Prologue
3ndless
Lord Commander of Hats
General disclaimer. I don’t own Worm etc etc. Come on. We all know this.
About Trailblazer
Prologue
I grew up in Brockton Bay. With the gangs. The violence. The drugs. I stayed out of it. Anyone smart did. Guess I’m not that smart in the end, but what kid doesn’t look at how twisted the world is and dream of being the one to change it?
Just follow the Plan.
That’s what I called it. Funny little word I’ve managed to come up with there. Was it really a plan or a decision? Whatever. Calling it “the Plan” made me feel better. Like I’d put more thought into it all than I really did.
Honestly how much thought was there to put into it?
I always wanted to be a hero. A hero like Alexandria. Flight. Invincibility. Super memory. Maybe more the first two than that last one.
I’d settle for being a hero like Armsmaster, though. Not that I didn’t have reservations. I’d have to tell dad about my powers if I went down the route before me, which I wasn’t excited about. I didn’t want to keep it a secret per se, but I didn’t know how he reacted.
The road to being a cape comes with a lot of revelations. For me one of them was a sudden understanding of why people didn’t tell their family they were gay, or atheist, or Trans, or all kinds of things that just felt awkward to talk about.
How do you even begin to tell your parent you survived the worst day of your life? Mom’s adage of turning a negative into a positive didn’t seem to cut it. Maybe it didn’t matter one way or the other. I convinced myself the horrible rotten ugly truth didn’t matter.
Only one thing mattered.
Taylor Hebert was going to be a hero.
The same thoughts went through my mind the whole week, right up to the point I ditched school after lunch. Once home, I spent hours meticulously preparing myself. Makeshift costume of jeans, hoodie, and old sneakers. I gathered up my best notes, “best” changing every few minutes as I tossed some aside and picked out others.
Eventually the time came.
I checked my backpack the whole bus ride.
Notebook? Check.
Hood up? Check.
Mask? Check.
I crossed the street to the PRT building. I’d rather have gone to the Rig, but online it said anyone wanting to join the Wards should go to where the Wards were based. In Brockton Bay the Wards were based in the PRT building.
Much less exciting than the oil rig turned Protectorate base in the bay, but beggars and choosers or something like that.
It didn’t feel like a government office at first glance. More like a museum. Modern, with long glass windows and marble accents. More art than function, and the lobby looked much the same. Reception desk up front. Gift shop. Tour groups. Displays. Tall posters of the local Protectorate heroes and the Wards.
Of course, if I really thought this through I’d have considered that walking into PRT headquarters wearing a hoodie and a mask while carrying a backpack was a bad idea.
“Ma’am. May I help you?” The receptionist glared at me, her hand clearly on a button on the underside of the desk. The PRT troopers standing around the corners of the room all watched me, hands on the stun guns at their waists.
Whoops, right?
“Um… I- um…” I held up my backpack and set it down while keeping my hands visible. “I wanted to talk to someone about… joining the Wards?”
Her face changed almost instantly. Her stern gaze softened, and the slight scowl became a cautious smile.
“I see. One second.”
She picked up a phone and made a call. A second later two men in suits came into the lobby and ushered me off to a side door and down a hall and into a room. I stumbled as I entered, not even noticing the door close behind me.
The woman inside wore green fatigues and an American flag over the bottom half of her face.
“You’re Miss Militia.”
She really can smile with her eyes.
She probably thought I was checking her out with the way my eyes traveled. Great first impression, Taylor. Keep that up.
The gun on her hip caught my attention instantly. It looked odd. Kind of dark green, and a little misty? That’s about when I noticed the room we were in was an interrogation room. Or at least it looked like one. Plain white walls with a big false mirror on one side.
Her fatigues hugged her figure tighter than on TV. I often wondered how she got by with just an American flag scarf but it hid her face well. With only eyes a forehead and hair to work with, she could be anyone just walking down the street.
She chuckled, and I glanced away. Good thing I put on a mask.
“What’s your name?”
“Do I have to tell you th-”
“I mean your cape name.”
I flinched. “Oh. I don’t really have one…”
“We’ll go with Mask for now. Kind of like Jane Doe for capes.” She pulled out a chair. “You can relax by the way. You’re not in trouble or anything. These rooms are just conveniently located close to the lobby.”
