The next morning, Taylor woke up early and stared at her ceiling again. The sound of two heartbeats should fill her with joy, but the ugly stab of jealousy marred that light emotion.

Still alone with only her parents that cared for her at all. Heck, Armsmaster was probably only nice and polite because of how powerful she was.

No, that wasn't fair. She rolled onto her side and curled up with her hands around her knees.

Armsmaster wasn't a villain, even in those memories. Just enamored with his own sense of self as a hero and feeling threatened by Dauntless looking to eclipse him. Even though Dauntless died later.

A shiver ran up her back.

She had to stop that from happening. The destruction of Brockton Bay. Leviathan. The Slaughterhouse 9. The Teeth.

Zion.

Making sure that Jack Slash does not leave Brockton Bay was important. Wait, he may never come to Brockton Bay. Make sure he's stopped soon before he can trigger Zion to start destroying all the Earths.

Her strength should continue to grow. After she cleaned up Brockton Bay, she could work on Boston and New York City.

And hope desperately to grow powerful enough to actually be able to survive Zion. The hero/warrior. The Entity. Source of parahuman powers.

She also could not hyperventilate any more, she realized as she continued to breath in and out frantically. A slap to her face startled her, but did not even sting. She would have to slap much harder to do that.

And probably level the house.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Roll out of bed and stand up.

Better. She decided on a shower. Maybe go jogging. Regular jogging.

After she cleaned up, she tweaked her appearance ever so slightly and then promised to herself to not do anything more for at least a couple of weeks. She pulled out sweat pants, running shoes and a hoodie and floated down the stairs. The door locked behind her with a click and she jogged down the steps and headed into the dark of the morning.

As she jogged, she stretched her mind out to feel for certain people.

Another girl jogged to ignore her tiredness for staying up late patrolling.

Her friend slept with the echoes of the threat of horrible mutilation under her dreams. Her father finished making himself breakfast and planned to go to work in about twenty minutes.

Her feet turned a familiar corner as she continued down a nostalgic, painful road. Fifteen minutes later, she turned another corner to enter a cul de sac with a large, two story home that looked only thirty years old. The garage door started to rattle upwards with the whine of an electric motor.

"Mr. Barnes?" she called out.

Old habits started to cause him to smile and only long practice controlled his face. "Taylor."

"Y-You heard what happened, didn't you? On Monday morning?" she asked.

"I heard that you accused my daughter of a ludicrous bullying campaign. That she supposedly is part of a group that attacked you near daily, yet for some reason no teacher has any records of," he said in a hostile tone.

"It's Winslow. I'm one girl from a poor family. They are a model, a track star and a harmless, cute student. Even if they see them do something, they ignore it." Taylor shook her head. "But I'm not here about that. I'm here because of Emma."

"We were talking about Emma, were we not?" the lawyer asked in a scathing tone.

"I- I would like my friend back, but I think she's gone. She hates me for some reason. I just don't understand what would make Emma change from a girl that wanted to be like Lady Photon to someone that... well, frankly... someone that enjoys putting other people down. Tearing everything about them to shreds. My- My- My best friend wanted to be a hero." Dammit, wrong time for tears. "It's not just me, but she does it to other people, too. When did she become so... evil?"

"She isn't evil," he snapped.

"But she's not good. Ever since she made friends with Sophia, she changed. All she cares about is how mean you can be, how much money you have and that you are pretty and popular."

"Taylor, you should leave. Now," Alan said as he turned back to his car and got in the driver's seat.

The girl moved out of the way as she felt his mind calcify around protecting his daughter from the world. Even if it left her broken. So she nudged that idea just a little bit. Amplified the suspicion that Emma is broken. She watched him drive away and sighed.

Probably not enough by half. She got him thinking more about it with talking than the overwhelming mental power she now possesed. Which should be good. She didn't want to just mind control everyone. Taylor shuddered at that thought.

She continued on with her run.


Annette looked away from the stove where she cooked breakfast. "Taylor! When did you get up? It's barely light out."

"I couldn't sleep. I don't think I need to sleep, really. So I went jogging." She coughed lightly. "Um, when did you guys want to go find out what it takes to be an official, independent team?"

"Your father wants to get my fake ID settled and then we can go over to the Protectorate."

Danny walked in, all dressed to go and sat down. "Good morning. Bill is going to meet me at nine o'clock to introduce me to this forger he knows. Should only take a few hours."

Annette turned on the news as they served themselves. "Well, look who's popular," she said with a grin.

The TV news had reporters talking about their impact.

"Not surprising that we made quite the impression yesterday. We cleaned up the bay and captured criminals from all three of the major gangs," Danny said as he nodded his head, a small grin on his face.

"So I have until noon and then we'll go to the Protectorate?" She needed to think bigger. Better.

"Sounds like a plan," Danny said and then took a bite of his eggs.

Annette frowned at her daughter sitting so quietly. What happened to her chatterbox daughter? "So what's the last book you read?"

"Oh, just a fantasy novel. I've still got the second book of the series to read from the library. I'll read it before I go working on computers. Need to hear about the threats and stuff." She gave her mom a wan smile. "Sorry, had a slightly tough night. Still getting over the locker."

Her frown turned thunderous. "I can't believe they let this get so far. Agh. I wish I could go down there and have words with that principal of yours."

