With Great Power: Flying Bricks and Broken Windows

Taylor stared at Glory Girl blankly, her mind not even registering the statement thanks to the intense swirl of thoughts that had already consumed her consciousness. The white-clad heroine didn’t take very kindly to her lack of response, and narrowed her eyes as she floated closer, “Well? Are you planning to answer me?”

“I… huh?” She asked eloquently, and Glory Girl narrowed her eyes.

“What are you doing with these guys? Why are you hanging them up like that?” She repeated in a tnw that suggested that Taylor better answer quickly.

Taylor looked at Glory Girl blankly for a moment, before snapping out of her funk, “Oh! I guess this looks really bad, doesn't it? I promise it's not what it looks like. Well, it is, but I have a really good explanation for it.”

Glory Girl crossed her arms, eyeing her suspiciously, “I'm listening.”

Taylor gestured up at the wiggling web sack, “These guys were trying to mug some poor woman. I just happened to be passing by and took care of them. I hung them up there so the cops can find them easily when they get here. It shouldn’t be too hard to cut them down and even if they can’t, my webs dissolve in a couple hours so they won’t be stuck up there all night even if they deserve it.”

“So you’re a hero?” Vicky asked, curiosity replacing the stern hostility she had been speaking with moments ago as she flew closer, “I've never seen you befo-wait!” She squinted, scrutinizing Taylor intently and the girl in question tried not to squirm too much as the heroine stared at her. After a moment, Glory Girl pointed at her, her eyes flashing with recognition, “I know you! You’re the cape who stopped that car from falling off the bridge the other night!”

Taylor blinked in surprise, “Uh, yeah I am. I didn’t think anyone would know about that though. Except for the people who were already there.

“Are you kidding? You’re all over Parahumans Online.” Glory Girl said, all of the previous tension leaving her body as a wide smile broke out on her face. She floated closer, pulling a phone out from under her skirt and tapping on it, “Here, look.” She said, holding the device out for Taylor to view.

Taylor watched the video curiously. It was taken from an odd angle and the actual incident itself was barely even in the shot. Even so, the footage was actually pretty clear even though it was only in black and white and Taylor had a bit of an out of body experience as she watched herself save the woman and her toddler by keeping the car from falling off of the bridge.

“Someone heard about the incident I guess and managed to get ahold of the CCTV footage.” Glory Girl explained as Taylor watched herself haul the car back up and onto the bridge, “It was pretty cool to watch. One second the car is about to fall off of the bridge and the next you’re there, holding it up. It’s blowing up on the forums and there’s a couple pictures too, though they’re all super fuzzy. You’re pretty famous now! You know, by newbie standards. You’re gonna be the talk of the town for the next few days.”

“Not really how I imagined my debut going, if I'm being honest.” Taylor said as the phone was taken away, “I thought I'd at least have my costume out together before I went out to do any heroing.”

Glory Girl snorted, “Good luck with that. I don't know of a single person who had an actual costume before their first appearance. I didn't even have one and I'm from a cape family.”

She grinned down at Taylor, “Anyway, glad to see there's another girl hero in the city. It's been a while since we've had a new one. The last one was Shadow Stalker and she's a real piece of work. Not in the fun way either.”

Taylor recalled her own experience with the heroine, “So I've heard.”

Glory Girl nodded“So are you planning to be an independent or join the Wards? They could use another girl. Vista's been asking for a transfer for ages according to Gallant.”

Taylor shook her head, “Sorry but no. I'm not planning to join the PRT. I'm better off on my own. I can help people much better if I don't have to ask for permission to pull someone out of a burning building.”

“That's fair. I don't think I could stand just waiting for permission like that either “ Glory Girl floated up to the webbed up criminals, staring at the webs with a curious and slightly perturbed expression. She poked the webs, grimacing as they stuck to her fingers, “What is this stuff anyway? You don't like, make it with your body, do you?”

Taylor giggled, shaking her head, “No, I shoot it with these, see?” Taylor rolled her sleeves down, showing off her web shooters. Glory Girl examined their rough construction and shaky welds.

