Taylor had heard of handling the cards life dealt you but this was a bit literal.
The cold late winter air made her breath foggy as she huddled herself together, hoping to generate a little more heat from her coat as she sat in her backyard.
She wasn't going far, just to the back of her backyard Taylor reasoned.
The lack of sleep was getting to her, every time she closed her eyes there was the glowing...card, it was in her daydreams, in her actual dreams, it was even starting to appear at the corner of her eye.
It gave off a feel of need, a desire to be used but Taylor didn't know how.
Even if she did, you don't just use potentially dangerous card powers in class, it would definitely get her expelled, not that the option was unappealing to her as the days went on.
The school wasn't torture as much these days...
But it wasn't the institute of safe and healthy learning either.
"Stop it, Taylor," she told herself, "Stop thinking about it."
Her room was definitely not a good place to experiment, the nimbus in her mind didn't suggest a subtle outcome and she had stuff like to keep save.
The backyard was as safe and far enough from her Dad that it should be fine.
Right?
Taylor touched the tree that hung over the back fence, she could see her own bedroom window from where she was. Her hand clenched the wood and she winced as a splinter became friends with her finger
Dad wasn't that far off, he would panic if something went wrong.
Taylor hopped the fence and convinced herself that she didn't have to go far.
Just far enough to stop feeling guilty that she was lying to her own father.
----
Far enough it seemed was the docks. Her journey stopped short by the ocean itself.
Dad had some tough love with the area, he cared for it and it scorned him. He didn't give up on it and that made Taylor come this way as if that would make amends to her Dad if she was caught.
Taylor took a shallow breath as she rounded a corner, it was refreshing, but it didn't calm her.
"Go home Taylor, this is a bad idea, just go home," she whispered, but the card shined brighter at every step as if it was almost...eager.
Excited.
That was scaring her worst than being in docks at night.
Taylor pulled her hood down tighter and shuddered at the crisp breeze.
Her bed was so far now. If nothing happened and Taylor just turned out to be insane, she would be pissed.
Insane but pissed none the less.
So it was with shaking fingers she held out her hand. Focusing on the single card of energy and light filling her mind, it leaked a feeling of calmness, a clean feeling of herself that Taylor never felt.
"Come on...come on," she begged as the light shined brighter and brighter.
With a laugh of relief, she saw her left hand begin to glow as well.
Taylor pushed and the light abruptly faded from her mind and became a reality before her.
It flashed into existence as a solid rectangle of white energy on the ground, blowing away snapped cigarettes and leaves, feeling a bit let down Taylor went to poke it but yelped as the shape bulged upwards, rapidly forming a shape, a figure.
A woman.
Talyor stared at her as defined lines became apparent, colors leaked in and life was made before her.
The woman was unearthly beautiful. Long strands of silver hair that shimmer down to her feet, some of the amazing locks were twisted together to form decorative tails, her body was clothed in a simple brown dress with two silver emblems sewn on them.
But it was her eyes, Taylor swallowed as she stared into them, as they stared into hers.
A shade of blue that no gem Taylor had ever seen even came close to matching.
In some insulting way to the woman, there was a small resemblance to the Simurgh. Inhuman, ethereal and otherworldly
But Taylor felt intimidated by her for another reason than the monster. Taylor felt...
There didn't seem to be anything imperfect about her and it unnerved Taylor on some level, the lack of fakeness to the whole image was making her struggle to accept this person as real.
"H-hello?" she croaked and cleared her throat. The woman smiled and Taylor looked down.
It wasn't a sexual thing or anything like it, Taylor could feel that but looking at the woman made Taylor feel...small
"Greetings," she responded and her voice was...nice. Taylor latched on to that, how casual she sounded.
"Are you...this a bit rude, but did I create you?" Taylor needed to know, even if deep down she sort of already knew.
A straight answer from her could make Taylor feel a lot more confident in herself, maybe her powers could...explain themselves?
Taylor so far knew, without a doubt somehow that she could create these beings, and how to as if it were engraved onto her brain. The rest?
Flying blind and Air force Taylor needed help.
"You summoned me, that is right. Did...you not mean to? Oh dear..." she murmured and Taylor shook her hands, trying not to grin.
