AN: Don't own Worm. Don't own KHR. No money is being made. Remember, reviews are catnip for authors. I had someone say MM's response to Taylor's rant seemed exaggerated. they were not wrong given how generally level headed she is but I did it on purpose with a vague idea of something like what I've done here. Just in case they or anyone else were wondering about that.


{}{}{}{} Miss Militia

Shakily, slowly, I lowered myself down onto one of the couches in the Protectorate ready room. A brief utilitarian use of my power allowed me to manifest a pocket knife that came with a bottle opener. The beer in my hand was a bit more bitter than I liked, but I drank rarely, and I hadn't stopped to think about what might be here before returning to base. I needed a drink or two badly enough that I wasn't ready to turn my nose up at the bottle over such a minor complaint.

A deep pull from the bottle later I breathed out a long low sigh.

I gripped the bottle tighter than necessary as I my thoughts worked in circles. Bakuda's workshop, for all that it hadn't been a jungle had brought up memories I usually did my best to keep buried. The children, along with the other victims, Armsmaster had eventually led out to the paramedics and I certainly hadn't helped with the similarities.

I drained the bottle and reached for a second.

I hadn't been able to work up the nerve to go in with him. Not that Armsmaster cared. As far as he was concerned only a high end tinker had any business going in there before the place was declared safe. I didn't even have bomb squad training so to him there was never any question of whether or not I was going in with him.

I hated how relieved that had made me feel.

I'd put my life on the line countless times fighting villains and common criminals. I'd been in the middle of fights against monsters that made my powers seem utterly useless on more than one occasion. For all that though I'd done everything in my power to avoid any kind of bomb threat throughout my career. I'd been forced into a few situations with explosives over the years and they always left me feeling just as shaken.

The problem with perfect recall is you recall everything perfectly. No matter how far back it might as well have been yesterday. Right down to the emotions I felt.

"You do realize that you'll be the first ones drafted when World War Three finally kicks off." The memory of miss Hebert's words echoed through my head making me shudder. I downed half of my second beer.

I could face firefights against normals or capes with as much calm as anyone ever really managed, but I still nearly went to pieces around explosives and mines. Fucking mines. If she was right. If...

I had never wanted to be military. For all that I loved my adopted country and wanted to protect it I'd never entertained the idea of being military, or at least not army. I just couldn't deal with the idea of ending up walking into a minefield. What the hell was I supposed to do if she was right?

I took another swig. I was starting to feel the effects but it wasn't doing me half as much good as it normally did after things like this came up. I drained the beer and reached for a third even as a wrenched my thoughts away from the hypothetical and onto Morganna's broadcast.

I'd seen Bakuda's victims walk out of her lab. Every one of them hungry, scared, and bruised. A few of the woman looked like they'd been through worse, and about a third had some kind of surgery scar that I could see at a glance… more than likely most of the rest had scars covered by their clothes.

Part of me felt a sick satisfaction over what likely waited for Bakuda in the near future… but the rest of me rebelled at the thought. Torturing Bakuda wouldn't undo what she had done. It might give her victims some twisted satisfaction, but it wouldn't fix anything. Beyond that though, Morganna was using the law to torture a woman. That wasn't the way things were meant to work. The law was meant to protect. Yet here it was, being twisted by the whims of a fifteen year old.

Despite getting a dangerous psychopath off the streets this was an almost complete loss for us. The woman had been gift wrapped for us by a villain. For all that her reputation was going to be a mixed bag, the city knew she stepped up and took care of a problem that we should have handled. Intentionally or not she had undermined our authority with this. I was rather inclined to think that had been the point. Or at least a side benefit.

With a groan I set the third only barely touched beer aside and sprawled out on the couch. The director was going to want something done about the girl. Armsmaster as well. Implying we couldn't handle Bakuda was going to sting his pride something fierce. I wasn't sure what to expect but I personally doubted we would be able to spare anything to go after her with. The Empire's ranks had swelled in this last crisis and now only normals and whatever was left of Bakuda's work stood between them and control of the ABB's territory.

The coming weeks were going to be bloody.

{}{}{}{} Coil

Once more I reviewed miss Hebert's televised declaration. The girl was nearly perfect for my purposes. Clever, powerful, perfectly willing to dirty her hands to see her goals achieved. There was just the small sticking point of her views on children. It was an understandably common flaw but a frustrating one nonetheless.

For all that she might understand the value of my pet she likely wouldn't be able to accept how I went about acquiring the girl's assistance. It was an inconvenient limitation, but one I could work around now that I knew about it.

