Brockton Bay
January 14, 2011
Danny Hebert Looked down at the prone form of his daughter, sleeping peacefully after the hell she had gone through. The Hospital room was mostly silent except for the steady beat of the EKG machine and Taylor's almost silent breaths. It has been two days since Taylor had been taken out of her own locker, a locker filled with utter filth with her having infected cuts all over her body. Danny had been simultaneously outraged and dead worried after he heard. He had been worried for his daughter Taylor, and he had been outraged at the three girls who had done it. Yes, Danny knew who had put his daughter in that locker and who turned said locker into a festering hellhole of biological waste. It had taken literally ten minutes of investigation on Danny's part to find out that three girls were responsible.
Sophia Hess, Madison Clements and Emma Barnes. It was still hard to believe that Taylor's childhood friend had such a face-heel turn, but the texts and emails that Danny's ramshackle worm program had retrieved painted a clear picture. A picture clearer than he would have liked. He had also found the journal... To say he was disgusted with the "Trio" was an understatement, to say the least. Taylor had been bullied for two years, and he hadn't known any of it. Taylor hadn't told him, she had kept everything from him and not let anything about what she was going through bother him.
Danny felt slightly mad that she hadn't shared her trouble with him, but a lot more of him felt ashamed that she thought that she couldn't share her life with him, her own father.
Danny realized that he had been distant since Annette died, she had probably thought that he was so fragile that any of her problems would have caused him to collapse with worry because "he couldn't do anything".
Admittingly, Taylor didn't know of his underworld contacts so it wasn't so unreasonable...
It still saddened him and made him angrier with the perpetrators and himself. Each beep of the EKG hammered the fact that he had failed and made him want to rip it out and replace it with something more suitable to help his daughter. Maybe an Autodoc or a Biogenetic regenerator? Danny was sure he had one of those in storage somewhere.
But, he couldn't do anything like that for Taylor. That was way too obvious, there were too many people who would ask questions. If he still had minions, Danny would have got them to infiltrate a regeneration machine disguised as an EKG into the hospital and then bribe a hospital technician to replace the EKG in this room with the regenerator as the current one required "maintenance". Not many people in a hospital knew how the machines worked internally, so as long as Danny got the technicians to look the other way, and kept Panacea and any Tinkers out of the room, then Taylor would be fine in hours instead of days.
Danny didn't have minions anymore, however. Annette and him had agreed to give up that life when we had Taylor, their little girl didn't need to worry about evil schemes or convoluted revenge plots aimed at us and so we just retired. Lustrum had said goodbye to her best Henchwoman and I had given up my efforts to conquer the world. It had been bliss until three years ago.
Until someone murdered Annette.
It had looked like a typical car crash, a tragic accident, but the signs were there if you knew what to look for. And Danny had seen a fair share of those in his youth.
Danny was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the door to the ward opening. Looking in that direction, Danny saw his old friend Alan Barnes who looked justifiably ragged. His suit was messy, shirt buttons were poorly done and the jacket was hanging awkwardly from his frame. His hair hadn't even looked like it had been brushed. When he spotted Danny, Alan seemed to relax, his shoulders slumping in relief. He approached Taylor's bed and Danny quickly.
"Thank god I've found you, Danny. I've been looking everywhere for you." He said, almost out of breath.
"Well, I've been here. By my daughter's hospital bed, Alan" Danny replied coldly.
"Honestly, I had thought you had gone off to get revenge on the Clements girl. So, I looked in on the Union and they said you would be here and, more importantly, that you hadn't sent anyone to mail suspicious packages to people."
Danny was silent at that. It had crossed his mind to simply attack the girls who had done this to his daughter, but he had spent a lot of time controlling his anger and so he hadn't prematurely arranged any accidents or otherwise for the Clements girl or Miss Hess. It wouldn't have done to attract the PRT's attention by assassinating a Ward after all.
Alan grabbed a nearby chair and sat down next to his friend. "Look, Danny, I know you are in no mood to talk but I need to tell you something..."
Taking Danny's silence as a yes, Alan continued. "After you had sent those emails and texts to me, I confronted Emma." His voice had a note of worry in it. "After she was convinced there wouldn't be legal repercussions for what she did, she told me everything..." He trailed off. "... She was fucking proud, Dan." Alan whispered. "I have no idea what happened to her. As far as I knew she and Taylor were still best friends. Hell, she even thought they were still friends..."
"What?" Danny asked, shocked.
"I know, she told me that she was helping Taylor stop being 'prey' and she was hoping Taylor was going to be a 'survivor'. Whatever that means." Alan scoffed with disgust. "Back in our day, this was cruel and unusual execution."
Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was starting to become clear. "Alan, I don't think your daughter got over the ABB thing." Danny quietly said.
Alan was shocked, he had told Danny about the ambush but he didn't know how it related to this situation. "Dan, The therapist cleared her, said she was healthy."
