AN: Soooo got bonked by Patreon when I tried posting last week. Too horny apparently, guess I attracted the wrong staff member or got reported. Not sure. Looking at their rules now, I probably need to play things a little safer. Seems some NSFW is okay, but there are probably parts in the future that might need censoring on here. That doesn't apply to this post, but probably in the future I'll have to redact some scenes. I've made a Subscribestar account where they are looser with the rules, but I appreciate it isn't for everyone. I'll be posting on both sites (and obviously QQ is unaffected by this too) but that's how things stand.
On a more positive note, I've got a bunch of free-time coming up so I'll be diving into the next arc of Duellist right away.
This chapter came out pretty differently than I intended to originally. Not sure if I nailed it or not, but it felt more natural to write this way.
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A crossbow bolt thuds into the target. A half-second later, mine slams into a knocked-down table strategically placed in front of it.
"You didn't even try with that one." Sophia tells me.
"You mean it didn't work with that one." I wave the crossbow in my hand. "I'm telling you, I don't have that level of control."
"You can take things into the shadow state when they are touching your costume. You can select which parts of yourself and the objects you're holding go into the shadow state with you." She crosses her arms. "You're not thinking about it the right way."
"Or my version of the power doesn't work like that." I counter.
"Until suddenly it does. You suddenly go from an absurdly lame version of my power to what you have now? Even if you're right, why don't you think that will happen again? And if you're wrong and it's just a matter of practice and getting to master something that came to me instinctually, are you really just going to sit there crying about how its impossible - and leave yourself without any anti-Brute tools at all?" She narrows her eyes at me. "Hookwolf just kills you in a fight right now, you know that right? Lung kills you. Kaiser kills you. Krieg kills you. Mush? Pretty sure she stomps you in a straight fight too. Everyone with armour, everyone with a Brute rating - they all just naturally beat you until you have a weapon that can hurt them."
"Believe me, I know that better than anyone." I adopt a pained expression. More than she would ever realise.
"Then shut up and reload already." She raises her weapon. "Actually, don't do that." She looks around for a moment, then whips her shirt off and over her head.
I leer at her, deliberately misunderstanding whatever she was doing. "That time already? I don't mind-" She tosses the shirt at my face. "I don't really have that kind of fetish but-"
"Shut it. Hold that out with your hand. Go into the shadow state. Drop it on the floor." She settles back to watch.
I give her a curious look, but oblige. Enter shadow state, then a second shadow state that excludes the shirt - mission complete.
She hooks the fallen shirt with her foot and flicks it up at me again. "One shadow state. Drop it while you are inside it."
"I can't drop it, we're not-" I wave my arms in the air. "-physical. I'm a... blob of smoke that gets to reform after a second has passed, there's no fingers for me to release anything with - because when I'm all smoky, the shirt isn't being held anymore it's just moving along the same kind of vectors that the rest of my body is moving on. I haven't stepped into some shadow realm where everything is the same but spookier, the things that I'm wearing or holding are just more smoke, until that one second mark comes up and I either change what I'm targeting or reform. I can't let go of it anymore than I can let go of my entire arm."
"The one-second mark isn't important. You can still do things with your body to move around in that state. You run. You jump. You move your arm into a position to attack - just because it isn't solid yet, doesn't mean you aren't moving." She claps her hands together. "So instead of moving your arms or legs, let go of the shirt and toss it away."
I shift into shadow, stretch out my arm and- "That doesn't work." -watch as the shirt flutters down from my outstretched hand as gravity reasserts its hold only after I become solid again.
"It does work. It's just not instinctual to you for some reason." She growls. "This is basic stuff. How about this - hold it in both hands in front of you. LIke you were stretching it or something, except don't actually stretch it or I'll kill you." I obey. "Now. Shadow state. Left arm stays holding it, right arm goes and points to your right."
One shadow state later, the shirt flops to hang down from my left arm.
"Oh look, my shirt didn't suddenly stretch to twice its size just so that you could still be holding both ends afterwards. I guess you can let go of things after all!" She throws her hands in the air. "What a miracle. Who could have seen that coming?"
"The team's only got room for one sarcastic know-it-all." I grouch. "I don't know. I see the point you're making, it just feels... well. It doesn't feel like anything. I guess that's the problem."
"Did you know which hand it was in?" Sophia prods.
I blink. "What?"
"Which hand was still holding it afterwards - did you know?" She repeats.
I stare down at my hand. "I guess so. I knew it was the left one, I think?" I repeat the task. "Yeah. I guess I have a- a feeling of some sort. Not like I'm literally holding it, but - I know its there. Or, will be there."
"So. We've established you can let go of things in the shadow state. Now. Do it again, but let go with both hands." She raises an annoyed finger into the air. "And don't give me the bullshit you were spouting earlier. You were trying to argue that everything you were holding was all just part of your wider smoke-body earlier, in which case you should be able to control how that appears when you reform just as well as any other part of your body. And if you can't do that because it's a separate object, then you have to be able to treat it like a separate object and let go of it. You can't have it both ways."
I repeat the task. Both arms to the side. A second later, the shirt is dangling from my right hand. "Told you."
"What do you mean, 'told me'?" Sophia looks like she wants to throw something at else at me. "You're holding it. You're literally holding it!" She grits her teeth. "Fine. Don't hold it. Put it between both hands, like you were about to clap and it got in the way - so you're stopping it from falling. Now. Go again."
"Waiting for the cooldown." Two. One. Zero. Shift. Both arms to the side. A second later, the shirt reappears - already on the ground.
"You see! You see now?" Sophia gestures wildly at the ground. "It isn't welded to you in the shadow state after all. You stopped holding it, and it fell down on its own. Now, you just do the same with your hand instead of your arms."
"Holding something and releasing it is different to something just... not falling down because I'm exerting pressure on it, and then taking that pressure away." I argue.
"You literally just described how everything works under gravity." She glowers at me. "Go on, Mr Physics guy. Why would this magically work for your arms, but not your fingers? It's the exact same thing, you're just not visualising what you need to do as easily."
"I didn't mean it like that. I just mean, my powers sometimes put in random restrictions like that - it can be pretty arbitrary at times. Like Clockblocker's doesn't let me do things that someone is wearing or goes around them. Like, freezing a rope around them? Banned. Freezing that same rope against their chest without looping around? Fine. Sometimes its just like that. My power isn't an exact copy of yours, we know that."
"It isn't like that here." Sophia denies. "This is a toddler that's worked out how to stand, trying to tell me that it's impossible to lift one foot and put it in front of the other. 'But I'm not exactly the same as that adult over there!'" She adopts a whiny voice.
"Why am I the toddler now? There's got to be cooler examples you can think of." I gripe. "Don't get me wrong. I get what you're saying, and it sounds logical, but it just doesn't really click. The feedback of my body, that kind of precise movement - I don't feel it. Clearly, you're getting way more control and sensation over this than I am - to me it's like, I go in with a certain momentum and an idea of where I want to end up, and I can definitely achieve that, especially when the time comes to reform. But doing things outside of that window right at the start and end of each shadow state? It's just... I don't know, like I'm controlling something shaped like me, rather than just me. Or, no - better way to describe it. Like it's actually my shadow. Of course I can move my shadow by doing big motions while the sun is behind me, but small and finicky details just aren't going to show up until the shadow state comes to an end."
"Always with a new excuse." Sophia groans. "You're overthinking it. If you can't do it on a small enough scale yet, fucking practice it on larger things and work down."
"Yeah, I get it. I'll work on it, believe me - I'd appreciate the extra versatility if nothing else. What was even the point of this exercise again? I'm trying to shoot holes in things, learning how to litter in the middle of my shadow state doesn't help with that." Not that this was completely useless. Despite my complaining, splitting things out from my shadow state had never been an area that I'd successfully explored before - something I didn't even think was possible without the final power upgrade from Sophia. The general principle of being able to place, throw or shoot things through a wall without going through or even getting close myself had a lot of potential - regardless of the fact that I clearly didn't get the same instant-mastery tutorial package that Sophia had gotten.
"Proving a point. And it's a basic step of being able to disassociate where you start and the bolt ends. If you can do that, then you can work on keeping the momentum of a moving object as you turn it into shadow." She mimes throwing a bolt like a dart, fading into smoke at the last moment of the throw - resulting in a noticeable puff of smoke exiting her form and coalescing back into the dart shortly afterwards.
We already knew that Sophia and I couldn't just turn anything we touched into smoke - as in, we couldn't touch a wall and the entire structure disappear or come crashing down around the missing support. But we could do it to our clothes. And weapons. And some things that we were holding, but not others. I'd already encountered the mass limit when using the mechablade, but Sophia seemed to have a better grasp on what her power decided was attached enough to her to count. My attempts to justify 'holding' the bolt via touching it before firing hadn't counted enough to work, but phasing the entire crossbow in my grip - loaded bolt and all - apparently was fine. Powers were arbitrary sometimes, I'd prefer a hard-and-fast rule that I could munchkin around rather than working based off of feelings - sometimes it felt more like I was trying to squeeze results past a referee selectively enforcing the rules on a whim than executing scientific theory.
She retrieves the fallen weapon. "If you can do that, rather than killing the momentum completely - then the hard part is done. Then all you need to be able to execute it is to be fast enough to do it the instant you release the firing mechanism. It needs to be complete second nature to get the timing right, and you need to be able to do it in the middle of a fight - not some cozy shooting range with me holding your hand the entire way."
Well. Separating myself from a held object was one thing, applying actual momentum from within the shadow state was the end goal - and Sophia's aim of simply keeping the already-existing momentum was a happy middle ground.
I retrieve the crossbow. Aim. Fire-and-shadow-state. The bolt limply flops to the ground a few inches in front of me as I turn physical again. "Think I might skip straight to this step. Less for me to think about, I've just got to... stop the bit of my power that's making the weapon cling to my movements, don't need to actually move myself at all."
"Do what you like." She sighs. "It's not like this is something I've ever had to teach anyone else, maybe it really is easier to learn that way - who knows. I'm guessing as much as you."
Reload. Aim. Fire. This time, the crossbow itself is carried a half-metre across the room before turning physical and dropping to the ground. "That's a good sign."
"It is?" She makes a show of peering at my discarded weapon. "You're right. Maybe your enemies will think you're surrendering when you throw your weapon at them, or they'll think you're so clumsy that they die laughing rather try to fight you."
"It shows that it works, I'm just not precise enough to do the bolt rather than the entire thing." I roll my shoulders as I retrieve my weapon of choice. "It's progress. I wasn't so egotistical as to think I'd get it first try."
"Yes you were." She replies instantly. "That's why you were so dead-set on the idea that your powers just didn't allow it. You never considered for even a second that it could be a- what do you always call it -a skill issue?" She smirks. "I actually did do it on my very first attempt though, if you were wondering."
"I wasn't, but good to know." I respond sourly. Couldn't entirely deny that. "And you shouldn't sound so proud of doing it for the first time when the first attempt was several months into your Cape career when Armsmaster told you to do it in power testing."
She scowls at me. "Yeah? And how would you even know what I worked out on my own and what came up in power testing?"