"I did, I mean I wasn't sure what would happen but this great, this means I have powers! This means I-" she was cut off as the woman's face went wide with shock, she reached forward, almost with lightning fast reflexes and yanked Taylor behind her, throwing her arm out as if to shield her. The touch was electrifying, soft and reassuring.
It also threw Taylor about like a rag doll without any effort, which was scary since Taylor wasn't that easily moved by normal people.
Being tall made her awkward to move, as experience taught Sophia.
"A demon cowers in the shadows!" she stated but not in fear, Taylor noticed, but in anger.
Taylor wondered if she summoned a crazy lady and it was time to go home, but true to the woman's word a demon did appear.
Not in hellfire but in a puff of ash.
Taylor stared at him. His red demon mask tilted at them, the black body suit making it hard to see details, he pulled out a knife and then another.
His appearance rang some distance bell, but the little teleporting trick he did confirmed one thing.
Cape.
Taylor began to yank on the woman's arm.
"Come on! We can't stay here, he'll kill us!" she warned and the woman looked down at her and smiled.
"He may try," she said and took a step forward.
The demon guy tilted his head again and rushed her. He swung one knife and Taylor reached for the woman again, not willing to sit around as she was gutted.
But the demon broke apart in a cloud of ash again, the flakes vanishing on the sea breeze.
"What-" Taylor began but the woman looked up and Taylor followed her gaze up to bare warehouse window frame, where the cape sat.
Looking down at them.
Taylor was trying to get her thudding of heart under control but it refused to listen to her mental command.
He was testing them, playing with Taylor and the woman.
He fell and landed with a silent crouch, spinning the knife lazily.
He didn't say a word as he walked slowly up to the woman.
"Please, he's going to kill you," Taylor tried again, looking around for a weapon to defend them.
There was sudden motion and the demon appeared in front of her, in front of the woman without a sound, the dagger reared back in one hand as he rushed forward
Taylor screamed and the woman smiled.
"Not even death keeps will harm you tonight, Taylor," she promised and the knife struck the woman...and bounced off, the demon breaking apart into ash within seconds.
Taylor blinked as her mind failed to understand but there was no time to understand, her mind filled with light and...there was a second card.
If the woman shined a bright light, this one was a supernova but unlike the woman with her silver hair, this card did not wait for her permission, it rushed out of her hand with a roar.
The woman turned to Taylor and her hair began to fly about wildly, the air was filled with beating wings and the sound of a predator.
"Nothing...will harm you tonight." she promised as everything turned to blue light.
Taylor couldn't help but think that Dad...would definitely have panicked.
---Taylor's eyes blinked opened.
There was some blurry shapes moving about as the sun shined down on her, the power nap from hell and her lack of glasses making her groan, making the soft woman nearby stop humming.
There was silence for a beat and the something slide on to Taylor's face, she yelp but then paused as she felt her glasses being returned to her, a familiar comforting weight.
Shifting about on some sand, Taylor must off fell off docks and had a lucky soft landing on a washed out part of Brockton.
"Thank goodness, you are awake. I grew worried as the hours past," she said and Taylor squinted to make out the woman.
The Maiden of the Blue Eyes.
The maiden smiled as Taylor gawked at her.
"You know my title, that is a promising start. How do you feel?" she asked, in a soft, soothing way as if Taylor was made of glass.
"Like I was stepped on." she replied, a bit too honest than she normally liked and to her surprise, the maiden face grew stormy.
"Indeed. Do not worry my Lady. The dragon is most apologetic for her...over excitement," she said with a glare at...at...
Taylor's head turned ever so slowly as it came to rest on a giant dragon, casually resting next to them on the sand.
It was a dragon. An honest to god dragon.
Taylor choked on her breath as she rushed to her feet. The Maiden jumped up with her, hold out a hand to balance her.
Taylor was grateful because the moment she stood, she almost fell over again.
"You are rushing yourself," the Maiden said in distress and Taylor pointed at the dragon, her mouth opening and closing before she finally managed to say something.
"Gwaha?!" she said and in her slight panic at the sight of a dragon, forgot English. The maiden nodded anyways.
"Yes...I suppose if I surprised you then she would definitely cause some shock. If you know my title...then surely you can feel hers, correct?" The maiden told her, the blue eyes catching her brown ones.
Taylor caught her breath and stared into the woman's lovely eyes.
