A Waken 13.9

Pink stacked the pancakes high and really laid it on with the syrup.

I needed sugar.

"You've got that 'something didn't work and I really wanted it to' face," Dad noted.

"She was tinkering on one of the spares." Lafter tossed a pile of berries onto her breakfast and started stuffing her mouth. "Couldn't get her away from it for more than an hour."

With a frown I pointed out, "It's not a spare. It's a prototype."

"And it didn't go well?" Dad asked.

"It'll work." Dinah refilled her milk and gulped it down quickly. With that, she pushed her glasses onto her nose and rose from the seat. "Thanks for breakfast, Pink. Bye Mr. Hebert."

"Be safe," Dad said. "Try to go out the back. The vultures are still lurking around out front."

"I'll be fine."

I hoped. Dinah had been playing fast and loose with her identity for a while. She was probably right. It was only a matter of time before people remembered us being around each other. A few kids at her school were already asking questions. I didn't know if that meant we should accelerate the reveal or not.

"Is it okay for her to do that?" Charlotte asked as she chewed her own food. "Like is it safe?"

"Probably not," Lafter mused.

"I am keeping an eye on her," Veda noted. "White follows Dinah everywhere."

"Super safe," Pink chirped. "Super safe."

"What about you?" Dad caught it as well. Charlotte looked even more tired than I did. "Is Taylor keeping you up all night?"

"Ahm nhod," I protested through a mouthful of syrupy goodness.

Charlotte paled slightly. "I got carried away a bit, maybe. It's the whole thing with the PRT Director. PHO is blowing up about it."

I preferred not to think about it.

"That bad?" Dad shot a worried expression my way.

"It wasn't that bad." Charlotte hung her head and groaned. "Until the capes started chiming in."

I paused my chewing. "Wah cahps?"

"A whole bunch of them? Flash and Houndstooth. Chevalier. Big Boss. Chubsterer." Who the fuck is Chubsterer? A fanatical Chubster fan? "And then Mouse Protector started trolling people and it became this big flame war." Charlotte looked at me apologetically. "I was just trying to be sociable like Kati said. I swear. I didn't mean for it to explode like that."

"I'm not a stranger to all-nighters," Dad murmured empathetically, "but you're a little young for it. You'll wrinkle."

"Don't remind me," Charlotte pleaded.

Damn conspiracy. Start hunting them down and you see the blasted things everywhere.

What were the odds a little spat between Tagg and me became a huge flame war without someone's interference? If it started getting attention on the news, the PRT would start looking to save face. That could get messy.

More reason to make things appear normal and get back to the routine. If Noelle wanted to attack, she'd have done it yesterday. For now, I imagined her disposition was like mine. She wanted to see how much more she could gain from talking.

Attacking got in the way of that, not that I intended to be stupid.

"It is becoming rather protracted," Veda noted. "I've rarely seen debates on PHO achieve a thousand pages in such a short time."

"It's not your fault, Charlotte." Kati refilled her coffee and quickly turned to leave the room. "It happens. You didn't have to stay up all night trying."

"I know."

Kati stopped near the door and looked down at me. "How's your head?"

"Better than yesterday. Probably just stress like the crazy doctor said."

Not that I wanted her to be right. Relaxation didn't come easy to me. Even the reprieves I took to read, play a game, or watch TV were mostly spent anxious to get back to work. Maybe that was the problem. It's not really relaxing if you're forcing yourself to not work.

Kati nodded and went on her way, tapping at her phone. "We might need to get you in front of a camera if this keeps going."

"I know." That's what worried me.

"We should go shopping," Lafter declared. Randomly.

I didn't have time. "No."

"Why?" Charlotte asked.

"Taylor hasn't expanded her wardrobe in two months."

"I don't need to expand my wardrobe."

Charlotte looked down at herself. "I could use new shoes."

Apparently, my opinion was irrelevant. Though the discussion reminded me to finalize the budget I worked out. Time to start paying people what they were worth, Lafter, Dinah, and Charlotte included. Fortunately, I didn't need an accounting firm. Veda could handle payroll, and once the Helpers got approved we would truly be in business.

It's a shame circumstances didn't let me just enjoy that.

After breakfast, the three of us got our things together.

"Bye, Mr. Hebert," Charlotte said. "Sorry to impose."

"It's no trouble. Nice to see Taylor having friends over again."

Not exactly hard. Most of us worked at the factory all night and Dad was hanging around because of lingering paranoia over Noelle. I'd talk to her today. We needed to hash out the details of exactly how she came into possession of that briefcase.

Akihiro and Mikazuki were waiting for us as we left the factory building. A few other Tekkadan members lingered along the fence line, mostly talking to one another. There were more of them than normal though. Orga was taking his job seriously.

Lafter eyed Akihiro suspiciously. "What are you doing here, Muscles?"

The big man—or boy, I didn't know how old he was—looked down at Lafter. "Orga said to keep an eye on you."

Lafter narrowed her gaze. "A likely story."

"He did," Mikazuki replied.

Charlotte, being quicker on the uptake or just more curious, commented, "You two have bodyguards?"

"They insist," I answered.

"Are they capes?"

"No."