"Honey," Danny said as he put his hand over hers. "We have to protect you."

"I know. Secret identity. Don't out the family." She started to stab her eggs.

Taylor felt amused by her mother's intensity, something that had faded slightly in her memory. "I could study for a day or two and take my GED, so I don't have to go." She blinked as a thought occurred to her. "And speaking of that. I can do something to make you guys much harder to hurt. I want you to be safe, even if the gangs and PRT come after us."

"Your powers are quite frankly terrifying," Annette said. "What are you going to do?

"I'm going to copy my mostly physically protective power." She grimaced for a second. "I don't think it will be quite as powerful, but most things this side of the Endbringers and the Siberian shouldn't be able to hurt you."

Her parents stared at her with wide eyes.

"That's- How can you do that?" Danny asked louder than intended as he caused her to flinch.

"It's- I don't know a good way to explain it. But yeah, I'm really overpowered." Ludicrously so. She reached over and then with a surge of her will, copied her Alexandria powerset to her mom, then her dad. "There you go. Should have some memory and other mental improvements."

Danny bent his spoon, then bent it back. "Well, I can definitely say it isn't going to be boring."

After breakfast, they took a few more pictures of Annette and then Danny took off in the old truck. Taylor wandered upstairs and read a book in ten minutes, then wandered down through the every armored and locked door of the basement.

Her mother followed her down and then floated into another hole in the center of the old shop. She watched her daughter blur around assembling devices that she then turned around and used them to make another device.

Taylor snapped to a halt. "Come on over, Mom!"

"I thought you said you were going to work on computers," Annette said in bemusement as she floated over.

"I am. But it's going to take a lot of tools to make the computers I need. Luckily, one of my powers has the effect of making me unable to become bored." Well, maybe the phrase should be 'not too bored'.

"So a computer. That runs on Tinker science."

"Um, yeah. It'll be the ultimate mainframe. The terminals will be little bracelets keyed to your psychic imprint again. I'll make spares like I made spare parts and supplies for your armors. Though they are slightly redundant, aren't they?"

"They are a very good disguise. And our new powers are a very good hidden ace. So to speak, of course. I'll leave you to it, okay?" she said as she started to float away.

"Sure. I should be done in real time in about an hour." Taylor dialed up the time acceleration bubble up to full speed and got back to work. Those hundreds of hours of construction and programming weren't going to do themselves.


The old truck scritched to a halt and caused Danny to wince at the sound of rubber abrading. The truck ran fine and quiet. Better than ever. Taylor must have done a below the surface upgrade yesterday. He hopped out of the truck. Still felt twenty years younger and ready to take on the world.

"I'm home," Danny said for the first time in three years.

"In the study reading up on current history and the news," Annette called from the small room on the ground floor that had been her sacrosanct sanctum of learning. The very old PC computer had been five years old before Annette's death. "I hope Taylor is done with that new computer. I don't remember it running that slowly."

"Yeah, I wasn't as tech savvy to keep it updated and running right," Danny admitted.

She snorted at him. "If you bought Bob Morgan over in IT lunch at the Artemis Burger near the college, he would work his magic. Usually."

"Oh, that was your secret."

"And I can't exactly do that anymore." Annette shrugged and headed into the, yet again, expanded subterranean Tinker factory.

It spread out, now the size of a decent sized aircraft hanger.

"This isn't going to cause problems with the neighbor's houses, is it?" the father asked.

"No, I've got it braced with supports. The houses are less likely to move," Taylor said with a snort of laughter that did not really reach her eyes. "You guys are ready?"

"I want to see this new computer of yours first." Annette looked around to see if she could spot it.

"Um, well I can show you the terminals. I hooked up the coms, armors and phones to it, too. The actual computer is a hyperdimensional mathematical artifact made of force fields with more computing power than the entire Earth. Even with Dragon's computers. And no, it's not going to go all Terminator on us." She tossed them each a bracelet that shrank to size over their wrist of choice. Taylor then opened a window in the air. "Hard light holograms. It has a smartphone mode if you want to look up something unobtrusive. Should now be keyed to your psychic minds and can scan for Master effects. Just think at the wrist with what you want to do."

They both brought up screens and pulled up news from the internet.

"This seems overkill for, well, any computing needs."

"I've got it set up and tapped into most major public threat warning systems across the globe. It should keep an eye out for those A-Class and S-Class threats and let us know so that we can decide what to do." And took Saint's toys away. With a flash of white light, she garbed herself in her Advent outfit.

"I think she wants to go visit the Protectorate, dear," Annette said as she studied her Changling daughter.

"Yeah, I think so." Danny gave her a shrug.


The PRT trooper manning the Protectorate's official dock saw the trio fly into view and then landed with perfect aplomb in front of the blocky guardhouse.

"Everyman, Resurgence and Advent; right?" he called out.

"That is us," the blockier and male armor replied. "We're here to find out what it takes to become an Independent team."

Annette smiled to herself. From ex-minion to a powerful superhero. "I'm surprised that we are being asked to come to the Rig."

"Well, you did a lot, earn the trust and, well, Armsmaster stated that if you wanted to destroy the Rig, you could do it. So you don't need to sneak in, of course." The leader of the squad shrugged.

