Tertiary (Worm)

[gunghoun]

Wait, the ending is a bit confusing. It sounds like he's setting Taylor up to catch more shit, if he's already thinking about pulling Sophia back up. Also, if Hess is the one experiencing schadenfreude, that means Sophia is enjoying herself because of someone else's misery.

 

[Ack]

The trouble with knocking canon Sophia down is that she never admits defeat, so she never appreciates being helped up again.

 

[Visual Pun]

The trouble with knocking canon Sophia down is that she never admits defeat, so she never appreciates being helped up again.

Click to shrink...

That, and she just won't accept the wisdom of Chumbawumba...

morP 3.4

Taylor sat in her seat and tried to will the bus to drive faster. It had taken her a solid month of planning to set up the events on April Fools' Day. How much could she get done in just an afternoon?

Means, Motive and Opportunity. She had all three but the time to act was rapidly running out. The biggest reason Taylor was willing to take action was that the Track Team had something planned and anything she did would get lumped into the blame which accrued on them.

Taylor got home, took some more pain relievers and raced up the stairs. She tried to organize her thoughts while she showered, and had to shampoo three times before all the dried blood and sticky congealed juice came free.

Her biggest problem was deciding how to get the most bang for the buck, what could she carry and not arouse suspicion on the bus?

The bus.

Here she was, planning her mission and she had to factor in taking the bus. Well, it's not like she could wave a wand and have the Butterfly Mobile ™ appear magically, now could she? Taylor scrapped her initial grandiose plans due to the tyranny of logistics and plotted out what else would work.

She exited the shower, toweled her hair dry and made her way to her room. Even though the warmth of the shower had eased her aches and pains, she knew she'd have to bandage herself up before heading out. Finding an outfit which would look OK at the dance under her silk outfit was a chore. However once she had taken some more pain medication, bandaged herself up, and pulled her costume on over the bandages she found that it sort of worked like support hose, only full-body.

The bulky armor panels would have to go, though, as would the chest armor and the rear armor which doubled as her main storage compartment. The integrated shin guards could be covered by her usual baggy pants, as would the elbow pads. Fortunately she had designed the shoulder armor to be removable otherwise she would look like a picture of her mom from the '80's, but without the big hair.

Her burner phones fell out of her storage compartment along with the business card she'd got from Shadow Stalker last night. After some consideration she decided to text the number she'd been given. It initially seemed at cross purposes to what she was about to do to her tonight, but she needed every bit of evidence she could use against Sophia at some point so stringing her along was just a part of the overall strategy. She needed Shadow Stalker to be with her in order to turn around and use that against Sophia, after all.

Even though the limited time she had was ticking away, she couldn't just leave immediately. A teenager out and about during school hours on a Friday just screamed 'Please call the truant officer,' in every language.

Taylor still had to call her father for a cover story now that it was a more realistic time when the bus would actually drop her off at home normally.

"Hello, Dockworkers Union, Daniel Hebert speaking. How can I help you?"

"Hi Dad, I was invited to a dance tonight, and I want to go."

"Okay… Who is this boy, and do I need to be worried?"

"Dad, it's not like that, it's kind of a group thing. A dance for all the dance organizing committees to get together, relax and not miss all the fun running things behind the scenes for a change."

"Uh huh. Y'know, Taylor?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"You can call me and I'll come pick you up anytime. I'll be by the phone all evening, and Taylor?"

"Yes, Dad?"

"It's good to see you getting out and socializing. At this rate I thought I'd never get to do the 'K'CHUCK' speech."

"The 'K'CHUCK' speech?"

"Yeah, the one where I ask him 'So you're dating my daughter?' he says 'Yes,' and I work the pump action of the shotgun on my lap, it goes
'K'CHUCK' and I say 'So we understand each other?' while glaring at him."

"No, Dad. It's not that kind of date."

"Too bad, I've been waiting to do that for years."

"I love you dad."

"I love you too Taylor. Have fun and be safe."

Unfortunately for my father, I only planned on doing the first half of what he just asked me.

_____

Taylor rode many busses as she zigzagged all over town to surreptitiously gather bugs everywhere she went while she bought supplies. Multiple 'close enough' bus trips allowed her to guide the swarms she'd gathered on top of each bus she rode near Immaculata.

It was a mostly uneventful afternoon, except for once where she got off the bus at the hardware store, and a junkie snatched her duffel bag then ran down an alley. The resulting screams when the junkie ran back out of alley screaming about spiders was oddly satisfying.

She had enough time to get a good dinner in and pick up some more pain relievers since the bottle was now empty. Taylor pondered having her bugs liberate a few pills from behinds the counter of the pharmacy across the street when the waitress arrived with her meal.
By the time the sun began to set she had gotten pretty good at guiding her swarms through tunnels, sewers and drains or flying swarms surreptitiously from tree to tree around Immaculata.

