Escalation 4.2

"What are your powers?"

"I can see the future," was Dinah's simple reply.

Taylor stared at the girl to see if she was serious. The younger girl looked back, a little unnerved at the intense stare from the older cape.

"You're going to have to explain to me how that works," Taylor said finally.

"I ask questions, and I get the answers in the form of a percent on how likely whatever the outcome of the question is will happen."

"Ah," Taylor noted in realization, "that's what you were saying when Kichi and I walked in on you and Gamamaru."

Taylor took a moment to marvel at Dinah's power. In a world of Alexandrias, Legends and Eidolons, it was almost amazing that powers could still surprise people.

"Well," Taylor spoke thinking aloud once Dinah's revelation had a chance to settle, "I don't know much about the cape scene outside of Brockton Bay, but, it sounds like you're a pretty powerful precog. From what I understand, most of those sorts of thinkers don't get their answers as clearly as yours."

Dinah nodded in unhappy agreement.

"Yes, it's why those men were after me."

Taylor could very well understand that. Dinah's power was ridiculous. She wasn't exactly an expert on capes, especially outside of her city, but, Taylor wouldn't be surprised if Dinah was one of the strongest precogs in the country, if not the world.

"Do you know who sent them?"

"No," Dinah responded with a frown, "and I can't ask now. I've used up too many questions."

"What do you mean?"

"Asking too many questions hurts. I get horrible migraines if I push my power too much. And I pushed it a lot today to find a safe way to escape. I won't be able to ask anything until tomorrow."

Taylor noticed that Dinah seemed less standoffish and wary now as she explained her power. At ease as she talked about something she was familiar with, momentarily distracted from the events of the day.

Taylor didn't quite sigh in relief, but, it was a near thing. She really wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. She was just glad that it hadn't gone badly so far.

"Right, well, do you mind staying here tonight? There's no way for whoever sent those guys after you to find you here. And then we can try to find out who's coming after you and how to stop them."

Dinah looked around her unsurely, fishing for a response.

It couldn't have been more obvious that staying here was the last thing she wanted if she'd screamed it from the mountain top.

Taylor sympathized. After what she'd gone through, Dinah probably wanted to go see her family and make sure that they were okay. To be surrounded by the comfort of family and familiarity. Not stay in a strange mountain, with giant toads and an unknown cape.

"Look," Taylor spoke, interrupting Dinah as she searched for a response. "I won't try to force you to stay here. But I want to help you and make sure that you're safe. The best way to do that would be to stay here where you're sheltered from anyone who would want to capture you, and we can figure out who sent those men after you."

Taylor was surprised at the serious look the smaller girl leveled at her.

Without breaking eye contact, the precog spoke in an even tone, only betrayed by the slightest of nervousness, "Chance that I find out Jiraiya is lying to me about trying to help me and keep me safe."

Taylor's brows shot up in surprise. She hadn't expected that.

Idly she wondered if Dinah needed to say the questions aloud or if she was doing it to make a point. It was reckless of the girl to do. If Taylor had been lying, there would be nothing that Dinah could have done to stop her anyway. Not as she was, and certainly not in Myoboku of all places.

"1.0437%," Dinah spoke in a monotone.

Luckily for her, Taylor hadn't been lying.

The consequences of her actions were immediately apparent. With a keening noise, Dinah clutched at her head as she experienced the most intense migraine of her life.

Reacting on instinct more than anything, Taylor reached for the girl and pulled her into her chest. Dinah whimpered as she fought off the initial surge from the migraine.

"I'm sorry," Dinah mumbled, voice smothered in the taller capes coat, her eyes tearing with pain. "I had to be sure."

"It's okay," Taylor soothed, awkwardly placing her arm around the precog. "It's understandable after the day you had," she said, flailing for the right thing to say and coming up mostly empty. "Don't worry about it," she finished lamely.

She really wasn't the person for this.

Taylor didn't know how long they sat there. Long enough for the awkwardness of holding the girl to fade and for Dinah to regain her composure from the sudden spike in head pain.

Though, if Taylor was any judge from the way Dinah was squinting as though even the meager light in the cavern pained her, the migraine wasn't going away anytime soon.

"Alright," Taylor said eventually, causing Dinah to spring away flushing in embarrassment as the younger girl realized the position she was in with a near stranger.

"Sorry," she said, not looking the toad summoner in the eye.

