Taylor Hebert:

Just as I was about to give up completely, and try and crawl my way back to the other side of the roof and the fire escape, though, the alley filled with what looked like dark smoke, that completely cut off whatever light was making its way down into the alley. According to my rats and mice, it also dampened out the sound, which I have to tell you, was pretty confusing. Either way, from outside the...the smoke, I guess, I could hear somebody yelling something.

Then, suddenly, there was a terrific thud on the roof next to me, as something impacted on the roof, and I opened my eyes, and rolled to the side, to see two huge...things...come crashing down onto the roof next to me. It took me a second to realize that there was another one already on the roof, and another second to realize that there were people on them, before all four of the people slid off, and started walking towards me. Painfully, I forced myself upright, and looked them in the eye.

Well...sort of in the eye. They were all wearing costumes, and masks...or, in one case, a motorcycle helmet. Which was...actually, that was a really good idea. There's a lot to be said for a motorcycle helmet, as opposed to a mask, and not just because anything that can protect your head in a crash has to do a better job than a bit of plastic that just covers your face. I was pretty sure that I was looking at two girls, and two boys, maybe about my age, if I wasn't too wildly off-target. One of the boys—the one in the motorcycle helmet—made his way towards me, while the other three stepped to the side, and moved over to the parapet.

"Hey," he said. "Thanks. Pretty sure you just did us a solid. So I guess we owe you one."

I blinked, and stared at him, not trusting myself not to say something stupid, and spoil the whole thing. Instead, I gave his costume a quick once-over, and then looked back up at his face, into where I assumed his eyes probably were. His costume was...well, it was motorcycle leathers, with the white figure of bones outlining his limbs and hips, and a sort of rib-cage done over his torso. His helmet had some extra protrusions that most motorcycle helmets didn't have, and after a moment, I realized that it was made to sort of resemble a skull, which was...well, it wasn't creepy, but I don't think I would have labeled it as "cool" either.

"Whoa," one of the others—I think it was the other boy—said, just then, as the darkness started to clear out of the alleyway. "Grue, you gotta check this out. I think that's Lung down there on the ground!"

"Right, right," Motorcycle-boy said, waving one hand. "Hey, Bitch? Any chance you could...?"

The bigger girl nodded, and then pursed her lips, and whistled.

"Brutus, Judas," she said, pointing down at the ground below us. "Hurt!"

Two of the big monsters trotted over to the lip, just like dogs, and then peered over. One of them looked up, and turned its head sideways to look at her. The girl just looked back at it, snapped her fingers, and pointed down again. The thing heaved a big sigh, and then jumped down, followed by the other, both of them thankfully missing my rats. With a thought, I started pulling my rodents back, as the two monster-things went to town on what had to be almost thirty gang members in the alley.

It...wasn't pretty.

"So," the guy in front of me said, pulling my attention back to him. "My name's Grue. Like I said, thanks for the save. I don't know what we did to piss him off, but Lung was getting his gang together to go after us pretty big-time. We've been trying to either avoid him, or ambush him, all night. Already ran into Oni Lee, his lieutenant, earlier tonight, and took him down, along with all the guys he had with him. Wasn't real sure how we were going to deal with this guy, but..."

He trailed off, and then shrugged, before stepping around me, and looking down into the alley below.

"Wow," he said. "That is Lung. And he's out cold. What the hell did you do to him, anyway?"

"Lightning bolt to the face, it looks like," the other girl's voice said, and I slowly turned back around to look down along with them. "Looks like he took it right below the mask. No warning, no time to ramp up. Just zapped him with something big and heavy, right from the start. Ooh...oh yeah. Lightning bolt to the face, no time to transform, in cotton-soled shoes? Yeah, no wonder he's still out of it. Just be glad he wasn't wearing rubber soles, though. Those would have shielded him from a lot of the blast from your power."

"Oh...uh...is he still breathing?" I heard myself ask.

"Yeah, he's fine. He's just out cold. So. What's your name?"

"Ah...Inverse. I'm Inverse."

She gave me a sharp look, and then nodded.

