There was no way I was going back without him.

That’s a pretty absolute statement.

It’s clear that Taylor is filled with determination.

The intensity of the emotion I was feeling on the subject surprised me.

Yeah, it’s pretty intense.

Hell, you don’t even know if the kid’s still alive yet and you’re making statements that absolute.

I hated the idea of going back to Sierra and telling her I’d failed.  Hated the idea of that conversation on top of the news I had about Bryce joining the same Merchants that assaulted her friend with a broken bottle.

Yeeah, no matter how you spin it, it’s going to be an unpleasant debriefing. Might as well try to avoid it getting more unpleasant.

I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t be leader of a territory and know that someone out there was maybe telling others I hadn’t followed through, fighting that constant nagging doubt in the back of my mind that wondered if ‘my’ people were whispering or laughing at me behind my back.

Oof, yeah, that’s another good point.

And maybe a small part of it was that my meeting with my father had been a reminder of how important family was.

Aaand that’s how it all ties together! I like it.

Bryce was the errant youth, his sister the anxious family member.  

Which makes Taylor… Dragon?

This paralleling is very interesting. On the larger scale we’ve got the heroes, mostly Dragon, trying to sway Taylor back to their side, and hints suggesting Taylor is not really that happy with her current role, and more than just hints that Taylor is really feeling guilt for abandoning Danny. And now on a smaller scale, we’ve got Taylor trying her hardest to retrieve a kid, someone who by her own admission parallels her, from the life of villainy for the sake of his anxious family member.

So metaphorically, she’s feeling an incredibly strong desire to save “herself” from villainy and take “herself” back to “Danny”.

Holy hell, this rabbit hole is deep. I’m glad Wildbow decided to point this out via Taylor, because I’m not sure I would’ve picked up on it otherwise, but now that I do see it, it’s a really strong piece of writing.

Damn.

Were my emotions here tied to the parallel between them and my father and me?

After the realizations you just sent me through I’d be quite disappointed if they weren’t.

There was a brief pause in the gunfire, then a single shot fired.  Sparks marked the ricochet between his shoulder, the back of his hand, and the armor that rose behind his head.

Pew cling clang cleang cloing…

He dropped to one knee with a suddenness that suggested he was wounded.

If, again, the redhead has ballerina powers, it makes sense that it would come with great coordination. That might extend to knowing exactly where to aim the gun to get a good ricochet.

Come to think of it, Flechette would probably have a pretty good idea of that too.

I hurried to the wall.  I could use my bugs to find my way through the maze, getting a sense of the layout, but I needed something faster.

Hm… like Lisa, maybe?

Labyrinth was using her power and adjusting the battlefield with every passing second.  The way things were, given how she wasn’t aware of who I was, I was included among her enemies.

Yep.

If I didn’t go now and the battle resolved one way or the other, I might lose my window of opportunity to get Bryce.

Better hurry.

It wasn’t enough.  Trainwreck smashed the pole from under her, sending her flying through the air to land in the midst of Labyrinth’s maze.

Whoop.

Labyrinth created a short pillar below the metal case and canisters, and began to extend it towards the gap in the roof.  Skidmark used his power to force the things off the top of the pillar and onto the platform, where they rolled.  A few stray papers fluttered from the case.

Heh, this is a neat moment. We’ve got someone who can make an elevator out of the floor, and we’ve got someone who can make that elevator useless.

There was a crack of gunfire, and I saw the momentary light of the shot to my right.  I couldn’t see over the wall, but I saw Trainwreck lumbering forward, one oversized metal gauntlet raised to protect his head, the only vulnerable part of his body.

Was that the redhead shooting? Although I’m not sure she’d be able do, what with having the maze walls around her, just like Taylor.

I directed some bugs to the scene, and realized that a woman with the exact same proportions as the red-haired woman was firing at Trainwreck.

Interesting phrasing. I’d expect Taylor to just say “the red-haired woman”, but I guess Wildbow wanted to be clear on how she came to that conclusion. That, or he’s setting up a bait and switch, but I don’t see a good reason to do that with this particular thing.

She’d made it through the maze and back to the skirmish with Trainwreck so quickly?

Ohh, I see. Taylor had reason to believe the redhead shouldn’t be there.

I guess if she’s got ballerina powers, or at least foot powers, that might also make her a speedster and/or a jumper (though Taylor might spot her if she were to jump over the maze). Alternatively she might be a teleporter, but then why would she not just teleport in from the roof?

Not quite.  Faultline and Gregor, yes.  I didn’t recognize the other woman, and she was too tall to be Spitfire with her mask off.  Red haired, slender, older than Spitfire or Labyrinth had been.

Oh, huh. New member? Or perhaps someone they’re just temporarily working with.

She slid down the pole, up until the moment Trainwreck leaped from the stage and caught the base of the pole with his shoulder.

…alrighty, then. Putting on a front, or genuinely trying to help out the Merchants?

He was built like a football player in a quadruple-thick layer of cast iron protective gear, steam billowing behind him as he tore past the stone pole like it was nothing.

American football sounds pretty cool if they’re all wearing steampunk mechs like this.

They are, right?

It cracked in four places, and the girl dropped out of the air.

Well, was nice knowing you for five seconds.

No, I think she’ll be alright, but how?

One section of the pole hit the ground in an upright position, and she landed atop it with one foot, wobbling briefly.

Damn. Got a ballerina over here.

Controlling the angle the pole fell, she angled her fall toward a nearby wall of the maze.

Nice work.

Her power probably involves her feet, and balance. Landing like this gracefully and without breaking her ankle would be an incredible feat if it didn’t.

I had to admit, I was spooked.  That girl’s power was intimidating when she wasn’t on my side.

Yeah, as I was just saying, she’s incredibly powerful.

She wasn’t all there, mentally, so the only thing holding her back was the person telling her what to do.

Oh yeah, I guess she would need that for some of the more advanced plans.

If she could make those giant torches, she could set the floor on fire.

It’s real even for such purposes.

Or she could have created spikes instead of walls, without leaving the rest of us any place to run.  That nobody had been hurt was purely by her choice.

Or she could’ve had the entire building’s contents get squeezed together by thickening walls, if not for Newter being in there.

Stone poles speared down from the roof.  Looking up, I saw that the edges of the crack in the roof had fanged teeth, and that figures were sliding down the metal poles.

Ooh, coming in, are you?

Two female, one obese male.  Spitfire, Faultline and Gregor the Snail?

Sounds about right. It’s probably a good call leaving Labyrinth on the outside, too.

I wonder if Faultline has made any more progress on overcoming the Manton effect since last we saw her.

I will admit Hive left me kind of confused as to how real the results of Labyrinths power are, even after attempted clarifications via asks, but I think I get it. They’re semi-illusory in nature, but solid and opaque – practically real for most intents and purposes – to you unless she decides to exempt you from them.

It’s powerful as hell.

A maze.  She was living up to her name.

Yep.

And here we thought it was difficult enough to get out to begin with…

The walls at the outside edges of the mall were altering, now, more faces and body parts making themselves apparent.  Like statuary or reliefs.

But… why? Are you actually going to grab people with those hands, or is it just aesthetic?

Limbs intertwined and nude figures decorated the interior walls of the mall, each tall enough to extend from floor to ceiling, animated so that they moved with a glacial slowness.

Whatever it is, though, it’s awesome.

With a surprising speed, the interior of the mall was coming to resemble some kind of temple.

Certainly an interesting-looking one.