Loss - Control

Carol (Brandish) Dallon walks briskly through the PRT HQ, her short heels clicking on the floor with every step. Adding to her disgruntlement is the fact she was on her way home from the office when the call came through. Amy has been involved in a parahuman incident during a debriefing, and needs a parent to come in.

Maybe she's finally snapped and shown that she is her father's child. Some part of her objects to that line of thought, as it's not Amy's fault her father is Marquis. She squashes that thought ruthlessly, as Amy first showed her true colours with that flower. She stops and wrestles with that thought for a moment, Amy was 9, she just wanted to give her a pretty flower. It wasn't her fault she didn't understand how dangerous that sort of thing is. She hates that she has to keep reminding herself of these things.

She flashes her badge at the security guard, one that she was given because she's a Hero, she's a Lawyer, and also because her daughter, her daughters both socialise here regularly. Waving the badge over the scanner at the elevators, she taps her foot when the doors don't open immediately. Walking in, she swipes her badge again and selects Directors and Administration from the options that appear on the panel. Cursing, not for the first time, at the fact they randomise every time you swipe a badge.

A couple of minutes later she arrives at Director Piggot's office. Taking a few moments to straighten her clothes, she walks in and stands in front of the secretary's desk.

"Mrs Dallon to see the Director."

The secretary picks up the phone, and Carol notices a brief flash of light under the Directors door.

"The Director will see you now."

Carol walks into the office to see Director Piggot sitting at her desk, Amy and another girl are sat to one side, and Miss Militia is stood at ease behind the director. One thing that does catch her eye is the strange, bone white, face mask that Amy is wearing. On the table is a rather thick file.

"What has Amy done now?"

When anger flashes in Amy's (Panacea) eyes, Taylor takes her hand, before leaning over and whispering, "Don't worry, you're part of my family now. That can't be changed."

Ignoring the two of them, Piggot says deceptively mildly, "What makes you think it's something Amy's done?"

"Well, she's wearing that face mask."

"Interesting. I need you to read and sign this before we continue." Piggot slides over a sheet of paper.

Carol picks it up and glances it over while pulling out her pen. Then she stops and starts reading it more carefully.

"What's this? It's not an NDA."

Piggot smiles, "You're right. It's the Defence Secrets Act of 1911."

"Why not an NDA."

"No signature, no explanation."

The room goes silent for the next 10 minutes while Carol reads over the law in question very carefully. Finally, she signs the document and hands it back to Piggot, who looks at it before handing her another copy of the law, "This is yours, for reference."

"I've signed, what's going on?"

"I'd like to introduce you to Miss Taylor Hebert, the cause of your daughter's current predicament. Miss Hebert."

"I'm sorry Mrs Dallon, I gave Amy an egg when she said she wanted to see the source material. However, I should have checked that Amy was in her right mind before paying heed to her request."

"Biotinker? You let a biotinker near my daughter?"

Piggot barks a laugh, "If she was a biotinker, we'd be having a very different conversation. No, she's the first ever confirmed case 61, and part of that is that she's a power granting Trump. That, is a face hugger. It is the medium through which the powers are permanently and irreversibly granted to someone. Miss Militia is one of the first to have gone through this, the other one is still in M/S. Your daughter is the 5th."

Carol looks at her sceptically, "Still sounds like a biotinker."

"Miss Hebert is actually a changer, and is currently in her alternative form. In her natural form she lays eggs, and fought Lung one on one until he grew wings. We think she then teleported them both to the moon."

Taylor blurts out, "I did?"

"Yes Miss Hebert, we think you did. As I was saying, Miss Hebert is a power granting trump. After 10 days, Miss Militia has already demonstrated both forms of teleportation, heightened reflexes and a basic brute package. All of this information is classified eyes only, so I better not see you writing it down anywhere."

Carol has to supress her instinctive reaction to the news. But the Director continues inexorably, "The reason for this is that Miss Hebert's powers allow everyone that she grants powers to, to communicate with each other and look at each other's memories, including the memories that came with her power."

Amy's eyes widen in panic at the idea, and Taylor takes her hand in her own. Immediately Amy's eyes glaze over slightly, and she shakes her head to push her power away.