“So you're not a Tinker, got it.” She said as she stared at the messy contraptions.

“Hey, I take offense to that.” Taylor sniffed, “I'm as much a Tinker as you are a thinker.”

Glory Girl stared at her, “So not at all?”

“Hey, you shouldn't insult yourself like that. I'm sure you're very intelligent.”

“What are you-?” Glory Girl's eyes widened and Taylor grinned as the girl facepalmed, “You mean a thinker with a lowercase t. That's so lame.”

Taylor grinned unrepentantly, “If you want to get better at it, you could always play me in scrabble. I’ve been told that I totally don't make my friend want to throw the little pieces at me when we play.”

Rolling her eyes, Glory Girl went to answer but paused as her phone buzzed on her hand. She looked down, reading the text she had just received, and frowned.

“i'll have to take a raincheck on that. There's been a break-in at a nearby business just a few blocks from here. Some electronics store apparently. I should probably go take care of that.”

Taylor tilted her head, “You get police alerts in text?”

“If I'm in the area. It's something most affiliates have access to.” Glory Girl put her phone away, floating higher in the air, before she suddenly stopped and looked down at Taylor “Actually, do you wanna come with? I'm always down to show a rookie the ropes. You could learn a thing or two from a pro like me.”

Taylor thought for a moment before shrugging, “Sure. I was planning to go home and sleep but I guess the old saying has some merit to it.”

Glory Girl giggled, “Yep. Evil never sleeps and neither will you. Come on, I'll race you!”

She shot off in a random direction without another word, leaving Taylor staring after her, completely baffled. She burst into action quickly enough, taking a running leap and swinging after the flying blonde who had left her in the dust.