The fact that I know exactly what the vigilante-era Shadow Stalker was capable of with her back against the wall, for one. I know you didn't have that trick then. "The fact that you didn't deny it tells me everything. Don't tell me you're embarrassed that you didn't think about it yourself? That's cute."
"I was doing something pretty similar already, they just had a few extra ideas." Sophia dismisses. "And, so what? They've got guys paid to do nothing but sit around a table and think about possible power interactions all day - it's no surprise that they came up with something useful eventually. At least I could do it instantly when prompted, which is more than I can say for your dismal efforts." She drawls as my crossbow clatters to the floor again.
I hand the crossbow off to my ash clone as it stirs to life next to me. Assign it as an administrator, hand it the shadow state powerset and...
I click my tongue in annoyance as it fumbles, too. Damn. I was hoping that the administrator's usual competence with powers would be useful here, but it's actual skill was usually a mirror of mine - except for not having to worry about the downsides of being a living, breathing human and being able to multi-task and switch between orders much faster than me. I'd need to improve my own ability first before handing this task off to my favourite powerset.
Reload. Aim. Fire. Reload. Aim. Fire. Retrieve all the bolts scattered across the empty shooting range. Reload. Aim. Fire. A bolt flies a full six metres before lodging into the ground. Sophia perks up a bit in sync with me at that.
The issue was that there wasn't really enough separation for me to split the two objects apart in my head. When it turned to shadow with me, it was part of me - it stuck to me in the same way that my clothes did. I needed to identify and split that precise part off in the tiniest fraction of a second before the velocity of the bolt was completely arrested. Too early, and the bolt didn't fire correctly in the first place, too late and the bolt was no longer touching the mechanism and wasn't included in the effect of my power. I'd already proven that I could do it, but to actually shoot with full power I needed the equivalent of a frame-perfect input in a fighting game.
Or, I needed to stretch that 'perfect' timing window out. I focus for a moment, swapping to Vista's powerset. Stretch space out in a small, narrow 'tunnel' where the bolt should release from, line the crossbow perfectly into the air where that tunnel was made. Aim. Fire.
I'm denied the satisfying thunk of the crossbow hitting the target, but only because the target is too close. Not entirely on-target, admittedly, but if not for the fact that the one-second mark hadn't passed by the time the bolt struck home it would have been a perfect shot to prove that I could actually do it. I turn to grin at Sophia. "Not bad, right?"
A smile almost reaches Sophia's face before she smooths it into a scowl. "Still with the one-second limitation, I guess that's going to stay a problem if you're using anything with real power behind it." Sophia shakes her head. "It's going to mean you have a massive minimum range, and the level of timing required to shoot someone through a wall is probably going to be too much of a pain to make work." She sounds frustrated at that.
I shake my head. "Well, I'll probably get a less-restrictive version of your power at some point - but that doesn't mean that I can't use this now. I've got a workaround for timing." My ash clone takes the weapon from me, and I wait for Vista's power to clear before re-applying it - Sophia watching curiously the entire time.
Ready. Aim. Fire. I rip away at the administrator powerset, the ash clone ejecting early from the shadow state and beginning the collapse into ash in the same instant. Doing that to bugs that I infused with the administrator powerset killed the bugs, and it seemed to damage the ash clone enough for it to lose its stability too. But more importantly, by ripping away the administrator power - I had the shadow state back. Not the ash clone. And not the bolt either. After passing through the table blocking the target, it re-materialises and slams home.
Thunk.
I grin at Sophia.
She rolls her eyes at me. "You still missed."
"Something to work on." I allow, pacing towards her. "But we still did it."
"You did it." She half-corrects, half-affirms. "May-mphh!" She flails angrily as my lips meet hers. "What- what was that for?"
"Am I not allowed to show my appreciation?" I'm too old to attempt puppy-dog eyes. I try anyway. "You took time out of your day to teach me something cool. I appreciate that. I appreciate you." I am going to kill so many people with this once I master it.
She looks away and makes a great show of picking up some nearby bolts to try and hide her darkened cheeks. "I barely did anything. And what I did do, I only did because seeing you use my power so badly was reflecting poorly on me." She insists. "It hardly makes sense to hold back something useful if it might make you more effective at cleaning up the city. And, you were pretty cool the other day - just think of it like a reward for walking the walk."
I grin. "Yes, yes. You're the cool badass that has never done anything for anyone else's sake, ever. I believe you."
She glares at me, but doesn't comment. "Pass my shirt back." My ash clone throws it to me, I throw it again. "Thanks." She pauses. "That was unlike you."
"Hm?" I tilt my head at her.
"Just giving it to me like that." She narrows her eyes at me. "Usually you'd do your best to keep it away, or try to get the rest of my clothes off somehow. At worst, some comments on how you prefer the view like this."
"I could still do that if you want?" I offer.
"No!" She pauses for a little too long. She clears her throat. "I just- I'm suspicious. Spill."
"Am I really that obvious?" I stroke my chin. "Well, it's coming up to school time - and I was hoping to keep in your good books for a while longer. Because what I've got planned is probably going to make you mad at me."
"I'm not doing anything in public." She snaps. "Those classrooms are bad enough, last week was too close-"
"Not that." I cut her off with a smile. "No, something that might legitimately upset you." I pause. "I'm, uh, planning to apologise to Taylor. About the whole argument we had - that whole situation."
"Huh." Sophia doesn't seem to have a strong reaction to that. "For real?"
"I mean, I'm still a little annoyed at her - feels like I trusted her, but she didn't trust me. But, yeah, I get how it looks to her. It only looks like a realistic thing for 'Greg' to do when you realise I've got powers now and that I'm a different guy than I was." I shake my head. "To her, I get it. It looks like her only friend is either deliberately leaving her for Emma, or is just an idiot getting tricked into thinking he's helping her by hitching up with Emma. That's totally something Emma would do to hurt her, so reaching that conclusion makes sense. I can't be mad at her for just not having the right context."
"Except she does, because you outed yourself like an idiot and only got saved by the fact that she ignores everything you send her by default." Sophia points out.
"She doesn't - didn't - ignore everything. She's just bad with technology, and including it in a video game invite was maybe a bit too far." I feel the urge to defend our old friendship. "We saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things, that just wasn't one of them. I understand it."
She raises an eyebrow.
"I didn't say I wasn't annoyed. I said that I understood." I half-concede the point. "I didn't even mean to out myself like that anyway. I was just kind of making it up as I went along, and realised it after the fact. The point is, regardless of the reason - she didn't know. She thought I was a regular guy that had never so much as kissed a girl before, and assumed that Emma was successfully plotting to steal away her only friend. She doesn't know that I'm secretly awesome. And she doesn't know that both you and Emma are both a little bit crazy with the whole predator mindset - which lends itself really well to getting dicked down and humbled by said secretly-awesome guy."
Sophia twitches. "...yeah, you made the right decision to behave earlier. Burning through all that good-will you had fast."
"Well, you know me. Two steps forward, two steps back." I tilt my head. "But enough about me and my decisions. You don't seem particularly mad about the idea."
"I don't care about Taylor." Sophia dismisses. "She's a doormat. I walk over her because she's there, not because I like treading on her."
"Finding that hard to believe." I express doubt. "I mean, I could believe it with how you act now - but I know there's enough of a history there before I came along for it to be personal."
"Honestly, it's all Emma." She pauses. "Or, mostly Emma. I'll admit, I've messed with her just because she's there sometimes - but I do that for gang members and other doormats too. Emma's the one that spends half her school days thinking of new ways to ruin Taylor's day. If anything is personal, it's whatever those two have going on. Honestly, I couldn't give a fuck what you do with her." She shrugs. "I'll still judge you for it, I really don't know why you insist on chasing after her like a lovesick puppy - but that's your business."
Because she's Arachne and I'm going to get my balls bitten off by a swarm of insects in the middle of the night if I don't at least try to improve things between us before she finds out who I am. Because I actually like Taylor, even if that can be difficult at times. Because I was probably at least a little bit in the wrong. Because her and you are Capes, and likely to follow me wherever life takes me. Because the old Greg thought we had a lot in common and would go well together, and I'd like the feeling of achieving his goals. Because I'm the one with agency - the one with Master powers that would any genuine feelings obsolete if I ignore this for long enough.
Because I want to prove that I can. That the Greg of today is enough of a man to face his problems without a Master power solving them for him.
Don't get me wrong. I greatly appreciated my powers. I had no intention of slowing down with them. But there was a difference between wanting to be Heartbreaker, with the massive harem of Cape hotties, and being Heartbreaker, the asshole that only lives for himself and exclusively uses his powers to soothe his ego at the expense of humiliating everyone around him. Offering an olive branch to Taylor, even if it was rejected, knowing that eventually we'd make up on better terms? That was a move from the former. Forcing Taylor to come begging on her knees for forgiveness once she was sufficiently affected by my power? The latter.
And, sure, I'll admit that a part of me likes the appeal of the latter. The feeling of power, domination - there was a sexual thrill to it. But, that feeling didn't need to be forced like that. The steady taming of Sophia had proven that. Maybe I could have adopted an antagonistic posture with her, not left any room for the begrudging admissions of strength, the growing friendship and the occasional signs of something resembling romance - simply stood firm and waited for the moment she cracked, came begging to submit. And if I'd done that, I probably would have felt good for a while - not realising what I'd missed out on by not taking the slower, more rewarding path.
The difference between having a harem because I had fuck-you Master powers, and having a harem because I was better suited for the girls than any guy could be. One of those guys was a loser, the other was a chad. It's easy when you think of it like that. Maybe harder to live up to in practice, I'm not really that perfect - but I'm trying to gas myself up here to be a real man, so I'll cut myself some slack on the delusions this time.
"Well. Whatever your opinion is, that's what I'm doing anyway." I shift my weight from one foot to the next.
"And what do you think will happen?" She slips her shirt back over her head. "You think she'll just accept it, and you'll be friends again? Because honestly, I don't really see it."
"No." I admit. "But I'll feel... morally in the right again. More so than I already was, at least." Because I still felt like I had a reason to be annoyed, it was just the resolution that things were heading towards that didn't sit right with me. If I apologised, she didn't care, and then I cleared the rest of her challenges? Fine. I could handle that. I'd settled things as best I could. "Maybe nothing changes, maybe she throws it back in my face. It doesn't really matter. I'm doing this for me." That was it. Taylor was going to change anyway at the end of the day. I couldn't avoid that save for just not completing her challenges at all. All I could do was change the nature of the relationship that led us to that endpoint, and make choices that I was happy to stand by.
I can't say I'm really a virtuous person, or that I'm a changed man. I just want to be more... targeted about it. No reason to treat Taylor worse than people who had actually caused me grief. Tattletale, from that bank challenge - which still annoyed me despite us never meeting in real life. Skidmark, no explanation needed. Oni Lee, attempting to slit my throat from minute one. I could save my grudges for them, rather than someone who was one of my closest friends if not for one misunderstanding that got out of hand.
"I can respect that. But, like I said. I'm not really the problem here." She collapses her crossbow and tucks it away, grabbing my borrowed one as well. Damn. I was hoping to keep that. But, then again - any sudden crossbow wounds around the city are going to get attention on her, so I can understand her hesitation. "What about Emma?"
