She’d done an interview in a magazine I’d read back before I had powers, and I knew she was a fashion student, though she wasn’t revealing just who she was until after she was more established.

A fashion student with the ability to make her mannequins come to life. Wherever she does her fashion work sounds like a lively place.

She looked as though she were trapped in a conversation with a curly haired, dimple-cheeked villainess that looked no older than eight, who wore a frock that was maybe from the same period as Parian’s.  The pseudo-child was Bambina, if I was remembering right.

So is it her power that makes her look so young, then?

Parian was rescued by one of the out-of-town Wards, a girl in a skintight costume with a visor covering her eyes, nose and ears, with a quiver of what looked like giant needles and a massive crossbow.

Sounds like the visor stands in for a blindfold, symbolically. Maybe this Ward is designed after some kind of personification of justice, luck or love.

The Ward said something to Bambina, who scowled and managed to look cute while doing it.

Good job.

Then the heroine ushered Parian over to where she’d been talking with Shadow Stalker.  What in the world could that group talk about?  I might not have been alone in thinking that – Shadow Stalker seemed unimpressed with the new addition to their group, judging by her body language.

Visor girl and Shadow Stalker do have the choice of weapon in common, at least.

It was only at the back corner of the room that I found the third member of the Protectorate’s triumvirate.

Eidolon stood behind one of the large television sets, staring out the window.

Hiii! I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Your name intrigues me.

He wore a blue-green skintight suit that expanded into a voluminous hood, cape and sleeves that draped over his hands.  The interior of the hood and sleeves wasn’t shadowy, but illuminated with a soft green light.

Hm. Possibly coming off of him? It’d make sense for an apparition to glow softly green.

Debating the relative strengths of various capes was common enough, in the schoolyard and elsewhere.  If Alexandria and Legend fought, who would win?  Would Boston’s Protectorate win against Brockton Bay’s team?  What if you removed Boston’s weakest members until the sides were even in number?

Naturally. This kind of thing is a universal constant.

When the question inevitably got to who was the strongest, the ‘big five’ were generally ruled out, in the sense of ‘well, yeah, but besides them‘.  Scion got counted as a part of that group because the powers he did have were head and shoulders above just about everyone else’s.

Hm. It’s interesting how the first known parahuman is so definitely one of the most powerful ones. I wonder if there’s an actual correlation here.

Eidolon was almost the opposite, because he had every power, though he could only hold on to a handful at a time.

Oh man, that’s awesome. I wonder how often he gets to switch them out. Daily, maybe, or whenever he takes a long rest of at least eight hours?

Then there were the Endbringers, because they mandated situations like this, where even Scion or Eidolon plus multiple teams of capes weren’t necessarily enough.

Damn.

Knowing I’d seen two members of the leading three figures of the Protectorate, I looked for the third.  I glanced past Myrddin, from Chicago, with his brown burlap robe and wooden staff, Chevalier, in gleaming silver and gold armor, carrying his cannonblade, and Bastion, who had earned a great deal of bad press, lately.

Myrddin certainly dresses like his namesake. I’m very interested to see what he can do with that staff of his.

Chevalier is predictably knightly, and carries… a cannonblade? Sounds like a weapon out of RWBY, and RWBY weapons are awesome.

The name Bastion just makes me think of Overwatch, though of course that wasn’t out when this was written. A bastion is a kind of platform for artillery, so maybe Bastion should’ve been the one with a cannon.

Someone used a cell phone to catch Bastion using the word ‘spic’ several times as he yelled at a kid who only wanted to take his picture.

I’m not familiar with that word, but it sounds derogatory. And it’s not like the action of yelling at that kid wouldn’t create enough bad press to begin with.

Let’s see… (time to cross off “looks up a word” on your bingos, folks, if anyone’s still doing those)

Urban Dictionary says that it’s a highly offensive racial slur referring to people of Latino descent. I see.

He was studiously ignoring Kaiser, who was standing nearby, staring at him, taunting him without speaking or doing anything.

History?

The Protectorate was present, and it wasn’t just the locals, but the big guns.  Armsmaster, standing a little taller and looking more confident than I’d seen before, with not one but two Halberds connected to his back, was having a quiet conversation with Miss Militia and Legend.

Oh hey, that’s two out of three!

And Armsy is looking ready.

It took me a second to absorb that picture.  That was the head of the Protectorate, the leader of the largest team of capes in the world.  What’s more, he was right in front of me, having a conversation with someone I’d talked to.  Ridiculous as that sounded, it affected me.

Taylor may not be the type to get overly giddy about specific people (anymore), but she’s absolutely a fan of some of them.

Legend sported a skintight blue costume with a design in white that fell somewhere between flame and electricity in style.

Hm, interesting. Sounds… energetic.

He had a perfect physique – one I didn’t mind giving a second glance-over –

hehe

a strong jaw and wavy brown hair.  If Alexandria was the flying bruiser that just about every other flying bruiser strove to match up to, then Legend was at the head of the pack when it came to being flying artillery.  His firepower was on par with Purity’s, if not outright surpassing her, and he was far, far more versatile.

Sounds awesome. I’m guessing part of his repertoir is shooting fire and lightning, but there’s probably more if he’s that much more versatile.

The kids from New Wave were near the Wards -Glory Girl, Panacea, Laserdream and Shielder- but they weren’t really joining in with the conversation the Wards were having.

Bit of a schism there.

I could see Glory Girl and Gallant standing together; she was holding his hand.

Well – with an exception or two.

Panacea was sitting backwards on a chair just beside where Glory Girl stood, her arms folded over the chair back, chin resting on her wrists.

Probably going to be a lot of people who need healing today.

