With Great Power: The 'Facts' of Life

By the time Taylor returned to the warehouse, Shadow Stalker was up and walking around, seemingly no worse for wear. The other girl had taken the time to gather up the people that she and Taylor had taken down, gathering them together in the middle of the warehouse where she went about the task of tying them up with whatever was lying around.

As Taylor walked up to them, she watched as the other girl leaned down and gripped one of her bolts sticking out of a man's shoulder before roughly ripping it out. The man screamed and jerked away from her as blood began to gush from the wound, and Shadow Stalker sneered down at him as his agony rang through the warehouse, “Shut the hell up!”

She slugged him across the face, knocking him out with a blow to the job. The men around them whimpered and Taylor frowned at the other girl's viciousness but she didn't comment on it as she reached her.

“She got away.” She said, regret plain in her voice.

Shadow Stalker glanced up at her as she patted the bolt clean with the unconscious thug's shirt,“What? You were right behind her, how the hell did you lose her?”

Taylor shrugged, “I don't know. I tried to follow her from above but by the time I got to the roof, I couldn't see her anywhere; she was just… gone. It's like she disappeared into thin air or something.”

“Fucking great.” Stalker grumbled, “She probably hid in one of the buildings around here. Most of ‘em already have broken locks so it’s stupid simple to just slip inside if you want to hide like a coward.”

Taylor frowned. There were a lot of buildings in the area and most of them were abandoned. “Should we go look for her? She couldn't have gotten far.”

“There wouldn't be any point. She'd just get away while we looked in the wrong place.” Stalker grunted as she stood up, putting the bolt back in its holder, "She's pretty much gone now. We'll just have to get her another time.*

“So we're just letting her go?” Taylor demanded unhappily. Stalker shot her a look, turning towards her angrily.

“We wouldn't have to if you you just kept your cool and didn't blow our cover.” She hissed, stepping up to Taylor, “I thought you'd get how I roll considering the other night but I guess not. If you just stayed quiet, we could have taken her down before she even realized we were here.”

Taylor blinked in shock, surprised that the other girl was seemingly angry about her saving someone's life.

“She was about to kill that guy! I couldn't just let her shoot him again.” Taylor defended, looking around for the man she had saved. He was tied up a little ways away, curled in on himself and seemingly passed out. He was breathing though, and that was all that mattered.

“You should have. Now she got away and I guarantee that she isn't gonna just lay low after this.” Stalker grunted, “If you just let her kill that asshole and took her down afterwards, then she'd be here with the rest of these assholes.”

“I don't know how you do things, but I don't leave anybody to die if I can help it.” Taylor crossed her arms, “It's our job to save people. We can't just pick and choose when we do that.”

“Yeah, well some people don't deserve to be saved. These guys aren't gonna be turning over a new leaf anytime soon. I bet most of them have already done time and look where they are, right back to where they started. They're scum. That's all they'll ever be.”

Stalker's voice was full of so much venom that it left Taylor a bit surprised. It almost seemed like she hated their existence just for being criminals.

“Everyone can be helped if they actually want to be. Everyone has a choice to be better, even these guys.”

Stalker clicked her tongue, turning away, “You're still fresh. You'll learn one day. Or you'll end up a statistic like the rest of the vigilantes that don't get snatched up by gangs.”

Shadow Stalker stalked towards the door, leaving her behind without a word. Taylor glanced at the tied up thugs before huffing and following after her a breath later. It wasn't like they were going anywhere.

She caught up to the other girl just outside. Stalker glanced at her before jumping up, using her power to float onto a nearby roof and Taylor followed her up, landing on the lip and stomping up to the girl angrily, “And what about you? You've been at this for a while. You're telling me you just go around killing people or letting them die?”

Stalker spat, “I don't do shit. I give everyone a chance to fight for their survival and show that they’re not just sheep waiting to be slaughtered. If they take it, then maybe they’re worth something. If not, then they aren’t my problem anymore.”

Taylor couldn't believe her ears, “So that's how you work? You just pick and choose who you're gonna save? Like some sort of fucked up natural selection?”

“That's exactly what it is.” Stalker said, making Taylor blink, “People like to think that they're better than animals but we're all the same at the end of the day. Just because we learned to think doesn't mean that the rules of the world don't apply to us anymore.”

Taylor was beginning to understand. She wasn't expected to get such an abrupt insight into Sophia's personal philosophy but she wasn't sure she liked what she was hearing, “So when you say we're predators…”

“We're not like everyone else.” Stalker said looking out over the city, “This place is disgusting and it'll try to drown you if you let it. But we don't lie down and take the shit the world gives us. Unlike everyone else, when push comes to shove, we shove back."