Leaning back, I drummed my fingers against the surface of my desk. Introducing the Undersiders, and the Travelers once they arrived, to my pet was no longer an option. I could still let them know that I had acquired the aid of a powerful precognitive, I would simply have to make sure they never met. An audio call with a voice modifier would suffice to hide her age. Implying that I was paying for the girls' services as well as offering her protection from other less savory factions would further sell the illusion that my pet was helping willingly. An intermediary to relay her answers would also cover things up nicely.

It would likely be best to move my pet to a secondary base. There was another repurposed shelter on the edge of the city I could relocate her to. Alternatively, I could place her and a handful of mercenaries in a small house outside of city limits. Though that carried its own risks. I'd have to consider her placement carefully. Still, the situation was workable.

Once more I watched Morganna burn words into Bakuda's back. I couldn't quite fight the smirk tugging at my lips. The girl had a ruthless streak in her. I'd be sure to put it to good use in the future.

Perhaps I wouldn't need to wait? I had always intended for the Undersiders to take control of parts of the city. It was early yet for such a bold move with the Empire and the Merchants still in play but perhaps I could start laying the groundwork? I could have a few of my moles keep an ear out for those who were dissatisfied with their current groups. Perhaps even get them to float the idea that the girl would make a better employer?

It would have to be handled delicately, but the potential was there. Perhaps just start out with a few tags depicting purple eyed ravens? If any unaffiliated taggers aproved of what she had done they would likely take the idea and run with it on their own. A bit of advertising now might make things go smoother down the line.

Yes. That would do nicely. Get the idea in people's heads now and make it all the easier for them to fall into place later.

{}{}{}{} Danny

The door finally opened and I kept my eyes firmly locked on it. Taylor slipped in and locked it before sighing tiredly and rubbing at her eyepatch.

"Taylor." She turned slowly and grimaced when she saw me but despite flinching back a little she didn't cringe or shrink in on herself. "Are you hurt?" She shook her head no. "Good. Sit down." I gestured to the chair across from me at the table. With another little sigh she seated herself.

"You said you were doing this for money. You said you were going to stay out of the gang war. Then you don't come home for days, only to show up on the news as you tortured a woman and all but condemned her to a very short and miserable life as sex toy." My voice sounded cold, and oddly detached, but I paid it little attention I was too busy trying to keep my temper in check. "What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I didn't hear from you?"

"I, I did call to tell you I was alright after the meeting."

"Yes, and that was all you told me. When you never came home all I could do was worry. I know you have a cell phone but you never gave me the number. I want to know that number, but we'll come back to that later. What the hell were you thinking?!"

Taylor cringed back just a touch and I realized I'd finally slipped and started to shout. With a deep breath I forced myself to lean back into my seat rather than loom over the edge of the table.

"The meeting," She started to speak her voice quiet. "I'm assuming the news talked about the basics?" I gave a slight nod. "She was just so… The poor kid was terrified, Dad. Then as soon as she thought she was free… She probably didn't even have enough time to realize what was about to happen!" Taylor snarled, rage twisted her face into something ugly I had never seen from her before. It reminded me of some of her mother's old contacts from Lustrum's movement. The ones who had been willing to go those few steps farther than Annet.

"And Bakuda just laughed, like it was the funniest thing in the world! I'd have killed her for that if she had been there right then, but she wasn't." She spat bitterly. "No, instead that insane bitch was off in some little hidey hole doing the same damn thing to even more kids." She looked up and met my eyes firmly.

"It took Tattletale and I three day to track her down. When I finally did I waited long enough to get some sleep and come up with a plan. But, that was just for dragging her out of her workshop. The rest, everything I did for the camera? I'd already planned that bit out while we were hunting for her." She said it all with a kind of grim satisfaction that made me ache inside.

This was what my daughter had become. How? When? Why? It was painful to see her like this. Everything I had admired about her resolve was still there, but now it had a new edge that wasn't there before. Or maybe the edge had simply been hidden away, unneeded until now.

"It's barely even been a week since the Protectorate paid us a visit." She said seemingly changing tracks. "I'd meant to give them some kind of response for bending the rules as badly as they did, but the middle of a gang war wasn't a good time for something like that. It would have sent the wrong message. Taking down Bakuda in her own lab? That sends a message every major player in the Bay is going to hear loud and clear."

"You mutilated a woman on what is quickly becoming national news and condemned her to, to-" I couldn't say it again.

Finally, something seemed to break through and for a moment I saw some of the old Taylor. The sad Taylor who walked like she was always waiting for the next shoe to drop.

"Yeah, yeah I did." She mumbled, eye glued on the table between us. "What she did, I wanted her to suffer, this was the worst thing I could think off. Maybe it's too much, or maybe I should have done worse, but I had to do something. I just, I just couldn't let what she did go." She rubbed at her face with the palms of her hands before looking at me.

