A week later, Danny closed the door to his home for the last time. He followed Taylor over to the large moving truck that they and some of the guys from the Union.
"Thanks for the help, guys," he called out. "I'll be in to work tomorrow early."
"No problem, Danny," Kurt called out. "Poker will be at my place on Saturday. See you, hero!" He waved to Taylor and Danny each.
The half dozen men called out and waved their goodbyes as the two of them got in the large moving truck. Taylor sent a text message to a special phone number and got a text from another number a moment later.
"We should be good to go. The PRT has some normal cars shadowing us," Taylor said. She had yet another white T-shirt with a green beetle on it under her coat, another gift from Vicky that arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. With her new glasses, she looked a bit fashionable.
"I'm still not sure about this, but if it keeps you safe, I'm more than willing to man up," he said with a tense smile to his daughter as he started the engine and shifted into drive.
"You mean keep us safe," Taylor said back with a small smile. It felt less wrong. She frowned as she remember the news from Amy and Vicky on her new phone.
The parents of New Wave voted to disallow adding any new members. The sisters were not very happy with that, either.
Danny turned the corner to head downtown and flicked on the radio for some background noise.
Taylor shook her head and extended her bug-senses to get a lay of the land. A minute or two later she frowned. High pitched whines appeared in the back of the moving van. Ants crawled through the packed furniture and the truck to find devices. And with a jolt, she realized they all had the same dimensions, about the size of two quarters.
"Dad, I think someone put trackers in our stuff and in the truck," Taylor said as she looked very worried indeed.
"Call Armsmaster right now and let him know," Danny ordered. He tapped his brakes in a quick pattern and then turned off onto a side road of a safe neighborhood. After that, he jabbed the emergency flashers button on the dashboard.
The PRT unmarked car pulled up behind it.
"Hello, Armsmaster? I think there might be trackers in our stuff and on the truck we rented," Taylor said as she exited the truck with her father even as she gathered a larger swarm.
Just in case.
"We'll stay put and wait for you then," she replied.
"What did he say?" Danny asked as he looked around.
"He said to show it to the officer right here. Officer Stanley?" Taylor called out.
"Yeah?" the older officer asked as he looked around the neighborhood casually.
"I think this is a tracking device or listening device," she called out as she went to the back of the truck and pointed in the wheel well.
He nodded and crawled under the truck to search it with his pocket flashlight. "Yeah, there it is." He popped it off. "Looks Tinkertech. I'm surprised you found it." But this one was the decoy to be spotted. He reached into his pocket to pull out a lock knife to start prying it off.
"My bugs picked it up. I guess they heard it?" Taylor asked.
Stanley scooted out from under the truck and held it up on the edge. "Let me bag this for evidence." He pulled out an evidence bag and then started walking back to his car and tossed it on the passenger side seat. "Shall we get back on the road."
Taylor blinked and stared at him with her large eyes, her brows furrowed. "Um..."
The sound of a high tech motorcycle intruded as Armsmaster turned a corner. Stanley forced a smile on his face. "Armsmaster!"
The Tinker popped a kickstand and dismounted his large, armored motorcycle. "Officer Stanley, BPD will be diverting traffic. Get your men watching the approach," he ordered.
"Yes, sir." Stanley turned and pointed at the other car and then down the street. They exited their car and started walking.
Armsmaster nodded to them. "If you will stand back, I will scan the truck for unknown devices."
Danny snagged his daughter by her elbow to walk away. They watched him work for a few minutes.
"I guess this proves there's someone willing to try and get to us in our personal lives," Danny said with a frown on his face. He clenched his fists as he really wanted to punch someone right now.
Armsmaster came back twenty minutes later. "I've found and neutralized the trackers, so it should be fine to continue on to your new home. I'll still be shadowing you on a parallel course while we continue." He tried to smile even though he wanted to focus on this breach of security..
Taylor looked at the truck. "But you missed one. It's not turned on and it's in the middle of our stuff, but there's another tracker on the back of the fridge. I searched the entire truck with my bugs when I found the first one. I don't think that one is turned on though."