Stalker finally looked at Taylor, and her tone was no longer angry. Instead it was almost admiring, “You proved yourself when you fought back against that bitch in the alley. That redhead had it at the start, but she gave up as soon as she got her shit pushed in. If she had actually tried to escape or fight back with something other than her words like you did, you might not have triggered and she might not have been shot.”

Her words struck a chord within Taylor, and the brunette went as still as a statue as a particular part of her speech stuck out to her.

“Waitwaitwait,” She held her hands up, stopping Stalker's speech in its tracks. She pointed at her, her voice full of disbelief, “You were there? You were watching?”

“Like I said, I give everyone a chance to prove that they aren't prey.” Stalker said, ignorant to Taylor's rising anger, “She did good at first when she tried standing up to those three, but she just shut down when they stood back. If you didn't trigger, she would have just let them go to town on her face without even trying to fight back.”

Her words were alarming for several reasons, but the biggest and most obvious was the fact that she even knew that Emma had tried talking back to the scarred woman in the first place. If she showed up when Taylor triggered, then she'd have no way of knowing what happened before.

Which meant that she had been watching them from the very beginning and hadn't stepped in until literally the last second. After Emma got shot.

Taylor did her best to remain calm, “So you saw what that was happening to us and you just decided to watch?”

“I was giving you a chance to rise above the rest of the sheep and actually be something.” She said as if that meant anything, and Taylor's restraint snapped.

Fortunately for her face, Shadow Stalker either had extremely keen instincts or knew exactly how much she was pushing Taylor's buttons. She didn't miss a beat, drifting backwards as Taylor's fist passed through the black smoke that had once been her face before coming to a stop on the edge of the roof, tilting her head at spider-themed heroine.

Taylor clenched her fists, moving forward, but Stalker raised her crossbow in her direction, making her freeze.

“That. That right there is why you're worth my time.” She said and Taylor's jaw twitched at the laughter in her voice, “You heard some shit that you didn't like and tried to do something about it. That's what makes you–us, different from the rest of them.”

“You're nuts.” Taylor hissed, staring at her from across the roof, “You watched my friend get shot and did nothing, and then you act like nothing happened? Did you think I'd be okay with this when we teamed up?”

Stalker shrugged, “I figured you'd be more okay with it once we bagged the bitch who put your friend in that wheelchair, but you kinda fucked that up so here we are.”

“Yeah.” Taylor grit her teeth, lowering her stance. Stalker's crossbow twitched and she tensed, “Here we are.”

They stared at one another across the roof, nothing, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. Taylor knew that she could cross that distance in an instant and take the other girl down. The crossbow was a non issue with her power.

“I don't wanna fight you. We made a pretty good team tonight. Wouldn't mind doing it again, even.” Stalker said, keeping her in her sights.

An incredulous laugh burst from Taylor's throat but before she could comment, their standoff was interrupted by the sound of sirens. Flashing red and blue lights were racing down the street straight towards them, probably on Stalker's call.

The two of them watched the lights grow closer before Stalker relaxed, putting her crossbow away, “Saved by the bell, huh? Guess we'll have to put this on hold for now.”

“What are you talking about?” Taylor watched as Shadow Stalker stepped away to the edge of the roof as the police approached.

“I don't think I need to tell you that cops aren't exactly my best friends. I'm getting out of here before they get in there and call in backup.” Stalker said, glancing back at her, “You should probably leave too. They'll know I was there and you don't want me tarnishing your reputation.”

“My webs are in there.” Taylor replied and Stalker tilted her head.

“Huh. Didn't think about that. Well stay and talk the the boys in blue if you want. I'm getting the hell out of here before they call in the real heroes.”

“We're not done here!” Taylor stepped closer, and Stalker shook her head.

“Look, I know you're pissed but that's not gonna change what happened. If you wanna fight, we can do it in our civvies. I play for keeps when I put the mask on and you're good, but you're not that good “ Stalker stepped to the edge glancing back at Taylor, “I'll see you at school, Hebert.”

She plummeted into the alley without any fanfare and Taylor knew from the lack of body hitting the ground that she didn't even make it that far. She probably slipped into the next building over or something, which meant she was gone.

Taylor briefly debated going after her but she knew that it would be redundant. They were going to see each other tomorrow, just like she said. They'd finish their ‘conversation’ there.

The sirens were getting closer as Taylor slowly relaxed. Biting her lip, she turned to watch them pull up to the warehouse just next door. After the ordeal that tonight had been, she wasn't really in any sort of mood to give a statement. There was more than enough evidence in that warehouse anyway to get all those guys put away anyway.

