The ride home from the cafe was rather quiet, though Battery did check on me once or twice as we rode. She seemed to pick up on the fact that I was utterly exhausted from a day that hadn't pumped the brakes since I had left my room. At this point all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away, even if I would probably force myself to get something productive done.

Eventually I directed her to park about a block away from my house and get out. "My dad probably isn't home, but I don't want him freaking out about everything that happened today."

Battery looked a bit unsure about what to say to that, but decided to shrug it off and offer me a smile. "If you're sure. It was nice meeting you Taylor, though I wish it had been under better circumstances. Try to keep that good head on your shoulders and not worry too much." with her bit said she was off down the road again.

Somehow I managed the rest of the trip toward my house without having the sky fall on me and managed to make it all the way to the living room before collapsing on the couch, my school bag tossed to the side as I tried to worm my way into a more comfortable position before switching on the t.v.

While I wasn't normally one to sit and flip through the channels it had been a long enough day that I wanted to detach from my own mind. Of course there was nothing remotely interesting on, so I decided to just switch over to one of the local channels playing an old horror movie and allowed myself to disappear into cheesy practical effects and loud screams of poorly acted terror. I had apparently dropped in somewhere in the third act, which was fine because it mostly just made up background noise as I went through my bag and figured out what homework could be put off for later and what I should actually focus on.

While I was halfway through a math assignment the movie ended and switched over to local news, but I had already gotten comfortable and getting the remote would require just enough movement that if I bothered to do so I would likely spend the next hour unable to focus because of it, so instead I decided to let the news play in peace.

After the usual chatter from the news anchors the top story played, actually catching my interest for a moment.

"Our top story tonight is on the sudden disappearance of the former pop-star turned criminal Canary." The lead began to drone on in that oddly inoffensive way that new anchors always talked in.

My mind drifted back to where I had heard the name before, remembering that there had been a not insignificant amount of chaos caused by the court's decision to send a first time offender to the Birdcage. I couldn't say that I had any real investment beyond liking a few of her songs, but at the same time I had thought that the ruling was a tad harsh.

While caught in my own thoughts I had apparently missed the news anchor going into an explanation about Canary's history, only catching my attention again when the reason for the story came up. "...yesterday night Canary's cell was found empty with no signs of forced entry or exit. Authorities are still looking into her escape though as of this moment they have no leads…"

Before I could get fully invested into the rest of the report I heard the door open and saw my dad come in, muting the t.v. and giving him a wave from my position in the living room. "You're home early." with all of the excitement around the docks I hadn't really expected to see him home at all.

My dad for his part gave a smile to me, carrying a bag in his hand as he went toward the kitchen. "There is a lot of work to do, but there is also a hell of a lot of paperwork that needs to go through peoples hands before we can get anything important done. Figured you could stand me being around for a bit," there was a slight something in his voice I couldn't quite place my finger on. "Could you come into the kitchen for a minute Taylor?"

I let out a small sigh to myself as I pushed myself away from the comfort of my spot and made my way into the kitchen, curious about what he would be calling me in for. That was until my eyes drifted to the dining room table and a cellphone sitting on it.

Surprise colored my features for a moment, and I could see from the smile on dad's face that he had noticed it, motioning for me to sit next to him. "The work we are going to be doing to reopen the beach is going to be rough, odds are I'm probably going to have to stay late more often than not once things actually start moving," he pushed the cellphone to me, through when he drew his hand away it might as well have burned him to touch it. "And…it's probably about time you had one of these anyway."

Something caught in my throat as I looked down at the cellphone. It wasn't a particularly new or fancy model, but it also wasn't the kind of budget burner phone I had considered getting myself using the card Stetson had given me. Ever since the day my mother had gotten in the accident that had thrown both of our lives into chaos, dad had hated cell phones, and as a result any idea of ever asking for one had never been in my mind. "Dad…"

He put up his hand to stop me. "I'm not the biggest fan of cellphones, honestly I don't think I'll ever be able to have one. But I know that it's important for you to be able to call your friends without having to be at home or hope you can find a payphone. Beyond that I still want to be in contact with you even if I am stuck at the office until the dead of night. It's still a responsibility but I trust you."