“Hey! You didn't tell me where we're going!”

~~~

After being absolutely smoked in a race that was totally fair and legitimate according to Glory Girl, Taylor and the aforementioned blonde has stopped on a roof near the building that the call had come from, watching it from across the street.

The building in question was a large electronics store, one of the ones that could be more accurately described as a pawn shop for the quality of the items that they sell. Taylor had passed it by once or twice with Emma, and her friend had always remarked that the place looked like it was the front for some sort of money laundering business. Taylor had never given it any thought but now that she was actually looking at it… Yeah, she could see it.

Currently, one of the store’s front windows had been blatantly smashed in and a loud alarm was blaring through the street, letting anyone and everyone know what was going on inside. Whoever was responsible for the break-in clearly didn’t mind the attention though, as Taylor could see shadows moving inside the store, illuminated by flashing red lights that accompanied the alarm.

“So how do you want to do this?” Glory Girl asked as they eyed the building. Taylor gave her a confused look.

“Shouldn’t you be the one making the plan? You’re the ‘pro’, aren't you?” Taylor said, putting deliberate air quotes around the word.

Glory Girl shrugged, “My plans amount to running in there with my aura on full blast and beating the crap out of whoever’s in there. But you’re squishy, and doing that wouldn’t be a good idea since you can’t dodge bullets or tank them like I can.” The blonde not-so-subtly boasted

“I mean, I sort of can dodge bullets.” Taylor said dryly, surprising the girl.

“Really?” Taylor nodded, “Huh. Well either way, sort of isn’t the same as can, so let's stick to a plan that doesn’t have you getting shot at.”

“The plan that I’m supposed to come up with?”

Glory Girl nodded, “Yep. If you’re gonna be an independent then you need to learn how to think before you act. You can’t just jump in and hope not to get shot at, you gotta have an actual plan. And since I’m here backing you up, you can use this as the perfect chance to practice.”

Even though she wanted to, Taylor couldn’t argue with that logic. Though her danger sense and enhanced reflexes gave her some semblance of bullet dodging prowess, she’d rather not take any chances when it came to getting a bullet lodged in her vital areas. And not just because Emma would literally chew her ear off if that happened, though that was definitely a big factor.

“Uh, Spidey?” Glory Girl waved a hand in front of Taylor’s face, snapping her out of her thoughts, “This is still a robbery in progress. If we don’t hurry, it’s gonna go from in-progress to already progressed, so maybe we should step on it a bit?”

Taylor nodded slowly, though her brain got caught on a particular part of that sentence, “Spidey?”

“You didn’t give anyone your name so I made my own.” Glory Girl explained simply, “Now come on, what’s the plan? We’re running out of time.”

There were several things wrong with that statement, the fact that Taylor was pretty sure that she absolutely had given those officers her name the other night, but Glory Girl was right. This wasn’t the time.

Saving the topic for later, Taylor looked over the building holding the burglars, tuning out the sound of the alarm as she wracked her brain for the best way to take out however many probably armed crooks were inside without getting shot at.

The store was one of those buildings that had clearly belonged to another business beforehand. The outside was refurbished yet she could still clearly see the signs of another sign having been in the same place that the current one was. There was also a seemingly unused second floor just above it, and Taylor’s eyes singled out a sliding glass window that led to a room full of darkness.

“There.” She pointed at the window, drawing attention to it, “I can sneak in through there. It probably leads down below, so I can take them by surprise by being in the building already instead of walking in through the front. I’ll take some of them down–hopefully unnoticed–and once you hear shouting or anything like that, you can bust in and do your thing.”

It was a simple plan and one that had a lot of room for something to go wrong, but it was better than just running in and hoping for the best. Glory Girl didn’t seem to agree though, and she gave Taylor a look, “Are you sure you’ll be able to do that? There might be more than just a couple of them in there. You can’t handle that many at once, can you?”

Taylor stood up, looking at her wrists to make sure she wasn’t nearly out of web fluid. All good. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Listen for my signal, I’ll try and make it loud enough to hear over the alarm but if not… just keep an eye out.”

“Alright, I guess. Good luck.” Taylor gave the other girl a short salute before jumping off of the roof, zipping across the street with her webs.

She landed on the side of the building just above the electronic shop and slowly crawled her way to the window she has spied out. Using her sticky fingers, she slid the window open without any issue, happy to find that it wasn't locked. She gave Glory Girl a thumbs up, before slipping into the darkness beyond.

The moment she landed on the floor inside, Taylor could literally feel the dust in the air slide against her clothes. There was so much of it hanging in the air that it almost weighed her down, and hated to imagine what it would be like if she wasn't wearing her mask and goggles.

