To make it clear: All rights to characters, setting, story and central concepts in this story remain the property of Wildbow, Worm's author. This is just me playing in the sandbox. Worm can be found at parahumans dot wordpress dot com.


Decisions

Director Costa-Brown's office

"A potential Class S threat?"

"Yes, Director. Mrs. Yamada left her report yesterday and it was immediately flagged by Dragon. From there it went to our Thinkers with the highest priority. It isn't good, Director. Almost certainly uncontainable already, very likely immortal in all ways that matter."

"I see she's been codenamed Swarm. Bug transformations and mass absorption. Enormous potential for extinction level event, should she lose control or go insane. What did Doctor Yamada recommend?"

"Close observation and our best efforts to recruit her. Regular high-priority mental health checkups and therapy, preferably by her, or at least by someone who can bond with her and gets to know her."

"Unusual but not impossible. Have our Thinkers or Tinkers figured out detection methods already? If so, any chance on targeted disposal methods?"

"Thinkers give a fairly good chance for a way to detect her. Almost no chance for disposal methods to emerge. Disposal would almost certainly kill us all."

"Fine. That's all."

Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown, the head of Parahuman Response Team, frowned. She was an imposing woman, tall and muscular. She extruded and aura of command. She extended a finger. "Dragon," she commanded. After a few seconds, a female voice came from the hidden speakers and a computer-generated female face floated on top of her desk. "Chief Director?"

"Dragon, I want as much surveillance on this Swarm as you can offer discreetly. And try to figure out a way to detect her spread."

"Certainly. Her name's Taylor, by the way. Her trigger-"

"I'll read about it later. We need that surveillance and analysis as of yesterday, understand? You can do this?"

"Absolutely. I'll tap Brockton Bay cameras, microphones and all the possible phones she could have access to as an initial measure. I should have something more comprehensive online tomorrow or the day after that."

"Thank you," Costa-Brown said and disconnected the call. She rose from her chair and walked around her table.

"Door."

A rectangular hole opened in the air in front of the actual door. On the other side was a short neutrally white corridor terminating in a normal door. Chief Director walked to the door and the hole in the fabric of reality behind her closed. The door in front of her opened just as she was about to reach for it. On the other side was a rather normal-looking office. Behind a desk sat a dark-skinned woman dressed like a doctor, looking at Costa-Brown over her steepled fingers.

Another woman had opened the door. She wore a sharp black business suit and her face didn't betray any emotion whatsoever. Chief Director didn't seem to pay her any attention as she strode towards the desk.

"Alexandria," said the woman on the other side of the desk.

"Does this change anything? She could be worse than the first one!"

The woman in the suit walked to stand behind the shoulder of the other woman. "The Path is shorter, now. But the risks are greater. She could be a tremendous asset."

"See? You can calm down. Just proceed as you have been advised to do. We'll keep you informed if something needs to change."

It was a clear dismissal. Costa-Brown seemed to want to argue for a moment but then decided not to. She turned around and strode out of the room. As she stepped over the threshold a hole back to her office opened. She stepped in and walked around her desk and sat down. Then she buried her face in her hands. A moment later she lifted her head, now composed again and extended her finger. "Director Piggot."

Back in the other office the woman dressed as a doctor looked at the one in the suit. "So we can use this Hebert girl?"

"Not directly. We leave her be and move our pieces around her. They, in turn, affect her."

"And if it goes sour? Can we stop her?"

"The Path is a long one, but yes. We would need to ameliorate the effect her destruction would have on the ecosystem. Getting that in place would take time. Still, I don't see the need at this time."

Hebert's

Miss Militia sat in an armchair in the Hebert's living room. Taylor sat on the sofa, legs on the coffee table.

"What should I do? I can't exactly call the cops without outing myself. And I suppose it is an invasion of privacy, so possibly not legal," Taylor said.

"You're not the only one wrestling with that problem, Taylor," Miss Militia responded. "You can reveal those things legally to police only if you're part of the Protectorate, PRT, or the Wards. Invasion of privacy with parahuman abilities is a rather serious crime, although very difficult to prove - unless you go and tell the police that you did it. Currently you're protected by the fact that you're a candidate for Wards and haven't broken any laws."