"Then what are they—"

"Most capes aren't bulletproof." Mikazuki turned and started toward the bus stop.

Charlotte gawked at him. I couldn't blame her. The conventional wisdom was that only capes could fight capes. Then again, the PRT still maintained an effective army of conventional troops to back up the Protectorate.

"Look on the bright side." Lafter pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Akihiro. "If we go shopping, we've already got bag carriers."

"I'm not your pack mule," the boy replied.

"You say that, but I'm betting I can insist."

Charlotte smiled nervously. "So… Where would we go shopping?"

"The mall," Lafter answered.

"Which one?"

"Good question. We could go to a movie. I haven't been to a movie theatre in ages."

"I think the mall over at Cross Street has a theatre in it."

"Anything good out?"

While they planned their day, I planned mine.

Should have known better than to think I'd solve the 00 problem in a day. I'd spent weeks just using it as a passing fancy and focused on other things. Now that it suddenly seemed so important, I achieved little more than bashing my head against the wall trying to figure out why it didn't work. If Administrator gave me the knowledge to build the GN Drives for a reason, it should work.

Maybe my conception of the problem was wrong?

Most of the technological problems I overcame involved reorienting my thinking. So what about my thinking was blocking progress on the Twin Drive? Would it work better if I built two GN Drives together? That would take months to find out. Worth a shot, but I didn't want to idle that long.

Testing variable outputs might—

"Taylor."

I froze at the sound of Gladly's voice.

We made it to school early and my legs auto-piloted me toward the front door in defiance of the onlookers. Mikazuki and Akihiro broke off when we stepped off the bus. Gladly stood at the top of the steps leading in, eyes on me.

"Yes, Mr. Gladly?"

"The front office asked for you to stop by first thing."

Did they now. "Okay."

I continued forward and gave a knowing look to Lafter. She pouted and shrugged. Charlotte looked confused. "Go to class," I said. "We'll see you later."

"Are you sure?"

Sure that I didn't want her to come, or that we'd see her later. Doom and gloom. Great kickoff to the day. "Yeah. It'll be fine."

I turned toward the office. Lafter followed behind me. The office wasn't that far from the front doors. Just a quick walk down a mostly barren hallway people mainly used to get from one wing of Arcadia to the other.

When we arrived, I wasn't surprised to see Murrue in the office. She'd forgone her PRT uniform for more casual clothing. A nice but conservative dress and a sun hat to hide her hair. She'd probably been seen with me enough times a suit or professional look wouldn't obscure anything.

Personally, I'd never seen her looking so feminine.

Ms. Badgiruel stood with her, looking far more like the professional I normally thought of her as.

"Ms. Hebert, Ms. Frankland," she greeted. "Sorry for the disruption to your morning. As I was just explaining to Murrue"—wait a minute—"you cannot be compelled to be here."

"That's not in their best interests, Natarle."

"But it is their right. They're not Wards. There is no legal obligation that I make them available to you or that they cannot simply walk out the door and go about their day. I also cannot deny them the use of a phone if they want their guardian to be present."

In both our cases, that would be Dad. He put his name down on all of Lafter's school forms, so he would be the one technically responsible for her. In practice, it was me but as a sixteen-year-old no one accepted my signature for those kinds of things.

I looked between the two women.

They knew each other. How long had they known each other and how did I miss it?

"It's fine," I said. "I can guess what this is about."

Ms. Badgiruel didn't miss a beat. She nodded and said she'd inform our teachers we might be late. From there, she stepped aside and Murrue motioned toward a door in the corner of the office. I'd never noticed it before. Seemed kind of unassuming.

Behind it was a plain room, a table, some chairs, and one Miss Militia. Color me surprised. I would have expected Armsmaster, or Renick.

"Hello, Taylor."

Murrue closed the door behind her, and I replied, "Hi Hannah."

Murrue walked around the table to stand a step behind Miss Militia. Lafter and I swept forward to take the seats on the other side of the table.

Names seemed appropriate. She was sitting with her scarf around her neck and not covering her face.

"Lafter."

"M&M."

That got a smile on her face, which served mostly to highlight how grim she looked before. A glance at Murrue didn't tell me much. She was stiff. Nervous. Something was up.

"I've already gotten the lectures," I pointed out. "Twice, from Murrue and Dragon."

Hannah nodded. "I overheard Armsmaster asking her to talk to you."

"And yet, here we are."

"We're not here about that."

She said it so empathetically.

Of course Hero would pick Hannah as his spy. Prism didn't like me. I might already suspect Triumph of something. Stratos would refuse and Dauntless didn't really know me. We barely interacted. Armsmaster maybe, once upon a time, but we were too cordial now.

Hannah? She'd watch me out of worry and the goodness of her heart, not out of distrust or malevolence.

Hero's an asshole.

"Then what are we here about?" Lafter queried.

"We never managed to talk about what happened with the Travelers," Murrue explained.

"You need our statements?" I asked.

"Yes."

I sighed, wondering why this had happened now. I needed my daily exercise.

I explained everything from when I left the PRT building to stumbling into Parian and Noelle. Then I covered the chase and my decisions to retaliate against the Travelers for breaking the unwritten rules. From there it mostly felt like telling the PRT what it already knew, which made the specificity of some questions weird.

