TheMadmanAndre
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With Friends Like These, 3-1
🕑 Added 2018-11-28 09:20:05 +0000 UTC Normally I add some witty text here, but after such a long lull in the story, I think I'll just get down to it. As always, special thanks to JudgeBastiat for his help in beta-reading the chapter.__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Taylor woke up to something warm and smooth pressing against her cheek, nuzzling its tiny head against hers. It tickled a little, and she groggily pulled a hand from her covers to scratch at whatever it was that was fiercely cuddling her cheek.
“Mmmph,” she groaned out. She had tried to say ‘go away,’ but that had come out instead.
Drinks! Food! She heard a voice plead for her as the nuzzling and nudging became more insistent. Finally, Taylor opened her eyes to stare at the four glittering orbs mere inches from her face.
Levi was plopped next to her head on the pillow, gazing back at her. Taylor reached up and scratched his back and neck, something that her Friend greatly enjoyed. “Food?” she mumbled.
Breakfast! Levi eagerly replied.
Breakfast? Oh right, it’s morning. Taylor blinked the sleep away as she shrugged off her covers, swinging her legs over to step out of bed. Levi scurried up her arm to perch on her shoulder and wrap his tail around her neck like he always did. For a moment she expected her other two Friends to do the same.
But Simmie and Benny weren’t on her bed, or anywhere in her room. And as Taylor tried to figure out why, she suddenly remembered.
The night before. Lung, Hookwolf, Rune and Crusader and the Protectorate. The fighting and the fires. Shadow Stalker… The world briefly spun as Taylor suddenly felt light-headed. She had fought supervillains and won. And Shadow Stalker was Sophia Hess, but compared to everything else that happened-
She suddenly felt Levi curled around her neck, and was instantly reminded that she had her Friends and that everything would be fine. That everything would be okay. “I… I’m a superhero,” she told her Friend. “I think. Maybe?”
Hero? Levi asked.
“Yeah,” Taylor said. “And I think you guys are heroes too. Thanks Levi, for helping me.” In response she felt her Friend eagerly cuddle and nuzzle her neck and cheek. But the moment was fleeting as Taylor was distracted by the grumbling of her stomach, reminding her that she had basic needs. ”How about we go find something to eat? Or I guess drink?”
Juice?
“Yep,” she chuckled, “Although now I’m wondering where your siblings are.” She remembered the night before, seeing her dad dozing in his recliner downstairs before Levi accidentally tackled him. And the conversation that followed in the dining room as Taylor had explained as best she could to her dad that she was a parahuman and had Friends.
Taylor was quick to dress herself in her usual baggy attire of pants, shirt and a dark gray hoodie. She had briefly considered putting her costume back on, but for now at least she wanted to wear something a little more normal. To feel normal, after last night’s events.
Feeling as ready as she’d ever be, she opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway, where she was immediately greeted by the smell of breakfast cooking downstairs. “I really hope he’s not mad.”
Protect, Levi spoke from inside her hoodie, his tail squeezing ever so slightly and reassuringly. As Taylor walked down the stairs she once more began to feel nervous, unsure of what to expect in the kitchen. It didn’t help her mood when she saw the gaping hole in the drywall part-way down, left there by Benny’s dynamic entry into the house. At the foot of the stairs she braced herself, before reaching the floor and turning to look through the threshold and into the kitchen.
Her father was standing at the stove. He had brought out the old cast-iron griddle with bacon, sausage, and eggs cooking and sizzling atop it. And sitting there next to the griddle was Benny, nibbling away on a bit of scrambled egg, and Simmie, hovering above a large bowl.
Danny, her father, looked over his shoulder to see Taylor standing there. “Morning Taylor. Hungry?” Benny and Simme looked up from their snacking and mixing and greeted her as well with exuberant roars and chirps. “The little guys came down early to help me with breakfast.”
“The… little guys,” Taylor said. Her dad was wearing an apron and smiling at her while her Friends helped him cook.
“Well, Benny and Simmie, right?” he asked. He looked over at Simmie, who had her wings wrapped around a large metal whisk as she focused on mixing the bowl’s contents. “Feels a little weird, saying it, to be honest.” Simmie lifted the bowl and its contents into the air, before floating over to the stove and waiting skillet and pouring a glob of pancake batter into the pan.
