… Taylor Hebert
Taylor could still taste the dust stuck to the back of her throat, mixed with ground concrete, oxidized rust, and that feeling like the city itself was rotting from the inside out and dragging everyone down with it.
The fight against Lung had been a baptism into a kind of violence that changes the way you see the world… and Taylor hadn't expected to get thrown into something at that level again so soon; deep down, she had hoped for a few smaller patrols first… maybe run into a mugger, a group of ABB thugs, or some Merchants yelling about revolution in filthy alleys.
Something manageable. Something that wouldn't demand everything from her all at once.
But then came the call from the ones she chose… and now she was here, shoulders stiff under the weight of her newly formed identity, trying not to think about the fact that every decision was pushing her deeper into wherever this path was taking her.
Taylor learned quickly that, despite the controlled way he spoke, Hoarder had absolutely no healthy concept of escalation.
With the mask sticking to her face from sweat and her breathing scraping against her dry throat, her body was still trying to understand that this wasn't some bad dream… but her new reality.
The swarm —her swarm— buzzed around her. At first, everything felt the same… especially that primal fear of not making it out alive, but something had changed since last time.
She wasn't alone anymore.
On one side, she saw Hoarder move like a hunter with mathematical precision. The dark armor molded to his body like a shadow, and every clap was a complete reconfiguration of the battlefield.
One second he was exposed, and the next he swapped places with whatever was available, even things that seemed useless before. Taylor found it impossible to predict where he'd appear… Cricket tried to keep up, but nearly lost an arm when Hoarder positioned Scar right next to her.
Scar —the name practically a direct reference to her scars— was danger made flesh. Her movements were graceful, even though every strike was part of a brutal dance. Even Stormtiger was forced to back off against her, his wind-claw attacks turning useless against Scar's speed.
Taylor felt a strange shock when she realized exactly where she was. She, Taylor Hebert, was fighting side by side with capes who were overwhelming the Empire… and Miss Militia was there too, the same woman she had seen on the news since she was a kid.
Now that same woman was bleeding beside her, a green-energy shotgun spinning in her hands. Next to her, Battery was gasping, leaning against a chunk of debris, but her eyes were still fierce.
And Taylor… she was the one fighting; part of all of this.
Taylor made her insects respond to her intent. Wasps, ants, cockroaches, and bees acted like soldiers, doing everything she could imagine to help. Blind, bite, suffocate, disrupt…
They crawled up Stormtiger's legs, slipping inside his pants and throwing off his rhythm until his attacks started to falter. And when Rune hurled a street sign spinning like a serrated disc, Taylor had the swarm respond, forming a dense cloud in its path while she moved out of the trajectory.
The spinning disc still clipped her, slicing her sleeve. Taylor dropped to her knees, feeling her arm burn. Her chest rose and fell in a frantic rhythm, but she was okay.
And it was in that exact moment that the name she had been thinking about came back to her.
Chrysalis.
Taylor didn't choose it just because it sounded good… it was because of something Hoarder had said before.
"A name represents what you want to be… or at least what you want them to think you are."
Back then, she couldn't imagine one because she didn't know who she was. But now… now she did. Not who she was now, but who she wanted to become.
That's why Chrysalis… to represent her transition and change after breaking out of the cocoon she had trapped herself in. The old Taylor was still alive behind the fragile shell of courage she was trying to build, but with every confrontation… the cocoon was cracking.
She shouted a command, without any trace of panic this time.
The swarm answered, surging forward in a coordinated wave. Rune faltered midair, eyes widening as the swarm disrupted her vision; Stormtiger pulled back again, now genuinely irritated, slowed by bee stings; Cricket had her movement delayed as a layer of cockroaches clung to her blade, dragging down her next attack.
Taylor stood up again, even with her breathing tearing at her lungs.
"This is what I want," she whispered to herself.
Maybe the others wouldn't understand, and maybe it would take time for that name to be recognized, but she had already accepted that.
Chrysalis was the beginning of her own rebirth.
… Elias Mercer
The rhythm of chaos in this city was always the same.
I pushed forward through the wreckage of concrete, the armor molded to my body, while chunks of debris, metal plates, and even torn pieces of cars came flying at me like a makeshift rain of projectiles... but the new nanotech suit absorbed the impacts Rune was throwing from above with beautiful efficiency.
I'll admit it was a bit risky keeping the Force Field off… but it was the best way I could think of to test how durable the suit really was.
It also helped that I had a healing factor that basically told minor consequences to go fuck themselves.
On top of Rune, there was Cricket up ahead with her blades and that damn screech that made vertigo crawl up from my stomach; I had to swap positions twice with whatever scrap was lying around just to avoid faceplanting into the concrete while my vision vibrated and my stomach threatened to flip inside out.
