With Great Power: Aftermath

Since it was still the middle of the day when Taylor got to Emma’s house, Taylor had to be careful of any wandering eyes as she entered her friend’s house. It wouldn’t be good to have her secret identity leaked because she forgot Mrs. Jenson had a habit of peeking over the fence.

Luckily, Taylor already had a bit of practice sneaking in and out of Emma’s room and that had only been made easier. As she closed the window behind her, pulled her mask and goggles off, flipping her hood down as she turned to her friend’s bed, preparing to tell Emma all about her day and her encounter with the city’s resident themed supervillain duo… Only Emma wasn’t there.

Instead, Taylor was left staring at the absolute mess that her friend had seemingly left behind on her bedroom floor. Wires, screws, circuit boards, and other bits of machinery that Taylor didn’t even know the name for were scattered across the carpet, leaking from the gutted carcass of Emma’s television that was lying on its side in the middle of the room. It was like a wild animal had come in and ripped the thing apart, scattering its insides all over the room, and even her DVD player hadn’t escaped the carnage, lying in pieces right next to the TV that it usually sat beside. 

Emma herself was nowhere to be found though. Taylor looked around for any sign of her friend, worry curling in her gut. There was some semblance of a path carved into the debris, just wide enough for Emma’s wheelchair to get to. It was heading into the hallway.

“Emma?” Taylor called as she left the room, looking and listening for any sign of her friend. Her ears picked up the sound of something in the house down below, the clicking of metal on plastic, accompanied by a great amount of cursing. Following the sound downstairs, Taylor glanced into the kitchen and did a double-take, hardly believing what she was seeing.

Emma was fine, at least as far as Taylor could tell. She was laying on the kitchen floor, legs stretching behind her in the direction of her discarded wheelchair as she dug into some large machines with both hands, practically putting her head inside as she tried to get at whatever she was looking for. Was… was that the microwave?

A cursory glance to the side revealed that yes, it was. The coveted item that the two of them had once used to reheat day-old slices of pizza had been ripped from the walls and disemboweled on the floor of the kitchen that it had once called home. Emma apparently didn’t have any mercy or even a semblance of regard for the machine, diving into its guts like they held the secrets to life.

Emma’s laptop was sitting on the counter nearby, somehow still intact despite the utter carnage that had been wrought among its fellow machines. A cord was plugged into its side, leading to the girl who had somehow still not noticed Taylor. It disappeared into the microwave alongside Emma’s head, making Taylor wonder if she had the other end in her mouth or something.

As she watched Emma throw the microwave’s heating element away, Taylor’s worry was replaced with confusion and a slight amount of amusement. Emma clearly wasn’t hurt, but she had never seen her friend so singularly focused on a task in her entire life. Except for maybe modeling, but even that didn’t command her attention as much as whatever she was looking for at the moment.

Having a feeling that Emma wouldn’t ever notice her on her own, Taylor cleared her throat in an attempt to break through whatever fugue had overtaken her friend. She watched as Emma jumped at the noise, banging her head on the roof of the microwave in surprise before using her arms to skitter backward, pulling her head out and whipping it around with wide eyes.

Whatever Taylor was going to say died in her mouth as she caught sight of her best friend’s face. Tear tracks were running down her cheeks, carving thin lines of mascara in her carefully applied makeup. Her eyes were red and her lashes were still wet with tears, as if she had been crying for a while and only recently stopped. 

It was concerning and the tangible proof of Emma’s anguish made Taylor’s heart squeeze uncomfortably, but there was no possible way that she could focus on it at the moment, staring instead at the strange device wrapping around Emma’s forehead. It was hodgepodge, all jagged metal and exposed wires, with two large prongs pressed directly into either of the girl’s temples while a single blue light blinked merrily in the center, just above her brows. The cord connected to her laptop was plugged into the back of the device, stuck there with a healthy amount of electrical tape and an unhealthy amount of trust that she wouldn’t get shocked by exposed wires.

The two girls stared at each other for an almost uncomfortably long amount of time, one in surprise and the other in confusion tainted by a growing, horrifying sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Taylor licked her dry lips, her eyes darting to the dismantled microwave and the strange device on Emma’s head as a disconcerting theory began to slowly form in the back of her mind, driving away any and all amusement that could possibly be produced from this situation.