Armsmaster frowned as he thought it over. "Show me."
They walked over and opened the back door of the moving truck. Bugs insides moved show that it lay hidden on the back of the fridge way back in the middle and center. Armsmaster extended a thin wire-rod from his halberd to reach all the way there.
"Sensor proof. How did you find it?" he asked even as he detached it and brought it closer to deactivate so he could study it later.
"Well, I knew what shape they were so I had my bugs crawl everywhere to search for them. It didn't take long with a decent sized swarm," she explained.
Armsmaster nodded, even as he bumped her Master and Thinker rating to at least a six. "So you can be aware of everything through the bugs. That's a pretty useful Thinker ability."
"Except I can't really see or hear properly through them," she complained.
The older hero chuckled. "That's because they aren't limited to our human senses range. My first armor had what I thought was a totally silent power cell. It took me a week to realize that all the dogs near me started to bark because they could hear it in the ultrasonic range."
"Could that be true for their sight, too?" she asked him as understanding dawned on her. She had so much she had to check.
"I'm no expert, so I would try to contact an entomologist at Brockton Bay College." He slipped the latest tracker-bug into a slot in the backpack of his armor. "And with that, they are now in a micro-faraday cage so they can't transmit. That's a standard procedure. Keeps them from being tracked or destroyed by an external signal."
"Thanks, Armsmaster," Danny said as he shook hands.
Something impinged on her bug senses still. "Standard procedure?"
His helmet turned to her. "Yes. Why are you asking?"
"Because the PRT officer in the following car took the first tracker and tossed it onto his car seat," Taylor explained in a low, unhurried voice.
"Really?" he asked in a low voice. Officer Stanley? Normally a stickler for procedure. In fact, kind of a jerk about it. "Wait here."
With that, the silver and blue armored hero walked over to where the officer stood watch on the street behind them.
"Can I help you, Armsmaster?" he asked.
"Did you intend to leave that tracker out so that we could be followed to the Hebert's new home?" he asked in a stern tone.
"No, not at all," he lied. "I was just going to do that when we were ready to go."
"Jerry Stanley, you are under arrest for attempting to leak the location of the Hebert's to a third party," Armsmaster declared. "Hands in the air where I can see them."
"This is bullshit, sir," the officer said as he clenched his fists.
"Stanley, you are a stickler for procedure. There is no way you forgot the briefing this morning on what to do with tracking devices-" Armsmaster suddenly kicked out and knocked Stanley's ankle out from under him. The ping of a cop-killer bullet off his armor garnered everyone's attention. "Sniper! Get down!" A containment foam grenaded shot out from his armor.
Stanley dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hands, just as the grenade went off above him to instantly cover him in foam.
Behind them, Danny tackled his daughter to the ground as gently as possible.
Armsmaster triggered thrusters to shoot back and in front of them as he scanned the area for the sniper. Where did they move to? "Stay down. Armsmaster to console. Convoy Delta-10 under fire from an unknown sniper. Requesting immediate backup. Expect casualties."
"I think I'm going back to my spider-silk idea," Taylor said in a muffled voice. "That guy that just shot at us jumped into a van going north on the street two over."
"There could be a backup sniper," Armsmaster said as he continued to scan the rooftops, windows and doorways.
"There's another van full of people to the southwest, so you might be right."
"Really?"
John Trevor watched the street in boredom as his team did the surveillance thing on the girl. No, the target. He swiped at a fly absently. He saw the barest flicker of a blur in front of the parked van before it felt like a bigger truck rear ended them.
Battery held herself still for five seconds as the men in the van groaned. Then with a heave, she ripped the engine out of the van.
"Shit! Protectorate!" the driver shouted, just before something hit the side of the van hard enough to flip it onto the side.
"You can surrender!" Assault shouted out even as he walked to the back of the van to open the doors.
So the lasers that shot the spot he vacated came as a huge surprise.
"Tinker laser weapons!" he then shouted much louder as he ducked low and kept moving. He moved unnaturally fast in a low hop across the ground.