"And it doesn't look bad that we are meeting them, either." Advent nodded her head at the unobtrusive reporters about half a block away.

"Public relations stuff is way above my pay grade. But I won't say you are wrong," he replied.

One short boat ride and they let themselves be scanned at the dock at the bottom of one of the pylons. Which led to the first problem.

"Um, I have no idea what to do. Regs say that they have to be scanned for explosives, but according to the sensors those armors aren't there except in visual light." The new PRT trooper manning the security station managed to look fit to be tied without even being able to see her face.

Advent coughed. "We don't need to actually sneak an explosive, you know."

"Let me double check."

Five minutes later, they took a metal mesh cage elevator up and into the bottom of the Rig. Four figures met them, all wearing their superhero outfits.

The silver and blue armored Armsmaster gave a small wave. "Hello and good to see you again. I'm quite glad you could make it. For ease of records, have you decide on a team name?"

"Er, not really? Um, how about Hope?" Advent said, feeling quite stupid. Super-brain and still can't think more than one or two steps ahead. Agh!

"I think there's at least two teams named Hope right now. One in the southwest and one in Dallas," Miss Militia mused.

"How about Votum ad Vita? The promise of hope in Latin?" Resurgence suggested.

"Slightly religious sounding, but I guess it could work. What do you think Dad?" Advent asked of her father.

"If it causes problems, we'll look at changing it. The Brockton Bay Brigade did rebrand into New Wave."

"Votum ad Vita. Noted. So let's get to the less glamorous part of being a hero," Armsmaster said as he turned and just walked off.

They all fell in step behind him.

"Paperwork." Everyman sighed. The bane of his life.

"Paperwork," Velocity confirmed and with a grin.

The next hour passed quickly as they affirmed their heroic intentions and gave them contact information.

"So," Armsmaster said as he tried to casually bring up a topic, "you have a Tinker on your team?"

Everyman blinked, not that he could be seen. "Um, that's Advent."

The older Tinker tried not to show any dismay. "Really? I was very surprised at how advanced your armors are."

"I cheated," she admitted. "I used my matter manipulation to create my materials and tools. If you like, I could help you with some of your supplies a bit."

"Well, I won't say no, but it will have to be to the Protectorate and the Wards both, not just myself. Otherwise it might be construed as a bribe." He gave a little shrug.

"I guess," Advent said as she tried to not fidget.

"And that leaves me to give the nickel tour here," Miss Militia said with a bit of humor in her voice. She raised an eyebrow at Armsmaster, who nodded back.

"Do you have a large, empty store room?" Advent asked as she stood up.

"Yes, this way." Armsmaster led her out of the room and to the large store room by his labs.

"If you don't mind, can we hold up?" Miss Militia asked as Velocity and Dauntless followed behind the pair of Tinkers. She continued after they stopped. "I noticed that Advent signed up for S-Class threats at the highest availability."

"And you were wondering if we were going to sign off on that?" Resurgence asked. "I want to say no, but I'm afraid she'll just go anyways. Even to Endbringer fights."

Miss Militia showed a bit of her surprise with raised eyebrows, even if the scarf covered her open mouth. "Won't she listen to you?"

Everyman chuckled. "She's a teen with more power than I could imagine. Even if we said no, we don't have a way to actually stop her. So all we can do is try to be there for her. If that means going to Endbringer fights, then we will be there."

"Do you even have powers? Or are you only normal people in those armors?" Miss Militia asked.

"That's a little rude, but no. We had powers before we used the armors. The armors are just to keep us more safe."

"I see," she replied in a natural tone.

Resurgence sighed as she felt the skepticism from the hero. "For instance, I can feel your skepticism. And alarm and now- Anger..."

Miss Militia pointed her gun at Resurgence who held up her hands. "Stop." The bore on the gun looked wider than any either of the parents had seen before.

"Stopped. I'm sorry if my Thinker ability upset you. I'm still learning about how it all works," she replied with as much sincerity as she could.

"Miss Militia, would you please point your gun away from my wife. You didn't threaten Gallant the first time he brought up up his empathy power, did you?" Everyman kept his hands pointed away from anyone.

"No." The gun shapeshifted back to a more standard 9mm pistol that she holstered. "Sorry about that. Some empathy controlling masters also have the ability to sense emotions. Gallant, for instance, can blast people with kinetic force and emotions." Miss Militia scowled under her mask. "I actually have to submit us both for Master/Stranger quarantine now."

Resurgence tilted her head, then nodded. "This is going to be boring, isn't it?"

"And we are going to have to ask you to exit your armor."

"Um, is it bad that I don't have a mask under the armor?"

"We have spares. In fact, each room is supposed to have a dispenser for disposable masks." Miss Militia walked over carefully and pulled out a mask from a little box on the wall, almost like a tissue paper dispenser.

"Our government money in action," Everyman said with a snort of laughter.


Advent sighed as she let her parents know telepathically that she overheard them accidentally revealing Resurgence's empathetic power.

"I don't have much in the room right now, but this is where I store supplies that I plan to use in projects," Armsmaster explained. "Thanks for the escort. We'll have that meeting at three o'clock to go over our responses to the change yesterday to the city's dynamics."

Dauntless nodded and gave a little wave as Velocity just disappeared in a slow blur.

Fast. Hah hah.