I frown at nothing in particular. "What about her? I'm not her therapist, and this isn't her business anyway. The whole bullying saga is a pointless mess and I've never gotten a good explanation for it - and I've asked more than once. I'm not going to let her fuck things up for me again. I'd probably still be cool with Taylor if I'd kept a closer leash on her the first time. She's got two choices, make up with Taylor or stay out of my business - she's not a child. Time to act like it."
"And if she doesn't like either of those options?" She probes.
A fair question from her perspective. But I'd completed Emma's challenges - I didn't expect her to gleefully jump at the chance to befriend Taylor again, but I wasn't asking for that. I was having a conversation with an old friend that I'd fallen out with. My concerns around how 'loyal' my completed challenges would make someone had always revolved around serious crisis points - being on entirely different sides of a conflict, being exposed as a villain, my true powers being revealed, I get caught doing some horrific crime in front of them.
Talking to the girl she liked to bully? A bit too petty to matter. A bit too small-scale. She'd get over it. I wasn't even asking her to join in, just to not make a scene - no different from any of the many, many times teachers had broken up scenes between them in the hallways in the last year.
"Then she can stay out of my business." I repeat firmly. "It's not optional. I'm not putting up with her bullshit in this. I like Emma. Don't get me wrong. When she's normal? About everything else? She's great. But this, thing, about Taylor? I'm sick of it. It's stupid. It should never have gotten to this point in the first place." And I shouldn't have let it. I'd gotten complacent, figured that the consequences wouldn't be meaningful if my power would fix everything eventually. I was still right in that one aspect, but Arachne looking at me with unreserved love and trust had hit some part of me harder than I would have liked to admit. "Part of that is your fault. I don't know the full history, but she idolises you and you clearly haven't helped her in the way she needs. And part of it is my fault. Because when she went behind my back to fuck with Taylor, I should have put my foot down there and then to stop her from being such a bitch."
"That's my friend you're talking about." There's no heat to the words. Just a challenge on my wording. A weak one. But, maybe what was unsaid was perhaps more important than what was said. No denial of blame. No counterargument that it was actually justified or that I didn't know the story. Sophia knew. She agreed. Maybe she didn't know how to fix it. I didn't entirely blame her for that. She wasn't the social one of the group. I couldn't have solved it either if old-Greg was in her place. "You already knew how she felt about Taylor going into this, why is it a problem for you now?"
Hell. I had powers smoothing the way for me, and I still managed to not fix it. I can't really throw stones.
"Am I being unfair?" I counter. "It isn't my responsibility to dance around her issues for the rest of my life. I worked on myself, changed myself into the kind of guy worthy of you and Arachne and whoever else I end up running into in the Cape scene. I'm the ambitious type, you knew that when I decided not to stop with Emma. I knew that being just 'Greg' wasn't enough. I put the effort in. Became a guy that was worth it. Is asking her to do the tiniest fraction of the same in return too much to ask? Not even to shake hands and apologise, but at least not to get in my way? To stop making my life difficult for a few short minutes?" I flip a hand at thin air. "Or do you disagree? Do you think that a potential future Triumvirate member should be hanging on the approval of a single schoolgirl? That he should only like who she wants him to? Would you have fallen for a guy like that instead? Or, on the other side of things, would you really call a girl incapable of moving on - of getting hung up on something so trivial - to be a fellow 'predator'? Don't make me laugh, Sophia."
She twitches at something I said, almost looking like she wanted to argue - but settles down with a disgruntled look instead, perhaps conceding her original point as inconsequential. "Kind of sounding like you're ready for the fight already, you don't need an opinion from me." She sighs. "I won't say I like it. I'm not going to say you're wrong either. I know she's... got some hangups, but she's still my friend. I don't have many of those. I'd prefer it if you didn't break her heart."
"I'll leave that up to her." I mirror the sigh. "I know I sound a bit confrontational about it. I don't mean to make it sound like it's a done deal that we're going to have some huge fight in the middle of the school. If she's cool with things, nothing changes - everyone is happy, I feel like a bit of a dick for misjudging her. I've just... got expectations for how she might react. And I'm ready for it this time, rather than just letting her do her thing behind my back. I've been tinkering a lot this weekend - lots of time to do things with my hands, leaves plenty of time for the brain to think. Time to think about how I should have handled things originally, how I should handle them now, the different outcomes that I would find acceptable. A part of me wants to go back to just ignoring the issue, but recently I've been feeling-" Guilty. "-annoyed that I'm letting someone else's grudge ruin one of my friendships without me making an effort to fix it. So, I guess I was wrong earlier. This isn't just for me. It's for Taylor. And it's for Emma to work out what really matters to her too."
This was good for her too, even if she was obviously going to be upset. Checking her real priorities and then reluctantly seething quietly as Taylor and I made up - or even better, begrudgingly burying the hatchet herself - was the first step to fixing their relationship. To fixing whatever her mental hangups were that led to this point. The first step to me screwing both of them together - another thing ticked off the to-do list from when I first started using my power.
"And where do I stand in all of this? Watching the trains about to collide?" Sophia starts to collect the bolts scattered across the range, I start working along the other half. "I don't really know how exactly this is going to pan out, but I can just tell there's going to be a screaming match between two of my best friends. She's definitely going to read this as you choosing Taylor over her. She'll go ballistic."
"I don't mind her getting angry. I can take an argument. And you? You can do what you like - not that you need me to tell you that." I tell her. "I'd rather nothing at school comes between us outside of school. These meetings, our patrols - any new raids we try and organise - we'll keep those up no matter what. But in school? I don't care. You make the call, and if the call doesn't involve me - I'm sure I'll survive the day somehow." One way or another, Emma was going to want some time and space. Me being there wouldn't- well. It probably would help, but maybe it wouldn't help in the right way. She would need to process her thoughts in a way that mindless, angry fucking in a closet wouldn't help with - even if both routes were valid paths to stopping her from crying and screaming.
"Look at you, trying to be mature." She smirks, but then nods seriously. "Yeah, I get it. I'd prefer to keep this thing between Void and Shadow Stalker going too. But Sophia and Shadow Stalker? Not the same person. I'll tell you right now that 'Sophia' is going to pick a crying Emma over sucking your dick in the toilets. She needs me more, we've been friends for longer and to be honest, it could go pretty badly for me if she thought that I'd picked the 'wrong side'. We've got a lot of dirt on each other, you know? Not saying that I'm all that worried she'd just jump straight to doing that, or even that it's a core reason why I'm hanging around her - but she could really fuck my parole if she wanted to. Straight to juvie."
"Yeah, yeah. Watch out for yourself." I hum as I yoink the last bolt clear from the target. "You know, we still have plenty of time until school-"
"No." She denies flatly. "If you're going to ruin my day, then do it with blue balls the entire time for all I care."
"Worth a try." Should have tried to get laid earlier after all. Guess that's what I get for being considerate.
But that's enough messing around.
Winslow awaits.
--
I don't waste time. World issues. First class of the day. Taylor's already seated.
Wait. Let's get this out of the way first. Her cooldown timer was long, but if I could spot her at the end of the day - maybe I could squeeze in a second attempt. "Challenge."
The strange facility reforms around me. No time to wait around. I'd been able to map the place a little pretty well. The 'inmates' ranged from neutral to hostile and ran around the place freely, Taylor wouldn't deliberately attack them unless they made a hostile move against her. If I did nothing, she'd find her first 'enemy' at around the six-minute mark since the start of the challenge - kill them, and trigger the DOOM modifier to end the challenge.
One small fortunate thing was that this was a clean facility. Most of the hallways and rooms were free of bugs, so I didn't have to deal with any harassment on the way there or worry that Taylor was tracking me or preparing a trap. She was just methodically making her way through every hallway and door between me and where I had spawned in.
I continue down the corridor. First left. Straight. Duck past the Case-53, he can't chase. Second Case-53, not hostile. Left again. Up the stairwell. Straight ahead. Second left. Pause.
Not because the two grotesque Case-53s charging towards me from the far side of the corridor were a problem, but because they weren't.
Five. Ten. Fifteen seconds. A draft from nowhere tickles my ears, a faint feeling of wind against my skin. Not a real wind, of course. I hadn't even seen a window yet in all of my wandering. Something. Someone. Not an enemy. Perhaps not quite an ally either, they'd never helped against Taylor.
But they did handle the Case-53s when they found them. Both of the charging behemoths reel and buckle mid-charge, limbs snapped by nothing and their bodies effortlessly thrown to the ground without their assailant ever revealing themselves. A moment later, their twitching, moaning bodies are ferried past me - swiftly and effortlessly enough that anyone would guess that they had a mover rating. Or rather, that the invisible hands of their assailant had one.
It was fortunate that the Cape seemed content to ignore me. I had no doubts that killing me would have been absolutely effortless for someone like that. But they seemed friendly. Even to the would-be escapees, at least - to the extent that she merely brutalised and re-imprisoned them rather than killing them. I don't think this challenge would even be theoretically possible if I had to handle two forces of nature on a set path towards a lethal encounter.
I make my way into the centre of the hallway. Here, no - a few steps to the side? Here. Just a matter of counting the seconds now. Taylor would be passing through the hall directly below me. Her swarm was far, far too large to simply overpower via a frontal assault. The speed-state literally couldn't wade through it at all. The shadow state was useless in the face of someone who would simply completely blind me and disappear into the swarm as I approached. And I didn't have a flamethrower-esque power to destroy the raw mass of bugs I would need to deprive her of her greatest weapon.
Thirty seconds. I tag one of my shadow state charges to keep track of time better. Those had consistent recharge times, unique to each slot - far better than keeping count myself. I pull my shirt off. This would usually be stupid against Taylor, but if I didn't win an extended fight anyway - did it really matter how much surface area her bugs could get on me? The shirt bundles into a ball, then stitches together. I bounce it from one hand to the next, then clutch it to my chest. Ready.
Twenty seconds to go. I look around. This was definitely one of the more 'interesting' areas I'd been dropped into. Usually, I wasn't that interested in the WRLD modifier. I'd used it to search every inch of the Protectorate buildings in the Bay during entirely unrelated challenges, but being able to explore the area freely - with far greater accuracy than the usual simulations - was really only that useful when you had somewhere fun to look into. Scouting out a gang hideout in advance? Sure. But the fact is that I just didn't need to weaponise it that often. Relying on post-it notes to get passwords, brute force trial-and-error to get codes - it was tiring. And usually, not worth it. Most places weren't interesting enough to warrant the effort.
Fifteen. Most places. This was the exception. And if the scenario was at all conducive to a prolonged investigation, I'm sure that there was a lot to learn here.
Ten. I consider the upside-down Omega symbol emblazoned on a nearby doorway. Like I said. Interesting. That symbol. A secret containment facility. An apparent security guard that seemed powerful enough to single-handedly suppress a Cape-riot like this if left to their own devices? The fact that Taylor's scenario, of all people, had taken me here. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Five. It didn't mean anything in the short-term. And Taylor's warpath ended the simulation too early to exhaustively search the entire site, but I felt safe in assuming that this isn't one of the scenarios that my power conjured out of nothing. The connections that were being made here were... relevant. Good to know.
