Room and Ward 1.3

"Let the record show that Miss Hebert just passed ten tons on the pull strength test." a voice crackled over the intercom. "Miss Hebert, as a reminder, if you start to feel overwhelmed, do not hesitate to press the emergency stop trigger."

I grunted my acknowledgement, flashing a look at the two buttons on either end of the handles I had firmly grasped in both hands. After my appointment with Glenn, I had been ushered into the Power Testing Range. I was told there were larger and more specialized facilities across the country to truly test my limits, but Boston had some of the largest and well funded on the east coast, just behind New York.

We'd been at this for about an hour now, brushing up on details that the ENE branch hadn't had time to test me on. As I had gone through each test, I started to wonder if they might regret trading me away. I was incredibly fast now, they'd seen me break sixty miles per hour in the speedway in under three seconds. I could bend steel into circles, shatter concrete with a good punch, and now I was pulling the equivalent of a truck, and I hadn't even broken a sweat. As odd looking as it was, my new body kind of kicked ass.

"Keep this up, and you'll break Weld's record." Erica added over the intercom, clearly amused. She had shown up right as I started the pull test, and seemed content to provide a running commentary. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it a little.

A grin spread over my face, "Oh?" I grunted, and took another slow step forward, "And what is his record?"

"I dunno, I think it's like twenty tons or something? They never let us go to the top of our limits, something about a 'risk of horrific physical injury'."

"Miss Evens," I heard one of the...testers? PRT People? One of the Researchers scolded her, "We are content to let you watch, but please keep the chatterrunning commentary to a minimum while the test is in progress."

I looked over to my left at the observation window. Certain tests, like this one, had their own private rooms built in case of a mechanical failure. If the steel cables I was hauling snapped, there was enough force behind them that they'd probably take a limb off. So everyone that wasn't me was safely stationed behind a nice solid metal wall with shatterproof glass acting as their only view in. That and probably a dozen or so camera's hidden around the room. Those were the ones I noticed when I walked in anyway.

"Your last name is… Evens?"

Silence over the intercom. I felt something I hadn't felt since before I'd started going to high school. A small spark of harmless mischievous intent that I found difficult to extinguish. I shook my head and frowned a little. Warmth followed the feeling and filled my chest. What was happening to me, was I being affected by my powers?

I shifted my focus to my new goal, beating Weld's record, and ignored the feeling. "I'm ready for more weight!" I yelled.

"Understood Miss Hebert, increasing weight to eleven tons."

I heard the sound of a door opening and glanced toward the observation room. Kelvin walked in, dressed casually. Erica turned toward the sound and rolled her eyes. I don't think she realized she was leaning on the intercom button. "Hello, Rory. What a surprise seeing you here today."

"I'm just inspecting the troops." he replied, casually. I felt my face flush and I ducked my head. I had changed into a tank top and sweatpants for the testing, and even though I knew I hadn't been sweating from my workout, I still looked myself over for sweat stains.

"Ugh, you need to stop watching those stupid Aleph movies."

"You know you love it."

"You're handsome, but you're nowhere near as funny as you think you are."

"Ah, but you can't ignore my charm anyway, can you Erica?"

Wait.

Wait.

What!?

My mind raced, jumping to a thousand conclusions at once, none of them particularly pleasant. My concentration shattered with an ear splitting crack followed by high pressured whistling. It took me a moment to realize that the noise was not my mind breaking; I had lost focus and the cables I'd been pulling had snapped back in an instant, and torn both my arms off in the process. Oh, and I was steaming again, though this time it was definitely anger.

"Oh my god!" someone screamed.

"Miss Hebert, please, remain calm! We'll have medical staff down as soon as possible!"

"Taylor, are you okay!?" that was Kelvin and Erica at once.

I set my jaw hard and glared at them both (mostly Kelvin), and sneered, "I'm fine. Really, perfectly okay."

The door rooms opened and several test people ran in with concern on their faces, along with Erica and Kelvin. "Where the fuck are those medics!?" someone yelled.

