"Any last words?" Lung asked as he tossed his shirt to one of his minions, looking at the athletic looking man standing across from him in a t-shirt and jeans, his form swelling slightly as he looked forward to the coming battle.

"Three hundred on me?" Myst said cheerfully as he held the cash out towards one of the bookies, most of the bets not on the winner but on how long he'd last.

"I'll take that," one of the bookies blurted, seeing free money.

"Odds?" Myst asked cheerfully.

"You're gonna die, what's it matter?" the bookie asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Anyone else willing to give me odds?" Myst asked as he looked at the rest of the bookies.

"A million to one," one of the other bookies called out, getting an amused look from Lung.

"One hundred to one," one finally offered. "That's the best I can do, otherwise I can't cover the bet. It's policy."

"Fair," Myst replied as he held the money out towards the guy.

Lung waited until Li took the money and backed away, everyone standing in a large ring, at least fifty feet from either of the combatants. "Ready?"

"Ready," Myst replied as he brought his hands up to protect his face, wanting to make sure he didn't get into the habit of ignoring threats just because of his durability like Kal was known to do. He dodged the first ball of fire that Lung tossed at him then breathed a stream of fire at Lung, forcing Lung to put effort into pushing the fire away.

Lung glared at Myst, his earlier amusement fading as he tossed a larger blast of fire at his opponent.

Myst tossed himself to the side to avoid the blast and rolled to his feet on the gravel, trying to keep his speed down to something that was reasonable for a human. He took a breath and blew it out, trying to see if he could catch Lung on fire. He wasn't particularly surprised when Lung managed to deflect the stream of fire into the air, mostly because he wasn't trying that hard.

"Shit, let's give Lung some room to roast him," one of the minions muttered as he took a couple of steps backwards.

Lung charged through the gout of flames and tried to punch Myst, causing him to dodge out of the way and hit him in the back with a fist, sending him stumbling forward with the force of the blow. 'Not bad, I just need to keep him fighting.'

Myst jumped back then dodged as the increasingly scaly Lung tossed a blast of fire at him that scorched the tar in the gravel. He kicked Lung when the larger cape surrounded himself with fire and charged at him, using the force of the kick to toss himself backwards. 'Okay, I might need to actually put some effort in.' He slipped to the side then scowled when he went tumbling thanks to a tail that he hadn't noticed, bouncing a couple of times on the pavement. 'Okay, he's escalating faster than I thought, I guess there's an emotional component.'

Lung jumped forward and punched the other cape, figuring he'd had enough of the cape mocking him with his 'dragon' breath. Then staggered backwards when the cape hit him in the face hard enough to crack his jaw and send him flying into one of the wrecked ships.

"He swings and he hits it out of the ballpark!" Myst said cheerfully.

"Fuck!" one of the oldest minions cursed as he realized the cape had just pissed Lung off enough for him to really cut loose. "Get back!" he called out as he turned and ran another fifty feet away before turning to watch.

Myst dodged a large circular chunk of metal, annoyed that he'd had to resort to moving slightly faster than a human probably could move at least without hurting himself to dodge the hatch. He dashed forward to meet the dragon as the compulsion in the back of his head to kill Lung pulsed, pushing him towards the Dragon that was starting to take shape, despite the defenses he had against being controlled. He slammed his fist into Lung, causing the dragon to take a step back before he reached out and grabbed him. "Shit."

Lung scowled when he tried to rip the other cape apart and found that he couldn't actually move him. "Who are you?" he growled out, his words slightly slurred by the massive fangs and slight muzzle he'd developed.

"Who I am isn't important, what I want is, I've been mastered into trying to kill you. I think I can twist it into making a deal, but you've got to give me something," Myst replied, ignoring Lung's flames and his attempt to move him.

"I've fought Leviathan, you're nothing!" Lung snarled.

"I'm not Leviathan," Myst replied calmly, "and you can't even hurt my feelings."