"Lightning Blaster," she said, with a nod. "Possibly with other stuff, too, but you haven't really played with that part of it, yet, have you? Still trying to figure it out? No, not just that. Still trying to build up your stamina, too. And...something else? Huh. You've got another aspect to your power, too, don't you? Something that's totally opposite your being a Blaster. Oh. Oh, wow. Sweetie, you hit the jackpot for powers, didn't you?"

"What?" I finally managed, cutting her off. Beside me, the boy in the motorcycle leathers sighed.

"You'll have to forgive her," he said. "That's her power. She's kind of like Sherlock Holmes—she sees you, and then uses all kinds of little clues to work out things. Right now, she's trying to get a read on you, since you just basically took Lung out of the picture."

"Yes, and it's not working," the girl snapped. For the first time, I really focused on her, noting her long, blonde hair, and her gray-and-white skintight costume. Like me, she was wearing a domino mask, that just covered around her eyes, but left the bottom of her face bare. Which, I thought, was probably a lot more convenient if she got hungry. Distressingly, she was also glaring at me. "Sher's giving off all kinds of clues, and I'm barely getting anything from them!"

"Maybe if you got high and played a violin?" I heard a voice ask, and with a shock, I realized that it was mine. "Would that help?"

For a moment, the roof was completely silent, save for the sounds of monster-on-human violence drifting over the ledge, and the occasional slightly dopplered scream as one of the monsters down below tossed a gang member up into the air, before letting the poor bastard come back down to the ground.

"Say what?" Grue finally asked, before the blonde suddenly reared back, and an expression of surprise crossed her face.

Happy surprise.

"A violin," she said. "Played by...huh. Sherlocke Holmes played the violin. I did not know that. Cool. Learn something new every day."

"He also did cocaine," I told her, my voice tart, and she sighed.

"Yes, I was trying to ignore that," she said, visibly deflating. "Thanks for pointing that out."

"How'd you know that?" the other boy asked, leaning forward.

"Duh. She read the stories," the girl said. Then she stepped forward, and extended a hand.

"I'm Tattletale," she said. "And Grue's pretty accurate with his description of my powers. They let me read tiny little clues, and make inferences about them, giving me all kinds of information at a glance."

"And I'm Grue," the boy on the other side of me said, as I shook Tattletale's hand. "I'm the one who made the darkness, in case you were wondering. Bitch, over there, is the one who handles the dogs we came in on, and then, last but certainly least, we have Regent."

Regent snorted, and then chuckled.

"Oh, fuck you, too, Grue," he said. "You know you love me."

"Like the brother I never had," Grue affirmed, his voice just as full of cheer, as he stepped around me to stand beside Tattletale. "Mind you, I've always been pretty happy I didn't have to deal with a little brother, but there you go. Anyway, looks like Bitch's dogs are all done down there, so we're going to split, before the heroes show up. You want to come with us?"

"Uh..." I managed, staring at him. "I...nah, I think I'll be fine. If nothing else-"

"Oh, knock it off," Tattletale said, her tone tart. "I can see it from here. Whatever you did to hit him with that lightning bolt, it's drained you pretty much dry. You try to walk back to your house from here, you'll never make it. At least let us give you a lift to get you back in the right neighborhood."

"But...Lung...the heroes..." I managed, and she just cocked her head, and smiled.

"You're not really ready to come out, yet, are you?" she asked me, and I had to shake my head.

"Then don't worry about it," she told me. "Worst case scenario, they track you down, and the next time you see them, you admit you took him down, and everybody's happy. Otherwise, he takes Lung in, you find a post on the PHO sometime tomorrow saying that an un-named cape took him down, you contact him with the details, and you still get credit. And in the meantime, we don't have to worry about you falling off the ladder as you try to get down on your own."

I blinked, then, and gave her a disbelieving look. She just shrugged, not looking ashamed, and Regent snorted.

"Seriously, Tats?" he said. "She drops one ancient literature reference, and you're suddenly best friends or something? What happened to the cold and heartless bitch we all know and love?"

Now it was Tattletale's turn to roll her eyes, and Grue reached back behind her to slap the other boy on the back of the head.

"Dude," he said. "Not in front of the civilians! Besides, there's no reason we can't be nice, right?"

Regent gave a mighty sigh, and then he shrugged.

"Eh," he said. "Fine, whatever."

Oddly, he sounded just like a teenaged girl when he said it. I halfway expected him to pronounce it as "what-ev-er".

