Shard of Magic [Worm crossover]

by blake0831

Interlude 2

Danny Hebert scanned the partly cloudy winter night sky for a particular teal colored contrail, the pair of binoculars in his hands at the ready.

He sighed as his mind again wandered back to that faithful, life changing conversation that occurred nearly a week ago. His little Taylor. First her mother, then Winslow, now this. A Cape...

He had heard rumours and word on the streets about capes and how they got their powers. The worst day of their lives. Hearing it from Taylor's mouth was.... difficult. He had nearly blown his top upon hearing that. He nearly did when he had heard what Taylor had planned initially before changing her mind and telling him. He forced his temper back down by reminding himself that Taylor had ultimately told him before embarking on a solo flight, that Taylor had ultimately chose to tell him about anything at all.

He let out a resigned breath. He knew that he... was being distant after Annette's death. That he was using his (sadly slowly getting more desperate) work as the Hire Manager with the Dockworkers Union to cope with the loss. Taylor had elaborated that sometimes she got odd.... urges and renewed prodding from either her (somehow) re-invigorated conscience or (what she suspects is) her power. Danny is just thankful that those urges and prodding have prompted her to help patch things up between them, before it deteriorated even further. That she still trusts him to tell him about anything important.

Speaking of which, Danny had talked Taylor into postponing her first outdoors flight a bit, despite her eagerness and impatience (she somewhat reminded him of the times a younger Taylor wanted a puppy or pony). A few days later, he gave her a few things to add to her ensemble. A decent hunting knife complete with a securing holster, a extending defense baton, a can of potent pepper spray (he'd rather Taylor had some backup options of defending herself in case her power fails her or something), a rugged walkie talkie from the Dockworkers Union office, complete with a hands free headset and mic, and a basic cellphone. The last one rendered Taylor a bit speechless. He doesn't blame her reaction. After the Accident, both of them had rather... negative feelings towards cellphones. But this is Brockton Bay. He'd rather deal with the mixed feelings about having them (he resisted the slight urge to take a hammer to them.) and have Taylor being able to call him or anyone for help if she got into trouble than be comfortable and not knowing what happened to her.

When Saturday night rolled about, the father and daughter packed up into his truck and head out to the hills on outskirts of Brockton Bay. There, Taylor had launched herself into the night sky on her test flight. He watched her trailing contrail as she swooped, weaved and raced around the sky until he lost sight of her.

Danny raised his walkie talkie. "This is Papa One to TayTay. Papa One to TayTay. Status check in. over."

There was a (uncomfortable) moment, before the device sounded with a bit of static, "Hello. This is *sigh* TayTay. Checking in. Everything is A-OK. Over."

Danny chuckled. "Papa One to TayTay. Perhaps you should remember to pick a decent name first before your first flight." He paused. "Where are you? And How's the view up there? Over."

"TayTay to Papa One. I was pre-occupied with other things. Better things!" The sound of a deep breath taken came over the airwave. "I'm over the Docks area now. It's beautiful up here. So peaceful... Over."

Danny picked out his binoculars and scanned the patch of sky. The Docks is... over there, up a little.... There she is. A faint teal dot amongst some clouds.

"TayTay to Papa One." The walkie talkie suddenly interrupted. "How's the shield? Over."

Danny took a quick glance at the slightly translucent but still very solid teal riot shield leaning against the grill of the truck. "Papa One to TayTay. Still here and solid. Over." It had been a surprise to both of them that Taylor could pass to him one of her created 'Hardlight Shields' to him as if it was an ordinary made-from-mundane-materials shield. Danny could even hold it up by its 'invisible handle' and 'attach' it to his arm like Taylor could.

"TayTay to Papa One. That's good to hear." There was a pause and a relaxed sigh before she continued. "It's really... peaceful up here. Serene. Like the problems don't matter as much this high up. I wish you could be here. Over."

Danny let out a chuckle. "Papa One to TayTay. Sorry to turn down your offer again. I prefer my two feet on solid earth. Over."