Her dad cautiously patted Simmie on her head, and she heard a chirp of happiness from her tiniest Friend. “Once I gave them some instructions, they got right to work. I was worried they wouldn’t understand me, but it seems they do. And Benny here’s saving me a few dollars on gas, so there’s that.”
“Uh, yeah.” Taylor noticed that the stove burner was unlit.
“We still have a lot to talk about you know,” her Dad said. “But I’m willing to wait until breakfast. So how about you two get some concentrate from the freezer and make a fresh pitcher of OJ?”
Juice! Abruptly, Levi leapt from his perch on her shoulder and fell to the floor, landing nimbly and bounding towards the fridge. Quickly he scaled the front before leveraging open the freezer door and scrambling inside, before just as quickly popping out with a tube of frozen concentrate clutched in his tail. Taylor fetched an empty pitcher from the cupboards and got to work filling it with water as Levi brought over the tube.
“I- umm,” Taylor mumbled as she opened the tube and began mixing in the juice. “Do- do you like them?”
Her dad was watching as Simmie flipped the first of many pancakes onto a waiting platter, before pouring another glob of batter onto the vacant spot on the griddle. “Well, they’re certainly helpful.”
“Yeah, they are.”
“And I have to admit, Benny here is oddly cute for some reason.” Her dad scratched his head and she heard a roar of approval from her Friend, who now had a fresh glob of scrambled egg in his maw.
“He is,” Taylor could only agree.
“Which is weird, considering that a month ago the three of them were a lot bigger, and meaner, and scarier.” Satisfied the scrambled eggs were done, he scraped them up from the griddle and into a waiting bowl. “Although I do wish you’d told me about them earlier.”
“I-” She started, before falling silent for a brief moment. “Yeah. Me too.”
Danny fetched a bit of scrambled egg and handed it to Benny. “Rawr!” Fluffy Snack! He exclaimed, immediately scarfing down the offered treat.
“I was wrong last night, you really did bring a puppy home.”
Taylor laughed. “Thankfully he’s housebroken.”
Danny hummed for a moment. “I was about to ask.”
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“Well Taylor, I’m still a little uncomfortable around them,” Danny said between bites of food while keeping an eye on her Friends. “But I think I can manage for the time being.”
Benny sat on the dining table, a saucer stacked high with scrambled eggs before him. He had fallen onto his back, lost in his munching and making small, cute sounds as he chewed bites of egg. Also by her was Simmie, who had made for herself a stack of miniature pancakes. She was using her telekinesis to cut slices out of the stack with a fork and knife between bites of maple-glazed bacon. And finally there was Levi, his face occasionally popping up from its immersion between sips from his own short glass of juice.
“So,” her dad said, “How does, ah, Levi, you know… Do that?”
“Drink? I’m pretty sure he just absorbs it through his skin,” she answered.
“No mouth, right,” her dad figured.
Levi briefly pulled his head out of the orange juice to look up at Danny, drops of juice dripping from his face before dunking it back into the glass just as quickly. Taylor hoped Levi and her Dad would be able to get along as well as her other Friends were with him.
“You know, they like your cooking,” Taylor told him. “Especially Simmie. She really likes your bacon.” She glanced down to see Simmie doing just that, taking small, neat bites out of a rasher of her maple-flavored treat. “As you can see, of course.”
“Huh,” her Dad shrugged, before resuming eating. After a moment, he asked something else. “So you’ve been sneaking them leftovers?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh. Well, that answers another question too.”
Taylor giggled. “Yeah. The first day I was in the hospital, Simmie tried a little bit of the food they brought me. She liked it more than I did at least. And the first day I came home, I made some broccoli with cheese, something light like the doctor said. Benny really liked that.”
Benny paused, mid bite. “Rawr?” Cheesy Snack?
“Maybe for lunch Benny,” She told him while pushing around the last few scraps of food on her plate. “You really aren’t mad at me Dad?”