Her mouth opened and her voice emerged in a dry rasp, “Emma… did you–?”

“Taylor!” Emma’s eyes lit up, as if she had just noticed her friend for the first time even though they had been staring at each other for at least ten seconds. The sight of her friend pushed her off of her stomach and onto her but instead as she pushed the microwave away from her and held her arms up, “Taylor, pick me up and put me in my chair. You've got to see this!”

Faced with the return of Emma’s enthusiasm, Taylor was powerless to disobey. Leaning down, she grabbed Emma by the hips and lifted her up, plopping her down in the nearby wheelchair with barely any effort at all. Glistening chips of metal and other junk fell out of Emma’s long, red hair as the girl ran her hand through it, giving Taylor a bright grin, “Thanks. Now look at this.”

Emma wheeled herself over to her laptop but didn’t actually reach over to grab it. Instead she just lingered near it, closing her eyes as her lips pursed in concentration. The light in the middle of her forehead stopped blinking and shifted to one solid color, glowing brightly, and Taylor’s jaw dropped as the cursor on the screen of her laptop began to move on its own, switching tabs and clicking on links; it even began to type on its own, visiting one of those garish clothing websites that Emma liked to browse but never actually buy anything.

“It’s cool, right?” Emma grinned ecstatically as she scrolled through the page with nothing but her thoughts and the device on her head, “I can do this to pretty much anything too! As long as it has an HDMI cable, I can interface with it, no problem.”

The device on her head suddenly sparked, zapping her skull and making her reel back with a small squeak. Taylor stepped forward, “Emma!?”

Emma held out a hand out, grinning sheepishly, “I’m fine, Tay. There’s still a few kinks I need to work out. I need to finish the housing or it’ll keep doing that but I don’t have the stuff on hand. I need some clamps and a soldering kit and maybe some pliers–but it works right now so that’s all that matters!”

Unsure what to say, Taylor nodded. Emma’s smile widened at her friend’s agreement, seemingly growing even more excited by the second, “And this isn’t even it; I’ve got so many more good ideas in my head–or I guess they’re blueprints, huh? I could make it all wireless and reach the whole block without leaving the house if I wanted to. Hell, I could motorise my wheelchair and control it with my mind if I wanted, I just need another TV… and Daddy’s car.”

“You’re a tinker.” Taylor said quietly.

Emma snorted as the screen of the laptop changed to the front of some hardware store as she autonomously checked the availability of the tools she needed, “No shit, Tay. Ooh, this one’s on sale at the place near the mall…”

Emma didn’t seem to understand. Taylor glanced around her, staring at the remnants of the microwave and then the tear tracks running down her friend’s face. She swallowed harshly, guilt churning in her stomach like curdled milk, before she stepped forward and grabbed her friend’s shoulder, “Emma.”

The girl stopped in the middle of proposing that they go buy some cheap phones so she could rip out their motherboards and turned to Taylor instead, raising an eyebrow filled with annoyance and sass, “What?”

Taylor swallowed again, “What happened?”

The underlying question was as glaringly obvious as the device on Emma’s head and the girl froze, staring at her like a deer in headlights, before slowly looking away, going silent for a long moment.

“Emma?” Taylor asked softly, and that seemed to spur her into motion. Emma jerked her shoulder out of Taylor’s grip, not meeting her eyes as she turned back to the laptop, speaking bitterly.

“What do you think happened?” She spat quietly. The image on the laptop screen flickered and Emma fiddled with her headband until it returned to normal.

“I think… I think you went through something horrible and I wasn’t here to help you through it.” Taylor said softly, “But I’m here now and I want to help. What happened?” 

‘How did you Trigger?’, went unsaid.

Emma didn’t say anything, going silent again as the browsing on the laptop slowed to a crawl. Taylor went to repeat her question, anxiety boiling in her gut, before the girl finally spoke.

“I fell.” Emma said quietly, making Taylor blink. Even though she was facing away from her, Emma somehow noticed and laughed bitterly, the sound grating against Taylor’s ears like nails on a chalkboard, “Yeah, it’s pathetic, isn’t it? I was getting out of bed and I missed my wheelchair and the next thing I knew I was face down on the floor. Nobody was home and my wheelchair was so far away and I couldn’t pick myself up and you...”

