"Headline News" - Tonya Taylor's Story

This is quite a long one, running to 19 pages of text on my word processor. I know it's a lot to take in in one go, but please take a look and see if you enjoy it





"Headline News" - Tonya Taylor's story

Chapter 1 - Smile, you're on Primetime!

Despite the pounding thud of the fiery blasts and the death rattle of the machine guns, Tonya was fully aware of the camera's hum as it filmed. She made sure she was in shot at all times - a skill she had practiced at length - as the heroes she was covering for this edition of "Good Morning Paragon” took down a huge, lumbering Headman. The villain group the Headman belonged to, the scruffy vagabonds known as the Lost, had kidnapped a high-ranking official of the Paragon City council, so it was a great human-interest story and Tonya knew it would be a ratings winner.

The heroes - there were 4 of them, all fresh out of the Paragon Hero registration programme and not quite used to their powers yet - headed down the sewer tunnel, flushed with their initial success. Tonya signalled her camera crew to follow them, which they did, sloshing through the vile green effluence in a highly professional manner. She knew she was lucky to have a crew that would film in places most people would not dare to go, and this sewer was certainly not a welcoming place.

The tunnel opened up into a larger area, and they could see many of the Lost milling around. The sharp-eyed Tonya scanned the area. "Can we get a close-up on Mr Weebleman?" she asked her camera crew, pointing towards the far end of the cavern. The heroes spotted the councilman seconds later.

"Let's go make some headlines, she said boldly, as the heroes moved as a group towards the kidnap victim. She concentrated, and manipulated the air inside the cavern to get progressively foggier around them. It was a small measure, but it helped stealth the group until they reached the captive. The heroes did not notice, they were wrapped up in their own powers and how best to use them. The hero that could generate flame from his hands fired the first salvo as a rain of fire hit the 3 Lost villains guarding the captive. Not the best opening move, mused Tonya, but there was no denying the visual aspect - it looked brilliant in the murky gloom and would make a great shot on television. The two Lost minions ran, clothes on fire, out of harms way. They would be back, Tonya knew. The hero carrying the heavy machine gun raised the weapon and fired several high-impact rounds dropping the bad guys in their tracks.

The other heroes waded in towards the remaining Lost. One, dressed in a martial arts outfit, used only his hands and feet as weapons against the enormous Lost boss, an Aberrant Rector, who reacted by telepathically putting some of the heroes into a slumbering state. As the defender cleared their minds of sleep, Tonya subtly distorted the gravity around the creature to neutralise its offensive capabilities. This made it easier for the heroes, who took down the Rector and rescued the councilman. She brandished her microphone. "Can I get a comment from you, Mr Weebleman? Our viewers want to know!" The dishevelled and dirty councilman responded by repeating "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" into the microphone. Tonya smiled. The public would lap that up.

The heroes escorted the councilman out of the sewers and back into the brighter climes of Atlas Park. The mission had been a success. The coverage had been great. And no one had noticed her assistance. Hopefully, no one ever would. No one suspects the truth.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.


Chapter 2 - A Chance to Shine

Two Years Ago

Tonya stood close to the outside broadcast director with a clipboard. She was part of the outside broadcast crew on top-rated news and lifestyle programme "Good Morning Paragon" and today they were in Atlas Park's Prometheus Park. There had been rumours of "zombies" hanging around the area - absurd of course, but the director, a crazy-eyed bundle of energy called Christoph, believed it would make a nice little 5-minute segment before they returned to the studio.

"Sign this waiver please," requested Tonya, waving the clipboard in his face. "The Paragon City Recreational department don't want us churning up too much of the park with our news van." Christoph scrawled a flamboyantly extravagant signature over the entire page. "Tonya, you are looking absolutely beautiful today!" he beamed. "Thank you!" acknowledged Tonya, pleased that her strong sense of style and fashion had garnered a compliment from her somewhat eccentric boss.

One of the camera crew strode towards them, lugging a camera. "We have a problem, Christoph", he said urgently. "Marina hasn't shown up!" Marina Moore was the anchor for this segment; a blonde middle-aged woman who Tonya thought exemplified the stuffy, old school approach to broadcasting. "But we're on in 3 minutes!" flustered Christoph crossly. He stood there in silence, looking around nervously and almost gesticulating to himself. "Tonya, I want you to take her place!" he said finally. He figured that a pretty face would pacify the viewers, and Tonya was certainly all that and more. "You don't have to follow the zombie story, just go out and look as good as you always do for 5 minutes and then we can return to the studio."

Even at the tender age of 21, Tonya was unflappable. She had been waiting for a chance like this for years, and she wasn't going to mess up now that she was finally in the spotlight. She motioned to Rick, the cameraman. "Get your crew ready, I have an idea. We're going over there..." she pointed towards where the statue of Atlas loomed over the City Hall. "We're going to bring some colour and excitement into this segment. We're going to talk to the heroes dancing under Atlas."

A couple of minutes later the director was silently indicating two... one and the red light came on on Rick's shoulder mounted camera. Tonya felt a small ripple of fear start to envelop her, but she pushed it out of her mind. There was no time to be scared, or anxious, or to have regrets. It was time to do what she had always wanted to do. "Our top story this hour - Superheroes; are they a help or a menace?" She inwardly cringed at the "top story" line, it sounded terrible, but she pressed on regardless. "I'm Tonya Taylor, reporting live from Atlas Park and joined here under the Atlas statue by an assortment of garishly dressed heroes. Excuse me, excuse me!" she waved frantically at a large, green-skinned man, rippling with muscle, in ripped purple shorts. "Why do you feel the public are against your activities?" "What you mean? Super-Hulk-Man strongest one there is!" bellowed the hero, before he was led off by two Paragon City officials who had appeared to find a problem with his hero registration details. She made sure the camera tracked the generic-looking hero as he left, before turning back into the shot and addressing the camera. "People see this kind of moronic chest-beating and are immediately turned off by it. Let's see if we can speak with someone else."