Taylor was confident she could pull this off, and even follow up at school on Monday with her swarms that lived under the school.

_____

Principal Blackwell straightened her desk just so, gathered her belongings, and reveled in the achievement of one small victory today. As usual, she was the last one to leave the building. She turned her master key in the lock and armed the security system, not for its' regular weekend program, but to allow access to the building tomorrow.

The stars had aligned and fortune favored her as the exterminators had an immediate opening in their schedule this weekend. Then during spring break in two weeks they could return and shovel out all the dead bugs and any hatchlings or newcomers which died eating the poisoned carcasses of their fellow insects and do a really thorough cleaning.

She steered her car out of the parking lot and drove home feeling satisfied.

 

[Biigoh]

......

Oh Tay Tay....

 

[jrbless]

Taylor didn't plan for the unthinkable: Blackwell actually doing her job. That is a very easy thing to overlook as typically Blackwell doesn't do anything productive for the school.

 

[Ack]

Taylor didn't plan for the unthinkable: Blackwell actually doing her job. That is a very easy thing to overlook as typically Blackwell doesn't do anything productive for the school.

Click to shrink...

That's okay. She can always bring more bugs in. It's not like Brockton Bay's got a lack of them.

 

[Visual Pun]

Welp at least Blackwell as the preferred subcontractors list out.

Click to shrink...

>laughs evilly<

Click to shrink...

Taylor didn't plan for the unthinkable: Blackwell actually doing her job. That is a very easy thing to overlook as typically Blackwell doesn't do anything productive for the school.

Click to shrink...

That's okay. She can always bring more bugs in. It's not like Brockton Bay's got a lack of them.

Click to shrink...

Since this entire arc was already completely written before I started posting, I find it highly amusing to see how folks think I'll choose to go one way....

Yeah, not so much.

 

[Ack]

Since this entire arc was already completely written before I started posting, I find it highly amusing to see how folks think I'll choose to go one way....

Yeah, not so much.

Click to shrink...

I find it slightly less amusing when people assume that I'm going to be going a certain way and then berate me for it before words are even typed on the page.

Keep it up. The story is great.

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.5

Taylor technicially arrived at Immaculata after the dance officially started, even though she had directed her swarms in various tasks from a nearby restaurant for at least the last hour and a half. The first visit she'd made to Immaculata earlier in the afternoon where she'd placed the supplies she'd bought up to the roof, had come to fruition with the swarms she had gathered from her travels all over the city. Taylor hid her backpack in the bushes and coordinated mega-swarms on the gymnasium roof from a block or so away. Because the ceiling of the gym was still decorated from an event last week, her teams of roaches and spiders had good cover to set everything up through the duct system.

Taylor had observed groups from different schools arrive with snacks for the refreshment table or the DJ set up.

She planned to pickpocket a Track team member's wallet for ID to plant on roof during the dance if necessary to cover her tracks even further.

Taylor had learned her lesson well from her ordeal at school today and every single person who entered her range was graced with a bug and she was pleased she could keep track of everyone and everything around her. It made it easy for her to slip behind the stage curtains unnoticed and finish the final preparations of what she had planned. Eavesdropping on the Track Team as they had been among the first to arrive to set up their prank had been quite informative.

_____

Missy settled into the regular routine of a shift behind the Console. She forwarded on the text from Sophia that she was on her way.

Most of the Wards had just arrived by an armored diplomatic PRT Limousine and got last minute instructions from their Social Worker in the passenger seat that they would have to stay a minimum of 2 hours to satisfy the Youth Guard requirements.

"Sucks to be you," Vista said through the communication earpieces each of them wore, "but at least you're not stuck running the Console all night just listening to the rest of you having a good time."

Apparently Dennis dashed ahead and held the door open for everyone as he burst into song

"Secret Agent: Concierge,

Fights crime when he gets the urge.

Sings his theme song,

Like a prat.

Opens doors,

Just like that.

Look Out!

'Cuz he's the Spy-Doorman…"

Missy wondered if her head hitting the desk was audible over the groans of those actually present while she was on Console duty.

She toggled over to ask Chris privately over the comms, "Any way to get him to stop?"

Chris tapped Dennis on the shoulder and pointed him towards the impressive refreshment tables.

"No way I'm going to pass up that much broken dark chocolate in one place." Dennis said.

_____

Dennis watched the student minding the refreshment tables mutter, "Uh, save some for others, I gotta go…" and dash out of the gym.

A chocolate fountain with skewers for cut fruit, marshmallows and graham crackers graced one table, An iced tub filled with store-brand sodas shared a table with paper bowls and a variety of open bags of chips, and yet another table had a large bowl of cookie dough and numerous small bowls of toppings. A few teens loaded a sheet with their creations into the portable cookie oven next to the table. Dennis took a big scoop of dough and whacked it down into the bowl of dark chocolate, brought it to his mouth like a popsicle and chewed happily.

