Star Light, Star Bright Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 69)

Later That Day

Living Room, Dallon Home

"You screwed up, Mr. Hebert." Carol Dallon sighed. "Harassing the girl is only going to make her put her back up."

The lawyer was seated on her armchair, with a somewhat haggard-looking Danny Hebert seated opposite her. He had just finished telling her about Taylor's blow-up at him and everything leading up to it.

"I know." The man said quietly. "But I'm just…I lost my wife just a year and a half ago, and just came this close to losing Taylor a month ago. I can't handle the possibility that she might…get hurt…or worse out there."

"And what her former friend and her father has done to her makes it harder to trust someone who is also a lawyer, correct?" the lawyer guessed shrewdly. Alan Barnes had tried some very complicated legal acrobatics to get Emma the most lenient sentence she could possibly get. Thanks to the fact that she was brainwashed by Shadow Stalker and clearly mentally scarred from that encounter with the ABB, she was given a very light sentence of no more modelling jobs, some financial payment to the Heberts and a long course of therapy to counter Shadow Stalker's nonsense and to mitigate her mental trauma.

Shadow Stalker, on the other hand, was out of the Wards, in juvenile detention and her case would be reviewed for possible penal action once she became of age. Madison Clements was virtually a non-entity compared to the other two, a hanger-on who kept close to the others and pointed out possible targets for them. An enabler, certainly, but not criminally liable. She was being dealt with by the juvenile system.

"Once bitten, twice shy." Danny said with a shrug. "You also have that 'no masks' policy in New Wave, which doesn't make me feel happy about the possibility of Taylor joining you."

"New Wave's policy…!" Carol began.

"Is all very well for two families composed entirely of Parahumans, but it is a death sentence or worse for those who live alone or with non-powered members." Danny cut her off firmly. "I'm sorry, but I am not comfortable with your policy, so I…oh, I'm doing it again. Her power, her choice."

"It is, but you should have some say in it as her father." Carol told him. "Still, you have to step back and give her some space. You're both too keyed up about the subject. Not to mention the fact that I'm certain that Director Piggot will be eyeing her."

"What do you mean?" Danny blinked.

"Danny, she is an Eidolon-ite." She explained patiently. "Just that fact would be enough, because in time, she'll be Triumvirate-tier. More than that, Director Piggot is one of only two ordinary human survivors of the Elisburg Debacle and she does not trust Parahumans, even if she's scrupulously fair regardless. She strong-armed Shadow Stalker into the Wards as soon as she crossed the line and she'll be looking for the least excuse to do that with someone who makes Shadow Stalker's powers look like a sideshow trick. You need to support her, advise her perhaps, not browbeat her into submission."

The Union Rep for the Dockworkers Association let out a tired sigh. "Annette was always someone who stuck to her convictions. Taylor takes after her mother way too much."

Carol recalled what she had heard about the deceased older woman in the Hebert household. A former woman's rights activist, a smart woman who backed up her beliefs with actions. An English Literature Professor at a local college, who was very non-judgmental in regards to people. By all accounts, a very respectable and redoubtable woman. If young Taylor Hebert was anything like her mother, she was bound to be difficult to convince, especially with her year-long abandonment by parents and school faculty.

"I think I may have an idea you may be amendable to, Mr. Hebert." Carol said with a smile and started laying out a plan that was the essence of politics; a compromise on all sides.

The Next Day

With Taylor, Boat Graveyard

"Constellation of the Hare – Lepus!" I said, and I felt the stars shining on my forehead as I activated the first 'node' of my main power and selected a sub-power to use in it.

I often imagined that the three 'nodes' that allowed me to have three powers active per day were in a triangular shape. I could fill all of them and shift between them freely, without having to follow lines that would force me to cycle through them to get to the one that I wanted. Kinda like pressing a button on a console.

My rabbit ears…yes, some of my powers came with an automatic Changer part to them…atop my head twitched. I hadn't used this particular Constellation before, so I was carefully noting everything about it. Miss Militia had been kind enough, when she came to apologise on the behalf of the Protectorate and PRT about that bitch tornado Sophia almost killing me for the second time, to give me a list of all the various categories that the PRT used to codify the various kinds of Parahuman powers. I'd already known about Alexandria (Brute, Mover and Thinker), Legend (Blaster, Breaker, Mover and Thinker) and Eidolon (Trump), but some of the other categories had caught me a bit off guard.

I was the same as Eidolon, a Trump and probably very close to him on the power scale…aside from the fact, while I can choose three powers out of eighty-plus powers every day, he randomly shuffle three powers at complete random whenever he wants. I think he has me beaten there, just a bit.

Lepus was currently giving me enhanced senses; hearing and smell, anyway. That put it at Thinker 1 so far. I also felt really good, so perhaps I got a mover power as well? Or a Brute power?

