Earth Ω Chapter 1, an Anima: Beyond Fantasy + Worm Crossover fanfic

Chapter 1:

Chrysalis 1.1

"Colin, are you sure about this? I know you cant change your mind at this point, but at least try to be comprehensive and keep yourself calm. We don't know if she is or not the master we are looking for and, even if she is, you would be seeking her in her civilian identity. This can go so wrong in so many ways that I could make a list to keep you busy for a whole week."

I know she may be right, as always, but we can't let this go as if nothing were happening. If the rumour spread about a ward being mastered, we will lose the faith of many parents and the subsequent ward will be lost, not taking into account the amount of possible para-humans that wont join our ranks. No, this must be fixed now, we cant afford to hide it any longer.

"Dragon. Keep an eye on my brain waves and general cerebral activity. If she try anything we must know right away."

"I know Colin, I'll keep my full attention on you until the interview is over. You know you can trust me."

"Shadow stalker. I hope you wont forget the instructions we gave you. You know what will happen if you overreact in any way. Master and stranger protocols are up, and we wont hold back. A ward going wild in a school would be a PR mess. I will make her a few questions and your only purpose here is to allow us to check her response to your presence. We don't know if she is or isn't the responsible of your….. Disability. Stay calm and silent."

"But I know she is the responsible! She triggered the day before I got this… this…. Weakness! And my friends have been reporting some minor problems to me too. Every time they got too close to her shit happens!...sir."

"Well, we still have to end that conversation about what your friends exactly noticed. You didn't gave us any specific detail about it. And your 'I wasn't sure it was her' is not a valid excuse. You should have told us that someone triggered in the school area that day. Besides that, the only reason we are here today is because you show symptoms of being mastered, or at least affected with some kind of unidentified power, and this is the only option we have left. You could be wrong, or intendedly trying to make us lose our time, which could be a side effect or the actual purpose of whatever is affecting you... Anyway, as I said, keep calm and watch the tone you are using to address me."

"Yes, sir."

"Colin, cut her some slack, picture yourself in her same situation, how would that make you feel like?"

"I know, I know, its just…. There are already some gossip about her on the net, we are keeping it down but those clowns have been snooping around and a few attempts at hacking our local servers have been detected. Nothing important, sure, but its just a matter of time before a tinker or a thinker got fired up and get some level of success. We just need to deal with this as…."

"Colin, something is up. You are beginning to display some abnormal levels of stress and something that could be described as brain exhaustion. Calling for back up now."

"No, wait dragon. Were is she?"

"According to my armour thermal sensors she was 320 feet away when the change was noticed. It will take her another minute to arrive at her actual walking speed."

"OK. Call a couple of agents with foam rifles and keep them 400 feet away and ready. Make sure the sniper is out of her for now assumed range at all times and move your armour closer discreetly. Shadow, get yourself ready, non-lethal ammunition and stay as calm as possible. It could still not be her, we wont be the ones to make the first strike, but the second she out herself she's ours."

OOO

At last I would be able to punish that bitch. The filthy rabbit grew a spine because she triggered, but prey would always be prey, and her punishment were about to come with more pain than she was going to be able to handle. Sure, I was going to use non-lethal ammunition as ordered, but I was also eager to see how well she managed with a tinker-made chloroform-arrow, which may had accidentally lost it anaesthetic load, right through her eye. It would even be an improvement on her actual appearance. The whore only had to give me an excuse.

"Everyone get ready. She is almost there. Stalker, focus, you seem absent-minded." Shut up you arrogant fool. I'm more focused than you will ever be! And, if she try to tattle about our little games... I'll accidentally shut her up first.

Knock, Knock. "Principal Blackwell, Its Taylor Hebert. May I come in?"

"Come in Ms Hebert."

The door opened and her head appear from behind, her eyes locking on to me. I was wondering if she recognised me, but then she stared Armsmaster in the same way and, after a few second, a little smile grew on her disgusting face. The little cunt seemed happy to be in the presence of her betters, but I was keen to discover how long that feeling would last.

"Oh, sorry. I….. I was told Principal Blackwell was waiting for me and..."

"Don't worry Ms. We were the ones who asked for your presence. If it's not a problem, we will like to ask you some questions."