Dennis noticed a couple of girls not from Arcadia stare at him as if he had grown another head.

"What?" Dennis mumbled with a full mouth.

"That's brilliant!" one of them said and then smacked her own spoon into multiple bowls of toppings.

"You two forgot to fill out your name and school," said a blonde haired, blue eyed girl wearing an Immaculata school uniform who held a marker in one hand and empty name tags in the other.

"Oh, um… I'm Chris, and he's Dennis, from Arcadia."

After filling out the name tags, the girl handed them out and said "I'm Elisabeth Vanhousen. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. So how did this 'morP' get started anyway?" Chris asked as Dennis took another bite.

Elisabeth answered, "It's a no pressure dance for all the behind-the-scenes organizers to be able to relax. The 'reverse of Prom' in the middle of Prom season with not-so-serious awards." Elisabeth explained furtheras she flicked the ribbon pinned to her blouse, "Any Immaculata student still wearing their school uniform gets a 'Worst Dressed' ribbon as soon as they make it through the doors. It's all in good fun."

"So since you had the gear and an open spot in the calendar," Dennis said, "why not have another party?"

"Yep. After the last dance it all migrated to the teacher's lounge. Mysteriously.'" Elisabeth said with a knowing grin.

Chris asked Elisabeth, "So, how did it turn into an all-district invite?"

Elisabeth explained, "Tuxedos. Dance organizers from different schools complaining while renting Tuxedos, where it cost as much for a month as a one night rental. It was also cheaper to rent the chocolate fountain, cookie oven, and other party hardware for full month with only one damage deposit to scrape together rather than rent everything twice."

Dennis took another bite of the dark chocolate held to his spoon with cookie dough and said, "Hey Chris, watch this."

The redheaded boy made a beeline to a group of girls, most of whom he recognized from a video he had shown Kid Win last week. Sophia had arrived with them, but was split off from the group by an older boy who said, "C'mon, just say 'Hi' to the track teams from other schools, put some 'friendly' in 'friendly competition' for once..."

The scowl on Sophia's face as he led her away betrayed her actual feelings about the situation.

Dennis singled Madison out of the crowd and said, "Hey I loved your video from last week, can I get an autograph?"

"Do you know the one thing to keep in mind if you insult a short girl?" Madison replied with a sly grin.

"No, what's that?"

"Your genitals are at my punching height." Madison lunged forward with her fist, and enjoyed the debacle as Dennis tripped over his own feet in his attempt to get away from the petite pugilist.

Carlos and Chris arrived right as Dennis fell on his butt in front of the clique of girls as they pointed and laughed. Chris muttered, "Don't try this at home, kids, he's a professional idiot."

Carlos helped Dennis back to his feet by a refreshment table, filled a small bowl with chips and said, "Dennis, in the future take your cues from people more grown-up than you. It's too bad Missy's not here to do the job."

Muffled snorting laughter transmitted over everyone's in-ear comms.

Dennis consoled himself with a second scoop of cookie dough coated with a ridiculous amount of dark chocolate.

Chris split off from Dennis to follow after Elisabeth as she walked past in the hope to continue their conversation.

Carlos appeared to consider the chocolate fountain for a moment and asked Dennis, "Do you think it could do that with Nacho cheese instead?"

"That would be awesome," said Dennis, as he kept his actual thoughts hidden

Spoiler

.

_____

Taylor sneaked out from behind the curtain at the edge of the stage, only to have Emma, of all people, spot her descent down the stairs to the gym floor.

"Oh. My. God." Emma said, "Look what decided to crawl out of its' hole."

The group of girls loosely encircled Taylor, who finally recognized just who had approached her as she guided her swarms to their appointed tasks. Taylor's grimace at the situation was merely an outward sign of her determination to not get blindsided in this way yet again.
It seemed Emma got the wrong impression, because she stepped forward. The group parted to give her room.

"What's the matter, Taylor?" Emma said, "You look upset."

Her words didn't seem to fit the situation. Taylor had maintained her composure through worse than this. for however long they had been at it. What she'd been feeling was more a mixture of frustration and boredom at being mildly distracted from her task than anything else. Taylor opened her mouth to say something, she had a "Fuck you" chambered for just such a situation as this. But before she could even inhale, Emma spoke.

"So upset you're going to cry yourself to sleep for a straight week?" she asked.

The words died in Taylor's throat as she processed Emma's question.

Now, given their shared history, Taylor gaped at Emma, wordless. Her redheaded former friend's smile widened. She had gleefully packed as much cunt into that one sentence as she possibly could.

Taylor thought, "Fuck me, it almost worked." Had she been emotionally drained or beaten down a little more the tears would have flowed from such a simple sentence. She noticed as her power roared to life, her range expanded and even more insects fell under her control. She reveled in it. If she was not focused on how to direct her bugs at the moment, Taylor might have given Emma's words more weight.

