Foundation 2.2

Taylor heard the footsteps long before she saw them.

Two of the girls that made her life hell, climbing the stairs to the fourth floor of an abandoned, unfinished building at the docks. One was clear and obvious, the other following in a failed attempt to be silent.

It might have worked on most people, even Taylor herself if she was not watching for it, but with her spirit sense, it was easy to strengthen her ears to focus in on the second approaching qi signal.

The walls weren't constructed, and the air flowed freely from the outside through the empty floor against the concrete supports.

She sat in cross legged meditation while in her casual clothes beside a support beam.

"Emma. Did you do what I told you?" She asked without opening her eyes, performing some simple qi movement exercises with her hands as a guide.

"Yes. I told everyone not to bother you anymore," Emma said, standing in front of her after turning the corner exiting the stairs.

"And will that be enough to stop them?"

"Most of them, yeah. Even Madison. She'll do whatever I say. But Sophia, I don't think so. She was pretty upset when I told her."

"Did she ask you why?"

"Yeah, and I didn't tell her, like you told me not to."

"Good. And the other thing I told you to do?"

"Um…it's kind of hard. And there wasn't really any time today."

"Make sure you do it. You must complete it within one week."

"Alright, I'll try..."

"Try? No. You will succeed, or you will die."

"I-I understand."

Sophia stormed out from behind the corner at the stairs.

"That's enough! Hebert, whatever you're using to blackmail Emma isn't going to work on me! This stops here!"

Taylor finally opened her eyes and gave Sophia a disdainful look.

"So the little bug finally shows itself. I was wondering how long you planned to wait?" Taylor stood up and dusted herself off.

"Stop trying to act cool, Hebert. You won't get away with this. Hand over what you're using to blackmail Emma and maybe you won't have to go to jail."

"Is that so? Emma, why don't you tell her how wrong she is?"

Emma looked at Sophia regretfully. "Sorry, Sophia. There is no blackmail. I'm just making up for past wrongs."

"Emma, come on! Let me help you, you know I can! What's she got over you? Naked pics or something? That's illegal anyways!"

The redhead shook her head. "I don't need help, Sophia. And…I'm sorry. We can't be friends anymore."

"Hebert, you bitch! If you won't hand it over, then I'll force it out of you!"

Sophia ran towards Taylor, who watched her and the incoming punch calmly.

She moved one finger up and shifted her head slightly with a turn so that it was both out of the way of the punch and gave the expression of looking down on Sophia.

The fist came to a stop with a small nudge from Taylor's finger, and Sophia's eyes widened like saucers with her arm fully extended, too stunned to retract her punch according to proper combat maneuvering.

"What the fuck?"

"Weak. How could such a weakling force anything out of me?" Taylor asked with a scoff.

"You're a cape! You triggered with Brute powers?" A look of understanding came over Sophia.

"No. That you can be so easily deceived shows your ineptitude. I merely positioned my finger at the natural end of your arm's extension. You are too weak to be worth even a single finger of real effort."

Sophia's eyes darted to her fully outstretched arm and her face twitched.

"Fuck you! Don't call me weak!" She pulled it back and got into a ready stance with both fists up. "So you learned some kung fu trickery and now you think you're hot shit? You got nothing on real fighting!"

Taylor moved her finger forward, then curled it twice in the welcoming gesture.

"Go to hell Hebert!"

Sophia came at Taylor again with a sideways kick aimed at her waist.

Taylor stepped backwards, then pushed Sophia's ankle just as it passed her. The additional force sent Sophia spinning out of control, far overextended, and Taylor followed up by moving into point blank range against Sophia's exposed back and hit several pressure points and qi meridian points.

Sophia's muscles locked up, but her kick continued to drag her sideways until she twisted and fell, paralyzed, eyes wide and darting around, but unable to speak or scream.

"You are weak, Sophia. You tried to prove your strength by preying on those weaker than you. Emma told me all about your philosophy. There are only predators and prey, and everyone is one or the other. If you fight back, you are a predator, and if you don't, you're a prey." Taylor said. "A narrow-minded view of the world. Emma has realized how foolish it was, haven't you, Emma?"

"Yes. Where there is yin, there is also yang. What is prey to one beast may be a predator to another. All living things share the desire to live, all are trapped in the struggle of life and death. The enlightened sage can live without desire, act without struggle, and feed without hunting."

Taylor nodded approvingly at Emma's recital of what she was taught.

In that moment, Sophia had heard enough and decided to act. She shifted to shadow form, and the paralysis was gone. A quick jump later and she was standing several meters away with a measuring look at Taylor and Emma.

"You are a cape after all. A grab bag of some kind? Brute, Striker, Master?"

Taylor didn't look concerned with Sophia's sudden revelation of powers.

"No, I'm not a cape. But from your perspective, the difference is only academic."

"You went after the wrong victim, Hebert. Were you high on your new powers, wanting to get back at us for everything you thought we did? You made a big mistake. Soon the PRT and Protectorate are going to come and lock you up, and you'll be sent to the Birdcage. That's what happens to human Master villains."

"A mistake? I don't think so, Shadow Stalker. You are the one who made a mistake in following Emma here to this place."

"So you know that I'm a Ward. You got some kind of trap laid here? You gonna try and hold Emma hostage? Too bad it ain't gonna work." Sophia put a hand in her pocket and took out her PRT issue phone.

