Capo 1.1

Tick tock goes the clock. I was too nervous to remember how the rest of that went. Nervous and bored. I hadn't thought it was possible to experience those two at the same time but there you go. I had been sitting in silence for a long time now with the only sound being the ticking of the clock on the wall. Seriously, does it really take more than fifteen minutes to drive across town? I guess it does. While I waited I examined the room for the millionth time. With one steel table, one steel door, two steel chairs and one clock, there wasn't much to look at but then again I suppose that's the point of an interrogation room. There wasn't even a one-way mirror like in the movies but I guess with Tinkertech, the PRT could just turn one side of the wall transparent, making the mirror unnecessary.

Glancing across the table I was sitting at, I caught the eye of the only other person in the room. Miss Militia gave me a benefic smile, or at least I thought she did by how the corners of her eyes crinkled, and I immediately ducked my head, blushing. I suppose I should have been excited about getting powers or worrying about what had happened but mostly I was embarrassed. And bored. And nervous.

Luckily, I didn't have to endure for much longer as exactly 16 minutes and 37 seconds after I started counting the passing time my parents burst into the room. Suddenly I was being hugged and there was a lot of yelling going on. Dad was yelling about how worried about me he was, some PRT agent was yelling about how sorry he was that he couldn't stop my parents, some other PRT agent was yelling about how my parents couldn't be there without filling out paperwork of some kind and Mom was yelling at Miss Militia.

"-en here! I am taking my daughter and we are leaving and I swear if you touched a single hair on her head I will make you pay! You have no right to arrest her and-"

Wait, what? "Mom, no! It's not like that! I'm not under arrest! They saved me!" That got Mom to stop, at least for a bit. And it was a good thing too, as Mom was mad. Really mad. I had only seen her this angry once before and that was when we found out that Emma had PTSD and Mr. Barnes hadn't done anything about it. While we ended up getting Emma the counseling she needed, I don't think threatening a Protectorate Hero would end as well as that had.

Thankfully, Miss Militia didn't seem to take offense to my Mom's outburst. "I assure you Mrs. Hebert, you daughter is not in trouble in anyway. Although I guess some explanations are in order. Why don't we find somewhere more comfortable where we can talk?" We all agreed to her suggestion and I was finally able to leave that awful interrogation room.

Turns out somewhere more comfortable was a meeting room, one with a large varnished wood table, green carpet, large window and leather spinny chairs that I totally didn't spin on no matter what my lies my parents will try to embarrass me with for years to come.

"Now," Mom said with clenched teeth. It seemed the short elevator ride to the meeting room hadn't cooled her temper any. "Would you please tell my why I found my daughter in a PRT interrogation room."

"I'm joining the Wards!" That's odd, was there another teenager in the room? It was only when I noticed everyone staring at me, (Miss Militia in amusement, Dad in surprise and Mom in… horror? Odd.), that I realize that the excited, half-squeed declaration had come from my mouth and not someone else's. I immediately buried my face in my hands so no one would see my blush.

Miss Militia chuckled. "As exciting as that may be, perhaps we should start a bit earlier? Want me to do the talking?" No, I wanted to go back in time so I could smack myself up the head before I could embarrass myself in front of my childhood hero. Her suggestion was a good alternative though, so I nodded silently and she started to explain to my parents what had happened.

"You daughter is a parahuman. She went through her trigger event, mmm, about an hour ago now. Not many civilians know this but trigger events tend to be traumatic and highly stressful and Taylor's was no exception. When she arrived at school today, a group of bullies locked her inside her locker which they had previously filled with," Miss Militia winced, "biologically hazardous material. At that point Taylor triggered and used her powers for the first time. When she screamed, her locker, the lockers in her immediate vicinity and every glass object in the school shattered. In addition, her bullies were physically thrown backwards by the force of the scream, their eardrums burst and the ringleader, a girl named Sophia Hess, was knocked unconscious by a piece of debris."

"What!?" Mom shouted before taking my hand and giving me a worried look. "I thought we dealt with Sophia years ago. Please don't tell me she's been bothering you all this time."

I shrugged. "It wasn't that bad. She mostly just called me names and tried to trip me. You're always saying that you're proud of how tough I am and since she wasn't really doing any harm it felt silly to complain about it. I never thought she'd go this far."

"Little owl," Mom said, in that concerned voice all moms know how to do, "just because you're tough doesn't mean you have to just sit there and take it. If someone's making trouble for you, I expect to know about it."

"I know Mom." I looked down. "It's just… I figure I can't rely on you forever, right?"

"Oh Taylor." Mom got out of her chair and gave me a hug. Since I was still sitting down it was a little awkward but it's still felt nice. I had been through a lot that day and a patented mom-hug™ was just what the doctor ordered.

I was reminded of where we were however when Dad cleared his throat. I blushed yet again and Mom let me go. When she saw my blushing face she giggled a little but thankfully sat down without commenting. When she was back in her chair, Dad spoke up, "Taylor isn't getting in trouble for any of this, is she?"

