Discovery – Side Effects

Emily lays back on her bed, Dinah on one side, and her dialysis machine on the other. Gently she strokes Dinah's hair as she sleeps. Raising her other hand, she can see that it's still shaking even hours after her flashback. It's been years since she had anything more than anxiety or a panic attack, so she'll have to start leaving her gun locked up again. Of course, she also traumatised Dinah, as she was there and watching when it happened.

There's going to be a mandatory medical review, there always is. Even if there isn't, Emily has absolutely no doubt that Rebecca is going to throw a fit at her in retaliation for the eyes only classification. Then there's Dinah, she cried herself to sleep, and until her dialysis is finished, Emily can't even think of moving. What's giving her pause is the fact that Dinah was crying about her encounter with the E88, not the fact that Emily shot Amy.

An idle thought crosses her mind given this turn of events, "Huh, I wonder what the chances of me joining the hive are going to be."

"96.5%" Dinah responds sleepily before snuggling further into her side and blowing her nose on her top.

"That was rhetorical. You're supposed to be asleep."

The only thing she gets back is soft breathing as Dinah's gone back to sleep.

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Carol juggles a baby carrier and her door key with skill rusty with disuse. As their door opens, she walks in and immediately Victoria starts to gush.

"Oh, she's such a cutie. Aren't you a cute little baby. Who's the mother?"

"I am."

"Oh, wow, just wait until Ames get's a look at you. You are going to have the best sisters ever. I can't believe that you decided to adopt again without telling me."

"While she's adopted, it was around 10 years ago now."

"No way! Uh huh, you're trying to have me on, she can't be more than 3 or 4 months old."

"She looked like she was 2 months when I picked her up."

Vicky scoots back from the baby carrier, "Wait, you're serious? This is Amy?"

"Uh huh."

"No Way! Uh uh, no way, that can't be Ames."

"Well, she did take a full magazine of 10mm fmj to the head, so I appreciate that she doesn't quite look the way you remembered her."

Vicky's voice climbs an octave, "Mum, she's a baby! If there's a cape out there that can do that to someone…"

Amy wakes up at the panic in Vicky's voice, "Gah. Gah goo."

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Please don't cry."

Amy shifts around a bit and realises that things feel a little too squishy down there, "Gah, gah." Why can't she say anything, oh yeah, babies can't talk, "Waaah!"

"No, no, stop crying. Please stop crying?"

Carol unceremoniously picks Amy up and hands her to Vicky, which Amy is absolutely certain is going to be a bad idea. It turns out to be a funny idea, as her sister just freezes and floats there with Amy in her arms while Carol goes to the car and gets the rest of the stuff.

When Carol comes back in she looks around for Vicky's phone and, finding it on the mantle piece, stops the recording before taking a photo of Vicky and sending the recording and photo to her sister, Sarah.

"Thank you for agreeing to babysit Amy for the next 3 days. By the smell of things she needs her nappy changed, so you can do it while I'm here, that way you can do it tomorrow. She should be ok with pullups the day after tomorrow, and back to her normal sarcastic self in a week."

Over the next 5 minutes, Amy is sure that if she could die of embarrassment, she would have done multiple times over. Even worse, it had to be done twice, as she didn't have bladder control yet. Then, to make matters worse, Carol showed Vicky how to prepare baby formula, test it, and finally, just shoved it in her mouth.

"This is so embarrassing!"

Surprisingly Taylor responds, "I know, that's why I spent so much time as a chest burster. On the bright side, you've got plenty of time to work out how to make the change consciously now."

"I hate you."

"No you don't, just be aware that when you sleep, you tend to shift back to your natural form. Of course, there's apparently also the times when you're dreaming and change, but that shouldn't be a problem for you yet."

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Taylor takes her phone outside and looks up at the sky. Yes she got a reaming for not stopping the girls from going ahead with their plan. However, she was also praised for intervening when she did, as well as ensuring that nobody died because of the girls. There was also the back handed complement due to the fact that Hannah and Susan were able to get the footage of the entire evening from one of the gang members.

Glancing at her phone, she notes that Mars should be rising in a few minutes, though it will only be visible for around 45 minutes before the sun rises and makes it impossible to see. Heading back inside, and closing the door, she flames north to one of the hills that they passed during the road trip to visit the manned offices. Without the glare from the surrounding streetlights, more and more stars become visible as her human eyes adjust to the darkness. Rather surprisingly, she can still see the world around her, though it appears devoid of colour. Instead it appears to be painted in deeper shades of red that appear brighter or darker independently to the light that's shining on them.

