Prologue

Trapped in a cage of iron and steel, a girl pleaded to anyone who would listen. A being wondered the tides of the empyrean, aimless and in a haze of blindness and confusion. The being remembered vague things about itself: a name, a concept, a cause, and a brother whom it- he, the being recalled- could neither save nor avenge. In its haze it looked hither and thither for one that could give him purpose, one whom had experienced a betrayal of one close to them.

The being's attention was caught by the girl, who was but a small, fragile thing; hardly alive and to most hardly worthy of any mind. The being saw within that mortal an image of the ideal he had fought –and, he supposed, died- for, that a human could; nay, must, overcome the trials of the world and become stronger for it. Following from this, the being observed the girl from within its own hazy existence as something else caught its attention, a small thing, a mere shard of some great being, fell from the sky toward the girl. What the shard-thing was the being did not know, what he did know, at some fundamental level, was that this was a way in; a way into what the being did not fully comprehend but all the same as the shard grew closer to the girl whom had interested him so, the being exerted his remaining will and pushed against the veil, a process made all the easier due to the very nature of the creature.

It felt as though passing through a doorway, entering this thing's mind, almost too easy for a creature of such power and potential. The pressure against the being reminded him inexorably of the great battles of its previous life, and that invigorated him to fight all the harder. The battle raged for a time, or perhaps for but a moment, before the being rested a semblance of control from the shard. Unable to destroy or cast out the consciousness of the shard, the being did what it could to restrain the creature, trapping it within its own mind.

The girl saw before her a sprawling behemoth, as vast as the cosmos themselves. She envisioned the sprawling mass of the creature and a small fragment separating from it to fall into the void, toward what might have been earth. The fragment fell for a time before it began to squeal and scream in some incomprehensible manner as something began to subsume it from within and from without. The creature, now different yet similar, continued its fall and as it approached the possible earth, she blacked out.

Chapter 1

My thoughts were fuzzy as I awoke and my head ached. I felt around for my glasses, only succeeding in banging my hand on a table at my bedside. Forcing my eyes open I got a blurry picture of a white room of some kind. Not feeling nearly as panicked as I knew I should be I grabbed what looked to be my glasses from a nearby table and put them on. The blotchy picture of the room resolved itself instantly into the type of hospital room I had only before seen in the occasional TV show. Now that I paid it any mind, the room reeked of disinfectant.

Details began returning to me slowly: A foul smell that emanated from my locker, my investigation, Sophia shoving me in, my panicking- on impulse I brought up my hands which had been torn up as I clawed at the locker, trying to get it open, or to get someone to notice. They were each wrapped in a thin layer of bandages, not as many as I would have thought would be needed to cover up all the bloody lines I had sliced into them in my haste to escape. Odd that I wasn't feeling any pain from them. The only other thing I could recall was my panic, a panic that now looked to have been far more self-destructive than necessary- that thought brought me up short. Why was I thinking of it like this, I could have died. How am I being so calm about this?

My musings were cut off by a knock at the door, which was swiftly followed by a nurse entering. The woman's eyebrow rose slightly as she saw that I was awake, before she spoke. "My, you're awake early."

My first attempt to reply devolved into a minor coughing fit, my throat still bore a slight ache from screaming myself hoarse, but I was able to recover and respond in relatively short order. "where am I exactly?" Another thought hit me. "And where is my dad?"

The nurse put on a smile, an idle part of my brain noted was likely practiced. Before saying in as gentle a tone as she could. "You're at Brockton general hospital. I am your nurse, Genna." She paused for a moment to check a clipboard she carried.

"You're Taylor Hebert, correct?" I nodded. "Your father was here until visiting hours ended, he should be back tomorrow" A quick check of a wrist watch. "later today, actually."

An idle glance toward the window confirmed that it was night outside, the little light coming in no doubt from the nightlife, such as it was, of the city. That answered that question, now to figure out just how long I was out. "How long have I been here, um, if you don't mind me asking."

Another check of the clipboard. "You arrived here yesterday. At three, twenty-three PM." I made to sit up but the nurse put a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back down. "You shouldn't be trying to move yet. You've been through quite a lot and the doctor says that you shouldn't be moving around yet."

That was odd, I barely felt a thing, aside from this obnoxious headache but even that seemed to be growing fainter with each passing moment. Another question came to mind, one that I probably should have asked first. "What happened?"

Genna's response was another check of the clipboard. I noticed her lips turn downward. "I was just assigned to your care so I don't know all the details but from what I'm seeing here, you were treated for several lacerations and a series of infections." Judging by the look on her face and what little I could recall, there was more to it than that.

The next few seconds dragged on before she shuffled awkwardly and nodded her head to the door. "I'll let the doctor know that you woke up, it would be best if you got some sleep." She was probably right, after all, with morning would come questions; questions to which I would be expected to have answers.

Line Break

The next few days were spent largely in bed while the doctor, Tygan, if I remember correctly; made sure I was healthy. There had indeed been more to my injuries than what Genna had let on. The cuts on my legs and a few on my arms had almost gone toxic. A few more hours inside that locker and I might have died. That thought, despite its implications, barely phased me for whatever reason.

Dad also came to visit. He looked years older than he was as he talked to me, the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He asked me who had done this, and when that didn't work he begged. I wanted to tell him, I really, truly did; but I knew that I had no way to prove it and throwing around accusations would only make the situation worse.

