Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Nineteen

She had felt like the worst trash in the world when she left Crochet to go find the Dallon sisters on little more than Dinah’s word. It had weighed on her the entire time, the thought that she might have been wasting her time, that maybe bringing Crochet to a hospital would be better, that calling the police would be a safer bet, consequences be damned. That she would, in the worst and most nightmarish scenario, return to find Crochet just gone.Seeing her new little sister press her hand against Crochet’s arm, then seeing the wound close, was like being doused in cold water. The tension that she had been feeling like a sack of bricks on her back eased, the mounting fear loosened, and Taylor felt like she wanted to do little more than to curl up into a ball and cry.Instead, she grabbed Crochet from the wall she was sitting against, inspected her wound with a quick look, and squeezed the girl for all she was worth.“Big Sis, you’re squishing me,” Crochet complained into Taylor’s shoulder.“I don’t care.” Taylor’s squeeze tightened even more and she hoped that Crochet’s hair wouldn’t get too damp from her tears. “I don’t care. You’re okay now. You’re okay.”Crochet let herself go limp in Taylor’s grasp before giving in to the hug to slowly wrap an arm around Taylor’s waist. “This is very inappropriate,” she said. “Hugging in public like this.”Taylor laughed, and if it sounded watery and on the verge of turning into a sob, no one commented.“Big Sis, you cryin’ just cause this wimp got shot a bit?” Cheshire asked.No one but Cheshire.Taylor finally let go of Crochet after giving her another squeeze and held the girl out at arm’s length to make sure she was fine. Turning to the new girl, she gave her a winning smile. “Thank you,” she said.The girl shrugged, dismissing Taylor with one look and a vague gesture. “It was nothing.” She said.Taylor shook her head and reached out with one arm, pulling the girl close and into the hug she was sharing with Crochet. “It wasn’t nothing. Thank you.”The girl squirmed a little, looking uncertain before she looked Crochet up and down. “Try not to get shot so much. I’m sure I’ve got better things to do.”“Aww,” Cheshire said, and Taylor just knew that the next words out of her mouth were going to be an insult. “But now y’er here to heal us up, yeah?”Taylor let go of the two girls and climbed back to her feet. She couldn’t remember falling to her knees. She started rubbing her cheeks dry. She had to be the big sister here, and crying wouldn’t help any.The small Panacea gave her older sister a flat look. “I’m sorry, I don’t do brains.”“The fuck does that mean?” Cheshire asked.“It means I couldn’t heal whatever’s wrong with you.”Cheshire smiled at her newest sister, then pulled out a knife from somewhere. “Okay,” Taylor said as she got between the two. “That’s more than enough. We can do introductions at home, later.”She surveyed the alleyway they had ducked into for cover. Pop was on the rooftop above, crouching in the shadows of an air conditioning unit. Crochet and Cheshire were in the middle of the alleyway, the newly healed girl poking at the messy wound in her costume while hugging Miss Cottontail.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.The new girl, of course, was right next to Taylor, her white and red-trimmed robes already getting stained at the hem from all the dirt and detritus the alley was filled with.And Dinah Alcott was off to one side, looking rather lonely despite being with an entire group of girls her own age. “Dinah?” Taylor asked.The girl looked up, then back down again. Her hands fidgeted by her waist. “I’m sorry,” she said.“Sorry for what?” Taylor asked. Though she had a few suspicions. She was becoming really good at reading the emotions of annoying little girls.“All of this. It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t interfere. And, and now it might happen again. I don’t know.” She started talking faster after peeking at Taylor. Taylor didn’t know what emotion was on her face, only that it scared the girl. “The bad man, the one that wants to hurt me. He’s going to be going after you now. And it’s my fault.”“Then we’ll kick his ass,” Cheshire said.Taylor allowed a bit of a grin at that. “Cheshire is right. Though maybe I’d tone down the language a bit. We’re a family. You’re on your own, I think. We’ll manage. But if you have any other hints, it probably wouldn’t hurt for you to tell us.” After having the girl tell her the location of the Dallon sisters accompanied by the odds of Taylor getting back in time to save Crochet, Taylor’s doubts about her parahumanity were fading fast.“I will,” Dinah said. “Thank you.”“No problem. We should all head out,” Taylor said. She was about to offer to help Dinah find her parents again when a shadow flitted past. Taylor looked up in time to see Glory Girl carrying Panacea in a bridal carry, bags in both hands, hovering above them.The sisters came to a gentle landing between Taylor, her sisters, and the mouth of the alley. “What’s going on here?” Glory Girl asked. She was looking between Taylor and all the girls, but mostly the small Amy who was waving at her.Taylor felt her heart sinking. She really didn’t want to be the one to deal with the capes, but technically, she was the oldest one around, and keeping her sisters safe was her responsibility. “Nothing,” she said as she stepped a little closer, placing herself between her sisters and the New Wave capes.“Yeah, a whole lot of nothing,” Panacea said.“Kind of like what’s in between your ears, huh?” her smaller counterpart said.Taylor stepped back and placed a hand on her new sister’s head. “That’s enough,” she said. “Let’s try being nice, please.”“Yeah, let’s all be real nice to each other,” Glory Girl said. “Because this isn’t the most suspicious thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s right up there.”Taylor looked around for an escape, just in case, but it was probably a lost cause. She had managed to escape from Glory Girl once, but it was almost a fluke. She couldn’t do it with this many sisters to keep safe. “Can I help you?” she asked.“Yeah, you can tell us what the heck is going on.”She stood a little taller. “What happened is that you tried to stop me from saving my sister’s life,” Taylor said.Victoria looked between Taylor, then Crochet and the still dirty patch on her shift. She had the good grace to wince a little before firming her resolve. “That’s... yeah, okay, but I still want to know what’s going on here.”