With that thought in mind, Taylor followed her wayward partner’s example and disappeared into the nearby alley, sidling one block over where she could safely swing off into the night without being seen.

Tonight had been a bust and the whole thing left a sour taste in her mouth. Hopefully next time she'd actually accomplish what she set out to do.

~~~

Later that night, Taylor crawled into Emma's room, silent as a mouse as she slipped through the class and landed on the carpeted floor inside. Or at least she thought.

As she closed the window behind her, the lights on the room abruptly turned on, blinding her momentarily. As her vision adjusted, Emma leaned away from her lamp, sitting up in her bed as she turned to face Taylor fully. She had her laptop sitting beside her on her bed, watching some video or another before Taylor waltzed in. She had also had bags under her eyes but they weren’t deep, and she looked more drowsy than exhaustion, making Taylor think that she hadn’t been up for very long.

“We're you waiting for me?” Taylor asked, pulling down her hood. Emma shrugged as she propped herself up.

“I couldn't sleep. I was too busy wondering if you were still alive.” Emma said as Taylor began to undress. As her jacket came off, revealing the gash in her arm, the girl's face became concerned, “What happened? Did you get her?”

“No, we didn't.” Taylor sighed as her jacket fell on the floor, “It was honestly a mess. There were way too many people and I messed up the plan from the get go. We could have gotten her, but I screwed up.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it was like this…”

Taylor explained how the raid went down as she undressed, from her ruining the plan to the woman getting away. Emma's face went through a vast variety of emotions as she listened to how her friend had fought off an entire warehouse full of armed men, and Taylor's guilt only grew as her story went on.

She didn't realize in the moment just how much danger she had put herself in. When she was swinging and dodging bullets, it was easy to forget that even a single missed step or slip-up would have meant death or worse. Getting shot wasn't something that you could just shrug off.

When she got to the part about Sophia and how she was partly responsible for Emma's injury, the girl's entire body shot straight up on the bed. She looked to Taylor with eyes full of fury, “She what?”

Taylor nodded, just as incensed, “Yeah. She was there the whole time. She just didn't want to step in because she thought it would be better for us to fight back or whatever.”

“Oh and what, was me marching straight up to her and telling her to back off not good enough for her?” Emma said angrily, “Did she want me to punch her too? Get stabbed while I'm at it?”

“I don't know. I think she's messed up in the head or something.” Taylor said, wrapping her bloody arm with the bandages she got from the Barnes’ first-aid kit, “She was acting like it was normal and I was just not getting it. She even suggested we team up again by the end of it.”

“I knew there was something off about her.” Emma huffed, flopping back on her bed, “We'll have to keep an eye on her. She has your secret identity and she's clearly out of her mind. She might out you just to spite you.”

Taylor shook her head idly. She really didn't think that she had to worry about that. Sophia was clearly unhinged and had an awful view about the world, but she didn't see Taylor as an enemy. At least not yet.

Stuffing the bandages back into the kitchen, Taylor bundled up her bloody costume and shoved it in her backpack, “I don't think she'll do anything. As far as she believes, we still have a chance to work together again.”

Taylor doubted that would ever happen. She was more likely to bring Sophia in than actually work with her ever again. Even disregarding the revelation that she was pretty much responsible for her trigger event, the way the girl casually maimed those thugs left a bad taste in her mouth.

“Well either way, I’m glad you're okay.” Emma said sincerely, “I was worried that you wouldn't listen to me and I'd be getting a call from Uncle Danny saying you're in the hospital. Or the morgue.”

“I promised I'd be careful, didn't I?”

“Clearly not careful enough.” Emma gestured to her freshly bandaged wound. Taylor shrugged, putting the kit back where she got it.

“‘Tis but a scratch. Probably won't even scar.” She joked. Emma was unamused.

“Uh-huh. You really need to follow up on that new costume.” The redhead commented, "You need to get one that actually protects you because if you come back and bleed all over my floor again, I'm gonna be the one that finishes you off.”

Taylor nodded, “Yeah, I think you're right. I'll go check out Parian’s when I get the chance. Hopefully it won't be too expensive.”

“Just make sure to tell me before you decide on anything. If I see you with a cape I will literally go blind. I'll double up on disabilities.”

“I'm sure you'll be fine.” Taylor said with a shake of her head, “Anyway, I'm gonna head home. I wanna get some sleep before tomorrow.”

“Think it's gonna be one of those days?”

Taylor chuckled darkly, “Oh I know it is.”

After all, her and Sophia's business was far from over.