The only one not freaking out was Erica. Obviously she could tell from my reaction, that having my limbs torn off hadn't really phased me. In fact, I had barely even felt it when it happened, even though this was the first time I had lost a limb.

Christ, how weird was my life, right?

"Someone find her arms, where did they go?"

"Miss Hebert, I… you're not bleeding."

I turned and looked down at one of the researchers, "Well… yeah. You guys did read the part of my file that said 'nonexistent human biology' right? The guys at Brockton Bay are pretty sure I'm just living goop."

"Aiiieeeee!" someone screamed, and we all turned to the far wall. The researchers had evidently found my arms, and as I had expected, they were making their way back towards me in a weird oozing crawling motion. This didn't surprise me, I was familiar with how… autonomous my body could be when I wasn't directly attached to my bits and pieces, especially after an unfortunate incident with a door and my head tendril.

If a part of my body was separated from me, it would automatically try to return to me so I could heal. I could feel their presence and sensations on the edge of my mind and if I focused, I knew I could take control of them. No point now though, they both oozed up to my feet. One grabbed my ankle, and smoothly melted into my skin and vanished. At the same time, my right arm reformed, and I grabbed the remaining limb and lifted it to my left stump, where it quickly reattached itself.

When the process finished, I looked at everyone surrounding me, and felt decidedly sheepish. Several of the researcher's looked pale, and one even ran out of the room and retched into a trash can. I closed my eyes, sighed, and said, "I'd like a break please."

I was out the door before I heard any response, taking special care to avoid Kelvin and Erica. Once I was in the hall, I grabbed at my 'hair' and let out a noise of frustration.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The moment a boy showed me any sort of positive attention and my mind had jumped straight to… well things it shouldn't have. Best case scenario, he had just been trying to be nice. Worst case scenario, he and Erica were a thing and he just so happened to be one of those guys with like six different girlfriends. Well, I assumed there were guys like that, I'd read about them anyway. The point was, I'd made an assumption, and looked like a fool for it.

I retreated to my room, my safe place. Somewhere I could be hidden from the watching, judging eyes of the entire PRT and Wards. All too familiar memories of Winslow flashed through my mind as my dorm room door slid open and I rushed inside. My breathing felt short, panicked, my chest tight. I sat on the floor, my back against my bed and stared at the door, breathing frantically as a dozen scenarios flashed through my mind.

Was it an elaborate joke? Had Erica set this up just so she and Kelvin could laugh at how much of an idiot I was? Did she even know about our movie night? If she did and it wasn't a joke, was she going to hate me like everyone else did? Oh god please no, this was exactly what I was afraid of when I joined the Ward's, stupid high school drama bullshit!

Steam poured from me in rivers, and I clutched at my head, grinding my teeth together hard. Emotions flashed through my mind in a whirlwind, anger, embarrassment, hate, and depression all came together to assault me. I wanted to kick my door down and scream at them for messing with me like that, to make them know just how hurt I felt!

I growled and glared at the door. "Stupid… stupid…"

There was a loud knock at the door, and my world snapped back into place. Suddenly I was able to wrestle my emotions back under control, and I no longer felt the seething flow of bitter anger that had been rolling over me. I looked around my room, amazed at the literal fog bank it had been engulfed in.

"Oh my god…" I rested a hand on my head. Maybe a visit to the therapist wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Again, there was a knock at my door. My head jerked up in surprise, "Y-yes? Who is it?"

"Hey Taylor, it's Erica. You have a minute to talk? You rushed out of there pretty quickly."

She made you angry, don't talk to her. A small voice whispered in my head. I tried to ignore it; I was a rational young woman, I was not going to turn into a vindictive drama queen over a boy I just met. Even if he did have beautiful eyes, great taste in movies, and was super nice. I shook my head furiously and more steam puffed into the air.

"Give me a minute!" I called, and got to my feet. I walked up to the door and opened it, letting clouds of steam roll out into the hall.

Erica blinked and stepped back, waving curls of it away from her face, "Whew, it's a sauna in there. Were ya lucky enough to get your own private shower?"