But not important now.
Zero. I phase through the floor.
Coming from above, most of Taylor's swarm is massed elsewhere - and I have a clear line of sight to my target. By the time I land, the shadow-state wearing off at the same time - she's already reacting, without even turning around she breaks into a sprint as every part of her swarm erupts in activity. Surging out of doorways, peeling away from blocking cameras and pulling back from the mass of chitin that she'd sent out as the vanguard in front of her before she opened each door.
It's already not the best angle, there's already the makings of a swarm surrounding me and getting in my path - Taylor was already trying to vanish into an increasingly-dark mass of bugs as a trio of swarm clones form within the cloud behind her. The corridor darkens as spare bugs block off the overhead lighting. The window to make a meaningful attack is already closing.
But the shadow state had let me take my weapon of choice with me. It had let me reappear ready-to-deploy it. And I'd even managed to sneak in some of Sophia's recent teachings in there. The ball I'd just made, sitting in position as I reform with my leg cocked back - like I'm about to take a perfect penalty kick at the World Cup.
On previous attempts, I'd tried to drop directly onto Taylor. Tried to reform and snap her neck in the opening move. But she'd always been a little too fast - starting to move and counter the instant the first wisp of smoke passes through her bugs on the ceiling. This was a new strategy, dropping down slightly further away to give myself space. A new strategy for a new power. A new weapon. My foot connects with the ball. Not the most accurate kick.
It didn't need to be. I shorten the space with Vista in a snap. Taylor attempts to side-step as her bugs envelope her completely, only to be foiled as I manipulate the curve of the ball directly into the path of her retreat. I get a rare grunt upon connection, a glimpse of an armoured knee momentarily hitting the ground before even that glimpse is hidden by the encroaching swarm.
Situtation check - some good news, some bad news.
The good news: Definitely hit her. And knowing what that power could do to solid metal, I knew for a fact that whatever I just hit was essentially pulverised.
If I had better aim, it would have been her head and the challenge would be over now - but I wasn't that accurate. I'd been aiming for her torso, but perhaps I'd been a bit too aggressive with Vista's power - or done it at the wrong angle. The ball hadn't risen fast enough, and I'd merely landed the hit on her leg instead.
'Merely' wasn't the right word for that. Not when I was confident her leg was broken. Honestly, Taylor was probably fortunate to get away with that - saved by the angle and my need to redirect the attack with Parian's power rather than increase its speed and power. If not for that, my attack would have been more likely to go directly through her and into the wall behind.
Now. The bad news. As good as I was getting at hot-swapping between powers, the one-at-a-time limitation was still there.
Which meant that throughout that attack I hadn't had Glory Girl's forcefield equipped while in the middle of Taylor's swarm. The only reason I wasn't already half-dead was because the majority of the worst of her bugs simply took longer than the opening seconds of combat to converge on my position. That wasn't to say that I was unscathed, but it was the difference between 'my body is on fire, I can't see shit anymore, they're crawling inside' and 'I'm dead'. I dissolve into the shadow state and rush towards Taylor's last-known position. I'm pretty sure I'm fucked. I know Taylor's mobility is restricted right now, but even with my eyes free - there's nothing to see anymore. The tiniest glimmers of light that manage to make it through the bugs overhead only illuminate the rest of the swarm.
I'm not going to be able to bludgeon Taylor to death under these conditions, not that it would be easy to do that anyway. My best hope was retrieving my ball-shaped doll, topping it back up with Parian's power and nailing Taylor with the second hit. That's a lot of time to keep a power active that wasn't the shadow state or Glory Girl's forcefield.
In hindsight, using my second shadow state charge offensively was a mistake. If I'd run straight for the door with both charges, maybe I could have lived long enough to phase through it? Well. Maybe. I might just have died a slower death. But 'slower' might have been enough, given my requirement to set-up what was currently my strongest attack.
No, probably not. Taylor wouldn't let herself get hit the same way twice. Most likely she'd never enter another room that hadn't been inspected by her bugs on all sides again. Maybe my only real solution was to repeat the move until I landed that initial hit at higher power in the right place - it was just a difficult proposition with how she reacts and dodges.
I reach through the wall of seething, chittering chitin - almost completely blind, my ash clone forming next to me only to instantly disintegrate. Could bugs actually hit hard enough to break that if there were enough? Or was that Taylor? I lunge in that direction. I grip something, immediately shifting into the shadow state to reposition my own body - turning the slight grip into a full grapple. The bugs hadn't quite worked through my protection yet, but experience said that I didn't have long. One arm secure. Two arms secure. Glory Girl's shield active. This was- this was good. Great, even.
So why was she gripping me back just as hard as I was gripping her? I pause, a momentary hesitation at the fact that I hadn't had to deliberately take a wound to get this far. Right. If I had a grip on both of her arms, then where was that fucking Tinkertech blade-
Something sinks into my back, not piercing through as much as it simply disintegrates every part of my body that happens to touch it as it falls - the combination of gravity and some absurdly complex movements with her bugs and simple string.
FAILURE
"This is getting a little embarrassing now." I grouch to nobody in particular, already in my out-of-body experience as Taylor retrieves the screaming blade and blandly decapitated me. "And who even gave you Tinkertech anyway?" Usually my powers didn't cheat that hard for the opponent. The scenario was usually rigged, sure - but this was a new low. The first time I'd realised that she had something that wouldn't look out-of-place on Armsmaster had resulted in no small amount of swearing and complaints from me.
But a loss is a loss.
Yes, Taylor's master rating was obviously higher than the public PRT estimates posted online. Yes, the challenge was weighted in her favour - what with the random Tinkertech, the 'no-other-kills' clause and the pseudo-timer limiting my options.
But still. Even if I was the only one that knew my win/loss ratio, that didn't make it any less embarrassing to consistently lose. I could take some solace that, as my experience in real life had shown - beating them in unfair circumstances in my challenges usually translated to me having overwhelming odds of victory under 'normal', unbiased conditions. I was fighting them in a showcase at their absolute best, and reality would struggle to match up - but I wanted to win.
Usually, that is. I guess, in this particular case, I wasn't sure I wanted to do that quite yet. Because the reward for this was - assuming the pattern holds - a boost to our relationship. And my resolve to... step up a bit, to take a bit of responsibility, would all be for nothing if Taylor immediately turned around and confessed that she was entirely in the wrong, as my power forced the effect for me. Maybe fleetingly satisfying in the short term, but I can't help but feel that I'd lose something in the process.
I continue walking as reality settles back into my vision.
Now for the real challenge.
I sit down heavily next to Taylor. That earns me a silent glare before she deliberately returns her focus to the front. Cold shoulder. Not unexpected. Ever since our argument, we've both opted to sit at a distance in our shared classes.
"Taylor." I sigh as no response is forthcoming. "We should talk."
"There's nothing to talk about." She responds bluntly. "You're with Emma now. I get it. I'm not interested in dragging things out. Go and have fun fucking her behind the bike sheds - its nothing to do with me."
"This isn't about her." I shake my head. "It's about us-"
"There is no 'us', Greg." She rounds on me. "And of course it's about her. How could it not be? Her entire reason for interacting with you was just another tool to hurt me. What, did you think she just- just randomly picked you, out of every guy in the school - for no reason? Love at first sight, and it just happens to be the only person in the entire school willing to be my friend? You've seen her, seen me - all throughout this year. You knew what she was. What she was doing. What she wanted. And you still chose to stand by her over me because she whispered some pretty words in your ear."
I grimace. It was hard to dispute, because the critical piece of context - that I was a Cape and was essentially mastering Emma into submission - was something that I couldn't share. "Me being friendly with her doesn't mean that you need to throw away our friendship!"
"You threw away our friendship the day you looked a months-long bullying campaign and picked the bully over me." She hisses back.
"It's not that simple and you know it." I hiss back, cautious of the teacher's arrival at the front of the room - preparing to start the lesson. "That bullying campaign is over. I ended it. For you. The Trio? I've got them under control. I'm not picking a side against you."
"Totally under control." Taylor sneers. "Is that what you call doing everything that they want just because they suck your dick in a supply closet before lunch? Did you consider the fact that the bullying campaign never really stopped, they just changed the way it looked? Realised that they didn't need to do anything to me directly, just take away the only good things I had going for me in this place? How do you think I feel, my one-time best-friend-turned-bully manages to take my new best friend and turn him into her willing accomplice? How they flaunt that fact at every opportunity? They don't need to mess with my coursework, what could possibly hurt more than what they are already doing?"
I wince. Of all the arguments, the ones that held some core of 'I cared about you' stung the most. Taking abuse and a few hurtful words was easy, but I haven't exactly built up an immunity to real affection. With my power, I could confidently say that the feeling of letting someone down who believed in me felt more painful than actual torture by this point.
Enough. I was doing this for a reason. And I was going to fix things. I'd always intended to do that anyway, it was just a question of how they would be fixed. There was no outcome - not a single one - that didn't end up with Taylor happily in my harem and loving her life. I'd make sure of that. It was just a question of what that relationship looked like, and how we got there.
I lean in. "If you feel that way, then why play into it the exact way she wants you to respond? We should still be friends! There's no reason for all of this arguing." I press. "Is it so hard to believe that I'm telling the truth? Or do you really think that I'm cackling in some dark corner over how to hurt you next with my goatee-twirling friends?"
"Maybe you think you're telling the truth, and that might be even sadder than you just outright turning on me. She's got you completely wrapped around her thumb and you still don't see that she's never cared about you for a second." Her eyes harden. "And don't try to play word games with me. This came down to one thing. You had a choice between me or getting your dick wet with Emma. You can't have it both ways. Not with a history like ours. A history that you were there for too! We should still be friends? How can we? When someone I thought was my best friend looks at me and everything that happened up to that point, and makes a choice like that anyway? It just shows you were never who I thought you were. I trusted the wrong person. Fine. I was the idiot. That's on me. But I won't be making the same mistake again, I promise you that much."
I pinch my nose in frustration for a moment. I knew Taylor was never going to be the easiest to talk to, but I'd hoped that having the chance to cool off since our last real talk would have helped. Clearly, that was not the case here at all.
"Maybe it's easier to pretend that our friendship was never real, but it was real to me. I cared. And I think you did too." I half-growl. "And you know what? I still care. I'll accept I didn't handle the situation perfectly. But right now? The person stopping everything from going back to normal - no, to better than they've ever been - it isn't Emma. It's you. If you realise that her baiting you into falling out with me was all part of her plan, then the easiest way to get one back on her is to prove that she didn't manage anything meaningful in the end. I'm willing, you're the one who has the choice and the power here."
"Oh, sure. It's all my fault." She snarks, packing her books back into her bag. "And what's your proposal? I admit that I was wrong, we become the best of friends again - you manage to clear up the 'misunderstanding' with Emma and we all skip off into the sunset together? Are you going to tell me that's what Emma wants? Or are you at least aware enough to see that me giving you a chance is exactly what Emma is hoping for? That surface area - that new angle of attack. To give a bit of hope and crush it right away? One more betrayal on top of the others. Sorry. I'm not buying it. Enjoy her, really. You deserve her. I hope she was worth it. And if you really mean what you were saying? Then believe me, the best thing you can do for me is to never talk to me again."
