Chapter 8


Staring up at the school, Skye internally debated blowing the whole thing off and going back home.

She'd come in on Saturday, as Miss Militia recommended going to Principal Blackwell before starting school again to inform her of her changes. Behind her, her tail swayed from side to side, mirroring her agitation. It wasn't that she really needed things to go well, even if they didn't she could always just try her hand at something else, it was just that Winslow was the only school in Brockton Bay she could actually go to. If things ended up badly, she could try to go to Clarendon High, but that was an even worse hellhole than Winslow according to what she had heard, barely above just being a meeting place for the ABB.

Sighing, she began walking up the steps, curling her tail around her torso for comfort and slowly threading her fingers through the soft fur. There wasn't really any good reason why things should even go badly, Blackwell couldn't exactly stop her from attending just based off the fact she now had an extra pair of ears and a furry tail. If she did, there was grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.

Technically, having ears and a tail didn't apply to the Equality Act, but if her ears and tail were regarded as a race change, or if they were regarded as a disability to function normally in society, then if Blackwell did kick her out of school, she could quite easily bring a lawsuit on her head which would give her enough money to attend Arcadia, at least based on what Miss Militia had told her and what she'd looked up. She didn't want to do that, changing schools would be a hassle, and as long as people left her alone and let her just have a semblance of normality in Winslow, she really didn't care.

According to Miss Militia, Blackwell was working today, doing whatever it was that Principals did to administrate the school. Slipping inside, she made her way through the halls, idly increasing her sense of smell then quickly reverting it as she smelt so many different scents, most of them not being pleasant. There was the familiar coppery sting of blood, as well as a myriad of other scents she didn't recognize in the slightest. She hummed softly as she walked, eventually coming across Blackwells office.

Lifting her tail, she gently rapped the end of it on the door a few times, and heard Blackwell call her in. Miss Militia had called ahead to tell her that someone was going to be coming by, which was the reason the front doors to the school weren't locked, but she'd kept who and why anonymous. Tucking her tail behind herself and folding her ears up slightly, she opened the door and stepped inside. "Ahh, Miss...Rivera, is it?" Skye nodded, stepping inside. "Well, I can't say I expected to see you so soon, Miss Militia wasn't exactly forthcoming about who would be visiting today. How is your head, feeling better I hope?"

Skye nodded again, sitting down on the chair in front of the Principal's desk and sighing softly. "Yeah, the bruise went away quickly and...well, then the reason why I'm here cropped up." Blackwell raised an eyebrow and gestured for her to explain, which prompted her to unfurl her ears and flick her tail out from behind her back, hiding her thin smile at the woman's reaction by tucking her tail across her face, peering out from behind it. "Miss Militia told me to tell you straight away that I'm not a Ward, so there isn't any compensation or anything, but she figured that it'd be best to inform you of what happened to me before school next week, that way the faculty aren't caught flat-footed by all this."

"Hmm, astute, I'll have to thank her if I see her next." Blackwell spent a moment examining her appendages. "Well, as I am certain Miss Militia has already informed you, whatever abilities your newfound abilities give cannot be used, especially not against students nor staff, nor any of their belongings. You're a smart girl, I'm sure you understand the reasons why." Skye nodded, lengthening her tail and curling it around herself, increasing the amount of fur. "That's..."

Skye cut in before she could say anything. "It's a comfort action, like folding my arms, it helps me stay calm." That quickly put a stop to Blackwell before she could even consider telling her that doing that wouldn't be allowed. It was way too comfortable and cozy to not do. "My sense of hearing is only a little bit better than a human right now, it's as low a sense of hearing as I can make my ears, so I won't be able to really eavesdrop of anything." She said quickly, shifting her tail to more closely wrap around herself. "I do have another ability, but I have no intention of being a hero, so I don't really want to talk about it. The more people who know a secret and all that."