"Bastion?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah. I recognized his costume."

"Any other Protectorate members?"

"Not in the fight. Forecast saw a Chevalier clone in some visions. StarGazer and her identified him as wearing his old costume though, before he took over in Philadelphia."

"I'm not sure when she would have encountered him in his old costume," the heroine whispered, mostly to herself.

"Strider can explain most of them," I suggested. "If she's had him the entire time, she could pop herself over almost anywhere. Shaking hands with her is probably enough."

"Where'd she get him?" Lafter asked.

"That's the weird part," I replied. "I have no idea. Strider isn't a public cape."

"Outside of Endbringer fights, he mostly does courier work," Murrue noted. "He doesn't do PR events or patrols."

"And the Travelers have never been to an Endbringer fight," Veda acknowledged. "I can only surmise they gained access to Strider in the aftermath of one."

"It would suggest they've violated the Endbringer truce," Hannah said. "That can't be allowed to stand."

Somehow, that still didn't seem to be the heart of the issue.

There was something more going on here. This was just the excuse to get me into the room. No doubt that was a serious thing, but I doubted it was this serious. The rest of the room was empty, but I did notice the camera in the back corner. The door opened toward it, so it would be easy to miss.

Someone was watching.

Why isn't Armsmaster the one doing this?

There was a reason I couldn't bring him into everything. If pressed, he'd tell the truth. That included any instances where his lie detector picked out any of my obfuscated lies as less than fully truthful. Might be a few of those. If the PRT noticed how I worded things around him…

"What about when she teleported you away with Magic Hat?" Hannah asked. "Did she try to touch you?"

That's the game then.

Stupid of me. I got so caught up in what Noelle could tell me, I didn't think enough about the interest others might have. Did Cauldron know about the Travelers? That's who really wanted the answers to the questions.

"I didn't give her the chance. Slammed her right into the ground."

"Why did she pull you away?"

How did I lie my way out of this without just plain lyin—Oh. This might work.

"She tried to peddle some conspiracy theory at me," I said.

Lafter slowly turned her head. Bless her, she didn't give anything away. Her expression came off more as surprise than confusion.

Time to lie by the seat of my slacks.

"Conspiracy theory?" Murrue asked, a little confused herself.

"Something about some group within the PRT and Protectorate"—I nodded to Hannah—"corruption at the top. That sort of thing."

I didn't lie. Noelle did tell me that, and maybe it was time to start setting the stage before Teacher pulled the rug out from under us.

"Not sure what she hoped to gain from it. There's plenty of corruption in something as big as the PRT and Protectorate"—also not a lie—"and on top of it, she called it Cauldron. The urban legend. Powers for sale?"

"I've heard of it." Hannah looked distracted. "What exactly did she say?"

"Whole bunch of names." I faked a laugh. "She even named Alexandria, Legend, and Hero." Not. A. Lie. "Didn't say how she knew it"—Lie—"just implored me to trust her."

Read between the lines, Armsmaster.

Hannah's reaction was immediate and painful to watch. It was subtle. A twitch. A quick look away from me. A flash of recognition. Confusion. Uncertainty. Surprise. Anger. It all lasted for only a moment, and I wondered exactly what went through her mind at the sound of Hero's name.

"She tried to recruit you against the PRT?" Murrue asked.

"She tried to sell me on a bunch of stuff that's hard to believe."

"Crazy stuff," Lafter grumbled. I nodded in agreement.

Hannah's head tilted and I noticed the communicator in her ear. Protectorate wore those all the time. Their presence rarely drew my attention.

Someone is telling her what to ask.

"How did you respond?" Hannah inquired.

"I grabbed her, shot Sundancer, she got swapped by the Magic Hat clone. Strider clone appeared. You know the rest."

"Yes," Hannah said slowly.

If Cauldron or whoever would go this far to fish, they probably suspected something anyway. No. They definitely suspected something. No need to have Hannah spy on me if they didn't. So really, the game we were playing wasn't Go Fish. It was Chicken.

"That's a strange lie to tell," Murrue said. She caught on fast. "It's absurd."

I tapped my finger against the table, and to the lie detector watching me proclaimed, "I don't believe her, of course. It's crazy."

Armsmaster would pick up the pieces. He'd figure it out. He already knew about Dragon. None of this was far-fetched. Miss Militia was asked to spy on me. She'd figure it out too, if not now then later.

Cauldron was real.

The top was corrupt.

Their choice how they handled that, but I knew them now. I knew they weren't fakes. They were good people doing their best with what the world handed them. Human experimentation. Murder and assassination. Spending lives not to go anywhere but to stay exactly where we were. The PRT wasn't where they belonged and they wouldn't stay if they knew the truth.

When push came to shove and the PRT began to burn around them, I'd help them get out of the building.

If the breadcrumbs didn't start coming now, they'd burn when the fire started. Cauldron could go on and keep being suspicious. For the moment, circumstances shielded me. By the time they couldn't, I was betting they'd have a bigger problem than what I knew.