Chapter Twenty

Taylor always expected that she would have to explain her power to someone someday. Maybe a teammate, maybe some bored PRT officer sitting behind a desk, maybe (to her potential-mortification) to her dad.She didn’t think it would be to two celebrities in the middle of a literally bloody alleyway. “I can explain,” she said.“Yeah, I sure hope you can,” Glory Girl said. “You can start with names.”“Ah, that might be complicated,” Taylor hedged. None of her sisters had what anyone would call an ordinary name to begin with. “I’m Taylor. Taylor Hebert. Um, these are my sisters.” she gestured at all the girls, then paused over Dinah. “Except her.”“Hi, I’m Dinah,” said Dinah. “I was being kidnapped, so Taylor saved me.”“Uh-huh,” Glory Girl said. She made a little gesture with a roll of her wrist, a sort of ‘get on with it.’ It seemed like Glory Girl had read the same ‘Body Language for Condescending Bitches’ book as Emma had. “If that’s the case, you won’t mind coming with us, right Dinah?”Dinah shrugged one shoulder. “Okay,” she said before walking over to the New Wave girls. They seemed surprised by her nonchalance; she wasn’t acting according to the ‘kidnapped little girl’ script.Nodding, Taylor continued. “My power is that I can make, um, sorta-clones of capes by touching them. They’re not the same person though. No memories or anything like that. Just a little sister version of that cape. And they’re really nice.”“Hello,” Crochet said with a quick curtsey.“Sup, bitch,” Cheshire said.“Mostly nice,” Taylor added. She tried to smile, but it felt really brittle. “Um, Dinah was being kidnapped, so we helped, or tried to, but then Crochet,” she began, placing a hand on the girl in question. “She got hurt. And I couldn’t lose her, not someone else, and Dinah said you were close and that you could help.”Glory Girl made shushing motions and Taylor realised that her voice had been rising a little the entire time. It was Panacea that spoke next. She touched her sister on the arm, then focused on the little sister that had come from her. “So what’s with her?” she asked.“I... I couldn’t convince you to help me. I’m sorry,” Taylor said. “I had to make a new little sister to save Crochet. That’s her. She doesn’t have a name yet.”“What am I, a side of beef?” the newest little sister asked. She tried scowling, but failed and only ended up with a pout. She huffed, uncrossed her arms, and turned towards Glory Girl with an assessing look.“Amy,” Glory Girl said.“Don’t,” Panacea said with a warning note in her voice.Glory Girl ignored her sister with aplomb and walked over to Taylor’s newest little sister, then bent forwards at the hip to look her in the eye. “Hi.”“You’re Glory Girl,” the sister said, sounding rather shy all of a sudden.“And you, are adorable,” Glory Girl said. She reached out and grabbed the smaller Panacea under each armpit and lifted her up to head height.“Big Sis, please don’t let that be my name,” the little sister, who looked like little more than a kitten being grabbed by the scruff of its neck, asked.“No no, you need a much better name than that,” Glory Girl said.“Um.” Taylor shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Big Sis is me, actually. That’s what they call me.”Glory Girl blinked. “Oh, right. Well, I can be your Bigger Sis, then,” she said to the girl still held in her arms.The little girl frowned thoughtfully. "No, I only have one big sister. Maybe you could be my girlfriend?”Glory Girl looked startled for a few long seconds, then broke out into peals of laughter. She turned towards Panacea, smile still in place. “Did you hear that, Ames?”