She went across to a blonde-haired woman in a retro-looking blue costume. Her cape flapped in the breeze as she hovered several feet off the ground. Tonya was unfazed. "Hi there, Tonya Taylor, from "Good Morning Paragon." I would like to know if you think you provide a valued service?" "Of course we do!" spoke the woman in a soft, lilting Irish accent. "We all want to help people. That's what we are here for, to help rebuild Paragon and make it safe for everyone." "Do you feel that the public do not understand this goal? That you are mistrusted?" A puzzled look furrowed the woman's brow as she considered this question. "I don't see how that can be, I don't know where the mistrust comes from, if it exists at all - we help people everyday. We rescue kidnap victims, even save lawyers." Tonya smiled and addressed the camera. "There you have it, heroes such as - " Tonya quickly asked the woman's name, "Moonlit Shadow don't perceive there to be any real issue in public relations between the hero population and the citizens of Paragon City. This is despite the terrible incidents that have befallen this city recently, including the Hollowing and the Rikti assault."

Christoph was giving her a hand signal, telling her to wrap up. Tonya felt a pang of regret that her moment was over. "This is Tonya Taylor at the Atlas statue, signing off. And now back to Mike in the studio," she finished. Rick put down the camera. Christoph beamed. "That was fabulous, Tonya. You're a natural! A bit nervous at the start though, I could tell." Tonya just nodded. She felt exhilarated, and a bit giddy. Rick grinned. "Yeah, "Top Story" indeed!" It was a nickname she would never live down.

A couple of days later, the network received the ratings for the segment. They were very promising. The network realised they had a potential star in the making - viewer feedback had been very favourable to Tonya, and the no-nonsense approach she had taken when interviewing the heroes seemed to catch on with the younger viewers in particular. They pushed Marina Moore down the schedule to make way for a new part of the show hosted by Tonya. In "The Hour of Power", she would go out and cover heroes fighting for Paragon City, documenting their struggles. The network saw it as a fresh take on the established and ratings-friendly reality TV angle. For Tonya, it was something more. She was living her dream of being a broadcast journalist, and she loved every second of it. It also meant that she was helping the heroes of Paragon win the PR war, something she was proud of. It almost made her forget her secret shame. Almost.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.



Chapter 3 - Losing Control

Eleven years ago


She was being crushed.

A dark man in a white suit reached out and squeezed the air out of her lungs.

He was several feet away and not touching her directly.

She could not move, no matter how much she struggled.

She could not breathe.

He was killing her with some strange power.

She was dyin -

Tonya woke up sweating. Her room was dark, with the door opened a sliver to let the hall light shine in, causing long shadows of her stuffed animal collection to loom over the bed. She looked across at her alarm clock, ticking its reassuring tick. 3.25. She threw off her covers and went to grab Lizzie, her big green plush dinosaur. She would hug Lizzie till she fell asleep again.

She padded silently across her room and stopped, open-mouthed. Some of the teddies in her stuffed animal collection were floating. She blinked a few times, trying to take this new piece of information in. Normally, they were displayed on her dresser, carefully arranged by her so that each animal faced her bed. Now, however, several of them just hung in mid-air, as if held up by invisible strings. Tentatively, she reached out for Laurence, her cuddly, plushy lion, who was the nearest of those suspended. Her hand went through some kind of barely-visible field and touched the teddy. She tried to pull it from it's stationary orbit but didn't have any effect. The toy was completely immovable. She could not even bend the long mane, which normally flowed from the lion's head. It was as if the whole thing was frozen.

She tried several of the other teddies with the same results. Crossly puzzled with these strange events and over-tired from the nightmare she had just woken from, she let out a loud yelp when the toys suddenly dropped back down to the ground in unison. She grabbed Lizzie from the pile and crawled back into bed. The door opened and her mother appeared, silhouetted against the bright light of the hallway. "Are you OK dear?" she asked softly.

"Fine mom, I just had a nightmare..." replied Tonya. Her mother stepped into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, tucking Tonya in tightly and gently pushing Tonya's long auburn hair out of her face. She looked over at the pile of teddies, now in a chaotic jumble rather than the more orderly assembly. "Oh, Tonya, you've messed your animals up..." she chided.

"Mom!" protested Tonya, "It wasn't me - it was...." She couldn't finish her sentence. She didn't know who had done that to her teddies. Her mother squeezed her hand and kissed her on the forehead.

"Go back to sleep, hon. It’s OK."

Except it wasn't OK. The same thing happened two nights later. She awoke from her dreams of a crushing death by the force of will of an unknown suited assailant only to find her collection of tiny porcelain ballet dancers in different poses were defying the laws of gravity. Tonya loved the grace and poise of the balletic arts and had been learning ballet for several years. She frantically tried to free them from the field but again to no avail, and she had to watch in horror as each figurine crashed down to earth and fractured into tiny pieces. This brought her mother running in, who was horrified at what Tonya had done.

"I can't believe you'd destroy your own things. Those beautiful ornaments meant so much to you before!" she scolded.

