I had been awake for five minutes now, which was a surprise if I'm honest. I didn't expect to ever wake up again.

The first thing I did on waking was try to workout where I was. Squinting, I tried to make out the room around me. It was bright, the walls painted pale colours and there were no signs on the posters I had put up over the summer. Sunlight was streaming in through the window.

The familiarity sank in. I was in the hospital. Again. With a sigh, I slumped back onto the bed.

For awhile, I was happy to just let my mind wonder. If I was in the hospital then I had survived and I was safe. One thing I kept coming back to was the dream. My dreams had been strange ever since I triggered, so that was nothing new. But I had been dreaming about something, something important. I tried to remember what it was, commit what I could to memory, but the details were already starting to blur.

It was something I could... I needed, to build. Circular. Energy storage. Creation...Broken, not dead...

Something pulled on the sheet, distracting me from my thoughts and a small, blurry, shape climbed up my bed and into view. From the colours it could only be Rewind.

Realising I was awake, the little bot ran forward and grabbed my hand. He had a surprisingly strong grip for something so small

*Taylor! Thank god, I was so worried. You nearly gave me pump failure! Panacea said you would be okay but you didn't wake up and there were all these people hanging around and Danny looked so scared and, and-* He buried his face in my hand, his little body trembling.

Sitting up in bed, I picked up Rewind. I wasn't sure what to say, so I settled for wrapping one hand around him in a 'hug'.

He was just calming down when there was a knock on the door. "Taylor? You awake kiddo?"

"Yea Dad, I'm awake." When he came in, Miss Militia was close behind. She stopped by the door while he rushed forward and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Don't you ever do that to me again! do you hear me?" My arms were pinned but I was able to awkwardly reach around and pat him on the back. Rewind squirmed as he was crushed between us.

He pulled away slightly, even without my glasses I was close enough to see the pain on his face and his eyes were red, had he been crying? "What on earth were you thinking?! Taking on Lung of all people! You could have... you nearly..." He pulled me back into another hug.

I tried to swallow down the guilt, with everything that happened last night, I never even considered Dad. "D... Dad..." I croaked out. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I swear, I was just looking for scrap when they attacked me."

Dad tightened only his grip.

Miss Militia's hand on Dad's shoulder gently pulled him away and into a chair next to my bed, he pulled a small case out of his pocket, the glasses I left at home.

Putting them on, I got my first look real look at the room. I was in a private room, the blinds on the window were heavy and the windows were actually tinted. Next to my bed was a heart monitor, turned off and thankfully not attached to me like it was the last time I woke up in hospital. My power supplied a couple of things I could do with it, a med-bot would be really useful.

"Taylor, we think we have a good idea of what happened last night, but can you tell me why you were there and what saw?" Miss Militia asked, her voice gentle.

Last night? I half expected it to be longer. "I... I went to the graveyard for scrap. We, I, couldn't afford to keep buying stuff from junk yards or second hand dealers but I still had so many ideas."

Miss Militia nodded. "It's a common problem for Tinkers, go on."

"Right, well, you told me the gangs watch junk yards so Wheeljack and I made a mask and..." I looked away from her. "We modified the stun-gun you gave me into something abit more powerful. It was just for self-defence!" I added quickly.

"It was when I was leaving, I ran into Oni Lee. He used a bomb to seal of the exit with ice." And now the fight was over, I wanted to know just how he did that. Some kind of thermal exchange? Rapidily pull all the heat from an area causing it to freeze? What happened to the heat afterwards?

I looked Dad in the eye. "I tried to run, to get out of the graveyard but he wouldn't let me leave. In end, I had to go further in, right to where the fighting was. Lung was there, fighting a bunch of kids, he... he..." I tried to force the memory down, the girl's burning body hitting the floor.

Dad reached out and took my hand. "It's alright Kiddo"

I took a deep breath and reached for that same cold anger I had felt the night before. "No, it's not. He was killing people. She was my age and he just killed her like it was nothing. I tried to stop him, but my stun-gun barely slowed him down. When he went after me, I hid. That's when I called Miss Militia." That was stupid, I should have called her first!

"It's alright, no one reacts well to their first fight," Miss Militia said, shooting a meaningful glance at Dad who looked pointedly away and coughed. Her eyes narrowed in what I assumed was a smile under her mask. "It's written all over your face."

Her good mood helped me to relax. "When dragon arrived, I tried to help-The girl! There was a blonde girl, she was badly hurt. Do you know what happened to her?" I tried to get up but Miss Militia reached out to stop me.

"It's alright, she arrived at the hospital with you, she's in a different room but she's going to be fine."

I sighed and relaxed back into the bed. "She said her name was Tattletale."

"We know. She's a member of the Undersiders, a minor gang that's avoided drawing attention to themselves until now. What happened after Dragon arrived?" Miss Militia asked gently.

I frowned as I tried to remember. "When I woke up, Lung was asking Tattletale something. I think he was torturing her. That's when I used my power on Dragons suit. I don't remember anything after that."

She nodded. "That more or less matches with what we were told. Hellhound's body was recovered this morning by a PRT team that was able to breach the ice walls. They also recovered the remains of a tinker weapon, I assume its yours?"

"Yea... Dragon's suit, what happened to it?" I asked. Dragon was considered one of the best Tinkers in the world and until last night I had no idea if my power would even work on tinker-tech, never mind what the results would be.

Miss Militia pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's... sleeping in the hospital car park. Dragon would like to talk to you about that, by the way."

"It's sleeping in the...?" Just what the hell did I create?