Although dad did his best to hide it from me, I had seen the look that was frequently on his face before, when he thought of mom, or when he ran into trouble with the ferry; an anger that he could not find a target for and inevitably turned it either inward or onto whoever was unfortunate enough to inconvenience him next. Although I hadn't heard anything from him, I suspect that he had already had at least one one-sided rant at someone loosely involved in this. Probably Principal Blackwell. And if I know Blackwell half as well as I think I do, which admittedly isn't much; she would fiercely deny any and all accountability. I felt a surprising lack of anger at the thought, closer to mere annoyance than the fury that probably should have blossomed within me.

The better part of a week past in that same vein. With the doctor or nurse Genna checking up on me periodically. The odd test or blood draw to make sure they hadn't missed anything when they had cleaned out my system. And dad stopping by every chance he had; that dour expression on his face far more often than not. I had to fill out a report for the police but nothing else of real import occurred during that time.

After four days in the hospital, four days that felt far longer than they should have, I was released from the hospital with a note saying that I should stay home for the next week to ensure my health. Apparently, according to the doctor, I had heal faster than expected. Good to know that if nothing else I can recover quickly.

It was shortly after I was released from the hospital that strange things started happening. At first it was minor things: feeling a little stronger than I should, my eyes being just slightly better even without my glasses, a slightly more acute sense of taste; things that could have been passed off as just feeling better from being able to move properly again.

Then came the dreams. Dreams of a great conflict, of a great metal monster, different from any cape I had ever heard of, of a titanic clash and a Giant of a man drowning the creature in magma; with the metal of the creature fusing itself to the man's arms. I had never been one for dreams, in the rare cases where I had them they were nonsensical and faded almost as soon as I awoke, these dreams were consistent and would not leave no matter what else I tried to think of.

A few days after my release from the hospital, I was laying atop my bed, pondering the latest dream of the giant man fighting a man in gold that towered over him as he towered over normal men. This dream had given me a spark of inspiration, for what I didn't exactly know, but my hands itched to do something, to build something. I think dad kept some parts in the basement.

Despite it being fairly early in the day, dad was already at work. That was probably a good thing, it would mean fewer awkward questions. A brisk walk through the house and down into the basement, and before I knew it I was sifting through piles of assorted scrap and parts, bits and pieces that were parts of projects that went unfinished or had yet to be repurposed. I only had the vaguest idea of what I was doing, mostly just trying to make what I had seen in the dreams.

After a few minutes of messing about I twisted an errant bunch of wires and fed them through what had been a non-functioning battery pack for a walkie talkie. Occasionally minor shocks went up my fingers but I didn't pay them much mind. The repurposed battery had begun humming after a few minor adjustments and would now be more or less ready for use. I would need to get my hands on something with which to weld the pack onto another piece of metal to make the most of it. Oh, and it would probably be best if I also made something based off of that suit the golden man had worn, I think I saw some metal behind the stairs that I could use.

I continued on in a similar vein, starting a project based off of something or other from the dream before realizing that I was missing something or wouldn't be able to jury-rig a particular part together without risking it blowing up or overloading another part, before the itch to create dulled enough for my stomach to inform me I had yet to eat today. I dragged myself away from a piece of metal I had been beating into a massive shoulder plate with a hammer to go back upstairs and grab something to eat.

It was oddly dark when I got back upstairs, strange, it shouldn't have been more than an hour or so. I craned my head to check the wall clock as I snacked on a pre-wrapped sandwich which would have been my launch today. 'Huh, only five thirty-five.' I though dully. I went back to my meal or a second or two before it dawned on me. 'I could have sworn it was past eight when I got up.'

I walked over to one of the windows to confirm a suspicion that had begun to make itself known. The streets were relatively well lit by various lampposts and a few houses, and the sinking sun was just visible as it loomed over the horizon. I had been working for well over ten hours straight. I've been working for more than ten hours straight! A calm came to me before my thoughts could get too heated, and with it a term that I had heard in a cape magazine I had read a while back out of boredom. "Tinker frenzy."

That made a surprising amount of sense, all things considered. I didn't even know what most of those parts in the basement were, let alone what I was doing with them. The obvious question of how I got powers came to the forefront of my mind and was answered just as quickly, the locker, it had something to do with the locker. More pressing was the next question, what do I do now? Whether out of some internal desire to avoid the question or a suggestion of its own, my hand twitched in unison. Right, I can figure out the specifics later, first tinkering! My stomach made its displeasure known again. First food, then tinkering, I amended.

Author's note:

Greetings my esteemed and honored readers. I bring to you my first attempt at a story. As this is my first attempt at a story I would encourage those of you who comment to be as proactive as possible in pointing out any flaws you notice in the story, be it with structure, plot, characters, or the suchlike. I would like to use my time here, and this story in particular, to improve my writing skill (which has laid unused for such a long time that I am surprised I remember how to type) and in order to improve I would request as much criticism as possible.

In regards to the story, and the first chapter in particular, I will say that I have events planned but the way to said events is rocky in its formation. I will say that this chapter in particular suffered from a rushed writing period (largely due to my inept stumbling) which I hope to correct for future chapters. This is (hopefully) me at my worst and I hope to one day overcome at least a majority of my flaws in the realm of writing, no matter how far off that goal might currently be.

Addendum: if the first chapter was any indication I will likely be re-posting the chapters within a few day of initial posting if I catch this many problems after the fact. I have re-edited this to remove a few problems and misconceptions that some people had, as well as performed a slight reworking of the ending so as to not create a rather large plot hole early on.

Also: the reason for me re-editing the last few paragraphs is due to a pacing issue I discovered when I sat down to try and write a framework for chapter two, I won't go into specifics but I will say that, yes, Ferrus will make a proper appearance later. Apologies if I got people's hopes up there.

My thanks for reading what I have out so far.

Yours, Miria the Phantom.