"She is! She's crying!" Madison laughed as she mistook the temporary internal focus on her mental power rather than the physical as shoulders slumped in defeat.

Anger, sadness, all other emotions aside from disgust displaced into her swarm, Taylor considered her surroundings and the entire situation.

The track team had subtly steered Sophia closer to the stage to begin the festivities they had in motion. New arrivals, and with a glance Taylor confirmed it was Glory Girl and her boyfriend, took an unusual interest in what was happening around her.

She could give a theatrical yawn, say "What else you got?" and enmesh herself with Emma's bitches coven even further, or she could make a small sacrifice of ego and take her pound of flesh later while Emma was unsuspecting.

Taylor directed a wasp riding in her hair to crawl down and sting the back of her earlobe. She winced in pain and tears flooded her eyes.

"It's like you have a superpower, Emma!" one of the girls tittered.

Taylor interpreted that as volunteering for what came next. She shoved her way through the gathered girls, shoulder checked 'little miss superpowered' on her ass, totally worth the resulting brief spike of pain down her side, and ran out of the gym, down the hall to the outside. With no onlookers around Taylor dried her crocodile tears as she ran around the building to the other entrance so she could watch what was coming with her own eyes.

Back in the gym Taylor thought the high five between Emma and Madison was a bit much, even if she'd only detected through her bugs on them. They were about to learn that the worst enemy is the one who you believed beaten and beneath you, first Sophia's going to find out just how true those words are, and then it was Emma and Madison's turn.

____

Dean stood there with Victoria on his arm, as his eyes followed the distressed girl leaving in tears and his power sensed swirling faint black/red/sickly greens of her emotions as she ran past and which strangely lingered in the walls around them. Amy and the guy her sister had forced her into bringing was about to ask Dean what was wrong when Dennis brusquely brushed past the couples, to speed walk with purpose and intent out of the gym, one arm cradled protectively against the rebellion in his intestines.

Author's Note: Thanks to Chojomeka for the 'believed beaten and beneath you' quote, above.

 

[Chojomeka]

...wait...is the track team going to pull a fucking Carrie Prom Night on Sophia!?! And oh shit for once Dean's actually going to do something instead of hope it works out in the end.

 

[Visual Pun]

Well, I did say 'Time to go Carrie' as the last line of the first chapter of this fic, Didn't I?

I just lit a longer fuse than most people expected, is all.

Except SmugRaptor opened a wormhole and peeked at my notebooks over two months ago...

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.6

The clock struck nine.

Taylor had finally made it to the other entrance of the gymnasium and slipped inside. She wanted to see this with her own eyes.

And record it all with her phone, for posterity, of course.

As almost an afterthought, Taylor directed small bugs to infiltrate Emma's hair, bite off follicles at the base to create bald spots once her hair products wore off. It was so tempting to do a reverse-mohawk on her former friend, though.

Madison and the rest of the bitches coven would get theirs in due time. Attacking the seams of their prom dresses would add a Benny Hill flavor to the entire evening, but multiple simultaneous wardrobe malfunctions would be so out of the ordinary as to practically mandate a deep forensic search into why it happened. One little lost insect antennae would firmly point all the blame back at her cape persona, or worse link it to her real identity.

She banished the thought and focused on the control of her bugs as she recorded the events as they unfolded in front of her, her height allowed her to capture it all unobstructed from the far side of the gymnasium from the stage.

_____
Jesse took the steps up the stage two at a time, picked up the microphone stand and walked to center stage as he flicked the switch to 'on' with a squeal of feedback and announced' "Hello everyone, may I have your attention?" to the confusion of almost everyone in the gym.

"First of all, I'm sure for everyone visiting from another school here tonight, let's all thank the students from Immaculata for hosting this great event, am I right?" said Jesse as he applauded into the mike to a spattering answer of applause from the floor.

He motioned to a group of Winslow Track Team members on the floor who pushed Sophia up the stairs of the stage.

Jesse held out his hand for Sophia to join him at the microphone stand. Sophia strode over with a slightly confused look on her face. "Now, just let me mention Sophia here. A great up and comer you may have noticed at the intramural track meets."

Sophia's look of confusion turned into a slight grin at the praise.

Taylor knew the timing of what came next had to be perfect as she set her swarms in motion.

Jesse cleared his throat and said, "You all have her to thank for replacing the chocolate on the cookie table with Ex Lax."

Sophia's face contorted through multiple emotions as the realization of what he had accused her of sunk in.

"Be sure to thank Sophia personally if you get a chance." With that, Jesse dropped the mike with a hollow echoing boom drowned out by angry muttering by the congregated students.

Taylor aimed for the bug she'd placed on the back of Sophia's belt.

