A wish, at the right moment, can be a powerful thing. Many people find that a desire muttered can cause others to try and fulfil it for no other reason than the desire shown. Still others find that the stating of a goal over and over can motivate them to pursue it. Then, there are the odd ones.

Enter Taylor Hebert, straight-A brain with a C-grade average due to bullying. Smart enough, all told, though no genius. She had a wish one day, a wish that changed everything.

Why was she wishing? Well, you would be wishing, too, if you were in her position. After all, not many people would find themselves trapped in a locker filled with… fermented female bio-waste for twenty hours after a fifteen-month bullying campaign and NOT make a wish of some kind. Of course, most of these wishes would go unanswered. Most of them.

Enter the Queen's Administrator Shard. Class 1, Grade A, Primary support for the Harvest of the Cycle for the Thinker. What does that mean? Class 1 means that this is a first-generation shard. The… things that give people superpowers, the shards or passengers, or whatever you want to call them, are all island- to small-continent-sized biomasses that are but shards (hence the name) of gigantic bio-computers called Entities. A class 1 shard is a shard that was created during the first generation of the Entities' creation of shards, a Shard that goes back all the way to the beginning of these… things first attempts, just beneath Class-0, or Originating Shard. The older the shard, the more refined it is, and the closer it gets to sapience. As such, the QA shard was almost sentient (Almost. Kind of. As much as any other shard, really.), and was VERY powerful. Grade (ranked A-F [Advanced Success, Breakthrough, Cutting Edge, Decent, Failing]) was a scale of power, how successful/efficiently the Shard completed its goals and performed its functions. Technically there was an S-grade (Singularity), but that required sentience, imagination, and unlimited power, and as such has never happened, so it gets ignored. For now. Primary Support is a role delineator, basically saying that without this Shard, its processes cannot be performed, even though it isn't the one performing them, like you need a pen or pencil and paper to write something down, even if they don't do the writing. The Harvest, however, is a bit of a weightier subject.

The Entities, for all their knowledge, had no actual… being, so to speak. They lacked autonomy. Not that someone was controlling them, but they actually had no real sense of self, no person for the personality. And, as it turns out, the saying 'I think, therefor I am' is completely accurate. No think, no am. No am, no thinking. Easy as that. Now, a computer is often believed to think, but that isn't true. It can't; it can, however process, even if it is just processing what others think. This means that you do not need to think to learn; you just can't learn WELL. That is the state that the Entities were at. Capable of gathering information, collating it, and even refining it, but not actually generating it. That doesn't mean that they couldn't add two and two and get four, it just meant that couldn't find the existence of two, or of addition, by themselves. So, they did something else. The experimented. Thousands of worlds, eventually even countless dimensions, all populated, most with sentient species, were observed, then seeded with various ideas, abilities, and queries that the Entities didn't know enough about, then left to run on their own for anywhere from ten months to two-hundred-plus years, producing the Cycle. When they were done, they would perform The Harvest; basically, consuming the world and turning it into energy for them to fuel their pursuit. And what was it they were looking for? Negentropy. Basically, the opposite of Entropy. Yeah, really. I know, ridiculous, but more on that later.

As for who the Thinker was, Entities sometimes traveled in pairs in order to complement each other's capability, and the pair that came to earth was the Thinker and the Warrior. Sadly, the Thinker was NOT as careful as she should have been, and ended up pile-driving into the Earth, Earth-Alternate 127 to be specific, and she got offed. Not be the crash, actually but by…

But that also comes later. When that happened, knowing she was going to die, she sent the Warrior all of her most essential shards so that he could keep going. He, being an idiot, thought she wanted them tested, and so sent them out into the world. Then he noticed (fifteen years too late) that she was dead. He actually managed to mistake a drunk in an alleyway in England for her for FIFTEEN YEARS. Yeah, talk about proof that they can't think. He still goes to that bum for advice.

Anyway, the Administrator was designed for one thing, and one thing only. Administration. She was a communication and information collation shard, as well as a primary shard control point. Sadly, she was locked out of the shard network for this cycle (the Warrior's idea, obviously) except for common traffic, and her ID had been changed (by him) so that others would not listen to her. Yeah, no idea what he was thin… oh, wait. Still, this ended up being a happy coincidence.

