1.13: Sophia
Sophia jumped onto the next rooftop, settling like a fog on the other side before partially re-materializing continuing her run at a speed no normal human could long sustain before jumping again.

It had already been a long night, and Sophia wanted this done with as soon as possible. She had just finished a night patrol for the Wards, a long dull patrol where she had stayed in safe areas and done absolutely nothing. Normally she would have used the end of the official patrol to go find some real action, to find something she could hurt. But now, she couldn't, because of Taylor's "conditions". The main one being that the trio had to report fairly regularly so Taylor could "ask" some questions, making sure none of them had betrayed that bitch yet.

Thus Sophia found herself running across the rooftops of a dull, safe, boring neighborhood for a quick chat. A massive, massive waste of time. Not as massive a waste of time as jail, she had to remind herself, which was what she would get if the Protectorate found out about her accidental vigilante killings, or dead, if Taylor got to her first, but a waste of time none the less.

Finally she reached Taylor's house. They had agreed that at this hour Taylor's house was the most convenient. Sophia made a final leap, aimed at Taylor's bedroom window, and landed on the other side.

Taylor, like always, was sitting on her bed, completely unsurprised as Sophia's arrival. By all rights Sophia should have caught the girl by surprise at least once. She must have had some way of seeing her approach. Probably the work of that Vision creep. "Hey Sophia. Good to see you. Are you tired? Would you like some food? You must be hungry." Strange. Normally Taylor was as eager to get Sophia out of her house as Sophia was to leave.

Still, Taylor was one of the few people in her life that Sophia had to treat with respect. "While I ... appreciate the offer, wouldn't you prefer to just get this over with, I have stuff to do. I'm sure you do to."

"Oh. Um, I was actually hoping you could stay around awhile. Do you like fried chicken?"

Sophia looked over and spotted food on Taylor's desk. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. She took a seat at the desk where she could still keep her eyes on Taylor. "Is it because I'm black?"

"...huh?"

"The Fried Chicken."

The sputtering denials almost made the forced stay worth it. Really, Sophia had no idea how Taylor could still be so sensitive to such things. She was a Winslow student after all. It really shouldn't have been so easy to get under her skin.

Sophia began slowly eating the meal once Taylor sputtering was done. She savored the chicken, which was good, and she was hungry. But, most importantly, it left Taylor awkwardly sitting on her bed, twiddling her thumbs. Sophia marveled at the difference between Taylor with her power on vs off. She had figured out that Taylor's power somehow messed with her mind as well. Thus, unlike all the other capes Sophia knew, Taylor seemed to hate using her power. As far as she could tell, asking the three of them a few questions every day was all the use it got. Sophia was glad her powers didn't mess with her mind.

That uncomfortableness with her own powers left Sophia some wiggle room when dealing with Taylor. True, Taylor's power could make Sophia do whatever Taylor wanted with a word. But, since Taylor hated using her power, she would only use her power as a last resort. Thus Sophia could, if not quite disobey, delay or inconvenience Taylor, up to a point. It was petty and inconsequential rebellion, but it was something, which was better than nothing.

Having finished the meal, delaying a few more seconds to take a drink, Sophia stopped pushing her luck and got down to business.

"Thanks Taylor. That was good. Thanks for the bribe, as unnecessary as it is. I'll take a bribe over mandatory charity any day. So, what are you bribing me for?"

Taylor was clearly slightly ticked off by her bluntness. Little victories. "Well, fine, be that way. You know I want to be a hero, right?"

"Sure."

"So, I'll probably have to fight someone, at some point."

"Um, I guess that's possible, though I'm not sure why given your power."

"Let me worry about that. So, Sophia, you're good at fighting, right? The Protectorates taught you stuff, right?"

Sophia could see where this was going, but was in no mood to help Taylor get there. "I guess I'm pretty good. What of it?"

"Well, I was thinking, since you have to come over anyways, maybe you could, maybe, train me, a bit?"

Sophia looked at Taylor's still casted arm. "Well, I guess I could show you a thing or two. But we should probably wait till you've healed up."

"I don't want to wait that long. Please, I'm sure there's something we can work on while this heals."

Sophia considered. On the one hand, Taylor clearly really wanted this, and if she made this an order, she wouldn't be able to refuse. Which honestly made the other hand irrelevant. She was going to have to do this, the best she could do now was get any concessions she could out of her.

"Sure, I'll help you a bit. Just keep in mind Ward stuff will comes first, we don't want then getting suspicious after all. I'll do my best, don't worry about me slacking off or something, but if I tell you I won't have time to stay and teach, I'd like you to leave it at that."

"Ok, that's reasonable."

"Second, food would be nice. I do have to come in from a long day, and a meal will help. Third- "

"Sophia. I'm happy to make food, and the need to get other things done is understandable." There was a brief pause. "But please, remember who you're talking to and don't press your luck."

"Hmf. Fine, I guess. So, you want to start now?"

"That would be good, yes."

"Let's start then." Sophia got up and waved Taylor to do the same. "I'll start you out with a basic transitionary stance." Sophia stepped into it. "It's not that stable as stances go, but that instability lets you quickly slide into other stances, and learning to make it stable will help with your overall balance and body awareness. Now you try."

Taylor, did, and it was bad. "Ugh. This is going to be a long night. That is wrong in so many ways. Let me show you." Sophia started walking over to fix the half dozen mistakes she could see from here.

"Put your weapons on the table first." Sophia immediately turned around and started unloading everything on her that she considered a weapon. The crossbows and bolts, a couple of small knives she hid on her person, the zip cords, and a couple of other random blunt objects. Once she was done, still facing away from Taylor, she felt the compulsion leave as Taylor's power turned off. "I'm so sorry Sophia, I didn't mean, I mean, well. We're not exactly friends, I have to be careful. You know?"

Sophia stared into her own angry eyes. She then closed them, took a deep breath, and forced a smile onto her face. She'd been subject to this for a month now. She was, somewhat, used to this. And at this point, there was nothing to be gained from visibly getting mad. She was Taylor's prisoner, always, but she could be her slave, and prisoner was better than slave. So she smiled and tried to keep her raging emotions out of the voice.

"Sure Taylor. I understand. Just ask normally next time, if you can. Will you let me help you now?"

"Um, yes. To both."

So Sophia got to work. She grabbed Taylors armed and shifted it up and to the left a bit. Made her firm up her wrist. Twist her foot a little bit to the right. A half dozen small improvements to get the pose correct. Sophia mentally patted herself on the back for resisting the urge to be rough about it.

"And that's it. You've got a good feeling now of how the pose is supposed to be?"

"Um, I think so."

"Good. Now hold it." Sophia then walked away and took a seat at her chair, and continued to nurse her drink.

"Uh, for how long?"

Sophia delayed a response till the cup was back on the table. "Until I tell you to stop." She then lifted her glass for another drink.

Small victories.

Author's Notes

So, with this chapter 1 is finally, finally done. Things got busy and updating this fell far down my priorities. Glad I finally got this chapter done. In the next chapter, A bump in the night, Taylor will start her illustrious career as a hero and get into her first cape fight. Should be fun.

It should be shorter than this one, and more straightforward, especially since I know pretty much exactly what I need and want to happen, but getting it out will of course depend on the existence of time and will to keep working on it.

As aways, if you have any opinion of the story, please share it in the comments. As an author, I live for the feedback on this story, and it of couse helps me know what works, and what doesn't for future writing.