"What do you want?" Lung asked when he realized he couldn't move the cape and his fire wasn't helping or even damaging his clothes.

"I want you to sign a contract, if you reform the ABB into something respectable, I'll let you toss me into the bay and 'win' the fight, if you don't sign and try to be a halfway decent person, I'll slay the Dragon and deal with the fallout," Myst explained. "I'm being mastered into this, that's the most I can resist it."

"What do you mean by respectable?" Lung asked in a voice that was barely audible over his cracking flames.

"Old school mafia, like they were in the movies," he explained, "make money, protect your turf, don't harm the innocent."

"Fine, where's the contact," Lung said, knowing he needed to do research on the cape before he fought him again and tossing him in the bay would count as a win.

Myst conjured a contract and held it out. "Just bleed on it."

Lung rubbed at the blood coming out of his lip when he'd gotten hit and swiped at the contract, smearing it with blood.

Myst smiled and let the contract vanish when he felt the pulse of loathing fade away. "Pleasure…" he trailed off as Lung tossed him towards the bay. 'Sorry, I'm not killing someone because of a compulsion, if I'm going to kill you, it's because you're a sadistic bastard.' He hit the bay and skipped a couple of times then took a breath and sank below the water, rather amused by the entire fight even if he wouldn't be making three hundred thousand on the bookie. 'Probably for the best, I doubt he'd enjoy covering it.'

0o0o0

"I have no idea what to do," Danny admitted, the words slowly coming out as he hated to admit it, but could do no less for his daughter, a daughter he had all but abandoned in his grief.

"I would suggest homeschooling," Greg said, "it's what I'm planning. Between the gangs, the students, and the teachers themselves… I think it's much harder to learn anything there than it is to work on your own and that's only going to get worse if we return."

"Homeschooling?" Taylor asked, a note of hope leaking into her voice at the thought of getting away from Winslow and the trio of girls there.

Danny heard the hope in her voice and realized that school was going to be even worse for her without her… 'friend' there. "I'm not against the idea," he said, getting an almost painfully tight hug from his daughter in response, "but I'm not sure what to do about the school legally."

"Sue," Greg replied.

"I've already threatened that," Danny admitted, "but they claimed Taylor shut herself in the locker."

"You can't close and lock them from the inside," Greg replied, "I've been shoved in a fair few and that has to be done from outside, so they're bluffing."

"My friend Alan is a lawyer and he said I was unlikely to win if it went to court," Danny admitted with a heavy sigh.

"Emma's dad," Taylor muttered bitterly.

"Of course he would say that, Emma is one of the ones involved in attacking Taylor," Greg told him.

"What?" Danny asked, becoming as still as a statue.

"The three main bullies are Sophia, Emma, and Madison," Greg listed off. "They are the three popular girls who pretty much follow the mean girls stereotype and have the staff wrapped around their little fingers."

"Emma?" Danny asked, pulling back to look in his daughter's eyes.

"I didn't want to tell you, Alan is your friend," Taylor admitted, looking down in shame.

"And he probably didn't know what was going on until now," Greg offered. "Do you think he'd get Emma some help if you asked?"

"What?" the Heberts chorused, equally confused.

"What?" Greg asked, wondering how he'd been unclear.

"Why would she need help and with what?" Danny asked.

Greg shrugged. "This kind of thing is way beyond a prank and into the 'cry for help' category," he explained, "something is wrong with her and Sophia both."

"But not Madison?" Taylor asked in disbelief.

"Pretty sure Madison's balls haven't dropped yet," Greg replied, "in the female sense. She's really underdeveloped and very childlike. Kids are always cruel because they don't realize the scope of what they are doing, relying on others to guide them. So, while she might benefit from some help, just putting her around sane reasonable people until she goes through puberty should be enough."

"Her pranks were always petty things like a middle schooler would think of," Taylor admitted as she thought about it.