"But he's hurting her!"

"So work around it. Pass the house when he's at it. Go ask for something. Put your human body in place so that you could, so that you can, hear what's happening inside. Then you can call the police without revealing yourself. But really, it would just be easier if you joined the Wards."

Following day

Taylor grimaced and limped to the green front door. Her ankle shot arrows of intense pain into her brain. Breaking it hadn't been fun. She had had to try three times. She was about to know when she heard a raised voice inside. Two dull thuds and a cry of pain. She knocked on the door.

Taylor heard muted swearing inside. She had pulled herself out of the house to make her reactions as true as possible. Stomping came closer and then the door was violently pulled open. In the doorway stood a large man. He was wearing a dress shirt and suit pants.

"What?!" Asked the man angrily. He hadn't noticed the pain on Taylor's face or didn't care.

"Sir, I sprained my ankle or something. Could I use your phone to call my dad?"

"Where's your cell, girl?" The man asked, still quite hostile.

"I don't have one. My dad doesn't approve of them," Taylor explained, shaking her head.

The man grumbled something. "Fine. Here," he said and handed her his cell. "You can sit there waiting for your ride." He tilted his head towards a wicker chair on the porch.

As Taylor turned to limp to the chair the sirens went off. A single long blast, followed by an announcement. "An Endbringer attack is ongoing. Simurgh is attacking Canberra. Please stay calm and wait for more information."

Taylor sighed and sat down in the chair. She called her father to pick her up. No point in going through with this now, and it would probably be a bad idea to try this again later.

That night at Hebert's

No direct video or audio even in the news. Simurgh was the one Endbringer that warranted extra caution. The fight wasn't especially long. With Endbringers they never were. Prolonging them, even for the sake of safety, was out of the question.

"Dad, I should be there," Taylor said watching the news.

Danny was shaking his head. "No you shouldn't. I don't think they even take Wards to fight the Simurgh."

"Next time it won't be Simurgh. Dad, I need to help. And it's not like I'll die."

"You don't know that, Taylor. Not for sure."

Taylor bit her lip. "I don't see how I could die, dad. There's nothing special about this part of my mass. Or any other part, that I can tell."

They shared a silence. It wasn't comfortable.

"Dad, I'm joining the Wards. I'll call Miss Militia tomorrow."

The next day

Miss Militia answered the phone late the next night. "Taylor, what's up? Why are you calling this late?"

"Uh, right, sorry. I just remembered you telling that you don't really sleep, and I don't sleep, and," Taylor drew a deep breath, "and I want to join. The Wards. Obviously the Wards. Uhh. Gonna shut up now."

"Taylor, it's OK. What happened? Why do you want to join now?"

"Simurgh. No, I mean the Endbringers, all of them. I want to… no, I need to help. I felt so guilty when I wasn't there. Not that I could have done much, but still."

"And what does your father think?"

"He's all for me joining the Wards. He just doesn't want me involved with the Endbringers, but -"

"- But nothing, Taylor. He's still your father and we don't take Wards into Endbringer situations without parent's consent. You're welcome to join the Wards but you need to follow the same rules as everyone else."

PRT East-North-East HQ

"The Hebert girl wants to join the Wards. Yes, I understand. Miss Militia's reports have been filed and should be available," Director Piggot said to the phone. She was perhaps an inch or two under average height and rather obese. She was dressed in a well-fitting navy blue jacket and a matching skirt.

"What?" she asked, looking stunned.

"I said that you either ask Panacea to heal you or I will find someone else to take care of the Hebert situation. You are under enough stress already even without her with your kidneys the way they are. Add the girl into the mix and you're likely to burn out within the year. We can't afford that. So either you get yourself healed or I'll find a replacement," said the female voice on the other end of the call.

"Chief Director, I-"

"You nothing, Emily. The situation is dire enough for me to bend the rules. I'd rather face whatever disciplinary action they throw at me for this than see the girl devour the world."

The call ended. Emily Piggot seemed distressed for a moment, then schooled her features to her usual stern visage. She pressed a button on her desk. Few seconds later Miss Militia entered with Taylor.

"Director Piggot, this is Taylor Hebert. Taylor, this is Director Emily Piggot."

