Taylor discreetly watched the table full of known and suspected Wards, along with Victoria and Amy Dallon, who were talking fairly quietly amongst themselves, with Dennis cracking jokes every now and then. Carlos sighed at most of them although she could see he was amused by more of them than he showed. His thermal output in her enhanced vision showed things on his face that most people could never pick up on.
She was using it more and more as part of her base form senses, getting used to it. As Saurial or any of the other modified forms it came much easier, she suspected due to her brain changing to handle it. There was obviously a change of a similar nature even in her human form, but it wasn't quite as instinctive to use yet. The boosted senses of smell and hearing had been much easier to get used to.
It seemed pretty likely that she could indeed become very good at detecting lies, by listening and watching all the tiny cues that a normal person wouldn't notice at all. She'd poked around in the school library, which was a very comprehensive one, finding a couple of books on voluntary and involuntary responses in the biology section, as part of a higher level neurology study, and borrowed them, puzzling her way through with the aid of the Varga. He turned out to know, not that surprisingly, much more about human bodies than she'd first expected, although his terminology was different.
They were both learning a common vocabulary for the various scientific fields that were apposite to the abilities he gave her, even though in quite a few cases the word 'scientific' needed to be more strictly replaced with 'magical', a thought that still made her smile. He'd told her that while in time he could certainly teach her more of his form of magic, one that most humans who had any ability in the field would never be able to learn due to the differences between demons and non-demons, it would be a slow process. She wasn't too worried, she had more than enough new abilities to keep her occupied for a long time even now.
The shape-shifting part of things was so easy after only a month that she sometimes had trouble remembering when she couldn't casually grow scales and claws. It took an act of will, it wouldn't happen accidentally, which was probably a good thing overall, but it didn't take much effort. The Varga still had to help with new variants on the forms but the existing ones they'd worked on were simple, in whole or part.
Looking forward to experimenting on the weekend, Taylor smiled internally, turned away from the Wards although she kept part of her attention on them even so, and raised an eyebrow at Mandy, who had said something she'd missed. "Sorry, miles away. What was that, Mandy?"
Her friend sighed theatrically. "I said, do you want to go and see a movie with us tomorrow night? There's that new Aleph animated one that looks pretty fun, 'How to Train Your Dragon.'" She glanced at Lucy while Taylor suppressed a snicker at the appropriateness of the title. "Lucy wants to see it. Reptiles, you know. She wants a dragon of her own."
Lucy went red while Mandy and Taylor both grinned. Rich and another boy, Eric, who were sitting at the next table having been talking to the Chinese girl, laughed. "She's got you, Lucy. Hey, maybe you could adopt Lung?" the latter commented with a smirk.
"I don't think that would work out very well," the girl said, sighing but smiling. "He's not very cuddly."
"No, that's certainly not a word anyone would associate with Lung," Eric snickered. "Dangerous, now that's a good word. Psychotic, another good one."
Giggling, Lucy tossed a french fry at him, then broke down in laughter when he neatly snapped it out of the air with his mouth, chewed, and grinned widely. "Idiot."
"Talented idiot, Lucy," he chuckled.
She started tossing more fries at him, most of which he caught in his mouth, until one of the teachers monitoring the cafeteria caught her eye and she went red again, stopping quickly.
"Busted!" Mandy laughed. Turning back to Taylor, who had been watching with amusement, she added, "So? You in? It's all of us here, including those two guys, and a couple more from home room. Downtown tomorrow night at seven thirty at the Plaza. We can get something to eat after."
"It sounds good, thanks, Mandy," Taylor smiled. "I'll check with my dad but I don't think there will be a problem."
"Great. Text me if you get lost or can't make it."
"OK."
Feeling eyes on her, Taylor casually looked around to see Dean staring at her, the boy quickly looking away when she turned her head and pretending he was looking at the chalk board on the wall near the hot food line which listed tomorrow's menu. Mildly amused she went back to her food. He seemed to be unable to completely ignore her, although to give him credit he was trying. She thought that she was probably, at least at the moment, safe from that quarter, which was a relief.