The fifteen by fifteen foot room had a small set of crates in the corner nearest the heavy metal door they entered through.

"What materials should I prioritize?" Advent asked as she looked around.

"I'll take ten pounds of high-capacity high-temperature superconductor," Armsmaster said to test the girl.

She pushed her inhumanly intelligent mind to perfectly recall one of the materials she used in the armor for her parents. Air 'popped' to fill in the matter she used to make the ten pounds of superconductor.

"Here we go. Just extrude it carefully. Should be superconductive up to 1,000॰ celcius. It degrades rather energetically above that. Needs to be kept relatively cool while spooling it into wire."

"Why didn't you make it into a spool already?" he asked.

"Oh, so you could decide what to make it into. Works without any issues up to about 9 nm. So it can be used in computers. It's really exotic matter and requires playing with metastable quark structures. Even with my new brain, it hurts to explain it."

"Matter and energy control down to the quark level?" Armsmaster asked to make sure he heard that right.

"Yes, but I wouldn't have even known how to try without my Tinkering ability. It can be created in laboratories and even small scale production, but it's a bear to figure out. About twenty generations of tools to build from phase shifted cyclotrons. So, um, my power is cheating power that cheats?" She gave him a helpless shrug.

"Yes. Yes it is. Let's work on some more standard materials. You need matter to transmute, obviously. Could you use water from the tertiary fire suppressant? It's just sea water, so effectively just the cost of pumping it up here."

"Sure!"

Half an hour later, Armsmaster closed the door to the storage room. He tapped the side of his helmet. "Armsmaster to console, send Sgt. Milo's squad for a security detail for storeroom 1B. Standard evidence situation." He then turned to her. "Well, that will be very useful. You have my personal thanks and the Protectorate's thanks. This will help the whole Protectorate."

"Advent, help me!"

She turned to look to the city. "I need to go." With a zap of psychic energy, she teleported to back over the city. Advent sent her mind out to touch the people she felt were important.

There. She clenched her hands hard enough that the leather in her gloves split on their seams.

The ground quaked as she plowed through the earth as if it were merely water. She burst into the hallway in front of Coil's armored office. In a blur, she ripped of the armored door and had Coil held against the wall. Pitter bounced off the wall painfully from the light push as his glasses shattered. Tattletale's chair, in which she sat tied up, fell over backwards to her squawk of dismay.

"Coil."

He struggled to move the hand that did not quite choke him. "You wouldn't dare to kill me," he bluffed. Why wasn't his power working?

"It's based on precognition," she explained.

What did she mean? "I control fate." How had she found them?

"When you make your choice, your power traces your two paths into the future and then sends you down to the one you would either choose to keep or the other one is eliminated via your death. Oh, and I heard Tattletale call out for help."

He just stared at her. "What are you going to do?" he demanded. "I have money and power!"

"Well, I just finished verifying how vile you are. So it's time to go to jail for your crimes," Advent said as she grabbed the top of his shoulder with her other hand and then lifted him up without hurting him while she kept him docile with her biokinesis and then released the hold around his neck. "Are you okay, Tattletale?" A touch of her powers snapped the ropes that kept the girl tied up.

"Felt better," she said in complaint as she slowly scrambled to her feet while not using her right hand. "I will really feel better after he gets arrested. I'd prefer being healed right away."

Advent winced as she felt Tattletale's pain. "I didn't heal you so that we have physical evidence of Coil torturing you. I dulled the pain a bit, but we should wrap your hands up so we can go to the PRT now. Can you wait long enough to testify?" Advent made sure her anti-thinker power continued to work for now against Tattletale. "And no, I do not plan to let them arrest you if I can swing it."

Tattletale thought over the question. "If it doesn't take too long." She frowned and then rolled her eyes. "Aha! You know that Coil recruited me at gunpoint. The PRT probably won't care about that." Didn't even require using her power.

"Well, you know, I'm going to have to work on reforming you as much as possible. I will need someone to help with my bounty of Coil's money and assets," Advent replied in an almost convincing tease. She started to carefully wrap the fingertips of the injured hand using her telekinesis.

"So now what?" Tattletale asked as she looked around. Where were the soldiers?"

Advent looked up. "Just finished waiting for the last mercenary to fall unconscious."

With a stutter-psychic flash, they (being everyone in that base) appeared on the grass out the PRT headquarters.

"Couldn't you have done that yesterday?" the blonde asked in frustration aggravated by her injuries.

"I'm not omniscient nor omnipotent," Advent said absently. And even with 'super' intelligence, no real idea on how to fix a whole world screwed over by monkey-paw powers. Her supercomputer reported that it completed the task of transferring all of Coil's electronically hidden wealth, with the 25 % set aside to hand over to the PRT. "Oh, hello! I've got a villain and his henchmen to hand over!"

The four PRT troopers slowed down to a cautious walk. "Coil?" the female in front asked.

"That is correct. I caught him in the act of torturing his enslaved minion here," Advent replied happily as she let the back of her mind heal the different troops and workers in the PRT base in a slow manner

Tattletale held up her hand. "That would be me. Coil had his men grab me off the street and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Work for him or be shot."

"Why didn't you slip away and come to us?" a second trooper asked as the other two started to issue requests for backup over their radios.

A lot of backup.