Blackwell was silent for a few moments before clearing her throat. "Right, well, everything should be alright then. I am placing trust in you to not use your appendages or your secret 'ability' against anybody else, though I understand that if people might try to get grabby or pushy because of your appearance, you have my permission to protect yourself. Only to protect yourself and to get away, that is. If I hear that you wrapped your tail around somebody's neck just for trying to touch your tail, I shall be most displeased."

Nodding, Skye flicked the end of her tail, nudging her hair back slightly. "No, I understand. I can use my tail like an extra arm, so I'll probably use it to help me move things or carrying stuff, but if someone tries any of that, I'll only use it to push them away or stop them from hurting me." She then shrugged. "I know I look like an animal girl and guys like that kind of thing, so if anyone gets pushy like that I'll probably be coming right here to tell you. I'm not interested in guys anyway, and before this I didn't exactly have friends. Obviously, anyone who suddenly starts showing me any real interest is just doing it because I've changed, so I'll know." Blackwell didn't seem pleased with her admission, but accepted it none-the-less.

"Right. Well, I shall inform the faculty as to your changes and to keep a very firm eye out for any harassment. I can't say that you won't see any, because with your unique circumstances there isn't really a way to hide your changes, but I and the faculty here will be trying out best to ensure that it doesn't become an issue. In return, I expect that you come to me with problems. If I don't know that something is happening, I can't do anything about it." Skye nodded, reaching over the desk and shaking Blackwell's hand. "Well, I shall expect to see you here bright-eyed and 'bushy-tailed' on Monday." Blackwell said with a thin smile, making her grin as she got up.

"Yep, see you Monday."


Over the weekend, Skye worked at adjusting her weapons and practising using her enhanced sense of hearing and her tail.

Learning to distinguish different sounds by standing in the forest and picking out the various noises was difficult, but pretty rewarding. Being able to track down an otter by the sound of its paws, or a stoat by the way it bounded around was incredibly satisfying. Some of her time was spent confirming her control over her tail, using it to pick things up and even wielding a stick with it, swinging it around and cracking it against a tree.

Her weapons also saw changes. Some of them, like the BFG-9000 or Gauss Cannon, would never be safe to use against anything except brutes, kill order targets or an Endbringer. But the shotgun could be loaded with non-lethal shots like beanbag rounds, gas shells, rubber slugs or buckshot, even shells like bird bombs which were essentially a firecracker in a shotgun shell form. The rocket launcher could be loaded with net rounds, which would explode outwards into a big capture net, or foam rounds, essentially a canister of containment foam that would explode on impact and encase the target. Other than those options and her pistol, there was basically nothing that could be done, her weapons were meant for fighting demons after all, which were far more durable than humans.

Tucking her hands into her pockets, she used her tail to shift the bag hanging off her shoulder, ignoring the looks she got as she walked down the street towards Winslow High. She'd gotten used to being stared at, her changes weren't exactly incognito after all, and being stared at was a billion times better than being shot at by demons. That didn't mean she wasn't on guard still, any gang would probably want her just because of the fact she was different, and they'd be able to say they had another cape, even if she didn't actually reveal her capabilities. So far, nobody overly criminal or hostile had caught her attention, but it was only a matter of time.

Turning the corner, she saw Winslow High and the steady stream of students entering the school, keeping her tail wrapped around herself and her ears lightly folded. Not hiding them, but just making them a bit less noticeable. Of course, one student spotted them and nudged his friend, who then began talking about it, prompting a chain reaction of interest as most of the students saw her.

She simply kept walking, ignoring the stares and mutters and being the focus of dozens. She'd had many more demons all focused on trying to kill her, the social pressure of a few dozen students really didn't phase her. Then she saw out of the corner of her eye a hand reaching out to touch her and instinctively flicked her tail in that direction, batting away the hand before it could make contact with her shoulder. "Don't touch me." Skye spoke quietly as she walked past the guy, slipping through the front gates and to the school itself, entering the building.

