After a few seconds, he asked, "Do you know what abilities or powers you have?"
Slightly hesitantly, she nodded a little. "Um, kind of. Apparently I'm much stronger, although I don't know how much stronger. Varga says I should also be tougher as well. Also, he said that I'll have… how did he put it… access to certain physical skills of previous brains."
Curiously, he asked, "What sort of skills?"
Thinking back to her dreams, she slowly replied, "Swordplay, I think is one of them. Princess Luna, the last brain, was an expert swordswoman even at my age. She was also very acrobatic and good at some sort of hand to hand combat. Varga says it will take practice to get as good as she was but the basic reflexes and knowledge should be there already."
"OK, that's pretty impressive," he admitted with a smile. "Now all you need is a sword, of course."
She looked at him, then turned her attention inwards. 'Can you give me a sword?' the asked the Varga.
"Hold out your hand, Brain," it said, which she did, immediately finding herself holding the hilt of a blade nearly three feet long. She recognized it as the same as the one the blonde princess had utilized, smiling a little. Danny stared at the thing with his eyebrows up.
"That's even more impressive," he said in a low voice. Reaching out he flicked the side of the blade with a finger, making it ring. "It's real."
"Of course it's real, Dad, it's magic. Magic wouldn't give me a fake sword, would it?" She smiled as he chuckled
"I have no idea. Can I see it?"
Nodding she carefully handed him the weapon, which he nearly dropped. "Christ, this thing is a lot heavier than it looks," he muttered, recovering and closely inspecting the blade. "You are stronger. You made holding it look easy."
"It doesn't feel very heavy to me," she replied with interest, watching as he tested the blade with one finger then yelped, pulling back a digit dripping blood.
"It's incredibly sharp as well," he commented, impressed. "I barely touched it. I wonder what it's made of?" Running his finger down the flat of the blade he looked curious. "Doesn't feel like steel, or titanium either. Mind you, it's too heavy for titanium."
She looked at the gray metallic surface, tapping it with a finger herself. The metal was glass-smooth and almost frictionless from what she could feel. "Weird."
"It is that, yes," he acknowledged. Handing the blade back he watched as she hefted it easily, turning it around to admire. "That thing is more than a little lethal, though. If you hit anyone with it they're going to be missing body parts instantly. That might not be a particularly good idea except in life or death situations, which I'd hope you'll stay away from as much as you can."
Nodding absently, Taylor experimentally poked the coffee table with the tip of the sword, then blushed when a large shaving of wood peeled away as a result. She felt no resistance at all. "Oops. Sorry, Dad."
Danny sighed good-naturedly, shaking his head. "Perhaps you should practice somewhere with less breakable things, Taylor," he said. "Can you, or Varga rather, make something less dangerous?"
"Like what?"
He thought for a moment, then suggested, "Perhaps a baseball bat? It's not exactly harmless but at least you're not going to be slicing and dicing people accidentally."
Taylor nodded. It seemed a sensible idea. A quick conversation with the Varga and she was holding a metal bat, apparently made of the same material as the sword had been. The handle was almost identical to the hilt of the sword, only missing the guards. Hefting it she wiggled the end, smiling, then handed it to her father when he held out his hand.
Again, he came close to dropping it, grunting with effort and using both hands. "This must be solid metal," he muttered. "Normal aluminum ones are hollow. You'd never be able to actually use it for baseball, it would be impossible to swing." Standing and carefully swinging the thing around, he shook his head and handed it back. "Still too dangerous. If you hit anyone with that even with normal strength you'll break bones for sure, and if you really are much stronger you'd kill them on the spot. How about something like a police baton? Lighter, which would make it less lethal."
After a brief discussion with the Varga about the form of the proposed baton, she hefted the resulting weapon with a smile, inspecting it. Danny took it from her and looked it over curiously. "Still pretty heavy for its size but much better. I wonder how strong it is?" He tried bending the thing without any effect at all.
