Just as an FYI, I do know that New Wave isn't the Protectorate, and don't have a regular dispatch.

I still think that having it so that with Glory Girl and Panacea wandering about, they'd have someone they could communicate with to say if something went wrong. Maybe not a radio and not so formal, but hey, it's there no, so might as well leave it alone =D

Chapter 3

Despite being proven right, Taylor honestly didn't feel very happy about her discovery.

When Emma's father told her that Taylor had been hospitalized and that Danny, her father, was understandably furious at the school and the perpetrators, Emma had taken it reasonably normally, looking sad but not majorly affected by what happened, just enough to allay her father. It might have had something to do about the fact that Alan, Emma's father, was trying to piece together a way to keep any attention away from Emma and her friends, but didn't seem to actually think it was them that did it. She said she was going to go to her room while her father was in the process of getting in contact with Sophia to tell her what had happened. As soon as the bedroom door was closed, the facade cracked.

No, it didn't just crack, it broke entirely. She could see the blankness that engulfed Emma as she effectively shut down, sliding to sit with her back to the door, looking at nothing. Her father had tried to spare the details, but eventually he cracked and told her of the injuries that Danny had told Alan about. It...wasn't a pretty description, and she felt just the tiniest bit annoyed at Danny for telling Alan about so many of the injuries Body-Taylor had sustained, but it also helped the frame for Emma exactly how bad-off Taylor had been when she'd split from herself. She watched as Emma slowly picked herself up and trudged to her bed, flopping into it and pulling her stuffed animal to her chest.

Satisfied with her decision to leave Emma out of her plans for a while, she turned her focus to Sophia, shifting into the room she was in. She'd been watching her reaction through a fly as Alan spoke to her, and her feral grin as she spoke made it plain that Sophia was utterly irredeemable. She relished the fact that Taylor had ended up in the hospital, though amusingly she was frustrated when Alan didn't tell her of exactly how injured Taylor had gotten. Not that any of that came through in her voice, she spoke well enough to convey the 'correct' emotions. If Taylor wasn't looking at her face, she would probably have bought it.

What Taylor really wanted though, was to catch Sophia in her Shadow Stalker guise, doing something obviously illegal and highly suspect. With Taylor out of her crosshairs, she didn't doubt that Sophia would do something to let out her sadistic side. She was a Ward known for doing solo and doing her own thing after all, it was part of the appeal, and with her edgy costume and the fact she carried a crossbow, it just appealed more to teenagers.

Of course, the fact that one of her crossbows had a bolt loaded with a razor-sharp point was definitely a strike against her, something she knew Wards were not allowed to carry regularly, and even then only in very specific situations like a state of emergency. But the main thing Taylor wanted was enough info that the media would do the legwork. The PRT would just try to hide the information, hoping it would go away and they could keep things shiny and clean, but give the media a bone as juicy as a scandal, and they would happily chew the PRT in general, Shadow Stalker in particular, into pieces.

A little vindictive, but it was a lot less than she was capable of. If she really wanted to, she could reach out and take hold of Shadow Stalker. She could feel her, like she could feel all the living beings she had encountered so far. Her focus had been on bugs which stopped her paying as much attention, but every living thing she had so far encountered she could feel the same spark within. Taylor had no idea exactly how far her control would extend, but even if it was something that could be broken out of, it'd still let her force people into critical errors.

Just trying to get Sophia strung up by her own actions was a mercy compared to what she could force her to do.

The loud, surprised laugh of the Faerie Queen made more than a few of the inmates in the Birdcage flinch, even as she controlled herself to a more reasonable level.

Smiling, Taylor considered how utterly bizarre her not-quite-life was now. Just a day and a half ago she was in a locker and dying, and now she was having a genuinely pleasant conversation with the Faerie Queen herself about what she was planning. Ciara was genuinely pleasant to talk to, behind all the queenly stuff she put out for everyone she saw as beneath her. "T-truly?" Taylor nodded at her question, making Ciara laugh again, a shorter and lighter one this time. "Oh, I might just break my vow, just to see this."