"Anyway, I think Winslow would really react to some bad publicity, because they are hiding something, though I have no idea what," Greg offered, "so I'd suggest talking to the school board or whatever is in control of the place rather than the staff. I don't know much about the way things are run, so I'm not going to be of much help there."

"I know my way around bureaucracy," Danny said, gaining some confidence, "it's all about finding what the right levers are. I'll have to see what I can do."

"The school would probably fail a number of safety tests as well," Greg said, "the fire alarms are disabled because of all the students smoking in the bathrooms and the fire extinguishers have been removed because gang members kept using them as weapons."

Danny began to grin. "Oh, I think that's something I can work with."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Velma Clements opened the door and looked at the blond haired teenager hovering half a foot above the porch wearing slacks and a dress shirt. "Yes?" she asked warily.

"Do you have a daughter named Madison, that goes to Winslow?" Myst asked as he looked at the petite young looking woman standing in the doorway, fairly sure he'd found the right house.

"Why?" Velma asked warily, not sure why a cape was asking about her daughter.

"Your daughter, is about four hours from being charged with federal charges for bio-terrorism and attempted murder, I'd like to suggest a course of action that doesn't result in her spending the rest of her life in prison," Myst replied.

"Bio-Madison!" Velma called out. "What are you talking about?"

"She has been bullying a fellow student, her accomplices decided to fill the girl's locker with used tampons and other shit they dug out of the medical waste bins in the bathroom," Myst explained.

"I think you're making a mistake, Madison wouldn't do that," Velma replied.

Madison froze when she walked into the living room and saw the cape floating on the front porch. "Yes?"

"Have you been bullying someone?" Velma asked, giving her daughter a stern look.

"No?" Madison offered halfheartedly, off balance because of the cape and because her mother was looking at her like she was a disappointment, a look that made her curl up inside.

"Pranks, Taylor Hebert, in three hours, I'm going to the police with everything I have, your pranks, Sophia's stuffing her in a locker filled with biological waste and Emma, emotionally torturing her about her dead mother and stealing an antique flute that is valuable enough to make it a felony, you'll be named as an accomplice which means your hopes and dreams of getting into a decent college will be dust in the wind and your chances of staying out of prison will be practically nonexistent."

"Biological waste… What the hell did you do?!" Velma demanded.

"Not that," Madison replied. "It was just supposed to be a prank, ruin her locker, keep Emma distracted from torturing the rest of us. I didn't know she was going to go crazy and push her into the locker."

"And I suggest you tell the police your side of the story first," Myst warned her.

"Do you have any proof?" Madison asked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not in the habit of helping criminals avoid the consequences of their crimes," Myst told her, "I'm more involved on the other end. This is a courtesy stop, nothing more, because I think you bear the least amount of guilt in the matter and I don't think you deserve the harsh sentence the other two are going to be dealing with. Have a nice day."

"Do you have any proof," Velma repeated softly, giving her daughter an unforgiving glare as the cape flew off. "Get your purse and any evidence YOU have, we are going to the police department. If only your father were still alive."

"Dad's not dead," she replied, confused.

"This will probably kill him," her mother snapped at her before marching her inside.

0o0o0

"Want me to go get lunch?" Danny offered, thinking Taylor would appreciate something more than the food that was served in the hospital.

"I could go for a burger and fries," Taylor said, wanting to get Greg alone so she could talk to him about what he'd… what they'd both gone through.

Danny smiled and then frowned as he realized he'd be leaving a handsome young man alone with his daughter.

Greg tilted his head and considered Taylor's father for a moment. "You do realize she'd connected to a heart and pulse monitor, right?" he asked helpfully, reading Danny's body language and offering a solution to his worries.

Danny blinked and then smiled slightly as he realized the two couldn't get up to anything that might raise her heart rate. "I'll be right back with the burgers," he told her, feeling better than he had in months and amused the boy was bright enough to point out something he should have thought of himself.

"Raise my heart rate?" Taylor asked as her dad left before realizing what he'd meant. "What?!"