"I used a very strong material for it," the Varga said with amusement as he watched Danny's efforts through her eyes. "It won't break, trust me. I learned that lesson with the previous brain, she lost a sword that I gave her which was made out of a very good steel but came up against a much heavier weapon. From that point on I used the good stuff. It's more effort to make but it's worth that effort." Taylor nodded, smiling at his comments and watching her father still trying to bend the half-inch diameter baton. Eventually he gave up, slightly red faced.
"That's not bad," he admitted, returning it to her. They both watched as it vanished into a very brief cloud of sparkles when she told the Varga she didn't need it any more. "So in addition to being stronger and tougher, and probably faster as well, you have combat skills, hand to hand skills, and the ability to make unbreakable weapons, edged or otherwise." He thought for a moment, then added, "And that Assassin's Cloak magic as well, which I guess could hide you completely?" She checked with the Varga.
"Yes, he says that's easy. It's what it was intended for in the first place."
"Even just that is a pretty effective power set, I'd think," her father told her. "What else?"
"It's more than just weapons, Varga can make pretty much anything needed," she told him, causing him to raise his eyebrows. "He said not complicated machines without knowing how they work but he's not limited to just swords and batons."
"How about handcuffs?" Danny inquired, looking fascinated.
'Can you make handcuffs?' she asked the Varga, who gave her the audible equivalent of a long-suffering look.
"Certainly I can," he said calmly. "Although if you want to restrain someone it would be just as easy to produce restraints tailored specifically to the situation and the person. From what I know of your world many of these 'Parahumans' are, like you, much stronger than normal humans. Even the material used in the swords might not be sufficient in the form of handcuffs as are used by your police. I can provide something much stronger."
She expectantly held out her hands, suddenly finding herself holding a set of heavy manacles with flexible cables nearly half an inch thick linking them together. Danny stared in amazement. "That would do it," he said after a moment. Picking one of the manacles up he inspected it. "Overkill for most people though."
"Varga said they'd hold someone much stronger than normal," she informed him, causing him to nod thoughtfully.
"Interesting. Good idea as well." Handing it back he watched as once again it evaporated. "That's really amazing to watch. OK, so as far as equipment goes you're pretty much self sufficient. A bit like Miss Militia although not restricted to guns." After a moment, with a slightly worried expression, he asked, "Can he make guns?"
She checked.
"He says probably but he's never tried. Guns were very uncommon on his world and really primitive by our standards, something like old muskets, I think?"
Danny nodded again. "OK. That's enough of that for the moment although I'd love to find out how strong that metal really is sometime. So what else can you do?"
"Well, my senses are much stronger now," she said thoughtfully. "Varga says his own senses are vastly better but in human form I can't use them nearly as well, although I've noticed they're really good. I can smell everything, for example. You wouldn't believe how many smells there are than normal people just don't notice at all."
"Isn't that kind of horrible?" he asked, looking worried.
She shrugged. "You'd think it would be but to be honest it seems fine to me. Yes, some smells are really bad, but not as many as you'd expect. Mostly it's interesting. I think he's filtering it somehow so it doesn't cause problems."
"Is your hearing and sight also better like that?" Danny asked curiously. She nodded.
"My sight is perfect now, I can read the smallest writing on the spines of the books over there," she replied, indicating the bookshelf on the far wall with a finger, some twenty feet away. "He says there are also special vision modes but I haven't tried them yet."
"Like what?"
She blinked furiously as the world suddenly changed. "Hey, what happened?" she yelped.
"Your father wished to know what alternate vision modes are available in your human form," the amused voice of the Varga told her, chuckling. "So I am demonstrating so that you can tell him first hand."
"Thanks for the warning you idiot lizard," she muttered, provoking a laugh from her head companion. Holding a hand up she flexed it, staring in bemused interest.
"What did he do?" Danny asked, having worked out from context that the Varga had done something.
"He turned on some sort of heat vision, I think," she replied absently, looking around in fascinated awe. "Everything is… glowing. Sort of. Not really… I can't explain it properly." Looking at the glowing blob of her father, she stared as he got up, leaving a visible afterimage in the chair. As he walked across the floor she could see he was leaving footprints behind that slowly faded away. "Wow."