The back door of the van opened just as Battery flipped the van onto its room and sent the mercenaries sprawling. Dauntless blasted two of them, then raised his shield to protect himself and gain their attention.
A moment later Armsmaster, Battery and Assault came in from the sides and their blind spots to take down the last four mercenaries.
"Coil," Armsmaster growled. They had a leak.
Hours later, the last box sat on the floor as a PRT trooper left with the truck.
"Let's get the important stuff out. Kitchen, bathroom and beds," Danny explained.
"Sure." Taylor picked up a medium sized box. She walked up to the upstairs bathroom and set the box on the sink. She looked up to the mirror. And then frowned. She leaned forward and studied the roots of her hair. "DAD!" she screamed out.
Something thumped loudly and Danny ran from the master bedroom (and its own ensuite bathroom). "Taylor! What's wrong?"
"My hair!" she sobbed. "It's growing in blonde!"
"Honey, while that's kind of odd and scary, why are you crying?" he asked as he started to hug her from behind.
"Mom! My hair, it's the only thing I have of her," she managed to get out between sniffles. "Now it's blonde!"
"You have a lot of her looks, you know," he replied as he gave her a squeeze. "In fact, she'd be jealous that you get to try being blonde. She always wanted to try, but could never quite work up the courage to make the change."
"She wanted to have blonde hair?" Taylor could not wrap her mind around that.
"It annoyed her with how much work it took to maintain. She kept threatening to cut it short. I know she wanted to try being a blonde and redhead," he said with a chuckle. "I'm sure we can do something for your roots. But I'm pretty sure there is something we can do."
"I- Well- I need to think about this." Taylor hiccuped as she twisted a lock of hair around her finger.
"Back to work, kiddo. We have pizza on the way."
Half an hour later, Taylor trotted down the sidewalk to the guarded gatehouse.
"Hebert?" the security officer asked.
"That's me," she said.
"We could have just sent him through," he noted.
"We're not supposed to do that." She gave him a shrug. She took the pizza from the delivery man and headed back up to the private house.
Danny called out after she closed the front door. "Taylor?"
"Back!"
They sat down on a clear area of the floor in the living room and started eating.
"So looking forward to school at Arcadia next week?" Danny asked.
Taylor nodded energetically. "I am." Upstairs, she directed a large swarm in setting up her new notebook computer so she could start getting online. "I should call Amy and see how I should plan to arrive."
"Why not right now?" he asked. "I got you a cell phone just for that." He took a bite of the pepperoni pizza slice he had.
"Younger New Wave's photo shoot is today, so they are going to be busy right now," Taylor complained.
"Well, let's get the basics set up here and then I'll take you to the nearest salon to see what they can do for your hair. We have enough money for that, at least."
"Really?" Taylor asked in surprise.
"Just don't expect me to wait there for you. I'll go check the bookstore and the hobby shop." Danny shuddered theatrically.
Taylor threw her left over pizza crust at him. "Dad!"
"Hey! There are starving kids all over the world!"
Taylor stepped out of her dad's car as fat snowflakes dropped from the sky. "See you tonight!"
"Take care, Taylor. Give me a call if you have any problems at all."
She smiled and turned to walk towards the gates of Arcadia. She stood up a touch straighter and headed to the gate. The security guards both caught her eye and nodded.
"-so we're out here in the cold because you don't want to possibly miss her," Amy said to her sister as they both stood next to the main doors that teens streamed by in seemingly unlimited numbers.
"Boo?" Taylor said from right behind them, but not in the slightest bit loud.
Both girl's turned their head in surprise.
"What did you do to your- You bleached it, but it looks nice," Vicky said, feeling a pang of envy. How did she get those curls to work that way?
"Oh, I learned that my mom wanted to change her hair color once, so my dad paid for a salon day." Taylor gave a nervous laugh. "Surprise?"
Amy chuckled. "Yes, surprise. You wore it, right?"
"How about Eric?" Taylor asked.
"I texted him twice and called just before he should have left," Vicky said as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
They walked in and showed Taylor the main office. They gave her a wave and headed off for class.