"Can I get my injuries documented and get healed, please? Even with the pain dulled, it still fucking hurts, you know," the blonde villain said after half a minute.

"Let me take a look," the first trooper asked as she moved over with care. She unwrapped the simple bandages. "Shit, burnt fingertips, pulled finger nails and they even broke them?"

"He broke them first," Tattletale said as she looked away.

They secured pictures and recorded statements even as a good two dozen PRT troops arrived. Half an hour later, the Protectorate and the Wards all showed up.

Clockblocker complained first. "I'm feeling redundant."

Battery sighed. "Clockblocker, you aren't supposed to go out and fight supervillains every week."

Vista raised an eyebrow at that, then turned back to watch the new hero. "Is she going to join the Wards?"

Aegis just shook his head. "I doubt it. She's got a team already. If she can take care of the rest of the Merchants and all of the Empire, we'll be able to do boring patrols to our heart's content."

Triumph, the lion themed hero and leader of the Wards, looked over to his second in command. "I somehow don't think it will be that easy. All right Wards, I want you to form a perimeter. Be attentive and visible."

All of the other Wards present complained, but started to move out.

Armsmaster finally exited the front doors. "Advent. I take it this is what you meant when you left?"

"Yeah, I heard Tattletale shouting for help." She gave a sheepish shrug.

He frowned as he considered things. "Hmm. Your Thinker power feeds you auditory information. Not the strangest thing. I heard from the responding officers that you have stated that Tattletale is a victim here. Could you explain?"

"Sure. Coil grabbed her off the street, told her she could work for him or get shot in the head. She decided she didn't want to die. Then he started to torture her today for information on me. I intervened and captured him and all of his men in that base," Advent explained as she walked over to Tattletale and winked as she put her hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, that's nice. Thanks Advent," the girl said as she even felt her Thinker headache fade.

"Hey, Armsmaster? Should we go catch Coil and his spies in the PRT red handed as they try to escape?" Advent asked casually.

Tattletale snorted in humor. Trolling, eh?

"And how do you know that?" he asked as he unlimbered his halberd.

"I kept an ear out for it, as I expected him to try almost immediately."

"Miss Militia! Assault! Come here! We've got a situation," Armsmaster called out as he readied himself mentally for battle with his own halberd.

The two other ran over quickly.

"Coil's trying to escape! We need to stop it as fast as possible!" he explained.

"Wow, he's only been captured for like half an hour," Assault said even as he grinned.

"Fast? Sure?" Advent said innocently as she grabbed all four of them and teleported them to the detention area in the basement of the PRT building.

Thomas Calvert stopped disrobing with his Coil costume down about his knees. His three moles immediately raised their submachine guns and fired in one smooth action.

All of the bullets stopped in the air between them. "Whoops," Advent lied while she tried to not grin or smile.

"Calvert," Armsmaster said in a furious tone of voice.

"God dammit. This isn't what it looks like! I'm being framed," Calvert said desperately.

Tattletale blinked as she realized her power responded. A smile blossomed across her face. "He's got two people in medical that can fake his MRI scan."

"Oh, really? Do you have their names?" Miss Militia asked as Advent zapped the moles with a nerve disruption blast.

They collapsed bonelessly.

"No, but I can describe them a bit? Ones older and blond. The other is younger and female, with a very expensive Tinker tech smartphone that she shouldn't be able to afford. A Dragontech 2011 Orbus," she supplied helpfully and then giggled.

"Go," Armsmaster ordered. "Back into your cell, Coil. I'm sure Director Piggot will be less than thrilled with your actions."

Advent really wanted to be a fly on the wall, but she really shouldn't. She watched as Assault moved over to start stripping the PRT moles of weapons and just pushed them into three more cells. "Well, it looks like you have everything under control for now. Do you mind if I come back tomorrow to fill up the supply room here in the building?"

Armsmaster's helmeted head turned to her. "You want to donate even more... supplies?"

"And maybe some sort of national depot for the rest of the Protectorate and Wards in other cities?" she replied as she tilted her head.

"I- Thank you. That's generous. I'll talk to Legend and get the logistics in motion before you come back tomorrow." Armsmaster actually smiled.

"Wow, he's not a robot-" Tattletale said just as a surge of psychic energy spirited her away with Advent.


Alec looked up to see two figures appear. "Oh, fuck me. That isn't even fair."

Tattletale blinked as she looked around the Undersider's lair. "Well, that answers that question." She worked the edge of her mask and pulled it off with a wince of pain from the rubbery cement. "Alec, this is Taylor. Taylor, that's Alec. He can be a jerk."

Taylor pulled down her mask to her neck. "Hello." She dispersed the psychic energy so to not leave any residue behind. No need to make it easy to be tracked.

"I somehow don't think you plan on joining the Undersiders," the nerve-controlling master said as his game avatar on the TV screen died to a Russian sniper behind him.

"Nope. But, you know, the Undersiders don't have a boss anymore. So I figured I'd try to convince you to try something different," she replied in a casual tone. "Say? Do you want me to heal you up a bit? Carefully?"

"I'm not hurt," he replied as he dropped his controller and sat up as Lisa headed to her room to change.

"Nerve damage."

"Oh. Um, maybe not right now? That would probably fuck with my emotions. So what, we become heroes? Because I'm pretty sure I'd suck as a hero," Alec said as he started to calm down.