You see, when a shard syncs up with a host, the process is… involved. First, a scan of the target is created, making sure that there is compatibility. The shard examines everything from mindset, to genetics, to the host's past, to the host's potential futures, for maximum synchronization. This is where happenstance number one occurred. You see, Taylor was not a good host for an Admin shard. Even though she was the thinking type, she really didn't have… charisma. At all. As such, she kind of flopped in the whole 'leadership' arena, an essential part of administration.

Next came the placement. As soon as the shard syncs with the target, it plants a seed in the person's brain; something that functions as a combination of tracker (to gather info), communication point (to provide a working understanding of the power), and relay (for powers that manifest outside of the body) for the power in question. Now, the seed, or Corona Polenta, for an Admin-style shard is placed in the Frontal Cortex, the place where the body's own control center is, allowing a greater degree of control over oneself, and facilitating leadership of others. This, however, only leaves the target with POTENTIAL powers, not active ones. It is not until the 'trigger event' that the powers come online.

The Trigger is the moment where the person in question fulfills whatever conditions are necessary to activate it, causing a second growth in the same, similar, or a complimentary area of the brain called the Gemma. In times past for the QA, the thinker set it up so that a moment where the target was forced to take control, but wasn't ready for it, to be the trigger, or similar issue. This would allow the shard to configure itself to an actual problem, boosting the relevance of the info gathered. At least, that would be how it was done when the Thinker was in charge. The Warrior, simple-minded ass that he was, saw conflict as the only available answer, and so set it so that all shards could only trigger on an event that was massively emotionally and/or physically scarring. Why? To promote maximum conflict, of course! All shards under his control were set to the concept that war plus powers equals information, a brilliant idea. And yes, that was sarcasm. This was what lead to the second serendipity.

The traumatic event of stuffing Taylor Herbert into the locker had, sadly, included a minor concussion to her brain in, you guessed it, the Frontal Cortex, making it so that the addition of the Gemma would kill the host. As such, QA had to avoid that and place the Gemma in the cerebrum, the learning center. Polenta in the frontal cortex, leadership or control; Gemma in the cerebrum, learning. Controlled or facilitated learning?

The QA found itself stumped. How was it, something that could not learn on its own, help Taylor learn. Extrapolation and analysis, easy. But to actually facilitate learning? That was beyond it.

Finally, the catalyst appeared. In a daze, in agony from prolonged containment in an area far to small for her, being eaten by bugs, surrounded by the foulest material known to man, and mentally traumatized, Taylor made a wish.

"I wish I could leaver here, and never come back. I wish I didn't have to come to this god-forsaken school."

In an instant, the shard sparked to life. Of course! She couldn't learn, but she could gather the learning of others! In an instant, the QA knocked Taylor unconscious as she set to work fulfilling her goal. She might not be able to learn, but she would CERTAINLY gain every bit of info this little ball of dirt held for her little assignment!

Police report, Tuesday, January 6, 2011
Brockton Bay PD
Sergeant Murphy, OOS (Officer on scene)

911 call (0704 hours) from Winslow High School reported consistent and intermittent banging and rattling from locker 3172. Concerned that this was a parahuman attack, or that someone was trapped in there, the janitor who discovered it called the police after confirming that whatever was in the locker was incapable of either hearing or responding. Due to the nature of the location (a school), the potential threat, and the lack of knowledge of what was inside, school was called off for the day, a bomb squad, a HAZMAT team, and a SWAT team were called in, the PRT was contacted, and the school's administrator, Carrie Blackwell, was called in to confirm the potential threat and give all available info on the locker in question. The PRT deemed that, as no parahuman involvement was guaranteed, they could not get involved, and the teams and principal were on-sight by 0721.