She stands, takes her belongings, marches across the room and settles down in a gap between two other seated students.
For a moment, I'm tempted to follow. The other students would move for me after a few quick challenges, Mr G wasn't the type to do much to control the class anyway - and perhaps becoming Miss G was overdue already.
...but what would I even say? I knew the feeling that I wanted to get across to her, but even I could admit that - within the constraints of what I could say - I hadn't really found the right words. Hadn't found an argument that could pierce through the idea of 'betrayal' that Taylor was projecting onto me.
And I get it. I really do get it. Greg, just Greg, finding himself a harem of hotties consisting entirely of her personal bullies? I can see it from her perspective. I know why she thinks it's an Emma plot. I know why she's convinced that I'm either a useful idiot to the Trio, or just outright history repeating itself again with me instead of Emma. And I don't know what I would even need to do to convince her that wasn't the case, not without revealing the fact that I was obviously a Cape, a Master or even Void Cowboy specifically.
I don't know. Someone better with words could have found a way. It just didn't come naturally to me. The... sincerity? Something like that. I've gotten comfortable with the easy lies and masks, always saying what I knew they wanted to hear - and now something this simple was apparently beyond me.
Hell, come to think of it - did I even get around to saying 'sorry' in all of that? I guess I danced around the word again. I didn't really feel like I was entirely to blame, so accepting it all as if I was the only one with any agency just felt unnatural. The things I'd pointed out in my jabs to Taylor - I believed them. I know, for a fact, that Taylor is her own worst enemy here. The trio aren't unstoppable, untouchable schemers. Emma isn't a grand mastermind at all, just a minor - but attractive - pawn I collected on a whim. Madison doesn't care about her in the slightest, only about following the flow of the crowd. Sophia would respect her a hundred times more after one spirited - if doomed to failure - punch to the face. It wasn't as serious as it probably seems to her. If I were a more traditional master and took over her body for the day, I could improve her life tenfold with some simple moves, just by having the benefit of an outsider's perspective.
But she can't read my mind. She doesn't know that the only variable that I don't directly control here is her.
And she doesn't realise that this is me, not only being genuine, but being as much of a hero as I could possibly be. Honestly, a part of me is recoiling at me having a master power like mine and still trying to chase after her to fix things, rather than just making her mine. Getting a power with a side-effect that makes you the most popular guy in the area, still find a way to get rejected and humiliated in public? Yep. Classic Greg. I amaze myself sometimes. Trying to do the right thing is really working out for me here.
I know it's not the 'right' line of thought. You're not supposed to do good things just to make people think that you're good, you're not supposed to do it for the reward. But I'm not that great of a guy - and, to put it bluntly? That flash of wounded pride and spite as she spits on me being earnest and genuine goes a long way towards dampening the guilt I've been feeling around the whole Arachne situation. The mental image of her crawling back, begging for forgiveness? Still as tempting as ever. What can I say? I've got a thing for winning.
But I push it down. I'd expected this to be difficult. I'd committed to it anyway. If Taylor wasn't stubborn, antisocial and driven by spite then she wouldn't really be Taylor.
I've just got to convince her that I'm still Greg, not a mouthpiece for Emma. I'd hoped to segue into that at some point in our talk, before I got sidetracked by the argument. Propose a meetup outside of school, somewhere 'safe' for her. Her house, even. The location wasn't important, Taylor not considering it as Emma's turf was all that mattered. If she had that security, maybe she'd listen when I said I was still her friend. Still doing this for her sake, at least in part.
I just don't know how to say that, and be believed. How to open the door to friendship back, without her seeing it as a trap. Because she wasn't wrong to think the way she was. If I really was being controlled by Emma? Yeah. Lure Taylor into a false sense of security, only to hit her with a public humiliation on an entirely new scale than ever before. She'd do that. Of course she would. A personal betrayal that cuts deeper than the last. She would love it. And she would - and could - easily persuade some random guy into doing her bidding, and the old Greg probably wouldn't have been an exception. And Taylor has no reason to believe that Greg, just Greg, would have the power or the sway over the Trio to flip that control on its head. I get it. I was a nerd too. One of my only friends was Taylor too. I wasn't a popular guy, even if that had changed since getting my power. It was all... reasonable. Logical.
Fuck. This would be so much simpler if Taylor knew I was a Cape. Not that I was considering spilling that little tidbit right now. I'd rather keep the number of reasons to be mad at me low, and keep in her good graces in at least one of my identities. But being able to point to a clear and logical point where everything she thought she knew about me had changed would have helped here.
I remain seated where I am. I try and focus on the lesson.
I'm not done. I just need a bit of time. Time to think about what I actually want to say. What kind of outcome I'm happy with. I want... I don't need forgiveness, tears and hugs at the end. I just need progress. No, not even that. I needed to get everything that I needed to say out - and have it be understood. Taylor's response to that...actually didn't matter. If she wanted to be friends again, or if she kept thinking that I was the new Emma - I would have done what I'd set out to do. Been honest with myself, done right by who I wanted to be, regardless of whether it was accepted or not. And then? Sure. I was going to complete her challenges eventually and make it all a moot point. It should be all the same... but it isn't.
This would be a lot easier if I'd just stayed away from 'Arachne', left my idea of Taylor as the 'goal' that the old Greg strove for, but didn't really know that well. But I hadn't. Just like with Sophia, I'd gotten to know her as more than just a challenge and an obstacle. She liked me. Trusted me. Loved me. And I was lying to her right from the start. About me. My identity. My knowledge of her identity. My powers. Her 'natural' crush on me. My 'intuition' for how she could use her powers and become a better hero. My heroic intentions for the future. The reasons I wanted to patrol with her. Why I wanted her on my team in the first place.
The teacher drones on. The teacher leaves. Taylor leaves. The other students leave.
Ah. Class is over. My only shared class with Taylor until the final period of the day, and I've made no progress. Perhaps I've even made negative progress.
Mission failed. We'll get them next time.
Next time as in, right after this next lesson.
Where did she even hide during lunch these days anyway?
--
I peer through one classroom window. Empty. Finding Taylor outside of class was proving challenging.
I wasn't an idiot. I knew what Arachne was like. I'd taken a detour to the gym showers, stripped down and looked all over myself and my clothes with my Bug Control powerset to hose away her preferred tracking method. Bug Control was actually useful here, lighting up my view with potential target bugs to steal away - but I avoid actually doing it, preferring to just kill any bug that comes near me and then avoiding the few waiting to latch onto me by the exit doors.
I was still fortunate that she couldn't see through her bugs right now, as long as I knew that she was relying on the bugs naturally landing on someone near the area that wasn't already being tracked to 'find me' again after losing her initial spy, I could work around it. I just needed to escape the area and re-enter a fair distance away from where she was assuming I had disappeared off to. She couldn't identify literally every person in the school, only those she had manually tagged today and was keeping a mental eye on. I didn't need to avoid every bug for the rest of the day, just to duck out of her net and blend in with the rest of the crowd. Not everyone was being tracked like me, after all.
Knowing how Taylor worked as Arachne when being serious, that just meant that she was being subtle while at school. People might notice if literally everyone had a bug crawling across their face to let her track them, but she could hide any bug of any size anywhere. The folds of a creased shirt, the underside of my shoe, the soles themselves, my hair, my schoolbag - anything would be enough to get a general hint of my location and help her to stay away, or at least hide whenever I got close to finding her in her usual haunts.
In theory, I could repeat the trick back at her. She couldn't detect 'my' bugs when I stole one from her, giving it administrator status would let me track and control it with ease no matter where she hid. All I'd have to do then is disguise my approach so it didn't look like I knew exactly where she was, and I could talk to her again right away.
Except my administrator power was busy. My ash clone was active halfway across the city right now, Tinker-slot installed and doing its best to hammer my teleporter into a more usable shape. I didn't particularly like having my ash clone up for so long due to the longer downtime afterwards, but now that I was a Noctis Cape it made more sense. My 'dead' hours, where I could use the ash clone, kill it and let it recharge before I needed it in a fight, were now my regular school hours rather than the times I was forced to sleep. It was about maximising the uptime of my Tinker slot - my Tinker rating might not be high, but I can borrow from stronger Tinkers and dedicate more time to the task than anyone who had to run around with school, a job or running a gang.
Which was all to say, I was happy with where my administrator was right now - thank you very much. Tracking down Taylor would be nice, but not at the expense of killing my ash-clone early and sabotaging my Tinkering progress.
Which left searching for Taylor the old-fashioned way, all while not being entirely sure if she was even inside school grounds or not. What did she even do during lunch hours when I wasn't around? I assume she has some preferred places to hang out, but the ones I'm familiar with turn up empty.
Thin arms wrap around me from behind, halting my walk through the busy corridors mid-step. "Guess who?"
I look down at the lily-white hands meeting at my torso. "Sophia." I drawl.
"Not quite." Emma leans into me. "What are you wandering around here for? You usually hang out with us."
"Nothing that serious-" I shake my head.
"Looking for Taylor, perhaps?" She interrupts with a too-serene smile.
A smile that widens as I deflate. Fuck. I was hoping to defuse this after the fact, not before.
"Sophia told you?" Couldn't she have waited a day to start gossiping?
"No, but now I know she was hiding something from me." Emma narrows her eyes. "No. I heard a bit of gossip that said you were trying to talk with her in class today and got shot down. I didn't want to believe it, but I suppose you've just confirmed it for me."
I sigh. Out with it then. "Fine. Yes. I was looking for Taylor."
Emma doesn't scream. Doesn't fly off in a rage. She just tilts her head and looks confused. "But why would you even want to do that in the first place? She betrayed you, remember? You took one step out of her shadow, made a friend that she didn't approve of - and she showed her true colours in an instant to try and blackmail you back to being her lapdog. You're better off without her. I mean, look at you!" Her arm links with mine. "There's nothing good that can come of interacting with her - she's a leech that will drag anyone that gets close down to the dirt with her. And that's without getting into those rumours about what she's been doing with those Merchant boys..."
I shoot her an unimpressed look. "There's no need to just start making things up, Emma. I'm annoyed at her for enough perfectly legitimate reasons already without you pulling some from thin air."
"Thin air? I think it's a pretty safe assumption myself. Ugly. Loner. No fashion sense. No money. No friends. Drug user. That's Merchant material. Well. Maybe not a real gang member, but probably a regular enough customer to get a discount. But, customer is probably a stretch." She smirks with eyes alight. "If you ask me, it would be more surprising if she wasn't whoring herself out in exchange for her hits. You don't get to be that messed-up just by being anti-social, it's obvious to anyone with eyes that she's on something - and she hardly has much to offer in trade other than herself."
"I'm sure." I leave all the doubt present in my tone. I understood that Emma was obsessed with Taylor, that didn't mean I needed to play along. I wasn't a big fan of this side of Emma. Girls having a catfight over me? Sounds fun. Hot. But this wasn't really that, despite my initial expectations after looking at the pair from afar. It was too personal for a feud between one-time friends. A level of hate that took all the fun out of watching them hiss and spit at each other.