Blackwell had called her on Sunday to inform her that she was going to have a section of the Monday assembly with which to announce her changes, and to make clear to all the students that harassing her would be met with a very dim view. Of course, that meant she had to put up with their curiosity until then, and even in that regard they wouldn't stop after being told to leave her alone. It wasn't as if she was worried about them being curious, it was more the fact that they were going to be annoying about it, stopping her from focusing with inane questions.

Setting her shoulders, she made her way to her locker, using her tail to swing her bag off her shoulder and holding it up in front of her, taking out her lunch and putting it in, then taking the books she'd need for her classes. Nudging the door shut, she saw that she was definitely the focus for more than half the students in the locker room, though she just brushed their attention aside as she exited the room and walked towards her homeroom, the whispers and the snickered questions clearly audible even to her adjusted ears. Briefly, she wondered whether she should have just not gone through with her silly idea, even if it did make her feel happy to bundle up in her tail.

Skye put that thought aside as she entered homeroom, sitting down at her desk and sitting down with her legs criss-crossed, then balling herself up in her tail, leaving only her head exposed. The act prompted more attention, but when she was cocooned up in her tail like that, it was even easier to ignore it than before. It felt like a warm, loving hug, being wrapped up and held. The fact her tail fur was so soft definitely added to that, leaving her feeling calm and happy. Nudging open her bag with the tip of her tail, she took her notebook out and started idly doodling, the fact of making nonsensical drawings of stick figures and random things taking up some of her focus.

Watching each student come in and stare for a moment was also pretty amusing, since it was hard to ignore the fact she was basically wrapped up in her own tail with two arms stuck out to hold her notepad and pencil. A few students seemed like they would approach her, but a short stare, which was admittedly halfway to a glare, dissuaded them all from actually following through.

The fact remained that before, when she was normal, nobody was her friend, nobody even really spoke to her, she was just left alone. That made it superbly easy for her to figure out who was interested in her because of the fact that she was now, well, interesting. Everyone who spontaneously showed interest in her were only interested because she had changed, and that made her interesting.

Spying another person walking towards her, she straightened slightly and raised an eyebrow when she realized that it was Sophia, who was resolutely looking just at her face. "Hey, wanted to say sorry for the whole shoving thing, was just meant to get you out of there." Blinking, she watched as Sophia then turned away and walked to her own desk, not even giving her the time of day. She didn't exactly sound sorry, but honestly, Skye was just surprised she even attempted an apology at all. Maybe the Protectorate had given her very explicit orders to apologize for causing her to trigger or something? Whatever the case was, it wasn't like she really gave a damn.

Though, hidden behind her tail fur, she did have a slight smile on her face from imagining Sophia being told off and ordered to apologize to her.


"-third floor classroom light has been repaired, and if the culprit is caught rest assured the punishment will be severe."

With great patience and tact, Skye yawned behind her tail, rolling her jaw a few times and blinking a few times as Blackwell went through the typical Monday announcements. Reports about vandalism, how open gang affiliation was not allowed, tattoos had to be covered, changes to classrooms and stuff, all that sort of regular announcement. "Now, as I'm sure many of you have already noticed, one of our students has undergone changes thanks to a traumatizing incident last Wednesday. Miss Rivera, if you would like to stand up please."

Suppressing a sigh, she rose from her chair, every pair of eyes in the room focusing on her. "As you can see, these changes are not concealable and are obvious at first glance, which is why myself and the staff will be keeping an incredibly keen eye on Miss Rivera to ensure nobody attempts to harass her about the changes she had undergone. She has already told me she simply wishes to be left alone, and we will be doing our best to ensure she has that opportunity."

As Skye sat back down, Blackwell went through the various rules about harassment, using it as a segway away from talking directly about Skye to talking in general, reinforcing the rules. When the assembly ended, she was still the focal point for a lot of peoples gazes, but the fact that nobody actually had an in-road for talking to her meant nobody actually tried to speak to her as she left for her first class.