"This is our file on Panacea. It is now also eyes only, but over the last hour I have been reviewing it. I will be requesting that a qualified professional with the right security clearances takes a look, but at a first glance it seems like Miss Dallon is currently living in an emotionally neglectful situation, bordering on abusive. If this proves to be true, I will be seeking to take custody of Miss Dallon, as we cannot afford to have someone that can teleport, turn invisible, and disrupt certain types of electronics, suffer a psychological break and either go on the run, or go postal. Do you understand?"

Carol swallows her instinctive response of 'What, you want me to coddle her now?' and seriously considers what she's just been told.

The face hugger chooses that moment to release and fall into Amy's lap. Taylor summons a cup, and water, before handing it to Amy.

"Thanks," Amy croaks, "I would imagine that's what the doctors at the hospital were talking about when they joked about having a rubber breakfast during their degree years."

Taylor's eyes go distant, "You're welcome, and yes, it's almost exactly like having a stomach pump tube inserted."

Amy looks at Taylor strangely, "How would you know that?"

"Vivian, was a prescribing Psychiatrist, and you have to be an MD for that."

Piggot interrupts, "How are you feeling Miss Dallon?"

"I, uh, weird, as I can half feel the symbiote but it's rapidly disappearing. I couldn't affect the face hugger at all."

"Good. You'll need to stay here for a few days for observation, but you should be good to go by the weekend."

Carol growls, "What's this about staying for observation?"

"Your daughter has just been granted a new set of powers and, in a few hours, will have access to the memories of everyone else in the group. At least one of which has some highly traumatic moments that may pop up. So, staying for observation is not optional."

Miss Militia glances over at Taylor before saying, "I don't think Miss Hebert or Dallon need to be here for the rest of this."

Piggot looks back, "You're right, you may go. Can you send the face hugger to the lab please?"

A click of Taylor's fingers, and the face hugger disappears. Then the two of them disappear in a gout of fire.

Piggot then turns to Carol with a gimlet look in her eyes, "Miss Militia, thank you for observing, I think this now needs to be a private conversation."

Before disappearing with a pop, Miss Militia says, "Understood Ma'am."

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The next morning, everyone is woken up to the sound of a massive explosion rocking the building. As alarms blare throughout the building, Taylor appears in the atrium with a pop. As she appears she can see injured PRT personnel littered around the area like discarded dolls, glass and metal sticking out of limbs and torsos. Quickly looking around, she heads over to one that's bleeding heavily, and tries to cry. Desperately she shouts across the hive link, "Dad! Hannah, Miss Militia I mean! I need you in the atrium, I can't cry and your tears can save people."

A couple of pops later and both of them appear next to her.

Danny pulls Taylor into a brief hug, "What do you need Honey?"

"I can't cry, so you two need to perform triage. If it's life-threatening cry on the wound, it will heal it, otherwise bind the wounds."

Commander O'Donnell comes jogging in, shortly followed by a wheezing Amy, "Belay that, Jonson, Truckle you're on triage, Red band Blue band. Miss Militia, could you get the bands from the infirmary? Jones, Martin, Stevens, you're on the blue bands, patch them up and make sure they're not going to die in the next few hours. Hebert Sr, Miss Militia, Panacea, you're on Red bands, they will all be life threatening injuries, stabilisation is the name of the game here people. Queenie, you're on Search and Rescue, find the injured and bring them back to the atrium, go native."

Amy looks startled, "I need to get to the hospital."

Susan turns around and looks at her, "They have surgical and trauma teams at the hospital, we have none of that, and neither do the people out there. You'll provide more meaningful help here, where there isn't anyone that can patch someone up long enough for them to see a doctor, than you would at the hospital. When we're finished we'll be heading to hotspots as first responders and providing the same services there. Our aim is to ensure that as many people will live to see a doctor as possible. Do you understand?"

"But that's were everyone will be going?"

Susan shakes her head, "No, that's where everyone that is capable of moving will be going, what about the people who can't move? Now, can you help?"

The sound of more explosions goes off in the distance.