I stared at the chair for a moment.
“Okay.”
I set my bag on the table and took out a notebook.
Miss Militia pulled out a chair next to me and sat down. The table wasn’t between us, but rather beside us. It felt nice.
“So, you want to join the Wards?”
I nodded.
“Do your parents know?”
“No. I didn’t want to tell dad yet and… mom died.”
She can frown with her eyes too. “I’m sorry.”
“It was two years ago… I’m over it.”
I think she knew I was lying. I wanted a distraction. Any distraction really. So I held out my notebook.
“Here.”
Miss Militia weighed it in her hands before flipping the cover open. “Ah. A tinker then?” I nodded. “Well. Armsmaster is always on the lookout for more tinkers.” She smiled again. “Come with me.”
We left the room and went to an elevator.
I stood awkwardly. “Where are we going?”
“To see Kid Win. He’ll be interested in this.”
Another tinker? Okay. Color me excited.
We came out into a hallway, and at the end Miss Militia pushed a button by a door. The elevator took us down, and I wasn’t sure how far.
When the doors opened we went to the end of another hall, and I started feeling self-conscious.
“Um. Is this normal?”
“Meeting the Wards?”
I nodded.
“It’s not abnormal. We like to introduce young capes to the team. Parahumans their own age can be a big help… I’m sure you’ve felt a little alone since getting your powers.”
I nodded again.
“We don’t usually go straight to it like this, but I have a good feeling.”
She pressed a button on the panel by the door. A light flashed red, and she explained, “To warn the Wards that someone unfamiliar is coming in. Gives them time to put on their masks. No offense intended of course. You’ll know who they are soon enough, once you join.”
I nodded again and then felt really self-conscious about how much I was nodding.
Don’t be me. Ugh.
Terrible thing for someone to say to themselves. I knew that. I just didn’t want to be Taylor Hebert anymore. Beanpole six foot tall Taylor Hebert with no assets to speak of.
Taylor Hebert with no friends.
Taylor Hebert who got shoved in a locker and begged for help before passing out.
Be a hero.
The light flashed green and Miss Militia ushered me through.
And on the other side, the Wards. The real Wards. Not all of them, but when we entered Clockblocker, Vista, and Kid Win were there. Plus a black girl with a simple cloth domino mask on her face. She must have arrived straight from school. A backpack sat on the floor by her feet, and it was about that time
Shadow Stalker? Only other girl on the Brockton Bay Wards.
“Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker.” Miss Militia stood beside me as the door closed. “This is Mask. She just approached the front desk to ask about joining the Wards.”
Clockblocker sat on a chair in front of some monitors, a suit of white armor with animated light clocks moving over the surface covering him from head to toe.
“Hi. Clockblocker. Joke master. I’d come over and shake your hand but,” - he pointed his thumb to the monitors - “desk duty.”
“Be glad for it.”
Vista walked up to me with a smile. She wore what amounted to an armored dress and a visor that covered the top half of her face.
“He tends to use his power when he shakes hands for the first time. Thinks it’s funny.”
“It is funny!”
“It’s against the rules,” Miss Militia said sternly but warmly. “And Mask is new. Doesn’t even have a name yet, so don’t haze her until she at least joins the club?”
“What does she do?”
All head turned to Shadow Stalker. She glared at me with… those eyes…
“She’s a tinker,” Miss Militia said.
The heroine held out the notebook I’d given her and Kid Win quickly took it. He started flipping through pages as my jaw slackened, heart racing.
Those eyes.
“Huh. Cool robot,” he said. “And is this… a search algorithm?” Kid win pinched his chin with two fingers. His costume was a simple suit with armored components. Red and gold in color, with a visor like Vista’s over his face. He turned the page. “What’s this?”
Miss Militia leaned over, while Vista stood on her toes.
“Looks like a chemical equation,” Miss Militia said.
“Chemicals. Computer code. Robots.” Kid Win looked at me. “Do you know what you’re specialization is?”
“Mask?”
My head snapped around, looking up at Miss Militia. She gave me a concerned look.
“Is everything alright?”
