Interlude 1

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Danny Hebert

Danny kneaded his cup, using the heat of the beverage help fight off the morning chill. The coffee warmed his hands and helped stave off the edging drowsiness. He couldn't sleep much the night before, not after all the revelations that came with it.

His daughter being a parahuman seeming to be the most minor of all the tidbits tossed out before him. The fact that she was apparently a villain, a criminal, ranked a bit higher but that still wasn't what had sent his mind into a spiral.

What gave him such a sleepless night were not the crimes his daughter had committed but rather the product of her latest one. A failed theft that had somehow led to different versions of his Taylor running around the city. He could have laughed, just as soon as he thought he was making some sort of progress with his daughter and it turned out she wasn't even His Taylor. He wouldn't have believed such a strange thing if it weren't for the fact there were two Taylors in his kitchen the night before, with two more showing up at his door step not an hour later.

Part of him wondered why he hadn't exploded, why he didn't yell her out of his house, or why he invited these foreign versions of his daughter into his home. Allowed them to sleep in the same room with his 'real' daughter? It was stupid, he knew, to just so blatantly trust these strangers but he couldn't help it.

Maybe it was because even as foreign and alien as they were those girls were still his daughter and his instincts screamed out to see them. He had almost regretted his decision as he was hit by the surreal sensation of their arrival on his doorstep.

Four versions of the girl, only differentiated by minor but noticeable details, had stood before him in awkward silence. A silence only filled in by Taylor's, all the Taylors'(?), friends saying how they were going to leave a guard for the night and check in the morning. As if he could be in danger from his own daughter.

Could he be?

Could these strangers, girls who looked and felt like his daughter, truly be a danger to him? Could he be have been led astray by some misguided feeling of guilt and paternal duty?

God, he felt so stupid for demanding to see them the other night despite protest from his Taylor and Lisa. Maybe they were right to have that Brian boy stay the night. The poor, possibly a villain, boy had just gotten to sleep when Danny came down stairs. And he only did so because Danny promised to shout if there was any trouble.

Then, with his newly found alone time, his mind started to drift all the horrible things and possibilities he could have invited into his home. He started to wonder if maybe he should have called the PRT instead. To have the officials, the people trained and paid to deal with such situations, take over the craziness he had invited into his home?

That last idea turned sour in his mind as soon as it came. If he could believe what Taylor, Starfield, had told him the night before then the PRT and Protectorate would just make things worse. Even more so when he thought about what could happen his Taylor… the local Taylor, if he were to make such a call.

They would arrest her. There wasn't a doubt in his mind about that possibility. They would slap some cuffs on her and throw her under the rug like a bad memory, a memory probably helped and influenced by that of a Ward of theirs. And all it would take was for them to capture one the … alternate versions of his daughter and it was all over.

And there was little to nothing he could do about it.

Like always.

"Morning" a quiet voice said from behind him, causing him to jump and turn to look at the familiar figure entering the kitchen. There, standing in the entry way looking awkward, was Taylor. It took him a moment to tell which one.

The lack of glasses was a big hint, "Good morning… Marceau." The name sounded and felt so foreign on his tongue, even more so when he was referring to his daughter... His daughter's look alike? His alternate daughter? He really didn't know what to think of her as but it still felt strange to call someone who looked so much like a person he loved anything but their name.

From the way she shifted she wasn't comfortable with it either. To fill up the silence he asked if any of the others were awake.

"Skitter's been up for a while now," Danny flinched at his daughter's super villain name, "I think, keeping a watch. I think Starfield was awake when I got up but Techno Queen is still asleep."

Danny felt a little hurt at that but he understood the need to keep watch was more important than a small hello or good morning. He also felt a pang with the idea of Starfield not coming down to say the same thing. He knew wasn't his "real" daughter but they had connected the other night, more so than he and his Taylor had in months.

And wasn't that a depressing thought? He got along better with a version of his daughter who regularly cut herself without so much as a care, a version of his daughter from months in the past. Did that mean he was too late for Taylor... For Skitter?

He did his best to force those thoughts away and offered Marceau some coffee. He even offered to start up the stove and get some eggs going for her but she declined, saying she was fine with some coffee and toast.

The two of them sat in what could only be called an awkward silence, both used to routines involving people so similar to their opposite on the table but they were afraid to go by the reference. They seemed as if they were afraid to see just how different their two worlds were, and how different they were from their parallel selves.

But that was a question that niggled and nagged at Danny. He wanted to know what he was like in those other worlds, in those other versions of his home. He didn't care if he was rich or poor there or if the docks were thriving or not. And even though there was a very large part of him wanted to ask if Annette was still alive that wasn't the first question that came to his mind.

