A/N: Screw it. Taking the plunge! Also keep in mind Taylor's anti-authority streak and the fact that she's not the most reliable narrator ever. Not to mention there are holes in the sin-scent, namely it can't detect actions Taylor likes or believe is justified on general principle.


Ursurper 1.4


I had not expected Director Emily Piggot to be a particularly likable individual given my healthy disrespect of the school administration, and how she was the principal of the biggest high school there was.

She did not meet my expectations. If anything, I would have expected her to have happily taken each one and gleefully explain how I did not comprehend how much of an irritating, self-important, politically driven bigot she was if she knew my opinion.

Even before the moment I saw the heavyset Director, my Medusas caught the smell of the actions driven by the contempt of her own charges. More than that was the sheer amount of myopia she possessed if I was reading the scent right (didn't act based purely on prejudice, nothing in there about being an ass to normals). Yes, Director, please, let's show that parahumans cannot bully normal people…by bullying the parahumans. Brilliant plan.

At least she seemed to hate cape bullies as much as I now did, so I could at least make her listen to my stipulations for Sophia. I still put on the rubber bands I was now using for Medusa muzzles (and, not coincidentally, could be easily cast off if I ordered them to unhinge their jaw and rub them off in my hair) before I entered the room, as I didn't have to want to deal with Piggot's stink and possibly allow my already low opinion of her to show on my face should the Medusas smell her reaction to them.

Of course, after speaking to her for a bit, I discovered something else I disliked about Piggot, one that would probably color a lot of my interactions with the PRT.

"You're reprimanding her!?"

A stick up her rear with the word "Protocol" on it.

"Yes, reprimanding. Not punishing, reprimanding." Piggot looked even more irritated than she normally did, a feat if there ever was one. "Frankly, revealing Shadow Stalker's secret identity to you is something that would normally get her probation from the Protectorate for months, possibly firing altogether. I declined to pursue that on the basis that it was likely very vital information that I would have granted permission anyway, but she was disinclined in a moment of weakness."

"But Hannah did nothing wrong!" I let my Medusas fan out again. "She just wanted to-"

"I am aware of that. Sit down."

Now it was my turn to be intimidated; Piggot knew exactly how to counter attempts to cow her, it seemed. I followed instructions. After she was apparently satisfied that I wouldn't come back with a cutting remark, Piggot spoke again. "As I was saying, everything would have proceeded in mostly the same way it did in the normal course of events, but what happened afterward demonstrates my point. Smith?"

A PRT member took out a tape recorder and hit play. "…Miss Militia, I just heard something very interesting from my daughter," said the abnormally calm voice of Dad before Agent Smith had to wince from the power of the Hebert Clan Tirade before clicking it off.

"Based on the fact that Dr. Jessica Yamada was also in the room, I take it you relayed that information to both her and your father?"

I quickly caught on to what Piggot was trying to do. "Nope. Not going there. You are not going to blame the victim here, blame Sophia-"

"I do blame Shadow Stalker."

One could hear the record in my mind scratch. "Pardon?"

"While she was not responsible for your trigger, I do blame Ms. Hess for provoking such an extreme reaction in you, and if I had any choice in the matter, I would happily escort her to Detroit myself." She gritted her teeth. "Sadly for both you and me, she hasn't managed to dig her own grave far enough for that yet, so I have to settle for a tracking anklet and informing her parent for greater supervision."

A dozen questions appeared in my head, like "does an anklet even work on her?" and "her mom didn't know?" but selfishly, the first thing that occurred to me was personal. "You're taking my side?"

"On this, yes. But back to my point." She inhaled. "I think this should be obvious, but you can't inform others of your fellow Wards' real names and identities. Not even your father."

I felt defensive again. "W-well, who else!? You try holding that fact in when you feel like your one remaining hope at being somehow capable of a social life was just-"

"Still. Speaking."

I shut up. Piggot could give me pointers on the bad cop pose.

"Let me put it this way; as it is, you can't have a secret identity as it is. The fact that Taylor Hebert killed the Sphinx, also known as Ziz Lite, is a matter of public record, as is your rather public breakdown when you began to develop those…appendages." She shivered a little at the mention. "Quite simply, Daniel Hebert is going to be under armed guard for the rest of his life, because people are going to figure out they can get to you through him."

"…I fail to see what this has to do with Sophia."