Amy nods, I can, I do this fairly regularly at the hospital.

"I meant mentally and emotionally, we all know your reputation."

"I can."

"Good, you're on the red bands. Remember, stable not healed, we have too many people to look after for healed."

Apart from Mr Hebert looking like he's going to throw up or pass out multiple times during the first 15 minutes, the whole thing proceeds efficiently. With Queenie depositing 3 or 4 people at a time in a gout of fire, before disappearing with a pop.

This continues for over an hour, long enough for ambulances and PRT transports to start getting through the gridlocked traffic into the underground parking garage. There they start to take the stabilised casualties off to the various hospitals. A massive wrench is put into their operation when Taylor spots an Asian boy, probably around 12 years old.

"Help me! Somebody help me."

She starts to make her way over to the child, when another woman beats her to him. Suddenly a bomb in his head explodes and the boy, woman, and everyone within 10 yards is turned into green goo. Taylor's mind goes blank at the sight and Queenie runs off to the largest concentration of explosions.

Back at the PRT there's a moment of bedlam as the 4 hive members just freeze for a moment, as the Queen falls back to instincts. O'Donnell pulls on all of her training to wrench her mind back to her own and shouts over the shared mind and aloud, "Everyone, we're still needed here! Dinah, what's the chances that we'll be able to pull Taylor out of this state?"

"6.4%"

"Shit! Ok everyone, it's not FUBAR yet, Militia, your now on S&R! Start from Taylors LKL and carry on, Mr Hebert, we need you to keep working with Panacea to save as many lives as we can. Dinah, I need you to try and keep track of Taylor and update Console with what you know."

Into this comes Director Piggot, strapping on a ballistic vest. Scanning the room she identifies O'Donnell as the person in charge, "O'Donnell, sitrep!"

"We're running red, blue triage and S&R from here, Queenie has just gone AWOL after seeing something that's not relevant right now. Miss Militia has just taken over S&R so we're down to two healers. Miss Alcott is tracking Queenie and staying clear of everything."

"The Deputy Director?"

"Walking wounded Ma'am, he was caught in the initial blast."

"Understood, I'll take command, I need you to keep on top of the situation and co-ordinate with Militia and console to locate the worst hit areas of the city. Mr Hebert, your daughter is going to be Ok, you're doing a brilliant job here. Everyone, get to it you know your jobs. O'Donnell, a private word."

"What happened to Taylor?"

"She saw a boy calling for help, and then his head exploded. Similar thing to Dinah, saw a child in need and couldn't help herself."

"Damn, well at least we know now rather than when lives are actually on the line. Imagine what it would be like if Bonesaw was the child that triggered this."

Susan shudders, "That would be bad."

"Back to the millstone."

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Queenie traces a route into the trainyard where she can smell injured people. Slowing down she starts to stalk the area, slowly moving into a container city that has been turned into a maze for humans. Seeing someone walking around with a weapon, she pounces on them and pauses just before delivering the killing blow.

The person stinks of fear and something else, following the scent of something else she finds a rough incision on the back of their neck. Her head turns curiously, and suddenly her inner mouth shoots out and crushes something inside the wound. Satisfied, she spits it out beside the persons face and takes off to find another person. The second person she finds is a stocky female that's bleeding from a gut wound. A dog whines next to her as she approaches. Cocking her head to one side as the female releases her bladder and weakly tries to scrabble backwards while holding the dog. A quick pounce and Queenie has the girl and dog in her grasp, flaming them to her hive members she drops them off before returning to her previous position. Prowling around she comes across someone that stinks of gun residue, blood and fear. A cloud of darkness flares out from him, only slowing her down slightly as she has to rely on her senses of smell and hearing. A judicious application of force while he weakly hits her with his fist and the darkness recedes. She flames him back to her hive members and stalks more people. Those that stink of fear and something else, she snaps at the something else and leaves it beside them. The ones that just stink of fear, she kills.

Who ever it is that keeps shooting the bombs is shouting more and more incoherently as her minions are systematically taken out, one way or another. The explosives become erratic enough that Queenie has to pop occasionally to avoid them. Curiously, she comes across a male that is tending to an injured female, both of whom are hiding below a walkway between two containers. As soon as she's spotted, the uninjured male runs while the female swears.