The pair could hear Danny's laughter in the hall as he departed.

"Try and relax, your heart rate is going up," Greg suggested.

"But he thought… Dad was suggesting… I mean…. Not that… I'm just going to take a moment and calm down," she said, taking a deep breath.

"That's better," Greg said, taking Danny's seat next to her bed, "I can see it returning to normal already, so the nurses probably won't check up on you."

"You… You seem a lot more calm and relaxed than I expected anyone to be after… getting powers," she said tactfully.

He shrugged. "Things are making a lot more sense now," he explained, "so I have even less reason to be upset than normal."

"Do you know what your powers are?" Taylor asked curiously. "Mine seems to be running multiple lines of thought at once, and by multiple I mean all the lines. I can't seem to find a limit to it."

"That's useful," Greg said. "Let's see… there are the wings, healing you, I understand people better, I understand technology better, though I still can't build bombs out of toasters, I pretty much understand everything better and I'm a bit bigger and stronger."

"A bit he says," Taylor muttered, eyes roaming over the formerly skinny boy who looked like he could join the first string of the football team without bothering with tryouts.

"If I have any other powers, I haven't discovered them yet," Greg said thoughtfully. "I've noticed I'm really inclined to obey you, but I don't think that's a power."

"Have I mastered you?" Taylor whispered in horror.

"Heart rate," he reminded her, "and I don't think so. I mean you told me you weren't beautiful and I was able to tell you that you were wrong."

Taylor blushed and took a deep breath. "Okay, that still doesn't mean I haven't mastered you."

Greg tilted his head and examined her. "We could role play it if you like and see if I can break it, most power use is instinctive so that might trigger it."

*beep*beep*beep*

"Heart rate," he reminded her again, realizing that it wasn't a fear response from her flushed cheeks and pupil dilation.

"I may need a minute," a red-faced Taylor said, trying to calm her racing heart and cursing her perverted mind that was now using over three hundred parallel threads of thought to come up with sexual commands and scenarios to play out.

Greg realized what the problem was and quickly came up with a solution. Taking a deep breath he began to sing, "Hush little baby, don't say a word, mama's going to buy you a rocking bird-"

His wings sprouted from his back, pushing him forward in his seat as he sang and Taylor calmed down, smiling as she listened to him mangle the classic lullaby.

"Is that what you sang that woke me up?" she asked.

"That and the glowing hands," he said, holding up a hand and singing while his hands began to glow gold.

"So, your power is being an angel?" she guessed.

"One with a lousy memory," Glory Girl offered.

The two froze and then slowly turned to see Glory Girl aka Vicky Dallon standing in the doorway with her sister Panacea behind her.

"I have a perfectly good memory," Greg defended himself, "that's just the way my mom sang it and I preferred rocking bird to mocking bird. Rock rules and I don't like being mocked."

"That makes sense and it doesn't," Panacea said, pushing her sister into the room and closing the door behind them.

"It is what it is," Greg said with a shrug, knocking himself on his face as his wings pushed him out of the chair. "I really have to work on that," he said from face down on the floor.

"Vicky, aura!" Panacea snapped out.

"Sorry," Vicky apologized.

"For what?" he asked.

"My aura," the blonde teen explained, "it tends to flare when I get surprised or excited."

"I didn't feel anything," Greg noted realizing what power they were talking about. "Maybe I'm immune to master effects."

"It's not a master ability!" Vicky quickly exclaimed, sending out a pulse of worry.

"Aura," Panacea reminded her.

"Something just happened," Greg noted as he got up, "but I didn't feel it."

"You didn't feel that?" Panacea asked curiously.

Greg shrugged. "Whatever non-master area-effect emotional-projection ability she has, I didn't feel it."

"Lucky," Panacea said wistfully.

Greg turned to Taylor. "There you go, there is little chance you have somehow mastered me, I'm inclined to obey you because… I'm inclined to obey you."

"Wish I could find a boy like that," Vicky said with a smirk playing about her lips.