"Façade is dangerous," I continued, much in the same vein of spinning truth into lies. "Makes you wonder if we really have the time to be bickering over Tagg's machismo. The Travelers could be anywhere right now. I can't track them using my regular means."

"The Think Tank is still assessing the risks," Murrue replied. She looked at Hannah and frowned. "Militia?"

"Sorry. Thinking about something."

And she looked angry again. Maybe angry was too strong a word. She looked disappointed. Maybe she was figuring things out faster than I thought.

"Sooooooo," Lafter drawled, "anything else?"

We walked out of the office toward the end of first period.

"Was that smart?" Lafter whispered. The halls were empty, but it was probably a smart move. The PRT did have surveillance in the building. "What if they think we believe her?"

"They're already suspicious"—they being Cauldron—"or that wouldn't have happened." Did they know something about Façade, or suspect something about me?

"And what stops them from going legal on our butts?"

"They attack us, and we start talking. It's a lose-lose."

They would know that, so an attack wasn't what worried me. What worried me is that I had no idea what came next in the short term. It would help if I knew what Cauldron was thinking but given the hitters involved, that might be beyond me. Noelle really made a fucking mess of things.

My glasses flashed.

sys.v/ I will warn Kati to prepare

Yeah… I spent math class doing basic arithmetic. Kati needed a budget and I needed to stop sitting on the PRT's money. The guys working the factory could be paid higher wages. I could buy the land for Trevor's E-Carbon production project, get another factory going to produce models, and hand Kati enough money to hire help other than Charlotte.

And I could start paying Charlotte, Dinah, Lafter, and Veda. I'd been shuffling money to Dinah and Lafter for months but it wasn't a wage. Veda… Well, why shouldn't she get paid like everyone else? Celestial Being couldn't run without her keeping all the gears turning behind the scene and she deserved compensation as much as anyone.

For all I knew, she wanted to go to college or something.

Veda scanned all the writing out from my glasses.

I also threw in a budget to get a lawyer. A good one. Carol Dallon's firm filled in for my dealings with Yashima but I doubted they wanted to deal with the PRT. I didn't have or want Blue Cosmos' representation anymore…. Maybe Theo knew a good lawyer. Or Dean—What is Dean doing here?

His presence surprised me when I saw him on the way to Lit.

Shouldn't he be in Hartford? Blue Cosmos' big day was tomorrow. A full day of ranting and raving about those evil parahumans destroying society… And I'm not in the mood.

"Um, Taylor."

Weld.

I turned to look at him and it hit me like a rock to the gut.

He was a good guy. Nice. Friendly. Understanding. Great guy, really. And he was a lab rat being used by his kidnappers to fill out a roster.

"Hey, Weld. What—" I was blocking the doorway and the person standing behind Weld looked annoyed.

Weld gave me a small smile as I stepped back to let him enter the room. The line behind him groaned in relief and filtered in. Oops.

"It'll be okay," he said. "This kind of stuff blows over. Stratos was laughing about it on his way out the building."

Oh right, that. God, what I'd give to have a week where the problems of the world didn't decide to dogpile me.

Vicky flew into the room just before the bell and I flinched as she leaned toward me. "Did you seriously tell a PRT Director he was stupid?"

More than a few heads leaned closer after the question left her mouth. I developed a suspicion that Charlotte was not exaggerating that everyone was obsessed over this.

"No," I objected. "I implied it."

Vicky stared at me, then leaned away. "How's that going?"

I sighed. "How does it look like it's going?"

She shrugged. "Not as bad as it could be?" Sounded about right, actually. "Well, your week's been more exciting than mine. By the time I heard about the whole deal going down it was already over."

Vicky floated to her seat and paused for a moment. She blinked toward Dean as he spoke with one of the girls in the class—Mindy or something—then she turned around and sat with this weird look on her face. Guess she didn't expect him to be here either.

I took my seat, pointing out, "All I've done this week is fail to get Grue and help wreck a city block. At least you cleaned up a mess."

"It was mostly"—she paused and looked past me at Weld—"I didn't do much. Kind of just showed up and we weren't really looking for a fight. Kind of just popped on us."

"You and Warp?" Weld asked with a knowing gaze.

"Yeah. She's good. Took care of the whole place practically on her own." She looked up at the ceiling and pouted. "I like my power, but sometimes I think it would be nice to be a shaker."

Mostly I focused on the first thing. "You weren't trying to clean out Garter street?"

Vicky scowled. "We were following a bird."

"A bird?"

"It turned at right angles."

Right—Okay, that's weird. "Like, exactly right angles?"

"Yup. Think it's a projection or something. It was following a van around."

Genesis. "And that led you to Garter street?"

"We lost track of it and started looking around. The Red Hand have a projector so we figured they might be hiding out around there." The Red Hand did have a projection cape, but Rook only made static objects. Maybe Vicky thought he was holding back. "Ended up with no villains and a bunch of angry junkies."