The fact remained that nobody had been her friend before she changed, and it seemed most of the students recognized that. There were obviously those who assumed they could just make an opening to talk to her, but the fact that she had a stare that would be a scary enough glare on its own dissuaded them from trying to approach her. Skye didn't want to be making friends or whatever, she mostly just wanted to go back to what she was used to, which was solitude and the monotony of classes.

Slipping into the first class of the day, she used her tail to unsling her bag, sitting down and tucking her tail around herself while she took out her books and pencil-case. Hopefully after a few days the novelty would wear off and she could get back to just being left alone and trying out living normally for a while, just to see whether she really was just too fucked in the head to change. It was a good sign that she honestly thought working with Parian could be nice, but if she couldn't even handle school, then maybe a normal life was just unattainable now.

She'd just have to see how things went.


The first few classes actually went pretty well all things considered.

Nobody tried to bother her, especially since her assigned desks were always at the back corners of the room, meaning she could easily keep an eye on the entire place and stare firmly at anyone who looked at her for longer than a cursory glance. The lessons themselves were predictably boring, the content easy for her to keep up with, to the point she'd started to read ahead in each lesson, cementing her knowledge of the subjects.

When it was time for lunch, that was when the first issue cropped up, as one boy didn't seem to get the message from her glare and sidled up next to her beside her locker to chat to her. Giving him the silent treatment didn't work, and as she made to close her locker he put his hand out to stop it, leaving her in the unenviable position of debating whether to force the locker shut and make him decide to keep it open or not, or she could directly speak to him. Eventually, she settled for the second, rounding on him and taking a small amount of pleasure from the widening of his eyes.

"Alright, you listen well, because I'm only saying this to you once. I don't care for your 'friendship' or how much money you have. Before I got these changes, I was the loner who literally nobody would even look at walking down the corridors. And now suddenly you think I'm hot and you want to go out on a date with me? Yeah right, it's not me you're even looking at. So leave me the fuck alone." Snarling, she then grabbed his arm with her tail and pulled it away from her locker, closing the metal with a slam and leaving the room, and a moderately terrified teenager, behind.

The walk to the cafeteria gave her an opportunity to calm herself down, and mildly berate herself. Her temper and her quickness to jump into hostility was still obviously dominating her personality, which just cemented in her mind the need to acclimate to normal life again. Entering the cafeteria, she glanced around at the four corner seats, growling lowly when she saw that they all had kids sitting near them. Obviously, the fact that she preferred corners had been figured out, and it wasn't like she could tell people where to sit.

Debating just going up to the roof, she eventually just picked the least populated corner and went there, taking the very corner seat and pointedly curled her tail across the table, blocking out the looks from the other students as she opened her food container and started on her sandwich. Several other students sat down in the other seats and she heard then subsequently ignored their attempts to strike up conversation with her. She spied one of them about to touch her tail and shifted it away and off the table with a grumble, wrapping it around herself and taking comfort in the action.

After the first few attempts to make conversation failed, the other students were dissuaded, though infrequent attempts to draw her attention were obvious. One of them was talking about wolves, several of the 'facts' he stated being either misleading or downright incorrect, another ploy to draw her attention. Skye just ignored him as she ate her lunch, the half-hearted attempts at attracted her attention falling on easily-deaf ears. Maybe some of those who wanted to talk to her were genuine attempts at friendship or something, but the fact remained that, well, beforehand nobody had any reason to pay attention to her. That meant, undeniably, that the entire reason for anybody to show her any level of attention was because of her ears and tail.

Finishing her food, she used her tail to hold her bag as she tucked away the empty container and brought out a book, wrapping the appendage around herself as she flicked it opened and started to read, keeping some of her attention on her surroundings as she did so. The novelty seemed to have already worn off for a lot of the room, since most people were busy focusing on their own business, chatting with friends, eating, reading, putting their head down for a nap, people had better things to do than to stare at her.

