1.2 - Danny

Danny stirred, and raised a hand to wipe the drool from his face. He must have fallen asleep he realised. He had just been sitting down whilst waiting for dinner to…the lasagne! He sprung upright in panic and ran to the kitchen. Sighing as he saw the note, he leant back on the kitchen table. Taylor had taken the lasagne out earlier. It wasn't burnt thankfully.

He turned around to see a faint trace of purple on the floor. Had Taylor spilt something earlier? Danny rubbed his eyes and had another look. The floor was the same plain, old colour it had been for years. "Am I seeing things?" he muttered, "I should get more sleep". He didn't feel tired though, not even managing a yawn. He shrugged and moved back into the lounge, sitting back down in the comfortable dent in the sofa.

His thoughts returned to Taylor and guilt flooded through him. How had he not noticed she was being bullied? He was meant to be her father dammit! If he'd noticed earlier he could have talked to her about it, arranged something with Winslow High and prevented her from ever being hospitalised.

Danny buried his head in his hands. He had failed to be a father. What would Annette think of him now? He choked back a sob but it did nothing to prevent the tears. He has lost his wife and now almost his daughter. Grey-blue and white and red flickered across his vision.

Oh god. I am seeing thing. I'm going mad!

He sobbed harder.

He sat there for what seemed like hours before the rivulets of water running down his face stopped. Danny raised his head, gripping the armsrest and looked around. White and red petals spiralled around him, dancing through the air, accompanied by blue-grey teardrops craving slow, graceful arcs through the room.

What are they? Am I going mad?

He stood, and reached out to touch the nearest. A white petal. As his hand neared, it easily dodged, continuing its dance away from him.

If this was some cape's power, he had never heard of it, although did he have powers? He didn't think so. As far as he knew, when capes got their powers it was pretty obvious to them and everyone around them. He began walking around the room.

Danny considered the situation. If he was just seeing things, then telling someone would only get Taylor taken away from him. A quiet sob escaped unbidden. He couldn't let that happen, he couldn't let her down again. But - Danny paused pacing - on the other hand, if this was some cape's power he should let the PRT know, it could be dangerous. These things floating around hadn't done anything, but neither had the Simurgh when she first appeared. His first priority was to protect Taylor.

He nodded to himself. He would go check on Taylor, explain what was going on, what he was seeing. And then go to the PRT. They would advise him on what to do.

He started walking up the stairs, the petal shapes following him. A cold draught blew towards him, bringing a solitary, translucent sliver twirling down afterwards. Taylor must have left a window open.

At her door, he paused, it was open but she was still inside, asleep on her bed. He grimaced as he noticed the pile of clothes on the floor, before taking a deep breath. Please don't think I'm crazy. Please don't, Taylor.Danny knocked to let her know he was there and entered.

"Taylor? Wake up,".

His daughter stirred before mumbling something into the pillow.

"Come on sweetie. It's important." He ruffled her hair, ignoring the petals moving about the room.

"What time is it dad?" Taylor spoke into the bed.

"That's not what's important. I think there's a parahumans nearby, they might be dangerous."

She shot up, suddenly alert, spluttering a response, "Wha-what? D-do you know who?"

"I don't know who they are." Danny shook his head, "They're making me see things though. You aren't seeing things as well are you?"

"I…uh…" Taylor stuttered, drawing a suspicious look from her father, "Wh-what kind of things are you seeing?"

Danny noticed more petals forming around her, and took a moment before replying. "Shapes, Taylor. They appear out of thin air and seem to have a life of their own." He looked at her face, noticing she had frozen. "Taylor?" he asked cautiously.

"Uh…yeah dad. Um," He could see her cheeks flushing even in the dark of her room. "I…uh, I think I need to tell you something."

Her dad rose an eyebrow, feeling a mixture of anger and guilt flash through him before pushing it back.

"I-I'm a cape dad. It-it was the locker. Since I woke up in the hospital I've been seeing the things you mentioned everywhere, I call them spirits, and I think I can control them as part of my power. From what I can tell they are like representations of concepts but they actually are what they represent so like in the library today I realised I could tell them what to do and I told the ones acting as gravity for a bookshelf that gravity was up and the bookshelf hit the ceiling and broke and please don't yell at me for breaking it and not telling you!"

Taylor started crying and Danny leant her an arm, despite the myriad of emotions swirling through his mind.

"I don't even know where to begin Taylor. Wait you broke a bookshelf? What exactly do your powers do? Wait, why can I see these spirits now? I couldn't before I woke up today."

She just gripped him tighter, burying her face in his shirt.

"Oh Taylor. Look, sit up." He pried her off and held her face with one hand. "I am not mad. Disappointed maybe, but not mad." Never mad. "You probably should have tested your powers somewhere else-"

"I was going to but I just thought…I wanted to see…." She started sobbing again.

"Hey, hey sweetie. It's okay. It's in the past now. We'll work out exactly what you can do together, and we'll find out why I can now see these." He gestured at the spirits gathered around them. "Okay?"