Emma presses into my side. "More to the point, why worry about Taylor when you have me? Us? You don't need to feel like you owe her a chance or anything, just accept that you've moved up in the world and sometimes you need to leave the trash behind."
Is it even worth trying to explain? Emma could carry on a conversation just fine for every topic in the world apart from this one. "Just wanted to have a talk. We didn't really see eye-to-eye when we parted ways last time. I don't know if it's fixable, but I'd like to at least have an honest conversation about it. Apologise for not being the best friend all the time. Explain myself and my decisions. So, even if we do part ways fully - we at least understand each other, rather than staying angry forever about something the other person didn't even mean to do."
"Apologise? You?" Her disbelief is genuine. "To Taylor?" She seems dumbfounded. "You must be joking. You didn't even do anything wrong. She doesn't deserve it anyway. She's weak. Prey. Everything that's happened is entirely her own fault. You're better than that - better than her. You're special. A predator. Even Sophia could see that - why would you throw that away for her of all people?"
Yeah. I knew she wouldn't get it. "I'm not throwing anything away. It's an apology and a general agreement that we shouldn't stay mad at each other forever. It isn't that serious." I look at her uncomprehending expression. "It's a stupid thing to fight over. I know you've got your thing with Taylor, but I'm not looking for a feud like that. Even if we never quite get around to making up properly, I've got better things to do than let some old argument hang over me for the rest of the school year." I shake my head. Fuck it. "Like you. I mean, really. Whatever she did, you've got to move on at some point. Bury the hatchet." I eye her expression. She didn't like that. Of course. "No? If you're confident that you're so far above Taylor, then why are you spending every hour of every school day thinking about her? It doesn't make any sense."
Emma's scowl remains in place. "You wouldn't get it, and it's none of your business anyway."
"It became my business the moment you started using me to fuck with Taylor. If you kept your distance, we wouldn't even be having this conversation now." I throw my hands up. "And, fine. I don't get it. Then help me get it. What did she do to you? What's the context that I'm missing here that explains everything?"
She shakes her head. "The context is that you spent too much time hanging around Taylor and listening to her victim complex, and now you think she was seriously being bullied. Reality check, nobody cares about her. Everything that she complains about is just a natural consequence of being at the bottom of the social ladder." Emma unlinks herself from me, crossing her arms. "There's nothing to say other than that she's weak and acting out for attention."
"All I'm hearing is that you don't trust me with the real answer." I tell her bluntly. "Kind of getting tired of it, actually." Maybe I was still sour about my conversation with Taylor, or maybe I was currently all-too-aware that the girl in front of me was the cause of all of my troubles here. Being hot wasn't enough for me to forgive everything she did. Even if it did help.
"It's not that." Emma softens her expression. "I'm your girlfriend, remember? Of course I need to be a little protective when you start talking to a girl with a history of treating you badly. I don't want you talking with that skank. Is that such a bad thing?"
I grunt. "Even if you were being genuine, it isn't your place to decide who I talk to." I extend a hand. "Come on. You can't even make a coherent argument about what's so great about bullying Taylor anyway. Look at Madison, does she care about what she's missing without chasing after Taylor? No, she's barely even noticed things have changed. Sophia, does she care that she hasn't gotten her daily fix of shoving the nerd in the hallway recently? No. She's moved on to bigger and better targets, tougher fights against gang members and random racists trying to throw their weight around. Isn't that closer to the predator mindset you're always on about? Worthy prey or something? You can come with me, if you want. Settle things with Taylor. Move on from this obsession you have. Say you don't care anymore. Apologise for taking things a bit too far with the locker thing-" Thinking about it, that had to be her trigger event, right? Bugs - made total sense. "-and leave her behind in the dust. That's what winning looks like, as far as I'm concerned."
Emma's face twists into something unpleasant. "Is this your idea of a joke? I'm not obsessed. And I'm not apologising. She's the one who owes an apology! If she had any sense, she'd be here on her knees, begging you to forgive-"
Whatever. I tried. "Then just stay out of the way." I spread my arms wide. "It's that simple. If you're incapable of letting go, just look the other way. I'll do it myself. It's not a big deal for me. Maybe it is for you, but we've all got to make our own decisions. I won't make it for you-" I lock eyes with her. "-and you don't make them for me either. I haven't forgotten that you're the one who instigated things to go the way they did. You overstepped there. I didn't mind too much at the time, but I won't let that happen again."
"I did you a favour." She spits angrily. "And really? Look the other way as you go crawling on your knees, begging some complete slut to take you back after treating you like trash?" Emma's eyes harden. "No. This isn't like you. I won't let it happen. Just move on! Everything is fine. Everything is great, even! Isn't it? What's so bad about me that you even feel the need to look at her? We both hate each other for a reason, neither of us can tolerate the other - so you need to choose. Your girlfriend, or the person that dumped you like trash because you spoke to a pretty girl. What is it, Greg? Me or her?"
I can't stop the twitch on my face at that. It was just so... civilian. Most of my interesting conversation partners were Capes, and the power dynamics between us were pretty well understood. Emma was somewhat unique in her overestimation of how important she was to me. "Let me? I'm not asking for permission. I'm telling you. I'm the one making a choice? No. I'm doing it, and giving you the choice on how you deal with that." I lean in, adopting a harsher tone. "We're not like the lovey-dovey couples everywhere else in this school. You came to me because you wanted to mess with Taylor, you stayed because I slot neatly into that worldview that you and Sophia share - right above both of you. This isn't a relationship of equals. You don't tell me what I can and can't do. And I'd suggest you don't start thinking that trying to force me into a choice is going to end well either."
Emma flinches as if struck. "You'd toss me aside for her?" She looks ill at the thought. "You don't mean that. I'm your girlfriend, how could you even suggest that? How is it even an option in your mind?"
"Because you suggested something that goes against how this relationship works. You've said it before, predator and prey - you praised me as a real example of it. You like the fact that I'm above you in your little view of the world. And yet, you still think that you can dictate who I'm allowed to speak with. You still think that you can make decisions for me." She looks upset. Almost making it seem like I was the bad guy here. That was fine. I never expected her to be happy about this. "How am I supposed to respond to that? Or in your own words, how does your ideal predator respond to the prey telling them what to do?"
"It's not like that. I'm looking out for you." She stews in silent fury for a moment. "Fine." She doesn't look fine.
"Fine?" I tilt my head at her.
"I said fine!" She throws her hands into the air. "Let's go find her then. Say what you want to say, get rejected and then move on forever."
I mask the sigh of relief. That was... a calmer acceptance than I'd expected, but this had always been my preferred outcome. It made sense. I'd completed all of Emma's challenges, so while the original Emma would never have considered a word of what I was saying - the fact that it was coming from me made it more palatable. Her being willing to come along was a surprise too. Perhaps the possibility of Emma and Taylor making up wasn't as distant as it first appeared - not that I expected Taylor to just forgive Emma on the spot for everything, but marking an end to outright hostilities would be some huge progress on that front.
"Well then." I cough. "Just got to find her then. I've checked the art classrooms and-"
"I'll find her." Emma interrupts sourly, pulling out her phone and leaning against a nearby wall.
Emma gets to work fast. If there's one thing I'll concede, it's that she can 'search' for Taylor a lot better than I could. How? Social networking. I hadn't expected her to have an entire chat group of people ready to help her bully more efficiently, even if Emma characterised it as a 'social group' - it must have been clear to everyone in it that Emma and Taylor didn't get along. That they were willing to help anyway was... not that meaningful, honestly. Emma was hot. Popular. Rich. I'd have helped pass along 'harmless' information too if I'd ever been included in a group like that.
After a minute tapping on her phone and responding to notifications, Emma straightens up and starts to walk. "She passed by the back of the cafeteria after class."
"That's a pretty large area to cover, but still helpful." I comment, easily keeping pace with the redhead.
"No, she won't be walking around - she'll be heading somewhere to eat her lunch. The only place that would fit is the history classrooms and the girls' toilets that are just upstairs from them. I'd bet on the latter. Eating in the toilets is just like her, really. Disgusting." She sniffs pointedly.
I shrug. "I'll take the word of the expert, I suppose."
"You'll trust my expertise in this, but not in my expertise in also being one of Taylor's ex-friends? I'm the number one person on the planet who should be trusted when I say that Taylor is a waste of space and not worth being friends with." She scowls. "Greg, she doesn't deserve this. She doesn't even deserve the attempt." She continues, then speaks in a smaller voice. "Greg, please don't do this. It will ruin everything."
"Just what do you think she could say that would change anything?" I challenge. "If you being around me is a dealbreaker for her, then you don't need to do anything and us suddenly being best friends again is impossible. What are you even worried about?"
"Then why do it in the first place? Why give her any kind of win?" Emma looks frustrated.
Aside from just being the right thing to do? Nothing I could explain to her. Because I need to defuse the landmine I've stepped on. Our two respective identities have too much potential drama around them to just leave things as they are, hoping that neither of us will ever get unmasked, or reveal ourselves to the other. Hell, as the healer - any facial injury she gets through her mask will out her by default if she comes to me to get fixed.
"Because I feel like it." I shrug. If she wasn't going to give a real answer, did she really expect one back?
"Forget I asked." Emma's expression turns thunderous at my lackadaisical response. Guess she didn't like that.
Well. Maybe that wasn't the best answer to give her, but I was backed into a bit of a corner here. I wasn't outing myself or Taylor to Emma, and without that key piece of info - she didn't understand how important this actually was. If she did know, she'd probably be somewhat supportive once she wrangled out her real feelings in her head - if only because 'Arachne' was worthy and powerful, even if Taylor was still a zero to her.
It doesn't take long for Emma to pause outside of a building. "Up there, I guess."
"You're not coming?" I probe.
"I'll catch up in a bit. You talk to her first." Emma waves me off.
"Probably the smartest thing to do." I agree. Taylor would jump to a certain conclusion just seeing us approach her together. I go on ahead.
Classrooms first. Nothing.
Upstairs to the female toilets it is then. Not the kind of place where a guy was usually accepted, but I was pretty confident that with no other people in the building - there was no reason for anyone other than Taylor to go so far out of their way to use the facilities.
And if I was wrong, a few challenges would change outrage into exasperation in short order. No big deal.
So I feel no concern at all about kicking the door open and shouting my greetings to the room at large. "Taylor! We need to have a real talk."
Silence. I peer up at the ceiling. That's a few too many bugs, even for Winslow.
I clear my throat. "Come on, I'm just looking to clear the air between us."
"How did you even find me- no. What are you even doing here, Greg?" One cubicle opens halfway across the room, Taylor stepping out while slipping a book and a half-empty bottle into her bag. "You're a boy, get out!"
"And let you go back to hiding away? No." I lean against the wall. "I wanted to have a real talk. About what happened between us, and how it's going to be now."
"Oh, you've made yourself plenty clear." She scoffs. "I'm sure. What, do you want an apology for me being mad that you started dating the girl who bullied me? You want to talk about how much I hurt your feelings when I refused to be your friend anymore?"