I glanced away from her and tapped a finger on my desk.

sys.v/ one moment

sys.v/ searching

Splitting the Haros was getting worse and worse by the moment. I needed to get Red, Purple, and Black back into Brockton Bay. Pink, Green, Orange, and Navy weren't enough to cover all our bases, not with Yellow and White tied up on regular things. Or I could just make more Haros, not that I wanted to increase their potential for mischief.

sys.v/ found

Veda projected a still onto my glasses. I needed to squint hard. The image itself was focused on a cat. I was not surprised. Off in the corner however, was a van driving down a street with a bird just behind it. Weird. Weirder when we saw the same van in four other places also being followed by a bird, either behind it or somewhere to the side.

Orga was convinced someone was watching them; then The Guy got caught. He was right. Genesis was making a bird with her power and using it to do what I did. There were birds everywhere in Brockton Bay. We were a coastal city. As far as covert surveillance went, it was a great cover.

Pulling a paper from between the pages of my book, I clicked a pen and wrote out find that van.

If the Travelers were still nearby, and I was betting they were, I'd like to know where. Maybe get a peek at what was going on behind the scenes.

And what am I going to do with the Case-53s… What is Teacher going to do?

Why can't this be simpler?

I glanced over my shoulder at Dean.

I was going to need to start a checklist again.

"Saw a mugger the other day," Weld said. "First one in ages."

"Is it weird that I'd rather have a villain?" Vicky asked. "Like, villains are bad, but at least they're not mundane, you know? A mugger is just so"—Vicky held her hands out—"how does this end well for you?"

"I don't get it either," Weld agreed. "Dean's back."

I quickly looked away and tried not to look at Weld.

"I noticed," Vicky grumbled. "Wonder why."

The bell rang and class started, which halted that discussion. Vicky asked a good question though. Dean was quitting Blue Cosmos but he told me he wanted to talk to some people. I assumed that's why he went to Hartford. Did coming back mean he'd done some talking?

I suffered through the clock ticking by far too slowly, and when the class ended Vicky picked right up where she left off.

"Maybe he really did leave."

"Leave?" Weld asked.

"Blue Cosmos. Overheard he was quitting."

Weld raised his brow but didn't look Dean's way. "He's not a jerk."

Vicky huffed and gathered her books. I expected her to lay into that response. Dean normally seemed to set her off, but lately she'd been oddly quiet. Weird.

"Taylor?" Weld turned to me when I didn't respond.

Right. Normally we ended up going to our lockers together. "Finishing up."

I pretended to write while he moved on, waiting for the room to empty a bit.

Dean paused on his way by, whispering, "Roof."

Guess he noticed me staring too… People were going to post something about us dating on PHO, aren't they? And unlike Orga, Dean had a Romeo quality that the Internet would just eat up. Ugh.

I'd have to wait for lunch though. For the moment, anatomy class called.

I got across the building to my class in a bit of a rush. When I arrived, Trevor and Chris were already at our table and talking about the daily worksheet. We were dissecting worms. I didn't like worms. They wriggled.

"You know in some places they eat worms?" Chris pointed out. "Protein."

"Please don't," Trevor grunted irritably. He glanced at me as I caught up on the assignment. "Helpers are ready."

"Meeting on Sunday," I replied. "StarGazer has it all set up."

"That was fast."

"She takes after my work ethic."

"I'll get some of the guys to help me pack everything up on Saturday night. Stu can get a truck I think."

I nodded. "I'm getting the land by the way. For that other project."

Trevor grinned. "I've been working on that. Off and on. You'd have to take a look though. E-Carbon is your thing."

"What thing?" Chris asked.

"Classified," Trevor teased.

"We're going to start selling E-Carbon," I answered.

"You're spilling state secrets, Taylor."

"He's going to find out eventually."

Chris tapped his pencil against the table. "Huh. I could see that. Armor?"

"Construction. Yashima is interested."

"Don't you already have two deals with Yashima?"

"I'm ambitious."

Chris nodded and whispered, "Rebranding is taking forever."

"They don't like your name," I whispered back, with a look around the room.

"I like it."

"Then stick to your guns."

"I have plenty."

What do I tell the Wards? How do I tell them…

When the bell rang, I rose quickly. To Trevor I said, "I'll check on the Helper line tonight with you. Make extra sure everything is working right."

He nodded and gathered his books while Chris cleaned off our table. I didn't want to bomb the Helpers just because a new crisis was preoccupying me. Cauldron might not want to engage in mutual destruction, but if I forced their hand they wouldn't back down. I didn't want to test my chances against the Triumvirate just yet.

Once in the hall, I started toward the nearest stairwell.

"Roof?" I asked in a low voice.

sys.v/ access two floors up

sys.v/ down the hall to the right

Never been to the roof of Arcadia before. I tried hiding out on Winslow's once or twice. Didn't always work, but there was a sense of safety in height.

I arrived first and settled myself facing the Bay. I didn't have a good view, but I could make out the Rig between some of the buildings. Green descended with my lunch and I set the meal out while I waited.

Dean arrived a minute or so after me. "Hey."

"Hey. Didn't expect to see you."

"Things started getting toxic after what happened with Duncan. I don't have the stomach for it anymore. Azrael's going to make some big announcement or something tomorrow."

I frowned. "Announcement?"

"He's going to run for the Senate."

Exactly the kind of man the world needed. Wonderful.