Taylor stepped forward and offered her hand to the Director. Emily extended her own hand and found Taylor's shake pleasantly firm. Taylor was tall and fit, especially in comparison with the Director. She was dressed in a pale yellow sweater and khaki cargo pants.

The girl's face had gone a little pale and she looked concerned. Emily knew what she must have sensed when they had touched. She decided to ignore it.

"Taylor, I understand you want to join the Wards. I've read quite a bit about you. Miss Militia speaks highly of you and you've managed to gain the approval of the other Wards. Doctor Yamada approves as well. How do you think you can contribute?"

Taylor seemed to be taken aback a little. "I think," she started, "I'm best suited to be support. I mean, sure, I can be on the front lines, I don't think I can be really, seriously, hurt. I see and hear, well, everywhere I am. With the right combination of bug-selves I can sense better than humans can. I can carry messages fast, and can sort of teleport to anywhere where I have enough mass. Currently only here in Brockton Bay and in New York, though. And only one place in New York, I haven't really increased my mass that much over there."

Director Piggot was silent for a while. "Our thinkers agree, although they estimate your frontline effectiveness to be quite much higher than you give yourself credit for. Especially as a swarm of bugs. Those can be venomous, I assume?"

Taylor looked a little shocked. "Sure, of course. As far as I understand, as long as it's an arthropod I can have as many as my mass allows. As long as I have touched a live specimen, I mean."

"Don't misunderstand me, Miss Hebert. I'm not advocating hurting anyone. I'm saying that you can support and protect others. And there are parahumans who can take whatever you can become that can bite or sting. But ask first, then sting if you think it's necessary and will work."

"Yes, Director Piggot. I can also shapeshift, although I don't think that's very useful. My transformations have to be living animals, nothing special about them, although they could intimidate some of the less physical parahumans. But I can also transform into people, although I need to stay in contact with the person I'm transforming into to maintain the form. If I lose the contact the form is… Optimized, I guess? It changes to the optimal gene expression allowed by my human template, retaining the genetic material from the other person that my power considers unimportant."

"I'll keep that in mind. Our Thinkers raised an interesting possibility. You can transform into spiders. Could you produce spider silk? In large quantities? That would be extremely valuable to us."

"I don't see why not. Funny how I didn't think of that. I could probably make my own costume out of that stuff."

"Why bother? I understand your transformation doesn't include your clothes." Director Piggot seemed a bit distracted. "I guess we can go through the rest of the stuff our Thinkers thought up later. For now I need you to go through our Operations Manual and familiarize yourself with Parahuman Law. I've marked the sections relating to the use of parahuman abilities in matters regarding non-parahumans. The red tabs are for laws regarding use of extrasensory perception such as clairvoyance and telepresence. Those apply to you too. You'll have to also attend Parahumans 101. The rest of the Parahumans courses are optional. Any questions?"

"No, Director, not right now."

"Then sign these. Miss Militia will acquire your father's signatures later. Thank you for joining, Miss Hebert."

Wards ENE HQ

"Swarm?" Taylor suggested. She was sitting on a sofa, her feet propped up on a recliner.

"Dark side. Definitely dark side," said Chris.

"Bugshift?"

"Um, no. Bugshit is not a good name," Dennis laughed.

"Oh, right. Chrysalis?"

"That's not bad. But why?" Missy asked.

"Metamorphosis. Change. And pupa didn't sound as cool."

"Actually, why go with bug theme at all? Just pick something related to shapeshifting," Aegis suggested.

Miss Militia turned to Taylor. "That's actually a good point. We might want to downplay your bug connection as much as possible. No point in revealing your abilities outright."

"I don't know how I'd manage that. My clothes don't transform with me. The butterfly trick is sort of slow for real world application."

"How about Flutter?" Dennis suggested.

"What? Why?"

"It's a collective noun for butterflies. You walk in, do the butterfly bit and walk out as a dog or a wolf or something."

"That's… Not bad. Cutesy, misleading and embarrassing as heck for the villains I beat."

Protectorate East-North-East HQ

Taylor looked at the converted rig floating on the Bay. It was the local headquarters for the Protectorate, protected by a powerful shield. Miss Militia was with her in the helicopter. As soon as they landed she led her inside, navigating to a conference room where the local Protectorate members waited, sitting around a table.