I looked down at her impassively. I would deal with this like an adult, not like a hormonal teenager. Wait, did I even have hormones anymore? As far as I knew, I didn't even have a proper nervous system, how would that-?

Focus! Adult, rational, focused young woman, that's what you are, Taylor.

I took in a deep breath, and said calmly, "So are you and Kelvin an item?"

Erica blinked, looked up at me, and laughed out loud, "Haha! Oh god, that's… that's good…That's funny Taylor."

When I didn't laugh, her expression shifted from amused to amazed, "Oh my god, you're serious. Is that why you were upset?"

I shrugged my shoulders, and Erica sighed, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand, "No, we're not an item; Taylor, Rory is aromantic, he doesn't do relationships. At best he might try to get into your pants, but the guy is absolutely clueless when it comes to talking to girls."

She paused and rubbed her chin, "Actually, now that I think about it, maybe he's just really deep in the closet. Wouldn't surprise me."

My mind was spinning now, and I felt my face flushing again. I tentatively tapped my fingers together, "Oh, so that was just… friendly banter then?"

She snorted, "You think you're the first person that tried to hook up with him? Yeah, it's kind of a game. First one to make the other blush wins. Have to keep it PG around the staff and kids though."

My face must've been pretty amusing because she laughed again and patted my shoulder… er, bicep. I was easily two feet taller than her and she had to reach up on her toes to do that much. I rubbed my head awkwardly and stared down at my feet; at least it wasn't some cruel joke being played on me, I could take solace in that.

Erica's face twisted to concern, "Jeez, Brockton Bay was not kind to you, was it?"

"It's a shithole." I hissed through clenched teeth. I quickly squashed my anger before it could flare up, and ran my hands over my face. "Oh god, this was not how I wanted my day to go."

At least Erica seemed sympathetic to my plight. "You wanna talk about it?"

"I'm not talking about Brockton Bay."

"I meant anything. I know how nasty things are for new capes, it can be good to vent." she looked past me into my steam filled room, and smirked. "Pun intended."

I snorted, "I'm just not used to… this. I think I'm still reeling from all the changes, and it's making me over sensitive."

That or it was my new body, neither option was particularly appealing. I had lived in Brockton Bay all my life, and while it was definitely a shithole, it had still been home. Moving was harder than I thought, and I still felt like I was just living in a dream. Complete with embarrassing clothes and horrific maiming.

Erica let out a sigh that was filled with relief, "Gonna be honest, this is kind of a relief. I thought you were freaked out over the being disarmed like that. The 'freaking out over new powers' phase is never fun to help a cape through."

I arched a brow at her, "You sound experienced with that."

"I've been here since I was ten. I'm the most senior member of the Ward's." she waved a finger in the air in mock celebration.

I looked at her with newfound interest, "Since you were ten? Why aren't you the leader then?"

"Because I'm an ugly abrasive bitch." she shrugged, "I've also turned it down. I don't like the whole leadership thing."

I could understand that. The idea of being in charge of a group, having to handle all the clashing personalities and powers while also keeping them alive and safe while fighting villains… yeah the thought of it made my stomach churn. That or I was getting hungry again; I wondered idly if the cafeteria would be open before shelving the thought. A more important thought came to mind.

"So…" I asked, making no attempt to hide my nervousness, "What did you tell Rory?" that felt weird to say. He was the team leader, so it made sense to stick with his cape name.

"Hmm? Oh, that you probably were stressed and that I'd handle you." Erica said. "If Weld was here, I'd let him handle you but he's on patrol so here I am, here to lend you a helping hand after you were disarmed and making sure you can keep a firm grip on reality."

I narrowed my eyes, thoroughly unamused, "How long were you thinking of those puns?"

She grinned, "Oh if I had to go out on a limb, probably the moment you lost your arms. A good pun can help a lot I've found."

That was highly debatable, but I didn't have enough experience with 'humor' to debate her on the merits of jokes. I settled for folding my arms and shaking my head instead. "Well, I do appreciate you coming to check on me and clearing things up. I should probably talk to Kelvin and… I dunno, let him know I'm okay?"