Abruptly, I felt a mild sense of danger from behind me, so I instinctively leapt into the air, sailing over the surprised looking Glory Girl who had been about to tap me on the shoulder. Huh. I was definitely more agile than in my base form. A lot stronger too; I was definitely over the limit that an ordinary jump should have lifted me over without a running start.

"Easy!" A female voice -not Glory Girl- said as I landed and prepared for flight or to fight. I turned my head slightly and saw Laserdream with her hands out in a placating fashion, Panacea and Shielder standing next to her. "Sorry about surprising you like that. Glory Girl here just wanted to say hello."

I figured that New Wave all knew about me thanks to the PRT and Panacea, but I'd never expected them to come and find me like this.

"I'm…testing out powersets here." I said carefully. "You're lucky I chose something as relatively harmless as this one. Otherwise my reaction may not have been to dodge."

"How'd you know I was here anyway?" Glory Girl asked, seemingly not put out by my reaction to her. "I was sure I was quiet."

I wiggled my ears. "One, I have rabbit ears. Or hare ears, whatever. Enhanced hearing. Two, I have a kind of danger sense in this form."

"May I?" Panacea asked as she walked over to me, giving her sister a reproving look that bounced off the other girl's irrepressibility like a bullet off a tank's armour.

"What is it you want to do?" I asked the healer. I had a lot of time for Panacea; if it wasn't for her, I'd still be in that damned coma.

"I'd like to scan you and see if there's anything different about your body in this form." The smaller girl replied.

"Is that all? Sure, go ahead." I said, extending my hand to her. She rested her hand on it for a moment before her eyes widened.

"One of those pockets of blurred DNA has been cleared up!" she exclaimed excitedly. "It's…hare DNA? Lepus timidus."

"Makes sense. I am using the Constellation of the Hare." I said with a smirk.

"Constellation?" Shielder asked in confusion.

"My powers are divided into eighty-odd different power sets, not including my baseline Brute powers." I explained with a shrug. "When I activate them, I get an image of an animal or object, which always corresponds to one of the constellations, modern and old."

"Are they all like this one?" Laserdream asked.

"Nope. Some make me change into animals or animal hybrids, while others don't give me a shape-change at all." I laughed. "Some of the powers I get are weird though; like, would you ever associate a peacock with ships?"

"A peacock? No." Shielder snorted.

"Well, for whatever reason, the Constellation of the Peacock – Pavo makes me a Tinker, with the specialty of ships." I rolled my eyes. "What possible use can I have for a Tinker ability that lets me build ships? Especially with Leviathan out there?"

"Is it just seagoing ships?" Panacea asked.

"No; riverboats, DUKWs…all kinds of boats and ships as long as they are water-going vessels." I answered. "Anyway, fun as it is to talk to you all, can I ask why you're here?"

"OK, but…let us finish talking before you fly off the handle, OK?" Laserdream asked, which made me somewhat tense.

"OK." I said nervously.

"We know you and your Dad have been butting heads about joining the Wards." Laserdream began.

"After what that bitch Shadow Stalker did to her, are you really surprised." Glory Girl interjected with an unladylike snort.

Shooting her cousin a quelling look, Laserdream continued. "Ahem! Yeah, well…Brandish has been talking to him and come up with a compromise that you might like."

"Dad? Compromising?" I was somewhat in disbelief about that. Part of the reason he was so respected at the Dockworker's Association was that he had fought tooth and claw to get his workers jobs whenever it was possible. He had done this through sheer willpower and a no-holds-barred policy on negotiating.

"He's tired, haggard and not in the right mental space for negotiating." Panacea, who was still holding my hand, told me.

OK, feeling a little guilty here…

"Don't feel guilty." Evidently, Shielder saw me slumping. "Both of you are too close to the problem to see a solution…plus, you're both as stubborn as each other."

That made me laugh a bit. Yep, the apple didn't fall far from the tree with us.

"OK, so what's the compromise?" I asked.

"You get to be an Indie like you want, and you get to team up with us. Win-win, right?" Glory Girl smirked.

"Basically, we're going to be mentoring you." Laserdream said with an eye roll at Glory Girl's antics. "New Wave will also be expanding our patrols to include your area to make sure your Dad isn't targeted. We even have a stand-in costume for you."

Shielder shucked a backpack I hadn't noticed he was wearing and pulled out a white costume with a star sewn onto the middle of the chest.

"Why do this for me?" I asked blankly. I was so used to everyone and everything being against me that people actually helping me was unnerving.

"Several reasons." Panacea told me. "One, we know what you had to go through to get your powers. Your Dad can try and imagine, but…he isn't a parahuman. He can't imagine what it's like to survive what you had to go through like we can…although we can't either, as we're second Gen parahumans, so our…Trigger Events were a lot less traumatic than yours was."

I shuddered as memories of The Locker came back to me. Panacea squeezed my hand before continuing.