There were still stares, and those that had chosen to sit near her were obviously the ones most interested in her, but hopefully after today they'd realize that she wouldn't even give them the time of day and leave her alone. While she flicked through pages, she wondered about the girl that Sophia and her friends were tormenting. It was likely that it was their primary target, a girl she couldn't remember the name of but vaguely recalled her face, since she had similar green eyes but with glasses, and curly black hair, vastly different to the straight copper hair she had been born with.

Throwing her mind back, she vaguely recalled that only a week before she had been pushed, the girl had been out of school and there was some kind of hubbub about a biohazard involving a locker. She didn't pay much attention to the school rumor mill, but people chatted in the cafeteria and even if she didn't actively contribute, she overheard people talking about it enough to piece at least a little bit of it together.

It was irritating that she couldn't actually recall her name though, even if she didn't really intend to do much. Well, that wasn't true, she wanted to figure out whether Sophia was a genuine danger. After all, sure Sophia had 'apologized' and it genuinely did seem like it was an accident that she had very nearly killed her, but Sophia was probably the one behind that locker fiasco, and that meant she was a repeat offender for doing things that could easily maim or kill people. As she was a Ward, Skye would prefer to find out the facts and be armed with evidence in case she saw a real pressing need to screw Sophia over to protect herself.

She had already had one accident that nearly killed someone. If someone else in Winslow turned out nearly dead, or worse actually being killed, she wanted to make sure she could fuck Sophia over for causing it. The girl they were tormenting, if the rumors were to be believed, had definitely suffered at their hands. If she was the one they were pouring shit on inside that toilet, then it was obvious that even after whatever the fuck they'd done they still wanted to keep fucking with her, and that sat ill with her. She would be fine if it was just normal bullying, but they were targeting her directly and repeatedly, and that pissed her off.

Then, she blinked. Why was she getting so worked up? Surely whoever this girl was, she could have pointed out...no, maybe she already tried. Sophia was a Ward, and if she was the one doing the majority of it, the Protectorate would definitely be covering for her, as they did when they got Skye to either sign the NDA, or be forced to deal with the hospital bills. Perhaps they'd forced that girl into the same thing...that sounded likely now that she thought about it. She physically couldn't do much against Sophia because of it.

Humming softly, she ran her hands through her tail fur, shutting her eyes as she soothed herself. Sophia's target would need to be investigated so that Skye could figure out exactly how to go about things. If it turned out that the girl was actually strong enough to deal with their shit, she'd leave it at that. But if she needed a hand, Skye was not above dragging the entire Protectorate through the mud until either their reputation was tattered shreds in the dirt, or Sophia was dealt with.

She slightly lowered her tail and glanced around the cafeteria, not seeing Sophia or the other two girls that made up their crude little group, nor the girl they were targeting. Frowning, she put her book away in her bag, slinging it on her shoulder and rising, exiting the cafeteria efficiently before anyone could even try to follow her. Once outside, she headed up to the same toilets where she'd encountered them before, and on the way, she passed the three girls, getting no more than a cursory look before being ignored entirely.

It seemed that now that her apology had been made, Sophia had absolutely no interest in her, and the two girls seemed to be following her lead. it worked for her, as she made her way to the bathroom and nudged the door open with her tail, blinking as she saw the black-haired girl washing off objects covered in what appeared to be some kind of syrup. "Hey, you okay?" She said softly, getting a suspicious look before the girl's featured evened out into impassivity and she shrugged.

"As well as I can be when those three won't leave me alone." She said, her washing and scraping getting more agitated as she tried and failed to get the syrup out of the fabric of her bag, eventually stopping and planting her hands on the ceramic edge of the sink, her eyes flicking up to look at Skye, curiosity there instead of suspicion. "You're the girl that Sophia almost killed, aren't you?"