I took a bite from my sandwich and chewed. Arcadia's roof didn't seem to be a popular spot, but then it was the middle of the day and the school had a great cafeteria. Mostly though, I needed the moment to think.

sys.v/ I have looped the camera over the door

I swallowed my bite. "Phantom Pain." Dean's face told me what I needed to know. "What did you hear?"

"Rumors," he said. "Vague talk. Bunch of it after the thing with Faultline." He paused, looking at me like he wanted to ask. I gathered he suspected I'd arranged that attack. "'Taking matters into our own hands' kind of talk. More of it than normal, and like there was a plan."

"Operation British," I suggested. "Your grandfather had files about it on his computer."

"I remember. A few of the others are worried."

"Which others?"

"Nicole and Matilda. Two of Grandfather's friends. Cecily too."

I didn't know the first two names. "Cecily Fairchild? I was under the impression she was close to Azrael."

"She likes to keep an eye on him."

If rumors were doing the rounds now, how close were we? Veda might be right. Things were too far along for us to stop them now. "They're stockpiling arms," I said. "Lots of them. Military grade stuff. Importing from Europe."

Dean scowled. "Duncan has an import business."

I nodded. "Faultline connected him to some black market deals. She got curious, told me what she found. One sec."

I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Aisha's number. It rang a few times, and then clicked.

"Imp?"

"Yo."

"Checking in. Sorry. Yesterday—"

"They've got the news on around here. I saw."

Dean pointed at the phone and I mouthed 'Hartford.'

"Anything new?" I asked.

"Other than the veiled bigotry, wild conspiracy theories, and underhanded suggestions that the world would be a better place if every parahuman on Earth suddenly wasn't? Nah. Same old, same old. Been following what's-his-face around, but it's just boring meeting after boring meeting. Politics and blah blah blah."

Guess it was hoping for too much to get a confession for Aisha to overhear.

"I have recorded several conversations that are suggestive," Veda added suddenly. Much like Orga, Dean did a small double-take. "I believe Blue Cosmos is very aware of and prepared for Masters and Strangers. I doubt we will get a straight statement."

"Not sure we need one anymore. We know what's coming."

"We do?" Dean wondered aloud.

"Not here. Long story short, Teacher's going to reveal enough of the skeletons in the PRT's closet that no one will want it to keep existing."

"I feel like I missed something," Aisha stated.

"StarGazer can tell you." I turned to Dean. "It's bad. Bad enough that I'm not sure I want to stop it from happening, even if I could."

That got Dean to pale slightly.

What would I do? I'd probably still blow Mockleburg's gun stash. That plan was already in motion anyway. The PRT might be doomed but…yeah. Everyone didn't deserve to burn with it. I'd give them a heads up and a warning. Give them all a chance to survive.

And then, "We need to prepare for a world without the PRT."

Dean hesitated. "You don't think that's a bit extreme?"

"It is. But it's what's coming."

I thought about it a bit last night. How to set Celestial Being up in a position where it could take over. Truth was, I didn't think we could. I still had Dragon and Teacher to worry about. Trying to deal with those two things and expand Celestial Being into a much larger organization? It was a lot. Even with Veda to help, it was a lot.

Such an effort would need people who knew how to organize, and given the dangers, whoever led that effort would need to be fully informed of what we were up against.

To that end, "What's your availability?"

Dean's jaw slackened. "Me?"

"You quit Blue Cosmos. Have anything better to do?"

I took another bite of my sandwich while Dean stared. It was a lot to ask, especially on short notice. Short notice was unfortunately looking like our timetable. Teacher already tried to kill Dean. He was involved.

"You want justice for your grandfather, don't you?"

"I want to do what he didn't have the chance to but this is a lot, Taylor."

"I know. I'm sorry. There isn't a lot of time and not many people I can ask."

"I'm kind of young."

"I'm young. You know how to organize. You're good with people. You know right from wrong."

Dean inhaled sharply and nodded. Turning to face the Bay at my side, he asked, "What would this effort look like, exactly?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure I'd be able to run it. I need to focus on Teacher, the PRT, and whatever Blue Cosmos is planning. I might have to take some public positions that won't be overly popular."

Bakuda for one. If the PRT wanted to squeeze me without starting a war, they'd go after her.

"And you need someone on your side, but a step apart. Someone who can talk to the other side?"

I nodded. "And the effort needs to recruit capes. Non-capes. Anyone who wants to help. Offer them something the PRT, Protectorate, and Blue Cosmos don't. It needs to be grown and fleshed out before the PRT falls."

"Because the Protectorate and the Wards will fall with it."

"Yes."

"I need to think."

"I understand."

"Don't suppose you have another sandwich?"

"I can share."

He shook his head. "I'll go get something. I can call you later."

I nodded and kept eating while Dean walked off.

It was a lot to put on someone, but I had a good feeling about it. Dean liked helping people. It came naturally to him. Anyone who could grow up in Blue Cosmos without becoming a complete prick must have a good head on his shoulders. Oddly appropriate thinking for a lot of people I knew, actually.

Weird.

I didn't think about it a lot, but how I grew up seemed to define a lot about me. Union man father. Activist-minded mother. Best friend who meant the world to me then turned my life into a living hell. Made me wonder. What variable let Dean, Hannah, Lafter and Orga walk out of their lives managing to be so decent?