Upon getting in contact with the school's principal, she was almost eager to help… until the specific locker was mentioned, at which point she did everything in her power to stonewall, including mentioning NDA agreements with the PRT. After getting the name of the person who owned the locker from her (VERY reluctantly and with considerable, though legal, threats used), the OIC (Officer in charge) called the PRT (at 0735) and confirmed that there were NO active NDAs regarding the person in question, a Taylor Hebert. With that confirmed, we informed the principal that failure to provide us with the info we required would result in her being charged with obstruction of justice and accessory to whatever crimes were being performed in regards to the locker/ this case, and she would be arrested and tried, as well as her personal files being opened in order to gain the information we needed. She proceeded to resist, and was arrested for the stated charge at 0743, to which charges of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer will need to be added. When she got violent, she was tased and taken away, and warrants for the school's computers and files, as well as her personal computer, phone and house were obtained within the hour (0823). The success in rushing them was based off the fact that this was a school being threatened, and that this was a public school so most of the information should have been available to us, anyway, not to mention the now-active charges against the principal.

Investigations into Taylor Hebert in the public systems were non-promising. Marked as a troublemaker, known for skipping class frequently at-will, terrible grades and allegations of violence, theft, pathological lying, and suspected gang and drug activity were in abundance, as well as the fact that there was a massive drop in grades since she left junior high and started high school. In other words, a typical gang kid heading for an early grave. After confirming this in the paper files, however, an investigation (0857) into Blackwell's private devices revealed something considerably more sinister.

Besides LARGE irregularities in her finances, to the tune of over two hundred thousand dollars in just the last six months, evidence was discovered that Taylor Hebert was the target of intentional record manipulation and negligence on behalf of the staff, and systematic, well-known bullying on behalf of the students, including three in particular, Emma Barnes, Madison Clements, and Sophia Hess, along with evidence proving that Sophia Hess did, in fact, have ties to the PRT in a way that CANNOT be recorded herein (due to certain Rules, legal protocols, and NDAs), as well as evidence of other, even less savory acts on behalf of Hess (serial violence and assault, skipping school, evidence planting, and kleptomania) and Blackwell (accessory to kidnapping, accessory to human trafficking, accessory to rape, and others, as well as accessory to all of Hess's crimes.). At this time, the PRT was contacted yet again (0904).

Upon expressing the evidence in question, the Squad Captain on duty (a Thomas Calvert) once again reiterated that the problem in question was not their concern. Concerned at this, the OIC contacted the police chief, who, in a highly unusual move(due to the nature of the case in question) called the head of the Protectorate, Chief Director Piggot, at 0914 to explain the situation. Upon hearing the information gathered, Director Piggot swore violently and ordered her people to arrest Thomas Calvert and strip him of his rank and authorizations immediately, detain Shadow Stalker pending investigation, and arrest the girl's 'handler', a Ms. Jenny Wilkins, pending charges, as well as confirming that a squad of PRT troopers and a Protectorate member (Triumph) being on the way, which brought us up to 0923.

Over the course of the two hours that our work had been underway, the SWAT team had confirmed that, other that the contents of the locker (as-of-yet unknown) there were NO threats requiring their presence, so they moved back to maintain the perimeter in case of issues, while the bomb squad confirmed that there were no explosive compounds of any known sort in the locker via chemical testing (completed at 0909); however, due to the HAZMAT team confirming multiple toxic chemicals and extreme traces of bio-toxins, the locker could not be safely opened by anyone who was not dressed in a HAZMAT suit. As such, a call was sent out to New Wave to provide back-up vis-à-vis Panacea in order to make sure that no-one was harmed in the process, at least not in any permanent or long-term way. Upon receiving a reply (0927) that she was helping clean up the aftermath of a series of steel I-beams falling from a Dragon Drone less than half-an-hour previous when said drone was attacked by the Dragon Slayers, it was decided to wait the estimated twenty minutes. Had we known about the contents of the locker, we would have opened it within minutes of initial arrival, but caution slowed us considerably.

The I-beams, unfortunately, pierced a building in the business district (Fortress Constructions, ironically owned and operated by now-ex-Squad-Captain Thomas Calvert), but the real issue began when the building collapsed into a defunct Endbringer shelter. The issue arose when it was discovered that the shelter in question was a villain's base of operation (specifically, the supervillain calling himself Coil), and it was populated solely with the criminals under his employ. This would later make a great deal more sense when it would be discovered that there was no irony with Thomas Calvert owning Fortress Constructions, but I am legally prevented from saying more on the subject (again referencing certain Rules). The criminals in question, primarily military contractors, attempted to fight or flee; but, due to the nature of the collapse, they were unable to do either due to the armory of the base being one of the two rooms of the shelter pierced, and live weapons not permitted in-base by policy of the owner. As luck would have it, there were no civilians on sight in either building, and no casualties period, but it did push the time of Panacea's arrival back so much that she only made it to the school by 1022, at which time we set out to open the locker, where the rattling had quieted considerably. Upon achieving that, it was discovered that the only things inside were 27.3 pounds of fermented, highly infectious biological waste, mostly feminine in nature, and Taylor Hebert herself, who had been reported missing by her father the night before, though the standard 48 hours were required before we could act on that report.

