Outsider Chronicles: Resonance of the Shards

A sound Soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body. Considering that, who in the hell thought giving a character from Earth Bet the powers of a Weapon was a good idea? Especially when said Weapon is a bullied girl who wants nothing more than to be a Hero. Looks like I'm going to have my work cut out for me...

And we're back. Generic opening comment is generic. Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Emma Barnes felt sick. School was back on after the winter holidays and she was back and raring to get back to teaching Taylor her place. Plus, it would help cheer Sophia up! Her best friend had been strangely down since just before the holidays and it was honestly starting to worry Emma, seeing the other girl look so down in the dumps.

Of course, thats not the reason why she felt sick. Oh no, that would be because of the sight in front of her. She'd been waiting by Taylor's locker, ready to get her minions to surround her so they could get the semester of to a flying start as soon as Steller was out of the picture. Instead, she found herself forced to watch as the impossible happened. Taylor was smiling brightly as she and Roy walked through the halls, hand in hand. That was...impossible! Theres no way that a weakling like Taylor could ever get a hot boyfriend like Roy! Hell, Emma didn't even know why the handsome boy bothered to hang out with the ugly bitch! She must have blackmail or something. Yeah, that was it! Maybe she could use that to get Steller to dump Taylor for her. It shouldn't be to difficult and the teen was handsome and athletic, certainly enough to have some fun with until she got bored. Plus, it might even be enough to push Taylor over the edge! This would require careful planning…

I was in a very good mood that morning. The christmas holidays had been EXTREMELY productive for Taylor and I. We haven't actually done any Cape work, instead we'd focused on honing our skills together, making sure we could use and control our Resonance techniques, discovering an additional four Songs in the process, and I'd even started teaching Taylor the bases of my Family's martial style. She wasn't a Master by any means, but she was good enough to hold her own against most opponents, especially with help from her powers. Oh, I doubted that she'd ever be a fully autonomous Weapon, but she wouldn't be helpless without me anymore.

As an added bonus, the training had served to help strengthen our relationship, resulting in Taylor gaining a lot more confidence. I think it helped that both sets of parents supported us, although that didn't stop Danny from giving me the 'Hurt her and I'll kill you' speech and both of us ended up getting another TALK and a reminder to be careful. Separatally, thankfully, but that didn't stop us from being utterly humiliated and unable to meet the others eyes for a couple of days. Its amazing how much talking about sex with your parents can affect you, even if you've technically already gone through it once. Then again, maybe its not…

I quickly shoved that thought out of my head. I needed to focus on school and I did NOT need the TALK rattling around in my head when trying to get my head around algibre. Even after two lifetimes, I still couldn't figure it out. Or figure out why the fuck they actually taught us it.

"What do you want?" I asked as I shut my locker door and revealed Emma standing there.

She was smiling in a way I really didn't like. I think it was supposed to be charming, but it looked more like she was plotting to kill the Batman. It didn't help that her caked on makeup to cover the bags under her eyes and unhealthy pallor made her look like a clown She was planning something.

"Oh, I just wanted to talk to you," said Emma in a sugary sweet voice that made me shudder, "Its been a while after all and we used to be friends."

"No, you were friends with Taylor, I was friends with Taylor and we just happened to hang out together," I said, "Passing acquaintances, not friends."

Emma's smile faltered a little, but she gamely kept it up. I really wish she wouldn't.

"Actually, thats something I wanted to talk to you about," she said, stepping closer to me and well into my personal space.

"Unless your going to ask me how to go about trying to become a decent Human being, I'm not interested," I said as I turned on my heel and walked away.

Emma scowled, but hurried after me, trying to press close to my side as she gave me a look that I think was supposed to be cute.

"Oh, don't be like that," she said, "You know I can help you, right?"

"Help me with what?" I asked.

"With whatever Taylor's got on you of course," said Emma, "Blackmails a crime you know."

I stopped and stared at the red-head. Where the fuck had that come from?