Huh. I guess in light of things, Orga could be more of a jerk—I forgot about the Foundation.

I groaned and stuffed the wrapper of my sandwich in my bag. I needed to check in on them, see how our collaboration turned out.

sys.v/ Taylor

sys.v/ behind you

I froze, phone in hand. Behind me? Turning my head, I looked back over my shoulder.

A bird, perched over the door…watching me.

How long had that bird been there?

Fingers gripped my phone tight. "Noelle."

The air rippled, and Noelle dropped in place of the Bird. Did she Magic Hat the damn thing over there?

sys.v/ deploying Exia and Queen

She offered a grim look and I pulled a beam saber from my pocket. "You can't help yourself can you?"

"I am nosy." She shrugged. "Can you blame me? We both know the other is hiding something. We'd be stupid not to wonder what it is."

I raised my brow. She held her position more than twenty feet away from me, standing over the door. Because of Magic Hat's power, there wasn't any flash of light or anything associated with her arrival. Other than Veda and I, no one knew she was here.

"StarGazer, go high."

"You are certain?"

"If she tries to touch me, blast her."

"Gladly."

Noelle tilted her head and looked both annoyed and bemused.

If she touched me, the city burned. Not sure I could keep putting it off though. Even saying it might set things in motion. I knew where I stood on Cauldron and Teacher. I'd made my peace with the end of the PRT and saving as many as I could.

Seemed like it might be time to make up my mind on Noelle.

"The PRT knows something," I offered. Any track was better than the one of direct conflict. "They were asking me questions about you. Fishing ones."

"I saw Stars and Stripes slipping out a side door earlier. I figured. Cauldron probably noticed something a while back."

"Did Triumph know anything about the Travelers when you touched him?"

"No, but he knows the others know more than him. He's still new."

If Cauldron knew something about her, and suspected something about me, "Why would they let us meet if we separately make them uneasy?"

"With you, they're worried about the whole 'talking to your agent' thing. But they're not convinced it's a problem. They're more wary than worried, in Triumph's mind."

Right. That… I should probably ask about that.

Veda spoke up, inquiring, "Can you elaborate?"

Noelle seemed less shocked than Dean. "Q&A. Answer me this. David and Blue Cosmos. They're going to start a war?"

I frowned. I couldn't not answer. If I tried to shut her out, she'd just try to touch me. I could fight her off, but with her powers? She'd pop off, wait for another chance. Try to catch me by surprise. She'd succeed eventually, or maybe we'd burn Brockton Bay down fighting over it.

Talk it is.

"Yeah. They want to destroy the PRT, and it's going to spiral into a war between everyone. Capes and non-capes. Don't suppose you know why David would want that?"

Noelle crouched down and rested her cheek against her palm. "The cycle." I raised my brow. "His term. The cycle of violence, abuse, and oppression. Something like that. Said people have the right to fight for their own future. Break the cycle."

"And the Pets?" Veda asked. "That seems a bit contradictory with his power."

"Never said he wasn't a hypocrite. I don't know how much of that was just blowing smoke up our asses. It's how he talked."

Another madman styling himself as a liberator. I didn't know what I expected but that seemed so…petty. Small-minded. Starting a war between people, dividing them against themselves, for something so vague? Or maybe Noelle didn't remember it very well and didn't care to. She did hate him.

If I interpreted his focus on the PRT as really being attacks against Cauldron, maybe he started off better and got lost somewhere along the way. Still didn't change much.

He was wrong.

"I have to admit," Noelle mused, "I'm wondering."

"What?"

"What you're so desperate to hide. I'm morbidly curious."

"I'm not."

She watched me. I watched her.

"Well." She looked away. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. You've been pretty straight so far. No need to ruin it entirely."

She didn't really believe that was the reason, but it was convenient. For both of us.

We didn't have time for this and I didn't have the energy. Too many other things needed my attention to keep dancing around Noelle. A shame Dinah couldn't hear in her possibilities. She might be able to tell me what the issue would be. Without that, I found myself tiptoeing around her, wondering what might set her off.

"Agree to keep your hands to yourself, I'll agree not to lie. You already know more than almost anyone outside my team anyway." We'd just have to work through things. "Do you know how David's power works?"

"He never described it to me but I think he'd have used it on us if it was based on touch, speech, or sight."

"He hasn't. Forecast can't see Pets. Something about his power blocks precognition. It's how I've been checking for them."

"Find the people Forecast can't see. That makes sense. Can you find him? You seem pretty good at that. You figured out who the local villains all were."

"I am searching," Veda revealed. "It will take time without more than a common name and description. I have little to go off other than places he has been."

"Krouse might have a picture."

Shit, is that what set her off? She didn't seem to suspect he was a Pet. Did she honestly not know, or was she in denial?

"We got most of his stuff when we arrested him. I've seen a lot of it. StarGazer can check, but she'd remember if it was there I think."

"I have checked thrice," Veda clarified. "There is no record that Francis Krouse ever interacted with anyone but Thomas Calvert, and even that was elaborately hidden. I did not observe it until after he dealt with him.