"Not the PRT, don't send me to the PRT."

Queenie runs the back of a claw down her cheek, before the both of them disappear and reappear in her nest. As she disappears in a flash of fire, the female screams, "The PRT, I'll take the PRT!"

With no other prey around, Queenie stalks invisibly through the trainyard, eventually coming to the well-lit, open area. Standing on the back of a Jeep is the person that's shooting grenades. Not seeing any cover, she trusts in her invisibility and stalks slowly across the area, keeping to as much cover as she can. Suddenly one of the grenades, that should have been a clear miss, bounces off a box behind her and turns into a black hole. As she scrabbles ineffectually on the ground the female laughs.

"Hahaha, you thought you could sneak up on me. I, Bakuda have beaten the slayer of Lung. This is the start of a new era for the ABB. Drive."

Helplessly, Queenie tries to pop out, only to reappear in mid-air and lacking the little traction she had before. With a cry she falls into the black hole, and the black hole vanishes in a flash of fire.

In the ash there's movement, and a chest burster pushes free before shaking its head. With a pop, Danny appears, and lifts the chest burster out of the ash on the floor before disappearing back to the PRT.

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Now that the bombing has stopped, something that coincided with the 'death' of Miss Hebert, mundane first responders are able to pick up the slack. Mostly PRT troopers, as some of the exotic effects used are absolutely horrific. Director Piggot's expression as she directs the troopers could be carved out of granite. She's not sure when it was discovered, but at some point Danny or Miss Militia cleaned off one of the presumed victims, and disabled the bomb in the back of their heads. As soon as that was discovered, she set Danny and Miss Militia to switch off between cleaning all of the incoming wounded before they were triaged, and crying into the wounds of the worst of them.

She also had to force Miss Dallon to retire after she visibly started flagging 3 hours into the disaster. Especially after the news that one of the victims blew up in Brockton General Hospital, turning the entire ER into a sea of living, boneless, humans as all the calcium in their bones and teeth were turned into saline.

Reluctantly, she also refused to allow the Wards and Glory Girl to assist with the initial S&R, as trained men and women were having trouble with what was found. Tomorrow they would be allowed to help with the clean-up, but today, today is full of horrors that they shouldn't ever need to witness.

With a tired sigh, she looks over at the most recent addition to her office. One that she never thought she'd ever see in here. In a playpen in the corner, a chest burster is snoozing on top of a teddy bear. Certain death no longer being quite so certain anymore.

The brief lull in her day is interrupted by her radio buzzing to life, picking it up she glances at her computer to see if there's any new updates she needs to be aware of, "Lady here."

"Lady, I'm just patching you through to the team house sitting the Hebert's."

"Go ahead."

"Director Piggot, this is officer Andrews. There is knocking from inside the basement, what do you want us to do?"

She pinches the bridge of her nose, that's all she needs, "Is there anything special about the knocking?"

"No, not. No wait, it's now 'shave and a haircut, come quick'."

"Thank you Andrews. I will send someone to deal with it. *click click* Console, could you ask Miss Militia to pop up here please?"

A few seconds later Miss Militia appears in her office, "Militia, the Hebert team has just reported someone knocking from inside the basement. Would you check it out please?"

Miss Militia just nods before disappearing with a pop, "You, human now. There're some pullups in the bag there."

When the chest burster doesn't do anything, Director Piggot growls, "I know you're awake, Human Now!"

Where there was a chest burster now sits a child of 3 or 4 years of age, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Goo goo gah gah?" – Piggot stares at her until – "I'm sorry?"

"For what?"

"Losing control?"

