Agent Jon Franks sits down at his desk after his monthly briefing. At the top of his list of things to do is start screening assets for the new watchdog department that's been set up, FBIPHIA, to cover the PRT ENE area. Looking over the physical file he can see why the director jumped at the chance to have this facility under their umbrella, even with the ability for the PRT to pretty much poke their noses in at will.
They've got a Sherlock and Cassandra as their headliners, Miss Militia is transferring over to it, less directly useful but she can be used for visual surveillance easily enough, just need to ensure that she knows about the best production scopes and probably get the boffins to cook up a scope with a laser microphone attached. Then there's the goose.
A power granting shifter with a Ninja powerset, combined with a dual teleportation package. Reading further, it looks like their ancillary powers disrupt delicate electronics, well shit, they might have just found the perfect espionage operative if they get the right training. There's also a sealed presidential order to keep the goose on the good side of the USA.
As he continues to flick through the file, he comes across a note from the director that refers to a specific part of the analysis of the goose. Flicking back, he sees that it's talking about a hive mind between the goose and everyone they've granted powers to, along with unconfirmed speculation that they can refer to each other's memories. Well, that explains just why he was given this assignment rather than one of the more senior co-ordinators, that also means picking from the younger agents, or those who have seen less interesting stuff. Absolutely nobody that has been involved in wetwork, either aspect of it.
Jon closes the file and turns on the computer. After a couple of minutes, he's logged in and looking at his e-mail. With a sigh, he prints out an e-mail, a request for a temporary relocation to a field office, and a request for a psych asset. Shutting down the computer again, he places the print outs in the top of the file and heads back to his Director's office.
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Aisha grumps as she follows Missy to Arcadia Middle School. It's on the same campus as Arcadia High, though in a separate building.
"Missy, if spring break finished on Friday, how comes you were handing in work for Dinah last week?"
Missy replies bitterly, "Our parents think it looks good for us to have extra curricular lessons. So they sign us up for language courses, this year it was French and art, because we share a border with Canada, and Doris saw an art exhibition when they were deciding what I should be signed up for. The last few years it was Spanish and other lessons."
"Who's Doris?"
"My mother, she's a Famous Fashion Designer, with capital letters, and has a successful chain of shops in New York, Washington DC, Hollywood, and London UK. She's always moaning that her Paris shop flopped."
"Shit girl, even I refer to the waste of space that birthed me as mum."
Missy can't help it, she giggles at the description, "Try to keep that language out of the school, as they will have you in detention for it."
"I can be good, scouts honour."
"What do you think of the Director?"
"Personally? I think she takes too much on herself. It's like she doesn't really trust anyone else to be able to do their jobs."
"Why do you think that?"
"I've been hanging around and I can turn invisible, just need to sit in a break room or the cafeteria for a couple of hours and listen to the gossip. Said gossip has been saying that Dinah is good for her, as it's made her give other people more work. Course, the same people are now happy that she's on medical leave. How are you getting on being part of the wards and part of watchdog?"
"It's been tough the last week, they all know that I have new powers. But I can't use them on patrol. We also all seem so young."
"Missy, that would be because we are young. Look, it's nice an all being able to see an adults point of view. But don't forget to be a teenager for a while."
Missy sags, "I'm not sure I know how."
"Well, to start with, you've got nothing going on after school. Why don't we skip out and explore the coast for a bit. See if we can find pirate caves."
"Huh?"
"You'll see, it'll be fun. And we'll be using our changer ability."
Missy tries very hard to pretend reluctance, "Ok, after school."
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Victoria stops as she enters the kitchen for breakfast, Amy has grown overnight and now looks almost a year old. To one side is a pushchair with a removable carrier, and Amy is currently sitting in a highchair with a look of concentration on her face while she tries to eat her porridge. What's caught her attention is her mother packing nappies, clothing, and baby food in her school backpack.
"Mum! What's going on?"
"Amy still needs to do to school," – Amy's head turns around sharply, porridge going everywhere – "so like normal, you'll have to take her."
"No! No no, no no no. I'm a baby I don't have the co-ordination to do school yet."
Vicky's head whips back to Amy, "You can talk?"
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I'm a just over a year old, of course I can talk. Can't walk yet though. Can't pop either for that matter."
Carol looks at Amy sternly, "No popping without an adult until you're older."
Vicky catches the corner of a smile as she turns back to her bag, when did her mum learn to smile?
"Morning everyone, where's Amy?" Tiredly, Mark Dallon walks into the kitchen and sits down in his normal chair.
Vicky quickly looks between Amy and her father before flying over and taking Amy out of her chair, "Hey Dad, this is Amy, she's having trouble eating her porridge, could you help her? While you're doing that what do you want for breakfast?"
Amy's about to protest when she notices her father's eyes look a little less dull as he expertly takes her in one hand.
"Porridge if your mum made a load, otherwise Muesli. Open up Amy, the choo choo train is coming. Shh, shh, chug, chug, chug chug, chug chug, Woo! Woo!"
Obediently Amy opens wide and then flushes bright red when a camera flash goes off.
Softly Carol says to Vicky, "I haven't seen your father that animated for years."
Vicky nods as she takes a ladle porridge and swirls some honey around it, "I know, and I've not seen you smile at Amy for about as long."
Carol turns to stare at Vicky's head as she takes her fathers breakfast and pill box over. Sure she had, she was happy when Amy…
Breakfast continues silently, only punctuated by the occasional baby noises that Mark makes while feeding Amy. What follows is possibly one of the most embarrassing days of Amy's life, as she's parked at the front of every class. Half her teachers pick her up and carry her around while presenting the class, the other half seem to just pretend she doesn't exist. Vicky's friends take turns pushing her around to her next class, and it's highly embarrassing when she falls asleep while someone is rocking the pushchair.