Suddenly a needle struck her wrist and the phone fell out of her hand, clattering to the ground.

She tried to reach for it with her other arm, but found herself paralyzed again when more needles hit her neck.

As soon as she turned to shadow form again, Taylor was already on her, palm pushing against the shadow mist with a blast of qi.

The shadow was blown apart and scattered into gas that tried to quickly reform into a person.

Taylor waited for it to regain cohesion, then swept forward and struck Sophia's head as soon as it reformed with two fingers, qi penetrating the defenseless skin and skull into the brain.

The Corona Pollentia and Gemma were attacked by the qi. The brain matter in that section died instantly.

Sophia was blown back by the force of the finger poke and crumpled to the ground again with a killer headache.

"Argh! What the fuck did you do to me, Hebert?" She screamed when she realized she couldn't turn back to shadow form.

"I destroyed the part of your brain that gives you powers."

"What—what the fuck! You can't do that!"

"You're not a cape anymore, Sophia."

Taylor walked forward slowly while Sophia tried to back away with a panicked expression.

"No! The PRT will get you! You can't just take away powers, that's breaking the rules!"

"I don't care about the rules. I am one who challenged the will of heaven and won, such restrictions are meaningless to me. Rules serve those who created them. Sometimes they can create a foundation of civil society, but usually they simply allow the privileged to suppress the underprivileged. The latter is evidently the case with you."

"You're insane!"

"You will never understand because your role was not that of a predator, Shadow Stalker. When a wolf or a tiger stalks their prey, they don't do so for entertainment or to satisfy their pride. They do it with a practical goal in mind. To consume the prey for sustenance and strength, or mark their territory and eliminate the competition. You, on the other hand, merely chase shadows of no substance."

"I take down criminals and I'm fucking good at it!"

"Was Taylor Hebert, who did nothing to you, a criminal when you tried to kill her in the locker? You tormented an innocent girl for years, and used your privilege as a Ward to escape the punishment that should have been given to you by the rules of this society."

"I didn't use my status as a Ward for shit! Nobody helped you because they knew you weren't worth it!"

"It doesn't matter whether you actively used your status or whether you were simply protected by a corrupt system. In the end, the teachers and the PRT that should have stopped you turned a blind eye to everything you did until I nearly died for it, so I have to deal with you myself," she said after reaching the now powerless Ward, poking a few pressure points in quick succession. Sophia was unable to speak after that.

"As the penalty for your crimes against me, the removal of your powers would have been enough. Yet, I cannot afford to allow an enemy to come for revenge as I know you would. Even an ant can kill a lion, and you may even gain new powers by means unknown to me. While you live, my meditations would be restless. Good bye, Sophia Hess."

Sophia's eyes turned bloodshot as she mouthed a silent scream.

Six rectangular paper fu talismans shot out from Taylor's sleeves and attached to different points on the surrounding support pillars and the ground.

A complex circular design revealed itself beneath the three girls, glowing with power.

Wind swirled around them as the paper talismans fluttered rapidly.

They were positioned in the eyes of the magic formation that was being activated.

Taylor herself stood in the most important eye, holding her fingers together in a seal, and muttering an incantation.

"What's going on?" Emma asked fearfully as she looked around. Suddenly the wind blew her away out of the circle.

Sophia writhed and spasmed, then from the ground a pillar of unnatural green fire consumed her.

Her skin wrinkled and dried, then cracked and disintegrated to reveal the skeleton underneath, and that too broke into dust, leaving only clothes and a small dark bead behind.

Emma watched while holding herself up with one hand after tumbling to the ground. Her mouth was wide open, horrified, while her whole body was trembling.

When the wind and fire died down, the fu talismans burned away into nothing, taking the ink of the formation diagram with them, leaving clean lines on the ground amidst the dust.

Taylor walked over to the clothes and rummaged among them to find the dark sphere that was like a blackened pearl.

It was a sarira produced from the remains of those with higher than normal qi levels, specifically refined by the formation Taylor used.

Most people's bodies and souls were not spiritually powerful enough to produce sarira, but all cultivators did, and some naturally gifted people with abnormal qi levels or special physiques did as well, when using the right fires to refine their remains.

The higher the cultivation level, the bigger and purer the sarira produced. Like the other capes Taylor had met so far, Sophia had abnormal qi levels, which persisted even after the cell death of her Corona and Gemma, but even so her remains only produced the lowest quality of sarira.

Still, there were uses for it, so Taylor put it away. Then she picked up the PRT phone and Sophia's clothes as well, before stuffing it all into a bag she had hidden behind a pillar slightly farther away.

Emma was still shaking and staring at Taylor like she was the devil when Taylor came to her.

"Get up, Emma. We're leaving," she ordered before walking away with the bag hanging over her shoulder.

As she walked away, she could feel her turbulent qi finding a new balance within.

With the binding of Emma and death of Sophia, two potential inner demons had been eliminated.

The solutions were not ideal, but nothing ever was. There would be consequences, and if her actions were ever made known to the so-called heroes, they would never accept her as one of them.

But so what?

He who defines himself cannot know who he really is.

Even if she would be a hero, she would do so on her own terms.

She would pursue justice and the enlightened path as she knew it, not the corrupt justice of a broken system and a world that conspired against her at every turn.

She didn't need to call herself a hero to follow the will in her heart.

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