She had no real problem with the Wards but the near certainty that the PRT was sitting on Sophia Hess left her somewhat disinclined to get any closer to them, despite the new found equanimity she had towards other people. Glory Girl and her somewhat unfortunate interaction was one thing, she'd been certain even at the time it was abnormal, since the girl smelled very stressed, and was quite happy to make allowances.
But there were limits to how much she'd accept. As she'd told Alan Barnes, she had no intention of either forgiving or forgetting the months and months of deliberate torment the Triumvirate of Pain had put her through. She could live with it and move on, but she wasn't going to just pretend it never happened. The Varga was of the opinion that even letting people like that live was probably something of a mistake, as there was no guarantee that they would take the sensible approach of living with the fact they lost.
Taylor sighed faintly, finishing up her salad. Hopefully she'd never see any of them again, and if she did… Well, she'd see what happened. If Sophia wanted to have a fight, she could have one, but it would be very short and to the point. With any luck that would never happen, since she wasn't really all that interested in finding out what the girl's head tasted like. Probably rather stringy, she thought, amused again for a moment.
"Deep thoughts, hmm, Taylor?" Lucy asked from the side, apparently noticing the sigh. Taylor glanced sideways to see her friend looking a little concerned and smiled back at her.
"Sort of. Just thinking about a bad experience at Winslow. Something reminded me about it." She shrugged. "It's not important, that part of my life is over. I'm having a lot of fun with the new parts."
"It can be hard when you have something bad in your history," Lucy replied with a small nod, sounding sad. "I know. I..." She paused, swallowing for a moment. "I said something horrible to my grandmother when I was about twelve, because she didn't let me go out with my friends but wanted me to do my homework instead. I screamed at her, then went out anyway." She was staring at her plate, while Mandy and the others were looking at her sympathetically, apparently knowing the story. "While I was out, she had a heart attack. Mom and Dad were away on business, so I was the only other one in the house. No one found her for hours, a neighbor discovered her lying on the ground in the back yard. If I'd been there, I could have called 911 and she might have lived."
The girl sighed heavily, tears running down her cheeks. "I've always wondered if it was my fault she had the heart attack in the first place. I was so nasty to her, even though I loved her. I never even got to say goodbye." Everyone on both the tables in earshot was silent as she finished talking. "So I know what it's like to have something in your past you wish you could forget but at the same time you can't."
Wiping her eyes carefully with a paper napkin, she looked at the smudged makeup on it and sighed again, but smiled a little. "And now I have to go and fix my makeup as well."
Mandy patted her friend's hand, smiling. "I'll come and help you, Lucy." Both of them stood.
"It'll probably get better, Taylor, don't worry," Lucy added, smiling a little tearily at her. "See you in class."
Thoughtfully watching her two new friends walk off, Taylor nodded to herself, having learned something new. And feeling very sad for the Chinese girl, who obviously still felt very strongly about the whole thing nearly three years later. It reminded her of her mother, not surprisingly. A subject she was slowly becoming less affected by although she was certain she'd never get over it completely.
Making a deliberate effort to not let the rather sudden morose turn of conversation affect her, she picked up her glass of apple juice and sipped it slowly, looking around the cafeteria. Eric and Rich got up, nodded to her, then headed off to do something in the few minutes of lunch break left, while she waved briefly, then went back to looking around the room, cataloging all the scents of people who walked past on their way out. She was pretty sure now that she could probably identify by scent over a third of the school, at least as familiar even if she didn't know their names. The idea amused her, but it was a useful byproduct of the whole abilities deal.
A particularly familiar scent, one she'd made a special note of, wafted from behind her at the same time she heard rapid footsteps. A sudden impact on her tail made her twitch, then turn her head to see what had happened.
"AAGH!"
Amy Dallon sprawled full-length on the floor behind her seat, making her wince in sympathy, having obviously tripped over her invisible appendage which she'd accidentally left sticking out a little too far and promptly face-planted pretty solidly on the tiles. The girl rolled over and sat up, clutching her nose in her hand and swearing inventively.