"What? No… I mean… yes. I… I guess the is no problem with that." with her that nervous already, it was going to be easier than taking a candy from a child. For an instant I hopped she would have released the power restraining me with her nervousness and, for the shortest instant, my hopes rose.

"Well Ms Hebert. I'm sure you have noticed that a class mate of yours has been skipping school for the last week but, did you know it was because a parahuman power has been influencing her?" And that was it. The second she denied it, his lie detector would go crazy and she would be dooming herself

"Really? I thought it was because...well she broke her leg while training on the track and…. Those take time to heal….. and she is a proud bitch….. I mean…. She's competitive and is probably going hard on the rehabilitation to be able to run asap. Right?" Bitch!?, I thought. The me from back there was just able to focus on how hard she should be punished for the affront and how the bastard wasn't arresting her. I was a wolf at the time, but still a young one.

"I see Ms Hebert. And would you happen to know how she broke her leg?" His further questions made me guess he was trying to get more evidences.

"Hum… well I was there so I saw her trip over something… but, hum… this seems like a police interrogation and I am a minor. Shouldn't my father be here? Or… well, a lawyer or something. Its as if you were saying I am some crazy parahuman who goes randomly harming innocent teenagers around." Each subsequent sentence from her part making me fall deeper into the metaphorical well of wrath.

"You are right Ms Hebert, but in case you were a parahuman we just wanted to make sure no one got out of here injured. And that's why only the three of us are here. Me, a ward to make you feel more comfortable and you." He said that with a straight face. I still find it unbelievable nowadays. Had he just Apprehend her, everything would have been different.

"Well then you should have not bring shadow stalker, no offence intended. Maybe gallant, he seems nice,...or maybe kid win, you know, big guy in armour with little boy in armour. But double S here…. Well, she reminds me of Sophia…. Sophia Hess, you know? part of the slag trio who had been bulling me for the most part of the last two years? You should have made some investigation before hand. And that's not taking into account a week and a half ago when they stuffed me in..."

And then, something broke within me. "I'LL KILL YOU FUCKING WHORE!"

OOO

10 Days ago.

Knock Knock Knock "Taylor! You got asleep. Hurry and I'll get you to school or you wont made it to the first class."

The only answer he got was some incomprehensible mumbling and the sound of a sheet and a blanket rubbing against one another. She had been told to not remain awake until sunrise. But she was stubborn, just like her mother.

The door slammed open and he got in the room. "Kiddo, wake up already. I told you that you must get your healthy eight hours of rest, so you now must deal with the consequences of going to sleep that late. You've got 30 minutes left, get a shower while I got something ready for you to eat at school. You can have breakfast in the car." Seen no response he pulled the sheets and found hir daughter laying there, with one of her mother's books... again. "Taylor Hebert, up know!"

"Da'...l b fun. Jst ougt port masel t'ool, all bime" She reassuringly mumbled back.

"Yea, sure, whatever... I don't have the slightest idea of what you just said, and I speak more languages than you do for sure. Get up and get ready. I'll be downstairs" And, with that, he left while his daughter began to rise.

She woke up and began to focus while doing her morning routines. She got a shower, checked her backpack, dressed up with some random cloth from her wardrobe and went straight down for breakfast.

"Morning dad" She said happily. School got better lately and, as a result, she was getting up to date with her assignments. Maybe they got bored already. If it had keep up for a few more weeks she would have stop their little pranks. Maybe little by little, didn't want to be too obvious.

"Morning kiddo. Grab the food I'll get the car warm in the meanwhile."

"But dad! You told me that you would teleport me there!"

"Taylor... we can be seen, and I have already told you a hundred thousand of times it's not teleportation! Eitherway, we can't afford to grab any attention, you know it, and when did I told you that exactly?"

"Dad, don't worry. School has being less annoying lately and I have found a safe spot were no one goes. And, if you recall it, I told you a few minutes ago when you rampaged in my room, can you remember it now?"

"Fine… wait no! Kiddo, stop wasting time and get ready, I'll wait for you in the car." with that said, she was left alone in the kitchen.

Its was a nice day. With the snowstorm which had been over the city during the last week now gone, the sun was shinning strongly and the clear skies would assist it in its task to clear the snow from the streets. Definitely a nice day to be out. Hopefully, school would be uneventful like during the last weeks before holidays. The trio had been ignoring her for the last month, and it was definitely an improvement.