“I guess it's a good thing I'm basically dressed like a fumigator.” She muttered aloud, “This stuff can not be good for my lungs.”

Looking around, Taylor spied the outline of a door haloed by light just behind the inky blackness. That was her way inside the store.

She felt her way through the darkness with her arms outstretched, groping blindly to keep herself from running into anything she can't see. She nearly tripped over several items as she walked. Several boxes and what felt like wooden boards had been strung haphazardly across the floor without any rhyme or reason, but she managed to avoid completely wiping out and reached the door without much issues.

And then she tried the doorknob and cursed as it wiggled but didn't do much else. Locked.

“Fantastic.” She muttered, trying it again like the result would change just because she wanted it to. It didn't of course, and she sighed as she let go of the knob.

Now how was she going to get in? Her whole plan hinged on being able to get inside without being seen. She couldn’t do that if she just walked in through the front door like she was coming to join the party.

“Hey guys! How’re we doing tonight? Oh, we’re robbing this place? Awesome, let me just go get my ski mask and duffle bag!” She mocked quietly before sighing, “Focus, Taylor. Save the jokes for later. Let’s figure this out first. I'd really rather not tell Glory Girl a door of all things managed to stop me. That'd just be embarrassing.”

Taylor placed her hand against the frame of the door, running her fingers along the rough wooden surface. It felt old, like the door to her house’s basement. Maybe it was just as flimsy? Taylor stared at the door through the darkness, debating with herself, before shrugging. That alarm was pretty loud. They might not hear it.

Stepping back, Taylor lifted a leg and slammed her foot into the door, right beside the doorknob. There was a sharp crack before the door flew inwards as the frame broke around the lock.

Taylor paused, waiting for any sign that her intrusion had been heard, and smiling as she didn't hear a thing. Looked like the coast was clear.

She carefully made her way down the staircase just past the door, crawling along the wall to avoid the old and no-doubt creaky steps. As she reached the ground floor, she froze as she heard a racket coming from just beyond the doorway, and slowly peeked around to see what was going on.

There was a man in the room just beyond. He was luckily facing away from her, but hilariously, he was actually wearing a ski mask and shoveling electronics and phone cases into a duffel bag. Taylor had just been joking, but apparently she hit the nail on the head this time.

Since he was completely unaware of her presence and clearly up to no good, Taylor decided to put a stop to his nefarious deeds. She crept up behind him, staying low to the ground and out of his field of view, before reaching out and grabbing his ankles.

“Wha-” He didn't get another syllable out before Taylor pulled his legs out from under him. His head slammed into the counter with a thud,before he slumped to the ground with a low groan and Taylor webbed him up

Curiously, unlike the rest of the people she had webbed so far, the man didn't panic at all once he was restrained. A cursory inspection via lifting his head up revealed that the impact had knocked him unconscious. He was still breathing, but she doubted he'd be waking up any time soon. She webbed his mouth just to be sure.

“I'm getting pretty good at this.” She said to herself as she stared at the unconscious criminal, “That was like something out of a movie. Now if only I could figure out how to do it on purpose…”

Moving on, Taylor jumped up to the ceiling before crawling out of the back room and onto the main floor, surveying it from above as she took in the happenings down below.

There were three more men, each of them similarly dressed and each of them carrying duffle bags they were shoving electronics into. Two of them were relatively close together near the front of the shop, while the other was pretty much directly below her and out of their line of sight. He was first.

With a thought, Taylor detached herself from the ceiling, flipping herself upright and landing behind the man in a crouch. Her landing was practically silent in comparison to the sirens ringing through the store and the man didn’t even budge even as she walked up behind him and rose up, wrapping one hand around his mouth and the other around his middle which she used to drag him back into the room she had just come from

Her superior strength rendered his struggles completely ineffective. Her arms wrapped around him like steel bands as she dragged him away from the main floor. Once they were alone, she swept his legs out from under him with her own, and webbed him to the floor as he landed with a thud. One more web on his mouth made sure that he wouldn’t be screaming out for help any time soon.

“Shh…” Taylor put a finger to her mask, shushing him as he tried to scream through her webs, “Just hang out here for a bit, yeah? I need you to keep your buddy company so he isn’t lonely when he wakes up.” The man tried to squirm out of his bindings and Taylor nodded, “Thanks. I’ll bring you two some more company in just a second so sit tight.”

Taylor jumped back up to the ceiling, crawling out the door to take care of the last two robbers. They were still on the main floor and even better, they had no idea that two of their friends were missing, far too preoccupied with violently throwing everything in sight into the duffel bags they were carrying.