“I did,” Panacea bit out.The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Glory Girl laughed some more, and Taylor felt the tension just draining out of the alleyway. “Maybe when you’re older, little Amy,” Glory Girl said as she placed the girl back down.“You could at least hug me, if you’re gonna manhandle me like that,” the tiny healer said.Glory Girl snorted, but patted the girl on the head anyway before focusing on Taylor. “So, you have the most awesome power ever, basically.”Taylor felt her expression going flat. “Yeah, sure. Do you like babysitting?”“Uh,” Glory Girl said. She eyed all the girls and Taylor could almost hear the mental tally rising. “Well, if it was just small Amy.”“I might take you up on that,” Taylor admitted. She was losing the tenseness as they went on. Her nightmares of violence and accusations was fading. “So, now what?”The two cape sisters shared a look. Panacea sighed, then hitched her shoulder. “I don’t know. I feel like we should be reporting this.”“No!” Taylor said. She only realized that it was a shout after she had said it. “No, please. I... if you report me, they might take my sisters. Or, or they’ll do things to them.” She grabbed Crochet, the nearest sister and pulled her close. It wasn’t something she wanted to think on much, but her sisters were important, they needed protecting.“Dammit,” Glory Girl said. She ran a hand through her hair and frowned at the lot of them before turning back to her own sister. “We can’t call the PRT on them, Amy. Armsy would be anal about them and Piggot would probably freak out, you know how unreasonable she is.”Panacea rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because a clone-making cape that can make more capes isn’t worth freaking out over.”“Oh, come on, look at them, Ames. They’re harmless.” Glory Girl picked up small Amy and held her up again. As soon as she was lifted, the girl went limp and dangled in Glory Girl’s grip.Panacea glared, but she relented. “Fine, but she should have to report to someone.”Glory Girl’s smile was radiant. “I’ll ask mom. And then we can try to figure out what this whole kidnapping business is all about.”Taylor had the impression that she wasn’t out of trouble just yet. “Can, can we go home now?” she asked. She felt a small hand poking at hers and gripped it without even looking to see who it belonged to.Glory Girl and Panacea shared another inscrutable look. “Yeah, yeah you can go,” Glory Girl said. “But I’ll be texting you my number, and I expect you to show up at our place tomorrow. You can talk with my mom or Aunt Sarah. They’ll know what to do about the whole kidnapping and clone thing.”

* * *

Coil rewound the footage to the start. This time his attention wasn’t on the Alcott girl, but on all the other children with her. The oldest looked to be no more than fifteen or sixteen at most, the rest were all his future pet’s age, if he had to guess.The van pulled up, his men acted. That had been the moment where time was split, where success should have been guaranteed. In this reality, the one that remained, the men fought, one lost his hands, another was kicked back. A gun flashed and one of the children fell back.Then things got even worse and the squad leader pulled back.The footage ended there, with the oldest girl panicking over the injured one and his pet talking to her.But he remembered the other reality. The one were his man shot the older girl. The reality where Dinah was captured. The reality where, minutes later as he eagerly awaited the arrival of his pet, a pair of girls phased through the walls of his base and chopped his head off.Coil clenched his fists on the armrest of his throne-like chair. So close. But a new player was on the board.He slammed his fist down. “And I would have gotten her too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!”