Chapter 3

Monday 10 May 2010

With her baseball cap on, Lauren went to the kitchen as Sophie told her dinner was ready. Aisha had happily agreed to stay over for dinner, which Lauren appreciated a lot. Lauren could definitely use her emotional support for the upcoming conversation.

With four children in the house, one of which only 5 years old, dinner was always a lively affair. Aisha and her ADHD joining in only increased the liveliness. Therefore, it took some time before Lauren found a moment to address her whole family. However, when Lauren tried to find the courage to speak up, she was interrupted by Tia.

"Hey Lauren, are you going to tell us about your new boyfriend?"

Conversation across the table instantly died. Lauren saw Aisha barely holding in her laughter, while dad was looking at her curiously.

"Well, congratulations Lauren. Is it the nice boy Liam who came along a few weeks ago? Or did you find someone else?"

At this point, Aisha could no longer hold in her laughter. At the same time Lauren face palmed, how the hell did Tia come to that conclusion?

Deciding it was best to stomp down that rumor hard, Lauren replied. "I have no idea how Tia came to that conclusion, but I definitely do not have a boyfriend!"

Dad seemed to belief her and send a frown at Tia. "Tia, you should not lie about such things. It can be very embarrassing for everyone involved."

Tia got very angry at this comment. "But daaad!, I overheard Aisha saying that Lauren didn't want you to know about her boyfriend."

Aisha started laughing even harder. At the same time, Lauren decided it was better to bite the bullet now before dad started to belief Tia.

"Aisha was joking then, but there is something else I wanted to tell you about."

After a brief pause, Lauren said it. "I am a parahuman."

Both dad and Tia were visibly surprised by this, her father's face going dark immediately afterwards. Cameron however, didn't seem to be caught off guard at all. Lauren really should have known better than to assume that she could hide her powers from the ex cape fanboy child genius. William immediately sported a wide smile:

"That so cool Lau! You can be a superhero now! What power do you have? Is it a good one?"

Faced with his childish innocence, Lauren couldn't help but smile and answer:

"I am not sure whether I'm a strong or weak parahuman. Just like Eidolon, I can have 3 powers at any time, but I have no control at all over what powers I get."

Lauren send a small gust of warm wind at his face. "This is now one of my powers, another one lets me walk through plants, and the third one is the most useless power of all time."

She took off her baseball cap at this and revealed the fish in full glory. Tia and Cameron predictably started laughing, and she even saw her father lighten up a bit, although he still looked concerned and somewhat angry.

He says "Lauren, could we talk more about this in private after dinner?"

Lauren agrees and the rest of dinner is spend showing off her wind and plant powers for her enthusiastic siblings, using the potted plants in the kitchen.

Aisha leaves the house after dinner, as the upcoming conversation is going to be a long one. Once Lauren and her dad moved towards his study and closed the door, she was immediately hugged.

"I'm so sorry that this happened to you Lauren. What was it that caused your trigger and do I have to set the PRT and BBPD on someone?"

Of course her dad knew about trigger events. He had been a member of the local PRT for years and would likely know a lot about parahumans.

"Yesterday I fell from the stairs. I think I broke my back, as I couldn't feel my legs anymore." Lauren still remembers the despair that she felt at that moment and shudders. "My second power was partially a healing ability, and let me repair my broken back."

Her father's grip tightened. For more than a minute, he just stood there hugging Lauren. As he released her, he said: "I'm so happy that you recovered. I wouldn't have known what to do if the hospital called me at work."

Her father continued talking. "You can come with me to the PRT building tomorrow, we can sign you up with the wards then. They will help you out with your powers and will know what to do with them if they are inconvenient." He was glancing at the top of Lauren's head and the end of his pitch.

"No dad. I do not want to join the stupid wards. They do nothing to help the city and are just being used to sell merchandise and boost the popularity of the PRT and protectorate. They and the protectorate have done nothing to get rid of the gangs that killed mom. The independent heroes like shadow stalker and the New Wave children are actually helping the city, so I want to become an independent hero."

Dad was definitely not happy with that. Lauren realized that she had indirectly offended him and his job at the PRT by talking so badly about the parahuman heroes. But everything she said was true, so she was not taking anything back.

"Lauren, I do not want you to become an independent hero or part of New Wave. You know what happened when New Wave unmasked themselves, and Fleur was white! The E88 would not wait a week before killing you after you unmask yourself! Also, have you heard the statistics for independent heroes? They last less than half a year before dying, joining a gang, fleeing the city or joining the protectorate. I do not want to see you get out at night and not come back again."

Dad actually started crying after saying this. Lauren didn't know the chances for independent heroes were this bad and almost lost her resolve. However, she held firm to her desire not join the wards.

Lauren and her father continued to fight over whether she should join the wards or not. Lauren brought up how bad her random powers were for teamwork and that she was able to get brute-like powers to keep her safe. Her father kept insisting that the wards were the safest place for her and that they were not as bad as Lauren thought they were.

In the end, Evan Porter reluctantly brought up a second option. It wasn't a widely known option, but it was possible to sign up as a PRT-affiliated hero. That gave Lauren freedom to go out on her own, as long as she did not break any laws. She would also not have to give the PRT her identity either. However, the PRT would have the right to sell merchandise of her cape-identity, although she would get a small percentage of the profits. Additionally, while they would come and support her if she called, there was no unspoken threat of overwhelming reprisal if the gangs would kill or maim her, unlike with the wards.

However, in order for her father to agree to this option, Lauren would have to make heavy concessions. Firstly, she was not allowed to go out unless she had some sort of defensive power. Secondly, she would have to run away if she ever saw enemy capes. Thirdly, she always had to wear body armor under her costume, and carry around pepper spray, a baton and a Taser. This was the easiest concession for Lauren to make. The final and most important concessions were that Lauren was never to get herself hurt, and to make sure no one knew about her secret identity. Her father promised that if she did not abide by these instructions, he would immediately sign her up for the wards.

Evan explained clearly to Lauren that there was nothing to keep him from signing her up for the wards without consent, and was only keeping from doing that because he could trust her not to break the agreement they made.

After this mentally exhausting discussion, Lauren immediately went to bed. However, when she looked in the mirror, she realized that both the fish power and the wind power were gone. Wanting to reward herself for getting her father to not sign her up for the wards, she pulled two new powers:

Power type: Striker
Threat level: -1
Duration: 8 minutes
Synchronization: 95%
Wiki article: 2016–17 Loyola Marymount Lions women's basketball team

Power: Everything Host touches with her hands slowly becomes spherical. This includes living beings, but it works so slowly that any living being can easily escape before their body deforms.

Power type: Stranger
Threat level: 0
Duration: 8 minutes
Synchronization: 29%
Wiki article: 1924 Colored World Series

Power: Host can, from other people's perspective, take on the form of a black male sporty adult in baseball clothing. However, this is an illusionary change, and it will always be the same form.

And immediately made sure she was not touching anything. Luckily, the nerfed Midas touch only seemed to last a few minutes. If she just kept standing in the middle of her room nothing would go wrong.

After waiting for a very long 8 minutes, and briefly testing out the other power, Lauren thought she had done enough power testing with shitty powers for today and went to sleep.