As she crawled, Taylor idly wondered if they realized that they were probably breaking every single thing they were putting in those bags. She had seen one of them literally throw a laptop in there with the kind of anger that would get a delivery driver fired for breaking someone’s brand new TV the moment it got on their porch. At this point, they might as well just buy them broken for super cheap instead of risking prison time for it.

Oh well, nobody ever said criminals were smart.

Taylor stopped right above another burglar, staring down at him from above as she eyed him carefully, This one was too far away from cover for her to be able to take him down and move him out of sight without behind seen, and the last one was a bit too close for comfort, standing only a few feet away as he rooted through a tote on the floor. How was she going to do this quietly and without being seen?

As she stared at the man, an idea slowly came to her. If she wasn't able to get him out of sight by shoving him in another room, maybe she could just have him join her up here. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to do it, but she was strong enough to lift a car above her head; one man should be nothing.

Leaning back, Taylor aimed her web slinger at the unaware man just below her. Taking a moment to make sure she was on target, she depressed the triggers, sending two thick lines of webbing towards his back.

The moment her line made contact, Taylor jerked them upwards, yanking the man off of his feet with enough force that the bag in his hand slipped out of his grip and fell to the ground below. He landed on the ceiling right in front of her, but from there things went sideways.

Taylor wasn't expecting just how quickly he'd reach her, not how much time she had before he fell back down to the ground. As such, she was just a second too late in actually webbing him to the ceiling and he managed to get a noise out before she silenced him. A loud scream echoed through the shop, audible over the loud alarms, and Taylor cringed as she covered his mouth with webbing, knowing that it was already too late.

She looked at the last burglar just in time to meet his eyes as he turned to face the noise he had heard. His eyes widened as he was met with Taylor kneeling on the ceiling right beside his bound and gagged friend, dropping the duffel bag in his hand.

“Adam!” The man shouted as he saw what happened to his friend. He looked around for help and his eyes went wide as he realized he was alone now, “Where the hell did everyone go!?”

Taylor opened her mouth to deliver a properly sarcastic answer, but before she could, the man pulled up his shirt and raised a revolver in her direction, making her words die in her throat and her body spring into action as her danger sense went wild.

Shooting an arm out, Taylor slung a web to the floor right behind the man and pulled herself in faster than he could blink. Extending her other arm, Taylor clotheslined him right in the chest, making sure to aim for his sternum so that she didn't break a rib.

He flew off his feet like a car had just slammed into him, and Taylor flinched lightly as his gun went off, firing a round into the ceiling right above them. She turned around, extending another hand at the man who was gasping for the air that had been knocked out of his lungs and webbing him to the ground where he had landed.

She leaned down slipping the gun out of his fingers and inspecting it, “This is like the fourth gun I've taken tonight. Does everyone in this city pack heat or is it just the criminals?”

“Fuck… you…” He gasped, clearly having trouble getting his breath back after taking her arm full force across his chest.

“Eloquent.” Taylor commented dryly, turning the safety on and placing the gun on a nearby table that had been divested of its former inhabitants, “If you won't answer that, then would you at least mind telling me what you're doing with all this tech? I don't think you guys are gonna make a lot of money off of some broken phones stolen from a second hand shop.”

“We're not… stealing it to sell…. biitch.” He gasped crassly, confusing Taylor greatly. Before she could tell him to elaborate however, Glory Girl floated through the broken window.

“That was pretty damn impressive, Spidey.” She said looking around at the mess the group had made and what Taylor had done to them in response. “I saw that takedown from outside. I was gonna come in and help, but by the time I crossed the street, you already had it taken care of.”

The burglar on the floor glared at Glory Girl and opened his mouth, no doubt to say something else that was just as vitriolic, so Taylor webbed his mouth up before the words could come out, “Thanks. I had a bit of trouble getting in but from there it wasn't too hard. I'm starting to realize that my powers lend themselves more to stealthy takedowns rather than head on fights.”

“Good for you. Most people don't figure out their niche until later, if at all.” Glory Girl looked around the busted up shop, “Is this all of them? Also, why is that one stuck to the ceiling?”

“He was being naughty so I put him in time out.” Taylor joked, eliciting a startled laugh from her partner in heroism, “And no, there's two more. Come on, help me bring them outside before the police get here.”

“Sure thing. But uh, do you have anything to carry them with? I don't really want to touch those webs.”

“Wimp.”