"Huh?" I asked, "Blackmail? What are you talking about?"

Emma huffed and crossed her arms.

"Well, why else would you still hang out with that loser?" she asked, "And now shes got you dating her as well! That can't be allowed!"

I stared at her for a moment longer, before I opened my mouth. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything to say to respond to that, so I closed it again and walked off, shaking my head in disbelief.

"She thought WHAT?!" demanded Taylor, staring at me in complete and utter disbelief.

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction to," I said, my head resting on the table, "I'm seriously starting to wonder if I should ask Mum to talk to Alan to see if we can get Emma screened."

"That...might be a good idea," said Taylor, still looking a little freaked that Emma thought she was blackmailing me.

Not that I honestly blamed her. Even I was having trouble getting my head around it and I knew how messed up Emma was. She DEFINITELY needed to have her head examined.

I sighed and got to my feet.

"Well, we can't stay here all day, lets go."

Taylor nodded and I paid the bill as we left. We headed up the road a short distance, before taking a sharp left into an alleyway where we changed into our costumes, Taylor transformed and I jumped up onto the roof of the building. Today was the first day we were going out patrolling, although it was mostly to get a feel of the city from above. I wasn't actually expecting to find any crimes in progress.

We found a crime in progress. Apparently I'd massively underestimated this citys ability to be a hellhole. The crime in question was a couple of Merchants jumping a girl and were apparently trying to inject her with something, although she certainly wasn't making it easy for them. Two of the idiots were already curled up clutching their nads, another was holding his bleeding nose and the two holding her arms were cussing up a storm as she squirmed and kicked like a horse.

Of course, even if she had the situation well in hand, that didn't mean I was about to leave her alone. Instead, I jumped off the roof and landed on the head of the Merchant with the hypodermic with a loud crunch. Before I could continue with the saving thing, the girl took advantage of the distraction provided by my entrance and, in an impressive display of flexibility, flipped over and did the splits, kicking both Merchants in the head at the same time.

"Shes good," I muttered.

Then she turned around and my jaw dropped. It was Madison, but not the same girl who'd been harrassing Taylor before the holidays. Her hair had been cropped short and dyed bright pink, her cutesy and fashionable clothes had been replaced with a sports jacket, mini-skirt, sneakers, and thigh-length socks in shades of white, blue and pastel pink.

"Tanuki Witch much," I said without thinking.

That just got me an odd look.

"What?"

"Never mind," I said quickly.

I did activate my Soul Perception though and was greeted by the sight of a rather large yellow Soul with a tanuki ears and tail sticking out of it. Not a Witch, but definitely a Parahuman. I think she might have Kim's powers though, although exactly how Regeneration of both herself and others came about, I have no idea.

"Um, are you OK?" I asked.

Madison shrugged casually.

"Eh, I could have taken em," she said.

I blinked. Ooook then, what the fuck happened over the holidays?!

"Anyway, I got things to do," said the pink haired girl, "See ya."

She stepped around me and walked out of the alley, hands in her pockets. I stared after her, still not entirely sure what in the fuck had just happened as Taylor switched back to Human form beside me, looking just as confused.

"Did...that just happen?" she asked.

"I...think so," I said.

"Right...why do I suddenly have a urge to check my wallet?" asked Taylor.

I just shrugged helplessly.

Paige Mcabee was scared out of her wits. She was still having trouble pulling herself together from the blatenet railroading she'd been put through at her sham of a trial that led her to being Caged, but that didn't mean she didn't spend half her time scared out of her wits. She was a SINGER and yet her she was, locked up with some of the worst criminals on the face of the earth. The only comfort was the fact that Lustrum had extended her protection, just like Dragon had said she would, but apparently that protection didn't extend to everyone in the prison. No one wanted to get on the Fairy Queens bad side after all, not even Lustrum.

She wasn't even sure why Glaistig Uaine wanted to talk to her considering she wasn't even assigned to her cell block! However, the message she received was insistent and Lustrum had told her that if she didn't go, the consequences would be an uncertain doom, so here she was, stood in the Fairy Queens cell, squirming under the blonds intense gaze.