"I'm sorry." I start out. A flicker of something bitter crosses her face at the words. "I wasn't thinking about your feelings when I started out with all of this. Emma came to me with a deal I could exploit, and I only thought about the practical benefits. Only considered how I could control what they did, without thinking about how that would look to you. I thought-" I pause for a moment. "Well. I thought you wouldn't be all that bothered, honestly. You usually do pretty well on your own, I guess I thought Emma had misjudged how you would feel about me being 'stolen' away."
"Yeah, well. Spill all your secrets to your best friend for long enough, they get a pretty good idea of how to hurt you later on." Taylor snarks bitterly. "Didn't see it coming. Didn't learn the second time around either."
I ignore that. "Emma... she's got some issues. Like Sophia, there's a real obsession with strength there - I saw that I could use that. For both of us, we went into that 'deal' knowing it was a short-term thing while we tried to manipulate the other person. I knew that she and Sophia would fold and do things my way eventually. Emma was thinking that I was a generic nerd she could seduce away, and eventually I'd be so smitten that I'd never look at you again, regardless of any 'deal' we had going." I cross my arms. "It could, and should, have been over in a week. Everything back the way it was, except with the Trio more docile than ever. I know Emma still hates you, but you can't have failed to notice that Madison and Sophia just don't care anymore. I don't think that's going to change either."
"Dress it up however you like Greg. I'm not interested in your excuses for wanting to fuck her, or your utopia ending of how everything would have gone if only I hadn't jumped to conclusions about your noble reasons for allowing Emma to suck your dick." She half-chuckles in disbelief. "The fact that you're even trying to justify it? Be serious. You're not 'sorry', you're just annoyed that I'm not getting in line to fuck you after those three are finished."
I can't entirely deny that, but that's not the full story either.
Maybe she sees something in my expression, because she shakes her head with a wry smirk. "Nothing to say to that? Sorry, I've got someone else."
I can't resist. "Really? Who?"
Taylor pauses for a moment. "He- he goes to another school. You wouldn't know him." A hint of colour enters her cheeks as I raise an eyebrow at the cliche deflection. I knew she didn't have a real answer without mentioning her boyfriend was a Cape, but... this conversation was putting me in awkward spots - why shouldn't she have to deal with a little awkwardness by needing to lie a bit too? She coughs and hastily continues. "Th-the point is, I've got standards too, Greg. I don't need you. You don't need me. Move on."
"Believe it or not, I'm not looking for a quick fuck." I tell her bluntly. "And I'll even accept that you might just not want to be friends anymore. I'm just looking for you to actually believe me. I want you to have the same trust in me that I have in you. You're not even considering that what I say might be the truth. I get it. You're mad. I hurt your feelings. And you know, I regret that. And maybe you don't want to accept that apology, and I'll live with that too. But I'm not Emma. I wanted - and still want - things to get better. For me, and for you." I meet her eyes as her attention shifts past me. "I don't want to walk out of here with this... animosity hanging over us. Apathy, fine. If you want to start over as acquaintances, fine. I can handle that. But to me, you're still my friend - we shouldn't be fighting at all."
The door opens behind me. Emma steps through. Madison peers through the door behind her, flanked by Sophia. She strolls past me. "Oh, look. You found her. Good work."
I take a moment too long to register the odd choice of words. A moment too long to note the speed of her approach.
Emma squeezes a bottle of juice harshly, a small jet of liquid racing towards Taylor even as she attempts to flinch away. She's not quite fast enough to fully avoid the stream, but does backstep into her cubicle to block off the worst of it with the door - betrayed eyes meeting with mine before the door slams shut. Emma steps closer, clearly intending to start blasting through the edges of the cubicle - only to stop, my hand settling heavily on her shoulder.
My hand is shaking. The walls feel a little closer than before.
"Emma." I focus on enunciating the words clearly. "What are you doing?"
"Exactly what we agreed to do." She attempts to shrug herself free from my grip. "Putting this bitch in her place after she started thinking she was better than you this morning. Thanks for finding her, we'll take it from here. Mads, Sophia - come on, look at her hiding already!"
Ah. So that's how it is.
"I see." I did see. She was going to put on an act in front of Taylor to try and make it seem like this was all part of my plan, joining the Trio in truth. "So the whole conversation we had before now was just, what. Performative? A big joke that I wasn't included on?"
"What are you talking about, stop being weird and let's just go already-" She attempts to push my arm away. I tighten my grip. "-let go, you're hurting me-"
"And when I was telling you the choices that you had. Explaining how things worked between us. You didn't really listen to any of that." I don't take my eyes off the struggling redhead. "When I made it clear that your choice was to either step aside while I had this talk, or bury the hatchet at the same time - you chose the third option. You weighed up me, our relationship for the last few weeks and everything we've done together - and decided that was worth less to you than getting to bully Taylor a little more."
"Don't do this in front of her." She hisses. "This is for your benefit-"
For a moment, I wish the completed challenge symbol by her head would wipe itself clean. Offer some kind of bonus stage. I think I needed that right now.
I ignore the feeling.
"Mine? Or yours?" I spin her around to face me. She flinches as she meets my eyes, her struggles to free herself from my grip momentarily pausing. "I told you. Warned you. You don't get to decide things for me. I was being nice when I told you that you could choose to stay out of it if you really couldn't handle this. And this is what you choose instead? This was the better option, in your mind?" I laugh harshly, releasing her shoulder.
A guilty expression flicks across her face. Didn't like how I worded that, perhaps. "It isn't like that." Emma pleads. "I'll make it up to you, I didn't want to do this either but you didn't give me a choice-" I tune her out.
That is funny. That is very funny.
Four challenges completed. Four doses of what was essentially a master power. Weeks of quiet conversations, passionate fucking across the school, ideologies fully in-sync, slotting into her friend group and putting up with all of her bullshit so far.
And after all of that, it's still not enough for someone to choose Greg Veder over the high-school equivalent of plucking wings off of flies.
Fine.
I get it.
I can't fix this. There's no 'next step' from here. No extra layer of Emma's challenges that I haven't gone through yet. This was it. The most loyal someone could get - looking a little sad at being forced to make a choice between me or chasing after Taylor with a juice box, and knowingly, willingly, explicitly choosing the latter despite my wishes, demands and ultimatums to the contrary.
I turn to the entrance. Madison and Sophia are still there, both looking reluctant to come any closer. "And you? One invite to come chasing after Taylor, get one over on me - and you come running?"
Madison shifts uncomfortably under my gaze. I'm not sure why, she's usually the calm and collected one. "Um. Emma didn't really explain anything, just asked us to come as fast as we could-" She swallows audibly. "-I don't really, this isn't really my thing. It feels a bit- you know."
"You were just leaving." It isn't a question.
Madison nods swiftly and turns on one heel, beating a quick retreat.
Taylor is oddly silent.
Sophia watches her go, her nonchalant expression not matching her tense body posture. "Well, I'll echo that she didn't really say what was going on - but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a pretty good guess what she wanted." She rolls her shoulders meaningfully. "I'm not really interested right now, I'm only here in case things get a bit too heated." She looks directly at me as she says it. A threat? A warning? A promise?
I'm going to be honest, Sophia. You're the only one here who can take a punch right now. I'm begging you to give me a reason.
I don't say that. I quietly return my focus to Emma, then to Taylor - watching intently from the relative safety of the stall - then back to Emma again. "It's time for you to go too."
"And leave you with her?" Emma regains a bit of courage at the thought. "As if. I'm not letting her tear us apart that easily-"
"There is no 'us' anymore." I echo Taylor's own words from earlier in the day. "How could there be, after this? You clearly don't get it, Emma. Fuck. Off. I'm done with you." I meant it. The sting of betrayal and humiliation, mixing with the feeling of denied bloodshed in response - a rarity with my power - had coalesced into a quiet fury. I'm not good enough for her? No. She's not good enough for me. I hadn't even considered this as a serious possibility that Emma would choose this... hobby, over me. It was insulting to even imagine. Sophia must have considered it as likely, but she didn't know about the Master aspect of my powers. That should have been enough.
Hell. After all of this, it should have been enough without any Mastering at all. Was there even a single 'real' relationship in the entire school that would have failed this small of a 'test'?
It wouldn't hurt if her challenges were incomplete. Left half-done. Like Sophia. Like Taylor. But it wasn't. This was the limit, and it wasn't enough. I'd been ready for that to be the case for other people. More serious cases. When proud heroes were faced with undeniable proof of my villainous ways, when the most bloodthirsty serial killers were told to join my harem and bake cookies in the kitchen for the rest of their days. Things that went completely against their innate nature and sensibilities.
Not a fucking playground squabble gone too far.
"No. That's not- you can't do that. We can still make this work." She finally frees herself from my grip. "Come on, it was a little prank - she was never going to fall for your act, she's not that dumb. I'll apologise for ruining your original plan, but please - let's just go back to how things were before." She pleads with tears in her eyes.
"You're still trying." I guess she thinks that, so long as Taylor isn't an option, she can fix the rest later. "You don't get it. It's over. Emma. Leave."
"It isn't!" She insists. "I still love you, you still love me. Madison and even Sophia too. Everything's fine, everything will continue to be fine - as soon as that bitch finally learns her place."
"Fuck. Off." I repeat. "I wasn't asking."
Hurt flashes on her face for a moment. Not too long ago, I'd have felt bad about that.
She glances at Taylor, then back at Sophia and Madison - then back to me. Her mournful expression turns into a picture of anger and wounded pride - a harder tone entering her voice as she tries to straighten up. "I wasn't asking either, Greg. Who do you even think you are? Look at yourself. Look at how much better things have gotten for you since I gave you a chance. Your social status, your attitude, your sex life - you didn't have any of them before I decided to give you a chance. I did that. I made you into what you are, and without me - you'll go right back to that life. But at least you'll have Taylor, right? Maybe, if you keep on humiliating yourself enough - she might deign to let you sit in the cuck chair while her Merchant friends run a train on her. And if you're really good-"
A sharp crack. Emma reels back, stumbling over her own feet and falling backwards. I inspect my own raised hand for a moment. Ah. That was me.
I liked the effect. But wasn't satisfied. It sounded odd, but I didn't really have a good, healthy outlet for feelings like this. I didn't want to stop at a mere slap. The visceral feeling of hate would never be satisfied with that, no matter how shocked Emma looked now. I wanted a weapon. I wanted to compare the durability of the sink with that of her face. I wanted to see the expression she makes after saying all of this nonsense about predators, prey and survivors - only to realise that there was literally nothing she could do to stop me choking the life out of her. I wanted to beat someone into bloody submission until I was too spent to be angry.
So when Sophia's fist sails into my cheekbone - I send her the most genuine smile I've made all day. She gets me. I get her.
I grab her arm and throw her towards the floor. She drags me down with her. We grapple for a moment, trading one punch after the other - neither truly seeking to win like in our usual fights, just to land some hits. For a moment, it looks like Emma might try and join the fray - but takes one look at the frenzied exchange between Sophia and I before backing off. She heads towards Taylor instead, juicebox raised like a weapon - only for Taylor to surge out of the cubicle instead and knock her to the ground. I ignore them for a moment, only momentarily letting my attention be pulled away as Emma's attempt to pull Taylor's hair results in a bloodied nose and a knee in the stomach to draw a wail of pain from the redhead.