The shock must have shown on my face as, with a sigh, Miss Militia sat down on the end of my bed. "Taylor, what your power created last is best described as a mechanical dragon. As near as we can tell, it dealt with Lung then brought you and Tattletale here. It landed right outside the emergency room. The fact it hasn't moved since is the only reason the director hasn't ordered its destruction."

I didn't trust myself to talk. It carried me here? That would make it big, far too big to hide. "H... How many people?" My voice was trembling.

"I'm sorry Taylor, by the time we reached the hospital, nearly a dozen people had taken pictures of it's arrival. Most of them have been posted online already."

I grabbed Rewind, who transformed on reflex. Desperately, I tried to bring up his net connection but he stubbornly refused to let me. Giving up, I turned back to Miss Militia, anger overtaking my fear. "How bad?"

"It took less than an hour for someone to recognise you. I'm sorry Taylor but at this point, its best to assume your identity has been compromised.

It felt like I had just swallowed a lump of lead. If people knew who I was... "Lung. Lung saw my face in the graveyard, he knew I was a tinker. If anyone tells him my name... "

Defence. I needed something to protect Dad and the house. Maybe if I built some auto-turrets I could slave them to Teletraan. It would need an upgrade and a better IFF software, but that wouldn't take long. The power requirements though might be more difficult.

"A PRT team is already watching your house and your creations are in Danny's car." Miss Militia's voice interrupted my thoughts. "As it is, I don't think you are in any danger yet. The gangs know we would be watching you. They will wait till they think it's safe before doing anything."

"It's something the director will want to talk to you both about. Along with joining the wards." She sighed at the look on my face. "Taylor, I know when we spoke last you were unsure, but you have to realise last night will have consequences. I don't know how you got away from Lung, but there is enough blood on your robot that I can guess. While I doubt Lung would come after you himself, there is nothing stopping him from sending people after you."

*And if Lung doesn't come after us, the Empire will,* Wheeljack's voice came from Rewinds speaker. "Hey Taylor. Good morning Miss Militia, Rewind thought it was best we all have a say in this."

"Good morning, Wheeljack" Miss Militia said pleasantly. It all felt a bit surreal.

Wheeljacks voice sounded different, there was an odd rustling in the background that I couldn't place. "Jack, where are you?"

Dad cleared his throat. "The pair of them are under a tarp in the back of my truck. When I picked up a change of clothes for you, they refused to stay at home."

*We wanted to make sure you were alright. Besides, Miss Militia agreed that we should stay nearby for now.*

"Yes, your house is safe for now but I think it's best you all stay were we can watch out for you."

"Oh." That made sense I guess. Something Wheeljack and Miss Militia said clicked in my mind.

"Wait, you two know each other? And what was that about the empire?"

Wheeljack sighed. "I called her when we lost contact with you last night, I didn't know what else to do. Rewind is too small to help and I was too far away and-"

"It's alright Jack," I cut him off. Jack was great, but get him nervous and he would ramble on forever. "You did the right thing."

I sighed and laid back in bed. My first night out had been a disaster, especially considering it wasn't supposed to be my first night. Still, I beat Lung, that was something to be proud of, right? Fire engulfed her as her burning corpse hit the floor, Tattletale screaming.

No, I forced the image down. No, I didn't beat Lung, I survived him. And now because of it Dad and my bots were in danger. I had to make a decision.

"Do I have time to think about it?" I asked. Coward. Miss Militia nodded. "That's fine. Just remember, when you are ready to leave, the director would like to meet you."

"Would it be alright for me to go see the dragon?" I really wanted to see what my power had created.

It was nearly twenty minutes before I was allowed out side. A nurse brought me breakfast and told me in no uncertain terms that I would 'not be allowed to leave until I had eaten all of it'.

I barely remember eating it, the moment the food was in front of me I practically inhaled it. I hadn't realised just how hungry I was. Apparently, being healed by Panacea tended to make you hungry, preservation of mass or something. Dad had brought me a change of clothes and waited outside with Miss Militia as I got changed.

There was a hair brush in the bag but I quickly gave up. My hair was a tangled, filthy mess after everything that happened last night and I may have lost an inch to Lungs fire, it would take forever to wash, dry and comb it at this point.

As I changed, Wheeljack filled me in what happened after I blacked out. "Wait, go back. You hacked Panacea's phone?" Great, something else to feel guilty about.

*I didn't have a choice!* Wheeljack protested. *She wouldn't answer. I tried to make up for it though, there was a hidden app broadcasting her location to someone in the city. I removed it, I also upgraded her phones security.*

"You sure it wasn't just New Wave keeping an eye on her?" As one of the few healing capes, she was important enough to warrant watching.

*No, they did have a tracker on her phone but it only sends periodic updates, so I left it alone*

"Okay, I'll let Miss Militia know later. You never did explain about the Empire by the way"

*Oh right, when you were outed I knocked their forum offline. it's back up now and they are discussing a possible new tinker they want to 'recruit'.*

I shuddered at that. I'd move to Simurgh zone before I ever agreed to work for them. Probably. If I had a choice.

Pulling on the hoody dad had brought me, I picked up Rewind and went to leave the room when a thought occurred to me. "I don't supposed you were able to find out who outed me?"

There was a suspiciously long pause before Wheeljack answered me. *No... sorry, it slipped my mind.* I could almost see the guilty expression on his face.

"Wheeljack... tell me."

*Rung said it's better if I don't...*

"Rung doesn't know how to use an arc welder, I do. Now tell me."

Jack chuckled. "You wouldn't dare, you need my help too much."

Yes, it was childish but bickering with Jack helped distract me from last night. And I really wanted to know who outed me!