"You might be surprised. I know for a fact you would actually sacrifice yourself to save someone you care for," Taylor said in a pensive tone. Oh, damn. Not now. She moved to the matching lounge chair and wrapped herself with her large cloak to curl up tightly into a ball of neurosis. "I- Please just- Stay there." She shivered. A lot, even as she ducked her head down to start crying. At least she kept it quiet.

"That's fucked," Alec commented to himself. He went back to his game and frowned at being kicked from his team. "Shit." He'd show them.

Lisa walked out of her bedroom. "Well, pooey. I was hoping to get more information." Oh well, time for lunch and one of Alec's pilfered beer. She really needed it right now.

An hour later, the sound of dogs started to filter in. They started growling at the strange figure with its odd scent.

"Kill-!" Rachel shouted, siccing the dogs on the figure.

"NO!" Tattletale shouted as she ran out from her bedroom. "Oh, god..?"

Taylor stared at the dogs as they stopped two feet from her and flopped on the ground with their tails wagging and tongues lolling out. "Good doggies," she whispered as her eyes glowed with ethereal energy. "Don't want you to hurt yourselves on me."

Rachel looked between the two of them. "What the fuck? Why is she here?" She moved closer to Tattletale to threaten her with her solid presence.

"Rachel, meet Taylor. She replaced our boss, as he is busy sitting in a PRT cell." She gulped at the casual use of too much Master power.

Alec turned away from his cartoonish fighter game. "So now we have to steal our own money? Man, that sucks."

"So what does she want?" Rachel demanded.

"I want to fix things," Taylor said, her eyes still glowing. "Would you like to understand people and dogs? Alec, do you want to be able to protect yourself while you can't Master someone? You too, Lisa."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "As long as it doesn't come with a teeny, tiny living space."

"Nope." She stood up to her full height and walked over to him and touched him for a second. "There you go, minor Brute package." Not that she needed to touch to do that. But not everyone needed to know her range of 'more than the city.'

"Only a Brute? I'm saddened," Lisa said with a grin as she tried to read the girl as she enhanced them. Soldiering on, hmm?

"For now. Once we are better friends, maybe more. So would you guys really be averse to trying to be heroes?" she asked Alec and Rachel.

"And how are we going to afford this?" the slightly younger boy asked.

"You mean beyond the millions that Coil used to own? One sec," Taylor replied as she reached through a stuttering of dimensions (and back), then pulled it out with the large, five inch wide diamond. "Here, have a useless paperweight worth millions." She tossed it to Alec.

"I'm not really into new age crystals," he protested.

"That's a diamond."

"Huh? Neat."

Lisa snorted, then started laughing. "Oh, man. Physical wealth means nothing to your power. Well, I'm in. Means I don't get arrested by Advent here and sent home."

Rachel grabbed the diamond from Alec and studied it. "Millions? But worthless?"

"Because the diamonds cartels would try to say that because it's 'artificial' it's worthless compared to ones dug out of the earth with blood and sweat." She held out a hand and created another one in under ten seconds (which caused a nice breeze) and then tossed Alec the new diamond.

"Shiny," he said to himself. "Say, you wouldn't want to go and deal with a problem in Montreal?"

"No. There is a non-zero chance I could fall under his sway, even temporarily. And that's a bad end for just about everyone."

Lisa went as pale as the snow outside. "Yeah, that would be bad."

Alec frowned a second, then nodded. "Okay. Damn, I'd hoped-" he muttered as he spun the crystal in his hands.

"It's not impossible, but let's not screw it up by being idiots." Taylor shrugged.

"Wow, I was messed up there," Rachel said as she started to think back on just this last half an hour. "Heel!"

Her dogs ran over as they wagged their tails for pats on their head. She crouched down with a smile and started petting away.

The door opened and a big, black teen with cornrow dreadlocks stepped in. "What the hell, people?" His gaze froze at the sight of the white girl wearing the white and silver outfit sans mask.

"Hey, Brian! Our boss is in prison and Taylor here wants us to work for her," Alec said flippantly as he turned back to his game system.

"It's a little more involved than that, Alec," Lisa said in an annoyed tone. "Brian, meet Taylor. Taylor, this is Brian. Our boss kidnapped and tortured me today. Then Advent here smashed her way through his base, rescued me and captured the entire gang on site."

"Coil?" Brian asked as he narrowed his eyes as he recalled the story on the news, all the while he studied the bashful girl. With a blush on her cheeks?

Taylor closed her eyes and tapped into her biomanipulation to keep herself from having a second freakout. "Yes, Coil. So, I just suggested that I try to convince you guys to go legit. Because I now have the vigilante's cut of the villain's money and equipment." The PRT and Protectorate could have the bases as far as Taylor cared.

Brian looked over at Lisa.

"He was loaded, we probably wouldn't have to work for the rest of our lives if we just put it all into stocks or bonds," she explained with her impish grin on her face.

"And my sister?" Brian asked as he controlled his temper.

"Coil never intended to do anything to finish your deal so you could leave." She winced at his angry look and held up her hands to placate him. "Wait a second before you go off on me. Coil is a sociopath and psychopath. He tortured all you at least once to find out if you planned to betray him in 'timelines' he discarded."

"What the heck are you talking about?" he asked as he turned back to Lisa.