OOO

After dad left me and departed, I joined the rest of the students arriving. My way to the gates was uneventful, but something seemed… off. Some girls were greeting me, being way too nice. Something was out of place, but I couldn't do a thing about it, well, there was, but I was not going to rape people's minds just because I could. I had to hurry and go straight to the first class with just a fast stop at the locker to pick up the books.

Then, I discovered what was going on. There was a filthy smell being expelled from my locker accompanied by a brown-red thick ichor with some things swimming in it, definitely larvae of some kind. I probably should had not open it, but maybe something was savable.

Big mistake. The locker has been filled with used tampons and plenty of other sanitary waste. It was probably done the last day before holidays, going by its solidified state. Quite a piece of work if you ask me. It must have been hard, and quite disgusting, to stuff it all there when it was still fresh. How much effort and work they put in to bully me meant, at the least, that their lives were quite empty without me. I was most likely the hub of their universe at the time.

Unexpectedly, something grabbed me by my hair and pushed me inside the locker. It was going to be unpleasant.

"Hope you feel like at home you filthy whore!" someone called out over the laughs of all the students. Probably Sophia. It's nice to have such a good classmates.

OOO

And so here I am. Covered in filth. Worms and other bugs crawling all over my body. The stink is even worse inside than outside. And I may have thrown up, not really sure about it. The worst part is that I know I will be stuck in here for another hour at a minimum if I do nothing, because no one will come back here until the next period. What should I do first? Probably go home and get clean is my best option. Dad wont be there so he wont be enraged by this. Then I'll just come back after lunch break and do as if nothing had happened, it's not like they will do something to punish them even if I complain. I'll just have to raise the threat level of my pranks, maybe I could impose a restriction over Sophia and let her kill herself against some gangsters.

As expected, no one came, at least not to free me, so I just pushed mi mind out of my body. This ain't something I would make a mistake with since it was one of the easier things to do. Once outside, my brainwaves took form and I checked the hallway. It was empty, mostly. The trio was still there but they were already on their way to our classroom so they probably wont notice if I got out stealthily. Focusing in my inner power and pushing it outside I was now able to interact with the physical world freely, more or less, and began to open the padlock with its combination. Unfortunately, they took the trouble to change it. It left me with one single way out of the locker, but just thinking that my body was in there was enough to make me sick. Taking my stance I began to hit the lock with my intangible hands. I was not the best hitter out there, not good at aiming my punches, but the lock was not going to bother to defend himself from the attacks. After a few hits, it broke down as a chunk of frozen metal. Opening the locker door I could appreciate the effort made to do this to me. The locker was small, barely enough for me to fit inside, but they made it so the waste would left enough room left for me to fit and, at the same time, limit my movements even more. It was horrible, of course, but horribly beautiful too, like one of those nasty artworks from modern artists this days. Anyway, after a couple of seconds my body fell out and I was just able to hold it, and prevent myself from hitting hard the floor, when I heard something hitting the floor. Turning my ghostly head to its source I found out something problematic. I forgot about the bitches somehow and they heard the cracks coming from the padlock or the heavy sound it made against the floor. Right know, they were looking to my unconscious body half levitating where I was holding my upper half, some good two feet over the floor, while my legs were limp or, depending on the point of view, doing the most hardcore sleep-walker pose ever.

Mom's books says that actual conflict is the best way to push your power up, and dad wont be able to forbid me from doing this if he doesn't know. This is just going to be so much fun.

OOO

Everyone else had already left and we were doing the same. This time thought, it felt as if we had gone to far. Taylor could end traumatized or worst, dead. But it's better to be on this end of the bullying than on the other. Emma could be a bit hardcore when she hated you, and she must definitely hate her ex-friend deeply. Sophia was already plotting about their next prank and, if she was the one to come up with a plan, it will surely be physically painful for the poor girl.

Suddenly a chill went over my full body when I was about to turn left and take my way to my own classroom. Then a metallic noise came from the lockers, followed by a couple more of them, which made me froze on site. After the last one was heard, a different metallic sound echoed with an almost crunching tune to it. The others have heard it too and were already turned looking at something with awe and a touch of panic.