"It's fine," the older girl brushed off a little clumsily, "don't worry about it. But," she continued, "I want to go check on one of my toads. He was injured fighting Bushido," she explained. "Do you want to come and meet him?" Taylor offered. "He'd probably like some company."

Dinah looked around the large empty cavern they were in. It seemed suddenly a lot more foreboding with the prospect of being in it alone.

"I'll go with you."

Luckily for the awkward pair, it was a short walk to Gamatatsu.

Shima had taken one look at the youngest son of Gamabunta and immediately decided to take charge of the hapless toad's health herself. So the yellow toad was resting in an area nearby.

Walking into the room with the injured toad, Taylor was unsurprised to find that Gamakichi was still there.

She frowned behind her mask at the sight of thick bandages generously covering the yellow toad's chest. There were more bandages on his arm and back, but the punch landed to his chest by Bushido had been the worst of the injuries.

An armored fist covered in boiling steam packed with the power only a brute could manage would do that to a toad. Her nose wrinkled from the scent of bitter medicines and salves soaked into the bandages.

The yellow toad in question noticed their approach and waved cheerfully in greeting, heedless of his injured state.

"Hey Tay –," the toad's greeting was cut off by his brother's quick thinking. Gamakichi, at the sound of her name coming from Tatsu, had reacted with speed and covered his brother's mouth to stifle the excitable toad.

"Jiraiya when I wear the mask, remember, Tatsu?" Taylor asked doing her best not to let on through her tone the way her stomach had nearly jumped to her throat at the sound of her real name.

Sure, Dinah probably wasn't the worst person to learn her name, especially after she'd however unwittingly saved the younger girl. But it wasn't a good practice to let slide. All it would take was for Tatsu to slip in front of a villain for some very serious complications to arise. Complications she wasn't ready to deal with at all.

Taylor was extremely thankful for her partner's quick thinking and very carefully didn't look back to see Dinah's reaction to the near slip.

The yellow toad mumbled muffled words behind his brother's hand in answer.

Gamakichi carefully released his brother but kept a watchful air as Gamatatsu made to speak, ready to act should the yellow toad say something foolish.

"Sorry," Gamatatsu replied cheerily despite his injury and the recent manhandling from his brother, "I forgot you're like a secret ANBU."

Taylor didn't know what an ANBU was, but she was glad that Gamatatsu seemed to understand the situation at least.

"This is Dinah," Taylor introduced the quiet girl to the yellow toad who was looking at the other human inquisitively.

"Hello," she said cautiously.

Taylor supposed she could understand the girl's wariness, but if there ever was a toad where that wasn't needed, it was Gamatatsu.

"This is Gamatatsu," she explained to Dinah. "He's Gamakichi's brother. He helped me fight against Bushido; he's pretty good with his wind attacks."

At the reminder of his injuries, Taylor focused back onto the injured toad.

"I'm sorry that you were hurt Tatsu," she said solemnly. "I should never have let it happen." Her throat was tight as she thought back to the crunching sound of Bushido's fist impacting with her toad. "I –," she stopped unsure of what to say. Unable to express how she was feeling, how she wished it had gone differently.

"Sis, it's okay. We're ninja toad. Proud warriors for our family."

Taylor shot a look to meet the serious gaze of Gamatatsu to make sure she wasn't imagining things. She had never heard the yellow toad sound so serious before. Briefly, she had thought her hearing was playing tricks on her and it had been Gamakichi who'd spoken.

The intent stare from the normally blithe toad gave lie to that thought.

"Warriors get hurt in battle. It happens, and you can't prevent that," his voice was almost apologetic as he lightly reprimanded his summoner.

At his side, Gamakichi looked down to his brother with a hint of surprise that was instantly smothered by pride and affection.

Taylor stared at Gamatatsu unsure of what to say.

A bitter smile rose unbidden, hidden by her mask. Even now that she had superpowers herself, Taylor had wanted to believe that heroes could save everyone. That she could save everyone.

An image of her mother came unbidden. A sad knowing smile gracing a kind face.

Childish.

A small, young part of her cried a little at the bitter lesson given to her by the least likely of her toads.

"Okay," Taylor replied to the bandaged toad in resignation. "Okay," she repeated again, this time to herself as if in affirmation.

The serious look that adorned the yellow toad's face shifted to a more familiar squinty eyed goofy grin.

"Hey sis, when did you have a tadpole of your own?"

Taylor choked in shock.

Dinah squeaked in surprise.

Gamakichi laughed uproariously and did absolutely nothing to help the situation as it descended into a chaotic spree of denials and embarrassed reprimands from the humans.