Sophia hostilely turned to Jesse and hissed, "Why the fuck did you set me up like this?"

Jesse answered, "Your hazing? Stepped it up this afternoon, hope you like it…"

Taylor directed her bugs to push one opened pint can of red paint off of the lighting mounted over the gymnasium floor.

A length of surgical rubber tubing duct taped to the can let the weight swing like a pendulum toward the stage.

The rubber tubing stretched under the centripetal force to impact and splash Sophia around her waist and up her torso, then rebound up as the elastic de-stressed to dump the remaining red paint on her head from above.

The reason the timing was so important was because the Track Team had previously placed someone in the rigging directly above the stage who dumped a bucket of Marinara sauce directly down on Sophia's head.

Sounds of surprise and shock intermingled with the hooting and fist pumping of Track Team members clustered around the front of the stage.

A couple of Track Team members who knew what the original plan was stood at the front of the stage in shock at his unexpected turn of events, their plans to spray Sophia with the shaken 2 liter bottles of soda in their hands temporarily forgotten.

_____
Sophia was pissed.

The only area of the stage in a large radius around her not splattered with paint or tomato sauce was under her own feet.

Sophia leapt to attack, her red-slicked arms shot forward, her hands encircled the boys' throat and Sophia throttled Jesse.

The stupid look on his face gave way to pain and anguish as her strong hands crushed his neck.

With her hands firmly wrapped around his throat she bore him down to the ground and kneed him in the groin.

Repeatedly.

Even through her rage Sophia could hear the reaction of the crowd, even if she couldn't see them in through the glare of the bright glaring lights which flooded the stage.

A Track Team member closest to the assault broke from his stupor, clambered up on stage and tried to pull her off of Jesse and she kicked him in the side of their knee to collapse in pain for his trouble.

_____
To his power Sophia blazed like a dark red star over the most prominent background purple haze of confusion among the crowd.

Dean saw Amy glow red also, slap a palm to her forehead and mutter, "Just ONE sonofabitching night off, is that too much to ask…."

The ebb and flow of the gamut of emotions around him mentally tossed him about like a swimmer caught in a powerful undertow.

Steely blue with determination and overconfidence, his date said, "I got this."

Dean couldn't even get the first syllable past his lips, "N…" before she ascended away from him. A fearful yellow wake followed after her.
_____
Victoria rose into the air from amidst the crowd, her long Prom dress rippled and flowed down and around her legs as she flew forward.

She thought she heard Dean yell something after her, but it was lost among the noisy crowd she flew over.

Two more Track Team members from Winslow dashed up the stairs to rescue their teammate when Glory Girl's emotional manipulation aura affected them, and the rest of the students in the audience.

Their attempts to pull Sophia off of their Team Captain promptly devolved into a full-on brawl as the enraged girl abandoned the beaten and bloodied boy beneath her to deal with the newer threats.

Glory Girl hovered at the stage edge indecisively, her instinct to get stuck in conflicted with her desire to keep her expensive dress from being covered in red, like the combatants on stage were.

"Okay, break it up," She forcefully declared to no effect.

The congregated teens nearby felt the wave of awe and terror of her power crash over them, their base instincts to fight, flee, or freeze triggered without their conscious volition.

Panicked teens ran heedlessly into others who stood their ground and chivalrously defended their dates, which sparked multiple shoving matches which escalated into fights on the floor, spread via Brownian motion.

However, one of evolutions' responses to a life or death situation is to make oneself lighter in order to run away faster. Aided and abetted by the pranksters' choice to replace a bowl of chocolate with one of a stool softener and assisted by a power to induce terror, several people had their biology decide for them that now was the time to drop ballast.

Silk, chiffon, explosive diarrhea and its' associated smells wasn't usually the combination that made for a memorable dance night.

The entire gym erupted into chaos as violence spread, scared students panicked, as groups of stranger from other schools realized hey had few familiar faces among the riot which grew around them.

A streetwise teen pinned his friends arms to his side as he shook him yelled in his face, "Dude, MAINTAIN!"

Islands of calm grew as more level-headed teens attempted to calm their cohorts, with partial success as more belligerent students were swept up in the melee.

Victoria recognized most of the Wards had moved to action. Carlos and her boyfriend fought their way to the stage, Dennis was nowhere to be seen, but Kid Win just stood there gawping at a blonde girl in an Immaculata school uniform as if his brain had crawled out his ear and gone home without him.

_____
"What did you just say?" Chris asked incredulously.

"Hmm? What?" Elisabeth asked.

"What you just said," Chris attempted to clarify, "Did I hear you right?"

"Oh, that… Well, of course if anyone was going to start trouble, it was going to be one of THEM, now, wasn't it."

"Except she didn't say 'THEM' originally," Chris thought to himself, "I've just spent the last hour trying to get into the pants of a Nazi…"

Chris regarded Elisabeth in a new light.