I glanced back to Shadow Stalker. Those eyes. Her build. Her voice. I knew her. I knew I knew her.
My voice barely managed to speak. The words came out hoarse and gravely.
“Ca- Can I have my notebook back?”
Kid Win frowned.
“Um yeah. I wasn’t going to take it or anything.”
He handed it to me, and I quickly pushed it into my backpack.
“I’d like to leave please.”
Miss Militia’s eyes narrowed. She turned towards Shadow Stalker and glared, but before she could speak I backed up toward the door.
“You can’t keep me here,” I said. “I want to leave.”
I didn’t wait. As soon as she let me out into the lobby I started towards the door.
“Wait.”
Miss Militia grabbed my shoulder. Not harshly or anything. Gently. So I stopped, but I didn’t turn around the look at her.
“Did Shadow Stalker do something? I know she’s difficult-”
I started laughing. Couldn’t help it.
Difficult, she said.
Understatement of the year.
I pulled my shoulder free and I just kept going until I was across the street and down the block. I think she tried to stop me two more times, but I kept going until I couldn’t keep going.
I fell down in an alley, unable to keep walking after the first few blocks.
Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker.
The girl who shoved me into the locker was a hero.
How did that make sens- It made complete sense?
How did she escape being punished every time? Did they protect her? Did they know? How could they not know she was a Ward? The school had to know and the PRT, the Protectorate, the heroes…
I punched a wall.
Hurt my hand. A lot. I didn’t care.
I felt the walls closing in. I smelled the smell. My heart raced and I wanted to scream and… they laughed. I glanced around, knowing I was standing in an open street, but was the street always so narrow? A wall with a gang tag on one side, a corner with a pusher across, the PRT building behind and rushing traffic on the other.
The locker.
Again.
Like I’d never left. The story of my life in a macrocosm. Surrounded on all sides by things I couldn’t escape. I started to cry. I pulled the mask from my face and pulled my knees up to my chest. My entire body heaved, still feeling the walls close in.
“It’s not real,” I mumbled. “It’s not real.”
But it was real, and that’s the ugly truth.
My first “explosion” wasn’t related to tinkering at all. It was an epiphany of a more mundane sort. A realization.
I stood up, and stepped out into the “locker.”
That’s what Brockton Bay was in the end, wasn’t it? A locker. The gangs. The capes. The drugs. The violence. All walls trapping us together.
The villains took advantage of it all, and so did the heroes, didn’t they? The so called heroes. The ones who put up the front. Promised a world of safety, but didn’t really make it safe.
Take a negative and turn it into a positive mom always said.
The drugs. The gangs. The capes.
Picking my backpack up and throwing it over my shoulder I waded through the locker.
I’m going to need a new Plan.
***
This Chapter was given a remaster on 03/09/2019
Feel free to point out grammar and what not. I've never been the best editor. Even after three passes I'm sure I missed stuff. Chapter One will be out right after this.
About Trailblazer
Trailblazer is a crossover featuring Tinker!Taylor with a specialization that allows her to replicate the technology of Mobile Suit Gundam. Primarily, Mobile Suit Gundam OO. Aspects of other entries in the series will appear include Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Report Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, and Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. Really anything that I think makes the story more interesting without rendering her too powerful to be threatened. Mobile Suit Gundam to me has always been about a struggling humanity reaching for a distant idealistic future. There’s a lot of synergy there with Worm I think, and in a universe that canonically kicks people to the ground and stomps repeatedly whenever they try to make the world a better place, a whole lot of suffering and escalation.
As a warning, this is an AU. OCs will be near non-existent as I prefer to insert characters from either Worm or Gundam to fill in story roles.
Additionally, this story is unlikely to feature full sized mobile suits. There just aren’t enough enemies in Worm who pose a real threat to such a thing. The Endbringers, Lung, Dragon, and a few others but I want to actually play with the story rather than work around unnecessary obstacles. That said Gundams will appear, just not at their full scale.
No knowledge of Gundam is necessary to understand Trailblazer, though I think enjoyment of the story will be much higher for people who have watched several entries in the franchise. At least OO, Seed, and Wing to catch most of the crossover elements. All three series can be streamed on Hulu.