"Taylor, meet the local Protectorate team. You probably know all the members," said Miss Militia. She sat down, lowering her scarf around her neck.

The rest of the team were in their costumes.

Armsmaster stepped forward and took her hand. Safe to shake wearing the armor. "Flutter, right?"

"Right, although without the costume I'm still just Taylor," she said, proud that there was only a slight tremor in her voice.

"I hear your bugs are going to work in information gathering and surveillance. Would you mind if I made you a visor with a complete communications suite?"

"Um, sure, I'd be honored. But it's me, I mean I'm the bugs. I'm not a Master, as such."

"So where are you right now?" Assault grinned and asked.

"Here in Brockton Bay I am now spread out pretty much everywhere, and I'm also in the Bay. I'm also pretty far in the surrounding countryside. I hitched a ride to New York some time ago, but I'm pretty localized there. I'm also in small pockets around the Americas, mostly just to find new bugs and animals to touch. I don't sleep, so I spend many nights flying around as a bird and leaving myself wherever looks suitable."

"How many bugs are we talking about?" asked Dauntless.

"Umm, at the moment? About a trillion and a half."

There was a moment of silence and then a muffled exclamation from Armsmaster's direction. "That means that you weigh at least four thousand tons!"

"That sounds possible. But only a tiny fraction of it is actually useful. Where I am I have taken over the duties of natural arthropods and can't just pull them out to do whatever. Here in Brockton Bay I have higher density, so I have a little leeway - but I still have only a ton or two extra to use as I see fit unless I want to risk destabilizing the ecosystem."

There was another silence. "And you can sense everywhere you are? With all of the arthropods?" asked Armsmaster.

"Sure. Depends on their senses, though. I have to use combinations of bugs to see and hear so that it's comparable to human senses, and I have access to some senses that we humans just don't have."

"So you're telling us that you see and hear all of Brockton Bay, part of New York and random spots in Americas all at once?"

Taylor was quiet for a while, a bit confused. "Sure. I mean I'm there and those parts of me have senses. Why?"

"You've read Parahuman Law, I hope?"

"Sure, I'm ignoring most of the private residences. And I'm waiting until I'm on console duty to report on any crimes. And I'm not attempting to actively discover people's identities, although it seems to happen regularly even if I don't do anything. That said, I wish there was a way for me to communicate many things simultaneously. Having only one mouth is inconvenient, and forming shapes with my bug-selves is slow if I want to form letters to tell anything. There's three robberies, two hold-ups, one assault and what appears to be a break-in and a few other things going on right now that I can sense. There's always something going on, but I can't communicate it all at once. It's frustrating."

Another silence. "I think we can figure out something. Were all those crimes happening in public? Not on private properties?"

"Yes. You don't want to know what happens in people's homes. Sadly I have to unless I want to keep myself out. And I can't do that without… Wait. Damn. I don't have to fill the hole I leave in the ecosystem if I get rid of the bugs in people's homes. Not really. There just wouldn't be any. It really doesn't matter if there are no bugs - humans are a minuscule and mostly unimportant part of arthropod ecosystem."

PRT ENE HQ

"I'm going with a butterfly theme, so I want bright colors. Iridescent, if possible, Miss Strafe." Taylor was talking with a middle-aged woman. The woman was dressed sharply: a gray suit jacket, skirt of same color, white dress shirt under the jacket. It all seemed to accentuate her shape well.

"I think we can do that. Does the costume need protective features?"

"Not really. If you choose to incorporate any, they can be for deception. I don't really need any."

"Loose or tight?"

"Loose fit, please. I need to be able to dress and undress quickly."

Miss Strafe rose one eyebrow at that but chose not to comment. "And your head? What kind of visor or helmet do you want?"

"Umm, I think a hood will suffice. Armsmaster said he'd make my visor."

Miss Strafe's eyebrow rose again. "I suppose that's all I need for the first drafts."

Wards ENE HQ

"So are you ready? Dennis?"

"Ready. Go whenever."

Taylor, dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, reached out and touched Carlos' arm.

"Huh. That's new."

"What?" Carlos asked.