Taylor's so fascinated by this, that she almost misses Mars in the sky. Flaming to the tiny red dot in the sky, she realises her mistake as she appears in space and the air is pulled violently out of her lungs. She has a moment to realise that Mars currently appears to be around the same size as the moon in the sky before she passes out, and naturally returns to her xenomorph queen form.

Queenie looks at the red planet in the distance. She certainly has the right idea, though mars is probably not that suitable. Europa on the other hand, water ice means oxygen, and she can sense the faint signals bouncing off of the planets orbiting Jupiter now she's away from earth. Flaming to the surface of Mars so that she has a solid surface to return to if she gets lost, Queenie gets her bearings and flames closer and closer to Jupiter. She's unable to find the right planet in the time she has available, so with the last of her energy she makes two more jumps, the first to the surface of the planet she did find, and the second back to her suite on earth. There she falls asleep on the floor while her body works to restore her oxygen reserves.

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"Dr Yamada, I have Deputy Director Rennick from PRT ENE HQ in Brockton Bay. He wishes to talk to you about an unscheduled visit."

Tiredly Jessica looks at her workload, "Put him through."

There's a click, "Good Morning, Rutland Parahuman Asylum, Vermont. Dr Yamada speaking."

There's a pause as Rennick actually processes what was said, "Dr Yamada, I'm sorry for calling you directly rather than going through our normal channels."

"Of course, what is so urgent it demands a phone call?"

"Director Piggot had a PTSD flashback and shot a young changer 10 times in the head. There were 3 children under the age of 13 that witnessed it, as well as a teenager, and of course the victim."

"The victim?"

"I am reading directly from the report here. She died, and she's currently growing up again."

"Right, I'm going to put that down as power bullshit and carry on. What is it that you need from me?"

"You're our only psychologist that is qualified to deal with parahuman children, so we need you to come down as soon as you're available and talk to the children that witnessed what happened. They were also involved in a fight with a local gang earlier in the evening. I'm worried that they're taking that harder than they have been the shooting they witnessed."

"What were they even doing being able to get into a situation like that?"

"I'm afraid that I can't talk about that over the phone. Plus, I don't think you'd believe me if I did tell you. One moment…"

Jessica yawns while she's waiting, she really needs to get her morning coffee.

"Miss Yamada, a Mr Hebert has just been shown into my office. His daughter is one of the people who witnessed the shooting. He is also a high level mover, who can transport other people as well. If you agree, we will pay for him to fly out to you, and then bring you back here."

"Are you sure you're you should be sharing his real name?"

"I'm just putting you on speaker."

Another voice calls out, "Good Morning Dr, I'm a Union man, and the only reason I'm not doing my day job is I got powers. I still need to pay the bills, as and when we get the house back anyway. If I can make a fair wage working taxi, then that's what I'll do. I can't use a secret identity if I want to be seen as a union man for the lobbyists."

Jessica shakes her head in confusion, "What about your friends and family, won't they be at risk?"

Danny starts laughing, and Mr Rennick clarifies, "That will also make sense once you're here."

"My daughter is currently looking so cute while she's sleeping on the floor of the suite the PRT is allowing us to use."

Jessica sighs, "Which budget is this going to be coming out of? And when can you be here?"

Rennick sighs, "I'm not sure, but certainly this afternoon, for the first trip. After that, I understand it should be instant."

Danny snorts, "It should be, Taylor was on one of Jupiter's moons earlier. Oh, that's a thought, has anyone been to the Parahuman Asylum in Rutland Vermont?"

Jessica just stares at the phone, that's a very odd question, "Mr Hebert, I can assure you that I know exactly where I am."

"I'm sorry, Mr Hebert has just vanished in a pillar of fire. He did mutter something like, 'Of course Hannah would have been there'"

"Hannah, Hannah… Do you think he meant her?"

"Almost certainly…"

There's a faint pop, and Danny says, "I certainly did."

Jessica jumps in shock and instinctively presses the panic button. In seconds the door opens and orderlies run in with a padded punching pad, restraints, and a syringe of sedative. At the same time Danny vanishes from view, and Jessica has a hard time even focusing on the idea he might be in the room with them.

The phone squarks, "Mr Hebert, what did you do?"

Danny says, "An uncharacteristically impulsive thing. Typified by the hormone driven impulses that young men in their late teens early 20's experience. Dr Yamada, I am terribly sorry for just popping in here like that. I should have spoken to the receptionist."

Jessica looks around, "Mr Hebert, where are you?"

"Given that I don't fancy being injected with Diazepam, even if you have some Flumazenil handy, I think I'll wait a few minutes so that everyone has a chance to calm down."

"Have you exhibited personality changes before?"

"Not before I got my powers, and this is the only one that I've noticed. But as it's my head that's been messed with, it's probably not wholly accurate."