Clap.
I appeared behind her with perfect timing between one pulse and the next, just enough to twist my hips and drive a kick straight into the base of her spine with the sole of my suit. Nothing lethal, but enough to slam her into a pile of broken tiles.
"The sound of your voice is about as pleasant as your ideology," I said flatly, "but I fucking hate fascist music."
She answered with an even sharper screech, almost drilling into my skull as she pushed herself back up, her body shaking. Up above, Rune shouted something about "degeneracy" and "parasites".
"Now you're just throwing around big words, huh?" I shot back, already looking for my next swap.
Stormtiger came right after like a runaway truck, tearing through the air with claws that compressed the wind into blades… except I'd already clapped again, swapping with a traffic cone that probably never imagined it would be this useful.
The attack sliced straight through where I'd been, cutting a wall in half like it was paper. At the same instant, Maki appeared beside him at a speed I couldn't even properly track. Her foot slammed into Stormtiger's exposed torso with an impact that made the air burst, sending the idiot flying like a projectile into the side of an overturned van.
The crash almost made me worry about the nazi dumbass.
"I think we should still try to avoid… lethal force," I muttered to her, more out of reflex than conviction, as she landed way too lightly for someone who just used a guy as a human missile.
"I told you not to ask me to hold back," Maki replied flatly, already scanning for her next target. "And I was careful. He's probably still breathing."
…If that was her version of "careful"… I didn't want to find out what full force felt like. No idea if I'd survive it, even with the suit, the Force Field, and my fancy legendary healing perk.
Nearby, Taylor —Bug… no, Chrysalis now— expanded her swarm with a precision that still made me uneasy. The insects filled every inch of space, pouring through cracks. They clung to skin, blocked vision… they invaded every vulnerable point they could find… Rune even tried to lift more debris to shield herself, but her concentration broke when a dense cloud swallowed her field of view, forcing her to hesitate.
Cricket came back, appearing right beside me in a low, fast lunge, her blades cutting in an arc aimed straight at my legs.
Clap.
I swapped places with her at the exact moment of the strike, reappearing mid-turn above her, dropping down with my full weight and a very clear intention of turning her spine into a distant memory… apparently, crippling Cricket had become my personal mission.
She still managed to dodge at the last second, twisting her body in an almost unnatural way while one of her blades scraped against my suit, throwing off short bursts of sparks. I might've worried about a follow-up attack… but I'd already thrown up the Force Field, and Taylor's swarm dropped on her right after, doing its best to keep her off me.
Insects landed all over her, clinging to exposed skin and crawling into every possible opening while she backed off, trying to keep control of her own rhythm.
'Taylor's control is getting better…' I thought without meaning to, but then I heard Stormtiger roar in the background, dragging himself out of the wreckage of the van with blood running under his mask and his whole body hunched around a nasty dent where Maki had hit him.
'This guy can still stand…?' I was honestly impressed.
I also saw Miss Militia finally step fully into the fight, dropping her support stance and switching her rifle into a compact pistol made of green light, while Battery repositioned behind a wrecked truck, building up charge.
'…Finally getting into it?' I thought, tracking the Protectorate duo's movement while adjusting my own position.
"This is going to end badly if one of them goes down for good," Miss Militia whispered as she passed close enough for only me to hear. "We can't be the ones to escalate the war."
Even though I'd just said something similar to Maki earlier, my stomach still twisted hearing a Protectorate member tell me to go easy on nazi villains.
"We'll do our best," I replied, not even bothering to sound convincing.
I could try to hold back… but "our best" included Maki, and she definitely had her own definition of that… and Taylor wasn't exactly playing it safe either with her walking catalog of poisons…
'This shit is completely out of my control, you know?'
I snapped out of my thoughts when Rune gritted her teeth, visibly frustrated, her control over her power starting to falter under constant pressure.
…For some reason, seeing a nazi brat get frustrated felt almost therapeutic.
"You don't belong here! This city isn't yours!" she shouted from above, like she needed to vent.
'Aw, poor thing…' I thought, raising my hands.
Clap.
I swapped places with Maki at the exact moment she tensed her body, giving her a clean line straight to Rune; she didn't hesitate, launching upward like a human projectile, too fast to track with the eye. A second later, her foot slammed into the edge of the concrete disk Rune was standing on… and the impact cracked like thunder.
The disk tilted violently, fractures spreading across its surface as Rune lost her balance and got thrown backward along with her platform.
"You people talk so much about purity…" I said, slowly turning as I watched the chaos reshape itself, letting the sarcasm drip like acid. "But you need floating concrete and sonic bullshit just to fight fair? Where's that 'Aryan pride' you love to scream about when you've got superpowers, huh?"