Danny was silent as he sliced off another portion of pancake. He ate and swallowed it before speaking. “Yes and no Taylor. Yes, I’m mad that you didn’t tell me about your, ah, your friends sooner,” he said. “And I’m also mad that there’s a hole in the drywall by the stairs, and my chest is still a little sore where I was tackled by an Endbringer.” Her Dad brought a hand to his chest, rubbing it absent-mindedly. “And then there’s those things in the closet, from last night.”
Armsmaster’s Helmet and Halberd, Taylor remembered. “I honestly have no idea what to do about them,” Danny resumed. “And with what you said about fighting the Protectorate… I’m probably going to have to call a lawyer for us.”
“Oh,” was all Taylor could manage to say at that moment.
“But with all of that that said, you’re clearly happier than you’ve been since I can even remember, and it’s hard to be mad at you when you’re happy Taylor. I know I haven’t been the best father, but know that whatever happens, I’ll try and be there for you.”
Taylor smiled at his words. “Thanks, dad.”
“Don’t mention it,” her dad said between bites of pancake. “Now that we’ve got that sorted for the moment, do you mind clueing me in about the disaster in the basement?”
Oh. Yeah. That… “Umm, what do you mean Dad?”
Her father just chuckled. “I’m just going to go ahead and assume that it was the work of your friends here.”
Simmie froze mid-bite, as her Dad’s withering gaze fell upon her. She tried her best to hide behind her wings, only the end of her fork visible. But it was a futile gesture. “Am I right?”
Help! Help Taylor! Was all she could manage to chirp, her fork slipping from her grasp and falling to the table as her wings formed into a protective ball around her.
Taylor sighed. “The three of them wandered off last night, I’m guessing when I was asleep. They… did something, to make my costume. They were digging through the boxes and stuff downstairs for materials.” She reached over to scratch Benny’s head. “You aren’t going to make any more messes, right Benny?”
He paused in eating his bite of egg to look up at her. “Rawr!” Promise!
She heard her dad chuckle at the opposite side of the table. “A costume. I remember you were wearing it last night. Can I see it again later? I’m curious to see what it looks like in better circumstances.”
“Sure thing Dad,” she smiled. They finished eating, and to her surprise Simmie helped to bus everyone's plates, floating the dishes and empty cups with her telekinesis to deposit them in the sink. “They are being really helpful today.”
“That’s a good thing,” her Dad spoke, “since now that we’ve finished eating, you’re going to go downstairs and clean up the mess your friends made. Well, you and Simmie, that is.”
Taylor had been expecting some sort of punishment, but the specifics threw her off. “Wait, not Benny and Levi?”
“Nope,” her dad said, bravely scooping up Benny in his hands, her Friend giving a meek roar of surprise. “Mister property damage here is going to help me fix the butt print he left in the drywall.”
“Rawr!” Fix! Her Dad placed Benny on his shoulder and he held onto his shirt with his stubby claws, before looking at Levi next. Her second Friend looked back up at him, head cocked to the side in curiosity. “And Levi here is going to clean the dishes while you and Simmie clean downstairs. Sound fair?”
Levi looked over to the sink, now filled almost to the brim with dirty dishes before looking back at Danny. Clean? He asked, cocking his head.
“Yes,” her dad said. “The dishes won’t clean themselves now, will they?”
Clean! Levi darted off the table, landing on the floor below. He scrambled up the counter to the countertop before perching next to the sink. Taylor watched as the faucet handles were opened wide by unseen hands and the sink began to fill with water. Clearly he had used his hydrokinesis on them somehow, but seeing it had still been a little unsettling, almost as much as-
“Wait, dad, you heard him?”
“What?”
“Levi. You were talking to him.” She pointed at Levi, who was now standing on the bottle dish soap they kept next to the sink and was coaxing its contents into the steaming water below. “You heard him?”
Danny chuckled. “I didn’t hear anything, Taylor,” he said. “But I think I’m starting to get the idea of how Levi there communicates. Although if you want to play translator from here on out, you certainly can. Anyways, grab a broom and trash bags from the storage closet before you go down, you’re gonna need them from the looks of it.”
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Taylor stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the carnage in full. She had glimpsed the mess yesterday, but seeing it up close hammered home the scale of the mess that her Friends had made. The basement never had that much stuff in it. A few spare appliances, boxes of random odds and ends, a set of weights that her dad owned and had stopped using around the time she was in elementary school.
