“Amazing. We’re just now getting more information…”

  * * *

  “Dad?”

  “Taylor! Oh my god. You’re alive.”

  “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me—”

  “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m okay. I just got the tests back, and there’s no sign of ambient radiation or any of that.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “Me too. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to call. You haven’t replied to my messages, about being there if and when they invite me to the Wards. And you were there for court, but you didn’t talk to me.”

  “I am glad you called. About my not—”

  “We killed him.” The words were blurted out.

  There was silence on the line.

  “Behemoth is dead.”

  Silence, still.

  “We killed him,” the words were a repeat of earlier. As if that summed it up. “I think it’s already on the news.”

  “I know. I saw, but I didn’t quite believe it. I’m dumbfounded. Amazed. I’m so proud of you. Wow.”

  “I wanted to tell you before you heard from others, but there’s so much goddamn bureaucracy going on, and they wouldn’t give me a phone in the hospital room.”

  “Were you—did you help? Were you a part of that?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “I’m just… I’m trying to wrap my head around it. Wow.”

  There was a silence on the other end, this time.

  “Taylor?”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think, to wonder why you didn’t come. Why you haven’t visited me. You’re afraid of me.”

  “Taylor, that’s not—”

  “It’s true, isn’t it? And all of the doubts I had before dialing the phone and calling you, they were right, this makes it worse. I have a rap sheet that’s like, eighty pages thick, and I killed a man, and then I killed Director Tagg and Alexandria. She is dead, by the way. If you see her on the news, it’s just a cape that stole her body. Her corpse. And now you hear about me fighting Behemoth and it makes it worse. I can’t even talk about what I did without digging the knife in deeper.”

  “Taylor, no. It’s not fear. I saw some of your friends, not long ago. I wanted to talk to your employee, Charlotte, and the others came. And I saw this whole other life, this side of you I couldn’t recognize at all. Little things that I recognized, yes, and then big things that I could barely fathom. I’ve never been able to handle loss well, with Annette, and now feeling like I maybe lost you… I just… I want to adjust, to get my head around this, and then I can visit and things will be like they were.”

  “Things aren’t going to be like they were, dad. I don’t want them to be. I’m trying to put as much distance between the person I was then and the person I am now as I can. I’m sucking pretty hard at it, but I’m trying. Except maybe today, I found a middle ground. And it worked, in a way that makes me proud and terrified and amazed and confused and apparently I’m in trouble for something I did. I’m in trouble because I was wearing a camera and they saw the footage and I was walking that middle ground between the person I was and the person they want me to be, and I did a lot of borderline sketchy shit just to get by and they don’t understand.”

  There was a note of emotion in the last word, a break in the rant.

  “Taylor…”

  One word, and then silence.

  The voice was calmer this time, more measured. “I’m sorry. I’m really tired. I’m going in soon. To talk to them. They’ve made it clear they aren’t happy. Except I think they’re a little bit afraid of me too. Afraid of me like my own dad is.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Deny it.”

  There was a pause.

  “I’m not afraid, Taylor. If there’s any fear, my love for you outweighs it by far, understand?”

  But the phone was already steadily buzzing with a dial tone. The pause was enough.

  * * *

  ♦ Topic: Footage

  In: Boards ► World News ► Main

  Bagrat (Original Poster)

  Posted on July 26th, 2011:

  Link here.

  Mirrors here, here and here.

  Came directly to me. Cuts in and out, but that’s to be expected.

  More info later. Better to watch and see for yourself than get it here.

  (Showing page 39 of 39)

  ► Thatdude

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  @ Bystander

  I don’t know, but holy shit was that intense. I wish there was more at the end.

  ► Mane Magenta

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  When Scion uses his power it disturbs electronics. Its why when he flies you can’t track him unless its with your eyes.

  Omg. I’m only halfway through. This is almost a feature length film.

  ► Dawgsmiles (Veteran poster)

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  anyone else have to look up some of the people in there? i almost thought one or two weren’t villains

  ► Saskatchew

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  It’s kind of terrifying, isn’t it? There’s only like twenty in my province but you think maybe **one** can do something like we saw partway through and its like wow holy shit I could run into them in the street at any time

  ► Feychick

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck

  (56 minutes in).

  ► Ne

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  @49:00 When she’s talking to the guy in blue. Who is that? Not in the wiki. How do you even SPELL that? She turns on her friend? What happens to that guy? Did he die? Did she get him killed?

  ► Forgotten Creator

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  @ Dawgsmiles—I had to look up one or two. There was a short doc about some of them a bit ago after Alexandria died. You can find it here.

  ► Logs

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  Let’s see:

  Note the link back to this thread just earlier today. (Kid has Weaver show up for Wards event at park.) Paraphrasing hearsay: ‘I had everything, I gave it up’. You can see how much she cares about them.

  Is the Echidna thing tied to the mysterious info-blackout in Brockton Bay re: time portal created?