"Two, we don't blame you for not wanting to join the Wards after what Shadow Stalker did to you." She said.

"We knew she was a Grade-A bitch, but not a total psycho." Shielder chipped in. "She never unmasked to anyone outside of the Protectorate, PRT or Wards, so we never knew who she was underneath the mask. Frankly, she wasn't someone we wanted to get to know."

"The rest of the Wards aren't like that, though." Glory Girl added hastily. "Vista's a total sweetie and wishes she had a female teammate that wasn't Shadow Stalker. Gallant's pretty cool, Aegis can be a little stiff sometimes, Kid Win's distracted sometimes, but a good guy, while Clockblocker's a total troll, although he means well. They're good people."

"Why didn't they report HER activities and attitude, then?" I asked, a hint of anger in my voice.

"They did. They were told to suck it up and get along with her." Laserdream told me sympathetically. "I hear they're getting a couple of transfers in from New York who were under Legend or Chevalier."

"Haaah…" I sighed. "OK, I'll give it a try. I'll only use this costume until I make my own though…white clothes aren't my kinda thing, usually."

I got changed into my costume (how did they get my sizes?) in a nearby abandoned ship. Good thing I'd shaved everywhere this morning; I doubt I could have borne the embarrassment of being exposed as unshaven in front of heroes.

The last item was a surprise; a half-face mask. It was explained to me that I wasn't obliged to follow New Wave's 'No Mask' policy when I wasn't officially a member.

"OK, so we're going to go on patrol…do you have a power that can fly?" Laserdream asked as I emerged. "You'll also need a Cape Name."

I smirked. "I'm torn between 'Stargazer' and 'Starbright' myself. As for flight…Constellation of the Swan – Cygnus!"

In a flash, my hare ears retreated into my scalp and a pair of large white wings emerged from my back. Cygnus was one I had tried early on. This power set let me fly around fairly easily, as well as displaying some minor control over air and water in a radius of about twenty meters around me. It was actually pretty damn cool.

"Whoa…" Glory Girl breathed. "You…may want a different one. That makes you look like the Simurgh."

"Fuck." I hit my forehead with the heel of my hand. "Right. Well, I only have one more power set slot available, and I want to keep it open in case something unexpected happens, so I think it's either going with this or Lupus' superspeed."

"Ah, fast like a hare…cool." Shielder nodded. "Go back to Lupus and stop every now and then to keep track of us."

"Roger that." I went back to Lupus as easily as flipping a switch. There also weren't any holes in the back of my costume either; when I Changed, my clothes Changed with me for some reason. I was happy about it, really; it meant that I wouldn't have to worry about replacing clothes from destroying them inadvertently.

On with the patrol!

Later

Rooftop, Broadwalk

"How're you not covered in sweat?" Glory Girl asked me as she landed next to me, carrying Panacea.

"I think I have an enhanced body with this power set." I shrugged. I could outrun a car easily in this form, as well as jump across the rooftops fairly easily. Having a better ability to endure aforementioned running and jumping seems to be a logical extension for the power set of Lupus. I could tire myself out, but only if I deliberately tried to, I think.

"She does." Panacea chimed in. "Her lungs are 150% more efficient and retain more oxygen, while her muscles are built for moderate bursts of speed and activity, as well as being much stronger than their size and density suggests. She could make an Olympian weep right now."

"Wow." Laserdream said, coming in on the tail-end of the healer's explanation. "Panacea doesn't give praise lightly. Lupus must be pretty good to get her to say that much."

The healer blushed at her cousin's words. "It's just the truth."

"Actually, I'm curious here…why are you here, Panacea?" I asked with a frown. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but…you aren't known for patrolling…like, at all."

"Lady Photon told me to stop overdoing it at the hospital." Panacea smiled halfheartedly. "Going on patrol with my sister's at least not healing all the time, so there's that."

"Not like we've found anything to help Stargazer get used to beating up criminals." Glory Girl complained. "No muggers, nothing."

She had been championing Stargazer as my name as opposed to Starbright, which was fair, I suppose. I kinda liked it. At least it wasn't Chubster.

After that we patrolled for a while longer, finding a single mugging that I took care of easily thanks to my speed. A single punch to the man's gut and he was down. I'd been taking very basic self-defense lessons since The Locker; how to punch, how to land without hurting yourself…stuff like that.

"Nice takedown." Laserdream nodded at me. "Basic punch, but still effective. We'll spar at some point, but it looks like you have at least the absolute basics down pat."

"Only a month's worth of lessons, but…well determination can make up for time on occasion." I demurred, a bit of pink dusting my cheeks. "A lot of my power sets are Blaster or Shaker powers, or not direct combat ones, like my Tinker powers."

"Powers? As in, plural?" Panacea asked in disbelief. She had just finished giving both the mugger and the mugging victim a once over and taken care of any problems before the police hauled the former away and took the latter away more gently.