Slightly twisting my neck I glimpsed the scene physically ready to run for my life, something you learn to do at a moment notice if you get to survive in this town long enough. Unfortunately, the scene I observed froze me on the spot.

Taylor's locker had some kind of darkness next to it that stood out in the scene. The humanoid shape could not be seen, but it was surrounded by a thin mist that slowly flowed over it until it reached the floor, as if something really cold were there, giving it an easily recognizable shape: Taylor's.

It reached slowly with its ghostly arm and the locker's door opened and, after a few seconds, the body fell out of it. The ghost made a fast move and prevented it from falling all the way down when Emma dropped her notebook, dragging its attention. Right after the noise from the notebook died, the specter turned its ghostly form in our direction. I could swear it smiled before the mist vanished and Taylor landed gently on the floor, covered with waste, blood and vomit.

We all glanced at each other and back to her as if expecting her to do something, but nothing came.

"What the fuck was that?" asked Sophia to no one in particular.

"She triggered, obviously." Answered Emma almost proudly. "Maybe you should check if she is alright, since you are the most durable of us... just in case."

"Yeah, I know I'm th..." Was saying Sophia saying when she suddenly fell backwards with a creak. When she stood again there was a nasty burn surrounding her nose, which was probably broken if you take into account the blood and the weird shape it had. "Fuck! This bitch broke my nose!?"

Then, everything went to hell. Sophia turned into a black fog mass and sprinted toward Taylor's limp body while Emma grabbed me and dragged me into another hallway.

"You wont say a word about this, to anyone, period! If you do, there will be... consequences." She said with cold voice, rage drawn all over her face and filtering into her voice. "Am I clear?"

"So… Sophia is…. Sha... Shadow Stalker!?" Was all I could say in return.

"AM I CLEAR!" repeater with ever more rage than before.

"Yes of.. of course, who do you think I am? I would never sell out a friend!" nor I want to be killed by you both bitches, but that was something I would never say out aloud.

While she was still glaring me, a new voice could be heard next to the lockers so Emma Took a peek and came back running. "Go back to class now! The janitor is there checking on Taylor and Sophia is no where to be found. We would be in problems if we are seen around. Run, now!" A overwhelming desire grew within me and, suddenly, I felt the need to please Emma, so I did just as she said.

With that, I left straight to the classroom. When I arrived, they had not even begin yet, so she would be delighted with my performance. Then, I realized it all took us just a few seconds, one minute tops, but it felt like an eternity to me. Maybe I can do something else later for Emma? She would surely be please if I helped her.

OOO

10 days later

School is nice again. At first I was worried that the PRT would show or call home because I kind of attacked Sophia, and the trio surely knows I was the one to do it, but no one has inquired about my absence on the first day or the fact that Sophia got a frost burn on her face. It was actually something to be expected since they didn't even call home to inform dad (something I'm glad about). Besides, since Sophia got that nasty accident while training in the track field where her leg snapped and some other minor events affected her partners and their groupies, everyone has been avoiding me, making it definitely the best week since I joined Winslow high. Even best, today we have the wards coming in to do some PR event obviously to try to begin with the recruitment of the students in case any of them triggered. Something very likely to happen in such a wonderful school. I wonder who will be coming this time.

First class today is Mr Knott's, so it will be mostly free time before the Ward's event. Today's assignment was especially easy so I got plenty of time to gossip on PHO.

Truly a nice day. Apparently, someone has uploaded a video of shadow stalker from last week. Probably from the night after she broke accidentally her leg. Panacea was surely call in to fix it. Well, good luck fixing her other problem. Its rewarding to see her on the video desperately trying to run away from a bunch of random ABB guys. How was she unable to notice her own unability to use her power escaped my mind. Just plainly stupid. Apparently the most spread theory is that there is some tinker-designed disease that took parahuman powers away, and that's why she had being in containment since that night. Really, who the hell made up all those theories? I feel bad about those truly good guys out there who are panicking, but I can't do anything about it… actually I could, but I wont.

Bells rang and we were allowed outside, at least most of us. Mr Knott Blocked my path.

"Taylor, Principal Blackwell is waiting for you in her office."

"Is there something wrong?" Oh god, did they caught me already?

"I have no clue about what she want from you Ms Hebert, but Hurry up if you don't want to miss the Ward's event. They may sign some autographs before leaving."