"Because now he's a security risk for Shadow Stalker too, and if your powers were more subtle, he would be placed under armed guard anyway." She sat back and straight in her chair, the very picture of the unassailable leader. "There's a reason the unwritten rules exist, why no one attempts a real thorough investigation of identities-because the instant one knows of a parahuman's real name, one becomes a target for that parahuman's enemies. People like Yamada, who deal with the real identities of Wards on a daily basis, are trained to resist interrogation and avoid being abducted, but your father? Your father is the manager of employment at a dock. Unless his boss is spectacularly awful and emotionally manipulative, a mundane criminal would happily rip his mind apart to find out Sophia's identity."

I felt a pit at the bottom of my stomach.

"What's more, although both of us despise her, criminals are not stupid. Once they knew the civilian form of Sophia, they could track her, easily, given how her shadow form doesn't allow her to tell when she's being followed. From there, they could see her interact with the other Wards in their civilian identities, figure out who they were, and the next thing you know, the Brockton Bay Wards are now on the run from very eager villains, or we're in the back pocket of, say, Accord."

I didn't know who Accord was, but I got the context. I slumped. "I understand."

"Good. We understand that you need to talk about your problems in order to get over them, but please, if you must unload, unload on a PRT agent, a Ward, or a Protectorate member. Do you understand?"

"Understood," I said glumly.

"Good. Apart from that, your recommendations for dealing with Sophia are not unfeasible, I just want to go into details first…"


After being treated to the full power of the angry Director, I was half-expecting the Wards to be like Sophia.

Again, I reflected on the benefits of pessimism. When I went down to their training area, the first thing I noticed was the blur which resolved itself into a beaming young girl.

"Taylor right?"

"…Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Missy, also known as Vista. Do you mind if I completely geek out for a minute or are you sensitive about the way you look?"

"…Not…really?"

The next thing I knew, Vista was doing her best impersonation of a teleporter, helped by what spatial warping I could see; I knew it was her power, but I was still amazed at how easily she managed to be in all places at once given how quickly she was darting about.

"Oh my God, this is so cool! Do you see out of those things? How fast can you fly? Are those claws real? Can you tell what I did last night?"

My snakes were unmuzzled, but oddly, no. Couldn't have been that important if I couldn't pick it up. Or any degree of malevolence or fear-this was, in fact, Vista geeking out about how cool I looked.

…Appreciated, but now I felt fairly uncomfortable. Since when did people start paying attention to me?

Eventually, Vista slowed down, and space resolved itself back into its normal state. She was still beaming, although slightly less than before.

"Sorry about that. We haven't had someone so…unique (half-truth) before. I thought that I'd get a better look, because seriously, you're a badass."

"Um, thanks? Er, where are the other-"

"Oh, um, this way." She turned around and led me down the corridor.

At the other end was the lovechild of the exercise gym from hell and a museum of torture instruments. That batter cage, for instance, instead of a normal pitching machine, had what looked like a many-barreled Gatling gun. The fact that instead it had bean bags instead of balls in the feeding slot was about the only thing that indicated that it wasn't a particularly nasty form of execution. I still suspected it was used as a threat, however.

The more pressing thing, however, was the group of people in the middle of it. From the blue and silver armor, I guessed the man in the middle was Armsmaster without his helmet on, and I already knew Miss Militia (I felt a pang of guilt when I saw her, but I quickly reminded myself it was just a reprimand), which covered the adults in the room. The other Wards were arranged around them, the silver-and-rust figure of Aegis standing tall in front of Clockblocker and Gallant, with Kid Win standing somewhat awkwardly to the side.

Almost immediately my Medusas picked up the rather cynical motive for the album cover. I jokingly rose an eyebrow. "You do realize I'm only here because I'm joining anyway, right?"

And with that the clock-themed boy doubled over, ruining the pose with his laughter. Wordlessly, Gallant passed him a five-dollar bill as Vista rolled her eyes and Miss Militia muttered "I warned you." Armsmaster himself did not react, remaining fairly stoic despite his attempts at impressing me falling flat. After Clockblocker recovered himself, he strode forward in an attempt to keep his dignity intact.

"Ms. Taylor Hebert, it is an honor to welcome you to the Wards, and gain your abilities as an investigator." At least he was perceptive, I thought to myself. "Perhaps you will actually be able to tilt the unsolved crime statistics back in the PRT's favor despite your inexperience-"

"Colin," Miss Militia warned.