She was right, Taylor realised, and she hadn't even noticed. Taylor knew who this woman was, in her mind the space was dominated by her light before Taylor had summoned her had seemed empty last night but looking closer, almost not seeing it, there was a speck of light.
Taylor nudged it, a sort of hiccup that she thought really hard about.
Symbols, an image, a name.
They floated about her the speck light hazy after images of some test Taylor had stared too long at.
Cautiously, she nudged the larger speck and was rewarded with the same.
"The Blue-eyes White Dragon..." she breathed and the dragon stood on its legs, much like a dinosaur, with curved daggers for claws., it's body covered in plating and scales.
True to it's name, it was a stunning white, in the shimmering heat of the beach, the dragon was iridescent, it yawned and Taylor saw it's tusked mouth opened like a torture device.
Each tooth and claw were a deep blue. Its eyes were a deeper shade more.
Then with a stretch it's wings spread before Taylor, showing her the full form of its deadly body, letting her know there was no escape if the Blue-eyes wanted her dead.
The Maiden snorted.
"Stop showing off, you'll have ample opportunity to do so elsewhere," she said and dragon huffed at her ruining the graceful effect it had built up in the last few seconds. The maiden then turned to Taylor.
"Those are titles. You may find many like us so perhaps it would be wise to give you a shorter name for us. Our titles are a mouthful at best," she said and Taylor tore her eyes away from the dragon, unable to stop staring at the beautiful deadly creature.
"Uh sure, I guess, I'm...Taylor," she stumbled and held out a hand to the maiden, who then took it briefly put her lips to the back of Taylor's hand, making her shiver at the electric touch again
"A pleasure, you may call me Kisara, it's as close to honest as I can be, and you may call her," she indicated with a nod to the Blue-Eyes, "Blue."
Taylor stared at her.
"Blue...is a bit uncreative," she pointed out, not trying to be rude, but shouting at 'blue' to stop eating the local farmer's children just didn't mesh with her. Kisara almost grinned.
"We can't both be Kisara...so I win since I'm closer to the truth," she explained brightly, which did nothing to actually explain.
Taylor rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Right, Kisara and Blue, got it," she confirmed and turned to look about, her grogginess finally abating long enough for to notice something odd.
"How far are we from the city? The sand is pretty damn white," The water was also very blue, the rocks around them seemed...chalky somehow Taylor noted and Kisara looked away, nudging a shell with her feet.
"Oh not far...right Blue?" she tried to chuckle and Blue snorted, sending a gust of sand flying as she laid her head down to nap.
Taylor felt her heart begin to sink.
"How far?" she repeated and Kisara pulled from behind a rock, a brown grocery bag which made Taylor imagine her in a modern supermarket in her current get-up.
She almost asked if Kisara got stared at but then the woman pulled out a newspaper.
Herald Sun: The local news, for local Australia!
Oh no.
"Australia? AUSTRALIA?" Taylor might have yelled and flapped her arms slightly at the increasingly bizarre day she was having.
Then she looked at the date.
"I've been out for two days?!" Taylor didn't scream, but she might have made Blue jump slightly at the volume of her voice.
Kisara waved her hands trying to placate her.
"I understand this might be a scary situation, so I bought you this!" she cried and pulled out a tub of ice cream that sloshed.
"The man with the money storage machine said this would cheer up any sad girl! I found him to be very wise. He gave me a paper with symbols on it, but I discard it once I failed to read it!" she said happily and Taylor gingerly took the water cream.
Blue stared down at her and with one claw picked something up Taylor couldn't see from behind her and dropped it.
A large crocodile laid dead before her. Blue nudge it towards her and snuffled, when the dragon saw Taylor hesitate, it opened it's mouth and a thin light shot forth.
A sudden smell of cooked meat filled the air and the crocodile looked...almost edible.
"I have ice cream...and a dead crocodile. Thanks...I'm going to go...over there and think about what my life has become in a single night," Taylor told them, her voice very, very calm.
Kisara paused then nodded with a willful strength.
"We shall wait for you hear my Lady," she promised and Taylor nodded, her mind blissfully empty of responses.
As she walked, she heard Kisara say something to Blue.
"I think that went well! Almost couldn't go better." she said and Blue snuffled and there was a snapping noise that told Taylor she no longer had any crocodile to eat.