Taylor raised an eyebrow at that. All she'd said was that she was going to monumentally screw over the person who stuffed her into the locker, having told Ciara already about exactly what had triggered her change, then went into her vaguest plans. "I mean, are you sure about that? It's personal revenge for me, and I guess you're a bit starved for entertainment down here, but still, breaking out just so you can watch me pick apart Sophia's life-" She was cut off by Ciara raising a hand to stop her.

"No, it's amusing that you would use your current capabilities for...well, that! If you wanted to, you could reach out and grasp her, then force her to snap her own neck. Yet, instead, you just want to engineer a situation that would see her removed from her position and potentially imprisoned." Taylor shrugged at that. Yeah, she could do that, just like she could tell any of the other beings she could control to do unspeakable things to people. But it felt...it wasn't crossing a line as much as just something she didn't want to do.

She was tempted to do it to the Slaughterhouse Nine though. Taking control of Jack Slash and making him slash his own throat open felt like poetic justice. The only one of the Nine that worried her really was the Siberian, because she affected reality itself. Maybe Mannequin or Bonesaw could figure out something about affecting her, but when she could pick and choose who to take control of, the only one that worried her was the only one with a tenuous link to control. "Perhaps Queen Administrator is still appropriate for you, as you seem content enough to pull at a string and cause the entire artwork to fall into nothing but threads."

That was one thing that still confused her about Ciara. She honestly believed that they were all fae, just in a play. When Taylor explained her own perspective they had another of their brief discussions about perspectives, and the fact that Ciara left it there, accepting her own perspective, honestly made her feel a tightness in her astral chest. Just knowing that she could have such a drastically different perspective to Ciara and she'd accept it, just so long as Taylor accepted the same fact, it was honestly more than she could handle. "Oh, that reminds me. I asked some of those who are worth my time such as the Shaper, and he would like to ask about his daughter."

Taylor hummed, tilting her head. Ciara had told her about the others, those she deemed worthy of notice, the 'nobles'. The only one in the Birdcage other than Ciara was Marquis, and from just a little extrapolation, she was able to piece together fairly quickly, based on the date of his capture, who captured him, and the timing of adoption for one Amy Dallon, that she was his daughter. "I'd be happy to, but I'd need to be able to do it in a way that doesn't tip Dragon off."

Ciara waved a hand negligently. "That'll be no trouble. Dragon doesn't monitor the entire base, only the 'public' areas. With how hyper-secure this location is, the chance of escape is practically zero. Even if someone were to concoct a way to breach the walls, they'd be met with a vacuum which would depressurize their local area until it could be sealed. So long as you could find a way to relay information to the Shaper in one of those locations, Dragon wouldn't take notice. Even if she had a suspicion, she does not have to act upon it unless ordered."

Being honest, Taylor was a little surprised at how helpful Ciara was being, to which she revealed that she was excited because soon, another noble fae was going to be arriving in the Birdcage. Ciara knew, and seemed to take delight in being able to tease Taylor about it. Even using the control she was still exerting on beings outside of the cage and manipulating a keyboard, she couldn't see anyone notable that was due for the Birdcage, probably because it hadn't been decided yet.

There were a few, but nobody that looked nearly on the level as Ciara, Taylor or Marquis.

Shifting into her bedroom, she took in her surroundings as Body-Taylor stepped into the house.

She'd been released from the hospital after a few days of observation, even against Panacea herself saying that she had a clean bill of health, just because of hospital protocol and the fact there wasn't a burning need to clear space. That meant Body-Taylor got the joy of experiencing hospital food, which was a rather amusing experience. Body-Taylor had all of her experiences, but apparently loved to make her own as well, meaning trying pretty much everything she could.

Even though she didn't like it, the look on Body-Taylor's face as she ate was utterly priceless, even as weird as it was to see her own face so surprised and shocked by eating...well, slop was the best way to put it. Highly-nutritious and plentiful slop, but also flavourless and badly-textured slop. Body-Taylor had communicated this discovery to her, though thanks to the fact she was in a quarantine room alone after Panacea had left.