"I figured, if I was going to go after her I was going to kill as many birds with one stone as I could. The Protectorate is humiliated because some brand new villain did their jobs for them and called them on it. The Gangs know I'm not someone to mess with now because I'm willing to hit people hard." Her lips twitched into a dark smirk. "And now everyone knows hurting kids will get them my personal attention. I really like the idea of having people like that scared."

"So that's it. You decided you just had to hurt this woman, and wanted to get as much out of it as you could? Taylor, what the hell am I supposed to do with you?"

I pushed out of my chair. I just couldn't stay sitting, I needed to move even just a little. A couple of laps across the kitchen later I ended up resting against the counter.

This was so far over my head. Of all the discussions I thought I might one day need to have with her, a lecture of just how morally repugnant an act she could commit as part of her supervillain career had never exactly crossed my mind. Nor had I ever considered a discussion about what exactly was going too far in terms of reprisals against one's enemies. I wasn't exactly qualified to set standards either. She had reasons for what she did. Some of them better than others. The biggest seemed to boil down to her being angry and lashing out at the person responsible.

I could understand being angry, but to just go after such a dangerous person without backup, and she felt justified! It was written all over her face and posture. But she had pulled it off, didn't even get hurt doing it. But that didn't give her the right to. Then again, she was a villain and proud enough of that fact to declare it to the world and defy heroes to their faces, even outnumbered and out of costume. What was legally, or even morally, right wasn't exactly something she seemed to care about lately.

Was she even wrong? How long would it have taken the Protectorate to capture Bakuda? How many people would have died? How many would have been turned into unwilling suicide bombers?

"I'm not happy about what you did." I started choosing my words with care. "You didn't need to burn words into her back. You didn't need to try and rile up her future cellmates. Just turning her in would have been enough."

"Maybe." She answered with a halfhearted shrug. She wouldn't meet my eyes though. She didn't agree with me. At least not fully, but she didn't want to argue the point. With a tired sigh I ran a hand through my hair.

"Go to bed, Taylor. It's almost midnight."

Nodding she went and left me to my thoughts. We would need to talk about this again. I'd have to try and wring some sort of concessions out of her even if it was just running her plans by me beforehand so that I could moderate them. I could punish her, but what would even be sufficient punishment for this? And if I did what I really wanted to and grounded her until she turned twenty she would just up and leave. It wasn't like I could stop her.

I needed a drink, and a good night's sleep, and advice on how to properly deal with this. Did the internet have tips for the parents of super villains? It probably boiled down to more Protectorate propaganda about getting them to join the Wards. Maybe a priest if I went to confession so they couldn't report it to anyone? I'd never really put much stock in religion, but I did know they would keep something from confession to themselves. Or would a priest just tell me to encourage her to turn herself in and repent? Fat lot of good that would do me.

Shaking the thought off I went to the fridge.

Beer, then bed. Maybe I'd get lucky and dream up a solution that wouldn't end with an even larger mess.

{}{}{}{} Brian

"Well, new girls certainly entertaining." Alec chuckled from his spot on the couch.

"Not helping, Alec." I grumbled from my spot against one wall.

Bitch just grunted and whistled for her dogs who trotted out of the room after her. Wonderful. It was always a pain in the ass trying to figure out how she would react. Indifference wasn't the worst possible outcome but it didn't make things any easier on me.

"We're going to have to wait a few days before we get any real idea how people will react to this." Lisa mumbled. "Well, the public reaction anyway. It's going to a mixed bag for sure, but how the media spin things will play a big part."

"More interested in our reaction than the public, Lisa."

The girl glance over at me from her laptop screen, then shook her head. "Brian, look, I'm not really thrilled with what she did either. It was a lot darker than I honestly thought she would be capable of, but it's basically her hot button issue. Kind of weird because she wasn't abused in the common sense, but… She was bullied pretty badly which eventually led to her trigger. The girls behind it all? Pretty fucked in the head by bad shit that happened to them at a young age. Around thirteen or fourteen I think."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alec asked sparing Lisa a glance.

"In her head, people not traumatizing kids or at least paying attention to her when she needed help would have saved her a lot of suffering." Lisa shrugged. "To her, kids and young teens need someone in their corner or bad shit happens. That's basically the long and short of it."

I mulled that over for a bit. There were certainly worse hang ups for a person to have. It wasn't exactly likely to get in the way of our work either. It wasn't too different from Bitch's feelings about dogs either. Still the girl had gone from civilian to sentencing a woman to a life as a prison bitch in practically no time at all.

"Alright fine, we don't make an issue out of it. But if this kind of stunt becomes common we are revisiting this conversation."

Lisa glanced my way long enough to give a brief nod before diving back to her computer. I leaned back in my own chair and closed my eyes. Hopefully this would help our rep rather than hurt it, but Lisa was right. We'd have to wait for the dust to settle a bit before we could know what people were really going to think about all this.