"Yeah. The Constellation of the Chemical Furnace – Fornax gives me Chemical Tinker powers." I responded "It would make chemistry homework a breeze if I chose to abuse it that way."

"You've seriously hit the lottery with your powers." Shielder said in amazement.

"It isn't as good as you might think." I disagreed. "Some of my power sets are too big and destructive. The ones I won't -literally will not- use unless it's an Endbringer battle or the Slaughterhouse Nine have come to call are Draco, Hydra and Cetus."

"Dragon, hydra and…whale?" Laserdream blinked.

"Nowadays, we'd call Cetus the Constellation of the Leviathan rather than the Whale." I replied with a tight smile.

"Oh…OH!" Glory Girl said, eyes wide. "That…isn't good. You'd have the Fallen on you like…like…"

"Like flies on shit?" Offered Shielder, making all of us girls look at him in mild revulsion.

"Along those lines, but less disgusting, yes." Laserdream said dryly. "Sorry about my brother; he's under the absurd impression that he's witty."

"Hey!"

"He's a boy." I shrugged eloquently.

"So, what's the actual strongest one that you can use?" Glory Girl asked as we relocated to the rooftops again.

"Depends. For pure strength and durability, that would be Hercules." I responded. "I'm just as tough as Alexandria is in that state. At least I think so. Most versatile…probably Lesser Leo or Capricorn. For shock and awe, definitely Leo."

"The Lion? What does that one do?" Laserdream asked.

"How much do you know about Greek mythology?" I asked with a laugh. "Look up the Nemean Lion. That's what I Change into as soon as my power activates with that one."

Boy oh boy, that had been a shock. To go from a slip of a girl to a lion the size of a goddamn bus in less time than it takes to flip a coin and catch it was something of a mindbender. More so since that form has a sonic roar that made Triumph's own look like a muffled 'meow' by comparison, as well as claws so sharp it ripped solid steel apart with a lazy swipe of a paw. A part of me wondered how Hookwolf would fare against it, but the other, more sensible, part of me did not want to run into that happenstance at all quite yet, thank you very much.

The rest of the patrol was unsatisfying (as Glory Girl put it) and had no more criminals bothering decent people and I slipped my clothes on over my costume and removed my mask elsewhere before heading home. This wasn't so bad, so far.

That Night

Underground Base, Brockton Bay

Thomas Calvert, the supervillain known as Coil, cursed loudly in the isolation of his office as, once again, his plan to acquire the Hebert girl fell through. It was maddening that, no matter how he set out the plan and no matter which of her power sets he accounted for, she kept pulling out new ones!

He had tried to capture her at least a dozen times that day, with nothing to show for it other than a throbbing headache. She was difficult for his power to view, for whatever reason, and that meant that she had to be either brought to heel or put down like a dog.

The most recent attempt to capture her had involved a night attack at her home with the full might of his mercenary forces, augmented by both the Undersiders and the Travelers, and she had unleashed the most terrifying power yet; some kind of ultimate Brute form that bounced bullets, lasers and even a car imbued with the power of Ballistic! Regent had been able to affect her, but she had just thrown something at him to knock him out before smashing the rest of the assault force.

'No…capture is no longer an option.' He concluded sourly. Having an Eidolon-ite under his thumb would have been immensely useful, but every direct force he had to play against her had failed. No, it was time to cut his losses and use the idiots from the Merchants, Empire 88 and ABB to take care of this irritating girl for him.

He would have to be careful, however. Nothing could lead back to him for the girl-who-gave-him headaches to follow up on. She was an annoyingly moral girl, he had deduced from her basic profile, although she would compromise her morals for those she cared about. This included killing, as she had ripped a squad of his soldiers apart when they had (accidentally) killed Laserdream on the sixth attempt to capture Taylor Hebert, or 'Stargazer' as she was calling herself.

Silently, Coil sat and plotted, making and discarding a dozen plans before selecting one that had a high chance to expose more of the girl's abilities without any harm coming to him…all of it going to the idiot catspaws of the E88. Even he hated Nazi skinheads, as they were little more than conveniently stupid tools to be used and discarded when their use was over with. Plus, it would weaken the largest group of Capes in the city.

He had plans for taking over the city, but the main problem would happen in the transition period. If the Empire, ABB and Merchants were destroyed, the Teeth, led by the Butcher, would doubtless return. Accord had agreed to stay out of the Bay if Coil took over it, but otherwise he would be throwing his hat into the ring also. Not to mention the gutter scum from cities aside from Boston.

'I have not spent enough money to bankroll the Protectorate and PRT for a decade on a Parahuman power just to fail.' Coil thought determinedly. He would have true power in this city or else…

This is a ficlet I always liked, but never got around to getting back to until now. Hope you enjoyed it.