The observation wasn't about biological, it was just making sure she actually was okay, which was...a bit insulting actually, to Panacea at least, and she made a mental note to thank the girl again for what she'd done. Sure, she didn't need her physical body any more, she could tell...somehow, but she also still wanted it. Being a floating astral form was nice, but she had basically no real sense of touch, taste or smell. She could hear and she could see, but nothing else really, aside from touch when she focused to be able to walk normally and collide with things like her feet being able to touch the floor.

In her arms was the folder. It had been being worked on for a while, sheets of paper printed out and slipped into it, pointing out things and drawing parallels of evidence, mannerisms, and actions. Nothing to directly tie Shadow Stalker to Sophia, that was too direct, but if she got Sophia into a big stink at the same time as she got screwed over in her Shadow Stalker guise by hurting someone way beyond reason, it'd compound her issues and make it so much harder for anyone to wriggle her out of the situation.

Now all that was left was to add some final adjustments, then she could get her chosen bird or birds to fly the folder to one of the major news outlets. An unconventional delivery, but one that would be pretty damn hard to trace. She was going to let Body-Taylor do that, trusting her to be able to manage it while she spent the time plotting. Shadow Stalker was going to be the hard one to catch, since she'd need to get irrefutable evidence of her acting in a way totally not like a hero, and in a way that couldn't easily be construed as slandering her and making her out in a bad light. If there was something they could use to weasel her out, she wanted to head it off at the pass.

Actually tracking her was going to be easy, both her outfit and the girl herself had several insects hidden across her person which let her keep track of their location. She tracked her in the same way as she now had a lock on the location of the Birdcage by keeping a link to one of the flies there. By staying linked to the bugs on Sophia, she ensured that she'd be able to track her no matter where she went.

The main problem now was finding a way to get hard evidence of her actions. A camera of some kind would be useful, a video recorder even better. But the main issue was that the ones she could afford were only regular, low-quality cameras that would easily be dismissed, and the rest were far too expensive for her to purchase. That meant that, to her eyes at least, there was only one safe, nearly-harmless way to get her money.

She'd steal it. That wasn't to say it'd be easy, she'd need to find a good source of money she could ferret away from somewhere without drawing attention to Body-Taylor. She could just grasp control of someone, have them take out their wallet and put it on the ground, then make them run away without ever seeing Body-Taylor, but it was a tenuous way to acquire money.

Taylor didn't need a lot of money really, a few hundred dollars would let her buy a good-enough camera, maybe even a low-range Tinkertech drone. That'd solve her issue of moving the camera, meaning her plans for having a bird carry the camera could be set aside. Of course, that then led to the issue of actually purchasing the drone, something that Body-Taylor chimed in to help with when she merged to ask her for help. "Couldn't you just control someone else, have them buy the drone, then leave it somewhere and have them forget the event?"

...Forget the event. That was...she had no idea if that was even possible. She was able to control individual bacteria, sure, but that was fucking around with the neurons and pathways of the brain! "No, silly." Her train of thought ground to a halt as Body-Taylor spoke. "You can control people. That means you can order them to forget ever buying the drone."

That...was actually possible now that she considered it. She wasn't controlling the nervous system of what she commanded after all, it was her basically subverting their own mind and commanding them instead of controlling directly. By commanding that mind to forget, it would make the necessary changes...in theory. Deciding to test it out, she unmerged from Body-Taylor then shifted outside, spying a woman walking down the street.

Glancing back and forth, she reached out, the woman freezing in place. There was no sign in her eyes she even registered what she was doing, not even a hint of confusion. Letting go of her control, she saw the woman continue on as though nothing had happened, not even noticing the fact that leaves, branches and clouds had shifted while she was frozen, perhaps some sort of residual effect to not notice the slight shift in perspective after being removed from control.

She took control of the same woman and had her drop down, do a push-up, get back up, spin around once, then gave her control again. And, once again, she took absolutely no notice of what she had even done. So, that meant that memories weren't being formed while she was frozen, and the beginning and end of the control was being assimilated together so her subject didn't even question what they'd done or why things were slightly different.