Miss Hebert's condition was… appalling. Besides the fact that she had been trapped in an exceptionally confined space for more than twenty-five hours without food or water, the toxic shock had thrown her body into seizures, she was riddled with infections, her constant seizing against the walls and door of the locker had left her banged up, there were several horribly infected stab wounds due to the forcefulness of her incarceration, and she had been rather severely 'gnawed' by insects. The extent of her condition was so great that even as much as FIVE hours should have seen to her death. As it was, Panacea was barely able to keep her alive, as she was at death's door, requiring her and Panacea to be immediately transferred to the Infectious Diseases quarantine room at Brockton Bay General. Treatment is ongoing.

Due to the nature of the issues, an officer was dispatched to inform Mr. Hebert. In the process of grabbing her clothes, a stack of standard lined paper was discovered in the top of her closet, detailing the last FIFTEEN MONTHS of concentrated, adult facilitated and/or enabled bullying against her, with a majority of the students of Winslow High, and all but one of the staff (a Mrs. Gladys Knott) being involved.

In conclusion, it is the belief of this officer that 1. ALL available charges should be carried out against ALL available parties, and that each and every person be tried to the maximum of the law, and be tried as adults. The degree of damage done, and the severity of the attack, not the mention the perfectly applicable charges of bioterrorism, conspiracy to commit bioterrorism, and accessory to bioterrorism, simply leaves us with next to no recourse but to charge, try, and hopefully incarcerate almost every person in the school, an estimated 1427 students and 196 staff. And 2. the process for such procedures as were carried out today should be overhauled to make sure that, while no unnecessary risks are being taken, investigation must occur at a faster rate to confirm that, if (god forbid) there is a next time, response time will be less that ALMOST THREE HOURS!

Officer's Personal Note: Dear god, kid! What did they do to you?

She didn't remember.

Her name she knew, who she was. These things clung to her like thick clumps of hair in a bath, but otherwise… she didn't know.

She knew there was a way to keep track of how many there were of an object, but what that was called… it eluded her. It was like her learning was… gone, and that hurt.

For one, many of her best memories of her mother involved literature, and those were now a blur. Ironically, most of her emotions were… muted. Not gone, but like she lacked the context to appreciate them.

There was beeping. She wasn't sure what that meant. Somehow, she knew that that kind of beeping, that rhythm, had a meaning, but she didn't know what it was. As it was, what did meaning… mean? She knew the word, but… how?

Okay, context. Meaning was used in reference to other words. It was also used in a manner that led one to understand what the word… meant? No, what the word… represented! Meaning had to do with representation?

Ah, no! WORDS were representation, meaning was referencing WHAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT! So, meaning meant… meaning. In a way, a self-defined word.

Now, the beeping. Tick… tick… tick, that ticking thing was ticking in time to the beeping, about once every… second? Once every three-quarters of a second? Yes, thereabouts. It matched something else. That noise… the one connected to the wooshing noise.

She breathed in. Ah, the wooshing was her breath. That meant that the thumping was another part of her body. Near as she could tell, it was in… her chest? Probably just a little off-center in the top of her chest, canting left, if her ears meant anything. Okay. What is it? She knew this…

Her mother said she would always be in… her HEART! Right, then she would touch her chest. The whoosh-whoosh could be the heart, but there were two of them, so probably not. It was HEART, not hearts. That meant that the thump-thump could be the heart. So, the beep beep was matching her heart. For some reason. Why?