Skye smirked, flicking her tail from side to side. "And you're the girl that Sophia stuffed into a locker, aren't you?" She retorted, wincing at the look in the other girl's eyes, dipping her head. "Sorry, still a bit...confrontational from everyone trying to be my friend just because I'm suddenly a metahuman." Reaching up, she rubbed her neck, watching as the girl went back to trying to clean her belongings. "You know, a good way to get syrup out of fabric is one part dishwasher detergent and two parts warm water." When the girl raised her eyes to peer at her, she shrugged. "I sometimes spill stuff on the carpet when I'm cooking."

With another moment of casual observation, the girl went back to getting most of the syrupy stuff off her things, her bag dribbling more of the mixture as she upended it and held it above the sink, a frown on her face. "So, why are you even here? I doubt you're helping Sophia after she almost killed you, which means you're either here by coincidence, which is unlikely that you'd choose this bathroom instead of one closer to the cafeteria, or you came here deliberately."

Stepping into the bathroom and letting the door swing shut, she leaned against the wall, keeping her tail wrapped up and away from the nasty toilet floor. "Yeah, I wanted to figure out more about you. I remembered your face but not your name, and I know you have been in the sights of Sophia and the other girls for a while now for some unfathomable reason. So, I figured maybe you might be more interesting than the sycophants in the cafeteria and came to see if I'd find you up here. So, you got a name, or should I just keep referring to you as girl? Because that's getting real old. I'm Skye by the way."

"Taylor." She said quietly after a moment, letting go of her bag and flicking her hand clean, then extending it to shake. "Taylor Hebert, fellow bullied student." She said with a touch of humour, a thin smile on her lips as Skye herself smiled and shook her hand. "So, what can you even do with those?" Taylor said with a vague gesture towards her tail and ears, turning back to work her belongings under the water some more.

Bringing the end of her tail in front of herself, Skye brushed the fur there. "My ears let me hear better, obviously, and my tail is strong enough to act like a third arm, as well as being stupidly soft." As she spoke, she nudged her tail out, brushing some of her fur against Taylor's exposed arm and snorting at the surprised sound the girl made, her head turning to look at her tail. "But please don't touch my tail with your hands like that." She said quickly, seeing one of Taylor's slightly syrupy hands moving towards her fur.

"Oh, right." Taylor dipped her head, spending a few more moments on her stuff before sighing and shutting off the water. She shook her bag a few times then dumped all her belongings inside, leaving only a food container much like her own that had a half-eaten lunch sealed inside. "Well, mind if I join you? I'm not feeling very hungry and I think we're in the same classes all day anyway, so if you can bear to hang around the school loner..." Taylor trailed off, a slightly sad expression crossing her face. Surprising even herself, Skye shifted her tail to rest across Taylor's shoulders, patting the other side comfortingly with the tip while the girl tensed up.

"Sounds like a plan."


Skye and Taylor eventually ended up on the roof, the door having long-since been broken open, intermittently speaking to each other but both being comfortable with silence.

As it turned out, they were actually quite similar, both of them mostly just being used to being left alone. Taylor was more shy and awkward, her own isolation being because of Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess and Madison Clements, leading her to sometimes try to start a sentence, only to cut herself off halfway through. Skye was different in that her own isolation was willing. If she wanted to, even before she fell, she could probably have engaged with other girls or the boys and integrated herself into a group, she just really didn't care either way.

Sat on the edge of the roof overlooking Brockton Bay, they talked about pretty much anything that took their fancy, things like their favourite books, which capes they thought were the best, who the most dangerous member of the Slaughterhouse Nine was, anything that came to mind which wouldn't be a faux pas. Interestingly enough, Taylor seemed to avoid the subject of family pretty handily. She said she had a dad who worked at the Dockworker's Association and nothing else, no mention of siblings, or a mother, or even an uncle or grandmother or anything.

Amusingly enough, Taylor seemed to take comfort in brushing Skye's tail, a fact that she was more than willing to allow, more than once having to stop her tail from flicking in agitation when Taylor stopped her ministrations to gesture with her hands. Slowly but surely Taylor was opening up, her real personality coming out from the shy and awkward shell she'd made to protect herself from the bullying, as she spoke more at length about what she liked, far better than the short and stunted sentences she said beforehand.