I lost the ability to form words for a moment, it had been a long time since dad had really given me anything like this, holidays were mostly just money and birthdays more of the same. And those were the times he remembered.

"I know that I haven't been around as much as I should, maybe it took all of this to make me realize how far gone I've been. But you're my daughter and I love you, so maybe remember to give the office phone a call sometime okay?" I could see the tears in his eyes as he looked away. Dad had never been the best with emotions, but I could see him making an actual effort.

Some venomous part of my brain wanted to say it was way too late for this kind of thing, that he should have been this alive for much longer.

But I had gotten really good at ignoring the ugly parts of my mind and instead wrapped my arms around him, tears stinging my own eyes as I held onto my dad and simply felt him against me.

Eventually we broke apart, neither of us being well versed enough in what to actually say, so he just insisted on making dinner and I went back to my room with my new phone, collapsing on the bed and just letting my emotions wash over me.

Maybe before I had met Stetson I would have just buried any emotion, but one of the things he had taught me was honesty to myself above all other things. To smile when you were happy, rage when you were mad, and most of all to allow myself to cry. And I just let it wash over me for a moment, how everything had changed so much in just two days and how it would keep changing. How I had made friends who seemed to actually care, met people who gave a shit, and for what felt like the first time in forever it had felt like I had my dad here with me rather than losing both parents.

I had forgotten that tears could be happy as well.

Eventually the smell of food brought me down and my dad and I ate together. The food was a bit overcooked but to me it might as well have been the best meal I had ever eaten. I wanted to spend more time together, but dad was exhausted and keeping him up just because of my own desire to spend time with him would have been selfish. So instead I decided to toy around with my phone, remembering to grab the two numbers I had gotten today and adding them in.

Battery's number I would keep incase of an emergency in my other identity, I figured that Shadow Stalker wouldn't be an issue, or if it was one of the adult heroes would come to deal with whatever her issue was. The other was Amy, who I decided to send a text to so she would know about my new number. Plus friends were supposed to send texts, at least what little I had seen made me assume that fact.

Taylor: Hey this is Taylor, from the coffee shop earlier. I got a phone so I thought I'd text you so you would have my new number.

I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was getting dark, logically I should have just laid back and forced myself to get a good night's worth of sleep. But the day's events had left me wound tight as a spring and full of energy waiting to be burned off.

After a quick check to make sure that my dad was sleeping I summoned myself to the Dollhouse for just long enough to change, directing myself back to the city proper in the downtown area. With the recent capture of Hookwolf, Kaiser being taken down by Stetson, and of course Oni Lee and Lung both being shipped off to the Birdcage the night was likely to be on the quiet side. There wasn't a single gang left in the city that wasn't licking its wounds, but at the same time I figured doing a quick look around wouldn't hurt too much.

Best case scenario was that Downtown was gang free for a night and I got my cardio workout in, and if on the off chance I did run into anyone dumb enough to be causing trouble I wouldn't exactly lose any sleep.

For the first twenty minutes of the night I simply moved from rooftop to rooftop, sticking to the dark and peaking down into alleys that looked like where one might get mugged. It wasn't exactly efficient, but then again most of my training had seen Stetson finding our targets and facing them. Part of the reason I really needed the Undersiders was simply because I didn't really have the first clue about where to actually find the bad guys to beat up. Squealer's tank, the dumb battle with Uber and Leet, and of course Hookwolf had mostly been a case of me being in the right place at the right time.

Just when I was toying with the idea of just admitting I was out here to avoid having to sleep, the sounds of gunfire filled my ears and I burst into a sprint, taking a few jumps that probably would have left the track team green with envy before coming across the scene.

The streetlights provided minimal illumination, but I was able to make out maybe five to seven people wearing black combat gear and carrying automatic weapons, unloading shot after shot into a vehicle with a man wearing white desert style robes behind it. Laying on the street between the two parties were a number of people who looked either unconscious or dead, from my vantage point I couldn't really tell which.