"I must admit when we were flying above, I could not believe my eyes. This 'Australia' shimmered with life and sun but to be here and see people thriving among the hardships, it amazes me," Kisara breathed and then smiled at something as the walked down the sidewalk.
Taylor got the impression she smiled a lot at things.
"I guess. There's a lot of dangerous wildlife, but it is pretty but I didn't think we were so close to a town, why did you pick...uh...'Sarina' anyway?" Taylor said, reading a map of Australia that Kisara had found at a shop, looking lost enough to be given a basic map for free.
Kisara shrugged, her hair flowing around her like a cloak as Taylor pocketed her map, fiddling with her own hair as they turned a corner.
"Blue was unsure on where to land and you were getting frost bite that high up, so we just picked a spot that looked isolated. This land has many such spots, we hoped to buy you time to get your bearings," she explained and Taylor watched a man's head follow Kisara with wide eyes, walking straight into another man who was also gaping at her.
"People are staring..." she murmured and ducked her head as more people looked at them, some even stopping completely to point at them. Kisara put a hand on Taylor's shoulder.
"Let them, I have no shame in my hair nor my face. You shouldn't either, Taylor. You have the power to change these people's life with Blue alone but you shy at their gazes, do not feel above them, but do not put yourself under them either," She said, uncaring if anyone heard her.
Taylor crossed her arms, wishing she shared the manifestation of her power's confidence, which was a sad state fo affairs to admit.
"Crowds of people...just make me nervous, I...they just do," she said and walked a bit faster to the building ahead.
Taylor was nothing if not a creature of habit, so when she walked in a smelled the books of the public library, she wanted to vanish into the computer section but forced herself to walk to the desk situated to one side.
A bored woman who looked young enough to be a teen but old enough to spot trouble makers, flipped a magazine looked up at her then to Kisara.
Taylor saw her very slowly close the magazine, and Taylor tried for a winning grmace.
"Hi. This is a bit weird and out of the blue but I need some help." Taylor said to her and the woman, a 'Susan' if the name tag was correct, grinned.
"A yank eh? Sure, tell me what I can do for you, hun," Susan asked and she leaned forward as if this was the most interesting thing to happen to her in years. She wasn't a yank but Taylor could let it slide for a chance of talking to her Dad.
Taylor smiled at warm reception and noticed Kisara pick up a colourful book with a caterpillar on the front.
"Petit?" she asked mostly to herself and flipped it open, becoming lost in the pages and Taylor turned back to Susan.
"I lost my phone getting here and I can't reach my Dad, he's in America and I'm really sorry about this, can I please use the phone to-" Taylor babbling was cut off as the woman slide the land line across to her.
"Shoot for it kid, no one phones us anyway. Ya know the code number for the states?" she questioned and pulled out a book before Taylor could answer. Susan flipped it open to America, a handy table displaying which area and state had which code.
Taylor swallowed hard.
"Thank you." she said, surprised at the human kindness. Susan winked at her.
"I'll see if your...friend wants a library card, she seems really into that book, I bet you she's gonna love the pop-up ones..." Susan said as she moved away to give Taylor privacy.
Taylor followed the codes and waited as the dial tone began to ring.
...
...
"...Hello?" her father asked, sounding like an echo of himself.
"Dad?" she breathed and there was a choke on the other end.
"Taylor? TAYLOR! Oh god, you're okay...oh thank god," he said, his tone breaking into little hiccups that Taylor hadn't heard her Dad make since...
"Where are you? I'll come get you, I'll...no...no, stay where you are, don't tell me!" her Dad suddenly reversed his tone back into pained fear instead of relieved.
"Dad? What's wrong?" Taylor asked, panic welling up in her chest like an overflowing boiling pot.
"They know that it was you, they know that you summoned that dragon thing, Taylor. Listen to me," he said, his voice rushed and desperate, "Do not come home, you hear me? It's not safe...they're wanting you bad, they want to throw everything your way, the docks, Lung's disappearance and Shadow Stalker... the city's gone to hell. Taylor where ever you are, they don't know so just...wait until things die down. Call me and do it from different phones, they could be listening. God, we've already talked so long, please Taylor, call me soon. I love you...I.." he trailed off and Taylor gritted her teeth as she tried not to make him stay on the phone, explain everything.