"In any case, welcome," he hurriedly finished.

Now I was grinning, though probably not for the reason Armsmaster wanted. I respected his bluntness, if not the ego I smelled. In truth, I kind of felt bad for him, if I was reading the scent correctly; I could empathize with social cluelessness.

"Know that as much as your appearance marks you as a villain to the common man, I can only hope that the Wards treat you as a valued team member despite statistics suggesting that-Ouch!"

This didn't mean I particularly enjoyed social cluelessness when I was on the receiving end of it. Who were his parents, robotic wolves who gave him cooked pig's feet for dinner?

Dematerializing her bean bag-loaded air gun, Miss Militia came up beside her scowling teammate. "What my colleague's lack of any degree of social grace is trying to say is, we hope you will find your term as a Ward a rewarding one."

"I was trying to avoid tripping her scent…"

"She doesn't mind politeness, Colin."

Still scowling, Armsmaster (or Colin, now), waved over the Wards, before leaving himself. Apparently even he realized how bad he was at social situations.

Aegis came around first. "I hope our boss has not made you reconsider your future employment opportunities?"

"Nope." I smiled, and bit back the remark about Colin's said lack of tact my power wanted me to say. "You already know me, but I'm Taylor. Nice to meet you, please don't mind the hands I know they're rough."

"Carlos, also known as Aegis. I don't, by the way-they're actually quite smooth (white lie)."

I smirked. I suspected Carlos could take the mocking. "I haven't been officially revealed yet, and you're already complimenting my skin? Did I suddenly become a romantic comedy protagonist?"

He turned very red, and retracted the hand a bit more quickly than would be normal. "Oh God, there's two of them," I heard Missy say.

Gallant next. "Dean, aka Gallant. Please do not make me use the serious beam, I think I might run out of juice between you and Dennis (lie)."

Dennis? "By that name, you mean Clockblocker?"

"The one and only." The unmasked timestopper leaned in between us. "Also, do the Medusas have a petrifying gaze? Because my heart stopped upon seeing you." He paused, ignoring the sound of Missy's hand hitting her forehead before melting into an expression of horror. "My God, the madness is spreading!"

"Fear not, noble citizen, Harlequin will not win this day! Quick, to the cold shower!" I laughed, more in relief than anything. I had expected my appearance to be more of an issue, hence why I spent all week training my sense of humor. Better to defuse the "scary" image with my team as soon as possible, even if I looked like a complete buffoon from then on. At least I would have company. "In all seriousness, though, I'm not a Gorgon. More like an Erinyes, a Greek goddess…" I held my talons in a stalking position. "Of reveeeeeenge!"

Dennis cracked up again at my bit of ham. Missy, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. "And here I was, thinking I could escape the madness with another girl…"

Dennis stopped immediately, and grunted. "Must…resist…obvious…joke. Want...to…avoid...being…turned…into…Mobius….strip…."

Missy only sighed at that.

The smile on my face was genuine this time. My fears were unfounded, it seemed-I detected no prejudice besides the obvious nervousness around snake hair, which quickly vanished. Perhaps this was still a high school, but maybe I could do it over again here, with actual friendship.

Right on cue, I heard a feminine cough. Not Hannah's or Missy's.

I froze, and turned around to face the source, already guessing who it was.

"Sophia," I said, taking out the monarch pin to rub and focus on.

"Taylor," said the archer sulking in the corner of the gym.

I hadn't quite known what to expect from Shadow Stalker when I saw her in costume for the first time. Bitter and angry at me for her humiliation and having Piggot put a gun to the back of her skull, certainly, but she looked far worse for wear than I had imagined. The term "headbutt fight with a concrete wall" seemed to apply, and her costume was extremely dirty and smudged, like she had been living in it for a week. She didn't look like the bully I had known for over a year, just…sad. I wondered if she had run away from home, given what Piggot said earlier.

Then I caught a whiff of her scent, and my sympathy died almost immediately. This was the same Sophia I hated, just a little bedraggled.

Almost immediately (and to her credit), Missy jumped between us and the air flickered a little as space extended. "Hey! No fighting!"

"Relax, Shorty. I can't, not without this ankle jewelry acting up." The obvious counterpoint to that sentiment was left unsaid.

"…Why are you even here, anyway?" Carlos was talking through clenched teeth. I'm ashamed to admit I felt a little thrill at discovering he was just as much of a fan of Sophia as I was, and that she couldn't do a thing about it.