Cricket answered with a direct subsonic pulse, cutting through Taylor's swarm and even messing with her own control. She tried to use that opening to attack, but Maki intercepted her movement with her forearm. The two locked eyes for a split second, but with a shove full of brute force, Maki sent Cricket crashing into the nearest wall hard enough to crack the concrete, the impact knocking a dull sound out of her body as chunks of structure collapsed around her.
All of us felt the subsonic pulse from Cricket suddenly cutting out.
'One down… still got the rest.'
Stormtiger picked that exact moment to charge again. His body didn't look like it was working properly anymore, but he still had that same sadistic laugh. He went straight for Taylor, air claws forming in warped arcs as they tore through the space in front of him, trying to close the distance before she could react… but she had already learned a few things.
Taking advantage of the Force Field I had thrown around her, Taylor made the swarm condense around Stormtiger like a single organism.
Wasps dove straight under his mask, ants crawled into still-open wounds and disappeared into the flesh… Stormtiger lost his rhythm instantly, stumbling like a man drowning in something he couldn't see or grab, screaming as he punched at the air.
Watching from above again, Rune shouted with almost childish outrage, "You're the ones infecting the world! You're the ones stopping us from making it the way it's supposed to be!"
"Oh yeah," I shot back, rolling my shoulders. "Because everything was perfect until diversity showed up, right? Must suck missing the days when there were only five last names."
Stormtiger snarled, giving up any attempt to regain control, and came straight at me in a blind charge, his arms carving violent arcs that compressed the air into visible blades, tearing up the ground and ripping chunks of concrete apart like paper.
Clap.
I swapped with a metal bar lying near the curb, reappearing outside his attack line as the strike cut through the space I'd occupied a split second earlier.
Miss Militia was the one who capitalized on the opening, firing controlled shots into his legs; the impacts broke his momentum, and Stormtiger dropped to his knees with a roar that mixed pain with a pathetic refusal to admit defeat.
"Kid," she said between shots, not taking her eyes off him, "that habit of provoking people is going to get someone killed one day."
"You don't realize we're all going to die anyway?" I replied, turning my focus back to the fight while she let out a quiet sigh.
Rune tried to recover control by throwing an entire car at us, but Taylor reacted instantly, diverting part of her swarm and focusing the wasps directly at the villain's eyes. Rune screamed, and the car dropped meters away, completely harmless.
I took the opening and, with Boogie Woogie, reappeared behind her midair, my body still in motion as my fist came down, backed by the suit, the momentum, the Force Field, and every bit of built-up frustration I had.
Rune dropped like a broken doll. The concrete disk beneath her trembled, and I had to grab her arm to stop her from faceplanting into the ground.
"Excuse me… emergency landing," I muttered, descending with her as the platform lost stability, then tossed her unconscious body beside an overturned car without ceremony.
That made two down… so just one left.
Stormtiger was still surrounded by Taylor's swarm, his body partially covered in a living layer of insects that moved like they were trying to eat him alive. Even so, he spun in place, trying to throw out as many air claws as he could… but each movement was slower than the last, whether from his injuries or the fresh toxins Taylor's insects were pumping into him.
Blood ran down him in thick streams, mixing with crushed insects stuck to his skin, forming a grotesque paste he didn't even seem to notice anymore.
Taylor held her focus like she was made for this… practically growing right in front of us.
Miss Militia and Battery moved in together, perfectly synchronized. Battery turned into a blur for a second before slamming into Stormtiger, the concentrated impact hitting his torso hard enough to lift him off the ground and knock the air out of his lungs.
Miss Militia followed up with a controlled burst, hitting every already-damaged point on his body and forcing him to finally give in.
The last sound that came out of him was a leftover snarl of rage he couldn't even sustain.
And then… silence finally settled in.
I rolled my shoulders, feeling like I hadn't actually done much this time. Even against three Empire capes… I'd been in way more danger fighting Lung.
Was it the Protectorate's presence that made things easier…? No… it felt more like I just needed to point Maki in the right direction and let the rest happen…
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Miss Militia approaching, her gaze sharp like old bayonets.
"That was… impressive," she said, choosing her words carefully before adding, "especially for unregistered independents."
"We put in a lot of effort," I replied, giving the area one last scan to make sure neither Maki nor Taylor were about to collapse. "But I also like to think we were just venting some built-up anger on them."
…The second one was probably more accurate, at least for me.
[New achievements acquired]
[Defeat Cricket] [Defeat Rune] [Defeat Stormtiger]
[3 rolls granted]
'Oh?'
…Looks like tonight's rewards just came in.
… Hannah (Miss Militia)
The silence after the battle had a bittersweet taste, despite the victory they had secured.