Let's stop breathing for a moment. No more woosh-whoosh, so that is the sound breathing makes in the body, and the beeping is speeding up and getting urgent, not to mention the dizziness. That means that 1. Breathing is needed to survive, 2. The heart? is somehow connected to the breathing, and 3. the monitor is there to track her heart for… some reason. She needs to ask.

Wait… Ask. Words? Are… are they real? I think? At least, I have the constant, the concept, that is a word. That is to say, that irrational noises in specific patterns are used to convey meaning. Is that it, then. Beep Beep is meant to mean my heartbeat. Does that make it a word?

"Beep… Beep."

No, something felt wrong about it. She could SAY it, but it seemed too… imprecise? It was… lacking something. After all, Beep Beep seemed too… generic to mean something. That meant… something else. She needed to learn… words. Yes, whatever the sound would be to express that concept would be the one she needed. That meant she needed a data node. A communicator? Something like that.

No… she needed… a REFERENCE POINT! She knew that. You compared that something to something else, and got something from it! Was Beep Beep a reference point?

No, but it could be. Beep Beep was linked to her heartbeat. It was a sound designed to carry meaning. That meant that sound could carry meaning. She had felt that before, but now she knew it. Beep was a word that was meant to sound like it sounded. There were other words like that. What were they?

She coughed, then cleared her dry throat.

Cough! That was one such word. What else? Sneeze? Snore? Yes those were such words. What else?

From somewhere in the hospital, a muffled *bang* came.

BANG! That was a word that meant something going bang! What else did bang mean?

No, not what did 'bang' mean; rather, 'What was that bang?'! That bang meant something! It meant…

It meant…

Something exploded?

No, that was… 'boom'.

Something FELL! Or hit something.

That was what bang was USED FOR!

She could communicate to someone else that something fell or hit something by saying bang!

No, wait… how would they know WHAT went bang? If she just said bang, that would mean something fell or got hit, but how would she indicate WHAT?

There must be more words to be had!

After several minutes (NEW WORD!) of care and thought (NEW WORDS!) she got herself to the level of basic communication (ALL THE NEW WORDS!). True, she wasn't… eloquent, but she could manage well enough. Probably. Which is good, because it was at that point a tired-looking girl in a white cloak with a red cross on it came through the door, and started at her being awake, running over to grab her hand (for some reason) and staring at her intently as she looked curiously back. After a few moments, the girl dropped her hand with a sad look on her face.

"It's a shame," she said "that your brain was so badly messed up. I can't do brains, and I doubt you even have the capacity to talk or listen. You will probably be stuck like that… indefinitely. And you don't even know what I am saying. Maybe I will stop by sometimes, take a break, talk to you. God only knows that your father likely will abandon you after a bit, so you will need the company. I've been told I need to take breaks more often, anyway. I would, but… there is too much to do. Too many to save. And it's never enough."

She blinked, then spoke for the first time ever, in her reliable memory. "I thank help, and you feeling for I, but that not real. You are doing something that can't be doing, I thoughts."

The healer, Panacea to the world and Amy to her friends, gaped, blinked, then looked confused. "I'm sorry?"

Taylor smiled, though the healer noted it looked a little wrong, more… unpracticed then it should be, then spoke again. "You is doing the… healing of everyones. Can't. Everyones heal different, fixed other problems, different… not place… different laters? Different… BEATS! Is healing of them on different beats. Can't. Only one you. Can't other places, can't other beats, can't heals it all. Must be doing… something else. Make mini-yous? Talk-trade with them to better their heals, saves you… trouble? and places. More you, more places. More beats. Maybe even other healings. Not all you. All you, not good. Can't. Make more, see?"

Amy blinked again. "I'm sorry, I don't think you are speaking quite right. Could you try again, a little slower. You are… using… okay words, but the sentence structure is all wrong, and you are conjugating it incorrectly."

Her patient tilted her head and looked at her, confused. "Con-jew-gate-ing?"

Amy nodded. "To make a word right for a sentence, you must use the right tense and form. For example, the past tense, or the tense that has already happened, of grab is grabbed. Present tense, or the tense of the now, time-wise, is grab. Future tense, or the tense that will happen later, is will grab. There are others ,but that is the basics. Not to mention the different forms, particularly of pronouns. For a female you have her (possessive, or ownership-based, and second person), she (personal, or referring to her), and others. You see?"