In an attempt to calm herself down, Paige scanned the room. It was the same size as all the other cells in the Cage, but had a fair few bits and bobs that should have been impossible to get in the prison. There was a shelf with a fair few books, most of which looked really old and included a rather thick tome with a stylized E on the spine and one covered in runes she could make no sense of, a stuffed...thing with an upturned nose on the bed and a large mirror on one wall.

"You don't belong here, do you?" said the Fairy Queen suddenly.

Paige snapped her head back to face the delusional Cape.

"I…" she started, but couldn't think of what to say to that.

Glaistig Uaine ignored her aborted attempt to respond and waved to the seat across the table from her.

"Sit, have some tea," she said.

Paige did as she was told, doing her best not to gulp when she saw that her cup had a cartoonish skull decal. She really hoped that wasn't a premonition of what was to come.

"As I was saying, you don't belong here," said the Fairy Queen, "You are here because of lies and politics, not because you actually deserve it. Those fools in charge simply wish to be seen doing something rather than actually doing it."

She tutted and shook her head.

"You'd think people would learn," she said idly, "All lies come out eventually. This little attempt at PR will one day cause them more trouble than they ever imagined."

Paige gave a strangled laugh.

"What good does that do me?" she moaned, "Even if the truth does come out, I'm still stuck here!"

The Fairy Queen fixed her with a rather unnerving look.

"Perhaps," she said, "You know, you are not the first to be sent here on false grounds. Like you, I spoke with each of them to take their measure. Those that deserved it, I helped."

Paige frowned.

"Helped?" she asked, "Helped with what?"

Glaistig Uaine tilted her head on one side.

"To leave of course," she said, "Despite what Dragon thinks, I can leave here whenever I wish. I simply remain because its comfortable and their are plenty of interesting people."

Paiges mouth dropped open.

"But...how?!" she spluttered, "Not even Teleporters can get out of the Birdcage!"

Glaistig Uaine gave a thin smile.

"How is irrelevant," she said, "Whats important is what you want."

The Fairy Queen lent forwards.

"Tell me Paige Mcabee, do you want to leave this place?"

Paige stared at the much smaller Cape, her mouth opening and closes in disbelief.

"I...I don't want to be here," she said in a small voice, "Even with Lustrums protection, I don't think I'm going to last long. Anything would be better than dying in a place like this."

Glaistig Uaine searched Paige's face for a moment, before she nodded and got to her feet.

"Very well," said the Fairy Queen, "However, before I send you on, you should know that your life on Earth Bet is over. Still, your new home will be much more pleasant. Do give Death my regards."

Paige went white, but before she could even clench her legs to try and run, Glaistig Uaine waved a hand and the world went heliotrope.

Hmm, well, wasn't that an interesting ending? I know that I've probably jumped the gun slightly on Canary getting Caged, but Fanfiction and I couldn't wait to do this.

Can I just say that teenage girls are a bitch and a half to write? Cus they are. Apparently Emma's a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but what else is new? To be honest, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with her.

My original idea involved a massive fight where Meister cut both Alabaster and Hookwolf down to size, but I decided that was to much to fast, Instead, I want to have them get a bit of experience dealing with petty crime before slicing up Hookwolf.

Truthfully, I have no idea where that thing with Madison came from. It will be relevant later though. Just to be perfectly clear, Maddy is NOT a Witch and won't be becoming one. Shes a Parahuman with a Brute/Striker/Trump power that allows her to regenerate rapidly and grant others regeneration with a touch. Basically Kims Regeneration magic.

Ohh, well isn't that interesting? Apparently either Ciara is even crazier than everyone thinks...or she can hop dimensions. She also apparently knows Death. Something tells me this won't end well…

No Omake this time I'm afraid, mainly because I'm still trying to decide who deserves to be Excalibured more. Other than that, don't forget to leave a review!