And her Friends had gotten into all of it.
One of the appliances, a microwave, had been completely dismantled and destroyed, the remnants of which were strewn across the floor. The boxes had likewise been ransacked, and their contents were likewise scattered. The weight set was haphazardly piled up, and most of the weights were warped or melted. Some even had chunks missing, and Taylor could see Benny’s teeth marks on some of them.
“Simmie?”
Taylor? Simmie chirped.
“The next time you guys want to make something for me, please let me know, alright?” She chided her winged Friend. “I know you wanted to surprise me, but… this was a bit much.” She picked up an unidentifiable part of the former microwave, warped and bent by heat. Part of the device seemed to be missing outright, cut apart unknown means. “Honestly, I’m not mad. More impressed, really. You made my costume out of a microwave?”
Yes! She chirped. Other stuff too!
“What other stuff?”
Dresses, she stated.
“What dresses- oh.” Taylor suddenly remembered. Some of her mom’s old clothing had ended up downstairs as well, tucked away in one of the cardboard boxes. Taylor saw the box, or rather what was left of it, and noticed the absence of any intact clothing in the floor. Which meant-
Taylor looked down at Simmie, as she floated over the debris. She hadn’t been wearing just her costume yesterday, but something made from her mom’s belongings. She remembered how amazing and beautiful she had looked in the mirror, how she had at least for a time had curves and a chest. Just like her Mom…
“Simmie?”
She spun to look up at her, and Taylor somehow knew that she knew. But she wasn’t angry. Taylor?
“Thank you,” she said. “For giving me something of Mom’s. Really.”
Help! She exclaimed, darting over and glomping Taylor’s chest. She scratched Simmie’s wings as her Friend chirped with happiness.
“Yeah,” Taylor said. “Let’s get to work on cleaning this all up.”
It didn’t take as long as Taylor had expected to clean the basement. It took just a few trash bags to hold all of the trash and junk that had been scattered about, and most of the weight set was intact more or less, save for a few teeth marks where Benny no doubt gave them a nibble. Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle as Simmie began tugging on one of the full trash bags. It was all she could do to even budge one of the heavy sacks, let alone move it with her diminutive size.
“Hold on Simmie, let me help you with that.” Taylor pushed on her tether, and all at once Simmie swelled in size, up to her kid form. Abruptly the bag lifted upward, and Simmie began floating up the stairs with the sack clutched in her wings. Taylor followed her up, two bags in hand.
As they left out the door to the basement and floated and stepped into the kitchen, Taylor looked over to her left at Levi. The kitchen sink was stacked high with suds, and she could catch a glimpse of her Friend moving around within, attacking the dishes. She watched as a perfectly clean dish emerged from the sud tower to float over and into the drying rack next to the sink. And then she glanced towards the stairs, half-way up to where Dad was working on the damaged wall.
He was kneeling on the stairs, working a fresh square of drywall into the portion he had cut out around where Benny had damaged. Benny himself however was nowhere in sight. “Finished already Taylor?” her Dad asked her.
“Yeah, there wasn’t much thankfully. And Simmie was a big help.”
“I can see that,” he saw as his eyes followed Simmie, now as big as a child as she deposited her trash bag by the back door. “Taylor?”
“Dad?”
“Why is she the size of a ten year old, and why isn’t she wearing any clothes?”
Taylor’s eyes widened. Oh, yeah. “Hey, Simmie, could you go get your gown from upstairs?”
Clothes?
“Dad.”
Simmie looked down at herself.
And then up to Danny, who was sitting on the stairs trying to look anywhere but at her.
“Eep!” She chirped in embarrassment, becoming a blur as she darted up the stairs past Dad and into her room, the door slamming shut behind her.
Her Dad’s hair settled down from the abrupt gust of wind, and the pictures on the wall stopped swaying on their nails. And Benny stuck his head out of the bucket of paint next to dad, his red eye standing out against the white paint dripping off of his face.
“Rawr!” Mix! He exclaimed, before his head disappeared back into the bucket.
“I, uhh, well,” her Dad stammered. “I mean, she had those wings covering her and, umm…”
“I modified one of my old nightgowns to fit her. She’s putting it on now.”