Peering around the room she could make out glowing lines in the walls as well, although the glow was different from what seemed to be heat. After a moment's thought she realized what it was. "And I can see electricity I think." Getting up she walked over to the wall and ran her finger down it. "Is there a wire here?"
Danny thought, then replied, "Probably. That's directly in line with the wall switch there, the wires must go into the fuse box in the basement from there."
"This is really weird, but sort of fun," Taylor giggled, wandering around inspecting everything like she'd never seen it before.
"The enhanced vision is limited in this form, Brain," the Varga rumbled sounding pleased. "It can be better."
"This is still incredible," she admitted. Looking at the front wall, beside the window, she noticed she could see hot spots moving around somewhere outside. A little thought showed her they were probably cars. Even a couple of pedestrians walking along the sidewalk were barely visible. "I can see right through the wall of the house in a way," she said, turning to Danny, who was watching her closely. "It's sort of… low resolution, like computer graphics compared to real life, but it's still usable."
Snapping her fingers as she remembered what it reminded her of, she added, "You remember that movie 'Predator'?" The glowing figure of her father nodded. "It's kind of like that. Not the colors, that part is wrong, but the effect is a lot like it. Hot things are standing out like crazy against the background and anything with power in it is also visible."
She pointed. "That's where the fridge is on the other side of the wall, I can see something that must be the motor running. And there's a square hot area above it, which must be that radiator thing on the back of it."
"Not bad," he said, sounding quite impressed. "I can see where that could be useful. Anything else?"
Standing close to him she studied his face, noticing with interest the patterns the blood vessels made under the skin. At close range she fancied she could even see something that she suspected was electricity in his brain, remembering something she'd read about how nerves worked. It was overwhelmed by the thermal glow more than a few feet away. "I can also hear incredibly well but I seem to be able to control it," she told him. Tilting her head to the side she listened carefully, deliberately allowing herself to hear more than she'd permitted earlier. The world got louder, and very complicated from an auditory viewpoint, making her wince a little until she got used to it.
"Let's see… Mr Atkinson across the street is watching the news on Channel 9. They're doing the local crime statistics at the moment. The people two doors to the left are arguing about buying a new car. Those people on the other side three doors up who moved in before Christmas are..." She went bright red and suddenly stopped concentrating on listening.
"Are…?"
"Are doing something I'm too young to talk about and definitely too young to talk about with my father," she muttered, provoking a snort of laughter from Danny when he worked it out.
"That right there is why eavesdropping can be a bad idea," he pointed out with a smile, making her glare at him.
'Turn the heat vision off, will you please, Varga?' she requested silently, finding it a little disorientating. She was going to have to practice with these new senses a lot before they were second nature. The odd effect vanished and she was back to looking at her father normally, seeing he was still somewhat amused.
"That was embarrassing," she mumbled, still slightly red faced.
After a second or two, clearly biting his lip to stop laughing, Danny replied, "We can add super senses to the list. You're building up quite a repertoire here, Taylor."
"You have many options for combat," the Varga put in, apparently pleased. "To strike fear into the hearts of your enemies and protect your people." She sighed a little, but admitted to herself that the comment made her feel happier.
"I'm scared, Dad," she finally admitted, making him stop in his track where he was heading into the kitchen holding his empty coffee cup, apparently looking for a refill. Turning to her he inspected her, then put the cup down and held out his arms. She collapsed into them, the good mood she'd been feeling since she got up a couple of hours ago suddenly dissipating.
"Why are you scared, dear?" he asked, holding her as she started crying, an expression of sympathy and slight bewilderment on his face. She felt an odd mental effect from the Varga, which seemed to be also sending her encouragement, warming her from the inside.
"All of this. It's… Everything happened at once." She looked up at him. "I was in hell, living with those bitches fucking me over every single day for nearly two years. I didn't know what I did to cause it. For a long time I thought that if I could just work out what that was, Emma would be my friend again."
He hugged her tighter as she cried for a second or two, his face like stone. "But I finally worked out that she was never going to be my friend again. I still didn't know what I did wrong but I realized that it didn't matter. She hates me, Sophia hates me, Madison… I don't think she actually cares one way or the other but she's perfectly happy to go along with those two. I couldn't see any way to stop it that didn't just cause me more problems than it solved, short of burning the whole fucking school down with them all in it. Which would have stopped one problem but caused another one." She sniffed, wiping her eyes with her hand, as he produced a small flicker of a hard smile.