"But I never broke them mom! I never!" Tonya yelled, tears running down her cheeks. Her mother didn’t believe her.

“You are a wicked little girl!” she shouted as she cleaned up the mess.

Tonya was determined that this would not happen again. When she went to bed that night she took Lizzie and sat on her pillow; long, lithe legs drawn up against her chest and her arms hugging both her teddy and her knees. She would not have the nightmare. She would not wake up to see her things floating. Despite her best efforts, she drifted off into an uneasy semi-slumber; not fully asleep, but not fully awake. In that state, she had her eyes half open as she watched Lizzie the dinosaur gently rise up, surrounded by a swirling energy field. Tonya felt a chill as she worked out what was going on. To her horror, she realised that she herself is causing this. That she is somehow making her things defy gravity. That she is a freak. She watched Lizzie fall back to the pillow and sobbed silently.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.


Chapter 4 - Unpredictable Weather Patterns

Eleven Years Ago


Tonya was hit with the stunning realisation what she was unconsciously generating gravity fields. This was a real shock to her, a blight on her previously happy existence. She knew that she must find a way to gain mental discipline over them. She wanted them to stop because she didn't want to be known as a freak. The only way to make sure something like that never happened again was to establish control over the powers. She must control them, they did not control her.

Tonya sat cross-legged on the middle of her bedroom floor, in a yoga position, breathing rhythmically with her eyes shut. She felt calm and collected. She deliberately pushed aside the spikes of fear that had plagued her since the revelation she was a mutant. She needed to be totally focused, and let nothing distract her. Control over her powers would happen if she was in the right frame of mind. She opened herself up and let her mind wander. It roamed until it found the part of her that held her gravity powers and accessed them. She did not resist. She opened her eyes. Her bed was floating next to her. Ignoring the sudden panicked urge to shut that part of her mind off, she instead took a deep breath and tried to mentally force the bed downwards. She would establish control over the gravity field holding the bed and learn how to put things back to normal when this happened.

Nothing happened. The bed remained several feet in the air. She even jumped on the bed, hoping to add her weight to her mental commands, but to no avail. Then she realised what would happen next. She jumped off the bed a split second before it plunged to the ground with an almighty crash. The heavy bed, not designed to take such an impact, broke in half. Tonya stared in horror at the mess. Her mother was in - normally she was at work in Steel Canyon, the financial Centre of Paragon City, but today she was working from home - and Tonya braced herself. The door thundered open and her mother appeared, fury etched on her face. "Tonya Tabitha Taylor, what in the name of all that is holy are you doing in here?" she shouted, surveying the scene.

Tonya burst into tears. She had no way of explaining this. She wasn't about to tell her mother she was a freakish mutant; that would disappoint her so much. She knew her mother had such high hopes for her, that she had put a lot into educating and parenting her since Tonya's father had left. Finding out Tonya was a mutant would destroy her hopes and dreams for her daughter. She could never let her know. Tonya's mother saw the misery emanating from her daughter and softened instantly.

"Tonya, what's wrong? You can tell me," she asked in a lower voice, putting her arms around the crying Tonya, who sniffed, wiping her eyes.

"Nothing's wrong, mom. Nothing's wrong." It came out as a hollow whisper.

"You know you can talk to me about any problems you have, right?"

"I know, I know." Again, a whisper. There was a long pause. The silence seemed to generate a gulf of emptiness between them.

"When you're ready, I'm always here to listen", said her mother, knowing that something was wrong with her daughter but not able to figure out what.

"Thanks mom," said Tonya, and hugged her. She wanted so much to be free of this burden, but did not want to hurt her mother in the process. She could not let anyone know.

Two weeks later, the unthinkable happened. She was in her room again - with a new, smaller bed in place - still trying to establish control over her gravity powers. She'd relaxed and let her mind wander again; seeking the mutant abilities she'd shown. Her mind found these abilities, but they were different. A snowstorm appeared by her window. Tonya opened her eyes, and saw the snow falling over her desk and homework. Already it had piled up into a thick white layer. She could not believe it. First the gravity powers - and now this? What had she done to be afflicted this way? She had always tried to be a good person - her mother had taught her from an early age the concepts of good versus evil and how actions you take can affect others - and yet she was being cursed with these mutant abilities. As her mind spiralled with these thoughts, a gust of wind pushed the snow away, scattering it over her room, where it started melting. Great, another power she would have to learn to control so it wouldn't do any damage.

Her mother came home to find Tonya's room soaking wet. Tonya had not been able to dry it out in time. "Tonya, are you deliberately trying to make things harder for me?" cried her mother in exasperation. "You've only just had the new bed, and now you've soaked the carpet. You don't understand how difficult this all is for me, do you? You're just a selfish, self absorbed little girl!" Tonya's mother hadn't tried to talk it out this time, she'd just given her a smack and told her how wicked and evil she was. Despite this, she still could not tell her mother the truth.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.



Chapter 5 - New Beginnings


Seven Years Ago

With her powers increasing in number and potency, much to to her frustration and chagrin, Tonya had decided she would have to practise her control outside of her home, in order to not run into the problems she had before. She spent many hours away each day, wandering round the parks in Talos. In order to control her powers, she had isolated herself away from her mother.

Tonya was now sixteen and cut a forlorn figure emotionally. Withdrawn and introspective, a real change from the bright and bubbly child she had been, her mother made one final effort to reach out to her daughter to try and find out what was wrong. "You're coming with me to see this psychologist. We're going to sort this once and for all!" Not wanting to disappoint her mother, Tonya agreed, but despite this she was also determined not to reveal her secret, and in the end, the psychologist put Tonya's state of mind down to simply being a teenager.