~~~

Together, the two of them dragged the culprits outside to await their transport. None of them were very happy with the way they were being treated – that is, like sacks of luggage instead of people, but neither heroine cared in the slightest as the left them on the concrete for the police that were already on their way.

However, only a few minutes later, Taylor was surprised to hear the roar of a motorcycle making its way in their direction instead of the the telltale screech of police sirens.

Beside her, Glory Girl sighed as she realized something that Taylor didn't, “Oh great, it's him. Just when I was having a good night too.”

Taylor gave her a confused look, “Who is it? Is it a villain?”

Glory Girl laughed, shaking her head, “No, it's not. Though sometimes I wish he was. Then I wouldn't feel bad about knocking him around a bit.”

Well that didn't bode well. Taylor looked down the street as glaring headlights made their way towards the pair. Whoever was driving clearly didn't understand the meaning of road safety or even the word speed limit, because it felt like the moment that the headlights rounded the corner they had already crossed the dozens of yards between them.

Taylor stared as the bike came to a screeching stop in front of them, leaving s black mark on the sidewalk that would doubtlessly last for generations. Glory Girl crossed her arms, her expression just short of a scowl as she stared at the person on the back of the bike, “Armsmaster. I'm so glad you could make it. I'm pretty sure I called the regular cops though.”

“Glory Girl.” Armsmaster nodded at the heroine as he stepped off of his bike, and Taylor tried not to stare in awe at one of her favorite heroes standing before her, “It's standard procedure to let Protectorate personnel be the first responders to scenes involving unknown parahumans. The police forwarded your call to me.”

Unknown parahumans? Were they talking about her? Taylor looked at Glory Girl in confusion, but she wasn't paying attention to her now, scowling at Armsmaster, “I already told them she was a hero. She's not gonna attack them just because she can.”

“Standard procedure doesn't change because you give your word, Glory Girl. I can't change the rules.” Armsmaster said gruffly as he inspected the bound burglars. As the heroine huffed angrily, he crouched down, examining the webs keeping them stuck.

“Hmm…” He looked at Taylor, who stiffened in surprise, “This material isn't normal. Did you synthesize it?”

“Uh, yeah.” Taylor nodded, “I was actually going to pitch it to you guys originally as an alternative to containment foam but then I got powers and figured I'd test it out myself first.”

Glory Girl gaped, “You made that stuff before you got powers?”

“Mostly. I finished it after I got powers.” Taylor said nonchalantly, oblivious to the stare Glory Girl was giving her.

“Interesting. It is amateurish, but I could see some use for it.” Armsmaster retrieved his halberd, cutting a small strip of the webs from the man's body. He brought it up to his visor, staring at it intently, before putting it in his pouch and standing up.

Taylor watched him as he walked right past them without a glance, stepping into the business without another word. Glory Girl watched him go with an unimpressed look, “Yep. That's Armsmaster all right. Douchey as ever.”

“Is he normally… like that?” Taylor asked, unsure how to feel about what she had just experience.

Glory Girl just snorted, “Normally he's worse. I can't remember the amount of times he's read me the riot act over not doing something perfectly according to the book. We're lucky he didn't get on your case for using ‘untested tinkertech’ on civilians or whatever.”

“Huh. Well that's… huh.” Was all Taylor said as she stared after the man.

Was this what they meant when they said don't meet your heroes? Taylor could practically feel her desire for Armsmaster merch draining out of her body. She'd have to get rid of those panties in the back of her dresser now, wouldn't she?

Shaking herself out of it, Taylor looked up, taking in the way the moon had drifted on the horizon. “Anyway, I need to get home so I can get some sleep in time for school tomorrow so I'm gonna peace out.”

“Good idea. You should probably get out before he comes back and gives you the Wards pitch. That's not fun.” Glory Girl held out a fist and Taylor gladly bumped it, “We should do this again sometime. It's been a while since I've had another girl to go on patrol with. Crystal's too busy with college these days.”

Taylor smiled as she took a step back, raising an arm towards the nearby light pole, “Definitely. This was pretty fun. Even if you made me do all the work.”

“Hey! I was just letting you practice!” Glory Girl called after her as she zipped up and jumped off the pole to begin her first swing of many that would carry her home, and Taylor giggled at her words as she swung away.

Tonight had been a pretty productive night once again. She'd saved a woman from being mugged, teamed up with another hero, stopped a burglary, and met Armsmaster. Maybe she should stop going out with the intent to not do any heroing.

….Nah. There was no way she'd be able to stop now. Not after all the good she'd been doing so far.

Taylor zipped through the chill night air, a warm happiness filling her chest at all she had managed to accomplish in a few short hours. As she made her way back to her house however, she completely missed the figure watching her from a rooftop just a short distance away, her stark white mask shadowed by the darkness she called home.