I understand the story starts slow. Sorry. I’m a fan of the slow burn. Building things up to reach the high point rather than just jumping into it, and my writing reflects that. Feel free to comment on things you don’t like though. I’d rather know than not know and most advice is good advice as long as someone isn’t be an ass about it!
As a warning, this is an AU. OCs will be near non-existent as I prefer to insert characters from either Worm or Gundam to fill in story roles.
Additionally, this story is unlikely to feature full sized mobile suits. There just aren’t enough enemies in Worm who pose a real threat to such a thing. The Endbringers, Lung, Dragon, and a few others but I want to actually play with the story rather than work around unnecessary obstacles. That said Gundams will appear, just not at their full scale.
No knowledge of Gundam is necessary to understand Trailblazer, though I think enjoyment of the story will be much higher for people who have watched several entries in the franchise. At least OO, Seed, and Wing to catch most of the crossover elements. All three series can be streamed on Hulu.
I understand the story starts slow. Sorry. I’m a fan of the slow burn. Building things up to reach the high point rather than just jumping into it, and my writing reflects that. Feel free to comment on things you don’t like though. I’d rather know than not know and most advice is good advice as long as someone isn’t be an ass about it!
Prologue
I grew up in Brockton Bay. With the gangs. The violence. The drugs. I stayed out of it. Anyone smart did. Guess I’m not that smart in the end, but what kid doesn’t look at how twisted the world is and dream of being the one to change it?
Just follow the Plan.
That’s what I called it. Funny little word I’ve managed to come up with there. Was it really a plan or a decision? Whatever. Calling it “the Plan” made me feel better. Like I’d put more thought into it all than I really did.
Honestly how much thought was there to put into it?
I always wanted to be a hero. A hero like Alexandria. Flight. Invincibility. Super memory. Maybe more the first two than that last one.
I’d settle for being a hero like Armsmaster, though. Not that I didn’t have reservations. I’d have to tell dad about my powers if I went down the route before me, which I wasn’t excited about. I didn’t want to keep it a secret per se, but I didn’t know how he reacted.
The road to being a cape comes with a lot of revelations. For me one of them was a sudden understanding of why people didn’t tell their family they were gay, or atheist, or Trans, or all kinds of things that just felt awkward to talk about.
How do you even begin to tell your parent you survived the worst day of your life? Mom’s adage of turning a negative into a positive didn’t seem to cut it. Maybe it didn’t matter one way or the other. I convinced myself the horrible rotten ugly truth didn’t matter.
Only one thing mattered.
Taylor Hebert was going to be a hero.
The same thoughts went through my mind the whole week, right up to the point I ditched school after lunch. Once home, I spent hours meticulously preparing myself. Makeshift costume of jeans, hoodie, and old sneakers. I gathered up my best notes, “best” changing every few minutes as I tossed some aside and picked out others.
Eventually the time came.
I checked my backpack the whole bus ride.
Notebook? Check.
Hood up? Check.
Mask? Check.
I crossed the street to the PRT building. I’d rather have gone to the Rig, but online it said anyone wanting to join the Wards should go to where the Wards were based. In Brockton Bay the Wards were based in the PRT building.
Much less exciting than the oil rig turned Protectorate base in the bay, but beggars and choosers or something like that.
It didn’t feel like a government office at first glance. More like a museum. Modern, with long glass windows and marble accents. More art than function, and the lobby looked much the same. Reception desk up front. Gift shop. Tour groups. Displays. Tall posters of the local Protectorate heroes and the Wards.
Of course, if I really thought this through I’d have considered that walking into PRT headquarters wearing a hoodie and a mask while carrying a backpack was a bad idea.
“Ma’am. May I help you?” The receptionist glared at me, her hand clearly on a button on the underside of the desk. The PRT troopers standing around the corners of the room all watched me, hands on the stun guns at their waists.
Whoops, right?
“Um… I- um…” I held up my backpack and set it down while keeping my hands visible. “I wanted to talk to someone about… joining the Wards?”
Her face changed almost instantly. Her stern gaze softened, and the slight scowl became a cautious smile.
“I see. One second.”