Skye's eyes drifted shut as Taylor found a particularly sensitive spot on her tail, shaking her head vigorously as she realized she was actually falling asleep. Glancing over at Taylor, the girl had a grin on her face, to which she huffed and pulled her tail away, wrapping it around herself and snorting as the girl made remorseful grabbing motions. After a moment, she started to giggle softly, Taylor joining her after a moment as they devolved into amused laughter.

Dropping back to lie down with her knees hooked on the edge of the roof, Skye stared up at the clouds passing by, hearing Taylor lay down beside her for a moment, and a real smile pulled onto her face. She hadn't ever really had a friend before, when she was younger her father died and her mother became a drug addict, and as soon as she was able to care for herself the attention she got from the woman dried up into basically nothing at all. There were no playdates or anything of that kind, and when she was in school, she honestly believed that she didn't want a friend.

But now, lying on the roof beside Taylor, she realized that having a friend was...pretty awesome. Just being able to talk about what was on her mind was really nice. Though, right now that was thinking about whether or not she wanted to find Parian and ask if she could work with her part-time. Having money she could spend aside from the money her mother gave her when she needed stuff for school would be nice or the money she skimmed off the top when buying food, but she doubted that Taylor would be interested in working with Parian...though, maybe she would like to try it anyway. And weren't friends meant to tell each other things like that?

Running a hand through her hair and brushing across her ears, she let out a sigh. "Hey Taylor, if I told you I have a plan to work with another parahuman doing fashion design, would you want to come along?" She said quietly, turning her head to the side to see that Taylor had sat up, her face adopting a deer-in-headlights expression. "Taylor?" She said quickly, sitting up and unfurling her tail to lay across her back, rubbing it slowly. "What's wrong?"

"I-" She started, cutting it off with a strangled noise and balling her fists up as she drew her knees off the edge of the building and up to her chest. Taylor looked at her, and her expression morphed into a slightly fearful one. "You...I want to tell you something, but I...I don't want anybody else to know." Skye blinked, her tail stopping for a moment before she dipped her head, using her tail to pull Taylor in closer so she could wrap one arm around her in a sidelong hug, hiding her smile as the girl made an 'eep' noise in surprise.

Releasing her, she looked directly in Taylor's eyes, a small smile on her lips. "I promise I won't tell a soul." She tried to push as much earnestness into her voice as possible. If it was something so major that it made Taylor act like that, then if she betrayed her trust like that...she'd probably want to strangle herself long before Taylor could get her hands on her. Skye waited patiently as Taylor shut her eyes and seemed to gather herself.

"I...have powers as well." Blinking, Skye hummed, waiting patiently and rubbing her back soothingly with her tail as Taylor winced inwardly but continued on. "I can...control insects. Bugs, spiders, anything simple like that is fair game to me. I don't know a lot about my power, but it's like I can see and feel them all, all at the same time, and all I'd have to do is...just reach out with my mind and tell them to do something." As Taylor spoke, Skye noted the fact that there was a spider sat on its web in the corner of the stairwell structure.

She nudged Taylor, then pointed out the spider sat in its web. "Think you can control that spider then? Not saying I don't believe you, but seeing is obviously a much easier way to confirm stuff, huh?" Taylor nodded, rubbing her face with her hands then focusing in the direction of the spider. Almost immediately the arachnid started to crawl down its web then the wall, making its way towards them swiftly, surprising even her a little with its speed. As it arrived, Taylor stuck her hand down against the ground and the spider crawled straight onto it, sitting on her palm. "Okay, that's proof enough for me."