"Why do all the cute ones have to be crazy?" he thought as he moved away to break up a couple of meathead jocks pushing at each other in a macho-off over who had the most testosterone poisoning.

'Why is everyone here crazy?" Chris said as he called on his Wards close combat training to safely interpose himself between the fighting teens.

_____
Taylor focused in on two well-built boys in now red-stained tuxedos who dragged Sophia away from continuing to beat up whoever approached her, a look of recognition in her eyes as she calmed down at last.
She stopped recording, slipped out of the gymnasium doors with a satisfied smirk, and jogged back around the exterior of the building to the entrance closer by the bathrooms.

Through her bugs Taylor sensed people finally manage to calm the fracas on stage, as Glory Girl floated there indecisively as the smell finally reached the heroine. Based on what she could parse together people around the heroine were all agitated and more likely to fight than elsewhere in the gym, her presence was not so subtly making things worse.

Taylor re-entered the other double doors to the gym and moved quickly down the hall to the bathrooms, all the stalls were full as she entered, splashed water on her face and a snatched a paper towel to wipe it off, pivoted, and exited at the same time as she sensed someone leave the boys side.

She was face to face with an uncomfortable looking redheaded boy with a hand held defensively across his abdomen.

"What the hell is happening in there?" Taylor asked him as she wiped the fake tears from her face.

"No clue," he said, "I was, ah… indisposed."

Pairs and groups of students fled past them, a few to the locker rooms in embarrassment, most out of the building as Taylor and the tall, cute redheaded boy made their way into the gym counter to the exiting flow of humanity.
One of the refreshment tables had been overturned, chips of all sorts crushed underfoot against the hardwood floors among ice and soda cans, some occasionally leaking in sticky puddles scattered across the floor.

Onstage one of the tuxedoed teens gave aid and assistance to the remnants of Winslow High's Track team smeared, sometimes literally, across the stage. The other one seemed to have an intense conversation with Sophia, most of which could be summed up as:

"Get out of my fucking way, I want to shower this crap off me before it dries."
and
"You can't do that Sophia, the police will need to see the evidence."

"Couldn't happen to a more deserving bitch" Taylor muttered.

"So you go to school with Sophia, I take it?" Dennis inquired.

Taylor decided to let the truth out. It wasn't as if it would make a real difference at this point. She said' "If you can call a year and a half of torment by her 'going to school', then yes."

Dennis asked, "Wait, Sophia bullies you?"

Taylor pointed to fresh scabs under her hair on her scalp, "Does breaking a glass bottle over my head this morning count?"

"What, seriously?"

"Yeah, she punched me in front of a teacher last week and she threatened to throw me out a third story window if I told anyone about her and her friends pouring juice on me today."

"Sophia really did that? I knew she was a bitch, but that's cold…"

Taylor said, "Yeah and the rest of them she arrived with too. How'd you know her?"

"Um…."

"Oh, do you work at the same after school job she does?"

"Yeah, that's it." Dennis prevaricated.

Taylor lied, "I figured she'd be at her job and I could get out and enjoy myself away from my regular lack-of social circle. And then they all showed up and it was business as usual."

"Why don't you take this to authorities?"

They had to pause their conversation as the police officers hauled the boys responsible for the pranks out past them.

"But we didn't do the paint thing, that was someone else." one boy in a track suit protested.

"Riiight," the cop replied, "We'll be on the look-out for a one-armed man. Get moving."

When the parade of police and perpetrators filed past, "That." Taylor said, "That cop's attitude. Accept whatever 'good enough' explanation will wrap things up, not even bother to try and dig down to the truth. THAT'S why I don't take it to the authorities anymore. Easier to believe whatever bullshit story the bullies made up and stick to and my side of the story no longer matters. Plus it's Winslow. Everyone knows shit happens at Winslow. Unless someone tried to set the building on fire they don't care."

"I tried after what happened in January too, but it got buried, and we couldn't afford to sue with my medical bills, so we settled."

"What happened in January?" Dennis asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Taylor said, "As bad as tonight was, what happened to me in January was worse."

"Maybe I..." Dennis began.

"No, the problem is now, and always was Sophia, " Taylor said, "She's been able to get away with murder and no one has really put her feet to the fire or held her accountable until last week when she punched me in front of two teachers so she couldn't palm it off on someone or something else for a change."

'She punched... " Dennis said, "That was you?"

"Yeah, you heard about it at your job, right? I bet she got a slap on the wrist and went back to work as normal, right?"

Dennis considered what this girl had told him. It all appeared to line up with the facts as he knew them.

Dennis pulled out his phone and said, "Look, let me get your number. I will talk to the people I work for and see if we can get more to happen about Sophia, OK?"

After they exchanged phone numbers, Dennis asked, "Can I take a picture of where Sophia broke the bottle over your head?"