The two most embarrassing things are having to ask to be changed, and lunch time. Lunchtime deserves special mention because everyone takes a moment to coo at her. She can't even sarcastic herself some peace, as everyone says it's so adorable and cute.
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Jessica is just mixing herself a cup of tea during her morning break when one of the orderlies stands next to her, "Dr Yamada, the man that appeared in your office is sitting on the steps outside staring at the horizon."
"Thank you Stephen, I'll go check it out. Be discrete, as I don't think he's a threat."
"We will."
Taking her tea and a plate of biscuits out of the front door to the stairs that lead to the driveway, Danny is indeed just sitting there staring into the distance. She can see that Rachel is training or exercising her dogs off to one side. The big girl having relaxed in the week since she arrived here. Jessica sits down near Danny, but not crowding him as she continues to consider Rachel.
"You can sit closer if you want to talk, I'm just brooding."
Jessica moves her plate over and scoots into comfortable talking distance, "Do you mind if I ask what you're brooding about?"
"Not at all, I lost my job this morning. NEPEA-5 means it's too expensive to continue employing me. So I popped over to the PRT to see if they could use someone with my talents, and I heard Rennick talking to you, well his half of the conversation. I have no idea what came over me, but I then popped in to see him and offer my services. You know what happened after that."
"Why did you lose your job?"
A flat stone around the size of his hand just appears in Danny's hand, and he starts to carve it with a fingernail, "I can summon and banish things, levitate them, teleport, and I've got enhanced senses. There's literally nothing in the docks that my power can't be of some use with. Can't even do a janitors job, because I can clean a room better than a team of people with a single click of my fingers."
"I confess, I'm not really conversant with that law, it doesn't really affect us here."
Danny laughs bitterly, "It doesn't until it does. Hang around my daughter for long enough and you'll probably find yourself having to justify your own position. We have access to, ancestral memories. One of those memories is from a British Prescribing Psychiatrist named Vivian Granger. It's her memories I was using earlier when I realised what happened. I've also found out that I've got around a year before any physical indication that I was ever a man is gone."
"The design on the stone looks pretty."
"Thank you, I learnt how to whittle on flotsam in the 80's. Course, I used a knife then, but a lot of the dockers did that while we were waiting for the next ship to come in. Course, a few years later I showed a talent for administration and moved sideways. I met Annette at the local college while improving my qualifications, and we hit it off and got married. It's one of the good things about getting these powers from Taylor, my daughter, they're fixing my depression. We should have guessed they'd affect our brains more than that."
Jessica shakes her head and says softly, "All powers do that. Whether by changing your perception of the world, or providing a bandaid for trauma. I've spoken to hundreds of parahumans, and most of them have eventually opened up about what happened when they got powers. If you then look at the person and squint sideways you can see how that power could have been useful in the original situation. Whether to stop them getting into it in the first place, getting them out of it, or helping to resolve it. What they never do is actually fix the problem. There have been a few other power granters, the permanent ones always extract a price. Teacher's was, is, a master effect that leaves the recipients loyal to him even as the power fades to almost non-detectability. Every time he refreshes it, that loyalty grows, and the power fades faster. Augment could increase one aspect of you at the expense of another, increased hearing for decreased vision, better dexterity for reduced stamina. That sort of thing. Savant could make people into idiot Savant's."
Danny nods, "It makes sense, though it feels wrong for our situation. It still looks like your theory fits, as Taylor was socially ostracized due to a bullying campaign by her ex best friend. Friendless, powerless, and alone in a metal prison. She can now grant people powers, that granting brings them into her hive, where there can be no real secrets. But she can only lay female eggs…"
"Wrong how?"
"Her ancestral memories. There's too many of them, no other parahuman has ever received anything like that. There's also the fact that we're all still learning new things about her powers, and I don't just mean refining the power and coming up with new ways to use it. I mean like a new avenues of science type things."
"Are you sure you should be telling me this?"
"You're going to hear it later anyway, so why not."
"Normally it would be considered confidential information, and you're not my patient."
"Being part of a hive mind, the only privacy we get is from other people being respectful. Even then, you check in on other people, or they check in on you and you see what they're thinking about at the time. The Queen, as in ant, not royalty, can bring pressure on us to do something, but in the same way I could hold someone down until they comply. You're always never entirely alone, even when others are giving you privacy, you just learn to tune their voices out as background noise."
"To be honest, that sounds terrifying."
Danny shakes his head, "It really isn't. Anyway, I'm going to try something else that should be possible. My name is Daniel Hebert, I'll be back at 3pm. If you need me before then just call my name. In theory, I should be able to hear it."
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Emily waits outside the school, leaning on her walking stick. Today has been exhausting despite not being allowed into the office. She'd forgotten just how hard working on her mental health was. Spotting Dinah, she puts a smile on her face for the teacher accompanying her.
The teacher looks at her, "Can I see your ID please?"
Emily's smile becomes more genuine as she fishes out her PRT ID, "Certainly, you can verify the ID over the phone if you wish."
The teacher takes the ID and glances at it, shifting it backwards and forwards to ensure the hologram is real.
"Thank you very much Miss Piggot, Dinah seems to have fit in well for her first day back in normal classes. She's also made friends with the new girl, a Miss Laborn, who transferred in from Winslow. Frankly, I'm surprised that the new girl was able to keep up given what I've heard about Winslow."
"There are some very bright children at that school. It's just a shame the area is in such bad decline. Anyway, thank you for looking after my ward, we have some shopping to do before we go home."
As they're walking back to the car, Dinah looks up at Emily, "Shopping?"
"Yes, your bedroom was my designated guest room. So you need a few things to make it yours."
"Great, where are we going?"
"Home Depot."
"Huh?"
"You'll see."