“Alright. Just as long as she stays modest.” Her bedroom door opened and Simmie drifted out, now clothed in the gown that Taylor had made for her the other night. She floated over the railing and onto the couch below, settling in on the middle space with a content chirp.
“Also, Dad, why is Benny in the paint bucket?”
“He tried to eat the jar of spackle before I could put it on the wall. So now he gets to re-mix the paint.” On cue the paint can jerked ever so slightly as her Friend did whatever it was he was doing in there. “He’s actually doing a good job. It was pretty dried out and separated since I haven’t painted in a while.”
Mix! Taylor heard from inside the can. Her dad fetched a paintbrush from the toolbox next to him, dipping it into the can before wiping off the excess paint on the rim and applying it to the fresh wall. “Maybe you should go check on Levi? Things have gotten quiet in the kitchen.”
Taylor watched the paint can jerk again, ever so slightly. “Yeah, I’ll go do that.”
By the time Taylor went back to the kitchen Levi had finished with the dishes. She couldn’t help but feel impressed that all of her Friends were being so helpful. Then again, she hadn’t really ever asked them to help her with the few chores she did. As Levi used a bubble of water to float the last dish onto an impressive stack of clean cookware and cutlery, she reminded herself that he needed a reward. Maybe she could take him to visit the Lord’s Market ferry pier instead? Show all of her Friends the ship her dad wanted to get going again. Something to think about for another time.
She glanced back to the entrance to the kitchen and the living room beyond, to where Simmie was curled up on the sofa. Her wings were splayed around her, draping onto the floor and across the back of the couch. Strangely she felt the urge to curl up next to her winged Friend to take a long nap, probably because of the large meal she had just ate.
Nap? She heard Simmie chirp.
“Yeah, maybe in a bit,” Taylor replied back.
“Not so fast, Taylor,” her Dad interrupted as he stepped around the corner, buckets of spackle and paint and toolbox in hand. “You two still have things to do.”
Taylor blinked. “I thought you couldn’t understand her?”
“I’m your dad Taylor, I know when my daughter’s trying to shirk responsibilities.” He walked over to the storage closet, opening the door and dropping the buckets and toolbox inside before closing it. On his shoulders was Benny, perched like he had been earlier, except -
He was white. Completely white, save for the red of his eye and mouth. He hopped off her dad’s shoulder, landing on the floor with a heavy thump and with all of the grace of a falling brick. He hopped up to look up at Taylor, a grin on his face. ”Rawr!” Paint!
“I can see that Benny,” she reached down to pick him up and put him on her shoulder. “You smell like you just swam in a bucket of house paint. Good thing you’re dry at least."
Her dad shrugged. “He was dry when I reached in to fish him out. I was worried he’d dried the paint out too, but all the rest in the bucket is still good.” Danny glanced at Taylor’s other Friend. “And Simmie, puppy dog eyes don’t work on me.”
Simmie had floated over to the threshold to the kitchen during their conversation, hands clasped together and a look of pleading readily apparent in her eyes. It was too bad that her nap with Simmie would have to wait. “What else do you need us to do Dad?”
Danny opened his mouth to speak, but before he had the chance to, there was a knock at the door.
A jolt of panic ran through Taylor, as the events from the night before flashed through her mind. Lung and the villains. Shadow Stalker. The heroes fighting her Friends. Simmie darted over to her, putting herself between Taylor and the door. She felt Levi scamper up her leg and side to perch protectively on her other shoulder.
“Expecting company?” Her dad asked.
“I- I don’t know.” After last night, she didn’t know what to expect. “I’ll answer it.”
“With them on your shoulders?”
Taylor didn’t say anything in reply, walking past Simmie and her Dad towards the front door. When she reached the door she paused, breathing in and out for a moment before opening it.
It wasn’t an army of heroes ready to capture and imprison her or her Friends, or a legion of PRT dressed out in their faceless armor. Nor was it an army of Villains from one of the gangs seeking revenge against her and her Friends. It was…
“Hey Taylor,” Lisa grinned, stuffed plastic grocery bags in hand, “I thought I’d swing by and say hello. I think you could use another friend.”
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Well, that's done and done, finally. It's a familiar tale to people on this site who've been here a while. And I'm not gonna let it die yet.