"What the fuck was that?" Amy eventually snarled in a muffled voice, looking around wildly for whatever had tripped her, but obviously unable to see the cause. "Fucking hell, my nose!" There was blood running from under her hand.
Picking up some of the paper napkins that were stored in a dispenser on each table, Taylor got up and knelt next to the healer, who was pretty clearly not in a good mood, even before nearly breaking her nose. "Here, tip your head back and use these," she advised, handing the other girl the napkins, which were instantly snatched from her hand.
"I know how to handle a smashed nose, thanks," Amy grumbled loudly, sniffing hard and nearly choking on the blood, before slapping the wad of paper over her face and clamping down on it. "I don't think it's broken but it fucking hurts."
Looking around again, she scowled blackly. "What the hell tripped me? Was it you?"
"No," Taylor half-lied. "I didn't see anything, I just heard you scream and fall over."
"I didn't scream, I yelped. In surprise," Amy replied defiantly. Taylor shrugged, smiling a little but willing to allow the correction.
"OK."
"I need to get to the nurses office and get some proper bandages and a cold pack," the other brunette grumbled, struggling to stand up. Taylor stood and offered her a hand, at the same time glancing towards the table the Wards and Victoria had been at, seeing they'd gone, presumably headed back to class already.
"Here," she said. Amy sighed, annoyed, and grabbed her hand.
Gently heaving, she lifted the other girl to her feet easily, then looked at her.
Then looked more closely.
"Um..."
Amy was staring at her with her pupils so widely dilated it looked like her eyes were solid black. Taylor could see the blood vessels in her face dilating as well as blood rushed to her face, and her electrical sense was showing her neural activity was going nuts, based on what she'd learned so far about it. It wasn't something she'd experimented with much so far beyond using it to trace power cables.
"Are you all right?" Taylor stared, then waved a hand in front of the girl's face. Reaching out she carefully tapped Amy between the eyes with a forefinger. "Anyone in there? Hello? Amy?"
Several seconds passed with the healer just giving her that disconcerting stare, a little blood running down her face past the napkins, before Amy suddenly blinked wildly and shook her head, apparently back in the room.
"What… the fuck..." she whispered.
Worried, Taylor looked around, seeing that hardly any of the lunch crowd were present now, and that according to the wall clock it was only about two minutes to the bell. "Hey, we should get you to the nurse," she said as she returned her attention to the other girl. "You're acting a little weird. Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought."
Amy blinked again, then looked around, wincing as her right hand which was still clamped firmly on her nose pulled on it slightly. "Nurse. Right," she mumbled in a slightly dazed voice, before turning and walking off towards the exit, towing Taylor with her.
"Um, could you let go, please?" Taylor tried, not wanting to be rude but more than a little confused.
"No."
Staring at the Dallon girl, Taylor sighed. It was going to be one of those days.
And it had started so well.
"She seems content to simply take down low level criminals so far." The man speaking looked mildly puzzled. "No signs of wanting to go after any capes at all. She turns up, wanders around more or less randomly for anywhere from an hour to four or so, inevitably finds some crime being committed, terrifies the people involved into catatonia, then disappears again. She's been seen in the company of the Wards several times and seems to be on friendly terms with them, and she's also popped up at the DWU at least once more so far. She spent over an hour there, talking to the various people still on site."
Behind his desk, his superior leaned his expensive chair back and gently stroked his chin with a finger, looking fascinated. "How very unusual," he finally said. "Although, it is an unusual creature in more than one way so I suppose its behavior is only another example of that. Do we know what it was doing at the DWU again?"
"No. The best I can work out, she was picking something up, but it's mostly guesswork. I don't have anyone in the DWU facility itself, although I'm working on it."
"Annoying." The man at the desk sighed slightly. "Oh well. All good things take time. Have you thought of any other methods to test its abilities?"
"Not as such," his agent commented. "We have a pretty good idea of what she can do from the reports we have from those of our men who were involved we've been able to contact. Assuming they're not curled up in a ball sobbing." He shook his head in disgust. "Fine, she's a scary monster when she's at work, but that's just pathetic. One of the guys is saying he's going to become a priest now."