Twenty minutes later, Taylor carefully opened her new locker. Raised off the ground by two feet and not as big. And , she noted, it had an emergency handle on the inside. Which she checked to make sure that it worked. She slipped off her coat and opened her backpack to pull out the books she would use later. She closed her locker and turned around with her backpack hugged tightly to her chest.
She walked down the hallway as she noted she only had about ten minutes to get to class.
"Taylor!" Vicky called out from down the hallways. "Oh, come on. It won't work if you cover up!"
Taylor hunched over a little more. She wanted to not hide and go on with the plan.
"Taylor, what's wrong?" Amy asked as she walked up.
"Nothing's... wrong," she mumbled as she finally lowered backpack to hang onto its top loop.
"Over here, Eric," the platinum blonde called out to her cousin as she waved him over. She gave a thumbs up to one of her school acquaintances.
"I don't know why I let you rope me into this. Wait, I do. It's because we're both upset at our moms because of the vote," the blue-haired New Wave boy said.
His white T-shirt had a simple blue shield on it. Just like Amy's white T-shirt had a simple, blocky medical red-cross. Vicky's white T-shirt has a stylized yellow tiara.
And Taylor's shirt had a green beetle on it, making her look like she was part of the group.
Vicky stuck out her tongue at her cousin. "I just wish we could get Crystal here. Sigh. I guess that will have to wait until Saturday."
Amy rolled her eye as she carefully nudged Taylor with her elbow. "Come on, let's get you to class."
"Right!" Taylor nodded her head in jerky vigor.
Taylor felt like her nerves stretched out tight enough that anything more would make them snap. Oh, no one became rude with her or even said anything mean. They smiled nicely, asked questions. So many questions. Most totally innocuous, except that idiot after third period that asked for her three measurements. Three girls, total strangers mind you, swatted his shoulders and the back of his head about asking for such personal information.
The worst question was, 'What is your hero name?'
Cindy Swift walked along her as Taylor headed to her locker to get her coat. "I've got it! It's perfect!"
"Um, what's perfect?" Taylor asked the preppy and pretty girl.
"It's be a contest! Think up cool names for the bug controller Taylor Hebert! We'll let you pick from the best ones!" Cindy turned her head, frowning at two other people approaching. "Hello, Vicky!"
"A contest. That's a great idea! You'll start a topic up on PHO?" she asked the some-time rival for popularity.
"I'm not geeky enough for that," Cindy replied with a pout as Taylor stopped in front of her locker. "I'll see you tomorrow, Taylor."
"Um, sure," Taylor mumbled.
"I can't believe she had a good idea," Vicky muttered to herself. "Hey, Amy! I'm going to meet Dean over at the mall. Did you want to come?"
Amy blinked and immediately started to think of an excuse as she unconsciously lapped up the buzz from Vicky's aura. "Oh, um, I was going to see if I could go over to Taylor's place before supper at home." She mentally wiped her brow with the next excuse to not go on one of her sister's unofficial dates. Few and hard to come of since she could not go healing.
"We need to get to my bus then," Taylor said as she checked her phone for any messages from the PRT.
"Give me a call when you want me to pick you up," Vicky called out as she waved and trotted off.
"So wiped out. How do you deal with, well, everyone?" Taylor asked as she pulled on her winter coat and pulled on a woolen hat over her long, light-blonde hair. She closed her locker and put her backpack over one shoulder.
"You just kind of get used to it. People are just interested in you since you are new. It'll calm down in a few weeks."
"Weeks?" Taylor whimpered out.
Amy held up a palm to a trio of girls before they could approach. "Come on."
They pushed through the crowed and walked over to the row of busses pulled up on the street on the side of Arcadia. She found the one with the PRT shield with a number 1 on its cab.
"Oh? They are letting you use our bus?" Amy asked as she noted the symbol.
"Yeah, I guess this bus route covers both of our neighborhood." Taylor walked on and found a seat and leaned forward with closed eyes. She jerked a bit at Amy patting her on the shoulder. She looked up and gave a wan smile. "Thanks."
"It's the least I could do."
The bus rumbled to life as the last students boarded and it headed out of downtown.