"And, of course, I was terrified about telling you. I kept thinking that you'd be disappointed in me. Back when Mom was alive we talked all the time, but since she…" She trailed off, swallowed hard, and tried again. "Since she died we hardly talked at all. We used to joke and laugh all the time, like we've been doing just now. I missed that so much."
Danny looked horribly guilty, holding her tightly.
"Then, the worst thing that ever happened to me somehow turned into what I think is possibly the best thing that ever happened to me. I needed help, I asked for help, and someone answered! I have no idea who or how but in only about twelve hours I've made a new friend and we're talking again, you know about all the problems, we have a plan to deal with it that might actually work, and I have powers." She sniffed again, hard, as her nose started running.
Leading her to the sofa Danny gently made her sit, then disappeared for a moment, returning with the roll of paper towels from the kitchen, which she used a sheet of to blow her nose with.
"That sounds like you should be happy, though," he finally said, when she was finished, holding the damp paper in her hands and staring at it.
She raised her eyes and met his. "But what happens next?" she asked. "I've thought before that there was light at the end of the tunnel. But it was always a train. I'm scared that with all these plans, somehow, even so, they'll get away with it, and cause both of us problems we can't overcome. Now you're involved in it. One of the reasons I never said anything was that I didn't want you going over and beating Mr Barnes up."
Danny smiled a little, causing her to shrug.
"I remember that time with the drunk driver."
He looked mildly embarrassed.
"I know you'd win the fight, but Mr Barnes has a lot of money. You said it yourself, he could cause problems for us. He's a lawyer, after all."
"He's a divorce lawyer, Taylor, which doesn't mean he's an expert in all fields of law. Although it does certainly seem to be profitable." Danny sighed. "I understand your fear. This plan isn't foolproof, of course, but I think it has a good chance of working. Even if it doesn't we'll be able to recover from it and cause them all a lot of trouble if we need to."
"And if it fails even so we can crush them like grapes," the Varga told her solemnly, which amused her in a weird way. "I dislike these people even without meeting them. I will teach you ways to make them suffer if you wish, or we can simply kill them. Certain individuals are better off dead in my experience. It causes much less in the way of long term problems."
'You really are sort of bloodthirsty, aren't you?' she asked silently, finding the whole conversation somewhat funny.
"I am a demon, Brain. We tend to be direct. Especially when people we value are threatened." The great creature sounded pleased that she had slightly cheered up, which she suspected was the whole point.
Returning her attention to her father, who had been watching the expressions cross her face, she told him, "Varga had some advice as well. It's… a little extreme, but probably effective."
"Please don't kill anyone without telling me first, dear," he said calmly, making her shake her head despairingly.
"Men are all so violent," she complained.
"Excuse me? Who just suggested burning the school down with people in it?" Danny grinned at her. She blushed slightly.
"Um..."
"I think I understand your problem, Taylor," Danny assured her. "Having these powers and abilities will be something you're going to have to think very carefully about, but I'm sure you can be responsible about it. You don't have to use them, after all. It's not like you need to go and pick a fight just because you have the ability to take a boot to the head more than most people."
Now laughing a little, Taylor leaned back when he released her, nodding.
"I know. I mean, it's not like I have a sudden urge to kick a crack head in the face or anything like that," she grinned, making him smile. "But, I did tell the… Voice… that I would try to help people with the power it, or he, gave me. If I see something happen that I can stop and other people can't doesn't that mean I should help?"
Danny looked troubled, turning to stare out the window into the dull January day as he thought. Absently, she noticed it had started snowing, the rain from last night now coming down in white flakes. "I can't argue too much with that," he finally admitted. "I don't like the idea of my little daughter going out and beating up criminals, and I'm damn sure I don't want you even thinking about it until we have a better idea of what you can do and you've practiced a lot. Promise me you're not going to sneak out at night and do something silly."
"I promise, Dad," she replied. She even meant it.