"I'd say something smartass," I said, after a half-moment's thought. "But right now, I'm too tired to come up with something."

"So what, you're giving me an IOU on smartassery?" Regent asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yeah, something like that," I told him. "T...Inverse isn't here. Call again later, I suppose."

I shook my head, and tried to push myself over, so I was putting more weight on my feet than on the parapet. Key word being tried—as soon as I let go of the parapet, I staggered, and had to grab it again before I fell.

"Yeah," I finally admitted, hating to do so, "I think maybe I might need some help. Just to get down, you realize?"

I hate asking for help, in case you were wondering. It always makes me feel like I should have tried harder, been smarter...like I should have done things differently.

"Good, because we're just about done here ourselves," Grue said, turning to take another look over the parapet. "Yeah, in fact, that looks like all of them."

The last girl nodded, and then whistled again.

"Brutus, Judas," she barked. "Come!"

An instant later, they'd both jumped three stories into the air, and landed on the roof.

This was the first time I'd gotten a chance to look at them, and I had to admit, I couldn't figure out why in the name of God they'd called these things dogs. They were all naked muscle, and leather skin, and bone spikes, and long, ropy tails. Oh, and mouths that could probably bite me in half in one go. Now that I could give them a closer look, I had to conclude that they probably weren't anywhere near as scary as I'd first thought. Actually, they were probably even scarier, looking like some kind of weird cross between a wolf, a bear, and a lizard.

I halfway expected to see one of them breath fire, or drool acid, or something. And don't get me wrong, it would have been totally badass if they did, but I was really kind of glad they didn't. Especially not if I was going to be riding one.

Beside me, Tattletale snorted, and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine," I said after a moment's thought. "I'll take the help. If you could help...help..."

And that was all I could say, before the darkness that been hovering around the edges of my consciousness suddenly lunged forward, and carried me away.

I didn't know what time it was when somebody finally managed to jostle me awake, but I do know that I didn't want to wake up.

It was nice, where I was. Warm. Comforting. Soft...no, not soft. It was many things, but not soft. Warm, yes. Comforting, yes. And it smelled wonderful. Strong. Gentle. Masculine.

That last was unexpected enough that it caused me a moment's consternation, even in my sleepy daze, and I turned my attention back to it. And then, suddenly, realizing what it meant, I felt myself jolt awake and upright, my cheeks flaming red beneath my mask

Oh God...that was a boy. I'd been gone to sleep in the arms of some random boy who I didn't even know.

"Well, hello," a voice said from behind me, and, somehow, I managed to blush even harder at the sound.

"Oh God!" I exclaimed, blurting out the first thought to cross my mind as I turned around to stare at the boy I'd been using as a big comfy pillow. "I'm so sorry! You must think I'm a total slut!"

There was a moment of silence at that statement, and then another voice nearby burst into laughter. Slowly, I turned my head to see the blonde from before, in her gray-and-black body suit and her mask, leaning against a wall, laughing hysterically, holding a drinks tray in her hands. Vaguely, I realized that it had a pair of covered drink cups still in it.

"Hey, relax," came a voice that, after some effort, I identified as belonging to the young man who called himself "Regent". "Don't worry about it. If collapsing of exhaustion was all it took to make you a slut..."

He trailed off, and I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. I knew the feeling. Five months ago, I wouldn't have, but these days? These days I did. That awful, awkward feeling that comes of trying to make a smart remark, and the filters in your brain reaching out and stopping you just before you can say it, because it would be either rude, not appropriate to the situation, or it would just plain sound stupid. It's a frustrating feeling, to be honest, one that I'm not particularly fond of.

"If that was all it took," the voice from behind me rumbled, "we'd already be someplace private, working on getting rid of these costumes."

If anything, my blush got even hotter, and for a moment, I wondered if it was possible to spontaneously incinerate yourself out of sheer embarrassment. Sadly, that did not appear to be possible.

"Wow," the blond—Tattletale—said, apparently haven gotten herself under control. "If she gets any more embarrassed, I think she's going to start glowing in the dark."

I whipped my head around to stare at her, and opened my mouth to say something. Then I blinked, and shook my head, before deciding that closing my mouth was probably a better option.