"Tell him you were annoyed by the flirting." Erica suggested. "Like I said, the man is totally clueless with girls; he doesn't get us. He can handle us fine if he ignores the funbags, but the moment he looks at our chests, his mind draws a blank."

She made a point to look at my nearly flat chest and made another impish grin. I scowled at her, "One word, and we'll find out just how strong I really am."

"I didn't say a thing." she raised her hands in surrender.

I folded my arms a little tighter around my chest and sighed, "You are right though, I should let him know I don't appreciate it. You're sure he'll be okay with it?"

"Oh absolutely. He might be terrible with girls, but he's leader for a reason." Erica assured me. Her eyes lit up suddenly and she grabbed my arm.

"Wait, before you do that though, have you met any of the Protectorate members on base yet?" she asked.

I shook my head; I knew that, unlike in Brockton Bay, the Protectorate had no 'official' HQ in Boston. They operated out of the various PRT departments, and worked very closely with them and the police. So they had no equivalent of the Rig, which was a little disappointing; I always wanted to see the inner workings of the Rig, and never got to even when I joined the Wards.

Erica's grin returned, "Okay, then you should totally come with me. Fae is going to love meeting you."

I cocked my head to the side, "Who's Fae?"


As it turned out, Fae was the resident tinker of the Boston branch of the Protectorate. Erica skimmed on the details, but apparently she was a support tinker. Nothing truly combat focused, but a lot of her gear saw use by the Protectorate in Boston, and she was apparently developing into something of a minor celebrity. Bastion may be the leader of the Protectorate, but Fae had very quickly become the face.

Her workshop dominated the majority of the top floor of the PRT HQ, and was locked behind several blast doors with enough security to make a bank jealous. Erica's clearance got us through without issue, and we stepped into a basketball court sized workshop. Now, when I thought of a tinker workshop, I typically expected a lot of half finished machines hanging from chains, maybe counters covered in designs and projects and a general 'lived in' feel. Blame Hollywood, but that was the general perception I think a lot of people had of the stereotypical Tinker lab.

Fae's lab was the opposite. It was a spotless near clinical white, with wide open spaces and counters and tables only lining the walls. Soft LED lights illuminated the room, casting soft shadows against the floor and walls. Along the counters and tables, tools were neatly arranged in categorical organization, typically largest to smallest. There were a few unfinished projects, but most of them were suspended mid air somehow, and were typically surrounded by machines running some sort of diagnostic. Orchestral music, I couldn't figure out what kind, quietly played in the background over the humming and beeping of the machines.

Erica cleared her throat and cupped her hands to her mouth, "Hey Fae, you in here!?"

There was a crash of tools and a woman yelped. I looked around for any sign of her, and saw nothing. Maybe she was testing a cloaking device of some kind. The voice cursed, and I realized where it was coming from and slowly looked upwards.

In a practical mirror image of the floor, there was a near symmetrical recreation of the lab built into the ceiling, complete with floating incomplete devices. One such device, an odd looking loom of some kind, was manned by a very tall and lithe young woman, maybe in her twenties? She had pale skin, bright blue eyes and her bright red hair was styled into a pixie cut. A long blue cloak and hood hung from her shoulders and she wore an armored bodysuit that was a slightly lighter shade of blue. A golden belt was wrapped around her waist along with a pair of shimmering boots and bracers. Lines of some sort of language ran up her side in a circuitry pattern and pulsed with power. If I had to guess, this was Fae.

She sighed and dropped whatever she was working on and looked… down? Up? At us. "Hello Erica, you startled- Oh!"

Fae jumped to her feet when she saw me and her eyes sparkled with unbridled curiosity, "Oh my gosh! You must be Taylor! One moment, please, I'm so sorry for the mess!"

I looked around the spotless workshop, then back up at her, "It's… um, no problem. You're Fae, right?"