"Of course professor, I'll be right there."

Doing a quick scan on the zone while walking there, I make a disturbing discovery. There are two minds in her office, none hers. Both are para-humans. Who? That's another matter altogether. I could check who they are, but it would be harder to fake my reaction once I get there, and I am already pretty bad with my acting.

Maybe two para-humans are too much for me, even now than I am stronger than I was a week ago… hell, one may be too much depending on the skill set. But I have some time, if I keep a relaxed pace I could probably hit their mental barriers up to at least 20 times, enough to break their minds down to a point where they will be virtually unable to resist my control. Lets hope there is no need for that. I also noticed someone on the roof, a cape for sure, maybe some kind of thinker, since I can't read his mind and so far thinkers are the only ones with such level of success resisting me.

OOO

"Come in Ms Hebert."

Lets see who this girl is. Maybe if stalker is right we could force her into the wards. If this is some kind of power block ability we could truly use her.

"Colin don't space out, focus"

"Oh, sorry. I….. I was told Principal Blackwell was waiting for me." Don't seem like a powerful parahuman to me, once again she could be, appearances can be deceitful.

"Don't worry Ms. We were the ones who asked for your presence. If its no problem we will like to ask you some questions." So you can lie to us and we can get you arrested.

"What? No… I mean… yes. I… I guess the is no problem with that." too shy.. or a decent actress.

"Well Ms Hebert. I'm sure you know a class mate of yours has been skipping school for the last week. But, did you know that it was because a parahuman power has being influencing her?"

"She is getting nervous Colin, but there is no change in your mental state, keep going."

"I see, Ms Hebert. And would you happen to know how she broke her leg?" this one will surely get a better reading from the detector.

"Hum… well I was there so I saw her trip over something… but, hum… this seems like a police interrogation and I am a minor. Shouldn't my father be here? Or… well, a lawyer or something. Its as if you were saying I am some crazy parahuman, with the PRT around and all, who goes randomly harming innocent teenagers around." hum, half a true, she must be hiding something. Maybe the accident wasn't such, but she could have just let something on the tracking field for her to trip over…. Something very improbable knowing shadow stalker's skill-set.

"We are getting nothing out of this, she is way too nervous, try to get her to relax around you. Chat with her a little and I'll tell you when to go on with the questioning."

"That's just… That's the first thing that comes to your mind? Really? Do you even know how to perform an interrogation properly? Colin, you are exasperating sometimes. You should have just allowed Miss Militia to perform it, since she actually offered to do so a ton of times."

"Well then you should have not bring shadow stalker, no offense intended. Maybe gallant, he seems nice,...or maybe kid win, you know, big guy in armour with little boy in armour. But double S here. Well she remind me of Sophia…. Sophia Hess, you know, part of the slag trio who had been bulling me the last two years? You should have made some investigation before hand. And that's not taking into account half and a week ago when they stuffed me in..."

OOO

"I'LL KILL YOU FUCKING WHORE!" Said shadow stalker while taking her crossbow out, already loaded. Freeing the projectile in it with a fluid practiced motion.

Time went into slow-motion for Armsmaster. A reactor humming came inside as the window glass shatter and was spread all over the room while foam covered Shadow Stalker from top to toe. At the same time the quarrel flew straight to its target while the poor girl was obviously trying to place her hands between the offensive flying object and her head. To little, to late.

The impact was going to remain in his nightmares for quite some time, even more in hers if she survived.

At first, it felt as is the arrow were going to just stop there, right after it bypassed the glasses' lens, rubbing against the eye but not trespassing its boundaries, but it was just for a split second. Then, the eye gave up, flesh splitting apart, tears of blood coming out.

The girl screamed, just for a second, and then passed out. Probably the best she could have done.

"Colin, I'm contacting the PRT right now! This must be contained and Ms Hebert need medical assistance or she may die."

"I now dragon, this is going to be a mess that the PR department may not be able to fix. A ward going crazy and trying to kill a defenseless girl? We are fucked up. Try to contact panacea and ask her for assistance. Maybe if she keep no long term damage we can convince her family not to sue us or sell the story to the press."