"He could split his 'reality' on a choice. Kidnap you or not kidnap you. And in the one timeline where he kidnapped you, he would torture you from information. At the end though, he could decided to only take the timeline where he didn't kidnap you. And remember everything you spilled during the non-existent torture."

"Sounds like bullshit," he replied as his face showed his great disbelief.

Taylor hummed to herself in distraction. Must distract herself. "I could show you, but it's nasty."

"You can show me being tortured!" Alec said as he raised his hand. He did not even look away from his game.

She nodded slowly as she transferred the memories to her network. Then she pulled out a spare terminal and set it on the table.

A huge hologram screen appeared and covered the wall (and the TV) in front of them. Two of Coil's mercenaries dragged Alec into the room and slammed him down into the seat and tied him down with a long chain and padlock. A blindfold covered his eyes. One of the mercs almost tripped and fell. He stood back up and the slapped Alec hard enough across the face to send blood and spittle to land on the ground.

"Mr. Pitter, administer truth serum epsilon. Young Vasil, just so you understand what is going to happen, you will be injected with a chemical that lowers your self-control. Epsilon is a rather nasty Tinkertech drug. Instead of dulling your mind and pain receptors, it amplifies the body's ability to feel pain," Coil explained from what would be behind the screen.

"Yeah, you can't do anything my old man couldn't do better," Alec drawled in an unconcerned manner. He hissed in pain as a glowing purple fluid got injected into his neck.

"He'll start to feel the effects after thirty seconds," Pitter said. He nervously pushed his round, wire rimmed glasses up back up his nose.

After a blip forward, Coil ordered, "Break his pinky finger. Slowly."

The next ten minutes kept the Undersiders riveted in horror as Coil forced the Alec on the screen to reveal everything about himself and his father and family.

"-enough-" Alec said as he felt vaguely nauseous.

The screen disappeared to leave the TV with Alec's gamed paused on the screen.

"That was all true?" Brian asked. "Even being forced to use her boyfriend to-"

"Yup. Dad was a fucker. What did you expect from the Heartbreaker? Man, I was a little bitch and broke after only two fingers. Cherish did worse for my birthday," the young man said. "Say, Boss? Can we go break Coil out of prison and crucify him?"

"No!" Taylor called out from the kitchen. She came out and ate a saltine cracker with intense focus. "Sorry. I needed something in my stomach." And to be out of that room and listening to the radio across the city. Not that boy screaming his lungs out. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

"So what's our first heroic act going to be?" Lisa asked the taller girl.

"Hmm." Taylor looked out through the dirty windows and the even dirtier windows of the warehouse. "How do you guys feel about rescuing some dogs from Hookwolf?"

"I really want to mess him up," Rachel said with a nearly feral grin. She realized that this emotion matched across hominid and canine mindsets.

"Well, with you as our heavy hitter, it shouldn't be too bad. And why is everyone giving me a strange look?" Brian asked.

"Oh, right. She hasn't Bruted you yet. Ha! Right now I could- OUCH!" Alec cried out as Lisa stepped over and flicked his ear hard enough to make a crack sound.

"No picking on the non-Brutes," the blonde said as she rolled her eyes.

"Uh, Bruted?" the leader of the Undersiders asked.

"Biomanipulation along with upgrading your skeleton a little bit." Taylor walked over and touched his arm (not his chest! Ignore the muscles!) to remove the alien Shard while keeping his power. She even tweaked it to have just a touch of Trump she knew it could develop. "And... that should do it. Even finished the last of healing up your puncture wound. You are not bulletproof. Hookwolf can kill you, but expect that people might break if you punch them too hard."

"Fucking shit. You are going to clean up the Bay, aren't you?" Brian asked in growing wonder. What would it be like to not live in a craptastic city?

Taylor gave him a cautious smile. "My dad is going to stay at the rig until Mom gets released from Master/Stranger lock-down. All her fault-"

Her wrist beep-beeped. Everyone stared at her.

"Um, got a call." Taylor held up her wrist to talk at it. "This is Advent." She winced as she heard Armsmaster's acerbic tone. "I returned the victim to her residence. And legally, I can't arrest her for being known as a villain by the PRT, only if she is in the process of committing a crime. And last I heard, being tortured by a criminal mastermind isn't actually illegal." She listened for about two minutes. "Excuse me, Armsmaster, but I did read every law and rule pertaining to parahumans in the United States. What you are asking me to do is very sketchy. And I've pretty much got them to agree to reforming as heroes anyways."

The Undersiders laughed at her put down expression.

"Yes, I do understand that you will try to arrest them for outstanding warrants and I won't get in your way," she finally said. "Could you make sure that Resurgence is treated okay while in lockup? Thanks."

The blonde flopped on the brown couch and started laughing hysterically. "Oh, that's too, too good! He's under orders to treat you with kid gloves because they really, really want you to go to the next Endbringer fight." She stopped laughing at looked over at Taylor more closely. "Hmm. Glad we have a month or two before the next one. We can work at making you more stable by that time."

Taylor nodded jerkily. "I-I know. I'm trusting you a lot, Lisa. Right now you are the person that can hurt me the most in the whole world."

"Did you give her some more power?" Rachel asked as she studied them both.