The identity of the robed figure didn't take long to bring up, though I was slightly confused by his presence. Sere was one of the few non-protectorate capes that could be found a bit outside of Brockton and was brutal but efficient in his methods, pulling out moisture from his foes and leaving them heavily dehydrated and unable to fight back. That put him in the good guy category and the guys with the guns as the bad guys, leaving the small number of people knocked out in the road as a question mark that I would have to deal with quickly. While the gunmen seemed to be pretty accurate with their shots I wouldn't put it past a stray bullet to kill one of the people on the ground.

"Dollhouse, Inventory Select, Select Karate Man, Blood Brain Connection."

Confirmed.

The form of the Doll came alive next to me as the connection solidified. "Cowards who seek to use numbers and weapons to overpower a defender of justice, such an act will not go unpunished," the Doll spoke in a soft but powerful tone. Its appearance was odd, its form being mostly humanoid but trading skin for an odd material that was a bit like the plastic of a CPR training dummy, its body wrapped in a black karategi with a number of belts wrapped around both its waist and arms. Its expression was frozen in a zen like state, the only moving part being the mouth which opened and closed in a close approximation of following human speech.

While Karate Man lacked the sheer strength that some of the other Doll's I had a firm understanding of its abilities given that Stetson had used the Doll to train me in self defense. Right now what I needed was speed and technique enough to take them down, using a Doll like Sister Mercy or the Bludgeoning Angel would leave a chance for bullets to ricochet off of them and hit one of the unconscious forms on the street.

"Then let's teach them a lesson," I directed Karkate Man to enter into the fray, watching as with a single smooth movement it leapt from the rooftop and landed behind the gunmen. Before they could so much as react the Doll lashed out with a smooth chop to the back of one of their necks, the armored figure folding like a deck of cards as Karate Man let out a bellowing war cry. The two gunmen next to the Doll turned toward him, but quickly found their weapons wrenched from their grasps and tossed to the side like common trash.

From my vantage point above I could make out Sere as he moved from the cover of the car and rushed forward like a white blur, closing the distance between himself and the leftmost gunmen and getting into close quarters while they were distracted. Even at this distance I could see moisture flowing out of the gunmen's body and flowing around Sere's body like an aura, small droplets reflecting against the streetlights.

The two gunmen now sans weapons had pulled knives, though even with the advantage of a close ranged weapon they simply lacked the skill to go against Karate Man, and for good reason.

Karate Man- Grandmaster Training Doll

This Doll possesses the absolute understanding of any and all martial arts that it has the ability to access as long as they pertain to the normal human form. It can instantly replicate and teach any technique it has learned with efficiency and skill beyond a normal teacher, allowing the user to gain significant skill in a short time.

In under three months of working with the Doll on the weekends I already felt comfortable in hand to hand combat, through I wouldn't claim to be a master of any of them as Stetson had designed a training regimen around getting me the basics of self defense and then widely teaching me how to defend against a wide variety of attacks. I wouldn't be putting myself on the frontlines unless absolutely necessary, but if it came down to it I was scared of some guy with a knife trying to rush me.

Turning my attention back to the battle Karate Man had already made quick work of the two that had charged him with knives drawn, moans of pain coming from their strewn out forms as he turned his focus to the last man, who raised up his gun now that there was no chance of hitting his team in close quarters. However he would not get the chance to pull the trigger, as Sere threw the body of the gunmen he had drained toward the last man, causing the two of them to collapse to the ground after connecting.

Sere moved over and quickly began the same process of drawing out any moisture within the gunmen, giving a small nod of appreciation toward Karate Man, who in turn gave a bow of his own.

Seeing that the obvious threats were eliminated and not detecting anything else to worry about I jumped down the building and landed on my feet, the boots of my outfit absorbing the impact thanks to whatever odd material Stetson had used in its design. I quickly dismissed Karate Man and approached Sere, holding up a hand to let him know that I wasn't carrying a weapon. "Are you okay?" If needed I knew of a few Doll's that could probably patch up a bullet hole so long as it wasn't anywhere critical, and in the worst case scenario I could bring him to the Dollhouse itself and have Riley and the other medical Doll's perform a miracle.

To the hero's credit despite being in a life or death situation not moments ago he showed no outward signs of exhaustion, rising up from the now unconscious gunmen and giving a nod of appreciation. "Indeed, you have my thanks for the quick rescue."