Distant sirens began to signal the arrival of PRT reinforcements… late, as always, while reconnaissance drones already moved across the sky above, hovering over the scene and capturing images of the unconscious bodies of Rune, Cricket, and Stormtiger.
The three capes had been neutralized… even if the efficiency of how it was done was questionable. There were no deaths, so Hannah could say the worst-case scenario had been avoided… but they hadn't escaped serious collateral damage. Especially Cricket, with severe blunt-force trauma… or Stormtiger, who had parts of his internal organs crushed and nearly went into anaphylactic shock.
She ran a hand over her face, wiping away blood that was already drying along with the dust stuck to her skin, while the wound on her left arm throbbed… but nothing that stopped her from maintaining a professional posture as she reported over the radio.
"Code 13 confirmed. Three Empire capes incapacitated. Awaiting containment and transport teams. Targets secured. No civilian casualties identified."
On the other end, the dispatcher's voice came through clearly. "Copy that. Containment teams en route. ETA: five minutes."
Nearby, Battery was receiving treatment from the first paramedics to arrive, shaking her head with a mix of exhaustion and frustration… but there was a look in her eyes Hannah recognized well.
Relief at being alive… and admiration for the ones who had helped them.
Because, looking at the situation coldly and without spin, four high-risk capes had been taken down in less than seventy-two hours.
Lung, Rune, Cricket, and Stormtiger.
But the primary ones responsible… weren't Protectorate members, nor young Wards. They might've had some involvement in the last three, but Hannah knew how to recognize that she and Battery weren't the deciding factor.
The real deciding factor was standing right there, just a few meters away.
One of them was the bug girl, now standing near a damaged fire hydrant, staring at her own feet like she didn't want to be noticed. Another was the swordswoman leaning casually against a broken section of wall with her arms crossed, domino mask on her face. And the last one, standing near them, was the boy with the spatial power, wearing dark armor that covered his body and a hooded cloak that seemed to extend from the armor itself.
Hannah knew exactly what she was looking at. Three capes united and without any formal training, but already operating as an independent cell… and apparently a highly effective one.
She let out a short sigh before walking toward them, trying to keep her posture steady despite the accumulated fatigue starting to weigh on her muscles. "I need you to identify yourselves for incident reporting purposes."
The boy looked at her for a second, then answered, "Hoarder."
"Chrysalis," said the bug girl, her voice muffled by the mask.
"Scar," the swordswoman added.
Hannah nodded, mentally logging the names, knowing that within minutes both Armsmaster and Director Piggot would already be linking those identities to broader reports.
She took a breath before continuing, adjusting her tone to something closer to protocol. "As a representative of the Protectorate, it's my duty to inform you that you have the right… and the opportunity… to officially register. Additionally, the Wards program is open to young individuals with special abilities, and all of you would have access to training, legal protection, and support. You don't have to keep operating in this… current instability."
In the background, Battery stayed silent, but Hannah noticed the slight movement of her head... the kind of gesture that meant full attention, even if she didn't intend to interfere.
Hannah looked back at the group, expecting a quick response… even if it was rejection, but she realized the other two were just waiting for Hoarder to answer.
She understood immediately that getting any positive response this way would be difficult.
"And in exchange?" Hoarder asked, not sounding dismissive or even particularly interested in the offer that Hannah knew Armsmaster had probably already made to him before.
"With registration comes responsibility and commitment to the community, obviously," Hannah replied, knowing there was no point in hiding it. "But it also comes with greater safety. A place where you can belong."
He tilted his head slightly, looking like he found absolutely nothing appealing in what she said.
"As expected… same boring pitch," he said, not caring that she could hear him. "I'm not interested in following your rulebook, so I'll pass."
Chrysalis hesitated, looking between Hoarder and then at Hannah, but she shook her head. "That's a no for me too."
As for Scar… she just scoffed, like she hadn't even considered it for a second. "Definitely not."
Hannah took another deep breath and closed her eyes briefly, already feeling more tired than she expected to be.
"I understand… but the offer remains open to all of you," she said, maintaining her professionalism. "And regardless of whether you register or not, today you acted like true protectors. I thank you for all the help you gave us."
Hannah was being completely sincere. If those three hadn't shown up… she couldn't see any way the fight against the Empire capes would have gone well. At best, she and Battery might have made it out alive if things hadn't escalated past a certain poin... let alone actually winning.
Because of that, she didn't try to push them any further. Hannah had enough experience to recognize when continuing to insist wouldn't accomplish anything.
'…Ah.' She let out a slow breath, giving the three of them one last look before stepping away.
The city was changing fast, and all Hannah could do… was hope that when the inevitable storm came… they would all still be on the right side of the line.