for a quick nap. To prepare herself for another day in the hell that was her school, Winslow High.