  Wondering about Tecton. Liking his talk about powers and building teams, but he defects leadership to known ex-villain who knows little to nothing about his team?

  Anyone else wondering why they went with the ‘V’ hand sign? That’s a rude gesture in New Delhi, 99% sure. Americans.

  Intimate moment b/w Weaver and Grue. Anyone else feel like a pervert watching this? Can’t see anything, but I think they’re kissing. If I thought this was staged I stopped when this happened.

  Regent/girl with gray mask (forget name) funny as hell. Hoping they all make it out okay.

  Have to stop at 12 minute mark. Burned girl. Too real.

  ► General Prancer

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  anyone else really interested in learning more about Weaver?

  edit: @Logs: don’t get too attached to anyone.

  ► Noveltry

  Replied on July 26th, 2011:

  This cuts out at the most frustrating times.

  End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … 38, 39

  * * *

  Glenn reached across his keyboard to refresh his email, then hit the key on his keyboard to shut down the machine. While the screen went through the motions, Glenn walked around the desk to kneel on the floor. The computer itself was set into a recess in the floor, and he worked at unplugging and unscrewing each wire in turn.

  A butterfly flew across his field of vision, and he jumped despite himself.

  “Weaver,” he said, turning around.

  “Glenn,” she said. She wasn’t in costume, but her glower was intense enough that she might as well have been in her full garb as Skitter, complete with shawl, skirt and the carpet of insects crawling on her.

  “Recuperating?”

  “Not as much as I’d like,” she said. Her voice was hard. “I’m not having the best day, on a lot of levels.”

  “Still waiting for the tribunal to convene?” Glenn asked. “It’s been hours now.”

  “The secretary’s supposed to call me. They gave me one of the superhero phones so I could call my dad, told me to hold onto it. I’d take it as a good sign, except there’s a video circulating online. My video. Well past the point where anyone could hope to control access to it. Mirrors, bitsharing, hardcopies…”

  “I see. Upsetting.”

  “Yeah. Just a little,” she said. The tone was light, but her expression remained the same. “Packing up?”

  “Yes,” Glenn said. He tried to lift the desktop, found more wires attached at the bottom, and set it down to unplug them.

  “I expect I’ll be fired. They’ll make me clean out my office, so I figured I would get a headstart. I don’t keep anything permanent that isn’t on my personal computer, so this box is all I need.”

  She didn’t respond.

  He tried to lift it again, only to find more wires connected on the front.

  “No need to worry. If you’re here to inflict some bug-induced torture on me, you can save yourself a lot of effort by leaving me to my own devices with this damned box. I promise you, I’ll figure out something worse to do to myself.”

  Butterflies circled her as she stalked forward. Glenn backed away a step before he realized what she was doing. She wasn’t even a third of his weight, and the only insects she seemed to have on hand were butterflies, but he felt a touch intimidated nonetheless.

  Were the butterflies supposed to be ironic? A gesture?

  She knelt down beside the computer, fiddled around and disconnected the remaining wires, then lifted the box up to the floor beside the recess.

  “Thank you. I’m good with computers, with software, but laughably bad with the technology.”

  “Why, Glenn? It was private. It was supposed to be for therapy.”

  “Wasn’t my choice to parcel it out. Dragon was killed, by all accounts, and Director Wilkins made the call to hand it out, for your pending conduct review.”

  “And you made the call to release it online.”

  “I suppose Tattletale informed you. Do you know how frustrating it is to be a mere human being among powers like you and your friend?”

  “I dunno,” she said. “I figure you can relieve your stress by uploading their personal videos to the internet.”

  Glenn sighed. “You’re tired. You’re not being rational.”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s totally the way to talk to a girl.”

  Glenn stepped forwards, resisted the urge to flinch as the butterflies briefly invaded his personal space. He met her eyes, waited for her to look away, then snapped, right in front of her.

  Her eyes locked onto his, and she looked even more irritated.

  “Stop,” he said. “Look me in the eyes. I want to talk to Weaver the strategist, not Taylor.”

  She didn’t move a muscle, but he wondered if the butterflies changed course. She remained silent, glowering.

  “I know you’re tired. Today took a lot out of you,” Glenn said. “But think. What purpose does it serve to upload the video?”

  “It’s the best footage you have of the event. The best way to sell the win, the PRT’s involvement.”

  “Think bigger.”

  “That’s pretty damn big.”

  “Bigger, Weaver. Come on. Do you think I got to where I am by thinking one dimensionally? What else, why? I’m getting fired. I knew I’d get fired. Would I do it just for that?”

  “Probably, if there wasn’t another way.”

  “With an ego like mine?”

  “Honestly, your ego can’t be that big if you wear those clothes.”

  Despite himself, he was a little stung. He’d cultivated his image to demand attention. Even his weight was calculated, to make it clear he was not one of them, that he was someone with power, presence. His clothes were admittedly awful. They were intended to be awful. But they didn’t diminish his sense of pride in the least.

  It was a shame he was undoubtedly going to lose his job. It would be nice to discuss the idea of image from two very different perspectives.