Surprising from Taylor. Maybe it shouldn't be. 'Arachne' wasn't exactly a pacifist, but for some reason, it felt strange seeing Taylor act anything like her. I couldn't make out much of the half-hissed, half-whispered conversation that was going on between those two as Taylor holds Emma in place, but Sophia was clearly looking to get away from me to separate them rather than continue trading blows with me.
Not just because she was losing. Sophia was skilled, of course. But of the two of us, she relied on her powers more to keep our fights close. Certainly, she was still better than most - and that meant something coming from me - but her instincts were all wrong. The momentary hesitation as she stops herself from phasing through an attack and countering, and that hesitation is all I need to press an advantage. Bigger. Stronger. Tougher. We'd already done this song and dance before. I'll admit, I'm taking a beating too. I'm actually enjoying the flashes of pain that come with every hit she lands, the violence is a pleasant, familiar distraction to keep my brain from lingering on what just happened.
Sophia bites down on my fist as I linger on a blow a moment too long. Then my grapple falters into nothing as my fingers slip through thin-air, a momentary shift of part of her body into the shadow state - just slight enough to ruin my hold without clearly exposing her power, just significant enough to give her leverage over me instead of the other way around - unless I was willing to repeat the trick in a game of chicken to see who can cheat the most without outing themselves.
I'm not playing that game. I let her kick away from me, bounding up before me to reach Emma and Taylor first - the latter of whom shoves away the former, squares up to Sophia as she pushes Emma behind her away from Taylor. Towards me.
Emma, crying and raging, simply tackles me instead of actually trying to fight. Bigger and stronger I might be, but shrugging off her full weight like its nothing isn't something I can do.
And as much as a dark part of me wants to, bludgeoning Emma into submission probably had more consequences than doing the same to Sophia. She can't take the hits, and I can't exactly offer my healing services later if things leave too much of a mark. Kicking away Emma is the best I can do, while this was all basically foreplay to Sophia, the wide-grin on her face as Taylor lunges for her is a testament to that.
I wince. Taylor's made some big strides in close combat lately. But take it from me, big strides aren't always enough when you start at the bottom.
I took close to a hundred attempts against Sophia - and other people across the same period - before I was content to say that I was her equal in hand-to-hand combat. I had the off-brand version of Victor's powerset active for half of that time, accelerating my own growth in skill.
Suffice to say, Taylor had a way to go. And Sophia immediately proves it. A three-point combo punishes an overextended fist, a textbook move that she's used against me countless times. Taylor attempts a jab at her kidneys. Punished again. Leg sweep. Denied. Taylor takes a kick to the torso and crashes backwards into the cubicle she just came out of.
"Nu' 'on ge'-" Emma tries to speak as I dislodge her, clutching a bloody nose and backing away to the exit. She gives up on whatever she was trying to say. "Sho-Sho'ia!" She calls out to her friend.
Sophia backs away from Taylor before I reach her. We eye each other for a moment, before Sophia flicks her eyes to the door, gives me and Taylor a slight nod in turn and then steps away - one hand massaging her jaw. As if she hadn't been trading blows just a few seconds earlier. Not that she was ever really the type to hold a grudge over a bit of violence. She was probably getting off on this. The fact that I'd provided an excuse for her by slapping Emma had probably made her day. "Later." There's an odd emphasis on the word as she looks at me.
Right.
Not a statement of farewell. An acknowledgement of our original agreement - to keep meeting up no matter what happened in school. I hadn't really expected things to come to this, but Sophia likely had. And she agreed anyway. "Later." I agree.
So she was willing to go behind her best friend's back for me, to keep our... thing, going.
...and I hadn't beaten all of her challenges yet. How did that make sense?
Or maybe, it made perfect sense. Because I'd taken things much slower with Sophia. Not always intentionally, but I had. I'd interacted more, grown the relationship more organically - as opposed to Emma, where I'd progressed from acquaintance, to having her suck me off in abandoned classrooms in the space of about two days. A few thin excuses about jealousy and her own psychology had been the only thing our relationship was built on initially. Maybe I hadn't really given it the time to breathe that it needed. Relied too much on my power doing the heavy lifting and only enjoying the rewards - something which might have still been fine, if I hadn't tested the end result too much, too fast. Taylor had been far, far more important to her than I'd expected.
...no. I'm not going down this route. I'm not blaming myself for this one. Emma's logic was psychotic, and with all thoughts of how hot she was mostly out of my mind thanks to the feeling of indignant rage flowing through my veins - it was easy to see that, even when the conversations we'd shared hadn't always been about Taylor, that motivation had never really been far from her thoughts at any point.
Fine. I glance at Taylor, pulling myself from my thoughts. Taylor is staring. Not at Emma, oddly enough. But at Sophia. Not a look of caution or fear, not the kind of look I would expect her to have sent one of her arch-enemies after taking a minor beatdown. Shock. An uncomprehending, blank expression.
Well. Perhaps she hadn't expected to lose that decisively after all the training she'd been doing? Perhaps now that she's a little more versed in combat, she can see for the first time how outmatched she still is? I don't know. I'm not a mind-reader. Either way, she doesn't say anything as they leave.
I note the smattering of bugs flitting down from the ceiling to settle on the pairs clothes as they leave. She was probably doing the same to me too, not that I really had a problem with that right now.
We look at each other for a moment. My anger is gone, lingering in the back of my mind for the next time I see that treacherous bitch - but not suitable for this conversation. I'll file that grudge away. Maybe there was a bit of hypocrisy there, that I'm the only one allowed to hold grudges like that - but life isn't fair. Deal with it.
And you know what? Actually? This is a good thing. Now I get to see what happens to my maxed-out 'victims' when we break up and become enemies. Perhaps, in a twist of fate, Emma will be the one crawling back for forgiveness. Maybe I'll have to deal with a yandere from now on. Maybe I'll have to deal with a 'bully' of my own with an overly-sexual tint to it. Or maybe she just hates me, and I can't fix it. Or she hates me, and its oddly easy for me to fix it. Any of those outcomes were possible. Any of them would provide some useful insights into my power.
Insights that would be useful for more important targets.
Like Taylor. Taylor, who looked like she didn't know what to say. Struggling with finding the right opening words.
"I-" "This-" We both start, then stop at the same time.
I make a gesture. Taylor starts speaking first. "This doesn't change anything. Everything I said, I meant it."
"And I meant everything I said too." I counter amicably.
She nods. Then she kicks the cubicle door, a frustrated snarl finding its way onto her face. "I told you so. I fucking told you, Greg! This is what she does! That's what she's like!"
"That's what the master manipulator looks like, is it?" I challenge. "That's how you expect her to act in this situation? Every word, every expression?"
"Yes! No." She hesitates. "Fine. Maybe she felt something for you, but that doesn't change who she is. And that doesn't change the choice you made!"
"And what did I choose?" I tilt my head.
"Her!" She shouts. "You chose her, and now you're-" She throws a hand out wildly. "-I don't even know. What are you doing? What are you even trying to achieve? She won't forget that, she won't forgive it - what were you even thinking?"
"And this was all a part of the grand plan of me choosing her, that's what it looked like to you?" I cross my arms. "You still think everything I said earlier is a lie?"
"No." Taylor looks deflated. "And, Emma was never a good actress either. I don't understand what you're doing, or why - but-" She breathes in slowly. "-if it really means that much to you, I'll believe that you thought you were helping." Her eyes flash. "You weren't! To be clear, it was stupid. The single worst move you could possibly have taken. In fact, knowing that you thought that was what I would want hurts even more - it makes me feel like you never even knew me in the first place!"
"And I'm sorry! Again." I spread my hands. "And, as your friend, I'll make it up to you."
"We can't go back, Greg." She insists. "We can't just pretend nothing was ever said or done. It happened. Things are different now."
"Then let's move forward." I press. "It happened, fine. But now that you've accepted I'm not doing some crazy scheme on Emma's behalf, is it really impossible for me to build that trust back?"
Taylor hesitates. "Just-just do what you want. I don't know. I want to go back. I really, really do. I wish this never happened in the first place, but it did - and now, that trust we had... I don't know."
"We can rebuild it. Even if we have to build up to it. We don't need to pretend it didn't happen." I channel some wisdom. "Some bad things came out of it, some good things came out of it. We learned some lessons. I learned to be more considerate about your feelings. You learned that you need to have a bit more faith in the kind of guy I am. I think we can forge an even stronger bond than before out of that."
"You're sounding corny." Taylor complains. "And what do you mean, the kind of guy you are, a complete horndog? Don't try and claim that the threesome- no, it's a foursome- was all for my benefit." Taylor snarks without heat.
"I confess, there were also ulterior motives. The curse of being a straight guy struck me at a bad time." I concede. "Repeatedly."
Wait, did I even mention that fully in our conversation? Taylor, you're exposing your nature as a voyeur through your bugs!
"Pervert." The perverted voyeur accuses me.
"Well, I joke a little - but I really did sense weakness. A way to approach them that could help - and also, coincidentally, get laid." She snorts. "It wasn't perfect. I'll admit. I saw an opportunity, and took it. With Emma, it didn't work out. Fine. Madison? It worked. Sophia? It worked. You can't deny that."
Taylor stops. "Greg. Sophia-" She swallows her words. "-she-" She stops again.
"What?" I tilt my head.
"...nothing." She says quickly. "Just, be careful of picking a fight with her."
"I'm tougher than I look, believe it or not." I wave her off.
Taylor looks doubtful. "No, I-" She trails off again. "-maybe its nothing. Forget it." A longer pause, then a red blush creeping across her face. "And, yeah. I guess if I have to accept that it wasn't entirely Emma manipulating you, then you did kind of do something with the other two - rather than them joining in for some scheme. It's just hard to picture it. I mean, I can picture Madison bending over for you - but S-Sophia too?" She shakes her head. "I can hardly wrap my head around that. And, at the same time?"
"What can I say, I'm quite the catch." I puff up my chest. "Why, jealous?"
Taylor takes the rhetorical question a bit too seriously. "I guess I was."
"Ah." Now I feel bad. Knowing what I know now, I could definitely have gotten together with Taylor at a much earlier stage - it only makes sense that some of those feelings were noted on her side too. "W-well. Now that we've established that we're all on the same side-" I step closer. "-I could fix that jealous feeling right now?"
She blinks up at me wetly. Wait. Tears? "Not too long ago, I would have been so happy to hear that suggestion." She takes a steadying breath. "But, no. I can't. It's too late. I was serious when I said I had someone-" It's me! How am I cucking myself again? "-and I love him. I really do. So, no. Sorry. Not that I'd jump into bed with you as easily as those three. What kind of girl do you think I am? And wasn't I just saying how that trust we had is broken? We can't continue right from where we left off."
"Well, the offer will stay open." I state lamely. "But, that's not important. The important thing is: We're best friends again now, right?" I offer a hand for fist-bumping.
"No." Taylor stares at my fist. "But, maybe we can work on it together." She meets my hand with her own.
Stop reading so many drama books, Taylor. Just say yes like a normal person.
Bah. Close enough. I'll take it.