She glared at the two of us, though the look was mainly directed at Tattletale.

Haven’t forgotten Agitation, eh?

Oh

Oh man

I just realized we might get Clockblocker and Taylor interacting

Maybe she actually gets a chance to make good on that apology she said she’d give him…

Near Panacea, the adults of New Wave had pulled the folding chairs into a rough circle so they could sit while they talked in a bit of a huddle.

And then there’s a camera stuck into the huddle but you can’t hear what anyone is saying anyway and then the timeout is over and they all go out to kick a ball around again

He clapped one heavy hand down on my shoulder as he passed me and offered me a tight smile.

Well(d) then, we’ve got another boy smiling at Taylor. 😉

I’m not going to straight up ship them just yet, but I’m not gonna lie – Taylor deciding to remain a villain but ending up in a romance with a hero could get interesting.

It seemed we were allies, at least for the time being.

Ah, yeah. But assuming this is Weld and I’m not being stupid, he’s gonna be sticking around after this… better not get too attached if you’re gonna be a villain, eh?

Tattletale and I followed his group into the building.

Folding chairs had been set into rows and columns in the center of the lobby, facing a trio of widescreen television sets, which in turn were backed by a series of large windows overlooking the beach.  Through the windows, we had the perfect view of the looming storm.

Dragon just stays out in the mech and talks to them through one of the TV sets.

As daunting as the approaching clouds were, what drew my attention was the crowd.  There were people filling the lobby.  Only a few were local.

I.e. we’re getting lots of new characters!

Her team – people I recognized but couldn’t necessarily name – followed behind her in a loose formation.

Ah, alright, I guess it’s not three umvirates, but one of them and her personal five-person team.

Fair enough!

Only one man in a blue and black uniform and cap stayed behind in the middle of the parking lot.  He looked around for a few moments, then disappeared with a crack and a whoosh, smaller than the one that had brought the entire group there.

…four-person team. Alexandria, her four-person team (not counting her), and a parahuman taxiporter.

Tattletale and I circled around the parking lot, to avoid getting in the way of any incoming teleporters.

Sounds like taxiporters are fairly common. I wonder what kinds of variations we find between them.

We were nearly to the door when we heard another group arrive behind us, the same way Alexandria had come.  Teenagers, this time.  I couldn’t place them, but the brighter colors of their costumes led me to suspect they were heroes.

Heroes and villains: Color coded for your convenience!

Hm… Wards from a different city?

The man who’d teleported them in said something I couldn’t make out over the the wailing air raid sirens, and they quickly set to marching in our direction.

Are they coming over specifically to the Undersiders, or just going the same way? It feels like the former.

Leading them out of the parking lot was a shirtless, muscled boy with metal skin, eyes and hair and a strange texture to his shoulders and spine.

Weld, I presume? That would confirm my lowkey suspicion that this other city might be Boston.

Among other things, I noticed the tines of a fork sticking out near his neck, and what might have been the wires of a chain link fence half melted into his opposite shoulder.

Huh. Well, certainly sounds like the result of welding.

But where that strange half-melted-metal texture didn’t cover him, his metal body was exceedingly detailed and refined.  His ‘skin’ was a dusky dark gray metal with the slightest of swirls of lighter metals in it, and his ‘adonis’ musculature was perfectly etched out in the metal, with silver lines tracing his muscle definition like veins of metal in raw ore.  His eyes, too, were silver, and two lines ran from the corners of them down his cheekbones and to the sides of his jaw.

Like what you see, Taylor?

I saw what she was watching.  A stormcloud in the distance.  It hung over the water with an opaque curtain of rain descending down from it.  It was gradually getting closer.

Ahhh, hello there.

We meet at last, Endbringer.

As we approached the parking lot, a squad of PRT officers blocked our way.  I felt a moment’s trepidation.  Were any of these the same people we’d attacked at the Protectorate’s fundraiser?  I couldn’t tell, with their helmets and tinted faceguards covering their faces.

Hehe.

“Uhh, sorry about kinda sorta attacking you that one time…”
“It’s cool, miss. We’ve got bigger problems right now.”
“Ah, righ-”
“But if we didn’t, I’d be foaming your ass right now.”

…

shit, bad wording

With a sound like a muffled thunderclap, a half dozen people appeared in the center of the empty lot.

Ahh, did you perhaps arrive by portkey? Wait, no, this isn’t the Harry Potter AU.

Still, this does seem like some sort of teleportation. Did Trickster replace the air in the space with himself and his teammates? That would explain the sound.

When I saw who they were, I was awestruck.  That wasn’t hyperbole or whatever, I was using the word awestruck in the original, zero-embellishment sense of the word.

…not Trickster, then. And not the Triumvirate (alone, at least), there’s too many. But evidently big shots.

Alexandria stood at the head of the crowd that had just arrived.  Her head turned from one side to the other as she surveyed her new surroundings, the long, straight black hair that spilled from the back of her helmet sweeping from one side to the other.

Eyyy! Finally we meet her. I’ve heard about Alexandria for so long now.

That’s one out of three Triumvirate members accounted for, so I guess the other two – Legend and Eidolon – are among the remaining six as well. But then who are the three with them? Other big shots?

She was everything that made you think ‘superheroine’; athletic, tall, muscular, but still feminine.  Her costume was black and light gray, with an image of a tower in the center of her chest, and she featured a wide, heavy cape that flowed over her shoulders and draped onto the ground beside and behind her.  Alexandria.

Hey! Now that I’ve gotten a physical description of Alexandria, I hope you’ve got that fanart of giddy nine-year-old Taylor in an Alexandria t-shirt ready! I swear, that has to exist, and I want to see it.