His superior smirked, amused. "That suggests an impressive ability to scare the less intelligent amongst us. Normally it would take months or years to build a reputation like that, not weeks."
"She seems to be an old hand at psychological warfare," the other man agreed, frowning a little. "Yet another oddity that doesn't match the time line."
"I'd like to see how she handled a tougher fight than mere cannon fodder with small arms, though." The man at the desk thought for a while, then smiled a tiny, cruel smile. "I think it would be interesting to see what happened if Hookwolf became involved."
"How do you propose to arrange that?" the agent asked, appearing slightly surprised.
"It should be simple enough. Hookwolf is not particularly smart, of course, although he's certainly cunning and an excellent fighter. It has so far managed to capture over two dozen of his flunkies, from what you tell me. Perhaps we should arrange to point this out to him, and also suggest that an example should be made. It's not difficult to enrage the man to the point he attacks."
"Attacks where, though?" His subordinate looked at him. "Saurial is somewhat random in her movements, she doesn't seem to have a set patrol route like a lot of capes do, or any particular territorial claims so far. She turns up all over the city. It might be difficult to 'accidentally' have them encounter each other, and he could take some time to find her if he just goes running off in a rage."
"It has visited the DWU twice, though, and would appear to have some relationship with them. It may well be that pointing Hookwolf at them and urging him on his way would produce a reaction. If not, we lose nothing but a few dockworkers who aren't on the payroll, and a little effort."
"Ah." The first man nodded slowly. "I see your point. Yes, that might work."
"See to it. As soon as possible, please. And this time take a camera."
The first man nodded without a further word, standing and leaving the office, while his superior pulled a stack of paperwork in front of him and began reading it.
Her head spinning from more than the fairly solid impact with the floor of the cafeteria, Amy strode a little uncertainly towards the nurses office, towing the rather reluctant new girl she'd seen Dean eying up for over a week now behind her. The girl, who she remembered was called Taymar or Tayly or something like that, was sighing to herself but didn't seem too upset.
What the hell was going on? That was what Amy was wondering, and had been from the instant she'd grabbed the other girl's hand. A sudden overwhelming urge struck her as she approached a supply closet she happened to know from a story her sister had related was usually unlocked and, as they came abreast of it, she darted sideways, grabbed the door handle and yanked, opening the door, then shoved the other girl inside and followed her in, pulling the door shut behind her.
"What the hell?" Tayway or whatever her name was yelped. "What are you doing, you weirdo? I thought you wanted to go to the Nurse?"
"In a minute," Amy hissed, looking around in the near pitch darkness of the closet. She dropped the hand she'd been clamped onto like a vice for the last couple of minutes, then turned and ran her hands over the wall beside the door trying to find the light switch.
"Is this what you're looking for?" the other girl said mildly, immediately before there was a click and a fluorescent fitting in the ceiling hummed into life. Amy turned to see her captive just in the process of releasing a pull-cord at the side of the closet that went up to a switch above them
"Yes," she replied, staring hard at the girl, while wondering for a moment how she'd found the switch so easily.
"Was there a reason you dragged me in here, or are you just finding it difficult to meet new people?" Taytay or whatever seemed more amused now than surprised. "I have to tell you, your approach to making friends is a little… confrontational."
"What the hell are you?" Amy blurted, unable to stop herself. The girl abruptly stopped moving.
Completely.
She just stared at Amy, who suddenly became aware that she might have made a very bad mistake.
The eyes of the girl narrowed a little, giving her face a remarkably predatory look, while her entire body language changed slightly, in a way that was particularly eerie as she didn't actually move.
Amy swallowed hard.
"I mean..."
"You mean you somehow found out something I'd prefer you not to have found out," the girl, which Amy was beginning to think wasn't entirely accurate, said in a voice that was rather less human than she was wildly happy about. "I have to ask myself how, and more importantly, what you intend to do about it." She leaned closer, making the Dallon sister suddenly realize how remarkably tall she was for a teenaged girl.
Not to mention, the way that her slender body suddenly seemed to give off the impression of something far more dangerous and a hell of a lot bigger. And… were her eyes glowing a little?