"My power seems to think you're your own species. I got a new template for you. Umm, crap. You're not going to like what this means."

"What?" There was a bit of annoyance and trepidation in Carlos' voice.

"Do you know the classic definition of species? Well, your genome is different enough that, at least to my power, you don't count as human anymore."

Carlos processed this for a while. "I'm sterile?"

"Well, not as such, and I don't even know if your changes affect your germline. It's just-"

"That I'm the only one of my species. Awesome."

"Well, not necessarily the only one, and there's always Panacea."

"Whoa, slow down there. Did you really just say you'd breed with Carlos?" Dennis asked with a smirk.

Taylor turned scarlet. "I- no- I mean… That's not what I meant!"

Carlos was obviously holding back, trying to suppress laughter. And failing.

PRT ENE HQ, April 3rd

They were waiting in the adjacent room to the conference room where Director Piggot was speaking about the current state of parahuman affairs in Brockton Bay. At the end of that speech she would announce Flutter joining the Wards and Taylor would walk in in her costume.

"So I just walk over there, say my thing, do my transformations and come back here? Should I pick up my costume when I come, or just leave it there?"

"There's a small trapdoor for your costume. We don't want the bit about you being naked on the stage to come out either," said Armsmaster. Miss Militia hit him on the shoulder, having learned early on not to try elbowing someone in a power armor.

"Great, right. I try to do the release and absorption of the butterflies so that the cameras don't pick it up. Was there something else?" Taylor was very nervous at this point. Director Piggot was almost done with her speech.

"No, I think you'll do fine. Just remember, you are masked, no one is going to know who you really are. Go impress them, Taylor," said Miss Militia.

Taylor drew a deep breath and started walking to the podium as Director Piggot was finishing. "... It is my great pleasure to announce a new Ward today. Ah, here she comes." Director turned to watch Taylor approach and stepped away to give her room on the podium.

Taylor looked impressive. She was over six feet tall, had a build that suggested plenty of physical activity but wasn't born in a gym. She moved with unusual grace. Her costume was iridescent blue similar to that of a Blue Morpho butterfly. It was accentuated with green similar to that of an Emerald Swallowtail on her cuffs and legs. Her boots and gloves were the same green. While the costume was not skin-tight it did conform to her shape rather nicely. There were butterflies flying above her head in a halo, and she seemed to wear a cape of blue and green butterflies. She wore a blue hood with a simple black visor covering the top of her face.

Taylor walked to the podium, shook Director's hand and turned towards the crowd. There was a short silence as everyone waited. "Hi. My name is Flutter." As she introduced herself she lifted her hand palm up and two butterflies descended from her halo to rest on it.

"I haven't been active very long, just practicing using my powers, not making the news. When I saw Simurgh on the news I felt that I could help. The first step was to apply for the Wards and Director Piggot and Miss Militia were kind enough to take me in." The butterflies flew back up to the halo.

"What can you do? How are butterflies going to help against Endbringers?" Asked a reporter from the second row.

"I'm glad you asked. Here's what I do - and my dramatic exit," Flutter said and took a step back and away from the podium. Then all the butterflies, including the ones forming her cape, flew out and back, starting to fly around her. There were so many that she was totally blocked from view. This lasted for about half a minute and then the butterflies started to disappear. Through them the audience saw a wolf staring back at them. It's tongue lolled out in a wolfish grin and butterflies returned. Another half minute later they disappeared entirely and a gorilla waved at the people before moving out of the room.

Once Flutter was out of the room she went to the HQ as the gorilla, transformed, and dressed in her spare costume. Then she walked back out towards the room next to the conference room where the afterparty with important non-cape, non-PRT people in attendance.

Getting the extra mass smuggled into the conference room and out of the Wards HQ was surprisingly easy. The raised platform of the conference room had accesses for wiring and other stuff, large enough for her fastest bugs to traverse in the time allotted. The vents in HQ allowed her bugs access out.

Flutter walked into the party and was immediately surrounded by people introducing themselves. She shook hands, smiled, and despaired inside. Then Miss Militia was there, and she got a short reprieve before everything started again. This time it was more orderly and polite. Miss Militia's presence was intimidating enough to thwart most of the enthusiasm.