"Colin you should think about her mental health and well being, not just focus on the PR part. Anyway, hand me the girl. Panacea is in Arcadia at the moment and it will be faster if I get her there." With that, the girl was rapidly moved onto the robotic arms. "And Colin, I have been checking her family background. There was some missing data and when I tried to check them with other 'sources' I got nothing. Her mother died 2 years ago, the same day of the Simurgh attack to Madison. It is stated that it was during a car accident, but there are no autopsy report or hospital records about her. And her father has never being treated from any injury or illness. Not a single record about him beside the ones about his job and the essential personal data required to have a legal ID. We must be careful about this Colin. I dismissed it as a coincidence at first, but it may be bigger than we thought, or we may be targeting the wrong individual in this para-human hunting."

Without giving him time to answer her, the connection ended and the armour left.

OOO

Something must have happened. The protectorate wont call me out of class unless something big was going on, even more knowing it had been a request from dragon herself. The wards are today doing some kind of exhibition in Winslow high and there must have been some accident.

After a few minutes I can finally see dragon's armour up in the sky carrying someone. Not a Ward by its clothes… there is something on its head… oh my good god! It's someone with an arrow on its face!

"Panacea, I'm sorry for the fast call but this girl need help and fast. I think the bleed stop already, but the bolt is still there. If you could recover her eye it would be of great help, there has been and accident, but I can't tell you the details."

Nice, they fuck it up and hurry up to me because they can't fix their own messes. Well this poor girl don't have to pay for them. "Don't worry, I'll fix her. But you should keep a tighter hold on Stalker, and before you say anything to deny it, it's obviously her doing. Well, lets see….. everything else seems alright, and as you suspected she ain't bleeding. Take the arrow away please, I'll fix her eye….. well this is unexpected, I thought you took her to me right after this accident of yours happened"

"That's right, we took only a few seconds to pick her up and I needed a few minutes to bring her here. If you find something unusual, maybe is because she is a parahuman?"

"I'm not giving away para-humans like that, you should know that already Dragon. But, without making an example of it, between the two of us, I'll tell you that she isn't. It's just that she ain't bleeding. Some people blood coagulate faster than others, that's all. She must be on the bottom of the time scale. Its not like the wound is closing itself beyond the normal healing rating, which is irrelevant at this point. Give me a few seconds and I'll be done. Fortunately, the arrow didn't even scratched the ethmoid bone, so she has no persistent brain damage, just a small concussion." It must have been an accident after all, she must have been quite far away for the arrow to stop half-way through the eye. "Done. I have done what I can with her eye Dragon, but she will probably remain unconscious for a while. You should take her to the hospital so they can make sure she is alright."

"Thank you Panacea, you are a life saver. Sorry if I got your class interrupted."

"Not a problem, I like to be of help. Hope she got better. I'm coming back to classroom so have a nice day"

"You too." After those simple words, she left with the poor girl on its arms. Time to go back to Parahuman studies… well I'll take the long way back.

OOO

The first thing I felt was pain. The second was the sound of a rhythmic beeping. Then, the memories caught me. I'd been shot, in the face, by Sophia fucking Hess. Definitely could have planed that better. At least this headache is proof enough that I survived. Thanks God for the little mercies.

"Hey Kiddo, I know you are awake. Open those eyes and tell me why exactly you didn't call me in." Dad told me in a harsh tone. This could be worse…... I guess.

The movement of my eyelids was accompanied by a feeling of dizziness and a hot pain I could place right behind my eyes. "Dad, could you please close the curtains? Sunlight kind of hurt right now." Without giving and answer he took a few steps and closed the shutter. I Guess that's even better. Crack opening my eyes I saw him coming back slowly to the chair he must have being in until a few seconds ago. "Thanks." Opening them at last I saw a soft smile spring up over his face. He wasn't mad, that was nice. He was getting quite good at keeping his mood under control.

"So, what happened? Armsmaster apologized to me and said there had been an accident but you were alright, but no one has shown up since I was leaded here by a PRT agent. I know they are within the hospital boundaries, but I would rather wait for your explanation before I go and ask for retribution."

"It's…. It's nothing dad, OK? It was just an unfortunate accident and ,as you can see, I'm perfectly fine. I'll told you the whole story once we are back at home… promise?"

"I'll thrust you on this, but we can't just let it be. I'll call for the doctors to discharge you. Then, I'll require a better explanation from them if you try to avoid the subject." He suddenly got better at faking his 'I'm not mad' face, but I could still see through it.