Tonya's mother knew in her heart that something more that that going on, and on the way home she confronted Tonya. "You haven't been the same since you were twelve years old. You've been hiding something from me for all these years. I want to help you; I'm your mother. Please tell me what's wrong!" She looked over at Tonya, sitting sullenly in the passenger seat. "I can't help you if you don't feel you can tell me. I want to help you, Tonya. You were such a happy child. I want to see you happy again." Tonya sat, eyes sparkling with tears. At that moment she came closest to telling her mother what had happened to her. But she couldn't. And then she realised she couldn't stay with her any longer, that it would be too difficult for both of them.

She sat up straighter and said "I don't need your help mom. I'm moving out."

Tonya's mother was angry and hurt by Tonya's refusal to confide in her. She did not try to dissuade the teenager from moving out of the family home in Talos into a small, dirty apartment in Kings Row. They did not speak again.


Five Years Ago

At eighteen, Tonya was a woman now, and her younger years of ballet training had given her a strong, supple body, which had filled out nicely. Walking back to her apartment in the seedier area of the Gish area of Kings Row, she was accosted by a scruffy, longhaired guy with a camera hanging around his neck. "Here, darlin', take a few shots? You'd look great as a glamour model. You got a nice face and a great rack!"

"Get lost, creep!" responded Tonya angrily. She couldn't believe the nerve of this man. The photographer grinned. No doubt used to the reaction.

"Suit yourself, gorgeous. Too bad, I could make you a star!" He wandered off, and a few hundred yards down the road Tonya heard him exclaim "Take a few shots of you, darlin'?" at another unsuspecting woman. Tonya was relieved that the exchange hadn't turned nasty. She was sure she could take care of herself, but didn't really want to put it to the test. She thought about what the photographer had said about her. She knew she looked quite stunning even without make-up, and even with little money, she had managed to buy clothes with accentuated her curves yet retained a sure sense of style.

The more she thought about it, the more she knew she wanted something else. She had spent the last few years gaining control over her mutant powers at the cost of her relationship with her mother. She had reached a point now where the powers did not control her life, or her choices, but it had been a long, hard road. Now she was ready. She would reclaim herself. She was more than her freakish mutant abilities. She knew she had looks, and a newly stoked burning desire to succeed. She would be a star. She would be a success.

She scoured the job pages looking for something suitable. It took weeks, but she finally found what she was looking for. "Receptionist wanted for Paragon's most successful broadcasting network, Paradigm". This would be her way into showbiz, the first rung on the ladder to being a star. She charmed her way through the interview and into the position. Paradigm was the network that ran the highly rated news-show 'Good Morning Paragon'. That was her ultimate aim, to become a fully-fledged broadcast journalist. She knew if she impressed enough people with her enthusiasm, attitude, and looks, that she would work her way up the network.

After eighteen months as a receptionist she had learnt enough about the business to be taken on as part of the 'Good Morning Paragon' outside broadcast team. The show had lots of segments all over Paragon City and the OB unit were crucial in delivering that. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to do but it was fun and she knew that she was in a better place to take advantage of any lucky breaks that may occur. The downside of the job was working with Marina Moore, 'Good Morning Paragon' anchorwoman and right royal pain. She looked down on all the staff that actually made the broadcasts possible, believing it was her experience, elegance and poise that held the show together. The woman, Tonya had decided very early on after meeting her, was a walking ego, and they clashed frequently, with only the OB director Christoph able to keep the peace at times.

Life was finally starting to settle down for Tonya, who had managed to push to the back of her thoughts her secret.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.



Chapter 6 - Lightning Strikes


Three Years Ago


Tonya would never forget that late May afternoon. The "Good Morning Paragon" roving team had been sent out to cover the emergence of thousands of strange blood-red discs of light that had popped up all over Paragon City, and in major cities all over the world. No one knew why these discs had appeared, and the civilian population were panicked, clogging up the huge overpasses of Skyway City as they tried to flee the phenomena.

The heroes had come quickly to the scene, and Christoph, following a tip-off from a contact in the Freedom Phalanx, had assembled his outside broadcast team at one of the larger discs that had materialised inside a cavernous Crey Biotech warehouse. Experts from the Portal Corporation had decided that these discs were portals, and Star Strider, a hero well versed in interstellar exploration, was going to go through. There was an excitement permeating around them, a sense that something big was about to happen. Tonya was quiet. She saw these heroes in close proximity to her, and paranoia set in as she wondered if any of them could tell she also had powers. She did not want to be accidentally discovered as a mutant by someone dressed in a shockingly lurid costume. Who dresses these people anyway?

Marina Moore tried to get a few words from Star Strider, who was surrounded by his Freedom Phalanx colleagues. "Wish me luck!" he said with a grin, and gave the camera a thumbs-up, before putting up his force field and stepping through the large red hole in space.

Christoph kept the cameras rolling. 5 minutes passed. Nothing came back through. Marina was running out of things to say about portals, Portal Corporation and Dr Webb. 10 minutes passed. Still nothing came back through. The heroes became visibly anxious. Hushed discussions took place. Christoph ordered Rick to try and get in close to pick up any dialogue.

"--- not good. He normally sends out a beacon within two minutes."

"--- possible unsustainable environment."

"--- lying dead in a ditch somewhere."


