Vacate

Taylor hesitated before opening the door to her closet. Ever since the locker she had developed a —justifiable, thank you very much— fear of small spaces. She took a deep breath to centre herself, then opened the doors. Her chosen outfit for the night was ready. Black track pants, leather gloves, combat boots that she had fished out of a dumpster, a black hoodie that could completely cover her hair and hide most of her face from view, and a domino mask to hide what the hoodie couldn't. It was all very low budget, but that was what she had for now. Time to go out and be a hero… as soon as Danny, her father, went to sleep.

An hour later she was patrolling the streets adjacent to the Brockton Bay docks. ABB territory, not that you could tell tonight. She had been walking the streets ever since leaving home and hadn't even seen a single dealer, let alone a mugging.

'How am I supposed to be a hero if all the criminals are elsewhere?' she wondered, choosing to enter another alley at random. Immediately upon entering, she crouched behind a dumpster. Further down the same alley was a group of around a dozen ABB gangsters as well as one of the people Taylor had been hoping to avoid tonight… Oni Lee.

Oni Lee was basically a sociopath. According to Parahumans Online he was a remorseless killer that could teleport, leaving behind a double, and who loved to use either knives or grenades. Basically he would teleport behind you or next to you, attack, and teleport away before you could even hope to strike back. Her quick glance told her that Oni Lee was armed with at least two knives and was wearing a bandoleer stacked with grenades.

"They should be headed this way," one of the gangsters said. "Remember, we're here as backup for Oni Lee, our goal is to keep them busy until Lung shows up. Don't let them escape towards the inner city or we'll be the ones to pay the price!"

Lee kept silent, Taylor noticed. Slowly she decided to back off. If the ABB were trying to set an ambush for someone it was likely another gang, and she did not intend to end up in a gang war on her first night out… or ever. Unfortunately just as she rose from her hiding spot and made to sneak out of the alley again, one of the gangsters happened to look her way.

"Over there!" he yelled.

Taylor ran, ducking right the moment she hit the street and went straight for the first doorway she saw. The door was locked of course, not that it stopped her as she threw open the door and ran into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind her. She had picked an abandoned building from the looks of things, not that she looked around much as she made a straight line for the stairs leading up.

"Fucker is gone!" she heard from the street, voices carrying through the empty road. Taylor didn't stop running, heading up and up until she found the roof access. It was also locked, at least until she placed her hand on the doorknob and threw the door open. She fell forwards, catching herself on her hands, and wheezed from the death run she had just done to escape the gangsters.

The sound of something compressing the gravel next to her alerted her just in time to roll sideways, seeing the glimpse of a blade pass through where her neck had been prior to her dodge move. Oni Lee had teleported onto her rooftop and was looking down at where she lay just a second ago.

"Wait wait wait can we talk about this? I was just leaving OH FUCK!" Taylor had to stop her panicked babble as a second Oni Lee appeared next to her new position, slashing for her again. Somehow she managed to scramble away just in time again, getting back on her feet. From the corner of her eye she saw the original Oni Lee explode in a cloud of white ash.

"Fine! If we gotta do it this way, it's your own fault!" she yelled with more bravado than she knew she had. Oni Lee teleported next to her again and she kicked for his shin while his former self exploded in white ash again. He avoided her kick, but the sound of several pieces of metal falling down distracted him for a moment as Taylor ran for the opposite corner of the roof.

A deafening explosion hid Oni Lee from sight as the eight grenades he had been carrying in his bandoleer all exploded. Taylor lay on her front behind an air cooler as the explosion hit, the metal hiding her from the shrapnel. Carefully she looked over the device at where Oni Lee had been standing a moment before, seeing only a small crater but no sign of the homicidal gangster.

Taylor stood still, shaking like a leaf. She was very aware of just how close to death she had come in the past few minutes. Then she almost fell over again as three heavy impacts shook the roof. Three monstrous animals that looked like a cross between a lizard and a tiger, if said tiger lizard was all covered in muscle rather than scales or fur, had jumped on her roof from an adjacent one. Strangest of all was that they all had riders: two girls, one guy, and one person she wasn't sure of the gender of but who she judged to be a man by his height.

"That was fucking awesome," the fourth one said, confirming that he was male by his voice. "How did you manage to pull the grenade pins that quickly?"

"Regent, we decided I'd talk first," the other guy said. He was dressed in all black like she was, only his costume was basically out law biker complete with a skull covered helmet. "You really helped us out," he said as he dismounted. Once he was standing on the roof he held out a hand towards Taylor.

Taylor just nodded, making no move to take his hand. The other three dismounted as well.

"Not gonna lie, we were pretty freaked when we realized Lung was hunting for us tonight. Only, he never showed up… there we are all ready to throw down and instead of Lung, we find, well, you, kicking Oni Lee's arse while a dozen or so gangbangers are on the street trying to open some door. How did you manage to get up here, and what the hell did you do to him anyway?"

"She managed to open and re-lock the doors, and has some trick that made her pull out all of Lee's grenades' pins at the same time," the girl dressed all in purplish black said. She grinned as she added, "Lee managed to throw the bandoleer off just in time but was knocked off the roof by the blast. He'll live, but he broke a few bones at the least."

The biker guy turned to look at Taylor. "Introductions. That's Tattletale. I'm Grue. The girl with the dogs—" he pointed to the other girl, who Taylor realized was controlling the beasts —dogs?— with whistles somehow. She wasn't wearing much of a costume except for a dog mask. "—We call her Bitch, but the good guys call her Hellhound instead. Blame P.G. Last and least is Regent."

The guy who had told me my fight had been 'fucking awesome' chuckled, retorting, "Fuck you, Grue," in a tone that made it clear he was amused more than anything. He looked like a guy who had just escaped a renaissance faire.

Grue looked over at Taylor for several seconds, then asked in a slightly worried tone, "Hey, you okay? Are you hurt?"

"She's not introducing herself because she's shy, not because she is hurt," Tattletale told Grue. It looked like she was gonna say more, but then she turned her head. "Heroes incoming. We gotta scram."

Bitch nodded and whistled and Taylor jumped as the building shook from the impact of the three monster dogs returning from wherever they had gone to while they had been talking. Well, listening and talking.

"Hey," Grue said, looking back at Taylor. "You want to come with us?"

Taylor shook her head.

"Want to at least tell us your name?" Tattletale asked.

"Vacate," Taylor said, "I… I'm Vacate."

"Well, Vacate, one of the Protectorate is coming here in a few moments. You'd better head out unless you want to spend some time locked up at the Rig. We'll talk later, okay?" Tattletale said. She climbed on one of the dog monsters and before Taylor had a chance to reply the three monster dogs jumped off the roof.

Taylor looked at the roof access door, but it was blocked by rubble from the explosion Oni Lee's grenades had caused, leaving her with no way down other than the fire escape… which had been crushed as well.

"Fuck," she said, as the sound of a motorcycle drew her attention to the street and she saw one of the biggest heroes in the city, Armsmaster, arrive. Their eyes met across the distance and for a moment she admired his armour and halberd before he trained said weapon on her.

"Unknown Parahuman, you're under arrest," he called out.

"Fuck."