Danny wakes up early after a relaxing evening last night. With a yawn he clambers out of bed and checks on Taylor. Frowning slightly as he sees her bed empty, but clearly slept in, he does his morning ablutions before donning a dressing gown and heading downstairs. Even in his depression, he knows that she shouldn't be up and around at 5am.
Making his way downstairs, he hears some splashing in the kitchen, and so makes his way in there, slightly confused by the fact that none of the lights are on. As he turns on the light, a claw waving from the sink makes him yelp in surprise. Down in the basement, the sound causes an egg to start hatching, and the queen to stir.
Holding a hand to his chest, and breathing heavily, he walks over to the sink and starts laughing when he sees two lobster paddling around in shallow water. As their claws are unbound, he just pauses long enough to top up the water slightly so that they can be completely submerged. Looking around the kitchen, he notices that the door to the basement is ajar. He knows his daughter has been spending a lot of time down there recently, so there's a chance she woke up in the night and decided to do whatever there.
Making his way down the stairs, avoiding the creaky step, he flicks the light on and gasps at the sight. He's unable to scream or call for help as a face hugger launches itself at his face and wraps itself securely in place. Staggering around the basement, he knocks over a bucket before the face hugger knocks him out.
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Taylor wakes up abruptly on her ovipositor in the corner of the basement, she can sense a face hugger is attached to a human man that's lying on the floor beside a bucket. Leaping down to the floor, she scrambles over to the man and curses as she can't see him properly. Finding the thing that allows her to change, she flows down into her human form and looks at her father, unconscious on the floor. Scrambling up the stairs, heedless of the claw marks she leaves in the wood, she pulls out the yellow pages to find the emergency number for the PRT.
She's shaking so much that she miss dials twice before she finally dials it correctly.
"PRT emergency line, what is the nature of your call tonight?"
"M…My name is Taylor Hebert, and I'm a parahuman. I think my father may have been infected by one of my eggs."
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that please."
"My name is Taylor Hebert, and I'm a parahuman. I think my father may have been infected by one of my eggs."
"Are you at 144 Merritt Dr?"
"We are. My father is currently lying in the basement, though I don't know if it's safe for anyone else to go down there at the moment."
"I have added that to the case. How are you doing?"
"Panicky, I… I've been waking up down there only to find I've laid some eggs. I wanted to tell Dad, but I didn't know how. And…"
"It's all right Miss Hebert, can you tell me why you were down in the basement?"
"I don't know. Dad's snoring woke me up last night, so I went out looking for somewhere safer to use as my… base. Where I wouldn't run the risk of Dad, or someone else, getting hurt accidentally. I remember getting some lobster for dinner, and then I heard someone talking about killing children. I have some vague memories, such as looking up at the earth and thinking it looks pretty. But that's it."
"Well done, the first responder is now only a couple of minutes away. Do you mind if I ask how long you've had powers?"
Tightly, Taylor responds, "Since the locker in January I think. Though they weren't like they are now."
"I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been terrible to live through. What's your favourite book?"
"A Mid-summers nights dream. I especially like the depiction of the fairy court."
"Shakespear huh?"
"Yeah. My mum was an English professor at the college."
"Was?"
Taylor's voice falls, "Yeah, she died a couple of years ago. Car accident."
"Miss Hebert, Taylor. I would like you to stay on the phone, the first responder has arrived, and they're going around to the back of the house. We need you to stay put so that she doesn't accidentally shoot you."
"Wait, she can't go down there, I've got more eggs."
"Miss, I assure you that Miss Militia is trained for every eventuality. I need you to stay with me and keep talking. Be assured that she can handle anything you might have down there."
"But…"
"Miss, Miss Militia is a Protectorate Hero. Do you remember what they do?"
"They help people, but my eggs…"
"Miss, do you honestly think that some eggs are worse than Hookwolf or Stormtiger?"
There's the sound of gunfire from the kitchen and then a muffled thump, "Erm, Mr, I think my egg got Miss Militia."
"…, …, Miss Hebert, when you say that, what do you mean?"
"That's what I've been trying to say, they contain something I'm calling a face hugger. This jumps at you and puts something inside that changes you. It's how I got my powers."
"…, …, Miss, there's a PRT van on the way, do you think you can get the two of them to safety?"
"I think so, I've been getting stronger so it shouldn't be too hard."
"We, I would like you to get them both out of the basement and then close and lock the basement door."
"I can do that, I'll be back in a moment."
A couple of minutes later she picks up the handset again, "Ok, I've dragged them into the living room and slotted the bolt closed on the basement door."