The heavy air from the previous conversation waned into something lighter.

"She's not my tadpo -, I mean kid!" Taylor spluttered indignantly at the yellow toad even as she was praying for Kichi to pinch her and prove all of this was a weird dream.

Gamatatsu blinked in surprise at the vitriolic response from his summoner.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

"Ah," Gamatatsu spoke in understanding, "I get it! You're trying to trick me! I won't fall for it that easily sis," he gloated.

"I'm really not her daughter," Dinah chimed in tentatively.

The yellow toad's attention swerved over to the younger cape.

"You even got her to pretend along with you," Gamatatsu noted with awe, "you really are devious sis," he complimented the increasingly distraught summoner.

"She is too young and I am too old to be her daughter," the precog argued as the red-coated cape seemed to not be in a fit state to formulate a response.

"But you both have brown hair," Gamatatsu countered her logic with logic of his own, faulty as it was.

It took nearly 10 minutes for Taylor to convince Gamatatsu that Dinah wasn't her child. Even with Dinah joining in the conversation 5 minutes in after she'd gotten over her embarrassment and shyness.

"Okay," Gamatatsu finally agreed with the arguing humans, "the tadpole is someone else's tadpole, but she's your friend and she's having a sleepover with us."

Taylor sighed in relief and traded a look with Dinah, both agreeing to quit while they were ahead.

"Oh," Taylor spoke, remembering why she'd come now that the craziness had ended, "Tatsu, I brought some stuff for you while you recover."

Picking up the candy-laden bags from where she'd set them down when they'd entered, she moved to give them to the suddenly eager toad.

"I got a bunch of different kinds, so you can try them all and see what you like," she explained as the Toad tore into the gifts to see what he'd gotten. His expression lit up at the massive amount of candy that spilled out of the bags.

"You probably don't have these sort of candy here, so I –,"

Taylor was interrupted by the cheers from Gamatatsu. The yellow toad was already digging into his spoils, seemingly completely forgetting about his surroundings as he tore open a pack of gummy bears and threw them in his mouth, humming contentedly at the sweetness.

Taylor rolled her eyes at the predictable response from the yellow toad. Turning to face Dinah, she quirked a brow at the look of fascinated horror on the 12-year old's face as she stared at the yellow toad gorging on his candy.

Well, she supposed that was also a predictable response to seeing Gamatatsu get at candy for the first time.

"Hey," Taylor spoke, her voice seemingly snapping Dinah from the hypnotic daze she'd been experiencing from the spectacle before her, "he's going to be busy for a while. Why don't we let him be and go find a place to crash? It's been a long day for both of us."

Dinah nodded in agreement. Taylor was relieved to note that the previous wariness and caution which had pervaded the girl had faded to something like ease.

Shooting Gamakichi a wave as they left, she didn't bother doing the same for Tatsu. Taylor doubted the yellow toad was in a state to acknowledge it.

Thankfully for the humans, Taylor wasn't the first summoner of the toads. Not even the first to live on Myoboku. So, while Ma and Pa, as they preferred to be known, might still offer flies and other bugs as food for their guests, the idea of a bed wasn't a foreign concept.

Leading the young precog to one of the rooms which had a bed Taylor stood at the threshold of the room as Dinah tested out the surprisingly comfortable mattress.

Taylor made to leave once she was sure that the younger girl had settled in but paused before finding her own bed.

"I know today has been rough," she started hesitantly. "But I promise, I'll do my best to help you figure this out and keep you safe tomorrow," she ended the promise strongly.

Dinah paused in her examination of the bed to nod solemnly at the older cape.

"Thank you," she said solemnly, and for a wonder, the younger girl actually sounded somewhat reassured.

Maybe she wasn't so bad at this after all Taylor mused as she found her way to her own bed. She didn't even bother to remove her jacket as she fell onto the mattress and closed her eyes.

Further thought was pushed aside as she finally rested her tired eyes and the long day came to a close.

AN - Okay, so that very long day which started with Taylor and Sabah cleaning up the base and ended with Dinah on Myoboku has finally concluded. Next chapter will have some exciting stuff as well. Dinah's situation will have some sort of resolution and of course the epic fallout from Lung's middle finger to the Empire and the capture of several villainous capes. Fun stuff ahead for Brockton Bay.

Edit 04/05/16 - Added onto the scene with Gamatatsu. People commented that the part where he mistook Dinah for Taylor's daughter felt like more tell than show, and I agreed so I added onto it.