  “I’m not your adversary, Weaver.”

  “No. I can’t help but feel you’re an albatross around my neck. I keep hearing that you’ve done stuff to help, but I keep experiencing this… this.”

  “I’m your ally, Weaver. You think I don’t recognize the issues in the PRT? The corruption that’s still at the core? The need for change? There has to be some sacrifice, and there has to be someone to step forward, a harbinger for that change. Chevalier may be the hero of the day, he can lay the groundwork for change, but he can’t be that harbinger. He’s too entrenched.”

  “You want me to be the harbinger.”

  “It’ll be hard, but I think you’ll manage with that. Putting this video online, it’s going to achieve a lot of things. I think, seeing you in the thick of it, it’s going to change people’s opinion of you. There’ll be controversy, some will hate you. But others? This will be their first view of what it’s truly like on the battlefield. They’ll have to like you, to sympathize. But the rule of three says you won’t be forgotten about.”

  “Rule of three?”

  “Three times, you’ve been forced into the public eye. As the leader of Brockton Bay, as the newly christened Weaver, slayer of Alexandria, and here, in the video.”

  “I was just thinking about something like that, in a totally different way. Twice now, I’ve betrayed my teammates. At first, when they found out I was an aspiring hero, an undercover operative. Then I became Weaver. This’ll be the third. I had the camera, stuff was said and done, private stuff talked about, and they won’t like it. They didn’t ask to be in the spotlight any more than I did.”

  “Some of it will endear you to the public,” Glenn said.

  “Being worshipped as a god wouldn’t be worth hurting them again,” Weaver retorted. Her voice was hard again. “Grue believes that image and reputation are a kind of protection. Being seen as soft, when he’s dealing with people in the criminal underworld? It could get him killed.”

  “They’ll forgive you that setback, I’m sure. They’ll understand you didn’t choose to do it.”

  “Rachel’s not the understanding type. I’ve fought an uphill battle to get her trust, and if she feels hurt by this, or if she registers that others are hurt, and that I’m the culprit in any way—”

  “With luck, public opinion and an insight into the bond you have with the team will make it easier to interact with your old team. You’ll have more chances to fix any damage.”

  Weaver shook her head, staring down at the ground.

  “It’s an honest look into what the heroes do, Weaver. What you capes face every day. Why there’s so much gray in the moral palette. With this, Chevalier’s new Protectorate won’t be something that exists in name only.”

  “You could have asked.”

  “You would have said no. And there was no time. We needed to make it absolutely clear just what you and the rest of the heroes did on the field, so Scion couldn’t overshadow you. We needed to do it right away. Cement the idea into the public mind so it was the first concrete piece of information they got.”

  She stared at the ground. The lines in her face were deep with exhaustion. The butterflies had landed on her shoulders and arms.

  He let the idea sit. Better to let her speak next.

  She did. “Chevalier is laying the groundwork, I’m the harbinger… and you’re the sacrifice, then?”

  He met her eyes. “They won’t be as upset with you as they are right this moment. I’ll draw the initial heat. By the time they’re done with me, my career and any possible job in a related field will be ashes in the wind. For you, well, it’ll tip the scales. If you’re halfway into the ‘deserves a medal’ camp and halfway into the ‘needs to be punished’ camp, this will help.”

  “I could have done some things better, but was I that bad?”

  “Consorting with villains you were supposed to avoid, putting Wards on the line to help them, dealing with Phir Sē without contacting any superiors. You ignored the rules regarding image, took gambles—”

  “I had to. All of that. I was told that rules are relaxed on the field. You can’t seriously expect me to use butterflies against Behemoth.”

  “Of course not,” Glenn responded. “Do you think I’m stupid? I know this. But there’s a lot of people paying attention to this. Many people who will be in that room won’t know these things, won’t fully understand. Some won’t even watch the video before they pass judgement on what occurred in it. Never underestimate the stupidity of people.”

  Weaver made a sound, halfway to a sigh, halfway to a laugh.

  Glenn smiled a little. “The video burns one bridge. No more butterflies. Though they won’t hurt, because it makes it a hell of a lot harder for any common criminals to complain about an excess use of power, but I’m digressing…”

  Weaver’s phone beeped. A moment later, Glenn’s vibrated. He checked it.

  Convening to discuss Weaver’s conduct in room F. Please attend.

  He closed the message window.

  “Thank you,” Weaver said. “I think. I’m supposed to go now.”

  “Me too. Join me?” Glenn asked.

  Weaver nodded. Her collection of butterflies led the way out of the office.

  Glenn spoke without looking at her. “I don’t expect you to like me. Never really did. One of the first and biggest problems you ran into was with your image. It’s a problem even now, I suspect. It will continue to be a problem, especially now that you’re in the limelight.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Glenn reached into his vest pocket and withdrew a case. He opened it, removed a business card, and handed it over.

  “My number. In case you need advice. Well, use my cell. My work number probably won’t be mine for much longer.”