"That would be useful," I heard a voice I vaguely recognized as mine saying. "If I could do that, I wouldn't have to look for a flashlight when I woke up at night."

Darn it, mouth, I thought we agreed we weren't going to say anything!

"The up-sides of embarrassment," she agreed. "Who knew."

"Hey!" came a fourth voice. "We gonna get outta here, or we waiting for the heroes to show up and arrest us?"

My thoughts came to a screeching halt.

"Uh," I stuttered, and the blonde smiled, and passed the tray up to Grue, against whose chest I'd been slumped.

"Here, have a latte," he said, handing me a cup, and without thinking, I accepted it and thanked him—yay for good manners—before taking a sip.

Huh.

I don't normally drink coffee. I don't really like the taste—it's too bitter for me. I much prefer tea, if I have to have caffeine or some kind of hot drink, or ice-water, if I'm just thirsty. Preferably with a slice of lemon squeezed into it, because I'm weird like that. But I have to admit...whatever this was? It was...it was kind of good. There was a lot of chocolate in this drink, and enough milk to take the edge off the bitterness, leaving it with just enough coffee flavor to accentuate the chocolate, without being strong enough to overwhelm everything else.

And then the caffeine hit, and all my hair stood up straight, and my eyes bugged out from behind my glasses, and every muscle in my body locked in full extension.

'Wow!' was my first thought. And my second. And my third. All of which passed through my head in about a millionth of a second, as the rest of the world seemed to slow down around me.

Okay, actually, none of that happened. And nobody was talking in slow-motion, either, or moving really slowly, or anything like that. But it felt like all of that ought to happen, and, quietly, I made a resolution to myself to avoid...well, to avoid whatever this was in the future, except in extreme circumstances. You know. Like an Endbringer attack. I think an Endbringer attack should be about enough to justify this much caffeine in one dose again.

But whatever my reaction actually was, I can promise you one thing: I was fully awake and aware of my surroundings, now.

"So," Tattletale said, as I glanced over at her. "That took affect...a lot faster than I thought it would. Uh. So...not really sure how to ask you this, but...where do you...uh..."

"She means where do you want us to drop you off?" Regent said from on top of the giant mutant beast he was riding, and I nodded, then, as something very like relief passed across Tattletale's face.

"Right," she said. "That. I wasn't going to ask where you lived. Honest."

"We know," he said. "I think everybody for miles around us could see the struggle you were having not to ask."

I sighed, and shook my head, before turning my head to face her, and telling her nearest bus stop to my home. Tattletale nodded, and reached up, before hoisting herself up on the beast just behind Regent. I felt a moment's flash of envy that she seemed able to do that so easily—I couldn't do that, not that gracefully, despite all the exercise Ms. Liberty had been making me do lately—but I pushed it down as Grue's arms came around me to grab on to a pair of bone spurs in front of me, enclosing me a circle of strong, muscular arms again. Somehow, I managed to keep myself from blushing again, but glancing over at Tattletale's knowing glance, I wasn't sure if it was going to do much good. Regadless, we took off, and in no time, it seemed we were flying through the city, hurtling down the streets as if we were in some kind of race car or something.

Or as if we'd just decided to hit the gas, and ignore the speed limits, a treacherous part of my brain whispered. It didn't take too terribly long before we were slowing down, and I realized we'd arrived at the bus stop I'd asked to be dropped off at.

"So," Tattletale said, as we came to a stop. "I think this is your stop, sweetie. Once you get down, we'll be out of here, so we can't see where you go, and you'll be free to go home."

I turned to look at her, and she was frowning at me.

"I'd advise against trying to go back on patrol tonight," she told me, probably seeing something in my look. "Despite how the coffee might be making you feel, it's temporary. As soon as the caffeine rush wears off, you're going to crash, and crash hard. I'd get home, and out of costume, if I were you, before that happens."

I nodded, knowing that she had a point, however little I liked it. And I didn't like it, that much was for sure. I'd hoped to be able to go out for more than an hour or so, maybe less. But I could feel the exhaustion lurking at the outside of my consciousness already, and I was pretty sure that the coffee wasn't going to be able to keep it at bay for much longer.

Clearly, I had a lot to learn before I was ready to go out on my own again. Not to mention that I vaguely recalled deciding that In needed to do some upgrades on my costume and equipment, too.