It was question that was constantly creeping towards the tip of his tongue, more so as he glanced at Marceau nibbling on her piece of toast with a far off look on her face. Finally, after a few moments of indecision, he finally worked up the courage to ask. "C-can I ask you a question?" Danny forced out, voice stuttering just a bit at beginning of the question.

With a chew and a final swallow of buttered bread the parallel version of his daughter offered a hesitant answer, "Um, I guess."

He didn't say anything for a few long seconds, continuing to knead his cup of coffee as he searched for a way to voice the question that had been eating at him. He wanted to approach it delicately, to ease into, so that maybe the answer would not hurt him as much as he thought it might.

But in the end he decided to just pull the band aid off instead of drawing out the pain. "In your world… Am I a good Father?"

The girl almost choked at that question and forced out a "What?" to his question. The way she said the word was strange, her posture and the coloring of her face making it look like she had screamed but her volume never went above her earlier words.

Again he paused and kneaded his cup, speaking only once he was sure his words wouldn't come out as a depressed mumble. "I don't know much about capes but I do know a little about how they get their powers. They show up on the worst day of people's lives. Something I've apparently let happen at least four times over. I… I just want to know if there was any version of me that made up for it. If I could make up for it."

Marceau, the foreign Taylor, seemed dumbstruck and uncomfortable with his question. Her mouth opening every once in a while for small unheard sounds to escape and she shifted in her seat as he gave her a desperate stare that just begged for an answer. They begged for an answer that showed that out there somewhere there was a Danny Hebert that hadn't failed as a father after he failed in so many other roles.

As the seconds trickled by Danny's eyes started to fall, leaving their target to stare at the brown liquid in his cup. He could only think that the answer wasn't good. That maybe this Taylor had run away, escaping from his obvious incompetence.

"You, he, my dad's great." The all too familiar voice eventually answered, making Danny's head snap up to look at her. "He did his best for me when I lost my voice and supported me through feelings I didn't even know I had. I still don't think he knows how much I appreciate that."

That, that was good. If she was telling the truth than he did good, that other Danny did good. He proved that maybe there was hope for all the other Dannys out there. That maybe he could fix the mess he was in with his daughter. Maybe even convince her to turn herself in, maybe become a Ward despite everything.

"Thank you." He said knowing that, much like she speculated about her Danny's words to her, she probably didn't know how much her words uplifted his spirit. Enough so that he began to stand, "I think I'm going to start up the stove anyway, make something for all the hungry mouths that are waking up."

Despite her claim of only needing toast she gave him a bit of a hopeful look, "Pancakes?"

"With bacon and eggs, hash too if we have it." He said with a smile as he remembered a younger Taylor giving him a similar look every Saturday asking for the same thing every time.

"Do you want any help?"

For a brief second he thought about waving her off, to do things himself as he was accustomed to, but he decided this could be his first step. Even if he was technically practicing on Marceau to get there, this would be his first step to fixing his and Taylor's relationship.

"Sure." He said with a hand waving to a cabinet, "Want to grab the flour for me?"

"Okay."

Soon enough the kitchen was producing the familiar smells of breakfast that spread throughout the house, reaching the second floor with a noticeable effect. There was thump followed by a few muffled voices and, soon enough, footsteps. And, as expected, three very similar girls walked into the kitchen.

Again he used all the little details he noticed the night prior to tell the difference between the girls. It wasn't perfect but it helped. The one with the longest mane of hair and was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she entered was The Techno Queen; she was the most animated out of all them even in her sleep addled state. Following shortly after her was a Taylor without glasses and eyes just a bit too pale to be normal, which meant she was Starfield.

And bringing up the tail of the group was Skitter, his Taylor, who was sending a halfhearted glare into the living room where Brian was sleeping. She seemed so much more serious than the others, frowning and gazing intently at her counterparts at every chance she had. It wasn't that she didn't have a reason to, but she seemed to be taking things a bit harder than the others.

He had to wonder what that said about his daughter.

"Pancakes!" Techno Queen near shouted in cheer after a deep inhale and a yawn. "And Bacon! The breakfast of Champions! I can't even tell you how hungry I am right now."

"Well, it'll be done in another few minutes…" He paused for a second, "Could one of you set the table?"

There was an awkward moment when all three answered as one and stepped forward to do just that. All three had paused and stared at each other. Eventually The Techno Queen broke the silence with a scratch on the back of her head and an awkward tone she said to Skitter, "I guess it's your house."