I felt a small amount of pride at his thanks but was too modest to make a point on the subject. "It was the right thing to do, that being said," I waved my hand in the general direction of the fallen bodies and gunmen. "What happened here?"

Sere let out a small laugh from behind his mask, the blue material that sat behind the eye holes shining for a moment in the light. "Ah, I happened to come across this group planning some vandalism," he waved at the fallen bodies on the street, which now with closer inspection I was able to see had Empire 88 tattoos and some scattered knives and other such close ranged weapons. "I decided to correct their behavior, but before I could call in the police to pick them up I was assaulted by this lot."

The situation rang out as odd, the Empire typically acted in the daytime, defacing shops held by non-white owners or who showed any defiance against them without fear of reprisal. Maybe the loss of two of their high ranking Parahumans had caused some fear to infect the ranks. Which I only saw as a net positive, thugs like them should be scared to show their faces around and should be even more worried about being stopped. "Any idea who they are?" I glanced toward the gunmen, who Sere was draining to ensure they wouldn't suddenly gain a second wind after being tossed around.

"I have my theories, but it's technically a Protectorate investigation so I'm not at full liberty to share details," Sere seemed to think for a moment before giving a small shrug. "That being said it would feel rude given that you saved my life, and given your own impressive skill I would feel better if another set of eyes were on things."

"I'll help however I can." To what degree I would actually be able to follow up was another issue, Lisa was going to be busy dealing with locating Heartbreaker and my detective abilities began and ended with the occasional mystery novel.

"About a week ago the local police outside of the city happened to come across an operation that was delivering weapon parts into Brockton Bay. Last night a raid was conducted by myself and the local police which brought an end to the operation. By some form of luck the head of the operation slipped and knocked himself out on an oil spill before he could wipe the group's computer, which led me to continue my investigation on where the weapons were being delivered to."

I glanced toward the fallen gunmen and put two and two together, whoever had been importing the weapons had sent a hit squad to kill off Sere. Given he was a solo operator and the amount of corruption that could be found in the Bay it was easy to think that without him keeping pressure on the case it could be swept under the rug.

That being said, trying to figure out who was running the operation wasn't easy, given that the Bay had at least three known criminal organizations and now a fourth in the form of Coil. Empire 88 might have the funds to hire a group like this but they had enough Parahuman muscle that it wouldn't be their go-to option. The ABB was hurting from the loss of its leaders and probably wouldn't be able to put together enough money to do this. And the Merchants were idiots and a group that had been professional as this wouldn't have been caught dead working for the glorified drug dealers. Which left at least one option in my mind.

"You should try looking into Coil," I looked down at the unmarked armor of the gunmen before looking back to Sere. "But be careful, I have some…friends who say he has ears in places that should normally be safe." I tried to get across the insinuation without saying the words. Just because Coil didn't seem to have anyone watching them didn't mean there wasn't a chance he could pick up just how much I knew.

Sere seemed to consider my words for a moment before giving a small nod in return. "I'll consider it. That being said I hope to work with you more in the future, if I am going to continue my investigation I'll have to stick around for a bit." he offered a hand out to me, and I took it with no small amount of pride.

"I look forward to it, I would normally stick around but I have places to be." Places which included my bed, there was nothing like draining one's body of blood to remind you how little sleep you've gotten in the past few days.

"Very well, I'll ensure these criminals are taken in." Sere waved me off as I had the Dollhouse bring me back to a room to change and get a quick wash up, leaving the room and nearly running straight into Lisa who was wearing a massive grin.

"I've got a lead on the fuck, give me a week and as much coffee as this place can make and I'll give you an address." she was practically beaming, though that could have been due to the fact she looked like sleep had become optional for her and coffee flowed like water.

Still me trying to tell someone how to be healthy would have been hypocritical at best, so instead I just smiled. "That will give me enough time to figure out how to put Heartbreaker out of business."

This might not have been my true first step, but taking down Heartbreaker and freeing the women under his thrall would be my way of announcing myself. Stetson had given me the chance to tell the public who I was.

Now it was time to let the bad guys know just how screwed they were.