Pity, that. At least I had a good idea of some of the things I needed to improve.

"Thanks," I said, finally, as I finally looked down, and tried to shift to make sure I could get down. Before I could do so, however, Grue's arms slipped back from around me, and I felt him shifting himself, before he abruptly slid down and to the side. Then he reached back up, plucked the cup of coffee from my hand, and then held up his other hand to me. I grabbed it, and was able to lift my leg and turn to slide down to the ground without tipping over, and bashing my head against the ground.

Of course, this meant that I hit the ground standing right next to him, facing him from a distance of less than six inches.

He was tall. Tall, and strong. I mean, I'm tall—almost 5'10"-but he was even taller, and something in my body was telling me that yes, he was just about tall enough, thank you.

I...wasn't sure what to make of that, to be honest.

I shook my head, and reached out to take my coffee back, before stepping to the side, and around him.

"Thanks again," I said.

"Don't worry about it," Tattletale's voice said. "Teenage capes got to stick together, right? Anyway, we'll be in touch. Don't get yourself in too much trouble, kay?"

There was a pause, and then she sighed, and leaned over.

"Hey, Grue!" she half-shouted, and Grue twitched, before getting back into motion again, climbing to the top of the monster in the street with a fluidity that made even Tattletale's grace look somewhat stilted and artificial.

Then, abruptly, the last girl gave a whistle, and they were gone.

Despite my best efforts, I apparently hadn't managed to sneak out of the house successfully.

Well, I'd managed the "out" part. But the "sneak" part apparently left something to be desired, because both Dad, and Ms. Liberty were waiting in for me when I opened the door.

"Uh," I began, staring at them. "Uh..."

"Close the door, girl, you're letting all the warm air out," Ms. Liberty said calmly, sipping at her tea, and I did so, robotically, without thinking about it.

"Uh...it's not what it looks like?" I managed, as the door clicked shut.

"Really? So you didn't get into costume, sneak out of the house, and try to go on patrol?" Dad said, giving me a raised eyebrow.

"Squeak!" said another voice, and I looked down, just to blink in surprise.

Squire Rattus was seated on the coffee table, dressed in a Squire-sized terry cloth bathrobe, and drinking from his own tiny cup of tea. Even he was giving me a stern look.

I sighed, and shook my head.

"Okay," I said. "So I guess it's exactly what it looks like."

I moved to take a seat, finishing the last of my coffee as I did so, and placing the cup on one of the coasters on the coffee table.

"So..." I began, before trailing off.

There was a long moment of silence in the room, before Dad cleared his throat.

"If it were up to me," he began, giving me a stern look, "you'd be grounded for life for this little stunt, and I might be looking at extending your punishment for even longer."

I frowned, and gave him a confused look.

"I'd be grounded after I died?" I asked him, and he gave a decisive nod.

"Oh, at the least," he told me, his face straight. "Maybe even longer than that."

"But...why?" I asked him, and he sighed.

"Because you're still my daughter," he said. "And I don't want you going out there alone, without support, to pick fights with people who won't have any compunctions about killing you. It's bad enough that you're going to be picking fights with villainous capes, without you adding getting shot at by random gangers thrown into the mix."

He stopped, and gave me a ferocious scowl.

"I know it sounds over-protective," he added. "But you're my daughter, dammit! I don't want anything to happen to you!"

I sighed, and rolled my eyes. He had a point, of course. But as a fifteen year old girl, there was only so much I could do to accept him saying that without some show of rebellion. I had a reputation to live up to, after all. Besides which, truth be told, I hadn't wanted to get shot at, either. I'd been hoping to just find a random bugger, and leave them all tied up for the police to pick up, not...what I'd actually done.

"More importantly," the voice of Ms. Liberty cut in, "you are not ready for this kind of fight. You've only just developed the ability to use offensive spells, and you're still not much past the ability to give somebody a strong shock without swaying on your feet. If you don't take them out with your first shot, you're likely to pass out before you can put together enough energy to take a second."

Crap. She's on to me.

"You were there, weren't you?" I asked, my tone vaguely accusing. I just barely stopped myself from pointing at her when I asked it, and she smiled, and raised one eyebrow.