"Oh, shit." Amy's voice was faint.
"Oh, shit, yes, Amy Dallon," the girl hissed. "Talk. Fast."
Her thoughts whirling, Amy tried to work out how to extricate herself from the situation she'd managed to get herself into with one stupid move, feeling a sudden understanding of what her sister had felt when she'd gone off on Saurial for no good reason.
The thought stuck with her...
Amy's eyes widened. "Saurial," she gasped.
She didn't even see the girl move. Before she knew what was happening, she was slammed against the door by a pair of hands that were covered in scales with talons an inch long tickling her skin, her feet a foot off the floor. A face that was far less human than seconds before was inches from her own, sharp teeth bared in a growl.
"You are dabbling in dangerous waters, Amy," the thing holding her stated softly. "Talk very quickly and very honestly or I may have to push you under the surface."
"My power lets me see an entire organism's biology if I touch it," Amy gabbled, trembling and not even trying to hold anything back. She had a good idea that the threat was a real one with a definite time-sensitive aspect. "I can modify anything organic right down to the DNA. My healing ability is a byproduct of that." Fright was making her open up far more than she had done to anyone before.
"So when I offered you my hand..." the girl, Saurial, said in a musing yet still not entirely human voice.
"I saw instantly that you were… different." Amy looked at her captor, who looked back. "Very different. I mean, totally different in some specific ways from anything I've ever seen or even heard of. Your DNA, or something that I think is the equivalent of it, is absolutely insane! It's a quad helix, not a double helix, with more redundancy than I can believe. My power can hardly make anything sensible of it at all. I can see that, somehow, don't ask me how, you're compatible with human DNA, but other than that and the appearance most of you is totally alien. Literally. Like nothing that's ever lived on this planet."
"Hmm." The creature seemed genuinely interested, but not surprised.
"You already know this, don't you?"
"Not those specific details, no, but the overall picture, yes, I know," she replied absently, almost looking as if she was holding another conversation at the same time. "What else?"
"I can't affect you at all. My power just goes 'nope' if I try."
"You tried to affect me?" Saurial's eyes were abruptly totally focused on her again.
"I'm still trying," Amy whimpered. "I've been trying to make you fall asleep since you grabbed me. All it's doing is giving me a headache."
"Ah. So that's what..." Saurial paused, cocking her head to the side, then nodded to herself. "Stop it."
"OK," Amy yipped in a high pitched voice, "OK, I'm stopping."
"All right. Thank you for the information, it's very useful. Now, what are we going to do about all this?" The girl cocked her head the other way, inspecting Amy closely. The healer swallowed again. "I take threats, or possible threats, against my family extremely seriously. I'm not particularly happy about you knowing. Your friend Dean is a big enough problem already although he at least had the sense not to confront me about it. I have to wonder why you did. It seems… somewhat incautious."
"I couldn't help it," Amy replied despite herself. "It was so… so… weird. Interesting. Amazing." She sighed heavily as the girl watched curiously. "You wouldn't believe how boring my life is. Work, sleep, school, over and over again until I want to scream. Always healing people, the same stupid problems again and again and again. It's… maddening."
"Why do it then?" Saurial asked quietly.
"Because everyone expects me to," Amy responded with a heavy sigh. "I have to heal people, have to use my power for good, or… Or I might just end up using it for something horrible. I could destroy the city with a breath, or possibly the entire planet without much more effort. You wouldn't believe how much having that sort of power terrifies me. Sometimes I wish so much that I'd never triggered."
"I don't know if the planet would be possible, but destroying the city is pretty easy," the girl replied after a few seconds, sounding less threatening despite the comment. "So I have some idea."
Amy stared at her, but decided that she'd already dropped herself in it deeply enough so didn't ask.
"So, all this is because you saw something interesting and wanted to learn more?" the girl asked, sighing when Amy nodded. "You really need to learn better impulse control, Amy, before it gets you killed. What happened to the Unwritten Rules?"
With a wince, Amy shrugged as much as she could in the unyielding grip. "I didn't think it through."