"Well done…, Taylor, I have been told that the incoming team is going to spray you with containment foam and then transport you and the two victims back here."
Taylor mumbles, "It won't help."
"I'm sorry, why won't it help?"
"I can teleport."
"…, …, Miss…, …, I'm just passing you through to my superior."
"Um, ok?"
"Miss Hebert, this is Deputy Director Rennik."
"Hello sir."
"I understand from the operator that you can teleport, do you need to be able to see to do that?"
"No, and I've also got an alternate form. The instincts in that form are very, strong. I don't want to hurt anyone."
"I see, and why would you think you might hurt someone?"
"I think something happened last night, I was looking for somewhere safer to put a base, and then the last thing I clearly remember is hearing someone say they wanted to kill children. I… I think I killed people, and I remember fire, and looking up at the earth and thinking it looks pretty."
"I, see, do you think you would be able to get into the back of a PRT van on your own?"
"I just want my father to be safe."
"We are going to see what we can do about that… I'm also being asked if you could put one of your eggs into a special box once we have got your father and Miss Militia to safety."
"I can do that. I could just bring it to wherever you need it."
"We would need it in that box. But, if you can teleport it from the basement to the back of an empty van and place it in the box that would be great."
"I think I can do that."
"Then we will do that, and we'll bring both you and the egg back to the PRT."
"Will someone take care of the lobsters in the sink, they're for dinner."
"Of course, we'll also be posting a guard so that nobody falls foul of any other things that might be in your basement."
"There should be two PRT vans pulling up now. I would like you to hang up the phone now and go into the van that has the open door. One of the officers will give you further instructions."
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An hour later, Taylor is sucking on a chocolate milkshake in a once grubby interview room. It's now absolutely spotless, and even the two way mirror, hidden cameras and microphones have been cleaned to spotless perfection. At a loss for something to do, Taylor snaps her fingers and opens her current favourite book fresh from their bookshelf.
In another room on the other side of the building, Rennick and Armsmaster are watching the feed from the one surviving camera, the one on a tripod in the observation room.
"What do you think?"
Armsmaster scratches his beard in frustration, "Honestly, I don't know. Whatever she did to clean the room also disabled my cameras and microphones. She has been cooperative, and hasn't shown the slightest hint of aggression even to deliberate rudeness."
Dragon's voice comes from a nearby monitor, "I agree, I can't see anything to suggest one way or another whether she's a threat or not. If it was her that fought Lung last night, I don't think she was aware of herself when she did it."
Rennick shakes his head, "Alright, send in an officer to get her interview done, then move her to one of the guest suites. If she can teleport as easily as she got that book, we don't want to spook her. The director will be in at 9 and she can take over. How are the victims?"
Armsmaster shakes his head, "Stable, however any attempt to remove the 'face huggers' leads to them tightening their grip, and putting the victims life at risk. We've x-rayed both of them, and also put them through an MRI, and so far as we can tell they are alive and healthy. We called New Wave for Panacea's help, but Brandish brushed us off as it's a school night and it's not life or death."
A phone rings, and Rennick picks it up, "Rennick!"
"Uh huh, uh huh, great. Get it to the labs asap."
Putting the phone down he turns back to Armsmaster, "The face hugger has just released Mr Hebert. He came round a few seconds after it disengaged and they're putting him through some tests right now."
They turn back to the screen and watch as Taylor is interviewed by one of the more personable PRT officers. None of the control questions so much as flag her as anything other than she appears. Though, she does seem to have a level of knowledge on things that a teenager her age shouldn't have acquired yet.
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Hannah (Miss Militia) Washington, wakes up on a hospital bed, with a sore throat and no idea how she got there. As she sits up, she realises that she's in an isolation room. Suddenly she remembers the basement. The girl, Taylor, was trying to tell the operator something about the eggs, and she was attacked.
A speaker by the wall squarks, "Good morning Miss Militia, there is a domino mask on the counter beside you. If you could put it on, a doctor will be in momentarily."
Looking around she quickly locates the mask and puts it on. Once she's done, a doctor, wearing a positive pressure hazmat suit, lumbers in and picks up something from the floor, this is then passed to a similarly attired person behind him.
"Good morning Miss Militia, you will be staying here under quarantine for the next few days. At the same time, you will be undergoing master stranger observation, do you understand?"
"I understand."
"Good. For the record, what do you remember from this morning?"