"Child, I know it's hard to imagine, but I was your age, once," she said calmly, without bothering to confirm or deny my accusation. "I will admit that it was some time ago, and the memories have grown rather dim with age, but I can remember being young and impatient myself, once."

Then her slight smiled morphed into a frown, and her look became a much harder stare.

"That doesn't mean that I'm prepared to forgive that kind of lapse in judgment from my own apprentices," she told me, her tone stern. "Especially when they have to be rescued by others."

"But...how did you know?" I asked her. "How did...why didn't my rats know that you were there?"

She just sighed, and shook her head.

"Child," she said. "I've been an active wizard for quite a bit longer than than the United States has been a country. I can remember when there were only ten of the thirteen colonies that would become the United States. Believe me when I tell you there is still a very great deal for you to learn before you can start hoping to find me when I wish to remain hidden."

"Oh," I said. "Uh...I guess that makes sense."

"Squeak!" Squire Rattus said, his tone stern, and I had to nod dejectedly.

"I guess you're right," I told him, and he nodded graciously. I sighed, and looked back up at Dad and Ms. Liberty.

"So how much trouble am I in?" I asked them.

"A lot," Dad growled. "Not only did you sneak out of the house after you thought I was asleep, but you also went out and picked a fight with a known super-villain, and almost got yourself killed from being stupid. Like I said, normally, you'd be grounded for life, if not longer. As it happens, Ms. Liberty has assured me that you didn't have much choice in the matter, and that you did as well as could be expected. But I'm still upset with you."

"I didn't?" I asked, giving him a confused look. "Huh? What do you mean, I didn't have a choice?"

Then it clicked.

"Oh," I said. "You mean, when he was talking about killing kids."

"That, too," he said, which just made me feel confused all over again. I mean, I'd think that talking about killing kids would be enough reason to say I had no choice. Was I missing something here?

"Powers—parahuman powers, anyway-thrive on conflict," Ms. Liberty said, drawing my attention back to her. "If you don't use them every so often, they'll go out of control. If you don't use them to in a fight often enough, they generally start driving you to go out and look for trouble, even if you are using them on a regular basis. That's the reason why heroes and villains are so much more common than rogues.

"In your case, the frequency seems to be about two months, before you start feeling the urge, and about ten to eleven weeks before it starts trying to actively push you to act upon that urge. The fact that you lasted almost fourteen weeks from your Triggering was rather impressive, to be honest."

I stared at her, my mouth agape.

"Huh?" I said.

"If you hadn't gone out on patrol like you did, you probably would have ended up either outing yourself, or in the same situation as Canary," she told me.

"Oh," I said, going quiet.

I knew about Canary.

Well, actually, everybody knew about Canary. Everybody in New England knew about her, anyway. Probably everybody on the East Coast. But I suspected I knew more than most, because Ms. Liberty was Canary's lawyer, and was trying to defend her against what she called a "a court gone mad with fury". I think there was probably an element of fear in that, too, but that was beside the point, because even with Ms. Liberty very carefully not saying anything about the case, I'd still picked up a great deal more than I had expected to.

The point was that Canary's powers had gone out of control unexpectedly, due in large part to her not using them as frequently or in the way they were apparently meant to be used, which had resulted in her ex-boyfriend mutilating himself to death while she was doing a show. According to Ms. Liberty, there were other circumstances to be taken into consideration, as well—he'd been harassing her, maybe even outright stalking her, and even claiming that he was the one who'd negotiated all her contracts, and that was the one who'd been responsible for her success, and so was now demanding a share of the money she was making. That, or he was demanding that she accept him back into her life again. He honestly hadn't seemed to be all that picky about which option she took, which really says it all about why she should have kicked him out in the first place. Problem being, he hadn't done what he'd claimed—the way the contracts he'd negotiated were written, she'd gotten something like forty thousand dollars from the contracts he'd negotiated, and after their breakup, she'd found out that he'd been paid almost two hundred thousand. Most of which had simply...disappeared. And then he'd cleaned out her remaining accounts during the breakup.

Honestly? If somebody had done that to me, I think losing my temper and telling them to go do something nasty and anatomically improbable to themselves would probably have been the socially appropriate response. And with her power flaring out of control from her not using it, she wouldn't have had any way to not Master her ex the way she did when she lost her temper.