That had been a surprise, Taylor discovering upon closer examination of her powers (the 'Hardlight Shield', the 'Flight' and the 'Radar' powers) that she can bequeath them to other people, though kind of pointless for the first, and the last two had such a high 'energy' cost (that sounded so weird.) that doing it on even just one other person would have leave her an exhausted mess.

"TayTay to Papa One. That reminds me. I found a new aspect to my passives." Taylor 'passives', what she calls her powers like minor enhanced healing, minor toughness and so on. Powers that she didn't have to actively focus to activate. "I can stand on clouds. Over"

Danny blinked. "Papa One to TayTay. Repeat that. Over."

"TayTay to Papa One." Taylor answered. "Yeah, I can stand on clouds. Like its a solid thing. A thing that felt like a mattress made with goosedown and cotton. I wish you could see this- the fuck?"

His heartbeat spiked a bit. "TayTay?"

"Um...Sorry. TayTay to Papa One. Just now, a new power just came in. This one.... let's you walk on clouds. And it has such low cost to put it on other people I can do it to half-dozen people easy. Why did this one appear so quickly? Over."

Danny let out a breath of relief. "Papa One to TayTay. Maybe we could figure it some other time. Ready to come home? Over."

"TayTay to Papa One. Yeah, you're right." There was a pause, before a slight wind picked up. "Heading to you no- Whoop!" A 'whump! and a poof!' sound came over the walkie talkie. "Sorry! sorry! Didn't see that fog bank there. Heading back to you now. Over."

"Papa One to TayTay. Roger that, Over." Danny put away the walkie talkie and binoculars and leaned against his truck to wait, his eyes scanning the skies.

Eventually, a pale teal dot appeared and gradually growing larger, skirting the city limits and over the treetops, trailing a small faint teal contrail. The dot slowly grew until it resolved itself into the figure of Taylor, clad in her costume, coming to land next to the truck. Danny could see that she had her Radar power activated, it showing as a solid teal band of light around her eyes. As Taylor landed, the faint teal 'petal' wings of her Flight power faded away and she walked over to the truck. Even in the dark, Danny could see the wide beaming smile on Taylor's face.

He smiled in return as he walked towards his daughter to give her a hug.

**************************

Dauntless let out a resigned sigh as he went about his night patrols. Just one swing by around the Docks and he can check in for the night at the Rig.

Things were a bit of a mess with the Wards back in HQ. Director Piggot had just benched the Probationary Ward Shadow Stalker after Armsmaster, Dragon and a few PRT Troopers presented their investigation findings into her conduct and behavior of over nearly two months. The Director was nearly apocalyptic with rage over the severe breach in probation terms (he vaguely remembered that the Director had initially protested it) and had wanted to just throw the girl straight into Juvenile Detention and/or Prison and bury the keys. She had to be calmed down immensely to even discuss any further corrective measures.

The girl had been pulled from the school, and talks were in the works to relocate her and her family out to the Mid-West. Shadow Stalker was to be remanded into the 'tender' care of one of the PRT Branches there for correctional rehabilitation training. Dauntless wished her luck and hoped she doesn't blow this final final chance. That particular branch was well-known for dealing very harshly with hard cases like her, and tended to shove them deep into the grindstone to shape them up. In the mean time, Shadow Stalker will have to put in some appearances (with her wearing a Tinker Tech ankle monitor and tracker) over the next few days to muddy the connection a bit between her civilian life and her cape persona.

He reached near the end of the Docks when something odd caught his eye. He turn and squinted in disbelief at the strange sight, before using his SkyWalk Greaves to make his way up and closer.

Up close, the strangeness had only gotten more so.

The low hanging fog bank over the docks had a crisp sharp silhouette of a spread eagle person punched out of it. Like a cartoon. If he looked closer, he could make out clearly defined hands and fingers imprinted through the fog. What's more, the fog doesn't seem to be shifting or filling in to blur the outline. He could see straight through to the star filled night sky beyond, like he's looking through a ruler straight solid marble tunnel craving, rather than an immaterial wispy shifting fog.

What the hell?

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[Cheshirek4t]

And then the gritty and rwalistic world of worm was introduced to cartoon logics😁😁

[Spellflame]

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