An hour had gone by. From checking the news networks it appeared that around the world, similar exploratory attempts into the portals had met with the same outcome. Christoph told Rick to keep his camera on the heroes, Marina was told to try and interview them, but none felt like talking to the media. Suddenly Tonya felt a profound disturbance in the vicinity of the portal. She could feel the gravimetric changes ripple outwards.

"Something's coming through!" she yelled. All eyes turned expectantly to the portal.

It wasn't Star Strider.

A large, humanoid - but not human - figure emerged. It wasn't just the battle armour glinting under the lights of the warehouse that alarmed Tonya, but the enormous sword the figure carried. It went straight for the nearest group of heroes and cleaved one of them in half before anyone could even think to try to stop it.

"We're under attack!" shouted one of the heroes. More aliens came through the portal. Tonya counted 5 - 10 -20, but soon there were too many. They flooded into the warehouse, some with similarly large swords, some with laser weapons. The heroes responded, wading into the first of what would be many battles to come. Christoph couldn't believe it. The discovery of the century and he'd caught it all on film. Marina had vanished, but he didn't need an anchorwoman - the images, the carnage, they spoke for themselves. Ratings would be very high!

Aliens kept coming through the portal, it seemed as though for each alien the heroes killed, two more would take its place. The warehouse turned into a charnel house. Tonya looked around in shock as she saw bodies of aliens and heroes piling up, all with horrible wounds. She resisted an overriding urge to panic. What she was seeing unfold in front of her chilled her to the bone but she knew that if she was to get out of here she needed to remain calm.

Rick made his way back to Tonya and Christoph, ever the professional. "I think there's something wrong. I'm filming OK but the feed isn't getting out now. "Good Morning Paragon" isn't broadcasting. It's just static."

"Keep filming!" Christoph told Rick. He didn't want to miss any opportunity if the feed came back. Tonya looked across at Christoph as the heroes battled the aliens.

"We have to get out of here!" Tonya said urgently. Christoph didn't want to stop filming the battle, but he also wanted to see what was going on outside. Damn this single camera unit, he thought. Paradigm had gone for the cheaper option for his OB team and it had always stifled him creatively.

"OK," he nodded. "Rick, come on, we're getting out of here!"

The camera crew made their way towards the exit. Slowly, trying not to be noticed by the aliens, they edged towards the double doors that lead out. Tonya used the moisture in the air to create a mist around them as they retreated - in this chaos, no-one would question it.

They had just got to the doors when a massive, armour-clad alien loomed over the trio, with its sword raised in preparation for a killing blow. Tonya instinctively wrapped a gravity field around it, but the towering soldier was strong, and pushed hard against it, stepping closer to try and decimate them. She summoned a snowstorm around the alien, and the combination of powers stopped it in its tracks, allowing them to slip through the doors. Tonya couldn't believe it. She had used her powers for the first time against an enemy. It had saved their lives.

"I thought we were goners until..." started Rick, but could not finish his sentence as they stepped out into the Paragon dusk. It was like Hell on Earth. The streets were full - of bodies, of army equipment that had been destroyed, and still more fighting between heroes and the aliens. Huge alien motherships passed overhead. She saw a red and blue figure fly up and push one of the motherships away from the city. Statesman is leading the fightback, she thought.

She looked around at the devastation. The aliens had hit hard, and without warning. Casualty rates must be astronomical - people would have been cut down in droves if there were no heroes nearby to stop the invaders. What about -

"I've gotta go!" shouted Tonya over the din of combat. "I've got to find my mother, make sure she's OK!"

She hugged Rick and Christoph, and set off for Talos, darting through collapsed buildings and over abandoned cars, all the while using her steamy mist to try to avoid being seen. She has the power. Tonya Taylor is a mutant.



Chapter 7 - The Cut That Never Heals

Three Years Ago



Tonya's mind raced as she made her way towards Talos. The invaders had erected giant blue forcefields over some of the areas they had taken via the portals, so they were able to consolidate their attack with territorial gains. The military machine had not been able to mobilise quick enough, and it seemed as though already large swathes of Paragon was under alien control. Only the heroes, most of them drawn to the portals due to simple curiosity, had managed to stop the alien advance, but at a terrible cost. As she ran, she saw many wounded or dead heroes, their costumes grimy and torn and covered in blood.

She headed towards her mothers home. Overhead, the alien ships still swarmed. Flying heroes flitted around them, unleashing volley after volley of energy or electricity blasts. She was glad of her control of the elements as she wrapped herself in the mist and ducked behind a skip to avoid a patrol of aliens, 20-strong, who walked awkwardly down the main road of Talos in their battle armour. She wondered briefly what they looked like under the armour.

The area around her mothers’ house looked like a war zone, but it appeared to be free of aliens. Tonya ran to the house she had grown up in to see that the front of it was caved in. A alien hover tank burned nearby. That had obviously been shelling the house and the surrounding area, but it had been disabled.

"Mom, mom where are you?" she called, thinking that as it seemed quiet it was worth the risk. No response. The flames from the overturned hover tank pirouetted in a sudden breeze. The sky turned dark. She could hear something. Something falling. She looked up. One of the alien ships that the heroes had been attacking had exploded in a fiery epitaph. Bits of the ship, some small, others very large, rained down on the area. Tonya dashed for cover, hiding close to the tank for protection.

Distracted, Tonya didn't see her mother trying to crawl out from the rubble, which was all that remained of the front of her house. She had a thick rivulet of blood running down from her temple, and she appeared dazed. She was obviously not in a fit state to evaluate the danger posed by the falling debris from the alien ship. Ducking behind a part of the tank that wasn't on fire, Tonya finally caught a glimpse of her mother as she emerged from the house.