All of that was bad enough. But the fact that she was now being treated like a war criminal, or one of the Slaughterhouse Nine, made the whole situation infinitely worse. Especially since, according to Ms. Liberty, her power was potentially able to help reverse the damage done by the Simurgh. Or, failing that, to at least help undo the efforts of other Masters capable of brainwashing others.

To my mind, that last bit should have been a good reason to try to recruit her into the PRT, and then put her in a situation to use her powers for good, rather than trying to put her away for life, even assuming that there was anything you should do about what was, essentially, a horrific accident that nobody could have seen coming. Apparently, however, the prosecutor disagreed, and he was busily trying to paint her as the worst menace the world had ever seen. And, what was worse, her first lawyer had tamely gone along, and let him do whatever he wanted, without putting up any kind of opposition.

Needless to say, Ms. Liberty, once she'd found out what was happening, had moved to put a stop to that immediately.

"Really?" I finally said, looking back at her. "I could have been another Canary?"

Vaguely, I wondered when I'd looked away from her, but that didn't distract me enough to keep me from seeing her nod.

"Really," she said. Then she sat back, relaxing into the big easy chair she'd seated herself in.

"Thankfully, that never happened," she told me, "You dealt with the problem before it could become uncontrollable, and managed to do so in a vaguely constructive manner. That said there will still be consequences to your having ventured out the way you did. Both for your father's peace of mind, and because you knew full well that you weren't ready for a fight, and that you weren't supposed to risk yourself like that."

"But...I could have died!" I yelped. "Isn't that punishment enough?"

One look at the two of them, told me this was the wrong way to go about getting out of my punishment. In fact, I was pretty sure I'd just made it worse.

Much, much worse.

There was a moment of silence, as I mourned my sanity and common sense, which had evidently died during my night-time adventure, because otherwise, I clearly wouldn't have said that.

"Your friend, Emma Barnes," Ms. Liberty finally said, and I gulped. "Sometime during the summer, two years back, she underwent a radical change of personality, without anybody apparently noticing that she had done so. She went from being an extremely close friend of yours, who was known for being kind and caring towards others, to being a borderline psychopath with strong manipulative tendencies, with a special penchant for causing pain and picking on others. And by all indications, she did so despite being able to maintain a facade of kindness that neither her parents nor those in authority who are trained to look out for such things were able to pierce. Part of this may simply be because they never realized that there was any need to examine her behavior, of course, but even with that taken into account, her shift in behavioral patterns is both sudden, and displays a surprising degree of sophistication."

"Huh?"

"She means that Emma shouldn't have changed that fast, or, if she did, she shouldn't have done so in such a way that nobody noticed the change until she suddenly started bullying you," Dad translated.

"Oh," I said. I could feel my eyes narrowing at this, but then I shook my head.

"That doesn't follow," I pointed out. "We were separated for most of the summer. Almost two and a half months. She could have changed gradually over that time, and nobody noticed."

"Perhaps," Ms. Liberty said. "Regardless, it was a sharp and unexpected change. One that clearly took place with her in full and complete knowledge that she was changing, and that other people would not react well to her change. And it is a change that you have no firm knowledge about, or explanation for. A wizard cannot afford to allow such circumstances in their lives to go unremarked upon. Neither, for that matter, can a cape, whether they be hero, villain, or rogue."

I blinked, and then I felt the blood draining from my face as my mind jumped ahead to follow her train of logic. I shook my head, silently, the tears starting to run down my face, as she continued remorselessly and implacably.

"Your punishment, young lady, is to find out what happened that summer, to turn Emma Barnes so totally and completely against you. What happened, to transform her from a gentle person and your closest friend, into an arrogant and sadistic bully, who turned all of your closest secrets into weapons to use against you?"

"I...please..." I whimpered, knowing I sounded pathetic, but not being able to articulate anything more complex than that.

She simply shook her head, and stood.

"When you have completed your task, call me," she said. "We will continue your training then."

And then she swept past me, and out the door.

Like this work? Check out my Pa treon page at /wlindsay to get Queen of Rats chapters several weeks early, as well as the rewrite/expansion I am working on to turn it into an original story without many of the issues plaguing Worm and its offshoots.