Dan sighed, "People can break more ways than one, Alan. I don't need to tell you how messed up Parahumans are. Do I?"
"I've listened to that speech many times, thank you," Alan said quickly. "I still don't understand..."
Danny interrupted him, "Look at the majority of heroes, they can still function in society, they can appear completely normal in most situations but every ,single, one, of them is broken" Danny lectured. "This simple view of survivor and prey sounds similar, doesn't it?"
Alan sat up straight as though he was shocked. "Sophia..." He breathed. The NDA he had signed briefly flashed through his mind, telling him that he had essentially broken it in two. Alan dismissed that thought. It wasn't like Danny didn't know who was who in the Protectorate, considering their amazingly thin covers and hilariously bad cyber security. Danny was a former evil genius after all.
"How did you do it, this time, Dan," Alan asked, a small part of him wanting to know. Only a small part
"Nigerian spam email." Danny simply stated.
"... Isn't Nigeria in the middle of a civil war?"
"Exactly. But that isn't what is important." Danny continued, ignoring Alan's unspoken question. "I think your daughter latched on to Shadow Stalker ever since the ambush. It was likely a defensive mechanism to prevent her from having doubts about her self-worth after the incident. Her identity had been so broken by the traumatic experience that she bought into Sophia's twisted philosophy as it reinforced what was left."
Alan was stunned. The fact that Danny had figured this out after looking at a journal and a few messages made him feel pathetic as a father. Taylor was actively hiding the bullying from Danny because she felt he couldn't take it while Emma hadn't been hiding it that well at all. He had no idea what must be going through Danny's head, he was the one who used to want to rule the world to save it after all. He could only imagine how horrible it must be feeling, a man who had stumped the world's forces of Justice was deceived by his own daughter for good intentions. It made the contrast between Alan and Danny seem wider, and more evident that it had been his fault that this happened.
If he had only been a bit more observant, he could have noticed how broken his daughter really was and stop her from hurting a little girl who he considered his unofficial niece.
"What do you want to do, Dan?" Alan asked his friend, defeat entering his voice. Danny had a terrible temper. If he wanted to go legal with this, he would support him as a friend. If he wanted to go at this illegally...
Well, Alan hoped his daughter wasn't in the crosshairs of that.
"Get your daughter help, Alan. I've seen what happened, in the journal and the messages. She was broken, she needs to be fixed." Danny surprised Alan with his cool response.
"Why? Don't you want revenge?" Alan asked, fear etching in his heart. It wasn't past Danny to arrange accidents for people who attempted to hurt his family and he desperately hoped that he wouldn't be planning that right now. It was interesting, being more scared by your best friend than the triumvirate.
Then again, since Danny had beaten two of the three members of the triumvirate, It wasn't so unreasonable.
"No Alan. I trust you to deal with this. You know your daughter best. As for Miss Clements, she was just a social tag-along. None of the correspondence between them the three say that Madison was anything more than a follower. A lieutenant if you will. Dealing with her in an extreme fashion would be useless." Danny then interlocked his fingers in front of his face into his typical 'plotting time pose'.
Alan was slightly worried. Danny was falling into his old habits, the condition of his daughter must have been hitting him harder than Alan thought to have that little self-control.
Suddenly Danny smirked and clapped his hands. "Yes! A cake slime would be perfect!"
Alan was shocked at Danny's sheer vindictiveness and slightly disgusted at the mental image he brought up. Back when he was still practising evil, Danny had wanted to make a signature 'mysterious package' that he could send to people who were enemies or just if they annoyed him. His first invention was the Pie bug, a beetle designed to look like a pie. It was meant to attack anyone who tried to eat it and so Danny decided to test it.
Marquis had sent the beetle back all spiky and immobile, with a note that exoskeletons counted as bone and that Danny should try harder.
So Danny made the cake slime. An engineered organism that was the cross between a slime in fantasy and a cake. Originally the Cake slime was only supposed to taste disgusting, but then when a minion tried to eat it, it grew tentacles and proceeded to beat up and traumatise the poor man. From that day on, all the minions avoided cake in the base, especially the female minions as there were rumours that a few minions were leaving anime in places that the slimes frequent.
Alan hadn't needed to see enough hentai t know where that was going to go.
Danny was pleased with the success of the slime and subsequent healthier diets of his minions and sent a cake slime to Marquis to celebrate.
Marquis had shown up in full armor at the base that night with a haunted look in his eyes. He then proceeded to practically launch the cake slime he was holding into the base and ran away like he had seen Behemoth.
The slime mauled twelve minions before it was captured.
Danny had later made a non-lethal version, but it still made the disgustingly cute "Meep" when it saw people.
In Alan's opinion, it was downright terrifying.
"Are you sure you want to go to those lengths, Danny? A cake slime can't be taken back..." Alan asked his friend worryingly.
Danny turned to his friend and frowned. "Don't worry Alan. I still have a healthy population of cake slimes on hand."