"Um, yeah, OK"

"I' promise to show it to Sophia's, to our boss at work as soon as I can." Dennis said.

"Well, at least one thing good might come out of tonight, then," Taylor said.

Dennis went to catch up with his friends, and Taylor figured since she had her phone out anyway, she might as well get in touch with Squealer to get the reward she was owed.

 

[Biigoh]

Oh Taylor, Taylor....

 

[Psyckosama]

Sing it with me!

 

[Visual Pun]

Now, consider that at this moment in the story the Youth Guard has mandated similar such events for all the Wards all across the country....

 

[Chojomeka]

Now, consider that at this moment in the story the Youth Guard has mandated similar such events for all the Wards all across the country....

Click to shrink...

....just how many robberies happened throughout the country in one night? Also is that video of Taylor's going to end up on Youtube 'anonymously'?

 

[Ack]

Wow, Sophia's popularity is going to be through the roof.

Wait, I'm not sure that's the right word.

Well, they'll all want to get their hands on her. That's popularity, right?

Right?


Edit: just as a note, Taylor's slightly taller than Dennis.

"No. That's not what it was-" he said, breathless. His face betrayed the lie. It was at least part of it. "It wasn't like I was crazy over you, it was a little thing, a while back. That's not-"

"I have a boyfriend," I blurted out the words in my haste to cut him off again.

It was like kicking a dog.

He went silent, and I took the opportunity to get my mental footing and plan out what to say next.

A boy stopped in his tracks on his walk way down the hall. A little shorter than me, red haired. Apparently our atmosphere was screwed up enough that he'd noticed. "Problem?"

"It's okay," I said. "We're in the middle of resolving it. Personal stuff."

"That's-" Greg started, then he stopped, looking at the boy. Even he wasn't so clueless as to say something in front of a stranger.

The boy looked between us, and then gave me a curious look. He was one of the ones who'd stayed, I could tell at a glance. Unlike some, though, unlike me, he hadn't gotten much sun. Odd. Maybe he'd holed up in a house or a shelter for the last few months. Staying indoors would have been safest.

From the way he was looking at me, I wondered if he saw something like that. Difference was, I had a secret to keep.

"Thank you, though," I told him, before he could figure anything out.

He took it for what it was: me saying 'go away' in the politest way I could manage. He left.

Click to shrink...

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.7

"When clusterfucks meet other clusterfucks to debate which clusterfuck is the biggest clusterfuck, all the clusterfucks will agree tonight was the clusterfuck that proud clusterfuck parents want their newborn baby clusterfucks to be when they grow up."
Chris said to Dennis, "Admit it, you just like saying clusterfuck."

"And you don't?" Dennis replied from where he sat on the curb outside of Immaculata. Three Brockton Bay Police Department cruisers in the parking lot sent red and blue phantasms across the entire landscape.

"Besides, 'shitstorm' hits a little too close to the mark." Dennis sighed, the after effects of his earlier purging still made sympathetic echoes in his biology.

Victoria and Dean kept Amy company by the lone Ambulance to respond, where she had to tell yet another teenager that no, she couldn't do anything about the impending doom from the laxative they'd ingested. Especially while there were still a few people with actual injuries waiting. It was triage, plain and simple. Fortunately the Custodian had stuck around to lock up after the dance and so was able to unlock the rest of the schools bathrooms for immediate use.

Good luck finding an empty stall, though.

The BBPD had the kids from Winslow who had been behind all this in custody. Sophia was among them even though there was video showing her as the victim of the evening, despite the ass-kickings she had delivered. She had the back seat of a squad car a squad car to herself despite the overcrowded conditions in the other two cruisers..

The kicker was that Sophia had squeaked by on a technicality since she had obviously been provoked, although the guy she kneed in the crotch could justifiably say she had not used restraint.

"I bet Piggy's getting ginsu dentures made and custom fitted for the ass-chewing Sophia's going to get tomorrow." Dennis opined.

Carlos walked up to join the conversation, "No, she's going to strike while the iron's hot, bet on it."

"Really?"

"You notice how the Limo hasn't come back for us yet? I bet it's just waiting up the block until Sophia's released from police custody," Carlos ventured.

"Well, speak of the devil…."

_____

Sophia took back her phones from the cops now that they decided to let her go.. They hadn't let her clean herself up, "Evidence," they said. She was forced to stay in the squad car wrapped in a scratchy blanket while red paint and pasta sauce dried on her until all the Track Team members whose asses she kicked got fixed up by Panacea. They even asked her if she wanted to press charges. Press charges? Like she was some victim unable to seek vengeance for herself.

She wanted to find Jesse and keep crushing his windpipe until Panacea got the hint and stopped fixing it.

Sophia noticed there was still no sign of the Wards Social Worker. Here she was, left to twist in the wind by that bitch after all this.

Screw her.