"Wrong, not telling anyone about this possible trigger. It happened twice before this, we should have been told. What if it had been Bonesaw, or a Fallen trap? Worse, imagine it was the butcher killing a child in front of you. All parahumans have triggers, frankly I'm surprised yours isn't small spaces. Uh uh, I'm talking and you're listening. You have understandable trust issues, but you have people you can be absolutely certain you can trust because you know them better than anyone else could. Talk to them, ask their advice, and above all, if you think there might be a problem tell them. Miscommunication kills, I've seen it too many times in my life, I don't want to see it again, with you or the Wards. Now get your pull-ups on before Miss Militia gets back and consider your reactions and where they came from. You need to be in control of your own power, not the other way around. You're a good person Taylor, you just need to learn how to regain control over your instincts. Normally you'd have years to learn this, but if there's one thing being in this shithole of a city has taught me. It's that we never have years here."

As Taylor pulls on the pullups, falling over in the process, she asks, "Why are you here then? Why tell me these things?"

"Because I pissed off too many powerful people, but they couldn't just ignore me. So now this is my city, and I'll be damned if I see it fall to chaos. Why you? You look like a child? You remind me of myself when I was younger? Because I don't want to see you die or lose people because you couldn't control yourself? I'm dying? Pick one."

"You're dying?"

Piggot nods, "Kidney failure, parting gift from Rinke. Christ, I wish I could drink."

"Why not get it healed?"

"Spores, can't have a transplant, don't trust parahumans not to set them off accidentally."

"What about Panacea?"

Piggot laughs, "You saw what she was like with your face hugger. What if she's the same with the spores? Bang, Brockton Bay becomes the next Ellisburg."

"Phoenix tears?"

"No Taylor, they only work on current injuries. My kidneys have been failing for years. I'll keep going to spite him and everyone that said I can't, a giant fuck you to Rinke."

"You could have a face hugger."

"It's kind of you to offer, but you can't be a Parahuman and a member of the PRT. It's those triggers and blind spots I was talking about. Maybe when I'm on my death bed, or they finally kick me out. But not now. What's taking Miss Militia so long?"

Taylor picks up a dummy and a rattle and puts the first in her mouth while shaking the second. A few seconds later, Miss Militia pops in with a frightened looking teenager in a purple bodysuit, and wearing a simple domino mask. Piggot looks at her then Taylor and puts her head in her hands, "Fuck, you heard all of that didn't you."

Miss Militia nods, "Yes Ma'am."

"Who's this?"

The girl opens her mouth to reply, but Miss Militia beats her to it, "Sarah Livesy, born 1995, left home after her parents abused her powers and changed her name to Lisa Wilbourn. Tried to stay under the radar by moving from place to place and preying on people as a pickpocket. Was picked up by Coil's mercenaries December 2009 and given a 9mm job interview. Has acted as the POC between Coil and the Undersiders since their formation in February 2010. Robbed the Ruby Dreams Casino in January, and were the children referred to by Lung. Robbed Central Bank yesterday under duress due to pressure from Coil. It's likely that Bakuda targeted them directly as revenge for the casino while also trying to draw Taylor out. Is currently scared and frustrated as her power is giving her a migraine and telling her that I'm psychic. Doesn't want to die and believes that she has something inside her that will kill her."

Lisa slumps with relief as she realises that she's not going to die, what she's not expecting is for Miss Militia, who should only have the ability to create weapons, to summon a teaspoon and then cry into it before holding it out to her, "Drink this, it will help with your migraine, then you can talk to the Director."

Not seeing any choice, she drinks the tears, and is surprised when her migraine vanishes.

Piggot looks up from her hands, "What name would you prefer us to call you?"

Lisa licks her lips, "Lisa?"

Miss Militia places a hand on her shoulder, that's supposed to be comforting, "That background information wasn't supposed to be our equivalent of 9mm negotiation, it's the only way that you could believe that this isn't a situation you can bluff your way out of."

Piggot takes over again, "Lisa, you can thank Miss Hebert over there for your current situation. Though, I would imagine she was around 10 foot tall, black, and had wicked claws and a deadly looking tail when you last saw her. You put me in a difficult position, as you have, for whatever reason, just joined a hive and become a case 62."

"Coil," Lisa blurts, "Coil, I didn't want to go to the PRT because coil has people here and he'll just have me killed or relocated."

Piggot barks a laugh, "Well, you don't have to worry about him finding out that you're here through his moles. Your existence has just become an eyes only secret. What we are going to do now is talk about how you can find gainful employment in our organisation…"