"Yes, yes, that's me!" she nodded frantically and adjusted a dial built into her belt buckle. She bent her knees and pushed off the ceiling with slow gentle grace, floating through the air as though it were water. Once she was a foot or so off the ground, she adjusted the dial again and gravity resumed its hold on her.

The moment her feet touched the ground, she rushed up to me with an almost manic grin on her face, "Oh it is so good to finally meet you Taylor! I can call you Taylor, right?" she asked, excitedly shaking my hand as she spoke. "I read all about your file, everything you went through at Brockton, you poor thing, I'm so glad you're here with us! Has everything been okay? The Ward's are you treating you well I hope, you're getting enough to eat, have you met the other members of the Protectorate yet, has Director Armstrong already introduced himself to you? I see you've met Erica, thank you for bringing her Erica, I've been in a fugue the past few days, this is a good distraction! Oh look at me, I'm rambling again, so sorry, once I get going I just have a hard time stopping!"

The whole time she never stopped shaking my hand, to the point that I was afraid she was going to tear it off. My eyes felt like they were spinning in their sockets and once she stopped talking and finally released my hand, the entire world looked like it was moving in slow motion compared to her.

She bounced back a step and clasped her hands together in front of her waist, popping up and down on her heels with that excited smile on her face. I realized she was finally letting me speak; my tendril twitched and I rubbed my hand to get some feeling back into it.

"Er, well to answer your questions in order: yes, you can call me Taylor, everything is fine so far, the Ward's are treating me fine, I am actually still hungry, Director Armstrong met me on arrival, and you're the first Protectorate member I've met."

Fae snorted, "Oh well that figures. Bastion's too 'high and mighty' to come off patrol and say hi to a new Ward. I'm so glad to hear you're being treated well though, the last week must have been insane for you."

"You have no idea." I muttered.

"Oh I can imagine, I've been there." Fae laughed, "I was just graduating from the Ward's when Erica joined us, she's always done such a good job introducing new ward's to everyone!"

I glanced at Erica, who suddenly seemed interested in her shoes. Her face had turned an angry shade of red and white splotches lighting up her acne scars. "Fae, please…"

"Am I rambling again?" Fae asked.

We both nodded.

Her shoulders slumped, "Oh… dang it. Sorry, I get so excited sometimes. Well, I assume if you brought Taylor here, you want me to get her fitted for a gravity belt, right?"

I blinked, "I'm sorry, a… what?"

Erica covered her face and groaned while Fae bounced excitedly, "My gravity belt's! It's my speciality, I can build devices that manipulate gravitational forces in a small area. No more than a few feet normally, and the power requirements are crazy! I did some work with Armsmaster, total asshole by the way, to figure out a smaller power source and once we got that figured out, I was able to start making gravity belts for everyone! Basically, I can give you the ability to fly! It's super useful, but you do need permission from central to use them in the field. Some of the parents get nervous about you kids using tinker tech in the field. I mean I get it but if they're nervous about you getting hurt, why put you in the Ward's in the first place, it's not like there aren't schools or tutors out there that cater to parahuman kids or something, it just seems really short sighted to me, ya know?"

And on she went. I turned to Erica as Fae went off on a tangent about the place of Parahuman teenagers in modern cape society. I am fairly certain I was glowering at Erica, because she looked equal parts amused and terrified. "You brought me here just for this, didn't you?"

She smiled nervously, "Everyone has to suffer through it at least once Taylor."


A/N: So headsup, I won't do the paragraph long ramblings EVERY TIME Fae appears, in case anyone was worried. That aside, I hope you guys liked her, she is a lot of fun to write and I have some amusing bits planned for her. As for the rest of the chapter, we got some powers in action, a bit of an expansion on Kelvin/Rory and Glacia/Erica. Hope I did well with those two.

Sidenote, if anyone has better ideas for the 'flirting' between those two, I am all ears. My flirting game is awful and I am well aware it needs fixing. Unfortunately my editor decided to actually go to sleep at a decent hour for once, so the edited version of this chapter will probably not go up till later tomorrow.

All of that aside, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please let me know your thoughts and criticisms down below, and I'll see you all next Monday!