Emma stopped herself suddenly, biting her lip before continuing in a softer voice, “Things have been pretty hard for me recently. I tried to hide it from you because I didn’t want you to worry but everything in my life has been completely shit since I got shot. My physical therapy is taking forever and my talent agency dropped me because my legs don’t work and you–” she sniffled, “You’re out there swinging around and helping people like a real hero while I’m sitting in bed wondering if I’ll ever be able to go pee again without the walk to the bathroom taking five fucking minutes.”

Emma was crying again and she rubbed her eyes, smearing what was left of her carefully applied makeup all over her cheeks. She didn’t notice or didn’t care, looking down and continuing her story, “While I was lying on the floor… I don’t know, I guess it just hit me all at once. All I could think about was how helpless I was and that I didn’t want to be helpless anymore and then…”

“Something snapped.” Taylor finished numbly. Emma nodded, gently pulling the headband off of her head, staring at it as if she was just seeing it for the first time.

“It felt like everything was too much all of the sudden, and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was still on the floor, but everything felt different. I had all these ideas in my head and something telling me I had to try them out, that things could be okay if I did.” She laughed wetly, turning to Taylor with glistening eyes,  “I guess I went a little overboard… Daddy’s going to kill me when he sees this.”

Taylor didn’t even think about her next action. Her friend was hurting and she needed comforting, and now that she was here, she could finally provide it. Emma squeaked as she was suddenly wrapped in a hug and pulled close to Emma’s chest as Taylor squeezed her close, trying to reassure her as much as she possibly could with the warmth of her body alone.

“I’m sorry.” Tears stung Taylor’s eyes as she held her friend tightly, “I noticed something was wrong with you but I never asked. I never realized it was so bad. I should have done something.”

Emma hugged her back, her voice a dull mockery of the lively girl that Taylor grew up with, “I’ve known you for my whole life, Taylor. You wouldn’t be able to tell unless I wanted you to. I’m the one who should have opened up about it.”

“I still should have talked to you. I’ve been so preoccupied being Widow that I never bothered to sit down and ask you how you were holding up. I’m a bad best friend.”

“The worst.” Emma nodded in her chest, making her laugh, “But I still could have mentioned it. It’s not just your fault; it’s mine too for not telling you what was wrong. Let’s just agree that we both could have done better, okay? Things are gonna be alright now.”

Taylor could tell that Emma was talking to herself just as much as her, but she still nodded, hugging her friend tighter. They spent a while like that, comforting one another as their turbulent emotions slowly returned to normal and the flow of anguished tears came to a stop. As they separated minutes later, Taylor gave a wet laugh, making Emma look at her.

“I was supposed to be the one comforting you,” she said, “but in the end you ended up making me feel better.”

Emma shook her head, “Taylor, I love you, but even though you're a bleeding heart, you kind of suck at comforting people.”

Taylor made an offended noise, “That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told. I’m great at comforting people. You just make it hard to comfort you because you’re so prickly. Like a cactus.”

“Hottest cactus you’ve ever seen.” Emma smirked, making Taylor smile as she saw her friend’s usual personality return. 

She looked around at the carnage Emma had caused while she was creating her headband, “We should probably start cleaning this stuff up. Your parents will be back soon, won’t they?”

Emma sighed, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re doing all the heavy lifting though. I’m not too good at that anymore.”

“That’s just because you have bad posture.” Taylor said as she lifted up the shell of the microwave with one hand, giving Emma a smirk, ““You have to lift with your legs, not your back.”

Taylor winced immediately after she said it, but Emma seemed to take the joke well, miming an affronted expression with her usual ease, “You Bitch.”

They cleaned up or well, Taylor cleaned and Emma watched as retaliation for that joke she told. Taylor didn’t mind of course, she didn’t expect Emma to crawl around on the floor and put all the loose screws in a trashbag or something, but she did put what was left of the microwave in the girl’s lap just because she thought it would be funny. It was.

“Hey Tay?” Taylor looked back at Emma, expecting a glare or something to be chucked at her head, but the redhead was just staring at the microwave in her lap with an odd expression of dread, “How are we gonna explain what happened to the microwave to my dad.”

Taylor’s expression went blank, “Uhh, I don’t suppose you could put it back together, could you?”

“I don’t think that’s within my capabilities, no.”

“...I’ll figure something out.”

Taylor did not, in fact, figure something out. They were both grounded for two weeks.