"Greg, I could still be mastering you and you are simply immune to Glory Girl's aura," Taylor pointed out.

"Are you a master?" Panacea asked.

"Not that I know of, I seem to be a thinker, but he… he got his powers because he wanted to help me…" Taylor said quietly.

Greg smiled and waved as the three girls turned to look at him, trying to break the tense moment and put them at ease.

"Most first gens have a horrible trigger event, second gens like us just need a really bad day," Vicky noted. "Is one of your parents a cape?"

"No, they are both CPAs," Greg replied. "I admit there was a moment of pain… all the pain, but it went as quickly as it arrived and I felt better than ever. Everything is easier to understand, people technology…. Hey, maybe I am a tinker, I just figured out how to turn a toaster into a bomb! An EMP bomb, but it still counts."

"Does it require a whole bunch of weird tools or ingredients?" Panacea asked.

"No, just some wire strippers and maybe a soldering iron," he told her.

"Can you explain how to make one?"

"Sure," he replied, "the science is pretty simple. I think the old me could have made one if he could sit still and concentrate on one thing for more than five minutes."

"Not a tinker then," Vicky told him, "they can't really explain the science of what they are doing and need a whole bunch of strange doohickies to make their inventions."

"Oh," he said, a bit disappointed.

"You'll just have to settle for looking like a rock star, and having… the whole angel thing going on," Vicky said with a grin.

"And obeying me?" Taylor asked.

"Command one of them to do something they don't want and see if it sticks, if not I'd say you weren't a master or maybe just my master," Greg said thoughtfully.

*beep*beep*beep*

"Heart rate," Greg said just as Panacea snapped out, "Aura!"

Greg started singing a lullaby once more and Taylor calmed down while Panacea stared at him in surprise.

"Vicky release your aura, Greg keep singing," she ordered.

Greg continued singing and Vicky raised an eyebrow, as the white robed healer looked pensive.

"Okay, leave your aura on and Greg stop singing," Panacea ordered.

Taylor blinked and shook her head as she found her eyes drifting over the gorgeous blonde girl.

"Enough aura," Panacea said. "Greg, did you feel her aura that time?"

"Nope, still nothing," he replied.

"Your singing weakened Vicky's emotional projection aura," Panacea said, "so you may have an anti-master effect, at least while you are singing."

"And an anti-emotional-projection effect too," Vicky quickly added, causing Panacea to roll her eyes.

"Good to know," Greg said. "Go ahead, give them an order and watch them ignore it," he told her.

"What kind of order?" Taylor asked.

"Something embarrassing!" Vicky exclaimed eagerly.

Panacea sighed. "This isn't Truth or Dare, Vicky."

"Touch someone else's nose with your tongue," Taylor ordered Vicky, eyes narrowed in concentration.

Vicky laughed and Panacea dropped to the floor to avoid her sister flying at her with her tongue outstretched.

"See?! I'm a master!" Taylor exclaimed in a panic.

*beep*beep*beep*

"Heart rate," Greg said just as Panacea snapped out, "Aura!"

"Sorry," Vicky apologized, "I forgot we were testing that. You would totally rule in Truth or Dare, I'm inviting you to the next game."

"This is my life," Panacea grumbled. "Taylor, order me to do something."

"Panacea, stand on one foot," Taylor ordered.

"No, go fuck yourself," Panacea fired back. "There, you aren't a master except of your boytoy here."

*beep*beep*beep*

"Heart rate," Greg said just as Panacea snapped out, "Aura!"

"Sorry," Vicky apologized red faced, "that is just so kinky and a huge turn on."

Greg began to sing once more, choosing something that had all three of the girls staring at him in open mouthed shock. "What?"

"I have no idea what that was, but it was beautiful," Vicky told him.

He shrugged. "I don't know either, it was the theme to an anime and I don't speak Japanese."

"So, is everyone satisfied that Taylor isn't the new Heartbreaker?" Panacea asked.