"Not at all." Miss Militia shook her head. "The only ones harmed were her bullies, making this a case of self-defense, and the PRT is prepared to pay for all the property damage. It's possible that the families of the girls bullying your daughter may try to file a lawsuit against Taylor but if she joins the Wards we can help with that too."

"Ok." Dad still look concerned but he was calming down. Mom was still frowning though. "So what happened after that?"

"Well, that was when we got called in." Miss Militia sighed. "At first we thought we were dealing with a Shatterbird attack, which as you can guess was very concerning. Armsmaster was first on the scene, where he found Taylor and the other girls and gave them basic first aid. When the PRT arrived Taylor was brought to one of the vans to get a full check up. Then we started to piece together what had happened. Thanks to your daughter's testimony, as well as that of the bullies and several other students, we determined that she wasn't at fault. In fact one girl, Madison Clements, was very helpful in particular."

Madi had helped? I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, she did have a reputation as the nicest girl in the school, but since we were in different social circles I guess I had thought it was mostly hyperbole. I'd have to say thanks to her later.

"After making sure Taylor was fine and that she wasn't at fault we brought her here and called you so that we could meet in private and discuss things," Miss Militia finished.

"Thank you," Mom said. She didn't sound grateful. "Now what's this nonsense about you forcing my daughter to join the Wards."

"We're not forcing your daughter to do anything," Miss Militia answered. "She volunteered."

"Taylor?" Mom asked me, concern in her eyes. "Is this true?"

"Yeah, it is." I didn't know why Mom seemed so upset but I had made my decision so I sat up straight and tried my best to sound sure of myself. "I want to join the Wards."

"Why?" Mom asked, sounding desperate.

"I have powers now, of course I'm joining the Wards!" I realized I had unintentionally shouted and took a moment to calm down. I was starting to get excited and maybe a bit frustrated with Mom and how she just didn't seem to get it. Just a little bit. When I was calm I continued, "I want to be able to help people. There's so much going wrong out there and if I can help fix even just a little bit of it, then I'm going to do my best to do so."

"I know that Taylor and I'm proud of you," Mom said and I could tell that she meant it. "But why not do that as an independent hero?"

I gave my mom a flat look. "Mom, when was the last time you ever heard of an independent hero doing something worthwhile? Or anything at all, actually?"

"Yes but…"

"If I might speak up," Miss Militia interrupted politely. "While we would be happy to have Taylor as an affiliated independent cape, there are several reasons to consider joining the Wards. As Taylor pointed out, independent capes don't have much of a PR machine behind them. While in most cases this means they don't get the recognition they deserve, due to her appearance and powers, Taylor will likely have the opposite problem. It's guaranteed that basically as soon as she starts her hero career, people are going to start comparing her to the Simurgh, claiming that she's Ziz's daughter and other such nonsense, no matter how ridiculous that is. If she joins the Wards, we can help prevent that sort of thing from happening. "

"There's no way you can stop that from happening," Mom argued.

"True," Miss Militia accepted, "but we can lessen the blow. Also, by joining the Wards Taylor can train with her powers in a safe, controlled environment."

"Bullshit!" Mom shouted. "Safe? The Wards are on the news every other week, fighting some cape villain or other!"

Miss Militia winced at the strength of Mom's vitriol. "That's… true. I won't deny that the Brockton Bay Wards see a lot more action than any other branch in the country but we do try to keep their patrol routes as far from any actual danger as possible and providing back up is entirely voluntary. We won't force her to fight if she doesn't want to."

"I want to!" I couldn't help but interject. Mom glared at me and I shut up.

Miss Militia continued as though I hadn't said anything. "Plus you can't deny that patrolling with teammates and official Protectorate members as back up is better than her going out on her own."

With no arguments left, Mom turned to Dad, silently begging him to take her side. "Sorry honey, but I think this is the right option for Taylor. We both know she's going to be going out as a hero anyway. She's far too determined not to. This way someone will at least be keeping an eye on her. Who knows, maybe she'll finally make some friends."

"I have friends!" I protested.

Dad smirked. "You have a friend, sweetie. And really, at this point Emma's more of a sister than a friend." I grumbled a bit but I didn't deny it.

Mom was grumbling too. Eventually she looked up and faced each of us in turn, searching for something in our expressions but I didn't know what. Whatever it was, she didn't find it. "Fine," She accepted. "But no Endbringer Battles!"

We all nodded. I wasn't even that disappointed at not being able to participate. Sure, I might not be allowed to help but it was likely that I wouldn't make a difference. Plus there was that whole 'not being in mortal danger' thing. That was good.

With us all in agreement, all that was left to do was the paperwork, which we decided to get done right then and there. I knew that Dad made a big deal out of paperwork but I thought that it surely couldn't be that bad. It was just like homework, right?


Special thanks to Cailin for Betaing. She receives an annoying clock as thanks.