"Mom! Mom, get back inside!" she shouted, but the discordant crashing noise from the falling chunks of spaceship drowned out her warning. Tonya looked up to the sky, and in horror saw that a massive piece of alien ship was plummeting to the ground. It would land straight on top of what was left of the house. She had to do something. It didn't matter if her mother finally found out the truth - she had to stop this from landing and crushing her mom.

Time seemed to move slower. Tonya stood up, attempting to shut out her panic and fear as she went back to the part of her that could bend gravity to her will. She tried to wrap a gravity field around the falling chunk of ship. It was by far the biggest thing she had ever tried to hold in one of her fields, and it was also plunging to Earth at a high velocity. It did not hold. She tried again, concentrating harder even as the shadow of the spaceship remnant passed over the house. Her mother looked around, and at last there was recognition in her eyes as she saw Tonya standing there, arms aloft as she constructed the gravity distortions around the piece of alien ship.

"Tonya!" she called, scrabbling across the rubble. Tonya was crying with pain and effort now, tears flowing down her cheeks as she channelled all her power into halting the progress of the huge, jagged mass of debris. She had never opened herself up this far into her mutant abilities, in all her hours spent learning control she had never pushed against her limits this hard. The alien ship had many different swirling patterns of gravitic energy around it as she stacked field after field around its vicinity. It wasn't working. The debris had too much momentum. It was going to hit the house. In a last ditch effort to get her mother out of harm's way, she summoned a powerful gale of wind and directed it at her mother, sending her flying back, hopefully outside the impact zone. A split second later, the chunk of ship smashed into the house. The world disappeared in a cloud of dust and a roar of thunder.

Tonya opened her eyes. She could only see in a murky grey colour. She had been knocked hard to the ground by the shockwave, and had badly gashed an arm. Blood dripped, forming a sticky, sickly maroon patch as it landed on the dust-covered rubble. She winced, and raised herself up, holding her injured arm against her body for protection. There was a dull roaring in her ears. The house she had grown up in had been completely flattened by the falling mass.

Everything seemed strangely still. The dust settled across the area. She coughed. "Mom!" she shouted, "Mom!" She hurried to where she believed her mother had landed after she had attempted to push her away using her storm powers. She climbed over masonry and ravaged alien ship alike as she frantically searched for her mother, overturning timber beams and slabs of stone with just the one arm, but desperation made her stronger.

She pushed a large piece of concrete to one side and there she was. Her mom. She looked in a bad way. She had been hit by the falling debris despite Tonya's attempts to save her, and she was barely conscious. Blood bubbled out of the corner of her mouth. As Tonya knelt beside her, she coughed; a horrible, hacking sound. Her mother's body racked with spasms and she spat out more blood. "Mom...." Tonya whispered, putting her good arm around her and trying to stifle her spasms with her own body.

"Tonya...." she croaked. "I... always knew... you were different. Special."

"Don't speak, mom, save your strength..." Tonya said, holding her close. Tonya's mother sighed and weakly shook her head.

"It's too late... for me. You did… your best."

"No, mom, I failed you. I couldn't save you." Tonya was crying again.

Tonya's mother raised her arm slowly and brushed Tonya's hair out of her face. "Never forget... You... are... a hero."

She closed her eyes and gave one last shudder. She was gone. Tonya let out a wail of anguish. She had finally shown her mother the truth about herself. She had used every ounce of her power and she had still not been able to save her. She sat there in the gloom, cradling her dead mother in her arms for what seemed like days, but in fact only a few hours had passed since the alien attack had started.

She realised she could not stay in the open, that she should get back to Christoph and the others. She laid out her mother's body inside the remains of her living room, and said a silent prayer. She thought about what her mother had said. She was no hero. Her powers had not prevented her death.

"Oh mom..." whispered Tonya, giving her one last look before making her way back, wrapped up in mist to avoid any combat. The entrenchment of both alien and human was even more apparent as night fell. It looked like the aliens were here to take over. They were not conceding any ground, and establishing perimeters for areas they now controlled. She headed for the Paradigm network offices, which were based in Galaxy City. There, she met up again with the Outside Broadcast team, including Marina, who was unrepentant about immediately finding cover and slinking back to the Paradigm building as soon as possible once the aliens hit. "I wasn't going to stand around and get shot live on television!” she exclaimed indignantly to Christoph.

Rick saw Tonya's grim expression and tear-stained face. "Your mother?" Tonya shook her head in response. She felt incredibly weary. Rick put his arms around her, "We'll get through this!" he assured her.

Tonya was distraught, inconsolable, but the alien assault and the fight back by Paragon’s heroes meant that the war had just begun. There would be more misery and death for everyone, not just her. The invasion lasted over six months. The aliens were called Rikti, Portal Corporation researchers had discovered. They spent the war trying to cover the major battles, which meant that Tonya saw the atrocities and the devastation firsthand. During the months that followed, she used her powers secretly when she could, trying to help save people caught up in the carnage. She would try and levitate fallen masonry from people trapped, or hold up unstable ceilings with her gravity fields. The Rikti war had toughened Tonya up, and at 20 she had seen more death and destruction than anyone had a right to see.