"Yes," Taylor replied, her pulse and heart rate both down to something reasonable.

"Would you mind healing me?" Panacea asked. "Or can you only heal Taylor?"

"Never tried healing anyone else," he admitted. "Oh, if anyone asks, you healed Taylor."

"I'll agree to that," she replied, extending a hand.

Greg clasped his hands around her hand and began singing once more, his hands taking on a golden glow.

Panacea let out a relieved sigh, some of the stress and irritation leaving her face as she straightened up, looking younger somehow.

"I want some of what she had," Vicky said, amazed at how much more relaxed her normally grumpy sister looked.

"Never been on this end of things," Panacea said, "pretty sure those that I heal don't feel this good afterwards. By the way you have very dense musculature, rapid synaptic response rates, your skin is resistant to damage, and I'm almost positive fatigue poisons would take a ridiculous amount of time to build up in your system.

"What does all that mean?" Vicky asked.

"He's at least a minor brute and mover who has stamina for days," Panacea replied.

*beep*beep*beep*

"Heart rate," Greg said just as Panacea said, "Aura," in a mildly amused voice.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Assault raised an eyebrow when he saw a blond-haired man in slacks and a dress shirt land fifteen feet in front of him and Battery. "Hello?"

"Hello, can I have a couple of minutes of your time?" Myst asked politely. "It concerns one of your probationary wards."

"Probationary ward?" Battery asked.

"Shadow Stalker," Myst replied as he walked closer. "Aka, S.H. aka miss I like impaling people of questionable guilt with pointy and very much illegal bolts from a crossbow."

"Ah, that one," Battery muttered.

"What did she do this time?" Assault asked, wishing someone hadn't overruled the director about the nutcase.

"Terrorizing someone at school and trying to murder them by stuffing them in a locker filled with bio-hazardous waste, stealing things out of her victim's locker, including an antique flute that is worth enough that stealing it is a felony," Myst replied. "Not to mention trying to murder Grue because of a bad powers interaction and because she's a bitch. Normally, I wouldn't care, he's a villain but he's a villain that only does breaking and entering."

"I knew she was stupid, but fuck," Assault grumbled.

"Assault," Battery complained.

"Don't give me that, you know as well as I do that she's unhinged," Assault complained. "If that's true, what the hell is her handler doing and why hasn't the school said anything?"

"I'm guessing she likes her comfortable job, she's been covering for the school because she likes the money she's getting, I suspect a bribe from the Principal or something, there is something seriously wrong with the principal," Myst replied. "Campaign of harassment, ending in attempted murder, it doesn't look good for anyone."

"What's your angle?" Battery asked.

"Beyond the fact that I find her behavior reprehensible for villains and heroes alike? I'd rather not see the PRT get dragged through the mud over something that isn't actually the Director's fault. SS's character witness is her accomplice in the harassment campaign, it adds a certain something when you realize her character witness is insane."

"What makes you think she's insane?" Battery asked.

"She turned on her best friend, taunted her about her dead mother and bought into Sophia's predators and prey shit," Myst replied with a shrug. "You've got maybe a couple of hours to clean house before shit hits the fan."

"And if you're lying?" Assault asked.

"It gives you an excuse to look into Sophia's behavior," Myst pointed out. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to leave a message for a cape and check on some stuff."

"What do we call you?" Assault asked.

"Power Girl," he replied, then flew off to write "Prick!" in lipstick on Kaiser's office window.

"Power Girl?" Battery asked in disbelief. "How does a guy get the name Power Girl?"

"Well, either they were really short of available names where he's from or…" he trailed off.

"Or?" she asked, despite knowing better.

"Or he looks really convincing in drag," Assault finished.

"We could just ignore him," Battery offered, trying to get things back on track.

Assault shook his head. "It's Shadow Stalker, we should call it in."

"Yeah," Battery admitted with a sigh.

Written by: dogbertcarroll and Mist of Shadows.