"Please dad, let me talk with them, I may have some request to make from them in order to keep this down." As an answer he simply raised one eyebrow, but I took it as a sign of approval.

OOO

"… and we can't determine if it has been one way or the other Armsmaster. She may have been mastered as she claims, or not, but from what little you got out from that horribly conducted interview she was already on bad terms with the girl." Said Miss Militia, angry with both, her boss and her subordinate."She will be kept under arrest, indefinitely, in a containment cell under brute 2 protocols and with master and stranger protocols also taken into account. The second covering layer of the cell will remain electrified at all times, in case she recover her powers at any point. And, before you say it again, no, the wards are under my direct command and I wont let someone who attempted to murder a kid running around on my watch, no matter how much she claims she was being controlled, it could happen again with more lethal consequences... in a more public place."

Armsmaster took a deep breath followed by a large sigh. "Okay Ms Militia. But we are already low on numbers so anyone and everyone is needed, and Ms Hebert turned out to not be a parahuman. We can't afford to lost Shadow Stalker right now, so I'll let you keep her contained for a week. After that she is up for active service again, we will just need to keep an eye on her."

Miss Militia glared at him, but that was the best she would get out of him, and she new it. "Then I'll send the orders back to..."

Knock, knock. A nurse got into the room they were chatting in. "Sorry to interrupt, but you told us to inform you once the patient from the room 412 were awake, and her father is asking for a doctor to discharge her."

"Thank you miss Hayes, we will be right there, could you please tell the doctor to give us a few minutes before he arrives?"

"You are welcome Armsmaster, and of course I'll make the doctor wait." The nurse left giggling and closed the door behind her.

"I think you should let me handle this Armsmaster, she may show a bad reaction from seen you again. Those kind of physical injuries leave emotional ones behind and we don't want this situation to get even worse." Miss Militia crossed her arms over her chest and stared him with a severe expression.

"Fine, go ahead. I'll wait nearby in case you need reinforcements." Miss Militia answer was to travel the path to the door sighing. Closing the door, she walked through the path to the girl's room.

When she made it to the room 412 the door was half open and a steady voice could be heard from the inside.

"…..even try to remove us from the map to cover up their own failures."

"oh. come on dad. As if. They would have done that by now if it was even a choice, and they haven't. You just let me handle the negotiations when the time comes please."

"I'll allow you to do that, and I don't want to be negative or disregard your negotiation skills, but when in public you turn rambling at best."

"Practice makes perfection dad. I wont get any better by avoiding those situations."

Knock, knock, knock. "Hello, I'm Ms Militia, may I come in?"

With them there at last, it was the time to see what she could get out of that unpleasant situation. "Yes please, suit yourself. W… we want to discuss some matters"

"So do us." She approached with a steady pace to the bed's end, eyeing Mr Hebert on her way there. "I want to apologize about what happened to you Miss Hebert, but we made everything we could to remove any permanent damage from you. In exchange, we would like to keep this whole incident as a secret."

"That's all?! You want us to just pretend it didn't happened at all because you fixed the physical damage?! Just because you..."

His daughter grabbed softly his shoulder saying with an obviously faked offended expression "Dad please, let me handle did as you promised not that long ago." When he nodded, she just went on. "Miss Militia, we are thankful for your assistance, I'm not denying that, but we wont lay down just because of that. I'll probably have to endure hellish nightmares about this for the rest of my live and I want a nice monetary compensation to keep this hole situation low."

Miss Militia gave her a weird look, and then with a straight face answered. "Sweat heart, I'll offer you some kind of payment for your silence but, I guess your father there already told you that, and no offense intended, you may be the worst liar I have seen in my whole life." After that her whole stance shifted, at least to the eyes of Danny, who relaxed notoriously himself as well. "Taylor, may I call you by your first-name?" with a nod from the girl she just went on. "You thought this was going to be some king of negotiation, and tried to begin high on your side so you could ask latter for something easier and make us think we won over you." It was not a question, just a statement. The opposing part blushed a bit and suddenly found new developed interest in her sheets, which she proceeded to stare intently. "So in order to save us both time, why don't you told me what you really want and I promise I will do my best, if its within our power, to help you with it."