"Krouse—"

"He's in prison, Noelle."

"Because David and that Calvert guy set him up to take the fall."

"I'm sorry but I can't go busting him out." She flinched and grimaced. Thinking for a moment, I suggested, "Dealing with David might be the best way to help him. If he's just a cog, it gives us leverage to negotiate something."

"Easy enough if we find him. After Krouse, he stopped showing up around us. I think he could read the room."

"We'd have to find him first. In the meantime, there are the other problems."

"Other problems?"

"There are people in the Protectorate and PRT who don't deserve to burn with it. They haven't done anything wrong."

"Ah. Your little pitch to the not-so-bigoted boy."

I nodded and continued, "I don't know what to do about the Case-53s, but we need to do something. Then there's what to do with Blue Cosmos. They won't just go away because we deal with Teacher. That machine is running itself now."

"Well." Noelle cocked a smile. "Isn't this just a nice little ship we're on."

"Peachy."

She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "Though, a thought occurs."

I wasn't going to like this.

"I could know all this back and forth stuff with the shake of a hand. Save us both time and energy." She narrowed her eyes, and all the familiarity vanished from her face. Instead she was critical, assessing. "What do you have that needs to be so secret?"

God damnit, Noelle. "We don't have time for this. Cauldron needs to be stopped and Teacher is bringing everything crashing down. They're the problems."

"I gave Teacher the benefit of the doubt. Didn't work out for me."

"We are not Teacher," Veda pointed out.

"Yeah. Could be worse. Hard for me to know."

Why were we back to this? We didn't have time for this! "I can point a finger at you too. Where did you get the vials? The briefcase? Why didn't Cauldron come looking for them? Not very productive, is it?"

"You're the one I don't know I can trust. You can solve that easily with one touch."

She held her hand out. Green jumped in front of me, popping his ears and swinging out a pair of beam sabers in his hands. I swung my own saber out and held it defensively. If Magic Hat remained on a roof nearby, she could force matters.

This is stupid. "While we're arguing about trust the world is falling apart. Teacher. Cauldron. The Endbringers—"

"We're not talking about the Endbringers."

"It's all the same!"

She started to speak but stopped. Really. Was that going to get through to her? A weird expression came over her face. She turned pale and averted her eyes. She was thinking. That's a start.

"The world is broken. Do you want to fix it or do you want to pick at every little thing you can't control?""

She settled herself down, seemingly lost in thought… And the longer she thought, the more uneasy I felt. "Noelle?"

"Sorry. This has been hard on me. My friends. This life isn't what we wanted."

"It's going to be harder. The PRT knows about your power now, and in their eyes you've broken the Unwritten Rules. You might have to ditch Brockton Bay for a bit."

"Maybe."

It occurred to me to glance around this time. The roof was fairly high up, but Vicky could fly. Tall buildings nearby might be able to see us. Damn.

"We can talk about this somewhere more private. I'm done with school for the day. We can meet somewhere outside the city and figure things out."

Noelle sighed and rose up. "Alright. I have Strider. I can be anywhere."

"Later tonight. I need to figure out how closely the PRT is going to try and watch me." And ask Dinah for more details to see if I can avoid any fires.

"Fine."

She popped away, replaced by a water cooler. I sighed and shook my head. "Veda. Please move that before someone wonders how it got there."

"I'll see what the Haros can do. They're good at moving things."

I did another quick check around. I was not used to being ambushed. Probably should build more Haros or some backup Helpers. We'd need them to support expansion. It could be something to do while waiting for the Twin Drive tests to complete.

I left Arcadia and returned to the factory. Mikazuki appeared from somewhere about a block from the school and started following me. Orga might have a point about that. If Noelle did try to push, Mikazuki might buy me enough time to act. Not that I wanted him to get hurt on my account.

As tempting as it was to jump right back into the Twin Drive, there were things I needed to do. I got Kati an outline for the budget and talked about hiring. I did need to check for Pets in the PR team. That seemed like a no-brainer. I gave Orga a call and kept him up to date on Noelle.

Then I called the Foundation before I forgot again.

"We were wondering if we were boring you," G griped. "No matter. We've been setting up the lab and we're still not done yet."

"You brought a lot of equipment with you."

"Mostly it was the Drives," H replied. "We're almost ready to show them to you."

"Right. I'm still in the middle of a small crisis. I'd be careful of the PRT snooping around. I get the feeling they might start trying to squeeze me a bit."

"We can manage. They still need us for a few side projects. Anti-Master procedures. Eagleton. There's the Madison situation too. It's starting to worry them a great deal. Something you might actually be able to help with one. Your stun rockets could be quite useful. We've been looking at the feasibility of producing a number of them to support the quaraintine while we work on other solutions."

I heard something about that. Whole bunch of Case-53s overran the city. Guess the quarantine wasn't as secure as the PRT… insisted…

Madison is overrun with Case-53s.

I raised my head. "Veda. The Travelers first showed up in Milwaukee?"

"Yes."

"What Endbringer attack immediately preceded their first appearance?"

"The Simurgh's attack on Madison, Wisconsin. Oh."

Oh shit.