Taylor waved her hand towards her with a grin on her face, as if threatening to put the spider on her, pouting when Skye's only reaction was to put her hand up and let the spider crawl onto her hand. It was honestly pretty cool to watch the spider crawl in loops around her hand, and after a minute or so she put her hand back against the ground, watching as Taylor sent the spider back to its web. "So yeah, powers. And...I think I'd like to come along. I've heard of Parian before, and if you think she might want to work with you I think I'd like to come along as well." Skye nodded, brushing a hand against her ears as she shifted and laid back down, feeling as Taylor pulled her tail back onto her lap and kept threading her fingers through it.

And, if anyone asked, Skye most definitely did not start making a purring noise, no matter what Taylor claimed.


"Oh look, it's Hebe..."

Turning her head to look behind them, Skye raised an eyebrow at seeing the open mouth of the girl beside Sophia, the one Taylor described as Emma Barnes. "The fuck is this? You trying to make her protect you now then Hebert?" Sophia scoffed, folding her arms. "Weakling, you never learn." Skye's eyes narrowed as she took a half-step to the side, partly blocking their view of Taylor.

"I would leave her alone if I were you." She said quietly, shifting unconsciously into a casual combat stance, unsettling the three girls with the force of her stare. "Taylor is my friend, and off-limits to you three now. I suggest you leave her be." She saw the moment that anger overcame the surprise that Sophia was feeling, the athletic girl taking two quick steps forwards. As her hand reached out to grab her and her mouth opened to say something, Skye grabbed it with her tail, tugging it upwards and pulling Sophia off-balance. A quick palm-shove to the chest saw her stumble backwards and fall on her ass. "As I said, I would leave her alone if I were you."

Sophia got up, fury in her eyes as she glared at Skye. "Oh, so now that you've become a freak of nature, you think you're suddenly an alpha? Well let me tell you this, you're just a wolf bitch who should know her place!" Skye observed as Sophia threw a punch, the girl using a strong form to throw the hit. Rather than avoid it completely and have questions raised about her combat ability, she let the hit graze along her jaw, stumbling back but also bringing her knee up as she turned the stumble into a falling knee.

Her knee impacted Sophia's stomach, and Skye used her tail to steady herself as Sophia got back up, her jaw taut as she glared at Skye, murder in her gaze. Unruffled, Skye flicked her tail, ready to deflect if Sophia attacked her again. Sophia spat on the ground and turned on her heel, striding away from them and acting unphased. "Whatever, like I care what some stupid skanky wolf-bitch does in her spare time."

Blinking, Skye watched her leave, actually mildly surprised that Sophia gave up the fight that quickly. She had definitely hit her with more than enough force to bruise, so maybe she was just covering for the fact that she going to throw up if she kept exerting herself? Skye let out a slow sigh, rolling her jaw and prodding it with the tip of her tail, wincing lightly and suppressing her pleasure as she felt the bruise already forming. "You...why did you do that?"

Turning to face Taylor, Skye shrugged, a small smile on her face. "Why? Because she was a bitch? Because she wouldn't leave you alone? You can take your pick, but the point is that Sophia and her lackeys should leave you alone now. Besides, isn't that what friends do, protect each other?" Taylor shook her head, taking a step forwards and hugging her. Clamping down on her involuntary yelp of surprise, she patted Taylor's back.

"Thank you." The girl said softly, and Skye's smile grew as she used the opportunity to mess up Taylor's already-messy hair, making the girl yelp and then glare faux-angrily at her. Laughing carelessly, she dipped Taylor's attempt to do the same to her own hair, suddenly flicking her tail to mess Taylor's hair up further and laughing louder as the girl started chasing her around, grinning when Taylor finally 'caught' her and pulled out her hairband, making her hair splay out over her back.

Taking back her hairband she re-tied her hair, following Taylor as they made their way to their lockers, somehow turning the conversation from hair to black holes through a series of jumps even she wasn't really able to follow, though it amused her to ask Taylor how on earth they'd made it to black holes and grin at the realization that came across her face when she had no idea either.

Maybe having a friend really was worth it.


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