"I arrived on my motorcycle at 5:45am and proceeded around the house with the call playing over my earpiece from the console. Miss Hebert was upset but coherent as the operator kept her talking on the phone. I remember her being asked how long she'd had her powers, and she said since the locker in January. That should probably be followed up. Using a shim, I opened the back door to the property, and easily located the basement entrance as the door was wide open. I carefully walked down the stairs, and the creak of one of them must have alerted something. I then saw Mr Hebert lying on the floor with some white crab wrapped around his head, and a long thin tail wrapped around his neck. I checked his pulse, and it was restricted but still strong. I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and spun around. One of those things jumped at me and I opened fire. That's the last I remember."
"You appear to have missed the face hugger, and it rendered you unconscious before your short term memory of the attack could be fixed. The face hugger is what we just removed from the room. I need to draw some blood and take your vital statistics. There is a private toilet behind that door over there. Do you have any questions?"
Having been through this multiple times during training, Hannah indicates a negative.
After that the doctors go about their business with quiet efficiency.
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An hour later Taylor is browsing the internet on the computer in the suite when she feels her father join the hive.
"Hey dad, how are you feeling?"
"Taylor?"
"You only need to think at me and I'll hear it."
"I thought I heard my daughters voice."
"Huh? Dad are you talking to someone else?"
"Yes. Taylor, could you lift your right hand."
Taylor raises her right hand, "Er, sure?"
"You're really talking to me."
"I thought we'd established that, and you only need to think, not just talk aloud."
"I'm under observation, and they wanted to know if I had any side effects from my ordeal. I think that being able to talk to my daughter is a pretty large side effect."
Taylor nudges her fathers mind to some of the ancestral memories she's been dealing with, "Hmm, no not really. That's just one of the smaller ones. If you look here you should be able to see more."
"Taylor, how do you know this stuff. She's just shown me memories from someone else… Um, I'm not sure that I can really explain it…"
"Dad, you're part of my hive now. Um, I don't know too much as there's thousands of years of memories, but I'm a Queen of my hive. It might take a few days before you start being able to do somethings. Erm, there does seem to be a very important memory that points out that I'm an unfertilised queen, and that will have consequences for the people that join my hive."
"…, Taylor, what you keep saying Queen and Hive. What do you mean?"
"Like ants, well that's what someone called Hermione said anyway."
"Taylor, Armsmaster is currently peppering me with questions. The most important one seems to be, will this happen to Miss Militia too?"
"Erm, it already is, her memories are already part of the hive. It seems like it takes a little longer for people to get access themselves."
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Director Piggot heaves her bulk around in the office chair uncomfortably. Normally she'd have had an hour or so to recover from the journey in after her morning dialysis, but today something happened mere hours before shift change, and so she's here.
"Armsmaster, Rennick, maybe you can explain why we have the entire protectorate, minus Miss Militia, in a meeting room at 0905."
Rennick grimaces, and Armsmaster points a remote at the large screen monitor on the wall. A picture of a man and a teenage girl appear side-by-side.
"These are Mr Daniel (Danny) Hebert and Miss Taylor Hebert his daughter. Miss Hebert is a parahuman, and she called the hotline at 0515 this morning after her father stumbled into her nest and was infected with one of her eggs. Miss Militia responded to the call while the operator kept Miss Hebert talking."
Assault raises his hand, "Excuse me for being ignorant, why aren't we using code names?"
Director Rennick pre-empts Armsmaster's irritated response, "That fact will become apparent later in the briefing. Suffice to say there is going to be a lot of swearing later. Until then we need to keep things in order so that you have the entire picture."
"May I continue?"
Piggot waves him on.
"At 0540 Miss Militia arrived at the property and started to check the perimeter.
"At 0545 she entered the rear of the property while Miss Hebert continued to talk to the operator in the living room."
Piggot interrupts, "Why was Miss Militia even there?"
"There was a large confrontation between Lung and an unknown parahuman. This involved the death of 24 ABB gang members through one of three means. A sharp blow to the head with a solid object like a hammer that penetrated the brain leading to instant death. Decapitation with a near surgically sharp blade. Impalement by the same blade. Or evisceration by claws of some description. Additionally, Lung was nowhere to be found. I was still processing the scene when the call came in."
"Very well, continue."
"At 0546 she descends the stairs to the basement. Precisely 37.5 seconds later there is a burst of automatic fire from an AAC Honey Badger. 1 second after that her radio goes dead and Miss Hebert comments on the gunshots.
"After this, the operator dispatches 2 PRT vans and recalls myself to the HQ. Deputy Director Rennick takes over the call and, after Miss Hebert has retrieved the victims from the basement and ensured it's locked, informs her that she will be foamed as SOP. This is when she informs him that she can teleport."
Assault chokes on his coffee, "What? She lays eggs and she can teleport?"