"You seem to be rather knowledgeable about the internal workings of a hospital like this."

Rennick says, "That's one of those things that can't be spoken about over the phone."

Danny shakes his head unseen, "I'm just going to pop out to the grounds so I can freak out. Let's just say that I've just discovered something that I'd have rather not known, but I'm also glad I found out now."

Jessica rights her chair, then sits in it and cradles her head in her hands, "I need to do my morning rounds, after that I should have a couple of hours free."

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At her desk, Hannah looks startled then puts her head in her hand and fake cries. Susan looks up at her, "What's wrong…", Hannah just shoves her at Danny's mind and Susan joins her before taking a deep breath and writing a letter to their contact at the FBI.

Dear Mr Smith,

Do you have any psychologists that you can assign to us on a permanent basis. We have just discovered that our powers [Classified Eye's Only] may cause subtle personality shifts. The role of this person would be to monitor us to detect any out of character actions and either veto that action or notify someone to help.

Regards,

Susan O'Donnell

Senior Investigator, Watchdog ENE

P.S. Be aware that there is a risk that whoever is assigned will end up with powers.

"Hannah, why do we have a contact with the FBI?"

"We're an internal intelligence agency. The Director set it up through the FBI rather than PRT HQ to avoid the politics. Technically, we are a PRT affiliated Parahuman Intelligence Organisation that comes under the direct command of the FBI. What that means in practice is anybody's guess, but she thinks that we effectively have two bosses, the FBI and the PRT, though in the event of a conflict of interests, the FBI has jurisdiction. It also means that they can, and probably will, send cases and information our way, as well as asking us to consult on cases inside our jurisdiction. I think she spent more than a few favours setting it up."

"Why set it up that way?"

"Tagg."

"I'm sorry?"

"Emily is a canny old bitch, and she saw the implications of Taylor laying eggs before anyone else. When she was setting it up, she said that we literally can't prosecute Taylor for anything. We can't give her a kill order, threaten her with the bird cage, or anything that would cause her to go underground. I've looked at some of the memories, and I have yet to find a hive that didn't have at least 50 members. Even that one was an anomaly, normally they have thousands of member, and they uses anything with a mouth and stomach as incubators for their young. What do you think would happen if we stopped caring about the rest of humanity? If they pushed so hard that we decided, fuck it and went undergound? I'll tell you what could happen, Taylor could lay hundreds of normal eggs a day, instead of only 10 or so of the sort we encountered. Functionally, Brockton Bay would cease being a city in around 10 days as the newborn xenomorphs gorged themselves on the readily available meat. Friends and family would be brought into the hive, lessoning our feelings of guilt over the situation. The government might try to nuke us, or they'll try to build a wall around the city. It won't work, as we'd just move somewhere else. At some point Taylor would lay a Queen, she wouldn't be able to help herself. Civilisation would probably last another year at most at that point."

"Hannah, you're scaring me."

"Good, you should be scared of that possibility. I'm scared of that possibility. That's why we're part of the FBI rather than the PRT. There's more checks and balances on the FBI than there are on the PRT. Simply because the public is scared of parahumans, so they gave our overseers far more power than they would if the PRT had normal policing duties."

"It sounds like you've thought about this a lot."

"I have, and I believe in the American People, in the laws of the land, and that the Statue of Liberty still means something. However, not sleeping leaves you far too much time to think."

Susan reaches over the desks and grasps Hannah's hand, "For what it's worth, most of the personnel in the PRT believe the same things you do. There's the odd human supremist that joins because some parahuman somewhere hurt someone they know, or possibly have read about, and they just want to show them what it's like on the other side of the coin."

"What about you?"

"My sister, she's parahuman, I joined to protect her. All she ever wanted to do is Ballet and Gymnastics, and getting powers ruined that. When I last spoke to her, she was talking about moving to Australia where parahuman employment laws are fairer. That was before the Simurgh."

"I'm truly sorry to hear that."

"Changing the subject, what is our mission goal, if we're part of the FBI."

Hannah leans her head back, and her voice sounds a little like Piggot's "To provide actionable intelligence on parahuman criminals and their organisations. To prevent parahuman criminals from disturbing civil order with their crimes."

"So this titbit of information could be something?" Susan turns up the volume on her computer and presses play.

"Hey, Hookwolf, do you think Purity will ever come back?"

Hookwolf laughs, "Sure she will, Kaiser has a hold over her. She'll slink back with her tail between her legs like the bitch she is."

Hannah nods, "Send it to Legend, subject line should be 'Shining a spotlight on flipping the bird'."

"Why not Armsmaster?"

Hannah looks at Susan until she blushes slightly, "Exactly."