Skitter looked at her warily but eventually nodded before making her way to the cabinets, leaving both Techno Queen and Starfield standing awkwardly in the doorway as they were reminded once again that even as familiar as the house was that it wasn't their home. And that hurt Danny a little, to see that expression on his daughter's face, even if it wasn't the real her.

He decided to get them to help out too, delegate things so everyone felt involved. Something he had a bit too much experience in from the Union.

In the end he had sent Techno Queen off to wake up Brian and had Starfield put some of the food on the table.

As they all sat down at the table an uncomfortable air settled down on the group's shoulders. The various teenagers shifting awkwardly, body languages differing like the same phrase said in four different languages, while Brian offered a cough and a thanks for the food. And despite his efforts for conversation, as awkward as said attempts were, Danny found only the clatter of utensils to plates filling the silence of the empty room.

But eventually they all found something to talk about.

This was largely in thanks to Starfield who, with a mutter that he couldn't understand, had taken her unused knife and plunged it into her forearm. At the sight of this various sounds of alarm came from the other occupants of the table and drove people to react. The various Taylors flinched back and Brain had near jumped out of his seat in a rush to stand. Danny himself, who had a vague idea about her powers, had managed to stifle the gasp that had tried to escape from his mouth.

"Why did you do that!?" The Techno Queen demanded while Skitter asked a very similar question at the same time, "What are you doing?"

Starfield seemed to blink in confusion, like she didn't understand the problem. And maybe she didn't. Danny remembered how little she cared about her self-mutilation when she showed him her power, like she barely understood there was a problem with what was wrong with cutting herself open.

He was proved to right a second later when she pulled out the knife and said, "Oh, uh, sorry? My friend was hungry and I thought, since we're all parahumans and all, it would be alright to let her out." Almost to punctuate her statement a tentacle in a color that could almost be called green started to wiggle its way out of the cut, and if he remembered right that was her friend Aria. What he didn't expect was for the tentacle to grow an eye and look around the room.

Even stranger was when it actually started to talk, but not in any language he had ever heard before. It was a language of inhuman gruff sounds that left him dizzy to listen too, it was also a language that Starfield was apparently fluent in as she began to converse to the exposed tentacle in the same tongue.

After a few seconds of that almost nauseating conversation Starfield turned her attention back to the others at the table, "She says hi."

"So it's intelligent?" Techno Queen asked.

Marceau asked a much saner question, "It can talk?"

"Yes SHE can talk and she's plenty smart," Starfield said defending her friend, even as the tentacle ignored the rest of the room for the food on Starfield's plate. The slim limb seemed to stretch as numerous mouths started to grow and form on its green flesh.

Again the collective Taylors only seemed mildly disturbed. Luckily for Danny's sanity it seemed Brian wasn't dealing with the strange sight all that better than he was. Though the teen did recover quicker and get back to his meal soon enough, though he seemed to give hidden but wary glances at Starfield every now and then.

Techno Queen was now dividing her attention between her food and asking questions about Starfield's powers, which led to a loud examination of "I knew it!" when she voiced her opinions about her counterpart's friends being aliens. Starfield seemed to be taking the questions in good spirit, even as Aria's limb made quick work of every morsel on her plate.

Even as disturbing as it was it was nice to have a little conversation at the table, even if no one else was participating in it. Danny, still feeling a bit queasy from the strange words, Brian and Skitter holding a watch on the situation, and Marceau seemed to be content to play with the eggs on her plate as her mind drifted.

Again, it was a nice enough moment in the strange situation they found themselves in.

But it didn't last.

Plates clattered and windows trembled as a series of ear ringing booms resonated through the room. Those local to the world were unfortunately far too used to such sounds spreading from out from the docks but their visitors weren't. They stumbled and jolted to the sound, Marceau seeming almost struck by the sound.

"Do you-" Skitter was cut off by the sound of another bomb going off, "Do you think it's the ABB leftovers again?"

"Maybe," Brian said as he rummaged in his jean pockets for his suddenly ringing phone. After looking at his phone he started to separate from the group, "It's Lisa, she'll probably know what's going on."

Brian had barely stepped away when Marceau replaced him, getting close to her counterpart's face as she demanded answers. "I thought you said you dealt with her?"

"We did!" Skitter said defending herself, "But she made enough bombs for what's left of the ABB to toss around without her."

Danny started to stand, getting his wits about him, and began to open his mouth to stop them from fighting with only the slightest bit of hesitation. He was their father, in a sense, and a father stopped his children from fighting.

But that moment of hesitation had prevented him from asserting himself, from doing his perceived duty, as Brian took that moment to step in and inform them of what he learned.

"Tattletale says it wasn't the ABB. It was another Taylor."

DAY 2 START