"Dad...I love you too," she said and disconnected.
Taylor gently put the phone down, when she actually wanted to throw it at the wall.
"Go alright? You look kind of down sweetheart," Susan said and Taylor shook her head, not looking at her.
"Bad news from home, thanks for the help, I gotta go," she said and walked calmly out the building, feeling Susan's gaze on her back like pinpricks.
Kisara saddled up next to her silently until they left the building.
"That rage...that fear, I take it this message from you father was not a good one," she stated and Taylor shook her head.
"I'm a wanted criminal, Dad's being watched and...I can't go home," Taylor said trying to shrug it off as a matter of fact. Kisara's tone turned odd as she spoke, sharper than normal.
"You fear the ones that desire your head? The ones that hold your home hostage?" she asked and Taylor thought about it.
The ones would have to be...the heroes or whoever was in charge of the local PRT of Brockton.
Taylor didn't honestly know who it was, she never expected to be...a cape.
Dream? Sure...
Everyone dreamed of being powerful.
"I do, Kisara?" she asked and stopped, ignoring everyone who stared at them, the silver hair fluttered gently in the breeze as the woman looked at her, waiting for her question.
"How do I use my powers? How do I become strong?" she almost whispered and Kisara looked high above, and Taylor followed her gaze, almost missing what Kisara saw.
A vague, almost invisible shape in the blue sky.
Blue, watching over them.
"You already know how but I will show you a few tricks," Kisara promised and Taylor never took her eyes off the dragon.
"I'm going to need more than a few."
----
"Visualize within your mind, , where you and I first connected. In that space, we aren't just person and person. We are card and drawer, from the source of your strength, your very being you create us, sustain us and make us. You have that power, it sits within you, ready for you to use again, I can almost feel it myself," Kisara spoke in a calm lulling voice. Taylor sat on the sand across from her with her eyes closed.
Blue was hunting across the waves, she felt like fish tonight, she could feel Blue reaching down to snap up a-
Taylor brought her attention to the area in her awareness that was her power, her connection to the others.
The two stars that were Kisara and Blue shined together side by side, but below them..almost two rows back there was two twisting areas that if she focused on warped faster.
"You see them?" Kisara asked, sounding so far away, almost drowned out by the waves.
Taylor nodded slowly.
"They feel...ready," she told the maiden.
"Good, now when you fully focus on them, with everything you have and are, you will draw them into yourself. With experience, you may not even need to summon them to know what they are but for now, just connect to them, as you did with me. Are you ready?" Kisara asked and Taylor smiled.
"As ever as I will be," she admitted and focused on the twisting spaces of endless possibilities, on the light, dark, strong, weak, legendary, cretin...
Taylor reached for them and they twisted so much they were unraveling, swirling until the became shapes and presences.
Taylor gasped and forced her eyes open and Kisara was by her side immediately.
"Easy, you did well. I can feel them, you drew two of them at once. An act I was lead to believe was not possible, perhaps...you saved them when you slept..." Kisara trailed off and Taylor breath came heavy with sudden exhaustion.
"I dunno, but one of them...I can't see it, but it feels different from you or blue...it's...not alive," she struggled to think of the words and Kisara shook her head.
"Calm, my lady, remember what I taught you before, feel it out," she pushed gently and Taylor took deep breaths, feeling for the floating cards in her mind, she tried to focus while informing Kisara what was happening.
"The first one is appearing easy...it's Gift of the Weak and the other is harder, it's more aggressive, it's trying to avoid me, no wait, I got it! It's...Performalpal Silver Claw?" she said, sounding incredulous at the name and the image of a bow tie wearing feral wolf snarling at her in her head.
Was that an orange star on its cheek? It was...sort of cute.
"You drew a spell! Oh this is good fortune, lady Taylor!" Kisara gave her a small hug at her success and Taylor sat there dumbfounded.
"I can...do magic?" she asked and then Blue dropped a shark in front of them for dinner, the fish still alive.
"Blue, they're endangered, put it back," she said, only half aware of anything as magic floated in her head.
Blue growled up smoke and picked up the shark with it's foot and flung it back into the water, turning stare out into the ocean in a foul mood of ruined dinner.
-----
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