It was amazing how quickly Paragon adjusted after the Rikti had been driven back to their homeworld by the heroic actions of the Alpha and Omega teams. The Rikti forcefield technology used to divide the city were utilised by human scientists, and the rebuilding programme began. So many heroes had died protecting Paragon, and the civilian casualty rate had been catastrophic. So more and more heroes revealed themselves and stepped into the fray, eager to do their bit for Paragon City. Tonya was still grappling with her mutant heritage, and the last words her mother had said to her. She had never wanted these powers, had never asked for them, had done her best to control them enough to make sure she could hide them. But people needed help. From ordinary people caught in the middle of events bigger than they could understand, or heroes that had simply bitten off more than they could chew, Tonya realised that she could help them.

She was no hero. She had no desire to be one. She was going to be a broadcast journalist. She was going to help in her own way, in her own style.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.


Chapter 8 – Hell Hath No Fury

Present Day

Tonya frowned as she looked at herself in a full-length mirror and adjusted her immaculate looking suit. Serge, the tailor at Icon in Steel Canyon, fussed around her. He was meticulously brushing off miniscule pieces of fluff from the rear of the suit trousers. Her full lips pursed in annoyance, Tonya generated a small gravity field around her firm backside, blocking Serge's laviscious approaches.

"That's OK, Serge, leave it be," she said coldly. Serge glanced between her buttocks and his hand in puzzlement as he realised he could no longer touch her. He was used to dealing with heroes of all description, but Tonya was no hero, just a journalist. An extremely attractive journalist, true, but she had no powers. He mentally shrugged, deciding the sale was the key thing here. Tonya was willing to splash out a serious amount of cash on this suit and he didn't want to jeopardise the sale.

"Of course, Ms Taylor," he fawned, stepping back and instead giving admiring glances and small gasps of appreciation as Tonya studied her reflection intently. Tonya smiled inwardly. Her control over gravitic fields was superb; over the years she had established almost pinpoint accuracy over where she could generate the distortions. The latest gravity power that she’d manifested recently was an exercise in control. She was able to expel villains through a wormhole and out the other side to land where she wanted them.

After a few more minutes of careful judgement, she decided the suit was a worthwhile purchase. "I'll take it", she told Serge, who was delighted. It wasn't everyday that a magazine cover star bought clothes in your store. He could now regal potential customers that Tonya Taylor shopped at his store.

With the suit purchased and tucked under one arm, she left the Icon store and walked to her apartment. She'd chosen it because it was very close to Icon, and it also had a great view of Silver Lake. Before she could get to her apartment building, she was accosted by a couple of Tsoo warriors.

"Hey gorgeous, hand over all your jewellery! This area is under protection by the mighty Tsoo, and we need payment!" leered one Tsoo, dressed in traditional oriental garb and a large hat.

"No way!" spoke Tonya, sharply. These Tsoo were more of a nuisance that a threat, she knew she had the powers to take them. She looked up and down the road. Silver Lake was deserted. She caught a momentary flash of light across the street from her, in an alleyway, but her attention focused on the two Tsoo.

"We'll just have to take it from you then!" spoke the second Tsoo, dressed like a ninja in a martial arts film. The two approached Tonya menacingly.

"Go ahead and try!" Tonya said, believing the coast was clear to let loose with her powers. "You'll find it hard to steal from me when you've been through a wormhole!" She concentrated hard, summoning a dark portal that unfolded out of thin air. The two Tsoo screamed in panic as they struggled against the pull of the mini-wormhole, but to no avail. With a satisfying whoosh, they disappeared. A few seconds later, they reappeared in a heap across the street, both Tsoo in a stupor as a result of the gravimetric forces pressuring them. Tonya calmly walked away from the encounter; suit still tucked under her arm, and went into her apartment building.

"Perfect!" beamed Marina Moore. From her vantage point in the alleyway, she had caught the whole incident on film. She would take the footage to Paradigm, broadcast it to the world, disgrace Tonya, and reclaim her place as Paragon City's top broadcaster. The [censored] deserves everything that's coming to her for stealing my place, she thought. All the time spent tailing her in the hope that she'd do something to discredit herself had paid off far more handsomely than Marina could ever have hoped. She'd wanted to capture a scandal - a secret affair, a spurned lover - but this... This was big. This was headline news.

She now knew, and soon the whole world would know.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.


Chapter 9 - Exposed

TONYA TAYLOR IS A MUTANT!

The headline screamed. Footage of Tonya's battle with the Tsoo had hit the news stations, including "Good Morning Paragon", and the tabloid media, never averse to a bit of gossip, had picked up on the story too. Tonya stared at the words dully, reading snatches of text that seemed to leap out at her.

- Top reporter is an undercover hero -

- Tonya lied to the people that had taken them to their hearts and loved her -

- Marina Moore must be reinstated immediately -


Tonya had been called into the executive offices of Paradigm, along with Christoph and Rick. The head of the network, billionaire industrialist Howard Sinclair, had called an emergency meeting with them once the shocking news broke. Christoph looked over at Tonya. "You are a great reporter, Tonya. You have established yourself as the face of Paragon City. They would be fools to take that away from you."

Tonya nodded. She was still in a daze. Being outed like this, in front of the world, was one of the worst things she had experienced yet. She had always struggled with her mutant abilities, whether they were a blessing or a curse, but in the two years of helming "The Hour of Power" she had known she was actually helping people. She was making a difference. She had used her powers in secret, assisting the heroes she was covering. She was so careful to not be seen on camera using her powers. She had always known when to duck out of the camera shot to lay on a snow storm or aim a healing rush of oxygen towards an injured hero. But it seemed now that her powers had grown too strong to use secretly. She had been found out, ironically caught by another camera. Marina Moore had got her immaculately made-up face back into the public consciousness by presenting the tapes as an expose on her show on Paradigm, and now Tonya was here to face the music. She could not believe this was happening to her.