"Please keep the outbursts to the end of the briefing. The teleportation was then demonstrated when she retrieved one of her eggs and placed it in a lock box in a closed PRT van."
Armsmaster clicks the remote again, and a view of the back of a PRT van plays on the TV. Taylor is visible from the corner along with a large gunsafe that as been hastily emptied. The picture fuzzes slightly as she disappears with a pop, a few seconds later she reappears holding a leathery egg, which she puts in the safe before sitting on one of the benches.
"At 0622 Miss Militia and Mr Hebert were admitted to the isolation wards in the HQ, where they were X-rayed and subjected to an MRI. This is a picture of the face hugger as it appeared on Miss Militia. Miss Hebert was led to interview room 4 and left to her own devices for an hour. During which time she displayed the ability to clean and repair the room to its original condition before summoning a book from her home bookcase."
Another click of the remote shows this happening.
"Whatever she did while cleaning, also cleaned all of the hidden cameras and microphones, including 2 that I wasn't aware of. Fortunately, it also permanently disabled them at the same time. At 0642 the face hugger released from Mr Hebert and he regained consciousness. At 0655 we interviewed Miss Hebert before transferring her to a guest suite. Her school has been informed that she will be absent for a few days at a minimum.
"At 0705 the same thing happened with Miss Militia. Things were going perfectly until 0815 when this happened in Mr Hebert's room."
Another click brings up a side by side view of a medical observation room, along with the guest suite. As the film plays Danny starts to talk out aloud to thin air.
"At 0845 the same thing happened to Miss Militia, though she was able to speak to both of them. Miss Militia also reports that they have access to all of her memories, and she has access to all of theirs, including what she calls ancestral memories. At 0855 we convened an emergency meeting. I also took the liberty of asking Miss Hebert to clean this room before we used it. She was gracious enough to consent, and allow herself to be recorded."
Another click and they watch the results of the cleaning.
Piggot grumbles, "At least I know why this damn chair is so uncomfortable. I need to break it in again." – more loudly she continues – "So we have a security nightmare sitting in guest quarters here."
Rennick shakes his head, "Or we have a security panacea. The three of them have a potentially completely secure communication system. We have to assume that they all have the same security clearance, as whatever Miss Militia knows, so potentially do they."
Dauntless removes his helmet and runs his fingers through his hair, "Two unknowns also now know the identities of not only us, but also the wards. Miss Militia has a photographic memory, unless something has changed that I'm not aware of."
Armsmaster nods, "Indeed, they do. And we know theirs."
Assault laughs, "That's why you're not using code names for them. It's pointless."
"Exactly."
Piggot groans, "Please tell me that's all there is to it."
Rennick looks absolutely sour, "No, far from it. During the call, Miss Hebert referenced her trigger event. This is a locker at Winslow High School on the 4th January 2011, 2 hours before this photo was taken, Miss Hebert was pulled from the locker by the janitor. Note the hole in the floor. This is lab 3 where the face huggers were taken after they fell from the victims faces. These containment and examination devices were rated for Biohazard level 4, as well as fire, reactivity, and health hazards for acid, alkali, corrosives, and radiation all at level 3. The acid that has eaten through them is identical to the residue found at the school."
Armsmaster takes over, "We believe that we have the first ever case 61, a person that has gained parahuman abilities without a corona or another parahuman gifting them, such as Teacher. Who are classified as case 60's. What's more, Miss Militia claims that all those that are infected by her eggs gain the same abilities as her own, minus the ability to lay eggs. The downside being that they are part of Miss Hebert's hive."
Piggot groans, "Just what we need. What are her preliminary ratings then?"
"Trump 8, because just from what she's demonstrated, she can grant teleportation, telepathy, summoning, and whatever that cleaning ability is.
"Master 1, because people become members of her hive.
"Mover 5 tentatively though it depends on range.
"Stranger 6 because of her mover rating, and because Miss Militia reports that she has been using invisibility at school."
Battery frowns when Armsmaster stops there, "What about the other ratings?"
"I do not wish to speculate until we have confirmed their security clearances."
Triumph asks, "Will she be joining the wards?"
Armsmaster shakes his head, "She can't. I don't mean she's too old, I mean that she has access to too much sensitive information, and almost certainly will gain access to more. Her security clearances will need to exceed those allowed to wards anywhere."
Assault hits the table with his fist, "Fuck! So what do we do then?"
Piggot takes a sip of water, "I presume that's precisely what this meeting is about. We've all got the background information and, unless we want to lose Miss Militia, we have to assume they're staying here."
Everyone around the table is painfully aware of just how short-staffed they are, and grimaces abound.