"That seems to run in the family," the other girl smirked. Amy couldn't help snickering a little, because it really was sort of funny. Assuming she actually lived through it.
"Look, I won't tell anyone. Promise. You terrify me to the depths of my soul and I really don't want to see what you can do if you get mad," Amy said slowly and honestly, trying to impress the truth of the statement on the girl, who was studying her closely. "I did a stupid thing, I know, and I'm really sorry. Can we just sort of… forget about it?"
Inspecting her face for several long seconds, Saurial finally sighed gently and carefully lowered her to her feet. "You Dallon girls really need to keep your urges under control," she sighed. "I don't want to have to kill and eat Panacea just because she can't keep her mouth closed."
Amy paled, not at all sure the other was joking. Those teeth… Shuddering, she shook her head violently. "I won't tell anyone. I mean, I already..." She snapped her mouth shut as the girl looked at her curiously, then smiled a little.
"You already know who half the capes you've healed are, if not all of them, right? Your power can identify them."
Feeling like a total idiot, again, Amy slowly nodded, rubbing her forehead in irritation at herself. The other girl was obviously much too sharp. As were her teeth. "Shit. Please don't tell anyone."
"I have absolutely no intention of giving away anyone else's secrets, Amy, believe me." The girl looked bemused for a moment. "I wonder how many other capes can do the same thing by one means or another?" She snickered slightly. "Wouldn't it be amazing if there were dozens of them wandering around all knowing who everyone really was, but all convinced they were the only ones who did?"
Amy stared, then started laughing. Saurial joined in for a few seconds. Bending down she retrieved the bloody pile of napkins from where Amy had dropped it, looked at it distastefully, then put it on a shelf next to her shoulder. Poking around for a moment she found a roll of paper towels for the bathroom dispensers, slit the plastic covering with a quick motion of a taloned finger, then pulled a few sheets free and handed them to Amy. "You're still bleeding a little," she pointed out.
While Amy dealt with that problem the other girl wrapped the bloody paper in some more toweling and picked it up, putting the roll away again. Holding out her other hand, which had shifted back to normal, as had her eyes and teeth, she said, "Taylor Hebert. Nice to meet you, Amy."
Somewhat startled, Amy looked at the offered hand, then carefully shook it while holding the paper towels to her nose. "Amy Dallon. Also known as Panacea, of course. Nice to meet you, and I'm sorry, really."
"It's all right. Just don't say anything. I meant it about being very upset if anyone threatens my family." She had a look in her eyes that promised instant dismemberment for anyone stupid enough to try something. Amy shivered a little.
"I believe you."
"Good. Now lets get you to the Nurse, then get a permission slip so I don't get detention. I've only been here a week or so and I don't want to have things go wrong this soon." Taylor smiled a little.
"Um, Taylor…?" Amy spoke carefully and cautiously as the other girl, now an ordinary if rather tall teenager as far as looking at her went, put her hand on the doorknob.
"Yes?"
"Would it be possible if I could talk to you at some point? About you, I mean? I still find your biology… amazingly weird."
Taylor studied her for a few seconds, looking thoughtful. "I might be open to that at some point," she replied in the end. "I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know."
"Thank you. And I'm sorry."
"Keep quiet about it and we don't have a problem," Taylor noted. Amy nodded.
"I will. Just one thing..." Taylor cocked her head a little, making Amy shiver. She suddenly saw it as the slightly alien mannerism it really was, coming from a part of the girl that wasn't human in the slightest. "Are you an alien?"
Taylor burst out laughing. "No, Amy, I'm not an alien. I was born in Brockton Bay to completely human parents, trust me. I'm just… a bit different now." Pulling the door open she peered both ways, then opened it further. "Come on, you need to get that nose looked at and I need to get to Chemistry class. I've missed half of it already."
She waited for Amy to come out of the closet then pulled the door shut. "Amy? Take a day off now and then. You're way too tightly wound."
Thinking the words over, the healer followed the other girl to the Nurses office and was soon explaining that she'd nearly broken her nose to a sympathetic yet mildly amused woman who seemed to find the idea of the world's paramount parahuman healer doing that somewhat funny.