Running a final test, she had the woman cross the street, then sit with her back against a wall before releasing her. This time there was a little bit of visible confusion before she shook her head, got up, and started wandering away without really any attempt to investigate what happened. That made it highly likely that her power automatically formed a vague connection of memories from beginning to end for her control, and the reasonable actions she would have undertaken to get to that point. In her memories, she probably crossed the street, got a little tired, and decided to sit down for a moment. Obviously, it was all theory-work for the moment, but it meant she didn't have to worry about wiping memories.

At least, not manually.

As the man she was currently focused on walked casually into the Toybox warehouse, Taylor idly had him thumbing the cash in his pocket.

She'd gathered it by picking apart ABB members, having them pool it together to collect a hefty sum, more than enough for a Toybox-level drone she could use. She picked the one that looked the most respectable and not likely to start a fight, then changed her plan and had him hand that money off to a guy in a suit who had just gotten off the phone from yelling at what sounded like his wife.

Drifting along behind and above the guy she was controlling, she glanced around. Bauble was there, and that meant she had her beautiful array of glassworks, but not quite what she was looking for. Someone was selling verified Erik Granholme drones, which was exactly what she was looking for. They were also fairly expensive, but if she got the cheaper variant, one that had no weapons systems of any kind, just a high-tech recording suite with automated tracking and camera focus as well as being silent running, she'd have enough to afford it.

The drone was meant to be used for cinematic shots, movies and the like, but it wasn't nearly as good as the better Granholme drones. Still, it was pretty much the exact thing she needed. It was a bit of a shame, the more expensive version even included a retro-reflective surface which could hide the entire drone from sight, very handy for multiple shot angles.

Probably overkill, but she'd prefer to only have to catch Shadow Stalker once.

As it turned out, catching Shadow Stalker was more just an exercise in casual observation.

Just on the first day of having her drone tail her from a high altitude and a fair distance, she caught the girl watching a mugging in process and not doing anything to help. She could clearly see the guy being threatened, and yet she just sat there as he shakily took out his wallet, handed it over, then collapsed to his knees as his mugger ran off. All the while Sophia did nothing, just watching as it happened.

But that wasn't just it. Gunshots went off in the distance, and Shadow Stalker didn't call it in or anything, just heading in that direction and perching on the corner of a building, watching as a Merchant shot up the front of a store. That was when she saw Sophia use one of her crossbows, firing a lethal bolt which pierced the arm of the Merchant. She had to admit, Sophia was at least efficient at reloading her crossbow and firing off another two shots, hitting the other arm and then the stomach.

Watching as she drifted down using her power to slow her descent, the Merchant having started to flee in the presence of a cape, Taylor honestly didn't care much even as she watched Sophia load another bolt and sent it through the Merchants head. It definitely was effective as far as evidence was concerned, and it meant she had all but signed her own warrant with those actions.

The aftermath was just as damning as she removed the bolts, wiped them off, then took the gun up in a gloved hand and fired four shots, one in each crossbow bolt hole. Nobody would look too closely at the wounds of one more dead Merchant, so by doing that, she basically covered her tracks. With a negligent toss, Sophia started moving away, jumping and using her power to increase the height of her jump and reach the top of a building.

Taylor briefly debated whether to get Body-Taylor to recall the drone so they could get the evidence and save it, eventually deciding she had enough evidence and doing so, shifting back and briefly merging then unmerging before returning to where Shadow Stalker was, keeping pace easily by shifting ahead of her. After a minute or two she was able to figure out that Sophia was going home, obviously satisfied for the night.

Deciding to fuck with her a little, Taylor took control of Shadow Stalker, having her take one of the crossbow bolts from her quiver, which despite her attempt at a field-cleaning was still lightly marked with blood, and tossing it casually onto the roof. If anyone encountered it and reported it, that'd throw some extra suspicion on Sophia. She ordered her to continue her path for a few buildings then broke her control, wary in case she exhibited any different symptoms.

When she didn't, Taylor breathed a metaphorical sigh of relief. If parahumans reacted differently things could have gotten a little bit difficult. Of course, a precog still had a good chance of screwing her over, since they'd see themselves being controlled potentially. She didn't doubt that trying it on someone like Alexandria or Eidolon would not go over well, not at all.