Rick put his arm around her. "I always knew..." he whispered, "You can't fool the cameraman, I see all!"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Tonya asked, shocked.

"Because I knew you needed time. Time to decide who you were - broadcast journalist or hero of Paragon City. I think Marina may have done you a favour here, even if neither you or her realise it yet."

"Mr Sinclair will see you now," interjected the secretary, a stern-faced old woman known only as Ms Grey. She led the three of them into Howard Sinclair's office. It was huge, almost palatial, and very ornate. Ms Grey ushered them into the middle of the room, facing a large wooden desk. Howard Sinclair sat in a massive chair, smoking a cigar. He was a big man, and very well tailored, noticed Tonya with an appraising eye.

"Thank you Ms Grey, that will be all." The grey-hared woman nodded and retreated back into the lobby, pulling shut the doors with a bang that echoed around the still office. Howard Sinclair gestured for them to sit.

"The job of a reporter is to report the news, not make it, hmmm?" began Mr Sinclair. His voice was hushed, yet powerful.

"That's unfair -" began Christoph, but Howard Sinclair waved an impatient hand at the director. "Please, Mr Garoulet. You and Mr Sleighford have been invited here only as a courtesy, and to witness the proceedings, as they will have a bearing on you. I am interested only in what Tonya has to say. You do not need to say another word."

Christoph nodded. Howard Sinclair looked at Rick, who also confirmed his silence.

"We have a quandary here, Tonya. One of Paradigm's employees has deliberately and maliciously set out to discredit another. I will deal with that later. Today I am not interested in how this situation occurred. This emergency meeting is to establish a way forward.

Since Christoph gave you your break presenting "Good Morning Paragon", and our subsequent decision to give you a slot of your own, ratings have been very high. Even now, the public may fear and mistrust heroes to some extent, but one thing is abundantly clear: they are fascinated by them. You have tapped into that wonder, that sense of awe, in your broadcasts. You have shown the heroes in the environment they thrive in best - overcoming great odds and adversity. What no-one knew until now is that you have been hiding your own powers - although I am sure you have been using them in the battles when you can, hmmmm?"

Howard Sinclair's eye twinkled and he allowed himself a smile.

Tonya swallowed nervously before speaking. "Yes, yes I have. I have tried to help the heroes as I document them. It seemed the right thing to do."

"But after the Rikti invasion was repelled, you did not become a hero, when Paragon City needed them most after the decimation of the original heroes. Why not?"

"I simply wasn't ready to be a hero. The Rikti invasion was tough on everyone. I was young and had been through so much - there was no way I was capable of being a fully-fledged hero at that time. Also, Paragon needed more than just another hero in a shoddy costume. They needed someone who would present them in their true light, which has always been my aim on "The Hour of Power", to bring the heroes to primetime."

"And I'm sure they would agree you have done a great job."

"I do what I have to. Some heroes love the attention, some hate it. Some like the camera present, some hide from it."

"Well, as far as the network heads are concerned, they love the show. It's had high ratings, it's been a flagship for Paradigm, it's different, and it’s fresh new programming. You're a great representative for the network too - stylish, elegant and focused. As far as we are concerned, this news story about you is something we should capitalise on. Right now you're the most talked-about person on this planet. Everyone wants to know what will happen to you.

I have a proposition for you, Tonya. Without the constraints of protecting your secret, you can now truly be a hero. Our hero. Paradigm's hero. You would still do the show - have the camera crew, director, but now you could be a reporter and a hero, two sides of the same coin. You could use your powers fully, and still ask the hard-hitting questions and cover the most dangerous missions."

"You want me to stay and become a hero?" Tonya couldn't quite believe it. She was no hero; she hadn't registered with the Paragon City Superhero Registrars or anything.

"Yes, it makes perfect sense that a show about heroes and their battles against evil is anchored by a hero who knows how to be a reporter. For the show, it's the best of both worlds. And for you, Tonya. This is your destiny. Marina may have tried to discredit you, but she has set into motion events that you can no longer ignore."

Tonya thought about this. It would be nice to unleash the full extent of her powers at villains. She wouldn't have to hold back. And she wouldn't be abandoning her journalistic career to do it. She thought again of her mother, dying in her arms, telling her to never forget that she was a hero.

"Mom was right..." she murmured, before looking Howard Sinclair in the eyes. "I'll do it!"

"I knew you would", said Howard Sinclair, "You're a bright girl. Go out there as a hero and get me even more ratings!"

A few hours later, Tonya stood outside the Icon store in Steel Canyon, close to where she was exposed as a mutant. Her new costume looked stylish and fashionable - she wasn't going to wear some of the gaudy creations Serge provided for heroes and had come to him armed with a detailed list of the fabrics and cut of the outfit she wanted.

She looked across at Christoph and Rick, and smiled. "It's time for Top Story to be more than a nickname!" she said, and flew off, scanning the vicinity for people who needed help. In Paragon City, people always needed help.

Tonya Taylor is a mutant.

Top Story is a hero.

It is quite long story, so I fear not many will read it. Their loss, I'll say!

I enjoyed the story, especially the glimpse into rikti war which I don't know too much about. Thanks for sharing.

Pyranha

That was fantastic! Seriously! Best piece of fiction I've read since Wordmaker's day! And the view of the Invasion was terrifying!

Never mind the fact that her name "Top Story" is pure genius!

Bravo I say!