Alan raised his eyebrow. "And... Do you remember why that is?"
Jason Forlov walked through the corridors of the base of the Evil Organisation that he was a part of. Even though he was essentially a criminal, he had never been more satisfied with a job. His boss, Danny Hebert, was a fair and kind man even if he was evil. He cared about the people under him, even when he wasn't expected to. He also made all sorts of fantastic things and he wasn't even a parahuman! Tinker-tech broke down after a few uses or after a while but Danny's stuff had lasted years. Jason had even fired a death ray! The soldier who it belonged to told Jason that he maintained the death ray every day and if something really went wrong, then he could always just take it to the technicians to fix. It was so nice to see simple Mad Science in a world of Science Magic Bullshit. Jason tugged his yellow jumpsuit so that it fit better as he turned around the corner and found a peculiar sight. Something didn't feel right with this situation. The cake looked almost pristine, as though someone had put it down carefully. It was a slice of cake instead of a full one, meaning it thankfully wasn't a slime. "Hey dude, what's up?" another minion, Randy, said as he turned the corner. Jason grabbed his shoulder before he passed him. "Wait..." he hissed. He had realised what was wrong... Where were the crumbs? Horror filled his features as Jason stared at the monstrous slice of cake. "MEEP." The cake slice said. The slice began to shift and bulge, growing in mass until it reformed as a full cake.
Someone had dropped some cake on the floor.
It was just sitting there, the perfect image of the perfect cake. It didn't sit right with him.
"MEEP."
Jason spun around and he saw more, shifting slices of cake, growing into full cakes. One full cake divided itself into eight pieces and each piece oozed away, breaking one's perception of cakes forever.
"THEY"RE REPRODUCING!" Jason shouted. He quickly turned around and began sprinting, dragging Randy with him.
The halls were filled with the screams of two grown men as the cakes sprouted long tentacles and followed swiftly, hot on the minions' heels while repeating a cute "MEEP" the whole way.
"I don't see your point," Danny said, befuddled.
Alan blanched. This is the benchmark of punishment for hurting his daughter. Alan knew that Danny was aware of the sheer destructive effect of the Cake slimes and he still considered it the least severe punishment.
There's the internal Evil Genius that Danny was hiding. Alan thought.
"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Alan tried again.
Danny stared blankly at him. "They hurt my Little Owl, Alan. Do you really want me to think it through more?"
Alan gave it some thought. The cake slime was not actually the worst thing that Danny could do and any more thought on the matter might make Danny think that even that wasn't enough.
"Fine..." Alan sighed, "...Give me one as well."
Emma needs severe therapy anyway... Might as well use it as a good motivator to complete the therapy.
"What about Sophia?" Alan asked.
"The Ward?"Alan nodded. "I'll think of something to do with her. It's going to be way worse than a cake slime but we both know the Protectorate and PRT don't play fair when it comes to their capes and agents."
Alan nodded. It was true, while it was expected for evil minions to resort to lethal force if necessary, it had disgusted Alan as a lawyer to see the PRT officers and Protectorate capes often willing to kill and ask questions never when it came to Danny's organisation. They would always go non-lethal against the gang capes but wouldn't hold their people responsible for the minions they killed. To be honest, Minions were expendable and they knew it but they were still people... Most of the time. The Allfather clones didn't count.
Alan stood up and stretched. He looked down at his friend. "Danny, Kurt, and Lacey asked me to invite you out drinking tonight. Considering the circumstances, I think you need to unwind before you start improving the EKG machines. Don't worry about Taylor. This is a perfectly secure hospital and I'll call Daniel to send some guys to watch over the place."
Danny, lost in thought, looked back to his comatose daughter. It was true that the hospital was safe and he trusted Daniel enough that there might be a veritable army of dockworkers here if there is trouble.
Danny also knew that he was on the breaking point. Danny had an explosive temper but it hadn't always been that way, it used to burn cold. It was only since he had to give up the leads on Annette's murder to take care of his only daughter when the temper started becoming explosive. He wasn't used to that feeling so helpless when it came to his family and Taylor pulling away had amplified that feeling. That feeling turned his patient temper into one that lashed out, both were just as intense but they just manifested differently. There were times when Danny's anger would reach a point when it would go cold and now was one of those times.
Unfortunately, Danny knew that meant that he was unpredictable and irritable.
Maybe cooling off would be the best thing for Taylor, before I do something I regret. Danny thought to himself.
During his internal debate, Alan had been patiently waiting for Danny's answer.
Danny stood up and stretched. He had sat there watching over Taylor for hours now.
"You know, I think I'll come."
Alan smiled and patted Danny on the back. "Good man, Come on."
As they walked out of the hospital room, Danny had a single thought.
No one is hurting my little girl again. Even if I have to come out of retirement to do it.
AN: Another story I am moving across.
As you can see, My inspiration does weird things.
Like the others there is no set update time for this.
Enjoy the Writing.