The girl across from her sat there for several seconds, blinking rapidly as she processed that and going back over her communication. Gradually, from her perspective, but exceptionally quickly, to the outsiders view, blasting through the entirety of her communications to this point, all the words she knew, and the bits of knowledge that were handed to her, calculated by her, and handed to her by her slowly-correcting memory. Less than five second later, she spoke again, still a bit haltingly, but much more accurate, picking up speed as her partner nodded her on when she said the right word, or shaking her head when she messed up.

"I… see what you mean. I's… no, my memory… banks… seemed… to be almost completely… wiped. Thankfully, as… time?… as time goes by, and I… learn… more, my memories seem to be… granularly? No, gradually! Gradually coming back. What I was saying was… I appreciate your help, but you seem to be making a mistake. You are trying to heal everyone. You can't. each person has their own needs, needs to be healed at different times, and in different places. You, however, are only one person. You can only be in one place, at one time, healing one person. The thing is, just because YOU can't heal everyone, doesn't mean you can't see them healed. If you were to teach other healers how to help, solving only the problems only you can solve, things would work out better. More healers, more healed. More beats. Maybe even someone will be able to come up with ways to heal that you can't. Different people have different angles, after all."

Panacea frowned. "I appreciate it, but I AM the only healer. The only other one in the city is a Nazi, and she is more of a regenerator."

Taylor frowned back. "You mean… YOU made this room. My faint memories make that seem… wrong, somehow."

Panacea chuckled. "True, but they are medical professionals, not healers. Doctors, nurses, and the like. They can't do what I can."

Taylor's frown deepened. Something seemed off about that, like something was tickling at the back of her brain; a half-remembered memory staying just out of reach. "So, why can't they do what you can? More than that, what do you do?"

Panacea smiled at her now-inquisitive patient. "I am a parahuman, a section of the population with superhuman powers provided to them by a small set of growth in the brain, the Corona Polentia (which makes you able to have powers) and the Gemma (which is the actual trigger. Interestingly, you are almost certainly some sort of parahuman, given the fact that your brain, all your sensory organs, and you nerves all changed their own configuration, though your brain is now non-standard enough for me to not be able to tell for sure. My power gives me the ability to scan and reconfigure any biology I touch for healing, both to understand what is wrong, and to fix it biologically, something others cannot normally do."

Taylor's frown deepened. "What changed about my biology, exactly, and what can I expect from that?"

Panacea reached out to touch her, started rather severely, then leaned back. "My god, that is beautiful. I hadn't noticed exactly what had happened before due to only doing a surface scan, but you are impressively augmented! It is next to impossible for me to explain it, but basically, your brain has reconfigured itself to insanely quick to learn with hugely boosted storage at the cost of a temporary damage to your storage, making you learn everything from scratch. This has the added benefit of making you re-learn everything, making your knowledge more accurate, without actually losing anything. In addition, you seem to have an automated fact-checker tied to both parts of you memory, making it easier to parse data and confirm or deny it based on what you already have. On top of that, your sensory organs are at peak efficiency for the human body (something no-one ever has experienced since the first human, due to genetic drift damaging our DNA's ability to create us), making your hearing, sight, smell, taste, and sense of touch top-notch. Further still, you have the same internal compass a bird does, the same light sense as a plant, several added photoreceptors in your eyes, a biological sensor suite I can only guess is for gravity and electric sense (it has some similarities to an electric eel, that's why I am guessing that it does electricity. The rest is pure hypothesis from my power.), you have an INSANE mental capacity for multitasking, and quite a bit more. In short, you are built for learning. Added to that, your nerves are for more sensitive and your reaction speed is just ludicrous. Most of this is turned off or toned down and will likely either take conscious activation or time and practice for it to start working. This likely means that you…"

On and on Panacea went, both explaining the changes made, and what they would do for her patient. As time went by, and more and more questions were asked, powers and how to use them fell by the wayside, and biology, the REAL biology, the deep stuff only Panacea could see and what it meant, became the topic. Even as that was happening, the new parahuman was extending the range of her sense, learning just a bit more, just a few new things, over and over again. Little did Panacea know, she was helping birth a legend. Someone so learned, so skilled… well, that is for later.