"Ask the bitch, she wanted to see me during our Big Welcoming Party."

Everyone looked at me.

"…I wanted to get this out of the way," I admitted. "Better we have our blowout now rather than during a more critical time."

"…Really?" Dean looked at me awkwardly, then at Hannah, who shrugged. "She did ask for that."

"Well, whoop-de-freaking-doo, you got it." Sophia stood up straight.

She then gave me a look that, if they could kill, would have caused me to explode. "Do you have…any idea of what you did to me?"

"Says the bully," muttered Dennis.

"Shut up, quartzhead. This is between me and the snakehaired sociopath." She made motions like she was advancing, only apparently stationary due to presumably Missy. "Do you know what my mom thinks about superheroes? Huh? Do you know that I was kicked out of my own home? Huh!?"

I felt a momentary stab of pity for Sophia. Only a moment though. "At least you still have a secret identity. You just take off the mask and pretend you're a decent human being, nobody can tell the difference until you open your mouth."

"I don't want to be normal!" she shrieked. "Normal people-they're sheep! Victims! I'm the person who protects normal people, I want to be a goddamn hero, not Slaughterhouse 9 victim infinity!"

"And yet you can pretend!" Now I was screaming. "You weren't forced to watch as your body turned into a nightmare! You can live in the body that doesn't send people running away screaming! You weren't confined to a fucking mental asylum for a month because you couldn't turn off your power when you wanted it to shut up so you could breathe!"

Missy jerked her head around at the words "mental asylum." Good news: Doctor-patient confidentiality existed in Ward-world. Bad news: she broke her concentration, allowing Sophia to cross the room, and very quickly in shadow form, rearing for a punch while remaining immaterial to avoid Dennis' attempt to freeze her.

Instinctively, I covered my face with a wing, feeling a small impact on its bony fingers and hearing Sophia yelp in pain and surprise. Shortly thereafter, Hannah burst into action, quickly wrestling her to the ground. Dean showed up to help her while Dennis recovered his stance.

"Before you take her away and/or timelock her, can I just have one last word?"

Hannah looked at me skeptically, but brought up the struggling Sophia to face me, taser at her back to prevent her from thinking about going shadow.

After checking to see if the acid was flowing, I put on my "bad cop" pose, Medusas and wings fully extended. While I didn't intend for it to happen, one the snakes hissed, making me even more intimidating.

The color drained from Sophia's face, made all the more noticeable by her dark skin.

"Listen here, Sophie-I, unlike you, have a mental maturity with two digits in the 'year' column, so I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, at least as much as I can. Frankly, I'm sick of being the victim too, and like you said, it'll be nice to be a hero. But the thing is, I happen to have a better power for solving crimes than you ever will, and frankly, the PRT bent over backwards to allow my stipulations should I be put on the team. Most of these stipulations involve you and my relationship to you."

"In other words, if you ever try this little stunt again, I'll make a new stipulation that you are stripped of your position, kicked out of Brockton Bay, and shipped to your new home in, oh, Alaska inside a crate filled with angry rattlesnakes. Given certain information from Director Piggot, she'd happily catch each and every one of those snakes herself and force-feed them steroids to make them all nice, giant and pissed, assuming she isn't doing so already thanks to aforementioned ankle jewelry."

I leaned closer to Sophia's eyelevel, using my own death stare to bore straight through her skull.

"Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal," she squeaked.

"Good." I went back to my normal stance. "You can freeze her now."

Dennis did so, causing a rather hilarious image as the rather terrified looking Sophia was stuck like that.

Slowly, I became aware of the entire room staring at me.

Oh God, this is the part where they realize I'm dangerous and lock me away again-

"That."

"Was."

"Awesome."

"And scary. But awesomely so."

…Oh right, they hated Sophia too. As it is, they just had a slow clap for me.

Suddenly, Dennis grinned. "Hey Taylor, can you record Glenn's face for me when you meet him?"

I looked as confused as I felt. "Who's Glenn?"

"The PR guy."

…Oh. I already sympathized.


A/N: Before you ask-no, she didn't smell her own scent there, and yes, she does view well-meaning psychotherapy more warily than scare tactics. She has problems, even if they're smaller than in canon due to a combination of Yamada and lack of locker incident.

Was going to explore Taylor's power set here, but that can be overviewed with Glenn, since he's going to examine her tests to think of a good image for her.