The other Undersider girl shook her head as she twisted to sit up. "No. She's barely out of a really bad place and if someone knew the right words, could set her off of cause her to try and commit suicide. I so want to fuck those bitches up, you know?"

"They are civilians and attacking them would not be heroic," the new girl said to her (hopefully!) new friend.

"Even-?"

"Yes, even her. And I have... sort of a plan. I could study for my GED in a day and start college the next day. A couple of my powers stack mentally."

"Hmm. That's useful. Oh, that's what you mean by what you would grant for now." Lisa's eyes nearly shone in excitement.

Taylor stepped back at the expression. "Um, I'm going to go track down Hookwolf's fighting ring? Shouldn't take me that long."


Hookwolf stood on a small raised platform as he watched to mutts tear into each other, but his mind worked on other matters. Kaiser wanted a solution to the new hero. Even if required finding her civilian ID and taking their family hostage.

The crowd started to boo and shout. Hookwolf turned his attention back to the dogs that slowly backed away from each other.

"Denver, you told me you trained these dogs," the parahuman shouted at the dog handler.

"I did-"

"Something is coming," Stormtiger suddenly called out.

Something or someone smashed through all four walls.

"The Undersiders? Are you stupid or... insane?" Hookwolf said as he slowly let his voice trail off.

The attackers had three of those dog-beasts of Bitch's, but the last wall had been punched through by Grue. Not one of the dog monsters.

"This is a superhero raid! You are all under citizen's arrest!" Tattletale shouted out as she hopped off the back of her ride. "If you don't have a power, if you get down and stay still we will not hurt you!"

"But please, do resist. I have some issues to work out on Nazi scum," Grue said in his spooky, echoing voice from his helmet and his roiling cloud of darkness that spread along the ground in awave away from him.

Cricket touched her neck for a second. Her electronic, artificial voice called out, "Heroes? You are just cowards and thieves."

Bitch smiled under her new, very professional looking mask. "That was before today. Right, Regent?"

"Well, you know, they haven't met our new boss after she arrested our old boss," the ren-faire reject replied, happy that his new mask (that looked identical to his old one) no longer muffled his voice at all.

The tin sheets of metal that made up the roof of the warehouse all ripped off the frames in a loud cacophony of destruction. The lights flickered and then stabilized as the Advent reshaped the metal into a large, polished ball of tin.

"That's me, if you hadn't figured that out," Advent said as she glowed while floating in the air above the warehouse.

"We aren't punks like Stärke," Hookwolf said as he started to sprout blades and take on his iconic form. "Get them!" He charged towards Bitch and her hellhound as his hooks, pins and blades tore into the concrete in a spray of sparks.

"Come at me, bastard," Bitch called out as she readied a shiny, new heavy crowbar.

Hookwolf leaped at her, only to see her dodge left. He slammed to the ground and then Angela moved and bit down hard on his forearm and then used her clawed hands with near human dexterity to rip the limb right off. He turned to face the more dangerous creature when Bitch long jumped over ten feet to land next to his head and slammed a crashing hit to his face with the fifteen pound crowbar. The heavy dent started to fill back in with new blades when a whole new dog ripped off his hind leg as Hookwolf shook his head in a daze.

"Oh no! I'm so scared! The Mad Max wannabe is going to slice me with her martial arts weapons until I bleed!" Regent decreed in a very loud, silly voice. "Not."

Cricket tripped and flipped her fall into a roll, then jerked out of the way as Tattletale shot at her with her pistol. Her funeral. The cage fighter changed targets and rushed at the girl in lavender and black at full speed. Usually normal people could barely see her.

So Tattletale ducking two of her slices of her kama threw her off her game. Her leg spasmed and froze her motion for just a split second and Tattletale straight-kicked her in the stomach hard enough to send her onto her back.

Brutus huffed and then leaped forward to carefully catch her arms under his claws. He then growled right in her face.

"I'd really suggest you surrender. He's a might peckish and upset at how you Nazis treat dogs," Regent said helpfully

Cricket tried to wriggle free, but stopped when Brutus lightly nipped at her ear and then growled louder. She went totally still.

Stormtiger charged Grue, a grin on his face under his mask. Grue's darkness exploded outwards, but he ignored it and trusted in his wind senses. He sent out two cutting bursts of air at the black-clad villain and then blinked as Grue leaped up and over him. The wind puffed to help keep Grue in position as he spun around and started throwing rapid punches at him.

Grue smiled as he lightly tagged Stormtiger. A little faster, harder. He winced as a slice of wind cut his leather jacket and scratched his arm. His snap punch cracked the air with how fast it lashed out and rattled Stormtiger and it hit his mask three times.

Two minutes later, Stormtiger staggered out of the inky darkness.

"Man, that felt good. I could get to like being a hero," Grue said with smirk you could hear in his voice.

"Beating up Nazis is very therapeutic," Advent agreed as she landed on the ground and set her smooth, three foot ball of tin on the ground. "Man, they really don't treat their dogs well, do they?"

"Um, what about all the civilians?" Grue asked.

"I've got them handcuffed." She focussed on healing the poor animals and treating their near feral anger from abuse.

"Wow, we are going to have to call her Dog Whisperer II," Regent said as he rode over on Judas and looked down from his vantage high up on the giant dog.

"It's just healing," Advent said to downplay her biomanipulation a bit.