She tailed Sophia for a few more minutes, but stopped when she saw that she was nearing home, obviously having gone out alone without telling anyone. With the evidence she'd captured, as well as the folder she had at home that had already been finished by Body-Taylor and was just waiting to be handed over, she felt that the noose around Sophia's neck was tight enough to drop her.

Since Ciara had asked, she shifted over to the Birdcage and informed her that she was going to be springing her little two-pronged information-based assault on Sophia in the morning. What she didn't expect was for Ciara to nod, then swipe her arm and literally tear a hole in reality. Immediately alarms started going off, but by the time the first spurt of containment foam appeared, Ciara had already stepped through the tear and closed it.

Shifting back to Brockton Bay, she quickly spied Ciara stood outside of her house with her arms planted on her hips, looking at the house with a critical eye. Taylor shifted beside her, folding her arms over. "It's the best my dad was able to do after my mother died, alright?" Ciara looked at her with a raised eyebrow before waving a hand. The bottom step, which had been snapped clean in half since her mother had died, was repaired. As was pretty much every other minor or major issue that was wrong with the house.

Cracks in the paintwork, missing roof-tiles, the overgrown nature of the shrubbery in the front garden, it was all peeled back as though it had never existed in any state other than what Ciara wanted it to be. It served as a fascinating example of how powerful Ciara was, and very slightly humbling. Sure, Ciara regarded her as an equal or...well, even above that initially, and to be put on the same level as what she had just been shown with a negligent wave of a hand, that baffled her just a little. "So, is your 'Body-Taylor' present?"

Shifting forwards and dropping to walk on the ground, she followed Ciara up to the door, which she wasn't surprised opened despite her knowing it was locked. "Yeah, she's the one working on the touch-ups for the footage we got tonight." Ciara nodded at that, the door swinging shut behind her as she unerringly made her way upstairs and then to Taylor's room, where Body-Taylor sat cross-legged on the bed, focused on a laptop connected to the drone even as she waved at them. "The folder is already ready to go to the media, and when that story hits I'll have the laptop taken by a...-" Taylor considered a few words before settling on one. "-a Puppet, and used to send that data to the PRT as well as pretty much everywhere else I can think of." Ciara glanced between her and the laptop before heading over to the bed and hopping onto it, leaning to look at the laptop as Body-Taylor worked on it.

"Well, this should be amusing to watch." While Body-Taylor worked, Ciara and Taylor continued chatting about stuff. She explained a bit more about what she had gotten up to, as well as defining her puppets, which was her new way to define anything she was controlling. It was a blanket term and easy to apply to anything, from bacteria to whales. Ciara had even asked if Taylor was able to puppet her, and a quick attempt told her that yes, even Ciara wasn't protected from her puppeteering. That led to Ciara joking that she wasn't even on the stage, she was just the puppetmaster up above, making the others dance to her tune.

Amusing, but also worrying in terms of the implied power. If Ciara herself was vulnerable to Taylor's puppeteering power, then...was anyone? Was Alexandria, or Eidolon, as vulnerable to her control as a fly? In that same vein, were the Endbringers? She didn't know, and the Simurgh was probably the most likely being out of any to be able to resist her. She would try her power against anything aside from her, since if the Simurgh somehow subverted her and got ahold of her power, then she could use it to command the Triumvirate to do whatever she wanted. She wouldn't even need her prediction-bombs, not if she could order anyone she was in range of to kill all life on the planet.

No, the Simurgh was the most dangerous being to her existence, by far. Ciara was fine to be around and even touching a hand into her astral form or against her physical body did nothing, as she demonstrated casually. Taylor's abilities, at least according to Ciara, was not something she could take, even if she wanted to. And from the fact Taylor could in turn control Ciara, it gave her at least a little hope that the same immunity would extend to the Simurgh, though she'd much prefer testing her power against one of the other Endbringers first. If it did end up that the Simurgh could take her powers?

In simple terms, all life on Earth Bet would be doomed.