Still, it gave her the opportunity to sneak away from the crowds, use her breaker state to leap up to the roof and get away from all those annoying assholes down below. That squad car was stuffy, and she felt a little woozy from the paint fumes. She luxuriated in the blast of exhaust from an air conditioner, she turned herself this way and that to let it blow all those gum wrappers, bugs, lint and disgusting cop car smell off of her.

Sophia had an inspiration.

Instead of targeting Grue, she would call that Merchant mercenary Butterfly to hunt down and kill Jesse so none of it got tracked back to her. She ought to have enough cash hidden away that she'd stolen from drug dealers to cover it.

Sophia brought out her phone, pulled up the message from this morning and texted a reply to Butterfly with a quick "Hey, howzit?" then, pressed send, and was typing up the next message to meet up tomorrow when she heard a 'ping' from below amid the rushing exhaust from the machine behind her.

Sophia peered over the edge of the roof. Farther away students from different schools milled about, but she recognized Emma and her friends getting into Mr. Barnes new car, now that the settlement for their faulty driveway construction had come in. The Wards moved toward the PRT Limo which pulled up on the far side of the gym. Sophia knew her time was short and she pressed 'send' again.

A minor moment later another 'ping' came from directly below, a little louder this time.

She leaned to look over the precipice. There was Hebert, she had wandered away from the crowds to check her phone.

Her phone.

No goddamn way....

Glory Girl landed beside her, pointed and said, "Hey, Dean and sent me up here to tell you if you don't get in the Limo on the other side of the gym ASAP, I am to carry you there."

"Ok, Ok," Sophia said with a last backwards glance, "Just let me finish this."

Sophia texted a quick 'KTHXBYE' and pressed send a third time.

Hebert checked her phone when it pinged in response yet again.

God fucking dammit...

She strode across the roof after Glory Girl, angry at herself, mad at fucking Hebert, and most of all pissed that she couldn't just leap down and kill the bitch now with a sneak attack.

But as long as no one else knew that she knew... the 'unwritten rules' could go fuck themselves.

Sophia whispered to herself, "I know your secret now, Hebert…."

 

[Biigoh]

No Sophia.... Don't be stupid. As far as you know, she hasn't done anything to you....

 

[Visual Pun]

Well besides...

"Oh, y'know… Existing. Inhaling. Exhaling. Being too ugly to live, that sort of thing," Madison explained.

 

[Ack]

Oh boy.

The person you were going to contract to kill someone is the person you were picking on? And now you want to kill her?

Seriously. Sophia Hess >> Darwin Award in the making.

Also, typo:

She had the back seat of a squad car a squad car to herself despite the overcrowded conditions in the other two cruisers..

Click to shrink...

Doubling of the phrase 'a squad car' and two full stops at the end.

 

[Chojomeka]

..That seems a little too convenient really.

 

[macdjord]

This seems contrived, and also implausible.

 

[Ack]

This seems contrived, and also implausible.

Click to shrink...

Actually, thinking about it ... yeah.

She's on top of a roof, presumably with the roof edge blocking direct line of sight to the people below. Standing next to an industrial aircon outlet, adding its own noise to the situation.

Taylor conveniently walks close enough/has her phone ping set loud enough that Sophia hears it over all of this? She'd just about have to be standing next to Sophia on the roof.

 

[askldjflkajskje]

Sophia whispered to herself, "I know your secret now, Hebert…."

Click to shrink...

Let's hope you whispered that particularly softly, 'cause the walls have ears. And when I say ears I mean bugs.

 

[Ack]

Let's hope you whispered that particularly softly, 'cause the walls have ears. And when I say ears I mean bugs.

Click to shrink...

If Sophia heard the ping, then any bugs that are on her should have heard the ping. So if Taylor was paying attention, she'd know not only where Sophia is, but that she knows Taylor's secret.

 

[Psyckosama]

hopefully Taylor is recording it when Sophia makes the call.

"PRT Hotline..."

"This is Butterfly. Shadow Stalker just tried to hire me to kill some girl..."

"What."

"She seems to be under the delusion that I'm a hitman. Fuck that. There are lines you don't cross. I'm a rogue not a villain. I have a recording or our conversation and and the money, which I'm sure is just covered with her prints. Please send someone over to pick up the evidence, and so I can make a statement, thanks much."

 

[Visual Pun]

Hmmm....

It looks like my first post when I get back will be a retcon interlude and cast off the offending chapter from it's threadmark.

 

[Psyckosama]

Hmmm....

It looks like my first post when I get back will be a retcon interlude and cast off the offending chapter from it's threadmark.

Click to shrink...

No. Keep it. Shadow Stalker really is just that... dumb.

 

[macdjord]

No. Keep it. Shadow Stalker really is just that... dumb.

Click to shrink...

I think he means the - quite legitimate - objections people have raised to Sophia IDing Taylor like that.