She nodded weakly before hugging him. "Thanks dad," she whispered.

"Now, do you think you'll be able to go back to sleep?" She shook her head, "Okay, I'll make some tea and get some biscuits out. We'll brainstorm what we know about your powers and work out what you can do okay?" He smiled at her, ruffling her long her as he stood up. "Meet me downstairs when you're dressed okay?"

"Okay dad."

Danny left the room and made his way back down stairs. That translucent thing – spirit – from earlier followed him, twirling in the shape of a ribbon. He tried to ignore it but it moved in front of him, twisting into the shape of a silvery woman. He stopped, he hadn't much experience with Taylor's spirits but none of them had actually engaged with him in any way. The spirit stared at him for a moment before cocking its head, laughing silently and spiralling off, flying around the kitchen ceiling. He grunted, putting it to the back of his mind as he boiled some water.

He scratched the stubble on his chin as he waited for the tea to brew and for Taylor to come down. He could hear her slowly making her way down the stairs. She's trying to work out what to say to me he realised. Danny was disappointed she hadn't told him earlier, but he was also truly glad that he had found out before she decided to start playing hero…or worse.

Manipulating gravity. Making him see these spirits. An unusual pair of powers, apparent even to some as detached from cape news as he was. Danny mulled it over as Taylor came through and sat down. He brought the mugs to the table, sitting down opposite her, still considering what he knew.

"So kiddo," He looked her in the eye, "I've never really followed the cape scene like you did, but I am interested as to what you can do."

His daughter blushed, "I'm not too sure yet," she stammered, "At first all it was, was seeing these spirits everywhere. I realised later that the spirits represent things, emotions, forces, energy." She paused, embarrassment crossing her features, and more of the petals appearing near her head. "Then, today - or yesterday I suppose - in the library, I realised I could connect the spirits. I, um, tried it out on what I think was a gravity spirit?"

"Don't ask me Taylor," He grinned at her, "It's your power."

"Um yeah, I guess I told the spirit to reverse gravity for the bookcase. Aaaand you can guess what happened…"

"You trashed the library?" He tried to stifle a laugh, partially succeeding.

She glared at him, "No! It wasn't like that! It was just…I was just…" tailing off, Taylor looked sheepishly at him.

"Just the bookshelf?" Danny smiled sympathetically at her, "It's fine, though, honestly. From what I've heard, and it's not much, new capes tend to end up…uh, making a bit of a mess when they use their powers for the first time."

"I-I guess that makes sense. I mean I don't fully understand my powers still."

"Do you want to?"

"What do you mean? Of course I want to," That glare was back.

"Woah sorry sweetie, I'm just making sure."

Taylor frowned at him in response, "I still don't know why you can now…." She paused, mouth half open.

"Taylor?"

"I remember now, last night when I came in you were asleep on the sofa. I felt like I could connect to you, like with the spirits. But, when I tried, the feeling disappeared. I forgot about it after that."

"Okay. Let me get this straight. You can use your power to control your spirits?"

"I wouldn't say they're mine…"

"Okay, but you can also use your power on people too? You didn't mind control me or anything did you?"

Taylor tilted her head, "I didn't master you, I'm sure. And maybe? I only felt it with you though. I can't feel it anymore, as I said…"She frowned and rested her head on the table, a look of concentration spread across her face. "Wait, there's something, if I focus…"

Danny leant forward, curiosity overriding his fear. He opened his mouth when Taylor spoke again.

"I-it's different to the spirits. I can sense that you have connections, two in fact." She focused on something again before replying, "There's one to me, and it's inactive right now" she paused before hurriedly adding, "But nothing like the connections that allow me to control the spirits. The other…it's from you to something else. A…a spirit. Nothing like I've seen before. The connections really weak, I could probably break it."

"Wait. Wait a second Taylor. Is one of those, is a spirit controlling me?" Panic rose in him, accompanied by purple, wriggling spirits rising from the table.

"No! Definitely not. It's not that sort of connection, I'd describe it as…two way." She idly tapped the table whilst thinking about something, "I'm pretty sure I created that connection, between you and the spirit. That was what happened when I tried to connect to you before. The spirit though, it's different. I'm not sure how yet, but I don't want to break the connection. It might cause it to disappear and we should find out more about what I did."

"So, you somehow connected me to one of your spirits, and yourself, by accident?"

Taylor shrunk back slightly, "um…yes?"

Danny shook his head and sighed, fear ebbing. "Okay, let's take a break from what happened to me. Let's focus on your other powers." A/N - This chapter is turning out much longer than I intended. I normally aim for 1500 words a chapter and this is just under 2000 and I'm only halfway through what I planned.

So, I've decided to split it into two parts. Danny's perspective when discussing his daughter's new found abilities - 1.2, this chapter. And Taylor's perspective when actually working out what she can do with the spirits - 1.3, next chapter. She'll actually start using them to move things around and throw fire about, seeing how far she can push herself. And she will discover some major limits to her power.

Wait, did I say fire?