She picked up a phone and made a call. A second later two men in suits came into the lobby and ushered me off to a side door and down a hall and into a room. I stumbled as I entered, not even noticing the door close behind me.
The woman inside wore green fatigues and an American flag over the bottom half of her face.
“You’re Miss Militia.”
She really can smile with her eyes.
She probably thought I was checking her out with the way my eyes traveled. Great first impression, Taylor. Keep that up.
The gun on her hip caught my attention instantly. It looked odd. Kind of dark green, and a little misty? That’s about when I noticed the room we were in was an interrogation room. Or at least it looked like one. Plain white walls with a big false mirror on one side.
Her fatigues hugged her figure tighter than on TV. I often wondered how she got by with just an American flag scarf but it hid her face well. With only eyes a forehead and hair to work with, she could be anyone just walking down the street.
She chuckled, and I glanced away. Good thing I put on a mask.
“What’s your name?”
“Do I have to tell you th-”
“I mean your cape name.”
I flinched. “Oh. I don’t really have one…”
“We’ll go with Mask for now. Kind of like Jane Doe for capes.” She pulled out a chair. “You can relax by the way. You’re not in trouble or anything. These rooms are just conveniently located close to the lobby.”
I stared at the chair for a moment.
“Okay.”
I set my bag on the table and took out a notebook.
Miss Militia pulled out a chair next to me and sat down. The table wasn’t between us, but rather beside us. It felt nice.
“So, you want to join the Wards?”
I nodded.
“Do your parents know?”
“No. I didn’t want to tell dad yet and… mom died.”
She can frown with her eyes too. “I’m sorry.”
“It was two years ago… I’m over it.”
I think she knew I was lying. I wanted a distraction. Any distraction really. So I held out my notebook.
“Here.”
Miss Militia weighed it in her hands before flipping the cover open. “Ah. A tinker then?” I nodded. “Well. Armsmaster is always on the lookout for more tinkers.” She smiled again. “Come with me.”
We left the room and went to an elevator.
I stood awkwardly. “Where are we going?”
“To see Kid Win. He’ll be interested in this.”
Another tinker? Okay. Color me excited.
We came out into a hallway, and at the end Miss Militia pushed a button by a door. The elevator took us down, and I wasn’t sure how far.
When the doors opened we went to the end of another hall, and I started feeling self-conscious.
“Um. Is this normal?”
“Meeting the Wards?”
I nodded.
“It’s not abnormal. We like to introduce young capes to the team. Parahumans their own age can be a big help… I’m sure you’ve felt a little alone since getting your powers.”
I nodded again.
“We don’t usually go straight to it like this, but I have a good feeling.”
She pressed a button on the panel by the door. A light flashed red, and she explained, “To warn the Wards that someone unfamiliar is coming in. Gives them time to put on their masks. No offense intended of course. You’ll know who they are soon enough, once you join.”
I nodded again and then felt really self-conscious about how much I was nodding.
Don’t be me. Ugh.
Terrible thing for someone to say to themselves. I knew that. I just didn’t want to be Taylor Hebert anymore. Beanpole six foot tall Taylor Hebert with no assets to speak of.
Taylor Hebert with no friends.
Taylor Hebert who got shoved in a locker and begged for help before passing out.
Be a hero.
The light flashed green and Miss Militia ushered me through.
And on the other side, the Wards. The real Wards. Not all of them, but when we entered Clockblocker, Vista, and Kid Win were there. Plus a black girl with a simple cloth domino mask on her face. She must have arrived straight from school. A backpack sat on the floor by her feet, and it was about that time
Shadow Stalker? Only other girl on the Brockton Bay Wards.
“Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win, Shadow Stalker.” Miss Militia stood beside me as the door closed. “This is Mask. She just approached the front desk to ask about joining the Wards.”
Clockblocker sat on a chair in front of some monitors, a suit of white armor with animated light clocks moving over the surface covering him from head to toe.
“Hi. Clockblocker. Joke master. I’d come over and shake your hand but,” - he pointed his thumb to the monitors - “desk duty.”
“Be glad for it.”
Vista walked up to me with a smile. She wore what amounted to an armored dress and a visor that covered the top half of her face.
“He tends to use his power when he shakes hands for the first time. Thinks it’s funny.”