After a few minutes of weird quietness in the hospital room, Taylor build up enough courage to speak again. "I want to be transferred." taking another breath she keep on "To Arcadia High, I know you can make people skip the waiting list when you want to. You do it when a ward joins up the team and there are suddenly a change on the waiting list shortening it by 4-5 persons."

"That's an easy matter we can arrange, but I must ask. Are you sure about this? You seen quite knowledgeable about this things, thank to internet I guess, so why do you want to be in the same school the wards went to? You may end up with shadow stalker being your class mate. Aren't you scared of her?" It was suspicious, did she know shadow stalker was a student in Winslow? Or even who she actually was? But she could not ask it directly, tenderness was the right way to manage it.

"I…. I know it may be the case, but that's the second request I have. I want some kind of restraining order for shadow stalker. I don't want her to be able to be less than a mile away from me."

"That seems like a reasonable demand, but you must understand we can't do that, not while in school at least. It will give away her identity" Thinking for a few second, Tailor began looking for a good enough new offer before Miss Militia kept talking. "What if I personally assure you that she wont be allowed to approach you while in costume nor to interact with you out of it until we can move her to another location safely?"

Mr Hebert seemed satisfied with the offer but the girl was deliberating about it. Not that everyone else didn't already knew she was more than eager to accept the offer, she had a severe expression on her face as if in deep though, but her mouth was twitching with a contained smile. For the girl's sake, both waited for her to translate her thought into words.

After that, it was just a matter of reading and signing the disclosure contract the PRT provided to keep them both shut alongside with the one where the PRT compromised to fulfill her requests and a small monetary compensation that Miss Militia herself suggested to ask for before the PRT Lawyer arrived.

That done, they left the hospital, a little more wise and wealthier. It would take a week for them to arrange her transfer, so until then she was free to do whatever she wanted to.

OOO

Once we arrived home, the harder part began. I had to convince dad to allow me to hunt criminals at night. He wont allow me to do so as he had already stated plenty of times. But now I had more control over my power and have some safe to use applications of it. By this point, mom would have throw me outside to fight the protectorate itself if I had ever asked, but I could not use that as leverage, It wouldn't be fair, he deserved better.

As soon as the door was closed he turned to me and glared me loving eyes and a smile that scared me a little. "Full story, now." was all he said. As I saw no way out from that situation, the truth was exposed for him to judge.

"Well there was an incident on my first school day last week, because Emma and two or her new friends have been bulling me for little more than a year..." his face was retorting slowly as my words flowed. "Don't be mad, I didn't told you anything about it because you were enclosed in your room mourning mom when it all begun… not that I am blaming you, but you know you ignored and neglected me and the world for almost 3 months... Anyway, they have been slowly escalating and so have I. Last Monday they locked me inside of my own locker, but when I thought it was safe, I got out using my power… and they king of noticed it."

"YOU REVEALED YOUR POWERS! ARE YOU INSANE! YOU KNOW WE ARE..."

"Dad! Please! I know that! They saw nothing, not really, and I was apparently unconscious the whole time." when he calmed down a bit I went on "The thing is that the PRT came today to investigate me, and I gave them exactly what they were looking for. I pushed Sophia to attack me, a poor defenseless girl, with her weapons but, when I left her be, she pressed her crossbow trigger and I got shot." no need to tell him I most probably only survived because of the Telekinetic armour I was able to raise at the last second.

After he discovered that I was the one to force the ward to point her weapon in my general direction he got a little mad, but still, she was the one to willingly pull the trigger, so it was only partially my fault and the penalty wasn't too big.

Right after dinner was served I brought the hero topic to light, again. He made a point of letting me know I could not sneak at night without him noticing (something I already knew), while during the day I'd be at a school which actually cared and would call him if I skipped classes. Ultimately, I managed to make him give in and we reached an agreement.

During my free week he would come out with me at night and he will be the one calling the shots about who we could attack and who we couldn't, and I would train with him during day. Not perfect, true, but better than nothing. When he deemed me able to handle myself against non-cape armed groups, I'll be allowed to go out by myself as long as I avoided capes (easier said than done in this city, but I'm not the one talking him out of his delusion). Dad would be using his old costume, and I would pick one mom's old ones, those she used to wear back in the late eighties, call it a good luck charm or sentimentalism.