Administrative Assistant
Recruitment 1.6

The insults kept coming. Emma had gotten a small coterie together to act as her mouthpieces, but the insults may as well have just been water off a duck's back for all the effect it had on Taylor.

She's stronger than I could ever be.

I'm not normally prone to violence, but I'd have taken a swing at someone by now; it worked in my last life, after all. A few thrown punches, a thrown chair, and a couple of death threats solved my bullying problem for me. In the end, all it had cost me was a few days of out-of-school suspension and a minor mark on my record that the universities ignored in view of my grades.

Maybe it's different for girls.

"What's the matter, Taylor?" Emma asked. "You look upset."

The non sequitur threw me. Was my anger bleeding through enough to be seen? If so, that was probably a bad sign.

"So upset you're going to cry yourself to sleep for a straight week?" she asked.

I could feel our fists clench, but I'd prepared for this. I knew the stupid predator/prey philosophy Sophia had infected Emma with, and I'd spent weeks carefully crafting a speech that would avoid revealing our knowledge while tearing it to shreds, reminding her that such instincts were what drove lesser animals, that humanity had overcome those instincts with trust and cooperation, thus her own betrayal of Taylor proving she was lesser-

Forcing our hands open, Taylor shook her head and muttered, "No."

But-

She turned and walked away. "I'm better than that," she whispered. "Better than them."

...

Better than me, I added.


We shadowported from rooftop to rooftop, now feeling a lot more confident. We were still limited to either familiar destinations or line of sight, and it was easier to make several short hops rather than a single long teleport - fifty feet took enough out of us that we weren't going to try for longer - but we were getting the hang of it.

Only... we found the latest rooftop occupied.

The imposing figure turned away from the edge of the roof. "You gonna fight me?"

"Not the plan," Taylor replied warily. If necessary, we could 'port behind him and take him down, but...

Why didn't I recognize this guy?

Finally, after several long seconds, he nodded and stepped forward, extended a hand. "Browbeat, independent hero."

I've heard the name, I assured Taylor. I think he joins the Wards later.

"Weaver, same," Taylor said, shaking his hand. "What brings you out tonight?" she asked, giving him a surreptitious but appreciative once over.

Gag me with a spoon.

I felt a small frown cross our face, but that was all.

"Stake out," Browbeat answered, nodding at the warehouse across the street. "ABB drug house. Just trying to figure out how many are in there before I go in and pound them."

Taylor nodded. It was a sound plan, especially for a solo hero.

While they were talking, I switched to cape sight and sought out Browbeat's power.

Control/Contact.

Huh. I didn't know what to make of that.

I also took the time to check the drug house. No capes inside.

Wait. Four capes were approaching. They were too far away for me to copy them, but they were clearly on their way to the drug house.

"Get down," Taylor whispered. "We've got incoming."

Once the four capes got close enough, I copied them.

Life/Augment.

Concealment/Suppression.

Electricity/Impulse.

Insight/Perception/Analysis.

Those seemed really familiar. I dared not try activating any of the new powers in a potential combat situation... at least, not unless I got really desperate.

"The Undersiders," Browbeat murmured. "They're going to hit the drug house."

You know, the Undersiders are a smash-and-grab team, I pointed out. They're not killers, and they're low on combat power, even if we are outnumbered. Worst they'll do is beat us up and leave us.

"Think we can take 'em?" Browbeat asked.

"Maybe," Taylor said hesitantly. "Never been in a cape fight before, and they do outnumber us."

"Hmm."

It was obvious Browbeat wanted to take them down. It was understandable. The Undersiders were small fry, but they were still a (barely) known cape gang. Bringing them down meant playing in the big leagues.

We watched as the Undersiders made a rather spectacular entrance into the drug house.

We looked at Browbeat. A note of understanding passed between us, and we nodded. He placed a hand to vault over the roof's edge, then paused and looked back at us. "You coming?"

"Master power. If, no, when you see a big swarm of bugs, don't freak out. They'll be on our side."

Browbeat nodded in understanding and vaulted over the roof's edge. We could hear an odd scraping sound, and peering over, we saw him somehow slow his descent with a hand on the wall.

Neat trick.

We stayed and watched from above, and it wasn't long before the Undersiders emerged.

"Hi, I'm Browbeat, and I'll be your arresting hero for the evening. I don't suppose you're willing to come quietly, are you?"

The Undersiders turned, and Grue snorted. "You think you can take us all on?"

"He's not alone," Tattletale warned.

"Hurt!" Bitch ordered, pointing at Browbeat. The three monster dogs charged. Browbeat launched himself to meet the charge, but a twitch from Regent caused him to stumble.

I could sense Taylor concentrating as bugs poured out into the street from every nook and cranny. The instinctive need to help our ally drove the bulk of them toward the dogs, but others moved to box in or attack the Undersiders directly.

Darkness quickly flooded the alley, and I lost all sense of what was going on. I tried my cape sight, but it seemed Grue's darkness worked on that too, which more than a little annoying. Mentally, I chafed. I wanted to do something, but this was the smar-

Guardian/Vigilance.

Suddenly, the power we'd gotten from Miss Militia pulsed. In surprise, I jerked back, and I belatedly heared a gunshot ring out. More gunfire pecked away at the roof edge as we ducked down.

"What happened to 'worst they'll do is beat us up'?"

We may have forced their hand, I offered, or maybe they just want us to keep our head down. What's happening?

"Not sure," she said. "I didn't have a lot of biting or stinging insects, and I don't want to kill them, so I- wait. They're moving. Fast. I think Browbeat's down."

Taylor stuck our head up. The alley was clear.

"Well," Browbeat said. He lay in a shredded heap, but we could already see the wounds closing. "That was embarrassing."


We traded phone numbers with Browbeat, giving him the number to the burner phone Danny had given us. After that, we agreed we needed to test our new powers. The basement at home would have to do.

Control/Contact.

Browbeat's was the first. He'd given us a brief explanation of his powers: biokinesis and short-range telekinesis. Attempting the former failed miserably, and the latter only worked on contact.

...

We had tactile telekinesis. This had possibilities.

Insight/Perception/Analysis.

Next was one of the powers I'd been looking forward to the most, Tattletale's. As I toggled it on, I found myself flooded with ideas, and before I knew it, we were scribbling notes down. After about half an hour, I shut it off.

It was a schematic for a visor-mounted display with multiple vision modes.

Oh, come on! I thought, annoyed. One of the most broken Thinker powers ever, and we get a Tinker power instead? That is so not fair.

Grumpily, I tried Grue's power, but Concealment/Suppression remained dormant. Regent's Electricity/Impulse only seemed to build up static in our hands; I had a feeling the result would be more impressive if we touched something.

That left Bitch's.

Life/Augment.

I could feel the power pulse as we activated it, and our body shifted and altered, throwing us briefly off-balance. Taylor made our way to the mirror, and we both gaped at what we saw.

We were... larger. Taller, too. I'd guess we now stood a good six and a half feet tall, and we looked positively ripped. Our, um, "assets" were larger as well.

In short, we looked like She-Hulk, minus the green. Or maybe an Amazon of Themiscyra.

After a long moment, I could only think of one thing to say: We're going to need a new costume.

She nodded. "Uh huh."