“It is funny!”
“It’s against the rules,” Miss Militia said sternly but warmly. “And Mask is new. Doesn’t even have a name yet, so don’t haze her until she at least joins the club?”
“What does she do?”
All head turned to Shadow Stalker. She glared at me with… those eyes…
“She’s a tinker,” Miss Militia said.
The heroine held out the notebook I’d given her and Kid Win quickly took it. He started flipping through pages as my jaw slackened, heart racing.
Those eyes.
“Huh. Cool robot,” he said. “And is this… a search algorithm?” Kid win pinched his chin with two fingers. His costume was a simple suit with armored components. Red and gold in color, with a visor like Vista’s over his face. He turned the page. “What’s this?”
Miss Militia leaned over, while Vista stood on her toes.
“Looks like a chemical equation,” Miss Militia said.
“Chemicals. Computer code. Robots.” Kid Win looked at me. “Do you know what you’re specialization is?”
“Mask?”
My head snapped around, looking up at Miss Militia. She gave me a concerned look.
“Is everything alright?”
I glanced back to Shadow Stalker. Those eyes. Her build. Her voice. I knew her. I knew I knew her.
My voice barely managed to speak. The words came out hoarse and gravely.
“Ca- Can I have my notebook back?”
Kid Win frowned.
“Um yeah. I wasn’t going to take it or anything.”
He handed it to me, and I quickly pushed it into my backpack.
“I’d like to leave please.”
Miss Militia’s eyes narrowed. She turned towards Shadow Stalker and glared, but before she could speak I backed up toward the door.
“You can’t keep me here,” I said. “I want to leave.”
I didn’t wait. As soon as she let me out into the lobby I started towards the door.
“Wait.”
Miss Militia grabbed my shoulder. Not harshly or anything. Gently. So I stopped, but I didn’t turn around the look at her.
“Did Shadow Stalker do something? I know she’s difficult-”
I started laughing. Couldn’t help it.
Difficult, she said.
Understatement of the year.
I pulled my shoulder free and I just kept going until I was across the street and down the block. I think she tried to stop me two more times, but I kept going until I couldn’t keep going.
I fell down in an alley, unable to keep walking after the first few blocks.
Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker.
The girl who shoved me into the locker was a hero.
How did that make sens- It made complete sense?
How did she escape being punished every time? Did they protect her? Did they know? How could they not know she was a Ward? The school had to know and the PRT, the Protectorate, the heroes…
I punched a wall.
Hurt my hand. A lot. I didn’t care.
I felt the walls closing in. I smelled the smell. My heart raced and I wanted to scream and… they laughed. I glanced around, knowing I was standing in an open street, but was the street always so narrow? A wall with a gang tag on one side, a corner with a pusher across, the PRT building behind and rushing traffic on the other.
The locker.
Again.
Like I’d never left. The story of my life in a macrocosm. Surrounded on all sides by things I couldn’t escape. I started to cry. I pulled the mask from my face and pulled my knees up to my chest. My entire body heaved, still feeling the walls close in.
“It’s not real,” I mumbled. “It’s not real.”
But it was real, and that’s the ugly truth.
My first “explosion” wasn’t related to tinkering at all. It was an epiphany of a more mundane sort. A realization.
I stood up, and stepped out into the “locker.”
That’s what Brockton Bay was in the end, wasn’t it? A locker. The gangs. The capes. The drugs. The violence. All walls trapping us together.
The villains took advantage of it all, and so did the heroes, didn’t they? The so called heroes. The ones who put up the front. Promised a world of safety, but didn’t really make it safe.
Take a negative and turn it into a positive mom always said.
The drugs. The gangs. The capes.
Picking my backpack up and throwing it over my shoulder I waded through the locker.
I’m going to need a new Plan.
***
This Chapter was given a remaster on 03/09/2019
Feel free to point out grammar and what not. I've never been the best editor. Even after three passes I'm sure I missed stuff. Chapter One will be out right after this.
Last edited:
It also goes well with a popular OO fan theory that everything in the setting was "according to plan" rather than the Plan going off the rails and needing to be reigned in by the protagonists so it's the fan theory I'll indulge for my own amusement 
